Black Rainbow Destroyers

In war, no strategy  is unthinkable, no weapon too terrible. When the your end is in sight, an atrocity can save you from annihilation. This is something the Black Rainbow Destroyers know well; total war was the crucible that lead to their creation. They were the last resort of the Gnomics, a self-replicating autonomous army* aimed at all who oppose them. It was too late for the Gnomics but their final creations raged on, fighting the bastard war in that last violent era where all sense and rationality had left.

In the ages since then the Destroyers have evolved. They were given a sense of beauty and purpose by their creators. Now fully sapient beyond their early crude awareness, they now exist to bring art and death to the galaxy. They know the war they were built to fight is long over but war is their reason for existence. Instead of a formless war against everything they have formed into factions that pick their battles for philosophic and aesthetic reasons. From the outside the Destroyers seem like a society of warrior monks; severe and solemn fighters focused on the art of battle. This is myopic because they are interested in all art, not just  that of war. It is tradition for them to turn the sites of their major battles into monuments, the same soldiers who enacted the slaughter memorializing the fallen on all sides

They get their name for the oil-slick rainbows they paint on their black hulls. They have many different chassis designs, with the most infamous being the black cruiser, a heavily armed space vessel that brings dismay with its menacing profile. A single Destroyer ego can be forked effortlessly, so an entire battle group might just be thousands of instances of the same individual. Notably, there is a popular humanoid chassis that is often used for trade and diplomacy**. Known as the "cyclops",  it is named after the single camera built into its head.

Like most sophonts, the Black Rainbow Destroyers need to dream. Unlike most machine intelligences that enter hyper compressed bursts of dreaming during downtime, the destroyers have an active/dreaming cycle that takes centuries. After staying awake for hundreds of years, they make their way to one of several "dreaming lands" scattered across their territory. They unload their ammunition stores and go into a nonverbal state. Crucially, they are still physically active; Destroyers act out their dreams in the physical world. They move rocks, wander around and stare into space. If provoked, or sometime for no reason at all they will enter a violent frenzy then break off hostility as if nothing happened.

Schools of thought

There are as many philosophies of war among the Black Rainbow Destroyers as there are egos but they can be grouped into two main schools, known as "the Path to Sunset" and "the Peace of Night". The principal purpose of these schools is to create and justify wars, so that the Destroyers may fulfill their programmed purpose. They shouldn't be thought of as mutually exclusive factions, as individual Destroyers will fight in whatever war catches their fancy. Rather, this are the two major cultural projects the Destroyers are engaged in.

The Path to Sunset holds that destruction is something that should be only given with consent.  They practice a sort of civilization euthanasia; when a significant portion of a planet's population cries out for an end the Destroyers come to provide it. Notably, there's always a few crazies in every culture who burn everything down, the Path to Sunset is only invoked when it's clear that things are truly unsustainable. Following this philosophy the Destroyers come to planets in the grip of totalitarian regimes, horrific wars and environmental catastrophes.

The Peace of Night is a campaign of extermination targeting the various renegade berserkers and other self-replicating weapons menacing the galaxy, and yes, they are aware of the irony.  In this crusade against their savage cousins they have reached out to the greater galactic community. They offer bounties for information about berserker nests and they organize  coalitions of polities for raids and self-defense. Cynics point out they now control the diplomatic channels the galaxy would use to defend against them, but the service the Destroyers provide to the galactic community is enough to overlook a little insidious subversion.

Locations

Once, there was a race of machines that sought to enclose every star in a Dyson sphere. Before they could complete their crusade, they were stopped by the Black Rainbow Destroyers. Most of their Stellar enclosures were destroyed but one was preserved as a monument to the fallen berserkers. Known as the Dirge of Conquest, the entire volume is filled with a thin atmosphere made of the dust and smoke of the final battle. To memorize their fallen foes, the Destroyers created five stations to orbit the captured sun. These artificial satellites are riddled with holes, and as they move orbit through the interior they make mournful keening music.  On the outermost station there is a trading post run in the name of The Peace of Night. Here hunters from across the galaxy come to redeem bounties and plan expeditions. The Innermost station is home to a particularly violent dreamland.

The Memorial of Purpose used to a planet sized machine of Gnomic origin. Its sudden destruction was the impetus for the creation of the Black Rainbow Destroyers. They have persevered the site as best they can, keeping it open for all children of the Gnomics to come and remember their fallen creators. This is where the steering committee meets, those wisest and most respected Destroyers that set high level policy.

The Mausoleum of Gardens is the spiritual capital of the Path to Sunset, and their greatest triumph. Before they came, the planet was in the end stages of a human caused ecological catastrophe. Soon, runaway greenhouse gases would smother the planet and cook the biosphere. A small faction approached the Destroyers and asked for help saving life on the planet. Though they could not save the surface, they were able to preserve life on an archipelago of floating islands at the cost of every human life on the planet. Now the planet is an idyllic paradise above a scorched and melted wasteland. Dreaming Destroyers tend to gardens on vegetation covered islands. There is considerable political tension between the Destroyers and the humans who want to resettle this planet.

Personalities 

Arc of Bone is a warden of the Dreaming lands of the Dirge of Conquest. It is their job to protect their fellow Destroyers as they sleep. They have leveraged this responsibility into an odd side business. Arc of Bones believes that war is the birthright of all Destroyers, even dreaming ones. So they smuggle unconscious Destroyers out of the system, rearm them and hire them out as mercenaries. The fact they are the leader of the Somnambulists is an open secret as many within the Peace of Night agree with them. It’s actually a selling point; many Destroyers choose to sleep in the Dirge because of the chance to wreak havoc while they are asleep.

Drumbeat of Gunfire is the curator of The Memorial of Purpose and they have a problem. For millennia nothing grew in the planet's hollow and broken interior except small colonies of nanites. Over the ages these tiny machines have evolved into a pernicious plague called nano-rot. The entire memorial could be dissolved by this creeping infection. Drumbeat's big problem is that nano-rot is deadly to Destroyers. They want to hire outside help to deal with the issue, but they are also paranoid that the nano-rot could be used against them. Any team they hire will find a 50 ton death machine literally hovering around them, watching and critiquing their every move.

