Ascendancy's Races

Being 4X games, Ascendancy doesn't give much detail on each races beyond part of their culture and history, which mentioned at game's introduction. This article try to cover those information as much as possible.

All of these races are sentients. Their technology left open to player's choice and every races have access to same tree of technology. These technology including interstellar travel, cloning, energy weapons and terraforming, among other. The races in Ascendancy utilize route known as Star Lanes which connect between two star systems.

Arbryls
The Arbryls are tree-people evolved on a gaia planet with only plant life. Peaceful, slow-moving, and highly intelligent. Arbryls are not used to conflict and tend to be isolationist. Despite that, they have incerdible foucs and concentration. An Arbryl can motionlessly ponder the same questions for years without cease.

They also have planet-wide ritual, that conduct by have every Arbryls tunes their mystic energy vibrations to resonance. This ritual is exhausting and cathartic, but it restore balance and calmness of Arbryls. The mystic resonance cause spherical ripple of time and space, distorting gravitational field on interstella scale. It close all star lanes entering their colonized systems.

Balifids
The Balifids are three-tongued rodent-like creatures. Evolved on a hospitable but competitive world, Balifids developed an unusual ability to win over their competitors. It's charm that made other creatures instinctively feel protective of Balifids. When faces against predator, a Balifid will stand and calmly stare toward the predator with with an expression of barely supressed mirth. This usually stop the predator as it feel a sudden lack of aggression in face of harmless creature.

The Balifids are fun-loving race, take nothing very serious and are friendly and curious. They also lack any formal form of government, the closest thing Balifids have to a leader is an Old Storyteller. Despite their naive and harmless image, the Balifids are deeply intelligent and highly perceptive. They have keen awareness of the outlook and motivations of other creatures.

Capelons
The Capelons are predator masses of flowing fibers who can rearrange their bodies quickly to assume any shape. They evolved on a highly predatory world where their camouflage and shape-shifting were useful for catching their scarce, elusive prey before competing predators could. They eventually developed extension to their camouflage ability, making themselves so unnoticeable, allowing the Capelon to make an escape. By combine their individual camouflage ability, a planet populated by Capelons can be hidden from invader.

Chamachies
The Chamachies are technologist reptilian race, they able to discover major breakthroughs quickly when under duress - stress heightens their scientific abilities and amplifies their determination, much like adrenalin heightens physical abilities.

When a huge, highly advanced alien vessel passed through their system. The aliens discovered that the star lane energy points in that system had drifted into an unstable configuration. They told the Chamacies when The Cataclysm occur, the release force will destroy everything in the star system. This knowledge sent the Chamachie society into a frenzy of scientific and technological advancement. In few decades, the Chamachies advance from pre-technological civilization to society capable of interstellar travel.

The Chamachies ruled by the Emperror whose hereditary line ruled them from the City of Enlightenment for centuries.

Chronomyst
The Chronomyst are lifeform composed of organic optical components, their intelligence consists of light rays bending and bouncing through their internal lenses and mirrors. Bright light heightens their mental acuity and allow them to be more focus.

A deeply religious and philosophical race, Chronomyst spend much time in trance-like meditations exploring inner space. When one with their god Chronos, the Chronomyst can float through time and space at a different rate than that experienced by other. They have discovered a way to use this to access star lanes and accelerate through them.

Chronomyst society is unstructured. There is never-ending gathering called The Conclave where individual Chronomyst come, reflecting their light to defining and communicating the evolution of their civilication, then leaves. Every Chronomyst join The Conclave for some part in its lifetime.

Dubtaks
The Dubtaks evolved on planet full of aggressive, compettitive life. Dubtaks are not especially aggressive though, as they survive by hiding and observing. Their sense cover a vast spectrum of phenomena and can sense thing when it is still far away. They move swiftly and have flexible bodies that can fit in small holes and cracks.

They are also technologists, their history is full of covert information war and espinonage. With their natural ability, they can easily steal advance knowledge without reaearch anything.

Fludentri
The Fludentri are lifeform composed of polymerized liquid, evolved on an ocean world. When a Fludentri is injured, its fluid anatomy knitting together immediately after physical damage occurs. A Fludentri dies only when its entire body is disrupted at once. The Fludentri able to make their bodies assume various degrees of solidity and hunt by wrap their tendrils around prey, tighten them with ferocious strength.

To Fludentri, combat is fine art. They do not respect abstract thought or communication with concepts. Such are fuzzy-minded and irrelevant, the Fludentri prefer to let action speak for them. A Fludentri's status is determined by its combat skill, with the best warrior as leader of all Fludentri.

