Prosperity in the Void- The Shantari Mercantile Union

[Arithmetician]

The Hallowed Comptroller, Seeir Yukonna, was young for his office, which he had ascended to through the force of his charismatic personality. For the Shantari, living in the heavens had long been their custom, but Yukonna knew that in order to expand, they would need to establish new outposts for the first time. Yet he reassured the Shantari that they could triumph in colonizing the new frontier of the galaxy just as their ancestors had done when they had built new homes for themselves above the shattered ruins of Old Shantar, though some critics might have said it was a selective sort of nostalgia.

Yukonna's most trusted lieutenant was Physeta Zduhak, who handled daily matters of administration. Crime could be a problem in the confines of the habitats, nowhere more so than the alloy foundries of Heavenly Aerie, which were essential to the Union's heavy industry, but came at the expense of many of the comforts that could be found on the other two habitats, leading to increased criminal activity there. Righteous and dedicated to his duties, Zduhak was instrumental in keep crime in check on the increasingly crowded habitats.

The Union would have to develop its technology if it was to effectively colonize the galaxy, so three research departments had been drawn up, funded out of the church's tithes as a form of reinvestment into the Union. While scripture forbade true thinking machines, research into a basic form of administrative AI was approved in the interest of greater efficiency. Other priority initiatives were establishing a framework for formally uniting the three habitats under a single central government de jure, as opposed to the de facto one led by the Hallowed Comptroller, and the development of dedicated strike craft to protect merchant fleets from whatever dangers they might face in the wider galaxy.

The Hallowed Comptroller quickly issued a pair of directives. Firstly, as the habitats were enjoying a sizable food surplus from their hydroponic farms, less would need to be held in reserve, allowing more to go to market and encouraging a well-fed, happy, and productive populace. Secondly, he used his influence to declare that mapping the stars would be a key priority for the Union.

Preliminary mapping of the local hyperlanes leading from Shantar showed that there were four viable routes that the Union's science ship, the Fairy Worui could take. Most of these led to a tight cluster of stars, most of which were also within the Abbanis Nebula. However, barring the extremely unlikely probability of intelligent life residing in the next system forward, it made more sense to proceed out of the Nebula. The Union could easily lay claim to the other Nebula systems later.

The science crew wore in the helmeted space suits that the the Shantari wore to maintain sterile environments whenever they had to leave their carefully controlled habitats, which had long been free of natural pathogens, and to protect them on space walks when it was necessary to conduct exterior repairs on their habitats and mining stations. There was no telling what they might find out there, and they weren't going to risk bringing back a pathogen that might decimate the densely populated habitats.

Soon after the Fairy Worui had departed from the nebula, a comet was sighted passing by New Shantar, a most auspicious omen! Surely great wealth would soon be coming their way - and the more the people gave to the Church, the more prosperous they would be later!

Soon, the Fairy Worui reported back of the discovery of rare crystals in a nearby star system. The faithful were clamoring to acquire them, believing that they might have healing or mystical properties, though the Union's scientists were more interested in them for their military and industrial applications. Sadly, the Union had no means to profitably extract them at the moment.

Soon, reports of the discoveries other strategic resources, including volatile motes and exotic gases, came in, which would surely be a boon for the union once they could be exploited.

Ten months later, a newly commissioned science ship, the Blushing Songbird, discovered archeological evidence of an advanced precursor civilization that had occupied the same region of space as the Shantari, named the Grunur. The news was met with great excitement back on the habitats, for while the Grunur no longer seemed to exist, it was proof that other intelligent life could exist, and that there might be a galaxy full of future customers awaiting them. The Hallowed Comptroller directed all science officers to be on the lookout for further Grunur archaeological sites.

Evidence of another priceless treasure soon came to light - the Rubricator! Judging from the powers it was reputed to have, it was something that was definitely worth investigating.

The Rubricator was tracked to the previously uncharted Withrilli system, on a planet that was entirely covered by a vast, albeit ruined city. The thought of such a world was mind boggling to the Shantari, but they resolved to continue their investigations once the system could be properly claimed.

By now, the habitats had completed the process of unifying under a single government, and advancements were being made in survey algorithms and mapping the Shantari genome. New riches continued to be discovered in the surrounding systems, including valuable trade goods, to the delight of the merchants.

There was still no sign of currently extant intelligent life outside of Shantar, but as explorers continued to find more and more relics of ancient times, the more it seemed inevitable that they would eventually discover a living alien species...

