Malak (planet):
A planet similar to Earth, except sligthly more humid and a bit colder.
The sentient life on the planet (the Atrijans, see below) lives in nomadic tribes mostly, with very few coties scattered around the planet, in the most fertile areas mainly.
However, the planet has been visited by alien life (or droids, i haven't decided yet), which have interacted with the local tribes and migth even have allowed military technology to be leaked to them.
It has no grass (just like dinosaurs time Earth).
(Still working on the planet, it's mostly a placeholder yet).
Ganets (aware, non-sentient omnivores):
An animal indigenous to Malak, the Ganets are mammals who present similarities to Earth's rats, boars, buffalos and horses.
They are about the size of an adult cow (TODO: put cow dimensions here), and sligthly smarter than a dog
(so above human).
They eat mostly fruits, leaves, and small animals, although they are also scavengers if the opportunity arises.
Ganets have been domesticated, and there are differences between the wild ganets and the domestic one (being in fact two different species) For example, wild ganets are territorial and aggresive, while domestic ones are friendly and loyal (at least with whoever it recognizes as friendly, caution is adviced when approaching one).
Domestic ganets can be used as mounts, having a good balance of speed and stamina, and being reasonably obedient.
Atrijans (sentient omnivores):A sentient species indigenous to Malak, the atrijans are a species with a lot of resemblances to Earth's octopodes, having evolved from a creature not too different from said mollusk.
Unlike the octopus, however, they are land vertebrates, and have a more elongated shape (see below).
On their own they're almost unable to move, being only able to crawl, and only small dustances before tiring. However, they compensate for that by being excellent riders, especially of the ganets, which has been used as their ride for hundreds of thousands of year througth their evolution, and creating a symbiotic relationship between them. It's very unlikely to find an Atrijan without a ganet around, however, they can also ride other animals (especially on war times).
Due to this, they have high reflexes and good distance perception.
They live mainly on their homeplanet of Malak, where they live in nomadic tribes, however some of them have been captured by space pirates, being used as battle tralls, their skill and brutality being valued in raids.
The tribes are extremely xenophobic (but not isolationist) towards eachother, and wage war between themselves on a regular basis, atrijans practice slavery and cannibalism on the people they conquer.
They are in a similar intellectual level to humans, but, on average, they are less analytic and logical and more creative and intuitive.
They reproduce by laying small eggs, which are fertilized externally on a body of water. This process is usually done by the whole tribe, and handled by the clergy (especially if the tribe's religion has a fertility god in it). Due to this, it's almost impossible to determine the parents of a particular atrijan, which makes the existence of nobility rigths by birth impossible. Instead, their society is highly meritocratic, with only the stronger and more cunning (and luckier) individual being chieftains.
It's also a very common occurence to have a strong warrior or good ruler being declared a "god's children", since it's hard to prove otherwise.
Image of an atrijan naked warrior riding a ganet to battle:
(The ring on the ganet's tusk is made of a narcotic weed, used to calm it by litting it o n if it becomes uneasy, a common trait in the atrijan cultures).