Yrillians

A race of large bipeds who evolved on Yrillia, known elsewhere as Ethur II. The Yrillians are one of the largest terrestrial sentient species known. Healthy adults stand between 2 and 2.3 metres in height, and weight upwards of 100kg on average.

Society
Yrillian society organises itself around a concept most commonly translated as "work gangs". In effect, people join an extended group who work together. This group is the primary social circle for Yrillians, and the cornerstone of their economy. There is quite a bit of variability in the form work gangs take, and debating and improving this is one of the major preoccupations in Yrillian society.

Most decisions in Yrillian society are handled through software-mediated direct democracy, from level of friends deciding where to eat lunch all the way up to things that impact the entire civilization. Yrillians recognize that (accountable, recallable) representatives and leaders are sometimes necessary in situations where crucial, time-sensitive decisions may be necessary, but they do their best to minimize this and generally grant any such people no special powers or influence outside of the relevant situations.

Upsiders (as opposed to planet-bound "downsiders") are a spacer culture within Yrillian society. Yrillian independent space crews are usually Upsider, whether by birth or cultural assimilation.

Yrillians have a personal name (generally the name their parents gave them, a nickname that stuck, or something they chose for themselves) which is used almost all the time, and a disambiguation name (something they chose which may be arbitrary but is often tied to a previous work gang, a historical figure they admire, a hobby or interest, or something closer to a conventional family name chosen by people in a relationship or a group of close friends). The disambiguation name is generally only used in formal or academic contexts, or when two people with the same personal name might be confused.