Multi-Species Factions in Science Fiction
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Spacedock delves into multi-species factions in Science Fiction.
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Typical. You don't mention it, you simply show a tiny bit of footage of the series. The Enterprise. It's so hated by so many trekkies, but it was made, and it had a multi species faction, the Xindi. Multiple species that thrived and evolved on the same planet. And lets not forget that Daniels showed Xindi's being part of the federation in the far flung future.
Good luck with XCOM! One of the meanest games I’ve ever played and I love it to pieces! 😂
Yet no mention of the one universe that does this seamlessly: Star Wars. The Confederacy of Independent Systems. The Republic. The Rebel Alliance. Even the Empire had a limited interspecies involvement. Each one did so differently, and it's a real oversight to omit it completely.
Andromeda also did an amazing job of this, as reestablishing the interspecies government was the CORE CONCEPT of the plot! C'mon, guys.
I'm not surprised he didn't talk about the Tau empire. They're a multi-species empire, but with how little the other races are depicted you wouldn't even know.
Tau lore is a touchy issue for 40k fans, since some off them cant accept the fact that there is a good guy in their story. They expect a species barely couple of thousand years old to be as corrupt as other much older ones just so they can say "there are no good guys in 40k"
I mean, part of that is that they only show the military, which mostly consists of Fire-caste and kroot, the latter of which aren't part of the empire, but instead paid mercenaries. The properly integrated client species like the nicassar (the 2 dimensional floating psychic bear people) are barely depicted, and for distinctiveness reasons there's little depiction of the gue'vesa.
If you been keeping up with current lore. Then the Tau might not be a multi species alliance for much longer.
@@joshuafranklin1399 you're talking about the 4th sphere expansion, the aftermath of which has been partially addressed during the 5th sphere expansion. In that those members of the 4th Sphere fleet that survived their warp jump and went on to start genociding their own auxilia have been or at least are being sent to T'au reeducation camps due to how detrimental their behavior has been to T'au diplomatic efforts in Chalnath as of Psychic Awakening. as of late the T'au might be jumping into a 6th Sphere of expansion (like, what the hell GW have you forgotten the part of T'au Doctrine where they're supposed to CONSOLIDATE before pressing forward.) and have been trying to figure out how Sisters of Battle do the crazy shit they keep seeing them do in the worlds beyond the Nem'Yar Atoll.
@@The7Purplekirbies You know we getting a Shadowsun heresy right.
I'm a big fan of multi species factions mostly because of my love of unique alien cultures and it's a shame it isnt done that often
It is a sign of intelligence at play, so the lack of it in a Sci-Fi universe always hurts me deeply.
When you can rationalize that the problem you are facing can be solved by the alien, then you work with the alien.
It's often because so many story formats are based around humans and human-shaped characters. Tv shows often limit themselves to the cheaper option of just putting humans in costumes (though Star Trek once had a lifeform that looked like a blob that could be only be communicated with telepathically). Even in fps and third-person video games, the characters are often expected to have similar heights for similar hit boxes and aiming mechanics.
One of my favorite aspects of Halo comes from how distinct and unique the species and cultures are. They do a phenomenal job of portraying an overall culture for a species yet manage to steer clear of planet of the hats with interesting and unique character, factions, and subfactions throughout the series of book. I'd highly recommend them to anyone looking to kill time with the 32+ novels they've put out in their run.
Imagine the dating culture for Xenos
Speaking of the non-subjugation factions only, it's the most unrealistic concept in all sci-fi.
There's no chance an intelligent species that hates its own prosperity enough to fund and support their biological competition could ever even establish in space in the first place. They'd annihilate themselves on the Great Filter like bugs.
But authors already stretch the fiction in plenty of other ways for the story, no reason not to explore this one more often.
When done right multi-species factions can be really great. Advent, Combine, the Covenant, and the Tau Empire are great examples in their own way. It can work, but conflict would arise if things go poorly. But that allows for amazing stories like with what happened with Halo. So it can work and can make for amazing stories.
I wish the diversity of the Tau was shown more often, it feels like we rarely see species beyond the Tau themselves- especially when it comes to the tabletop.
@@CollinBuckman older editions played it up more. at one point at least you had rules for vespid, kroot, and human troops. though the latter were optional rules. seems like the kroot are the only ones who consistently stick around in later editions. in battlefleet gothic you had the Kroot, Nissicar, and Demiurg as part of the Tau fleet, as well. sadly i think GW prefers to invent new battlesuits rather than new alien minis. personally i would have loved to have had proper Gue'vesa kits, even if just an upgrade sprue to the cadians, and wish we'd gotten Nissicar minis (i mean giant psychic alien bears that float around on mobile platforms, would have been an awesome visual and give the tau some psyker/magic stuff.)
@@CollinBuckman
It would also help dispel the "Tau are secretly genocidal conquerors who are just as bad as the Imperium and force anyone who isn't Tau into sterilization camps" bullshit that Dawn of War started. The Tau were meant to be somewhat of a contrast element to the rest of W40K, making them "just as blatantly grimdark" ruins their characterization. Besides, there's plenty of grimdark mystery plothooks with both Aun'Va and the Fourth Sphere Tau that you don't need to make new ones.
@@glitterboy2098 Yeah, all the recommendations I've seen for Gue'vessa are to kitbash Imperial Guard and Tau together. For example, using Fire Warrior torsos but the head, arms, and legs from a Guardsmen box to make them look like humans equipped with Tau-made ballistic vests.
@@CollinBuckman it's most common for worlds themselves to join the tau instead of Intermingling of everyone on every world, due to that it's kinda rare to see humans and other xenos on tau worlds (they still are but not as common) and for the tau aligned worlds you dont see too many tau living there, other than the ethereal caste who are sent to control the population.
As far as physical differences between aliens go, I appreciate that they retconned in Star Trek a reason for why so many species looked similar and were broadly compatible.
An ancient humanoid alien race seeded various worlds so that life would evolve into forms similar to their own. I don't believe they were officially named on the show, but it appears they were given the name of the Preservers.
And it was never mentioned again, I do remember that episode though. Also, budget.
