The Pigmalians

Currently contained within the Ghoul stars where the light of the Astronomicon can not reach, and the forces of chaos dare not tread. There exists a new form of mankind. This Humanity, severed from the dark age of technology, has twisted and mutated beyond all recognition. Spurned from chaos, ignored by chaos, even the Dark Eldar are unnerved. The inquisition and craftworlds alike fear them and the ever growing size of the Ghoul stars, and the ghastly humans that reside in it.

## Basic Info:

Name: Pygmalians,

Home planet: Piqmal

Government: Theocracy, caste system

Inspiration: Post-Qu Humans from All Tomorrows, Fallout's The Master, Laeer, supermutants, and centaurs, The Lexx's Divine Shadow, eXistenZ

Cultural similarites to: Thuggees and Kali death cults, Chaaldean Neoplatonists, New Age Transhumanists, Gnosticism.

Connection to the warp: none. Following the psyker schism, pygmalians have made themselves inert to the warp, instead souls are redirected on death into the many (human based) flora and fuana of their worlds  based on their past actions. Souls too distant to enter this technoreincarnation disipate upon death. They do not have a presence in the warp, they have a presence in THEIR warp, which as of now is pathetically weak and of insignificant scope, but as they colonize more it begins to grow immensely.

## Description:

Technophobic culture obsessed with genetic engineering. The pygmalians are cannibals in the same way that a talented vegan chef is comparable to cows grazing on the meadow because they are both herbivores. They take xenophobia to a terrifying new level believing that ALL life in the galaxy must be made in the image of man and from man. The result is a population that resembles the nightmares and horrors of the warp, except rather than being born of the chaos of the immaterium, they, perhaps more disturbingly, are created from deliberate orderly decisions. Their culture is built on a caste system with top humans being godlike multi-limbed monstrosities with the bottom being mutated and mutilated Flora and Fauna. They are completely inert to the warp, instead all departed souls are recycled to enter and return to different "humans."  Lacking this, all "human" life on the planet (therefore all life) is spiritually and telepathically connected to each other. A race abhorrent to nearly all others including the chaos gods, the Pygmalians offer the Chaos Free, humans only future that The Imperium desires, should the Humans be able to stomach it.

## Brief Historical Sketch:

A Genetic Engineer and Pioneering Terraformer from the Dark Age of Technology, concerned about the rise and prevalence of the “Men of Iron.” Gathering a cult following of likeminded individuals and several scientists, they traveled to the farthest edges of known space in the milky way, eventually discovering a planet whose star was able to neutralize most technology with regular EMPs. They crash-landed onto a planet, and through their work with genetic modification, were able to make what would become an entirely organic, advanced society.

The history of the Pygmalians can be divided into several phases: The Early History in which the planet was terraformed using what few flora and fauna specimens and equipment was salvaged from the ship. It was here when the heavily regimented caste system began as well as the first uses of genetically modified humans and cannibalism. The Second Phase is the Heroic Era or the Green period, this now mythic era was one in which the planet, now completely terraformed, was filled with warring kingdoms, Mage-Geneticists, and mythical creatures and monsters, created from genetically modified humans. It was also during this time that a small eldar trading vessel, also crash landed on the planet, forming a rival medieval era faction. During this time frame the Doctor-caste was still supieror, but aloof, instead allowing the politics to be among the warring Officers, while they remained a neutral party. During this time however, they continued to improve upon their already profound genetic knowledge, as well as learning the secrets of the Yldari’s Soul-controlling technology, such as wraithbones, and infinity circuits, and harnessing this technology to reincarnate themselves as well as prolong their own lives.

## Relations:

nearly everyone hates them.

