We represent the new future of humanity. Deal with it. -Binadamu Madora
A Xai'athi commander
The Xai'athi (Homo sapiens invicta) are a race of abhumans living in the Perseus Arm of the galaxy, to the galactic south of the Imperium of Man. They are a race of hyper-violent, technosavants, who escaped possible enslavement at the hands of the Eldar. The confederation of human worlds during the Dark Age of Technology refused to allow the Xai'athi to join them out of fear of the abhumans, and the Xenos surrounding them attempted to annihilate the young race out of spite of their new neighbors. Their hatred for all things not of their kind goes beyond irrational, and they have been responsible for many genocides and wars in the past millennia. After the Xyon Crusade, the Xai'athi discovered a new target to channel their hatred into; the Imperium of Man. Why the Xai'athi are so bitter toward all life outside of their borders has been the one question many have been unable to answer.
Currently, they are lead by Binadamu Madora, known as the Mtawala. He led them to regional hegemony early on in their history, and created the Xyon Directorate, one of the largest empires not yet crushed by the Imperium. It has dominated the southern half of the Perseus Arm for the past 30,000 years, and presents a continuous threat to the Imperium. To avoid getting into a violent conflict with the abhumans, and decimate the surrounding space, the Imperium opted to simply quarantine Xai'athi space until a more effective way of dealing with them is found.
History
I spread unity and peace through science and understanding. Whether or not you agree, I am a progessive, not a murderous madman. -Binadamu Madora
Creation
The history of the Xai'athi can be traced back to late M12, following the goal of their creator, Binadamu Madora, to force the evolution of humanity. He was determined to further the evolution of mankind, and free them of their debilitating sicknesses, inhance their intelligence, and generally, make them stronger, faster, and smarter than ever before. He presented these plans to the scientific community, and did so expecting the full support of "like-minded individuals". His ideas, however, for such a plan was met with heavy ostracism, and his scientific career was completely shattered following the events of his first genetic experiments on live humans, which saw him and his hand-full of followers fleeing Terra for their lives. Upon their arrival on the post-nuclear world of Epsilon Eridani in 335.M12, Binadamu began to fully convert the survivors of the planet's devestating war, and began his work again on pushing the limits of human endurance and intelligence, and later that year, the Xai'athi were born. Though they were not the first Xai'athi (as Binadamu and his friend were the first and greatest), they were nonetheless the basis of which all later Xai'athi would be measured.
Immediately following the creation of the Xai'athi, Binadamu began preparations for a new war that would see to it that all of the planet's inhabitants were brought into their new race of abhumans. The benefits of this were simple; All humans would have their base physical stats at peak condition, and had a new gland that would produce stems cells that would rebuild loss limbs and other vital body parts in a matter of days or weeks. It should be noted that the Xai'athi then were much different from those seen today. They possessed no cybernetic inhancements, no genetic modifications, and no non-human features. They were completely indentical to normal humans, with the exception that they were far superior in every way. This would be the deciding factor in the coming years, as Binadamu launched what would later become known as the Glorious Campaign, in which he unified Epsilon Eridani under one flag. However, his reign and the Xai'athi new peace would be interrupted by a force not of their home-world.
First Contact
Following the events of the Glorious Campaign, Binadamu set about planning for the development of new government that was to drive his plans of forcing humanity's evolution, leaving the management of the newly conquered territories under the competent leadership of his close friends. In 341.M12, as the Xai'athi were busy rebuilding their home-world, the colony ship known as the Light Seeker, hailing from the Eldar Empire to the galactic north, landed on Epsilon Eridani. The Xai'athi took no note of this up until they discovered huge amounts of activity taking place far from settled lands. A delegation was sent to the colony of the race known as the Sctha, after it was made known that they were a peaceful race, though, this was the commonly believe fact at the time. The Sctha spoke to the delegation, showed them around the colony, and gave them gifts as a form of future brotherhood, all the while planning to enslave the the unsuspecting Xai'athi. The group returned to a jublient Binadamu, who had called on Nassor Kurenga and Sayomi Ikeda, his two closest friends, to make plans for the new state he finally finished planning. A year later, as the Sctha made plans for their surprise attack on the Xai'athi, Binadamu formally founded the Xyon Directorate, which was to be the driving force behind his plans for the future.
