Species Feature: The Rishin
The Rishin are perhaps the most enigmatic sophont race in the Orion Sector. Nearly all of them reside in a massive, mobile space station known simply as the Void Pilgrim, where they maintain what is perhaps the galaxy's largest library, and act as information brokers for those seeking to deal in secrets.
They are chimeric organisms, with a mollusc-like creature attached to and closely integrated with its ground sloth-like host body. The molluscoid, known as a "sapiosite" is the true sophont in this union, possessing the enlarged brain and complex thinking typical of sophonts in the Orion Sector. Soon after birth, a young sapiosite is introduced to its similarly-aged host, latching onto the infant host's head with its mouth and quickly growing new nerve tendrils to hijack the host's central nervous system. The host's own brain experiences significant changes after this point, where its cerebral cortex degenerates in favor of the mesencephalon and cerebellum. As both organisms grow and develop, their flesh intermingles and merges in a manner similar to that of male anglerfish and their mates, an association presumbly brought about by centuries of symbiosis. Even just a few months after the union between sapiosite and host, any attempt at removal becomes incredibly traumatic, and potentially fatal.
