Grey Facial Concept
The Grey are a race unlike any other. While all races have had their own hardships and trials, most sentient races evolve on planets not just conducive to life, but to highly evolved, sentient life. The Grey, on the other hand, evolved on a world constantly teetering on ecological collapse. They became a race of survivors adapting to harsh conditions and learning how to claw their way back from the brink of ruin.
For many races, The Grey are the boogie men; they are the things that go bump in the night. It amuses most to have achieved such a title; they are what the Universe has made them, after all, and if that's a thing to be feared, then so be it. Some even revel in it; the Universe has tried to destroy them time and time again, but it has failed. Maybe it was the Universe that should fear them.
¶ Racial Name
If you asked one what their race is called, they would tell you, "Our race has no name." This is what lead the Sooni to calling them "the grey ones" or eventually, "the grey". It was as much a comment on their skin color as on their outlook on the universe. The Grey seem to accept the moniker, but clearly view it more as a nick name than anything else. At most they would consider it, "one of the names we are known by." This is supported by the NorAellians calling them "ThraSyl YarVik", or "Seekers of Pain, Warriors of Fear".
In truth, the situation is a bit more complicated than they would like outsiders to know. They don't have a single name or phrase they associate with themselves, but rather three. There are "Xuthios" meaning "the ones who live", "Antathios", meaning "the ones who've died" and "Tharathios" meaning "the ones yet to live". To them, there is no implied continuity to their race, so each is a distinct and separate group.
The reason for their reluctance to share these terms with outsiders is unclear, however, they also don't like sharing their individual names either, leading many to the wrong conclusion that they do not have them. Rhaenvaeh has clearly shown otherwise.
¶ History
The Grey's homeworld was once a lush, thriving world, teeming with life. the Grey's ancestors were small, arboreal creatures reminiscent of sloths. They lived in semi-arid environments, living entirely in great savannah trees. They used their unique dual forearms to hang to the trees their entire lives.
A rogue planetoid passed through their solar system, pulling their planet past the Goldilocks Zone towards their sun. Devistating earthquakes racked the planet, and the temperature rose quickly. Most of the life on the planet died, with very few creatures able to adapt to the devastation. However, the planet's orbit was unstable; it would periodically wobble back inside the temperate zone long enough for life to thrive for a decade or two, before wobbling back towards the sun with devistating results. While these orbit changes were cyclical, they were difficult to predict. They could last a few years, or a few decades, but never longer than that.
Grey Body Concept (unfinished head)
This pattern of unpredictable ruin and renewal lead the few surviving species to adapt in very unique ways. For the Grey, they developed two critical adaptations. First: a form of biological memory, allowing them to pass on everything they've learned to their offspring. The more complete the memory was, the better the offspring survived, until what was passed along was the parent's complete life, up to the moment of conception. It was later learned that cannibalism also transferred memory, allowing an entire individuals life memories to be transferred.
The second adaptation was the ability to hibernate for decades while their planet was uninhabitable. As the cycles continued they began to be able to survive for longer in more extreme temperatures with little to no breathable atmosphere and no sources of food. Now, the only thing they require to survive is minimal autospheric pressure and the temperature to not be too high.
The byproduct of these adaptation was that Grey society became immune to the ravages of their planet. They developed language and science and art and music as if they weren't having every record of their species accomplishments erased every few years. But, it also pushed them in a very unique direction; they grew a distrust in machines, tools, things built by one's hand. Buildings and tools were destroyed. It was in life that knowledge persisted. So, as they grew, they learned how to manipulate the life around them, first through selective breeding, and then through more advanced techniques.
¶ Organic Technology
The Grey were pragmatic; they might only have a few years this cycle before civilization was destroyed; they didn't bother with things like houses or clothing. Instead, each cycle, the focus was on perfecting helper organisms for the next cycle to let them rebuild faster. This lead to them inventing biomechanical organisms; they used any organisms that adapted to their planet's destruction cycle, but preferred using themselves as the template; most of their technology is a close genetic relative to themselves.
¶ Space Travel
The Grey understood a great deal about their solar system without being able to build a single satellite. For them, it was aspirational. Most of their focus was on surviving the next cycle, but they also wanted to, one day, escape above the clouds and confirm for themselves what they believed to be true from their own observations.
