Batarians

Art by Railroad-blues

The **Batarians** are a humanoid species hailing from the industrious world of Khar'shan. Their culture is dominated in every way by the caste system, enforced by their one official state known as the Hegemony of Khar'shan. The Hegemony enforces strict rules that pervade every aspect of batarian life from spirituality to economic liberty, severely restricting the rights of individuals to express themselves in ways the government deems unfit.

Those born outside the reach of the Hegemony are most commonly found in the Terminus Systems, living out their lives in chaotic freedom throughout that lawless region of space. Because of their restrictive and abrasive government, most other species within the Milky Way galaxy treat the batarian people with mistrust or disdain.

With four eyes, eight nostrils and teeth like needles, the batarians have a very distinctive appearance. Facial tattoos are common among the species as well, along with piercings. Gestures and head movements that would seem subtle to others oftentimes hold significant meaning to batarians as bodily posture during conversation is taught and ingrained as a part of the caste system.

## History

### Founding of the Hegemony

In 664 BCE, the batarian hero Harz began his Conquest of the Three Continents. During a twenty-year military campaign, the king took his coalition of four nations and crossed two seas, conquering twelve of the fifteen major nations of ancient Khar'Shan. It was from this super-nation that the hegemony was formed, albeit several centuries later. To this day, Harz is revered as a god in the religion of Quenshir, and a hero to the batarian people.

### Prothean Discovery

When the batarians achieved spaceflight, they discovered concealed Prothean ruins on Bira, a moon of Verush, that allowed them to develop FTL travel. It is a batarian point of pride that, since the ruins were damaged by earthquakes, they had less information to go on than other spacefaring races. The Citadel Council granted the batarians an embassy on the Citadel in 114 CE.

Despite being welcomed into the galactic community, batarian aggression provoked several crises in galactic relations over the years. Sometime around 1785 CE, a batarian fleet bombarded the salarian colony world of Mannovai; in 1913, the Batarian Hegemony annexed the independent asari colony of Esan; and in 2115, Citadel forces skirmished with batarian forces on the planet Enael.

### Human Feud

In the early 2160s, humans began to colonize the Skyllian Verge, a region the batarians were already actively settling. The batarians asked the Citadel Council to intervene and declare the Verge an area of "batarian interest". When the Council refused, the batarians closed their Citadel embassy and 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, such as Mindoir, culminating in the Skyllian Blitz of 2176, an attack on the human capital of Elysium by batarian-funded pirates and slavers. In 2178, the Alliance retaliated with a crushing assault on the moon of Torfan, long used as a staging base by batarian-backed criminals. In the aftermath, the batarians retreated into their own systems, and are now rarely seen in Citadel space.

## Biology

Batarians are an anthropoidal race like humans and asari. Their faces are covered with short, fine hairs that grow longer and thicker around the mouth. A flat stripe of ridged cartilage runs along the tops of their skulls and down the backs of their necks. They have ears pointy at the upper end, though on occasion along the edges as well. The part of their faces commonly associated with the nose among humans and asari is instead an inverted flat triangle symmetrically ridged vertically. Compared to humans, batarians have a deep, guttural voice.

Their most distinctive physical feature is their four eyes, an uncommon trait among other races. One pair is set wide in prominent bony sockets protruding from the corners of their face. The second set of eyes is smaller and closer together, set higher on the face, just beneath the middle of the forehead. The eyes are uniformly dark orbs, with no discernible irises or pupils.

Batarians exhibit a wide range of skin tones and colors. General batarian complexions include reddish-brown, greenish, yellow-greenish to yellow-brownish, light brown, and teal.

Some batarians possess striped colorations on their heads. Observed patterns include multiple chin stripes, a single strip running from the lower lip, or a thin dagger of color above the nose. These patterns are usually colored blue, black, or red, while the nose pattern is invariably red. Batarian blood has been observed to be red.

## Culture

> *"I ask you, children, who will fight for tomorrow? Who will seek to free our people from the injustice our enemies torment us with every day? Who will stand for your parents, for your friends, and for yourselves against the others who stand against us?"*- Feterk Oko'ka
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Batarians place an extremely high value on social caste and appearance, and overstepping one's place is frowned upon. Effective caste status can be bought on an ongoing basis like a subscription service, allowing the buyer to worm their way into the elite circles of batarian society given enough funds. 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.

Slavery is an integral part of the batarian caste system, despite being illegal according to Council law. The custom is so deeply ingrained in batarian culture that batarians consider the Council's anti-slavery standing to be discriminatory. Rogue batarian slave rings are feared throughout the galaxy, especially among colonists on remote worlds, which are often raided by batarian slavers. Victims of such raids are usually implanted with control devices in their skulls, a painful operation since the slavers rarely make use of anesthetic. The batarians are also known to enslave addicts of the biotic drug red sand when they can no longer afford to support their habit.

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 their head to the right, however, it is a sign that they consider themselves to be superior to the person whom the gesture was directed towards. Therefore, this gesture can easily be interpreted as an insult by batarians due to the high value that they place on social caste.

## Further Lore

### History

* Batarian Colonization Timeline (List of Batarian planets)