The Aquans

The "accidental clan," as the Aquans like to call themselves, are humans who have mastered living on worlds dominated by water. One of the smallest of the great clans, they are known for their discipline and hierarchical social structures, as well as the strong sense of privacy that permeates their customs.

Often isolated from other humans throughout their history, the Aquans are adapted to life in confined spaces. As a result, they are smaller and more wiry than the human norm. They also tend to have lower percentages of body fat than most humans, due to their extremely lean diets.

However, contrary to rumours, Aquans do not have gills or any other genetic adaptations that differ from average humans. Nor have they developed psionic devices that allow them rapport with aquatic animals. In fact, the Aquans pride themselves on the technologies and techniques that they have developed to thrive in their chosen habitats, and tend to view such rumours as belittling their hard-won expertise. Although most Aquans reproduce within their own clan, those who marry members of other clans find that their children and grandchildren quickly blend into other human populations.

History

The invention of the spacefold drive in IY-562 is widely credited with permitting the Human victory over the Crucians in The Great War. What is often overlooked is the changes caused by the explosion of colonization that the drive created in the last days of the war and the early days of the empire. It was during this period that the Aquans emerged, and behind their description of themselves as the "accidental clan" lies a story that is all too typical of the times.

With the spread of the spacefold drive, the mental map of space changed overnight. Suddenly, new regions of space were opened up and old travel routes closed down, radically changing the economic status of many regions of space. Combined with a belief born in the Great War that human survival depended on the species spreading as widely as possibly, the changes brought by the spacefold drive touched off another great wave of colonization, as seemingly every group that could raise the funds set off to find its own planet.

The craze for colonization created countless disasters, as one ill-equipped expedition after another floundered because of faulty planning, lack of numbers, or inadequate exploration of their new homes. However, some colonies failed because of their exploitation by planetary prospectors. These fly-by-night corporations frequently had only dubious claims to the planets whose locations they claimed to know, and little regard for the well-being of their customers. The first emperors spent considerable time investigating such corporations, and more than one prospector was found to have lied to customers about exclusive settlement rights, or subjected their customers to decades of near slavery.

The original Aquans were victims of an even simpler scam. Originally from a minority group that lived on the smallest and most impoverished of the three continents of Guiyu, the colonists signed a contract with TransPlanet Intergalactic to transport them to a remote planet where they could live in independence in return for most of their personal property and real estate. What they did not know was that TransPlanet Intergalactic was a corporation dedicated to getting the most from its aging equipment and to doing everything as cheaply as possibly.

The colonists were given a spaceship called the Bonadventure Gloriana which was a miracle of corner-cutting discount engineering and suffered at least three hull breaches on their trip, as well as subjecting its passengers to acute shutdowns of life support equipment. Shortly after arriving at Marcus 3, the ship's main drives failed utterly and could not be repaired.

Even worse, the colonists found that contrary to the holograms displayed by TransPlanet, the world below them was not one of large temperate zones and green fields, but a world with few small islands, most of which were unsuitable for agriculture. To make matters worse, storms were commonplace, and frequently destroyed the efforts of months in an afternoon.

TransPlanet declared bankruptcy a few years after the colonists landed, but this fact was not known to the Aquans until much later. The colonists never heard from TransPlanet again and, aside from a few references in the corporations records, the rest of humanity did not hear of the Aquans for some millennia. All details of their route and location were lost, and in a few centuries the group was not even remembered as a lost colony.

The colonists were left with a broken-backed culture -- that is, they possessed far more advanced knowledge than their tools allowed them to use. At any rate, a good deal of their knowledge was irrelevant to their situation. Although they carefully preserved the knowledge they had brought with them, eventually going so far as to copy the more important parts into physical books, for most of a millennium, the colonists were primarily concerned with basic survival.

Slowly, painfully, the colonists learned how to survive on the marginal world where they found themselves. Dismantling modules of the Bonadventure Gloriana and hauling them down to the planetary surface gave them cramped but adequate quarters for the original colonists, but only rigid organization and cooperation permitted them to explore their new world and survive long enough to develop the necessary mechanisms for survival. These mechanisms included the mining of ocean beds, the filtering of native vegetation to ensure its suitability for human consumption, learning to work and raise local species for food and other purposes, and the construction of undersea dwellings and mining platforms.

Yet, before they could reach any level of prosperity, hundreds died. The death toll in the first three years of the colonies is estimated at nearly 75% among those who ventured to establish living quarters away from the Bonadventure Gloriana's dismantled remnants, and, for many years after, the Aquans' own records suggest that the struggle to keep births outnumbering deaths was often difficult. Only the relative safety of the Bonadventure Gloriana's remains allowed the colony to survive at all. However, as the Aquans learned which animals on Marcus 3 they could eat, and built vast hydroponic farms, they slowly began to increase in numbers. When the last module of the ruined ship failed altogether after nearly four centuries, the colonists had largely adapted to their new world.

