I've been thinking how I am going to handle interaction with other races, and I was going to wait until I actually met someone, but what the hey.
As this is role play, you are under no obligations to follow this or course. It might be interesting if some of you don't. Whether the case is you don't care to or that you purposely don't want to acknowledge it, the misunderstandings will make our Posts more natural and real.
Basically, I created the character of the Overlord as the speaker for all races. He is head over a Circle of Fifteen, which are three people from each tribe. However, they have no real power unless the tribes come to them. Sort of a UN for the tribes. Each tribe has it's own government. The profile details some characteristics, but no leaders, and keep in mind, I am writing my Posts without constant referral to the profile in the game, so their may be a few inconsistencies.
SHIPS: All ships will have the tribal name in the ship name, so everyone, including myself will know what belongs to who. Same thing with planets, I am renaming them as I go, adding the tribe name after the planet name.
COMMUNICATIONS: From my part, I will write to each of you prefacing each message or parts of Messages with an indication which tribe it is from. Or likewise if it is from the Overlord. You can from your part do the same. Address certain tribes or disregard tribe lines and write general Messages. If I can gather that you meant it to pertain to one tribe I will, but if not, I will assume it was meant for all and it will go to the Overlord who will distribute it downwards. Some of you may prefer to treat the Tribes as one race and deal with us accordingly. Like I said that is your preference.
NOTE: I fully intend to play these tribes as separate entities for the most part. If your ship is attacked by, say, a fleet of Vellon ships, then most likely the other tribes have little to do with it. So the naming of ships and planets is for me to keep things straight and for you guys to know who to glass. But again you can disregard that and turn on all the tribes. Here I am revealing that the Heru will be rather weak as SE4 goes, since they are splintered, but that is fine. This is for story's sake, not victory.
TREATIES: You probably won't be able to get more than a trade&research out of the tribes. This is to simulate their willingness to interact, but their unwillingness to bind themselves to their own brothers. But you can ally yourself with each tribe at any level. The commitments are informal as far as the game is concerned, yes, but military help is military help.
LEADERS: Well, I don't have leaders written except for the Overlord. I might write some in the future. Each tribe is different. If you want to get really deep into dealing with the Tribes I can spurt out more. Take the Sa'ah for instance. They are nomadic/piratic tribe. They have little central leadership. Very small tribe. Perhaps only enough for one colony ship. Each ship is an empire in itself really. The Omon are somewhat peaceful and somewhat democratic. The Vellon are militaristic, oppressive and spiteful. Forgot exactly what the Rellan are.
And the Boohr are the priestly tribe.
So if you just address your Messages as:
To the Sa'ah:
or something like that, it'll be taken appropriately.
Hope that helps.