[hider=Transhumaist Memory Harvesters]

[center][b][u]Cessian Ascendancy[/u][/b][/center]
[center][img] http://i.imgur.com/aLkcCfM.gif [/img][/center]

[hider=General Overview]The Cessians, distant cousins of humans, through their mastery of robotics and information technology blew past the singularity, not only having essentially conquered biological death, but having fully integrated themselves with machines. Most of their massive population live on one world, disembodied, mostly-cloned brains wired into a digital paradise, where existence is a utopia designed by the inhabitant(s), most unaware that their bliss is digital. This existence of digital paradise is supported by the million+ Cessians who do not live in the Dream, who protect the Brain Clusters from outside invaders, and trade, explore and conquer all in the search for that most valuable of commodities, new experiences and foreign memories, to be fed into the dream and maintain the paradise a little longer, to fend off the horrible specter of stagnation and boredom that would drive billions to madness.[/hider]
[hider=Territory]The Cessians were blessed with a truly incredible home system, and have not expanded beyond it. It was chosen by their distant human ancestors millennia ago, on their fabled exodus from their old homeworld, and boasts large natural reserves of important strategic resources and rare elements, mostly concentrated in the rich asteroid belt. Their homeworld, Cessia, is a verdant world dotted with the hive cities that contain the lion’s share of the hundreds of billions of Cessian brains that inhabit the dream. The population density being truly massive [seeing as each inhabitant takes only a few feet to store], most of the world’s surface is devoted to producing the gargantuan amounts of food needed to keep the billions of Dreamed citizens alive, mass-scale on land or sea. There are five other terrestrial planets, and several habitable moons, not to mention a mineral-rich asteroid belt. Many of these spaces are devoted to food production, much to the industry needed to sustain such population and keep the Dream functioning without fail, not to mention the massive Manufactories that produce the trade goods that cement the Cessian diplomatic position. Much of the asteroid field is cannibalized for antimatter production, or for the shipyards that churn out either manned or unmanned exploration vehicles for the great galactic Experience Harvest [/hider]
[hider=Governance]The Dream, being an unconsciously-directed wonderland that can be shared or instanced per person, has no real government. Those Cessians who exist outside the Dream work under the direction of the Shepard Council, a gathering of a dozen of the oldest Cessians, who direct the running of all Reality functions, with each Councilor controlling their own aspect, from Agriculture to Maintenance to Exploration to Diplomacy. The Arch-Shepard has almost absolute executive control, though on matters that effect all aspects of Reality, the council holds a veto with 1/3 agreement, and on matters effecting the dream, unanimous agreement is required. Councilors and the Arch-Shepard hold permanent positions, but they can be voted from power by plebiscite, and the Arch-Shepard only removed by the will of the council itself. [/hider]
[hider=Culture] The Dream is constantly changing, and to almost every citizen of Reality it is entirely alien, its trends and changes invisible to the outsider. In reality, in its massive mental exchange the average citizen seeks entertainment and pleasure, trends and diversions shifting constantly, burning through experiences and living or creating fictions and tales to be enjoyed by all. In Reality, the culture is one of highly moralistic duty-oriented service, with the improvement and maintenance of the Dream holding almost religious significance, each Reality-bound Cessian hungry to do their duty, and each prizing highly the most valuable commodity for the Dream, new experiences and never before seen memories. Lives for the small population of Reality-bound Cessians are as luxurious as can be afforded, but none are forced to live outside the Dream, being allowed to enter and never return at will, a clone bred to replace them. [/hider]
[hider=Organizations]As mentioned, the Shepard Council controls the entirety of the Cessian Reality operations. Subject to the council, the Exploration Councilor controls the Discovery Fleet, a massive assembly of manned and unmanned vehicles to meet new species and buy their memories, or chart new worlds and bring tales of their geography back to the Dream to fuel its paradise a little longer. The Discovery Fleet works closely with the Defense Councilor’s Vanguard Fleet, which is the second largest institution, and is tasked with defending the home system and the Dream from foreign powers, fanatical and absolutely devoted to their role as the bulwark of their species.[/hider]
[hider=History] The earliest history of the Cessians is unknown, and the reason for their exodus from human society is a mystery. What is known is that after they settled on Cessia their scientists raced forwards in the fields of robotics and biology, and created semi-sentient robots and the ability to create believable, malleable alternate realities. The effects of this latter development nearly destroyed the Cessians, with nearly every citizen leaping at the opportunity to live in the Dream. The Cessians nearly died out, and starvation or technological failures killed hundreds of millions of the first adopters of the Dream, but during a scramble to create the infrastructure necessary to support these Dreamers the Cessians finally became almost entirely sustained on the labor of machines, most citizens remaining in Reality joining their Dreaming brothers and sisters as those who remain outside paradise are needed only for oversight and large-scale guidance.

