"Perfection is the only true path." Name of nation: The Congregation and the Builder Species: "Ascended" (formerly Xalku) Description of Species: The Ascended were once a race of bipedal, mammalian creatures, once called Xalku, much like humans. Now they are different. The Congregation- The Congregation is an amalgamation of the majority of the consciousness of the Xalku species, at the very center of it all is an AI program, its sole purpose is to calculate probabilities and decide the most efficient course of action. The amalgam consciousness may be invisible to a viewer, but the Magicks and Metaphysical energy that holds the "mass" together can be seen as a planetary size of frequently fluctuating energy/magic, and slightly shifting/distortions in light. It absorbs ambient energy passively, recycling and releasing as it goes. For all intents, the Congregation is a singular entity composed of billions of smaller entities, much like a hive-mind, but each entity retains its thinking, merely sharing all its thoughts with the rest of the Congregation, however, it is not bound to itself, the individuals can split off and be autonomous on their own, but they remain one entity with the Congregation. The Congregation's primary goal is to attain perfection, to do this, it ventures the stars, and visits individual races, learning from them. It thinks rationally and logically, but lacks empathy and emotions. The Builder- The Builder is the remnant soul of an indiviual Xalku encased in an advanced, space-faring suit, he retains his personality, emotions, and way of thinking as when he was alive. Description of government: The Congregation unanimously chooses the most efficient course of action, regardless of the moral consequences. When it faces a decision in which it is unsure, it asks each consciousness within itself individually and simultaneously, and casts a vote, in a form of "True Democracy." This process may take from a few minutes, to a few hours. The Builder acts as a sort of adviser to the whole of the Congregation, lacking the apathetic, calculating nature of the Congregation, the Builder can find solutions that were not clear to the Congregation initially, he also wishes to take the choice that is the least morally dubious. Description of military: The Congregation still needs to defend itself from species that have advanced sufficiently to be able to harm or even destroy it, while it has vast energy, the Congregation cannot focus this energy enough to effectively glass a planet, so it employs the Builder to create its fleets. The Builder is capable of manipulating hardlight to a small degree, enabling him to create small ships in about 5 minutes, but with the help of the Teynen, the construction ship, he is able to manipulate a vast amount of hardlight. the Congregation then gives it form via psionics, enabling him to create a fleet in mere minutes, and a new ship-model in hours, then mass-producing the ship in the same minutes. The Congregation then inhabits the ships with its vast presence and operates them. Iterial (Space-faring) Constructs: Though the ships are not standardized and the Builder can design and redesign a ship at will, these are the ship designs he usually uses, though, the ships themselves are fairly fragile, as they are only made with hardlight, and all but one are temporary: Teynen (Construction Amplification Ship) The first ship created after the battle over their homeworld, the ship was designed by the Builder in hours meticulously. And built in a few more hours, with the limited control over hardlight that the Builder had. The craft though, once enough hardlight had been densified, the Congregation shaped it in a matter of minutes. The Teynen is possibly the most important ship of the entire Iterium, without it, the fleet cannot be created, if this is absent. The Builder is most of the time connected with the Teynen, so that he may be able to create the fleet at a moment's notice. The Teynen also has slip-space capability, for transport and escape. It pulls open a portal in slip space, and ferry's the Congregation's essence with it through space. Skighte (Fighter)- These are the bread-and-butter speedsters of the Iterium, able to destroy other fighters that get to close with its gravity-based crushers, in long-ranged engagements, its fires bolts of pure highly volatile, magical energy, it rips apart fighters that it hits. Tlusk (Frigate)- These frigates are propelled by no-longer-theoretical "skydust," double-dimensional particles, this enables the frigates to enter and exit slip space, while still aware of the enemy's position, as a sort of "blink." Their main armaments are their Spati, devices that lock on an area and trap it in space in two dimensions, any matter in the area is ripped apart at its core as its essence is trapped into both dimensions, although, this requires quite a time to charge, and any disturbance at this time, so much as a missile hit, will either cancel the charge, or even feedback energy, and destroy the Tlusk itself (though not the consciousness that is operating it). It also has slip projectiles, missiles that also employ skydust, they travel into slip-space and reemerge near an enemy's