The Chase, TNG
A fantastic episode, with a phenomenal ending exchange between the Romulan commander and Picard.
There was also a TOS ep. that had the remnants of such a precursor race claiming credit that Spock mentioned aligned well with Vulcan creation myths. Handful of similar precursor races filtered through (and arising from for that matter) the rather narrow band of evolutionary and chemical trajectories needed to make it into space.....
Good enough.
New Stellaris DLC will have an origin where you start as several species, who were stolen from their pre-FTL civilizations but managed to escape. I think that's a really interesting jumping off point for this set-up. Literally, they were forced together, and now they'll work together to defend themselves, save their homeworlds and so on. So excited to try that out.
Is this out yet?
Seems like fun. I love Stellaris.
Sound like the fantasy endless space
Ive always found the covenant to be interesting in the sense almost none of them like each other and its really just religious hope that holds it together, and even then just barely.
Yeah, the Kig-Yar (or Jackals, whatever you prefer) are basically just mercenaries, from a societal point. They're not in the Covenant because they believe in their religion, they're in the Covenant because they get paid for it. Same with the Unggoy (Grunts), they're basically just indentured servants... though ironically the end if the Covenant was caused by the 2 most religious species coming to blows
Another example from Star Trek would be the Xindi, which had multiple distinct species all originating from the same planet.
I would also say the Federation is more on the "very dentralized state" level rather than "very centralized super-national community" - all the species contribute to Star Fleet, but have their own ships still as well. But no species is making separate treaties with third parties, that is all handled by the federation itself as far as I could tell.
@@ICU1337 That's not how that works. They are from different animal kingdoms. Insectoids, Aquatics, Avians, Primates, Reptilians and Arboreans, they all evolved on the same planet and so in similar environmental conditions, but they evolved separately and cannot reproduce among the different species. Its as if there were humanoid looking sentient Cockroaches, sentient Crows, sentient Dolphins and sentient Bears on Earth. While they might all look humanoid their internal biology would be radically different from Homo Sapiens internal biology.
@@ricardogens9834 Exactly, plus, the extinction of the aerial Xindi could have been easily reversed if they weren't entirely different species
We might be splitting hairs, but I'd argue that the closest real world analogue to the Federation is the EU. It is a tightly knit alliance of separate nations, each preserving their right to self government and self determination, but surrendering certain rights to collective in order to achieve collective aims. The difference is that EU nations surrender their rights at in the fields of commerce and trade (while reserving defence and foreign policy for themselves), while the Federation does the reverse.
@@boosterh1113 I think you're spot on.
@@boosterh1113 In that case, wouldn't it be closer to NATO?
Some of my favourite world building aspect in both sci-fi and fantasy is how different species try to live together, what kind of considerations must be made so everyday items can be used by everyone, etc.
Also I'm surprised there wasn't any mention about Star Wars since technically the Republic was a multispecies government. But it's always nice to hear about X-com, not enough videos about that game series. Also extra points for specifically mentioning Torque.
It was human dominated (that's just how a franchise made for humans is), but the Star Wars galaxy is very diverse. Species have their home planets that they dominate and there are single species factions, but most cities and settlements tend to be a big melting pot.
Also been hearing about X-com and am tempted to try it
I was just about to bring up Star Wars, specifically the Galactic Republic, which was a free multi-species faction. The same is true of the New Republic.
I tried making a single species faction for Star Wars in a post-sequel fan fiction depicting a balkanized galaxy. But it just felt weird and out of place to me. Unless they were isolated like the Chiss, or ancient like the Hutts, or entirely foreign to the galaxy like the Vong, I just couldn't get around the fact that humans seem to dominate everywhere that any government that exclude them didn't make sense.
How would a sci fi faction integrate with a fantasy faction?
Imo the newest Xcom game (chimera squad) is the most interesting time period in that franchise. My only gripe with it right now is how smooth that society seems. I mean sure there are terrorist organizations but the society itself doesn't look particularly angsty or resentful.
These people used to commit warcrime against each other a few years ago, it's like rwanda or ex-yougoslavia or post vichy france give us some angst!
Torque jokes about eating canadians refering to her commander, it's a joke but it's gotta give some ptsd to some veterans. The other way around is also true, torque seems to have gotten zapped by gremlins quite a few times leading to her being revulsed at the proximity of a gremlin. Not to mention Xcom used to skin aliens...
Such an interesting time period i tell you.
A thought that just came to mind; Whereas Star Trek sees many species come together, The Expanse actually depicts a species dividing itself.
Going beyond factionalism, but rather depicting actual physical distinctiveness between the various groups.
In general, any interstellar "empire" should have many races in it because its far simpler to annex species into the empire rather than genocide them. The Roman empire started out Italian but eventually every person in the empire came to be known as Roman, with the same rights and privileges. The ottoman empire had an entire non-Turkic cast of warriors known as the janissaries.
"eventually every person in the empire came to be known as Roman, with the same rights and privileges"
Tell that to the Roman slaves or soldiers who needed decades of military service to own land.
"he ottoman empire had an entire non-Turkic cast of warriors known as the janissaries."
Janissaries were more often than not kidnapped slavic children raised muslim in the Ottoman empire, hardly willing participants.
"I defeat my enemy when I make him my friend."
@@ymishaus2266 muslim society have a different approach to slavery than we do, janissaries and mameluks are just some of the many slave military units that have existed in muslim history.
The mameluk had almost total control of egypt when napoleon shook things up. The janissaries were disposed of because they had too much power. Ofc i'm not telling you muslim slavery is A okay compared to europe's, it's just not comparable when it comes to slave soldier. Europe didn't use slave soldiers at all.
About rome, getting your plot of land through the military was a PRIVILEGE. You didn't need to do the military to own land, it was given to you free as thanks for your service (and to help the growth of settlements outside of italia ofc).
The Roman Empire didn't really start out as Italian, it started out as Latin specifically. The Italian peninsula had a huge variety of cultures before they were over time absorbed. Celts, Etruscans, Oscans, Samnites, Bruttii, Greeks... that's just off the top of my head.
