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Revision as of 02:14, 21 September 2021
| The Krass are a Precursor Empire
The "Krass" are considered a precursor race, a species that existed in times immemorial, before the founding of the First Gigaquadrant's empires, and now lies exctinct/missing from the universal community in the SporeWiki Fiction Universe.
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“Powerful. Wise. Givers. The name Krass resonates as an echo throughout the universe, as their might remained unchallenged across the stars for eons as they expanded their empire and their vision throughout the cosmos. Today, many young races disown them and their relics are a thing of times immemorial. One thing is certain though, we, as well as the galaxy at large, owe our very existence and purpose to them, our forefathers.”
The Krass, as ancient writings and near-desolated carvings name them, are a very ancient species that predated the universe and extended over several galaxies in a time when the universe was almost completely devoid of intelligent life and the few sapient races rushed to dominate their respective home galaxies. The Krass empire is known to have extended at least to three different galaxies into what their old records name "Hegemony", which are the Tigris, Chandras, and Kaas galaxies. Whether they influenced other galactic bodies is unknown but the possibility of them colonizing galaxies beyond what today is known as the First Gigaquadrant is still kept close by scholars who dig and research archeological sites to this date.
The Krass, above everything else, were expert geneticists and terraformers who considered themselves to be "life-givers" and "star seeders". If any policy used to rule the Krass, it was probably that they considered the Universe to be their heritage and territory in its entirety, possibly driving them to expand to other galaxies whereas other Ultraterrestrial empires contemporary to the Krass preferred to remain on their galaxy. The Krass were progenitors and sought to spread intelligent life to the entire universe, making them responsible for seeding many worlds with potential sapience rates. Standing tall as their greatest creation and self-proclaimed heirs to the Krass's prerogative, the Krassio are by far the Krass' greatest progeny in the Universe, albeit the former still need to evolve to a point where they can expand and dominate as their precursors did.
History
The History of the Krass is told through two venues: what is known by the inhabitants of the First Gigaquadrant, including their misconceptions and lack of information, and the meta-version of their origins and endeavors, meant to inform other writers of their true evolutionary story and eventual disappearance.
It is very well-conceived that the Krass held a crushing influence over several galaxies in ancient times. The Krass used wormhole-like constructs to teleport themselves to other galaxies, capable of bending the laws of time and space thanks to their advanced technology. The Krassio, their most famous creations are still to retrieve all of the different relics and artifacts left by their mysterious predecessors. Their history is a little convoluted due to the fact that their history continued to evolve throughout millennia, and the Krass did not seem to be fond of recording their history in any format known to the modern universe. The Krassio have, however, successfully activated several aspects of their technology, such as their subspace drives and dimensional AIs to draw infinite supplies of energy as well as their mastery of gravity manipulation. Using their signature psionic energies, the Krassio have started to break down the history of their ancestors and put the pieces together on all the secrets they held.
Ancient depiction of a Krass, drawn in a temple dedicated to the "Life-givers".
Separately from the Krassio, the Krass are also evidenced by the many rudimentary paintings that fill the caverns and temples of countless worlds in galaxies such as Tigris and Chandras depicting them as benefactors, distant gods, even rulers.
Origin
One thing is certain among the amalgam of data extracted from their relics is that the Krass originated somewhere in the Tigris Galaxy and that they spread in a time span of thousands of years, defeating any possible rival and bringing their unique perspective of the universe to any species they encountered. The Krass were patronizing of other civilizations, and many were allowed safe passage throughout their territory. The Krass were evolved reptilians who had evolved to draw their sustenance from stars, or so the stories about them say. It is unknown if this meant that their technology allowed them to harness any kind of matter or substance from stars or celestial bodies or if they actually managed to alter themselves in a way that close proximity to one would provide the nutrients needed for their bodies to sustain themselves.
Hegemony
The Krass established an empire that influenced a known estimate of three galaxies, where they acted as a protectorate for smaller empires and less advanced civilizations. Many of these primitive species were created or patronized by the Life-givers as the latter would come to master biology, genetics and unknown concepts of creation itself. Many of these species were not even aware of the Krass as they progressed and prospered throughout the space stage of their life-cycle. The Krass were witnesses to many things such as the downfall of countless civilizations and the birth of many more.
However, their imposing authority and system made many of the contemporary species wary of them, as they promoted space colonization and expansion across the cosmos, something that would eventually cause their downfall.
