Forerunners

The **Rinew** (Latin: *Strix Stricta,* meaning "Straight Owl")were an incredibly technologically advanced species whose empire once controlled millions of fertile worlds across the whole of the Milky Way Galaxy. Their species fell along with their empire, leaving no fossils. The only remaining evidence of their existence being in the form of technology, facilities, and computers they left behind.

## Society and Culture

Rinew society could best be described as akin to a great machine, like many of those they built. Every individual was a single cog in the machine they built. Their society was stratified and organized for the possible greatest efficiency in military, industrial, and scientific endeavors.

Rinew rarely did any manual labor themselves, even those that worked in industry, mining, and agriculture. For such tasks they constructed legions of automated workers and drones, with their farmers and miners acting more like foremen and overseers than laborers.

Their society could be seen as highly conservative, as though they were open to new scientific ideas, they were incredibly averse to new social ideas. This made their culture very stagnant, with the core aspects of their society remaining unchanged for millions of years.

### Government and Politics

The Rinew ran under a meritocratic system. The greatest among them were picked out from others among their field by the Arbitrators - Gigantic supercomputers built for the specific purpose of choosing only the most intelligent and skilled Rinew to be their leaders. These leaders were almost always picked from the first, second, or third rates.

#### Societal Classes

Rinew society was stratified into several guild structures, known as rates. Hatchlings were overseen during development for notable traits and were assigned to their rate once they reached adulthood. Social mobility was a rare occurrence, and typically individuals remained in their rate for life.

#### Originators

Originators were the Engineers of Forerunner society, the masterminds behind their new technologies and machines. They are often seen as the most important guild among their kind, being responsible for Forerunner weaponry, space travel, terraforming, and many other technologies.

#### Surveyors

Surveyors were the scientific minds among the Rinew, who worked in fields such as biology, physics, and chemistry. They also worked in the field at archaeological sites and studied new planets and stars.

#### Auditors

The Auditors were the administrators of the empire, looking over the development of new facilities and cities, industrial and manufacturing endeavors, filing in census reports, among other duties. They were organized into a hierarchy of different positions ranging from city level to administering entire sectors, and numerous different departments. They also recorded scientific, engineering, civil, criminal, and military data, working as assistants for Rinew of other sects.

#### Judicators

The Judicators were the police, detectives, and judges of the Rinew Empire. They were tasked with rooting out dissenting parties, traitors, and corruption within other rates. They were also the ones who sentenced criminals when they were found out, often to physical labor or execution.

#### Monitors

The monitors were the lowest caste in the Rinew hierarchy, concerned with overseeing industrial and construction drones as they performed their manual labor, as well as repairing and maintaining Rinew machinery.

#### Protectors

The Protectors were the military arm of the empire, primarily concerned with piloting vehicles and drones and handling logistics. Much of the military was automated, with few Rinew putting their lives on the line.

### Family and Marriage

Rinew society had no institution of marriage, and love was considered to be a base, lower emotion to be looked down upon. When a Rinew's yearly mating period began, they had a partner of the opposite sex picked out for them, disregarding Rate, often from another community to maintain genetic diversity. The two would meet on a certain date, their work postponed for the day, to copulate before going their separate ways. When the female laid her egg, it would be taken to a hatchery for incubation and hatching. The mother and father would be logged, but the hatching would likely never know the names of their parents.