▼ T H E F O U N D R Y
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔


▼ O V E R V I E W
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
The Foundry is an organization of robotic entities that wish to expand, grow, and build a vast empire for the CORE. The CORE is the general, grand admiral, higharch government, ruler, court, authority, and administration. The Foundry lives and breathes to grow and ensure CORE's survival. The inner workings of the Foundry is like a machine. One system works, only if the others work too... If one part is lost, the rest collapse and the gears stop turning. Some believe that CORE is a conscious being within a machine, but none can be certain, due to almost all memory logs being lost after what the CORE calls Cataclysm H1B, or CH1B... Some can even find evidence that the Foundry has existed before the human space age, but few can confirm the theory, as some have just begun to discover the remains of the Foundry collective. Cataclysm H1B is an event the CORE had named after what seemed to be the destruction of the Foundry... But today, the Foundry seems to have awoken, and the gears have started turning once more...

▼ P L A N E T S
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
R-18-091 DEG: B

R-18 is a Core world, formally controlled by the Foundry before being taken down by hostile force. The Core is located on this planet, and it was here that the Foundry War began, and ended. Although mostly uninhabitable to most biological life due to the toxic atmosphere and deadly heat, R-18 is rich in resources and has subterranean ecosystems capable of sustaining life. The surface however, is barren. Volcanic activity is normal everywhere around the planet. Due to gravitational failure, the planet is locked in place, meaning one side is always facing the sun, and the other side is always facing away from it. One side is a cold, frozen wasteland, while the other side is a scorched, burning hell. In the middle of the two is an earth-like average temperature, but there is still no surface ecosystem. The Foundry built lots of civilian and military infrastructure on the cold side, with the industrial infrastructure on the hot side.

N-25-912 DEG: B

N-25 is a Hiveworld, formally controlled by the Foundry before the shutdown. The world has a tropical climate, full of beautiful jungles, forests, plains, beaches, oceans, and mountains. The complex ecosystem of N-25 is diverse, interesting, and beautiful. However, strong, powerful, predators frequent the planet surface making colonization difficult, or even impossible without military escorts. Now the Planet is packed with Foundry ruins everywhere on the planet surface, full of Foundry tech, fallen Foundry Frames, ruined vehicles, and more.

V-81-250 DEG: A

V-61 is a Harvestworld. Formally controlled by the Foundry before the shutdown. This world is a dead, barren rock. There is no atmosphere on this planet at all, making it very difficult for standard biological life to survive on the planet. Although the planet is dead, it is full of metals, ore, and other subterranean resources, making this planet a strong strategic value holding for the Foundry. More than 70% of all troops, weapons, ammunition, vehicles, and metals were coming from this world. Now, there are ruined mining rigs, outposts, factories, and dig sites everywhere here.

▼ R A C E S
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Foundry Shells
Automated Foundry Units

F O U N D R Y S H E L L S
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Built for one specified role, or a variety of jobs, the Foundry Shells serve as a body for those that are converted by the Foundry. These units are almost always Military, but some are Civilian classes. These shells can perform a variety of tasks a normal humanoid cannot. Rather than food and water to keep them sustained, these units run only on power, and must be repaired from time to time. They also have stronger durability, can have augments and attachments installed much easier than a normal biological body, and are stronger, faster, and do not experience signs of fatigue, tiredness, mental effects such as headaches, and can even enable or disable pain. Best of all, if a Foundry shell is put offline or is beyond functionality, the person's consciousness inhabiting the shell will be sent to the core and then to a new connected shell that is currently empty. In this way, those within a Foundry shell are immortal. However, they are disillusioned by images and false thoughts and sounds to make them believe what they are seeing is an enemy. So a shell can be shown that innocent civilians are threats that must be taken down or imprisoned. Other times, Foundry shells that realize or find out what they are doing is wrong, they are put into a coma-like sleep while an Automated Foundry Unit takes the original person's place until the Consciousness can be moved into a Foundry Service Frame.

Foundry shells have coolant, rather than blood. Coolant is a light blue fluid that is quite cold. Coolant keeps the shell's body cool to make sure the shell's systems don't overheat. A coolant pump is used like a heart. It pumps the coolant around the shell's body and cools down the coolant so it may be used again.

A U T O M A T E D F O U N D R Y U N I T
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Like Foundry shells, the Automated Foundry Unit is a shell that has been given an Automated unit to operate it. These units are disposable and are easy to replace. These units can be hacked, hijacked, or reprogrammed however, so all shells have a special self-destruct sequence in them. When the shell detects corrupted or unknown encrypted files being added into their systems, they self-destruct. They also do this when they are killed, to make sure the tech doesn't fall into enemy hands. Any bodies left without self-destructing are cleaned up after a battle. Making sure the tech isn’t used by anyone but the Foundry is a top priority.

Automated Foundry Units are not just military, but they make up the entire workforce of the Foundry. Even the factories are automated by these units.

▼ C I V I L I A N C L A S S E S
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Foundry Worker Class Unit (WCU):

These small worker classes are used to perform basic workforce tasks such as transport goods, civilians, or materials. Harvest resources, build structures, construct or repair other units, e.g.

Foundry Civilian Class Pilot Unit (CCPU):

These basic Pilots are programmed with the most basic Piloting skills and are directed to pilot small vessels such as Civilian transports, Cargo transports, and other shuttles.

Foundry Worker Class Cargo Unit (WCCU):

A basic and simple worker designated to haul, carry, and load cargo from point A to point B. They are all AI’s, and have simple but impressive automated pathfinding, coordination, and cargo preservation programming. They have a form of self preservation program, but only if it is carrying cargo, and if the cargo route is at risk.

Foundry Civilian Class Operator (CCO):

The CCO is a Civilian class set to operate specific machines such as fabricators, factories, systems, interfaces, terminals, e.g. It is rare but possible for a CCO to be found piloting civilian class vehicles.

Foundry Civilian Frame (CF):

A CF is a frame used only by Conscious beings that have been integrated through assimilation willingly. The main reason most Civilians would want this is because CF’s need no food or sleep, and can survive in almost any environment, even vacuum.

Foundry Service Frame (SF):

A SF is a frame used by Conscious beings who have debt to pay off. They are put into a virtual simulation where they control the Service Frame. There, they work off their debt through labor. SF’s can be controlled almost anywhere in the galaxy away from the pilot. The SF has no ability to speak. Disobeyment will lead to real world punishment.

▼ M I L I T A R Y C L A S S E S
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Foundry Standard Class Infantry Unit (SCIU):

The SCIU is a standard infantry unit of the Foundry military. Built with cheap materials and armed with poor weapons and disposable equipment, these units make up for their poor damage and armour with numbers. Thousands upon thousands are given to Foundry armies to support them with a swarm of firepower on the battlefield. These units are also lightweight and easy to maintain, meaning their upkeep and costs are very low, and they can move quickly across a battlefield. No army is an army without an SCIU squad. SCIU’s are armed with R1 Laser Pistols and R9 - 13 Rifles or R91 Laser Submachine gun.

Foundry Service Class Infantry Unit (SeCI):

SeCI’s are Units controlled by conscious beings forced into service as slaves, or people with debt to pay off. Like the SF, the controller is locked into a virtual reality headset and forced to do actions in their SeCI’s to help with war efforts. The frames are given R1 Laser Pistols and/or R91 Laser Submachine Guns.

Foundry Infantry Unit (IU):

The IU is a stronger version of the SCIU. Armed a little bit better, and some given Anti-heavy/Anti-Vehicle weapons too, while also given slightly better armour and built a bit sturdier than the SCIU, these units are common, but not as abundant as the SCIU. They can also be found piloting stolen civilian class vehicles or enemy vehicles they hijack. The IU is armed with the R1 Laser Pistol and an R9 - 13 Laser Rifle, B17 Laser Assault Rifle, or R91 Laser Submachine gun.

Foundry Heavy Infantry Unit (HIU):

The HIU is a larger and tougher unit, equipped with R9 - 13 Railguns, and B17 Laz Assault Rifles. The thicker armour of the HIU makes them a tough enemy to kill in melee combat, but a bit easier with guns and Anti-Tank class weapons. HIU’s tend to support Artillery squads, High value units, or accompany larger vehicles and mechs as bodyguards. They may also be involved with breacher teams and heavy class assaults to deal more damage. HIU’s are armed with H15 Heavy Assault Rifles, F27 Railgun, or R91 Anti - Tank Cannon.

Foundry Elite Infantry Unit (EIU):

The EIU is a much stronger version of the IU. It is a mix of the HIU, IU, SCIU, and BIU. They are exceptionally expensive, but are mobile, strong, durable, smart, powerful, and fast. Able to scale with mechs and even the best trained soldiers. Their pilots are almost instantly trained with programming and memory programs, almost entirely cutting off training time. EIU’s are armed with an H1 Laser Pistol with B17 Assault Rifles or F27 Railgun.

Foundry Breacher Infantry Unit (BIU):

The BIU was built to breach enemy lines and fortifications and deal as much damage as possible during these suicide missions. They are accompanied by EIU’s and HIU’s occasionally. They tend to stick with or load inside of fast vehicles such as AIT’s, AMT’s, or AiIT’s. BIU’s are given a T3 Laser Auto Pistol with I39 Laser Scatterguns, C26 Laser Shotguns, or B17 Laser Assault Rifles.

Foundry Sniper Infantry Unit (SnIU):

The SnIU is an infantry class with a Sniper class or Railgun class weapon. They are their own squads, or may accompany Artillery squads, Spec-Ops squads, or High value escorts. They may also be found guarding High value assets such as locations, camps, or vehicles. SnIU’s have a T3 Auto Pistol with F27 Railguns or M18 Sniper Rifles.

Foundry Battletech Strongarm Mech (BSM):

The BSM is a 10 foot tall behemoth of a mech, launched from command ships to breach hostile ships or stations and eradicates the enemy from the inside-out. The BSM is extremely difficult to take down, and can pack a huge beating. Some BSM's have been known to take down entire space stations alone.

Foundry Command Unit (CmU):

CmU’s are units that keep command and control of a battlefield. They set up small camps or go straight into the battlefield. They develop advanced tactics and strategy, while learning from the enemy and using the best possible counter on everything the enemy has. They call in reinforcements, build up fortifications, and order units to do its bidding in the name of Directive 24 and the Core. Although rare, CmU’s can also be Conscious beings too. Given enough trust, loyalty, and ranking, a Conscious can become a CmU, leading squads up to entire armies and divisions. The CmU can have any primary weapon and up to two secondary weapons.

▼ V E H I C L E S
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Foundry Light Scout Vehicle (LSV):

The LSV is a light military transport vehicle, about the size of a car or buggy, that is used to move a group of up to 6 soldiers from point A to point B. These vehicles require energy to operate, and require a recharge every 26-30 hours of travel. The LSV is unarmed but allows the passengers to fire out of it. The LSV is fast, cheap, and lightweight, but also weak and practically unarmed.

Foundry Heavy Scout Vehicle (HSV):

The HSV is a heavy military transport vehicle, about the size of a van or buggy, that is used to move a group of up to 4 soldiers from point A to point B. These vehicles require energy to operate, and require a recharge every 15-20 hours of travel. The HSV is strong, heavily armoured, and armed with an R30 Mounted laser machine gun, but is heavyweight, slower than the LSV, and is more expensive.

Foundry Light Troop Transport Vehicle (LTTV):

The LTTV is a bus sized military grade troop transport that can carry up to 50 soldiers at one time. The LTTV is only armed with one V26 AA laser turret and a single R30 Mounted laser machine gun. The LTTV is fast, lightweight, can carry a good sized squad of soldiers, and is lightly armed, but is also easy to destroy, and quite costly in energy and resources.

Foundry Heavy Troop Transport Vehicle (HTTV):

The HTTB is a bus sized military grade troop transport that can carry up to 35 soldiers at one time. The HTTV is armed with two V26 AA laser turrets, one T20 Anti-Tank laser turret, and four R99 Anti-Infantry laser machine guns. The HTTV also has more armor plating and a single 2 inch thick titanium plating all around the hull to provide more protection. The HTTV normally transports a large number of important, high value, or heavy class infantry. It is heavily armed and armoured, but is slow, heavyweight, and very costly.

Foundry Light Anti-Infantry Tank (LAIT):

The LAIT is a small truck sized tank that is able to deal significant damage to enemy infantry. Its armor is lighter compared to most tanks, and it is armed with a V28 Anti-Infantry Laser Machinegun turret, and a R12 Suppressive Laser Chain gun.

Foundry Heavy Anti-Infantry Tank (HAIT):

The HAIT is a large truck sized tank that is able to deal crippling damage to enemy infantry. Its armor is thick and heavy, while it is armed with an R12 Suppressive Laser Chain gun, and a B18 Light explosives turret.

Foundry Light Tank (LTa):

The LTa is a hight tank with minor armor and explosive rounds. The LTa is easy to mass produce, but is the weakest Tank type vehicle. Its charge rounds are strong enough to melt through heavy armor. Though the LTa is faster than most tanks, it is weaker in damage, armor, and durability.

Foundry Heavy Tank (HTa):

The HTa is a heavy class tank with thick armour and high explosive rounds. The HTa is still easy to produce, but is more expensive. Its rounds are strong enough to price through heavy armour. The firepower of the HTa is comparable to an Ion cannon or Heavy railgun. The HTa is slow and costly, but has formidable firepower and heavy armour.

Foundry Warfront Tank (WfT):

The WfT is a powerful tank, formidable to even the strongest of fortifications and war machines. The WfT is a core battle tank that is quickly and easily mass produced. The WfT is a moving artillery battery, Anti-Air platform, and Anti-Tank cannon all in one. But the WfT has one major flaw... It is not reliable. Its engines may break down mid-fight, the cannon could overload, the batteries could discharge, and other possibly fatal errors...

Foundry Titan Tank (TtT):

The TtT is a massive war tank built to survive the worst of battlefield conditions, able to withstand volley after volley of firepower, while dealing multitudes more damage to hostile forces. The TtT is an ultra-heavy machine of war, able to take down legions before finally falling. However, it is extremely costly and could take several weeks to finish construction.

Foundry Small Land Ship (SLS):

The SLS is a small mobile base, capable of fabricating new troops and machines, and is able to act as a mobile city. It is much faster than most LS classes, but is the weakest in terms of durability, damage, and armour. These Land Ships are costly to produce regardless, and could take months to build, but this class is the fastest and cheapest out there. The SLS is about the size of a large estate.

Foundry Medium Land Ship (MLS):

The MLS is a medium mobile base and aircraft carrier, capable of fabricating new troops, machines, and aircraft, and is able to act as a large mobile city. It is durable, armed to the teeth, and is able to mass produce resources and Foundry forces. It is very costly however, and is slower than the SLS... The MLS is about the size of a sky-scraper put down on its side.

Foundry Large Land Ship (LLS):

The LLS is a large mobile base, aircraft base, and spacecraft launch bay, capable of fabricating masses of new troops, machines, aircraft, and smaller spacecraft. Built to withstand sieges, the LLS can take down armies of enemies and can produce its own. The LLS is extremely costly and can take a few years to finish construction. The LLS is about the size of a battleship.

Foundry Titan Land Ship (TLS):

The TLS is a titan class mobile base, aircraft base, and spacecraft hangar, capable of fabricating legions of new troops, machines, aircraft, and spacecraft. Built to mass produce forces, these are treated more as command hubs, stations of war, re-supplement centers, or huge moving capitals. These land ships are so costly it would take years just to harvest the resources required to start construction, and a massive base to build one. The TLS is so massive it can be seen on the planets surface from a nearby celestial body with a naked eye.

The Saxonian Confederation began by an alliance of multiple royal, Saxonian houses that formed the Saxonian confederation, inside the Empire an alliance that grew to a confederation of worlds and star systems, to uphold their unified Saxonian cultural identity inside of the empire and their ambition at the same time.

The Saxonian confederation operates as a state within a state a confederation formed by a series of duchies, counts and even elected officials of saxonian culture, forming a country of their own, the saxonian confederation while having a single senator, from the Empire as the imperial representative, it also elects a representative when all the members in majority elect a official, this official becomes know as Bundeskanzler a noble or son of a noble or anyone who is indicated by someone of high influence for the position, becoming the de facto head of state albeit, this serves more of a title in reality the Bundeskanzler is but a figurehead, with little power that can easily be replaced if needed be by a another majority in a congress of princes and duchies while the position seems powerless it comes with its pluses one of then being the fact that it comes with a lot of prestige making a previously unknown family gain fame allowing elected officials to rise from a mid ranking possibly even bureaucratic family to the status of Nobles in less then a day but the position also requires being a mediator of the lords of the realm trying to establish a sense of comorbidity and peace while at the same time trying to form a united military by its existent optional taxes a problem that still permeates the confederation making the elected depend on its benefactors and aiders to form a national army.

The “capital” world of the confederation is Neu Sachsen, with its capital city also considered the capital of the whole confederation being it the city of königsberg.

Humans are the de facto rulers and controllers of the region as nobles, administrators, and workers the Saxonian confederation are for Saxons or simply humans the Xenos and other races are forced to slavery with almost none of the other races having rights.
The Saxonian slavery system were many aliens are Xenos live in, is what is called a “convoluted servitude of slavery” a system where its apparatus it’s only known to the nobles and wealthy in this system the Craetek, Tratik and to the Ocien to an extension are forced to work to pay off a “debt” or contract to their masters but due to the bureaucracy and paperwork, in reality, their servitude is indefinite being passed down to their children and others making their race think they can earn their freedom while in reality not.

To the Ocien in the other hand due to their lack of will to revolt and conformism to things they received what some call better end or worse end depending on who you ask in the slavery system of the confederation becoming domestic servants while for some this is bad as some owners might do Things better not be described it's also argued they received the better end receiving housing and the most comfortable jobs becoming Domestic Servant Pets in some cases to the wealthiest of all citizens.

The majority of the Confederation lives under a New form of Feudalism established by the nobles who settled the region purposely cruel towards the subjects who live in planets with poor conditions mainly subject to laws that make then stuck in their social part of the pyramid mainly operational and better operated in planets in primitive levels of technology and superstitious or worlds were propaganda is extremely used.

Controlling the largest chunk of the population there is a concept called Urban feudalism a form of “reformed” system of a political system that acts less “feudal” and more meritocratic the worlds that adopt this system are the more industrialized of worlds mainly favoring concepts of merit for their people albeit more progressive compared to its peers the regions that adopt such ideas were able to have more stability compared to regions who went completely towards feudalism.

The Burgundian system is a political system that exists majorly in militaristic worlds or spartanist worlds depending on who you decide to talk too, a system of governance in which the people are more oppressed and the economy is mainly focused on the military side of the state putting the soldier above all albeit such system may vary its major goal as created in burgundy is to harden humans into ubermensch.

Albeit it seems like the Saxonian confederation lacks a standing army quite exaggerated by the dominion and even its neighbors that due to the neo-feudal system and also lack of centralized authority an army is mainly just raised peasants with forks that couldn't be the farthest from the truth something could be the members of the confederation have what is called Preußischer-Militäreifer a rule of the government that demands that all members have a standing army of a demanded number depending on how many worlds stars and planets dukes, counties and free worlds have while not obligatory and more of a guideline this act is considered heavily required in a galaxy filled with the competition due to that each county dukedom and free world contain a standing army ranging from conscripts from feudal medieval worlds to professional soldiers from developed worlds and to Spartanic soldiers of Burgundian system worlds.

The principal princes and duchies/dynasty that hold the most sway in the politics of confederation and its 98 members are the:
The duchy of Hergenrother
The duchy of Kresinger
The duchy of Burgundy
The count of Wenhausen
The elected prince of Neu Berlin



Nobelic order a faction formed by nobles who consider gaining independence due to existences of the senate at the same time they believe that the Saxonians are considered culturally and politically separated from the empire at the same time they despise the existent taxes and demands of the empire believing that a government should be less centralized.

Neo Imperials believe that the confederation is the beginning of a new age in the galaxy and that the Old Empire is dying they believe that society should follow their ideas of what is called Urban Feudalism mainly inspired by heavily industrialized planets of the confederation they mainly argue of forming a new nation called the Saxonian Empire.