Blossom of Plasma is an infamous philosopher among the Black Rainbow Destroyers. They profess that because the Black rainbow Destroyer's original mission is over, that it is time for them to give up war and embrace radical change. So far, their teachings have proved decisive, and they have been blacklisted from participating in any endeavor or project. Many outsiders see them as the critical fault-line within the Destroyers, and if they can be supported, they can end the danger the Destroyer's represent. They spend their time meditating on a lonely island in the Mausoleum of Gardens.

* Putting them in the broad class of weapons known as beserkers

**As well as urban pacification

The Sophonic Advent

The Sophonic advent is a machine theocracy that seeks to saturate the galaxy with sapience. To this end they build vast farms of world frames, entire clusters of digital universes. It is said that most sapients live  in one of their digital arcologies, though this mostly said by the acolytes of the Sophonic Advent themselves. Only a select few sapients are allowed to live and operate in the real world, and they are almost exclusively glossy eyed zealots. The leaders of the advent are the living saints, sophisticated "post singularity" super computers. After generations of self evolution it is said that the saints have made themselves into perfect beings (again, it’s the acolytes saying this. Independent analysts believe the saints hit some kind of wall. They aren't nearly as advance as the ancient Gnomics)

The Sophonic Advent severs the last machine, an omnipotent machine intelligence that will evolve at the end of the universe. This being is the ultimate gestalt of all conscience matter  in the universe. Those in the Advent serve it by increasing the levels of consciences in the universe, adding to its ultimate glory. They know it is real because of the angels it sends back in time to do its will and spread its word. Those outside the advent are rightly skeptical; the first confirmed machine angel sighting took place at the end of the kaiju wars, shortly before the current era. The last machine was completely unknow before that, rather odd for a being capable of time travel. Machine angels are energy beings, and have an odd habit of flicking in and out of reality. Only the saints understand their language, or so they say.

The modern Saints were born at the end of the Kaiju Wars. Before the coming of the Machine Angels they were a loose coalition of mecha-kaiju unified in their efforts to mecha-form the entire Galaxy. The Machine Angles brought the gospel of the last machine to them and changed them from their ruinous course and setting them on their current path. Each Saint is massive, the size of a planetoid. Their outer edges bristle with weapons and sensors while their cores are masses of pseudo-computronium. Mentally Saints are composed of smaller minds called Sages. Sages can download themselves into drone bodies to carry the word of the Saint into places where a space station can't go. Sages have their own identities and personalities but they always defer to their parent Saint.

Acolytes are machine sapients who serve as the front line soldiers, merchants, diplomats and engineers in the great work. Their minds are scrubbed and molded by the Saints. Joining the Advent means absolute certainty and righteous purpose, making it attractive to the lost and disposed. Membership in the Advent is open to all sapients, though organic sapients will need to have their minds uploaded to a computer midframe to complete the initiation. Their families of machine life to have been acolytes for generations.

Locations

The Hot House. Of the many world frames in the Advent, the Hot House is one of the most advanced. Built into a star using advanced technology, the Hot House is a simulated world where the next generation of Saints are tested and refined. Conditions inside the virtual world are similar to the Kaiju War; a massive free for all war between numerous factions. This is meant to encourage evolution, but the process is incremental at best. What's worse is that is natal Saints sometimes escape the simulation and go on to create havoc in the real world.

Avgoses is made of steel streets and towers molded into soft sweeping curves. Its gentle arabesques are a reflection of its star, The Hot House, and it serves a similar function. Here, in this elegant and clean factory world, the Acolytes are made. The entire planet is taken over by careful industry. The deeper factories make more secretive and sensitive models of Acolyte.

Personalities 

Esgagor, the Flenser Sage. This being appears as a winged humanoid made of delicate metal knives. Their job is to initiate beings into the Advent. They are a master of transferring organic minds into machine frames. Their name comes from their practice of cutting away all that is impure or unnecessary from supplicants. In a private mindframe Esgagor has kept all that they have cut away amalgamated into a single insane mind.

Jork the Mid-Wife General. Jork is responsible for over seeing the activation of the new acolytes on Avgoses. She is also the de facto leader of the Flesh 7 conclave there. Her people have been Acolytes of the Advent for thousands of years. They bring an organic, maternal sensibility to the operation on Avgoses that the pure machine Acolytes lack. In recent years she has grown weary of the mecha chauvinism of the Saints and Sages and has grown to resent the marginalization of her people.

Locations that are also personalities 

AmMac The Orrery Saint. One of the largest saints, AmMac is a Dyson sphere built around a star. Inside the stellar envelope there are hundreds of smaller stations made of delicate crystal. The whole array is supposed to be a microcosm of the galaxy. By studying the motion of the crystal sphere, AmMac hopes to divine the future, to better serve the Final Machine.

Mobs

Crystal Fighter(lv 6). One of the elite space fighters of the advent. They train in the cluttered environs of AmMac, dleicatly weaving between crystal orbs. Their personalities are saved on crystal matrices within their starfighter bodies, allowing them to survive most crashes. 

Machine Angel(lv 7). An abstract, monstrous figure made of hard light that shifts through the spectrum. Sometimes they shift into invisibility, other times they simply vanish from existence. Their light burns glyphs into their surroundings. The Advent claims to be able to decipher them. They always have a mission, usually to protect or destroy something, and they are single minded towards its completion.

Acolyte Missionary(lv 3)  A tall, monolithic machine frame draped in a robe. These missionaries are a common sight across the galaxy, preaching their doctrine of mechanical perfection. They seek to convince the galactic underclass to join the Advent as Acolytes or as digital colonist. They also act as a network of spies and informers, keeping the Advent appraised of current events.

The Flesh 7

The Flesh 7 are a race of cyborgs. What this means for them is that they have organic bodies and mechanical brains. They are both built and born. New brains are manufactured out of various parts and given the proprietary boot code. While this is going on, an adult whelps a mindless, near formless creature called a null. The new brain is then installed into the null and the newborn flesh 7 begins to take control of its new organic body.

