Adnerem

"Two Adnerem are a party, four a dinner and six a funeral"

- Common phrase relating to Adnerem

Adnerem were a tall, thin humanoid species of mammals native to the pleasure planet Adner in the Yataga sector of the Expansion Region. Descended from scavenger/hunters, they had large, triangular heads with wide eyes and a large lump in the center of the forehead called an echo chamber. Their thin arms each ended in four talons with no opposable thumb. Adnerem society was based on small family units known as steri (singular, steris), who dwelt together in steri-houses. The members of a steris were known as sterisi and individual couples who formed a close friendship within a steri were known as a sterika. An Adnerem's status was judged entirely by the status of his or her steri, and different steri sometimes engaged in a battle for balance of power in a conflict known as a raid-war. As a species, Adnerem were generally antisocial and remained independent from the rest of the galaxy's economy, although their homeworld was a tourist trap with many theme parks and casinos.

Biology and appearance
Adnerem were a species of tall, slender omnivorous mammals, who normally stood between 1.8 and 2.2 meters tall. Originally descended from a scavenger/hunter precursor species, they where humanoid with many features in common with the Human species, being bipedal with an upright posture and there being two different sexes within the species. They also had a mouth and a nose similar to Humans, however they had distinctive triangular shaped heads with no ears, a narrow face and a wide brain pan, which supported a large lump on top of their skull. This lump was a firm, hollow echo chamber, which functioned as an ear for the species, although to Humans it was often mistaken for a tumour. Adnerem's skin was wrinkled in texture, dark gray in color and completely hairless across their entire body, bar a single small vestigial patch at the back of the skull. The species possessed only four fingers on each of their hands, lacking an opposable thumb. The nails on each finger could grow incredibly long and sturdy. Adnerem's eyelids evolved to be narrow to protect their pair of eyes&mdash;which were usually light colors such as blue or green&mdash;against the twin suns of their homeworld Adner, in the Yataga sector of the Expansion Region.

Society and culture
Adnerem culture was based upon that of their ancient scavenger/hunter ancestors, who were semi-social and banded together in tribes that ranged in size from 5 to 20 individuals. The Adnerem themselves upheld this group culture with a society based around socioeconomic family units of 5 to 100 individuals, although traditionally consisting of 64 adults. These groups were known as steri; with those within a steris being known as its sterisi. The members of a steris lived together in a steri-house, which normally took the form of a one or two floored disc-shaped building designed to evenly spread heat. Maintenance and housekeeping duties were shared amongst the sterisi, or another steri was employed to carry them out if the steri-house owners were wealthy enough. The building was divided into two areas, public and private, with individuals known to the Steri allowed in the public section but none bar the sterisi allowed in the private rooms.

Adnerem were born into a steri and raised by caregiving sterisi&mdash;not necessarily their parents&mdash;within the steri-home until the age of six. At that point, the child was transferred into an education-steri to be broadly educated and assessed until the age of fourteen. At that point, the child chose an initial vocation. The next ten years of an Adnerem's life were spent training in this occupation and paying back the steri for costs incurred during childrearing. At the age of twenty-four, an Adnerem ceremonially left the steri and chose which steri to join as an adult. Most steri offered special incentives for their own sterisi to rejoin them, which resulted in roughly half of all Adnerem remaining with the steri they had been born into. Once the decision had been made, it was rare for an Adnerem to leave the chosen steri due to the fact that such a departure resulted in a forfeit of all assets associated with the abandoned steri and carried a slight stigma&mdash;although leaving was still seen as socially acceptable. Only Adnerem promised far greater opportunity or status in another steri ever considered such a change.