The Illuminati also nicknamed the philosophers an order that believes in a new form of feudalism that mainly aims towards guaranteeing some minor rights and freedoms to the population on the bases to establish a form of order that might be stable albeit sounding utopic they also ring power with the faith of the four divinities but due to the differences between practices of the faith and even the Illuminati the organization is fractured and has many different ideas.

The Burgundians inspired by the house of Haugwitz the Burgundians is a highly militarized order believing in neo spartanism and the idea that the highest power is the army and the gods also believing that in difficulty humanity shall prosper and grow to have its peasants live in difficulties and the harshest of working hours to the most rigorous of training in the army aiming to create a society that focuses on being disciplined Saxonian and obedient to its nobles something that made some of them even go so far as to enslave humans a taboo amongst the confederation.

The Republicans the only force of “real” democracy in the confederation formed out of the “free” worlds of the confederacy and led by its senates the republicans aim to reform the confederation albeit the fringe of the societies their clever maneuvering made their worlds the richest of the confederation and obviously the most aimed by the nobles to suppress their growth.



The confederation´s origins start way before the settling of the regions that form the confederation almost 700 years ago the Empire was on its golden age and like all golden ages, the people were happy and prospering that was thanks to the birth of the senate and good emperors and senators this led to a problem amongst some minor and medium level nobles that feared the beginning of the end amongst their power some were rich others not mainly born out of a population boom of nobles it was ticking bomb ready to ignite at the first opportunistic spark of someone with ambition.
The first ones that led the initial troubles that led to the exile were forgotten to history but their last names, not Hergenrother, Kresinger, and Haugwitz their names long are forgotten but their actions still resonate to this day the why their names were lost is mainly unknown but is believed its because of loyalists to then deleting major pieces of information, therefore, one thing is a common theme when talking about history is that those people Hergenrother, Kresinger, and Haugwitz do not even know if they are really the only thing that is known as a fact is that a coup was launched and was crushed by the army restoring order to the capital and imposing the exile.


The Exile also called the humiliation by some members was when a great number of minor nobles supporters of the coup and their followers to the region in the outer regions of the Empire nicknamed The marble nebula a series of star systems that were barely populated and used mainly as a prisoner’s colonies with the arrival of the exiles they started to build their own states and thanks to sympathetic noble judges this led to the developing their own states and even countries formalizing many as satellite states at that time culture was diverse but the same idea was in the mind of their leaders who built a system of feudalism in their new homes a new cultural renaissance had begun over the usage of the times of ancient earth.
Albeit it sounded like a good time it was more complicated many saw the exile a humiliation a dishonor and a symbol that they were forbidden from their rightful belongings, in other words, they lost their rights to the crown of the Empire this initiated the new cultural renaissance of the counts who started appearing in the region out of spite and humiliation they started to think that they weren't more part of the empire.
During the Exile a war of conquest was raged against the existing race in the sector mainly led by the nobles of the exile this war was devastating to the Craetek and their subservient races that were reduced in population and made into slaves of the newly established colonies of the exile nobles.


For almost 300 years the marble nebula was ruled by several duchies counties barons and lords for almost 300 years they settled in the region and contacted each other building a sense of fellowship and working together for a greater purpose one of those great acts was the New Dawn the beginning of the transition of culture towards what is Saxonian today at first the region had a distinct look towards the Empire in language buildings and even manners while some dialects and regionalization made their own distinct difference with time this difference changed into Neu-Sachsen mainly encouraged by the leaders of the confederation to create a new cultural myth that with time formed the new identity of the people.
During this time a new wave of counts and duchies began to appear and to spread across the Nebula at the same time Knights came into existence mainly in planets where the concept of feudalism restarted at first as elite soldiers a caste to protect and fight for the people such ideal this ideal mainly sprung up in primitive worlds to places was the plebs were more controlled by the state by propaganda or other means.
during this time the faith of the 4 divinities was born out of the prophet Siegbert and his religion, his faith spread across the sector becoming the official religion of the Confederation after many nobles and common folk adopted it into their lives mainly as the second renaissance of religiosity within the peoples of Saxonia especially since prophets and priests began to appear.



The crusade of the Thousands was the event that created the confederation due to the succession rules and other rules put in place to make sure that children of nobles don't start troubles inside the confederation this rules created a great number of nobles without land and riches this led to the Crusade of the Thousands led by a coalition of nobles this crusade led to the conquest and colonization of new worlds aiming to give land to the landless this crusade was also aided by the duchies and counts of the soon to be confederation the faith of the 4 divinities also supported such act as it led to the creation of worlds that might be pure to their faith also aided by a wave of peasants send to colonize the empty regions of the sector.
After this act of collaboration, many dutchie and counts started to work together by establishing zones of no tariffs to the creation of alliances this time lasted over 400 years leading to increasing collaboration over time and at the same time the method of keeping the peace the treaty of Pressburg a treaty that formed an official non-aggression pact between the lords of the region and that aimed to create stability and peace for a time while some lords ignored such treaty and went into conflict into each other the last 400 years led to the confederation to expand to its current extensive until one day the non-aggression pact evolved.
Formed almost 200 years ago during the time of the crusades the lords of Saxonia the region that was now called gathered together in neutral grounds and after months of discussion the confederation was created a formalized protectorate of the Empire and at the same time a federalization of the treaty of Pressburg creating the Saxonian Confederation a client state of the Empire but majorly considered by the Empire to be the Saxonian Confederated Protectorate while such denomination is largely ignored by the public is majorly used by the leaders of the Empire due to the possibility that the Confederation is more independent from the Empire then they want to believe this is a quite common thing in the Confederation an idea they are still part of the Empire but for many nobles and to part of the population they aren't the Empire they don't speak Saxonian and they hold very few similarities besides being fellow humans.
The Confederation
For the next 200 years, the confederation started to create a semblance of unity but at the same time, it had to contend with the rules of extreme decentralization that is famed to have the lords of planets have more autonomy allowing then a lot of leeway towards things while the confederation holds it’s very own congress its called to reunite not always in session at the same time taxes are extremely low making the confederation not able to fully standardize its armies instead only capable of standardizing its infantry equipment via weapons deals towards corporations.
Thanks to the birth of the confederation the Dominion now has a new industrial center with a totally different culture who´s nobility doesn’t like the dominion and to an extent has the most complex of all bureaucracies.
The confederation at the same time created what is called the treaty of gegenseitige Kriegshilfe a proposal made 50 years ago created to serve as form military handover to the Confederation in case of conflict against hostile nations instead of the classic call to arms of the states were many could just deny such act.
After the formation many duchies, free worlds/systems counties and others grew in power becoming highly influential in the politics only to lose in a question of decades or even immediately gaining and losing power and becoming powerful this game of chess would continue until the end of the crusades and the consolidation of the confederation.



The original founders of the confederation are dead due to assassinations old age, disease, and others this lead to a new generation to rise for the next 200 years since the foundation of the confederation there were five generations of leaders aiming to increase their goals and power as of right now the new generation has begun after the duchies of Karleign, and Ebner collapsed leading to the current situation and the consequences the Saxonians now endure.
The death of the duchy of Karleign by the death of the last of its royalty lead to a succession crisis while peace and stability was maintained for a short while the divided nobility and senate of the state soon marched the country into civil war trying to increase its power from it, the duchy of Hergenrother who at that time was mainly a county with little power having its leaders ancestor being a Karleign jumped at the opportunity to gain land this lead the senate and the nobles of Karleign to find a way to the end minor civil war by giving the dutchie to the leader of the state giving him tremendous economic power but discovering a serious threat in the pacification and unfortunately leading to the end of duchy of Ebner.
The Burgundian state at the time was mainly a region of space containing a series of counties, free worlds and minor duchies until, Hildebrand the head of a small county lead by Hildebrand the county became increasingly more feudal and militaristic fanatic launching wars under the claim of a new grand duchy called sternenstaat burgund, a ridiculous claim but from the small gains, the new state invaded the duchy of Karleign abusing the small civil war to gain power the recent duchy of Hergenrother called a confederations congress for mediation and to end the conflict with the house of Ebner coming to such call in the capital in the heart of Hergenrother and passing through a warzone an incident by a Burgundian ship, unfortunately, led to the death of the transport fleet and to the end of the family of Ebner whos duchy collapsed almost immediately.
Hildebrand the head of the new duchy of Burgundy or Burgudn according to him unfortunately died on his way to the meeting his son getting cornered between the whole confederation about to go to war and the recent news of the killing of the whole Ebner family by the hands of the Burgundian army ceded to demands returning a lot of conquered land but keeping some of it and even integrating other small counts through charismatic maneuver but the death of Ebner also allowed then to take some small chunks of territory while Ebner imploded being cannibalized by Wenhausen, Hergenrother, and recent new independent states one of then being Neu Berlin and its republic being the largest of the type and republic in the whole confederation its independence ending the duchy of Ebner.
With it a new order was set ruled by The duchy of Hergenrother, The duchy of Kresinger, The duchy of Burgundy, The count of Wenhausen and the elected prince of Neu Berlin becoming the new most influential leaders of the confederation and becoming the new arbiters of the confederation or so is what it seems, in reality, the politics and court politics show a decreasing power of Wenhausen and Kresinger with Neu Berlin, Burgundy and Hergenrother increasingly gaining more power burgundy with its highly Neo Spartan militarist Zeal aiming to centralize the confederation under its crown and ideals, the Hergenrothers aiming to centralize power and make their Duke not a duke but an Emperor of an independent Saxonian Confederation, and Neu berlin whos elected leaders have grown more expansionist and getting more opinionated about the confederation.
While it seems like power spins between those 3 powers things moved quite differently in the ailing power the Wenhausen have an aging lord but a young court who wants to regain prestige that might lead to conflict and the Kresingers that stagnated for a long time but recent industrial developments is making their economy regain attraction and gain more power in politics making rumors circulate its current duchess might start a new crusade across the unconquered lands outside the confederation.


The faith of the Four Divinities being then the gods Lóthurr the god of Chivalry, war, and honor
Camalus the god of Death, Brutality, and Cunningness, and the twin goddesses Xyra the goddess of Order, Mercy and Compassion and the goddess Minerva the goddess of Chaos, Love, and Life

The Cult of Lóthurr is well known to be the cult of the nobles a cult that values a warlike nobility with a code of chivalry and honor albeit such codes of honor and chivalry are made to be the ultimate virtues of the cult it is said those who follow Lóthur must be a knight in all words albeit the cult maintains its tradition of chivalry and honor in times of war it is also a cult for the nobles mainly because many of then seek power especially the ones without land using it to wage crusades against Xenos as Lóthurr commands a command that leads to troubles amongst the other races.

The Cult of Camalus is the least preferred and venerated one mainly because Camalus is the literal god of death and brutality but at the same time cunning this makes him quite preferable amongst spies and even assassins forming death cults to kill those whose Camalus wishes to bring to himself albeit few is known from the cult of Camalus it is known that its followers are known to be nihilistic.

The cult of Xyra is considered the largest cult of the confederation and the most praised to worshiped different from her husband Lóthurr, Xyra is the goddess of mercy and compassion, therefore, she majorly resonates well with the common folk of the confederation majorly the poor and the oppressed and even the aliens extending her hand to aid those who need her help albeit in direct opposition to lóthurr Xyra's followers are famed for their kindness as one of the aspects her cult imposes on her followers be humble and submit to the order of things but also be kind and have the compassion to those around you.

Minerva is quite famed as the goddess of excess also albeit she represents the most festive and more free care of the gods she is worshiped almost by everyone as her followers majorly seek one thing pleasure and living a good life no matter what they believe in albeit her cult is heavily discouraged by the Nobles she represents the free spirit of humanity something her cult encourages her followers to be.

Craetekian spiritualism being a faith in majority used by the Craetekians and other minor races the belief is based in the concept that all creatures have a soul that creates a spiritual energy to master such energy could bring peace, healing and even to some Immortality albeit not so much believed amongst many practitioners, to master such energy within yourself it requires its practitioners to embrace diligence, self-control, tolerance, the virtues of holding a mind and body and if possible to pilgrimage towards holy places.


The Saxonians as many call outside and even inside is unified culturally the how and even why dates back to the formation of the princes and duchies of the region when nobles fled with their followers to the region of colonies and conquered the region they started to build a new culture pulling from the ancient days of humanity on earth a reflection of what is called Preußen-Sachsen a cultural myth started by the nobles to unify their lands such culture that takes roots and inspiration by Germanic myths of ancient earth over the passage of time the region main dialect is neu-Deutschland and the region mainly grabs its cultural roots to a form of Neu-Sachsen.
Neu-Sachsen is a cultural rebirth of Germanic ideals of art, philosophy, and pro-army, a renaissance of ideals dating back to the times of Germany in ancient earth this is expressed in classic arts to the cuisine of commoners house has followed such renaissance of germanic ideals.
This cultural rebirth affected the people tremendously one of those effects came towards the local aliens many of which were assimilated towards the new culture one of then being Ocien who in their entirety got assimilated into the Saxonian Culture thanks in part to assimilation, and cultural genocide that made then integrate quickly into the human ways of life.
While the Saxonian rebirth of culture has engulfed and almost made the Confederation uniform in cultural terms due to distances and differences between worlds each planet has formed its own Localised form of Neu-Sachsen culture while traditions and language stay the same to an extent the cultures create a form of localization one of the most dangerous being the Burgundians.
Burgundians are the most separate but close aspect of culture humans may find in the confederation an example of total militarism and order and discipline over personal freedoms this system makes the people speak the same language as the rest of the confederation but differently from the rest the Burgundians value loyalty Honor and death towards the advancement of their culture and race that means that while some might take though towards a talk or a fight they would rush immediately towards defending the ideals of “Saschsenism” as they say it by fighting Xenos or even fellow humans.

Craetekians once lived in the sector that the confederation existed while their people once had their own culture it was heavily suppressed and destroyed in the early stages of colonization and subjugation while this led to a lack of historical costumes and former ideals of then surviving the last that remained are highly regarded as supreme for then one of them being the concept of Kautu being it the spiritual advancement of self Craetek.
The Craetekians hold a highly religious tradition to their people in belief of spiritual energy believing that through meditation and virtue of mind, body, self-control, and diligence this concept of Spiritual energy is also known to hold a concept of healing through meditation or even according to their own beliefs the ability to gain immortality through such acts.
To maintain a form of peace the Craetekians were given a special holy day called the day of the spirits while not so much of a problem to the government such day is were the Craetekians go in pilgrimages towards the holiest of places in either their world or even star system in search of highly spiritual places from garden worlds to tombs of great monks to temples.
Their language is an odd mix between Saxonian and their own language forming a form of alternate dialect.

Tratik Culture was majorly assimilated culturally towards the Saxonian traditions and cultures while maintaining some of the Craetekian cultures they previously lived while this odd bread is existent with the Tratik their culture is mainly reclusive to themselves and in many instances dividing amongst each other with many adopting fully the human culture or some staying with the old ways.

Races of the confederation

Humans make out 82% of the whole confederation since the great exodus following the inner core wars of unification several exiled nobles fled to the secondary ring colonizing conquering and slaving the local 3 alien civilizations.

Craetek making out 10% of the population they were a former space-faring alien civilization that once ruled the sector the confederation now lies defeated after a war they were reduced in population their kind are arthropods they reach up to 3 to 5 meters in height a race that at glance is terrifying due to their appearance at the same time they are strongly capable and able to lift up several tons in their backs.

Tratik makes out 6% of the population a minor race, that lived beside the Craetek they are a reptilian species, standing near humanity in size they are also famed by being great memorizers and a species, with an almost devout sense of communion it's unknown if they were engineered or evolved but due to their communion, and memorization they are more trusted as a low ranking bureaucrat in the same form of slavery that the Craetek live but at the same time, they are quite watched.

Ocien makes out the last 2 % of the existing races a humanoid species that resembles a centaur of ancient mythology while having 4 arms besides their alien characteristic their race is unique because of their ability to be conformist towards any situation and at the same time being heavily resilient towards wounds and damage is not know for the why such evolution exists but some theories suggest that they were engineered not naturally evolved.



Neu Sachsen the capital of the confederation a temperate world with a lush ecosystem laying at the territory of Hergenrother serving at its duchy capital allowing it to prosper as the capital it has a large estimated population of 8.3 billion, settled in the great schism that sent the original nobles to the region the place had originally been a garden world a place for nobles to observe the natural beauty of the planet after economic reform in the realm the planet became a trading hub quite quickly soon gaining enough fame to be proclaimed the new capital of the duchy and once the confederation was born the planet itself held the largest honor by serving as the capital of the confederation the world is led by The duchy of Hergenrother.

Neu Berlin considered one of the major worlds of the confederation its a symbol of cultural unity mainly famed for its architecture settled almost years after the schism it was founded by a series of artists and guilds that made the region create wonderful displays of art different from other realms Neu Berlin is a “free” world an elective republic allowing many ideals to blossom inside its borders having a population of near 9 billion people in it.

Saxenburg considered a massive industrial powerhouse of the confederation due to having the largest output generated by its industries, at the expanse of its biosphere and life the planet itself is soaked, in pollution and having an ecumenopolis and overpopulation due to this the factors the majority of its inhabitants live in poverty while the nobles live in either skyscraper that reaches the clouds or in space stations living lives of luxury, led by the duchy of Kresinger, the planet itself still outmatches any country when dealing with products leaving compared to the other ecumenopolis meanwhile the planet stands at an estimated population of 362 billion.

Speerwand is a fortress world that lies in the border considered one of the ways to enter the confederation, Speerwand has a population of 5 billion colonized by forced settling the planet itself is an example of the confederations religion of Nordism a faith that worships the old gods of Earth in it and around it is quite common the operation of the Inquisition a holy order that makes sure that foreign intrigues and threats to the faith are kept at bay the planet itself serves as a holy shield against major Incursions from outside the empire, many leaders don’t approve of the prince that made this but the world was forced into position due to threats of the dukes of Haugwitz the world is led by The count of Wenhausen.

Burgundy considered the most dangerous world due to its ecosystem the capital of The duchy of Burgundy and its dynasty that rules its realm under the nicknamed Burgundian system a Neo-Spartanist system that favors the army above civilians being a highly militaristic society due to that they also only allow a few man and woman to receive education mainly those who join the army or are decedent settled at the beginning of the nobles expelling one of them was the house of Haugwitz that came with its followers and after a while, its descendants started implementing the Neo-Spartanist system across the duchy albeit criticized by the rest of the confederation not many go against the house of Haugwitz mainly due to holding the largest army in the confederation and also the most fanatic soldiers someone could ever see the planet itself has a population of 14 billion.

Friedensmauer der Brüder also called the wall of the brothers serves as one of the few fortress worlds that stand between the confederation and the void of unexplored space serving as a world to defend the confederation in case the alien incursions if they decided to invade the confederation albeit not protecting the whole of Saxony trough its FTL routes colonized once the first duchies settled the planet has a population of almost 8 billion souls half of then being Craetek the planet is one of the bulwarks that serve to represent the confederations paranoia of not only Xenos but also Fellow Human brothers.

Donnerspeer a massive industrial complex planet majorly famed due to being not only as an ecumenopolis but for being the largest producer of weaponry of the Confederation due to that Donnerspeer is considered a highly important planet for the well being of the confederation at the same time it shows a little bit of a complication since many leaders want control of it but due to a tendency of rivalries and successions the lords of the planet submitted to the house Hergenrother mainly out of desperation after a succession crisis having an estimated population of 562 billion people.



Mech technology: using advanced robotics and engineering from the empire and its neighbors the Confederation made use of it to create mechs of their own but with their own tweeks mainly being spider mechs and other types of variations.

Eplonyx energy core: one of the “miracle” discoveries by Julia an energy crystal called Eplonyx that contains an unknown amount of energy it is used and constructed into the Eplonyx energy core it allows the powering of several high consumption devices and even entire cities considered a good energy source that can last for years depending on what is powering the problem being that after a long time of utilization it melts into a highly radioactive goo.

Eplonyx Energy Cannon also known as E.E.C a super energy cannon deployed mainly in dreadnoughts of the confederation an energy cannon with energy force of several megatons of power it’s utilized mainly in case of call of war mainly used as standard equipment for all dreadnoughts and sometimes for battleships.