The first issues arose hundreds of years later, after the cloned populace had surpassed previous census levels and the Dream had become stable. People started to grow bored within ‘paradise’. It was a catastrophe, and while solutions were looked for years of perdition held the Dreamers as there was nothing left for them to do. The idea was finally struck to begin feeding the Dream computers with harvested memories, and while new species and planets were searched for the Reality-bound Cessians gave their memories to keep the Dream alive that little bit longer. Eventually, new civilizations and new locations were found, and the Dream was bolstered, but in the years leading up to the Vacuum the realities of this tactic, that it would only delay and never solve the problem of boredom, became evident.[/hider]
[hider=Outlook]Elated. This is the absolute best-case scenario. Exploration fleets were sent out in a mass exodus to build a massive stockpile of experience, and trade with new lifeforms has tapped an entirely new vein of philosophies, tales and memories. There is little care about why it happened, though scientists are beginning to look into how it was survived and if it can happen again [or be caused]. There is fear for the safety of Cessia proper, seeing as Cessia is surrounded by unfamiliar, possibly-hostile species, but the Defense Councilor is confident in the terrifying extra-planetary defensive perimeters.  [/hider]

[b]Technology:[/b]
[hider=Important/Noteworthy Tech] Semi-sentient, self-modifying robots under strict control from biological Cessians make up almost the entirety of the massive workforce. Artificial intelligence has progressed by leaps and bounds, and automation is a natural process. Everything from farming to fleets to construction is run by single Cessians and performed by armies of robots. Biological advancement has made cloning possible [a necessity when the stable breeding population entered the dream], and though not entirely immortal lifespans have been increased to millennia [a number constantly increasing, despite the negative effects on the stagnation of the dream]. Most Cessians are little more than brains wired into their virtual paradise, with most not even knowing their world is fake. Power is generated via non-orientable wormholes, a new and slightly unstable technology but one with massive potential in the eyes of the Cessians. Mass fabrication, though the focus of a great deal of Cessian research, still lies far off. Regardless, controlled self-replicating work-autos mean that Cessian factories perform at remarkable speeds, stockpiling goods useful to other races. Food production is a much more refined science for the Cessians, and though the 'food' produced for the dream resembles more industrial waste than victuals, it can be produced extraordinarily quickly with a remarkable nutrient density.
Digitizing memories has been achieved for Cessians and most other human descendent races, but new species take sometimes years of study to become compatible, if it is even possible. These memories are fed into the massive superstructures that are the Dream main processors [riddled with failsafes and security redundancies, of course], which then distributes new experiences and foreign ideas to those minds which it detects begin to grow tired of their ‘paradise’, whatever it may be. The Dream computer and the individual brains form a symbiotic reality-creation arrangement, where one plays off the other to maximize enjoyment.
Sensor systems and other means of information gathering are a particular strength of the Cessians, and they have equipped the Exploratory Fleet with the ripe fruits of their research, scanners and cameras and telescopes to survey areas quickly and accurately.[/hider]
[b]Military Structure:[/b]
[hider=Military Organization]
 There are only a few thousand Cessians involved in Defense, but with autos that is seen to be sufficient. The last millennia has seen a constant buildup and improvement of planetary fortresses, spheres of defenses surrounding inhabited planets made up of every weapon at the Cessian's disposal, thought by their designers to be nearly impregnable, or at least dangerous enough to assure mutual destruction. The Cessian fleet is fairly small by comparison, intended to supplement defensive structures and engage alongside fortifications, never to commit to aggressive action. 
 The Defense Councilor has overall command, and beneath him are two Admirals, one of the Fleet and one of the Fortresses. Beneath them the required staff are present. Not a military institution, the Exploratory Fleet is organized as one, with several admirals commanding massive automated armadas of scouts, tying closely with the diplomatic and trade services in procuring requisite commodities from other civilizations.[/hider][/hider]