"//Because we must.//"

The Last Vigil Collective is a democratic collective consisting of 13 species, directed primarily by the [[Argent Enclave]], with an economy described as socially democratic. It is currently one of the central agents in Ingenseria, known far and wide as the most powerful and expansive entity therein. Yet it stands disparate to most of Ingenseria, having amassed its power without the same avarice, xenophobia and bloodlust that has come to color all that which lies beyond the [[Barrier]]. Instead, the Vigil devoted itself to peace: though it willingly throws itself into conflict after conflict, these conflicts are not with the intent to empower itself, but to empower the drive for peace. Where the Vigil involves itself, it offers a commodity much-needed in a place as tumultuous as Ingenseria: safety.

Ingenseria revolts against any force which gathers sufficient power. A looming shadow, a deadly threat whose gnashing teeth grow ever stronger, anything that gets too powerful is to be destroyed. But the Vigil stands in defiance of this, for it survives through controversy. Few agree on the right path to be taken with the Vigil, for more than half of those which inhabit Ingenseria do not commit to the violence out of hatred, but out of fear. The Vigil offers a final solution to this fear, a panacea which is designed to cure all of the woes Ingenseria faces, the option for societies to flourish under relative order and peace. The Vigil is perhaps the only opportunity that most forces in Ingenseria will ever get, which leads even the most ruthless dictators to hesitate, even if for a moment, at the idea of stomping it out and allowing violence to reign uninterrupted. Cementing this further is the Vigil's inherent power—it would take a force of great size to challenge the Vigil, a cohesive entity which has trouble forming in the climate of distrust, xenophobia and controversy that surrounds them.

The Vigil, as such, has carved itself a niche in the galaxy from which it safely operates. Instead of seeking self preservation, the Vigil earns good faith and the hesitation of its enemies through a promise of safety and order to all, even as regimes desperately fight under the encroaching waves of Vigil forces at its borders to maintain power over their civilizations. Few seeking blood would dare chase it into Vigil-influenced space, and fewer yet into the Vigil's heart itself, so heavily protected and inaccessible by anyone who lay outside the Barrier that it is wreathed in mystery and glamour, told of only by immigrants and diplomats.

Such individuals tell stories of a comparatively utopian landscape, with complex and bustling cities, interwoven cultures, and the eyes of the watchful government felt at every citizen's back. Perhaps most jarring of all is that the same air of anxiety which permeates many cultures beyond the Barrier is absent therein, with civilian life divorced heavily from the horrors and bloodshed. The Vigil provides for all of its citizens the basic necessities, and shelters them of the violence, summoning from them in return a kind of loyalty which permits them to look past the peering and investigative eyes of the government at every turn.

Through the lens of the mostly undisturbed sanctuary of the Vigil, the problems of Ingenseria would seem to simply fall away, distracted from with glimmering neon lights and an endless deluge of entertainment and information afforded through the [[Oracles]]. Where the civilians beyond the Barrier would live each day struggling to survive under the constant threat of war or the crushing grip of authoritarian rule, the citizens of the Vigil are given the luxury of squabbling over the specific mechanisms of their government. In time, every force with whom the Vigil allies ends up much the same, as their presence brings with it the same kind of safety, for it vows to protect its allies with as much fervor as it would itself.

Some would contend that its people have grown complacent—without suffering, without adversity, they are disconnected from the same reality that the rest of Ingenseria must confront each day. However, almost as many commit themselves to the Vigil's military and to the study and diplomatic untangling of Ingenseria as to the relaxed and peaceful life that the Vigil's immense resources offer. Activist movements frequently gain traction, showing that many of the Vigil's people expect the best from their government, and are keen to criticize it and pick it apart even when it offers them leisure. Perhaps, even, they are more motivated than they would ever have been facing such struggles, with ample free time to ponder, debate and organize.

