The Aquienos are truly men of the sea, indeed they have no real homeland on the main continent. Content to sail the Eastern seas, they derive their wealth from the various islands found there. These islands are too small to support a community but, nevertheless, have some resources available. They are master explorers and the only race which has regular business off the main continent.

The Aquienos are humanoid, slightly taller on average than the other races and have small gills at the base of the neck. The gills won't allow them to survive underwater indefinitely, but will greatly increase the time they can spend below the surface. Finally, the Aquienos tend to have slightly webbed feet, allowing for faster swimming.

The Aquienos take their magic from the stars, meditating on one of four key constellations which allow them to build up power. For low level effects this power can be stored for later use, but when the magic is performed under the light of the stars it is more powerful and some of the most powerful effects can only be performed in starlight.

• You want to play an Adventurer, seeking glory and riches in exotic lands.
• You want to get involved with GM driven plot. As the Aquienos are the closest race to the invaders, they are going to be a pressing concern.
• You want to play a Priest. The Aquienos have one of the strongest religious aspect to their culture. However, the GM Team would like to note there will be no “divine intervention” in the game.

The stars play an incredibly important part in Aquienos society due to their use in navigation of the fleet. However it is not just on this practical level that stars enter society: prayers are made to specific stars for safe journeys, bountiful fishing expeditions, and all manner of other mundane activities. Whilst the Navigators do use the stars to plot their ship's course, for the Aquienos there is a much deeper meaning to this. The Navigators have a strong bond with the stars and are effectively priests of the Aquienos.

There are four constellations which are held to be particularly important for their role in navigation, acting like a compass in the night sky. These constellations are referred to as Star Guides and each has a unique significance; each family typically has a constellation that they hold particularly dear, and will address their prayers to it. The spiritual significance of the Star Guides is confirmed by the ability of all Aquienos to draw magical power from one of these great constellations, seemingly enabled by their deep emotional bond with their chosen Guide.

Navigators are the most adept at using the power of the stars; their time is split roughly equally between plotting the positions of stars on star charts for navigation and more direct manipulation of the stars. Their careful observations of all the constellations mean that they often form a bond with more than one of the Star Guides.

The majority of the Aquienos population live on ships that sail the Eastern Seas. The most important ships in the Home Fleet are the Praetor ships. These ships act fairly independently, managing their own resources such as food and their population as well as making their own laws. They are also usually followed by a number of smaller abode ships, which are expected to take orders and follow the laws of their Praetor. The captain of each Praetor ship has a vote at the Council of Praetors, which makes decisions on issues affecting the Aquienos as a whole. There are about 40 Praetor ships in the fleet. Although all Praetor ships are equal in the Council constitution, some of the ships have greater influence and can put pressure on the other ships to vote their way.

This is the largest, and probably also the most important ship in the fleet. The current captain, Dushal'Tomaus'Es'Fra, has been putting his weight behind reforms trying to make the Aquienos more unified, but this is being resisted by a number of the other Praetors who see the moves as the Tomaus trying to form a central Aquienos government with the Tomaus at its head.

The Tomaus itself is an old ship, following the classic Aquienos design. The lowest decks, up to the waterline, are dedicated to storage with the business decks just above this and finally the residential areas on top.

The Revona is a much smaller ship than the Tomaus, but it is still important. Unlike the majority of Praetor ships which are constructed by agreement through the Council when the population has outgrown housing capacity, the Revona was funded by a number of wealthy craftsmen who were unhappy with the small quarters they had on other Praetor ships. So they paid for the construction of a new ship with a few much larger cabins for themselves. There were other parts of the design that were also new. In a classic ship, merchants and craftsmen would typically take cabins lower down, so they would be closer to their stores. With the creation of the new larger cabins on the top of the ship, the layout of the ship was rotated, so instead of a top/ bottom split between residential and business the Revona exhibits a stern/bow split between the two sectors. This has lead to a large number of dark damp cabins below the waterline, which are typically inhabited by the poorest members of society, leading to the first underclass in Aquineos society. This area of the ship is full of crime and black market dealing and is therefore avoided by most people of good repute unless, of course, they are involved in some shady business or other.

