Race Name (human coloquial): Quariin
Race Name (proper): Outside of human hearing spectrum
A.K.A.: Starfish Bats or Bats
Tech Level: high-level technology. High warp speeds.
Galactic Distribution: Common in galaxy core.

Appearance:

Quariins are flying invertibrates with long tentacles hanging from their face. They spend most of their time in flight and when not flying, hang from a perch by their tentacles to sleep or work. Quariins have 8 tentacles and can confortable hang by the longest two (7′ long) and use the other six (3′ long) for any purposes. If unable to perch, Quariins can rest on their ‘bottoms’ looking like a furry slug but have difficulty getting airborne again from the ground, so they’ll usually look for something to climb and hang from to open their ‘wings’ and fly. Quariins speak in high-octive tones too high for humans to hear so humans (and some other races) tend to think they speak with tentacle gestures but that’s merely them being expressive. Quariin ships have no floors or ceilings, merely lots of poles to hang from and control device levers. Quariins can swim but are air-breathing. Quariin tentacles have suction pads – like an octopus along the length of them but the prehensile pads at the long tentacles tips do not. Quariins are basically like starfish with one extension being the tentacled head, and the other four (which have telescoping shell covering for greater strength) are webbed together by a thin membrane which can be stretched out and then by ‘flapping’ their four stretched extensions they ‘flap’ their ‘wings’. Quariin’s can ‘flap’ fast enough to allow them to hover and so they can manipulate objects on the ground with ease while remaining airborne. Quariins have a fuzzy coating and are not slimy. Quariin’s have a articulated shell that runs from their ‘heads’ down their ‘backs’ and along their ‘extensions’. While sleeping or at rest (hanging) Quariins curl into a ‘ball’ that’s mostly covered by this articulating shell.
Quariin shells are most commonly black with pink skin/tendrils covered in (commonly) red fuzz.
Traits: Although quariin have different sexes, non-quariin cannot tell them apart. Quariin are fliers and pre-civilization would normally spend all their non-resting time in the air. However, with civilization and ‘jobs’ they are now mostly sedentary but still fly from place to place and can hover in place to work on a project but this soon becomes tiring, so they’ll normally hang from a perch and work. Being invertebrates, they are light (no bones) and can stretch their membranes out to form wings or pull it back into a ball covered by their articulated shell for protection. They can also squeeze through small spaces and swim gracefully for extended periods (but do need to surface to breathe). Quariin are lightly-built for flight and are not as strong as a human, however their suction-cup grip can rip human flesh easily and fisticuffs vs quariin ends poorly for humans.

History: Quariins evolved on a giant mostly tropical world dominated by 200′ ‘trees’ that formed huge ‘jungles’. They gradually built huge sky-cities in these trees and as some ‘trees’ had a tensile strength greater than steel, they never needed to mine metals. They developed super efficient solar and wind power generation and farmed ‘electro-slugs’ for their electrically conduit parts enabling more and more advanced technologies to be formed. Eventually they built starships and low warp speeds and in time came in contact with other races. Some of which were already engaged in a millennium-long war. At the war’s end, quariins became part of the 2nd tier of races that formed the Galactic Federation and have been active participants in galactic affairs ever since. They are commonly found throughout the galactic core but seldom along the arms of the Milky Way. They have sponsored ‘Mantas’ and ‘Zeppelins’ into the Galactic Federation.

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