Loremaster:
Jin The Blue
The Eyeguard are a nomadic species of cyborg raiders, believing the galaxy is theirs for the taking, and other species are nothing more than animals. Centuries ago the Eyeguard began augmenting themselves with cybernetics, eventually leading them to abandoning the vast majority of their original bodies in favor of mechanical shells with a select few organs. The dedication that led them to try and perfect their organic form, eventually turned to arrogance. They had ascended from apes, now they saw themselves as nearing or at perfection. Their naturally inflated egos caused the once united species to stick to small groups for survival.
Eyeguard Biology consists of two parts, the biological, and the mechanical. The biological portion of the Eyeguard looks like a squid, a central sack of organs with four tendrils trailing off. The tendrils are simply nerve clusters that run down into each limb of the cybernetic shell to help with spacial awareness. At the top of the organ sack is a soft skull containing a brain, and two large eyes. Each eye has two fovea, one round, and one a horizontal bar, this unique feature allows the Eyeguard to keep everything they see in equal focus, and enhancing their peripheral vision. Children are born by mixing samples of male and female DNA in a vat, allowing a spawn to grow until it's ready for it's cybernetic shell.
Most Eyeguard have similar shells, though an individual may choose to customize their body as they see fit. The general body looks like a thin humanoid with two large wings, usually no taller than six feet. The metal used is usually aluminum for the main chassis, and a flexible polymer for the wings. The head case usually has a thick visor, and a port to allow food and drink into the body. The shell is primarily battery powered, but can use the organic body's energy for auxiliary power. Eyeguard are natural flyers, reaching speeds of 64 kph unburdened, and 40 kph in their traditional armor, with excellent maneuverability, though they cannot hover. On the ground Eyeguard are rarely seen running, and are typically no stronger than an average human.
Eyeguard are generally nomadic, preferring to come to a system, stay only as long as it takes to gather what they need, then travel vast distances to hinder being tracked, though some groups have set up small ports to give other bands a temporary safe haven. A group of Eyeguard is a band, and they rarely grow beyond ten members before infighting causes the group to splinter. Often bands will meet up to trade, and socialize, but these larger groups are fleeting, and rarely last more than a week. There are three social classes of Eyeguard, Zealot, Raider, and Passive, which describe how willing an Eyeguard, or band are willing to tolerate non Eyeguard species, though even most Eyeguard find the labels to be at best over-generalizations. Zealots are fully dedicated to the belief in their own superiority, and that it is a god given right, never dealing with other species other than to dominate them. Raiders lie in a middle ground, believing themselves superior, but will trade with other species when necessary, and see pillaging as more a job and a necessity than a right or responsibility. Passives have given up on trying to assert themselves as superior, and don't mind other species, choosing instead to live in peace.
With how spread out the Eyeguard are in the galaxy, different pockets of culture have formed, and no two bands are exactly alike, however there are a few common threads that come from when they were a united people. The Eyeguard believe themselves to be a superior species to all others in the galaxy, often referring to other cultures as "meat", "weeds", or "scrap" and with that superiority comes believing they can pillage as they see fit, to them it is harvesting a field their ancestors or gods left them despite no evidence of this being the case. The belief in their superiority isn't all a justification to plunder, most Eyeguard attempt to live up to how they view themselves, striving to excellence in fields from cooking to mechanical engineering, to art, though few of their talents get noticed due to their secluded nature, and an inability to collaborate prevents them from making any significant advances in any field. A set of four deities, usually referred to as the dreadlords are also commonly worshiped, Viita God of life, Morrs God of death, Apparus God of machines, and Volatus God of flight. Usually an Eyeguard will choose a patron based on their profession, such as a doctor would follow Vitta, and pilot would follow Volatus.
3022-3283
"Reports of Eyeguard raids date back as far as widespread FTL, but it's difficult to say exactly how long ago the Eyeguard ascended to the cyborgs, but it's clear that not long after they had a dark age begun that they have yet to climb out of. The most reliable reports for dating the progression of the Eyeguard come from other species, as even if you manage to find an Eyeguard willing to talk to you, their accounts of history vary drastically. Anthropologists have discovered family trees that go back as for hundreds of generations, claiming Eyeguard were always space fairing, and a few reports of individuals claiming to be the first generation of augmented Eyeguards, though these claims were quickly deemed as false." -The Eyeguard Menace, by Samuel Lennu
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Raids of beings that can be agreed upon as Eyeguards date back to at least the start of the 31st century, but the first recorded interaction with a peaceful Eyeguard was in the year 3058, when an Eyeguard appointed himself pope of a glitch colony. His reign was short however as not long after a band of Eyeguard destroyed the village in an effort to purify their species. Similar reports pop up throughout history, seemingly whenever an Eyeguard rises to any notoriety with other species, other Eyeguard come in to "fix the mistake".
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While the time of their ascension is still a mystery, there is a general consensus on how the Eyeguard came to the shape they take today. The Eyeguard developed Cybernetics initially as prosthetics, as their people were constantly willing to fight, but rarely killed their own. The first Eyeguards that were fully dependent on cybernetics came to be, roughly 150 years before the species achieved FTL, as victims of so many battles they realized that repairing a cybernetic part was far less traumatic than the initial injury that the cybernetic replaced. 123 years before FTL the first modern Eyeguard were built and begun the technological and cultural revolution that would see the Eyeguard shoot into space, and drift apart as a species.