Qire (spelt as 'choir', colloquial misnomer)
Seraphim (by Ian)
Qekorat'kuho (Burning Ones, by the Hoku)
Ilrirra’tiik (Winged Ones, by the Raydee)
Aa'Urhrtar (Great Ones, by the Arrene)
Khu’y-Re El’tlekhune (The Great Expedition, by themselves)
Last updated: August 18th 2026
COLLECTIVE SUMMARY
Theorized domain of the Great Expedition (55% confidence)
Archaeological evidence along the Dominion's borders suggests the Qire's presence in the Milky Way to be at least 5 million years old. Logistical models for their modern rotational infrastructure suggest that their civilization must be on the order of 2-4x older than that - if true, that means they would be the oldest known active intelligence to the Dominion.
The Pankal chelok ponder the relative absence of the Qire in the Dominion's present day region prior to the Arrene's height - framing them on the very least, as transtellar interlopers.
Earliest known contact with the Arrene around ~14,000 CE (650 BdF), through the destruction of the Far Haven colony in the Forzai system - with a relativistic missile.
Joined the Dominion in 14,650 CE (0 AdF) as original signatary. Often credited in arrene history as the original proposers of the Treaty of Forzai - the model after which the Dominion is structured.
Origin
Somewhere in the Large Magellanic Cloud, ~100kly from Sol (inferred).
Reach may span the entire Local Group - technically possible at present day, conservative models place a 55% certainty of it being at least within 500,000ly from the LMC - the entire Large Magellanic Cloud (allegedly/inferred), the Carina and Sculptor dwarf galaxies (presumed), and an undisclosed large fraction of the Milky Way (alluded).
Liberal estimates suggest their reach may extend several million light-years beyond the Local Group, potentially into the outskirts of the Virgo Supercluster, though these models are highly speculative and contested - if true to any capacity, then their true origin point might be even harder to pinpoint.
Upon being questioned about their origin or purpose, the Qire's answers - be it a cultural imperative or ignorance - mostly seem to converge on the Large Magellanic Cloud (which they call the Sky Cloud galaxy), and 'serving the Great Expedition.'
The fact is, we do not know what The Great Expedition is. Scholars and enthusiasts alike have guesses just as good as one another. What we do know, is that the Qire (a common misnomer of their kind by outsiders) stationed within the Dominion identified themselves as The Great Expedition to a deeply cultural or opaqueness level - we do not know if there are other Expedition-like bodies across the Milky Way galaxy, or other nearby galaxies - though mathematical models based on observed behaviors suggests that it must be the case.
Seem to prefer (at least within the Dominion's bounds) small, dark, high-pressure, hot-house carbonic worlds around red dwarfs, but are comfortable within a wide range of temperatures and pressures. Known as advanced bioengineers and physicists.
Historical interactions with the Qire strongly indicate that certain classes of technological civilizations attract sustained Qire intervention, the specific criteria for which remains unknown.
Observed Qire activity appears largely exploratory, with a particular interest in astrobiology.
Description
With six-sided radial symmetry, standing 9 to 15 feet tall and weighing 200 to 400kg (described as "heavy", estimate based on conventional animal-biomass), their body is a vertical barrel of dark, leathery hide, ridged like wet bark, capable of bending at a right angle to navigate small spaces.
The base consists of six strong tentacles for ambling locomotion, each ending in three webbed short claws, six pseudo-feet half the length of the tentacles are located in between the ‘legs’.
The midsection has posterior and anterior tentacles. The six posterior tentacles are thin compared to the leg tentacles, and firm like steel cable, each branching in six appendages, and each one branching into six 'fingers' — each tip being able to be twisted at will, its total length compounding to about 6 feet in range.
The anterior tentacles branch alike the posterior ones, but over 16 feet in length, and possessing a thin leathery webbing connecting each branching. The membrane seems serrated at the edges, covered in waxy-looking iridescent purple-orange scales, which carry swirly and blotchy moiré patterns unique per individual - this wing set is capable of both powered flight and retracting fully against the body. The wing scale patterns happen to strobe in mismatch with neural oscillation of most known species, causing intense visual and mental discomfort.
The apex ends in six tentacles with sharp scales around a radula, appearing as "rolls of small teeth". At the external base of each tentacle, a retractable eye-stalk positions each peach-sized compound-eye carefully. Bioluminescent tendrils at the base of the “head” pulse with yellow-red light for visual communication (hypothesized).
Diet remains unknown, although at least partial carnivory is considered highly probable. Several historical accounts describe Qire publicly consuming live Arrene officials as a form of capital punishment. Though whether this represented nutrition or intimidation, remains unresolved.
Individuals are capable of regulating their body temperature from ambient conditions to approximately the flash point of paper. Vocalizations consist primarily of organometallic buzzes, clicks, and hissing sounds.