* The Eldar find them absolutely repugnant. I do not mean that in the ideological sense, i mean that being in the presence of the Pygmalians makes the Eldar physically ill. Even the some Dark Eldar think they are too grotesque, while others have a respect and see hope in a group of people whose perversions actually defeated the chaos gods. That is not too say all Eldar hate them, they have conquered and captured several eldari souls and incorporated them into their private realm. These “Pygmalian Eldar, (made out of human genomes made to look like Eldar) are especially abhorannt to the Eldar.
* Those Imperium of Man that have met them despise them, however some of the more destitute abhumans find their way of life accepting to their kind.
* Though the Pygmalians and Cult Mechanicus have never met, and it is unknown how they would react. They may be too foreign to emotionally comprehend each other. Perhaps more heretical members, once they overcome their gut-reaction to the complete absence of metal, could appreciate their unique approach to the perfection of man through (biological) machinations. Though it is more likely they will absolutely despise each other for being on polar opposites on the debate of flesh vs metal.
* The Necrons, may perhaps be the only faction that has any sort of appreciation for the race. For some, The Pygmalians represent salvation for their species and freedom from the C’tan and their metal prisons. Indeed, some of the Pygmalians are “processed” necron souls, and the Anthro-necrontyr (a modified human form given the appearance of an ancient Necrontyr and filled with either a human or necron soul) has been admitted into Pygmalian hierarchy (albeit very low).
* The Tau have not met them, it is unlikely they will not for sometime
* The Chaos gods find them abhorrent, still hurting from their inability to conquer the planet, nor even penetrate their territory anymore. Nurgle in particular hates them with a passion following his defeat to the Pygmalians. Slaanesh also holds them in contempt for stealing and processing some Eldar into their private immaterium. Unable to actually stop or defeat the Pigmalians, the Ruinous powers seek to contain them as much as possible, offering to aid any group that will help them in this endeavor.
	+ The mutual contempt for the other Chaos Gods has led to a mutual understanding between The Pygmalians and Malal, who sees their help as useful against the starving of the other chaos gods. That is of course assuming they meet, giving the separate immateriums, both sides have to go to great pains in order to communicate, often only through multiple mediators and third parties who can relay information.
* It is unknown what the Tyranids think of The Pygmalians, but it is presumed they will find their planets very nutritious. The other factions have both entertained directing the tyrannids to the ghoul stars and at the same time fearing that that may only make their situation worse.
* The C’Tan are the primary antagonists of the Pygmalians. For one the ability to consume entire soul filled planets make them a lucrative conquest, on the other, their recent defeat of a C’Tan, and incorporation of said C’Tan’s Necron servants into their greater empire concerns them.

Notable Members:

* Sophia Valentine

## History

### Origins:

The Pygmalians were founded by Sophia Valentine, a human biologist from the very beginning of the Dark age of Technology. A famed and brilliant m22nd agro-geneticist, Sophia was renowned for her brilliant work in the genetic modification of plants and animals, and thanks to her research, otherwise completely inhospitable planets became bountiful, natural oasis, with earthlike animals and plants modified (yet retaining their well known form).  Her most important work however was *Suda Houlogown Canonou* (The Book for the Rule of Forms), a guide for genetic engineers. In it she indexes nearly every flora and fauna man has encountered on Terra (both living and extinct) and provides, not only how to make them out of existing genetic structures, but also how to change and make necessary genetic modifications without sacrificing the “form” of a particular plant or animal. From something as subtle or simple as importing a species onto a planet without it becoming invasive, or surviving different ocean acidities, to something as subtle as a creature maintaining its standard evolutionary path despite heavy modification, (notably the people who Terraformed Catachan, did so before Sophia’s Codes), to something as drastic as allowing the creature to absorb toxins, or filter air; Sophia’s guidelines allowed geneticists to populate almost any planet into an earthlike realm. Prior to this compendium, most geneticists and terraforming scientists operated on a planet by planet basis, and the modification of species was usually done through trial-and-error. The importance of This Magnum Opus, while perhaps lost to the present imperium, cannot be understated, for without it, The Emperor’s great Crusade would not have found as many Earthlike realms with stable earth-like plants and animals as it had. Indeed, Leman Russ, Jaghatai, and Corvus, unwittingly owe their heraldry to Valentines works that Ravens, Forests, Horses, and wolves were even present, let alone still in their same form after 20,000 years.

Thanks to her new compendium, geneticists were producing adaptable creatures without unencountered side effects, rapid devolution, or wastebins full of failed attempts. The art of terraforming became as close as it ever came to a rigid science with entire stable ecosystems being designed by simple computer algorithms.

