Concept Race

The Sung'var are a sapient race of spacefaring humanoids that evolved on the planet Helios, which is dominated by a temperate climate and forests. The Sung'var are mammals that have naturally pale skin, stand 2 meters tall, and closely resemble Humans of the Sol system, with exceptions of slightly tapered ears, and generally being slender and more lithe in musculature by comparison. The Sung'var most likely evolved from a species of lemur-like primates that lived in the tall trees of their home world due to their focus on lighter frame and structure.

Helios itself is half a size larger than Earth, giving the planet a more stable climate overall, with a similar gravitational field with little difference from Earth's. The poles are home to ice sheets.

Sung'var society is congregated in various cities that are suspended in the trees of Helios, made out of a metallic alloy that glows silver in the light of Helios' yellow sun. These cities are all built around a singular cultural/political center, called a Hish'va. These buildings also tower above the other buildings and even above the forest canopy. They are then divided into sections depending on their purpose, such as artisans or residential.

The Sung'var believe in a singular god called Qiur'vamee, which is often depicted as a solar entity that maintains the balance of their world, and as they expanded from their world this came to encompass the universe itself.

The Sung'var naming convention relates to their belief in balance, with "va" meaning of a place of balance. Qiur'vamee means "Keeper of Balance," and "vamee" is representative of this. Religious figures in Sung'var society take the name of Vaer after their first name, which means "Servant of Balance," to mark their new calling. The Sung'var are also a proud people that values strength and competence in one's field, especially when it advances the cause of the Empire.

Sung'var government is run on a parliamentary system, with a singular council made up of representatives making decisions in relation to the Sung'var Empire. This Parliament has since expanded to include representatives from all planets the Sung'var control. The Sung'var home world itself is represented by over 400 Senators.

In the political field the Sung'var are shrewd, if cold diplomats, preferring to keep other species at a distance until they can get a good measure of their capabilities, and even then allies are kept at arm's length. After the discovery of their Human "cousins" any such comparison made only causes a sneer from any nearby Sung'var. Once the Humans became a true spacefaring civilization, the Sung'var surprisingly came forward with diplomatic overtures, the two nations becoming allies faster than any other encounter with the Sung'var. It quickly became apparent that the Sung'var wanted to have a very quick estimation of Human capabilities when the Human-Evedite War broke out, with the Humans eventually exterminating the Evedites, a war-like race the Sung'var had fought before.

It was five years after this war that the Sung'var made their true purposes known by betraying their allies at the Battle of Homer's Reach, where three Human battle groups and all colonies belonging to them were destroyed by Sung'var Cohorts.

The Sung'var military is organized into self-sufficient groups called Cohorts. The usual Cohort is a general-use military force, containing 10,000 infantry accompanied by 7,000 land vehicles of various types along with 3,000 aircraft and 4,500 naval craft.

The Cohort's space element is centered around the Mikashi'va-class Battlecruiser, which is equipped with the most advanced command equipment in the Sung'var Space Navy, able to send orders almost instantaneously over the Sung'var Battle Network as any battle unfolds. The Mikashi'va also carries a complement of fighter craft while only being armed with the firepower of a ship 3/4 its size. The rest of the Cohort is usually led by 7 Corianne-class Battleships armed with large Energy Weapon Batteries that are fed by three internal reactors, with over 300 ships of different classes making up the rest of the fleet.

The pinnacle of Sung'var military technology is the 13km long Lorai'va-class Dreadnought, which is built around a gigantic Energy Projector on its prow, which is capable of destroying a ship of similar size in one blow.

The elite forces of the Sung'var are known as the Wraith Guard. There is a single attachment of Wraith Guard infantry and vehicles in every Cohort of the Sung'var military machine. The preferred weapons of the Guard are ostensibly 'archaic' weapons like the sword and glaive. Wraith Guard marksmen are also among the best of the known galaxy. Guard Swordsmen go into battle equipped with their blades and battle suits that have teleporters built in that allow them to dodge some incoming fire, simply vanishing and reappearing to attack from another angle. Glaive-wielders are often seen escorting Sung'var military and political dignitaries as an honor guard. These qualities have put the Wraith Guard among some of the galaxy's most well-known elite combat forces.

Overall, potential allies of the Sung'var best watch their step around these people.

The Vampeirus bracchus evolved on the planet Hydaspus 4, a planet in the earliest stages of the development of life.

The Vampeirus is a light red cell with a shape reminiscent of two ovals joined at the ends, with two pairs of flagellum at one end of the entire cell. The other end is tipped with a short pilum, that scientists were unable to determine the purpose of until specimens were put into petri dishes with another identified species, Photus bovicus.

What was found was that the Vampeirus uses its pilum to penetrate the membrane of the Photus cells, and then a vacuole at the receiving end of the pilum would vacuum the cytoplasm out of the victim cell. This is likely for the cytosol, which contains many nutrients and ATP for the Vampeirus.

