Jertiffs

Jertiffs are a species that look like a head with two arm/legs and a tail. They are able to manipulate things with their hands, but can only really do it with any skill if they are resting on their tail. The mouth of a Jertiff is positioned at the bottom of their “head” and extends out when it takes in food. Their sense of smell is more significant to them than their sight, but they still really like decorative hats.

Living on a planet they call Varitow, Jertiff’s build cities around farming grounds, often with walls around them. In most Jertiff cultures, a council of elders governs the city. They have a barter system that offers goods for services. Pretty standard stuff.

Libriver is a disaster responder. The planet Varitow is struck by small meteors with alarming regularity, and occasionally they hit populated areas. Libriver and fellow responders are not affiliated with any particular city, but travel where they are needed and help repair the damage.

Maubell dwells in the planet’s largest and oldest city, but has no appreciation of the history there. Working as a builder, Maubell looks only toward building new things and replacing the old ones. Maubell also feels this way about the city elders, and wants nothing more than for them to die of so it’ll be Maubell’s time to shine.

Phoado is a farmer in a small, wall-less city. Travellers on the roads near the city will frequently come into the farms and steal food, which angers Phoado to no end.

A Fact About Jertiffs: Jertiff society is based around health. You know how human societyis based around money? How they will do incredibly stupid things that turn a profit but don’t otherwise help society at large in any way? Jertiffs are like that with health. For example, they prioritize physical fitness over intellectual education. They also treat the physically unfit the way we treat the homeless, like scum.

Universe: Green

Vobavians

The Vobavians are a tiny species by human standards, standing only a foot tall on their hind legs, but there are over twenty billion of them on their home planet of Vobav. In several ways they resemble Earthly rodents, they are a burrowing species with mammal-like traits. Vobavians live in colonies with castes that determine what job they will perform. They have no permanent gender and can change their nature as needed for reproductive purposes.

Blepdorp is a worker, which is to say that they do whatever physical labour it needed to be done at any time. That can include digging tunnels, carrying heavy loads, or building walls but almost never involves leaving the colony’s tunnel system. Blepdorp has only been outside the colony tunnels to work twice, and the second time was very nearly struck by lightning (and is still deaf as a result). Blepdorp is perfectly happy with not going outside anymore.

Wooploop is an unassigned worker, which means that most of the time they get to lounge around and play games with other unassigned workers. It may seem like that sort of thing would be a drain on a colony’s resources, supporting lazy slackers, but the idea is that, should an emergency arise, the colony will have a contingent of well-rested replacements ready a moments notice. So far Wooploop has had to serve as a worker when a bunch of the colony’s worker’s were killed by a rival colony, a garment maker when a disease left most of the colony sick in bed, and a firekeeper when a season of flooding left the colony’s fire supplies running low. So Wooploop has seen a lot, but gets to enjoy downtime most of the time. It’s a pretty good life. Wooploop’s favorite pastime is racing. This colony, and many others, has a system of tunnels designed just for unassigned workers to race. Though Vobavians with assigned jobs don’t get nearly as much relaxation time, there are those who enjoy spending what they do get as spectators for the races.

Nublobb works on the surface around their colony’s tunnels, mostly foraging for the berry-like things that make up a large part of the Vobavian diet, but also serving as a lookout for trouble from other colonies. Vobavians are quite territorial and violence will often break out between colonies just for being near one another. Nublobb particularly enjoys that aspect of the job and has been known to forage closer to other colonies than is wise, just in the hopes of getting a chance to beat up rivals.

A Fact About Vobavians: Vobavians are not willing to have any relationship with the other animals on their planet. As vegetarians, they have never needed to breed them for food. They don’t keep them as pets or workers either. When a swarm of Vobavians wants to create a new colony, the first thing they do is chase off all the animals in the area and creates walls and fences to keep them gone.

Universe: White

Grunoferons

The Grunoferons are a species that are comparable in size to Earth’s rhinoceros or hippopotamus. They are bipedal, though their legs are positioned with one in front and one in back, rather than side by side. Their primary senses are based around magnetic fields, and at the front of their heads they have long trunk-like appendages with a ball that has generate electrical charges and generate electromagnetic waves.

The species live in nomadic herds, travelling with the seasons. The planet is large and their population is small, so there are not a lot of territorial conflicts. When a Grunoferon goes off on its own to start a new herd, it will send out pulses that tell its location to other solo individuals.

Etranzorry is a young Grunoferon, part of a sizeable herd in the planet’s tropical regions. Etranzorry is a curious sort that enjoys wandering off from the herd to seek out nooks and crannies that others may have never seen.

Mowndomy is an older Grunoferon, who has laid eggs seventeen times and successfully raised five children, which is well above the average, which is only one or two in a lifetime. Mowndomy attributes this reproductive success to the three rivers near the herds egg-laying fields, which create a natural barrier against egg-stealing creatures, which seems like a pretty reasonable assumption.

Dipdoplo is a solo Grunoferon currently seeking a new herd after having grown annoyed by the company of the last herd. Dipdoplo won’t admit it yet, but would be much happier alone than with a herd, but still seeks a new one because that’s what one is “supposed” to do.

