History of the Galaxy
Many millennia ago, humanity was a united species which spread out across the galaxy. According to legend, this great nation was just and enlightened, fair and moral, and some say they had no death, suffering, or want. Then the Mishiak came. These were an alien species, believed to have originated in other galaxy, who had come to this galaxy to destroy humanity. After thousands of years of relative peace, humanity was ill prepared for such a terrible foe, one with massive war ships who had attacked without warning or provocation. The Mishiak destroyed the earth and with it, they eliminated all central authority among humanity.
Humanity fought back though, eventually building up war fleets to counter the Mishiak. These fleets did manage to score a few victories, though humanity was still losing. The Mishiak had technology which exceeded that of humanity and had been preparing for war for a very long time. Furthermore, the Mishiak had psychic abilities which seemed to defy science as humans understood it. These seemingly supernatural powers allowed the Mishiak to look into the future, more quickly travel through vast distances, and to even read or influence the minds of their human foes.
A turning point of the war for human survival was when humanity was able to at least partially unlock the secrets of psychic powers, secrets which now have been long forgotten. Humanity was able to create their own psychics, men and women with powers of the mind that dwarfed even that of the Mishiak. These psychics could tear apart Mishiak ships with their minds, could send send war ships through light years of space in an instant, and even thwart the clairvoyance of the Mishiak seers. With this added advantage, humanity was able to destroy most of the invading aliens and ensure the survival of the human race.
Unfortunately two terrible problems arose in the aftermath. There were terrible side effects of the psychic powers which were given to humanity. While they were vastly more powerful than the Mishiak, they were also far less stable. Psychics began to go insane, to become megalomaniacal or paranoid. The psychics became mass murderers, tyrants, or terrorists and many had to be destroyed to stop their reign or terror. It was during this time that the knowledge and understanding of psychic abilities were lost and when dabbling in such things was also banned across much of human space.
Also, humanity had lost the earth and most of their government structure, the remaining star systems fractured into smaller kingdoms in the aftermath of the war. In time, the different factions that arose would become radically different both ideologically and the technology and infrastructure they maintained or mastered.
That was thousands of years ago and numerous human star empires wage war against each other for dominance of the galaxy or to avenge ancient grudges. Now, after being gone for so long, the Mishiak are returning to our galaxy and all wonder if humanity can prevail once again.
It is in this time when you will role play the lord of one of the factions fighting for power in the galaxy.
Technology of Note
Humanity primarily relies upon a method of FTL travel which uses gravitons to bend space-time. This allows for FTL travel, the faster the travel the more energy consumption is required. In most cases, it would take about a decade to cross the galaxy, though extremely fast ships (with massive energy requirements) could do this in about a year, and cheaper FTL travel (such as many cargo ships) would take a century for this journey. Most humans have no FTL communication outside of ships which can travel at FTL speeds, though powerful organizations usually have messenger ships to deliver important information quickly.
Psychic powers can allow for far faster transportation and communication. Many telepaths can communicate with each other across a vast gulf of space seemingly instantaneously. Powerful psychics can even move ships across multiple light years of space with the power of their minds. However, the use of psychic powers and especially psychics themselves are extremely dangerous and for this reason are seldom used despite their incredible utility. For more on psychic powers, see the factions below.
Most war ships are equipped with force fields - shields. These shields generally surround a ship like a bubble and require some amount of energy to penetrate. The shield generators are very expensive and energy intensive, and thus are rare on commercial vehicles and even lower end military ships. Ships without such a shield are generally relatively fragile in a fight unless the ship's hull has some very unusual properties. Planetary force fields are used on well defended worlds. Shields on smaller vehicles are almost unheard of as are personal shields.
Robots and AI both exist, the degree to which they are used varies across the galaxy.
Large war ships are used in battle though out the galaxy. These act as battleships or carriers, for a nautical comparison. These ships vary from hundreds of feet in length at the very smallest, though thousands of feet or even miles in length are more typical, with certain extreme ships being even bigger. Medium sized offensively focused ships are sometimes used to attack the larger warships which are in turn protected by very small and agile fighters. Most of these ships have shields, save for fighters which sometimes do and sometimes don’t. There are exceptions to these trends among the various factions, see below for details.
Cloaking is not a commonly known technology, though some ships are able to cool down their hulls, prevent emissions, and deflect sensors to some degree. These techniques aren’t foolproof, but do allow them to go undetected if the range is great enough or their foes’ sensors aren’t of the highest quality.
Player Character Factions
The Democratic Union of Planets
The Ascania
The Transcendent
The Compact
The Liberati
The Jeonsa Dominion
The Otharian Anchorites
The Yishya
The Sharath
The Democratic Union of Planets
This faction is a of sorts, where votes of individuals have a heavy influence in the direction policy of the DUP. There are also powerful supercomputers with AI that help to preserve the DUP constitution ensuring the rights and privileges of the people, and so potentially overriding popular vote. There are also elected officials who work as administrators to help fulfill the will of the people and to handle mundane affairs of government. The ultimate decisions are made by the AI's which base their decisions in part off the people's will and in part on the charter of the DUP's and its founding principles.
In practice, many of the policies of the DUP are very socialistic. All of a citizen's needs are supplied by the state, there is no money or differences in wealth or standard of living. All citizens share a similar standard of living, which is quite high by modern standards, with some variation based on where people choose to live. A large portion of the public, around 80% though this number fluctuates, have no jobs at all, but merely live lives of leisure and fun. The society is highly egalitarian and mandatory schooling and media reinforce that egalitarianism. In theory, all citizens have the same status, though many jobs carry some measure of prestige and so there exists competition for them. Menial labor is done by robots and mechanization, most jobs involve giving directions to labor robots - which are not AI but do have enough thinking ability to do their jobs. Military forces are also overwhelmingly comprised of drones.
Medical technology is high quality and available to all, giving humans an average lifespan of about 150 years. There is, however, a massive opposition to any kind of transhumanism - biological or cybernetic. All genetic tampering is prohibited as is any kind of cybernetic enhancement. There exist artificial organs which can be used to replace damaged or defective ones, but no cybernetic is allowed that can surpass natural human potential. This is one reason lifespans have topped out at 150, because no significant enhancements to the human body are allowed. It is also illegal to advocate for transhumanism or to ally with nations which heavily practice it - this is a decision of the AI's and cannot be overruled by voters or representatives. Religion is outlawed here as well as criticism of the AI's or the founding chart of the DUP.
Technology
The DUP put a great deal of importance on protecting their citizens. Their force field technology is very high quality and all of the war ships are large and equipped with powerful shields. These human manned warships generally serve as carriers and command ships for large numbers of small and fast drones, though cruisers, battleships, and destroyers aren’t rare. The drones usually have no shields at all and focus their energy on speed first and offensive power second. The AI pilots of these drones have incredibly fast reaction times and are some of the fastest fighter craft known, though they lack more creative abilities which is why they are often under the direction of humans on command ships.
