The Progenitors: Vor and Athaneans

Vorian Republic:

Capital: Vorpiter 

Government: Socialist republic

Language: Ril

The Vor of Vorpiter were a race with a strong collective consciousness simply called the Noosphere.  The Vor were a mammalian species with blue or flesh-toned skin that grow hair of dark shades.  They have bone protrusions on their foreheads that are arranged in various patterns and designs.  An individual Vor's brain didn't contain the components for memory and holding learned skills, but these things were instead automatically put into the Noosphere for all Vor to draw from.  Unlike the Prothen, who had a similar collective consciousness in the T'ra, the Vor didn't have any concept of the individual.  The Vor were ruled by the Great Mind, a Vor who had ascended fleshly form and became the Noosphere itself; the Great Mind could, at any time it desired, possess a Vor or Vor, this was the basis for the destruction of the "person" in Vorian society.  The Republic was in effect ruled by the Great Mind, or indeed, the Republic was the Great Mind, since all Vor were one in the Noosphere.  Vorpiter was a lush, resource-rich world; this easy environment allowed the Vor to construct a relaxed republic.  Also due to their strong racial connection in the early Noosphere made the Vor very peaceful amongst themselves which made global government easily achieved.  It is unknown what Vorian society was like before the Great Mind, it seems all records of that time have disappeared.  The Noosphere made the Vor a generally peaceful race: they put an end to the First War, the cataclysmic war between the powerful Kronn Bureaucratic Empire and the rising Teloph Combine; they aslo ended the imperial wars between the Kronn and the newly discovered Prothen Empire.  When the Galactic Tetrarchy was formed, the Vor were always the mediators in the Council, especially between the Kronn and Telophs.  The Great Mind seemed to have foreseen the Dark Epoch because only a minority of galactic fringe-dwelling Vor got the implants of microscopic organisms.  When the Dark Epoch began with the infection sweeping through the galactic fringe colonies of the Tetrarchy powers, Vor losses were minimal and the Republic quickly fortified against the infection.  Through the long centuries of the Dark Epoch, the Vor fought alongside the Prothen Empire against the growing infection, even as the Telophs were wiped out by the Kronn-made artificially intelligent Cyth and as the Kronn themselves were drawing closer to extinction.  For uncertain reasons though, either due to loss of population or some decree of the Great Mind, the majority of Vor suddenly fled Republic space, warping to some remote corner of the galaxy, never to be seen again.          

Athanean Federation:
Capital: Byzaren
Government: Stratocracy
Language: High Athanese
Athaneans, one of the surviving children species, formed their Federation during the long centuries of the Dark Epoch, carving out a large enough portion of the galaxy to be considered an equal to the Tetrarchal species.  Early Athaneans were enslaved by the Kronn along with thousands of other "barbarous" races deemed to "uncivilized for civilization" to build many of the wonders of the Kronns' empire.  When the infection began to tear apart the galaxy, the Athaneans along with thousands of other children species rebelled against the Kronn and declared independence.  Many of these small, newly created nations bereft of Kronn protection usually were swept away by the infection, but the war-like Athaneans held together.  They assimilated what Kronn technology remained in their little domain and reformed their society around the the military; a powerful stratocracy was formed with polemarchs, commander-rulers, leading the new polity.  The Athaneans flew out in small, well armed, highly trained armies using long-range weapons tactics to reclaim lost worlds.  On the Federation's path to reclaiming the galaxy, they came across many children species barely holding on to existence; a key Federation ideology was formed then: that of Stewardship.  The Athaneans took it upon themselves to save every sentient species they came upon by pulling them into the Federation.  Three of the main races brought into the Federation were the Barari, Narubs, and Phaldar who all became key members of the Federation.  The Athanean Federation reclaimed a huge portion of the galaxy– even claiming lost Prothen worlds– with the goal of eventually taking Krodia Prime from the infection.  But even the powerful Federation, cleanser of a thousand worlds, fell around 86,540 -AI due to enormity of borders, civil unrest within the Federation, and hundreds of infected systems within the Federation itself.  The Federation, though, should be remembered for its long and successful fight against the infection; being the only species to have retaken so much space from the infection and able to hold of cases of internal spread of the infection.  The Barari come from the frost-bound caves of Barar I, they are a very unique species of alien; they are mammalian, covered in white fur, with a lupine face, but their bodies are long like a snake's and they have multiple sets of arms.  They have powerful innate telekinetic psionics.  The Narubs of Narubia, a gas giant wracked by extreme solar winds, are a race of humanoid insects who live in great, floating hives, the thick walls of their lairs and their own chitinous carapaces protecting them from the jet streams of solar radiation.  Unlike the Barari, the Narubs had to be militarily conquered by the Athaneans, who took it upon themselves to "preserve" any surviving children species by folding them into the Federation.  The humanoid Phaldar of unstable Phaldarax, a world of crystal mountains and jungles of fungus long ago devastated by a great psychic disaster, are slight, have green or gray skin, and possess innate psionics.