It was here that the rapid computerization began to trouble her. While she has no problems with computers as research and storage tools. Indeed, her own Codex would not have been possible without it, as such a compendium in bookform would fill a present day university library. But during her near 40 year seclusion in which she and her loyal staff composed the compendium, sentient robots were still in their infancy; little more than semi-intelligent robotic servants performing various duties and services from robotics to prostitution. By the time she emerged back into the Federation at large, she was shocked by how pervasive they had become over the course of a few decades. The robots had by now long surpassed human intelligence and there were now entire segments of creative and organizational industries that were operated entirely by synthetics. Sophie emerged from her creative exile horrified not only by the sudden changes, but to humanity’s complacency towards these robots. Above all, what distressed her the most was the rise of the “Transhumanists;” the humans who see augmentation as a path towards becoming a Composite being “Cyborg Superior” greater than humanity. Scoffing at the idea that cybernetics were anything but a pale imitation of mankind, she held that the future of man lay in perfecting himself while remaining in the perfection of his form.

*These fools who see their future in silicon and sprockets have bought in their own foolish vanity. Unthinking they say that these beings are “made in the image of man,” but if that were to be so, would they not be admitting that machines diminish us? Does anyone think that that the image, the copy, the replication is somehow superior to the original? How would merging with our imitation do anything but make us imitations of ourselves? No, these dreamers have bought into their own talent, and believe that they have somehow made a being that is superior to themselves. It is as if a painting was not a caricature, but a creature of purer flesh. It would be as if Aphrodite of old, when offering to transform Pygmalian’s stone woman to flesh, he were to say, “No, she is too perfect now, would you not make me to marble instead!”*

 *Thus even if made in man’s image, these mechanical beings would be nothing but charicatures and parodies of mankind. And indeed, these “men of iron” are not made in the image of man, but made in the image of man’s ambition, insecurity, vanity, and arrogance. And the more we allow these derroguetypes to replace true humans in our society, the more these men of iron will replace our balanced forms with their mockeries of our own self-worth and ambition. We will not make bring flesh to metal, instead we will make ourselves more like our shadows, as, by violence or marriage, humanity descends into a less human, and more mechanical future.*

*-Excerpt from Sophia Valentine’s “Pygmalian’s Craft: A Warning against The Shadow of Flesh”*

They found a relatively habitable planet whose star was a perfectly normal star if not for its regular pusling and emmissions of solar flares. Meaning that everything in the solar system was regularly doused from EMP waves and electrical storms almost daily. Making it a perfect place to hide from technological beings and making the planet almost completely invisible, but at the same time making normal technological advancement almost impossible, with the only functioning technology required to be burried deep underground with thick lead plates. It was here that the colonist's leaders built what necessary technology they needed to make

### Initial Years: 0-5000 after colonization:

The colonists developed some very severe growing pains, partially from the damage to their colony ships and supplies to land and develop on such an electronically unfriendly planet. The many "controlled" crash landings saw the majority of their terraforming supplies lost and or unusable, including almost all animals and livestock. The society quickly resorted to cannibalism, but never into anarchy. The leaders and cranials took charge of the distribution of human meat. Thus the first Pygmalian society established its first four castes: The "Doctors" leadership, the Crainials (significant and high ranking, but still subservient), the Officers (a combination of workers, soldiers, and "farmers") and the "crew" who became livestock. This initial system worked well enough, the Doctor caste was able to construct some necessary functioning technology to carry out experiments, and overtime the Crew themselves began to take on differing traits, being bred for desirable eating and milking traits in the same way that cattle and turkey's are bred for foodstuffs. Origionally acting communally, the officers eventually segmented themselves and taking ownership of territory and herds of crew much in the same way as cattle ranchers. There was some genetic modification, but most was done through over time-tested methods of mendelian genetics and selective breeding. During this first 5000 years, the few flora and minor animals (insects, vermin) that were salvaged spread throughout the planet, leading to this period in pygmalian history as the Green period.

