Skrell Roleplay Guide

The Skrell are a species of amphibious humanoids hailing from the system of Qerr'Vallis. Despite their technological advantage over Humanity, numerous complex social issues plague and clog their society from within.

Skrell are complex and diverse people. This is a non-comprehensive, trivia-filled guide to help you learn how to play one.

Skrell as Individuals

• Despite their communal mindset, skrell will still tend to their individual desires. Creative pursuits and goals are valued in an inter-personal level, but they often come after their communal obligations.
• They are also, obviously, not part of a hive-mind. What a skrell judges to be the best for their community may conflict with the opinion of another one. They are beings capable of mistakes, errors and lapses in judgement.
• How much importance a skrell will give to their individual desires depends heavily on their caste. Kanin and Raskinta will ensure the cohesion of their community as much as possible, sometimes even to the detriment of their own individual needs. Meanwhile, a Talum will blur the edges of what is considered an individual and what is considered a communal goal.
• What each skrell considers to be their community varies heavily. It could be their family, their city-state, their co-workers and so on. Even the individualistic Talum will find themselves puzzled without a community to belong to.

Castes

• There is no 'Superior' caste. Qerr do not view themselves as superior to Kanin, despite being rulers. Malish do not view themselves as superior to Raskinta, despite working on highly specialized fields. The premise of a job being more important than another is alien for the skrell. The trash-man is just as important as the doctor, what matters is contributing to the community.
• Castes are not a widely liked system. Many skrell have passionate views in favor of or against this millennia-old, outdated but proven system. It is, however, an enforced standard on education, and going against it out of nowhere would hurt the community. This is not to say that artful protests organized by Talum do not exist, however.
• Ue-Katish are treated as outliers of the system, but still have their basic needs catered to, as they are still Skrell. The root cause of the discrimination they face is the eerie position that they occupy within the skrell society. For matters such as education, Ue-Katish will be treated as if they belonged to the caste of their main parent.
• All castes can occupy positions of leadership where convenient. For the position of Chief Engineer, for example, a Qerr and a Kanin-Katish could be eligible, although with obvious differences as to how they would carry their duties.

Speech and Mannerism

• Skrell express their emotions mainly through language. Pitch shifts are common, but for complex feelings, skrell prefer to explain them, detailing what, how and why they feel. "I am unwell. You treat my work as if it is devoid of value while it is not, and that makes me incredibly sad."
• Trills, croaks, hums and warbles are also used to express simpler emotions.
• Skrellian written language has emotion built into its semantics. Sharper words and letters can represent aggression, for example. Consequently, it is possible to write using only abstract shapes instead of letters.
• Skrell new to human languages will find it almost impossible to properly express emotion through it. This is because human languages are composed only of semantics, and lack the written emotional aspect of Skrellian. This results in skrell who sound overly happy, overly sad or with monotone voices. This improves as they learn and practice, however.
• Skrell can have accents, depending on who they have learned a language from.
• Malish will often be quieter and less sociable than their kin. Talum, on the other hand, will almost always be very extroverted and outgoing. Exceptions apply.
• Skrell are very emotional and enjoy displaying their feelings when appropriate and applicable. Do not monologue about your feelings while you have to treat someone. Your duties towards the community come before your personal catharsis.
• Skrell do not have to be polite, but their insults are not shallow. Instead of calling someone a piece of shit, go into detail about how useless they are to their community, or about how shallow their personal interests are. Alternatively, just stare at them and croak angrily. They won't laugh at you.
• Skrell are also not assholes. Seeking to undermine your own community by insulting and mistreating others for no reason is stupid, egoistical and nonsensical. Seek to help those who make mistakes and who belong to your community. Go ham on those who don't.