Ertakar/Human War
The main turning point in the Ertakar's basic life style, was the war between the Ertkar and Humans. While Humans had visited the Planet looking for new places to colonize, an unknown act of violence during one of the meetings with the large clan closest to the landing caused a war to break out between the Ertakar and Humans.
In hopes of gaining an advantage in the war, the Erta's best geneticist worked on manipulating the genes of their own soldiers to make them look like Humans. Of course, the risks involved were drastic, and lives were lost in a processes that took over a year. The final product, was Erta that could transform into a human form. Of course, the final human form had it's flaws, often times, discolored skin, or lack of hair, but such things could be masked easily.
Though this new ability helped them infiltrate enemy ranks and give them a bit more of an edge in the battle, eventually this advantage did not help enough in the long run as the Erta and their lack of militant experience on this scale was turning the war into a loosing battle for them.
In a drastic effort to turn the tides of the war, the used their skills to splice captive Human soldiers and threaten to take the genetic splicing on a larger scale, in hopes the act would cause the Humans to react. The Humans saw the act as barbaric and the desire to end the war came about quickly.
A treaty was formed between the two to put an end to the war.
Currently, Hundreds of years after the initial war, the Humans and Ertakar now coexist, both on Sytous and Earth, however the effects of the war are still apparent in the culture of each civilization.