Aet

Aet
Species Info
Biology:	Nanomech
Lifespan:	~1000 years
Magic Capability:	Naturally Nonexistent
Culture Info
Government:	Unified digital democracy

Aet (pronounced Ah-ett), also colloquially known as Eternals due to the sheer length of their lifespans, are a highly technologically advanced nanomachine-based species whose unique biology has lead to a rather peculiar combination of traits, both biologically and culturally.

With their rather individualistic culture, though mixed in a somewhat bizarre way with a collective mindset, they have never really accepted or tolerated authority. This, alongside their rather commonly irreverent nature and lack of understanding of the concept of privacy, tends to cause friction when it comes to interacting with other cultures, which leads to them mostly keeping to themselves.

Completely lacking a natural connection to the Void, Aet have instead ended up on a near-completely technological base of knowledge, assisted by their nanomachine biosphere, allowing for much greater and simpler construction methods than most cultures had access to early in their advancement.

Said limitations, however, did not prevent them from making use of the Void. Through scientific exchange with other species and extensive reverse engineering of Invader technology, they have managed to figure out an artificial method of tapping into the Void.

Attributes

Biology

To Be Rewritten

Evolved on a planet that was an experiment by some precursor species, where they seeded it with nanomachines to see how an entirely nanomech biosphere would form up.

One of the biological peculiarities of the Eternates is that their "hand" equivalent, alongside most macro-scale manipulation organs on their planet, are closer to a clump of nanomachines that reshape themselves into required/desired shape for the task at hand rather than being a singular shape.

In its natural form, this organ is too generalized to allow for active and intentional reshaping and so can only alter its shape to grip anything it tries to grip firmly, however with advances of science, they have managed to figure out how to gain much better control over it and so can reshape the clumps into specific tools and, when necessary, even straight up a hand.

Culture

Biological peculiarities of the Aet have lead to their culture developing in a way that was rather bizarre when compared to most other cultures in the galaxy. The network that connects them all used to be quite a bit more rudimentary than it is nowadays, having been improved over time, but even in the earliest periods of their civilization, the entire planet was connected to an unprecedented level.

In spite of that, several events in their history have caused them to end up quite individualistic. While their minds are not quite as singular an independent as most other species, the network has been engineered to accentuate the individual, to the point that, aside from certain early periods, the Aet have never really had cultural separators akin to nations.

The best way to describe their society is as a combination of a modern internet forum, an enormous, species-wide social media network, and a fully digital democracy where anyone is free to vote and expouse their opinion on any matter, from the smallest trivialities to the largest species-wide decisions. This effectively eliminated the very possibility of privacy even being a thing in their society, but also resulted in a relatively judgement-free culture. You cannot exactly tell someone off for being weird when everyone is aware that you're just as big an idiot as them, after all.

This also lead to them being culturally rather chill and relaxed even about topics that are normally considered to be beyond serious. They will make jokes, squabble and generally act irreverently whether they are talking to their friends or to a foreign dignitary.

When it comes to religious beliefs and other philosophies, Aet are, yet again, highly individualistic about it. Their beliefs are as wide and as disparate as most other things about them, which makes writing down even just the most common beliefs a near impossibility. However, one peculiarity that makes them stand out among other species is that, with their lack of connection to the Void, it was virtually nonexistend in philosophy until contact with other species lead to its discovery.

Language

One particular example of their cultural irreverency is that their species name is actually merely the Aet word for "Them". They themselves do not really have a singular collective word for their species, beyond the scientific term and, sometimes, the word Nanomech, which is also utilized for every other animate lifeform on their planet. As such, when one needed to be established in inter-species context, they just went with "Them", because "Us" would feel weird when people spoke about them.

Technology

Basically no capacity for magic, borderline commander-tier technology.

Historical events

Recently fought in a war where they were caught completely unprepared, yet managed to retreat to their home system and reinforce it within days to the point that the invaders' fleets shattered against it and they then proceeded to counterattack.

Extremely smug about that event.