Xentorns

Xentorns are a human race very similar in many respects to Humans.

In regards to what organs and their arrangement, external anatomy, and basic biochemical matters they can be treated as Humans. There are, of course some exceptions, for example the stimulant hidroklin is a highly dangerous depressant to them, and they can safely inhale nearly four times as much jilorthi vapour as many humans.

They are, though, a distinct and separate species. Most notable is their pigmentation which is of a lilac hue and in sufficient concentration is a deep lavender shade. Their hair colour tends toward shades of pink, purple, and black.

Eyes have no fixed shade among Xentorns. The reason for this and the exact stimuli that trigger the process is largely uncertain, but the process itself is well studied wherein the Xentorn iris will, several times in a short period or less than twice in a korva, shift colour notably. These shades range through various colours of brown, green, hazel, blue, purple, and in some rare individuals there has been witnessed a very vivid red. Within these colours shade can very from one expression of the trait to the next.

Another profound difference is the Xentoran empathic sense. This sense seems to work from receptors located in the skin and is carried to the usual human brain structures as would be expected, though it should be noted the brain structures are smaller in Xentorn anatomy due (it is suspected) to their only needing that lobe for processing rather than for both reception and processing as it is in most other races. This tactile empathic sense is assumed by both xenopsychologists and xenosociologist alike to be the originating impetus for Xentorns being a notoriously sensualist race with an attitude and etiquette that skews to the physically expressive.

Another notable biological difference is the Xentorn circulatory system. First there is the heart, on average some ten percent or more larger than a Human’s in mass and total size, though the four chambers themselves are not significantly larger. The heart also beats much slower than many human species, averaging between twenty and forty-five beats per minute at rest. This slower, larger muscle beats much harder, though, giving a healthy, relaxed Xentorn a blood pressure somewhere in the neighbourhood of 260/175.

Finally Xentorns age somewhat unusually for a human. They mature at three different rates throughout their life. From birth to puberty they age at a rate comparable to Humans. Puberty for the Xentorn youth begins between the ages of six and nine (it should be noted that for purposes of this article the Terran year is assumed). This puberty is very rapid and generally only takes between two and five years from onset. Thus a Xentorn is quite grown up between the ages of eight and fourteen. The median for onset is eight with the median completion being around twelve. After this their ageing slows and one can expect a Xentorn to be ⅞ their age compared to a Human, though this ratio only begins to be a practical gauge after the Xentorn and Human being compared have reached somewhere between nineteen and twenty-five. Prior to this, obviously, the Xentorn is markedly older, biologically, than their Human chronological peers.

Psychologically Xentorns are quite interesting. They are one of only five races so little different from Humans who do not and have never colonised a world beyond their own star system, not counting those not yet capable of interstellar travel. They also build no hyperships except pleasure and trade craft. All Xentoran military vessels are entirely incapable of leaving the Xentoran star system, and would not survive FTL travel using even the most basic hyperdrive₁ engines of a primitive hyperbarge.

They believe in a deep unity of all life, but especially the unity of all Xentorns to one another. They all count both their homeworld and Xentor as their homelands and all Xentorns consider themselves subjects of The Seven Crowns. They are of one culture and Xentoran temples exist throughout the tri-galaxies to assist in the spiritual, linguistic, and cultural education of young Xentorns, or to help adults who begin to feel they are losing touch with The People and with Xentor (Xentor, it should be noted, is the name of their world and the spirit of that world who is said to have brought forth the Xentorn people).

To fully understand Xentoran psychology one must understand their spirituality. While, as with any race, there are varying degrees of devotion and faith, it is safe to assume any Xentorn you meet will fit the following description to some degree. The rare Xentorn who does not adhere to these philosophies will not take offence if you make such assumption as she will be well aware of how very odd she is.

The Xentoran religion is not unlike the faeshild faith, though it is lost to history if this has always been the case, meaning parallel development, or if one group influenced the other. Still there are a number of spirits that represent various aspects of life and creation to whom prayers are offered according to their powers and governance. Xentorns also believe that all life contains a spirit that is the essence of each being, a soul. This soul is immortal, though certain abhorrent breaches of very specific sacred vows will forfeit the soul and at that point the individual is counted among the dead regardless the health of the body. The Xentorns believe that the flesh is merely a shell the soul encases itself with to Experience. They believe the soul herself is only capable of experiencing memory and emotion. The soul selects a form to experience life through other senses and to gather new memories, and the body has no access to the memory of the soul, thus it is impossible for one to recall her prior lives while incarnate. When asked about this the priests point out that it would spoil the experience of living if one remembers already experiencing life, so the soul stores her memories away from the brain and memories of the body.  They consider their empathy to be a capacity to hear the voice of the soul.

