Sapients
The feathered dinosaur species. A theocratic people known for their chirpy dispositions and devout religious beliefs, they were the species who discovered humanity, but made a catastrophic miscalculation that ignited war on Earth and soured relations between the two species for a long time.
Much of their political maneuvering during the first arc is aimed at righting this wrong.
- Good Shepherd: They're a theocracy, and thus have a high amount of priests per capita. They're also quite nice folk, superstrong-veloceraptor-chicken-men-ness nonwithstanding. They all have the ability to see (and presumably, objectively demonstrate the existence of) the souls of sapient creatures.
- Hypothetical Fight Debate: A popular pastime is DEATHBATTLE-style arguing "who would win in a fight" between their religion's popes ("Diarchs"). This is, strictly speaking, heresy, but since literally everyone does it (even the current Diarchs), it's not illegal.
- Must Make Amends: For the accidental mutilation of Hank Hillsberg, and the global panic it caused. It takes two decades, but eventually they jump from humanity's most distrusted allies to their best friends.
- Psychic Powers: They have exactly one: the ability to see people's "souls." This is tied to their backmost pair of eyes. No wonder they're a theocracy...
The wolf species. A monarchy whose people are known for their communal lifestyles and boisterous instincts, they are fully intelligent, but they rely on scent to perceive others, which can override their conscious minds.
- Big Friendly Dog: Humans smell just like their babies, triggering their parenting instincts. They do their best to ignore it, and have humans bunk with a Drorarizin roommate to cover it up.
- Fictional Sport: Hunt, which what it sounds like except that it's done in a stadium and light projections are the 'prey'.
- I'm Taking Him Home with Me!: During First Contact, their ambassador kidnapped the entire Earth delegation because we smelled so strongly of "baby" it triggered her protective instincts.
- Metamorphosis Monster: Dorarizin young start as burrowing larvae ("burrowers") until their legs grow in. These are referred to as "leapers."
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Three rows (two upper and one lower) of 'em that are articulated, like the chilicerae of an arachnid.
- Palm Bloodletting: Their greif-ritual for a male Dorarizin being jilted (the gender dynamic is reversed, with males being courted by females) is to bite his palm until his teeth break. Having a former partner do this is bad enough that the family of the perpetrator turns on her.
- Wonderful Werewolf: They resemble werewolves, and they think we're adorable. Our body odour is chemically identical to their young's pheremones, so they catch a whiff of human and their every nerve starts screaming "protect the baby" at them. This leads to the males building and defending nests, and the females herding us into them.
The cobra species. A democratic people known for their ectothermic physiology (and consequent adoration of heat) and appreciation of culture.
- Cuddle Bug: See below. Their name for humans directly translates to " Warmcuddle" because we're such good huggers.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Sharing warmth is highly normalized in their culture, whether the participants have a close relationship or not. Being serpents, they rarely need to worry about crushing each other.
Us. A democratic people relatively new to the galactic stage, known for their fragility, impulsive decisions, and bravado about all of the above. When a disastrous First Contact led them to believe they were in danger from the more advanced species, they bombed their homeworld in an act of suicidal defiance. This, and their total lack of interstellar colonies, led them to be classified as an endangered species. Integration into the galactic community is ongoing.
- Giver of Lame Names: Our homeworld is "earth" (ie, dirt), our sun is "the sun," our moon is "the moon" (and their official names, Terra, Sol, and Luna, are just Latin for, wait for it: Earth, The Sun, and The Moon), and our deity is "God." We're a very laconic people.
- Fun with Subtitles: Humans have a conditioning programme that involves giving alien movies funny subtitles, in an effort to make the people represented therein less frightening. It almost causes an international incident when they find out about it.
- Humans Are Insane: All three aliens look like anthropomorphized predators: velociraptors, wolves, and cobras. Humans working on alien ships regularly go starkers and try to flee or fortify their positions.
- Humans Are Special: We're the cosmic equivalent of a litter of puppies (especially where the Dorarizins are concerned). Karnakians appreciate our childlike worldview (and our souls are beautiful), Jornissians think we give good hugs, and Dorarizins think we resemble their children.
- Made of Plasticine: In comparison to everyone else. The original First Contact between humans and the Karnakians went wrong when a Karnakian soldier impulsively tried to help up a human who had tripped over, and accidentally ripped both his arms off.
Individuals
One of humanity's first intergalactic colonists, and the inventor of moth-racing. He is a minor character in arc 3 and one of arc 4's protagonists.
- Future Badass: In his first appearance, he was just a little kid whose family were settling an alien planet. Twenty years later, he's an experienced rancher in his own right and a minor celebrity.
- Honest Corporate Executive: Juan is CEO of the Moth-racer's league (sic), but he's committed to keeping the industry legal and eco-friendly. Typically for the trope, he still tends to his beasts personally.
- Worth It: When he was young, he fell a great distance and would have died, if one of the wild giant moths native to the planet hadn't been ascending in that same spot. He clung to the moth in terror, but he also felt something else, and that thrill led him to the career he would love all his life.