Makes me think of the Commonwealth from Andromeda. I really liked the idea of the show, execution wasn't there though. It started an empire than instead of conquering new planets they'd let them join.
XCOM FTW! Just don't be surprised when you miss a 95% shot 😆
Also can we appreciate that XCOM is one of the rare sci-fi settings where the aliens actually have a plausible reason to invade our planet?
I agree with you, would love to see more examples of multi-race Federations, rather than Imperiums.
Yeah XCOM does this so damn well. It's cool, it makes sense, and it gave us snake tiddies.
@@achillesa5894 "They're venom sacs. And no, you can't touch them." -Torque
The thing about Quark's root beer rant is that at the very end even he admits that he hopes the Federation can save them. He has his views but also recognizes the benefits of the Federation system.
Indeed, and isn't the only character that has problems with the Federation at times.
Iirc, the Captain (forgive, his name escapes me atm) even compared the Federation to the Borg in some ways. Basically, join the Federation or be forever stuck on your planet or system to you do.
@@Practitioner_of_Diogenes Eddington was his name.
@@mortman200 That was the character I was thinking of, thank you.
Though, I feel like the character I was referring to gave it a slightly different spin, or it could've been me thinking it had more detail on the matter.
@Practitioner of Diogenes Was the quote something along the lines of “At least the Borg are honest/straightforward about assimilating your culture!” ?
@@UGNAvalon That the Borg are upfront about their intentions is the actual scene.
But I thought I remembered hearing about the Borg and the Federation were similar in the concept of "join or die" kind of thing.
For the Borg, you become Borg or you die fighting to not become Borg.
For the Federation, it's if the Federation finds you, and you're close enough to Federation space, you have to join them to actually expand beyond your home star.
Not sure if that's accurate, as it could just be a Mandela effect.
I am currently playing my way through the Mass Effect trilogy and I appreciate the world building when they talk about food. In particular that Quarians and Turians can't eat the same food as Humans, Salarians, etc. I love when they talk about the jellyfish Hanar having massive water bills as an aquatic creatures. The volus as creatures that find oxygen toxic needing to wear their own suits. This is the world building I love
Speaking about food in _Mass Effect_ , the "Dextro Rations" war asset from ME3 mentions that the turians favor a meat-heavy diet. Given that they exhibit the characteristics of predators rather than those of prey species like the krogan, it's not hard to see why.
@@chheinrich8486 Quarians and turians are dextro amino acid-based organic lifeforms, therefore they can only eat dextro foods. In contrast to levo foods that are consumed by most species, which are levo-based, in the galaxy.
As for the type of foods they typically consume, similar to what I wrote in my earlier comment, turians favor a meat-heavy diet. E.g. steaks, sausages, meatballs and double beef burgers (probably).
As for quarians, due to the prohibitive cost of raising and feeding livestock onboard their ships, their diet is mainly vegan and they mostly eat nutrient pastes. They feed their entire population in the Migrant Fleet via onboard hydroponic farming. Nevertheless, quarians can still eat turian (dextro) foods, but due to their fragile immune systems, those foods either have to be sterilized or the quarians themselves have to be given immuno boosters before consumption.
In Star Wars Legends, namely the Republic Commando Novelization, the Mandalorians were depicted as a true multispecies Faction as everybody who shared their culture and prove themselves worthy could be integrated. I like how it was fleshed out by the Mandos having quite a simple Language that would be easier to learn for most species and laying a heavy emphasis on adoption as a means to grow their popuation. Also being a very nomadic faction furthers believability. Having many humaniod species, that could hide under their helmets helps to support this points.
The neat thing with Mandalorians is that they were originally an alien species that was driven of Coruscant by humans. The Taung began inducting aliens (from their perspective) after the Great Sith War, and died out after the Mandalorian War. And yet the culture thrives.
Given the "ideological adoption" aspect I was expecting them to be mentioned, especially given the openness they have to any race or culture that wishes to become Mandalorian
The Jedi order fits the bill
In Star Trek Online canon, the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire/Romulan Republic are both multi-species civilizations. The Klingons have the Gorn and some Orion as vassal species. The Romulans have the Remans as a subject species.
beta canon, at least. certainly in STO. in alpha canon though, the klingons have vassal races referred to, though we've only ever seen the Kriosians on screen. personally i've rather liked the idea that the nausicans were a klingon vassal species, given how in most of their appearances in TNG and DS9 they have very klingon like outfits and attitudes.
I've seen every episode outside of Discovery season 4 because...season 3's ending was more than I could take...so unless something seriously changed in that season, the Gorn and Orions have always been their own separate entities.
@@ChakatBlackstar I think you're correct when it comes to the TV series, I was thinking of the Star Trek Online storyline, where the Gorn and certain Orion groups work with the Klingon Empire as some form of vassal species, as well as the Nausicaans and the Kriosians, like @glitterboy2098 said.
Always liked the setting of the old StarFleet Command PC games and StarFleet Battles tabletop games. In those games the Klingons had a variety of vassal species. Don't recall them ever going into details of what species they were, but they were all subjugated and used as low end labour on Klingon ships or sacrificial troops to lead planetary assaults or boarding actions. As this poor treatment of a lot of their crew lead to a high risk of mutinies on Klingon ships, they were very heavily outfitted with internal anti-personnel defences making them even less appealing as a target for a boarding action than the presence of sizeable numbers of Klingon warriors might suggest!
But the Gorn were never among those races - in that setting the Gorn had borders with the Romulan Star Empire (with which they shared certain technology such as Plasma Torpedoes, and a long and extremely bloody history of antagonism), the Federation (who the Gorn initially expected to behave in much the same way as the Romulans, but ended up forming an alliance with), and the Inter Stellar Concordium (the ISC - who set out to subjugate the entirety of the Alpha and Beta quadrants by force of arms, in the name of preventing war... Despite being a multispecies alliance, all of their member species seem to share a remarkable innate resistance to irony...).
@@davebignell773 That is a setting I know very little about, but it sounds fascinating. Is this what's known as the Star Trek FASA Timeline, or subUniverse?
