Utterly Mad

Name: Hydralisk
Designation: Sentient
Homeworld: Presumably an asteroid belt somewhere far, far away.
Language: None. Hydralisks communicate telepathically and thereby use ideas and thoughts as opposed to written language. This means that they do not actually listen to anyone when they speak, and instead simply read their minds to understand their thoughts.
Average height of adults: 8’4-8’8
Skin color: Light grey or blue.
Hair color: N/A
Breathes: Oxygen, oxygenated water.

Strengths:

Telepathic- Hydralisks are born with the innate ability to read the minds of all living things around them. This includes wild animals, as they are able to communicate ideas as opposed to direct language. They cannot read minds through vacuums or through completely sealed objects, as it is a biological function which requires direct access to the brain.

Will to Obey- Hydralisks use their intense mental abilities to subjugate other races under their wills, forcing them to follow commands as long as they are not directly self-harming: Committing suicide/Jumping off a bridge. These abilities amplify based on age, though they seem to curtail somewhere around forty servants. These abilities require a telepathic link in order to function.

Four heads- Hydralisks have four separate heads, each with vicious and gnarled teeth that allow them to tear through many common metals and armors. These heads are capable of snapping at a similar speed that a snake might possess, and are thereby quite dangerous. They are also capable of simultaneously working on four differing thought processes as they have four brains. Obviously, if a head is severed, then its processing power is lost permanently.

Weaknesses:
Hands- Hydralisks lack an appendage that allows them to manipulate their environment in a delicate manner, beyond using their heads. This means that they cannot use some technologies unless they are specially manufactured, or without mechanical assistance.

Machines- Hydralisks communicate through ideas and telepathy, which means that conventional language is lost upon them. Enter machines, which they cannot read, and there is bound to be a communication error.

Low Reproductive Rate- Hydralisks allow their children to consume one another in order to determine the strongest offspring. Clearly, this leads to them having a rather low population.


Distinctions:
No hands. Four heads. Reptillian in appearance, amphibious in reality. Lots of sharp and pointy teeth. Walk on four legs.

Average Lifespan: Something like two-thousand years.

Estimated Population: Six-hundred million
Diet: Meats, Fruits, Fish, Etc.
Communication: Telepathic, explained above.

Culture: Hydralisks are a very scheming people, and constantly fight with one another to assert their dominance. Families of Hydralisks form Clans which rule over individual worlds and colonies, and who battle opposing Clans in an attempt at dominating them. They generally view lesser races as slaves, and inferiors, but are clever enough not to spout this dogma directly at them.

Technology level: Galactic Standard due to their abilities allowing them to essentially steal new technology whenever it is created so long as they can get close enough to its engineers.

General behavior: Prideful and superior, they tend to look down on other races as simply being slave labor, but also recognize that they are outnumbered galactically. They are incredibly manipulative and politically minded. It is perfectly in their nature to suddenly assail an alien world for the sole purpose of enslaving it and forcing it to join their collective, and they are not above holding entire planets hostage when threatened.

History: The Hydralisks supposedly came from some manner of asteroid belt, where they had warred with one another for millennia, never willing to venture away from what they had come to know. It is unknown exactly how long they have possessed space-faring technology, though the advent of hyperspace abilities is relatively new. Terran explorers to the asteroid belt immediately found their minds forfeit to the conniving serpents, and their entire vessel was enslaved under the will of the most powerful Hydralisk who was given the title: Basilisk.

Uniting his people for a short while, the greatest Hydralisk: Asper, led an expedition away from the asteroid belt that had been their home for millennia, and the hungering Hydralisks agreed to set out.

That was a thousand years past, and the Hydralisks have sense carved out a small territory composed of a dozen solar systems for themselves, though they as a whole have fallen back into their bad habits, and once more fight amongst one another in an attempt at becoming dominant.

Notable Player-Characters:

Intent: To create a race of conniving, power hungry aliens who can add something new to the environment, and potentially act as a power-changer if enough effort is put into them.

Rough population number, please.

Never mind, I see that now.

Is this intended to be a PC or NPC race?

Given their numbers and abilities, it'd probably be best if they remain NPC only, at least for now.

I'll add in something along the lines of "They cannot read minds through vacuums or through completely sealed objects, as it is a biological function which requires direct access to the brain."

That should help to limit their abilities a little bit.

I can definitely understand not wanting a single player to ruin the story for everyone, especially with such a small playerbase, but I would warn against restricting any attempts at interfering with someone else's schemes or plots or the like: If people don't feel like they can ever make a difference, then they may not try at all.

Given their numbers and abilities, it'd probably be best if they remain NPC only, at least for now.

I'll add in something along the lines of "They cannot read minds through vacuums or through completely sealed objects, as it is a biological function which requires direct access to the brain."

That should help to limit their abilities a little bit.

I can definitely understand not wanting a single player to ruin the story for everyone, especially with such a small playerbase, but I would warn against restricting any attempts at interfering with someone else's schemes or plots or the like: If people don't feel like they can ever make a difference, then they may not try at all.

there's an inherent difference between messing up someone else's plans and doing so in a way that's just feels blatantly unfair. If someone's character were to happen upon or seek out and find knowledge about someone else's plan and decided to mess with it I'd be willing to let that happen, I'm just not willling to give people the ability to say " I use my mind reading powers to find out what this person is planning" because, for 1) there's not story, there's no work, there's nothing interesting about that from any perspective and 2) it just feels completely unfair and annoying to have someone elses character know everything yours is thinking and being able to act on that knowledge.

It's not refusing to let players influence things it's a refusal to 1) not make them work to do so and 2) to do so in what feels like a completely unfair way to other players who don't have characters of a specific race because that race doesn't interest them.