Post by zurajai on Jan 23, 2018 8:41:05 GMT
FACTION: The Dominions of Krem, Tyrant of Saxus
CAPITAL WORLD: Saxus (ʂaˈxuʂ)
Description: Saxus, a name derived from the Vonu (known collectively to the sector as Vroolese, Vroolish, and Vroolan) word for garden; the cruel irony of the name has no doubt failed to escape the station-world's masters. Saxus is a Vrool seeding world, catapulted from Vrool space centuries ago at just below the speed of light. Though nowhere near the most efficient system for expansion the Voorl elite have both the patience and lifespan to wait for the world's arrival. These Dark-Worlds (Argefosou) , so named due to their long travel through the lightless void of space, arrive (ideally) in predetermined star systems caught under the baleful gaze of the monstrous Vrool. Such projects require considerable time and effort and frequently such planetoids remain dark as they miss their mark by a fraction in interstellar terms and a hurled ever deeper into nothingness. Nonetheless, such expenditures are considered worth it to any Vrool Tyrant worth their weight in warm-bloods; nothing is lost beyond the resources used to launch he small body in the first place.
Saxus was not Krem's by right. Saxus was launched five centuries ago, predating Krem's birth by nearly three hundred Vroolish years. Saxus arrived on schedule and on target, a testament to the augurs employed by its intended master, and was entirely ready to fully colonized as it hurtled through the solar system towards the large gas giant it was expected to orbit. The earliest construction vessels had already arrived, many of whom being automated, and began assembling their payloads before the arrival of the incoming Tyrant spawn. Instead came Krem. Driven forward aboard two ferociously armed cruisers, Krem and his retainers successfully crushed all resistance on Saxus and took the rogue planetoid for their own. As new vessels arrived to finish construction their crews were taken captive; the slaves aboard were put to work, the automatons were reprogrammed, and their Vrool overseers were either forced to swear allegiance to Krem's household or be hacked into pieces and thrown into the feed vats.
Saxus, now in orbit around the large gas giant renamed by its overlords to Sau, is a veritable forest of ready-made fortifications and prefab factories. Despite the cookie cutter design the habitation cubes, the weapon emplacements, and the smoke-belching machinery of The Garden, it is no doubt a ferociously dangerous and unassailable fortress now sitting dead center in the sector. Saxus is home to nearly a billion slaves, millions of their Voorl masters, and untold numbers of mechanical homunculi that labor, fight, and serve the Tyrant without question. No matter what has been done to the surface of Saxus it remains a lifeless rock, plucked from its host world light years away and thrown into a dangerous and lonely sector, a warrior-orphan for Krem to drive ever forward.
CAPITAL STATION: Nouvaig
STATION LOCATION: In orbit over Saxus
CRUISER: Aopoa
Armor - Rank 2 (3 Slots)
Torpedo Tubes - Rank 3 (3 Slots)
Light Batteries - Rank 2 (2 Slots)
Carrier Bay - Rank 1 (1 Slot)
Point Defenses - Rank 1 (1 Slot)
GOVERNMENT SYSTEM:
The Dominions of Krem is, entirely, an extreme despotic autocracy ruled completely by the individual Vrool tyrant, Krem. Krem, of the House of Klar, Thirteenth Trueborn Spawn of the Tyrant Karn, holds the title of Tyrant as per Vroolish feudal traditions All other titles, including that of Despot, are secondary to the primary, Imperially-recognized title of Tyrant and entirely up to the autocrat's decisions. As with all Vrool Tyrants, Krem is a viciously individualistic and self-serving creature who rules his own budding stellar domain with an iron tentacle. All decisions and matters of state are wholly decided by the Tyrant. Close at heart to the Tyrant are a number of (vaguely) trust supporters, confidants, and cronies who willingly serve the Tyrant for their own benefit. This "small council" of sorts is made up of Warlock-Alchemists, viziers, warrior-retainers, slavers, and overseers of the highest quality. Each has gained considerably at the hands of their Tyrant and have even more to lose if another Tyrant (with other friends) came to power. In this way the semi-feudal system of the Voorl maintains itself as the "weak" flock to the strong and maintain order and cohesion entirely through self-service and sparse mentions of house loyalty.
