Amphra

"In victory, the winner feasts well."

- Amphra Proverb (Rough Translation)

A species of sentient crustacean xenos, the Amphra Matriarchy has rapidly expanded into Imperial Space in recent years, occupying outlying worlds of the Cancridrae Sub-Sector and harvesting their citizens as either slave labor or sustenance. Predatory and covetous, the Amphra view most other sentient races as little more than walking food, and are all too eager to feast...

Biology
The Amphra are bipedal arthropods, having evolved within the shallow seas of their homeward of Amphr before migrating on to land, though they still remain largely amphibious. They are roughly humanoid in appearance, but their overall physiology is sharply divided along gender lines.

Female Amphra are the largest and most aggressive of the two genders, standing at over 7 feet on average, their hulking bodies covered in ridged chitinous exoskeletons comparable to ceratite plating in overall density, if not overall weight. Like most humanoids they possess two legs ending in webbed, two-toed feet, and two arms ending in massive pincers. A pair of smaller, thinner appendages adorn the female's lower abdomen, these ending in four-fingered hands that the Amphra uses for the finer manipulation of objects. Their heads are little more than extruding wedges of chitin situated between their massive shoulders, with a pair of semi-flexible eyestalks protruding from each side and in the center a cluster of talon-tipped mandibles protecting their gaping tooth-lined throats. Female Amphra also posses large crustacean tails, which drag behind them on land and serve as their primary means of propulsion in water. This appendage is so powerful that it can even be used as a improvised weapon in melee.

Male Amphra, by contrast, are far smaller and weaker than their female counterparts. Standing at roughly 4 feet in height, their bodies are also plated with exoskeleton, though theirs is somewhat membranous and semi-transparent. They posses four gangly "manipulator" arms and posses no pincers, plodding along on stumpy two-toed legs. Males do posses tails, though theirs are far less muscular, and their heads are far more elongated. These heads are equipped with a single pair of eyestalks alongside arthropod mouths located on the underside of their protruding craniums, along with a pair of bristly antennae that allow male Amphra to sense ultrasonic vibrations in their air around them. This gives the males a sort of "danger sense", an essential tool when in the company the hot-tempered females.

Reproduction
Amphra reproduce via laying eggs, which incubate in clutches of 20 to 30 within the distended stomach sacs of Amphra Matrons. Once laid, the eggs are submerged in pools of mineral-rich saltwater until finally hatching over the course of the next Terran week. Amphra larvae are only semi-sentient and extremely ravenous, often devouring their siblings within minutes of their own birth. Once the initial feeding frenzy has ceased, the survivors are segregated via gender to separate birthing pools, where they are routinely fed scraps of humanoid meat until they are sufficiently developed enough to step on to dry land.

Psykers
Amphra psykers are extremely rare, with perhaps 1 out of every 1000 Amphra born possessing psychic potential. Males who exhibit psychic powers are slaughtered without mercy by the Female Amphra, for fear of them rising above their station. However, Female psykers are feared and respected by their peers, with many rising to become Matrons. Their are even rumors that the current Amphra Matriarch is in fact a psyker, having gained and held her vaunted position through her unearthly powers.