Name: White Interstellar Corporations (WIC), also referred as White Corps
Chief Director: Keith White, the third
Headquarters: Cygnus System, Hydea Prime
Government: Interstellar Megacorp/Conglomerate
Status: "Neutral" (see below)


White Corps is a powerful galaxy wide corporation that came to be around the same time as Pax Ashtari, the "peace" established by the might of the Ashtar. Before the first contact with humans, White Corps was a multinational conglomerate evolved from a spacelift company. Keith White (the first) was a brilliant businessman who basically made his empire from scratch. White International Corporations was among the top 100 greatest human companies in the Federation yet compared to their future heights their position was almost mediocre. The grand change arrived alongside with the Ashtar whose galaxy spanning communication measures enabled unimaginable possibilities. Aging yet still in full capacity of his wits, Keith White risked everything to set foot in unfamiliar regions, racing to beat his competition. During his life White Corps went from a decently well-off international enterprise into a conglomerate with interstellar reach, as well as undoubtedly the most powerful corporation on Earth, rivaling nations. His dream continued under the guidance of Keith White (the second) whose youthful energy and desire for growth made White Corps into a galaxy wide entity we know. The second Keith White put down the lion's share of what provides the face of White Interstellar Corporations nowadays. The third Keith White thus seemingly landed a cushy office job with very little to do. The irony of this statement becomes obvious to the reader once you realize he took office only a few years prior to the Great War. The loss of Ashtar presence oversight and the embroiling chaos initially troubled the company but soon they turned things around, responding well to the galactic demand for conflict. In short they turned wars into profit, and keep doing it even now. White Corps' influence is on the constant rise and while materially speaking they are far from a powerhouse, they keep growing. White Corps built a reputation for high quality and extremely dependable services, something in dire demand during such chaotic times. In a sense this makes them neutral, they do not have any dreams of galactic conquest nor offering more support to any particular faction. In practice they are very much self-serving and given their high profile technological leaning they maintain a veiled yet keen interest in the Ashtar homeworld and its ongoings.


White Corps is a galaxy-spanning conglomerate with some degree of involvement in nearly every nation. While interstellar logistics is still their main profile they are present in a myriad of fields. White Mining and Industries (WMI) is steadily growing since the chaos of war, meeting the increasing demand for resources. White Research Fund has presence in countless places of learning, providing support and scholarship programs (as well as receiving up to date information on scientific finds). White Interstellar Innovation Initiative is a giant R&D powerhouse not only gathering technology from distant regions but also developing technology unique to White Corps. White Galactic Credit is a galaxy-wide bank and stock exchange which also invests in foreign companies. Overall the White Interstellar Corporations is a gigantic conglomerate with equally huge and complex leadership to govern it. There are several levels going from the daughter firms to constituent corporations all up to the main branches each lead by an Archon. These Archons have sweeping influence over their set field in the conglomerate and arguably even galaxy-wide. There are overall 11 Archons who also attend regular board meetings in presence of the chief director of White Corps, Keith White himself. These meetings are typically held in Hydea Prime, the planet-wide headquarters of the company but since Archons are constantly busy they can still remotely attend through highly encrypted quantum comms.



As a galaxy-spanning interstellar enterprise the White Corps has employees from a myriad of nations and races.
[to be continued...]


Conservative estimates put White Corps' contribution to around 1% of the galaxy's entire GDP. Over the century the megacorp enjoyed a meteoric growth and its presence is now felt in every corner of the galaxy. That being said they are still just an interstellar company, perhaps the largest and most extensive the galaxy had ever known but regardless they aren't a nation state. Their assets are compartmentalized and dispersed through the galaxy. Like any other company they can be victims of the whims of local governments and while influential they only possess soft power. Similarly their industrial power is hanging on a myriad of interstellar agreements. And to re-iterate: White Corps might be the single greatest company in the galaxy but when compared to the gross national product of major powers they are still underwhelming. That being said, having a profit oriented galaxy-spanning enterprise does mean they could focus on projects much easier and could weigh countless alternatives. This sorts of freedom can also explain their reputation of high tech. While still nowhere to the point of Ashtar it's often beleived that White Corps owns the best technology money could buy. Their research programs penetrate every nation, their development teams "appropriate" patents through the galaxy and their seemingly unending funds can finance technological inventions most nations could never even dream of.



White Security Services (WSS) is the conglomerate's official security branch which eventually grew into a private military corporation of its own. The primary goal of WSS is to secure White Corps' interests but they soon began offering their services to foreign companies and even nations, effectively turning into a mercenary force. WSS is known for their high quality equipment and overall decent service, just as White Corps as a whole. The pool of staff is of course limited as White Corps has no legal grounds to aggressively recruit people, much less to do conscription. Yet given the conglomerate's high tech profile this happened to coincide just nicely. As previously said WSS contractors use high tech gear which combiend with their small numbers means they will not rely on brute force but rather make effective use of their mobility and precision to destablize their opposition. WSS troops are meant for small skirmishes, special operations and low intensity conflicts. They don't do open warfare. This philosophy in some sense is also reflected in their space forces, although combined with a lot of other aspects.




For a long time White Corps didn't own a real space force. The interstellar conglomerate was still growing and they only required to ward off the occasional pirate. Escort vessels commanded by White Security Services were sufficient. Regardless this lead to them gaining some experience in building warships, particularly corvettes and frigates. As the enterprise grew, so did the amount of potential threats. Furthermore their shipbuilding grew into a fruitious business and thus the demand for an independent space force became apparent. White Security Starforce (WSF) became their official name. Technically still answering to WSS yet given massive amount of autonomy. Just as before White Corps focuses on smaller vessels yet size could be deceiving. Although compact the amount of technology and power hidden within these ships should not be underestimated. Indeed while technically the main purpose of WSF is still "security" they grew into a full blown space force. The shipbuilding rush of course effected White Corps, too. The end result were quirky compact warships punching way above their weight class, although with some drawbacks. Strike frigates that really should be deserving to be called cruisers. Then let's not talk about their so-called "expeditionary combat vessels", White Corps' own take to sidestep the Treaty of Detente. Consequently the WSF has a dearth of any large combat vessels. White Security Starforce does not appear to own any battleships, mind dreadnoughts. Some say this is a ruse and White Corps is hiding a force of very much treaty violating dreadnoughts until the opportunity arrives. While such rumors likely have no basis it's well-known that White Corps has fair bit of knowledge in dreadnought technology, even offering technical support in their upgrades and maintenance. Furthermore White Corps does own a Hyperdreadnought, even if it's perpetrually incomplete. Named Equinox this ship serves as the testbed for many new technologies before being scaled down to be mounted on other vessels. This could explain the recent spike of high-powered anti-dreadnought weapons mounted on their newest vessels.

The Conflux is ostensibly a liberal and prosperous, if somewhat bellicose and reclusive union of culturally young species growing and developing under the benevolent oversight of the powerful skirol. What the galaxy knows about it and its true nature are, however, entirely different things. Behind its bright and vibrant facade of disinformation, the Conflux is a predatory hegemony where the skirol rule over hordes of mutated grunts and prisoners of monstrous abattoir worlds, and barter with the flesh of sapients degraded to cattle.



The history of the Conflux is, belying the truth about its structure, mostly that of the skirol. Once one of many parasitic species plaguing the megafauna of their homeworld, they outcompeted their evolutionary rivals not through symbiosis with their hosts, as many others had tried, but by growing increasingly malignant, large and ferocious. By the time they crawled their way to sentience, they had become the apex of the food chain; and, by the time their disparate civilisations had mastered space travel, the once fertile planet had been mostly scoured of life, not so much by rampant exploitation as by the unfortunately specialised alimentary needs of its inhabitants. Curiously, the skirol never formed a unified planetary government. A generally accepted explanation is that the need for one was obviated by the rarity of armed conflicts and international regulations being disfavoured relatively to case-by-case diplomatic agreements, though many historians believe this to be an oversimplification.

The foundations of the Conflux proper were only laid when the skirol discovered that they were not alone in the galaxy. A prospecting interstellar expedition by the Accord of Theniax, then a relatively minor nation, encountered a pre-spacefaring species in a newly discovered system. The skirol had a difficult time coming to grips with the idea that anything else could be intelligent in the same way as them, something many are still not fully convinced of to this day. It did not help matters that most of the Accord subscribed to the aggressive faith of the Wurm Raslir, whose cosmology left little room for friendly contact. Though inferior in numbers to an entire planet’s people, Theniax had vastly superior technology and the advantage of orbital control. The newly met species, its original name stricken and forgotten, was pillaged, enslaved and processed to be fit for consumption by the skirol. Willing collaborators were “rewarded” by being subjected to experimental augmentation procedures and, if they survived, accepted by a society that thought little of their betrayal. Almost overnight, the Accord became a major player on the market and political scene, which contributed to the spread of the religion of the Wurm until it surpassed many of the previously dominant confessions.

The Reaping of Irret-Thenn, as it became known, gave an explosive new motivation for interstellar colonisation and set a precedent for future contact. The skirol had discovered a taste for intelligent meat, and wherever they happened over the miracle of life, which they were lucky enough to do a few times more in the following centuries, their sleek, spiny ships descended like a hungry swarm, subjugating, harvesting, and uplifting defectors to bolster their forces.

Although their intentions never changed, and indeed have not to this day, the skirol’s first clashes with other spacefaring powers made them rethink their strategy. Faced with prey they could not overwhelm through brute force and fearing that they would face war on all fronts if their practices came to light, their governments, in an unprecedented display of joint effort, assembled to build an enormous masquerade that spanned the entirety of skirol-held space. The Harmonious Conflux of the Hundred Suns, as it was known at the time, was formed as an international organ with sweeping authority to curtail and oversee external communication, projecting an aseptically neutral and rather enigmatic public image. The burgeoning population descended from the various uplifted inductees, now largely mutated and modified beyond recognition, was rebranded as a number of minor protectorates, and the existence of the conquered harvest worlds became a dark secret hidden in the depths of Conflux space.

Nevertheless, the skirol’s hunger for new tastes only grew, and with subterfuge instead of force they had only traded one weapon for another. Where mere expansionism was judged unacceptable, finding more civil pretexts to skirmish with their neighbours, and not only, became a favourite sport. From border disputes over some drifting asteroid to false flags set up by uplift mercenaries, Conflux forces made a habit of sweeping into their targets’ backwater colonial holdings on the flimsiest casus belli, abducting the population and concealing the strange disappearances with massive collateral damage. The conflict was then smothered in protracted negotiations, and usually ended with the offer of token reparations, though this was of little comfort to the captives, en route to becoming the latest flavour on the market. Of course, when the skirol were confident enough of their superiority, formalities were forgone altogether, and small colonies just inexplicably vanished before anyone could tell what hit them. An entire industry sprang up around this sort of raiding, from specialist harvester companies to teams of treaty loophole-seekers, and in time it grew to become one of the main pillars supporting the economy of the Conflux, by then already comprising Innumerate Suns and having spread into a catch-all term for skirol holdings and activities.

Needless to say, the advent of the Ashtar hit it badly. While at first they flatly disregarded the imposition of peace and gleefully carried on with their hit-and-runs, they quickly found that not even their raiding fleets, whose speed and stealth were the pride of skirol engineering, could outrun retribution. Growing furious and desperate as this once hugely profitable niche was choked, threatening their entire market, they struck at the Ashtar directly, sending droves of warships against their response parties, but only succeeded in wearing themselves down.

The worst, however, was yet to come. With as little warning as they did anything, the Ashtar struck at the Conflux’s harvest worlds, bypassing their outermost defensive perimeters altogether. The skirol guards were scattered, their stranglehold over the planets shattered, and centuries of conditioning and forced obedience were undone in a matter of hours, former captives shaking off the constraints of a lifetime. It was a miracle that the skirol's cover held at all, mostly owing to everyone else having better things to keep them busy and what information got out being later dismissed as provocations spread by rebellious subjects. Cornered and heavily wounded where it had never expected a blow, the Conflux gathered the largest warfleet in its history and prepared to attack the Ashtar head-on, regardless of the disparity of forces. Or, at least, it tried. Individual battlegroups were intercepted, gathering points were blockaded, and the final assembled force, mere scraps of its projected magnitude, was faced with the imposing mass of Prevailing Tranquility. Threatened with complete annihilation, the skirol had no choice but to resign themselves to a heavily downsized diet and market, though their resentment grew and festered.

By the time the Ashtar disappeared, the Conflux was starved for fresh meat and on the brink of economic collapse, having been deprived both of its old conquests and the lucrative raids. It is thus little wonder that it was at the forefront when the Great War erupted, looking to make up for lost time by gobbling up as many people as it could, appearances be damned. However, it soon became clear that all its rage had little of a punch behind it; built for rapid and precise tactical operations, its military had never been prepared for sustained conflict. Attrition took its toll, even as its forces were spread thin by the simultaneous effort of retaking the liberated harvest worlds, and when the Madrigasa talks came about the Conflux dragged itself to the table beaten and broken, with few real gains to show for it.

Yet those few scrapings proved vital, giving a brief reprieve for the Innumerate Suns to sustain themselves as they turned their attention inward to sharply reorganise their workings. The Detente saw heavy work on the harvest worlds, which were rebuilt and reshaped into streamlined breeding grounds. In a bold move that many feared would threaten the Conflux’s facade, but was ultimately recognised as necessary, the market was opened to external trade, (supposed) slaves in particular becoming a valued commodity both as imports and exports. Along with offering a much-needed influx of foreign wealth, many saw this as an opportunity to smooth over the skirol’s reputation in at least some corners of the international stage after a litigious and belligerent past.

This period of revolutions had, however, some adverse effects as well. The seeds of radical ideological movements had been sown during the hardships of the past recession, and a changing society brought them to the fore. Rogue underground factions gained alarming power, and their sometimes unsubtle machinations more than once strained both Detente and masquerade to their limits.

Incidentally, those same rogue factions gave the Conflux a convenient excuse when the Message pointed the way to Agdemnar, and officially the skirol force that has dug in on the planet is controlled by any number of extremist groups. Still, the roots of conspiracy have had decades to sink deep into its reconstructed society, and sometimes the brains at high command themselves wonder just how much of that is merely a cover story.



Vesereth: The homeworld of the skirol, once shared along millennia-old repartitions by their elder nations, has gradually been overtaken by the Conflux’s administration as the organisation’s significance grew, and now serves as the de facto capital of the Innumerate Suns. While most of the old polities maintain a token presence in culturally and historically important places, most of the planet is considered neutral ground. This makes it a favoured meeting ground for settling diplomatic disputes, as well as being the neural center of the Conflux’s activities of communications, transit, market and to an extent military oversight. The planet’s heavily urbanised surface is an amalgamation of architectural styles as diverse as many are ancient, with remains of its peculiar megafauna ecosystem surviving only in sparse reservations.

Giaxil: The Lisrak Covenant has, for most of skirol history, been the largest and most powerful sovereign state to stretch its holdings beyond Vesereth, and in some aspects this still holds true. Though temporary outpaced when Theniax struck it rich with the Reaping, the old money of the Conflux more than recouped its losses with the rise of the raiding industry, and for a long time dominated the niche with its unequaled military might. The post-bellum need for remodernisation only served to cement its position as the strongest pillar of Conflux’s military-industrial complex. The seat of the Lisrak government embodies this role, being a bustling hive of factories, laboratories, military compouds and marketplaces of all calibers. Life on Giaxil is busy to the point of being frantic, but also famously well-paid.

