Khulan

Khulans are glossy-eyed fey that act as enigmatic custodians of worlds’ molten cores, the resulting geomagnetic fields, and the pyroclastic gases that help insulate worlds so that their surfaces can sustain life. Most often, khulans appear as vaguely humanoid beings with large heads, ephemeral bodies, and limbs that seem to trail away into nothingness. A typical khulan is 7-1/2 feet tall.
These ghostly fey spend most of their time deep belowground, drifting through the mantles and blazingly hot metallic cores of many rocky planets. When they surface, khulans often travel through convective conduits, old lava tubes, or active volcanoes, emerging with minimal fanfare to survey the upper ecosystems’ health. Where they sense disturbances in their planets’ cosmic defenses, khulans silently study the causes and swiftly retaliate against any mortal tampering they deem harmful. Otherwise, the surface’s relative chill displeases the fey, who either retreat deep underground or sap warmth from living creatures in order to sustain a healthy body temperature.
On occasion, a khulan adopts a surface settlement or population under threat, most often one at risk from environmental degradation or unnatural weather. In some cases, this involves shepherding the fey’s charges to safety underground, and in others weaving a shield from the planet’s geomagnetic and atmospheric power to deflect the oncoming threat. Enough of these stories survive to suggest the fey are benign or even benevolent. However, just as many tales describe instances in which khulans’ charges have disappeared forever, owed the fey impossible debts as payment for khulan intervention, or been found as frozen corpses in warm fields, suggesting that the ghostly beings adhere to utterly alien motivations.
Dozens of khulans patrol Akiton's Hivemarket, a partly subterranean bazaar in the shadow of Mount Ka, an extinct volcano. There the fey attack anyone who engages in theft or attempts to seize control of the site by force, yet they almost never stop legitimate business, no matter how heinous the transaction. Ongoing university studies documenting the khulans’ behavior and anatomy elicit varied reactions from the fey ranging from silent disdain to violent outbursts and to cryptically brief interviews that only trigger more questions.
These Akitonian khulans’ visibility makes them one of the best-studied populations in the galaxy, thus most assume that khulans both are endemic to Akiton and are naturally legless ghost beings. However, Akiton’s molten core has cooled dramatically over the past millions of years, and ancient cave art suggests that the planet’s khulans have grown weaker and more ephemeral as the core’s energy and geomagnetic field dwindle. The art depicts khulans with faint digitigrade legs bearing stout fins for swimming, and rare sightings of khulans on younger planets report similar findings. Popular theories suggest the khulans slowly fade as their homes die, and although Akiton’s khulans are no longer able to protect the dying planet’s core, they strive to at least protect the market and its inhabitants