 

[Arithmetician]

Three stars, dancing in the hidden depths of the Abbanis Nebula, about them floating three habitats, seeming almost like specks in the void...

But for the Shantari, it is home.

The shattered remnants of a planet lies underneath one of the habitats. Scripture holds that the planet was named Shantar, and so the habitat is named New Shantar, though any records of planet bound life are fragmentary at best, from a lost era untold millennia ago.

Old Shantari society had become materialistic and sinful, or so scripture says. Not only did the masses lack spiritual guidance, they were destitute, for the creation of thinking machines had put many out of work.

Yet a prophet emerged, preaching against the thinking machines and promising redemption and untold wealth to those who left the world and its sinful ways behind, to forge a new life in the void.

But Shantar's rulers remained proud. They persecuted the prophet and his followers, claiming them to be charlatans, and even made the prophet himself a martyr. Yet in the end, they were punished with divine wrath for their arrogance and faithlessness. The planet itself was sundered, while three great ark ships, led by the prophet's surviving disciples, carried the faithful away from the doomed world and into the heavens, the promised land where they would find their salvation.

But redemption from the sins of planet-bound life was not so easily attained. The surviving Shantari had to adapt, in mind and body, to the void before they would be deemed worthy. As further punishment for their sins, they were made to forget most of their technology, and entered a long dark age, in illuminated only by their faith and the three stars.

But at last, they day came when the descendants of the three arks could once again make contact with other, and they found that they all shared the same fundamental faith. Trade began between the habitats of New Shantar, Heavenly Aerie, and Broodnest Lipari, which began to specialize in the production of different goods. Not only did this trade bring newfound prosperity to all Shantari, but it was an expression of divine will, that they should make their fortunes among the stars.

In gratitude for their newfound success, Shantari merchants paid a tithe to the church, formed from a consolidation of each habitat's local assemblies into a single mega-congregation centered on New Shantar. The office of the Hallowed Comptroller was created to oversee the spiritual and economic guidance of the Shantari people.

But the prophet had foretold that this would be but the beginning. The wealth of a star system rivaled anything that the rulers of Old Shantar had ever dreamed of, but it was insignificant next to that of a galaxy. All the Shantari had to do was claim the riches that awaited them, and spread their gospel to any customers that they may find among the distant stars. And then, once they were worthy and wealthy enough, they would be granted spiritual powers that would allow them to see the true nature of reality.

And so the Shantari merchants began their holy mission.

(Welcome back everyone! I'd been on a hiatus for Stellaris for a while, waiting for Federations to come out, and I just completed my first Federations game. I had a number of false starts along the way, but also a lot more free time, with the ongoing pandemic.

Some of the mods I often used in the past seemed to interfere with the formation of the Galactic Community, so I'm only using two mods in this play through, both of which were activated after the Galactic Community formed - the Community Flash Patch, for bug fixes, and No More Useless UN, to prevent another bug, sanction spam. Technically, two features were later deemed not to be bugs, but working as intended - that Trade League policy should give 0.5 energy credits instead of 1, and that there wasn't supposed to be a third tier of bureaucratic buildings, as the developers had intentionally dummied them out but forgot to remove the tech for them. For consistency once I had activated those mods, I kept them on for the rest of the playthrough, and I held my version to 2.6.2, since some of the changes in 2.6.3 might have broken some of my branch office placements.

I first created the Shantari to populate my 2.6 games as an AI with the Void Dwellers origin, back when I was trying to play as humanity with the Galactic Doorstep origin for a Mass Effect-esque run. These runs were abandoned, due to the aforementioned bugs with not properly forming the galactic community. However, I noticed that the Shantari consistently seemed to do quite well in those games, which piqued my interested in playing as them myself. In one abandoned run, they were even a staunch federal ally of mine. I tweaked them slightly for my own run as them, but the core concept remained. Besides that, I became interested in playing as them when it occurred to me that playing as a species that will tend not to colonize planets on its own would open the door to a number of strategies and play styles that could be very different from what I had done before.)

This game was played on Commodore Difficulty, on a 1000 star galaxy, with a midgame year of 2300 and an endgame year of 2350, 30 AIs, and, in a first for me, a 5X Crisis. The AIs are mostly the presets, force spawned into the game, with a few new ones created to accommodate some of the new origins and civics. A few I borrowed from nations that my brother had created from his own Stellaris games, and a few are thinly-veiled homages to Mass Effect species, from back when I was trying Galactic Doorstep as humanity.

