Alien Races

Formians (stupid aliens)

Thought to be servitors of a now-extinct, superior species, these insect-like aliens come in a fantastic variety of forms, including forms suitable for space travel, long-range energy bombardment, etc...forms seemingly unlikely to have evolved naturally. They share a hive mind, and are vulnerable to psionic control, although most are under control of the Overmind, an unknown (presumably) psionic entity that unites the vast majority of their kind.

They are industrious, and, in their own way, expansive, but they prefer to fully colonize a star system before reaching out further, and they are prone to infighting when colonies grow too large, with each side supporting a being they claim to be "the" Overmind, usually near-exterminating one side before assimilating them. It is not known why they do this.

The Masters (ancient aliens)

The Ancient Ones have never been observed by humans. They are quite visible--their planets are well protected by strange defenses, far in excess of the most advanced human technology. They build strange structures of kaleidoscopic crystal, and have never been glimpsed outside of them.

They (presumably) maintain diplomatic contact through servitor automatons who call themselves Emissaries, and are constructed of nanotechnology to closely resemble the species they are meant to liaise with. The Emissaries enumerate which systems and planets are off-limits, and which behaviors "The Masters" will not tolerate, but generally don't elaborate much beyond that. Some suspect they aren't really in contact with the Ancient Ones, or that there aren't now or perhaps never were any Ancient Ones, just the Emissaries.

The Il'um (smug aliens)

Every galaxy needs smug aliens. The Il'um seem to be made out of patterns of colorful light bound in encounter suits (at least when liasing with humans). They have no need of such suits within their homeworld--a Venusian hellscape home to strange, crystalline flora and liquid silicate seas--and claim to be able to travel through open space as light rays (although they seem to rely on ships most of the time).

They claim to have evolved from "something analagous to" organic life, but they've taken a new form designed to allow their consciousness and learning to continue, with no impact on their environment. They are consummate conservationists, seizing planets with life (including many forms they designate as "life" that humans wouldn't), and defending them against colonization or exploration, yet not settling on them themselves, as they have no need. They chide the "consuming" races whose "warlike" conquest of the natural Universe is an unconscionable sin--and occasionally they hold their nose long enough to offer a tip or two toward achieving a similar zero-impact state to their own.

Their technology is superior enough to humans that they don't consider them a threat in the short term, but warn constantly of what they could become, and question any technological progress that brings them more power to exploit the Universe.

The Eo'ar (aloof aliens)

Giant space jellyfish? In their true form, they are massive, nearly flat creatures, whose bodies contort into reticulating, ever-changing shapes to both hold them aloft in the winds of their homeworld, and to capture the myriad of tiny lifeforms blowing helplessly on the breezes of the high atmosphere. Their homeworld is a gas giant, a "hot jupiter" with an Earth-like zone in its upper atmosphere (unbreathable, but in the goldilocks zone temperature-wise).

The Eo'ar are naturally psionic, and spent eons "dreaming" (i.e. astrally projecting all over the Universe) before recently awakening to the truth of their condition. They tend toward neutrality with respect to galactic politics and even the Great Adversary, seemingly new to the concept of their impending death, and still not quite able to grasp the danger. They are intensely curious, and (in their way) good-natured, although they've only recently curtailed their practice of "examining" lifeforms they come across in their travels (i.e. dissecting them, mind and body alike, to learn how they work).

They do not build ships or space stations, as they can just manifest anywhere in the Universe as they please. They tend to take on ghostly, ethereal forms of some interesting lifeform that caught their individual attention, rarely if ever copying their own natural form.

The Witnesses (crazy aliens)

The Witnesses are former humans, colonists from the early days who "found God" as they put it, and, not to put too fine a point on it, went batshit crazy. There are only 144 of them (each of the millions of them you might encounter are clones), their society is intensely rigid and moralistic, and...oh yeah...they peel off their skin.

They have this thing about skin...they find it "disgusting" and "an abomination" as it is a barrier against God's light or whatever. Of course, humans need skin, but somehow that isn't a problem on their homeworld. When in the habitations of other "species" (they do not consider themselves human, but rather "Saved"), they wear minimalist encounter suits mostly made of energy fields (the better to not interfere with God's light), which unfortunately means normal, non-gross humans have to see...all of that. Eww.

Whatever they found on their homeworld, it seems to provide adequate technology for space colonization. None of them seem to do much to achieve that--they just pray and pray, and their Deliverance is given to them. That is, of course, the name of their Mothership, the second-highest concentration of their kind other than their homeworld of--you guessed it--Eden.

