Nomads were a creation. A designed chimera that can usurp infect control and alter life like an artist can wield brushes and paint or how a programmer makes programs to do specific purposes. The stuff of life was the technology the Nomads lives and thrived in.
It is apparent that entire brood and hives of these being where used along with space and time altering technologies the Dom'kavosh not only decimated anything that stood in their way but shaped entire portions of the cosmos to their purposes. it is unsure if the Nomads were the harbingers to the bidding of their creators, the cause of their disappearance, or even the intended inheritors of their legacy but they survive to this day. Regardless of the intentions or plots of the ancient past...
Nomads continue survive and likely exist in many parts of the galaxy. Either dormant or active and rebuilding.
The Dom'kavosh like many million year old civilizations spanned great swaths of space leaving remnants and influence over the cosmos. Almost all ruins are DKv in origin and many other ruins unable to be vetted as such are assumed to be either a subjugation of their empire or a holdout of some far flung dynasty of the culture.
Artifacts in sirius are still easily found at sites and even areas of space. Fashioned by alien intellects these objects are in the majority broken paperweights.
Few artifacts found and covered by houses like Kusari and Rhineland are active. "The Artifact" that Edison Trent happened upon in 800 A.S. and the Proteus Tome that has gone from person to person. Essentially the whole story of the Nomads creation is out there in pieces but how and when anyone will decode the past is a question of time.
In 800 as. A mega gate was activated in the great dyson's sphere within the Omicrons. Nearly annihilating the hive within it. As the gate failed from lack of resource power and the tempest settled peace had reigned over humanity... seemingly never to see an alien threat again.
The surviving elements of the hive went deep into uncharted areas of the sector to rebuild and re ignite the Hive and ensure its survival. This inherently changed the development of the hivemind forever. Human influence as was felt before the hypergate was a simple strategy to indoctrinate and control the one threat to the hives existence by exploiting Humans inefficient and authoritarian based society and taking control of its leaders.
Those possessed weren't given any leeway no way to merge with their implanted host. But now because the Nomads had lost to it Individuality, human thoughts and feelings had intoxicated the hive.
In its resurrection the first wave of autonomous hybrids were created. These "keepers" were the ones to hold the line between the darkness and the light. The Keepers greatest strike and accomplishment was the siege of Toledo. The Sacrifice of Fallen Stars.
Omicron Minor had been an inconvenience to the plans of the hive and some other human factions seeking to seize territory there. The greatest asset was access to the dyson's sphere which housed ... a cornucopia of almost unattainable and full with alien secrets.
The battle of Omicron Minor was the first few volleys between the BHGC and the Order had fought a stalemate in Delta around Freeport 11. The continued assaults on the freeport were just attempts to bring the order out of position.
Eventually wise to the trick only a few Core capital formations managed to make it to the jump hole and were quickly taken care of.
The history written by the observers tells most of the story.. the baiting and teasing from the core was finally stopped when the freeport was assaulted again.
By the Keepers and a larger fleet of nomads. Marduk's had been seen and engaged for a few years of time by now but the concentration..the sheer volume was never anticipated.
They say that the brotherhood of man is as good as the faith and hope of its strongest hearts. It was clear that after the initial arrival. and Pulling back of nomad ships that the Core took advantage of the assisting Osiris wings and double crossed the agreement to attack the aliens and put aside their own hostilities. This betrayal paved the road for a true three way conflict.
The situation for the order was now dire. Core and Nomad ships were within firing range of the planet and as the greatest ships of the fleet were closest to the planet to safeguard evacuations and refugees. Both Core and Nomad ships hunted everything down with reckless abandon. Despite fighting one another.
The stage of bombardment was sometime after most of the larger fighting ships were gone.. Small vessels transports and fighters were swimming through bloodied seas and the normal frozen planet was.... ablaze... her tectonic structures fracturing and breaking under a core being agitated by direct energy strikes of an unknown nature.
What was not clear was why the nomads stopped when they did. What was clear was that something ... unknown and unnaturally huge destroyed OCV Isis not by mere bombardment but by a physical force. Many nomad ships of large size rammed other vessels near their death throes but this... "thing" mopped up everything else like a divine hand.
