The factions of Cornelivs Maximvs: Renegades

I have recently published a book, my first one ever, after several years of writing different things and wishing to publish something written by me.

You can find the book here:
https://read.amazon.co.uk/kp/embed?asin=B085XJYK6T&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_rKMBEbP99S3X1&tag=dbolical-20

Today we will look into the factions that compose part of the universe where Cornelivs Maximvs lives and fights.

Scrovens
Scrovens are bulky alien creatures which are very warlike and prolific. Their size varies greatly, especially because they never truly stop growing. The smaller ones are typically referred to as scrovelings and their height at birth ranges from half a meter to a meter. A regular scroven will be almost two meters tall at birth, with some being two and half meters tall. The bigger ones tend to become the leaders of the scrovens tribes and warbands, using their strength to push the others into submission. Scrovens are born from a plant referred to as the Scroven Mother, which also generates the scrovigs, which are often used as pets, food or even mounts by the scrovens. The scrovigs also vary greatly in size, with the smaller ones being the size of a dog, while the largest ones can be bigger than a truck.
The skin of scrovens is typically grey or brown, but some clans have yellow or red skin tones, denoting a different subspecies, often with an associated difference in terms of combat tactics and organization of their society. All that matters to scrovens is war and loot, forcing them to constantly fight each other or the other races in their region, raiding and looting all they can. They often attack the imperial worlds in search of a good fight or good looting and many humans dread the appearance of the makeshift ships and drop pods of the scrovens. Their technology is based on innate knowledge, in a similar way to what is observed with the human technomancers.

Nibrevons
Nibrevons are an alien race composed of several castes of insectoid creatures. They move using massive living ships, which attack and feed on the populations of the planets they pass through in their path. There are hundreds of variants of nibrevons, each with its own function within the hive. Some are small infiltrators and parasites, while others are large monsters capable of performing the same function of a tank or artillery. They make no use of technology, typically adapting their tactics to fight against different enemies, through the use of specific castes that have evolved with a specific combat advantage. Like insects, they come in all sorts of colours and shapes, with few distinct features being shared by all of the members of the same hive.
Xenomorphs are a particular caste of nibrevons, which seem to act as scouts for the hive fleets. They can infect all sorts of races with a small parasite, turning the host into a zealot follower of the alien that caused the infection. Such a xenomorph is referred to as the Founder of a Xenomorph Cult and they typically become larger than normal xenomorphs, somehow indicating their status. Those infected by a xenomorph will generate offspring with a mixture of the genetic material of both races, which generates varying types of hybrids, from those that look exactly like the host species and those that are almost pure xenomorphs. Due to the substances released by the parasite, the hosts and the hybrids tend to have a light green colouration, which is often concealed with makeup to avoid detection.
The Founder will impregnate some of the hosts with its own genetic material, generating pure strain xenomorphs, which will assist the Founder in its expansion over the population or travel to nearby planets to spread the infection. All cultists are psychically linked to the Founder, allowing it to control all of its forces without leaving the safety of its stronghold. The cults often cripple the defences of a planet, in preparation for the arrival of a hive fleet, that will then consume the living beings in the planet, along with the cultists.

Elves
The Elves are an ancient race, which make use of advanced technology and powerful psychic powers. Typically led into battle by their seers, they often rely on prophecies to decide the best course of action for their missions. They once held a mighty empire, stretching further away than the Empire, but a war against one of the other ancient races depleted a good part of the elvish forces, forcing them into keeping only their core Witch worlds. Elves often use trickery and manipulation to achieve their objectives, leading what they consider minor races into doing their bidding. The elves make use of both travel through the interdimensional space and portal travel, often using their ancient portals to reach the planets of the Empire without being detected.
In terms of appearance, the elves are similar in stature to humans, but possess slightly pointy ears, in the likeness of some feline predators, as well as possessing slender bodies, which wrongfully appear more fragile than those of humans. They appear to live long lives, potentially being immortals, something which allows them to become true experts on the path they choose to develop, be it the path of the seer, the path of the blade dancer or many of the other military or civilian paths available in the elvish society.
All elves possess small talismans, which in essence can be seen as containing a portion of their soul. Upon the death of an elf, the talisman can be collected and the knowledge of its bearer is kept, as it seems living elves are able to contact the deceased, wherever their souls might travel to upon death. It is common for elves to keep the talismans of their ancestors, often asking them for advice and learning from their experience. Imperial researchers suspect that elves, like humans never truly vanish from the interdimensional space, with the regions referred to as the Land of the Dead being the accumulation of souls in that strange dimension. Daemons avoid the Land of the Dead, as unbound souls can be a dangerous enemy.
Despite their secretive nature, elves have the potential to become one of the most important allies of the Empire, as their hatred for daemons and those that serve them is certainly as high as those of the imperial zealots.

