There are no "main" races in the Confederation. For this game, humans are not anything special, only having a genetic trait that their genes are easy to change and manipulate. Most other races with this talent have chosen the purist path and don't permit it. Besides races, there are also strains, which are genetic variants on a race common enough to warrant their own designation. Most strains are the result of a rce populating another planet before joining the confederation itself.

Notable Races:

Aldarri (Made by Caltak)

The Aldarri are the only known sentient species of their homeworld and are symbiotic beings, capable of joining painlessly with willing hosts and giving them various skills and abilities in exchange. Since the skills they offer are varied and useful, Aldarri and humanms tend to Join more frequently than other races. Some humans see the similarity between the Aldarris host-race on their own world and humans a sign that a racial Joining is evolutionarily desirable, but most purists see it as horrifying and quite possibly even worse than cybernetic enhancement. Rumour of Aldarri who can control their hosts -- and even some who kill them! [see the Zeldar, below] exist. More information on them can be found here.

Abilities: Die if outside of host over 1 hour (very suspeptible to the environment)
Telepathic link to host
Ability to genetically alter host
Control hosts reproductive cycles
Seldom survive the death of hosts

Ashend

Ashend are fairly thin, verging on frail, with pale, hairless bodies, wide eyes and a tendancy to reply to questions people haven't even asked them yet. The Ashend people come from Delri IV originally and are odd, even by Confederation standards. They had their own inter-stellar empire before joining the Confederation, tho how they established it remains a mystery since they had no space craft and showed no signs of mining for metals or other materials. They seem to display a wide range of highly developed mental powers but have a strong aversion to violence of any kind. According to the Ashend, they aren't capable of killing others.

Abilities: -5 strength, -10 toughness, +20 I.Q.
Mental abilities. Lots of them.
[See the GM for more info. on playing one]

Batchi Ashend Variant

The Batchi are the only Ashend psiticist (geneticist with psi) experiment to succeed. Despite being very weak and frail, Batchi learn amazingly fast and are very potent psychics. However, they have one minor problem in that due to some quirk of genetics, they are cursed with an ability to see things others cannot. What happened, what might happen, how powerful someone is ... just by looking at others, a Batchi is bombarded by impressions. So dangerous is this power that most Batchi take to travelling blindfolded, using their psi to guide them as eyes. Somehwta surprisingly, they also enjoy the company of Mogren. As a genetic experiment, they are a success, but until their ability is either weeded out or controlled, the success is dubious at best.

Abilities: -10 strength, -15 toughness, +25 I.Q,.
Mental abilities. Lots of them.
Learn Fast (skills all learned w/ +4 bonus to starting skill) Sight (See things around and about everyone. Cannot be shut off) [See the GM for more info. on playing one]

Dwarves

A strain of humans genetically bred to be shorter and tougher, dwarves are decendants of some cost-cutting engineers who figured that shorter people meant shorter access shafts for working. This not only cut costs but space was saved as well. While not all of this strain remain technically oriented, the frugality of the original designed seems to have become almost a strain-trait of note and dwarves everywhere are noted for being very careful about how they spend their credits.

Abilities: +4 strength, -6 speed, +2 toughness, +2 I.Q.
Most dwarves seem to have a knack for working with technology, fixing things and jury-rigging them.Dwarves who pick some technical area to learn are actually twice as skilled as they appear to be, due to their talent for finding innovative solutions to technical problems.

Eebil

Eebil are short, hairy humanoids with a tendancy towards being very sarcastic. They act as servants for others, since this is thier species' purpose, performing a wide variety of tasks and needs among differing species. Eebil can be found almost anywhere and adapt well to most worlds. They are renowned for being one of the least xenophobic races and are very linguistically adept.

Abilties: Read body language
Learn language at ¼ the normal rate
Enhanced hearing.

Falish

A race of humanoid cats, the Falish are known for strong belief in the All Mother -- a nature based religion dealing with not harming the environment -- as well as their feral natures. The mytht hat the Falish would as soon kill you as look as you isn't true, mostly because they are cat enough to like to toy with their pray first. As one of the more recent arrivials in the Confederation, they have the problem of controlling their predatory instincts while trying to be civilised with other species.

Abilities: +10 Speed, -8 I.Q.
Falish can see in the infared and do massive damage with their claws and teeth.

Grek

A typical Grek stands close to 8' tall, around 500 pounds of solid muscle and determination. The Grek have 4 arms, 2 legs and one small eye. The rest is basic humanoid. msot of them tend to have dark grey skin - thik enough to be called a hide by some and their arms are all of equal strength. To date no one has encountered a female Grek, so little is known about their culture, society or how they reproduce. Made infamous by the destruction of the Illeri people, Grek are often shuneed and disliked by others for that act.

