Ba'ul

The Ba'ul are one of the two intelligent species of the planet Kaminar. They have dark, slick, tentacled forms and seldom show themselves, watching over the Kelpiens from towers and using advanced technology to control them.
For centuries the Ba'ul took Kelpiens when they reached vahar'ai, a change the Kelpiens were taught to fear as the start of madness. In Discovery's second season episode The Sound of Thunder, Saru learns the truth: long ago, Kelpiens who had gone through vahar'ai had been the predators and had hunted the Ba'ul. The Ba'ul had used the culling to keep that from happening again.
When Saru exposes the truth, the Ba'ul try to wipe out the Kelpiens by activating devices across the planet. The Red Angel stops them, and the Kelpiens all go through vahar'ai. The two species were then left to find a way to share Kaminar as equals.