Eight-Armed Tribe

Biodata

Appearance

Eight-Armed Tribe members are towering, octopus-like beings with a distinct head-and-tentacle body plan. They stand nearly three meters tall; a fully extended tentacle can reach about four meters. 687

• A round, plump head with two enormous eyes and a sharp rear protrusion. 687
• Eight thick yet dexterous tentacles extending beneath a large fleshy mass; their bases are as wide as a human waist, while their tips narrow to finger-like points. 687
• Nine brains and exceptional intelligence. 705
• Blue bodily fluid. 676
• Commonly use armor and tentacle-held energy weapons in combat. 686

Society and Civilization

Ideology and rule

The Eight-Armed Tribe became the Cloud Ring System's leading civilization by developing early through its intelligence and access to Energy Blocks. Its expansion followed the doctrine: “The wise survive, only the Eight-Armed,” devastating or erasing numerous other intelligent races. 705

Many members regarded their own species as the universe's orthodox race and considered humans too insignificant to merit serious social attention until repeated military defeats forced a reassessment. 725

Their political structure includes colony planets, military ports, supply stations, fleet command centers, and a planet-wide alliance led by the highly prestigious Houyan King. 686 754

Technology and military

• Energy Block dependence — Their ships, weapons, and broader technology are built around Energy Blocks, which are abundant near their home region in the Cloud Ring System's inner ring. 716 720
• Signal Nest network — Signal base spheres spread across star domains form a network capable of detecting abnormal signals and locking onto identified ships. The Star-Eating Worm Domain is a blind spot because its worms destroy deployed signal spheres. 691
• Warships and fleets — Their forces include guerrilla warships, Leap Motherships, battleships, supply stations, military fortresses, and fleets numbering in the hundreds of millions of warships. 676 687 757
• Octo-Mechs — Mechanized units deployed to intercept hostile fighters. 676
• Star-Annihilating Cannon — A long-range mothership weapon capable of rendering Blue Light uninhabitable through sustained bombardment. 728
• Space Distorter — A device capable of restricting spatial abilities until its source is located and destroyed. 724
• Kinetic Energy weapons — After studying human weapons, the tribe identified the Energy Burst Wave as a ray that destabilizes Energy Blocks, then developed its own longer-range version and a countermeasure device. 754

Their reliance on Energy Blocks became a decisive weakness: Energy Burst Waves detonated their ships, while Energy Degradation Waves disabled their weapons, power, and communications. 720 727

History

The Eight-Armed Tribe ruled most of the Cloud Ring System long before humanity became a major interstellar power. Its fleets destroyed or subjugated other civilizations, while surviving races—including humanity and the Compound Eye Clan—hid their home planets to avoid extermination. 685 705

During the Distant Star's campaign, Su Hao destroyed the crew of an Eight-Armed guerrilla warship from within after surviving its barrage and reaching the hull. He later helped raid a supply station, teleporting roughly a thousand tribe members into the Small World Prison. 676 686

The captives were stripped of their armor, separated, and used in Su Hao's biological research. After a year of experimentation, Su Hao successfully evolved the [Eight-Armed God] from Eight-Armed Tribe genetic material. The surviving captives came to call the prison “Eight-Armed Hell.” 687 691

Humanity's attacks on colony planets and fleets rapidly escalated its threat classification in Eight-Armed records. A destroyed colony planet led to a Level 1 assessment; further attacks raised humanity to Level 2, then Level 3, while subsequent losses produced the tribe's first-ever Level 5 threat rating. 725 After synchronized fleet losses, the command center elevated humanity to Level 6 and considered striking Blue Light with Star-Annihilating Cannons. 727

The tribe repeatedly committed larger fleets against Blue Light, but humanity's Energy Burst Waves destroyed them before conventional engagements could begin. Su Hao later used Starlight Break to eliminate twenty-one fleets surrounding Blue Light, while human forces counterattacked dozens of colony planets. 726 730

Following this defeat, the Houyan King classified humanity as a Level 9—extinction crisis and ordered twenty years of research and military preparation. 754 The renewed offensive ultimately fielded over one hundred million warships, exploiting humanity's inferior industrial capacity and numerical disadvantage. 757

Su Hao responded by launching Insecticide Mini Cubes at Eight-Armed colony planets and supply stations; reports confirmed that most members on those worlds had been wiped out. The remaining fleet was then largely annihilated or pursued by human forces, marking the end of the tribe's era as the Cloud Ring System's dominant power. 759 761

Relationships

• Humanity — Formerly treated as a minor surviving race and source of military merit; became the Eight-Armed Tribe's primary existential enemy after humanity developed countermeasures to Energy Block technology. 719 754
• Su Hao — Principal adversary, captor, and researcher of the tribe's biology. He annihilated crews, captured thousands of members, and used their genetic material to create the [Eight-Armed God]. 677 686 691
• Feng Cheng — Human combatant responsible for devastating colony planets, destroying military installations, seizing Energy Blocks, and capturing an Execution Port Mothership. 722 725
• Compound Eye Clan — A target of Eight-Armed military planning after the tribe concluded that the clan's reconnaissance abilities could be used to obtain human technology. 732

Trivia

• Eight-Armed captives feared human imprisonment so intensely that some preferred death or conversion into Source over remaining in the Small World Prison. 687
• Their soldiers initially interpreted Su Hao's invulnerable fighter and spatial attacks as evidence that humanity had developed an incomprehensible new weapon. 676
• Eight-Armed nobles reportedly relied on wars against humans and the Compound Eye Clan to gain military merit and advance in status. 719