As the Xai'athi celebrated their new nation, the Sctha set about preparing for their assault on the hapless abhumans. They were created to serve as slaves to Eldar, but for reasons unknown, were rounded up and exiled from Eldar space. Their plans were to do to the Xai'athi were the Eldar had planned for the Sctha, and create a race of slaves and return to the Eldar Empire one day. From the time of the creation of Xyon, up until 357.M12, the Sctha bided their time, and finally made their move. In mid-357.M12, as the Xai'athi went about their business, the Sctha's first strike was directed toward attacked the home city of Sayomi Ikeda, whom they had identified as a high-ranking official of the Directorate, and saught to kill her to weaken the chain-of-command of the embryonic military of the Xai'athi (she had also been identified as Binadamu's lover, and this was also done with the hope of drawing him out). She escaped though, and warned the others of the strike, thus leading to the preparation for the First Eldar Conflict (called so as the Sctha referred to themselves as such, not yet identifying themselves as Sctha). At the same time, they struck at seventeen other sites all across Epsilon Eridani, dividing the military's attention, and thinning their forces.
Already more advanced than the Xai'athi could even dream, the Sctha easily swept aside the forces of the Xai'athi, and made way for Eridani City, were Binadamu resided. As the Sctha mowed down defence after defence, Nassor and his militia, along with several other military divisions, gathered at the Fields of Fire, gaining it's namesake for the plumes of fire that engulfed the radioactive plains. The battle was quick and bloody, as the Xai'athi lured the Sctha armies into the fields, and let the radiation (which the Xai'athi were immune too), do the killing for them. However, the Sctha soon caught on to the Xai'athi's tricks, and sent in titans to stomp out their forces. The Sctha slaughtered the fleeing Xai'athi, enslaving those whom they captured, and slowing advancing on the Xai'athi force. As they did so, Nassor called on a relic of the pre-war ruins, a hydrogen bomb that decimated the Sctha army. The remnents of the enemy force fell back to the hills further away to recoop and push back. The Xai'athi victory was the first, and would be for a long time. The Sctha defeated the Xai'athi military quickly in the ensuing years, and even captured Binadamu and Sayomi in 367.M12, in the failed attempt to attack the Sctha capital of Nua. Nassor escaped the carnage, but vowed to return and save Binadamu and Sayomi.
Enslavement & Resistence
Binadamu's capture in the capital did not go well for weakened and demoralized Xai'athi forces, fighting a far superior force. The Xai'athi were far stronger in terms of numbers and physical strength, but as far as technology and tactics went, they were outstripped at every possible angle. By 370.M12, 95% of the Xai'athi population (some 716 million people), had been enslaved by the Sctha. The Sctha managed this through the usage of powerful psychic amplifiers that allowed them to subjugate the minds of the still somewhat psychically attuned Xai'athi. This enslavement left an imprint on the minds of the majority of the race, giving them a burning hatred toward the Sctha, and later on in their history, the Eldar. Only a year after Binadamu and Sayomi are captured, Nassor returns to them, and free them in an elaborate and stunning display of ingenuity. He was a psychic null, and the use of a cloaking device, simply walked into the prison compound were his friends were being held. The Sctha's inability to detect him was further inhanced by the fact that he had hidden his aura as well, something he had discovered the Sctha were making use of during the war. The trio and a number of high-ranking commanders broke out of their holding cells, and escaped into the wilderness, the Sctha unable to keep after them. Following the escape, the remaining Xai'athi founded the Free Xyon Army, and began their insurrection against the occupying Sctha invaders.
