The Major Aliens of My Setting

[trb456]

Back in 1978-79, I lived next door to a budding comic book artist. 12-year old Me attempted to explain to this 20-something what Traveller was, and might he be willing to draw my major alien races? He was a fast learner, and he not only drew basic prototypes of my designs, but drew many drawings of characters with Traveller accurate weapons and armor. I did not include all these drawings, but I am posting the prototypes for your perusal. As a postscript, I remember literally nothing else about my artist, not even his name, but I am greatly appreciative of his work.

The Third Imperium is such a great setting that it seemed to drown out alternatives, yet I always wanted my own setting from the beginning. As will be apparent, 12-year old Me designed aliens that were often slight variants of the Third Imperium. Today Me is working on my setting now, and trying to shape these into something more interesting and unique. Note that all alien names are Allani names: the alien race's own name could be quite different and unpronouncable.

Some warnings: These drawing are colored pencil and not up to modern print standards, though I quite like them. They are also of their time, so they have some retro charm, but the humans are far too white. Be assured that all these aliens have variations in appearance (well, perhaps not the Narrelians...) Also, the Maroans are probably NSFW, so be warned.

Allani: The Allani are my baseline humans. But my setting is a galaxy "far, far away", and so the Allani are not Terrans and their homewrold Aalan is not Earth. The Allani are the founders of the Imperial Sovereign Empire, the focus of my setting. I'm still working on their alternate history, which I want to be significantly different from Earth. The Sovereign Empire is defintely not the Star Wars Empire, but neither is it the Star Trek Federation.


Destri: The Destri are high-gravity offshoots of the Allani. They are short, stocky, and quite strong.


NorI: The Nori are low-gravity offshoots of the Allani. The are tall, slender, and dexterous.


Erri: Originally the Erri were another offshoot of the Allani, but they are now an alien humanoid race. They are uniformly psionic, but are not as strong on average as a random psionic. I am working to make them "not Vulcans". They rule a Federation that is a contrast to the Sovereign Empire, but is far from a utopia. The superficailly Asian clothing is just that: the Erri prefer a variety of loose-fitting garments (evening wear is depicted below), in contrast to the more fitted clothing of the Allani.


Dellins: The Dellins are ursoid humanioids who embrace a radial form of self-actualization. They are not a warrior race, but are a survivalist race: their goal is complete self-reliance in any situation. They are highly technologically advanced, but have a complex and fraught relationship to tech. They have many other cultural aspects which are extremely alien to humans, yet they are probably the most relatable to humans of all the major aliens.


Maroans: The Maroans were my cat race, because who doesn't love a cat race? Originally I doubt I thought of them much differently than the Aslan. Revisiting them today, I researched other feline social structures and came upon the cheetah. There are some very interesting implications here, for example females doing better on their own, while males doing better in groups. I'm enjoying fleshing out this nugget. The Maroan are also omnidexterous, fully capable of both bipedal and quadripedal movement, and thus wear little clothing so as not to get in the way of ambulation. Note: the female Maroan is probably not safe for work, so be warned.


Narrelians: The Hivers were given a mistaken name, not being a hive-based race. But I liked the idea of a hive mind, and so we have the Narrelians, who humans would compare to humanoid termites or the like. The Narrelians are the first of three "mystery aliens" which are not available as player characters. They are the highest known TL aliens in the setting, but are quite inscrutable to humans. Humans refer to their three sexual types as workers, drones, and queens (as presented) per the insect analog, but the actual situation is rather more complex and mysterious.


Torrans: The Torrans are fish-men, because 12-year old Me wanted fish-men (male top, female bottom). I now realize that fish-men are unlikely candidates for technological advancement, so the fact that the Torrans ARE technologically advanced, with jump drives and land suits, makes them all the more intriguing. How exactly did they accomplish this? They won't say, or allow any scrutiny of their worlds, so this is a deep mystery worth some research.


Kryllin: The Kryllin are a gas giant alien race physically modeled on the Jgd-Ii-Jagd, but the similarity ends there. The Kryllin appear to be the oldest known jump-capable alien race, with indications of ancient settlements across known space. But the Kryllin seem to have no conventional technology or even civilization or social structure. They are psionic, but not conventionally so. They do not normally communicate with other alien races, but this seems to be changing of late. So what is going on here?


I hope these ancient drawings and contemporary musings are of some interest.

 

[trb456]

As these pictures seem to be interesting to you all, here are some others of a more combat nature.

Dellins: This simple line drawing is nonetheless my favorite portrait of the Dellins. More alien, bigger ears. And yes, that's a lirpa. Or axe-mace in my equipment list. I always loved that weapon. The spear-hook is my artist's innovation, best I can tell.



