From Outremer, a description of Nest of Intransigence vrexul soldiers:

Like their aggressors, they were entirely arthropod-like in appearance but far larger and bulkier. The smallest among them was at least 8''10, the largest around 11. Beetle-like was the easiest way to describe them, primarily a mixture of predatory carabidae and flexible staphylinidae with elements of dense crustacean sturdiness. Their bodies were hefty and dense, segmented along the middle with thinned out plating, a sort of almost worn, bark-like rough texture or eerily smooth and almost shaped as if by artisinal, otherworldly hands. Their midsections and below seemed oddly flexible in spite of this, almost like the bodies of rove beetles or even earwigs, but with the pronounced denseness and overall weightiness of ground beetles.

It was armor regardless, layered with complex series of interlocking or overlapping sectioned plating made of the sort of nightmarish, jointed biometallic components as the creatures they had slain but here the marriage of metal and biomass was far more deliberately interwoven, blurring the distinction where one began and the other ended. These were not uniform augmentations to their bodies, maddening to analyse or otherwise behold as if each one was a deliberate patchwork expression of some ultra-idiosyncratic, hyper-engineered specificity.

Their limbs were numerous; even numbers for all but varying sharply. Each one possessed at least eight of them; two large legs bent digitigrade but actively shifting their form as if through a series of specifically modified gears, some mimicking human posture and others remaining as they stood. They all had two primary arms minimum; large and like the claws of various decapods but multi-segmented, ending not in a binary claw but multiple complex segmented claw-fingers closer to those of insects. Some of them could be seen fusing these together, sometime supwards of eight or so digits into larger claw like structures. The inverse as well; a larger claw would seemingly fragment into a perplexing, visually overwhelming array of specialized tool-limbs like a nightmarish surgical array.

The smaller limbs emerged across their sides, spindly by comparison but a bit larger than a human's, though multi-joined as a theradectan's. Some of them were clearly cybernetic, others seemingly pulled from completely different kinds of arthropods altogether, and some actually appeared to be long centipede or larvae-like creatures, antennae waving and elongated clasper-limbs snapping about as if hungry for futher flesh and flaying. Sometimes all kinds of auxiliary limbs would retract into their bodies and emerge again, each one almost bearing a life of its own.

Their upper bodies were where they seemed the densest if not for the fact that they were slouched forward most of the time, reducing their effective height by up to around one to three feet. Their shoulders were emphasized when they stood like this with the shadows they cast under the light. Yet they were no longer silhouetted and the particulars of their facial features were finally revealed.

Unlike in mammals, there was no flesh on their faces. Every inch was the same crusty exoskeletal mass as the rest of their bodies. Their heads were longer than a human's, predatory in nature, elongated and flattened as a rove beetle's might be or the tapering, smoothed, almost shovel like head of a ground beetle. One of them seemed to be somewhere between the two, its skull very relatively close to that of a human's by comparison in general outline. Any further similarities were nonexistent when it came to the particulars of their cranial structure and its constituent elements. Long, curving mandible pairs sometimes up to eight opened and closed against a backdrop of appendages and feelers, best described as ranging from what looked like longer finger-sized caprellidae to what looked like extra-flexible ball-jointed antennae with metal tips pointing out at their ends. They did not appear to have noses with their mouths taking a large part of their faces.

Along the sides of their heads and positioned higher up were their dome-like eyes, the side ones almost blended into night-black of their armored carapaces. The ones up top notably lighter in tone and semi-translucent. Some had smaller eyes notable within these top domes; almost glowing beneath, sticking out on little prong-like appendages, and each one swivelling about. Sometimes, the domes were completely black but various outlines of some sort of wiring, augmenting structure, and what might be potential bioelectronics wired through.

This was especially easier to notice as once they turned their attention away from their annihilated enemies, bites of foreign meat stuck to their limbs and armor, it was now upon the joint human-theradectan team. Their weapons remained at the ready; none pointed their way. At the distance they were at, perhaps they would not nead to if they were every bit as malevolent as what they had slain.

