LustForDecay

Into Perdition's Jaws

Overture

15 years of brutal planet-spanning warfare, countless billions buried beneath irradiated soils, and the hungering gaze of powers whether great, risen, and fallen eager to carve up the remains of the shattered Frontier Worlds. 15 years of terror and mayhem not without precedent but without equal in the last century. On the crown jewel of the Frontier Worlds where this foul tragedy sputters its dying breaths as the vengeful Frontier guardians turned exiled insurrectonists the Carnazir, the corporate expansionist Unified Celestial League, the revoutionary collectivist alliance of the Zrovreni Solar Revolutionary Pact, and the remnants of the Dolsilvec Regime that once ruled the planet prepare to divide what had been conquered a thousand times over.

None of that is on your mind when you hear the blaring of the emergency alarm in the stealth transport. That's not supposed to be going off; the aircraft of the Gnosis Eater Sect are not simply pinged by any army's targeting systems; nobody had the tech for that. None of that matters as you open the cockpit door just in time to see the glas shatter and hear the crunching of helmet and bone. You recoil backwards as a cloud of vaporous gore washes over you, fragments of the pilot's braincase plinking against your armour. The flight controls have been torn open by a high velocity projectile and the vessel is falling.

There's only one explanation: somebody stabbed you in the back. A shot that clean isn't by accident. That somebody doesn't want you completing your mission. Whatever's in those laboratories, whatever they blacked out the entirety of Caracosa, the most dangerous and violent part of the planet even in the tail end of the civil war, where-

No time to think about that either. Your shock-absorption padding and stabilizer implants shake off the jolting impact of the crash, tearing the plane apart but you, your combat exosuit, and your weaponry survive. Miraculously, your teammates fare better and through their visors and death-mask armour, you can feel the same confusion and boiling, seething anger within. You break from the melting wreckage, your plasma repeater spraying a wave of armour-devouring death down the street and through biomass barricades, rewarding you with screams of dying foes. Not even five minutes and they already knew your crash position; do they know where the laboratories were hidden too?

A ping on your HUD. You duck back behind cover, your barrel hot and the cooling system stressed to its limit. The squad leader has gotten a fix on the laboratory location. The liaison has just pinged it to you along with the meet-up point. Problem is, you can hear heavy armour grinding down the nearby hillside and the distant hum of void-artillery charging up. Cover's minimal, the bastards are relentless, and you don't have the supplies for a desperate barricade defence or counterattack. The rest of the team, hand picked by the Gnosis Eater Sect, are cursing as mags and batteries run dry, just as another wave of squads pours through the cover you just blew apart.

You have to break from cover, armour-piercers ripping across your shoulderpads, secondary charges detonating mere feet from you and knocking you off balance. A six-fingered claw grabs you by the shoulder, pulling you up as your squadmate retaliates with void-borne power shooting out of their monstrous, insectoid body. It's brought a quarter of a minute at best; the most you can afford as you take the small lead and rush towards the wilderness creeping through the edge of these city ruins. Through every shot fired, half broken wall ducked behind, and foot of ground you sprint over, the shock you once felt solidifies as anger before morphing into determination.

The bastard who set you up was confident this would be how it ended. The laboratories contain information and archaeotech they would kill to acquire and you know the aftermath of the war will be worse if these bastards get their hands on it. There will be no safe escape for you if you fail; you will be hunted as prey by friend and foe alike. You grip the weapon harder: the barrel's fully cooled.

This won't be your end but whoever thought they could sabotage your mission this easily will be in for a very rude surprise.

The Mission

In the military sci-fi RP Into Perdition's Jaws, you play as a soldier selected to be part of an elite special forces group, drawing from any of the four major power players in the region or a third party contractor as well as from the Gnosis Eater Sect who assembled them. Your objectives are simple: touch down in Carcosa, link up with the Sect's hidden research laboratory, and extract both high value personnel and alien technology of unknown origin ("archaeotech") before a mysterious robotic enemy who's been systematically raiding Sect bases beats you to it. Unfortunately, you crash land when your transport is shot down, knee deep in enemy-occupied territory, and the first base is far away given you're not exactly at your drop-point.

No matter to whom your allegiance has been sworn, you have been thrust into a scenario where your allies and enemies may at times be indistinguishable. The firefights and assault operations may be straightforward but you will be tasked with manoevering a risky series of fragile alliances, delicate ceasefires, and the fact that your unknown enemies have eyes hidden amongst those you would call friend and foe alike. You won't survive without making some allies but be wary of the hidden knives waiting to sink into your back. Strange creatures call this region home and even during the war, freak eldritch phenomena have broken out, only adding to the list of troubles you will have to contend with.

Your goal as ordered by your superiors was the safety of the labs, their personnel, and the archaeotech within, but as you play you will unravel the workings of a larger conspiracy and the hidden truths that the Sect has gathered, stached away even from their own personnel. Black ops teams from the great powers prowl in the shadows while the mysterious machine warriors will ensure you will never truly feel safe. Choose your friends wisely and your enemies carefully. It was assumed you wouldn't survive for damn good reason but get to the bottom of this and you may have a chance to put the backstabbers' heads on stakes.

The Rules of Engagement

1) Be good to one another; work things out and respect one another. Do not hesitate to ask for my assistance!

2) Don't godmod or metagame! Only work with what your characters know! They may be powerful but treat their power with respect to the setting and vibe of the RP!

3) Try to post weekly. If you're having trouble or will be delayed, please let us know in the official discord (hyperlinked below).

4) Make sure your characters fit with the setting and atmosphere. This is a pretty wild setting and I do allow a lot of leeway but always go through with me to make sure it'll flow smoothly.

5) You are allowed to contriubte lore if you wish; go over it with me, think of a way for it to be implemented in the RP, and if it all works out I'll gladly add it to the setting.

6) As I am the GM, I'll have the final say on all these decisions but I am willing to hear you all out.

Personnel Dossier

Please submit your character sheets under the Characters section of the thread.

Character Sheet Outline

DISCLAIMER: YOU ARE ALLOWED TO CONTROL UP TO THREE CHARACTERS INITIALLY. THIS MAY CHANGE WITH TIME.

NAME::

SPECIES:
(Human, alien, machine? You are allowed to create your own species too).

AGE:
(Please do not put in creepily underage characters.)

FACTION ALIGNMENT:
(Are they with the Gnosis Eater Sect? The Dolsilvec Regime? The Unified Celestial League? The Carnazir? The Zrovreni Solar Revolutionary Pact? An independent agent or from another faction altogether?)

HEIGHT/WEIGHT (OPTIONAL):

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:
(Reference images not mandatory but helpful)

BACKGROUND PRIOR TO BEING SELECTED FOR THE MISSION:
(A paragraph minimum. Who are they, where did they come from, why are they fighting, all that good stuff.)

REASON FOR MISSION RECRUITMENT:
(Why were they selected for such a dangerous mission? It is advised to include their greatest strengths here. A paragraph minimum.)

WEAKNESSES:
(Minimum of four. Can be physical, psychological, strategic, training-related, etc.)

SKILLS AND TRAINING:
(What are some things your character was taught, programmed to know, genetically inherited, etc.? Things such as first aid, hacking, survival, tracking, alien languages, demolitions, martial arts and so on are included here. Training is essentially how your character fights; are they a long range sniper, a close-in assault trooper, a sneaky saboteur?)

LOADOUT:
(This includes your weaponry and any equipment you are taking with you. You are allowed a maximum of three ranged weapons starting out and two melee ones. Other weapons such as grenades, timed explosives, and mines you can larger number of. In the case of gear such as portable turrets, drones, and living creatures, you are typically limited to at most two. Typically non-combat equipment such as medits, repair tools, tracking devices, and so on you are allowed more leeway with. Armour and such unsurprisingly is typically limited to one... unless say, you're some bizarre multi-bodied organism or something. Remember, you can acquire more weapons and equipment with time.)

AUGMENTATIONS:
(Does your character have any notable upgrades to their default bodily capabilities? These can include cybernetic, ethereal, and biological implants or devices of note as opposed to general performance enhancers that grant them additional abilities, enhance their default bodily capabilities, or even network with their gear and armour. If your character is partially cybernetic, a lab grown bio-entity, naturally possessing ethereal internal components by default and so on, these would be the last major augmentations they acquired.)

ETHEREOLOGY:
(Is your character capable of manipulating unearthly currents of power from the dimension known as the Abzu? Maybe even those from The Abyssic Plane? This is the series' version of magic. If so, describe how they care capable of doing such. Provide a few examples of this if possible and the role it fulfills for them.)

PERKS:
(Perks are special abilities that are unique to the species your character is. Each species has three and you are allowed to have all of them. They can include having certain weapons only they are capable of using, creating specialized minions to assist you in battle, or increasing your proficiency in piloting certain vehicles among others. You may also have one additional perk of your own but it must not overlap with a pre-existing one for any of the major species)

Additional Intelligence

Official Discord

Lore Thread

Interest Check Thread

Into Perdition's Jaws (Lost Behind Enemy Lines - SciFi/Action/Suspense)

The species list in the lore thread has been updated with one new species near the bottom (praohlnevatz) and reference images for a few of the other ones! Been a bit busy but expect an OOC thread tomorrow, with the IC hopefully in the same week. In the meantime, here's a link to the official discord if you'd like to discuss more!

Into Perdition's Jaws (Lost Behind Enemy Lines - SciFi/Action/Suspense)

<Snipped quote by LustForDecay>

I haven't read the lore page but I'll get around to it now.

<Snipped quote by LustForDecay>

I don't get this.

@The Ghost Note

Well, I am likely to add another playable species of offshoot mutants with innate supernatural capabilites. Something like very large phronima.

Into Perdition's Jaws (Lost Behind Enemy Lines - SciFi/Action/Suspense)

I am def down for something like this.

@Jamesyco

Happy to hear that! I believe we have nearly enough to start with three confirmed. I'm brainstorming an opening post for the IC as well as an OOC as well.

@The Ghost Note have you been able to read the lore as well by any chance?

I actually have another species in mind that will be similar to the voidhangers.

Into Perdition's Jaws (Lost Behind Enemy Lines - SciFi/Action/Suspense)

I'd be lying if I said I don't adore the roster of outlandish aliens here (fungoids and invertebrates hit some of my soft spots), and the thought-out political and occult background is certainly a plus. I'll be keeping an eye or a few on this.

@Oraculum

Thank you. I always preferred my aliens to be well, alienating and the atmosphere to be eldritch and foreboding.

Into Perdition's Jaws (Lost Behind Enemy Lines - SciFi/Action/Suspense)

Definitely interested, kinda reminds me of Borderlands in terms of multiple corporate factions fighting for planetary territory.

@Bronco

Thanks you for your interest! Just to clarify however that the UCL would be the only like full on corporate presence in the setting.

Into Perdition's Jaws: Lore

How does magic work in the setting?

Ethereality and the Abzu​

Rather than being a 100% hard sci fi setting, Buried Deep in Damnation's features (space) magic which is known as “ether” and comes from a dimension known as the Abzu. Rather than being a realm of recognizable deities, demons, angels, devils, and whatnot it is more akin to the eerier microscopic world of the open and deep oceans.

It is filled with amoral and eldritch beings, some planet sized, that feed off of the psychic waste-byproduct of both sentience and sapience. This byproduct, known as qillatu, is dangerous and essentially “radioactive” in concentrated quantities in our world. While normal cognitive processes can generate, usage of the ether can as well causing it to cling to the void-signature and even body of ethereal-capable objects and entities. While it is harmful to more corporeal entities, in the Abzu it forms the basis for “vegetation” and various simple organisms which begin a food chain of increasingly larger, more complex life forms.

These organisms tend to resemble aquatic creatures such as siphonophores, jellyfish, worms, tardigrades, giant isopods, spider crabs, sea spiders, amphipods, squidworms, bobbit worms, eels, snakeheads, lake Baikal amphipods, sea cucumbers, and so on. Some of these creatures live off of “worship” though their minds are not truly considered “intelligent”, possessing alien psychology that we are only just beginning to decipher. They benefit those who follow them by feeding to them fragments of the ethereogenetic material that allow for the manipulation of ethereality.

Typically one can be born with this power but it can also be acquired through extensive testing and exposure to the beyond, often regulated with ethereal, biological, and/or cybernetic implants. Robotic beings are unable to utilize it without some sort of living biological components. Natural users typically have an easier learning curve than those who had to have the skill implanted into them.

However, all usage comes with side effects. Physical bodies are not truly adapted to contain its power; while naturals have evolved glands, organs, nerves, and cells to deal with the qillatu feedback when they utilize the power, they are no less vulnerable than others. Qillatu is emitted as a kind of radiation that is absorbed, blocked, deflected, or otherwise dealt with by by inborn bio-components and/or implanted augmentations.

One's qillatu resistance has a threshold and as one nears it from continued use they will begin feeling various physical symptoms – dizziness, nausea, great heat or cold, stiffness of limbs and even all the way up to hallucinations, spouts of paranoia, emotional instability, or black spots in their vision. If that threshold is broken, ethereal power will flood into the body and with it, often extradimensional organisms that will begin eroding, infesting, and consuming one’s consciousness.

