Godbound In Space: The Arcem Sector, Part 3

Not every civilization in Arcem is that of a planet-bound society. There are those, out there, which straddle the line between being a civilization and a faction: too mobile and/or far-reaching to be a simple planet or system-bound culture and too vast and numerous to be merely a faction.

The Kasirutan Fleets

Space fleet mobilization by Chia Shin Yeh.

The Kasirutan were the naval nobility of the invaders which brought the ancestors of the Dulimbai people but ancient grudges, political maneuvering and other reasons lost to history have made them into spaceborn nomads: traders, explorers and pirates. Today no Kasirutan has ever been born on a planet as they spend all their lives living aboard their ships. Natural-born spacers, they find it difficult to adapt to environments with gravity without specialized suits. They tend to be pale, elongated people and many sport modifications to allow them to exist in exotic environments in order to trade with xenotypes which near-humans may not normally interact with due to how different their environments are. They have a strong ancestral cult (with common roots to many similar  religions in Arcem) and are known to make their ships (and thus home) into elaborate tombs as well, carving the name or faces of famous ancestors onto the hull while having entire sections serve as catacombs. A few rare artifact ships retain the neural pathways or even the complete soul-data of famous ancestors who now act as ship AI.

The Kasirutan are often considered near-psychic, many of them having lesser posthuman abilities (read: Low Magic) which allow them to interface with their ships (some of which are Artifact), control said ship through a soul-interface and plot complex courses through the stars. Of all the people in Arcem they are the only one to regularly leave the confine of the sector but what they find out there is, for now, a secret. Inside Arcem the Kasirutan are known as great merchants and are one of the few which dare leave the pre-planned spacelane to take shortcuts.

The Black Academies

Techno shaman by Tamer Poyraz Demiralp.

The great (and often shunned) arcane techno-theurgic sciences are an ancient, complex craft. Originating from the Raktine Reach region between Dulimbai and Patria the Black Academies began as a conglomerate of the most brilliant minds from a few star system which wanted to be neutral in the war between these two powers. History does not recall who first proposed turning to forbidden theurgic technique of void-summoning but he or she damned the Raktine theurge: in the modern time they are in exile, living in foreboding void fortress and feared by all yet also reluctantly respected. These fortresses are societies of their own, where insane law, mad decrees and the stuff of nightmares is the norm, with people drawn from all manner of tributes across the sector and shoved into the depth of these fortress as manual labor.

Each Academy has a drastically different culture, rites and secret techniques with only summoning of dreaded void-entities and binding them as a common craft shared by all Black Academies. Each respective academy believe itself to be either superior to all others and/or more 'pure' in their legacy. The Black Academies are an unmatched independent faction solely dedicated to their studies, power and self preservation, Not necessarily in that order.

The Raktine Orders

Art by Gabriel Santin.

A byproduct of the foundation of the Black Academies and their sworn enemies. The Raktine Orders are wandering warriors, mercenaries, space knights-errants, monster-hunters, interplanetary paladins, and curse-eating mystics. Much like their sworn enemies, the Academies, they have their roots in the Raktine Reach yet nowadays have become a society/faction unrelated to it and composed of many groups unrelated to the inhabitants of the region.

The various Raktine orders are military and religious in equal measure but that doesn't mean they can't or won't commit dirty acts in spite of their projected image of honor. Vicious slayers of many unnatural beasts, especially void-summoned entities and Ancients bioweapons they often will stop at nothing to end the threat: it is only a matter of perspective and approach which varies for these orders. The Raktine Orders are generally well-respected and often have many worlds who have sworn ancient oaths in exchange for the service of the Orders. At any time these worlds can have resources tithed to help the Raktine Orders on a crusade.