Vathari Communate

Faction Name: Vathari Communate
Faction Type: The Communate is a loosely-governed collection of worlds, space habitats, asteroid conglomerates, et cetera, that are run individually. However, they each are loyal to Vathar, the Communate's capitol world, and its ruling council.
Species: Vathari and Fabricators
There are several dozens of Vathari colonies, though most are small and self-sufficient, no bigger than outposts. For industrial needs, such as orbital equipment and starships, they would contract to one of the five heavily industrialized systems. There are four major planets in the Communate, however:
Vathar; Capital of the Communate and home world of the Vathari. It is massively industrialized, its surface looking like a mismatched patchwork of industrial centers, computer complexes, residential areas, and nature preserves. There is little orbital industry around the planet itself, though, outside of small factories and space elevators.
Oncar: Second most industrialized world in the Communate, it services most of the military needs of the Communate via the Fabricators, as it is the Fabricator homeworld.
Culture: The Communate is very rule-bound and while it has a rather liberal moral structure, it is codified into law, and breaking it carries harsh punishment, though due to the nature of the laws the offense must have caused serious damage to a person or their livelihood to actually break the law. These over-arching sets of laws apply to all of the separate colonies and communes that otherwise have their own governments, though they must abide by the Council's laws and face the consequences of breaking them. It is due to this that Vathari culture is very diverse, and does not fall well into any category outside of how Vathar's laws restrict them.
History: The Communate was founded when the Vathari began to venture into space, adapting the government model used on Vathar to the vast distances and other challenges a space-fairing civilization faces in its ability to assert authority throughout its territory. The solution was to grant worlds and systems high autonomy on the basis of the same set of laws.
Technology:

Transportation technologies:

Space-time warp drive:
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A staple in every ship built in Communate space, the space-time warp drive (often shortened to just warp drive, or S/T drive) is a system made to facilitate low-energy near-light travel.

This function is achieved by warping space time in such a way that, as long as the drive is powered, a self-sustaining "bubble" of space is created, which is constantly expanding in one direction, and constantly collapsing in the opposite, creating a difference that pushes the section of space-time through the universe at near the speed of light.

In theory such a drive could be used to achieve faster-than-light speeds, however the energy cost of doing so is much higher. While it has been achieved in test models, builds of this drive variant are only equipped on certain starships as tertiary backups and use where a standard FTL drive would be hindered.

Space-fold drive:
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The space-fold drive, most often simply called a stardrive, is the Communate's most efficient form of portable faster-than-light travel systems. Due to its higher energy and maintenance costs, this drive type is only found on certain types of starships, especially military vessels. An advantage of this drive, however, is that a sufficiently powerful one can move multiple ships at once, even to different destinations and from different origin points.

To say that the drive folds space would be technically inaccurate, however it is a good way to explain the basic mechanism of the drive. Essentially, a tunnel of space-time is created between the origin point and the destination point, which is of a shorter distance than the distance required for conventional travel. It is easy to imagine space as a sheet of paper or cloth, folded and then having a hole punched through the two folded sides. However, space itself remains intact and untouched by the drive, outside of the tunnel's creation and closure, which is accomplished through means which are classified by Council decree.

Transmat corridor:
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A transmat corridor is a system comprised of two transmat pads and an information hookup between the two. The corridor allows the rapid transit of matter and energy from one end to the other. This is accomplished using a method similar to the warp drive.

When a transmat corridor is activated the first pad sections off the area of space on top of it, usually in a cylinder the diameter of the pad itself, or in some cases the entire transmat alcove. Then the pad transmits this information to the second pad, which to avoid displacement issues sections off its payload area as well. Then the two pads swap their individual sections. This process is limited to less-than-light speeds as it requires realspace information transfer between the two pads. However, to an observer inside of the payload area the process is instantaneous, as when an area of space is sectioned off a stasis effect is created, almost entirely halting the movement of time. This is done because there is no way of predicting just how fast time will travel inside of the micro-universe created during the process, so it is considered safer to create one without any noticeable passage of time.

Information and computing technologies:

Photonic synapse:
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A photonic synapse is a device created many millennia ago by the early Vathari. The device is essentially a collection of one or more miniature space-time tunnels used to transmit data in a digital format. These devices are very reliable; a tunnel of such size requires almost no energy to maintain, even when in motion. Additionally, they cannot be disrupted by faster-than-light inhibitors, once created the tunnels can only be destabilized by the destruction of both ends of the synapse. These tunnels are used to send single photons across at different energy levels. Most commonly utilized is binary signal with just two energy levels; however there are also systems that use octal or hexadecimal signals.

However, these devices are not very common, and are most employed by the Old Minds. They are vital to maintaining a single consciousness unaffected by propagation delay, even across massive distances. These devices are found in planet-to-planet communication systems and in deep-space relay networks as well. Few non-mind starships have these equipped, as it would only facilitate communication between two locations.

