WIP app, posting because I've gotten a good deal of the cultural stuff out of the way as well as most of the balance-sensitive stuff. It'll give you an idea of just who my weird space nomads are as well as whether or not I need to cut anything off.

[hider=Urdji Mez-Jemivan]
[h1][center]Urdji Mez-Jemivan[/center][/h1]

[center][h2]General Information[/h2][/center]

[h3]Faction overview[/h3]
The Urdji are a nomadic people who were driven from their homeworld millennia ago by a hostile species which has continued to pursue them throughout their history. The Mez-Jemivan (Great Fleet) is a fairly recent development in their history, having been formed a mere 200 years ago as an ideological return to the ways of thought that characterized their society before the invasion. With the Mez-Jemivan's cracking of the code for Gate Bav-Oslin (A948), they escaped their home quadrant and threw themselves into a new world in which they hope to recreate the prosperity their people once enjoyed.

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[h3]Territory Overview[/h3]
The Mez-Jemivan does not truly hold any territory permanently, though it has created long-term settlements and fortifications near Gate A948. Furthermore, it has deployed a handful of hypernodes to reach systems with habitable, life-rich worlds. The overwhelming majority of Urdji live on starships which search for new gates, new worlds, and any signs of their dreaded enemy.

[hr]
[h3]History[/h3]
This'll probably be a novella so I'm not starting it yet.

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[h2][center]Society Information[/center][/h2]

[h3]Demographics[/h3]
The Urdji are humanoid avians which stand between 1.5 and 1.6 meters tall on average. The [i]Mezibasqe[/i] tribe, which makes heavy use of captured enemy vessels, has the tallest average height at 2.1 meters owing to the lager stature of the D'jim species. The main limiting factor in Urdji development are their ships, which are designed first and foremost to conserve mass and space. Tribes such as the [i]Leşkgemmar[/i] go so far as to practice wing cutting, a tradition from the earliest years of the exodus where wings were surgically removed to allow for individuals to be packed in tighter. Indeed, the [i]Leşkgemmar[/i] lay claim to the tallest living Urdji, a farmer named Agheng who stands at 2.9 meters, as a result of this archaic practice and the abundance of food and medicine that came with the formation of the Mez-Jemivan.

Urdji wings are on average (for the civilian population) capable of providing enough lift for sustained flight in up to 1.2gs in any atmosphere above 0.8atms. A well-trained soldier can be capable of flight in up to 2gs, with the planning of military flight operations being banned at any environment above 1.6gs at 1atm. The [i]Zîvbasqe[/i] tribe's warriors conducted an aerial infantry assault on a 3.3g world, a record that has stood strong for multiple centuries and earned them a fearsome reputation (the particularly thick atmosphere usually isn't mentioned in the stories). The downside to these wings, of course, is their immense size. Wing cutting, though uncommon on newer vessels, is an entrenched practice on just about any ship built before the formation of the Mez-Jemivan. As a result, a sizable portion of the population is wingless.

Besides the obvious departure of their wings, the Urdji are strikingly similar to other humanoid species such as humanity and the Morteans. Bilateral symmetry, two arms and two legs, upright posture, etc. It is worth noting that Urdji bones are particularly weak and prone to breaking, a sacrifice made to allow for their flight on their homeworld. Furthermore, they lack bone marrow and new blood cells are produced in a specialized organ known as the [i]Hei-val[/i]. This is more a fluke of evolution than anything, as nearly all vertebrates from their homeworld have a similar organ. It does, however, slightly lighten the load for flight.

In short, the Urdji are not made for melee.

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[h3]Cultural Overview[/h3]
The Urdji are libertarian to the point that their unification itself is impressive. Previous to the creation of the Mez-Jemivan, the Urdji lived in entirely separated tribal fleets that were at numerous points traveling at sublight speeds. Indeed, the Urdji exodus from their homeworld was conducted with nothing more than fusion rockets. As a result of their nomadic lifestyle and separation, the Urdji were essentially thrown back to stone age social dynamics. There was no hierarchy beyond trust of the wisest, and the tribes essentially functioned just like Urdji hunter-gatherer tribes had on their homeworld. The concept of a set-in-stone leader is relatively new to them. Even property rights are largely alien to them, with just about everything not absolutely necessary for an individual's life being publicly available. If someone is using, say, a loom, it is more or less their property until they are finished with it at which point it becomes held in common by all.

Despite their fierce individuality, the Urdji also have a strong sense of unity through their blood. They have overcome the greatest of obstacles in order to preserve their species, and as a result can manage to work together in spite of their cultural divisions and lack of a defined society. They are, in a sense, primitive hunter-gatherers with nationalist pride. This nationalism, of course, stems from their history. The only contact they have ever had with alien life was with the species that conquered their homeworld. This has led to fairly intense xenophobia, illustrated by their word for alien: "D'jim", which directly translates to "enemy". 

