Methuselah

[b]Name:  [/b]Methuselah

[b]Type:  [/b]Sentient Parasitic/Symbiotic (depends on host) Species

[b]Current Status:  [/b]Widespread across the galaxy

[b]Lifespan:[/b]  Immortal (presumed as no limit has yet been observed).

[b]Technology Level:  [/b]Scavengers, they steal what they use from other species.

[b]Physiology:  [/b]A parasitic race, they implant themselves into a host body and attach themselves to the host's brain or the organ closest to serving as one.  Once implanted, the parasite secretes hormones, chemicals, and self-made viruses and bacteria into the host body.  These secretions mutate the host body, causing it to grow fangs.  Due to alterations of the host's skin, direct sunlight will result in a chemical reaction that causes it to melt.

In order to obtain their immortal status, the parasite itself will use its host body to consume compatible blood.  The constant infusion of oxygenated blood allows the host to, in essence, live forever and also allows the host body to live beyond the normal life span of its species many times over.  However, the constant strain put on the host body by the parasite does result in eventual decay, causing the parasite to have to jump to a new host body when the old one can no longer support it.

It is currently unknown how the parasites themselves reproduce.  However, it is known that, though mutated by the parasite, a host body can still reproduce with members of its own species, be they also a host or not.  Genetic traits provided by the host parent can be past down into the genetic stream.

[b]Psychology:  [/b]Probably the most varied known.  Each parasite absorbs parts of the personality of each host it takes, making it more and more unique after each host.  However, each parasite's drive to take hosts and consume blood is encoded into the deepest levels of their genetic code.

[b]Psionics:  [/b]Low-level telepaths outside of a host body, the changes the parasite makes when it takes a host transforms the host body to having 'suggestion' style telepathy as a norm.  Older members of the race have been known to display various levels of telekinesis in their host bodies.

[b]Homeworld:  [/b]Unknown - believed to be extragalactic in origin

[b]Colonies:  [/b]Countless, exact number unknown and constantly changing

[b]Government:  [/b]There is no known central government.  Each House generally self-govern.

[b]Military:  [/b]Military power of each House rises and falls as they combat each other and the militaries of other races.

[b]Language:  [/b]They have no language of their own.

[b]Culture:  [/b]Each Methusulah House is generally blood related, though a parasite from one House have been known to be adopted into another after exile from their own.  Each House is usually lead by the eldest member of the lineage.  Commonly, a single world is controlled by a House, though larger and older ones are sometimes known to control entire star systems.

However, some younger Methuselah, convinced that the ways of old, of sneaking around and infiltrating each world slowly, should be done away with and, in a rare inter-House co-operation, are secretly working together.  While some have formed their own Houses, others work inside established Houses and try to take over.

[b]History:  [/b]

An ancient race first encountered by the Fenghuang when they investigated a crashed ship of extragalactic origins.  After witnessing the landing party being taken as hosts by the surviving Methuselah parasites, the commander of the orbiting ship had the site bombarded from space.  While the wreck and the surrounding areas were hit hard, some Methuselah escaped in F.T.L. capable shuttles from the wreck.  From that point on, the Empire established that, as a rule, the parasites would be exterminated upon being encountered on any Fenghuang world.

However, the Methuselah prooved smarter than was originally thought and each surviving member from the original crash site set itself up on different world, all far outside of Fenghuang observation.  It was on one of these worlds that the resulting House was discovered by the Alzamatii.  Having learned from their first encounter with the Fenghuang, the parasites secreted some of their number onto the Alzamatii ship and allowed it to spread them to other worlds.

It was over a century before the Alzamatii truely first encountered the parasites and centuries more before learning their true nature.  However, by then, it was too late and multiple Houses had been set-up on worlds the Alzamatii had tried to colonize, not realizing the ships they had sent were infected.  Having claimed the attempted Alzamatii colonies as their own, each taking the Alzamatii ships that had been sent as their own, thus birthing the start of the House military fleets.

Faced by the Methuselah using their own technology against them, and not getting any help from Fenghuang who, by this time, had withdrawn into the borders of their own space and were rarely venturing out of their isolation, the first Alzamatii-Methuselah War began.

By the time up to when the Terrans arrived on the scene, the Alzamatii and Methuselah had reached a stand still.  Forced to deal with the imperialistic and expansionist Terrans, the Alzamatii had to focus all their attention on the Imperium and simple survival.  As such, the Methuselah were forgetten in the mists of time.  Today, the Methuselah only exist as myths, rumors, and legends to the Terrans and in the oldest archives of the Alzamatii...though Alzamatii researchers think that Terran vampire legends originate from when Methuselah somehow reached Terra and that it was only pure luck they were either not in large enough numbers or couldn't stand up to human tenacity to turn Earth into yet another Methuselah held world.

Recently, however, a faction of more agreeable Methuselah Houses have allied themselves with the other species and helped form the Zodiac Empire.