(This article is part of a series on realistic and interesting aliens)

Benefactors

The species known as "The Benefactors" were artificially created by an unknown entity to "pay it forward" and help other species. They are essentially a biological singularity and the most powerful organic lifeform in the universe. The Benefactors are not so much a species that you interact with as they are a cosmic event that happens to you.

The basic form of the Benefactors is a type of lichen. This lichen can survive and even thrive in practically any environment and frequently arrives on inhabited planets through panspermia. It is capable of absorbing every known type of radiation and can consume both organic and inorganic material with frightening efficiency. From a single spore, an entire planet can become completely covered in this lichen within a decade.

The lichen contains a neural network and is highly intelligent. It can also observe its surroundings through sensory organs that it can grow at will.

The lichen is further capable of growing independent animal organisms. These animals grow directly from the lichen and turn into autonomous animals once they have grown enough. The Benefactors have an enormous library of possible animal forms that they can grow, suitable for every conceivable purpose, environment and ecological niche. The Benefactors are what the Davlash wish they could be.

The purpose of the first animals grown by the lichen is to scout the area and to identify and analyze any and all other lifeforms.

The Benefactors are programmed with a strict set of moral criteria by which they evaluate every creature they encounter. These criteria focus mostly on general intelligence and on social behavior. Any species that does not reach these criteria is considered food and will be consumed. Any species that meets the requirements for both intelligence and sociability however is considered a ward.

The Benefactors exist to satisfy the values of all their wards. They are genetically engineered to have no other desire but to identify all beings that match the criteria for wardship and to do everything in their power to make those beings happy.

If the Benefactors were to land on earth, humanity would be the only species that meets the minimum requirements for both intelligence and sociability. Humans would become wards, while everything else becomes food. Since most humans value some other animals, such as dogs and other pets, the Benefactors would extend their protection and service to these animals as well, for as long as humans care about them.

They would proceed to take care of all our needs, physical and otherwise, to the best of their substantial ability:

• They would achieve world domination for our own good.

  They are powerful enough that resistance by humanity is entirely futile. They would do this solely with the goal of helping humanity, as the abuse of humans by other humans is a situation they want to prevent, and achieving world domination is simply a good way to ensure that they are in a position to do so.

• They would provide limitless quantities of food and drink that is specifically engineered to be delicious. Similarly, they would construct houses and take care of any other basic needs of humanity, as well as any animal species humans care about.

• They would create artifical bodies for themselves that are specifically engineered to be useful and aesthetically pleasing to humans, which would then act as willing servants to humanity.

  For every human, there would be a dozen humanoid-looking Benefactor creatures to tend to their every whim.

All in all, they turn any world they land on into a complete utopia for the native species, provided you don't care so much about having all your power and influence taken away from you "for your own good".