Legacy of The Aldenata - Aliens

Aliens

There are several major races in the universe of the Legacy of the Aldenata.

Darhel

Elf-like in appearance, they are the lawyers and bankers of the Galactic Federation and effectively control it, skimming wealth from the labor of others. Although vegetarian, they have razor-sharp teeth. While smaller than humans, Darhel have far greater physical abilities—and some would say their mental abilities are just as advanced, particularly a subtle but potent ranged empathic ability. However, they are devout pacifists. These contradictions are the result of genetic tampering by a powerful and arrogant elder race, the Aldenata. Although the full extent of this tampering is not detailed, the most crippling is their pacifism—when Darhel are stressed, their bodies produce an epinephrine analogue they call tal—which unlike epinephrine, augments both physical and mental abilities. The Aldenata altered Darhel biochemistry so that heightened tal levels induce a permanent coma-like state known as lintatai. This, in combination with their empathic ability, left them extremely inept at violent acts and physically incapable of taking any form of animal life. Their survival has thus become dependent on their ability to manipulate others to fight their battles for them. The Darhel are implied to be attempting to mold Humans into a race of Mamlukes; recruiting the planet's most skilled warriors to fight the Posleen on Galactic worlds, preserving their bloodlines by moving family members to protected worlds—and permitting the Posleen to conquer Earth, thus leaving Humanity dependent on the Darhel as all other Galactic races. After the defeat of the Posleen on Earth, Humans discovered the extent of the Darhel duplicity, manipulation and actions against the Human Race, the majority of the Darhel are wiped out by Humans in the aftermath of the Posleen War, leaving them the underclass of Galactic civilization.

Indowy

Short and stocky with green fur (which is actually a photosynthetic symbiote), they are the engineers and technicians of the Galactic Federation. A rare and valued number are more precisely the organic central processing units of the Galactic Federation's nanotech assemblers. Though the products of these assemblers are at least an order of magnitude more advanced than anything humans can produce throughout the Posleen war, the nature of the process means that each item is for all intents and purposes hand-crafted—mass production is impossible. They live in enormous hives in massively overcrowded sweatshop-planets and are effectively enslaved by the Darhel. Many are involved in a conspiracy to bring down the Darhel, called the Bane Sidhe.

Tchpth

Crablike in appearance, they are philosophers and scientists.

Himmit

Resembling a sort of symmetrical frog, they are extremely secretive and capable of camouflage to the point that they can effectively "disappear". Their stealth technology is the finest in the universe. In Honour of the Clan it is revealed that they form the 'Himmit empire', which is apparently a multi-galaxy political body. They pretended to be a minor part of the galactic civilization in order to hide their actual power. The reason for this is hinted at several times in Eye of the Storm. Apparently the Himmit have in the past been at war with an extremely powerful foe and can only survive by remaining hidden. This foe is so powerful that even the Hedren are in fact running away from them, which has brought them into contact with the galactic races. To give an idea of respective levels of power: The galactic races have to cooperate to stand a chance against the Hedren. The Himmit state that they themselves "can probably defeat the Hedren with minimal losses", but are reserving their true strength "in case a more powerful foe appears". Amongst each other they say that in fact the Hedren are fleeing this more powerful (and to the Himmit familiar) foe.

Posleen

Resembling reptilian centaurs, they are rapacious conquerors who strip whole planets the way locusts strip a field. They have been genetically engineered to be resistant to all known toxins, to have an incredibly short maturity time, and to have skills programmed into their DNA. Only a small percentage are truly intelligent, while the rest are semi-morons emotionally bonded to an intelligent master, or God King.

Tslek

The "Blobs", they resemble giant amoebas, although they must have a more complex internal structure. They are a relatively late addition, appearing only in The Hero, while at war with Humans.

Hedren

The enemy of the Himmit Empire, they were introduced in the book Eye of the Storm as the new antagonists, succeeding the Posleen.

Aldenata

A mysterious elder race, they created Galactic society and then vanished without a trace, apparently having transcended the need for material bodies. The glossary in "Yellow Eyes" describes the Aldenata somewhat disparagingly as "Galactic Tranzis", largely disappeared from the Galactic scene in sheer funk and shame at the damage they had, despite all the best intentions, wrought." Elsewhere in the book they are described, similarly disparagingly, as "Galactic do-gooders". They were consummate masters of genetic engineering, and had no qualms against modifying sentient species into what they felt were more "suitable"—both the Posleen and the Darhel were confirmed to have been modified in Yellow Eyes and The Hero, respectively. It is speculated that all sentient races in the Galaxy carry their "legacy" of genetic tampering. The implied author statement is that none of the factions encountered in the series are malicious, but merely forced into destructive acts by their modified natures—the Aldenata are the only true "evil" in their namesake fictional universe.