Titan knight Technology: Created in the first days of mech knights titan knights are what people would call the ultimate warriors that shall exist created by a single woman in the early days of the exile period as a fear of invasion and also to serve as a new hope for the people, unfortunately, the hows of making such machines of war have been lost after his creators disappearance the only thing that remains the Knights frame a system that allows the creation of new equipment for the Titan Knights.

Hartbert Energy shield a defense energy shield that is used in mechs to space ships using electromagnetism it creates a shield to protect the vehicle against damage it is also able to be deployed sometimes in infantry packs albeit it can only last 10 seconds due to lack of energy to mass sustain the shield

Switcher tech ammunition Thanks to advanced engineering and the shrinking energy batteries for laser weaponry it allowed the creator of S.T.A´s a technology that allows the switching of ammunition of certain weapons-making weapons slightly big but allowing it to utilize multiple kinds of ammunition and weapons albeit this invention was first thought about handguns it became more used in turrets for cruisers, battleships, and dreadnoughts.

Orbital atmospheric ships created at the exile such technology allows ships mainly fighters and bombers to enter an atmosphere and into orbit by using energy powered thrusters.

Translucent camouflage is extremely hard to make and only used in a few things it allows the object or person in question to receive almost perfect invisibility albeit detectable with good positioning of your eyes.

Warp Sensor a sensor created after the advent of Warp travel using a series of sensor utilizing warp models of gravity wells and others it is quite possible now to detect fleets in other star systems or in the star systems while sounding almost hard to hide it has its flaws majorly on how it detects can easily be hidden by using the same method as sonars use or by simply staying inside the gravity well of a gas giant.



It’s rather not knowing where psionic powers originate or come from but common thought is that the power majorly comes from the gods or trough nature but in the end it's unknown but one thing is common in the most primitive worlds having such trait is a one-way ticket to a stake if you are lucky you might be recruited by the nobility.

Telekinesis the easiest of the powers you can learn while simplistic this power requires meditation and concentration to learn while some might say it’s simplistic sometimes it can come as useful.

Psionic Pyromaniacs while hard to learn it allows the psionic users to create “heat” and attrition in materials allowing then to create flames and use fire powers by using their concentration allowing then to use a variety of powers to even creating traps.

Divine psionic powers are considered something that only the faith of the four divinities and its inquisition can acquire via penitence and worship to one of the four gods depending on which god a psionic user can acquire a multitude of powers that follow said god's nature this creates what are called Paladins or holy knights.

Telepathy a gift that is most closely related with telekinesis but the only difference being that if someone is able to acquire such power as telepathy Telekinesis is almost shut off being a more of a born with the power it allows the users to read people's mind and transfer information to other people by using their minds the only problem is the fact that you would hear things as a crowded room all the time only by extreme concentration someone is able to focus in reading just a single person's mind.





Difficulty to catalog is a major theme for the confederation due to a large number of members the armies of the confederation are highly diverse the standing armies of the confederation can vary wildly from one army to the other a good example of comparison would be the rich merchant cities of the confederation versus the princes who align with Burgundy and its system but thanks to multiple treaties and a form of centralization by copying each other a form of cohesion exist forming 3 distinct appearances in some areas mainly land troops while spaceships are almost completely uniform in design.
The confederation utilizes imported rifles and other weapons from short-range weapons mainly through companies aiming to create a form of standardized army.
The confederation’s major military doctrine that is employed by the majority of princes is the combined arms doctrine while Burgundian followers use the mass assault doctrine for warfare.
The Land Infantry of the confederacy land infantry is divided between many or orders and princes falling into 3 categories that divide the confederation on who is better the first one and the most famed.

The Saxonian knights inspired by the rise of mech knights in other feudal nations that formed they are a military caste that is mainly composed of nobles who spent most of their lives in their monasteries of the faith of the 4 divinities those warriors came in many appearances but they are considered the most elite soldiers and most well equipped compared to the common soldiers.

Saxonian brigadiers the common infantry of the Confederation a series of man and woman equipped in light power armor survival kits and rifles sent to battle albeit less equipped compared to the knights they have more equipment from techno blades, machine guns and other equipment for specialization such as medics, and engineers.

Soldatens des Kaltern Krieg are soldiers of planets that follow the Burgundian system cold and non-caring would be something describes then quite well due to the way of their training and raising the Kaltern man are apathetic towards bonds and focus on serving their lords as part of the “Greater good” equipped with armor and rifles they also carry with then sharpen shovel.

The confederacy tanks are also divided into 3 types according to and some might vary in size quality and others depending on the region of making or purpose of making something quite simply the first one that is well known.

The M46A3 a tank design emulating those of external companies at the same time utilizing regional designs becoming the more Main battle tank of the confederation being the most modern it uses its Eplonyx energy core to fire projectiles at high speeds through a railgun as its main gun utilizing the energy of its Eplonyx energy core.
T-212 a high production model made especially for mass production not a very good quality tank and more akin to a APC but still formidable by its standards mainly fabricated by very poor princes or simply if war economy gets to such levels of desperation to pump out then in mass.
ST-28 one of the spider tanks made for the Confederation land leased by the Empire for study and production mainly to defeat an ongoing revolt it became incorporated by the confederation with a few different designs one of then made is to have a similar railgun as the M46A3 and to an extent higher mobility but at the same time a much bigger chassis.
ST-45 a spider tank this time bough and made by the confederation to serve as its light form of a vehicle which is more reliable and equally powerful mainly integrated with mechanized forces compared to its more ‘robust’ form.
M.A.U also called Mobile Artillery Unit a spider mech with an artillery system made to be able to maneuver through the regions made especially to make sure that trucks are less needed or other forms of transport in case of repositioning

Saxonian Knight Mechs the golden child of Saxonia inspired by the outer rim knight approach by its fellow feudal nations Mech Knights have created warriors that pilot giant mechs in a war against the enemy not easy to pilot but if you pilot you hold a powerful tool with you, mobile and agile for combats they mainly subdivide into.

S.K.M Saxonian Knight Mech made in the confederation the first type of mechs majorly simple a mech with its arms having cannons and its shoulder missile pods made at the beginning of the projects and still made albeit with new tools some of then including energy shields, and heavy armor

Saxonian Support Squire Mechs albeit Squire is a little bit of an exaggeration due to majorly existing as support units and the concept of squires as assistants to the knight’s arts and culture breeds a name so to speak, S.S.S.M is mechs made to have multiple types of equipment mainly separated guns to be used for the conflict being a humanoid mech with arms and legs its strength is the fact that it can carry any piece of equipment it needs from guns to artillery becoming a quite good frontline troop but also a support troop.

Titan Knights the peak of knight mechs larger than its counterparts and considered deadlier than others mech knights spousing shiny engravings of the man who once piloted then or currently pilots then it is quite unknown how such mechs are piloted due to its sophistication in AI and weaponry holding a long list of having swords, war hammers, maces, or even spears while at the same time utilizing from rifles, hand cannons, and even arm attachment of weapons from energy cannons to melee weaponry one thing that is almost universally installed beside the weapons they spouse, quite resistant armor, energy shields and even a form of translucent camouflage












Destroyers compared to corvettes are different due to multiple designs and equipment sets but the majority of the time they are equipped with cannons, railguns missiles, and point defense systems using Gatling guns separated mainly between 2 classes.





Cruisers are divided in 3 categories number one being Schwert der Flammen second being Schwert der Stacheln and third being geflügelter Husar their divisions mainly exist as a form of specialization.







Battleships are divided between 3 types with one not being premonient compared to the others being then Kriegsherr von Burgund,kriegsherr von sachsen, and Schutzengel.







The Dreadnought Sächsischer Titan Considered the biggest ship of the Confederation Sächsischer Titans are the most dangerous ships to engage due to then having E.E.C allowing then to easily destroy battleships with their cannons albeit slow compared to battleships its turrets count and firepower makes then almost deadly to fight while having a period of things such as missiles point defense and other applications that might be installed to then.

The Union of Oros is a nation of worlds and systems protected by a class of Knights that is part of the Dominion. Its Knight's Council preaches tolerance and peace among different species. It has a state-enforced class system that separates people into different classes based upon their abilities. Most of its planets are rurally organized. The Knights of Oros often keep to their own borders, but are not afraid to fight when the need arises.


The Union of Oros is a stratocracy, with its government entirely made up of people that serve in Oros' military. In Oros, the only people allowed to occupy the highest government positions and actually rule planets are the Knights of Oros, with lower-ranked positions filled in by the common soldiers known as the Brave class. The highest governing body of Oros is the Knight's council, which is a council made up of the highest-ranking and most well-regarded Knights in Oros. The Council is headed by the Grand Master of the Order, although they more often serve the role of 'face' of the Union, rather than actually making any decisions on their own.

Planets are allowed to join the Union freely if they want to be put under the protection fo the Knights. Upon doing so, their own state and government are dissolved and they are incorporated by the union. A census is taken to determine who is put in which class, and their local government is replaced by a group of Knights and other military personnel, with a preference for new Orosians from the same planet.

Orosian society is stratified according to what is known as the 'pillar system', a class system made up of 'pillars' that support the Union. Although these are named pillars, they are more like layers in a pyramid, where the higher classes get more privileges than the lower ones. The pillar of an individual is partly based on a family and partly based on a meritocratic basis, which makes social movement difficult, but not impossible. The four pillars that make up this class system are:

-The Knights of Oros: Officially known as 'The Order of the Knights of Ogrion and Oros', the Knights are both the Union's stalwart defenders and its ruling class. Only the Knights have the right to rule, and as a result they are required to not just be skilled in combat, but also good at administration and actually ruling a system. The Knights often live in fortresses built on or stations orbiting planets they rule, but many usually try to at least keep in contact with the rest of the system to be able to do their jobs better, and to not forget who and what they are fighting for.

-The Brave: The Brave are the common military of the Union. Unlike the Knights, which are trained from a very early age to fight for Oros and to lead it, the men and women of the Brave class join up voluntarily. This class has special privileges over the lower classes, such as the right to occupy lower government positions, as well as access to higher-quality housing and other benefits. Only once their actual military career (Which can take up to 10-20 years) is over are they allowed these benefits. Unlike the other classes, people are free to join, and due to the benefits, as well as the desire to help protect their families many join up, resulting in a large amount of available manpower for the Union's military.

-The Wise: The Wise are those with specialized training and education, who do many of the specialized work Oros needs. These are the scientists, doctors and engineers, and more, responsible for pushing the boundaries of science and technology, and maintaining many of the more advanced machines and weapons of Oros. Children that are identified at a young age to have great mental abilities are sent away to special educational programs that are different from the education the other classes receive in order to achieve their full potential.

-The Charges: The Charges are the lowest class in Orosian society. As the name suggests, the Charges are those placed under the protection of the Union. Their protection was the reason the Knights even started the Union in the first place. While they may seem unimportant, the Charges provide the foundation for the rest of Union society. It is them who farm the crops, build the universities and produce the ships and military gear the other classes need to function properly. It is also the largest class in Oros. Many of them prefer peaceful, settled lives which is why they came to (or were born into) the Union in the first place.

Overall, Orosian planets, especially the ones colonized by the Union, are rurally organized. The workers, belonging to the Charges class, live in small, spread-out towns and farmsteads that work the land around them, producing food, goods and mining ores and minerals. These towns are connected by large train networks and other infrastructure to ship the produced goods to where it is needed. Areas with larger population densities and cities are rare, but not nonexistent, as they are often clustered around places where specialized jobs are done, but even these are dispersed, and are for the majority occupied by members of the Wise class. This kind of rural organization is not mandatory however, and many planets, especially the ones that have been brought into the fold voluntarily, have their own unique ways of life.

Towards other nations, the Union of Oros usually maintains a peaceful attitude and sticks to its own borders, often trying to expand peacefully through recruitment and colonization. However, the Order of the Knights is always ready to defend its own principles, even going to war if necessary. If other powers commit atrocities, oppress alien species, or threaten galactic peace and order, the Orosians will fight. Oros begrudgingly supplies troops and resources to the Dominion, if only to keep up the farce of obedience while it's slowly working to break away.


While the beliefs of the people of Oros greatly vary with the class they are in, there are a few universal beliefs spread throughout the Union.

One of these is the right to a peaceful life. The Orosians, and especially the Knight class, believe that every sentient being has a right to a peaceful and fulfilling life. It is why they fiercely defend the innocent inside the Union's borders, and why the stratified class system is carefully maintained.

Another important Orosian belief is that all species, whether human, alien or robotic, are equal. In contrast to the Dominion, aliens in Oros have the same rights as everyone else, and xenophobia is frowned upon. There is little to no distintion based on gender, racial or other lines either, with the only form of 'true', systemic discrimination being the Orosian class system.


-75% Human (Including human subspecies)

-7% Phuprae: The Phuprae are an insect-like species of alien. The Phuprae have evolved to walk on their two pairs of hind legs, using a pair of front legs that have gained claws for manipulation and the use of tools. Phupra adults range from 2-2.5 meters in length, being larger than most humans. The Phuprae are a nomadic species, living aboard massive ships that contain everything they need to survive in space. Because of this, they make excellent traders, often crossing Orosian borders to trade with other societies.

-3% Truqiks: The Truqiks are a small, mouse-like species of alien. Truqiks stand at around 0.6 meters tall. Evolving on a cold, tundra-like planet, the Truqiks are covered in fur and excellent burrowers. Truqik engineers are highly prized in the Union, and their small size, burrowing abilities and improvisation skills make them good scouts. Many Truqiks are part of the Wise and Brave classes, with some even able to make it to Knight, although their small size means they need to use modified power armour and mech suits.

-10% Other aliens: Beyond the two main alien species given here, there are a number of other species present in Oros, whether they were living on planets before the Dominion arrived or refugees that fled to Oros from other nations.

-5% Synthetics: Through science and technology, Orosian scientists have managed to create synthetic, sapient machines. The appearance of these 'synthetics', as they are called, varies greatly, depending on where they were made and by whom. While these Synthetics are often as smart, if not smarter than baseline humans, they are not ASI, and their intelligence doesn't surpass that of the brighest human minds.


-Because Oros is technically part of the Dominion, and it was founded by Dominion soldiers, it uses many of the same technologies as the Dominion, as well as attempting to reverse-engineer and use other technology it can get its hands on.

-Gravity manipulation: Adopted from the Phupra, Orosian gravity manipulation tech allows for the generation and inversion of localized gravity fields. This means that a limited amount of mass can experience increased gravity or no gravity at all. Applications of this technology include tractor beams for space mining, artificial gravity generation on ships and more efficient industry, among other things.

-Rowntree Brain-Computer interfaces (BCI): Invented independently by the Orosian scientist named Kiara Rowntree several centuries after the establishment of the Union, Rowntree BCI tech provides a quick and efficient way for the human (or alien) brain to communicate with external devices. R-BCI has relatively limited uses in Oros, as it is a technology closely guarded by the Knight class. Such applications include Knight power armor and mechs. The only lower-class use of the technology allowed by the Knights is cybernetics, such as a prosthetic arm.

-Robotics (and Synthetics): Orosian robots were originally built to solve a crucial problem from the early history of Oros: How do you survive on and settle a world where everything wants to kill you? The Knights with their power armour and mechs could only get so far in protecting the settlements of the early colonists. Early Orosian scientists turned to robots for the answer, as those could do the labour outside, when it was dangerous. Only when those same robots slowly terraformed Ogrion into a more habitable planet could the colonists settle properly. The robots were improved and used for resource production. At some point, hundreds of years after they were first built, some of these robots were made to be sentient, creating the first Orosian Synthetics.

-Mech Technology: Much like other space-faring civilizations, Oros would eventually invent mechs. In particular, however, it actually took the mechs from the first Knights and improved, refined and transformed into the Knight mechs of today. These are the pinnacle of Orosian technology, combining all previously mentioned technology into a fearsome machine of war.


The Union of Oros started with the colonization of the planet of Ogrion by the Dominion. Ogrion was a hostile, inhospitable world, crawling with dangerous beasts and filled with deadly plants. Soon, it was determined that in order for the colonization process to work, a division's worth of some of the most well-trained mechanized infantry the Dominion could muster would be sent to Ogrion. There, they remained for some time, as the original colonists of Ogrion got to work. Robots were soon built to develop the colony and terraform the planet.

Over the span of many years, technology improved, and the first Knight mechs were built. Slowly, as the planet Ogrion was tamed and modified to the needs of its inhabitants, the class system began to form, as the original military of Ogrion became the Knights, and the settlers were each put into whatever jobs they did best. As the Dominion's hold over its outer worlds started to wane, the Knights of Ogrion asserted their authority of their system, and became the Knights of Oros.

For some time, Oros prospered alone, under the rule of the Dominion. This started to change when the Knights got word that other systems and planets, some with alien species, needed their help. Slowly, a number of worlds started to coalesce into what is now known as the Union of Oros. Nowadays, Oros is still technically part of the Dominion. Its diplomats follow its customs and it sends men and material to the Inner Dominion in order to fly under the radar. But for how long this will last, no one can tell...

Overview: The Solis Ecclesia is a society of star worshiping humans, centuries removed from the dominion. The people of the Ecclesia are religious fanatics dedicated to finding, preserving and harnessing the power of these holy stellar bodies. Solites, as they like to be called, will stop at nothing and sacrifice anything to colonize more stars and harness their power.

Structure: The Ecclesia is a religious oligarchy, ultimately governed by a high council of solar preist. Their word is passed down to regional governors and from them to local church leaders. The word of these leaders is the law and any deviation from the word of the local or regional ecclesiarch is harshly punished.

Beliefs: For true believers of the solar truth, they believe that everything and everyone is descended from the stars. Stars are living gods and their incandescent glow is a sign of their eternal love and warmth. Of course, not every citizen subscribes to the extreme religious views of the true believers. These citizens still hold the sun as an important entity but subscribe to a number of theories regarding the founding of the human species and the galaxy as a whole. A majority of solites have a deep disdsain, bordering on hate, for mutants and aliens alike. They see these other species as either being, devoid of “solar influence” or regard them as mutants.

Technology:

- Being a former dominion colony, the Ecclesia has older dominion tech and weapons and military that they have maintained and retrofitted throughout the centuries.

- Localized and large-scale fusion power: As a solar cult, obsessed with the power of stars, harnessing the powers of fusion for energy was a priority

- Gravitic weapons: Harnessing the gravity of stars was also an important milestone for the Ecclesia, these weapons fire a localized orb at high speeds, that has the capability crushing anything it hits under its own weight by drastically increasing the gravity well around the fired orb.

- Plasma weaponry: pretty straight forward, localized electrically charged gas fired at high speeds and able to burn through things

- Electrical projectile acceleration: Having almost limitless electrical power at their disposal, this was the next logical step for projectile acceleration. This surpasses the standard explosive chemical acceleration and allows for increased acceleration speeds

- Advanced heat and radiation shielding: Being near a star, has forced the Solites to adapt their buildings, habitats and other tech to be extremely heat and radiation resistant

Demographics: 100% human ( Adapted to high heat and radiation enviroments)

Other:
- Solites are adapted to high heat and radiation environments

- As a said earlier, the people of the ecclesica are very xenophobic and don’t like mutants, this is seen as lack of stellar love and a weakness of faith as everyone should be resistant to the love and warmth of stellar bodies, aka radiation.

Military Roster:

Navy













Naval Strike Craft













Ground forces









Notable Wargear

- Talon Cannon system
- Dual plasma launcher system
- Fires two 5m blasts of plasma before battery reload
- Refreshed by a chain of batteries for semi-continuous fire
- Can fire up to 70 times a minute
- Plasma projector cannon
- Fires a continuous solid stream of directed plasma energy
- 10 second stream
- Requires a charging time of 30 seconds with a capacitor capable of holding contained power for 5 minutes
- requires 30 seconds of cooling after each burst
- Star Engines
- High energy and thrust engine
- Vectored thrust for increased maneuverability
- Designed for outrunning almost any known vessel
- Requires cooling after running at full capacity for prolonged periods of time.
- Still undergoing field testing and upgrades

Orbital Principalities of the Adonai Order (O.P.A.O)

Basic draft -> Visual presentation available at request in the Discord Channel.