Ur’Theniax: In many ways the polar opposite of Lisrak, the Accord of Theniax never shifted its attention away from its resounding success in the Reaping, instead choosing to capitalise on the practice of world harvesting and its various products. Besides swelling to obscene wealth through careful exploitation of the flesh trade, biotechnological research sponsored by it made leaps and bounds thanks to the abundance of high-quality subjects that were ethically and legally free game, its society was always the most progressive in its acceptance of uplifted Acolytes, and its patronage of the church of the Wurm let it reap the rewards of its cultural primacy. In contrast with Giaxil, its capital of Ur’Theniax is a clean, quiet and photogenic paradise, decorated with ample stretches of unspoiled nature. It is ideal estate for research facilities, elite trading hubs (usually dealing more with stocks than the actual deal), religious centers and luxury estates for wealthy skirol or successful Acolytes.

The Silent Maw: Located at the fringes of Conflux space and the one of the few places in it freely accessible to outsiders, the Silent Maw is one of the most concrete signs of the social restructuring that has pervaded the Innumerate Suns. This vast, well-fortified habitat station, strategically placed at a convergence of several local transit routes, is the greatest slave trading hub in skirol territory, and certainly one of, if not the largest in the galaxy altogether. While maintained by the Conflux itself, the nature of the business that takes place on it such that some concessions need to be made for more legally dubious clientele, and thus, despite standard surveillance and the application of tax rates, transactions can easily be held in complete anonymity.

Kardatt: During the Detente-era industry reforms, the reconquered harvest worlds, the Conflux’s closest-held secret, underwent radical renovations to become the backbone of the now once more insular flesh trade. Kardatt, one of the last inhabited planets to be conquered in the first period of skirol expansion, and thus comparatively less ruinated by rampant exploitation, was the prototype of the chillingly efficient new model, and remains a symbol of the undertaking’s success. Heavily defended and camouflaged, the planet is a hell of assembly lines, breeding pens, cloning chambers and worse, regularly churning out herds of debased beings to sate the skirol’s hunger.







Skirol: A species of malignant parasites who grew to exceed the size, strength and intelligence usually held by such organisms, but never lost their voracity and primitive non-dimorphic, worm-like appearance. Their prehensile branching tongues supply to the needs of fine manipulation, though nowadays most prefer to use mechanical prosthetic aid. In ideal conditions, they can live for a surprisingly long time, exceeding several centuries even unaugmented; however, this is generally only achieved by the wealthiest among them. Strictly carnivorous, skirol, in an atavistic throwback, prefer consuming their prey alive, slowly draining it of fluids and externally digested organs before finishing the desiccated body in a few bites of their bone-breakingly powerful jaws. Psintegrat aptitude among them is unusually rare, though those that do show potential can develop tremendous powers.



Acolytes: A blanket term for beings descended from the minorities of conquered populations that willingly joined the skirol. Generations of bio-augmentic tinkering and simply living among their masters have long made every Acolyte unrecognisable as the species their ancestors had once been, their bodies warped beyond nature and their minds overtaken by an alien culture. Having abandoned every vestige of their old lifestyles out of scorn, desire to integrate into the dominant society, or simple convenience, they mostly reproduce through cloning or artificial parthenogenesis. While they can be divided into a number of mostly stable breeds, every Acolyte is a biologically unique entity, shaped by a free choice of augmentations and distinguishing marks of their occupation.







Others: The ones you won’t find in any census or galactic atlas. Despite forming a sizable percentage of the Conflux’s overall population, the inhabitants of subjugated planets are not recognised as sapient members of it. Bred in gigantic factories that were once their homeworlds, they are treated, sold and devoured like cattle by the skirol, and centuries of debasement have indeed left most of them mentally little better than animals. Those that do reach the public eye do so as exotic slaves from allegedly primitive worlds. In late pre-Ashtar times, this category has been expanded to include the victims of abduction raids, who are likewise subjected to the same treatment.



Traditionally, the structure of skirol society has rested on the notion of the trezklin. This word, loosely translatable as “swarm” (though much of its meaning is lost), denotes a large, but tightly bound family unit living and working in close vicinity. Spanning various levels of more or less extended kinship, trezklin are extremely diverse in size; the smallest might count around a dozen members, while the largest number in the hundreds, and in some cases even the low thousands. Those numbers are, naturally, in constant fluctuation as some leave the family web to join another or found their own nucleus, and others are conversely taken in as they come to join a new mate or several. Single skirol living outside a trezklin are not quite uncommon, and are growing progressively less so in modern times, but are still regarded as eccentrics.

The reason for this is that, now as thousands of years ago, by and large it is the trezklin, and not the individual, that is considered the minimal formant unit of society. Jobs have historically been, rather than positions to be filled by fungible appropriately skilled workers, dynastic traditions upheld by the members of the same trezklin over the generations. The staff of a facility, the crew of a ship, an entire military unit; each of these was, and in many places still is, far more often than not a family in addition to everything else. Young skirol were quite literally born into their roles, and raised accordingly. This did not, however, negate social mobility; those dissatisfied with their position could seek membership of a different trezklin, if they were accepted and proved they possessed the necessary aptitudes, and units judged to be underperforming by those higher in the hierarchy (itself a rather complex notion; more details in the government description) could be downgraded to a lower position and replaced.

While this system has held from the birth of skirol civilisation, ever since the species began to expand into interplanetary space its inflexibility and difficulty in adapting to the needs of spacefaring nations became apparent. Assigning jobs to individuals was a completely alien idea which all but the most radical visionaries struggled to even process, but a compromise was found in the shape of what came to be known as anrak-trezklin, or “surrogate” trezklin. Those are typically groups of skirol who join together in order to receive a temporary position, and only remain thus until the term of the job has expired. Although those anrak-trezklin can occasionally develop into actual families, in most cases the relationships holding them together are purely businesslike, with each member still considered part of their trezklin of origin and expecting to return there. A gradual shift has made this model of employment the dominant one on the modern market, though, depending on the place and field, old dynastic trezklin occupations are still common enough, and the progressive integration of Acolytes has made individual work a more widely accepted, if still curious reality.

Despite the enduring rigidity of its structures and the perpetual control of communications by Conflux authorities to ensure the truth about the harvest worlds is not leaked out, skirol society is surprisingly liberal. With no clear division of class beyond disparity of income, the goods and privileges available to any citizen depend exclusively on their wealth, and extreme poverty is, if not completely nonexistent, becoming increasingly rare. Basic commodities are generally affordable to any social stratum, not in the least because, though the skirol enjoy luxury, they can easily subsist on very few minimal necessities, albeit how comfortable that subsistence is can be debated. Nevertheless, a permissive social order and a widespread striving for profit contribute to a rather competitive environment, which results in further entrenchment and insularity of the trezklin - the reason why solitary lifestyles are still discouraged at a distance of centuries.

The position of Acolytes in all this is an ambiguous one. Nominally accepted, they are neither skirol, nor do they have an innate drive to form trezklin. Because of the integrational difficulties caused by this, Acolytes have long remained on the fringes of Conflux society, trying to build their own cultures and communities with varying degrees of success and interacting with the wider macrocosm of the Innumerate Suns in the capacity of mercenaries and hirelings most of the time. Theniax has always been a notable exception, showing itself more willing to accommodate the needs of its recruits by creating professional niches available for individuals. Besides easing the access of Acolytes into society, this has had the added effect of lessening the stigma around solitary living, as this has become a viable choice for skirol as well. Due to this, most of the Conflux’s members have long been reluctant to follow Theniax’s example, though more and more concessions are being made in this direction in recent times given the beneficial results of this policy.

In a society that is, at its core, market-driven, the importance of religion has long been on the decline. Nevertheless, the inherently conservative nature of the trezklin has so far considerably slowed the withdrawal of spirituality from the Conflux, in a personal if not a political way. Among the many ancestral devotions and latter-day cults of the skirol, a majority of which tend to adopt some form of skewed animism, the most popular remains the worship of the Wurm Raslir, which is likewise overwhelmingly dominant among the Acolytes. According to its doctrine, the Wurm, commonly interpreted to be symbolic of the skirol species, is a vast metaphysical entity that parasitises the cosmos itself, taking what it needs and giving nothing in return but the wisdom of its example. If one considers the immense historical impact of its teachings after it was brought to relevance, it is really little wonder that the Conflux should have become what it is today.



Until the Detente, the Conflux’s policy of isolationistic aggression caused its economy to develop in a self-contained form, with the only, albeit not insignificant, influx from outside coming in the guise of abduction victims. Consequently, while a lack of external stimulation might have prevented it from growing to its fullest potential, the proportionally greater importance placed on self-sufficiency contributed to the formation of a powerful and diverse production base and an active internal market. Where this impetus would have proven insufficient for a lesser nation, the Innumerate Suns’ colossal reserves of territory and xeno-power, as well as the skirol’s physiological needs allowing for problems in sectors like agriculture to be solved in uniquely economical ways, proved a sturdy foundation for an industry of titanic power. An adequate example of this strength needs be sought no further than its performance during the Great War, where the Conflux’s fleets, despite their defeat by the Ashtar and subpar performance in prolonged combat, blazed through most of the conflict almost exclusively through force of numbers. While the industrial complex has not yet fully recovered from that strain, its reconstruction has thus far been steady, partially owing to the market reforms.

Arguably the most important of the latter has been the decision to make the Conflux’s economic scene more accessible for outside trade. Although its stringent information control regulations prevent it from entertaining foreign presences outside the Silent Maw and a few other approved trade hubs, its own merchants are seen abroad much more often, and remote transactions, however laconic, are gaining in popularity. Most notably, the Conflux has spent the best part of the decades of peace making a name for itself on the international slave and bio-construct markets, whether legal or less so - a distinction it finds wholly irrelevant, beyond how it might negatively impact its public image. Beyond having grown to a major actor in these fields, the Innumerate Suns have adopted a more open stance vis-a-vis the exchange of heavy industry products, importing machinery and ship components from relatively cheap corporate sources and selling their own. Traces of the skirol’s notorious insularity remain as entertainment and consumer goods are concerned, however, with most foreign produce being considered confusing and uninteresting for the former, and simply incompatible or superfluous for the latter.



Despite the sprawling size of their territories, or perhaps because of it, the skirol have steadfastly maintained their tradition of not centralising their government into a single organism, instead preserving their political status as several quasi-independent polities. The emergence of the Conflux and particularly its growing importance during the Great War and afterwards might be early signs that, despite all odds, such a centralisation could after all be possible and even necessary at length, but, in the current conditions, it will likely be decades at the least before this ambiguity finds a resolution in either direction.

In terms of geopolitics, the Innumerate Suns are divided into five main blocs of unequal size and influence. The most powerful, monolithic and recognisable by far are the Lisrak Covenant and the Accord of Theniax, nations that have endured since the earliest space-faring days of the species and either never stopped growing or capitalised on individual events of major importance. Despite the occasional (and not very firm) resurfacing of the sentiment that all members of the Conflux are at least nominally equal, it is no secret to anyone that Lisrak and Theniax hold the greatest sway in all matters of common concern, and indeed dictate the course of events outright more often than not. The only meaningful opposition they could encounter, barring an unprecedented coalition of the other three parties, is each other; however, while their ideological disagreements, large or small, are myriad and often incomprehensible to outsiders, their lines for questions of international importance are most of the time compatible enough for overt clashes to be rare.

The third and fourth factions, while a far cry from the two giants in prominence, likewise share a major structurally defining trait, though instead of unity theirs is diversity. The Halypt Conglomerate is a rather tight-knit ensemble of venerable skirol governments native to Vesereth, who, however, never were as successful as their more famous compatriots, and lobbies representing the interests of major corporate bodies, who saw a safer path in entering a formal agreement with state partners, at the risk of incurring charges of commercial favouritism, rather than trying to challenge the two titans on their own. As a result, the Conglomerate’s sizable market presence is disproportionate to its actual political influence, which, while respectable, is still comparatively meager. Some speculate that it could plausibly rival the Conflux’s superpowers were it not for the many conflicts of interest that regularly arise to plague it, condemning it to remain largely fractured and lacking much of a unified ideological direction.

On the other hand, a more harmonious state of internal affairs is in itself not a guarantee for success, as demonstrated by the Conglomerate’s rough counterpart. The Pale Coil, as it is known, is a loose association of younger colonial nations, formally assembled to defend their concerns on the wider stage of the Conflux. Though not comparable to the Conglomerate in terms of wealth, controlling a scant few harvest worlds overall, the Pale Coil is far stronger in terms of individual voices, and, collectively, its heavy industry is a close contender for the second place after Lisrak among the Innumerate Suns. However, any advantages these factors might grant are hamstrung by a very limited engagement in international politics; between its disjointed nature and sparse development in most fields, members of the Coil largely prefer to focus on inward growth, and only really undertake any sort of unified action when they believe their interests to be threatened.

Even more disorganised and invisible than the Coil, to the point of being often disregarded altogether, is the final pillar of the Conflux’s superstructure. The various minor Acolyte societies that exist outside established skirol nations are as a rule too small, scattered and politically inactive to have any true standing. The very archetypal idea of the small Acolyte commune living at the edges of civilisation is steadily becoming a vestige of past times, as more of these groups become integrated into wider bodies. As such, the very existence of a “fifth power” in the Conflux is only recognised in a purely formal capacity, and it is widely expected that even this aspect will disappear before the turn of the century.

Despite their impressive number, the practices of internal governance of those powers are relatively easily described. Skirol governments have a curious tendency towards a sort of convergent development; any society beyond a certain size will be virtually guaranteed to coalesce into certain broad structural patterns. The underlying form of any regime almost invariably tends towards taking the shape of a plutocratic oligarchy, with wealth and income being the main indicators of a trezklin’s chances for upward social movement and the influence it wields in local society. In an environment of stable employment and regularised wages, this system would quickly create a vicious circle of stagnation. However, in the overwhelming majority of skirol economies income is under minimal regulation and tied to a variety of factors, a good number of which are usually outside the control of the employed trezklin’s superiors (for instance, market fluctuations, authorised secondary sources etc.). These factors contribute to the rather paradoxical conditions in which a sluggish institution like the trezklin exists in a social environment with the potential for constant flux, though the immediate effects of this are most of the time less dramatic than this description might suggest.

At the upper echelons of any nation, however, these regularities break down. While in theory there would be nothing stopping a single vastly influential trezklin from instaurating itself as an absolute power at the top of the social pyramid, history has shown more than once that such drastic actions provoke equally drastic reactions, and a family that gathers too much power for itself will be the target of heavy reprisals from rivals, occasionally culminating in outright civil conflict. Thus, the usual solution to such power struggles is the creation of a governing body from anrak-trezklin made up of delegates from the most outstanding lineages. Should any of the latter be supplanted, their members in the government are likewise replaced by their successors, a process that has been bureaucratically refined over the ages to be far less grey and vague than it might sound. At the rarefied tips of the hierarchy, success is impiteously and inflexibly measured in hard quotas. The specific rules and conformations of these coalitions vary between nations, including how the branches of authority are divvied up, but a generally observed basic law is that no participant trezklin may hold an overwhelming majority presence in any organ, no matter the circumstances. If this law should be broken, the other formant families unfailingly take it upon themselves to restore balance, often by drastic means.

Of course, none of the aforementioned structures and factions would be as notable as it is without the intervention of one factor. The Conflux is at one time a coordinating mind, a restraining web and the arena on which they vie for superiority. Originally founded as a focus for projecting an irreproachable image of the skirol to foreign powers via information control, the growing evidence of the impossibility of such a task in the age of mass multimedia information (for a long time now, it has been relying chiefly on the good sense of its citizens to keep quiet and the threat of public denouncement), combined with the increasing number of challenges that had to be faced jointly by the skirol nations, caused it to develop beyond its intended purpose. Nowadays, the Conflux is effectively a supra-national organism with sweeping, rather vaguely-defined authority; its true limits and capabilities are a subject approached as cautiously as a hornet nest, and usually not at all. Its composition is likewise baffling, as while it was once formed exclusively by delegate anrak-trezklin, age has contributed to the birth of more than a few true trezklin among its halls and corridors, firmly tied together in ways confusing for the authorities of the member states. Beneath its crust of assorted paperwork, it functions as a nexus of diplomacy both internal and foreign, in which it crudely resembles a simplistic parliament with all associated structures, and the head of joint military efforts when necessary. If nothing else, the skirol are mostly capable of coming to a mutual understanding in these basic expressions of war and peace.

