Triarii

The Triarii are a small, bipedal alien race that comes from the inhospitable planet of Triarius and are the head species of the Collective of Civilised Species. They are one of the longest lived life forms in the galaxy, and among the most intelligent... and most dangerous

Biology
They stand at an average 5'3. They are highly intelligent and have a remarkably low reproduction rate (While this is mainly due to cultural influences. Multiple births are extremely rare with Triarii, the largest number of live births on record being 4. There are 3 of these incidents on records.) Even before birth, the Triarii have a chip inserted into their mind which increases their already high IQ and enhances their inborn 'Psionic' or 'Psychic' powers. Even without this chip, however, they are still the strongest psionic race that is known, save the Aetherii. They somewhat resemble the Greys from earth fiction, which leads to speculation that they may have once visited the planet in the past. The Triarii have never confirmed this, although they have never denied it either. A healthy Triarian will have large, glossy black eyes which may glow orange depending on the amount of energy being used in their psionic powers. This eye has a thin, dull orange iris towards it outer edges, which closes along with the eye lids and plays a major part in psionics. They have a rather frail physical form which makes them poor in close combat, or combat in general when compared to the counter parts of other races. They managed to close this gap somewhat through their advanced technology, but it is still very obvious. They rely on other, absorbed races to help with the combat generally, while they themselves serve as commanders.

Males and Females have a few differences, but no where near the level seen in humans. While females are slightly larger than males, this is rarely a noticable difference. Even examining their body gives few clues to their gender, as many an adventurer has discovered (The Triarii are known for not wearing clothes outside of their envirosuits, other protective clothing or ceremonial clothing) The male has two Hemipeni, contained inside the body which only exit during arousal. Likewise, the females vagina is only open during arousal. Theories as to why this include one about a now extinct parasite that would attempt to enter the womb through the females opening while she was asleep and feed off any offspring as they formed, though it is unknown why the male also developed such a trait. This lack of sexual dimorphism has led to a few embarresing incident involving mistaken gender. There is a small variation in the shape of the eyes between the two genders which someone who is sharp enough may spot in order to tell the difference

Psionic Ability
Their Psionic ability is the strongest of any surviving species in the known universe and is rightly feared. Whether they be tossing cars at your or taking over your mind and bending you to their will, the Triarii's Psionic ability is not to be underestimated. Generally, the more intelligent the Triarian the stronger his ability is, so the higher ranked the Triarian the more dangerous it is to fight him because of his ability. It is unknown why this is, paticularly when other highly intelligent races lack any form of psionic ability. It is known that the Triarian body is designed almost exclusively for psionics which seems to clash with natural selection

As it works off energy, their ability is limited by the energy available to the individual at the time. While there is no 'range' on their powers, it requires sight on a subject in order to use the more powerful abilities. This can be done over screens and camera's, although it is weaker the further away the ability gets. For their lower tier powers, such as sending information between themselves, there is no sight or visual limitations, although they generally have to have made contact with that mind before in order to make long range communication (Exempt are the Triarii themselves, as they can communicate with each other through it without ever having linked their minds before)

Mindfray: This causes pain and causes disruption of the senses and perception on reality. In low willed targets this can cause outright insanity, but for the most part it generally serves as a basic mind attack

Psychokinesis: The ability to manipulate objects with their mind by applying kinetic energy to an object is well known among Triarii. It is an integeral part of Triarian work and life, as their frail form would not allow them to construct their massive constructions by hand. It can also be used as a weapon by applying kinetic energy directly to a target, which can send someone hurtling back at surprising speeds, break bones, tear skin, crush organs and other horrible effects. It can be used to drag all objects to a single area, in a sort of warp affect as well

Biokinesis: This is the manipulation of biological life. By definition, it is having the power to control the biology of an organism. It can be used to force an organ to do something, for example making it grow uncontrollably or making the immune system target it's self. Once the damage is done it does not revert when the Triarii stops using the ability. For example, if the immune system targets and destroys it's self, the victim will be left without an immune system after the Triarii has finished, meaning he will not be able to fight off diseases. However, these changes require the Triarii's direct intervention. If he wanted to make the subjects cells cancerous, he would have to continue to use the ability until the tumor grew to the point that it killed or incapacitated the subject. While this ability does have some combat use, such as forces a tumour to grow inside an opponents joint to prevent movement, it's main use is medical as it can be used to accelerate the clotting and healing of cuts and also force the immune system to target a specific area, so tumors can be destroyed. Despite this, it is not a replacement for medical science. It is only possible to make the organs do something that area already within their function, for instance it is not possible to force the liver to produce insulin, but it is possible to force the pancreas to produce insulin as the pancreas contains the cells to produce insulin while the liver does not.

Psionic Lance: This is a bolt of pure energy that, upon hitting a target, causes major damage, possibly piercing through them.

