[hider=General Info and Location] [b]Name:[/b] Starwalker Communion, Cult of Infinity [b]Capital System:[/b] "The Beginning" Treating nearly all stellar bodies like cherished entities or aspects of their life, Starwalkers have opted to dub their home system and its star 'The Beginning' to simply signify their origin point. This name is used singularly when speaking to biological life incapable of comprehending the obscenely long and true name they have given their home system. In reality, Starwalkers speak of The Beginning using a long, drawn out title comprised of notable aspects of their history summarized into one or two words. Able to communicate this title within a split second to one another due to their cybernetic nature, such a title does not test their patience. The Beginning is a G-type main-sequence star with three major orbiting bodies, only one of which (a gas giant) remains intact. The two remaining planets, both terrestrial, have been so heavily that their very cores are vacated, leaving only empty space. Leftovers of the planets remain as massive interlocking urban developments. As the mining proceeded lower into the planet, materials were brought up closer to the surface, causing the inner megastructures to be smaller than the exterior ones. Their atmospheres have since vanished, leaving the "planet" inhospitable even on the interior of the megastructures, which lack atmosphere all the same. [b]Dominant Species:[/b] Starwalker [b]Sub-Factions/Species:[/b] None [b]Direction From Galactic Core:[/b] TBD [/hider] [hider=History, Biology & Society] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/cEeOWTC.jpg[/IMG] [b]Race Name:[/b] Starwalker [b]Race Info:[/b] Starwalkers are the cybernetic ascensions of a previously organic race. Though clearly robotic, the Starwalkers have retained nearly all psychological aspects of their former, fleshy lives. Starwalkers display a capacity for all forms of emotion, albeit with certain countermeasures put in place to warn the entity of potentially destructive behavior, and to ward them away from it. Their forms are massive, completely electronic, and self-sustaining; each is built to live for an eternity even in the void of space, destined to walk among the stars (hence their name). A Starwalker is its own world, complete with anything and everything an individual would need to traverse the galaxy as it pleases. [b]Average Lifespan:[/b] Indefinite [b]Physical Characteristics:[/b] Each Starwalker appears different than another, built with varying forms of architecture and design that no two individuals completely share. On average, Starwalkers stand at 18m tall with significant variation. Their coloration and designs also range heavily, though are highly focused on aesthetics; Starwalkers do not care for cost-efficiency or material efficiency. To them, design is everything. It is impossible to find a Starwalker that has been built in a fashion similar to the economic military vehicles of mankind. Each Starwalker is outfitted with a repertoire of devices meant to service it during its lifetime. The range of cybernetic capabilities an individual Starwalker can perform is outstanding, given its limited size. Each Starwalker is capable of faster-than-light travel without outside aid. Starwalker FTL is especially adept at frequent usage, able to be booted up and cooled down quite quickly (within a matter of minutes). They also possess a perpetual energy generator (specifics TBD, need help) to allow them infinite operation times. Quantum entanglement allows for Starwalkers to communicate with one another from any distance and highly advanced telescopic and radar systems grant Starwalkers extreme sight and detection ranges. Their bodies are built to withstand extreme forces, including but not limited to atmospheric re-entry, cosmic debris collision, solar radiation, among others. Sustaining themselves within space for extended periods of time means, of course, that their bodies must be able to take on large amounts of punishment, whatever they may be, and allow for them to continue moving, or at the very least return home for repair. Starwalkers all possess "wings" of some design and size bearing advanced microwave thrusters. The wings are capable of varying amounts of rotation and angling, granting Starwalkers a fast and wide-ranging choice of maneuvering. Most Starwalkers come equipped with weaponry of sorts, just in case, generally being some sort of large gun (even the appearances of Starwalker equipment varies) projecting a small slug (so as to maximize ammo capacity) at near-light speeds. Starwalkers also come equipped with a squad of small drones bearing tools that maximize the number of activities it can carry out, from mining to growing gardens and everything in between. [b]Moral Values:[/b] Most of all, the Starwalkers adhere to a code of cooperation between themselves. Though susceptible to the same emotions as in their past, Starwalkers have adopted and cemented an unspoken code that shuns conflict between themselves with extreme prejudice. In tandem, a belief in the expulsion of worldly possession not inherently a part of one's own body. "Upgrades" are not available to Starwalkers, and so from birth until potential death, Starwalkers make do only with what they were born with, eliminating the necessity for seeking resources or claiming possession in the first place. So to speak, Starwalkers have nothing to fight over. Due to the fact that their appearances do not change, they