Amfan:

Names:Amfa, Amfan, Amfoid (Amfan of the Milky Way galaxy)
Capital:Amfa Sol
Home Planet:Amfa 1 (Már Galaxy)
Military Strength:Hesitant Super-Power, the most active component are the Amfoid
Military Purpose:Defense of stability and order, war against the Bentúsé
Unity:Very strong, cultural / societal expectations and a more cooperative nature (as opposed to Terran adversarial nature)
Species Type:Amphibian
Telepathy:Strong telepaths
Sleep:Must rest every 6 hours, sleep (REM) at least once per Amfan week
General Strengths:Advanced technology and millennia of refinement, a graceful sense of aesthetics, advanced skin-tight shields that adapt to repeated strikes by the same energy frequency, sensitive psionics
General Weaknesses:Psychological stubbornness, dependence on technology and networking, after their failure with Bentawk they became fairly isolationist

Home World / Origins:
Most sentient species evolved on worlds with significant land masses, but Amfa 1 is over 85 ocean with a very low salt content. Tectonically stable, there is still a fair amount of geologic activity, though most of it is under the water surface. The remainder of the planet varies in terrain, but the majority of important metals are located on a very swampy continent in the northern hemisphere.

Physical Description:
Arising from a primarily aquatic world, Amfa are exceptional swimmers and require a minimum point of moisture, constraining from operating in arid environments. Most adapt by isolation from their environments (their vehicle, building, and starship interiors are water-filled). Owing to this aquatic origin, Amfa have an acute sense of direction, space, and excellent memory for positioning, making their pilots excellent at operating in open environments. This also makes Amfa the only race that operates in the deep of space, instead of being fully dependent on star systems.

Though they technically have eyes (8, with two pairs directed forward), these sensory organs are only capable of spotting movement and bright lights, though they can function at extremely high pressure. Their sense of smell and taste is one and the same, their entire skin samples the environment. Respiration and metabolism through the skin is quite efficient and rapid, allowing them to function even in very low oxygen-content water. Similar to other amphibious species, such as Terran frogs, this makes them vulnerable to water-soluble toxins.

Their sense of hearing is combined into their sense of touch, again measured through their sensitive skin, and is precise enough to allow them to locate small prey (in their native seas, a krill-like soft-bodied crustacean from one to four centimeters long) or distant predators (such as snap-jaw sharks in their home seas). Very closely connected to their sense of touch is a sense of electric/magnetic fields, essentially the same as the electrical field-sense of Terran sharks (which are also shared with most sharks in their Amfan oceans).

In addition to the conventional senses, Amfa are psionic and can detect neural patterns from the simplest creatures (like insects) at close distances of a few meters, to sentient creatures from hundreds of kilometers, to telepathically receptive from a thousand kilometers away. These psionics allowed them to evade their predators and drew them to the krill-like swarms in their home, and some became strong enough in psionics to use it as a weapon, moving small objects or rending them apart. Unfortunately, tapping most of the more active veins of this ability changes their brain pathways, with side effects which may include memory loss, unique conditions like “psi fever”, insanity, and is highly addictive. Fortunately, telepathy is not one of these dangerous veins and is their primary means of communication (along with a sophisticated writing system), so strong that they can even transmit thought and memories (to a limited degree) to telepathically receptive individuals.

Like Terran frogs, Amfa legs (they are bi-pedal) are powerful and allow them to jump long horizontal distances, as well as maintain a fast ‘hopping’ stride for good distances providing they don’t stop (lactic acid build-up will rush into the shifting muscle tissue during rest). Their slightly flattened egg-shaped bodies are quite flexible, and the lack of a rigid bone structure (light cartilage instead) allows them to squeeze through spaces that appear much too small for them to fit. They have very fast (but not extremely strong) tentacles on the sides like arms, one pair with a sucker-pad on the end.

