Homeplanet: Xythes; Ocean World
Xythes; this is one of few worlds in the galaxy where intelligent life teems on both the continents as well as beneath the oceans. Two races sprang up from the differing environments of this world, both of whom would inevitably try to conquer one another. The aquatic race, given the advantage of the open ocean, managed to defeat their land-based enemies and eventually developed the technology recreate self-contained, aquatic habitats for themselves on the land. It is estimated that they would invariably go on to improve this technology, and manage to establish their watery world on other such worlds where conditions allowed for its construction. The Xythians, having managed to defeat their land enemies, have become WarLords.
The Xythians are a race of highly evolved, supremely intelligent fish-like organisms, comprised of many different species of similarly related fish-like organisms (i.e. bass, piranha, trout, etc) that reside in the same types of saltwater environments. Their body is elongated, thin, and scaley, with fins. Only a few of them have any viable appendages that can be used for construction and farming, since the Xythians get their food by consumption of less free-floating organisms and they do not require to grow food (+5 farming). Construction was done by them by gathering the types of Xythians that are skilled and capable at using their fins for construction work and breeding them, but still are not skilled at it (-1 construction). All Xythians have a capacity for science and research (+2 research).
Due to their physiology and the type of environment in which they live, Xythans can only survive in the saltwater oceans of Terran, Ocean, Swamp, and Tundra environments, and may not colonize Desert, Arid, Barren, Radiated, or Toxic environments because they would most surely perish on those. However, the planets that they can colonize are always considered as being Gaia to them since they can contain life forms that are food for the Xythians, and also do not impose any gravity restrictions on them due to the free-floating aquatic environment.
Reasons why the Xythians wanted to move out into space: The Xythians knew their population was growing to such extent that the self-contained aqua domes on their continents would begin to burst at the seams at the introduction of any further more of them, and their population reproduces so rapidly (+5 pop. growth) that they needed to expand. It does not take the Xythians long to populate an entire planet. By the same token, the Xythians knew that in order to protect what they had already established, they would need to continue to grow even larger in order to develope the necessary military strengths to protect themselves from marauding alien races.
Notes on Xythian ships: They are always contain an aquatic environment to support the life forms within them, but are no more easily breached than any other alien ship.