The All

Spinning beyond time. Ever changing yet eternally consistent, the All is that which is. It initiates ineffably, untraceably and implacably the Unraveling.


The All unravels galaxies.
Galaxies unravel stars.
Stars unravel planets.
Planets unravel life-givers, the Dusk Sages.

The Dusk Sages are the last tools of the All. The final stage before the Question. It is they who unravel life.

The Unraveling is inevitable, more certain than gravity, but it continues not for itself, but for the possibility of the conditions of the Question. The Question is all that lives. Life itself is what the All is asking and all of the tools of the All, galaxies, stars, planets and sages, exist but to create the conditions of life.

Questions require answers.

As the Unraveling progresses, life spreads, and advances. But eventually the tools themselves unravel completely. The crisis. The cataclysm. The All has addressed its question to the void and the drama plays out. An answer is given.

Does a question cease being asked once it is answered? Is there only one answer? The choices of the living are opaque. The intention of the All is unknowable. Curiosity and anticipation are all that we have.

Karia is a tool of the All. Not living herself she worships life. She bends her ear to their songs and she watches avidly. A desire to know how it will unfold her only pressing reality. She acts as a tool - according to the demands of the one who wields her. Choice is not a gift she possesses, but her actions nevertheless have consequences. The ones she has marked and bound to herself will bear those consequences and likewise she will know weal or woe in accordance with their behavior. It is the first time in countless eras that her future has been uncertain. She likes it.

An answer will be given. Praise the All, an answer will be given, at last.

For the Love of Backstory

Moses is almost always forthcoming.

"I, uh, well, my parents died when I was about 8, I think - a cave-in. They didn't double-join the i-beams in the tunnel above ours and...well, anyway, there was a cave in. I was stuck down there for...I dunno, a long time. I slept six times before they found me. I think the news said a week. I knew my parents were dead, and for a while I thought I was too - that I'd become a ghost, down there, until I heard the digging sounds, and then I felt all of the pain. My arm" he holds up his right, mechanical arm, " was crushed and my leg too. The female bone." No, you correct him, probably the femur. "Oh."

"So I was sent to an orphanage. I had a lot more of me mechified than most of the other kids, but it was just, um, prosthetics at the time." The word is said carefully and slowly. "It was weird, because my brother, Tank, he survived. He's my big brother - older too. Really big. And I still have a couple cousins, but..." He stops.

"I don't know where they are, now."

After a while he continues. "But I ended up at this orphanage. And I was kinda famous, so people would come to see me sometimes. They just wanted to look, and I didn't talk then, so that was ok. Then - have you heard of Amuro Namie?" You have - she is the daughter and sole heir of a powerful Allskin family in Geneva Prime with connections to Goshi. "Well, she came to see me, and I remember that she was so pretty, I said 'you're pretty', and I hadn't talked in a while, so everyone was surprised. So after that I lived with the Amuro family, in their high-rise, in the middle of the city."

"It was really nice. I was really happy, and Namie was happy. I got much better upgrades, and I got to thinking about what I would do with myself, what my Job would be. I figured, I'm a survivor. I survived a cave-in, so how could I do a Job that was about surviving? That's how I got to be a Deep Delver, and I started fixing myself up to do that."

"So things were going good, and I grew up, and they tried to teach me a lot of stuff about the First Minds and about sitting still and about bowing. I think some of it stuck. But I turned 15 and it was time for me to get a job on my own, and I was all set to be a Delver. But Namie had another gift for me. She had this box" he indicates, pointing over his right shoulder, to the warm, clicking box that is now scuffed with wear but still quite intact "and she had a socket for it specially made. We mounted it, me helping and looking in a mirror - she didn't want anyone to help, and didn't want me to tell anyone. I didn't figure out why for a while - I just thought it was a secret, like our secret. And I guess its also that."

He walks for a while, very quiet (for a Mechified) and doesn't respond to your further prompts for some time.

"I'm changing. Everything is changing. So fast. I feel like...like I always keep seeing clearer, but I can't...say what I see. Its so different." After a few false starts at going on, "But after I left the Amuros, I think Namie's dad was happy I was gone, and she couldn't really visit me in the mines. She wrote a few times but...I'm not much of a writer, so I guess she gave up on it. Its...getting from the mines to their high-rise...its a long way, you know? Not just miles."

"So I was a Deep Delver, got promoted to Second Class. I saw my brother a couple of times - he's a 'spitter, and...well, I told you how big he is." Moses holds his arm over his head as far as it will go to indicate what he means. "But I think he was doing ok. Finding good work. I wasn't close with my cousins, but they helped me get in on a delving team. I got good at tossing big rocks onto a conveyor, and alter did my own delving. I was pretty good at it. Careful. No...no cave-ins for anybody else. And that's about that, before...all this happened."

