The 55th Shard, "Kalbion": A shard that originated as a universe of several classic pulp sci fi novels, complete with the expected tropes - simplistic spacesuits, retro spaceships, clunky industrial-looking robots, alien races that seem to only ever be modified humans or especially weird looking aliens with no in between, most planets being habitable (including Mars and Venus - particularly Venus, which is a beautiful garden world due to the perceptions back then), technology being either simple in appearance or unnecessarily complex, and a variety of strange cultures of both humans and aliens that run the gamut from matriarchal monarchies to slaver states. Earth was the leader of a foundation with several other near-human species, being akin to a more pulpy Star Trek, including the Venusians, who just appeared as green skinned women with blue hair, who could only reproduce by mating with males of other species, and the Martians, who were floating brains with single large eyes - originally being enemies of the Earth Foundation, but allying after a bloody war which left both seeking peace. Other factions included the Drombi, a race of destructive robots, and the Hluurgh, a race of strange, mucus-covered, squid-like aliens with three eyes in a triangle formation at the top of their body, which used their powers of mind control to control other civilizations in a quest to secure power over the entire Galaxy. The Shard was thrown into disarray immediately by its collapse effect, a Blossom type Collapse which started when several planets were spawned into the empty space between Star Systems, only to end up evolving due to the Blossom effect until they were covered with strange life and were even sapient on their own. No known connection to the Demon Worlds of the 21st Shard, despite the overwhelming similarity in function - these were also more sci-fi based, being like massive, living organisms rather than possessed planets, and they were far more common rather than being limited to a set number - they began attacking planets on the regular, spreading their strange effect to each planet their spawn invaded, until they were similar planets. The Foundation called these beings Nimbiri, and their onslaught was oppressive, eventually even converting Earth itself into a Nimbiri, and their war against the galaxy split up many empires and even caused the extinction of the Hluurgh, and the Earth Foundation was split into several states, a common example of a Collapse enforcing a Hydra Effect on an existing empire before Meta interaction really kicks off. Eventually, the Nimbiri seemed to stop attacking other worlds for unknown reasons - while they're occasionally provoked into attacking a world, they no longer do so by principle and instead warp in and out of various star systems for no clear reason.

The Shard is extremely popular for Meta interaction due to the sheer number of habitable worlds inside it, and most hegemonic type Shard empires have colonized at least one world, with Santore in particular having colonized many and set up a minor 'second empire' within it, due to the centralized command structure. The shard is also beloved for exploration not only due to the number of habitable worlds, but number of alien cultures to discover, and ancient precursor artifacts. A sub-nature of this trend is that the Nimbiri are beloved for exploration even more than the other planets of the Shard, due to their unique, collapse-spurred biology and how they only appear in a given system for a certain amount of time, which can regularly be extremely brief. Discoveries on these rogue, living planets are valued due to how they're often of more substance than the discoveries on other planets, since, being a Blossom collapse, the Nimbiri are the only documented collapse-based element of the Shard. It is also often targeted by groups like the Tower for securing members, since several of the planets have not even been discovered, thus meaning that it's easier to steal children from them. The human governments, which have split in many forms, are all throughout the Shard's space, at least close to planet Earth, and run a wide gamut of ideologies, from fascist dictatorships to theocratic empires, though the three most prominent are the Neo-Earth Federation, a successor to the Earth Foundation operating from the Centauri system with a democratic government, the Kitang, a cult dedicated to the Nimbiri active in the outer edges of the Galaxy, and the Terran Empire, a fascist empire originating from Venus, which has changed from a garden world into a putrid wasteland world due to the Nimbiri invasion's after effects. The Venusians are quite common inside other Shards, due to their promiscuous and easily-falling-in-love personalities, while the Martians have disappeared into the space between planets in order to avoid ever having to deal with a Nimbiri invasion again. As mentioned earlier, the Hluurgh are completely extinct, and what members of their slave states survived have managed to become independent again - though the legacy of the Hluurgh Dominance remains, with their ruins and lost ships being scattered throughout the Shard. The Shard is also valued for how the abundance of habitable planets combined with how it's a big ass galaxy like all galaxies means it's easier to set up secret research bases than it is in other Shards, even space-based ones.

However, the most important and notable native faction of the Shard is the Mazakh, a culture that originated as just one of many savage cultures in the entire galaxy, being a race of red-skinned near-humans with golden eyes and shard, bone-like spikes that mix with their flesh across their body, such as on their brows, the sides of their chin, their shoulder blades, etc. They were a culture obsessed with war and dominance and lived on a savage, brutal desert planet known for its crimson sands and massive mountains, as well as its harsh, chartreuse atmospheric (sky) color and blackened (yet somehow still giving off enough light to light up the planet) yellow sun. Both the males and females of the species were extremely tall and well-built, and this contributed to their attitude of domination, having enslaved a green-skinned, lizard-like race to be their builders and war fodder, as well as enslaving a culture of humans from the Exploration Era that have descended to this day and mixed with the Mazakh via crossbreeding, gaining red skin and amber eyes, but lacking the spikes and being less muscular in appearance. While culture was brutal and even had space flight, it was not a major problem among the galaxy in any way, let alone among the Shards, until something curious happened across the network much later into its history... You see, a woman had arrived from outside the Shard Network in the Dark Demesne, claiming that she is the "child of the Thorn" and that the Dark Demesne should obey her as a result, only for them to refuse her due to lack of proof. Using her retainers, an army of humanoid creatures with black chitin and no eyes, but could not really be called insectoid, she tried to take over the Shard, but was eventually driven out, fleeing into the Shard Network... where she slowly gathered allies. Remnants of the Traitor Guards of Warshard, the surviving Kast (Sith Expies) from Faraway, disgruntled members of Santore who wanted more power, and similar groups. They had all gathered into a unified force, and soon arrived in Kalbion. While they tried to take over the Terran Empire, they were foguth off, and fled to the Mazakh system, where they made contact with the Mazakh, who accepted them eagerly due to the sheer aura of death and evil among these foreign entities. There, they assimilated the Mazakh into their forces, refining the Mazakh's own culture with elements of the Kast and Traitor Guard ideologies, and introduced them to the Thorn religion, with the leader - Narias as she called herself, being treated as a daughter of the Gods as a result, and being crowned the Mazakhar, the prophesized leader of the Mazakh that would lead them to conquer the galaxy and beyond. The Mazakh slowly but surely grew under the guidance from their new masters. The Santorans improved their technology. The Traitor Guards taught them greater military discipline and the power of black magic. The Kast refined their domination-based ideology and spread the Union to them, as per the collapse effect of Faraway's function. Over a period of several decades, the savage culture was made strong, and prepared to invade other worlds - and so it did, expanding outward not only into the Galaxy, but other Shards. Their symbol - an eye with an outline made up of 7 Thorns, becoming infamous throughout the Network, as the cruel Mazakh Empire was born, to finally grant Mazakhar Narias the power she believed she deserved, and a rebirth for not only her - but the Kast and Traitor Guards as well. While not on the level of other hegemonic groups like Santore due to their recent birth, they are increasingly making waves in the 108 in general, and the Shard Union considers them a major threat to human rights. They are mostly enemies with the Dark Demesne however, due to Narias' scorn at them rejecting her divine blood and the Dark Demesne seeing her as a pretender.