The Chefs are a race whose build really is close to that of the Tsai. They have a number of traits that do little to endear them to others.
The four-eyed Chefs prefer live or freshly killed food. When they eat raw meat they give off a distinct smell of blood, which has earned them a certain reputation among other races.
Their diet is based on small lizards, mammals and dog-like creatures, but the Chefs are not averse to the flesh of sentient beings either. In their space there is a whole industry supplying such “delicacies”; the Chefs prize Yprs and Mantauans above all.
The key trait of the Chefs is their extremely high resistance to radiation and to the effects of the environment. They settle hazardous territories where other races simply could not survive.
In such toxic zones the Chefs set up production of the so-called “Chef stone” — an extremely dangerous radioactive mineral. It is used in industry and warfare, and the secrets of its making are held by the adepts of the Church of the Chef Stone, the most influential organisation in Chef society.
The Chef race quickly became known as cruel and terrifying because of its phenomenal resilience and its ability to recover easily from wounds. Their aggressive expansion often leads to clashes, and since they have no close ties with other peoples, the Chefs almost always fight their wars without allies.
The only exception is the Tsai. They often serve in Chef states as elite soldiers or assassins, and surpass the Chefs in strength and agility.
There are a great many mutants among the Chefs, injected with various drugs to give their bodies particular traits. Some gain enormous physical strength and are fit to work as loaders or as berserkers in close combat; others can survive underwater or with almost no air at all — and those are far from the only variants.
Chef society is built on harsh racism: they are convinced that all other races must serve them. Having seized a planet, the Chefs enslave those they consider useful, and the rest are either destroyed or turned into livestock raised for meat. Under international classification the Chefs are recognised as a parasite race subject to extermination.
They are ruled by a duumvirate of a civil and a church leader, sometimes joined by a military leader. This council is called the Chef parliament, though in essence it is an assembly of lords where the weight of a vote depends on personal influence.
Contact with the outside world is strictly limited and comes down mostly to trading weapons and technology in special border zones.
The Chefs are hermaphrodites: reproduction takes two partners who temporarily divide the roles of male and female between them.
A Chef has a hairless, pinkish-pale body, a massive neck and an elongated head with four eyes and a round maw lined with teeth.
The illustration shows four Chefs in different clothes.