Death Korps of Krieg
Keeper of the Ruins
Altaran Protectorate
"From the ashes of the past, we will rise once more."
The Altaran Protectorate(Alternate Names: Altaran Alliance, The Daelus, Altaran Remnants) is the shattered remnants of the once powerful Altaran Empire. They were a proud people, ruling a galaxy spanning empire before a series of events led to their decline as an empire until a single alien invasion wiped out the majority(estimated to be around 70%) of its remaining people. Many of those who survived fled their worlds aboard one of the three massive worldships called arkships and assorted space craft, while others did so by crossing warpgates towards safe havens. However, the exact number of surviving Altaran is uncertain, as it is known that many Altarani fleets fled their worlds and many were never seen again. It is said that some were destroyed by the enemy, others ran out of energy for their engines as they ran headlong to subspace and now drift eternally through space, and some intentionally hide their existence with advanced stealth systems and holo projectors. Despite this, the Altarani as a people have never dropped their pride and are well known and feared across the galaxies. However, they are a dying race; their people teeters on the brink of extinction.
The majority of former Altaran worlds are now abandoned, at least for now. The Altaran Empire once ruled the entire breadth of the southern fringes of the Milky Galaxy with a total number of 100 million star systems, but as time passed, the Empire declined due to wars, inside instability, and heretics. Many of the former Altaran planets became sites for colonization of other races, such as humanity and the many various races that lived and died. However, the Protectorate has plans to reclaim what worlds have not been colonized by other races.
The ancient Altaran Empire used to have a technological level of advancement more or less equal to some of the most advanced races in the known universe, such as the Acruani and Keltakens, but time has destroyed a great deal of said advancement. Untold amounts of technology has been lost over the ages, and much of it will never be regained.
They are among the most dedicated space farers in the known universe, turning up in random places when it is least expected. Armed with time warp engines, the Altaran fleets cover vast distances, affording them great range across the known universe. Their weaponry are amongst the finest and are often used to purify entire planetary surfaces of infestations to clear the way for Altaran colonization. These new worlds are called "Maiden Worlds", and are usually brimming city worlds laced with star bridges, warp gates, and space elevators. Some, such as Endorus, are heavily forested worlds that hide massive scientific facilities dedicated to creating ever more destructive weapons of war and more efficient time warp engines. Still others, such as Antiga Prime, are fortresses armed to the teeth, capable of bringing down entire fleets with vicious orbital strikes. A few, such as Shakuras, are wandering rogue planets. Their location is almost always uncertain as they wander through space, keeping their inhabitants safe under an umbrella of shadow.
Official Name: Altaran Protectorate
Demonym: Altarani
Government Type: Quadriumvirate - by the rule of four
Leader(s): Grand Exarch Tarven, Lord Commander Sakkad, Matriarch Kahara, and First Ascendant Alartik.
Galaxy: Milky Way
Territory: 1/8 of the Orion Arm's tip.
Number of Systems: 10,000(only 50 of these systems are actually any serious colonization efforts, the rest are mostly military bases, mining facilities, research stations, and the like). However, Altarani spacefleets have a wide range of travel over the known universe and can be found in various locations throughout the Milky Way, and occasionally on other galaxies as well.
Influence Rank: 4(Galactic). Their fleets have a wide range throughout the galaxy.
Capital World: Alteria, a small brown dwarf star surrounded by a long defunct Dyson Sphere created by some long gone civilization. This Dyson Sphere is overlain with massive amounts of sediment and rock from millions of years of asteroid impacts and smashing dwarf planets, turning it to what can be considered a terran world.
Population by Race: 2.4 billion Altarani, 300 million Hydroxyls, 6 billion Constructs(Purifiers, Strathirites, etc). An unknown number of Altarani are scattered throughout the galaxy, hidden in their fleets that fled their worlds during the Second Intergalactic War. However, it is is impossible to ascertain just how many Altarani it is, though considering that 70% of the entire population certainly died in the SIW, the number is possibly around 2 billion or so.
