The xenological community had maintained for two centuries that humanity was the galaxy's only spacefaring intelligence — a position supported by the complete absence of confirmed contact and the convenient implication that human factions did not need to model their expansion policies around anyone else's interests. The wormhole network's activation complicated this position within the first month.
Three distinct non-human civilisations have been confirmed reachable through newly opened wormhole corridors. The Vel'Kara — insectoid hive-minds operating in a cluster of eleven systems in the deep outer rim — had been aware of human expansion for at least two centuries and had been waiting, with what human xenologists describe as 'studied patience,' for a diplomatic contact that had not been forthcoming due to transit limitations. The patience appears to have worn thin. Their first formal communication was a precise inventory of human ships that had entered their territorial boundaries without acknowledgment, dating back to 2291. The list was long.
The Tharyn Compact, a loose alliance of six worlds whose biology is silicon-based and whose communication operates on electromagnetic frequencies that standard human sensors classify as background noise, became aware of the wormhole network's activation before any human faction did. Their response was a hardware modification to several wormhole corridor access points — modifications that have not been removed and whose function has not been determined. When asked, the Compact replied in a frequency range that Terran linguists are still working to parse.
The third contact, the entity catalogued as Deep-9, does not appear to be a civilisation in any conventional sense. It occupies a system accessible through Corridor 7-Alpha and has responded to all faction approach attempts with precisely calibrated electromagnetic pulses that disable ship systems non-destructively. Researchers note that the pulse patterns contain structured data. Nobody has decoded them yet. The Void Syndicate has declined to share whether they have.
Connected Entities
Related Codex Entries
The Wormhole Network
In 2387, simultaneous activation of seven Precursor relay stations opened stable wormhole corridors connecting 400 star systems — a discovery that ended the post-war stalemate and started the Expedition Age.
The Expedition Age
2387 marks the dawn of the Expedition Age — the greatest era of exploration in human history, driven by the wormhole network, Precursor relic fever, and the quiet certainty that something important is about to be decided.
The Precursors
Fifty millennia before humanity reached the stars, a civilisation of incomprehensible capability seeded the galaxy with structures, hyperspace lanes, and a silent judgment.