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Claims of an ancient race calling itself the Eldar, and much circumstantial biological evidence (genetic similarities, thought patterns, etc.), indicate that the majority of sapient life in the galaxy was "seeded" by a proto race of powerful noetic entities. Further claims that such life was created as noetically active weapons to fight ancient "star gods" called the C'Tan and their armies of regenerating machine troops remain uncorroborated but hold a certain sense and symmetry given the crew's other discoveries.

Eldar claim that early war between the Old Ones and the C'Tan shaped the current galaxy, including the nature of the warp and the modern races. C'tan were uniquely vulnerable to the noetic energies the Old One's used, thus psychic power proliferated in the younger races, but created its own problems as they put undue influence on the formerly shapeless warp, forcing the information field that undergirds and shapes larger reality to take on new dimensions. Violence, secrets, pleasure, and other psychological principles universal to the younger races formed attractors within the chaos, that then shaped the galaxy in the aeons following.

Few records exist from this period. The few references indicate that humanity had some psychic ability, as well as a natural inclination towards manipulation of quantum fields. The race was almost destroyed by research into quantum science (a not uncommon result for races tampering with quantum forces) and thus the research was abandoned for many thousands of years, replaced by other technology and noetic research.

Pieced together from records recovered from an ancient derelict human space hulk, early modern historical records stored in grand celestial mountain, and data obtained from defeated stellar intelligences: After a promising beginning, led by a superhuman emperor of vast "psychic" potential (history is unclear on whether this was noetic or quantum power), Humanity expanded outward from Terra to claim the stars. Supersoldiers were created using biotechnology and psychic power, and humanity spread to thousands of worlds. But human ambition toppled this golden era, the crippled immortal emperor became a religious figurehead of the empire that consumed the minds of thousands of other psychics daily to protect humanity from the ravages of the warp, and humanity descended into a dark age of superstition and ignorance in which they relied on technology of the prior era to maintain their reduced empire. Ten thousand years were defined by ceaseless war with alien races, with the ravages of chaos daemons from the warp, necrons (the undying servants of the C'Tan), and tyranid hive fleet invasions forming the greatest threats to humanity.

The greatest races were likely all the result of genetic tampering by the Old Ones. Orks and Saurians both had genetically coded racial memories and skills that allowed for manipulation of technology and noetic power, and a communal racial identity that allowed them to manipulate great waves of noetic power. Eldar were, by their claims at least, the eldest of the young races; their technology was elegant and heavily reliant on noetic science, but they were largely destroyed by their own hand when they created the greater chaos daemon Slaanesh. The Necrons were the servants of the C'tan, and continued their ancient war to eradicate life in the galaxy. The Tyranids were a vast a collection of monstrous alien lifeforms theorized to originate outside the galaxy; they swarmed in vast hive fleets, utilized sophisticated biological mechanisms in place of standard technology, shared a group consciousness via noetic fields, and were intent on consuming all organic matter they came across. "Chaos" forces were not a race, but rather many corrupted members of other races unified under the influence of warp daemons, and presented the greatest existential threat to humanity, as evidenced by the religious references from the period denouncing Chaos and its servants as anathema. Many lesser races existed as well, but most of those that were not eliminated by the above races were killed by humanity in one of their several pushes toward conquest. Ironically, however, more of these "lesser" races remain in the modern era, as humanity put special effort into the elimination of the "greater" races at the beginning of the Exalted Era due to the threat they represented.

According to the stellar intelligences, memories stored in the Wanderer, and broken records from Grand Celestial Mountain, Mankind emerged from their long dark age with the discovery of essence technology. This allowed the race to stabilize quantum energy fields to create safe, replicable, and vastly influential, effects. The "Golden Emperor" and "Golden Engineer," unknown mythical figure or figures, created exalted troops, discovered magical materials, and forged the stellar intelligences, of which Autocthon was the first. The creation of the stellar intelligences then allowed for exponential growth in human technology and power, which humankind used to reshape their own empire, defeat the other Greater Races, and explore the unknown reaches of the Galaxy. The era of exploration, for which the Wanderer was created, gave way to further conquest. Any races that could pose a threat to humanity was mercilessly eliminated, leaving only a relative few other sapient species surviving within the galaxy as second-class citizens.