Oddly enough, this is rarely outright fatal but it will result in one going comatose as their consciousness is “cocooned” in a flux of their own degraded psychic waste in order to protect itself rom external forces. This is reversible but it is difficult, risky, and can leave long lasting damage. Augmentations and ethereally adapted biology usually will activate failsafes to cut off ether-flow to stem qillatu generation the source or short-circuit one’s capabilities among other methods to prevent severe feedback and its effects.

Ethereality can manifest in a number of forms and due to how well it is studied, it has many uses from assisting with lifting heavy objects, maintaining internet connections, and even providing power and fuel all the way to assisting in FTL travel, treating radiation poisoning, and cutting-edge psychotherapy. Armed forces have found just as many uses. Typically ethereal powers work like spells in a fantasy series though there are limits – you cannot change the weather to summon lightning bolts or transform your enemies into chickens. Most of the time, ether acts as a raw force, similar to the energy in laser or plasma guns. It can be shot as bolts, detonated, used as a whip, and even form fields that slow or shock targets within the area of effect. However, it can also be used to create barriers, enhance weaponry, and obscure lines of sight.

Many use it to momentarily enhance physical capabilities such as resilience, reflexes, speed and strength. Using it to momentarily “blink” forward up to currently 60 metres maximum (at great cost) is also possible as well – tossing oneself through a tunnel made in the Abzu. There are even discussions of weaponizing qillatu although this is highly controversial. Another new though fairly recent field of study is using ethereality to summon creatures from beyond though actually controlling them is a field in its early stages. Otherwise, it is highly risky even for non-carnivorous or “docile” creatures due to the fact they too are natural ether users.

This power while commendable has many weaknesses. Unless you are incredibly skilled or have access to high end forms of bio/ethereal/cybernetic components, it will leave a trace and signature even for minor uses. This can be detected by both particular organisms, persons, and technology. Without said high end components, most people will also be visible on certain spectrums in a way similar to electro-magnetic or thermal vision. Certain weapons and even animals specialize in damaging and hunting ethereal-capable beings. If one’s focus is broken while attempting to use this power, it can backfire or cause a more severe feedback effect, often jolting and stunning them.

There are armour and shield types that can resist ethereal power very well. While nobody will publicly admit it, banned weapons are on Caracosa that can cause horrific damage to ethereologists. Ethereal powers can also be overwhelmed by raw firepower and brute force; barriers and energy beams sometimes simply can’t match overwhelming force. While ethereal power is highly important, it is never ever a pure substitute for solid knowledge of weaponry, skills, and tactics. Many an over-confident drugged up ethereologist has met a humiliating end at the hands of simple ballistic or bladed weaponry.

The Abyssic Plane​

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A fetid, reeking, and wet domain of unusually (semi) physical matter existing between realspace and the Abzu that mystifies ethereologists even to this today. It is believed that this almost mangrove swamp like region of the beyond filters out the Abzu's excess energies, stopping it from overwhelming and devouring realspace. It is also known to serve as a habitat of creatures that at once seem more solid and developed than the Abzu yet are just as cryptic. Many of them have a similar general bodily shape but more seem to distantly resemble some sort of mutated serpentine fish sliding through the filth, lengthy combinations of centipede and mantis shrimp, eight winged ball-like creatures, enormous spiders disguising themselves as algae-ridden roots, and other such enormous and often disturbing and unpleasant.

It is comprised a large part of what seems to be something between heavily rotted flesh and mushy moistened mud though there are also areas overgrown with what tough, dense flora whose veins, leaves, and branches occasionally pulse with gibbering power. An often reddish or sometimes purple mist lightly shrouds the lightly reddish waters while the sky seems to be a sickly faded brown and white.

In spite of how unpleasant it is, the Abyssic Plne is technically a less dangerous place than the Abzu. The organisms within are too caught up in their simple, primodial lives and the dense "ground" seems to easily absorb ether before sucking it deep below, filtering it back into the Abzu. Qillatu seems to remain longer, capable of hovering in the air, but will often quickly attract creatures to feed if it becomes concentrated enough. Vegetation exposed to it appears to begin shuddering and whispering; research suggests it is essentially reflecting the radiation from the qillatu which manifests psycho-sonically as what at first seems to be whispered language but in reality, are air vibrations reacting against ether-exposed consciousnesses.

Some abzu-dwelling creatures are known to enter the Plane, with many inhabiting it during their larval or juvenile stages, but it is not necessarily safer for them in spite of their power. Their natural etheralist abilities are partially muted by the Plane and those of its natural inhabitants are not to be scoffed at.

The kind of ethereal power that derives from the Plane does have some overlap with that of the Abzu. It can be destructive and enhancing, but it tends to be more esoteric as well. It can cause those summoning it to seemingly blur in and out of view, making them appear to blink in and out of realspace. Gravity can be weakened in an area causing heavier objects to begin floating for short periods of time. Clouds of festering supernatural matter can be summoned out of it and launched at targets, erupting into a haze of psyche-overwhelming, qillatu generating miasma.

The very muck as well can be evoked then hardened to create solid barriers or even "filters" that break down ethereal spells into their raw underlying formulae and sub-reactions. With great skill, its eldritch life forms can even be summoned into the abzu or realspace! These are only some examples of what one can do with the Abyssic Plane's power.

The main problem is that it is difficult to tap into it and those naturally able to do so while not unheard of are either rare or are struggling to fully develop their usage of it. The Gnosis Eater Sect has a larger number of them than anyone else but their research on it is the most secretive part of their organization. Independent research groups have found ways to capture small amounts of the Plane's power to be used by etherealists but is a clunky, awkward process that is still undergoing much refinement. They typically require chipping and tagging abzu-dwellers or the occasional abyssic organisms then attempting to track it and record the readings but this is highly difficult process.

Much of the current research, including some supposedly leaked by the GES, suggests that the Plane is capable of "deciphering" and "deconstructing" ether. Its ability to filter it is potentially due to the fact that it may be a gigantic pile of semi-living void-matter that essentially both maintains and feeds upon the Abzu. Its true size is unknown but it must be potentially even larger if it can withstand and feed on it simultaneously. It is believed however breakthroughs in this field could revolutionize galactic society as we know it.

Into Perdition's Jaws: Lore

PLAYABLE SPECIES

NOTE: THESE ARE NOT EVERY SINGLE SPECIES IN THE SETTING BUT THE PRIMARY ONES FOR THE RP.

I am willing to entertain any ideas you have for new species and it is not mandatory to play as a member of these races. Cyborgs/robots are not included as they are constructs rather than organisms. Each accepted species will have its own perks that in most cases are available only to that species. However there will be some that may be similar. Perks can include technology, ethereal capabilities, buffs, weaponry, and other such elements that for the most part only that particular species has. They are all also optional; you do not have to include them for your character if you don't want to.

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Humanity​

Summary

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Once considered primitive and warlike, humanity demonstrated in the late 2090's to early 3000's that their tenacity was coupled with a creativity and drive to both survive and expand as deeply held as any millennia old empire. Humanity was slow initially to make contact with sapients beyond its own solar system but rather than bringing conflict against the Scielto, their business acumen and ruthless need for growth would result in an alliance with the far larger alien empire that would set down the foundations for the formation of the Unified Celestial League. Impressively, humanity would get an even larger share of the deal arguably, rapidly expanding as the old semi-corporatist governments of Earth began to bring about a sweeping wave of political and economic changes to the Scielto Empire and their associates and the sheer economic power they possessed slowly began to bend whole systems to their will. Beneath their explosive growth, divisions previously suppressed in the wake of the grand wars of ideology and resources were beginning to resurface. The solution was to simply move them away from the growing imperial core whether by exile, forced displacement, or colonization programs. The effects of this would pave the way for years of separatism, interplanetary civil conflict, and the acceleration of anti Celestial ideologies.

The Frontier Worlds in particular are where many humans were resettled forcefully or as volunteers though they also expanded to various other often more desolate or previously untouched worlds. The population of humans living outside of League space has rapidly grown to the extent some demographists believe it may achieve quantiative parity with those in a few decades. A large number of these live in mixed species colonies scattered all throughout the stars and between League and Pact space. The latter is the primary agent of influence among them but the Carnazir exiles and diaspora have begun to contest their influence. The League on the other hand tends to primarily have influence in the larger and more affluent settlements especially for nomad fleets and space stations. It is noted that they have a relatively small but rapidly growing number of naturally-born etherealists while synthetic and occult practices to imbue them with ethereal capabilities are becoming increasingly popular.

On Chalgheol in particular, humans are roughly the third most populous species after celaderaka and tarrhaidim. They are found in practically every rung of society though they seem in some cases to be rather aloof around those two, often in settlements that have a stronger loyalty with the UCL. A great number can be found participating directly in the wars either in command positions or as footsoldiers. Outside of that, many of them seem to occupy mid to lower class positions nowadays with most of those higher up having managed to hold onto their positions through connections and leeway with the changing rulership scenario. They are viewed with some suspicion in certain nation-sectors due to their ties to the Dolsilvec Regime's old guard where they are often quite wealthy. Their populations in some places even outnumber native alien species. A number exist in less fortunate regions and share this stigma though to a far less severe extent. This appears to correlates with how many other aliens they are living with as well the level of economic disparity experienced.

Human Perks:

Subdermal Network Layer

One of humanity's most unique inventions is this experimental piece of cybernetics technology. It is a synthetic skin beneath the skin made of hundreds of little ports, flexible composite materials, vein-imitating wires, and a few specific microorganism colonies. With this complex set-up of components the Subdermal Network Layer allows its human users to interface with powered armor or exoskeletons, vehicles such as mecha and fighters, and certain computer systems far more effectively.

While it does not inherently result in better pilots, it does give many humans a notable edge in terms of how fast they can react, move, analyse data and otherwise operate machinery and specialized computers. Nobody has figured out how to replicate this technology for other races in spite of the most cutting edge laboratories undergoing numerous trials with homunculi-fleshvessels and even willing alien volunteers.

Psycho-Kinetic Consciousnessness

Human psycho-ethereal signatures in the Abzu are unlike any other species. This is believed to be due to earlier experiments with harnessing the dimension's power prior to dedicated space travel though when they did start exploring the stars, something changed in their collective mental composition and how their brains evolved. They are capable of what we have previously called "psychic powers" but in reality is a capability to finely manipulate physical and ethereal matter using currents of Abzu energy to manipulate matter in a way almost similar to gravitational manipulatory devices.

What most people speak about however is the ability to detect other consciousnesses at shorter ranges. They cannot read a mind as one might a book as much as they can detect them and if using said "limbs", detect the emotional state and the most direct, powerful emotions being expresses. If they invest enough power and concentration, they can potentially "hear" what are commonly described as psychic echoes that seem to contain abstracted versios of whatever a subject was thinking which while useful, is not fully accurate. In spite of having had more interaction with the mysterious beyond, the human offshoots of Voidhangers have not developed this skill and scientists are baffled as to why.

Etherelectrical Generator System

Another unusually distinct piece of human tech is this life support system that was unsurprisingly heavily weaponized. By using etheral power to modify electrical currents, humans were able to find ways to store it in their body as long as they had an EGS installed. This system can be a biological, ethereal, or cybernetic one (or all three) but it is unknown why the human body is able to use this. Most theories believes it is due to the same reason they can use psychic abilities.

With this, even non-ethereality-capable humans can manipulate electricity in strange ways, from causing it to bend in arcing shots or erupt in shockwaves around them. However the effect of ethereal energy causes the electricity to move far slower than its normal counterpart due to the way Abzu-energy partially nullifies realspace electricity; the cost of making it safer to use. Etherealists with an EGS are able to combine it with their own disciplines and manipulate the electricity more finely than normal humans.

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Tarrhaidim​

Summary

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Pronounced “tar-high-deem”. They are large bipedal organisms resembling rotted eyeless humanoids, covered in hardened fungoid growth, and maws full of jagged pointed formations, noted for appearing to have rotted flesh. They are actually a fungoid like organism, genderless and able to reproduce asexually on occasion or by combining large amounts of reproductive biomatter into communal “spawning globes”. They are capable of heaviliy modifying and selectivley mutating their own biomatter and have an unusual tendency to "bolt" clothing, equipment, gear, and armour into their bodies though this is nowhere near as painful as some would think. They are durable creatures with noted regenerative capabilities and the ability to survive on very little (think dirt, rotting wood, and sunlight). They are one of the most common races though they are native primarily to the Frontier Worlds and the most numerous on Chalgheol.

Their homeworld is unknown but some theorize they might not have had one but were simply scattered across the stars on spore-filled comets by some unknown planet-sized void-entity believed to be the so called "Nexus of Teeth" (a colossal, revolting swirl of decomposing, regenerating mushroom-like biomatter filled with hundreds of tooth like jagged protrusions) their religion worship. Many have emigrated as refugees out of the Frontier Worlds to escape the conflicts resulting from League-Pact power games, moving to established nation-worlds or independent colonies. A massive number of them however comprise both the Carnazir and Dolsilvec Regime while many more frequently work on militias and guerilla groups all across the political spectrum. It is known that there is a growing pro-ZSRP movement lead by certain exiled militant groups that took refuge on core Pact that has only grown larger with the recent negotiations.