They were however, speaking. It was difficult to make out but they were not whispering. Sounds like scraping, grinding, crackling, tearing, and subterranean guttural echoes emerged from behind their mouthparts. Carried over the ruins like a low, heavy wind it was more like a stream of chaotic radio signals being intonated than conventionally "spoken". At first it seemed mindless, random, white noise even, but there was a particular orderliness and structure to it, the waves of sound layered to an absurd, intricate degree. It was a language but it was not one that appeared to be intended to really be understood by anything not raised in whatever strange society these entities emerged from. It was more like they were speaking programming code to one another in terms of complexity.

The hybrid-head one, roughly 9''01 if they stood fully (currenty he was around 7''11 slouched), turned its head to face them. Their face was pointed towards Caleb but given the way their miniature eye clusters seemed to constantly twitch, it was clear he was not necessarily focusing on him. The weapon in their hand, the one that in a single shot had simply blasted away most of the sentinel's upper body, swivelled about, jerking here and there. It was clear that even as they "looked" at the squad, their other eyes were still scanning for any potential targets.

That was not counting the auxiliary arm weapons mimicking the motions.

A deep intonation emerged but this time, it was digital, modulating within fairly rigid shifts of pitch and tone. It held itself as a drone.

The drone then turned into speech, heavy and clear. Too fleshy for machinery, too stiff for mammalian life.

---

From First Contact, a description of two Gnosis Eater Sect vrexul:

The other two were more "conventional" in that they currently were in a bipedal stature with identifiable limbs and other anatomy. Everything else about them was otherwise of a more segmented, insectoid character. There were both massive in size, bulky and lumbering from the view they were given in the teal neon glow, each one roughly eight and a half to nine feet tall and with long beetle like bodies; staphylinid in particular for the length and flexibility but carabid like in the tough, partially streamlined nature of their dark silver-blue and lightly blackened carapace. Their broad shoulders and somewhat wider bodies were in constant movement, not as overwhelming as the pseudo-spheroid but their two larger claw limbs broad as human bodies, four leaner auxiliaries still larger than human arms, and an uncomfortable number of smaller manipulatory and tool-like appendages often ending in snapping, grasping, scything digits.

The larger limbs were similar; their main arms seemed like larger versions of beetle or even shrimp claws but they splintered into multiple smaller digits each one moving independently. As if the facade of large grasping appendages could break apart at any moment. At the very least, the larger legs they stood on seemed normal enough, ending in six-footed long appendages armored like the rest of their bodies. Yet it was clear some of their additional limbs could be used for movement; occasionally they would reach out and run against the ground, retracting into their semi-metallic armor beneath sloping-yet-curving panels of some sort of metallic composition. There were biological carapace elements but they seemed to be being almost overtaken by the clearly artificial components.

Their heads replicated this complexity, lined with cold, dark metal in their flattened shapes akin to earwigs, devil's coach horse beetles, and slightly more flattened ground beetle skulls. These were creatures that had an innately predatory appearance but the feral savagery one might expect had been caged within sleek, fleshless, molded metal of interlinking imititation-chitin plates and cybernetic panels, their eyes turned into multi-ocular camera clusters and otpic dome constructs both swivelling in sometimes up to eight different socket-regions. Mouthparts were visible but they were shrouded behind iron masking shields, giving but occasional hints when they opened of the nightmarish array of layered mandibles, palps, and feelers within before they retracted back behind the alloy-shroud.

---

The natural bodies of these organisms have been lost to time a large part due to how heavily they have genetically modified themselves over the years, even in ages before they had entered the tech-level equivalent to the 1900's. Subsequently what the original vrexul looked like is relegated to old historical records but it was known they were not as large, domineering, and morph-capable as they are now. Today vrexul appear to be enormous carapace-encased creatures with long, bulky forms that often stand on at least two legs but possess by birth and growth (with no additional modifiations) up to 16 or so limbs of varying functions. They usually have between four and 10 for locomotion and interacting with their environment, with a wide variety of components intended for clasping, gripping, cutting, digging and other such functions. Their bodies are typically beetle and with a mixture of smoother sides contrasting sharper edges with their primary arms being large and bulky, almost muscular if not for the lack of visible skin, and usually slightly hunched in a way that makes them appear somewhat shorter than they truly are. Most are a variety of darker, motley colours such as charred wood black, a kind of greenish-brown, faded reds, but a muted emerald green, a blackish blue, and even grey appear amongst them.

