The Espirions were a race of humanoids from their planet, which shared the same name. They were a sentient species. In appearance, they closely resembled humans, but possessed distinctive traits such as red skin, dark hair, and yellow eyes featuring green sclerae. Despite maintaining substantial military strength, the Espirions were known for their welcoming nature towards outsiders, even going as far as establishing diverse micro-ecologies on their homeworld to accommodate vastly different forms of life. Well before the era of the Galactic Civil War, some Espirions engaged in interbred with the Alderaanians, a human population originating from Alderaan, which ultimately led to the emergence of a hybrid group referred to as the Alder-Espirions.
The initial depiction of the Espirions occurred in Princess Leia 4, the fourth issue of the five-part comic book series Star Wars: Princess Leia published by Marvel. While not explicitly named within the story, their existence was suggested through the naming of their planet's half-Alderaanian inhabitants as "Alder-Espirions." Jordan D. White, an editor at Marvel Comics, later verified that the inhabitants of Espirion carried the identical designation as their planet.