Aniubi are "canid" (doglike). They walk upright, and have two arms, two legs, forepaws instead of hands. They have five digits at the end of each limb (forepaws and feet), retractable claws, keen smell and hearing, comparatively poor eyesight compared with Humans. Their sense of humor and some of their body language is similar (or the same) as Humans. They have RED BLOOD.
A single individual of either gender is called an 'Aniuba.'
There is some mystery around what happened to the Aniubi space civilization between the time they visited the ancient Egyptians and now, but we do know there were several collapses and dark ages within that period.
The original Aniubi who were dragged into the Sandbox galaxy were members of eight clans. Their fleet had been intending to colonize the far reaches of the Milky Way's "Scutum–Centaurus Arm" (its Human name). They arrived at roughly the same time as the starfish-like zRaati and were able to find a way to communicate and make peace early, avoiding unnecessary bloodshed.
Unclanned Aniubi (those who were dishonored or slave caste) broke away early and went looking for their own worlds.
Qlay m’taq is their most polite greeting.
ANIUBI MILITARY AND "INTERVENTION GROUPS"
The preferred arrangement for any teams or groups is in triangles. This is due to the racial/cultural love for pyramid and triangular shapes. See image below. A typical Intervention Group (or military unit) might have 5-12 "lines" (15-78 personnel), with 1 Commander, 2 Adjutants such as a Lieutenant and Sergeant, then lines of Troopers (often the third line is 3 specialists of some kind).
Toatalis: the wingless fly people
Toatalis have large heads with multi-faceted eyes. No neck but their torso turns on the hips (at the base of the spine) so they can look around. Two fingers, two thumbs, some have one mini-digit mid palm for even finer motor skills. They prefer to live in community and are comfortable with totalitarian societies. They bond to an employer, leader or commander--but can rebond to another. They are generally peaceful. They have PALE YELLOW BLOOD.
They are particularly vulnerable to cold when without a fully formed carapace. Toatalis are decent, capable people, predictable, narrow-focused and honorable--and brave in battle.
Greels: the bovine people
Greels are cowlike but bipedal. Their eyes run a third of the way around each side of the head and work independently, so they have the potential for 360 degree vision without moving their head (they have very little neck). Generally peaceful, they're also cunning and capable of greed, cruelty and sociopathy. Many of them enjoy knowledge for its own sake.
They have RED BLOOD like Humans, Aniubi and Yan.
Greels have sensitive noses (nerve clusters from an earlier evolutionary stage when they foraged under soil for roots and fungi), and they're soft-looking people. However, if trained, they make lethal soldiers--and are often found in security jobs because of their size.
zRaati: the Starfish People
zRaati are the most alien Race to Humans. While they don't live in water, they do resemble enormous starfish. They are asexual (reproducing when two or more individuals create a “mingling” where they share genetic material). They have hearing and sight organs spread around their limbs on the underside and topside, as well as in their tips of those limbs. They like currency and knowledge (ie., power over their environment).
They have PURPLE BLOOD.
Properly, their personal pronoun is it (e.g. "That zRaati is name Kli Lel. Have you met it before?").
Veh'Na: the regal, pucker-mouthed people
Veh'Na are the quintessential aliens from a Human point of view.
Humanoid, tall and gangly, with gray skin and zero body hair. They are narrow shouldered, narrow chested, narrow hipped. They have two livers and a double-heart which sits behind their stomach. Their mouth is puckered as if face caves in toward the mouth. Their eyes are close set and deep-set, positioned above the mouth. There are only two teeth or grinding plates in their mouths, because they evolved on a diet of soft bugs, soft vegetation like fruits, and mushy aquatic animals.
Instead of human-like ears and noses, they have "ear flutes" along the sides of the jaw, with multiple holes for catching sounds of varying frequencies. Their nostrils are shell-like structures on the sides of their heads above each ear.
They have blue blood: oxidized copper in the blood protein gives their blood molecules their blue color. Oxygen levels are controlled by temperature. When the blood is oxygenated it turns blue. Otherwise, it is colorless. They don’t live half as long as zRaati or Greel.
They have tougher skin than Humans, but beneath it their muscles are close to human strength. However, their bones are more brittle than ours and their sensitive cartilage is easily torn. Soldiers make up for this weakness with powered exosuits.
You would call one person of their race a Veh (“the person”) (of any age or gender or status) where we would say “the guy, the woman, the boy, etc. "Veh’Na" describes everything to do with them and is used as an inclusive noun but also as an adjective.
"Veh’Na’gu" was their original language, and it sounds a bit like English in its phonemes (ie., it is relatively easy for Humans to learn although it's no longer widespread in the Sandbox). Their written languages run left to right, top to bottom.
Timings: forty of their years = twenty-eight Consensus years (36.4 Human years). Their preferred military/security weapon is a snub-rifle
Yan: the Demon-Mantis People
Tall and gangly with long limbs and with fingers they can harden in to slashing/digging claws or can relax to use for manipulation. They move on two legs or on four like gorilla. When they walk on their hands, it's on the backs of those hands and the wrist, never on the fingers.
They have an elongated, forward pointing head. Nostrils on sides of head (like Veh'Na) with round molten gold eyes set close together in center of the head above the talking mouth.
The eating mouth is set below that, with four palps over it.
They are blunt in their verbal communication but use formal language. They have RED BLOOD.
The Three Dumb Races
boodels: the mole-people
Boodles are an elevated species, little more than talking animals used and adapted by the zRaati to do fine motor work and labor.
Individuals of this species often go through their entire life without being named. Their Race is never capitalized in writing (ie., boodel not Boodel).
Nai’issi: simulacrums (androids)
Nai'issi appear to be fake lifeforms. They have two thick arms and two thick legs with a manipulator tendril on each shoulder as second pair of 'arms.' Their seed ships that appeared in the galaxy 300 years ago held 390,000 of them in a stasis. But they are unable to breed or manufacture others, so their presence in the galaxy is one of slow attrition.
Their Race’s official designation was "simulacrums." Many people called them automatons. Humans sometime refer to them as androids.
Derigs: the hamster-people
Like boodels, Derigs are a species genetically "elevated" to do manual and administrative (and military) work for zRaati. They are officious and rule-focused with the ability to learn a narrow skillset for life, but without empathy or the ability to understand other ways of working etc. Derigs are easily pleased... aaaaand easily angered, and easily bored.
Status Undecided
Humans
The original fleet of Humans sucked from hyperspace into the Sandbox was 30,000 in number.
Since arrival (at the time that the book DAWN STAR is set), these colonists have had 17,500 children naturally, plus 11,000 test tube babies using artificial wombs. They are still vastly outnumbered by other Races.
FAUNA (ANIMALS) of the galaxy
In keeping with its name, the Sandbox already had many species of flora and fauna when the space-faring Races were brought into it. Including the following:
Mutkins - described by Skip Lawson as pangolin-monkeys, these critters squirt stomach acid, melt metal, suck it or chew it when it’s softer.
P’naaktrah: a predatory millipede found on many worlds across the Sandbox
Tiki-ants
Mamadak: hairy mammaloids that don’t like getting caught in the rain.