Recap/lore dump.

The Vureii

the Vureii are few in number after the destruction of their home planet by the Imperium. Their home planet was cold relative to Earth, with the only viable living space being around the equatorial regions. Most of this living space was dominated by low wetlands, like bogs, swamps and the fenlands of eastern England. A pervasive form of fauna could be found all across this region, this planet’s analog of a tree. They would arch across one another, forming an elevated horizontal platform over the wetlands. The Vureii’s pole-like toes allowed them to keep themselves elevated above the water level of the swamp, but also to hang from the tall flora like sloths do on earth.

The Breimheinians

The Briemheinians evolved on a high gravity, low atmosphere world called Wimrigg. Wimrigg was closer to it’s host star than Earth, but due to the low atmospheric pressure this led to warm days and extremely cold nights. Because of this Breimheinian civilisation began by building down into vast subterranean cities. You can think of them as the dwarves of Humanity Lost. Their structures and technology had to be extremely tough because of their host planet’s high gravity and regular tectonic activity. Much like their technology, their body plan is rigid and sturdy barring their two dexterous tentacles either side of their mouth. The Breimheinians were never able to break orbit despite their highly technological global civilisation; their gravity-well was their worst enemy, but this made the Conglomerate their greatest ally. The Conglomerate helped build the infrastructure to get the Breimheinian people into space, and the Breimheinians gladly joined their alliance as a member species. They arose to be the primary manufacturer of Conglomerate warships, building ships which were not only reliable at entering and exiting gravity-wells, but ones that could also take a punch.

Tandrax

The Tandrax are the most technologically advanced species in the Milky Way Galaxy. So advanced that they’ve done away with living inside gravity wells all together. They now live solely in Dyson swarms (giant constellations of satellites that orbit a star absorbing all of said star’s energy output). That was the case until the Imperium began their conquest of the Milky Way. Because of this, the Tandrax began turning their Dyson swarms into shkodov thrusters (essentially a swarm of mirrors with an opening on one end). They focus and direct the star’s energy out of the hole, generating thrust. They literally fly around the galaxy in STARships.). These STARships came to be known as Nomad stars. The other oppressed species of the Milky Way began to set up stations and O’Neil cylinders orbiting these nomad stars as they passed though the Galaxy, treating them as safe havens from the Imperium. The Tandrax’s supreme intelligence has allowed them to develop psionic and telekinetic abilities, which allows them to cloak the nomad stars from Imperium psychics. There are orders of Tandraxian psionic monks that dedicate their entire lives to maintain this constant psychic veil of invisibility. The Tandrax are generally apathetic towards the Imperium and do little to combat their expansion, and they also care very little for the other species of the Galaxy, viewing themselves as the one true supreme beings. They allow the rabble of the lower races to huddle around their nomad stars to avoid extinction, but that’s about all they do. They view this as their ultimate act of kindness.

The Tandrax’s body is perfectly suited to the zero G environment of space, with air jets all over their body and large webbed tentacles that it uses as air breaks. They’ve been a technological superpower for so long that they’ve evolved to the environment of microgravity. Though many a Tandrax have done away with their physical bodies all together, and have opted to transcend into a simulated existence.

The Velousian Bladedancers.

The Velousian Blade Dancers are a species whose culture is one of honour and tradition. Their culture is a bloodthirsty one, in which they go by resolving almost any dispute through combat; in particular, combat by way of the blade. Every Velousian carries a sword with which they defend their honour throughout their life. Their sword will often signify wealth and class. Those in the upper stratum of Velousian society carry extremely decorated blades that are often centuries old; their use is reserved purely for ceremonial practices. These blades are commonly passed down from generation to generation, baring their families' crest, whereas the poor often equip themselves with more practical blades. There are of course many different cultures within their species, but this tradition is common between almost all of them.

It is also used as a system of control, one which fools the masses into believing any can rise to the upper echelons of society though proficiency with the blade. Many do, but they can only go so far. Those in power will always find ways to keep it, and this ancient tradition is nothing more than a fallacy that enforces inequality.

One possible reason this culture arose is due to the Velousian physiology. Their gelatinous bodies mean that a weapon like a sword or an axe is far more efficient at killing than a traditional fire arm.

