Name: Aveterriat (Av-ee-tear-ee-at) 
Evolution/Home System:
The Aveterriat come from a G-class star like our own, but this is where all the similarities end.  There is ten planets in their star system, three rocky planets (one of which being the world the Avterriat came from), a whopping six gas giants and one large ice world who exists between the two most distant jovian planets.  There is one asteroid belt, there may have been a second one earlier, as the large icy world has many trojan moons.  
The world of origin for the Aveterriat is known as Ivyyus.  Ivyyus is a super earth with gravity over twice that of our own world and is a far more dry a place.  Water is still common, at least enough that life could develop into complex states over the past 5-6 billion years Ivyyus had existed as a planet and with the surprising multitude of biomes on Ivyuss ranging from vast underground networks of water to numerous eroding spires chiseled out over the eons along with the volcanic marshes, sprawling pans of dried up seas and isolated (but still wet) seas which acted as biomes in of themselves, multiple explosions of biodiversity ended up being a inevitability.  There is no oceans on Ivyyus, only large salty seas and various volcanic marshes that dote the planet thanks to tidal stress caused by its three spherical moons, one of which being rather volcanic and causing periodic meteor showers that can be seen from the surface of Ivyyus's pale orange deserts.
Yet with just this, a astounding complex biosphere developed on this world.  The lack of liquid that is free led to life that led to ecosystems where many creatures would consume clay, far more so than on earth with whole ecosystems built on clay absorbing, deep rooted flora that also consumed light from the cold, dim sun.  On the whole, Ivyyus is colder than earth, but not crushingly so; many parts of the world are too dry to have frozen wastelands, but the few parts where frozen wastelands develop tend to be hotspots for life as well thanks to the aggressive interior of the world leading to ongoing volcanic activity tht has kept the world warmer than it would be if it was much smaller than earth.  The southern part of the planet is disproportionately wetter than the northern parts thanks to the 35 degree axial tilt of the planet which has made seasonal changes somewhat radical, if not reduced due to the planet's thicker atmosphere and greenhouse effect.
Lithorvoric life became complex on Ivyyus, and pretty much every animal (the aveterriat being of no exception) on the world has rocks and minerals as part of their diets, even the apex predators.  The mineral rich caves of Ivyyus have, as a result far more biodiversity than earth's caves with complex ecosystems that interconnect through volcanic tubes, hot salty marsh regions and densely packed mesas full of long, paste filled bulb plants of which many more kinds of flora parasitize and grow off of.  Of which than the more complex creatures of the world feed off of, of whom get eaten by higher order creatures on a regular basis.  
Chemotrophs, Autotrophs and Heterotrophs are also present, but all of these are to some extent lithorvoric as well (and to the point where all species have to eat certain inorganic minerals to get by, especially clay which the Aveterriat cultivate persistantly in order to maintain their vast populations).  Since all the water on Ivyyus is highly salty, life on Ivyyus has a universal tolerance to salty water and do not suffer from dehydration from drinking salty water the way many earth animals would.  Overall, Ivyyus would cultivate a ecosystem of highly resilient life forms that can live off rocks.
The Aveterriat species (and related sub-species) themselves are the distant descendants of a organism that may have came from one of the volcanic seas 70 million years ago which may well have been analogous to a seal in some regards.  Over time they developed intelligence thanks to the evolutionary pressures being in a particularly turbulent time of volcanic activity near what amounts to a super volcano.  The region in particular being Vajypp, the cauldron of wisdom.  Called such due to being a volcanic marsh bountiful not only in food, but also in acute observations of the universe around them on the desolate world in which they live. 
Vajypp would be where the Aveterriat domesticated multiple life forms, notably of the radially symmetrical "walking table" family of creatures who lack a discernible head and eat from their bellies. They also cultivate giant spicy amphibious wigglers, of which amazingly enough are actually edible by humans as well.  The walking tables, not so much.  Mind that Vajypp wasn't the only cradle of society on their world, the Platinum Canyon region would also host another independent society which is notable for their underground civilizations who domesticated underground creatures for food, including silver trees and large, segmented serpentine creatures who are  best imagined as a higher order flatworm-esque creature with many limbs who make for great sources of meat.  Not nearly as edible by humans, however.
A dozen others also occurred in many parts of this complex world, at points by completely different subspecies.  However it is the above two whose domesticates are most well known by people as their domesticates can work shockingly well together.  

