Alien Races
The galaxy of Psi-Wars brims with alien life. Entire empires rise and fall within the space of a single constellation over hundreds of years that may go unnoticed by the rest of the galaxy. Strange species speaking unfamiliar languages crowd space port bars, barely recognizing one another as they struggle to order a drink in their own language before they form their alien vocal chords into the proper configuration to stammer out a few words of Galactic Common. The remains of ancient alien civilizations lay scattered across distant worlds, layered atop one another as era after era; modern civilization has pieced together the the past ten thousand years of history or so, but continues to find relics of bygone eras that from even before that!
Psi-Wars is an Aliens Everywhere setting. Numerous races fill the setting, though a few have been especially influential, or maybe especially noteworthy to the Psi-Wars galaxy. GMs can and should feel free to add their own! Each alien race has their own entry which can be found below. It consists of a brief synopsis, including various names by which the race is known, their homeworld and other worlds they are commonly found on, and a template including a cost. Players may choose to play a member of the race by purchasing the template; alien racial templates are generally worth no less than 0 points, and no more 50 points, which means a PC can choose one as a single power-up. More expensive alien races exist, in which case they can only be played with a Sidekick template, in a game with additional points, or via a Race-as-Occupational template, that may also be listed in the alien race article. Finally, the section ends with typical names.
Beyond that, alien races may have further details. This may include a detailed discussion of traits unique to the race, role-playing tips, common advantages or disadvantages, unique power-ups, sub-races, cultural details, unique organizations or unique technology. None of these are required, but some more detailed races have them.
The Empire of Ren Valorian and his Humanity First ideology dominate the galaxy. They tend to look down on aliens, who may be treated as second-class citizens, passed over for jobs, or simply subject to subtle prejudices or the ignorance of a human population sheltered from dealing with strange alien beings. Given that the Empire is the reference society of the setting, even though an alien may go its entire life travelling stars where it is perfectly welcome and never even see a human, nonetheless, all Aliens have Social Stigma (Alien Outsider) [-5], which reflects the treatment they would typically receive in the Empire. Some aliens may replace this with worse social stigmas:
- Social Stigma (Alien Savage): this represents an alien who has a particularly nasty reputation (undeserved or otherwise) as mean, brutish or primitive. Treat it as equivalent to Social Stigma (Minority).
- Social Stigma (Alien Subhuman): this represents an alien who has a poor reputation as an inferior species, or seen as naturally servile and beneath other races. Treat it as equivalent to Social Stigma (Minority).
- Social Stigma (Monster): this represents aliens who have a reputation as man-eating monsters, or horrors from behind the stars. Most people will react to them with caution at best, or shoot them first and ask questions later.
Psi-Wars is a somewhat unrealistic Space Opera that assumes a human-centric psychology among aliens. Most aliens are humanoid, and find the human form appealing. Human levels of Attractiveness apply to all aliens unless explicitly noted otherwise. Similarly, alien attractiveness works normally on humans unless noted otherwise.
Major Alien Races
These are races either instrumental in shaping the setting, or whom are especially popular choices among new players. These are a good place to start exploring if you are new to the setting.
- Asrathi: The Asrathi bear a striking resemblance to an animal familiar to most humans: a cat. Their physiology merges the feline with the humanoid: they walk on two legs and have two hands and have surprisingly human-like faces, but their hands sport claws, they have pointed, tufted ears, a fine layer of fur covers their bodies, they have thick noses with moist, black tips, golden eyes with narrow slits, a lashing tail and a fang-filled mouth. They tend to be slim and graceful when compared to humans, though some (sometimes called “Primal Asrathi” or “Jagarathi”) have a much heavier set and much less human features. Many people find Asrathi to be exceptionally beautiful, both male and female. Asrathi have a great deal of variety: some with thick manes or a rich chest of fur, with a wide variety of colors and patterns to their fur from burnt orange with black stripes to rich, tawny brown to a mottled mix of colors. A few, the so-called “witch cats,” have entirely white or black fur, with no distinct or recognizable patterns.