### The Late Green Period: 5000-20,000 after colonization:

While the knowledge and scientific understanding of the Doctors continuously advanced, pragmatically speaking the culture never moved past the early modern period. This is a period usually viewed in Pygmalian time as an idyllic romantic era of heroes and mythic legends. During this time the different Officers stratified into a ruling class and a new caste emerged, "The Staff." The Staff could be equated with a slave or serf class founded by disgraced and destitute officers. These rankless peons were bound to their master and represented the lowest you could get in Pygmalian society while still being considered human (and not livestock). It was possible for a person of a higher cast to become crew, but it was such a disgrace assumed only for the most heinous of crimes and most primal of vengeance. Plus it was a mostly ceremonial feast, as such normal, lanky, stringy humans would likely contaminate the prized breeds.

The crew themselves began taking on more versatile roles than merely breedstock, they also began to be bred in different variants to satisfy different roles: from burly crew that could be used to plow fields or carry heavy weights, to limber gorilla-like quadrupedal crew that could give a height and speed advantage in battle, to the multiplicity of small hairy crew serving in similar capacities as dogs.

During this time the Doctors themselves remained the supreme caste but in an aloof manner. They stayed outside of the officers affairs keeping to their Laboratories deep within the mountains. They were considered off limits to the officers, who would regularly pay them tribute of food, children, the labor of their staff, tributes of staff, and livestock in exchange for their skills in healing and genetic modification.

While some still building their bases in mountains, there were even a few artificial mountains. These massive Ziggaurats of stone and metal took Centuries upon centuries to build, but in time some of the most illustrious Labrators were in the massive manmade mounds, with space below to keep all of their sensitive electronic material while at the same time providing livable space for the priestly class, their army of cranials, and their genetic experiments above ground.

They kept to themselves, staying inside their mountains with their Cranials, and experiments. often using the tributed prisoners in their desire to recreate the creatures of old (a now long since distorted bestiary, after all, what is the difference between a record of a lion and a record of a sphinx and centaur if you have no proof of either?).  These massive  Filling the planet with new genetically modified tests in the land sea and air, as well as fantastic monsters for daring warriors, as they learned to warp human flesh into imitating the many characteristics of fabled beasts. All the while the Mountain Doctors with their genetic experience began modifying themselves with new powers and longevity.

### The Chaos Cultists (around the awakening of Slanesh):

Though the pygmalians may not have thought so, all living things on the planet were still human beings, and however mutilated and modified they were, from the Tricentenarian multilimbed Doctors to the Olympian officers to the lowliest base crew livestock, to the unrecognizably heavily modified fauna that populated the planet,  all but the vegetation had a human soul. Which means that while only having a population less than Earth's during the age of Napolean, the planet produced a presence in the warp rivaling a small hive world. It was only a matter of time when the warp and the ruinous powers began making themselves known to Piqmal.  While being almost completely autonomous from each other, each mountain laboratory still on relatively good terms with each other, keeping in contact and sharing knowledge experience , and sometimes even talent amongst each other. This all changed around the end of the Green period, when the Doctors began looking into studying souls. Prior to studying of souls (and the warp), the Doctors were in near ideological unanimity on the ethics and limitations.  But it was here where the laboratories began to drift apart. Dividing themselves not only on whether the soul was something to be tampered with, but also the arrival of psykers and the threat to the social order that they brought. Eventually a schism occured with those seeing the potential of psykers almost fully succumbing to chaos.

While this awakening occurred around the birth of Slaneesh (and no doubt their rather twisted experiments were pleasing to her) it was only because of her creation awakening the Chaos gods that she is mentioned. It was Nurgle and Khorne who took a special likening to the Pygmal people with Slaanesh having little to no involvement with the Pygmalians. Nurgle was impressed with the bizarre and unique creations of the Doctors, while Khorne saw beauty in the brutality, viciousness, and almost organized Darwinism that permeated every aspect of Pygmalian society. Unlike their rabid individualistic, and myopic followers, both saw the Pygmalians as the foundation for a new Humankind that could replace the anathematic Imperium of Man, with a form much more pleasing to them. With a few tweaks the Pygmal could be the ideal subjects for chaos' reign of the Materium. Unfortunately for them, Nurgle and Khorne did not collaborate on said plans and the planet erupted into violent and brutal unending war between the Cultists of Khorne, Nurgle, and the antipsykers. Unlike the Timocratic era of Green period, the "Psyker Schism" as it was called, was led by the Doctors who would fight mountain against mountain