Psi-Field: This technique is only used by the Triarii. It produces a shimmering 'shield' of energy that can shield the user or a target. Obviously, the more damage inflicted on the 'shield' the more energy is required to sustain it, likewise for surface area, so it is usually only used to shield the user or a small group of people. Alternatively, it can be used to create a platform of Psionic energy that can be used to cross a gap

Pyrokinesis and Cyrokinesis: These two are the psychic abilities to alter the speed of the naturally occurring vibrations of atoms in matter to alter temperature. When they are spoken of together it is referred to as "Thermokinesis" Again, this technique requires much more energy depending on a target. A Triarii would be able to light a candle easily, but would have trouble melting a steel girder as it would simply require more energy than a Triarian would have.

Electrokinesis: This technique is rendered nearly obsolete for combat by the ability to simply strike kinetic energy at a target to break it's bone or tear it. Instead, Electrokinesis is often used to alter the flow of electricity in machinery, an ability which proves vital when dealing with system overloads and also the control over magnetic fields

Telepathy: The ability to send Psychic messages back and forth is used inside the Triarii. It is not limited in range like the other abilities, and does not take much energy to use unless it is for a very far distance. A Triarii cannot make contact with any mind in the universe randomly, line of sight is required for most abilities. Telepathy is the exception, except for first contact. Once contact is made with an individuals mind, telepathy can be used without sighting of them. It can be used to panic or inspire calm by projecting such thoughts

Psycholocation: This is the ability to locate energy through Psionic means. The Triarii are well known for this, locating lost objects with relative ease... though again dependant on distance. While it, thus, cannot be used to scout out asteroid fields, searching for enemy space ships, it can be used to find energy within a 1.5 mile area or so. Because of this, they rarely walk into enemy ambushes unless they did so deliberately. Combined with the machines used by the Oculatus of the Specters, it can be harnessed as a method of detection that, when coupled with conventional detection systems, can locate almost anything that enters it's range

Mind control: A technique of the Triarii, complex and not truely understood by most. Once someone is subjected to this, they will not be able to resist the will of their new master. It is generally used on one sentient target at a time, as subjecting multiple intelligent life forms is much much harder (Though subjecting life forms such as the megarachnids isn't so hard so long as there is no other influence presence, given their comparative lack of individual thought)

Transvection: Due to their ability to manipulate kinetic energy, the Triarii are able to levitate. They use this ability to raise themselves above the ground and reach high up area

Absorbtion: As a result of their genetic engineering by the Aetherii, The Triarii possess the ability to absorb any energy and they often use this to restore energy spent using their Psionic abilities. To a degree, this also allows them to absorb forces put on them, such as kinetic, or energies used on them. However, should a Triarii absorb more than he is able to disperse through whatever means, he will die as his body 'overloads'. This is often coupled with the shield, for example the often used military technique in which a Triarii absorbs the energy of approaching projectiles and transferring the energy to the another Triarian who is holding up a shield to ward of the projectiles which energy cannot be absorbed without killing the Triarii. This can be done by a single Triarian, though it is less effective

Chemoreading: This ability allows a Triarii to derive information such as the number of atoms in a substances, the relative atomic mass of it or it's components and more. It is generally used to identify substances or examine objects.

Gravitational field: Due to their ability to manipulate forces, they have the ability to create a minor gravitational field to pull light objects and some light enemies towards a specific focal point. This rarely lasts longer than a few seconds unless maintained with focus, and is mostly used to pull an enemy out from behind unmovable cover, since abilities generally require them to see where they are trying to manipulate and an enemy may hide from sight

WIP

History
The Triarii are a highly intelligent species. They managed a rather quick evolution from hunter-gather to space faring species. With their doctrine built solely around the greater good, war was almost completely unheard of, soldiers being bogeymen with which to threaten children. The greatest war in Early Triarian History was the War of Tenebris, or War of the dark times, which lasted a mere one earth day and left only 102 dead.

This apparent pacifist route did not remain with their newly space born nation after the technology associated with space travel was constructed, but instead they began conquering and absorbing other species into their Collective. The exact reasons for this baffle many historians today and the Collective has no interest in sharing its oldest records which could provide some insight.

Homeworld
The Triarii's homeplanet, Triarius is inhospitable. There is NO water. Instead, the liquid that Triarius' creatures drink is not unlike lava in that it is molten rock. This is because they live off of elements found in the ground. Their planet is unnaturally hot, there is very little life which can survive there. The Triarii need hot conditions to survive and will die on colder planets, though they can survive for some time on warmer planets (Or in the warmer parts of some planets, such as deserts of earth) Because of this, the Triarii are very resistant to fire and thus often continue to control their ships even once the fire reachs the cockpit or command bridge.