On Chalgheol, many of them were once from the less developed and more rustic areas in the past but now roughly 50% of their populace lives in urbanized or agricultural zones, also comprising many of its armed forces. Some disdain is directed at them but rarely openly, often depending on their political alignment. They have an above average amount of casters often interpreting their powers through the lens of their esoteric religion, which has swelled to include an increasingly larger number of non-tarrhaidim. It is said that while the Celaderaka might be better fighters on average, the Tarrhaidim usually create better leaders.

Tarrhaidim Perks:

Necromantic Transgression

Colloquially known as "necromancy", these fungoid beings are able to breathe ethereal life into lifeless matter. This is a fairly advanced skill with its roots in ancient occult practices but now it is understood in a more rational manner. Essentially, a Tarrhaidim etherealist will create a series of "codes, formulas, and algorithims" in an otherworldly construct and analyse the metaphysical complexity and state of the matter that once lived, typically organic though in some cases machine as well. They they then insert the constrct into the matter and "activate" it in a way similar to an automaton.

The practice is controversial but it is mostly used to reanimate bio-constructs which are not considered truly alive. It does not restore the memories and personality of deceased sapient beings. Reanimated entities or matter can be remotely controlled as long as they are within range or "programmed" to act in certain ways like a robot.

Unearthly Vessel

By ethereally enhancing their biomass (or something or someone else's), detaching it, then summoning an abzu-dwelling void-worm from their fungoid deity-moon into it, Tarrhaidim are essentially able to create what they call a wormgazer. It is not necessarily a summon in a traditional sense as the worm barely has a consciousness and in infesting the detached biomass, becomes subservient to the tarrhaidim's will. This drone is capable of growing and being upgraded with all kinds of augmentations as well as additional wepaonry.

They typically fly and are around the size of conventional metallic ones though some can slither, dig, or crawl or another method of movement. The tarrhaidim ones can amplify their master's ethereality and even be used as a launching platform for spells. It can even be absorbed into its master to increase their capabilities both pysical and ethereal though if it is destroyed in this state, it will cause violent feedback effects. No other summoned entities or void-constructs are capable of this yet or are as modifiable.

Unity in Decay

Tarrhaidim with sufficient augmentations or who have attained a particular level of mutation or growth are able to combine with up to around seven other tarrhaidim maximum along as there is true mental desire and consent. The new gestalt organism is comparable to walkers or mecha in terms of size and power though far more grotesque in how it is created. Their bodies will rip open as various veins, parasite creatures, roots, stalks, and veins intertwine and wrap while their consciousness-globes enter a hardened shell in the centre of their mass.

This all happens in around a minute and a half at its very most. The resulting gestalt creature combines their consciousnesses into many-but-one, often dissolving their sense of individual emotive capability and instead emphasizing higher goals and objectives. Any ethereality possessed will be combined though the range of casting capabilities is limited, trading versatility for raw power. Oddly enough, it is surprisingly easy to break form these combinations though it is often advised to let others know ahead of time. Damage towards it will be damage shared towards all and its centrla core is destroyed, its constituent beings can be wounded or killed.

My Hider

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Vrexul​

Summary

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Pronounced “vuh-rex-sull”. Massive and mysterious creatures that came from a very distant galaxy in a large fleet of life-seeding ships whose own history they know next to nothing about; something that they have been attempting to remedy to this day. They resemble enormous arthropods with dense carapaces bristling with cybernetics and integrated external biomass like living biomechanical juggernauts. They can move bipedally or on up to around 30 limbs. On average they are between seven and ten feet tall with a few species being around five foot six and a few rare specimens around 20. They are pioneers and leaders when it comes to augmentation technology to the extent some of them are basically small habitats for performance-enhancing symbiotes and hidden integrated tools. In spite of being reminiscent of arthropods such as ground and rove beetles, decapods, myriapods, huntsman and wolf spiders, earwigs, crickets, and so on, their populations are not particularly large due to a variety of ground-up population controls. They do not have many etherealists but those that do so are rewnowned for their terrifying, uncomfortable powers. Attempts to externally install ethereal capabilities have seen only mixed results though their overall numbers are growing.

When the Vrexul first entered known space, they did so on clusters of worlds bordering or that were already inhabited the gealtirocht. The then nascent UCL had a number of large mining claims there, formed between larger gealtirocht clans and corporate development fleets used to partially develop ancient tribal ground. The segmented ships were accompanied by a massive half ethereal and half physical entity resembling a cloud of festering arthropod biomatter and self-maintaining cybernetics, the "leader" which communicated to its people through a series of advanced AI's. Neither the gealtirocht clans nor the League were prepared for such an abrupt arrival and quickly they began creating various little hive-communes.

Even more surprising was that the ones that were seen apparently were all teenagers to young adults, not fully grown but hatched two decades before their arrival and following the commands the ships were left with before their departure. The League was already having difficulty pacifying the various smaller gealtirocht tribes as were the larger of the highland clans that had forged alliances with them. The vrexul were making inroads with the eel-like aliens, with their bizarre mixture of biotech and cybernetics used in service of a classless society, beginning to attract many of the restless populace of both humanity and the scielto. Attempts to bargain with them economically simply fell on deaf ears as beyond simply living their lives, the bugs had a deeper interest in the history of these worlds; they believed some of them to have been the ancient homeworlds of their predecessors.

When they made it clear they wouldn't budge, the League attempted to turn the discontent of the growing gealtirocht civil unrest against them, leading a vicious propaganda campaign that drew the vrexul into a violent territorial civil war. The league would join as well, inflicting grievous losses at first before finding that these enormous arthropods, while they had fostered a gentle giant image for some time, were also destructive titans when angered and thier own were threatened. They compensated for their lack of proper troops and battle experience with careful alliances with sympathetic gealtirocht tribes and independent colonists, distracting and tying up humanity long enough that they found what would be their trump card.

The enormous cloud-entity, the Evzredigor, was not even a competed being. Fragments of it had been hidden across these worlds; fragments that when unleashed, joined with the cyber-eldritch monstoristy and finally gave them a true means to contest the spacefleets of their enemies. It is at this point that the not only did the UCL suffer a very, very rare crushing defeat but the flashpoint that would accelerate the creation of an alliance to rival the UCL. It is at the vrexul underground city of Zrovreni that in this newfound alliance formed by the unexpectedly defiant vrexul and the now liberated gealtirocht that the Solar Revolutionary Pact was formed.

They are exceedingly rare in League space for obvious reasons but it is known that a growing number of disillusioned vrexul can be found in the Carnazir. Some of them who were sent to assist the Dolsilvec Regime would later join thanks to the charisma of its titular leader, inviting others to form elite cadres of warriors. A number of smaller enclaves are located in the Frontier Worlds but are well hidden subterranean cities. The are not adverse to integrating into society as a whole though it is easier on independent colonial worlds beyond the Frontier as lately, they have grown a fearsome reputation due to the Pact's military involvement in the region. Occasionally, this has been used to justify military intervention to extract them, something that has been used against them in criticism or lauded for as a sign of their dedication to protecting their own.

Vrexul Perks

Living Armory

These enormous arthropods are already known for having some of the most brutishly powerful weaponry in the cosmos. However they do not necessarily carry all of them as other species might. Many of their biologically crafted weapons and increasingly many of those with artificial components can be "encoded" into their bodies after standard issue augmentations. This breaks them down at the cellular and/or molecular level with technology only they understand but it saves the "idea" of the weaponry as a kind of code as well as their ammunition if needed. This allows them to store quite a few weapons inside themselves and in a surprisingly safe manner; contrary to what many video games and movies have shown, they will not explode if you shoot them in their ammo storage (assuming the weapon is un-morphed and resting inert).

Most of the encodable weaponry they can carry is fairly short range and lower calibre or energy output but tends to have very rapid rate of fire and munitions they cn quickly modify. They're also very easy to modify to increase accuracy, rate of fire, amount of shots fired at once and so on. This also includes a number of limbs intended for melee combat which can sometimes outmatch conventional ones, body-sheathed ones, or non-vrexul weaponized limbs. The firepower this gives them causes a single Vrexul to put out a level of firepower normally equivalent to a whole squad. It is known that recent technology even allows some to encode smaller fleshvessels or their synthetic automaton counterparts into their biomass reserves rather than directly storing them.

Envoy of the Decomposing Abyss

While their prowess in battle is well known, the Vrexul threw off the shackles of the UCL not solely due to their expertise in horrific violence. Their so-called Orphan Fleet was protected by a massive cloud-like mass of matter cybernetic and biological in nature and also bearing an unusual ethereal signature. It is known as the Evzredigor. While it was inert for many years, when it was awakened it inflicted horrific damage on UCL fleets and was grievously damaged in turn. Yet this mysterious "cognition engine" as they call it on top of analysing data and leading their kind also lends itself in battle. Certain soldiers of their armies, assuming they are allied with the Orphan Fleet, are capable of requesting the Evzredigor's power and if they deem them capable, will send a fragment unto them and bind it to their will. This is useful as Vrexzul etherealists are uncommon. Unique to the vrexul however are the ability to bind these fragments to their will but also into their bodies.

Those selected for this process are known as Voirvordes and they can manipulate this fragment for a number of purposes to an even greater degree than those simply will-bound to theirs. Forming bio-synthetic projectiles, congealing its mass to link mini generators to fire laser beams, spawning mini-abominations from it to attack enemies, and projecting itself as a large smokescreen among others. While it does not compare to a true etherealist it gives them quite a few strategic options while the mostly physical nature of the Evzredigor can bypass many energy and ethereal ablating or resistant defences. It becomes considerably more dangerous if combined with an etherealist whereupon the Evzredigor fragments true powers can be activated and become considerably more lethal. Even better, it also can help to control their bodies and any additional weaponry, organs, sybmiote-parasites, and equipment linked to them, capable of even animating them if they are deceased or unconscious. These fragments are difficult to destry but electrical, incendiary, and ethereal measures can purge it from the body if sheer firepower does not. .

Psychoparasitic Synchronization

Biological augmentations come in many forms but for these starborne creatures they are typically in the form of various smaller arthropod-like organisms inhabiting their own bodies. In spite of true etherealists being rare, the Vrexul are able to communicate and control some of these creatures mentally in what is believed to be a rapidly evolving form of psychic communication believed to be linked with their unusual psychoetheral signatures in the abzu. This ability was first noticed around midway through their war to usurp the UCL from controlling the Orphan Fleet when it was noticed they could work around automaton patrols by simply sending out their own symbiote-creatures as remotely controlled drones. Even more surprising is that these symbiotes worked as additional sensory platforms; they could not only see through them but taste, smell, hear, and feel as well albeit not to the same extent as the actual creatures could on their (non-controlled) own.

The unztadtlige have attempted to replicate this with mixed and often disappointing results, lacking the same fineness and level of control as well as having to rely on sensory data description rather than simply experiencing what their own drones have. For the vrexul, it makes every soldier of theirs incredibly versatile. Not only can they fully control how these parasites who also perform internal maintenance go about their work, they can also use them to scout and investigate ahead of them, serve as long range surveillance, use them to carry explosive or even ethereal payloads, and in some cases attack or distract enemies. While they cannot grow very large or powerful on top of being difficult to multitask control with even for experienced vrexul, it is a considerable part of how they are known to get the drop of enemies and at times even "overwhelm" them in spite of having less actual soldiers, using a number of lesser psychoparasites to distract enemies during a heated assault.

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Gealtirocht​

Summary

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Pronounced “gee-ow-tee-rocked” with the "gee" pronounced like in "geese". These tall creatures evolved from some sort of eel like creature, visually somewhere between the Chimera from the Resistance and the Elites from Halo. They are around six and a half to eight feet on average with powerful digitigrade legs, four eyes (two on each side of their bony ridged heads), long multi-jointed six-fingered arms, and slightly elongated heads thicker at the forehead and slimming downwards to powerful fang-filled mouths. Some species even have long lizard like tails and others shorter additional arms that have retractable spines. All however have an eye-like organ called the speirfhaire at the front of their brain capable of detecting ethereological presences though the extent to which depends on how well they have honed their skill. They have a very high number of naturally born ethereologists, coinciding with a baseline slight psycho-ethereal capability involving the ability to visualize an enormous series of extradimensional eel-like creatures in their dreams though some have found ways to remove this aspect from themselves.

They are the other primary race that comprises the Zrovreni Solar Revolutionary Pact, having transitioned from nomadic high-tech tribesfolk and feudalism to a sort of de-stratified classless enviro-collectivist society with even more technology albeit after a period of immense upheaval and conflict with the Unified Celestial League. Once, they were split between larger feudalistic clans and free nomadic tribesfolk but the arrival of the UCL allying with the former forced the latter increasingly under their control. While conflict was intermittent, it usually could not go beyond merely harassment and slowing the feudalist-corporatist alliance until the arrival of the vrexul. With their help, they were able to not only repel the League from the region but also to defeat the feudalist clans, exiling many of them or forming large deradicalization programs to ensure they would not be a threat in the future.

