Ongree (Jedi Renaissance)

"The Ongree became a prominent race in the Jedi Order sometime before the Sith Empire became a threat to the galaxy. Possessing a unique perspective on all things, the Ongree are always driven and pursuant of our ideals and servants of the Force."

- Horen Hote, writing about Ongree in the Jedi Order.

The Ongree were a race of amphibians from the oceanic world of Ongree, a tropical planet located in the of the galaxy. A relative of the Utai species, Ongree were a hunched species of technologically-savvy beings. Often referred to as having upside down faces due to positioning of their beaks above their eyes, the Ongree were a peace-loving species that enjoyed the sailing of the seas. Despite the remoteness of their homeworld, the Ongree had established a strong society across the entirety of the Skustell Cluster and could be encountered in the greater galaxy after joining the Galactic Republic. Forceful members of the species were recruited by the Jedi Order, becoming prominent in the Order despite rarely being seen across the galaxy. With members in all six primary schools of thought, Ongree Jedi often found their way to service on a council or position of authority within the Order's ranks.

Biology and appearance
Ongree were a sentient species of amphibians that evolved on the oceanic world of Skustell. Sharing a common ancestor with the Utai on nearby Utapau, Ongree organized their societies around a common need for shelter and food, similar to the baser animals. Ongree were bipedal beings with a bilateral symmetry, having a front and a back end, as well as an upside and downside. Their body comprised a head, neck, torso, and four limbs. The upper limbs, called arms, ended in hands which had four fingers with multiple points of articulation. Each hand had two thick fingers and two opposable thumbs that allowed for fine manipulation. The lower limbs, called legs, were bent and bowed, ending in feet with three stubby toes. Finally, they had one head, which contained the brain, perched atop a hunched torso with a face set into a triangular skull which sloped backwards. A thick, distended eyestalk protruded from either side of their skull, giving them binocular vision and possessing extremely sharp vision in low-light environments. Set between their eyestalks was a beak-like mouth. Four nostrils below their beak allowed them to perceive smells in the air, while four stubby tentacles protruded from their chin, each detecting different chemicals present in both air and water. Ongree were cold-blooded omnivores, meaning they grew sluggish in cold environments if they did not have access to high amounts of food to draw energy from. Ongree were born hermaphroditic, but developed into either male and female after spawning in early adulthood. Male and females were virtually indistinguishable, aside from their genitalia and pitch of their voice. Having overall physiological uniformity, Ongree did not vary greatly in appearance; though no two Ongree looked exactly alike. One of the diversity factors was height and skin color. Ongree averaged 1.9 meters in height, although some could grow as tall as 2.5 meters. Their yellowish skin tone was a side effect of evolving on the tropical islands of Skustell's southern hemisphere. Those Ongree who adapted to the equatorial jungles of Skustell developed mottled green skin, with speckles of orange and red.

Ongree were sexually-reproduced animals, requiring the mating of an opposite sex couple to produce offspring. Developing in eggs released by their mother, Ongree females produced 200 eggs; only 8 were likely to fully develop from their tadpoles stage. As tadpoles, Ongree young would consume their smaller siblings, constantly clearing out the Oasis of Youth that were situated deep in the rainforests of Skustell. Developing legs and lungs during adolescence, Ongree quickly entered into adulthood and, according to the Law Tomes of Skustell, the legal transition from childhood to adulthood was only attained after twelve standard years of life. Ongree had an average lifespan of 95 standard years, though because of their Force-sensitivity, many trained in the Force could live up to a 200. At any rate, individuals past the age of 121 were considered to have reached an age worthy of veneration. Natural signs of aging in Ogree included the dulling of their skin, failure to secret moisture-providing secretions, and blindness. Old Ongree experienced a decline in their cognitive processes, becoming dependent on others for care and basic sanitation.

Society and culture
A diplomatic and measured species, the Ongree were capable of seeing an object from multiple angles due to the arrangement of their eyestalks, which gave them perspective in philosophical and political debates. With the ability to examine a situation from multiple perspectives, Ongree were highly attuned with the situatedness of others and were able to prevent hostilities and misunderstandings. Forming a society of participatory socialism, the Ongree people controlled the means of production on their homeworld and reaped the benefits of economic equity. Because the Ongree did not form strong ties with their young, and marriages were unheard of, Ongree worked for the preservation of their immediate clan's access to food and healthcare. Most Ongree performed jobs necessary to the sustainability of their own resources and common interests, unity by social contract. Their decisions were guided not only by their own morality, but also by the dictates of the Board of Justices that governed their world.

