Piurivar

The Piurivar are one of the two native sapient inhabitants of the planet of Majipoor. Their ways are notoriously very mysterious and clandestine, which often frightens the human populace. The Piurivar reside on the continent of Zimroel, where they were rounded up and confined to during the age of Lord Stiamot. However, it has been difficult to contain these beings, for reasons explained below.

In their natural shape, they appear as a slender, long-legged creature, with pale greenish skin. Facial features include small nose bumps, very sharp cheekbones, and slanted eyes without pupils. Their skin contains sophisticated cells which work much in the same way as chromatophore cells, allowing them to change their skin color and texture at will, and their bones, according to Deliamber, are "not jointed like those of other races". This allows them to take the form of another being, and because of this, they are also known as "Metamorphs" or "Shapeshifters". They are natural experts at disguise; their shifted forms are so convincing, they are capable of deceiving humans, even over prolonged periods of close contact.

This ability to alter their appearance does has its limitations, however; they are incapable of altering their physical size, which prevents them from altering their form successfully into something larger or smaller than they themselves happen to be. In this regard, adult Piurivars can not properly disguise itself as a Vroon, which are notoriously short-statured -- undoubtedly they could take the shape of one, but would be incapable of fooling anybody with this form due to the height difference.

The Piurivar do in fact possess a religion, one that encompasses several deities. Of these "higher powers", the supreme deity is known as the Most High. The Piurivar are known for sacrificing creatures in zealous rituals, including the Bruul and the Forest-Brethren, the latter of which is another sapient species.

Trivia

 * The Piurivar, as well as all other species of the Majipoor series, were created by Robert Silverberg, a science-fiction writer from Brooklyn, New York; Majipoor is the planet he visits the most often in his writings.
 * Unfortunately, no official artwork is currently known to exist of the Piurivar.