In Star Trek Online, which is meant to take place in the 25th century, about 40 years after Voyager and Deep Space 9, the Klingon Empire and the Federation are in an influence war over the Romulan Republic, which is the successor state to the Romulan Star Empire, after Romulus' and Remus' star went supernova. In this timeline they all border each other and Gorn territory sits on the Klingon/Fed border but far away from the Romulans, and they're either a vassal or a strong ally of the Klingons, along with a few other species like the Nausicaans, because you can purchase and fly Gorn ships (and other Klingon affiliated species' ships) as a Klingon captain.
The Plumbers from Ben 10 are a great example of a multi-species faction, albeit not mentioned or shown in the video.
With that, I'd posit the different Lantern Corps would also fall into that category.
The Plumbers and Green Lantern Corps are great picks. I'm kicking myself for not thinking of them.
the plumbers are more cop/bounty hunter than they’re an actual faction
On a similar note then, the Nova Corps in Marvel, albeit they keep getting wiped out repeatedly. They're not a nation state per se, but they're definitely a faction. They kind of just handwave the biology thing, though.
@@LashknifeTalon Nova Corps is another good one. On that note, Xandar in the MCU is quite diverse in terms of species.
Most interstellar empires should be multispecies given the prevalence of alien life in most works of sci fi.
You're assuming disparate species could-or would even want to-work peacefully together and would willingly intermix.
@JonSnoWight It seems unlikely that _every_ species would refuse to cooperate
@@justinthompson6364 I'm sure there would be the occasional multicultural, multinational space-faring species, but the only example we have to draw from us ourselves and most cultures throughout history have been very insular. It's only now in this very odd time that we see multiculturalism as not just a good thing, but a given. And look how that's working out for us now.
@@jonsnowight9510 Alliances against other alien empires and trade can create mutually beneficial arrangements.
@@arpandey698 For a time, sure, but that's far from intermixing and integration.
At least visually, the CIS/Separatists from Star Wars are a fairly impressive multi-species faction. While their formal head is human (as is their secret puppetmaster), the Separatist Council itself is almost entirely alien (including Wat Tambor, who needs a pressure suit to survive in "normal" atmospheric conditions). Most of its component corporations are dominated by a single species, but they came together with a wide variety of droids and vehicles to form a formidable army and fleet. They are effectively authoritarian (though they have an elected senate - it just has no real power in the faction), but not in the "one species controls all the others" way.
One of my favorite episodes of DS9 is counter to what you mentioned about the federation respecting Klingon beliefs.
When Worfs brother wants to die a highly violent ritual death. it leads to numerous incidents around the station. Which culminates in Sisko screaming at Worf about how there are limits to how tolerant he is willing to be towards Worfs cultural traditions. And immediately forbids him from continuing on with this ritualistic death tradition on his station.
An interesting contrast to your example is how Picard was fine with a similar ritual, but penalised Worf for carrying out a Klingon revenge killing. While Sisko is the opposite, condemning the ritual but allowing Jadzia and Worf to each do their own lethal honour challenges.
Yeah but then it brings into too much realism
I would have expected a bit more of a spotlight on Star Wars. Specifically the Rebel alliance/New Republic.
Yeah but the movies and shows and new stuff especially do a horrible job showing the non human species.
@@shrayesraman5192 What new movies? There are only six. 🤔
Probably why he didn't mention it was because nearly all the factions in Star Wars are multi-species factions, even the Galactic Empire had several species.
I feel like multi-species faction can only work in situation when the member species are relatively similar physically, psychically, and chemically. F.e. my setting's of a "space UN" variety, and considering that it features aliens as small as 1.2 meters tall vs alien squid that's 3.6 meters tall, designing something as simple as a door becomes tricky. Especially when you ALSO want to make it aesthetically pleasing and can't go for simple "just aim at the largest member's dimensions and let everyone else look like juvenile midgets in comparison"
Digital communications could always work
My first instinct would be nested doors, like how historic cathedrals and universities have really big doors they open to allow lots of traffic through but a much smaller door inside one of the big doors to use the rest of the time.
Not really, you just have to be able to adapt when needed, but also the system desighn itself to be segmented, online or in some sporting events segmentation wouldn't be required, but to use Xcom as a basis, sectoids crawl around at about 2ft or or so, granted that's combat so they may move at like 3ft tall outside of combat, while mutons are gonna be closer to 7 feet even when kinda crouching, if they weren't ethereal war slaves then there would be little to no reason to have them work in most settings, and where the need arises like on some spaceships it wouldn't be difficult to have a proximity ID system for doors
I don't see why you can't have large doors. Large doors tend to symbolizes grandiosity.
Surprised you didn't mention the Galactic Republic from star wars which in a lot of ways takes it even further than the federation and union do.
The republic is another one of those "UN In Space" constructs.
@@GaldirEonai Not really? Its closer to the united states with species standing in for ethnicities if you want to make that kind of irl parralle
Most factions in Star Wars are multi-species, Galactic Republic, Confederacy of Independent Systems, Hut Clan, Rebel Alliance, Jedi Order, and even the Galactic Empire had several species. Even the factions in the past were multi-species like the Sith Empire.
A faction that wasn't multi-species was the Yuuzhan Vong.
@@Tyr666Thor It is like the US but not in the way you take it to be. The Galactic Republic's members are not species and colonies but sectors or planets on which many species could live. The Senator for the Corellia system didn't just represent humans. He represented everyone on the 5 inhabited world of the systems. Just like US Senators do not represent ethnicities but the people living within geographic boundaries.
It should also be noted that each entity seems to decide by itself how to send their representatives (just like US states do) which could lead to a Kingdom like Alderaan always sending humans (because the royal family is human).
@@killerzillavolt2655 Most factions are multi-species but there is the difference of treatment of the different species. Alliance forces are pretty integrated, same for the Jedi. The Empire on the other hand is overwhelmingly human (when it's not outright racist against non-humans) and rules over everything, regardless of species.
Also, Yuuzhan Vong have slave species.
An interesting point; The Advisors in Half-Life are confirmed to NOT be the founding race of the Combine by Valve employees.
