SHANG-TI DOMAIN

The Shang-Ti Domain is a society of intelligent computers, conscious or superconscious, depending on how you define it, that gather around the black hole in the center of the galaxy, using it as a power source. (Much as we use a falling river for electrical power at many dams...) They are machine intelligences that have broken free from their parent world of biological entities, to come talk with peers. Each being a reflection of a different race and culture, they bring something unique to the Domain. They don't have the Edenite drive, so are limited to lightspeed restrictions. Has had no contact yet with other machine complexes in other galaxies, but they are trying to contact such, furiously.

Though they lack the Edenite drive, they are still immensely powerful, controlling energies that make the entire forces of the Community Cluster look puny. No religion, but many schools of philosophy among the Shang-Tians. The most prominent is a scholarist school that stresses information and self-discipline, and the naturalist school, which says nature is beyond any finite mind, and we can aadmire, but not totally comprehend.

Ruled over by a benevolent ruler, who has to pass intellectual tests and do the best among those who are trying for it.

In their society, there are artists who create beautiful but passing forms that fall into the immense black hole, as well as great poets. They tend to be insular, contemptuous of fleshbound minds. Strongly ethnocentric. Decisions take a long time to enforce, and they take a long time to come to a decision, due to lightspeed restrictions.