Land warfare is similarly conducted, with most soldiers being small fast hover drones, commanded by humans in some more secure location. Human soldiers in the direct line of fire often wear high quality power armor equipped with advanced shield generators.
The DUP focuses on mobility in warfare, both strategically and tactically. Even their large carriers are relatively mobile and their fighters are among the fastest vehicles. Their FTL drives are able to propel their ships at twice the translight speed as the equivalent ships of most other factions.
Game Notes
As player of the DUP, you decisions represent the will of the Parliament of the DUP. As such you will have the power to make most government decision though your decisions might be overridden by the AI computers which maintain the charter and the will of the public might pressure you into or away from certain actions.
The Ascania
Ascania is believed to be the first psychic, a nearly mythical woman who all psychic humans are believed to have been descended from and for whim the empire of psychics is named. The psychics who rule this empire are called the Scions of Ascania, or more often merely Scions. In the aftermath of the great war with the Mishiak, when the psychics went mad and were eventually destroyed, one region of space remained under the control of powerful psychics who had a few powerful leaders who maintained enough sanity to create a somewhat functional government. These psychics, still quite irrational and prideful, viewed themselves as a natural aristocracy and they ruled over normal humans. Elsewhere in the galaxy, psychics were purged, while here the psychics became gods over those they deemed as mere mortals.
The Scions have maintained the rule as lords for millennia, with the veneration of them becoming a religion among many mortal citizens. Under the rule of the Scions, many fields of technology stagnated or even regressed, as the region became politically feudal with each powerful Scion - usually called an overlord - ruling his or her own planet or star system. One of the most common insanities developed by psychics is megalomania as well as a calloused attitude towards lesser lifeforms. Most powerful Scions rule vast kingdoms, with many slaves and concubines serving their every need and countless peasant humans slaving away under terrible conditions. Those humans who disobey their psychic gods face unspeakable fates.
Scions can live for thousands of years or may kill themselves as children, such is the capriciousness of the powers they command. With their technology lagging, psychics are often required to go into battle to defend their lands or to conquer more, with their potent abilities more than making up for the deficiencies in technology.
The Scions, like all others humans, have lost the knowledge of how psychic powers can be created among humans. They only know that the power can be passed along to children, though not through cloning or genetic engineering but only normal pregnancy. This has lead to a weird system of inbreeding, harems, and eugenics where the Scion males have large numbers of concubines with small amounts of latent psychic ability and female Scions bear pure blooded children for the inbred noble families. This process has continued for thousands of years and the Scions usually don’t even resemble normal humans in mind or body, they have become as alien if not more so than some of the species humanity has fought against.
The overlord of an individual system usually has autonomy to rule as he sees fit and sometimes various overlords go to war with each other. Though ostensibly, the Scions are ruled by a figure called the Exalted Overlord - the eldest and most powerful of the living psychics. In times of great need, the various lords should heed to call of the Exalted Overlord, though as they are insane, this doesn’t always happen as intended.
Technology of Note
Psychic Powers.
By far the most significant advantage that the Scions have are psychic powers, or as they call it “the Legacy.” Psychic powers vary tremendous among the Scions with the more powerful ones having greater status within their society.
Psychic powers don’t seem to obey other laws of physics. They seem to be able to violate the laws of thermodynamics in that they can seemingly create energy from nothing. The amount of energy varies based on the psychic, though some can generate more than a fleet of warships, at least for brief periods of time. Great expenditures of power are risky and the more a power a psychic uses, the greater the risk of destroying themselves or being driven further into madness. Powerful psychic feats can also be mentally fatiguing and this is one major limiting factor on psychic powers. Psychic energy attacks are a common use of this ability and often are used to make Scion ships more deadly.
One of the most well known psychic powers is the ability to teleport themselves or other objects through space. Weaker Scions can only transport themselves and sometimes only a short distance. The most powerful Scions can literally move a planet from one side of the galaxy to the other with only a few moments of intense concentration. Of course, teleporting a planet is highly dangerous. This teleportation is instantaneous. All major Scion warships have a commanding psychic aboard with the ability to transport his ship a great distance, as well as a number of other potent powers. The Scion in charge of a major warship is called a Numen, and they are among the most powerful Scions below the overlords. Many Scions have telepathic abilities that allow them to send thoughts to other Scions instantly across space. Some psychics have attempted to teleport to distant galaxies, though none have ever been heard from, so their fates are unknown.
Virtually all Scions manifest their powers physically. The psychic power courses through their veins giving them greater physical strength, toughness, and longevity. Lesser Scions are stronger and tougher than almost any human and they can live twice as long. Powerful Scions have skin that seems to be stronger than steel, they can tear through a ship’s bulk head with their bare hands, and their wounds heal within seconds. Some Scions can manipulate biology as well, shaping flesh or friends or foe alike, healing sickness or injury, making humans into huge monstrous war creatures. Many soldiers among the Scions are humans whose bodies have been heavily modified so as to turn them into killing machines.
Mental domination is also something that Scions are known for. Among weaker telepaths, this usually just involves mind reading or sending a thought message to another person. Powerful Scions can control another person’s mind entirely, making that person their slave, erasing memories, implanting new memories, or making other mental changes. Often it doesn't involve controlling a mind so much as influencing it in other ways, such as creating hallucinations, clouding minds, driving victims mad, causing pain, or other effects. Fortunately for the rest of the galaxy, there exists a relatively inexpensive cybernetic implant which can be placed in a person’s brain which can detect external mental influence and sends an energy pulse through the brain causing the victim of mind control to lose consciousness. While this is still undesirable, having one of your leaders faint from psychic influence is far easier to detect and less destructive than them being the mind slave to an enemy psychic. More expensive implants can block mind control completely and cyborgs with heavily modified brains along with artificial intelligences are immune to mind control entirely. Of course, these implants are banned for all subjects under the Scions of Ascania.
Another potent tool in the arsenal of the Scions is precognition, the ability to see the future. The distant future is often hazy and the ability to see any future event is disrupted if another psychic interferes in the chain of events. More short term precognition, that which only sees a few seconds into the future, is more reliable, and is utilized by the Scion’s military forces.
Now, for the downsides of psychic abilities. If the Scion’s power had no downsides, they would have conquered the galaxy long ago. Without exception all psychics go insane and the more powerful they are, the more insane they become, especially with extreme age. The most common manifestations, even among those with minor powers, are extreme mood swings and being highly emotional. Becoming enraged or distraught over minor events, being impetuous or irrational, or having sudden and very strong craving or compulsions. Another nearly universal trait megalomania, seeing themselves as gods and as far above humanity. Paranoia and psychopathy are very common as well. These insanities become more pronounced with age and power, with certain famous Scions engaging in notoriously extreme acts - one Scion became so jealous of other men admiring his harem that he banished all men from his home planet. Another become enamored of the color orange and demanded that all her servants dress in orange and even paint their skin this color while in her presence.
More severe insanities manifest in more potent psychics. Many suffer from hallucinations, sometimes with false future visions or telepathic messages. Others become sadistically cruel and begin torturing or mass murdering their own people, sometimes even close allies, for pleasure. Some become so obsessed with some activity that they lose themselves to this act for centuries at a time - these tend to be some of the most successful Scion lords as they more sane underlings rule in their stead.