The Adnerem devoutly followed a system of systematic pragmatism such that any Adnerem who wished to increase his or her position did so by improving his or her steris. This endeavor was mainly done by increasing the steris's influence and wealth, usually through trade with other steris; most Adnerem worked hard at this task, although usually out of self interest. Larger steri sometimes had smaller steri as clients whom they paid to gather resources for them, a position that the more powerful steri rarely abused. A less common way for steris's status to change was for them to engage in raid-wars. These were small conflicts between two or more steri, the goal of which was to weaken the enemy and so lower their status. Powerful steri engaged in such activities if they and another steri had conflicting goals, and smaller steri looking to make a name for themselves or to rise up against a powerful steri abusing its power might band together and engage in the conflicts. The battles were almost always short lived and small scale, with the objective never being total annihilation of the enemy; a weakened steris might prove useful later as an ally to the victor. Due to the steri system, the species had no social classes, and each individual was judged purely based on the status of the steris and his or her earned status within it. Adnerem therefore had particular difficulty understanding the concept of ranks and social positions used by other species. Despite this handicap, particularly wealthy Adnerem grew their nails to and extremely long length to show that they need not work. Female Adnerem often differentiated themselves from the males by growing their single patch of hair long and braiding it. The species generally wore clothing typical of Humanoids throughout the galaxy, particularly robes.

Although all personality types were found amongst the Adnerem, most were cool, collected and patient, and so appeared calm and dispassionate in nature, however internally they were far more intense but simply did not show it. As a race they were also, in general, asocial and introverted, choosing to spend the majority of their spare time on their own or occasionally in very small groups of five or less. In larger groups, it was rare for any to speak, making public areas on their homeworld almost totally silent. On the other hand, two Adnerem alone could become as active and talkative as a group of ten individuals of another species. Occasionally, a pair within the same steris formed an incredibly close friendship known as a sterika. Sterika were non-sexual in nature but the two individuals became so close that they considered themselves one entity. The reason for such pairings was unknown, although they usually occurred spontaneously after a period of stress for one or both of the Adnerem. Sterika were not sought out by Adnerem as other species sought love; however, Adnerem not in a sterika sometimes seemed to envy those who were. In total, only about ten percent of the Adnerem population at any one time was in a sterika; apart from such pairings, it was rare for Adnerem to become emotionally attached or form a strong bond with other individuals, whether of their own species or others. Such social distancing often led others to see Adnerem as remote and manipulative.

Long-term immersion in galactic society eventually resulted in Adner's technology level catching up with the galactic standard. The Adnerem kept themselves separate from the galactic economy and remained financially isolated, investing heavily in remaining self sufficient and independent from any kind of imports or investments offworld; only speciality goods and information were imported in large quantities. The species' main income came from the entertainment industry they maintained on Adner, as well as a number of other planets that consisted primarily of pleasure and gambling establishments. For over 2000 years, the casinos on Adner were incredibly popular with offworld tourists, with hundreds of thousands flocking to the planet solely to visit them each year. The casinos, run by some of the most powerful steri, became adapt at catering to the large number of visitors needs, and employed mainly highly trained non-Adnerem to help with this.

History
Adnerem evolved from a species of primitive scavenger/hunters on the planet Adner, who originally lived in small tribes of five to twenty individuals. As the Adnerem developed socially they maintained these groups which became their family units, known as steri.

The Adnerem were first discovered on Adner by Duros explorers in the Expansion Region between 8000 BBY and 5,500 BBY although this offworld contact had little effect on their culture except for slowly introducing new technology. After their discovery, Adnerem culture kept the same Steri-based system, and major historical events on Adner continued to be simple power shifts between different steris.

By 1004 BBY the Yataga sector where Adner was located was considered to be in the region of space controlled by the Galactic Republic. The sector however came under the control of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, a political splinter faction of the Republic, during the Clone Wars when the Separatists declared war on the Republic. After the Clone Wars the Separatists were disbanded and most systems under their control returned to the Republic, which soon after reformed into the Galactic Empire. By 137 ABY the sector was part of the Sith Lord Darth Krayt's Galactic Empire.

Adnerem in the galaxy
Adnerem generally preferred to remain at home on Adner and compete amongst themselves as opposed to with the rest of the galaxy. Many Adnerem worked in the management of the casinos on Adner, and one such individual was Etsero, who lived during the reign of both the Galactic Empire and New Republic and ran a casino named the Red Lisken, which was one of the largest establishments on Adner. Etsero came to be indebted to Jabba Desilijic Tiure, an incredibly powerful Hutt Crimelord who ran his criminal empire from the planet Tatooine. After the Hutt's death at the Battle of the Great Pit of Carkoon, the debt shifted to a separate party, who had Imperial loyalties. The situation led to the Adnerem's named being included on a document called "Wanted by Cracken," a list of criminals and Imperials for agents of the New Republic to seek out compiled by Airen Cracken, a general in the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Etsero was a known associate of fellow criminal Theol Dunoche, who rescued two Twi'lek women from slavery on the planet Ryloth and brought them to work at Estero's casino on Adner.

