Into that Vast and Unrelenting Darkness (40K Xeno Civilization Quest)

In the Grim Darkness of the Future, there is only death. A vast empire of corpses led by fanatics and madmen wage eternal holy genocide against their foes, defined as those who diverge from their doctrinal teachings and any and all species outside their own, a slowly dying shell seeking to bring down as many of its foes in flame before it perishes. The remnants of a once great and terrible people ply the void in their worldships, desperately clinging to survival as they attempt to thread the ever shrinking needle. Hordes of barbarous, green giants engineered as weapons in a primeavil war in heaven rampage in an infinite war against everything, everywhere, even as their old foe from that war arise from their crypts and their tombs, cold, mechanical curses against life itself. Even the realm of the soul sits ill at ease, dominated by laughing blind idiot gods and their legions of wrathful gibbering horrors, both mortal and otherwise, engaged in horrific parodies of reality. And yet all of this may even pale before the cold, endless hunger of the infinite void and the chittering and skittering claws of the great and magnificent devourer from beyond the known horizon of the stars.

But you don't know any of that. Your species is new, freshly ascendant to the stars. Naive to the scope and terror that awaits them even as they march into that inky, all enveloping darkness.

Who are you?

[ ] Korgum'ai: Simian in appearance, the Korgum'ai resemble, at first glance, ancient extinct earth primates such as the Gorilla, were it not for the extra set of eyes located on the sides of their head. The resemblance is only skin deep, however: the Korgum'ai biology is far more robust than any mundane primate, the result of millennia of evolution on their relatively harsh homeworld causing all manner of internal adaptation to help them survive: it is said that the Korgum'ai invented the head transplant before they invented the wheel, though obviously such an assertion is ludicrous.
The Korgum'ai start with high Expansion Points, allowing them to rapidly develop worlds and expand their territory.
Start with the following technologies and traditions:
Universal Transplants: A trait of the Korgum'ai is that their bodies are biological plug and play machines: any lost limb or organ can easily be replaced using the organs or limbs of a different Korgum'ai. In some cases, it doesn't even require being the same organ or limb: in the early days of Korgum'ai medicine, it was not unusual for more amateur surgeons to accidentally put a heart where a liver goes, and a common joke among the Korgum'ai is that of someone going in for surgery to replace a lost arm only to wind up with a third leg.
Eldest: There are those among your people who are blessed (or perhaps cursed) with freedom from age, another quirk of your species hyperrobust physiology. Such a condition usually occurs late in your species lifecycle; the result, an eternal octogenarian. With time, these Eldest tend to accrue vast amounts of experience and wisdom, though few opt to remain part of civilization.

[ ] Syhghkk: The ghrjakii are an extremely alien race as exemplified by their name, which is genuinely untranslatable into verbal or written mediums. Resembling massive, overgrown brains, the hgjdlsakl communicate primarily through a form of short range telepathy. Having evolved in the waters of their world, the SKKKKKG move in their native environment via a trio of flexible prehensile spinal columns that, while strong, are unsuitable for locomotion on dry land. To this end, the gghsjkhajk have long since developed a variety of powered exoskeletons to enable them to operate on dry land. These spiderlike mechanical contraptions do little to make the giant pulsing cerebral masses housed within look less unnerving.
The Afioldo start with high Culture Points, allowing them to rapidly develop social policies and traditions to help deal with problems as they arise.
Start with the following technologies and traditions:
Universal Powered Exoskeletons: Originally developed by the b bbbhgb to allow them to colonize the dry land of their world, the sheer convenience of these machines (typically quadrupedal in design with accompanying precision graspers) for everyday life has caused widespread adoption among your society, even for those who still inhabit the seas. After all, as deft and strong as your spines might be, they would never be as deft or as strong as a solid titanium claw.
The Language of Ideas: Your species was a rare example of every single member being minor telepaths. From birth in the spawning pools to the cessation of life in the Death-creches, the yllragf communicate only through the mind, eschewing a language of symbols and noise for one of serene concepts. This makes it extremely frustrating to communicate with your species, but it also means that conventional espionage is impossible.