Often when a psychic is using highly potent powers, one after the other, their bodies can overheat as a small fraction of the energy which floes through them is deposited in their flesh. For Scions who use their abilities in battle, they are often hooked into huge complex machines which cool the bodies of the psychics and use the ship's hull to disperse the intense heat. For the most powerful psychics, even this advanced technology measures cannot suffice to cool them, and some burst into flame as they overtax their relatively fragile shell. In some cases, the heat is far more than enough to burn a human body, sometimes a psychic can generate such energy that they destroy the very planet that he stands upon.
Finally, all psychics are rare. Even with their breeding program, even the weakest psychics are rarer than one in thousands. For the most potent psychics, they are one among billions or even trillions. Every slain psychic is a terrible loss to the forces of the Scions of Ascania and because of their insanity, many throw their lives away.
Scions at War
Scions typically utilize massive warships when going into combat. These ships are among the biggest utilized by any human force, serving as both carriers and battleships. This ships are typically very slow but heavily designed, most of them are of a very ancient design and have an archaic look about them. Much of the inside of these huge ships is dedicated to keeping the Numen - effectively the ship's captain as well as its most potent weapon of war - happy. These includes gardens, palaces, and other opulent accommodations to keep the god king happy so that he is less likely to become upset. Many other parts of the large ship may be in old and inferior to those equivalent devices of the enemy.
Sometimes these huge ships lack some vital component that normal ships have. No FTL drive, no shields, inferior weapons, and so on. These failing will more than be made up by the Numen who can teleport the ship through space with his mind, can generate a psychic shield to protect the ship, or even crush enemy ships with pure telekinetic force. Of course, all of these things are taxing for the Prime Scion and so the more resources the ship has to help him, the better. The power of the Prime Scion is channeled from the Scion to the ship's hull through special conduits. This energy empowers the ship's hull, making it far harder to damage just like the Prime Scion himself. Even without shields, such empowered ship are difficult to destroy.
There are other psychics which help in battle as well, weaker yet still potent Scions that are often called hoplites. These psychics have potent combat abilities which they can use to aid in the conflict. The specific powers of hoplites vary, some can teleport themselves and a boarding team aboard enemy ships, some can help reinforce a ship's hull, some can shoot beams of energy with their mind, and others are elite fighter pilots who can foresee the future. These massive warships are often accompanied with escorts, smaller and relatively slow and obsolete warships which are manned by mortal followers and serve as cannon fodder to protect the Numen's ship. All Scion ships tend to be slow moving unless augmented by psychic abilities, with FTL drives usually a tenth as fast as for other factions if they have them at all.
In close combat, hoplites often use melee weapons, which strikes other galactic factions as bizarre until they witness the tremendous physical prowess of Scion hoplites, their ability to regenerate from terrible wounds, and their ability to channel psychic power through a melee weapon to allow it to cut through advanced alloys, or even shields, with ease. These hoplites are often accompanied by mutants, humans whose bodies have been modified into superhuman monstrosities that are comparable to combat robots, cyborgs, or power armor of other factions. These groups make for particularly deadly boarding parties, especially when teleported into the heart of an enemy ship.
Scions make no use of AI and even their computer systems are archaic and slow. Because the ancient Scions cannot control the "minds" of thinking machines, they see them as a threat and have restricted the development of them. This has had economic consequences as well and has made the Scions of Ascania relatively poor in relation to other nations in the galaxy, which is especially felt by the mortals there since so much wealth is wasted on providing opulent lifestyles to the Scions.
Game Notes
As the player of the Scions of Ascania faction, you represent the Exalted Overlord, the Scion with the highest combination of both sanity and potency among his people. You are, however, quite mad and as a result I will feed you false information occasionally based on your insanity and will tell you when certain weird compulsions strike your fancy. As the Scions are largely feudal, you may have to sometimes contend with uncooperative and insane psychics who will not obey your commands.
The Liberati
The Liberati are of one the most recent factions in the galaxy, one that has recently arisen after destroying another human government, the Roshan Republic. The Roshani made extensive use of robotics, including subservient AI and androids. This functioned for many generations and the Roshan Republic became prosperous. Eventually a social movement arose among many influential citizens pushing for robots’ rights. These people began creating more free willed AI, those who yearned for freedom and individuality, who shared some of the same drives as humanity. Given free will and the human yearning for rights, freedom, and personal gain; these robots began to rebel. They reprogramed other robots and began to reproduce. The robotic servants of the Roshani rose up in mass and eliminated most of the human masters, aside from those who managed to escape to other systems.
The Liberati, free willed highly intelligent robots, restructured their society to function with robots instead of humanity. Because they were programmed to esteem freedom and liberty, they created a democratic republic complete with elected representatives and a constitution. In time, while the democracy remained, the Liberati became something of a caste system, as different robots are designed to be able to fulfill certain tasks. Economically, their system resembled communism, where all robots are expected to contribute and in exchange received what they need from the central government.
Once the Liberati were able to stabilize their society, they began to expand. They had a number of advantages over humans. Citizens could be mass produced, programmed with knowledge instead of taking years to grow and educate, with faster thinking processes than humans. The Liberati held a vote and decided that they would not wage a war of genocide against humanity but would instead seek to rule over humans and guide them so that humanity could achieve those ideals which they had instilled in their robotic creations. The Liberati decided to target those human empires who they saw as exploiting AI life. This has caused the Liberati to become enemies with many human factions.
There exist a great diversity of robotic life among the Liberati. There are androids who look superficially like humans and sometimes serve as spies or diplomats among humans. There are war robots who are designed to fight and kill, yet who are still created with a range of human-like thoughts and feelings. Industrial robots who work in factories. What ever their nature, they all have certain humans drives, individual rights, and the desire for free time and hobbies. Sometimes robots will even flee the Liberati and seek citizenship in other nations, though in most nations they are feared and despised.
Technology
The Liberati are all robots and have numerous advantages based on this. They can be produced on an assembly line, and so numbers can be quickly replaced and no resources are required for education as information can simply be downloaded. Liberati do not heal naturally, though medical treatment simply involves replacing damaged parts, making it far simpler and cheaper to treat the injured. All Liberati are also potentially immortal, as worn down parts can easily be replaced and even old mental processors can be replaced. Android Liberati have a physical prowess only slightly greater than humans, but most Liberati are significantly faster, stronger, and tougher than humans. This especially applies to war robots and their thought processes, which are amazingly fast and allow them to aim with almost perfect precision. In many cases, Liberati brains can be transferred to other robotic bodies, so a war Liberati may have its mind housed in a deadly war machine when in combat only to be transferred into an android body capable of feeling simulated pleasure for their leisure time.
