Aboleth (Pathfinder)

The Aboleths (species true name Alghollthu) are an aberrant race from the pencil-and-paper roleplaying game Pathfinder.

Background
The Aboleths originated in an alien world. A cataclysm in the sky is what awakened their race, the first experience in their cellular memory. They sensed other lifeforms nearby, but discovered they were the only intelligent lifeforms. As the evolved as a species and society, they learned to consume life, control life, etc. They developed four Dictums which their race follows. Which are that all life existed to be controlled, Aboleths are to control, they are eternal as many and one, and overreaching threatens the eternal.

On their homeworld, they created a global empire in which for millennia they ruled over lesser lifeforms. Until disaster struck in an uprising by their slaves. In the war of attrition, the rebels lost millions, but the Aboleths eventually lost, forcing the few thousand survivors to flee underground. The greatest among them were chosen to merge, becoming their first veiled masters. For decades the veiled masters studied and mastered glyph magic. Meanwhile the rebels continued their push underground, and within 80 years only a few dozen veiled masters and less than a 1000 Aboleths remained. They created a number of portals to other habitable planets, and most of the veiled masters left for those worlds to establish new colonies, with a few score Aboleths escorting each of them. Only one veiled master stayed behind, and when the rebels arrived, it activated a glyph which destroyed the world.

The ones that arrived on Golarion, established their dominance over its oceans during the Age of Legend. The land at that time was dominated by the four armed, insectoid humanoid xiomorns. They went to war with each other, a war that the aboleths won. Their Veiled Masters then used illusion magic to walk among humans. They shaped the course of human history, giving rise to the Empire of Azlant. Through it, they expanded their power, establishing a global empire. As time went on the Azlanti discovered their manipulations and despite the efforts of the Aboleth (e.g. assassinations), they became a threat.

In an attempt to obliterate the humans the Aboleth reached into outer space and pulled a meteorite toward Golarion, the Starstone. The goddess of the Azlanti had a moon intercept the meteorite which then shattered into millions of pieces which bombarded the world. The Aboleth badly miscalculated the destructive power of the Starstone. It not only annihilated the continent of Azlant and destroyed or crippled every other land-based civilization but it severely impacted their own civilization, bringing about the Age of Darkness. Though most of the Aboleths survived, they were forced into slumber.

Aboleths are able to mold and create new creatures to serve them as slave races. In fact many of Golarion's races were originally creations of the Aboleths including the Cloakers, the Skum, the Ceratiodi, the Faceless Stalkers, and its theorized by some, the Shoggoth. When the island continent of Azlant was obliterated by the Starstone, the Aboleths rescued some of its inhabitants and used their fleshwarping abilities to turn them into a slave race, the Gillmen. Due to the Aboleth's obsession with tyranny and slavery, the Prydanu Azatas violently oppose them and will often launch crusades of liberation against the Aboleths.

Trivia

 * Despite the name and appearance, these creatures have nothing to do with the original Aboleths from Dungeons & Dragons.