Bil’djooli

ECOLOGY

Environment any aquatic
Organization solitary, team (2–4), or squad (5–12)

Bil’djooli are an aggressive race of interplanetary travelers who raid worlds for their own gain and routinely scavenge alien technology. Once sorely pressed, the bil’djooli now range across disparate systems to find the fresh water essential for the continuation of their race. Bil’djooli physiology requires a significant amount of clean, fresh water in order to breathe and metabolize food properly.

Their immune systems are strong, but delicate, and they produce toxins offensive to most living creatures very quickly. Without protective gear, bil’djooli poison is actually more dangerous for the bil’djooli than it is for most creatures they encounter. As aquatic creatures, they wear protective helmets full of fresh water they can breathe through a series of gills in their throat, lest they poison themselves and their fellow soldiers.

Regardless of rank or station, all bil’djooli receive intensive martial training, learning to fight with mass-produced technomagical rods that can fire rays of magical energy. Bil’djooli soldiers obey orders without question, owing to a combination of redundant training, negative reinforcement, honored military traditions, and the belief that conquest alone perpetuates their species. Bil’djooli are masters at guerilla and pack tactics in combat and excel at flanking and ambush maneuvers.

The bil’djooli spread filth across the galaxy, polluting entire planets with a naturally occurring byproduct of their toxic skin. Hailing from a dozen different home worlds, their kind has sought a means to inhabit aquatic worlds for generations without having to leave them behind.

Bil’djooli family life is harsh from the beginning. Families are governed by ordered pair which lay hundreds of eggs over a lifetime. Though bil’djooli have distinctive male and female internal anatomies, their breeding produces a thick slime full of eggs that is then carried by both parents.

The slime is spread across a flat surface when the eggs near maturity, and a dozen bil’djooli might hatch from a single clutch. Bil’djooli young learn quickly and train for survival and combat almost from birth, competing with one another for food and favor. While individual families do not always encourage violence among siblings, there are few penalties in the military meritocracy for murdering a sibling with cause.

A single bil’djooli is 7 feet long from head to tentacle. They have somewhat translucent blue or purple skin with a white or pale blue underside to their tentacles. A mature bil’djooli weighs 300 pounds.