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This race is Star Wars canon.
Anzat [Singular] i.e. I sold the parts off to an Anzat.
Anzati [Plural] i.e. The stall was operated by many Anzati merchants.
The Anzati of galactic legend are both serene and dangerous, possessing an otherworldly allure and talent for blending into humanoid cultures -- But, those unfortunate enough to enjoy their company risk grave danger, for beneath their calmness patiently waits a predatory hunter, whose hunger can only be sated with the brains of the living.
♦ Biology
Appearance
A reclusive species known for blending in more than standing out, one may be in the company of an Anzat and not even know it, dismissing their alienoid features for that of some distant near-human offshoot. However, the species boasts a biology of their own completely independent from that of any humanoid species. Anzati appear human by most accounts yes, however, one may identify an Anzat with an education of their defining traits. Most recognizable and prone to strike fear into those knowledgeable are their inverted eyes, void black sclera encases piercing irises that come in a spectrum of colors ranging from gold to lime to ice blue. Anzati also possess mute shades of skin, primarily in ashen shades of brown and tan. More minutely distinguishable, they characteristically have flared nostrils and sharp almond shaped eyes. Their hair is coarse and straight, and is traditionally dark brown or jet black, though pale shades of platinum blonde and silver are not uncommon even in young specimens.
Cato, an Anzati jedi exile.
Physicality
Anzati are acutely able-bodied, possibly (probably) due to their cultural standards. Though not physically imposing in height, usually standing around 5'6" - 5'10" ( 1.5 - 1.8 M ) they are a lean and sculpted people, developing hardened muscle from the hunt well before their teenage years.
Strength is necessity, as an Anzat will inevitably go on to live physically demanding lives as they hunt sentient prey. To this end, their bodies have adapted distinct feral qualities. For instance, the nails of the fingers and toes can quickly reach a sharp elongated state, made of hardened ebony keratin.
Their body lacks any natural biorhythm, and while having a recognizable thermal signature, does not contain a pulse or heartbeat. This is due to their biology maintaining itself through a vascular system of heart-like "nodes" spread all throughout their body instead of relying on one central system for pumping blood. Medical professionals theorize this system is related more closely to plants than any living flesh and blood organism, but studying the Anzati biology, due to their lifestyle, is extremely difficult and thus this theory is speculation.
Biological Traits
[Enhanced Physicality]
Anzati are abnormally enduring, giving them a slightly increased constitution and vitality over most humanoid species of their weight class and size. This is not to say an Anzat will survive a direct blaster bolt, as they are far from invulnerable, but their alienoid biology does attribute to greater exertion limits before experiencing fatigue.
[Eternal]
Anzati lifespans baffle most modern scientists, reaching the end of their adolescent years just after a century. When Anzati are called back to their homeworld to mate or take apprentices, they've usually just reached the peak of half a millennia. The age of the Old Masters is entirely unknown, but some speculate they've breached millennia, with a few living Anzati remembering a time before galactic space travel.
[Regeneration | Disabled in PVP]
Known widely from nightmarish folktales of Anzat encounters, many believe that Anzati regenerate wounds at an advanced rate. This is true to a fault, as Anzati regeneration is triggered after the loss of adrenaline from the body. While useful in recovering from particularly violent battles, Anzati cannot regenerate when danger is nearby.
[Allure | Disabled in PVP]
Anzati are naturally skilled with force talents that relate to persuasion and manipulation. This is due to a biological telepathic ability that has been lost to newer generations, but remains dormant in their genetic code. An awakening in the force is powerful enough to reconnect with this lost ability.
[Absorption]
For Anzati, you truly are what you eat. Feasting upon the brain matter of living creatures bestows new knowledge upon that Anzat. Average minded meals offer little besides nourishment, but greater minds can offer rapid mental growth and obscure insights into the memories of their meal. Feasting on the minds of force users can expand the Anzat's grasp on the force temporarily. Some describe this as euphoria, connecting with the force in it's rawest form, others experience painful fever while their brain adapts. This place of expanded conscience is universally referred to by Anzat as the Sea of Memories, and the place the Anzat's mind drifts to can change based on the memories they devour.
♦ Breeding
While Anzati mating is notably similar to the traditions and practice of humanoid mating, there are small differences. Anzati usually choose mates based on who will provide the most capable young; sexually active, athletic men and women are favored, as they will usually bear worthy younglings. Superb vigor more than wealth or status appeal to potential Anzati lovers, even in regards to interspecies relationships. Dominance is also highly sought after, as this is seen as a trait of good fertility, but not to the point of arrogance, which is an extremely unattractive flaw by Anzati standards. Anzati are also particular in choosing their mate due to a high infertility rate caused by their long life spans. Anzati breed at a stunted rate when compared to most creatures, producing only one offspring over the course of hundreds of years, if lucky. Because of this, Anzati repopulation is a very selective and sacred process. An Anzat can mate for pleasure, but procreation is viewed as an honored blessing.
