Tallians

Tallians come from a world they call Tallius, which is a moon orbiting a rogue planet, a gas giant they know as Tallanar. They are humanoid in shape, though they have wings on their backs which can not be used for flight. Tallians communicate by vibrating their wings and cannot speak without the aid of artificial voiceboxes, though those few living off-world often do have such technology implanted regularly. Such speakers will often keep their wings bound under clothes to help keep them from unconsciously beating their wings while they talk.

Agnes, the doctor about the Space Army’s Stinky Saucer, is a Tallian, but not very many Tallians have gone on to join the Space Army. Even during the height of the war with the Flartians, the Tallians preferred to keep to themselves and wait to see how things resolved.

Gutsum works at one of the Tallius’s geothermal power plants, harnessing volcanic heat to power the world’s electrical grids. Occupations for Tallians are trained for from birth, individuals are not given much choice in what they want to do with their lives, but because occupations only take up a small portion of their time, few are unhappy with what they have to do. Gutsum spends her considerable free time meditating in the thermal spas near the power plant.

With no star of their own, the Tallians have never had much chance to study stars up close. Greep studies stars, an occupation which many see as not very useful or applicable to Tallian society. Most of Greep’s work has to be done at a distance, often studying information purchased from other species, but every now and then, Greep gets to actually board a spaceship and visit some planet or space station where stars are more easily witnessed. Greep treats these occasional trips as the highlight of her life, but always returns home, because too much time spent among the stars is kind of creepy.

Reeprog is an employee of the Tallian government, working at the buildings used to house diplomats from alien species when they came to visit the world. While Reeprog tries to be nice to visitors, she does find them obnoxious with their harsh languages and lack of knowledge of Tallian customs. Reeprog deals with them by making snide sarcastic remarks. Perhaps the best thing about cross cultural interactions is how little people are on guard for sarcasm.

A Fact About Tallians: For Tallians, eyesight is not the most developed sense, they rely more on their hearing and touch. Tallian music is designed to send vibrations through the listeners and trigger physical reactions. In listeners of other species, this can cause effects such as making them drowsy or even causing them to vomit.

Universe: Bronze

Just like last July, I am going to spend this month fleshing out the species of the cast of my Space Army comics.

Fundroons

The Fundroons are a species of shapeshifters capable of fully controlling their bodies and taking on any appearance they desire. When they made first contact with the rest of the universe’s species, the other species were very nervous about the Fundroons. Their paranoia led them to try wiping the species out. The Fundroons had no problem defending themselves and the other species just had to accept that these shapeshifters would have to be tolerated. The naming conventions of the Fundroons have never been explained to any other species, but the translations of their names are always abridged to two letters for some reason.

The Space Army’s C.W. is a Fundroon.

M.M. is pictured here in the default shape of a Fundroon, which is appropriate since M.M. has not left the Fundroon homeworld. With no reason to try to blend in with other species, there’s no reason to pretend to look like anything else. On the homeworld, one doesn’t shapeshift to pretend to be anything else, one shapeshifts to hunt prey. M.M. is extremely good at hunting prey, preferring techniques like flying in then taking a spear shape to pierce a target.

There is a disease that can affect Fundroons that causes their body to forget the default shape they are supposed to revert to when not shapeshifting. In the case D.F., his body got confused while he was in the shape of a chair, so now D.F. looks like a chair when not focusing on being something else. He isn’t immobile or anything, he can still walk around as a chair, but it does make him very self-conscious about his appearance.

T.F. is a Fundroon living abroad. There is always work for a shapeshifter, and a lot of that work is not exactly savory. T.F. has been hired by all sorts of criminal elements to do things like robberies, fraud, and all sorts of other illicit acts. Basically, T.F. is exactly the kind of shapeshifter that gives shapeshifters a bad name. But he’s making money, which is all he cares about.

A Fact About Fundroons: When off-world wandering among non-shapeshifting races, Fundroons tend to keep their eyestalks visible as a kindness to other species, so that they know they are dealing with a Fundroon (obviously this does not apply when a Fundroon is trying to trick the others). It also makes things easier for the Fundroon if they don’t have to focus on maintaining a non-default shape as a face.

Universe: Bronze

Ootmoos

Ootmoos are a thick-skinned bipedal species who are a big part of the pan-galactic community. Ootmoos are active in almost all of the universe-spanning social organizations that have been formed over the ages, including the Space Army, the Space Trade Union, the Space Pollution Removal Force, the Space Alliance of Piano Repairers, and even the Space Social Organization Organizer Organization. Ootmoos are everywhere, working to make a better Space for everybody. They have no blood, they can breathe underwater, they shed their skin once a year, and they like collecting pictures of clouds. Every Ootmoo in existence likes collecting pictures of clouds.

The Space Army’s Pooloop was an Ootmoo. Since the end of the war, Pooloop has been living on the planet Zarnton, seeking inner peace.

Roodintoo is a young Ootmoo, merely six skins old, who is working at a spaceship factory. Roodintoo has never known any work but this, and isn’t really unhappy, but kind of feels like something is missing. With that in mind, Roodintoo has begun assembling a personal spaceship in their spare time, with the intention of travelling the cosmos once it is finished.