- Gaunt: The Gaunt show up all across the galaxy, but especially in the Umbral Rim, the Galactic Core, and the Arkhaian Spiral. These pallid, ugly ghouls lurk in back alleys, and in the sewers and tunnels beneath larger cities. Their inhuman resilience lets them survive almost anywhere, and with ghoulish appetites and a corpse-like appearance and odor, they tend to prefer to avoid contact with others who might judge them harshly. Still, a Gaunt companion is a hardy and loyal companion, if one can endure the stink.
- Keleni: The Keleni are a graceful, beautiful race of amphibious telepaths. They have soft, bluish or greenish skin with patches of attractive luminescence. Long, silken white or silver hair cascades down around their bodies. Their natural empathy and talent for Psychic Healing makes them a compassionate race, but their helpful nature has earned them nothing but trouble as empire after empire has scattered the people all across the Galaxy, forcing them to cling to their beliefs in the face of persecution. They best articulated the concepts behind the great psychic gestalt known as Communion and founded the religion of True Communion, one of the most important religions in the galaxy, and the faith of the famous Templars.
- Nehudi: From the green depths of the Sylvan Spiral come the primal Nehudi. The Empire paints them as wild savages whose whooping warcries strike terror in the hearts of the innocent as the heroic legions of Imperial troopers hold back the tides of barbarism. Those who learn the ways of the Nehudi discover a race deeply in tune with their magnificent world and their own instincts. They wield bow, axe and spear in battle, and fight with careful cunning. Their sages listen to the songs of living worlds and draw life from the soil and the greenery around them. Under stress, the Nehudi bare their teeth and snap their pupils to slit and revert to their based instincts, lending credence to the imperial smear against them, but when they relax, their true intelligence and compassion comes to the fore. They wage a war to protect their world from the depredations of the Empire, and that war has forced them to do something they have rarely done in the history of their civilization: go off world to explore the galaxy in search of allies!
- Ranathim: The Ranathim are a sultry and seductive race of psychic vampires. Their four horns, pointed ears, lashing tails and pointed teeth give them a somewhat demonic appearance, but displays an appealing physique that the other races of the galaxy find quite desirable. They use their display of flesh to draw others close so that they can feed on their psychic energy. The Ranathim once ruled the galaxy until their own selfish passions and sins tore their empire apart when their star went supernova in an event known as the Dark Cataclysm. Now, many of them are slaves, the dancing girls and gladiators of the Umbral Rim, and those who retain a fraction of their former power guard that power and independence jealously. They founded some of the most influential philosophies of the galaxy, including the Divine Masks and the Cult of the Mystical Tyrant. Their culture and language, the Lithian culture, remains dominant in the Umbral Rim and is the single largest collective alien culture in the galaxy.
- Slavers: Deep in the Umbral Rim lurks horror. The humanitarian horror of slavery still holds the races of the Umbral Rim in its grip, and the face of that horror is the slimy Temkorathim or, as they are more popularly known, the Slavers. These serpentine creatures resemble a cross between a snake, a slug, a poison-arrow frog, and a mobile, sapient tongue. Tastebuds cover their soft, moist bodies, allowing them to taste what they touch, and they particularly enjoy the taste of the hormones found in the sweat and saliva of humanoids, which they can internalize and turn into drugs or poisons that they can secrete over their body, poisoning those that dare touch them. The Ranathim Tyranny first discovered them on a swamp world deep in the Sanguine Stars and recognized their bureaucratic acumen and took them in as scholarly slaves, to run and administrate remote parts of their empire. And as the Tyranny descended into decadence, the calculating Temkorathim continued to accrue knowledge, favors and social capital until the Tyranny collapsed and the Slavers moved to seize the reigns of power. They’ve turned this mastery of drugs into an addictive criminal empire, and today, Slavers rule the largest swathes of the Umbral Rim. The lords of these kleptocratic oligarchies often keep Ranathim as slaves, and delight in reminding their former masters of how the tables have turned.