Amfa go through several life stages, from eggs to hatchlings to sub-adult to sexually mature adult. The digestive tract is very simple in all of these stages, consisting of a mouth with manipulative tentacles (2 in hatchling, 4 in adult stage), single stomach, and colon. In the egg stage they are not considered conscious and remain relatively isolated from their environment. In hatchling stages they become mobile, but initially only eat and do not have the “spark of sentience” according to psionics experts, in this stage they move with the aid of water jets but are capable of using their single pair of pad-tentacles to drag themselves over short distances of land. Once enough fat has been stored, they will create a slimy pod and molt, some consider it a form of repeating the egg stage, during this the body grows wider to take on the ellipsoidal shape characteristic of adults, and their legs form. Now as sub-adults they are intelligent, the first few weeks are extremely psionically active and at the greatest risk of psi fever. This stage has a comparatively low metabolic rate, the time spent on this stage varies from two to eight years. At the end, they create another slimy cocoon and molt, though with few physiological changes (primarily sex organs), it is usually only a few weeks until they emerge as full adults.

Psychological/Intellectual Disposition:
Amfan have excellent memory retention, are very precise, and tend to be perfectionistic. Accuracy and consistency are extremely important to them, so much so that they easily frustrate less patient people. Amfa are determined, though this stubbornness is not an invariable trait it is so common that folk stories abound about an Amfa whose stubbornness destroyed him, though despite these stories the trait is still deep-rooted in their natural being. Amfa are also usually rather timid creatures, easily frightened away from something and cautious to try something that ‘hurt’ them in the past.

Territory:
Amfa have very highly developed territory with stringent standards. Despite occupying over a quarter of their chosen arm of the Milky Way, they only colonized a matter of a few hundred star systems. Their aversion to living in “crowded space” (asteroid-rich systems or within nebulae) have limited the systems they leave an extended presence in. Possibly because they have an entire galaxy to fall back on, industrial and residential build-up has never been a priority, so most of their territory remains essentially devoted to scientific and military exercises. This lack of need to populate systems in the Milky Way has also led to the majority of the Amfoid population being space-borne, most working and living in the fleets.

History:
The Amfa awakened in a tiny system of only two planets, their aquatic home planet of Amfa 1 and a jovian slightly closer to their sun than Jupiter. Due to either social or economic/resource factors, there were always three major powers struggling for political and scientific dominance. Despite the limitations of their watery planet, they launched out into space, and after some complicated political shifting, eventually reduced to two major factions.

Tensions between these two factions (? and ?) increased, growing from cooperative scientific measures into skirmishes, which for Amfan history was as violent and divisive as the species had ever been. An arms race of various technologies ensued, beginning Amfan multispatial mastery. The primitive warp drive they developed to venture beyond their system was rapidly left behind for advanced hyperdrive, which itself was superseded by a new technology twisting space-time: portals, temporary variants of wormholes (year 0).

By the development of such advanced multispatial technology, the Amfan factions began to either merge or dissolve, leaving only one major group. With few distracting conflicts at home, the Amfa spread throughout their home elliptical galaxy. Their explorations mapped the whole galaxy, but discovered no sentient life. To explore beyond the confines of their lonely galaxy, they collected a huge fleet of thousands of ships to venture out (year 20,061). The fleet departs the galaxy and begins surveying extra-galactic star clusters when it is caught in an Ion Storm (6.20213). In the panicked rush and interference from the Ion Storm, the fleet is stranded in the Milky Way galaxy.

They make first contact with the Halpar (3.20215 Amfa calendar, 800 Halpar calendar). They try for a year to establish peaceful relations, but the tricky Halpar steal a primitive version of their shield technology (20216 Amfa calendar, 802 Halpar calendar). The Amfa depart to continue exploring, writing off the Halpar as too bitter to be trusted. The Amfa fleet discovers the Tumaken Nebula and they quickly form a deep friendship (8.20219), and wipe out the hunters destroying the Tumakentol (3.21226). On invitation of the Tumakentol (4.21226), they settle down nearby. Exploration of the Milky Way continues as colonies are being built, but the Amfa do not turn their main efforts back to surveying until 1.21247.

Picking up a faint sentient signature, a survey group discovers the Bentúsé on 6.21251 (about on the Bentúsé calendar). In pity for the intelligent race trying to become truly spaceborn, they help the Bentúsé develop clean hyperdrive engines and other technological gifts, but the Bentúsé scheme and attack their mentors (22108, Bentúsé), driving them from Bentawk (22112, Bentúsé). The Amfa hesitantly retreat in a bloody war, at first trying to take back the technology, finally abandoning the Bentúsé altogether and monitoring them from afar (year 22113).