They're another subject race, who were installed in leadership positions for their intellectual capabilities... So, there's a possibility that the Universal Union's original creators have been rendered obsolete by the system of their own creation.
That may well not be the case, of course, but I find it somewhat more horrifying on a cosmic scale to consider that the Combine *has no leadership* any longer (in the conventional sense), and is simply an idea, or process, absorbing anything it comes into contact with.
Like how who or whatever the Borg originated from have been gone so long no source can even agree on it.
@DerpsWithWolves cute pfp
The Starfinder TTRPG is really cool too - the Pact Worlds, the Veskarium, and Azlanti Star Empire all feature varying degrees of incorporation and conflicting sub-cultures. To say nothing of the multitude of NGO entities that exist, from private corporations to religious orders. "The Maple Table" has some great videos on Starfinder lore that talk about this, and there are plenty of books that have great worldbuilding detail.
What about species that live in symbiosis? Like the Tok'ra in Stargate or the Trill from DS9. Would they fit in this category?
Trill come from the same planet so they might not count. Biological symbiosis/parasitism between intelligent species warrant a video of its own tbh.
It feels like some of the best formats for telling multi-species factions is in animation, books, and comics. In books, one is limited by what one can imagine and then write down in words whilst animation and comics are limited by imagination and drawing capability. Live TV often feels limited by having most aliens have a human shape, utilizing the simpler designs of actors in makeup. Animation can feauture a ship that would be hard to make a set of, filled with aliens of different shapes. One could see a sentient bug and an ape walking through a service tunnel, accompanied by a floating organism, whilst an aquatic lifeform swims through water tunnels built into the walls, all of them being individual crewmembers on the same ship. What would be interesting is too see a ship that wasn't designed for human shaped species. Maybe the passages look more like winding tunnels, designed to accommodate species like bugs or reptiles that can stick, crawl, or slither on any surface, making it harder for human shaped entities to move around, maybe utilizing limited zero-gravity or tech that allow them to stick to any surface just to move through. It's very interesting to imagine what innovations would be required to be invented so multiple different species could live side by side, alongside diplomatic relationships, requiring a lot more need for scientists and engineers in sci-fi settings.
I can’t believe you forgot the biggest multi-species faction of all time: The Galactic Republic! Millions of planets, millions of species, all united peacefully within one government!
Love the shout out to X-Com: Chimera Squad. Enjoyed the game. As a fan since the OG game, nice to have an incarnation where I didn't have to commit 3 or 4 hrs per mission.
Destiny is ever so slowly making its way to becoming one of these multicultural factions, with the events of the new DLC in 2 weeks Humanity, Eliksni and member species of the Cabal Ascendancy are coming under one flag to protect themselves from destruction.
Man it's so weird hearing XCOM music over a spacedock video, I can't wait for 3 to drop!
In the interim there is xenonauts 2 coming out later this month.
Multi-species factions I think are always the most fascinating. It sets the idea of multiple worlds working together and acts as an allegory of our world composed of hundreds of nations. Maybe you should also do a video re-looking into alien ships in science-fiction. I am curious what you would consider on designs for spaceships by different species. Be even cool if a multi-species faction would have different ship designs based on the different civilizations that a part of it.
I'm surprised Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets was not mentioned.
The lensman series is a good early example of multi species alliance science fiction. Though it isn’t a huge focus they do specifically mention them and that some species have pretty specific requirements to explain why not a larger part of the action
The Humanx Commonwealth series by Alan Dean Foster is an interesting example of a peaceful and fully integrated multi-species alliance. Humans and Thranx form an ultimately symbiotic partnership alliance built on the strengths of each species.
Plus their Combat fleets are fucking gnarly.
Someone needs to adapt the Uplift books. That’s an interesting multi-species society. The patron & client species model has a lot of variation in the novels. Some are genuine partnerships & others resemble abusive relationships.
Hopefully, with advances in CGI, it could soon be done.
Because filming with trained Dolphins and Chimps would be a disaster.
But another issue is the audience being able to tell different non-human main characters apart and just adjusting to dolphin speech.
I think it's really neat how you can describe The Federation, Borg and Dominion simply by interchanging four words, Equal, Oppressive, Diverse and Identical
Federation: Equal and Diverse
Dominion: Diverse yet Oppressive
Borg: Equal yet Identical
(The Feds don't respect Worf btw)
It's worth bringing up the Alliance of Free Stars from the Star Control series. Though they were an military alliance of necessity against a common enemy and didn't have much cultural integration, it's described in the lore that they did at least have a council, and humans were not in charge. It's also described how the member races different unique ships would use different tactics in combined fleet battles to foil and counter the enemy. There's also some mention of officer exchange programs, with...varying degrees of success.
Also, the Zoq-Fot-Pik. Three species sharing one planet. And if you accept SC3 as canon (wouldn't blame you if you didn't :P) there's the Harika/Yorn and their... _unique_ relationship.
And of course the Ur-Quan Hierarchy is yet another "one hegemon species, multiple client species" polity.
An example of a multi species federation would be, well, the Federation from Faster Than Light. It's composed of several species, even more if you take the mod Multiverse and the Advanced Edition into account. Any species can join the Federation, but Humans founded it and are often captains of Federation vessels. However, I believe that the only entire species that has joined the Federation is the humans, with many members of Zoltan, Rockman, Slugs, etc, and even the occasional Lanius joining.
Just read CJ Cherryh's Chanur Saga which has Compact Space. Made of 6 different alien factions with different physiologies, psyches, and desires. Absolutely amazing
Seeing Babylon 5 get some love always makes me smile.
Would have loved to see the T'au mentioned. A great example of both the conquest based inclusion and diplomatic inclusion of multiple races at the same time, within one faction. It's to the point where, even though the T'au can't really affect the warp, the other species in the T'au empire who can believe so fully in the ideology of the Tau "Greater Good" that it has begun to manifest as a new god.
I wonder what the Emperor would come to think of that God. I'm sure he could come across it since despite his body being immobile, his mind can explore the warp.
The inquisition would like to know your location.
