"Great Purist! Some strange metal demon has landed nearby. It roared louder than a Kallor, and used a strange kind of Fire Mysticism to move. The snow around it melted and exposed the solid rock beneath. I could sense spirits within it unlike any I had ever known! I ran back to tell you - what should we do?"

The meeting of the Malgraan and Balloh was ultimately by accident - surveying the planet from space, the Malgraan found no notable signs of civilization, as the Balloh had no settlements large enough to appear to be anything more than rock formations. Believing the planet to be uninhabited by sentient life, they set down and began the laborious process of full decontamination in order to set up a research outpost, but their arrival was not unnoticed.

The Purist Clan were the first on the scene, but news spread fast among all the clans of the strange, tasty-looking but metal-clad creatures at the landing site - later known as the Meeting Plain. It didn't take long for each to notice the other was more than a mere animal, due to the clothing, jewellery, and conversation. Wary attempts at communication were made, but it was incredibly slow going; with no shared culture or experiences at all, bridging any kind of language gap was an uphill battle. But with a bit of fortune, the Malgraan were able to earn the trust of the Balloh, and piece together their language one word at a time, starting by eliciting the names of surrounding objects and slowly working their way to more complicated sentences. Much of the footage from those times is available on the Planetary Relay so that the historic events can be re-lived by any who were not there at the time.

A few hundred years later, there is little doubt, aside from the occasional armchair philosopher, that landing on Vhanarr was the right thing to do. The Balloh had become utterly stagnant after the fragmentation of the clans, slowly dwindling in number and unable to advance their technology or mysticism at all. Now they are not only beginning to flourish again, but the Malgraan have learned a great deal from the experience and earned themselves allies who make up for their lack of numbers and military strength by giving them new insights and experiences and proving themselves to be good friends when needed.

The alliance was sworn by all four Great Mystics, and a representative from the Naturists of Thunder - the only time in history since the fragmentation of the clans that all of the Great Mystics have gathered in one place. While Vhanarr is still harsh and inter-clan conflicts still rage, they have eased off from the Malgraan's influence. And to commemorate the alliance, a special object was created with the combined efforts of the Malgraan and the Balloh; a medal embedded with mystic gems later known as the Star Insignia, now carried by Master Admiral Kelaan himself, as a reminder to all around him that it is not just the Malgraan who they are charged with protecting.

---

A lot of science fiction (and fantasy, for that matter) is boring and predictable because anthrocentric humans tend to write it more often than not. Either humans are painted as heroes of the galaxy just because they are, or the alien races are so incredibly, unrepentantly evil that even humans look good by comparison (a necessarily low bar to get over, given human history and human nature). Case in point, most "High tech future meets low tech primitives" stories tend to end very badly for one or both parties involved. I'd like to think that that's not always the case.

The interaction of the Malgraan and the Balloh is incredibly complex, but not without some planning on the Malgraan's side. Well aware of the potential dangers of bringing foreign diseases to an alien world, the pioneers to Vhanarr underwent very thorough decontamination, and had daily medical scans to ensure they hadn't contracted any local ailments. Fortunately most of the worlds they've colonized have had little life on them, and Vhanarr is an oddity: It has no insect life at all, but a very large number of carrion-feeder and scavenger creatures that feed off of larger beasts. Between the cold and the lack of insects there's very little disease transmission or decomposition on the surface.

The Malgraan also, upon realizing they had accidentally made contact with an alien species - something they had wanted to avoid - put all their effort into understanding the creatures by observation (and not the usual human cliche of dissection - only when Balloh willingly left their bodies to science, much later, did that ever happen). They noted the creatures' penchant for jewelry and brought them gifts, and slowly built up their understanding of the Balloh language, one word at a time, sharing it among others at the outpost.

While the Malgraan ultimately decided to minimize their interference on Vhanarr, and have never built more than the one research outpost at their landing site, their influence on Vhanarr has been undeniable. Some argue that they should maintain this policy, allowing only those who wish to leave Vhanarr to be influenced; others believe that it's too late to go back now and they should uplift the Balloh as best they can.

The design of the Malgraan ship is primarily for gliding, using the Starwarp Engine to get into orbit quickly and only relying on the VTOL engines to assist with landing or make short sub-orbital trips.

Setting and races belong to me.
Art by  not-fun. Original here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/14432393/