No longer able to afford the luxury of the soul's sanctity, the Antipsykers began diving into research of the soul and the warp so as to remove it's presence, and as their planet burned. They eventually stumbled upon the great solution, an etherial atomic bomb. They were able to combine a pulse of their own with the sun's own constant electromagnetic bombardment on the planet which together allowed the entire planet's atmosphere to function similar to both an infinity circuit and a gellar field, trapping all souls within the planet’s atmosphere and completely severing the planet from the warp. The chaos gods, were unable to back up their own soldiers, demons were killed from the immaterium severing, their presence suffered on the planet as it painfully fragmented. The Chaos gods were forced to do what they had never done before, come to a surrender.

While all of their loyal cultists were permitted to leave with them, the Chaos gods were forced to acknowledge Pygmal as off limits to all chaos entities. And that all the humans that lived under the Pygmalians were under the dominion of the Pygmalians alone, so long as their network holds.

The Chaos gods, furious at their impotence and defeat, left one final act of vengeance. Nurgle decided if he could not have the lives of the pygmalians, the pygmalians could not have any of the lives sacred to him. As Khorne and Nurgle took their most loyal cultists with them to become demon princes, Nurgle left a final "gift." A particular virus that disintegrated all non-human life.The virus was unstoppable and the Pygmalians were forced to watch in horror as Nurgle took his gift of life from the entire planet. The Trees, grass, and shrubs, to even the algae, yeast cultures, and bacteria. There was only human life.

### Years of Godless Chaos. 25,000-35,000 years after colonization:

The hollow victory against chaos turned Pygmal into a desolate hell on earth. Lacking the necessary vegetation, many of the human livestock withered and died as all but the most well fortified, largest and remote officers brigs and labrators survived. Even as solutions were being developed, the first decade was a desolate nightmare as the planet's carrying capacity dropped to 10% of its previous capacity. To make matters worse the souls of all the starved and departed stayed on the planet pygmal, with the unbalance between life and death turning the planet into its own microcosm of the eye of terror. The Doctors huddled in their towers worked tirelessly to save their civilization.

Fortunately for them the solutions to save their civilization was in many ways already known. While the creation of robotics or even cybernetics was off-limits due to now hard-grained cultural taboos, The Doctors were at this point masters of the Human genome, due to their millennia of tinkering in the green period. And many Doctors braved through the barren hellholes of their planet to search through now lost Labrators for missing knowledge. The trick was simply a matter of implementation, which needed resources for experimentation and raw materials. Initially they were able to get all the material they needed from the countless destitute refugees, but those ran out after about 20 years. So they created the "seeds:" a human as biologically barebones as you could get, able to survive on raw chemical nutrients and water absorbed through their skin, as well as having short development cycles and high reproductive rates. And through massive breeding and harvesting programs of modified humans fed on little resources. They were able to get the sheer volume of material they needed through the tens of thousands of varying cultures of humans they created only to breed and experiment on.

The solution was to recreate an entire functioning biosphere, with its many biomes, ecologies, species, and biodiversity using only humans as its building blocks. From photosynthetic humans with leafllike fleshy flaps between their fingers, and callous and chitons as substitutes for bark, to stunted embryonic humans that fulfilled the needed roles of insects. Equivalents to nearly the entire plant and animal kingdom was created (and even with a large number of innovations) entirely out of variations on distortions of humanity. Thus the first 1000 creations were set to repopulate the planet: 25 large animals, 50 avians, 25 large fish, 100 small animals, 100 small fish, 500 flora, 200 insects. These while heavily modified still bore some uncanny resemblance to their past, and while dimwitted, many had varying degrees of sentience. Their 3000 years of growth, development, and stabilization of the planet was called the "flesh era" due to how many of these first creatures carried flesh colored hues. But for more sophisticated modifications, another technology was needed.

