Back Cover: "If there's one thing I've learned in my years as a merc, it's stay away from the Bugs and Lizards. They're both hidin' somethin'!" Orphaned Races examines two of the sentient races of the Fading Suns universe: The insectoid Ascorbites and the reptilian Hironem. The Ascorbites, native to the Decados-ruled jungle planet of Severus, are perhaps the least understood race in the Known Worlds. Their alien culture -- formed by a hive-mind -- has proved resistant to most of humanity's attempts to understand it. What's more, the Church claims that the race worships dark entities - gods the Ascorbites claim will one day return to drive the "soft-flesh" humans into slavery The Hironem, native to the Decados-ruled planet of Cadiz, revere their ancient culture-bringer gods, who are now believed to have been renegades from the advanced Vau Hegemony. These gods gave the Hironem their caste system and set a secession of God-Kings to rule them. Some humans wonder: Did these Vau "gods" also leave another, hidden legacy in the genetics and culture of the Hironem that is yet to be revealed? Each book in the Alien Expeditions series examines one or more alien races, detailing their histories, cultures and planets of origin from multiple perspectives. Orphaned Races features dual-stats for both Holistic's Victory Point System and the d20 System (these rules require the use of the Dungeons & Dragons¨ Players Handbook, Third Edition, published by Wizards of the Coast ¨).