Proud Hunter Race

"My species has an undeniable natural urge to hunt. This delay to the planet has been weighing on me. Would either of you be willing to — hhrrrrrkk — be willing to be hunted?"

—K'ranch, Star Trek: Lower Decks, "The Least Dangerous Game"

A race or culture whose Hat is hunting. Hunting to them is what fighting is to the Blood Knight (and by extension, the Proud Warrior Race) — they don't do it for food or protection or survival, they do it for the thrill of the hunt.

Due to hunting being considered a mark of a primitive culture (on Earth, after all, most advanced cultures converted to agriculture at some point as their primary means of survival because it's a more efficient way of feeding the large number of people required to make anything like an advanced society), these people are usually, but not always, rather primitive either technologically or socially compared to the rest of the setting. Interestingly, though, a large subset is actually more advanced, leading to exciting "chased by the ultimate mega-predator" scenarios where human characters learn what it's like to be hunted by something much smarter and more advanced than themselves (in particular, the advanced version tends to have very good stealth technology). In these cases, hunting is typically not done for sustenance, since a technologically advanced species is usually not going to be dependent on hunting-gathering by necessity; instead, this lifestyle will continue to be practiced out of tradition and love of the hunt or to satisfy deep-seated instincts.

Like the Proud Warrior Race, the Proud Hunter Race is prone to using (and being exceedingly proficient with) a variety of especially exotic weapons and very much obsessed with things like "honor" and "fair play" — they tend to give their prey a fair chance (as they see it), and may even let them escape or even reward them if they are deemed "worthy"; once a kill is made, it may be practice to thank or pray for its spirit as well. This is the most common explanation for why the highly advanced variety of the Proud Hunter Race (say, a race that is capable of faster-than-light travel) would actually bother to use the aforementioned variety of exotic weapons in their hunts instead of instantly detecting their prey with a handy gadget and shooting it dead from ten kilometers away with Energy Weapons. After all, what honor or challenge is there in hunting down prey that can't escape?

If the Proud Hunter Race are aliens capable of interstellar travel, expect them to think of humans as just as much prey as any other animal, with the human protagonists either being hunted and skinned for their pelts or go full survivalist and put up a decent fight against the hunter. If the protagonist beats the hunter at their own game and kills the one hunting them, it's likely that the rest of the Hunters will acknowledge them as a Worthy Opponent and allow them to live. It is also common for these guys to find work as Bounty Hunters, a profession that gives them a mostly aboveboard means of setting their sights on dangerous and elusive targets. This often overlaps with Predator Pastiche; Cat Folk are also fairly common in this role. In fantasy settings, this may overlap with The Wild Hunt. Notably, some stories of the Wild Hunt go that, if a mortal manages to evade them long enough to cross three rivers, they will be spared or even rewarded — fulfilling the "honorable" part of the trope.

Subtrope of Planet of Hats. Sister trope to Proud Warrior Race, Proud Scholar Race, Proud Industrious Race, and Proud Merchant Race.

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Examples:

Comic Books

• Godzilla King Of The Monsters 1995: The Dianii are a race of alien hunters that came to Earth on the trail of the alien bat Kaiju Bagorah. After seeing their quarry being chased off by Godzilla, they decided that the King of the Monsters would be a much more worthy hunt.

