Invid

The Invid are an invertebrate hive-minded species of bipedal, crab-like crustaceanoids indigenous to the planet Optera, the solitary inhabitable world of the Tzuptum System.

Their world was defoliated due to intervention by the Robotech Masters, who were attempting to monopolize on the Flower of Life, which could be harvested as a powerful narcotic as well as the source of a powerful mutagenic energy source known as Protoculture. This outright devastation enraged them to no end, and was only made worse by the fact that the Robot Masters had at one time been their allies. Typically sedate and agrarian by nature, they militarized and begun a program of genetic manipulation in order to evolve to a point of superiority above the Masters. Unfortunately for mankind, the Invid traced the Flowers of Life back to Earth, where the Robot Masters had taken them as it was the only other known place in the galaxy where the flowers could grow. They immediately invaded Earth without hesitation, an ironic act or perpetuating the very crimes committed upon them. This started the Third Robotech War.

Society
As of the militarization of their species, the Invid are now ruled over by a pair of monarchs: the Regent, who is consumed by the desire for revenge over the Robotech Masters and does not favor the reshaping of their species in a similar manner as the Masters themselves; and the Regess, the queen mother of the race and proponent of the genetic evolution program. While the Regent has chosen to remain in the original form of the species, the Regess has instead opted to genetically modify herself to the point where she is humanoid in form and in fact nearly Human overall, having been the first of her species to evolve due to being seduced by the Masters' scientist, Zor.

The different views that each of the monarchs possess has caused them to part ways, dividing the species in the process. While the Regess and her followers lead the invasion of Earth, the Regent instead holds the space around Optera and continues to do battle with the Robot Masters upon their own homeworld of Tirol.