Lily
26th May 2005, 09:35 PM
Thanks to Linmag, a full and complete list is in Post No.5, which Linmag has agreed to keep up to date
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Acorna Series
Kidaaki
A common waterfowl on the original Linyaari home world.
Makahomian Temple Cats
A cat from the planet Makahomia, bred from the ancient cat god stock to protect and defend the cat gods’ temples. They are, for cats, large, fiercely loyal, remarkably intelligent, and dangerous when crossed. The ones at the temple in the jungle more closely resemble terran ‘big’ cats than ‘house’ cats. Capable of telepathic speech on subjects they consider sufficiently important.
Marchare
Native to Kezdet. Small and furry and a lot like a rabbit, with long ears and strong hind legs with claws. (Acorna’s Quest )
Murshim
Bear-like creatures “taller than a man when standing on its back paws ….two rows of razor-like teeth on each jaw” formerly native to Makahomia but now extinct. (Acorna’s Rebels )
Pahaantiyir
Felines that formerly lived on the Linyaari home planet. They look a lot like Makahomian Temple Cats. Disappeared when Vhiliinyar was invaded. (Acorna’s People )
Singing-fuzzies (aka Thiliiri)
Small arboreal mammals of the original Linyaari home world. “Little animals that danced in the tree-tops and sang in sweet harmony.” (Acorna )
They have tail-spines that they erect during courting. (Acorna’s Quest )
Singing Stones of Skarness
Deep blue in colour, these stones are sentient, and are always aware of what is happening on their home world, though can only communicate emotions. “these stones (are) formed and tuned in tall columns, each column a family” “when individual stones left each family as a result of wind or erosion or simply gravity, they formed stepping-stones…..which in time piled one upon the other, singing new songs and forming new colonies. The colonies spawned harmonic units (which) were harvested from their resting places tenderly, respectfully, and appreciatively by other beings.” (Acorna’s Triumph ) They are aware, but not exactly sentient. They are tended by a race of bipedal humanoids with modified ears. “We are their agents to other worlds. When an ensemble has reached perfection and is ready to be heard off-world, we select it and take it to a place where it may be chosen…….We also help train the newly severed to reach full voice, to blend with others.” (Acorna’s Triumph )
Sentient Plants
“Seem to have some kind of limited sentience, or at the very least the ability to react quickly to stimuli” (Acorna’s World ). Tall and rather vine-like with white flowers. The scent varies from sweet when the plants are content, to unpleasant when they feel threatened. They bleed a reddish sap, which they are also able to squirt in self-defence.
Yowim
Rock wolves of Makahomia, now extinct. (Acorna’s Rebels )
Lothland Herd Dog
An unusual type of dog. Gets on well with cats, apart from an unfortunate tendency to try to herd them.
Loi Loi Kuans aka Poopuus
Aquatic race descended from humanoids. They have rounded bodies that float easily, brownish skin, purple-black hair, wide nose and prominent dark eyes. Their fingers are webbed and their legs fused to the knees. Some have paler skin and freckles. (First Warning P52) They can communicate long distances using far-speech, adapted from whale-speech, and live in family pods.
Crystal Singer Series
Big Hungry Junk
Possibly sentient silicon-based life-form.
Doona Series
Brrna
Small ground fowl trapped by Hrrubans for food.
Mda
Bearlike animal with sharp claws. A shaggy brown carnivore.
Snakes
Doona’s major pest and tourist attraction. “The reptiles ranged in size from two- and three-year-old tiddlers of three to five metres in length to immense females, nicknamed Great Bid Mommas, growing to twelve to fifteen metres. They had incredible speed and strength and, althought they ate infrequently, they had been known to ingest an adult horse or cow in one mouthful. Their vision was so poor that they could not see a man standing motionless a few feet from their blunt snouts, but they would strike at any movement: particularly one that gave off an enticing odour.” (Crisis on Doona ) “The giant reptiles of Doona made their way to spawning grounds on the plains once a year, but for some reason returned from the sea along the river……Their smooth-muscled bodies were as large as tree trunks and covered by tough protective scales.” (Crisis on Doona ) They are sandy coloured with diamond markings.
Ssliss
Egg-laying fowl.
Ssorasos
Knee-high mammal living in the forests of Doona. Inclined to attack if surprised.
Urfa
A huge prong-horned deer-like creature domesticated by the Hrrubans on Doona for milk (used to make cheese), but also hunted wild.
Dragonriders of Pern Series
Bordos
Fish found in Pern’s northern oceans. They have “sleek thick bodies…grey striped…as long as (a man’s) forearm, with bulging eyes on either side of their blunt heads”. (Masterharper of Pern )
Canines
Larger, sturdier versions of Terran dogs, mainly terrier types for hunting. They are also mentioned as turning spits in the kitchens at Ruatha in Dragonflight, and are used as animal herders in The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall . Jayge Lilkamp keeps “two big, rangy canines”, a black and a brindle (Renegades of Pern ), and Piemur mentions seeing some “huge canines no cook would ever want to use as a spit turner” running wild on the southern continent (Renegades of Pern ). Toric imports “three prime breeding pairs of canines: big strapping animals, deep in the chest, thick-necked, well-set teeth, sturdy legs, dark to mid-brown short-haired”. (Skies of Pern )
Dolphin
They chose to make the journey to Pern along with the original colonists. “The deep-freeze tanks of the Bahrain contained twenty-five dolphins who had volunteered to come along. Pern’s seas were eminently suitable for the support of the intelligent mammals, who enjoyed sea-shepherding as well as the opportunity to see new worlds.” (Dragonsdawn P9) Mainly blues and bottlenoses (Dragonsdawn, Dolphins of Pern), they underwent mentasynth enhancement to allow them to speak human words.
Dragons
In partnership with their riders, with whom they bond on hatching, their purpose in life is to sear Thread from the skies of Pern. They have a second stomach, which permits them to breathe fire after chewing phosphine-bearing rock, and communicate telepathically with each other, with their own rider and sometimes with other humans whom they deem worthy. The golden queens are the only fertile females, the greens being rendered infertile by chewing firestone. “The greens will be the smallest, the fighters; the blues sturdier, with more staying power; the browns sort of anchor fighters with even more endurance. The bronzes are leaders.” (Dragonsdawn ) Physically, they resemble the mythical dragons of folklore, with fragile-seeming wings, forelimbs with opposable digits, and sturdy hindquarters, but their hide is soft and smooth. Their faceted eyes whirl at different speeds and in different colours indicative of their emotional state.
Dragonets
These are the original three-toed (“They only had three toes, the front one folded against the back two” – Dragonsdawn ) Pernese flying lizards, with flaming ability, and limited emotional telepathy. “The creature’s body was gold; its almost translucent wings were a paler shade against the green-blue sky, their dark frames clearly outlined.” (Dragonsdawn ) Their skin is “warm and feels soft” (Dragonsdawn ) They hatch ravenous, and can be impressed to a human if hand-fed immediately. Confusingly, newly-hatched dragons are often referred to as dragonets.
Draybeasts
Akin to terran oxen, they are of great strength, but severely limited intelligence. They are “not designed for comfortable riding, having straight backs, wide withers, short necks and low-held heads…..(and) cloven hooves” The Girl Who Heard Dragons – A Gift of Dragons )
Felines
Small felines are mentioned as having moved into Paradise River Hold, but do not seem to have made it to the northern continent. The feline in Moreta seems to be of a larger variety, though no physical description is given. The rest of the wild felines found on the Southern continent are larger, sturdier versions of Terran big cats. They are tawny with stripes or spots, and some are clouded. They hunt co-operatively. (Skies of Pern)
Fire Lizard
These are an improved version of the native dragonets, with five digits and mentasynth enhancement to allow clearer telepathic communication. As with the dragonets, gold and green are female, though the golds are much more intelligent and reliable, and much better parents. Bronze, brown and blue are male. They have whirling eyes like the dragonets and dragons.
Grubs
I could not find a physical description. These are found in the soil everywhere on the Southern continent. They eat Thread and stop it burrowing. They do not like exposure to air or sunlight.
Herdbeasts
No detailed physical description. The wild ones on the Southern continent are taken to be descended from terran “cows, sheep, goats and horses” (Skies of Pern ) abandoned there.
Igen Sandworms
These are segmented, shelled worms “Igen’s sandworms would devour Thread, almost as efficiently as agenothree.” (Dragonquest – Dragonriders of Pern ) They are also mentioned briefly in Dragonflight.
Packtails
Edible fish with sharp fins that “would infect any cuts or scratches” (Dragonsdawn).
Runner beasts
“They weren’t intelligent creatures, responding to a narrow set of noises and nudges.” They are “thin-necked, heavy-headed, long-backed, (with) lean bodies, with spindly legs”, and “their hide was covered in a coarse fur and ranged in colour from a dirty white to a dark brown”. (Dragondrums – Harper Hall of Pern ) The beast Piemur rides in Dragondrums has cleft hooves. The wild ones on the Southern continent live in herds. In the North, they are mainly bred in Keroon and Ruatha, and are raced at Gathers. In Chronicles of Pern – First Fall, Red Hanrahan hopes to breed “a heavyweight animal of Percheron proportions for the plough; a swift, lean racing type, a good doer, who could carry messengers long distances on little fodder’ and a comfortable riding animal, a pacer like the ancient Paso Fino … a mountain breed of great agility endurance and … possessing the easiest possible long-distance riding gait.” )
Trundle Bugs
A many-legged bug with a three-sectioned body (Skies of Pern P77), found only on the Southern continent. Identified as “a form of millipede” (p78), they travel in a straight line, and will defend themselves with a strong, unpleasant odour, if an attempt is made to divert them. The young remain attached to the parent until mature. (Skies of Pern and )
Tunnel Snakes
Six-limbed photophobes possibly descended from a common ancestor with the dragonets. The front pair of limbs are diggers, the middle set for balance “especially when they have food in the front pair, and the rear limbs are for steering or holding on”. (Dragonsdawn )
Watchwhers
Unlike dragons, firelizards and dragonets, to whom they are related, whers have a hard hide. (Masterharper of Pern
They are nocturnal, being photophobic. Considered ugly by most people, they have an instinct for hidden dangers. (Dragonsdawn ) They are very strong, and will eat anything. (Dragonsdawn ) The hide makes good leather.
Wherries
According to the Dragondex, this is a fowl resembling a turkey, but the size of an ostrich. The males are referred to as bucks, while the females are hens and they lay eggs. They “resemble airborne barges – squat, fat and full” (Dragonsdawn ) and have a strong smell. The wild ones roam in large flocks and are carrion eaters. (Dragonsdawn ) Identified in Chronicles as predators, but are notoriously unintelligent.
Whersports
Mentioned briefly in Dragondrums, these are bigger than firelizards but smaller than whers, though they resemble both. They are daytime beasts, and are apparently good eating. (Harper Hall of Pern P483)
Freedom Series
Desert Burrowers
Mentioned in Freedom’s Choice, these are similar to a large rat, the pelt mottled in soft sandy shades. The flesh is firm and nutty. They feed at dusk, on insects that they catch with long prehensile tongues, while leaping into the air. They are preyed on by bat-like creatures.
Flyers
Avian predators that appear to be called by the mechanicals, and make an unpleasant, hight-pitched whistling sound as they approach, possibly in order to immobilise prey.
Loo Cows
Six-legged grazers that do not give milk. They make a liquid looing sound for which they are named.
Night Crawlers
Burrowing scavengers that only come out at night. Will avoid light and noise. Usually feed on carrion, but will attack anything that stands still for too long at night. Thought to be linked in some way to the Loo Cows – possibly part of the life cycle of an intestinal parasite.