The Revona, although small and new, has great standing as a kind of rallying point for those Praetor ships which oppose the growing influence of the Tomaus.

The Padadia is a ship which houses a great number of relics of the stars. While most of the people who live permanently on the ship are Navigators, who spend much of their time charting the stars, it is also an important pilgrimage destination, and most Aquineos try to make the trip to the Padadia at least once. Because the position of the stars is also used in navigation, it is not uncommon that Navigators for the Explorer Fleet will pay a visit to the ship to ask for advice on star positions, and ask for a blessing from the stars if they are making a long journey into the unknown.

The Captain of the Padadia is Reines'Padadia'Tru'Mas. Not only is she captain but also a well respected Navigator. She keeps the Padadia out of most of the Praetor Council politics and abstains on a great many votes, supposedly because she feels petty political point scoring is harming the spiritual side of society.

The Fuzuvia was an average vessel, similar to a great number of ships in the Home Fleet, however it has been thrust into the centre of Aquienos politics due to its recent sinking at the hand of the aggressors from the North. An emergency session of Council was called and it was decided that the Aquienos should raise the issue with the other races as clearly it was a threat they could not tackle alone.

While the three Fleets of the Aquienos Armada are distinct entities, this is not to say that there isn't considerable cooperation between the fleets. Experts from the Home Fleet will often accompany the Explorer Fleet when scouting for resources and members of the War Fleet often accompany the Explorers when there is deemed to be danger of attack by sea creatures, such as on trips towards the Beast Wall.

When the ships of the Fleet are not passing by the desired destination, the Armada maintains hundreds of small vessels that can be requisitioned fairly easily. These small ships are typically crewed by 5-20 people, and allow small groups to conduct activities away from the major shipping lanes.

Aquienos names can get quite complicated. For example, one such name might be Harik'Tomaus'DiTru'Fra, which comes from the form [family name]'[ship they make their home]'[A numeral]'[male/female].

The easiest place to start is when someone moves to a new boat. At this point they choose a new family name such as Harik. They have moved to the boat Tomaus, so the root of their name would be Harik'Tomaus. If this is a husband and wife, we would now have Harik'Tomaus'Fra (male) and Harik'Tomaus'Mas (female).

When they have children the final part of the name comes in, the first child takes “Es”, so would be Harik'Tomaus'Es'Fra/Mas, the second takes “Di”, the third “Tru” and so on. So the third child, who happens to be male is Harik'Tomaus'Tru'Fra. He takes a wife who will become Harik'Tomaus'Tru'Mas.

When this couple has children, an additional term is added to the front of the numeral, so we get Harik'Tomaus'DiTru'Fra, who is the second child of the third child of the couple who moved to the boat Tomaus. Clearly this could produce extremely long and complicated names, except for two important facts. Firstly, movement around the fleet is relatively common, so new families are often generated. Secondly the lifetime of a boat is only about 100 years, at which point it must be overhauled, if not completely decommissioned, and typically the boat is renamed on these occasions, and everyone on board takes a new name. It is therefore rare for a single root to survive more than a few generations. The longest name in the fleet is Thali'Sorout'EsEsEsEsEs'Mas.

Most Aquienos use shortened versions of their name in general conversation, typically shortening it to just the family name and the first part of the numeral, so Harik'Tomaus'DiTru'Fra would often be shortened to Harik'Di or even just Harik outside of the family, and Di at home.

In the example above, the wife takes her husbands name but this is not always the case: when a couple gets married, typically the partner of higher social standing keeps their name. In cases where this is too close to judge, often a small dowry is paid to the family of the partner who is changing their name, in recompense for the lack of propagation of their name.

In single sex marriages where the two partners would have the same name once married, a third gender is used; Sta, so the husband of Harik'Tomaus'Fra would be Harik'Tomaus'Sta.

