Virgon

Named after their believed origin in the Virgo cluster, possibly the giant galaxy M87 itself, the Virgon are a homogenizing swarm entity that consumes everything in their path. With the sole, unshakable goal of making everything copies of themselves, they have no regard for diplomacy, sapience, or what they might destroy in the process. They came to power during the Diaspora, when the cerevate races were 'distracted', failing to notice their growth.

They make no use of neural networks, though the swarm makes use of other evolving and AI mechanisms, such as genetic programming and other techniques. Though powerful and quite direct, this appears to limit them to currently understood ideas, as if, after discovering and analyzing the inflaton, no more needed to be known. Someone built, or designed, the full set of computers and machines that the Virgon would possibly need, from harvesters, to stargates, to warships in the event they encountered a power hostile to their end. They gained the capability to construct blackgates relatively early, and it is through these that they menace the Universe, and why they became such an immense threat in so short a time period.

They communicate, but are not regarded as sapient per se. Intensely xenophobic, they expect their neighboring star systems to behave according to their own protocols. If they do not, invasion is triggered, whether the star simply has not yet undergone conversion, or simply that it is already consumed, but for one reason or another is displaying aberrant behavior. Their lack of neural networks prevents them from considering novel ideas, and they have no means in which to explain Regalia. Those of the swarm that encounter them, then, are considered aberrant if they survive the encounter, and many will simply self-destruct, coming to the conclusion that they have been damaged.

While cerevates and their toys play a key role in suppressing the Virgon, their numbers are too limited to make a significant impact on their own. Instead, they focus on rescuing vulnerable sapiences, shutting down blackgates, and establishing colonies - typically under the control of a wing of the Concord, to secure those stars that have access to black holes. Those capable of intergalactic travel - a few thousand in each galaxy - have the highest priority in this regard. Those with second-highest priorities are near rescued sapiences in infested galaxies. Third are those in fringe galaxies that the swarm has not completely infested. In this manner, the Virgon are constrained and hemmed in. Thus begins the slow, arduous process of exterminating their influence in a galaxy, often one or two at a time.

• See System conversion