By the time the colonists had obtained a level of prosperity, they were living largely beneath the surface of the ocean, and were calling themselves Aquans. Eventually prospering enough to colonize the nearby worlds of Bing Quing, Yue Wan, and Tien-Mu, they encountered Imperial culture in 2835. In IY2914, Marcus 3 and its colonies became part of the personal fiefdom of the Emperor Abdullah III. Although several Aquan colonies were not water-worlds, the clan soon became known for its expertise in surviving in liquid environments, and founded a number of other colonies throughout human space.

The Disappearance left few marks on the Aquans. Too rooted in the here and now to take much interest in the psionics that seem connected to the disappearance, the Aquans exist today in much the same way as they always have, connected to general human culture, but distinctly separate from it in the patterns of their daily lives.

The Aquans Today

Aquan culture is shaped by two factors: the hardship that produced it, and the confined spaces in which it developed. Conservative because of their wary respect for the environment that originally shaped them, Aquans have a strong sense of identification with the clan, and emphasize its well-being over their own concerns.

At the same time, because their dwellings are often expensive to make and therefore small, Aquans have a strong sense of personal space. Typically, the already small rooms are subdivided further by thin screens so that each inhabitant can have at least a sleeping area to call their own.

In addition, most Aquans show a strong dislike for public disagreement, and touching -- even accidentally -- in public is considered in poor taste at best and an invasion of privacy and a serious breach of etiquette at worst. Even quick motions that might alarm others are regarded as rude by the Aquans.

Most Aquan clothing is severely practical. Working and even middle-class Aquans favour functional wetsuits, whose discomfort they stoically endure as a badge of their mastery of the oceans, and as a reminder of more unsettled times when the readiness to work at the first hint of a storm or other emergency was the first priority. In recent millennia, however, more Aquans favour more pliable and comfortable clothing cut along the same lines. Either way, the clothing tends to be painted or coloured in green and blue pastels.

The upper class wears much the same general cut of clothes, made from more expensive materials. In addition, those at the top of the hierarchy generally soften the look with capes of multi-layered and multi-coloured silk. In the past, the manipulation of these capes was used as a complex sign language, although this language has mostly died out now.

Undoubtedly, though, the most famous aspect of Aquan culture is the habit of wearing masks in public. Believed to have originated in diving masks, these colourful cultural expressions may seem at odds with the often tight suits they wear in their daily work. However, to Aquans, the face has come to be the most intimate part of the body. For the most part, faces are revealed only to intimates and to authorities who demand it. Rather than reveal it, they prefer to wear a variety of masks that reveal their family connections, social status, or current mood.

Mask wearing starts at the age of 8 in Aquan society, and the giver of a person's first mask assumes the status of a kind of secular godparent, being expected to initiate the mask's recipient into society and public manners. Through their lives, Aquans acquire many masks, and the number and splendor of them is by far the most obvious sign of conspicuous consumption. High class Aquans have even been known to wear masks so cumbersome that they require assistance in bearing their weight and navigating through doors, the impracticality showing their freedom from the need to work.

Despite the premium on space in Aquan culture, some of the most powerful even devote an entire room in their houses to their masks. The rest make do with chests and whatever limited wall space is available to them.

Scholars argue over whether the Aquans believe that a person and their masks are spiritually connected, or that masks are simply part of personal space. Either way, injury or insult to a mask is considered the same as if it was inflicted on its owner. Moreover, the relations between people and their masks are so close that all masks are destroyed as part of the service when an Aquan dies. To wear a dead person's mask is considered even more gauche than borrowing a living person's.

Unsurprisingly, mask wearing greatly affects Aquan culture. For one thing, eating in public is unknown in Aquan society, although many masks are designed so that their wearers can sip liquids through straws.

For another, identification of the person beneath a mask can be problematic. Aquan popular culture is full of stories of people committing crimes or meeting lovers while wearing another person's mask -- all of which are considered risque. Moreover, non-Aquan planets have struggled to find an acceptable compromise between this aspect of Aquan culture and their own social norms.

Another aspect of Aquans' confined living quarters is the centralization of control. Because Aquans often live in submerged quarters or on surface platforms -- both of which are isolated and dependent on outside supplies, especially of air -- those who control communication and supplies also control the society. Often, during the first years on Marcus 3, attaching yourself to someone who controlled some vital resource must have been the only way to survive.

In this environment, economic ties have assumed an importance that often challenges that of the family. Extended families exist largely as shareholders and executives of jointly-held colonists, and Aquan popular culture is full of stories of lovers forced to separate or into some desperate act because of incompatible corporate loyalties. To avoid such conflicts, married couples either resign themselves to keeping secrets from each other and enduring the strains that arise, or else go into business for themselves or attempt to work for the same company.

