Shader Civilization

The Shaders are an intelligent alien civilization that lived (or lives) in the Shady Galaxy 7.3 billion lightyears away. They are the only other sentient beings known to exist in the universe, apart from humanity. Their status as of any point in time is a mystery as no forms of communication appear to be emanating from the galaxy, which itself (barring intervention) would have dissipated billions of years ago. 

Discovery

In the year -162 FA, an anomalous galaxy was discovered 7.3 billion light-years away unlike any before or after it: the Shady Galaxy, named for its peculiar asymmetrical illumination which came under immediate intensive analysis. A large part of the galaxy is dark on the visual spectrum, but gravitational observations suggest that the galaxy contains a typical volume and distribution of mass for a galaxy of the same implied size and type.

It had been theorized in centuries prior that unnatural dimming of observed stars could be the result of an advanced extraterrestrial civilization constructing massive dyson arrays around those stars to maximize energy collection. Another theorized method of detecting extragalactic civilizations was to scan galaxies for abnormal infrared radiation. The activities of any space-faring civilization related to all levels of energy expenditure could be expected to emit significant amounts of waste heat in the form of infrared radiation, which could be detectable.

Study

Less than a day after the Shady Galaxy’s discovery, a respective infrared scan concluded unequivocally that the galaxy contained an advanced alien civilization; the visually dark regions of the galaxy were found to be emitting infrared radiation several magnitudes greater than the typical background amount, indicative of large-scale industrialization.

The initial excitement and impact of the discovery was culture-shifting for the time, driving new waves of both excited determination and existential fear. Since then, countless projects continue to be conducted to find further evidence of advanced alien species, but thus far have all come up in vain. 

As for the Shader civilization, while relatively little information is able to be known about, some details might be inferred based on observable evidence. Some people suggest the civilization’s density distribution to be skewed with galactic rotation around a point outside the center, which could be the origin point for the civilization and evidence it has existed for long enough to have noticeably orbited the galactic center. Critics of this theory argue that there is not enough evidence to isolate such an observation from other arbitrary distributions. Warp waves have been proposed as a method for observation and communication, but this is not practical at distances beyond several million lightyears.

Present-Day State

The Shady Galaxy itself may be presumed to no longer exist as of the present day. The snapshot observation available through telescopes shows the galaxy as it was more than 7 billion years ago; it would have long since naturally dissipated since then, and the majority of the observable stars burned out long ago. These are however predictions based exclusively on natural systems, and cannot account for determined intervention.