Borj
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Summary:
Before 1999 the existence of the Borj was limited to rumors gleaned from ort cloud prospectors but in that fateful year a Borj ship entered into the planetary belt of the solar system on an crucial mission. The Borj representatives onboard seemed like your average humanoid life form but it became evident that the members of the crew possessed a collective consciousness. The Borj were desperately searching for information regarding various races present in the solar system. They met with Romlian, Cartassian, Bajaarn, and Endurian representatives, prior to meeting with Queen Victoria. After that historic meeting the Borj returned to their home somewhere in the Kiper belt and were not heard from again until 2005. This latest meeting with the Borj showed a total change to their society and racial motivations. Their customary physiology was now enhanced with bio-mechanological implants and they now possessed an overriding desire to remake all life forms in their own likeness. This desire included the assimilation of any individuals mind into their mental collective.
It is surmised that the changes observed in the Borj may have been a misinterpretation of Queen Victoria herself. The Borj may have viewed the Queen as a template for supremacy and racial success in the solar system their imitation of Victoria’s mechanological augmentations and desire to see the spread of the British civilization may be the cause of their present endeavors outside the orbital zone.
Detail:
Origins:
No information on the origins of the Borj has ever been confirmed. It is theorized that some object in the Kiper belt with sufficient heat to support basic life processes may have been the location where the Borj may have developed but there are considerable arguments against this premise. Not even the specific location of the Borj home world in the Kiper belt is known
Physiology:
The original Borj expedition was classified with what is known as a cold chemical metabolism. Exotic chemosynthesis involving oxygen transfer and exchange were appreciably different from any life processes yet seen in the system. Their dark blue oily blood circulated not only respiratory gasses and nutrients but also acted as an electrical network for voluntary/involuntary control. Borj digestive structure was very simple due to the fact that the entire race fed upon a single dietary nutriment.
Not much is known about the Borj’s collective mental processes other than each individual can perform their own mental tasks but direction and motivation are derived from a racial collective.
The interconnection of mechanological prosthesis to the Borj seems to supplement and enhance the capabilities of the individual Borj according to his/her/its vocational occupation. A Borj assigned to building tasks includes a variety of tools; a laborer may have implants that augment strength and/or endurance, analyzers may have implants that afford greater mental capacity or communications. Each Borj is tailored to their purpose and it seems that they intend to be all that they can be.
Language:
No Borj spoken or written language has ever been discovered which seems reasonable for a race with a collective telepathic network. It is evident that the Borj store information in the form of mechanical data memory systems akin to our analysis engines but the examples that have been sampled seem totally incompatible with human devices. Borj have the ability to speak in various languages which they seemed to have learned through their initial contact with the cultures in the solar system.
Society and Social Order:
The Borj social order is the order of the machine. Each individual is a cog in the mechanism and works, each having their own individual contribution, to further the overall goal of the machine. There odes not seem to be any superfluous activity supporting endeavors that we would consider cultural, no art, no music, no leisure activities. Each Borj is programmed for a variety of tasks. When that task is needed the most appropriate individual selflessly starts to perform the task. There is no hierarchy in Borj society. All Borj are totally equal because they are all one with the collective.
Costume:
The original Borj expedition wore brown colored uniforms and no other accoutrements. The latest sightings of the Borj only mention mechanological exterior wear and by the descriptions given modesty is not a concern. Borj that require little mechanological augmentation are said to operate within the Borj surrounding totally nude.
Mechanology and Ætherfaring:
The original Borj expedition ship was propelled by a simple GIT drive (gyroscopic inertial thrust) albeit a very efficient one. Their power was derived from a thermactive stack using electro-sterling circulation, a simple but efficient means for basic ætherfaring. Since then Borj ships have been observed using a variety of different means for propulsion and in some cases exotic combinations of existing technologies to propel their ships.
Borj ships have recently started to adopt perfect geometrical designs with all elements of the ship internal to the structure. These designs include spheres, icosahedrons, dodecahedrons, octahedrons and tetrahedrons. The size of the variously shaped ships is directly related to the number of sides with tetrahedrons being small ships and icosahedrons being larger ships. The largest Borj sphere has a volume equivalent to an RÆF Cruiser.
Economy:
The Borj have no recorded trade with any other group in the solar system so it is surmised that their economy is self sufficient. Recently reports from the ort clouds indicate that the Borj have begun an expansion of their territory wherein they are apparently consuming all commodities and resources.
