Hyperspace and the Xylan

The Kwa and Gree both improved upon the Celestial hyperspace wormhole generator. The Gree created their famous 'Hypergates,' large arcs that contained a wormhole generator, and the Kwa created 'Infinity Gates,' so named because it is said that they could be used to create an infinite amount of energy due to hypermatter annihilator. It is also believed that the Kwa, and possibly the Gree, developed what would become known as the moden hyperdrive.

A modern hyperdrive is like a hyperspace wormhole except the ends of the wormhole roll up on each other in such a way that it creates a bubble allowing a ship to slip through hyperspace along a somewhat stable corridor. These are fairly easy to make, if one knows how, and it is likely that both the Kwa and the Gree, and maybe even the Celestials and other races could build them, however, they were just not useful. Navi-computers or hyperspace beacons are almost essential for navigation using a hyperdrive. This creates a strange paradox: in order to have a properly working navi-computer, you need vast amounts of data from repeated hyperspace expeditions and a powerful computer, but to find stable hyperspace routes to collect this data, one requires a functioning navi-computer. This is why, historically, it has taken thousands of years for civilization to spread across the galaxy. Another option would have been to use hyperspace beacons, however, with constantly shifting nebulae and stars, one would have to know of an idea location for the beacon, again requiring hyperspace experience.

It is thought that because of this, the Kwa and Gree only used these devices to find new worlds to set up Hypergates or Infinity Gates on. One way that the Gree used this technology was to create the 'Tumble Hyperdrive,' this is a model, used on many planets, that used a series of quick, short jumps instead of staying in hyperspace for a long time. Because of this, they were slow and dangerous. However, the Gree were able to expand somewhat by using their advanced computing systems to calculate the probabilities of all jumps.

The Kwa took a much different approach. They created a hyperdrive that could be operated with the Force. Using the Force, a Kwa could pinpoint worlds strong in the Force and travel there. This technology was taken up and used by the Rakata.

Rakatan Contributions and Galactic Discovery:

The Rakatan were infamous for creating, or at least improving upon a hyperdrive model that required the Force to operate. Through the Force, one can influence the behavior of subatomic particles in a reaction thereby steering the entire system one way or the other. They used this as a sort of 'key' to prevent their slave races from accessing the hyperdrive.

A Rakatan pilot would then reach out in the Force and locate a world with a strong Force signature. The hyperdrive would then make kick in and the ship would go through a series of short jumps to reach its destination. Using this method, the Rakata were able to spread across the Galaxy, but their Infinite Empire was relatively thin as only Force rich worlds could be accessed.

However, unlike the Kwa, the Rakata did not set up Infinity Gates or any other type of instantaneous transport technology, as the Kwa were able to destroy their most precious technology before it could fall into Rakatan hands. As a result, the Rakata were forced to traverse the Galaxy using only their hyperdrives. After thousands of years of trial and error, they had collected a vast library of data on the nature of hyperspace. Using this data, ships were set with coordinates for ease of travel.

As is to be expected, the Rakata came across several remains of the ancient Celestials. As most Celestial technology had been destroyed during the War in Heaven (circa. 100,000 BBY) or during the Cosmic War (circa. 80,000 BBY) what they found were mostly fragments. However, it is believed that they were able to discover some mostly intact remains of ancient Celestial Cosmic Turbines, but the Rakata, even with armies of slaves, were unable to recreate a labor force great enough to construct these monstrosities. There is also considerable evidence that they took an interest in the Corellian System, specifically in the strange leftover pieces of hyperspace technology stored inside, such as the deactivated Centerpoint Station.

However, as discussed before in passing, the Rakata eventually fell and the races who were once slaves took over and modified their technology. The species that made the greatest contributions were the fanatical and mysterious Xylan.

The Xylan:

When the Celestials were in power, they would often separate slave species based on inherited attributes. For them, the Killik made the central workforce, the Kwa and Ahra Naffi were used as Force sensitive servants, and the Gree and sometimes Bith were used as technological researchers. This division made sense as the Gree and Bith have unusually high intellectual abilities when it comes to mathematics and spatial visualizations. The Rakata kept up this same general division of labor except that they used different species as the ones that the Celestials enslaved were not available.

To create an army of Force sensitives, all the Rakata had to do was harvest Force sensitive individuals from their preexisting slave races. However, when creating a species of engineers, the Rakata decided to create a new species entirely- hence, the Xylan. It is unknown what species was used as the genetic base as almost nothing has been gathered on their genetic makeup. However, we do know that they were humanoid and very tall.

