Author Note:

The Mass Effect series is the sole property of Electronic Arts and BioWare. No infringement is intended. No monetary, economic, social, or political gain is acquired from this fan work.

Note: Kondor's will be a fairly ancient race expanding in space for over 100,000 cycles. There will be two humanities with different cultures and ideologies and vast considerable differences. Earth humans of the Milky Way will be known as humans. While Andromeda galaxy human's will be known as Kondorian's.

History of the First Contact War & beginning of the Kondor Confederacy

(2089-2150)

On April 22nd, 2089, space surveillance satellites from nine different nations detected large, artificial craft quickly approaching Kondor. Terrified, the nations of Kondor quickly attempted to create an orbital defense grid, but their primitive constructs were easily destroyed by the greater Formic forces.

The invasion began on February 17th, 2090, as cities were destroyed in an apocalyptic opening volley from the attacking craft. The Formic followed a policy of directing their attacks upon regions of Kondor with the greatest ambient light, as an indication of those regions' economic, population, and political importance. As such the Formic directed the vast majority of their fury at East Asia, utterly devastating China and Japan. Europe and the Americas were not spared, however, attention was directed at the American Eastern and Western coasts, along with most of the primary European cities and major Kondor population centers in South America and Africa. The only exception to this was London, which had enacted archaic laws dating back to the second world war to declare blackout provisions after the Formic fleet had been detected. This resulted in the city being largely ignored in the opening barrage. The destruction of the major population centers on Kondor coincided with the decapitation of much of the central authorities on the planet, though enough of the military command survived the opening barrage to launch a counter-attack. Mainly in North America and Russia. While Washington DC was destroyed, along with the Strategic Command Headquarters bunker located in the nearby Bull Run mountains, the vestigial North American Aerospace Command bunker at Cheyenne Mountain Colorado was ignored. As part of standard NATO practice, the second in command of NORAD was a Canadian General, in this case, Lieutenant General Mark Lynn. With the absence of communication from Washington DC and the clear indication that the alien invaders had initiated strategic strikes on the Kondor, General Lynn ordered nuclear retaliation. Hardline communication links with Russia, a product of the Cold War remained, and surviving military staff in the Russian Federation rapidly coordinated with Lynn for a joint ICBM strike. The missiles were rapidly reprogrammed for orbital targeting and launched at the Formic fleet.

To the shock of all, the Formic warships had no point defense systems and were utterly defenseless against the sudden ICBM barrage directed at them. The largest and most powerful ships were soon taken down, as a coordinated launch of intercontinental ballistic missiles disabled the larger ships, limiting the Formic's ability to bombard the planet from orbit. Undeterred, however, the Formic brought up their nesting ships and launched a ground invasion, focused primarily upon the regions they had managed to devastated before their primary warships were disabled. Landing in Australia, Germany, Virginia, California, Rio de Janeiro, Japan, Manchuria, and Sichuan, the Formic swarms rapidly began to spread out, constructing massive Planetary engineering spires as they went to fundamentally alter Kondor's Biosphere to better suit their needs.

Russia and the North American Commonwealth (A Confederacy state consisting of Canada, United States, and Mexico) unleashed what remained of the Kondor nuclear arsenal, this time at the ground landing sites. The result of which plunged the planet into a nuclear winter but also caused spectacular damage to the Formic swarms and allowed for the Kondor armies to rally. The Indian Republic, bolstered by reinforcements from the Middle East mounted a powerful defense of the Himalayan Line, while a Joint Army of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay engaged in furious resistance within the Amazon rainforest. General Lynn, now declared Counselor of the North American Commonwealth attempted to hold the line on the North American Heartland using the Appalachian Mountains and the Rocky Mountains as a buttress. Initial efforts failed, and Cheyenne Mountain had to be abandoned following the defeat of the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Denver. The subsequent retreat, all the way to Edmonton was finally halted when the Commonwealth Canadian 2nd Armored defeated the swarm at Boise, Idaho. A counter-attack by the Commonwealth American 10th mountain and 101st Airborne at the battle of Pittsburgh also halted efforts by the Formic to breach the Appalachian line. The Russian Tomoskya Division also held on the Dnieper river.

The United Kingdom for its part, having avoided the vast majority of the orbital bombardment rapidly established itself as the center of Kondor command and control, with the scattered war fleets of the North American Commonwealth, Russia, China, and Japan rapidly relocating to the British Isles for protection, while simultaneously protecting the archipelago from invasion by the Formic swarm which had overrun France and Spain. With masses of Refugees pouring into western Spain and Portugal, an emergency council of war declared in the same bunker that had once housed Winston Churchill during the London blitz. The British Officers demanded immediate action to save Portugal, England's oldest ally. They were backed up by the American contingent led by the acting commandant of the UAC Marine Corps, who by rank also by the archaic vagaries of rank structure in the UAC military was the senior surviving officer of the UAC navy. The decision was final. Kondor's would counter-attack in Europe. Despite its protestations as part of United Nations disarmament treaties, it was revealed the United Kingdom still possessed 12 Trident tipped nuclear weapons. On August 7th, 2091, British Submarines launched a nuclear barrage on the Formic swarm in Spain, followed up by landing by the British Army, and the Royal and Commonwealth marines at Lisbon. The Formic swarm in Spain and Portugal would be halted by the counterattack of the Royal and Commonwealth Marines that held the invaders outside of Lisbon, preserving not only Portugal's primary city but also the massive swarms of Kondor refugees that had been chased to the Atlantic Coast by the invading swarm. A subsequent spearhead by the 2nd Royal Grenadiers Regiment in the north rushed largely unopposed to secure the northern coast and open up the Formic Swarm in Spain to attack from its flank and rear. The 2nd grenadiers would overtake the advancing Commonwealth Marine Expeditionary Force and reach Madrid first, cementing its position in the annals of honor of Kondor and continuing its existence as a division of the Confederacy. The Joint American and British Army, now bolstered by Spanish, Portuguese, and surviving units of the European Federation would hold the line in the Pyrenees mountains.

With the major Army formations forcing the Formic into a stalemate, their invasion faltered, and soon came under massive attack by surviving Kondor populations within the occupation areas. Six cycles of Guerrilla warfare followed, along with hit and run attacks that eventually weakened the Formic. Their inability to destroy the central Asian, North American, and Indian manufacturing centers that were not colocated with major cities allowed for ever greater amounts of war material to be produced and used against the invaders. Strengthened Kondor's, now under the direction of the Emergency Provisional Government launched a counteroffensive on all fronts, to the point that they could reclaim the occupied third of the planet and dismantle the Planetary engineering spires that had been constructed and ending the war with the retreat of the remaining Formic out of the System.

