Mareens

[Whill]

INTRODUCTION: Mareens

I have been working on all of this off and on since May. This is my version of the Mareen species from WEG D6 Space Aliens, suitable to be a PC species in Star Wars. Imagine a sentient catfish whose barbels are larger prehensile tentacles. Now imagine them operating a human-sized humanoid powersuit (mini-mecha) made of machinery, a plant, and coral.

Mareens are the perfect candidate for a fish PC species in Star Wars. Most "aquatic" sentient species in SW are actually more like amphibians because they breathe both air and water, and almost all of those are humanoid. Even the TBoBF's Pykes, who look like anthropomorphic fish yet seem to breathe air comfortably on a desert planet. But Mareens can only live outside of water for short times or they will die. And Mareens aren't even humanoid. They are intelligent little fish floating in water inside a humanoid exoskeleton because they just want to be accepted in an air-breathing, humanoid-dominated universe.

This is very long. I know it is a lot to ask, but if you are at all interested in this concept, I would really appreciate feedback. If you can't dive into this now, then please set aside some time in the next week. Bless you for reading all this! To save some time, you could just skip the rest of this Introduction post and the Outtakes post below, reading only the Capsule and Stats (and maybe the linked Damage/Repair System). But if you have any questions about those, there is a chance they are answered by the first and last posts.

Electric catfish?

Everyone's heard of "electric eels," but they aren't the only electrogenic animal species. Electric catfish are a real thing on Earth. No doubt they were an inspiration for WEG Mareens.

There is also such a thing as air breathing catfish on Earth, but in the end I decided to just have a more developed rule following the WEG rule (they die when out of water for about 16 minutes). Real catfish come in freshwater, saltwater, and brackish water varieties, which inspired me to give Mareens a euryhaline physiology. Catfish really are an amazing order of fish!

Shards and Mareens and Copaxis. Oh my!

It is possible that WEG Star Wars Shards were an inspiration for D6 Space Mareens. Both are small beings in mechanical bodies, and when they take damage, neither is injured until their "body" is destroyed. I can really see a game author reading about Shards and thinking, 'What if, instead of a sentient crystal in droid body, it is a sentient fish in a powersuit?' But admittedly, this could easily be coincidence. There is a much stronger case for Starfinder's Copaxis being inspired by Mareens...

Mareens guide coral formation to armor their powersuits, so they are described by fluff as colorful humanoid coral formations. The images of the Mareen exoskeletons suffer a problem – The art does not match the fluff. There is no indication of any coral plating on them in the art. Was the art contracted before the fluff was finalized so they only had a basic concept to go on? Did the fluff get revised after the art was submitted? Was there no coordination between artist and author through negligence, or willful defiance on the case of one party? Who knows?

When I noticed the WEG fluff/art discrepancy, I searched for coral sci-fi species images and found Spacefinder's Copaxi species. The artwork for Copaxis has them looking almost exactly like the WEG fluff describes Mareen exoskeletons, even down to the antlers on their head. That seems beyond mere coincidence. It is extremely likely that someone had the concept for a coral space fantasy species, did some research and found Mareens, then made art matching their fluff. Or they could have even been directly inspired by Mareens to create Copaxis.

The Starfinder artwork solved my problem of having images for the exoskeletons that actually matched the Mareen fluff. The D6 Space Aliens art isn't bad, but it is typical sci-fi. Humanoid coral formations seem fitting for an aquatic species. Coral is just more alien and unique. In recognition of the source of visuals, I named the Mareen powersuits "copaxi exoskeletons" in my fluff and stats.

I was further inspired by Copaxis in making my versions of Mareens. My Mareens don't quite have the "blindsense" of Copaxis, but electroreception could sometimes perceive things less noticeable to the conventional senses. Copaxi ability with languages in part inspired the stored languages of the exoskeleton. (See the concept changes and additions section below for more on these two). The Copaxi personal gravity-altering power inspired me to indicate that the Mareen homeworld uses gravity-lessening tech to make facilities more comfortable to aliens, and that one export is gravity-alteration tech components (for repulsorlifts, artificial gravity, etc.). Also, Copaxis have an aptitude for a Starfinder class called Solarians, which as far as I can tell are space-druids. I named the modern Mareen religion "Solarianism" because it feels like a good name describing a religion that worships all stars but reveres one above the rest.

Species concept changes and additions

None of these changes were premeditated. They just arose organically during the adaptation/creation process.

The D6 Space Aliens fluff says that the bioluminescence of Mareen barbels is how they express emotion. This natural communication is insufficient; a sentient species needs to communicate more than just emotion to develop a civilization, especially an advanced one, which would have happened long before they invented the modern exoskeleton. (They probably needed more advanced communication to even become sentient in the first place). So I added the electroreception ability, and that their electrogenesis ability also generates minor electrical fields around them that they use to communicate information with each other. (This works in and out of water, and without or with exoskeletons.) But I gave it a limited range of only 3m. And most translation droids would be incapable of perceiving these electrical messages, meaning that most translators could only interpret the emotions that Mareens express, not the information. It seems to me that the onus would be on Mareens to translate their communication for others...