Rocksquats
They squat on rocks in droves or herds. Resemble oversized rats without tails
. Hide is suedey rather than furry, and in grey/brown shades ). They have four legs with heavy haunches and well-developed shoulders, a chunky rounded body, not much neck and a blunt head. The flesh is like meat, and they have marrow-bones. They “haven’t got the sense to be scared.” (P74) A second, avian version is mentioned, also suede-covered, but with slimy wings. These are “stupider than turkeys” and will eat anything. (P74) All the above information is from Freedom’s Landing, but in Freedom’s Ransom rock squats are referred to as “birds”, and their eggs are even offered.
Individual Titles
Black Horses for the King
Black Horses
Often referred to as Libyans, they are heavy horses, similar to Shire horses or French Percherons. They are not necessarily black, some are very dark brown, and may have white socks or facial flashes. They are big and strong, deep chested and wide barrelled, to carry knights in full armour long distances or into battle. One stallion is mentioned as standing a good 17 hands high (P61).
No One Noticed the Cat
[/b]Barguas[/b]
Predator native to Esphahania (P18). They go in packs (P30), have grey-brown fur (P32) with sabre fangs, bulging eyes and a tail.
Barguas-hound
Hunting dog renowned for stamina, agility and intelligence (P30). Specially bred for hunting the above.
Lynzur
Savage game beast of Mauritia (P49), now very rare.
The Coelura
Coelura (also mentioned in Nimisha’s Ship)
Coelura are a passive ovoid aerial life form indigenous to Demeathorn. They react to emotions around them, can be soothed and can soothe. Although passive, they are aware of danger, and can protect themselves up to a point. Each Coelura has only so much thread in its lifespan. They are willing creatures, eager to please those they like. Unfortunately, they are amiable to almost anyone, and easily controlled. Coelura must preserve some thread with which to construct its mating-net; a net that was considered by the fashionable to be more valuable than the ordinary thread. The Oriolis (one of the regional ‘tribes’ of Demeathorn) left the triad to prevent the Coelura’s extinction. They eventually taught the Coelura to respond only to a certain combination of notes known only to a trusted minority. Thus the Coelura could not be forced to spin themselves to death.
“Before she could close the canopy behind her, the sky above her head erupted into a flight of rainbows …. that sang a liquid and lovely welcome, for she couldn’t construe that glorious sound into menace of any kind. Standing motionless she whistled back at them, trying to reproduce several of the sounds sung at her. A hilarious response, delighted laughter, greeted her poor effort, and she laughed back in pure joy.” )
“Then the man whistled in an incredibly complex glissando. The voluble round aerial creatures smothered him in iridescent strands.”
Karnsore
Mentioned in passing as a game animal, indigenous to Demeathorn.
Nathus
Sly, six-legged creature of immense patience in stalking prey from the aerial advantage of deep forest trees (P148).
Prinas
Savage nocturnal amphibians, as fast on land as in water. Predator indigenous to Demeathorn.
Get Off the Unicorn
Welladan Whales
Native to the planet Welladay. They produce radioactive iodine in their thyroid glands, which they permit humanoids to tap for medical purposes (Weather on Welladay, Get Off the Unicorn ). They are enormous, have scales, swim in schools and eat plankton ).
Nimisha’s Ship
A-alliSmall tree-dwellers that live high in the canopy, and only use their ‘wings’ to glide from branch to branch. Congregate in flocks. They have “feathers…. of various hues, helping them blend into the blossoms or leaves of their roosts”. Their dark flesh is very tender, but they are difficult to hunt, and their feathers are prized by the Shi’im for personal adornment.
Boks
Small, deer-like fast-running grazers. Capable of being domesticated.
Bombers
Enormous avians. The largest are the size of some of the space craft belonging to the settlers. They have “a head crammed with teeth” (P95), and a long narrow body. They attack in formation, at dawn or dusk, dropping huge boulders onto their prey.
Shaggies
Large shaggy brown and black grazers. Protect their young by keeping them in the centre of the herd.
Slime Slugs
As tall as a tree but with no discernable arms or legs, and the ability to ‘spit’ tongues of corrosive slime. “A lump that moved by contracting its muscular frame along the ground.” )
Zonkers
A sneaky creature with lairs in forest trees. Lies along branches and snags unwary creatures. Not large but very crafty. (P102)
Powers Trilogy (Petaybee)
“The Company hired Dr Sean Shongili to alter certain existing species to adapt to this climate. That’s how the resident equines, felines and canines, and many of the aquatic mammals, come to be here.” (Powers That Be )
Clodagh’s cats
These are orange cats, somewhat larger than the average domestic feline (about 1Kg weight), with extra fur around their ears and paws for protection against frost. “rust and cream stripes” (Powers That Be
“feline with rust and cream markings” (Powers That Be ) They consider themselves to be the feet of the planet, and run messages for it and for Clodagh and the other shanachies. Sick people seem to get a lot of benefit from their proximity.
Curlycoats
”The curly-coats are equines…….originally from the Siberian area……..they comfortably exist in extreme temperatures, having a spare flap in their nose that closes off frost. They survive on vegetation that wouldn’t keep a goat alive. Small, sturdy, able to manoeuvre on tracks even a sledge has trouble running.” (Powers That Be ) “small horses, curly-coated to the point of being shaggy, with long fur icicled under their throats, and long feathers curling down from their sturdy barrels and down their short thick legs……the manes were as long as the tails and just as thick. There were some brown animals, but most were a creamy colour” (Powers That Be ) “They were bred for sand and snow….and they can close off their nostrils if they need to and their eyes have a protective lid.” (Powers That Be )
Curlies are good swimmers; they can close off their nostrils and lower extra eyelids and dive like seals to the bottom of lakes to find the water lily roots, which are a favourite delicacy. (Power Play )
Curlycorns
These are the wild version of the Curlycoats. They are very similar in appearance, but the males have a further adaptation in the form of a horn. “a short, stumpy curled horn which grew out of the end of its nose bone” (Powers That Be ) This is used to break through ice to get to drinkable water in winter.
Sledge Dogs (aka Foxhounds)
These are “big red dogs with….thick soft coats” (Powers That Be ), originally called banshee-dogs by the first settlers because their howling sounded like a woman screaming. They have “pointed ears”, “their coats were very thick and their legs fairly long and muscular” (Powers That Be ). They are “foxhounds, intelligent hybrid dogs” , “red as a Mars moonscape but delicately featured with foxy, intelligent faces” and “curled feathery tails” (Powers That Be ) They are extremely loyal. They can ‘path to a sensitive person with whom they are in physical contact, and will come to a ‘call’ from someone they recognise as a friend. They work in teams to haul sledges, and all the lead dogs I have come across so far have been female. They eat warmed meat or fish stew, and have to be chained up and fed individually or fights would break out.
Track cats
Are about five times the size of Clodagh’s cats. They can ‘path when in physical contact, and will answer a ‘call’. “The cat was extremely furry, with extra tufts on the ears and a thickly bushy tail. Its coat was dense, very soft-looking white with large spots of different sizes according to the muscle they were on – long rectangular ones on the neck, big circular ones on the shoulders, smaller, more regular ones on the abdomen – shaded from grey to black, but blurred and clouded by the length and thickness of the fur. The paws were also extremely large, though the face was sweet, with large golden eyes and black nose” (Power Lines ) “nearly the size of (a) lion, (it) had a thick coat of dense fur with a clouded spot design, the fangs and retractable claws of a tiger…………….its skull was larger to accommodate the larger brain.” (Power Lines ) On the northern continent, they are a larger version of a normal domestic cat, with the same range of colours, but with the extra furry ears and paws of Clodagh’s cats. “an enormous calico housecat, the base of the tail thin, the tip bushy.” (Power Play ) On the southern continent, they appear to be a wild version that has developed from the large cats originally imported from Terra. They use mind speech to communicate with humans and other cats, and will often befriend a particular human. In thought, they refer to themselves as ‘one’. They have some healing abilities.
Planet Pirates Trilogy / Dinosaur Planet
Dandy
Small herbivore found on Ireta and ‘adopted’.
Fang Face
Aggressive predator found on Ireta.
Fringes
Native to Ireta. May be aquatic or avian. The avians are large, aggressive and poisonous, and are attracted to heat. (Sassinak ) “They are attracted to body heat and envelop their prey, clasping the digits midsection to secure it. Then they consume their victim with a digestive juice…….The aquatic ones are considerably smaller.” (The Ireta Adventure [Dinosaur Planet Survivors]) They are grey-blue and the smaller ones about 1 m on each side. They “flutter like a fabric caught in a strong breeze” and have “two points halfway up one side (like claws)”. (The Ireta Adventure P 70 [Dinosaur Planet]) The aquatic ones leap out of the water if potential prey leave a shadow on the water. They have a very strong, unpleasant smell, which warns of their approach. They have an internal skeleton, with “joints at each corner” and they move “by a deformation of parallelograms”. (The Ireta Adventure [Dinosaur Planet])
Galormis
Mild-eyed, appealing looking creatures of Aldebaran 4 (Galormi), that by night turn into blood-sucking predators. “mild-looking creatures… softish, perfectly amenable until full dark….sucked the blood and then chewed the flesh”. (The Ireta Adventure [Dinosaur Planet])
Golden Fliers (Giffs)
Golden-furred avians found on Ireta that show signs of intelligence. They have a crested head, with a furry face, golden eyes, a long sharp beak and a neck pouch. They make nets and co-operate to catch fish, but also eat quantities of a particular grass. They have claws half-way down their wings, and opposable digits. They are curious, and care for and teach their young. They “can rotate the wings at the wrist”. (The Ireta Adventure P 99 [Dinosaur Planet]) The adults stand as “tall as an average human with a wingspan of at least 8 to 10 meters”. They are thought to have some sort of radar perception, as low visibility does not seem to hamper them.
Gorbnari
“Wide-winged flyers of Myriad, who preyed on its native sealife.” “Pale yellow on top and white underneath, with a red crest on the males” on one continent, “mid to light brown, lighter below” on the other. (Sassinak P194)
Kittisnakes
Native to the planet Ambrosia. Very friendly, but dumb. “The kittsnake had a small round face, with a round nose and round ears which peered out of its sleek, back-combed fur. It had no limbs, but it was apparent where the thicker body joined the more slender tail. Two bright green eyes with round black pupils.” (The Death of Sleep ) Its mouth has two rows of needle-like teeth, they are omnivorous and they love being stroked. Spend a lot of time chasing each other about in the treetops.
Krissi
Ocean dwellers of the planet Myriad. (Sassinak )
Molly
Large herbivore found on Ireta. One was rescued from a predator and kept for a few days for treatment. Thereafter others of the same species were referred to as Mollys.
Mason Beetles
Insectoids native to the planet Ambrosia. “have a complicated hive society…..the chemical they secrete while hunting…can melt solid rock” (The Death of Sleep
Shadow Crabs
Ambrosian stone crab. A shy warm-water crustacean that lurks in tubular hollows in rock and defends itself with a water jet when threatened. (The Death of Sleep)
Ship Series
Globe Frogs
“small green amphibioids…..in clear globular cases full of water. Outside their shells they’d be about a foot long, with delicate limbs and big, flat paws that drove the spheres across dry land” (The Ship Who Won ) They have bulbous black eyes, short sharp teeth and a pale blue-green tongue.
Six-packs
Six-legged pack-beasts similar to shire horses, but with a double dip to their spine over the extra shoulders/hips. They have a thick plushy coat, and their hide is suitable for making leather. They have three stubby toes with blunt claws and a thick sole. Used as farm horses by the farmers of Osran (The Ship Who Won ).
