The Sidereal Concord
Species:BlursThe Blurs are the descendants of once-uplifted coleoid cephalopods, though centuries of self-modification through gene splicing and cybernetic augmentation have left it difficult to determine what species or even order their forebears might have belonged to. Their bodies are highly flexible, often shifting between spherical and cylindrical forms, and the number, length and shape of their tentacles can be changed on a whim, to the point that they can form pseudopods that allow them to easily move outside water. The only parts of them that remain stable are their beaks and four eyes, disposed at right angles from each other to allow for all-round vision. Unlike their ancestors, the Blurs are not asocial by nature, and live in small packs of five to ten individuals, which in turn are part of habitat-spanning communities. Combining their collective tendencies with an almost stereotypical curiosity, it was them who originally established contacts between the members of the Concord, and they remain to this day the main force holding the loose confederation together, as well as its most populous members. The Blurs owe their moniker to their method of communication, which consists of shifting their body's hue through instinctive control of their mimetic abilities in rapid and sometimes intricate patterns. Other species have sometimes described the display as enthralling, and edited versions of the Blurs' analogue of literature have been known to be used as hypnotic visual drugs.
Scalders The Scalders are the result of an attempt to produce partially organic life capable of surviving in, and eventually colonising, Europa and potentially Titan. However, these projects were aborted when disaster struck, and the prototype creature were left to their own devices in their testing habitat. Over time, they adapted to the use of the machinery left behind by their vanished creators, and, having the potential for intellectual development despite the lack of starting instruction, established a functional accord among themselves to unify their now growing population. The Scalder genome has much in common with that of tubeworms and some deep-water crustaceans, though, unlike these animals, they do not need to rely on geothermal activity to survive in cold oceanic depths. Instead, they are each equipped with a miniaturised internal furnace, which safely spreads its heat through their bodies by the means of a biomechanical network of hollow tubes. Outwardly, Scalders look like large, barrel-like worms with segmented chitinous shells, rows of segmented legs and two pairs of limbs, one large and powerful and the other minute, suited for fine manipulation. While they are amphibious and can control the activity of their internal furnaces to an extent, they find warm environments disagreeable, and often use external cooling apparati when not in their native element.
DriftersDrifters are the product of an even more ambitious sister project of the Scalders' creation: the colonisation of gas giants themselves. Unlike the Scalders, however, they had the fortune of coming to fruition somewhat ahead of schedule, and their first generations were trained in the use of the instruments needed to establish a hold in the treacherous swirling skyscapes of the gaseous worlds. While much of this knowledge was invalidated by the shattering, which wreaked havoc on vital infrastructure (not to mention the means of ferrying the necessary equipment to Jupiter, let alone beyond), the Drifters were able to reverse-engineer what they salvaged from the fall, and repurposed the nearest habitats to make them viable for themselves. Thanks to this timely expansion, they are now one of the Concord's most powerful and influential parties, second only to the Blurs; unlike the latter, many of them are suspicious of the alliance, fearing that it might threaten their autonomy. The Drifters appear as brown-greyish bell-shaped figures, about half as large as an unmodified human, with several broad, thin fins, or wings, extending radially to all sides. Outside their habitats, they usually move in special spherical modules which can roll without trouble over any magnetic surface, no matter how inclined. The Drifters are sometimes referred to as Floaters, after hypothetical gas giant-dwelling lifeforms imagined in the distant past; however, they see the word as a misnomer, seeing as any similarities are superficial at best, and many consider it derogatory.
TranscendantsBefore the great immaterial intelligences collapsed, a number of beings, including both humanoids, uplifts and simpler synthetic constructs, attempted to reach a similar, fully digital state of being, believing it to be the ultimate form of development a sapient entity could reach. To that end, they converted their consciousnesses into code and fused them with specially built programs. For a while, it seemed to work: they found themselves capable of existing on a virtual plane, and gained incredible memory and mental agility, as well as seemingly unlimited potential for even further growth, as a result. But, when the authorities disappeared along with the systems that had allowed them to exist, these Transcendants discovered that they were the most vulnerable. Those that survived the first network failures scrambled wildly to download themselves into anything that could hold them in the last few nanoseconds left to them; as luck would have it, the vast majority of those who were not hopelessly damaged by the experience found themselves in the orbital factory of Usnis, where a stock of experimental mainframes had been abandoned after having been activated for testing. From these bulky machines, the Transcended were eventually able to transfer themselves into more or less improvised mechanical bodies, but they were shadows of their former selves. Their immense minds had been forcibly compressed and fragmented, leaving them mangled and often not entirely stable. Nevertheless, many of them retain useful skills and knowledge, making them a valuable resource. It is not uncommon to see bizarre metallic figures of all shapes and sizes throughout Concord habitats, either alone or in small groups, minding their usually incomprehensible business in remote nooks and corners.
ShepherdsThe research network that produced the Scalders and Drifters did not limit itself to sapient life. Several subsidiary worlds were devoted to cultures and ecosystems of simpler creatures, speculated to have been designed to be used in terraforming efforts. To ensure that the small biospheres would not be damaged by accidents or unexpected internal imbalances, they were put under the watch of a special body of advanced custodians, known as Shepherds. Since then, decades passed, and still the dutiful machines continued to look after their charges. When supplies began to run low, the custodians, who had been left with rather sweeping commands, began to raid passing ships and nearby habitats, drawing the attention of the Concord. It was not without difficulty that the Blurs eventually persuaded them to abandon this crude approach in favour of trade (strangely, the Shepherds are not opposed to selling what they cultivate, as long as the losses are easily replaceable). Their current status respective to the Concord is problematic, as there are doubts on whether they are fully sentient, and thus qualify as possible members at all. The Shepherds' bodies are almost flat, rectangular stripes of flexible metal, capable of movement by slithering and interfacing with various devices by contact with their controls.
