The Empire of Amesela

The true name of the enigmatic Amesela is unknown to most of the Chord, as is anything else, really. The name Amesela simply comes from the word for Thieves in the dominant tongue of Huitzli* when first contact was made. What they call themselves, where they come from, how they obtained their powers, how they even still exist today; all open questions.

What is known, however, is their power and their past.

The star roads of the Chord were first created by the Amesela at least three millennia ago. With their unique and mysterious access to psionics and the Flow, they bent physics to their will to create a means of FLT travel. And with their FTL, came empire.

In the wake of the Concordio-Ameselan War, the Ameselans were driven into the void. They have since either settled into hidden compounds throughout the Chord, or as some experts believe, accustomed themselves to the void between the stars. Regardless, they are little more than a myth and boogieman in today's universe.

Structure

It is unknown if the concept of organization or hierarchy even apply to the Ameselans. Though contact and evidence is rare, the Ameselan appear to communicate telepathically. Some experts believe they are a hive mind, or some kind of superorganism, though this cannot be confirmed. Regardless, Ameselan society remains opaque and alien.
Their relations with other races is better documented. They are known to enslave other civilizations they come across, such as the nations of Hitzli*. Their victims are then somehow brainwashed into obedience, with those liberated from Ameselan captivity taking weeks or even years to recover. They have no memory of their time in captivity, so anything more is unknown.

History

The Ameselan history begins in some unknown period of the Slow Age, when they first began to construct the star roads of the Chord. Contact with Concordia* began indirectly with their invasion of Hitzli*. At the time, the two civilizations had made distant contact with a ten-year light delay. Relations were cordial enough, given that any physical or economic contact was generations away at best. The very limited cultural exchange was cut short when the civilizations of Huitzli* was invaded from the void. At their technology level, with no access to FTL travel or the Flow, the people of Concordia* could do nothing but receive the final gasps of Huitzli*.
Unfortuantely for the Amelesans, the Concordians were prepared when the nascent Chord extended to their solar system. In the two decades between the capitulation of Huitzli* and the Ameselan invasion of Concordia, their civilization evolved form one barely colonizing their asteroid belt, to one capable of defending their entire system.
In the following century of war, the Concordians obtained not only access to the Flow, but control over the Chord. Their civilization broken and the technology taken, the Ameselans retreated into the shadows. While their raiding parties and hidden bases are sometimes discovered and destroyed, their true scope remains a mystery.

Unknown, in the Slow Era - 47 s.e.

Alternative Names

Thieves, Brain Snatchers, Solar Slavers, Takers

Demonym

Ameselan

Related Species

• Ameselan