Letheans
Very formal, easily scared race. “A people so formal that emergencies required a ceremony, mercifully brief, for deferring the usual endless courtesies in favour of survival.” (The City Who Fought P81)
Reticulans
No physical description. Famous for their incredibly beautiful and complex mating croons, impossible for any other race to imitate (except Helva, of course!). “The sounds were long, low, dreamy. There was no formal melody, but somehow the theme suggested the stillness of deep forest and dew falling like liquid diamond in streaks of sunlight dazzling through the leaves.” (The City Who Fought P60)
Sondee
Humanoid with lovely voices and many eyes. “Of course, Sondee were rather humanoid, if you managed to ignore the four eyes – two large and golden about where eyes should be, and two more above the whorled ridges that served as ears…..and the lack of any facial features apart from a nostril slit and round suckerlike mouth. They had lovely voices, with far more vocal range and control than a human.” (The City Who Fought P102)
Ursinids
Ursine race, victims of one of Anne’s worst puns. “Obscure race, big and hairy, always insisted that it was their right to arm bears.” (The City Who Fought P364) Arms manufacturers, large-scale in that their needlers are sub-machine gun size for humans.
Sicatooth
Wily carnivore native to Bethel. “sicatooths do not eat grass. One must put out a goat to bait the trap for them.” (The City Who Fought P158)
Sondee Mud-Puppy
“A kid who looks and smells like a Sondee mud-puppy.” (The City Who Fought P30)
Tunglor
Aquatic denizen of Kolnar not known for its’ intelligence. “In Kolnar’s seas there was an animal – more or less an animal – that concentrated the abundant transuranics from seawater in a specialised section of its gut. It sucked in water and sprayed it on the heated chamber that resulted, expelling it behind as steam for propulsion…..attacked b rising from depth at fifty or sixty knots and ramming with their metal-sapphire-fibre prows, never deviating from the shortest course.” (The City Who Fought P 332)
Talent Series
Barque-cats
“as independent as the bobcat, from which they had mutated in the century of space exploration and travel. Some say they had evolved from those early felines as far as man had evolved from the ape. And with a suitable increase in intelligence. There was a widespread notion that barquecats were telepathic but no Talent had ever had communication with them…Barquecats were equally comfortable in free-fall or gravity. Their breeding was carefully monitored by their shipcrews and the progeny were scrupulously registered. To be accepted by a barquecat was considered a mark of esteem.” (P67/8) They have seven-fingered paws and blunt claws. Rowan’s Rascal has a deep creamy base colour with tawny tips of an unusual pattern, a banded tail, and silver-blue eyes. They are omnivorous. The young are referred to as cubs rather than kittens. They are sensitive to breaches of hull integrity and will alert human crew so that repairs can be made, and have a talent for surviving spacewrecks. Garfield Per Astra (Damia ) is “a magnificent beast of tawny brown with his undercoat a tan, with black stripes and face markings……..(and) yellow eyes.” Queen Tabitha Many-Coats of the Vadim is “a magnificently marked tri-colour with a white muzzle, white socks all round and a tiny puff of white on the tip of her tail”. (Damia’s Children ) Tri-colours are greatly valued, and a litter of marmalades and a tabby is also mentioned.
Coonies
“a Coonie cat: the nearest we surface dwellers have to barquies. They’re not quite as intelligent…..but they have qualities of their own.” (Damia P58) Afra meets Amos, the first coonie he has seen, on Earth. “The first raccoon-type beast had been a gift from Kama to Afra.” Ringle is “ A light tan Coonie with dark brown face markings” (Damia ) They have masked faces and they chitter, but are repeatedly referred to as felines as they follow Damia around her native Callisto. The ones introduced onto Aurigae by Damia are even more raccoon-like. They are brightly furred, with banded tails and white bellies. They have soft silky fur and they chitter and click, scrambling up people to drape themselves around their shoulders and neck.
Darbul
“canine-like creatures” (Lyon’s Pride P186) Kept as pets by the Raven-Lyons on Iota Aurigae.
Denebian ponies
“small, sturdy and tractable ponies who thrived on the rough grazing and wandered unchecked in small herds.” (Damia P179) Damia’s Jupiter has a “flaxen mane and tail…..darker ‘beer’ hide, dainty hooves”, and “bright black eyes, alert with interest.” (Damia )
Slithers
Mrdini pets. (Presumably from their home planet Clarf, but there are some living in Damia’s home. So the ‘Dinis must take them with them) “Neither reptile or bird, neither furred nor feathered but loving, affectionate, dependant on assistance to survive anywhere….accepted by Coonies, ignored by Darbuls.” (Damia’s Children ) They eat bugs and will keep a home cleared of them.” Are fond of wrapping themselves around the nearest person.
Anne's Alien Races
Acorna Series
Ancestors
Terran unicorns with the power of mind-speech.
Ancestral Hosts (Friends)
“ageless beings from a possibly immortal race, but they were also shape-shifters whose own forms had become too unstable for them to bear young (so they) manipulated the DNA of other beings and created new races.” (Acorna’s Triumph )
Dharmakoi
Dominant sentient race of the planet Galleni. Small, scurrying, “easily frightened little creatures” who lived in burrows (Acorna’s Quest P54).
Khleevi
Aggressive insectoid race that feed their young on fear. When they land on a planet they will eat everything vegetable, and torture anything sentient to death before eating that too. They will even torture the planet itself, leaving it uninhabitable when they depart. They are cockroach-like, with multiple legs and bulbous gleaming eyes.
Linyaari
Unicorn people descended from the Ancestors and the Friends. The horn on their forehead has regenerative properties and they are pacifists by nature. They are exclusively vegetarian. “Pale skinned and had golden opalescent spiralling horns growing from their foreheads, topped by manes of silvery hair which continued to grow down their spines…..They had feathery tufts of fine curly white hair adorning their legs from knee to ankle, to just above their two-toed feet. Their hands… bore only three fingers, each with one joint in the middle and one where the finger met the palm.” (Acorna’s People P2) Planet-bound Linyaari come in many different colours, but starfarers are all white. They are able to communicate telepathically, but also have an advanced spoken language.
Limurian Jungle Dwellers
Mentioned in Acorna’s World ). They enjoy swinging on vines.
Nesters
Dominant sentient race of the planet Khorma V. “Sedentary creatures, bonded to their nests by a complex set of chemical interactions (Acorna’s Quest).
Niriians
A conservative, self-contained people capable of thought-speech, but who only used it among family and friends. They are highly scientific and technologically inclined trading partners of the Linyaari. Somewhat bovine in appearance “large, double-horned, heavily built” (Acorna’s People ). “Heavily bovine face….with a curving brownish horn above each ear” (Acorna’s World ).
Porcine Beings
Of the Greater Ursine constellation. Mentioned in Acorna’s World ). They enjoy rolling in mud.
Sii-Linyaari
“Prototype horned merpeople” (Acorna’s Triumph ). An early attempt to create a unicorn race blended from the Ancestors and the Friends, which was not acceptable to the Friends. “Very scaly, with a head full of small but lethal-looking horns…aqua-blue of skin and silver of horn, with only small bumps along the spine and top of the head…silvery hair.” (Acorna’s Search ) They communicate by telepathy only, have webbed hands and fish tails.
Sulfurians
Sulphur-based sentient life-forms indigenous to the planet Egstynkeraht. Top of the evolutionary pile are the Mutables, who can pose as Solids or change to Liquids at will, but consider it degrading to stay in one form very long. Next are the Solids, who resemble trees “mustard yellow and drooping with gold-brown mossy foliage.” (Acorna’s Triumph ) Lowest of the low are the Liquids, who have emotions but can’t really aspire to organised thought. However, it is they who are most readily able to transform themselves into the sulphuric acid that these beings use to defend themselves. There is little love lost between the three tiers of this society, and they only unite briefly in the face of a common enemy.
Loi Loi Kuans aka Poopuus
Aquatic race descended from humanoids. They have rounded bodies that float easily, brownish skin, purple-black hair, wide nose and prominent dark eyes. Their fingers are webbed and their legs fused to the knees. Some have paler skin and freckles. (First Warning P52) They can communicate long distances using far-speech, adapted from whale-speech, and live in family pods. (First Warning P204)
Crystal Singer Series
Doona Series
Hrrubans
Felinoid race that co-inhabits Doona/Rrala. “Furred, tailed cats that walk on their hind legs and carry knives.” (Decision on Doona ) “Close up, the resemblance to cats was uncanny….great green eyes….under straight wide brows, dark pupils narrowed against the orange sun. Flattish noses were broad at the nostril over the lipless wide mouths. The chins were short bridges in the middle of the wide hinged jaw. The lobeless ears and tufted tips.” (Decision at Doona ) “Their skins were a light fawn, like a soft velour, but their heads were covered with a darker tan mop of hair that hung to their ear tips. Visible between their spraddles legs were sort, tufted tails.” (Decision at Doona ) They have retractable claws, a mouth that is very wide in profile and narrow feet with vestigial webbing and claws. They have a very advanced language and culture. Their tastes and diet are broadly compatible with humans. Fur colour tends to darken with age, and the darker stripe down their back broadens. “The visitor possessed a very broad back stripe, indicating that he held a position of rank in Hrruban society.” (Crisis on Doona )
Gringg
A water-loving race that grows up to 3m in height, though the males are tercels. They resemble bears, but are more probably descended from an otter-like creature, as they have a tail. “A bulky creature covered except for its face and the pads of its forepaws with thick, long fur….Its face had a square muzzle with a black leathery nose and black-fleshed lips, and two deep-set eyes the colour of red wine protected by thick, smooth-skinned eyelids fringed just at the edges with more honey hair. Its shoulders sloped from a thick neck towards a huge ribcage, and downward over a powerful lower body supported by very short but thick legs.” (Treaty Planet ) They have retractable claws, and large teeth. They are omnivorous, graceful despite their size, and are very gentle and naturally indolent. The smaller males “made the best record-keepers, poets, librarians, even artists…they also mastered the theoretical sciences. The females, larger by ten to thirty percent, organised, and exercised, the practical arts, such as all forms of engineering, and tended to take the lead in exploration.” (Treaty Planet P68) They come in a large range of colours “pied, patched, white, brown, black, tan, gold” (Treaty Planet )
Siwannese
“The Siwannese had suicided as a race when the colonists from Earth encountered them. They had been a gentle people, with too fragile a culture to survive contact with another intelligent species. Siwanna was empty now.” (Crisis on Doona )
Dragonriders of Pern Series
Amigs
A race with telekinetic abilities, who use teleportation when threatened. (Dragonsdawn)
Eridani
Very advanced technologically. “Advanced biogenetic techniques of the Eridanis – mainly mentasynth, gene paring, and chromosome enhancements”. (Dragonsdawn P9) Also developed advanced fuel packs for surface flitters and anti-matter drives for interstellar travel.
Beltrae
“reclusive Eridani hive culture” that originally developed mentasynth. (Dragonsdawn )
Nathis
Alien race defeated in war with Federated Sentient Planets. (Dragonsdawn ) Also referred to as Nasties in Rescue Run.
Vegans
Have their “brains well protected in tough internal sacs” somewhere in their middle region. (Dragonsdawn P121)
Freedom Series
Catteni
Aggressive bipedal humanoid race. Very like humans, but two species not mutually fertile. Yellow eyes with black irises. Grey skin and hair. From a heavy gravity planet, so tall and heavily built.
Deski
Very thin, spiderlike limbs covered in hair. Need “plursaw” to survive away from their home planet. Have acute hearing.
Eosi
A technologically superior race prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to extend their lifespans. Inconsiderate of other species.
FarmersTechnologically very advanced race of shape changers. Will take on the shape of whichever species they are speaking to. Communicate telepathically.
Iglinish
Rugarians
TursUnco-operative race.