A Fact About Grunoferons: Although there are no natural predators of grown Grunoferons on their planet, the eyes of Grunoferons have mystical properties that make them very handy in the occult sciences. This means that wizards from other planets, even other dimensions, will occasionally raid their homeworld and poach Grunoferons for their eyes, sometimes even leaving their living victims eyeless and forced to try to survive without their vision. Naturally, this has left the Grunoferons very wary of strange species.

Universe: Brown

Shlafes

The Shlafes are a powerfully built bipedal race of furry mammal-like creatures. Early Shlafes were nomads who roamed the plains following animals as the seasons changed until eventually a tribe of Shlafes settled near a lake when they took up fishing. There the first Shlafes city grew for centuries and a royal family became its undisputed rulers. As other cities popped up elsewhere on the planet, the first city had a head start and conquered the newcomers, essentially becoming world rulers. There came a time when two twin princes both claimed rule of the city upon the death of their father. The populace was divided and a bloody civil war probably would have broken out if spaceships hadn’t landed in the palace courtyard that day. The Ugder had landed.

The Shlafes homeworld is in the same star system as the Ugder homeworld. The two species are neighbors. So when the Ugder reached out into space, the Shlafes were the first alien life forms they encountered. It didn’t go well. The more technologically advanced Ugder saw the Shlafes as little more than animals, and treated them as beasts of burden as they colonized the planet. It was an unfortunately bad first contact and only generations of struggle have made things somewhat better, as the Ugder came to realize the Shlafes were intelligent, and now treat them as equals.

Bongk Hayken lives on the Ugder homeworld, which is where his family had been brought as slaves and remained after they were freed. Bongk has a job working in a spaceport, serving food to many different species that visit the planet, which is pretty complex work.

Tuck Sherm lives on the Shlafes homeworld, in the same region his family in which had always resided. Though his ancestors may not have been taken away by the Ugder, that isn’t to say they didn’t suffer. The planet-wide disturbance caused by the arrival of aliens collapsed many of the structures that kept the society running, and this region in particular was left impoverished. Tuck is now an activist trying to improve the state of the region.

Roghad Dukkik is the Bloodking of the Shlafes. When the Ugder derailed the path of Shlafes society, the royal bloodline that ruled for so long was all but forgotten. When it was eventually decided to reestablish the royal government of the Shlafes, genetic testing was done to find any descendants of the original line still existed. One did, and it was Roghad. He is a young, irreverent slacker and he doesn’t even know the history of the royal family. It’ll be a wacky adventure having him as the new ruler of the planet.

A Fact About The Shlafes: Grooming rituals make up an important role in Shlafes society. Though they had no concept of germs or bacteria or anything like that, they naturally came up with many techniques that created a good level of sanitation for their living environments. Comparatively, the Ugder were a mess until they arrived on Shlafes and they learned a lot of from their neighbors that saved many Ugder lives.

Universe: Narsidon

Eebaks

The Eebaks are a species with two powerful legs, six eyes, beaks, and soft fur that covers the core area of their body. They are an extremely social species, living closely together in “Houses” made up of individuals who will stick together throughout their lives, for better or for worse, with everyone supposed to pitch in.

Dorinto Pront is, as the name suggests, a Pront. Pronts are members of the “House of Houses”, which is a group of representatives from different Houses who meet regularly to discuss matters of the public good, and Dorinto does a lot of good there. Unfortunately. Dorinto’s House is particularly well off, with very little suffering in their lives, so the others don’t quite understand why Dorinto should spend so much time meeting to discuss the well-being of lesser Houses. Most of Dorinto’s housemates actually see it as a waste of time, and think of Dorinto as lazy and not contributing to the well-being of the House.

Fakrang is a professional mater. Eebak reproduction is done with two participants, one creating a shell-like object and the other filling it with genetic material and the burying the result in the ground (they are an agendered species and any individual can contribute either component). Fakrang, being a particularly attractive Eebak, travels from location to location finding those who have a desire to mate and helping them out. Eebaks don’t care for their offspring, so there is not much of an emotional component to Fakrang knowing that they’ve fathered hundreds of children.

Maureraw is a hunter. The Eebak diet consists mostly of smaller animals, which they prefer to eat alive, so hunters like Maureraw are expected to capture the animals alive and then bring them back to their House, or to trade them to other Houses. As a side-project, though, Maureraw has invented a method of working with a flying-insect-like species to gather the products they produce. Maureraw has invented this planet’s version of beekeeping.

A Fact About Eebaks: Only a generation ago, the largest episode of warfare in the planet’s history erupted across the planet, caused by a matter of etiquette. Wars had happened among the Eebak before over things such as territory or resources, but this first World War began when a well-respected Pront in a highly civilized region travelled to a less developed region and was taken in by locals and given shelter and food. The Pront returned home and had a message of thanks sent, but it was discovered that the message was worded not by the Pront themselves, but by an assistant. This was seen as a scandal and an insult to the poorer region, and when the other poorer regions joined them in standing up against this affront, thousands of regions were drawn into the conflict to show the reality of their thanks to their allies. This was the cause of the bloodiest war the Eebaks have ever known.

Universe: Red