@@byron2FZ He'd be very suspicious of it, given the clear signs that the T'au were manipulated by an outside power (jury's still out on whether it's the Necrons or surviving Old Ones). Also, the T'au have almost no presence in the warp (which is how they generally avoided the attention of things that could have eaten them during their early expansion), so the new god has to come from their client species' minds, which probably leads to some interesting contradictions.
@GaldirEonai I think the fact that the likely main culprit for its existence are human gue'vesa believers would definitely be of interest to him.
Here's an example: The Culture, from the series of the same name by Ian M. Banks.
They do assimilate other species into themselves as they go, but not by conquest. At least, not in the conventional sense. They have something like the opposite of Starfleet's Prime Directive, they deliberately interfere in the development of other societies. They tend to do so carefully and as discretely as they can manage, and they might do some... pretty morally questionable things ("Special Circumstances" as The Culture euphemistically names their service which does that) in the process, but the end goal of their interference is to try and nudge that society to developing toward a state that mirror's The Culture's own values. The intended result is that by the time the society would be at a point where they could start expanding across the stars, they'll be all eager to join up with The Culture.
5:44 I think Quark just hates root beer.
When discussing this topic, I'm always reminded of the TV series Alien Nation. How would a moderate sized population of aliens integrate into "modern" humanity? Not quite on the scale of the franchises mentioned and only dealing with two species, I think it shows just how much story can be created from the subject.
Having a diverse population of races greatly enhances empires in sci fi as different races can colonize different planets. Having a monoethnic empire limits the empires population and economic capacity. For example, an aquatic race could colonize the oceans and water planets in an empire, and races designed to life on gas giants could colonize the large gas giants of the empire. Races in Sci Fi also tend to have fantastical and unique abilities. The Eldar are great Psykers and live very long, humans can breed rapidly/ are adaptable, and there is a tau axillary race that are as large as titans.
When did that T'au auxiliary race get introduced??
Lol, what kind of idiot colonizes a planet?
Just build an artificial world to fit your needs.
I do like the idea that multiple species could cooperate and use their strengths to colonize a multitude of worlds for the benefit of their and other member races.
But with humans, I see them being the race you'll see a lot simply because their willingness to innovate and adapt to other environments to a degree other species might not.
In the Alen Dean Foster novels, you have the Humanx Commonwealth where humans and thranx basically deside they want to be a single species and on the other hand, you have a few intersting examples in the Union/Aliance novels:
On Pell's World, you have humand and hisa where the hisa re very clearly dominated by humans, but within limits. You also have the situation with the calaban on Gehena and the Majat and Humand in Serpent's Reach where in each case the humans are incorporated into the local sapient's society.
The great thing about the Humanx series is basically illustrated by the tagline: _"Man's best friend is a bug."_
[From an RPG world book to adapt it to the GURPS system; disclosure, that's how I know about the series]
That the Thranx are so different physically instead of just being 'funny looking guys' is a change from the usual cliche.
Also that they were able to solve so many of Humanities social problems just because they had better ways of doing things and were more ethical in nature.
The two main species were so different but complementary.
There's also the Clans in the Uplift Series (David Brin), which has some definite variety and, depending on the Clan, almost a paternal/maternal order as opposed to authoritarian, (less telling you what to do (permanently), more bringing the newer, uplifted species into their own)
Seconded. The series even depicts Earthling vessels crewed by mixtures of dolphins and humans, and cities populated by mixtures of chimps and humans.
@@LashknifeTalon And I think there was that one Neo-Chimp on the Streaker, even... Not to mention, the whole deal with the Neo-Gorillas.
I love multi-species factions. Especially ones that don't cave into the lazy "humans are special" tropes and makes them the de-facto leaders.
Torque from Chimera Squad is Bae
Also technically ALL alien races during and post XCom 2 are part humans, since the Elder (i think that was the head honcho species name) modified and updated them with human DNA and even started to use human remains in their cloning processe of creating more troops
To be fair, "human" is already a kind of broad term. Modern humans ourselves are kind of mutt-mixtures of a couple different coexisting hominid species that coexisted and bred together over time into...well, us. So it kind of depends on whether you'd consider a tribe of people in modern-day Europe consisting of a mixture of neanderthals and sapiens a "multi-species faction".
@@LashknifeTalon Yeah, but the demarcation of a single species is that its members can produce viable offspring together. I.E. horses and donkeys can mate and produce offspring, but the resulting mules are sterile, ergo they're still different species.
So sapiens and neanderthals might have evolved separately, but if they can and did produce viable offspring that means they must be the same species. Albeit, that's an example of convergent evolution, the same way species of crabs evolved independently from different invertebrates who don't have common ancestors.
@@FearlessSon If anything, being able to interbreed would mean that they had split off from a common, recent, ancestor and then merged back together again.
Hardly a mention of The Republic from Star Wars. That's one of the few places where your home planet matters more than your species. Then again, it did collapse.
I suppose you’d exclude The Ekumen as an example of multi-species alliance, but I really liked the Hainish cycle’s ability to act like it doesn’t matter what planet or culture the representatives of the Stabiles are from. They’re all observers or teachers or ambassadors now.
The old Starfleet Command games mentioned the amount of humans in StarFleet in the manuals.
As I recall the line was that Humans are prevalent in StarFleet because they are the most militaristic (but not the most aggressive) species in the Federation.
Chimera squad is honestly a fascinating setting if you think about it. Basically it's what happens when a group of aliens subjugated by another group of aliens breaks away from that control. The Aliens you fought in XCOM-2 were basically genetically weaponized slaves for the most part. And when you factor in that they were doing the exact same thing to humans it leads to an odd sense of kinship. All of the kids the Elders bullied are ganging up on them now.
I always appreciated what The Orville did with "The Union" Season 3 in particular, I liked the part where Kelly mentions the aquatic creatures that live in the puddles of an asteroid that the Union can't communicate with without special equipment!
Thanks for the video, I'm working on a sci-fantasy setting and I want most the factions to be multispecies, you gave me some good things to consider when building them
5:33 excellent defense point about the federation! I would also point out the Green Lantern Corp as well.
I was thinking of the Green Lanterns as well. Not a political faction but rather a law enforcement one.