Eventually, after nearly a thousand years of effort, they managed to produce a biomechanical rocket that took the first of them into orbit around their planet. This first Grey in space did not survive the return, but to preserve his knowledge, his fellows consumed his flesh, and learned what worked and what did not. It only took them another few cycles before they had put a biomechanical space station in orbit.
From here, it was only a century before they had established off-world mining of asteroids, for the production of in-orbit habitats. As many of their people as possible lived and worked in orbit; as harsh as it was, it was infinitely better than the cycles of destruction on their homeworld. They forced themselves to become a space-faring race out of necessity.
¶ The Overseers
The Overseers had been aware of the Grey for a long time. They watched with interest as the race struggled, noting that for a race without access to Focus, they had an impressive amount of will. At first, the Overseers attempted to experiment with them trying to give them access to Focus. These experiments failed, so instead the Overseers made contact and helped elevate their technology by thousands of years.
At the time, the Grey had already discovered subspace, but had not built a successful drive. The Overseers changed that, helping them perfect their biological technology, leading to the creation of the first true living ships.
The Overseers attempted to set themselves up as Gods to the Grey, but the Grey had no interest in worshiping a race. They saw the Overseers for what they were; a more advanced race taking an interest in a younger race, nothing more. So, the Overseers decided to step back and see what the Grey do with their new found power.
¶ Conquerors
The Grey, for their part, saw the universe as unforgiving and harsh. The believed that they were better for the pain and suffering that had been inflicted on them; their greatest scientific achievements came because of the harsh need to survive. As they encountered other races, they learned of the wars and fighting amongst themselves that the other races had done. They also learned that most technological advancement came about through war, not peace.
The Grey, at this point, had never experienced a war before. The concept seemed straightforward enough to them; a bunch of sentients got together and tried to kill each other. Whichever side survived, won. What was alien to them was a race doing it to themselves; the Universe was harsh enough, why would any sane creatures create conflict? It was pointed out to them that war need not be amongst one's own kind, you could easily have conflict with other species
Being pragmatists, they decided to try out war for themselves. Since other races seemed to get something out of it, perhaps they would, too.
Despite being inexperienced at it, the Grey also had never encountered the concept of 'war crimes', or that some acts in war were reprehensible. The completed wiped out the first two races they went to war with in a matter of weeks. The other races that they'd met formed a coalition against them, and attempted to bring war to the Grey. A bit confused, the Grey fought this new war as well, until they were introduced to the concept of 'surrender'. They had wiped out most of the coalition, and the few remaining survivors surrendered. Unsure what to do, now, the Grey helped them rebuild their worlds and provided assistance.
A few decades later, the survivors challenged the Grey again. And lost, again. Fearing a perpetual cycle, the Grey instituted strict controls on the other races when they helped them rebuild a second time. They Grey had become conquerors.
¶ Emissaries of Pain
The Grey watched as the conquered species under their control flourished and realized that if it had not been for their war, they would not have progressed as much as they had. It occurred to the Grey that, perhaps, the Universe was guiding them. Most races experienced so little hardship and pain that they had to cause it to themselves. Clearly, it was through conflict and struggle that life flourished; perhaps it was up to the Grey to bring that conflict and struggle to those that didn't have it enough.
The Grey set out to bring war indiscriminantly to their galaxy. And they did, devastating worlds and bringing species to the brink of destruction. They developed a religion of pain, practically worshiping it. It wasn't until the Sooni that they encountered a foe that challenged them, and even then, in the end, they won.
That is, until the Sooni spent decades manipulating the Grey and turning them into their servants. It took centuries, but the Sooni taught the Grey the benefits of subtlety and patience.
Now, the Grey are servants of the Sooni, content to continue their role as emissaries of pain, but with new masters. They have no desire to change this course, unless the Universe provied a new calling for them.
¶ The Secret Rebellion
That is, the Sooni think the Grey are content with their role as Emissaries of Pain. In truth, the Grey wish to be free from the Sooni yolk. While there are factions of Grey who do honestly believe themselves to be doing the Universe's work, they are in the minority. The majority of their race has now come to see their enslavement to the Sooni as the Universe punishing them for their hubris. They are not a tool for the Universe any more than rock or a supernova is. It is not their place to think they know better than the Universe; they should simply exist and let the Universe see to itself.