[ ] TEKKET: Diminutive furred mammalian creatures with a somewhat elongated, mustelid body, the Tekket evolved on what can only be described as an abandoned garbage planet created by some (hopefully) distant empire millennia in the past. From the scraps of this empire the Tekket developed their knowledge and culture, learning from abandoned data slates and discarded tomes of powerful spirits of machinery, over the centuries developing rites and rituals to allow themselves a degree of influence over these spirits, most commonly in the form of Tekketi Bond-Drones, mechanical companions designed to help the Tekket fight against the many, many, many, MANY leftover deranged automata left by whoever owned the world before.
The Tekket start with high Faith Points, allowing them to develop their spiritual practices and knowledge quickly.
Start with the following technologies and traditions:
Machine Spirits: Discovered via ancient texts from long gone precursors, the Tekket have a healthy reverence for machine spirits, viewing them as invisible partners and allies. So long as the vessel is maintained and proper respect is given, the Tekket find the spirits of their technology extremely reliable, with a handful of rites and rituals existing in order to allow the Tekket to commune with the ghosts in the machine.
Bond-Drone Technology: Some machine spirits are particularly lively and strong, given power through generations of veneration, extreme age, or, in rare cases, through the love and care of their owner. These awoken machine spirits are typically given new vessels to inhabit, thus birthing Bond-Drones, ensouled, somewhat intelligent automata that serve as warrior, protector, and even family.

Your history wasn't peaceful. No species' was: it was a litany of violence, political strife, warfare, and disaster, punctuated by the occasional period of peace as your technology and traditions evolved and morphed. Perhaps in time you would have still ascended towards the stars, developing past the foibels of your society naturally and peacefully.

Instead, your species was subjected to a trial by fire, nearly strangled in the crib by enemies you could barely comprehend.

What menace threatened you?

[ ] The Destroyers: They came with advanced technology centuries above yours. The first sign that they were approaching was the various deep space scanning installations picking up something massive approaching from the edge of your solar system. You had, initially, attempted to contact them peacefully, hoping you had found a peer of sorts from among the stars. This hope died when they landed and began an extermination. Silent and black clad, the Destroyers refused to communicate, had no capacity for mercy or empathy, and a complete disregard for their own life. The resulting war between you and them resulted in over 30% of your species dying, and to this day served as a grim warning about what lie beyond the stars.
Start with the War Against Extinction tradition, moderately increasing the effectiveness of your armed forces against superior opponents and allowing you to create Extinction Fleets, which trade a moderate amount of survivability for greatly increased damage: when doomsday approaches, Extinction Fleets will gladly fight to the death to ensure your people live even one more day.
Gain a free piece of technology derived from the Destroyer War.

[ ] Enemy Unknown: It had started with a meteor crashing in the desert. At first, your people didn't realize what was happening: over the course of decades it spread and wormed its way into your society. An alien infection that caused those who had it to become subservient to an unknown, alien power. The transmission vector? Monsters, terrible and cunning, that fathered all manner of alien hybrid to further their subversion. When your people had realized what was happening, it was almost too late. To fight against this alien menace, a multinational organization was created. The war was long and brutal, with the aliens developing and fielding all manner of obscene and inhumane bio-technology and genetically modified warbeasts. To fight them, the organization developed all manner of advanced technology, culminating in the Chimera Trooper project. To fight monsters, you made monsters of your own, turning the alien technology against them and creating your own loyal, stable form of hybrid capable of fighting even the Progenitor Beasts on even terms.
Start with the Chimera Trooper technology, providing an extremely powerful ground unit created by studying Genestealer biology that can be upgraded to incorporate a variety of genetics and biotech. Sometimes, to beat a monster, you need a few monsters of your own.
Gain a free piece of technology derived from Tyranid Biology.

