Centaurs come from a planet fairly similar to Earth, and their biology is convergent with Earth’s in many ways. Their evolutionary ancestors were savanna pack predators who used ambush and speed to hunt prey. Modern centaurs emerged when they started to use tools like spears to help with hunting. Centaurs are obligate carnivores but they supplement their diet with grain, starchy tubers, and small amounts of roughage and vegetation. Much like humans, they have a two-sex reproductive system where the individuals with the larger gametes give birth to live young.

They are very vocally talented. With their trunk they can produce a wide range of pitches and consonants, while with the muscular tissue near their breathing outtake they can make subsonic booming noises. The booming is mostly inaudible to humans and avians, but ferrets can detect the low-frequency vibrations through their numerous whiskers. There are a variety of simple subsonic languages collectively called ‘boom-speak’ that are traditionally used as contact calls over long distances.

Most centaur cultures are matriarchal, with family groups of about 20-30 living together in a small village of interconnected houses. These clans are run by the oldest females of the family, and younger females are often expected to stay in the same clan their whole life. Males are often expected to marry outside of the clan, and although they will usually join a new group for one or more specific mates within it, the ‘marriage’ for most cultures is between the new member and the entire family. Despite this, many individuals may never mate to reproduce, and instead help care for their family members’ children.

The centaurs were discovered by a ferret planetary exploration vessel, but they weren’t a spacefaring race when they were found– they were barely starting to use electricity and radio. The Interspecies Summit (a council including humans, avians, and ferrets) met on the matter and it was agreed that the centaurs should be left alone until they were capable of space flight. Unfortunately, this policy proved impossible to enforce, and human and avian ships began visiting the centaur homeworld to trade technology and resources for centaur laborers. Today, most centaurs in space work as manual labor under human and avian companies, or they run pirate vessels.