[hider=Luxans - NPC] [hr][center][img]https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jDf-AbTGvmk/hqdefault.jpg[/img] [b][h1]Remnant Broods of Luxan[/h1][/b][/center][hr] [h2][b]General Information[/b][/h2][h3][b]Overview[/b][/h3]Luxans are an aggressive warrior race bent on conquest. About 70 years ago they used to be a major power in the Stormlosweg Sector but since losing their home they were reduced to mere tribal broods and raiders, harassing their neighbors. They use their unique invasive biology as their technology and capable of evolving to adapt against their opponents. While weak as a state Luxans in battle should never be underestimated. As raiders in space they are infamous for their lightning fast attacks by abusing their slipspace drives. [h3][b]History[/b][/h3] The origin of Luxans is shrouded in mystery. No Luxan was found willing to communicate and it's plausible that not even the Luxans themselves know the details. It can be safely said that they were born on Lux sometime around or after the Kilonova Catastrophe. Some Mortean scientists theorize the Luxans were a biological experiment to create a lifeform capable of surviving in the new hostile environment. Others claim the original inhabitants of Lux turned themselves into these creatures. Whichever is the case by around VR100 they've taken over the planet and permanently transformed it to their nesting ground. Mortean records in earnest begin with VR11 when the Luxans invade Mortis for the first time. They lacked FTL and supposedly used standard propulsion to reach the Todderstern system. Regardless after just recovering from the Karan'esh the Morte were unprepared to face an entirely new threat. Whatever remained of thinning atmosphere of Mortis was lost and turned to corrosive gases by the invaders and in spite of their limited resources it took two decades to get rid of the Luxans. The shock of the First Luxan War also lead to the Morte abandonning their republican system and put power in the hands the charismatic general turned hero, Karl von Metzel. His dynasty ruled Mortis for centuries. [...] By the time of the 13rd Luxan War the Morte grew into a formidable body owning multiple star systems. With the balance of power flipped over the Morte chose to be on the offense and after decades of intense warfare they began the siege of Lux. After sacrificing many billions on both sides the Morte Imperium triumphed and the Luxans were scattered. Losing the Lux didn't just set back their industry but also lead to losing their most sacred place while sacrificing nearly all their leaders. It was inevitable that the Luxans would scatter into numerous small broods. Descending into a borderline tribal state the Luxans busy infighting unless there's a valuable prey nearby. [h2][b]Starmap Information[/b][/h2][h3][b]Galactic Location[/b][/h3] [img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/356807940054843403/361722088588967966/Morte_map.png[/img]The green area shows which parts of the Stormlosweg Sector aren't held by the Morte Imperium yet. Most broods reside somewhere in this area although more and more Luxans settle outside of it and began to spread towards the Yrrkeltharl Coalition [h3][b]Major Holdings[/b][/h3] Unknown, they used to have Lux as their homeworld and primary nesting pool but since then they splintered into dozens of broods. Due to the meticulous way to cover their tracks there's no information about the exact location of any of these broods. [h2][b]Social Information[/b][/h2][h3][b]Demographics[/b][/h3] Luxans are a strain of organism supposedly created on Lux. Their unique cels have the ability to absorb genetic materials and utilize them to better themselves. Primal Lux are the caste of sapient species of their kind. They have largely humanoid features but mixed with the characteristics of many other creatures. Luxans have a deep seated desire to consume and conquer which could be the driving force behind their warlike tendencies. They are a warrior race that values strength, cunning and brutality. Physically they could have varying characteristics albeit generally Primes have a distinct look which makes them easy to identify. Luxans partially earned their names for their relationship to the stars. Collecting radiation is essential for Luxan breeding and hatching mechanism which naturaly makes them dependent on stars. Albeit in the Stormlosweg region they have quite a few more option which is partially why they remained there. Luxans can live in space without much of a discomfort albeit they prefer to fill the air with toxic gases. Lastly, Luxan genetic material is infectious and when implanted to other organisms have a high chance of leading to a fatal disease. The Luxan cells consume the foreign body as they multiply, if completely successful this eventually results in the target creature turning into some sorts of Luxan itself. As such close combat and physical methods are best to be avoided with Luxans. [h3][b]Government[/b][/h3] Luxans long lost any resemblance to a proper government and now considered a group of "Broods" united by a Matriarch each. This can be best approximated as a tribal system with the next biggest authority being the Alpha Prime who's the physically strongest or at least the most successful Prime Lux in their brood. [h2][b]Technological Information[/b][/h2][h3][b]Technology Overview[/b][/h3] Luxans use biotechnology derived from their own genes. In essence everything they use are also Luxans themselves. Regardless their biotechnology evolved to the level of matching other factions which is obviously a no small feat. Luxans use lower ranking strains like other civilizations use machines. Instincts, reflexes and various forms of biological intelligences replace computers and AIs. They can excrete materials tough enough to compete with advanced materials invented by other species. Their bioreactors are capable of using strangely technology like mechanisms to match Mortean advancements. Even their weapons are often living creatures that are altered to serve their function. Luxan biotechnology in an abstract way resembles the developments of other races yet the fundamentals are quite different. [h3][b]Major Techs[/b][/h3] - [b]Weinol:[/b] Name of the family of unique Luxan structural materials, named after a Mortean scientist who synthesized a few variants of it. While in Morte their understanding of Weinol is only sufficient to make them into replacement of plastics the Luxan build their