[Note that this is completely different from the future history presented in the Annual. Over five centuries, things have changed and new adversaries arisen.]

In the 20th century, the Grue, as they had for centuries, followed a pattern of infiltration and subversion in their ever-expanding conquest of the galaxy. A successful Grue campaign saw a world fall without the inhabitants ever discovering the forces that had led to the collapse of their societies and the loss of their freedoms, and certainly never having lifted a weapon against the architects of their downfall.

Traditionally, a scout team of a half-dozen or so Grue would covertly make planetfall, and spend many months infiltrating and assessing the value of the world. If the Grue Unity deemed it to have suitable resources, hundreds of Grue infiltrators would arrive, with more by the year, and each would have a specific role to play in the downfall, some assuming the roles of prophets, others political advisors, others popular entertainers or sports figures. Any role in a position to influence the hearts and minds of the citizenry, and any role of any political authority, would be targeted. The Grue would rarely take over great leaders, preferring advisors to kings, ministers and cabinet appointees, the various ‘powers behind the throne.’ If any of their guises would become compromised, or simply prove ineffective, they would be abandoned, and the agent would learn from whatever went wrong and move on to a more effective guise.

Eventually, the nations and cultures of a world would find themselves at each others throats over slights real and manufactured, and end up expending much of their worlds military might against each other, while Grue technical advisors would make sure that their war industries developed the capability of crafting and maintaining Grue armaments. Only after their carefully-managed internecine strife brought them to their knees would the Grue show their faces, ruthlessly subjugating the survivors, and forcing them to work in these new industrial centers, supposedly built to sustain their own military, but actually designed to support the Grue war machine.

By the 22nd century, the Grue Unity had successfully subverted a dozen worlds, which were so thoroughly beaten down that Grue could walk the streets in their own forms, and had operatives on at least two dozen other worlds, some at the ‘assessment’ stage and others already suffering the first steps of upheaval.

It was a stratagem developed to deal with those pesky Lor that ended up spelling the doom of the Unity. Years of biotechnical research culminated in the crafting of a powerful retroviral agent that would transform a humanoid being into a fledgling Grue, ready to be integrated into the Unity. ‘Tested’ on a Lor world, the virus proved to be ineffective, and the thousands of infected colonists died of hemorrhagic fevers, their flesh twisted and their bones broken with the force of their convulsions, instead of transforming, as intended. A dozen Lor survived, all Mentats, and those with telekinetic proficiency found that their psionic abilities had mutated, along with their deformed flesh. Instead of manipulating matter at a distance, these survivors found that they could now psionically manipulate living tissue, both their own, and that of those they touched!

These new ‘healers,’ despite their oft-horrific appearance, were celebrated and embraced by the Lor, not just for their talents, but for their survival of the ‘Massacre of Orin Five.’ Already regarded as heroes, their perceived value increased incalculably when it was discovered that they could detect the presence of shape-shifted beings within their immediate area, ‘seeing’ Grue infiltrators as easily as one person might recognize another! Further exploration of their unique gifts uncovered their ability to warp and twist their own flesh, allowing them to repair the damage done to their bodies by the Grue plague, and over years of study, they developed the ability alter the appearance of another person!

Soon, sculpted Lor infiltrators began to take root on Grue-controlled worlds, able to detect the presence of Grue shapeshifters, and avoid them. Fomenting dissent on worlds that the Unity had long considered ‘secure,’ the Great Rebellion consisted of a half-dozen ‘Grue worlds’ rising up and using the weaponry that they had been building for their alien masters to strike against them. Timed with a perfectly coordinated Lor all-out assault, the Grue homeworld burned, and the Unity itself was slain.

In an instant, all across the galaxy, thousands of Grue fell to the ground screaming with the death of their race. Many died moments later, as their guises flickered and their bodies involuntarily changed, instinctively seeking out some form that would shield them from this psychic assault. Many more died within the weeks and months that followed, unable to function as individuals on worlds now hostile to them, and aware of their existence. Within a matter of years, it is believed that the number of Grue left alive in the galaxy numbered less than a hundred, all individuals, all living in hiding, far from each other and unable to count themselves a people, or a culture.

And so they have lived on, in hiding among a hundred other races, for centuries. It has become ‘tradition’ for Grue, upon meeting, to touch each other briefly, sharing memories and genetic material, and part ways, never to meet again, for it is considered too dangerous for Grue to gather together, and in most cases, the Grue involved have already crafted lives for themselves as members of other species, and can not, or will not, abandon these lives even for a member of their own long-forgotten race.

In older times, a Grue would simply bud off a child if one was deemed to be necessary, and the fledgling would be immediately functional, as a smaller adult Grue (needing to feed and develop to full size, but already ‘adult’ in mind). No longer an option, the Grue in hiding chooses a mate of another species and lives with that mate just like any other, traditionally taking on a female or child-bearing gender, if the Grue plans to breed. Instead of ‘budding’ off a child, the Grue goes through the pretense of growing an infant within itself, and over the generations, Grue ‘pouched’ in this fashion have turned out to be ever more psychologically distinct, and some would say, ‘better-adjusted,’ than their ‘parent’ Grue. (The other party in whatever relationship the Grue has entered has no genetic contribution to ‘their’ child. Grue are not interfertile with other species.) The Grue race itself evolves still, with each Grue ‘child’ being a mixture of the parents own genetic material, and that of any other Grue that have shared genetic material in the past, but any physical changes pale in comparison to the massive cultural and psychological transformation that has befallen this once-powerful race.

By 2525, the existence of these lingering Grue shapeshifters is a persistent ‘boogeyman’ rumor among the races of the galaxy, but many dismiss it as paranoia, and insist that the Grue are long extinct. The presence of someone claiming to be a Grue among the Freedom Legion has come as something of a shock to all, with many insisting that he’s simply a garden-variety shapechanger, eager to take on the role of ancient boogeyman, and others pointing and saying, ‘See, we were right!’ The Grue themselves, scattered throughout the galaxy, are well aware of the truth of the matter, and if they had any sort of unity left to them, would likely band together to kill this youth for daring to ‘out’ the existence of their people, and threaten their centuries-old masquerade, and indeed, their very survival…