Building Up - Breaking Down

The Cheldrun didn't so much land, as they crashed into Karia. The ships designed for atmospheric travel had been lost during the Flight, leaving them only 117 of the deep space Behemoths, which were never meant to land on a planet's surface. Rather than take years to disembark the hundreds of thousands of people aboard each ship by shuttle, and knowing that they never intended to return to the stars again, the Cheldrun decided just to crash into the largest landmass on Karia Vitalus.

Or someone decided. They presume. It's hard to tell.

Hard to tell because the Cheldrun were at that very moment in the midst of a political revolution. Many Biomade and Mechified had grown tired of the Saishi and the maintenance of the status quo by constant appeals to tradition. Throughout the Flight the protocols of Galactic Military Order had kept social unrest under control and everyone recognized the need, under the circumstances for a certain rigidity in the structure. Perhaps it was an aggravated kind of cabin fever which burst the seams of the strained and desperate society so far from its roots, but the first casualty of the uprising were the Saishi, Allskin privilege and racial unity.

The Allskin hold that the Saishi were the glue holding Cheldrun together in a common society. Whether they are right or not, that common society was completely dissolved by the time they had landed on Karia. On each ship, factions were forming, behind persuasive and intelligent Biomade leaders. Upon arrival each faction set out like conquistadors into the jungle determined to carve out a niche for themselves. There was much bloodshed and distrust among the factions, and the Allskins who had mostly refused to ally with any side were abused by all.

This state of affairs did not last long. First, these Cheldrun factions encountered the Karians. Both sides terrified and completely unable to communicate, sadly most of these initial encounters were violent events that ended poorly for the Karians. Second, the Allskins recovered their use of the First Mind Mechas. While on board the starship they had been unable to utilize the Mecha in their own defense. With a little time on the surface and some practice, the first new generation of Mecha pilots began to make their impact felt. They would never be able to reestablish the old society, but neither would the Biomade and Mechified be able to push them around with impunity.

Those first few years were disastrous. A few of the factions which set off into the jungle failed completely, disappearing without a trace - usually during a storm. Others established small self-governed cities built from the parts of their former starships, and tried with limited success to discover what native plant species were edible and to cultivate them. In areas where the Cheldrun were able to make even temporary peace with a local Karian tribe they fared better. Mostly peace eluded them. The second winter on Karia, a Jevumm offensive resulted in thousands of Cheldrun deaths.

Eventually, certain cities began to grow and surpass others in strength and productivity. When the casual warfare between cities was beginning to get too costly, the Allskin families stepped in and established Academies where Mecha Pilots were trained for gladiatorial combat. They offered to resolve conflicts between cities through ritualized single combat in order to spare lives. Most cities accepted. Those cities with the best Academies and most natural resources grew quickly and swallowed other smaller cities in miniature imperial networks. The discovery of Black Rock and its many uses immediately boosted the power of such cities as Geneva Prime, Ithica, and Thalosh.

The confusion and fear of those early days on Karia is gone. The Cheldrun population has exploded from about 29 million to almost 400 million - over half of which live in the giant megalopolises that dot the northern portion of the continent. Though the warfare with the Karians is a constant feature of life it is a war which the Cheldrun are completely in control of and it is happening out on the frontiers, not on the doorsteps of any major industrialized neighborhood. Stability between the major cities, which if they were to go to war now would be devastating, is maintained by the Yogensha League - an alliance of 7 of the largest city-states, who effectively bully the others around.