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746 - The Top Ten of the Conclave III
🕑 Added 2024-10-03 07:59:14 +0000 UTCWhile several races in the Conclave embraced biological modifications, the Galvinith followed the most natural path. Their unique power system relies on biological symbiosis, forming a partnership with symbiotic organisms that enhance their physical and mental capabilities without any initial technological intervention. Each Galvinith bonds with a symbiotic creature early in life, choosing based on their highest natural affinity, which grants them specialized abilities like heightened senses, rapid regeneration, extreme agility, or other traits specific to the symbiotes within their system.
While they aren't restricted to their strongest affinity, attempting to bond with a symbiote for which they lack a natural connection can severely hinder their growth or even prevent the symbiosis from taking hold—leading to the host being crippled or killed.
Once the bond is established, the symbiote takes time to adapt to the host. Due to the unique nature of each symbiote, no two Galvinith are alike, and their individuality makes them powerful and unpredictable in combat.
Their greatest vulnerability lies in the symbiote itself. If the symbiote is killed or gravely injured, the host experiences a severe backlash, weakening them until they can find a new symbiote and undergo the adaptation process again. As a result, many powerful Galvinith cultivate relationships with multiple symbiotes, though this requires immense strength to meet the needs of each one without causing conflict. Only after reaching a certain level of power can a Galvinith safely host more than one symbiote.
The more symbiotes a Galvinith bonds with, the more abilities they gain, making them increasingly formidable.
Depending on which symbiotes his Galvinith opponents are bonded with the fight might be the easiest or the hardest but since there was no way for Aron to predict which symbiotes his opponents might wield, he decided to move on and examine the remaining races—all of which had one common focus: magic, a subject in which he was already highly proficient.
Although the remaining two races each specialized in magic, they pursued entirely different paths. The Elara, Xalthar's race, concentrated on using magic to enhance their physical abilities or as a means of attack through powerful spells. In contrast, the Feryn harnessed magic and mana to advance their expertise in magic engineering.
As a result, the Elara were individually powerful, with their warriors either dedicating themselves to enhancing their bodies to the extreme using mana or mastering spellcasting. They embodied the essence of what humanity refers to as knights and mages, closely aligning with those concepts but adapted for a spacefaring civilization.
In contrast, the Feryn's emphasis on magic engineering operated on an entirely different level. Their entire industrial foundation was built upon this discipline, with everything from the knives wielded by their fighters to the weaponry used by their naval fleets stemming from advanced magic engineering.
Their shift toward magic engineering instead of using mana and magic for personal enhancement stemmed from a fundamental limitation: unlike the Elara, the Feryn could not store mana within their bodies for combat or sustain themselves in low-mana environments. This weakness had proven detrimental during their ancient conflicts against the Elara, long before the establishment of the Astral Conclave. As a result, the Feryn were compelled to pivot and focus on developing powerful weapons using their expertise in mana and magic. This strategic shift ultimately enabled them to compete effectively against the Elara, which had long been their goal.
Over the course of a millennium, the paths of the Elara and the Feryn diverged significantly. The Elara continued to emphasize personal enhancement, developing intricate structures and techniques to strengthen their bodies and magical abilities. In contrast, the Feryn completely shifted their focus away from bodily enhancements and personal magic.
Instead, they immersed themselves in magic engineering, integrating it into every aspect of their society. This innovation extended even to their clothing, which featured elements of magic engineering.
As a result, their technology became highly sought after among the other members of the Conclave. Many civilizations were unable to engage in magic engineering, either due to their inability to access mana in the required manner or because they lacked the necessary knowledge, which the Feryn restricted to their own race.
This overview primarily concentrated on the individual characteristics of each race within the Conclave. While it provided some insights into the political tensions—such as the Elara's discriminatory views towards races that lacked the ability to use mana and magic—it also highlighted their belief that they were the rightful masters of these powers in the universe. This belief fueled their ongoing hatred for the Feryn, whom they saw as corrupting the sanctity of mana and magic by imprisoning them within metals and machines. To the Elara, this practice enabled even those previously rejected by mana to wield its power, which they deemed a desecration.
However, this political context was not particularly relevant to the current situation. Such issues would only become significant once hostilities had ended, and by that time, additional information would likely have surfaced, making the effort to read about these tensions a distraction from the vigilance required in the present moment.
Having finished reviewing the updated information about the top ten civilizations, Aron returned his perception acceleration to normal. Both he and Nova understood the importance of avoiding fatigue, as he needed to maintain maximum readiness.
With his new insights, his perspective on the ongoing attacks shifted; he could now identify the unique patterns in each assault and deduce which civilization's fleet was behind them, or at least infer which civilization had supplied the weaponry used.
“Now we wait,” he said, settling back into his chair. He refrained from adding anything to the plan, confident that John and the rest of the military were also briefed on the gathered intelligence. They would leverage this information to tailor their tactics to each civilization and the weapons they deployed, streamlining the process for the breaching forces, who were bearing the brunt of the danger in gathering critical data.
Within this strategy, his only reason for taking action would be if the enemy began deploying their strongest individual forces in significant numbers. Only then would he consider making a decisive move.
And he knew that with each passing second, the moment of confrontation drew closer.
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