Dark Elves
After the ancient war against an evil that caused the collapse of the Elders, some of the elvish worlds were turned into dark planets, their stars weakened, causing planets to be left in shadows, with night being the permanent state for those living there. These planets are the home of the Dark Elves, a group of warlike elves adapted to survive the dangers of their dark planets, since the fauna and the flora of those planets evolved into something nightmarish as a result of the environmental changes.
Dark Elves retain most of the traditions of the elves, but became powerful hunters, eliminating the creatures trying to kill them in their own homes. They are extremely pale and their eyes allow them to see in almost complete darkness, with their other senses having developed to allow them to detect anything that lurks in the shadows of their domain. They rarely travel beyond their dark planetary systems, due to their difficulty in adapting to bright lights, but they will move against anyone who threatens their existence. Some Dark Elves still retain contact other with elvish nations, trading and supporting them in war, by using their ancient portals.

Elders
The Elders are an ancient people genetically very similar to the humans of the Empire. Essentially they would still fall within the homo sapiens species, just not the same subspecies as the imperials. Their lives are longer than those of regular humans and imperial scientists suspect they might even be immortal. Although they were once a powerful people, controlling an empire that stretched further away than most imperials can imagine, a war against an ancient enemy left them on the brink of extinction.
Despite their loss of power and numbers, the Elders make use of very advanced technology, something which allowed them to resist through the ages and in some areas even regain part of their power. Their portal technology is the most advanced travelling system in the galaxy, way faster than travelling through the interdimensional space and certainly far safer. Their space portals are a marvel that even the elves were not able to match, allowing the Elders to deploy entire fleets within minutes, throughout the extent of their entire network. The major downside of the portal technology is the need for an exit point at the desired destination, although the Elders have some mysterious ways to travel into space beyond the reach of their portals.
The Elders are not quite as psychically oriented as the elves, prizing technology over what many see as magic. Regardless, there are some powerful psychers among them, mastering many of the psychic disciplines known by the imperials. Some historians speculate that the god-like entities described by some of the ancient human religions could actually be psychers belonging to the Elders, as they were spotted by the primitive humans during their visits to the ancestral world and their physical similarity to the humans could explain how many of these entities were described as human in appearance.
For some time, the Elders met with the imperial scientists, sharing some of the secrets of the advanced technology they possessed, allowing the Empire to advance greatly during that time. Unfortunately, something happened and the meetings ended, with the only traces of the Elders being the members of the mysterious Army of the Green Hyena, powerful warriors constantly in search of something or someone. Whether the imperials and the Elders will ever meet again to share their knowledge is something that remains to be seen.

Treporers
The treporers are a race of beings resembling human sized moles, which possess a set of primitive but efficient technology. They have an excellent hearing, but they are often not very comfortable in areas with bright lights, as their eyes are used to the darkness of their underground cities. Although they have spread throughout many planets within the imperial space, most of their kingdoms can be found along the northern border of the Empire, where they prey on traders and civilians, as space pirates, using captured ships or very crude rocky ships, made from converted asteroids.
Most of their wargear consists of items looted during their attacks on humans or other races along the borders of their domain, although there are some scientists and inventors within the treporer society. These inventors are typically part of the ruling families of their people, as the small and fragile Geniuses, as they are usually referred, are among the few capable of uniting large groups of the warrior race, avoiding infighting among the treporers. In contrast to them, their bodyguards are usually referred to as Brutes, due to their large size and strength, in comparison with the majority of the treporers. The Brutes form the needed front-line leaders, certainly with more muscles than brains. This duality of fragile yet smart and tough yet stupid treporers, balances their society in a way that puzzles most imperial scientists, enabling the warlike race to be organized against its enemies.
The treporers seem to be quite prolific and the imperials have had difficulty in understanding exactly how many of the aliens exist, as their cities built deep underground are often not detected by imperial expeditions or colonists, until it is too late. The few reports on their cities indicate that they appear to be quite close to an inverted version of the imperial hive cities, a set of structures going deep into the underground, but with the largest portions being close to the surface, while only small spires or mining tunnels go into the dangerous depths. They employ many strange creatures in their armies, which seem to also live in the depths of their worlds. One such creature is merely called the Terror, both by the treporers and those that end up meeting them in battle.