- Traders: Traders are a race of slender and strange merchants. They have greenish yellow skin, and frail physiques. Their mandibular mouths can part into a wide, gaping maw sometimes called "the Trader Grin," but they usually keep their mouths politely closed or hidden behind gasmasks. Their minds move and think far faster than the minds of the other races of the galaxy, and they can speak to one another in rapid squeaks and squawks barely audible to non-Traders. Their speedy minds have given them a superior understanding of mathematics and higher dimensions, which gave them unparalleled understanding of hyperspace. Long ago, they once vied with humanity for control of the Galactic Core in a war that burned their homeworld into a radioactive cinder. They now travel the stars in great arks and guildfleets, trading goods and their superior technology with the other races of the galaxy.
Alien Races by Location
Aliens tend to be especially common in one part of the galaxy, or come from a particular part of the galaxy. This section lists aliens by their most common area.
Aliens of the Galactic Core
- The Hm: General consensus considers the Hm the least interesting race in the galaxy. They exist in the background, toiling as clerks, accountants and servants and to most of the races of the galaxy, they simply fade into the background. Most who take more interest in this featureless race than just a cursory glance may be surprised to learn of their devotion to the Empire, their excellence in the fields of art, science and war, and that their race made quietly impacted the history of the Federation and helped found the Empire, or that they represent a major economic force in the galaxy, especially when it comes to banking and accounting. Their unique mindset offers them a particular genius, and they have an unusual, almost anti-psi phenomenon that lets them fade into the background noise of the galaxy. Some of the greatest psi-hunters of all time have been members of the Hm.
- Traders: Traders are a race of slender and strange merchants. They have greenish yellow skin, and frail physiques. Their mandibular mouths can part into a wide, gaping maw sometimes called "the Trader Grin," but they usually keep their mouths politely closed or hidden behind gasmasks. Their minds move and think far faster than the minds of the other races of the galaxy, and they can speak to one another in rapid squeaks and squawks barely audible to non-Traders. Their speedy minds have given them a superior understanding of mathematics and higher dimensions, which gave them unparalleled understanding of hyperspace. Long ago, they once vied with humanity for control of the Galactic Core in a war that burned their homeworld into a radioactive cinder. They now travel the stars in great arks and guildfleets, trading goods and their superior technology with the other races of the galaxy.
Aliens of the Glorian Rim
Aliens of the Arkhaian Spiral
- Karkadann: The robust and cruel Karkadann rule an ancient interstellar state called the Technocracy of Dann. Heirs to powerful technology, the archaeologists of the Empire once considered them as the possible progenitors of the mysterious “Monolith” culture that once ruled the galaxy before recorded history, but they turned out to be but one of many slave races that ruled that world. The intense radiation of their homeworld has shaped their physiology in strange ways, from their signature rugose skin to their double-lensed eyes, but especially their unique adaptions to radiation. The result of this, the Withering of the Karkadann, means they tend to either need to integrate cybernetics to combat their aging process, or they inevitably mutate from exposure to radiation. The dread marauders of the deeper parts of the Arkhaian Spiral are often Karkadann driven mad by mutation!
- Mogwai: Mogwai are a small, monkey-like race with an intuitive understanding of machines. They have large, black-lensed eyes, bluish-grey skin and some have great tufts of white hair atop their head. As natural machine telepaths, they see machines as alive: they have names and emotions and the Mogwai can talk to them and persuade the machines to join them in their hair-brained schemes. The other races of the galaxy find the chittering, chaotic Mogwai to be annoying, but as skilled engineers and technicians, the Mogwai are useful enough to tolerate.
