Unreviewed Xylax

[Helix]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To create a sapient species found on the planet Tarnac in Companion Besh.
• Image Credit: First image, Second Image
• Canon: N/A
• Permissions: N/A
• Links: N/A

GENERAL INFORMATION

• Name: Xylax
• Designation: Sentient
• Origins: Tarnac
• Average Lifespan: 750+ years naturally, frequently extended with technology.
• Estimated Population: Planetary
• Description: Vicious, piratical cephalopod marauders.

PHYSICAL INFORMATION

• Breathes: Type IV
• Average Height of Adults: 1.8 meters
• Average Length of Adults: N/A
• Skin color: Typically pink, red, or orange, with blue or green being possible but rare.
• Hair color: N/A
• Distinctions: Xylax are deep-sea, cephalopod lifeforms whose appearance, culture, and language are monstrously alien to most forms of humanoid life. Discerning the intricacies of their cultural structure is difficult, but there appears to be significant variety in size and color between individuals.
• Races: None
• Force Sensitivity: Low

Strengths:

• Deep Rising: Xylax are exceptionally physically strong outside of their home environment, owing to their evolution under incredibly high gravity.
• Unbreakable: Xylax are possessed of an incredibly resilient (if bizarre) physiology. They are strongly resistant to most diseases, poisons, radiation, or extremes of heat and cold, and are likewise resistant to any Force-based effect that could cloud or delude their mental state (similar to Toydarians).

Weaknesses:

• Brain In A Jar: Despite the above, Xylax cannot breathe in most common atmospheres, nor survive in typical atmospheric pressures. They must wear protective suits whenever venturing outside of their native environment.

CULTURE

• Diet: Omnivore
• Communication: Spoken language, body language
• Technology level: Slightly higher than galactic standard in terms of weapons and biotechnology, generally lower in many other areas.
• Religion/Beliefs: Xylax are generally a hard, practical, isolationist people who pride themselves on their resilience. Nonetheless, their recent greater exposure to the wider galaxy has led to some individuals adopting other philosophies, as well as a softened attitude towards war and conflict.
• General behavior: Xylax tend to be reserved, yet surprisingly quick to anger or violence. Honor duels amongst themselves are common, particularly when they have no outside aggressors against which to unite. Most of their technology is heavily military-skewed, with particular emphasis on the shaping of bio-mechanical structures. Xylax culture is typically suspicious (if not hostile) toward outsiders, though the Sith have proven that it is possible to overcome this. Xylax are capable of temporary but vibrant color changes, and usually use this as part of their language. Xylax warriors are notoriously fearless, remaining unshaken by even the most creative attempts at psychological warfare. This has led some to mistake them as droids, particularly in the armored warsuits they are seldom seen outside of.

HISTORICAL INFORMATION

First discovered by the Helix Privateers in their service to the Sith's Third Legion, the Xylax are Tarnac's only form of sapient life.

The Xylax evolved to survive in the hellish conditions of Tarnac's subterranean ammonia oceans, where life forms must survive the life-stealing cold, staggering environmental pressure, and a legion of predatory life forms as varied as they are horrifying.

A cephalopod species, Xylax typically "stand" some 1.8 meters tall. Their bodies are semi-fluidic in nature, and possess no bones or similar solid structures. An adult Xylax can squeeze through gaps that most humanoids would struggle to slip a finger through, yet despite this, Xylax are exceptionally physically strong compared to most forms of humanoid life.

This strength is likely owed to the incredible gravitic pressure that life forms on Tarnac must tolerate, and is not an uncommon trait in life forms that evolve on such planets. Nonetheless, they are ill-adapted to surface life in most cases. Xylax cannot breathe atmospheric oxygen, instead having evolved to filter liquid ammonia through a complex system of gills.

Even were this not so, Xylax do not possess legs, and would have to crawl across solid ground should they encounter it. Perhaps worst of all, a Xylax's body begins to fall apart when exposed to typical atmospheric pressures, as they rely heavily on the extreme gravity of their native environment to maintain physical cohesion.

Thus, Xylax found outside of Tarnac's confines are usually seen wearing environmentally-sealed power armor of great sophistication. This allows them to more easily traverse terrestrial environments, as well as interact with other life forms.

Xylax reproduce asexually by budding, producing a second identical Xylax over a period of a few days. This reproductive strategy can allow for their numbers to explode to uncontrollable levels in mere weeks, and as such, strict controls are placed on breeding by the Continuum.

Xylax culture is fairly elaborate, if rigid. Their species is ruled by a council of ancients, who enjoy hereditary positions and lives of great luxury and opulence. The rest are typically sorted into roles at birth, which they then usually maintain for the rest of their lives. Nonetheless, individuals who show great potential in a skill outside of their ordained caste later in life can enjoy a degree of movement between them.

Warrior castes are given great significance, as is the act of piracy. The Xylax take great pleasure in defeating other forms of life in combat, and seizing plunder for themselves. To them, this is the ultimate expression of one's worth, and worthiness to survive in a harsh universe.

Their language is effectively unpronounceable and unreproduceable for most forms of life, consisting as it does of subsonic vocalizations, rapid color-changes, and gestures with the species' tentacles and forelimbs. Thus, communication with a Xylax is inadvisable (if not impossible) without the use of a protocol droid.

This difficulty in communication was a significant barricade to early communication with the Xylax, until the Helix Privateers' founder himself reverse-engineered the species' entire language in a single afternoon.

Indeed, the Privateers' influence on the species has been significant in general. Xylax Auxiliaries are seen more and more outside their home planet, particularly the young and rebellious. After their effective annexation by the Sith-aligned Privateers, the Continuum is all but a client state to said organization, who has incorporated their warriors and technologies into its own armies.