Like with various insects, crustaceans, and arachnids they also possess antennae, sensory hairs, pheromone secreting glands, and other such organs typically associated with segmented invertebrates. Many vrexul have short but often extendable antennae around their head or in some cases shoulders but some seem to have lost them with time, having some sort of "ports" instead that almost look like speakers with tiny holes in them. They do not have much hair and if so, it is often around their multi-jointed limbs, near their lower bodies, on their locomotion-oriented legs and so on - vrexul do not have hair by default. Specialized glands for secreting pheromones, an important part of their communication, can usually be found at the base of joints or sometimes on external organs occasionally hidden within their carapaces.

Vrexul faces are best described as mask-like and mindless in appearance. They lack visible soft tissue beyond some joints and connective plating, with their faces often appearing to have compound fly like eye-domes taking up notable but not entire portions of their craniums. Sometimes they may have two larger ones, four or so smaller domes spread out more evenly, multiple swivelling stalk-eyes like crabs, or a variety of smaller ovular-bead like ones. Notable is the presence of smalle eye-clusters located between the larger ocular organs, giving them a complex and wide field of view that compliments their impressive sense of smell. Their bodies are encased by a variety of tough, chitinous layers connected across their torsos and limbs by areas of softer padding-like connective tissues. Carapaces can be rough and uneven or smooth and sleek dependent on the species but it is usually impressively tough around the torso and back areas. The actual composition of the shell can vary between a crustier crab like semi-rocky texture and a sleeker beetle-like metallic sheen but the sheer diversity amongst them results in far more variety than just those two.

Due to their eyes being positioned nearer to the sides of their heads, the vrexul have a notably wider field of vision than most organisms. These can come in the form of eye-clusters of between three to six eyes or dome-like structures with a variety of ocular organs within them (essentially compound eyes). In some cases they are stalk-like similar to crabs and mantis shrimps, capable of swivelling about and retracting into their heads. Vrexul are sometimes capable of "focusing" their sight with one of their larger eyes/eye-clusters/eye-domes to get a sharper and even longer view (akin to using a scope) but this is typically at the cost of peripheral vision. Regardless of the particular kind of vrexul, they typically are capable of perceiving ultraviolet light and can swap between that and a traditional form of sight. Adapting to darker areas comes natural with a few even capable of seeing in infrared and others capable of detecting unusual energy signatures. In these cases they may actually use their smaller groupings of eyes usually a fraction of the size of their primary ones often located between them, allowing them to perceive finer details that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Vrexul antennae and other olfactory organs (partially including their ability to taste in some cases) are used not just for detecting predators, prey, and other such objects and entities of interest but also for communication. Picking up distinct pheromones buried among countless other scents whether in a civilian environment, a raging battlefield, or the wilderness comes naturally. As smell forms a large part of how they communicate, the ability to rapidly differentiate the implicit message being sent with a particular set of chemicals means vrexul offspring rapidly adapt to the olfactory landscape of new environments with impressive speed. In some species they are capable of accurately identifying scents up to 10 or so miles away and quite a few can track their prey for weeks on end just through following the trails of molecules left by their presence. This can even extend underwater for those with more crustacean like characteristics .

In spite of being primarily insectoid, most vrexul are not capable of flight and lack wings but a few usually smaller and less heavyset species do possess them though unless biogenetically modified, can either only glide or accomplish limited flight do their weight. They are still capable of moving faster than their often imposing physique implies especially if they get on their stomachs to use all of their limbs rather than just two. In extremes, proffessionally conditioned and trained vrexul athletes (of relatively smaller species) when moving on all limbs can move almost as fast as certain wheeled vehicles in terms of speed. The grand majority of them are also capable of rapidly burrowing in a variety of substrates. Some species can survive prolonged periods underwater with a smaller number incapable of being drowned in most circumstances. Other species have powerful digitigrade legs capable of propelling them immense distances with mighty leaps, further enhanced by using their wings to help glide and steer their descent. Many vrexul can climb without that much more difficulty than they walk or crawl upon the ground assuming their weight can be supported. If it can be, their speed when moving vertically or even upside down will typically exeed that of humans uses suction grips or climbing gear.