This affair of honour is commonly referred to as blade dancing. A Velousian exhibits extreme dexterity with their two frontal tentacles, which far exceeds the capability of any Human. This is made possible by their 3 brains; 2 of which are dedicated entirely to their corresponding arm. Through these tentacles they also feed, using smaller retractable and extendable tentacles that have small mouths on their tips.

Their lower body is unique in that they can swivel on it 360 degrees. This allows them to move in any direction they see fit with great speed, without having to turn their head.

The Ounegg

The Ouneggians are a species of pacifists, scientists and traders. They are one of the smallest sentient species in the Galaxy (the tallest of them only reaching a Human’s knee) and they often seek protection by forming close relations to other species through trade. But what they lack in combat prowess they make up for with brains; the Ounegg are renowned inventors, particularly of the Flux drive.

The Flux drive is the primary power source used by most Conglomerate ships. The Flux drive uses exotic matter from an alternative universe called the Flux. The Flux obeys different laws of physics to our own universe; matter there blips in and out of existence constantly, potentially travelling from one side of the Flux-verse to the other. When this matter is brought into our plane of existence it becomes extremely unstable, however if stabilised by a Flux drive the matter can yield massive amounts of energy, powering anything from the life support of a station to the engines of a starship.

The Ouneggians have two sets of eyes; the top set are for long distance and the lower are for close up dexterous tasks. Their hind legs have fused to form a single powerful leg.

The Gord

The Gord are not one species, but two, the product of perfect symbiosis between two species resulting in a single sentient hive-like entity. The central plant-like core of a Gord works as a hive for the smaller drones, which live, breed and die in and around the Gord. It provides sustenance and guidance though complicated pings of information, which the drones are perfectly adapted to understand, serve and reply. The drones act as the eyes and hands of the Gordian central structure, they ping visual information back to the Gord to provide situational awareness, and also allow the Gord to manipulate objects around them. Through these means the Gord developed their extremely advanced Civilisation.

Due to the extremely exotic nature of the Gord, their language and culture is practically  indecipherable to the other species of the Galaxy. This makes sharing technology and complex information extremely difficult, and unfortunately led to several wars between them and the Conglomerate. Despite this turbulent past, the Gord are a powerful ally in the fight against the Imperium.

The Yarkeen

Pirates, assassins and all-round trouble makers, the Yarkeen are perhaps the only species unaffected by the Imperium's conquest of the galaxy. In fact, they thrive in the chaos. The disorder caused by the Imperium allows the Yarkeen to raid and rule less protected Conglomerate outposts.

The Yarkeen once had a vast empire spanning 19 star systems. They achieved such a height of civilisation through the mastery of Flux gates; gateways connecting our universe to the Flux. These Flux gates could transport matter and information from one side of the galaxy to the other in a near instant, taking advantage of the strange laws of physics that affect the Flux-verse. Though their empire eventually fell, as all empires do, due to events that are now lost to time, leaving the colonies of this great empire to fall into absolute ruin. The Yarkeen never recovered from this and were plunged into a dark age without end. This was a time of technological regression, where the machines built by their ancestors were viewed as instruments of the Gods and were used to the great detriment of other Yarkeen.

When the Conglomerate came across the many anarchic planets of the Yarkeen, it proved impossible to annex them successfully, resulting in many criminal syndicates within their own colonies; though the Conglomerate did find their uses for this unwanted diaspora, commonly using them as hired guns. Despite the difficulty of introducing them as a member species, the Flux gates their ancestors had built quickly became the interest of the Conglomerate. Through them the Ounegg created the Flux drive technology, but the knowledge of how to navigate the Flux safely was ultimately lost.

The Yarkeen are very rarely seen without heavy cybernetic enhancements, so I have included images of one with and one without.

The Kolaxans

The Kolaxans are a monolithic, tenacious and unified race, rallied around a common goal; conquest and expansion. It is not only their Faustian spirit that is hardy, but their physical nature as well. Their muscular and squat physique is due to the high gravity on their home planet. Their heavy set limbs are occupied by keeping their hulking body upright, but they have evolved powerful trunk-like appendages and an extremely strong neck to support them. These dexterous trunks enabled them to develop and manipulate tools, which eventually led to them to becoming a spacefaring species. Some of these trunks are equipped with bioluminescence, which aid the Kolaxans with communication in addition to vocal articulation.