The Final Battle on Kondor would be the battle of Darwin, where the forces of Kondor's Military Guild, which at this time would constitute a solely waterborne force as opposed to its later space force, would initiate a forced invasion of the entire occupied Australian continent. The liberation of the ruins of Melbourne, which had since been converted into a hive warren of the Formic, would witness the first instance of the flag of the Kondor Confederacy, which at this point, would be the flag of the Emergency Provisional Government, raised over captured enemy territory. It would also form the core mythos of the Military Guild as its founding operation, and the flightless Australian bird, the emu, would feature prominently in informal fleet unit insignia, despite efforts by the Kondor Council to discourage it.

Aftermath

Following the defeat of the Formic, the various military commands would relocate to the United Kingdom which remained one of the few places left on Kondor with developed infrastructure relatively undamaged by the war. London would play host to the Emergency Provisional Government, which at the time had been a largely loose coordinating body directing the various Kondor militaries and resistance organizations. With Kondor's biosphere in collapse and a full third of the Kondor population dead, along with the collapse of virtually every national government, the Emergency Provincial Government became the de facto world government. It was led by the executive council representing the principal military commanders, with General Lynn chosen as its head with the rank of "High Counselor". It would form the core of the future Kondor government that would be known as the Kondor Confederacy. The final act of the war, and arguably the first major act of the Kondor Confederacy would be the battle of Titan. Not a battle per se, but more a mopping-up operation carried out by a Confederacy force dispatched to study the moon and discovering a Formic observation post on it. Upon terminating the Formic in the facility, Military Intelligence would seize records consisting of Star Charts, mentions of a network of "gates" created by the "masters".

Formic Invasion

Before the Formic Invasion, Kondor was divided into hundreds of nations, Kondor states that were in constant conflict over their interests. When the first signs of the Formic were discovered in 2089 and first attempts at communication were ignored by the aliens, the rift between nations only grew. With a few exceptions, most nations and states organized their defenses, especially at the invasion's onset. The only notable joint effort came from the United Nation's attempt to assemble an orbital defense grid, though this effort was swept aside during the Formic's opening strike on February 17th, 2090.

Orbital bombardment was the Formic's greatest weapon, which scattered Kondor armies and annihilated planetary infrastructure in a matter of hours. Nevertheless, Kondor's proved resilient, and the remnants of Kondor's governments and militaries were able to achieve a coordinated intercontinental ballistic missile launch that crippled many of the most important Formic vessels in orbit. Unable to continue with their strategic bombardment, the Formic were forced to make landfall to pacify the remaining Kondor's.

While not as numerous as the Kondor's, Formic land, air, and sea units were far more advanced than anything Kondor's could field. Battles became skirmishes; skirmishes became slaughters. Guerrilla resistance became the only way to effectively combat the Formic. These small attacks ranged from destroying single tanks to liberating thousands from death camps, the most successful of these being the destruction of one of the many poisonous Planetary engineering towers the Formic had erected.

After a third of the planet's population had been lost to the aliens, a unified defense was able to gain enough ground to fight back toe to toe with the Formic. The tide of the war began to turn in Kondor's favor as the Formic lost its technological advantage. The war ended when the Formic was defeated at the Battle of Titan in 2097. After this, reconstruction of Kondor became the priority and an international coalition of military forces assumed responsibility for civil governance.

The provisional government, by popular demand, became the sole governing body of the Kondor race, and the Kondor Confederacy was officially proclaimed.

Faster Than Light Travel

The Phantom Drive is a Kondor engine that is capable of accessing black holes by folding space to travel vast distances across the universe almost instantly by passing through the Phantom Zone.

History

In the late 22nd century, Kondor's had managed to recover from the Formic's invasion of Kondor. As the nation became more and more prosperous, resources were freed that would allow for manned spaceflight to resume as it had nearly a century earlier. The priority the new missions had was to examine the wrecks the Formic had left in orbit and recover all they could from them. Reverse-engineering the technology was a lengthy process, but by 2200, five ships had been created with newly understood Phantom-drive technology embedded within.

On December 15th, 2200, the first interstellar jump was conducted by the TUS Hawking as it successfully made its way into the Alpha Centauri system. The very next month, the Hawking would discover that Alpha Centauri III was capable of supporting Kondor life, and already had a biosphere of its own that would take very little adaptation for Kondor's to be able to live on its surface. As the exploration of this new frontier went on, more habitable planets were found.

Phantom Zone

The Phantom Zone is an interdimensional realm outside the normal space/time continuum.

History

It is a barren and insubstantial null area absent of any physical material. There is only one native denizen to the Phantom Zone, the enigmatic and powerful entity known as the Aethyr. All-cause and effect that occurs within the zone do so at Aethyr's capricious whim. People who travel into the negative zone are no longer corporeal and exist only as psychic phantasms of their true selves. Though their minds and personalities remain intact, they can no longer physically interact with any other being. This includes direct physical contact as well as the power of speech. Communication within the Phantom Zone is done so by telepathy. As the Phantom Zone exists outside of space/time, those within it are no longer subject to the rigors of age or illness, rendering them effectively immortal – and they also require no sleep, food, or air.

Many cycles ago, the penal system of the planet Kondor sentenced their criminals by placing them in suspended animation. The Kondor scientist Jonathan Klein discovered the existence of the Phantom Zone and introduced it as an alternative means of imprisonment. He had little knowledge of the true inner workings of the zone but believed that it was a greater form of punishment over that which they had previously employed. He developed a projection device that could send people into and retrieve them from the zone with the simple flick of a black button and a white button respectively. The first prisoner to be exiled to the Phantom Zone was the renegade scientist Jax-Lee. Jax-Lee, a former colleague of Jon-Klein, was responsible for the destruction of Kondor's moon Kondor and the deaths of over five-hundred thousand colonists. Over a short expanse of time, the Kondor Council began exiling the worst of the planet's criminals into the zone but executing those who committed the most heinous of crimes or released to the military guild for torture.

Kondor Age of Expansion (2200-100.000)

As the expansion campaign kicked off, Kondor scientists created exploration vessels meant for deep-space travel, capable of sustaining a small crew for their journey into uncharted space sectors to find new worlds to colonize. The Kondor Expansion's purpose was to explore the known universe and beyond, discovering new worlds. When many Kondor's arrived on new worlds, they built outposts, using great machines called World Engines to reshape the world's environment to their needs. This process lasted for over 100,000 cycles and Kondor civilization flourished, accomplishing many goals.