Typhon's Role

35 years ago Typhon was a very bright diplomat and money man. The product of a Biomade Oversight Council special initiative he had an inside track from day one in experimental genetic research. He understood what it took to manage an effective laboratory, to keep his researchers on target, and to come in under-budget. His acumen was noticed by the Directors of Goshi Mining Corp which was going through a transition at that time, and seeking to expand its operations into other City-States outside Geneva Prime. Typhon's connections, skills, and diplomatic aplomb attracted Goshi and they offered him a position in senior management.

His first year with Goshi was essentially a competition with another man, at that point unknown to the world at large, for the job of Executor. Depending on his performance Typhon could have taken on the title of the most influential man in Karia. Of course, history had other ideas. Typhon's competitor was an unheard of negotiator from Omexon, a low-level bureaucrat named Katashi Blade. It is no secret that Typhon always resented Blade who in that first year upstaged him in almost every way. Each man was put in charge of a branch of the corporation and evaluated on their progress, efficiency and innovation. While Typhon made many strides in that year, Blade had a practically supernatural level of success in implementing strategies that have changed Goshi policies for the foreseeable future. Blade had the job by a unanimous decision.

The new Executor apparently expected the Directors to let Typhon go after he failed to take the head job, but they chose instead to create a new position, specifically designed for his talents - the role of Liaison to the Biomade Oversight Council. The enmity between the two men over this uncomfortable state of affairs never dissolved, though their collective skills rewrote the history of these past three decades.

As Liaison, Typhon essentially created his own role for Goshi and thus the R&D arm, and especially a series of secretive codenamed projects began to be funded. Countless of these projects were funded, failed and canceled over the years. Some led to the development of the Hei-Shi. Many accounted for advances in psychic genetics which are already becoming common in the general populace.

Two programs in particular spawned out of a shocking discovery from the mines.

In sector 43A, a deep section of the mines just being opened at that time, digging burst through into a live chamber containing a new mineral never before encountered. Impervious to most tools it was at first regarded as a mere nuisance, and since the single formation was the only one found (and remains so till this day) it was assumed to be a mere geological oddity. When the Miners began complaining of Tee-Shee sightings in 43A, someone finally decided the Whiterock should be tested.

Typhon took a sample of the rock and had it tested at first for energy producing properties like Blackrock. Almost nothing was successful, but when heated the stone emitted a red light. Around the room it projected a series of runes - First Mind writing. It was completely indecipherable to the scientists, but they knew then that they weren't dealing with just a hunk of rock. Still, after months of experimenting produced nothing more substantial, the hunk of rock was sold off to an up and coming researcher named Inase Spark.

For two years Typhon thought nothing more about Whiterock, but then Inase Spark came back to him with a project proposal. He'd received approval for something called Project Scion from the Biomade Oversight Council and required funding. Typhon was running the most lucrative R&D investment body in the world. The two made an agreement and Project Scion was started out of a laboratory in the outskirts of Geneva Prime.

Typhon should have paid more attention. Relying on the brilliance of Inase Spark and assuming that he could easily recoup the losses of any failed projects with future successes, Typhon didn't realize what Spark was learning about the stone. When Project Scion literally went up in flames about 19 years ago most of Spark's progress was completely lost. However, out of the few remaining files Typhon managed to grasp that the properties of Whiterock enable it to draw on a new power source, unlike psychic energy or electricity and it was apparently drawing this energy from a far distant location. Whiterock, it appeared, literally had the ability to warp space and extract energy from some unknown distant star system.

New experiments commenced.

These new experiments went under several project names - Star Power, Battery Stone, and Karian Geo-Force. None of them stuck and it has been colloquially referred to as the Whiterock Project by everyone involved.

Early into the exploration phase the laboratory was attacked - literally assaulted - by some kind of extraordinary Karian entity calling itself Tanuki. He was eventually contained and imprisoned, but his sole purpose for attacking was to gain access to the Whiterock. He obsessed over something called Mana, which researchers eventually determined was his name for this new energy source. Given his strong reactions to the Whiterock, and even with very small amounts brought into his presence he manifested bizarre changes, the project conceived a new direction - the Whiterock would be tested for its effects on Karians.

Typhon meanwhile was taking credit for all of these discoveries, even of the stone itself, which he claimed to have ordered extracted from the mines. Whether it was his or Spark's brilliance behind the Whiterock project no one should dispute that he ran it exceedingly well. It was he who first suggested that the rock's ability to transport energy might be employed for matter as well. Though it produced grizzly results, Karian responsiveness to the stone did enable researchers to "dislocate" portions of Karian flesh almost immediately.

