Old Race Cores

The Cores are artifacts of tremendous power left behind by the ancient Old Race. Presumably manufactured sometime during the height of their civilization (between 26 and 30 trillion years ago). The processes used to create the Cores are as unknown as their makers, but the Cores themselves seem to be at least semi-sentient and extremely powerful.

"Tapping", or harnessing the power of a Core, is an extremely tricky business. Scain and Scion can do it with their Psionics. Alinteans and Rhurni can build machines to do it. Some races, like the Traithili, can sense Cores but are unable to tap into them. A subspecies of the Taeski, called the Okulaurum, actively seek the Cores and imprison them to keep them away from other races, deeming them dangerous. But no race, up tot his point, has been able to directly tap a Core with their body and survive.

Cores come in several varieties, but none of them are any less powerful than another. They can also be tapped in tandem, producing amazingly powerful or destructive results. Because of this, the trade and sale of Cores has been banned by the Senate. The Senate strictly regulates the flow of Cores within its domain, rationing them out to races based on need.

The types of Cores are as follows:

* Yellow Core: These Cores contain massive amounts of electrical energy and, when tapped, release it in varying quantities (based on the amount of energy used to tap the Core). The maximum recorded output of a Yellow Core was 1030 amps, which was sustained at 100 hours. The Core later 'overheated', entering what seemed to be a cooldown cycle which lasted 50 hours before it reactivated. They have been used as backup cells for fusion plants, starships or nuclear reactors and have even found widespread use in charging stations for vehicles (both civilian and military). They are the most common type of Core.
* Red Core: Unlike the electricity unleashed by a Yellow Core, the Red Cores unleash massive amounts of heat. They can burn as hot as 50,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit and do not seem to have a time limit on them like their Yellow brethren. They find widespread use on frozen worlds or in cold regions, acting as thermal units, or in high grade flamethrowers and emergency heat-seeker decoys.
* Bluish-White Core: The polar opposite of the Red Core, this one cools down it surroundings to the inverse extent of its cousin. It is used mainly for temperature management in desert or volcanic regions, inside embassies on Taeski or Iharsh-Daraz worlds as "air conditioners", or as aids for freeze-drying processes, food storage and some type of weaponry (namely cryoprojectors).
* Light Green Core: These are referred to as "Bio Cores" and are one of the rarest Cores in existence, and they can directly manipulate cellular structure. As Bio Cores are so rare, they only find limited use, but when they are used it is mostly in the medical fields to treat patients or in agriculture, stimulating the growth of plants and crops. Only fifty have been found to date, making them a valued commodity. They also have a tendency to fail if they are overtaxed, resulting in a long (often two year) period of recharge.
* Brown Core: These are rare Cores capable of injecting tectonic energy into the surrounding landscape, thus allowing it to be shaped. Commonly used in terrain leveling and terraforming. The area where they were commonly found was quarantined to an Anu'bai outbreak 20,000 years ago. As such, these Cores became a much rarer commodity.
* Pink Core: Apparently increases or decreases magnetic or electromagnetic fields and effects. Uncommon, but not truly a rare Core. Commonly used as EM Shielding or weapon repulsion systems. At one point, they were used to create fields and domes to combat EM-based weaponry. This process was expensive and was later scrapped.
* Orange Core: Often called "Nova" or "Stellar Cores" based on which race is referring to them, these Cores release energy in one burst with no apparent order, effectively creating an explosion of light, heat and noise. Rare, but not impossible to find, these Cores are commonly used in asteroid destruction, asteroid mining, strip mining or other hard-vacuum explosives.
* Violet Core: "Void" or "Implosion Cores", these Cores are the opposing force to the Orange Core and implode immediately when tapped. All surrounding matter is pulled in to the center and compacted, if not outright destroyed. Used widely in disposal or as weapons.
* Tan Core: Light Cores, capable of illuminating large areas at once, sometimes with blinding effects. Commonly used in civilian housing grids or park districts to illuminate large areas at once or to recharge weapons such as reusable flash grenades. Also used as beacons.
* Dark Blue Core: These Cores are the opposite to Tan Cores and are capable of literally counteracting light. They absorb any and all light cast in their direction when tapped, plunging an area into perfect, inky blackness. The rarest of the standard Cores, only three have ever been found. No practical uses have ever been found.

There are also three types of "Special Cores":

* White Core: One of a pair with the Black Core. It apparently influences the dimensional fabric around it as well as having gravitic and kinetic properties. Only one has ever been found and has since been lost. According to anecdotes, it also extended the strength of nearby Cores.
* Black Core: One of a pair with the White Core. Influenced gravitic and kinetic energies, but its strength is limited. Only one has ever been found, but it was lost around the same time as the White Core. They are both presumed to have been stolen after the Siege of Vekaan.
* Gray Core: Although once suspected to form a trio with the White and Black Cores, the Gray Core was later proven to be a weapon of sorts. Those who tap it, and any around them, are driven insane by a peculiar wavelength of energy which attacks brain cells. If the Core is remotely activated, it has a field effect. It is theorized that these are "failed cores", and are the only kind which are actively "decommissioned" by snap-freezing them in space or abandoning them near Okulaurum warrens.