Irisian

Culture

The Irisians, despite their ancient wisdom and vast influence over the multiverse, are divided into separate factions, each with their own vision for existence. The Architects see themselves as the rightful stewards of the multiverse, maintaining its delicate structures, refining its pathways, and expanding its potential through Shiftship technology and cosmic engineering. The Chroniclers believe in passive observation, compiling endless records of realities without interference, treating existence as an eternal library to be studied but never altered. In opposition, the Disruptors — the original rebels — argue that the multiverse has spiraled into chaos, becoming an unsustainable experiment filled with paradoxes and abominations; they seek to collapse reality back to a singular, controlled state. Among them, the Severants go further, believing that reality itself is a prison and that total annihilation is the only true freedom. Meanwhile, the Prismatics, a rogue sect, embrace the multiverse’s wild potential, actively reshaping, splicing, and merging realities as an evolving art form, caring little for balance or order. This ideological war, waged through diplomacy, sabotage, cosmic-scale engineering and being exceedingly passive-aggressive, ensures that no single vision of existence can dominate, leaving the multiverse in perpetual flux.

Irisians are too individualistic to ever present a united front on anything but the most important topics, remembering that what is important to a Human or the Tindalean Lords is not necessarily important to a jaded Irisian.

History

The Irisians were once the undisputed architects of the multiverse, shaping its pathways, crafting the Shiftships, and weaving the very fabric of existence. But time, entropy, and their own arrogance have led them into a slow, inevitable decline. Many of their greatest secrets are lost even to themselves, locked behind gates of forgotten knowledge or encoded in arcane languages that none now fully understand. Their cities, once shining beacons of impossible geometry and cosmic elegance, now stand half-empty, some abandoned entirely—monuments to a power that is fading.

It is unclear when the Irisians discovered the Shift or when they learned to harness the Aethyric Winds or how to routinely pierce the barriers between Branes. It is clear that they are extremely competent at the manipulation of Ontons and the creation of universes through their Continuum Forge. Using Ontons, they would “encourage” the development of these universes. They saw themselves as gardeners tending to well planted flower beds, but when a universe failed to live up to their expectations and they destroyed it (bringing it to Finality they began to sow the seeds of their own downfall). Even their own people, realising that billions of billions of lives were being destroyed would rebel against the use of the Forge; some becoming Disruptors and some becoming Chaos Engineers.

Irisians do not have a ‘homeworld’, instead they exist in a Hypervolume filled with their vast megastructures. The Hypervolume is an immense universe construct constructed from mathematics and magic, to blend together a reality where ideas become architecture.

Irisians have transcended social hierarchies. They have no slaves and no lords. They have semi-autonomous quasi-magical entities which perform their ‘housework’. Their culture is highly individualistic and they avoid complexities in relationships. They are a race of individuals with only the most loose connections between each other. They bow to no lords nor do they consider the most downtrodden to be worth less.

The Irisians live in the shadow of their own past, with their history acting as both their pride and their prison. Their vast archives contain knowledge of realities that no longer exist, civilizations they have seen rise and fall, and warnings that they themselves have failed to heed.

• Rituals of Remembrance: They conduct elaborate memory ceremonies, where they immerse themselves in crystal-encoded recollections of past ages, living them as if they were the present. For some, this is a drug—an escape from the weight of their current irrelevance. The Irisians do not truly die; or at least, not as others do. Instead, their souls are absorbed into the fabric of their great libraries, their voices lingering in the vast halls, offering wisdom that fewer and fewer care to listen to. The essence of an Irisian, once slain, is returned to their homeworld and dissolved into the Library. Irisians will go to great lengths to retrieve their dead.

• Art and Expression: The history of the Irisians is one of grandeur and gilded halls and while these are maintained (and everything is maintained), these halls are mostly empty now. Their cities, once shining beacons of impossible geometry and cosmic elegance, now stand half-empty, some abandoned entirely; monuments to a power that is fading. Their mastery of Shiftship mechanics, dimensional anchoring, and ontological engineering once set them apart, but much of it is now maintained, not innovated. The younger races innovate where the Irisians preserve.

Divisions

• The Architects – “The multiverse is our legacy; we must preserve it.” They maintain what remains of Irisian power, keeping the Shiftships running and ensuring their influence, however small, endures.
• The Chroniclers – “We must remember, even if we do not act.” They record history as the last duty of their people, accepting their inevitable extinction as long as their knowledge remains.
• The Disruptors – “The experiment has failed.” They believe the multiverse is spiraling out of control and must be dismantled, returning existence to a pure, singular state.
• The Prismatics – “Nothing is fixed; let us reshape it all.” They are the chaotic Irisian rebels who refuse to let their race fade quietly, using forbidden experiments to merge, twist, or rewrite fragments of reality.

