The Tanyon-Unin are a species defined by their profound connection to water, their vibrant artistic expression, and their evolving commitment to unity. These aquatic humanoids hail from the deep, geothermal oceans of Tan’kuyu, a watery moon orbiting a gas giant (Rinrunsan) in the Starfall Galaxy. They employ fluid, adaptable fighting styles in combat and navigate both liquid and stellar currents with innate grace.
Tanyon-Unin are from Tan’kuyu, where they’ve lived in relative peace and safety since the Asenobi Dymos overthrew the rule of wicked Void-Leviathan oppressors. Their history is also marked by a profound internal revolution, in which a segment of the proud Asenobi Dynasty broke off to establish the Free Worlds Union in the Outer Sphere, striving for a new form of communal existence born of shared hardship. Though the last of the Leviathan-Barons were driven back into the Rift long ago, Tanyon-Unin, both in the dynasty and the union, remain vigilant in military training and traditions. Their fearsome reputation keeps Tanyon-Unin soldiers and mercenaries in high demand across the galaxy. Today, Tanyon-Unin thrive in dense, expanding cities.
Rigid Dynasty, Fractured People: To most of the Inner Sphere, the Asenobi Dynasty is “the” face of the Tanyon‑Unin, a hyper‑bureaucratic remnant that built its power on unifying rival sea‑clans through engineered wars and tightly managed Dei production. Yet across Rift‑burgs and frontier habitats you still find free Tanyon‑Unin clades who remember when unity meant mutual aid in the dark, not compliance with an Imperial ledger.
Water, Light, and Surveillance: Traditional Tanyon‑Unin architecture fuses water circulation, bioluminescent sculpture, and omnipresent lenses—what began as currents monitoring oxygen flow now doubles as a civic panopticon for dynastic magistrates and guild auditors. Public art installations in Asenobi space are equal parts beauty and data‑harvesting node, with flowing holographic currents that literally thicken or dim in response to economic quotas and citizen “devotion” metrics.
Old Currents, New Spheres: In today’s Commission era, Tanyon‑Unin show up as inner‑sphere administrators of Dei factories, contracted abyssal salvage teams on ruined ecumenopolises, and Rift‑route scouts who treat vacuum like just another hostile sea. Their aquatic heritage makes them prized in low‑gravity shipyards, reactor flood‑tunnels, and flooded Rift‑research tombs where other species need bulky life‑support to survive.
Physical Description
Tanyon-Unin are elegant, athletic aquatic humanoids covered in scales that appear predominantly blue and green, although they occasionally exhibit pale pink, pearlescent white, or gray tones as well. They range from five to six feet tall as adults, but their slight builds and cartilaginous skeletons mean they average just under 100 pounds in weight. Wings of translucent membrane connect Tanyon-Unin’s arms and legs, helping them to move effortlessly through water or zero-gravity environments. Sensory tendrils cover their lower jaws. Their large eyes can move and focus independently to sense predators and prey alike and faintly glow with a soft luminescence that Tanyon-Unin use as a means of silently signaling each other. Violet eyes are common, and three prominent gills grace either side of their necks. An array of decorative spines sweeps back from their forehead down through the base of their skull.
Tanyon-Unin breathe through a compound respiratory system that incorporates both gills and composite lungs, allowing them to survive on land and underwater. Even so, they must periodically immerse themselves in water to prevent their skin from drying out and flaking away painfully.
Artistic self-expression is very important to Tanyon-Unin cultures, and nowhere is it more prevalent than on Tanyon-Unin bodies. The most common target of alteration are a Tanyon-Unin’s decorative spines, which they frequently pierce, color, or shape, often changing them many times over the course of a lifetime. Tanyon-Unin also frequently modify their sensory tendrils and wings as well as their bioluminescent eyes, which they often recolor with tinted lenses. In addition, Tanyon-Unin industry has developed extremely effective underwater makeup compounds, of which many Tanyon-Unin make frequent and dramatic use.
Society
The recorded history of Tanyon-Unin is divided into distinct eras. The earliest records, dating back thousands of years, describe what is known as the Hoketodori, a civilization of hunter-gatherer tribes spread throughout the oceans of Tankuyu, characterized by shifting alliances and transient kingdoms.
