Ele Metanation

Spoiler WarningThis article contains references to or details of key events portrayed in *These Sundered Stars*. To return to the home page, click the image to the left.

The Ele Metanation is a mysterious entity which forms the central framework of the Ele civilisation, uniting individuals from an eclectic range of backgrounds who would otherwise be largely unrelated. The Metanation is a combined political state, shared consciousness, living organism and supernatural force, also known simply as 'the Ele'. It is difficult to quantify or analyse scientifically due to its intangibility, but it appears to have observable effects upon the people who inhabit the Ele Dominion. Though more of an astropolitical entity focused on representing the Ele in relation to other civilisations, the Ele Congregate also serves informally as a leading element of the Metanation at large.

Ele representatives such as El-Deen explain that the Metanation comprises its member citizens, their minds and spiritual essences, and the geographical area between them. In this way, the Metanation changes and fluctuates depending on the location and status of individual Ele. The fact that the Metanation is as large as the space between its furthest individual members may account for the size of the Ele Dominion, which is the political and astrographical territory occupied by the Metanation. Metaphysically, each member of the Metanation is connected by thought-threads, which form much of the organism's functional framework.

Membership of the Metanation confers remarkable abilities upon the Ele, ranging from shared sustenance and psychic communication to near-instantaneous travel within the Dominion. Many of these abilities are learned through practice, by tapping the network of thought-threads in specific ways. In return, the Metanation as a collective siphons a minute fraction of each member's potential energy, though the method through which this is taken or where the energy goes is seemingly unknown.

Any outside individual who enters the physical space occupied by the Metanation becomes subsumed into it, becoming one of the Ele and receiving the benefits entailed by that membership, as well as sacrificing the same energy tithe. It is suspected that these individuals also lose some of their sense of individuality. This joining is involuntary and generally irreversible, and means that the majority of the Ele Metanation is made up of migrants and neighbouring civilisations. The reclusiveness of the Ele in matters of galactic politics and culture suggests that they are aware that this subsumption is considered morally questionable by foreigners.

The Metanation's spread and integration of newcomers means that open war within the Dominion's borders is infrequent, despite the existence of a Warrior role within Ele society. Most conflicts that do arise typically stem from beings' strong convictions leading to misinterpretation, abuse or objection to the Metanation. In these instances, Ele Excision Teams use antipsychic cages to contain miscreants, severing their connection to the Metanation, and then extradite these captives to a safe distance outside the Dominion, from which they will be unable to reconnect with the Metanation. In more peaceful contexts, beings are also separated from the Metanation ceremonially, in a ritual known as the Severing.

The wearing of masks is central to the culture of the Ele Metanation, and no Ele has been seen unmasked outside of the Dominion. It is considered rude to ask about an Ele's true identity under their mask. These masks are typically made from an opaque black glass material. Observing the Feast of Elforsht is another important tradition in Ele culture, a communal meal which reaffirms one's bonds to bot neighbours and the Metanation at large. Smoked Ive-Tave is a common dish in Ele cuisine, as are haal juice, refel biscuits, beanbread and vielwine.

Both the Ele Metanation and the Ele Dominion are widely understood to have been founded by the insect-like Ele species, which originated on the Dominion's capital world, El-Kera. However, due to the Metanation's all-encompassing and ever-growing nature, the proportion of "true" Ele within the diverse collective is likely only fractional. The mysterious obelisks which dot the surface of El-Kera may be of their design, and former Aglostarros University Museum Curator Endelle Stroth speculated that these structures may form part of the infrastructure of the Ele Metanation, perhaps as data storage or as transmitters.

Every subsequent civilisation to have joined the Ele Metanation is commemorated in the Fields of Elkre, a botanical garden located in the city of Korus, on El-Kera. From oldest to newest, the park depicts the ecologies of the Xyll, the Foros Cluster, the Tuyen and the Vildarne Exiles, all astronomical neighbours of the El system and the first civilisations to join the Metanation in centuries past.

Early in 2270, Stroth and her pursuer, the bounty hunter Tren Krellos, entered the borders of the Ele Dominion and were intercepted by the starship 'Arrowhead'. Once aboard, they met with ambassador El-Deen, who told the newcomers that they were already becoming part of the Metanation, and therefore "of the Ele", but that this was nothing to fear. Following the explanation, Stroth was still not certain she truly understood the Metanation, and speculated that it might be a sort of creature. She also pondered whether 'membership' of the Metanation might be induced by a fungal parasite or a swarm of nanomachines, or whether it was merely a belief that the Ele had convinced themselves was real, but was unable to conduct any medical analyses to determine what biological effect was occurring, if any.

About one week after settling into her new apartment in Korus, Stroth (now going by 'El-Endelle') found life among the Ele surprisingly normal, albeit with notable differences. She observed that the Ele focused more on community, sharing goods and labour rather than using currency, and often taking communal meals. Stroth learned that some beings, such as her combat trainer El-Q'rokar, had been part of the Metanation for long enough that its more supernatural aspects had become second nature or subconscious. After travelling to the barren planetoid El-Phyyr, El-Q'rokar instructed Stroth to tap into the Metanation, using its thought-threads to travel across space instantaneously and arrive at her apartment building.

The feat amazed Stroth, convincing her that the Metanation was "real" and not merely a form of religious following. She understood why the Ele held it as so important to them, and feared what the Queil Empire or Coreworlds Conglomerate would do if they ever learned of its power.

Shortly after, when reports from the Centurions of Project Centennial began to return to the Coreworlds from within the Dominion, the AlTime News Channel ran an oversized feature on the Ele Metanation which was, as ever, highly sensationalised. They also partnered with Bright Aura Gem Therapy to offer their subscribers crystals which would apparently ward off the effects of the Metanation for ⍺25 per week. The accuracy of this claim is in doubt. AlTime also ran a feature appropriating the concept of the Metanation as a framework to improve one's relationships.

While these reports raised concerns among the other members of the Trifold Union, who saw the Metanation as an astropolitical threat akin to a "zombifying hive mind", they also tantalised the citizens of the Coreworlds, who soon began to emigrate into the Ele Dominion in their hundreds. According to the AlTime News Channel, these migrants saw membership of the Metanation as bringing with it a better quality of life. An anonymous source claimed that the promise of "living in harmony with their fellow beings" was preferable to "shovelling Astrum for ViCorp".

The arrival of the Centurions within the Ele Dominion's territories brought problems for the Ele, who inexplicably found themselves under attack from the probes. After an Ele Excision team successfully captured a Centurion on the conservation world El-Saire and brought it to El-Kera for study, Stroth determined that the Centurions' programming, seen through the limited view afforded by their single point of connection, resembled a living mind closely enough that the Metanation was constantly attempting to connect to it. The increasingly paranoid Centurions, in turn, saw this attempted connection as a constant cyberattack. The Ele analysts concluded that the Centurions would seek the outright elimination of the Metanation in order to complete their mission.