During numerous explorations, Kondor's encountered no other sentient species, and exploring the Milky Way Galaxy met the Humans of Earth. Humans are unable to travel to the Andromeda Galaxy the dominion of Kondor Civilization and colonies due to inefficient FTL, sub-light engines, and reliability on Element Zero. No relays exist in the Andromeda Galaxy. Even mass-effect-FTL drive is relatively slow when compared to Kondor counterparts. The humans of the Milky Way Galaxy, space, and systems without suitable drive discharge sites are barriers to exploration. Only the mass relays allow ships to jump hundreds of light-cycles in an instant, the key to expanding across an otherwise impassable galaxy. To Kondor Civilization the ability to jump vast distances allows for an advantage in tactics and combat versatility.

Modern Government

Council of Five

The Council of Five, also known as the Kondor Law Council and the Council of Kondor civilization, was the legislative body of Kondor civilization. The Council met in the Legislation Chamber in Kondor's capital city, Kanda, located in the highest tower of the city. The Council was made up of one select individual from each Guild, and lead by the High Eminence.

Citizens are encouraged and even required to work for the government for a certain time, whether it be in the armed forces or civil governance. The government of the Kondor Confederacy is widely accepting of all races, creeds, and kinds, though this attitude is born more out of a practical need than an altruistic one.

The Confederacy is divided into multiple regional commissariats that govern large swaths of Kondor space. These governing bodies act as smaller replicas of the federal government and have provided the Confederacy the flexibility and capability to govern billions of citizens across thousands of light-cycles.

The legislative branch, consisting of a civilian National Assembly, has been criticized as being largely ceremonial. While the National Assembly, in theory, has the power to create and modify laws, in practice, they act as a rubber stamp for laws that the Kondor Council has already decided to pass. There are very few instances in Kondor's history where the National Assembly did not agree with the Kondor Council.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of the Confederacy's government is the tiered citizenship structure. As citizens become more effective and useful members of society, their citizenship tier can rise, granting them more rights and privileges. A popular punishment for minor crimes is the reduction of a citizenship tier, which can restrict their freedom of speech, freedom of movement, and countless other details of daily life that go as far down as the amount of water allotted to a citizen's showers each month. Frequently, such verdicts come paired with specific criteria for the reinstatement of a citizen's tier.

Kondorian's

The Kondor species is the indigenous people of the planet Kondor. While human-like both in appearance, language, and behavior, Kondor's developed under harsher planetary conditions than those of Earth and boast both a different and more sophisticated technological and cultural acumen. Despite being an extraterrestrial species with no ties to Earth, Kondor's are intimately similar to Homo sapiens (humans) in terms of their immediate physiology and psychology. Although they speak their language and alphabet, the Kondor language is an alien language filled with hieroglyphics and shapes that can be read by its people. The Kondor language is referred to as Konptanúo.

Kondor's can reproduce through intercourse in the same manner as mammals - the females carrying the live young to term for nine months. However, due to cultural and technological changes in Kondor society, all births are carried out through Genesis Chambers.

The Kondor life cycle is similar to humans in that they grow in relatively the same phases - infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and seniority. Kondor cycles - called cycles - measure a Kondor's maturity. Elderly Kondor's may live up to nearly two centuries.

All Kondor's wear similar clothing to their gender. Males all wear the same combat suit of armour comprised of the color black and the symbol of their House on their chest. Females were a near-identical version. Thousands of cycles ago during the era of expansion, the Kondor Council prohibited their fleets from colonizing worlds inhabited with a developing species but none were found except for the Formic. Kondor children are genetically engineered in a laboratory to make them a more efficient race. Some are engineered to be better soldiers, or smarter to be a better scientist.

Disobeying Kondor law, Jon-Klein and Kara-Klein decided to conceive their child naturally, with Kara giving birth to a son after being discovered, the house of Klein was scorned but permitted to raise the child named Jon-Klein albeit under heavy security. The Kondor Council has considered it a test to see differences of a child born naturally and those from the Genesis Chamber. The child is protected under Kondor law.

Kondor's population all belongs to a certain Guild from which they are chosen and grown at birth. The main guilds are the Warrior Guild, Thinker Guild, Mediator Guild, Artisan Guild, and the Laborer Guild. All civilians must undergo a period of military service of 2-5 cycles.

Social structure

Kondor society mainly places its values on arts, science, military might, and theology, strictly dividing its citizens into the five respective guilds. All citizens must choose to be part of a guild or it will be chosen for them against their will.

The Military Guild - governs all forms of martial power and military might on the planet and serves as the backbone of Kondor conquering authority. It maintains the martial glory of Kondor civilization.

The Science Guild - governs most forms of technology and science on the planet and houses the race's most ingenious minds. The guild is decried as emotionless but has contributed to the race being a mighty technological power.

The Artisans Guild - governs all forms of art, design, and creativity and believes the most strongly in the religions of the Kondor's beside the Religious Guild.

The Religious Guild - the most secretive and reclusive of the guilds which serve as the absolute religious authority of Kondor Civilization. The guild is governed by priests which represent all Kondor Gods, each in turn representing a guild.

The Labor Guild - keeps the planet functions running, taking on all and any manual jobs, and ordered to serve all the other guilds. They are commonly the unseen masses of Kondor that are often overlooked and looked down upon as second class citizens by the other guilds. To further the point, they lack any guild representation. and have no say in society affairs. But are given accommodation.

World Engine

A World Engine is an enormous, tripod-type machine of Kondor design intended for use as a planet-altering device.

History

After building a prototype world engine, it was used to repair Kondor, increasing the gravitational and environmental ecology of Kondor's while restoring areas affected by the Formic planet altering spire. When paired with another World Engine and placed at opposite poles of a planet or planetoid, it generated a powerful beam that would run through the core of the world, altering density, gravity, and atmosphere, making the world a habitable one for Kondor's.

World Engines were deployed during Kondor's long-ago age of exploration in the hopes that other livable worlds could be found or altered to combat overpopulation and depletion of natural resources.