Aliens of the Umbral Rim
- Gaunt: The Gaunt show up all across the galaxy, but especially in the Umbral Rim, the Galactic Core, and the Arkhaian Spiral. These pallid, ugly ghouls lurk in back alleys, and in the sewers and tunnels beneath larger cities. Their inhuman resilience lets them survive almost anywhere, and with ghoulish appetites and a corpse-like appearance and odor, they tend to prefer to avoid contact with others who might judge them harshly. Still, a Gaunt companion is a hardy and loyal companion, if one can endure the stink.
- Keleni: The Keleni are a graceful, beautiful race of amphibious telepaths. They have soft, bluish or greenish skin with patches of attractive luminescence. Long, silken white or silver hair cascades down around their bodies. Their natural empathy and talent for Psychic Healing makes them a compassionate race, but their helpful nature has earned them nothing but trouble as empire after empire has scattered the people all across the Galaxy, forcing them to cling to their beliefs in the face of persecution. They best articulated the concepts behind the great psychic gestalt known as Communion and founded the religion of True Communion, one of the most important religions in the galaxy, and the faith of the famous Templars.
- Keverlings: When the Ranathim first arrived on the ashen world of Moros, they discovered a sapient alien race already occupied it: the Keverlings. These small, beetle-like aliens became utterly besotted with Ranathim beauty, and quickly pledged their loyalty. And so, the Ranathim enslaved their first race and put them to work as minions, servants and technicians. While simple-minded, almost child-like, they focus extremely well on long tasks and their dexterous fingers make them excellent craftsmen. Today, they mostly reside in the Umbral Rim, to be closer to their beloved Ranathim or Keleni masters, but they’ve begun to slowly spread out across the galaxy, with more showing up on Trader Arks and imperial space stations as simple janitors or mechanics.
- Krokuta: The Krokuta serve the Slavers of the Umbral Rim as their drug-enhanced legions and slave soldiers. The primal, alien savages have tall, muscular frames covered in a light layer of (typically brown) fur, with bestial muzzles and pointed ears, and often a crest of mohawk-like fur over the top of their head. Their unique metabolism gains more benefits from capability-enhancement drugs and makes them more easily addicted, which makes them both effective and pliable soldiers. Unfortunately, they’re dimwitted and struggle to master advanced technologies. If left to their own devices, they become quite a menace, and Krokuta warbands regularly hijack starships and maraud across the Umbral Rim.
- Loroko: Those who meet the Loroko come to fear and respect these red warriors of the Umbral Rim. Their suicidal bravery comes from their robust vitality and a fervent desire to never again enter a state of subjugation. Their martial excellence has attracted the attention of bounty hunter lodges, mercenary companies, and they’ve even managed to earn the respect of the usually xenophobic Empire, who sometimes employs them as auxiliaries. However, they remain rare enough (and isolationist enough) that too many people make the lethal error of mistaking a Loroko commando in a space port bar for a “poor-man’s Ranathim.”
- Ranathim: The Ranathim are a sultry and seductive race of psychic vampires. Their four horns, pointed ears, lashing tails and pointed teeth give them a somewhat demonic appearance, but displays an appealing physique that the other races of the galaxy find quite desirable. They use their display of flesh to draw others close so that they can feed on their psychic energy. The Ranathim once ruled the galaxy until their own selfish passions and sins tore their empire apart when their star went supernova in an event known as the Dark Cataclysm. Now, many of them are slaves, the dancing girls and gladiators of the Umbral Rim, and those who retain a fraction of their former power guard that power and independence jealously. They founded some of the most influential philosophies of the galaxy, including the Divine Masks and the Cult of the Mystical Tyrant. Their culture and language, the Lithian culture, remains dominant in the Umbral Rim and is the single largest collective alien culture in the galaxy.
