Maraquoi

Core Racial Traits

Trait	Effect
Blindsense	Maraquoi sense sound through their skin rather than with ears, gaining blindsense (sound) with a range of 30 feet.
Climber	Maraquoi have a climb speed of 20 feet.
Low-light Vision	Maraquoi have low light vision.
Natural Hunter	Maraquoi receive a +2 racial bonus to Survival skill checks.
Prehensile Tail	A maraquoi’s tail is as effective as a hand at manipulating objects, which allows them to wield and hold up to three hands’ worth of weapons and equipment.

Blindsense

Maraquoi sense sound through their skin rather than with ears, gaining blindsense (sound) with a range of 30 feet.

Climber

Maraquoi have a climb speed of 20 feet.

Low-light Vision

Maraquoi have low-light vision.

Natural Hunter

Maraquoi receive a +2 racial bonus to Survival skill checks.

Prehensile Tail

A maraquoi’s tail is as effective as a hand at manipulating objects, which allows them to wield and hold up to three hands’ worth of weapons and equipment. This does not increase the number of attacks they can make during combat.

Vital Stats

Stat	Value
Average Height	5-1/2 to 7 ft.
Average Weight	100–250 lbs.
Age of Maturity	12 years
Maximum Age	40+3d10 years

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Native to Marata, one of Bretheda's moons, maraquoi traditionally based their societies around a semi-nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Unlike many species common to the Pact Worlds, their genders are centered on a septenary system with all seven participants playing a different role in reproduction. Maraquoi culture therefore developed amid a complex web of kinship and tribal affiliations, which defused violence and drove a deep respect for life in all its forms. However, outside philosophies, technologies, and commercial interests have challenged maraquoi identity and lifestyles, with Marata's denizens recently wrestling with pronounced isolationist sentiment.

Maraquoi are bipedal humanoids, covered from head to toe in silky fur, generally in shades of gray, brown, or silver. Most maraquoi grow their fur longer at the top of their heads to form into hairstyles. Their fur coats function like thousands of small antennae, transmitting sound to their sensitive skin and allowing them to navigate even in absolute darkness. A maraquoi exerts some control over the follicles, such as making hairs erect to capture faint sounds or flattening fur to partly dampen cacophonies; fur arrangement also conveys a maraquoi's mood. Though they do have ears similar to humans, these parts are largely vestigial and overshadowed by their skin's sensitivity. Their compound eyes are set forward in their heads and protrude slightly outward, giving a wider range of vision than most humanoids and enabling them to see in even small amounts of light.
Their simian, prehensile tails can manipulate objects, and most maraquoi use these as an “off-hand” for spare items and weaponry as well as for balance. They have short, sturdy claws on their hands and feet to aid in climbing, and they can secrete a sticky film from their fingers, enabling them to ascend even smooth surfaces with relative ease. On average, an adult maraquoi stands about 6-1/2 feet tall.
Though the seven sexes are associated with minor physiological differences, they're typically not pronounced enough to be recognizable to non-maraquoi. On average, klshas (“bearers”) and meshas (“cradles”) have shorter and stouter builds than the others, while zyshas (“facilitators”) tend toward taller, willowy builds, sometimes reaching heights of almost eight feet. Uishas (“sharers”) typically have shorter tails, and the fur of ilshas (“earth-sires”), qshas (“sky-sires”), and sushas (“water-sires”) tends to have a dappled appearance with distinctive patterns for each.

