[hider=Abyss Front]
[hider=Flag Description]

The flag resembles a circular eye surrounded by the sharp ridges of a crown, impaled from multiple sides by angular claws and hands - some human, others arthropod like, and many clawed, for some even skeletal in their robotic nature. These stabbing limbs dig through the borders of a six-sided diamond. On each of its sides, six rigid insectoid limbs ending in scything claws emerge. The "head" of this insect can be placed on top or bottom of this long formation, resembling that of a carnivorous carabid or staphylinid beetle. [/hider]


[hider=Location on Map]

[Center]Green area on far right[/Center]
[img]https://i.ibb.co/CKqwmXgS/Shackles-Map-2.png[/img]
[/hider]


[hider=History] 

What is now known as the Abyss Front was once simply a collection of stars and systems comprising the eastern front of of the Yrrani Imperium. It had no real formal name but was typically was referred to as the [b]Periphery[/b] or the [b]Wellspring Expanse[/b], the latter of which referred to its massive stores of natural and supernatural resources. 

Of lesser significance to the Yrrani were the people living there. 

For as long as people have known, the Wellspring had always been inhabited not necessarily by some great civilization but various species that often did not travel inward to the centres of Imperial power. They did not often build colossal cities or monuments to their glories; many were functionally nomadic and few of them were even united. It was known to be a hotspot of longstanding territorial, ethnic, and religious tensions but the contained scale of these conflicts meant that they could not spill outwards.

The Wellspring was also known as a “wild” and “uncivilized” part of the known galaxy. Gigantic rifts and “aberrated” areas made realspace itself unstable. Strange, supernatural phenomena occurred and legends of explorers encountering and falling prey to gigantic starfaring monsters were common. It was somewhere that the light of the uplifted could not reach. 

This would change over the course of a few decades as Yrranian diplomatic fleets began to make contact with the inhabitants of the region. The treacherous nature of the Wellspring meant that it was dangerous to bring in the full might of the Yrranian fleet. Instead, they made due with finding allies amongst the disparate kingdoms, polities, tribes, and other such sub-factional organizations common in the area. Trade agreements were established; Yrranian technical expertise and military hardware in exchange for indigenous territory and resources.

The first signing was the result in the radical transformation the Periphery. Once independent kingdoms, cities, starports, and tribes found themselves as either the proxies of the Imperium or their targets. As once local conflicts began to sprawl outwards and spread to neighboring worlds, militaries armed with Yrranian technology began to turn their violent gaze upon one another and the very creatures that once were plentiful. Yrranian warlords, industrialists, generals, and leaders began to turn the populace against one another as compradors became puppets dictators. The roiling savagery of the expanse was brought to heel, space itself stabilizing as the colossal creatures that once dissuaded outside interference found themselves driven to the lowermost depths. 

The Yrranian Occupation truly began and by that time, armed resistance was too late and too fractured with still open wounds further expanded by foreign manipulation. A massive campaign of settlement and development ensued as worlds and regions not deemed to have been in use by their inhabitants fell to the hands of corporate houses now given a blank check and seemingly boundless resources. A populace already fractured, its symbolic resistance rendered futile, and a massive swathe of territory gained - the Yrranian Imperium experienced a massive boost in its standard of living and growth, carried a large part by the Wellspring’s subjugation. 

As new cities, starports, military outposts and other signs of the Imperium spread, the increasingly divided populace began to agitate. They had already been defeated in their initial efforts at defiance, but the Expanse was not so easily tamed. Where conventional militaries would fail, they would also provide lessons and survivors - veterans of these conflicts who had tasted bitter defeat and were hungry to repay the favor.

These were the seeds of what would eventually become the Abyss Front; a series of insurgencies and direct military engagements during a gilded era of Imperial rule. Just like with the first direct assaults on Yrranian fleets, they were unsuccessful yet victory was not without cost. Forces needed to be trained, divided, and assigned to various theaters, the still volatile environment traversed, and the tenacious natives subjugated. Each time, the violence would be looked upon with equal parts horror and anger as it lead to further environmental degradation, mass conscription, and siphoning civilian resources to feed the war machine.

