Serphiad Union

The Serphiad Union, sometimes just called the Union, was the single largest and most powerful civilization to emerge in the recent history of The Cluster, occupying all three galaxies simultaneously and making unprecedented technological advancements. Despite this, it remained mostly pacifistic, and only resorted to war when it encountered Red Six Trillion during the First Vuokra Invasion.

Emergence (500,000 - 490,000 B.C.E)
The Serphiad Union had an incredibly fast growth rate in its very early years of development, mostly thanks to the inherent strengths of the Serphiads. Their naturally high intelligence, long lifespans and rational thinking allowed the Serphiads to overcome the political bickering that usually precedes the creation of a large interstellar civilization. The invention of the revolutionary Shard Drive gave them immediate access to distant star systems, and their colonization began without much difficulty. Overall, the Serphiads were extremely lucky when it came to their early development as a civilization, considering they were emerging in a portion of the Andromeda galaxy that was relatively peaceful.

Unbeknownst to the Serphiads, however, their rapid emergence caught the attention of a large interstellar civilization not too far away. The Frechra Confederacy occupied most of the space surrounding the Serphiads, which had remained mostly empty after the Apiison Horde had been corralled inside of it and subsequently annihilated. With a highly-advanced surveillance network, the Confederacy was able to keep close watch on the developing Serphiads. At this point, it was too early in their development for the Confederacy to decide if they were a threat or not, so they instead silently monitored the development of their civilization from afar.

Contact with the Confederacy (490,000 - 480,000 B.C.E.)
The newly-formed Serphiad Union expanded to fill the entirety of previous Apiison territory much more quickly than the Confederacy had expected, and it wasn't long before their civilizations crossed paths. The Serphiads were delighted to encounter another alien species, and, being the devout pacifists they were, aggressively pursued diplomacy with the Confederacy. The Confederacy was relieved to discover that the Serphiads were not malevolent and had no intentions of usurping their status as dominant Andromeda civilization anytime soon. Having already absorbed three different civilizations over the course of its history, the Confederacy offered to bring the Serphiads into its fold as well. Though pleased by this offer, the Serphiads declined, as they were worried that being incorporated into the Confederacy would force them to participate in wars and other violent affairs, something their society wouldn't allow. They agreed to mutual peace between the Confederacy and Union, but made no other promises.

Though peace had now been guaranteed between them and the Union, the Confederacy's anxiety only grew. If they Union remained independant, the Confederacy's control over them was greatly limited. They wouldn't reap any of the benefits of advanced Serphiad technology directly, which meant the technological capabilities of the Union could quickly surpass their own. On the surface, their peace agreement allowed the Serphiad Union and Frechra Confederacy to trade freely and engage in diplomacy, but in secret, the Confederacy continued their surveillance of the Union, keeping a close watch on their technological and sociological progress. Though the Serphiads themselves were never concerned, there was considerable tension within the Confederacy over the emergence of the Union.

Extragalactic Expansion and Growing Hostility (480,000 - 465,000 B.C.E.)
Things took a turn for the worse when the Confederacy discovered the Serphiads had made a profound breakthrough in their Shard Drive technology that enabled them to cross the distances between galaxies, making them the first intergalactic civilization to emerge in over 500,000 years. The Serphiads wasted no time in establishing large colonial holdings in the nearby Triangulum Galaxy, and were even setting up outposts in the distant Milky Way Galaxy, as well, though the hostile Infinity Guild and isolationist Vygen Empire slowed expansion efforts. It wasn't long before the Serphiads had created a civilization much larger in size and greater in power than the Frechra Confederacy, a fact that did not sit well with them. The Confederacy had provided the Serphiads with minimal economic support in recent years, and thus, the Serphiads had no incentive to share their intergalactic travel technology with the Confederacy. Relations between the two civilizations had grown cold, and with the declining state of the Confederacy, it seemed as though the Serphiads would inevitably replace them. A consideration was made on behalf of the Confederacy government to go to war with the Serphiads, which would both improve their failing economy and remove the Serphiads from their position of political superiority within the Andromeda Galaxy. Though more technologically advanced, the Serphiads had remained completely peaceful, so the Confederacy figured they would not be prepared for a war and could be defeated rather easily, provided the Confederacy built up their military prior to the engagement. The Confederacy took to assembling a sizable military force, keeping it hidden from the Serphiads so as to prevent them from discovering their plan. Concerns were raised about the effectiveness of a war against the Serphiads, considering they occupied territory outside of the Andromeda Galaxy that the Confederacy could not reach, but the general consensus was that, by invading Serph and ravaging Serphiad core territory, their distant colonies would be deprived of resources and would ultimately collapse.