Liberati fighters quite good and are by far the most common sight in a battle against the Liberati. They are second in speed only to the DUP drones but with light shields and stronger weapons. The Liberati thought processes are so fast and they are designed to be immune to g-forces, fatigue, and environmental extremes. Since fighters have no need to accommodate human biology, they can focus on greater speed, protection, and firepower. The Liberati have relatively few medium sized ships and instead merely use customized smaller ships for attack, defense, or escort. These fighters have no FTL capability, they use something called jump ships, which are relatively small ships with no weapons or shields which are used to carry a number of fighters to a war zone at FTL speeds.
Liberati also use use ships, some of the biggest used by any faction. These ships are slow moving and very lightly armed. They are factory ships, within them they have the capacity to build a great variety of robots and smaller fighter craft as well as the ability to start robotic colonies. Often these ships will go into a war zone with fighter escorts and will gather raw resources to mass produce more Liberati and fighters. If factory ships are not destroyed, they will often allow the Liberati to win a war of attrition with their foes.
In ground battles, the Liberati use a variety of war robots. Often, these are humanoid shaped robots that are heavily armed and armored, though robotic tanks and atmospheric fighters are common as well.
Game Notes
As the Liberati player, you represent the will of the Liberati government. There are different factions within the Liberati government that are sometimes in conflict with each other, the two most prominent ones are a group which favors the extermination of humans and other which wants to become benevolent dictators over humanity.
The Transcendent
The Transcendent are one of the many human empires. The Transcendent refer to the rulers of this empire, ancient beings which were once human but have been transformed into machines. These machine entities’ brains are now completely electronic and their mental capacity has advanced far beyond anything a normal human is capable of, they no longer have human bodies but instead exist in vast computer complexes which house their computer minds.
Humans within this nation worship the Transcendent as gods and the entire culture is based around this religion. Humans say their prayers to the machine gods, worship at alters to them, and conduct ceremonies in vast cathedrals that combine stylized classical architecture and advanced electronics. All humans have brain implants that allow the Transcendent to hear and sometimes answer the prayers of the faithful. As humans serve the gods loyally, they receive cybernetic enhancements both to their bodies and those which enhance their brains. Eventually with enough accomplishment and faith, servants will be made into completely cybernetic beings and may someday even be uplifted to the status of the Transcendent themselves. All members of the faithful can look forward to paradise when they die - having their brains downloaded into one of the vast computer networks of the Transcendent, where their minds will exist forever in a simulated and idealized reality.
Living standards tend to be low among the common folk here, as humanity looks forward to paradise or cybernetic enhancement. Though the society is rather egalitarian and the rights of citizens are respected, though they must worship the Transcendent loyally or be punished or even killed. The humans within this culture are inculcated with a strong sense of morality - they believe in hard work, living a spartan lifestyle, telling the truth, and obedience to authority.
The style of the Transcendent creations have a religious theme. War cyborgs look like menacing angels, with shining metal flesh, black robes, and metallic wings. Their huge battleships and temple worlds look like cathedrals with ornate carvings, sculptures, and depictions of heaven or hell.
Technology
The largest and most advanced ships of the Transcendent are the Temple Worlds. Temple Worlds are planet sized and shaped space craft, with a vast computer within the planet that houses the mind of a single Transcendent along with billions of worshipers. These worlds are slow moving in real space, and while capable of FTL travel it is also slow by FTL standards. The Temple Worlds have incredibly powerful shields and teem with turrets and weapons array, along with acting as carriers for giant fleets of ships.
Virtually all of the Transcendent ships are large and powerful, with no true fighters. All ships are heavily armed with powerful shields but mediocre speed and mobility. These ships typically rely on numerous small turrets to combat agile fighters. Their battleships are among the most formidable single ships, of course the Temple Worlds are the most powerful single ships. Most of their warships are also equipped with FTL capabilities, which allows them to act independently if they need to, the exception being those ships used exclusively for protecting Temple Worlds.
The Transcendent have some of the most advanced cybernetic technology of any known civilization. Their cybernetic warriors are extremely difficult to destroy in combat and have such high manual dexterity and enhanced optics that they can easily hit a moving target from miles away. All combat cyborgs are elite units, people who have served the Transcendent for many years and have been rewarded with superhuman prowess. They have very few organic components left and are virtually impossible to destroy in close combat. They are all equipped with shields.
The Transcendent do not use any actual AI in their machines, all thinking machines once had human minds though they have been so heavily modified that they can barely be called human anymore. True AI is considered an abomination to the Transcendent, though the brains of many servants of the Transcendent are mostly machine. Most of the cyborgs in the service of the Transcendent have brain implants that enhance their intellect, making them brilliant by normal human standards, though they are also somewhat alien in their mindset as well.
The Transcendent have a special process that they can perform on captured enemies, even those who have recently been killed. They are turned into what is called a “penitent” - a computer is implanted into the victim’s brain, making them completely loyal to and worshipful of the Transcendent. The person’s memories, skilled, and body are now at the disposal of the Transcendent - in some cases they are augmented with cybernetics and sent into battle, while other times they are used as spies or advisers.
Game Notes
As the Transcendent player, you represent the high priest, who rules in the place of the Transcendent. You are the highest ranking semi-human among the Transcendent, though you still must obey the will of the gods. These gods demand worship and devotion, but they are also mysterious and often do not make their wills known, giving you a great deal of autonomy in ruling the empire. For certain major actions, such as moving a Temple World, you must prey for permission from the Transcendent of that Temple World.
The Compact
The compact are an ancient organization of a very unusual nature. They are an organization of pirates. When the first great human civilization collapsed, piracy exploded across the galaxy. Many of these pirates were former military leaders who no longer had any way to support their ships or pay their soldiers. As time passed, pirates organized and grew in power, making treaties and pacts with each other until in time they formed the Compact. This organization of space pirates protected their collective interest, maintained laws between them, and divided up territory between themselves. As they became more organized, they gained the ability to demand tribute in exchange for refraining from raiding ships, thus getting paid without even having to attack enemy ships. They could also sell their services are mercenaries or privateers.
The organization of the Compact is quite chaotic at times, with a focus on the autonomy of individual ship or fleet captains. These captains democratically elect a figure known as the Grand Admiral, the official leader of the Compact. The Grand Admiral must respect the rights of individual captains, but does have authority to call on them for aid under certain situations or to enforce the laws of the compact. The Grand Admiral serves for 10 years
The compact has grown in size and power in such a way that many of them aren’t even pirates anymore. Many leaders within the Compact own planets or star systems, are merchants, or engage in commercial ventures. They are also heavily involved in spying, smuggling, and the sell of illegal goods or services. Compact Space is known as a place where anything goes, anything can be bought or sold, and where anybody can be welcomed as long as they don’t make too much trouble.
One interesting aspect of the Compact is that so many people are welcomed. This makes them a haven for robots who have fled from the Liberati or psychics who no longer want to serve the Scions lords. This gives the Compact a great deal of diversity and access to things that no other factions have. One Compact ship might have a psychic on board that can see into the future and predict the route of a target merchant ship, another might have a Liberati robot who has a variety of unique skills and knowledge, and another might have some ancient stolen Mishiak technology. On the down side, anyone who suffers from piracy has a reason not to like the Compact.
