Humans

Planet of Origin: Earth, Sol   Empire name: United Colonies of Humankind   Humans are a bipedal species with two arms and one head. They reproduce sexually, and engage in omnivorous active eating.   Humans have a unique evolutionary quirk not represented in any known alien life, referred to as 'sleeping'. A product of Earth's evolutionary history, Earth based life regularly renders itself unconscious on a daily basis, leaving itself unaware of its surroundings and unable to defend itself for roughly a third of their lifetimes. An interesting side effect of this process is what humans call 'dreaming', a phenomenon not understood by alien civilizations but which generates much inquiry.  

The Human Madness

While humans are generally incapable of recognizing it in themselves, humans suffer from an extremely peculiar form of insanity where they project agency and lifelike traits upon objects and forces that do not posses them. It is widely beleived that the human brain is over-engineered to store socially relevant information, primed to remember other 'people' extremely efficiently, leading to a short-circuit where their brain finds it easiest to remember things in the context of being a person, even when that is discernably not the case.   Classic examples include such phrases as 'My car hates me' or 'the sea is a harsh mistress'. Humans rarely consider these to be exceptional turns of phrase, but they represent a fundamental departure from how humans conceive of the world around them.   This same human madness is perhaps best identified in their spiritual and societal organizations which they call religions. Many religions externalized and identify vast forces in the world as very large people who are responsible for making those forces function.