Genesis Chamber

Gestating embryos grew inside transparent globular sacs that sprouted like buds along branching stems that combined elements of both plant and animal life. Pink and translucent, tiny hearts already pulsing with life, the infants slept within a clear protective gel. The drifting stems, bearing their fetal fruit, growing an entire generation of future Kondor's according to the precise and exacting specifications of the Codex. Kondor's had long ago abandoned the unpredictability of sexual reproduction—with its reckless pairings and random mixing of chromosomes child's genetic makeup and destiny. Nothing was left to chance. Each developing embryo was expressly designed to fulfill his or her preordained role in society—as a worker, warrior, thinker, administrator, or whatever best served the greater good. Genesis Chambers was the ultimate expression of Kondor Civilization rigid caste system, applying advanced genetic engineering to an involatile tradition that stretched back to antiquity. Citizen's are assigned to be married by the Kondor Registry of Citizens. Based on age, occupation, and personality traits. No Kondor, male or female is meant to be alone, and each is assigned a partner of the opposite gender only parting in death.

History

The Genesis Chamber was created during the post-war era of Kondor's first contact. The onset of disease, radiation, and famine on the dwindling Kondor population designated the need for altering Kondor's genetic sequence to bestow future Kondor children with intelligence, increased agility, and removal of emotions, such as morality from the Kondor conscience. located on the planet Kondor to house all unborn Kondor gene seeds that would occupy prospective Kondor generations. Genesis bots were utilized to control and preserve the Genesis Chamber so that no Kondor would ever enter or interfere with the birthing procedure. Thousands of copies were created and stored aboard Scout Ships that are sent across the galaxy to colonial outposts, starting new Kondor worlds.

The Confederacy's commissariats are separated by 2 different distinctions:

Confederacy Commissariats Terrestrial Commissariats The territory of these Commissariats is limited to Kondor. It can be considered to be the "founding states" of the Confederacy. Administered by a Commissar-General and a Commissariat Assembly. Interstellar Commissariats Even the smallest of interstellar Commissariats consists of a few star systems and dozens of worlds. Administered by a Commissar-General and a Commissariat Assembly located on a Commissariat's capital world.

Executive power in the Confederacy is held by the Kondor Council, a coalition of 21 Counselors, each of whom also acts as the head of one of the government's departments. Acting as the head of the state and the Kondor Council is the High Counselor, a first among equals who has special powers that were created to allow the Council to act quicker and more decisively in times of emergency. High Counselors are elected for life terms, the Counselors of the Kondor Council hold the following positions:

Responsibilities of the Counselors

Since the middle of the 22nd century, the following has been the composition of the Kondor Council:

High Counselor of the Kondor Confederacy

The Office of High Counselor of the Kondor Confederacy was fiercely debated during the Kondor Constitutional Conventions. While many feared centralisation of power would occur in this office it was established in response to criticism that the Provisional Government's council of Counselors was slow to respond to time-sensitive issues and too weak to lead the gargantuan federal bureaucracy. The office of High Counselor of the Kondor Confederacy has special representative duties, is the Confederacy's head of state, the commander-in-chief of all the Confederacy's armed forces, chairs meetings of the Kondor Council and is one of the two Counselors needed to authorise the use of the Sword of Kondor.

Counselor of Agriculture

The office of Counselor of Agriculture was one of the original Kondor Council offices established during the Kondor Constitutional Convention. The Counselor of Agriculture is responsible for the Ministry of Agriculture, which traces its legacy to the old Kondor Provisional Government Ministry of Agriculture. The primary responsibility of the Counselor and his ministry is ensuring the safety and existence of the Confederacy's food supply. However, additional responsibilities include the regulation and promotion of agriculture, regulation of genetically modified foodstuff, oversight and approval of new agricultural research and methods, subsidising agriculture, regulating farms and other food producers, and overseeing the food supplies in the National Reserve. The ministry works closely with the Ministry of Ecology to prevent the introduction of invasive species and prevent environmental damage as a result of industrial-scale farming.

Counselor of Commerce

The Office of Counselor of Commerce was one of the original Kondor Council offices established during the Kondor Constitutional Convention. The Counselor of Commerce is responsible for leading the Ministry of Commerce, which traces its legacy to the Provisional Government Ministry of Economic and Commercial Reconstruction. The primary responsibility of the Counselor of Commerce is the promotion of economic growth within the Confederacy. The ministry promotes commerce, regulates the industry, designates and regulates trade routes, and maintains the Confederacy's wartime-peacetime economic strategies. In later centuries the Ministry worked closely with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to regulate trade with foreign governments.

Counselor of Education

The Office of Counselor of Education was one of the original Kondor Council offices established during the Kondor Constitutional Convention. The Counselor of Education is responsible for leading the Ministry of Education, which traces its legacy to the Provisional Government Ministry of Education and Science. The primary responsibility of the Counselor of Education is to ensure the delivery of educational services to the Confederacy's citizenry. The Ministry of Education regulates all aspects of education and runs countless millions of state-run daycares, primary schools, high schools, universities, and trade schools. However, the ministry does not have any jurisdiction over military colleges. The Ministry of Education is responsible for reviewing and approving educational curriculums and textbooks, ensuring there is an adequate supply of educational facilities to service a population and ensuring that there are no skill shortages within the Kondor population. The ministry works closely with all aspects of Kondor society to ensure that educational curriculums are in line with the needs of the state and the private sector.

Counselor of Intelligence

The office of Counselor of Intelligence was established on the 18th of December, 2224 alongside the creation of the Ministry of Intelligence on the same day. The Counselor of Intelligence is informally known as the "Spymaster". Originally, domestic intelligence was handled by the Ministry of State Security and extrasolar intelligence was the responsibility of the Military Guild's extrasolar signals intelligence division. However, the discovery of other nearby alien star nations necessitated the creation of a ministry focused on gathering foreign intelligence and conducting covert operations. The primary responsibility of the Ministry of Intelligence is to coordinate and oversee the Confederacy's intelligence agencies and ensure that the Kondor Council is supplied with accurate, reliable, and actionable intelligence. The agencies overseen by the Ministry are the following: The Confederacy Office of Intelligence Assessment (OIA), The Confederacy Financial Intelligence Centre (UFIC), The Confederacy Intelligence Service (UIS), The Confederacy Signal Directorate (USD), The Confederacy Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation (UGI) and the Confederacy Reconnaissance Office (URO). The Ministry also has a very close relationship with the Military Guild's Office of Defense Intelligence and Information, Signals, and Propaganda Division.

High General of the Military Guild

The Office of high general of the military guild was one of the original Kondor Council offices established during the Kondor Constitutional Convention. The high general of the Military Guild is the highest-ranking officer in the Kondor Military. The Counselor of the military guild has two primary missions. Capturing planets, and maintaining control of planets. The Counselor of the military guild is one of the two Counselors needed to authorise the use of the Sword of Kondor.

