The Grey Men

History:

The grey men were among the first of the modern races to take to the stars, over nine thousand years ago. They were the first race encountered by humans, green men and red men, and in those ancient days they conquered much of known space, with a fiercely rigid military that their whole society was built upon. Most of those they encountered, they either eradicated or enslaved, and they won the enmity of nearly all known species before they rebelled against their masters.

For though they dominated much of known space, the grey men were themselves slaves. They had been a peaceful culture, devoted to science. Some suggest they were even the heirs of the ancients, but on one of their first voyages into the void, they encountered a race of tiny parasites called brain worms.

These creatures enter the brain through the ear and overwhelm their host's thoughts and actions. They worked carefully to infiltrate the society of the grey men until they were able to seize control of the culture as a whole. They then used the technological advances of the grey men to build an interplanetary war machine and to expand out into the universe.

After thousands of years, a small group of grey men were able to overpower the brain worms that governed them. They started a rebellion and freed several planets, and for a thousand years, they warred with their brothers and sisters, freeing those who could be freed, destroying those who could not. After a time, it became clear that the empire of the brain worms would be overwhelmed, and through their empire, they ceased to control, and simply annihilated the consciousness of their hosts.

The grey men found dozens of planets inhabited by mindless creatures who lacked the will even to eat or sleep. Then the grey men did what to many is the defining act in their history. They put billions to death. There is no accurate account of the numbers, but the number of mindless grey is estimated to have been three or four times the population of the functional, and it was decided that there was no possibility that they could support such a massive unproductive population. Entire planets were destroyed, and on those planets with significant resources, squads of cleaners came through, preparing the planets for a new population.

In the centuries that followed, they grey men declined quickly. The conquered peoples rose up to reclaim their homes and new empires were forged. The grey men retired to a small sector of planets where they nursed their guilt and their paranoia.

Personality:

The grey men are suspicious. Their society has remained extremely militant and fixated on security, but rather the unified rebel state fighting against their masters has disintegrated into a thousand squabbling tribes, each ruled by a different ideology, each unwilling to compromise on even the smallest point. They spy on each other and the webs of loyalties that define each individual are so complex that they have become completely unpredictable.

They frequently work as mercenaries, their resistance to psychic influence making them excellent commandos and infiltrators. The risk of employing such creatures is recognized, and it is common for them to surrender hostages to their employers when undertaking a contract.

In addition to suspicion, the most notable quality of the race is melancholy. They see their history as slavery, oppression and genocide as a personal burden that each individual must bear, and many otherwise strong grey men are bent by the weight of it. They tend to see the other races as child-like, innocent of evil and unable to understand the forces that have shaped the grey men into what they are.

Appearance:

The grey men have grey skin and no hair. They are mostly human in appearance, though they have very small noses and very large ears.

Age:

Grey men reach adulthood around 20 years of age, and live on average to be 100 years old.

Alignment:

Grey men tend towards neutrality with respect to good and evil, but are frequently chaotic, as the complexity of their loyalties and obligations make them unpredictable.

Ability Scores:

Grey men get a +2 to their Wisdom and a +1 to their Constitution. They are resilient, and mentally tough.

Size:

Grey men are tall and lanky in appearance, standing between six and seven feet tall on average, while weighing roughly 150 pounds.

Speed:

Grey men move at 30' per round.

Psychic Resistance:

Grey men have resistance to psychic damage, and have advantage on saves against psychic attacks and enchantment effects.

Insightful:

Grey men receive the insight proficiency.

Worm-foes:

Grey men can remove brain worms from one another without surgery, and can detect the presence of a brain worm in another grey man with a wisdom: perception check.