Why the Photus have not evolved a countermeasure to this method of attack is unknown, until it was noticed that the Photus was nearly three times the size of the Vampeirus, and a single Vampeirus was able to feed off of the Photus without harming the recipient.

A subspecies of Vampeirus has been observed with a longer pilum, and the function of this increased length was also unknown until another similar event to the previous. When a Photus was engulfed by the "super predator" cell, one Vorus maximus. When the Photus was engulfed and being digested, the Vampeirus quickly darted in, and was able to penetrate into the vacuole and feed off of the Photus while it was being digested.

The Ardonians are a sapient space-faring race of humanoids that stand 2.3 meters tall, have two arms with slender hands possessing six fingers, four fingers with two thumbs. They have two digitigrade legs, and their feet posses seven toes, four of which face forward, the remainder face backward. Their faces are relatively flat, with no visible nose, and four completely black eyes, and a small mouth filled with canines and molars. The tops of their heads are decorated by two dozen small dark grey horns in a manner similar to crests.

The home world of the Ardonians, Ardonia Prime, is a world that has become completely covered in the urban sprawl of the Ardonian Ascendancy. It is known that its gravity is relatively the same as Earth's, while it is an extra fourth size larger. Any biomes that the planet once possessed is unknown due to the excessive amount of development.

One of the hallmarks of the Ardonians is their use of biotechnology in every aspect of their lives. They craft all forms of their tools both military and domestic from special creatures engineered for their purposes. Objects such as structures and vehicles are encased in hardened exoskeletons with similar consistency to bone. Tools are modified smaller versions of these creatures that are meant to be handheld. Weapons are more often than not grafted onto the soldier's body in the form of a pair of claws or even a sprayer of toxins.

One of the benefits reaped by the Ardonians by using biotechnology is that everything they use is self-repairing if given enough nutrients. Structures possess roots that take in nutrients from Ardonia Prime's soil, thus giving the organism a constant flow of life. Other forms of technology are often bathed in a nutrient-rich solution for repairs.

One of the most notable traits of the Ardonians is that they themselves modified their own genomes with their biotechnology, into what they consider the "perfect" lifeforms. They also abhor any species that uses mechanical "technology" in any form, but most especially when they use such on themselves. In this capacity, the Ardonians vowed to wipe out all other "genetically inferior" species from the galaxy.

Ardonian spaceships are crafted similarly to their structures, with hardened exoskeletons grown into a specific frame. Other creatures are grown into the future ship's weapons and other systems. An example are creatures that serve to turn carbon monoxide (which the Ardonians breathe out) into usable ammonia (which the Ardonians breathe in). All of these living systems can serve the Ascendancy nearly indefinitely when they are maintained with utmost care. The interiors of the living vessels also remain pressurized when breached by use of sphincters that close when a breach is detected.

Other examples of Ardonian military weapons include a living suit of armor, fashioned out of a similar bone-carapace, that connects with the wearer's nervous system via modified ganglia. This armor is very resistant to energy weapon fire, while solid projectile weapons have some success against the armor itself. Disections of recovered armor suits has revealed that the suits, once donned, will constantly pump adrenalin and endorphine into the wearer's system through small modified barbs on the limbs and torso. Heavy versions of this suit tower nearly to 4 meters and can smash into lightly armored vehicles with ease.

Projectile weapons used by Ardonians are often spraying chemicals, or even fire. Solid projectiles of what are presumably gall stone-like formations have been seen in handheld, grafted, and even vehicle-mounted versions. Space weaponry is often the same, formed internally in the ship's "gut" and fired from the projections. A similar system is used to push Ardonian ships through space. Larger ships will often be seen to have large tentacle-like limbs that are retractable into their internal anatomy, or reinforced horns or spikes that can shred other ships in combat.

One of the mysteries of the Ardonians is their ability to move at FTL speeds in their attempted purging of the galaxy. This is done with sending a special creature that is called an Ardeen, to a target planet. The Ardeen is able to open a Warp corridor to another planet and travel through. Once there, it can open this corridor at any time when called upon. This is done by using Warp-space itself to transmit signals.

This use of biotechnology has even allowed the Ardonians to forgo traditional methods of reproduction. Prospective parents will go to a genetics counselor, where their genome will be analyzed for possible defects. If none are found the individual is given a list of prospective counterparts to choose from for creating offspring. Once a choice is made, the two will meet for a follow-up to determine gender, number, and other general characteristics of their children. Once this decision is made, genetic samples of the two parents are taken and combined in gene-pods, where the embryos will grow for seven months, where they will emerge.

These individuals are then taken in by their parents, who decided beforehand whether to share custody between them or raise their offspring together. Children are educated in state run academies, where all young Ardonians are educated in the ways of the Ascendancy and their superiority to other species.

The Ascendancy is led by a Supreme Ascendant, who is elected based on genetic tests to determine their strength, intelligence, and also for defects, to make sure no "impure" individual is allowed to lead them. Individuals with defects, especially visible ones, often don't make it through childhood, as they are often ostracized by their fellows to the point of cruelty and abuse.