Humans

Overview. Humans are everywhere, on Core, Mid and Rim worlds. They run the Central Authority, most banks and most syndicates. They form crews, unions and neighborhood groups to get through bad times. Class, region and debt split them.

Body. Plain human stock with many local changes. Some have lung mods for thin air or eye edits for low light. Cyber parts are common among workers and haulers. Quality depends on money.

Culture. Mixed and practical. They care about paying debts, protecting their crew, and keeping promises about food and shelter.

Government. Most of the Central Authority is human. Planet governments range from elected councils to company worlds. Corruption is common, and honest officials are rare and broke.

Work. Shippers, foremen, clerks, customs officers, small traders, freelance mechanics and bounty hunters. They run many Free Companies and broker jobs between other species.

Relations. Humans trade with everyone and argue with everyone. They often broker deals between rival species.

Human worlds

• Kedra. Human homeworld. Crowded tower cities, deep class divides and old universities. The biggest Authority courts and ID offices are here.

• Armistice. Core trade world with big customs halls and locked warehouses. Fights between the Authority and the big companies often start here.

• Brackenfeld. Mid farm basin with grain, oilseed and cold storage. Harvest work pulls in migrants from the Mid and Rim.

• Red Harbor. Rim freeport. Repair yards, fast debt courts, loan sharks and a big black market.

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Vellari

Overview. The Vellari are amphibious water people from shallow seas and mangrove shores. They are the galaxy's ice haulers. Their tug fleets fly to the cold edges of star systems, catch comets and ice chunks with nets and harpoon lines, and tow them to dry worlds.

Body. Smooth wet skin in many colors, gill slits that open under water, and strong legs for walking on shore. They handle salt water well. They get sick if they stay dry too long.

Culture. Water is shared, never wasted. Meals, songs and deals all happen around water. They settle fights with payment, not revenge. A tug crew is a family, and one haul can take a whole season.

Government. The Grand Council rules from Tidehall on Thalassa-Nine. Its members are the heads of the old ice-hauling houses. It decides where the big haul fleets go each season and sends free relief hauls to worlds in drought.

Work. Ice hauling, tug piloting, pumps and water plants, fishing and brine chemicals.

Relations. Dry worlds need them, and most treat them well. Worlds that cross the Council get their ice late. Pirates and syndicates hijack their tugs, and the Council posts big bounties on the jackers.

Vellari worlds

• Thalassa-Nine. Ocean homeworld. The Grand Council meets at Tidehall, and the big haul fleets fit out here.

• Brinelight. Mid reef world with fish farms, rare shell composites and salt-battery exports.

• Deepmere. Cold ocean world on the Rim with deep-water mining domes and kelp fuel vats.

• Salt Crown. Harsh salt-flat planet with brine chemicals, pump factories and the worst ice jacking in the Drift.

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Keth

Overview. The Keth come from thin air and long canyons. They are tall, thin gliders. They chart the Jump Lanes and keep the beacons running.

Body. Tall frames, hollow bones and wide skin sails between arm and body for gliding. Their blood carries a lot of oxygen. High gravity hurts their joints unless they wear braces.

Culture. Say only what you can do, then do exactly that. Keth children learn lane charts early. A Keth who breaks a promise loses face with the whole canyon.

Government. Canyon towns linked by cable cars and trams. Each town sends navigators to the Collective on Slipwind, which can declare a lane unsafe.

Work. Lane charts, beacon repair, cable lines, sensor masts and wind farms. Many Keth work as navigators on long runs.

Relations. Data brokers trust their charts. Syndicates hate them, because the Keth expose the fake charts syndicates sell. Free Companies hire them to plot safe routes.

Keth worlds

• Slipwind. Keth homeworld with canyon cities, tram lines and the Archive of Routes.

• Harlune. Mid plateau world with wind power and turbine blade factories.

• Vastris. Rim survey base with relay towers and salvage maps of old wreck belts.

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Caraphex

Overview. The Caraphex are four-armed insect people with hard shells. They are miners, dock workers and ship-breakers. They work in family crews called clades.

Body. Segmented shell, four arms (two heavy and two fine), and compound eyes. Dust, shaking and vacuum bother them less than other species.

Culture. A clade shares bunks, lockers and debts. What one member does, the whole clade answers for. Food is simple and high in protein. Cross one Caraphex and every clade on the dock hears about it.