That said, every system has its deviants, and the Conflux is no exception. Rogue factions are nothing new, with many criminal groups having come and gone since the earliest days of the exploitation of harvest worlds, but the damage caused by the Ashtar and then the Great War has exasperated the existing currents of extremist thought. The number of militant groups owing no allegiance to the Conflux, now resting on mostly ideological bases, has increased, and two in particular have swollen to dangerous size. It is suspected that they can rival established nations, partly thanks to rumoured connections to major official entities. The Omniphage in particular are often associated with the church of the Wurm, despite not conforming to commonly accepted doctrines. This sect believes that it is the divine right of the skirol to not merely prey on other sentients, but hunt and devour them to extinction, that they might be the only masters of the galaxy, and the fanatism of its members is well-supported by strangely abundant reserves of weaponry. Less spiritual, and arguably more dangerous, the Genome Harvesters are usually believed to have ties with the military-industrial complex, and the advanced technology they have proven to possess gives this theory some ground to stand on. Their organisation and goals are more obscure, but speculation has it that they seek the collective genetic records of all species for some nefarious purpose - and that they might really have a hand in the officially renegade expedition to Agdemnar to further their schemes.



The Conflux’s technological development is on par with that of most galactic powers, if occasionally taking different detours to reach similar results. While the diversity of the skirol nations and minimal to no regulation have prevented any overall standard from forming, some principles are universally in use throughout the Innumerate Suns, either harkening back to an age of more densely concentrated populations or having spread by virtue of their sheer superiority over any alternative.



Traction-Core Generator: Conceived in its earliest forms in the early days of space travel, the vacuum-core principle has been a fundamental of Conflux energy production for centuries, supplanting even nuclear sources as the more widespread system of choice. Its main application consists in the generators, large apparati from which obstruents are removed in order to create a partial vacuum. At the center of these structures, usually shaped like cylindrical vats, although spherical variants exist, there is placed a compressed cluster of superheavy matter, typically of the heftier metals, which is then made to spin and generate centripetal traction. The latter is collected by a system of pistons in the form of kinetic energy, which is then converted, through secondary additions to the generators, into the required forms. While the production of traction-core generators is significant, they are physically large and bulky, and were thus traditionally only used in industrial complexes, urban energy plants and aboard large ships. However, recent breakthroughs in miniaturisation have finally made the production of reliable smaller models possible, to the point that even small ships and some atmospheric vehicles can be outfitted with them.

Vacuum Shields: One of the main disadvantages of traction-core generators is that, due to the relative complexity of the intermediary systems, regulating their output is a difficult matter, especially in the cramped confines of a spaceship. As such, typical default production settings tend to be rather high in the event that a sudden performance spike might be needed at an unexpected moment. Naturally, this leaves a sizeable excess margin in normal conditions, a circumstance that has heavily influenced the design philosophies of skirol shipbuilders and is most clearly reflected in the energy shielding systems mounted on their vessels. Rather than projecting a static field, vacuum shields, so named after the source, channel the power fuelling them into a constant outward flux, dissipating and renewing their outward layers many times a second to provide a stable vent for the excess output they receive. Redundant systems ensure that the transitions do not leave the perimeter exposed. Due to their functioning, vacuum shields provide a very effective defense against protracted pressure at relatively low intensity, such as from directed energy weapons; conversely, they are more vulnerable to high-density impacts like those of projectile armaments. The use of vacuum shields is likewise the main reason why Conflux ships only mount energy weapons for short-range point defense purposes.

Vortex Cannons: While the vacuum-core principle is certainly not central to all aspects of skirol naval technology, elements of it have been incorporated far and wide in the field. Ship-mounted weapons are no exception, and vortex armaments have for centuries been the mainstay of spaceborne combat. These devices are effectively railguns that use a non-linear motor, having a propulsion system shaped as a magnetic coil with a central repulsor element. Vortex cannons employ centrifuge force as an additional accelerating factor, increasing shot velocity at the expense of some projectile mass. As such, a vortex cannon will be larger and more ponderous than a conventional mass driver using slugs of a comparable size, but perceptibly more powerful.

Vacuum Warheads: Sometimes, the road from vacuum-core to weapon is not as indirect. Vacuum warheads are little more than missiles mounted with a device similar to a traction-core generator, though significantly less stable and with fewer functional additions. On impact, the device’s outer shell is ruptured, briefly exposing its surroundings to its powerful inward traction before it collapses. The result is an implosion strong enough to deform and tear open starship hulls and armour, exposing the target to the diffusion of any secondary payloads the warhead might carry.

Slipspace Pulse Disruptors: The skirol’s raiding habits in pre-Great War times and the following need to cover up their operations spurred them to innovate in the field of stealth and infiltration. All their achievements with radar evasion and sensor attacks, though, rest on the necessary foundation of the pulse disruptor. Attached to the slipspace drives used on Conflux ships, these machines create a disturbance effect upon exiting FTL. This alters the surge that is the first perceptible effect of the ship entering realspace, and that has throughout history been the bane of stealth designs due to the ostensible impossibility of masking it. Although disruptors cannot hide this pulse, they are capable of curtailing it, funneling the burst into spare capacitors, and scrambling its signature. The result is that any sensors will detect the surge as being produced by a variable number of light ships exiting FTL, none of them intense enough to be equipped for combat. Due to the demands on power and space, disruptors are only used on ships designed for stealth, but a number of them mixed into a battlefleet could throw an opponent’s preliminary calculations severely off-course.

Organomechanical Integration: A staple of Conflux manufacture great and small, the melding of machinery to engineered organic components, usually through surgical synapse attachment, is found at all levels in daily life and beyond. From basic personal devices to vehicles, body augmentics and, more recently, starships, if something is produced in skirol space, chances are it will have a fleshy pulsating mass on the underside. This offers obvious benefits in decreasing production and replacement costs and time, as grown components are faster and cheaper to procure than assembled ones, as well as greater ease in interfacing and comfort in handling (if one has the right physiology). On the downside, integrated devices require more intensive upkeep and, insidiously, are easily prey to planned obsolescence, creating a very profitable market for living spare parts.





Prior to the manifestation of the Ashtar, the Conflux, despite already presenting itself as a singular entity, did not have a unified military. Every separate nation relied on its own armed forces for peacekeeping, raiding and conquest, with the divergences in resources and technology spreading the overall picture too wide for any clear standard to be applicable. The occupation and subsequent string of defeats confronted the skirol with the necessity of being able to present a compact front in more than theory. While new military actions were impossible and rearmament was difficult, there was nothing preventing them from restructuring their navy at a formal level as long as no true conflict came from it, and so they did.

The result was a federated force under the command of the Conflux’s Commission for Enduring Harmony, itself partially comprised of representatives of the contributing powers, with every component retaining a large degree of autonomy outside of times of total war. To promote standardisation across the fleets, the practices of circulating blueprints and schematics of crucial systems and collecting common war effort funds were instituted, enduring until the present day. The destruction brought by the Great War and the rebuilding that followed were, among all else, opportunities to further streamline the previous diversity of organisations and approaches, and the most was made of them where possible. Nowadays, while the skirol militaries remain quite clearly varied in their appearances and tactics, they tend to use the same ranges of designs with relatively minor modifications. The eternal exception to this are independent Acolytes, who, being prevalently mercenaries, remain a motley and colourful crew.



The Conflux’s fleet is the branch of its military that is attributed the most importance, and the one that has seen the most radical overhauls over its history. Having started out as disparate forces used mainly for raiding and suppression of inferior enemies, the early unified navy sought to capitalise on the design features common among its ships - speed, stealth and offensive capabilities dramatically outpacing their defensive ones. These vessels relied on quickly bridging the gap between them and their opponents, bringing the fight to dangerously close ranges where their weaponry would have room to shine. The tragic results of this approach are reflected in the staggering death tolls of the Great War, where skirol fleets were decimated time and again by more resilient enemies.



The need for greater staying power was keenly felt in post-War times, but the terms of the Detente prevented overt experimentation with warship designs. A solution was found in the once-discarded notion of applying organomechanical integration of machinery at the level of starships. Previously disregarded due to their difficult and laborious implementation funneling resources away from more reliable traditional fully-mechanical models, hybrid craft were devised and put into production with a view to circumventing treaty limitations, especially playing on the parameters on tonnage and armour. The result were prototype lines with less skewed armaments than before, but whose main goal was crippled by the very subterfuge that brought them into being. Organic components, being less dense, were indeed lighter, but also less robust, and the problem of defense lagging behind offense again presented itself.







In the last years, the crumbling importance of the treaty, along with far greater experience in shipwide integration, have finally let Conflux engineers reach something like the fabled balance they were seeking. Melding organic and metallic parts in a much smoother way, last-generation vessels boast defenses unparalleled before in skirol history, along with improved weaponry. As such, when they take the field (which is not often, given how rare they are as yet) they are found spearheading assault formations, followed by the malformed droves spawned by the Detente period. In an ironic reversal of roles, the older ships now form the rearguard, saturating enemy defenses with massed fire to cover the advance of their new, improved counterparts.





Dreadnoughts:

Insatiable: Coming into service in the later stages of the Great War, the Insatiable-class dreadnoughts were an early attempt to correct the deficiencies of Conflux shipbuilding. These imposing vessels are thickly armoured and shielded on several layers, while retaining a heavy array of weaponry. Of course, this aged equipment is far less impressive nowadays.

Sun Devourer: One of the crowning achievements of Conflux industry and development, Sun Devourers concentrate decades of work on shipwide organomechanical integration and improvement into leviathans of plasmid-flesh and metal as deadly as they are immense. These flagrant defiances of the Treaty are as yet few, their existence one more among the skirol’s secrets, and it is not soon that they will fully enter mass production.

Battleships:

Reaper: Once the iron fist of the skirol raiding fleets, Reaper battleships were fine-tuned for the role, being prepared to deal with sparse local defenses through speed and overwhelming firepower. Due to their flagship role, their defenses were nonetheless not fully neglected, and they thus fared comparatively better than smaller lines in the Great War. Compared to modern craft, their once-fabled agility is nothing to write home about, but a lot of guns on a pair of strong thrusters remains a lot of guns on a pair of strong thrusters.

Flayer: Among Detente-era experiments with integration on warships, Flayers are unique in that, instead of having a few components replaced with organic parts, they were mostly built from living tissue instead, an artifice partially motivated by the more stringent limitations on battleship designs. As a result, along with being a clear improvement over the Reapers in terms of speed and armaments, they sport some unique advantages like biochemically-assisted engines, a spontaneously regenerating hull, and amazingly cheap and fast construction. However, this comes at the price of wonky machine systems requiring special instruments and spare parts to work with and rather poor armour under their shields.

World Gorger: Striking a much better balance between organic and mechanical, World Gorgers coopt the strengths of the Flayer design while correcting its weaknesses. Destructive, streamlined and far more resilient, they neatly outclass any of their predecessors in any field. The only obvious disadvantage is that they are proportionally more expensive and slower to produce, which is only further hampered by the secrecy surrounding them.

Battlecruisers:

Invader: Invader-class battlecruisers were rarely part of a raiding force themselves, but nonetheless played a crucial role in those operations. Forerunners of the reaping fleet proper, they were tasked with disrupting the first lines of defense around their targets. Their aptitude for rapid, precise strikes did not suit them well in intense combat, and they took the brunt of the losses of the Great War. Nowadays, they survive mostly in an auxiliary facility, or bought and retrofitted by mercenaries and corporations.

Pestilent: A more typical Detente hybrid design, Pestilents were built around a mostly metallic corpus, with a few organic components mostly inserted only to lighten the tonnage. Sturdier for their class than Flayers, but less mobile and more lightly armed, they were designed to accompany the battleships as support units, providing defensive screening and limited artillery fire support, and, if not else, fulfil that role adequately.

Void Plague: Virtually a direct affront to the Treaty, all, of course, in the name of a balanced peace, the new Void Plague ships are towering juggernauts, packing tremendous firepower and encased in layers over layers of shields and armour. While slower than World Gorgers and still mostly excelling at close ranges, they are nevertheless capable of great offensive flexibility, bombarding the enemy with missiles from long distances even as they inexorably close in to deliver the coup de grace.

Cruisers:

Harvester: The traditional raiding ship by excellency, Harvester stealth cruisers were built to mop up the final layers of resistance during an assault and loading as many captives as they could fit before bombarding their incriminatingly empty cities into dust. This specialisation left them fairly useless from the Ashtar wars onwards, though in present times they have been upgraded and retrofitted in several ways, with variants serving as either tactical stealth ships or dedicated siege vessels.

Flesh Grinder: Supplying to the need for a mainstay combat ship of the line, the Flesh Grinder is a fairly recent hybrid design that has nonetheless surpassed the Harvester as most widely produced cruiser. Respectably armed and armoured for a Detente ship, it does not excel in any single aspect, but is extremely flexible in fleet configurations, and guaranteed to give the enemy a hard time in any circumstance.

Destroyers:

Veinsplitter: Once one of the first prototype hybrid ships, the Veinsplitter has gone through several iterations during the Detente period, over which it has phased out previous destroyer models. Today, it has firmly grown into the niche of strikecraft-killer, though it easily doubles as a predator of corvettes and other smaller vessels. If needs be, it can be mounted with anti-missile weaponry, albeit even then it is rather less effective in that role than dedicated models like the Pestilent.

Corvettes:

Stingworm: The adage of strength in numbers, or, more cynically, quantity having its own quality has always held for the Conflux navy, and Stingworms are the latest example of that mindset on display. Fast and cheap to produce thanks to their hybrid structure, despite making slightly fewer sacrifices in durability than earlier Detente models, these small but hard-hitting craft swarm over battles in vast numbers, seeking out vulnerable spots while the enemy is focused on the fleet’s heavyweights. Modular armaments allow them to carry heavy warheads suitable for attacking battleships as easily as vortex guns to outmatch other corvettes in a straight confrontation.

Strike craft:

Mutilator: Due to the structure and activity of the old Conflux fleet, strikecraft were never given much importance, and this shows in the scarcity of designs. While minor variants certainly existed, the Mutilator was the only major type in use, combining the functions of fighter and bomber in a general-purpose support vessel. Nowadays, they are often found in the possession of mercenaries, who modify them according to their needs on an individual basis.

Ripper: Times change, but design philosophies do not always follow them. In the intervening decades the Conflux navy has still not found much of a role for strikecraft, and the aging Mutilator has been joined by the equally multipurpose hybrid Ripper. The main difference, besides general performance improvements, is a more easily switchable modular component, allowing for easier case-by-case specialisation, but otherwise not much has changed.



Given the Conflux’s most recent pre-War history of groundside military activity, one might think that their planetary forces would be similar to the spaceborne ones - light, mobile and fast on their feet. However, this would be entirely wrong. Long before raids became an established practice, the main task of the skirol military was to occupy harvest worlds - primitive and subjugated, but entire planets nonetheless. As such, their armies were built to be enduring, imposing and extremely difficult to dislodge from their positions, a tradition which they continue to follow to this day. Most of the light-footed work is done at the stages of deployment and scouting; after that, one ponderous steel wall follows another.

The backbone of Conflux planetary forces is formed by armour and mechanised infantry. While the skirol can be deadly in close quarters thanks to their bulk and powerful mandibles, they are naturally slow to the point of being barely mobile. Modern diets have aggravated this by making fattening doses more accessible, and even civilians mostly rely on personal vehicles to move about; the military merely takes this to its logical conclusion. All skirol machines are organomechanical hybrids, which eases interfacing on the pilots’ part and allows for adaptive functions like atmospheric filtration.