entire civilization on this. It could range from extremely tough yet light and diamond hard armors to powerful muscles or even unique variants to catch antimatter unscratched. The potential applications of Weinol are seemingly limitless. - [b]Spore Launcher:[/b] Common kinetic weapon of the Luxans using yet not exactly understood mechanisms to launch tiny armored spores at hypervelocity. The "spore" can be microscopic or even the size of a huge boulder (for starship weapons) and can take up various shapes and functions. In essence these spores are bioengineered organisms designed to fulfill a certain purpose after impact. For small arms this usually involves just injecting Luxan DNA into bodies to act as poison while at larger scales they can act as explosives, chemical delivery systems, breeding pods to spawn creatures inside enemy ships and so on. Spores of higher complexity also often have their own maneuvering methods and guidance. Some spores may even contain multiple smaller spores. When a spore has significant self-propulsion instead of being launched it's called [b]Locust[/b] and it could be the Luxan equivalent of missiles. - [b]LVASS:[/b] Licht-Verstärkung durch Antistof-Stimulation (LVASS, its Mortean name) is a sorts of gamma ray laser utilizing the energy of pair annihilation for a more focused and powerful laser. Also called as bio-laser for its distinct nature but it should not be confused with Yrrkeltharl Coalition's own bio-lasers that are more of a catch-all term for terrestrial weapons. In Luxan context only laser weapons but both for space and terrestrial use are called as bio-lasers, even those that may not use LVASS mechanism. - [b]Blink Drive:[/b] Around IR200 the Luxans found a derelict Ekhrilthurian spacecraft with its slipspace drive intact. After decades of effort they made a biotech replica of these and finally attained means to FTL. Over the time they made their own adjustments to the long outdated design, while not quite improving it they engineered it for better and better performances. Luxan drives could never achieve long jumps, nor the speeds plausible for modern slipspace drives. Instead they managed to overclock it, allowing fast entries and escapes for their speedy raids. Few hundred years later after the discovery the Luxan were a known menace that could appear almost anywhere within the Stormlosweg sector and when you the least expect it. - [b]Adaptive Biology:[/b] As a result of every piece of Luxan technology being alive these are loaded with a wealth of sensory information along with the inbuilt versatility results in what the Luxans' enemies refer to as "adaptation". After experiencing a new threat this produced a feedback which can be analyzed and using the Luxans' technology base alter their technology to adapt the best way they can know. This can result in unexpected changes in Luxan combat units over the course of a long battle. Luxans don't magically grow immune to enemy attacks but they change to better handle the threat. This can be direct like developing a different kind of armor (switching from anti-DEW to anti-kinetic properties, for example) or a more proactive response that deals with the threat by most likely killing it better (ie.: sensors to spot snipers or growing sniper weapons themselves). [h2][b]Military Information[/b][/h2][h3][b]Military Overview[/b][/h3] Luxans are warlike and most of their society focuses on their ability to fight. Since their technology is biological containing their genetic materials it could be said those are also Luxans. For them fighting is less about political aims but to propagate their kind. Luxans corrupt worlds into their own image and this hostile terraformation is sometimes even part of their military strategy. Once they landed in sufficient mass it's plausible the very planet turns against the defenders. [h3][b]Space Forces[/b][/h3]Luxan starships are semi-living creatures created entirely through unique biological processes. As such there's no uniform design and each ship can change or even grow over their lifetime. Luxan utilizes ships for two purposes. One for patrols and raids, these ships are made for battle and are fairly compact in size. Another category is for behemoths of starships specializing to drop spore pods containing swarms of Luxan troops. While tough and heavily armed with usually a fleet of podcraft as escort they aren't really meant for actual combat. There used to be a class for dreadnoughts but these fell out of favor and after the fall of Lux they are no longer have the means to supply these gigantic beasts so it practically disappeared.[hider=Illustration for Luxan ships - large almost rectangular ones are the Behemoths][img]https://pre00.deviantart.net/adf0/th/pre/i/2009/114/d/d/novo_by_amras_arfeiniel.jpg[/img] [/hider] [b]Podcraft:[/b] Equivalent to starfighters these large organism are varied and often altered by their mothership prior to launch to fit a certain puprose. Most podcraft are giant sentient creatures approaching the intelligence of Prime Lux. In a sense they are like biological drones. Albeit occasionall podcraft are modified to hold a Prime as its pilot or carry cargo/troops as an alternative to Spore Pods. Podcraft can be occasionally capable of Slipspace travel albeit they need a bioship to open a rift for them in order to do so. [b]Spineship:[/b] 120-400m long bioships with elongated shape made for agility and a decent loadout of weapons. It usually has one or a few spinal mounted weapons but unlike for the Morte they have an almost secondary role compared to locusts and weapon batteries. Spineships are again designed for agility and this is reflected in their Blink Drives that are fast and capable of performing two or sometimes more jumps in succession in order to confuse the enemy. Of course that also takes up extra space and requires even more time to recharge but for the Luxans the tradeoff worths it. [b]Behemoth:[/b] 1000-2000m long bioship with plenty of place for carrying warriors as well as breeding new tools to fight with. While compared to a Spineship they're more powerful they aren't even nearly a match for Mortean Dreadnoughts. Most of their weapons are defensive and they're reliant on swarms of Podcraft for protection. They also launch Spore Pods for either bombardment or more commonly to land units for assaults. Their Blink Drive is optimized for distance and can only do a single jump before requiring to recharge. [h3][b]Ground Forces[/b][/h3] TBA [/hider]