Counselor of the Interior

The Office of Counselor of the Interior was one of the original Kondor Council offices established during the Kondor Constitutional Convention. The Counselor of the Interior is responsible for leading the Ministry of the Interior. The Ministry of the Interior is responsible for a wide range of duties including disaster response and prevention, the supervision and oversight of commissariat governments, the regulation of political parties, public administration, and running the elections for the national assembly.

Counselor of the Judiciary

The Office of Counselor of the Judiciary was one of the original Kondor Council offices established during the Kondor Constitutional Convention. The Counselor of the Judiciary is responsible for leading the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice is responsible for overseeing the judicial process, appointing federal judges, drafting legislation, developing legal frameworks, prosecuting federal criminals, and sentencing.

Counselor of the Ministry of Colonisation

The office of Counselor of the Ministry of Colonisation was established on the 18th of December, 2224 alongside the creation of the Ministry of Colonisation on the same day. The Ministry was formed to replace the former Ministry of Infrastructure, Reconstruction and Resettlement. By the dawn of the 23rd century, this Ministries role had almost been fullied and the discovery of extrasolar planets, suitable for colonisation caused the Kondor Council to replace it with the newly formed Ministry of Colonisation. The old Ministry of Infrastructure, Reconstruction and Resettlement were split into the Ministry of Colonisation and the Ministry of National Development. The primary responsibility of the Ministry of Colonisation is the planning, support, and oversight of colonies until they become self-sufficient.

Counselor of the Ministry of Ecology

The Office of Counselor of the Ministry of Ecology was one of the original Kondor Council offices established during the Kondor Constitutional Convention. The Counselor of the Ministry of Ecology is responsible for leading the Ministry of Ecology, which traces its legacy to the Provisional Government Ministry of Environmental Reconstruction. The primary responsibility of the Counselor of the Ministry of Ecology is ensuring the health and continued survival of the planetary ecosystems on worlds controlled by the Kondor Confederacy. The Ministry of Ecology is responsible for maintaining the Confederacy's National Parks, preventing environmental contamination, preserving endangered species of flora and fauna, regulating environmentally damaging industries, and preventing the contamination of terrestrial world's water, air or land.

Counselor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The office of Counselor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was established on the 5th of May 2209, alongside the creation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the same day. The Ministry was formed in response to the discovery of alien life. The primary responsibility of the Counselor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the implementation of the Confederacy's foreign policy. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible for formulating foreign policies, decisions, foreign affairs documents, and statements It also negotiates and signs bilateral and multilateral foreign treaties and agreements. The agency also dispatches foreign affairs representatives to alien nations and operates embassies on foreign worlds.

Counselor of the Ministry of Health and Citizen Services

The Office of Counselor of the Ministry of Health and Citizen Services was one of the original Kondor Council offices established during the Kondor Constitutional Convention. The Counselor of the Ministry of Health and Citizen Services is responsible for leading the Ministry of Health and Citizen Services, which was originally called the Ministry of Health and Kondor Services. The primary responsibility of the Counselor of the Ministry of Health and Citizen Services is ensuring the health and wellbeing of Kondor Citizens. The Ministry of Health and Citizen Services is responsible for addressing public health crises, regulating medical products and medical professionals, running state-owned hospitals. Additionally, the Ministry and its Counselor are responsible for administering the Confederacy's vast welfare state. Wide-reaching programs such as old-age pensions, accident insurance, affordable medical care, childcare services, and unemployment insurance are all state services administered by the Ministry of Health and Citizen Services.

Counselor of the Ministry of Kondor Resource and Citizenship

The Office of Counselor of the Ministry of Kondor Resources and Citizenship was one of the original Kondor Council offices established during the Kondor Constitutional Convention. The Counselor of the Ministry of Kondor Resources and Citizenship is responsible for leading the Ministry of Kondor Resources and Citizenship. The primary responsibility of the Counselor of the Ministry of Kondor Resources and Citizenship is the administration of the vast citizenship tier bureaucracy. The Ministry of Kondor Resources and Citizenship is the largest in the Confederacy. It is responsible for assigning and reviewing citizenship tiers, creating national labour policies, standards and regulations, and for approving and regulating labour Confederacy movements. Additionally, the Ministry is responsible for operating the labour camps where criminals or aliens may be sent to contribute to the Confederacy.

Counselor of the Ministry of National Development

The office of Counselor of the Ministry of National Development was established on the 18th of December, 2224 alongside the creation of the Ministry of National Development on the same day. The Ministry was formed to replace the former Ministry of Infrastructure, Reconstruction and Resettlement. The old Ministry of Infrastructure, Reconstruction and Resettlement were split into the Ministry of Colonisation and the Ministry of National Development. The primary responsibility of the Ministry of National Development is developing and maintaining the civilian infrastructure both on Confederacy planets and in space. The ministry works closely with the Ministry of Colonisation and later with Commissariat governments to develop planetary infrastructure. The Ministry is responsible for the Confederacy's fleet of construction ships which are used to construct almost all space-based infrastructure. After the conquest of a new world, the Ministry of National Development is tasked with rebuilding the world into one worthy of the Kondor Confederacy.

Counselor of the Ministry of Natural Resources

The office of Counselor of the Ministry of Natural Resources was established on the 29th of September 2241, alongside the creation of the Ministry of Natural Resources on the same day. The Ministry was formed as a result of the growing amount of Kondor space and the natural resources within becoming unmanageable for the Ministry of National Development. The Ministry of Natural Resources is responsible for mapping resource deposits, managing and regulating the extraction of space-based natural resources, and the operation of state-owned mines and refineries. The Ministry operates a huge fleet of mining and transport ships. Since 2318 the Ministry of Natural Resources has no authority over the natural resources present on habitable worlds, this authority was transferred to the Ministry of Ecology.

Counselor of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment

The Office of Counselor of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment was one of the original Kondor Council offices established during the Kondor Constitutional Convention. The Counselor of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment is responsible for leading the Ministry of Public Enlightenment. The primary responsibility of the Counselor of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment is the regulation and oversight of Kondor media - both state and private. The Ministry of Public Enlightenment is responsible for regulating private media and social media organisations, operating state-owned media, and regulating what content (whether it be art, media, music, books, movies, etc.) can be consumed by each citizenship tier. The Ministry has the power to censor any information it deems to be a threat to public enlightenment.

Counselor of the Ministry of Science and Technology

The Office of Counselor of the Ministry of Science and Technology was one of the original Kondor Council offices established during the Kondor Constitutional Convention. The Counselor of the Ministry of Science and Technology is responsible for leading the Ministry of Science and Technology. The primary responsibility of the Counselor of the Ministry of Science and Technology is to promote the continued scientific development of the Confederacy while regulating dangerous technologies or fields of research. In addition to operating countless state-run research labs and facilities, the Ministry regulates private research companies, evaluates whether new technologies are ready for public use and regulates which fields of research are forbidden.