Observed individuals exhibit absolute commitment to their appointed or self-imposed task, regardless of personal cost or external circumstance. Whether this reflects culture, biology, institutional conditioning, or some other phenomenon remains unknown.
It is yet unknown if the Qire possess any conventional sense of personhood, self, and culture thats identifiable to other races. They do seem to possess a certain sense of aesthetic and art (?), given the complexity and intricate pattern of what seems to be the flag or insignia of the Great Expedition - a square pseudo-arabesque pattern in off-white, prussian blue, and orange - which comes to quite a surprise, since they seem to be completely blind to the color blue. Often regarded by explorers as an indicator that you've ventured way too far into the stellar wilderness.
Spacetravel
Rare in present era, or at least, rarely observed. Official Dominion vessels of hybrid origin use advanced A/M-AM drives for typical travel speeds of γ~10.
The technology used in their Elder Starships can only be speculated from their visible design choices.
Extreme length-to-radius of 160:1. Over 8km long by just 50 meters wide, these needle-like starships don't look particularly impressive in terms of crew and cargo transport - which they lack in comparison to other vessels in the Dominion. Carrying only about 44 crew and a comparatively mediocre dedicated cargo space. However, when one is reminded these machines can reach Lorentz factors of γ ≈ 10²-10³ (99.995-99.99995% c), the technological gap between them and the Dominion becomes very clearly an abyss. At such regimes, their observed acceleration profiles may permit trajectories approaching relativistic brachistochrones at distances estimated up to 10,000 light-years (limited observations).
The central machinery and habitat occupies just a small portion of 1.5km around the center, while the rest of the ship leaves a lot for imagination about its internal workings. The ends of the habitat section - which might each be a hybrid ramscoop/antimatter fusion reactor - are populated by forward-facing spires of various sizes, while the central axis is dominated by an extreme cone or spire which makes up most of the ship by sheer lenght. The early stages of the cone sport suspension towers which hold ring-like coils in a sort of inverted cone which opens from the center towards the bow of the ship. These structures, if theories are of any value, indicate the presence of an extreme magnetic field generator, which would draw in hydrogen gas from the interstellar medium into unseen ports in between or at the base of the spires, some of which is stored in visible tanks, and part of which is reacted with generated in-situ antimatter. The superheated relativistic plasma exhaust is then expelled the other end for thrust, which, upon arriving on destination, inverts flow, burning on the opposite end for deceleration - without turning. Although the ships are known to have glacial turning velocities.
The pronounced dart-like morphology of Elder Starships suggests that, at the relativistic regimes they routinely operate under, the interstellar and intergalactic medium must be treated like a dense, highly energetic particle environment, demanding intensive magnetic shaping, heat management and shielding. One of these survival mechanisms can be observed by the clear Sodium-Potassium emmission lines in the relativistic plasma trail they leave when cruising at high speeds - it is theorized the ship "sweats" or is sprayed with NaK salts for heat dispersion, the metal vapor would then be collected at the aft via the rear engine's magnetic funnel and recycled through the ship - if true, then the appreciable losses of this essential coolant might be among one, if not THE reason, that the Great Expedition limits its apparent presence across the Local Group, because NaK must be found, mined and purified, and its distribution, unlike the hydrogen fuel, isn't nearly as uniform across known space.
Traveling at slower speeds would certainly decrease the need for those salts, but that is a constraint known only to the Great Expedition's strategic needs. Fringe hypotheses have included micro-black-hole evaporation thrusters and reactionless photon drives as viable propulsion methods, although neither has any direct observational support.
Among other equipments and crew, Elder Starships are also known to transport:
Variable Yield Nuclear Weapons. Thermonuclear or antimatter-catalyzed fusion devices of enormous yield. Observed to have been used with guided missiles during fleet engagements during the Foundation Conflicts.
Relativistic Kill Vehicles. 10-ton ballistic projectiles of tungsten-steel-cobalt alloy. A dense, radiation-hardened composite, launched at variable fractions of the speed of light. The Great Expedition is known to have been used them a few times against the Arrene Combine between -600 and 0 AdF. Preferred (or at least, in this instance) to fire from close-quarters up to a few hundred AU from planetary targets, likely as an intimidation tactic.
Relations
Largely neutral to foreign powers. Risk-averse (?), collectivist (?), curious (?). Seem to ignore technological civilizations below a certain threshold. Cautious on the edges of the Dominion.
Tried to annihilate the Arrene upon first contact, spared them (?).
Unknown fleet size. At least four Elder Starships stationed within the Dominion.
Unknown personnel size.
Unknown objectives and goals.
Unknown number of active friends or foes, at least one of each (?).
Uncertain civilization age and lifecycle (at least centuries, observed.)
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