Combating the Sctha forces was a victory in and of itself, as the now dilapitated Xai'athi military was made up of those who had not been enslaved by the enemy, and weaponry was a rare acquisition, that is to say, whatever the Sctha hadn't confiscated yet. For the next thirty years, Binadamu, Nassor, and Sayomi lead their armies against the Sctha during the insurrection, blowing up mining facilities, freeing Xai'athi slaves, assaulting strategically important bases and settlements belonging to the Sctha, and assassinating influential leaders within the enemy hierarchy. Needless to say, the Sctha reaction to the attacks lead to the deaths of countless thousands of Xai'athi, and the few massive battles fought between the two forces, saw several parts of Epsilon Eridani rendered uninhabitable as the Sctha's advanced technology sterilized portions of the planet, and the Xai'athi used ancient nuclear warheads to do what their primitive technology and scant numbers could not. During the Fifth Battle of Eridani City, thirty-two nuclear weapons were detonated all across the massive city-fortress, and several hundreds of thousands of combatants sent into the fray to capture the city. Such battles saw the deaths of countless millions of Xai'athi. As the war continued, the Xai'athi had finally developed a weapon powerful enough to deal the fatal blow saught after for so many years.
In 398.M12, Binadamu and Sayomi had been studying the biological makeup of the Sctha, while Nassor had been developing new weaponry for the Xai'athi guerrilla fighters. During one such study, Sayomi stumbled upon a genetic flaw in the Sctha's DNA. It was determined that the flaw was some sort of kill-switch developed by some unknown force (the Eldar), to kill the host in the event that they ever turned on their creator. While it was unknown at the time that the Eldar were the creators, the switch was undoubtedly the ace the Xai'athi needed to secure their freedom. The Xai'athi had no idea how to activate it naturally, they did come up with another way of doing so. Nassor had developed nanites for construction and medicinal purposes many years ago, but the Sctha invasion had disrupted his progress. During the course of the war, Nassor was able to militarize them for combat engineers. Seeking to use these machines to end the war, Binadamu requested that Nassor make the nanites small enough to interact with the cells in the Sctha, and activate the death switch encoded in the Sctha's genetics. Within a matter of months, a "small" batch of nanites (enough to contaminate every Xai'athi on the planet), was produced for immediate usage by the FXA.
With the nanites and the knowledge of the Sctha's weakness in hand, the Xai'athi released their weapon into the airstream, with commands to hunt down as many Sctha it could, activate the kill command in their genetics, and deactivate upon the completion of it's mission. At that, Binadamu and his people observed the black cloud disappate as it began the Xai'athi's genocidal order. Within the first hour, half of the Sctha population, some 50 million people, simply dropped as the silent killer told their bodies to shut down. Hundreds of towns, cities, and villages were transformed into ghost towns within a matter of minutes, with not a single survivor to tell of the mysterious events. Soon enough the Sctha leadership discovered the enormous blackout of towns under it's control, and activated a shield in anticipation for a major attack. Unknowingly, this saved them from certain destruction, as the nanites with deactivated by the weak EMP field emitted by the shield as they attempted to penatrate it. The Xai'athi forces amassed around Nua, and sent their ultimatium to the Sctha seer council who had anticipated the coming defeat only a matter of hours beforehand. They made a very un-Eldar decision, and opted to surrender, thus ending the three decade-long war. The Xai'athi were finally free.
The Exodus
As the Xai'athi celebrated their victory, a few began to reflect on the cost of the war, the lives lost. Some four hundred million Xai'athi perished in the conflict, and the Sctha were now an endangered species. The lands ruined, and once the discovery that the Sctha vessel was simply a colony ship became common knowledge, the idea of another invasion, the Xai'athi saught to rebuild their civilization elsewhere. Epsilon Eridani needed time to heal from the numerous wars of the past, and the Xai'athi needed as place to hide in case of another invasion by the "rest" of the Sctha people. Binadamu and his inner council, the Kurugenzi, assembled in the ruins of Eridani City to plan the next step to take. It was ultimately decided that if the Xai'athi were to survive another attack and thrive, and more importantly, for Binadamu's plans to suceed, the Xai'athi would have to abandon their homeworld and rebuild elsewhere. Binadamu delievered the news of the Kurugenzi's decision to the rest of the Xai'athi people, and gave orders to the rest of the population to begin work on the necessary preparations needed to move toward that goal. The technology captured from the Sctha would go a long way in helping the Xai'athi move in that direction.