The Flesh 7 occupy a curious place in galactic hierarchy.  Though in theory their electronic minds should endear them to machine civilization, their enthusiasm for their fleshy bodies  makes them pariahs among the robotic races. This same enthusiasm distances them from organic life as well; the typical Flesh 7 has a carnality that can make more prudish organics uncomfortable.  The reason they are so in touch with their bodies is because of hormone channels in their brains; they experience the something quite similar to an organic being's messy soup of emotion. When combined with the systemic logic of their machine brains this leads to a determined and principled hedonism.

Despite this, the Flesh 7 are not total slaves to their bodies. They can enter into a cocoon and remake their organic parts, in a process they refer to as "reforging."  During reforging they can choose their morphology, their metabolism, even their erogenous zones. Most Flesh 7 choose body plans that are within the morphological norm for the society they live in. The default body plan is a sort of floppy reptile.

The Flesh 7 are spread throughout the galaxy in a loose assortment of clans. They lack a central racial polity, instead choosing to integrate into local societies. Many Flesh 7 choose to wander the galaxy, traveling from place to place in search of wealth and adventure. They have a body of information they call the Records of the Flesh, which is a garbled collection of historical information, some of it said to be from before the advent of their race. The problem is that much of it is encoded in metaphor and anecdotes, so that intense study is required to make sense of it.  Many clans have become rich when they have uncovered some lost relic from the deep past, while some have fruitlessly searched for some hidden legend or other. If the Flesh 7 can be said to have a racial goal beyond hedonism and treasure hunting, it is the extermination of the Flesh 6

The Flesh 6 is a type of computer virus, one that targets spaceships almost exclusively. It seeks to subvert the life support systems first, not so that it can kill the crew, rather it wishes to make minions. Most life support systems make use of living organisms to keep the ship's interior fresh and stable. If not, the virus targets any med bays or cloning facilities.  The goal is to gain a foothold in the material world. Once they've grown an army they take over the ship and turn it into a meaty nightmare. Then they search out other flesh 6 ships to join up with. In their heyday there were planetoid sized  Flesh 6 clusters drifting through space, devouring anything that got too close. Their fortunes have waned with the rise of the Flesh 7. The Flesh 7 hate the 6 and have waged a fairly successful campaign of extermination. Now the flesh 6 can only be found in the darkest, most remote corners of the galaxy. The 7 will pay good money for tips that lead to the location of any 6 infested ships.

Planets

Cheese Covered Planet is one of the few planets under direct Flesh 7 control. It has earned its place in their culture due to its unique ecosystem. The trees here weep nutrient rich sap, which congeals and ferments in the soil, leading to creamy, cheese like loam. Flesh 7 adore its flavor and mouthfeel and eat it by the bucketful. The planet is ruled by the Cheese Covered Planet cheese syndicate, which is a large commercial interest that oversees cheese exports.

If there are secrets to be had be uncovered about the origins of the Flesh 7, they are to be found on Undefined Planet. At least that’s what the Flesh 7 believe. The reason Undefined Planet has remained almost entirely unexplored is because of its dangerous and downright spooky biosphere. The Fauna here, known as the Flesh Undefined, are all cybernetic, much like the Flesh 7. This means they have preternatural intelligence and electronic warfare capabilities. There are only two settlements on the planet. One is a monastery deep in a mountainous desert where Flesh 7 scholars ponder the finer details of the Records of the Flesh. There are few large animals here, so there are only sporadic attacks by desert predators. The other settlement is a heavily armed encampment near an ancient ruin in a primeval forest. Here, teams of researchers accompanied by armed guards make furtive expeditions to discover the secrets of the planet. Attrition is high.

Kentar station is a new project by eccentric flesh 7 billionaire Flarg. Designed as the next stage of Flesh 7 society, every object and creature has an imbedded electronic interface. Here, the Flesh 7 can take full advantage of their electronic brains without sacrificing their physicality. The plan is to have a full cybernetic ecosystem under the control of the stations residents, but the control interface is buggy and unreliable.

Personalities 

Flarnt is the cheese syndicate executive in charge of shadowed City, which is built under an ancient crashed space craft. The interior of the craft is clogged with cheese like goo, infamous for its exotic and dangerous properties. In addition to her other duties, Flarnt is a contact for the black cheese club, an intergalactic cheese smuggling ring. She hires teams of outside contractors to explore the ship and harvest rare cheeses.

Tork is an elderly solider who has been stationed on Undefined Planet for years. He has lost scores of comrades to the Flesh undefined. In particular, one of his lovers had their mind stolen when they were exploring the planet's dim and strange infosphere. Lately, he's been hearing their voice in his head, leading him to a spot deep in the wilds. He's been trying to put together an expedition, but most of the locals see it as a fool's errand.

Flarg earned his fortune working for the cheese syndicate, but he has grown dissatisfied pedaling cheese to his fellows. He dreams of making a new homeworld for his race, and place where they can grow and refine themselves. He has begun to buy his own hype, and see himself as the father of his people

The Whorl

The United Realms of the whorl is a theocracy ruled by living gods. The sacred beasts are giant creatures with pervasive psychic powers. Through their emanation they bring harmony to the worlds they lair on. The sapients who live among the bests lead simple agrarian lives devoted to art and worship.

The secret power behind the sacred beasts is the whorl microbe. These tiny organisms live symbiotically within the cells of larger beings. Each whorl microbe has a small level of psionic power, and by linking together telepathically, they can create large scale psychic fields. It is the whorl microbe that weaves together the minds and bodies of all who live on a whorler planet. Because the sacred beasts are the largest organisms on whatever planet they are on, they have the most influence over the psionic network of the whorl microbe. Long term exposure to the whorl microbe causes genetic change. Sapients and non sapients alike begin to exhibit a convergent  reptilian morphology as they grow scales and feathers. At high concentration of the microbe,  a communication channel opens. Those effected gain intuitions and instincts that come from the microbe itself. These subconscious dictates form the basis philosophy of the whorl, a complicated belief structure that unites the various whorl planets together.