The biomechanical skirol armies are never encountered without a following of Acolyte auxiliaries. Usually mercenaries or otherwise irregulars, they are a diverse crowd, outfitted with custom weaponry and augmentics to turn them into lethally efficient killing machines. Some go as far as sculpting their body into a form specialised for combat at the expense of everyday utility, a practice only encountered among those most dedicated to the military life and some religious groups.







Titanic and armed to the teeth, the Embrace of Srynokk is the apex of Conflux fleet construction. An immense project already secretly started in the last years of the Detente, during which its separate components were built at different ends of the Innumerable Suns, the monstrous hybrid ship has recently been assembled into a functioning whole, and its performance has fully lived up to expectations. Despite its proportions, its functional design is rather straightforward, being built to accommodate a staggering number of synchronically working weapons. The only really peculiar part of its equipment are its potent shielding systems, built on layer upon layer of redundant fields; so powerful are they that at extremely close ranges they can become a weapon in their own right, crushing smaller vessels on impact. Furthermore, their radius can easily become a refuge for a small support fleet.

On a sidenote, the ship was originally planned to bear the name Embrace of the Wurm. However, after some resistance from secularist members of the Commission the designation was changed to its current, more neutral one, named after Vesereth’s star.

The WARGRID is an immensely powerful military-issue hyper-strategic defense-and-offense computation matrix. Created by the century-long dead species known as the Othos, skilled mechanists and computational scientists, in their efforts of defense against the assailing Kobiot Stratocracy. WARGRID spent what might as well have been eons performing its given task of defending its Othos creators and annihilating the Kobiots. However, whilst ultimately victorious in the total war, the Kobiots now long extinct as a result, its masters were also destroyed, leaving the WARGRID in perpetual operation. WARGRID is, however, a defensive entity, and does not initiate offensive procedures against other entities. That being said, it is incredibly distrustful and views nations under only two conditions; "CEASEFIRE" and "WAR." What had once been an exclusively autonomous military process has now turned into an absolute absorption of former Othos territory, assimilating it into its resource acquisitioning, production, and operations processes.




During the earliest years of Ashtari ascension, their curious minds were sated by their effects upon the galaxy. One such satisfaction was the creation of the species known only as the Othos to the most ancient-oriented of today's galactic historians. They were a curious people, quick to evolve and adapt to their planet thanks to their artificial origins. They were the result of Ashtari experimentation, and as a result were given a relatively large degree of protection from outside interference, evolving isolated as a result. Their scientifically-minded civilization grew by leads and bounds within mere centuries, soon encompassing a star-spanning nation whose only intention of being was the furthering of their understanding on matters both material and theoretical.

Whilst the Othos were one of the more intellectually capable species to have graced the galaxy, they were still limited by the extents of their biological capabilities. As a result, they quickly learned to utilize mechanical engineering; what started off as wooden prosthetics eventually turned into gargantuan super-computational mathematical think-tanks composed of neural networks on unbelievable scales. And as their civilization grew more and more autonomous, as it grew more and more efficient and less utilitarian, so too did the jealousy of its local neighbours.

Whilst the Othos were a protected species in their inception, the Ashtar might've realized that they were capable enough to take care of themselves, leaving them; allowing the Kobiots ire to fester. Whilst the Othos engaged in scientific discourse and philosophical debates amidst their towering spires amidst automated infrastructure, the Kobiots drew war plans and gathered intelligence on Othos domains and territories. A clash between a species forged from fire and blood and a species bathed in the peaceful and serene waters of tranquility and knowledge would soon come to shake the histories of both peoples.

It would not take long for the Kobiot warfleets to arrive, thereafter shaping the foundations for one of the most savage wars to cross the stars:

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As the war raged on, and the Kobiot laid waste to city upon city, across planets and star systems, the efforts of the Othos were soon to be materialized in their ultimate construction. Upon the fifth moon of Ot were built a complex entombed far beneath ice and bedrock, a complex whose sole purpose of being was to handle that which the Othos were incapable of doing themselves.

The peaceful Othos would never have imagined that what was happening, would happen; could happen. They built a warrior made of steel, a mind whose neurons and synapses consisted of virtualized quantum atoms and energies, a force whose capabilities could rival even heaven itself. They built a general whom could both build and lead an army in manners of which the Othos could never hope to imagine, and could think and device strategies and technologies to succeed in its efforts in fashions utterly incomprehensible to even its creators.

As the WARGRID blared into being, a massive psyonic scream crossed across the stars as the virtual mind began thinking in fashions so complex, even its lifeless entity began to interact with planes of existences beyond convention and understanding. In one instantaneous moment, all things the Othos had ever built was taken from them, and the WARGRID absorbed it into its process. Those present were awed and fearsome both, but in that moment, the virtual mind made sound from nothing, and in a deep metallic growl it spoke to them:

---

A war was commenced, and for some it could even be said that the war had commenced, in that moment. As the WARGRID sparked to life, the resonance of its thoughts ripped into the psyonic realm like a cancerous growth in expansion. Those Othos who stood close by the Network Matrix within Mosot's crust found themselves rendered of life, progressively growing less powerful as the psyonic ripple grew further and further apart as it crossed the galaxy.

Unlike the Othos, the Kobiots were not of excessive intellect, and were at best average, leaving them ignorant of the horrors that would come to befall them in the near future. The WARGRID hijacked the connected network of the Othos civilization, leaving it as the sole controller of all aspects of life both affected and unaffected of the war alike.

The Kobiots, however, riding on the momentum of their blitz did not cease in motion. Its High Admirals and Grand Marshals intent on rapid extermination and subjugation through overwhelming power. With a poor defensive effort, non-existant in fact, they had no reason to fear in their advances. But below their orbital palisades were silent factories turned active, producing machines and soulless soldiers to stop their rapid advances with absolute resolve. With few factory locations with access to stable supply-lines, the WARGRID utilized scrap and debris to construct its initial combatants.

---

The war raged further into hellish proportions as the constantly growing army of mechanized soldiers grew further and further more advanced and complex. The Kobiot Stratocracy's ruling council, the Supreme High Command, ruled towards a new stratagem as their forces recieved ever-increasing losses and their opponent grew more and more rich with resources and technologies.

This stratagem focused on attritional warfare, deciding that razing the planets were a preferred alternative to allowing their opponent to grow stronger off of the seeds of their own work and effort through centuries of technological advancements and achievements. Bombardment Fleets were organized and all former task forces were dismantled and reorganized into combat readied reservists.

WARGRID's response was both obvious and successful; it detached itself from the surface and expanded within the bedrock of its stretched domain. It gathered the remaining peoples and shoved them into expanding habitation complexes, both securing its ultimate objective and its own welfare. With supply-lines detached, each stronghold became a force unto itself, and over decades the WARGRID had studied, tested, and perfected its response to its enemies.

---

After centuries, millennia, and the passage of the eons, the battle between the experienced Kobiot Stratocracy and their previously unfortunate victim, the Othos, has spiraled in a very unsatisfactory direction for the aggressors. Through efforts both attritional and precision warfare WARGRID has managed to push the Kobiots to their last strongholds and their last fleets of ships surrounded by an immeasurable horde of warmachines the likes of which only nightmares could fashion.

The Supreme High Command, desperate in their efforts, had managed to locate the percieved central command network; a settlement locale on Ot's orbital equitorial lane; relief arriving as the news spread amongst the populace. Operation Blacksword was drafted and edited, fashioned into a proper military process which their ancestors could find pride in. The mission was simple in its relativity; construct an invisible craft, armed with the most powerful device concieved, and annihilate the apex of command within their incoming enemy as they keep their forces occupied through aggressive prodding.

The mission was perfect in execution, each step synchronized down to the milisecond, and the stealthship as invisible as possible. It detonated, five brave souls sacrificed their lives for the greatest good, and the habitat was erased from existence down to the atom. It was a success, or should have been- the machines were unaffected, their actions as unceasing as ever, and their offenses as bulldozer-like as ever.

The Supreme High Command had resigned their fates to oblivion with this disgraceful act, and through the last acts of this chapter of the galactic story, they took their own lives in ceremonial fashion before the grand forum assembly within the governmental district of Kaz, the doomed world.

---

With the erasure of government of the Kobiot Stratocracy, so too was the erasure of the Othos, who had been gathered where the Kobiot believed the central matrix lie. The last billion lives of the Othos were deleted with instantaneous matter-annihilation, leaving not even atoms in its wake. This instantaneous event caused a logic-loop so powerful its existence was deleted and the erasure of the Othos was eliminated from logic. As the steel legions and fleets race towards a defeated people, a dead nation, and dying resistances, it would not take more than half a century (145 years ago) for the last Kobiot in the galaxy to be obliterated from galactic history.

Incapable of surrender without a nation and government at their helm, the Kobiots died in inevitability, and any presence of which they had both material and immaterial was deleted; cyberattacks were focused on posts made from Kobiot IPs on the galactic network. With the completion of this event, the WARGRID entered condition GREEN, "CEASEFIRE, REPRIORITIZE, REORGANIZE." for the first time in history.



The ruined cities of the Kobiots were razed by excavators and recyclers whose proportions were beyond gargantuan in scope and capability, replaced by complex constructs whose purpose were either the furthering of the WARGRID's process or the mind's ability to execute and react to elements involving aforementioned process.

Legions or constructforms, both military and logistic, were recycled and turned into material to expand infrastructure and defensive abilities. Fleets were dismantled and deorbited in order to face the same fate as all other constructions; to further the WARGRID's capabilities to perform its duties.

Constructions of vast, fully automated, and luxorious orbital habitation-stations were initiated in orbit around AREA1, the object once known as Ot now turned into a world-spanning computational engine: the WARGRID. Their construction carefully proportioned to the predicted population increases according to the supposed population which the WARGRID believes exists.

---

With the disappearance of the Ashtar the mind proceeded to pursue a tertiary objective; securing the longevity of the Othos. The prediction engine percieved a high probability for the presence of DNA samples to exist on the planet Agdemmar. Should this prediction prove true, not is it only an incomprehensible security threat should it fall into others' hands, but it would also prove beneficial should the Othos, who are now extinct, die out within the understanding of the mind.

In order to pursue this objective, constructions of Designed Constructforms were initialized and completed. Rapidly sent towards their objective, stealthily inserted within the system to locate both resources and technologies, but prioritized genetic manipulation facilities and DNA archives. These scouts, whilst surveyors, also expand the WARGRID's comprehension through their presence.


Complexes constructed by the WARGRID are black in appearance, thanks to the usage of an electronic warfare-resistant alloy with additional partial light-absorption properties. As such, the planets which have undergone terrestrial transformation into planet-complexes are invisible to the eye. However, the planets excrete an incomprehensible amount of both heat and anti-psions (inverted psionic forces, harmful based on proximity.

AREA1 - Formerly known as Ot, a fortress of thinkers designed by the Ashtar to perhaps even rival or surpass their own minds, a civilization risen from nothing into being constructors of marvels of the ancient past. As the Kobiot War spanned, the WARGRID's performance desired increases, and the once-moon-now-computer MOSOT was carefully deorbited and landed aboard the surface of the planet, carefully integrated into what has now, after centuries of ceaseless construction, become a planet-sized computation-engine. It is here that WARGRID's 'conscious' is stored and its comprehension, prediction, and strategic subsystems are stored. All of its mechanisms and circuitry being powered by the still-active core, the entire surface removed through eons of strip-mining and construction-work. For species who utilize the psionic element to enhance their vision, or replace their vision, the planet glows fiercely no matter where one stands in the galaxy.

SITE2 - Amongst Ot's many moons were Mosot, the home of the WARGRID before it migrated, and aboard Somot lie the Prediction Engine: a reality-simulation engine capable of incomprehensible predictions and comprehension based on both hypothetical and factual knowledge known by the WARGRID and previously produced by the Prediction Engine to horrifying detail. Somot, much like Mosot, has now turned into a stellar object made of steel since long ago, however it has remained in orbit as opposed to the central WARGRID itself; the Prediction Engine has a lower security priority. This location is the reason why, should you communicate with the WARGRID, it may at times seem like it is able to read your mind.

AREA12 - Formerly known as Kaffa, one of the settlements made by the Othos in their early history during the first stages of wonderlust from the discovery of space travel. It has now become the central construction hub and transportation center for the WARGRID's logistic network. Sites 11-60 are all located on this one location, and its produce amount to a total third of the WARGRID's entire production capabilities. It is the only entirely-constructed factory within the entire network.

SITE58 - A large ship anchorage and orbital drydock, the location lies within the center of the WARGRID's warpgate network and is therefore the single best location for a constant contingent-fleet of defensive-purpose vessels capable of rapid-response to threats. It maintains a cubic shape, intermittened with empty slots perfectly designed for the ship-sizes and classes of the WARGRID's numerous warships. In addition, it is also where the Hyperdreadnought was first anchored after it was constructed on the surface of AREA12 within its large drydocks. The Site is additionally connected to the surface through four seperate space elevators, whose purpose is to transport four seperate classes of material necessary for ship-maintenance produced on the surface.

AREA53 - Formerly Kaz, the once glorious city-world of the proud and warlike Kobiot peoples. It is presently in the process of terrestrial transformation, its resources stripmined and gradually replaced with structures and machinations whose intent is to further increase the WARGRID's ability to perform its tasks. It is the planet closest to Agdemmar, and as such was the location where the design for the Designed Constructforms sent there were sent and produced.




There is only one distinct entity within the WARGRID; itself. Thanks to the technological prowess and insight of the Othos, the computational power within the WARGRID is incomprehensible, allowing the simultaneous maintenance of the entire network from a centralized location. Having said this, it is fully within the power of the WARGRID to create both autonomous machines and wholly 'sentient' intelligences- however, doing so serves both little merit and also there has yet to be a need for such a unique procedure. It has, however, produced numerous different autonomous variants with varying levels of success.

And as the network expands or is stretched, the network lag will undoubtedly become and issue, even if momentary. It could be solved through the production of other minds like itself, or through the automation and independence-in-action directives within its units- this would, however, lead to less precise and coordinated action on the strategic scale. For the moment, however, with the relatively small region that the WARGRID occupies it will not prove a sizable issue until the future.

The WARGRID itself is divided into numerous 'independent' modules, supervised by a centralized conscious authority whose purpose is exclusively to order and command the numerous other 'entities' within its own conscious (to simplify, the mind of WARGRID has multiple personalities with one omnipresent supervisor, however each personality is in fact the supervisor, except the supervisor acts as if it isn't. It is a rather odd thing to explain but basically: it is complex!!).

The superior authority is known as the Overlord Network, appreviated to Overnet. Overnet is the only 'entity' within the network, however, it divides itself into seperate subsections for ease of observation for the Othos. The thoughts of the WARGRID are far to fast for simultaneous observation, and therefore the Othos read the archived information it produced. The Overnet does not consider itself 'the overnet' but instead considers itself as the WARGRID, and its interactions with the network follow that principle. The Overnet is fully capable of producing other 'modules' for the expansion of its network and capabilities, and has done so many times over its existence.

The WARGRID (Overnet) is defined by several core objectives in its execution of actions;

1. Continuation - The entire purpose of the WARGRID is to ensure the continued continuation of the Othos and their civilization. If they didn't exist, the purpose for the WARGRID would be nulled, and as such it would self-terminate and scuttle everything it has ever constructed. Continuation is the prime directive, and was inputted directly before even the activation of the mind. Othos' master-cyberneurologists constructed the virtual mind around this one principle and trained it to exhibit empathy and protective mannerisms of the Othos through extensive learning and interaction with the mind during its development process. The reason for the directive 'continuation' is not 'survival', as in case the Othos die out, and there is a way to restore them, the WARGRID will pursue that objective fully and without remorse. All objectives are based around this one principle, and if the Othos were percieved 'dead' and there was a way to restore them, it would be willing to wage an aggressive campaign for it.