While Anzati are equipped to mate with other species, due to variation in biology they cannot produce offspring with them. There are no half-Anzati.
♦ Strengths & Weaknesses
The Anzati people, if unified, could create a fighting force unrivaled by any within the galaxy, jedi included. This strength will never be seen, however, as Anzati are fiercely independent, and see each other mostly as competition in the hunt. Self sufficiency is a staple of their culture. Children are taught self sufficiency early, as they are forced to leave the planet in search of prey for most of their young adult lives. Seclusion and scrutiny is engraved into their being, and some can go years before fully trusting a person as friend. To Anzati, patience is a true virtue. Many Anzati have spent their long lives learning and mastering their crafts, from the art of painting to the art of combat. Their long lives serve to make them truly adept at what they put their mind to, but the limitations of their cultural beliefs usually dwarf their understanding of most civilized concepts. An Anzat may never come to understand the routine of city-living, they may never know empathy for living creatures or how to even operate a speeder. In few words, they can be reliably described as ancient children, becoming masters in some forms and infantilizing themselves in more mundane ways. Over centuries Anzati have to learn to cope with solitude, as joining societies and making friends are slim possibilities. There isn't a system in the galaxy that doesn't look down upon the Anzati as vile parasites. Though many Anzati look past their hunter culture, and when leaving their world's cruel culture choose simple lives, this stigma will not soon be washed from the galaxy.
Strengths
♦ Self-sufficient
♦ Disciplined
♦ Cunning
♦ Meticulous
♦ Determined
Weaknesses
♦ Felonius
♦ Reclusive
♦ Naive
♦ Addictive
♦ Skeptical
♦ Diet
The dietary habits of the Anzati are the foundation for their being. Culture, parentage, behavior -- all things that derive from the hunt. Anzati feed using prehensile proboscises coiled within a cavity along the cheekbone. These proboscises can be swiftly deployed from hiding, ejecting out from the cheek pockets with deft precision. Anzati are capable of maneuvering these appendages with the same familiarity as an arm or a leg, a natural biological function necessary to their survival. Each proboscis is capped with barbed hooks that serve the purpose of latching onto the brain of prey, and once the feeding process has begun irreversible damage can be done if one tries to remove them. Feeding is usually done using passage through the nostrils of whatever creature they feed upon, or any open orifice with connection to the brain.
The specific material the Anzat feed upon, falsely thought to be the memories of a creature, is actually the grey gellid that makes up most matter in the brain. Once feeding has concluded there is roughly nothing left of the brain. Most prey die within minutes from lack of oxygen to the brain, but in some gruesome instances creatures can survive in a state of dementia over the course of the entire feeding -- during this time they experience violent death spasms and powerful hallucinations.
A strange sensation can often occur where Anzati begin to manifest traits and opinions of those whose conscience they devour. Sometimes bits and pieces of their personality begin to take hold of the Anzat. Young Anzati are taught to repress this phenomena, but stronger personalities are harder to muffle.
Anzati are capable of eating food, but it has no feeding effect and is usually for the purpose of a false sense of "fulfillment." This is useless to survival, but foods with spongy consistencies can stave off cravings for short periods of time.
Despite their unique dietary habit, all Anzat must still drink water to survive.
♦ Behavior & Temperament
Anzati are slow to change. They may be slow to find humor in a joke or slow to get over anger after being wronged. They're a race with a high capacity for holding a grudge, and those they consider close will remain that way for a lifetime. This slow pace of change is attributed to a smaller spectrum of emotional availability than other humanoid species. Anzati don't display emotion outwardly, and are perpetually locked in a state of hollow neutrality. If an Anzat doesn't vocally tell one their emotions they may not even know their state of mind. They speak with a trance-like calmness, and beyond naturally responding anger are rare to show their true feelings. An Anzat may laugh with only a smirk, and cry without changing their facial expression at all. They're not cruel, but their nature as an aberration makes them strange in social settings compared to most mundane crowds. All Anzati learn to faithfully mimic the culture of whatever humanoid community they choose to burrow into, but without the facade of their character it can be hard to relate.
Again, it is important to note that Anzati are not vacant, they actually feel emotions very deeply. Their emotional neutrality is due in equal parts to culture, biology and the fear of outlasting most things that could possibly have an emotional impact. They see other creatures as fleeting, guarding themselves from attachment to minimize the impact of inevitably losing them to time. Some are so attuned to their relationships that the loss of loved ones can cause centuries long pain and remorse, which is hurtful to the hunt.