As a newly formed despotate the exact government functions of Krem's stellar empire is currently under development. All slaves currently owned within the Dominions are of home-system stock, having been brought to this cluster alongside Krem or taken from the original, intended rulers of Saxus. As such, a multitude of species can be identified among the slave-stock serving the Voorl with little to no representation of local populations (yet). Due to the small size of his dominions Krem has so far neglected to grant feudal holdings to lesser lordlings and, with no family to speak of inhabiting this area of the galaxy, is unlikely to do so until his first clutches have spawned. For now the two holdings held by Krem are kept close to heart, purging any lasting dissent from those Voorl "adopted" by his house during the aftermath of Saxus' takeover and collecting to him his full set of sycophants and advisers to begin ruling his new realms in earnest.
CULTURE:
Vrool culture is centered around a number of early historical events that forever altered both Vroolish history and the Vrool themselves. According to their pseudo-theological traditions the Vrool creator gods were both cruel and dominating. During these early periods within the Vrool psyche they were the targets of enslavement and control by these powerful deities who unleashed all manner of magics and constructs upon the aquatic species in a bid to make them more servile. In an unsurprising act of reprisal the Vrool rose up and defeated their overlords, enslaving them and working them to death before devouring their corpses. Religious records aside, it has been clear with modern technologies and study that the Vroolish gods of old were extraterrestrial lifeforms that had arrived upon Vo intent to uplifting the Vrool for their own interests. As such, the basis of all early Vroolish technology come from the resources and assets secured during an ancient Vrool uprising against their supposed masters.
Since the time of their so-called creators the Vrool have changed little. By in large due to their entirely carnivorous diet, the Vrool filled their current niche as intelligent lifeforms entirely through the meddling of foolish scientists. Their society, then, no doubt accurately represents both the fractious nature of the Vrool and their rapid jump to technological supremacy completely unrelated to their own development. Vrool society is one of constant conflict and domination where social order is formed through both non-violent and violent displays of power over other individuals. In all situations, bar none, an unspoken hierarchy is created whenever two or more individual Vrool enter the same shared space that can (and occasionally does) be formed through violent altercations when unfamiliar individuals meet. With social groupings a completely alien concept to Vroolish evolutionary pressures, all Vrool are viciously individualistic and antagonistic to all who oppose their own personal gain.
Though not strictly religious most Vrool can be categorized as vehemently superstitious. Technology, despite the reverence afforded to it by the Vrool, is viewed with considerable caution and fear. Respect and apprehension is heaped upon the use of complex technologies with Warlock-Alchemists trusted to maintain, create, and offer advice on its use. The Warlock-Alchemists serve as vaguely trustworthy confidants and advisers to Tyrants and other higher members of the Vroolish civilization. Their interest and subsequent skill with technology provides a small element of immunity to the Warlocks, allowing for them to focus primarily on their research, experimentation, and the depths of their arcane sciences.
Slavery and dominion over other species (the so-called Warm-Bloods, Fleshlings, and more) is viewed as the natural state of life; the Vrool are mighty and the warm-bloods are not. As carnivores the Vrool are known to eat slaves that do not keep up with demands (though the eating of live stock is far more common due to the inherent value in able bodied, intelligent laborers). There are many ways for slaves to ingratiate themselves to their masters, either as skilled craftsmen, soldiers, or even pleasure slaves. By nature the Vrool are consistently self-obsessed and the less willful and more stupid have been known to be played by their favored property or confidants like fiddles; with the right words or actions any commandment of a foolish Vrool can be stayed indefinitely. Despite these potential avenues for success slavery underneath the Vrool is particularly unpleasant. Cruelty is a skill well honed by the twelve-limbed terrors and to tempt their ire is to play with fire. On Saxus and other dark-worlds or prefabbed facilities the living conditions can be considered moderate to good (for a slave), with facilities intended for populations far greater than what was brought as a plan for the future. Until such a time that the avenues of a dark world is bustling from conquests slaves are free to enjoy more space, a greater level of autonomy, and even some of the creature comforts endemic to sapient life (so long as it does not impede with their duties).
