Qu

The Qu were an ancient, highly advanced alien species that split humanity as it was known into various new species with varying levels of sapience and ability.

Biology
The Qu were four-winged insectoid creatures, bearing a slight resemblance to dragonflies, with a single tail-like tentacle for manipulating objects. Their heads bear two eye stalks, one protruding from each side, and they have two long mandibles. While their main torso appears about as big as a Human torso, their tentacle makes their full body length about twice that of Humans. Their life cycle involved an aquatic larval stage, although their lifespan is unknown. Other elements of their native environment and physiology, such as what gases they breathe, their native gravity, and their diet, are also unknown. It is likely that this is not the true appearance of the Qu, but rather, the result of genetic alterations of their species at some point in the past, akin to the alterations that turned Humans and Martians into Star People.

While the majority of the Qu resemble the above appearance, two other classes of the species are shown in the illustration. The first is a large, round-headed creature with large eyes and a long tendril used for grasping objects, while the second has a wider head with four eyes and resembles the standard Qu, but with a smaller build, two stumpy limbs and two triangular wings, as opposed to the standard four insectoid wings of the regular morphology.

Culture and society
The Qu are known to have a species-wide god complex, originating in a misunderstood religious doctrine, which the Qu zealously follow, believing that they are the only beings with the right to alter the universe. They function as intergalactic nomads, stopping in galactic spiral arms for millions of years before moving on. They appear to have no regard for sapient lifeforms, modifying them with no remorse, but it is unknown if this is normal or due to the fact that the Star People had offended and resisted them. Other sapient lifeforms are often seen as mere objects to be rebuilt into "practical" or entertaining forms. The Qu still hold a concept of "justice," which is in fact merely a set of punishments to any who resist them, such as converting sapient humanoids into a form that gives them a tortured existence, as seen with the Colonials. Like the Gravital, the Qu are not truly evil or full of hate to all other lifeforms, but are merely far too indoctrinated by their own religion and extremist beliefs. Qu architecture, as seen in monuments that are left on worlds they alter and colonize, consists of massive, featureless pyramids, which serve an unknown function.

Technology
The Qu have incredibly advanced technologies, able to cross galaxies. While their exact weapon capabilities are unknown, they were able to overpower almost every Star Person colony in a single swift invasion, meaning that their weapons surpassed those of the Star People, who had weaponry that could nova stars and destroy star systems. Their most notable and advanced technology is their genetic manipulation technology, which is capable of altering existing lifeforms into an array of different forms, even removing sapience. The exact method of doing this is unknown, but it is possible that it is done utilizing nanotechnological drones.

History
At the time of the first contact between Qu and Star People, the Qu were almost a billion years old, constantly travelling the galaxy from one spiral arm to the next, in giant, epoch-spanning mass-migrations. As masters of genetic and nanotech manipulations, they constantly improved themselves and remade the worlds they visited. They were most likely the ones who created Panderavis from Earth Therizinosaurs.

Their religion demanded them to remake the universe as they saw fit and they saw themselves as gods. This dogma was rooted in what had been a benevolent attempt to protect the race from its own power, but was eventually blindly followed by them without any question.

Humanity was only a small obstacle to them. The Qu were offended that there was another species that remade the worlds they visited, and they remade the Star People into many different creatures.

One day, the Qu left the spiral arm that was once populated by the Star People, leaving behind hundreds of worlds inhabited by the remade descendants of humanity.

Many millions of years later, the human descendants in the form of the Asteromorphs, the Terrestrials and the Subjects formed a vast empire spanning the Milky Way, united with other galaxies such as the Amphicephali's, and finally avenged their ancestors by subduing the Qu, possibly rendering the Qu near extinction

Appearances

 * All Tomorrows, by C. M. Koseman (2008)