The gealtirocht have spread fairly quickly throughout the stars though their populations in League controlled space are still growing and often are some of the vocally anti-Pact populations out there. A great number of them are from the great clan-houses that once ruled their native cluster of worlds and often lead the charge in parliaments or on the battlefield against those they see as traitors to their traditions. The Carnazir have recruited heavily from various smaller colonies, taking advantage of their free spirit and usually letting them continue their anarcho-collectivistic societal organization as they often are willing freedom fighters for their cause. A few populations exist on Caracosa but these ones tend to be in the areas that have seen little development. On occasion, a number can be seen in high ranking special forces and military command chain positions; likely League advisors who believed they were better off here rather than heading the counter-terror and black ops groups used to suppress Carnazir and Pact popular uprisings.

Public perception of them is usually positive (relative to everyone else) though some find them arrogant or unintentionally dismissive. Many of them have a reputation as athletes and explorers; they are capable of great running speed and no other species is known to jump as high. Those in the League are seen as either bold freedom fighters who are honest and will not stop until they get the truth or egotistical clout-chasers always trying to curry favours with their betters. In Pact space, they are often viewed as very outgoing and raucous folks if having some trouble or needless opposition to the complexities of a growing alliance built a large part on military unity. Those who have joined the Carnazir are seen by the others as wayward and duped typically while the Dolsivecs are trusted by very, very few people given their background.

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Gealtirocht Perks

Wraithgaze

The so called "third eye" inside of their skulls is not truly an eye but that has not stopped many from developing ways to use it as if it was. Some gealtirocht have unlocked uses through deep abzu-reaching meditation, modifications to their neurology and ocular functions, or in some cases natural processes that allow them to use the speirfhaire to activate an additional visual mode on top of it being sensitive to ethereal presences. In seeing through their speirfhaire, they can essentially see energy sources against a simplified backdrop of muted details, allowing them to detect even certain cloaked entities (assuming their electrical or ethereal signatures are not well muted), hidden rifts or weakend areas of realspace, even creatures travelling through the liminal space between the abzu and realspace known as the Abyssic Plane. However, the range for this does not get particularly long and usually additional modifications or training are needed for more definite imaging. It is possible to view through the speirfhaire at longer ranges albeit in a narrow conical field, one that often emits an ether-pulse that is possible to be detected even from further distances without some kind of bio/ethereal/technological mechanism to retain it.

Life-Pulse Hunger

The gealtirocht have a universe-spanning reputation for being marksmen. Some have questioned that in recent years due to their ability to bend the flight path of certain projectiles utilizing arcane biotechnology and ethereal conditioning for their speirfhaire. Certain projectiles can be modified to maintain a kind of signal with their speirfhaire after being launched through this does inevitably reduce their raw speed and subsequently kinetic force, even for magnetically accelerated ones. This is achieved through basically turning their speirfhaire into a kind of advanced targeting mechanism though it is a fairly arduous process even with new ways of accelerating and streamlining the process.

This is primarily useful with energy projectiles and larger dart like projectiles similar to crossbow bolts. At lower levesl of expertise a gealtirocht can usually control from one to seven projectiles. Highly experienced ones have the mental fortitude and focus to control up to around 22. It is possible to control even more but that requires intensive and costly modifications whether monetarily or physically, with the intergalactic record being around 33 mag-darts. While these slowed projectiles are more easily detected and defended against, that is highly relative and it gives them the skill to engage multiple targets hiding in cover or moving in confusing patterns more easily without needed specialized homing wepaonry.

Coils of the Abyssic Anguilid

Embedded deep into the subconscious of all gealtirocht is a mental vision of the enormous void-dwelling eel creature many of their mystical sects believed formed them from fragments of its flesh. Whether or not this is true remains to be seen but voyages into Abzu-space correlating to the gealtirocht homeworld has made it clear a number of titanic serpentine eel-like creatures do inhabit its depths. While it is possible to mind-purge oneself of this genetic memory, it is also possible to manifest its power into realspace. It is not an easy skill to learn, typically relegated to older and more experienced gealtirocht but some in their younger years have demonstrated it is not based on one's age.

Reaching deep into the psyche and the space that stands between both conscious thoughts and the strange otherworld that feeds on them, a gealtirocht can trigger a physioethereal reaction that momentarily distorts them and the realspace around them by disrupting it with a controlled surge of ethereal energy in the liminal space between realspace and the abzu. This allows for a number of unusual effects as as the air and space around them bends, twists, and coils in a way that imitates a school of eels. It obscures the user, increases their speed, and momentarily interferes with most targeting technology. They can also launch these coils to home in on chosen targets, ravaging them with supernatural force in the form of eel-like monstrosities. This strange field does not last for very long and it requires a talented etherealist to manifest.

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Scielto​

Summary

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Eerie creatures with semi-transparent vein-filled skin, tall and slender. They have a humanoid shape but sparse, featureless bodies with notably flat, shovel-like heads similar to planarians/flatworms devoid of visible eyes. They are similar to the XCOM2 sectoids but with more reserved, eerily calm features and retractable, wavey, tendril-like “wings” that emerge from their backs, in reality lengthy nerve clusters attached to cartilaginous protrusions that naturally generate ethereal energy. Their “skin” looks more akin to highly stretched membranes and one can view their teeth and bones behind it along with any implants and even ethereal energy coursing beneath it along with their twisting almost darkly metallic and wood looking bones. However, some do not have this skin either by choice or due to their subspecies. They are not very frail in spite of their racial stereotypes with tough self-mending bones. They come from worlds rich in ambient ethereal energy meaning they are all capable of flight if the concentrations are high enough or with certain augmentations if not, usually resorting to hovering if they lack ideal conditions. As expected, every scielto regardless of the particular species is an etherealist; practically born with ether within their bodies and able to manipulate it to an extent even before their births.

They were the first race humanity met and form the core of the UCL alongside them. Even before the League, they were a massive empire that had absorbed (or destroyed) most of its competition, undergoing an uncomfortable transition as repeated conflicts amongst the aristocracy manipulating the restless populace was causing them to attempt to modernize their system of rule. Humanity however would help deal with this growing demand for representation and societal movement amongst the lower classes; when both species met, aside from joining their impressive industrial capabilities, humanity also introduced a variety of liberal democratic reforms but at the same time, pacified the more unruly members of the aristocracy. Their societies did grow more stable but at the same time, the sharp divide between their lower and upper classes even more pronounced; something the creation of a middle class now with voting and broad civil rights could not completely obscure. Regardles, this perceived reimagining and restructing of society allowed them to unify enough to catch up with humanity and in the process, match their speed in rapid expansion. They have developed an enormous military just a little bit bigger than their allies, brilling with strange half ethereal half robotic technology and shimmering fleets of unearthly power, continuing to expand their now joint empire.

In order to spread their influence, they have positioned themselves as bringers of progress and uplifters of the less advanced, something that has allowed them to rapidly bring various larger colonial settlements under their control. This strategy has seen mixed results across the Frontier Worlds but a number of strategic dealings with the Carnazir and Dolsilvec Regime allowed them to create various large space stations (fortresses is more fitting) and large floating cities wherein they would meet with the local ruling classes and form political alliances. This gave them the ability to influences wide swathes of mainline politics but also to extend their material, economic, and military might further, paving the way for their human allies to further their socio-economic growth as well as ideological grip on enormous swathes of Frontier Worlds. Due to that and the fact that they often inhabit the wealthiest cities or massive floating stations high in the atmosphere, they are seen as distant and indifferent to others and in recent years, many of their supporters in the Frontier have soured on them especially in the wake of revolutionary and insurrectionary movements pushing themselves to unearth much of their dirty laundry.

They have a reputation for being haughty aristocrats, either viewed with magical awe or with sneering disgust (or cold discomfort) depending on where you are. A large part of this is due to the fact that all of them are ethereologists with a reputation as “witch-folk” in some corners of space. A large number of scielto can be found in the middle to lower classes of most major population centres. Strangely enough, the "skinless" variants are common though most of them cannot fly for prolonged periods. They often live in tight knit groups as workers and for some reason like to set-up around large bodies of water as well as swamps. Some of them have small airborne bases but these are typically for the ultra wealthy and viewed with either envious admiration or seethng contempt by many of those below them regardless of species. Quite a few of them are known to work security enough that is a stereotype though statistically far more of them are found in manual labour, accoutning, or various ethereal-related fields where there is typically a shortage of positions for the skills many of them were trained in.

Scielto Perks

Adaptive Membrane Layer

The scielto naturally are able to shed, melt, or even consume and reabsorb their own fleshy skin-membranes for nutrients as well as to analyse any atmospheric, ethereal, and biological data it has collected. They then reconstruct this seemingly thin, deceptively durable membrane to better shield them against the varying ether-radiation environmental conditions of their homeworld. However, various scientific breakthroughs have allowed them to take this further. Rather than fully reabsorbing their membranes, they can (with the help of augmentations or certain forms of armour or equipment) alter their biochemical and even cellular composition on the fly. This is for far more than solely environmental protection and grants them additional bonuses in a variety of scenarios. While they are often lesser in effect than armor, augmentation, or equipment with that specific purpose in mind they can be swapped out on the fly even if they can often only carry between three and six configurations.

In their armies the scielto are known to combine this with the armour they wear over their bodies and modify their membranes as to essentially "buff" them in different ways. They can create a membranous layer that is laced with specialized muscles and tensile pressure-reactive wires that can increase their strength. If they wish it can also morph into a series of nanobot and mini-drone maintained composite flesh and thin metal that allow them to further network with any electronics and cybernetics for enhanced and faster reactive capabilities as well as partially defend themselves against electronic disrupting capabilities by using the organic components to shield and even contain both data and electricity. Some layers even provide additional defence against direct energy weapons when unarmoured or by projecting a thin ablative layer outside of their armour. In fact, their newer armours are lighter and meant to have gaps the AML will fill in while being strengthened with flexible protective covering.

Channeler of Unearthly Force

While the wing-tendrils of the scielto are known primarily for how they grant them varying degrees of flight, they also serve another purpose. Due to their metaphysically ambiguous nature, they can be used as conduits between both domains. Subsequently, this allows a scielto with sufficient training and conditioning to use this unusual part of their anatomy to use higher amounts of ether while withstanding a much higher amoutn of feedback-radiation. Due to this, they have a reputation as the galaxy's most capable etherealists at least in the sheer quantiative amount they can safely use. Some go so far as to essentially dip their wing-tendrils into the abzu itself and even directly channel energy though this is quite risky and requires well developed feedback protective measures as well knowing how to not get them chomped off by various unearthly predators.

It is an older cultural practice but many scielto are starting to use their wing-tendrils as channels for their own ether-casting abilities. This allows them launch multiple ethereal abilities at once. While the feedback and strain is higher, those who opt to do this likely have various measures built in to protect them wheether it's void-nerve relaxing nanobots or various threshold management devices surgically planted into them. While the offensive options it grants are immediately obious, it also allows them to support their allies to a much wider scope than conventional methods which tend to involve one or two limbs as well targeting only a single target or group of targets. Some scielto have even rencorced these tendrils to use for shorter range striking attacks with ether-blades. While these tendril-wings are not powerful enough to actually grab or crush targets, when charged with ether they can grow tips sharp enough to slice through metal.

Spectral Weaponry

Weaponry enhanced with ethereal power (or possessed by abzu-dwelling beings) is nothing new. The scielto homeworld military however have developed weaponry meant to work with their unique biology and ethereality that nobody else has been able to reverse engineer. The specifics of its functions remain a closely guarded secret but some scientists theorize it involves utilizing abzu-dwellers to attempt to consume them and in the process imbue their power into them. Regardless of how they work, these weapons only react to to the presence of sufficiently empowered scielto and in many cases are bonded to one or a few of them. They are not necessarily always more powerful than more grounded counterparts but they offer a number of advantages.

For example, their ammo is often considerably lighter and in some cases are sterilized egg-like bio-ethereal lab-grown organisms that rapidly reproduce when infused with scielto-filtered channeled energy. Other times they are solid "bullet-frames" that when launched via energizing solidify abzu-energy into a solid mass that behaves similarly to bullets with far less recoil and a mixture of directed energy and kinetic effects. Due to the nature of how they are "reloaded", in some cases they can fire until their users' ether-radiation threshold has been breached (or beyond if they are feeling risky). They can also be enhanced by ethereal powers to a fare greater extent than conventional weapons and also tend to do better against both energy shields and targets enhanced by unearthly powers. Many of them have very low recoil and are quite light to boot.