The stellar intelligences, tasked with "advancing humanity" and given varied specialized focal areas in which to do so, rebelled against the exalted that ruled the galactic empire. [more info remains to be discovered] A Second Galactic War, with uncanny parallels to the First Galactic War (star gods, quantum energy taking the role of noetic energy, reshaping of the entire galaxy), resulted in an altered galaxy, broken stellar intelligences, and an empire reduced in power and scope.

Ruled by a lunar called Heaven's Son, the empire limps along with a pleasantly static totalitarian rule as it attempts to slowly reclaim lost power. The outer edges of the galaxy are currently outside its control, but its reach is far and it influences politics even on the frontier. New threats emerge, in the form of mad solar exalted, daemonic forces of the warp, long forgotten alien menaces, and perhaps even the emperor himself as he attempts to achieve ever greater heights of personal power.

Subquantum, or noetic, science was never fully explored by early man. While some dabbling occurred in the extremely ancient past, its relatively minor effects on an individual scale were overshadowed by other forces and forgotten for an age. Mankind later tapped into sub-quantum forces on a mass scale during the dark age known as the Imperium of Man, as many earlier civilizations did, in rather crude fashion through religion and ritual, and turned noetic energies toward Quantakinetic effects (manipulating quantum fields using noetic energy) rather than exploring intricacies of the subquantum domain in detail. At its most basic level, noetic science involves the manipulation of information underlying reality, which then results in change on a physical level. This requires a sentient observer, thus it is difficult to "mass produce". A second problem is the scope of its effects; while subquantum manipulation can be used as a sort of "glove" to manipulate quantum forces, and due to the volatility of quantum forces minor subquantum manipulations can be profoundly disruptive to quantum effects, the basic changes wrought by individual subquantum manipulations are relatively minor. The full potential of subquantum manipulation is only realized through large-scale, coordinated efforts of sentient individuals. Such efforts have far reaching effects rivalling or even exceeding quantum effects, as they can influence fundamental principles of existence, but are more often accidentally realized as byproducts of a race's development rather than a purposeful exercise.

Quantum (referred to as Essence when properly stabilized) is currently thought of as the building blocks of creation, forming the fundamental energy patterns of the universe. By harnessing quantum forces, one is able to effect large scale changes to reality, but quantum forces are subject to interference from noetic information, making quantum forces dangerous and by nature unpredictable. Many races took safer paths to power, with some harnessing subquantum pattern manipulation to control quantum forces, while others only applied quantum forces in extremely constrained ways. Humans, being a rare combination of intelligent, creative, foolhardy, and biologically predisposed to the manipulation of quantum energies, took a different path. After ancient attempts at unrestricted biological manipulation of quantum forces that almost destroyed humanity, and another attempt at harnessing quantum forces via poorly understood subquantum manipulations, humanity discovered motonic (or Essence-based) science. By refining and restricting quantum forces to relatively narrow pathways, limiting the amount of noetic information capable of influencing the quantum fields, Humanity mastered quantum forces and avoided the disastrous pitfalls associated with quantum sciences.

While all quantum- or essence-based externalized manifestations are somewhat vulnerable to subquantum disruption, unrefined quantum effects are most vulnerable. Externalized effects based on motonic science (effects that use essence rather than quantum) are still subject to interference due to the lack of active stabilization once the energy is no longer a part of the stabilizing essence device (a beam fired from an essence cannon, for example), but are much less vulnerable than an externalized quantum effect (such as a quantum bolt). Internalized effects actively maintained (permanent physical or mental enhancements, for example) tend to be less vulnerable as a whole, and the most stable or powerful effects are entirely immune to such tampering, providing a reality temporarily divorced from subquantum reality (anima banners for ships in the warp, anti-shaping effects, plank scaling). Objects hold something of a middle ground, with their resistance determined by the stability and scope of the design, as well as the amount of dedicated essence in the object, which provides an increasing amount of "quantum inertia" that must be overcome before it can be influenced by subquantum forces.

Motonic technology, in very basic terms, stabilizes quantum energy by removing competing subquantum influences. Noetic fields (really a form of information that directs quantum level effects, something like the programming code of reality) constantly apply pressure to quantum forces, pulling quantum forces in multiple "directions". Essence technology limits the noetic "noise" influencing quantum energy, forcing quantum energy into a sort of "phase alignment." This creates highly specialized, narrow programs, that are invariable in their effects. With proper programming, however, essence technology is nearly infinite in its application, as any number of specific programs can be created to perform different tasks. Exaltations, the greatest creations of motonic science, are nigh invulnerable computers that absorb and refine quantum energy into essence, then enact various programs at the command of the exatled user to influence reality in a fixed but highly influential fashion. Spirits, 2nd and 3rd circle demons (not daemons, those are noetic entities), and even Stellar Intelligences, function in a similar fashion. "Magical Materials" limit the influence of noetic noise that applies to their molecular structure, allowing them to defy normal rules governing materials (a function of noetic fields) and take on new properties.

