The Uninvolved

The Uninvolved are a group of entities born from the conscious decision of a species to leave behind the physical reality that the Shiplords make so restrictive. Highly mysterious, there are only two things truly known of the Uninvolved: the means of their creation, as a way for races grown tired with the charade of freedom granted by the Shiplords, and that their kind has held to the nature described by their name for longer than even Project Insight can tell. Ancient and enigmatic, it is believed that the power of these entities is linked to the soul in the same manner as Practice. In terms of scale, it follows that Uninvolved should be far less restricted, yet there is no record of them having ever acted on physical reality after leaving it behind. This history implies a powerful reason for doing so, given the discovery by Project Insight of numerous occasions on which a race has deliberately sought Uninvolved status as a means to fight the Shiplords.

Nature

An Uninvolved is created when a species chooses to abandon the physical world in exchange for something else. Usually, this choice is one born of boredom or despair at the galaxy around them, where true freedom lies always beyond their grasp. However, on certain occasions, the choice has been founded in anger or hatred of the Shiplords, who enforce the status quo. Composed of billions of souls, brought together by choice to create what some would call an avatar of a species, the nature of an Uninvolved is suspected to grant them considerable power in the same vein as Practice. If it did not, then it is unlikely that the the Shiplords would have designed weapons to fight powers similar to that of a Potential, and the Uninvolved are the only entities that humanity is aware of that fit the required threat profile.

The process of creating an Uninvolved begins when a species undertakes a universal plebiscite on the matter, with a firm majority being required for them to progress to the next stage of development. The exact percentage varies, but in all cases more than a simple majority is required. Once a race chooses to pursue this goal, a structure forms around their homeworld, invisible to any sensor that cannot detect the soul. A species knows at that moment how long remains to its existence. When that final moment comes, all those who wished to leave the world behind simply cease. Biological functions stop entirely, and those few who might have chosen not to vanish with the rest of their race are left behind in what remains of their civilisation. Few of those who remain live long, though some exceptions have been recorded. These are often the source of the process of becoming an Uninvolved passing down through the chain of species that rise and fall beneath Shiplord rule, as humanity learned from the Contact Fleet.

Conclusions and Questions

The energy of a single soul is a thing of pure potential, and that until the discovery of Practice by humanity, had refused any quantification or measure. Practice itself largely holds to this defiance. The question of what billions of lives brought together for one purpose can do is best answered with another question. What could all those souls not do? And if those possessing such power ever did act, who could tell? Even the keenest Potentials are limited by the imprint carved into their soul, preventing them from accessing more than a fraction of what it's theorised an Uninvolved could. From this conclusion has sprung a question, one that has captivated the minds of many of humanity's best analysts for decades.

What could possibly prevent entities of such power from acting against the Shiplords who hounded them until they felt no choice but to abandon the world of their birth? The Third Battle of Sol showed that the Shiplords possessed weapons that, in theory, could have been designed to fight Uninvolved. Their effects on Practice were certainly considerable. Yet some wonder, is that enough? In the millions of years since the Shiplords rose to power, surely thousands of races have chosen to become Uninvolved over death. All those enemies, and yet none of them dare act in ways that would change the world which made them. Why?