Reference Images

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Unztadtlige​

Summary

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Pronounced “oun-stad-lee-gah”. These organisms are essentially cyborg coral colonies; gestalt beings made of various networked organisms encased and optionally protruding from rocks with high metallic content. Contrary to popular belief, they are not hive minds with each colony being considered its own “state” and the actual states made of many individuals being considered by them massive confederations known as molzentrags. They are known for being master terraformers which has made them beloved in many corners of space. However in recent years they have also grown a reputation for being ruthless mercenaries as well. They able to manifest in a variety of shapes from hulking four or two legged robots to essentially anti-gravitational tanks amongst others. Etherealists are rare amongst them though some lineages have inherited specialized parasite-like organisms that essentially grant them such capabilities.

They are come from regions that are mostly populated by independent worlds with most of them having left their world of origin as it is currently undergoing an incredibly large scale environmental repair due to generations of heavy pollution. With no real outside interference, they spread to the stars and immediately became valued due to their skills not only in mining, repair, heavy industries, and conflict but most importantly, terraforming. While the vrexul do have similar tech, the unztadtlige have far more experience and a wider range. They are fairly committed to environmentalism in spite of their business-heavy culture, helping to introduce various "green" technologies across the stars though it was not really a surprise that largger numbers of molzentrags are increasingly moving into League held space. As the battles in the Frontier Worlds slowly wind down and the League sets its sights outwards, many of these (literally) rocky alien alliances have begun turning their industrial capacity towards a massive armament campaign as well as one of increasing military output. To many in the League's military leadership, the unztadtlige are the equivalents of the towering vrexul or rather, their superiors in combat.

Unztadlige had actually moved onto Chalgheol years before the hostitlies started and frequently provided services to various regimes on the Frontier Worlds. On Caracosa, a number of them headed mechanics and engineering guilds with some even having leadership roles. In the initial phases of the war, they comprised a large portion of the mercenary groups fighting and frequently were the heads of armor divisions for the Dolsilvec Regime. Many have gone into hiding to avoid abduction and being forced into slave labour or combat service as the skills they possess have intersolar renown. Many have been working with the UCL presence as of late, with some using it to acquire material and ideological support for a leg up on their rivals. Subsequently, they are seen as figures who while highly knowledgeable and capable, are narrow in their goals and rather cold towards others. In less urbanized and industrialized areas, they have a less cold reputation, often being active in agricultural programs and serving as the (not as literal) bedrock of many smaller communities especially in administrative and leadership roles.

Unztadlige Perks

Die Hard

Unztadtlige are the hardest known aliens to kill. Nano-hardened coral and metallic stone make for incredibly sturdy bodies even before they are augmented or replaced by heavy duty armour, some of which is typically reserved for lighter armoured vehicles. Closer to gestalt organisms than conventional singular biological ones, they rarely have a single organ one can destroy to instantly slay them such as a head or a heart. To kill an Unztadtlige, you typically need to destroy multiple large internal biomass centres to cause organ failure and/or sever shock. They can make this even harder by adding cybernetic machinery which only increase their durability and ability to survive horrendous damage. However, this can also cause them to take more damage even if it increases how much they can take due to more targets for foes to select. The shock they will feel from multiple vital sections being targeted will be higher but it doesn't stop them from being the most durable juggernauts in known space.

Heavy Duty

Not only do the Unztadtlige boast the toughest armour of all known species but due to their incredibly unusual alien nature, they also are capable of using likely the most devastating weapons. Utilizing various small experimental reactors within their own bodies, numerous power-chanelling vein-wires, and even partially metallic organs for modifying energy output and chemical reactions, these cyborg coral colonies have created heavy weapons that are typically intended for small mecha or vehicles they can mount on their own bodies. The munitions for these weapons are specially designed to react with their internal mechanisms and at their lightest are comparable to crew served heavy weaponry and at their most powerful border on some lighter tanks. Granted they are likely unable to directly destroy true main battle tanks or larger mecha with these but if they can correctly position themselves and attack weak points they can become potent anti-armour gun platforms. Enemy infantry will not fare much better.

Strength As Numbers

Sure the vrexul can remotely control and view the world through their augmentative parasites but can they divide their bodies into smaller fractions which each one being bound to the same combined consciousness? The unztadtlige are organisms made up of multiple smaller organisms that are not conventional vertebrates or even invertebrates, being better thought of as askin to coral colonies. As they are made of various biomatter and cybernetic cores, their intenral biology is very sturdy to the extent they can afford to lose whole chunks of themselves and still survive. With that in mind, may unztadtlige frequently divide themselves into smaller components in order to better handle multiple tasks.

For those in combat proffessions, this means a single unztadtlige state-soldier can become sometimes up to 14 smaller ones. What they lose in firepower as a whole is made up for in tactical versatility albeit with a limited distance (they cannot move too far from one another or they will lose contact and control). Sometimes there may be a central command module fragment though this is often riskier than simply spreading one's consciouness across multiple body-fragments. However that can leave an unztadlige in a dangerous state if too many subdivisions are lost as opposed to concentrating most of their consciousness into one. Most enemies are too busy trying to fend off a sudden assault of floating, crawling, or striding heavily armoured gun platforms to nitpick.

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Voidhangers​

Summary

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Voidhangers are a offshoot of humanity with their origins in lost expeditions during the early days of interstellar travel. Many fleets were lost to the unknown in freak faster-than-light jump accidents or wandered into regions of space where the boundary between realspace the Abzu was far weaker. Countless lives were lost but in spite of the numerous mishaps, humanity survived and the unusual celestial forces at play forged them into something else entirely. Voidhangers still retain their humanoid appearance but have darker skin colours in shades including purple, blue, and grey and often more slender and sleek bodies. Their skin is partially transparent almost like the scielto and is occasionally capable of bioluminescence. Some have mutations that cause them to partially resemble certain plankton or jellyfish, manifesting as additional limbs normally used for void-borne travel.

They are fairly spread out in various large nomadic fleets, rarely staying in one spot for too long. Many of them are typically seen as pragmatic or skeptical towards interstelllar politics beyond their own survival. This doesn't make them immune to propaganda but they have a reputation for being fickle in their political alignments and are best described as "neutral" in most cases. As hostilities increase across the stars, whereas previously they would go wherever there was work or it was safer, the exiled Carnazir found quite a fertile recruitment base amongst them. The Frontier Worlds was hostile towards them due to there being concerns they could be foreign agents among the legitimate migrants and the Carnazir helped forment their desperation into aggression. Riling up much of the youth as well as older nomad fleets that had been expelled from the Frontier just as they were settling in, a growing number now comprise the Carnazir, causing many to begin migrating away even from the Pact-held worlds they were invited to settle on.

Wherever they are, they have a strong reputation as pilots, shipbreakers, cargo haulers, explorers, ether-manipulators, and other careers involving deep space or otherworldly powers. Some do see them as grubby and thieving, little more than parasites taking advantage of a vulnerable status but in other corners they are romanticized as modern day argonauts or swashbuckling adventurers. Due to the massive Carnazir recruitment drive, many have started being stereotyped as potential radicals to outright terrorists waiting to act. They are a somewhat romanticized people; with nowhere to truly call their own and evolved to live in the strange coldness of space, they are also seen as adventurers and noble swashbucklers, something that occasionally works to their benefit and isn't necessarily 100% divorced from reality. In general, they dislike the Dolsilvec Regime but they have a few friends in power that have been able to slowly change the laws and policy regarding them in the wake of Kirvan Dolsilvec's passing. Whether this will amount to larger scale change in the voidhangers' favour remains to be seen.

Voidhanger Perks

Unearthly Resilience

Due to the strange conditions that lead to them becoming a genetic offshoot of humanity, voidhanger bodies are adapted for conditions that would normally be antithetical to normal human existence. Their bodies have been changed by radiation and ethereal energy to the point they are seemingly on the edge of passing into the abzu. Due to this, they have an impressively high tolerance for extreme heat and cold, conventional and supernatural radiation, and even to directed energy weapons fire. This is a skill that can be enhanced with augmentations, equipment, and armour especially if tailor made for their distinct biology. While it does not grant immunity to such conditions it has given them a reputation as a sturdy people even if they have an unsually poor resistance to bacterial and viral infections. This is in spite of very powerful immune systems that would be outright dangerous in any other organism but declare total war when foreign microorganisms enter their body.

Traveller of Outer Realms

For a few short moments, voidhangers can cause a strange chemoethereal reaction in their body that causes them to momentarily "sink" out of realspace and into the liminal zone between reality and the Abzu. Depending on how deep they sink they can essentially phase out of realspace and become momentarily intangible. This is very difficult to do so most of the time they only partially blur out, making them much harder to see and allowing them to regenerate from damage and absorb additional ether before popping back into realspace. Usually they can remain in the liminal zone for around a minute and 15 seconds at the very most. Some voidhangers are capable of taking this a step further and sinking through liminal space and into the Abzu. This is even riskier even if it allows for even more protection and what many call "teleportation" though they can only stay there for around 15 seconds at most. Both versions will tax their ethereal radiation thresholds heavily and if they overstay their time, they can risk essentially dissolving into nothingness, being torn apart by Abzu-predators, or severe infestation and infection.

Choronzon Personal Defensive Shield

Created by a voidhanger scientist who first gave the technology to a company dealing with dangerous vacuum-dwelling creatures, the CPDS is now ubiquitous amongst them. This energy shield device is surgically implanted into their bodies and becomes an additional organ or series of internal parts. It generates a unique shield around them that partially siphons kinetic energy and directed energy away from incoming projectiles as well as lessening the effects of high frequency blades, disruptor fields, and even possessed weapons upon impact. They can be momentarily intensififed to directly block attacks though this is more costly to their energy stores which are ether-powered.

Around 15 years ago, some voidhangers found ways to channel the currents in realspace and use them to manipulate physical and ethereal objects at shorter ranges. This lead to sightings of voidhanger guerillas and raiders with gun turrets and glowing blades floating around themselves that mysteriously dropped to the ground when hit by EMP bursts. They would hide in cover, generate a large degree of ether, then these weapons would float again and relentlessly attack targets. The CPDS will affect their ether-radiation thresholds to a point (after which it remains steady) although it also increases one's resistance along with having its own built-in threshold to lessen the strain. That being said, voidhangers often turn it off when using a larger quantity of ethereal skills to avoid overloading the device and themselves.

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Celaderaka​

Summary

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Pronounced as “sell-durrr-ah-kah”. Also known as lavabloods, the celaderaka are a species of bipedal creatures with flesh that appears to be made of a mixture of dried and solidified molten magma and darkly coloured and heavily charred muscle matter mixed with a kind of calcified bone-like material. Skeletal ridges frequently emerge from their back, shoulders, and arms often sharp or serrated. With mouths full numerous pointed teeth and hands ending in four to eight fingered claws, they have an appearance as demonic as it is predatory. They descend primarily from rocky, mountainous worlds and arid landscapes, capable of living even in borderline volcanic territory. By nature they are adept at climbing and navigating over rough terrain as well as digging and mining though contrary to some stereotypes, they are not immune to flames; only resistant though sometimes to an impressive degree. Many of them however have naturally occurring ethereal capabilities due to high concentrations in their homeworlds to the extent some are capable of naturally absorbing it. They tend to use a mixture of cybernetic and ethereal modifications but struggle to find or develop biological ones compatible with their bodies.

The celaderaka were known for having been run by brutal warlords and loosely-aligned coalition groups in territorial conflicts spanning back to the last years of their pre-spaceflight era. Many of these were primarily territorial and resource based, with many of their original fuel sources having long since been exhausted, but as they spread across their worlds quickly became battles for raw power and control justified by any and all prior violence. Some celaderaka had formed smaller (relatively) less warlike kingdoms on Frontier Worlds like Chalgheol after having grown disillusioned with how things were going in their original planetary clusters. Kirvan Dolsilvec, the Dolsilvec Regime's founder, was a celaderaka for example and is the most well known but he was not the only one. Many more came with him, also finding new allies in the tarrhaidim tribes as well as the future foundations of the Dolsilvec Regime and the Carnazir. Some of them still had ties to the petty empires and tinpot dictatorships they had escaped but in the years to come, their desire to separate themselves from them would only intensify. Kirvan knew this well from the start and history would soon prove him correct.

The older regimes in their native planet-clusters soon attracted the attention of the ZSRP during a time of renewed UCL aggression and counter-revolutionary action. Seeking new allies and also desiring to deny them to the League, they would enter into the murky world of celaderaka conflicts in what is their most controversial move to date. The "revolutionary" potential of many of these aliens was doubted with some even being essentially corporatist societies hidden under a thin progressive veneer but realizing the potential of a partnership, helped to effectivley contain and combat the renewed spread of the League. Yet it was increasingly clear these old celaderakan regimes cared less so for rapid market growth or forging class consciousness but maintaining raw power; some of the regimes would later on overthrow their Pact-friendly leaders to switch sides to the League when it was clear they would have more military and political weight behind them. These kingdoms of control and might would later be part of the Pact's forays into the Frontier conflicts, resulting in not only harsh criticism from avowed ideological enemies but even those within the pact opposing the celaderakan kingdoms whether politically and economically to outright open aggression on a few occasions.

