Perdi are an interesting race. They were once an insect-like humanoid species, but are now incredibly diverse due to decades of genetic manipulation. Though they seem at first glance to be very duty-bound and xenophobic, upper caste Perdi are amiable to those who take the time to both understand their society and gain their respect. They live exclusively as part of the Perd Worldfleet.

Little is known of the ancient Perdi, other than that they were originally a homogenous species of unusually intelligent insectoid creatures. For much of their early history, they avoided heavily investing in space travel. Instead, they focused inwards, on refining their society and on achieving a proper balance between them and the resources of their home planet. After a catastrophic extinction level event, were forced to move the remainder of their population on to a fleet of ships, based around the massive worldship 'Triomphe'.

Most Perdi live off of nutritional bars, containing the exact balance of nutrients necessary for them to function, though some in the upper castes and some pioneer castes have more generalized digestive tracts to allow them to gain nutrition from just about any organic source. The upper castes use this to be able to safely consume other species' cuisine, while the pioneer castes use it to gain nutrition from local flora and fauna when operating away from the supply chain.

With some exceptions, the vast majority of Perd castes are engineered to be most comfortable in the environments of their starships (especially Triomphe). This means high population densities and little to no open space. One consequence of this is that many Perd become quite uncomfortable when faced with wide open and empty spaces, such as on agricultural worlds or in deep space. Another extremely common optimization is for low temperatures, as the Worldfleet has adopted a policy of reclaiming heat on its starships into energy, down to the minimum required by the perds.

With their level of mastery over their genetic code, one would expect the Perdi to engineer themselves to have greatly extended lives. Yet the issue of genetic mutation was never solved, meaning the body would still eventually start to develop sufficient genetic mutations to render them essentially useless. Therefore, the Perdi are engineered to have lifespans of around 50 standard years. The first two years are spent in growth pods (Perdi are incapable of reproducing naturally), going from conception to near maturity by the time they are removed. Over this time, memory templates are imprinted into their brains from a caste library based on which particular job they have been designated for. By the time they are 'born', they have a fairly complete knowledge of their designated task, though they are engineered to retain a high degree of brain plasticity for a number of years after 'activation', so that they may learn the nuances of both their job and the world in which they live. This means that many younger Perd have very advanced technical knowledge, yet are socially inept and know little of the outside world.

Perd clothes can vary greatly based on the individual's placement in Order society, and mostly serve the purpose of identifying position and individual. In total, the Order has over 50,000 unique combinations of insignia, though many are for specific positions only occupied by one or a select few. Regardless, the colour of a person's outfit indicates their Corps and, by extension, their Provence. For Provence Générale, the colours are yellow for Corps Production, white for Corps Administratif, and Orange for Corps Milice. For Provence Scientifique, the colours are blue for Corps de Recherche and Purple for Corps Exploratoire.

The vast majority of Perd are engineered to have no psychological need for variety of flavour, so their nutritional bars are most likely the only thing they will ever taste. Even so, some of the diplomatic castes are given the luxury of being able to enjoy taste, along with that of tasting food of other species, though the sense is still dulled to prevent them from being overwhelmed by it.

The Perdi have their own native language, Perrique (functionally identical to French), which shares several similar words with Trade (language) and Seraphim, indicating that the ancient Perdi had most likely had some level of contact with the larger galaxy, or at least shared a common ancestry (generally considered to be highly unlikely due to some obvious differences).

The Perdian political system, or lack thereof, consists mainly of people communicating their few grievances to their superiors, and hoping that they eventually get addressed. The larger political decisions are handled by the 'Classe Bourgeois' of aristocrats, who are appointed to the various governing bodies based on whichever one they show the most aptitude towards.

The Perdian economy is completely government controlled by the Corps d'Administration, and the lower castes are not legally allowed to trade Marques. Even in the upper castes, Marques are really only used as a marker of debt rather than currency.