Exctinction
With the Krass ever-expanding, many things of their history are still missing and are considered mysterious. However, one thing is clear above the other facts, and that is their downfall. The Krass expansion soon reached its climax and they were the apex civilization of their time across the stars. Few stood as worthy rivals, such as the Oikoumene or the Nauceans from the Milky Way. They even competed with the Grox Empire, who liked to spread and inhabit the massive gravitationally-pulled cores of galaxies they discovered, for territory and the influence of species, finding themselves in direct opposition to the Grox ideals of xenophobic conquest (them being extremely patronizing of more primitive civilizations). The Krass had met their neighbors and lived on, making them believe there was nothing that would be able to ever bring down the magnificent empire they had built. However, their aggressive expansion soon came face to face with the horror that will hunt them down to the edges of every galaxy until they were extinct or lost. The Krass discovered a new cluster of galaxies ripe for colonization now called the Tuuros sector. As their ships arrived, they encountered yet another primordial race that had expanded across the cluster effectively and brutally: the Zhulultu.
Their differences too great for them to ever have peace, the Krass' beneficial policies immediately contrasted the Zhulultu's view of the universe since the latter saw themselves as the ultimate form of existence. War broke out between these two empires. A war that was known to many as the battle of the gods. The Zhulultu effectively defeated the Krass with their superior essence-based technology and Ultraterrestrial levels of scientific achievement. The Krass soon saw a true predator in their way of life. The Tuurosian ancients brought their whole might to bear, and in a war that lasted approximately 5,000 years, the Krass abandoned their remaining homes and attempted to make a desperate jump into unknown space, with many of the fleeing ships destroyed by ambushing Zhulultu weaponry.
Who survived and who did not is up to speculation, but the truth is that the Krass paid a high price of their views on the universe. The most difficult galaxy for the Zhulultu to conquer was the Tigris Galaxy, the birthplace of their enemies. The Krass poured the entirety of their knowledge into creating a new species that would become their successors in their ways of life. The Krass gave them great psionic potential and left signs and wondrous temples in several of their planets in an age-spanning plan of revenge and retribution against the Zhulultu. This successor race was to be called Krassio, the Children of the Stars.
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The history of the Krass, although vast and extremely detailed for sure, can be condensed into four stages commonly referred as the "Four Paths", alluding to four different branching lines in their evolutionary history.
Origin
Contrary to popular theories that the Krass evolved as a carbon-based lifeform, and that their tenure in the universe paled in comparison to other more ancient and far more veteran in the evolutionary history of the cosmos, the Krass are actually the descendants of complex molds of hydrogen and helium during the early stages of the universe, around 100,000 years after the formation of the universe, when the first molecules such as helium hydride began to form. These primordial intelligences, or proto-Krass, seemed to be molds of more complex interactions between particles that condensed and took shape thanks to conflicting gravitational waves. These aggressive interactions established the basis of the emergent consciousness of the Krass, whose nature prevented a rapid growth in their population.
The proto-Krass continued with their blissful existence, surviving out of their inhospitable habitat in Gas Clouds that went made it out intact through the dark ages of the universe. The proto-Krass learned to modify themselves and their environment through a complex molecular level of genetic modification, allowing them to eventually settle in a great nebula that acted as a stellar nursery in the Tigris Galaxy. It was here that the Krass settled in their first type of habitat in the current universe: a brown dwarf they would name The Cradle. In their new home, the Krass continued to alter their environment, building their civilization with the usage of microtechnology and the ongoing self-modification. A billion years after the universe's creation, the Krass were already masters of genetic engineering. Using solidified minerals extracted from asteroids and other matter trapped within the gravity well of the Cradle, the Krass developed a crude form of interstellar travel based on nuclear fusion and metallic, membrane-like capsules that kept their liquid forms at bay. The Krass soon saw this new form as a more natural and effective way of living, and with the advent of zero-point fields and energy, the Krass were able to engulf themselves into solid but molten prolate spheroids, allowing them to survive the harsh and colder conditions of space.
Young Life Meets the Old
At some point in their history, the Krass civilization spread wide across the Nebula, occupying the star systems within. A focal point of their history came when in a solar system within their territory conditions were optimal for the development of microbial life—something that the Krass had not witnessed before due to their own solar-like origin. Eventually, a full carbon-based ecosystem formed in this oceanic planet with archipelagos and islands big enough to sustain jungles and forests. A vast biodiversity developed in these pockets, both marine and land-based, and the Krass witnessed it all. More ecosystems developed in other worlds, once thought to be but sources of matter to be manipulated and extracted. The terrestrial planets and their denizens gave the Krass a new sense of purpose and planted the seeds of their prime directive—that they were meant to protect these worlds as sanctuaries and nurture life across the universe. The Krass no longer touched a world that showed signs of promising evolutionary history for energy or resources, vying to protect it and help nurture it in every possible way instead.
