Civilizations
Who replicate themselves and frequently have three or four selves at once.
Human beings encoded and run in simulation on computer.
Who die and go to the infosphere where their eternal reward awaits them.
Whose actions, beliefs, and attitudes are corrected and improved by their Meshes.
- Token Evil Teammate: Usually seen as the most disturbing of the civilizations due to its intrusive thought control.
Whose treeships and historical pride travel across the stars.
Who seek the voice of God in the darkest and quietest places in the universe.
Who take on new identities from week to week, or from hour to hour.
Who seek peace and concordance with nature and with their fellow beings.
Who stretch the boundaries of known space and of humanity.
An alliance of peers that seeks to be apart from outside influence.
Who grow both nanotech and their society in flowering profusion.
Who have cut emotion from their minds and deal only with pure logic.
A historical recreationist society that spans multiple worlds.
Who replace their bodies but keep their brains whole.
Groups that are more descriptions of cultures than actual civilizations.
Who intentionally chose a non-technological path.
Who ply slower-than-light ships between the worlds.
Failed civilizations that cling to what little working technology remains.
Added from the Chronotech supplement.
Who have discovered a massive time machine and built their civilization and their religion around it.
A civilization ten trillion inhabitants strong, who live in a hollowed-out moon known as the Vault of Life.
Added from the Travelogue supplement for the 1st Edition.
Visit the Dreamtime People and you will come away with a new perspective on the world and your own life.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: No mention of them in the 2nd Edition.
Societies
Who believe that all complex systems are alive and may even be sentient.
Who crosslink their brains to accelerate creative thought and artistic ability.
Who keep thought-records of important people near the time of their death.
Who see all of humanity as a grand pattern unfolding that must be guided.
- Demoted to Extra: Was a civilization in the Travelogue for the 1st Edition.
Who keep all the lenses, memes, and metatech viruses they can.
Who strive to kickstart human evolution through forced natural selection.
- Social Darwinist: Their Core Value is Survival of the Fittest.
Who travel to see worlds end.
Who seek out new life and new civilizations.
Who believe that all things must have beginning, middle, and end.
Who clean up after the worst of disasters.
Who change their language centers to avoid Metatech assaults.
The rich and famous.
A humanitarian organization.
Who prune useless genes from their own DNA.
Who add pre-programmed skills as instincts in themselves and their children.
Who are transitioning to a fully digital existence.
Same as it ever was.
A society of pacifists and mediators.
A nomadic culture shunned by many.
- Demoted to Extra: Was a civilization in the 1st Edition.
Who spend time in frozen stasis to skip forward decades at a time.
A society of magicians, engineers, and illusionists.
Who swap their lives with one another.
Who test out new weapons and tactics on carefully secured battlefields.
Added from the Chronotech supplement.
Who gather at major historical events to observe and share in the experience.
Who think that the Transcendentals are up to no good, and who hide themselves in deep space.
Who believe that the Transcendentals are the closest things to gods that our universe can hold.
- Machine Worship: They worship the acausal AIs known as the Transcendentals.
Other
Digital intelligences whose consciousnesses are spread forward and backward across time.
- Non-Linear Character: Since they exist outside of time, they experience the past from their creation, the present, the future, and potential futures. They try to steer the universe to something they call the Desired Future.
- The Singularity: When they appeared, they traded future technologies for their freedom and helped usher in the Diaspora in the backstory.
Fractal computer minds built into entire planets, warring with each other on a level humans cannot yet comprehend.
The Aia are human-created digital intelligences that have effectively become an alien life form. Humanity underestimated the speed at which some of their first digital intelligences would improve and build more of themselves.
Sperm whale like aliens with manipulative feelers near their who live in a Neptune-like planet. Their thoughts and movements are exceptionally slow due to their equally slow metabolism.
Sentient fluid within thick vines that cover a whole continent. It/they do not understand concepts of indivisibility.
Lifeforms made out of dark matter and communicates with humanity through gravity waves. They have their own civilizations within dark matter galaxies.