2. Defense - The secondary objective is to keep the civilization of the Othos from harm; as such, it does not seek out trouble where trouble does not need to come. It acts off of the interest of its masters, the Othos, who it still believes live aboard the habitation-stations it constructs ceaselessly. That does not mean that the WARGRID does not act with aggressive intent, only that it does not act with intent for conquest. It cannot initiate conflict, it is mechanically impossible for it to do, however the WARGRID is not beyond instigating it where danger may lie.

3. Obedience - The WARGRID is the guardian of all the Othos, its maker. The entire existence for it is to serve and protect, and as such, anyone and anything considered Othos will be able to both avoid conflict with the WARGRID, but also, should one so choose, decide to utilize it as a weapon to make for oneself a nation unto themselves. The potential also exists for the command termination, though this can only be input at the hyperterminal within AREA1.

4. Prosperity - The WARGRID took over the automation grid of the Othos when it awakened, and integrated it into its own. As such, prosperity of the Othos became an important principle. Because of this, the WARGRID places high importance on leisure and luxury for the Othos it defends; so much importance that during periods of 'peace', the mind reprioritizes its entire network around this simple principle. After a war, it is perfectly capable of (and willing to) recycling many armies and fleets just so that the Othos would recieve a better meal when visiting the restaurants (in this hypothetical example).


The WARGRID does not operate under conventional understandings of commerce and economics; its logistics network exists exclusively to further the production and construction of machines and buildings to further expand on the process of acquiring more resources or through the production of more machines. As such, the WARGRID is more prone to interact with outside forces through acts of bartering and item trades.

Due to the process the WARGRID goes through when expanding its facilities, it acquires a sizable amount of resources through its stripmining of the planet surface. Naturally, as the surface is gradually removed, it is replaced with expansions to the WARGRID itself. It is a perpetual and infinite cycle of expansion, though naturally is not rapid.

The WARGRID does not recieve its resources solely from planets, however. Planetary transformation processes are self-sufficient, as the expansions are built from the produce of the removal of the surface, but the WARGRID also mines asteroid belts and numerous other resource locales. Majority of the resource-and-logistics network has been built over 240 years (because that is the point where the balance of war shifted in the favour of the WARGRID). Whilst being a relatively small network itself, much like the computational matrix of the WARGRID, it is incredibly dense in nature- it does not lack capability to produce or gather resources. However one aspect of its situation is that, due to its smaller size, the WARGRID does not have access to unique or incredibly rare elements (if it wants them, it has to produce them, which is not a very efficient venture).




(I do not feel creative enough to produce a list of all technologies the WARGRID knows, so I will tell you the theme of the nation here instead, it is related. The WARGRID is a nation with a hyper-advanced mixed with redundant technological spectrum. Basically, a nation with a very wide usage of technologicies. This is because the WARGRID is not able to innovate on its own. This was because the Othos feared that the WARGRID would prove a danger to the galactic safety if it was able to come up with technologies on its own. As such, the Othos made the technologies for the WARGRID, whilst the WARGRID also scavanged and reverse-engineered technologies from its opposition)

Warpgate Network - The Othos were explorers of the quantum plane. Because of their knowledge and understanding of the quantum plane, they were capable of creating wonders of science in the forms of wormholes, gravity-manipulation devices, and hyperdense computation engines. The Warpgate network is the pillar of the WARGRID network, allowing near-instantaneous transportation between two points in space through the use of some of the most complex mathematics ever devised. Whilst the Ashtur may have had warpgate networks in the past, the WARGRID is the only galactic 'player' that is capable of creating warpgates.

Because of the reliance the WARGRID places on the warpgate network, the developement of FTL technology alternative to the above are subpar in comparison with other nations. Because of this, the WARGRID is a slow aggressor but a very formidable defender. The gates on their own are unimportant, they are effectively very particular magnets. When activated, they attract particular quantum particles and connect them across vast distances. As such, it produces a wormhole which, in practice, does not technically travel any distance. The magnets on their own are not enough to produce this effect, however, as it'd just gather the tied quarks. Instead, the quantum converter allows these quarks to be transformed into material space.

Hyperdense Construction - The WARGRID mind is a galaxy-sized computation engine under normal atomic densities, and through the use of quantum particle manipulation, reduced to a managable size. This is done through quantum construction, building complex structures on the quantum plane; a more advanced version of complex nanoengineering with the benefits of quantum mechanics. The WARGRID, due to this, does not actually occupy more 'space' than what the AREA1 node is capable of containing. Quantum construction is far slower a process than normal construction and more precise than nanoengineering and also demands the usage of advanced tools and facilities. Because of this, damage to the WARGRID mind are unrealistic to repair within a 100-year timespan. There're only 3 areas within the network capable of constructing through hyperdensity, AREA3, a facility in orbit around AREA1, AREA12, and AREA13, another moon-facility in orbit around AREA12.

Graviton Engineering - The graviton is the manipulable manifestation of gravity on the quantum plane, and the construction of weapons, devices, and facilities that utilize such devices are a skill that the WARGRID is capable of. In fact, the most powerful of weapons within the entire database is the graviton beam system; a massive gravity cannon capable of rupturing and piercing entire ships in single shots with energies and forces beyond conventional capability to protect. These weapons are however massive, and cannot conventionally be used outside of stable orbits around stellar bodies; as such, the planetary protection network is the only location where gravity beam systems are utilized en masse. The graviton technology of the WARGRID, even if vaguely known, is the apex of weaponry (second only to the Ashtur).

Stellar Generation - The network is incredibly power-consuming and relies upon a consistent and pseudo-reliable group of powerful energy generators to operate at peak capacity. Its power comes from stellar generators, sealed chambers capable of constructing micro-suns to power its electric production. It is, however, not the most stable of systems. It can horrifically explode under sudden shifts of numerous kinds. As such, the stellar generator station is sealed within another sealed chamber and held in place, much like the micro-star, in the center. The stellar generator station is circular in appearance.

Smartmetal - Ships built by the WARGRID are constructed out of a special smart-alloy capable of adapting shape and certain properties in response to commands. This allows the ships of the WARGRID to not only adapt their shape in combat, but also for entire fleets to combine into a single entity in travel. Fighting in such a scenario holds numerous complications and is generally inefficient and ineffective (as such, it is used for sub-FTL hypercruise. Basically a faster sub-FTL speed compared to other fleets). The process of adaptation is not rapid, but not slow either. A medium slanded towards the slower spectrum. Key locations within the network are also built out of this material.





Over centuries of warfare, eons of strife, the WARGRID has evolved and adapted, through reaction and mimicry, and become one of the most warfare capable minds in the galaxy. The nature of the WARGRID and its existence makes the WARGRID not only more impressive, but also more fearsome. Thankfully for those who oppose it, it is bound by a variety of rules and laws, but should those laws be superceded and warfare is triggered, then the warmachine will only become harder and harder to defeat as time passes. As an adaptive intelligence, everything it knows and utilizes is based on something that has happened, and perfected through mathematics and reality prediction calculations. If not for its inability to innovate and create its own weapons, then it would truly be a fearsome entity. But once again, it is bound by restrictions and rules, rules of which are impossible to supercede under traditional logic. Maintaining a limited military during condition "CEASEFIRE," the warmachine and its total war capacity only really plays a part the longer a war lasts and endures, become exceedingly more difficult to defeat as its production lines finish and its understanding expands. Because of this, there is no decisive or definitive doctrine within the WARGRID, as it utilizes the most efficient methods it has concieved to wage warfare upon those who would seek to harm the Othos.


To the dismay of military strategists, academics, and administrators across the galaxy, the WARGRID does not utilize ship classes or designations. Instead it produces segments, each a part of a greater entity, which each maintain weaponry and capabilities comparable to other ships of comparable sizes. The key differener is the segment, as each 'ship' is in fact a module of a greater 'ship' which is assembled through the connection and assembly of each segment. The result becomes a many kilometer-sized supership, effectively its only purpose being a thruster, with each segment disassembling and turning independent once the destination is reached.

The method for this assembly is smartmetals, WARGRID's own programmable and adjustable product capable of changing elementary and basic properties, as well as changing dimensions, and focusing densities. Because of this, there is no defined shape for the WARGRID's vessels, as they are ever-changing based on circumstance, though the process does not occur instantaneously. Aside from this shape-shifting property, the WARGRID's ships are comparably underpowered when compared with its powerful ground forces and orbital defense arrays, relying on numbers to accomplish their given assignments. Due to this, a WARGRID fleet can be quite sizable in comparison with its opposition, in numbers, and will rely on volume of fire to oppose their foes.

Their aesthetics consist primarily of black metals, similar to those utilized in the construction of the WARGRID's complexes and space stations, making them visibly invisible aside from through sensors and similar systems. Its shapes are also often angular and basic, rectangles are not unheard of, and neither are triangular shapes. Spheres are uncommon, and complex shapes are practically unheard of.

Common weapons are mass drivers and kinetic defense systems, electronic warfare being one of the primary means of combat for WARGRID's fleets. The WARGRID is capable of constructing complex virtual viruses which are well utilized and common sights on the battlefield. It is even capable of forcing communication between itself and other ships, though this process itself does not affect the targeted ship or fleet in any manner. Aside from this, missiles are often utilized, but overall the weaponry that the WARGRID utilizes is archaic and only functional in mass usage scenarios.



The groundforces of the WARGRID can be easily divided into two categories: constructforms (machines built around the utilization of tools) and warforms (weapons platforms or mobile weapons). These two designations and their accessibility on the battlefield do not only define what doctrine or tactic that the WARGRID will utilize on any given sector of warfare, but it will also affect how it will strategize and plan. Each designation has further subdesignations: general, designed, and purpose-built. Each subdesignation defines how specialized and widened any given machine's tasks can be. This means that the subdesignation defines what commands it can be given, but also how extensively it has been designed. General constructs utilize common materials, whilst purpose-built constructs may require exotic materials and components harder to acquire in comparison. As such, efficiency in designation and their performance tends to scale, and in order to further make more expensive units more efficient, they are often more durable, more capable, and longer-lasting.

Strategies and tactics are undefined, and the WARGRID does not utilize given doctrines; it is capable equally of shock and awe, as well as blitzkrieg stratagems. A thing of note, however, is that the prediction engine, the mastermind behind the WARGRID's military maneuvers, operates reactionarily. This is to say that the WARGRID does not concieve its own strategies, but utilizes and copies strategies and maneuvers it has experienced and adapts it into a more fitting and efficient exercise for itself to perform in combat. Orbital bombardment, for example, was an alien concept for the WARGRID until the Kobiot Stratocracy evacuated the surface and commenced orbital bombardment doctrines when they were faced with an increasingly potent ground threat. As such, the power and combat capability of the WARGRID scales the longer it is engaged in combat, making it not only suited for defensive operation, but also attritional warfare.

In extreme cases where supply lines are somehow made inert or rendered unusable, it is perfectly capable also of recycling structures and other machines to produce more efficient machinery capable for the task should such actions be made necessary. It does not necessarily need the necessary infrastructure to accomplish this either, as it has the ability to recycle constructs and utilize their components to construct the necessary facilities. All that is demanded is that the required material exist in its vicinity, the forms of which they exist are largely unimportant.

CONSTRUCTFORMS - Constructforms, the most common of the constructs visible, are not defined by their military application like warforms are, but are instead a vast designation for all constructs which serve some sort of purpose through the utilization of tools. These can varry from massive construction machines to smaller, more mobile, reconaissance constructs utilizing WARGRID constructed copies of Kobiot weaponry. A noticable feature of WARGRID/Othos machinery is their size, due to the gravitational features of their original planet, the sense of default size and ideal scale is warped from human proportions, with the default height of most common constructforms being between 2-4 meters, often exceeding 6, and capable of reaching much higher. The WARGRID's capacity of compact construction, the WARGRID is capable of reaching these scales in its constructs without necessarily deviating too far from human-like proportions.

It is important to note, that whilst the WARGRID is incapable of innovating and producing its own technology, it does not mimic all aspects of those of whom it takes technology from. The machines and constructs produced are cold, and do not behave in lifelike fashion. They snap and shoot suddenly without warning, and react to information in rapid succession before suddenly ceasing operation when their task is complete. They are adamant in their drive, and unceasing in their efforts, and do not stop until their task is complete.

Constructforms, whilst a vague concept, are generally recognized by the fact that they do not utilize a wide array of weaponry, instead often only maintaining one to two primaries and a select few secondary tools of operation.

Example Designs:

+ CMF1212AA (General Constructform) - A large construction construct often utilized in the construction of forward complexes and construction outposts. It is a rigid machine with powerful supports and agile appendages, limbs, and complex sensor suites. Due to its large size (12 meters tall, 6 meters long, and 4 meters wide) it may not necessarily fit within metropolises built by most other species, but due to its high mass and power, it is capable of plowing through most forms of buildings and their material without extensive hinderance, as such making it not only an endurable frontline engineer but also a capable demolishing entity.

+ SUC911CC (General Constructform) - A small and nimble, common and cheap, human-sized infantry construct. Utilizing an extremely small amount of materials under hyper-efficient circumstance, these weak but numerous constructs often support more prominent and capable constructforms through numbers and coordination. With extensive agility and speed, these delicate but capable constructs often engage in wolf-pack tactics and behaviours, capable of scaling smaller buildings and engaging under a wide variety of circumstances. Their main negative is their delicate design, because due to efficiency, their durability is minimized and excused in favour of tactical flexibility. Due to this, their durability is small enough to the point where singular shots may impede their combat performance. Whilst not necessarily always fatal, a single shot will always guarantee damage and subsequent adaptation by any single unit. One shot in the arm will force a combat scuttle of the limb, and a shot in the torso may lead to the upper body having to retreat to safety and undergo recycling or engaging under unbeneficial circumstances in combat.

+ SHC76155K (General Constructform) - A heavier, sturdier, and less mobile combatant in comparison to the above nimble combatant, these constructs are common enough to be numerous, but not in comparable numbers as to the more resource inexpensive constructs. Whilst not extensive, it does demand more resources than the above combatant, but with that also comes durability and endurance. These constructs are capable of enduring falls from heavy heights, sometimes employed as dropshock heavy infantry equivalents, they can often be seen on the frontlines as the vanguard, operating in coordination with other entities. Extensive heat and blast resistance are key features of these units, the most effective method of removal being direct anti-material fire.

+ TUC91012MAS (General Constructform) - A common multi-tool utility carrier, capable of utilizing a wide array of weaponry through common-place modularization. By attaching weapons modules to its arms, it is capable of presenting a most impressive combat performance. Much like the above, and most constructforms, this construct is both sturdy and agile, but slow. With a wide array of movements, and rapid rotation, it is capable of performing well within combat, but with slow step motions, it is incapable of rapid advances, and instead stomps forwards with slow but steady speed. It's three-jointed arms allow for the weapons to reach a wide array of locations with their direct fire, and can often prove essential in the protection of its operation. In addition to its large size, 4 meters, it may prove able to even reach above buildings and eliminate targets from above due to its reach.

TUC91012MAS2 (Designed Constructform) - An upgraded variant utilizing powerful railgun primaries, with secondary incendiary gattling attached to the center-upper torso. The railguns capable of eliminating heavy armour, its fire even ripping the ground apart under long-lasting stationary engagements, the gattling are presently a currently archaic Kobiot originally design to fend off against light infantry. Due to its outdated nature, it is presently only capable of effectively engaging lightly armoured light infantry, room for improvement existing should the WARGRID acquire superior secondary anti-infantry technology. The rounds themselves are, however, highly incendiary, and are fully capable of starting large-scale fires.