This betrayal of the Bentúsé cause the Amfoid to become isolationist, and they return to their territory, essentially ceasing to expand but continuing to send out small, advanced groups of survey ships to keep tabs on the galaxy, particularly the Bentúsé. Scientists working on shield technology discover a means to adapt the energy shields to repeated blows by identical frequency energy weapons. A search and rescue fleet sent to find the remnants of the lost scout fleet rediscovers the Amfoid (Amfan of the Milky Way) in 22604, re-joining the species and sending back many new ideas, including their hatred for the Bentúsé. The Amfa begin building up, completing a trans-galactic gate in 22608, and the Amfoid territory becomes a proving ground and staging area for the future war against the Bentúsé.

Survey ships discover the Kle’tak (4.22611), Tos-Loven (6.22611) and Terrans (3.22612), though the mistrusting Amfa decide to watch instead of making contact. Due to their aversion to ‘dangerously cluttered regions of space’ and the sensor-distorting affects of the Trintan Asteroid Field, the Amfa never venture into the Trintan arm of the Milky Way. After mapping almost the entire galaxy (22628), Amfa begin surveying extra-galactic star clusters, finding nothing of significance yet.

In 22734, Amfa recon teams track conflict between the Trintans and Kle’tak, the beginnings of the first Galactic War. A small, assertive group of ‘mercenary’ Amfa called “Lambda Amfoid” by foreigners joins the coalition against the Kle’tak. The war is distantly tracked until the Halpar join the Trintans and one recon team (spotting an assimilated Trintan fleet) suggests that the Trintans may be working with the Tos-Loven against Klen’ta (22735). In an effort to slow the Tos-Loven, Amfa sends a full battle fleet to aid the Imperium against the Tos-Loven, and another to hold back the Trintan-Halpan Coalition (5.22735 Amfa, Kle’tak, Tos-Loven, Trintan, Halpar). Trintans send a delegation to negotiate a cease-fire with Amfa (4.22736 Amfa, Trintan) and they cease direct combat activities against the coalition (5.22736 Amfa, Trintan, Halpar, Kle’tak) but continue to provide information and logistics to Klen’ta, though they also begin supplying the coalition.

When the Trintan-Halpar-Lambda Amfoid coalition wearies of fighting a war instigated by economic tension and Tos-Loven manipulation, they and the Kle’tak sign an unofficial (yet working) cease-fire ( Amfa, Kle’tak, Halpar, Trintan, Tos-Loven) and send diplomatic teams to to discuss a peace treaty. The Amfa mediate the treaty and begin redirecting focus to the Tos-Loven ( Amfa, Kle’tak, Halpar, Trintan, Tos-Loven).

The Tos-Loven attempt to use assimilated Trintan ships to start war again with an attack on a coalition base near The Void ( Amfa, Halpar, Kle’tak, Trintan, Tos-Loven), but exhaustion between the Trintans and Kle’tak instead leads to an investigation that reveals the Tos-Loven’s role. Before the coalition can rally, the Hive obliterates a coalition system, beginning the second Galactic War. The Bentúsé arrive and pledge their support with the coalition against the Tos-Loven ( Amfa, Halpar, Bentúsé, Kle’tak, Tos-Loven, Trintan), but quickly discover the Amfa are the same race they fought in their beginnings and attack them almost as eagerly as the Tos-Loven ( Amfa, Bentúsé, Tos-Loven).

Always seeking new allies, the Trintans discover Terrans and convince them to join the GW2 ( Terran, Trintan). The war drags on, nobody but the Amfoid truly realizing the power of the Tos-Loven until the Hive sets up an ambush at TLN-342, destroying the two primary Trintan battle fleets ( Trintan, Tos-Loven). After the bloody defeat, the battered Trintans withdraw from the GW2. With the Trintans not there to keep the other races from each others’ throats, the GW2 begins to degenerate into everyone-versus-everyone. The Terran Alliance and Confederacy withdraws from the coalition ( Terran), and the Amfoid and Bentuse start to focus more on each other than the Tos-Loven ( Amfa, Bentuse).