Cephaleons

Cephaleons are highly intelligent members of the High Races that are essentially giant octopuses with a great deal more, thinner tentacles. Their control over these tentacles allows them to emulate the bodies of other High Races; though they lack arms, legs, or a tail, they will often bunch many of their tentacles together into a single form in those shapes, and can often function passably with them. This race is the oldest sentient and aquatic race in the High World, and they are caretakers to the civilized world's history and knowledge. The other peoples seek them out for solutions to uncommon problems, or when rarely needed and nearly forgotten magic is needed once again. They are hardly saints, however. If anything, their proclivity to mimic others' form gives them to duplicity, for they learn from a young age that the things that they need, desire, and feel are alien to others. How a Cephaleon copes with the disparity between his own, real personality and that of others often defines their moral alignment with other kinds.