Other Sophonts

Every world that remains habitable long enough has a certain chance of evolving intelligent life, capable of organizing into complex societies.

The biological evolution of sophonts gives rise to cultures and technologies shaped by their environments.

Many sophonts share biochemistry with Humaniti: they breathe similar atmospheric mixes, are bilaterally symmetrical, and are susceptible to comparable ranges of diseases and toxins.

Others are entirely alien, with biologies as strange as their physical forms, adapted to their homeworlds often inhospitable for other sophonts.

Some barely achieve pre-industrial development, while others reach remarkable advances in specialized domains; few are ancestral species, as ancient as life itself in the galaxy.

Many remain ignored or exploited by more advanced civilizations, or are directly subsumed by corporations or imperial powers.

In certain corners of the galaxy, only ruins remain: silent witnesses to extinct sophont species whose origins entwine with the myths of the Ancients.

The diversity of sophonts is one of the great hidden engines of galactic history, though to many they are merely names in reports —or commodities in a contract.