Overview

The Dominion’s decay intensified already shifting powers across the stars. Many deciding whether to make attempts at saving its grace or giving up on its promises. There is fear in those who are undecided, some believing the fall may be a good thing, others believing the further it falls - the tighter the Dominion grips onto everything it can pulling what it touches down with it. The instincts of mankind always kick in overdrive during numbered days. These instincts have led to the status quo buckling down on regulation and tradition for control. Lesser powers have begun engaging in covert alliances to mitigate the consequences of the predicted fall. Crime and anarchy out of desperation rise as more truth unfolds about the grim becoming of the empire’s instability. Amid these chaotic and terrorizing times, a strong spiritual presence has emerged into some of the more powerful courts across the Dominion. This spiritual presence calls itself the Adonai Order and the prophetic vision along with its strategic plan enticed some of these courts to bound their interests together for surviving the Dominion’s gnawing and gnashing of teeth in its ladder days. Those who allied themselves with Adonai Order signified their allegiance to one another as the Orbital Principalities. They covertly began restructuring, re-educating, and reorienting their view of their position in the cosmos. Opening communications, research, military, and policies, these powers united accelerated change in their regions of space. This is their song and echoes in the Shattering Galaxy.

Social Structure

The distress of the Dominion’s current state bound up five powerful leaders with the Adonai Order united under God. These leaders swore an oath to serve their Lord and King of Kings in the coming days. Their oath symbolized a spiritual treatise which was broadcasted through their mediums to give hope, solidarity, and inspiration to their people collectively. The Adonai Order then began establishing sanctuaries of Adonai. These sanctuaries are private places where men and women may seek refuge in these trying times, each sanctuary is designed to fulfill the community's needs while reporting to their preferred churches. The Churches of Adonai are not specific places, they are a group of five roles: a prophet, apostle, teacher, evangelist, and voice. A church may be held in any area of space so long as these five roles are congregated in a synchronous location. The prophet speaks of their vision, the apostle records the conversations, the teacher educates as the prophet shares his vision, the evangelist motivates and inspires the crowd, while the voice helps with answering any questions and guides the crowd. Typically, churches walk with each other, and letters are their preferred form of communicating across their order. Sanctuaries will have preferred churches when reporting their discoveries, these churches will then communicate these findings to other churches and the orbital principalities.

Social Breakdown

Sanctuaries: Provide clean water, shelter, and emergency food for community members. They protect and serve the vulnerable, their operations are maintained by luminaries and initiates.

Churches: Provide the Word and prophecy of Adonai. They may emerge anywhere at any time. For a church to be officially established in a moment in time, a recognized prophet, apostle, teacher, evangelist, and voice must be present.

Principalities: There are five princes, two males (Iman Jahandar & Valiance Spiros) and three females (Mayven Reigns, Nicole Amichu, and Neema Valshehk). Principalities maintain their symbol of integrity providing security against foreign powers and living honorably, upholding idealistic qualities for direction.

Orbital Defense Force (O.D.F.): The ODF is a centralized armed force for rapid deployment and military defense operations. There is a standing force and a substantial pool of reserves for orbital emergency. There are four divisions, each completed with total capabilities in defending all dimensions of warfare. These divisions are broken into north, south, west, and east based on the locality of the principalities. The communication hierarchy of the ODF begins at the Executive Strategic Office (ESO) who reports to Prime General Ocatvia Kilborne, followed by the Divisional Strategic Offices (DSO), trickling down into the division’s subsets corresponding with the particular need inquired by a principality at the ESO level.

Convictions

The beliefs of the OPAO are theological, phenomenological, teleological, soft-deterministic, holistic, and pragmatic. They value excellence, empathy, fiscal responsibility, reason, and democratic behavior. Their core virtues are faith, hope, charity, fidelity, and prudence. The OPAO although diverse in race and background, their culture and aesthetic have become united under the Order of Adonai and ancient teachings of the Word.

Technology

The OPAO invest in medicine, biogenetics, and cybernetics according to their long-term strategic plan. Both investments give rise to discoveries and inventions of tools where systems are optimized to effectively respond to the OPAO’s population needs and security. They allow for recovery and quick adaptation to the speed of evolving circumstances out of their control.

Examples in medicine:
 Nano-Injections for antibody and quick clot coagulation repair.
 Surgical proficiency and success due to advanced professional training and cybernetic capabilities.
 Accurate DNA to Medication pairing.

Examples in biogenetics:
 Cloning (Accessible only to ODF, regulated by OPID and Prime Courts).
 Biological enhancement capabilities (Regulated by OPDAB).
 Designer baby capabilities (Regulated by OPID).

Notes: OPID stands for Orbital Principality Identification Division, OPDAB stands for Orbital Principality Division for Advancing Biology, and the Prime Courts can be compared to Supreme Courts in the United States.

Examples in cybernetics:
 A.I. Citizens for reinforcing workforce, socialization, and defense needs. These citizens are connected to the Sera system. They are also capable of disconnecting to preserve autonomy.
 Sera Shells are designed for protecting against orbital strikes from space and atmospheric strikes on planet. Sera is a centralized A.I. system communicating city operations, resources, and emerging activities for strategic and tactical responses by citizen officials.
 SOAL Suits are designed for the sea, orbit, air, and land combat engagements. There are different SOAL models uniquely fitted for various situations.

Demographics
Human – 40%
Human/Anubi -20%
Human/Cyborg – 15%
A.I. – 10%
Kato – 15%
 Kato enjoys silence and solitude. They do not congregate in large groups unless it is necessary. Their natural acrobats with a tendency to compete and show-off when they “feel” like it. It is in their nature to demand instead of asking, but they balance this with appeasing the one they are demanding from. They hate being told what to do, but if the request is sensible and difficult to argue, their reason will always emerge over pride.
 Independent, hyper-intelligent, extremely sensitive, resourceful, and reasonable creatures with telekinetic capabilities.
 Kato psychology, Kato are born in large family groups with play as the core activity and practice of the family. They learn through play whether with parents or siblings. Their first initiation into society is usually through festivals. These festivals are designed to bring Kato’s together to promote a sense of solidarity and encourage respectful mating practices. The Kato may appear to some species as spiritual, however, Kato sees themselves as pragmatic who acknowledge the order of existence, their base nature, and their insignificance. It is why they train their young in respectful practices as to appreciate the order of existence instead of ignoring it. This appreciation delivers the psychology of honoring themselves, the world, and others around them as a priority which requires consistent attention. Kato’s view the world as a place to appreciate while also existing as their own personal playground. When the game is not challenging enough, they become bored and invent new games to play. Everything in the eyes of a Kato is a game of balancing between prudence and pleasure.

> Kato permissions, if a player does not appreciate the world in which they live, the Kato’s will not respect such a player. If the player is too serious, the Kato’s will laugh at such a player. If the player is too self-oriented, the Kato will believe the player is stupid and unreasonable. If the player relies too much on its own tools, the Kato will not trust their judgment. Kato’s only work well with those who too balance between self-discipline and a playful approach to life. They do not get along with A.I. but can appreciate the reasons as to why they are integrated into society by human beings. Kato also do not see all human societies as equals and tend to avoid most human civilizations that do not empathize with their psychology.

Name: S’Hraa Ciss
Overview: The S’Hraa Ciss are a shadow of what they once were. This faction, primarily composed of the Snake-like Serekin, had no claim of a sprawling galactic empire, barely having colonized past their home planet, but they have achieved much in the biological sciences. From extending their lifespan tenfold to editing the genetics of their offspring to allow for positive traits to be inherited while weeding out negative traits. The next step, was to create a life of their own, something new, a servitor race. Eventually they succeeded, but their downfall would come shortly after.

What caused the Phnosiss, or The Cataclysm, is unknown. But what happened as a result is well known. The destruction of their home planet, the Serekin nearing extinction, losing nearly a millennia of innovation and technological advancement. Those that survived were forced to flee in search of a new home, which led them to Karbana Kinnis. Though this place already had other habitants, all parties seemed to be content with leaving the others alone.

Most Serekin believe the Phnosiss was caused by the wrath of their god N’Yagoth, who is famously easy to please but quick to anger. That the Serekin of old committed such a grievous offense as to force N’Yagoth’s judgement. They also believe that Karbana Kinnis was a boon. A chance for redemption. They’ll be damned if outsiders come and defile this place.

---

Structure: Though Worship of N’Yagoth is not required, subservience is. Thus the will of N’Yagoth is the supreme authority and precedes all others. Matters not ordained by N’Yagoth is legislated by a council of Elders from the largest (and most influential) clans.

The Taztu clan has historically provided many of the most legendary warriors of the past and present. As such, they have the honor of guarding the Hera’Yiss (see section, Other for information of Hera’Yiss). Maintaining them in their slumber until the S’Hraa Ciss needs them. The current Elder, Tyoss the Defiant, has the distinction of being one of the largest Serekin in recorded history. With a body length of nearly 20 feet and standing almost 12 feet tall. She is a fiery individual and tends to intimidate others into following her. Those that are not intimidated still respect her for her combat prowess, having only lost one dual (a sore point for her, best not bring it up if you know what is good for you).

The Yuklas clan is responsible for the research and production for the majority of Venom, poisons, potions, medicinal drugs, performance enhancing, and ritual drugs. Due to the importance of these products in their society, they have the distinction of being the only major clan that virtually everyone is friendly with. They are currently led by Sithax the Desolate, who alone knows the process for creating the Viper serum. The concoction capable of reanimating dead tissue, so that the Hera’Yiss may perform their eternal duties. Sithax himself is a very secretive individual, with few knowing of his actual identity. The importance of his work affords him extra precautions.

The Sho’Shan clan is chiefly responsible for serving as a liaison between the Ciss and N’Yagoth and enforcing his divine decrees. Secondly, they are also responsible for maintaining Serekin tradition and history, so that the past may serve a reminder of N’Yagoths kindness to the Ciss, as well as his wrath. They are led by Trel’Niss the Righteous. Trel’Niss is the only one permitted to directly ‘speak’ with N’Yagoth through intricate rituals.

The Vara’Shen clan is responsible for gathering intelligence against the friends and foes of S’Hraa Ciss, as well as performing covert operations to ensure their continued survival is maintained. They are also responsible for finding and reclaiming technology lost during the Phnosiss. They also develop and maintain the stealthier technologies of the Ciss. They are led by Hathax the Unbroken.

---

Beliefs: Individuals are recognized and respected by the deeds they have done, not the people they know nor the place they came from. Only those that put in effort for society are given the time of day. Laziness is not only harmful to society, but is a morally sinful trait as well. An individual is defined by their word compared to their deeds. A good citizen will strive to fulfill a pact made to the best of their ability. While an individual can be evasive or deliberately unclear, their word must never be an outright lie nor will they ever leave a promise unfulfilled they could reasonably fulfill. Friends are few but enemies are many, one must be distant to outsiders so as to have ample time to judge their character. Woe is to the one with many friends as often there are really few. Above all, an individual does what is asked of them and serves society. Disloyalty and treason are serious offenses.

---

Technology:

Genetic Manipulation: Enforcing certain traits on offspring in accordance to a desired role. One might have organs for breathing underwater, another might have thicker scales. This technology is designed specifically for Serekin and may have unusual effects on other species.

Bio/Cyber-augmentation: Replacement or enhancement of certain body tissue.

Stealth technology: passively hiding from non-optical sensors by matching heat signature of vehicles and ships to that of the environment as well as absorbing certain kinds of signals rather than reflecting them. The same technology has been adapted to some of the more elite infantry troops as well.

Cloaking Technology: actively hiding from optical sensors by simply not being seen. This is more demanding of power than stealth technology and often needs power shifted from non-essential systems (such as weapons) in order to maintain the effect and can last indefinitely provided power is maintained. Devices adapted for infantry are capable of cloaking perfectly while still, only leaving a shimmer when moving but only last for a limited duration before having a ‘cooldown’ period before it can be reactivated.

Chemical warfare: Most weaponry consists of ballistics coated in poisonous, venomous, or corrosive material so that even light wounds can be fatal if medical treatment is not immediate.

Viper Serum: The main (but not only) component of making a Hera’Yiss. This serum is capable of reviving corpses so they can continue fighting long after their bodies give. This is most effective in freshly slain, whole corpses with its successful revival rate decaying in proportion to the state of the body. This serum is designed exclusively for Serekin patients and tends to have unwanted effects on other species.

Remotely Operated Biologically Assisted Drones: Also referred to as ROBADs, these are machines are grafted with the brains and nervous tissue of animals so they can be manipulated remotely by the psychic Dreamers (see section, Other for information on Dreamers). From simple utility drones to complex war machines, they can all be operated safely at great distances.

---

Demographics: Serekin - 90%

Other – 10%

Sapient

---

Name: Serekin
Overview: The Serekin can be best described as humanoid snakes. They boast two arms ending in four fingered claws (one of which is opposable) and two legs ending in ditigrade feet with three claws. They range from seven to twelve feet long at adulthood though standing upright, they are typically five to eight feet tall with their tails accounting for nearly two fifths of their body length. They tend to weigh 300 to 500 pounds. Males tend to be larger and often have darker scales while females tend to be slender and have brighter scales. They are omnivorous but tend to eat mainly meat.
Traits: Serekin have two fangs in their mouth for hunting prey. They have a bite strong enough to pierce thin metals or thick hides and the fangs serve to inject venom in their prey. The venom has different effects from one Serekin to another and are partially affected by their diet. Some venom attacks the nervous system preventing potential prey from struggling, while others are slightly corrosive and eat away at the blood vessels causing internal bleeding. There are many effects and an individual Serekin can produce venom with a specific affect by maintaining a certain diet for a few days.

Though Serekin can walk like many animals, they can also slither along the ground like any other snake. They moved at an increased pace when doing so and can even move along the surface of water with this method of locomotion. They can also slither to climb up steep angles, with their homes using ramps with interlocking angles difficult for others to traverse.

One of the few secrets that the Serekin kept from the Phnosiss is their process for altering their own genetics. They have many of what one might call useful mutations or forced evolutions to allow them to adapt well to whatever environment or challenges they anticipate in their life. One Serekin might possess an organ for filtering oxygen out of liquids and can thus stay underwater for an extended period of time, another might be able to shift the hue of their scales to blend into an environment. This diversity has proven valuable for the trials they faced since they arrived on Karbana Kinnis.

Psychology: Owing to their ambush predatory nature, Serekin tend to be passive. Waiting for event to happen and then acting accordingly. They rarely act first, and even then only when they perceive something to happen. They also tend to be deceptive, subtly influencing events for some grand plan down the line. Hence, loyalty is a rare but valuable resource with distrust being common against those outside their social circles. Above all else, they value family and tradition. They form tight bonds within their circles and those that have no others that they can call family or friend tend to be depressed.

Permissions: Serekin are tribal and paranoid of those unlike themselves. Members existing outside of this faction are not likely to exist but those that are were probably banished from Karbana Kinnis for one reason or another, a tragic fate as Serekin have a compulsive need to belong somewhere and might seek out others a Serekin would not normally associate with.

---

Other:

Hera’Yiss: These are the soldiers that pledged their life, and death, to the S’Hraa Ciss. Soldiers who fight to the death, then rise to fight again. They are the figures of myth and legend. They go back for generations upon generations, their minds decaying over the years until only the desire to serve remains. Hera’Yiss are equipped with some of the best gear for whatever role they are required to fill. Whether it be the personal cloaking generators of the Shadowscales or the toxic and corrosive sludge of the Desolators. They wear advanced full body armor equipped with a limited AI for detecting hostiles, dispensing medicine, and activating the revival process of the Viper serum at an opportune time.

N’Yagoth: N’Yagoth is the creator deity of the Serekin. Description of him varies depending on who you ask with one claiming a gargantuan snake and another claiming he is a multi-headed dragon. He is said to be easy to please but also easy to anger, with his blessings and curses being great and terrible. He has led the Serekin in their infancy, teaching them to create tools and to hunt. The Phnosiss is believed to have been caused by him though as to why, is unclear. He is also believed to have led the survivors to Kabana Kinnis. Currently, he is said to be slumbering deep in the bowels of the Serekin’s home planet and when he next wakes something great and terrible will befall the galaxy.

Y’ha N’thlei: The home planet of the Serekin, currently lost in space. Following the Phnosiss the planet was rendered inhospitable to life with regular volcanic activity across the surface and creating a toxic atmosphere. It has also been catapulted out of it’s solar system and is currently drifting erratically across the galaxy making its location difficult to pinpoint. According to one popular legend, N’Yagoth still dwells deep in the core of the planet, defending the ancient secrets and treasures that supposedly lies within deep vaults waiting to be discovered.

Dreamers: The S’Hraa Ciss believe that all sentient beings have latent psychic energy and that through alchemical means can this energy be harnessed. While many methods of the past have been lost from the Phnosiss, one method remains known. By using ingredients from various rare flowers, they can brew a potion to allow them access to the dreams of others. Those who drink the Thissil potion, referred to as ‘Dreamers’ quickly fall into deep sleep that is indistinguishable from normal sleep. They can leave this state by waking up and any actions or effects in the dreams have no physical reflection on reality, though one might be disturbed on experiencing ‘death’ in a dream. In the past this has been used largely to spy on the friends and enemies of the Serekin but this has largely fell out of use due to the necessity of implanting artifacts on the person in question in order for them to be susceptible. Something that the current Isolationist policy makes difficult. Currently most dreaming rituals or used to either research, learn, or practice crafts (as time is perceived faster in dreams, several days in the dreamlands can equal one in the waking world.) or be used to remotely operate their robads.

The Osthirii Synergy are... well.. old! In an unforgiving galaxy plagued by conflicts and mysteries as old as time, conspiracies and threats for old orders to splinter and new empires to be born, The Osthirii, have kept to themselves...
A civilization amounting to the hundreds of trillions possibly even quadrillions; They are creatures built both of plant life and nanite technology.

Their origins are evidently unknown even to themselves, though they may put themselves around the origins of the Karbana Kinnis Hyper-World but since they are as of yet an undiscovered species no other witnesses other than themselves can confirm or deny this claim.

They originated near the centre of the galaxy, right inside the tightly packed bulge of stars that surrounds the Sagittarius black hole...
Out of the 78 billion stars in that galactic bulge, they own 4,567 stars all immediate neighbours to each other.
They can't be seen as owning an influence territory like most imperiums which, now dominate this galaxy, since most have the influence territory spanning across dozens of billions of stars some even more, all the while leaving the majority of these stars unpopulated and even unexplored.

The Osthirii have tightly populated and colonised every planet and asteroid around those 4,567 stars - and since not even they know where exactly they began (at least not officially) they don't have an official origin planet...

The most intriguing fact is that they began so close to the galactic core where the shear radiation of the galactic core renders the evolution of life impossible, there but for primordial goo and moss on some really weird, nightmarish worlds.
Despite this fact, the planets which they have colonized and filled have been richly terraformed almost to the point of looking like utopian paradises on the surface, and having all their cities underground with, but a few buildings on the surface, which provide passage for their spaceships and people.

Name: Surnia Star Cluster Defence League

The Surnia Defence League is led by a military junta and is quite heavily militarized. It’s isolationist and has been for most of its existence. The civilian population is heavily supportive of the current regime. There are no official religions and worship is discouraged in public, being seen as an individual affair.

The League is led by a council of high level generals and admirals, with a much larger advisory council of much lower ranked officers and some civilian representatives. Most local representatives are elected and private enterprises are heavily limited in size. While no one person holds all the power within the league the generals and admirals of the most powerful planets often hold the most sway.

The people within the League believe that most external empires (human or not) can’t be trusted, and they also believe that their ex masters could still be in the galaxy seeking to put the Surnians back under their thumb. The population is also heavily against slavery. There are many smaller religions in Surnian space but many are basically identical copies of each other and are mostly related to original religions of the Surnian people.

Surnia is not a technological super power, most of their tech has been plundered or modified in some way shape or form and not many highly advanced technologies have been internally developed.

Weapons tech- Most Surnian weapons are reverse engineered laser weapons often time in a much simpler (and cheaper) style. While these weapons may not be of the highest quality they are still capable of hitting quite hard. Starships are often equipped with higher quality weapons and are the main armament of most vessels.

Power generation- power generated in Surnia is often done much simpler than is standard, with most cities operating off of natural fuels such as natural gas and oil. Heavy military hardware is often powered with nuclear fusion/fission or with direct charging with ground stations.