Films — Live-Action

• Predator: The Yaut'ja (more commonly known as Predators) are the Trope Maker, inspiring many other species. Possibly the first ever example of a "human being hunted like an animal by something smarter and tougher than themselves", Predator (later declared a part of the Alien canon) was the first in a series of films starring a race whose entire existence revolves around a ritualized hunt of the most dangerous lifeforms in the universe — humans and xenomorphs, for the most part. The Yau'tja are pretty much everything in the trope description: they have an entire arsenal of highly memorable exotic weapons (from their wristblades to the giant shuriken to the shoulder-mounted particle beam with the famous triangular laser sight), they are highly advanced technologically (with the obligatory cloaking device, which they more or less introduced to cinema, and the sensor mask that has become synonymous with them — in fact, until Prometheus gave us the Engineers, they were assumed to be the most high-tech race in the 'verse) and so obsessed with honor that they will kill a member of their race who doesn't play fair with the prey and when a human defeats one of them in a duel they ritually gift the human with the defeated hunter's spear). As for their physical appearance, they somewhat resemble the common stereotypical look of an African hunter: with a dark alien skin tone, a tall yet lanky build, and Alien Hair that resembles dreadlocks.
• Star Wars:
  • The Rodians are a deconstruction of this. They are enthusiastic hunters who, according to the lore, caused the extinction of all other predators on their homeworld. As a result, most of the ones in the films or expanded universe are some kind of bounty hunter. However, they aren't actually shown to be very competent or dangerous — while much is made of how they are the best hunters in the galaxy; in practice, they are almost always defeated with almost comical ease without ever threatening the heroes. Some Star Wars Legends texts explain that this is because, once they drove all other species on their planet to extinction through overhunting, they developed a barbaric system of wargames in which members of a selected clan would be hunted to the death, and, on more than one occasion, the system was used by the planet's ruling warlord to eliminate rivals. Consequently, the fabled Rodian "hunter" is a glorified hitman deployed against fleeing political dissidents, hence why they're frequently curb-stomped when they try to use their skills against targets who can actually fight back. In Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, Warhog Goa derisively remarks that he's never seen a Rodian hunter good for anything other than "killing unarmed ugnauts".
  • The Trandoshans are reptilian aliens whose culture is entirely based around hunting and killing powerful game in order to earn "Jagannath points" tallied by their goddess, the Scorekeeper. Failure to do so results in all points being revoked, essentially making an individual worthless unless they manage to regain those points by revenge-killing the one that originally caused them to lose them. Hunting non-sentient big game qualifies for points, so long as it's dangerous enough to be life-threatening, but many Transdoshans specifically focus on intelligent beings — Wookiees are a favored prey, as they're seen as the most dangerous game of all and thus worth the most points, while a group in Star Wars: The Clone Wars specializes in hunting Jedi initiates. This tradition leads many to hire themselves out as mercenaries, bounty hunters, and assassins. A few Trandoshans, such as the professional hunter Nokk in Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, however, reject this aspect of their culture and refuse to hunt sentient beings.
  • The Whiphids are a stone-age people native to a glacial planet, where they live in nomadic bands that hunt the local megafauna. They've shown little interest in adopting more advanced technology after first contact with galactic civilization, but it's still very common for younger Whiphids to head off-world, where they typically put their extensive skill in hunting to use by finding employment as professional trackers or bounty hunters.

Literature

• Known Space: The Kzinti are feline aliens who occupy a middle ground between this and Proud Warrior Race. In addition to being highly militant imperialists who historically tended to treat "first contact" and "declaration of war" as largely synonymous, they're also a species of predators who firmly believe that the only proper way to obtain your food is to go out and kill it yourself, and have no problems whatsoever with hunting and eating other sapient beings. They find the concept of vegetarianism morally repulsive, and their traditional way of dealing with criminals from subject species was to let them loose in fenced preserves and hunt them for sport.