The second age, known as the Hokenaryo (Age of the Void-Leviathan), began with an invasion of Void-Leviathans slipping in from naturally occurring gateways to the Rift on Tankuyu called Rift-Blooms. These aggressive entities quickly came to control much of the moon’s oceans, subjugating Tanyon-Unin. Pockets of resistance arose frequently and were brutally put down, but some tribes retreated to deep kelp forests and remote cave systems, thriving far from Void-Leviathan influence.
The next era, known as the Hokesenobi, began when two free deep tribes, ancient enemies, grudgingly merged their clans against their common oppressor, forming the Asenobi Dynasty. Together, they launched a surprise attack, eventually slaying Void-Leviathan tyrants and establishing a new Tanyon-Unin dynasty. This rebellion eventually drove the last of the Void-Leviathans back to the Rift. With the threat gone and the Tanyon-Unin united, the Tanyon-Unin began settling around Rift-Blooms, creating thriving cities.
Drawing bountiful energy and comfort from these Rift-Blooms, industry and Mana-tech manufacturing quickly grew, particularly thriving in cities closest to Mana-rich Rift-Blooms. During this period, Vaelen explorers from Aetheria showed Tanyon-Unin that Rift-Blooms could serve as inter-system trade routes. Soon after, Tanyon-Unin explorers charted paths through the Rift’s dangerous terrain. When the Aether-Synapse brought the secret of Rift-Drive technology, Tanyon-Unin built ships blending Rift-Drive technology with their own Mana-tech, setting out to explore the galaxy. With the assistance of the Vaelen, the Tanyon-Unin developed their own Logistic control AI called the Senogyo.
Today, most Tanyon-Unin live in densely populated metropolises with access to Mana-tech amenities. These cities, centered around Rift-Blooms, are bustling hubs of industry, art, and technology, constantly expanding to welcome locals and tourists alike. Tanyon-Unin cities often feature extensive bubble districts for air-breathing visitors.
For Tanyon-Unin, life is art. Tankuyu’s breathtaking architecture, groundbreaking art, and fresh fashion draw visitors from around the Starfall Galaxy, especially the Sepyanu Iho (Deep Gala) that transforms Grand Inza (a major Tanyon-Unin city) into a uniquely designed paradise every cycle. Their culture highly values customized and unique versions of everyday items, fostering thriving industries for bespoke goods.
Senogyo, with the Tanyon-Unin society, quickly developed the political will to preserve their home’s natural wonders, investing heavily in Mana-tech systems for waste recycling and pollutant sequestration. While vast wilderness areas are designated nature preserves, rapid urban growth has led to tensions with activists. Some neo-traditionalist factions, such as the Sepyanu Senan (Deep Resurgence), led by radical Sepensagen (Deep Teachers), decry the construction of bubble districts, believing it invites cosmic retribution.
Military
Though much of Tanyon-Unin society embraces leisure and artistic self-expression, the business of war is taken seriously. Military traditions are a vital part of their cultural identity, with the war for independence from Void-Leviathans forming a foundational memory. Warriors who defeated the Void-Leviathans formed standing patrols around the Rift-Blooms, establishing the basis for the modern Tanyon-Unin military. Military units honor this history by taking names of archaic warrior roles, such as Nantumpi (Manta-Riders) and Sagyukugyun (Leviathan-Hunters).
Military training is mandatory for everyone on Tankuyu, with enlistments lasting three cycles. Many re-enter civilian life after one or two terms, while some pursue career service, earning generous pensions. The Tanyon-Unin military's training and effectiveness are highly regarded, making Tanyon-Unin mercenaries sought after.
Beliefs
During the Void-Leviathan occupation, the worship of Tanyonoki (Ragadahn) of the Eldest was encouraged. While ancient carvings suggest Tanyon-Unin worshipped Tanyonoki for millennia, leading to theories of their Rift origin, today his faith is diminished, seen as a remnant of oppression. Some still pray to Tanyonoki for appeasement. Other faiths include Sesezozen (Eloritu), Pinponezopi (Waydan), and Kinrenonu (Zon-Shelyn).
Popular Edicts
Celebrate and encourage diversity in all things, leave everywhere you go more beautiful than you found it, express yourself creatively, and foster unity among species.
Popular Anathema
Betray an alliance, disrespect another’s self-expression, exploit natural resources without care, promote division.
