Celae

The Celae are a species of silicon-based life forms from the Kjn Expanse. Their government is the totalitarian Celaen Order, an expansionist, militaristic regime obsessed with achieving complete order, purity, and perfection. As silicon-based life forms, the Celae are an unusual species. They also posess psionic abilities, rating anywhere from a P6 to a P10 on the Psi Scale.

History
The Celae evolved on the scorching planet of Karea in the Astraus system. Early in their evolution, they were very flawed both physically and mentally. Eventually, the healthy ones began to develop instincts that told them to cull the unhealthy Celae. This practice continued even after they attained sapience, being as integral to their basic instincts as reproduction. This has resulted in a lot of practices many other races would see as utterly barbaric, such as campaigns of mass extermination against the "Imperfects" and rather dubious medical and scientific procedures in order to try and correct the imperfections. Among these methods are a complicated form of eugenics.

Since developing more advanced civilization, the Celae have always been fairly united. While they were divided into nations, there were minimal wars. 400 years ago, after the Celae experienced a scientific revolution, their technology advanced rapidly, and so did their methods of keeping order. To sate their instinctual desire for purity and perfection, science went "too far". Well, some people would see it that way, but they didn't. They developed the ability to, through complicated technology, alter the structure of their shards as they were growing. Celae shards are the "equivelant" to a fetus, being the early form of a new Celae. Due to their method of growth, imperfections were common. Thanks to technology, though, the structure of the shards could be altered and changed to create a "perfect" and "pure" Celae with minimal defects. Any irrepairably defective shards were culled.

250 years ago, a planet-wide government was established to guide the race. The Celae were always an orderly species, obsessed with keeping control of all situations and all things. Thus the society that was supposed to bring freedom to Karea quickly turned into an authoritarian dictatorship, ruled by the Ordinator. For the Celae, what seemed like a living hell to most species was actually their idea of a utopia. Well, most Celae thought so anyway. About 37% of the population thought differently, and in order to ensure no chaos came about because of this, the government made a few concessions, granting the people a bit more freedom. Everything was at peace, as they slowly achieved their ideal society and their idea of a perfect species.

192 years ago, the Celae sent a manned mission to Karea's only moon, Keos. Satisfied, for now, space travel stagnated for 76 years. 114 years ago, when Karea began to experience ecological problems (including the formation of notable amounts of water, which is acidic to the Celae's silicon based biology), the Celae looked to the stars. They began to colonize other planets in their system, starting with Keos and expanding to their system's first planet, which was able to support Celae life. 67 years ago, they developed the Rip Drive, and used it to expand to other solar systems. They colonized 6 more worlds over the next 65 years, for a total of 8 inhabited planets today in Galactic Year 2287.

Not satisfied with their current territory, the Celaen Order has begun to expand beyond its fairly isolated region of space. They exist within a small group of stars, located in a nebula and isolated from the rest of the galaxy by an expanse measuring 9 light years at its furthest. Easy to traverse with Rip Drives, however they haven't seen a need to until now. Now though, they have begun to send probes beyond the outer edges of their nebula, ready to bring Order, Purity, and Perfection to those beyond.