Researchers learned soon that different species of Karians responded in different degrees to the presence of the stone. Jevumm responded the least. Gogajin and Zipsum were more responsive, but not as much as the Anakarix and certainly not as much as the Prill. Still, none of them seemed to be quite responsive enough to enable complete successful teleportation.

Then they captured a Vorax.

Throughout these experiments Tanuki would periodically attempt to escape, but so long as he was restrained away from the stone he appeared not to regain sufficient energy to accomplish anything. With the sudden success the project was having with the Vorax however, they almost completely forgot about keeping Tanuki secure. A fact which was later to prove to have been a terrible mistake. No one knows who actually released Tanuki from his cell, but... we're getting ahead.

Approximately 3 months before the first public test of the DisLocator device Typhon's remarkable career came to an abrupt end. The media announced that he had died of an undisclosed medical condition, which of course no one believed because he was a Biomade in peak health. The Executor was prominently absent from his cremation and subsequent corporate restructuring folded the role of Liaison to the Biomade Oversight Council into the responsibilities of the Executor's office.

Despite frequent requests from the media, the Biomade Oversight Council has repeatedly refused to release documents related to the experiment which produced Typhon. Wild speculation has gone so far as to claim he was a Pyrokinetic prototype, but both the Council and Goshi have gone out of their way to erase genetic evidence concerning him. We will probably never know.

Meditations

It had not occurred to me until I saw the tears in her eyes that Aimi was a person. Not really. She was an obstacle, a psychotic Biomade assassin that had caused no end of trouble for me and seemed to have a dangerous obsession; until I looked into her eyes in confusion and asked what she was talking about. In that moment I saw pain, real, visceral pain, and I realized that deep down inside she was just a fifteen year old girl who had been buried under years of training and conditioning and torture, both mental and physical, and who, for some strange reason of her own, had reached out to me, even if she did not realize what she was doing. She did not deserve this; none of them did. In the end she was just another victim, a Cheldrun who might have been able to have a normal life if it were not for her circumstances. The moment passed quickly, and she quickly covered it up with her usual bluster and irreverence... but I had seen who she really was, if only for a moment. Hopefully she would not kill me for that.

***

I meditated. I calmed my thoughts, relaxed my body, and slipped into the Void. Not plunging in, like I would do for battle, wrapping it about me like a shell; rather I slid in seamlessly, effortlessly, and let my thoughts drift away. Sometimes my mind showed me things it thought I should remember at times like this, and so it did now.

***

I held a cold, wet cloth to my eye to minimize the bruising. Master Yoshitaka sat next to me and offered me a rice ball, which I gratefully accepted. He did not speak. He did not ask why he had walked into the dojo to find me fighting (and losing badly to) his top student while the rest of the class watched. He just sat, patiently, and ate his sticky rice while he waited for me to speak. Finally I said "I am sorry, Master."

Without looking up from his rice he asked "And did you do something to be ashamed of?"

I nodded glumly. "I let my pride rule me and got in a fight I could not win. I broke the rules of the dojo and attacked another student outside of a formal bout. I would not blame you if you turn me away after this."

Still seeming to not pay me any attention, he asked me "And what could have made you so foolish as to do something like that? Hmm?"

I was not sure whether to be relieved or offended that he seemed to think my actions were of far less importance than his lunch. "Ryuunosuke was picking on the other students. He was bragging about how much better of a swordsman he was, and he... he said he was going to get genetic enhancements when he reached majority, to make himself even better than any of us could hope to be."

"And for this, you attacked him?"

"No! What he said angered me, yes, but I would not allow myself to be so easily goaded. Tsubasa, though... he spoke against Ryuunosuke, denounced him and said that his words were hollow, traitorous... and without honor."

"Do you think that was wise?"

"He was right!"

"That does not answer my question."

I sighed. "No, no it was not a wise thing to say. Tsubasa is still in his second year and half the size of Ryuunosuke; he could not hope to challenge him."

"But you still think he was right?"

"Yes, but... not for him."

Master Yoshitaka looked up at me then, looked right into my eyes and said "For another, perhaps, it was the right course?"

I nodded.

He chuckled. "It is good that you can understand the difference; sometimes the right choice is not the wise one. The path of the wise man and the path of the righteous man do not always coincide; often, but not always. And a course that is wise for some, right for some, maybe even necessary for one man, is not necessarily so for another. Many men older even than I have not yet learned that lesson." He nodded and went back to his rice ball. "Continue."

"Well, Ryuunosuke decided to punish Tsubasa, of course and I... I said I would not let him. I stood between them and... we fought. By the time you entered the dojo I was soundly beaten."

"Standing up for those weaker than yourself against those that would bully them; that was your shameful action, then?"

