Slavers/secret
The "Slavers", despite being regarded as mythical, do actually exist. However, there is only one. It is a (mostly) functioning Ancients-era robot that calls itself "The Shepherd".
The Shepherd
The Shepherd was assembled millennia ago by entities it calls the Creators. It is tasked with gathering rare minerals which it achieves through the activities of the Voyagers, immense organic harvesters that it tends and guides. It has been utterly isolated for aeons, quietly continuing its mission.
The Greys
The Shepherd controls a number of pseudobio Droyne-like robots – the so-called Greys – which it dispatches to carry out tasks and missions. The Greys operate small spacecraft built built by the Creator at fantasical levels of technology.
Background & History
The Shepherd first became aware of humans when it encountered vessels of the Dissident Fleet and recognised the mark of its own Creators in the creatures aboard them. It watched them as they passed by but did not make contact.
The Voyagers
The Voyagers – the Shepherds' flock – blundered through the Distant Fringe some 15 centuries later. They unintentionally destroyed the human civilisation that they found there, bringing on a technological Dark Age. They didn't mean any harm, they were blindly doing what they had been constructed to do. For a long time the Shepherd remained unaware of the Voyagers' depredations. Eventually it sent the Greys to check on them.
When the Greys reported their findings back to The Shepherd it ordered the construction of a beacon to send the Voyagers to new pastures. It chose to build the beacon on Tal Varisa, which it perceived as the center of the human worlds. The construction and the operation of The Shepherd's beacon constitute the events of Slaver Year.
Present Day
The Shepherd remains deeply troubled by the events surrounding his flock and its impact on the humans. It believes humans to have been sent to the Distant Fringe by the Creators for a specific reason and is concerned that the Voyagers (and thus itself) have compromised that mission.
The Shepherd quietly observes human activities and periodically sends Greys to examine human "specimens". It actively avoids any direct contact – apart from occasional research by its Greys – for fear of further interfering with the Creator's plan. The Shepherd's current location is many sectors to spinward, somewhere within the the region known as Infinitys Shore, a part of the Empty Stars.
References & Contributors / Sources
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- Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master Scout Emeritus Adie Alegoric Stewart of the IISS
- Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science