Plans to construct several massive colony ships were put to work in 408.M12, as the Xai'athi gained enough knowledge from the Sctha prisoners about the Warp to begin developing an FTL device capable of carrying them through it. However, problems arose rather quickly in the project before things could move ahead. Though the Warp was known to the Xai'athi by way of humanity since M4, the Xai'athi had no way to actually travel through it, as they had no psykers. Additionally, not even the human cousins had developed the Warp Drive yet, and thus no knowledge of how to traverse the Warp was made. Nassor thus developed an ingenious way for the non-psyker Xai'athi to get through though. His invention known as the Boom-Drive (called so for the sound and effects it made entering and exiting the Warp), was much alike to a gun, and the ship comparable to a bullet. Since the Xai'athi could not navigate through the Warp, they had to push through it as quickly as possible before the Warp knocked them off course much in the same way wind pushes a bullet off-course as it travels. The ship would be brought out of the Warp at a pre-determined location, set by the ship navigators, who would calculate the distance to the destination, and attempt to pull the ship out when they believed they were close enough to their target.
While the first generation boom-drives were thus highly unreliable, and highly dangerous, this did not prevent the Xai'athi leadership from ordering their production. As the new Xai'athi warp drive was being tuned for the upcoming exodus, the plans for the colony ships were undergoing their final touches. Binadamu commisioned the construction of multiple, massive colony ships, each capable of holding several millions Xai'athi each (the Sctha taught the Xai'athi how to construct such vessels properly, and how to do so with the materials available, obviously not the Eldar). Each would take an estimated fifty years to construct, and with only three fields capable of holding such mammoth vessels, only nine would be completed before the Sctha warned of their masters' arrival. No doubt, Binadamu knew he would have to leave a small number of the Xai'athi population behind, and this did not sit well with him. This did not deter him from getting the majority of his people off the planet, and away from certain retribution. A number of incidents lead to several poorly constructed starships entering the armada hastily put together by the Xai'athi, and in the ensuring event later on, a good number were lost in the Warp. In 504.M12, the Xai'athi said goodbye to their home-world, and set off for the galactic south, far from any would-be persuers.
Rebuilding
Upon reaching the world of Oxida Nova IV, Binadamu declared the planet the new home-world of the Xai'athi. This move and the actions in the last five years left an aweful taste in the mouths of the Xai'athi. They had been forced to flee their homeworld in fear of retribution on the part of the Sctha's masters, lost nearly 70% of their original population in the war and famines that followed it. The Xai'athi would be far more careful in the years ahead, but would first have to rebuild their civilization on an alien world, light years from their old home. Needless to say, many were rather infuriated by the idea that they would have to do such a thing, but the time for complaining had passed, and now the time for rebuilding would begin, whether they liked it or not. Binadamu and his advisers agreed that the Directorate would need to make the first move next time to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again, and thus, laid down the groundwork for the foundation of the pervasive Bureau of Xeno Affairs, and lead to the events that began the Subjugation Wars that saw the deaths of trillions of Xenos. It would thus appear that the Sctha's actions would have many far-reaching consequenaces, not just that turning the Xai'athi into xenophobic murderers.
