The O are perhaps one of the most elusive unique cultures in the cluster, they are a Nomadic people that rely heavily on GELF that they cultivate themselves. The O have been known to put children as young as five years old into the juvenile GELF suits that mature as they do. Because of this O youths are often comparable to military survival specialists in terms of their practical experience. Perhaps this is why pubescent O can often be found living solitary existences quite comfortably, even in hazardous environments or outright hostile cultures. Some theorize that the prevalence of errant O youth indicates a cultural or religious rite of passage, alternatively it might be illustrative of a restrictive cultural hegemony that excludes members for perceived transgressions.
Their appears to be no formal O governance to speak of no armies, no fleets, no known homeworld for them to defend either. Estimates to their numbers are highly debated in academic circles but there are certain things that have been gleamed through careful observation. O sightings in censuses and security reports appear to follow a pattern, every 13 years or so there are noted reductions. The O recede into the periphery of temple space and reemerge in greater numbers. These groups were originally thought to be familial or perhaps they serve a reproductive function but recent research calls this into doubt. The largest numbers O are seen in their transient funerary rites. These rites are often one of greatest sources of observation and information we have on the O. When an O dies their body will be collected and brought to and brought to a place they have specified or a place of significance. Once their the O will wait for more of their kind to gather and make arrangements with locals to permit their gathering. They pay incredibly well to have their members buried as close to their desired spot as possible and their many stories where the O will buy a building or land specifically to ensure the rest of the departed will not be disturbed. They have also been known to exchange favors or offer their services to secure these funeral sites. Failing that the O on occasion have been known to threaten or violently assault uncooperative siteholders.
Assuming the site is secured the assembled O will tell stories and reminisce while the cadaver usually preserved in their GELF suit is propped up. These exchanging of stories and song have been observed to take weeks and during that time the O will not break from leaving the body. They may also fast during this or abstain from water, others even appear to lay motionless by the body for that time. They are able to do this with the aid of their insect-like GELF suits that grant them the ability to go incredibly long periods of time without food or water. After this time the O will bury the body and plant into it an “O-tree” or “O-hive” this is believed to be dependant on the gender of the deceased. The saplings grow over into an adult O-tree, while the O-hives grow steadily into a towering insect mound. Both can eventually cover kilometers creating entire groves or complex hive systems. Its common for O to visit these sites throughout their lives and O women often elect to give birth at these sites. O will even expand and cultivate these sights on occasion, themselves eating local flora and fauna and using their suits to create an incredibly nutrient dense soil. Sufficiently large or well tended sites may be used by the O to grow their GELF suits as well. Much of the time these sites are empty however, although lone O are known to tend the largest sites near permanently.
Beyond this scant little is truly known about the O, this has unfortunately led to a great deal of mistrust or outright enmity towards them. Cultures like the Gystlians Leasehold, The Yscenics and the Averi have often clashed with the O for many different reasons. Some believe the O are Biological weapons or descendents of the Lha’Maggeans that scoured hundreds of worlds in the recrudescence. Rumors of them worshiping alien insect gods, partaking in cannibalistic rites and kidnapping children are as common as they are unfounded. But there are some odd phenomena that can lend insight into why the O might have such reputations. Firstly the O are singularly deadly warriors, the GELF bow cultivated across the cluster are flash cloned degenerative copies of O GELF bows. When threatened they are quick to strike out and flee and unfortunately this has contributed a great deal to their infamy. The O rarely eat or drink, O also appear to be able to speak every language with eerie degrees of fluency, whilst their language appears to be furtively guarded secret by them. Moreover they only speak to those that offer them tributes, gifts or other trinkets even under threat of violence or torture they will not speak unless offered a tribute. In any case these tributes are rarely accepted, they appear to follow no coherent valuation, the O don't appear to want anything in particular. Even then they do speak, preferring instead to listen and don't volunteer much about themselves or their people. Perhaps another reason why the O are mistrusted is that they can seemingly call upon near absurd amounts of wealth. This has lead to accusations of stealing or other forms of misappropriation but by any metric the O appear to be very law abiding. The more likely explanation is that their requirements for their lifestyles are so minimal that they can store large amounts of wealth quickly. The O also appear to place massive significance on their GELF suits, if they are ever removed they become distressed and quickly unresponsive. Its hypothesized the only time O would remove their suits is during reproduction and childbirth.
There is one other practice attributed to the O that is a more legitimate concern, if their groves are harmed or destroyed the O have been known to pursue those responsible. This is not always necessarily violent but their aim is clearly to punish the transgressing individuals. People that have experienced this have mentioned being stalked, having their property destroyed, having their reputations ruined and countless other personalized torments. In more extreme cases murders, torture and any other kind of violence imagineable might be carried out on the unlucky offender. This has also been known to extend to animals or entire ecosystems that threaten their groves, the O descend upon them killing, eating and converting all life down to the microbial layer into singularly rich fertile soil. This has earnt the O derogatory term of “Locusts” which is used widely across the cluster. However the soil made in this destructive process is so prized that many trade with the O for it, weapons, ships and MOA are commonly exchanged for bags of O soil. The Venti republic use it to culture incredibly potent biofuels, the Averi manufacture unique pharmaceuticals from it and countless farmers and agriculturalists attest to its crop yield boosting potential across the cluster.
O Amournauts tend to work as solitary operators for small contracts, they are direct and uncompromising with their objectives and aim to complete them as swiftly as possible. The O should only be engaged with superior arms or numbers are certain as even unarmed they are more dangerous than most apex predators.