Individual Titles
An Exchange of Gifts
Get Off the Unicorn
Nimisha’s Ship
Sh’im
Small bipedal sapient alien allies. Adults about the size of a human 10 year old. Lifespan of about 30 years – 2 to mature, 10 to reproduce (2-3 young/year). Covered with short fur that gets darker grey with age. Vocal and hearing range wider than human. Three digits, one opposable. One long central eye-slit that cannot take very bright light. Retractable genitals. Feet more like flippers, with vestigial toes and a leathery underside.
No-one Noticed the Cat
If Wishes Were Horses
Restoree
Ertois
“as humanoid as a saurian species can appear, complete with gills and scaled armour” (P155)
Glan
“The Glan were willowy skeletons with three digits and an opposing thumb. Their bodies were covered with a fine down, their faces, long and narrow, were sensitive. Their apparently ineffectual bodies were deceptive for the Glan were structurally twice as strong as Lotharians and equal to their scaly space neighbours, the Ertois.” (P155)
Lotharians
Indistinguishable from humans, except for their golden skin. “pale gold face” (P10), “skin a warm golden colour” (P14)
Mil
A spacefaring race with particularly nasty habits, and a very unpleasant odour. “Disgusting wave of dead sea-creature stench”. (P7) “A race of cellular giants which have had interstellar flight since the beginning of our recorded history.” (P27)
Tane
“Humanoid, but the gentlest, dumbest people imaginable….. They don’t have even an elementary sense of caution or suspicion.” (P31)
The Coelura
Planet Pirates Trilogy / Dinosaur Planet
Brachian
Simian race with purple fur and reflective white pupils. (The Death of Sleep P65)
Bronthin
Horse-like allied alien race with short blue fur “tubby blue mathematicians”. (Generation Warriors P196) They have a lavender tongue and “three stubby fingers” (Generation Warriors P198). They are staunchly pacifist, and suffer severe depression when separated from their social herd.
Gurnsan
Bovine alien race with horned head. (The Death of Sleep P83)
Lethi
A sulphur-dependent allied alien race resembling “large yellow burrs.” “They had no audible communication mode: they talked to each other in chemical packages and could not interface with a biolink until they formed a clump of at least eight.” (Generation Warriors P197).
Ryxi
Stork-like allied alien race, volatile and vain, about 2m tall. Consider all non-avian races inferior. Have stiff legs, so prefer to stand, and long bright tail feathers. Have wing claws at ‘elbow’ of wings, and a delicate three-fingered manipulative hand at the wingtip (The Death of Sleep P291) Not always prepared to make the effort to speak slowly enough for others to understand them.
Seti
Lizard-like allied race. Have very rigid ideas of right and wrong, though they are “Vandals and hell-raisers, always willing to start a fight or gamble it all on one throw”, they think it wrong to load the dice in any way. Refuse to do genetic engineering for that reason. (Sassinak P 73) Worship “holy chance”, and look down on any race not prepared to gamble as much as they do.
Ssli
Allied alien aquatic race. An adult Ssli installed in a space craft can assist with navigation by detecting ‘waves’ in space. “stunning magenta fan flecked with yellow and white….at the moment, the Ssli had grown only some three meters in diameter from its holdfast, and its fan was still almost circular.” (Sassinak ) Communicate via computer link.
Stribans
Humanoid bipeds with large eyes and grey skin. (The Death of Sleep )
Thek
Allied alien race, co-founders of the Federation. “A silicate life form that was the closest thing in the galaxy to immortals. They ranged from about a metre to dozens of metres high, and were pyramidal in shape, just like their spacecraft”. (The Death of Sleep ) “A form of granite with a nuclear core for energy” (The Ireta Adventure [Dinosaur Planet Survivors]).‘Fly’ with no obvious means of propulsion. Can meld together to form a “cathedral” big enough to house a space cruiser in order to link minds. Are mineral based and communicate very slowly. “Have a taste for transuranics, and they’re supposed to remember everything that ever happened to them, or a distant ancestor. Live a long time, but before they dissolve or harden, or whatever it is they do that corresponds with death, they transmit all their memories somehow” (Sassinak ) Use a computer interface or modulate sound waves in order to communicate with humans, though they can produce audible speech. They are “pentadactyl – after a fashion”, having “an unnerving habit of extruding pseudopods from their amorphous mass”. (The Ireta Adventure
[Dinosaur Planet])
Wefts
A race of shape-changers allied to FSP. Can assume any shape they choose, animate or inanimate, though they will never replicate a currently living person, or anyone famous. Their natural shape has “fivefold symmetry” and “angled stalklike appendages”. (Sassinak P 44) There are four sexes, but those who choose to leave the home world to take Fleet service in human form become sterile. In their natural shape they are telepathic.
Powers Trilogy
Aurelian
“A six-armed, vaguely humanoid creature with a craw full of fangs that would have stretched from ear to ear had the creature had ears, and an optical slit that circled its entire cranial prominence…..A peaceful sea-dweller with a language similar to that of Earth’s aquatic mammals” (Power Play ) (A hologram of one such is used as the visual manifestation of the pirate Onidi Louchard.)
Deglatite
“shielded from the eyes of the Imperfect by its carapace” (Power Play )
Hepatode
“in its globe” (Power Play )
Ship Series
Beasts Blatisant
Native to the planet Iricon III, these are “skinny, hairy hexapedal beings, whose faces resembled those of intelligent grasshoppers”. (The Ship Who Won ) They live in swamps, travel on all sixes or upright on four with two manipulative limbs. They communicate via controlled flatulence caused by eating red berries, though they are accomplished mimics and use oral sounds for emphasis or embellishment. They hunt the aquatic creatures of their native swamps, and hide from larger beasties that hunt them.
Beta Corviki
A race that exists in free-fall in a methane-ammonia atmosphere. They are “unimaginably sophisticated scientifically”. (The Ship Who Sang ) They “resemble a marine animal in the class hydrozoa, sort of a large sac-like body with a complex collection of tendrils that may be nerve endings”. (The Ship Who Sang )
Cridi
Small green amphibioids who inhabit Ozran (known to them as Sky Clear). They require a very humid environment. Skin colours in the green spectrum. Communicate via sign language, enhanced with a verbal “language of science”, which sounds like peeps and chirps to human ears. Are able to speak Standard, have very advanced technology and have achieved space flight. Appear in The Ship Who Won and The Ship Errant (by Jody Lynn Nye).
Dushaynese
“Square, flat head – literally. Flat on top, flat face, flattened sides. He was bright green and had no mouth, just a tiny hole below his nostril slits………vegetarian to an extreme.” (The Ship Who Searched P178) On their home world they live on tree sap and fruit juice, elsewhere they manage on sucrose-water and other liquids.
Loosies
“Like crazy puppets made of rocks and wire” (Partnership P99) They are humanoid in shape, with square heads, and when motionless can easily be mistaken for rock formations. They have no verbal language, but learn sign language easily, and are believed to be telepathic among themselves.
Mages
Ozran’s dominant sentient species. Bipedal humanoid, possibly descended from humans. They draw on objects of power to create magic spells. They are inclined to squabble among themselves, and live in mountain strongholds. Appear in The Ship Who Won.
Noble Primitives
Bipedal humanoids who inhabit the plains of Ozran. Bronze-age farmers with fuzzy pelts and facial features that resemble various animals, such as cats, dogs, pigs, camels or sheep. They have three fingers and an opposable thumb. They live by subsistence farming, but there is evidence of a higher level of technology in the past. (The Ship Who Won
Rayanthan
Cold-weather mammalian. “Pelt of very fine, dense brown fur that extended down onto her cheekbones………round black eyes.” (The Ship Who Searched )
The Old Ones
“upright creatures of bilateral symmetry…….multi-jointed legs with backward-pointing knees depended from flat, shallow bodies a meter wide. They had five small eyes set in a row across their flat faces, which were dark green. Lank black tendrils on their cylindrical heads were either hair or antennae” (The Ship Who Won). The eyes are capable of moving independently.
Thelerie
An avian race resembling griffins. “Big flat faces. Sleek head, widens to neck. Sandy pelts, slightly fuzzy……Claw hands.” “Full-sized wings. Like bat’s wings, but with longer fur.” (The Ship Errant, The Ship Who Saved the Worlds ) Some are black, and they have vertically striped eyes and a tail. They have a bifurcated upper lip, which draws aside to reveal the narines. They have two vestigial fingers on their wings, plus clawed forelegs and they get around on all fours when not airborne. They need a chlorinated atmosphere. They are very good at mental arithmetic, and always know where they are in relation to their home world of Thelerie, which they consider the centre of the universe. They are a very gentle people, not very technically advanced. (Included here because they appear in the omnibus edition of The Ship Who Won and The Ship Errant, The Ship Who Saved the Worlds)
Talent Series / The Tower and The Hive
Hivers
“Not at all humanoid, rather a form of beetle, with carapace or chitinous wings, with multiple legs, with joined digits. Some of the creatures which had been standing erect at their control devices were approximately two metres long. Those in the round access tubes through the long space vehicles had been smaller and scurried about on six of their ten legs. There had been a heavily guarded central feature with immature creatures, a startling number of egg cases and the largest specimen.” (The Rowan )
“The Beetles are compulsive colonizers, driven by the fact that the queens tend to massacre each other, the winner devouring the eggs of the loser. To prevent that, Hive ships leave the home world…..and find likely worlds. First, scouts are sent off to locate planets. On finding one, ships are despatched to ‘prepare’ the planet for occupation, which means, ridding the surface of any other life-forms. The Beetles are basically vegetarian. The initial force lands and begins digging out caves for the Mothers’ eggs. When the Hive ship arrives at the prepared planet, the ships transfer the eggs to the caves….. When that planet can support no further Hives, the Mother ship is stocked up with appropriate workers, and they go on the prowl again.” (Damia )
“tall segmented creature…its nether region a swollen tear-drop, nipping into a narrow joining to a long thin torso, and two sets of ‘legs’, one pair moving forward while the other supported the immense bulge of the lower body. A triangle with bulging eye sockets at the top of the thin upper torso had to be the head, and from the top of that multiple antennae waved furiously………….the most beautiful shades of shimmering deep coppery, burgundy red, blues and greens………..flat surfaces of the oddly jointed limbs, from what appeared to be the vestigial wings joined to the upper torso at what would be shoulder-height. ‘A preying mantis, that’s what she’s like’ ”. (Damia’s Children )
The queens are only one version of this life-form, and they are able to produce different specialised creatures by treating their eggs in different ways, from workers and soldiers to attendants for themselves and tiny scurriers
Mrdini or ‘Dinis.
They have “stubby legs which ended in splayed feet with three thick ‘toes’. The upper limbs had five longer digits, one on each side of a squat ‘palm’ and three along its top. The heads were long, tapering to what appeared to be a muzzle….One eye of a composite nature crowned the thick ‘head’. There seemed to be dorsal ridges along the backbone. Their skin or pelt was sleek and varicoloured, ranging from greys through green, brown and a slaty blue. Some were definitely taller than others.” (Damia ) They have a tail and occasionally resort to all fours to climb a steep slope, and are instinctive, hardworking miners. Their names are hard to pronounce, all consonants, so humans tend to add vowels. i.e. KTG as Kat, GRL as Gil. The name gets longer as the ‘Dini gets older and more important. They communicate with humans via dream sequences, or using a language of assorted clicks and signs. ‘Dini reproduce during their annual two-month hibernation period in a specially constructed hibernatorium. Young leave the hibernatorium ‘house trained’ and with a mouth full of sharp teeth. They are born adult in the sense of understanding the basics all ‘Dini need to know, and only need to be reminded.
Sodan
An alien mind housed within a ship that has transported it from another galaxy with hostile intent.
