Waldahud

The Waldahudin (singular: Waldahud) are a sapient species from the planet Rehbollo, roughly 70,000 light years from Earth. Along with Humans, Dolphins and Ibs, they make up the Commonwealth of Planets.

Biology
The Waldahudin are vaguely porcine creatures with six limbs, four eyes and a shaggy fur covering, which evolved from fluvial ancestors. They are notorious for their short temperament and tend to be very irritable, hot-tempered, and argumentative. Their average lifespan is quite short for a sapient race, at about 45 Earth years. They consider Human odor to be disgusting.

The Waldahudin are mainly herbivorous, and females produce a nutritive secretion to feed the young, much like Earth's mammals produce milk.

Culture and society
The Waldahud homeworld is a frigid land orbiting a faint red sun. Most of the continental surface of their world is dominated by muddy plains crisscrossed by rivers, with tree-sized plants that look like blue tumbleweeds floating in the rivers, searching for rich soil in which to anchor and absorb nutrients.

Their society is matriarchal: females are about twice the size of males, and each female is typically accompanied by a consort of five males who serve her, although she chooses only one of them as a mate.

Waldahudin value hand-crafted products and hardly ever mass-produce anything, therefore each Waldahud ship has a distinct and unique design. Their religion is polytheistic, and they are ruled by a Queen.

Appearances

 * Starplex, by Robert J. Sawyer (1996)