Salarian

The second species to join the Citadel, the salarians are warm-blooded amphibians native to the planet Sur'Kesh. Salarians possess a hyperactive metabolism; they think fast, talk fast, and move fast. To salarians, other species seem sluggish and dull-witted, especially the elcor. Unfortunately, their metabolic speed leaves them with a relatively short lifespan; salarians over the age of 40 are a rarity.
Salarians are known for their observational capability and non-linear thinking. This manifests as an aptitude for research and espionage. They are constantly experimenting and inventing, and it is generally accepted that they always know more than they are letting on.

RPG Stats

• Salarian traits are adjusted by the following values: Strength -1, Endurance -1, Dexterity +1, Intellect +3
• Salarians have advantage on Intellect rolls to recall knowledge checks
• Salarians roll twice on skill tables for each career term, but begin making aging rolls at after their second full career term.

Basic Information

Biological Traits

The salarians are a bipedal race of amphibians, with tall, elongated bodies well-suited for their high metabolism, and skeletons composed of more cartilage than those of other races such as humans. Salarian heads are long and thin, and have a pair of horns protruding from the top of their skulls. Skin varies in color, from bright reds and greens to the more common shades of blue or grey. Their blood is a greenish color. Salarians are androgynous, and exhibit no major facial differences between males and females.
Salarian eyes are large and oval and have thin membranes in place of eyelids. The pupils are a wide slit, oriented horizontally, and the irises can be dark green, purple, red, blue, or brown. Salarians can see ultraviolet at the short-wavelength end of the spectrum. Salarians blink upwards, rather than downwards as humans do. When salarians roll their eyes, it is not a sign of disdain as with humans, but rather a response to situations where the thin protective membranes require extra help in defending against dryness or irritants.
Salarians are noted for their high-speed metabolism, which allows them to function on just one hour of sleep a day. Their minds and bodies work faster than most sapient races, making them seem restless or hyperactive. The drawback of this active metabolism is a short lifespan of around 40 human years.
The salarians are amphibian haplo-diploid egg-layers; unfertilized eggs produce males and fertilized eggs produce females. Once a year, a salarian female will lay a clutch of dozens of eggs. Social rules prevent all but a fraction from being fertilized. As a result, 90% of the species is male.
Salarians have photographic memories and rarely forget a fact. They also possess a form of psychological "imprinting", tending to defer to those they knew in their youth. Salarian hatching is a solemn ritual in which the clan matriarch, known as the Dalatrass, isolates herself with the eggs. The young salarians psychologically imprint on her and tend to defer to her wishes. During the hatching of daughters, the Dalatrasses of the mother and father’s clans are present at the imprinting. This ensures the offspring have equal loyalty to both, ensuring the desired dynastic and political unity.
Salarian sex drive and reproduction differ from that of humans, with Mordin Solus claiming that it is not hormone-based. Reproduction is more of a necessity and salarians do not seem to desire sex for pleasure. They are, however, attracted to the asari, and one salarian notes that "even humans find the Consort irresistible."

Civilization and Culture

Culture and Cultural Heritage

Salarians excel at invention, preferring to use cutting-edge technology rather than settle for anything less. For example, their GARDIAN starship defenses put emphasis on high performance over reliability even though a malfunction could cost lives.
The salarians see information gathering and even spying as a matter of course when dealing with other races, but to them this is not underhanded: they simply embrace the dictum of "knowledge is power". United Nations Space Command counterintelligence agencies are constantly uncovering salarian agents and cyber-warfare incursions, but there is little they can do to stop them.
Normally, the rare salarian females are cloistered on their worlds out of tradition and respect. Powerful female Dalatrasses are dynasts and political kingpins. They determine the political course of their respective regions through shrewd negotiation. Though male salarians rise to positions of great authority in business, academia, or the military, they rarely have any input on politics; one notable exception to this rule is Valern, a male salarian representing his race on the Citadel Council in 2183.
Due to their method of reproduction, salarians have no concept of romantic love, sexual attraction, or the biological impulses and social rituals that complicate other species' lives. Male-female relationships are rare (due to the scarcity of females) and more akin to human friendship. Sexuality is strictly for the purpose of reproduction. Ancient social codes determine who gets to fertilize eggs, which produces more daughters to continue the bloodline. Fertilization generally only occurs after months of negotiation between the parents' clans, and is done for purposes of political and dynastic alliance. No salarian would imagine defying this code.
Salarian names are quite complex. A full name includes – in order – the name of a salarian's homeworld, nation, city, district, clan name and given name. For example, a salarian named Gorot II Heranon Mal Dinest Got Inoste Ledra would be called either by his clan name, Inoste, or his given name, Ledra.

History

Salarians were already thriving on Sur'Kesh 50,000 years before the modern age, albeit in a thoroughly primitive state. Eventually, they progressed technologically to the point of colonizing planets beyond their own. On their first three interstellar colonies, the salarians planted settlements named Aegohr, Mannovai, and Jaëto. According to Kirrahe, those settlements "remain at the heart of salarian territory to this day".
In what became known as the Tecunis Expedition, the salarians discovered the Citadel only a few decades after the asari, making them only the second species to do so since the Prothean extinction. They opened diplomatic relations with the asari at once and became one of the founding species of the The Citadel Council. In a gesture of trust, the salarians opened the records of one of their intelligence services, the League of One, but this quickly created problems when the League's members found themselves in danger as a result. The League slaughtered the entire Union inner cabinet, but were later hunted down, leaving only relics behind.
The salarians also played a significant role in the advancement of the krogan species. The salarians provided the krogan with advanced technology and a new, tranquil home planet (in order to manipulate the krogan into eradicating the rachni for the Council). The peaceful home planet and better technology put less strain on the krogan as a species; they no longer had to worry about simply surviving on a dangerous planet with primitive technology, as they did before contact with the salarians. This comparatively easy life, combined with their exceedingly high birth rate, allowed the krogan the time, numbers, and energy to spread through Citadel space, aggressively claiming formerly allied planets as their own. In order to end these "Krogan Rebellions," the salarians then provided the turians with the genophage, a biological weapon that effectively sterilized the krogan, resulting in almost all krogan pregnancies ending in stillbirth.
Though their military is nothing special, salarians are currently seen as the premier intelligence and information-gathering arm of the Council. As such, they are well respected, but some races, including a few humans, see the salarians as manipulators.

Common Myths and Legends

While modern Salarians are not notably religious, in ancient times some salarians practiced a religion that featured the so-called "stones of life"; Mosiiba, Mosiino and Mosiives. Some faiths survive however; one of the less favored salarian religions (which the Council deems a "cult") worships a goddess, and claims that a certain pattern of overlapping craters in the southern hemisphere of Trelyn resembles her. Liara T'Soni comments that many salarians believe in a wheel of life, which Mordin Solus likens to Hinduism due to a shared belief in reincarnation.

Lifespan

40 years