The Eccia

			Memory 118

The Eccia were an El-Aurian ethnicity and culture that dates back to the earliest eras of El-Aurian history. Warlike, elitist, and very driven toward technological advancement, during their prime they were a strongly matriarchal society that dominated the southwestern continent. Originally warriors of the vast steppe, they grew in size and power until, at the time of El-Auria’s assimilation by the Borg, they were one of the major powers in El-Aurian space - leading the planet in exploration, development, and in extraplanetary colonies.

Through the development of their transwarp network, they extended their hand over vast areas of space - but their ancient attitude of isolation largely stayed intact. They colonized and drained resources from inhabited worlds, simply bulldozing past any lesser species that proved to be an obstacle. With their long lives, creative drive, and bountiful resources, they surged into space early and continued to hold that lead, eventually leading to the bizarre flowering of their artistic military; the lack of true threats allowed them to become complacent and to simply assume their own superiority was guaranteed. This attitude of artistic war did not serve them well when the Borg arrived, and for all their robots and advanced technology, the Borg overtook them with ease. That their attitude of rivalry with their own El-Aurian brethren led to them assuming the attacks originated from there only made the Borg's assimilation easier.

To this day, however, their distinct style, focus on art and music, use of robotics, and the near universal use of cybernetics and body modification defines their culture for most who encountered their remnants.

Society

The Eccian tribes, once united under their founding conqueror El-Eccia, became a strictly matriarchal culture. Their society was fundamentally based around the Mother-Child relationship, with inheritance falling to the eldest daughter, followed by her eldest daughter, and so on. Eccians do not follow a system of monogamy - a strictly monogamous relationship was considered rare and a special case. Eccian women and men picked and chose their companions as they pleased, with all that mattered being a child’s relationship with their mother and family group.

Due to their incredibly long lifespan, Eccians in particular expressed their sexuality rarely; roughly every 50 years in an individual’s life would they experience a cycle and enter into a heightened state. Due to this, sexuality and physical expression were not inherently linked. Nudity in particular was not regarded with any special reverence, and it was not unusual for women to go topless alongside their male counterparts. Their lack of strong sexual overtones also allowed for a wide variety of body shapes to be celebrated in their art and popular culture.

Femininity is considered the default in their society, and it is celebrated; where some cultures show their might through brute strength, the Eccians preferred to show their strength through effortless grace. They valued aesthetics and artistic expression very highly, and these were integrated into everyday items and routines; dance, song and careful speech were fundamental skills needed to navigate their society.

Technology was also a fundamental part of their day-to-day lives, with cybernetics nearly universal and robotics used ubiquitously. It was considered natural to use technology to enhance and improve on their bodies; the only judgement came from the design and quality of the modifications. More privileged members of their society had access to more options. It was considered gauche to have ‘raw’ cybernetics visible; however, having a mostly inhuman body was considered artful if it met their standards for beauty.

Gender and Relationships

With most of their family structure centered around a female center, most Eccians grew up with a fairly ingrained idea of gender roles; women dominated, as they were naturally more thoughtful and insightful, and men served, as they were naturally more physical and impulsive. The dominance of mothers in society reinforced the Eccian ideal of power being that of a wise-woman, and by the end of their culture, the classical masculine roles had all but vanished. This meant most Eccian men were considered effeminate by other cultures, with them adopting the same arts and aesthetics as their wives, sisters and daughters.

However, the rising dissatisfaction caused by their structured society didn’t get the chance to be resolved; men were still culturally invisible when the Borg came to claim them.

Artistic Expression

The most common forms of artistic expression were based around poetry, music, dance, and 'figura' - a catch-all term for designing, painting, and creating objects such as fashion items, robots, statues, and so on.

Eccian dance was derived from a martial tradition and was based on a foundation of swift, elegant movement that was expected to appear as effortless as possible. As effortless grace was the ideal, dancers moved on the tips of their toes or balls of their feet, the style having a close resemblance to ballet. The advent of cybernetics allowed these dances to be refined further, with dancers turning on the smallest and most delicate of points. Folded into a martial tradition, these dances often featured leaps, kicks, and other feats.

Art Movements

The primary artistic style seen in the Eccia’s remaining technology and art was pioneered by a seminal figure in their history. Ezra the Dawnsinger was the 25th Daughter of Cantavi and the creator of some of their first robotics and ships, and her descendants have taken her ideas and blossomed them into an interstellar society. Her basic aesthetic principles formed the basis from which all other art movements followed.

Naturism Infantism Colorism

Military

The Eccian military was a massive and ancient institution, integrated with their space exploration, popular culture, and industrial systems. Originally beginning during their tribal eras, the military was once largely staffed by men and commanded by women. With the rise of robotics, however, their standing armies gave way to units of robots commanded by cybernetically enhanced soldiers.

By the fall of El-Auria, the military was led by the Arels, elite cybernetic warriors with their own legions and householders. The Arels served the Daughters directly, and each was cybernetically modified to the point that they were often simply left as a brain and partial spine with a fully cybernetic body. They were lauded in popular culture, each one styling themselves in one way or another and being considered role models. They carried epithets that were often chosen by themselves, but some were granted after significant victories.

The Daughter / Arel system was sometimes referred to as the ‘Three and Nine’. At the time of the Borg invasion, the standing Arels were:

Tenera	Venoja	Cantavi
Jalia Sunstorm (Status Unknown) Abyssborn Niyara (Assimilated) Blade-Breaker Usura (Assimilated)	Mistwalker Ysholta (Status Unknown) Rabari, Star-Speaker (Deceased) Havella the Silent Sister (Assimilated)	Abraxa the Sword-Singer (Deceased) Syrella and Syasta, the Rising and Setting Stars (Deceased and Assimilated, Respectively)

Robotics and Cybernetics

As a society with a long history of body modification, the Eccians had few moral hangups about replacing, modifying and changing their bodies as they saw fit. With the advent of robotics and cybernetics, this went to an entirely new level, becoming so ubiquitous that not having some sort of enhancement was considered odd and unusual. Despite this eager adoption of cybernetics, they kept strictly to their religious morals, and by El-Auria's assimilation, the laws regarding

Robot Rules

• Robots may contain artificial intelligence, but can never be made artificially sentient.
• Robots will always be subservient to their creators. They must obey them in all things.
• Robots’ owners are legally responsible for their possessions’ actions, purposeful or otherwise.
• Robots must be clearly robotic; creating exact duplicates of El-Aurians or other species is forbidden, as is trying to pass a robot off as a purely organic lifeform.
• Uploading a person’s personality or brain patterns to a robotic body is considered criminal, a form of desecrating the dead or trying to create artificial sentience.

Cybernetic Rules

• Cybernetics are to benefit the person they are given to.
• Cybernetics can not be placed into an unwilling patient, nor should they be added without the patient’s knowledge.
• The brain can be enhanced via cybernetics, but complete replacement constitutes a violation of life and should never be attempted.

Noteable Robots and AI Without a

Some robots, however, were well known and treated with a special reverence, either for their historical significance, their common useage, or simply their famous design. Some of these survived the Borg invasion.

• Descendants of Venoja
• Descendants of Tenera
• Descendants of Cantavi

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  Eccian Coda-Class Fighter

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  Eccian Obbligato-Class Sloop

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  Eccian Intoner-Class Dreadnought

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  Eccian Creation Tech

Notes

• The Eccia content is non-canon, and was created for UFOP SB118.
• Image sources for this article include Drakengard (©Take Two Interactive), StarCraft (©Blizzard Entertainment) and Magic the Gathering (©Wizards of the Coast)