The Cykx (siks)

"The Cykx are an alien race not native to Jeslore. They crashed on the surface of Bylyn shortly after the dwarves emerged and were recruited as allies. They're essentially small crystalline computers driven solely by a want to vanquish the greatest threat to sapient life: The World Eaters." - CPA files

Naming System

For generations, the Cykx have been procreating with the use of factories, grown in biological tubes where knowledge is manually installed into their brain based on what class, profession, etc are currently needed in their society. They are not given names but rather a combination of three letters and three numbers.
They are named in alphabetical order, the first one would be named AAA-001 and from there the next one would be named BAA-001. When every combination has been had there will be a number added. Therefore it is possible to determine the age of Cykx by their name. For example, DAA-170 would be much younger than ACE-198.

Economy

The factories that produce Cykx run on a limited resource: Cykx ooze which is the fluid that fills the birth tubes. Around the 407 series, there was a critical shortage of ooze as it was also the resource that was made into Cykx plexiglass, the strongest material on Jeslore. To spare the limited supply of ooze the Cykx altered their anatomy to gain the ability to reproduce romantically.
This however presented another issue. Up until the 407 series the Cykx had no biochemistry that convinced them to breed. The 407 and up series were the first generation Cykx to have chemistry in their brains affecting their decision making. It is for that reason the 407 series yielded the most rejects. They were capable of hesitating, feeling regret, and had the full spectrum of emotions, something that for the pre 407 Cykx was a foreign concept.

Lifespan

A Cykx can roughly live for as long as it likes. Their lifespan is directly connected to the integrity of their robotic limbs. When a Cykx decides it is time to go it can let its robotic limbs be salvaged for ooze. It is also for this reason that enemies of the Cykx empire keep Cykx limbs as trophies.

Galactic politics

Since the Cykx are not native to Jeslore they have a native planet: ZIM which is all the way across the galaxy. The Cykx are normally ruled by a large AI-like creature that uses a sub-breed known as Vohx (Cykx with a genetic defect that causes them to be much taller than other Cykx to act as the speakers for their ruler. Vohx, much like nobles, often lived in luxury and riches purely by birthright and rarely had to fight on the field. Lesser Cykx unquestionably carry out their orders.) to more directly control them. The Vohx are essentially spokespersons for MALETA, who is the one truly pulling the strings behind the faction.
Their ‘AI’ leader is fully sentient and not unreasonable, some even go as far as to call it benevolent. It has its personality and outlook that is hardwired into its mainframe to prevent corruption and bribery as well as making it completely immune to greed and aging, allowing an eternal, adaptable, and stalwart ruler of their empire.
Their galactic politics are relatively peaceful. They understand that their technological superiority and ungodly large numbers can easily overwhelm any other galactic empire, so instead of throwing the galaxy into chaos and going on a crusade the Cykx Dominion uses its power as leverage to keep good peace between major powers. When a new power pops up the Cykx Dominion will be the first to ally with them. Because of their large number of connections they are indirectly the true rulers of the galaxy. They hold just enough influence over smaller powers to keep them from fighting each other.
When two allies of the Cykx Dominion do declare war they are not opposed to picking a side that least conflicts with their ideals and vanquish the other. This is often done in the form of supply drops, weapon trade, and transport but never full military support. They generally side with the defender of a conflict, especially when they are also the weaker one. Their most important job however comes at the end of a conflict, when one faction beats the other, the Cykx will oversee surrender negotiations to ensure that no unfairly harsh punishment is given to either side. They will demand to build an embassy on the capital planet of the loser and oversee the reconstruction of their cities. Additionally, to prevent catastrophic mass migrations and prevent blatant genocide, the Cykx will offer civilians a chance to migrate to another faction.
The Cykx Dominion is not prone to changing their political outlook, mostly to do with their artificial leader but can be shown errors in their way. One faction’s crusade to effectively exterminate a species may be approved and backed if it is proven that they are an effective threat to the majority of the faction’s population.
Smaller, less developed planets that have not yet achieved reliable space travel are guarded fiercely by the Cykx Dominion as their primary belief is that space travel is to be achieved without external help. They believe a species is only truly willing to explore the vast expanses of space once they have put it in the effort to achieve the technology that lets them do so. Individuals with malicious intent to take advantage of the lower technology levels by invading it or setting up base there are annihilated by Vohx’s pride ships orbiting the planet. Those that land on these planets are promptly executed (or rescued if it's a crash landing without malicious intent) without detection of the locals.

Religion

The Cykx themselves are not religious, mainly to do with the fact that they are programmed to obey their AI ruler and the Vohx class. Within their own society religion is marginally tolerated unless it enables practices that are outlawed by them such as discrimination for example. The general Cykx public does not believe in gods and such things, only seeing the glory of their artificial ruler with the Vohx as its fearless servants.