The many anticolonial forces were well aware of this and came to a simple conclusion; they did not need to summarily defeat the Imperium entirely. They were not fighting a direct, conventional war but a hybrid one and increasingly, the soldiers crept up vine-paths in fungal cities as much as they lay in wait in the husks of burnt out civilian transports. The home field advantage was one that the Yrranian occupation, in all its chauvinism, continued to underestimate. 

Roughly a century and a half into the Yrranian occupation and the once iron grip was faltering. Conventional wars had been replaced with system-spanning riots, unrest, and terror attacks as sorcerous knowledge was used to summon gigantic capital ship sized beasts from hiding. All but a relatively small slice of Expanse space now was embroiled in some sort of civil war and anticolonial conflict, of which counter-insurgency theory struggled to adapt to with the speed and variety with which discontent was turning into violent opposition. Even in the corridors of power, networks of spies, saboteurs, and agitators worked in the shadows to ensure that no appointed leader or colonial overseer slept in peace. 

By the century’s end, the occupation had turned to the harshest methods possible. The destruction of not only cities but entire planets, razed with orbital bombardments rather than letting them fall to uprisings. Experimental psionic super-weapons ravaged systems, turning space itself into swirling distances of immense chaos. Racially targeted bioweapons hidden in relief supplies sent by compassionate NGO’s spread disease and plague among the populace. It was quickly turning into an extermination campaign, targeting civilians where they failed to hold back a now resurgent resistance that had taken on its now iconic moniker, increasingly able to repel and severely damage veteran Yrranian battlegroups on their own terms.

Faced with mounting costs and losses, disruptions to logistics chains and extractive practices, the occupation and its sycophants had dropped to rock bottom in popularity. No longer could it be said to be protecting “helpless” populaces and uplifting civilization and its effectiveness back in the courts of Yrranian power was viewed with skepticism. Pax Yrranus was in its waning years and Yrranian power was fading where it was once insurmountable. The natives knew and they were waiting for the moment to wrest control. 

When the occupation came to an end, it had left a ravage region of space barely recognizable from when they had first arrived. In its wake however was a renewed vision of a now united, resolute people who were far from done with their oppressors. The Yrranian retreat took with it countless spoils, artifacts, and artifacts of immense power deep into the vaults of Tar Yrra. With the ashes finally settled, even as their home continues to be tormented by the dimensional ravages of superweapon after-effects, the Abyss Front has set out to ensure history will never repeat itself by whatever means are necessary.

[/hider]


[hider=Government Type]

The Abyss Front is a combination of various smaller alliances that form a larger political bloc, organized around a broad series of revolutionary principles from the powerful military alliance that drove out the Yrrani occupation in the waning days of Pax Yrranus.

It is broadly a council-based republic system, based primarily around governing bodies of interplanetary coalitions and singular worlds. These are generally built around ground-up organization based around worker councils and specialized interest group political alliances, emphasizing a high degree of internal autonomy with some planets being essentially gigantic interlinked communes. 

This is not to say it is uniformly socialist; there exist anarchic communes and tribal coalitions of which some are starfaring nomads or even based on massive space stations or the corpses of enormous star-titans. There are even areas where corporate and private enterprise are still prominent, albeit leashed and controlled as part of anti-privatization reforms that limits their power while leveraging their profits for growth and internal investment.

The higher one goes on the Abyssic command chain, the more abstract it becomes. The “heads” of this alliance are not so much individual people but almost deity-like gestalt entities of arcane, esoteric sapience. Gigantic clouds of constantly morphing insectoid limbs and self-replicating electronics, assembles of mind-linked cyborgs joined together by individuality-suppressing implants, worm-infested spores the size of moons - the true “leaders” of the Abyss Front calculate, amalgamate, and sift through oceans of information not just from their eldritch perception but sent upwards from its various councils and administrative bodies. 

Their authority, while immense, is not necessarily the final word. A healthy civic culture is encouraged via mass demonstration and assembly, with participation in local governing bodies being aggressive and direct. Governing bodies in some settlements have been voted out collectively and individually replaced sometimes in matters of hours and there could be said to be a “dual power system” with various political organizations that exist outside of official state control, even if they often possess the same ideological base.

