The Rise and Fall of the Amgawert
February 1, 2025
A Civilization Bound by Its Own Technology
Born in the Hands of the Borthans
The Amgawert were not the architects of their own destiny. They did not claw their way to sentience through millions of years of natural evolution. Instead, they were sculpted—designed, altered, and accelerated by the Borthans.
The Borthan uplift program was ambitious, an experiment in controlled evolution. The Borthans, a species of methodical strategists, sought to create loyal vassal civilizations—beings who could expand their reach and enforce their will across the stars. Wert 6 was chosen as one such testing ground.
The primitive reptilian life that dwelled there, cold-blooded and slow to adapt, was an unlikely candidate for civilization. Yet, under Borthan guidance, these creatures were uplifted, their minds expanded, their development fast-tracked. The Amgawert, as they came to call themselves, were granted intelligence, technology, and the means to survive beyond the confines of their ruined world.
But the Borthans made one fatal mistake: they assumed control would be permanent.
Technology as Both Strength and Weakness
The Amgawert inherited vast technological knowledge from the Borthans but lacked the innovative spirit to push it further. Unlike their former masters, who adapted and refined their advancements over time, the Amgawert treated technology as something to be preserved rather than evolved. Their climate suits, their starships, their governance—all remained largely unchanged for centuries.
Their empire expanded nonetheless, stretching across 12.7 million solar systems. They thrived in places no other species could, thanks to their life-preserving climate suits. Their soldiers, hardened by mandatory military service, enforced their rule with unwavering discipline. Their High Council, a hereditary oligarchy formed from the elite families that had orchestrated the revolution, maintained stability—though at the cost of progress. For generations, their empire endured, secure in the belief that their technology made them invincible.
But the universe does not reward stagnation.
The Geddan Cybers and the Death of an Empire
While the Amgawert clung to their past, others moved forward. The Geddan Cybers were not an empire of tradition but of relentless adaptation. A hybrid civilization of synthetic intelligences and cybernetically enhanced beings, they viewed technology not as a tool to be preserved but as a force to be continuously reshaped.
When war erupted, the Amgawert were confident in their military doctrine. Their invasion strategies had worked for centuries. Their fleets had never known true defeat. But the Geddan Cybers fought a different kind of war. Their opening strike was not against Amgawert cities or fleets but against their technology itself. The Cybers deployed electromagnetic weapons that rendered climate suits useless in an instant. Battle-hardened Amgawert soldiers, suddenly exposed to the brutal conditions of alien worlds, perished in moments. On frozen planets, entire armies turned to lifeless statues. On infernal worlds, troops were burned alive in their unpowered armor.
The Amgawert were not just defeated—they were undone. With each battle, their empire collapsed further. Their High Council, so confident in their control, found themselves powerless against an enemy that moved faster than they could react. Within mere decades, the once-mighty Amgawert were reduced to a fragmented shadow of their former selves.
Echoes of the Past
No one knows what became of the last remnants of the Amgawert. Some believe a few survivors fled into the depths of space, clinging to their obsolete technology, seeking refuge in forgotten corners of the galaxy. Others suggest they attempted to return to Wert 6, only to find their homeworld just as inhospitable as when they had first been uplifted.
Perhaps, in the end, their fate was inevitable. They were created by the Borthans, built for a purpose not their own. They seized their destiny but failed to shape it beyond what they had been given. And when the universe changed, they could not change with it. The Amgawert, the species that defied their creators and conquered the stars, were not felled by war alone. They were felled by time, by the quiet, creeping rot of stagnation.
Their story is a warning: to rely on the past is to be consumed by it. And so, the Amgawert are gone—not in fire, nor in glory, but in the silent, inevitable collapse of those who refuse to evolve.
Breaking the Chains
For centuries, the Amgawert served their benefactors, their existence carefully managed. The Borthans saw them as a dependent species, useful for colonization and resource extraction but incapable of true independence. However, the Amgawert had inherited something more than technology from their creators—they had inherited ambition. They studied the Borthans, understanding their strengths, but more importantly, recognizing their weaknesses. And then, in an event the Borthans never foresaw, the Amgawert revolted.
It was swift, calculated, and ruthless. Using Borthan tactics against their masters, the Amgawert turned their advanced climate suits into weapons of war, surviving in environments the Borthans could not. They sabotaged supply lines, manipulated alliances, and waged a campaign of deception. Within a few generations, they were no longer servants—they were conquerors. The Borthans, unwilling to fight a prolonged war over what they saw as an expendable asset, withdrew. The Amgawert had won their freedom.
But their freedom came with a cost.