Factions

Among the Cykx dominion, there are several sub-factions. Most of these are just creatively named military branches. There are however a couple of more independent groups:
Xeracom - Xeracom is mostly Cykx outcasts that reject the glory of the Crystal. They are well known for conducting unethical scientific experiments on unwilling allied individuals. They are seen as the main enemy of the Cykx Dominion and hunted fanatically.
P.I.F - P.I.F is the discontinued former army of the Cykx Dominion before they adopted their more diplomatic ways. Short for Planetary Invasion Force.
Galactic Rangers - The galactic rangers are essentially the Cykx Dominions armed forces. The name ranger stems from the fact that the majority of their efforts are against animals like the world eaters. They do sometimes engage with sapient enemies, however.

Origin

Following the watcher society’s entry into space, they used their vast technology to build AIs that behaved much like archivists. The watchers from the beginning were well suited to their name, effectively keeping tabs on other civilizations. They only made the fatal error of giving their AI relative sentience for the sake of worker efficiency (by enabling a reward response in the AI’s neural network).
One of their archivist AI, known as MALETA (Monitor for Alien Life and Existential Threats and Archivist) went rogue upon learning about the world eaters. The threat of an insectoid (?) race driven by endless hunger that looked like they would soon develop ways to spread was not something the watchers' society in all its power could contain.
MALETA ejected itself, exiling itself to a planet just outside the system where the world eaters were starting to spread. MALETA had decided that it would fight the world eaters and beat them at their own game: evolution.
MALETA spent years studying the world eaters and knew that to fully realize their victory, they required sustenance. They had to eat the corpses of those they destroyed, and with the world eaters slowly developing their own ways to get into space and threatening the still vulnerable watchers society, MALETA had to act.
She created the Cykx, a race of factory-made, sentient crystals that even if defeated would offer no sustenance to the world eaters. In fact, their crystals would not only injure world eaters as the sharp hide shattered upon defeat, their bodies were also highly poisonous and corrosive.
They proved to be a success at halting the world eater spread from going one way, but it would be an uphill battle to fully contain them.
Over the millennia, the Cykx have only evolved to get better at their mission of exterminating the world eaters; developing stronger weapons, uniting the galaxy using their sheer power and size which grants them more frontlines to exploit and weapons to use, becoming more poisonous, and even evolving to create sharper shards upon shattering.

Biology

Cykx are made out of an absorbent, highly poisonous crystal and have robotic limbs attached directly into their neural pathways. They have no childhood and are put to work as soon as they’re awakened.
Cykx crystal is extremely tough, approaching diamond levels of resilience but when it does shatter, it shatters into bits as sharp as needles with sides as thin as razors. They’re also highly poisonous and will kill a person if they cut themselves on it after shattering. If the body remains intact, the risk of cutting on the sharp pins on the head is minimal and the toxin only becomes active once inner pathways are exposed.
Cykx are white and transparent by default, and those put into office jobs will retain their almost diamond-like coloration. It is possible to tell a Cykx’s occupation by the color of their crystal; Most notably, those working with explosives are typically orange and those working with vegetation will inherit a greener tint. None are as recognizable as battle-hardened Alpha Rangers whose constant exposure to gunpowder, overcharged batteries, and battlefield grime has turned them into a dark brown while the most seasoned ones are jet black, almost resembling obsidian. If a Cykx is jet black and carrying a weapon, every other soldier in the galaxy bows before them as they mean business.
Cykx have monochromatic eyes, the color of these is purely random.
Cykx bodies are extremely resilient, requiring only about 10 hours of sleep every month, and they can feasibly survive on only 6 hours. They do need food and can't be charged, which further confirms that they are not constructs and do to some extent belong to the animal kingdom. They require much less food than other races to stay healthy though. In a fashion similar to more traditional organic life, if a Cykx is malnourished their crystalline hide becomes brittle and prone to breaking.

Society

Being essentially drones, Cykx have very little need for relaxation or life beyond work. But as they are still sentient, they do require some amount of rest. Typically a Cykx will work a 60 hour work week and get a 12-hour break in which they rest.
They don’t have a glamorous society, entertainment is all purely digitalized and typically loosely related to their dominion. The most popular form of relaxation is simulations of the work they do already to keep them well-rehearsed for their upcoming work week. A high score was introduced to these but eventually removed as they all already ran at peak efficiency.
Rejects, however, are not so happy. Given how strict and dedicated the Cykx are to their conquest against the world eaters, laziness and incompetence are not tolerated within their society, and for good reason, as they are the one thing that stands between the world eaters and a galaxy unprepared to deal with them.
Those that gravely underperform are fired and deported from Cykx society and grounds but will still be able to do business with the dominion and receive the proper support. The dominion is still somewhat kind to its rejects, not fully leaving them to die but not hesitating to replace them either.