Unsurprisingly the vrexul are quite strong physically, with some observed crushing large dinner table sized clam-like organisms with their bare claws and others rolling over car-sized logs to snatch various prey items hiding underneath. This is a strength that can be observed in their larval or nymphal state, with vrexul offspring (typically the size of large dogs) capable of slicing through bone and ripping open prey sometimes up to twice their size. Their muscles do not seem to atrophy quickly even during periods of relative relaxation but this may be due to a lifestyle that involves far more strenuous and rapid movement on average compared to that of a human especially due to their unusual urban layout. Typically most of their strenghth is concentrated on their primary limb pairs which are often larger and more developed. Auxiliary and even tertiary limbs tend to be weaker by comparison but can be used in tandem for additional power.

Vrexul shells are hardy in a way that is reminiscent of combat-rated armour though non-military type civilian vrexul are often not considered tough enough to survive dedicated military-grade armour piercing or even pure kinetic type rounds. They will fare better than non-shelled organisms typically just due to their sheer mass and complex, often redundant internal organ layouts and their various augmentations letting them function during organ destruction (often due to parasitic organisms taking the place of said organs during failures). Whatever their exoshells were comprised of prior to their great parasitic renaissance is difficult to isolate due to a variety of compounds and even trace metals and augmented by a mixture of softer under-armours and mesh layers that help regulate temperature, diffuse the impact of projectiles or blows, and make it easier to repair and replace individual portions.

They are capable of regeneration though it is a complex process involving carefully removing parts of thier armour and using often exhausting amounts of stored or even injected nutrients to accelerate regeneration. This is typically for whole limbs and individual plates but without specialized augmentating modifications is naturally troublesome and time consuming. This can be sped up by momentarily "shedding" a plate and letting the damage to tissue underneath regenerate then re-attaching the plate. Plates will usually regenerate faster than flesh but it will take longer for them to return to their original integrity. Flesh on the other hand regenerates slower, often closing the wound first, but typically does so more meticulously and with better sealing of wounds and repairs to damaged components.

Both armour durability and regenerative capability can be augmented with a variety of augmentations and parasites, to the extent certain military-type vrexul essentially can tank lighter to medium autocannon rounds and regenerate from piercing wounds in a matter of minutes (though the latter will burn up a lot of regen-nutrient packs).

Due to their unusual evolutionary history, the vrexul are rarely affected by parasitic infections. This is a large part due to the fact that they evolved taking advantage of mutagenic parasites themselves to the point some of their internal chemistry and biology has natural processes that can be selectively activated by a vrexul with the right parasites or even implants and augmentations inside of itself. While they are capable of living without these upgrades, the overwhelming majority of vrexul encountered will have a plethora within themselves. These can be biological, cybernetic, or even ethereal/magical parasites or parasite-imitators that can greatly change their physical functions and allow for a variety of new ones. Their tendency and capability for this sort of ease of self-modification is known as bio-reactivity and it is a characteristic that itself can be improved to allow for a wider degree and level of augmentations.


Many of these are quiet extreme and some are more general. Whether it is enhancing their regenerative capability, allowing for additonal eyes, and giving them increased stamina up to allowing them to control additional drone-organisms, weapons "encoded" into their forms, or replacing whole organs with organisms, the range only grows with more and more advances in this field. Performance enhancements may take the shape of laboratory/clinc-installed changes to their bodily functions but they are better known for organisms/implants/magical enhancements that inhabit and morph both the inner and outer bodies. Sometimes these take the place of or compliment pre-existing internal organs, other times causing mutations and new growths within their various body organ systems. Some vrexul appear to have even evolved certain "ports" often along the sides of their bodies that appear to be adaptations for allowing for additional limbs or parasite-symbiotes to be integrated directly into themselves.

With marginal or no augmentations, vrexul typically live between 190 to 205 years old. Without these limits, the oldest are around 330 years. Most of them start in a larval or nymphal form, either resembling a lengthier semi worm-like creature or a smaller and more feral version of their parents typically lacking bipedal movement in both cases. They are born with various survival instincts they retain for their entire lives and while not as intelligent as their adult forms, are known to be capable of group hunting tactics, maintaining multiple hiding spots, and even primitive semi-verbal communication. The more they age, the more their minds rise from that of a sentient animal to a sapient being through a biochemical process causing them to become more and more lethargic until they enter a pupating state usually after between 6 to 10 years. This pupation can take between one and a half to three weeks but upon exiting, they are considered juveniles often of a paler complexion, softer exoskeleton, lacking certain limbs and even organs, and are still somewhat lethargic as they had essentially been morphing not just physically but mentally into young adults.