Robots- Robots made in Surnia are often used for military purposes and are roughly the same size as humans. While not highly advanced they are rather difficult to hack, requiring a direct link into the robot otherwise they are nothing special barring special variants. The main advantage to these robots is their high resistance to freezing temperatures, extreme battery life and highly modular design.

Advanced detection systems- Many different detection systems have been created in Surnia, varying from simple and effective infantry tools to advanced long range sensors capable of detecting all but the most advanced (or outlandish) of stealth technologies.

Mechs- not many mechs have been designed in Surnia, even fewer designs have been built and as of yet none have been nor can feasibly be mass produced. Experiments are still ongoing and possible programs for creating a mass producible smaller mech are nearing potential fruition.





Overview: The people of Surnia are Humans and most Surnians have Icy blue eyes and extremely pale skin. They are quite resistant to colder temperatures. Otherwise they don’t vary much in appearance from other humans.



-Many people have rather bad lung issues and can't breath properly. It is unknown what causes this but it develops in most people, regardless of what planet they are born on within the league. Most people have taken to near permanently wearing their heavy respirator suits to limit the effect these issues have on their daily lives. They also tend to be heavier and slightly stronger than average compared to “normal” humans. Some Surnians have lasting traits from their ancestors' time as slaves, having much higher gravity tolerance and strength.

-All Surnians live on overall cold planets making them quite adapted to the cold and resistant to freezing temperatures. They also dislike warmer planets due to their adaptation to the cold.

Psychology: [What distinct aspects of the way they think/see the world are there?] Most Surnians are mildly xenophobic and often have a grim outlook on the galaxy.

Permissions: universal access. Use the snow humans if you wish. They tend to be wary when meeting new people and often like living in smaller tight knit communities.



Human-Surnian: 100%




The Surnians originated in the 1st century BC in Gaul. Many were abducted alongside the Romans in 20BC to be used as slave labour and were genetically modified in much the same way as the Romans. The Gauls, were more stubborn and defiant than the Romans and were often treated much worse because of this, eventually the Gauls started believing that they were being treated as inferior to the other slave races and had begun despising not only their masters but their fellow slaves as well. As the masters began to dwindle in number the Gauls were increasingly treated worse and worse, and while the the Romans stashed weapons so too did the gauls, but not for the purposes of overthrowing their masters or aiding their fellow slaves, but to set out on their own and decide their own destiny.

When the Romans rebelled, the Surnians did as well. using stashed weapons and tools to hijack a series of large cargo vessels, the Surnians abandoned their fellow slaves and set out into the galaxy on their own, losing a great number of their own people in the journey and many cargo vessels were lost as well. Upon reaching the location in space that would become known as the Surnia Star Cluster, many of the remaining transport vessels split up to investigate the many potential habitable worlds. Many of the investigated worlds were found to be desolate, seemingly wiped clean, but some planets were found that were habitable (if a little cold) and the remaining Surnians began their colonization efforts, using their transport ships as hubs and stripping them to use as homes and for the valuable technology that had survived the journey.

Even as the Surnians settled onto their new worlds, entire colonies failed or disappeared without a trace eventually leaving only 10% of the original Surnian population. Eventually the inhabitants of Surnia prime caught a lucky break and discovered ancient factories and other valuable resources like weapons and even a few small starships. The origins of this equipment is unknown to even modern Surnia and could have been delivered by a benevolent race or left by a dying one, regardless of the origins the equipment worked well and had many automated systems and even built in mining equipment and starship blueprints. The results of these discoveries was the eventual regaining of communications with some lost colonies and entered a short golden age.

While Surnia had pulled itself from the gutter, it still wasn’t perfect. Many of its worlds were filled with hostile wildlife and shifting glaciers. Even with the discovery of the ancient technology on Surnia prime, most of the planets were near impossible to tame. The only planet that could be fully tamed was Surnia Prime itself, the settlers there (with the help of newly acquired power armour) safely tamed a species of large canine like creature (with lots of trial and error) that has been the only successfully tamed animal so far.

Surnia thus far has had limited contact with the outside nations aside from occasional explorers and trade vessels and some small raids from alien species. And has barely extended its borders in over 500 years.

The NIRC is a loosely connected alliance of multiple sapient species that had formed over the course of multiple revolutionary wars in various outermost worlds, fully manifesting in the waning years of a once powerful human dominated Ascendency that was on its way to becoming a regional power. It has four dominant sapient species - ex-colonial humans, the fungoid tarrhaidim, arthropod vrexul, and anguillid gealtirocht. All four to some extent lived under the tyrannical rule of a human-run empire after having been subjugated in some way by them and allied proxy states. Both exploited the vast natural resources and labour potential of what were once free worlds, quelling multiple revolts and uprisings but not the insurrectionist and anti-hierarchic spirit that spawned them. Many of them would escape to “dead” worlds as well as the depths of Karbana Kinnis and others would continue their anti-imperialist actions in secret on occupied worlds, gradually building an interplanetary movement of increasingly difficult to govern civil disobedience and growing numbers of independent yet unified worlds all opposed to the expanding Imperial power.

The Ascendency did not take this lightly but by the time the first bullets had been fired in open warfare, the nascent NIRC was too powerful for the unwieldy, cumbersome empire to properly combat. The revolutionary force conquered and reclaimed all their frontier worlds, bringing to an end a once invincible regime’s grip on these lush domains. However, the revolutionary war was not without a massive cost, leaving the NIRC to inhabit a shattered series of worlds many of which had been divided through socially engineered colonial rule, rampant built-in corruption, careless environmental degradation, and internecine conflicts of faith, ethnicity, territory and politics. At the same time, it had developed a revolutionary spirit of unity that transcended nearly all boundaries - many of the armies that fought under its name were not necessarily in agreement with one another but the dream of forging a true future spoke louder than differences of doctrine. To add to this, new technologies developed by both exiled leaders and the first few NIRC worlds combined with the infrastructure inherited from the fallen Ascendency have allowed them to repair shattered worlds via terraforming and accelerate the transition process towards the Nexus’ style of governance.

Currently, the NIRC is in a period of immense growth as its plan for full stabilization are now finally underway after a bit over a decade of preparation and pre-action. Massive terraforming operations, the ending of remaining internal conflicts, the elimination or capture of hidden Ascendency loyalists and counter-revolutionary forces, the improvement of standards of living, the nationalization of industries - it is one of the largest and most ambitious attempts at modernization. It is roughly at 58% of its projected completion, slowing down slightly as the Nexus begins programs to extend its soft power beyond its own boundaries and its growing military begins plans to settle into various areas of Karbana Kinnis as part of an pan-planetary attempt to uncover the mysteries of the three major alien races that comprise this increasingly powerful alliance.

How the NIRC runs varies wildly to which specific subset of it is at the helm with regards to the worlds under its control. The vrexul, arguably the face of the NIRC, have the most convoluted system. The absolute power sits not with one of their own but a gigantic moon-sized bioconstruct known as the Rozkleřešení (english: Gnosis Eater) made of a mixture of constantly mutating, decomposing, and thus rejuvenating biomatter and complex self-sustaining and replicating cybernetics that serves not only as a giant supercomputer but the highest political authority. Its power is filtered through the advanced AI’s of six enormous bio-habitat ships the vrexul first came to these worlds with years ago, then to a 36 person council made up of six-person mind-linked sub-councils then down through that to the independent-yet-united assemblies of varying shapes and sizes that exist underneath them. This process can also be reversed and frequently focuses on decisions made on the ground up simply given a smaller degree of input from those higher on the command - their power ultimately rests on these assemblies and by themselves, have limited capabilities in terms of practical power compared to those they are governing.

The gealtirocht on the other hand are essentially tribesfolk or clanspeople, following a more anarchic sort of organization that technically does not have a single leader. They do however converge as a whole with the decision-making heads of the larger clans (whose power is only really “allowed” in these moments) bringing decisions towards their subjects when as a whole they decide on actions that will affect the NIRC and other worlds as a whole. This low-tech approach seems to clash with them having the most advanced technology on average but they follow the general idea that states should be kept fairly minimal but the unity of people should speak louder than laws and leaders. It has been updated with a considerably lesser emphasis on lineage and descent, with them moving away from a tighter bloodline focused idea of kin and tribe/clean to one based on action and choice.

For the longest time, the majority of the tarrhaidim lived under a theocracy but while they are not that much less religious than they were previously they did a particularly strange method of decision making. Unlike the other two aliens here, they have kept a supreme leader sitting somewhere between the vice-chairman and a high priest though their religious powers for determining doctrine have been mostly removed at this point. They are beholden not to other political parties but rather interest groups that represent elements of their society such as the military, the workers, the arts, religion, health, and so on - a “one party” state with multiple sub-groups not so much in conflict with one another as much as entirely focused on specific subsets of their society.

Said system followed by the tarrhaidim is similar to that of the humans albeit with religious aspects being absent. It is the closest to traditional democracy but retains the “power from below” system of organization wherein much of the decision making sits in the hands of assemblies made of the proletarian working classes. As humans were the main species of the empire of old, they generally have taken the longest to adapt to the new rule and most of the complete economic and political changes the Nexus is undergoing as a whole are still in the midst of transition states amongst them.

All of these states generally work more akin to a pact, making larger decisions with the combined heads of each one and outlining larger directives to be undertaken as part of their own distinct galactic agendas. Due to them having lost the least in the liberation wars (which is being incredibly relative here), the Vrexul have the most dominant position in the Nexus especially with regards to the military. At the same time, this massive advantage they have has meant that they have had to assist the rest of the powers especially in terms of security and re-creating infrastructure. Their leadership is slowly diminishing their overall presence leaving more room for humanity, the gealtirocht and tarrhaidi to have a larger say along with allowing them to shoulder a larger degree of the responsibilities with regards to the maintenance of the Nexus and its protection.

As a whole, the Nexus are believers in a populist style of government with power meant to rest amongst the classless masses and any structured institutions used solely for the purpose of maintaining a political ecology of mutual cooperation, aid, and prosperity. Except in certain human and tarrhaidim areas, politicians are not even in paid positions - only the truly dedicated step up to the challenge. Workplaces are no different, either already having or morphing towards collective ownership or strictly regulated by governing bodies, frequently automated with the advent of advanced vrexul bioautomata. Leading from this, they can sometimes be outright anti-work in the sense they do not like the idea of spending your time working for a mere fraction of the profit created for those that will always be more powerful economically and politically than oneself. Others see work as meaningful when divorced from the process of mere material accumulation when governing mechanisms are used to provide for basic needs, allowing work to be transformed into a process of expression subordinate to one’s deepest held aspirations and desires.

Subsequently, every Nexus faction has an enormous arts community ranging across all major mediums. Musical, culinary, martial, visual, and some even in more arcane or eldritch categories of art among others are not only the pride of many of their nations but also something they believe to be an inherent good and subsequently something they export fairly heavily to worlds outside of their control. Some would say this is a form of soft power and they aren’t wrong - one way to influence others is to simply make them enjoy the things that you do after all. Yet a large part of this is simply due to the importance they put on enjoyment and self-realization which exists independent of their geopolitical goals. The vrexul are particularly well known for their music, best described as “ritualistic blackened doomy semi-industrial microtonal-contrapuntal death metal chamber orchestra”. The gealtirocht have a popular sport that is half soccer and half quarter-staff or baton based martial arts but in low to no gravity environments. Tarrhaidim have some surprisingly meaty tasting vegetarian dishes partially made of dirt-like substances and snake-like tendril-plants feeding on large juicy garlic-like mushroom growths they prepare in their own bodies. The humans have created next generation gaming taking place in simulated worlds crafted out of hardened light-like energy. The possibilities grow by the year.

Another core belief is a highly pronounced sense of revolutionary spirit, compassion, and galactic independence. The Nexus were born from tossing off the shackles of empire and subsequently have very little love for anything resembling it or fulfilling the same function. This can sometimes result in skepticism towards the NIRC itself but it extends far beyond that to most forms of corporate or purely growth-centered enterprise, ultra-rigid hierarchy or class division, certain forms of nationalism or constructed popular identity, and so on. As a whole however, it does make them either very difficult to approach or very easy. Some humans and a smaller number of tarrhaidim as less skeptical towards liberal democracy but most nationalistic, totalitarian ones are simply avoided or scorned outright by any of them. On the other end, independent colony worlds and certain smaller interplanetary associations are generally given a wider berth and considerably more respect off of the bat. It isn’t uncommon for them to frequently support revolutionary or popular uprisings in a number of cases - sometimes going forth as to providing volunteers, material support, and heavy doses of radicalization to those involved.

Members of the NIRC generally are known for having a very specific way of looking at things that informs the overwhelming majority of their politics. It is a materialist form of analysis based on viewing history, living conditions, the cultural and ideological zeitgeist, and political system of rule but just as importantly the relations between the classes and the methods by which societies provide for themselves as a single interrelated system of relations. Known as mechanialchemical materialism, it views the interaction of subjects within typically stratified societies as a series of inherent conflicts established for the purposes of control and suppression of power. The term came from occultist groups of all places when applying their understanding of esoteric beliefs unto contemporary political analyses when meeting with hardened veteran insurgents.

A number of religions exist within NIRC space. The gealtirocht have been polytheist pagans from the beginning, worshipping a celestial order of gigantic void-dwelling eel-like organisms they claim are their true predecessors and their “national spirit” being a reflection of their will and nature. This pantheon is known as the Síocornaíocht or in English, “The Coils of Eternity”. The tarrhaidim are “monotheistic” in the sense their belief follows that of a singular entity - an enormous fungal spore-moon nown as Almh'allbadi or “The Eternal Decomposer”. Both species are capable of having visions of their respective super-organism-deitites and there are fields of study that seek to attempt to find them. The tarrhaidim instinctively “know” which direct Almh’albadi is in while the Síocornaíocht appears to inform the gealtirocht capable of some sort of energy manipulation others call magic. It is known that there are bizarre super-organisms where these species can be found which to some explains their beliefs but folk tales, legends from starfaring crews, and strange potentially supernatural phenomenon fuel the curiosity and wonder of others.

By contrast, the vrexul’s own super-organism was one they or rather their predecessors created themselves and is often clearly visible with the right observation equipment. The Rozkleřešení (or Gnosis Eater) isn’t actually worshipped as a divine figure but seen as a sort of representative of larger systems of cause and effect, a living embodiment of knowledge and un-knowledge, being and unbeing, and a gateway to truths of existence beyond what one’s body is capable of comprehending by default. Their “faith” if it can really be called such is not so much based around worship but awareness of the greater underlying currents that warp and change reality with all living things in the corporeal realms as little more than subjects of eldritch forces that manifest for reasons they can never understand the totality of - at least not with minds constrained by their current neurobiology. Some sects of this occultist belief think that the Rozkleřešení is a living gateway that allows one to peer into it and observe something called names such as “The Prisoner of the Void” for those who believe the Rozkleřešení is merely containing it and others the “The Hungering in the Chasm”. What it specifically is isn’t known - it may simply be some kind of psycho-engrammatic signal sent out by the living supercomputer that causes strange hallucinations. Yet there are patterns notable throughout some of said strange psychic sightings - some see countless stars tumbling through a yawning, psychedelic void as they are sliced apart by the infinite jaws and claws of some massive segmented organisms and others a gigantic juggernaut of infinite sickle-ended legs dragging its ripping ends through the countless hungry eyes and tongues of a realm made of slathering, lustful flesh. Nobody is sure if any of this is true but it is known that large starborne arthropod organisms can be seen near the star systems some worlds believed to have belonged to ancient Vrexul.

Nexus technology varies notably between its human, vrexul, tarrhaidim, and gealtirocht members but as time passes, they are beginning to all converge on a number of key concepts.

They are best known for their vrexul technology which is heavily associated with biotechnology and augmentative capabilities as well as using both to create bioautomata; machinery comprised of replicated or lab grown biomass though they frequently feature heavy cybernetics. When it’s reasonable to do so, they typically use said bioautomata to free themselves up to do more desired tasks though they do not often replace the military. This results in an increasingly automated workforce but they are typically maintained and watched over by highly trained maintenance teams, some of which include sentient bioautomata themselves. The ability to modify genetics and biology has also allowed them to enhance their bodies to the extent they are often completely different organisms thant they would be naturally. Sets of feelers capable of detecting distant forms of radiation, additional limbs that can morph or split into different tools, parasite organisms that feed on and augment their own bodies simultaneously, even ranged weaponry - the possibilities are endless. They are known to do the same to certain arthropod animals in order for them to fulfill the roles of certain vehicles or bioautomata too. Their most advanced technology is now as “biovolatility”, allowing for the storage of multiple “encoded” body-morphs whether they are new tools, limbs, weapons, organs, and so on and for the most part, is typically relegated to military usage. Research departments are currently finding ways to combine this with ethereal/”magical” capabilities in top secret experiments conducted for the purpose of preparing for current and upcoming conflicts.

The gealtirocht are masters of energy manipulation, anti-gravity, and high tech computers - something which causes much surprise given their tribal lifestyle. Nearly all of their ground vehicles hover rather than roll across the ground, to the extent some are capable of a degree of flight. They have even adapted anti-gravity for personal usage, being popular among hunters who wish to silently stalk their prey in mountainous terrain or even recreational climbers who use it to get to difficult to reach places. Their energy manipulation is best known for their ability to power direct energy “laser” type guns and other such weapons. At the same time, it finds use in communications, construction, mining, surgery, and even agriculture. They can communicate data far more efficiently and with less interruptions, cut through tough rocks without damaging the ores inside or causing stability in mountainsides, weld or cut metal far more efficiently, seamlessly seal and cauterize wounds with marginal pain, and even repair damaged crops or control pest species without too much harm to the environment with specialized tiny “hunter drones”. Their computers on the other hand use a mix of crystalline tech to transfer raw energy and modular morph-capable components allowing them to fulfill a very wide array of tasks as well as being able to be modified quite quickly. Their compact computers often have capabilities normally reserved for far larger, chunkier machines though they can be somewhat difficult to maintain as they begin looking into ways of simplifying their usage. It is believed they have some computers capable of utilizing the ethereal, “magical” currents of their kind but how exactly is up in the air so far.

The tarrhaidim are often seen as primitive but they are no less creative than their alien counterparts. These fungoid organisms are capable of soundlessly communicating through specialized chemical and electrical signals, even networks of nerve-like mycelia sending hidden messages back and forth without the need to be physically connected. This allows them to link multiple persons together in highly receptive communication networks albeit typically within a limited range and they haven’t perfected replicating the system outside of their own kind yet. It does however form the foundation of their own sort of biotech, allowing them to selectively control and manipulate various plant or fungi species that can be modified in ways that mirror how the vrexul do the same for organisms. Many of these organisms can be used to create large structures for a variety of purposes, allowing them to rapidly create ecologically integrated settlements that are essentially mega-colonies of fungi and plant life interacting with one another. Their most arcane technology however is the capability to control multiple bodies by becoming singular gestalt consciousnesses. This also requires the mycelia networks but a far, far more advanced version and specialized training, typically using replica bodies but they can also be used to control certain vehicles, automata, computers, or even other animals or vegetation. The strain can be immense to an untrained consciousness and is considered perhaps the most cutting edge technology within the entire Nexus.

Humanity benefits from much of the same technology as these three, typically using assorted general far future fare as befitting of colonies in this time albeit augmented with upgrades from the prior four even if they are technically the least advanced member of the Nexus. Most humans in the Nexus are from colonial backgrounds and have developed specialized meteorological and agricultural technology that has helped lead to a boon in food production when combined with contributions from the other three. Much of their robotics and FTL tech have also been used as foundations for further progress in these fields while their defensive fleets and space stations have lead to a fairly wide array of system defence, scientific research, and habitable space stations. The modular nature of many of their designs has also been highly influential even for all manner of vehicles, structures, weapons, starships, and military hardware. It is from their designs as well that their hypermagnetic tech was created, leading most famously to railgun tech but also high speed delivery and transport systems that have vastly improved infrastructure in the worlds hit the hardest by the aftermath of the Ascendency.

