Edoari

## Peace For a Price

The Edoari are a space-faring and incerdibly advanced alien race that has maintained excellent standings with almost all other space-faring empires through trade, diplomacy, and a lack of expansionist zeal. The Edoari are often called upon to be mediators and a neutral third party whenever issues erupt between two of the other, larger, empires.

### Homeworld and Empire:

The Edoari homeworld sits as the 3rd planet from a large yellow star in the Maralia System. The homeworld, Maralia Prime, is a Gaia world inhabited by an estiamted 8 billion Edoari citizens. The Edoari have thousands of massive cannons strategically placed over the surface of their homeworld, to ensure that no would-be invaders can stay in orbit for too long. The Edoari empire exists purely within their own System, preferring to secure their interior before expanding outwards. The Edoari have plenty of mining stations and trading posts in their home System, and leave them open to any and all races.

### Description:

The Edoari are a blue-skinned race of bipedal humanoids commonly viewed by other races as diplomatic, charismatic, and friendly. The Edoari prefer wet climates, their homeworld of Maralia Prime being a water-based Gaia world. Edoari often stand between 5 to 6 feet tall and weigh in at around 200 pounds. Edoari, being aquatic mammalians, are athletic, slim, and toned in their physical builds; while not the most imposing, Edoari are known for their swimming skills and high stamina.
Edoari often possess black eyes with no iris or pupil to allow for night vision, an evolutionary trait derived from their aquatic origins. Edoari hair is tougher, less tactile, and more brittle than human hair, and is often a shade similar to their skin color. Edoari skin is incredibly smooth and usually some shade of blue or grey/white, with patterns and variation in coloration across the body; symmetrical patterns are seen as more beautiful by Edoari.

   Edoari are perceived as exotic by most other races; their appearances are more humanlike than those of other races in the galaxy, which contributes greatly to their positive reception by humanity. The Edoari are generally considered to be polite, kind, and calm individuals well-received by most everyone they come across.

Edoari are renowned for their intelligence and technological acumen. Edoari are considered to be naturally smarter than normal humans and far more wise, combining their natural leaning towards diplomacy to influence their technological development and cooperation; this attitude of mutual prosperity rocketed the Edoari to the forefront of technological development, rumored to surpass even the OKR. Edoari wisdom is also famous across the galaxy, known for offering deep philosophical treatises on aspects of their advanced civilization that many other sentient beings find useful as well; Edoari sages and scholars are often employed alongside diplomats to offer counsel, learning, and further mediation, and as such are considered a critical aspect of Edoari culture. The Edoari do possess psychic potential but consider their abilities too mundane for military application; Edoari psionics are used for communication between Edoari in their people's language and little else. Use of psionics for harmful or offensive purposes is considered savage, the ways of the brutish ancestral Edoari who had no tools with which to wage their wars and so were forced to rely on powerful psionic abilities instead. Edoari sometimes look down upon those races that do make frequent use of their psionics as a result of this, often warning against developing a dependency on such innate abilities; this disdain is rarely expressed or noticeable to the untrained eye, however. Despite this taboo against psionic abilities, a class of Edoari, deemed the [REDACTED], are known to nurture their psionic potentials against the cultural norms of their people, seeking either spiritual enlightenment or greater personal power.

Edoari reproduce sexually via internal fertilization; like the dolphinlike creatures of their evolutionary path, Edoari give birth to live young which are able to swim and crawl on their own almost immediately after birth. Children are still dependent on their mothers for milk for 2 years, however. Edoari, being psychically active, induce psionic phenomena during intercourse that forms a psychic bond between partners, originally believed in Edoari spiritualism to be the basis for the passing on of psionic potential to one's offspring; this link allows for long-distance telepathic communication and an empathic connection between partners and the child. Edoari children are treated as the upcoming generation of diplomats tasked with further improving their society; children are given the utmost respect, educated to the best of a family's ability, and are expected to fulfill their duties to the best of their ability. Children are seen as blessings, as Edoari females are only fertile for half of every standard Terran year; Edoari usually give birth to only 1 to 2 children at a time. Due to their strong natural charisma and social natures, Edoari sexuality is quite different from that of other species; Edoari children often begin engaging in sexual activity with one another a few years before reaching biological maturity, and homosexuality is seen as entirely normal. Homosexual relationships between Edoari are known to lead to marriage, which is also perceived as equivalent in importance to heterosexual marriages.

Edoari frequently live to be over 150 years old, although this can be extended almost indefinitely via their advanced technology.