Editing Quest:Hive Queen Quest (section)

=== Minor Races ===
Many races fail to enter the world of interstellar politics on their own terms for one reason or another, and are absorbed or subjugated by larger and more advanced cultures before they can develop spaceflight on their own. Many of these races offer unique skills and advantages to the governments that control them.

==== Taidaren ====
Taidarens are small, nimble scavengers that evolved to live in the canopy of foliage while feeding on refuse and dead animals, their intelligence a result of being forced to outsmart predators and other scavengers of their world. They possess small cylindrical bodies composed of a number of membranes and supportive cartilage that compartmentalize their bodies like the inside of an orange wrapped around a spinal column in the center of the body. They possess six limbs each ending in a four fingered zygodactylous grasper with no differentiation between hands and feet. Their heads are armored with a series of bony plates ending in a small proboscis like beak used to whistle for both communication and echolocation, above which is a single small and poorly developed eye. The eye is used only to discern movement and sources of light, and can only see details at a close distance, while distance and detail is detected via echolocation. They feed on anything and everything, with a preference for putrid and partially decomposed food, which is easier to digest for them. They eat by injecting their beak like a needle into a food source, then pumping stomach acid into it to liquefy the insides before sucking out the remains. For this reason more decomposed and liquified foods are more easy to consume, however juicy fruits such as oranges can be easily consumed fresh.

These tree dwelling scavengers developed an industrial civilization within the Hydra system, and even managed to briefly explore their home system before being discovered by Confederate scouts. While the Confederate and independant colonists quickly filled the other worlds of Hydra, the Taidarens themselves were largely ignored and left to their own devices until negotiations between Union and local forces came to a joint agreement on annexing the Taidaren homeworld into the Union. At the time, the Taidaren governments were on the brink of nuclear war, and their world had been heavily polluted far beyond the abilities of the Taidarens to repair. Atmospheric processors were quickly set up, and trade for advanced medical systems established as well as a garrison of marines and orbital forces to enforce the disarming of the disbanded governments' atomic arsenal. Today, Taidarens are seen as filthy vermin by most, but their sharp intellect and crafty nature make them excellent mechanics and technicians, while their robust immune systems give them low living standards, making them an excellent source of cheap industrial labor in urban areas of the Union while maintaining their poor reputation as smelly and unwashed creatures.

Of course, they are indeed smelly and unwashed, but neither indicate a lack of civility. Traditional Taidaren culture is a matriarchy consisting of a number of tightly knit mother-led clans organized by the eldest mother. Taidaren females are often twice or more the size of a male, and will typically lay an egg four to six times a year, with each egg containing 3 genetically identical Taidaren males. Only the process of laying a female egg requires any genetic material from a male, and such events are rare, and often signify the start of a new alliance among family clans and involve months of intense negotiations.

It is a common misconception among humans that Taidarens possess some form of esp or shared intelligence, but this is not true. While Taidaren males will act, speak, and often even think in tandem with each other they are still individuals, although in Taidaren culture the term 'brothers' or 'triplets' could be translated into 'person', and as such they are often treated as singular individuals, often sharing a name and legal identity. In traditional Taidaren law, a brother can, and often is held responsible for crimes done by his siblings, and will share in the credit of heroic deeds as well as share debts and assets alike. The loss of a brother is often considered worse than losing a limb, but is relatively common due to a lack of medical care and cultural misconceptions regarding medical technology, however such trends are decreasing. Outside of their homeworld, which has been maintained as a reservation, Taidarens can often be found as unregistered workers and squatters living in sewage networks, shanties, and wandering alleys in packs, perfectly content to scavenge food from dumpsters and hold temporary jobs as mechanics, technicians, or janitorial work.

