Absolutionists#
spooky religious extremists
Spoiler
Article contains spoilers: Bk7
Governance#
The Absolutionist leadership is just as secretive as everything else. From snippets of conversations with Absolutionists, it’s known that they are ruled by a small council of their most powerful people - the type of power that can level countries.
Motives#
They're rumoured to worship some sort of Immortal-esque figure, perhaps a minor Immortal, hence the religious connotations to their name. Why they use "Absolutionists" is still a mystery. Their publicly visible members - typically individuals with high personal power or something to compensate for a lack of it - often roam about the cosmos performing somewhat random tasks, purportedly "in aid of the Faith."
The leading theory, with a few supporting details from Absolutionists themselves, is that they seek to redeem mortals as a whole. They believe mortals unfit for this existence crafted by the Immortals — or perhaps that Immortal adjacent figure they worship — and want purification for all of the cosmos. Because of this and the alarmingly high power levels of their people, the Amirlithic Union keeps a tight watch on them.
In reality, the Absolutionists were founded by a mysterious figure now referred to as the Emperor. This figure was a remnant of the Precursors, having survived the catastrophe by putting themselves into an artificial stasis. Awaking to a new world, they used their remaining Precursor resources to establish the Absolutionists, in hope of restoring the cosmos to its former pre-Immortal glory.
This, however, is a tightly kept secret, even amongst their civilians. Most of their population believes that they worship and hope to return to the days of the Elder Immortals.
Population#
The Absolutionists are mostly composed of a civilian population that stays nestled away in their territory. The realities these populations belong to were mostly ruled by one or few extremely powerful individuals, who registered their worlds as well as themselves to the Absolutionist faction. Rumours of rights violations and dystopian conditions are floating around, but of course nobody actually investigates. Only a fraction of their number venture outside their territory, and all such instances were expeditions hosting very powerful individuals on missions to various areas of the cosmos. These individuals, when interviewed, said that even the civilian population of their worlds had a very high standard for personal power. This is the only reason that the Absolutionists are considered a major faction; they would be very dangerous to fight if their people were telling the truth.
Recent Events#
The dysphorium incursions have been significantly less impactful on the Absolutionists than other factions. Their entire trade network is internal, so there are no trade routes outside their territories that they must enforce. All their territory is enclosed by a vanguard of powerful individuals that patrol the borders and are able to at least fend off dysphorium long enough for reinforcements to arrive.
Their isolationist nature has also inured them to internal political damage from the defection of the Primal Chaos, as they never much worshipped the Great Immortals.
Their current main endeavour is a push further out into the uncolonized areas of the Void. This is in an attempt to find lost Precursor infrastructure for restoration. Many similar exploratory missions have been carried out in the past.
Relations#
The Absolutionists are as peaceful as their leader. They will alternately make friends and enemies as it serves their purposes. Most factions simply view them less like another faction and more just an individual roaming around. They don’t pay them much mind. On the other side of the coin, some factions view them as incredibly dangerous, usually factions that venerated Immortal entities similar to the Absolutionists’ deity.
Specialties#
Absolutionists’ abilities are powerful and varied. They do not usually trend towards a theme, though most don’t like to make use of methods that cause a mess, preferring sleek light beams over flesh rending blades.
Territory#
The Absolutionists are quite a minority and wouldn't be considered one of the big six if not for the amount of powerful figures constituting them. They control about 2600 realities and a large amount of world-sized dimensional ships. They have embassies in various other territories that they operate out of. Each of these are under heavy watch.