ABBAI

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A peaceful semi-aquatic race, the Abbai are the social glue that holds the League of Non-Aligned Worlds together Abbai found outside their home system are usually traders or pilgrims seeking either friendly contact with other races or enlightenment as to the nature of what community means to other sentient races.

**Personality:** Any given Abbai is a calmly rational and caring individual with a great deal of apprehension about interacting with any other race, but enough curiosity and compassion to do so anyway. In conversation, an Abbai tends to be gregarious and interesting, as willing to listen as they are to talk. An offended Abbai responds with silence and distance; they are never hostile unless forcefully provoked and will generally ﬁght a defensive retreat rather than push an offensive even if they have an advantage over their opponent.

**Physical Description:** Male and female Abbai look very similar, with only a slight swelling of the chest and a narrowing of the hips and limbs revealing the latter. Both have similar colouring – shades of pink to red with mottling on the limbs and throat – and both genders display a similar crest running laterally down the centre line of the skull. This is more pronounced in the male of the species, but both genders have a striking crest and display great dexterity in manipulating it to express emotion or communicate intent during conversation.

**Relations:** The Abbai have an interesting duality of purpose when establishing relations with other races. They ﬁrmly believe that theirs is the dominant species in the galaxy, yet they freely accept that other races are part of the galactic community and embrace them as siblings of a sort. While few Abbai would ever really consider a non-Abbai as a true equal, they maintain cordial and even helpful relations in the hope of maintaining the ‘family’ that is all sentience.

**Abbai Systems:** The Abbai have a homeworld, Abba, and one outlying system, Utriel. Utriel is very important to the Abbaiin that is it a major colony world and the source of many of their hard materials for maintaining their space ﬂeet and other technologies. The Abbai had a second colony world, Tirolus,but all star charts mark that as a dead system and the Abbai have severed all contact and travel there. The reasons for this quarantine are unknown, but it is an infraction of League law to enter the Tirolus system, one punishable by blockade,seizure and imprisonment by Abbai forces.

**Abbai Beliefs:** The Abbai believe that all sentient life exists in a complex family – an intricate and carefully balanced community. Most of their lives are spent trying to find their place in this community, respecting the lives of others and their right to do the same. Abbai characters are likely to be very spiritual in this regard but do not hold to any speciﬁc theistic tradition.

**Language:** The Abbai speak two tongues, Abbath and Burai. The former is an eloquent language that handles all forms of conversation and can impart great meaning on a variety of topics. Abbath is used for virtually every part of communication between the Abbai. Burai is a more limited language with utility only for simple tasks and instructions.

Burai is very important to the Abbai in their home environment because of its unique feature; it uses a special tone and pitch that carries for great distances underwater. Asa semi-aquatic race, the Abbai rely on Burai to communicate when they are beneath the waves. Even with the advent of portable communication devices capable of water proof operation, most Abbai still learn the Burai language for use in emergencies.

**Starfarers:** The Abbai are not often found outside their homesystems except on trade voyages, pilgrimages or diplomatic missions. They are not wanderers by nature and prefer to remain with their families behind the comfort of theirplanetary defensive barriers. When they do travel, they prefer their own ships, all of which sport impressive defensive armour and armaments. An Abbai on a commercial transport built by any other race is likely to remain nervous and tense through the entire voyage.

**Abbai Names:** For such graceful creatures, the sounds of Abbai names seem a little incongruous and harsh. This is because Abbai names are given underwater during a ceremony shortly after birth. The harsher sounds resonate better through the waves, making them sound entirely differen tthan when spoken on the surface. Abbai do not general use a family name, as each one is thought of as a separate and unique individual. Abbai names rarely repeat within a given generation; subtle differences in tone and inﬂection make each name slightly different even when spelling duplication occurs. The Abbai rarely use titles, preferring to save these for the military and government. Abbai citizens are part of one big world-spanning family and they are content to keep things that way.

**ABBAI SPECIES TRAITS**

• • –2 Strength, +2 Wisdom: As a race, the Abbai are very enlightened but do not have a great deal of muscular development. Their environment emphasises mobility over brawn and cerebral pursuits over physical labour.

• • All Abbai are of Medium size.

• • Abbai have a base speed of 10 meters and a base swim speed of 13 meters.

• • Abbai are adept at many mental exercises and have a very comprehensive grounding in the sciences and threats. They may treat knowledge (astrophysics, biochemistry, engineering, history, philosophy, and physics) as class skills regardless of the character class. They may also attempt these skills untrained.

• • Abbai may remain underwater for a number of hours equal to their Constitution bonus (minimum one hour) at a time, without needing to surface for air. This ability is dependent on oxygenated water, requires the Abbai to expose their throat gills and may not be useful in some aqueous environments.

• • Abbai have a +8 bonus to all Athletics checks for swimming.

• • Because the Abbai so rarely act out in a hostile manner,they suffer a –2 penalty to all Initiative checks.

• • The Abbai are generally very good at defendingthemselves. They may gain an additional +1 bonus to Defence Value when performing the ﬁght defensively or total defence actions in combat.

• • Automatic Language: Fluency (Abbai), Fluency (Human) and Fluency (any one other language of the Abbai’s choice).