Abilities: +5 strength, -5 Speed, +10 toughness
With an extra pair of arms, Grek can perform more actions than most. In their case, this ofen involves shooting more guns.
Grek have the ability to see into the infa red spectrum.
They are also highly resistant to mental manipulation.

Grek of warrior-blood are also ½ immune to damage from energy weapons.

Humans

Just another race in a large galaxy, humans hve one distinct racial trait: their genetic patterns seem to adapt well to manipulation. Combined with relatively quick reproduction and innate adaptation, human strain colonies (especially before humanity joined the Confederation) are fairly common. Indeed, due to the travails of galaxial travelling, there is likely no humans left without their genetic pattern tampered with in some manner. To purists, it raises the question of how long there will even be a human race and some strains have come under attack for promoting anti-humanism.

Abilities: Varies, generally stat based.

Illeri

The Illeri were a quiet, peaceful species. Quadrapedal, with fingers and thumbsm they looked like small, multi-coloured bears more than anything else. Prior to the destruction of thier homeworld, the Illeri were one of the lesser known specicies. besides the occassional traveller and ambassador, Illerans kept tom themselves on their homeworld, making art and music and, thanks to thier ability to share emotions with others, not being attacked by any army. The Grek proved resistant to this power and quite simply blew up the star in the Illeri sustem, wiping out 12 planets and over 97% of the Illeri. Due to some sort of racial link they rarely spoke of, almost all the Illeri felt the death of their people and almost all the ones living died or went insane. In the 300 years since that destruction, the Illeri have passed on that memory to their children and Illeri art, when seen by outsiders is frighteningly grim.

Abilities: +5 I.Q., +2 Appearance, -4 Toughness
Artistic Skills
Racial Telepathic link
Empathic control (Used to defend themselves from being attacked)

Jakathri

The Jakathri are perhaps one of the most peaceful races in the Confederation, a fact owing to both their desire for peace and the fact that no sane race attacks them. The typical Jakathri stands over 5 metres tall and have armoured plating as skin tbhat can withstand most physical and some energy weapons. With their hands that can actually change shape, toughness etc for various tasks, they look and are strong enough to stop most foes in their tracks. However, perhaps because of this, Jakathri aren't warriors but rather engineers -- the best space ship designers in the area, especially for engines and the like. Even more astonishing, they've almost figured out the Jump system the Humans developed.

Abilities: +5 Strength, -10 Speed +10 Toughness
Bonus of +5 top any ship-related skill

Mogren

Mogren are one of the most egnimatic species of the Confederation. They look, for all intents and purposes, like small, shortly furred teddy bears. They are apparently immune to all known forms of energy weapons and their fur -- if thats what it is -- is tough enough to withstand a laser rifle at point-blank range unscathed.. Thoey rarely arm themselves with weapons. preferring to use their short claws to devastating effect since they are apparently poisonous to any other species. As a race, they are among the oldest in the Confederation and some say that they would be one of the elder races if not for their attachment to their physical bodies. Most people treat them with respect and/or fear.

Abilities: -10 Strength +10 toughness
Very linguistic
Absorb/Ignore 30+ damage of any attack. Period.
Natural immunity to psi (and other stuff, like vacuum and poisons and ... )
Claws do 15 damage + poison.

Nano-Colony (Created by Baliadoc)

Since no nano-colony looks alike, this is a brief description of a sample nano-colony (Musashi). This being is a strongly builthumaniod shape. Their "skin" is black, with yellow patterns running around his eyes, mouth, the area where ears would be, and throughout the rest of his body, a la something the Aztecs would've done. His eyes and mouth emit a green glow, but beyond that, that's all that seems to be in there.

Deciding to take action after the attack on the Portals by the Hingari, it was decided that the various Nano-colonies would split themselves up among the universe, trying to find ways of either repairing the Portals. Musashi, however, became disillusioned with the idea of ever repairing the damage, and has instead devoted himself to finding another way to travel at FTL speeds. Safely, that is. Now, he travels the galaxies looking for new technology and better forms of energy with which to break the barrier that has separated most places in the universe from one another.

Abilities: Techno Magic: Allows the following - Energy to Matter, Limited Teleportation, Limited Flight, Techno-Kinesis (lifting of mechanical matter), Techno-Telepathy, Techno-Manipulation (minute changes to pre-
existing mechanical matter).
Quick Healing: The colony, like any other world, is full of little nano-hospitals, therefore the world regenerates quickly. Plus, like any good world, its' people reproduce like rabits.