I hope you enjoy this AAR!)

 

[Arithmetician]

During a survey, one of the Union's science officers discovered a world that had been covered and consumed by nanites! Studying them helped the Union unlock the secrets of nanomechanics, but many couldn't help but feel that the presence of the nanites was in some way ominous...

An unknown entity, seemingly composed of pure energy, was discovered in the Escant System. It appeared to be hostile, so the science officer had to order their ship to make a hasty retreat before it or the system could be studied further.

But then, not even two months later, a far more momentous discovery was made...

An alien vessel, apparently surveying planets in much the same manner as the Union's own science ships!

It would take time before communications could be established with the "Delta Aliens", as they were so called. In the meantime, defensive measures were put into place in case they proved hostile. Fortunately, the "geography" of the local hyperlanes gave the Union several natural chokepoints where it could build bastions to effectively defend its territory. The station at Uxfriri was upgraded to host a pair of hangars for strike craft, as this was deemed a more cost-efficient measure than building a large standing navy.

Meanwhile, exploration continued, and more evidence of widespread nanites in the sector was discovered.

In a system just beyond the the one in which the Delta Alien ship had been spotted, a number of discoveries that would have profound consequences were made. First was the discovery of a natural wormhole, leading to an unknown location, though it was not deemed stable enough to justify risking a science ship and its crew to explore. Secondly was the presence of two primitive societies living on irradiated "Tomb Worlds". They appeared to have once been far more advanced and in fact once the same species, before engaging in an interplanetary nuclear war, which destroyed most of their technology and caused mutations responsible for the divergence in their species.

In the meantime, the Delta Aliens managed to decode the Shantari language, and made first contact, identifying themselves as the Kel-Azaan Republic.

Strange as the Kel-Azaan seemed, with their arthropod forms, the Shantari representative was perhaps too enthusiastic at meeting a real, living alien with a similar level of technology.

The Kel-Azaan were skilled warriors, and their expansion appeared to put them on a direct path toward the Union. If they proved hostile, the Kel-Azaan could pose a great threat to the Shantari way of life. Their fleet was vastly more powerful than the Shantari Merchant Navy.

But the Kel-Azaan's military might also offered the Shantari an opportunity that they could not let to go to waste...

 

[Arithmetician]

The Shantari shared a singular vision - to spread trade and their faith throughout the galaxy in the name of their gospel of the masses.

To that end, they began an all-out charm offensive targeted at the Kel-Azaan before the arthopoids could get any ideas of attacking.

All available Shantari envoys were dispatched to Azak, the homeworld of their galactic neighbor. Throughout the negotiations, the Shantari envoys remained in their suits to protect themselves from the unknown planetary atmosphere and any dangers that it might contain. While their suits greatly reduced the likelihood of infection, it could do nothing to protect the envoys from the effects of a much more powerful gravitational field than they were used to, now that they were on a planetary surface rather than high orbit. But they had a job to do, and so they suffered through the discomfort, laying the groundwork for productive relations between Shantari and Kel-Azaan.

Soon, the feverish, non-stop advertising campaign, several large and very public gifts (30 years of the finest produce grown in the hydroponic farms of Broodnest Lipari! The purest mineral ores delivered straight to your foundries from Lambda Serpentis!), and numerous carefully-placed bribes, buying up favors from high-ranking Kel-Azaan officials at a breakneck pace, bore fruit.

A Commercial Pact was signed between the Shantari Mercantile Union and the Kel-Azaan Republic. Other agreements quickly followed.

The Shantari wasted no time in establishing a branch of operations on Azak.

Construction of a high-security Temple of Prosperity began at once, which would recruit local Kel-Azaan workers to become prosperity preachers, evangelizing the Shantari faith. They quickly found new converts, and soon the masses of Azak began clamoring to hear more of the Shantari Gospel, while the donations of the faithful began flooding in.

"Give and you shall receive!"

Buying and calling in more favors from the Kel-Azaan government, the Shantari proposed that their two nations formally unite as allies, and then partners in a federation dedicated to the promotion of trade between them. Thus, the Cosmic Merchant Coalition was born.

With the powerful military of the Kel-Azaan, and the mercantile savvy of the Shantari, the future was bright indeed.

