Being the leaders in galactic exploration, industry, and trade, the Valen are an inevitablity in Magnus.
The Valen are a formidable force for their own needs and desires within the galaxy. Being the oldest of all civilizations to enter Magnus, as well as the first to achieve spaceflight, they're highly respected throughout the galaxy. The Valen are the architects of many Magnus-wide systems and projects, having designed and taught almost all space-faring races how to manufacture and use their initial technologies.
Their homeplanet is named Alpha.
The Valen are very canine-like. They feature muted, neutral colors that can often be found in nature, similar to wolves, coyotes, and foxes. All Valen are built in a very wolf-like way with varied fur patterns. Valen vary somewhat in height, most commonly around 5'10 to 6'4.
Their fur patterns are often distinct, varying signficiantly from one individual to the next. However, fur patterns tend to be similar within families. These fur patterns have been evolved past being camoflauge, acting moreso as a way to quickly and accurately identify one's family members and friends at a distance. This results in somewhat unusual fur patterns on some Valen.
Valen are a race with very lean muscles. The strongest Valen will still not have much for pronounced muscle definition. In trade for this, the Valen are quite agile, flexible, and can run at higher sustained speeds than most other races.
Blackwood is the governing body representing all of Alpha. Terrestrially, Alpha's only major government is Blackwood itself. This is not too dissimilar to other space-faring races, many of which had their own interpolitical divisions collapse into a single entity upon entering galactic trade and affairs.
Blackwood is different than other unified planetary governments, primarily in that it unified prior to the introduction of space trade. In fact, Blackwood has been a unified governing body for all of its even remotely recent history.
In galactic trade, Blackwood serves as a brand name for Valen-made (or at least Valen-designed) goods. Blackwood produces ship and engine designs, sells parts for those ships, as well as weaponry designed for their own hardware. As open and available as many of their designs are, Valen gear tends to work the best with other Valen kit.
Blackwood is known for making some of the best stuff available, although in fierce competition with other terrestrial design organizations and governments.
Valen culture centers around family, and the extensions of that. Valen families tend to be larger than most other races, composed of tight-knit, multi-generational communities that overlap multiple times in dozens of sprawling family trees. Most Valen are good friends with family members that would be considered distant family members to most other races. This hyper-extension of family has some helpful effects on Valen society.
Valens believe strongly in collective strength, not only on an intellectual level but on a social and societal level. Actions are best taken in favor of the pack, the collective, not your own blood. Most towns and cities on Alpha are, in of themselves, a pack. Society is built on top of the idea of a common goal, and that is the continued survival and prosperity of Valens as a whole.
This isn't without consequences. While selfishness is frowned upon (as it is in any society), malicious actions are treated severely. Societal pressures, such as exclusion and social isolation, can be employed to deal with those acting in interests conflicting with the collective. This is a natural reaction from Valen communities, not something directly written into any law or rules.
For more serious actions, Valen may be exiled from their communities or family units entirely. Crimes such as murder would be resolved with execution, and actions against Blackwood would be handled similarly. Abusing positions of power, such as status in the military, for ones own self-serving interests would be treated as an attack upon society itself and likely result in execution.
This isn't a rule-by-fear situation for the Valens either. Betrayal within their own race has significant social and societal consequences. The rules defined by Valen psychology and society have only been written into law for record keeping and travellers, not to change society.