Cybernetic technologies:

Cloning cylinders:

In the past the civilization of Vathar had turned to cloning as a more effecient means of continuing the species after the biosphere of the planet had collapsed. After becoming machines, the Old Minds used the remains of this technology to create organic avatars for themselves. However, in the time sense much knowledge of biology has been lost, and they have used their knowledge of chemistry and of their own genetics to maintain their existing avatars, though the capability to grow new ones is gone. Unfortunately, much of Vathari space is lifeless, so there is little sample set to use to regain such knowledge, and the existing avatars are so modified from their original human form that it would be pointless to study them for answers.

Combat technologies:

Thermal shielding:
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Thermal shielding is both a defensive technology and a utility technology. In essence it creates a barrier or field where heat transfer is prevented, the heat either being sent into a sink in the generator itself or being radiated off or reflected back from the barrier. It is used in both warships and larger computer cores, in ships as a defense against weapons that deal damage thermally, and in computer cores as a way to separate areas which operate at vastly different temperatures. The only other type of shielding utilized by the Communate is standard electromagnetic shielding. Ultimately, however, Communate ships rely mostly on armor and interception for defensive capabilities.

Electronic warfare:
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It is important to note that while the Vathari are ethically opposed to hacking into other vessels, especially as many Vathari are ships themselves, they are not lacking in that area of warfare. Many Vathari vessels are equipped with high level security software, and always have at least one individual connected to the system at a time. Individuals with ship-bodies are much harder targets, as they are always monitoring every system, making it difficult at best for a would-be invasive software to gain any foothold.

Laser Weapons:
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Vathari laser weaponry is well-developed and utilized in many ways from point-defense and ground weapons to the main batteries on star ships. Advanced chemical techniques have created coolant systems and laser emitting mediums that allow for such versatile applications.

Particle Beams:
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No self-respecting Vathari warship would be caught without a well-sized beam weapon mounted on its hull. Due to in-depth knowledge of particle physics, electromagnetics, and vast amounts of computer power, Vathari particle beam weapons are accurate at long ranges and some can even function inside atmospheres. However, they tend to have long heat cycling periods after intense firing.


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Military Forces: The Council Fleet, the primary military force in the Communate, is made up of over a thousand ships, and crewed entirely by volunteers. Many of the craft are ancient, although one would not be able to tell from their appearance. Each ship in the Fleet is different, modified to the liking of their owners. The Council itself owns only a few hundred ships, but they are the most powerful ones in Communate space, built and maintained by master shipbuilders.

Species Name: Vathari

Physiological Description: Most Vathari are individual in both mind and body like organic species are, however there is a general lack of uniformity in their appearance except for some factors. The bodies they are born in are usually humanoid, if not they generally follow the configuration of their parents, but as they grow in both mind and body an individual is free to change his or her body as they see fit. Gender is a non-physical identity among the Vathari, and indeed some Vathari decide to have no gender or switch between the two until they find which one they like the most. This is because they can literally change their subconscious ideal of self with enough effort, though it is not something done lightly or quickly. Some Vathari transfer their minds into starships or computer facilities, these are simply known as Minds, and their physical existence is a more abstract concept when dealing with individuals, so they often use smaller avatars for ease of social interaction, though not always.

Biological History: Originally, Vathar was a world inhabited by humans. It was a prosperous society, so much so that there was never a pressing need to venture back into space. Over time, people forgot about the old sleeper ships, the galaxy they were from, especially during the occasional conflict or strife. Yet this was not to last: an asteroid was detected by telescopes that, if impacted, would destroy the biosphere of Vathar within decades after impact. They did what they could, but ultimately, they only delayed the catastrophe. Using nuclear weapons, they fragmented the asteroid; those fragments that hit did damage that unbalanced the environment and ultimately doomed the planet's biosphere.
To survive, the colonists turned to technology, building great domes to protect their agriculture, using hydroponics to grow food in any place they could, and utilizing any fuel source to power their cities. Yet despite this effort they slowly declined, populations died out as they grew to small to maintain the cities they depended on, and they realized that they needed to change not just their environment, but themselves as well. Cybernetics allowed them to survive the biosphere's collapse, and cloning allowed them to reproduce more effectively, and as the generations went on they became successively more integrated with technology, creating implants that would grow with a child and were implanted before birth, ones that would enhance the brain so it would require less energy, and so on. For hundreds if not thousands of years this went on, and yet they still had slowly been dying out, their world ravaged by disaster and the industry they relied on to survive it. It was then that the last generation became the Old Minds, creating massive underground bunkers to survive their planet and live to build anew, transferring their minds into giant computers where they would need no food, no sleep, only power.
But they knew that they could not survive if they could not create more of themselves, as automation would only go so far. It was first proposed that they use their remaining genetic data to create new clones, and then to integrate them into machines as well. Others sought to create an artificial intelligence capable of copying itself, but the problems with this was clear. The compromise that was reached was that they would deconstruct the workings of the mind and learn how to create one artificially. From this, the Vathari were made: living minds in machine bodies, possessing the creativity and complexity of an organic being, and the utility and power of a machine.