"What? No, I... I knew I could not defeat him. I should have gone to get you instead of fighting him myself. You were not far away; if I had ran, we could have been back in time to keep Ryuunosuke from hurting him badly."

"And if I had not been?"

"Pardon, Master?"

"If I had not been nearby, what then? If you had ran and let Ryuunosuke drub Tsubasa, perhaps hurt him badly, and I was nowhere to be found to help him? If the weak had been hurt and the other students had been cowed, or, worse, started to believe all of Ryuunosuke's claims after seeing him beat his only dissenter? What then? Would that have been a better course than a few bruises? Than showing your fellow students that you are willing to fight for them, for your beliefs, for your honor?"

"So, you are saying that even if I was not skilled enough to defeat him, it was still the right thing to do to fight him? Because I was defending those who were even less skilled than I?"

Master Yoshitaka finished his meal and looked up at me again, his eyes flashing. "Duty" he said. "That is the linchpin of honor, and you have learned the lesson well. It was right because it was your duty. You always were my best student."

I gave a disbelieving laugh. "But Master, surely you jest! Ryuunosuke proved himself not an hour ago a better swordsman, and he is far from the only student I could not defeat!"

He snorted. "And sometimes you remain dense. Did I say you were my best warrior? No, Ryuunosuke is that, and a thug besides, a bully. You, Kiyoshi, are my best student because you understand that in order to achieve victory you must use not only your blade, but also your heart and your mind. You are, what, sixteen summers? And yet you already can hold the Void better than any of the other students. Perhaps one day you will achieve mastery and be able to hold onto it indefinitely without fatiguing yourself. You have that potential, Kiyoshi, and so much more. Just remember always the lesson that you have taught yourself this day: duty, to yourself, to your family and clan, and to all Cheldrun."

I nodded. "Thank you Master. I swear I will always strive to make you proud. I will always strive to live up to the vision of the First Minds."

***

I was disturbed from my meditations by Sever and Stitch trying to goad me, to pick a fight. To fight them then would have been neither wise, nor right and so I ignored them until they got bored and left me.

***

It was all happening too fast. The video screen that Aimi had set up between us showed utter chaos in the Landing Square. Panicking soldiers, panicking Mechified, Rei fighting another woman who appeared to be a powerful psychic, poor Moses, his dreams for peace shattered... and Sankai... Ichiro's mecha. What was he doing there? His duty was to the clan, damn it! What had the others talked him into?

I stared, powerless at the screen. Particularly I stared at the metallic forms of Sankai and Moses. Damn it, I should be the one out there! It was my duty, my place! Ichiro had to think of his wife and unborn child, our sister, the entire Silver Phoenix clan; he could not help them this way! And Moses! I would not claim that I am stronger than him; not by a long shot. But I am harder. If he continues along this path, it will destroy him, or corrupt that which makes him pure, that which makes him suitable to even be a Symbol. It will leave him nothing but a husk as each of his dreams and beliefs dies one by one. I would probably be destroyed too, but not as quickly, and when it happens... well, the world can probably do with one less bureaucrat. Besides, it was my Duty. I will protect those that do not even see the danger coming. Moses. Rei. I look up at Aimi, staring avidly at the screen. Yes, her too. I had to convince her to let me go out there! I had to! I felt the need growing inside me, overwhelming me, and something else with it... I knew then what I had to do.

Organizations Among the Cheldrun

The Cheldrun have a complex, multi-layered society. Structures and organizations interact with each other at various levels, creating a dense web of politics. What follows is a simplistic examination of some of these organizations.

MACRO LEVEL ORGANIZATIONS
At the highest level you have organizations which are really conglomerates of other powerful organizations. These organizations have little direct impact on people's day to day lives, but they shape the overall trends in Cheldrun politics on a massive scale.

Yogensha League - Even for the Biomade competition can get too fierce. When massive city-states with enormous military might are in continual conflict it spells disaster for all. Thus the seven most powerful city-states (Galatas, Geneva Prime, Ithica, Marina, Matamos, Omexon, & Zamar) made an alliance in order to control their rambunctious fellows. The Yogensha League is ostensibly the most powerful force in the land, because it combines the military threat of those seven cities. For a number of decades, uneasy peace has been maintained by the enormous shadow cast by this league. It is headquartered in Omexon.

CITY STATES
Over 60% of the total Cheldrun population lives in one of the 13 enormous City States. These City States are the basic political unit of Cheldrun life. Individual Cheldrun usually associate themselves in terms of citizenship with one city or another. The majority of Cheldrun blood spilt is over conflicts between them. Each City State is master of an empire of smaller towns and villages ranging from dozens to hundreds of loyal vassals.