Unfortunately for the Confederacy, dire circumstances would arise before they could execute their war strategy against the Serphiads. Two minor civilizations, the Adexlat Regime and UTPKR, had decided to mutually declare war on the Confederacy, tired of being under their boot heel in galactic politics. Thus began the Frechra War of Usurpation, one of the largest wars fought within the Andromeda Galaxy in recent galactic history. The Confederacy's prior military buildup in anticipation with a war against the Serphiads helped them repel early attacks by the Regime and UTPKR, but their defenses were rapidly failing. The Serphiad Union offered very little support for the Confederacy during the war, as they abhorred excessive violence and were already on poor diplomatic terms with the Confederacy anyway. The Confederacy did eventually manage to make a comeback, and it destroyed both the Adexlat Regime and UTPKR. However, wartime pressures had brought it near the brink of collapse. With a starving, disenfranchised populace, the Confederacy turned to the Serphiad Union for help, as they were one of the only major civilizations still left in the Andromeda Galaxy. The Serphiads were upset with the Confederacy for their poor diplomacy and warmongering, but still chose to take pity on them. They absorbed the Confederacy and its inhabitants into the Serphiad Union, effectively ending the Confederacy, but allowing the Frechra and their compatriots to live on within the Union.

Great Convergence (465,000 - 425,000 B.C.E.)
The absorption of the Frechra Confederacy marked the beginning of one of The Cluster's most peaceful and prosperous eras: the Great Convergence. The Serphiad Union had become the single most powerful civilization in the entirety of The Cluster, and had graciously chosen to use their status for benevolent affairs. They spread their influence across the Andromeda, Triangulum and Milky Way galaxies, incorporating fragmented alien empires on the verge of collapse. The Serphiad Union gained a reputation as the "Galactic Peacemaker," acting as a medium of communication between civilizations and providing economic relief to those in need. Technological advancements surged and the relative safety of The Cluster was increased dramatically thanks to the constant watch of the Serphiad Union. It is worth noting that this is the only time period in the recent history of The Cluster in which a majority of intelligent life was unified in any sort of centralized way.

Though greatly improved, the state of relations between the various alien species of The Cluster was far from perfect. War was still an occurrence, even within the tributary states controlled by the Serphiad Union, and the innate pacifism of the Serphiads prevented them from intervening in these conflicts most of the time. Instead, they pushed other states under their control to intervene in these conflicts independently, which, though it often swiftly ended conflicts thanks to advanced Serphiad technology, was a technique that stained the Union's benevolent reputation. In addition to this, there were many civilizations that outright refused to join the Union or become tributary states of it, usually due to political or ideological disputes. Though their decision was respected by the Serphiads, these civilizations were seen as outcasts and deviants from the Union-controlled galactic community, and were often stuck at lukewarm relations with the Union. Many of these civilizations resented the Union due to diplomatic tensions, but since they were vastly outnumbered and technologically outclassed by the Union's tributary states, they could do nothing to improve their situation by force. While most remained technologically inferior to the Union, some succeeded in acquiring advanced Serphiad technology through clever diplomacy while still retaining their independence. This is the method by which certain civilizations, such as the Jian'Tur Federation and Council of Cylkym, acquired the secrets to Serphiad cyborganic engineering, despite never having been a part of the Serphiad Union.

The End Times (425,000 - 400,000 B.C.E.)
See First Vuokra Invasion.

Technology
Being naturally intelligent and inquisitive, the Serphiads are very proficient in scientific research. Likewise, the technological capabilities of the Serphiad Union were tremendous, even during the early years of their development. The creation of the Shard Drive, the characteristic FTL device used by the Serphiad Union, is a technological marvel in its own right, as it is makes the Serphiad Union one of the only civilizations in the recent history of The Cluster to have experimented with dimensional engineering, a realm of science available only to the most advanced civilizations in existence (most notably the Xyrbyx). Though such technology could have been repurposed, the Serphiads restricted their dimensional engineering to improving their Shard Drives, never expanding it into a domineering technological facet of their civilization.

