Scryve Empire

The **Scryve Empire** is the primary antagonist for Star Control Origins.  Principally ruled by the Scryve race, the Empire is the central power in the galaxy as far as many races know, having conquered dozens of races over the long history of the Empire. The Empire is as slowly dying as the Scryve themselves are, frayed around the edges by time and the decline of its ruling caste. However, the Empire remains strong and is keen to weed out any threats to itself and destroy them or enslave them. The centre of the Empire is the Scryve homeworld of Scryveno Seat.

**History**

The Empire has its roots in the Scryve’s original rise to prominence in the galaxy. During their ascension, they came into contact with a group called the Faction of Eight. The Faction required all new species to challenge a member of the Eight and defeat them to claim their original place. The Scryve did so with impunity, annihilating their predecessor with rapid efficiency. In time, they came to despise the Faction and its methods, unable to understand the need for such a barbaric practice the meritocracy created. Whilst the Faction of Eight denied its members the ability to develop technologically, the Scryve did so in secret, to gain an edge over the other members. Once they had reached new heights of technology, the Scryve struck, killing the other members of the Faction and driving them all to extinction.

Determined not to repeat the mistakes of the Faction, the Scryve allowed other species to develop of their own accord, research areas they had been denied under the Faction and generally do as they pleased. This turned out to be a fatal error. The Scryve found that most species simply annihilated themselves, either by creating a weapon too powerful for them to handle or by opening gateways to other dimensions, where they were quickly eaten. Understanding at last the wisdom of the Faction, the Scryve set about replacing it, but with a more “peaceful” solution. Thus, the Empire was born.

Over the next ten thousand years, the Scryve would aggressively enslave primitive species, to bring them under the protection of the Scryve and keep these species from developing without intense observation from the Scryve. In addition, over the centuries, rivals would appear to challenge the Scryve for dominance, so the Scryve constructed a series of listening outposts throughout their empire to ensure that rivals could be found early and snuffed out before they ruined everything the Scryve had built.

Over time however, the Scryve came to make the same mistakes as their ward species, but with them, there was no-one to hold accountable. This came to a head with the discovery of the Xraki. The four-armed species was simple, yet dangerous in combat, so the Scryve enslaved them as marines aboard their ships. The Xraki also had an Origin in their system, a large machine floating in space that could punch a hole through to different dimensions. The Scryve took the opportunity to explore the anomaly and attempt to see what was on the other side. This caused a force known as the Gluttonous Eyes to take control of the Xraki and cause a period of intense and violent war amongst the Scryve Empire. Upon defeating and sealing the Xraki away, the Scryve began to enforce a policy of information suppression, so that other species would avoid such a mistake as theirs in the future.

In time though, the Scryve grew complacent, having become immortal through their mastery of genetic engineering and losing the ability to produce offspring in the process. This led to a slowing down of their expansion efforts and led to a period of relative decay for the Empire, as every time a Scryve died, there wasn’t another born to take their place. Piracy and other malcontents began to rise up and even two former ward species began a series of rebellions against the Scryve, beginning with the Phamysht and the Pinthi.

Eventually, the Federation of Allied Species would form under the newly discovered humanity and the Scryve would face their biggest opponent, with six other species joining the humans and bolstering their fairly primitive technology with their fleets and resources. This all reached a climax when the human Captain of the Vindicator opened the Xraki lock and allowed the monsters to return from their millennia of imprisonment. Such was the swiftness of the offensive and with the series of rebellions the Empire, the Scryve began to collapse. Their fleets pulled back to their homeworld and the Empire ceased to function, with former ward species either turning against the Scryve, such as the Drenkend or merely being abandoned by the Scryve, such as the Measured.

**Culture**

The Empire is based on a rigid hierarchy, with the Scryve positioned at the top as “protectors” of all other savage races. Below them come their genetically modified slave races, in the form of the Drenkend and the Measured. After them come the vassals, a series of races that are given permission for space flight and have responsibilities within the Empire as a whole, from Researchers to Jesters to Aquiculture Representatives. The bottom rung of the Empire are the majority races that haven’t even achieved spaceflight and it is possible the Scryve interfere to ensure they don’t, so as to avoid rebellion.

Scryve culture seems to rely heavily on taking from their various ward species, indulging in the culture treasures they provide. However, the Scryve civilian population is noted to be quite fickle in their tastes, given their long lives and tend to move onto the newest fad within a decade or so. This was the case with the Phamysht and the Menkmack.

The Scryve Empire is aged and frayed, but it is still active in routing out rebellions and rival species to ensure the safety of the Scryve. They see the pursuit of peace to be a fruitless endeavour and instead see their domination over other species as the true path. This paranoia of rivals leads the Scryve to constantly monitor HyperSpace from a series of listening platforms scattered throughout their Empire. Upon discovery of a new HyperWave signal, a Probe is dispatched to ascertain the existence of life. Upon its discovery, the Scryve are alerted by the Probe and a Legate is dispatched to deal with the species in question.

Extensive scientific research is forbidden within the Empire, with special permission given to the Tywom, though this might be a ruse to get the mollusks as far away as possible. The Scryve see themselves as the true holders of light and civilisation and other species are too immature for the technological heights they possess. To prevent their wards from destroying themselves, the Empire places a heavy punishment on those who research pan-dimensional travel, likely due to their experiences with the Xraki.

The Scryve themselves, in spite of their inability to breed, seem to take no mind to their slowly declining population and are seemingly at peace with the concept, as they aren’t taking any measures to counteract the effects. This might be due to their cultural arrogance.

**Technology**

The Empire as a whole possesses extremely advanced technology, with fleets of warships capable of clamping down on most rebellions and a series of listening posts and probes that can detect the slightest signals in HyperSpace. They possess an extremely dangerous fleet, with most ships armed with a dangerous death ray that can spear straight through the hull of most ships. They even possess a weapon capable of shattering planets, though this isn’t used too much, presumably for power purposes or due to its sheer devastating power.

The Empire’s main strength lies in its genetic engineering, having manipulated the genes of most species under their control to some level. The most extreme versions of this can be seen in the upper echelons of the Empire. The Scryve have made themselves immortal and prevented their bodies from further evolution, existing in a state of stasis. The Measured are heavily modified to be the perfect bureaucrats and the Drenkend are a series of clone soldiers created with the intention of only ever following orders given to them by the Scryve.

This genetic engineering also extends to bioweapons, something the Scryve are more than happy to use to suppress descent. The prime example of this is the Pinthi, a sentient bioweapon capable of making its victims literally melt. The Scryve even developed a more aggressive strain with the ability to control the minds of its hosts and also make them melt from the inside out.

**Members**

The Scryve Empire employs a strict hierarchy, with the Scryve at the very top. All other species are slaves to the Empire, providing soldiers or administrative functions to ensure the smooth running of day to day activities. The Scryve Empire is comprised of over 2800 different ward races who exist in some form or another in Empire space. Most of these exist below technological level T4 and are largely ignored by the Scryve, as it indicates pre-spaceflight species. Members of the Empire include:

* · Scryve
* · The Measured
* · Drenkend
* · Menkmack
* · Mu’kay
* · Tywom
* · Pinthi (Formerly)
* · “evil” Pinthi (Extinct)
* · Mowlings
* · Trandals
* · Phamysht (Formerly)
* · Katachi (Extinct)
* · Vokas
* · Xraki (Formerly)
* · Uwern (Extinct)
* · Zalence (Extinct)