Rocervars
The bulky and rock like aliens known as the rocervars are capable warriors living among the northern border of the Empire and occasionally within some of the systems under imperial control. They typically live in rocky and desertic planets, often raiding other planets in search of loot, glory and water. Water is as precious to the rocervars, as diamonds are for many humans, with wars being fought over who controls the few water sources available on their homeworlds.
Due to their warlike nature and their toughness, imperial traders, inquisitors and other imperial agents along the border typically hire the rocervars as bodyguards and mercenaries, their fighting skills and their loyalty being quite prized by the imperials. They prefer close combat, due to their great strength, but they are often quite happy using ranged heavy weapons at a large distance, when those are available to them, with humans wondering how they can carry such high weights so easily through the battlefield.
They usually live in cities carved out of the rocky mountains present in their homeworlds, although they build clay houses in any areas where rocks are scarce to make their mighty houses. Their technology is reasonably advanced, even though it is clear that they are not very keen on researching and discovering new knowledge. At some point, their society seems to have decided that new discoveries could be dangerous, so maintaining what they already have is the typical path among the rocervars.

Barbarians
The barbarians are a group of human clans living beyond the borders of the Empire, mostly to the galactic north-east of the imperial domain. They seem to have established a set of colonies throughout many systems in the region, but they are in no way a truly unified nation. Warbands are always searching for a fight, either against the peoples in their vicinity or against each other, meaning that among the princes, warlords, jarls and many other titles their leaders bear, there is no true master of their people.
They serve many different gods and demonic entities of the interdimensional space, bargaining for power with the sacrifices of their enemies. The majority of the warbands serve one of the major four deities of the barbarian pantheon, Kromev the War, Mortrip the Pestilence, Crimav the Death and Limorut the Famine, with entire wars being planned and executed based on the desires of their mighty dark gods.
In a society where honour is measured by the amount of enemies killed or the “gifts” received from their patron gods, there is little space for anything but war, with all technological advancements of the barbarians being focused solely in allowing their wars to be fought in all sorts of conditions. Machines of war, deadly plagues and many other creations are inspired by the quarrelsome deities observing from the interdimensional space.
Among the barbarians there are many champions trying to fight their way into glory, at the head of a warband whose loyalty is only assured while there are enough sacrifices to please the crazy warriors. The Favoured are some of the most powerful champions following a mighty lord into combat, with many using them as bodyguards or elite units. As their name implies, the Favoured have been “blessed” by their patron deity with additional power, being typically tougher and stronger than most humans, as well as being equipped with heavy armour that easily rivals with that of the Imperial Special Forces. Hard to kill and natural killers, the Favoured often tip the balance of an engagement, allowing the barbarians to win against powerful enemies.
On rare occasions, a mighty lord might be able to gather massive forces, by coercing or convincing other warbands into assisting it on a campaign against a particularly difficult but lucrative enemy. The creation of the Barbarian Ring was one such occasion, with hundreds of warbands joining together under the command of Harald Sævaldursson, a powerful servant of Crimav, causing mayhem in the north-eastern border of the Empire and conquering the fortress planet of Zifrentor. His ability to put fear into his enemies and earning the respect of his followers has ensured he remained in power for many decades, with Zifrentor being his fortress and centre of operations. Many have died at his hand and many more will follow, if Zifrentor is not retaken by the Empire.

More races exist in this universe, as will be possible to discover on book 2 of the Cornelivs Maximvs series, Barbarians.