Social Structure: Each commune is a democracy of some sort, usually direct, thanks to the technological nature of the Vathari. Civil liberties are a given, and the economy can vary from communism to trade and barter or more modern style capitalist or socialist economics depending on the world. Most Vathari don't have a "job" per se, they do what they like to do, as energy is considered a necessity that all have a right to. Coupled with the immorality of a machine, Vathari society would seem quite odd to an organic, though hive species may be more able to understand it.

Native Culture: Cultures vary by world, and there is no real over-arching culture throughout the Communate, and whatever culture Vathar had was lost long before the advent of the Communate, likely before births of the Old Minds.

Factions: All Vathari are by default Communate citizens unless they object to it, and some go off as wanderers of the stars and/or traders that rarely return to Communate space.

Species Name: Fabricators

Physiological Description: The Fabricators are titanic beings, residing in massive machine bodies or in advanced mind-ships. Created for war, they are always armed, and their forms are optimized for it in one way or another, despite any appearances of impracticality, as they vary from swarms of vehicles with titanic central command units and their consciousness spread throughout, to single giant machines or the aforementioned mind-ships.

Biological History: The Fabricator's origin is one fraught with strife and conflict. They were created shortly after the Communate had started colonizing worlds beyond their own system. This expansion brought the Vathari into contact with a hostile race, and a war began that today is known only as the Extermination War. The war started brutally, with many fledgling Vathari colonies being lost; eventually the only thing that stopped the onslaught was the attack on Vathar itself. The invaders were unprepared for the gap in industrialization between the colonies and the home system, and their fleets were quickly routed by the combined might of the Communate.
The Old Minds, however, knew that this enemy would not just go away. Yet they also knew that they could not send out living beings to wage this war, so they decided to create a thinking weapon. On the razed colony of Oncar they created what have now been dubbed the Oncari. Near-sapient machines with one goal: the destruction of the enemy at any cost. The Oncari were ruthless, exploiting weakness wherever it was found, and turning the enemy's strengths against them. Yet they lacked one decisive factor: true intelligence. Eventually the invaders rebounded, and began to push back. The Oncari, unbound by the ethics of the Old Minds, did the unthinkable. They created sapient machines, life, given the same directive that Vathar had made for them. These new creations proved far more deadly than the Oncari, and they never gave up or retreated. Thousands upon thousands died in battle, until finally their wave of destruction reached the enemy homeworld. It was known that the world would be heavily entrenched, but even with such knowledge, many thousands died in the first assault.
The battle progressed so slowly, that back on Oncar the Oncari gave themselves a new target. They realized that their actions would pit the Communate against them, so they began to plan an assault on Vathar. Oncar stopped sending reinforcements to the still ongoing battle, as it readied its fleets to strike at Vathar. Just as their fleets were finished, and they prepared to jump to Vathar, the Council intervened. The Old Minds had considered the possibility of their war machines rebelling, so they entered battle themselves in the most powerful ships ever created to that point. The initial contact was brutal, thousands of Oncari vessels were destroyed in minutes, but they just kept coming, and the Old Minds knew that they were merely stalling to give Vathar more time to rally its defenses. Just as they were about to retreat to Vathar, a massive fleet appeared in high orbit over Oncar, in position to both flank the Oncari fleet and cut off the Old Minds' retreat into solar orbit. The Old Minds expected the worst, and no records exist on what the Oncari thought. However, what happened next likely surprised both sides. Most of the fleet immediately entered either ballistic or low-orbit-transfer trajectories, and at the nearest opportunity began deploying massive war machines on the surface via orbital drop or landing craft. Any fortified areas where quickly surrounded by the armies, as most ground units had been transferred to transports in preparation to invade Vathar. All non-fortified areas were quickly destroyed by orbital bombardment, and before the Oncari fleet could get into low-orbit themselves, the Oncari minds were dead, and the hapless low-level AI that remained were quickly slaughtered by the newcomers. It is thought that if a non-living computer could feel pain, the Oncari minds experienced something close to it before their existence was ended.
In the silent aftermath, a single ship approached the Old Minds' fleet. The being on board identified itself as the first of the many Fabricators that broke away from the control of the Oncari, and it pledged every Fabricator to Vathar and the Council.
Social Structure: The Fabricators have little in the way of social structure, other than that they obey Vathar's laws and any orders given to them by the Council. Their homeworld, Oncar, is ruled by a single Fabricator who is usually known as the Fabricator Lord, though who it is often changes and they have never revealed how or why. Other than that, authority comes from reputation and seniority, in that order. Naturally, the first Fabricator is their de facto leader, even if that Fabricator is not the reigning Lord.

Native Culture: The Fabricators have long since gone past their original purpose as beings of war. They see life as the ultimate form of existence, that the ability to create information is one greater than the power of any star, and can be longer lasting than time itself. This is why they named themselves "Fabricator": Their purpose is to create, and indeed, they believe all life's purpose is to create, and that destruction is only necessary to allow for creation. When they are not building practical things such as heavy machinery or warships, they create very abstract works of art that are often based on mathematics or observations of other sapients lives.

Factions: All Fabricators answer to Vathar, and they rarely leave Communate space on their own.