What’s Cookin’?
Tanyon-Unin culinary trends constantly change, driven by their value for personal expression and custom creations. New restaurants frequently open, with ambitious chefs inventing dishes. The latest trend is fusion: adapting regional cuisines from other Starfall Galaxy worlds to Tankuyu’s watery ingredients. Gokya Ninsen, a new restaurant, serves unique takes on street food from Asozoni.
Is That Real?
The high demand for unique Tanyon-Unin designs has led to unscrupulous merchants selling low-quality imitations. Counterfeits from prestigious fashion houses, such as Tankuyu, have flooded markets, including the Nexus Central Hub. A consortium of Tanyon-Unin brands, unsatisfied with the Commission's lack of arrests, has hired mercenaries from The Armada to investigate and stop the counterfeiting.
Function Follows Form
While many Tanyon-Unin artisans keep purpose in mind, the exploding market has incentivized pushing boundaries of form over function. This has created a secondary industry of utilitarian artisans who skillfully adapt fanciful custom goods to be more functional without altering their look. These artisans are well-respected and well-paid.
Tanyon-Unin Mechanics
Hit Points: 6
Size: Medium
Speed: 20 feet; swim 30 feet
Attribute Boosts: Dexterity, Charisma, and one Free Ability Boost.
Attribute Flaw: Constitution.
Languages: Common, Tanu (a fluid, sibilant language with clicks and hums). Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if it’s positive). Choose from the list of common languages and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent on your home world).
Traits:
Darkvision: You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.
Hydration: Your body requires you to return to aquatic environments or to wear armor with environmental protections at least once every 24 hours. You must submerge your skin in water to rehydrate it after exposure to water. If you fail to do this, your skin begins to crack, and your gills become painful. After the first 24 hours outside of water, you take a -1 status penalty to Fortitude saves. After 48 hours, you struggle to breathe air and begin to suffocate until you are returned to water.
Tanyon-Unin Heritages
Tanyon-Unin have thrived in Tankuyu’s waters for millennia, developing a variety of forms. Choose one of the following Tanyon-Unin heritages at 1st level.
Bloomborn: You grew up near a Rift-Bloom, one of the naturally occurring portals to the Rift that randomly open and close across Tankuyu, and have developed a natural sense for the presence of primal Mana around you.
Deepborn: You were born deep down in the aphotic zone, where no light penetrates from the surface, far from the bright cities.
Electric: You descend from a remote tribe in Tankuyu’s photic zone that developed a bioelectric defense against predators, perhaps due to the influence of a Rift-Bloom or because of an ancient diet of electric void-rays.
Outworlder: You've spent a significant portion of your life away from the oceans of Tanyuku, so you're particularly experienced at handling the challenges of life on dry land.
Tanyon-Unin Ancestry Feats
1st Level Feats
Bioluminecense: Your eyes glow like bioluminescent lamps, and you have learned how to focus them into a directional beam.
Body Art: Your body is your canvas, and You've taken body modification to a whole new level.
Check It Out: You've poured all your creativity into making your weapon truly eye-catching.
Deep Diplomat: You've studied the history of the Deep Current Alliance, and you understand the value of turning an enemy into a friend.
Deep-Speaker: You’re descended from a long line of Deep-Speakers, dating back to an ancestor who served as liaison for a Void-Leviathan.
Filtering Tendrils: The sensory tendrils covering the lower part of your face are sensitive enough to detect toxins and environmental pollutants.
Floating Balance : You are accustomed to floating free in the wide ocean or zero-gravity and don’t lose your cool when you have nothing within reach.
Leviathan Bite: Your ancestors swore allegiance to a Void-Leviathan long ago.
Silent Tide: Stalking great finned beasts through the kelp forests of Tankuyu or navigating dense asteroid fields has taught you to move silently and smoothly through cover.
Tanyon-Unin Lore: Growing up among the Rift-Blooms and glowing cities of Tankuyu has instilled in you a deep appreciation of the beauty around you, both natural and constructed.
Working Artist : People have noticed the originality and quality of your artistic creations, and you’ve started moonlighting as a professional artist or designer.
5th Level Feats
Dazzling Glare: Through practice, you’ve learned how to increase the intensity of your bioluminescence.
