In a remote corner of the galaxy, a dim star shines on a dull, grey, lifeless planet named Solen. One could be forgiven for thinking this world never harbored life, for its surface is little but dust and ash, but look closer and you may find hints of a worldwide civilization that perhaps tried--and seemingly failed--to prevent the collapse of its ecosystem.

Look even closer, underground, and you will find the seed of a mighty interstellar civilization.

For on this world, far below the surface, the Soleni survived the death of the world above. Improbably as it may have been, they eked out an existence in the cold and dark, and, over ten thousand years, they clawed their way back to prominence, eventually emergining onto the surface. When they found it bleak and barren...they looked beyond.

And so was birthed the Soleni Star Imperium. From the womb of a charred world was born a people uniquely suited to the dark of space. Indifferent to the charms of lush forests, open seas, and blue skies, native to the confines and darkness of either caverns or motherships, the Soleni have taken to space exploration naturally, and their isolation and distrust of other intelligence has hardly suited them ill, given the horrors they have encountered beyond their world--even in their home system.

The Soleni clans are united--barely--under the leadership of the she'kha, the Great Matron, one among the clan Matrons who is elected to command the combined arms of the Soleni people against threats facing them all. Each clan makes their home in great motherships, eschewing permanent inhabitation of surface worlds, but the constant threat of xeno infestation has overpowered their naturally divisiveness long enough to forge a centralized governing body and a military tradition that has seen them through wars with terrifying adversaries.

But even as the Soleni rise, they face a new threat, perhaps worse than any before. More terrifying than cruel, inhuman xenos bent on extracting brains, or void monstrosities that tear at the edge of reality--they have encountered like-minded intelligences that wish to forge diplomatic relations, trade deals, and even--shudder--migration pacts. The thought of letting xenos run amok on Soleni worlds or--perish the thought--aboard their pristine motherships, is enough to give the most war-weary veteran the strength to take arms once again, if only to avoid having to learn new languages and new ways of looking at things.

And yet, the young, those born in the centuries since the Soleni left home, never new a time when stars didn't shine. They never knew the ancient pain of betrayal, the loss of a homeworld. They were born into a universe with billions of stars and infinite possibilities. They speak of opening dialogues with the xeno. They wish to set foot on alien worlds and share air with the others. They wish to forge alliances, rather than thicker walls. And the elder are ever fewer in number.

Even the she'kha Ishna Val'Yss, veteran of the war to retake the surface, and to ever terrible encounter with the xeno since, is warming to the idea. Her power waxes as the Matrons' wane. The young speak of reforms, changes, elections and social equality...the horror. Has the xeno has already corrupted them?

If their new ideas were not sign enough, some have emerged from recent conflicts and new frontiers--different. They appear to have mutated, gaining useful and terribly unnatural psychic abilities, too tempting to the Great Matron's machinations. And yet, some of the Faithful speak of ancient times, when the Chosen wielded supernatural abilities in the Goddess' name, to ward the people against entities of darkness. Their fire won the Underworld that gestated the Soleni people, after all. Perhaps this is the Goddess returning in her peoples' time of need? Likely, it is a sign that the worst battles are yet to come, and heroes as great as the legends of old will need to arise to face them.

The Soleni

The Soleni are humanoids, physically similar to humans, with frames on the small and slight side, and more angular features, especially their pointed ears.

They're space elves. Dark elves, specifically.

Not that they call themselves that. They call themselves The People (as every people on every world always have), or the Soleni (after their homeworld), or the Faithful, for the myth of the founding of their underground realm, after the betrayal by their surface kin, who presumably slowly died as the world above failed. So, ha ha, jerks.

Physically, they are as diverse as humans, with ten thousand years of selection pressure in highly isolated environments leading to noticable deviation of their subraces. However, it has been centuries since they escaped the confines of the underground and began to mix, and centuries more since taking flight into the stars. As the Soleni age very slowly, the primary sign of age is the tendency to cleave more closely to ancient racial phenotypes (not to mention cultural stereotypes). Size is another giveaway--the younger generations are upwards of half a meter taller and boast stronger and denser frames due to their abundance of nutrition, something their elders did not know in their youth.

Little is made of racial phenotype, as clan affilition is far more important within conservative Soleni culture. Among the young, even that is de-emphasized, with individual values and merit rising above ancient prejudice and tradition. Of course, tolerance of physical differences stops abruptly at the edge of the species--even the most tolerant Soleni are quite xenophobic by galactic standards. They are mistrustful of every intelligence they encounter, and even of nonintelligent biology, preferring their living environments isolated even when they are on compatible worlds.