The D6 Space Aliens fluff mentions that exoskeletons have voices that are "stilted mechanical recordings". Does that really mean that they only have pre-recorded phrases that they use to communicate with non-Mareens? While the right kind of player group could have fun roleplaying within that limitation, it would still be frustrating at times, and Star Wars has advanced language translation technology so it should have something better than this. So I took inspiration from Cracken's Rebel Field Guide's datafiles and D6 Space Alien's "scholarchips" to decide that the Mareens can install up to five language scholarchips that are made by Mareen computer programming linguists specifically for exoskeletons. Each one is for a different language. These translate the Mareen electrical language into speech that comes out of vocoder (or finger movements to guide typing), but their vocoder still has a stilted mechanical voice because their bioluminescence lights up the exoskeleton eyes to express emotion. And the language scholarchips work both ways so they translates spoken language it hears (or graphical language it reads) into their electrical language for them. Mareens can still learn to understand other languages, but they can't produce any language without the exoskeleton scholarchip for that language. A Mareen could have a collection of more than five language scholarchips, but only five can be installed in an exoskeleton at any given time.

D6 Space Aliens give Mareens a range electrical attack once per round (up to 20m), and it gives the exoskeletons a claw that provides a bonus to brawling. I replaced both of these with a natural ability to generate an electric shock once per round. In water, it affects everything within a 3m radius, and the damage decreases the farther away one is from the Mareen when the shock is discharged. In water and not in an exoskeleton, this can even be done as a reaction like real electrogenic animals on Earth. Out of water, the Mareen's exoskeleton hand (or barbel-tentacle) must touch the target to deliver this damaging shock. In combat it normally takes a successful brawl attack and if the attack misses, the shock is wasted and the Mareen can't try again until next round. I felt WEG's range attack (shooting a lighting bolt) was too OP, and the shocking touch is more appropriate for this species than the exoskeleton claw.

At some point (perhaps after thinking of Spider-Man), the idea popped into my head that Mareens could extend a vine of the plant in their exoskeleton and control it, up to their the 3m radius of their electricity field. A single hand-vine is weaker than the exoskeleton itself and damage to a vine is damage to the suit, so vines being out can make the character more vulnerable. (I decided on the 3m range for all electricity abilities after studying electric eels.)

I didn't like WEG's idea of Mareens continually growing larger throughout their life, so I replaced it with a max adult size and a lifespan shorter than most sentients. I also tied Strength and electrogenesis to size, and decided that only the largest Mareens are capable of generating enough electricity to operate an exoskeleton. So the majority of the species' population is on their homeworld, living underwater as sentient fish without exoskeletons.

I incorporated a couple of the species' technology concepts into the stats of the species themselves.

The homeworld of the Mareens

I've stated my general policy on Star Wars planets is to accept the film planets as-is, suspending disbelief for any unrealistic aspects, and tweaking the non-film planets I use as needed. But I create my original planets with a science-based algorithm (that uses GURPS Space terms) to make plausible planets for native lifeforms to evolve and live on. I have the fundamental scientific background (cosmology, evolutionary biology, etc.) and the mathematical ability to manipulate parameters of the algorithm without generating errors, to come up with something that works for me. The Mareen homeworld and system are given some details in the WEG species fluff, so this isn't an existing Star Wars planet but it is also not an original world of my own. I considered just treating it like an existing planet but it isn't–I am newly bringing it into Star Wars... So I failed my willpower roll to resist running this D6 Space Alien planet through the algorithm...

I found that it is simply not plausible for a planet to have a gaseous atmosphere of carbon monoxide and ammonia while having oceans teeming with oxygen-dependent animal life. So I changed things and honored WEG's planet as much as I could. The planet is an ocean world with no land continents and only many island chains, so I gave it heavy volcanism and ended up with a "marginal" atmosphere which I can call "Type II" in Star Wars terms. In this case what makes it Type II is significant levels of volcanic pollutants including carbon monoxide and ammonia, and the nearly planet-wide floating jungle absorbs enough of the ammonia to keep the oceans habitable for aquatic life. The planet is slightly hotter on average than Earth but a little larger with low eccentricity and obliquity so it still has permanently frozen polar ice caps. I've got a lot more details on the planet and its star system than what will be shared below.

Stat premises

Species stats never have to be balanced to anything. Only PCs have to be balanced to other PCs. This presented a challenge because Mareens would be severely penalized by being small aquatic creatures. So I made Mareen+exoskeleton be the basis for PCs, because how is one going to adventure with other air-breathers without the exoskeleton anyway?

