Freelance Traveller

Aquarians

by Jo Jaquinta

This article originally appeared in Cepheus Journal #015 and wass reprinted with permission in the March/April 2025 issue.

Origin and Distribution

The Aquarians described here are found in a system of your choice, inhabiting the subsurface ocean of an icy satellite of the system’s gas giant. They conform to the general body plan of “Europan Rays” found in many such environments, but it is the referee’s choice if this is from convergent evolution, or species dispersal. This particular species is not found elsewhere, but is prevalent over the subsurface of the world. Estimates are that there are 10,000 to 40,000 individuals.

Behavior and Physiology

Aquarians conform externally to the typical aquatic manta ray configuration. Their eyes can pivot more, and independently, and their cephalic fins are prehensile. Internally they are considerably different. They mainly subsist by filtering out heavy elements from the waters of their world, sorting and accumulating different types for different needs. Their internal organs form quite the sophisticated and configurable chemical factory. In some cases they harness the energy of some reactions to provide biological sustenance.

In other cases they synthesize additional compounds they use for creative purposes. Most of their constructs are semi­solid and neutral buoyancy. These can be as advanced as further external chemical processors to create an even wider variety of substances, or as simple as art.

Their biology is highly resistant to chemical attack. They can deal with a wide variety of pH values, and are virtually impossible to poison.

They can perform basic manipulation with their cephalic fins, which are equipped with many apertures of varying size. The fins do not have the musculature to grasp with any firmness, but they can control water pressure from various directions to a fine degree of control. This is their prime method of manipulation.

They have bioluminescent spots across portions of their body. These are most notable along their “wings” and down their “spine”, and it is these that are used for signaling and communication. The remainder vary between individuals and are used for personal expression.

Culture and Language

The Aquarians are divided into multiple tribes. Each tribe is led by a dominant family, to whom tribe wide decisions are delegated. Children are raised communally, and don’t have strong family ties. Tribes migrate from upwelling to upwelling, as their chemistry needs change over time. Intertribal conflict is surmised, but not observed.

Individual members of a tribe have “jobs” which are presumed to be assigned by the dominant family. These generally have to do with the collecting of raw materials, synthesis of materials into new compounds, and final production into the final form as needed by the tribe. They don’t, generally, have personal possessions, as everything is done for the tribe, orchestrated by the dominant family.

Because of the “soft” nature of their material culture, and the sensitivity to currents, they have elaborately detailed protocols defining how fast, with what warning, and with what method of locomotion individuals can maneuver around each other. Those who habitually break the rules suffer a form of partial ostracization, or social shaming. They are assigned jobs that are below their skill level, until they are sufficiently contrite. Lone Aquarians have not been observed. It isn’t clear if they cannot operate outside of the communal nature of the tribe or if actual exile is just extraordinarily rare.

It has been hard to study the Aquarian language. It is mostly conducted through gesture, and some tinting of phosphorescent spots. Context is extremely important. They do not have a strongly encoded concept of nouns, but instead gesture to the subject they are communicating about at the appropriate time in the narrative. This makes it hard to talk about things in the abstract.

Contact and Relations

Because of radically different environments, Aquarians do not frequently come into contact with space faring races. When they do, their aims and objectives are usually divergent enough to make it a passing curiosity.

Contacting cultures may not be aware of the sentience of Aquarians. Mining outposts, present to filter valuable chemicals from the subsurface ocean, might “harvest” their constructs, reservoirs, or even the creatures, because they contain concentrations of chemicals that are desired.

Similarly, the Aquarians themselves may also not understand that such incursions are from other sentients, but see them as dangerous animals competing for resources. They are not militant by nature, but being experts at chemistry in their environment, they can synthesize compounds that may cause rapid degeneration of machinery, seals or other vital components of their competitors’ habitat.

More positive interactions can be centered around mutual exchange of advantageous goods. Aquarians are masters at filtering and concentrating compounds from the ambient environment. But their chemistry is limited when it comes to high temperature reactions. Novel compounds externally manufactured would be of great interest to them, as raw materials and catalysts, expanding the scope of the reactions they can conduct.

Scenario Ideas

First Contact. The players may be called in to assess a situation where a filtration mining colony is experiencing widespread equipment failure. This stems from the miners and Aquarians failing to understand the sentience of each other. The scenario can start with the equipment failure problem, leaving the players to work out what they are detailing with. Or it can start once the fact that they are dealing with an intelligent species is concluded, and they have to open communication.

Traffic Research. Having read a research paper on the Aquarians, a protocol officer in the government has decided that Aquarian navigation traditions are a highly evolved form of traffic protocol. If the exact cultural rules can be recorded and systematized, they could be adapted for use in guiding the autopilots of grav vehicles and alleviating the famously snarled traffic of some major arcologies.

Aquarians in Space. Although optimized for an aquatic environment, Aquarians can also live in a high humidity setting with microgravity. As such, a tribe might be relocated to either a null-G space habitat, or one where artificial gravity has been used to cancel out the local gravity. Being socialized to other sophants, they may be in charge of a refinery, contaminant cleanup, or leak inspection.