Technology Rank: 8.6
FTL Travel: Time Warp Travel. Basically, space time is warped by powerful energy generators, and the ship is instantly teleported to where it would be in a specific time period of sublight travel. (Ex. IF 100 years spent in sublight travel would bring the ship to this location, warp travel will do so in seconds.) As long as it is within the same galaxy, the time spent in travel will be mere seconds(as long as coordinates and calculations are correct), but pan galactic travel will take hours.
Technological Development Focus: Military, Survival is all that matters.
Exceptional Technologies: Some Altarani warships operate at a molecular level; these warships are actually made of nanobots. These ships can merge into massive star bases, or divide into star fighters. In addition, millennia spent in studying time and space has allowed Altarani warriors to instantly phase out of the battlefield once their injuries become critical. Because of this, there are many cases when even though the Altarani attack force seemed to be "wiped out", actual casualties were quite low. However, if FTL and teleportation is jammed, these teleportation devices will not work, and if the device itself is damaged before the warrior sustains enough injury, it will not function as well.
Culture: The Protectorate has a four faced culture, depending on which part of it is one looking at. The Khalari are highly communal and place strong emphasis on unity; their own psychic gestalt allows them sense each other's emotions and thoughts. The Tal'darun are the "kill or be killed" culture, wherein Ascendants usurp their superiors by killing them in order to attain a higher rank. The Naharlazem are mystical and individualistic, seeing that esch ine has to be himself and do things for himself. The Bazakhain are believed to have a culture nearly identical to the Khalari, but given their mechanical nature, their own psychic connection is merely a replication and contains no real emotions. The Soldraan are a secretive cult, dedicated to the Machine God, Soldras. The Zerqan are artificial intelligences just like the Bazakhain, but they were charged with administering and defending the ancient stations that were abandoned many centuries ago.
The Altaran all share a similar faith and religion, though some cultures have different practices. It is called the Faith of the Ancestors, and it has a pantheon of gods. They are Lenurion the Allfather; Soldras, god of machinery; Telia, goddess of fertility and love; Bazakh, god of war; Muras, god of explorirs and thieves; Therelia, goddess of the underworld; Anachronos, god of time; Murozond, god of fire; Zerqos, god of intelligence and psykers; and Astradon, god of the cosmos. There are many others, but hey are too many to be named.
Government: Four faced as it is, the Protectorate maintains a strong bond between its members. The Four are the highest ranking members of the Twilight Council; the 200 member Council that is made up of the highest ranking individuals in Altarani society, and they often ahve a final say on decisions. The Council's lower members oversee those under them, and in turn report to the Four on the most recent developments. On the event of issues, the Council holds a meeting and a majority vote of 150(plus the votes of at lesst 3 of the Four) decides on the course of action.
Military: With such a depleted population, the Protectorate heavily relies on robots and AI to fight for it, though much of the time Altarani warriors will also participate. At least 80% of all military forces within the Protectorate are robotic in nature, and the vast majority of warships are also unmanned. At the moment, the Protectorate has 200,000 vessels of every kind; capital ships, escorts, destroyers, star bases, and everything. This does not include the robotic Interceptor light fighters, which are truly massive in numbers to the point that the Altarani have given up counting all of them.
History: Beginning as hunter gatherers in their homeworld, the Altaran found the technological vestiges of a long dead empire. By a strike of chance, the technology was highly psionic in nature and they quickly knew how to use it. Within a decade, the entire Altaran race were uplifted from being wretched hunters to space farers, colonizing Alteria’s moon and the nearby exoplanets. Soon enough, the population grew quickly and these colonies grew independent of Alteria, eventually breaking off 100 years later. Aiur tried to subjugate them, but failed, leading to a future of desolation and ruin. All seemed bleak, and Alteria and its colonies revrted to the Stone Age, slaughtering each other in psychotic mayhem as the technology they once used was forgotten. For the next 300 years, the Altarani knew only carnage and slaughter, and there seemed to be no end to it. However, sometime in 50,000 -HSC, the Altarani regained their sanity. Kassardin the Eternal, a powerful warlord of the Hirgera Tribe, united the entire race under one banner, using the technology of their ancestors to bend their crazed brethren to submission.