The celaderaka are seen as a strict and harsh people with a disdain for weakness, progression, and novelty who will stay the course regardless of the supposed moral haranguing of their critics and compatriots alike. This is primarily due to most media exposure of their kind being those of official junta-run channels and their often highly idealized, specifically constructed public images of themselves used in their propaganda channels. Many in the UCL see them as either an enslaved people kept in line by tyrants or little more than the true barbaric face of the ZSRP. The Pact is split as well; some consider them little more than glorified military buffer-states and others a true example of anti-colonial spirit. Other circles claim they have the same revolutionary potential as any other species but they must be given the conditions to truly unleash it first. The Dolsilvecs and Carnazir on the other hand (given the large number of celaderaka in their ranks) tend to view them as hardy and honourable but differ on the particulars. The Dolsilvec Regime is supported by what they claim are moderate factions and thus has welcomed some of the older kingdoms into their ranks while the Carnazir claim to only work with the exiled governments for safety concerns.

On Chalgheol, they are the second most populous alien species and can be found in many of the same walks of life as the tarrhaidim and humanity. They have the largest refugee populace, primarily distributed to the countryside though before the war started was starting to become more populous in urban areas. This is due to them being associated with the turbulent and brutal regimes many of them escaped from. Many of them fill out the lower classes and are rarely viewed kindly unless by the military or certain dissident groups looking to recruit them into their ranks. A number of them have formed their own government approved autonomous villages in the mountains or deserts, frequently assisting in and accepting those from the urban and agricultural regions. They are often associated with manual labour positions as well as bounty hunting, criminal activity, or working as contractors for military groups. It is known however that their militias are often the most dangerous given how many of them have a large degree of military experience from their old kingdoms.

Celderaka Perks

Deathless Ascension

Celderaka in many cases are born with an ability to absorb ether and have a natural resistance but some take this even further. While by nature they are not as durable as say, the Vrexul or Unztadtlige, they can learn to use ether to hold their bodies together and replace lost body mass or even organs if need be. This can allow them to survive certain fatal wounds at the cost of using mana to hold together damaged bodyparts. Unless they have certain augmentations allowing them to store copies of their consciousness or upload it elsewhere while still retaining bodily control, they cannot survive full on cranial destruction with his perk. Gaping chest wounds, lost limbs, organ failure and so on can be averted at least until they can find regenerative treatment or medical replacement. If combined with certain regenerative augmentations, this allows them to morph their energy-mass into new limbs or organs with similar functionality to what they are replacing.

Bloodlust Consecration

Extreme stress, physical pain, psychological turmoil, intense emotional sensations – specifically trained persons can harness the celderakan condition at its most volatile into pure ethereal power. This is typically associated with their close combat units but in essence, it allows them to start generating large amounts of ether around their bodies even if they don’t even have the natural or learned capability to use it as an etherealist. These ether-clouds however do not last for long so they must be refilled somehow or allowed to dissipate. They can call upon it to allow them to shrug off brutal wounds or to enhance their blows with ethereal sheaths of power, even momentarily boosting their strength. For ranged options, this build-up of power can make them an easier target but it can be converted into ether-shielding or used to enhance projectiles launched against targets. Etherealists can also call upon this cloud of power to enhance their own power or directly use it as a platform or catalyst for their spells.

Nerakian Keys

A unique piece of technology they possess, Nerakian keys are ceremonial objects that resonate to the bio-ethereal signature of celderakans initiated into its more mystical arts and capable of directly controlling them through a strange bond. Although they were never intended for combat, during the beginning of their interstellar wars some religious sects found themselves strong-armed by juntas into finding military applications. They resemble fang-like fragments of strange rune-marked rocks or even a carapace-like organic material from certain animals or plants. These are sometimes fitted with various biological, cybernetic, or additional ethereal components depending on their users specifications and when activated, hover around the user and move at their command. This is within the radius of control whose size is dependent on the user’s skill, power, and any augmentations in both the keys and their user. They can be used to strike enemies, launch projectiles, form energy barriers between the keys, and even serve as conduits or amplifiers for ethereal power amongst others. While they can be destroyed, if sufficiently bonded to the point where they are partially alive, it is possible to regenerate them from just a few at least fist sized scraps.

My Hider

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Praolznevatz

Summary

Similar to the voidhangers, the praolznevatz are an offshoot of another species. In their case, they are distantly related to the vrexul though the exact nature of this remains unknown. While the vrexul represent a fairly wide range of arthropod species, the praolnznevatz are more limited, primarily resembling large deep water shrimps, amphipods, and small planktonic crustaceans such as phronima and copepods. Both species grow to roughly the same sizes while being capable of bipedal or multi-limbed travel but what immediately becomes strikingly dissimilar is the fact that the prolznevatz are almost entirely transparent and possessing smoother carapaces, giving them a disturbingly wraithlike appearance. This is due to them being the only known species that can live within areas overlapped with the Abzu and the Abyssic Plane, capable of naturally generating and absorbing it. They can also fly in areas where the ether concentrations are high enough or hover if they are not sufficient. Their physical senses are not as well developed as their more materially-dwelling counterparts but they are naturally highly adept at detecting, identifying, and analysing unearthly energies with many of them in spite of their sapience inheriting predatory instincts.

Just like the vrexul, nobody knows their precise origins but only that they were not discovered until roughly six years after the arthropods and their gealtirocht allies repelled the UCL from their lands. The saem archaeotech on these worlds that helped complete the evzredigor also contained information about "lost vrexul fleets" and when fully deciphered, led to multiple deep space voyages into the far reaches of known space, accompanied by massive fragments of the evzredigor. It is here that dormant colonies of the organisms were found in massive ships similar to those that had carried the vrexul but heavily damaged and held up by a mixture of integrated Abzu/Abyssic biomass and scavenged technology from older generation battleships from the Unztadtlige and Scielto. They have since been reintegrated into the ZSRP, having migrated half of their fleet and explaining that they had been assaulted halfway through their voyage by some unidentified enemy force while the entire incubating populace could be hatched. This forced them to settle in a backwater part of the cosmos, stranded out near the husks of massive floating rocks where the unreal bled into the real and the creatures of the void roam with no fear of civilization. The particular location their vessels were going to unfortunately was wiped from the computers but their newfound allies have since been helping to recover and decipher the scrambled data and find any answers to both their origins.

The praohlnevatz are firmly in the ZSRP camp, having been accepted quite easily and quickly, but with increasingly frequency they can be found as part of unztadtlige molzentraggs and voidhanger nomad fleets. They have a reputation amongst both of those species as being steadfast and fearless if rather distant colleagues or subordinates, roughly the equivalent of the latter in terms of their various skills. They are otherwise not very well understood to the rest of the universe, perceived as either indistinct from the vrexul or as some sort of monstrous unearthly force sinisterly, potentially manipulating the vrexul from behind the scenes. On the other end of the spectrum, their fellow vrexul see them as lost siblings who need to be reintegrated into society at large and the gealtirocht, the first non-vrexul aliens to encounter them, consider them pleasant if highly eccentric neighbours. Sometime ago they managed to set-up an independent series of colonies throughout the frontier worlds and partially fuse with various tarrhaidim religious organizations. During the powerstruggles that rocked the region, a number of these are known to have militarized though they primarily vanished and are believed to be waiting out the conflict or covertly working for the greater powers. A number of them are known to retain Pact sympathies yet maintain a certain distance due to sharp differences in ideology. For some time, they would work alongside the Dolsilvec Regime but stopped after the split with the Carnazir with whom a number changed their allegiance to. Some are believed to have been recruited for ethereal warfare programs by the black ops units of the Unified Celestial League though nobody has seen much come out of this yet, at least not publicly.

Praohlnevatz Perks

Profane Ritual Miasma

It is no secret that the praohlnevatz are naturals at etherealism but they have a frightening reputation for the often uncomfortable forms it takes. Doing absolutely nothing to help this is their capability to emit a sort of semi-gaseous and moist ether-tinted substance that creates a fog around them. This weakens the barrier between reality and the beyond with this substance corrosive towards the material realm. In the process it can make the praohlnevatz difficult to see or track with targeting programs while simultaneously allowing them to amplify any ethereal spells cast from within this putrid field. Projectiles pack more ether-per-square-inch, enhancements cast within it or onto others outside of it have a greater effect, and the corrorded realspace is considerably less taxing to manifest and launch ether out of.

It can also be used defensively to weaken incoming energy based projectiles though it cannot do the same for solid rounds. The Miasma is itself is somewhat volatile and it is possible for certain anti-ethereal weapons to do more damage against its user when it is maintained. On that note, maintaining it requires a lot of training with the longest on record being a little under the two hours while most average out at around 30 minutes at very most. The miasma field will diminish in its potency with time unless additional fluid is generated, causing many to inject into it at intervals.

Hive of Ravenous Damnation

Just as the vrexul have turned various parasites into beneficial symbiotes, so the praohlnevatz have managed to do the same with the dwellers of the beyond. These creatures, ranging from the size of a canary to 17 foot long centipede-shrimp like predators, can follow unseen and undetected by hiding in specialized realspace gaps or if they are small enough, inside of a praohlnevatz's body. They are capable of amplifying and being enhanced by their unearthly power, fighting in combat, and even being directly controlled through a mental link. The creatures themselves are typically those that were tamed and raised within their communes, often modified with various augmentations whether cybernetic, biological, or ethereal, and are compltely loyal to their owners. Unlike with the vrexul, they cannot be used as additional "eyes" unless both the controller and the creature are explicitly modified for such. Advanced users of these capabilities can use the creatures to control their body in the case they are knocked unconscious or even slain, capable of even healing and reviving their owners although this is considerably harder to do than their amassed ethereal power would make one think.

Decimation Canticles

Most weapons are held, installed, or "encoded" into bodies in the case for the vrexul and the praohlnevatz. The latter of these however has a more unusual variant that is grown within. Originally used for spiritual practices, certain of voidborne parasite from the Abyssic Plane have been genetically modified less so to help one connect with the strange powers that be and instead, to launch zig-zagging high explosive projectiles blinking in and out of realspace. Said projectiles are the embryos of this creature, injected with a variety of chemo-ethereal substances or infested by symbio-parasitic organisms inside of the praolhnevatz's body to morph them into a deadly projectile. This living missile "arms" after launch, gaining explosive lethality the far it travels from its host body all the while dipping in and out of realspace, making it far more difficult to track and intercept than conventional missiles. Upon exploding, they distort realspace and send out waves of powerful destructive ether though they can also be modified for armour piercing and more disruptive purposes such as overloading electronics or debilitating enemy etherealists. It is also possible to modify them for a more destructive payload by charging them with ether but this also makes the projectiles easier to detect.

References

Into Perdition's Jaws: Lore

Interest Check Thread

MAIN FACTIONS

Unified Celestial League

The current dominant hegemon in known space, the Unified Celestial League encompasses the largest number of worlds and systems. It began from first contact interactions between humanity and various smaller conglomerates and colonial associations of various alien powers in the early 2090’s as humanity’s expansive deep space mining operations began to encroach on large asteroid fields maintained by then unknown extraterrestrial forces. A shared interest in mutual prosperity and the eagerness of human nations to engage in technological and economic trade with their newfound neighbours would accelerate the formation of a united human council. In turn, the alien groups unified and transformed from essentially corporate colonies into proper planet-states. The League was born from this merger and quickly grew with a policy of “exporting prosperity” and achieving change, power, and growth through diplomatic relations with other nations. For many this was the beginning of an enlightened era of interplanetary relations emphasizing cooperation and mutual benefit.

The grim reality underlying these achievements however is not as straightforward as purely political channels or economic growth. With growth in resources, political capital, technology, and territory came the UCL becoming a powerful competitor on the galactic stage and one that viewed other hegemons not as enemies but as prey. Its soft power was backed up by powerful armadas and armies that benefitted from multiple generations of martial traditions. Policies that did cause growth and development in lesser worlds also caused notable adjustments to their structures of governance and activity often siphoning resources and manpower off-world. In the process of doing so they fermented conflict and divisiveness across many worlds in the Frontier Worlds whose developing status often made them unstable and rife for conflict. In turn this invited further intervention from the UCL and distrust from more skeptical nations untrusting of their message of progress and advancement.

Many regimes have been propped up by the UCL through subterfuge, cunning, and manipulation and others crushed by the iron might of they and their regional allies. The world they have carved for themselves to many is paradise but it is one guarded carefully against any kind of threat and in doing so, they had made themselves many enemies. The most notable is the Zrovreni Solar Revolutionary Pact whose formation happened a large part due to the perceived threat of UCL expansion. While the League is larger in terms of systems held, it has less influence on various smaller independent colonies, Nation Sectors (what we today know as countries as opposed to whole planets united under a sole government), and planet-states in spite of its various attempts at outreach. Some of these have resulted in it directly engaging the ZSRP in vicious though short lived conflicts often resulting in sanctions and militarized buffer zones being set up to contain their influence.