Xentorns have only an aesthetic regard toward gender. Fashion between the sexes varies little save in regards to cuts that better flatter the feminine form versus the masculine or vice versa. Xentoran itself has no gender specific pronouns, though it does have words (thought by most linguists to be for purely pragmatic purposes) for male and female, and they do not follow the usual Galfarran convention of translating this gender neuter pronoun into the gender neutral form, choosing “she” instead.  Creative forces, like the soul, which they believe to be the origin of emotion, are feminine.

While their religion and its festivals, holidays, spirits, and their gods may hold little importance among some of the race, the spiritual beliefs with regards to the soul, emotions, and the Xentorn place in the universe is what is central to this people. Thus it is nigh impossible to meet a Xentorn who is not a strict vegetarian. They will eat animal products, and unfertilised eggs, but no flesh at all. There is debate regarding consumption of plants that must be killed to consume, but it is argued that all such plants are root vegetables and that it is exceedingly rare not to harvest these in a way that does not leave some behind for the plant to regrow. They are, biologically, omnivorous and in dire straits will eat meat and can be rather adept hunters since they have the remarkable ability to sense the emotional state of even remarkably alien species and so have an easier time locating prey.

The Xentorns, as has been stated, are a very sensual race. While they prefer pleasures, some will actively seek out any sensation, both pain and pleasure. In fact some Xentoran holy days are celebrated in ways that deliberately involve discomfort or pain. By and large, though, Xentorns revere the emotions of love and the feelings of pleasure above all else. They seem genuinely incapable of feeling jealousy themselves, though they are able to sense it, the closest racial feeling being envy. Thus monogamy did not develop in the Xentoran culture, though on rare occasion it does get practiced, and those who fall deeply enough in love with a monogamous partner of another race will agree to exclusivity, though the non-Xentorn partner usually needs to be aware that sexual exclusivity is a separate concept and is less likely to be agreed to as certain holy celebrations are quite sexual in nature and it might deeply hurt and offend the Xentorn partner to ask her to sexual exclusivity that also precludes those celebrations. This leads to their language having an estimated seventeen different words for parents, and nearly twenty words for siblings each denoting different permutations of relation, though some of these are archaic and not commonly used today leaving about a dozen of the former and around fifteen of the latter in day-to-day Xentoran. Many a derogatory word, phrase, or attitude about or for the race involves this sexual promiscuity and the very early age in which the Xentorn is likely to have her first sexual experience; most amount to various ways of calling them whores or sluts, and a few insinuate the race to be inbred and to engage in bestiality.

Xentorns do not posses last names. While the race and their family are important, the notion that the soul moves on, and may not even be the same species next lifetime, or even sentient, means they hold no special regard for ancestry. They concern themselves only with the living. This lack of regard to history has frustrated many people trying to study the Xentorns as they keep records only of those events they felt were really interesting and little else. The Xentorn’s single name is assumed to be unique. This, especially now with so many spread through the accessible universe, is at times not actually the case and in the fullness of time assumed to be impossible, but it is simply not done to name a child after someone, though as a show of great affection for someone you might base the child’s name on that person’s name. The name is constructed by her parents and is chosen simply on aesthetics. It is also not done, one should note, to name a child a word, though again a word with an enjoyable sound might become the basis for a name. When in situations where a surname must be offered all Xentorns have the family name Xentor, though at times one who feels a desire to stand out a little may choose the world they were born on or currently reside on instead. This is thought to be part of the belief that the race is highly inbred, along with their willingness to engage in non-procreative sex with even very close family, and to include certain sexual acts as mere expressions of affection.  They are known to find even procreative sex between second cousins or similarly distant relation perfectly okay, and close cousins are only thought to be a little odd. The only taboo pairings are direct ancestor and descendants (parent/child, or grandparent/grandchild, etc.) or full blood siblings. Though it should be noted that with the exception of those rare violations of spiritual propriety that results in keau’li (souldeath) that “taboo” means “discouraged as not an exceptionally wise decision”.