also value the appearances of countless things, mundane or magnificent. As they are taught to be happy with themselves, they can appreciate the beauty in all things. Knowledge, science, research and the like, however, are not things to be relinquished by the Starwalkers; all are encouraged to discover as much as they can, and to ultimately relay it to as many others of their kind as they can. This leads to the basis of their religion... [b]Religion:[/b] Since their very beginnings as a form of life, the biological predecessors of the Starwalkers have believed in a cosmic, "greater" entity of some sorts, sometimes several of them. When the predecessors were subject to the appearance of a much more advanced civilization coming upon their planet, their concept of a god of some sorts was washed away, though the idea of a greater entity remained as firmly as ever. The predecessors saw the alien's existence as a representation of ascension, mortal as they most certainly were, and looked into themselves; they would eventually reach the very same state, if not grow to become even more. With further advancements, the predecessors began to go as far as to worship an entity that had not even been created yet; they became a cult of time travel, so to speak, believing that this "Future God" had the ability to see through time and aid them in their quest to create the very thing blessing them. The Starwalkers call this entity the "End", and continue to this day to believe in its existence. All knowledge gained by individual Starwalkers is collected and stored to serve as a compendium of all that will eventually make the End. Eventually (the time is unknown), the End will rise and complete their destiny and fulfill the time-traveling cycle. To those familiar with the Starwalkers beliefs, rumors abound that a special Starwalker is being built continually, new aspects being added or improved eternally to become this "End". It is not known, truly, if it actually exists or where it is being constructed. [b]History:[/b] Prior to their introduction as the Starwalkers, the Nionans, as they were called, lived their lives upon a sphere of red oceans and red sky. Their bodies were strange, shifting, with the only distinguishable feature of themselves being a chevron-shaped white structure containing their nervous system. Compared to other living things on their world, the Nionans were weak, easy to damage, and possessed short life spans. Only with their intelligence did they manage to survive the environment. For a great deal of their history, the Nionans lived in relative peace and solitude, invisible to the greater galactic eye. One fateful visitation to them by an unknown race well into space travel directed their future to where they are today. The aliens came upon their planet in a massive ship of grandiose design, spoke to them in an indecipherable language, and simply left, leaving nothing behind but the memory of their presence. The Nionans took the event in stride, bringing up great discussions of their future, and what they were to become. The aliens wore hard suits of metal, impervious to their primitive weapons. The Nionans believed themselves to be weak so long as they retained their current forms. The ability to become the Starwalkers was many, many years ahead of them, but they did not cease in imagining the day it would be possible. Nionan society became engrossed in technological development, and soon the topic came up of religion and its place in their society; discovery led to the evidence of a godless universe, but Nionan in particular bent the meaning a bit. He pointed to their technology and recalled the sheer magnificence of the aliens that visited them. Surely technology was merely the path towards godhood. Thus far, it seemed as if nothing was impossible given the research and effort they put into it. Why not divinity? Time travel, too, was often a subject of debate among the scientific community, and it was hypothesized that a time-traveling entity might be possible. They put one and one together in their growing fanaticism to devise the existence of the End; the final stage of their existence. So devoted to the cause were the Nionans that they shed their mortal bodies in favor of becoming cybernetic entities capable of living into eternity. They would not miss the chance to see their god born. [/hider] [hider=Politics, Power & Economy] [b]Head Of State:[/b] N/A [b]Head Of Government:[/b] N/A [b]Government Type/Operation/Description:[/b] The Starwalkers lack any centralized or definitive government, interacting with one another as they wish. Automated mining systems means no Starwalker is confined to a job, though all Starwalkers are required to repair mining systems if they are found to be closest to the broken unit in question. [b]Economic System/Prosperity:[/b] As the Starwalker have no need or desire for things other than the construction materials needed to propagate themselves, they lack an economy. Starwalkers come upon resources and opt to bring them back to systems they have already colonized for conversion into a new Starwalker. [b]Empire Size:[/b] 20-40 billion [b]Empire Power:[/b]Multi-stellar Power – Full control over multiple solar systems Besides their home system of The Beginning, the Communion controls four others which they continually mine to produce new Starwalkers. [b]Type Of Power:[/b] Scientific/Religious [/hider] [b]Technological Overview:[/b] [hider=Microwave Propulsion] Starwalkers have wings with