#haan

When we think of Bretheda’s many sapient species, one probably thinks of either the barathu or one of the many beings populating it’s numerous moons.

However, it’s easy to overlook that there is another species sharing the skies with everyone’s favorite form-altering jellyfish. I speak of course of the arthropoid haan, who sail through the skies of the gas giant on woven silk balloons! With these flotation devices and silken sails, haan can be shockingly agile in the air in their hunt for prey.

Although just as intelligent as other sapient species, the majority of haan society is extremely traditionalist, eschewing all but the simplest tools and weapons to hunt and roam the clouds of their homeworld as they have for millenia.

However, there are plenty of haan that leave their home to travel the stars and interact with other species across the galaxy, where they find their intuitive understanding of aeronautics gives them an edge as pilots.

This does come with a major drawback, as those who leave Bretheda are effectively exiled from their people, and written off as dead by their own families, unable to return. There is talk of these exiled haan creating a new colony home on a different gas giant, far from those traditionalist values, but most fear the upset that would be caused if they try recruiting directly from their kin still living on Bretheda.

Full disclosure, the appearance of the haan in their natural habitat versus the one wearing space armor… they almost look like different creatures. The haan native doesn’t look like it should be able to stand upright… Ah, but that’s just me.

In any case, haan resemble eight foot long, four-limbed arthropods with impressive mandible-like pedipalps near their mouths. They sport many barbs and bristles on their exoskeleton, which can be safely trimmed and groomed, fulfilling much the same role as hair does on mammalian species. They also possess silk glands which are equipped to create hollow balloons filled with light gasses from their internal stores to float themselves or whatever they attach them to in the air. Additionally, striking surfaces on their legs also allow them to ignite these gasses, making them an effective weapon as well.

As mentioned above, traditional haan society is very traditionalist and insular, eschewing many modern wonders in favor of retaining the hunter-gatherer society of their ancient past. While this is perfectly fine and viable, it does alienate and disown those haan who choose to join the wider galaxy, leaving them to struggle with their own cultural identity.

Strong and surprisingly agile despite their bulk, the haan’s focus on tradition over innovation has left most unused to exploring new ideas.

Their ability to ignite their own gasses allows them to have a strong weapon against multiple foes in an emergency.

While traditionalist haan are able to outright fly with their balloons and sails (not to mention sneak balloons onto foes to disrupt them), adventuring haan rarely do so, though they can reflexively craft a balloon on the fly to slow their fall in an emergency.

With their strength and dex, haan can excel in any combat role, favoring everything from soldier to evolutionist, solarian, vanguard, and even nanocyte. Outside of that, their dex bonus is also very useful for operative and even precog as well. Their weakness to intelligence does mean that mechanic and technomancer are hard picks for them, but they can get around this, as well as tap into non-intelligence options such as intuitive biohackers, mystics, and witchwarpers.