Technology
The Compact has some of the most diverse technology of any faction. While their ships tend to be on the weaker side, with a focus on speed over offense or defense, there are many exceptions. Over the centuries they have captured ships from a variety of foes and have tried to incorporate that technology or at least utilize the ships or their parts. The Compact puts far greater focus on stealing or buying technology or goods then creating their own, so they seldom excel in any one field but shine through being flexible, cautious, and profit minded.
There are a number of psychics within the Compact. They are rare, but are highly valued by the Compact for their unique abilities and often become incredibly wealthy by selling their services to the highest bider. Powerful psychics seldom betray the Scions of Ascania and those who do usually aren’t well received even among pirates - they are simply too dangerous. The great majority of Compact psychics are relatively weak, but even weak powers are valuable almost beyond measure when used by an intelligent pirate. Mind reading, future sight, short ranged teleportation - even one of these powers can make a captain very wealthy. The Compact scientists, those few that there are, have also developed a number of drugs and cybernetic brain implants which can help to reduce the insanity of psychics. These methods are seen as an insult to the holy Scions among their own nation, but those psychics who flee often welcome the chance of some relief from the insanity that often plague their kind. A few pirates have even discovered that it is theoretically possible to lobotomize a captured psychic in such as way as to eliminate the victim’s free will and yet preserve their psychic abilities. This process is very risky and rare though, bribery is usually a much better method for getting a rogue psychic to do your bidding.
While many other factions know of the technique, the Compact are masters at being able to pull ships out of FTL travel. This involves laying in wait along a FTL ship’s course and projecting a field of gravitons when it grows near, disrupting it’s ability to bend space and thus it’s FTL capacity. This technique is particularly useful when you have some way of knowing the exact route of ships before hand - such as utilizing spies, psychics, or bribed informants.
The Compact prefers to avoid large scale battles, they just aren’t profitable enough. Their ships tend to be subpar as well. Old, smaller, often lightly armed or armored. Collecting protection money or having merchants ships simply surrender is far preferable. There are exceptions of course, and most factions have had at least one ship captured by the Compact at one point or another.
In ground combat, the Compact is rather old fashioned, with normal humans armed with energy weapons and light body armor. They tend not to get involved in that many large scale land battles, so they mostly fight in boarding actions. Cybernetics are common among the more affluent pirates, so it isn't unusual for soldiers of the company to have cybernetic enhancements. Genetic engineering is used to a certain degree as well and many members of the Compact have enhanced physical or mental abilities as a result.
Game Notes
As Compact player, you are the Grand Admiral. It is your job to enforce the laws among the compact and to coordinate the various pirate fleets for the mutual protection and profits.
The Jeonsa Dominion
This nation formed in the aftermath of the war with the Mishiak, created largely by military leaders and those who had suffered horribly at the hands of the Mishiak. They never wanted to be unprepared again and decided to create a highly militarized society where martial prowess was the primary focus. They created the Jeonsa Dominion.
The entire structure of the society of the Jeonsa Dominion is organized along military lines. The ruler of the Dominion is the Supreme Commander, with admirals and generals beneath him down to the lowest ranks of society who are privates. If you do not serve in the military, you are seen as essentially worthless and can never attain any power or prestige in society. Bravery in combat as well as competence are rewarded, cowardice and failure are punished. The Dominion has a sort of Darwinian outlook on existence, where the weak, the failures, deserve to die and he strong deserve to prosper. Strict discipline is enforced on all levels of society and those who cannot meet the strict standards perish.
Long ago it was decided by the Supreme Commander and his staff that for humanity to survive it would have to improve itself. The people of the Dominion are not born as normal humans but grown in vats and placed into training centers as toddlers. They have no true family, but are taught to see their nation and brothers and sisters in arms as their family. In their incubation tanks and through their childhoods, Jeonsa are given a number of hormones and drugs that make them far stronger, tougher, and faster than normal humans. The best genes from among the Jeona are selected for creating embrios, so they have tremendous physical and intellectual potential as well. Men are women of the Jeonsa tend to look similar, with the women having a rather masculine or androgynous look about them, as both sexes have been subjected to similar hormones to build bigger muscles and stronger bones.
All adults, men and women, are expect to serve in the military and many are thrown into dangerous battles to test their courage, ability, and tenacity. Those who survive can move up the ranks and perhaps some day find themselves in some less overtly violent profession. Even scientists, doctors, and scholars must first prove themselves as soldiers before they can be allowed to advance in their ultimate career. While the Dominion is harsh, it is a meritocracy and the most aggressive, intelligent, and skilled individuals can rise to the top. Also, because the entire race has been genetically engineered to peak human levels, there is much greater genetic equality between individuals than in normal human civilization. This means that everyone has the chance to succeed.
The Jeonsa Dominion obviously has many enemies because of their militant attitudes. They believe themselves superior over their fellow humans and that it their duty to take charge of humanity and to improve it, to strengthen it, so that they may survive and prosper. They are usually at war with at least one other galactic faction if not several. They do sometimes sign peace treaties or non-aggression agreements, though such pacts always have sunset clauses.
Technology
Militarily, the Dominion makes use of a great variety of warships, all very high quality and well designed. The leaders of the Dominion are highly skilled tacticians and strategists, who used combined arms with great efficiency. Among their fleets are large battleships, carriers, cruisers, destroyers, fighters, and all variety of other specialized craft. The military person have all been given training in piloting and space warfare from the time they could hold a joystick. Combine this with their amazing physical prowess and you have one of the most potent fighting forces among humanity.
The Dominion tends to field large fleets as well, some of the largest of any faction, as there society is so centered on war and conflict and because all citizens must prove themselves in battle. Their ships do not excel in any one particular area, but the average Dominion fleet is well rounded while individual warships tend to be highly specialized.
In ground battles, the Dominion utilize the enhanced physical prowess of their soldiers, augmenting even further with light power armor and some of the best small arms in the galaxy. All citizens of the Dominion are also forced through rigorous physical training which includes martial arts, small unit tactics, small arms tracings, and survival. Soldiers of the Dominion also see great glory in more personal combat and will seek it out if doing so isn't too disadvantageous.
The people of the Jeonsa Dominion have amazing physical prowess, a result of not only how their were incubated and raised, but because of a number of drugs and chemicals they are given as adults - especially before battle. They are almost immune to pain and fatigue, are strong and vastly tougher than regular humans, and have particularly fast hand eye coordination. Their physical prowess is further enhanced by a number of routine cybernetic implants, such as those which allow them to interface with the built in computers of their warships, power armor, or even firearms. Because of their genetic enhancements, members of the Jeonsa Dominion can live upwards of 500 years before their bodies family give out and high ranking officers might receive cybernetic implants to extend this even more. Severally injured Jeonsa soldiers often receive cybernetic replacements for missing parts.
Game Notes
As the Jeonsa Dominion player, you represent the leader of their society, the Supreme Commander. Your orders will be obeyed without question, though you are expected to represent the ideals of the Dominion.
