The Congregation

The Congregation is not a race per se; rather, it is an ancient and hyperintelligent hivemind shared by countless scions all of which it regards with, at best, indifference, and, at worst, contempt.

Biology and Physiology
The brain of The Congregation, known as the Overmind, (or  Cerebrelar quisque),  is an anomolous sapient fungus-like being that exhibits powerful psychic abilities. It is believed that the Overmind is as old as the universe itself, although those are just the legends. The evolutionary processes that resulted in the modern Overmind are largely unknown, however, it is believed that the Overmind spreads its consciousness through spores. The physical Overmind gives off spores which get inhaled by various species and, as the spores reproduces in the brain of the one who inhaled them, their consciousness is supplanted by that of the Overmind. Those who are infected by the spores of the Overmind becomes scions that serve it, with no free will and no mind of their own; and a certain class of scion, the hydra, give off billions of spores upon their deaths. Because of this process, over millions of years, the Overmind, one single brain, has gained control of trillions and trillions of individual scions.

The Overmind is a psychic being with a psychic diet; namely, it feeds upon consciousness. It feeds by supplanting species and enthralling them, slowly draining their consciousness until they are nothing but empty husks. However, this method of feeding does not provide the Overmind with the maximum amount of nutrients; the slow drain is not sufficient to survive. For this reason, throughout history, the Overmind has been known to quickly supplant entire races and consume their consciousnesses rapidly, causing immediate death. This fills the Overmind up more, and by destroying one race this way, it can sustain itself for many years. If it goes too long without sufficient feeding, it will grow weak, and it will lose its psychic grip on its trillions of scions. The majority of the Congregation's scions are from a species native to the homeworld of the Overmind--the Enu’nai. The origin of the Enu’nai is unknown; many believe them to a species that happened to evolve on the same planet that the Overmind is present on, being supplanted early in their evolution and having been under its control ever since. This is arguably a good thing, however, as the Overmind is capable of immense feats of organization, allowing the Enu’nai to have a rapidly-developing, autonomous society that advanced into space rather quickly. They have never had a war amongst themselves, as they are many bodies controlled by one mind, eliminating the possibility of disagreement.

The Enu’nai have no free will, like all of the scions; the Overmind controls its trillions of them simultaneously, directing each one independently at the same time. Furthermore, since the Enu'nai have no consciousnesses, the Overmind cannot feed on them, so it has instead enthralled them and uses them to spread and find more races to feed upon.

Physically, the Enu’nai have a vaguely reptillian, sometimes snake-like body. Though they come in a near-infinite amount of permutations, their face is also reptilian, but with a gnashing vertical mouth, and typically three eyes, with two on one side and one on the other. They have three arms, with two on one side, and one on the other, like their eyes, although many Enu’nai have been documented with more arms and stranger arrangements of them; the same can be said for their eyes. The reason for this strange asymmetrical evolution is unknown, but speculated to have something to do with millions of years of the Overmind’s consciousness existing within the bodies of the Enu’nai.

The Overmind is known to supplant minor races that have not yet become spacefaring, invading promising worlds and converting all of their inhabitants into scions. Little to no data has been gathered on these minor races, as they are rarely seen. Historically, the Overmind keeps a single thrall race, currently the Enu'nai, while completely mentally destroying any other race it can successfully supplant en masse, thus allowing it to spread itself with an army and supplant more species, but still keep itself well fed.

History
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Culture
The Congregations has no culture. It is a single mind. In The Congregation, there is only one goal: The Dispersion. Things like culture are irrelevant. The Congregation's singular objective, The Dispersion, is its desire to spread itself throughout the galaxy, supplanting all life. The reason for this is unknown, however, it likey has to do with the extreme narcissism of the Overmind and its irrational hatred everyone that is not it.

Religion
The Overmind views itself as a god (and, in many respects, it is one), and, due to its extreme form of existence, it is completely unable to understand other races, which it deems to be “mortals.” As something completely egotistical, it hates that which it does not understand, which means that the Overmind hates the rest of the races of the galaxy, which, in turn, means the scions hate the rest of the galaxy. The Overmind is not stupid, however; while it has incredibly advanced technology (due to both its long existence and its organization), it is still not capable of wiping out other civilizations with the ease that it desires. While galactic domination through ubiquitous supplantation is its main goal, it is in no way capable of waging a galactic war. Yet.

However, it is more than capable of defending itself, and it is equally capable on the offensive side of things.

The Overmind  sees itself as a god, and, as a god, it is bored. The Congregation deals with its boredom in interesting ways. For example, were one to somehow visit Arx Congrenax, its homeworld, they would see elaborate and over-the-top scenes, almost resembling plays, in which scions soliloquize about their love for it; one would see a massive cathedrals dedicated to the Overmind, in which scions worship it, and one would see piles of corpses of scions the Overmind killed because it was bored. An interesting character, no one truly understands the complexities of the Overmind, and it is likely that no one ever will. A lonely, bored, psychopathic cosmic godmind, The Congregation is doomed to an eternal life with no way of ever definitively solving any of its problems.

Economy
The Congregation has no economy. It has no need for one. As a single consciousness, the Congregation has no conflict within its domain, thus there is no need for an economy. It uses its mindless scions to manufacture all of its own weapons, armor, starships, and other technologies.

Technology
The technology of The Congregation is quite advanced. It is a mish-mash of the technologies from hundreds of different races, all of which have been supplanted and subsequently destroyed by the Overmind. Since the Overmind has existed for billions of years, it has encountered countless sentient races. Throughout its long history, it has supplanted these races temporarily, absorbed their technology, and subsequently destroyed them by feeding on their consciousnesses. Hundreds of races, many dating back to the time when Andromeda and the Milky Way were two, and the Athos were still animals squabbling about on a tiny rock, have been supplanted, and their knowledge has been absorbed into the Overmind's knowledge matrix. As such, the Congregation makes use of eclectic technologies--colossal derelict starships that have been retrofitted, barbaric, ancient weapons, and anything else that has ever been owned by a race it supplanted.

Governmental Structure
The Overmind is the government of The Congregation, if it can be called a government at all. It controls all individuals within its psychic domain simultaneously.

Military
The various scions of the Congregation make deadly warriors. They are evolutionarily predisposed to take on various roles within the Congregation's war machine. All of their fear, pain, and logic responses are subdued, making them even more lethal on the battlefield. Furthermore, the Overmind, unable to understand or relate to other lifeforms, is completely remorseless. The scions will not retreat, they will not surrender, and they will not take prisoners. The Overmind doesn't care about them at all, so it uses sheer numbers to decimate foes. The most common scions are comprised of the Enu'nai, and they come in various forms.

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