Government
Like many amphibian sentients, Ongree were not driven by love, sex, or family; instead they were geared towards survival and the allocation of resources for the survival of the collective. Assembling a loose confederation of separate island nation-states, the Ongree of Skustell formed a kritarchy which oversaw the society's economic and political decisions. The Council of Justices was the planetary ruling body, comprised of five regional Justices appointed by a vote by each citizen of the regional voting bloc. Each Justice resided in the Regional Courthouse of the United Islands, a vast and ornate temple to justice and morality. Walled with great mirrors, the Courthouses were designed to reflect the Ongree ability to see all sides of a situation. The court clerks were priestlike and philosophical, cloistering themselves away to study the moral problems of the era and discuss the great mysteries of the universe. Scholarly, diplomatic, and powerful negotiators, the Ongree government fostered peace treaties with the aliens which first made contact with their people in the distant past. Expanding beyond Skustell to form a peaceful union of colony worlds throughout the Skustell Cluster. War was unheard of on the different worlds of the Cluster, and those non-Ongree colonists who settled alongside them learned to integrate the teachings of the Ongree into their own moral code and conduct. With the inclusion of non-Ongree in their society, foreign ideals were introduced and caused disruption on Skustell. Violence, criminality, and profit-driven greed became problematic for the Council of Justices, and forced them to excommunicate those who violated their dictates from Ongree society.

Maintaining a Planetary Security Fleet was part of the Council of Justices' governance, serving as the first line of defense and security within the Skustell Cluster and enforcing the laws and sovereignty of the sector. While not officially a part of the Galactic Republic, the PSF was supported by the Republic Navy for millennia in conflicts against the Sith Empire in an effort to stop the spread of the Imperial power in the galaxy. To this end, the Council of Justices would send Ongree fighters in defense of bordering Republic interests as a way to reciprocate defensive aid rendered by the Galactic Senate. As a neutral planet within the greater galactic society, the government of the Skustell Hegemony formed strong trade agreements with the Galactic Republic and saw to it that Ongree seeking work in the Republic were given visas and permitted to ply their trade in Republic space. The Ongree worked with other groups, such as the Trade Federation, the Hutts, and their Utai cousins on Utapau to bolster their economy and strength in the region.

Technology
Developing on a world of large islands and scattered archipelagoes, the technology of the Ongree evolved slowly over time from low-grade, handmade tools and ships. A sea-faring species, the Ongree were skilled shipbuilders; plying the seas with great wooden vessels for centuries before turning their sights on the construction of mass-produced steel ships. Forced to learn the means of mass-production due to dwindling resources and a desire to conserve their jungle islands from deforestation, the Ongree constructed great factories on stilts at sea. Dredging up fossil fuels from the depths of the vast oceans and converting it to energy to power industrialization, the Ongree learned that tidal and solar energy could be used to great effect alongside their oil rigs. With great ocean straddling factories constructed along the equator, the Ongree began to mass-produce ships and planes that not only accelerated travel and shipping, but also continued to drive the species towards the stars. When the first rockets were created, Ongree astronauts sought out nearby solar systems for resources and establishing colonies. Finding rocky, ore-rich planets and moons, the Ongree were able to manufacture supplies offworld and safeguard their own environments from pollution, and the exploitation of resources. When the Ongree made contact with Utapau and the Pau'an and Utai people that resided there, the Ongree began to trade starships for medical supplies and agroponic technology.

Customs
Fair and balanced, the Ongree society was driven by a need to see all sides of an argument before making a decision. Deliberate action and measured reasoning prevent conflict and rash, problematic events. Because the Ongree were not family-oriented, the customs of their people were relegated to the preservation of resources and participating in their representative government. All Ongree functioned based on the social contract theory that what was good for the collective was ultimately good for the individual. Meeting in forums and debate halls regularly, the Ongree would spend their time arguing over a topic until they had formed strong, reasoned opinions. Ongree debates were known for being loud, raucous affairs wherein either side attempted to convince the other of their position's inherent superiority. The clacking of their beaks and twitching of their facial tentacles contributed to the ferocity of their debates and often inspired fear and awe by non-Ongree who bore witness to such rituals.