Much of Vroolish culture is derived from what they have perceived. Gender, a concept that should be particularly alien to the hermaphroditic race, was absorbed into the Vrool consciousness with glee as a new and exciting form of hierarchical domination. Modern Vrool tend to identify themselves with concepts tied to the warm-blood idea of masculinity as, from these traits, the Vrool see strength, power, and fear all in one entirely edible package. Within couplings to create spawn one Vrool must take on the role of female, a negative quality, as the more dominant of the pair assigns itself the higher position. The Vrool relish the words heaped on them by other species like dictator, tyrant, or despot; each is a sign of dominion and power and surely should be gathered to themselves like laurels. Even the concept of sexuality is viewed with excitement as Vrool associate such things with a perception of power and authority; so many kings of so many worlds that have been made to bow had prized possessions in the form of beautiful individuals laying about their chambers, so why should the Vrool not have the same?
The Vrool maintain their birth rates with considerable care and attentiveness in a way almost complete alien to their usual behaviors. For the vast majority of the lowborn Vrool the natural conflicts between Vrool young do not occur. Clutches are separated upon being laid and are placed into birthing pods with the individual Vrool gestated and birthed from them. These Vrool lowborn spawn, known to the upper class by a number of slurs such as Vat-Born or Podders. Due to being imprisoned in birth away from their clutch in order to maintain population, lowborn Vrool are born considerably less sizable than their upper class overlords. The upperclass Vrool are left to grow as normal, allowed to cannibalize their fellow spawnmates as much as possible to stimulate growth and power. In many ways, this practice advantages the upper class Vrool immediately; the Trueborn Vrool are born large, ferociously powerful, and more developed upon reaching maturation.
HISTORY:
It was the will of Krem that brought the Vrool to the Local Cluster and it is the will of Vrool that will make them stay. Krem was spawned by the ruler of the House of Klar, so called Karn. He was born in the third clutch of Karn's spawnings, designated thirteenth Trueborn of the Tyrant. For nearly a century Krem tirelessly worked to support his own ends, gathering to him trustworthy(ish) retainers, numerous slaves, and many, many favors. Krem had realized early on that he would never inherit from Karn with so many siblings ahead of him; if he slew all but one, he would still have only done his brother's work for him and simply given his younger siblings a greater reason to slay him. It was through a Warlock-Alchemist known as Dis who came into Krem's service that the burgeoning Tyrant learned of the existence of a dark-world hurtling through space to a location far from the center of the Empire. The Dark-World, Saxus, had been launched by the House of Zorn several centuries before with the intent to expand their admittedly small (at the time) realm. With this knowledge at his command, Krem had a workable plan to claim his own stellar empire; it would not be easy, but it had to be done for the good of ALL things (for what foolish creature would not want to serve the will of Krem?).
Krem worked tirelessly to acquire the assets and support he needed to accomplish his task. To his sire, venerable and terrifying Karn, Krem said little; he would be taking ships out into unknown space on a venture to acquire lands in his own name. Such missions of conquest were normal and common for those individuals far from inheritance. Karn demanded one thing of his spawn. Too receive his sire's blessing Krem would carry the name of the House of Klar rather than found his own house. For now, Krem could abide this annoying requirement. With that Krem was allowed to take the military assets from his personal holdings rather than submit them to his sire. Each of Krem's non-military assets were liquidated or traded for more material and manpower for the journey, with his personal fortress sold off to fund the creation of two Cruisers, the Aopoa and the Dzor. With legions of soldiers and a flotilla of cruisers at his command, Krem set forth on his conquest.
