Pholi society

Exceptional powers of the current Pholi Civilization

Though the Pholi exist seemingly in a primitive state, it is actually thought that this civilization is post-technological, having reached a stage long ago where the kinds of technologies the Federation is currently familiar with has advanced beyond any kind of physical existence, the Pholi still are capable of a great number of marvels which to our current understanding appear as magic. Though they are reticent to reveal their true abilities or to their past star-faring times, some evaluation has been made to ascertain what current abilities they possess.

Interplanetary travel

Though the Pholi exist in simple settlements, or dispersed as nomadic tribes on their colonies, they seemingly have retained the ability to travel between these worlds. The method of travel has never been observed, nor any unusual phenomena been detected from orbit. The only evidence that this transport exists is that some individual Pholi have been met on many Colony worlds with no record of any Federation transport. The most likely method that they are exploiting is wormhole technology or something allied to it, and the number of termini the Pholi have must be quite numerous as their settlements are small, and dispersed and if they do journey between their worlds then they could no do so through single large complexes as these would have been surely discovered.

Control of their appearance

Perhaps the most well known fact about the Pholi is their ability to freely choose their own physical form, though most encounters with the Pholi will meet with variations on a kind of willowy biped, they have also been observed in distinctly different forms, or even to mimic the Federation races. In has been ascertained that the Pholi are one single race, and not a multitude by observations showing them change their shape (which is a seamless kind of morphing), though it would not be entirely unlikely if there are other races mixed in with them (but as their society is the same, these distinction are perhaps unnecessary). Because no detailed analysis has been performed on Pholi anatomy and biochemistry (they decline testing, and discrete covert testing has never worked) it is unknown how they achieve these transitions, the popular theory is that are perhaps not composed of matter (which would explain why nothing works on them) and existing as such they are free to simulate their apparent physical form in any way they like.

Ship building

During the Mawa-Rei wars the Pholi demonstrated that they could create enormous starships, and the Federation Fleet has a few notable vessels ‘donated’ to them by the Pholi (an assumption). The produced vessels appeared around Corten on the eve of the true conflict, and still are perhaps the most massive vessels in the Federation fleet, they were originally assumed to be some mothballed relics the Pholi had put by, but when these ships were boarded (no Pholi found aboard) the technology and designs found were at the cutting edge of Federation research, they were extensions of the Federation’s state of the art, and the craft were obviously recently built, rather than ancient machines. The motive behind creating these vessels is unknown, they were pressed into service for the Mawa-rei wars, the Pholi seemed to have no objection to their use, nor any interest to how they were used, most of the vessels however contained groups of Pholi who had requested a place aboard, as the Federation felt it had certain obligations owed no questions were raised and the Pholi were transported aboard.

The method of manufacture is thought to be nanite, or perhaps a few technological leaps beyond, they were seemingly built in extreme short timescales (perhaps as little as a few hours), and the source of material for the construction is unknown, perhaps indicating they have some advanced IMD like devices. All the Pholi ships remain in service, their designs being fully Federation in nature has meant that modules can be swapped out and replaced as in any other vessel. The Pholi have made no requests for their toys back, nor do they seem to want to build any more ships, the created vessels therefore must have been made a at time when the Pholi thought there was a need for them.

Manipulation of the natural forces on large scales

Very, very rarely the Pholi have demonstrated the ability to freely manipulate the nature of physics around them, though the cases are singular and no common theme seems to be apparent the effect is that the Pholi really can do what they want on any scale. The most interesting example of this ability is how the planetary systems of the Pholi worlds have been sculpted, though a lot of the suspicious sculpting could be attributed to the work of the Pholi long ago, perhaps not in their current state, their remains many things which can not be explained other than by continuous intervention. The asteroids and comets within Pholi systems all fall in orbits that would never endanger any of their planets, though this is a seemingly modest achievement, the chaotic nature of the orbits of these bodies would change over time, and readjustment would have to be made.