Ri'Dar

Ri'Dars were sentient flying primates from the forests of Dar'Or. As adults, they had a wingspan of three meters, and were approximately one meter long counting their furry tails. On their homeworld, Ri'Dars lived a primitive existence in their treetop warrens. Their technology consisted primarily of wooden spears, bows, and similar primitive tools.

Ri'Dars evolved from tree-climbing creatures who had evolved flaps of skin between their arms and legs in order to glide. Over time, these simple gliding flaps evolved into true wings supported by extended fingers on their hands. The energy needed for flight required Ri'Dar to eat up to half their body weight's worth of food each day, usually in the form of insects, fruit, and fungi. Ri'Dar were agile flyers on Dar'Or and other low-gravity planets, but could not fly in gravity fields above one standard gravity.

Ri'Dars became known to the galaxy after their homeworld became an Imperial nature preserve &mdash; not for any of Dar'Or's native fauna, but for a predatory bird called the elix. The elix came from a high-gravity planet which was about to be destroyed by a supernova. Since Dar'Or was a low-gravity planet, the elix were even deadlier predators on their new homeworld. The Ri'Dars, already preyed upon by the sabertoothed indola, had only their swiftness and keen senses to protect them from this new threat.

The typical Ri'Dar was nervous and fearful by nature, since flying away from their many predators was their most effective defense. They tended to live for the present rather than the future, as they often had little confidence in their long-term survival. This also gave them a mercurial temperament, quickly becoming very angry or very happy.

Ri'Dar were suprisingly common away from their homeworld, as they sometimes stowed away with smugglers and poachers who arrived on Dar'Or to hunt elix for their valuable meat. They were often found as companions of smugglers, either as pets, servant, or (rarely) a full crew member.