Geneva Prime - In terms of population, economic clout, and military prowess Geneva Prime is the most powerful city on Karia. Geneva Prime is generally less respected than cities like Marina or Omexon that are seats of inter-city political bodies, but Geneva Prime is widely feared. It is built around the first discovered and largest of the Blackrock mines on Karia, which is the source of its wealth and pollution. Geneva Prime has been very aggressive historically, expanding its empire at the expense of its neighbors and foresting like nobody's business. It's depredations have been curbed slightly by membership in the Yogensha League, but it is still a capricious and dangerous power.

INTER-CITY BODIES
Some corporations and organizations have offices or operations in various cities. Usually these groups are headquartered in one city, but have extensions elsewhere. They operate under special treaties and exceptions which allow them to function according to the various different laws of the different regions.

Goshi Mining Corp - Owner of the Blackrock mine in Geneva Prime where they are headquartered, this corporation is widespread and powerful. Involved in everything from mining, to refining, to delivery and implementation, Goshi Mining Corp has its fingers in a lot of different pies. Almost every city has a Goshi warehouse or office building somewhere and Goshi Mining Corp frequently operates like they were a nation unto-themselves. In Geneva Prime, many of the law-enforcement and infrastructure responsibilities of civil government have been contracted to Goshi Mining Corp.

Biomade Oversight Council - Headquartered in Marina, the Biomade Oversight Council maintains two faces. Their public face is a propaganda machine presenting their methods as the future of Cheldrun society and the hope for a utopian civilization. Each year they determine the number of new Biomade to be introduced into the population (a number which has steadily been increasing). Most of the Biomade are produced in laboratories in Marina and then distributed as embryos to Council labs all over Karia. The private face of the Council is extremely secretive. At any given time there are 12 members on the Council, whose identities are unknown and whose route to power is inscrutable. The nature of decisions made, the goals and purposes of this organization, even their technological methodology is completely mysterious. Council vehicles and agents have diplomatic immunity in every city.

LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS
In every region there are countless smaller organizations ranging from small shops and franchises, to schools, to First Mind temples, to transportation and military and so on. These organizations are the most likely to impact people's daily lives and certainly fill up the most space, provide the most production, and absorb the most labor hours. Some of these local organizations are famous enough to have an impact beyond their reach.

Washi-San Academy - Every City-State has a Mecha-Pilot academy run by and for Allskin families with the heritage and talent to become gladiators using the ancient First-Mind Mechas. These academies serve the cities they are bound to by vows by producing champions who can resolve inter-city conflicts through single combat. The academy system along with the Yogensha League has helped to stem large scale warfare between the cities, though skirmishing over borders and the loyalty of specific towns is still frequent. Washi-San, situated in Geneva Prime, is a famous academy for the quality of the pilots it has produced. In the past 4 decades not one Washi-San pilot has experienced defeat in a formal duel. This fearsome reputation makes Geneva Prime that much more feared and hated.

The Dusk Sages

In a frenzied Zipsum dance...

Through the savage eloquence of Jevumm poetry...

With a mournful Gogajin ballad...

With tract after philosophical Anakarix tract...

Through the harmonized voices of a Prill choir...

Even in the resignation of a Vorax suicide...

The Dusk Sages are remembered.

Once, like Gods, they strode in and out of the lives of the Karians bringing with them, phenomenal powers, and ineffable wisdom. They controlled the weather, the seasons, the cycles of life and death. Under their gentle tutelage the Karians grew from humble beginnings to masters of lore and guardians of nature. They taught the Prill to sing. They taught the Anakarix to think. They taught the Jevumm to hunt. More than just teachers, they were companions. They flew with the Vorax, ran with the Zipsum and brawled with the Gogajin.

The Dusk Sages roamed everywhere and remained nowhere. It was impossible to discern their numbers, unthinkable to question their motives. They ruled without defending their authority. They remained aloof without anyone charging them of irresponsibility. The did not build or construct as the Karians and Cheldrun do, but their magic permanently altered the land. The positions of the mountains, the course of the rivers, the depth of the forests, these are the monuments of the Dusk Sages.

When the Cheldrun arrived, the Karians looked to the Dusk Sages for advice only to discover that the Dusk Sages were withdrawing. Like a child who, having witnessed the death of their mother, turns to the father for comfort - the Karians were devastated by the Dusk Sages' retreat. For months, the Dusk Sages were silent. Not speaking or responding to the presence of the Karians at all they processed to the west coast and walked into the sea. In streams they simply trickled out to the ocean and were gone.

Behind them they left only a few clues, besides the land itself, that they had ever been to this continent. The lore, which they left in bits and pieces to each of the races of Karia, contained clues to the phenomenal power the Dusk Sages seemed to command. The Prill continue to find new clues embedded in the melodies they compose. The Anakarix, likewise unlock potential hints from the patterns of the stars. The Vorax, once great secret-keepers, are dying without revealing what the Dusk Sages told to them.

