Schocoa's Species

Xariels are a space-faring species that coexist with the Ievak on their home planet.
Their relations are fairly strained, as they were warring off and on for a while before they finally solidified a truce.
For the most part, the planet itself has many steep valleys and mountains. The trees that grow there are pretty wack.They in general are a very curious species, aiming to document everything in the known universe. They try their best to work with the native species, but like their home planet, different regions may have a disagreement with the terms one region may have come up with.

Anatomy (Basic)

A fairly simple fella - they're primarily canine with ears inspired by bats. The inner flap is a more extreme version of ear fluff as their ears are pretty massive, and so the ear flaps must be deliberately moved out of the way if they want to listen better.Their tails are primarily muscle and fairly reactive, but they are able to train themselves to use it as a third hand.

Patterns

The patterns are fairly consistent for Xariels, the main thing is the difference for the accents, which way the lil offshoots curl, how many of them offshoots there are, what side the white dots are on, and whether they go from largest to smallest or smallest to largest.Now, when it comes to their general colors, it is all based on their internal color. Xariels' internal color can vary - from being saturated, pastel, or dark - there's a wide range in colors, but their internal color is NEVER gray.
Their fur color is usually a very dark version of the internal color - both near black, but usually the stomach fluff is darker. Sometimes, around 1 in 30, the stomach fluff is lighter.The only way for them to have 2 colors is if they are multicolored, and even then, it's just 1 color split roughly 50/50 on each side of their body.One of two exceptions to the dark-only fur would be Merle Xariels as parts of their fur and hair is lighter - it's still as desaturated as the fur, but now lighter.The other exception is Albino Xariels - where either their primary or secondary color is white, and the other is a paler shade of their internal color. The example may seem to have no white dots, but they are there, it's just white-on-white.Another thing to note is most fur color abnormalities can also have the inverted effect.

Irregular Coloration

It's not super common, but Xariels have started to have irregular fur patterns more and more often, and the superstitions tied to them have practically evaporated as advancements in tech have been made and natural camouflage isn't as important to the crew's survival.
On top of the effort by the Council to dispel any preconceptions made without a solid basis in science.Albino Xariels are fairly rare but becoming more common (1 in 6,000). In the past, Albino Xariels would usually be paired with other Albino Xariels as their white fur made them better suited for Arctic expeditions.Merle are somewhat common (1 in 500) and also used to be paired up with each other, but for planets with lots of varied foliage.Multicolored Xariel are extremely rare (1 in 1,000,000) so it's highly unlikely to see more than 1 with that fur pattern on a ship.If you have dice (or don't, then you can use a number generator) and want to let RNG decide the coloration, I recommend first doing a 1d100 role to determine if they have a color alteration (100 & 99 would be a yes) and then another 1d100 where 99 & 100 would be multi-colored, 80-98 would be Albino, and the rest Merle. If you really want a color alteration, I did a 1d6 with 6 being multi, 4-5 being Albino, and 1-3 being Merle.

(Left to Right: Atax, Potchly, Rimeru, Sisyphus, Alice, Basilisk)

Sexual Dimorphism

There aren't many differences in male and female Xariels, just height and their genitalia. The average height for female Xariels is 7'8" (233.68cm), while for male Xariels it's 7'2" (218.44cm).
This is for Xariels that grew up on their own planet - those on other planets may have more variance in their build due to the environmental differences.

Gender & Sexuality

Due to how hard it may be to discern a Xariel's gender, Xariels primarily refer to each other using gender-neutral terms. Most won't disclose their gender unless they know the person fairly well, as it's a bit of a private matter, and some just prefer being referred to in neutral terms.In regard to their sexuality, they typically don't care too much on which gender their partner is, as the only time it would become relevant (to an extent, to be fair) is if they want children. It also isn't all that irregular for some to have a complete disinterest in finding a partner.

Self Expression

Xariels have several options when it comes to self-expression - but the main way to let others know is either through outfits or body modification. It's usually more common for Xariels on planet to do this, but it isn't unheard of for those faring off planet to do the same, but usually even then to a lesser degree.