Lesser Groups

• The Reclaimers: A faction seeking to reverse the decay, rebuilding the Irisian cities and reigniting lost forges.
• The Forsakers: Those who believe that trying to hold on is futile, that the Irisian legacy is over and should be let go before it collapses completely.
• The Scavengers: Outcasts who pick through the ruins of their own civilization, selling Irisian relics to lesser beings in exchange for whatever scraps they can use to survive.
• The Severants: Those who wish to actively destroy the multiverse, even to their own destruction.

Achievements and Legacy

• Their greatest achievement is the Shiftship. While their designs have been copied by the Upstarts, an Irisian shiftship is truly something to behold.
• The Library containing all of the knowledge of ten million lifetimes, including the rose and fall of entire civilisations that the Irisians have been able to endure.
• Vault Gates - entire pocket realities where knowledge, weapons and even entire cities could be stored and protected.
• Lament Pillars - these obelisks are attuned to the reality where they are manufactured and when moved into a new reality, work to overwrite one over another. At least three are needed to bound and area and the transformation of the bounded area takes place over a few hours.

Appearance

• Tall, Slender, and Ethereal: The Irisians are taller than most humans, standing between 2 metres (6’6”) and 2.5 metres (8’0”), with long, graceful frames that seem almost weightless in movement.
• Metallic-Toned Skin: Their skin carries a pearlescent sheen, shifting subtly under different lights. Common tones include pale silver, deep cobalt, burnished gold, and ghostly violet, giving them an otherworldly appearance.
• Irisian eyes are black, absorbing all light.
• Irisians are not fully locked into one state of being; their bodies subtly adapt to the nature of the reality they inhabit.
• Potentially Immortal, Functionally Fading: The Irisians do not age in the way mortals do, but rather, they erode—their minds becoming disconnected from linear time, their bodies growing less real over centuries.
• Low Biological Dependency: They do not need food or drink as mortals do, but can consume raw energy, knowledge, or even moments of time from the realities they pass through.
• Irisians do not craft garments in the traditional sense; instead, their clothing is often grown, woven from volitive matter, or projected as a field around their form.
• Orichalcum Filaments: Some wear flowing, metallic strands of fabric that shift and reconfigure based on the wearer’s emotions and status.
• Memory-Tapestries: Many still wear cloaks, sashes, or arm-wraps embedded with recorded moments—living tapestries that replay ancient battles, lost romances, or glimpses of forgotten civilizations.
• Fractal Crown-Helms: A traditional Irisian adornment is the fractured circlet, a hollowed-out band of metal or crystal that floats slightly above the head, engraved with forgotten glyphs of sovereignty.

Psychology

• many Irisians struggle with detachment, memory drift, and a slow unraveling of purpose.
• Irisians struggle between a cold, logical detachment from reality and moments of intense, almost overwhelming emotion.
• Some immerse themselves in the lives of younger species, seeking meaning through the experiences of others.
• Morality is a construct of context. Irisians rarely see actions as truly good or evil—only necessary or unnecessary, efficient or wasteful.
• The younger races accuse them of being apathetic or cruel, but from an Irisian perspective, they are merely operating at a different scale of consequence.
• However, some Irisians do feel guilt—the weight of their own failures, their crumbling civilization, and their inability to prevent their own decline.

Relationships

With the Tindalean Lords

The Tindalean Lords see the Irisians as a fallen empire, ripe for the picking. Most of them would dream of having the same level of technology and influence as the Irisians once had. They do not understand why the Irisians would relinquish such power and influence or, indeed, why they are individualistic and not hegemonic.

With the TransWorld Authority

The TWA use Irisian technology almost exclusively while attempting to reverse-engineer their own fleets of Shiftships. Reaching out to Irisians for assistance is never done; the TWA, like the Tindalean Lords, cannot truly understand the lack of hierarchies within Irisian culture.

With the Younger Races

The younger species out there are sometimes treated as transient and unimportant, perhaps with mild amusement or detached condescension but this is not out of contempt - but due to a lack of understanding. Irisians are amused by younger races attachment to material things and social hierarchies and are genuinely pleased when these other races Some, the Architects and the Prismatics, in particular, seek alliances with thee groups who they may see as inheritors. Irisians can often be found in pocket realities, minding their own business.

With Carcosa

Irisians are seldom drawn on the subject of Carcosa, it is almost as if they may recognise The King in Yellow as a peer. Perhaps even more than that. Irisians will avoid Carcosa and discussion of same.