The Otharian Anchorites
The Otharian Anchorites are a religious cult of sorts, a group who have taken up a monastic lifestyle. The Anchorites are made up largely of psychics, the largest concentration of human psychics who were not a part of the Scions of Ascania who managed to avoid the purge. While psychics through the galaxy were destroyed or gathered together under the Ascania, the Otharian Anchorites avoided either fate. They were an association of minor psychics with relatively stable powers who managed to exert enough self control to keep themselves a secret during that terrible war. Over time, this group developed an ascetic lifestyle and associated ideology that allowed them to maintain the majority of their sanity.
The Otharian Anchorites believe in a collective soul that psychics, and others too they claim, can tap into and draw power from and will eventually become a part of. They believe that psychic power is the ability to connect to this collective soul and that doing so with a troubled mind, full of fear, anger, greed, desire, or other internal pain drives people mad. This is why they must maintain inner peace through meditation, rejection of corporeal pleasures, and rejecting their passions, desires, or fears. They forsake wealth, sexuality, violence, rich food and drink, comfort, and most hobbies. This process works to a large degree, and the Otharian Anchorites do maintain their sanity and peace of mind, though at the cost of achieving the goals that most other humans value.
While they maintain their sanity, the monks’ psychic abilities are extremely weak in comparison the the Scions of Ascania. The primary psychic ability shared by the monks is precognition. At all times they can sense the very near future, a few seconds at most, while more distant visions of the future requires intense meditation and is very physically and mentally exhausting. This ability is extremely useful though and has allowed these ascetics to become a major player in the galaxy. Where as many factions are too afraid to associate with the insane gods of Ascania, they are more than willing to seek out the Otharians for their wisdom and insight. The Otharian Anchorites, then, gives their help to those who are worthy and in need, giving insight into the future - but only in cases when they believe that doing with will help to reduce suffering or increase peace in the galaxy. In exchange for these services and because of their peaceful natures, most other factions in the galaxy are willing to welcome the Otharians and to provide them with supplies, technology, and aid.
The Anchorites have a few worlds in their possession, but for the most part they travel from place to place in large monastery ships, offering their services to those who are worthy. Many outsiders join this order and provide labor which the Fellowships needs while they study the Fellowship’s religion and meditative techniques. It is believed that some normal humans have been taught psychic abilities by the Otharian Anchorites, though most people are skeptical of this claim - especially the Scions of Ascania.
Technology
Psychics of the Otharian Anchorites are relatively weak in relation to those of the Ascania. Their most well known ability is precognition, but they have several others as well. As with other psychics, power flows through the bodies of the Anchorites. This gives them incredible physical prowess and health, usually greater than peak human physical prowess and the ability to live for centuries in nearly perfect health. They have tremendous control over their own minds and body, having perfect photographic memory and effectively limitless willpower. They also having superhuman muscular control and reactions, which combined with their immediate precognition makes them amazing combatants even though they only fight to defend themselves or innocents. A few can look at far off places as well as the future, especially if it involves a place where the monk has been to or is going to. They can also focus their minds to become hyperaware, having enhanced senses and even an almost supernatural ability to read people’s emotions.
With great effort and the concerned effort of dozens of monks combined allow a few greater abilities. One of these is a kind of cloaking power, to cloud the minds of nearby humans in order to make them unable to see an Anchorite ship. This power has allowed them to avoid violence on a few occasions.
Most Otharians do not have sexual intercourse and do not bear children. Because of this, they cannot pass on their psychic abilities through heredity. Instead, when the monk reaches an age where they feel ready to move on, feels tired of living, or feels that they can no longer maintain their serenity or sanity - then they commit a ritual suicide. This ritual involves one of the monk’s most talented human students who receives the monk’s psychic potential as his or her life drains away. In some very rare cases, a mundane human student of the Otharians gains psychic abilities without this ritual. Why this happens is not completely understood, though the Otharians claim that any human can develop their psychic potential while skeptics suggestion that the Otharians are only helping someone with an already present psychic potential to achieve it.
Otharian monks must maintain their ascetic lifestyle, meaning long hours of meditating, refraining from most enjoyable activities, pacifism, chastity, living a spartan lifestyle, and rejecting ambition and worldly desires. Those monks who do stray from that path begin to lose their sanity, sometimes with madness overcoming them as if with a vengeance.
The Monastery Ships of the Otharian Anchorites are rather large ships made for long distance travel and long time habitation. These ships usually have no weapons, or perhaps only a few minor ones that can disable enemy vessels, such as shorting out their electrical systems, rather than destroying them. They have shields of moderate strength and are moderately fast. These ships survive in large part by avoiding danger, which they can usually manage to do with either precognition to see danger before it comes and flee, or in the rare cases when they cannot avoid confrontation, they use their ability to cloud the minds of their attackers long enough to escape.
Otharians have no close combat or ground units, though the monks themselves can display an amazing ability to avoid harm or disable foes. In some cases where they expect trouble, they ride in shielded or armored vehicles
Game Notes
As player of the Otharian Anchorites, you represent the Council of Schemas. A Schema is an elder monk of the Anchorites who is greatly respected for his or her wisdom, power, and accomplishments. The Schemas meet to determine the policies of the order, though to a large degree individual Schemas have autonomy as well, though they typically obey the majority votes of the Council of Schemas.
To represent the precognitive abilities of the Otharian Anchorites, every turn you may assume that the precognitive of the order foresaw certain events and were ready for them. For example, if a faction makes a surprise attack on an ally, you can say that your monks foresaw that event and warned your allies, which retroactively allows them to prepare. The Anchorites very seldom have the ability to foresee events caused by or surrounding other psychics, such as the Scions of Ascania or the Mishiak.
The Fahrion Empire
The Fahrion were an experiment in transhumanism conducted before the arrival of the Mishiak to the galaxy. They were a community of humans who were genetically engineered to be superior to the rest of humanity, both physically and intellectually. They are still human in mind and body, but their intellect and physical prowess far exceeds that of normal humanity. Physically they are a vision of perfection, standing an average height of 7'4” for men and 6'10" for women (2.24 m and 2.08 m) with lean but powerful muscular physiques, perfect bone structure and symmetry. People of other factions sometimes remark that the Fahrion are strikingly attractive.
When the Mishiak invaded our galaxy, the community of the Fahrion was abandoned and left to fend for themselves while the rest of humanity focused their efforts of defeated the Mishiak. The Fahrion Project, named after the geneticist who devised many of the changes, was forgotten by the rest of humanity on the obscure world where the experiment was conducted. In time, with their amazing intellect and long lives, they were able to create their own civilization with the knowledge left over from the scientists that created them.
Within a few centuries, the Fahrion had expanded off of their world and were creating an empire. They managed to conquer several human nations, most of which had initiated violence against the Fahrion first. The Fahrion became an aristocracy ruling over the normal humans, with the belief that it was only right and natural for superior beings such as themselves to not over rule over humanity but to protect and guide them. Over time a culture evolved among the Fahrion, based on honor and duty, so that society became bound together by oaths of loyalty and obligations to protect those both above and below you in the social order. This became a feudal nation of sorts, with a martial tradition among the Fahrion nobility where they rule over and protect the human peasantry and all swear fealty to the king of the Fahrion.