All Mareen PCs have the species max of 2D in Strength, but the exoskeleton effectively gives them a Strength of 3D (the average PC Strength). And outside of exoskeletons, they suffer a damage resistance penalty for all types of damage except electricity, so PCs effectively have less than 2D to naturally resist most damage. The species suffers further Strength (and a lot of other) penalties out of water. If PCs still seem too strong for little fish, they do come from a homeword with a 1.11g gravity, which would tend to make species more stout and sturdy (the planet has higher air and water pressure at sea level which would also result in hardier aquatic species near the surface, compared to Earth). Mareen PCs get 15D of additional attribute dice for the rest of the attributes, meaning they technically have only a 17D total in attributes, not counting the Strength bonus in the exoskeleton which is how they become equivalent to 18D.

As for the damage system, I kept the WEG Shard/Mareen premise that the Mareen inside the exoskeleton is not wounded by damage to the exoskeleton until it is destroyed. That seems like a big advantage, but I figure that is balanced by the fact that Mareens are so vulnerable outside the exoskeleton, and they actually feel pain when their exoskeletons are damaged. Shards in droid bodies and Mareens in exoskeletons (even using purely mental skills) are affected like living beings being wounded when their mechanical "bodies" are damaged. Shards are in a symbiosis with a droid body, and my rationale for Mareens is that the plant incorporated into the exoskeleton electrically links it to the nervous system of the Mareen, so the exoskeleton is like an extension of the Mareen's body. I modeled the Mareen damage and repair systems on my droid rules, but of course there are a few specific differences here and there. Unlike in my droid/Shard damage system, Mareens (and the plant in their suit) are vulnerable to stun damage.

Even besides the basis shift to PCs with exoskeletons, system differences, and changes I made; I took a lot of different approaches in statting out Mareens to realize the concept. My stat blocks are different than D6 Space Aliens in almost every way. Although it could have been worse, Mareens are about the crunchiest thing I have ever made for this game, but I feel it was important to fully realize the concept here. I categorized Special Abilities into two main categories: a block for general abilities (in or out of exoskeleton), and a block for natural abilities that only come into play out of exoskeleton. Following that is Special Equipment block with the stats for the exoskeleton. So while in the exoskeleton, the character uses the first and third stat blocks. When out of the exoskeleton, the character uses the first and second stat blocks.

Authorship/Credit

At the bottom of the capsule post I give credit where credit is due for everything except the artist of the first image below, which I only found posted in an internet forum without any source info. (It looks official, but if it is I do not know what book it is from.)

For the main capsule text, I started with the Open D6 Mareens entry as a basis. Some sentences were clunky even by my standards so I rewrote them. That alone would give me a co-editor credit, but I didn't stop there. I made some substantial changes and additions (some of which were mentioned above). In the end, I feel it was enough to warrant giving myself a co-author credit. If you feel there is still any poor diction, it could be mine or the original author/editor's.

And as I like to pay tribute to real world creators in my re-works, the capital island of the Mareen homeworld where the species also evolved was named after the original Mareen creator, and the planet's moons were named after the WEG artist. As already mentioned, the exoskeletons were named after the Starfinder species from which the art for them originated.


MAREENS
0. Introduction (this post)
1. CAPSULE (fluff w/ images and homeworld planet log)
2. STATS
... DAMAGE/REPAIR SYSTEM
3. Outtakes (additional fluff concepts)
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[Whill]

Mareens



Mareens are not a well-known species outside of D6 Space, and most who do know of Mareens have never actually met one face to face. They appear to be humanoid coral reef formations and speak in stilted mechanical voices. On their otherwise faceless “heads” are two glowing “eyes” that change colors as the beings attempt to express emotion. These alien aspects of Mareens sometime make other species uncomfortable.

Mareens have done their best to fit into humanoid societies, but there are still many misconceptions about them. Some believe every Mareen is a colony of coral polyps that achieved sentience. Some believe Mareens are a plant-based or amphibious species in armor. Some believe they are an aquatic species with cybernetic enhancements to survive out of water. Some even believe Mareens never actually left their homeworld so instead built droids to represent them in the galaxy. All of these misconceptions have some basis in reality, but the truth is even stranger.

Inside a coral shell powersuit is the real Mareen – a fish of intelligence and technical prowess. The suit is in fact a protective biotechnology known as a “copaxi exoskeleton,” constructed by Mareens for Mareens. Most of these exoskeletons have a humanoid shape, but other varieties exist on the Mareen homeworld.



Appearance and Biology

Mareens are siluriform fish who have long thick barbels tipped with tiny suckers, heavy bodies with almost undetectable scales, and large mouths. But aside from some basic similarities, the Mareens are very different from most other fish. Their barbels, which they use to transmit and receive electrical impulses, also serve as prehensile tentacles that can manipulate objects. The copaxi exoskeletons are so uniquely attuned to Mareen biology that only Mareens can operate them.

Mareens descended from freshwater ancestors on a tropical island. Shifting climate change brought dry periods where the species had to survive short land migrations to various shallow bodies of water, which led to the evolution of both prehensile barbels and small lung-like organs that can derive oxygen from air for short periods of time before suffocating. When massive flooding occured at the end of their planet’s last ice age, the species evolved a euryhaline physiology, allowing them to survive in oceans and waters of a wide range of salinities.

