Races of Alarch and Tova-Ky
WORK IN PROGRESS & PRONE TO CHANGE
Note: The Galactic Coalition of Alarch categorizes all of the known civilized species into three categories. The Greater races, such as the cyn, varhovnik and penjaga, are those who's species have excelled and evolved technologically as to allow them to travel the cosmos and settle new worlds. Most of these are the races that govern the Coalition. Next there are the Common races, most of which are space faring, but generally either possess limited resources, lack world spanning empires or have gained citizenry within the Coalition by riding on the coat tails of their Greater peers. Lastly there are the Lesser races, those who have not developed the science and technology required for them to explore space. While many exist beyond their home worlds, they are less common and are there only by the means of other more "evolved" species.
The line between space faring Lesser races and Common races tends to be very gray. At some point, when a Lesser race starts becoming more and more common, the Greater races just decide to "upgrade" their status as a race. The distinction between Common and Greater on the other hand is very distinct: in order to be one of the Great races you must develop your own space travel without outside help, colonize a dozen or so planets on your own, convert to the worship of dead gods, and adopt the Alarchi trade language as your national language. Do all of this and you're golden. This obviously means that any species that is brought into the space faring world by another, can never rise to be recognized as a Greater race. This classification system is not overly popular amongst most of the Coalition, seen as little more than a means for the "Greater" races to expound their superiority to the "little people".
Cyn: more commonly known as elves, they are the native species of the planet Syi-Adar and one of the founding races of the Galactic Coalition of Alarch. They are tall, intelligent, ageless and graceful. Their people were the first to rise up against the varhovnik and the authors of the universal Alarchi trade language (not really authors, they just pushed their own eldu language onto others). The cyn make no secret that they consider themselves the most evolved and civilized of all the galactic species. The elves honor their ancestors and their spirits and the memory of their deceased deity, Ophojet, one of the entities that had sacrificed itself to destroy Arcadia, whom they believe they are descended.
Human: descendants of the human slaves and migrants from Earth that were stranded when the portal to their homeworld was destroyed from the other side in order to stop the varhovnik invasion. Humanity wasted no time in spreading throughout all of Alarch, much to the worry of many other races, many refusing to recognize them as anything more than a parasitic lesser race. Humanity has no home world and have become a common sight amongst most mixed species populaces. A few have banded together and laid claim to a small forested world that they named New Earth. While they claim independence as the first human-centric colony, it is well known that in truth they owe their continuing existence to the protection provided by the Covenant.
Fae: The fae are descendants of the elves that the varhovnik had performed psychic and genetic experimentation upon, transforming them into three distinct new sub-species, each well suited to perform different tasks in service to their masters. The three major subspecies are the beautiful and charismatic nymphs, powerful trolls capable of regenerating nearly any wound and the highly intelligent, shape changing púca. While many of the fae remain enslaved to their creators, a large number of them had banded together and allied with a god and won their freedom. These fae and their god were the founders of the Covenant, a crime syndicate that spans all of Alarch. The fae and their elven cousins do not have the best disposition towards each other. The elves look upon the fae with pity, while the fae view the elves as arrogant evolutionary hold overs. The fae have taken a liking to humanity, given their similar relationships to the varhovnik, lack of a true homeland and defiance of bowing down as a race to any of their so called superiors.
Varhovnik: the first of the known Alarch species to begin exploring space. The varhovnik are a greedy race that seeks to conquer and control the galaxy, and for a very long time, they did until the cyn began to fight back. They hail from the world of Talas Nir, which they had once shared with the legendary Nir before their mysterious disappearance long ago. The varhovnik are a powerful psionic race of creatures - APPEARANCE. They are served by many slaves, the majority of which are fae or human. The varhovnik created and controlled the Solar Conduit Gateways (normally just shortened to "Conduits" or "Gates") that allow for fast travel between solar systems. They guarded the secret behind the technology of these portals. Following a civil war that had spawned a separate nation of varhovnik called the Atea, the new nation had seized the majority of these portals and proceeded to gladly offer their use to any and all who would pay their fees. The Atea maintain themselves as the one true neutral party in all of Alarch. There is also a well known rogue faction of varhovnik called the Gloom, that worship and serve powerful entities from the Abyss.