(With many thanks to Linmag)
------------------------------
Acorna Series
Kidaaki
A common waterfowl on the original Linyaari home world.
Makahomian Temple Cats
A cat from the planet Makahomia, bred from the ancient cat god stock to protect and defend the cat gods’ temples. They are, for cats, large, fiercely loyal, remarkably intelligent, and dangerous when crossed. The ones at the temple in the jungle more closely resemble terran ‘big’ cats than ‘house’ cats. Capable of telepathic speech on subjects they consider sufficiently important.
Marchare
Native to Kezdet. Small and furry and a lot like a rabbit, with long ears and strong hind legs with claws. (Acorna’s Quest )
Murshim
Bear-like creatures “taller than a man when standing on its back paws ….two rows of razor-like teeth on each jaw” formerly native to Makahomia but now extinct. (Acorna’s Rebels )
Pahaantiyir
Felines that formerly lived on the Linyaari home planet. They look a lot like Makahomian Temple Cats. Disappeared when Vhiliinyar was invaded. (Acorna’s People )
Singing-fuzzies (aka Thiliiri)
Small arboreal mammals of the original Linyaari home world. “Little animals that danced in the tree-tops and sang in sweet harmony.” (Acorna )
They have tail-spines that they erect during courting. (Acorna’s Quest )
Singing Stones of Skarness
Deep blue in colour, these stones are sentient, and are always aware of what is happening on their home world, though can only communicate emotions. “these stones (are) formed and tuned in tall columns, each column a family” “when individual stones left each family as a result of wind or erosion or simply gravity, they formed stepping-stones…..which in time piled one upon the other, singing new songs and forming new colonies. The colonies spawned harmonic units (which) were harvested from their resting places tenderly, respectfully, and appreciatively by other beings.” (Acorna’s Triumph ) They are aware, but not exactly sentient. They are tended by a race of bipedal humanoids with modified ears. “We are their agents to other worlds. When an ensemble has reached perfection and is ready to be heard off-world, we select it and take it to a place where it may be chosen…….We also help train the newly severed to reach full voice, to blend with others.” (Acorna’s Triumph )
Sentient Plants
“Seem to have some kind of limited sentience, or at the very least the ability to react quickly to stimuli” (Acorna’s World ). Tall and rather vine-like with white flowers. The scent varies from sweet when the plants are content, to unpleasant when they feel threatened. They bleed a reddish sap, which they are also able to squirt in self-defence.
Yowim
Rock wolves of Makahomia, now extinct. (Acorna’s Rebels )
Lothland Herd Dog
An unusual type of dog. Gets on well with cats, apart from an unfortunate tendency to try to herd them.
Loi Loi Kuans aka Poopuus
Aquatic race descended from humanoids. They have rounded bodies that float easily, brownish skin, purple-black hair, wide nose and prominent dark eyes. Their fingers are webbed and their legs fused to the knees. Some have paler skin and freckles. (First Warning P52) They can communicate long distances using far-speech, adapted from whale-speech, and live in family pods.
Crystal Singer Series
Big Hungry Junk
Possibly sentient silicon-based life-form.
Doona Series
Brrna
Small ground fowl trapped by Hrrubans for food.
Mda
Bearlike animal with sharp claws. A shaggy brown carnivore.
Snakes
Doona’s major pest and tourist attraction. “The reptiles ranged in size from two- and three-year-old tiddlers of three to five metres in length to immense females, nicknamed Great Bid Mommas, growing to twelve to fifteen metres. They had incredible speed and strength and, althought they ate infrequently, they had been known to ingest an adult horse or cow in one mouthful. Their vision was so poor that they could not see a man standing motionless a few feet from their blunt snouts, but they would strike at any movement: particularly one that gave off an enticing odour.” (Crisis on Doona ) “The giant reptiles of Doona made their way to spawning grounds on the plains once a year, but for some reason returned from the sea along the river……Their smooth-muscled bodies were as large as tree trunks and covered by tough protective scales.” (Crisis on Doona ) They are sandy coloured with diamond markings.
Ssliss
Egg-laying fowl.
Ssorasos
Knee-high mammal living in the forests of Doona. Inclined to attack if surprised.
Urfa
A huge prong-horned deer-like creature domesticated by the Hrrubans on Doona for milk (used to make cheese), but also hunted wild.
Dragonriders of Pern Series
Bordos
Fish found in Pern’s northern oceans. They have “sleek thick bodies…grey striped…as long as (a man’s) forearm, with bulging eyes on either side of their blunt heads”. (Masterharper of Pern )
Canines
Larger, sturdier versions of Terran dogs, mainly terrier types for hunting. They are also mentioned as turning spits in the kitchens at Ruatha in Dragonflight, and are used as animal herders in The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall . Jayge Lilkamp keeps “two big, rangy canines”, a black and a brindle (Renegades of Pern ), and Piemur mentions seeing some “huge canines no cook would ever want to use as a spit turner” running wild on the southern continent (Renegades of Pern ). Toric imports “three prime breeding pairs of canines: big strapping animals, deep in the chest, thick-necked, well-set teeth, sturdy legs, dark to mid-brown short-haired”. (Skies of Pern )
Dolphin
They chose to make the journey to Pern along with the original colonists. “The deep-freeze tanks of the Bahrain contained twenty-five dolphins who had volunteered to come along. Pern’s seas were eminently suitable for the support of the intelligent mammals, who enjoyed sea-shepherding as well as the opportunity to see new worlds.” (Dragonsdawn P9) Mainly blues and bottlenoses (Dragonsdawn, Dolphins of Pern), they underwent mentasynth enhancement to allow them to speak human words.
Dragons
In partnership with their riders, with whom they bond on hatching, their purpose in life is to sear Thread from the skies of Pern. They have a second stomach, which permits them to breathe fire after chewing phosphine-bearing rock, and communicate telepathically with each other, with their own rider and sometimes with other humans whom they deem worthy. The golden queens are the only fertile females, the greens being rendered infertile by chewing firestone. “The greens will be the smallest, the fighters; the blues sturdier, with more staying power; the browns sort of anchor fighters with even more endurance. The bronzes are leaders.” (Dragonsdawn ) Physically, they resemble the mythical dragons of folklore, with fragile-seeming wings, forelimbs with opposable digits, and sturdy hindquarters, but their hide is soft and smooth. Their faceted eyes whirl at different speeds and in different colours indicative of their emotional state.
Dragonets
These are the original three-toed (“They only had three toes, the front one folded against the back two” – Dragonsdawn ) Pernese flying lizards, with flaming ability, and limited emotional telepathy. “The creature’s body was gold; its almost translucent wings were a paler shade against the green-blue sky, their dark frames clearly outlined.” (Dragonsdawn ) Their skin is “warm and feels soft” (Dragonsdawn ) They hatch ravenous, and can be impressed to a human if hand-fed immediately. Confusingly, newly-hatched dragons are often referred to as dragonets.
Draybeasts
Akin to terran oxen, they are of great strength, but severely limited intelligence. They are “not designed for comfortable riding, having straight backs, wide withers, short necks and low-held heads…..(and) cloven hooves” The Girl Who Heard Dragons – A Gift of Dragons )
Felines
Small felines are mentioned as having moved into Paradise River Hold, but do not seem to have made it to the northern continent. The feline in Moreta seems to be of a larger variety, though no physical description is given. The rest of the wild felines found on the Southern continent are larger, sturdier versions of Terran big cats. They are tawny with stripes or spots, and some are clouded. They hunt co-operatively. (Skies of Pern)
Fire Lizard
These are an improved version of the native dragonets, with five digits and mentasynth enhancement to allow clearer telepathic communication. As with the dragonets, gold and green are female, though the golds are much more intelligent and reliable, and much better parents. Bronze, brown and blue are male. They have whirling eyes like the dragonets and dragons.
Grubs
I could not find a physical description. These are found in the soil everywhere on the Southern continent. They eat Thread and stop it burrowing. They do not like exposure to air or sunlight.
Herdbeasts
No detailed physical description. The wild ones on the Southern continent are taken to be descended from terran “cows, sheep, goats and horses” (Skies of Pern ) abandoned there.
Igen Sandworms
These are segmented, shelled worms “Igen’s sandworms would devour Thread, almost as efficiently as agenothree.” (Dragonquest – Dragonriders of Pern ) They are also mentioned briefly in Dragonflight.
Packtails
Edible fish with sharp fins that “would infect any cuts or scratches” (Dragonsdawn).
Runner beasts
“They weren’t intelligent creatures, responding to a narrow set of noises and nudges.” They are “thin-necked, heavy-headed, long-backed, (with) lean bodies, with spindly legs”, and “their hide was covered in a coarse fur and ranged in colour from a dirty white to a dark brown”. (Dragondrums – Harper Hall of Pern ) The beast Piemur rides in Dragondrums has cleft hooves. The wild ones on the Southern continent live in herds. In the North, they are mainly bred in Keroon and Ruatha, and are raced at Gathers. In Chronicles of Pern – First Fall, Red Hanrahan hopes to breed “a heavyweight animal of Percheron proportions for the plough; a swift, lean racing type, a good doer, who could carry messengers long distances on little fodder’ and a comfortable riding animal, a pacer like the ancient Paso Fino … a mountain breed of great agility endurance and … possessing the easiest possible long-distance riding gait.” )
Trundle Bugs
A many-legged bug with a three-sectioned body (Skies of Pern P77), found only on the Southern continent. Identified as “a form of millipede” (p78), they travel in a straight line, and will defend themselves with a strong, unpleasant odour, if an attempt is made to divert them. The young remain attached to the parent until mature. (Skies of Pern and )
Tunnel Snakes
Six-limbed photophobes possibly descended from a common ancestor with the dragonets. The front pair of limbs are diggers, the middle set for balance “especially when they have food in the front pair, and the rear limbs are for steering or holding on”. (Dragonsdawn )
Watchwhers
Unlike dragons, firelizards and dragonets, to whom they are related, whers have a hard hide. (Masterharper of Pern
They are nocturnal, being photophobic. Considered ugly by most people, they have an instinct for hidden dangers. (Dragonsdawn ) They are very strong, and will eat anything. (Dragonsdawn ) The hide makes good leather.
Wherries
According to the Dragondex, this is a fowl resembling a turkey, but the size of an ostrich. The males are referred to as bucks, while the females are hens and they lay eggs. They “resemble airborne barges – squat, fat and full” (Dragonsdawn ) and have a strong smell. The wild ones roam in large flocks and are carrion eaters. (Dragonsdawn ) Identified in Chronicles as predators, but are notoriously unintelligent.
Whersports
Mentioned briefly in Dragondrums, these are bigger than firelizards but smaller than whers, though they resemble both. They are daytime beasts, and are apparently good eating. (Harper Hall of Pern P483)
Freedom Series
Desert Burrowers
Mentioned in Freedom’s Choice, these are similar to a large rat, the pelt mottled in soft sandy shades. The flesh is firm and nutty. They feed at dusk, on insects that they catch with long prehensile tongues, while leaping into the air. They are preyed on by bat-like creatures.
Flyers
Avian predators that appear to be called by the mechanicals, and make an unpleasant, hight-pitched whistling sound as they approach, possibly in order to immobilise prey.
Loo Cows
Six-legged grazers that do not give milk. They make a liquid looing sound for which they are named.
Night Crawlers
Burrowing scavengers that only come out at night. Will avoid light and noise. Usually feed on carrion, but will attack anything that stands still for too long at night. Thought to be linked in some way to the Loo Cows – possibly part of the life cycle of an intestinal parasite.
