Oxygen-breathers Hani Homeworld: Anuurn
Hani are a feline-like species, maned, bearded, usually of red or tawny fur. Females are smaller than humans, males much larger (for much the same reason as Earth lions). They were discovered by the mahendo'sat and helped into space; most of their technology is therefore derived from mahen. They live in autonomous clans, each consisting of related females, children, and a single male, the clan lord. A male takes over a clan by defeating the previous lord in personal combat. Most males are not that lucky. Male offspring are thrown out of their clan when they become strong enough to pose a threat to the lord. They live in exile among others like themselves, honing their fighting skills and waiting for the opportunity to challenge for a clan. For this reason and because males are stereotyped as being emotionally unstable, only females go into space (until Pyanfar Chanur changes the rules). Females do all the work on clan lands and in space ventures, although Cherryh does describe some able and intelligent males who become involved in the world around them. Clans are united into
amphictionies for control of scarce resources; the biggest one is their homeworld itself, governed by a mahen-inspired council of clans called the
han. Hani politics are tradition-bound, based on such concepts as allegiance, honor,
blood feud and parole. One of the hani languages became the basis for the Compact's
pidgin, because it was grammatically and phonetically easy for other species (but not as easy for humans).
Mahendo'sat Homeworld: Iji ''Mahendo'sat
(singular mahe'') are black or brown primate-like creatures, human-size or larger. They are very curious, innovative and politically oriented. The Mahendo'sat political system is based on the concept of
Personage, a charismatic figure with a lot of social credit; a Personage's power is determined by the number of its followers, but a supporter can either weaken or strengthen its Personage, depending on whether its actions in its Personage's name prove to be beneficial or not. To an outsider, this can (and frequently does) look like a Personage's mahen agents are promoting mutually contradictory policies at the same time. Mahendo'sat are idiosyncratically bad at learning other species' languages—many of them can not even master the pidgin used by Compact spacers—although they are quite eloquent in their own numerous languages. Mahendo'sat are the "glue" of the Compact, always trying to maintain the balance of power so peace can be kept and no species dominates. They are in constant search of new powers, recently including humans. ======== Homeworld: Llyene are slight, slender, fragile, crested bird-like white
herbivores (even their eyes are pearly white), xenophobic and non-aggressive. They permit no other oxygen-breathing species in their territory and keep the location of their home world a secret. rely on wealth, trade, and alliances to maintain their position within the Compact. They hire other species for protection and maintaining order on their space stations, usually the mahendo'sat. They prefer delicate pleasures and pastel colors, their speech is exceedingly ceremonial and
politically correct; their identities are prone to change ("Phase") under great stress, which has many legal implications. They have three genders, '
, ' and '
, which can change with Phasing. Only the (indeterminate sex) deal with other species. There is a fourth state, ', in which the individual is addressed as a
holiness. This is a sexless state usually achieved by an aged, honorable . A who is in the process of Phasing from one state to another is ''''.
Kif Homeworld: Akkht. are bare-skinned, wrinkled, ash-grey, long-snouted rat-like bipedal
carnivores. They are the tallest species in the Compact, slender, fast and deadly. They are strictly predators, unable to eat anything but live prey; they have two sets of teeth (outer for biting and inner for pulping—their throats are unfit for swallowing solid food) and retractable claws. Their social and political revolves about a personal quality called '
, which combines face, authority, and ferociousness. ' is gained through victory in combat, or possession of something of value, or just the respect of others: followers with their own strong '
strengthen the ' of their leader. A that loses '''' is likely to have its followers either defect or kill it. As a result, the are prone to change sides at the first sign of weakness. They seem to have no other moral values; they are pirates and cannibals, and are generally deemed troublesome and dangerous by the other species. Occasionally, a strong leader gains enough '
to achieve the status of '. These individuals are viewed by the '
as serious destabilizing factors. During the time of the Chanur cycle, several ' seek to become the '
, the leader of all the ', a status no '
has ever attained, a possibility that greatly disturbs other species, especially the '. are very linguistically adept and adaptable. They are also
color blind and the colors of their clothes and habitats are generally shades of black and grey. They use dot codes instead of color codes for their hardware. Unlike other Compact oxygen-breathers, they are capable of remaining awake and physically active during the "no-time" of
"Jump" – a fact which (like most other things about themselves) they prefer to keep secret.
Methane-breathers Tc'a and Chi are large methane-breathing five-eyed yellow snakelike beings, and the chi are yellow arthropod-like creatures. The two species are related in a way none of the oxygen breathers understand, but are (presumably)
symbiotic. They are very technologically advanced and powerful, although understanding them is tricky at best, since their brains are multi-part and their speech decodes as complex matrices of intertwined meanings. They run the methane side of most space stations.
Knnn , the third methane-breathing species, multi-legged tangles of wiry black hair, are the most technologically advanced in the Compact. Unlike other known species, they can maneuver in hyperspace and carry other ships with them. Only can communicate with them (or claim they can); the are incomprehensible and therefore deemed dangerous by the other species, not to be provoked. They trade by taking whatever they want and leaving whatever they deem sufficient as payment behind; it is an improvement over their prior habit of just taking trader ships apart. ==Technology of the Compact==