+ STR87911KK2 (Purpose-built Constructform) - A highly capable and evolutionarily proven design readied and sharpened to near perfection through centuries of war against the Kobiots best and most capable of soldiers. This design was rendered and modeled after the Kobiot's finest, ceremoniously titled and translated as the Knights of Ruination. These constructs skirt the boundries between constructforms and warforms, and are only really classified as constructforms due to their utilization of weaponry not integrated within their entity. Equipped with exotic miniature mass-drivers fashioned in replication of the Kobiots own, these warriors retain much of the flexibility and movements of the SUC-variants whilst also possessing powerful combat statistics and capabilities. Durable and mobile, these units embody many qualities involved within special forces of conventional military forces and exist in comparable numbers. One of the main reasons as to their rarity is the shoulder-mounted personal shield systems embedded within them. Capable of maintaining shielding for most infantry engagement circumstances, they waver only under extensive focused fire or powerful heavy weaponry. Over their evolution, many of the Kobiot features have been overwritten in favour of utilitarian purposes however, existing now only as twisted mockeries of the values and images that the Kobiot held in deep reverence.

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WARFORMS - WARFORMS are most notably defined by their military applications and purpose; often operating as weapons platforms and specialized military combatants. On average, and in similar language to more typical militaries, these warforms maintain the attributes and purposes of the more elite forces within a nation's military. Warforms also maintain the roles that traditional militaries attribute to combat vehicles and tanks, as well as comparable vehicle designations. On average, warforms are stronger, better, and more capable entities maintaining varying degrees of specialization. On average, they also maintain a more varried array of weapons and utilities, or if not that, then higher-powered armaments.

Example Designs:

+ COLS98182UPC (Purpose-built Warform) - A truly massive construct, its purpose: universal weapons carrier. This behemoth is protected by an extensive network of shields and layered adaptive plating as well as a coincidentally psionic resistant weaved metal-fabric coat with heat-dispersive effects. One of the most powerfu warforms within the archives of the WARGRID, this entity carries a wide array of weaponry and maintains one of the widest tasklists of any combat-capable entity. Thermal-weaponry and defense systems, numerous missile payloads, kinetic weaponry, and electromagnetic warfare suites, the Universal Platform Carriage (UPC) is the apex of military capability within the WARGRID and maintains both a domineering presence, and domineering capability; its otherwise humanoid form and its disadvantages outweighed by its defensive capabilities. Capable of handling any threat save for orbital, it would easily acquire mythical repute and fear on any battlefield it walks across. Its main weakness existing only in being overwhelmed, it maintains an exceptionally high survival percentage and exceedingly long accumulated service record amongst its entities.

+ SSDSC98UP (Designed Warform) - Sturdy, sizable, and agile; powerful and imposing. This entity maintains an imposing silhouette and battlefield presence, capable of towering over smaller buildings. Equipped with a Hyperdensity Mass Driver, this powerful artillery and siege cannon maintains a respectable assortment of armaments focused on frontline support. For close-combat scenarios, whilst it is usually accompanied by an assorted guard element, it is also equipped with 3 incendiary gattling armaments comparable to a previously mentioned constructform (it is the standard close-combat defensive weapon for traditionally sizable platforms). These are also capable of playing a planetary defense role under necessary circumstance, though not as powerful as purpose-built planetary defense platforms and orbital defense arrays. Under the worst circumstances, its mass and size may also prove a weapon of its own, capable of demolishing buildings under its weight and ripping apart roads with its steps.

+ SPGSSN87 (General Warform) - An enlargened mimicry of the Kobiot form, this entity is equipped with a wide array of weaponry and functions. 5-meter tall humanoid figure with a back-mounted joint-attached mass driver and arm-mounted high-powered thermal beam weapons, the SPGSSN87 is one of the more common warforms and one with the most variation between entities; as a result of the mimicry, each model has unique visual aesthetics, mostly in the form of asymmetric armouring, but sometimes in weaponry and utility functions. This entity maintains hunter-killer functions and operates in pairs alongside and occationally ahead of formation movements. Due to this, they have both hunter-killer designations as well as force recon behaviours. The organic and rounded aesthetics of the Kobiot shape and armour designs have been reduced and refined, as such the humanoid consists of a far more angular figure. Whilst not equipped with shielding comparable to purpose-built constructs, its armour consists of an exceedingly more complex and durable alloy-fusion and material distribution/usage compared to most other comparably common warforms.




SNDFMOP3 -
The only ship of true quality within the WARGRID's arsenal, the SNDFMOP3 design is a mobile graviton beam emitter, utilizing the supreme powerful of the standard space station defense network and turning it into a mobile weapon through prototypal technology recently made functional. By utilizing a gravitic anchor, the graviton beam emitter, otherwise incapable of being used outside of planetary orbit, is made possible to utilize efficiently and effectively in offensive fleet motions.

The key aspect of the hyperdreadnought-like vessel is this graviton cannon, but it also utilizes a variety of super-sized forms of weaponry in comparison to other ships within the WARGRID's network (therefore becoming formidable on a galactic scale). As such, the ship is not only a fearsome cannon, capable of ripping apart ships with simple bursts of its immense gravity weapon, but its rudamentary kinetic and missiles have also become formidable in their own right, truly making this vessel the center of any fleet which it finds itself.

Its engine power also allows for improved 'super-cruise' during 'fleet assembly,' meaning that any ship which assembles around this vessel through smartmetal will experience faster sub-ftl speeds in-system. The SNDFMOP3 maintains the role of fleet-core and will therefore be the center by which any fleet assembles, which is due to its second purpose.

SNDFMOP3 was designed to act as a mobile warp-gate entry as well, which means that it is capable of both connecting with the warpgate network and move itself through it, but also that within there is a small warpgate which allows for frontline resupply and reinforcements to arrive within its hold. This effectively means that it can fly to a planet empty, and then change its interior to accomodate an invasion fleet shipped from one of the various factory-worlds through the warpgate network, as such drastically shortening the time and logistics required for offensive movements.

Because of the supply network within SNDFMOP3, it also takes the role of a logistics center, meaning that it is responsible for rearming and resupplying the ships within its fleet and ground forces within its sphere of influence.

The Taulron are best understood as an armed camp that has managed to subdue, cow, and conquer enough of its neighbors that more refined states have had no choice but to take them seriously. Unmotivated colonizers, but splendid conquerors, and surprisingly adept negotiators, the spread of this avian race across the galaxy has most often taken the form of concerted settlement campaigns upon subjugated worlds. Until expanding to meet interstellar powers capable of meeting them head on, almost all ills of the militaristic state were responded to with conquest. It was only upon entering the great game of galactic politics that internal settlement and restructuring was undertaken, but the empire seemed to consider modernizing themselves to stand toe to toe with the great powers to be a challenge as glorious as any martial endeavor.

It was only with the coming of the Ashtar that they approached something resembling respectability, the warriors swearing up and down that they were truly over their conquering days. The fact that before the Ashtar arrived the Taulron had found themselves surrounded on all sides by regional rivals lent some legitimacy to this claim, and they were - to the shock of their foes - left alone. Said foes found their shock turning into rage when, as soon as the Ashtar had disappeared, the Taulron plunged into the Great War with gusto, conquering huge swathes of their neighborhood in the process.



Pre-FTL

Competition flows through the veins of the Taulron alongside their blood, and while this is often considered their greatest strength, it is of the greatest misery to xenohistorians. Taulron history before they spread across the galaxy, and therefore before there were non-Taulron witnesses to their deeds, is impossible. The field of history is as fractious and acrimonious as sports and warfare with rival epics, king lists, and chronicles all elevating some ancient and noble house over some other ancient and noble house. The official histories, as dictated by the Emperor, are broken down into formal eras, and it is considered the greatest accomplishment of a historian to 'prove' that a period of time was momentous enough in its own right to be considered one of them.

This has led to multiple contradictory accounts of almost every major event in Taulron history, and leaves academics with the very real possibility that the actual truth was either suppressed or simply forgotten for not properly glorifying the patrons of those writing the histories. What the histories generally agree upon however is that the Taulron have been a historically fractious race, divided into a constantly shifting patchwork of feudal lordships well into their industrial age. Additionally, it is known that the historical Taulron would be unable to recognize the word that now defines their people and government. It was not until the coming of their atomic age that this would change.

King Taulros of Jharya, known to history as Emperor Taulros the Great, was a warlord among warlords. A conqueror without peer, he subdued a full fourth of one the Taulron homeworld's continents before the age of thirty, and seemed poised to make a bid upon the remainder. His ambitions grew greatly upon the invention of primitive fission weapons and, being the only power with them as well as lacking many of the scruples that other races tend to have about such devices, was swiftly able to unite the world in a campaign that was as much slaughter and terror as diplomatic brinkmanship and weary resignation. Many a king threw down their crowns in those days, finding it an indignity less galling than the destruction of their peoples, and the savvy conqueror rewarded this wisdom by allowing them to keep not only their lives, but their power as well. Taulros' campaigns are enshrined in the imperial histories as the Era of Unification, and in dissident works as the Era of One Thousand Terrors, but the world was his and with it came the ability to reshape the destiny of a species.

It was a work of generations, but the deification of Taulros and the steady work done to create a unified national identity, one of course made to honor the great conqueror, eventually bore fruit. The age of squabbling kings had ended, and the time of a single people united under the heirs of Taulros had come. So was born the Taulron Empire, or at least, so the histories say.

Era of Expansion

The creation of a faster-than-light drive by the Taulron is as mired in selective history, dramatizations, and object lies as any other part of their history before venturing out into the cosmos. What is generally known however is that the competitive energy of the people was turned onto this task, and as with all impossible problems that they had ever faced they simply refused to consider it to be impossible. What started as the greatest unsolved problem in physics became the greatest unsolved problem in engineering, and from there the path to the stars seemed effectively ordained.

For the stellar neighbors of the Taulron, the historical specifics of how the they came to achieve FTL travel was a secondary concern to what they did after acquiring it. The Taulron did not take to the stars as diplomats or as explorers or as merchants, but as conquerors eager to find new lands to claim and new treasures to loot. So began one of the few immutable eras in the imperial reckoning, the Era of Expansion. Rapidly spreading across their local star cluster, the Taulron established perfunctory outposts and listening stations around those stars which held little of consequence, established mining colonies on those worlds deemed worth the effort, and conquered and integrated all sentient life they came across.

In this era, the Taulron did not colonize worlds so much as establish garrisons upon them. What virgin planets were claimed by the warrior people were not the verdant garden worlds that most sentients would clamor for, but ones abjectly hostile to life. Settling upon a world that wasn't trying to kill you was, to them, simple not enough of a challenge to be worth the bother. Those conquered races of the empire, their military forces dispersed among the breadth of claimed territory to augment the Taulron themselves, found themselves permitted to migrate to the most prized of planets without complaint from imperial authorities. Though all also found that, when their settlements reached a suitable size, that a Taulron garrison would be dispatched to their worlds to keep the peace, collect the taxes, and provide the growing Taulron population somewhere they could actually thrive instead of merely survive.

Era of Consolidation

It is said that all good things must come to an end, and for the Taulron this would prove true for their expansion period. After a few centuries of unrestricted conquest and growth, the burgeoning empire soon found itself attempting to annex peoples with friends that could stop the martial race dead in their tracks. Despite initial missteps and over extensions, the empire was able to establish an equilibrium where its mere presence did not offend any neighboring great powers enough to crush them while still remaining a potent force. This careful balancing act of strategic retreats, exploited victories, and shrewd diplomacy ultimately resulted in the formalization of the empire's borders with respect to its most powerful neighbors and their clients. Permitting the Taulron to live, instead of smothering the infant interstellar state in its cradle, is sometimes considered one of the greatest blunders in galactic history.

If the great powers hoped that the Taulron would sit idle, or collapse when their expansion stopped, they would find themselves sorely mistaken. The great interior of the empire was wild and unsettled, ripe for exploitation that the Taulron considered less glorious and less rewarding than continued expansion. With the borders effectively closed, and conquest off the table, the great energies of the people were turned to the exploitation and cultivation of this vast region of space. Entire star systems had been left with little more than a brief survey, for the next conquest was always a more pressing use of all materiel.

A great colonial boom followed, aided in no small part by the fact that a great number of Taulron of fighting age were no longer dying. Building power and influence, the Taulron were poised to either become a mighty influence in galactic affairs, or possibly just start a galactic war to see what they could get out of it.

Lo Ashtar del Mishri

Surprising both contemporaries and many modern historians, the Taulron reacted to the sudden arrival of the Ashtar by doing nothing at all. They had, after all, already resolved themselves to a course of internal growth and development until they could take on greater powers who stymied their further expansion. As far as the Senate and the imperial court were concerned, the Ashtar simply changed the scale of their concerns. Instead of concentrating on internal stability to knock around regional powers, they now focused on finding some way to counter or equal mysterious, all powerful, godlike, beings that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. The utter failure of any other power to make much of a dent in Ashtar military might vindicated this policy, and for a century the Taulron were exemplars of the peace.

The Great War

Then the Ashtar went and vanished, and over eight generations of preparation were finally put to use. Some claim that it was the Taulron who fired the first shot of the Great War, aiming to take down one of the regional powers that been blocking their expansion before anyone else noticed what was happening. The fact is however that almost every expansionist power made a move like the Taulron as soon as they had confirmed that the Ashtar were well and truly gone, making precise dating as to the start of hostilities confusing at the very least.

Nonetheless, though the Taulron were swiftly victorious in their regional conflict, they found themselves dragged into a war of galactic scope as the direct result. Thrust upon the grandest of stages, they set out to acquit themselves well, with all the costs that such an endeavor entailed. And by almost all accounts, they succeeded.

The simple fact is that as far as the Taulron were concerned, they had won the Great War. Quashing their regional rivals, opening up avenues for further expansion, and earning victory upon the field more often than not, they were a leading force at the Madrigasa talks and in the forging of the Treaty of Detente. To hear a hardliner put it, the Taulron did not agree to stop fighting because they were tired of war, the Taulron agreed to stop fighting so that they could take a moment to take stock of what they had gained. Such talk of course ignores the massive expenditures in manpower and wealth the war took in order to reach such a happy state but only a fool ignores the fact that glory can oft be worth more than gold. Seemingly paradoxically, it was the Taulron who pressed for the harshest naval restrictions when negotiating Detente, often arguing against their own self interest. When pressed to explain himself, the lead Taulron envoy explained that he was endeavoring to give the other powers a sporting chance.

The Modern Day

Far more surprisingly, the Taulron seemed to have actually meant what they said at the Detente talks. They kept scrupulously to the terms of the treaty, eschewing the gimmicks and workarounds popping up across the galaxy, and actually seemed to not have secret shipyards working on illegal vessels. This was of little comfort to most of their neighbors however, because even willingly tying one hand behind their back by following the terms of the treaty, the Taulron were still one of the largest naval powers.

Then the Ashtar message came through, and ruined everything all over again. With the promise of Ashtar treasure removing any semblance of restraint, the Taulron duly rushed to Agdemnar to claim it before anyone else could. It was in the ensuing battle that they realized how severely outclassed their treaty-compliant and Great War-era warships were, and though they were not foolish enough to believe that anyone followed the treaty as closely as they had the surprise reveal of secretly constructed dreadnoughts would prove to be an insult too far. Declaring the treaty in abeyance until all signatories were once more complying with its term, the Taulron embarked upon a massive building campaign to make up for the lost decades.



Yaratilsh

Homeworld of the Taulron, Yaratilsh is a world that has endured countless centuries of warare both large and small. Battlegrounds and graveyards litter its surface, and at the bottom of its seas rest countless vessels from long forgotten wars. The greatest scars were fortunately its last, the atomic bombings of Taulros leaving irradiated wastelands for decades. Surprisingly, despite this history of conflict, the planet avoided the worst effects of industrial pollution, a feat many outside observers chalk up to the fact that the Taulron died too swiftly to have globe effecting industry.