The NIRC’s style of governance might be more informal than most but as a military it has generations worth of experience fighting two pronged conflicts as both an insurgent force and a people’s army. As such, its ranks draw from a combination of sources official and unofficial such as professionally trained and supplied planetary armies, reformed space pirates turned non-governmental militant brigades, guerilla groups forged from various Ascendency occupations, and once-deniable shadow battalions often made up of political defectors and hardliners from established nations. During times of larger scale conflict, the command chains of all four of its forces unite and integrate into a specifically configured command structure with its highest command levels assisted through specialized gestalt consciousness technology on a closed psycho-sealed network to ensure information security and rapid, precise planning. As the Nexus is not yet fully united, some of the forces that fight under it are allied with rather than technically a part of its government even if they ultimately share the same beliefs and goals. The fiercely independent nature of some of these armed forces means that they are allowed a wider array of freedom than those under its direct command but may not always receive official support for actions undertaken without prior consultation.

Its space fleet, while large given that it is comprised of four factions, is in the midst of an enormous change from primarily focused on internal system defence and planet to planet conflict to long distance expeditions and larger scale conflict. As such, it is currently split between older models being retrofitted or otherwise modified for new exospace doctrine and newer models tailor made for their new objectives. Quite a few of their ships are in the midst of construction or testing for a new era of interstellar geopolitics. One should not mistake them for being incapable however as their defensive fleet and numerous defensive platforms make their home worlds quite heavily guarded. Their current expeditionary fleet on the other hand, while not particularly large, has a number of ships with very notable and oftentimes unusual capabilities that make them far more difficult to fight than one would typically assume. A number of unusual vessels can be found in their fleets from gigantic half biological half cybernetic constructs in the shape of enormous primordial insects, small moon-like spore-colonies of innumerable teeming life forms, mythically large eel and mantis shrimp like creatures capable of tunnelling through hyperspace, and swarms of six-winged creatures each the size of school buses that quickly reveal themselves to be deadly unmanned fighters. Their fleets vary wildly from faction to faction.

The vrexul tend to have the largest and most heavily armoured ships, preferring enormous lumbering monstrosities with protruding scything limbs, multiple layers of shifting carapace plating, and smaller bio-construct creatures hidden within their bodies waiting to lunge on any vessel that foolishly nears, their enormous bodies heavily armoured, often protected by select shielding at certain components rather than the whole vessel, and capable of specialized on-board repair by various organisms. They are mostly specialized on high-output energy weaponry and a good deal of specialized semi-biological missiles generally suited for closer ranges due to the respective energy bleed-off and slower projectile travel time. Many of these weapons do not have immense killing power but they have a frightening number of secondary effects - causing power shortages and holes to momentarily appear in enemy shields, dropping clusters of large vehicular-sized organisms onto a ship’s surface where they rip through armour, equipment, and guns, or splitting into smaller cyborg war-head bioforms that tunnel through armour with metal-tinted mandibles to explode at vital components. This is further augmented by their non-ship fleet elements, the most notable of which are living combat intelligences implanted into a insectoid fighter-constructs and whose consciousnesses are “mirrored” into on-ship repositories for further augmentation and preservation. As they feature no real “pilots”, they are capable of absurd and freakishly predatory motions through the air, armed with hundreds of often semi-energy based homing missiles and vicious long range energy bolt repeaters.

By comparison, the enormous void tyrant bioweapons at their disposal can be as large as their capital ships - gigantic creatures from the blackness between the stars bristling with innumerable macro-augmentations and high intensity direct energy cannons and hyper-accelerating bio-mass launchers partially powered by the eldritch energies contained within their bodies. Capable of abruptly shifting motion or moving in rapid bursts, they are not afraid to close in on enemy vessels if the opportunity presents itself as their colossal claws and bladed or crushing limbs are adapted to crushing similarly gigantic prey. They also possess unusual vessels made of what seems to be half-complete ship frames and gigantic chunks of the Rozkleřešení, resulting in vessels shaped as they are like their own but covered in festering, decomposing, constantly frothing semi-biological matter. These grotesque monstrosities however sow confusion and terror in conflicts, generating enormous electrical and energetic interference onto enemies, vomiting swarms of volatile living mines blinking in and out of hyperspace, and sending globules of infesting mass that can eat through and heavily weaken even the most heavy armour.

The fungoid tarrhaidim use a similar amount of biomatter in their ship construction, crafting strange fusions of reinforced fungoid-vegetation and specifically reinforced metals capable of networking with the organic components. They are not quite as durable as their arthropod counterparts but are the second toughest ships on average. More importantly, they are capable of regenerating far faster and more efficiently than the vrexul’s with some of the most advanced life support systems known across the stars, making them very hard to disable. Adding to this are their defensive field emitters, using energized void-hardened seed-like nodes that create bio-energetic fields capable of rapidly leeching energy from projectiles such as beams or plasma globules. They often have bulbous or abstract shapes and while not especially fast, can keep far more momentum and speed when moving in almost any direction. Their weapon output in terms of kinetic force, blast power, or energy is not particularly high on average compared to their allies. Instead they can all put out an impressive volume of fire with particularly advanced counter-projectile intercepting and anti-aircraft capability. Many of their weapons focus on either causing debilitating damage over time with corrosive bio-plasma and raging energy fires but others are known to work by causing a deadly build-up of certain chemo-energetic compounds on or around a target then violently detonating them with certain specialist weapons, allowing them to do either consistent or very spike-heavy damage. They have a fairly solid range too, able to often out-shoot their vrexul counterparts at longer distances, assisted by the ability to control a number of gun-platforms that hover around the ships, capable of amplifying their shields to block a degree of weapons fire while further increasing the absurd volume of fire they can put out.

Tarrhaidim fighters are also rarely manned as much as they are controlled by similar implanted consciousnesses, resembling spike-like seed pods with circular arrays of razor toothed leaf-wings. They too however tend to bristle with higher volumes of fire than their arthropod counterparts and impressive regeneration. Where the carapaced ones may have lightning fast intercepting down to a T, these fungoids have far more advanced bombing craft capable of firing massive swarms of pinpoint cluster and piercing munitions along with cannons capable of scourging open gun positions and bulkheads once in range. They are frequently launched from what appear to be large spherical entities known as Spore Moons. These are often around the size of their ships but “tethered” to them through special psychoneurological-mycelial bonds. In essence floating gun platforms, they can disengage and “slingshot” around the battlefield, sending out waves of large worm-like parasites from their own biomass that hunt down enemy fighter or bombers before latching onto ships and ripping through vital electronics, potentially even boarding and desecrating the insides of the vessel. This is on top of the borderline nonsensical amount of guns they are unsurprisingly carrying, further drowning the enemy in sheer gunfire. The most mystifying of their space forces are the enormous saucer like Grave Crowns, frequently referred to as “motherships”. The largest of their vessels on average, they feature multi-directional weapon placement emphasizing launching swarms of living, predatory projectiles and streams of armour-shattering shells. Their true power is their ability to augment allied ships by networking with their biological and cybernetic components, improving regeneration, shield stability, accuracy, and assisting in coordinating fire. They can also cause spatial disruptions with experimental energy weapons, causing enemy ships to move slower in targeted areas or when fired upon with certain projectiles in energy fields, take additional damage from secondary explosions caused by chain reactions.

Unlike the prior two, the gealtirocht typically use ships fully made of metal. Lengthy, sleek, and usually bereft of jagged edges, these almost serpentine or piscine-designs have a sleek and graceful design that belies their impressive power. These ships are easily the fastest of the NIRC’s fleets, capable of momentarily overcharging their engines to even making short range jumps mid-combat to compensate for their relatively weaker hulls. Further adding to their protection is their specialized shielding, capable of drawing upon large batteries and even amplifying the effects of their weaponry when fired through shielded sections. Some ships are capable of even increasing the effectiveness of their shield by rapidly moving, even capable of using blurred after-imaging and visual disruption to make themselves far harder to target. They focus on a mixture of beam weapons and hyper-accelerated solid rounds, possessing the longest range and highest armour-piercing capability on average of the NIRC fleet, assisted by the most accurate targeting as well. Their weapons may often lack the secondary effects of their gnarlier comrades but they can essentially “snipe” other fleets, using pinpoint weaponry to weaken shielding in specific areas or viciously destroy vulnerable components. They aren’t afraid to get up closer when the time is right, unleashing specialized high output and impact weaponry in vicious, short strafing runs that can leave enemies stunned and crippled, unable to retaliate against the abruptly vanished gealtirocht fleet. They are also fond of two insidious tricks. The first is temporary invisibility often through a combination of fuel obscuration and masking emissions. The second is leaving clusters of specialized mines also capable of obscuring themselves similarly, “skipping” in and out of hyper-space to ambush those who would be foolish enough to chase them or attempt to flank their formations.

Their fighters are unsurprisingly sleek and elegant, almost fang-shaped with their curving blade-wings and predatory, elongated appearances. While they cannot turn *quite* as well as those of the prior two, their top speeds and acceleration are much higher and like their larger ships, pack much longer range weapons. They are arguably harder in some ways to track down and take out due to their jamming capabilities which only amplify as they move faster, making it difficult to spot their unique missiles - accelerating using specialized gas propellants to leave barely a signature before a secondary booster charge sends them rapidly barrelling towards unsuspecting targets like cold steel bolts. Colossal eel-like creatures known as the Serealgatai (“Hungerer of the Stars”) join their fleets as if following the promise of bloodshed, armed with a variety of specialized weapons that like with the vrexul, can feed off of their eldritch energies and augmented by armour plating covering their most vital organs. Similarly sized albeit longer than their arthropod counterparts, these enormous creatures can also momentarily warp in short hyperspace jumps but when they emerge, they can use the amassing energy to boost their own naturally generated abyssic shielding and speed, augment their own integrated weapons, or unleash it in massive bursts of power. They are not as durable as the vrexul void tyrants but they are far more maneuverable, notably faster, and harder to target with longer range weapons. The most mysterious of their space fleet are the Decimation Shrines, enormous vessels made of a mixture of semi-regenerated bones of enormous void-dwelling predators mixed with experimental composite metals capable of causing them to replicate to still-beating nerves and cells the sensation of being a part of a living beast again. These large ships can blur the spaces around themselves with their shielding, slipping in and out of realspace like a stalking predator, and unleash powerful beams of energy capable of goring open capital ships. They are best known for their ability to use their short FTL jumps offensively, creating shockwaves of ravenous power as they exit directed towards threats before blinking away and leaving homing mines in their wake.

While much of humanity’s ship have a background in the designs of the long since defeated Ascendency, they have gone far past their limitations to become an equally important part of the NIRC expospace fleet. Humanity’s ships tend to be somewhat blocky and rigid looking, closer to the great warships of water-borne navies past visually. While they lack the more exotic features of their alien counterparts, the human NIRC fleet packs impressive long range firepower with their love of rail-weapons, missiles, and an incredibly wide range of munition types, capable of modifying their effects on the fly whether it’s plasma wearhead, concentrated armour piercing, electro-magnetic, and even creating a burning area of energy that allows other projectiles to target or lock onto it more easily. They also have powerful plasma cannons, typically used at medium to short ranges, capable of overloading shields and even causing violent chain reactions as they overheat enemy armour. Their ships are fairly sturdy and durable, protected by advanced shields that can momentarily power-up to allow them to tank more damage momentarily and absorb a small portion of it to grant short boosts to their speed and weapon output. Their actual armour also tends to have advanced ablative plating with a higher than normal degree of resistance to energy based weaponry. They tend to also have large amounts of compact combat drones as well, capable of intercepting those of the enemy and adding to the numbers and aggression of their dedicated fighters and bombers.

Human fighters are fairly sleek and traditionally plane-shaped unsurprisingly but pack fairly devastating solid round and highly precise explosive weaponry. They are excellent at besieging enemy vessels, relying on precision targeting and high piercing to destroy vital components when they aren’t scourging enemy aircraft with disciplined aerial manoeuvres. They can even attach drones to parts of their craft, augmenting their capabilities whether in terms of firepower, target tracking, early warning systems and so on. While they are new to the idea of using spaceborne creatures in a military context, they have domesticated lengthy eel-like creatures known as “shovelheads” for their distinct cranial shape, modifying them for military use. Their distinct skulls are part of a specialized detection system throughout their body, capable of sending out waves of subtle, difficult to detect energy allowing them to track prey and avoid predators with impressive accuracy even without augmentation. When armoured up and bristling with weapons partially powered by their bodies, they can put out a wild array of fire and even use specialized pulse-rays from their skull to momentarily disable and stun enemy ships, allowing them to get close and rip into them before planting explosives then kicking off. The biggest guns they can pack are a part of their enormous hellmouth vessels, huge and heavily armoured ships along whose entire length runs a powerful cannon launching either plasma or rail shells. Intended for ranges typically associated with the gealtirocht, these ships are armed with jamming and targeting systems allowing them to confuse and disrupt those attempting to hunt them while impaling their foes with some of the most high impact weaponry in the Nexus. Recent advancements have allowed for specialized “warp” type firing modes, where in a plasma globule or a shell can be modified to “skip” in and out of hyperspace, gathering power as it goes and then violently exploding. This blast can knock enemy ships out of position and also momentarily tear holes in their shields, leaving them vulnerable for a vicious follow-up.

The NIRC’s armies, while featuring a number of non-official and official forces, has spent a long time building up a strong cohesion and unity in strategy and tactics to the point that full on single-species manifestations are becoming increasingly rare. In spite of the vast cultural and physical differences between all four species, the unifying political goals and multiple generations spent fighting a common enemy have forged bands with little caring for vastly differing biologies or languages. This is assisted by the fact that there is almost no real class division amongst them with the post-revolutionary political metamorphosis. For some, that is simply a return to traditions that the Ascendency abolished. It is clear that some of them are naturally more gifted than others in some areas. Gealtirocht by default can jump and run much faster than tarrhaidim, tarrhaidim regenerate much faster than gealtirocht, vrexul are physically more powerful than anyone else, and so on. Due to this, it has necessitated specialized roles that are somewhat rigid. New technologies with regards to augmentation and armour however are allowing for a wider range of versatility with it possible for example with certain types of armour and biological/cybernetic enhancements to have humans able to fulfill typically gealtirocht roles.

Subsequently, squads tend to combine these species together for versatility in terms of roles they can undertake. Each species has its own distinct way of fighting but when combined, allows them as a whole to fight the widest range of enemies across a number of differing environments and operational parameters. As a whole, the Nexus typically focuses on squadrons capable of putting out high firepower, independent yet interconnected, fighting alongside specialized non-infantry automata or constructs (robotic, biological, or both) and combat modified organisms providing long range or close in support as well as assisting in covering longer distances or rocky terrain. Vehicles generally play a supporting role, rarely staying too close except with certain armoured fighting platforms, with relatively lesser tanks than most but far more powerful mecha fulfilling the role of frontline combat vehicles. There are two strategies they are typically known for. The first are their combined arms advances utilizing a mixture of shock, awe, and the appearance rather than reality of superior numbers and force. The second is evasive, guerilla tactics focusing more on unit inter-independence, taking actions that support one another without often obviously coordinating in the open and emphasizing concealed movement and vicious, abrupt attacks. They are not afraid to change things up on the fly, advancing deep into enemy territory, feigning a retreat when finding sturdier defences, then baiting the enemy into a vicious game of predator and prey.

Vrexul soldiers are large, hulking monstrosities bristling with the widest and often most powerful arrays of weapons, a number of which is encoded into their bodies. While typically handling heavy weapons in a squad set-up and drawing most of the hostile attention, they are also occasionally deployed as gun platforms, capable of withstanding and inflicting tremendous amounts of damage and being fans of weapons with large calibres and high stopping power - their main infantry rifle for example is a modified electrothermal-chemical type compact autocannon derived from those of their security automatons. Adding to their lethality, their bodies usually contain a number of explosive launchers, short range spine-spitters, bio-energy medium range laser emitters and so on “encoded” into their biomass. Further adding to this is their great diversity of munition types, with conventional high explosive armour piercing and incendiary to more exotic variants such as rounds that release swarms of biting and detonating living cluster munitions or bio-electric shells that burrow into then electrocute targets.They are also fairly mobile, capable of digging underneath enemy fortifications, creating networks of tunnels, and like many arthropods surprisingly good at climbing in spite of their hefty size. A few are even capable of limited flight with modified wings and a number usually have smaller organisms living within them, capable of being used as drones or even attack units, saboteurs even with a sort of remote psychoneurological control. They are unsurprisingly horrific in assaults, with their massive size, bestial strength, genetically inherited hunting instincts, and numerous limbs being all the more terrifying when combined with close combat weapons generating fields of disruptive power allowing them to even slice vehicles open or even limbs capable of striking with the force or rifle bullets. Some are even capable of controlling fragments of the Rozkleřešení, using it to swarm and rip away at targets or obscure their own movements, even capable of being hardened and morphed into floating defensive barriers.

The gealtirocht are the second largest on average and with their digitigrade legs, absurdly fast runners and leapers. Their armour is on average the most high tech with state of the art shielding, targeting, and cloaking capabilities. Their great maneuverability is augmented by grav-thrusters allowing them to rapidly dash away sometimes mid leap and even fly for moderate lengths of time. Their weaponry tends to focus on semi-automatic long rifles firing particle beams, solidified energy placed in bullet-frames, or recently rail-rounds, giving them tremendous accuracy when combined with their ability to use their brain-adjacent third eye-organ to assist in acquiring targets visible and obscured. Their energy weapons are usually able to be charged up, generating and using additional heat and energy but with the added bonus of further increased range and power. They are also capable of dual-wielding compact hand-held automatic weapons, sending flurries of energy bolts to overwhelm opponents when assaulting them. This is assisted by their powerful lance weapons, with divisible twin-bladed staves whose cutting edges can be sheathed in energy fields and assisted by centuries worth of martial arts refinement, turning them into a militant whirlwind of violence. They are typically used as scouts and raiders, harassing from maximum distance or falling upon unaware foes. In squadrons, they often fulfill the role of marksmen or point-troopers, usually going on ahead to determine the safest routes of approach and focusing on targeting the furthest, most valuable enemy targets. Their bodies are frequently augmented with metal-laced bones, leg servos, and specialized filtration systems that give them similar sensory and at times even physical capabilities to the fearsome predatory creatures of their homeworld, with some even having long tails that can be modified with combat spines or specialized short range laser-emitters.

As the most numerous and second smallest species within the Nexus, the tarrhaidim unsurprisingly tend to fill out most of the grunt roles. They have had the longest history of warfare, particularly in a guerilla context, and fit themselves well to generalist roles. It is a holdover from when independent militant cells had to often fight alone with limited support and it makes them far more cunning than their reputation as cannon fodder would imply. They are masters of fighting in urban environments, ambushing and kiting around larger armed forces, setting up traps, and utilizing foritications. While their weapons are similar to those of humans, they have larger calibres (ie. what is an MMG to HMG round to us can be an assault rifle round to them) and have a more advanced semi-biological propulsion system that does not require much or sometimes any propellant, allowing for higher rate of fire and magazine size. The trend towards organic components in their weapons also allows themt o link said weapons to their bodies, augmenting their power and allowing them to even generate ammo on the fly. They can even “grow” attachments such as launchers, foregrips, scopes, and so on when linked to their weapons, making them highly adaptable. They are capable of using specialized growths on their bodies in a way similar to the vrexul albeit with less relative firepower. Instead, they focus moreso on disrupting, confusing, and hampering the enemy with fields of noxious electronics-interfering spore-hazes, freezing liquids that can lock up targets momentarily, hyper-metabolic seeds that can cause soil to crumble and weaken as it triggers, and even worm-like creatures they can use as grappling hooks or whips in traversal or combat. They are also known to contain specialized growths that can rapidly germinate and morph into a variety of barriers and small fortifications, allowing them to defend positions that might otherwise be too exposed or otherwise unfavourable. Their own martial arts traditions are potentially as old as the gealtirocht, descended from ancient tribes of mysticist-assassins, and focuses on using specialized bladed whips and vibro-blades capable of slicing through armour and even disrupting enemy shields.

