Bantrid

• Develop some habitual routines or technology to keep yourself moving within a confined space.
• Rush forward into interesting situations knowing you can always dump them and keep moving if they don't suit you.
• Search for or develop new traditions and folklore to incorporate into your unique cultural identity amid a dearth of collective customs.

• Find your seemingly endless energy and desire to move around distracting, frustrating, or even exhausting.
• Wonder if you have a short attention span that makes it challenging to complete large-scale projects.
• Assume you easily break off bad relationships out of boredom rather than self-preservation.

Bantrids have an unusual anatomy compared to the other species that inhabit the Pact Worlds. They appear to be stout columns with two tiny eyes and a pair of appendages midway up their torsos that resemble large, flat hands with several thin fingers. Small mouths above their eyes and ears open to reveal compact, flat teeth they use to chew fibrous food and nuts. Their gray-blue skin often bears striped coloration along the length of their torsos, widening at the base to their most distinctive feature: a dense organic sphere that makes up roughly half their bodies. Bantrids move by spinning these spheres using hundreds of thousands of tiny cilia on the underside of partial sheaths.

Bantrids have no gender and reproduce asexually by budding their offspring off their bodies. Newborn bantrids have their growing foot orbs attached to their bodies with an umbilical-like structure for roughly 5 months before they detach and roll on their own, growing over time using organic material from their own bodies and the debris collected as they move. When foot orbs fail to properly develop, either due to injury or malnutrition, a bantrid can make do with a prosthetic that has to be refitted as they mature.

Many bantrids have taken to intentionally replacing or augmenting their foot orb both for practical reasons and as a method of self-expression. Others will even take the foot orb of a deceased bantrid in a solemn ritual combining bioengineering and necromancy that most bantrids find gruesome and unsettling, even when they are following the traditions and wishes of the deceased.

Five years ago, offworld adventurers discovered that long before the Gap, bantrids rebelled against their brutal masters, the Sivv Dominion, and fled in an enormous colony ship that would become Hibb, one of Liavara's many moons. Awakening eons later in an unfamiliar time and galaxy, bantrids gradually began the arduous task of building both a new society and a new identity on the desolate moon.

Since awakening from stasis 10 years ago, bantrids have made significant progress despite the dearth of resources on the artificial moon. They managed to secure lucrative trade agreements with AbadarCorp contractors eager to reverse engineer the ancient pre-Gap technology from the mysterious vault towers that cropped up all around Hibb. At first, bantrids were eager to see offworld corps setting up shop on Hibb, but many became wary of trusting a profit-driven corporation that would have no interest in the moon once the towers' technology and history were completely documented. This conflict was largely resolved once the truth behind bantrids' origins became public and the interior of the ancient colony ship became the property of the Unending Cycle, a trust designed to oversee both the study and subsequent profits of Hibb's interior. This ensures that most of the proceeds will go toward improving Hibb's infrastructure and ensuring the bantrid home world remains relevant to the Pact Worlds' economy.

Bantrids live about as long as humans, but the similarities start and end there. Bantrids reproduce asexually by budding and raise their children in communal environments, resulting in most bantrids treating their parents as they would any other member of the community. This mindset rarely causes problems for offworld bantrids, as they are uncommon enough that most bantrids in the same settlement often live in the same home and treat one another the same way as one would treat a family member. That doesn't mean all bantrids get along, as the population growth across even a planetoid as small as Hibb naturally fosters philosophical and political differences that cause communities to form with other like-minded individuals who raise their children with similar values.

One such splinter faction still active on Hibb, the Unbroken Sphere, believes bantrids are a superior species who created the colony ship that would become Hibb—and who were also once the rulers of a multi-galactic empire that included in its territories the region of space now widely known as the Pact Worlds. While Spherites claim to be a peaceful organization who publicly believe that bantrids will simply express their superiority through their unparalleled accomplishments, they secretly believe that cleansing Hibb of offworlder influence is the first of many steps toward bantrids conquering the rest of the galaxy. They are in staunch opposition to the Unending Cycle and believe historical records about their cultural relationship to the Sivv Dominion were falsified, preferring theories with little basis in reality.

Bantrids tend to prefer short names with few syllables that one can call out quickly without having to stop whomever you are hailing. Most bantrids have only a single name, which is given to them when they are old enough to move on their own.

Free from the burdens of collective tradition, many bantrids welcome faiths and philosophies from across the galaxy as readily as they reject them in the pursuit of a pure bantrid philosophy. This is especially true for the bantrid supremacists of the Unbroken Sphere and the faith of the Church of Sleep. The Church of Sleep believes that ancient bantrids entered stasis to avoid an apocalypse called the Awakened Nightmare, and that they urged other bantrids to return to stasis. These extremists went as far as kidnapping others and forcing them into stasis, and though they prioritized bantrid children, they also included nonbantrid visitors to Hibb. Amid dropping membership, given the challenge of recruiting new members following the revelation of Hibb's origins, the Church of Sleep has taken to repurposing and preparing to reactivate a sizable contingent of robots they illegally smuggled from the depths of Hibb to continue their “rescue efforts.”

Bantrids worship a diverse retinue of deities, and often form personal pantheons incorporating those gods that resonate with their developing philosophies. For example, after their successful contact with AbadarCorp, many bantrids took to the Master of the First Vault's church with the belief that Abadar will help them cultivate an economy and civilization on the surface of Hibb. Other financially focused followers fled Hibb to find their fortunes with the Prophets of Kalistrade, believing the destiny of their species is to buy another planet rather than fester on a mere moon. Many of these bantrids are drawn to the wanderer Weydan, whose teachings promote freedom and exploration. Learning of their extragalactic origins, more nomadically inclined bantrids began venerating Accelsys, the god of Infinite Movement. And after connecting with other worshippers of Accelsys on the Idari, other bantrids learned of and became disciples of the Cycle, drawn by the ideals of balance within an ever-flowing system.

Popular Edicts boast of your accomplishments and accolades, compete against challenging opponents, surpass yourself, witness significant stellar events
Popular Anathema back down from a challenge, fail to give your best effort, give up when faced with a setback, interfere with natural stellar processes, lie about yourself

Buo, Hin, Izu, Jui, Norna, Ofi, Uso, Zio

6

Small

Constitution, Dexterity, Free

Wisdom

Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if it's positive). Choose from the list of common languages and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent on your home world).

You have no sense of smell and are immune to olfactory effects. You lose this immunity if you gain scent.

You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.

You are physiologically compelled to move. Staying in the same place for too long causes you to feel intense fear and even hyperventilate. Unless you are in a moving vehicle, as long as you are immobilized you are frightened 1 and you do not lower your frightened condition at the end of your turns. Once you are no longer immobilized, reduce your frightened condition by 1.