Tiyanki Space Whale

The Tiyanki Space Whales, or Tiyanki for short, are a widespread species of peaceful space-borne organics that wander from system to system, centered around their ancestral breeding ground of Tiyana Vek.

Biology
The Tiyanki are a tremendously large species of whale- or jellyfish-like star fauna adapted to surviving in the depths of space, having evolved to use the galactic hyperlane network to roam hundreds or even thousands of parsecs away from their place of birth. Their exact methods of both subluminal and superluminal propulsion are difficult to discern, though they can evidently traverse the galaxy at speeds comparable to that of a sentient-built starship. Tiyanki feed off of inorganic gases found in the upper atmospheres of many gas giants, and use an organic weapon known as an energy siphon in self-defense. Tiyanki poaching can be quite profitable, yielding a considerable amount of energy credits and exotic gases for every individual killed.

All Tiyanki are thought to have originated in a unary star system called Tiyanka Vek, which contains four large gas giants on a very close orbit with a single star; the planets' atmospheres combine with that of the star to create a highly energized cloud of plasma that is apparently critical to Tiyanki reproduction, and at any time the system can be seen to be swarming with many dozens of Tiyanki of various sizes and ages.

Matriarch
The Tiyanki Matriarch is an exceptionally large and ancient female individual of the Tiyanki, classified as one of the mysterious Guardians. Her taxonomic relationship to the wider species is unknown, and she has been hypothesized as either a normal Tiyanki suffering from an extreme case of gigantism or as the sole recorded member of a conjectured extragalactic relative of the Tiyanki, which grow to scale-defying sizes in the intergalactic void. She is armed with both a conventional Tiyanki energy siphon and an extremely powerful Titan-slot energy beam and will perform a unique "rearing" behavior when attacked. By 2200 AD she resides exclusively over a pair of habitable worlds (one of which is a Gaia world) in a random system somewhere in the Galaxy.

Behavior
The Tiyanki are a highly amiable and peaceful species, "rarely attacking even when provoked" in the words of the scientists that discovered them (the energy siphon they use is notably quite weak against modern starship armor, however they can still be reasonably effective when engaging in large groups). Tiyanki are highly sociable, and outside of their home system they typically travel in pods consisting of several adults, known as cows and bulls, and a large brood of juveniles known as calves; these pods wander from system to system, "grazing" on gas giants for nourishment, and are often mistaken for alien starfleets when first encountered. Tiyanki are usually slow and graceful in their movements but can be surprisingly maneuverable in certain situations. They are often hunted by Ether Drakes and Space Amoebas.