Nythci (Made by Chaos`^)

Nythci Are typically thought of as large spiders. They have hands and legs, but they can bend to look like a four legged spider. Their necks are long and thin and their heads are small, almost resembling a parascope. Nythci are rarely seen standing upright while running, though they fight standing upright. Nythci are typically considered ugly, their bodies looking more like a spider than a humanoid but are mammals regardless. A typical Nythci lives for 1000 years, usually spending most of their lives after 150 in a distant, unkown land. Once a Nythci turns 150 he makes it his goal to seek out this unkown land.

Nythci are a more rebel race and are on the verge of extinction by the confederation. A lucky few have been spared but are still turning to theivery and execution. Only a handfull are allowed higher up on the ladder of the confederation, and not very many steps up, though some legends have been heard. One of the larger hinderances for the race is that though they are smart and able to use most instruments, the Nythci are not inventors and typically steal technology from other races, hindering their own evolution in somoe ways.

Nythci shared a planet with another intellegent race, though the Nythci were known and seen about as much as lepricauns, the Nythci stole/used the other races technology to get higher in the world and eventually made the other race extinct, though the Nythci can't pronounce the other race, they called them "Clumsy ones" translated.
Nythci typically need a translator, though they can speak a variety of languages, Basic is a harder one for them.
Nythci Joined the confederation Ages ago, it is almost forgoten, some beleave they were one of the first, others think they never did join, but leached off of the confederation, and were eventually added in to prevent other acts of chaos, and some self ritious people beleave that The Nythci were one of the more powerful races that started the confederation, but every race has one of them types in it, right?

Abilities: Able to teleport 5-10 ft through open space, deducting 1 from strength untill He or she rests for atleast 30 minutes per strength lost.
Ablility to climb walls at no loss to Strength.
Ability to latch onto a wall and stay unmoving for 1 hour per strength point, every hour the strength is reduced by 1 untill he or she rests for atleast 30 minutes per strength lost.
Ability to hold breath for up to three hours.
Ability to hold still/patient/in hiding for up to four hours.
Small compartment made of an exoskeleton like shell on their chest with a jaw type door to hide/ hold things while moving around.
Innerskeleton, except that the breastbone is sticking out of the skin like an underside shell, made of a hard type bone, typically harder than humans bones.

Thryn (Made by Chaos`^ - Additional stuff by Alcar)

Thryn are a very inventive race, They typically look like humans with great beuty, there is very little differance other than their intellegence and looks. Most Thryn typically have a small to large psi ability, some even speacialize in learning thier abilities.

Some speculate the Thrun are really one of humanities strains, send off in the sleep ships to colonise other worlds before humanity was approached by the Confederation and joined it over 12 000 years ago. However, over 15 000 years have past since said craft were launched and many species tend to look alike - basic humaniod forms etc. so it's likely ther answer will never be known. The homeworld of the Thryn -- in fact, the only world they've ever colonised, even after joining the Confederation -- is a dank, gloomy place of jungles and deserts with many nasty species. It's climate wreaks havoc on technology, often corroding it before its time and some of the species appaerntly can eat even plassteel and the hulls of minor star ships. As a result, the Thryn have learned to defend themselves psychically from assault and get technology to work under very adverse conditions. There are rumours that members of this race can kill with their PSI, but are limited to lower-order beings.

Abilities: -10 Strength -10 speed +15 I.Q +5 Appearance.
Very fast learners (Rped)
PSI race

Vim

The Vim are a medium sized race that are simply 6 thin, octopus-like legs and a torso with 8 eyestals above it and a mouth. Not one of the most endearing races, they are linked together in groups of 4 (or very rarely, 5). The linking of 4 has each Vim specialised in 1 PSI skill (Biokiniesis, Telepathy, Telekinisis or Teleportation). When one of the four dies, his power passes into the othr 3 as a potential skill that uses the Vim more than is used by them. If the rest of their family dies, the remaming Vim uses all the powers as if they were its own. As far as anyone knowns, all Vim can communicate with each other and are empathic. They tend to abhor violence and have no sex that any doctors or others have been able to discern yet.

Abilities: +5 to any PSI power.
Limited to 1 specialisation, other abilities in a sort of potential state, accessible only if the other 3/4 of their family die.

Zeldar (Made by Caltak)

A genetic variant of the Aldarri (or perhaps renegades of that race), the Zeldar cause pain on joining hosts and often do so without permission. They tend to abuse the host, changing its body and form and breaking its own will for whatever ends they feel like at the time. Unlike the Aldarri, Zeldar are most definitely parasitic. Some choose to have them as hosts since they tend to be nastier than Aldarri and willing to abuse their powers. There are stories of Zeldar who can take on more than one host at a time, but one most be a willing host anmd agree with the possession (to put it mildly) of the other. More information about them is available Here.
Abilities: Die if outside of host over 1 hour (very suspeptible to the environment)
Telepathic link to host
Ability to genetically alter host
Control hosts reproductive cycles
Can control their hosts body