The universe of Orion Sphere is vast and filled with a tremendous variety of species, giving a lot of freedom to players who want to create their own Vassal Species. This page contains guidelines for the type of submission that is most helpful to us when you are creating a new Vassal Species, as well as a few restrictions and themes we would rather players avoid.

• Vassal Species are part of a single Faction. Your vassal species must be linked with one of the existing four factions, which their main government will have pledged allegiance to.
• Vassal Species are distinctive. Your vassal species must be distinguishable from the three main faction species – Humans, Tulaki and Elysians. Therefore all vassal species must include at least some elements of physrep that unambiguously distinguishes themselves from other species. So, very human-seeming aliens like the Betazoids in Star Trek (whose only distinguishing feature is their lack of an ocular iris) will be refused. Same goes for reptilians who might be confused for Tulaki (unless you incorporate significant other elements like feathers or similar), or pointy-eared humanoids who resemble Elysians. Vassal races are a good excuse for you to use cool and elaborate costume, which we would encourage.
• Vassal Species are at a social disadvantage within their host faction. In most Factions, Vassal species will be discriminated against to a greater or lesser degree. The Ascendancy regards their vassals as lower-caste, the Dominion consider them to be lower status until they prove themselves as individuals, and the Commonality tend to be condescending (and Vassals are unable to use certain Elysian psi-tech). Vassals are probably most well-received in the Free Union, but even there they are playing catch-up to the humans. In addition to the in-character disadvantage of this, buying Reputation Skill levels for your own Faction costs 3 points per rank for Vassal species instead of 2.
• Vassal Species, or elements of them, can be vetoed or altered by the Game Team. Please contact us if you want to create a vassal species to play – we would like to integrate your characterisation into the game, but there may be some elements or themes that don’t fit into the game world or that we would rather not see explored. We are unlikely to say no to a concept, but may have some alterations to allow it to fit into the setting.
• For more information on creating a Vassal Species, see the Vassal Species Guidelines page.

While there is a lot of freedom to create new vassal species, there are a few themes and topics that players should avoid, as they will make it extremely difficult for their species concept to be approved. These topics include the following;

• Cybernetics - In the Orion Sphere LRP setting, cybernetics and technology directly integrated with living bodies is rare. The Corporeal Perfection Syndicate is the only source of truly effective cybernetics. While other factions and groups have developed cybernetics to a greater or lesser extent, these tend to be poor quality and plagued with issues - requiring frequent maintenance, special substances to work, or having a poor neural interface with the host. Although characters may roleplay having these lesser cybernetics as part of their character concept, they are minor aspects of individual characters - the future equivalent of “old war wounds” or similar. True, useful cybernetics must be purchased and installed in-game by the Corporeal Perfection Syndicate's agents, and come with dedicated rules.
• Ancient Species or Precursors - In the Orion Sphere LRP setting, there are numerous examples of ancient civilisations that spanned large areas of the galaxy, but none of their people survive to the present. Every current space-faring species developed their civilisation at roughly the same time, give or take a few thousand years. Absolutely no civilisation that developed faster-than-light travel is older than 10,000 years, and the ones that took to the stars prior to humans never did so to the extent of building a large star empire equivalent to any of the Factions. Discovering more about the cultures of the Precursors, and what actually happened to them all, is one of the major mysteries of the setting. As such, while vassal species can exist among the ruins of poorly understood Precursor technology (such as the Etherna), they cannot retain any knowledge of the Precursors handed down to the current time in any kind of useful form.
• Artificial Intelligence - AI is limited in the Orion Sphere LRP setting. While powerful computational devices exist (on the level of the ship computers in Star Trek), truly intelligent AI - Artificial General Intelligence - has proven to be very hard to create. The most advanced known General AI's developed by the Factions have the equivalent intelligence of a 5 year-old human child, and that is with millions of pre-programmed cues and processes to give it a basic mental structure to build from. The Factions represent the most technologically advanced beings in known space, so no species in the recent (10,000-years) timeframe of the game developed more powerful AI. Anything prior to this point hits the “no Ancient Species” guidance. Submitted Vassal Species cannot be AI's or purely artificial beings. However, the characteristics and tropes of AIs in media can be arrived at in other ways - servility, a preference for logic, metal bodies, uniform appearance - these are all aspects that can be applied to a vassal species in other ways. Evidence of more powerful Artificial General Intelligence may be introduced to the game via plotlines or through player action and invention.