Pactyl

The Pactyl are a species from the ice planet Qryntiti located 700 light years from HTX 81635.

Biology
The Pactyl are mammalian bigendered bipeds. They stand at 4 to 5 meters tall and resemble pink-skinned walruses.

History
Grendel and Seven seeking a world for humanity to colonize discovered Qryntiti after detecting some form of radio signals emanating from the surface. Though landing in the equatorial band of the temperate zone, the general are was still in the midst of a a blizzard. They also detected the presence of enormous artificial constructs scatted across the globe. The pair came across one of the of cities which according to Seven scans indicated a multitude of lifeforms though their vitals were low and barely warmer than the environment. Entering the city of ice they found it to be unattended. Going deeper into its halls they discovered storage compartments containing the city's inhabitants in cryogenic stasis. Oddly the radio wavelength that they detected began to adversely affect Grendel causing his bio-core interface to be disrupted. Seven managed to prevent harm by casting an emergency protection shield over the warrior's head. They were soon found by a trio of the inhabitants, known as the Pactyl, that were the curators of the city of Puntra. They explained that they among others preserved the cities on their world to prevent disruption and to preserve resources. While seemingly benign, it wasn't until the visitors from Earth were guided into the Hall of Visitors where they found that they were not the first offworlders to come to Qryntiti. In fact they curators insisted that the duo remain as part of the ice. Seven was immediately frozen by the three whilst Grendel attempted to fight only for the curators to drop him into a pool of frozen water.

Seven though managed to save a copy of himself to the ship and launch another vessel to save Grendel. Grendel free of the ice, was soon targeted by the aliens. The warrior managed to kill two, leaving the third at a loss of what happened. He was therefor banished from the city.

Culture and society
An extremely dogmatic race locked in a vicious cycle with little hope of progress. but persisted for 90,000 years.

Due to the frigid environment of their world, they committed most of their population in cryogenic stasis multiple Halls of Ancestors within thirty-cities. The Curators are the caretakers of their cities and people, ensuring that the tombs are tended and seal any breach and smooth any disruption. The planet contains an active population of only 384 Pactyl. Every generation of Curators is allotted one hundred sun-cycles to maintain the city. When their time is done the next team takes over. Each city maintains a number of twelve active Curators, three for each quadrant of the city. A common mantra that self-explains this behavior is "Resources are Limited!". The voluntary cryo-stasis is an enforced population control through voluntary incarceration. However this objective appears to have become ingrain in the Curators holding the belief those that enter their cities must remain believing it to be a kindness. They make their point using cold fusion based weaponry.

Architecture
There are around two dozen cities on the planet, spread around the glob. These cities are actually built from ice, that is carved and masoned with intricate precision. The architecture is crystalline in state and is as hard as tungsten steel, due in thanks to the planet's water being hyper-dense in molecular structure in the form of H4O2.

Offworlders
The Pactyl are no strangers to alien life as many visitors have come from other worlds to visit their icy world. The Curators welcome these visitors, honoring them as many generations have and received the to stay in their cities. Visitors whether they wish to or not are forcibly confined in their own cryo-stasis compartments by the Curators known as the Hall of Visitors. The alien visitors are not indefinitely confined only until their time for curator-ship is to come.

Appearances

 * Grendel: Devil's Odyssey Issue 003 (2020)
 * Grendel: Devil's Odyssey Issue 004 (2020)