Unlike most sentient species, Mareens have no natural form of verbal or textual communication. Instead, electrogenesis and electroreception are the basis of informational communication among Mareens generating and interpreting variances in bioelectric fields. The barbel-tentacles are also bioluminescent, and Mareens rely on colorful pulses of light generated to convey emotions. When in exoskeletons, these color pulses display on the “eyes” thanks to fiber optics.

Mareens’ primary natural defense is their ability to blast out an electrical discharge from their tentacles. This electric shock can be generated once every few seconds. Thanks to special circuit breakers built into all their exoskeletons, Mareens can discharge the shock through the exoskeleton’s hands without damaging it.

Mareens are short-lived compared to most sentient species. Mareens reach sexual maturity and are considered adults at age nine, with a usual lifespan of 40-50 years. Mareens tend to mate for life and most females become infertile after willingly spawning a total of 2-4 viable eggs, which the male partner fertilizes. There is very little sexual dimorphism in Mareen appearance.

Homeworld

The Mareen homeworld, Mareh, is located in the D6 Space region of The Whills Galaxy (Companion Cresh satellite galaxy). Mareh is the fifth planet from its bright sun, Sumareh. Mareh has two small moons, Naka and Hara. Mareh’s average surface gravity is slightly heavier than standard. The planet is named after its primary ocean, the Mareh.

Mareh has a dense atmosphere that many find to be uncomfortable to breathe. Due to the planet’s heavy volcanism, the air also contains significant levels of trace pollutants including carbon monoxide and ammonia, making it a Type II atmosphere. However, below the atmosphere lies an almost planetwide ocean that’s teaming with aquatic life. The vast ocean and the mildly toxic atmosphere are separated by a floating seaweed jungle that covers most of the water’s surface. The flora absorbs the atmospheric ammonia and expels oxygen into the water, which allow the Mareens and a multitude of other aquatic animal species to thrive. The floating jungle also harbors some particularly hardy non-aquatic creatures on its top side.

There are hundreds of island chains across the planet, comprising 9% of the planet’s surface. These islands serve the Mareens as bases for terrestrial manufacturing, commerce, interstellar travel, and temporary off-worlder accommodations. All islands are considered the sole property of the citizens of Mareh. The Mareen capital is the southern tropical island of Simcoe and its surrounding waters, home of the large cove from where the modern Mareen species originated (now a holy site).

The polar ice caps of Mareh, with their thick, continent-sized, permanently frozen layers of floating sea ice, have been deemed free-enterprise zones, where off-worlders can settle, conduct business, and maintain permanent domed residences. These areas, though monitored by Mareen authorities, are managed by the off-worlders as they see fit. These free-enterprise zones have allowed for thriving settlements on both ice caps. The Southern Ocean is home to Lexum, a massive spaceport, often used as a stop-off point for traders. Most of the Southern Ocean ice cap has gravity-adjusting technology that lowers the effective gravity to slightly under 1g. The Northern Ocean is populated with scattered smaller cities. Many of these smaller outposts are actually used by smugglers and pirates as bases of operations.

Despite the “no questions asked” policy offered to these free-enterprise zones, the Mareen government is often forced to deal with troublesome individuals and communities. It does so with exoskeleton assault squads. After an encounter with the assault squads, most off-worlders learn to keep their dealings and activities quiet.

The Sumareh star system has an asteroid belt and nine other planets: four infernal terrestrial planets and five outer gas giants. With the Sumareh system in such a central location of the D6 Space hyperlanes, dozens of the system’s moons and major asteroids have a mining facility or some other type of settlement on them. These are free-enterprise zones as well, and like with the planetary polar oceans, the Mareens will step in if needed. The Mareens maintain a small group of spaceships to patrol the system.

Underneath the floating flora of Mareh, the Mareens have a vast civilization. Most Mareens have settled into small cities surrounding islands, which has ensured growth of Mareen industry and culture. Each city is usually the home to five to 50 ancestral school units. (See “Laws and Customs” below.)

Cities are interconnected by a subaqueous “magnorail” system. These magnetic towing systems drag magnetic metals back and forth between cities. Hydrodynamic haulers are placed “on line” with special harnesses and dragged at a high rate of speed to the next station on the line.

Society

Though most non-Mareens can’t comprehend what goes on inside a Mareen’s head, many do know one thing about them: Mareens are often attracted to manufactured objects of physical beauty, unique design, and bright colors. While Mareens want objects that work and work well, it's important that those objects look good, too.

While material possessions are of great value in the Mareen culture, intelligence and hard work are also prized – just not to the same zeal. Improvements in technology are always lauded by Mareens, especially once Mareen society figures out how to make them unique to each individual.