[/hider]

[Hider=Demographics]

[Hider=Czlozekostra]

[center][url=https://ibb.co/album/PZFxpp]Visual References[/url][/center]

Their name translates to english as "complex external skeleton" and to many they are the public face of the Front. The "zekts" as some call them are arthropod-like species originating from the periphery world of [b]Zelenzarostle[/b] ("Zelen-zarost-leh", “Verdantly Overgrown” in English) but have since spread throughout the region. Even beyond its borders they are well known for their mysterious fleets of roaming habitat-ships and patchwork nomad vessels. In spite of their fearsome reputation and political power in the Front, their population dropped heavily during the Yrrani occupation from extermination campaigns and exiles beyond the known galaxy. In the centuries since, it has grown considerably as independent czlozekostra fleets and worlds begin to join their cause in massive remigrations.

Resembling a variety of arthropods, they tend to come in three distinct forms with various shared characteristics. Regardless of specific subspecies, they are typically between 7'11’’ to 12'5’’ tall, with some capable of growing to 25'30’’. Their broad and segmented bodies feature multiple abdominal and thorax components, making them deceptively flexible in spite of their lumbering and dense forms. A complex shell of interlocking carapace plates, underlying malleable connective biomesh, and film-like shock-absorbant dermal layering keeps their bodies well protected. Their bodies tend to hunch and compress to obscure their true size.

A czlozekostra has at least 16 limbs they use for movement and manipulation, typically having at least two for either task. Their complex brains and neural-clusters, distributed in both cranium and torso, allow them to not only use all in tandem but also focus on and interact with multiple things at once. These limbs can often be specialized for many tasks whether building, cutting, digging, crushing, and so on. In some cases, they may have long elongated abdominal sections similar to tails, wings, or even stingers. All of this is draped in often dark, murky colours frequently likened to the rotting undergrowth of forests and jungles. They appear camouflaged by default though for an environment very different from the civilized world.

The visages are helmeted, mask-like, and difficult to read. With no real soft flesh immediately visible, a zekt's face often slopes forwards with a semi-flattened appearance, shield or shovel in a manner similar to various carnivorous beetle, crab, amphipod and phronima species. Their mouthparts are complex with around four to eight larger mandibles, frequently serrated and curving, surrounded by smaller maxxilia, palps, and labium along with other frequently claw-tipped appendages. All of this can retract behind oral plating that further masks them. Some species have lengthy retractable antennae frequently emerging from behind or above domes containing many smaller eye-like organs beneath faux-opaque exteriors. 

Living between 130 to 200 years, centuries longer with augmentations, they nonetheless begin life as mere larvae. Young czlozekostra can look like lengthy worm-like creatures lined with pointed limbs, something akin to curving shrimp like creatures, or sometimes smaller versions of adults. While they retain animalistic survival instincts and even knowledge such as social interaction and language, their brains are still developing. 

They cannot necessarily make use of all of this as still highly feral animals omnivorous yet vicious all the same. They stay in this stage between seven to ten years, pupating into a juvenile state of pale carapace and lethargic motion. Metamorphosizing czlozekostra mature into adults sometimes in a little under a year while those with a nymphal state might take between a year and a half.

Combined with genetically inherited bestial instincts, zekts can come off as feral and difficult to read. This belies their impressive intelligence, being masters of augmentation. So prolific is their usage of biological, cybernetic, and even psionic/supernatural methods of augmentation many populaces feature a complete absence of unmodified czlozekostra. Some species, particularly the transparent phronima like ones, are naturally gifted with psionic capabilities and the ability to survive in vacuum conditions, even known to inhabit the still-living carcasses of centuries-old starfaring titan-organisms. 

A single zekt can possess multiple layers of additional enhancements. These can range from grafted carapace plating, additional limbs, and energy-absorption and storage carapace-pods to whole internal habitats of symbiotic parasites that can serve as redundant organs, eldritch engram-sorceries woven into their underlying subdermal biomass and organs, even artificial automata-drone and hive creature spawning manufacturing plants.

Czlozekostra technology is defined by this unity of conflicting metallic and organic components with psionic or ethereal elements becoming very commonplace. While their biotech is considered their primary specialty, their ability to fuse all three or four is increasingly seen as their defining feature. This results in highly adaptable systems that can interface with a wide array of technology on top of being practically made for modifications. 