In the end the Battle of Toledo left an indelible mark on the survivors and those who lived through the sieges and battles.
In less than 18 years a known threat had gone from nearly extinct... to a brute force that could wipe out entire systems and battle fleets.
The Castes
Advisors are the most ancient and long lived the sirius advisors in the youngest cases were hundreds of thousands of years old. These being reach out into time and space to sense the coming storms.. This would be akin to one's intuition or ability to sense danger or have instincts against certain things that might help or harm the hive.
it was the Advisors that sought shelter and escape as Edison Trent and the osirus was on its way to the dyson sphere.
The advisor aren't a playable caste but they are often part of the narrative.. even within the dream their wisdom is sought and given to the nymphs of the Somnium Khara.
Ao the First one. "When the sphere fell silent it was the closing of a door and the opening of another... What we build endures and what we love endures forever."
Mysterious and deadly the Wanderers were created to be silent and unseen eyes and ears of the Hive. This facilitated the ability to produce puppet masters or Incubi that can bond with a human host and either passively or directly control it.
While initially unsuccessful the wanderers on their own inhabited the body of their hosts electing a stunted growth to facilitate the full measure of mind control. After 800 A.S. the Caste matured into great terrifying beasts that could not only glide through space anonymously and silently.. but can cloak and phase through matter at will.
Should you see the trace of one of these creatures there will be nothing but death and silence.
This caste is an elder caste and is rarely played.. it facilitates a narrative within the rp of the Khara.
Nistae The Shadow Lord "To control your enemy is to be Powerful. To kill your enemy is to be righteous, To convert your enemy is to be Divine...."
The Dreamers are the proud visionaries the statistical leaders and stockers of supplies. The worker caste of the Hive have to create everything from the prime folds of the master processor.. IE the construct that exists within the plasma planes and dimensions where both energy and substances flow forth from their telekinetic powers.
Some say they create things from nothing.. this isnt true they merely.. repattern what cannot be destroyed.
Maya The Adventor "Mind is builder. Reality is the result."
Shlomo Slomon Solomon = Peaceful (Spellcheck demands I use Solomon.)
Somnium = The Dream
The Minutiae of the Dreamer and The Hybrid.
The first iteration of the hybrid were the keepers. A being that was standardized by the elements and impacts of human contact on the hive. The keeper roughly had two forms.
The Dreamer.
The energetic essence that controls nomads ships and forms. This made one controlling influence versatile and easy to move more than one form and in some cases small fleets. Rather than a single operating form per mindnode which is akin to wireless networking each hybrid essence replicated within its various forms. Destroying larger mind nodes in proximity to a dreamers ship did not disrupt its ability to control it unlike the original top down architecture of largest ship controls the whole.
Chimerism.
Hybrids for a time could inhabit other casts and vessels. But only from a utilitarian aspect. The first four castes are hard coded in the hives manifestational matrix and the Hybrids became the very first upgrade to that matrix a type of chimeric being that was at home in multiple manifestations.
The Fall of Paradise
When the Keepers assault on Omicron Minor was concluded it was unsure if by retaliation or by chance but history of the hive lends to the idea of a deep strike team sent in by order high command before the actual siege was apparent to the discovered location of the primary hive node and supplanted a caustic and highly disruptive artifact within the energy producing structures of Dur Shurrikun. The Hive city at the time was a new design a hybrid of both power generator and hive compressed within a stasis field.. or powerful energy shield that could not be penetrated by anything known to man. Except nomads who were freely let within.
Within the hive there are countless hive cells where ships and other forms connect and interface within the hive mind.
The relic that was activated polluted the energy stream to the point of disrupting even the Keepers connections to each other.
For a short period at the dawn of the new year it was observe that Nomad ships were fighting themselves and acting irregularly.
Many of the larger hybrids like lamashtu were lost forever and harbinger nearly completely perished in an altercation within the taus to be saved by the Samarran Raiders and the Cult of Sirius who attempted to soothe the damage with cardamine.
The Cardamine granted temporary relief long enough for this small coalition to track down the source of the disruption.. And destroy it.
