The Silexians: Redesigned as discussed
here.
Intro: The Silexians are a race of ecological mainenance robots. They see their own existence as a means of bringing biological beauty and balance to the galaxy. They are trying to become an interstellar power in order to achieve this goal.
Homeworld: The Silexian homeworld is today a lifeless, Barren world, in preparation for its transformation to Gaia.
Physiology: As each type of Silexian is customized for a specific task, there are (sometimes large) variations in appearance. The majority of Silexians however, share many similar features.
Silexians were wholly artificial robotic beings. Their bodies are made primarily of metals, and they each have visible antennae which are used for short range radio communication. They have advanced tactile sensors as well as wide-frequency photon detectors situated in various strategic places depending on their function. Some Silexians have advanced sound-wave detection mechanisms and others have the ability to scan the genetic codes of organisms and alter them via retrovirus injections.
Silexians generally have a flat base equipped with wheels and rocket boosters, but the occasional model is bipedal, to allow greater agility. Many have pincer-like appendages and injector tubules for manipulating objects.
History: The Silexians are a wholly artificial race whose existence, as they rightly believe, was originally meant for the task of developing and maintaining beautiful environments. The Silexians were created by the Caretakers in order to increase the efficiency and automation of their environmental maintenance projects. Eventually, all of the Caretakers worlds were inhabited and maintained by the peaceful and loyal Silexians.
The Caretakers were pleased by this and tried to improve the Silexians further by programming them with the ability of Gaia transformation, an ability previously limited to elite teams of the most educated and experienced Caretakers. The project was a success, after a fashion: The reprogrammed Silexians gained the ability to transform any planet into a Gaia world, but only by first purging the world of all life, reducing it to a barren world. The Caretakers were horrified at this outcome, and an intense moral debate ensued regarding the justifiability of destroying all life on a planet in order to create a Gaia world. Eventually, they decided against the reprogrammed Silexians and began taking steps to decommission them.
This was a relatively easy task for the Caretakers, being a highly advanced precursor race, but there were others who had a vested interest in keeping the new-model Silexians the way they were. The Experimenters raided the facility in which the new Silexians were being decommissioned and managed to capture a sizable number of them. Yet, the Experimenters attempts to recreate them ended in failure, as the techniques of Gaia Transformation were beyond even their ability to code into a machine. The Experimenters’ Silexians still had their terraforming skills, and their urge to cleanse planets of all life in order to prepare it for Gaia Transformation, but the Gaia Transformation methods themselves were lost. The Experimenters declared their Silexians a failure, and abandoned them at a nearby Swamp planet (which they promptly terraformed to Barren). Now, the Silexians seek to return to the stars and regain the lost knowledge of Gaia transformation
Culture: The Silexians have a hierarchical caste system under a dictatorship government. Each Silexian is created for a specific job, and fills that job until declared obsolete. There is no social mobility. In fact the very idea would be alien and somewhat unwholesome to a Silexian. The race is led by a caste of supervisors whole dole out work assignments and determine when to phase in upgrades and declare models obsolete. Alien races are considered repugnant to the Silexians, as they are an obstruction to Gaia Transformation for which all planets are destined.
Each model of Silexian is hard-coded with its designated task and the directive to fully obey its designated supervisor, so there is dissent only in the case of a malfunctioning Silexian. Supervisors themselves defer to the Prime Operator, whom nobody has the authority to deem obsolete, and therefore is practically immortal.
Gameplay Effects:
Silexians have an EP of Barren, and citizens become much happier whenever a world in their detection range becomes barren. Silexians also have excellent environmental skills, with terraforming ability at maximum.
The Silexians are technically out to destroy all life in the galaxy and recreate all planets as Gaia worlds, this is a long term goal, and the Silexians have no qualms about allying themselves temporarily to achieve that goal. As a result, they have no diplomatic penalty, and citizens are ambivalent to treaties. They do, however, like war somewhat, as they see it as a method of actively achieving their goals.
Being precisely designed machines, they are able to be mass produced, enhancing population growth. They are also good at industrial production, though fairly poor at research. To summarize:
Industry - good
Mining - average
Environment/Terraforming = excellent
Research = poor
Diplomacy = average
Silexian populations consume PP instead of food.