Counselor of the Ministry of State Security

The Office of Counselor of the Ministry of State Security was one of the original Kondor Council offices established during the Kondor Constitutional Convention. The Counselor of the Ministry of State Security is responsible for leading the Ministry of State Security. The primary responsibility of the Counselor of the Ministry of State Security is protecting the Kondor State from domestic security threats. The Ministry of State Security is responsible for federal policing, federal emergency services, the Confederacy's secret police, anti-terrorism, domestic intelligence, immigration and border controls, cybersecurity, political security, anti-corruption, and counter-intelligence operations. It is famously said that no citizenship tier is safe from the watchful eyes of the Ministry of State Security and that any traitors will eventually find themselves in a Ministry of State Security black site.

Counselor of the Treasury

The Office of Counselor of Treasury was one of the original Kondor Council offices established during the Kondor Constitutional Convention. The Counselor of the Treasury is responsible for leading the Ministry of the Treasury. The primary responsibility of the Counselor of the collection of taxes and the allocation of those taxes in the Confederacy's Federal Budget. The Ministry of the Treasury is responsible for the minting of Kondor currency, the collection of federal taxes, updating the federal tax code, and preparing the National Budget for approval by the National Assembly. Additionally, the Ministry is responsible for the formulation and implementation of the Confederacy's economic policies.

Culture and Society

The Culture of the Kondor Confederacy can at times seem eclectic to outside alien observers and visitors, with numerous languages, religious and philosophical belief systems, and species phenotypes seeming to exist within its borders and carrying the overall title of "Kondor". The most common of these groupings consist of those that largely survived the First Contact War, mainly the peoples of North America, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Africa, India, and Oceania, though this is by no means comprehensive due in part to refugee migrants from South America, East Asia, and Western Europe that settled in new places around the world during and following the war. Initially wary of cross-cultural and inter-ethnic strife during the reconstruction period of Kondor, the Kondor Confederacy tightly regulates certain cultural practices, most especially among them practices of religion.

Although the Freedom of Religion is maintained within the Kondor Confederacy, the state takes efforts to ensure that certain practices and organizations remain within the strict boundaries of the law. This task of ensuring religion does not become a danger to society or the state is handled primarily by the Ministry of State Security.

Similar amounts of government control and involvement extend into the cultural space as well, where works of art, literature, and other media are considered integral to the national interest as unifying forces and ought to in some way serve the interests of the state, either through the improvement of morale, patriotism, the furtherance of accepted morality or general pacification of the population. During the earlier cycles of the Kondor Confederacy, media that was critical of the state was entirely banned, however, these restrictions were gradually lifted over time. Regardless of restrictions, clever artists have utilized several methods to bypass state censorship.

Such as with the rest of the Kondor Confederacy, restrictions on speech and expression are affected by the tier system. Part of the benefits granted to the higher tier of citizens is a relaxation of restrictions regarding political speech, expressions, and even access to art and literature. The idea being that by gaining higher tiers, a citizen has shown the necessary qualifications to both understand the nuances of the Kondor government and society, and understand how to express their opinions on such matters in a way that would not threaten state stability. This has led over time to a level of cultural stratification, where certain forms of art and literature are accessible to citizens of higher tiers while lower-tier citizens must content themselves with the standard mass-produced media and books censored of anything that might approach questionable thinking.

For example, while freedom of Religion is nominally permitted, all religious beliefs must be vetted by State Security for potential subversive doctrine or beliefs that are contrary to good order and discipline. So it would be more accurate to say that Kondor's are free to believe all religions approved by the Confederacy rather than their convictions. This is not saying their own beliefs could not be approved, but rather need to be approved before they can be practiced openly. As consequence, many prominent religious documents such as the Koran, Bible, and Vedas have been subject to edit and translation along with approved guidelines, while any new religion or denomination of an existing religion that a citizen comes up with is vetted carefully, and often forced to adapt to demanded changes in doctrine before it is approved. Followers of unapproved religions can be subject to sanctions starting with tier reduction and escalating to mandatory reeducation or even execution if all other persuasive measures fail.

The society of the Kondor Confederacy itself is organized upon a pessimistic outlook on the nature of the universe and Kondor's in general. The Confederacy, being the product of a war that nearly led to the extinction of Kondor, will, in general, assume the worst out of anyone's intentions. Collectively Kondor's are a force for greatness and a towering achievement unparalleled in galactic history. Individual Kondorian's, on the other hand, can be prone to decadence, immorality, and rebellion, after the Genesis Chamber, crime, hatred, and rebellion were purged from future Kondorian young. By contrast, aliens are treated as a potentially existential threat to the survival of Kondorian covilization until pacified.

As a consequence, the Confederacy draws much more upon the political theory of Hobbes rather than Locke. Instead of trusting in everyone's better nature, it trusts more in the sword of the state to keep everyone in line. Among the great science fiction writers of Pre-Formic Kondor, the Confederacy draws greater inspiration from Heinlein and Herbert rather than Roddenberry. Citizen participation in the functioning of the State is mandatory and Kondorian children are raised from an early age to view their responsibilities to the social whole as more important than what they may individually desire.

There are many incentives offered for those willing to assume greater responsibility in the betterment of Kondor, while those who work against society face ever-increasing penalties. This is exemplified in the water rationing that limits, among other things, how long a citizen can take a shower. Many aliens are bemused at the practice considering the massive overabundance of water in the Galaxy.

To the Confederacy, however, the purpose is to instill personal discipline in the population. Political theorists in the Confederacy caution strongly against the dangers inherent in technology's ability to "do everything and anything" for Kondor's, turning it into a weak and coddled race too focused on immediate pleasures and an overabundance of luxury. Such post-scarcity economies would, it was feared, render Kondor's incapable of fending for themselves when that technology inevitably fails either due to war or disaster.

In a large irony to this, this belief in Kondor's strength and ingenuity over technological coddling extends to its government and its enforcers as well. While it is certainly within the Confederacy's capability to develop functioning AI capable of monitoring every citizen's actions instantly, are deducing the courses of action most likely to succeed, such Artificial Intelligence's are illegal and the attempt to even develop them or import them from abroad can result in long imprisonment or execution. The reasoning for this is that should such programs and systems become commonplace, the Security Services and the Government would eventually become so reliant upon the machines they would give up their ability to do the job themselves in favor of the ease of the AI doing it for them. Which would, in turn, make the government subordinate to the AI's that now run it.

