Arbiters - Overview

The Arbiters are cephalopod-like organisms that inhabit blinkspace and the deepest parts of the seas on oceanic planets. They are divine messengers of the Numen, voicing their will when they do not wish to act directly. The discovery of the arbiters brought an end to the Dark Age of humanity and enabled humankind to take to the stars once more.

Biology

Arbiters come in many shapes and sizes, however all of them are described as being squid-like and ephemeral in appearance. Most describe them as phasing in and out of space with an unnaturally shifting form. However, their appearance may be much more mundane due to that fact that when most individuals have encountered them they are nearing death and are potentially hallucinating.

Arbiters spend most of their time in an incorporeal form within blink-space. As such, it's currently believed that the unique environment of ultra-deep oceans act as natural blink-gates, allowing the Arbiters to freely pass through.

Divine Engines

The Arbiters are a central part of humanity's (and apperata's) rulership of interastral space due to their ability to create/designate lancers.

During First Contact between the Arbiters and humanity, the Arbiters gave humanity the knowledge of Divine Engines: esoteric devices that allow mortals to tap into currents when paired with a mechanized chassis. Divine Engines also allow mortals to connect to and control a complex chassis/mechanism, allowing the piloting of mechs. This gave birth to the first lancers, originally for noncombative purpose, and enabled greater exploration of space.

Only those who have chosen and selected by the Arbiters (in a process called Arbitration) are able to use divine engines. This fact is what has kept space-faring mortals reliant on the Arbiters, due to their engines being so prevalent throughout modern technology.