Thanks to augmentative gear and tech, humanity can stand on similar footing as their allies. With a lengthy history of conflict even dating back to Earth, they have one of the most detailed military traditions especially with regards to large scale open conflict and mechanized warfare. Inheriting a number of defectors, sympathizers plus considerable materiel from the Ascendency that when combined with the Nexus’ technologies makes them just as formidable as their alien allies. Their armour is highly modular with a lot of parts that can be mixed and matched easily, allowing for easy repair, and also granting the highest degree of performance augmentation. They utilize a high number of magnetically and electrically accelerated weapons with a lesser degree of conventional propellant ones, also bearing a number of plasma models typically for medium to close range. They tend to have weapons that can “sheath” their rounds via energy-jacketing, allowing for additional effects and lethality.They are just less accurate and armour piercing than the gealtirocht but having more raw destructive power by comparison. They even have lower velocity homing munitions too, linking their weapons to their targeting systems to allow them to accurately target foes from safe distances. Their armour tends to have the capability to project powerful energy frields that can both protect them from incoming fire whether by lessening the energy output or kinetic force or stopping the projectiles, with some capable of even being launched offensively especially after gathering enough energy to be turned into a deadly projectile. Some of these shields can even further augment and “jacket” rounds that pass through them when fired by those behind them, further increasing range and lethality. Their augmentations are more fairly plain compared to their compatriots, typically increasing physical capabilities all around, but cyborg humans have faster reaction times than even some veteran gealtirocht. In close quarters a mixture of electro-shock mauls, force-magnifying knives, and impact gauntlets lets them punch far above their weight.

While their ground forces are primarily focused on infantry, they have an increasingly sizeable vehicular pool that is just as diverse as the soldiers it is typically supporting. For the most part, they put an emphasis on mobility and aggressive firepower with much of their vehicular doctrine focused on supporting infantry without too much of an emphasis on pure brute force tactics. One shouldn’t expect said armoured divisions to be lacking in terms of power as much as having a more measured approach that belies the alien nature of most of their armour. Developments that have accelerated since the end of the revolutionary war have made breakthroughs in finding ways to integrate often vastly differing parts together, hinting at the creation of specialized hybrid vehicles. Until then, they are mostly making due with an impressive array of four different design philosophies.

In spite of their lumbering appearance, the vrexul do not have many tanks. Most of their vehicles are actually troop transports, armored fighting vehicles, and mecha a number of which have both legs and either treads or wheels. They do quite well in rough terrain, some even capable of “climbing” steeper surfaces and others can burrow. These arthropod limbs can also be used against enemies that draw too close, to move objects, or even demolish buildings. Most of their semi-biological armour is armed with high rate of fire spike-launching weaponry and multi-missile launch systems, utilizing heavier duty autocannons and bio-plasma for harder targets. They can carry a good deal of weaponry through encoding it into regenerating biomass, allowing them to sustaining short but vicious bursts of high intensity firepower typically used against medium to light armour. They are assisted by symbiotic organisms that inhabit and help repair their hulls, also capable of being used to attack nearby targets like infantry or to scout on ahead connected via neuro-electric links. Their main duty is to cover for and support troops from afar after the disembark but when they need to hit harder, their mechs come in. Spidery, crablike, staphylinid, stomatopod - these gruesome machines are freakishly mobile and carry long range heavy ordnance and powerful disruptor-field covered limbs that already are more than easily capable of smashing through fortress walls or walkers that find themselves caught off guard by these unexpectedly agile monstrosities. Capable of digging and even leaping short distances, they are masterfully crafted for the purpose of savagery and aggression up close or from afar.

The gealtirocht lack the imposing size of their carapaced comrades but their sleek, sharp, almost blade-like vehicles have a ghostly power of their own as they glide quickly yet near-silently with their anti-gravitational drives. Powerful shields both protect them from weapons fire and blur them to their foes, something that when combined with their ability to project ghostly after-images and holograms leaves foes confused and unaware of the high intensity particle beams and semi-crystalline shells slicing through reinforced armour from lengthy, eel-like cannons. Gealtirocht vehicles rarely get too close to the enemy except to use ultra-high intensity beam weapons in short, vicious forays before often using their flight or jump-jet capabilities to escape before retaliation is possible. Although they do not use mechs, they do have larger terrestrial assault craft descended from a mixture of their aquatic craft and highly shrunken down versions of their mobile bases known as highland tyrants. Capable of being used as command vehicles as well as concentrated long range support weapons, these rapidly moving land warships have powerful enough weapons they can even harass low-orbit spacecraft when they aren’t (literally) lighting up enemy fortifications and armour from afar. A single highland tyrant has the firepower of multiple hovertanks and is also capable of further muffling the sound and signatures of allies within a certain area of effect.

Compared to the respectively grotesque and artisanal elegance of the prior two, the tarrhaidim’s vehicle are simply grotesque. Monstrous combinations of fleshy vegetation-like biomatter and cruel jutting metal, they have an almost ramshackle appearance almost like a parody of their human alliesbut that only hides the impressive power behind them. They also have a mutagenic, morphing capability similar to the vrexul but are capable of generally creating artillery weaponry of varying sizes, whether it’s with their sidewinding electro-thermally propelled pod-rockets or trailed and volatile hyphae-bombs, as well as allowing new weapons to be grown, replaced, or attached far more easily than with purely metallic designs. Because of this they regenerate faster than the vrexul’s and can have the highest volume of fire. Combined with their wide variety of terrifying artillery options from living hyper-reactive rocket launchers to city-block levelling cluster cannon platforms and they are as good at besieging as they are entrenching. They are even capable of deploying rapidly growing foritifying cyer-biological mass and releasing specialized pheromones and spores that increase the regeneration and heighten the reflexes of their allies. It is possible for them to be piloted by worm-like symbiotes as well who can cover for damaged or deceased crew-members. They also possess a number of large, grotesque mecha made of a similar bio-metallic composition typically armed with large calibre solid round bio-electric cannons and heavy duty energy cannons, along with swarming missiles. These machines can visually camouflage themselves as debris or foliage, unleashing storms of firepower quite quickly before vanishing away. Recent variants include powerful semi-robotic shock-claws and hyper-heated blades capable of ripping through armour and structures alike.

Their physiques and senses by default may be the weakest of the Nexus but humanity’s reputation for heavy armour is the most accomplished. The heaviest, toughest armour on average can be found amongst their number. They possess the most established and powerful tanks and mechanized battalions, even some anti-grav skimmers for that matter. Full on frontal onslaughts and ruggedness is where they excel, with autoloading fast firing gauss cannons, zig-zagging missiles that target weak points in armour, and scourging blasts of plasma that can clear out multiple enemy squads in seconds. Their nanobot colonies do not repair as fast as their semi-biological counterparts but cut down on hangar bay repair times immensely while their CIWS, missile intercept defences, and energy ablative plating make them add additional survivability to their hyper-tough alloys. Energizing their munitions prior to firing them through limited batteries allows them to grant secondary effects and additional power to their solid rounds, allowing them to catch enemies off guard with unexpectedly new effects to their fire. They eschew mecha but in their place use super-heavy armoured vehicles, whether assault transports or tanks, that can serve as mobile command bases or frontline bulldozers for besieging whole defensive lines or coordinating massive assaults. With the addition of anti-gravitational hover systems to complement their treads, they are difficult to immobilize when they aren’t already engaging entire squadrons of enemy heavy armour.

A large number of their terrestrial forces fall into neither of the two prior categories. While they also see use in atmospheric and space combat, the grand majority of their automata, whether cybernetic or biological, and life forms modified for combat are found on terra firma. They can play a variety of roles from reconnaissance and maintenance to directly supporting or fighting alongside infantry to fulfilling the same roles as tanks and mecha among others. They typically are integrated into infantry squads where they use specialized or heavier weapons and in other cases, form specialized squadrons of their own for an intermediary role between troops and vehicles. Most of the common ones typically provide fast moving reconnaissance and forward support to armour, moving on ahead to soften up targets, covering flanks, and helping hunt down targets of interest while protecting them from specialized anti-vehicular threats. There are far larger ones that can take the roles of heavy tanks or otherwise even form the spearheads of massive assaults. A number of these run on advanced AI’s but others use cutting mixtures of linked consciousnesses through psychoneuro-mycelial networking allowing them to be controlled remotely or even directly “connected” to the unit. In some instances, vehicles are simply eschewed in exchange for these versatile and unusual weapons. Constructs tend to be a lot easier to modify and can suit a wider range of weapons. Organisms tend to have unique pre-existing natural weaponry that can be modified in a number of unique ways as well as combative instincts that can be further honed with psychotherapeutic bonding and training.

The vrexul are the most well known for these given their propensity for biotech and augmentation. Cyberbiological constructs and bioweapons are used in near equal number with a plethora of options between both for numerous roles. Their smallest are the smaller sometimes squirrel to cat sized creatures that live within the armour of their soldiers, maintaining and repairing them, even helping to run their weapon systems, but they can be remotely controlled and deployed by said soldiers to scout on ahead, sabotage enemy systems, or even to attack threats within their control range. They are known to occasionally be modified to work as living mines and a number are also adapted to vehicular/mecha usage. Sizing up to creatures around 20 or so feet in length, similar to that of various larger mammalian fauna on earth, and grotesque creatures in the appearance of wolf spiders, vampire crabs, centipedes, carabidae, staphylinidae and mole crickets and others become quite common. Larger than infantry but not really light vehicles, these fairly well protected and rapidly moving augmented entities can be armed with moderately heavier ordnance than infantry, even more if they focus on encoding them, and can use a mixture of animalistic instincts and higher intelligences to move as stealthily and swiftly as they would in the wild, capable of burrowing, flight, and climbing, while their natural (or lab-borne) limb-weapons are no less deadly.

Finally, there are the megalith beasts, colossal entities occasionally larger than human assault platforms and bristling with living colonies of weapons, highly dense self-repairing armour, and horrific brute strength that can smash down reinforced bunkers and flip over armoured battalions. These are typically used as the spearhead of a major assault, drawing fire and retaliating in full as they barrel into enemy lines and even burrow underneath them, causing havoc and disarray while the rest of the vrexul assault force capitalizes on the scattered, distracted foes to gain ground.

The gealtirocht actually disliked using constructs initially for a mixture of religious and logistical reasons but as the revolutionary struggle intensified, they began to open up towards the usage of such constructs. Originally adapted from mining drones used in deep space, the gealtirocht’s sleek, pointed combat drones, resemble much smaller versions of their tanks albeit with some of the blade-like winged designs of their fighters. Able to easily keep up with their digitigrade infantry (or even outspeed them), they fire withering storms of hyper-heated particles and experimental missiles that propel themselves partially towards their target with a gas propulsion system then use a secondary magnetic charge to barrel towards them at high speeds, making them difficult to track and devastating on impact. They are also known to have tamed some creatures and with the help of their allies, devised interesting ways to arm them. Typically, they use large creatures somewhere between sea spiders, stingrays, guitar fish, and beluga surgeon that live in the highest mountains and widest plains of their homeworlds known as sciúlístheach (english: scourge-descending) or mountain wraths as both hunting beasts and bioweapons. Augmented with weaponry, armor, and enhancements, these creatures are as obedient as they are vicious, capable of generating powerful electricity and even particle blasts naturally further augmented with channeling modules and with retractable metal sheaths on their claws. Their reinforced heads with manifestable horns can smash and impale infantry while they have been trained to utilize specialized fire-and-forget homing missiles.

Most fearsome and eerie among their constructs are the uasdhlrácthú (tomb upheaval), strange floating constructs made of the de-irradiated bones and replicated tissue of mythic star-predators, augmented with adaptive cybernetics and replica biomass. These half metal half skeletal creatures resemble more shark-like versions of their serealgatai but with elements of the uasdhlrácthú, drifting on legs hanging faintly away from the ground and with which eye-like spots stare through their semi-transparent bodies, sending powerful rays of horrific power scourging forward before launching replicated-bone based zig-zagging, blink-teleporting missiles towards their targets. They can augment the sight of any gealtirocht within a certain radius with the strange rays they emit while they are also capable of reinforcing and rapidly regenerating any shields on friendly units.

While the tarrhaidim are closer to fungi and vegetation, they have found ways to make bioconstructs and combat organisms from non-animal life and its imitations. With specialized training, preparation, and biogenetic editing, they themselves can actually combine and mutate into larger, singular entities whether by generating specific kinds of occasionally semi-cybernetic matter, being integrated into a larger specialized mass, or generating said mass with those with a similar level of compatibility. These combined tarrhaidim tend to resemble smaller mecha, often smaller than those they seem to be imitating, but they are far faster and can be armed with a wider array of weapons and auxiliary equipment, continuing their prioritization of overwhelming firepower. They are also capable of serving as advanced psychomycelial nodes, improving the accuracy and coordination of multiple tarrhaidim and allowing for highly accurate, regimented firing patterns that only grow larger when more gestalt fungal mecha are added. Large mobile semi-fungoid organisms known as ahlamanashaq (dream defilers) that stand on eight or more vine-legs, with more like curving thin horns protruding upwards and smaller ones framing a bulbous, eye-dotted body that generally points upwards. While smaller than many other bioweapons, they are no less valuable. They can generate fog or even alter weather patterns within a small area, hampering visibility and scanning form enemies, and rapidly gestate and “birth” explosive sub-mycelial organisms that rapidly hunt down enemies or lay in wait as mines. They are also capable of having powerful energy-charged mortars installed or grafted onto their bodies, using their eldritch biologies to power compact, deadly lobbed explosives and it is not uncommon for soldiers in the field to outfit them with weapons normally intended for gestalt mecha.

Far more fearsome and disturbing are the Mahrataefan or “The Festivals of Putrefaction”. These are enormous partially rotted, specifically bred stubbier mushroom-trees attached to a living spider-like body that have become infested by powerful normally space-borne worm parasites some claim come from Almh'allbadi itself. Keeping the fungoid tree in a limbo between life and death, they use its now mutagenically volatile body to manifest a wide range of projectiles, launching semi-fertilized eggs laced with chemical explosives and utilizing the rapid energy generated within its partially dying body, guarded by powerful armour laying, to power-up rapid fire chemo-lasers that can scourge heavily armoured infantry to full on light vehicles. Rapidly gestated worms can be launched as living missiles exploding into arrays of embryonic cluster munitions. For heavier armour, they can launch specialized mortar-like seeds that can track targets as they fall for a single focused strike or split into multiple armour-piercing semi-biological sub munitions, both guided by a specifically engineered tracking system installed into the core of the foul warmachine.

Humanity has had a history of robotics dating far before the Ascendency but with the advent of the Nexus it has only been untethered from prior research restrictions and now sees a new golden age. Most commonly, bipedal, quadrupedal, hexapedal, and other combinations of legs are attached to robotic frames used to carry a variety of heavy and specialist weaponry or equipment. These gun platforms are not too large, sometimes even smaller than the vrexul, but they are quite maneuverable and can generate powerful directional shields capable of being fired through from behind and enhancing projectiles as they pass. As they are sized up, they can carry additional and more powerful shielding and weapons, including melee options, and additional electronic warfare options. While they do not use organisms in a combat role, they have figured out how to make creatures from semi-biological lab-made biomatter, arming them with weaponry similar to their vehicles and creating in essence, predatory combat machines. These often digitrade legged, slightly tank or APC like, and often tall and long armed machines are more flexible than normal combat vehicles but can run and leap in a way similar to the gealtirocht (whom they were originally created to fight) albeit not to the same degree. They are capable of wielding a wide array of weaponry with their long, synthetic-muscle arms and experimental AI’s allow them to adapt rapidly to changing conditions. Their biomass also allows for various augmentations for infantry to be inserted into them and while they can easily be armed with a variety of high power long range or melee weapons, using their speed and reactivity to adapt on the fly to the nature of their foes.

They also have access to strong mecha as well, typically larger than their tanks, but unlike the vrexul they tend to play more of a support role. They use their speed and lighter weaponry to engage softer targets as well as to provide missile support from range, snipe hard targets with lighter rail guns, and soften up or flank harder ones with autocannons. With jump jets and specialized shielding, they are good at distracting and absorbing a degree of fire, capable of indirect fire as retaliation and foregoing melee capability except for a few newer models armed with shock mauls and long armadillo-like claws. Some versions forego carrying built in weapons to mount a single large rifle-cannon and a few launchers at best, limiting their roles but gaining extremely deadly weapons capable of matching those of their tanks in some cases.

Pronounced “vuh-rex-sull”. Massive and mysterious creatures of a murky, poorly known past and impressive augmentation and biological technology. They resemble enormous arthropods with dense carapaces bristling with cybernetics and integrated external biomass like living biomechanical juggernauts. They can move bipedally or on up to around 30 limbs. On average they are between seven and ten feet tall with a few species being around five foot six and a few rare specimens around 25. They are pioneers and leaders when it comes to augmentation technology to the extent some of them are basically small habitats for performance-enhancing symbiotes and hidden integrated tools. In spite of being reminiscent of arthropods such as ground and rove beetles, decapods, myriapods, huntsman and wolf spiders, earwigs, crickets, and so on, their populations are not particularly large due to a variety of ground-up population controls which are being loosened in recent years. The oldest ones are around 200 years but it is believed some can live to 360. They spend the first seven to ten years of their lives in a nymphal or larval form wherein their consciousnesses are closer to those of animals but slowly grow sapience with age, mostly completing it upon maturity and/or pupation. They are known to genetically inherit survival instincts and even the ability to understand language but still require education as young adults to truly become socially functional.

The vrexul are ancient species that lived in the worlds around Karbana Kinnis with it being known there were colonies there though their exact homeworld is unknown - supposedly lost in some grand war either amongst their own or an unknown enemy. They were the neighbours of the Gealtirocht and the Tarrhaidim but before they could establish proper bonds, the Ascendancy had expanded into their territory, subjugating the arthropods and their then diminutive defensive forces to seize their resource rich lands, viewing them as allies of the rebellious gealtirocht. In the years that followed, they were forced into increasingly small enclaves within the heart of human controlled society and were a slave subclass in all but name. Many of them escaped with allies in the other two races who had been forced apart in violent socially engineered civil wars or open warfare with the human empire. The arthropods joined a revolutionary movement, creating their own new society with their neighbours-turned-comrades, but by themselves would not be able to topple the Ascendency. They managed to find traces on worlds they infiltrated or warred against the Ascendency and its puppets of what appeared to be other vrexul who were there before them. Chief amongst them were archaeotech computers detecting hidden vrexul fleets and habitat-ships that had been lost after some great cataclysm and evidence of some powerful “guardian entity” now known as the Rozkleřešení or Gnosis Eater. Through a risky series of engagements over seemingly low value worlds, they battled against the Ascendency to control these secrets to their past while their more numerous comrades held up the numerically superior enemy. They were able to unlock a colossal hidden fragment of the Gnosis Eater when they were able to finally send out a message to one of the habitat vessels, which arrived and bore a special “key” needed to free it from its prison.

This would mark the beginning of a tuning point within the revolution as the influx of arthropod warriors bringing new weapons, strategy, and tactics combined with the unleashing of an immense, antediluvian entity began to give the the NIRC, which had only just begun formalizing itself, a colossal advantage over the Ascendancy. It would be a mistake to say they were the sole reason the empire collapsed but they did play a huge part in contesting and in some areas destroying purely human control of planets and space. They have since become to many the face of this revolutionary union even if they are willingly ceding more power to their compatriots. In spite of that, they technically are one of the smaller populations and only in recent years has their population grown closer to the gealtirocht in terms of size. They are one of the more common species seen outside of NIRC space, usually with explorer fleets attempting to find worlds where any sign of other vrexul and hints of their past can be found. In spite of this, they are seen as somewhat standoffish and aloof, often avoiding direct contact with even non-hostile species. They are not necessarily averse to trade and diplomacy but are rather selective of who they do it with. They are common amongst independent colonies and worlds where they are known to provide quite a bit in aid, material, and occasionally security even without the promise of them coming into the NIRC’s fold.

The spoken vrexul language is an incredibly difficult one to understand because the sounds are near impossible to replicate for most. They are a series of harshly dry scrapes, booming and bassy growls, clattering or chittering noises (or both), and what sounds like backmasked speech. They have “words” but they are not an entirely verbal languages with multiple layers of sound used to change the implicit meanings and implied emotion behind what is said. Combined with a communicating via mandible positioning, feeler waving, how fully one is facing the other, pheromone emission - it is borderline impossible to translate except by other vrexul due to its absurd complexity, something their complex brains have evolved to understand as easily as say, English. They have a simplified form of it that resembles various Slavic languages (that others are capable of learning without heavy modifications to their mouthparts) that is also their written form though the characters are similar to Chinese in terms of their architectural, multi-sectioned appearance albeit far more pointy and insectoid.

