So, Mass Effect Galaxy reveals something interesting...

I've been doing a little maths to try and work out how many missing species there are, just so I use the right language for the war asset and spectre terminal for my mod. Barla Von claims that 80% of known races acknowledge the council's authority on interstellar matters, so I drew up a quick list of those that do and those that don't.

Do Acknowledge Council Authority:

Asari
Salarians
Turians
Volus
Elcor
Hanar
Drell
Humans
Keepers
Krogan
Quarians

Don't Acknowledge Council Authority:

Geth
Vorcha
Batarians
Yahg
Krogan
Quarians

I haven't included any race mentioned in the Cerberus Daily News, as all are newly discovered and that's post ME2, I wanted a base total before working out where they fit in. I've disregarded Collectors as they're considered myths by most people, as are Reapers, while Leviathans aren't even known of really. Krogan and Quarians are uncertain in how much they respect Council authority, but I'd lean more towards ignoring it than following it.

This leaves us with between 4 and 6 races that are known which don't respect Council authority. If those 4-6 count as 20% of the total races, that means that the races that respect Council authority total's between 16-24 races. 9-11 potentially respecting Council authority, that means that we are missing between 5-15 races. And that is before we factor in races like the Lystheni, Raloi, Collectors, etc. Also, this is running off of the idea that there were no other confirmed races out there that don't respect Council authority which breaks with the lore that says the Terminus Systems are a place where disparate minor species are unified against Council rule. That means that the total that we have not seen is actually even larger!

I find this highly interesting and also very sad.

We'll never know who else is in Council Space.

Yeah, I basically threw in the Keepers because they're at the heart of the Citadel and only exist there, regardless of whether they have any thoughts of their own and their lack of ships. I thought perhaps Barla Von included them, but its hard to know whether he does or not. Either way, it means that we potentially have an extra race missing if we exclude the Keepers from the list of races.

I'd agree with siding with them not following the Council. Quarians certainly are not linked, but it is possible that they might follow certain interstellar laws in Council Space. The Krogan are somewhat different as they don't technically have an interstellar fleet because the Citadel Demilitarisation Enforcement Fleet, and they are far from a united species, so its hard to judge whether they would follow even if they could. In truth, they are more of an N/A when it comes to interstellar council law as its enforced on them rather than abiding by the rules, which they can't abide by as they haven't got a fleet. All in all, I agree with you about putting them on the side of not following council interstellar authority, which means we have more races that are missing.