Alien Races

 Ak'htari

An older alien race, their name means "Navigators." Their homeworld is long dead, and they have wandered space in great nomad fleets for an aeon. The Ak'htari are a mix of cybernetics,  gelatinous engineered flesh, and alien tech inhabited by a transdimensional psionic consciousness. 

+1 DEX, -1 STR, +1 Navigation, 
does not need food or water, -1 reaction rolls

Brosk

A hulking race of Capybara-like aliens, the Brosk are one of the most influential alien races in the Alliance. They hav multiple life stages, starting as a furrry amphibian, then becoming a terrestrial quadriped, then gaining sapience and an ape-like form as they develop. There is a rumored foruth stage, but they do not permit outsiders to see it.

+2 STR, -1 DEX, -1 INT, +1 STR and
CON-based Saving Throws, +1 damage 
when using a melee weapon

Elicant

Large quadripeds with four tentacle limbs coming from the sides of their hunched backs. The Elicant are known for being superstitious, highly religious, and easily led by charismatic preachers and charlatans.

+2 STR, -1 WIS, -1 CHA, +1 Reaction 
Rolls when using intimidation; recovers from 
damage at double the normal rate

Hune

Tiny aliens with a strong mercantile bent. Semiaquatic and partially gelatinous, they must wear armored encounter suits that maintain the pressure, humidity, and methane-rich atmosphere they require.

The Hune are radical individualists, they hate hierarchy, and expect others to be self-directed. Have a controlling interest in QRC.

1 WIS, -1 CON,
+1 Perception due to enhanced senses; requires breathing apparatus (or cybernetics) to survive in oxygen
atmosphere, but can breathe methane atmosphere

Kitat

An alien race of wealth-obsessed merchants, the fish-like Kitat have castes that are based on whether they have been engineered to survive on land, water, or both, based on ancient divides in their culture.  Genetic engineering is now a taboo after how it fractured and nearly destroyed their culture. They now have an oligarchical federation. 

The Kitat are clannish, and Value family very strongly. But those who are not part of their clan, caste, or collegiate body are open for exploitation, and the Kitat are noted for being schemers and con artists. 

They are also incredible orators, fast-talkers, and known for their poetry.

+1 INT, -1 WIS, +1 Reaction Rolls when convincing people

Keen

Unparalleled in the sciences of genetic manipulation and social engineering,  the Keen once built an interplanetary empire that spanned 370 planets. Wherever they went, they turned the species they encountered into allies, then clients, then indentured, then services they could genetically modify, and finally into bespoke slave life-forms that barely resembled the species.

The Keen Empire collapsed 3,500 years ago when the Nex rebelled and the Olikat abandoned the Keen to their fate. Since then their recovery as a true interplanetary power has been slow and punctuated by brutal intercinine warfare. They were a founding race of the Alliance,  and often sit at the top of their hierarchy, but other races are careful to prevent a new Keen Empire from rising.

The Keen have turned corporatism, bureaucracy, and politicking into fine arts. Their strangely harmonic notices have a calming effect on many other species ' nervous systems,  and make them both persuasive and incredible performers.

Psionic powers are not universal among the Keen like they are among the Ak'Htari, but they are far more frequent than in most other races.

+1 CHA, -1 CON, +1 Reaction Rolls when manipulating people into sharing information

Nex

A species of semisapient arachnid, the Nex were uplifted, modified, and indoctrinated to serve as the mechanics and engineers of the Keen Empire. Their manipulation has been so complete they are no longer able to subsist on food from their own home planet.

Each Nex us born with biomechanical symbiotes that make them effectively cyborgs from birth. There is no such thing as "natural" to the mind of the Nex.

The Nex revolted against The Keen 3,500 years ago using a mix of sabotage, asymmetric warfare, and weaponized A.I. and meme warfare. Once the Keen Empire collapsed, the Nex struck out alongside the Olikat to explore new space. 

The Nex hold deep guilt for the extinction of three of their fellow servitor species as a result of their use of A.zi. weaponry. They were the ones who masterminded the Tau Accoed. Their culture has very formalized methods of engaging with others in argumentation an apologies. 

+1 INT, -1 CON, +1 Repair, low-light vision; 

-1 to-hit, Saving Throws, and skill checks in natural wilderness environments

Nuhenni

A race of arboreal sentients, the Nuhenni have seven articulated limbs for running, jumping, and climbing with incredible agility.  The Nuhenni are feathered, and vaguely bird-like, but their anatomy doesn't fit any terrestrial model of life very well.

