Stryxis

Pictured: a trustworthy merchant in the 41st millenium.

"Do not fear, biped. We Stryxis are no threat to you, just poor scavengers and merchants, not like yourself, biped—with your ship and friends. They are good friends, yes? Good friends, strong and pretty. Are they for sale? We Stryxis have pretties too: deadly weapons, secrets, lies, hatreds, and joys. All of these can be yours, biped. Tell us, what is your pleasure?"

– Sirred Fain, Stryxis Merchant Master

"Got a selection of good things on sale, stranger. Whaddaya buyin'?"

– Random Stryxis merchant

The Stryxis are a race of nomadic xenos traders and merchants who inhabit a wide area of the Koronus Expanse. They tend to keep away from galactic politics to the extent that, as of the moment of this article being written, not a single mention of this species appeared anywhere on this website. This is how small they are in the grand scheme of things.

Biology

The lack of contact with this species makes any anatomical description difficult, but according to the few testimonies we have, the Stryxis appear hideous to human eyes, with the shape of a human-sized skinless dog embryo, with gangling stature and bony talons on the digits of their limbs. They are usually heavily dressed, with many jewlery and trinkets on them, covered in swathes of ragged cloths. They frequently use their "clothes" to hide some of their most valuable products, which makes us unable to know whether certain bulges are growths or just things poorly hidden. Their face looks like a deformed terran Bulldog, with two pairs of eyes that work individually to each other. It's also worth mentioning that, out of all of the few encounters with the Stryxis, there has never been reported any form of sexual dimorphism, and some have pointed out that this and the utterly nomadic and solitary lifestyle they follow might indicate they reproduce asexually.

Behaviour and Society

Stryxis are incredibly individuallistic creatures, this being their second most characteristic trait. They travel alone or in small groups through the emptiness of space in old spaceships, trading with whatever or whoever they find. Their society is filled to the brim with deception and backstabbing, and this has made this xenos unable to create any form of a society more complex than a tribe. They frequently fight each other for treasures and slaves, and will trade with anything and anyone, even Chaos worshippers. Their innate ability and interest for trading has made them rather interested with Rogue Traders, with whom they buy and sell rather extensively, although no stryxis has ever become part of a Rogue Trader retinue that we know of.

Trading with the Stryxis is an incredibly unpredictable affair, on one hand they might give you a great bargain since their idea of value is nearly incomprehensible compared to ours; something as undeniably valuable as a Standard Template Construct fragment might be seen as worthless junk to a Stryxis while something as undeniably worthless as some beaten up stubber pistol might be seen as unusually valuable.

However this isnt to say the Stryxis are stupid; as if such a trade would take place the imperial servant in question would ask why the stryxis would be willing to trade such a thing for something as worthless as a stubber, the stryxis in question would probably say something along the lines of "This trade will make better trade in future"; the trade will be made and the stryxis will give the STC fragment as promised; the stryxis will then point the stubber in the servants face and "trade" a bullet in exchange for the STC fragment back.

In the Stryxis's mind he has just made a fantastic bargain since he now has the STC fragment and the stubber, while anyone else would call that a mugging.

TL:DR If you try to trade with a Stryxis be very careful with what you trade and how you trade it since they can and will fuck you over if given half a chance.

Also, the stryxis have an irrational hatred for the Eldar, for some reason. Upon encountering eldar, stryxis will leave whatever they're doing aside and attack them fiercely (or better yet, pay others to do it for them), something unheard outside of this species. Not even the Imperium of Man in its most xenophobic can get a reaction as violent as the eldar out of them. The reasons for this are hidden in lies and secrets. Surely they did them something very similar to what the Humans did to the Tarellians when they were bored.

Technology

Although it is believed they have no technology of their own, Stryxis have developed a complex technology based on the study and combination of other species' and their own investigations. Their ramshacked ships usually have powerful void shields and weaponry to defend themselves, and they are quite skilled fleshcrafters, able to create masses of vat-soldiers if needed, although they prefer to keep their numbers low.

Their trade caravans usually consist of one ship that is void capable being crudely attached to a number of others; usually with vast amounts of chains literally tying them together. Other ships in a Stryxis caravan can include anything from a bombed out husk that cant even support life to a fully stocked Imperial Navy Battleship that the Stryxis simply haven't figured out how to operate.