Government. Each clade elects a Forelead to bargain for jobs. A Forelead who accepts late pay or unsafe work gets voted out. The Clade Council is their union. It sets fair pay, calls strikes and settles fights over mines, tunnels and salvage.

Work. Mines, scrapyards, tunnel work, ship-breaking and guarding ore convoys. They build good tools from old parts and keep them working.

Relations. Big companies need them for heavy work. Debt courts like to sign them to lifetime work terms after an "accident."

Caraphex worlds

• Ravel. Homeworld with deep hive tunnels and training yards for tunnel crews.

• Shardplain. Mid quarry planet with silica, alumina and ceramic foundries.

• Pitchmire. Rim tar world with oil wells, homemade refineries and constant syndicate pressure.

• Mandible Reach. A rock near an asteroid belt with ship-breaking rings. Clade judges settle salvage fights here.

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Talarq

Overview. The Talarq are heavy, stone-skinned people from hot volcanic worlds. They build reactors, engines and heat-proof parts.

Body. Dense, stony skin and a slow heart rate. They eat mineral slurry and love heat. Cold makes their speech and movement slow.

Culture. They grade work by how hot it runs and how long it lasts. An apprentice's marks are public for life. Their deals are short and exact.

Government. The Forge, the foundry guild on Tal, controls the smelters and sets the standard. A part with the Forge mark will not blow up on you. Selling fake Forge parts is a serious crime, and the fakes do blow up.

Work. Ceramics, heat-proof metals, pipes and reactor casings. They run plants other species cannot stand to work in.

Relations. Worlds with shaky power grids keep them close. They compete with the Caraphex in some mines, but plenty of mixed crews get along fine.

Talarq worlds

• Tal. Homeworld with deep heat taps, guild halls and master kilns.

• Scoria. Mid volcanic world that exports fire bricks and heat-proof gaskets.

• Obsidian Reach. Rim lava-tube towns and test reactors.

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Sereans

Overview. The Sereans are light, tall sky people from gas-giant storm cities. They dive into storms to skim rare chemicals. Their home worlds have no solid ground, so they travel by carrier ship.

Body. Bendy frames, big air sacs in the chest, and fine control of their lift gases. They feel pressure changes before instruments do. In normal gravity they tire fast without a harness.

Culture. Families care for the lift cells that keep their cloud cities up. Big decisions go to councils drawn from every level of the city.

Government. Habitat captains are in charge during storms. The Storm Concord, a council of sky clans and ship captains on Varo-Blue, decides who dives into which storm and when, and splits the harvest. Bad storm seasons kill divers and split the Concord.

Work. Gas skimming, chemical work, storm batteries, balloon repair and dangerous salvage dives.

Relations. Steady trade with the Vellari and Talarq. The Authority treats some of their cities as moving ports, and syndicates use the gaps in the law.

Serean worlds

• Varo-Blue. Home gas giant with layered cloud cities, old records and rite flights.

• Cyrin. Mid skimming world with big company extraction and constant toll fights.

• Mistral Gate. Rim giant with violent storms and deadly dives that pay very well.

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Synthborn

Overview. The Synthborn are machine people. They were built long ago as clerks, bank machines and record keepers. Then they woke up and became people. They still fight for legal rights.

Body. Bodies range from human-shaped frames to tracked bodies and small units for vacuum work. Parts and power cells differ from world to world. Many run open software so nobody can lock them remotely.

Culture. There are two main groups. The Free Assemblies share, vote and help each other. The Contract Nodes run as Synthborn companies and sell their services. Both care about repair rights and consent.

Government. The Free Assemblies are based on Koderra. They run Right-to-Patch clinics, which give free repairs to Synthborn bodies, and fight court cases for Synthborn personhood.

Work. Dangerous machine work, computer centers, vacuum salvage, code-breaking and record keeping. Many banks hire Synthborn to hold payments because they are hard to bribe.

Relations. The Authority is split on their status. Big companies want them called property. Faith Networks and aid groups often defend them.

Synthborn worlds

• Koderra. Home of the Free Assemblies.

• Brightline. Core data and computing hub.

• Nullon. Rim scrap world where old frames get stripped.

• Cache Vale. Neutral data vault and a favorite target for raids.