2300 AD - Sentient Species

Sentient Species

• The following sentient species are known to humans in 2300 AD:
  • Sung: a species of winged humanoids of smaller stature than humans, whose technological development is close to but not as great as humanity's (they are currently only capable of interplanetary travel).
  • Xiang: a species inhabiting a gas giant's moon in the Sung home star system, formerly enslaved by the former but now free after a brief military action by a number of human nations. Relations among the Sung are governed by a principle that the strong dominate the weak but provide the weak with requested assistance to bring them up to their masters' level, and they took advantage of the fact that the Xiang never made such requests. The Sung now consider humanity to be their superiors in this system and are chafing at humanity's refusal to improve them (by showing them how to perform FTL travel, for example).
  • Ebers: confined to one planet in 2300, they once had an interstellar civilization with a presence on at least three other planets, although all that is left of them on those planets are ruins from a destructive war.
  • Pentapods: an amphibious species with a preference for aquatic environments, with a biotechnological technical infrastructure (including starships that are massive living beings). The fact that some Pentapods show signs of genetic engineering and are treated as tools by other Pentapods masks a deeper secret regarding their origins.
  • Kafers: humanoids with heads and integument similar to some Terran insects (the human name is from the German for "beetle"), with technological advancement close to humanity's, including interstellar travel capability. Kafer individuals normally have an intelligence equivalent to a human with an IQ of 40, but their equivalent of an adrenaline reaction makes them smarter (increased situational awareness, speed of reasoning, and creativity). Their society contains a great deal of ritualized violence and is ruled over by a small minority of "permanently bright" individuals. They are the primary adversary species in 2300AD, with many published materials dealing with their invasion of human space (they are terrified by humanity, since to them we resemble the "smart barbarians" that periodically destroyed developing civilizations on their home planet).

• Published adventures detailed several additional sentient species: the primitive Klaxun (in the adventure Energy Curve), the Ylii (a multi-species culture enslaved by the Kafers, detailed in the Kafer Sourcebook), the long-dead Medusae (from the Nyotekundu Sourcebook), and two species found by the Bayern expedition in the adventure of the same name (the "Little Guys" and the awesome AGRA Intelligence).

These aliens are mainly speculation on how a sentient being would evolve from a certain path of evolution. Particularly Ebers (described in "Ranger") and Kafers (mostly described in "Kafer Sourcebook") represents well-described, highly "alien" forms of intelligence that seem reasonably evolutionary feasible. For physiological reasons the Eber has a compartmentalised brain which means that if you met an Eber as a social being, he might not recognise you when he is in parental or professional mode. For evolutionary and physiological reasons Kafers do not need permanent high intelligence but rather intelligence in crisis and develop a sudden increase in intelligence in the face of pain or fear. With rather strict logical coherence the books describes what types of societies these forms of intelligence have given rise to.