Quell

One of the furthest reaching and most adventerous races in known space, the quell are generally friendly, clever, and often too curious for their own good. Quell communities are common in Light, Pyrian and Wild space, and almost none within Imperial and Kytettee borders.

Physiology
''Ectothermic. Endoskeleton. Oviparous.''

The quell homeworld is almost entirely covered in a thick layer of obsidian-like volcanic glass, resulting in early life developing almost entirely in the vast network of tunnels and cavern withing the planet's crust. This meant that quell evolved to dominate a near zero-light enviroment, making almost all other enviroments range from uncomfortable to dangerous for them.

The quell are short, rarely passing five feet tall, and have smooth skin without hair. The quell's basic skull shape is similar to a human's. However, it is distinctly teardrop-shaped from three angles, three flat planes sloping to a point at the back of the head. And unlike a human skull, the mandibles are bisected, allowing them to move independently from each other. The quell also have two separate tongues.

The quell have large eyes without a visible iris, as they have adapted to absorb as much light as possible. Only the large pupils are visible, and to each other the eyes of a quell are entirely black. However, to the few other sentient beings lucky enough to see an uncovered quell, the eyes will appear fully red, due to an extreme variant of the red-eye effect. Where a human is naturally able to percieve light at the wavelength of approximately 400 nm to 700 nm, quell eyes can naturally see light from about 650 nm to well into the infra-red spectrum.

Aside from their eyes being sensitive to a different wavelength, quell have small indentations on their cheeks that house additional infra-red receptors. It's theorised that the actual eyes in fact developed from the receptors. These adaptation have allowed the Quell to recognise the red and infrared band of radiation rather than that visible to most other sentient species, an advantage on their low-light home planet.

They have triple jointed legs and the hip joints are positioned almost horizontally, meaning they protude further than an average human's. The first knees bending back and then bending forwards, and a rotational ankle joint. The feet themselves consist two toes, with inside one being nearly twice the size of the outside one, and these toes have two joints each. A quell's arms are similar in structure to their legs, with an extra joint in the upper arm when compared to a human. The hands have two larger fingers and a thumb, that also have two joints each.

Due to the sensitivity of the quell's eyes and skin to light, quell normally wear sealed suits with thick tinted visors designed to allow through only enough light for the quell to see, but not enough to blind them or do them harm. In private, however, the quell are free to live without suits, as quell habitations are dark, warm and cozy.

A recent breakthrough by Light scientists has allowed a small test group of quell to function without protective clothing and eyewear, but this technology is not planned for public release for some time. As of now, it's only available to Light Collective's ambassadors.

History
Joch'Inell

Before the quell had strong enough tools to break the crystal layer near the surface, they didn't know there was a surface. After they breached the planetary crust, it took the primitive quell a long time to realise the sky was not actually another ceiling. This was in part to the dangers of going to the surface, due to light exposure and the thin atmosphere.

The quell first revealed themselves by making peaceful contact through radio messages, after a ship orbited the planet due to the strange radio signals coming from it.