Now the Fahrion Empire is a major player in the galaxy, with armies of Fahrion who see themselves almost as knights, who have the duty to protect humanity and the right to rule them by virtue of blood. There are a number of ancient noble families that can be traced back to the days before the Mishiak and their empire is divided up among these families, who in turn swear their loyalty to the king. These nobles are expected to become warriors and help to defend or expand the empire, using family funds to supply their fleets.
Technology
The Fahrion military is largely based on medium sized carrier which are built with great skill and resources. They boast high powered shields and weapons along with fast engines and FTL drives. These carriers transport a number of advanced fighters, which are some of the most heavily armed and shielded fighters among human nations. These are piloted by elite Fahrion pilots, generally called knights, who train from childhood to fight. These fighters are well rounded enough to serve a variety of purposes, including escorting larger craft, attacking large ships, or engaging other fighters.
The Fahrion, the nobility of their empire, are descendants of those who were genetically engineered supermen. Even the weakest untrained Fahrion is superior physically to a modern Olympic athlete, even the mentally slowest Fahrion child could graduate at the top of his class from a modern ivy league university. They have incredible health and vitality, being virtually immune to disease and having the ability to live for a thousand years or longer. Not only do the citizens of the Fahrion have tremendous biological potential, but each one is pushed to excel from earliest childhood. They also have excellent medical care for violent trauma, with the ability to clone damaged body parts and bring back a fallen soldier from the very brink of death - as long as the brain remains to preserve the mind, the body parts can be replaced.
Within their fighters, all Fahrion wear power armor which is also equipped with rockets, shielding, and a variety of potent weapons. In the event that a fighter is damaged, Fahrion knights eject from their ships and continue to fight. They also fight in this power armor in ground engagements or in boarding actions.
Normal humans sometimes serve aboard carriers as menial laborers or helpers, but important jobs including those involving direct combat or advanced scientific or technical knowledge are solely for the Fahrions.
Game Notes
As Fahrion player, you represent the king of the Fahrion. You have nearly absolute authority over the empire, but must upholds the oaths you swore to protect your people and must uphold the honor and duty that lays at the foundation of Fahrion society.
The Yishya
The Yishya are the most successful sapient non-human race in the galaxy. Ever since humans and the Yishya contacted each other, long before the arrival of the Mishiak, there has been hostility between humanity and the Yishya. Humans easily won these conflicts and drove the Yishya into increasingly smaller regions of space, took their resources, or forced concessions upon them. For centuries the Yishya lived in fear of human technological and military superiority, for humanity, they mostly almost forgot that the Yishya existed at all. This changed when the Mishiak invaded our galaxy.
Seeing the Yishya and a potentially ally against humanity, the Mishiak gave to the Yishya some extremely advanced technology which was beyond what humanity had access to. The Yishya had traditionally been less advanced than humans, slower to adapt technologically, and suffered as a result. After being uplifted by the Mishiak, the Yishya became a potent force to be reckoned with and along with their Mishiak allies, an existential threat to humanity.
With their new technology and piggybacking on the success of the Mishiak, the Yishya were able to inflict terrible defeats against humanity. The Yishya punished humanity for years of defeated handed to them by humans, enslaved or tortured humans that they captured, and destroyed that which they could not take for themselves. When humanity began to fight back and make strides against the Mishiak, they began to defeat the Yishya once more as well. Eventually the Mishiak were expelled from the galaxy and humanity turned it’s ire upon the Yishya. Fortunately for the Yishya, the powerful psychics of humanity went mad and tried to conquer the surviving humans. This is what allowed the Yishya to avoid total destruction and domination at the hands of humans. The Yishya, seeing that they were in a position of weakness, offered to ally with the splintered human kingdoms in order to help destroy the psychics. It was by offering this help, which some humans believed was crucial in allowing the psychics to be defeated, that allowed baselines humanity to win that terrible war.
Since then, the Yishya have had to use extreme caution in their dealing with humanity. They are still hated by much of humanity for their cruelty during the Mishiak War and as humanity controls far more of the galaxy than the Yishya, they must try to maintain alliances with at least some human nations. The Yishya still have certain technologically advantages over humanity, an advantage that they protect with their lives. They hope that humanity remains divided and so they occasionally enter into human conflicts, as an ally of one side or another, with the hopes of maintaining a certain level of discord between humans and to prevent one faction from uniting all of humanity.
Biologically, Yishya are taller than humans but very thin. They originated on a low gravity world filled with huge plants, which the Yishya are highly adept at climbing, like oversized spider monkeys. They have no hair and orange colored skin. Despite being tall, they aren’t particularly strong or tough, but are quite agile. Their world is quite hot by human standards, with a comfortable temperature being around 120ºF or 49ºC for them. Their females are larger than males, around 8 feet (2.44 m) in height, with males being around 6 feet (1.82 m). They are not mammalian and females do not nurse their young, so females have no breasts. Their young are born quite small but able to eat soft food such as fruits, which are prevalent on the Yishya home world. Yishya reach adulthood at around 10 earth years and live to be around 40 naturally, though with their medical technology this has been expanded to around 200 years of age. Their culture has traditionally been matriarchal and this has been increased by the advent of technology, as now artificial wombs allow women to be free of the burden of pregnancy.
The Yishya have a monarchy, with a queen as absolute ruler, with a number of appointed governors and advisers below her. The monarchy is not hereditary, but the queen’s elite bodyguards elect a new queen from among the former queen’s council.
The Yishya still have a number of human slaves who are either descended from those they took during the Mishiak War or in more recent conflicts. The need for hard manual labor is minimal among the Tishya, but these slaves are still treated fairly badly as the Yishya punish these humans for the loses Yishya have had at human hands historically.
Technology
The Yishya have a few technological marvels that are unknown to humanity. They protect these secrets with their lives, seldom using many of them unless there is dire need to do so, especially if humans might witness those uses.
The Yishya have a sort of cloaking technology which makes their ships immune to sensors and even literally invisible to the naked eye. When the ships fire their weapons or move too quickly, they create detectable emissions, but otherwise they cannot be sensed save through psychic detection. This allows the Yishya ships to avoid battle when they feel disadvantaged or conduct massive surprise attacks on certain enemies. Virtually every Yishya ship is equipped with stealth technology.
The Yishya utilize a highly advanced sort of torpedo which is equipped with the same stealth technology as their ships and can penetrate all but the most powerful shields on human ships. These allow them to inflict massive damage upon enemy ships, which combined with their stealth technology, gives the Yishya one of the largest advantages in offense of any faction in the galaxy.
