Settings where humans aren't 'The Mario'

[Coidzor]

I wouldn't say that, exactly. There are other sapient beings which are similar to humans, but they treat humans more or less like we treat lab rats, pest creatures or service animals.

Basically, there are creatures which could potentially be innocuous to human life, they're just rarely ever encountered in a state when the meeting would produce neutral or beneficial responses from the human's side of things. Because that's not what the story is about.

Mostly I meant that even amongst themselves it's all "X slaughtered all of the Y for ****s and giggles while joyriding on a saturday night equivalent after Y had reigned over a slave empire of Zs for a thousand yerblatz."

Whereas humans, I mean, well, their reactions run the gamut of trying to have sex with 'em, worshipping 'em, trying to study 'em, wanting to deck 'em in the schnoz, and going insane at the revelation that they're not alone in the universe.