Physical and Metaphysical Abilties

More or less equal to humans. They are not magically superior to humans (although they have great nightvision). They have the same sexual dimorphism as humans, with female Soleni having smaller builds and less muscle and bone density than males on average.

For the vast majority of living Soleni, there have never been confirmed metaphysical powers among their kind until the recent discovery of rare Psychic talents. In face, the eldest of their kind, dating back eight or nine centuries, do recall a time before the last magicks failed their people, and how that led to terrible conflicts which ultimately led to their rediscovery of the surface and subsequent exploration of space.

The Soleni--like most living creatures--synergize with the metaphysical force of Mana, which is created and nurtured by life. Metaphysical power of at least grade T7 established an unnatural source of this power in the underground of their world, allowing for thousands of years of survival, but their overuse of this power likely led to their imminent need to abandon the underground. Is it possible something similar happened on the overworld.

Within their tightly-sealed motherships, their natural Mana abounds, but they have forgotten how to exploit it. This is probably for the best, as such limited-scale dwellings would not produce much surplus energy. Many of their planetary holdings boast abundant life energy, however, and it is possible Mana-based abilities will re-emerge therein.

Culture

Gender Identity

Female Soleni have a natural, physical disadvantage in contests with males. However, ten thousand years of matriarchal culture has led to a very different cultural norm than that of humans. The violent tendencies of males have been channeled into competitive sports and occasional warfare, while females have retained the vast majority of governmental power. In traditional Soleni society, males prize physical accomplishments and merits, and are rewarded in kind; they care little for the social responsibility of office, which rarely comes with appreciable privilege.

It is to such an extent that males are virtually absent from the highest tiers of leadership, even in the more equitable federal services and clan-less planetary dwellings, although change is happening slowly. Cultural bias means that males rarely seek high position, seeing it as inferior to actual accomplishment. A soldier would rather rack up victories than ascend to a leadership position where he must sit back and command others to fight. A worker would rather be praised for his artisanship than sit in meetings all day discussing how others might craft. Etc.

Of course, gender identity is not exclusively tied to physical sexuality. For many centuries, conservative forces have ruled societal norms, forcing those who did not agree with said norms to live a lie for fear of serious consequences. In recent times, especially with exposure to more and more benign intelligent aliens, it has become acceptable in more liberal corners to express individual gender identity, rather than that dictated by physiology.

Sexual Behavior

Soleni are humanoid, but they are not human. They boast very long lives thanks to their tendency to age very slowly. In exchange, their fertility is extremely limited. While humans are fertile for an appreciable fraction of the year, and can bear approximately one child per year or two for decades or more, Soleni become fertile during brief, unpredictable windows in their lives. Rarely does a Soleni woman bear more than 3-5 children in her entire life, and some never become fertile at all. Modern medicine has begun to address this issue, and some very exciting--and perhaps terrifying--prospects have emerged from cutting edge reproductive science. But traditionally, fertility has not been associated with sexual behavior.

In other words, risk of pregnancy during the sex act is virtually zero, and unwanted pregnancy is vanishingly rare. Every child is treasured, and raised by an entire community. Every mother is protected and lavished with care. Childhood is a brief and tumultuous period in Soleni life (more on that later). In general, the raising of children--while a serious and very important part of Soleni culture--is simply not associated with sexual behavior.

Not unnaturally, this means that sexual behavior among the Soleni is very different from that of humans. Without fear of unwanted pregnancy, there is little downside to sex from a woman's perspective, which completely changes the emotional component. Without an imbalance of desire and availability between the sexes, there is no need for pressure, no sense of urgency or privation, so sexual behavior tends overwhelmingly to be consensual and mutually enjoyable.

Despite this, gender differences in conservative Soleni society have led to a historically high degree of separation between the life experiences of the sexes, especially among the noble and warrior castes. There tend to be well-defined times and places for the mixing of sexes, but long periods of times of relative separation stand between those times. Thus, there is quite a bit of homosexual activity among the species. Reproduction is not an important factor, so there isn't a great divide between homosexual and heterosexual acts--they are just different. There is a cultural norm that homosexual activity is more "casual", and heterosexual activity is more of a "service": to wit, a male performs sexual service to a female in the hopes of achieving high regard, and possibly favor, whereas sex between two males of similar status rarely if ever has any undercurrent of status improvement.

