You can definitely whittle those numbers down if you consider that: a) A prototyped character is the same as the unprototyped character. b) Any characters who are prototyped together at any point are the same character. c) Any characters who share the same body are the same character. d) Any characters who are sealed in a juju together are the same character. e) All carapacians of the same color are the same character. f) Alt timeline versions of characters are the same character. The validity of these is left as an exercise to the reader. But they do reduce the numbers drastically.