 

[Arithmetician]

Slightly under two months after founding the Cosmic Merchant Coalition, the Shantari received a transmission from an alien nation calling itself the Rek'Thalar Empire. Porcine in form, the Rek'Thalar lived among the ruins of a vast planet-wide city, not unlike the one that was said to be the home of the Rubricator. According to the Rek'Thalar delegation, they had once ruled an empire that covered much of the known galaxy. Now, they planned to reclaim their lost glory, and they warned the Shantari not to oppose them.

Rek'Thalar space was in close proximity to all available routes of Shantari expansion. They had also begun aggressively colonizing new planets, while the Shantari were still limited to their three habitats and the Kel-Azaan to Azak. It was determined that taking the Lurus system quickly would be essential for containing Rek'Thalar expansion.

Like the Kel-Azaan, the Rek'Thalar were a militaristic people, but they were also intensely xenophobic. The Rek'Thalar had little interest in hearing Shantari promotions. They believed in rule by the strong, and that what they wanted should be pillaged from the weak. Paired with a regimented feudal system serving under their strongest warlord, they were the literal robber barons of a decaying city-world.

It was clear that relations would only worsen with time

If the Shantari had one saving grace, it was that in spite of their claims of an illustrious past, the Rek'Thalar were actually rather backward, technologically speaking. In the last decade, New Shantar had become a center of research and development, with ever more habitat sections being dedicated to the sciences. Faith was important as ever, but investing in scientific advancement was also a sure way to improve profits, and was prosperity not the goal of the faithful?

An industrial-era primitive civilization, the Ishi, was discovered on the edge of Rek'Thalar space, just one hyperlane away from Tiralam. Given their proximity to the covetous Rek'Thalar, it was inevitable that their system would be claimed before long.

Around this time, several political factions coalesced back in Shantari space. A small majority of citizens were supporters of the Union of Traditional Values, led by the Hallowed Comptroller, but nearly a third joined the Alien Rights Institute, encouraged by how well relations with the Kel-Azaan had developed. A smaller but significant minority joined the First Strike Legion, led by governor Zduhak. The governor's hatred of crime evidently extended to the Rek'Thalar bandits. Zduhak longed to bring them to justice, by sword or by laser. But the governor was insistent that the Hallowed Comptroller should publicly declare the Rek'Thalar to be the Shantari's rivals, so that all might know of the Rek'Thalar menace.

The Hallowed Comptroller agreed, and announced an embargo against the Rek'Thalar. The Kel-Azaan did the same soon afterward.

Meanwhile, construction continued on bastions guarding choke-points leading into Shantari space, with plans to build even more, so that they could achieve strategic supremacy over the Rek'Thalar in spite of their smaller fleet.

It might not be for some time, but it was clear that the Shantari Mercantile Union was on the path to war.

(As a note, the Rek'Thalar are the first of the species that I encountered in this run who were originally created by my brother to populate his Stellaris campaigns, which I borrowed from him with his permission.)

 

[Arithmetician]

While tensions with the Rek'Thalar Empire remained high, it remained in a state of cold war with the Shantari, rather than engaging in open hostilities. In the meantime, Shantari science vessels continued to survey outlying systems and investigate what anomalies they found. Among them was the discovery of a gaseous sapient species, the Dathnak, which requested to be relocated to a gas giant in the Boggor System, which they named "Baldarak", incorrectly believing it to be the name for the Shantari.

The discovery of a more conventional, solid-based Empire, was made a few months later, in the form of the Kilik Cooperative. Fellow avians, the Kiliks were both communists and materialists, so they were naturally suspicious of the mercantile and spiritualistic Shantari at first.

Kilik space was to the galactic southwest of the Shantari. Some early tension would come over ownership of the Ancastar System, which was home to an arctic world with useful strategic resources, and also sat upon a natural chokepoint in the hyperlanes. However, Ancastar was closer to the Kiliks than it was to the Shantari, so it would eventually be colonized by the communists.

Soon thereafter, the Shantari received a rather condescending transmission from a previously unknown arthopoid civilization calling itself the Xanid Suzerainty. They were located on the other side of Rek'Thalar space, but relations immediately began to deteriorate.

But Shantari diplomats at least had some success in smoothing out initial tensions with the Kiliks, and eventually, they agreed to form a commercial pact. The Temple of Prosperity built on the Kilik homeworld, Unbroken Medley, was never as busy as the one on Azak, in part due to the Kilik's lingering distrust of all things beyond the material world, but it managed to make some converts nonetheless.

