One of the most important questions in astrobiology is whether there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. Of course, this is impossible to answer for now, not least because the term "intelligent" is highly subjective and undefinable. Generally, though, when most people refer to "intelligent aliens", they are thinking about creatures that exhibit sapience, or human-like intelligence.

Human intelligence is highly unusual. We are the only sapient species to have emerged over the 3.5 billion year history of life on Earth (as far as we know). Sapience is not an end goal of evolution, and there are many cases where it is highly undesirable. A big brain is extremely energy expensive and fairly wasteful. Why think when you can simply outrun your predators or defend yourself with spikes and horns?

But evolving sapience does have some crucial advantages. In difficult environments, it can allow a species to become resourceful and come up with novel solutions to the challenges of life. Given this, it is likely that sapience has emerged on at least some life-bearing worlds in the universe.

Melidora has its own sapient species, the Allosapiens. They are part of a large group of endognathans called parvomorphs. Parvomorphs are essentially Melidora's equivalents to Terran rodents, as they breed rapidly, are highly adaptable, and particularly clever. So it was not surprising that this lineage would ultimately give rise to an sapient creature.

Allosapiens and their close relatives have evolved a centauroid body plan, much like the captolestoids (see the Cockatrice page in the Bestiary section for more information). This has freed their front arms, allowing them to grasp objects and fashion tools.

A well-developed vocal organ, similar to a Terran songbird's syrinx, is capable of producing a wide variety of phonemes. Language has been an important part of Allosapiens evolution. Through communication, they have developed the ability to coordinate group efforts and work together to accomplish tasks. Sound travels farther in Melidora's denser atmosphere than it does in Terra's, and Melidoran land vertebrates use it for a wide range of purposes. So Allosapiens were already well-equipped to develop complex languages.

Allosapiens look very different from humans. Many works of science fiction depict humanoid aliens, but there is no basis for this speculation. The humanoid body plan, rather than being an ideal form for a sapient creature, may well be a peculiarity of Terran primate evolution, something unlikely to be replicated elsewhere.