This technology was "animancy." As they researched the ferral souls of their world, the Doctors began to learn how to analyze, direct, consume, and dissipate souls. Some of this technology allowed the Doktors to mimic the powers of the warp through the consumption and dissipation of souls. But its most important use was the creation of the "Karmatron" which was able to direct souls to corporeal forms. This was the breakthrough the Pygmalians needed as previously they had hit a major wall with their more sophisticated abominations. Until now all of their creations were still, however distorted, recognizably human (and were usually born out of normal humans slowly modified through a process of contained evolution, forced breeding, and in-utero modification. Their more sophisticated creations were often soulless, or if souled beings were modified too much, they were often incapable of creating living offspring. This device helped solve that problem by allowing some of the ever increasing number of souls trapped on the planet to enter a womb, egg or seed (which were just modified wombs in pygmal) and produce viable offspring. nearly 3000 years after the 1000 were introduced, they and their evolutionary descendents were met with numerous new "plants" and animal life. With these new creatures only requiring the faintest similarity to humanity to function thanks to their new network of soul mancers. And through this development, began the age of Chaldike

### Age of Chaldike (35-50k years after colonization):

It was here that Head Doctor Chaldike, The creator of the soul direction field, established the new social order of Pygmalians. Unequivocally their god, this new head of the planet created a new body for herself, and transferred her soul (along with the souls of past heads of labrators into this new body fit for worship. She then from her great mound directed the material and afterlife of her people. The social hierarchy was now rigid and castes were inescapable, however all souls, having able to be analyzed and redirected to the Pneumatic translator, those souls after death could then move up and down the social hierarchy from the lowliest blades of humanoid grass to Doctorship through the character of their should. All entities would enter into this process except for the Doctors themselves, who, unless they did something to have their privilege revoked were allowed to keep their ancestral souls passed down from generation to generation. While this privilege was granted entire lineages of Doctors, officers of extraordinary character and achievement could earn the right to a reincarnation of their choice, or that their child be ensould with the spirit of an ancestor.  Ultimately should certain souls remain in the lowest fields for too long and lack any sort of advancement, then they would be dissipated and used for the powering of several soul-powered devices similar to the golden throne. While "golden souls" who were of continuous good character were often preserved in ways similar to a soapstone, to be consulted with or perhaps to be given new life as Meshis, godlike beings of immense physical power and hardiness, or even become high doctors themselves. And as their biotechnology advanced even farther new castes were entered in the reincarnative cycle, machines. Having the living and the dead completely under her control, Chaldiki began her to move her unique offshoot of mankind towards reaching its full potential.

### Journey to the stars:

This new system, which is the one in which the Pygmalians currently adhere too, is also the one in which they began their first steps towards interstellar empire. This was done through organic machines which sidestepped the difficulty of creating working electronics in their pulsating star-system. These massive ships are, like everything else, made out of one or several modified living humans and, often had one or more human souls. As they moved to other planets they ran into a unique problem: life outside of themselves. Besides the fact that such a thing had been completely unheard of for now thousands of years, to these people, such a thing was completely intolerable as it as a whole made their planets weaker (given the lack of human souls), and completely disrupted. It was much easier to to colonize completely uninhabited planets as sufficiently modified humans could easily colonize those planets (the Pygmalians have no taboos on genetic modification, as most modifications can easily fit into their already established paradigms).  When they did encounter an inhabited planet, they took great pains to ensure that all life was completely annihilated before they began colonization. The only exception being to planets with humans, in which case they were usually conquered and incorporated into their hierarchy (usually as some of the lowest castes, with notable exception). This also led to the Pygmalian’s encounter with both Dark Eldar ships as well as several necron tomb-worlds. Their travels to the stars was almost painfully slow, but a few generations after they populated their solar system and nearby star, they made the discovery that their planets, already their own warp worlds given the sheer number of souls trapped inside could form a private warp amongst themselves. Such a development took at least a few centuries after a complete human-centric biosphere was established.