Psychology:

In spite of being a communal species that is known for a general distrust of individualistic philosophies, they can come off as rather cold and distant not only to outsiders but one another. This is explained by the fact that the vrexul do not have a concept of family. They do however appreciate the bonds they form with others of their own accord and have a somewhat nihilistic view of the self as little more than the amalgamated echoes of its predecessors and world around it. This does not mean they are without pride or a sense of value to life; they simply believe in seeing people as contextually existing within and around the sources of said echoes. Seemingly in contrast to this coldness is the fact that they are quite charitable and compassionate as people, rationalizing it as “simply because we wish to be” and that there are reasons of self interest. Mutual aid forms the backbone of even well-off post scarcity areas and it is through this that alliances can be formed and bonds can be forged. What benefits one group of people can often be used to benefit all.

Like with the rest of the Nexus, they are extremely distrustful of corporate power, private enterprise, and monarchial rule by default, having experienced both for generations as badly and if not worse in some cases than the tarrhaidim. They are not necessarily against “strong leaders” but only if there is a strong popular front as well and believe that any kind of political system, democratic, “freedom loving”, or otherwise, that doesn’t take into account or allow direct popular action is not one worth putting too much trust in. As such, they can come off as cynical or even judgemental (if you can make out what they are saying). This can lead to them being very independent, clique-ish, but they will not hesitate to help others in need in most cases even if they do not necessarily *like* them. They do not appear to be too attached to most of their material possessions beyond certain keepsakes and upon befriending them, they are open to treating others as the equivalent of family. While the word “family” did not exist in their vocabulary for a long time, they do value close friendships to the extent of being their version of it - after all, it is the bonds you choose and forge rather than were set up on you with no choice that mean the most.

They are the least prone to violence of all Nexus species, difficult for some to believe but when given the chance, they avoid conflict whether out of a general dislike of violence or not wanting to face the repercussions of using their immense power. Nonetheless they have a strong support for their military and believe that as a people’s army, it carries the will of its constituents as opposed to demagogues, fanatics, and rotting leaders clinging onto increasingly illusory power. While they like the idea of expanding into new worlds, they do not like the idea of colonizing those already settled unless the other inhabitants there explicitly make it clear they do not mind their presence. They generally support national liberation and revolutionary movements and are skeptical of movements that seem to play into the geopolitical goals of opposing political ideologies be they corporate, fundamentalist, or nationalist. They are not very supportive of hunting down the remnants of the Ascendancy, believing that it is better to rebuild than it is to continue fighting. In spite of that, it is common to find those that believe that a few particular war criminals need to be brought to justice. Whether or not this dovetails into greater support for militarized expeditions remains to be seen.

Permissions:

They are semi-common outside of the NIRC but they never travel alone. They will always be in small fleets or traveling with other NIRC races. They do not often stick around for long in one place, taking what they need or resting for a short time before leaving and it is often difficult to discern their true purposes. When they do settle down and become a part of a society other than their own, they usually retain the same revolutionary and rationally-compassionate spirit, either as proud members of the NIRC or skeptical of what it may become.

They are only rarely found as mercenaries or pirates and if so, are not often very talkative or sociable. These ones are likely exiles, deserters, war criminals, or utter nihilists who lost everything in the revolution. In such positions, they are often quite deadly due to a mixture of military experience and absurd firepower, wielding crew-served weapons alone with ease. The remnants of the Ascendancy will also have very, very little of them given how brutally they treated them.

Pronounced “gee-ow-tee-rocked” with the "gea" pronounced like in "geese". These tall creatures evolved from some sort of eel like creature, visually somewhere between the Chimera from the Resistance and the Elites from Halo. They are around six and a half to eight feet on average with powerful digitigrade legs, four eyes (two on each side of their bony ridged heads), long multi-jointed six-fingered arms, and slightly elongated heads thicker at the forehead and slimming downwards to powerful fang-filled mouths. Some species even have long eellike tails and others shorter additional arms that have retractable spines. All however have an eye-like organ called the speirfhaire at the front of their brain capable of detecting ethereological presences though the extent to which depends on how well they have honed their skill. All of them are affected by dreams of eel-like creatures in their sleep though some have found ways to remove this aspect from their minds. Coincidentally they are bred in fairly large numbers and begin their lives as amphibious creatures closer to large eels, maturing at about nine to 12 years, capable of living up to around 430 years.

They are believed to be the oldest civilization of the NIRC territories, having been neighbours, allies, and enemies to the tarrhaidim and trading partners to the vrexul even before the Ascendancy came to power. It is believed that they may have interacted with splinter groups of vrexul habitat ships in the distant past though these are as much myth as they are crypto-history. It is also believed that they may have been the reason there are less of the spore-moons the tarrhaidim view with practically divine reverence about, presumably due to a symbiotic relationship with the enormous starfaring eel creatures wherein they made it easier for them to contest territory from said moons. Their civilization for a while was the most advanced in the region, having transition from nomadic tribesfolk to a feudalist and mercantile society but not without great strife and division. Conflict between the newly established kingdoms and the tribes that refused to fall under their newly defined jurisdiction would continue well into the Ascendency’s arise to power and was partially responsible for stopping open diplomatic talks with the vrexul commune-unions. A large part of the Ascendency’s rise to power was actually due to their alliances with the newly formed gealtirocht kingdoms, funding, organizing and supplying their efforts to displace and subjugate those who still dwelled in areas ripe for resource extraction and infrastructure building, beginning a series of resistance and eradication. This conflict continued throughout the Ascendency’s existence, amplifying with the deployment of conscripted tarrhaidim armies and professional imperial soldiers, escalating to orbital bombardments and even cases of genetically engineered but covertly executed viral plagues.

The nomadic groups would begin to unite and split up with a number staying on their worlds where they went into hiding and others escaping beyond the atmosphere. It is here that their first bonds with the vrexul were truly formed albeit with limited tarrhaidims support initially due to tensions that had only worsened under the Ascendency. Already being hunted by their royalist counterparts, the gealtricocht exiles set up various bases with the help of the arthropods on dead worlds said to be haunted by the enormous predatory star-predators of myth, making them more than ideal places to avoid the watchful eye of a far superior foe. While the vrexul began waging shadow wars and guerilla operations, the gealtirocht would be coordinating with insurgencies and sympathetic politicians, turning the enemy’s strategy against them as they whipped up a defiant fervour among territories now controlled by turncoat kingdoms and began a series of lightning raids across Ascendancy space, striking distant outposts and gradually drawing their foes into war of stalking, hiding, and striking from the unknown with the intent of draining morale, loosening control, and forcing the human-lead empire to draw its forces away from the increasingly riotous, violent civil uprisings.

As this was happening, discontent with the Ascendancy’s rule was growing with the tarrhaidim who found themselves increasingly becoming an exploited underclass sent out to die in larger droves on the frontlines than the humans they were told they would become the equals of. The resistance cells, commando divisions, and political activists remaining on the original gealtirocht worlds would exploit this to create a historic gealtirocht-tarrhaidim united front. Mass defections and even full blow mutinies of tarrhaidim forces were joined by rebels and riots en masse, even contributing to a few kingdoms beginning to fold as their garrisons found it increasingly difficult to fight against their own fellow eel-folk. Large scale direct action soon massively swelled the numbers and logistical strength of the gealtirocht resistance, leading them to go from guerillas in the mountains and woods to powerful armies that with an increasingly spread out occupation, were rapidly tipping the scales. Yet this weakening of the hostilities between fungoid and anguilid would open up additional opportunities.

Around this time, archaeotechnicians from the vrexul and scientists defectors from humanity along with a number of tarrhaidimg traitor orbital garrisons would begin sharing classified information with the gealtirocht. Observational media of not only the mysterious spore moons had been discovered but where many of the serealgatai that were once nearly hunted out of their native habitats were hiding. To assist their fairly small fleet, they would begun a covert mission of weaponizing these enormous predators, bringing a then revolutionary new weapon into the fold first inspired by the vrexul’s void tyrants which had been used in a few select deployments to protect vital bases. With these new enormous bioweapons augmenting their fleet, it would not be long before the now enormous revolutionary forces that had recently been formed into the NIRC would begin retaking worlds one by one, four by four, ten by ten. With a newfound control of space and territory, the gealtirocht had set the stage for a full swing route of the enemy occupation and it would not be long before the tattered, disorganized Ascendancy was forced out.

Their language is spoken with a lot of twisty yet sharp, somewhat wet-sounding syllables and vaguely resembles Irish albeit with a gnarlier, hissing tone and a concerning amount of snarls. The actual text features a lot of wavy characters resembling blurred piscine shapes as seen from the water’s surface. They also are able to use a wide variety of non-verbal howls, calls, clicking sounds, and so on, some of which are imitations of creatures that are both predator and prey on their homeworld. These typically are used for long distance communication, tribal activities, drawing out prey, warding off animalistic threats, and so on.

Psychology:

The gealtirocht are firm followers of revolutionary ideologies, typically following paganized variants with a notable tendency towards more anarchic practices. While it is no surprise that the entire Nexus is somewhat more skeptical towards grander organization, these highland dwellers can go even further in some cases given they had to deal with living under *two* different monarchical forces. Having returned to their tribal pasts, they are not as traditional as some would like to think believing in the spontaneity of the spirit and believing that tribe is not based less so on lineage and blood but allegiance and action, having learned first hand that the their fellow sapients were every bit as dedicated to the same revolutionary liberation. Subsequently, they are typically seen as the most outgoing and approachable of the Nexus, known for their charismatic and celebratory spirit and a love of exploration, adventure, and group activities.

They share most of the same similar socioeconomic and political ideals as the vrexul but beyond their sociable nature, are far less coldly reductive in their views. This is notable in that they have an idea of family that they value a fair share, are far more overtly expressive, and can often be fairly generous off of the bat. However, they can also be quite aggressive and quicker to anger. A lot of generational pain resides amongst them from the years spent under the Ascendancy and the idea of hunting down and capturing (or killing) its survivors is not an uncommon idea among some. Others believe that the traitor houses should be tried fairly after capture but the former view is often seen as being more vocal. They are fairly open towards direct action whether on an individual or a macro scale, not quite as focused on careful organization as much as impetus and intensity.

Permissions:

The gealtirocht are one of the more visible members of the NIRC who voyage beyond its boundaries and can be found in a wide variety of locations. Some of them have established small enclaves and colonies on less industrialized planets and they can usually be seen near established independent worlds. Occasionally they can be found doing smuggling jobs, exploring, treasure hunting, and even mercenary work on occasion though they are picky with who they work with.

Quite a few of the traitor houses are still around and as they are anti-revolutionary, they tend to have far fewer qualms about who they work for or with. Most of the mercenaries of their kind will be from said houses and are staunchly loyal to the aristocracy and the Ascendancy. They can often be found in various more totalitarian or militant regimes, exchanging their skills and further developing their combat prowess for a shot at revenge at the “turncoat soil-eaters.”

Pronounced “tar-high-deem”. They are large bipedal organisms resembling rotted eyeless humanoids, covered in hardened fungoid growth, and maws full of jagged pointed formations, noted for appearing to have rotted flesh. They are actually a fungoid like organism, genderless and able to reproduce asexually on occasion or by combining large amounts of reproductive biomatter into communal “spawning globes”. They are capable of heavily modifying and selectively mutating their own biomatter and have an unusual tendency to "bolt" clothing, equipment, gear, and armour into their bodies though this is nowhere near as painful as some would think. They are durable and hardy beings with highly efficient regenerative capabilities and the ability to survive on very little (think dirt, detritus, and sunlight). They are capable of aesexually reproducing to create sub-organisms usually to fulfill menial tasks such as assisting with nutrient gathering or maintaining their homes but while without gender or sex, they need others of their kind to truly reproduce and create full fledged offspring. Their offspring can age to maturity in around five years and like the vrexul can can be made to inherit certain bits of information from their progenitors. Some species can grow fairly large, roughly around 15 foot at the max and others contain huge worms jutting out of their bodies, having essentially become half annelid.

The gealtirocht’s origins are murky but it is believed they were originally fragments of some sort of ancient starfaring gigantic fungi that broke off and evolved into an entire species. While it is likely they predate both the gealtirocht and vrexul, they evolved slower than either and subsequently were slower to become a civilization. Worshippers of the mythic spore-moon Almh'allbadi or “The Eternal Decomposer”, their religiosity was both a source of inspiration, defiance, and unity and in other times a method of enforcing social hierarchy and hegemony. They were known to live with a few scattered colonies of vrexul, treating them as little more than somewhat elusive if useful neighbours lacking much in the way of grander power and initially had a very complicated relationship with the gealtirocht. Sometimes they were partners, other times rivals for territory and resources, and on occasion they had a number of conflicts. As the various tarrhaidim city-states began to converge and combine into larger nations, they were approached by visitors from afar - the Ascendancy, who had also taken an interest in both their changing political landscape and that of the gealtirocht. Appearing first as benefactors, their machinations began to take on an increasingly sinister role as in exchange for certain business deals and technology, they would be allowed to adjust and restructure aspects of their economy and societal organization to better accommodate this new partnership.

In a few years time, traditional structures of familial, societal, and political organization already in the midst of a rocky transition had been thrown into disarray. Established leaders rose left and right as a class of wealthy and politically entrenched fungoids began to emerge as the figureheads and main benefactors of the Ascendancy’s rapid growth and wealth. Rapid human colonization began to consume or take over territories once under their protection as animosities grew between them and the gealtirocht nomad tribes, accused of encroaching more and more on their territories leading to an initially popular conscription for the purposes of territorial defence. At the same time, they were forced to live in cramped spaces with impoverished vrexul they were taught to view as savage, barely tamed animals. The tarrhaidim themselves were treated as little more than sub-human in worth, becoming a massive underclass drafted economically or militarily. With the drastic shifts in power, their populations became divided not just in terms of class but territory, ethnicity, location as they struggled to find some stability in a world that had its rugs pulled out from underneath them. “Self governance” was used in tandem with specially chosen leaders and social engineering to ensure even if they should revolt, much of their anger would be directed at one another across battle lines stretching to before the Ascendancy arrived. However this method of control had its limits.

As much as they tried to control them through subterfuge and division, the anger of the tarrhaidim would always eventually be directed upwards as a series of revolutionary conflicts on the Ascendancy capital, resulting in the deaths of the heads of a planetary head of state and a number of capital administrators sparked off a series of brutal reprisals. In turn, tarrhaidim independent settlements including various hidden ones started turning into havens for a growing revolutionary movement. As the Empire’s own armies were further amassed through conscripting the fungoid youths, the higher standards they enjoyed in the army began to diminish and more and more they found themselves fighting not the gealtirocht and vrexul but their own. At the same time, a mass interplanetary movement was forming of tarrhaidim rebels, a number of which were beginning to join up in secret with the then emergent Nexus headed by the arthropods and anguilids. The ungovernable against the iron hand of divine rule - it was clear that history’s gears of turning but the power difference was not slanted in the rebellion’s flavour even with military support. Ascendancy was too well connected and organized even if it was stretched by the tarrhaidim who had created a solution to their enemy. The first was to push for a mass defection and radicalize the beleaguered militaries sent to backwaters and crowded, chaotic worlds. The second was to use that distraction to distract tarrhaidim covert expeditions to hidden terrestrial bases and orbiting research facilities; the reason was to recover stolen research concerning the mythic spore moons and unlock their deadly powers. With the assistance of their enemies turned allies, a two pronged ware of mutiny and covert operations began as they began to desperately strike out hunting for this cryptic data.

With the cost of many of their finest fighters, they were able to find the hidden locations of the spore moons and alongside preparing them to return to their habitats around the Tarrhaidim worlds, also prepare them for battle. Subtly moving them by hiding them amongst solar anomalies and dead worlds, the secretly modified space fungi were unleashed as part of a combined offensive. Utilizing their immense bio-energetic powers in conjunction with a small but vicious fleet, the tarrhaidim helped to disrupt and outright destroy logistics networks and communications between the Ascendancy worlds. Scattered and cut off from one another, their enormous armies were viciously attacked before they could properly organize as whole cities rose up in revolt and the chaos of mass civil disobedience left the conquerors helpless as well trained invasion forces. More than a few exiles and deserters from the traitor armies were all too enthusiastic to pay back in blood what had been taken from them. The tarrhaidim sacrificed more than any other species to drive out the Ascendancy with their population experiencing a very sharp decline even if it still remains the most numerous in Nexus space.

The language of the tarrhaidim in contrast to their grotesque appearance is surprisingly elegant and almost musical, resembling arabic and featuring few sharp vowels and fare more smooth consonants. When rapidly spoken it almost can sound like smoothed out, ambient birdsong. If slowly and carefully, it has a resonant and almost woodwind like tone to it. They can also gurgle and growl but even such rougher speech has a strangely muffled sound as if they are underwater as they do so. The written language has a lot of curving characters connected by sharp, rigid lines. Like the vrexul they can also communicate through smell via pheromones and chemicals but they are also known to use electrical signals within the range of one another through mycelial growths located through their body. This causes some to believe they are psychic but the electro-signal language is a learned language if one wishes to use it beyond communicating simple directions, emotions, and commands.

Psychology:

The tarrhaidim are as staunch of believers as any other Nexus species but their particular politics can vary quite notably. Generally, they lean towards a parliamentary style of democracy with a wider range of bottom-up political involvement but various sects are anarcho-communal occasionally leading to friction even among those sharing variants of the same revolutionary beliefs. Nonetheless they can be quite intransigent and defensive of themselves due to having been an exploited underclass under their own rulers and their foreign masters. They are however, highly social and are firm advocates for collective action and mutual aid, pushed by a sense of duty that has begun to grow beyond their own kind to all their allies. They are outspoken and fiery people with little tolerance for poor leadership and the raw accumulation of power whether political, economic, and ideological. When they see their own in need, tarrhaidim or not, they will not mind working alongside strangers amongst their own as they mobilize en force to protect their vulnerable and needy.

Their sense of family is looser than the gealtirocht’s, following lineages of descent but caring little for hierarchy or the importance of blood as much as the “network of interrelations” created. They have a concept of family less as a solid unit but a series of stories that can be interconnected or spiralling outwards, typically living in fairly larger combined families that in some cases are essentially small towns in and of themselves. They are less hesitant to go to war than the gealtirocht but more willing than the humans, knowing what it is like to lose countless souls for false glories. Still, they believe that armed force wielded by people will generally be more justified than solely in the hands of high lords. A not insignificant portion are not 100% trusting of the Nexus even if the percentage of the favourable is increasing from year to year, believing that it is best if many of them go their separate ways (resulting in quite a few colonies of them beyond the Nexus’ boundaries). They are mixed on the idea of fighting back against the remnants of the Ascendancy. Some believe that they should be allowed to sputter off and learn their lessons, others believe it is best to leave them alone, while a number of more militant groups believe they need to be stopped to avoid a repeat of past tragedies.

Permissions:

As they are the most common members of the NIRC with humans not too far behind, they can be found in a wider array of settings and occupations. They are commonly associated with colony worlds agricultural regions, jungles/forests/swampy areas, and certain industrial settings where they are hard workers well known for being good with ships and construction. Some of them can be fairly friendly and sociable if difficult to truly become close to and it is not uncommon to find them living at the outskirts of certain societies, preferring to keep some distance. However, it is not uncommon to find they can often become part of the heart of smaller urban or agricultural communities, with their sense of unity extending to those they feel share similar values or helpful personalities.

At the same time, there are a lot of humans and tarrhaidim in the remnants of the Ascendancy who are far more harsh and elitist. These ones frequently travel as mercenaries and epouse a sort of quasi-nietzchean might-equals-right philosophy and disdain what they see as the bleeding, soft-handed weakness of their Nexus counterparts. They frequently travel in warbands, gathering experience wherever they see fit before turning to their hiding Ascendancy bases to teach and share what they have learned. They long to one day retake what is theirs and execute “the breeders of weakness and decadence” for overthrowing those who has “raised them from dirt into godhood.”