Sprawling Empire.

Tib's Hammer

Power and land.

To build a Dyson Sphere with a ring world inside of it to utilize the captured energy.

A slave uprising on thousands of worlds.

A full civil war could break out with free'd slaves against the elites. Billions would die.

An enormous military, not quite as advanced as the other two factions but much larger.

Several rings are complete on a Dyson sphere they are working on.

The empire began from a single planet. Colonized in the early centuries of interstellar travel. Although no single person is accredited with the discovery of the Grit. It is known that it was first discovered on Astras. Drones were sent through the first wormholes. After a few decades piloted ships finally had their chance. Many were lost. Some managed to come back the way they went in and others that were lucky enough were only dumped out at the edge of the solar system. It took massive gains in computer power before reliable trips could be made through the deep.

Once the tenth planet had been colonized there was a radicalization in the government, civil war broke out and the strongest ended up on top. The empire was born. Those on the winning side of the wars ended up the noble class. Below them formed what is called the compliant who would be considered a middle class who can take no part in government. Lower still were the slaves who served their lives out as laborers and servants destined to be reaped for their grit. Many worlds now farm slaves. This has gotten out of hand recently and over the passed three hundred years billions of slaves are revolting and have taken back several planets. The revolution is expected to soon be over as Astras is now taking action against the revolution. It took time but the free'd slaves are becoming a problem. Slavery is much more regulated now and has implemented strict population control. Rules have even been changed and slaves no longer have to be worked till the age of 60 but can be harvested as young as 20 for their grit. This has caught the attention of both the other factions who disagree with the practice of growing humans purely for grit. Radicals have formed cells throughout the galaxy and are now doing everything they can to help the slaves and their revolution.

Astras' military is the largest the galaxy knows and is aging well. But it is aging. Their weapons, hulls, and shields are not as advanced as those from the other two factions. With a fleet so massive, it can be tough to keep it current. Dynamus is the only faction that would dare risk open war. Their fleets tech is several centuries newer than Astras. War is not likely but the slave revolution is getting traction in Dynamus and people are speaking out louder than ever.

Magic has been a part of the Empire since the beginning. The many emperors use divination to better plan growth and avoid pitfalls. Schools for magic are on almost every planet and held with high regard. Some slaves with magical abilities have earned freedom after attending these schools. Unlike Dynamus, hyperspace is dug into by magic users for travel. They also use their magic to assist the nav computers in plotting courses through hyperspace. Also they have impressive military capabilities and can assist in ship to ship combat.

Though thought of as lagging behind in tech, Astras wishes to show its might by being the first to build a Dyson sphere. Only a few rings are completed, but a large part of it is already habitable. This is the first time a device like this has been made to encircle an entire star, let alone multiple times. Other dyson like devices have been created to gather massive amounts of the stars energy, but never to this degree. Currently the ring has more land area than any of the factions combined planets.