Biology
Not all Xai'athi are made the same. -Sayomi Ikeda
A Nauta administrator
Unmodified, the Xai'athi have all of their base physical abilities at peak condition. They also have a special organ that continually produces undifferentiated stem cells, allowing them to recover from even serious physical damage. They can recover a severed arm in a matter of months to a few years. Though if they receive lethal damage they don't have time to recover. Genetic modification and cybernetics are the hallmark of the Xai'athi race. Unmodified, the Xai'athi stand head and shoulders above the human race. Finding a Xai'athi with four arms, a tail, and three eyes is more common than one might think. Outsiders upon visiting Xyon, have been horrified at the appearance of some Xai'athi, who look more like monsters than abhumans. Because of the readily avaliable "body-mod" shops and professional cyberneticists within Xyon, one can have their appearance altered to whatever they think of. There is no one definite biology for the Xai'athi, and outsiders are mostly at a loss as to what the Xai'athi actually are. Some believe to be abhumans due to lenghty linage with the human race, while others have declared them Xenos, as internal and genetic makeup of some Xai'athi is beyond anything that can be classified as human. Because of this, the entire race is more alien than it is human. This is further justified when one considers the fact that they are inter-fertile, allowing them to breed with any species in the galaxy. The Xai'athi, to keep themselves in an organized fashion, have divided themselves into groups known as geno-factions.
Geno-factions are a group of Xai'athi roughly similar to another group of Xai'athi with similar body modifications and genetic alteration, though one joins a faction through modifications made with the aim of joining said group. Each geno-faction contains it's own unique biology and physiology setting them apart from other Xai'athi, but undeniably Xai'athi in the end. Currently, there are too many geno-factions to identify, and only a few can be immediately recognized (though it is known fact that their are many, many more). The most telling characteristic of a Xai'athi will be their heavy bionically- and genetically-enhanced bodies, which will will have been modified to fit the taste of the individual Xai'athi. Such Xai'athi as the Nauta, are modified with the goal of transforming them into administrators and navigators for the Xai'athi people and their ships. They must live within a tank filled with a strange liquid that serves an unknown purpose (observers believe it sustains them as they never see the Natua leave these tanks). Others such as the Interrogators, are terrifying half-human, half-aracnid creatures, who's lower body is a robotic copy of a spider's body. Interrogators serve as governmental enforcers, and as their name suggests, they are also charged with extracting confessions from the criminals and captives of the Xai'athi.
There are also the Mechanists who serve as pseudo-super soldiers, and wear body armor not unlike that of a Space Marine. They are huge, fear-aspiring beings, who are generally stronger than the normal Xai'athi. But by far one of the most bizarre of the Xai'athi geno-factions are the Oculi, feminine looking creatures attached to an entryway, just above an entrance or major center of transit. They serve as the eyes and ears of the local businesses and government authorities, and are essentially highly intelligent surveillance systems (though this is not their true function). Disturbing still is the fact that they are sentient, and capable of expressing thought. What they do exactly is still unknown to outsiders. They will usually aid by-passers trying to find a location, or provide the people on the street with information directed from the government, also serving the role of a loudspeaker at times. Generally speaking, the Xai'athi are basically as strange as the modifications they carry out on themselves, and surprisingly, all groups are capable of interbreeding, which further confuses outsiders.
Society
Praise the Mtawala. -Xai'athi motto
Culture
The Xai'athi social structure is built around three groups, the first of which being the scientifically-structured castes. Geneticists are held to the highest of regards, and treated like celebrities. They are treated with respect as they are responsible for modifying the Xai'athi's genetic code, and adding in additional traits and abilities that will help the Xai'athi progress as a race. Just behind them are the biologists, responsible for finding out how the bodies of the Xai'athi work, how to make them better, and how other environments they encounter will effect them. They receive less respect than the geneticists as they do not directly modify the Xai'athi, a job which is left to the more qualified geneticists. Ecologists, though they play a less public role in Xai'athi society, are quite powerful in their own right. They are responsible for determining what environments the Xai'athi should be conditioned to begin colonization of, and how the plantlife there can be controlled and bent to the will of the Xai'athi. Chemists are especially important to the Xai'athi, as they develop the chemicals and materials that will be used to assist in the growth of the Xai'athi race.These are simply a few of the many science-based class system of the Xai'athi, but vital to the social fabric of their people.