The Altaran reunited, and with their efforts, they turned Alteria and its colonies into proud beacons of progress, the envy of the stars. Over the course of time, their population swelled to trillions and within 5,000 years, they ruled a powerful empire spanning through the Orion and Perseus Arms, with a grand total of 100 million star systems and making contact with numerous advanced civilizations, causing their already advanced technology to sky rocket. To give an idea of just how advanced the Empire used to be, it had warp gates(current warp gates are only reverse engineered types of the old ones and are much less efficient), nanobot swarms that can rip apart a city, sentient AI's, and dimensional rift weapons. The Empire ruled for nearly 10,000 years, before several misfortunes happened. First of these are the refusal of several Rogue tribes to submit to the Conclave, the Empire's ruling council. They saw the Conclave as a threat to their individuality, and thus refused to yield. The Conclave ordered them executed, but the one who was supposed to execute them saved them instead. They were placed aboard a massive fleet of assorted space craft and sent away, never to be set foot on Aiur once more. Second of these events was the rebellion of the Strathirites and Purifiers, which resulted in billions of civilian casualties. Over ten thousand planets were destroyed by their rebellion, and only at great cost of lives were they shut down. They were sealed within hundreds of space platforms scattered across the five galaxies, only to reawaken at the direst of times. The ten platforms currently in the Protectorate's possession are only those that are within their home star sector, and thus, there is no real way of knowing of just how many of these platforms are there.
Third amongst these events is the Kalath Intercession. By this time, the Altaran have committed to a policy of non-involvement, and the only time they did not follow this policy led to disaster. As the two races of the Kalathi and Chromions clashed near the Malan-tras System in the Orion Arm, Altaran forces intervened and destroyed both the Kalathi and Chromion fleets, sending both races back to the Middle Ages. Seeing that intervention only leads to the doom of other races, the Conclave voted for an absolute isolationist policy, and this ultimately doomed the Altaran as an empire. Slowly, their territory shrunk, and their population fell as there was little need to increase. Every year, many Altaran passed away due to sheer age, and there was few younglings to replace them. Slowly but surely, the Altaran race was dying. But their troubles weren't over yet...
One of the worst things that could happen to a system is its star going supernova, and that is what happened to many of the Altaran systems. Their Dyson Spheres siphoned off the stars's energies at a very rapid rate, and soon enough after such rapid absorption over the course of thousands of years, nearly 10 million star systems exploded one after another as the stars gave their last dying breath and died. (This kinda explains the Bootes Void). Half of them were totally unprepared and their inhabitants were wiped out. What made it even worse was that many of those systems were systems that were major population centers, and resulted in the Empire losing 1/10th of its populations within a span of a century. But things were not that bad yet...
The Altaran watched as humanity tooks its first tentative steps, and to their surprise, within a few centuries they were the dominant race of the Milky Way, with the Human Colonial Alliance xenociding its way through the galaxy. In alarm, the Conclave ordered the reactivation of what Purifier platforms were nearby, as well as remobilizing the fleets of old in case of HCA attack. With 100 platforms and nearly 900,000 warships, the dying empire faced what will eventually lead to its final fall. The empire struck first, in an attempt to keep the HCA fleets far away from the imperial core systems. As time passed, the Empire somehow defeated the HCA forces, but 90 of the 100 platforms were lost and only 100,000 of the ships remained. The Empire then determined that hiding was the best option, and abandoned nearly all of its systems, keeping only 40 systems around Aiur.
Here they remained hidden. The worlds of the last remaining remnants of a once great empire kept completely silent, refraining from using any communication technology that might lead to their location being pinpointed, instead using a system of psionic amplifiers that allowed them telepathy that extends over a planetary surface.
The Invaders came for the first time, and the Imperial Remnant Navy fought several Invader splinter fleets in the systems of Laktum and Terris, grinding to a stalemate until they riskily reactivated the Bazakhain, which allowed them to destroy the splinter fleets until the command of Lord Commander Drezon Syndron, just as the Humans defeated the bulk of the Invaders on the Sol System.