With the heavy focus on materialism in Mareen culture, many other species find their manufactured items – full of shell-like spiraling constructions in a spectacular array of colors – to be amazingly beautiful. As such, Mareen-built items – ranging from basic tools to furniture to droids to vehicles – often fetch high prices on the open market.

Mareen culture also highly prizes its coral-growing traditions, and the wealthiest members of the species have fancy coral exoskeletons created for formal occasions. These exoskeletons are built using ancient exoskeleton growing techniques. With their antler-like coral headdresses and intricate scalloped patterns, many of the coral exoskeletons are among the most magnificent pieces of art to be found in any galaxy.

Despite their society's high priority placed on materialism, Mareens are sometimes naive in business and social dealings. They can find themselves so awestruck by beauty and charisma that they fall for bad deals or even follow inappropriate leaders.

Laws and Customs

Mareens hold those who keep the environment clean – both underwater and above – in high regard, and often severely punish those who don't. Careless mineral extractors and environmental despoilers are always treated harshly by Mareens.

The primary governing body of the Mareen lifestyle is that of the school – a direct democratic organization where every individual member votes on issues related to that school. Each Mareen usually belongs to at least a half a dozen schools – ones focusing on their community, their ancestry, their profession, and their nonwork interests. Membership in multiple schools also helps each Mareen feel they are standing out from other individuals. When these schools come into conflict with one another, each Mareen must choose their own path. Each school elects a representative to the star system’s governmental congress called The Shoal, which is based on the island of Simcoe. Copax, the school for exoskeleton owners, is always one of the most powerful in Mareen politics.

Mareens traveling or living outside the Sumareh system often maintain nominal memberships in Mareh schools, but they are considered inactive and may not vote in school affairs. Extrasteller Mareen colonies have their own schools.

Transient Mareen traders sometimes have non-exoskeleton families that travel with them, living in aquarium habitats installed on starships. Although the Mareen species has moved into mainstream intergalactic society, they tend to have a difficult time relating to other species because their nature and customs are alien to the airbreather-dominated universe.

Religion

Most Mareens on Mareh still revere the ancient gods of their ancestry, but after many Mareens came out of the ocean their religion transitioned to a heliolatry which venerates their sun Sumareh above all other gods. When Mareens journeyed to other star systems, they began to worship other stars in a religion now known as Solarianism. Sumareh is considered to be the fuel of creation. All other stars are regarded as deities, though not as significant as Sumareh. Mareens pay homage to their primary god by creating beautiful objects and dedicating them to Sumareh’s holy energy.

By worshipping a god of creation, Mareen warriors walk a fine line. They struggle as they manage a role that causes destruction. To help counter this negative creation, warriors usually develop skills in the creative arts to help swing the balance of the destruction-creation cycle back toward creation.

With the Mareen focus on keeping destruction at bay or even overpowering it, Mareens do have codes against killing and doing harm to other living beings. Still, Mareens aren’t all pacifists. They are willing to kill as long as they have good reasons and intend to use the killing to push creation ahead.

Technology

Mareh was already a technologically advanced world with flying vehicles and robots when Gilvahn explorers first arrived, but the Mareens quickly began updating their technologies. Sunlight is the primary power source of most Mareen and adapted alien technologies on Mareh. Many technologies on the planet are electro-interactive.

With Mareh’s vast utilization of slave-machine production, much of the Mareen population work as manufacturers. As such, the planet has a wide variety of exports available. Generally, two types of exports are available: A utility brand with its rather standard appearance, and a fine brand, which is manufactured to be physically appealing as well. One of their major exports became droids, which contributed to the misconception that Mareens in exoskeletons were also droids.

The most famous Mareen technology is the copaxi exoskeleton, a complex biotechnology incorporating Currentibus musculus, an aquatic chemosynthetic fibrous plant species which moves in response to electrical stimuli. The exoskeleton runs on electricity generated by its Mareen operator, but only the largest Mareens have a strong enough electrogenic ability to power one. If a Mareen also meets the other qualifications and buys the necessary materials, they may elect to create the exoskeleton. The typical exoskeleton stands 1.53-1.83 meters tall, with two arms and two legs. Most members of intergalactic society are humanoids, and Mareens hope that such a shape makes interpersonal interaction easier. A wonder of engineering, the copaxi exoskeleton functions a lot like a humanoid body, with handlike mechanisms for grasping and special gyroscopes to keep it balanced while it does just about any task a humanoid person can. The fine engineering precision that goes into making an exoskeleton means that the user relies on her natural skills, in some cases enhanced by the exoskeleton.

For identification purposes, Mareens living in Mareen societies usually mark their exoskeletons with unique patterns that may include a personal insignia and a specific coloring scheme. One indicator of wealth and social status among Mareens is how fancy their exoskeleton is. Typical Mareens with basic exoskeletons have a simple one or two-color identifying scheme. Rich and powerful Mareens often have custom additions to their exoskeleton, such as alternate hand designs (perhaps even with built-in weapons), scholarchip upgrades, and bold, almost flamboyant, multi-colored designs on extraprotective armor plates.

