< Empire Of Man | Old Empires | Pan Orion Alliance >
The roots of the Pantropic Collective stretch back to the very beginnings of the 21st century. Many of the philosophical forebears of the Collective were right there among the protesters opposing the Terraforming of Mars, they were the fiercest proponents of Hu GE? struggling to eek out an existence on the Main Belt or the Trojans, they were seeding the deep vents of Europa with modified Earth organisms, even herding comets through the Kupiter Belt to help support Martial Terraforming. They were many things, but all of them human, all of them born of Earth. The pantropic meme survived past the discovery of the Jump Drive and the colonization of the Rimward Empires. Even as the Pan-Orion Alliance began moving forward on plans to change the Galaxy, there were those that taught their version of the Collective's Creed. There is nothing to be gained from fighting your environment, especially when your environment is as ruthless and unforgiving as the expanses of Space. Yet they lack resolve or direction: the challenges between them seemed too much for them. They settled the odd world, formulated their theories and put them into practice when they could but few were willing to stand up for them. Then, the explorers discovered Xeno.
A small world on a secluded jump lane, maybe thirty jumps from Earth, Xeno had one planet that looked like it might be a good candidate for settlement. A planet that, though harsh at the moment was perhaps a good candidate for terraforming. An easier transition than even Mars had been, the reports read. Then the first scouts arrived, and the reports started to trickle back. Worlds with indigenous life had been found before. Many worlds throughout the galaxy have small microbes, bacteria, and such things. This was the first world discovered with plants and simple animals, struggling to survive in a hostile environment though they were. The lines were drawn almost immediately: many among the Alliance viewed "Xeno" as the rarest gem, fit to be plucked and worn as a jewel, and if our efforts killed the indigenous life who is to care? They're not much better than Bacteria, and just as ugly. Those destined to join the Collective, though, looked upon Xeno and saw a challenge. They could live there. We could as well.
We could live anywhere.
Since their beginnings, the Pantropic Collective has found life in many places throughout the Galaxy. During the young periods when things were still peaceful, Collective Scientists would be called to visit any new world discovered to have Complex Life. The others valued them for their insights and approach to problems back in those heady days when everyone expected to run into Intelligent, Non-Human Life any second. But, it never came. The Pantropic Collective spread trailward, finding life here and there, taking the best from them and giving back in return. Every new discovery was a new gene, another building block for the ultimate solution. From Nightfall, the Collective gained the genes to let them heal radiation damage. From an anonymous gas giant in an unnamed system, the Collective gained the last of the building blocks they needed to survive in Vaccuum, given some already proven genes taken from both Earth and Xeno. By the time the War's started, there was Intelligent, Non-Human Life in the Galaxy. But, everyone was too busy killing each other to care.
Downfall: When they realized that nobody was willing to let them sit the war out, the Collective learned to fight back. They unleashed diseases that only they could withstand, unleashed genetically engineered fighters no one was prepared for, and always melted away into places no one would think to look for them before emerging again to strike again. As the fighting escalated, so did the Collective's tactics, but always striking from a flank and leaving behind wild self-replicating nanoswarms or plagues of incredibly fast reproducing alien monsters that'd been genetically engineered from nightmares born on a hundred different worlds. Then, the Androdyne responded to a counterattack with one of their own and encouraged a star near the core Collective worlds to go supernova and sterilized a hundred worlds. Then the Collective started fighting dirty. By the time the Collective finished wiping out the Androdyne's, everyone else had mastered Black Hole herding but the Collective just wasn't interested in playing anymore.
Relations: Other than the Androdyne, the biggest enemy of the Panthropic Collective was the Empire of Man. Viciously opposed to the genetic extremes that the Collective went to, the Empire were the ones to drag them into the war and tried their hardest to finish them off with a quickness and brutality that the Collective had to admire. But, of course, couldn't condone. By the time the Collective stopped fighting for their existence, it was too late to get out. They only fought a few battles with the Pan-Orion Alliance, though, probably because both Empires were busy with battles of their own.
Remnants: The Panthropic Collective generally considers themselves the winners of the wars. Alone of the Empires, one of their places of power was never defeated. Alone of the Empires, they never had anyone dictate terms to them. They decided when they were done fighting, and the others failed to kill them, and not from lack of trying. In their more honest moments, though, the Void Dancers? who survive the Collective will admit that they're not much better than any of the other Empires. Almost all of their Technology is gone, their influence over Space is a 100th of what it once was, and they didn't so much survive as 'not get killed'. Entire Collective Races were wiped out, though. The survivors view their victory strictly in an evolutionary fashion, rather than ideological or political, and try to keep things in perspective.
Technology: Even their critics would have to admit that the Pantropic Collective were the masters of Genetic Engineering, especially due to their extensive collection of Alien DNA from thousands of different worlds with complex life that caught the Collective's eyes. Even today, the Void Dancers are capable of some things that no one else even thinks is possible and like always they're not always eager to share their discoveries. And, of course, there's always the art and science of Black Hole Herding. No one is quite sure if the Void Dancers of Hole are still capable of the art. No one is willing to try, either.
Language: Daevonic
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