Many centuries later, the Colonies arose, and the Altaran saw that it was the HCA's complete opposite, being a democratic nation that upholds freedom. Here then the Altaran dropped their veil and conducted their business as usual. The First Intergalactic went on and the Altaran kept themselves hidden. But in the SIW, the Altaran made a grave mistake in their communications while helping the FC, and the Keltakens razed their worlds to ash. 70% of the remaining population was slaughtered and those that survived scattered across the galaxies. Desperate, the survivors turned to their once hated kindred - the Shadow Brethren. The Shadow Brethren, otherwise called the Naharlezem, offered them solace within the wandering rogue planets in which they settled. Together, the Imperial survivors and Naharlezem rebuilt the tattered remains of the fleet. They searched for the Purifiers and Strathirites, and those 10 remaining platforms from centuries earlier were brought back to life. The Tal'darun were found later on, harvesting psychoactive substances from various planets and keeping their settlements within nebulae. They all formed an alliance, under the name of the Altaran Protectorate. Once they had rebuilt the fleet, they set out to reclaim first and foremost the home world, Alteria. However, Keltaken constructs have embedded themselves on its surface and it took a full fledged ground assault to neutralize them. With the world reclaimed, the neighbouring systems were reclaimed as well.
In the Second Great War, the Protectorate spurred the nations to unity by showing them a cataclysmic vision of the future showing what will happen if they continue bickering. The Intergalactic Alliance forms partially due to this, and the Protectorate fights the Invaders with its full force, losing 60% of its recently rebuilt forces in the process.
Now, the Altaran Protectorate stands. Four nations, but they are one. Will they stand for long...?
Goals and Hooks:
- Reestablish the old Altarani Empire
- Reclaim all lost technology
- Form a unified Altarani nation, regardless of which group they belong to.
- Rebuild from the ashes
Misc. notes: The Altarani are highly welcoming and will take every opportunity to gain a new ally for their side. However, there are also times when they used others as meatshields or tools: Once they used psi-emanators to attract swarms of xenomorphs in order to divert them away from their own arkships. In addition, they are highly splintered, being divided into seven major sub-factions: Imperials/Khalari, Shadow Brethren/Naharlazem, Purifiers/Bazakhain, Red Cartels/Tal’darun, Explorators/Murasani, Lost Fleets/Astradoni, Mechanists/Soldraan, and the Guardians/Zerqan.
Technologies -
Warp Beaming -
An exceptional technology used by the Altarani this technology allows the deployment of structures and forces within a certain distance from a power structure. These power structures, called pylons, are crystalline constructions that emanate energies that allow said deployment. Probes can warp these structures before hand, as long as an Altarani starship is near enough.
FTL Travel -
Time Warp: By the use of powerful energy generators, an Altarani ship warps the space time around it, causing distortions in the timespace continuum. The process turns the entire ship to pure energy and sends its atoms hurtling through space time itself. This affords the Altarani extremely high accuracy and range in their destinations, but this method is very power hungry and in turn forces a long cooldown of several hours before warping is possible once again. In addition, the process is very dangerous for organics, and is one of the main reasons most of their ships are unmanned. Those ships that are manned are hooked to those that are warp capable, bringing them together as well.
Why do they wander around the galaxies:
In ancient times(20,000 - HSC to 1000 HSC), Altaran space fleets traversed the galaxies, and by galaxies, this was beyond the 5 galaxies of the Milky Way, Andromeda, Triangulum, and the two Magellanic Clouds. Their travels left numerous artifacts, wrecks, and buried treasures waiting to be found, and in the present, they are determined to find these relics no matter what. Because of this, up to 50% of all Altaran star fleets are outside the Milky Way, and the Protectorate uses the service of mercenaries and whoever they can get their hands on to strengthen its defence in the sectors it holds.
- Every day, the Altaran fight untold numbers of foes in order to reclaim what they have lost.
Psychic Powers of the Altarani:
Telepathy: The mode of communication between the people, for the lack of mouths... well...
Levitation: Rather rare due to the requirement of meditation to do so
Lightning blasts: Used as self defense(or offense) by the stronger psykers amongst theirrace, a strong enough psyker can generate electric bursts from their palms, electrocuting foes with the power of 1000 volts.
Telekinesis: The most powerful psykers among them are capable of controlling objects with their minds. Though they are never able to snap ships in half or throw buildings down to the ground, they are still dangerous mass killers nonetheless. Only around 200 are capable of telekinesis in the Protectorate, and even with a single one of them in the battlefield, they can still inflict horrendous damage if their comrades are good at keeping attackers away from them.
