I'm in the process of updating the Galactic Civilizations II manual for Dark Avatar. The first manual was, as some know, written primarily by Tom Chick. The good stuff was by him and the whacky humor stuff by me.

Well, because time is short, I'm doing the updates myself so there will be more whacky humor stuff this time around.

Here's the description of the races in the rought draft.

• The Terran Alliance. The humans. Or at least, humans from a United Earth in the 23^rd century. They are the diplomats; the negotiators.
• The Drengin Empire. They are not, to put it politely, diplomats. They’ll gladly have you over for dinner as long as you are the main course.
• The Altarian Resistance. The Altarians are not humans though they are genetically very similar. They are doggedly ethical but not terribly tolerant of other points of view.
• The Arcean Empire. These guys are very very tough. Very honorable but not very interested in aligning up with anyone. They are the main rival to the Drengin Empire for galactic domination.
• The Torian Confederation. For thousands of years they were enslaved by the Drengin Empire. But having thrown off Drengin oppression in the pre-hyperdrive era, they now have the problem of the Drengin Empire being able to send massive fleets to their world. They are very erratic.
• The Yor. As sentient artificial life forms, the Yor are unique. They were created by the Iconians to help serve an ancient race known as the Precursors. The Yor have grown to detest all organic life forms and are very dangerous.
• The Dominion of the Korx. These guys will sell their own mothers to you. Or they would if they hadn’t already sold her to the guy who came before you.
• The Drath Legion.  The Drath were a sentient race that developed on the same planet as the Altarians.  But long ago, for reasons we don’t know, they left Altaria after nearly becoming extinct due to constant warfare with the Altarians. Ironcially, ethically, they are very similar to the Altarians. They’d probably get along fine now if it weren’t for that whole near wiping them out thing.
• The Thalan have come from another dimension to keep the humans from destroying the universe. Why they think the humans are going to wipe out creation hasn’t been explained and their PR people haven’t returned our calls.
• The Iconian Refuge are the ones who created the Yor. Unfortunately, they must not have had any science fiction stories on their world because if they had, they would have known that they Yor would have risen up and wipe them out.  The Iconians managed to flee and have only recently returned to the stars.
• The Korath Clan. The Korath are actually ruined Drengin. If, a Drengin can truly be ruined that is.  The Drengin are merely evil, the Korath are evil maniacs. According to extensive interviews, the difference can be summed up as follows: The Drengin and Korath would both want to eat you. The difference is that the Korath would want to eat you while you’re still alive.
• The Krynn Consulate are the new Jihad. As the galaxy becomes more unstable, this enigmatic race has been able to build increasing followings based on their doctrine of ruthless adherence to a strict moral code.