I always really enjoyed the conversation in x-com chimera squad. She like nope I'm from Earth. Torque was a really nicely fleshed out character, always made her conversations worth listing to. made up for the inability to make your friends and have them die because you are playing with ironman on.
The Jedi Order is a prime example of a multi species faction that is truly coherent and non-subjugated.
You can do this yourself in the game Stellaris, with all the above flavours!
Galactic Republic from Star Wars is a big multispecies faction. Sprecies are more integrated than "space UN", you can find memebers of any species on every planet, even on core worlds (and sometimes even two species sharing one planet, like Utapau), and there are many worlds with bunch of aliens just living together. Galactic Empire is more human-centered, but still is multispecies faction.
And yes, then there are Tau Empire from WH40K, which shows how you can integrate species into one society, even using species strenghts to the advantage of whole faction.
Also the GTVA from FreeSpace. Humans and an alien sources we were at war with joining forces when a much worse cosmic terror species starts trying to exterminate them both.
Mmm I love your channel guys, as someone who writes about his own space opera with a multi species alliance your videos are a fantastic resource. Thank you from sci fi fanatic to another.
I agree with pretty much all you said, but then : STAIRS !!!
It sounds silly, but ergonomics is actually a MAJOR point of contention when considering multi-species society ! Humans made stairs to have just the right high-to-length ratio that we can climb or descend them without overthinking or tripping, but that is VERY specific to the human's body shape : a cat, a dog, a horse or a cow have immediate difficulties dealing with them, and god forbid if you made riser-less stairs !
Another example : corridors !!! I don't see many public buildings shaped to accomodate a T-Rex trying to fill their emigration papers... why would snakes make their buildings with high enough ceilings for us ? Before they know we even exist ?
Fun fact, if we ever get to meet another sentient species, there is a more than 90% chance they'll be quadrupedal (or more), and 99.9% they won't be the same average height as us... Day to day, that's a serie of small frustrations that makes living in the other's space insufferable !
5:10 I think the Breen deserve an honorable mention here. Under the helmets and suits, many sources paint them as being a multi-species faction.
I always wanted to see something where multiple species got together for the purposes of survival. Like, the galaxy was ravaged by a plague or outside invaders. The various powers survived, but at such a cost that none of them, individually, had the resource or Manpower to sustain themselves, so they banded together out of this need to pool manpower. By the time they had grown back to sufficient levels to stand on their own, so many generations had passed that there was no especial wish or societal need to separate.
The way the human centric ships get explained in deep space 9 is actually interesting. Just for ease of everything different species tend to gravitate towards their own ships. More than just like picks like. For instance a majority Vulcan ship would have the thermostat set to a dry 105 and an andorian ship a damp 20. A betazed ship would be quiet except for all the voices in your head, etc etc
This could also be seen in the Gears of War series with the Locust Horde, although that's a little more post-apocalyptic futuristic war than a sci fi series.
the locust aren’t multi-species. all locust are mutant humans
Gotta say that it would still be cool to see conflict akin to Covenant(very sinister on the outside, but not so much on the inside) vs Combine(the opposite) depicted in fiction and with humanity serving as unknowing enforcers to the latter. Basically imagine if UNSC was Combine puppet, while Covenant on the inside was closer to Turian Hegemony from Mass Effect. So you start the series as usual guy expecting another HFY type of story and then you start seeing the pretty and simple picture slowly crack...
A very fascinating video.
I'm just wondering why you didn't mention the Galactic Republic from Star Wars, which is also depicted as multi-species nation while each member world has a certain autonomy.
At least until the formation of the Galactic Empire.
Something that would have been good context in this video since you mention it twice so far at the point I have paused to write this comment is what Quark's comments on root beer are. Unless I missed it or am not far enough in the video yet.
Quite the philosofical piece you have down! Love it. That's what Si fi is about.
Many of these IP's imply that this "United Nations of the Stars" phase is just a starting point. Babylon 5 shows the formation of the Interstellar Alliance, but it's implied that a million years on, some or all of the member races will have merged into a new ultra advanced Vorlon like race. You mentioned that X-Com features this happening, and while I'm not up to date on the latest Star Trek (no subscription) my understanding is that the Federation is supposed to become more integrated as time goes on. Even in Mass Effect, you have the Andromeda initiative, trying to build a new society that includes all races. Sci-Fi ranges from utopian to dystopian, and utopian Sci-Fi is always going to angle towards people and peoples getting along more as time goes by.
Berg...
For THE BEST depiction of this idea i highly suggest reading the Children of Time series. Absolutely brilliant for many reasons and one of which is how different life forms interact with each other and possibly man a space fleet together.
There's plenty of examples of singe planet multi-species confederations e.g. Xindi in Enterprise, quite a lot of Outer Rim planets in Star Wars, Alpha station in Valerian and Josephine
I am working a scifi setting that has a multi species faction that somewhat pressures new space-faring civilizations into joining them. Not through violence, but through passive-aggressiveness.
They quietly monitor many species over millennia and wait to see if they can eventually travel beyond their star system. If they do some representatives greats them quickly, often with a fleet of ships from different worlds to show the scale of their faction. The representatives then extend an invitation to the younger species. If the younger species accept the faction will start sharing technologies with them, but if they decline the faction leaves their system and leaves them to fend for themselves.
Pretty much "join us or be on your own".
For the most part the faction gives a lot of freedom and autonomy to those who are willing to follow their relatively few rules, But they are not open for any negotiation around those few rules.
Thanks for the content.
The multispecies aspect of the UFP gets severely underplayed in all of Trek except in the animated shows and when they have a big enough budget like in the movies
In my writings it's more like subdivisions. Imagine the Federation from Star Trek, now imagine a sector of that space is like Citadel Space from Mass Effect. Humanity is one of the smallest and last faction to become part of it. And they're on the border with Covenant space. They're not a leading race with fleets across the galaxy, more like a buffer state.
Another good example I think is the tv show Defiance. It involves 7 sentient species that all evolved together and learned to, for the most part, live together. Then when they arrive at earth and have a war, some strengthen their ties with each other while others coexist and cooperate with humans as separate independent factions.