Anzati culture has also grown around a mantra of neutrality. All things will be lost to the eons, the force is only one of many great galactic entities to inhabit the stars, governments will crumble and rise again like the trees; nothing holds true significance. Only survival is true, creatures are born to die and life is generally viewed as a means to continue the Anzati species as a whole. Seeing their proud people fade away to time is the only true fear of the Anzati. This is not a strict view, but a widely accepted one. The Anzati can certainly become colorful additions to the galaxy, forsaking the machine to leave their light upon the stars.
♦ Communication
The Anzati language is mysterious. Galactic Basic has become the standard, taught to the budding generations more openly than their ancient language to equip them for their hunts across the galaxy. the ancient Anzati tongue is still used and practiced by most Anzati, though. The Old Masters refuse to speak any language but, and will only take on students who can understand them as they speak it -- Anzat or no.
♦ Culture
Anzati culture is one of xenophobic tradition and druidic grace. Palaces masterfully carved of stone litter Anzat's surface, born of a craftsmanship that forsakes the standard of galactic modesty for splendor and scope. They are a long lived species, undeniably of the first to gain sentience, and so this s reflected in their culture. The strong and wise rule on Anzat, and will go on to be celebrated if these traits carry them to the end of their lifespan. Their homes will be decorated with silk and gems shaped with the skill of eon's practice.
They are a warrior culture. Life on Anzat is fully devoted to training in the hunt, so that at the day of adulthood a young Anzat may leave well prepared to seek prey among the civilized spheres of the galaxy. So comes the importance of the Old Masters: ancient assassin masters returned to Anzat to seek only the most worthy apprentices. Strength and wisdom, representing mastery of mind and body, show great mastery. Such masterful pupils are sought after as the leaders of the next generation of Anzati, and masters will seek far and wide among the scattered provinces of Anzat before settling on a new flock to teach. Many, however, do not seek, instead waiting in meditation for their worthy successors to trek to their forgotten monasteries and skyward palaces.
Once apprentices find shelter within the stone halls of an Old Master's palace, they will spend a night at rest -- for the rest of their young life will be spent tired. From sunrise to sunset, nearly a century will be spent training. Pupils are taught the martial way, trained in making weapons of intellect and hands. When the body is sharpened, they will move on to weapons and stealth, the deadliest course of learning. Trials will test young Anzat to their limits, and once broken they are born once more. Never again will they rely on another creature to find life, never again will they let morality cloud their judgement.
The history of the Old Masters and the upbringing of Anzati has created a belief of neutrality. All things will fade in time. The force is only one of many cosmic entities that will guide one to enlightenment, republics will rise and fall time and time again like trees, and wars will burn all, a sacred sign of rebirth. In all of this, Anzat will survive. From their misty peaks the Anzati have watched the progression of the eons, accepting that good and bad, light and dark, were concepts newly formed with the arrival of civilization.
Faith
There is no pantheon of Anzati deities. Anzati honor the elements, and live with the belief that fate and the cosmos are one in the same, both pulling at the strings of reality and guiding life on an unknown path. Trees and circles are symbolic norms in Anzati meditation and spirituality; the Trees mirroring the workings of the mind and it's billions of possible pathways, and circles representing the completion of the self -- balance.
Violent death plays an antagonistic role in Anzati culture. One religious Anzati ritual is to clean oneself thoroughly after being near death or killing. One must be clean of not only the danger of the death, but the essence of it, to avoid it.
Architecture
Anzati architecture may range from exquisite to utilitarian. Most newly established families opt to carve their homes in the shadow of grander palaces. Regardless of stature, Anzati traditionally carve their homes from mountain stone, though some lowland clans will make wood homes within the crimson forests. The longest lived families will have their homes decorated with jade, sapphire and ruby, among other lavish materials. Inevitably, the average home will house only tens of Anzati, as their population usually doesn't constitute families of more than twenty or so.
Cuisine
Food is not of great importance to the Anzati, but they are still capable of taste. In times of ceremony, vegetable and insect dishes are prepared with strong spice. Even Anzati desserts tend to be well spiced, with soft spongy textures. Boiled bamboo shoots and vegetable rice are a favored snack of students finding rest between training sessions, and outsiders swear by it's taste.
The Martial Way
There are many varied schools of martial training among Anzati Old Masters, often learned from the natural power of bestial predators. Examples of traditional styles include Wind Discipline, taught by Old Master Iyen and Claw of Nexu, taught by Old Master Najara. Training also includes use of the blade and throwing knives as tools of defense and assassination alike.
♦ History
The recollection of Anzat's past is steeped in mystery, with most accounts coming from galactic folklore. Some apprentices to the Old Masters are fortunate enough to hear stories from an ancient past, but most are braggadocious recounts of fictitious duels. The truth is, the loss of Anzat's history is mostly the fault of the Anzati people themselves. Their lack of community has dispersed any records to superstition and lost legends. Some claim the Anzati helped bring space travel to the galaxy, some say the force originated from the aurora covering their planet's sky, some claim the Anzat were the first species in the galaxy. The Anzati care little; the past, present and future are all one in the same, as is generally believed. The only way is forward, and that is the direction the Anzati choose to walk on their path.