The Mareen is housed inside of a small tank, called the life chamber, inside the “torso” of the exoskeleton. Here, they are washed with recycled and refreshed water while they operate their exoskeleton. This tank provides the Mareen with an amazing amount of protection. In fact, the Mareen is only injured once their entire suit is demolished.

A typical exoskeleton completely encloses the Mareen, but even though they wear a sealed suit, they still shares the many of the same vulnerabilities that most amphibious humanoids do. In fact, without the proper upgrades, Mareen exoskeletons aren’t suitable for use in the void of space, since they aren’t pressurized for vacuum and rely on drawing in oxygen through air filters, which diffuse the oxygen into the Mareen’s water solution inside her life chamber. In an emergency, most copaxi exoskeletons can be forced to fit in many humanoid-sized spacesuits, but most spacefaring Mareens have specialized spacesuits made for their exoskeletons. In properly oxygenated waters, the pump system transitions from air to water.

Outside of exoskeletons, Mareens usually eat small fish and plants. While in their suits, Mareens sup on a nutritious mash, which they easily refill from stores via a special tube. This nutrient paste is usually a salty mush with a high amount of protein mixed in with vegetable matter. As long as the Mareen has an ample supply of food, it is possible for a Mareen in a copaxi exoskeleton to survive for an extended amount of time in a low oxygen environment. The Mareen breathes out carbon dioxide that is used in the Currentibus musculus’ chemosynthesis process which makes the plant’s food and gives off oxygen as a byproduct, so a Mareen with food and the plant can survive in a copaxi exoskeleton if the Mareen maintains a low level of activity.

Some Mareens on Mareh with very specific job duties use special vehicles, such as cargo haulers, military vehicles, or spaceships instead of suits. These vehicles are created to be operated exclusively by Mareens and other species cannot use them, though some of these vehicles may have special passenger compartments. Other Mareens control robotic factories or farms. These highly skilled Mareens have learned to maintain banks of slave-machines, which are assembly line-style manufacturing devices operated directly by Mareens. Mareen military assault vehicles are large mobile gun platforms. Outside of the Sumareh system, Mareens use exoskeletons and humanoid technology.

History of the Copaxi Exoskeleton

Mareens first developed their exoskeleton on their home planet of Mareh. The Mareens had found that by using their innate electrogenesis to stimulate the coral formations of the coral polyp species Sceletinia elexteriora, they could direct the shape of the growth into a platelike shell. The original exoskeleton started as a coral growth to create a natural suit for protection against predators. At first, the calcium-rich coral plates were simple body armor, but the Mareens worked to improve it.

After years of experimenting, the Mareens developed two breakthroughs that formed the basis of their current exoskeleton design. The first breakthrough was that the coral-growing process became so accelerated and exact that the Mareens were able to create intricately articulated suits. The second breakthrough was also in biology. With their electricity, Mareens stimulated the evolution of the Currentibus musculus aquatic plant species.

When the two breakthroughs were combined, the Mareens took a cue from crustacean life on their planet and developed specialized exoskeletons that gave them appendages to grasp objects and legs that anchored them in place when needed and provided them with locomotion in nonwater environments. The earliest exoskeleton models looked like brachyuran crustaceans.

With the durability and functionality of their exoskeletons greatly advanced, they ventured out of the ocean and conquered their world. They’ve since learned about working metals and have added nonrusting metallic parts to their manufacturing processes. Some Mareens eventually moved offworld where they try to intermingle with the rest of the universe’s inhabitants.

A Mareen’s first copaxi exoskeleton is constructed during an apprenticeship with a Mareen who has already made one. It is a sacred duty for all exoskeleton owners to mentor at least one Mareen in their life.

[Whill]

Mareens

Singular: Mareen
Adjective: mareen
Language: Mareel
Homeworld, and major colonies: Mareh, Corlaasi, Alah'shamb
Species Type: semi-amphibious euryhaline semi-ichthyomorphic siluriform fish
Natural Size: 28 / 25-35 centimeters (snout to tail fin)*
Natural Move: 1/1 (Natural Swimming Move 5/6)
Copaxi Exoskeleton Size: 1.68 / 1.53-1.83 meters
Copaxi Exoskeleton Move: 10
Average Total ATTRIBUTE DICE: 11D

[Whill]

System & Homeworld Data

As referred to in the intro post, I have a lot more data on the star system and home planet of the species. This seems superfluous since it is not likely that a GM using this species would ever set an adventure in their home system because it's in a satellite galaxy far removed from the main SW galaxy, and this thread was not intended to provide an adventure setting. (But it is a very neat planet, so potential adventure seeds are there.) The focus here is on the species, so the info provided above in the capsule post seems enough to go on for a player or GM to conceptualize a character's background. If anyone has any questions about the home system, please feel free to ask though.

