Archonum

History

To settlers on the fringes of the Stellar Empire galaxy, the Archonum are considered a ghost story or cryptid folklore. They have spent millennia subsisting on other sentient races. Numerous abductions have occurred, and settlements have been harvested with nearly no survivors.

Scattered tales from deep space pirates of Longshot, survivors driven mad by what they saw, are all the galactic community has to reference. Most major empires won’t even acknowledge the legitimacy of the Archonum species. Most “proof” is the remains of abandoned hive clusters with minimal biological remains to decipher their origins.

Given the lack of survivors, pirates are blamed for many lost ships. Without significant evidence and ships seeming to disappear completely, the Archonum infestation goes uncatalogued.

Population

It is, as of yet, unknown the exact location of the Archonum homeworld and how large their population has reached;

• (Homeworld) - xx Billion
• Other Worlds - xx Million

--Total Galactic Population: xx Billion--

Biology

Cranial Morphology

The head of the Archonum exhibits a unique fusion of insectoid and cephalopodan traits, optimized for multi-sensory processing in subterranean and dimly lit environments. The cranial dome is elongated and slightly asymmetrical, forming a chitinous carapace that provides substantial protection to the anterior neural cluster housed beneath. The neural cluster comprises a tri-lobed brain, with significant strength to its upper third, ‘back brain’, where psionic emissions reside.

Psionic Capacity (Hypnotism)

Under this dome-shaped head, the anterior neural cluster emits a psionic hypnotism that freezes the intended prey in their steps. The hypnotized victim cannot move, and the psionic emission dulls the connection to their adrenaline response, rendering them sedate.

For psionically-impervious victims, the Archonum has a venomous barb at the back of its skull, which acts like a thin whip to attack its prey or deliver a stinging strike. The barb injects a paralyzing venom into the prey’s nervous system, causing temporary (sometimes permanent) paralysis. This gives the Archonum ample time to abscond with their feast.

Housed in the upper third, the psionic emissions are protected from the brunt of physical attack, ensuring continued defense of the organism from any other attacker.

Visual System

Featuring four pairs of large black eyes that stretch up from the front of the skull to its top, the Archonum has keen visual acuity. Developed over many millennia of adaptation to cavernous asteroid belts, sun-starved planetoids, and the very void of fringe space, their neural cluster patches together their ocular network into a singular 360-degree view of their surroundings, with significant low light (even infrared vision in some known instances).

Limited Sense

The Archonum have no sense of smell (with no true nasal cavity), except through their tongues to sense odors and heat signatures.

Physique

The plated carapace of the Archonum keeps most light ballistics from causing mortal damage. However, due to reliance on their psionic and venomous attacks, Archonum can be easily overpowered by stronger species with the mental strength and agility to avoid these attacks.

Culture

The Archonum are a sentient, but primitive, race with a loose affiliation with each other. They are most connected in their own internal hive clusters.

Hive Clusters

Within their small hive-like clusters, Archonum utilize a singular collective consciousness but still maintain semi-autonomous individual control of their biological functions, including their ability to hunt, build, hide, and spy. No single individual Archonum maintains the cluster, but its collective knowledge is shared across all individuals. If one individual is destroyed, their collective remains intact, and it only takes one surviving individual to keep a cluster in operation.

Notes

<references> ‎<ref name="population">Planets where Archonum population is greater than 10 Million</ref> </references>