This makes no mention of the Vigil's immense cultural advancements. Without the need to struggle to survive, many of the Vigil's people commit themselves fully to scientific, artistic and religious pursuits. Each species which joined the Vigil brought with them their own culture, which carefully yet steadily mixed into the Vigil itself; places throughout the Vigil belong to one culture or another, but all of these cultures intersect often. Manual labor jobs are all but filled out by drones, and the Vigil offers significant benefits to anyone who devotes their time to advanced fields. This, combined with high standards of education and no economic pressure, motivates many to seek their purpose in artistic or scientific pursuits.

Altogether, cursory glances and surface impressions would paint the picture of an ideal utopia, a glimpse at the best future that Ingenseria could strive for. A multicultural, primarily post-scarcity collective of species living together, engaged in fruitful diplomacy and making constant, steady advancements. They wield a powerful and precise military, using an effective strategy to non-lethally engage, disarm, and reform societies, with a goal to impress the hope for a brighter future that their society represents onto the rest of Ingenseria and motivate others to strive for something better than violence.

Yet it is not without a sacrifice, indeed. Deeper investigation reveals more than their share of controversy and structural oddity. While activism can and does gain significant traction, there is much push-back in the name of patriotism and gratitude towards the Vigil that stunts its growth. Moreover, despite centuries of pushing, the Collective Criminal Investigation & Intelligence Agency, one of their central executive agencies, remains stalwart in adapting to attempts to regulate it. The Vigil has tightened its grasp on them over the centuries, but in no sufficient terms; its gaze is still felt over every citizen in every public location, and the depths of the [[Dispatcher]] swell with data about every citizen, whether its their family history, criminal history, biological signifiers, credentials. . .

The C.C.I.I.A. acts as a dangerously loose-cannon force against corruption, but a common public perception of their value in keeping the public safe combined with a legislative unwillingness to interfere in the operations of a force ostensibly battling corruption results in almost immunity on their part. Their unchecked zealotry has come to a head on several occasions, involving interdepartmental warfare and even firefights with the [[Interdimensional Code Authority]]. The C.C.I.I.A., however, does have value: it hunts corruption wherever it appears, just as willing to target members of the Vigil's highest council as it is lowly criminals. It is a relentless, harrowing specter that hunts anyone who dares abuse the Vigil's systems or its people, but itself abuses them to meet these ends.

More questions yet follow about the nature of the [[Argent Enclave]], the Vigil's ruling faction of purpose-built artificial intelligences that consume both its legislative and judicial branches. Seemingly detached from the rest of Vigil society and constructed and programmed mostly in secret by the Overseer, many regard them with suspicion. Despite their relatively clean ethics record, the shadowy nature of their inner machinations puts them in a perpetual and risky balancing act.

Even the Vigil's central mission is not without controversy within its borders. Concerns are raised and politicians struggle over the exact degree of control that is acceptable for the Vigil to exert over others, this discussion always rising and falling as too does the ebb and flow of the Vigil's endless stream of military conflicts. Are they really entitled to dictate what is right and wrong to others? Even in such dire times, when blood stains every planet and the optimal state of diplomacy is found in distant paranoid stares, who are they to act as judges of the galaxy?

Finally, there is the matter of criminality. In a time without scarcity in most things, criminality is motivated by three things—politics, avarice, and sometimes outright boredom. Whether it's ardent political dissidents forming armed militias, kingpins peddling experimental and unregulated substances, or simply thrillseekers chasing adrenaline and intrigue in its poorly-lit underbelly, the Vigil still deals with crime, and a lot of it. There are more terrorist organizations and conflicting political groups now than there ever have been in its history, as the Vigil grows larger and more almost dizzyingly complex in its structure and position in the galaxy.

Still, in all this there is an undisputed fact: the Vigil is, as of right now, the galaxy's only hope for true peace. Having discovered one of the only means of truly practical intergalactic travel that exist, their plans to provide structured intergalactic travel could spell the end of overpopulation in Ingenseria. Nonetheless, before the wound they seek to heal can truly close, they must root out the infection that has taken hold and clear the way.