So I was looking at the Endless Legend art book some more, specifically the section on the Morgawr, and there's a bit of text saying the devs know who and what they are, but are hoping we, the community, can piece it together ourselves.

Well, I have a theory.

First, the facts. The Morgawr are seemingly hive-minded and possibly an amalgamation of other species put together. The art book also says they could be the result of something different which spent too much time underwater. The Fomorians occupy the sea fortresses, appear to have similar body shape to some Morgawr, and have glowing blue lights/smoke eminating from inside their bodies, much like the Broken Lords, hinting they may be virtualized. Finally, the Riftborn are not of this universe, brought into it by a Dust explosion which tore a hole between our universe and theirs.

So, last night I was doing a solo playthrough of Endless Legend and as I was exploring sea ruins I came upon a quest. This quest spoke of a Fomorian shrine dedicated to the memory of when their ancestors were "banished from the sky to live beneath the seas." So their ancestors were once space-faring. To me, this also says the Morgawr are what is left of their ancestors.

Additionally, in numerous quests which contain images of Fomorians, we can see strange red ribbons floating off of them. Ribbons which look suspiciously a lot like the ribbons on the Riftborn. Now, the Riftborn don't usually have legs, but they are adept at adapting to new environments, so I see no reason why being trapped in a terrestrial existence wouldn't force them to develop some form of ground-based locomotion. Especially, perhaps, if they had been guinea pigs for early virtualization experiments which may have diminished their ability to float.

Thus is my theory. The Riftborn we know came out of an accident, clearly. Their lore says so. But I believe the Endless were kidnapping members of their species for years, maybe centuries, before their decline and experimenting on them on Auriga. They kept the labs for Riftborn experimentation specifically underwater, and the ones that survived virtualization experiments were placed above the seas on the forts. The ones who did not... adapted.

I still have questions though. Why did the Morgawr develop psychic abilities? How did they do so? Were they also a product of Endless experimentation?

I am curious what others think of my theory.

endless space 2 and by extention the introduction of riftborn into the endless galaxy only happend after the events in endless legend, so your theory can't be correct simply because the riftborn haven't been around long enough.

I realize that, but like I said above, I theorize the Endless themselves found a way to enter the Riftborn dimension, capture members of their species, and bring them to the Endless Universe for experiements, all long before the Riftborn's official entry into the Endless Universe. Considering what else the Endless have done, I wouldn't put kidnapping above them.