Points of Interest:2866E0-45147B (Twenty Eight)A large, partially aquatic cylindrical habitat, Twenty Eight is where the Blurs originated from, and remains the main hub of their communities to date. Additionally, having a central position in Concord territory, it serves as a provisional common ground for the alliance's members, with sections allotted for the needs of delegations and makeshift embassies from the entire sparse network. Much of the world's internal surface is submerged in saline water to suit the Blurs' (and in some parts the Scalders') preferences, though, considering the versatility of the Concord species, the dry segments are only there for the sake of diversification. Twenty Eight is often cited as a symbol of unity and cooperation, though it is obvious it is less suited for the role than the as yet incomplete Omonoi and its position in it is provisory at best.
IuralThough the Drifters have spread to five worlds to this day, Iural remains the core of their small dominion. The interior of this cylinder, somewhat smaller than Twenty Eight, has been fitted to simulate the helium-rich upper atmosphere of Jupiter, with a series of stabiliser mechanisms simulating reduced gravity and the violent winds that rage over the swirling surface of the giant. Here resides the leadership of the most cohesive society in the Concord, conferring in tightly bound clusters suspended at the core of this landless habitat's baffling geography, or rather lack thereof. Unlike their allies, few of whom have any real government at all, let alone a centralised one, the Drifters are heavily dependent on their administrative class; Iural is therefore the most heavily defended world in the entire Concord, regarded as the beating heart of Drifter society - an analogy more applicable to their politics than their anatomy.
UsnisWhile most of the Transcendants have scattered across Concord space and continue to roam it without a stable abode, the industrial complex where they returned into the corporeal dimension is nonetheless an important location for them, and some other parties besides. Some of the formerly virtual entities still dwell in the factory's computers, preferring to remain in a comparatively more intact state over mobility. More importantly, the facilities of Usnis are the only ones in Concord space capable of producing the exceptionally efficient circuits a Transcendant needs to enter a synthetic body, and the assembly line is much too complex and expensive to replicate elsewhere. Thus, the machinery there is necessary to provide replacement forms; as well, the quality of its products makes them highly prized on the common market for other, less specific purposes.
OmonoiIt would seem that, in the new age, any great ideal worth its salt needs an impressive enough symbol to endure. The unity of the Concord is no exception, and its symbol is Omonoi - or it would be, were it not still, more fittingly that the Blurs would care to appreciate, in construction. This imposing toroid is without a doubt the largest of the Concord's artificial worlds, and appears to have once been a luxurious residence centre, though it has since been abandoned to its blind, tireless caretakers. For some years, it has been a pet project of the Blurs to transform it into a fitting core for the alliance, with ample diplomatic and trading grounds far beyond what the cramped conditions on Twenty Eight can provide. While the enterprise has so far encountered little real opposition, the greatest obstacle to it is the sheer scale of the restructuring involved, as well as the difficulties of designing an environment where starkly diverging ambient conditions would be properly balanced. While work has officially started on the refitting, it remains unclear when it will be completed, or even if it might not after all prove beyond the Concord's capabilities.
Society:The Sidereal Concord is a loose alliance of beings and communities based in a web of former experimental trial habitats and orbital industrial facilities. Its formation is comparatively recent, only reaching roughly half a century into the past. As a result, its members, most of whom were already insular on their own, are as yet far from fully integrated, and are still held together more by the mutual protection and trading agreements that first motivated its founding than any other factors. While the Blurs, and with them most Transcendants, continue to push for stronger and closer relations between the Concord's components, other fractions, such as the Drifter leaders and some Scalders (who, it is presumed, are largely under the former's influence, given their usual lack of political initiative), resist this to varyingly direct extents. The unification efforts are made yet more difficult by the fact that the Concord still has very little in the way of global policies or even a proper definition of a more than strictly geographic sort, which leaves many who could otherwise have been favourable to the undertaking puzzled as to what exactly they would be joining.
The alliance, such as it is, has its roots in the Blurs' exploration of habitats outside their own. As the shattering left many artificially grown creatures unattended before they were fully inducted into their purposes, it took centuries for many of them to develop socially and scientifically to the point where leaving their purpose-built environments became possible, and years more to learn to operate the machinery their creators had left behind, which was besides only partially intact and often in need of repairs more sophisticated than the custodians could administer. The Blurs, being an adaptable and inquisitive people, were the fastest in restoring the spacecraft they found docked on their world, and it was not long before they could navigate their way from module to module. The Transcendentals and Scalders were discovered soon afterwars, and persuaded to band together for greater safety and the sharing of knowledge and resources - an exchange that was, at the time, distinctly beneficial for all parties involved.
The early years were, however, not without complications. The Blurs might have been the fastest in the region when it came to crossing space, but they were not the first. The discovery of the Iural Cluster, the six habitats controlled by the Drifters, was a shock for both sides - the Blurs and their allies feared they might have found one of the forces they had joined for protection against, while the Drifters initially mistook the explorers for invaders. While armed conflict was narrowly averted despite some casualties during first contact, relations remained uneasy for some time, and some years had passed before the Cluster formally became part of the growing Concord. The timing was on that occasion almost providential, for it was around that time that the Drifters finally readied a punitive expedition against the unidentified ships that had begun attacking and plundering some of their convoys. Concord members followed the avenging fleet, and it was owing to their mediation that yet another potential war was averted - this time against the Shepherds, whose appearance has placed new problems before the nascent coalition. While even some of the Concord's detractors admit that it has great potential for growth and prosperity, the shaky accord is yet in its infancy, and thus still dangerously fragile.