Cloaking: An ability afforded only by the Shadow Templar of Shakuras, the use of their powers renders them invisible to the naked eye, and it is difficult to detect them even with sensors(but it doesn't take more than 20 minutes to detect them with sensors tho, it is simply not instantly gonna find them); the most efficient way to detect is to have psykers around, who can detect the psychic impulses of the Shadow Templar with ease.
Psi-Blades: Psi-blades are weapons that are manifestations of psychic power. All Altaran melee warriors use this, and by the use of a device, a searing hot blade of death can be procured.
Sub-cultures:
Khalari - The single largest group. They are the ones that adhere to the Khala - a pseudo religious philosophy that helped regain the sanity of their race during the strife. Their technology is remarkably advanced, boasting the creation of sentient constructs like the Purifiers and Strathirites, as well as powerful weapons of war such as the Titanic Watchers and Reavers. However, the Empire of old did not maintain its status as a true empire and reduced its territory so much that its population was mostly concentrated in and around the Alteria System, which proved to a fatal mistake as a single invasion wiped out 70% of the entire population in just a month. Despite losing 70% of its people, the Khalai are still the largest sub-culture to date. The Khalai are renowned both as mighty warriors and genius scientists... depending on what caste they from.
Shadow Brethren - Enigmatic and mysterious, the Shadow Brethren were former exiles from the Empire. They were exiled for alleged "heresy",which was really just refusing to adhere to the Khala. But that was enough to tick off the dogmatic Conclave, which ordered their execution. The problem was, the one who was ordered to execute them saved them instead, placing them on board a massive collection of star vessels and sent them away. Using fake images of executed rogues, the Conclave was misleaded that he did his job. Well...
Their adopted homeworld is the wandering Rogue planet of Shakuras. Because of this, the Altaran have to constantly update their star maps to keep pace with the planet's wanderings. No wonder the Shadow Templar are so safe...
Their technology retains much of the technology they left behind in Alteria, but they are in some ways more advanced while in others less.
Tal'darun - Another group of exiles, these were exiled for a different reason: Drug addiction. The Tal'darun were notorious for being addicted to various psychoactive drugs, and the Conclave thought them too dangerous to stay in Aiur. In consequence, they were dragged from their pot houses and were sent away in a fleet of black ships, never to return. They settled in Slarath, where another psychoactive substance attracted them: terrazine. Other than being drug addicts, they are also known as a culture where you kill your superiorsto get a higher position. That is literally the only way to become the Ta'darundruglord Highlord.
The Tal'darun, prior to joining the Protectorate, are notorious space pirates, attacking and looting worlds in their whims. Being pirates, much of their technology have little deviation from Khalai designs. IT is highly believed that they literally stole the technology, further supported by mysterious disappearances of Empire fleets, never to be seen again. They are silent about this matter, though it doesn't really matter anymore.
Purifiers/Strathirites - Artificial constructs bestowed with the memories, skills, and personalities of fallen Altaran warriors of old. IF they were deadly enough in life, in their new lives, they are deadlier tenfold. These constructs can take a cannon shell to the face and reconstruct from the blast like it was nothing, and they are much more durable than any organic fighters. They are so durable that they can go in intense radiation, water pressure, heat, roaring winds, and extreme cold and still fight with brutal efficiency. If their mechanical bodies can no longer take it, their shields can be amplified to protect them from even worse environments, but this reducs their combat performance. Their strength, durability, and deadliness makes the prime frontline warriors of the Protectorate.
The main difference between the Purifiers and Strathirites is that Purifiers have the memories and skills of their former selves turned into data, while Strathirites are "ghost warriors" in a nearly literal sense. Strathirites are powered by the psychic essence that remains hovering an Altarani that has died. Creepy.