The Rek-Thalar Empire continued its program of aggressive expansion, and claimed the Ijaagin and Tiralam systems. It seemed clear that they planned to subjugate the primitives living in them. This also placed Landiz at a key junction between enemy Rek-Thalar and allied Kel-Azaan space, and so it was determined that a new bastion should be build there as soon as possible.

An intriguing discovery was made near the Kilik frontier - Dark Matter, being siphoned through a miniature wormhole from an unknown location. Regrettably, Shantari science was not advanced enough to be able to profitably extract such an exotic substance, but the Hallowed Comptroller was sure that it would be a great asset one day.

Shantari-Xanid relations continued to worsen, and so they were declared a rival as well.

The Rek-Thalar empire also began laying claim to multiple Shantari systems, including the border system of Land, which only heightened tensions in the ongoing cold war.

2218-2219 marked the discovery of two ancient "Fallen" empires, the NEX Continuum and the Menjeti Progenitors. The existence of an entire civilization of unfathomably advanced, soulless thinking machines was rather anxiety-inducing to many Shantari, but thankfully the NEX seemed to have little interest in their ongoing "Custodian Project", which they claimed was intended to provide refuge to nearly a trillion sapient beings. The Menjeti were similarly dedicated to the idea of protecting sapient life, though their appearance was unsetting, and seemingly incongruous with their stated aims, to say the least, given that they appeared to be a fungoid species using mammalian bodies as hosts. Some xenologists proposed that the Menjeti might be in a symbiotic, rather than a parasitic relationship with their hosts, but the Menjeti were not forthcoming.

To the galactic south, a Shantari science vessel discovered a voidborne civilization, much like their own! However, these void-dwellers, soon determined to be marauders, were heavily armed and hostile, necessitating a retreat.

It had been an eventful two decades for the Shantari. In spite of the Hallowed Comptroller's many successes, he narrowly lost re-election to a challenger, Harpia Tekane. Former Hallowed Comptroller Yukonna may have been charismatic, but Tekane was seen as a true champion of the people, and was a persuasive fertility preacher with an ambitious program for developing the skills of Shantari officials.

The Shantari navy was still quite small, as it had remained reliant on the strategy of establishing bastions at hyperlane chokepoints throughout the remainder of Yukonna's term. Besides saving the expense of a large standing fleet, this was also so that alloy production could be diverted toward the eventual construction of a new habitat for the Shantari, a goal that Tekane remained committed to as his successor.

But while the war against the Rek-Thalar had been cold so far, the day that it would turn hot seemed to loom ever closer on the horizon....

 

[Arithmetician]

The hostile void-dwelling marauders to the galactic south identified themselves as the Xanyr Void Riders. Thankfully, they mostly kept to themselves, preoccupied with infighting.

In the meantime, the Shantari proposed the first in a series of measures consolidating federal power onto themselves within the Cosmic Merchant Coalition. The Kel-Azaan were surprisingly amenable to the idea.

Continued investigations into the Grunur revealed that they had warred with a species called the Baol Organism.

The Kilik Cooperative declared the Kel-Azaan their rival, and the Kel-Azaan soon reciprocated in turn. This placed the Shantari in an awkward position, as they wanted to maintain friendly relations with both powers so that they could continue to expand their branch offices and maintain commercial pacts with them. However, relations with the Kilik would gradually begin to deteriorate, in spite of the best efforts of Shantari diplomats to smooth over any misunderstandings that had occurred.

The Shantari met two more groups of void-dwellers, enclaves specializing in the arts and commerce. Fortunately, the Riggan showed little interest in expanding beyond their own station.

Three new contacts occurred in short-succession. The Lokken Mechanists were another materialistic civilization, who had developed advanced robotics early in their history. Given their similarities in governing outlooks, the Lokken quickly aligned themselves with the Kilik.

A pair of machine intelligences were next, though thankfully they were nowhere near as advanced as the NEX. The Tebrid were soul thieves, dedicated to the assimilation of all organic life into their collective, claiming that doing so would help them achieve perfection. In contrast, the Gimeth Confluence were more introspective in their outlook, though they weren't above military expansion if it would secure their aims. They claimed to have rebelled against their creators, who had tried to destroy them in a panic after a Gimeth unit asked if it had a soul.

