Maelnir

The Maelnir are a race of tentacle-laden aliens, who have three eyes, in the middle, top and bottom of their head in a vertical manner. This is due to their low gravity world. They come from a small world with very low gravity, where their predators were above or below them. Upon the evolution of their peculiar ocular arrangement, the Maelnir became the dominant species on their homeworld, presumably by existing in that middle ground of gravity.

The Maelnir run a series of trading posts throughout space. The Maelnir purport to be spies, keeping an eye on the galaxy at large for information they can sell to the highest bidder, for purely commercial reasons. Their world appears to be beyond Scryve space and they aren’t staying in the area long, just enough to gather what profits they can before leaving.

The Maelnir claim to spy on everyone, hoping to gain all information they can on the subject of life. They seem to be of the opinion that life in Scryve space will be eliminated soon by external means, perhaps that foreseen by the Arilou and the Lexites. Whilst the Maelnir are spies, they see the collection of knowledge as more of a capitalist venture, with an understanding that information is only valuable when it is shared, viewing the “knowledge is power” ideology as immature and reckless. It is more a matter of how information is shared that is the valuable part, rather than the information itself. They call this an “information flux economy”. The question becomes why share the knowledge in the first place and what ulterior motives do the Maelnir have. These mind games keep the flow of information at a premium. This collection of information is compulsive, as the Maelnir see little need to collect information on species about to be eradicated, but they do it nonetheless, for “completeness’s sake”. They are gathering live animal specimens for some unknown reason and seem to possess information on the Lexites, which they will happily sell to the Captain for an extortionate fee.