Aggressive research into ethereal "voidtech" has helped provide an alternative to conventional "hard science" FTL, utilizing the scientific study of the occult beliefs popular among large numbers of the populace. Zekt ships and those who have integrated their tech can often travel through a sort of eldritch "sub-dimension" layered under reality like the meat and blood beneath flesh, difficult to navigate due to its mysterious void-life but discrete and fairly cost effective.

The culture of these arthropoids can come off as very cold and distant. Zekts do not have child-rearing instincts, something left to the nursery-acadmies, but they do have an extremely strong social security net and strongly emphasize involvement in the public life. While individually they can come off as uncaring and solitary, they view individuality as an extension of collectivity. Every zekt is simply the echoes of their predecessors and environment. They may lack the idea of biological family yet the power of unity and mutual cooperation is unrivalled, with interest groups for arts, sciences, ideology, and recreation forming very quickly. 

They are known to be highly critical of those outside of themselves, being near disdainful of conventional democracies and especially corporate interests, sometimes leading to an understated arrogance in their manners. They are however, very blunt and to the point, extending this not just from ideology but to interpersonal relationships. If they count you among their own, even if you are a different species they believe you have an objective right to the same benefits and liberties as the rest of the collective hive. 

This collective way of thinking even extends to how they approach work and labour. In most reasonably large settlements, everyone is guaranteed group habitation and vital supplies such as nourishment and entertainment-stimulation. Many czlozekostra regardless participate in labour as with just particular exceptions, labour is collectively owned by participants and thus collectively benefited from in terms of profits. 

Conventional "leadership" such as CEO's and company heads is occasional and often done with scaled down gestalt mind amalgamations. Rather than working for a living, most labour is meant to acquire additional credits for luxuries and just as frequently, out of genuine interest in the work. While much production is solely for sustaining their needs, they have geared more towards commercial production to stay competitive with the rest of known space as of late.[/Hider]

[hider=Tiarncnoic]

[center][url=https://ibb.co/album/hxMNX6]Visual References[/url][/center]

Their name means "Lord of the Hills", a reflection of not just their hilly homeworld of [b]Tiorgreilig[/b] ("Solar Tyrant's Graveyard") but their imposing stature. They are longtime inhabitants of the eastern stretch of the periphery, known for their anachronistic technopaganism and roaming, nomadic lifestyles. Their population is higher than that of the humans by a moderate margin, making them the second most populous species in the region. A large part of their populace was exiled beyond the known galaxy during the Yrrani Occupation, joining the czlozekostra in large independent fleets, but recent political developments has seen many returning. 

Evolved from Tiorgreilig's large eels, they have a relatively slender appearance (next to their hulking biomechanical allies) if not for the dense-looking bone and tightly packed muscle visible on their tall bodies. Vestigial tails in some population groups hint at their distant ancestry with more searfaring ones retaining the anguilid characteristic. Digitigrade legs beginning their bend mid-thigh end in talon-like feet compliment tri jointed arms of jutting bone and the long, curling digits of their six figured hands. 

Their often bluish-white and very slightly purplish, faded skin colours were likely evolved to mimic the fog of their homeworld and many can change the colour of their skin in order to better conceal themselves. They average between 6'11’’ to 10’ in height, with a few instances of 11 foot tall older "noikz" as they are sometimes colloquially called.

Their torsos feature broad shoulders but they taper out past their midsection, with prominent thigh bones that help emphasize their long fin-evolved legs and arms. Some species have smaller fin-like growths between their waist and arms, others small skeletal arms capable of grasping and fine manipulation. Complimenting this feral appearance are their heads, elongated and predatory, though with somewhat wider foreheads. Below is a maw of sharp teeth with a complex lower "double-jaw", one overlapping the other and combining with an upper jaw to form a second row of teeth. These can be shifted forwards to better grasp prey and mulch meals, almost like the detaching jaw of a dragonfly nymph yet from within their mouth. 

The most well known aspect of their biology is a "third eye" known as the [b]tarfaire[/b] - an organ emerging from the front of their brain that they use to detect sources of energy such as heat, electricity, or even psionic and ethereal power. In spite of their evolved nature, it is still heavily used for a variety of everyday tasks, capable of “seeing” through certain surfaces and capable of being augmented to further improve its range of perception. This was likely an evolutionary adaptation to protect against and predate upon creatures that hide in the fog of Tiorgreillig and blend into its deep, rocky chasms.