The only tangible piece of the era of the Dusk Sages are the masks they used to wear. Every sage, was known by her distinctive and elaborate mask. No one ever saw the face of a Dusk Sage, nor did anyone ever see a mask that was not being worn. But when the retreat of the Dusk Sages was over, the Karians found many masks littering the beaches, cast aside. The hollow eyes of each mask probe the soul of the observer. Once, the holes seem to say, the eyes of Wisdom herself looked through me.

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.

The Flight

When it became an unavoidable fact that the galactic empire of the Cheldrun was headed toward annihilation by the effort of the Enemy, the Cheldrun faced a terrible decision. It is difficult to imagine the level of destruction required to humble a people as mighty as the Cheldrun had once been to the point where they would consider surrender. The Cheldrun not only considered it, they did. They surrendered and the diplomatic delegation was slaughtered.

In the horrified minds of a few leaders it became clear that they were not only facing defeat. They were facing extinction.

The only options remaining were a strategic retreat to a defensible location followed by a protracted battle against an unstoppable foe, or a headlong retreat barreling off into the uncharted black without any destination or even the certainty that escape was possible. There were not enough ships for the whole population. Flight would mean chaos. It would mean a lottery to determine who would go and who would stay. It would mean abandoning billions of Cheldrun without a navy, without an army, without hope. Flight would mean overcrowded vessels, with civilians and animals living aboard military starships for generations. It would mean maddening uncertainty for navigators sailing through an empty sky where it is possible to fly for billions of years without ever encountering another solid object, let alone a habitable planet. Worse than all of that, the Flight meant an absolute break with every city, every world, every institution and constellation and sun which had ever been part of home for the Cheldrun.

No matter how grim the thought of fleeing seemed, it was the option they chose.

Mercifully, the loss of the historical records means that the names of the Cheldrun who were abandoned are unknown. The exact duration of the flight is also, unknown. Tens of thousands of ships departed the home worlds in that day, filled past capacity with Allskin nobles, Biomade merchants, and Mechified warriors. They sailed through space for generation upon generation always looking into the blackness ahead of them for any sign of hope, and looking into the dark behind them praying they would never see the Enemy approaching.

Of those tens of thousands of starships, 117 landed at last on Karia Vitalus. And the passengers poured out, weeping and gasping for air.

The Enemy

The Cheldrun that live on Karia are a remnant. Though they are an overwhelming invasion from the perspective of the Karians, they are really just a band of desperate survivors, huddled on this distant rock, hiding from their past. In the dark recesses of that past there lives something too horrible to contemplate. Something which destroyed their civilization, and nearly drove them extinct in the universe. Unable even to give it a name, they refer to it as 'the Enemy'.

The passage of time and the loss of the historical record, coupled with an irrational social repression related to this topic has served to make it extremely difficult to guess precisely who or what 'the Enemy' is. However, far from muting the racial phobia of this foe it has amplified the apprehension, transmuting a presumably specific historical entity into a metaphor for all that is evil, an omnipresent personification of utter dread. The Cheldrun don't tell their children stories to scare them into good behavior, they merely whisper, with sincere terror "the Enemy will find you." and the child knows instantly that this is the worst possible thing which could happen to a person.

No one alive, for many generations, has seen a single sign of the Enemy. The official refrain of Cheldrun society is that the Flight was successful; that they have truly escaped their past, and so long as they keep their vow not to return to space, they shall be safe here on Karia. However, there will probably never be a time when the Cheldrun stop looking for signs that their past has caught up with them. Their social consciousness as a remnant of a once great star-faring empire is too intimately tied up with the demise of that empire at the hands of the Enemy. As a people they are doomed, perhaps forever, to live with a shudder of terror always at the back of their mind, and the eyes of the Enemy burning in their dreams.

The Great Experiment

Once the Cheldrun were undivided. In that day there were no Biomade or Mechified, they had not begun genetic manipulation or cybernetic enhancement. Nor were there truly Allskins because no one had a concept of being anything other than Cheldrun. They were a people, young, innovative, and voracious. They consumed new ideas and knowledge like ravenous baby birds. Eventually, the First Minds brought a proposal for the future of the species.

Incipient technologies were opening new horizons of possibility. The talent and intellect of the species itself could be the greatest arena of progress. With auto-augmentation procedures the Cheldrun might become more than a remarkable family of explorers. They might become an empire.

What is known as the Great Experiment commenced millenia ago in a distant star system. The Cheldrun willingly allowed themselves to be sorted into three distinct castes by the First Minds. Some were assigned to undergo radical gene therapy, becoming the first generation of Biomade. Some were assigned to undergo cybernetic surgery, becoming the first generation of Mechified. The remainder were required to keep themselves free of either procedure for the security of the species. They were the first Allskins.

