Races Among the Stars 10: Shimreen
Sentient life takes on all sorts of forms, the biodiversity of a single planet is enough to prove that, but sometimes in science fiction life takes on unusual forms, such as different chemical compounds that offer enough complexity to potentially become life. We’re all intimately familiar with the versatility of carbon, but other options like nitrogen, silicon, and sulfur are possibilities, to say nothing of stranger things that you get in sci-fi and fantasy alike.
One such unusual species are the autocthonous crystalline creatures known as the shimreen, that dwell on a planet known for it’s raw elemental activities, ranging from near-constant storms to geological activity including multiple volcanoes that serve as the primary reproductive sites of the species. While once they endured the truly staggering forces of their planet with only underground shelters to protect themselves, the modern shimreen have constructed at least seven domed cities that absorb the lighting and forces of the storms above into power for their residents, where they live in orderly, seeming utopia.
Shimreen (which I only recently realized is a pun on ‘shimmering’) appear to be humanoid beings composed of glowing crystal in a variety of colors spanning the whole rainbow (they can change the light level of their radiance, but only death can extinguish it). While extremely dense (the average shimreen weighing about 600 lbs), they possess the full flexibility of most other humanoids due to the way that their solid bodies can subtly fracture and reassemble without losing cohesion or letting in gaps, all of which gives them permanent joints, humanoid facial features as well as what makes their circulatory system possible alongside electrical currents carrying the energy from sustenance throughout the body.
That same control also allows them to alter themselves in key ways. The most immediately obvious is the way they can prune or encourage the growth of crystal outcroppings on their heads, forming “hair” and “beards”. However, they can also reshape a limb into either a tool for the work at hand or into a simple stabbing lance. Finally, they can actually reshape the crystal lattices in their own heads, the ones that define their consciousness, effectively altering their own brains. Most do so to get rid of bad habits or reduce the impact of traumatic memories.
Additionally, the properties of the crystal itself lends itself well to energy conduction, particularly electricity, though they can conduct and even absorb pretty much any energies, though this does nothing on it’s own to protect them from the damaging effects of said energy, it can be useful in combat, and it also means that music is a very popular art form in the species, with their songs usually including elements set at the resonant frequency range of their bodies so that they feel as well as hear the music.
It is perhaps the uniqueness of shimreen composition that explains why their reproduction can only occur on their homeworld (though the game treats this like a bit of a mystery). Essentially, when two or more shimreen desire a child, they venture to one of the volcanoes dotting their world and each break off a bit of their own crystal structure, combining them all together and dropping them into the lava, where they melt down and the heat allows the liquefied crystal to begin forming the crystal seed of an infant shimreen, unless the process fails, of course.
The shimreen believe that they were given life by Pharasma, and that the souls of their newborns come from the lava from her, which in turn leads many to believe that there is only a finite amount of soul energy, and only by returning the crumbled remains of their deceased to the volcano can it be renewed and guarantee that more children are born. (This isn’t touched on further because Starfinder likes to be a lot less specific about the great beyond and the complex matters of death and the afterlife, but I’m of the mind that the reason that shimreen can only be born from the volcanoes of their homeworld has more to do with the unique mineral composition than anything else, though there is probably some element of the divine or spiritual too).
The shimreen are an orderly people, but they also delight in expression and creativity. Their culture is broadly divided into warriors and workers, though there is no great social disparity between the two. Warriors include both those that train to fight in any capacity as well as those that hone their bodies for other reasons such as professional athletes and the like. Meanwhile, workers cover anything from doctors to scientists to skilled laborers.
The plentiful nature of resources on Shimrinsara also means that there is plenty of opportunity for creative endeavors and personal projects, and the fashion, art, and music scenes are fascinatingly diverse.
Indeed, all told, shimreen society should be a utopia, with most citizens seeing no need to leave the planet save for if their work requires it. However, every so-called utopia has it’s problems, such as the unacknowledged bigotry towards those whose internal light is dull or their facets rough and unpolished, as well as the current practice of “rehabilitating” criminals by externally modifying the malleable cerebral lattice, effectively brainwashing them into “good citizens” (though it should be clear that a large majority find this practice barbaric, though fear of exile has kept these objections quiet for now), as well rumors of an 8th city that exists outside of the control of the Spectrum Council’s control.
Shimreen are agile and ingenious, but their reliance on order leaves their critical thinking skills lacking.
They are also especially adept at absorbing and conducting various forms of energy, and by willingly absorbing more (damaging themselves in the process), they can hold a charge of such energy that they release with a melee attack with a weapon or their own crystalline outgrowths, enhancing its damage appropriately.
The conductivity of their crystalline bodies naturally makes them more resistant to electricity.
Shimreen also natural glow from within, and in addition to finely controlling it to punctuate their language, they can adjust, but not extinguish the light level of this glow as needed.
With their malleable crystal makeups, they can shift one of their hands into a piercing crystalline weapon similar to a dagger, shortsword, or even rapier. Most are quite adept at using it in battle too, though obviously the hand is useless for grasping until reverted.
With their agility, shimreen can be quite effective as ranged attackers or agile melee combatants, though the fact that they glow can make being an operative based on stealth difficult without full body coverings. Dexterity also helps them as precogs, though others may seek to use their intellect for studious biohacking, as well as the technological skills of the mechanic or technomancer. Interestingly, their ability to willingly take more damage to get a boost later has some synergy with the vanguard class. However, their lower wisdom makes mystic a somewhat hard sell, though nothing is stopping you from choosing the class if it is more your style than other casters like witchwarpers.
While their initially started as an AP backmatter race, they proved popular enough to get an expansion and write-up in Alien Archive 3 and Interstellar Species, which is always nice. In any case, that will do for today, I hope you’re looking forward to more!