With the first world, the Krass observed and learned new ways of genetic manipulation, and when the first signs of sapience appeared in this world, the Krass rejoiced. The species was reptilian in nature, and had began to develop their own crude forms of tribalism. Despite their primitive aspect and scarce knowledge of the world, the Krass began to see the benefits of limbs and feet, and were elated by the cosmetic and survivalist aspects of teeth, plumage and the biological reproductive system. Some Krass sought to modify their appearance, leaving their spheroid appearance to inhabit bodies similar to those they observed. This was the first instance of the Krass becoming an allegedly 'reptilian' species, even though they never abandoned their unusual essence due to its numerous benefits nor unique biology. The Krass population being small, this movement took the entirety of the race soon enough, and the Krass culture was filled with a sense of inward perfection, where they constantly modified their carbon-based bodies to further their goals, tainting their society forever after.
This change of physical appearance did not come without a pragmatic reason, though, for as solar systems began to form, the Nebula they so depended upon began to cool and condense into more solar systems. However, with their new abilities to inhabit and manipulate the environments within a terrestrial planet, the Krass were ready for this monumental change and soon developed technologies that would ensure their survival and ultimate exploration of the Tigris Galaxy.
The Hegemony
Each Krass would modify themselves differently from the other, as their Jeans Instability/mitosis type of reproduction did not require a partner. In time, every Krass looked different from one another, although the majority kept a reptilian template within their physical form to honor the nameless species that gave them such revelation. To compensate for their small numbers, the Krass delved into the creation of genetically engineered species to manifest their vision of the universe into the Tigris Galaxy. A renown historical figure of the Krass, Menikos, developed a self-replicating mechanical life-form to police his perceived territory and expansion. Another, Pyrnox, created lithoid golems with plasmic cores and strong electromagnetic fields, and another, Nura, favored the creation of an organic-based civilization tailored to terraform, maintain and protect her 'gardens' (these swarms would be the precursors of the Fourmican Hives millions of years later). These three would form part of the Four Paths of the Krass, with the last being composed of Veo, the Psionic Sage, which would join these ranks upon the discovery of the Chandras Galaxy millennia later. When the Krass decided to join forces into a common goal, these servant races served as the entirety of their army.
The Krass dominated the Tigris Galaxy and soon developed the technology to traverse into its satellite galaxies, such as the Bor'eaa Galaxy. The Hegemony reached its peak expansion in the Ikiwa-Eropsii Cluster by dominating the six dwarf galaxies orbiting Tigris. The Krass met little resistance along the way, with the only meaningful conflict being a massive Grox migration into the core of the Tigris Galaxy, leaving the place as a contested zone for the duration of their reign.
Eventually, the Krass Hegemony breached through the Endless Space and reached the Chandras Galaxy.
Psionic Energy
When the Krass began expanding in Chandras, a relatively young and smaller galaxy part of the Cyrandia Cluster, they also saw its unusual bond with an extradimensional universe parallel to realspace: the Iluvii Realm. The Krass' intellect found it easy to tap into the psionic energies of the galaxy, and soon the members of the Hegemony that had travelled there fused its applications into their culture. When the Krass accessed the Iluvii Realm, it was a calm sea but also devoid of abstract life-forms. After the realm's creator Penju, the Krass were apparently the second species to dwell in the Iluvii realm. The numerous applications the precursor race found in psionic energy made a splinter group Krass so enamored by the potential in the Iluvii Realm that they used their own genetic power to fully convert into psionic entities, leaving their physical forms entirely to rule over as supreme spirits. The Krass leading this group was Kraitoss, and their influence over the Iluvii—free from the space-time constraints of realspace—alledgedly propagated throughout the entire universe—becoming the Iluvii and making the Krass Hegemony a powerhouse in the universe, with a potential as limitless as the Cosmos. All hopes and dreams would come crashing down, however, when the Iluvii came face to face with the terrible reality of Chaos, and with it their cursed entanglement with chaos-based essence: Demonic Essence.
Inferno and Paradise
The sprout of sudden interdimensional energies coming back and forth between the Iluvii Realm and the Chandras Galaxy caught the attention of the Essentials, particularly the demonic Samut'Angar, who proceeded to open a rift into the galaxy, seeking to shut down any access to psionic energy, as it represented a strategic affront for their plans with the universe. For the first time since their inception, the Iluvii decided to face this new foe and protect their brethren in realspace. At a high cost, Kraitoss and the other Archspirits communed with their energies to create a powerful yet costly barrier that disintegrated all but five of the original Archspirits (who remain to this day). The demons were repelled, but the Iluvii Realm was left again devoid of most spirits, who began to slowly re-populate the dimension.