The UCL has been supporting what they call “Stabilizing Actor Forces” in the Chalgheol Civil War. These are armed groups whose views are seen as being in line with 41st century values of sentient rights and expression. The identity of many of these groups can vary but it is known that they are highly coordinated and oftentimes formed quite rapidly, answering few questions before news media. They had also moved military personnel near and possibly into the Caracosa region before the recent territorial negotiations were announced though their explanation was that they had consulted with newly formed independent governments before having done so.

Their stated goal is the installment of a new regime that will respect the multi-racial makeup and diverse cultures that comprise Chalgheol. That is something they are believed to be attempting to change in the current diplomatic talks with the ZSRP, their primary enemy, whom they perceive as supporting more tyrannical, renegade, or sentient rights’ violating groups. Both sides have engaged in conflict both hot and cold with covert subterfuge, deep space combat, and full scale planetary invasions against one another. They have fought the Dolsilvec Regime heavily during the early years of the conflict but both are moving towards negotiations albeit reluctantly for the Regime. It is only after the first few years of the war tat that they have begun truly clashing with the Carnazir though they have been managing to open them up to territorial negotiations as well.

The UCL is known for its distinctive silver, blue, and gold colours as well as their often chrome-like armour. Their weaponry is increasingly based on human designs with many of them utilizing electro-chemical and magnetic acceleration methods of launching projectiles. They are noted for low recoil, strong accuracy, and large magazine size. Solid rounds tend to be “jacketed” in a cocoon of energy or sometimes even ethereal power to increase range, piercing power, and destructive potential. They are joined by a growing range of direct energy weapons with a love of high rate of fire energy bolts and short sustained beams noted for their precision and amour piercing capability. In some armies, they have even replaced solid round based weapons due to their versatility of varying fire modes and how much they ease up logistics.

They have a number of melee weapons modelled after advanced combat knives, often able to vibrate at frequencies that grant extra armour-shredding or with a nano-sheath that increases durability, weight, and impact. They are well known for distinctive powered armour that networks with specialized under-suits (themselves a form of advanced Kevlar-like clothing) to enhance physical capabilities. The expenses of developing true powered armour has caused them to recently begin using new simpler suits that do not require as many augmentations or additional components (such as the under-suits or certain implants and biomods). In addition, their armour makes heavy usage of shield generators that can project themselves around the armour or “blanket” the armour.

VISUAL REFERENCES

Zrovreni Solar Revolutionary Pact

An emerging superpower in inter-solar relations, the Zrovreni Solar Revolutionary Pact was born out of a variety of military alliances from like-minded nation-sectors and planetary states from within the Frontier Worlds to and far beyond the grasp of their main opposition, the Unified Celestial League. Yet even before the League had come to be, the ZSRP’s origins can be found in various independent colonies that in the mid 2020’s had broken away from the grasp of the alien empires that decades later would begin uniting with an expansionist humanity already making political inroads with these said empires.

Although there were few armed hostilities initially, rapid militarization movements and inter-species solidarity lead to a rapid sense of unity that began to form a buffer to the League even in its embryonic state. Regimes that were eyeing to join the powerful League found their world crumbling beneath their feet as their most downtrodden and disenfranchised rose up against them. The promise of a world not ruled by the interests of those most entrenched in structures of domination and greed pushed many to usurp the rule not just of worlds outside of these now conflicting spheres of influence but even those within the then barely formed UCL.

The unpleasant reality of such broad movements however is that it is difficult to vet and inspect who joins them. Generations of colonial expansion had resulted in deep seated grievances but many of the ruling powers who exploited them were no less power hungry than the League in spite of their revolutionary rhetoric. There is a saying that originated from some of these worlds that would become popular in years to come: “Standing up to empires with feet planted on peasant necks.” The UCL was quick to criticize the ZSRP, accusing them of letting tyrants stand in their rank. While some of this was based in purely strategic propaganda, it was difficult deny that the same iron hands that struck down League-friendly regimes also did not always mind doing the same to their own people. Some were even known to take material assistance from the League itself. It is said that in its bid for power to rival the League, the Pact trampled over the ideals of its initial revolution and betrayed its very raison d’etre. Some would say they are no different from the League.

The Solar Revolutionaries are difficult to gauge in terms of how much power it truly has. While it is often associated with being a massive horde of stone-cold defiance, it is a very loose alliance in many ways with varying levels of support and dedication from its internal factions. There are a smaller amount of core factions that comprise it compared to those of the Unified Celestial League. A large number of smaller benefactor groups sit below them and offer support whether material, political, or ideological but how much so varies wildly with little consistency. Quite a few of them are independent ex-colonial planet-states, others nation-sectors on worlds not even fully aligned with the Assembly, and a number are even roaming militant groups occasionally classified by the League as terrorist organizations.

While its support base is fairly spread out, the ZSRP has a wide range of followers on the Frontier Worlds and various smaller clusters of independent colonies while many revolutionary movements scattered throughout the stars tend to epouse similar messages and beliefs in spite of the distance they sometimes maintain with the Pact . If it needs to, it can often whip up a maelstrom of fervour and feverish revolutionary sentiment in times of upheaval. Most of the time however it is influencing and providing support to those it views as sympathetic to its goals, engaging in proxy power games with the League and its member states.

The ZSRP was known to have connections with the Dolsilvec Regime before the Chalgheol Civil War and still supports some of the remnants of its government. Strangely enough, they also have given weaponry to militias and breakaway armies whose existence would be antithetical to a return to the Dolsilvec Regime regaining its control over the region. The reasons for this are not very clear but it is believed that the primary members of the Assembly have conflicting goals on the future of the Nation-Sector and how it plays to their interests.

This has resulted in various controversies, the harshest of which involves allegations of supporting war crimes and weapons forbidden by extrasolar treaties and propping up violent warlords. Many of the armed groups received ZSRP support are small militias that grew large through raiding armouries and setting up shop in areas abandoned by any major power. These groups and many of their Revolutionary backers believe that it is best for Chalgheol to give up its illusion of unity and respect the will of its various constituents.

They are considerably the most hostile towards the League, having fought with them in open warfare across multiple worlds, but they have engaged in covert backstabbing and shadow warfare against the Carnazir as well. On occasion, both of them have worked together in the earlier days of the Carnazir but when certain leaders with the ZSRP began cosying up to the Dolsilvec Regime, this would go wouth. While they are often seen as having broad support for the Regime, it is known that more than a few of the Pact's constituents outright despised them due to perceiving them as reactionary opportunists, making it clear either through supporting splinter groups in the Regime or taking advantage of the planetary conflict to outright wipe out elements of their command chain.

The Pact's technology is a mishmash of older technology from various wars fought against the influence of the UCL and a number of newer designs and models. They are associated with black, red, and green colouration which gives them a severe foreboding appearance. While they are considered conceptually obtuse, their firearms are noted for their reliability, impressive kinetic impact, varied ammunitions (explosive, ether-negating, tracking, etc.), and their ability to be modified with unusual living biomatter to network with one’s body. Their energy weapons are not often as precise as the League or as intended for long range but have more destructive power and often are capable of charging up for devastating, explosive shots.

Their melee weaponry frequently comes from various tribes and nomadic groups enhanced with cutting edge composite metals. They use disruptor fields and energy sheaths to massively increase the damage they are capable of with some aliens capable of using these to combat armoured vehicles in ambushes. Their armour comes in a variety of forms and is often heavily customized. Much of it is based on older issue standard infantry armour made more modular and easier to replace but an increasingly large amount uses living and synthetic imitation biomass linked to next generation metal composites for a strange new kind of powered armour capable of performing limited “controlled mutations” on the fly. They are known for having sinister “eyes” and in more alien cases either an eerily smooth or jagged and sharp look to their armour.

Visual References

Carnazir

An emergent regional power whose origins are on Chalgheol though they have long since spread to most of the Frontier Worlds. The Carnazir initially began as a an association between various independent colonial associations and the regional powers that had inhabited the Frontier when pre-League alien empires were beginning to first begin expanding into the region.

Initially, it was a mixture of economic and military cooperation, intended to help balance out regional power against the growing threat of what was then the League's proto-hegemonic power. Some elements of its early leadership were associated with both the Dolsilvec Regime which had quickly risen to prominence as the most vocal and active member of the "anticolonial" frontier and it even features a number of future Zrovreni leaders in its ranks. It had grown into the largest popular front in known history, so much so that even the roving pirate-raider gangs, exiled governments, and occultist sects had began joining and genuinely reforming themselves into its ranks.

When the UCL had officially formed with the entry of humanity into the galactic stage, the Carnazir was verging on critical mass. Amidst efforts both political and militaristic to hold back the League, internal divisions had reached a boiling point as many began to grow skeptical of how the Dolsilvec Regime had become the dominant force not only on Chalgheol but throughout most of the Frontier Worlds. Its justification for such was being the shield against the League but many of the original vanguard, concentrated in Carcosa, were highly critical of how they were taking not only material support from the emergent Zrovreni Solar Revolutionary Pact but even political and military advisors.

It was known that the ZSRP did not entirely trust the Carnazir and had helped fan the flames of revolution on many Frontier Worlds, not just against the UCL but even Carnazir allies, causing many to believe they were beginning to see the Carnazir as a threat rather than an ally. Divided and split from all sides, it did not take long for hostilities in the command chain to go from covert to open, resulting in a grand war of rapid purgation across the Frontier Worlds, fragmenting the Carnazir as many of its leaders were captured and executed by the Dolsilvec Regime.

The Carnazir were reduced at first to a fraction of their origianl power but they never truly defeated. As the Dolsilvec Regime filled the very vacuum in power it had created, revealing itself to have begun swinging its support towards the League, the Carnazir sought help elsewhere. Positioning themselves as unjustly excommunicated freedom fighters betrayed by the false prophets praising only power rather than independence, they began to reinvent themselves and amass their powers across the distant expanses of space, sometimes right beneath the noses of the League and the Pact. They ran a very aggressive media campaign but one that only strategically opposed both, frequently attempting to pit both against one another to make themselves look the nobler for it.

They subsequently were able to exert a degree of influence on what kind of information leaked out of the war, something that has become a ripe target for freelance investigative journalists as well as loyalists from the old regime to discredit them with. Most importantly however, they had managed to reestablish connections with their own sleeper cells right in Carcosa itself, and this time without the help of the treacherous Pact or the greedy League (the latter of which was attempting to absorb the Dolsilvec Regime unsuccessfully), sowed the seeds of a violent civil war. The Regime may have stabilized the Frontier but it had also completely polarized it as well; all that was needed was a few sparks to light the flames of another war of purgation.

The Caranazir maintains its own private armies but also has absorbed battalions that broke away from the regime, foreign militant groups attempting to set up shop, local self defence forces, and almost anybody else it can get its hand on including a large number of nomadic fleets looking for somewhere to call home. A number of them solely pay lip-service to the promises of their reign. They are frequently watched over by elite officer groups and nearby sub-factions more devoted to their cause but it is known that occasionally they will engage in combat. Certain League and Pact intelligence organizations have been known to feed them intel and supplies though ironically they have a tendency to fight with militant groups both are supporting.

It is believed this is part of the negotiations; they will wipe out aligned organizations that are potential political liabilities but other times they have straight up taken strongholds held by both for their own ends. They are not hesitant to clash with the far larger ZSRP and UCL. They also know that both of them realize they have to play carefully with the Carnazir or risk jeopardizing their geopolitical ambitions. Their main enemy however remains the Dolsilvec Regime which receives the majority of their attention (via gunfire) as they attempt to take back the heart of their homeworld. To add insult to injury, they frequently pit defector battallions from the DR against their old generals and will not hesitate to weaken them before waiting for the ZSRP and UCL to finish off Dolsilvec strongholds.

The Carnazir’s technology mixes and matches quite frequently, resulting in armour that often trades survivability and toughness for versatility in tactical capabilities. They are often associated with deep purple, mottled sepia or ochre brown, and faded orange. Their ethereal powers can also be used to enhance their gear very easily, giving them unusual upgrades such as enhanced regeneration or the ability to resist energy weaponry without using ablative plating. Much of their gear is a strange mixture of DIY and experimental technology from hundreds of different manufacturers and arms dealer. They typically prize reliability even more than the assembly and tend to have many interchangeable parts, compensating for their dated designs with high rate of fire, crudely void-touched construction, multiple barrels, and rounds with volatile effects.

This extends to many of their energy weapons that can often shoot around or above/under cover as well as frequently being capable of swamping targeted areas in debilitating unearthly power. Their melee weaponry tends to include a lot of modified industrial tools as well as ceremonial weapons, relying on ethereal enhancements more than advanced construction or energy fields in order to grant them some unusual abilities. This can include knives that increase in cutting power the more blood they taste or lances that can momentarily generate ethereal energy charges for small directed blasts of energy upon impact.