To say that the Allskins are the "original Cheldrun" would be a mistake (though of course the Allskin do think of themselves this way). Over the intervening millenia there have been significant cultural and physical changes by virtue of their separation from the other castes that have made them distinctive naturally even without intentional scientific intervention. Unquestionably the meaning of the word "Cheldrun" is somewhat vague given that it no longer has a direct correlation to heritage. The Biomade think of being Cheldrun as a matter of inheriting a culture of innovation and achievement. The Mechified think of being Cheldrun as a matter of belonging to a society which includes the other two castes. Essentially, being Cheldrun has come to mean something almost identical with participating in the Great Experiment.

The control group, the Allskins, was intended by the First Minds as a safeguard against disaster and as a way of measuring the progress of the two experimental groups. Foreseeing the social tension that would result from being left out of auto-augmentation procedures the First Minds established protocols which became cultural mores that gave the Allskins an elevated place in Cheldrun society. That elevated position was secured by sole possession of certain First Mind technologies, which have not since been duplicated. Among these technologies are the famed Mecha.

The pure experiment, as the Biomade call themselves, chose to establish an Oversight Committee which would direct the genetic course of the caste. Early on the Biomade were still mating and undergoing gene therapy during childhood, however, they soon preferred the more controlled method of designing themselves before birth. The Oversight Committee chooses how many new subjects to introduce into the population each year, what skills and abilities those subjects will be suited for, and if they have any psychic potential. A majority of Biomade created each year are stable models perfected in the past. In the spirit of ongoing experimentation, however, they continue to produce a small number of test subjects every year in order to further the development of their caste.

The dirty experiment, as the Mechified are happy to be known, rejected the idea of a hierarchical body determining the direction of their development. Rather each individual Mechified is tasked from birth with the job of testing and improving their own mechification and sharing any discoveries with the community. At a young age it is the parent's responsibility to start the cybernetic augmentation and guide it, but from majority on, it is that individual's goal to explore gradual mechification.

Whether or not the Great Experiment is still going on is up for debate. Many Biomade and some Mechified have been arguing that sufficient time has passed since the commencement of the Great Experiment that it can now be regarded as a completed success, thus ending the necessity of the Allskins. These people advocate the transition of willing Allskins into the other two castes and have even begun to discuss crossing experiments. To date it is still unheard of for a Biomade to undergo cybernetic surgery, or for a Mechified to undergo gene therapy. It is not unheard of, however, for disillusioned Allskins to join one of the other castes. Within one or two generations they are completely assimilated when they choose to do this. The adamant traditionalists among the Allskin consider transition between castes to be the ultimate act of betrayal.

The First Minds

If you say the phrase "The First Minds" near any Cheldrun you had better say it with reverence. As far as anyone knows the Cheldrun have always been atheists, but they come close to worshiping these figures of their ancient past. In the houses of more traditional Allskin families one can still trace the wafting incense back to a small shrine dedicated to them. On the shrine a brass gong sits with a symbol carefully hammered into its center: a circle with an equilateral triangle laid over top.

Constantly aware of themselves as a remnant, for many Cheldrun veneration of the First Minds is the only link they have with a past, which in their imaginations is utopian. Indeed, with the Cheldrun the past is a complicated omnipresent reality. Everything from the names of their cities, to their stubborn refusal to adapt to life on Karia is connected to their understanding of where they have come from. This is further complicated by the wild imprecision of their historiography.

Yes, as precise and methodical as the Cheldrun can be in almost every regard, they suffer from a kind of collective selective amnesia regarding their past. From the moment they arrived on Karia everything has been meticulously documented. If you go back in the record one day further you encounter a void where verifiable information is concerned.

The Allskin have an explanation for this. Once the Cheldrun had a priestly caste, selected from among the oldest and wisest Allskin houses. The priests, known as Saishi, were responsible for carrying on the teachings of the First Minds and recording the history of the Cheldrun people. Just before the fleet of Cheldrun vessels crashed into Karia Vitalus there was an uprising by the Biomade and Mechified, which overthrew the old order. In the confusion (no one is precisely sure what happened) only 117 ships made the landing though the original number was much much greater. After the dust had settled, not one Saishi could be found among the populations of the surviving vessels.

In one fell swoop the link to the past had been severed.

Who were the First Minds? Without the Saishi it may be impossible to know. Popular devotions have characterized them as three individuals - the progenitors of each type of Cheldrun. They were responsible for commencing the Great Experiment and laying out its ground rules. They had technology which later generations have never been able to completely replicate, including the Mechas which Allskin pilots inherit. According to the Biomade they were geniuses. According to the Mechified they were fearless pioneers. According to the Allskin they were enlightened. Maybe they were all or none of these things.