Furious Flap: The muscles that control your membranous wings are particularly well developed, and you know how to use them to catch enemies off guard with their power.
Homeguard: Your Homeguard training has prepared you for anything.
Icy Spelunker: You spent time exploring the icy caves of Tankuyu's crust, and climbing comes nearly as easily to you as walking.
Improved Conductivity: By imitating your ancestors’ diet, taking synthetic supplements, or unlocking your genetic potential with Mana, you’ve enhanced your bioelectrical network.
Skyguard: You earned your space legs in the Dynastic space navy.
Underwater Combatant: You've learned how to wield nearly any weapon effectively while underwater.
Urchin: You flex the spines running down the back of your head and neck as a defensive response.
Versatile Outfit: You are known for your astounding custom outfits and pride yourself on designing versatile and reconfigurable garments, allowing you to create nearly any look in a matter of moments.
9th Level Feats
Breach: You propel yourself up like a whale breaching the surface of the ocean, then crash back down with thunderous force.
Enhanced Echolocation: You’ve learned to quiet your other senses and focus your attention on your echolocation.
Gelid Bite : Your Void-Leviathan heritage has begun to manifest more as you’ve become more powerful.
Gliding Wings: The winglike membranes that stretch between your arms and torso let you maneuver while floating without a solid point to push off from.
Manta-Rider: You have trained in the ceremonial art of combat mounted upon a void-manta and can apply your experience to other forms of mobile combat.
13th Level Feats
Bloomguard: After years of meritorious military service, you were chosen for the elite Bloomguard, where you underwent rigorous training that honed your defenses against the tricks of Rift creatures.
Flashing Fit: Years of careful attention to your look have given you a deep understanding of the interplay between color, texture, and light, and you know how to make your outfit catch anyone’s eye.
Floating Flight: The membranous webbing between your limbs and torso grows strong enough to function as true wings when you’re floating.
Glimpse of the Bloom:Through years of practice, you've honed your ability to see through tricks and illusions of the Rift.
Unseen Tides: The surge of Tankuyu’s ever-present tides or cosmic currents courses in your blood, and you can feel their pull wherever you go.
17th Level Feats
Arctic Bite: he freezing power of your bite becomes irresistible.
Cyclone: You take inspiration from schools of hunting manta rays, creating a vortex to draw in your foe before striking.
Enduring Echolocation: You perceive your surroundings as much by echolocation as by your other senses.
Rip Current: You have a mystical connection to the powerful currents of Tankuyu and their interactions with the blooms, and You've learned to call upon them to wash powerful outsiders away through portals between planes.
Tanyon-Unin History
GD-30.8.72 | Maelstrom 1 – First Drowning of the Shores
When the Void Leviathans breach into realspace along a chain of ocean worlds, the Tanyon‑Unin are still a pre‑industrial shoreline civilization—sail‑fleets, waterwheels, and city‑reefs clinging to continental shelves. The Leviathans’ bio‑engineered drone‑broods and atmosphere‑skimming tendrils seize key harbors and river mouths within a few Cycles, turning entire coasts into extraction pits and spawning‑basins while conscripting Tanyon‑Unin labor to maintain their organic infrastructure.
Tanyon‑Unin oral history collapses this era into the First Drowning of the Shores: generations marked by forced sacrifice to abyssal pits, sky darkened by Leviathan silhouettes, and the slow, humiliating replacement of clan law with alien quotas measured in biomass and stone.
GD‑31–GD‑36 – The Long Occupation
Over several decades, Void Leviathan overseers impose a brutal “ecology of obedience,” culling entire river systems, relocating amphibious populations, and raising organic tower‑spines that serve as living signal masts back into the Rift. Tanyon‑Unin ingenuity survives underground and undersea: hidden air‑caverns, drowned script caches, and clandestine Tanu cant form as coastal clans quietly synchronize resistance myths while still wielding only iron, wood, and muscle.
GD‑36.4.50 | Undertow 09 – The Hokesenobi Revolt
A convergence of factors—Leviathan attention pulled off‑world by distant Rift conflicts, degradation in their bio‑control nodes, and rising coordination among Tanyon‑Unin shoreline and trench clans—ignites the Hokesenobi Revolt. Named after the archipelago where the first Leviathan brood‑spire is toppled, the revolt spreads along current and trade‑wind both: amphibious strike bands sabotage nutrient pumps, poison spawning cisterns, and collapse organic tower‑spines from within.