Morphology and Biology:
The Aveterriat are large creatures, with a overall body plan that is reminiscent of a seal, but unlike a seal is far more adapted to moving across the land due to its traction heavy body, of which is slightly fuzzy.  They are usually 9-10 feet long and five feet high (from their head to the base of their body).  Aveterriats have six appendages that protrude out from the sides of their base body which overlap each other.  At the ends of these appendages, they have soft claws that can pinch surprisingly hard.   The bottom foot combined its multiple frontal appendages allow it to move at a considerable rate, although the Aveterriat are not a fast species.  Humans easily outrun them.  The Aveterriat have a head with two large, geodesic eyes of which have gem-like colorations such as obsidian, cobalt, topaz or opal and a rough hide colored pale, pinkish or crème (along with darker variations).  There is a great diversity of forms the Aveterriat can take on the whole, small and large.    
The aveterriat manipulate the world around them using not only their six appendages and claws, but also their mandibles which are very hand-like.  The development of these mandibles and their handlike-nature is a mystery, perhaps the need to grab rocks and varnish along with digging up sand clams led to the development of such hand-like manibles.  Why, no one knows.  
The Aveterriat have eyes that are space diagonally away from the mandibles.  
The brain of the Aveterriat is more or less a large segmented bundle of nerves of extreme complexity, making up 2-3% of the Aveterriat's whole body mass and have made their kind very ravenous to sustain their minds.  
The Aveterriat has atteanae that allow them to sense sound by vibration instead of by hearing the way we do.  Aveterriat antennae do "hear"; as these antennae really are just lots of tiny ear holes that are very hairy.    
The Aveterriat reproduce by egg, although these eggs gestate internally and the baby is popped out from the body like a large zit.  A Avaterriat that has too many children at once is likely to die.  In fact, over pregnating a Aveterriat is one of the stranger execution methods that has sprouted up in some Aveterriat cultures.  Aveterriat seem to have distinct genders like humans, but there is no dimorphism at all beyond scent.  Aveterriat tend to gestate slowly, but can give birth to a lot of children.  It takes five-seven years for a Aveterriat to gestate, but may spawn 8-13 Aveterriats.  It takes an Avaterriat 20 years to reach sexual maturity.  
The Aveterriat reproduce via insemenation from the mouth-mouth contact and "mandible locking".  There is surprisingly little courtship with the Aveterriat; they just sometimes will lock Mandibles with each other.  
A female aveterriat can be pregnant with children of multiple males due to how they get pregnant, meaning that while the Aveterriat aren't monogamous, polygamy as we see it on earth never let to any notable dimorphism in gender.  The Aveterriat males and females can propagate at high rates with relatively little mating competition.  This means of reproduction is why the Aveterriat are a very communal species; the idea of a single mother, single father family is just alien to their kind since the litter of a Aveterriat female may have many different fathers and a father may have many different children from many different females.    
The Aveterriat has chilla that run down its back of which flare up when the Aveterriat is paranoid.  Aveterriat fear is always linked to a sense of paranoia, something that explains why the Aveterriat are a very paranoid species, always watching anyone who walks on their planets with a drone or always spying on everyone else or always willing to kill a million people if it means deterring a potential invader.
The Aveterriat diet consists of many meats, various mineral salts, tubular plants, seeds and clay along with whatever doesn't poison them; the Aveterriat aren't a terribly picky species when it comes to food.  

Psychology:
The Aveterriat perception of their world is very density centric, being able to Preceive different densities is a sense somewhat alien to humans, but common among life on Vajpp.   
The Aveterriat mind is unique from humans in that it is far greater at remembering things, but abstraction is not as strong; the Aveterriat can make near perfect pictures and have since the start.  However, making stylized art of art from the imagination is considered something in the field of experts.  Humans and Rovii by contrast easily make stylizations and are far more error prone in their art.  The Aveterriat tend to make sculptures from any material they can find and their whole civilization is filled with sculptures of individuals and various items of reverence and the Aveterriat have a habit of carving obsessively detailed reliefs on all their structures and vehicles, at least the ones they consider their own and not the collective's.  Stylized reliefs only became more common as the Aveterriat advanced into a more sophisticated society where more individuals could try to think in a way that could allow them to abstract their memories more.  The Aveterriat easily see the world in a naturalistic point of view and never had gods in their faith.  However, the Avaterriat are staunch believers in reincarnation and pretty much believe they are effectively immortal as memories are inherited to children.  
Memory inheritance is in the genetics of many species on their planet, especially in higher order animals.  This memory inheritance is flawed; a child tends to have a very incomplete record of their parent's memories, but still they recall them and are influenced by them frequently.  
The Aveterriat for all it is worth are quite deep thinkers, and extremely analytical.  With such intensive analytical minds the Avaterriat would develop scientific methodologies extremely early on in their history and despite how stagnant they may seem are frequently looking deeper into their technologies to find new ways to improve on and increase the effectiveness of what they have.  
The Aveterriat emotionally have a surprising mount in common with humans.  
The Aveterriat get enthusiastic, frustrated, paranoid, fall into fits of lunatic rage and can be very neutral minded.  Aveterriat fear is very tied to paranoia, and the Avterriat tend to strike out when scared as opposed to run because they can't really run away from threats the way a faster alien could, such as the Rovii.  Fear can rapidly translate to anger and fury, than back again on a moment's notice.  The Aveterriat however, tend to be most happy when carrying out work and discussing previous actions.  The Aveterriat are a social species and communicate with each other quite a bit.
The Aveterriat, despite their seemingly unitary mindset do actually have a concept of entertainment.  It just is not what humans consider that terribly entertaining in general since the Aveterriat like listening to long demonstrations of gem impurities found on a alien world or engaging in long, circular arguments that go on for weeks about the biology of a alien creature of interest.  3D video sequences of granite crumbling in slow motion has been claimed to be very arousing to a large minority of Aveterriat.  Music with the Aveterriat tends to be in terms of vibrating floors and buzz mixes.  They tend to be very methodical and have a habit of being based on mathematical patterns noticed in genome sequences, the gait of various creatures, the erosion of a rock and so on.  All of which I just said constituting whole genres really.
The Aveterriat are a sapient species and do have diversity in their mind, however it is of no doubt that at some point in their history some culture defined how space faring Avaterriat society would structure themselves for millennia to come- as current Aveterriat societies live in a system of many castes almost universally chosen by a machine AI that keeps track of what needs a colony has in terms of labor surpluses and shortages, determining the entire lives of Aveterriats based on this data.
The Aveterriat indeed do have curiosity of the world around them, and over time their quest for knowledge and absolute detail would lead them to become one of the most advanced alien societies humans know of.  It however, took them 17000 years to do so.
The different Avertteriat races are very similar psychologically, however they inclinate differently thanks to their habitual upbringing in separate regions of Ivyyus.

History:
Oh dear.
Let's not.
Just say that here was a split, many avterriat over the past few millenia once they became space faring spread to many separate world-states, not seeing anything beneficial in having a organized empire (Though the Vmisk inclined to disagree)