I realized I had not finished working on my take of the Dralasite, so here is my version of FrontierSpace's Dralasite:
Dralasite
When the Erakai arrived it the Chaynik-kai system in -362 GFT, they found a strange race of "blob people" living on what would become Chaynik Prime. They were limited to living in a few isolated valleys where the level of moisture was just right and very rarely seemed to venture outside those valleys. At first, they did not paid much attention to what they considered a primitive life form, nothing more than a scientific curiosity, and were content to leave them to their few isolated valleys. After all, the Erakai had the rest of the entire planet they could settle on while leaving those strange beings alone...
A few scientific expedition were later undertaken to learn more about the strange amorphous creatures who called themselves Dralasite, and found them to be rather gregarious and extremely curious. The Erakai discovered the creatures to be far smarter than originally thought, and that the reason they limited themselves to those handful of valleys was because of their susceptibility to water. As such, those few valleys where the Dralasite lived allowed to filter in just the right amount of moisture for them to thrive there. While they could venture outside their valleys to hunt or gather resources, such expedition was kept relatively short due to the great danger posed by the very humid environment of Chaynik Prime. This strange biological fluke and the climate of the valleys meant the Dralasite were sort of stuck living in small tribes despite their great intelligence.
The Erakai decided to help the Dralasite out, crafting envirosuits for them which allowed them to thrive in other areas of Chaynik Prime as well as help them settle part of nearby Vlasa-kai. They also decided to hire the Dralasite to help them grow their organic merchant frigates; the amorphous Dralasite would be a perfect workforce to squeeze in tight spots to help the Erakai grow and prune their organic ships as well as hunt the Gaxins who often infected those living frigates...
When in -295 GFT, the catastrophic first contact with the Humans resulted in the destruction of one Erakai merchant frigate, the Erakai thought of another role for the gregarious Dralasite; to become the "face" of the Erakai race to the rest of the frontier. The Erakai felt their own insectile appearance might have been a bit too alien for the other species of the frontier (the existence of the Vrusk was not known to them yet as the Novim would only arrive and discover them 13 years later). Despite a questionable sense of humor and a strange gelatinous appearance, the diminutive Dralasite were deemed less threatening, and as such more appropriate to socialize with other species of the frontier. The Dralasite readily embraced their new role of ambassadors, diplomats, and representatives of the Erakai race, and relations with other species of the frontier improved.