Even just standing normally, due to a slight hunch and the bend of their limbs, they often look ready to chase down prey, with impressive running speed and leaping capability owing to their strength. While they are not as powerful as the zekts or as regenerative as the salibughri, their mobility and reactivity gives them unparalleled default agility within the Front. Their technology remained the most advanced for centuries with antigravitational or "hover" technology and energy manipulation being their hallmarks. The ability to create and maintain barriers of shimmering teal-purple energy and have even massive city-sized land-vehicles hovering above the ground are common testaments to their crafting skill. 

They have also crafted a number of high tech robots frequently outfitted with both forms of technology, most famously for military purposes but frequently used for exploration, construction, repair, and even research in vacuum-type gravity-free environments. The study of robotics is tied to their growing field of cybernetic and ethereal augmentation, as many robotic components form the basis for bodily modification. 

These help regulate the sorcerous powers they can imbue into their forms, fulfilling a similar role through scientifically applied occultism. Biological augmentation still is fairly rudimentary but with the assistance of their allies this is changing.

On average they possess the most psionics or "etherealists" as the Front calls them, with their "third eye" believed to be an evolutionary response to the arcane powers of the region. Their etherealism however takes on a very spiritual air to it as generations upon generations of near-unbroken polytheism inevitably would. In spite of their level of advancement, they worship or revere the colossal eel-like creatures that inhabit the areas around their homeworld and surrounding planet and the (super) naturalistic forces that they represent. While their faith is hardly structured and is a continuation of the paganism of their origins, it is united in the solar predators that it centres around. 

They believe themselves to have been born from the bones, shedded scales, fangs, or sometimes even the remains of their mighty carnivore deities. In the whirling cycles of battle, hunting, and sorcerous power these mysterious god-beings engaged in, the cosmos is shaped on a spiritual and metaphysical level. Their own tumultuous history of inter-tribal conflict and survival in a harsh and mysterious land is but a reflection of the cyclic, divine existences of those that swarm and battle above their atmosphere. 

Their belief is quite fluid and doctrine varies wildly, though it takes many forms and was never standardized into an organized religion. This does not manifest in them being socially outdated and entrenched in their ways; they simply see the divine as an ever-present part even of purely scientific endeavours. 

The tiarncnoic are viewed as a free spirited people culturally, with a tendency for wanderlust and adventurousness as much as communal activity and reverence for ages old custom. In spite of the prominence of their native traditions, they are hardly adverse to change, welcoming new art and scientific knowledge, culture even. They can be skeptical to judgemental of "civilized" people and dense bureaucracy, finding the fetishization of enlightened knowledge and constant techno-economic progress to be reflective of a hole in people's spiritual and communal lives. 

They are not very dogmatic, caring little about the "sanctity" of their polytheistic belief, but they hold their ageless ways in high regard a large part due to a brutal history of colonization they had to endure. This informs their support for national and indigenous liberation and decolonization movements, sometimes threatening even intervention on the side of those they perceive as living under the boot of exploitative leaders.
[/hider]

[hider=Salighburi]

[Center][url=https://ibb.co/album/5gJ580]Visual References[/url][/Center]

The most populous species in Abyssic territory, they  are known for their literally rotten appearance and overgrown fungal cities. Their world of origin is unknown but as multiple populations "evolved" across a variety of worlds, it is believed they were spread by some external force. Their faith believes it to be a mythic [b]Gnosis Vault[/b] or [b]Kahdoulfarati[/b] - a massive living spore believed to be inspired by the giant solar fungal masses endemic to the region. Many of them have begun to move outwards towards the galactic core in the wake of the recent civil wars and the formation of the Front. A massive number still remain within the Front's boundaries and they are arguably its most established species. 

Of the three main species of this alliance, they are the smallest and the most humanoid with a general body layout equivalent to humanity’s. It is everything else where they wildly differ. "Boori" flesh looks like rotten, dark pinkish-brown meat that might turn into a sludgy slop any minute. Visible veins and subdermal parasites thicken and pulsing beneath, sometimes causing their biomass to darken with grey and mottled green colours. Their seven fingered hands (three on one side, two on another, two "thumbs" at the top and bottom) are skeletal and covered in a layer of retractable rubbery muscle-membrane while their legs end in root-like protrusions that grip like claws. Their mouths are cavernous, craggy caves in their lower faces filled with pointed, triangular rock-like teeth hidden behind membranous flesh with adjustable translucency. They average around 5''10 to 8''10, with the tallest being around 10''5.