The Music-Makers (cryptic aliens)

In their natural form, they are somewhere between jellyfish and giant squids...several kilometers long on the high end. Their homeworld as an Europoid--any icy moon harboring a warm, liquid water layer, in which they evolved and enjoyed millions of years of prosperity. As their world cooled, they adapted, learning basic chemistry to create warm spaces, and learning to form ice into protective structures. Eventually, they "heard the song of the stars" and sought the surface world, learning of the Universe, and longed to discover more. In time, they developed space travel.

They communicate using a combination of sound and light, both of which they can generate across their bodies in dazzling displays across wide spectra. They are particularly interested in music and visual art, and have a near endless curiosity and patience in such pursuits. They seem to prefer to communicate by blending and repeating fragments of music, speech, sound, visual art, and light patterns they've observed--rarely ones the intended target would be familiar with. They occasionally send Proxy Ships, which contain a suitable environment for the intended ambassador, and a membrane across which they can interface with them (think Arrival). This is presumed to be an effort at diplomacy, or at least some form of communication, but few have successfully communicated with them in this way, and fewer still can prove that what they claim was communicated actually was.

The greatest successes have been artists, poets, musicians, and other creative types, who have unerringly--despite previous levels of talent--gone on to create sublimely beautiful and hauntingly evocative works, usually briefly, before expiring of exotic neural diseases.

The Walking Dead (dead aliens)

Long ago, the (insert species name here) industrialized, reached into space, and built a thriving solar settlement. Then, something went wrong--an unknown disease ravaged them, despite advanced medicine. They turned to automata to support them as they dwindled, ever in search of a cure that never came.

They are long dead, every last one. But they haven't stopped moving yet.

One gathers that, in their twilight generations, they lived their entire lives in encounter suits, which supported their failing life functions and preserved their decaying nervous systems. The last generations were so feeble that their suits literally did all of the work for them, going about the business of their lives, while massive computers churned through data and robotic surgeons examined the dead for any hope of a cure. The only thing they found they could do was suspend them in a timeless torpor, an eternal hospice, while their consciousness inhabited any number of disease-immune robotic proxies, keeping the facsimile of their lives while their bodies "slept".

Even today, millions of these long-dead aliens languish inside their sarcophagi, their bodies cruelly denied rest while their facsimiles are puppeteered in false cities in a mockery of a dead civilization. At least, that's how their detractors would put it. The automatons claim that their creators are still viable, that once they finally create a reliable cure, they can reanimate them and revitalize the species. The proxy robots insist they are indeed the beings they once were, and are happily living a robotic life while awaiting their awakening, but then again, they could just be programmed to say that. The caretakers have not allowed independent investigations to prove that the neural functions of the interred subjects are in any way interacting with the proxy robots.

A great deal of arguments have been made on multiple sides of the issue, with some contending that a dead civilization has no sovereignty, and their automated servants are not the inheritors of their legacy, but mere hardware to be disabled if it inhibits an otherwise respectful archaeological expedition. Or, in other words, a lot of people want to rob the graves of these dead aliens.

It isn't known what their original form was, exactly. After hundreds of lifetimes, each "citizen" eventually grew bored of their original form, trying out others of their kind, then other species of their homeworld, then forms lifted from their imagination. And that point passed many thousands of lifetimes ago. The Caretakers claim to know the truth, but feel it is not their prerogative to share it, only the Makers', and only when they Awaken.

The Phantoms (hidden aliens)

Long ago, before the fall of Earth That Was, a long-neglected initiative of human scientists bore fruit. They detected a transmission from deep space, which bore all the hallmarks of higher intellect. The message was heavily encoded, but through the universal language of mathematics, the scientists decoded it, and found surprising insights into advanced scientific concepts, many of which were crucial for mastering Quantum Gravity and accessing hyperspace.

Generations later, the origin of the transmission was explored by a hyper-capable ship, and found to be a solitary white dwarf star with no notable settlements or installations.

Further communication occurred, sporadically at first, then with greater frequency, as the mysterious aliens learned to communicate more directly. Each time, they would offer knowledge and insight in the form of long-range, tight-beam radiation pulses, always from a challenging distance at the time. Invariable, efforts to reconnoited their origin in later generations, with more advanced technology, always found nothing.

Even today, the Phantoms occasionally make their presence known, weighing in on important decisions, or lending a cryptic warning--most of which are heeded these days, as their previous loud and clear warnings about the Great Adversary went unheeded, to obviously ruinous ends. Theories abound in effort to explain them, ranging from "it's all a clever hoax" to "it's us from the future", and even various magical or divine explanations.

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