Kestrid

The kestrid are the children of Kestri, a dense agrarian planet with land that continuously shifts around as a result of the rigid tectonic plates in its mantle. Despite 71% of the planet being covered in water and 10% of land being covered in ice, the kestrid managed to evolve as a terrestrial race. Though humans typically prefer a warm, docile climate of around 20 °C, they show remarkable tolerance for variance, inhabiting places with mean annual temperatures anywhere from −50 °C to 34.4 °C.
In the lingua franca of Kestri, the kestrid actually call themselves “humans”. The name “kestrid” comes from the nadorean team that made first contact; shortly after meeting, the two discovered that the other’s language was inaudible to them due to the disparate terrestrial and aquatic origins of the two. In the span of time in‐between meeting and developing technology that would allow them to speak directly, the two communicated some of the pertinent facts of their races in picture and video form. Though the nadoreans favored showing off the heights of their grand culture and nobility, the kestrid took a more all‐encompassing approach, showing the wide disparity in their societies and history, along with a slew of scientific and medical information. Their fellow sapients found themselves equal parts fascinated and horrified at both the wide, bloodied history of their past and the medical extremes they could survive, and—once out of their presence—called them “kestrid”, a nadorean term that means “entropic ones”.
When the translator tech was done and the kestrid learned of this fact, the hastily‐assigned Human Ambassador simply laughed and said, “it’s as good a name as any”. It became so pervasive amongst the nadoreans that upon formation of UNA, Yulia Haust found herself accidentally entering it as their canonical name, and the kestrid simply never bothered to file for correction.

Scientific Name

Homo sapiens sapiens