Live-Action TV

• Doctor Who:
  • The Stenza are an alien race who hold ritual hunts on other planets as part of their succession rites — one individual on that planet is randomly selected and then hunted, without the use of weapons. Trophy collection is a big part of Stenza culture, shown by Stenza hunter Tzim-Sha wearing his prey's teeth embedded in his skin.
  • The Slitheen of Raxacoricofallapatorius quite literally have hunting in their blood: they've evolved to deliberately smell adrenaline (which is released by frantic prey), treat the hunt as a sacred ritual, and salivate at the prospect of chasing down victims. While they possess the advanced technology and cloaking devices of some other examples, they're decidedly not governed by any sense of fair play or rules; they're perfectly willing to murder innocent humans to use as "skin suits" (or just for knowing too much about their plans) and use trickery and guile in an attempt to spark a nuclear war on Earth so they can sell the leftover pieces of the ruined planet as starship fuel. Interestingly, later expanded canon materials and The Sarah Jane Adventures would reveal that the majority of Raxacoricofallapatorians are relatively peaceful — the whole point of their advanced hunting ability is to track down and mercilessly destroy the criminal members of their own species.
• Star Trek:
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Hunters are a reptilian race from the Gamma Quadrant whose culture revolves around hunting Tosks, a genetically-engineered offshoot of their species, over vast interstellar distances, to the point that one of their hunts brings them through the Bajoran wormhole to Deep Space Nine. Uniquely, the Tosks are completely okay with this arrangement and having to run for their lives every day, to the point that the one who runs into the crew actively refuses asylum with the Federation because it would be the greatest dishonor.
  • Star Trek: Voyager: The Hirogen are a race of nomadic hunters from the Delta Quadrant who occasionally cause trouble to the crew of the USS Voyager. They fit the "high tech" part of the trope: they're especially well known for having created high-tech suits of powered armor they use on their hunts. Being called "worthy prey" is the highest compliment one can receive from them. One Hirogen character laments that it's effectively destroyed their culture; they basically don't have a civilization beyond roving hunting parties anymore.

Tabletop Games

• Rocket Age: The Metisians have a purely carnivorous diet, and take great pleasure in hunting whatever they plan to eat. They originally had to abandon this habit when they were forced underground by a plague, but this facet of their culture is beginning to reassert itself.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • The Kroot are a species of avian predators whose culture revolves primarily around hunting, killing, and eating exotic creatures in order to incorporate their most desirable traits into themselves. They are most commonly found working as mercenaries, guards, and bounty hunters for other species, usually because doing this gives them the opportunity to travel the galaxy and meet lots of interesting new creatures to eat.
  • The T'au Fire Caste are culturally more of a Proud Warrior Race, but the two main strategies they use in war are based on stone-age hunting philosophies, with the enemy as the prey.
• Werewolf: The Forsaken casts the Uratha as this. They were tasked by Father Wolf in prehistory with patrolling the Border Marches of the spirit world and making sure spirits didn't fuck with humanity too much. Second Edition heavily emphasizes the angle of "The Wolf Must Hunt"; werewolves gain specific benefits based on Auspice during their Sacred Hunts, some of their magic powers specifically unlock new functions during a Sacred Hunt, and each Tribe has a favored form of prey.

Video Games

• The Elder Scrolls: The Dremora liken themselves to hunters, with mortals as their prey, and other, nonsapient lesser Daedra as akin to hunting dogs and the like.
• Final Fantasy XIII-2 has Noel Kreiss as a main protagonist, who comes from the Hunters, a nomadic race on Gran Pulse who carry on the tradition of hunting for food instead of having it provided to them by the Fal'Cie. Noel is known in the mythos of the game as "The Last Hunter."
• FTL: Faster Than Light: The Mantis are insectoid aliens who frequently roam the galaxy for ships to hunt, often up close and personal with their crews. Among the available races, they have the highest raw strength but also the slowest repair speed, which they make up for by enslaving Engi.
• Hollow Knight: It's implied that the species of the Hunter is this. He states that when he was young, he and his siblings hunted each other in the nest, and that he hunts only for his own sake, believing this to be the nature of the hunt.
• League of Legends: The Kiilash are a tribe of lion people whose society revolves around honor and the hunt. Status in their society is achieved through one's hunting prowess and collecting and displaying trophies of difficult kills.
• Stellaris: One can find a prehistoric alien hunting reserve that was populated with species from all across the galaxy, including sapient ones. As the site is excavated it is implied that their empire fell to a rebellion of "prey" species and fully excavating it gives the player's empire the "Blade of the Huntress" relic that increases ship speeds when activated.
• Starbound: The Floran are a race of primitive and ditzy flower-humanoids who are mostly interested in hunting, although it's less out of martial pride and more out of a love for "stabbing" and meat. The special mission themed on their culture is a hunting-competition-slash-battle-royale where a MacGuffin is the prize. The Floran later appear in Wargroove by the same developers, where their culture is largely unchanged — according to the flavor text, any outsider who sets foot in their territory is considered free game for hunting, unless the Greenfinger (a combination of shaman and chieftain) personally vouches for their presence.
• Subverse: The nikith are a species of Cat Folk and the apex predators of their homeworld. As a result, their entire culture is built around hunting and one-upmanship, to the exclusion of everything else, resulting in a society that is stuck in the hunter(-gatherer) stage even after making contact with the space-faring species of the Imperium. Most of said species consequently view the nikith as backward barbarians, and the few younger nikith who smuggle themselves off-word are either stuck in low-paying jobs or use their hunting skills to make a living as bounty hunters-slash-assassins for hire.

