The Humanx Commonwealth is a fictional interstellar ethical/political entity featured in the science fiction novels of Alan Dean Foster. The Commonwealth takes its name from its two major sapient species, who jointly inhabit Commonwealth planets and administer both the political and religious/ethical aspects. They are the mammalian Humans of the planet Earth and the insectoid Thranx which dwell upon Hivehom. The Commonwealth is described as a progressive, well-intentioned liberal democracy spanning many star systems, and is somewhat similar to the United Federation of Planets from Star Trek. The Humanx Commonwealth is notable for its portrayal of a human–alien relationship that is not just mutually beneficial but symbiotic, allowing an amalgamation of the two species.
Alan Dean Foster is an American writer of fantasy and science fiction, who has written several book series, more than 20 standalone novels and many faithful novelizations of film scripts.
Alaspin has large jungles surrounded by equally large savannas and river plains; its only notable celestial feature is two moons.
Currently the planet has no sentient race; the native race died out, possibly by racial suicide, over 75,000 years ago leaving behind hundreds of ancient, abandoned cities that have proved a source of fascination to modern xeno-archaeologists.
A variety of lifeforms currently live on Alaspin, most notably the Alaspinian minidrag.
Annubis
Annubis is most notable for the fictional Hyperion forests from which the fictional drug bloodhype is manufactured. In an attempt to eradicate the highly addictive and deadly drug, the trees were burned in 545 A.A. and are thought to be completely destroyed.
Blasusarr is the homeworld of the AAnn race and is often called the Imperial Home World. Climate is dry and hot, largely desert, the preferred atmospheric conditions of the AAnn. Beyond this, little is known about Blasusarr other than the fact that it is very well-protected by a detection and space defense network. Its capital city, also the capital of the AAnn Empire, is Krrassin.
A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to the processes of denudation. About one-third of the land surface of the world is arid or semi-arid. This includes much of the polar regions where little precipitation occurs and which are sometimes called polar deserts or "cold deserts". Deserts can be classified by the amount of precipitation that falls, by the temperature that prevails, by the causes of desertification or by their geographical location.
Cachalot
Cachalot is almost entirely covered by ocean with small ice caps and a few artificial floating islands created by humans. The dominant non-native races are intelligence-enhanced Cetacea (includes whales, dolphins, orcas and porpoises) that were brought to the planet from Terra in A.D. 2300. The name of the planet derives from the Portuguese word cachalote, a common term for head. This word was applied to the sperm whale, for its large head, when the mammals were actively hunted in Earth's oceans.
Portuguese is a Western Romance language originating in the Iberian Peninsula. It is the sole official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Angola, and São Tomé and Príncipe. It also has co-official language status in East Timor, Equatorial Guinea and Macau in China. As the result of expansion during colonial times, a cultural presence of Portuguese and Portuguese creole speakers are also found in Goa, Daman and Diu in India; in Batticaloa on the east coast of Sri Lanka; in the Indonesian island of Flores; in the Malacca state of Malaysia; and the ABC islands in the Caribbean where Papiamento is spoken, while Cape Verdean Creole is the most widely spoken Portuguese-based Creole. Reintegrationists maintain that Galician is not a separate language, but a dialect of Portuguese. A Portuguese-speaking person or nation is referred to as "Lusophone" (Lusófono).
The sperm whale or cachalot is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of genus Physeter and one of three extant species in the sperm whale family, along with the pygmy sperm whale and dwarf sperm whale of the genus Kogia.
The novel Cachalot (1980) introduced the planet to the Humanx Commonwealth universe.
Cachalot (1980) is a science fiction novel by American writer Alan Dean Foster.
Hivehom
Hivehom is the home system of the thranx race; the system itself has twelve planets, four of which are inhabited.
Most of Hivehom's population lives in subterranean hives. The Thranx prefer an incredibly hot, humid climate and the cold Northern regions are mostly uninhabited. The Mediterranean Plateau, a dry, frigid portion of Hivehom's largest continent would later become home to Hivehom's human settlement following the creation of the Humanx Commonwealth.[1]
Cities such as the capital of Daret are located beneath thick rainforest and a near constant, heavy shroud of low-lying clouds caused by the intense humidity; an ideal temperature for a thriving thranx population.[2]
Hivehom's equivalent to Terra's North Pole is mostly uninhabited, except for the small mining colony of Sed-Clee where temperatures range from -5° Celsius to 15° Celsius.[3]
Horseye
Horseye has four moons, three distinct sentient species (Mai, Tsla, and the Na) and a continent structure that is dominated by a single, massive ocean. This ocean experiences a constant clockwise current driven by the orbits of the four moons.
Horseye is also home to the most spectacular river canyon in the known universe.
