The premise that this series follows is that humanity does not exist in the Torn multiverse. It is separate from the universe we live. The reason being? Well, growing up I was always more interested in the alien characters of fantasy and science fiction than the human characters and wondered why humans played the main role; so I quite simply thought, why not remove them entirely? Why were humans always the focus in fiction stories? And then I realized, it was for point of reference. It's easier to fall back on an already established history than create a new and unique background from scratch; humans have just that. This can also be a trap for some lazy writing, which is perhaps why some human dominated fantasy stories aren't as sculpted out as fans would like.
Incredibly strong or highly intelligent alien races seem all the more so when stood up beside the always 'balanced' human race. Without humans, the writer doesn't have anything to compare incredible attributes to. Solution? Create a new center of balance. In addition I believe there's concern that readers won't connect to an alien main character the way they would to a human main character thrown into an alien setting. In a story without humans, character development becomes much more important, as well as expounding upon alien cultures. The writing may be more demanding and it may become harder to sell to an audience, but the result is something completely unique, so long as the races populating it are original in their own right. At least, this is the focus with Torn.
And I take the absence of humanity farther than that. Take the words man and woman for example: why would an alien ever speak these words in regards to their own race? Male and female would suffice, but I believe an alien tongue would develop these simple meanings in their own language and speak them even when communicating to other races. It doesn't help the suspension of disbelief when they don't. In Torn, the first race you're introduced to is the Haluur. Haluur refer to their males as luur and their females as feluur. That little detail adds flavor. It wouldn't make sense for Haluur to say "men" or "women", as they are not part of man, i.e. humankind. Countless times have I witnessed this mistake in science fiction and fantasy. This error ranges from minute things such as gender to the naming of armies: for instance, alien ships taking the names of earthly animals or myths.
Another advantage to removing humans is not having to worry about being politically correct. Having a variety of ethnicities play a large part in the main plot is a prominent thing these days. Take superheroes for example, they're always switching up white characters with other ethnicities for balance (curious as to why they don't just create new superheroes, lack of creativity perhaps?) There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, but it is nice to be able to focus on the story and not have to worry about being labeled as a racist because you don't have a particular ethnicity play a part in the story.
I can't think of a science fiction epic that follows this mindset, and if there is one that exists then it must be hiding under a bushel. If you know of any, feel free to leave a comment. I'd love to look into it.
