Troglopod

The Troglopods are a race of intelligent amphibious cephalopod creatures from the planet Podzola. They are well-known for their massive military and use of steam-powered technology.

Appearance
The average Troglopod looks a bit like an octopus, but often with more tentacles. A large portion of their body is made up of brain, this does not make them any smarter, it just means they have more space to cram in ideas. Troglopod skin is reddish or brown, and sometimes darker colours, depending on which area of Podzola they come from. Their eyes are large and a whitish colour, with black, horizontal pupils. Since they evolved from molluscs they have a water-skeleton and so are very flexible.

Abilities
Troglopods have very strong tentacles, especially in water, and are very intelligent and creative. For this reason they are brilliant engineers and can quickly create machines, especially due to the abundance of minerals on Podzola. However, their skin is not particularly strong and they are not fast at all on land, this is why they usually rely on technology to do their fighting. Underwater though, they are deadly predators. They are also very good diplomats and politicians

History
When the Troglopods first crawled from the oceans, already quite advanced, they took one look at the land of Podzola and considered going back. However, they quickly learned to manipulate the iron, copper and coal that was common on the planet in order to create machines. When they first became spacefaring they decided instantly to try and find a better planet, because Podzola isn't exactly a holiday destination. They created the massive space station of Troglopolis as a base for their fleet so that they could quickly invade a new planet. Eventually they realised most other planets were even worse, and a lot of planets were too advanced to invade, or just didn't seem like a nice place. In order to make sure they chose the perfect planet they created a criteria called the Holy Book of Invasion Rules, full of laws and rules involving everything from climate, to native life, and whether or not they've invented tea (because they reason that any civilisation that has tea doesn't deserve to be killed). Now they are known for travelling the galaxy in their massive steamships, searching for the perfect place to invade.

When they were under the rule of the Feline Empire the cats noticed their engineering genius and manipulated them into building machines for the cats and giving them designs. This, mixed with the already incredibly advanced technology of the cats, produced some deadly mechanisms and weapons of absolute destruction, including an early prototype for a fusion ray and the legendary Pyramid of Bast, the flagship of the Feline space fleet.

Culture
The Troglopods are far too logically minded, and too preoccupied with invention, to have invented a religion. However they are quite religious when it comes to the planet they should invade, calling it the "promised land", a land that's perfectly comfortable for them, and much better than Podzola. However they also believe that a perfect planet such as that would be competed for, so they have to build up their military in order to fight anyone else who wants their promised land. Troglopods are very creative and any one of them could build a war machine and send it off to the fleet. It is rumoured that they don't actually want to use their military, they just like building cool stuff.

Leaders
Troglopod society is ruled by many Generals and Ministers but the most respected Troglopod is the Ek, the head designer of machinery and innovator. Currently Ek Edrick, a distractable yet brilliant designer and engineer who has upgraded the technology of the Troglopods incredibly.

Technology
Practically all of Troglopod tech is steam-powered, due to the abundance of coal and water on Podzola

Military
The Troglopod military is possibly the largest in the known galaxy, although this is mainly because of their habit for hoarding machines, and their passion for making them. However, since almost anybody can make a war machine, their military is incredibly varied, from tripods to tanks to airships. They prefer not to be involved in the fights themselves though, although they usually pilot their machines.

Spaceships
The Troglopod spaceships are still steam-powered, they are usually massive great hulks and are transport ships as opposed to battleships, ships that carry all the land, air and water battle machines, ready for the invasion. They do not focus on warships as they are not expected to battle in space, they invest all their resources into planetary invasion machines instead.

Significant Troglopods
Ek Edrick