Rocksquats
They squat on rocks in droves or herds. Resemble oversized rats without tails
. Hide is suedey rather than furry, and in grey/brown shades ). They have four legs with heavy haunches and well-developed shoulders, a chunky rounded body, not much neck and a blunt head. The flesh is like meat, and they have marrow-bones. They “haven’t got the sense to be scared.” (P74) A second, avian version is mentioned, also suede-covered, but with slimy wings. These are “stupider than turkeys” and will eat anything. (P74) All the above information is from Freedom’s Landing, but in Freedom’s Ransom rock squats are referred to as “birds”, and their eggs are even offered.
Individual Titles
Black Horses for the King
Black Horses
Often referred to as Libyans, they are heavy horses, similar to Shire horses or French Percherons. They are not necessarily black, some are very dark brown, and may have white socks or facial flashes. They are big and strong, deep chested and wide barrelled, to carry knights in full armour long distances or into battle. One stallion is mentioned as standing a good 17 hands high (P61).
No One Noticed the Cat
[/b]Barguas[/b]
Predator native to Esphahania (P18). They go in packs (P30), have grey-brown fur (P32) with sabre fangs, bulging eyes and a tail.
Barguas-hound
Hunting dog renowned for stamina, agility and intelligence (P30). Specially bred for hunting the above.
Lynzur
Savage game beast of Mauritia (P49), now very rare.
The Coelura
Coelura (also mentioned in Nimisha’s Ship)
Coelura are a passive ovoid aerial life form indigenous to Demeathorn. They react to emotions around them, can be soothed and can soothe. Although passive, they are aware of danger, and can protect themselves up to a point. Each Coelura has only so much thread in its lifespan. They are willing creatures, eager to please those they like. Unfortunately, they are amiable to almost anyone, and easily controlled. Coelura must preserve some thread with which to construct its mating-net; a net that was considered by the fashionable to be more valuable than the ordinary thread. The Oriolis (one of the regional ‘tribes’ of Demeathorn) left the triad to prevent the Coelura’s extinction. They eventually taught the Coelura to respond only to a certain combination of notes known only to a trusted minority. Thus the Coelura could not be forced to spin themselves to death.
“Before she could close the canopy behind her, the sky above her head erupted into a flight of rainbows …. that sang a liquid and lovely welcome, for she couldn’t construe that glorious sound into menace of any kind. Standing motionless she whistled back at them, trying to reproduce several of the sounds sung at her. A hilarious response, delighted laughter, greeted her poor effort, and she laughed back in pure joy.” )
“Then the man whistled in an incredibly complex glissando. The voluble round aerial creatures smothered him in iridescent strands.”
Karnsore
Mentioned in passing as a game animal, indigenous to Demeathorn.
Nathus
Sly, six-legged creature of immense patience in stalking prey from the aerial advantage of deep forest trees (P148).
Prinas
Savage nocturnal amphibians, as fast on land as in water. Predator indigenous to Demeathorn.
Get Off the Unicorn
Welladan Whales
Native to the planet Welladay. They produce radioactive iodine in their thyroid glands, which they permit humanoids to tap for medical purposes (Weather on Welladay, Get Off the Unicorn ). They are enormous, have scales, swim in schools and eat plankton ).
Nimisha’s Ship
A-alliSmall tree-dwellers that live high in the canopy, and only use their ‘wings’ to glide from branch to branch. Congregate in flocks. They have “feathers…. of various hues, helping them blend into the blossoms or leaves of their roosts”. Their dark flesh is very tender, but they are difficult to hunt, and their feathers are prized by the Shi’im for personal adornment.
Boks
Small, deer-like fast-running grazers. Capable of being domesticated.
Bombers
Enormous avians. The largest are the size of some of the space craft belonging to the settlers. They have “a head crammed with teeth” (P95), and a long narrow body. They attack in formation, at dawn or dusk, dropping huge boulders onto their prey.
Shaggies
Large shaggy brown and black grazers. Protect their young by keeping them in the centre of the herd.
Slime Slugs
As tall as a tree but with no discernable arms or legs, and the ability to ‘spit’ tongues of corrosive slime. “A lump that moved by contracting its muscular frame along the ground.” )
Zonkers
A sneaky creature with lairs in forest trees. Lies along branches and snags unwary creatures. Not large but very crafty. (P102)
Powers Trilogy (Petaybee)
“The Company hired Dr Sean Shongili to alter certain existing species to adapt to this climate. That’s how the resident equines, felines and canines, and many of the aquatic mammals, come to be here.” (Powers That Be )
Clodagh’s cats
These are orange cats, somewhat larger than the average domestic feline (about 1Kg weight), with extra fur around their ears and paws for protection against frost. “rust and cream stripes” (Powers That Be
“feline with rust and cream markings” (Powers That Be ) They consider themselves to be the feet of the planet, and run messages for it and for Clodagh and the other shanachies. Sick people seem to get a lot of benefit from their proximity.
Curlycoats
”The curly-coats are equines…….originally from the Siberian area……..they comfortably exist in extreme temperatures, having a spare flap in their nose that closes off frost. They survive on vegetation that wouldn’t keep a goat alive. Small, sturdy, able to manoeuvre on tracks even a sledge has trouble running.” (Powers That Be ) “small horses, curly-coated to the point of being shaggy, with long fur icicled under their throats, and long feathers curling down from their sturdy barrels and down their short thick legs……the manes were as long as the tails and just as thick. There were some brown animals, but most were a creamy colour” (Powers That Be ) “They were bred for sand and snow….and they can close off their nostrils if they need to and their eyes have a protective lid.” (Powers That Be )
Curlies are good swimmers; they can close off their nostrils and lower extra eyelids and dive like seals to the bottom of lakes to find the water lily roots, which are a favourite delicacy. (Power Play )
Curlycorns
These are the wild version of the Curlycoats. They are very similar in appearance, but the males have a further adaptation in the form of a horn. “a short, stumpy curled horn which grew out of the end of its nose bone” (Powers That Be ) This is used to break through ice to get to drinkable water in winter.
Sledge Dogs (aka Foxhounds)
These are “big red dogs with….thick soft coats” (Powers That Be ), originally called banshee-dogs by the first settlers because their howling sounded like a woman screaming. They have “pointed ears”, “their coats were very thick and their legs fairly long and muscular” (Powers That Be ). They are “foxhounds, intelligent hybrid dogs” , “red as a Mars moonscape but delicately featured with foxy, intelligent faces” and “curled feathery tails” (Powers That Be ) They are extremely loyal. They can ‘path to a sensitive person with whom they are in physical contact, and will come to a ‘call’ from someone they recognise as a friend. They work in teams to haul sledges, and all the lead dogs I have come across so far have been female. They eat warmed meat or fish stew, and have to be chained up and fed individually or fights would break out.
Track cats
Are about five times the size of Clodagh’s cats. They can ‘path when in physical contact, and will answer a ‘call’. “The cat was extremely furry, with extra tufts on the ears and a thickly bushy tail. Its coat was dense, very soft-looking white with large spots of different sizes according to the muscle they were on – long rectangular ones on the neck, big circular ones on the shoulders, smaller, more regular ones on the abdomen – shaded from grey to black, but blurred and clouded by the length and thickness of the fur. The paws were also extremely large, though the face was sweet, with large golden eyes and black nose” (Power Lines ) “nearly the size of (a) lion, (it) had a thick coat of dense fur with a clouded spot design, the fangs and retractable claws of a tiger…………….its skull was larger to accommodate the larger brain.” (Power Lines ) On the northern continent, they are a larger version of a normal domestic cat, with the same range of colours, but with the extra furry ears and paws of Clodagh’s cats. “an enormous calico housecat, the base of the tail thin, the tip bushy.” (Power Play ) On the southern continent, they appear to be a wild version that has developed from the large cats originally imported from Terra. They use mind speech to communicate with humans and other cats, and will often befriend a particular human. In thought, they refer to themselves as ‘one’. They have some healing abilities.
Planet Pirates Trilogy / Dinosaur Planet
Dandy
Small herbivore found on Ireta and ‘adopted’.
Fang Face
Aggressive predator found on Ireta.
Fringes
Native to Ireta. May be aquatic or avian. The avians are large, aggressive and poisonous, and are attracted to heat. (Sassinak ) “They are attracted to body heat and envelop their prey, clasping the digits midsection to secure it. Then they consume their victim with a digestive juice…….The aquatic ones are considerably smaller.” (The Ireta Adventure [Dinosaur Planet Survivors]) They are grey-blue and the smaller ones about 1 m on each side. They “flutter like a fabric caught in a strong breeze” and have “two points halfway up one side (like claws)”. (The Ireta Adventure P 70 [Dinosaur Planet]) The aquatic ones leap out of the water if potential prey leave a shadow on the water. They have a very strong, unpleasant smell, which warns of their approach. They have an internal skeleton, with “joints at each corner” and they move “by a deformation of parallelograms”. (The Ireta Adventure [Dinosaur Planet])
Galormis
Mild-eyed, appealing looking creatures of Aldebaran 4 (Galormi), that by night turn into blood-sucking predators. “mild-looking creatures… softish, perfectly amenable until full dark….sucked the blood and then chewed the flesh”. (The Ireta Adventure [Dinosaur Planet])
Golden Fliers (Giffs)
Golden-furred avians found on Ireta that show signs of intelligence. They have a crested head, with a furry face, golden eyes, a long sharp beak and a neck pouch. They make nets and co-operate to catch fish, but also eat quantities of a particular grass. They have claws half-way down their wings, and opposable digits. They are curious, and care for and teach their young. They “can rotate the wings at the wrist”. (The Ireta Adventure P 99 [Dinosaur Planet]) The adults stand as “tall as an average human with a wingspan of at least 8 to 10 meters”. They are thought to have some sort of radar perception, as low visibility does not seem to hamper them.
Gorbnari
“Wide-winged flyers of Myriad, who preyed on its native sealife.” “Pale yellow on top and white underneath, with a red crest on the males” on one continent, “mid to light brown, lighter below” on the other. (Sassinak P194)
Kittisnakes
Native to the planet Ambrosia. Very friendly, but dumb. “The kittsnake had a small round face, with a round nose and round ears which peered out of its sleek, back-combed fur. It had no limbs, but it was apparent where the thicker body joined the more slender tail. Two bright green eyes with round black pupils.” (The Death of Sleep ) Its mouth has two rows of needle-like teeth, they are omnivorous and they love being stroked. Spend a lot of time chasing each other about in the treetops.
Krissi
Ocean dwellers of the planet Myriad. (Sassinak )
Molly
Large herbivore found on Ireta. One was rescued from a predator and kept for a few days for treatment. Thereafter others of the same species were referred to as Mollys.
Mason Beetles
Insectoids native to the planet Ambrosia. “have a complicated hive society…..the chemical they secrete while hunting…can melt solid rock” (The Death of Sleep
Shadow Crabs
Ambrosian stone crab. A shy warm-water crustacean that lurks in tubular hollows in rock and defends itself with a water jet when threatened. (The Death of Sleep)
Ship Series
Globe Frogs
“small green amphibioids…..in clear globular cases full of water. Outside their shells they’d be about a foot long, with delicate limbs and big, flat paws that drove the spheres across dry land” (The Ship Who Won ) They have bulbous black eyes, short sharp teeth and a pale blue-green tongue.
Six-packs
Six-legged pack-beasts similar to shire horses, but with a double dip to their spine over the extra shoulders/hips. They have a thick plushy coat, and their hide is suitable for making leather. They have three stubby toes with blunt claws and a thick sole. Used as farm horses by the farmers of Osran (The Ship Who Won ).