Another curious quirk of the race is that they generally do not wear shoes or any other footwear. It seems that the race never really invented them. Not as a fashion or daily use item, at any rate. Protective footwear for various situations, yes, but these are merely the podiatric equivocal of a hardhat, radiation suit, or coat. This is not to say the race cannot understand wearing shoes, and on worlds where going barefoot is either impractical or is taboo they will readily adopt local fashion and public custom, though once they arrive home the footwear is, typically, removed immediately and on worlds where bare feet is acceptable most will elect to remain so rather than go shod. This is mostly, in these days, a conscious cultural decision relating to cultural identity, though some xenopsychiatrists and xenopsychologists do note that many of the race seem to find shoes distinctly uncomfortable regardless of situation or style and thus argue that there might be some inborn aversion.

Xentor is not a hot world, but it is warm and as such Xentorns tend to prefer subtropic to tropical climes. While they are biologically adapted well enough that they do not have an appreciable difference in tolerance to heat or cold from a Human, they do tend to be more comfortable approximately five to ten degrees Fahrenheit higher than a Human of similar mass and dress. This preference is sometimes attributed to the fact that Xentorns consider clothing to be little more than a fun decoration of their forms. They will readily go nude when they can, but just as often will wear clothing that either flatters and enhances their form, or traditional Xentorn fashions which mostly involve very loose garments, robes, or drapings of very light and gausy materials which clearly show the body beneath.

Magvinnians

Magvinnians are yet another of the human races. They, in fact, are virtually indistinguishable from Humans.

They have a similar range of skin, hair, and eye colors, though some of the genes are linked differently leading to green and blue eyes to be slightly more prevalent than in Terrans and several other Humans. They also are allergic to citrus, and it’s a fairly dominant trait – even many quarter Magvenians will become ill from a few slices of the fruit or a few drinks of the juice, for full blooded Magvinnians or those part-Magvenians who receive the allergy in full dose the complications can be as severe as anaphylactic shock or death.

Another notable trait of Magvinnians is their senses. They have seven. The usual sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing, but also they have empathy and telepathy.

Contrary to some popular depictions they cannot probe minds. It’s simply that they can ‘hear’ surface thoughts and sense the emotions of others. This is believed to be the genesis of the indisputable fact that Magvenians are neurologically incapable of comprehending privacy. A full Magvinnian can be taught the idea as an academic concept and observe it through learned behaviour and a certain amount of conscious effort, but she will never actually GET it. It is very rare for part Magvinnians to have the ability to comprehend privacy unless they absolutely do not possess the additional senses, even many who do not possess the senses will have difficulty if they’re fewer than four or five generations removed from the introduction of Magvinnian genetics to their family tree.

The Magvinnian society therefore can be a little odd to many who are not also of an empathic or telepathic race. Their aritecture, for example, has few interior walls or doors, and tends towards very large and expansive windows on exterior ones. Internal divisions are maintained only due to the architect doing something for a bit of style or other artistic reasons or for purely pragmatic reasons, such as bathrooms being divided from the rest of the home and well ventilated for obvious reasons. They also have a long standing tradition of directly democratic rule, though their history is dotted with despots and tyrants as are so many other races.

Their language is nigh impossible for non-Magvinnians to learn. It contains few verbal components, though their vocal range is comparable to other humans. Verbal components are used for emphasis, and to express simple concepts over distances too great or in areas too crowded to do mentally. Their written language is a complex ideographic system that seems to have been carefully constructed to, as much as possible, speak to their telepathic and empathic senses via the eyes.

Technologically they are an interesting bunch as well. They understand their ‘powers’ fully enough to actually have developed computer systems that use their telepathic sense for user interaction and some or even all output. Even recording technology includes the ability to store an imprint of mental and emotional patterns in the same way other races would record light or vocal patterns. Entire symphonies of mental and emotional ‘sound’ can be ‘listened’ to whenever someone wishes and can be, to those for whom the technology is usable, quite profound and beautiful.

Another popular misconception is that they are incapable of lying and do not get fiction. This couldn’t be further from the truth. It is fair to say that a non-telepath or non-empath does find it difficult to have the necessary control to lie convincingly to a Magvinnian it is not impossible, and a Magvinnian has no more trouble lying to another one than any other human would to another human who had to rely on body language and tone of voice to detect the lie. They also have a very deep and avid love of fiction. Magvenians, as a rule, are avid consumers of popular entertainments, but will, depending on the individual (just as with all humans), readily read or watch or listen to anything you care to name. Their own popular entertainments, when translated out of their peculiar language, seem to span the full spectrum of genres, though the past century has seen a trend toward romantic-adventure as the most popular.