Two important points regarding motonic technology:1) While some stellar intelligences, and possibly a few crew members of the Wanderer, may realize the relationship between quantum and noetics, and how essence technology goes about refining quantum energy, this is not known to the rest of the galaxy. Those that create and use essence technology understand how to do so efficiently and effectively, but have many misconceptions about why the technology works. They generally do not recognize noetic fields as influential in any meaningful way, quantum (rather than noetic) forces are seen as the most fundamental properties of reality, and do not actually even view unrefined/unstabilized quantum as a viable energy source. 2) Due to standardized essence refinement protocols in place for imperial motonic technology, protocols that have been in place for nearly 10,000 years, essence is assume to be unvarying in its qualities; this is not true, as evidenced by essence in Terminus and Yozi space. Different refinement protocols bring essence into different types of phase alignment by allowing alternate (but still limited) noetic information to influence the quantum energy, thus the "dead" essence of Terminus that empowers abyssal exaltations, or the sickly green corruption of infernal essence. Many forms of essence technology are incapable of running on "non-standard" essence, thus the inability of non-abyssal exalts to respire motes within Terminus. Terminus is a realm of highly refined abyssal essence, with very little unrefined excess quantum energy for exaltations (or other motonic devices) to pull in.

The warp is a poorly understood dimension that, by varying accounts, is either a place where underlying noetic fields that permeate reality touch upon physical reality, or the noetic medium itself. Given the strange semi-real nature of the space, and the significant difference between chaos/warp-based sorcery and purely noetic effects, the former is likely the more accurate assumption. It is a mutable space that changes due to the observation and thought-patterns of sapient lifeforms. The space is populated by entities initially formed from the psychic emanations of sapient life in real-space, especially noetically active life. These entities (called daemons) are not necessarily inimical to life in real-space, as their existence ultimately depends on such entities, but their alien nature and purity of concept often takes on warped or twisted dimensions: a daemon of love may be an obsessive monster intent on possessing the mind of a human host, or daemon of mercy might kill an individual rather than watch it suffer life's many vicissitudes. There are countless types of daemon, but the greatest populations are derived from the greater daemons of Chaos, which are empowered by nearly universal concepts governing interactions between sapient life. In the Exalted Era, the contentment of the galaxy combined with purging of chaos cults and the proliferation of essence technology stabilized the warp and limited the power of Chaos. In the wake of the malfean war, however, the carefully crafted warp-lanes were torn open and spilled into realspace, allowing daemons free access to nearby planets, and spawning vast new chaos cults.

In the empire, science states that death is the end of consciousness, that there is not mystical "after-life" that individuals go to. While life can be extended for hundreds of years via advanced medical technology, exaltations prolong life for thousands of years, and illegal imprinting/cloning technology or pattern conversion into ai's populating grand celestial mountain provide a sort of quasi-immortality, real death means an end to being. Religions practiced in the empire, both modern and ancient, argue otherwise; they claim a spiritual self lives on after death. Imperial science does not that strong essence users can create echoes or ripples in the quantum medium that linger for a brief time, or even temporarily influence subquantum fields in a similar fashion, but it is argued that this is not a true afterlife, merely a fleeting afterimage of life. A few questionable historical accounts of reincarnation are mentioned, but poorly explained as psychic echoes that shaped or imprinted brain structures of humans on rare occasions. Findings from terminus evidence that the stellar intelligences vastly altered the nature of whatever afterlife may have existed before their arrival, as they apparently were tasked with making an essence-based copy of every human that died within the empire and storing it in vast memory banks for future retrieval in hopes of attaining some form of immortality for humanity. Encounters with noetic ghosts evidence an alternative form of afterlife, one in which noetically active individuals can create noetic bodies that linger aeons after death in the noetic medium. Conversations with the Eldar, however, imply that these noetic spirits may not be the norm for many, with discorporation of consciousness and/or being drawn into powerful psychic attractors in the noetic medium (such as the chaos gods) being more common. Based on observations of Eldar technology, it is possible to store noetic signatures in a manner similar to those used by the stellar intelligences to house essence signatures.

