Hanar

The hanar were a species resembling Earth's jellyfish and one of the few non-bipedal Citadel races. They were known for their intense politeness when speaking and for their strong religious devotion to the Protheans, whom they revered as the Enkindlers. Native to the ocean world of Kahje, the hanar rescued the drell from their dying homeworld and bound them into their society through a tradition of service, while their own faith, isolation, and frailty kept them apart from much of the wider galaxy.

Biology#

The hanar stood slightly taller than a human, though most of their height lay in their long tentacles. Invertebrate and water-native, they could not support their own weight in normal gravity, so when moving through mainstream galactic society they relied on contra-gravitic levitation packs that used mass effect fields. Their limbs could grip tightly but were not strong enough to lift more than a few hundred grams each, and they could secrete natural toxins. The hanar were biologically genderless, though others sometimes assigned arbitrary gender for convenience. Despite evolving in water they appeared able to breathe air, whether naturally or by technological means, and despite their soft appearance they did possess skulls.

Culture#

The hanar homeworld, Kahje, was ninety percent ocean and orbited an energetic white star, leaving it under a permanent blanket of cloud. Because of Prothean ruins on Kahje, the hanar developed a religion centered on the ancient species they called the Enkindlers, whom their myths described as an elder race that uplifted and civilized them by teaching them language.

The hanar communicated using sophisticated patterns of bioluminescence, which other species needed machine assistance to translate, and they spoke with scrupulous precision and extreme politeness. Most took offense at improper language and had to take special courses to unlearn the tendency if they expected to deal with other species. Each hanar held two names: a face name used as a general label by strangers and acquaintances, and a soul name, often poetic, reserved for close friends and relations. So great was their humility that they never referred to themselves in the first person with someone they knew only by face name, considering it egotistical, and instead called themselves "this one" or the impersonal "it." Only among those who knew their soul name would they use the first person. Even when angry, a hanar maintained exquisite poise, remaining formal toward those it wished dead.

The drell and the Compact#

Several centuries before the era of Commander Shepard, the hanar made contact with the drell on their nearby homeworld of Rakhana, where drell society was collapsing through overpopulation and resource wars. The hanar rescued several hundred thousand drell and brought them to Kahje, where they integrated as a client people. Though to outside observers the relationship could resemble slavery, in reality the drell rose to every level of hanar society, and most considered it an honor to serve a hanar family in a tradition called the Compact. Many became unofficial members of the family, and some earned the privilege of learning their patrons' soul names. Because the hanar were too cumbersome out of water to fight, drell servants usually carried out hanar assassinations.

Religion#

The hanar practiced a religious holiday called Nyahir, or "First Cresting Bloom," lasting a full thirteen days and celebrating the gift of speech they attributed to the Enkindlers. It mixed contemplation with competition, the faithful engaging in stylized debates, poetry duels, and other traditional art forms, with the winners' names inscribed in bioluminescence on the side of Mount Vassla, an underwater volcano at the heart of one of Kahje's oldest Prothean ruins. Reverence for the Enkindlers could turn zealous hanar into vociferous protesters whenever their beliefs were challenged, and Prothean dig sites were often blockaded by those who wished the artifacts left undisturbed. On learning that the mass relays had not been created by the Protheans, most hanar reacted with denial and shock. The faith also bred extreme cults, including followers of the prophet Kholai who held that all organic life in the Milky Way was tainted and awaited a Day of Extinguishment.

Government and military#

The hanar government was known as the Illuminated Primacy, and gossip among Council staff held the hanar to be likely prospects for a Council seat in the near future. Their economy was small and isolated, with few hanar willing to deal with other species; economic contact was limited to a handful of border trade stations, and few standard technologies designed for bipedal, fingered species were available in their space. Among the goods they did export was alcohol. Other races sometimes regarded the hanar as elitist for their intolerance of incorrect speech, derisively calling them "jellies," yet the hanar were known to work with other races at times, including a joint operation with the Systems Alliance against a batarian lab studying Reaper technology.

The hanar navy was relatively small but supplemented by drell combat specialists trained from youth as spies, saboteurs, and assassins. The hanar did not normally commit their drell allies to open warfare, but they made an exception during the Reaper invasion of 2186 if Commander Shepard managed to prevent the invasion of Kahje. The homeworld was guarded by an automated planetary defense system, effective against most attackers but vulnerable to internal sabotage, since only moderate government clearance was needed to access it.