Religion and the Force
Like the Utai of Utapau, the Ongree people revered water as a spiritual conduit to grace and perfection. The Ongree worshipped alongside the sea, sent their dead out into the waves, and viewed the vast oceans as a pathway to eternity. The Ongree refrained from containing water in tubs or baths; instead they used continuously flowing aqueducts to siphon water into their communities, but never allowed it to pool. Stagnant waters were a breeding ground for disease-carrying insects and pooled water was viewed as an omen of death. Waterfalls were the ultimate symbol of health, vitality, and youth; to bathe under a waterfall was to cleanse oneself of impurities and connect with the Force. Local legends described a golden waterfall on Skustell that hid the entrance to a cave filled with divine treasures. Ongree water priestesses wielded water movers to keep water flowing, helping water in the cities to move back into the sea after heavy rains. The Ongree perception of the Force was generally related to water, described as a flowing river or violent rain storm. Ongree waterbenders were looked upon as living gods, living out their lives in seaside caves and warrens, seeking solace in the ocean tides and leading great rituals of worship along the shoreline at sunrise and sunset.

Astrography
Ongree evolved on the planet Skustell, an oceanic world of islands in the Skustell Cluster. Located in the Tarabba sector of the Outer Rim Territories, Skustell orbited a single star, called Ong, and was the second of three planets in the star system. Orbited by three dead moons, the Ongree used these satellites for mining purposes, as well as hosting a planetary security outpost and a launching point for their extra-system ships. While the planet was largely covered by vast oceans, the Ongree were most at home in the dense rainforests and tropical beaches that ringed their island homes. Some 51,000 light years from the core, Skustell was rarely visited by outsiders, making it an ideal vacation spot for those few daring tourists seeking isolated beaches and pristine waters.

Beyond Skustell, the Ongree colonized their neighboring systems within the dense stellar cluster. Home to 80 star systems with a myriad of different planets, the Ongree spread out from Skustell to occupy a total of 62 planets and form the peaceful and neutral government known as the Skustell Hegemony. While possessing many colonies, the Ongree population was never very large, and was augmented by Utai, Humans, Riorians, and Kitonaks. Many entrepreneurial Ongree were able to own entire colony worlds, setting up a judiciary to govern the colonists, who also worked for the planetary corporation. Industrious and practical, the planets were operated under a type of moral corporatism wherein the workers owned the means of production while allowing the corporate heads to exist as an elite class. War between planets was rare, as conflict was settled in arbitration cases between planetary courts. Because of the low population, few Ongree were seen beyond the Skustell Hegemony in large groups. Those who did travel outside of the Cluster were typically exiles or outcasts, caught up in the criminal empires of the Hutts or Black Sun. Ongree mercenaries were highly sought after, as they tended to be competent at predicting the actions of adversaries and counterattacking before the initial attack had been launched. Ongree diplomats and ambassadors found work in the Galactic Republic, serving as aides and legal analysts as Coreward as Coruscant itself.

History
Emerging from the seas of Skustell as amphibious jungle-dwellers, the Ongree evolved circa 50,000 BrS on the shores of the southern island chains. Learning to stand upright and form into small communities, the Ongree developed a tribal system based on mutual survival, rearing children as a collective without forming family bonds or affection. The Ongree learned to build shelters along the muddy banks of the rivers that flowed through the rainforests that covered the islands of Skustell, fishing the streams and netting the birds that filled the canopies of their homes. Revering the flowing waters of rivers and fearing the stagnant waters that bred deadly biting insects, the Ongree eventually spread beyond their rainforests homes and out onto the shores of their island sanctuaries. Pragmatic thinkers and deliberators, the Ongree did not greet the first tribe of extra-island visitors with violence. Instead, when the first boats landed on foreign shores the Ongree villagers lauded the great sea for delivering unto them visitors from abroad. Trading in the art of boat-making and sailing, the Ongree communities learned from one-another and formed a great seafaring society that linked the disparate islands into a series of nation-states over a few short centuries. Harnessing both wind and fossil fuels for energy, the Ongree established great port cities, drydocks, and oil refineries across the southern hemisphere of their world.

