Turian

TURIAN

"Well, there was that one time the Turians tried to wipe out my entire race. That was fun." - Urdnot Wrex, Krogan Chief

RACIAL TRAITS

Average Height: 5´ 7˝–5´ 9˝

Average Weight: 140–220 lb.

Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, +2 Strength or +2 Wisdom

Size: Medium

Speed: 6 squares

Vision: Normal

Languages: Basic, Turian

Skill Bonuses: +2 Athletics, +2 Survival

Military Training: Choose one weapons category (Pistols, Submachine Guns, Assault Rifles, Shotguns, or Sniper Rifles). While not bloodied, you gain a +1 racial bonus to attack and damage rolls with the chosen weapon category.

Air of Authority: Any ally character within 10 squares of a Turian gains a +1 bonus to Will Defense (the Turian PC also benefits from this bonus). This bonus does not stack with other nearby Turians.

Fearless: Turians gain a +5 bonus to saving throws against fear effects.

Focused Shot: You can use Focused Shot as an encounter power.

Focused Shot * Turian Racial Power

With an instant of focus, you take careful aim at your target and strike with disciplined accuracy earned during your military career.

Encounter

Free Action Personal

Trigger: You make an attack roll dislike the result.

Effect: Reroll the attack roll. Use the second roll, even if it’s lower.

Known for their militaristic and disciplined culture, the turians are the most recent of the Citadel races invited to join the Council. Turians are best known for their military role, particularly their contributions of soldiers and starships to the Citadel Fleet.

Play a Turian if you want. . . Overview
 * To be disciplined and organized.
 * To be agile and strong or cool under pressure.
 * To be a member of a race that favors the Engineer, Infiltrator, and Soldier classes.

Turians gained their Council seat after defeating the hostile krogan for the Council during the Krogan Rebellions. The turians have since filled the peacekeeping niche left by the once cooperative krogan.

Turians are respected for their public service ethic—it was the turians who first proposed creating C-Sec—but are sometimes seen as imperialist or rigid by other races. There is some animosity between turians and humans, largely due to the turian role in the First Contact War. This bitterness is slowly beginning to heal, but many turians still hate humans, and vice versa.

Physical Qualities

Turians typically stand over six feet tall, have two long, proportionately thick fingers and an opposable thumb on each hand, each tipped with talons, and a set of mandibles around their mouths. The most distinguishing feature of turians is their metallic carapace, which is a result of their evolution. Turian features are avian, making them resemble humanoid birds or raptors. Turians are also recognisable by their voices, which have a distinctive flanging effect.

Since the Unification War, turians normally wear elaborate facial tattoos marking their colony of origin, though it is not known which markings distinguish which colony. These tattoos are usually white — particularly on turians with darker carapaces —but can be of various colours. As a point of interest, the turian term "barefaced" refers to one who is beguiling or not to be trusted. It is also a slang term for politicians.

Turians exhibit the characteristics of predators rather than those of prey species (compare to krogan biology). Their forward-facing alert eyes give the impression that they possess outstanding eyesight and their teeth and jaws mimic the structures possessed by apex predators such as crocodiles or ancient, carnivorous dinosaurs. Needless to say, their talons on both their feet and hands seem capable of ripping flesh. Their slender bodies also seem to suggest that they are also capable of moving at high speeds.

The turian homeworld, Palaven, has a metal-poor core, generating a weak magnetic field and allowing more solar radiation into the atmosphere. To deal with this, most forms of life on Palaven evolved some form of metallic "exoskeleton" to protect themselves. Their reflective plate-like skin makes turians less susceptible to long-term, low-level radiation exposure, but they do not possess any sort of "natural armor". A turian's thick skin does not stop projectiles and directed energy bolts. Turian blood has a dark blue colouration, possibly from the presence of hemocyanin rather than hemoglobin, which would fit with the biology of a metallic exoskeleton.

Although life on Palaven is carbon-based and oxygen-breathing, it is built on dextro-amino acids. This places the turians in a distinct minority on the galactic stage; the quarians are the only other sapient dextro-protein race. The food of humans, asari, or salarians (who evolved in levo-amino acid-based biospheres), will at best pass through turian systems without providing any nutrition. At worst, it will trigger an allergic reaction that can be fatal if not immediately treated.

The lifespan of a turian is comparable to that of a human.

Playing a Turian

Turians are noted for their strong sense of public service. It is rare to find one who puts his needs ahead of the group. Every citizen from age 15 to 30 serves the state in some capacity, as anything from a soldier to an administrator, from a construction engineer to a sanitation worker. Turians have a strong inclination toward public service and self-sacrifice.

Turian society is highly regimented and very organized, and the species is known for its strict discipline and work ethic. Turians are willing to do what needs to be done, and they always follow through. They are not easily spurred to violence, but when conflict is inevitable, they only understand a concept of "total war." They do not believe in skirmishes or small-scale battles; they use massive fleets and numbers to defeat an adversary so completely that they remove any threat of having to fight the same opponent more than once. They do not exterminate their enemy, but so completely devastate their military that the enemy has no choice but to become a colony of the turians. It is theorized that another conflict between the rapidly advancing humans and the turians could annihilate a large portion of known space.

The turian military is the center of their society. It is not just an armed force; it is an all-encompassing public works organization. The military police are also the civic police. The fire brigades serve the civilian population as well as military facilities. The corps of engineers builds and maintains spaceports, schools, water purification plants, and power stations. The merchant marine ensures that all worlds get needed resources.

Other species see turians as "men and women of action," and they are generally regarded as the most progressive of the Citadel races (though some species believe humans are rivaling this position). Since their culture is based on the structure of a military hierarchy, changes and advances accepted by the leadership are quickly adopted by the rest of society with minimal resistance.

While turians are individuals with personal desires, their instinct is to equate the self with the group, and to set aside all personal desires for the good of all. Turians are taught to have a strong sense of personal accountability, the 'turian honor' that other races find so remarkable.

Turians are taught to own every decision they make, good or ill. The worst sin they can make in the eyes of their people is to lie about their own actions. Turians who murder will try to get away with it, but if directly questioned, most will confess the crime.

Male Names: Actus, Chellick, Nihlus, Lilihierax, Septimus, Lorik, Garrus, Vyrnnus

Female Names: Orinia

Turian Adventurers

Two sample turian adventurers are described below.

Actus is a turian engineer. [To be completed]

Vyrnnus is a turian infiltrator. [To be completed]