This extends even to programs such as truth detectors for use in court trials, which are almost universally adopted in every other nation in the Galaxy. Their lack forces judges, lawyers, and police to rely upon their efforts to prosecute crimes which is a rather roundabout way that means the legal system of the Confederacy is often more fair and flexible to those found in more egalitarian societies. Though in scientific circles it is considered bad form to use them unless it's to double-check calculations already done without.

The only exception to this is secured labs where AI's developed by aliens are studied to understand their capability for military application. Namely, for destroying them. The one exception to this rule is the sentient nano-platform dubbed "Lady Grey", with which the Confederacy holds an extended contract with and is viewed generally as a treaty of amity with a foreign power due to the intelligence guiding the platform being the core of the mythical gray tempest that devastated the galaxy millions of cycles ago.

Economy

The economy of the Kondor Confederacy is a relatively open, self-sustaining mixed economy. It is the largest economy in the Milky Way and at one-time, the fastest growing economy in the galaxy fueled with many factors which include but not limited to; sound fiscal and semi-protectionist policy, abundant resources, well-planned infrastructure, high labor productivity, high industrial output and its' status as the major technology innovator of the galaxy. It is notably the only nation that capable of achieving the post-scarcity economy (in likes of the Human's of Earth. etc) that deliberately avoids doing so due to the cultural and philosophical mindset of the Confederacy citizenry.

While capitalist features such as private ownership, corporations, stock exchange, etc. are widespread and not restricted (and in some administration, heavily encouraged), the state as a whole still plays a heavy role in guiding economic activities in form of macroeconomic plans and dualistic flexible economic policies known as Peacetime-Wartime Policies. Such policies are designed to ensure that in the event of war, the economy of the Confederacy could be readily shifted toward wartime economies without quickly plunging into economic recession and sudden decrease of quality of life like many other star-nations during the time of war, and be readily shifted back to the civilian economy in a relatively smooth process the moment hostilities ended.

Despite its large economy (or perhaps, because of it), the Confederacy is generally self-sufficient; even without the restriction imposed over its homegrown patents and technologies, up to 80% of the Confederacy's vast resources, consumer and the industrial product often goes into its equally large consumer market or amassed into the nation's already vast reserves meant for the emergency uses such as war, famine, and major disasters. This does not mean that the Confederacy abhor intergalactic trade (as the Confederacy remain one of the largest export-import economies in the galaxy), but external factors such as continuous war, occasional trade restrictions by a foreign power as well the general mistrust on the Confederacy itself prevents it from fully integrating with the galactic market, and the Kondor state, in particular, are often less enthusiastic (except for Trade and Gain Faction) in involving itself with external trade.

Wealth, Poverty and Welfare Policies

Confederacy has a pragmatic view regarding welfare policies. While the Kondor states have deep mistrust on the utopian-like post-scarcity economy that many species tries to achieve (and its belief that it will lead to over-dependence on the luxurious lifestyle it brought), it is nonetheless held a deep-seated belief that providing a decent life and excellent well-being for its citizen as the foremost responsibility of the government and the state, in line with its focuses of citizen's duty toward the states as well as the way in fostering unity and loyalty to the Confederacy.

It perhaps comes as no surprise that the Confederacy has some of the greatest traditions of welfare programs, regarded as the best in the galaxy even when compared with other successful star nations such as Humans of Earth. Wide-reaching program such as old-age pensions, accident insurance, state medical care, childcare services, and unemployment insurance inspired from the efficient Nordic-German model has been implemented as early on the Post-Formic war reconstruction period, while institutions focused on improving quality of life such as labor Confederacys, public investment banks, social wealth fund, and workers organizations are often encouraged (albeit monitored) by the Kondor states. Furthermore, the state is heavily involved in the protection of the competitive environment from monopolistic and oligopolistic tendencies, albeit also due to the pragmatic reason to prevent any organization from dominating the state more than anything else.

This paternalistic policy has won the support and loyalty of every layer of Kondor society, be it among the Kondor entrepreneurs and the working classes due to the sound security provided by the states on their respective business and working environment, especially when compared to the equally high-wage, but less welfare protection economies of the Human's member-states. However, these privileges are only extended on the citizens of Confederacy regardless of their tier (at first among Kondors, then expanded to other species later on), and foreign citizens and recently-conquered species are not eligible to receive its benefits. Furthermore, these programs can be suspended temporarily at will during the worst crises should the need arise both regional and nationwide levels (as exemplified during the War of the Five Fronts) to give the states a flexible financial capability. The Confederacy, in their part, often avoid taking these harsh measures whenever possible and will re-implement their welfare policies as soon the economy recovered to the acceptable level.

Nevertheless, despite the imperfection of its welfare policies, the Confederacy as a whole remains a comparatively wealthy nation, characterized by its high-wages, low-poverty, well-distributed national wealth among its citizens and its generally effluent quality of life, especially compared to many of the wealthy democratic nations in the Milky Way.

Circular Economy

The citizens of the Confederacy often prided themselves on hosting the galaxy's most widespread and efficient circular economy due to its common cultural tendency of efficiency and abhorring wastage. From the smallest household into the largest mega-industries, these economic gears are mandated to minimize as much waste, leakage, and harmful emission as possible. Many of the consumer and industrial products are often known for its long-lasting design and ease-of-maintenance, and the so-called 'Kondor standards' become synonymous with the environmentally-friendly high-quality product not to be found in the typically linear economies across the Milky Way Galaxy and historically become the forerunner of the innovative industrial processes such as biomimicry design, cradle-to-cradle design and industrial ecology.

One of its greatest testaments of the Kondor circular economy lies in its extremely profitable recycling industries. Due to the advancement of technologies and industrial processes occurred within the borders of Confederacy, it becomes entirely possible to break down a highly complex end-product back into the most basic component, be it from the ordinary items of clothing, complex telecommunication products, and even the gargantuan decommissioned starships. Interestingly, Kondor itself remains the leading industrial capital of eco-friendly technologies and recycling industries despite the competition of other major colonies such as Vaikuntha, Rodina, and Jormungand, having hosted some of the largest circular economy-based mega-corporations such as Kinabalu Inc., Elya-Harrison Group and the government-linked RENI (Restoration of Kondor's Nature Initiative). Other economic initiatives meant to foster a circular economy includes, but not limited to, special taxes such as pollution tax, nationwide mass recycling program, a ten-cycles tax break for entrepreneurs adhering to the Kondor standards, as well the development of resource-efficient technologies.

