The Baquin were insular, bipedal humanoids notable for their flattened affects and lack of ambition. Considered stuffy and insufferably dull by most other species, the few Baquin who traveled beyond their homeworld often made their living as bureaucrats; the more adventurous among them also dabbled in corporate espionage and extortion in order to make more money.
Biology and appearance[]
Baquin resembled average humans in most respects, but possessed several unique internal organs, mostly related to their survival in the harsh environment of their home planet. They also possessed high traces of iron in their noses, which gave them a strong sense of direction. Their eyes were almost always dark brown or green in color, and their hair was usually dark brown or reddish-brown.
Due to genetic manipulation by an unknown species that colonized their planet, Baquin were genetically predisposed to routines, habits, and addictions, and upon reaching puberty, each Baquin would experience an estrous period that drastically lowered their inhibitions, usually every 21–24 days. Most Baquin attempted to control these problems with neurochemical regulators.
History[]
Early History[]
The full origin of the Baquin people was shrouded in mystery. Their home planet, Lum, had a toxic and highly ionized atmosphere that would prevent the development of most lifeforms, making the emergence of intelligent life nearly impossible. However, the planet is covered with immense, self-sustaining domes with controlled environmental conditions. According to Baquin historians, Lum was colonized by another race (known only as the Masters), who created the domes and imported the human ancestors of the Baquin from another planet for slave labor. These humans were genetically modified with gills to help them breathe and extra iron deposits in their noses to help them detect the lightning storms, and then put to work inside the domes, building the large cities found within each dome. In order to make these slaves easier to control, the Masters altered their brains in such a way that the Baquin developed addictions more easily, and steered them towards an addiction to work. In order to keep the slave population up, the Mastered engineered the Baquin to experience a strong desire to breed every 24 standard days after reaching puberty.
For several centuries, the Masters enjoyed the fruits of their slaves' labor, but eventually, the addiction to work came back to haunt them, as the Baquin became convinced that the Masters were lazy, and their continued existence was a waste of resources that could be used elsewhere and an impediment to productivity. The Baquin thus revolted (under the slogan "Killing is Another Type of Work") and slaughtered the Masters. The few Masters who survived the initial genocide surrendered, agreeing to come up with a way to undo the addiction. When they could only come up with the neurochemical regulator implants, those few remaining Masters were killed.
After the revolt, the Baquin began to teach themselves how to use all of the technology left behind by the Masters. The iron in their noses made them excellent astrogators, but they found that it also enabled them to pick up electronic signals and transmissions, which gave them an advantage in espionage and telecommunications. However, due to their predisposition towards addiction, Baquin society began to move inwards rather than outwards; after the initial euphoria of interplanetary travel began to wane, the Baquin as a whole sought to avoid travel, as it led to the possibility of exposure to addicting things.
Jedi Civil War[]
During the Jedi Civil War, Lum was colonized by the Sith, who took advantage of the planet's toxic atmosphere and frequent storms to hide their factions from the local Jedi. The Baquin believed that the Sith would make for powerful allies, and many of the more powerful aristocratic families tried to win the patronage of individual Sith lords by offering up their wealth and, in some cases, their children. The Sith mostly ignored the Baquins' overtures, thoroughly disinterested in helping a race that they viewed as being too weak to serve any of the Sith's goals. Some of the Sith went further then mere disinterested; the Sith lord Darth Korhot became so irritated by the Baquinians that he went on a killing spree that depopulated two whole domes before another Sith, concerned that Korhot's actions might stir up resistance, used the force to bring down one of the empty domes on top of Korhot, burying him alive.
Imperial Period[]
During the rise of the Galactic Empire, the Baquin sided with Imperial forces, believing that the Galaxy would be better off under a firm controlling hand, and lent what military forces they had to the Imperial Military. The Empire also made use of the citizenry, encouraging the Baquin to migrate to planets where there was significant civilian resistance. The Baquin migrants would enter the local industries, create nearly-insurmountable competition for work, and thus impoverish any populist resistance movements. This strategy was instrumental in crushing the labor rebellion on Rapyuta, the homeworld of a number of important Imperial figures, and for their loyalty, the Empire allowed them to take the planet as the new capital for their people.
Society and culture[]
The Baquin lived their lives in perpetual awareness that they were prone to addiction and possessed a deeply-ingrained fear of addiction being used as a means to control and extort them. Thus, temperance, abstinence, and other forms of self-denial were considered the highest virtues to which one could aspire in Baquin society. Needless to say, the planet Lum had strict prohibitions against alcohol and drugs, and the sale or importation of these substances was considered a capital offense. The use of neurochemical regulators was widespread, and the refusal to use such devices was considered a sign of drunkards, sots, gluttons, and perverts (this image was not helped by stories of Baquin being found dead in cantinas and brothels while traveling abroad - though autopsies showed that those unfortunate souls died of strokes caused by malfunctioning regulators.)
As a result of the attitude towards self-denial, Baquin society was driven by a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. At a young age, Baquin children's future would be decided for them by their parents. As they grew up, these children would live their lives in the belief that they were fated to become what their parents chose for them, and thus focused their studies accordingly, so that by the time they'd graduated from the academy, their instincts were those that fit the job they were "destined" for.
There were, of course, exceptions to this rule. Chana Enda was perhaps the most famous example. The youngest daughter of an aristocratic family, her parents chose for her a career in the Galactic Senate, but she constantly rebelled, and was finally disowned, at which point she left Lum and became an information broker, then a bounty hunter, and ultimately, a Sith apprentice. But even there, self-fulfilling prophecy played a role in her fate - the Sith Darth Rakena had manipulated the course of Chana's life to push her towards the dark side.
Government[]
The Baquin government is notable for the fact that it functions as a sort of reverse democracy - though it utilizes the republican structure found in many governments, the representatives are chosen via conscription rather than election. Each city chose 1-3 representatives (depending on the size and population of the city) to send to Allum, the Baquin capitol. The representatives were chosen by process of elimination; at the beginning of each selection period, all eligible citizens would gather at the center of their respective cities, and slowly the candidate pool would be wittled down based on criteria like age and reputation (those who had the worst reputations would be bumped to the front of the line, as it was generally believed that government service would take up too much of their time for them to get into any other trouble.) Service in the government was incredibly rigorous, with legislative sessions lasting for a minimum of 12 hours. Surprisingly, the conscription service worked fairly well - incumbency was low (since nobody wanted to serve longer than they had to), and corruption was virtually non-existent (because misuse of power almost always led to re-conscription.)
Foreign Policy[]
For most of their post-revolution history, the Baquin were isolationists, largely disinterested in the affairs of other planets. However, towards the middle of the Old Republic era, they began to participate in the Galactic Senate. During the Jedi Civil War, they sided with the Sith, as they believed that any other forces would have been unable to bring order to the planet. Similarly, when the Republic collapsed, the Baquin enthusiastically supported the Empire.
Military[]
All healthy Baquin were obligated to serve for at least two years in the military. Though they saw very few wars, they became an important component of the Galactic Imperial Military, as their various environmental adaptions made them well-suited for rooting out Rebel forces that might have hidden on toxic planets.