The Home Fleet consists of the ships that house the majority of the Aquienos population. There are a whole range of roles that need to be fulfilled in the Home Fleet, such as craftsmen, shop owners and fishermen. The Praetor Ships are the largest vessels in the Home Fleet, which make up the political corps of the Aquienos, as well as smaller abode ships which are governed by a Praetor ship.

Also included in the Home Fleet are a large number of merchant craft in charge of collecting on Aquienos interests. They are responsible for the maintenance of Aquienos' few land settlements. Typically a member of the merchant vessels will be deployed on one of the isles for a few months, before being able to return to the sea.

Merchants are responsible for trade with the other races of the world, typically for land-based food such as grain and meat, luxury items to the Aquienos, where the average diet revolves around fish and edible seaweed.

These vessels also transport people between the Home Fleet ships; it's fairly common for people to change ships during their life or indeed for individuals of different ships to marry. In these cases an individual may wish to take a trip back once in a while, to visit friends and family, but the ships may not see each other for many months. In these situations it is possible to travel between ships on the merchant vessels.

The Home Fleet makes up about 85% of the Vessels in the Aquienos Armada.

Members of the Home Fleet learn to meditate on either Talith or Hrangh.

Members of the Home Fleet take either Craftsman or Organiser as their favoured skill.

The Explorer Fleet is the smallest fleet in the Armada, at about 5% of the total ships, however it is a very well-respected section. It is a relatively recent creation that has been developed to look for resources of interest to the Aquienos in the uncharted East. The initial venture brought back some interesting finds, so the Praetor Council authorized the establishment of a full Explorer Fleet.

The fleet is made up of a number of small, fast and lightly armed ships. A key part of the design is that they are manned by very small crews, with enough storage space to allow the ships to travel for months without needing to find additional supplies.

Members of the Explorer Fleet learn to meditate on either Talith or Simirit.

Members of the Explorer Fleet take either Ranger or Dungeoneer as their favoured skill.

The War Fleet is the military arm of the Aquienos Armada. In ages past the fleet was used to secure the Eastern Sea for the Aquienos; indeed, there are rumours that the various archipelagos the Aquienos now occupy were once inhabited by other races. Although the exact facts are not widely known, it is suspected the true events were recorded in the journals of the Admirals of the Fleet.

Since the other races have been content to leave the Eastern Seas to the Armada, the War Fleet has been in decline. All they have had to fight are a few pirates, normally abode ships that have rebelled from their Praetor ships and, cut off from the supplies of the Armada, have taken to raiding merchant ships. Because of the lack of the opponents the War Fleet suffered the most with the creation of the Explorer Fleet - many of the resources that would have gone to the maintenance of the War Fleet were redirected to this new fleet. As such many of the ships in the War Fleet are in a state of disrepair.

With the sinking of Fuzuvia panic has run through the Armada as a rapid mobilization is required. A fleet that is out of practice and unprepared for this magnitude of attack needs to be quickly prepared for the incoming threat.

About 10% of the Armada is designated the War Fleet, however approximately 1/3 of these are in need of repair with 1/10 ships really needing a full dry dock to be brought to combat readiness.

Members of the War Fleet learn to meditate on Gipitaka or Hrangh.

Members of the War Fleet take either Strategist or Healer as their favoured skill.

Throughout the Armada there are Navigators who are responsible for plotting the course of a ship and keeping track of its position. Navigators are key to the operation of the Armada: no part of the civilization stays still so communication across the fleet can be very difficult. It is the responsibility of Navigators to get their assigned ships to the correct prearranged rendezvous on time.

As Navigators are highly skilled individuals, they begin their training at a very early age. The School of Navigators is a ship set aside for such a task. Here the trainee navigator will learn the art of navigation by stars and the plotting and reading of star charts; a star chart is a very important item to a navigator, and to use another navigator's charts would be unthinkable. They also learn about the power of the stars, learning to open their minds to the entire night's sky, and begin to draw on the power of all four constellations.