The fighting is vicious but brief; Void Leviathan forces, already overextended, begin abandoning hard‑hit sites wholesale rather than contest every reef‑city, leaving behind half‑living machinery, derelict bio‑ships, and entire Rift‑interface chambers suddenly without masters.
GD‑36.5.02 | Beacon 01 – The Plunder of the Hollow Nodes
In the unstable months following the revolt, Tanyon‑Unin scavengers, priests, and curious engineers push into the abandoned Leviathan structures the occupiers left behind. In flooded node‑chambers and half‑dead control cysts, they discover three things that will change their history:
dormant Rift‑drive organs still resonant with navigational patterns,
atmosphere‑regulation biotech that can be repurposed for large‑scale Dei‑equivalents, and
partial conceptual frameworks for thinking about time, distance, and the Rift as something other than a god‑haunted abyss.
These salvaged organs and schematics become the seed of Tanyon‑Unin Rift engineering; their first “ships” are literally skinned Leviathan flesh grafted onto hastily welded hulls.
GD‑36.7.23 | Stasis 04 – The Asenobi Marriage and the First Tide‑Crown
The Hokesenobi Revolt fractures into competing victory coalitions—some trench‑born and isolationist, others coastal and trade‑minded—each claiming the right to control captured Leviathan sites and whatever power they hold. After a near‑civil war over a particularly intact node‑spire, two dominant factions broker a political marriage between their heirs, formalizing a new house that takes its name from the revolt’s cradle:
The First Tide‑Crown ceremony—conducted knee‑deep in surf before a gutted Leviathan carcass—proclaims House Asenobi as steward of all salvaged Leviathan technology and arbiter between shoreline and trench clans. Those who accept the Tide‑Crown gain supervised access to Rift organs and life‑support biotech; those who refuse are quietly cut off from the new industrialization and left to stagnate.
GD‑37+ – From Shore Clans to Rift Mariners
Within a few GalDecades, the Asenobi program of controlled salvage and cautious reverse‑engineering drags Tanyon‑Unin society through a compressed industrial revolution: pressure‑sealed foundries sprout beside old tide‑mills, and reclaimed Leviathan drives are bolted into the first generation of true star‑capable vessels. In later Inner Sphere histories, this is retroactively presented as a smooth march toward destiny—but among Tanyon‑Unin, songs of Hokesenobi and the First Drowning remain sharp reminders that their age of Rift travel was bought with subjugation, revolt, and a marriage made atop a dead god‑thing.
GD-43.2.51 – Free Worlds Union Formed
Several Outer Sphere settlements band together in opposition to oppression from distant tyrants in the Inner Sphere
GD-43.3.1 | Midnight 4– Bonded Accords of the Free Worlds
In the wake of the Colonial Revolt and the formation of the Free Worlds Union, several Unbound Rurchu'ta clutches—veterans of mercenary contracts for Asenobi, the Commission, and various guild remnants—refused to return to any foreign banner. Instead, they gathered in orbit above a nascent Union world and negotiated what became known as the Bonded Accords: a charter that recognized Rurchu'ta as full sapient partners rather than contract property, codified the sanctity of the partner bond in Union law, and outlawed forced breeding programs or military ownership of clutches. Though only binding in Union space, the Accords inspired broader sapients‑rights agitation across the Outer Sphere, making Rurchu'ta some of the most visible faces of anti‑Hegemony and anti‑Asenobi activism wherever Bonded Sentinels take work.
Adventure Hooks for Tanyon-Unin Player Characters
The Fading Bloom & The Silent Symphony:
Hook: A vital Rift-Bloom near a Tanyon-Unin city on Tan’kuyu, a source of energy and inspiration for artists, is inexplicably dimming. Simultaneously, the grand "Sepyanu Iho" (Deep Gala) – a central artistic festival – is threatened by a strange silence; the bioluminescent displays are dull, and the hydro-acoustic symphonies are muted. Investigations reveal that the Mana-flow to the Rift-Bloom is being siphoned or corrupted, and the artistic disruption is a direct consequence.
