Focusing on someone with all four eyes is actually a part of the complex batarian body language and simply means that the person in question is very interested, which tends to go along with the secondary meaning, that they’re suspicious but confident. The inability to maintain eye contact is disconcerting for most other species, and the batarians always try to exploit this advantage in situations involving bargaining or negotiations. Treatment of the corpse is considered unimportant, unless the eyes have been removed by an enemy.īatarians have a habit of looking at aliens with all four eyes simultaneously, making it difficult for a binocular species to know which pair to focus on during conversation. When a batarian dies, his soul leaves the body through the eyes. Cloning and cybernetics are both common in modern times, and acceptable in most places, but strict followers often see them as ‘fake,’ and believe that the soul is partially destroyed in this way. Should a batarian loose an eye for whatever reason, a special pilgrimage must be made, and a replacement made from one’s own hands (in wood or glass) with all other pieces of the souls unified in Sight. Disunification is common in victims of trauma and veterans of especially gruesome battles. Self (“Ziku”) - lower right eye, achievement and confidence.Īccording to certain batarian religious traditions, the soul can be unbalanced by the four parts being ‘out of sync’ - this is common, as very few batarian souls are completely in sync, either through choice or through circumstance.Heart (“Anya”) - upper right eye compassion and faith.Body (“Nava”) - lower left eye, actions and expression.Mind (“Li”) - upper left eye, mental strength and intelligence.“Lesser” creatures with only two eyes are considered permanently disunified. Without all four eyes, a soul is considered disunified, and if the eyes are removed from the body after death, the batarian can’t make it to the afterlife. Batarians are very considerate of the eyes, as each of the four is seen as a physical representation of the soul ( zayn’ir), which is split into four pieces. Four eyes is an apex evolutionary trait on Khar’shan - only predators at the top of the foodchain exhibit them. It's noted that batarian has a somewhat metallic taste to it, regardless of how it’s seasoned or prepared.īatarians are noted for having four eyes. These patterns are usually colored blue, black, or red, while the nose pattern is almost always red.Īpparently, they taste remarkably similar to humans, with the added caveats that the eyes nearly qualify as a delicacy, and that one should beware of anything other than the arms and legs because they tend to have intestinal parasites. Observed patterns include multiple chin stripes, a single strip running from the lower lip, or a thin dagger of color above the nose. Some batarians possess striped colorations on their heads. Most batarians encountered have a dark brown hue with pale facial ridges, but batarian complexions include reddish-brown, greenish, yellow-greenish to yellow-brownish, light brown, and teal.
A batarian can learn to moderately alter their voice by contracting small muscles present in these windpipes, but few bother with this.īatarians exhibit a wide range of skin tones and colors. Also, these structures have a minor role in vocalization as resonators. Combined with numerous and relatively thin nostrils those evolved to effectively breath the air of Khar'shan - often very hot, dry and choked with pollen and dust in summer, and even drier and freezing in winter. The organ did not carry over to the batarians, but the cartilage formation did.īatarians also have nasal windpipes covered in thick protective cartilage. These would have been aimed at the sky, capable of discerning between light and dark and potentially spotting aerial predators even at zenith by their shadow. The relief of cartilage on the top of the head, according to some theories, is a holdover from where an ancestor species used to have photosensitive spots, akin to a third pair of eyes. The part of their faces commonly associated with the nose among humans and asari is instead an inverted flat triangle, symmetrically ridged vertically. They have ears pointed at the upper end, though on occasion along the edges as well. A flat strip of ridged cartilage runs along the tops of their skulls and down the backs of their necks.