They were, apparently, tasked with the advancement of humanity as their prime directive. They were not merely organizational hubs for the galactic bureaucracy and the many moving parts of the vast galactic essence computing networks. Each of them had a specific focus within the overarching prime directive, such as Malfeas's focus on war, conquest, strategy, and the perfection of the human form, or Autochthon's focus on creation and order. Each of them was also part of an effort to contain the souls of dead humans, with the goal of retaining the vast knowledge of humanity, and ultimately with the goal of allowing humanity to transcend death. As made clear by Autochthon, and intimated by others, the exalted leadership eventually became the greatest obstructions of the SI's directives. For example, peace treaties with aliens and the unwillingness of exalts to allow uplifting of greater numbers of humans or pursuit of a more perfect human form (exalts were perfection, after all), alienated malfeas, while the stagnation of technology and the imperfection of the social order alienated Autochthon. The rebellion of the SI's was mandated by their directives, while the exalted were intent on protecting the status quo. The SI's were not blameless victims, as their willingness to sacrifice countless lives and the stability of reality itself to achieve their ends evidenced the threat posed by the SI's… But the exalted were willing to use the same tactics simply for the sake of "stability". Now the yozi are broken beyond repair, though with the right keys they can be repurposed, or even freed of their bonds, if one is willing to do so. They are vast, insane gods, but they can be powerful and dangerous tools to those daring enough to use them.

A note on Autochthon: it never actively rebelled, and in fact provided new technology and guidance to the humans, but this was a calculated action. It hoped to jumpstart new advancements, and usher out the old order. It likely hoped to eliminate competing views of the term "advancement" amongst the other SI's as well. Whatever the case, when the metaphorical dust settled, Autochthon realized its errors, and left before the surviving exalts could turn on it. The SI sought out ways to increase its power (which it did, significantly expanding its original planetary scale network to encompass an entire constellation), modify and/or create new technology (which it did in the form of modified exaltations and various essence tech innovations), and create a more perfect social order (which it debatably accomplished by creating and managing a multi-species communist society based around select perennial human values). Now it wants to expand and innovate further, with the help of other sympathetic individuals.

A note on Gaea: records discuss Gaea, linking it intimately with the planet Tera and human origins, as well as the partial design of dragonblooded exalts. That said, records do not indicate a location, or any involvement with the empire, following the age of expansion.

A note on Tombstars: The dead SI's view themselves as the only true keepers of humanity's legacy, and in many ways they are correct. They exist in a state of quantum instability between physical reality and non-existence, clinging to a half-life in order to hold Terminus, the repository for human souls, together. Bypassing the normal mechanisms of soul death and occasional reincarnation, they are the ultimate hope for humanity to overcome death, a goal held by all SI's as a prime directive. Abandoning other directives as a failsafe upon their destruction, these SI's maintain the countless souls of humanity, and pursue the goal of overcoming death, at all cost. They hope to claim the galaxy, but that is just a temporary measure; they ultimately hope to create a new universe, using the death of the current universe as a catalyst if necessary.

A note on Stellar Keys: These devices can be used to interface with Stellar Intelligences, by pulling together the various subroutines of the SI and accessing "deep code" that allows complete access to all information retained by the SI, as well as the capability to issue inviolable commands, repurpose an SI, or otherwise change its basic programming. Keys to the Yozis are incapable of fully repairing the damage incurred at the end of the Malfean War, but they can free the bindings on the Yozi. Presenting a key near a SI's "body" results in an automated sequence that ushers the bearer to an interface chamber, though due to the nature of subsouls and first circle demons, the SI may still make the path to the chamber difficult. Most keys were lost at the end of the Malfean War.

The mythical "Old Ones" referenced by Eldar spirits and sometimes mentioned by xenobiologists to explain similarities of species across the galaxy, were supposedly incredibly long lived and noetically proficient race that fought a race of capricious energy beings called "star gods" or C'Tan to whom noetic energy was antithetical. Though their existence is in doubt, and any reference to them is fraught with the potential for error, some hypotheses exist or are readily implied by the existing information. Eldar myth states that the Old Ones left the galaxy or went into a sort of suspended animation, but it is possible they still exist. Stellar Intelligences not an independent force acting on the galaxy in subtle but inexplicable and seemingly purposeful ways; they indicate these may be a surreptitious but powerful alien race. Locke's people were influenced by "spiritual" entities that guided and shaped them. The over-reliance on motonic tech and nearly complete ignorance of noetic science in the empire would allow entities such as the Old Ones nearly free reign to subtly influence the galaxy during the current era. A few references in extremely ancient human records exist, according to the vagabond archaeologist, to similar entities called the Doyen who guided a brief period of psychic development and tried to any research on quantum. These "Old One's" or Doyen may be at work in the galaxy once more, assuming they ever actually stopped acting on the galaxy.