[ ] The Green: It had started with a massive, MASSIVE structure emerging from seeminly nowhere. Your scientists and your students initially studied the hulking mass from afar, and after your first moon mission, it became a goal of your people to explore the massive alien structure. This...ended poorly. Your boarding party was butchered by the crafts native populace, a species of fungal giants, who had responded by stealing your vessel and crashing it on your planet. The resulting war was as horrific as it was absurd, having successfully stalled cultural and scientific development for over three centuries as your species desperately tried to keep its head above the rising fungal tide. The only positive was that Orkoidal Ecosystems were extremely nutrient rich.
Start with the Squig Farmer tradition, providing improved agricultural output on any world with an Ork presence. The more Orks, the more squigs, the more food. Gross, but it actually made feral Ork colonies actually valuable.
Gain one piece of Ork related technology.

Your species had fought, and fought, and fought and fought and fought: the armies of your kind assembled in great throngs, armed with the most advanced weapons and tools you could bring to bear, creating a magnificent engine of war. But it hadn't been enough. This threat from beyond the stars, it was too much, and piece by piece you lost ground...

Until something was discovered. Something powerful.

What boon did your people find, in those darkened halls?

[ ] The God Machines: Your people didn't know who had created the God Machines, or even if they had been created at all. These absurdly powerful beings born of living metal were uncovered beneath the sands of the desert in your peoples greatest time of need. You still don't know why they helped you, but their control over technology and matter was sufficient enough to turn the tide: as devestating as the invaders were, they were mere mortals standing before autocthonian dieties. The battle wasn't close at all. After, the God Machines largely went into dormancy, leaving only three active: MOTHER, Sphere 001, and YALDABOATH. Capricious and strange, you have no real control over them and extremely little ability to predict their actions, but when they do act in your favor, the result...Well, the results speak for themselves.
Start with three God-Machines active in your empire. You do not control them or command them and they don't always act in ways that have any tangible purpose or goal, but they seem to have a great deal of affection for your species: handy, considering the sheer, raw power and control they exerted.
Start with Living Metal technology.

[ ] Power Gems: A cache of ancient, esoteric knowledge and treasure, found deep within the mountains. Throughout, strange, pale stones, containing incredibly supernatural power. The original gems, the Holy Set, are held in secret in a location known to a select few, but at the height of your war it was the original set that allowed you to turn the tide of battle: combined with the sorcerous rites developed, your mystics had brought down holy hellfire on your foes. Your artisans have long since learned how to create lesser, flawed copies of the power gems, though gruesomely they seem to grow stronger the more death they're surrounded with.
Start with Power Gems, a powerful warp-based technology that can be used to greatly augment and strengthen your psykers and sorcerers that grow steadily stronger the more your people die.
Gain one Cthonic Rite.

[ ] Beast Spirits: Your Shaman and Wisemen knew well that there existed predators in the dark waters of the sea of souls. However, not every entity from that realm was malevolent: there also existed benign or even beneficial spirits that one could invoke if the correct rite was performed. Thus was summoned the Beast Spirits, nature daemons that were used to turn the tide of battle and save your people.
Start with the Summon Beast Spirit rite, allowing you to conjure (mostly) benevolent nature guardians.
Gain one Animism Rite.

Medals of Honor:

Jim Kirk Medal of Excellence: Awarded for managing to successfully capture the essence of a Star Fleet captain and taking risks in order to save the day. Awarded during The Return when you successfully managed to defeat both Chaos and the Imperium and save an Exodite World. It resembles a piece of silver in the shape of a starfleet insignia, with a few phaser burns marking its history.

Gary Mitchell Medal for Adventures in Strange Energy: Awarded for using strange energy or a suitable equivalent to create a major diety (and surviving). Awarded after creating Dhia'Albain. It hums with strange energy.

Captain Sisko Medal for Antidivine Pugilism: Awarded for successfully suckerpunching a god, reality warper, or similiar entity. Awarded during the Galactic Giften-Nacht for successfully pranking Tzeench with automatic knuckledusters-in-a-box.

Badges of Dishonor:

Philip J Fry Medal for Temporal Irresponsibility: Awarded for successfully causing a disaster recklessly through temporal meddling done carelessly. Awarded by creating The Seed and polluting the timeline with dark magic. It smells strangely like canned fish and slug-flavored soda.