Against Star Wars convention, I thought it made sense to name this star system after its star instead of the main planet, because the sun is the primary deity of the universe according to the system's only native sentient species. And thus all the other planets are named and numbered after the star. I rationalize that Mareens, being fish with poor vision out of water, wouldn't have done any stargazing and probably couldn't have seen the other planets in their system with the naked eye, so they wouldn't have been a part of their mythology. As I'm sure you've noticed, the star's name is the planet's name with a short prefix (that was from the original WEG author, not me). Since the sun is considered the creator in the species' mythology, I'm thinking that the Su- translates to "creator (of...)."

Geography of Mareh

The Mareen homeworld is basically one big ocean (the Mareh) with many scattered island chains totalling 9% of the planet's surface. I'm sure you noticed in the capsule that I defined the planet as being named after the worldwide ocean. Our planet Earth is a water world yet named after a word used to describe the land we live on, so it made sense to me that Mareens would name their planet after the primary ocean.

This planet doesn't have continents like Earth so it has no clear land basis for the demarcation of multiple oceans, but I still gave this planet three oceans. The permanently frozen floating ice caps at the north and south poles are significant demarcations from the liquid world-ocean. In practice among the planet's inhabitants, "the Southern Ocean" and "the Northern Ocean" refer to the permanent ice caps and "land" dwellings on them. But from a planetary data perspective, the polar ice caps (and the ocean underneath them) are counted as part of the hydrosphere, and thus they are part of 91% ocean and not part of the 9% land. So the usable solid surfaces of the planet consist of the polar ice caps plus the islands, minus islands with destructive and/or toxic active volcanoes.

Mareen Homelife

GURPS calculates that the average member of the homeworld population is economically comfortable because the planet would do well in the extrastellar economies it does business in. That works for me. I imagine that Mareens build homes underwater with lots of technological conveniences, and it is fun to think about these homes being filled with water and the sentients living there are weird fish swimming around. Maybe they have a species like Artemia salina as pets.

Emotional Bioluminescence

Instead of making a chart, I thought I would just leave it up to a future Mareen player to help define which colors mean which emotions. I'm planning on an NPC of this species appearing in my game, but I'll try to not define emotion-colors too much.

Evolution?

I had originally started dreaming up more detailed explanations for the evolution of the Currentibus musculus plant and the Mareen electrogenic, electroreceptive, and bioluminescent abilities. But I ended up deciding to leave that out, and now I can't even remember what I had come up with.

Ancient Aliens?

I had thought about semi-canonizing the Copaxi species for an ancient alien story in Mareen mythology which had a humanoid coral species coming down from the sky and teaching the Mareens how to use their electrogenesis to accelerate and control coral growth, but leaving it vague as to whether the Copaxi species ever existed. But the first exoskeletons now being known to look like fiddler crabs would seem to clearly discount this myth as a later fiction, and it just didn't seem as important to include the ancient aliens if it couldn't possibly be true. And for the myth to possibly be based in truth, I would have to consider how the Copaxi species might have existed in my SWU. Humanoid coral formations with a live coral polyp colony surviving outside of water are fine for space fantasy setting of Starfinder, but I see the Sceletinia elexteriora polyp species as purely aquatic (Mareens only have the coral in their exoskeletons, not the living species that make the coral). And it doesn't really make sense for a coral species to evolve into humanoid form, so I just decided to scrap the Copaxi ancient aliens idea. It makes sense that there are no naturally humanoid lifeforms on Mareh, and since Mareens are now trying so hard to fit in with humanoid culture they never made exoskeletons humanoid in shape until they were visited by humanoid aliens and thus made first made contact with the intergalactic community. I decided that D6 Space Alien's Gilvahn were the best one to have discovered Mareens and wrote that into the capsule.

The Old Gods

The capsule indicates that Mareen religion is a polytheism with a core value of creation. Sumareh (their sun) is the current primary deity, but I see Sumareh as one of the most prominent deities throughout their recorded history. Mareens always lived near the surface of the water off the shore of island chains, so they experienced a day-night cycle. Before the big shift to the heliolatry where all stars are viewed as divine, I see the primary deity as having been the world-ocean ("Mareh"). Mareens also have a "deep" antagonistic Tiamat/Cthulhu type of figure in their mythology. Other important deities include the floating jungle, a storm/sky god, the moons, and a crablike protector/warrior god (I see Mareens as having had a mutualistic relationship with a crablike species which provided protection in early Mareen civilization).

The Zintar

The Zintar are a Hellas RPG species that were likely inspired by the Mareens. Instead of being little tentacled electric catfish, they are little tentacled amphibious cephalopods (an octopus-like species) controlling mechanical bodies operate among land-based species. Like Mareens, Zintar are not very mobile on land outside of their "carapace". Since Zintar can breath both water and air, they do not have the atmospheric mortality and their "face" sticks out the top of the carapace. Instead of electrogenesis and a biotech suit with an electroreceptive plant, the Zintar control their purely artificial suits with advanced cybernetics. Zintar can change the color of their bodies like some Earth octopuses, and they have a non-verbal language they communicate to each other with the color-changing. The mechanical carapaces of the Zintar often (but not always) have a centauriform shape.