The Purifiers and Strathirites were deactivated and sealed away within their platforms because of their rebellion in ancient times. They were declared as "forbidden technology" after they rebelled against the Empire sometime in 3000 - HSC. The Conclave thought of them as simple robots and not as proud warriors, and this made them furious. They slaughtered all of the Templar in the outposts of Laktum and Terris, and caused considerable damage to Endorus and Antiga Prime. The Templar forces shut them down with psionic disruptors and sealed them within the ten platforms - Cybros, Electros, Tarras, Vulkan, Pyran, Necros, Nordr Kas-dun, Antares, Vort-dun, and Gammrius. Many centuries later, sometime between 3150 - 3170, the Protectorate searched for all ten platforms and reactivated the Purifiers and Strathirites. They were promised that they will be equal with the rest of Altaran society, that they will be viewed as proud warriors and not as robotic servitors. Theis they accepted, and to this day, they serve as the Protectorate finest fighters.
Mechanists - An ancient, secretive cult that has only recently surfaced, the Mechanists are dedicated to Soldras, the Machine God. Sporting cybernetic augmentations and mechanical implants, they believe that the flesh is weak, and that steel is strong. Their augmentations allow them to live much longer than their kin; the Grandmaster of the Mechanists is believed to have seen the first battles against the Abyssals, and that his mind is now several artificial intelligences that are copies of his consciousness interacting with each other. Loyal to no one but themselves, the Mechanists can be seen as a rudimentary vassal to the Protectorate. However, they do aid their kin with great fervor, believing it all the will of Soldras.
Explorators - Daring and hot blooded explorers that scour the galaxies for riches, the Explorators are in all truths a private organisation that is sanctioned by the Twilight Council to seek out whatever can help advance their goals: abandoned starships and stations holding terrible yet useful secrets, weapons schematics, biological creations, technological secrets, and similar things. Explrators are often the younger members of the race, joining the organisation in the hopes that they will find adventure and riches in the dark void beyond. Their hopes are usually not in vain, as most Explorators return home laden with wealth and useful technologies. Fearless and cunning, these devotees to Muras, god of explorers and thieves, walk into tombs and vaults, knowing that it might as well be the last thing they will ever do. Riding the stars with their own spacefleet, it is estimated that they have twice as many ships as the Alteria Defence Force.
Guardians: Artificial intelligences tasked with administering and protecting the ancient stations in the absence of their creators, the Guardians all have names and their private force, tasked with defending their station of duty. Arakuma of Alutroch Station and Kehlmon of Mymeara Station are some examples of the Guardians. Guardians usually command autonomous robotic forces, whose design and weaponry are often radically different to the Bazakhain. They are armed with weapons designed to cause as much pain and misery as possible before death. Most Guardians have remained loyal, such as Arakuma, but a few, such as Kehlmon have been corrupted over time and kill everything on sight.
MilitaryShadow Brethren - Enigmatic and mysterious, the Shadow Brethren were former exiles from the Empire. They were exiled for alleged "heresy",which was really just refusing to adhere to the Khala. But that was enough to tick off the dogmatic Conclave, which ordered their execution. The problem was, the one who was ordered to execute them saved them instead, placing them on board a massive collection of star vessels and sent them away. Using fake images of executed rogues, the Conclave was misleaded that he did his job. Well...
Their adopted homeworld is the wandering Rogue planet of Shakuras. Because of this, the Altaran have to constantly update their star maps to keep pace with the planet's wanderings. No wonder the Shadow Templar are so safe...
Their technology retains much of the technology they left behind in Alteria, but they are in some ways more advanced while in others less.
Tal'darun - Another group of exiles, these were exiled for a different reason: Drug addiction. The Tal'darun were notorious for being addicted to various psychoactive drugs, and the Conclave thought them too dangerous to stay in Aiur. In consequence, they were dragged from their pot houses and were sent away in a fleet of black ships, never to return. They settled in Slarath, where another psychoactive substance attracted them: terrazine. Other than being drug addicts, they are also known as a culture where you kill your superiorsto get a higher position. That is literally the only way to become the Ta'darun
The Tal'darun, prior to joining the Protectorate, are notorious space pirates, attacking and looting worlds in their whims. Being pirates, much of their technology have little deviation from Khalai designs. IT is highly believed that they literally stole the technology, further supported by mysterious disappearances of Empire fleets, never to be seen again. They are silent about this matter, though it doesn't really matter anymore.
