Universalist
Civilization that existed during the recombination era 'just' 400 000 years after the big bang. These conditions are relatively similar to the innards of a star, though cooling over time.
At this time, the first atomic bonds began forming. During the later time of this period, the Universe formed it's first self-replicating molecule which managed to survive the conditions. It went on to become the first DNA-equivalent strands ever seen in the Universe, giving rise to microbial life. Due to the extremely fast-moving conditions, this exotic biosphere evolved very rapidly, with eventually, the Universalists evolving shortly before the end of recombination.
During this ancient time period, no other civilizations existed, allowing them to quickly lay claim to most of the early Universe. The immense amount of heat energy around the universe at the time allowed them to thrive and exist for hundreds of thousands of years until the universe began to cool down significantly enough to threaten them with extinction (from several thousand Kelvin to about 60K). Faced with death, the extremely advanced faction has ascended into the various Archo - Forms now seen around the universe, requiring an immense amount of energy in order to not starve.
They strived to find another universe to inhabit that better favours their unique physiology, and have constructed the Fortrais Galaxy Cluster to find it. They eventually fled, but may return to Fortrais to harvest it periodically.
Other than The Anomaly, there are no artifacts of this faction. Their technology was destroyed due to the cooling conditions of the universe.
Due to the very small size of the universe at the time, the observable universe was much larger than it is now. As such, they were present at almost all points around the universe leading them to have a significant influence on other galaxy clusters around the universe.
The Fortrais galaxy cluster contains hundreds of galaxies. The smallest of these are massive, having many thousands times more stars than almost any galaxy outside the Cluster. The Universalists have existed since very soon after the Big Bang. and ascended into these hyperintelligent godlike postmachines. The Archo - Forms have engineered the Fortrais cluster to contain far more stars than any ordinary galaxy or cluster. This was to provide them with a central location to generate energy, so naturally the Fortrais cluster has a high value to them so they prioritised the Fortrais cluster over other galaxy clusters. Though they allowed the precursors to evolve (because it would allow the archo-forms to harvest far more souls), they would soon attack it.
To the non-corporeal machines, the entire galaxy cluster was effectively a farm. Perhaps they will return long after the HF has left?It also might be why no one has been able to leave the Cluster, including the precursors. The distance has been made intentionally far too great to cross even with precursor ftl methods but maybe someone has tried anyway, causing this area to be filled with ancient wreckages. The Progenitors have managed to overcome this barrier however, with the End of Days starship. They overcome it by using an ftl drive larger and more advanced than any other in history, about the size of a megastructure and by using an immense amount of power.
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