Frutmaka
The Frutmaka are fungal animals evolved near a blackhole which they worship as god Graveesha. Deeply religion, Frutmaka drove the Swaparamans from their mutual home world long ago as they consider the Swaparamans to be a threat to their beliefs. The Frutmaka move with glacial slowness, their fustration at being fully aware and helpless while being eaten alive by predators gave way to the development of a latent telekinetic ability. Modern Frutmaka have an ability to teleport objects with the force of their wills. Combining abilities, they can teleport large objects across huge distances. The Frutmaka believe that Graveesha gave them the power for purpose of making sacrifices and will ocasionally teleport enemies to the blackhole to maintain harmony with Graveesha.

Their leader is, High Prelate of Graveesha. They look down at other races, think of themselves as only enlighten races, only one that follow Graveesha's "example of perfect stillness".

Govorom
The Govorom evolved on a barren desert planet. In order to survive they learned to preserve and nuture the scant resources of their world. They do not have an organized society, they live apart from each other, each being a caretaker of a small region of the planet. The regions they care for are ever-changing and are not agreed upon but handled purely by intuition- each Govorom knows instinctively where its region lies. Given an already-hospitable planet, they are able to transform it into a paradise.

The Govoroms were fascinated when they discover that the galaxy teems with life, endless variety of forms. And they feel it is their duty to protect all life from "out of balance" species that pose a threat to other life.

Hanshaks
The Hanshaks are an ancient race with toroidal mind-bodies. They are deeply in tune with life and nature, and can communicate telepathically with other sentient life. The Hanshaks are few, but they are renowned for their wisdom and intuition. After an early technological surge, they dismantled their cities and returned their world to its natural state, developing a culture devoted to enlightenment and living symbiotically with nature. Yet they retain a knowledge of technology in their druidic society.

Their leader is the High Shaman, also eldest of the Hanshaks whose live for nine thousand Hanshaks years. They can communicate with every races in galaxy with their telepathy.

Kambuchka
The Kambuchka evolved in the dense, fog-like atmosphere of a large planet. They see by feeling the atomic vibrations of their surroundings on their convoluted membrane bodies. The Kambuchka cannot move quickly in the atmosphere of their home world, so they evolved the ability to detect faraway living things, both to help them find food and to help them avoid predators. They are so sensitive to the vibrations of life that, in the absence of the opaque atmosphere of their homeworld, they can perceive very large concentrations of life at interstellar distances, allow them to detect all of other races homeworld.

They leader is the Sense Master whose possessing the most highly-tuned senses of all Kambuchka.

Marmosians
The Marmosians are territorial insect-like creatures from the inner world of a hot sun. Their mating pheromones evolved into a general purpose array of complex mood-altering scent molecules that allow them to manipulate the base emotions of other creatures. They learned to use the predators of their world to protect their territories, and they tend to repel attacks by causing their enemies to fight each other. They are intellectually active but physically lazy, preferring to rely on the efforts of those they control.

Eventually, the Marmosians put a rest to their endless territorial bickering, known that unless they can find new home planets or their race will be gradual decline into extinction. The Mamosians can use their ability to create hatred among alien species, cause other to strongly dislike any species at war with them.

Mebes
The Mebes are large single-celled creatures that evolved on a warm, sunny world. They roll around collecting food on their surfaces and absorbing it into their bodies. They breed rapidly by sexual reproduction. Two Mebes exchange genetic material, they each divides to produce a new Mebe. Although their reproduction methos is quick and their offspring are immediatly self-sufficient, the Mebes are very atatched to their children. Contrast to their appearance, Mebes are very sentimental species.

Mebes's leader is the Great Parent, ancestor to most of the Mebes. The Mebes developed space travel technology when viral disease growing amidst young Mebes, in hope to escape the plague by spreading their lifeforms across galaxy.

Minions
The Minions are a species of artificial life-machines that serve the purposes of their extra-galactic master-species. Eons ago, the master species seeded the ancestor-units of the Minions on a planet chosen to accelerate their developmental programs. Their ultimate programming lay dormant throughout their history until reawakened by their cosmic masters. No one knows anything about the location of the masters or their purpose.

The Minions are made up of microscopic, self-maintaining machines. They can assimilate other lifeforms to obtain the rich mixture of elements they need for power and self-maintenance. They are ultimate planet invaders, unstoppable at taking over worlds. Strong and fast, no known species can stand against a Minion in unarmed confrontation. They have been known to take over an entire planet and population in hours.