There is also a genre that is peculiar to telepaths that seems to centre on situations where the protagonist must overcome specific kinds of complex intellectual puzzles and various internal and psychological obstacles. The discovery of and first non-telepathic study of this genre is often attributed to Professor Uli Karinstar of Ruvellia about seventy-five standard years before the formation of the Galfarran Union. Uli discovered, though, that only one telepathic race had ever devised a vocalised word for it and that was the Jok’iri of the planet Olimar’n, which was a distinctly avian race. Uli is quoted as saying “I’m too damned old to spend nearly a full saen caterwauling like a damned graemir (a Ruvellian spirit of near identical legend to that of the Terran banshee)” and so named the genre faernorid waernir, which for those versed in ancient Astrim (the old tongue of a small island chain in Ruvellia’s southern seas, of which Uli was both a student and where the balance of his family was from for millennia) will know it would be best translated into more modern language as “bloody pain in the ass”, Uli was also noted in academic circles as cantankerous and having a incredibly odd sense of humour.

Tylanians

For biology see Kivanians

The Tylanians are a historical curiosity. The species originates on Kivan, and is in fact Kivanian, though neither race will agree with this assessment for certain sociological reasons.

Before Kivanians developed faster than light travel there was a major social and political schism. Due to the pack nature of the race certain disagreements involve ejection from the pack. In this instance the Tylanians were ejected from the species and exiled from the homeworld. Due to the long separation, first by logistics of distance and later due to a mutual distrust and tendency to avoid one another the Tylanians and Kivanians have evolved sufficiently different society, governemnt, language, and the very earliest signs of genetic divergence such that they are accepted by many as a distinct race if not as a distinct species. As it is debated even among their own scholars if it was within their ability to actually eject someone from the species no serious effort is made to classify them, biologically, as separate, but a popular practice in deference to the two races’ wish to be counted apart unofficial subspecies nomenclature and denotion is often used.

The Tylanian story is lost to full fledged history. Though tradition and legend remain to give an idea.

The schism, according to both races’ legends dates back in the time that the Imperium was first trying to form. It is known that this would place the time of the event well after the species had developed space flight, and had achieved a level of refinement that it was a reasonably cost effective, and not inconvenient investment of time to travel the worlds of the Kivanian home star system.

The exacts of the argument seem to be lost even to legend, but it seems that the Tylanians were opposed to, either the formation of the Imperium and its entire setup or to the first selected Patriarch and Matriarch and were exiled from the race. Tradition and legend among both races differs if it was self imposed exile or not as there are provisions for exile from the Imperium that, in essence, excommunicates one from the Kivanian race since you are stripped of both family and clan name and not allowed back into the dominion of the Kivanians. The Tylanian schism, if it was such an event, was the only time such was done on any scale larger than a dozen individuals.

They left in a generational ship that had a very good sublight drive and the theories that led to the first Kivanian FTL had been concieved. Tylanian history suggests and legend plainly states that within three generations of leaving their home they successfully made use of those theories and so converted their colony ship to such which is how the Tylanians are so far from their planet of origin with an old and established society, and rich, vibrant cities instead of still being a number of years from reaching it (they, in fact had been exiled to a different star, much closer to Kivan but liked neither the proximity to the Imperium, nor the need to kivaform the only remotely habitable planet in that system while continuing to live on the generational ship during that process which was estimated to need three hundred years to complete).

Today the Tylanians are a race that has been, historically, a kind of democratic monarchy electing a king and queen that rules with the aid of a group loosely translatable as a parliament (please note that this is only loose translation and ignores certain nuances of powers and responsibilities). They still seem to follow a form of the Kivanian traditions of ancestor worship if less varied, and The First ancestor seems to have a role as closer to a full deity and bringer of all life and death.

Their diet differs little from Kivanian since their ship was sent to a world known to need kivaformed to live on and as such had brought much Kivanian livestock and seed with them both for use on the ship as well as on their new home. Some took to the new world better than others and a few cross pollenated with native plants so their Kivanian foodstuffs are not all perfectly parallel and too the diet takes into account many native plants, animals and insects. Of interesting note is the Tylanian habit to prefer mollusks, land and sea, as well as crustaceans in dishes where Kivanians typically would use fish or poultry.

It should also be noted that either the sacredness of Kivanian passions was not a typcial or even existent belief at the time of the schism (a common interpretation as it took place before the species had met other sentient races) or they abandoned this philosophy at some point. A Tylanian makes a far greater effort to manage the extremities of their emotional state than many Kivanians are likely to ever consider healthy, or sane.