Web Original

• Codex Inversus: According to the tenets of the Infernal Empire, the purpose of the Felidar Cat Folk in the World Before was to act as cosmic hunters, tracking down escaped damned souls and rampaging beasts and dragging them back to Hell. After the Collapse, they continued to view themselves being fundamentally born to hunt and track, and were often employed as hunters of animals, people, and even objects and information. Modern Beast Folk culture fundamentally rejects both Diabolism and the general idea of anyone being born for any particular purpose, but enclaves endure along the edges of the Elf-Woods and the Infinite Forest who view themselves as hunters first and foremost, training from childhood to track down specific prey, ranging from deer to griffins, basing social status on hunting prowess and the capture of impressive prey, and embracing any new technology or magic that will let them keep their title of greatest hunters in the world. The mainstream of Beast Folk culture views these enclaves as embarrassing archaisms, and the two groups do not get along.

Western Animation

• The Owl House: In "Edge of the World", Luz, King, and Hooty encounter what they initially believe to be a clan of demons of King's species. They are eventually revealed to be a clan of Titan hunters intent on sacrificing King to the Collector, a powerful entity in the series. The tribe's leader is particularly obsessed with hunting titans, having lost his hearing to one years ago.
• Rick and Morty: In "The ABCs of Beth" Jerry dates Kiara, a Krutabulon warrior priestess whose people seem to be a parody of this type of race. She uses the justification of being on the hunt to get away with attempting to murder Jerry's children after he makes them tell her he's breaking up with her. She also claims that the Varrix, the alien race that her people hunt, are mindless vermin, until they are in fact revealed to be completely sapient.
• Samurai Jack: The Imakandi are a race of humanoid lions with stereotypical Zulu dresses and accents who live on a savannah planet. In "Jack and the Hunters", they are recruited by Aku to hunt down Jack with promises of treasure and wealth as rewards. The Imakandi accept the offer but refuse the rewards, stating that the thrill of the hunt is the only reward they desire. They travel to Earth and give chase to Jack all over a large city before finally catching him, but when Aku demands that they turn him over, the Imakandi explain that their culture dictates that any prey that can evade them long enough to give them a good hunt has earned the right to be free, and since Jack very nearly escaped them, they refuse to hand him over. Aku tries to take him anyway, but they escape and set Jack free back where they found him.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks: Kromsapiods are a species of hulking sapient predators with a deep-seated urge to hunt that becomes deeply frustrating if left unaddressed for too long. However, they also respect life above all else, and as such use ritualized, non-lethal "catch and release" hunts to sate their instincts by pursuing willing sapient prey, subduing it non-lethally (although they have no particular qualms about causing reversible injury, which in the 24th Century can be quite a lot), and taking a few pictures to commemorate the occasion before releasing it. The hunt's setup is an involved affair where the prey is given an hour's head start while the Kromsapiod undergoes a ritual, paints their face, and inhales vapor from special candles.
• A Thousand and One... Americas: In the second episode, Chris dreams of being in the prehistoric era of the United States, and befriends a kid who is part of a civilization whose primary expertise is hunting enormous animals like mammoths (in fact, his dad is one of the strongest hunters). Chris finds out the hard way that the meat of the animals they hunt is too hard for his teeth to chew it (even the kid whom he befriends can eat the steaks effortlessly), and his pet dog Lon has the same realization with the prey's huge bones (one of which is brought up by the aforementioned kid without any difficulty).

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