It was a near defeat, had the die off of vessles continued the Hive would have only been able to shutter itself within Dur Shurrikun until the power source itself shut down.
The Dreamers were put to work, the greatest question was why were the Advisors blind to this threat and the only explanation was that whoever delivered the probe that caused the sickness of the hive had to have been telepathically sensitive.. Perhaps even enough to shield their minds from detection from an entire cast.
This prompted the further integration of advisor empathy and autonomy into the Hybrid matrix. A "Mirror Share" or protected mindshare was created around the hive mind to protect from further artifact probes or ancient master commands they may or may not exist.
The Slomon K'Hara
Created initially as an upgrade to flaws left in their make up by their creators the slomon hybrids were able to mimic human speech and interact more fluently with humanity than before...
The nature of the Mirror share also gave a perceptual lag between hybrids and idiosyncrasies and quirks formed in what you'd call the ID or personality of the being.
In very short order The Khara started to be at odds with the actions of its predecessors and the Aurora Rebellion occurred.
This is still regarded as a mere "disagreement" in strategy between the new generation and the older Keepers that had survived chiefly the Harbinger hybrid.
The notion of differing beliefs and impressions gave harbinger the inclination that sickness had made it permanently into the mind of this new advent of Nomads and we quickly sending them back to "the Dream" or the hivemind either through suggestion or firing upon the young himself.
As with any new wave however the sentiments and opinions cooled.. it was unknown what concessions were made but suddenly for the first time ever complete genocide was removed from the stratagem of the hive. Despite working to complete more Nomad Juggernauts that could in essence cause great harm to planets and even stars if mobilised. The Juggernaut were stored away int he safest corners of the hive waiting for the call to awaken and be used.
In time most of the Kharas activities during the years following were clandestine shying away from direct conflicts.
The Solomon Khara
When Saturnia was created as a perfect hybrid her inclusion into the hive caused a further upset. While furiously protective of her family she echoed the sentiments of the Oracles that the path to power was through peace.. and cooperation. Her energies were devoted to consolidating the hivemind into endeavors such as expansion and fortification. This effort granted much creed to this particular hybrid and it was eventually mature enough to secure the title of the Keeper of Wisdom.
Of course she had accomplished this by restraining Harbinger to the dream Saturnia was able to "retire" the guardians of the fifth wave. Harbinger, ouroboros, Mnemosyne, and Mammentu have since returned to the Dream as permanent dreamers coordinating fleets from Dur Shurrikun instead of subjecting themselves to the outside.
When this shift was complete.. the other half of her plan went into action.. Finding the proteus Tome files within the hive was not easy and the new generation of hybrids were incomplete without the knowledge therein.
Genetic keys and pieces were littered all over sirius and as the situation was seemingly more Dire.. Harbinger was nearly free and when this occurred any attempt to upgrade the current generation would be lost.
The Somnium Khara
It was an act of desperation but required in the eyes of Thomas AKA Three Winds. Harbinger had gotten free and was about to ASSUME DIRECT CONTROL of the prime Juggernaut for..what was to be a combat oriented shakedown. Omicron delta was the target as the stations and humans within where problematic.
Rather then risk a small holocaust of an entire system Thomas offered the completed genetic sequence of Transmutation DNA he possessed. This required the whole of his body though his mind would exist within the dream.. it would be a half life compared to what humans are used to.
The trans dna made it possible for not only the elements of the first four casts to be combined with the hybrids but a massive expansion in the perception of the Hivemind..
Now instead of merely existing beyond the material veil into the quantum soup where most of their power and resources reside the Hive became aware of this dimension of subspace.. the brilliant and chaotic maelstrom of energy often seen going through a jump hole now had an order.. it was perceived that subspace was a diemension in itself and immediately this changed "The Dream" into a thriving world that was growing and expanding and building itself.
The hive mind now fully existed in subspace... as well and this made the Dream a reality to a new generation of hybrids. In this world the Nomads encountered something they had previously only experienced during a massive failure of its infrastructure. Death.
The Nymphs, Neonates, and Methuselahs.
Before dreamers came into maturity almost randomly.. and ID would form and ideas and perceptions would be like cells of the body, and experiences mounted to ten and sometimes a hundred fold the dreamer had enough weight to control ships outside the hive.
