Darth Voracitos
Chaos-God of Gluttony
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To expand the lore of star wars on a scantly described species/planet, and to use a cool picture for a creature that doesn't exist yet!
- Image Credit: https://burningsuns.fandom.com/wiki/Leviathans
- Canon: Yes
- Links: Barison, Barisoni
- Name: Barisonian
- Designation: Sentient
- Origins: Barison
- Average Lifespan: Adult by 30, with an average of 120 years
- Estimated Population: Planetary (A Large Concentration on a single world or system, rarely found off-world)
- Description: Their entire body is covered in chitinous armor plating, like a crustacean. They otherwise exhibit roughly humanoid shape, albeit they are of shorter stature than most. Unlike most crustaceans, the Barisoni possess teeth, which are often an all too noticeable feature on their face.
- Breathes: Type I and Water
- Average Height of Adults: 1-1.2 meters
- Average Length of Adults: N/a
- Skin color: Grey/Black/Red where chitin does not cover
- Hair color: N/a
- Distinctions: Sharp chitinous armor plating across the body, bipedal walking legs (one main set of limbs with a set of thinner vestigial limbs fused together into a single set of cooperative limbs), two arms with grasping "quad-claw" (cooperative limbs, with two pincers forming each "hand"), two vestigial legs on hind quarters, two vestigial legs behind shoulders
- Races:
Islanders (those primarily living near islands; typically, unless its an island chain, most Islander groups are unique racially/ethnically) - Coasters (those primarily living along certain geographic coasts, there are many types of Coasters)
- Ethnic Reincarnating-Molt (Short form: "Molts")
- Ethnic Renouncing-The-Bigger-Shell (Short form: "Shells")
- Ethnic Bury-Eggs-Which-Never-Hatch (Short form: "Eggs")
[*]Force Sensitivity: Low (Some members are, but many are not)
Strengths:
- Chitinous Exoskeleton - As a crustacean, they are naturally born with hard outer armor which regularly molts as they get larger.
- Power Pincers - With two set of pincers for each hand, their grip is a powerful one.
- Back Handed - Although the limbs are much smaller are largely vestigial (a common occurrence on a Barisoni body), they are actually useful in being able to hold things on their back even while standing upright, as they are double joint allow the limbs to grasp the whole area of the back.
- Lack of Dexterity - Even while having a second set of pincers affords some small measure of fine manipulation, it is no replacement for fingers/thumbs or tentacles or any combination thereof. They have trouble operating things intended for any humanoid hand structures.
- Lack of Charisma - From their uninviting appearance, to their unusual form of communication, the Barisoni are not well know for their ability to charm other species. It doesn't help matters much when many of their kind often forgo certain technologies, further exasperating their inability to communicate, though many find exception to using translation devices, others still refuse them, prefer interpreters of which there is a limited supply.
- Hard of Hearing - Although the Barisoni are capable of hearing, they rely heavily on visual and physical stimuli to such an extent they are sometimes confused by outsiders with being deaf. This perception is strengthen by their liberal use of 'signing' in their native language.
- Diet: Omnivore, they possess agriculture but also exhibit nomadic hunting behaviors
- Communication: They communicate through various clicking of teeth, chirping, hissing of the throat, sign language, and literal body language. Gesture and movement are very important, but social encounters are also often communicative as well, using objects on their person or around them as references for communication, or as a form of "social trade", where certain objects are imbued with social importance as reminders of deals or trades to be carried out by the keeper.
- Technology level: Although they have access to a variety of galactic technologies, and posses a few unique technologies of their own, a large portion of Barisoni society have renounced technology in following particular religious tenets of several majority religions on Barison. Typically what happens, is a council is convened to discuss a technology that has been petitioned to be reviewed, and based on its merits as according to the governing religious body, it will be deemed acceptable to use without breaking Oaths of Renunciation.
- Religion/Beliefs: There are three dominant sects of religion on Barisoni, that seem to coexist for the most part, and at times even intermingle or merge depending on the attitude of individual regions. Although their names can't be pronounced accurately by outsiders, they have been given names over the ages that match a core component of belief:
Reincarnating-Molt
Reincarnating-Molt (here on abbreviated: RM) is a belief system self-evidently revolving around the concept of reincarnation. It draws strong parallels to the molting process crustaceans such as themselves undergo to grow, and they consider each molting to be its own miniature rebirth. Beside their belief in the impermanence of death as merely growing into a better person in the next life, their main teachings touch upon tolerance and respect for nature These teachings are often passed on through visits to spiritual places and moments of quiet meditation. RM teachings come from experiences and lessons from community members who are seen as mentors. They often express their beliefs through shrines, and wood carved bowls of intricate design. This belief is second only to Renouncing-The-Bigger-Shell.
