Examples of alien species

The following alien species are just a few examples, meant to give you some idea for your own species designs.

Kla

Taken from my `Humanworlds' campaign

The Kla are a very old race of bipedal, winged reptiloids. They are mentally extremely flexible and of a striking, unfazable calmness. They have promoted about a dozen other species, i.e. taught them their science, technology and philosophy. These species form a loose-knit community called the Family; some of them have even promoted `grandchild' species. This is to some extent similar to David Brin's Uplift, but does not involve genetic engineering of the client species.

The Kla themselves have colonized a large area streching from about 60 light-years east of our solar system to beyond the Orion Nebula. The farthest-out Kla worlds are more than 1500 light-years away. The Kla are believed to inhabit more than 10000 planets; the areas inhabited by their client races are estimated to comprise about 4000 planets. The Kla are technologically superior to even the most advanced humans. However, this advantage lies in perfection and enhancement of technologies known to humans rather than in technologies entirely unknown to humans.

Kla usually don't meddle in human affairs and rarely travel among humans. If they do, they are usually accompanied by 'Nbuur (the 'Nbuur are a scattered human culture which was promoted by the Kla).

Roleplaying: The Kla are very hard to roleplay; they should only be played by very exprienced roleplayers, or declared NPC only.

K'kreete

A Family species from my `Humanworlds' campaign

The K'kreete are a Family species, promoted by the Kla at least 400000 years ago. They are oxygen-breathers evolved on an Earth-like planet, but cannot be easily likened to any class of Earth animals. Judging by their exterior, they seem to combine elements of birds, insects, mammals and others.

Living more than 500 light-years away, they very rarely have contact with humans, and little is known about their biology and psychology.

Roleplaying: Little more than background information; definitely not a PC race (unless you are running a Family campaign where all PCs are members of Family species).

Jaig

Inspired by UFO folklore

The Jaig are a weird amphibian species; some people think they are the degenerate descendants of the Elder Lords (the hypothetical race which is believed to have scattered the humans 50000 years ago), though more things speak against than for this assumption. They are capable of breathing under water and use a language which is entirely unlike human language: it consists of rapid clicks which resemble an operating hard disk drive from the late 20th century.

The Jaig are amphibians with an unusual life cycle. They lay eggs in water; from these hatch tadpole-like larvae. These larvae first evolve into (still water-living and non-sentient) males, which mate and then metamorphosize into the sentient, land-living Jaig. In this stage, the Jaig joins a Jaig community. The Jaig stays sentient for about 400 years; after that, their sentience dims and finally fades away as they turn into a female. The female returns into the water to mate with the males; after the mating and laying her eggs in their own now non-functional brain (which serves as yolk for the embryos), she dies.

Jaig society is much unlike human society and not understood by humans. Jaig have no concept of family, as reproduction takes place at non-sentient stages outside the Jaig society. Instead, the Jaig society features a community and caste system. The caste a Jaig belongs to is determined when he joins the community.

Their attitude to humans is peculiar. They show up out of the blue in disk-shaped craft of excellent manoeuvering capabilities, play tricks on humans, and then disappear again. To humans, they behave like spectres or imps rather than something intelligent.

Roleplaying: The Jaig, being seclusive against humans, usually don't mess with humans and are very incomprehensible. They are little more than a background feature. Not a PC race.

Those Who Have Become One

Based on an idea by Carl Sagan

This species consists of intelligent machines of different kinds, ranging from microspocic nano-nodules to huge planet-sized megastructures. The origin of this species is unknown; they seem to be around for many millions of years now. Their `brains' are based on superconducting circuits and can process information at incredible speed. They are connected via wireless networks; all beings living in one solar system form a hive mind.

Those Who Have Become One do not settle on Earth-like planets. They live in open space near stars (not necessarily sun-like; they also use brighter main sequence stars, giants, supergiants and neutron stars), visiting planets only to get hold of material they cannot find on asteroids.

Roleplaying: Not suitable for PCs. Human adventurers have quite good chances of encountering them, but they are just very alien (but peaceful -- Those Who Have Become One show a deep respect for other civilizations, and tend not to pull up big operations in systems inhabited by other species.

Harvesters

Based on an idea by Anders Sandberg

The Harvesters are both incredibly ancient and incredibly alien. They have been around for at least 5000 million years, and they have colonized almost every sun-like (or bigger) star in the Galaxy. Yes, stars. The Harvesters don't live on planets. Being incredibly advanced nano-nodules, they build Dyson shells of exotic high-density matter within stars, collecting the highly dense energy output of the stellar fusion process. This means that the light and heat from a main sequence star are the Harvesters' waste heat. Only a few peculiarities -- like missing neutrinos -- hint at their existance.Roleplaying: None. The Harvesters don't care at all about humans and other planetary beings, as long as they don't mess with the Harvesters (which is far beyond what we can accomplish, anyway). They are just a bit of background information, and possibly just a myth.