The dream at this time was a nebulous hall of records. it took great amount of power and focus to bring forth specific memories or information out of the soup. unless those memories where a part of you of course.
The New Dream was a true diemension. A reality accessible by the transition between individual to have mind.
The New Somnium Khara were born of this world.
They were.. sensitive.. curious.. and often wise beyond explanation. Their appearances were varied. As Hybrids are Chimeric their forms can be changed or do change involuntarily as they mature within the dream and become full formed .
When a Nymph has spent a great deal of time within the dream without Ascending into 3d reality (where we are) they can become a neonate or dream elder. often these elder are working to grow their influence within subspace to become powerful beings in the real world. Also the need for hybrids to inhabit the hive while a part of themselves go to the real world is the prime example of how this new generation works.
A Methuselah or old dreamer is an inhabitant of the dream that existed in the previous iterations of the dream. When the dimensions opened within the dream many of the Advisors Wanderers and Builders transformed to a methuselah of the dream. And often the Somnium or new generation refer to all the old nomads as methuselahs.
To plainly state that "the dream" could be a common hallucination to the Khara would be fair however to them it is real. In reality it took the form of the master controller node which all energy and material flow. This widened into a gateway into a type of shadowlands beyond the mental interface of the hivemind or mirrorshare. A literal World that can give the Nymphs life, death, and experience to grow was provided.
This was the transition between genetically engineered architecture to a naturally maturing life cycle with stages in a energy rich environment that tested the fortitude of the new hybrids so that only the truly exceptional ascended into the material diemension where the hive was fighting for superiority and survival.
But this also hints to the legacy of their creators. .. Did the Dom K'vosh encounter a similar bridge into subspace? is this where they all went? ... The question looms in some of the more contemplative beings among the methuselahs.
When a Nymph ascends it is deemed to be a fully formed individual with all the abilities of its forebearers. This includes crafting objects and often this is their own fleet of vessels to control. The nymph "hatches as little more then a cerebrum and prehensile petals and matures via reinforced self image into a humanoid form of its choosing. The entire biological template of life the nomads have assimilated are their canvas as they are chimeras and encounter humans they will often choose to. mimic a humanoid style depending on the Nymphs/Neonates personality this can be a terrifying or pleasing appearance.
Master Teacher
Sacrifice was another merit rediscovered by the hive. Thomas Aquintas had sacrificed everything to even give the race a chance. Many Nymphs are taught about humans and their perspectives from Master Teacher.. He above all preaches that love and compassion are universal and could heal the rift if applied wisely.
Even though he is respected and teaches about material concepts better than any methuselah the nymphs do not all hold the same opinions as they are free to make their own judgements.
In case a Nymph is maimed or nearly killed Thomas is one of the few beings within the Dream who can heal injuries and sickness. Advisors possess the ability but are extremely hard to find as they reside in the ethers above the "land" of the dream.
These close calls with mortality teach that.. life as energy cannot be destroyed but some changes are permanent and that all actions can lead to dire consequences. Though to say the dream is a heavenly place is extremely wrong as many of the spaces that are left alone contain predatory constructs or creeps. As result of the shadowy aspects of the hivemind that grows as hostility and war is used the influx of creeps in the shadowlands rises and often falls to the nymphs and wanderers to cull or kill.
When one is fully developed the connection to the master processor develops and the Nymph "feels" the existence of the other world and decides to transition to it. This is called Ascension.
Infrequently the ascended will return to the dream not only for rest and recuperation (time there is ultra compressed to the point of.. nearly no time is spent being there) but to visit and give him updates on the outside world.
Further when a Somnium awakens to the material world it is a Solomon Khara as it is no longer dreaming.
Nymphs are highly overactive and extremely curious. The Dream has plenty of space and danger for them to taunt and play with. but eventually this gets old.. they get restless about making a difference or subjects that interest you in the material world often a nymph just can't wait to explore space and or harass the other life form in the sector. humans.
Humans contain a mental complexity that is attractive to the hive minds of the nymphs they want to assimilate and consume all the novel differences between them if their permitted.