Their bodies are frequently and deliberately infested with a variety of complex symbiotic organisms though unlike the zlozekostra, much of it is more fungoid, plantal, or worm-like. They too are heavily augmented though most of it is for general purpose civilian use. These include retractable feeder-branches for higher levels of nutrient extraction, neuromycelial roots for telepathic data absorption, and hygiene worms bred to clean their bodies and fight off diseases. 

Some of it can converge on similar territory as their arthropods counterparts though they do not have as strong of a cultural background of this practice. They are still every bit as adaptable however, with their technically fungi-derived forms in some ways even more adaptable than that of a conventional animal.

They are on average the most religious species in the front though recent reforms and introduced civil liberties has seen an increase in non-religious as well as non-practitioners of . A growing number practice other faiths or simply abstain from spiritual belief yet they remain a minority. Their system of belief is canonized and with its own scriptural and supportive texts, closer to an actual religion than occultism and animist polytheism like their comrades. 

It is diverse enough to have been a part of various territorial, ethnic, and ideological conflicts throughout their history. Much of this was manipulated by the Yrrani particularly  in recent history, setting them against one another rather than the occupation. 

As previously stated, the Gnosis Vault is the prime figure of their belief, to whom they desire a transcendence towards. How exactly can vary wildly; through asceticism and self purification, the totality of collective unity, the uplifting of the misery of those surrounding them - their central text the [b]Antediluvian Proclamation[/B] or Asaldaiyoul demonstrates through myth and parable the follies and virtues of many of these methods. 

It is believed to have been a record of visions recorded in a chemical trance by generations upon generations of ancient mystics and voyagers who used to link their minds to the gestalt consciousnesses of gigantic [b]spore-moons[/b] in ages of pre-history. 

The ambiguity surrounding the nature of the Vault's divinity has resulted in many differing denominations of faith, the most prominent of which known as the[b] Worm Sect[/b] or [b]Tafyidani[/b] worship not the moon but its coiling parasitoid inhabitants. While many salibughri voluntarily let worms settle into their bodies, these controversial practitioners take it to a further extreme. So wormridden can they become that their consciousnesses reside in the squirming creatures than their own bodies. 

After all, if the Gnosis Vault itself is the land from which the worms originate and it is a "dead moon", is it not its flesh and viscera that truly live or the life that gestates, reproduces, and ravages amidst its oceans of churning flesh? While they were a heavily persecuted group in the past, the recent decades have seen them begin to be accepted among the wider whole. The stigma surrounding them and their beliefs once viewed near-universally as heresy is not absent. Yet it no longer stops them from positions of leadership and religious wisdom. This is important as their grotesque practices have been vital in making them some of the best technicians in the entirety of not just salibughri but Front space.

The Salibughri are master architects and communications experts, having evolved to convert their own biomass into comms networks and sprawling tower-structures. The neuro-mycelial networks they use are their invention, relying heavily on fungi colonies cultured by the usage of specialized worms who can manipulate the growth of certain fungoid species. The usage of enormous bioengineered worm creatures in construction is another masterpiece of theirs. These creatures' shed skin can be molded into various materials, laced with complex metals and biocomponents. Their ability to process materials in their semi-robotic innards to combine, breakdown, fuse, or even forge materials, before vomiting or excreting it as perfectly forged components is considered highly advanced. They are specialized primarily in biotech but have implemented conventional "hard" and psionic/ethereal knowledge quite readily.

They are the most social of the Front’s species, in near constant communication due to the innumerable ways including chemical and even olfactory methods they have. Sound is but one way but entering their spaces often results in one being bombarded across all their senses with a bizarre onslaught of unusual sights, sounds, smells, and even touch. While many older settlements are culturally insular, smaller enclaves and towns are rapidly expanding into some of the most creatively volatile centers of artistry and philosophy throughout the Front.