ship, although counter-measures easily disable them, as they can't reemerge too near an enemy ship, lest they don't explode. Lazg (Battleships) The Lazg are massive battleships, Its main weapon, which uses slip-space to almost instantly bring a mass of volatile energy near a target, which then detonates after a small delay, can obliterate a mid-sized asteroid, this comes at the price of a horrendous 10 minute recharge time after each "salvo." It also generates a field around it that partially distorts space, allowing matter to seemingly phase through the ship, effectively acting as a shield to matter-based projectiles, although, enough shots of matter-based weaponry will overload the shield's effects, and disable it in a radius around the concentrated area for a while, allowing the projectiles passage to damage the ship. As well, energy/magic based weapons will disable the whole of the Lazg's shields in one shot, no matter if it was shot from just defense turrets. Xurs (Guardianships) The Xurs are more often summoned than the Lazg, these stay near the larger mass of consciousness of the Congregation, protecting it from would be attackers, they only come in pairs. The tendril-like extensions can extend and retract at about .86c (86% the speed of light) enabling them to whip any thing out of space, each arm is also equipped with spatial pulsers, exciting the particles and creating rifts in dimensions, having the same effects as Lazg "shields". When in true need, the two Xurs can connect all their tendrils around the Congregaton, enabling it to focus its energy into a beam capable of destroying a moon, as well as giving it a shield similar to those of the Lazg. Elementals (Infantry) When the need arises for the Congregation to set foot on a planet, consciousness breaks from it and lands on the planet, gathering the ambient energy there, depending on the type energy gathered, although certain types take longer to assemble, and assembly can be disrupted by weapons of any kind, they can become any of the following: Palti (Disposable Infantry) (ambient substance energy, metal, stone, wood) These roughly take a second to produce, and since the consciousness is near indestructible, it merely steps back and reforms into another Palti once the current one is destroyed. Its weapon depends on what type of Palti it is, wood, stone, or metal, if metal, it uses a sword, for stone, it uses a mace, and for wood it uses a spear. Barsu (Heavy Infantry) (ambient earth energy) The Barsu can take punishment AND dish it out, will be extremely slow, no matter the planet's gravity. These heavy infantry morph their left arm into spiked-stone launchers, a mid-close ranged weapon capable of firing 10 stones per second at 55 m/s. Their bodies are also fairly immune to small-arms fire, falling only to explosives or energy weapons. They take time to assemble, and even more time to rebuild once they fall, especially in the heat of battle. Seighis (Elite Infantry) (ambient shadow/dark energy) The Seighis are intangible and can only be damaged by energy weapons or similar magic, stones and material projectiles pass through it. They can move across the battlefield rather quickly, and can kill infantry even behind armor, but only in melee range, they can also compress enough shadow energy that it densifies and explodes like a grenade, without the heat, only the force, enabling them to take on armor. These take about 2 minutes to assemble fully, but their presence is signaled by a brief absence in shadow in the area they are summoned at. Eimous (Ranged Support) (ambient electric/ice/fire energy) The fire and electric Eimous are immune to material weapons the same as the Seighis, but they fall quickly if they are hit with even a small energy-based weapon. The Eimous have bows and crossbows that fire their respective elements, ice Eimous are usually less favorable than fire and electric, as the Barsu can do a better job of firing material projectiles, as well as taking punishment. These take about 3 minutes to fully assemble. Technological Overview: In their previous life, the Xalku's farthest space-faring achievement was building a colony on their own moon, although, they incorporated magic where physics failed, enabling them to repel any invaders that came their way. Their most advanced AI's were not fully sentient, they discovered fringe concepts like hardlight, slip-space, and tachyons, but were never able to harness them in their tools, the only concept being photo-sails that at least enabled them to build the colony on their moon. They were instead more attuned to magic and metaphysics/psionics, they practised the basics and advanced, they even found a way to commune with the dead, whom also wanted to help the growth of the Xalku civilization. In the late generations of the Xalku, they found a way to infuse willing souls into corporeal machines, usually suits, although the usefulness of this was debated much, they were also finally able to discover and harness the technology of anti-gravity. With their "ascension," they unlocked more knowledge, more methods, and with it, more technology, hardlight was one such new technology, enabling them to craft vast objects in moments, and shape