Longtunnel is characterized by an extremely inhospitable climate and an extensive network of caves, due to the soft crust and significant amount of rain. Longtunnel is inhabited by one sapient race, who call themselves Sumacrea.
The novel Flinx in Flux introduced this planet to the Humanx Commonwealth universe.
Midworld
Midworld's distinguishing feature is the one-thousand-meter-high (3,300ft) rainforest that covers nearly all of the planet, making it the most biologically diverse planet in the universe. It is home to a human offshoot known as Midworlders who are slightly smaller than human standard with adaptations that include light green skin and long toes.
The planet is currently under edict—all travel to the planet is expressly forbidden—by the United Church, ostensibly to protect the fragile ecosystem. More likely it is to protect the Commonwealth from the emerging world-consciousness that the massive rainforest has spawned. Bits of this plant-based sentience have been placed upon Flinx’s ship Teacher allowing the planet-consciousness to now travel the universe.
The novel Midworld (1975) introduced the planet and it is also the setting for the novel Mid-Flinx (1995).
Moth
Moth has three notable features. First, a set of broken rings around the planet gives the globe a distinctive look from outer space, an appearance similar to that of a Terran moth. Second, its dominant weather pattern is almost continual rain, mostly because of the near constant cloud-cover. Third, Moth has a single 'moon', Flame, which is actually a dwarf planet sharing the same orbital path as Moth.
Beyond its outwardly interesting facade, Moth is a relatively unimportant planet having a substantial non-native human population. It is the planet where Mother Mastiff lives and where she rescued Flinx from a slave auction. Flinx spent his childhood on this planet learning how to survive on his own and become a thief at the same time.
The novel The Tar-Aiym Krang (1972) introduced the planet to the Humanx Commonwealth universe; Foster greatly expanded information about Moth in the novel For Love of Mother-Not (1983).
New Riviera
New Riviera, often called Nur, is often referred to as a paradise world, for it is even more perfect for human habitation than Terra. There are no extremes on the planet, not large oceans or mountain ranges, the many continents and archipelagos are divided up by twenty small seas. The citizens are mostly content, happy to have been born on the planet or to have immigrated there. The economy tends toward tourism and high end scientific research.
Pitar
Pitar, like Midworld and Ulru-Ujurr, is under Church Edict preventing any Commonwealth citizen from setting foot on the planet.
The native race of the planet, also known as the Pitar, were remarkably human-like, physiologically if not genetically, although generally more well-formed, handsome and muscular than typical human standards.
First human contact with the planet was in A.D. 2360. In 2365 the Pitar destroyed the colonists on the planet Treetrunk (Argus V) which started the Human-Pitar War. A year later human and thranx scientists invented the SCCAM missile which allowed the alliance of humans and thranx to break the defenses of the Pitar. The Pitar refused any kind of surrender, and the entire race was exterminated. Due to their "irredeemable narccisism", even the few Pitar captured killed themselves or otherwise rendered themselves unsuitable for study.
It was discovered by scientists after the fact that the Pitar had planned a long-term, galactic level genocide of all non-Pitaran sentients. The attack on Treetrunk was perpetrated for the purposes of obtaining human female reproductive organs, which could be genetically altered to produce Pitaran offspring, compensating for the low birthrate that was the Pitaran's main disadvantage over races such as humans and the Thranx.
The planet first appeared in the novel Dirge (2000), although it was referenced in Foster's first novel, The Tar-Aiym Krang (1973).
Prism
Prism abounds with both carbon- and silicon-based life forms, as well as combinations of the two (organosilicon). There are a number of intelligent species on the planet, but the book which introduces the planet, Sentenced to Prism, only deals with one group, known as the Associative. The Associative contains a number of different specialized sub-types, much as a termite mound would. Known types include Scouts, Libraries, Walls, Physicians, Conduits, Warriors, Gatherers, and Talkers. A few more varieties of Associative types that were only mentioned in passing include flects, builders, distributors (also called exploding stars), excavators and processors. At the end of the novel, others are being designed.
Pyrassis
Pyrassis falls within the territory claimed by the AAnn Empire. It is a desert planet that also contains an ancient, alien transmitter. The tenth planet in the system is a brown methane dwarf that hides one of the Tar-Aiym’s semi-sentient Krang weapon.
The planet first appeared in the novel Reunion (2001).
Tran-Ky-Ky
Tran-Ky-Ky is notable for its long warm-cold climate cycle; currently in the Humanx Commonwealth timeframe, Tran-Ky-Ky is in its cold cycle and most of the planet is under ice. Each cycle lasts approximately 50,000 years and is due to the unusual orbit of the planet. Native species is the Tran, a somewhat bipedal cat-like race with membranous wings on their arms they use in conjunction with the long claws to skate on the icy surface of the planet. Because of the strange climate changes the Tran have had some trouble developing. Their "warm weather"-related species is the Golden Saia.