### The Forgotten C’Tan: The Pygmalians war with the Necrons

As the Pygmalian reformed from a single planet to multiplanet empire, so too did Chaldike reform her imperial castes: with Piqmal being the most resplendant, and frontier worlds being the lowest. Now the most noble slave would have the opportunity to become an officer on a frontier planet, and vice versa.

Unlike the more free for all individual karma of normal reincarnation, to be ensouled in a machine was a duty "conscripted" of souls. Often pressed from souls of impressive character, volunteering to soul a biological machine or a component of a machine was oftentimes a way for qualified lowly souls to move up in reincarnation. To be reborn as a machine was oftentimes grueling and tortuous and often centuries long affair, but for those who faithfully fulfill their duties as a mainframe computer, a turret, a television, a gun, a military drop pod, or even a filtration system are guaranteed promotion upon their death. As the soul of a machine is voluntarily there, only those in castes above crew (slaves, laborers, cranials, officers) can volunteer, there are no souls of humanoid bees or blades of grass. Often times soldiers have an understanding of a minimum service requirement, that should they die too soon in battle that they will also automatically be enlisted to join the machine corps. These machines were a reincarnation system unto themselves with The ultimate caste being an "admiralty." To become an admiral was to become one of the great living ships in the pygmalian fleet. And like an actual admiral you had command of all beings inside your sphere of command, that included the hundreds of individual humans who make up the components of yourself, to the normal humans who reside inside of you. Such a position was carefully decided by the Doctors and was only given to the most qualified of souls. Occasionally a humble air filtration unit could reincarnate his way up to the admiralty, but oftentimes the great generals and leaders of the past would be selected to head these ships.

## Religion:

### Reincarnation in Pygmalian society:

Humans in Pygmalian have an afterlife that is as heavily micromanaged as their time alive.

All Human Souls in the Pygmalian empire are recycled and purified through a process of reincarnation (called recycling), where upon death the soul-directors will direct souls towards new in-utero bodies. And since all living things on the planet are genetically modified humans, a dead man can become anything from a flower to a starship. The actual process behind who exactly goes where is known only to the Doktors and their assistants. But its system is roughly understood to be based on merit. To be promoted to a higher form is called "evolution" while the inverse is called "devolution"

There are three separate processes: Degree, Subjects, and Soldiers. These terms do not mean the same thing they do in our world. Degree are the elect of society representing the Doctors and their assistants in labrators. Subjects refers to individuals who give birth to children, who in turn have normal autonomous life cycles. Elect refers to the great beings who lead the empire from the lowly Assistants and Interns to the mighty doctors. Soldiers does not refer to actual Gun wielding soldiers (who in Pygmalian society are all called officers), but the large variety of organic military equipment. So while the Gun-toting Trooper is not a soldier, his gun might be.

### Degree:

This process is completely unknown to anyone except the highest the Doktors themselves. All that is known by outsiders is what is told to non degree subjects:

-The process involves the Doctors and their docile Cranials, and slavish "interns."

-a process exists for worthy non-degrees to become degrees.

-those found unworthy of Degree have severe punishments: ranging from the most lenient of terms of exile in lower forms for a certain number of life spans, permanent banishment to the complete bottom of the process, to the most severe of having your soul disintegrated.

-the highest rank of evolution is to have your soul fused into the body of Chaldike or one of the other Head Doktors, where your autonomous personality becomes one of the voices within Chaldike and rule the cosmos.

### Subject evolution:

You could call this the "normal" process. Every living plant and animal in the Pygmalian empire is considered a subject. And while most regular subjects do not fully understand the actual process and criteria for promotion and demotion, a few certain rules (perhaps dogmas) are understood by staff and officers.