Maraquoi culture developed around hunter-gatherer and pastoralist lifestyles which encouraged maraquoi to form semi-nomadic tribes that each traveled yearlong circuits to harvest seasonal resources. Inland populations often relied on reptilian ungulates known as shevkriks, either hunting wild populations or herding domesticated variants to secure meat, hides, tool-quality horn, and a fatty substance analogous to milk. Coastal groups tracked seasonal upwellings that drove fish spawning, supplementing diets with abundant shellfish whose shells were repurposed into mortar to create sparkling seaside villages. Wherever maraquoi traveled, they also modified the landscape in innovative ways: deep cisterns collected infrequent rain over the course of a year to create oases along a route, mile-long coastal weirs created artificial habitats for marine life which made harvesting easier, and travelers seeded semiwild orchards and grains to abandon, revisit, and then reap only when the cultivars ripened.
Until recently, maraquoi were the only developed culture living on Marata. While the popular-yet-false narrative is that maraquoi were isolated and uncivilized, their seclusion was largely their own choice. Stories from multiple societies preserve how various alien species—most notably verthanis, witchwyrds, and barathus—all contacted Marata in pre-Gap times, each time being politely turned away by maraquoi ambassadors and kept at arm's length. Only in the post-Gap era have maraquoi begun accepting offworlders.
Even then, maraquoi don't agree on what's best for their planet, people, and culture. Many maraquoi (sometimes called expansionists) have embraced the galaxy, travel, and new technologies, including welcoming offworld development of Marata. Of the opposite view are traditionalists, who consider maraquoi's rapid transition from early metalworking to space age technologies as a serious threat to time-honored traditions. The most hardline traditionalists push for heavy restrictions on offworld visitors and innovations, if not an outright return to isolation. In practice, most maraquoi embrace a moderate view, but extreme voices dominate the conversation.
Maraquoi society is highly communal. While individuals have personal possessions and tribes maintain territories, the idea of personal property in a broader sense was uncommon until recently. Resources exist for the well-being of all on Marata, and gathering comes with an expectation of restoring disturbed landscapes, such as conscientiously backfilling, replanting, and ecologically monitoring expired mines. It's less cost-effective than the several offworld mining operations that have finagled mineral leases in limited areas, driving contention with most maraquoi communities. These differing approaches further fuel expansionist and traditionalist conflicts, with the former insisting that participating in the galactic economy is key to becoming a true Pact World and the latter interpreting foreign operations as plundering Marata's resources.
Due to their complex reproductive and familial system, respect for life is integral to maraquoi culture, as the loss of even a few people could prevent a tribe's continuation. As a result, highly ritualistic forms of nonlethal combat evolved to settle disputes and intertribal conflicts, relying on a strict, complex honor code emphasizing respect for one's foe. So deeply ingrained is this tradition that most maraquoi who go offworld still carry out rituals post-combat to honor fallen foes or friends. Though most maraquoi view killing other maraquoi as abhorrent, the numerous dangerous predators on Marata ensure they're well-versed in lethal combat as well, and some take up mercenary work on other planets. This practice is divisive; some maraquoi believe it's acceptable as long as they don't kill their own people, while others view it as a corruption of their honor system and combat skills on behalf of outsiders.

Maratan Government

Maratan society was traditionally organized into tribes large enough to ensure protection against natural threats and small enough to thrive on the resources that a particular territory provided. Contact between tribes was frequent, and upon reaching adulthood a maraquoi would often leave the tribe of their birth to form their family in another. In practice, this system formed a web of trade, information exchange, and extended familial ties that spread global cultural touchstones while enabling many regional variations. Due to maraquoi's respect for life and extensive kinship networks, formal treaties were rarely necessary and most deals needed only last a few months before two groups went their separate ways.
After the Gap, many tribes decided a more centralized government was necessary to represent Marata to the galaxy and protect their planet from outside exploitation. The result was an intertribal council headquartered in Ha Quoia. Each tribe can choose to provide a representative, and of Marata's 275 known tribes, 247 have representatives on the council. Twenty- eight traditionalist or isolationist tribes have declined seats, preferring to remain apart from galactic society altogether. The Maratan Council has little involvement in the day-to-day affairs, focusing instead on interplanetary policy.

Maraquoi Faith

Traditional maraquoi religion has no formal name, and focuses on ancestor reverence over worshipping a specific divine entity. After death and before moving to the afterlife, each maraquoi is said to contribute a portion of their essence to an ancestral wellspring that exists between the stars. With proper ritual and conviction, a maraquoi can coax a forebear's wisdom or raw magical power from this wellspring, with the latter feat rarely performed except by trained ritualists. Inclusion in this wellspring is an integral part of a maraquoi's spiritual health, and thus one of the direst punishments involves cutting off a living maraquoi such that they'll never contribute their undying knowledge to future generations.
Since the Gap, some maraquoi have adopted other faiths, syncretizing them with their traditional beliefs. Yaraesa and Talavet increasingly feature as analogues or caretakers for the ancestral wellspring, encouraging maraquoi to learn from those who came before and discover new wonders.