Chapter 89 38:
As for the blue faction, or colloquially called "Viltrumite makers" in the original terminology, it represented the most extraordinary and, eventually, most tragic faction of the system devised by Argal.
Designed to assume control of technological innovation and infrastructure construction, this caste was responsible for the design and maintenance of the entire technological apparatus that sustained the Empire.
They had even been the pioneers in the creation of intelligent atom technology before that knowledge was confiscated from them by the medical faction.
From interstellar ships, psionic communication systems, gestation chambers, to planetary weapons and any existing technology within the empire; everything the Viltrumites used to maintain their interstellar dominion was the product of the intelligence and industriousness of the blue caste.
The importance of this faction for the Empire cannot be underestimated or replaced. It was the blue caste that allowed the Viltrumites to transcend the limitations of their home planet and venture into the vastness of interstellar space when Viltrumite optimization had not yet become as dominant as it is today.
The structure of the blue caste was unique within Argal's system, since it combined elements of intellectual meritocracy with the genetic hierarchy that characterized the rest of the Empire. Although genetic purity remained relevant for the assignment of roles within the caste, knowledge and technical skill also played a significant role in determining an individual's status.
Although one could not disregard the unpopularity it held within the Empire.
For according to historical reports, that blue caste had been responsible for the murder of Emperor Argal himself.
According to censored records (although it was a secret known by everyone), a traitor originating from this faction developed the only known material capable of harming a Viltrumite in a conventional manner, surpassing the natural resistance that intelligent atoms granted to the species.
This material, whose exact composition has been completely prohibited under penalty of death, was used to pierce the Great Emperor's skull, mortally wounding him until his eventual death.
The psychological impact of this event upon the collective Viltrumite psyche was devastating and long-lasting. The blue caste, which until then had been one of the most respected within the Empire, became stigmatized as the source of the betrayal that ended the founder's life.
During the period of chaos and fragmentation that followed Argal's death, known as the Great Purge, the blue caste emerged as one of the most motivated and dangerous factions in the struggle for power. Believing that the Empire's hierarchical structure required a fundamental revolution, the builders used their technological superiority to unleash a wave of unprecedented violence that would cause massive casualties among their own people.
The motivation of the blue caste during this period was complex and multifaceted. On one hand, their technology, the same technology that had been used to assassinate Argal, was now becoming the instrument of a revolution against the established order.
On the other hand, the stigma they had carried since the Emperor's assassination had turned them into pariahs within Viltrumite society, and many saw the revolution as an opportunity to redeem their honor and reclaim the place that corresponded to them within the imperial hierarchy, given that many were generally hybrid colonists who seemed to have no protection within the imperial system itself regarding mixed individuals.
The result of this ambition was catastrophic for the Viltrumite species as a whole.
The confrontations between factions, intensified by the superior technology of the builders, drastically reduced the Viltrumite population.
It was during this era that the number of genetic classes was drastically reduced, going from a much greater diversity to the current thirty classes.
This reduction represented not only a quantitative loss but a qualitative one as well, eliminating entire genetic lines and reducing the biological diversity of the species to dangerously low levels.
They were responsible for condemning their species to the brink of extinction.
The rise of Regent Thragg marked a turning point in the Empire's history and, in a particular way, in the fate of the blue caste. Thragg, whose strength was incomparable, achieved what no other Viltrumite had managed during the centuries of the Great Purge; to subdue all the belligerent factions and unify the Empire under a single centralized government.
And in the process, he ended up exterminating every hybrid of the species to prevent any other similar deviation. The last thing he desired was the "independence" of planets because the colonists used their Viltrumite gifts against the empire that oppressed them.
The process of unification was not peaceful. The blue caste, which had been the most active in the struggle for power during the Great Purge, offered the fiercest resistance to the authority of the new Regent. Their technology, although formidable, could not match Thragg's overwhelming power, who ultimately subdued them, exterminated 90% of their members—mostly hybrids—and forced the genetically pure survivors to surrender.
Despite their defeat, the blue caste was not eliminated.
Their technological knowledge was too valuable for the Empire, especially considering that galactic expansion depended greatly upon the advances this caste had developed so that they could be used by less developed colonists.
Thragg's decision to preserve the builders, although under strict surveillance and control, represented a compromise between the necessity of maintaining their knowledge and the pressing need to punish their betrayal. In the end, he chose the future of the Empire.
The blue caste was exiled from the planet Viltrum following the unification of the Empire, permanently confined to the fifteen moons of the solar system. Each moon functions as a technological penal colony where the builders live under strict surveillance, with the legal status of "makers of the Empire"; although everyone knows that anyone who wears the blue fauld is nothing more than a "perpetual convict."
This confinement imposes severe restrictions upon them; such as the prohibition of unauthorized reproduction, restricted movement, permanent surveillance, and no political representation, among other prohibitions that have condemned the faction as a whole.
The contempt toward the builders is shared across all castes, manifesting itself in official discourse, everyday relationships, and the collective imagination, where they are remembered as the "sinners of the Empire."
Paradoxically, the Empire depends absolutely upon their technology. From psionic communication to interstellar ships, all imperial infrastructure is the product of the blue caste. This dependency creates a tension in such a way that the builders are essential yet despised, necessary yet dangerous, functionally integrated, yet socially marginalized.
Given that they themselves have been responsible for the cultural rejection of technology within the Empire.
This has led to a preference for organic methods of exploration and development, encouraging the improvement of the race to eventually replace technology.
Therefore, the Viltrumites value natural interstellar flight over technological means, considering it an expression of the species' own might; the same applies to other aspects inherent to Viltrumite physiology itself.
However, that preference, although symbolically significant, cannot conceal the reality that the Empire survives thanks to the knowledge of those whom it has condemned to exile."