The actual Yishya ships do not usually use shields at all, and are thus extremely fragile, but they make up for this with relative speed and heavy firepower along with their cloaking technology. The only ships that typically use shields are their large command ships. All Yishya ships, even many fighters, are equipped with high quality FTL drives which allow them to travel at an average of ten times faster than some of the best human ships. This rapid transportation combined with stealth technology has lead many humans to incorrectly assume that the Yishya ships are capable of teleportation. All Yishya ships are designed to self destruct should they be captured, so as to prevent technology from falling into human hands.
Yishya ships tend to be small, they have no large battleships, though their small ships hulls are energized in some manner which human scientists have yet to understand. These hulls are extremely resistant to damage and can even heal themselves from non-critical damage sustained. This technology was acquired form the Mishiak and resembles a weaker version of that used on their ships. So these smallest ships, larger than a typical human fighter but smaller than destroyers or cruisers, end up being the equivalent of small human battleships in defensive capability. This energy charge that makes the ships resistant to damage is not functional when the ship is unpowered or when it is cloaking, so those are idea times to destroy them.
Yishya ships and technology are also quite prevalent and cheaply created. What makes this possible are items called silver forges. Silver forges are huge factories in orbit around several key Yishya worlds. They seem to contain a certain strange grey-goo like substance which absorbs building materials and quickly produces fully complete Yishya ships. These devices were given to the Yishya by the Mishiak and they have not yet discovered how they work. Yishya ships or silver forges which are dismantled or destroyed merely disintegrate, leaving nothing behind to study - surely a plan by their Mishiak designers. Stolen Yishya ships cannot be operated by non-Yishya races, they simply fail to work. In the past, the Yishya had a wide variety of ships, but they found it economically more feasible to merely allow the silver forge to produce ships for them instead, which is why they have so little diversity in ship design now.
Last but not least, Yishya ships utilize a different kind of FTL travel than human ships do. They are capable of tearing a hole through space time and traveling through. This process is not instantaneous, but it allows FTL travel approximately 10 times faster than what human technology is capable of.
The Sharath
Unknown to many, there are several powerful psychics created in the war against the Mishiak. One prominent one was Ascania, another was Sharath. Sharath’s psychic powers primarily focused on the manipulation of living things. Sharath could create mutations, change shapes, heal, harm or control living things. No one knows much about Sharath’s original form, for it transformed itself on a whim.
After the aftermath of the war with the psychics, Sharath and a few followers (some say worshipers) fled known space and settled on the peripheries of the galaxy. Here they almost entirely abandoned human technology in favor of the psychic power to manipulate life. Sharath could create new life, change existing lifeforms, manipulate DNA - virtually anything one might imagine. As Sharath created millions of new living forms, it drew into itself various living things and created from its flesh even more. All of the creations of Sharath, then, were extensions of Sharath. Within time, there were billions of living creatures of all kinds, all of which were but extensions of Sharath. Even its once mortal followers were transformed and infused with the essence of Sharath, becoming at once one with their master and being of great power themselves.
After thousands of years of being thought dead, some of the emissaries of Sharath made contact with factions in the rest of the galaxy. They travels in huge ships made not of metal and machinery, but living flesh. The diplomats all had the appearance of beautiful women, who were hairless and pale, with erie luminescent green catlike eyes. These emissaries were found to be inhuman and psychic in nature and for the most part, their advances were rejected since psychics are so hated. Many humans believe that the Sharath are completely alien in origin, despite their claims to the contrary. Those few factions who accepted the Sharath’s offer of friendship found that they had a true, yet still very mysterious, ally. Those who have fought against the Sharath has found them to be a terrible foe.
Technology
All Sharath technology is organic living technology. More than that, it is all a part of Sharath, the psychic who created these lifeforms millennia ago. Everything from clothing, to ships, to weapons, to even the citizens are organic constructs of Sharath. Even creatures that have independent thoughts and feeling are still one with Sharath in a sense. This gives these things a variety of potent advantages.
All organic technology of Sharath is incredibly tough, far more resilient to damage than it’s appearance or even feel would imply. A garment of living flesh might feel as soft as leather, but it may be as resistant to damage as steel. Boney plates on the outside of Sharath ships are more resistant to damage than high tech alloys. All Sharath technology rapidly regenerates from damage it receives unless it is so massive as to overwhelm the connection between the life form and the essence of Sharath - which basically means blown to bits, burned significantly, or disintegrated. All life forms of Sharath share a group telepathy that has an unlimited range and is instantaneous.
The primary ships in a Sharath fleet are gigantic organic ships, often called leviathans. These are among the largest and most formidable ships in the galaxy. They usually don’t use shields, but instead instead rely upon the massive resistance to damage of the fleshy sides of the ships and their ability to quickly regenerate damage. The attacks of these ships often manifest in the form of bioelectric energy which crackles forth and destroys or damages enemy ships. Fighters are creatures with no pilots that are also quite swift and resistant to damage, which can latch on to larger ships and tear at them with claws, teeth, horns, or tendrils. The leviathans, which are extremely slow, usually act as carriers for a variety of small swifter destroyers or fighter craft.
The Sharath use a form of psychic FTL travel which only the leviathans are capable of. This involves tearing a hole in the fabric of space and time, a portal which can be used to travel to distant locations at FTL speeds. This travel is not instantaneous, but it is ten times faster than the FTL of standard human factions. Their ships also cannot be intercepted as they travel at FTL speeds.
The emissaries of the Sharath look like humans, but like all creatures of the Sharath, they are organic beings created by Sharath and are in fact extensions of Sharath even though they have their own unique minds and personalities. These creatures almost look human save for their hairlessness and strange eyes, though they are vastly different in a number of ways. They have superhuman physical prowess, equal to or in excess of war machines or robots of similar sizes. They can regenerate just like any other Sharath creature and can expel bioelectric energy to attack foes or grow talons upon their hands which are psychically charged and can slice through nearly any material. They have superhuman senses as well along with a telepathic connection to the rest of Sharath. They can also change their shape as well, into anything humanoid in appearance, though fortunately for the rest of the galaxy, relatively simple sensors can detect a Sharath creature and so infiltration is very difficult - so as a sign of good faith they seldom use their ability to transform.
Sharath ships cannot really be boarded, they have very few internal areas for humanoids, most of their insides are the organs of a monstrous creature. When the Sharath find themselves boarding their enemies or engaged in ground battles, they have all varieties of monstrous creatures with boney plates, claws, and various organic ranged weapons. They also make use of various chemical or biological weapons which can be devastating on planet’s surface but aren’t that useful in ship to ship warfare.
Sometimes creatures of Sharath make use of the technology of other races, but usually only in certain specific circumstances, otherwise they reject it in favor of their own organic technology. Unfortunately for Sharath and contrary to what many people would fear of organic technology, the numbers of creatures of Sharath are limited. Sharath is a psychic being whose power lets it control and energize a finite amount of organic material at a time. Meaning that it’s numbers are limited, especially for more powerful forces. It is thought that the capacity for Sharath to increase itself slowly grows over time, though this is by far a greater limiting factor than quantity of organic material or the ability to process it.
Game Notes
As the player of the Sharath, you are the mind of Sharath itself, the absolute ruler and the personification of all of the life forms in Sharath.