My Hider

Dolsilvec Regime

Once the dominant power of the Frontier Worlds, the Dolsilvec Regime now struggles to retain its foothold on all of its territories, not the least of which is its homeworld of Chalgheol amidst both a grander interstellar war and the resurgent schism-conflict between itself and its ex-allies in the Carnazir. Its origins however are older than not only them but also the League and the Pact. It is known that the planet of Chalgheol contains perhaps the oldest known civilization in entirety of the Frontier Worlds but one whose history are shrouded in mystery and strange phenomena from interference from unknown alien entities descending upon its cities then vanishing within days to eldritch occurences such as void-space overlapping into reality or normally extradimensional organisms migrating into its wastes.

This changed when the alien warlord Kirvan Dolsilvec organized the various city states into a proper nation roughly a decade and a half before the rise of both the League and the Pact. Kirvan expanded his regime beyond his planet's boundaries, forging alliances with the various other Frontier Worlds, most of which were around a then late 1980's to late 1990's level of tecnology, and began to open up diplomatic and economic relations with them. As a growing power in the Frontier Worlds, the regime avoided direct colonization but it did cause a somewhat accelerated level of technological and political growth within and without its atmospheric borders.

When the great foreign powers actually began making headway into to Frontier Worlds and then Chalgheol, they were forced to do so on his terms at first and if there was one thing Kirvan excelled at, it was getting the lion's share of the deal. His sharp eye for intersolar politics and maintaining a wide base of support had not diminished in spite of his age, kept fresh with experimental psycho-somatic technology allowing him to "mirror" his consciousness into multiple clone bodies. Subsequently, he was smart enough to know that the Frontier was starting to grow skeptical of how he had retained power for so long. When the first fragments of the Carnazir began to gather, he made sure Chalgheol had a spot at the table, immediately recognizing its potential beyond merely the "shield" of these outer worlds.

The Regime's reputation for stability and its hardiness flourished under his command, containing and often controlling the extent the far larger Pact and League could expand. At one point, Kirvan was elected by popular vote to head the Carnazir itself. This would later go on to be his mistake and where things begn to change for the worse. It was no secret that his regime arguably had shades of empire in its making; his rule's successes were defined by both the growing independence of the region and the size of the regime that had propped it up single handedly.

The ZSRP and the UCL were not getting any weaker however; their own animosity towards one another was beginning to go beyond what the Regime could control. More and more they were forced to compromise and make diplomacy with them, with the DR's upper hand beginning to fall shorter with each one. Skeptics turned rivals within the Carnazir began to spot what at first was seen as weakness and then as another grab for power; after all, the Pact and the League weren't just opposed to the Regime but the Carnazir that had been one of the major obstacles after all. As public opinion even outside of the Frontier began to cast doubt and distrust against the very name of Dolsilvec, it was impossible to tell if their fears had been justified or if it was impossible for Kirvan to resist the overwhelming power of the hegemonic sharks that had now entered the waters.

For the Carnazir, this was the deepest kind of betrayal as their brother and sisters arms turned their weapons against them, crippling them in a series of "decapitation strikes" that removed much of their command chain, leaving them vulnerable to the regional League and Pact allies, forcing them to retreat from the entire Frontier. For Kirvan, having amassed a small graveyard's worth of rejuvenating bodies, this was merely survival. Unfortunately for him, it turned out that removing the Carnazir from the picture created a vacuum for both the UCL, the ZSRP, and the many militant groups and governments they had sworn over to their side.

It turned out that the Carnazir had only been momentarily stalled and Kirvan had underestimated the amount of raw support and popularity it held outside of the Frontier. Already weakened from a power play that had not turned out exactly as was hoped, the Regime now in decline faced another threat this time from underneath its very feet. The growing civil unrest across all governments under their control, combined with how painfully stretched out the Regime was, became the perfect entry point for what was once their closest group of allies to return with a vengeance. Unrest boiled into rage, transformed into riots and small insurrections, then germinated into full scale revolts.

The flashpoint? The capital state of the entire Regime: Caracosa, where the war began with a mixture of mass defections, terror cell uprisisings, and planetary invasions from beleagured cargo ships secretly holding vengeful Carnazir veteran battallions all too eager to take back what was rightfully theirs. Sometime in this madness, Kirvan himself was believed to be killed, his substitute host bodies destroyed and desecrated, but whispers abound that some of them began to move on their own and supposedly escaped into hidden bunkers throughout Chalgheol. Not even the most elite intelligence gathering agencies have been able to discover if this is so in spite of at times even combined efforts.

As of now, the Dolsilvec Regime may be a shadow of its former power, increasingly reducing in its size as it is forced to concede to the encroaching tides of corporatist and collectivist might. It is not exactly out of the game however; there is a reason the Carnazir take extra caution when engaging them throughout Chalgheol even though the two despise and combat one another far more than they do the League and the Pact. While large chunks of its military have defected or gone rogue, those that remained have counted on a mixture of conscription and patriotic fervour from the oldest and most established of cities and even a few of their remaining stronghold worlds to maintain a sizeable army.

It is enough that they can dissuade the ZSRP and UCL as well as any militant groups associate dwith either from attempting to take some areas not because othey fear defeat but the cost of vicotry will be far too high. Their strategy has changed to preparing for the aftermath of the conflict when not only Caracosa but the rest of their domain will be carved up, going so far as to make quiet allegiances with certain intergalactic powers as to ensure they can preseve as much of their autonomy as possible.

The Dolsilvec Regime is considered to be more advanced than the Carnazir but not quite on the same level as the ZSRP or UCL in terms of technology or military might. It is not 100% up to date but neither is it ages behind the rest of the opposition. They were known to have a fairly promising experimental weaponry program, powered by eldritch technology, that never fully recovered from their conflicts against the Carnazir. In spite of their dire circumstances, more and more of this tech has been seen on the field next to older gear sometimes held up by patchwork repairs and cannibalized parts from their enemies. A substantial part of their arsenal is comprised of older gear from the League and the Pact, often modified partially to suit their particular operational needs.

Their more high end equipment appears capable of manipulating undercurrents of eldritch energy from the Abyssic Plain as opposed to the Abzu though the exact science behind which even they struggle to understand after losing many of their head researchers. This results in them having the ability to easily jam enemy electronics, effectively resist ethereal capabilities, and in some cases even "warp" large numbers of soldiers short distances among others albeit not too frequently.

Visual References

Gnosis Eater Sect

Nobody knows how old the Gnosis Eater Sect really is. Their own origins are a mystery even to its membership. For as long as almost everyone can remember, they had been there albeit under various names. The Phoenix Foundation, the Chasm's Eye, the Spiral Architects - it was only recently that they settled on a name for longer than two decades. It is said that they began on some distant solar system far beyond known space but migrated here but other reports claim they were formed of various research groups from across multiple colonies working in tandem with shadowy alien figures. They are unable to deny or confirm these less so out of secrecy and moreso because of their own doubts and inability to verify any of these.

Regardless of the suspicion that surrounds them, the GES has grown quite large in the last century and even more impressively, it did so without too much in the way of open violence or shadowy politicking. In a galaxy this wide, the Sect has grown to be useful to far larger and more powerful organizations because they are in essence, researchers and archaelogists.

Neither of these things are in short supply but no other scientific organization, governmentally aligned or not, has the wealth of knowledge and skill in tracking down "archaeotech" that they possess. While the supposedly paradigm-shifting nature of much of it is frequently overblown by news media and yarn-spinning gossipers, much of it offers interesting insights into how prior civilizations overcame their own challenges.

In turn this tends to help open up new passageways into how to apply previously existing scientific theory in new ways as well as helping to flesh out the history of populations that have been displaced, disconnected from their roots, or simply do not have the resources to investigate the oftentimes dangerous areas where most of these secrets reside. When they do find powerful technology however, it is not often shared at least not fully, used to curry favour with the greater powers and often with specific restrictions enforced on its usage. Very rarely do they allow for much in the way of mass militarization given the already violent state of the universe at large.

That being said, the GES will not hesitate to employ force if need be and they do not discriminate against their aggressors. To protect both their hidden research and excavation sites and the smaller colonies aligned with them, they have a large army that draws from a wide recruitment pool. Reformed mercenaries, settled-down pirates, defectors from the previously established powers, colonial militias, and even their own in-house combatants allow for a wide variety of highly trained soldiers typically trained to the same degree as most commando units. They do not quite have a uniform or even associated appearance but a whole bundle of them, utilizing technologies as simple as conventional propellant-firearms all the way up to powerful direct energy weapons.

They have a reputation for being masters of infantry combat not just in urban and wilderness areas but also more otherworldly terrain, capable of operating even in abzu-swamped regions. What they lack in raw numbers or overwhelming force is compensated for in being on average the most surgically precise armed force. Thankfully, they very rarely initiate or search for conflict and have a reputation for protecting civilian and refugee groups.

While they had various outposts throughout the Frontier Worlds, the worsening situation and increasing intensity of conflict forced them to work more closely with each of the four warring factions. In exchange for joint-territorial control, select technological exchange, and high end personnel training, the Sect was able too secure additoinal personnel, materiel, and political support but at the same time, it meant that the knowledge they acquired had to be shared with people they knew would apply it for destructive purposes and in the process, even the playing field with them should they ever come into conflict.

They have been able to drip-feed them fairly minor amounts of technology but the territory and training unfortunately could not be minimized. This has caused many within the organization to begin doubting its own future and integrity; the question many ask and argue is if they are slowly becoming the lackeys of the warmongers rather than the universal bringers of progress.

In recent years, attacks on their hidden sites across the Frontier Worlds have increased but they have primarily been concentrated on Chalgheol, with the Carcosa region being the most heavily affected. At first it seemed to be freak accidents or pure dumb luck of the attackers but as time passed, intelligence groups from all four of their backers and their own in-house sources revealed that there was a pattern to the aggression. These were coordinated attacks from an unknown enemy, operating in much the same way as their own, but also utilizing forces recruited from a similar pool of candidates as the Sect. The GES, no matter how much its leadership disagreed and argued amongst themselves, had never *ever* splintered before so that was ruled out.

It was clear the attackers were after the secrets hidden there and were capable of taking it with a disturbing ease at first. The Sect was barely able to repel future attacks even with major backup. So who were these mysterious attackers? With no choice but to work with the elite black ops and intelligence divisions of the Dolsilvec Regime, the Carnazir, the Zrovrenian Solar Revolutionary Pact, and the Unified Celestial League, the Gnosis Eaters are currently waging a shadow war of their own amidst the still red hot embers of the civil war.

Visual References

MINOR FACTIONS

Nova Stella Pura

Faction by OwO

Rather than a planetary faction, the Nova Stella Pura are more of a subversive existence within space. Instead of possessing political power in the form of warships, weapons, and resource caches, their power relies on ideology, sympathy, and connections. Perpetually in exodus, the Nova Stella Pura either live an ascetic life in roaming capital ships or in secret among other factions.

Membership of the Nova Stella Pura is varied. The most devout followers of the Nova Stella Pura drift across the galaxy in stealthed capital ships. Those affiliated with them, however, act as a liaison between the esoteric cult and the less spiritually inclined factions. These affiliates also aggressively spread some of the Nova Stella Pura's ideas. More specifically, they ensure that the current scientific consensus is that biological warfare is not worth pursuing due to its risk.

While hidden most of the time, they appear primarily where the infestation--a mindless creature that consumes any living being to replicate--appears.

However, their crusades are almost entirely hidden to the galaxy at large. To most factions, the Nova Stella Pura are simply mercenaries led by a space cult that is hired to clean up biohazards. While led by true followers of the Nova Stella Pura, they often are comprised of members from independent factions, colonies, and even criminal organizations. This group acts as the Nova Stella Pura's primary income. They hide their finances through shell corps, making even their cash flow hard to track. As their services are considered of value to each major power, they retain positive relations with each major power.

In the frontier worlds, the Nova Stella Pura play a larger role. There is a risk of stumbling upon a major biohazard on a planet. As such, the Nova Stella Pura retain many agreements with independent colonies and organizations to ensure that a new plague isn't unearthed.

Originally, the Stella Pura were a mystical organization of pacifists. They built temples across the systems that acted as refuge for anyone who had no place to call home. Exiles, pirates, criminals, and refugees were all welcome to stay. So long as they committed to a life of pacifism while within a temple, they were welcome. To some, the temples were hives of criminal cutthroats. To others, the Stella Pura were the guardians of those who were at the end of the line.

At its peak, the Stella Pura were likely the most widespread--not believed--scripture in the galaxy.

However, the temples soon became empty. This wasn't of lack of faith, nor was it of military invasion. No, the temples and everyone inside had vanished. Entire temples had been intentionally destroyed. Not a single sign of life could be found within those that survived. Only ash remained.

Generations had passed before their name reappeared. Calling themselves the Nova Stella Pura, they rose once more to spread their scripture. However, it was different from their previous incarnation. Rather than peace and pacifism, they called for protection by any means. They would ensure that no one else will experience what they had.

The equipment of the Nova Stella Pura is primarily designed to deal with biological threats. Their armaments primarily use fire and chemicals to destroy any sort of containment. Their armour is highly varied, depending which chapter of the cult the wearer is from. However, there's two commonalities. The first is an extreme resistance to heat. The second being that it would protect the user from any external contamination.

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