Torrans: This huniting portrait has counterparts for the Dellins and Maroans. All these aliens maintain archaic martial traditions for diiferent reasons.



Battle Dress: My artist had a distictive style for Battle Dress, notably a lack of shaped feet. These are Allani, Erri, and Nori. Baroque 80s style, but pretty cool.



The Torran and Destri examples are special. As I noted, how exactly the Torrans have technological land suits, let alone Battle Dress, is a puzzle for sure. The Destri example includes a scarily accurate PGMP-13 or FGMP-14. I must have described this weapon well to my artist!



I'm afraid this is it for the illustrations. I hope you have enjoyed them.

 

[Jame]

This is real cool!
As for the humans, let's call them an in-universe set of recordings that happen to have been used to represent what a human looks like generally - "this is the basic shape of a human; they come in a variety of different sizes and colors."

 

[Vargr Breath]

They are cool, did he ever do any ships for your games?

 

[trb456]

They are cool, did he ever do any ships for your games?

Thanks, but no ships, just aliens. I mostly thought the default ships were pretty cool. As I flesh out the setting, I'l need to think about what the default alien race ship structure is. For example, I already know that the Narrelians use spheres in almost all cases, while the Dellins insist upon streamlining to be prepared for anything. Still thinking about the others. Any suggestions?

 

[trb456]

This is real cool!
As for the humans, let's call them an in-universe set of recordings that happen to have been used to represent what a human looks like generally - "this is the basic shape of a human; they come in a variety of different sizes and colors."

Thanks! And your idea is about right. As I noted, these drawings are of their time and reflect both the artist (a white dude) and the era (lots of white dudes). But I must say that while 12-year old Me did not notice this, Today Me has to say that his females are surprisingly not too sexualized, and are every bit as impressive and imposing as the males. I very much appreciate the non-human aliens having distinct differences between the physicality of the sexes, particularly the Maroans and Torrans (and Narrelians, obviously). And I do acknowledge sexual fluidity, so there are many gradations among all the aliens (except for the Narrelians and the Kryllin, for different reasons). One thing the Traveller Alien Modules did well is to teach that aliens are not just humans in monster suits, and should be complex and contradictory, and certainly not monolithic. For example, I described the Dellins as seeking radical self-actualization. It should be clear that lots of Dellins will fail at this ideal, just like most Klingons came nowhere near the ideal Worf was trying to achieve. I hope this makes for interesting aliens.

 

[trb456]

I have mostly completed all my errata patching and homebrewing, and so am now deep in setting building, always the hardest part. As a result, I have some new details about my Major Races. Sorry, just words, no new pictures. I may need to commission an artist! No AI for me!

Erri: The Erri are humanoids that superficially resemble the Allani but have several differences upon close expection. Two major physical differences from the Allani: 1) Erri have a sense of smell on par with canines, identifying individuals by scent first and having a pheromone level of emotional communication; 2) The Erri equivalent of melanin appears in patterns of patches rather than uniformly tinting the skin, so Erri have a range of patterns: spots, whorls, stripes, etc. The non-melanin tint is light pink to light tan, and the melanin tint is dark red to dark brown. So think Star Trek Trill but with even more variations (the provided illustrations certainly do not reflect this).

Dellin: Dellins seek to hone all physical senses, but their hearing is most acute, both in terms of sensitivity and frequency range. They can use echolocation by making clicking sounds and listening to the rebound, such clicks often above the range of Allani hearing. Dellin skin tones are similar to Allani but grey replaces pink, giving Dellin skin a notably flatter tone than Allani.

Maroan: Maroans are a feline-evolved race with a social order similar to cheetahs. Males live better in groups of 2-5, called coalitions (oilroa), while females live better alone and can become the equivalent of celebrities, though so can male coalitions. There are exceptions in both directions, but Maroan society has evolved around these primal drives. So for example, a large corporation is just as likely to be helmed by a female etleakhea (“superstar”) or a male oilroa iykhai (“alpha pack”). Add in communal child rearing and Maroan society is quite distinct.

All Maroan senses are heightened compared to Allani. Most notable are sight, particularly in low light (ultravision), and the sensitivity of their whiskers to touch. Maroans will often poke their heads into areas about which they want more touch data. Whisker sensitivity is also a considerable factor in intimacy. Maroan fur has all the range of normal felines, plus a greenish tint to greys and a bluish-purplish tint to blacks.