They are subsequently also associated with theorists and philosophy, with much of their beliefs informed not just by the Proclamation but an explosion of philosophical and political literature and other media. This is knowledge they like to share and debate amongst themselves with, especially with hyperspeed neuro-mycelial networks. This emphasis on knowledge can make them feel somewhat pretentious especially for outsiders, but they have perhaps the highest investment in education of all known species here.

While the tiarncnoic may be more obviously outgoing, the salibughri are more generous as a whole. There is a spirit of community that is present even among strangers, augmented by pseudo-telepathic communication and various social cues. For outsiders this layer of subtlety is hard to detect but it is only important insofar if one is an actual salibughri or truly adapted to their ways. They believe that if you are a part of their settlements and organizations, then your biological differences mean little, with their Gnosis Vault seeing them not as "beings" but simply reflections of greater metaphysical ideas. In its churning tides of mystery, our differences simply melt into nothingness.

[/hider]

[/hider]

[hider=Military] 
[hider=Planetary]

The planetary forces of the Abyss Front can be understood as in reality being two different military forces; one conventional and the other bestial. One of these is a rapid-attack mechanized army and the other is an overwhelming swarm of biomechanical horrors. Both of these work in tandem for an agile form of overwhelming hybrid warfare, developed over the course of centuries of anti-Yrrani resistance. It unites traditions from a wide array of species, military traditions, and insurgencies to formulate an aggressive and deceptively precise series of doctrines that have made the Abyss Front feared by those unfortunate enough to oppose it.

This strategy can be simplified as using gigantic swarms of extradimensional monstrosities and bioengineered skittering terrors to distract and tie up vital enemy forces. While losses suffered by these hordes are immense, these are easily replaced and replicated, preventing enemy movement as vehicles and deceptively fast, tough infantry maneuver into position to maximize effectiveness of hard-hitting weapon systems, of which even a single trooper can carry on or integrated into their bodies, sometimes even “encoded” into their very biomass, concealed until it is morphed and reshaped out of their very cybernetic physiologies. 

These elite infantry forces can rapidly reposition with many of them being quite speedy themselves thanks to multiple limbs and movement enhancing modules, on top of a wide variety of transports. Adding to this lethality is their augmented biologies often allowing them to use standard issue infantry weapons equivalent to crew-mounted weaponry from less hulking species. Just a handful of them can output an immense level of destruction, with various munitions whether high explosive armour piercing, gravitationally accelerated plasma, psionically volatile electrocuting, and other forms of grievous injury. 

Training and firepower is never in short supply. Neither is durability, with the Abyss Front fielding layered armor and naturally resilient species as standard infantry. Czlozekostra troopers regardless of species are born with tough carapaces which after military augmentations, turn them into small mech-walkers. Salibughri are the smallest of them and the closest to humans yet their fungoid biologies are unusually resilient, able to survive decapitation and bisection, while having rapid generative capability. Tiarncnoic forces meanwhile have a variety of protective energy fields or “shields” specialized in resisting various forms of fire, allowing them to layer additional protection without having to take on much more weight. 

These infantry are backed up by a variety of autonomous and networked drone-like platforms. These can range from hawk-sized antigravitational drones that observe and suicide-dive towards targets to detonate explosives to large arthropod like entities between the size of heavy infantry and infantry fighting vehicles, carrying additional firepower on nimble, tough bodies. Redundant systems including but not limited psionic and electronic ones allow them to network with one another, ground forces, and distant command units while advanced intelligences (not all of which are entirely cybernetic or “artificial”) allow them to retain cohesion even if separated from their controllers.

Abyss Front vehicles are quite fast, even the ones that use multiple insectoid legs rather than wheels, and quite a few of them have transport capability. Many of them are of a similar biomechanical design as their species, capable of rapid modification and able to mount a wide variety of weapon systems. Tiarncnoic ones tend to be purely machine but they share the same focus on precise, long-range weaponry focusing on armour piercing and disruptive explosive power. Particle cannons, bioelectro-thermochemical guns, and gravitationally accelerated munitions are their trademarks as are complex multi-missile launch systems, focusing on targeting high value targets that heavily armed infantry can’t blast away.

They have somewhat lighter armor than is expected, save for the larger mecha, but their speed and capability to network and augment allied forces makes them highly dangerous if they can stay on the move. Their missile systems are supported with a variety of smaller artillery systems that when combined with the redundant networking systems uniform across their forces, allows for extremely rapid target acquisition and the ability to provide quick artillery support. They can also often generate and “attach” energy shields to infantry squads, further increasing survivability and support capability.