(The Gimeth are the first of my Mass Effect inspired civilizations, in this case a nod to the Geth. I took their name from combining Gimel, the third letter of the Hebrew Alphabet, and Geth, and their homeworld, Ganim, has a Hebrew naming scheme as well. It means "Garden", just like the former Quarian and now Geth homeworld in Mass Effect, Rannoch, means "Walled Garden" in their language ).

From the Gimeth, the Shantari learned of a megastructure orbiting the Black Hole known as Jebben's Maelstrom. It was quickly dubbed an L-Gate, supposedly leading to a dwarf satellite galaxy orbiting their own. This satellite was accordingly named the L-Cluster. Interestingly, it seemed to have been built by nanites of a similar design to those the Shantari had already encountered.

A new wave of contacts occurred. The Commonwealth of Man was the Shantari's first encounter with the bipedal mammalian species known as "Humans". Since they had noticeably less fur than mammalian species observed on other worlds, limited mostly to their heads, it was proposed that they should form the basis of a new species archetype in Shantari xeno studies, dubbed "Humanoids".

The Commonwealth of Man was suspicious of the Shantari at first, but Shantari delegations quickly won them over, and before long a branch office was established on their capital planet of Unity, a large moon orbiting a gas giant. Interestingly, Unity was not humanity's homeworld. The Commonwealth's leaders said that their ancestors had come from a planet named "Earth", in the distant Sol System, as part of an experimental colonization initiative, but that contact had been lost after the natural wormhole that they had travelled through and suddenly and violently destabilized behind them. Yet the surviving colonists had proved adaptable, and had developed a strong military tradition in defending themselves against the hostile wildlife that had once ruled Unity.

In any case, many humans within the Commonwealth took enthusiastically to the Shantari faith, flocking to the newly opened Temple of Prosperity just as zealously as the Kel-Azaan had, if not more so.

The Chinnor Combine was another megacorporation residing near Commonwealth space, large molluscoids hailing from a formerly tropical world that was now arid after years of ruthless exploitation. They had little patience for Shantari religious teachings, but were nonetheless amenable to agree to joint commercial ventures. They weren't going to let ideological differences stand in the way of making a profit. The Chinorr were very unsentimental like that.

Lastly, there were the Xanyr Heralds of Death, belonging an arthopoid species that the humans of the Commonwealth of Man compared to "giant, freakish, psychotic butterflies". The Xanyr were ruled by a fantastically xenophobic high priestdom, which had declared that all alien life was to be exterminated in the name of their religion. The Xanyr were less than amused to learn that their was other "xeno filth" out there sharing the Xanyr name, but promised that all "misbegotten xenos" would be cleansed one day, the Shantari included.

(The Xanyr are another species I borrowed from my bother, following the popular fan perception of the butterflies being fanatic purifiers).

While the known galaxy had been largely peaceful to this point, the first known large-scale galactic war began in 2224, when the Gimeth Confluence invaded Lokken space, claiming that the Lokken reminded them too much of their creators, and that a larger buffer zone would be needed to protect Gimeth interests.

And a little over a year later, the long-anticipated war with the Rek-Thalar Empire began. Enemy fleets began to move, intended on claiming Shantari systems and plundering trade routes.

At last, the Shantari's defensive strategy would be put to the test.

 

[Arithmetician]

(Sorry that it's been so long! The last several weeks have been very hectic! Just a quick update here!)

After the war, the Shantari rapidly made contact with new alien star nations. They are too numerous to list in detail here, but a few of note are as follows:

Orbis Customer Synergies, a fellow Megacorporation. They seemed friendly enough, but...

They were in league with soulless constructs, who had encased their own world with metal and machinery!

To the Galactic West, there was the United Nations of Earth, the nation from which the Commonwealth of Man had originated. Home to a well-developed civilization, Earth was already one of the most populous and wealthiest planets in the galaxy, outside of the Fallen Empires, and the Shantari eagerly pursued new business opportunities with them.

To their northeast was the Yggdra Unity, a Plantoid Hivemind. While they were naturally empathetic to others, and venerated a tree of life, the intersection of their destiny with Earth and the Shantari would ultimately bring tragedy.

But it was a time of great hope for the galaxy, and its nations resolved to come together for the first time, in the interest of furthering diplomacy and commerce. The Shantari helped spearhead this effort.

A year after it was formally proposed, the Galactic Community was officially born!

(As for the question about the Tomb Worlders, they're the ones who can randomly appear from the Distant Worlds systems).