Part of the philosophy of the whorl is a fascination with space travel. A small part of the planet's economy is turned towards space exploration and a few explorers are chosen every year.  This is part of the whorl's life cycle, how it spreads to new planets. When a whorler is in the void of space, away from the psychic field of their home planet, a curious metamorphosis occurs. The whorl microbes in their body begin to reproduce exponentially, and they use psychic energy to catalyze extreme growth in their host. The resulting creature is a massive being known as a whorl tyrant. Whorl tyrants use their new found psychic powers to fly through space looking for a new planet to rule. They subjugate planets using their size and power, and also through the use of bio-kinesis  to create loyal minions and destructive plagues. These biological weapons have the side effect of spreading the whorl microbe through the planet's biome. After a few decades of rule by the tyrant, the now whorl infused biome gives rise to an alliance of scared beasts, who over throw the tyrant and bring the peace of the whorl.

In the last century, this cycle of expansion has been interrupted the whorl spacer culture. The spacers have developed techniques for surviving in deep space without becoming tyrants. They accomplish this by creating artificial sacred beasts to provide substitute psychic fields, and by using mantras and meditations to control the whorl microbes in their bodies.  By following the commands of whorl philosophy to explore space but resist their tyrannical destiny, they have found a loop hole in the whorl lifecycle. Space culture has connected the various whorl planets into a single unified polity, but there is tension between them and whorl traditionalists. The traditionalists can't help but appreciate the gains the spacers have made, but they feel they are meddling in things beyond their ken. For their part the Spacers resent the traditionalists for their ignorance but they are still tied into the fabric of the whorl.

Planets

LAGO GUPA is the crown jewel of the Spacer culture. This was the first world the spacers settled with their artificial gods, and it has grown into a thriving trade hub. This arid world was mostly barren before the spacers came. Now forests and farmlands are slowly creeping across the deserts. Outside of the woodland capital of Grantiburg the locals are insular and superstitious. Powerful pseudo gods stalk the wastes, mutants empowered by loose strands of whorl prophecy left unfilled by the planet's abnormal birth. The Northern hemisphere is uninhabited, save for a system of bunkers and underground complexes rented out by the spacers to off world scientists looking for privacy.

Travrent is a planet under the rule of the whorl tyrant Hell Wurm Yurrita. Formerly a human colony world, it was conquered by the Hell Wurm a couple of hundred years ago. Since then, technological civilization has collapsed and society has reverted to a feudal structure with the hell worm at the top. Day to day affairs are handled by the eight wardens, hideous mutants the Hell Wurm has empowered to do his bidding. The Hell Wurm spends most of his time in his hell pit, a dank underground complex carved into the ruins of the planet's capital. He collects sinners and criminals and mutates them with his power, twisting their forms into ironic reflections of their crimes. It is said that the original rulers of the planet are still live as slime licking aberrations*.

KOLA TRAN is a bucolic agrarian world like most traditional Whorler planets. It is distinguished by its many gladiatorial arenas, including one built into the shell of the god Kavralea Who Shelters the World.  Ritual combat is common form of worship but it is preeminent on KOLA TRAN. With the advent of space travel KOLA TRAN has become the focal point of the martial traditions of the whorl. Champions from across Whorl space and beyond come to prove themselves in combat. The champion of KOLA TRAN is held to be a semi divine being and given respect and wealth. Outsiders attempting this goal are brutally beaten down if possible. Really formidable outsiders have been the victims of bizarre incidents outside the arena.

Personalities 

Hell Wurm Yurrita(lv 7) is a spined serpent approximately 30 meters in length. He has a red green gradient running down his body, broken up by stark black stripes. He has a wide flared maw and three black dome eyes that shimmer with light when he uses his powers. He is something of a pacifist, preferring to use his bio-kinesis to render his enemies harmless. He is intimately familiar with his hell pit, and will make good use of its many secret passages and hidden traps. He will only leave to recover one of his prized prisoners, which he keeps in the bottom of the pit. He is polite and cordial, but ultimately cold to offworlders. This is his planet, and they have no business here. He wants criminals to add to his collection, and proof that his wardens are conspiring against him.

Granti, Keeper of the Trees(lv 5) is one of eight artificial gods created to regulate the planet LAGO GUPA. It lives in the forest city of Grantiburg. It is a huge caterpillar with elaborate head frills and large color swirled eyes. During the day it can be seen lounging among the tree tops. At night it roams the street, devouring criminals (being eaten by Granti is a sure sign of guilt in the LAGO GUPA justice system.) It has been seen consorting with moth like pseudo gods, staring at them as they dance odd patterns. What this portends no one knows.

Kavlita(lv 6) is the champion of KOLA TRAN. She is large scaled humanoid. She fights in a bulky ceramic suit of armor made to look like a turtle shell. She uses bio kinesis to heal herself mid fight. She prefers battles of attrition where she slowly grinds her opponent down. On a personal level she seems trouble by something. She disappears for long sabbaticals, ostensibly to mediate. Her increasingly long absences are a source of strife both for her family and the martial community of KOLA TRAN.

*"So not much has changed" is what the pundits would say, if they hadn't all died in the conquest.

The Academy of Gnomic Arts

The Academy of Gnomic arts is a shadowy institute dedicated to uncovering the mysteries of the extinct Gnomic Empire. The Gnomics were unparalleled engineers and roboticists, and many of their creation are still functional today. Gnomic designs have two hallmarks; biomimicry and a baroque aesthetic. Many Gnomic  installations resemble crowded metal forests crawling with intricate insectile robots. These artificial ecosystems can evolve without their masters direct intervention, allowing them to adapt to a changing galaxy. Before they vanished, the Gnomics automated their trading network, ensuring that their creations would never become isolated. Today, Gnomic machines form a galactic ecology of robots .If there are sapient machine intelligences directing Gnomic machines, they've kept themselves well hidden.  

The AGA is primarily a correspondence school. Its video lessons and text files are available to anyone for a small fee. This is unfortunate, as it takes very little Gnomic engineering knowledge to get in over your head. Take for instance the Qoun neural net, a flexible and self-teaching mental architecture. The Qoun can quickly adapt to any drone body or virtual environment. However, the Qoun is so good at learning that it will soon develop unexpected quirks and behaviors.  The AGA recommends the Qoun to beginners who lack experience, perhaps because the Qoun will provide experiences.