Perhaps the most powerful weapon at their disposal are the strange “spells” and “sorceries” they can implement on the battlefield. The most infamous of these is a thick, roiling fog that doesn’t appear to be heavily affected by wind currents or atmospheric disruptions. This supernatural gas obscures their forces and tampers with electronics, hiding their true numbers and force disposition while its ethereal composition can be used to teleport forces across where it manifests. It also causes their swarm armies to take on a renewed savagery, sometimes seeping into the remains of destroyed biomonstrosities and violently reanimating them. 

Others have observed guided missiles flying in erratic, twisting patterns suggesting that they casters of some sort are deliberately altering their trajectory to target weak spots on enemies. Disruptive rifts have been known to manifest abruptly in hidden heavy weapon positions after having been scouted by burrowing Abyssic drones. Heatwave-like visual distortions manifest before their forces, causing illusions of more forces than there truly are to appear. Even amidst dense swarms of shrieking, gnashing, biting terrors, larger spectral predators will emerge and erupt out of their putrid masses, suddenly tossing disruptive terrors into lines of unprepared infantry. The Abyss Front is many things but violently unpredictable is what most fear the most about them and their myriad abilities.[/hider]

[hider=Space]Unlike their ground forces, the Abyss Front’s starfleet is a far more brutish force. Much of it is even more feral in nature, including gigantic yrrani dreadnought vessels thought lost in ages past, fused into the semi-living remains of colossal star-titans they once hunted. They still make use of enormous screening swarms across their fleet but these dreadnoughts (of which more are still being created and others prowling in the depths) are their most infamous.

As a whole, the Front’s fleet is an overwhelming battering ram, combining high tech shielding and living biomechanical systems with heavy duty beam, particle, and even fusion weapons. The technological expertise of three races and their associated subspecies has been combined to create a highly durable fleet specialized in overwhelming violence. Most concerningly, psionic power has been fully standardized as both a defensive and offensive capability. 

When combined, this makes them incredibly troublesome to deal with. While their starfleet is not particularly fast, it is quite durable yet not just in terms of self-repair and ablative metal-woven carapace plating. Abyss Front ships are known to create and manipulate fields of gas-like clouds, made of nano-entities and strange chemicals, they can manipulate through psionics and esoteric technology to both diminish incoming energy weapons and even interfere with targeting systems. They can launch flurries of bio-debris that conceal hidden living bomb-drones and ECM beacons. Miniaturized aberration-rifts summoned near enemy fleets flood scanners and observations systems with faulty readings, tamper with biosystems, disrupt electronics, and even cause psionic malfunctions also make them a nightmare to fight against.

A doctrine of constantly forcing the enemy to juggle multiple problems has made encounters with them often take on the maddening exaggerations of sailors’ tales of encounters with dreadful beasts of the deep. This is assisted by the fact that their vessels seem to press the attack with a maddening, uncaring resolve. Crewed primarily by creatures adapted to harsh, vacuum conditions, their vessels often possess minds of their own. Numerous redundant systems and a need for far less to no real life support allows them to fight on zombie-like even when they should reasonably be no longer functional.

Their weapons also tend to cause a variety of additional effects to happen beyond damage to shielding and hulls. Massive energy blasts cause wraith-like creatures seemingly made of eldritch energies to corrode and tear into vessels after the beams that sent them vanish, allowing them to damage them long term. Missiles that teleport seemingly at random before slamming into a target leave clusters of miniature insectoid drones, lighting up areas for faster target lock on while causing localized glitches and malfunctions. Storms of biomunitions impale and splatter volatile fluids causing follow-up strikes to cause catastrophic secondary explosions. 

Even worse are rumors of colossal creatures not known to any bestiary but seemingly drawn from ancient religion and myth alike. Summoned by otherworldly forces said to reside within the massive beacons the Front has constructed deep within their territory, these gigantic eel and crustacean like organisms are said to prey on capital ships. Engagements with them have been rare but it is believed they are lurking outside of the Front’s boundaries, in the blackness between stars and quietly watching the unfolding events of the new era.[/hider]

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