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== List of species == The Berserker stories features many different characters originating from many different species, human and alien. These include: === Berserkers === The Berserkers are intelligent machines, created by an organic race in the past, as a [[Doomsday device|doomsday weapon]], a group of robots with one goal: to destroy all organic life. They turned on their own creators, wiping them out. The Berserker brain is based on the decay of radioactive elements, to enable their moves to be unpredictable in the event that some race should ever 'crack their source code' and be able to predict perfectly their battle strategies. In rare instances, the unpredictable nature of Berserker decision making has actually worked in humans' favor. Berserkers exist in a multitude of shapes, sizes and forms. The most common Berserkers are large spherical interstellar spacecraft, heavily armed and armored, equipped with self-replicating factories, and capable of producing numerous scout craft, foot soldiers, and other weapons of war. Little is known of the Berserkers' history other than that they were created to destroy the Red Race, who are now extinct. The creators of the Berserkers are known as the Builders, who were also later destroyed by the Berserkers. === The Builders === The Builders were a [[Elder race|precursor race]], of whom little is known other than they created and were later destroyed by the Berserkers. Saberhagen describes them thus: {{bquote|And of the Builders themselves, their own all-too-effective weapons, the berserkers, had left nothing but a few obscure records—video and voice recordings. Those videos had recorded slender, fine-boned beings, topologically like Solarian humans with the sole visible exception of the eye, which in the Builder species was a single organ, stretching clear across the upper face, with a bright bulging pupil that slid rapidly back and forth.<ref>{{cite book |first=Fred |last=Saberhagen |title=Berserker Kill |publisher=Tor |date=1993 |page=282 |isbn=0312852665}}</ref><br> In most of the ancient Builder graphics, no matter how elegantly enhanced, the berserkers' creators showed as hardly more than stick drawing of orange glowing substance. Now for the first time in history it was plain to Solarian eyes that that orange color and brightness were the result of some kind of clothing, the exposed skin being a dullish yellow where it showed on the face, the four-fingered hands, and across part of the chest.<ref>{{harvnb|Saberhagen|1993|p=428}}</ref>}} The Builders created the Berserkers in a genocidal war with the Red Race, which ended in both races' extinction by the Berserkers. === Carmpan === The Carmpan are a patient and peaceful species; their culture is one of logic, reason, pacifism, and philosophy. They lend what support they can to the Humans, but in non-martial forms. They are incapable of direct aggression, but they do possess one special power, a telepathic ability to speak to other sentients across the stars, a method of communication that the Berserkers cannot spy on. Their most effective help to ED (Earth Descended) Solarians is the 'Prophecy of Probability' in which they can give information on future events. This prophecy is very taxing and can even cause the death of a Carmpan. Although their bodies are described as boxy and machine-like, the Carmpan are also a biological lifeform and thus a target for the genocidal programming of the Berserkers. As such, they have allied themselves with the human race against the Berserkers. The first stories in the series are related by an individual Carmpan, the "3rd Historian", who seeks to chronicle life in the Galaxy and the struggle against the Berserkers. === Goodlife === The Berserkers are known to cooperate with each other, most of the time. They sometimes spare the lives of human (or other organic) [[treason|traitor]]s or [[collaboration|collaborator]]s, known as "goodlife", who are willing to cooperate to help destroy other lifeforms. === Humanity === ''Homo sapiens'', referred to as "Earth-descended" or "ED" Humans, or as "Solarians", is the only sentient species aggressive enough to counter Berserkers. The Berserkers have severely threatened human civilizations and wiped out billions of humans and other more exotic species. The remnants of human civilization have learned to be wily in order to survive. Berserker technology is much more advanced than that of any known human society. The survivors are disparate and lack the ability to act as a united foe to the Berserkers. While ED humans have massed powerful fleets on many occasions, bickering and strife between factions both political and cultural have often blunted the Solarian Armadas' effectiveness, ironically furthering the power of their machine foes, the Berserkers. === Qwib-qwib === Later stories involve the Qwib-qwib, an anti-Berserker berserker. Quib-quib's full name was "quibbian-qwibbian-kel." "Qwibbian" was the name the alien red race used for Berserkers. === Red Race === The Red Race was another precursor race, of which little is known other than that their extinction was the Builders' purpose in creating the Berserkers millennia ago.
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