By the time a vrexul is between 12 to 16 years old, it reaches a lower stage of adulthood and essentially only differentiated from most adults in terms of size (though these lower-adults can still be between 5''11 and 7''11 in height). A variety of medical in some cases can slow down this treatment at a vrexul's discretion and at others speed it up. By the time they are in their late 10's to early 20's, they are considered full adults and will experience slowed growth, peaking around the age of 49 for most species but some keep growing all the way until they are around 70. Their physical capabilities often grow with time even if they are not particularly active with their sciences often allowing them to maintain peak condition even in the second halves of their existences.

The vrexul did not begin as a single species but a variety of arthropod like populaces on worlds near the edges of known space, around 250 light years away from Earth. On the planet of Spojekralovstvi (Spoy-eh-kra-lov-stee), a world rife with swampy jungles, moss-covered plains, and craggy wastelands, various species of large arthropod like organisms were locked in brutal struggles for survival on a world full of enormous predatory creatures. Their features varied from populace to populace but they approximated features of taxonomic families akin to staphylindae, carabidae, phronimidae, and chilopoda. Initially they were a number of distinct species inhabiting a dangerous and uncivilized world, primarily tribal creatures living in underground, underwater, or arboreal nest-settlements. Some societies were nomadic but all picked up a mixture of fungus or mold based agriculture to supplement hunting against swarm-based intelligent predators and larger solitary megafauna, many of which would attempt to exterminate them to eliminate their fierce competition or to harvest them as a food source.

Sometime in their history they began to encounter both different speices of future-vrexul and parasitic creatures that caused a variety of mutations or other morphological changes in those they infested. As luck would have it, these parasites were no less endangered than they were with many of the dangerous fauna and occasionally flora of the Spojekralovstvi increasingly adapting to finding and catching them and their usual host species. Early vrexul tribal alliances would begin experimenting with the integration of these creatures into their bodies, selectively breeding and subsequently modifying their genetics over the years to select for very particular morphological effects. This would lead to them discovering biotechnology before metalworking and electricity derived technologies (though it would help lead to the prior two's popular implementation) and would also begin the creation of the vrexul species. In discovering how to change their bodies, they also did the same for their genetics. As more populations encountered and intermingled, gradually they would begin to mix not only phenotypic but also genotypic data.

Now known as the vrexul, this species in the midst of a biotechnological boom and growing in unified power rapidly began to turn the tables on those that once treated them as prey and pest. Gifted with bodies now much deadlier than what they could naturally afford, with strange weapons growing from their carapaces complimenting radically modified internal biologies, they rose to become the dominant life form on Spojekralovstvi. Some arthropod species did not end up assimilating but usually were isolated from the primary population groups, maintaining distant relationships of trade and culture. The new vrexul-dominated world found itself with breathing room for one of the few times in its existence and the now unified tribes, quickly becoming larger organized associations, began to put all of the shared knowledge to use in creating what appeared to be the first true signs of civilization.

While the conflict against an external threat had ended and they were making rapid growth in terms of technology, philosophy, architecture, the arts and other fields a variety of rifts began to appear amongst the various societies forming in this period. The war had forged some of them into a more stationary, loosely associated, and relatively quiet set of settlements and others into militantly aggressive and ever-watchful ones. Others simply wanted to vanish back into the same murky depths they had risen from and others felt they were owed far more for their service in these conflicts. Weariness from a history primarily defined by bloodshed kept all out conflict from happening and many of them still saw themselves as part of the same natural world they had practically been at war with. For many the idea of themselves as a people separate from nature was a philosophically deficient and even harmful idea with civilization as it currently stood being a dead end waiting to disappoint those it had trapped.

As a whole, Spojekralovstvi began to rapidly grow and expand with biotech-infused FTL-capable vessels created fairly quickly. It was also during this time that they began creating a variety of space stations that soon grew into floating cities. Many of those who believed that the current societal trends were not in their favour ended up on these floating structures, developing cultures sharply different than those they had left on the surface.

