Yithian

Yithians are strange creatures, defined not by their physical bodies but by their ancient, disembodied minds. As a people, yithians devote themselves to the acquisition of knowledge above all else. They project their minds across the cosmos and take over a creature's body, living within and observing the creature's culture. The yithians then reverse the process and return to their communities, recording all they learned in massive tomes crafted of strange, metal alloys.

Yithians erase their hosts' memories of time spent in their bodies; however, these hosts occasionally recall odd images, usually during dreams. These recollections often involve a vast city from which great black towers rise, filling the viewer with dread. Few hosts realize these vague memories harken to their time spent in the yithian's body, when they wandered that alien city.

Four flexible and retractable appendages radiate from the top of a yithian's cone-shaped body, two of which end in sharp pincers, which they click and move to communicate, while the third ends in a cluster of funnel-shaped sensory organs. A spherical "head" rounded by three evenly-spaced eyes tops the fourth appendage. Tentacles dangling beneath this head allow for fine manipulation that the large pincers can't manage, while the crown of tentacles rising from the top like strange flowers function as ears.