Saxus was intercepted upon arrival in the Local Cluster by Krem's host after several years of repeated FTL jumps. The House of Zorn had sent its roving ships to detect whether or not the Dark-World had succeeded in arriving at the expected location and swiftly set about preparing the planetoid for colonization. Just before the Ansible station necessary for sending calls back to the home world of the Zorn was sent, Krem's forces struck. Despite the early state of Saxus' defenses, Krem found the conquest of the Dark-World as difficult as he predicted. The Dzor was highly damaged in the engagement with the surface defenses of the fledgling fortress and was forced to land upon the surface. From this stronghold the numerous legions of Krem overwhelmed the defenders. Saxus swiftly fell after the landing of the Dzor and the surviving population of Zorn Vrool were swiftly expunged or forced to swear loyalty to Krem (and NOT the House of Klar). With the planet conquered the invaders swiftly deployed their numerous colony-ships and pre-fab facilities to finish the development of the Dark-World. No message was sent back to the Empire, giving the immediate assumption that (as practically half of all dark-worlds do) Saxus was lost.
With Saxus under his control, Krem quickly and viciously locked down his status as Tyrant. Most, if not all, Highborn Vrool were slain on Saxus to remove any chance of opposing claims to his dominion. The numerous slaves brought with Krem or taken from Saxus were set to work activating the infrastructure and defenses of Krem's new stronghold. Saxus was to be the House of Klar's foothold in the Local Cluster but, in truth, it would be the seat of Krem's new power. Though new to region, Krem came well armed and well equipped to take up arms to claim his sphere of influence.
MILITARY:
Manning the emplacements and battlements of Saxus come the legions of the Vrool; numerous and ferocious, they are without equal in the galaxy. Alongside their Vroolish masters come auxiliary hosts of the robotic homunculi, numberless and without fear or fatigue. Supporting both are the lockstep cohorts of organic slaves who've escaped their toil to gain favor and glory alongside their masters at the price of their forms and minds, augmented by the Warlocks to serve their masters ever better. Even the unwashed hordes of slaves, dredged up from their hovels, can be thrown into the meat grinder if circumstances call for their sacrifice; after all, if but one Vrool lives a million slaves can be taken in the future.
Biology has conspired to make the Vrool monsters. They are massive, horrendously strong, and possessed of a violent cunning unsurpassed by any species yet identified during their conquests. Yet, they are not numerous for their fractious society breeds internecine conflict and unending competition. The Vrool, instead, serve the roles reserved for machines and bio-beasts crafted by other races. A single Vrool bedecked in a hardsuit and armed with a panoply of weapons can serve decimate warm-blood armor. One piloting one of their devilish craft can hunt aircraft with the same efficiency they hunted their prey in the seas of their home world. The Vrool are the armor, the artillery, the gunships called for support; in every way but literal, violence is their god and strife their shepherd. It is no wonder that some slaves seek so desperately to mimic them in all their fearsome grandeur.
The unending armies of infantry that must march alongside the cephalopoidal monstrosities are as numerous as they are diverse. Species from all over the clusters ravaged by the Vrool in distant space can be seen marching in lockstep, shoulder to shoulder. In perhaps the ultimate irony of their race, the Vrool have done more to bring the numerous species of the galaxy together more than any single other organism ever has. Some, due to their ever intensifying levels of augmentation, have served as soldiers for the Vrool for generations and have long outlived their normal stock and even many Vrool. It takes a very particular kind of individual to serve and flourish among the Vrool but those that do earn a modicum of respect from even the most stoic and cruel of the tentacled horrors they fight beneath, for if there is one thing a Vrool respects it's someone who emulates the Vrool. Alongside these vicious turncoats come faceless, mindless, unending legions of the homunculi. These creatures of synthetic flesh, plastic, ceramic and metal are made in the image of the client races of the Vrool who have earned a place serving beneath them, relatively immune to their cruelties. This level of respect is one of the few kindnesses provided by the horrendous race as they induct not the children of these more well-treated property but their shape itself. It is a most horrendous crime to create unlife in the form of the Vrool but a most worthy honor to make it in the shape of a race that has willingly bowed to their machinations.