The reality of threats bigger than themselves came crashing down as a humbling, and even humiliating, cataclysmic event that shattered Krass morale. Existential questions arose that challenged their initial assumptions of the universe. How were they supposed to maintain and apply their prime directive across the universe if destruction would find its way upon their well-kept sanctuaries? The Iluvii had proven to be a match for the Samut'Angar, but a great cost, one that the Krass were not sure their enemies suffered as well.
The Veo Path
Their current armies not enough to protect their empire should the Samut'Angar return, the Krass continued through this crisis whilst expanding their influence in the Chandras Galaxy. One of the Krass' most powerful psionic masters, Veo, managed to establish contact with their Iluvii brethren, but centuries of time dilation and silence had turned the Iluvii into an entirely different species. Each Archspirit had delved into their own, single-minded schemes, with Kraitos being the only one who kept knowledge of their heritage. The battle against the Samut'Angar had afflicted the Iluvii deeply, and although the spirits spawned from the minds of the Archspirits showed a visible intelligence and could interact with psionic users, those who had lost their masters and creators were no more clever than a programmed machine or a nerve-directed organism. Even the Archspirits themselves had forsaken their Krass heritage, believing themselves to be an entirely different species. Veo, a pragmatist, experimented with the leaderless Iluvii, helping them grow and overcome their feral behavior and rampancy. Veo created a second generation of Archspirits that dubbed themselves the Xol'Etra. The new forms of Iluvii quickly established themselves as an immune system to the universe and Chandras, ensuring the Samut'Angar met their match and the barrier the Krass had so costly created was maintained forever. This solution was known as Fourth Path, and it was integrated into the Four Paths of the Krass, also known as the Defense Grid.
Zhuhultu-Krass War
At the peak of a second Golden Age for the Krass Hegemony, their holdings over their different galaxies was met with the power of a species of Ultraterrestrials far more potent than any other they had contacted. This adversary was not interested in diplomacy other than surrendering to their terms, and disregarded any territorial claims other than their own. The Zhuhultu emerged with their slave-races and unimaginable technology to invade and shape the Chandras Galaxy aproximately one million years after the end of the Samut'Angar war.
All over Tigris and its satellites, all war broke out between the two species. The Krass' Defense Grid proved effective against lesser pawns of the Zhuhultu but paled against the might of their war engines. Five of the dwarf galaxies were completely destroyed by the Zhuhultu onslaught, and the Krass were almost obliterated on the Tigris front after an exhausting war spanning two thousand years. However, the Krass' Iluvii front proved effective against the Zhuhultu once again, and the Krass Hegemony, although shattered, was saved by the timely arrival of the Essentials.
Dimensional rifts opened, and countless armies of beings akin to the Iluvii poured from these portals, facing the Zhuhultu head on. The Krass watched how the Iluvii and their counterparts from other concepts of reality battled and repelled the Zhuhultu onslaught. In the end, after a prolonged and protracted war, the Zhuhultu's spoils were denied and they were pushed back forced into exile.
The Krass had emerged victorious once again, but their great empire.
Technology
As Ultraterrestrials, the Krass specialized their technology and is considered advanced even for Krassio standards (despite being their most active observers and researchers). The bulk of their technology was adapted by the Krassio to implement psionic essence as a power source and quantum-based computing instead of the energy source the Krass used in their time, although the base blueprints of their energy cores indicate that the Krass-built cores and generators drew their power from exotic matter, possibly from other dimensions (either built or explored by the Krass).
The Krass Terraformer used by the Krassio on Civa Ghenes (center) pales in size to Krassio Vessels, dwarfed even by the frigates.
The Krass were also prominent developers and proponents of a highly advanced integrated circuitry and micro-technology, allowing them to use items, ships, and constructs that did not require entire engineering rooms or warp core decks, even additional space for hardware. This seemed to affect their culture heavily, as no traceable or derelict cruiser-sized ships have ever been found, but vessels equipped with multi-tools and a vast array of weaponry and beams. Using their agency throughout parallel pocket universes, they were able to store countless amounts of items, even individuals, on ships no bigger than freighters.
Notes
- The Krass were thought before by their creator as a counterpart to the Grox, eventually becoming the precursors of the psionic essentials known as the Krassio.
- The Krass have been reworked several times due to their convoluted lore and storyline before the Valader finally fixed them.
