Kaleshi
The Kelashi were once an extremely proud, wealthy, and powerful race that ruled over a vast space empire in another corner of the galaxy, hundreds of years ago. Due to their own intense hubris, they drew the ire of a Majin Lord who was charting the space for his own dreams of conquest. He played the Kelashi against each other, using their legendary greed, and exploited the incalculable potential energy that resulted from the following civil war to permanently, magically change the Kelashi. This twisted spell rendered them nearly inverted versions of themselves, driven insane by an inexplicable need to spend every moment serving others. The majority of the crippled race was corralled by the Majins, and they exist today as self-driven slaves of countless Majin. Some, however, maintained enough of their sanity to escape the Majin's net to search the galaxy for other masters.
Physiology
The Kelashi are descended from several species of closely-related, fleshy humanoids with subtle, insect-like qualities who coexisted and evolved for eons. Because the subspecies divide still exists in their race to a subtle degree, not all Kelashi are exactly alike in anatomy. They all have many traits in common, however, to the point where it is not difficult to identify any Kelashi for their race from appearance.
Kelashi are hatched from buried eggs, rather than birthed as most mammalian species are, but the eggs are fertilized in a manner similar to human conception. They are all humanoids, or mostly humanoids, that possess a shale gray skin that is similar in texture to a lizard's scales, but much finer. Their most noticeable common quality is usually the horns that emerge from their heads at various points. The number, coloration, size, and shape of these horns vary from one member of the species to another. Kelashi who are of higher castes in their society tend to be born with longer and more elaborate horns, and the bigger these horns are, the more the person they belong to tends to prize them as a symbol of their pride. Longer horns are sometimes forcibly styled into unorthodox shapes during their youths, so as to project the individuality of their owner. Their eyes are yellow, with universally black pupils, which have the ability to see into the infrared spectrum -- allowing them to see perfectly well even in places where most would see only pitched darkness. This also allows them to see anything that has heat as though it was glowing. Their mouths are full of pointed teeth, and many have long fangs for canines that protrude slightly even when their mouth is closed. Their hands and feet, while usually mostly human-like, are usually adorned with claws, which sometimes are attached to venom sacs.
Kelashi blood varies in color across the visible spectrum, and was once used to gauge the caste an individual was born to. Those closer to red were of lower rank, while those closer to violet were the most respected. This was primarily because those with redder blood had more physically superior genes, while those with more violet blood tended to be more cunning, and possessed of natural psionic talent. There once was an assortment of blacks and grays in the bloodlines, but these tended to be subsentient brutes, capable of only screaming and herculean destruction, and were bred out of the racial gene pool long ago, when Kelashi stopped having to fight for themselves.
Speaking of physical activity, Kelashi never become "fat" as humans and some other races do, due to sedentary lifestyles and inactivity. Their appetite for food diminishes and grows with their physical activity, and their bodies waste whatever cannot be used in the relative short term. Their muscles, on the other hand, can be either weak and lacking from disuse, or bulky and powerful from excessive use. This variable metabolism requires them to eat regularly, however; they cannot fast for longer than a few days, and it often has immediate, visible effects on their well-being.
Variations in Kelashi have been known to include, but not be limited to adaptations to aquatic environments (allowing some to exist entirely underwater), extraordinarily refined taste that can actually "see" better than their eyes, specialized reproductive systems that can custom-breed swarms of lesser organisms, increased numbers of limbs, and glands that can excrete useful substances, like a spider's silk.
Former Society and Behavior
The Kelashi Empire once covered thousands of stellar systems, and enslaved or subjugated hundreds of conquered races. Its borders grew as their burgeoning population required new lands to rule over. Despite this aggressive stance toward other civilizations, they were not necessarily overly cruel or demanding masters of those they brought under their thumb, and they were clever enough to avoid hostilities and foster trade with empires they believed might be too resilient, powerful, or well-connected to bring low. While they were not particularly well-liked as a race, due to their obnoxious elitism and greed, they were generally tolerated by their bigger neighbors, since the products and services brought by the people they controlled were often enormously cheaper than similar goods from free peoples who decided their own market worth.
At the top of the Empire, there sat her Imperial Deific, the Empress of the Kelashi. Their leader was always a female, and was always very, very carefully bred and raised in a highly manicured environment, away from the rest of the populace. As a result of this extreme care and treatment, the Empress always has the most purple violet blood of all Kelashi. Some rumors reported that it even possessed an ultraviolet glow proportionate to her power. Though this Empress almost never saw battle first-hand, her psionic powers were said to be so exceptional that she could speak directly to any of her subjects from any distance, and if she so wished, a fully grown Empress could bodily move and crush entire planets with her mind. It was through her will and direction that the Kelashi Empire grew and thrived. Her intellect was said to be unfathomable. Her image projected respect and fear into even the greatest of her own people. A single Empress could often live for hundreds of years, sustained by her own stubborn and psychically dominating refusal to age.
Directly beneath her was a cult of dark enforcers, those of violet blood, who carried out the spirit of the Empress's will and acted essentially as free agents of the crown, with authority to do almost anything they wanted, so long as it was in the favor of the Empress. They frequently operated in the shadows and used their mental powers to make others their puppets. They also wore elaborate costumes and masked their identities on the rare circumstance that they met someone in person, so as to protect themselves from being targeted by assassins. The masks would then be copied and given to other people, who would be forced to wear them when they carried out the cultist's bidding. These masks became part of their identity as much as their own real faces, and only the Empress ever saw an adult member of the cult without their mask.
Then came the regional administrators and politicians, of blue and indigo blood, who presided over whole star systems and clusters, often in groups. To many outsiders, they were the face of the Kaleshi people, and they tended to embody the best and worst of their stereotypes. They forever yearned to own everything that they could, and have command over the greatest, best, and most luxurious things possible. Possessed by material greed, but tempered by a wily cunning that took most other races by surprise, these power players knew what to say to whom to make things happen in their favor. They knew what moves to make to progress themselves and their Empire. Theirs were the lives that lower Kaleshi dreamed of having. Tragically, it was through their own avarice and manipulative ways that the Empire was destroyed.
After the administrators were the commanders and leaders. These green and yellow blooded individuals marshalled the many Imperial fleets and armies, including their slave warriors. They also governed planets, or provinces of planets. Some green-bloods were bred specifically for upkeeping the Home Swarm, a host of sub-sentient creatures genetically spliced and bred to watch over the Kaleshi homeworld, where their people generally went to deposit their eggs, and those eggs were then hatched and raised by the Swarm until they reached adulthood.
The lowest of the Kaleshi were the red-bloods and orange-bloods, and these formed the bulk of Kaleshi society. This wasn't to say that they were, by any means, at the bottom of the Empire's pile; they simply tended only to have authority over one another, or over groups of other races. They often ran businesses and oversaw the finer details of the Empire's economy. When they entered the battlefield, they were given the best equipment available, and generally had their own vanguards of warrior slaves. Usually lacking psychic talent, these warriors were instead extraordinary martial masters, capable of taking on groups of enemy warriors at a time.