Nimbuloids
The Nimbuloids arose on a planet with a thick, reactive type atmosphere. They are composed of gases, and move through the atmosphere by chemically attracting and repelling the molecules of the gases in their environment. They see reality in terms of the intersecting flow of what they call currents: the karmic forces that, they believe, determine destiny.

With great effort, a Nimbuloid can transform matter from solid to gas and back. They can herd around clumps of transformed matter and cause them to coalesce into arbitrary shape. Skilled Nimbuloids can shape large structures with incredible speed.

Oculons
The Oculons have he extremely acute sense of sight. They evolved on a thin-atmosphere planet orbiting a bright sun. Their culture is strongly astronomical (they are essentially living telescopes) and they have amassed a great deal of knowledge about the galaxy.

They are more mystical than intellectual, and are considered superstitious by other races. Fascinated with space and other forms of life, they even mapped all star lanes and communicate with other technological species long before achieving space travel. An average Oculon is obsessed with nobility of action and thought, lives by a ritualistic code of honor.

They leader is Jhitan, the Far Seer.

Orfa
The Orfa are grazing animals that evolved on a hostile world. Their bodies are very dense and tough, and they are as happy in a pool of lava as pigs are in a wallow of filth. They prefer vegetation and a diet of complex organic molecules but they can subsist on raw minerals. They are not harmed by the radiation, heat, cold, chemicals, or physical buffeting of any known planetary body, nor do they require an atmosphere. The Orfa are unfazed by hostile environments.

The Orfa have no known natural enemies, nothing on their homeworld can harm them. They seem to evolved sentience due to competition of mating. Orfa have 17 sexes, so finding sixteen mates of the appropriate sex is their central preoccupation. They have complicated and difficult cultural centering on the mating compettition, an Orfa who mates successfully usually accomplish by outsmarting many of its peers.

Shevar
The Shevar are sorcerers, masters of dark forces from another universe. They are an inorganic lifeform, follow most definitions of life yet composed entirely of inorganic substances. They are able to harness an anti-energy that draws in and consumes energy and life force.

It is believed that the Shevar came from another universe with different physical laws. They experimented with their arcane arts until they opened a way into this universe, and the pathway they opened led to a planet teeming with life. This was an unimagined bounty to the Shevar, they settle the world and utterly devastated it, destroyed all other life by feeding on its life force. The Shevar aren't purposely hostile or evil, they just not recognize the creatures of this universe as living beings.

Snovemdomas
The Snovemdomas evolved as pack-hunting predators in woods and tundra plains on a very high-gravity world. Snovemdomas are about the size of a bear, and their stocky build is deceptive since they are quick and graceful in motion. To the inhabitants of the other worlds, they appear to be imposing and massive. On their own world, the Snovemdomas prey on much larger and tougher creatures, bringing the prey down by overwhelming it with numbers and speed. Their bodies evolved strength and lightness (too much mass being detrimental in high gravity), and their bones are made of a hollow but nearly unbreakable force-distributing honeycomb lattice.

Because of high-gravity of their world, they alway allow grester stress in designing their dwellings and machines. Their material science is advance, make use of strong and light composite materials in their construction. And their ships too, can withstand great force.

Their leader is Dovahmon.

Swaparamans
The Swaparamans evolved on the first planet of a binary star system (a normal star and the blackhole Graveesha), the same world as the Frutmaka and share common ancestry. The dual-star configuration influenced the development of duality inverse-reality structures that continually build in the minds of the Swamparamans like electricity charging a capacitor. Once charged, the Swamparamans can release their stored potential.

When they were driven from their home world by Frutmaka. A tiny number survived and were able to flee in space vessels that they patched together in secret. The architect of this escape was Tanandanam, whose name is now sacred to the Swaparamans. They survived the long and dangerous journey through space with their energy storage ability.

Ungooma
The Ungooma are a species of adaptive-intelligence beings that evolved as thought-parasites and later developed their own means of thinking. They are tiny, and their intellect is derived from the combined thoughts impulses of large number of Ungooma. There are trillions of Ungooma and their combined thoughts form many thousands of distinct composite personalities.

Befire they become sentient, they would take control of higher animals, using the bodies and minds of their hosts for their own needs. Currently, they no longer possess the ability to take over a host, but they retain the vestigial ability to exert a limited form of mind control at a distance. They can control other species for brief periods, the victims often wake up not knowing how they come to where they are.