Library Data:Bwap
The Bwaps, full native name Bawapakerwa-a-a-awapawab are an intelligent Minor Non-Human Race native to Marhaban (Empty Quarter 0426). They are also known by Humans as Newts due to their appearance. The Bwap are one of the most widespread and successful of the Minor Races, having long been valued as administrators and bookkeepers by planetary governments and interstellar empires.
Bwaps average 1.4 m in height and mass between 30 and 50 kilograms. They are upright, bipedal, homoeothermic and bisexual, with an internal skeleton and a closed circulatory system. Their haemoglobin is copper-based, a deep blue in colour, making their skin a faint greenish-blue in areas without pigmentation. Otherwise, greens, browns, yellows and blues are the most common skin colours, usually in patterns of darker colours over a lighter basic colour. [1]
Bwaps can be found throughout the Imperium, more commonly in the region trailing and coreward of Capital (Core 2118). Fewer than 12 Imperial worlds are fully controlled by Bwaps and most of these are classed as religious dictatorships. Bwap merchants and administrators can be found throughout known space but are less common outside the Imperium. [1]
Society is dominated by the Bwap world-view, which holds that each individual has a place in the wapawab or tree - a view stemming from their habitat but including phratry, bloodlines, country and place of duty. The literal tree is intricately tied into the planetary ecology, providing shelter and oxygen, converting water and minerals into food and so on. The figurative tree is much harder to define but is roughly equivalent to a clan or tribal group. Both sorts of trees are part of a planet, which is part of a solar system, which is part of a cluster, which is part of a galaxy, which is part of the cosmos. Everything the Bwaps do reflects this complex, wheels-within-wheels outlook. Each individual takes great pride in being one small, functional and unique cog in a vast, ever-changing universe of interlinked patterns. Their ritual of greeting, for instance, seems like meaningless formality and windy chitchat to non-Bwaps, but it communicates ‘I am in this place and doing my part. Where are you and what are you doing?’. [1]
From the human point of view, Bwaps are obsessed with minutiae, patterns and the order of things. Driven by this internal desire to see everything in its proper place, they make excellent bureaucrats, officials, mathematicians, bookkeepers, scientists and historians. However, their obsession with ritual and proper conduct can make them difficult to deal with. Those who violate the rituals will be lectured to, at length, on propriety. Dealing with Bwaps takes time but trying to speed things up only takes more time. Criminal behaviour is extremely rare and is considered the worst form of mental disorder among Bwaps, since it disrupts the proper order of things. Their world-view means that their definition of crime is often at variance with Imperial norms but fortunately most Bwaps courts consider exile to be sufficient punishment, especially in the case of aliens such as humans. [1]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Colin Dunn. Library Data (Mongoose Publishing, 2011), 10.
Other References
- Loren Wiseman. "Contact! Newts." Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society 11 (1982): 12-16.
- Timothy B. Brown. Aliens Archive (Imperium Games, 1996), 69-78.
- Steve Jackson, Loren Wiseman. Alien Races 4 (Steve Jackson Games, 2001), 22-37.
- Jason Kemp. "The Bwaps, a minor race of the Imperium for T20." Stellar Reaches 01 (2005): 4-5.
- Paul Drye, Loren Wiseman, Jon F. Zeigler. Interstellar Wars (Steve Jackson Games, 2006), 82-83,144.
- Robert Eaglestone. Deneb Sector (Mongoose Publishing, 2012), 60.
- Jae Campbell. Encyclopaedia Dagudashaag (Signal-GK, 2017), 57.
- Darren Bulmer. Aliens of Charted Space: Volume 3 (Mongoose Publishing, 2022), 228.
- Peter Gray. BARD CARI 9008