SPECIES
Name: The Loci or The Flawless
Homeworld: The Loci have ever dwelt in the midst of the stars, as was always their purpose, chasing light and sound out into the void.
Description: The shape and form of an individual Locus is as idiosyncratic as their personality permits. The first iterations consist of an organic core within a perfect shell of interlocking augmentations and cybernetics. The later iterations, those forged after the Enlightenment, are entirely synthetic, comprising lustrous metals and synth-bone - though their forms are shaped to resemble perfected biological examples. The only commonality is that every Locus, at least in modernity, is an immaculate white, and designed with great dishes and smooth planes over their para-humanoid frames, so as to ensure that as much light, sound and shimmering radioactive noise is reflected from them as possible. The majority of them resemble exaggerated humanoids, their chitinous synth-bone limbs lengthened and shaped into dizzying curves and planes. Their faces, when they possess such, are emulations of their own idealised recreations of encountered biological forms. The sensory organs and consciousnesses of the Loci are distributed throughout, and even beyond their bodies - webs of sensors sit in nodes around the body - the most pious covering their entire body in such, in order to share in the perpetual song of light and sound fully. Most distressingly to many organic xeno-forms, though, is the way in which the Flawless speak -through the mimicry and intensification of background noise, usually of the electromagnetic signals of the local area, producing an unsettlingly 'choral' effect.
History: The first Flawless were the product of a zealous madness. A biological form, now unknown, crafted The Perfect by hand and by accident in the attempt to wrap the dying remains of its beloved in a frame capable of keeping them alive, and of reflecting the perfect beauty it saw in them. From there, others of dying forms begged to be so immortalised (either by their words or by their beauty alone). Soon enough, the organic forms of dozens of species had been made flawless. When they could find no more biological forms in their local cluster fit to be perfected, the first iteration forms began to replicate themselves, splitting their organic cores down into smaller and smaller portions until only a thin web of true cells sat in each form. Ultimately, the final forgings of the first iteration produced Loci only in the barest sense tied to the organic things they had once been, their minds swimming in half-formed memories of the beauty that had motivated them in life. They existed in the midst of the void for a long time, then, launching away from the empty, quiet cluster their decadent forebears had destroyed in search of beauty towards the nearest other signs of life. They heard the call of distant worlds, and followed it.
In this siren call came both their flourishing and their fall. The Loci, after centuries in the dark, hoarded sound, light and the very radiation underlying the universe itself. They spawned in themselves a desire for the distant sound and light that quickly became insatiable. They re-shaped and re-coloured themselves to better catch and take in the light, until their avarice began to tear them apart. The first iteration forms came to believe that the flesh of their cores was the source of the light that sustained them, and so began the Kinslaying. Forms slaughtered one another for the true flesh of the old biological forms and hoarded the ingrained memories they could recover. Ships descended into darkness as perfect forms weaponised themselves. Feuds roiled unending in the dark as engines fell silent. For time beyond measure the flawless hunted in the dark, until only a few thousand forms remained awake. An iteration of The Perfect, the only shell of their essence left, managed to awaken the comms system of one of the vessels, and the darkness was pierced all at once by noise. Some did not heed it, and were purged. Most, though, came to the call, and were re-made. The Fourth Perfect had looked into the dark, and they had seen the death of the stars. Their sensors had flared and gone silent as they witnessed the dying of the light. The Loci with him, the flawless, were shaped into rightful forms - made to gleam white and built to reflect noise into the dark, not to steal it inward. The Fourth Perfect's re-shaping came to be known as the Enlightenment, and with it began the Parabola.
FACTION
Name: The Parabola
Ideology: Faith, Planning. The Parabola is built to reflect noise and light into the dark. They wish ceaselessly to follow the creed of the Fourth Perfect to enlighten the universe again, to fill the endless expanse with sound and joyful exaltation. They believe, and so are directed - their flawless forms turned to the pursuit of the True Noise.
Background: Cosmic Refugees - In the endless distance of billions of years, the Flawless fled the dying cluster of their birth. No foe pursued them, but the darkness they carried with them was enough.
History: The faithful of the Fourth Perfect, the Parabola spent a long time scanning the darkness. They lay in observation decks, filled themselves with sensors and speakers, calling into the void and hearing nothing back. They despaired - had they in their hubris allowed the universe to die around them? Would they never hear the song again? But the Fourth Perfect assured them. It had heard the song of distant suns, the resounding harmonies of the Hypernovae, and in the vast banks of his eldritch, half-machine memory he knew where the crescendo, the ending, would be. The shells of the dead were melted in great furnaces - their essence taken and stored within the Perfect, and forms were finally made without flesh at all in them. The second iteration. By then, it was little to grow the gleaming white synthbone and sensor-nerves - where once the cells of the living had been needed, now all that was required was biomass and labour. The ships were re-shaped utterly, turned gleaming white and set on course towards the distant light. Ever since, the Flawless have prepared themselves. Now, they arrive for the first time in endless eons amidst the light and sound, eager to spread their ecstasy.
Leader: The Fourth Perfect
Tech Category Choices: - 2 Starting Tier 1 Technologies of your choice (Atomic Power, 0-G Construction), 1 Random Tier 2 Technology from a category of your choice (Cybernetics).