Midoneed

The midoneed are an intelligent gastropod-like species that evolved on a planet covered in volcanoes and shallow oceans. Due to the high temperature of their home, the midoneed have a shell made primarily from iron and other minerals. They have two mouths at the ends of their arms, each mouth has five tongues which are used as tentacles. These tongues give the midoneed an exceptional sense of taste which they use to identify and find metals to feast on. The midoneed also possesses a ring of glowing eyes which give them 360̊ degrees of vision. The midoneed have a strong allure towards anything shiny or gilded. Despite the conditions of their planet making objects like gold and diamonds common, a midoneed will do whatever it takes to get a small handful of gold. Their love for gold stems from their eggs resembling golden balls causing a biological attraction towards the element. On top of that, the resemblance led many to believe that eating gold will cause one to be youthful. This is not true. Gold is very bad for a midoneed to consume and can cause their shell to break and blood to clot. Naturally gold is their currency of choice, however, they aren’t good businessmen as they want gold simply to have it rather than to spend it on luxury items. Gambling is both the most popular pastime and religion for the midoneed. From its deepest waters to its highest volcanoes, the planet is covered in casinos that light up and shine from afar. The smog from their volcanoes covers most stars so light pollution isn’t a worry of theirs. The dominant religion is called chanceism, and it is an entire belief system centered around the good and bad of gambling and the one who made it. Long ago in the early days of midoneed society, a figure called Kyte Breeus introduced the idea of betting gold on games of chance. The popularity of this idea grew quickly, and people considered Kyte a divine being for making them rich in minutes; however, many saw him as a spawn of evil for creating games that caused people to lose all their earnings in an instant. One day Kyte was kidnapped by a large group, bound to a large stone wheel, and hung above a volcano, where he would slowly die from the heat. The religion Kyte Breeus founded is about how gambling can give great blessings and misfortune, and that one must have faith and be grateful for any wins achieved. When the midoneed became interstellar and contacted other species they immediately adopted any new games of chance, they particularly loved the games humans had like slot machines and poker. As previously stated, the midoneed will go to great lengths to get what they consider valuable with many being thieves, pickpockets, or scam artists. Luckily, they aren’t good at all those things when it comes to beings outside of their species making them less problematic. However, they were nearly put under the iron grip of humanity when they attempted to contact a species still in their bronze age known as the musalank. They detected that their planet had rivers rich with gold and wanted to harvest it. They would trade technology with the locals in exchange for their planet’s gold; this is a direct violation of the Home-Grown Law, which states that intentionally making first contact with a non-intergalactic species is illegal. Since the musalank were being watched by ILO these plans were quickly found out about and human ships were sent to the midoneed home world to prevent the interaction.