Kinda late, but

Blue-skinned people exist on Earth. Certainly this happens for particular reasons, but it's not impossible for such reasons to be widespread. And after posting this I did see that others had posted about these things.

However, the question of "evolution" with regards to Altarians is kind of missing the point - their evolution was heavily influenced by one of the Mithrilar and wraiths themselves exist because of a specific event in Altar's history, not because of evolution.

In elemental the titans genetically altered many different races with their experiments producing various shades of gray skin (or slightly blue, in this case). The above picture, looks closely related to the Wraith skin color in elemental, which came about due to a magic stone that backlashed and basically made this race. Possible interbreeding of the fallen races (more gray skinned ones) and the other races could have easily produced a blue tint to these races.

I've not a clue where the game elemental lives in the story of Altar and the Gal Civ 3 timeline, but there are gray skinned (gray / blue) Yithril, Quendar, Wraith, Trogs. The war of elemental leaves many alliances and broken treaties. It could very well be that the blue skinned people are decendants of the Krax and Yithril. But that is speculation and Brad could confirm, deny, or chuckle as he reads this thread and say nothing.

Other causes of this skin color from the planet could have occured due to over exposure to the cataclysm that befell elemental, causing a reaction within the people. Those that developed this blue skin are the ones who survived this reaction and forever is it ingrained in their children.

Edit: For a good read about elemental https://www.elementalgame.com/hiergamenon

Okay, regarding evolution and Altarians, that's in GalCiv materials. The Mithrilar and Draginol (the Mithrilar who was hanging out on Altar) are explained in links from this thread:

https://forums.galciv2.com/127754

Altarians look like humans because Draginol ended up there and made them look like humans, I think through passive influence. There were also wars involving the Dread Lords and the Arnor, resulting in a cataclysm that broke the world a bit. The history in the Elemental games parallels events in GalCiv, although in much more detail. But even ignoring Elemental, GalCiv still establishes that Altarian evolution was tampered with to make them appear human. The Altarian History tech in TotA spells out that there were multiple races on Altaria in direct conflict with each other.

In Elemental, wraiths are pale bluish-skinned people that changed in some way due to a particular event involving their leader binding them to her through the use of magic. I haven't played the campaign so I do not know the specific details.

Brad already stated earlier in the thread that he would confirm or deny nothing. All that's left is to go over the histories and information presented in both games and see where they coincide - which is in multiple places. Mentions of characters such as Tandis and events such as the cataclysm, the parallels between the titans and the Dread Lords. Like:

https://www.elementalgame.com/fallen-enchantress/myths discusses Tandis directly.

Tandis is also, IIRC, the Arnor who gives terror star technology to the Terrans in Twilight of the Arnor. Plus, of course, Altarians can build the Shrine of Tandis. 

In Twilight of the Arnor, you can find a lot of information about Altarian history and Altarian "magic" in the Altarian techtree. 

So, I wouldn't swear that they're the same, but they seem similar enough and draw on enough common sources that I would hesitate to deny it.

 As far as natural evolution goes, if humans can end up with blue skin due to genetics or colloidal silver, human-like beings can end up with blue skin without having drastically different biochemistry. It's not necessary for such a trait to have a specific purpose that lends itself to survival. It may simply not be sufficient to prevent survival.

Does that mean there are red and green Altarians?

I think the question we have to start asking now is how to pronounce it!

My instinctive pronunciation is Akàri Malàra.

Or is it Akarì Malarà?? Argh!

I've figured out that Frogboy is Brad and that Brad is in charge of the game right now. Also that he has replaced a woman that retired to be with her kids, and that Brad was originally in charge of art. I think that is right if I'm wrong please correct me.

The reason I wouldn't let it drop is because the game doesn't say they just don't look alike, but they are the same species. I knew that Altaria was an outpost of the Dreadlords, and this what affected it. Inter dimensional time traveling humans like on sliders is a good explanation for this. The Arnor being human. Humans evolved on earth developed inter dimensional travel, and showed up at the beginning of this. They were really advanced, and new how to utilize dark energy. During a cival war one of 2 factions set up an outpost on Altaria, and accidentally affected the evolution of the species on the planet. This planet had evolved multiple sentient species other than humans. Thanks Wraith. This satisfactorily answer the question.t

One other thing. Can I see pics of all the species of the Altarians and the Krynn.

Guys, guys we are mssing the most important question: Is she single?

Thank you!

People all up in this thread acting like blue skin is some kind of bad science fiction made up nonsense need to chill.

Polar bears have black skin, tigers skin mimics their coat, and tarantulas and some other inverts actually have blue blood.

What Brad hasn't mentioned here that most of us know is that he invented Galactic Civilizations, dreamed up the back story, established StarDock, (all three about 20 years ago), and is, and always has been, in charge of StarDock (currently the CEO. Sorry, I don't know what titles he had before CEO, but they were always the top spot).

I've always half-seriously theorized that "DL Bradley" was derived from "Brad(ley) Wardell".

Is your avatar pic a GC3 Yor?

I like her.  Maybe the thing with the eye-liner is a bit much, but I like it more than the tattoo.  She's exactly what you'd expect in an alien supreme leader:  She's very haughty.  Some more color in her clothing would be nice, kinda make her stand out better.