Sapient Interstellar Species

The following table briefly lists the twenty one intelligent species that are members of the contemporary Galactic Confederacy. They are organised according to a scheme in widespread use by humanity, according to which species were simply assigned a letter of the Greek Alphabet in the order in which they were encountered and recognised. Humans themselves adoped the term "Regulars" for their own species. Whilst these designations are undoubtedly ethnocentric at best and highly prejudicial at worst, the reasoning offered is that the "true" names species would use for themselves are very often only really expressable in GalCon and GalCon B, or some even less translatable language. Simple expressions in Earth languages are easier to understand for humans when they stick to one meaningful formulation and do not attempt to map alien names onto English or any other Earth language. Whilst there is some significance to the ordering of the names (for example the Alphans are charged with First Contact and would always be the first Confederacy species encountered by any newly interstellar capable galactic species), the order of later encounters is only loosely correlated with the proximity of the species' colonies to Earth and is heavily affected by random events in early human exploration of the galaxy.

Designation	Notes
Regulars	Humanity originating on Earth. The dominant species in the current Alta-Tsey
Alphans	The alphan race is charged with the special duty of guarding Cradle Worlds and initiating first contact with new species when they are ready to be introduced to the Confederacy. Agents who are aware of the realm of the Bubble, recognise that the alphans are the same species as the Counter Xarctic Traders on another timeline in the Discontinuum
Betans	One of the lesser known species in the Confederacy with widespread, scattered but small colonies in many locations, one of which happens to lie close to Earth.
Gammans	The gammans are a symbiotic helper species who work in partnership with the deltans as their muscle and moving agents.
Deltans	The deltans are a species of sentient bright parasitic orange pseudo-fungus with a lichen like form. Deltans are extremely long lived organisms, the longest of any intelligent species known to the Confederacy. The galactic tourist Mr. Big Eye is a deltan and is more than two and a half thousand years old. The oldest known deltan is over twenty three thousand years old.
Epsilons	Epsilon are four limbed, arborial green skinned lizard analogs, with a scaly skin. Epsilon colonies are common in the regions coreward and spinward of Earth. The species is probably the most widespread and populous of all, according to recent census data.
Zetans	The zetans are a hive race with a somewhat insectile exoskeleton who originated on an unusual low gravity world with a high pressure atmosphere. They have an atrophied wing system and their faces are often masked by the advanced technical helmets they commonly wear. The illustraton at the head of the article, shows a zetan heironaut and grub.
Etans	Found mainly on the trailing edge of Confederacy space, the etans are a relatively newly inducted species which became members during the time of the lambda ascendency.
Thetans	Bipedal vertibrates with a body plan similar to a very tall skeletal human, with greyish skin pressing hard into hollow bones and full rib cages. The galactic tourist Kaal Dol is a thetan.
Iotans
Kappans
Lamdans	Prior to the dominance of regulars, the lamdans exercised controlling power in the Alta-Tsey for many centuries. Their homeworld is Huunos but their leadership of the Galactic Confederacy was brought to an end after the supernova explosion that created the Gaftiz nebula.
Mu	The mu are a species which specialises in living in the vast atmospheric cloud systems of certain kinds of gas giant planets. Although they did not themselves evolve in this type of environment it is one they prefer to colonise, building floating wind cities and enjoying the freedom of many alien skies. The planet of Avarance, visited by the Galactic Tourists is one of their worlds.
Nu	A carniverous species, somewhat resembling great lumbering black bears with powerful claws and teeth. The galactic tourist Zaralova-Justa is a nu.
Omicron	A more secretive race than most. Lumbering herbivores of largely solitary habit with infrequent herding instincts. The galactic tourist L’Rrantora is an omicron.
Pi
Rho	The rho were once the dominant species in the Confederacy in the years before the lambda ascended to take control. Now they are in that form of long term decline known as "descendency". Rho colonies can be found mainly coreward of Sol on the far side of the Gaftiz nebula.
Sigma	Sigma colonies are most frequently found in the region trailing the Gaftiz Nebula, both coreward and rimward.
Tau
Upsilon	The upsilon home world lies a long distance rimward of Earth. They are a species which has only established a few colonies and does not travel widely within the Confederacy.
Phi	Phi colonies are most frequently found in the region spinward of the Gaftiz Nebula.