Anulea

Born on the tropical world of Relrore, the Anulea are an aquatic species that made their lives beneath the waves before they made it to the stars.
The bottom of even the most vacation-worthy of a planet's oceans is a harsh place to live, and the Anulea struggled to make their living in theirs. Every village that formed was isolated from the others by miles of rip-currents, ocean predators, poisonous sub-sea level fauna, not to mention the ever-present darkness of the seafloor. And it was a long time before they would move onto the land.
As such, knowledge was everything. Those who had a father that knew how to avoid a Hangman's Anemone better than the others, were better off. More likely to survive, and thus the histories started to record the minutia of one's actions and call upon the ancestors for aid when assistance was needed for a task. Over time, the role the ancestors of the Anulea played in society grew. Now storied grandparents, mothers, fathers, great uncles, etc, are worshiped alongside the gods. The lifelong goal for most Anulea is to have something to pass down to those that follow after you, be it a business, knowledge, or some sort of skill.
Of course, hand-me-down skills and knowledge aren't enough to make the seafloor livable for a society.
To this end, the Anulea have developed massive domes of magic strong enough to keep the might of the seas from crashing in. Their magics ancient and irreplaceable, the loss of one of those domes is something every Anulea fears. Even though the species can breathe underwater, the loss of life would be horrific. The force of rushing water would pulverize anyone in it's way, not to mention the hostile aquatic species that would follow the crashing waves.
And so the Anulea spread themselves out, attempting to minimize the potential loss of life by scattering into 'enclaves' with a relatively small sample of people. A few dozen families at the smallest, or a few hundred at the largest. Having a small number of families living in the same place, with almost no lateral movement, furthered the tradition of ancestor worship. After all, it's much easier to keep track of one's predecessors when only a select amount of families have ever lived there.
The largest enclaves formed the bedrock of the Anulean government, excerting political and military pressure where necessary. The smaller enclaves either fell under their protection and power, or did everything in their power to remain under their own authority. Fighting when practical, but usually done by simply being too far away.
This lead to a separation of the Anulea people into two groups. Those that are considered the 'urban' Anulea, living in the larger enclaves, and the 'frontier' Anulea, living in the darkest reaches of the sea. More tribal and primal. Often having their own, unique, culture and traditional markings of the folds on the sides of their heads. 
And while magics and technology have advanced to the point that an Enclave would find it difficult to go totally unnoticed on Relrore, if not impossible, that mentality still exists in a societal divide. With newly founded colonies either being considered a part of the Anulean government as a whole, or totally seperate from any government body. While there was only so far they could run on Relrore, the Void provides a lot of space to put between you and another. 
Tensions are rising between the two groups. Cries of rights and duty slung back and forth and more than a few saber rattling individuals on either side are inflaming the situation. Not that the common tourist's of Relrore, taking advantage of the relatively unavailed of beach fronts of the planet, would ever hear.

Scientific Name

Aequaliter Oceanum