The Obelisk Dreamers

If the scriptures of the Obelisk Dreamers are to be believed, they were the only survivors of the last universe. It was their method of entombing themselves in artificial pocket dimensions that allowed intelligences to pass through the  death of the universe into this one. The other bastards then, were traitors and apostates who rebelled against the wisdom of the Obelisk Dreamers.  They had planned to rule the galaxy from their remote abodes as distant and benevolent gods, but the malefactors we know as the Floozies and the Gnomics sought to manifest themselves and rule directly. This could not be tolerated.

The Dreamers could create new dimensions from dreams, somehow grafting an overlay onto the universe that rendered the dreams of sentient beings as tangible places. By layering computronium  into thick slabs, they could create artificial intelligences that did nothing but dream powerful, stable dreams. These obelisks were to be their only abode in the new universe, but they were lured out by war.

With war came the need for soldiers. The ObeliskDreamer's true form was unknown, but they were reluctant to enter realspace. To fight against the apostates, they created the servitor races. They were grown in strange wombs in strange dreams and set upon the material universe. They were all supposed to be sterile in the real world, completely dependent on their masters for their continued existence.  

The Bastard war last for millennium. In the end the ObeliskDreamers were wiped out by memetic plagues and ontological weapons. But the end of the Dreamers did not mean the end of the servitors. As the war spiraled out of control, more and more control was ceded to the servitors. Eventually they gained control over their own production. This was in conjunction with the Floozy sex plague, an ideologically motivated bioweapon that made the sterile fertile. Scatted bands of servitors would survive the war, and form some of the early successor empires.

Today the ObeliskDreamers are remembered as imperious masters of the astral realms, the gods of the occult and the arcane. Though an unimageable number of obelisks were destroyed in the war, many still exist in the dark corners and forgotten planets of the galaxy. The dreams within have grown wild and strange with age, evolving away from their creators distant vision.

These are polities generally accepted or vigorously claimed to be descended from either the dreamers or their servitors.

The Prime Strain - This breed of servitors only recently emerged from obscurity. How they survied the fall of the ObeliskDreamers, and the millenniums of chaos afterwards is not known. What is for certain is that this ambitious race wants to retake the mantle of the  dreamers. They aggressively seek intact obelisks to add to their empire of dreams. Unlike many other servitor races, they are still dependent on original dreamer cloneforges to perpetuate themselves and their own servitors. Every primestrain is genetically identical, so they are reliant on over the counter artificial immune systems.

The Empire of Friends - The warlords of the PsychicStorm were unleashed on the galaxy after the end of the Bastard war. Their wave front of nomadic warfare ravaged the local region before moving out to the distant corners of the galaxy. Now they are returning once again, but they have rebranded themselves as the Empire of Friends. Now they come bearing tidings of peace but their psychic warriors are as fearsome as ever.

The Under Sphere - The Under Sphere is a dark myth come to life. An artificial singularity home to a legion of baleful gods. These beings, known as the UnderMinsters, seek the fear and worship of mortals. They are served by the Creepazoids, sapients that have under gone a strange metamorphize into supposedly fictional monsters. The UnderSphere reaches is the region of space where they hold sway, a pirate infested backwater no other power wants to touch. 

The Agredeem Empire -  The God Emperor of the Agredeem and their great star advisors have the power to subconsciously brainwash others. They have used this power to turn the formerly peaceful Agredeem Totality into an expanding monument to themselves. All other powers are eyeing them warily, as their mind control powers make them difficult opponents. They are opposed internally by the orphan guild, an organization of secret police that was tasked by the Totality to suppress the psychic great stars . After their failure lead to the rebirth of the empire, they now seek to undo their failure and restore the Totality. The Emperor sees themselves as the reincarnation of an ObeliskDreamer, and is amassing a collection of old Obelisks.