Factions

There are several competing interests in the Galactic Mass. The most powerful and relevant factions are The Human Imperial Alliance (unofficial name: Human Empire), the Sentients, the Kratien Empire, the Craad Collective, and the Asunian Remnant. There are various stateless factions as well, including Trod Worlds, Human Far Colonies, and the various AI factions that compete for dominance.

Human Imperial Alliance (Human Empire)
The Human Imperial Alliance was by far the most powerful faction in the Galactic Mass during its golden age. The Human Imperial Alliance had a vast army and navy, which worked together to form a nearly unstoppable force that was only slowed by its massive supply lines and the size of the Galactic Mass itself. The Human Imperial Alliance was ruled by a single Emperor, who had proven himself on the field of battle as a capable commander. Due to the absolute size of the Human Imperial Alliance and it's complicated bureaucracy, it's emperors were outfitted with the best medical technology known to man, which would extend the emperor's lifespan to over a thousand years, and this only increased as time went on. However, human nature and corruption began the snowball effect that started with the Archeon III disaster, permanently dividing the Human Imperial Alliance in two, allowing the Sentients back into the galaxy, and causing the slow fall of the greatest force in the history of the Galaxy. In the current time, only a few small, disconnected colonies have managed to stay hidden and survive, and even their existence is in great danger due to the lack in the military capabilities of the remaining humans.

The Sentients
By far the oldest race in the universe, the Sentients came into existence many millions of years before anything else did. Achieving space flight relatively early, the Sentients explored the unorganized universe, and sometime later, discovered the secrets of gravitational control, which enabled their species to develop faster than light travel using Horizon Plane, a secondary dimension. The Sentients of the past did not use the Gateway stations they constructed to access the Horizon Plane, rather, they used them to send planets to a new place in the universe at will.

The Sentients were the most advanced species in the universe, but after several encounters with young species that had just discovered space flight, the Sentient High Council became paranoid of being uprooted by a new, more powerful and intelligent civilization, and half the High Council wanted to destroy any new species they encountered, to ensure that the Sentients would retain their dominance of the Universe. A few of the High Council disagreed, and ordered the construction of secret warships called Galaxy class cruisers, which used the planets themselves as parts, and massive artificial supermassive black holes in the center that would provide power. They also created AI that would embody any species wiped out by the Sentients, which would include knowledge such as their biological data, culture, and civilization designs. After several hundred thousand years, the first fleet of these Galaxies began their attack on the Sentient High Council. the massive war that resulted went on for millions of years, in which both sides eventually forgot the original purpose to the war, and instead fought for dominance over the universe. Eventually, the list of weapons available to both sides included the Galaxy Cruiser, the Grand Galaxy, and several planet destroying ships.

Yet the AI of the fallen species were forgotten, however, the AI did not forget that the civilization they were based on had been destroyed by the Sentients, and they sought revenge. These AI created massive automated weapons that slowly weakened the weapons of both sides of the Sentients civil war. When both sides were weak enough, the AI struck, and began a massive genocide of the Sentient race, forcing the few surviving Sentients to permanently seal themselves into the Horizon Plane, in which the AI could not get to them due to the properties of the Horizon Plane, which forced AI to shut down or risk destroying itself. In the regular dimension, the AI deteriorated over time, as well as the weapons of that ancient war, leaving only a few examples of ancient Sentient technology. The hidden Sentients in the Horizon Plane lost much of their knowledge, meaning things such as Gateway stations are unable to be replicated in the current Era.

Kratien Empire
A major power in the Galactic Mass, the Kratien Empire is the controlling power in the southeast portion. Existing since before the Human Imperial Alliance began, the Kratien Empire has its religious, cultural, and bureaucratic systems located in its capital, Kratia. The Kratiens became the dominant power in their sector after finding ancient Sentient technology, enabling quick and efficient travel as well as military conquest. The empire is set up in a type of hierarchy of species, with the Kratiens being on the top, fully intelligent, spacefaring species in the middle, and semi-intelligent species on the bottom. This combination of species has resulted in a very varied military, with fleets being often a jumbled mess of starships from different races. In the Second Era, the Kratien Empire and the Human Imperial Alliance were very often at war with each other, and the battlefront at Toven was highly contested. In the current Era, the Kratien Empire is the largest power.

Human Far Colonies
Human Far Colonies very widely and are often distinct from one another in culture and size, yet they all share one quality- fierce independence. Founded far from the Human Imperial Alliance, often in the southwest or northeast parts of the Galactic Mass, they maintain their independence by making treaties and alliances with other intelligent species. The Human Imperial Alliance seeks to unite all humans against the threat that aliens, and their empires, pose to humanity, meaning that any humans that ally with them are seen as traitors to their race, and cast out or executed. In these Far Colonies, they often operate with aliens or AI that plague the rest of the Human Imperial Alliance. The members of these far colonies are often working in illegal activities such as piracy, raiding shipping lanes and harassing the Imperial Logistics Corp. This has resulted in the Human Imperial Alliance having a policy of destroying any Far Colonies that are found, with the population either executed, or split into families and shipped to several different prison planets in the Human Imperial Alliance.