Across the eons, strife and destruction has followed our wake, not because we wish it, but because the universe's intricate and mysterious will seeks to test us. If the gods see fit to send us blight after blight, then it is because we are their best, their most brave, and ultimately their strongest. Look at the Krassio, look at their own struggle, we are on the right path!
Prime Minister Hogrom
The Combine of Li, also known as Li Combine, is an empire that is known to be the oldest to have ever existed in some form in the enigmatic Chandras Galaxy. Despite this, the founding species of the empire—the titular, avian Li—are not native to the galaxy, having allegedly evolved in another galaxy lost in the mysterious, broader set of galactic clusters beyond the First Gigaquadrant. According to the ancient texts of the Li, their ancestors arrived at Chandras approximately twenty thousand years ago, fleeing from an enemy they claim holds a relation to the demonic forces of Chaos. In Chandras, the Li were infused with the galaxy's psionic nature and the Li were thus the first civilization to entangle its culture to Essence in the galaxy.
Building a successful and prosperous empire over millennia, the Li charted the galaxy, named its many different regions (with the planet they first arrived at called 'the Core'), and established its infamous trade routes, which are used to this day. They saw the rise of the Xochi and the Tyr, and established great relations when the Ramion emerged. The Li Trade Empire was dramatically altered with the fated arrival of the Psionic Lords—the Krassio.
Elated at the power of the Krassio, the Li were soon to change their entire lifestyle to meet that of whom they perceived as gods, joining them in their crusade to protect the universe against the forces of Chaos, conforming the myriad of 'Hosts' that were sent off-galaxy to fight during the War of Ages. This resulted to be ultimately detrimental to the now formed Combine of Li, which sheltered the battered Fourmican Hives and other species that were also used by the Krassio war machine. Slowly but steadily, the Li became disenchanted with the Krassio philosophies known as the Krassio Mandate, and so they were easily swayed from it by the emerging faction of Iluvii spirits known as the Xol'Etra in their new Xol Dominion. The Li Combine participated in the Uprising against the Krassio and eventual overthrow by using their own tactics, establishing an imperial rule over the galaxy with the Iluvii, whom now the Li perceived as true gods, at the top. However, by this time, the once-thriving trade empire the Li was gone, replaced by a militaristic and religious version of itself instead.
The Li would again be battered when the Krassio returned seeking retribution against the Xol'Etra. This time, the Li Combine faced the full and blunt attacks of the Tyr Empire, who had partially reverse-engineered ancient Krass technology and rose as a prominent empire close to Li borders. The Great Psionic War saw the fall of the Xol Dominion and the removal of the Li's preferential status in the galaxy. Although the Dominion survived in the form of its successor state, the Xolarum Republic, the Li's depleted forces never recovered due to a continuous onslaught of Loron forces from the distant regions of the Reach. About sixty years after the Great Psionic War, the Li had been absorbed by the Singularim Pact as a protectorate, a client state of the Tyr. Through the military alliance, the Li came to meet the young race known as the Dazok, a species that despite their short tenure in the arts of psionic energy, they had already left their mark. Seeking respite from a war-torn galaxy, the Li began to absorb the pacifist Dazok philosophies, a true flower in the middle of a warrior galactic community.
