The Fading Stars, Traveller rpg setting

Pryfyn, Insectiod Race

The Pryfyn are a predatory insectoid race from outside of known human space. They are innately aggressive and competitive in nature due to their overwhelming desire to reproduce. They are all one gender and spawn by injecting their eggs in to the bodies of other organisms. While these creatures do not have to be intelligent, there is a link between the IQ of the host and the IQ of the subsequent larvae and eventual adult Pryfyn. The ideal host is in fact another Pryfyn and this led to endless cycles of war on the home world. The discovery of a race of bipedal primate mammals on another planet in their star system spurred them on as these aliens served as near perfect hosts for reproduction. Since then their discovery of jump technology has taken them beyond their star system in the search of new worlds to colonise and new hosts to harvest.

The average Pryfyn stands approximately 1.8 metres tall and is slender compared to humans weighing around 65 kilos.  They are not as strong but tend to be more dexterous. They have superior compound and panoramic vision, also being able to see ultraviolet light, while their antenna gives them excellent hearing. They communicate in a sound range beyond human hearing using their mandibles to create high frequency vibrations. They also give off pheromones when a hormone similar to Adrenaline is released that it is reported as smelling like hydrogen sulphide; rotten eggs.  They are resistant to both to atmospheric contaminents and radiation having slowly evolved on their ecologically devastated homeworld.   

Pryfyn are omnivores that are attracted to decaying foodstuffs and have no taboos about cannibalism. The average Pryfyn can expect to live for over forty standard years while one from an inferior host will be lucky to reach thirty years. If a Pryfyn’s tail is severed it will greatly reduce its level of aggression, assuming it survives the traumatic experience. These castrated Pryfyn are much more docile but have shorter life expectancies.

Pryfyn culture is dominated by the urge to reproduce and it is the desire of all Pryfyn to do so. This also leads to a heightened sense of aggression and a willingness to use force to get its ends. Once a Pryfyn has spawned then its level of aggression will decrease but it will always remain as a background urge. Given the need for intelligent hosts the Pryfyn have no empathy for any other races and indeed for few other Pryfyn. There is loyalty to their clan and overall faction but to little else. The contamination of the homeworld shows that previous generations of Pryfyn have been prepared to resort to chemical, biological and nuclear weaponry to further their aims and needs. Aliens are seen as mere vessels to sate Pryfyn desires andneeds with no thought of them as people in their own right.