The Therians are a race of genocidal cyborgs driven to covert other worlds into Dyson Sphere's in an obsession to preserve the universe.
Biology[]
Originally humans the Therians have turned themselves into a race of cyborgs with their consciousnesses attached to the Electromagnetic Grid Interface where its virtual environment caters to their every wish and desire whilist their robot servitors manages all physical aspects in the real world.
History[]
THE DAWN OF ETERNITY
Therian civilization developed over 600,000 originating on the third planet of the Sol System, Sol III (Earth). The planet sheltered a particularly aggressive species: Humanity. After the species left its cradle of birth for the stars, they made a great leaps into technology, discovering nanotechnology and the astromorphosis of planetary systems.
In doing so, humanity remade themselves into a race of immortal spider-like cyborgs, able to alter their ecosystem to make the ideal environment. But after recklessly wasting the available resources in their system, rendering it unsuitable for human life, they decided to keep only two habitats: Sol, their star, and Thars (Mars), their first colony in space.
All other planets in the solar system were destroyed, converted into material to create a massive Dyson Sphere that enclosed Sol. Sol became the habitat of Thera, named in memory of Terra. The Dyson Sphere was created so no cosmic accident could annihilate their race.
Humanity renamed themselves the Therians and were assured of their survival against cosmic accident. However, obsessed with achieving eternity, the Therians realized that within 20 billion years the universe would cease to be. Their obsession led to the development of a vast ambitious project to prevent the end of the universe. Their solution was the birth of the concept of hyperlife: in order to live forever, the Therians would need to transform all the planetary systems in the universe into enclosed habitats.
THE KARMAN FAILURE
In order to convert worlds into habitats or therianise a planetary system, the Therians needed a world already weakened by a species with great industrial capacities. The Therians decided to develop a species that would follow the same technological progress and cause the same ecological progress as they did in the past to ancient Terra.
The Karman Project then was born, involving DNA from the EMI records of an extinct gorilla species to create a sentient race of primates. After the species was created, their creations were abandoned on the planet Karma. The Therians observed their creations development from afar expecting their experiment to yield the expected results. However to their dismay, they found that the Karmans developed a conversationalist and ecological based culture. To correct this cultural development path they introduced new technologies to the Karmans. In response the Karmans accepted and adapted the technology given to them by their creators, but steered for eco-friendly technologies.
Shortly afterwards the Karmans entered into a civil war and around the same time the Therians approached their creations for help as they had encountered new species called the Cogs and the Krygs in a distant galaxy that resisted their attempts to therianise their worlds. While initially theranization of worlds were underway, and several Cog civilizations were wiped out, the Cogs had retaliated with an counterattack, forcing the Therians on the ropes as the Therians had long since forgotten war tactics. The Karmans having first hand experience in warfare were deployed into their creators battlefronts. Their intervention in the war reversed the tides against the Cogs and Krygs. In the end the Karmans forced a truce with the Cog Empire and summarily wiped out the Krygs.
CLONING THERIANS
In the aftermath of the war, the Therians decided to spare the Karmans, seeing their use as warriors to defend Therian civilization. Since the plan with the Karman had failed, a second plan was devised. The Therians using their own genes seeded worlds capable of supporting life. On these worlds, they left pyramid structures that were covered in symbols. These pyramids were meant to accelerate the evolution of civilization. This new plan worked perfectly. Within fewer than a hundred thousand years the Milky Way had disappeared: all its stars had been enclosed inside Therian habitats. The Therians then moved on to other galaxies with serious intent. The only ones to be spared were the Karmans, in case their masters ever needed them.
In one of these galaxies, an insignificant planet among an infinite number of others was the cradle of an enterprising and aggressive civilization, which called its planet “Ava”.
THE TRAUMA
A group of Therians had been watching Avan civilization for a few thousand years. They detected very early signs that this world would soon be ready. It usually took one to two centuries for the consensus to react and launch a planet’s therianisation. However, some Therians were feeling cramped in their habitats and wished to accelerate the process. Therefore it took less than a decade to mount an expedition. The forthcoming development of a new habitat and the very optimistic projections of one of the most popular overseers of the consensus, Urash, had the Therians convinced in no time.
At first everything seemed to go as Urash had foreseen. The inhabitants of Ava didn’t do anything to prevent the Therians from landing or from entering the pyramid that sheltered the control station of the therianisation machines. Just as Urash had predicted, the Avans panicked when the overseers used the machines to adapt gravity and daytime to the Therian norm, which was standard procedure to help the overseers feel comfortable during the operation. It was then that reality started to brutally diverge from Urash’s projections. The desperate reaction of the Red Blok and its surprisingly well organized offensive caught the Therians off guard. Urash had discounted such an insignificant possibility that rarely appeared in his simulations. The Therians did what they could to resist and were forced to deploy the Karmans to hold off the Red Blok. Urash had also ignored the possibility of an alliance between the two political systems found on Ava. When the U.N.A. attacked in turn, coordinating their efforts with the survivors of the Red Blok offensive, the Therians were once again taken by surprise. Too busy fending off Red Blok diversions, the Karmans were unable to prevent the U.N. breakthrough and the Avans rapidly reached the threshold of the Therians’ living quarters. Several overseers were lost forever! In the meantime, the artificial intelligence controlling the therianisation machine stated that the process was to be stopped: the planet was not quite ready for its destruction. This was too much for the overseers to bear and they left in a hurry.
43 YEARS AFTER THE TRAUMA
The technological superiority of the Therians had persuaded many galactic species not to oppose them. This Therian defeat, never seen before, showed that it was possible to beat them, even with ridiculously limited means and primitive technology. For the Therians, this failure was a Trauma: from then on, they were no longer invincible. Their supremacy had been shaken, even in the minds of some of their allies. Peoples that previously just fled whenever the Therians approached suddenly started making defensive stands. The Karmans, who used to travel quietly in the wake of their creators, slowly established contacts of their own with the Avans, the Cogs and even the Krygs. The situation reached a critical point when Operation Damocles was launched by the U.N.A. The successful U.N. landing on the factory world, even though the Avans still have not gained control of it, is proof enough that the Therians are not invulnerable. This is a disaster for the Therian project. Nobody else but the Therians can realise such a project and preserve life in the universe in its most evolved form! However, there is hope. No other species has such a vast and rich empire under their control. Even if the entire universe was to unite against them, the Therians could still win!
Culture[]
Central to Therian culture is Project Hyperlife. The goal of the Therian project is to shape the entire universe into something completely controllable by the Therians. In order to achieve this, they intend to change all planetary systems into Therian habitats, just like the factory world of Damocles. This way they will be able to pilot the stars to stop the universe from expanding or contracting, thus suspending it forever.
Source[]
- AT-43 Therian Army Book (2007)