During this period the rifts within the vrexul as a whole were starting to worsen. Galvanized by rapid technological growth contrasted by increasingly entrenched, slowly changing ideologies it was not long before once conflicting positions all began to reduce themselves to two major umbrella classifications. The first were the Prvolhlastni (Primordial Voice) which was formed of the larger city states and industrialist organizations, the independent military organizations, and a number of interest groups directly propped up by emergent industrial powers. The second was the Jedgnozilik (Gnosis Eater Sect) formed from independent nomadic associations, loose associations of smaller settlement organizations, various floating cities, and governments typically in exile from a variety of smaller homeworld conflicts. Prvholhlastni desired an expanded sense of statehood, the full unification of Spojekralovstvi with its colony worlds, and an aggressive push outwards to find and settle on more space. Jedgnozilik by contrast desired a multipolar alliance with a looser series of bonds between its constituents and a more regimented, council-based way of handling relations between the vrexul and the non-assimilated species on the planet.

During this time, one a major question was debated and argued even by those unaligned to either side was the question of the vrexul's nature. They had after all subjugated an environment that had once nearly driven them to extinction and assimilated multiple parasite species to their own ends, becoming the most fearsome sapients in the region. At the same time, they proved they could unify and were people who when given the chance could also make great strides in the arts, philosophy, sciences, and technology. The current conflict created a conflict between the perceived being of the vrexul - was what was happening proof they were not any more evolved than when the first parasite-augmented warrior struck down the great mammalian beasts in ancient jungles, propelled by nothing more than a desire to survive via domination. In the midst of escalating tensions and proxy conflicts, it was decided to settle which of the two great ideopolitical fronts was correct on the matter in what would be the final great experiment of their kind.

The purpose of this experiment was not just to answer a hot button philosophical question but also to hopefully stop the forthcoming conflict many knew was over the horizon. It had quietly been set up by the Jedgnozilik through a mixture of controlled neutral organizations and covert operations groups to counteract the fact that they knew they could not defeat the Prvlhlastni in a straight up fight. The whole experiment was based around relocating a large amount of vrexul eggs on large life-seeder fleets and send them to a top secret location observed by hidden surveillance - one that would see if they would resort to barbarity or unity. It was to be protected by a top secret research project - the creation of a hybrid form of technology in the form of an advanced living supercomputer. Known as the Ixaxxion, it was a grotesque cloud-like formation of magical, biological, and cybernetic components programmed to protect the unborn fleet and it was assisted by a variety of advanced AI's.

As the life-seeder fleet left, the situation on Spojekralovstvi further deteriorated. The promise of a grand experiment watched from afar held for a decade but the proxy wars had worsened and as everyone expected, lead to the long awaited civil war breaking out. Their homeworld was once more embroiled in a massive war, one that the Jedgnozilik would lose as they scattered across the stars, forced to retreat as they were hunted down for information on where the life-seeder fleet had landed.

The fleet itself had landed in a fairly isolated part of space but it had not been sent in blind and unprepared. The Jedgnozilik were well aware they would lose the first major engagements but that's why their offspring were the backup plan. As the conflict raged on and the Jedgnozilik concealed themselves amongst the stars, they would do everything they could to mislead, deceive, slow, and cripple the Prvolhlastni. They could not be allowed to discover the location of the seed-fleet for it could spell disaster for the last effort they had at truly striking back and settling the conflict once and for all.

The seed-fleet had landed on a world that had been marked down as Szravolek and immediately, the Ixaxxion and its AI-councils began rapid expansionist and colonization procedures. While it and its AI compatriots initially witheld much of the information about the Vrexul's past (this is something the Prvlhlastni had enforced as part of their agreement to the experiment), the seed-vrexul known as Hnizsduvnosti (Nest of Intransigence) were far from fully naive. They had been raised still with the idea of answering the the great question of nature or nurture on mind but they had also been given various instructions by the Ixaxxion for rapidly accelerating the growth of their society and a variety of technologies that while now somewhat dated, would form the basis for rapid technological growth via reverse engineering and the natural curiosity of their kind. It was not long before they began to explore their new system, begin discovering hidden bases previously placed by the Jedgnozilik though they were not aware of who they were yet exactly due to how vrexul technology had advanced in the long years of this violent conflict.