As the age of a nymph continues its energy and influence rises. This means they can build ships or rather.. "grow them" through the dreamers enclave w t ction to feed their cult of personality which is a form of indoctrination that affects humans. indeed it is vary possible for a nymph to have its own following willing to do things or die for it eventually.
The typical Telekinetic, telepathic, and in some limited cases clairsentient abilities are present in every nymph but can only become controllable or useful to those who regularly practice.
Speech
Nymphs often make declarations of individuality but will speak as if they are plural most of the time. Rarely will they be able to keep using I and mine and singular terms unless it is a specific example like talking about a memory or sequence of events.
Nymphs because their opinions often diverge with one another will compromise when working together.. either or the new hybrids love one another as family despite.
While you were trained in a morph to sure nonspeech becoming a nymph doesn't mean you have to stop using telepathy its just one of many forms of communication.
Telepathic speech in several husks.
Often symbols like :: ~ and the old *** differentiate between narrative or contextual radio transmissions. The chat in server is contextual it can be formatted to be any type of communication you want and isnt necessarily just space radio or neural net chat or. something patented.
So when you see *** from a nomad ship its trying to impress the thought of a word or vision along with emotions. This can be quite a jumble for someone to receive. infact often a person will be confused by a sending of emotional information because the only way to inherently RECEIVE a feeling is to feel it.
Say a person is feeling sad. But the nomad is feeling quite radiant and happy. this could influence the sad person to feel that energy and maybe even change their mood.
This is the prime reason many people end up liking the alien empathy. Their ability to play the emotional gamut like a harp is something few people even master an understanding of by self discipline. On The other hand order pilots (trained to know what telepathy is) and people who are on opiates (like cardamine) can be somewhat numbed to this sensation even comprehend this is coming from outside of them.
If the nomads were given a speech to text device.
Nonspeech used to have specific context for each instance but this has morphed over time to these staple symbols.
*** "Hello" -yours- (pleasant)***
*** = Telepathic context
"hello" is double quoted this means an understood shared understanding of what hello means but its quoted meaning its a human hello.. not a sentiment the nomad came up for itself.
-yours- has emphasis like pointing a finger and emphasising this is the target or intended to have more weight other words can be used with emphasis.
(pleasant) in parentheses is basicly the emotion conveyed a pleasant statement. the idea is to inflict the feeling of pleasantness.
"We" here i've thrown a curveball the WE is a syntax of nomads referring to themselves however they are quoting the human side all quotes are from the perceptions nomads gained from human thought. So "we" might rely on the context of the receiver's context of nomads being terrifying or interesting.. depending on a relationship. This can also backfire.. I mean.. no communication is perfect.
...bring... is an ellipses statement the dots isolate and emphasise passively unlike the -active- forward emphasis of dashes.
-yours/theirs- a statement to a target amongst a group including the group in the thought.
"End" namely using the human perception of the word end. Ie conveying a threat of death.
(anger) the emotional parentheses can be left out of some statements but.. every time a nomad wants to make a target feel a certain way this is used.. think of it as a pill fired at the target with the brand and cause plainly sated on it. (Sexythoughts) (Constipation) (Fearful)
this makes the emotional parentheses a threat cause the nomads know that humans have a weakness to feelings and will use them as a weapon.
_Ours_ the _ are a rarely used syntax to indicate both quotes "ours/yours" and the nomads self understanding of the word. Few concepts are shared between humans and nomads but this is a way of saying this is exactly what you think it is. it can be used in many cases to establish mutual understanding.
'yours' single quotes often is a personal address qoutes can address whole groups single quotes are more personal.
(...coldness...) the passive ellipses combined with the emotional parentheses is conveying a mutual feeling and an attack. Ie a way of saying i'm making you fee this way because I am feeling this way. Thou notice qoutes could have been used to use a human feeling of coldness.. these are not present which essentially hints its trying to convey an elian sense of what it means to not empathize at all with the receiver in an attempt to illicit fear.
Further examples would be hashing out different dynamics and a more definitive guide maybe done but it would be fairly huge.. We usually work with the player to get an understanding of most of the principals. none of these symbols are a noose more of a seed or plant to get you going.