Though it didn't last through the destruction of the First Vuokra Invasion, the architecture and ship construction technologies of the Serphiad Union were widely praised during the height of their civilization. The Serphiads were renowned for their ability to create massive, glittering structures that could rise well into low orbit of a planet, built out of beautifully intricate curves, spirals and fractals. Many of their spacecraft shared similar design features, a far cry from the painfully functional design of the primitive spacecraft used by many minor civilizations. However, the Serphiad Union was not an inherently lavish society, and these fanciful design features were usually restricted to structures/spacecraft of great importance. The more mundane elements of Serphiad infrastructure were usually comprised of simple geometric shapes, such as spheres, cubes, prisms and various polyhedrons. Though much more simplistic, these designs are also considered an excellent component of Serphiad civilization, contrasting their flamboyant fractal designs with humble, minimalist features that embody the Serphiad ideals of temperance and balance.

The Serphiads are often credited for having first developed cyborganic engineering, and while there are flaws in this claim, it doesn't change the connection many civilizations have made between the Serphiads and cyborganic technology overall. Indeed, Serphiad cyborganic technology is very characteristic, and it is much more refined and controllable than the fragmented cyborganic technology used by various technomages. Though there are cyborganics that have arisen elsewhere without the intervention of the Serphiads, the Serphiads are notable for being one of the first civilizations to have "domesticated" cyborganics, using them to improve the efficiency of their society. Unlike the Zetylian Hegemony that succeeded them, however, the Serphiads were not completely reliant on cyborganics, and combined their usage with conventional (albeit highly advanced) robotics and genetic engineering (which the Serphiads were also very experienced with). The Serphiads hesitated to use their cyborganics in important or delicate situations due to the inherent unpredictability of the technology, which made the creation of Tixax near the end of the First Vuokra Invasion that much more significant.

Legislature
Due to its immense scale, the Serphiad Union's method of governance is somewhat decentralized so as to negate the need for an extremely complex bureaucracy or administrative network. Legislature in the Serphiad Union is divided between designated "Union" territory and "Tributary" territory. Union territory is directly controlled by the Serphiads themselves, often being either Serphiad colonies or territory ceded by civilizations absorbed into the Serphiad Union. The entirety of this territory is ruled by a pair of legislative bodies known as the White Triumvirate and the Council of Mutual Affairs. The CMA is the lesser of the two bodies, comprised of rulers from every civilization absorbed into the Serphiad Union. When a civilization is absorbed, its old rulers become a part of the CMA, ruling the Serphiad Union collaboratively with the rulers of other civilizations. The CMA is not limited to individuals, however. Civilizations that rule through an oligarchy or other group of individuals are allowed to have these rulers operate in the CMA as a single entity, negating the need for civilizations to restructure the upper levels of their government. The process for selecting new rulers used by these civilizations is also allowed to stay, meaning civilizations that hold elections or select their new rulers through heredity are permitted to continue this practice even after they have joined the Union.

The White Triumvirate is the greater legislative body in the Serphiad Union, managed by a triad of Serphiads that act as the top-level executives for the Serphiad Union's entire government. These Serphiads work with the CMA to make important decisions for the Serphiad Union, but while the CMA handles more middle-tier administrative decisions (such as the Union's budget, colony planning and infrastructural oversight), the White Triumvirate's tasks are much larger in scale. They are responsible for most of the diplomacy between the Serphiad Union and other alien civilizations, making them the face of the Union in the realm of intergalactic politics. Any decisions that influence the Union in the long-term are often made by the White Triumvirate, and since they hold the ability to review and veto any decisions made by the CMA, they are an extremely powerful legislative entity within the Serphiad Union. New members for the White Triumvirate are directly selected by current members, who choose young Serphiads that will succeed them when they eventually die. More often than not, these adherents have no relations to the Serphiads they succeed in the White Triumvirate, mainly due to the little value the Serphiads place on direct relations in their society.