Letheans
Very formal, easily scared race. “A people so formal that emergencies required a ceremony, mercifully brief, for deferring the usual endless courtesies in favour of survival.” (The City Who Fought P81)
Reticulans
No physical description. Famous for their incredibly beautiful and complex mating croons, impossible for any other race to imitate (except Helva, of course!). “The sounds were long, low, dreamy. There was no formal melody, but somehow the theme suggested the stillness of deep forest and dew falling like liquid diamond in streaks of sunlight dazzling through the leaves.” (The City Who Fought P60)
Sondee
Humanoid with lovely voices and many eyes. “Of course, Sondee were rather humanoid, if you managed to ignore the four eyes – two large and golden about where eyes should be, and two more above the whorled ridges that served as ears…..and the lack of any facial features apart from a nostril slit and round suckerlike mouth. They had lovely voices, with far more vocal range and control than a human.” (The City Who Fought P102)
Ursinids
Ursine race, victims of one of Anne’s worst puns. “Obscure race, big and hairy, always insisted that it was their right to arm bears.” (The City Who Fought P364) Arms manufacturers, large-scale in that their needlers are sub-machine gun size for humans.
Sicatooth
Wily carnivore native to Bethel. “sicatooths do not eat grass. One must put out a goat to bait the trap for them.” (The City Who Fought P158)
Sondee Mud-Puppy
“A kid who looks and smells like a Sondee mud-puppy.” (The City Who Fought P30)
Tunglor
Aquatic denizen of Kolnar not known for its’ intelligence. “In Kolnar’s seas there was an animal – more or less an animal – that concentrated the abundant transuranics from seawater in a specialised section of its gut. It sucked in water and sprayed it on the heated chamber that resulted, expelling it behind as steam for propulsion…..attacked b rising from depth at fifty or sixty knots and ramming with their metal-sapphire-fibre prows, never deviating from the shortest course.” (The City Who Fought P 332)
Talent Series
Barque-cats
“as independent as the bobcat, from which they had mutated in the century of space exploration and travel. Some say they had evolved from those early felines as far as man had evolved from the ape. And with a suitable increase in intelligence. There was a widespread notion that barquecats were telepathic but no Talent had ever had communication with them…Barquecats were equally comfortable in free-fall or gravity. Their breeding was carefully monitored by their shipcrews and the progeny were scrupulously registered. To be accepted by a barquecat was considered a mark of esteem.” (P67/8) They have seven-fingered paws and blunt claws. Rowan’s Rascal has a deep creamy base colour with tawny tips of an unusual pattern, a banded tail, and silver-blue eyes. They are omnivorous. The young are referred to as cubs rather than kittens. They are sensitive to breaches of hull integrity and will alert human crew so that repairs can be made, and have a talent for surviving spacewrecks. Garfield Per Astra (Damia ) is “a magnificent beast of tawny brown with his undercoat a tan, with black stripes and face markings……..(and) yellow eyes.” Queen Tabitha Many-Coats of the Vadim is “a magnificently marked tri-colour with a white muzzle, white socks all round and a tiny puff of white on the tip of her tail”. (Damia’s Children ) Tri-colours are greatly valued, and a litter of marmalades and a tabby is also mentioned.
Coonies
“a Coonie cat: the nearest we surface dwellers have to barquies. They’re not quite as intelligent…..but they have qualities of their own.” (Damia P58) Afra meets Amos, the first coonie he has seen, on Earth. “The first raccoon-type beast had been a gift from Kama to Afra.” Ringle is “ A light tan Coonie with dark brown face markings” (Damia ) They have masked faces and they chitter, but are repeatedly referred to as felines as they follow Damia around her native Callisto. The ones introduced onto Aurigae by Damia are even more raccoon-like. They are brightly furred, with banded tails and white bellies. They have soft silky fur and they chitter and click, scrambling up people to drape themselves around their shoulders and neck.
Darbul
“canine-like creatures” (Lyon’s Pride P186) Kept as pets by the Raven-Lyons on Iota Aurigae.
Denebian ponies
“small, sturdy and tractable ponies who thrived on the rough grazing and wandered unchecked in small herds.” (Damia P179) Damia’s Jupiter has a “flaxen mane and tail…..darker ‘beer’ hide, dainty hooves”, and “bright black eyes, alert with interest.” (Damia )
Slithers
Mrdini pets. (Presumably from their home planet Clarf, but there are some living in Damia’s home. So the ‘Dinis must take them with them) “Neither reptile or bird, neither furred nor feathered but loving, affectionate, dependant on assistance to survive anywhere….accepted by Coonies, ignored by Darbuls.” (Damia’s Children ) They eat bugs and will keep a home cleared of them.” Are fond of wrapping themselves around the nearest person.
Anne's Alien Races
Acorna Series
Ancestors
Terran unicorns with the power of mind-speech.
Ancestral Hosts (Friends)
“ageless beings from a possibly immortal race, but they were also shape-shifters whose own forms had become too unstable for them to bear young (so they) manipulated the DNA of other beings and created new races.” (Acorna’s Triumph )
Dharmakoi
Dominant sentient race of the planet Galleni. Small, scurrying, “easily frightened little creatures” who lived in burrows (Acorna’s Quest P54).
Khleevi
Aggressive insectoid race that feed their young on fear. When they land on a planet they will eat everything vegetable, and torture anything sentient to death before eating that too. They will even torture the planet itself, leaving it uninhabitable when they depart. They are cockroach-like, with multiple legs and bulbous gleaming eyes.
Linyaari
Unicorn people descended from the Ancestors and the Friends. The horn on their forehead has regenerative properties and they are pacifists by nature. They are exclusively vegetarian. “Pale skinned and had golden opalescent spiralling horns growing from their foreheads, topped by manes of silvery hair which continued to grow down their spines…..They had feathery tufts of fine curly white hair adorning their legs from knee to ankle, to just above their two-toed feet. Their hands… bore only three fingers, each with one joint in the middle and one where the finger met the palm.” (Acorna’s People P2) Planet-bound Linyaari come in many different colours, but starfarers are all white. They are able to communicate telepathically, but also have an advanced spoken language.
Limurian Jungle Dwellers
Mentioned in Acorna’s World ). They enjoy swinging on vines.
Nesters
Dominant sentient race of the planet Khorma V. “Sedentary creatures, bonded to their nests by a complex set of chemical interactions (Acorna’s Quest).
Niriians
A conservative, self-contained people capable of thought-speech, but who only used it among family and friends. They are highly scientific and technologically inclined trading partners of the Linyaari. Somewhat bovine in appearance “large, double-horned, heavily built” (Acorna’s People ). “Heavily bovine face….with a curving brownish horn above each ear” (Acorna’s World ).
Porcine Beings
Of the Greater Ursine constellation. Mentioned in Acorna’s World ). They enjoy rolling in mud.
Sii-Linyaari
“Prototype horned merpeople” (Acorna’s Triumph ). An early attempt to create a unicorn race blended from the Ancestors and the Friends, which was not acceptable to the Friends. “Very scaly, with a head full of small but lethal-looking horns…aqua-blue of skin and silver of horn, with only small bumps along the spine and top of the head…silvery hair.” (Acorna’s Search ) They communicate by telepathy only, have webbed hands and fish tails.
Sulfurians
Sulphur-based sentient life-forms indigenous to the planet Egstynkeraht. Top of the evolutionary pile are the Mutables, who can pose as Solids or change to Liquids at will, but consider it degrading to stay in one form very long. Next are the Solids, who resemble trees “mustard yellow and drooping with gold-brown mossy foliage.” (Acorna’s Triumph ) Lowest of the low are the Liquids, who have emotions but can’t really aspire to organised thought. However, it is they who are most readily able to transform themselves into the sulphuric acid that these beings use to defend themselves. There is little love lost between the three tiers of this society, and they only unite briefly in the face of a common enemy.
Loi Loi Kuans aka Poopuus
Aquatic race descended from humanoids. They have rounded bodies that float easily, brownish skin, purple-black hair, wide nose and prominent dark eyes. Their fingers are webbed and their legs fused to the knees. Some have paler skin and freckles. (First Warning P52) They can communicate long distances using far-speech, adapted from whale-speech, and live in family pods. (First Warning P204)
Crystal Singer Series
Doona Series
Hrrubans
Felinoid race that co-inhabits Doona/Rrala. “Furred, tailed cats that walk on their hind legs and carry knives.” (Decision on Doona ) “Close up, the resemblance to cats was uncanny….great green eyes….under straight wide brows, dark pupils narrowed against the orange sun. Flattish noses were broad at the nostril over the lipless wide mouths. The chins were short bridges in the middle of the wide hinged jaw. The lobeless ears and tufted tips.” (Decision at Doona ) “Their skins were a light fawn, like a soft velour, but their heads were covered with a darker tan mop of hair that hung to their ear tips. Visible between their spraddles legs were sort, tufted tails.” (Decision at Doona ) They have retractable claws, a mouth that is very wide in profile and narrow feet with vestigial webbing and claws. They have a very advanced language and culture. Their tastes and diet are broadly compatible with humans. Fur colour tends to darken with age, and the darker stripe down their back broadens. “The visitor possessed a very broad back stripe, indicating that he held a position of rank in Hrruban society.” (Crisis on Doona )
Gringg
A water-loving race that grows up to 3m in height, though the males are tercels. They resemble bears, but are more probably descended from an otter-like creature, as they have a tail. “A bulky creature covered except for its face and the pads of its forepaws with thick, long fur….Its face had a square muzzle with a black leathery nose and black-fleshed lips, and two deep-set eyes the colour of red wine protected by thick, smooth-skinned eyelids fringed just at the edges with more honey hair. Its shoulders sloped from a thick neck towards a huge ribcage, and downward over a powerful lower body supported by very short but thick legs.” (Treaty Planet ) They have retractable claws, and large teeth. They are omnivorous, graceful despite their size, and are very gentle and naturally indolent. The smaller males “made the best record-keepers, poets, librarians, even artists…they also mastered the theoretical sciences. The females, larger by ten to thirty percent, organised, and exercised, the practical arts, such as all forms of engineering, and tended to take the lead in exploration.” (Treaty Planet P68) They come in a large range of colours “pied, patched, white, brown, black, tan, gold” (Treaty Planet )
Siwannese
“The Siwannese had suicided as a race when the colonists from Earth encountered them. They had been a gentle people, with too fragile a culture to survive contact with another intelligent species. Siwanna was empty now.” (Crisis on Doona )
Dragonriders of Pern Series
Amigs
A race with telekinetic abilities, who use teleportation when threatened. (Dragonsdawn)
Eridani
Very advanced technologically. “Advanced biogenetic techniques of the Eridanis – mainly mentasynth, gene paring, and chromosome enhancements”. (Dragonsdawn P9) Also developed advanced fuel packs for surface flitters and anti-matter drives for interstellar travel.
Beltrae
“reclusive Eridani hive culture” that originally developed mentasynth. (Dragonsdawn )
Nathis
Alien race defeated in war with Federated Sentient Planets. (Dragonsdawn ) Also referred to as Nasties in Rescue Run.
Vegans
Have their “brains well protected in tough internal sacs” somewhere in their middle region. (Dragonsdawn P121)
Freedom Series
Catteni
Aggressive bipedal humanoid race. Very like humans, but two species not mutually fertile. Yellow eyes with black irises. Grey skin and hair. From a heavy gravity planet, so tall and heavily built.
Deski
Very thin, spiderlike limbs covered in hair. Need “plursaw” to survive away from their home planet. Have acute hearing.
Eosi
A technologically superior race prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to extend their lifespans. Inconsiderate of other species.
FarmersTechnologically very advanced race of shape changers. Will take on the shape of whichever species they are speaking to. Communicate telepathically.
Iglinish
Rugarians
TursUnco-operative race.