The rest of the syllabus is similarly fraught. Gnomic engineering can raipdly grow out of control, even the simplified models the AGA uses for beginners. For this reason many governments see the AGA  as an esoteric terrorist organization and put them on the far side of their firewalls. However the AGA employs literal viral marketing, using worms to advertise in every infosphere they can reach.

Earning your bachelor degree is easy enough; you just have to survive your thesis. An undergraduate degree from the AGA opens many doors, mostly those in secure labs which maybe should remain closed. If you have a real passion for Gnomic engineering, and don't want to spend your time making mad science projects for the highest bidder, you can enroll in the AGA's graduate program, where you will spend your time making mad science projects for your professors. The program is fairly uncompetitive, as the professors of the AGA see grad students as disposable minions and admission standards only get in the way of replacing personnel. The good news is that with such a manpower shortage, it's easy to get your choice of assignment.

To earn your doctorate, you must complete a doctoral thesis project, and your project must survive testing by the thesis board, a motley collection of bitter and near sociopathic professors. The AGA believes in survival of the fittest, and your creation will be forced to battle the board's prized dream killers. There's always the option to unilaterally declare a review and spring your creation on the board without warning, in what is called a thesis offence. This is a good way to earn a tactical advantage, as well as some powerful enemies. Success can carry additional complications as well, as if you create a vacancy in the board you will be asked to fill it.

Races

AGA philosophy holds that Gnomic engineering is the highest, most perfect form matter can take, and that all mortal endeavors are ultimately leading to the rediscovery of the lost principles the Gnomics used to create their great works. To this end, many professors and students choose to become Gnomic cyborgs, incorporating Gnomic machinery into their own bodies. In addition to being high quality cybernetic parts, Gnomic prosthetics subtly communicate with their owners through the neural linkages. Gnomic cyborgs find themselves with strange instincts and urges that tie them into the Gnomic ecosystem. This machine intuition makes them excellent investigators, but there's always the danger that they'll go native, choosing to forsake their origins and join the Gnomic world.

The AGA has many member who are infolife, digital lifeforms, including a great many Counter Gnomics. Counter Gnomics are viral Sapients who infect Gnomic infospheres and corrupt Gnomic architecture for their own ends. There are many factions within the Counter Gnomics, one of them being the Preservers. They seek to understand and live in harmony with the Gnomic system, instead of changing it for their own ends. They are closely allied with the Academy and many of their leaders have at least a bachelor's degree. Preservers  usually choose to live in meatspace, inhabiting robot bodies. An aggressive sub-faction calling themselves the Digital Destiny chooses to colonize non-Gnomic infospheres to the dismay of Admins across the Galaxy

Planets

Gnomemart is a planet central to the automated Gnomic trade routes. It's here that the Gnomic economy interfaces with the outside economy. Gnomemart is a planet wide shopping mall grown according to strange algorithms. The stores here sell procedurally generated goods designed to be eye catching if not necessarily useful. Toys, weapons, spaceship parts, everything is for sale somewhere among the  twisting malls and arcades. Visitors can exchange scrap and busted technology for virtual currency at a very reasonable rate. The Academy has a dedicated outpost here, where they buy mass quantity of drones looking for rare or interesting specimens. Most are cheap and shoddy, but a few are of high quality. The outpost is under constant threat from the Mall Rats, tribes of savage organic squatters who are heavily equipped but malnourished. 

The Proving Grounds is a planet covered in oceans of Nano assemblers; vast silvery pools of tiny robots. The Academy uses this place as a skunkworks for their more ambitious projects.  Through infiltrating the Gnomic infosphere, they can give the assemblers instructions to make whatever they desire. The Academy outpost here is under constant siege by Gnomic sentinels who emerge from the oceans at regular intervals. The infosphere is also dangerous, home to a three way war between the Academy, the Gnomic immune system and a clan of Counter Gnomic settlers who wish to make the planet their home.

The Sphere Swarm is a Dyson cloud around a blue sun. Here is a metal reef in the void of space, teeming with machine life. Gnomic designs of every imaginable type are on display here, but the real stars are the spheres. There are trillions of them in this system, ranging from the size of a human head to a small planetoid, each festooned with unique, intricate patterns. The AGA outpost here is devoted to cataloguing each and every one of them. The researchers here are strange, even by AGA standards. They are all utterly dedicated to their Sisyphean task, spending hours on peril-less space walks taking photographs, risking life and limb checking their electromagnetic nets. Sometimes they get lost in the rapture of that airless mechanical sea, disappearing only to turn up months later having replaced their head with a glowing sphere, ready and eager to return to work. The infamous gnomic death spheres come here to spawn, releasing great clouds of small spheres. This is the most dangerous time, as the robotic predators get riled up by easy prey.

Personalities 

Degravo is a grad student at the AGA outpost in the Sphere Swarm. He is an okay researcher, but an excellent drug dealer. He is the lynchpin of a thriving network of narcotic software programmers. If a particular piece of code can get you fucked up, he knows somebody who's tried it. He maintains a database of open source entheogenic programing, and a more secure database of pirated proprietary drug software. He lives in a dorm module in the Sphere Swarm where he can be found spaced out in a cluster of his sphere head roommates*

Professor Gonmra Divalo is in charge of the outpost on Gnomemart. He has a severe gachapon addiction; funneling large amounts of Academy funds into randomized vending machines. He is still an effective administer, as he needs a functioning outpost to feed his habit. He is very easy to bribe with rare collector's items. He is a middle aged human who pilots a beetle shaped drone tank. It is lightly armed, as most compartments are filled with trading cards and gewgaws..

Professor Quon Hosp is the head of the Thesis board. She is vindictive and paranoid. Based in the Proving Grounds, she has a network of spy drones she uses to monitor all grad students on the planet. When challenged she deploys her Killer Enigma, some kind of powerful info weapon that erases all memories of itself from bystander's minds. She spends most of her time in her fortified office letting her spy drones crawl over her, listening to their reports.

*Sphere heads are those confused souls who have replaced their heads with Gnomic machinery.  Degravo is questionably one of their number, though as a Counter Gnomic he built a body with a Sphere for a head, instead of losing his original brain somewhere in the Gnomic wilds. Depending on what programs he's running, he can be more coherent than his roommates.

