NECESSARY CONTEXT
"Parallel Planets" are the planets touched by the Vortex, a natural phenomenon that transports matter, living things, and people, from Parallel Planets to planet Sharitarn. All Universes touched by the Vortex are "identical" at Astronomic Scale, and the Parallel Planets are the ones in their respective Universes that occupy the same position of Sharitarn.
Earth is the Parallel Planet of our own Universe.
The laws of Physics, the past and the future of Parallel Universes changes a lot, as does the surface of each parallel Planet and the sort of things that exist up there. But the Universes only remain in reach of the Vortex for as long as they are identical to Sharitarn Universe in the number of stellar bodies, shape and relative positions of them. Not just in Sharitarn stellar system, or galaxy, but in all Universe.
There is no case of different Universes developing independently the same Language, or nations with the same border and History, or individuals with the same names or faces. However species do evolve independently in different Universes. No Universe has all sorts of animals and plants that exist in other, and no one has all kinds of life, but there is some degree of repetition. The Vortex brings a considerable percentage of humans, and humanoids, for instance.
RHALPAV
Rhalpav is the second most mentioned parallel planet, behind Planet Earth only. The reason for that being as obvious as anything can be: it was the planet tuned by the Vortex right before ours. Sharitarn was tuned around the Ey of 500 and untuned around Ey 1200. What means that about 500 years have passed between Rhalpav stopped being the tunned planet and when Earth gains this position. (but by the time when the first Earthlings start arriving on Sharitarn, around Earthling year 1500, there was still some Rhalpaves being brought by the Vortex)
Natural laws in Rhalpav Universe seems to be close to ours, and do not differ much from those of Sharitarn. Except for the fact that neither Rhalpav nor Earth seem to have what we call "ostensible magic", that force that plays an essential role in Sharitarn society.
As far as Scholars could determine humanity was the only talking specie to evolve naturally on Sharitarn. However, Rhalpav civilization developed very soon a highly effective technology of genetic manipulation. That led to the organization of society in castes, designed as living weapons.
Only one Continent remained isolated by geographical barriers for long enough to keep what Sharitarnes would recognize without argument as "humanity". By the time when Rhalpav was touched by the Vortex this Continent was again integrated into global geopolitics, but despite that some "classic models" could still be found up there. And the Vortex caught a few.
Then the planet Rhalpav was divided in a little less than one thousand nations, all of them highly militarised. There is no civil population on the planet, only soldiers and support troops.
We could perhaps describe the genetic groups as "castes" or as "models". They are numerous, and most of the individuals who arrived on Sharitarn either did not survived, or could not reproduce without the technology on their home planet. Some got mad and killed themselves, some became slaves and their descendants are slaves still. Those who survived and did not felt to slavery are in the wilds as outlaws or living by the laws of Sharitarn civilization.
Few Rhalpave descendants still keep some of their culture and History.
The national identities of their home world had to be left behind. Similar models from enemy powers became brothers, and family, on Sharitarn.
By far the most successful sons of Rhalpav on Sharitarn are, beyond doubt, the human subgroup named "Forest People". In the world of Altair, forest people look like "Thundercats" or the X-Man's villain "Sabertooth" from the comic books of 1980, but most of them are closer to Willycat than to Sabertooth: build more to agility and velocity than to ram strength.
The forest people age twice faster than average humans, and die in half the time. They almost never get sick, and can consume raw meat and get sustenance from blood as easily as pure carnivores. But they can digest grains and vegetables easily enough (seldom choose to it those things, however. But most of them will cook their meat, usually).
They have a city, a proper civilized nation recognized as an Non-Human State City by human civilization. Alkavalla, the Forest City. And they control the territory know as "Ungnui Forest".
Obviously for most is the fact that forest people succeeded in forge for themselves a civilization on Sharitarn mostly thanks to their alliance with the ancient an powerful ii race of tree people named ungnui. The "plant people" had an alliance with another specie of talking humanoids Ages before, the "frog people" but they are extinct. For a very long time the Ungnui kept no close alliances, and few diplomatic relations, but they continued to maintain the city build by the frog people. And was in this place that the forest people stablished their civilization.
Another group to keep an identity is the "Red Elves", or "Blood Elves". Despite the name this people have nothing to do with the citizens of Erevi, they are not a branch of the Elven Tree. Would be closer to the true to consider them "humans", but that suggestion is taken as insult for most reds.
You find red elves in East Piwag Desert and a few other parts of Sharitarn.
While forest people are born rangers and scouts, breed to advance silently in dangerous missions behind enemy lines, the reds are field commandants of high rank. Breed for highly strategic and tactic purposes. Elite forces, prepared to steal secrets, absorve high quantities of complex information and keep it for as long as necessary. As much as to command troops, stablishing limited objectives and setting strategies by their own initiative when circumstances demand that.
They have means to prolong their existences indefinitely, and some of those brought by the Vortex are still alive today.
Despite their obvious advantages over the forest people, and common humans, the reds failed in stablish a national identity and a sense of objective for themselves as an collective. They cooperate with each other well enough for survival, and enjoy some comfort in their tribal barbaric ways. Anything beyond that seems pointless in their eyes.
New generations may see things in another light one day. For now this folk remains fixed in their past. In a way their timeless existences may be describe as a curse as much as it may be described as a gift.
Technology
In regard to medicine and genetic engineering Rhalpav was far more advanced by the time it as in contact with Sharitarn for the last time than Earth in Ey 2100. They started producing deliberated mutations with some success by their equivalent to Neolithic Age, and that shaped their point of view about everything else.
Naturally, not only their own specie was modified. Every relevant life-form humanity of Sharitarn came in contact to was redesigned in some way. Optimised for human purposes.
The prevalent state of war on the planet can be explained in part by the resilience of Rhalpaves. Earthlings would have caused the extinction of humanity if they dared to raise conflicts as often as Rhalpaves do.
However, this constant state of war costed a lot. Rhalpav has few large cities, and those that exist are mostly underground, heavily fortified. They had by the time of last contact some trains and roads, and an average knowledge of mechanic and engineering comparable to what Earthlings had short before World War II, more or less. Their architecture is sober and functional, in most cases unimaginative and poor by Earthling standards.
Modified plants and animals play most the roles we are used to see machined doing. There is some trains made of steel, some ships, rifles and cannons, but those are new solutions that only have place in specific circumstances where the usual solution of design an living specie to do the job isn't practical. Most transport and communication systems are done by living cells.
Rhalpaves have talking 'dogs', 'dolphins', and 'bats' that are about as intelligent as normal humans, and more capable of independent thought than several human subspecies. They have flying jellyfishes capable to kill entire cities as fast as bomber airplanes, with tentacles of hundreds of meters that eat through stone, metal and flesh as if it was noting. Weaponize microorganisms to kill their enemies is their most traditional idea of "conventional war" since what to them is Ancient times.
If one of their nations finds out the secret of nuclear bombs will take no more than a century for all planet have immunity to huge levels of radiation. Probably considerably less. Chances are that someone will find a way to grow exoskeletons and wood walls capable to endure the impact of such explosions as well, eventually.
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