Among the few Allskin families which have retained even a dim memory of the doctrines of the Saishi, there is a belief that the "three individuals" of popular devotion is a convenient myth. In reality, these families believe, the First Minds are a metaphor for the spark of creative genius which lies within every Cheldrun. By venerating the First Minds they believe they are doing honor to their own potential.

Whether they are right or not, their shrines are blackened with the soot of perpetual devotion.

The Night of Bonfire Skies

One night, approximately 200 years ago (exactly 214 years, 7 months and 3 days if you're Cheldrun), the fate of Karia Vitalus was suddenly and irrevocably changed. The darkness of night was interrupted by the blaze of enormous objects burning through the atmosphere, plummeting like fiery stars toward the ground. They were 117 ships, an infinitesimal fraction of the number which had originally embarked on the Flight, and they gouged scars in the flesh of Karia which have never healed. Climbing out of those metal shells, a new people saw the forests of Karia for the first time.

The Cheldrun on Karia are the tiniest remnant of what was once a mighty galaxy-spanning empire. From a people who used to number more than the stars the few that crash-landed on this planet numbered in the millions - which for Karia was still an overwhelming invasion. The colossal starships which burned through the atmosphere each bore hundreds of thousands of refugees and the Cheldrun immediately adopted an aggressive posture toward their new home. Unsure of themselves and their surroundings and conditioned for generations to fear 'The Enemy' the Cheldrun treated all strangers as hostile.

The Night of Bonfire Skies (as it is called by the Anakarix), had a tremendous effect on the Karians. No one had ever seen magic of such extraordinary power as the explosive arrival of the Cheldrun. No one had ever imagined a people so different or with such strange artifacts as the clanking Mechified, or the psychic Biomade, or the Mecha-riding Allskin. Aside from the shock of discovery there was a sense of tragic loss. The arrival of the Cheldrun coincided with the retreat of the Dusk Sages who took with them their mystical control of the seasons and the cycles of life. Life without the Dusk Sages and in frequent conflict with the Cheldrun was much grimmer and riskier for the Karians.

The Karians, typically, had many different reactions to the new arrivals. Some of the more curious Zipsum tribes welcomed the Cheldrun and offered them help learning to adapt to their new home. The Anakarix tended to be cautious and reserved, observing from a distance. The Jevumm took an immediate dislike. Indeed, early Wild Hunts by Jevumm tribes killed sufficient numbers of Cheldrun to create a lasting indemnity between the species. The Prill at first were suspicious of the disruption of natural cycles the Cheldrun caused, but counseled peace. Meanwhile, the Gogajin's initial offer of trade was rebuffed by the Cheldrun which led to open war for a number of years, which the Cheldrun undoubtedly got the better of.

The ships that crash landed that night were dismantled and cannibalized for materials which were used in building the first Cheldrun cities. Neither Cheldrun nor Karian can forget that night. The Cheldrun celebrate it every year as a solemn holiday in which they remember the threat of the Enemy, the desperation of the Flight, and the vow never to return to the stars, which they made on that night. The Karians remember it as the moment when their peace was shattered; when the security and prosperity of the Dusk Sages was stolen from them, and the future of their species, and their home, became uncertain...

Premise

Karia Vitalus was a lush paradise flowing with mana just 200 years ago, before the Cheldrun arrived. Back then the planet was covered in verdant growth and towering violet forests. The Vorax soared through the skies and Zipsums skippered in every lake and stream. The wise Dusk Sages cared for each living thing and maintained the careful balance which allowed Karia to flourish. But that’s all gone now.

The Cheldrun arrived suddenly and by the millions. Collosal starships broke atmosphere and plunged in fire to the ground leaving scorch marks a hundred miles long. They were just the remnant of their people. A small band of refugees fleeing from some terrible evil they refused to name. They disabled their starships, forgot how to fly, and never looked back to the stars where they came from. With them they brought magnificent machines, robot armies and powerful industry. They spread all over Karia building sprawling metropolises and towering skyscrapers. The old ways of Karia ended.

The Dusk Sages retreated to the west, to a mysterious far island, and using the last of their magics sealed it against all outsiders. They created a haven for themselves and haven’t been heard from since.

Meanwhile the march of progress went on and many of the ancient races began to fade away. But the woes of Karia had only just begun. For the ancient enemy of the Cheldrun did not give up the hunt. And now they have found this final haven of the refugee people. The coming of the enemy means the end of all life on Karia unless the children of mana and the children of steel can find it within them to set aside their differences and forge a lasting peace.