History:

An intelligent species, the Brights on Corpco are the remnant of a once high technological civilization that existed concurrently with the Tetrarch Societies and appear to have been a client-species or a member of that ancient civilization. The Brights had colonized Corpco some 22,000 years ago, building an intricate web of cities with a total planetary population that numbered around 1 billion at its height.

When the Tetrarchs fell, the Scarlett Ghosts rampaged across the world, bringing death and destruction to the Brights. Many fell to the energy vampire-like creatures while cascading power outages and the collapse of their high-tech industries caused additional fatalities.

At some point, the more powerful of the Brights managed to corral the Scarlett Ghosts, banishing them or imprisoning them in a type of psychic cage, but at the cost of hundreds of lives per vampire. By the time this was done, their population had fallen to some 2,000 individuals, but only a quarter of which were of reproductive age.

The Brights entered a dark age, losing much of their history and technical knowledge. They eked out an existence on the planet. Although they are still omnivores – capable of draining the life force energy from animals and plants and even power sources – most Brights will only feast on energy from plants or microbes. They believe that the powers of their ancestors and the practice of absorbing energy from animals somehow unleashed the Scarlett Ghosts.

Society Notes:

Brights do have a concept of individuality, but because of the partial shared memories of their ancestors – given to them at birth – they have a strong communal concept. They live and work to support their communities.

Their “told stories” – if they were human, they would be called oral stories, but brights do not need to breathe and thus don’t have lungs, air sacs and do not usually use sound to communicate – tell of a time when their ancestors made great machines, had powers to sustain great communities and traveled the stars. They even had a written language at one time, courtesy of their “neighbors” (the Tetrarch Societies).

The brights long for a time when their race was united – at least according to stories – but now each community is run by its own its own leadership, whether it is a single leader or a council of elders.

In general, most brights do not try to fight each other, but they believe that they are a fallen race due to the arrogance of their ancestors and that has led to conflict between individuals and communities. One of the general tenants of most brights is that they will not feast off of the energy of animals and insects, but it is much easier to get concentrated energy from animals.

However, some brights have abandoned the dictates of the others and do feed off of animal and insect energy. These beings – called feasters – are ostracized by most communities, which is why they’ve started their own. Brights and feasters occasionally come into conflict, leading to battles and killings.

Relations with the Tribal Humans & Streel Colony

One thing that the normal brights and the feasters agree upon is that sentient beings are not food. When the original human colonists accidentally weakened the prison holding of the trapped Scarlett Ghosts, which nearly killed them all off, the brights banished it, but at a great loss of life.

For the most part, the brights and the feasters stay away from the tribal humans and Streel’s operations, though a few more curious types will observe them. Some feasters will even get a quick snack by draining power cells, parabatteries or tap into other Streel power sources.

The Malevolents

The brights and feasters have a criminal element too. Those that commit horrendous crimes such as feeding off of another bright or a sentient being are known as malevolents. The attacks of these criminals are why the tribal humans are confused whether the brights are good or evil creatures.