Artifact Era

**Notes:** Income is ⚭500 before 2116, and becomes ⚭200 after. Many UC members and crew are members of another culture (their origin); the UC technology would be used for their station and vessels, but the character's personal gear would use their own culture's attributes.
The Unification Charter is formed in 2109 with the Treaty of Parella; for the next several years it is well funded by the governments of the three signatory species, and many ships are designed and built for it, using the best available technology from all three major species. When the Artifact Hunts begin and government funding is cut off, the income of this culture plummets as the UC begins to subsist largely on docking fees at Parella Station (as well as heavy taxes on businesses there).
Parella Station is at the heart of the Unification Charter, especially after its independence. The leadership committee of the station, which declared the station's independence in 2117, becomes the de facto governing council of the UC. Without much time available to draft and ratify a proper constitution, the government of the UC is set up as a simple oligarchy, notably lacking a system of checks and balances, and with minimal citizen interaction. This is intended to be a temporary solution until a more permanent constitution can be established, but in the chaos of the hunts, it becomes more and more entrenched.
Before long, the UC annexes the nearby moon known as Farmoon, which supplies the station with much needed food and allows it to become self sufficient instead of relying on docking fees and trade.

A naturally spacefaring species on the verge of sentience. The Symtraya culture is not well developed, and is roughly equivalent to an aboriginal tribe. However, their instinctual knowledge is surprisingly extensive, giving their culture a leg up over similar cultures of other species.
As the Guigu reach into space, they have come into conflict with the Symtraya. At first this was about orbital territory, but when the Symtraya learned that the Guigu use parts of dead Symtraya to move their spaceships, they become more aggressive towards them.

The Guigu are a hardworking, industrious people. The bulk of the population lives in catacombs called Nimu, living the traditional Guigu way of life. The world of Kennu is cold, and most of the year is spent cooped up inside the Nimu. The summer is their time of harvesting, celebrating, and coming out.
The Guigu, having evolved in conditions like this, are cordial and good at living with others in tight spaces like the Nimu.

The ancient artifacts discovered in the Kepler-22 system are incredibly advanced, far beyond any of the species in the Orion Arm. While the ancients are long extinct and not playable as a culture, the artifacts discovered may use these tech levels for any items whose stats include tech levels.
The nature of some artifacts suggests that the form and biology of the ancients may have been mammalian with similar attributes and tolerances as humans, albeit ones slightly on the small side - for example, spacesuits may be found that are humanoid and bring the environment into safe range for humans. That said, no images or genetic data of the ancients could be found.

While their agrarian rural areas have not changed much in several centuries, the Guigu's cities are thriving metropolises of progress and science. The Guigu are extraordinarily cordial and good at living with others in tight environments—excellent space travel companions. Considering their level of development, they are capable of impressive space travel. This is thanks largely to their highly magnetically active homeworlds, which prompted them to invest heavily into research on Magnetic Field Drives. This technology allows them to fly in space without fuel concerns. As a result of all this, they have managed a spacefaring civilization and fly by the seat of their pants, without advanced materials, or even so much as efficient radio communication-all communication with spacecraft is done by signal lights. Guigu pressure suits resemble turn-of-the-century heavy metal diving suits; in fact, their spacecraft are all composed of heavy materials like iron, rather thant he so called "space age" materials that were prerequisites of space travel on other, less magnetically active worlds. Most of their advanced science is magnetics based—the planet Kennu and its large moon, Sawu, are both extraordinarily magnetically active, making this technology particularly promising. They have not yet understood it fully, but their space program is made possible by harvesting organs from the spacefaring Symtraya race. The ESF ships which made first contact with the Guigu were disabled when they came close to the binary planet, causing some of them to crash. Kennsawu's magnetic field plays havoc with the electronic systems that most ships of other races rely on, unless they are heavily shielded—entering the Kennsawu system is akin to encountering a solar flare.