vampires

The Vampires are victims of a cognitohazard - a memetic virus designed during the Second Corporate War, probably by NAWSLER.

Because of a glitch in a code of reality, they became extremely powerful - nearly immortal, much faster, stronger and smarter than ordinary humans. Some reports say that they can even survive in the vacuum of space for short periods of time.

It seems that they can communicate telepathically with one another.

During the Corporate Wars (Second and Third - they started fighting each other during the latter) they operated the so-called Night Ships - highly advanced vessels, capable of rapid acceleration and decelaration that would kill human crew in moments. No Night Ship has survived to this day. 

The Virus had one additional side effect. Vampires are not self-aware anymore. Despite their intelligence, problem solving capabilities and cunning, they are nothing more than beasts. 

the bloodless ones

They are the experts in the field of holograms - able to somehow control the biggest outbursts of glitches - and sometimes cause them.

Despite that, they hunt down Saints to feast on their 'flesh' - supposedly to absorb their powers.
There also was at least one confrontation between the Bloodless Ones and the Vampires - but it might be just a chance encounter. 

'The reality was mortally wounded by the Old Corporations during the Final War. That's when they used the 'glitch bomb'. They thought that it would just destroy the Artificial Minds of their opponents - but in fact it tore a hole in reality. And we all know what crept though that wound.'

- N7D9H13313

The sect's name come from the fact that their leaders had supposedly ditched 'the constraints of mortal ichor' and glitched their flesh to replace their blood with 'holographic ectoplasm'.

 

the dreamers

 

The ones standing on one tip of the Triangle. The ones able to dream consciously - and to travel through it without the risk of wandering off the safe paths.

Most of them have left to follow the Path of Chaos. Vast majority of those who stayed behind were  cast out from the Dreamer society, exiled becaue of their controversial or outright heretical views - or simply because they were criminals / madmen.

Why do they prefer to remain anonymous? One reason is because when they first appeared, they were pursued by the Old Corporations. Now-extinct Thought Hunters were specially designed post-humans, created solely to track down and exterminate Dreamers.

Second reason is because the deeper you delve into the dreams, the more of your former self you leave behind. Maybe it's because of sensory overload, maybe (it's just a theory) you trade the parts of your souls with denizens of the dream.

zero nomads

• The only known nomadic group known for using the Null Drives. 
• They claim that they follow the 'Zero Vector' - when the Primary Vectors were established, one of them wasn't feasible in any way - it was impossible to follow it. It was marked as an error.
• ZN claim that they are able to follow the Zero Vector through Nullspace.
• Unlike other nomadic groups or pilgrims, they travel on a single vessel - the Worldship. Measuring over two kilometers in length, it's the largest spaceship ever buillt, by significant margin. Built in one of the Base Worlds (near 0,0,0) by one of the Old Corporations, it's said that it's over one thousand years old.
• ZN claim that they figured the Null Drive themselves, and haven't used any knowledge found on the Ykthr Tablets. 
• It's impossible that they aren't affected by the NullVoid. 

mind engineers

• Mind Hackers, or Mind Engineers, or Soul Engineers - all these names apply to the same (hypothetical) group of individuals.
• It is just an unproven concept - a paranoia-fueled hypothesis claiming that there are some entities that constantly reprogram humans.
• The hypothesis doesn't specify if the Mind Engineers are independent individuals or belong to single organization with broad and detailed plans.
• Some claim that they are 'digital beings' - maybe Artificial Beings that failed to reach godhood.
• All Mind Altering / Mind Reprogramming is part of the Grand Social Experiment. No one knows what is its goal or who's behind it (if anyone is).
• It may be just an effect of the most advanced Memetic Virus ever:

1. Theory One: the Virus affected individuals became the Soul Engineers. They are the hosts of the infection. The reprogrammed ones are unaffected.
2. Theory Two:  the Hackers are unaffected - in fact, they or their predecessors had designed the Virus. Now they spread it to alter people's minds.
3. Theory Three: the Virus was designed to greatly enhanced mental (and maybe psychic) abilities of its designers. It all went horribly wrong and it took over. Now both the Engineers and their victims are infected (maybe by two separate 'levels' of the Virus - 'the weak' one reprograms the victims of mind manipulation, while 'the strong' controls the Hackers).

? 

why do we live like that?

1. We must maintain the tradition of the journey to lead our ancestor to the Afterspace. 
2. It's not the planets that are cursed - it's us. We carry the weight of millennia of sins. We are too corrupt and impure to taint the worlds with our presence.
3. The Vectors were given to us for a purpose. We must follow them no matter what. And when the time is right - we will know the reason.
4. The Destroyer preys upon mankind. We must remain on the run.
5. It is not important why the Pilgrimage has started. But now the journey is a crucial part of Paths of Universal Interconnections. We've carved our ways, the Paths that aren't ours anymore. Now it's our duty to continue the work.
6. The Null-Drives of the Worldship are in fact powering the simulation of the universe. If they cease to operate - we cease to exist.
7. Vectors make an enormous sigil, unfathomable for mortals. Artificial Gods are constantly reshaping and perfecting it. We just test its integrity.
8. If you stay on a planet for too long, you wake up. And the reality is much, much worse than the Dream World you experience now.
9. There are no planets, and the moons you've seen are just asteroids. It's just a mystification. Hallucinations caused by... someone, maybe Synth-Gods, to conceal something. Something sinister.

shadow masters

Remnants of the Old Corporations. Sleeping in ice, being awakened only to set new directives for their Sleeper Agents, Doppelgangers and Homunculi.

And the Stragglers.

The Old Order has collapsed during the last war - but the Shadow Masters remain. In fact, they were so important for the society that now they are its last standing element. Or - they are the Old Corporations. Core concepts of eternal competition, growth and total control live in them. The Shadow Masters were born of the Old Corporations and became the quintessence of their internal and external mechanisms.

Thus, the Old Corporation never died. They live for as long as the Shadow Masters live. And there's a chance that the Shadow Master title is hereditary. If it's true, the Old Corporations will exist forever.

We don't know the names of Old Corporations. We know the names of Masters of the Masters, the crème de la crème. The ones who started to rule the human space fourteen hundred years ago and are still holding it in their iron grip.

Yet, they were so separated from the events of the Final War that they've lost the access to the Palace. Now the crown jewel of the Dead Worlds remain off-limits even for them. 

Is there a connection between the Vampires and the Shadows? I'm sure there is. 

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