The Urdji have one, singular religion split into numerous different sects. All Urdji worship [i]Xwêdh[/i], the dominant God of all creation, but each sect worships a specific god, goddess, or pantheon that is held to be beneath the all-powerful Xwêdh. Each sect is usually tied to a specific tribe, though numerous tribes have historically worshiped the same "lower gods". Until well after the formation of the Mez-Jemivan it was easily possible to tell which sect one belonged to by appearance alone, as tribal racial differences and prolonged isolation essentially tied sect to race.

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[h3]Government[/h3]
The Mez-Jemivan is the governing body of the Urdji, insofar as it could be described as a "governing body". Though one could describe the Mez-Jemivan as a dictatorship, it is in reality much closer to a tribal confederacy. Each individual tribe within the Mez-Jemivan holds near total power on its own ships, and in the early days of the Mez-Jemivan it was not rare for tribes to fight amongst themselves. The [i]Bilnd-Sûmangişt[/i], the Mez-Jemivan's head of state, only officially controls military matters.

However the current Bilnd-Sûmangişt, Biryar Arlydlan, enjoys a cult of personality owing to the popularity of his political and economic theories. Shortly after assuming command of the Mez-Jemivan, he published a series of works collectively titled [i]Mijare Yêmme D'jim[/i] (On Our Enemy) that gave rise to what is essentially the first true ideology since the fall of the homeworld. As a result, by respect alone he holds a great deal of practical power over the everyday affairs of the Mez-Jemivan. Though nobody is held to obey him, most will do so anyways simply because of his influence.

Despite the unification offered by the Bilnd-Sûmangişt, the Mez-Jemivan remains heavily divided and individual groups will often act on their own. Only the area surrounding Gate A948 is truly controlled by the official government, with the outskirts of the system (and any other systems) being held by various tribes and clans. Each tribe maintains its own military forces and often organized interstellar expeditions without the input of the central government.

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[center][h2]Technology Information[/h2][/center]

[h3]Technology Overview[/h3]
The Urdji are highly advanced in the fields of starship propulsion and armament. Having lived as space nomads for countless generations they have become proficient in just about anything related to interstellar travel and warfare. Both their sublight and FTL drives are among the most efficient in the galaxy, and they have honed naval warfare to an art. Of special note are their strike craft and carriers, which are an integral part of their military doctrine and enjoy much of the same technological advancement. 

They do, however, lack an understanding of surface warfare. Only a few tribes even operate armored land vehicles, with the vast majority being based around highly mobile infantry. Said infantry are armed with, in contrast to their naval weaponry, perhaps the absolute most primitive weaponry in the galaxy. It is not uncommon to see a bolt action rifle in the hands of a common footsoldier, and many ground raids will open with a squad of Urdji soldiers flying over their target and *dropping handheld flechettes*.

A fair portion of Urdji technology is actually scavenged from Builder ruins and the aftermath of battles with the D'jim. If something seems beyond their ability to produce, it's because it probably is. Though this has afforded them a deep understanding of Builder technology (as well as some useful toys), it also represents a weakness. As it cannot be replicated, losing a heavily modified vessel means that whatever capabilities it had are lost forever unless similar relics are discovered elsewhere. 

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[h3]Notable Technologies[/h3]

Durpêçk:
By far the most characteristic technology possessed by the Urdji is the [i]Durpêçk[/i], the "Far Warp". It also represents their greatest reliance on Builder technology. Through the use of extremely rare Builder drive cores, vessels of large enough mass can be warped from the edge of one gate's hyperfield to the edge of the next closest one. The Durpêçk can also be extended in a sphere to engulf numerous other nearby vessels in the effect, allowing entire Urdji fleets to move between active gates without once needing to approach the gates themselves. The drive cores, however, are impossible to replicate and thus irreplaceable. As such, they are fitted on gigantic Urdji cityships which anchor the fleets of multiple tribes (previously, said vessels were simply the capitals of particularly powerful tribes lucky enough to find a drive core). When a cityship is destroyed its drive core is lost forever and the vessel cannot be rebuilt. Furthermore, any damage to a drive core can make it permanently inoperable and more or less turn a cityship into a glorified space station. 

Têkildartîajokravsinya:
The technology most central to the Urdji way of life is the [i]Têkildartîajokravsinya[/i], which roughly translates to "relativity engine". Despite the grandiose name that would seem to imply a mastery of the basic forces of the universe, the relativity engine is in reality just a high thrust antimatter drive. It, as the name suggests, allows for relativistic travel between the stars. This, too, is a Builder technology. However, the Urdji have managed to somewhat replicate the mechanisms of it and modern starships almost always include one. These replica models lack an essential component of the Builder originals, that is their total inertial dampening technology. The passengers of a starship traveling under the power of a true Têkildartîajokravsinya do not experience acceleration. The utility of these true Têkildartîajokravsinya drives, combined with how common they are in comparison to the Durpêçk drive cores, make them a mainstay of any tribe's flagship as well as any cityship. The ability to replicate the propulsion mechanism is a boon to the Urdji as well, as they are capable of expanding a vessel's Têkildartîajokravsinya drive as the vessel itself is built upon. 

[h1]WIP[/h1]
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