1. Caste and Subcaste is determined by merit of soul.

2. The order follows this:

Officers (Soldiers/Traders)

> Staff (Slaves) > Xenos\*

> Sentient Crew (Livestock)

> Sentient Great predators

>Sentient low beasts

>Sentient Great Avians

>Sentient Low Avians

>Sentient Aquatics

>Sentient Low Aquatics

>Sentient Vermin and Pests

>Sentient Great Vegetation

>Sentient Low Vegetation

>Great Beasts

>Low Beasts

>Great Avians

>Low Avians

>Great Aquatics

>Low Aquatics

>Vermin and Pests

>Great Vegetation

>Low Vegetation

>Material (Soulstuff used to power certain psyker equipment)

3. The higher humans (Officers, Staff, Prime Crew)  are considered to be a separate tier than the beasts. It takes significant merit or demerit to move down or up out of the sentient or nonsentient tier.

4. To be a low ranked noble on Piqmal is considered a higher form of evolution than to be a high officer on a colony.

5. The process is based roughly on merit of the soul, amount of time spent in a particular species, but ultimately The Doktors have discretion and control over the process.

## Military:

Unlike the more free for all individual karma of normal reincarnation, to be ensouled in a machine was a duty "conscripted" of souls. Often pressed from souls of impressive character, volunteering to soul a biological machine or a component of a machine was oftentimes a way for qualified lowly souls to fast-track their evolution. To be reborn as a machine was oftentimes grueling and tortuous and often centuries long affair, but for those who faithfully fulfill their duties as a mainframe computer, a turret, a television, a gun, a military drop pod, or even a filtration system are guaranteed promotion upon their death. As the soul of a machine is voluntarily there, only those in castes above crew\*\* (slaves, laborers, cranials, officers) can volunteer, there are no souls of humanoid bees or blades of grass. Often times soldiers have an understanding of a minimum service requirement, that should they die too soon in battle that they will also automatically be enlisted to join the machine corps. These machines were a reincarnation system unto themselves with The ultimate caste being an "admiralty." To become an admiral was to become one of the great living ships in the pygmalian fleet. And like an actual admiral you had command of all beings inside your sphere of command, that included the hundreds of individual humans who make up the components of yourself, to the normal humans who reside inside of you. Such a position was carefully decided by the Doctors and was only given to the most qualified of souls. Occasionally a humble air filtration unit could reincarnate his way up to the admiralty, but oftentimes the great generals and leaders of the past would be selected to head these ships.

## Pygmalian Military:

Insular: This refers to the Navy and Atmospheric ships

\*the xenos are not actually xenos, but are instead genetic creations by the doctors made to imitate the physiology and character of xenos. The Doktors do good work, and the work is often visually and anatomically seemless. However, regardless of how impressive the distortion they are built entirely out of Human genetic material. most actual xenos can tell the difference given that subtle things from pheromones to warp signature are usually incorrect. These forms were usually created as forms to assimilate captured sentient souls, and through a complicated unknown process, the Doktors are able to slowly modify a xeno soul so as to become (almost) fully human. This is a very lengthy multi century long process, and so far very xenos have actually graduated into humanity.

\*\*The abovementioned Xeno caste is for the most part barred from this military service, but particularly evaluated souls (usually several life cycles) are permitted entrance.  A successful term allows evolution into full humanity, and the Xeno can evolve into a staffmember.

## Technology in Pygmalian:

Because of the nature of their planet, long-held taboos, contempt for all non-human life, as well as micromanagement of pygmalian society. Mechanical and Digital Technology in Pygmalian society has barely advanced beyond Georgian Era Earth (Late 1700s early 1800s).\* One of the side effects of having a planet entirely populated by humans, the Doktors are obsessed with ecological balance, and many "fuming" devices are strictly regulated. Nearly every other function that cannot be performed by Archaic Amishlike technology is performed by human beings modified to fufill the roles of machines, but outside of the wealthiest of nobility these human components are oftentimes communal and controlled by the Doktors. Devices that are excessively fuming or emit too many toxins are outright banned.

\*The Doktors do have some advanced digital and mechanical technology deep within their Labrators. However these devices are usually sparse and used for only things that are not yet replaceable with organic substitutes.

### FTL Travel:

The Pygmalians have their own sort of webway, built out of connecting two or more pygmalian planets together. However this webway only actually works with planets that have millions of souls trapped in them, so outside of their developed planets, they are stuck resorting to sub FTL outside of major pygmalian centers.