Star Wars: Aliens, Batarian

Batarian

Attribute Dice: 12d

DEXTERITY: 2d/4d

KNOWLEDGE: 2d/4d

MECHANICAL: 2d/4d

PERCEPTION: 3d/5d

STRENGTH: 2d/3d+2

TECHNICAL: 1d/4d

Special Abilities:

Perceptive: Batarians have four eyes and eight nasal openings. They tend see or smell just about anything around them. 

Story Factors: 

Slavers: Batarians are brutal slavers and feared throughout the galaxy. 

Move: 10/12

Size: 1.5 to 2.0 meters

The batarians are a race that are socially similar to humanity.

The batarians have a slimmer build than the average human but are about the same height, on average, as a human. They have four eyes, one inner set located approximately where that of a human's would be, and a second pair on top of the first pair's browline. Their noses have eight openings, four on each side of the head. Their skin exhibit different skin tone colors, ranging from a cream color with a purple stripe running down their chin and a chocolate-brown area where hair would be on a human, to a black and yellow striped pigmentation with light green facial ridges.

Despite being welcomed into the galactic community, batarian aggression provoked several crises in galactic relations over the years. A batarian fleet bombarded the salarian colony world of Mannovai; the Batarian Hegemony annexed the independent asari colony of Esan; and Imperial forces skirmished with batarian forces on the planet Enael. The last straw for the batarians fell when humans began to colonize the Skyllian Verge. The batarians asked the Empire to intervene and declare the Verge an area of "batarian interest". When the Empire refused, the batarians severed diplomatic and economic relations, becoming an inward-looking rogue state. Money and weapons funneled from the batarian government to criminal organizations led to many brutal raids on human colonies in the Verge, culminating in the Skyllian Blitz, an attack on the capital of Elysium by batarian-funded pirates and slavers. The Empire retaliated with a crushing assault on the moon of Torfan, long used as a staging base by batarian-backed criminals.

The batarian systems were the first targets of the Reapers, who enter the galaxy through the Vular system after the Alpha Relay is destroyed. When the Reapers invade, the indoctrinated officials sabotage Hegemony defenses, allowing the Reapers to easily conquer batarian systems.

Batarian surveyors were responsible for bankrupting several human corporations by claiming that the planet Klensal was a rich mining prospect when it is actually mostly barren rock. The batarians are also accused of stealing the so-called "Leviathan of Dis", supposedly the remains of a genetically engineered living starship found on Jartar. They now claim no such remains were ever found despite the fact that the salarians documented it before the Leviathan mysteriously vanished. Among humans, batarians are now known mostly for their slaving practices, particularly their raid on the planet Mindoir. Once captured, the slavers implant control devices in the skulls of their slaves without bothering with anesthetic. The batarians are also known to enslave addicts of the drug red sand when they can no longer afford to support their habit. 

Batarian extremists were responsible for hijacking Asteroid X57 and using it to attack the human colony of Terra Nova. Originally intending to just snatch X57's human engineers and take them as slaves, the batarians brutally executed them and decided to use the asteroid as a weapon. Balak, the ringleader, claimed this was the will of the "batarian rebellion", and revenge for human activities in the Traverse. However, some of his underlings did not want to commit this act, but initially signed up thinking it would just be just another slave raid. The attempted asteroid drop - which would have destroyed Terra Nova and killed millions of people - was thwarted.

Batarians place an extremely high value on social caste and appearance, and overstepping one's place is frowned upon. Casting aspersions on the monetary worth of a social better is considered a serious insult. Batarians strongly believe that species with fewer than four eyes are less intelligent; they often gain the upper hand in interspecies arguments because other races find it difficult to know which eyes to focus on when speaking to them. Body language is an important part of batarian society. For example, tilting one's head to the left is a sign of admiration and respect. When a batarian tilts his head to the right it is a sign that he is (or considers himself to be) superior to the one that the gesture was directed at. Therefore, this gesture can also be interpreted as an insult.

Slavery is an integral part of the batarian caste system. Rogue batarian slave rings are feared throughout the galaxy, especially among colonists.

Little is known about batarian religious beliefs. When a batarian dies, his soul leaves the body through the eyes. Treatment of the corpse is considered unimportant, unless the batarian's eyes have been removed by an enemy. 

The rest of the galaxy views the batarians as an ignorable problem. It is not known what the average batarian thinks about their enforced isolation, as the Department of Information Control ensures that only government-approved news enters or leaves batarian space. Given the batarian government's oppressive nature, it is speculated their supreme leadership is autocratic or totalitarian in nature. The batarians blame humanity for their troubles and claim they were forced to fend for themselves, despite the fact that their exile is largely self-imposed. The batarian homeworld, Khar'shan, is still divided amongst nation-states. However, the batarians still provide up-to-date glossaries and linguistic rules to the rest of the galaxy (allegedly so they can continue distributing propaganda). Possibly due to the prevalence of batarian criminal gangs, batarian languages have become "lingua franca" in the Terminus Systems. 

Little is known about the batarian military. Most batarian military hardware is produced by a nationalized institution called Batarian State Arms. The batarian fleet is known to operate at least one dreadnought. They also field smaller vessels, including the Hensa class of cruisers. The batarian military has a special forces division known as the Special Intervention Unit. All that is known about the SIU is that their training program is brutal. After the Blue Suns hired a group of former SIU operatives to run a hostile environment training camp on the planet Xetic, an investigation by Illium authorities into the camp found that the mortality rate was as high as 18%; however, an independent Blue Suns inquiry found that the batarian operatives' harsh training techniques were consistent with those employed in the SIU training program. Whatever the true size and strength of the batarian military, it has been virtually wiped out by the Reaper onslaught.