As the millennia passed without much bloodshed, the Ongree began to turn their attention to preserving their expendable resources and developing an industrial level society. With great factories built atop stilts in the deep oceans, the Ongree powered their foundries through tidal energy and were able to build great ships of steel and metal. Vast cargo ships plied the far northern oceans, fishing virgin waters and bringing forth new, never before seen species of aquatic life. Expanding into the southernmost desert islands after developing hydration suits and habitation spheres, scientific research teams began to research interstellar space travel from the isolated wastes. When the breakthrough finally occurred, the unified planetary judiciary agreed to send colonists to the desolate moons that orbited Skustell in search of resources. Establishing a major starport facility on the moon Jar-pho, the Ongree astronomical association was eager to launch extra-system expeditions to the neighboring planets they could spy through their telescopes. After developing stasis-ships to take them beyond their own star system, the Ongree began to colonizes the rest of the Skustel Cluster before Human explorers chanced upon Ongree travelers. In service to the Hutts, the explorers bequeathed upon the Ongree advanced ships and sophisticated communications technology in exchange for use of several uninhabited planets for mining operations. Flourishing under their trade contract with the Hutts, the Skustell Hegemony expanded and became highly sophisticated.

When the first scouts from the Galactic Republic, the Hegemony refused to join in the galaxy-wide government due to its history of violence and war with its enemy, the Sith Empire. Having seen the chaos wrought in neighboring systems by the Empire, the Ongree sought to avoid being dragged into the wars and conflicts of the wider galaxy. While some Ongree began to appear in the wider galaxy, the Hegemony remained largely insulated and safe from war and conflict. When the Clone Wars swept across the galaxy and the war machine of the Confederacy of Independent Systems threatened to tear civilization asunder, the Ongree sent troops to their borders to deter invasion. Lacking the valuable resources needed to construct battle droids or the infrastructure to create the weaponry needed to fight the Republic, the CIS largely steered clear of the Hegemony, though they attacked the nearby world of Utapau toward the end of the conflict. When the Republic and Confederacy sign a peace treaty after ten years of fighting, the Ongree remained outside of either galactic community, signing treaties and trade negotiations with both governments to ensure their safety and sovereignty. Additionally, the Ongree received representatives of the Jedi Order and agreed to take progressive actions to ensure all Forceful Ongree within the Hegemony were tested and sent to Ossus for training in the Jedi arts if eligible.

Ongree Jedi
First discovered by the Jedi circa 9,000 BrS, the Ongree species showed a proclivity not only for the Force but for the Order's precepts of compassion, diplomacy, and defense. Recruiting heavily from the Skustell Hegemony's plethora of worlds, Ongree Jedi trained on Ossus and often found their way to mastery quickly and humbly. While most Human or near-Human Jedi struggled constantly with the notions of non-attachment, Ongree did not feel the same desire for family bonds or the urge for carnal relations that often corrupted other species. Driven only by a need to find fulfillment, Ongree Jedi filled this need through the structure the Order provided and created a fundamental support system that drove themselves forward along the Jedi path. It was a norm among Ongree Jedi to sit on an administrative council during their service to the Order, with several individuals finding their way to one of the higher councils. Serving in all six schools of Jedi thought, Ongree Jedi tended to be stalwarts of peace; Consulars served the Order as Researchers and scientists; Sentinels found service as Shadows, maneuvering in darkness to root out evil. Ongree Mystics were commonly Seers, looking beyond the curve of the present into the future; Warriors were studious Vanguards; and Seekers used their unique perspectives as Pathfinders.

Ongree Sith
Located on the border of space periodically controlled by the Sith Empire, the Skustell Cluster was occasionally used as a recruiting ground for Sith slaves, soldiers, and Forceful acolytes. Those rare Ongree who showed interest in the Sith philosophy were trained on Korriban to compete with other hopefuls to ascend through the hierarchy of the Sith Order and ascend to the rank of Lord. Other Ongree to join the Sith forces were self-trained, or even fallen Jedi Knights who had become disenchanted with the Jedi path and sought power to force their will upon the galaxy in pursuit of perfection and an idealized state.