However, the isolation would not last as long as the Jedgnozilik had hoped. The Sztreponorezeny had not only discovered the hidden Jedgnozilik outposts but even activated many of them and under a rather awkward set of circumstances, were finally reunited with their progenitors. To further complicate things, the Hnizsduvnosti had also been meeting with and orbserving distant human socieites from smaller independent states and colonies to the larger factions vying for power. While humanity in turn was not very aware of them on a whole beyond the odd urban legend or two, it was becomign clear that it would only be a matter of time before the growing vrexul presence at the fringes of their space would be found out. Knowing that they are still not powerful enough to oppose the Provlhlastni, these vrexul are in the process of preparing to find potential allies amongst the strange, dangerous new species they find themselves neighbours to as their old enemies remain on the prowl to finish what they started.

These lumbering entities can be said to have a generally collectivist culture that is offset by their otherwise cold and seemingly uncaring nature. Regardless of whether they are from the days of empire or not, they typically do not have a concept of family and otherwise seem to be creatures that live primarily to feed and reproduce, even if they lack the sort of culinary or romantic culture we might expect from that among others. In spite of this, they hold a sort of pragmatist sense of unity that sees individuals as primarily fragments that whether consciously or not, create the motions of history, progression, and ideology when enough of them simply act as wholes disconnected or unified.

In spite of having a history a large part defined by bloodshed and conflict among themselves or with others, they are not particularly begrudging either though this is moreso for seed rather than decentralization vrexul (or the expansionists). For the seed-vrexul who control some territory, this is due to the unusual form of governance and general class-lacking nature of their society. The lower levels of power are generally held by various community leaders and directly-elected officials but it becomes stranger the higher one goes. Conventional politicians become replaced by gestalt consciousness-linked groups of people who basically sacrificed their sense of selves to semi-mentally meld into unified living computer-councils. Go up further and the AI-councils originally created to guide them handle an even wider array of data management, dispersal, and counselling.

At the very top now sits the strange biocomputers known as Ezvredigors, created solely for the purpose of decision making as well as protection. They rule out and announce various decisions, determine the parameters of politlcal involvement, and could be seen as the highest power... but all of this vertical power ultimately rests on those at the very bottom. After all, everyone lower down has the freedom to collectively refuse, oppose, and create decisions of their own and force them all the way up to the top. Ezvredigors, AI councils, gestalt collectives - their function is less one of rule and one more of assisting with complex decisions.

Vrexul society is in this strange spot of being fairly liberating but also difficult in general. In spite of lacking the concept of family, all childcare is more or less taken care of by enormous nurseries replicating their natural environments while their "children" are born with a variety of feral survival instincts. Education subsequently is mostly about taking post-pupal or nymphal offspring who are only just beginning to transition from a feral to a sapient consicousness, often being lethargic and skittery, and gradually doing a mixture of "unlocking" latent language capabilities and roughly getting them up to speed with the specifics of survival as adults.

Most of them live in large group homes usually made of essentially "cyborg artificial bioplants" that everyone plays a part in maintaining whether it's installing specially bred organisms to convert plant-juice into nutrition or burrowing through parts of it to make additional living space. Work is in an odd spot as a lot of the essentials are provided and essentially owned by communities while they partially automate much of the work. At the same time there is a lot of difficult work that the biomachines are not necessarily 100% adept at doing or require a more specific touch so much of it is formed of volunteers and specially trained collectives and interest groups. A few societies have "money" but others basically use credit points for if you want to get extra goodies beyond what you're typically allotted.

Further contrasting the appearance of cold pragmatism, vrexul naturally group together less so in "hives" and moreso in what they treat as the cultural equivalent of small biomes. While they don't really have political parties (the only "party" is more of an apparatus of decision making), a lot of both political and cultural power lays within interest groups that can affect grander level decision making. Collectives for mining, biotech research, archaeology, philosophy and so on sprout, dissolve, absorb one another and so on, often taking care of the needs of their own and reshaping parts of their communities to fit their particular visions.

Quite a few of these are also artistic collectives and while the vrexul are somewhat suspicious of outsiders, they do pump out quite a few cultural products they often export to soften up outsiders to them. A lot of it is visual art, often focusing on bizarre arcane, cryptic, and occult subject matter and a large portion is musical. Unsurprisingly the music is not particluarly accessible either, often sounding like strange mixtures of dark ambient, the more cryptic ends of extreme metal, feverish tribal chanting, electroacoustic microtonal chamber music, some sort of demented folk music/crust punk crossover, and so on, but it's found a niche in a number of societies.

• zatchtraceni