Their culture is one that appeals to passion, arts, love and most of all, war. The ideology driving Kolaxan civilisation is a warmongering one, which allowed them to rise to be a prominent industrial and military power in the galaxy. They even managed to resist annexation by the Conglomerate, remaining a completely autonomous empire.

The Soeus

The Soeus hail from the planet Sollus; a low gravity world with an abnormally large and dense atmosphere. It’s able to retain this atmosphere due to the great distance between itself and it's host star. The Soeus are perfectly suited to moving around in this strange environment, with a system of three large sacks that, though an internal chemical process, combust and feed into biological jets located in the abdomen. These jets are capable of firing prograde and even retrograde. The four appendages sprouting from the front of the body are it's head, arms and mouth, with a air intake in the centre for filling the various sacks on it's body. It is capable of closing these appendages into a aerodynamic point for short bouts of high speed flight, like that of a ramjet.

The Soeus are the founding species of the alliance known as the Conglomerate, with their home system being the capital. This makes it one of the few last bastions in the war against the ever-expanding Imperium.

The Pekt

The Pekt originate from an icy moon named Jo, orbiting a Jupiter-like gas giant named Vanguria. Like the ice moons in our own system, this moon has an icy shell and subsurface oceans with a warm core that is kept active through the tidal forces exerted by Vanguria. The conditions of these oceans resemble that of the deep sea here on Earth, so lifeforms on Jo have adapted bioluminescence. Vast glowing forests of strange flora cover the sea bed. The Pekt have developed a unique way of using their bioluminescence in communication as they evolved to become more social creatures, much like how Humans use facial expression. But unlike Humans, and most other sentient life in the galaxy, The Pekt do not exibxit bilateral symmetry, but radial symmetry. Their saucer-like head can orientate to any direction, and all of their limbs double as legs and arms. The Pekt had somewhat a head start to becoming a spacefaring civilisation; with their home world being low gravity, it meant getting off-world was no hardship, and there being many other ice moons around Vanguria it meant plenty of other habitable worlds for them to spread to early in their development. Throughout Pekt history there has been an obsession with the world beyond the ice. There were many early expeditions into the surface world, where the Pekt donned armoured pressurised suits resembling that of old diving suits here on Earth, their ships almost holding a steampunk aesthetic to them. The Pekt were the first species absorbed into conglomerate, that was then simply known as the Soeus empire. Because of their early entry into the organisation, they were sited as co founders and retain many positions of power throughout the many institutions of the Conglomerate.

The Bo

The Bo are a race of arboreal tripods that usually opt for arboreal locomotion, however they are very capable of terrestrial movement by walking on their knuckles. Their strange head acts as a brilliant gyroscope, allowing them to balance on one arm, freeing up their two other arms for use of tools. They can also rotate their head 270 degrees, like a gimbal, as they swing about their environment.

The Bo had achieved a type 0 civilisation, resembling that of humanity, by the early 22nd century; that was until their destruction by the hands of the Imperium. The few Bo that still exist were found hiding inside a makeshift ship, converted from a space station. They were living in terrible conditions and were granted refugee status by the Conglomerate. They are now critically endangered, numbering fewer than 50. Despite the Conglomerate’s best efforts, Yarkeen trophy hunters pick at their dwindling population, driving the Bo ever more towards extinction.

After the Imperium takeover, all compatible worlds in their home system were converted into Womb Worlds, which are biological factories spanning an entire planet’s surface, used to grow more ships, weapons and troops for the ever expanding horde of the Imperium.

The Xepouri

The only proof of the Xepouri ever existing was discovered by a Conglomerate probe. This evidence came in the form of a derelict generation ship. The occupants were long dead; something had gone horribly wrong, as is the case with many generation ships. Conglomerate exobiologists pored over the data, discovering how their biology worked and where they came from, though much of their culture was lost to time. It is believed the Xepouri were incapable of flapping their wings to achieve flight. Conglomerate scientists speculate that they would pump hot air out of their two long leg-like tentacles, and would use their wings as more of a sail of sorts. They are thought to have slithered on these limbs for short distances. In the centre of their torso is a coiled appendage that is thought to have doubled as a manipulator and a mouth. Above this appendage are the Xepouri’s flap-like eyes.

From studying the ships trajectory and flight computers, they discovered where the ship had come from. The Conglomerate sent an expedition to make first contact, but it was revealed that their home world had just become another Imperium Womb World.