The name "Xenovore" still makes people shudder throughout the Terran Empire. They nearly destroyed the Humans during the Alien Wars era, but were ultimately reduced to a remnant of homeless wanderers after the destruction of their homeworld.
Xenovores appear to derive from chasing hunters, but many Terran scientists believe they are the product of genetic engineering because of their ability to digest almost any kind of protein and their extremely tough physiology. Scholars have suggested both the Mandaarians and the Malvans as possible creators, but nothing in the history of either civilization supports this idea, and no one has ever satisfactorily explained why either species would want to breed such "pets." Xenovores have both a chitinous shell and an internal skeleton, two hearts, and a deadly tail sting.
Virtually nothing is known of the Xenovore homeworld, since their xenophobia and aggression kept visitors away. The Human Combined Fleet destroyed it in 2396. All that's left now is rubble, which daring explorers and prospectors sometimes pick through in the hopes of finding lost Xenovore technology.
Traditional Xenovore society is based on a pack structure - small groups with intense personal loyalty to a leader. On a large scale this functioned as a kind of feudal system, giving tremendous unity and direction to their crusade to conquer other sentient species. Surviving Xenovore packs have no loyalty to any thing beyond their group, and fight each other as viciously as they fight aliens.
In their heyday the Xenovores attacked in all directions, motivated both by simple predator aggression and a violently xenophobic philosophy. Because Xenovores can digest anything they developed the notion that they are the highest form of existence in the Universe and everything else was merely food for them. When they encountered alien intelligence, the Xenovores reacted with fury and revulsion - fury at the aliens who dared consider themselves equal to Xenovores and revulsion at food which dared to think. Their crusade resulted in the extinction of six species and the deaths of billions.
Since the destruction of their homeworld and the final mopping-up by the Terran fleet, the Xenovores have become little more than a nuisance. The total population now is less than 5 million, mostly in small shipboard groups or enclaves on a few worlds. They have no government; the remaining bands get by as mercenaries, pirates, and smugglers. A few hundred have overcome their innate xenophobia (which most Xenovores take as a Psychological Limitation) and earn relatively honest livings as bounty hunters or safari guides. Two of the most successful gladiators in the Malvan arena are Xenovores.
Xenovore technology was ATRI 9 at its peak (ATRI 10 for biotechnology). Today their packs either use old gear from that level, or alien equip ment purchased or stolen. On some of their devastated colony planets, surviving Xenovores have reverted to a primitive, pre-technological state.