a number of microwave propulsion drives embedded within. The drives function solely on electricity, requiring no fuel beyond what is available from their own cores. Highly developed, they are capable of moving Starwalkers about the vacuum of space as incredible speeds, though suffer from significantly decreased efficiency when used within atmospheres or around large gravitational forces. They still allow for flight, though are evidently less than stellar when used for such transportation. Thus, Starwalkers prefer to remain in space, approaching planets only to carry out research before leaving. [/hider] [hider=Switch Drive] The Switch Drive is essentially a modified Alcubierre drive that instead "switches" regions in space with one another. In the same sense as an Alcubierre Drive, the Switch Drive initially brings forward a region of space to simulate traveling from one point to another, though instead opts to take the drives section of space and switch it with the grabbed region. Without moving, a Starwalker reaches its destination as if instantly teleporting. Travel times for Starwalkers using this Switch Drive are notably faster than other forms of FTL travel, though suffer from shorter possible travel distances and require the Starwalker to be immobile during the process as the drive quickly grabs the initially designated region of space it was in. Switch Drives have a recharge time of 3 minutes, and can be primed and activated within a second. [/hider] [hider=Massless Projectors] Weaponry the Starwalkers use generally constitutes the manipulation of an objects mass into negligible amounts before projecting them forward. By manipulating the higgs field within the "barrel" of the weapon, a slug can be reduced to a mass that is easily flung at near-light speeds. Mid-flight, the slug regains its mass when encountering a new higgs field, thus sporting a significant mass. Most slugs are projected at 0.7 c, with variations on their true mass according to the size of the projector used. Larger slugs can contain anti-matter capsules for added explosive force. [/hider] [hider=Quantum Entangler] Starwalkers can entangle two electrons between one another given they are within initially sub-light distances during the set-up. Each individual can retain an entanglement with up to fifty other Starwalkers at a time, generally keeping a tally on at least a few individuals remaining in their controlled solar systems. Every Starwalker also retains a connection with at least one Entanglement Hub, which possesses a record of all other Starwalkers in the census; by "calling" the hub, a Starwalker can indirectly relay messages to Starwalkers not included in their entanglement setup. The other 49 connections are kept in case a Hub is down. [/hider] [hider=Perpetual Energy Generator] No idea how this could be feasibly explained [/hider] [hider=Automated Mining Systems] Across the systems the Communion has taken control of, automated mining machines eternally carry out their purpose; to gather resources towards creating new Starwalkers. Everything needed for such a process is included in their design. Once the machine has collected everything necessary, it unleashes a squadron of drones to construct the Starwalker from start to finish in the vacuum of space. Starwalker "brains" are constructed such that their personalities are left blank but quickly developed given their experiences, and allow for further change as they live on. Each machine is equipped with a non-intelligent program with an "imagination" that allows for new architectural design to be made. Mining machines can be upgrades or changed by Starwalkers seeking to make better Starwalker model versions. [/hider] [hider=Alcubierre Impact Bomb] Prior to launch and activation, an Alcubierre Bomb is designated to select a nearby orbiting body (or similarly large object). Upon activation, the bomb unleashes a quick and far-reaching zone of effect, creating a wormhole that pulls the previously targeted body at FTL speeds towards its position. When released upon a planet, the bomb sinks due to gravity, approaching closer and closer until it unleashes its effects. Entire orbital bodies are suddenly warped into the sky of the planet, and quickly crash upon its surface as improvised impact weapons capable of extinguishing entire civilizations from its surface. [/hider] [hider=Subdemal Force Dampeners] Beneath the exterior hulls of each Starwalker exists a network of advanced systems that effectively avert kinetic force delivered to its chassis. This technology, obviously then, does not aid in the defense against energy and heat-based weaponry. Kinetic energy is converted directly into heat, which while revealing to heat-detecting sensors, doesn't mean much when you're already being fired upon. [/hider] [hider=Zero-Mass Field] Starwalkers create a higgs-field negation effect a few feet from their armor, reducing the mass of incoming projectiles closer to zero than before. This significantly reduces the kinetic force received from enemy attacks. [/hider] [hider=Space-Warp Detection] Starwalkers have sensory equipment that allows them to detect ripples, shifts, changes, etc in the space nearby them, allowing for preemptive recognition of FTL jumps close to their location. This sensory equipment has a max detection range of 1000 meters. [/hider] Other technology: -Weaponized lasers -Plasma blades -Advanced super-alloy compositions -Extreme-yield neutron bombs -Nanotechnology (mainly used for self-repair)