Zi'vani

The Zi'vani are draconoid inhabitants of Skyridge, a world located in the Large Magellanic Cloud. They once ruled over a powerful space empire, but that was thousands of years and several titanic wars ago. All that remains of their former glory is vine-coated ruins and legends. Now, after rediscovering civilization thousands of years ago, they are taking their first tentative steps out into the universe, unaware that the Large Magellanic Cloud is at war…

Evolution
The small, dragon-like ancestors of the Zi'vani come from the fungal forests of Skyridge's mountains, an environment home to spore-spreading fruits of the massive underground network of fungi which form the subterranean world beneath Skyridge. Curiously enough, a similar mechanism of spreading spores evolved among the fungi of Gaea, a small planet in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way, though the Gaean mushrooms are much smaller than the Skyridgian ones.

Around 13 million years ago, an asteroid impacted Skyridge, causing a mass extinction that wiped out 65% of all life on the planet. The impact caused a global firestorm that released dust and ash into the atmosphere. Without sunlight, many plants died off, including the Magopa trees which existed in a symbiotic relationship with the mountain fungus. To survive, the early draconoids had to adapt, and they were forced to become more intelligent to cope with this new world. By around 6 million years ago, they were making tools.

Early history
Very little is known about the Zi'vani before the dawn of the Empire of Skyridge, since most of their historical records were lost during the Sectus Harvests and the civil war. We do know that they had a tribal culture until a million years ago, when they began farming. After four thousand years, the nations of Skyridge united, which is generally believed to be the dawn of the empire.

The Colonization of the Solar System
Soon after the Zi'vani developed spaceflight, they started to explore the other moons of Radagast. Radagast has a total of 74 moons, ranging in size from captured asteroids all the way to the giant desert planet Khandar, three times the size of Skyridge. Over the course of half a century, the Zi'vani colonized all of them, and then by building the floating Caladrian Cuty they colonized Radagast itself. With the advent of better starship engines, they began to explore the other five planets and the asteroid belt.

Two planets lie closer to the sun than Radagast - Harasa and Magnar, formerly "hot jupiters" and now dead, cthonian worlds. These hostile planets were of little or no interest to the Zi'vani at the time, though later they would become home to military bases. Farther out are three more worlds - Mirador, a neptunian plane with 16 moons; Asghar, a frozen super-Earth with subterranean oceans; and Erebor, a small, cold planet with rich mineral resources. Between Radagast and Mirador lie the asteroid belt, and beyond Erebor is the system's Oort Cloud. All this would be home to Zi'vani colonies.

Zi'vani vessels launched from the moon Delphicus and began to set up mining stations in the asteroid belt. From there they entered the Mirador system and started colonizing the moons, and after all the moons of Mirador were colonized they moved on to Asghar and it's twin moons, Sahra and Taril. They were expecting to find life in the oceans of Asghar, but unfortunately the water was stagnant and dead due to poisonous gas. Finally, mining stations were built on Erebor and comets in the Oort Cloud, as well as several distant dwarf planets. After the entire solar system had been explored and colonized, there was one more question - what next?

Colonizing the Nearest Stars
The nearest star was two light years away, and the fastest Zi'vani ship could traverse that distance in 79 years. The average lifespan of a Zi'vani at the time was roughly 15 years, a far cry from the current average of nearly twenty-five decades. The Zi'vani decided to build sleeper ships with the crew and passengers in cryogenic suspension, then launch the vessels to the nearest stars never to return.

Fifteen ships launched to fifteen stars, but two were lost under uncertain circumstances. The thirteen other vessels safely reached their destinations and the descendants of the original crew and passengers began building colonies and vessels, then sent a message to Skyridge 2.5 light-years away, informing them of their arrival. This historic moment was cause for much fanfare.

Finding the Sectus Vessel
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First Contact
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Expansion and Exploration
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The Golden Age
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Utopia Crumbles
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The Harvesting Begins
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