Graal

Graal (Anthropolycos agrestis sapiens, Lat. "wise man-wolf of the plains") are a species of furry, mammalian humanoids with a bipedal, erect planform and an appearance the somewhat resembles Earth dogs, wolves, or hyenas. Hailing from the planet Rhodanthus in the Sarse system of the Carina Arm, the graal are the only extant biped sapient from their home world, having evolved from forest-dwelling scavengers into bipedal plains hunters over the course of several million years after an ecological and climate shift saw vast deforestation and covered their world in tundra and ice. Emerging in their anatomically modern state approximately 500,000 years ago during a glacial period, the graal quickly outpaced their archaic ancestor and parallel races, and came to predominate across the primary continents. After the end of the glacial maximum in 15,000 BCE, the graal developed agriculture and spread across the planet. Modern graal tend to be stockier and shorter than the average human but more muscled and robust, and sport a coat of fur-like hair covering their entire bodies, long faces, flat noses, vertically-oriented ears, and forward-set eyes. Their coat ranges in color and pattern from various shades of brown, black, or golden, with patches, blotches, stripes, or spots of contrasting color.
Industrializing in the 15th century CE, the graal developed nuclear weapons in the early 19th century and unleashed them in a global thermonuclear war in 1830 CE. Reconstruction was slow, and the planet took centuries to recover ecologically. The crisis spurred the development of a world government and a space colonization program. By the year 2100, the graal-ruled colonial empire spanned the Carina nebula. However, civil war engulfed the empire for over a century starting in the 2160s. The peace brokered between the warring states formed the Worlds Commonality, which became one of the galaxy's major powers after the graal made contact with the taurans and cassiopeians in 2306. The Worlds Commonality presented itself as the galactic face of graal society, and championed a highly militarized culture. A communist coup d'etat seized control of the graal military and with the tauran-ruled Covenant of Carina and the human-led Centaurus Socialist Republic, forged a federation based around communist principles. The graal pack-like social structure and strong cultural emphasis on collectivism enabled the graal to readily become part of the Soviet Republic. Over time, their large population and strong militaristic culture allowed them to become the dominant race in the FRPSS. The graal maintained this dominance until the fall of the Soviets in the early 3270s, reaching a population of 87 trillion. The majority of the present population of 29.1 trillion graal are classified as servile aliens, and have been subject to forcible evacuations or enslavement.
Their native name for themselves "graal" translates to "people of the fields". It is believed by both xeno-anthropologists and native graal historians that this name has archaic roots from the period when anatomically modern graal were still competing with their archaic contemporaries. If this theory is correct, the graal common language known as Graalspeak has identifiable roots going back 43,000 years.