Tylassia, the Tylanian homeworld, is significantly closer to Terran controlled territories than the Imperium’s worlds and, between this and the ‘greater emotional stability’ of the race, the Tylanians have a better relationship with the Terran Confederation.

Kivanians

Kivanians are a race exclusive to, as far as can be determined, the Milky Way. They are also a single homeworld race, originally, although these days their Imperium spans many hundred star systems.

They are bipedal and primarily omnivorous. They are counted among the human races, though only just barely due to substantial biochemical and anatomical differences that lead to a near infertility with several other human species.

Superficially they are nearly hairless, even for a human species. Many Kivanians, male and female have no hair below their eyelashes, and there are some that do not even possess these. Two other superficial differences are their pointed ears. Not unique among human species by any measure it is not terribly common either. The second feature is the presence of a third semi-voluntarily controlled eyelid.

Below the skin the Kivanian is rather alien. Their blood utilises hemocyanin in complex molecular groups and carried by corpuscles. Next of note is their respiratory system which does not use a diaphragm, but rather a very avian style system involving air sacs to alter pressures and circulate oxygen over the blood. Finally of obvious note is the presence of two small hearts, one behind each breast. These hearts are sized such that each alone can fulfill a full two-thirds of their body’s circulatory needs. Typically they beat at a rate to share the load on a fifty-fifty average, though at any moment one heart can, as needed , slow or even stop while the other picks up the slack … the latter condition, clearly, cannot be sustained long without risking further damage, this allows them to more easily heal from certain kinds of heart disease and damage. The paired hearts can also beat in full throttle parallel to provide their bodies with a sudden powerful surge of blood throughout the body that, thanks to the avian nature of their lungs is kept well oxygenated and thus giving the species a remarkable boost of stamina.

The third eyelid, is semitransparent. Closing it obscures but does not completely block their vision and is an adaptation for the rich, dense jungles of the species homeworld where it helped to guard their eyes from pollen clouds (there is even a rare phenomena called a pollen storm, not unlike a dust storm of an Earth desert) as well as from some of the world’s various insect species without actually blinding them. It also helps in wiping things that do manage to get into their eyes away, those that left the jungles and started to settle Kivan’s few deserts, or that took to the stars and have settled on more arid planets find it somewhat useful in dealing with the glare from exceedingly bright light.

The Kivanian diet, traditionally involves various exceedingly hot peppers, the mildest of which are comparable in potency to the habeñero, and the typical, medium level examples of, have been known to kill more than a few Humans, and the hottest of which has been reported by some to be useful for cleaning engine parts and removal of paint. The juices of some of these peppers are used as a cooking method for certain foods. A popular fish dish is ‘cooked’ by marinating the fillets in dil’krthplr juice from sunrise to dinner, and served drizzled with a sweet wine mixed with salt and what is essentially peppermint. On the species home world and home continent the normal diet consists of various large insects, mostly ones of a mantis-esque form, and some not dissimilar to the cricket; various fishes; some small lizards; and several birds. Oddly there are few dietary mammals and those are for special ceremonial or celebratory dishes. All their native jungle amphibian life is highly toxic to anything that isn’t a few very specially evolved lizards and birds. Outside this cradle of their race and civilisation the diet varies only by local availability. The species has an instinctive aversion to amphibian based dishes, but some Kivanian recipes for a temperate zone creature resembling an eight legged salamander exist, and in colder climes mammals begin to make up more of the diet, but mostly fish becomes a more important item.

For drinks they like much the same as any human species. Milks of select mammals, juices from fruits, berries, and a few vegetables and ferns, a nectar secretion by a kind of luminous mushroom found at the bases of several species of trees, and of course alcohol. It should be noted that while Kivanians like tea and coffee it does not affect them as profoundly as Humans. This said one still does not wish to give a Kivanian toddler a triple espresso, and may regret a double. A single is safe for the most part if it isn’t too strong. Alcohol too is another interesting item in Kivanian blood streams. They seem almost immune to grain alcohol, and drink wood alcohols for the same effects and purposes we would consume the afore mentioned grain items. Curiously it is safe for humans to drink a small handful of these products, either due to the extremely low concentration of the alcohol combined with a few mitigating ingredients, and the others being made from woods that seem to, if kept under 10% by volume may be safely drunk in careful moderation.

