The Brights of Corpco History & Society

History:

An intelligent species, the Brights
on Corpco are the remnant of a once high technological civilization that
existed concurrently with the Tetrarch Societies and appear to have been a
client-species or a member of that ancient civilization. The Brights had
colonized Corpco some 22,000 years ago, building an intricate web of cities
with a total planetary population that numbered around 1 billion at its height.

When the Tetrarchs fell, the
Scarlett Ghosts rampaged across the world, bringing death and destruction to
the Brights. Many fell to the energy vampire-like creatures while cascading
power outages and the collapse of their high-tech industries caused additional
fatalities.

At some point, the more powerful of
the Brights managed to corral the Scarlett Ghosts, banishing them or
imprisoning them in a type of psychic cage, but at the cost of hundreds of
lives per vampire. By the time this was done, their population had fallen to
some 2,000 individuals, but only a quarter of which were of reproductive age.

The Brights entered a dark age,
losing much of their history and technical knowledge. They eked out an
existence on the planet. Although they are still omnivores – capable of
draining the life force energy from animals and plants and even power sources –
most Brights will only feast on energy from plants or microbes. They believe
that the powers of their ancestors and the practice of absorbing energy from
animals somehow unleashed the Scarlett Ghosts.

Society Notes:

Brights do have a concept of
individuality, but because of the partial shared memories of their ancestors –
given to them at birth – they have a strong communal concept. They live and
work to support their communities.

Their “told stories” – if they were
human, they would be called oral stories, but brights do not need to breathe
and thus don’t have lungs, air sacs and do not usually use sound to communicate
– tell of a time when their ancestors made great machines, had powers to
sustain great communities and traveled the stars. They even had a written
language at one time, courtesy of their “neighbors” (the Tetrarch Societies).

The brights long for a time when
their race was united – at least according to stories – but now each community
is run by its own its own leadership, whether it is a single leader or a
council of elders.

In general, most brights do not try
to fight each other, but they believe that they are a fallen race due to the
arrogance of their ancestors and that has led to conflict between individuals
and communities. One of the general tenants of most brights is that they will
not feast off of the energy of animals and insects, but it is much easier to
get concentrated energy from animals.

However, some brights have abandoned
the dictates of the others and do feed off of animal and insect energy. These
beings – called feasters – are ostracized by most communities, which is why
they’ve started their own. Brights and feasters occasionally come into
conflict, leading to battles and killings.

Relations with the Tribal Humans
& Streel Colony

One thing that the normal brights
and the feasters agree upon is that sentient beings are not food. When the
original human colonists accidentally weakened the prison holding of the
trapped Scarlett Ghosts, which nearly killed them all off, the brights banished
it, but at a great loss of life.

For the most part, the brights and
the feasters stay away from the tribal humans and Streel’s operations, though a
few more curious types will observe them. Some feasters will even get a quick
snack by draining power cells, parabatteries or tap into other Streel power
sources.

The Malevolents

The brights and feasters have a
criminal element too. Those that commit horrendous crimes such as feeding off
of another bright or a sentient being are known as malevolents. The attacks of
these criminals are why the tribal humans are confused whether the brights are
good or evil creatures.