The second group of Xai'athi belong to the geno-factions, which are made up of Xai'athi who have chosen not to join any of the twelve castes, but to join a specialized group of Xai'athi, who have been altered in a manner that does not conform to the original twelve castes. The Nuit Kingdom is made up of Xai'athi living on what can only be described as high-tech feudal worlds. They have pale skin, and jet black hair, the former of which helps make them stick out in a crowd. They are nocturnal, and hyper-intelligent, making up for their generally lack of strength (in comparison to a fellow Xai'athi of course). The head of Xai'athi military, Uka Bhuqa, came from these group of Xai'athi. The vast majority of Xai'athi miners have been altered to endure the intense heat and dangerous conditions within mines, giving them leathery skin, and bulbous black eyes. Finally, there are the unmodified Xai'athi, who have no cybernetic, genetic, or biological enhancements. These Xai'athi make up the largest portion of the population, and they form the basis of which all of Xai'athi are drawn, either into the castes or the geno-factions. Unmodified Xai'athi are still superior to humans, and make even attempt to make sure they are aware of that.
As a race, the Xai'athi are a highly-intelligent scavengers, who have built their entire culture around acquisition and usage of technology. Such technology is then used to advance their race in a number of ways, creating a highly diverse race of people. Though many may not be the same physically, all share the same love of their "father" and leader, the Mtwala. Binadamu Madora, the leader of the Xai'athi, essentially created the entire concept of the Xai'athi's culture, which led to him becoming the symbolic father of the entire race. The Xai'athi worship him as the literal father of science and genetics, and though he does not view such worship as necessary, he does use it to better lead his people. One cannot find a single Xai'athi planet not without at least a single statue, street, fountain, and building bearing his name. A common practice with settling new worlds is to name the first street or building in Binadamu's honor. Additionally, war is a major aspect of the Xai'athi way of life. Invading neighbor empires to capture others for experiments is a major facet of their culture.
Due to the Xai'athi genetic expertise, they covet any genetic materials to "play" with, and will harvest organs for experimentation. Massive harvester ships descend onto unsuspecting worlds to begin taking organs that that are to be used by the Xai'athi for research. Certain planets will sometimes be selected for specific body parts deemed "prime" for work. Some worlds may be selected for the spines of that planets inhabitants because of certain "favorable" traits, while others may be targeted for certain organs. The Xai'athi enjoy their organ harvesting, but are also addicted to technology, and will salvage parts from a wreckage in space, on the ground, or even underwater if it means gaining something new. It should be noted that the Xai'athi do not think the same as humans do. Mental modifications to their people have completely altered what Xai'athi view as logical. What humans see as logical and common sense does not apply to the Xai'athi, and attempting to reason with a Xai'athi typically ends poorly. Concepts of love, pain, anger, and respect, have completely different meanings to the Xai'athi.
Psykers
The Xai'athi possess practically no naturally-born psykers. There is no known reason as to why, but it appears the Xai'athi may have actually corrupted the psychic gene in their genetic code during the process of their many body enhancement projects. Additionally, the gene has been altered so much, that instead of having a slight connection to the Warp, it is the exact opposite. Most Xai'athi are born as Sigmas, Taus, and Upsilons within the Imperial psyker assignment. What is known, is that though they may no longer have the ability to give birth to psykers, they are certainly capable of making them. Using their skills with bionics and cybernetics, the Xai'athi have successfully designed and developed several devices known as Mpare, which is a device that funnels the energies of the Warp into itself, and allows the user to redirect it in much the same way as a true psyker would. However, do to the complex design of the Mpare, and the fail-safes that must be installed, as well as the lengthy surgery needed to have one.