While the White Triumvirate largely avoided corruption thanks to the holistic nature of the Serphiads, the CMA was not entirely immune. Government conspiracies and political issues that plagued alien societies prior to their absorption often persisted even after their leaders were inducted into the CMA, and though the Serphiads tried their best to remove this corruption, they weren't always successful. Alien politicians could find loopholes in the Union's administrative systems that allowed them to further their own agendas, much to the dismay of the populations they ruled over. Bribery was common among some of the more devious members of the CMA, and even assassination was not unheard of. Besides corruption, there were some facets of the alien civilizations they absorbed that the Serphiads simply despised, but often, these facets were so integral to the way of life for those aliens that the Serphiads could do nothing about it. A good example of this would be the Dexmur Empire, a civilization in the Triangulum Galaxy that joined the Union willingly due to economic turmoil. The Dexmur had built their entire society around the exploitation of another sapient race of aliens, the Guorlan, who had become a slave race within the Dexmur Empire ever since their civilization, Guorla Enol, was defeated in a war millennia ago. When they joined the Serphiad Union, the Serphiads were appalled by the barbaric practice of Dexmur slavery, but realized soon enough that the Dexmur, as a species, had constructed a way of life entirely reliant on the enslavement of the Guorlan, and couldn't exist in a society without such a system in place. The equilibrium of enslavement the Dexmur had maintained with the Guorlan for centuries prior to their absorption was kept in place, but they were still shamed by the Serphiads for this practice, even though they were not inherently malevolent beings.

Military and Law Enforcement
Being a civilization dedicated to maintaining peaceful relations with all other lifeforms in The Cluster, the Serphiad Union does not possess a large standing army or heavily organized police force under normal circumstances. However, they are not completely defenseless or without law enforcement, as these privileges are largely provided by the Union’s significant number of tributary states. As the Serphiad Union expanded, it encountered many civilizations that wanted to reap the benefits of the Union’s technological dominance but still wanted to retain their independence. Instead of being absorbed, these civilizations became Union tributary states, who were permitted to use Serphiad technology and keep their independence in exchange for a portion of their material wealth and servility to certain diplomatic clauses, which included the obligation for tributary states to contribute military assets to the Serphiad Union’s Tributary Fleet and Tributary Defense Corps. These organizations serve as the Serphiad Union’s law enforcement organizations in space and planetside, respectively, and can also function as the Serphiad Union’s military in emergencies. The Tributary Fleet and Tributary Defense Corps, hence their names, are organizations entirely comprised of military assets produced and managed by various tributary states of the Serphiad Union, making them very diverse organizations. Though many of these tributary states incorporate Serphiad technology into their military forces after joining the Union, they are not obligated to design their ships and ground forces in any specific fashion, meaning the forces of the Serphiad Union’s tributary armies are conglomerations of numerous different design patterns used by numerous civilizations all across The Cluster. The Tributary Fleet and Tributary Defense Corps are considered “communal armed forces” as assets within the organizations fight on behalf of both the Serphiad Union and whatever civilization originally created them. For example, the military units provided by the Jian’Tur Federation, one of the Serphiad Union’s largest tributary states, belong to both civilizations collaboratively, and therefore fight for both the Union and Federation. Though it provides economic and technological support to these tributary states and their armies, the Serphiad Union does not directly contribute any of its own military forces under normal circumstances, as the Serphiads themselves abhor violence. This means that any civilizations looking to join the Serphiad Union must give up whatever military forces they possess in order to be absorbed, though tributary states do not have to follow this obligation, and are allowed to keep independent standing armies even if they are involved with the Union and contribute to its tributary armies.

The nature of the Serphiad Union’s military changed dramatically with the onset of the First Vuokra Invasion. Up until this point, the Serphiads had never encountered a civilization as ruthlessly malicious as Red Six Trillion, and weren’t prepared for the possibility that diplomacy wouldn’t work. Their tributary armies quickly proved to be insufficient, forcing the Serphiad Union to organize a professional military force to combat the Vuokra. Their advanced technology and economic abundance made building an army much easier than the Serphiads had originally expected, and they proved to be a powerful contender against Red Six Trillion, even if they were ultimately defeated. Many suspect that elements of the Serphiad Union, particularly Avsula of Ritl and the Association of Good Friends, had actually been creating an organized military force in secret even prior to the First Vuokra Invasion for reasons unknown, but the extent of this secret military and how it affected the Serphiad Union’s actions in the First Vuokra Invasion are mostly unknown.