[*]Renouncing-The-Bigger-Shell
- Renouncing-The-Bigger-Shell (here on abbreviated: RS) is a belief system which strongly discourages feelings of greed, and those thoughts of 'wishing'. Ancestral lineage and family spirits play a big role in guiding councils on how they should judge society, to guard them against wishing for more by remembering what little their ancestor spirits had in life. Thus, those of the RS belief often take Oaths of Renunciation, where by to resist the temptation of 'The Bigger Shell', they do not indulge in unsanctioned technologies among other social stigmas. Prayer beads and stories painted on pottery are common expressions of belief. Although RS is the most popular faith among the Barisoni, RM is a close second.
[*]Bury-Eggs-Which-Never-Hatch
- Bury-Eggs-Which-Never-Hatch (here on abbreviated: BH) is a belief system which seems to emphasis cosmic punishment derived from an elder god deep in a secret ocean explaining all those phenomenon which cause the living misery. Despite this dreary premise, BH actually attempts to promote in its believers the sense that the living are the lucky ones, and thus life should be lived in such a way as to be long, fruitful, and meaningful. It does this by postulating that a person is most happy, when life is simple and devoid of meaningless distractions, and that the bad things of life simply happen beyond our control; so why worry about it anyway? One of its most controversial stories, and the one from which it gains is name, is a legend regarding the eggs of a queen waiting to be hatched. She waits for them to hatch one by one, and three children of the king are celebrated for their emergence. One of the eggs however, was late, and thus the Queen watched over it, and gave it extra care; but days passed now, and still the Queen tended to the egg. Her priests advised her it might be best to leave it be, as it was never going to hatch. The queen refused to hear them, and refused to leave the eggs side, growing deeper in shame and unacknowledged grief. By the end of the story, the queen lived the rest of her life tending to an egg that never hatched, and did so miserably to the detriment of her family. Thus it ends with the hard lesson, that when an egg does not hatch despite your efforts, it may be best to bury it, to acknowledge that it will not hatch for you. Although BH is not as popular as RS or RM, it has a sizable following in certain parts of the world, but it is considered more fringe or exotic. It did however, see a sizable influx of believers following the Netherworld Crisis.
[*]General behavior: Despite their sometimes off-putting appearance, seemingly backwards beliefs, and unusual form of communication, the Barisoni are generally friendly people. They value peace and simplicity in life, but despite this possess a potent instinct to defend what they feel is theirs, and their bodies certainly play the part of a warrior if necessary. As such, they often react somewhat negatively and perhaps a touch aggressively to big changes, which may explain some of their social structures.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Barison is a quite water world out in the Gordian Reach along the Feena Run that has historically supplied such menial supplies as fish, seafood and kelp to the Black Reach. It has had very few things of note happen in its history at all, known only for its backwards Barisoni inhabitants who for some reason squander technological gifts due to religious beliefs enforced by their theocratic governments. They are not to be confused with being primitive, as they have invented a number of technologies on their own that are comparable to the galactic standard, and have in the past accepted sparing few pieces of technology from the outside world into their society. The reasons for their simple appearing lives are completely of a spiritual nature, for a majority of natives to the planet.
However, one event which effected the entire galaxy obviously also effected the natives of Barison a great deal: the Netherworld Crisis. Losing roughly half its population overnight to mysterious means was a terrible omen like never before seen in its history. Not only did they grieve for their lost ones, but the very event itself questioned their most core beliefs. For the Reincarnating-Molts, many feared that a great cycle of reincarnation had been broken, stolen away from them with this unexpected rapturing. Many Priests had few satisfying answers to provide, as no one had experience to share of such grief at this magnitude. For the Renouncing-The-Bigger-Shells, worried furiously that those who did not respect their Oath's must have caused the catastrophe, but worried an even greater deal that without their traditional rights that the missing were unable to join with their ancestral spirits. Again, their believers looked to them for guidance, only to be disappointed by their lack of definitive answer, given the unprecedented events. Those who found no comfort their traditional religions, however, began to look for answer in more unusual places.
For the Bury-Eggs-Which-Never-Hatch, the Netherworld Crisis fit very well into their general over all mythos. Although their answers were depressing to many, the BH sect held conviction that the crisis was caused by their god to cause misery. Despite this though, they preached a positive message in the celebration of the lives of those recently departed, and the lives of those still beside them, the lucky ones. Many new followers flocked to the formerly exotic faith, which consoled them in their grief and gave advice on how best to settle the grief in their heart with closure, and to move on with fervor for life lived well and honest in appreciation for their luckiness to be alive.
Although the cosmological crisis which lead to the flocking of the BH sect of faith alarmed the faithful Barisoni during and after the crisis, eventually as time went on things normalized and people went on with life despite the tragedy. Not all Barisoni were able to recover, however, and some of them went to extremes few Barisoni have gone to. There have been Barisoni pirates in the past, going beyond the reach of Barison, but it has always been a very rare sighting. The odd outcast here, the wanted criminal there, a divergent heretic fleeing persecution. Once the crisis was concluded though, the unwelcoming faces of Barisoni breaking their Oaths of Renunciation began to show up in places across the galaxy, disgruntled in their faith or frustrated with the repression of their government seeking solace among the stars.