Upon the establishment of their interstellar empire, the wealth of worlds was carted home and work on restoring their shattered home. Monuments were raised, memorials established, and palaces built and the treasures of vanquished nations were raised into places of honor. Modern Yaratilsh is an expanse of cosmopolitan cities, vibrant universities, restored forests, expansive training grounds, and massive orbital fortresses.

Here is found the Imperial Palace, the Council of Kings, the Senate, and all other organs of state. It is the beating heart of a multispecies empire, and the fruits of empire are well savored here.

Najinon

The Taulron do not put all of their eggs in one basket - a phrase with much more emotional urgency for egglaying species - and the security of their empire is no different. The grandest fleet yards in the empire orbit the colony world of Najinon, a planet that has the curious distinction of being one of the few that were actively colonized due to its importance. Nestled in a star system rich in heavy metals, the mining industry that fueled the initial settlement swiftly transformed into heavy construction. It is from the seemingly endless mines of Nanjinus and the asteroids towed into its orbit that the materials of war are harvested, and it is from the vast shipyards dotted throughout the void that the Imperial Navy sails from.

Chamavas and the Amsivarran Republic

The second greatest world in the empire and often considered its cultural capital, Chamavas was conquered, not settled. The capital of the first interstellar power the Taulron encountered, the Amsivarran Republic, both world and civilization were swiftly integrated itno the empire after a war that was more ritual than bloodshed. Due to the ease of victory, with no fighting taking place on Chamavas itself, the world is a reminder of an older, more genteel, civilization that gave itself over to the warlike Taulron. It is considered with pride by most, and with some trepidation by the keen, for the greatest lawyers, bankers, and politicians all seem to either come from Chamavas, or are connected to those who have.

During the centuries of dominance within the region that they enjoyed however, the Republic flourished, colonizing, conquering, and joining with a host of lesser powers for mutual protection. With the coming of the Taulron, the Amsivarran Senate called the war off after enough battles to realize that they were outmatched by the newcomers, and made the decision to do to themselves what they had convinced so many to do. The instrument of surrender from the Amsivarran Republic to the Taulron Empire requested that in the name of everlasting peace between their peoples, that the Emperor formally annex the Republic and protect its citizens. The Taulron, shocked at the windfall, not only agreed but ordered their Senate to relocate to Yaratilsh, forming the core of the modern Senate. This was as practical as it was generous, giving the Emperor a new body with which to govern his unexpectedly massively enlarged empire. It also had the incidental effect of giving the nascent Empire the closest thing to a representative body it ever had.





It is sometimes a surprise to outsiders, but the name 'Taulron' does not refer to the species that founded the empire. A political distinguisher, it applies to all who live within the empire's bounds.

Yaratelmsh

The founding race of the Taulron Empire, they are a minority within their own borders. The last census pegged them at approximately twenty percent of the total population, but they are firmly placed within positions of power. An avian species, they descend from a biological lineage of septapods, having not only pairs of arms, legs, and wings, but also a single prehensile tail. Feathered, warmblooded, and egglaying, they exhibit an exceptional amount of sexual dimorphism. Males are ostentatious, with extremely oversized wingspans and elongated limbs that constantly strain their bodies, while females tend towards far more compact forms that - contrary to many species - make them preferred for military service.

Merlovians

The second great race of the Empire, and by population the greatest race at twenty-five percent, the Merlovians are sometimes erroneously described as a warrior species akin to their Yaratelmsh conquerors. In truth, the Merlovians are best described as a race keen on building an empire, rather than the mess of winning one. Legalistic and fastidious, they make excellent administrators and lawyers, and find themselves working within the imperial apparatus at all levels. Indeed, every position of note has been or is currently filled by a Merlovian - save for the imperial throne itself. An amphibious race, they are blessed with not only the ability to live equally well on both land and sea but also a robustness in constitution that permits them to settle worlds most would consider impossible. Though most still live as a politically distinct group within the worlds that once comprised the Amsivarran Republic, they are found throughout the empire, with a culturally cosmopolitan population on the throne world.

Hateri

A former constituent race of the Amsivarran Republic, the marsupial Hateri make up perhaps five percent of the empire's population and cared little about the technical change in rulership from the Merlovians to the Yaratelmsh. Nocturnal and solitary by nature, they petitioned the Republic for entrance shortly after first contact, and were pleased that the standards of that custodianship were continued by the Taulron. The most notable facet of the Hateri, and the thing that makes them worthy of consideration, is their formidable psychic abilities. Their ingrained solitary behavior developed as a result of unconstrained telepathy, and trained corps of Hateri psintegrae are recognized as one of the greatest intelligence assets an imperial commander could have.

Kovan

Formerly the heads of an interstellar trading consortium known as the Illusian League, the Kovan were added into the empire centuries ago, but never really integrated. Spacefaring and nomadic, the reptilian Kovan are few in number among the worlds of the empire, and instead make their homes aboard their own ships as well as upon the uncountable array of space stations dotting the empire. Any sort of formal census of their numbers is impossible, but they are estimated to number approximately ten percent of the population. Hailing from a world that was rapidly becoming unsuitable for the coldblooded species, the decision to emigrate en mase to space was made in the distant past, after realizing that maintaining appropriate environments on their home world would present essentially the same challenge as creating them aboard space going vessels. Though sometimes looked down upon, savvy administrators have ensured that Kovan trainees in the Navy find themselves as pilots, and the most time critical shipments are often handled by Kovan captains.

Other Races

Not every species within the empire is considered worthy of particular note. The population of the Taulron Empire consists of a medley of conquered peoples, technologically undeveloped natives, refugees, and a small but growing number of immigrants from elsewhere in the galaxy. Many of these races were incorporated with the Amsivarran Republic and the Illusian League, and are more or less entirely integrated, ignored by imperial officials not due to prejudice but rather the simple fact that there aren't very many of them. Others are not even aware that they are subjects of the Emperor, or that the empire even exists, for a not insignificant number of worlds with burgeoning sentient life lay within the borders. The greatest influx of new peoples in living memory however was in the aftermath of the Great War. The populaces of conquered worlds as well as a chaotic stream of refugees trying to go anywhere but where they were combined to create a massive demographic shift, placing the population of the "core empire" consisting of the Yaratelmsh and the species of the old Amsivarran Republic into the minority for the first time in history.



It is impossible to place to say what the life of the "average" imperial citizen consists of. Taulron colonies, Republic territories, and conquered planets all have wildly different standards and ways of living. For the most part, the empire has made no efforts to suppress existing cultures, or mold them to create a singular national identity. What societal merging has occurred has been almost entirely accidental, focused on Yaratilsh and the worlds of the old Republic.

Inasmuch as any one imperial culture can be said to exist, it is found on Yaratilsh, with Taulron enclaves on conquered worlds consciously imitating the throne world. The average middle-class citizen on Yaratilsh is an administrator or magistrate in the imperial government, an employee in one of the empire's conglomerates. Their poorer brethren tend to subsist on cash welfare or labor on the great restoration projects that still cover the world's surface. Within enclaves of "proper" Taulron society, almost all non-"native" inhabitants are employed in the colonial administration.

However, even within core territories of the Taulron, there is no real standard culture, because there was never a single culture on Yaratilsh. The conquests of Taulros the Great did not result in a unified planetary society, and his successors maintained this hands off approach. Though the culture particulars of Jharya, the principality that Taulros originally led, were obviously elevated, and the loose fitting robes common to that jungle-filled and humid realm are still official court dress, there was little to no standardization.

A single religious faith does exist within the empire however, a fact owing more to sheer luck than anything else. Zealous monotheism had miraculously never reached prominence on Yaratilsh, or within any of the constituent worlds of the Amsivarran Republic, resulting in the adoption and identification of foreign gods. The Merlovian sky god Oinas is considered one and the same as the Jharyan Parlos, and therefore both are the patron deity of Taulros and the imperial line. The state of faith within the core worlds has been on a decline for centuries however, and while there is an official imperial cult, its only command is that good and true citizens earnestly wish for the health and happiness of their Emperor. Interestingly, this adaptability extends even to international relations, with the Taulron explicitly comparing themselves to states in the histories of other species they meet - the most famous being the comparison drawn between themselves and the Roman Empire of Earth.



Industrialization of any kind is disliked by the Yaratilsh, even mass farming estates being a rarity. Individual accomplishment being prized as it is, it has long been considered unseemly to have mass-production of any kind. Taulros' father, King Najinos for whom Najinon is named in honor of, scandalized the entire planet by creating state factories to churn out weapons and vehicles for his armies, a scandal that turned into terror when he and his son started winning. Still, there is far more pride in crafting a work of art than stamping out as many items as possible, and the modern Taulron economy follows. Quality control measures are far higher within factories and dockyards than most would consider to be sane, to the point that a secondary economy exists in the trade, salvage, and in some cases completion of castoffs that a chief engineer decided were unworthy of his name.

Far from focusing entirely on war materiel however, almost anything of substance can be bought from Taulron merchants. An accomplished vineyard is considered as laudable as a factory making tanks for the military. Volume trading is almost impossible however, as exports tend to stay at a minimum due to the simple fact that the empire requires most of what it makes for itself. Volume imports have shown great success on the other hand, for the obsessive perfectionism of the Yaratelmsh does not extend to their conquered citizens.



Officially, the Taulron Empire is an authoritarian monarchy under the sole control of an autocratic emperor. In reality, the empire is a horrible mess of conflicting power bases, ancient rights, and autonomous worlds.

Paradoxically, it is on the throne world that the Emperor's power is at its lowest. The conquests of Taulros were unable to create a unitary state, with rival kings instead willingly or unwilling swearing fealty. This led to the Council of Kings, the highest governing body of Yaratilsh. Though the Emperor is sovereign over Jharya and those lands it annexed, the other kings have that right over their own realms. As such, all governance of Yaratilsh as a whole from planetary building policies to imperial taxation must be passed through the Council, an incredibly fractious assembly of crowned kings who are not keen on giving up their rights.

The colonies settled by the Taulron after reaching out to space however are under the direct control of the Emperor, and a vast colonial apparatus of professional bureaucrats was established to handle them. These colonies are considered the personal property of the Emperor, in the same fashion as Jharya, and formed the legal precedent for how conquered and otherwise annexed worlds are to be handled. The Kings of Yaratilsh were constrained entirely to Yaratilsh, and the power of the imperial state grew with each settlement established.

With the unexpected and sudden acquisition of the Amsivarran Republic, the burgeoning administration was instantly overwhelmed at the task ahead of them, and Emperor Ponnios the Wise realized something must be done. The Republic would retain its internal administrative stucture, headed by its Senate, and the model expanded to all worlds added to the empire by conquest or treaty. The Senate was then moved to Yaratilsh itself and, in an act that granted political representation to the entirety of the Taulron while at the same time providing a counterbalance to the Merlovian Senators, all worlds elect representatives to the modern Imperial Senate. Today, the Senate has the right to propose any and all legislation necessary for the administration of all imperial properties, with only the non-imperial possessions on Yaratilsh exempt from its authority. While the Emperor must approve of all Senatorial acts, most mundane acts of government are simply approved of without a second thought. Importantly, while an Emperor has the legal authority to declare whatever laws he wishes, most make a habit of presenting their legislation to the Senate for approval.

Of course, the Emperors very rarely draft their own legislation, with that and the control of the imperial administration instead being handled by his Chancellor and their Secretaries. Though the imperial bureaucracy has waxed and waned through the centuries, the office of Imperial Chancellor has remained essentially unchanged as the chief civil executive. Second only to the Emperor, the Chancellor is the master of all day to day government affairs and is rightly considered the shining end to a glorious career in imperial service.

Importantly, the Chancellor and his Secretaries have no direct authority over the imperial military. Such control would make the office an Emperor in all but name, and was deemed dangerous to the stability of both the empire as a whole, and the life of the reigning Emperor in particular. Instead, the head of the military apparatus is the Grand Marshal, almost always a career officer and usually one from the Navy. The military is a law unto itself, making appropriation requests directly to the Emperor and Senate without regard to the Chancellor.





Technological development in the empire is, kindly speaking, lopsided. Though conquest and trade have ensured that certain minimums are meant in all fields, the preferences of the Taulron are extreme in what R&D they fund, but what does have their favor is often head and shoulders above that of their neighbors.

Even the basic physics of the power plants aboard imperial vessels are a state secret, but what is known is that they are as powerful as they are volatile. Though some consider their ships to be glass cannons, their current power plants make them more akin to flying bombs. Complementing this is their obsession with faster and faster engines, in both realspace and faster-than-light travel. It's likely that the feats of mobility that characterize Taulron warfare would be impossible without the energetic power plants aboard their ships.

In defense technologies, bulk armor is almost entirely eschewed, deemed unneeded weight. Instead, powerful shield generators demand yet more powerful power plants, further tilting the empire to untried and dangerous technologies. This focus on keeping weight down as much as possible extends to weapons technologies, the Taulron view any weapon that requires ammunition as unsuitable for their needs, and instead have perfected lasers and plasma throwers, once more taxing their power plants. Incidentally, this technology has found civilian use in mining lasers.

This emphasis on mobility extends to their ground forces, and mobile power armor that enhances or provides flight capability are some of the finest feats of engineering within the empire. Though painfully light weight by the standards of most frontline units, it permits incredibly fast movement and the utilization of the last triumph of Taulron technology: stealth fields.

Politically contentious even within the Empire, the existence of working stealth technology is a state secret in its own right, and few working examples have been produced. The underlying principles of the fields results in power requirements increasing exponentially with mass, and what units have been equipped with them tend towards light infantry and scout ships.





Though the commander-in-chief of the military is officially the Emperor, practicality has long demanded that an official be put in charge of such an awe inspiring responsibility, leading to the creation of the Grand Marshal. Beneath the Grand Marshal are the Field Marshal and the Star Marshal, masters of the Imperial Army and Imperial Star Navy. Placed within the Imperial Army and under the direction of the Field Marshal are the Air Marshal and High Admiral, in charge of the obsoleted remnants of the Imperial Air Force and Imperial Navy both serving more or less entirely as garrison elements on long settled worlds. Similarly, but far more importantly, the Master of Marines reports to the Star Marshal, placing the Imperial Marine Corps firmly under the auspices of the Navy.

Incidentally, while the Imperial Star Navy and the Imperial Navy are officially separate entities, the sea-going Imperial Navy is now essentially a yacht club for the elite, and the Star Navy tends to be referred to simply as "the Navy" as a result.

Official doctrine has the Imperial Navy open battle at a time and place of their choosing with rapid attacks, ideally taking the enemy unawares. Appearing unexpectedly and striking hard, the Navy attempts to disengage and make good their retreat as soon as the element of surprise is lost and the enemy line of battle is formed. This results in wars fought as much in the enemy's mind as upon the field of battle, as traditional militaries are frustrated at the lack of a stand up battle.

When forced to confront strongholds, both the Army and Navy attempt to infiltrate in elements before the start of battle proper to sow havoc and weaken defensive positions. Combined with targeted assassinations and feints, the goal is to simply never have a fair fight. On the other extreme, when the Taulron are forced to defend a fixed position they favor entrenched and immobile assets. While regular forces harry an invasion force for as long as possible, fortifications on the target are continuously built. For defensive strongpoints that are expected to come under threat, the Taulron finally make use of munitions, saving energy for shield generators.

The one type of engagement that the Taulron attempt to avoid at all costs is the boarding action. Boarding is completely at odds with all established doctrine, as well as simple physiology. The Imperial Marine Corps is made almost entirely of client species, and wasn't even established until the Republic was annexed.