Research
The Serphiads take great pride in their natural curiosity as a species, and likewise, the Serphiad Union devotes a large portion of its resources to scientific research. The Serphiad Union’s research institutions are organized into a massive hierarchy that parallels the ordinary bureaucracy of the Union in terms of size and complexity. The principle institution that controls all Serphiad research is the Civil Advancement Council, which coordinates all scientific research on a macroscopic scale and acts as the upper connection between Serphiad research divisions and the Serphiad Union government. The CAC has direct oversight of the three primary branches of Serphiad research. The Whitetech Branch is a branch dedicated to technologies developed by Serphiads, for Serphiads. Improvements made to characteristic Serphiad technologies, such as the Shard Drive and Serphiad cyborganic engineering, are performed by the Whitetech Branch. It is also the only branch of Serphiad research solely occupied by the Serphiads, as they do not trust other alien races with the advanced technologies used and produced by this branch. The Bluetech Branch is a collaborative research branch, operated by scientists of all species that are a part of the Serphiad Union, including the Serphiads themselves. This is the largest branch of Serphiad research, and it is responsible for producing most of the technology used by citizens of the Union on a daily basis. Finally, there is the Greytech Branch, the smallest research division in the Serphiad Union. This branch is also collaborative, but it excludes the Serphiads, meaning it is entirely comprised of scientists from the various non-Serphiad races in the Union. This branch develops unique technologies designed to suit the needs of the Union's non-Serphiad inhabitants, and also functions as the Serphiad Union's only form of military science division, collaborating with the scientific institutions of the Union's tributary states to ensure the tributary armies of the Serphiad Union keep up with developing technologies. All three branches maintain their own hierarchies of research divisions dedicated to various fields of scientific inquiry and technological development, and any breakthroughs they make are automatically funneled up to the CAC for review and implementation into the Union's industry and/or society.

Though they collaborate with each other frequently and fall under the same jurisdiction, there is still a noticable power hierarchy between the three branches of Serphiad research that seperate them and determine the relative importance of any technologies produced. It is known that the CAC gives a considerable amount of attention to the Whitetech Branch, followed by the Bluetech Branch and the Greytech Branch. This means the branches recieve funding and support effectively in this order, which is partly the reason why the GreyTech Branch is the smallest research branch of the Serphiad Union. However, this also means that when the Whitetech Branch makes a critical mistake or fails to uphold promises made to the Union government, the consequences are more drastic compared to the Bluetech Branch or Greytech Branch, who are often beneath the notice of the CAC and Union government.

Culture
Being a civilization of such impressive magnitude, the culture of the Serphiad Union is very diverse, and largely depends on the specific species and locations being brought into question. The Serphiads themselves are naturally inquisitive, thoughtful and patient beings, and it was these traits that created the exploratory, pacifistic culture present in the early Serphiad Union prior to the collapse of the Frechra Confederacy. These cultural elements persisted in the Andromeda Galaxy even after the Serphiads began to incorporate other alien species into their civilization, as the Andromeda Galaxy was a region of The Cluster the Serphiads controlled with a high degree of influence. Meditation and philosophy are popular pastimes among many of the inhabitants of Serphiad Union core territory in Andromeda, and since the colonies of these areas benefit more directly from the material abundance of the Union, they can devote more of their time to scholarly and spiritual pursuits, serviced by advanced automated supply networks.

The culture of the Serphiad Union is very different in the Triangulum and Milky Way galaxies, however. The inexplicably large amount of sentient machines and AI technology present in the Triangulum Galaxy encouraged scientific investigation by the Union, and gave rise to many groundbreaking technological achievements, such as Serphiad cyborganic engineering. Triangulum became the center of Serphiad scientific investigation, and possessed a more materialistic and mechanistic culture compared to Union colonies in Andromeda. Due to the inherent hostility of the Infinity Guild and extreme distance, Serphiad colonization in the MWG was sparse. The few colonies that did exist remained very disconnected from the rest of Serphiad civilization, and had a tendency of being more turbulent and violent than the Union typically would allow. Many of these colonies were completely destroyed by the Black Sect following the onset of the First Vuokra Invasion, which accounts for the rarity of Serphiad artifacts in the MWG.

The Serphiad Union does not benefit from a large amount of cultural cohesion, which, considering the extreme variety of alien races present in the Union, is to be expected. Though some alien civilizations that were absorbed into the Union adopted the cultural practices of the Serphiads or other influential Union races, many kept to their own traditions, seeing their merge with the Serphiad Union as a purely economic/political endeavor. This, obviously, led to some social turmoil within the Union, which sometimes led to full-on violence between certain species. Races that had once been embroiled in war continued their conflicts even after joining the Union, albeit on a much smaller scale. The inherent weaknesses of the Union’s law enforcement ensured these conflicts wouldn’t usually be dealt with by the Serphiads themselves, especially outside of the Andromeda Galaxy. There were even a few coups planned against the Serphiads by some of the more deviant races that joined their civilization, though all of these were foiled, mostly thanks to Avsula of Ritl’s intelligence networks that he used to prevent usurpation of the Serphiad Union.