Purifiers/Strathirites - Artificial constructs bestowed with the memories, skills, and personalities of fallen Altaran warriors of old. IF they were deadly enough in life, in their new lives, they are deadlier tenfold. These constructs can take a cannon shell to the face and reconstruct from the blast like it was nothing, and they are much more durable than any organic fighters. They are so durable that they can go in intense radiation, water pressure, heat, roaring winds, and extreme cold and still fight with brutal efficiency. If their mechanical bodies can no longer take it, their shields can be amplified to protect them from even worse environments, but this reducs their combat performance. Their strength, durability, and deadliness makes the prime frontline warriors of the Protectorate.
The main difference between the Purifiers and Strathirites is that Purifiers have the memories and skills of their former selves turned into data, while Strathirites are "ghost warriors" in a nearly literal sense. Strathirites are powered by the psychic essence that remains hovering an Altarani that has died. Creepy.
The Purifiers and Strathirites were deactivated and sealed away within their platforms because of their rebellion in ancient times. They were declared as "forbidden technology" after they rebelled against the Empire sometime in 3000 - HSC. The Conclave thought of them as simple robots and not as proud warriors, and this made them furious. They slaughtered all of the Templar in the outposts of Laktum and Terris, and caused considerable damage to Endorus and Antiga Prime. The Templar forces shut them down with psionic disruptors and sealed them within the ten platforms - Cybros, Electros, Tarras, Vulkan, Pyran, Necros, Nordr Kas-dun, Antares, Vort-dun, and Gammrius. Many centuries later, sometime between 3150 - 3170, the Protectorate searched for all ten platforms and reactivated the Purifiers and Strathirites. They were promised that they will be equal with the rest of Altaran society, that they will be viewed as proud warriors and not as robotic servitors. Theis they accepted, and to this day, they serve as the Protectorate finest fighters.
Mechanists - An ancient, secretive cult that has only recently surfaced, the Mechanists are dedicated to Soldras, the Machine God. Sporting cybernetic augmentations and mechanical implants, they believe that the flesh is weak, and that steel is strong. Their augmentations allow them to live much longer than their kin; the Grandmaster of the Mechanists is believed to have seen the first battles against the Abyssals, and that his mind is now several artificial intelligences that are copies of his consciousness interacting with each other. Loyal to no one but themselves, the Mechanists can be seen as a rudimentary vassal to the Protectorate. However, they do aid their kin with great fervor, believing it all the will of Soldras.
Explorators - Daring and hot blooded explorers that scour the galaxies for riches, the Explorators are in all truths a private organisation that is sanctioned by the Twilight Council to seek out whatever can help advance their goals: abandoned starships and stations holding terrible yet useful secrets, weapons schematics, biological creations, technological secrets, and similar things. Explrators are often the younger members of the race, joining the organisation in the hopes that they will find adventure and riches in the dark void beyond. Their hopes are usually not in vain, as most Explorators return home laden with wealth and useful technologies. Fearless and cunning, these devotees to Muras, god of explorers and thieves, walk into tombs and vaults, knowing that it might as well be the last thing they will ever do. Riding the stars with their own spacefleet, it is estimated that they have twice as many ships as the Alteria Defence Force.
Guardians: Artificial intelligences tasked with administering and protecting the ancient stations in the absence of their creators, the Guardians all have names and their private force, tasked with defending their station of duty. Arakuma of Alutroch Station and Kehlmon of Mymeara Station are some examples of the Guardians. Guardians usually command autonomous robotic forces, whose design and weaponry are often radically different to the Bazakhain. They are armed with weapons designed to cause as much pain and misery as possible before death. Most Guardians have remained loyal, such as Arakuma, but a few, such as Kehlmon have been corrupted over time and kill everything on sight.
Altaran fleet in orbit over Aiur
The military are formed into a single entity - the Crimson Armada. The Armada has a wide reach over the galaxies, capable of sending forces to Andromeda or Triangulum and the Magellanic Clouds at a moment's notice. With psionic signals beckoning from the ancient relics, treasures, and buried starships all over the galaxies, the Armada's wide reach has become more and more evident over time.
Half of the entire fleet consists of ancient warships built during the Golden Age.