The Nuhenni were still in a bronze age society when they were discovered by human explorers and raised to spacefaring technology in a couple of generations; this has led them to have many odd, backwards-seeiming customs.

+1 DEX, -1 CON, +1 Athletics, 
+1 Perception, nightvision

Olikat

Engineered as warriors for use by the Keen Empire, the Olikat were e gendered to have killer instincts and little empathy. Muscular, thick furred, and impossibly fast, most other species rightly are cautious about upsetting the Olikat.

When the Nex rebelled against The Keen, the Olikat were persuaded to abandon their posts and eventually side with the Nex and the (now extinct) Yutaka.

After the collapse,  the Olikat left Keen space altogether,  save their home system.  They engaged in a massive diaspora and cam be found all across the Alliance.  They worked hard to leave their role as mindless weapons in the past; they have built a religion with a stunning resemblance to Chaan Buddhism and a Bushido code, so much so that it is a matter of obsession to xenologists. They serve as bounty hunters, assassins, and mercenaries across the frontier. 

The Olikat today live in a neo-feudal clan structure,  with the clans answerable to a theocracy that serve as the arbiters of law and mediators of dispute.  All psionics are given up by the families to be a part of the priesthood. 

+1 STR, -1 WIS, +2 AC; low-light vision, but only as black and white images

Sharae

Burrowing creatures from a harsh desert world, the Sharae are highly robust armadillo-like creatures who have an incredible array of organs for processing the toxins of the cacti and insectoids of their homeworld. 

The Sharae are one of the founding species of the Alliance, and live almost entirely on worlds near its core. Their gifts for survival, knowledge of how to adapt to harsh environments , and Mastery of mining and subterranean colony tech makes the few who come to the Frontier generally successful. 

The Sharae are individualists: while they have deep loyalties to the people (of any species) they call their own, they have no allegiance to tribe, faction, or race. Their loyalty is always hard won.

+1 CON, -1 Dex, +2 saves vs poison

+1 Perception, nightvision, light sensitivity

Terrian

The Terrian a furry reptiloid with two pairs of legs, a short strong pair for walking, and a second spindly double -jointed pair for climbing, running, fighting, and balance.  Their homeworld,  Rian, was consumed in a nightmarish hyperspace rupture that instantly killed not just every Terrian on their homeworld,  but every Terrian with psychic sensitivity as well.

The species teeters for generations on the edge of extinction, and eventually pulled together into a group of nomadic starlets that serve as a replacement for a homeworld.  Terrians come and go from the fleets as they please, but always try to bring largesse with them when they return home.

Terrians tend to drift from station to station doing odd jobs, surveying, mercenary work, or trading. Tiny, barely spaceworthy Terrian Starjumpers are some of the most affordable spacecraft in existence,  and can put the stars in reach for almost any (brave) soul. Accordingly Terrian design customs and survival tricks are familiar to almost any space bum on the Frontier.

Terrian dialects serve as one of the two "common" languages in the Alliance and on the frontier.

+1 DEX, -1 STR, +1 Navigation, -1 Base Saving Throw DC

Ubul

A race of small, Axlotl-like aliens that most other races find cute, the Ubul are caught in a series of perpetual holy wars over esoteric they have little interest in explaining to outsiders. 

They are scattered across the galaxy in usually underwater enclaves fearing discovery by other factions, while hunting their rivals where they can.

+1 CON, -1 CHA, +2 Swim;  breathes in air and underwater

Vath

The Vath are a race with a highly elaborate caste system, and an obsession with cybernetic enhancement: especially cognitive enhancements. Thye have a strict caste and collegiate system that pigeonholes members of the society into their "ideal" role (as judged by the needs of society and not the individual.) Extremely rare, only a small dilomatic caste is usually permitted to explore space. Outliers and deviant Vath are usually the only kind you will find on the Frontier.

+1 INT, -1 DEX, -1 Base Saving 
Throw DC throw due to enhanced deduction

Yoc

A furry humanoid species with square, muzzled faces and leathery noses, keen, bat-like ears, and a tail. Tend to be  blue, Grey, or black.

Most Yoc live within their own xenophobic empire that keeps its borders closed. Most encountered outside of Yoc-space are outcasts and wanderers whose punishment for a crime is to explore space and then return with chronicles, that are valued and assessed against a debt. They cannot return to Yoc society until they have documented enough.

You are all at least mildly telepathic,  and have a strong pack mentality.  Fiercely loyal to friends.

+1 DEX, +1 CHA, -1 STR, -1 INT +1 Navigation,
Starts with the empath psionic power at +0