Vairemi.

Perhaps best represented by its warm and fertile swamps, it contains some of the oldest life in the universe. Though buried religious texts belonging to the old Feltaka Domain would falsely extol that it is the true source of all life in the galaxy, it is no exaggeration to say that it has survived unmolested for longer than almost any known planet. It is unique for being mostly waterlogged; there are few particularly deep bodies of water, and fewer yet not completely overtaken by water-faring plantlife. Its unusually uniform surface instead lends itself to miles of marshes and wetlands, with almost strangling humidity and heat in places as the sun bears down upon them. Yet, in spite of such harsh conditions, Vairemi flourishes with biodiversity almost unheard of; its billions of years of evolution unhindered render it an oasis of highly tuned life.

Stories of its eldritch dangers kept Vairemi from becoming more than a novelty to admire at a distance for most, as it quickly became known throughout the galaxy as a hostile and uninhabitable place. Tales of ships simply disappearing and never being recovered from its deep and hungry marshes plague the planet. Those who ventured to conquer it invariably suffered horrible fates and for various reasons, and the more religious would regard its ancient and untouched nature as evidence that it was sacred ground to be left alone. This, of course, gave way to the Feltaka, who would rise unchallenged over the planet; those who paid mind to Vairemi initially found the Feltaka to be quaint, but few wanted to interfere with the cursed planet to dare step in, and so they flourished.

The Feltaka are but a recent invention of Vairemi's complex ecosystem. Records detailing their evolutionary history were mostly destroyed, and so Vigil Feltakan scientists work to piece together the work that had already been done by the Feltaka Dominion in the past, and the difficult terrain and unbelievably complex biosphere of Vairemi both make such studies difficult. Unknowable quantities of species remain entirely undiscovered on the planet for this reason, and the Feltaka's furthest known ancestral species is still so similar that their roots are poorly understood.

What is not ambiguous, however, is that the Feltakan body itself is a highly efficient machine, designed well to survive in the most inhospitable marshes that Vairemi has to offer. Armed with natural weapons, cloaking ability and situational awareness nonpareil, the Feltaka conquered their environments with the same alarming haste with which they are known to move.

The Feltaka are a species of semi-bipedal, omnivorous creatures that, like many species, do not easily slot into any terrestrial biological classification, and are for purposes of brevity best considered 'quasi-mammalian', being that they do not actually possess mammaries and are completely devoid of hair anywhere on their body. Feltaka have a humanoid—if spindly—shape, but with a staggering eight arms. Though the Feltaka are generally considered to be bipedal, their hands double as feet; Feltaka are able to smoothly drop onto all eight of their arms and move much quicker this way. Of their arms, two are present attached to the shoulders and the rest fan out from about their shoulder blades, the topmost set being the shortest and the bottom-most being the longest, so that they can fit underneath the 'main' pair of arms and reach about the same distance nonetheless.

Feltaka have two fingers and one thumb to each hand, and the ends of their fingers are slightly wider than the rest. Their entire hand can secrete an adhesive fluid, which aids them in climbing. Feltaka have no claws or nails at all, supplanting the need for them with a concealed weapon instead: cleverly cloaked in each palm is a sharpened, hardened shard of bone, which can be unsheathed at will. Similar, blunt bony protrusions are found on each elbow, intended to bludgeon but nowadays usually filed down. Feltakan feet appear much like their hands, with thicker digits and two thumbs positioned on either side of the foot instead.

Feltaka have a relatively humanoid head shape, but with a single, large, cyclopean pink eye. This eye actually contains two functional pupils, which can move independently of each other; both pupils appear as plain black dots. At first glance, the accompanying maw appears normal, though marked by lips of a matching pink; however, Feltaka can unhinge their jaw and open it considerably wider than humans. Their front teeth are extremely sharp, but their molars are duller and better suited for chewing plant matter. Feltaka have a gland in the back of their mouth which produces and contains a highly caustic substance, used primarily for defense but thought to be the vestiges of a method of breaking prey down before consumption. They can accurately projectile-spit a mass of this substance over 30 feet. Adorning their head is a pair of strange, rigid sensory organs; they are long, thick, fleshy protrusions which begin at the top of their head, curve along behind and then up underneath it, flaring out at either side of the jaw, tilted away from it and terminating in a pair of spherical pink bulbs. These bulbs are used to project psiolocatory energy, and detect extremely subtle changes in their environment, intended to uncover cloaked creatures.

Feltaka are highly sensitive to all forms of touch. Their skin is tough and hardy, but even the smallest touch or the brush of an insect will alert them immediately. When idle, a Feltaka's skin is a deep, dark grey, bordering on black and faintly tinted pink by their blood; however, they can quickly transition into natural, passive cloaking. This form of cloaking uses an advanced pigmentation system, using data gathered from psionic extrasensory perception to render the Feltaka almost entirely invisible, perfectly matching the environment, though they must close their eye to achieve this effect in full.  This form of cloaking is unintensive, but they are still faintly visible and fully audible, and more visible when moving. Feltaka may entirely remove pigmentation from their skin as well, giving it a frosty, glassy appearance, and making the underlying musculature and organs distressingly visible.

However, far more impressive are the range of psionic abilities available to Feltaka. Feltaka make use of perception psionics; their senses are highly improved by psionic energy, they are additionally able to sense the presence and movement of all things up to 30 meters when focusing, are capable of sensing, seeing and tracking life through walls, and have reflexes far more powerful than most unenhanced species can achieve. This, however, lends itself to sensory overload, and thus most Feltaka must restrain their sensory psionics at times, and their sensitivity to touch means that most Feltaka avoid physical contact much of the time. Moreover, Feltaka possess a highly specialized blend of various energies, including photokinetic, sonokinetic and telekinetic, which are employed only in allowing the Feltaka to 'full cloak'. Full cloaking deploys a veneer of differing energy types that counteracts gravity and significantly reduces the weight of the Feltaka, silences all noise the Feltaka makes, shrouds Feltaka from most senses, and completely removes them from the visible spectrum. Feltaka cloaked this way reach parity with the weaker end of modern cloaking devices.

Their awareness and stealth capabilities are not their only strength, though. Feltaka are incredibly fast when moving on all ten limbs, currently holding the land speed record among Vigil species and capable of reaching burst speeds of over 80mph regularly. They also have impressive musculature; though appearing spindly, Feltaka wield comparatively unusual physical strength, though not much more than an average human. Finally, they have quite powerful immune and toxin filtration systems, designed to withstand the barrage of contaminants and diseases that plague Vairemi. As for downsides, Feltaka have short lifespans at only 60 years maximum, and recover from injuries poorly: though unsusceptible to infection and very durable, Feltaka have a weak overall growth factor. Additionally, they have a very particular diet which must be managed carefully, requiring specific nutrients in large quantities and yet adversely affected if consuming too many. They fare poorly in colder weather, but can survive quite high temperatures. They have short periods of sleep lasting only three hours, and can stay awake for as much as twenty hours before tiredness sets in.

Feltaka are hermaphroditic, with no sexual dimorphism, and give live birth. Pregnancy lasts approximately eight months. Their mating cycle is relatively unobstructive, though resulting in an expected increase in libido, and lasts approximately two months, occurring every six months.