In the sparsely populated edges of the Third Galaxy, a religious group developed after the 5th Galactic War. These were people who believed that the universe really was fundamentally about having bad things happen to people, and the best way to get through it was to be OK with that. Thus Zen Pessimism was born, with its multitudes referring obliquely to ancient Luminaries: Murphy (and his Law), Finagle (and his Law), and Hanlon (and his Razor).
Over the subsequent centuries, the followers of Zen Pessimism grew in numbers, becoming prolific in the empty spaces. Beings part of or drawn to Zen Pessimism find life on planets a weakening decadence, tending to lull people into a false sense of security and neglectful of the ever-present fundamental stupidity and malice of the universe. So, they tended to live nomadically either on lone ships or in great caravans, travelling between gravity wells where they gather raw materials for their industries, and using superluminal foraging to augment the years spent in transit through the voids.
The ZenPe's ended up "not playing well" with the rough-and-tumble mainstream of AIF society. This is mostly because one of the most influential Caliphs of the ZenPe had his Vizier alter himself and his family such that their nanoscopic robots and bodies were transformed into latent explosives. It was designed to be virtually tamper-proof, and to function that if they were to die or become suicidal they would detonate as a 1D intermediate scale blast with an effective range of 10m. The idea being that, "Yeah, shit happens. But if you make shit happen to me, shit will happen to you too." This became extremely popular, and eventually this modification became equivalent with ZenPe devotion. As a result, ZenPe's have a hard time getting into regular bars, adventurers tend to avoid ZenPe caravans, and ZenPe populations are uncommonly peaceful and polite.
A ZenPe is generally pretty readily distinguishable from other AIF beings. They wear head wrappings or turbans that are a giant weave of nanoscopic robots and robotic filaments, as their bodies need an additional source of nanoscopic robots their explosive physiology. Additionally, these wrappings can be used like simplified patches, providing one point of healing per application. Normally, a full turban will last a ZenPe for about a year, but combatant ZenPe can go through the 100 mini-patches much sooner. Additionally, the skin of a ZenPe is altered to permit prolonged exposure to vacuum, giving them a distinctively coarse and wrinkly appearance. This couples with their typical manner of instructing their nanoscopic robots to carry a surplus load of oxygen to permit several minutes of activity without breathing, or to survive a couple hours without breathing in a meditative trance. A ZenPe is also almost never without a tool kit and medical kit.