Adnerem who left their homeworld almost always did so with other members of their steris. Some steri took up interstellar trading, running individual large cargo ships or fleets of smaller craft. A small number of steri hired themselves out to large galactic corporations as management teams on projects of small or medium size.

One steris that left Adner set itself up as a mercenary company known as the Interstellar Strike Force. The steris acted as the command and control, while highly trained non-Adnerem were hired to act as the special operation units. Another Adnerem at large became a mercenary; the Adnerem made the acquaintance of Bitthævrian Colonel Quaal Tavier Catharius and joined the the m'Yalfor'ac Order that Tavier lead. The mercenary became part of a four-person leading committee for the order, as well as one of the two only non-Bitthævrians in the organization.

Some steris turned there business skills to crime and operated small scale-criminal organisations, rarely larger in size than a few star systems. Such Adnerem criminals were characterized by preforming business quietly and eliminating threats and obstacles in a fashion to draw as little attention as possible, often maximising profit by having a broad range of small, easily hideable incomes instead of making big risky attempts at a single large pay off, such as a bank robbery. One such Adnerem ended up on the planet of Tresidiss, a haven for criminals privately owned by Herglic criminals who ran a large number of gambling establishments there and allowed illegal activities to be openly preformed by the criminals who frequented the world.

Behind the Scenes
The Adnerem first appeared as as a species in Wanted by Cracken a sourcebook written by Louis J. Prosperi and released by West End Games in 1993 for their Star Wars roleplaying game. The book contained a list of individuals to act as opponents for player characters in the game; among these foes was Etsero, an Adnerem, although the book gave no details about the species apart from the homeworld. The image used for Estero was in fact concept art originally drawn by artist Nilo Rodis-Jamero for the character Bib Fortuna in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, however it was not selected for use in the film. The same artwork was also used in the book Monsters and Aliens from George Lucas published in 1993 by Bob Carrau along with another similar illustration of an alien which had the same distinctive lump on it's head as the Adnerem. The images were on a page with a holiday news letter from a family named the Singonats which detailed what each of the families three children had done in the year since the last letter. The Aliens are never identified as Adnerem, and nothing in letter references Adnerem culture, for example the word family instead of Steri is used. Material from Monsters and Aliens from George Lucas however is considered non-canon, as was stated by Leland Chee who maintains the official Holocron continuity database, unless it's reused in later publications which the Singonats haven't been.

Etsero was mentioned in another West End games book, No Disintegrations, published in 1997. An Adnerem drawn by Mike Vilardi based on the Bib Fortuna concept art used for Etsero, was pictured in the West End Games sourcebook Galaxy Guide 11: Criminal Organizations which was published in September 1994. A Adnerem mercenary was later mentioned to be a member of the M'Yalfor'ac Order in another West End roleplaying book, Alliance Intelligence Reports, written by Bill Smith and published in 1995. The species then received an entry in the "Alien Encounters" article series in Star Wars Adventure Journal 11, which was part of the Star Wars Adventure Journal sourcebook series also published by West End Games a year later on November 1 1996. The article was written by Timothy S. O'Brien and gave a far more detailed account of the species' biology and culture and was republished in an reduced form in "Alien Encounters" in March 1998, which was all of the "Alien Encounters" articles collected by Paul Sudlow into a single book. The Alien encounters article reused the Bib Fortuna concept art as well as another image of an Adnerem drawn by Scott Neely, the Alien encounter book included a further new image of an Adnerem by Joe Bavitz. The Alien Encounters book also revealed that Adnerem were mammals in it's appendix which listed all species in the book by type. Adnerem have been mentioned in no other Star Wars related media since except for receiving an entry in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia published in 2008 written by Stephen J. Sansweet and Pablo Hidalgo.

Non-canon appearances

 * Monsters and Aliens from George Lucas