Deh-nolo

Just as the neh-thalggus and yah-thelgaads among the Dominion of the Black make use of organic brains to power their magical abilities, so do deh-nolos extract and use other creatures’ brains to slake their never-ending thirst for knowledge. This shared penchant strikes well-deserved fear into the hearts of all thinking creatures in the universe, and many spacefarers know it is best to avoid ships with Dominion markings altogether.
Deh-nolos are brilliant engineers and inventors among the Dominion of the Black, merging technology and biological systems in twisted and devious ways that are stunningly seamless. These creations are unlike cybernetics, in that they are often grown rather than built, and they blur the lines between living organs and complex machines. Using vulgar ingenuity and their surprisingly adroit singular “arms,” deh-nolos designed and built the first Dominion starships, which are hybrid vessels with both organic and technological components. They also cultivated the first shipminds—oozes that pilot these biomechanical starships. In addition to these marvels of engineering, deh-nolos are adept at repairing most technological devices, no matter what civilization built them. When presented with a device with which it is unfamiliar, a deh-nolo attempts to collect the brain of a member of the species that produced it in the hopes that doing so will provide the aberration with some flash of insight.
Mostly organic beings, deh-nolos secrete a metallic discharge that shimmers with disturbing beauty in natural sunlight. Deh-nolos can concentrate this liquid to form foul crystals that they either use as ranged projectiles or work into components for their mechanical devices. Such machine parts are malformed, resembling incomplete living organs and atrophied body parts, and many have common technological connectors and partially completed circuitry. Some reckless scientists have harvested these bits from deh-nolos and plugged them into their equipment or their own bodies, with varying and unpredictable outcomes. Most of the time, the result is horrendous—and even deadly to the experimenter—but the practice occasionally creates functional, albeit macabre, technology. Installed in sensors and other devices with video or audio output, these components cause the images on their screens to appear disturbingly fragmented or amplify and distort sound into mind-shattering cacophonies. Implanted in a living creature, these parts horrendously mutate the host body and often wrack it with unceasing pain.
Like many other creatures among the Dominion of the Black, deh-nolos fabricate and weaponize their own toxins. Poison-filled glands grow in patches across these creatures’ bulky bodies, and anyone who ruptures one is exposed to the purulent fluid that sloshes within. Deh-nolos can also apply this toxic pus to the projectiles that they eject from their bodies, infecting those they strike.
Deh-nolos are not only extremely competent engineers, but also formidable spellcasters, weaving magic that, like their inventions, blurs the line between flesh and machine. With a thought, a deh-nolo can commandeer nearby technological devices, create a cloud of burning acid, or temporarily overwrite the DNA of a living creature to turn it into a twisted reflection of a robot. A deh-nolo uses its more offensive spells only in response to direct attacks, preferring to catch a single target unaware and render it helpless. From there, the aberration proceeds to carefully (and painfully, if the creature is still alive) extract its prey’s brain and store it in one of its four brain pods. Deh-nolos with even one empty brain pod often go out of their way to procure a fresh replacement, almost as if they were addicted to the knowledge stored within the gray matter. A deh-nolo with no stored brains is jittery and desperate, lashing out at any non-Dominion creatures it can find, even those with animal intelligence. Once it is able to use its full complement of abilities, such a deh-nolo seeks out more sophisticated brains to replace the simpler ones, unless a more pressing matter is at hand.
Deh-nolos use their psychic potential, which is inherent in most Dominion of the Black creatures, to fly with incredible dexterity. The eerie sight of their alien forms gliding silently through the air with no obvious means of propulsion is usually enough to send most sane onlookers fleeing for their lives.
A typical deh-nolo stands almost 20 feet tall on its four spindly legs and weighs close to 2,000 pounds.