Bantrid

Bantrid

(Creature)

Type

Aberration

CR

By class level

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Adjective

bantrid

Images of bantrids

Source: Pact Worlds, pg(s). 210

Bantrids are a race of unusual creatures that recently awoke from stasis on Hibb, one of Liavara's shepherd moons.

Appearance

A bantrid's lower half is a single spherical foot, covered in partial sheaths. Bantrids move by spinning their foot-orbs using countless cilia on the underside of these sheaths, making them fast on flat surfaces and hard to trip. Their upper torsos are striped and column-shaped. Bantrids are headless, noseless and anosmic: their ears and eyes are located in the middle of their torsos, under small mouths containing few teeth. Near the apex of their torsos, bantrids have a pair of large, hand-like appendages with thin fingers.

Bantrids are sexless and reproduce via budding. Young bantrids cannot move and take 5 months to mature.

History

Aeons ago, the bantrids were a servitor species to the sivvs. Near the end of the war between the sivvs and the kishalee, the bantrid slaves on Jedarat, a world on the fringe of the Sivv Dominion, revolted against their masters. They managed to sabotage the facility's reactor, killing everyone inside except a group of bantrids working in the Worldseed, who launched the ship into outer space. Since the Worldseed's quantum hyperspace engines were unfinished, the bantrids onboard entered stasis, even though they knew that doing so would erase their memories, in the hope that someone kinder than the sivvs would free them once day. The Worldseed eventually entered Liavara's orbit, and as it started gathering cosmic dust, it became virtually indistinguishable from Liavara's other moons.

Less than 5 years ago, the bantrids' stasis chambers malfunctioned and they emerged from the Worldseed, now called Hibb. Their memories erased, no bantrid was aware of their history hidden deep inside the false moon. Having no idea about the Pact Worlds system's political climate because of the Gap, the bantrids were welcomed into Pact World society.

Society

Bantrids are curious about the galaxy and the other sentient species, leading them to rush into situations without full understanding. Bantrids cannot sit still for any length of time or else they start to experience a sensation similar to claustrophobia that causes them to hyperventilate and pass out. Bantrids quickly write off those who don't accept them and move on.

Most bantrids agree that they need to form their own identity in order to avoid being assimilated, but not on what such an identity should encompass. Currently, the four largest movements are the Republic of Hibb, AbadarCorp Hibb, the Unbroken Sphere and the Church of Sleep.

The Republic of Hibb is a digitally mediated democracy modelled after the barathu Confluence and espousing a message of cooperation and unity. About half of the bantrid population affiliate themselves with the Republic of Hibb. AbadarCorp Hibb is the second largest faction, comprising of about a third of all bantrids. They tend to be pragmatic and pessimistic, putting economic development over cultural enrichment. Keenly aware that Hibb has no natural resources and no industry base, they believe that bantrids need to make themselves useful to the Pact World economy, lest they lose their best to brain drain while Hibb stagnates. As opposed to the Republic, which is content to remain a protectorate, AbadarCorp Hibb actively pushes for independence and full Pact Worlds membership. The conflict between the two groups is heated but civil, as both know that they are playing for public support.

The Unbroken Sphere is a smaller, reactionary, bantrid supremcaist group that claims that ancient bantrids were an advanced species who designed Hibb's vault-towers, once ruled the entire Pact Worlds, and created many mysterious ruins across the system. A xenophobic, anti-theist, violent group, Spherites insist that their species must cleanse Hibb of all offworlders before reconquering the entire Pact Worlds, and believe that their ancestors must have left behind many advanced weapons on Hibb for this purpose.

The smallest and most radical faction is the Church of Sleep. According to them, ancient bantrids entered stasis to avoid an apocalypse, but they awakened too early, and must re-enter stasis to avoid the imminent apocalypse. They consider their mission vital enough to justify kidnapping others (preferably children) and forcing them to enter stasis for their own good. While both the Unbroken Sphere and Church of Sleep are relatively small, their followers are zealous and supported by many silent sympathisers.