Narrelian: Narrelian workers have a complex hierarchical algorithmic language that stores much more information than typical languages, They also have voices akin to synthesizers. This means they can learn and speak virtually any language. An important result of this is the Narrelians invented a universal Sign Language that can be used by any alien race with 2 limbs and 4+ digits. The genius of this language is its universality: they carefully mapped similar concepts across all languages to the same sign. There are, or course, some hilarious translations. But in general, Sign Language is much more valuable to learn than individual alien languages, and starship crews heavily rely upon it.

I have some details on 4 Minor Races that are playable in my setting, but I'll save that for another post. Thanks!

 

[trb456]

The highly loaded term "Major Race" applies to alien races that (claim to have) developed jump drive on their own initiative. All other sophonts are Minor Races. There are hundreds of Minor Races in the Sovereign Empire, many not yet discovered. But there are only 14 "important" Minor Races, in that they command a notable region of space (i.e. they possess jump without having invented it).

Four of these Minor Races are available as Player Characters. My setting begins in the Trailing frontier of the the Sovereign Empire. This area intersects the Sovereign Empire (Allani), the Erri Federation (Erri), the Dellin Galactic Empire (Dellin), the Confederation of Narrel (Narrelian), the Counsula Maroa Galactica (Maroan), and the Kryllin Free Zone (Kryllin), omitting only the Torrans who are far spinward of this region. The four playable minor races are associated with the Allani (3) and the Dellin (1). Both the Allani and Dellin run neo-feudal empires, and their client minor races have -2 to initial Soc.

Note that some of these descriptions include homebrew terms for my setting. I may go over these in a future post, though I think many of them are understandable from context. Any comparisons to actual creatures should be taken very roughly; e.g. the Oslin are NOT actual moose. The Narrelian Sign Language I introduced in the prior post is essential for some of these races (e.g. the Sellekin and Yaldrin cannot speak a language understandable by the Allani).

Sellekin: Sellekin are 1.3-1.8m long mantis-like insectoids. Each of their 6 limbs ends in 3 thin pointed fingers and 1 opposable thumb. Their speed is similar to Allani but they can climb shear surfaces at normal speed. Sellekin senses are comparable to Allani except for sight: they have extensive infra- and ultravision and have x100 microscopic sight. They are -2 Str, +1 Dex, and +1 End. Comfortable gravity is 0.75-1.05. They can bite for 1D Damage + Paralysis Poison. All careers are possible except for Barbarian, Noble, and Fame-based careers.

Nezrin: Nezrin resemble very slender-limbed starfish, 2m in diameter, with each of the 5 limbs terminating in 5 suckered tentacles. The upper central body is a sensory cluster of 5 eyestalks and 5 earholes. The lower central body is a maw for both ingestion and egestion, and can both smell and taste. They are +1 Str, -2 Dex, and +1 End. Comfortable gravity is 0.65-0.95. All careers are possible except for Agent, Noble, and Fame-based careers.

Nezrin are amphibians that must remain moist, saline or not, and can stay submerged for any duration. They ambulate with all 5 limbs and any limb can be used for any purpose. Their speed is no different from Allani. Touch is their most sensitive sense, and they can obtain a great deal of information from touch alone. Their sensory cluster allows for 360⁰ vision and hearing.

Oslin: Oslin are large hexapedal mammals resembling moose. Their four ground limbs have cloven hooves but their two arms have 3 fingers and an opposable thumb. Males have elaborate antlers, females do not. They have poor eyesight but excellent hearing and smell. Like Maroans, they have a Move 4 Run and Move 100 sprint mode. They are Str +2, Dex -1, and End +1. Comfortable gravity is 0.85-1.15. Males can attack with their antlers (Horns), and all with their Hooves. But Oslin are passivists, among the most strident in Known Space. They will never initiate combat or violence. They are among the most proficient of healers: Any skill obtained may be taken as Medical up to level 4 (excluding actual Medical). All non-military careers are possible (Scouts and Merchant are not military) except Barbarian, Hunter, Pirate, Rogue, and Noble. They will minimize Notoriety in Fame-based careers.

Yaldrin: Yaldrin are very tall (2.5m) and slender avians with eagle-like wings (think the Skorr from Star Trek). All four of their limbs have 4 clawed digits and 1 clawed opposable thumb. They have the equivalent of telescopic sight, and very strong hearing (x2 range). They have Move 1 and cannot Run, but can fly at Move 83 (30 km/h). They are -2 Str, +1 Dex, and +1 End. Comfortable gravity is 0.6-0.9, and cannot fly if gravity >0.8. Yaldrin can attack with Claws, and 2x Claws if airborne. All careers are possible except for Noble.