Kaleds were one of two humanoid races which originally inhabited the planet Skaro. They were the ancestors of the Dalek race.
Biology
The Kaleds could be distinguished from Thals by their dark hair and eyes. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)
Internally, Kaleds also differed from both humans and Thals. Blood tests showed that humans and Gallifreyans were biologically very dissimilar to them. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) Kaleds had purple tissue and their ribs were more widely spaced than those of humans. (TV: The Stolen Earth) They had thicker lungs than the Thals and they had a copper-based blood with a green tint. The Kaled heart was grey. (AUDIO: Corruption)
Towards the end of the Thousand Year War, the life expectancy of Kaled females had declined to 52, an age which Davros' mother Lady Calcula had long since surpassed by the time of her death. According to Davros, she was one of the oldest living Kaleds. (AUDIO: Corruption) By that time, few Kaleds had died of old age in ten generations. (AUDIO: Davros, Corruption)
Culture
During the Thousand Year War, the Kaleds lived under a totalitarian government in which the military was very powerful, although unlike their descendants they understood and approved of the concept of democracy (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) They were led by the Supremo. (AUDIO: Purity) Beneath him were the Scientific Elite and the Military Elite, who lived in special bunkers. The majority of the population lived in the Kaled Dome, most of the other cities having long been destroyed. Kaleds mutated by radiation and chemicals, the Mutos, were exiled into the wastelands. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks), they were joined by deserters from the military, who also succumbed to the toxic conditions and mutated. When Davros and his team fled a Thal factory, they were attacked by Mutos from the wastelands. (AUDIO: Purity)
All young Kaleds were expected to serve in the Military Youth. According to Lady Calcula This provides the young with "skills and opportunities to progress... should they live long enough to take advantage of them". When Davros was 16, he was still considered to be a boy, while 18 year old Yarvell was regarded as "almost a woman, no longer a child." Yarvell herself considered this "trapped in the middle of nowhere." (AUDIO: Innocence) As time passed and the war grew more intense, while joining the Military Youth was still technically voluntary, societal attitudes had made joining compulsory to the point where children were beaten or even killed for failing to join or questioning the war effort. At this time, there is no clear lower age limit on joining, as children as young as 8 had joined (AUDIO: Corruption)
The Kaleds believed that in all the "seven galaxies" they were able to study only Skaro was capable of supporting intelligent life. They were consequently surprised to find that the Doctor and his companions were not from Skaro. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)
The Kaled god of war was a "horned beast" which was thought to have been inspired by the Beast. (TV: The Satan Pit) Captain Croag and the Highland Rangers was a popular children's programme on Kaled television. Calcula also mentioned that they showed children footage of battles in classrooms to persuade children to join the military, although she considered the edited highlights "too sanitised". (AUDIO: Corruption)
In the final days of the Thousand Year War art was still being produced, but the artists were shunned by the majority in the Kaled Dome. (AUDIO: The Lights of Skaro)
History
Origin
The Kaleds are exterminated en masse. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)
The Kaleds externally resembled Thals, but their last common ancestor had diverged some 100 million years previously, this was very shortly after the development of multi-cellular life on Skaro. (AUDIO: Corruption) However, one account states that both the Kaleds and the Thals were descended from humans transplanted from Earth to Skaro as an experiment by the Halldons. (PROSE: We are the Daleks!)
Prior to or during the Thousand Year War, the Kaleds mastered alchemy. (AUDIO: The Lights of Skaro)
Thousand Year War
Originally, the Kaleds and the Thals lived together in peace, archaeologists discovered the ruins of ancient cities containing artwork depicting Kaleds and Thals even intermarrying on occasion, though this research was suppressed by the Kaled government for political reasons. (AUDIO: Purity) Due to unknown circumstances, the Kaleds and Thals engaged in the Thousand Year War. Both sides originally used advanced energy weapons, but the materials and industrial equipment required to make them became scarce. By the end of the conflict the majority of soldiers were armed with weapons similar to those on early 20th century Earth such as bolt action rifles and submachine guns. At this point only two cities on Skaro remained intact, these domed cities overlooked a polluted wasteland brimming with sand and radiation as well as booby traps such as handmines and conventional landmines. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks, The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar)
Near the end of the war, Davros was studying the effects of radiation on Skaro's flora and fauna. He concluded that the Kaleds would have to mutate into a new form of life, the Daleks, to survive Skaro's decimated biosphere. In order to achieve this eventual outcome, he gave the means to destroy the Kaled city to the Thals to justify the creation of the first Dalek army, which he sent to destroy the Thals. Though some Kaleds objected, Davros ordered his Daleks to exterminate them. The Daleks subsequently rebelled against their creator and proceeded to exterminate his remaining followers and nearly the scientist himself, ironically while he screamed for them to show emotions he had conditioned them against. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)
Revival
During the Last Great Time War, Daleks found themselves evolving back into humanoids on the Neverwhen planet front as a result of time phasing. Perhaps inspired through observing this as suggested by Cardinal Ollistra, (AUDIO: The Neverwhen) a faction of Dalek Scientists secretly plotted to restore Kaled mutants to their humanoid form on Asteroid Theta 12, culminating in Project K006. (AUDIO: A Thing of Guile)