The Zintar just mysteriously appeared in Hellene space half a millennia ago. They claim to originally hail from watery planet in a distant system. A version of the Hellas setting exists in my SWU, in the same satellite galaxy as the D6 Space setting. So it seems fitting to me that the Zintar also evolved on Mareh, sentient and highly adaptable. They were less advanced but came in contact with the Mareens settling the planet, leading to a lot of conflict. The Zintar were eventually forcibly relocated off their homeworld, sent away in a spaceship programmed to travel to a distant sector, and they forgot their history. It wouldn't be too hard to stat them out for Star Wars D6, but they are too similar to Mareens (and Nautoloans, and Kentauroi) to be another PC species, and I rather like the atmospheric mortality that Mareens have, making the biotech suits required to survive outside of water.

The Exoskeleton School Primacy

I imagine that one of the most powerful schools in the planet's government is one for exoskeleton owners, despite the fact that exoskeleton owners represent less than 10% of the total population. Mareens with exoskeletons would be responsible for a lot of the end-processing of a lot products (since it would take place out of water on the surface of the islands), and almost all of the planet's extrastellar business and representation to other species. Mareens tend to fall for charisma and beauty in leaders, and the very high class exoskeletons are incredible works of art. And many of the government's school representatives themselves would be exoskeleton owners, not just the exoskeleton school representative (school memberships overlaps for all Mareens). So it is easy to see the exoskeleton school being very influential. A colloquial term for members of the school could be "Copaxis." A player playing a Mareen would be free to create all the other schools the character is a member of.

Copaxi exoskeleton owners have a special burial tradition. Mareen bodies are sealed inside their exoskeletons which are posed standing up and fused to the seabed of designated Copaxi cemeteries, so in death the Mareen's exoskeleton becomes a monument to the deceased. The living can swim through these cemeteries to view the monuments.

Assault Squads

Since I removed the claw as being standard in exoskeletons, I thought I could add it to assault squad exoskeleton. It makes sense that assault squad members would especially revere the crablike god of protection, so the claw is like a crab pincer. The assault squad exoskeletons would be superior to standard ones in multiple ways, and PCs could not start out with assault exoskeletons for that reason (plus these probably would not be legal outside of their home system). An adventuring PC couldn't be a current assault squad member but they could be a former squad member (and their former assault exoskeleton could have been destroyed). This is why I have not bothered to stat out the assault squad exoskeleton.

Security Droid Model

D6 Space Alien's image for the Mareen exoskeleton (p.61, repeated in the template on p.118) doesn't cut it for reasons mentioned above, but it could be an image for the security robot mentioned on p.63. I didn't stat the droid out because the emphasis here is on the species, not their homeworld's exports.

Mareens in the "main" Star Wars galaxy

There are approximately 30 million Mareens in the primary galaxy. I put one major colony in the Minos Cluster.


~~~

THOUGHTS about the Capsule, Stats, Damage/Repair System, or anything else in this thread?
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[Inquisitor1138]

I LIKE IT!
i once caught a catfish on a camping trip & kept it as a pet for a year or two.
In the '90s i made a Bioelectrix Discipline for Vampire the Masquerade, inspired by electric eels the internet back then had not yielded any info on bioelectric catfish when i did my research, nor was it in any books in the college library; if there where i'd have used it & remembered...
When i lost my original file, & the site i had posted to died, i did a search & found my Bioelectrix Discipline in the forums section on the Russian official website for Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, still in English & crediting me!
Thank you Russian gamers & Thank God for Russian gamers!

I want to see the original material, to better contrast the two versions. I also like the Copaxi, & wish to add both Mareens and Copaxis to my SWU. To that end, i will be mostly divorcing the Mareens from the Copaxis in my game, with the Mareens' & Copaxi developing a hybrid suit which is a marriage of Mareens and Copaxis biotech, and their more traditional exosuits.
i will have it as both the D6 Space art & the art linked above are valid examples of Mareens powersuits, some prefer the rougher more organic look while others prefer the buffed-out smoother look. Two or four eyes are most common, but some do six or more, taking inspiration from other creatures, both from their homeworld & abroad!
Another common feature many of the suits have in some form is a bioluminescent head lamp, usually a flexible appendage, sometimes not.
I may steal a bit from my D6 Space Marines for both the powersuits & the biotech...

I have many wip star systems in my 15 BBY/4 EY ={DARK FRONTIERS}= campaign, including one with a Manaan-like world colonized by Selkath. I now wish to add a 'super-Mareh' & Tabrid Minor to that system, crediting the Mareens with Copaxi First Contact when a Mareens scout ship explored the system..

Thank you for sharing such a meaty, thought-provoking project!
I for one will be having some fun with this!
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[Inquisitor1138]

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