Vroolish weaponry is terrifying to behold; heat-rays that erupt the afflicted into billows of superheated dust and fragments to burn and scald those nearby, micro-filament net launchers designed to maim and butcher, and heat-seaking, rocket propelled, miniaturized homunculi-drones that burrow and gnash. Thermobaric death-rays form the center of Vroolish ground based weaponry but all manner of ferocious things have been created by the Warlocks most curious about destruction. Hard-suits, a form of power armor, are commonly worn by Vrool in the field just as the knights of ancient Europe rode into battle bedecked in plate, immune to the arms of the peasants they shepherded into battle. Some are even equipped with storage pods equipped on the back of the armor for infantry to embark on. Kill-Spheres and Attack-Prisms serve the role of conventional armor for the Vrool, each piloted by a single Vrool jacked into the device through their nervous system. With their tentacles nerve-clipped into direct feeds, Vrool pilots receive 360 degrees of sensory contact through the hulls of the geometric war-harnesses and have complete control over the recessed weaponry ready to spring forth and target enemies at all angles. The greatest of Vrool pilots are terrors to behold as they unleash vicious coronas of death around them while crashing their vessels into the lesser machines of the enemy unscathed and bloodied, hungry for more.
Species:
The Vrool are carnivorous duodecapods (twelve limbs) born from the briny seas of their homeworld, Vo. Vrool, being entirely carnivorous, are voracious hunters and powerfully built to survive and thrive in their natural habitats. The Vrool are (in practical terms) biologically immortal beyond the interference of outside forces and continue to grow their entire lives (although this process slows with increased age). Due in large part to meddling by fools long lost to history, the Vrool species was uplifted from the slow witted ocean-going super-predators they were to the self-proclaimed apex predators of the galaxy. Like many terrestrial cephalopods, the Vrool are entirely without bones and support their structure with a number of bladders and literally tons of muscle. Characterized particularly by their voracious and expansive appetite, the slaves of the Vrool know well to stay away from the business end of a Vrool beak. Of their twelve limbs, four forward facing, central limbs are considered to be "manipulator limbs" while the remaining eight are "locomotive limbs". Each limb is home to a decentralized packet of neural tissue, similar in a sense to portions of a human brain, which provide the individual limbs a considerable amount of self-sufficiency and perception. Their historical sluggish wits were famously attributed to their exothermic (cold-blooded) cardiovascular system which failed to harness enough heat to use their brains to full capacity which has since been rectified through augmetics.
Vrool are born from clutch fully active and predatory. During this time in their development the Vrool have no level of sentience and, in fact, have yet to grow a fully developed nervous system. Vrool spawn, in this sense, can be described as living maws that exist entirely to feed. A spawn consists of the beak, which will grow consistently throughout its life, a mostly fully formed digestive and cardiovascular system, and all twelve limbs alongside the neural tissue within. Those many lowborn Vrool are not allowed such natural growth, removed from their clutch upon hatching. These spawn are grown in growth pods till adolescence. All Vrool, upon reaching adolescence, are hermaphroditic and are capable of taking on either reproductive role. It is also during this period in which the four additional eyes of the Vrool develop, sideways facing and designed for non-predatory purposes. From then on the Vrool will continue to grow, as long as it is well fed, and will only die if slain at the hands of slaves, fellow Vrool, or organ failure and disease.
In addition to the endothermic reactors surgically implanted into the bell of nearly all Vrool a vast array of augmentations are employed by the Vrool to make up for shortcomings in their biology or increase their already prodigious strengths. The wealthier, more powerful, or more intelligent a Vrool is the more augmentations they gain access too, either purchased from trusted Warlock-Alchemists or assembled by tentacle for their own use. A Vocoder, the second most common of Vroolish cybernetic implants, is used to increase the communication capabilities of the Vrool. Such devices allow the Vrool to master all manner of languages which could, hypothetically, be used to speak any language perfectly; the Vrool, of course, much prefer to set their personal voices to loud, grating mockeries of the warm-blood tongues. Processing units, vision enhancers, liquid-dispersal equipment, augmetic limbs, and even anti-grav generators all can be found nestled within the hulking, adipose bodies of the Vrool.
Point Purchases:
-- Capital Structure: Mega-Infrastructure (10 Points)
-- Capital Structure: Clean System (10 Points)
-- Megafreighter (5 Points)