This shift in thinking led to the creation of a secret rebellion. Its leader, Rhaenvaeh, is a self-titled scientist; she wishes to dedicate her people to the pursuit of understanding the Universe, not controlling it. She is considered one of the Grey's greatest philosophers, scientists and leaders. (She adds on several more things she's the best at, if asked.)
Rhaenvaeh is playing a very long game, planning out the next thousand years for her people. Her involvement with the Heretics is simply a means to an end, allowing her to get to a place where the Sooni can't reach her, so she can plan and plot and lead in relative comfort.
¶ Biology
The Grey are near-mammal humanoids. Their skin is ruddy tan with darker earth tones. They are omnivores, capable of going extended periods of time without food or water. They possess the ability to hibernate for decades at a time, and can survive extremes temperatures (both hot and cold). They are incredibly physically imposing, being both faster and stronger than your average Human or Lyndri.
¶ Lifespan
Grey lifespan is an interestingly complex topic. Because of how unlikely it was for them to survive very long at all, they mature incredibly quickly, reaching adolescents within the first year of life. They are fully adults at 18 months. If nothing else interferes, they reach old age at twenty five, and live between thirty and forty years.
However, the complication is their ability to hibernate. They can hibernate for incredibly long periods of time as long as it's cold enough. With a little bit of technological assistance the decades or centuries of natural hibernation becomes almost infinite. They still only have about thirty years of active life, but could live for hundreds of years as long as most of it was hibernating.
¶ Genetic Memory
Probably the most unique thing about the Grey is their genetic memory. They have the memory of every ancestor, as well as anyone those ancestors have ever consumed. Everything each of them ever was is preserved in that genetic memory; their hopes, their fears, who they loved and who they hated. The Grey have an overdeveloped ability to disassociate. This allowed them to compartmentalize their memories and their sense of self, not letting the memories of all of those over lives from influencing their own.
This memory can be transferred either by reproduction or by consuming the flesh of another member of their species. Interestingly enough, the cannibalism does not have to be done while the subject is alive, though the longer they've been dead the more flesh must be consumed to gain a complete memory transfer. (Partial memory transfers are possible.)
¶ Focus
The Grey, while gifted with exceptional will, are not able to use Focus.
¶ Society
Grey society is an interesting thing. Facing near constant extinction from one's own planet left them with very little time to do the kinds of things most races do, like fight amongst themselves, or build multiple nations. Their population was measured in the hundreds of thousands until they built their first space station and some of them could survive the cycles of devastation.
However, because they were never starting over from scratch, they developed some very rich arts along with all their scientific progress. Since learned skills are passed along with the memory, most Grey are exceptional musicians, vocalists, painters, sculptors and poets. They simply have to access their ancestral memory and can conjure the skills required. But, because access to such things is so ubiquitous, they rarely feel the need to express themselves like that.
There are rare individuals who do feel compelled to write, or paint, or sculpt. Those individuals are considered gifted and are elevated amongst the Grey. They are given the ability to pursue their passions without concern for their needs; Grey society as a whole bands together to support them. But they also band together to protect them; very few races even know the Grey are capable of such things; they promote the idea that they are all brutes as a form of deceptions against the rest of the universe. After all it's much harder to kill something you don't know exists.
¶ Religion
The Grey developed a religion worshiping pain. They believe that existence is an attempt by the Universe to understand itself. They believe that sentient creatures contain a piece of the universe, and everything that sentient experiences returns to the universe upon death. However, the universe doesn't seem to create scenarios where life is easy; instead struggle seems to be the most common experience of all sentients, just some more than others. So they believe this is proof that the Universe can only understand itself through pain, fear, and struggle. So, as pieces of the universe they feel it is their sacred duty to cause as much pain, fear and struggle in the universe as possible.
¶ Plot
The Grey are the antagonists roped into the conflict. They are intended to be the "big scary aliens" with the impressive technology. However, once the fight is brought to the Sooni, the Grey will play a much larger role in the overall story.
¶ Behind the Scenes
The Grey are based a lot on the Shadows from Babylon 5, especially their organic ships. However, the race itself has morphed a lot, becoming something much different (and in my opinion, better.) I really wanted to make a race of bloodthristy monsters who have a very rational reasoning for being monsters, and are just as capable of writing a sonnet as they are of eradicating all life on a planet.