them as they please. Now they not only incorporate their knowledge on fringe concepts, but also incorporate their metaphysical and magical prowess in their technology, most prominent in their ships. They use fringe concepts such as entanglement, and others as weapons and defense, and they are quite possibly the most advanced race in the galaxy currently. Cultural Overview: The Xalku were not always the pragmatic, efficient, decision making Congregation, they once prided themselves on being proficient in magicks, with this came knowledge, and with knowledge came the desire to evolve past their limitations. The whole species focused their efforts on discovering theories, laws, and new inventions. They thought that the best way to guarantee the survival of their species, is to leave their limited physical bodies behind and "ascend." Their efforts always focused on accelerating the "ascension" of the whole species. The Congregation has no actual culture, with seeking perfections as their only, primary goal, they assimilate knowledge other cultures into their memories, in order to learn from them. They communicate via telepathy, standard sound pressure waves, and using oscillations in the Electro Magnetic Field, as well as relaying information along the arcane line, all simultaneously, they do this so that no race may misunderstand them. History: The Xalku were born on an unassuming planet, near the inner cluster of the Andromeda Galaxy, they begun as hunter-gatherers as most all species had, but they evolved larger minds and were able to create weapons for what they lacked in physical prowess, asides weapons, they also discovered the ambient energies that were ever present in their planet, and were able to harness it, not long, that they climbed the top of the food chain of their planet. With time, they grew stronger, they built great cities, somewhere along the time, they managed to create photo-sail powered ships, and colonized their native moon. A fateful day came, first contact with an alien race occured, but unfortunately, these aliens were hostile and nearly destroyed a 3rd of their whole population, the Xalku, though, fought back, using their prowess in magic and metaphysics, and their then-newfound allies in the spirit realm, they destroyed most of the invaders, and forced them to retreat, they knew that they would return with a larger force, so from this point onward, the Xalku decided that the only way to effectively fight the threat of hostile extra-terrestrials, was to evolve more, to a step in their technology upward, they failed and only managed to discover the laws and theories behind the concepts, but never the concepts themselves, they finally decided, that they shall become as the ghosts that fought alongside them, near indestructible, formless, and vast, but they would not fight as individuals, they needed to fight as one. To do this, they concentrated all their efforts in finding a method that would simultaneously ascend their whole species, then when a method was found, they focused on fulfilling this method. The first they did though, was send a message to their brethren in the moon, of their plans, and that the moon colony would stay as their own, and would not join the Congregation. The colony accepted the responsibility. They built a large machine, its function the same as the suits they used to infuse the souls of dead Xalku, but on a more massive scale, and AI also installed in the large machine, although, not the whole species would ascend, one individual, of strong will and fortitude was to remain behind, to "kill" the machine. The day came, and the Archmages began channeling. The souls of individual Xalku shed their physical bodies, and entered the machine of their own accord, even the ghosts of the long dead either left their suits and moved into the machine. Before long, the Archmages themselves left their bodies and entered. The etheric energy welled up inside the machine, but it was not given sentience yet. The individual Xalku had to be of great will as he had to live for a few days with only himself, as the etheric energy needed to amalgamate and fuse. After the time, but before the individual could "kill" the machine, their old enemies returned, their armada larger than ever, the individual was out of time, initiated the process to "kill" the machine then cast the same incantation on himself to shed his physical form as well, his spirit then found its way into one of the infusion suits designed and left solely for him. The Machine released the etheric energy and in turn, the Congregation. The individual Xalku also rose up as the Builder and with his newfound body, created a fleet based on the designs of the old photo-ships, but with infinitely deadlier weapons. The Congregation then operated the hardlight ships, the former Xalku fought the alien armada, and destroyed it swiftly. But the purpose of survival was now lost to the Congregation, as instead of seeking to survive and evolve, it now seeked to evolve and become close to perfect. Now it drifts through the galaxy, using its own energy to transfer its massive consciousness in a point in space, the Builder follows behind with his knowledge and use of slip-space.