Members of the Navigators can learn to meditate on all of the constellations.

Members of the Navigators take any one of the Aquienos magics as their favoured skill.

With no easily traversable rivers going into the forest, there has been little contact between the Aquienos and the Becquerel. There have only been a few sightings from ships passing near the forests on their way to some place else and notes in merchants' logs of trade between the two races in ages gone.

The logs speak of the hides of creatures of the forest sold to the merchant fleet, which were used for cloaks to protect from the wind and rain of the open seas.

To the Aquienos the Becquerel's choice of home is a little strange. The high canopy of the forest blocking the view of the sky… and the stars.

As with the Becquerel, relations with the Kirlsa are limited due to the fact there is no way to enter their lands by water. What little contact there is between them is mainly through those Kirlsa warriors who travel to the ocean on their quest for adulthood. Generally these are not very numerous, and few stay for very long, most being unable to adapt to life on an unstable ship.

Those who do manage to adapt to life on the seas cope remarkably well after the first few weeks - the barrenness of the seas and the desert mean many of the challenges to life are similar and Kirlsa warriors who spend time with the Aquienos tend to learn a great many skills that will set them up well for life after fully maturing. These warriors are generally felt to be the exception though, the general isolation between the Aquienos and the Kirlsa leaders means that the Aquienos are generally unsure how relations will develop with full contact between the two races.

The Teklo probably have the strongest links with the Aquienos, as they have ports in the base of the mountains where trade can be conducted. The relationship is mainly businesslike and the few members of the merchant fleet who spend time running the warehouses in Teklo ports report that they are always treated respectfully, even if words are perhaps said behind their backs.

While trade with the Teklo is mainly in mundane goods from the sea and the isles, trade with the Sylphim tends to be of a more exotic nature. The Explorer fleet seems to be making the most of this - samples of unknown materials from the deep Ocean fetch a high price with the Sylphim and frequently rival artists will get into bidding wars to secure the material for their latest piece of art.

While a good trade is maintained between the two races, those who have dealings with the Sylphim can't shake the feeling of annoyance at the way they are being spoken to; the Sylphim address them as if they were simply children.

The Star Guides are the four constellations that the Aquienos navigate by. They are also associated with different qualities and when they are meditated on, the power of the stars can greatly augment an Aquienos' ability.

The Talith constellation to the North is said to represent wisdom, and is prayed to when facing the unknown. It is said that when you meditate on Talith you access the memories of the constellation and, by being in the right state of mind, you can replay events that starlight fell upon. This allows Aquienos to supplement their own research, filling in gaps of events with the power of the stars. However, the amount of information in the stars is immense, and undirected access to the knowledge is normally fruitless.

Meditating on Talith aids the Researcher Skill.

The Hrangh constellation to the East is said to represent resilience, and is also often prayed to for safe passage on journeys. It is said that when you meditate on Hrangh that the pressures of the world drop away as you become bathed in starlight. If you are caught in a storm, the wind seems to lessen and you can regain control of the situation; when going extended times without fresh water, meditating will quench your thirst; in the frozen north, the icy cold won't seem as bad.

Meditating on Hrangh aids the Ranger Skill.

The Gipitaka constellation to the South is said to represent clarity, and is often prayed to in times of crisis. When you meditate on it your thoughts become like starlight, moving almost instantly. This allows you to think more quickly and make decisions at lightning speed, or to process huge amounts of information efficiently. It is used extensively by Aquinos captains and Navigators in battle, when the constantly changing wind means the strategies of fighting on water must be adaptive and decisions must be made quickly but accurately.

Meditating on Gipitaka aids the Strategist Skill.

The Simirit constellation to the West is said to represent curiosity and is prayed to in times of boredom. When Simirit is mediated on an Aquienos' senses become augmented, with certain objects beginning to glow. Different shades of starlight mean different things, and through this technique an Aquinosian can identify things which pose as a danger, those which are of value, and other such things.

Meditating on Simirit aids the Dungeoneer Skill.