Nafas: frog/fish/lizards - amphibian, must live in toxic water - wear suits
Penjaga: the penjaga are a race of draconic giants that hail from their native world of Halsius in a solar system located farther from any other Alarch colonized system. Their ships are massive ponderous hulks that slowly plod through space. The penjaga are long lived and can maintain themselves in states of meditative hibernation for centuries (they gorge themselves for months prior to these voyages and are rather emaciated by the end of the journeys). While the penjaga are recognized as one of the Greater races, they rarely involve themselves with the politics their peers are so fond of. Their counselors are there to represent their people and interests in the Coalition and uphold the laws and treaties that were established upon its founding. The penjaga are largely focused on The Great Story, a grand tale of their entire race, made up of each and every individuals own tale - they seek to live rich lives, for having a grand tale to tell makes the Great Story that much more potent and enriches the penjaga as a whole. Because of this, they often travel, frequently with those of other races, so as to experience things they would otherwise not with their own kind. They are seekers of new experiences, lore and adventure. They take part in battles, experiment with drugs, fly ships, perform daring crash landings, design exciting lingerie, write epic ballads, fight against, tyranny, fight FOR tyranny or rescue kittens.
Rofka: the rofka are a short, wide and stocky canine species. They originally hailed from a distant galaxy they call Antarian, their ancestors having traveled here by use of an alien portal technology that had mysteriously ceased to function, stranding them. The rofka are generally small in number, but they are not uncommon in high populated regions. Their unparalleled skills as craftsmen and inventors warrants them a warm welcome to any community they find themselves.
Naufragi: the naufragi are considered a scourge throughout the galaxy. These six-limbed creatures combine simian and rodent features with often bad dispositions. Their culture is largely based on acts of piracy and banditry, though some are merely drifters and scavengers.
Rakentajat: silicone life, "the Builders"
Custos: a Lesser race from the world of Daarul, the custos is an evolved plant species that appears to be a mixture of tree and fungus. They worship nature as a whole, seeing their world as a smaller part of the larger universal living organism and that all worlds and all the races are simply a part of that great being.
Numen: another Lesser race of Daarul, these strange creatures were created by the custos and appear to be an all too often unsymmetrical amalgamation of flora and fauna native to their home world.
Nox: one of the worst threats the galaxy had ever known. These telepathic creatures, which can best be described as nightmarish hybrids of gangly spider and wasp, had developed massive organic spacecrafts and began a conquest of the galaxy through a Gate they had managed to capture from the varhovnik. Every creature they encountered was either turned into a thrall or food. They swept through the galaxy like a plague until an alliance between the Coalition, Varhovnik, Atea, Covenant and a number of other smaller factions had defeated them. The nox homeworld was bombarded as well as other worlds that were deemed unsalvageable from the nox threat. It's unknown whether or not the nox were successfully eradicated, but they have not been seen since. The nox occupied systems are prohibited flight zones with Coalition sentinel drones and patrols that maintain vigil.
Ado: hairless long-limbed seal creatures
Vitu: they appeared from the void, the dark nothing between galaxies. These phased entities were immune to physical harm, but were able to cause terrible devastation to organic lifeforms by mere touch. The only means to fight them was through psychic assault. They had devastated a number of cyn and varhovnik worlds before sonic weapons capable of harming them had been developed. With armies wielding these weapons and psychic warriors, the vitu were pushed back into the void where they had emerged. As with the nox systems, the Coalition attempt to maintain vigil on the regions bordering this area of space as best they can.
Sentients: AI are illegal, as are robotics and androids that are indistinguishable from organic races. This is due to the threat posed by a rogue AI called NAME that had nearly consumed galactic civilization.
Artificials: artificial lifeforms, organic robots
Manifests: elementals from the Horizons
Fragments: gods, angels, devils & other natives of Arcadia
Demons: denizens of the Abyss
Nir: ancient race of powerful psychics that had mysteriously vanished during the Ymwelwyr Invasion thousands of years ago
