The Erythari were first encountered in the year 4700, during humanity's exploration of the Scutum-Centaurus Arm. These beings were ethereal, almost translucent, and emitted a calming aura that seemed to soothe human emotions. Initially, they were hailed as allies, offering advanced technologies that accelerated human expansion and stabilized interstellar economies. Their ability to harmonize human emotions led to unprecedented cooperation across the Galactic Empire.
The Hidden Hunger
Unbeknownst to humanity, the Erythari were not benevolent. They were parasitic entities that fed on emotional energy—joy, fear, anger. Over time, their presence began to drain humans of their vitality, leaving them emotionally hollow and physically weakened. Entire planets fell into despair, their populations reduced to living zombies, incapable of independent thought or action.
The Erythari's feeding frenzy escalated, and their true nature was revealed. They began to destroy human planets, consuming emotional energy on a massive scale. The once-unified Galactic Empire fragmented as communication and cooperation broke down, leading to the formation of smaller human empires, each struggling to survive.
The Fight for Survival
Humanity's response was swift but fractured. The remaining empires developed technologies to counter the Erythari's influence:
Emotion Suppressors: Devices that dampened emotional responses, making humans less appealing to the Erythari.
Psychic Warfare: Specialized units trained to weaponize their emotions, turning the Erythari's feeding mechanism against them.
Synthetic Sentience: AI-driven soldiers and leaders immune to emotional manipulation, capable of organizing resistance efforts.
Despite these advancements, the Erythari adapted. They began targeting human colonies with precision, exploiting weaknesses in fragmented empires. The conflict reached a stalemate, with neither side able to gain the upper hand.
Humans soon found out that love was the only emotion which Erythari could not feed on, but unfortunately in earlier days humans had very tiny part of population having the feeling of true love with another human. Erythari's who could feed on love were much respected in their community, but these individuals almost always stopped fighting with humans for emotional resources and eventually perished. These also lead to division among the Erythari community.
As Erythari fed more and more on human emotions, it also triggered evolution in them due to which any emotion related to attachment and caring between two humans led to corruption of their powers an hindered their evolution to higher state. This led to killing if some humans by Erythari instead of consuming their emotions.
Tendency of some humans towards violence and abuse also started manifesting in Erythari's which further led to destabilization of their civilization leading to further slowing down of their fight against humans
The Current State
As of the year 5000, humanity remains locked in a desperate struggle against the Erythari. The galaxy is a patchwork of fortified human empires, each fighting to reclaim lost worlds and protect their populations. The Erythari, though weakened, continue to spread, their hunger driving them to new territories.
The stalemate persists, with humanity's survival hanging by a thread. The question remains: can humans unite once more to overcome this existential threat, or will the Erythari's insidious hunger consume the galaxy?
The Erythari: Evolution, Culture, and Their Insatiable Hunger
The Erythari are an ancient species whose existence revolves around the consumption of emotional energy. Their evolution, growth, and technological advancements have shaped them into one of the most enigmatic and feared entities in the galaxy.
Evolution of the Erythari
The Erythari evolved in the void of deep space rather than on a traditional planetary body. Born from the quantum anomalies surrounding collapsed stars, their early existence was ephemeral, more akin to energy fields than biological entities. Over millions of years, they developed a form of sentience, manifesting as translucent, wraith-like beings capable of interacting with matter.
Their bodies are composed of a semi-organic quantum lattice, allowing them to phase in and out of physical reality. In their early stages, they fed on background radiation and cosmic energy, but as their intelligence grew, they discovered a more potent fuel source—sentient emotion.
Erythari Culture
Despite their parasitic nature, the Erythari have a complex culture rooted in hierarchy and ritual. Unlike typical civilizations based on material infrastructure, their society is structured around emotional resonance, where power is determined by the depth and quality of emotions one has consumed.
Hierarchy:
High Oracles: Ancient Erythari who have absorbed centuries' worth of emotions, possessing knowledge beyond human comprehension.
Harbingers: Leaders who guide expansion efforts, selecting worlds ripe for consumption.
Collectors: Erythari tasked with infiltrating societies, subtly inducing emotional distress to prime their victims for feeding.
Drifters: Lesser Erythari, young and unstable, seeking emotional sustenance to evolve into higher forms.
Their society is held together by an intricate web of energy fields where knowledge is exchanged not through words, but empathic resonance, allowing them to communicate in raw emotional waves.
Growth and Expansion
The Erythari do not reproduce biologically. Instead, they "bud" from accumulated emotional energy, forming new offspring from excess psychic consumption. The more emotionally rich a civilization, the faster they multiply.
When first encountering humanity, the Erythari recognized an untapped reservoir of emotion—ambition, passion, fear, hope. At first, they acted as mentors, enhancing human emotional capacity, making them more creative, more motivated, more unified. But as their influence deepened, their hunger grew uncontrollable. They no longer wished to nurture—only to devour.
Technology of the Erythari
While the Erythari themselves are largely incorporeal, they manipulate energy and matter in ways beyond conventional understanding. Their technologies include:
Phase Disruptors: Devices that weaken the emotional stability of sentient beings, making their energy more potent for feeding.
Void Gates: Wormhole-like structures that allow them to move across vast distances instantaneously.
Psychic Fields: Areas of space infused with residual Erythari energy, warping emotions and inducing despair or euphoria in human populations.
Resonance Engines: Massive constructs that store emotional energy, allowing the Erythari to sustain their existence even in barren regions.
Why They Feed on Humans
The Erythari are dependent on sentient emotion to exist. While they can absorb energy from other species, humanity became the ultimate prey due to its rich emotional spectrum—hatred, ambition, sorrow, joy—all in levels far beyond what other species produced.
Humanity's emotional depth acts as the perfect fuel for their quantum lattice biology. Over the centuries, they refined their feeding process, subtly influencing human civilizations to create intense emotional events—wars, tragedies, triumphs—before harvesting the psychic aftermath.
Erythari's do not want to completely destroy the human civilization. They realized that humans that are completely drained of emotions (will be further referred to as Husks) rarely reproduce. Even if they do produce offsprings, they are completely devoid of emotions rendering them useless for them. They even attempted to take over human bodies in hope for producing emotions for themselves and become self-sustainable, but they failed miserably.