The Way of Tears

THIS CULTURE HAS NOT YET BEEN MIGRATED TO R²
The Way of Tears is both the religion of the Vikshickshi and a name given to their sprawling empire which encompasses countless worlds. Fueled by a fervent, unshakable faith among its believers, the Way of Tears seeks to transform every life-bearing planet in the galaxy into a "perfect" world covered in Makshi crystals and populated by believers.

Ideology
The Way of Tears was a religion that formed out of the chaos following the appearance of an ichorous blue rain that stained the skin of the Vikshickshi and eroded and destroyed much of their landscape and food source; the Makshi crystals. The Vikshickshi came to view this rain as the tears of their Wounded Goddess, who was weeping at the imperfection of her galaxy. Furthermore, they interpreted its sudden appearance as a sign they must spread their faith, and perfection, outwards among the stars. Thus began a holy crusade to convert or destroy all sentient life in the galaxy, and to seed their worlds with Makshi crystals. The objective of this great task is to restore the Wounded Goddess to health and power, after which the adherents of the Way of Tears expect they will be rewarded with paradise.

Territories
Although it is known that the Way of Tears originated in the Ekshi system on the border of the Outer Core and the Galactic Rim, the extremely aggressive and militaristic nature of the Way of Tears has made conducting reconnaissance operations to map out their zones of control is extremely hazardous. Likewise, diplomatic avenues are rarely possible, as the Way of Tears sees all non-converted life as an inherently subversive and polluting force. Nevertheless, using sophisticated War Game supercomputers, as well as information gleaned from the brave and lucky scouts who survived missions deep into Cleansed space, the species of the Inner Core broadly believe the Way of Tears has at least 200 systems under control, with approximately 60 major planetary colonies. In terms of industrial and military power, this puts the Way of Tears as one of the largest forces in the galaxy, representing an existential threat to many species.

Technology
The Way of Tears, viewing itself as a holy crusade, has little need for more "superfluous" technological advancements such as Robotics, Tech Spread and Artificial Intelligence. Instead, the focus is on military might, and indeed the Way of Tears possesses one of the most formidable fleets int he galaxy, armed with weapons of near-unmatched destructive power. To aid in the Conversion process, some inroads into Genetic Engineering have been made, though the broad consensus is that if a species cannot live off Makshi implantations, they are clearly outside the Goddess' favour, and have no place in her perfected galaxy.

Below is a breakdown of the Way of Tears' technological advancement, using the Observer metric.

High Advancement: Starship Construction, Weaponry

Medium Advancement: Planetary Engineering, Starship Defenses, FTL

Low Advancement: Orbital Construction, Genetic Engineering, Tech Spread

No Advancement: AIs, Robotics, Intra-Solar Communication