♦ Planet
Anzat Prime is a world of majestic tranquility, dotted with crimson forests and sprawling bamboo labyrinths. It is a place where epic becomes reality, and it is no wonder the race holds such mystical allure. Red trees shine like ruby, cliffs pour roaring crystal waterfalls; if not for the apparent dangers to outsiders it would be ideal for colonization. The world remains one of few practically untouched by modernization.
Occupying most of Anzat's lowlands, the Living Thicket is a sprawling forest of vibrant flora. The thicket is named for it's organic colored plant life and is the cradle of all wildlife on the planet. Vicious beasts and small critters roam the forest floor, making it the ideal place for young Anzati to first taste the hunt. The landscape of the thicket is perilous and roads paved here are quickly swallowed into the foliage, denying any who try to tame it's control over Anzat's valleys.
The thicket is home to a species of brain-eating wasps aptly called Skullflies by the natives, as they burrow into and create nests within the hollowed out skulls of dead prey. The nests of these insects are essential to the survival of newborn Anzati as their plump larvae are able to reliably feed an adolescent Anzat in place of brain matter, making them a delicacy to the natives.
Despite it's fantastic scenery, most Anzati who call the thicket their home are murderous savages gone feral from lack of feeding. It is arguably the most dangerous region of all.
The Anzati words for "High Sanctuary," Vof Kadai is the closest the planet has to a community. Here in the majestic heights of the planet's skies the Anzati live in close partnership with nature, exploring the mind and body in meditation and martial training. Carved mountain paths connect the various palaces of the strongest Old Masters, and newly formed families will often forge their stone homes from the face of the mountain range. Natives down on their luck may come here and find succor from the dangers of the crimson forests below. The Silent Voices, an aurora of twinkling blue light, shines through the mist of the jagged peaks.
Vof Kadai is a sacred place where hostility is set aside to share in peace and understanding. Flags colored in representation of the elements, fire, wood, water, stone, wind, and death, are hung between the cavernous entrances to blacksmith shops and home markets. The mountains are anarchical by law and respected by the natives, but those who come wearing hostile intent are shown little mercy in persecution.
The Silent Voices, an aurora of twinkling blue light, shines through the mist of the jagged peaks. Anzati ritualists understand this as the spirits of their ancestors dancing through the sky, looking down with pride upon those who respect the communal efforts of the sacred city. This is probably just religious fancy more than scientific fact, but even modernist Anzati are humbled by it's serenity.
A communally operated hangar serves as the only official docking area for ships passing to and from Anzat's spaceport.
Dotting Anzat's surface are small pockets of labyrinthine bamboo known as "Deep Shades." These regions are deeply bound in the force, and young Anzati who begin to manifest force abilities are sent here to experience their awakening. In stark contrast to the teeming red forests enshrouding them, the Deep Shades are haunted by a maddening quiet. It is rare to find life within these sacred woods aside from Anzati jedi prospects come to meditate. It is said that ghostly force spirits inhabit the Deep Shades, bestowing harrowing incites into the future of those worthy.
A safe haven for non-natives arriving on the planet to refuel before returning to hyperspace. Anzat's space port mostly serves as a way-station, but is often attracts visitors from all corners of the galaxy to enjoy vistas of the planet's majesty without the danger of traversing the planet itself. The port hovers just above the planet's surface, offering quick transit to Vof Kadai on a recreational basis, if one is brazen enough. It's local club, Maggo's Cantina, offers local Anzati refreshments, though one may be warned about it's shady reputation for mysteriously disappearing patrons.
♦ Technology
Anzati are just as technology savvy as any other species, but perhaps not as reliant upon it. Their stone homes are insulated and equipped with generators and advanced machinery. Anzati parents may choose to instruct their children on proper droid maintenance and piloting, if they are lucky enough to secure a ship. Technology is seen as a fundamental tool to living within the galaxy, and therefor is appreciated as such.
♦ Intent
Kung fu brain-eating vampire monks are really rad. Okay more seriously, I love the idea of the Anzati culture being bathed heavily in this aesthetic of romanticized eastern mythology of various forms. I wanted to bring a blend of the cultures together without relying too heavily on any IRL footing. They take multiple forms throughout the canon and legends, so I thought it would be fitting to give the site something reliable and deep to rely on when going through the process of creating them. Long lived species, long lived parasitic species, and long lived parasitic alien species at that is kind of a stretch and leaves a lot of room for ambiguity (which is cool!) but ambiguity can also strip one's character of vital identity. I only hope this is a lengthy enough resource to draw influence from.
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