Celestial

A large sentient species named for their close appearance to the stars. 

The celestials have almost completely black skin which helps them camouflage in the Black of space. They have a large number of white, bioluminescent 'spots' on their skin which makes them resemble stars. 

They do not depend on planets or any other astronomical objects for their survival other than stars. They will remain in fairly close orbit of any star to absorb a larger amount of heat. They are not in possession of any digestive or respiratory systems because of this. As such, they do not require food or other kinds of sustenance, and strangely they do not belong to an ecosystem, being the only organic creatures present in a very long radius and are thus unaware of the existence of animals or predators.

The complete lack of any organisms to evolve from implies the celestials were created artificially. They also seem to have some significant genetic variance, with some taking on completely different body configurations. Skin colour never varies as they are all black, but the number of 'stars' on them might vary a lot, as would the exact size and quantity of their body parts. 

The celestials' body absorbs enough energy to allow an individual to perform FTL warp jumps and travel between stars. They would also need to perceive other objects at superluminal velocity.

Celestial science has not advanced very far and they do not have any kinds of starships, but they believe that the universe is a single, immense organism. They also believe themselves as owners of the stars, and when denied this they are quite likely to attack other factions. The powerful nature of the creatures often makes them difficult to remove from random, pooy mapped galaxies or star systems but they seem to be present around many stars of Fortrais. Much like the Cypher Dominion attempted project, Project Starlance, celestials are a continual threat to exploration parties trying to explore the Fortrais Galaxy Cluster, though they can be easily avoided by entering a high orbit around the star as they cannot survive in cold conditions.

To prevent them from accumulating an immense amount of heat which is never radiated, they will instead radiate by firing excess energy in a fairly tight cone. This keeps their energy production systems cooler which allows them to produce more energy and prevents a celestial from melting. They have no microbiome at all, so all functions are performed by the creatures own cells, so they must be able to perform a much wider number of functions. This should also mean their immune systems are quite weak, but harki bioengineers tried using biological weapons against them to no success, further implying that the celestials were created. They were, however, completely unaware of this attack and they still don't know about it to this day.

They often come with a number of appendages which can fire projectiles towards a target. This may be used against other celestials, but are always used against other factions. The exact nature of the projectile will depend on the person's exact genetics, but some can fire plasma projectiles. Others fire lasers, and some groups have even been known to fire bullets which are grown within themselves. The size and number of these appendages varies between individuals.

They tend to be about 30 m in length on average, however they can also vary massively in size and some individuals have reached into the hundreds of meters in length. The lower known limit is 3 m including flagella or other propulsion.

They have a large number of traditions for various things, but almost all cultures have their own days for celebrating the stars, and they might worship the universe-organism. Some cultures ignore that mostly but accepting it as truth, while others are fanatic about it and some might be determined to become their own universes complete with entire populations living inside them. Others think this is impossible and will laugh in the face of such endeavours.