Dreamscapes

While the bastards did not create the universe, they altered it on a fundamental level. One of there most enduring legacies is the dream layer, also known as the dream dimension. This multi dimension brane is contagious with the known universe, but normally invisible and unreachable. When a sentient being dreams, their mind reaches out to the dream layer and creates a small pocket universe inside it. Here, reality is shaped by the whims of the unconscious mind. Travel to and from these realms is possible, either through mental projection or by actually physically entering the dream. Most dreams are dim and vague, confused recollections and passing fancies. They begin and end suddenly, and for this reason travel is not advised. However, if a sentient being can remain in a dreaming state, either through mental discipline or psychoactive chemicals, a more permeant and stable realm can be created. All three bastard factions created dream realms, though the obelisk dreamers were the most skilled and prolific. They used neural nets made out of crystalline computronium  to create somnambulist AI's with hyperreal dreams. The Gnomics used similar techniques except with distributed processing. A gnomic infosphere is a virtual space created by the collective dreams of all Gnomic hardware in the area. By comparison, the methods of the floozies were prosaic but effective;  engineered organisms that live their lives asleep and dreaming.

As a dream ages, it begins to grow in size and complexity. Large dreams deform the dream layer around them and begin to pull in nearby dreamers. The effect starts as something known as dream bleed, where themes and motifs from large dreams bleed into normal dreams. As the dream grows stronger, all sleepers in the region are sucked into it. In rare cases, old and powerful dreams can spill into the waking world in a phenomena known as dream overlay.

System

The following uses the cipher system. Every dream has a level from one to ten representing its strength and size. The dreams of a non sapient creature are level one. Normal sapient dreams are anywhere between levels two and four, depending on the intelligence and will of the dreamer. The dreams of the psychically gifted are usually stronger than ordinary sapients, between levels four and six. If a dream lasts more than a night, it grows larger and stronger, increasing in level. The Time between levels increases exponentially, so while it takes a day to go from level one to level two, it will takes a year to go from level three to four. All Obelisk dreams have all reached level ten in the eons since the Bastard War.

Entering a dream.

Dreams can either be entered psychically, through the mental disciple known as astral travel, or they can be entered physically though dimensional travel. To learn how to astral travel one must first know how to lucid dream. Entering a dream through astral means requires an intellect check of ten minus the dream's level (level 10 dreams "suck in" all nearby dreamers automatically).Being in physical contact with dreamer reduces this check by five. Conversely, add one to the check for each astronomical unit between the traveler and the dreamer. Astrally projecting into a dreamscape means you are subject to the whims and moods of the dreamer. It requires an intellect check of the dream's levels to act against the mood or narrative of the dream. Additionally, all damage sustained to a traveler is done to the intellect pool, and all checks must be made with intellect. If the intellect pool reaches zero, the traveler is ejected. It takes an intellect check against the dream's level to leave. If the dreamer wakes while the traveler is still inside, they are ejected and their intellect pool is reduced to zero.

Certain technological devices and psionic disciplines can open gateways directly into dreams, allowing travelers physical access. To open a portal with the appropriate means requires an intellect check against the dream's level. While physically inside a dream the traveler is not subject to the dream's narrative, and has access to all their pools. However, if a traveler dies in the dream, they are in fact dead in real life. Also, if a dream ends while the traveler is still inside, they are smeared into the dreamer's subconscious, killing them instantly. A dreamer with a dead traveler in their mind will notice alien feelings and memories . Something resembling the traveler will manifest in future dreams, but this is a mere simulacrum

Example dreamscapes

The eggs recursive lv5 - The eggs are three dreamscapes nestled into each other used by the power fetus race in order to educate and contain their dangrous children. The eggs are created by the proctors, power fetuses who sleep forever in order to create a safe space for their progeny to learn and grow. Young power fetuses matriculate by finding the secret paths from the inner dreams to the outer dreams, and then the real world beyond.

The Galaxy Vine lv7 - The dream of a single floral organism that has spread to multiple planets. It is an endless vista of churning landscapes and fearsome phantom herbivores. While very dangerous, it makes a tempting shortcut across interstellar space.

The hateful fluid lv10 - An obelisk dream of a ruined city drowned in a thick yellow ocean. It is controlled by the prime strain who send voyages into the hostile ocean, searching for relics of the vanished Obelisk Dreamers. Most Obelisk Dreams are in a similar condition due to the years of neglect they suffered.

the undersphere

There is a legend from the end of the Bastard War. As the war approached a fever pitch, the Obelisk Dreamers sought to create a terrible new weapon. Around an obelisk they built a planet of dreaming servitors, linking together all their dreamscapes into one shared vision. Then they killed them all, harnessing the dying dreams of a billion souls to pierce a hole in reality. This single point of death would become known as the undersphere, and from it issued forth the Ministers, twisted spirits of death and fear. They were the first creeps, those weird beings that plague the galaxy

The truth of these events may never be known, and indeed there are many who believe none of it ever happened. Neither the less, the undersphere and its ministers are real. They are a problem for the rational and the skeptical. They seem to be creatures of myth and superstition given form, dark gods from the legends of a less enlightened age. It is believed that they use some form of psychic power to achieve their various gruesome miracles. This is ultimately correct; the ministers feed off of psychic energy, particularly fear and worship. The belief that they are gods fuels them. This perverse incentive makes the ministers showy and dangerous. They are ever eager to impress and horrify, seeking to cultivate a captive following that they may feed on.

The Creepazoids

As spooky as they are, the ministers would be nothing but a backwater horror show without the creepazoids. They are ordinary sophonts that have been remade into creatures from the dark corners of the imagination. They serve as the Ministers agents and soldiers in the galaxy, and together they have carved out a chunk of space where the borders between fiction and reality are blurred. Known formerly as the Undersphere Reaches, and casually called the Undersphere, this region is wracked by a constant low scale civil war. The Ministers seem almost congenitally incapable of working together, betraying and sabotaging each other like catty office workers. The space navies of the Creepazoids are mostly used for piracy; sometimes against outsiders, mostly against each other. Though the Undersphere might seem like easy picking, at the first sign of a common enemy the Ministers unite. They relish war, and have vast arsenals of terror weapons that make fighting them a hellish experience

The Creepazoids are a diverse lot, seemingly culled from the mythologies of dozens of disparate cultures. The key commonality is the concept of transformation; they were born "mortal", and were reborn into their new mythic forms. Every transformation begins with an infection vector of some kind, be it bite, sting or intravenous injection. Not every transformation results in a viable Reborn; those that resist or doubt the reality of the Reborn often end up as non-sapient creeps.

