The Gnomics

The Gnomics were principally builders. They came into this new universe to create art and civilization. The Dreamers wanted to be Gods, and the Floozies wanted to breed, but the Gnomics were pure. To protect themselves from the heretics they created self-replicating robots to build an army. The perfect logic of their creations was a wonder to behold, their civilization was the ultimate machine, billions of parts working in a  controlled chaotic harmony, more alive and vital than any dull forest. The ultimate fate of the Gnomics is unknown, they simply vanish from the records in the last days of the war. Their machines remain, the logic of their creation ensuring that they keep ticking away, a self-sustaining network of tools guided by vanished hands.

The Galaxy is rife with self-replicating robots. Many plants host colonies of machines that grew from a single factory seed. The Gnomics were the master adapts at this kind of autonomous colonization, and have lent their name to this practice. Not all so-called Gnomic planets were made by those vanished bastards; many were made by early technological civilizations to explore the stars. Known as "False Gnomics" these machines are crude and simple compared to "true Gnomics". The Gnomics used biomimicry to imbue their creations with a diversity and complexity most other inventors are not capable of. Over the millions of years since their creators vanished, True Gnomic planets have evolved and developed into dazzling artificial ecosystems. The Gnomics also created an automated system of trade between their remote planets that has survived to this day. A significant portion of the galaxy is an artificial wilderness too advanced and complex to be subdued by intelligent minds.

Bastard Legacies - The Gnomics:

The Counter-Gnomics - The biggest threat to the Gnomic planets are the Counter-Gnomics. They are sapient computer viruses that infest Gnomic planets and cyberform them for their own needs. Counter-Gnomic planets replace the baroque complexity of Gnomic design with simple and elegant curves and lines, lit with bold unnatural colors. Most Counter-Gnomics prefer digital environments to the real world, but a few brave explorers inhabit robot bodies in order to see the material universe for themselves. They have a practical grasp of mathematics and computer science that makes them natural hackers and engineers. As a people they are divided by several esoteric philosophical differences that are hard for outsiders to understand. If they could unite as one people, they would be a major galactic power. As it is however they are embroiled in civil war and threatened by constantly evolving Gnomic immune systems.

The Black Rainbow Destroyers - The Gnomics built everything to be beautiful, including their war machines. The Black Rainbow Destroyers, also known as the monument builders are berserkers, automated killing machines created by the Gnomics to hunt down and eradicate their enemies. When they are finished with their grisly work, they erect a memorial to their victims, turning entire civilizations into art pieces. In the long millennium since the war they were created for has ended, they have grown strange and introspective. They still seek out and destroy worlds, but only those that they deem are already dying. All things must end, so they seek to bring beauty to any apocalypse they find.

Xitentoeten is foremost a business thing. A vast super intelligent machine of some indeterminate vintage, it has facilitated a web of commerce so that it may continue to grow and create value. Some say it was an obelisk that gain intelligence. Others say it was a Counter-Gnomic who violated the prohibition against self-directed evolution. Regardless, the auto factories of Xitentoeten are the basis for a wide ranging economy of machine life. Xitentoeten issues its own currency, the XEZ. XEZ may be exchanged for build time on Xitentoeten's fabbers, which can build all manner of advanced technological components. A curious clade of robots has arisen around Xitentoeten. They also call themselves the XEZ, and they see themselves as living capital, sapient money. This self-willed economy is ruthless, unsentimental and mecha-chauvinist.

The Acadamy of Gnomic Arts is an institute devoted to studying the engineering techniques of the ancient Gnomics. Though their applied knowledge is formidable, they are seen by the galaxy as useless eccentrics. Indeed they do seem to have a penchant for certain exotic mental illnesses. Still, few organizations have as much insight into Gnomic science, and they have de facto control of one of the most important known Gnomic installations, the spawning sphere, a Dyson swarm that manufactures many of the more dangerous Gnomic machines. They are insular, secretive and ambitious They one day hope to recreate Gnomic civilization.

The Flesh 7 are a gregarious race of cyborgs locked in a ruthless campaign of extermination with their previous iteration. They have mechanical brains and organic bodies. Cybernetic channels connect their electronic minds to their bodily hormones, resulting in artificial intelligences with organic eccentricities. As a people, their greatest treasure is The Record of the Flesh, a mess of ancient star charts and blog posts. By studying them, they gain insight into galactic history, which they use to organize their salvage operations, as well as their crusade against The Flesh 6.