The planet first appeared in the novel Icerigger (1974).
Treetrunk
Treetrunk, also known as Argus V, has large polar icecaps that cover the majority of the surface. Only the equatorial regions are habitable by humans, the Thranx and AAnn have no interest in colonizing the planet due to it cold temperatures, though to humans the equatorial climate is a cool temperate.
There is no native sentient race on Treetrunk, none ever having developed. Five years after human colonization, all 600,000 humans living on the planet, with one exception, were killed by the Pitar as the opening to the Humanx-Pitar war.
The planet was first formally introduced in Dirge (2000).
Ulru-Ujurr
Ulru-Ujurr is currently under edict—all travel to the planet is expressly forbidden—by the United Church, ostensibly to protect the native primitive species. Surface is highly mountainous and while about one-fifth as large as Terra, gravity is similar due to the make-up of the planet's core. Ulru-Ujurr has an irregular orbit that is slowly moving it away from its sun. This is the homeworld to the ursine Ulru-Ujurrians.
The planet first appeared in the novel Orphan Star (1977).
Other planets
Burley –
Comagrave –
Dawn – first interspecies fair site between humans and thranx
Nor Crystal Tears is a science fiction novel by American writer novel by Alan Dean Foster, first published on 12 August 1982. Foster's ninth book set in the Humanx Commonwealth, it is a first-contact story about the meeting of the insectoid Thranx and Man. This sets in motion the creation of the Humanx Commonwealth; the political body that is the union of human and thranx society which forms the foundation for many of Foster's science-fiction novels.
Philip Lynx, known by the nickname of "Flinx," is a fictional character, an adventurous young man with unusual qualities in a series of books set in the "Humanx Commonwealth", written by Alan Dean Foster and published by Del Rey Books.
The Tar-Aiym Krang (1972) is a science fiction novel by American writer Alan Dean Foster. It is Foster’s first published novel and started both his Humanx Commonwealth universe and his two most popular recurring characters, Pip and Philip Lynx ("Flinx"). The book is second chronologically in the Pip and Flinx series.
Bloodhype (1973) is a science fiction novel by American writer Alan Dean Foster. The book is eleventh chronologically in the Pip and Flinx series, though it was written second; the main characters since they only appear in the last third of the book. Foster originally started the novel as a stand-alone work, but was encouraged by his publishers to include the characters from his previous novel. In the series, it falls after Orphan Star, where Flinx meets the aliens who build him his ship, the Teacher.
Orphan Star (1977) is a science fiction novel by American writer Alan Dean Foster. The book is Foster's eighteenth published book, his fifth original novel, and is chronologically the third entry in the Pip and Flinx series. Bloodhype (1973) was the second novel to include Pip and Flinx, but it is eleventh chronologically in the series and the two characters had a relatively small part in that novel's plot.
Flinx in Flux (1988) is a science fiction novel by American writer Alan Dean Foster. The book is fifth chronologically in the Pip and Flinx series.
Reunion (2001) is a science fiction novel by American writer Alan Dean Foster. The book is the seventh chronologically in the Pip and Flinx series.
Flinx's Folly (2003) is a science fiction novel by American writer Alan Dean Foster. The book is the eighth chronologically in the Pip and Flinx series.
Sliding Scales (2004) is a science fiction novel by American writer Alan Dean Foster. The book is the ninth chronologically in the Pip and Flinx series.
Running from the Deity (2005) is a science fiction novel by American writer Alan Dean Foster. The book is the tenth chronologically in the Pip and Flinx series.
Midworld (1975) is a science fiction novel by American writer Alan Dean Foster. It is set in his primary science fiction universe, the Humanx Commonwealth.
Phylogenesis (1999) is a science fiction novel by American writer Alan Dean Foster. It is the first novel in Foster's Founding of the Commonwealth Trilogy.
Dirge (2000) is a science fiction novel by American writer Alan Dean Foster. The full title is sometimes shown as Dirge: Book Two of The Founding of the Commonwealth.
Diuturnity's Dawn (2002) is a science fiction novel by American writer Alan Dean Foster. The full title is sometimes shown as Diuturnity's Dawn: Book Three of The Founding of the Commonwealth.
Flinx Transcendent is a science fiction novel by American writer Alan Dean Foster. The book is the fourteenth chronologically in the Pip and Flinx series, and was released in April 2009. The novel is the final volume in the "Great Evil" story arc, but not the final Humanx Commonwealth novel, or even the final Flinx novel.
Quofum (2008) is a science fiction novel by American writer Alan Dean Foster.
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