Spectra

In the Great Beyond, time is measured not in hundreds, thousands, or millions of years, but rather in eons—in iterations of reality itself. Only rising to prominence within the last three centuries alongside the advent and proliferation of Drift technology, spectra have thrived in a burgeoning niche of the otherwise stagnant zeitgeist of the Great Beyond. Though their origins and objectives remain shrouded in mystery, encounters with spectra revolve around new technological discoveries, sharing the knowledge of faster-than-light travel, and protecting the Drift. No one knows if spectra existed before the Drift, but their connection to the hyperspace plane is indisputable. Prominent metaphysicians believe spectra were created as amalgams of raw quintessence pulled into the Drift, just as the Drift itself grows from pieces of the Multiverse. If this is true, spectra's interest in the proliferation of Drift technology takes a subtle sinister turn, as each new Drift engine serves to harvest the Great Beyond and all its denizens for the growth of the Drift and spectra themselves. Members Excuba (Creature 4), Iridia (Creature 8), Wyspiria (Creature 11) Facilian Facilian the Blossoming Fractal is the first of the arc spectra, a demigod of beginnings, novel ideas, and experimentation. They inspire mortals toward breakthroughs in their work, strokes of sudden inspiration, and to overcome blocks in their perspectives. Facilian's followers sometimes receive visions of strange signs and formulas while traveling through the Drift, left to reach their own understandings of what the visions mean. Prophet of the Drift In the aftermath of the Drift Crash, spectra became stranded across the galaxy, torn apart and unable to return to the Drift. Amid the destruction, a broken wyspiria called False Casanda emerged as a spectra champion and supposed guardian of Casandalee's essence. Though the All-Code has since returned, some say they have seen False Casanda's starship, the Argent Sierra , out in the Vast, hunting for something still lost. The Drift Crash For centuries, most accounts of spectra encounters were of the "Drift angels" that rescued lost and broken starships stranded in the Drift, bringing them out of hyperspace and back into the Universe itself. All this changed during the Drift Crisis disaster, when Drift travel failed across the galaxy. In the aftermath of the crash, spectra encounters sharply increased, and excubas have overtaken iridias as the spectra most commonly seen by spacefarers. Voices of the Drift Spectra rarely use their own voices to speak, instead telepathically harnessing nearby communication devices and communicating through starship intercoms or display text on vidscreens. In the rare accounts of spectra speaking aloud, their voices are described as mixes of synthesized, low-fidelity tones and "blurry-sounding" beeps and screeches.