Unsurprisingly, the circular economy was also utilized by the military to a great extent. In particular, is well known due to its sheer ability to repurpose its aging warship to reconstruct a brand new modern fleet, as it is possible to breakdown the hull of a starship down to its alloy components, melted and remolded into a different stronger alloy to construct other starships parts. It is estimated by foreign observers that each newly commissioned starship could have up to 40% of these recycled alloys. In retrospect, Kondor Armed Forces could, in theory, produce 35% more military equipment than the other armed services in the galaxy with the same resources.

Evolution of Ship Design

From the early days of the Space Warfare Branch, much of the design philosophy of its Kondor starships and its relevant equipment are mostly spartan and utilitarian that would devoid of anything warship would be created solely for fighting, and this mindset is also extended further into its civilian starship building; even its merchant vessels and luxury liners are in some way designed to be armed enough to be able to defend itself.

During the mid 22nd century, its first true space warship is designed to be modular and simple based on a long, rectangular shape that from outside view would look very blocky, ugly and inelegant. The modular nature of its starship design allows each of its sections independent from one another, thus allowing easy maintenance, ability to maintain firepower in case of combat damage as well as allowing highly efficient use of resources during the process of shipbuilding. Its early space propulsion is only comprised of a single, powerful engine and lacks anti-gravitic units to make efficient space and energy use compared to the extremely inefficient ship design used by the Formic invaders decades earlier, at the cost of being unable to achieve atmospheric flight should it accidentally wander too deep into any planet's gravity force and thus necessitate the use of space shuttles for supply and crew boarding.

But as the 23rd century reaches its end, the technological leap of the Kondor shipbuilding prowess has led to numerous innovation and improvement over Kondor's starship technology, and in particular the Military Guild themselves. For example, the novel multi-nacelles engine technology - long thought to be fuel inefficient compared to the single-engine design - become increasingly practical and economically feasible in line with the advancement of the fuel technology that allows a ship to consume lower fuel while allowing longer travel range compared to the previous century. This allows a starship to descent into the planet's gravitational well and perform atmospheric flight without a problem, and subsequently eliminate the need for the often time-consuming and increasingly inefficient use of space shuttle for planet-to-ship boarding.

Furthermore, the aforementioned revolutionary engine technology had also brought numerous subtle changes over Kondor starships. Atmospheric flight of the starship enables the use of anti-gravitic drives (along with its centuries of innovation and refinement) for the first time, allowing the installation of previously luxurious components economically viable even for military use. The ship's overall look, while still retaining its utilitarian, modular and pragmatic design, had moved away from its signature blocky features and become more streamlined to necessitate optimal atmospheric and space travel of the warship. Furthermore, the advancement of technology allows Kondor's to progressively design larger and more powerful warship as time marches on, thus provide Kondor's a definite edge over the development of the fast battleship, carriers and titans far ahead than the rest of the galaxy - all without sacrificing the resource efficiency on ship construction, manning and maintenance that is the trademark of Kondor culture.

Sword of Kondor

The Sword of Kondor is a Colossus class superweapon developed by the Kondor Confederacy powered by a zero-point reaction engine capable of generating (for a brief time) the energy output of a single stellar mass through its focusing array. The energy of the reactor is focused on a single main weapon, rendering it incapable of a ship to ship combat, but given sufficient time its has the capability of unleashing massive energy-based attacks on stationary targets, including planets.

Research on the development of the Sword of Kondor was conducted in orbit of the planet Mictlan.

Formic Consciousness

The Formic Consciousness is an enigmatic, parasitical spore-based hive-mind civilization well known for the exceptionally genocidal nature that sets it apart from any other hive-minds of the Milky Way Galaxy. Formic, in particular, is not a single species, but rather a collection of various undocumented species of varying size, type and genus, many of whom originated from Malaise.

Even in the eyes of other hive-minds, the Formic are seen as both mysterious and extremely dangerous, and its existence had been consequential to the current galactic history; their discovery by the Kondorian race in 2089 and its subsequent invasion of Kondor in 2090 is the prime reason for the Kondor's Confederacy's militarism and xenophobia, and its genocidal century-spanning Great Formic War in the Galactic East had profoundly shaped the history and development of much galactic civilization in their part of the galaxy.

Biology

Despite its prolific history, there is very little documentation of its biological information beyond the infiltration-acquired Intel achieved as well as in-depth scans, surveys and manned expeditions conducted by the Kondor Confederacy What is known, however, is that its golden spores did not propagate in the same manner as other mind-hives. While other mind-hives simply propagated their species mindlessly, Formic spores instead of infected other living creatures it came in contact with and subsumed them as a whole in an eerie reminiscence of viral disease infection.

The prolific reddish-golden spores of the Formic were proven to be unamenable to spread and survive on Kondor, but on Malaise said spores had disseminated across every corner of the planet for centuries, likely millennia. Indeed, every surface and organism of the Malaise had been coated in a fine layer of Formic's crimson, golden spore. It covered its ocean like an oil slick, and its atmosphere was thick with the biological particles. In-depth study in their native environment had led to the understanding that these spores are their reproductive means, but likely the purest embodiment of the Formic themselves.

The Formic cannot be counted as living (or dead) in the conventional definition of both hive-mind and individual-based species. The Formic particles, when ingested or absorbed via the skin, imbued the organism with a kind of extrasensory perception. Any affected animal or plants could be linked into the Consciousness in the matters of days - or in some cases, hours - turning it into a small part of a greater whole. It is theorized that the planet Malaise itself could be construed to be a type of Formic organism - may be the very ultimate evolution of Formic itself, its component flora and fauna serving akin to the cells employed by the Kondor body.

Infected Species

The enigmatic nature of the Formic meant that its creatures were extremely diverse - the invasion of Kondor had counted various species from insect species with chitinous skeleton to a gigantic multi-limbed behemoth taking part in the war as its weapons and tools, the majority of whom were derived from the fauna of Malaise as well as a minority of creatures it came in contact with within the Galactic East during its century-spanning Great Formic War. Other organisms not native from Malaise did exist as part of its consciousness, all of whom were spared by the ever-hungry member of Formic and infected in the same manner as other creatures.

It is still unknown whether the Formic spores truly originated on Malaise however - scans and survey suggest that a vibrant, hyper-advanced civilization existed on the planet, and its complexity suggested that said civilized species was, in fact, an individual-based species like Kondor's and any other advanced or pre-FTL species dotted across the galaxy, with Kondor's Council even as far in theorizing that these creatures may have adopted the spores as a means of creating a vast army of slave soldiers.