The Elders of Krystallos

Patience is the only virtue. A flaw is a life’s regret made manifest.

Core Concept

The Elders are the orthodox heart of Krystallos society. They are not a formal political body, but a collective of the oldest and most revered individuals, whose shells are magnificent, near-perfect libraries of millennia of quiet contemplation. They are the guardians of the “Unbroken Song,” the living arbiters of their society’s slow, patient, and unwavering faith in permanence.

Species

• Primary: Krystallos (exclusively). One cannot join the Elders; one becomes an Elder through age, wisdom, and the slow, perfect crystallization of a life well-lived.

Ideology (Faith / Fiction)

• Core Faith: “The Unbroken Song is the Only Path.” Their worldview is one of absolute conservatism. They believe that the only path to collective transcendence is through the slow, meticulous, and unbroken growth of the shell. Change is a form of impurity. Haste is a form of violence. A perfect life is one of serene, uneventful, and perfect growth.

• Core Fiction: “The Myth of the Flawed Mountain.” Their most potent cautionary tale is the story of a legendary ancestor who, in a moment of impatient pride, tried to accelerate their growth, resulting in a shell of immense size but with a single, catastrophic internal flaw. When their time came to join the Unbroken Song, their dissonant note shattered the harmony, setting the entire species back by an aeon. This story is used to justify their resistance to any form of change or innovation.

Goals & Motivations

• To guide the younger generations on the path of slow, patient growth.
• To protect the sacred groves where they gather to resonate in chorus.
• To violently oppose any internal or external force that threatens the purity and integrity of their shells, which they see as a threat to their very soul and the future of their species.

Relations with Other Factions

• Fractal-Shatter Cult: Anathema and Horror. They see the Cult not as a youth rebellion, but as an epidemic of insane, suicidal self-desecration. They view the Cult’s philosophy as a terrifying blasphemy that threatens to shatter the Unbroken Song forever.
• Ephemera: Cosmic Noise. They perceive the frantic, short-lived Ephemera as a form of biological static, a meaningless chaos that is best ignored.
• Off-world Miners / Artisans: A Grave Threat. They see anyone who views their shells as a “resource” with the same horror that a human would view a surgeon who sees their child as a collection of harvestable organs.