==== Ralighan ====
Natives of Raligha, these creatures show a fervent religious belief and strong cultural values as well as fierce dedication to tradition. Their bodies are round leathery gourds with a set of inflatable air sacs that are puffed up and drummed upon to communicate. They see through the use of a ring of small eyes on either side of their drum sacs, and possess ten limbs arranged like the spokes of two wheels on either side of them. Each limb ends in what appears to be two hands facing eachother like a pincer and ending in three digits each. They move by rolling along the ground or within the canopy of their forests, with their mouths located along the side, in the 'hub' between one of the wheels of arms. When sitting they will often sit sideways to have the mouth facing up. Their ears are internal, meaning they must listen with a series of developed bones within several of their limbs, and as such can always be seen to anchor themselves to the ground or a tree. They are very primitive hunter gatherers, and have no concept of agriculture or industry, however their fervent belief that the hive is an omnipotent god race results in them regularly offering food and other organic matter, increasing nutrient production.

Their culture is very tribal, with a focus on family lines and heredity. It is customary to exchange newly born children among neighboring tribes, which both cements alliances and helps to diversify the gene pool. They have no cultural distinction between blood relative and adoptive relative, and their family lines follow a series of adoptive sons without regard to actual genetics. Most tribes and clans are nomadic, roaming the vast jungles and grasslands of the planet and living in the shadows of the Gardener's hive ruins, leaving them untouched as holy sites. The only major exception to this is the local tribe entrusted as a kind of clan of priests, who claim to have lived in the shadow of the mountain temple for as long as their oral history goes back. In the time you have been there, they have expanded their village into what is likely the first proper industry they have known, with countless tribal leaders and representatives making pilgrimages from far and wide to bring offerings, tokens of worship, and prayers to the priests at your hive entrance, where they lead the gathered natives in ceremonies of worship and food sacrifices. Your workers periodically collect these offerings to bolster local nutrient income, and the event is treated as a sign of good fortune that their god is appeased.

==== Canian ====
Astonishing and baffling xenologists and politicians alike across the Union, Canians are often considered one of the strangest beings ever discovered by man, and one of the most fortuitous. The Canians are a plasma based species composed of magnetically charged protein chains that conduct obscene amounts of energy throughout their lives and live off of the radiative solar wind of their home world star, Wolf. They often live nomadic lives moving to place to place, frequently inhabiting sunspots in large numbers or assembling near sites of solar flairs for religious ceremonies. Canians are massive balls of plasma often exceeding a kilometer in diameter and covered in a number of tendrils like a starfish that can easily reach ten or twenty kilometers or more in length. The number of tendrils varies often with age, with new ones growing usually every six years. A Canian can often live for hundreds of years or more, and upon death will detonate violently, sending protein chains scattering across the area and eventually giving birth to new Canians. Because their star is unusually cool, they have been able to exist in peace, but have been trapped by their own evolution unable to develop industry, space flight, or even written language. They communicate through powerful electromagnetic pulses, and spend most of their time wandering aimlessly in a culture that places great importance on introspective philosophy and religious contemplation. Since contact was first made by the Confederacy, a massive wealth of literature has been extracted through recordings of the Canian peoples, creating entire libraries worth of philosophical musings and leading to a new rise of alternative healing in modern popular culture within the Union, with the Canians often being cited by naturalists as the perfect example of enlightened living.

The Canians are not only interesting due to the strangeness of their existence, but also because the star on which they live is the site of one of the largest Canderon deposits known to man. Required for the production of Alcubierre Warp field generators and Quantum Power Taps, Canderon is one of the most valued commodities in known space. While efforts to employ the Canian population and convince and coerce them into operating stellar core mining rigs started well enough, Canderon mining efforts have resulted in fierce fighting and civil war across Wolf. With the promise to assist in finding and facilitating the colonization of other stars, many Canians have agreed to allow mining operations to continue, and even assist, while many others claim the industry is killing Wolf itself. Canians have traditionally worshiped their star, believing it to be a living creature upon with they live and exist to entertain, appease, and guard it in exchange for its life-giving energy. As such, the prospect of mining Wolf's core is considered an unforgivable blasphemy. Violence between these factions has been growing in intensity at a steady rate, and due to the nature of the landscape itself Union officials are left mostly helpless to intervene in the conflicts. To make matters worse, the plight of the Canian extremists have given rise to numerous sympathizers of varying degrees of extremism, ranging from activist groups to terror cells.