Individual Titles
An Exchange of Gifts
Get Off the Unicorn
Nimisha’s Ship
Sh’im
Small bipedal sapient alien allies. Adults about the size of a human 10 year old. Lifespan of about 30 years – 2 to mature, 10 to reproduce (2-3 young/year). Covered with short fur that gets darker grey with age. Vocal and hearing range wider than human. Three digits, one opposable. One long central eye-slit that cannot take very bright light. Retractable genitals. Feet more like flippers, with vestigial toes and a leathery underside.
No-one Noticed the Cat
If Wishes Were Horses
Restoree
Ertois
“as humanoid as a saurian species can appear, complete with gills and scaled armour” (P155)
Glan
“The Glan were willowy skeletons with three digits and an opposing thumb. Their bodies were covered with a fine down, their faces, long and narrow, were sensitive. Their apparently ineffectual bodies were deceptive for the Glan were structurally twice as strong as Lotharians and equal to their scaly space neighbours, the Ertois.” (P155)
Lotharians
Indistinguishable from humans, except for their golden skin. “pale gold face” (P10), “skin a warm golden colour” (P14)
Mil
A spacefaring race with particularly nasty habits, and a very unpleasant odour. “Disgusting wave of dead sea-creature stench”. (P7) “A race of cellular giants which have had interstellar flight since the beginning of our recorded history.” (P27)
Tane
“Humanoid, but the gentlest, dumbest people imaginable….. They don’t have even an elementary sense of caution or suspicion.” (P31)
The Coelura
Planet Pirates Trilogy / Dinosaur Planet
Brachian
Simian race with purple fur and reflective white pupils. (The Death of Sleep P65)
Bronthin
Horse-like allied alien race with short blue fur “tubby blue mathematicians”. (Generation Warriors P196) They have a lavender tongue and “three stubby fingers” (Generation Warriors P198). They are staunchly pacifist, and suffer severe depression when separated from their social herd.
Gurnsan
Bovine alien race with horned head. (The Death of Sleep P83)
Lethi
A sulphur-dependent allied alien race resembling “large yellow burrs.” “They had no audible communication mode: they talked to each other in chemical packages and could not interface with a biolink until they formed a clump of at least eight.” (Generation Warriors P197).
Ryxi
Stork-like allied alien race, volatile and vain, about 2m tall. Consider all non-avian races inferior. Have stiff legs, so prefer to stand, and long bright tail feathers. Have wing claws at ‘elbow’ of wings, and a delicate three-fingered manipulative hand at the wingtip (The Death of Sleep P291) Not always prepared to make the effort to speak slowly enough for others to understand them.
Seti
Lizard-like allied race. Have very rigid ideas of right and wrong, though they are “Vandals and hell-raisers, always willing to start a fight or gamble it all on one throw”, they think it wrong to load the dice in any way. Refuse to do genetic engineering for that reason. (Sassinak P 73) Worship “holy chance”, and look down on any race not prepared to gamble as much as they do.
Ssli
Allied alien aquatic race. An adult Ssli installed in a space craft can assist with navigation by detecting ‘waves’ in space. “stunning magenta fan flecked with yellow and white….at the moment, the Ssli had grown only some three meters in diameter from its holdfast, and its fan was still almost circular.” (Sassinak ) Communicate via computer link.
Stribans
Humanoid bipeds with large eyes and grey skin. (The Death of Sleep )
Thek
Allied alien race, co-founders of the Federation. “A silicate life form that was the closest thing in the galaxy to immortals. They ranged from about a metre to dozens of metres high, and were pyramidal in shape, just like their spacecraft”. (The Death of Sleep ) “A form of granite with a nuclear core for energy” (The Ireta Adventure [Dinosaur Planet Survivors]).‘Fly’ with no obvious means of propulsion. Can meld together to form a “cathedral” big enough to house a space cruiser in order to link minds. Are mineral based and communicate very slowly. “Have a taste for transuranics, and they’re supposed to remember everything that ever happened to them, or a distant ancestor. Live a long time, but before they dissolve or harden, or whatever it is they do that corresponds with death, they transmit all their memories somehow” (Sassinak ) Use a computer interface or modulate sound waves in order to communicate with humans, though they can produce audible speech. They are “pentadactyl – after a fashion”, having “an unnerving habit of extruding pseudopods from their amorphous mass”. (The Ireta Adventure
[Dinosaur Planet])
Wefts
A race of shape-changers allied to FSP. Can assume any shape they choose, animate or inanimate, though they will never replicate a currently living person, or anyone famous. Their natural shape has “fivefold symmetry” and “angled stalklike appendages”. (Sassinak P 44) There are four sexes, but those who choose to leave the home world to take Fleet service in human form become sterile. In their natural shape they are telepathic.
Powers Trilogy
Aurelian
“A six-armed, vaguely humanoid creature with a craw full of fangs that would have stretched from ear to ear had the creature had ears, and an optical slit that circled its entire cranial prominence…..A peaceful sea-dweller with a language similar to that of Earth’s aquatic mammals” (Power Play ) (A hologram of one such is used as the visual manifestation of the pirate Onidi Louchard.)
Deglatite
“shielded from the eyes of the Imperfect by its carapace” (Power Play )
Hepatode
“in its globe” (Power Play )
Ship Series
Beasts Blatisant
Native to the planet Iricon III, these are “skinny, hairy hexapedal beings, whose faces resembled those of intelligent grasshoppers”. (The Ship Who Won ) They live in swamps, travel on all sixes or upright on four with two manipulative limbs. They communicate via controlled flatulence caused by eating red berries, though they are accomplished mimics and use oral sounds for emphasis or embellishment. They hunt the aquatic creatures of their native swamps, and hide from larger beasties that hunt them.
Beta Corviki
A race that exists in free-fall in a methane-ammonia atmosphere. They are “unimaginably sophisticated scientifically”. (The Ship Who Sang ) They “resemble a marine animal in the class hydrozoa, sort of a large sac-like body with a complex collection of tendrils that may be nerve endings”. (The Ship Who Sang )
Cridi
Small green amphibioids who inhabit Ozran (known to them as Sky Clear). They require a very humid environment. Skin colours in the green spectrum. Communicate via sign language, enhanced with a verbal “language of science”, which sounds like peeps and chirps to human ears. Are able to speak Standard, have very advanced technology and have achieved space flight. Appear in The Ship Who Won and The Ship Errant (by Jody Lynn Nye).
Dushaynese
“Square, flat head – literally. Flat on top, flat face, flattened sides. He was bright green and had no mouth, just a tiny hole below his nostril slits………vegetarian to an extreme.” (The Ship Who Searched P178) On their home world they live on tree sap and fruit juice, elsewhere they manage on sucrose-water and other liquids.
Loosies
“Like crazy puppets made of rocks and wire” (Partnership P99) They are humanoid in shape, with square heads, and when motionless can easily be mistaken for rock formations. They have no verbal language, but learn sign language easily, and are believed to be telepathic among themselves.
Mages
Ozran’s dominant sentient species. Bipedal humanoid, possibly descended from humans. They draw on objects of power to create magic spells. They are inclined to squabble among themselves, and live in mountain strongholds. Appear in The Ship Who Won.
Noble Primitives
Bipedal humanoids who inhabit the plains of Ozran. Bronze-age farmers with fuzzy pelts and facial features that resemble various animals, such as cats, dogs, pigs, camels or sheep. They have three fingers and an opposable thumb. They live by subsistence farming, but there is evidence of a higher level of technology in the past. (The Ship Who Won
Rayanthan
Cold-weather mammalian. “Pelt of very fine, dense brown fur that extended down onto her cheekbones………round black eyes.” (The Ship Who Searched )
The Old Ones
“upright creatures of bilateral symmetry…….multi-jointed legs with backward-pointing knees depended from flat, shallow bodies a meter wide. They had five small eyes set in a row across their flat faces, which were dark green. Lank black tendrils on their cylindrical heads were either hair or antennae” (The Ship Who Won). The eyes are capable of moving independently.
Thelerie
An avian race resembling griffins. “Big flat faces. Sleek head, widens to neck. Sandy pelts, slightly fuzzy……Claw hands.” “Full-sized wings. Like bat’s wings, but with longer fur.” (The Ship Errant, The Ship Who Saved the Worlds ) Some are black, and they have vertically striped eyes and a tail. They have a bifurcated upper lip, which draws aside to reveal the narines. They have two vestigial fingers on their wings, plus clawed forelegs and they get around on all fours when not airborne. They need a chlorinated atmosphere. They are very good at mental arithmetic, and always know where they are in relation to their home world of Thelerie, which they consider the centre of the universe. They are a very gentle people, not very technically advanced. (Included here because they appear in the omnibus edition of The Ship Who Won and The Ship Errant, The Ship Who Saved the Worlds)
Talent Series / The Tower and The Hive
Hivers
“Not at all humanoid, rather a form of beetle, with carapace or chitinous wings, with multiple legs, with joined digits. Some of the creatures which had been standing erect at their control devices were approximately two metres long. Those in the round access tubes through the long space vehicles had been smaller and scurried about on six of their ten legs. There had been a heavily guarded central feature with immature creatures, a startling number of egg cases and the largest specimen.” (The Rowan )
“The Beetles are compulsive colonizers, driven by the fact that the queens tend to massacre each other, the winner devouring the eggs of the loser. To prevent that, Hive ships leave the home world…..and find likely worlds. First, scouts are sent off to locate planets. On finding one, ships are despatched to ‘prepare’ the planet for occupation, which means, ridding the surface of any other life-forms. The Beetles are basically vegetarian. The initial force lands and begins digging out caves for the Mothers’ eggs. When the Hive ship arrives at the prepared planet, the ships transfer the eggs to the caves….. When that planet can support no further Hives, the Mother ship is stocked up with appropriate workers, and they go on the prowl again.” (Damia )
“tall segmented creature…its nether region a swollen tear-drop, nipping into a narrow joining to a long thin torso, and two sets of ‘legs’, one pair moving forward while the other supported the immense bulge of the lower body. A triangle with bulging eye sockets at the top of the thin upper torso had to be the head, and from the top of that multiple antennae waved furiously………….the most beautiful shades of shimmering deep coppery, burgundy red, blues and greens………..flat surfaces of the oddly jointed limbs, from what appeared to be the vestigial wings joined to the upper torso at what would be shoulder-height. ‘A preying mantis, that’s what she’s like’ ”. (Damia’s Children )
The queens are only one version of this life-form, and they are able to produce different specialised creatures by treating their eggs in different ways, from workers and soldiers to attendants for themselves and tiny scurriers
Mrdini or ‘Dinis.
They have “stubby legs which ended in splayed feet with three thick ‘toes’. The upper limbs had five longer digits, one on each side of a squat ‘palm’ and three along its top. The heads were long, tapering to what appeared to be a muzzle….One eye of a composite nature crowned the thick ‘head’. There seemed to be dorsal ridges along the backbone. Their skin or pelt was sleek and varicoloured, ranging from greys through green, brown and a slaty blue. Some were definitely taller than others.” (Damia ) They have a tail and occasionally resort to all fours to climb a steep slope, and are instinctive, hardworking miners. Their names are hard to pronounce, all consonants, so humans tend to add vowels. i.e. KTG as Kat, GRL as Gil. The name gets longer as the ‘Dini gets older and more important. They communicate with humans via dream sequences, or using a language of assorted clicks and signs. ‘Dini reproduce during their annual two-month hibernation period in a specially constructed hibernatorium. Young leave the hibernatorium ‘house trained’ and with a mouth full of sharp teeth. They are born adult in the sense of understanding the basics all ‘Dini need to know, and only need to be reminded.
Sodan
An alien mind housed within a ship that has transported it from another galaxy with hostile intent.
(With many thanks to Linmag)