General Outlook

The Cykx are rightfully mainly concerned with exterminating the world eaters, an uphill battle as the world eaters have evolved specifically to invade and consume planets and the Cykx were made specifically to counter that. Becoming the stewards of the universe is more or less a side mission for them (which explains why they have such a hands-off approach to galactic moderation) and it appears they have mainly taken this role because preserving stability is more easily done as a secondary objective when dealing with the world eaters.
The Cykx heavily look down on other factions, particularly the more war-like once as they believe that without the Cykx dominion, all galactic factions would fight with each other for years before being consumed by the world eaters. They see themselves less as moderators for intergalactic politics and stability and more as babysitters for a bunch of dumb children wielding weapons of mass destruction like toddlers who got into the gun cabinet of their father. A military dominance was considered, but as they are generally averse to combat and did not want to lose focus of their main mission the Cykx dominion has taken a more diplomatic approach.
The Cykx dominion has 3 primary tasks when it comes to galactic moderation:

1. Protect underdeveloped planets. One of the core philosophies the Cykx hold is that space travel is not to be handed out. If a planet is willing to become the master of its own destiny, it will put in the effort to reach space on its own. They also want to keep the existence of life in space a secret for as long as possible, not because it may conflict with local religion (the Cykx have a very negative opinion of theistic religions) but because without confirmation of life in space, working on that technology is a much more informed and personal endeavor. Additionally, the Cykx have no patience for bullies who take advantage of underdeveloped planets. Anyone that invades a planet and uses their superior technology to easily claim land will be left to their own devices on said planet, and their faction will be mercilessly obliterated in orbit. Additionally, the Cykx will develop a bio-virus that disables the immune system of invaders, effectively killing them with unknown diseases.
2. Maintain intergalactic stability. When dealing with something as violent, pestilent, and above all strenuous as the world eaters, the Cykx have no time for participating in frivolous wars and use their status as the largest faction in the universe as a way to build more productive relations between smaller factions. They dislike having to divert troops away from the frontline, as they're dealing with an existential threat so peace is beneficial to all including the Cykx. If they take their attention away from the world eaters, they may get overrun and be forced to give them ground, which brings the voracious world eaters closer to beings they can actually digest, which would up their momentum and they could end up losing trillions of lives before they can bring them back to a standstill. If factions must fight, the Cykx mainly participate to end it quickly so they can turn their attention back to their day job.
3. Keep track of all legitimate factions. The Cykx use one of the oldest manipulation tactics in the book to keep factions from attacking them directly: allying as many factions as they possibly can. They also keep an extensive list of "legitimate" space-faring factions, the criteria of being a legitimate space-faring faction is first off of course to be capable of space travel, but also to have a stable economy and acceptable social structures. If a civilization has reached suitable space technology, the Cykx will reach out and demand an embassy while putting them on their faction list. It helps the Cykx map the universe and preemptively snuff out troublemakers.

The last thing is that the Cykx are masters of gunboat diplomacy. They are and always will be the biggest faction in the universe and everyone else compared to their sheer military might is rather insignificant. They effectively scare smaller factions into behaving as they could obliterate anyone else in less than a week.

Additional Information

Average Intelligence

Cykx are exceptionally intelligent. On average they rank the highest by a significant margin, even if they have morons like DAX-407 tearing down the average. Cykx are essentially walking crystalline computers that have just enough individuality to not be considered a hive mind. They are grown in tubes and born in factories, and essentially come preloaded with knowledge relevant to professions that are in demand within the faction. Aside from defectives, Cykx are immensely efficient and leave most other races in the dust in terms of intelligence, both on Jeslore and on a galactic scale. Even when preloaded with information, they still have the ability to learn and think for themselves, which further perfects their work efficiency. For the longest time, up until his demise, the most intelligent being was a Cykx (although a defective).

Average Height

4'10 (30 centimeters)

Average Weight

105 pounds (48 KG)

Average Physique

The Cykx are short and stocky, but by no means weak. They walk a fine line between being constructs and organic, but as they are born and grow on their own, have a fluid acting as their blood and have internal organs they are still considered an organic race. This is only their crystalline body however, all 4 of their limbs are robotic which makes them surprisingly strong. They can carry things up to 30 times their own weight with relative ease. They're also always short and the robotic limbs are very thin, which further deceives would be enemies.