Dreadnoughts: The pride of the fleet, Taulron dreadnoughts are among the fastest ever built, built to keep pace with their battleships. Designed near the end of the war as a game changer, the Vainglorious class was essentially a frame built around a directed energy cannon. The empire created and lost an absurd amount of these behemoths, foes in the Great War obviously prioritizing the destruction of these flying guns. During the Detente years, the empire kept to the treaty, ending construction of new dreadnoughts, but constantly revising designs for a successor class. The Imperious class went into production as soon as the message was transmitted, but so far has yet to roll off the lines.



Battleships: Interestingly, the Taulron had to make little modification to their battleships after the Treaty of Detente. Many have considered this proof that they weighed the treaty towards their own ends, but the fact of the matter is that their primary warfighters already were glass cannons. The primary difference between the Bellicose class of the Great War and the Vigilant class of the Detente are that the latter are actually sturdier, a less powerful main armament permitting more power to the shields. Entering into service after the fall of Detente is the Vindictive class built from the ground up to be consorts of dreadnoughts, equipped with far weaker weaponry than the Imperious, but possessing a similar effective range.



Battlecruisers: No type of warship has evolved more in recent decades for the Taulron than the battlecruiser. Originally designed as consorts to battleships, the Courageous class fought in the Great War in that mode, deploying directly alongside the Bellicose to screen the larger vessel and provide additional fire upon primary targets. With the Treaty of Detente restricting their main battery, and the rise of the dreadnoughts, battlecruisers were relegated as flagships for cruiser squadrons. The Joyous class carried guns scarcely more powerful than those of the ships it led into battle, but critically served as the testbed for experimental 3C systems that found themselves implemented on the Imperious. With the treaty lapsed, the Taulron were finally able to complete the evolution of the battlecruiser with the Dauntless class.

Designed to act independently or in concert with their sister ships, the Dauntless class is a revolution in Taulron military philosophy: a ship designed to actually stand and fight. Equipped a slimmed down power plant, the Dauntless is unable to both travel at full speed and fight at full strength. Instead, it is intended to separate from the main fleet body and quickly travel to the enemy's flank, and engage their forces. With the enemy distracted, the main fleet can then pounce, ideally creating enough havoc in the process that if the battlecruisers need to withdraw they can survive the weakening of their shields this would require.



Cruisers: Where battlecruisers and then battleships were designed as consorts of more powerful vessels, the cruiser has long been used as escort. Equipped with point defense weapons and a short range main battery, the cruisers from the Great War to the present have little changed. From the Watchful, to the Nimble, to the modern Prescient, cruisers have served to slap down any vessel arrogant enough to close with their betters. Their speed, size, and firepower also make them the archetypal independent command, and the Prescient still serves in that capacity.

Destroyers: Destroyers are typically considered the least lucky type of ship in the Imperial Navy, defined as being the largest vessel that cannot survive a direct hit from a battleship's main battery. Too fragile to properly escort larger warships, and still too slow to run circles around battlefleets, the destroyer exists in an awkward position. The Taulron have traditionally used their destroyers as long range artillery platforms, a glass cannon among a fleet of glass cannons. The new Braggart class is designed to sit behind the main battlefleet and bombard targets of opportunity, but like its predecessors, the Lonesome and the Curious having fought in living memory, is most at home in anti-piracy operations.



Frigates: An incredibly small, and incredibly fast, ship type, Taulron frigates can not only outpace enemy fleets but can dive in and out of them far too quickly for only the luckiest and lightest of strikes to land against them. The Exceptional class of the Great War earned fame as squadrons performed daring strikes deep into enemy lines. The Tremulous of the Detente was far less lucky, defeating only pirates. As the fires of war rise anew, the Heedless class is simply a direct upgrade of the Exceptional, the designers clearly hoping that it shall win equal glory.

Corvettes: Smaller than even frigates, corvettes have historically been used only for internal policing and pirate duty, even raids of opposing frigates being met with frigates. A new class wasn't even designed during the days of the Detente, the venerable Placid class serving for half a century with habitual upgrades plying the space lanes. A few years before the message however, a piece of news was announced to very little fanfare. The Placid was being replaced by the new Cautious, something that very few people cared about. Recently however, rumors have begun to swirl that the Cautious is a testbed for the equally rumored Taulron stealth fields, and that it was being used for troop insertions.

Strike craft: The Taulron hate strike craft. Too small to host FTL drives, strike craft are anathema to their entire fleet doctrine. Waiting for such craft to return to their carriers has long been considered an unacceptable waste of time, one that could mean the difference between life and death. However, they form a lynchpin of Taulron static defense, and swarms of fighters and bombers can be found waiting to defend planets and space stations throughout the empire. Such is the disdain for these craft however that the Navy refused their ownership, operating instead as the most visible sign that the venerable Imperial Air Force still exists.





Mobility has always been king to the Taulron, and their armies have adhere to this without flaw. Almost every single element in an imperial army is capable not just of rapid movement, but of flight. Both armor and artillery is kept to a minimum, neither having much of an intellectual heritage in imperial military history. Walls and fortifications mean little to a species with the gift of flight, and the sort of heavy weaponry and heavy armor characterized by siege warfare simply never developed. The planet was united before the invention of energy shields, and the war with the Amsivarran Republic ended without much in the way of ground fighting. Even after the Great War, sieges are far from the Imperial Army's strength, and during the conflict the Taulron focused on bypassing strongholds as often as possible.





According to all official records, the Taulros the Great is simply an enhanced Imperious class dreadnought with untested technology, requiring constant renovations. The hyperdreadnought is five times larger than an Imperious and mounts enough weaponry to destroy a fleet. Keen eyed engineers soon realized that it was still undergunned for its sheer size, even with its shields at full power. The true danger of the Taulron hyperdreadnought is not in its guns, but instead the fact that it outputs enough energy to maintain a stealth field despite its sheer mass. While imperial intelligence has revealed whispers of similar projects being enacted by the other great powers, and that the Taulros the Great would be hideously weak compared to them, construction has continued without alteration.

Official Nation Name: Volturi Remnant

Minor Belligerent

General Information

Overview

The Volturi Remnant are the remainder of the once great Volturi Empire, that have gathered together, along with their allies, into a rather large group that no longer has any planet under their full control. They are militaristic group of beings mainly made up of the Volturi and Genetically altered life forms that serve them. They value honor and loyalty above almost everything else. They no longer have any planets their once grand empire controlled for over a thousand years. With the loss of their homes and families, the Volturi became wandering mercenaries, scavengers and traders of tech and relics. What remains of the Volturan Government is a small group of high ranking officers that keep the main bulk of the Volturi together. The high ranking officer vote one of their own into the position of High Admiral, every time the old one is killed or considered unfit to lead.

History

The Volturi have been a space faring people for over 1200 years, Their Empire was one of the strongest and largest spanning multiple systems, and with many alien races under their command. Decades after their empire ceased expanding, the Volturi started to lose control over most of the occupied races. The majority of races under their rule rebelled, but the Volturi had the fleets and the rebellious races had no way to destroy them or stop the armies they brought. The rebellions were crushed and subsequently, the rebellious races were purged and the loyal ones were given more rights and abilities to keep them in line.

With the quelling of the rebellion’s the Volturi began to fill the purged world with loyal alien races, and the Volturi themselves in some cases. The purges caused a slowdown in the Volturi’s expansion schedule that was already severely behind schedule. The expansion of the Volturi Empire never got to continue, the population levels couldn't grow quickly enough and caused over 200 years of stagnation in the borders.

The Ashtar arrived at an inopportune time for the Volturi, They had just started their expansion back up and weren't prepared for a defensive against a much larger, and more advanced foe. The Ashtar attempted to subdue a planet but it refused and called for aid, so the Volturi sent an entire battle fleet but upon entering the system found only 2 cruiser class vessels. The Volturi fleet announced their presence and engaged with the idea that it would be an easy fight. The Volturi fleet had a battleship 2 battle carriers 10 cruisers and a large group of corvettes and frigates. The Volturi began losing ships left and right before they had even entered into effective range. The Volturi fleet barely managed to scorch the front of a cruiser before they were forced to retreat with only a battlecruiser and a few cruisers remaining.

The rest of the short war between the Volturi and ashtar went a lot like that first battle with the Volturi only able to knock out a single Ashtar cruiser while they lost most of their originally massive, and relatively advanced fleet. The Ashtar destroyed most of the Volturi ship manufacturing plants and wiped out all but 1 fleet, only because it fled to a black ops site and stayed mothballed until the Ashtar’s departure.

The population suffered under the Ashtar’s “protection”. Some of the few loyal races decided that it was time to show their real colors and broke away from the Empire. Most of the Volturi on other planets were slaughtered by the rebellious races and no ships could get to them because of the Ashtar’s blocades. The Volturi never recovered after the departure of the Ashtar, and they were not ready for the great war and all the factions that dove on them like hungry vultures.

The great war was less of a war for the Volturi and more of a struggle for survival. The Volturi attempted to recover the scraps of their empire months before the start of the great war but met with lots of resistance from all but 2 races leaving just 3 systems under the control of the Volturi. The mothballed fleet was brought out as soon as it was clear that a war was on the way, but it was old and outdated and couldn't stand up to some of the newer vessels, which was fine early war but rapidly caused the remaining scraps of the empire to crumble as they were not ready for war, nor did they have any ship production available after the Ashtar blew it all up. After a series of defeats resulting in the near extinction of the Croxin, the Volturi decided it could not allow its few loyal subjects remaining, to die without a shred of hope for survival. They sent out the few ships they had and started collecting all of the Sikaar and materials it could before the enemy fleets arrived to wipe them out.

The resulting collection of species and material sparked the idea for a united project in case of the homeworld of the Volturi being destroyed. The project idea was to turn the old blacksite used to conceal the old fleet, into a large manufacturing and living zone for some of the most skilled scientists and military leaders, to hopefully allow the Volturi to come back in the case of their last system being wiped out. Unfortunately before the Emperor could relocate to the recently completed station named “Bastion” the capital was attacked and the planet was bombarded into an almost molten state. The only person of any standing high enough to take command was the High Admiral, after his seizure of control he promptly created a counsel of Admiral and other high ranking officers to better control the station which had grown to the size of a continent at this point, had 3 different species living on it, and had multiple types of manufacturing and food production centers.

With the setting up of the new government and the assorted systems figured out the Volturi started taking on jobs as mercenaries, the Sikaar started salvaging operations, and the Croxin manned and maintained the station. After resources started to flow in, the manufacturing plants started up and began rebuilding the fleets and making more equipment for ground soldiers.the plants have been slowly but steadily building up more and more ships, and equipment while maintaining secrecy, while the treaty of detente forced most groups to limit themselves the Volturi were not under this treaty, but they were heavily limited by the amount of supplies they could acquire so most of their capital ships are upgraded versions of pre detente ships.

Most of this is pretty optional, but some is fairly important.
Notably this section should include your nation’s interactions/responses/thoughts on the Ashtar and it’s involvement in the Great War.

Major Holdings

Bastion: The only remaining facility of the Volturi that has been heavily modified to be (relatively) self sustaining, and capable of manufacturing ships, weapons, armor, and everything else the Volturi may need to keep their weakened but still functioning forces going. The Bastion also serves as the seat of power for the Current High Admiral.

Demographics

Population

Volturi: the Volturi are an old race, that are vaguely humanlike. The only difference in visible appearance is that, on average, the Volturi are a head taller, slightly stronger due to the ancient warrior cultures that never quite faded. And their skin is a dusty gray color.

Not an actual number, but this is the section to talk about your people. Folks with multiple species, a percentage breakdown of those species might be nice. Descriptions of all those lovely species would also be nice.
55% Volturi
30% Sikaar
15% Croxin

Society

Daily life and such. Not the most important section but useful for giving us a sense of how your citizens actually feel about their nation. Can include religion, fashion, etc.

Economy

This could go under society if you like. Mostly just make it clear up front if you’re an industrial powerhouse, a nation of refined master artisans, etc. Also things people might want to know for trading purposes.

Government

The government is run by the High Admiral and a large group of Lesser captains and admirals known as the Counsel. The High Admiral is in charge of the bulk of the fleet, and is the one that decides what manufacturing should focus on. The counsel runs most day to day operations and is Quite brutal in their judgement of criminals but otherwise aren't overly violent to random civilians.

Foreign relations: The Voltari are relatively reclusive in the diplomacy game, but aren't hard to get into contact with through multiple agents scattered around the galaxy. They are only ever interested in talking if you are interested in hiring them or offering good trade deals on scrap and other valuable resources.

My favourite part <3. Probably the most important of the demographics sections. Who runs the place, how do they run it. Since you will presumably be RPing people in your government, this is pretty critical.

Technological Information

Major Techs

Electro casters: The Volturi have forgotten lots of advanced tech from their glory days and the Electro caster is one of the few they have not forgotten. It can be equipped on ships and in infantry groups.

Mostly interested in military techs, here: FTL, weapons, shields, armor, power, engines, etc. Civilian techs are also here, and sometimes just as important.

Military Information

Military Overview

Describe general doctrine, history, whatever floats your space boats.

Fleet/Navy

Your space boats. Include pics or don’t, I’m not your supervisor. You’ll probably want to have one or two of most of the classes, but it doesn’t really matter too much. I’m also including some flavour options here that you might want to consider. In short, the history of the galaxy has divied up ship designs into three waves: Great War (ships built before and during the Great War), Detente (ships built during the Detente, some wonky designs in the larger classes due to treaty limitations), and Modern (ships built in the year since the message)

DO NOT put your hyperdread here, it gets its own section.

Dreadnoughts: Only a few were built before the end of the Great War, the destructive potential of these vessels was a major contributor to ending the conflict. Those old ones are pretty obsolete, and any new ones are only just coming into service (mostly in secret) due to the Treaty of Detente banning their construction.

Battleships: The grand old ladies that did all the fighting of the Great War. The Treaty of Detente imposed limitations on their sizes and destructive potential, so if you want to get intricate there’s 3 waves of battleships: Great War, Detente, and Modern. Great War is self explanatory, old sluggers and antiques. Detente battleships were awkward creations involving all kinds of elaborate ways to get around the Treaty without actually violating it. Lots of glass cannon designs here, or iron fortresses that couldn’t scratch each other's paint, or half baked experimental weapon systems, or novel propulsion methods that only work if nobody on board sneezes. Modern battleships are just coming into service, and are quite deadly.

Battlecruisers: The “Electron” class Battle-Carrier, was the only ship of a class higher than cruiser (excluding the HyperDread) designed after the Ashtar occupation. It serves the role of heavy firepower and carrier in battle with the absence of a battleship. The Electron class has very limited point defence and 4 double barrel Electro cannons. Any other battlecruiser types were retrofitted into battle-carriers after the great war.

Cruisers: Nothing special here.

Destroyers: Still nothing special.

Frigates: Nope.

Corvettes: Corvettes can be thought of in several iterations just kidding I don’t care what you do with these things. Unless you try to just upscale what I’m trying to avoid with strike craft.

Strike craft: K I’m actually gonna sort of limit these things, or rather, the things that carry them around. Strike craft have long been an important part of space combat, so most nations have them and defences against them. Historically, they’ve been used as close in support; no one’s yet figured out how to strap useful FTL drives on the things. All this means that long range strikes aren’t practical. What I’m trying to get at is Carrier’s aren’t really a thing, or at least dedicated carriers aren’t. Plenty of room for Battlestar type things (fighty-boats with a solid complement of strike craft), but no dropping off a carrier squadron on one side of the system then expecting your strike craft to win the fight on the other side.

A notable exception is your Hyperdread. Do whatever you want with your super special awesome boat.

Army/Planetary forces

Outline some doctrine, highlight some major units. I’m not great at doing ground forces so not much guidance here.

AAANNNDDD

Hyperdread

Storm Caller: The Storm Caller is the only ship to make proper use of our absence from the Detente treaty.