Ziort

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Typical relatively spherical representative in a vacuum.

Ziort's volume is a community of creatures that evolved in space, consisting of electrical discharges and inhabiting mainly interstellar spaces. Their mind naturally connects into a single network, if individuals are close to each other. On the planets, they are forced to wear special suits, or capsules, so as not to dissipate in the atmosphere. They are valued in Alliance as first-class scientists, engineers, and researchers.

Estimated life expectancy - Indefinable. It seems that Ziort cannot die otherwise except by violence. There hasn't been a single recorded case proving the opposite.

Brief History

No one knows how the Volume of the Ziort was born, not even the Ziort themselves. Before contact with Raharrs, the Ziort did not understand the need to store historical data, since they essentially had no history. Clouds of reasonable lightning flew through space and watched everything that happens around them. Some adhere to the theory that the Volume of Ziort may be a remnant of the Ancients, which could not or did not want to leave this universe. However, in scientific circles, this theory is not taken seriously as there are too many arguments against it. In particular, knowledge of several parts of the Volume suggests that they are even older than the Ancients themselves. Raharrs stumbled upon the Volume by chance - one of the wandering individuals just stumbled upon a research ship and absorbed into it, having lost the ability to intangible existence. This almost resulted in the death of the entire crew, since the newly appeared "on-board computer" did not know how to control the ship and its systems in any way. However, the crisis was resolved in a timely manner, and the citizen had to start working as a ship. But he himself was not opposed to this. In fact, this is the first of its kind to have worked with the Alliance. Subsequently, he led the research team to the site of the space where the Volume itself was located, after which agreements and a peace treaty were concluded with Ziort. The Volume occupies a rather impressive section of this sector (on the order of a pair of parsecs across), but 95% of the Volume is located in the intergalactic space above the Galaxy's ecliptic, away from stars and planetary systems. Upon learning of the existence of such a bizarre form of mind, Ziort's Volume enthusiastically accepted an invitation to the Alliance, awaiting fresh knowledge and research. Soon, the first prototypes of atmospheric container suits were created.

Biology

There are no analogs of citizen Ziort known to the Alliance. This energy mind is a unique miracle of the universe, and its structure still remains a mystery for the scientists of the Alliance. However, given the fact that one Citizen is able to fully provide power to almost any device in which he moves in, up to the spacecraft, there is a theory that what the raharr see and the rest is only a three-dimensional projection of the true Citizen of Ziort, a creature of four, and maybe five. In the space inaccessible to three-dimensional creatures, Citizen Ziort keeps a certain “bag of energy” from which she draws strength for her existence.

Ziort in its natural state is not able to exist near large accumulations of matter or gas with high pressure. Contact with solid substances provokes the so-called scattering effect, where an individual literally explodes with a powerful electrical storm that burns everything up to 10 meters around them. This happens at the contact of the center of the individual with any matter of sufficient density, regardless of its state of aggregation. The saturation limit of the area of ​​space that citizens of Ziort can occupy without dispersion was determined to 0.001 atmosphere. The only exceptions are metals and their derivatives. Being conductors, they are almost transparent for individuals at any density, and rather large in volume pieces of ore or mechanisms are able to “absorb” an individual who is evenly distributed over his new “body”.

Containment capsule, standard non-specialized version.

In this state, citizen Ziort becomes capable of safely interacting with a solid substance, but loses freedom of movement in return, and the only way to get out of a metal object is to destroy it into rather small fragments that are unable to hold the essence in themselves. Citizen Ziort, however, acquires full electromagnetic control over his body. If it is some kind of mechanism like a robot, it no longer requires a power source or a control program, the Citizen directly controls the servos and mechanisms of the robot. When in need, a citizen of a Ziort can change the form of even solid objects without any drives or even just hinges, bending the iron itself with powerful magnetic fields. However, this method of movement is regarded as tedious and annoying, not to mention the resulting magnetic fields of monstrous power (Up to 5 Tesla and higher, depending on the scale, magnetism and hardness of materials) around the body of a Citizen. Driving in cars is an extreme and usually avoided option. For regular interaction with the material world for citizens, special containment capsules were invented, preserving vacuum conditions inside themselves and allowing the citizen to interact with body systems through electrical discharges directed to special electrodes. According to approximate calculations, the amount of energy that Citizen Ziort can give out at any time is equal to the amount of energy released by one star during one year. Remarkably, however,, Ziort cannot consciously dispose of this ocean of power, taking from it only relatively small portions necessary for a particular moment. There is a version that "bags" can stick together with each other, which explains the unification of consciousness of several closely located Citizens. The “bag” apparently does not self-replenish, or does so very slowly, since the Citizens who had spent considerable time on managing cumbersome mechanisms began to complain about “turbidity of consciousness” and “fear of dissipation”. Also, most likely, the terrible electric storm that occurs when Citizen Ziort disperses in the atmosphere is the flow of unrestrained energy from the bag, which has time to seep into our measurements for that trillionth fraction of a millisecond while the bag is connected to the three-dimensional space by the dying Citizen. The energy "bodies" of Ziort also need to be replenished with photons, for reasons not yet understood. Ziort, who entered the mechanism directly, do not feel the need for photons, apparently absorbing them directly by the surface of mechanisms. Gowever, “pure” citizens who use a suit for being in the atmosphere, without the access of photons to the “body” quickly lose their ability to control mechanics and communicate. In this regard, all suits are forced to leave the most important and fragile part of the suit - the capsule of the content - without a protective reservation, as well as to make it transparent. However, very few people are aware of the vulnerability of pure Ziort to the lack of light, and the structure of their spacesuits is considered a simple designer sophistication.

Military doctrine

The volume of Ziort has no military structure or organization. This does not threaten their appearance, since it is impossible and simply pointless to wage war against them. However, those citizens who get to the planet in costumes are trained in basic knowledge of self-defense and control of small arms, which can be built into the spacesuit, because it is impossible to guarantee the safety of a citizen on the planets and he dies if the suit is severely damaged.

State system

Ziort has no analogues of the state system in the material world. The definition of “anarchy” is most suitable for them, but the energy mind is so different from organic that it means, in essence only among the Citizens of the Volume, there are no principal and subordinates. Everyone lives and develops on its own, and events affecting the whole species are so rare that meeting with Raharr and joining the Alliance is the only such event in the last million years.

Society (general mentality, special features)

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In Ziort, the views are aimed at inert knowledge and observation of the universe, the accumulation and exchange of this knowledge as the only value available to Ziort. However, sometimes there are individuals who do not follow this philosophy and wish to actively intervene in the processes of the Universe for the sake of interest, desire or boredom. Usually, they are declared outcasts and sometimes even destroyed (Assistance to the Alliance in scientific research, however, is not considered intervention, rather as a new form of knowledge and information sharing). Such outcasts are seen more often after contact with the Alliance, but nevertheless, even with such a significant (by the standards of Ziort) increase in dissidents, it is almost impossible to meet a citizen of Ziort who is not a scientist at any laboratory. The interest to biological civilizations and the desire to cooperate with them are experienced mainly by active and curious representatives of Ziort, while the richest in experience representatives prefer to float far above the ecliptic in space, showing little interest in communicating with material creatures.

Famous personalities

• Virus - Hired Special Agent (role-playing character)

Trivia

• Ziort were invented for the setting, based on inspiration from the Unreal 2 game character as well as the "Virus" and "Titan AE" films.
• The virus was the first character created as a member of Ziort