Pnumes are the main aborigenous lifeform of Tschai. Their cilisation goes back from 7 to 10 million years in the past. They are insectoid beings about the size of a human. Their face looks much like a horse’s skull, or ivory color. They are completely expressionless with a complex of small organs dedicated to shredding and mastication aroud their mouth. Their legs are articulated reverse to that of a human and their feet possess three very mobile toes. They are troglodytes, living in mazes of underground galleries and wells. They consider themselves the living memory of Tschai which they see as a living organism. They possess in their cave a statufied specimen of every species that has set foot on their world. They all wear long black cape hiding their body’s true shape and also use humans taken from the Dirdir to act as servants and representatives. Their means of reproduction remains unknown.
The Phung are a nomadic, more savage and much larger (2m30) subspecies of the Pnumes.
Soruce: Planet of Adventure – The Pnume (Jack Vance)
Illustration: Caza
Wankhs are large amphibious roughly humanoid figures who have developed an interstellar civilisation. They are larger than humans with a massive and imposing torso, short legs and long arms with webbed hands and feet. Their morphology, streamlined for swimming, makes it impossible for them to sit. Their head is small and squarish with black lense like eyes that beat at regular intervals. At the base of their skull is a sonic organ with which they emit harmonics through which communicate. They have a scripture based on rectangular ideograms of different sizes which represent different harmonics and, apart from high dignitaries who may have golden leggings and medallion on the,, they do not wear any clothes or apparatus on their body.
The only recoreded contact of Wankhs with mankind is on planet Tschai where they established an outpost of strategic importance in their war against the Dirdir. That war, which started over ten thousands years ago has come to a stalemate following the Tschai truce. On Tschai, Wankhs also use some of the humans that were brought by the Dirdir that they have trained as servants.
Source : Planet of Adventure – The Wankh (Jack Vance)
Illustration: Caza
Planet of origin: Godag
Chasch are an old bidedal reptilian species that traveled the stats through slower than light means and settled on several worlds. Through time, they have evolved in several subspecies. The ones that look closer to the original are the old chasch. The only recorded contact mankind had with the CHasch are on the planet of Tschai, where old chasch, Blue Chasch and Green Chasch coexist but there might be other Chasch subspecies on other worlds.
The Old CHasch arrived on Tschai about a hundred thousand years ago. They are ivory colored with silver-plated eyes that can move independently from one another. They are the smaller of the lot and their aspect is somewhat grotesque.
Ten thousand years later, a second wave followed: the Blue Chasch, coming from a planet colonized in remote times by common ancestors, arrived on Tschai and started a conflict with the Old Chasch for the dominion of the planet. Both groups hired Green Chasch as mercenaries. As the conflict resolved itself in a stalemate, the Green Chasch also settled on the planet where they formed nomadic hordes in western steppes.
The Blue Chasch look much stronger, they are covered with bluish pointed scales. They have have chitinous armoured shoulders that curve backward to form a dorsal shell, and their skull is crowned with a bony edge. Their nasal apparatus is quite complex and they can distinguish people and emotion through their scent.
The Green Chasch look much like green version of the Blue ones but much larger, as they tower at about
Something common to all the Chasch, in addition to hatred which they feel for the other varieties of their race, is their very particular sense of humor, a sense of humor that can often be fatal for anyone they capture.
Like the rest of the alien species who have settled on Tschai, they have selected to the humans during thousands of years that physically and psychologically resemble them to serve as their servants, the Chaschmen.
Source: Planet of Adventure (Jack Vance)
Illustration: Caza
Note: Other reptilian species bearing ressemblance to the Chasch include the Unas.