The same cannot be said among females, at least of high status. For many centuries, keeping the peace among powerful women has been vital to the continuation of the species. The tense relationship between Matrons and other powerful women whose people have different values, different resource needs, etc, has long been at odds with cultural norms about social behavior. Women have often used physical intimacy--including but not limited to sexual behavior--as a way to smooth over these differences. However, the common use of intimacy as a sort of lubricant tends to rob it of its effectiveness--how does a woman know when another simply wishes a close relationship, as opposed to her seeking an imbalance of power from which she can derive favor? The higher the status, the more likely such behavior is to bear mistrust and anxiety, so such behavior is much more rare at higher echelons.

At the highest levels, women rarely allow for intimacy with anyone they do not trust implicitly. It is difficult to establish such trust, but time is not scare for the Soleni people, so it tends to happen in time. Bonds between any two people where both can be sure there is no ulterior motive are rare and valued above all others (see Mating, below).

Mating

Soleni do not mate for the purposes of reproduction or child-rearing.

When a woman becomes fertile, she feels it, umistakably, and seeks a suitable mate. In older times, especially for women of high status, this may lead to a serios of tests or competitions to find the ideal breeding stock. Generally, most women already have a good idea who they would pair with when trying to conceive, but such contests had a certain cultural value in times past.

In modern times, medicine has made it possible to engineer male gametes from female cells, so reproduction--especially among women of high status--is increasingly between two women. Women tend to prefer daughters, and prefer traits typically of women, not men, so it is far easier to choose a female mate than a male. It certainly helps that the child of two women is always female.

Pregnancy and childbirth are not dissimilar from that of humans, and with the help of modern medicine, mortality of mother and child are extremely low. That being said, for thousands of years, medicine was limited, and it was customary for pregnant and nursing women to be inundated with support, relieving them of any toil or obligation besides motherhood. While males typically had little access to women in general, the environment of a pregnant or nursing mother has long been a strictly female one. There is no traditionally recognized role for males to play during the process, except as laborers for necessary resources. In modern times, there is an increasing tendency for males to break down these barriers, including seeking roles in caring for pregnant and nursing women and young children, serving in a medical capacity, and even--perish the thought--playing a paternal role with the child (more on that in Raising Children, below).

Once born, children go through an extended period of nursing and bonding, usually lasting around two years. While the mother continues to enjoy a wealth of support, it is customary to gradually push back, resuming her previous responsibilities and social roles over the time period. While nurturing children is important, and Soleni lives are long, few important women can spare a handful of decades from their career without fear of being replaced. Among women of high status, it is traditionally seen as unbecoming to remain strongly attached to one's offspring past their Name Day (the second anniversary of birth), beyond of course being a strict arbiter of worthiness to ascend to the status of Heiress.

Raising Children

In all strata, children of Soleni are raised communally. In a sense, the fertility of a community defines its existence; a community to strong to support more than a few children of similar age at a time is too small. In older times, given the rates of mortality, a community much smaller than a few hundred would be below this threshold. In modern times, sometimes even units under one hundred form their own pools, given advancements such as multiple births and inducement of fertility.

Children undergo a curriculum of intense training, overseen by instructors with centuries of experience. Overall teaching patterns are highly experiential, and bear little resemblance to lecture halls and other human methods of instruction. Advanced knowledge of psychology is exploited to ensure the children's strengths are maximized, and the resilience necessary to survive in a harsh environment is assured. Children of high-status mothers are often subject to additional pressures, incentivized to excel and rise above others as if to prove the worth of their genetics. The authority of instructors is more limited at high strata, due to the power and influence of the mothers. Children retain contact with and accountability to their mothers during this period, but dwell full-time in an instructive environment with their peers, overseen by instructors. After they graduate--typically in about two decades--they return to their home families.

Because of this process, children often form very strong bonds with their peers and even their instructors, while bonding little with their mothers and immediate family. They enjoy greater independence and self-direction as they age, and typically use this to explore their environment, widen their experiences, and deepen their kinships--although children of high-status families are often required to spend more time with the family. In any case, this system tends to lead young adults to have a very cool, professional relationship with their immediate family, preferring the company of their school kin. This dampens with age, and it is expected--after a century or two, familial bonds tend to be stronger than memories of youth.

Caste System

Moral Values

Political Preferences

Clans vs Fleet

The Soleni Star Imperium

A first-rate galactic civilization, population in the tens of billions. A few centuries ago, they dwelt entirely in the void, mostly aboard massive motherships. These days, a great many live planetside, on worlds claimed by the Imperium, to harness their resources. They mix with those of other clans, and are exposed to alien biology and environments, and, in some terrifying cases, alien intelliegences.