Tanyon-Unin Appeal: This hook directly challenges the Tanyon-Unin's core identity: their connection to the Rift-Blooms and their artistic expression. The PC would use their knowledge of Mana-tech, hydrokinetic abilities, and artistic sensitivity to investigate the cause (perhaps a rogue Vaelen faction experimenting with Mana-siphoning, a Maelstrom-Scar entity feeding on the bloom's energy, or a rival corporate entity trying to monopolize the Mana). They would need to restore the balance, perhaps by performing an ancient Tanyon-Unin Mana-ritual or by confronting the source of the corruption, ensuring the Deep Gala can flourish once more.
The Leviathan's Echo & The Unsettled Union:
Hook: Reports emerge from the Outer Sphere of a newly opened, unstable Rift-Bloom that is drawing in ships and debris, and within its chaotic currents, strange, ancient echoes of Void-Leviathans are appearing. These aren't full creatures, but psychic imprints or spectral manifestations that sow discord and fear among multi-species settlements, particularly those tied to the Free Worlds Union. A diplomatic envoy from the Union, perhaps a Kusari or a Human, requests Tanyon-Unin assistance, specifically seeking a "Leviathan-Hunter" to understand and neutralize this threat without resorting to destructive force.
Tanyon-Unin Appeal: This hook taps into the Tanyon-Unin's history with Void-Leviathans and their commitment to the Multi-Species Union. The PC's military training and knowledge of these ancient foes would be crucial. They would navigate the dangerous Rift-zone, using their fluid combat styles and perhaps their "Leviathan Bite" heritage to confront the echoes. The challenge would be to contain the threat while preserving the fragile unity of the Free Worlds Union, potentially clashing with factions who advocate for more aggressive, less understanding solutions.
The Senogyo's Whisper & The Counterfeit Crisis:
Hook: The Senogyo, the Tanyon-Unin's logistic control AI, begins to issue cryptic, almost artistic, warnings about a widespread "corruption" affecting the galaxy's trade networks, specifically targeting the market for Tanyon-Unin custom goods. High-quality counterfeits, indistinguishable from genuine articles without expert knowledge, are flooding markets like the Nexus Central Hub, undermining Tanyon-Unin artisans and threatening their economic stability. The Senogyo's whispers suggest the source is not just opportunistic criminals, but a sophisticated, perhaps psychic, operation.
Tanyon-Unin Appeal: This hook focuses on the Tanyon-Unin's artistic pride, their connection to their AI, and their practical skills. The PC, perhaps a "Working Artist" or "Personalized Gear" specialist, would be tasked with uncovering the source of the counterfeits. They might follow the Senogyo's subtle clues, using their artistic eye to detect fakes and their diplomatic skills to navigate the complex trade politics. This could lead to a confrontation with a faction using advanced illusion magic (perhaps rogue Vaelen or Shadar) or a cunning Ysoki crime syndicate, forcing the PC to use their unique blend of artistry and martial prowess.
The Deep Current Alliance & The Deserted Outpost:
Hook: A long-silent outpost belonging to the historical "Deep Current Alliance" is rediscovered on a seemingly barren, desert moon. Initial scans reveal it's still hydrated, but no life signs are detected. The Tanyon-Unin military, or a historical society, wants a team to investigate, hoping to recover lost Mana-tech or historical records. However, the outpost is rumored to be haunted by the spirits of its last inhabitants, who succumbed to extreme dehydration or isolation.
Tanyon-Unin Appeal: This hook directly challenges the Tanyon-Unin's hydration trait and their historical connection to alliances. The PC would need to manage their own hydration needs in a hostile environment while exploring a potentially psychologically taxing location. They might encounter Echo-Frames or Vaelen remnants, and their ability to "read" environments (Fluid Balance, Filtering Tendrils) would be crucial. The mystery would involve uncovering what truly happened to the outpost's inhabitants and recovering valuable historical data that could strengthen current alliances or reveal forgotten truths.
Example Quirks / Beliefs
“The water remembers.” Many Tanyon‑Unin quietly pour the first sip of any drink into a drain or reclamation system, a symbolic tithe to the oceans that birthed them—even aboard drydock stations.
Dynasty Eyes: Some Asenobi‑aligned Tanyon‑Unin treat every reflective surface as a potential surveillance node and habitually speak in euphemism under cameras, even in supposedly “private” spaces.
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