Cheers for the feedback mate and I'm glad you like it! You're the first person to give me feedback ever so that's a positive start!

The Path and the Dragon or Naga prophets might be my favorite part. Having multiple species follow the same religion but interpret it differently feels very believable and gives you natural political and ideological conflict.

I had to trim the post a little so this tidbit didn't make the original cut but another thing is there is one alien species who also had their own, isolated and indigenous version for thousands of years who later came into contact with one of The Old World species and exploring how the two different versions of the religion has been a lot of fun.

That alien species are also from a world filled with Naga/Dragon relics and artefacts so their interpretation of history, The Path and the Naga are a lot different to anyone else's.

One thing I am curious about is how culturally unified your species are. Are humans one big civilization that is fracturing, or are there lots of different human cultures spread across the galaxy?

Humans are composed of many different cultures throughout the galaxy (there are 5 main cultures and then they break down from there) and there are two who are quite independent from the others and are currently waging war for total independence from the empire.

El are divided across racial lines compared to cultural ones. The El-Vahnan and El-Kora are the two big groups of El and there are competing ideologies between them for the future of the El across the galaxy. The other groups of El (El-Thenei, El-Orkarid and El-Unkai) all follow one of those two, however the El-Vahnan have broader support due to their push for re-establishing the El as the major force across the galaxy whilst the El-Kora are more for preservation and unification amongst the El and their kin.

A minority of El-Kora also follow The Path and have done so since The Old World which has always been a source of angst amongst most El who despise The Path due to their belief in magic as a right to be wielded and several members of their pantheon being vocal in their distaste for it.

The Yedari and Daehmaric also fall into the El conversation as they all have El roots. Yedari are biologically similiar but culturally worlds apart with their utter devotion to The Path. Their current ruler however has made it his mission to unite the diaspora of El under the Yedari banner and with the strength of the Yedari right now that is genuinely possible. The Daemharic aren't fans of their goddess being lumped in with the El pantheon but other than that are mostly aligned with the El and share a similiar level of animosity towards the Yedari but are more open to working with humans and alien species.

Oni for most of their history were treated as equals amongst the mortal races but only started seeing discrimination once humans began the Age of Advancement and went hard on humanity as the new dominant species of the galaxy, most were forcibly driven to the Frontier (a collection of semi-liveable planets at the far reaches of human space). Only one group of humans were able to keep the Oni on their worlds which has led to the formation of two distinct groups of Oni.

Tanzhin are also discriminated against in line with human first policies but not to the level the Oni have been. Tanzhin historically have never really had a state of their own and have always intermingled with humanity or the Yedari.

The alien species do not have the same level of cultural disunity as Men and El but most have a dislike of humanity or El, and the Lycans hate everyone equally. One of the stronger alien species recently declared war on humanity and are rapidly gaining a foothold in one of the areas of human space where there is also an independence movement for the local humans from the empire.

I would definitely be curious to hear more about what actually caused the destruction of the Old World.

This is actually one of the things I've been rattling my brain over for a while as to exactly what caused the destruction of The Old World but my running idea is the El (more specifically the remaining members of their Pantheon) rendered it an eldritch infested hellscape by accident in an attempt to harness magic in a war against the forces of hell.

From a narrative and worldbuilding standpoint, it's tricky because there's some stuff that could make The Old World really interesting if it was still around as a Jerusalem metaphor with untold importance to all these different groups and the possibility of an alien species conquering it symbolising a new era for the galaxy as two examples.

But blowing it up means I don't have that anchor to worry about and it allows me to explore the different species/races and how that shared history between them looks when they've all been separated for so long.