Universe

Cosmos represents the ordered, comprehensible universe in accordance with natural law, commonly also called symbolically “the Light”. Oblivion, or Darkness, represents everything beyond. In the Known Galaxy, Cosmos, the comprehensible order in the universe, is fleeting. The universe tends towards entropy; sentience tends towards eldritch godhood; technology tends towards fracture, singularity, and nanites. For a civilization to last, to reach the heights humankind strives for

The second hypercivilization , emergent form the arcane Noosphere Unity, made manifest by the Celestial Sibyl. The Union recognizes the Celestial as the Manifest Avatar of its machine god, whose will becomes apparent in every aspect of technology. Its mandate is to oversee High Technology by ways of Noosphere Technomancy. It is a galaxy-spanning, decentralized Hyper-Meritocracy organized in Emergent Strata of competing clades and orders of pre-determined scope and hierarchies

The first hypercivilization , founded by the Celestial Queen and galactic patron of all humankind. The Terran Empire is ruled by the Celestial Queen, ultimate human ascendant and embodiment of Cosmos, the orderly universe. She oversees the three aspects of the Empire, into which its vast feudal tapestry is structured: The Imperial State, The Celestial Illumina, and the Palatinates. At its foundations, the Terran Empire is maintained by ways of Psionic Providence. The Celestia

The highest order of organized society in the Known Galaxy, comprised of millions of constituent cultures and polities. No known hyper-civilization can persist without a guiding force of Cosmos, a force of order preventing it from fracturing and devolving. Two human hypercivilizations rule over much of the Known Galaxy: The Terran Empire and the Mechanist Union. Hypercivilizations of other sapients do exist, though their status as such is highly disputed and contact often mi

Peoples of the Mechanist Union, structured in Clades or, in rarer cases, Lodges and Metacultures. The lives of Mechanists revolve around the Noosphere Unity, allotting a distinct role and function to each strata of society, down to the individual. Clades of Mechanists begin as familiar communities within this structure and are shaped accordingly by ways of cybernetics, biomechanics, and other paths of Noopshere Technomancy. Unlike the Terran Empire, the Union radically change

Peoples of the Terran Empire, including imperial house nobility, imperial citizenry and free folk. Because the Empire actively pursues the preservation of biological and augmented distinctiveness in its peoples, Terrans contain a wide variety of humanity’s strands. Biological augmentations and gene-tailoring are the most chosen paths, and to limited extent Psionic Providence. Each Terran strand will typically contain an apt biological or mental distinctiveness, and often enjo

The totality of all Earth’s children and their descendants across the Known Galaxy, including all strands of genetic drift and augmentation. Inhabitants of strange and savage worlds outside the Terran Empire and Mechanist Union are counted as part of Humankind just the same. As both galactic powers claim a mandate over all humanity, dealings with such outsider human populations are prominent causes of tensions between the two. Outside of humankind there exist sapients of ar