- Slavers: Deep in the Umbral Rim lurks horror. The humanitarian horror of slavery still holds the races of the Umbral Rim in its grip, and the face of that horror is the slimy Temkorathim or, as they are more popularly known, the Slavers. These serpentine creatures resemble a cross between a snake, a slug, a poison-arrow frog, and a mobile, sapient tongue. Tastebuds cover their soft, moist bodies, allowing them to taste what they touch, and they particularly enjoy the taste of the hormones found in the sweat and saliva of humanoids, which they can internalize and turn into drugs or poisons that they can secrete over their body, poisoning those that dare touch them. The Ranathim Tyranny first discovered them on a swamp world deep in the Sanguine Stars and recognized their bureaucratic acumen and took them in as scholarly slaves, to run and administrate remote parts of their empire. And as the Tyranny descended into decadence, the calculating Temkorathim continued to accrue knowledge, favors and social capital until the Tyranny collapsed and the Slavers moved to seize the reigns of power. They’ve turned this mastery of drugs into an addictive criminal empire, and today, Slavers rule the largest swathes of the Umbral Rim. The lords of these kleptocratic oligarchies often keep Ranathim as slaves, and delight in reminding their former masters of how the tables have turned.
- Vithanni: Few humans have even heard of the Vithanni, let alone laid eyes upon one. The slavers of the Umbral Rim treat them as rare and delicate collectors items, for the Vithanni come from beyond the edge of the galaxy and lived on a rarified world. The ethereal, black-skinned star-children see by starlight and struggle to breath air as thick as ours. These ethereal beings seem more magical than real, and the magic of fate and fortune plays a powerful role in their lives, for they experience the tug and twists of fate more acutely than other races.
Aliens of the Sylvan Spiral
- Asrathi: The Asrathi bear a striking resemblance to an animal familiar to most humans: a cat. Their physiology merges the feline with the humanoid: they walk on two legs and have two hands and have surprisingly human-like faces, but their hands sport claws, they have pointed, tufted ears, a fine layer of fur covers their bodies, they have thick noses with moist, black tips, golden eyes with narrow slits, a lashing tail and a fang-filled mouth. They tend to be slim and graceful when compared to humans, though some (sometimes called “Primal Asrathi” or “Jagarathi”) have a much heavier set and much less human features. Many people find Asrathi to be exceptionally beautiful, both male and female. Asrathi have a great deal of variety: some with thick manes or a rich chest of fur, with a wide variety of colors and patterns to their fur from burnt orange with black stripes to rich, tawny brown to a mottled mix of colors. A few, the so-called “witch cats,” have entirely white or black fur, with no distinct or recognizable patterns.
- Nehudi: From the green depths of the Sylvan Spiral come the primal Nehudi. The Empire paints them as wild savages whose whooping warcries strike terror in the hearts of the innocent as the heroic legions of Imperial troopers hold back the tides of barbarism. Those who learn the ways of the Nehudi discover a race deeply in tune with their magnificent world and their own instincts. They wield bow, axe and spear in battle, and fight with careful cunning. Their sages listen to the songs of living worlds and draw life from the soil and the greenery around them. Under stress, the Nehudi bare their teeth and snap their pupils to slit and revert to their based instincts, lending credence to the imperial smear against them, but when they relax, their true intelligence and compassion comes to the fore. They wage a war to protect their world from the depredations of the Empire, and that war has forced them to do something they have rarely done in the history of their civilization: go off world to explore the galaxy in search of allies!
- Sathran: Cannibals lurk in the depths of the Sylvan Spiral. Beyond even the mysterious region of the Sylvan Spiral known as the Morass, in the uncivilized reaches on the very edge of the galaxy, a serpentine race rules a shadowy world. Their ships raid the primitives of the Sylvan Spiral, trade goods for slaves in the Umbral Rim, and clash with the Mug Iconoclasty from beyond the galaxy. Humanity and the Galactic Empire have heard of them only through the urgent whispers of Ranathim slaves spared their cooking pots or from the legends of the Nehudi whose warbands fought off one of their raids.
Aliens of the Galactic Fringe
Lost, Secret or Extinct Aliens
page revision: 18, last edited: 04 Aug 2022 12:34
