<strong>Race name:</strong>Glorbush<br/><strong>Race appearance:</strong>The Glorbush are group entities. A single person is a actually a "knot", a cluster of usually from five to ten individuals who have lumped together temporarily both physically and mentally for mutual benefit. The configuration can change over time, as individuals are ejected or added. The largest known configuration is about fifty individuals. These huge immobile clusters form heads of Houses and other central roles, and in fact function as the governing bodies themselves.<br/>Individual units are lumpy gray cylinders about two thirds of a meter long with multiple grasping tentacles and other protruding organs. Units knit themselves together by embedding tentacles into other units, providing a pathway for cerebral linkup and communication. External communicaton is accomplished by sensory organs that are grown for the purpose, although sometimes mechanical implants are used. Once part of a knot, units can specialize their function to benefit the whole, such as forming organs for faster locomotion, food storage or reproduction.<br/>An individual Glorbush, not part of a knot, is barely sentient. It behaves more like an animal than a person, using natural acid glands to protect itself from hostilities.<br/>Glorbush units have relatively short lifetimes. This is not readily apparent to outsiders, however, as it is common practice upon the death of a unit for its knotmates to consume the corpse. Through a strange quirk of biology this results in the memories of the dead unit being shared among the consumers, although no single memory goes to more than one unit, and replication errors have been known to occur.<br/><br/><strong>Number of Systems:</strong>32 systems, most of them small<br/><strong>Government Type:</strong>Balkanized plutocracy. Multiple powerful Trade Houses vie to direct the actions of the Glorbush Confederacy as a whole, though some choose to act independently. The intricacies of Glorbush government are extremely complex, almost impossible to explain to outsiders. It has been described as organized madness, light on the organization.<br/><strong>Religion(s):</strong>Religion is not a strong force in Glorbush society. Most Glorbush practice a sort of ancestor worship coupled with a strong fatalistic outlook. Glorbush suicide cults are common, and largely incomprehensible.<br/><strong>History:</strong>The Glorbush at the height of their civilization formed a military empire stretching across over sixty systems. Huge knots of Glorbush, composed of hundreds of members, led the race down a road of propsperity and strength.<br/>Then a massive civil war came to the Glorbush, the origins of which are still heavily disputed. The empire fragmented into warring shards. Eventually the fighting grew so desperate that the mighty Doomsday Weapons were released. One of the Doomsday Weapons was a virus which fundamentally changed the nature of Glorbush physiology, making it impossible to sustain knots of more than fifty members.  The enlightened cores of the race were forcibly disbanded. The results were devastating - the complete collapse of the Empire, and the near extinction of the race.<br/>Over many hundreds of thousands of years the Glorbush have regrown. There is still strong distrust among systems, Trade Houses, families and even individuals. Glorbush will unite for specific purposes, but longterm endeavors are prone to internal squabbling and collapse. Particularly charismatic Glorbush leaders can rein in this tendency, resulting in great accomplishments until the unit dies, at which point things tend to fall apart again.<br/><br/>Values of your nation: Industry, Profit. Some Glorbush are obsessed with rebuilding the military might and glory of the old Glorbush Empire, but they are a distinct minority. Most Glorbush are happy with slowly growing the Confederation through trade.<br/><br/><strong>National Traits:</strong><br/>GETTING HUGE! x2: If there's a way to make something bigger, even if it's just adding on wasted space, the Glorbush will do it. Some say they're overcompensating.<br/>Free Market Boomtown x2: Money makes the galaxy spin.<br/>*Cargo Cultist: The Clusterships of the Glorbush are almost fleets in themselves<br/>Load-Bearing State x2: The Glorbush have made themselves crucial to the galactic economy by providing transport and trade to all races.<br/><br/><strong>Population Traits:</strong><br/>*Hive: Technically the Glorbush are composed of lots of little hives. In some ways this makes infiltration even easier - just find a faction, splinter or dissident group that agrees with you, and you can go anywhere inside the swiss cheese security of the Glorbush Confederacy.<br/>Hard Workers: They have there faults, but once a bunch of Glorbush set out to do something, it gets done.<br/><br/><strong>Military Traits:</strong><br/>Freighters! (was Battleships!): The Glorbush Clusterships are gigantic freighters, staggering in their scale. It is said that one could attack the port side of a freighter for weeks, only to find that construction on the starboard side has resulted in a bigger ship than when you started your assault. Globush Clusterships are large enough to transport entire other fleets inside of them.<br/>*Strategic Weapons Stockpiler: Most Glorbush ships are lightly armed. Nearly all of them carry extremely powerful self-destruct devices. Other races are occasionally astounded at how readily the Glorbush will resort to mass suicide, sometimes over what seem to be trivial obstacles.<br/>Tortoise and the Hare: If a Glorbush fleet comes under attack, the usual first response is to raise all shields and armor, then have a council meeting.<br/><br/><br/><strong>Technical Traits:</strong><br/>Hangerize!: Most Glorbush ships, from the largest freighters to the somewhat less large freighters, carry wings of smaller support ships in attached hanger modules. Often these are used to spread out in a swarm, transporting goods throughout the target system. A certain percentage are fighter craft.<br/>Plug'n'Play: Glorbush technology is based on Glorbush biology. Any tab fits in any slot, more or less.<br/><br/><br/><strong>Historical Traits:</strong><br/>Commercial: Trade, make profit, use the profits to build bigger. We may never achieve the greatness of the former Empire, but it won't be for lack of accumulating Stuff.<br/><br/><strong>Hyper-Tech:</strong><br/>Jump Drive: The great tradeships of the Glorbush Confederacy go where the profit is. Who needs roads?<br/><br/><strong>Faults/Weaknesses:</strong><br/>Creaky Military: Most of the military capacity of the Confederation is composed of leftovers from the old Empire. While impressive for their time, they are no longer considered state of the art in today's galaxy. It is also not uncommon for a Glorbush commander to find in the midst of battle that several of his weapons have been gutted, the parts used for construction on some other part of the fleet. (This flaw hits hard enough to provide two (2) bonus traits.)<br/>Government Red Tape: Not so much red tape, but the effect is the same. Things can take a very long time to decide, as 90% of the way through the process a reorganization of units means that you're dealing with entirely different people with the same names and positions. This can be frustrating if you're not used to dealing with the Glorbush.<br/><br/><br/><br/>[Will fill in military & ship details later]<br/><br/>