Olgdomite

Olgdomites are alien entitys comprised of several spheroid shells covered in flesh and bone and protecting what are presumably vital organs. From the flesh of these spheres exude countless threadlike tendrils that make up the bulk of the organism, working together to act as single, larger appendages or delicate, individual manipulators as necessary. Specialized eyestalk tendrils will also be visible, notable for the single small black eye on the end. They are often seen in public mimicking the bipedal form, although it is a rough approximation at best. Why they do this is unknown.

Culture, from what can be viewed, is erratic at best an completely illogical at worst. In trade, the will offer deals that range from borderline theft to paradoxically self-harming, and their diplomatic behavior could change in the blink of an eye. They may war with a planet for no reason and carry it on for years, only to suddenly cease and act like nothing happened, and then promptly offer them a lopsided trade deal that no sane man would sign. Internally, intelligence seems to be the most valued attribute of their society, and in their cities one can see countless games being played in public squares, with onlooking crowds silently and attentively watching. One can see dodecahedron-shaped boardgames with chess-like pieces being moved between sides, or antigravity platforms on which miniature space battles are fought between strategists. To date, no recognized Olgdomite official has been seen losing one of these games.

Olgdomite cities are mazes of inverted brass pyramids and towering segmented obelisks that sway in the sky even when there is no wind. On the wide plazas of the ground one can see merchants in stands hawking incomprehensible tools and artifacts, or arenas where the crowds watch the aforementioned games of skill. Olgdomites do not speak to one another via soundwaves, so their cities may sound eerily quiet save for the moaning of metal machines and the sounds of the automatons.

The Automatons are what move Olgdomites from being merely alien to truely inhuman. Countless cybernetic organisms, a mix of exposed wires and pistons and the corpses (it is prayed that they are corpses) of many known sentient species, populate Olgdomite cities. There have been documented encounters with automations using Glitch brands fused to their headplate (or elsewhere) to facilitate plasma manipulation, Glitch bodies that twitch and shudder as they're moved by skittering brass insectoid legs that just out of the gaps in their plates, Floran bodies being moved by a welded-on exoskeleton with wired stabbing into its skin, and many others. Each automaton seems to be a unique tangle of the body parts and pistons and wires, although there are naturally some that seem to resemble one another. They appear to be used by Olgdomites in the same way most other species use the lower class. They maintain and repair the great cities and perform other menial tasks. In addition, they are often used for war, with huge mobs of them swarming into cities, carrying off prisoners and even corpses. These are presumably made into new automatons and the cycle continues.

Recently, a disturbing theory has emerged amongst the xenopsychology committees of several species. The theory states that since Olgdomites seem to base their entire culture (as far as can be seen) on contests of skill and strategy, and the fact that they do not seem to care at all for the well-being of other species, they do not see any other species as intelligent and in fact see the universe and everything in it as just another puzzle to be solved or game to be won. They may well see no issue with using any resource given to them in order to succeed, and could regard all things in the universe as nothing but resources. Certain anti-alien activist groups claim that if they get their way, every planet will just be a brass sphere comprised of endless pyramids and monoliths where the Olgdomite live, and underneath them shall march the automation-corpses, the last remnants of dead species who now eternally serve the masters of the final game.