The result is a society that sociologists refer to as "corporate feudalism" in which everyone is ranked and owes personal obedience to the institution that employs them -- that is, most immediately, to a company, and, beyond that, to the corporation that owns the company, and ultimately to the government, which retains a majority interest in many major corporations.

Promotion is rare, but relatively easy within the bounds of each Aquan's social class. Moving beyond those bounds is almost unheard-of except for the most talented. Instead, the company rewards loyalty with perks ranging from salary increases to holidays and gifts. Gifts from company directors are especially prized among the middle and working classes.

This ethic has been challenged on some Aquan worlds by exposure to the customs of other human cultures. However, it is so ingrained in Aquan culture that many never question it.

For one thing, to do so might easily open an Aquan to the charge of disloyalty to his or her employer -- a charge that could lead to imprisonment on some Aquan worlds, and certainly leads to ostracization on all of them. The typical Aquan changes employers only under rare circumstances. Usually, the change is marked by a ceremony in which the Aquan's old company ceremonially prepares them for exposure in the sea as though they were an actual corpse, followed by a rebirth ritual with their new company that involves passing through water. Since transferring companies often means that an Aquan will most likely never see their friends again or trust them if they do, it is considered a momentous and frightening step.

Worse still is to be dismissed from a company, regardless of the reason. Once fired, an Aquan is lucky to stumble through a marginal existence, doing work for hire at the lowest of wages. Their families, too, are apt to be regarded with suspicion, and may lose all prospect of advancement.

High-ranking Aquans tend to inherit their power, but middle and working class Aquans are slotted into this hierarchy according to the results of a series of exams that they write when they are eighteen. These exams are eagerly picked over by managers and directors looking for new followers.

Those who score low, or show an independent streak, usually end up in positions such as managing fish farms in remote areas. A few manage to find specialist positions, such as serving as diplomats, where their eccentricities can be put to good use. However, these non-conformists -- especially those who interact with non-Aquans -- are viewed with considerable suspicion. Despite periodic efforts to persuade Aquans that non-conformists demonstrate a higher loyalty to their clan, they are often dismissed as being "not a rooted person," a term that implies erratic, childlike, and irresponsible behaviour. By contrast, one who demonstrates loyalty to the company is praised as being rational and educated.

Another position often held by non-conformists is the breeding of aquatic species for socially useful functions, such as guarding fish farms from predators. On Shaiming, the species include several species of dolphins as well as orcas, but the availability of such genetic material tends to be beyond the means of most Aquans. Mostly, they work with whatever species are at hand, such as the squid-like lien of Yu and the small amphibious dragons of Zheguang.

The center of Aquan power remains Marcus 3 and the Directorship of Haijing, which consists of half a dozen planets. However, at least another twenty-three systems have also been settled by Aquans. These planets owe a technical alleigiance to the Director of Marcus 3, but most of them are effectively independent, and one or two are actually larger in population than Haijing. When the Chief Director of Haijing visits other Aquan settlements, he or she is usually given the honours of the ruling leader, but little of the actual power. The leaders of some of these worlds would most likely prefer titular as well as practical independence, but fear being dismissed as "not a rooted person."

Relations to Other Clans and Intelligent Species

Aquans, many believe, have never got over their long isolation from the rest of humanity. Although they have now been interacting with other clans for much longer than they were isolated, they continue to regard themselves as outside the mainstream of human culture and interests. This isolation is both symbolized and reinforced by their masks and sense of privacy.

Aquans' strongest ties are with the Mer clones, with whom they occasionally work on joint colonization efforts. They also have some formal connections with the Drylanders and Taurans, whom they regard as fellow specialists in extreme climates. However, at the same time, they deplore many aspects of Drylander and Tauran cultures.

More distantly, Aquans' respect for hierarchy makes them tend to respect and obey members of the Aristocrats and Founders, especially those with connections to imperial dynasties. They also interact with the Spacer hierarchy, and, on some worlds such as Chaocheng and Moon Gate, they have developed retirement homes for Spacers.

Aquans care for other sentient species even less than they do other humans. Their most significant interactions tend to be with the Bappakana, who share their preferred environment. These interactions vary from small wars over the possessions of planets to cautious and rigid technological exchanges. In addition, some of their librarians are known to interact with Orangutan scholars.

Although in theory they uphold the Ferrets as an example of supreme loyalty, in practice, the Aquans view them as chaotic beings. In return, the Ferrets dismiss the Aquans as over-serious, unimaginative, and not much fun at parties.

Names

Like many human cultures, the Aquans show a marked preference for Chinese names, both real and legendary. Names relating to the sea are also popular.