The Rakatan designed them to emphasize mathematical and technical abilities. However, their mental faculties were sufficiently developed in the areas of pattern recognition and they were known for their abilities to understand and empathize with other species as well. It is thought that the Rakatan specifically engineered their brains to be receptive to other species for the purpose of commanding slaves. However, while they were known for their psychological empathy, the Xylan were not known to have any emotional empathy at all. In fact, it seems as if they were designed to have no emotions whatsoever outside of faint intellectual feelings. It is thought that they were designed this way. The Rakata likely did not want them to understand others, but not to let any emotional attachments interfere with their work- after all, they were designed to handle slaves and create weapons. The Rakata probably also valued a lack of emotions in their engineers as it turned them into almost living machines devoted to cold logic and calculations.

The Xylan were put in charge of much of the Rakatan tech in the final days of the Empire. One of their main duties was to develop and categorize all Celestial technology in the hopes of one day recreating their terrifying superweapons. However, the Xylan ran into a problem. While experimenting with controlling and predicting slave masses, the Xylan developed a technique known as Mathematical Psychoeconomics. This technique would later go on to be used and perfected by the Bith Sith Lord Darth Tenebrous, but the Xylan were the first ones to experiment with it. Psychoeconomics combines their skills in mathematics (specifically probability theory and calculus) with their empathic and pattern recognizing skills. Using these abilities, they were able to develop several laws and formulas for predicting group and economic behavior on a large scale. The Xylan were excited and planed to use it on the Rakata themselves.

Mathematical Psychoeconomics:

Psychoeconomics (also called Psychohistory) is based upon analyzing a species or population to determine specific basic psychological conditions. These conditions are then applied as hypothesis which are tested upon general groups to try to predict basic principles of group behavior. When these principles are found, they are calculated against the group's history. Statistical data is gathered and generalized until the psychoeconomists have a concise set of psychological and sociological theories for said experimental population. These are traced up throughout history and into the future where it is used to predict large scale group behavior.

The Xylan studied Rakatan history looking for principles of their psychology and sociological behavior en masse, then they tested several of these hypotheses on their past economic interplays. What they found was shocking. According to their data, the Rakatan Infinite Empire would soon come to a collapse. It was too late to do anything about it, not to mention the fact that the Xylan did not particularly like the illogical and emotional nature of the savage Rakata, so instead the Xylan focused upon securing their research for their own more logical and calculating species- as it had better odds in the long run. As a result, Project Iokath was born.

Project Iokath:

Project Iokath centered around building a large metal sphere around a small star, named Iokath. This was the first and only known instance of a Dyson sphere being successfully created. The Dyson sphere was a hypothetical construct named after by an ancient Coruscanti physicist. It consists of a massive enclosure containing a small star. The star's mass and energy are then used as a fuel source for further construction.

The Xylan were able to recreate much of the technology of the Star Forge, setting up mass harvesting stations all along the star's surface- a design similar to the 'Sun Razors' used by the Sith Empire later on. This mass was then used to build outward. However, these stations were not just used as miniature Star Forge factories, as they contained vast libraries containing all technical information gathered from the Rakata and Celestials. This was known as Project Iokath, an attempt to preserve the knowledge and means to recreate a galactic society after the fall of civilization.

Sure enough, the Rakata fell leaving the Xylan alone to work on their classified projects. Iokath was built around a small and insignificant star in the Unknown Regions bordering on what would come to be known as Wild Space. The Xylan used psychoeconomics to predict that in this location they wouldn't be bothered for at least another ten thousand years. However, despite having very little use for emotions, they were a very logical species and sought to maximize the longevity of their species. To this end, they again used psychoeconomics on themselves and the surrounding galactic landscape.

What they discovered was that the best course of action would be to simply not expand. The Rakata and other species that came before were expansionist which resulted in their demise. The Xylan reasoned that they could just hideout in unknown space for an indefinite and theoretically infinite length of time to avoid being conquered by provoking a more deadly species. A second consequence is that they came to believe that the inevitable downfall of all civilizations is the process of decay caused by successive generations. The motivation of each generation, they believed, was to expand and make a name for their age in a glorious war. If there was no external enemy, they would seek to fix problems in their own society rather than turning outwards. This resulted in civil unrest, annoying protests, and class and generational strife. To combat this, this Xylan agreed to simply have less offspring. Additionally, the Xylan invested heavily in technology to greatly extend their life spans unnaturally via gene splicing and cybernetics. In all, they evolved into a fiercely conservative technocracy.

However, there was one final threat that they predicted facing, and that was an unexpected species quickly advancing in technological knowledge faster than predicted. To counter outliers like this thus guaranteeing their species eternal immortality, the Xylan continued to experiment on creating the most varied and efficient superweapons possible, their end goal being the creation of an unstoppable and fully autonomous droid army. Alone, for thousands of years, they developed this technology while the Republic was in its infancy.


Author's Note: Maybe I can finally finish this thing now.