Final biological items of note: Kivanian women are on a menstrual cycle averages 39 Earth days. Females reabsorb uterine lining if implantation does not occur. They have more complex vocal cords than several human species giving them a exceptional range of phonemes. They are more tolerant of heat, but less of cold than a Human counterpart, average is to assume they will die of heat or cold at 20°F higher temperatures than we would. They are also somewhat stronger by mass than the average human. Finally their endocrine system averages on the hyperactive side when compared to most species in general, this gives them a reputation as an exceedingly emotional and passionate people.

Psychologically they are a pack animal. They are extremely loyal to and protective of family. They are also largely law abiding by nature. This is not to say that they will blindly follow laws regardless of their fairness or justification, nor that Kivanians do not have criminals, just that the typical nature of a crime that a Kivanian is liable to commit is centred along different statistical lines than Humans.

This psychology has imprinted itself in their social structure. The family is headed by a patriarch and males hand down their family name to their children. The families are grouped into clans which are headed by females and the clan name is passed down by the mothers. A Kivanian’s name will always follow the format of Given Name, Secondary Name, Family Name, Clan Name. In the event of a halfbreed the name becomes hyphenated and convention follows as: if male father family name is dropped in favour of clan name but clan name will go before the maternal surname if there is one. Thus Clanname-Maternalsurname. If mother is Kivanian then tradition is, effectively held except the addition of hyphenation to denote that the family name is not a Kivanian one. This Paternalsurname-Clanname. It is exceedingly rare for this not to be the case, as few Kivanians will not be very adamant with their lover that this tradition must be followed.

The ruling structure involves a kind of hierarchy of families and clans up to the Imperial
patriarch and matriarch. They are almost never a wedded couple, and only occasionally closely related. For more information see entry on Imperium.

Kivanian religious practices vary, but largely centre around various forms of ancestor worship. A semi-deity among nearly the whole species is The First Ancestor, who is depending on the traditions of a family could be anything from the progenitor of the race, to all life on Kivan, to all life in the universe, some even saying of the universe itself.

Also typical is varying degrees of consideration that their passions and emotions are divine, sacred, and other similar attributes. As a result most embrace their passions, which gives the species a reputation, partially deserved, of being short tempered, rash, violent, vengeful. Among another sort the same partially deserved reputation is as steadfast companion, deeply Romantic, fast to cry, easy to laughter, and exceptionally intense lovers.

Technologically the race is less advanced than the standards of Glafarran or Vortonian culture, largely, but more so than much of Terrans. They have had faster than light travel since around the time of the founding of the early Yellow River Valley civilisation on Earth. And while not all is known about this early drive it is surmised from what is known that it, like their current drives, was a rudimentary form of hyperdrive. Current technologies tend to achieve sustained, safe velocities of up to an hundred lightyears in little under a day in the most advanced models. Their power systems have always been based on photonic reactions within certain crystaline structures not unlike the ‘ambient radiation’ power supplies of Galfarra and is believed by xenoarcheologists and other similar academics to be a likely glimpse into how the now ubiquitous technology may have been born in that galaxy’s antuquity. Their computers are based on optomolecular processing and are utterly incompatible with anything but the Vortonian computer systems and the better calibre galfarran ones, as well as the fifteen dozen other technologies found throughout the Milky Way that are similar (and in four cases so nearly identical that one xenotechnology Professor was quoted as caling it ‘eerie’).

See also Tylanians.

Humans

Humans are a bipedal, omnivorous, mammalian race of mostly hairless primates. The origin of this species is unknown as it shows every appearance of having multiple planets of origin and seems native to all three known major galaxies.

The Human race is not unique in not having a single known homeworld, and even going so far as to seemingly have evolved on multiple planets, but it is one of only a few dozen that can lay that claim on at least one world in all three major galaxies, and at least one minor one. Many theories exist, the most popular being that certain worlds were seeded with similar DNA chains by another, older race and this led to parallel evolution of the species. This is popular in it’s explanation of minor genetic discrepencies leading to certain quirks particular to the humans of different galaxies or planets. Notably handedness, which in Galfarra is nearly always left, but in the Milky Way, and Earth especially, right is the dominant hand. Also, the genetic chain for red hair is closely linked to the gene for skin pigment in the people of Lorithen in the Vorton Galaxy resulting in its dark skinned members being nearly all copper or orange haired. Another one is subtle differences in organ placement. Terran Humans being mirrored in a few respects, like the appendix, compared to all Galfarran Humans, and nearly completely when compared to the only other native humans of the Milky Way on the small moon of Plindreth near the galactic core.

As is often the case Humans can breed with varying degrees of dificulty and success with many other species of similar biology, anatomy, etc.