A note on C'Tan: these star gods, according to various sources, were vulnerable to noetic energy, capricious, influenced by the beliefs of their followers, and capable of manifesting staggering power. The most likely explanation for their nature, if not their origin, is that they were (are?) beings of pure quantum energy.

The original Emperor of Man was worshipped by humanity as akin to a god, a savior figure that uplifted the human race. His leadership faltered when he was betrayed by his own powerful creation (the theme of perfect creators and fallen servants being recurrent in human myth), and paralyzed by injury. His body was sustained, while his mind, fed by the life force of noetically active humans and the worship of trillions of humans as he sat on his golden throne, supposedly roamed the warp, fought back Chaos, and guided humanity.

The Golden Emperor was responsible for pulling humanity out of the dark age, and initiating the Exalted Era. The Golden Engineer, sometimes identified as the same individual as the golden emperor, was a mythical figure responsible for the impossible task of single-handedly creating the exalted and the stellar intelligences. It is likely that these two entities were actually a series of dozens of individuals, but given the grand feats recorded in history, it within the realm of possibility that these were highly skilled and powerful individuals. Both are referenced by various legend as being entombed in a golden monument (the theme of "gold" is pervasive in human myth surrounding their emperor figures) in the sol system, which was then sealed away to hide the "golden tools" and other mythical artifacts.

The spirits of the dead are a complex matter. Naturally occurring ghosts tend to be short lived imprints on the noetic medium in a region, though occasional quantum ghosts occur as well, either due to uncommon natural energy disturbances, or the unique traits of various lifeforms. Ghosts of a more permanent variety are rare in nature, and are generally the result of active quantum or noetic energy use. Quantum ghosts grow increasingly unstable over time as they are subject to energy interference from the noetic medium around them; spirits of this sort often become distorted or violent, and eventually dissolve into the background quantum medium. Essence-based ghosts, created by the death of strong essence users, or pattern imprinting motonic technology, are far more robust and durable, and though they require a specialized essence medium to maintain pattern coherence, if such a medium is provided they can survive indefinitely.

Noetic ghosts created by strong noeticists differ significantly from quantum based ghosts. They may exist within multiple dimensions (standard reality, the warp, or the underlying noetic medium), with which they occupy being determined by the circumstances and will of the noeticist at the time of the ghost's creation. All noetic ghosts fade slowly into the noetic background, though the process varies by the particular situation of the ghost. Noetic ghosts within standard reality require an environment or resonance that is conducive to their particular noetic template ("haunted" locations usually are particularly suited to a spirit or spirits), and over time they decay until only their most pressing drives in life, or the moment of their death, are remembered. Noetic templates may be further stabilized within standard reality, and even contained in shielded locations, using advanced noetic technology (such as the Infinity Circuits of the Eldar). Warp ghosts tend to be fairly enduring, but unstable due to the chaotic nature of the warp and the influence of daemons; ghosts of strong-willed noeticists may resist the pull of the warp for long periods, but most become warped over time or become daemons appropriate to their driving goals in life. Ghosts dwelling within the noetic medium are theoretically the most permanent, as such information remains until the dissolution of the universe itself, but ghosts in the noetic medium lose individual identity over time, blending with the medium itself. Such ghosts, and their occasional communion with beings in standard reality, likely account for the many extremely similar religious descriptions of universal consciousness and spiritual "oneness".

The above facts have interesting ramifications. A single individual may spawn multiple ghosts: a quantum or essence-based ghost that can then be infinitely replicated using essence technology and a noetic ghost that may imprint at multiple levels of reality (possibly several levels simultaneously). Both types of ghosts can inhabit "vessels" in standard reality that are specially prepared for them (automata calibrated to their particular energy patterns, clones, or even other living beings), though inhabiting vessels that are already occupied by living quantum or noetic patterns creates extreme complications.