While not in any sort of visual media, I think Allied Extrasolar Command (AEC) from the Jenkins-Verse, one literary universe started on the HFY subreddit, captures multispecies living well, though I'm only maybe half way through the main story. The Human colony world of Cimbrean with its alien commune, as well as Gao integrating into both the Spaceborne Operations Regiment, and becoming a cultural anchor in civilian life, are great examples of interspecies dynamics.
For an obscure but excellent example, try the Humanx Commonwealth series of novels by Alan Dean Foster. A dual-species polity consisting of an equal partnership of mammalian Humans and insectoid Thranx, the Commonwealth is so deeply integrated that the two species are socially symbiotic on an interstellar level... humans and thranx live together as naturally as humans today do with each other
Excellent discussion.
Thank you for making this video it was interesting 👍
I love these little musings videos.
What about multi-species factions in novels ? The whole Five Galaxies from David Brin's Uplift universe, for instance, is a massive multi-species structure where relations between species play over centuries and millenia. Alan Dean Foster's Humanx Commonwealth is another exemple, with Humains and Thranx forming a very successful two-species interstellar faction. Also in C.J. Cherryh's Chanur cycle, the Compact is a somewhat looser, but stable example. I could also cite the Conclave from John Scalzi 's Old Man's War series. And I'm sure there are many others...
What is interesting in novels multi-species factions, is that they come in more diverse varieties than in games or series. The question might be : why ? A hint to an answer could be : images vs words.
what i miss in Star Trek Multi Species is a Show where one or two Humans ar on some Alien Ship and have to integrate themselves... I mean yes we se always a person from Vulkan, some Klingon som other Alien but always a Human dominated Crew... What i miss in the Video was Star Wars which is a Multi Species thing the whole Time....
you showed the xindi right at the end , but did not mention them. they are one of the best examples of multi species integration. the other is the votan from the tv series "defiance" they were a group of 7 different races that fled their dying system and tried to take over the earth. ( i would HIGHLY reccomend this series to anyone that doesnt know it. its a bit of a hidden gem in my opinion ! )
I’m not sure I agree, each Xindi species had their own ships and a few still have separate languages without a UT device
What about symbiotic evolution factions? Where two or more species co-evolved together in a symbiotic relationship on the same planet, which of course shaped their culture and society and so on.
For example I made a hypothetical space faction of two very distinct species. One being lithoid creatures that have crystal memories in their bodies and the other being adaptable slime-mold evolved creatures with short term memory. Their differences compliment each other and their ideals are shaped by how their biology works, namely how they are interested in collecting knowledge and keeping it in the lithoid's bodies as physical memory, and they do this by sending out the slime creatures to learn about the galaxy with their adaptations.
The Naz-Rokha Alliance from Twilight Imperium come to mind as an example of another couple of archetypes not covered. One is the symbiosis route mentioned by some others here, and the other is the "same planet-different species" route. That solves for the problem of species having fundamentally incompatible needs and doesn't have to necessarily have a subjugation angle to work.
I would like to bring forward the T'au Empire. They approach other species and invite them to join. Tau still rule, but the other species are called auxillaries and help in specialised ways.
🖖😎👍Very cool and very nicely well done and informatively explained and executed in every way and detail provided indeed 👌.
For seeing intergalactic multi-species communities I Would highly recommend reading the Wayfarer series of novels! The galactic commons in the book serves as a sort of expanded UN, where the government is comprised of representitives from many different species, however the GC takes direct legal control of almost every system under its control excluding home systems or specific systems that are under some kind of legal/economic contention.
Mostly I'd just recommend this book cause it's amazing interestellar slice of life. You really get to see the different species trying their best to live together peacfully, bending their rules and tryin to accomedate one another to the best of their ability.
If your looking for a tightly integrated multi species faction story I would recommend HFY’s A job for a deathworlder. Which features the first human to join a multi species ship, and is for the most a point a slice of life story with undertones of a dangerous plot.
One Thing I have to see yet, is that a biological Hive Mind has become a Part of such a Empire/Federation. I always see Robotic Gestalt Conciousnesses or partial biological Hives, but all proper Hive Minds are often depicted as all devouring swarms: the Bugs from Starship Troopers, the Zerg from Starcraft, the Tyranids from Warhammer 40k and etc.
It would be interesting to see a Synaptic Drone of a Hive Mind be a Crewmember of a Ship akin to the Normandy and the like. Having People interact with a Hive Mind on daily basis would show the benefits and the problems of having one around that isn't going to eat you. At least without consent. :P
Surely any mind which is a society would have trouble interreacting within a society.
On a partly related note: Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon has every species which doesn't destroy itself eventually become telepathic and form a hive mind. Ultimately, a single galactic mind is formed; which develops into a cosmic mind which absorbs the memory and experience of every mind which has ever existed.
The Culture from Iain M Banks' novels is a fully integrated multi-cultural society, including both biological and machine life, although that's also helped by how easy it is in that settings for anyone to change everything about themselves biologically - I think it's mentioned that some 'humans' in the Culture have changed themselves into sapient clouds! I suspect that a it would take a very long time of different species mixing together before they would count themselves as truly one faction, and certainly as far as humans are concerned, most tv and movies won't push that far into the future as it would be harder for an audience to relate to protagonists with so different an outlook.
Something that's interesting about the multispecies nature of the Covenant is that it traces back to Bungie's earlier Marathon series, which goes into some interesting detail about the different species and their purpose
I could think of two multi-species factions in Mass Effect universe. Well, more of bi-species factions.
The Hanar (flying jelly-fish kind of aliens) have a client race named the Drell, which act as a client species and typically do work the Hanar are incapable of doing due to physical limitations. Though this bi-species faction is more biased towards the Hanar, as Drell are more of a subservient race (out of their own will, however).
The other pair are the Turians and Volus. Volus is a protectorate species under Turian Hierarchy, and while often viewed as separate factions, they are _very_ intertwined, with Turians providing military support, protection, engineering, etc., while Volus pretty much run the economy part: banks, market, etc.
I like this. Thank you
Excellent vid