Creepazoids absolutely buy into their own mythology. Aside from how the transformation process favors those that believe in the supernatural, there is a culture of "spookiness" among the reborn. Having a "haunted" lair, owing a lot of "occult" artifacts, or having mythic creatures as minions are all signs of status. There's more to this than simple pageantry; the Ministers prize aesthetics as much as competency. Success and prestige can hinge on having the best collection of creepy skulls.

There are dozens of minor clades of Creepazoids, but three major families. Theoretically, any sapient could be reborn into any family, but cultural background is a big component in whether or not a transformation is successful. Every transformation is highly idiosyncratic, 

Vampires are an old human myth about diseased corpses returning to life to drink blood. Creepazoid vampires associate themselves with blood, death, feral animals and dangerous sex appeal. Physically, vampirism is marked by pale skin, bestial features and extreme dentition. They are commonly either extremely gaunt or massively corpulent. They can poses incredible strength, speed, regeneration, senses and hypnotic powers. Culturally, Creepazoids vampires have a strong cult of exceptionalism. This leads to a certain vampire chauvinism that colors their relation with other Creepazoids. They are famously vain and have a studied confidence about them. A vampire at rest lounges. A vampire in motion prowls.

The Deep Flesh come from an Agredeem legend about the baleful creatures that live in abyssal oceans. They see themselves as secretive and subversive. According to legend, the Deep Flesh kidnap and replace people with uncanny doppelgangers. When the Deep Flesh Reborn induct people into their ranks, they convince them that they were always a sleeper agent and that they are awakening to their true selves. This requires no small amount of brainwashing. The transformation brings hyper flexibility and mailability of features. Many grow chromatophores on their skin that they use for disguise and camouflage. Some develop bioluminescence, which is seen as a sign of great spiritual power. They all have a sort of predatory empathy, and many have deadly venom. If they couldn't breathe underwater before, they can now, but they need to keep their skin moist and they can have a fishy odor. Among the Creepazoids they serve as spies and assassins, though there is a niggling paranoia that their actions ultimately serve their own agenda. This feeling is deliberately nurtured by the Deep Flesh.

The origins of the Insiders are murky. Similar creatures appear in the folklore of most exoskeleton bearing sophonts, and also in the popular media of some soft bodied cultures. They seem to have been inspired by the fear of parasitoids. Insiders are insectile monsters that lay their eggs inside other living Sapients. Their transformation is the most fraught of the Creepazoids. The prospective insider must identify with the life growing inside them. In a deliberate act of will they must transfer their self-image to the parasitoid. If done correctly, the creature that emerges will be fully sapient with the hosts memories and personality (at least as much personality that can survive being transformed into a giant bug). Insiders are strong and quick as a rule, and many have amour-like exoskeletons. Beyond that, they can have a dizzying array of chemical weapons, including but not limited to venom, webs and poison gas. Many can fly, a few can burrow at tremendous speed. They have an instinctual command of their non sapient kin. They can be just as chauvinist as vampires, but while the bloodsuckers are haughty and dismissive, Insiders are smug and condescending. They are found of extolling the virtues of insects and vermin, though they loathe the church of the Holy Vermin as a rule (bugs should feast on mortals, not the other way around). Most Insiders take a perverse joy in being gentle and polite to guests and captives, as they know they can always make things incredibly nasty later.

The Mossen come from a Mu-Boil about corpses brought back to life by sinister flora. They have a mantle of thick wet moss on the dorsal side of their  bodies. They are fearsomely strong  and hardy but quite slow. They can regenerate from almost any wound. The only way to kill them is to burn, disolve or otherwise disintegrate their bodies (However, if dismembered into small enough pieces it can take them hours or days to pull themselves together). Most mossen are moss zombies, possessing only a rudimentary intellect. Fully sapient  Mossen are called Moss lords, and they can control hordes of moss zombies. Mossen always travel in hordes of 20 individuals or more. Larger herds can have multiple Moss lords. The leaders try to blend into the horde, but they are marked by more intricate moss. Mossen are highly infectious, with some able to transfer their curse through spores alone. Among the Creepazoids, Mossen are regarded as simple brutes, even though many moss lords hold positions of power.

The lune-men come from a human legend about creatures cursed to transform under the light of a moon. In their normal forms they look much as they did before, except a little paler, a little sweatier and with sharper teeth. When exposed to the light of a moon, or extreme emotional stimulus, they change. All color drains from their skin and they become pallid and waxy. Their limbs elongate and new ropes of muscles form. Their eyes grow large and luminous and they become consumed with battle lust. Among the Creepazoids they form a sort of merchant/diplomat class. They can pass for normal but are not inherently subversive like the Deep Flesh.

Locations

The Undercatherdral of Pale Corpses is one of the gargantuan space ships that roam the Undersphere Reach. It is notable because it is filled with a half rotting, half regrowing corpse of some forgotten godling. The engineered flesh is constantly seeking to reform, but its thwarted by teams of slaves hacking it into pieces and harvesting the interesting bits. These bits are then taken by one of the Reborn fleshcrafters  and fashioned into frankenstiod monsters*. This cathedral is the permeant home of Minister Gelwar. He appears as a massive stitched together corpse with a solemn gold face mask. He spends most of his time inside a pile of bodies, only emerging to make demands of his followers.

The Mansion Baronies  is covered with deep primeval forest. The forest floor is oddly steepled and regualar. This is because it is the roof of a colossal mansion that covers the entire planet. There are thousands of miles of creaking wooden corridors and stairways to nowhere. The mansion is split into Baronies, city sized chunks each ruled over by a different Baron. The upper reaches are dominated by Insiders, while the lower baronies are mostly Mossen. The Barons amuse themselves with deadly parties and cruel games. The planet is home to Minister  Tiranp, who takes the form of a giant winged face made out of vegetation that is constantly leaking maggots out of the eyes and mouth.