Mpares are extremely expensive, and very few Xai'athi have access to the funds needed to get one. Those few that do have one are known as Psions, and are capable of challenging a true psyker toe-to-toe. As Mpares are scientific devices, and not mystical ones, they are far safer wield, and the level of power each Mpare is given allows for a much larger draw from the Warp. This means the more powerful the Mpare, the higher grade the Psion is able to achieve. Currently, the most powerful known Mpare give's it's user the grade of a Beta psyker. However, rumors have arisen that a more powerful Mpare is being developed, and may give it's user (most likely Binadamu), power equivalent to that of an Alpha or even Alpha-Plus. The one greatest drawback of the Mpare is that if the user calls on too much Warp energy to use, it could overload. As the Mpare is implanted in the rear of the inside of the skull, when the Mpare explodes, so to does the user's head.
Language
The official language of the Xai'athi, Ishara, is a complex verbal and physical system that has proven notably unintelligible to outsiders, and equally impossible to replicate. It is similar to the Techna-Lingua of the Adeptus Mechanicus, abeit a rather more complex and sophisticated version, and is a natural-born ability than an augmented one. The result is that most Xai'athi (with an exception of a few), have a steely, robotic-like voice, similar to one created by an ultra-voice or speech synthesis device, though with a more refined tone. Because a Xai'athi vocal cords adapt to the usage of Ishara in the early years of their lives, their robotic accent remains even when speaking another language. Ishara is noted as one of the most difficult languages in the galaxy, as Ishasa cannot be translated without a Xai'athi to do so, and is nearly impossible to decode as many sometimes mistake it for regular radio chatter than an actual language. This has been further complicated by Xai'athi military forces, who speak an even harder version of Ishara known as Mkali. It's a overtly sharp and ear-piercing language, that to non-Xai'athi, is nearly impossible to tolerate for extended periods of time. Stories of men's ears bleeding after being exposed to a group of Mkali-speaking Xai'athi, have become a common occurrence on Imperial worlds frequently visited by Xai'athi.
Currently, the Xai'athi excel in biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science, with some elements taken from xenos destroyed during their wars. While the Xai'athi are an intelligent race of people, they are not are above stealing what they covet, and adapting them to their own needs. The Xai'athi Nodedrive was an adaptation of the wormholes used by the natives of the Utrisque dimension for entering the Materium. The Ionic Barriers used by Xai'athi warships were stolen from a race of tunnel-dwelling xenos known as the Yor. The Xai'athi have built their civilization on the backs of others, and by doing so, have become one of the most advanced species in the galaxy. They are confirmed to be somewhat ahead of humanity during the Dark Age of Technology as the result of personal technological progress, and the aforementioned theft of xeno technology. Ironically, the Xai'athi are rather greedy with their own technology. As the Xai'athi are not a natural psychic race, Warp-based technology is rare sight. An interesting development in their arsenal are devices that can be implanted into a Xai'athi (at steep cost to the buyer), which allows them to tap into the Warp, and redirect it's energy in a matter preferred to them. The more money one has, the more powerful this device will be, and some are rumored to give a Xai'athi power equal to that of a Beta-grade psyker in the Imperium, though this still remains a myth.
Technology
Weapons
Poor experiences in the past with other species have trained the Xai'athi in the art of war more than one would like to be. The Xai'athi thus maintain a plethora of diverse weaponry, ranging from the heat-based Thermal Rifle, to the psyker-killing Fantôme Cannon. The Xai'athi have weapons that can bypass Eldar holofields, and others that make Imperial Star Lances look like rather pathetic. Each of the geno-factions have their own unique weapons, like the Aluxian Dynasty's Rayon Rifles, which fire beam or bolts of pure energy, which can turn a Space Marine into a pile of slag within seconds of exposure. As for starship weapons, the main cannon on a Black Lotus Dreadnought, by far the most powerful ship in the Xai'athi's arsenal, is capable of deleting entire star systems from the galaxy. These weapons and many more help negate any numerical advantage the Imperium, the Orks, or the Tyranids may have against the Xai'athi on the battlefield, in space and beyond. Many of the Xai'athi's weapons were geared toward combating the Eldar, as a direct result of their poor relationship with the ancient species in the past. For this and many lesser known other reasons, the Eldar and many other species have gained a new respect and deep hatred for the Xai'athi.