Ooverro was a Space Army captain during the war with the Flartians. Ooverro’s ship saw a lot of combat, and Ooverro lost many good crew members. All the crew members knew the risks, and obviously the Flartians had to be stopped no matter the cost, but those deaths still weigh on Ooverro’s soul. To make sure that their sacrifice was worth it, Ooverro now dedicates time and resources to repairing and improving the homeworlds of those lost crew members.

Toobooni still lives on the Ootmoo homeworld, which is called Voot, and has a very successful career as a singer. The Ootmoo languages, which would sound to our ears like a bunch of very fast hooting, is extremely complex and allows for advanced wordplay. Plus, every word has an “oo” sound, so rhyming is easy.

A Fact About Ootmoos: For a long time, the Ootmoos reproduced by laying their eggs inside the corpses of their enemies. When the species became a peaceful ally to other aliens, that was often frowned upon by others. Since then the Ootmoos have perfected compost mixtures that are actually more ideal for laying eggs than corpses ever were, which makes one wonder why they even did the corpse thing for so long. (The answer is because it freaked out their enemies, of course.)

Universe: Bronze

The Flitari

Having evolved in the dense atmosphere of a gas giant, the Flitari are tiny yet powerful flyers. One advantage they have, though, is that they are also capable of going into lighter atmospheres without bursting, which makes them even more powerful flyers on other worlds. Since first contact with the Space Army several generations ago, members of the species have left their world to visit the rest of the universe, joining spaceship crews or settling on worlds with ample sky in which to really let loose. For the most part, Flitari are highly intelligent. Which is handy, considering that they have only one eye and fly very fast. That can end poorly if they aren’t careful.

Subsy, a member of the Space Army crew who was only ever in the background, is a Flitari.

Isto is an explorer. Though the Space Army has mapped out an unfathomable amount of the universe in broad strokes, there are still many small planets that are unknown. Isto, along with a crew of scientists, are patiently filling in the details of a seemingly uninhabited sector, naming all kinds of stuff after themselves.

Ango has taken up residence on a world where racing is extremely popular. Representatives of all manner of alien species gather here to pit their fastest competitors for races on foot, in the air, and in the seas, depending on what the species can do (there’s even a race that takes place in a large volcano for some particularly extreme extremophiles). Isto has competed in a number of races, but never reached the big time, and is now training a young new racer who is racing to raise money for their poor homeworld. Unknown to them, their competition, a group of snobby rich jerk aliens, has been using illegal technology to cheat.

Abish is a serial killer. Since the Flitari are a common sight in the galactic community, and few other species can actually tell them apart, Abish finds little resistance when sneaking into spaceports or space stations. There, Abish will stalk prey, preferably from species much larger than the Flitari (as many are), kill them with sudden violence (for many targets, it’s as easy as acting like a living bullet), and then get away before anyone notices. Abish has killed dozens of times and has drawn no suspicion. Nobody ever suspects the Flitari.

A Fact About The Flitari: The Flitari are loners, at least when it comes to being with their own species. Since they began to spread throughout the universe, they are seldom seen in groups, preferring to remain in the company of other species, or even to go along altogether. Only when the Flitari go into mating season do they return home to be with their own kind.

Universe: Bronze

Blegbos

Blegbos are the dominant species on planet Whummmp. Theirs is a swampy world with shallow water all over the surface, and these blobby beings wallow there in relative peace. Overall, the Blegbos are an easygoing species, long-lived and mellow. Though Blegbos do feed on grassy plants of their world, they also intake a lot of energy by sprawling on rocks and lazily basking in sunlight. While doing this, they are also groomed by some of the small flying animals of their world, who pick insect and leech-like creatures off the Blegbos for their own meals.

Bollee of the Space Army is a Blegbo.

Vipee is a philosopher, one of the most common occupations on Whummmp. Vipee is really bad at it, though. Almost all of Vipee’s ideas are about lightning and how fast it is. We get it, Vipee. Lightning is fast.

Mokey, like all Blegbos who leave the homeworld, has cybernetic limbs that aid in mobility in other conditions. Blegbos need not attach their technology to their bodies surgically as they can “ooze” themselves into the limbs, filling the tiny crevices and making them natural extensions of their form. And when they don’t need them anymore, they can easily remove themselves by simply pulling out. Mokey’s spider-like legs allow mobility on the rocky, uneasy terrain of the world where Mokey is currently hiding from friends after losing a bet and owing them the equivalent of twenty bucks.

And Gurbly is a hunter. Though Blegbos are not carnivorous, they do still engage in hunting of certain species on their world for both resources (animals on this world have organs that can be used as tools such as water filters, air pumps, and even syringes) and esteem (successful hunters are rewarded with first choice of nesting grounds). Gurbly is a middling hunter, but enjoys the work.

A Fact About Blegbos: The Blegbos have invented more varieties of bucket than any other species in their galaxy by something like tenfold. They have kinds of buckets that human minds can’t yet imagine.

Universe: Bronze