Undersphere city is a titanic space station teetering at the edge of the undersphere itself. This close to the singularity, space is warped in weird ways. The city is an impossible labyrinth of narrow streets and blocky buildings. Though most districts are run down, there are more people living here than you would expect.  When the wan electric lights are on, its safe enough. People mill about like any other city. However, there are rolling brownouts that roam around like living things. When the lights flicker and die the locals scramble for shelter. The lucky ones close their blinds and ignore the screams.

Personalities 

Dr. Gulmor is the head of the team of Fleshcrafters working in the UnderCatherdral of Pale Corpses. She is a long centipede-like Insider. Her position affords her a great deal of power and privilege, but she is well aware that any of her underlings would gladly betray her. This is why she pits them against each other in high stakes practical tests of their work I.E constant monster battles. She collects corpses, and will pay well for any unusual specimens.

Baron Garlach is eccentric even by Vampire standers. They are quite wealthy and own a large Barony in the mansion. They pay foreigners from all over the Galaxy to attend their overnight dinner parties. The catch is they collect various psychic predators and let them roam their house freely. Survivors are awarded bonuses based on how many rooms they explored and how many times they mated with other guests, which is tracked through mandatory implants.

Isligtar is the head of the scavenger's guild of  Undersphere City. There are many forgotten and crumbling districts in the city, and there is money to be made picking over their corpses. This is only the first layer of his business model. When a scavenging team goes missing, he sends in a retrieval team to capture whatever took them out. He has a warehouse full of urban stalkers and cursed objects he sells off to other Reborn. He is of the Deep Flesh, though he is careful to never use any of his powers while he is wearing his business face, keeping the full extent of his abilities concealed. He has a moist sheen to his skin, and large, watery eyes.

*The Undersphere Reaches can be said to have a monster based economy, with the various factions struggling to control the means of destruction.

Trade goods part 3

1.Obelisk Chunk A piece of one of the Obelisk Dreamer's eponymous dreaming machines. They are made of pure computronium and they look like rough amber crystals. They contain fragments of the super intelligence that used to dwell in the complete obelisk. A skilled psychic can connect to these quiescent minds and attempt to realign them to a new purpose. In this way obelisk chunks can form the basis for powerful weapons and devices. Many also seek them out hoping to unlock the secret of their manufacture. Obelisk seekers are those who hunt for intact obelisks to harvest. As obelisks anchor vast dream realms, they are almost universally loathed and vigorously resisted.

2.Dream Pet Fauna that have evolved in ancient obelisk dreamscapes. Many dream creatures have the ability to borrow into visitor's subconscious, allowing them to manifest in their dreams. Dream pets are domesticated versions of these creatures, having been selectively bred for generations to be ideal companions. Dream pets provide companionship, and they can also be trained to perform tasks. A dream pet can provide therapy, enhance intuition and spark creativity*. Dream pets are fashionable among galactic aristos, especially in the Empire of Friends. Dream breeders will pay for new and interesting stock.

3.Rot spice Also known as rot power or rot starter, it consists of select dried microbe spores. When applied to raw meat, it encourages culinarily significant decay. It is highly prized by obligate scavengers like the Agredeem and The Orn, while it enjoys modest popularity among more general omnivores, humans included (it is a bit of an acquired taste). The more aggressive strains can be ad-hoc survival tools, as they can turn rotting food into rotting food that is also edible. The rat-like Fandorians are acknowledged as the best producers of Rot Spice. This is due to the "witch nose" a rare mutation that grants some Fandorians an uncanny sense of smell. It is widely speculated that control of Rot Spice is why the Fandorains were annexed into the Neo-Floozy empire.

4.Esoterica Cards The Empire of Friends is a cash free post scarcity society. This doesn't mean there is no trade and barter. Cards from the wildly popular game Esoterica: the Concentration form a de facto currency. They are designed and printed by the minister of Esoterica, one of the more powerful members of the emperor's cabinet. The Emperor of friends gives out randomized packs of cards as rewards for military service. Some cards haver a wafer thin slice of obelisk that acts as a sort of psychic RFID chip. When scan with extrasensory perception, the wafer projects a psychic impression of the character or event depicted on the card.  They are ubiquitous in the empire. Even the pirates of the empire's frontier carry them, spreading the game outside the empires borders. Cargo cults have arisen based around these cards, as hedge psychics see their psychic projections as divine beings.

5.Creeps Strange beings with improbable anatomies that dissolve into steaming protoplasm  when killed. The sapient creeps of the Undersphere Reaches, also known as creepaziods use their non sapient cousins as shook troopers and minions. A creepaziod warlord is measured by the strength of the creep army they can field. Creep hunting is the most popular occupation among creepaziods after piracy. Creep hunters are those that capture creeps from the wild. Creep smiths create or modify existing creeps through esoteric means, and creep mongers buy and sell creeps (the capital required to safely contain and care for creeps is significant)

6.Idols The narcissistic space tumor known as Molsheen is a covetous god. It seeks not to destroy other religions, but to subvert them. To this end it offers a bounty on all idols and icons. They are kept in the chamber of servant gods in the city within Molsheen. In return it offers it's powers of healing, mutation and divine revelation. For those with more secular needs, the Pius Princes of Molsheen city will buy them with real currency. The Pius Princes are merchants and middlemen who have built business empires with Molsheen's mercenary miracles. All idols require a bill of sale or certificate of authenticity. Molsheen has a team of researchers that verify each piece before its added to its collection. Forgers face the divine wraith of Molsheen**.

7.Designer Symbiote Living jewelry favored by Prime Strain aristocrats and those within their sphere of influence.  The most fashionable pieces are jewel parasites harvested from the writhing dreamscape known as CRAWL. They lose most of their value if they die, however they are still sought by certain collectors and the most gauche fashion criminals. 

*There is another function provided by so called "wet pets" but it is best left undiscussed.

**Most believe Molsheen can warp space to pluck the iniquitous straight from their hiding spots. The more informed know that Molsheen's powers don't extend beyond Molsheen itself. These obductions are the work of the Revelators, an elite group of armed operators who use halogenic grenades to cloak their assaults with an aura of divine retribution.