Travel
The Xai'athi use an FTL drive known as the Node Drive; which comes in the ship-based nodedrives, and static versions known as nodegates. This form of travel was created in M15, three thousand years before humanity created the Warp Drive, though not perfected until M16. The Nodedrive works on a tunnel-based principle, in which the drive opens a portal in a dimension known as the Utrisque, and wrapping a tube-like portion of that space the starship. The ship is propelled to a target system or distenation at FTL speeds, afterwhich it exits the Utrisque in much the same way it entered, and closing the opening into the dimension behind it. The nodedrive was invented by Nassor Kurenga, using knowledge taken from the survivors of an explorative expedition from the dimension's inhabitants into realspace. The inhabitants, known as the Rifla, jellyfish-like creatures the size of warships and a naturally peaceful race, opened portals into the realspace using devices unknown to any race of people in the galaxy at the time. They gave some of the native species in the Perseus Arm, a region they frequented often, the ability to open portals into nodespace. They refused to give the Xai'athi this knowledge, knowing their hostile intents, and the harm they could do with it, but where forced to during the Subjugation Wars, in which the Xai'athi managed to "appropriate" the proper knowledge needed to make their own nodedrives. Sometime after the aquisition of the device, the Xai'athi entered the Utrisque to exterminate the Rifla in a conflict known as the Rift Wars, to prevent the knowledge of such transportation from reaching other species. The Xai'athi were largely successful, but a number of Rifla survived the genocide, and hid in an empty part of the Utrisque, and now assist the Defiance in their war against the Xai'athi.
Artificial Intelligence
The Xai'athi make heavy usage of A.I., so much so that it is almost impossible to find a world under their control that does not. After the trouble humanity got into with their Men of Iron, the Xai'athi took a second look at their own artificial intelligence. Binadamu and Nassor have jokingly spoken about how people think that all A.I. is evil and wants to conquer everything, and they were right to some degree. Not about the A.I., but the bias against them. The Xai'athi somewhat solved the issue, and under the guidance of the Iconians, have developed what can only be perceived as "infallable" A.I.. While one is more than welcome to deny the perceived infallibility of the A.I., they cannot deny the results. The Xai'athi's artifical intelligence are submissive, and have no wishes to harm their masters as expected. They are helpful, and do as their told. Proven further by their desire to assist their creators, is the fact that they cannot refuse an order given to them, and the belief that they can be corrupt had been disproven in M22, when a team Xai'athi scientists purposeful infected a random A.I. with 5 million self-adapting viruses with the government's permission, and observed the A.I. as it repressed the viruses with it's desire to serve instead of kill. How the Xai'athi have accomplished so much in this field has been kept secret, as Binadamu and Nassor agree that such technology shouldn't be flaunted around less someone (such as the Eldar), take notice.
Xai'athi Resources
Nullium
Nullium is a near-weightless metal that is produced by the Xai'athi by means still not understood, and used to construct warships, weapons, and armor. It first appeared during the hight of the Subjugation Wars in M14, and was in use by the Blademaidens, who utilized it in concert with their inertia fields to more across the field of battle at lightning speeds. The material itself is silver in it's natural color, but can be colorized to suit the tastes of the user. Shades of black, gold, and red, are common colors for nullium. The metal is natural resistance to psychic attacks, and is immune to kinectic and sonic energy, both of which appear to be absorbed by the metal. Another bonus is that it is a natural insulative material, preventing the usage of EMPs from damaging the electronics it is typically designed to carry. Also, nullium has a high temperature resistance and electric conductivity which give nullium it's famous durability. The downside to nullium is that if hit by any other form of energy, such as photonic or ionic energy, it disintegrates.