The Armada's forces is consisted of specialists. Both star ships and planetary forces are designated with specific roles, and they are useless outside those roles. A few exceptions to this rule, such as Star Crusaders and Storm Guardians, are all rounders. The forces of the armada compliment each other's strengths and weaknesses, and together form a violent symphony of destruction that wreaks terrible devastation upon their enemies. With so few of their race left, the Altaran seek to inflict as much damage as possible to their enemies, while sustaining few casualties in their own side.
Ship Classes
Star Seeker - "The stars are mine to seek out and destroy."
Mainline Escort Ship
One of the Protectorate's newer war machines, a highly destructive and effective one at that. They lock on to their targets with an unending beam and they never stop their beam unless either the target or they are destroyed. In groups, they prove to be horrifying agents of destruction; tales of Star Seeker squadrons overheating armor and turning starships into molten metal circulate throughout the sectors the Protectorate holds. The Star Seeker is powered by an anti-matter core of synthetic origin. The swirling maelstrom of energies within the core is kept in check by a system of flux capacitors, but once the ship enters combat, the core's energies are released in a controlled manner, with th flux system directing the energies towards the prismatic crystal floating in front of the vessel, forming it all into a cohesive beam. It starts off with one beam arm firing, and one by one the other two folllow, icreasing its damage output over tome.
The Star Seeker's deadliness stems from the sheer amount of pressure and heat its focused prismatic beam can bring upon an enemy ship. Given enough time, the beam will burn through shielding and cause armor to overheat, which eventually causes ammunition boxes, reactors, and photogenic batteries to explode due to the high temperatures. The Star Seeker, however, is not a tough ship. It has powerful shielding, but it lacks in armor and relies on its speed of Mach 3 and shields to protect itself.
Length - 600 meters
Height - 100 meters
Armor thickness - 100 mm
Armament - Prismatic Beam
Exterminatus - "Creation is meaningless."
Modified Star Seekers armed with chaining attacks. Does less damage than the original one, but can destroy multiple foes at once. They are even more terrifying than the Star Seekers. With their unstable prismatic beams, entire squadrons of enemy heavy fighters are burned to death by a lesser number of Exterminati, proving how brutal and destruction oriented the Tal'darun are. The orism crystal have been replaced with bloodshard crystals, allowing the beams to jump from one target to another in a symphony of destruction.
Length - 650 meters
Height - 125 meters
Armor thickness - 125 mm
Armament - Unstable prismatic beam
Adunir Star Crusader - "This vessel will burn a path through the stars!"
Main capital ship of the Protectorate.
A heavily armored behemoth, every single star crusader is produced in the most intricate of ways. Using extreme heat, Khalai engineers ensure that there are no impurities in the Steadium armor of the star crusader that might compromise its integrity. Every laser battery is carefully calibrated and recalibrated, for the survival of an entire race depends on it. Star Crusaders form the core of the Golden Armada, and are powerful frontal warships that smash their foes with no remorse.
Length - 1 kilometer
Height - 530 meters
Fighter Capacity - 120
Armor Thickness - 15 inches
Armament - Anti-planetary graviton cannon, 120 laser defense batteries, 5x main laser batteries
Tempestus - "I strike from the dark cosmos beyond."
Long range bombardment/suppressor. Another mainline capital ship.
When the Protectorate first sought out the Purifier platforms, it was faced by the massive battleships of the Kalsari, one of their ancient enemies, close relatives yet hated beyond reproach. The Adunir Star Crusaders at the time were insufficient in number to face the Kalsari battleships alone, so the Tempestus was devised. This starship fires bolts of high energy loaded with nanobots towards its targets, slowly ripping them apart from the inside out. The Tempesti supported the depleted Adunir Star Crusaders in fighting the Kalsari battleships, and in the end, the battleships of the foe fell into the darkness.
Length - 900 meters
Height - 25 meters
Armor Thickness - 10 inches
Armament - Nanobot loaded balls of electric energy. The nanobots begin to slowly tear away the base matter of whatever they hit for a short duration before they expire(around 30 seconds). The energy itself... blows up.
Mothership - "I will tear reality at the seams for vengeance's sake."
The Motherships are ancient relics from a long lost age; the time at which they were constructed is not even remembered. One more thing is that the Protectorate no longers holds the blueprints for the motherships, so all motherships in current existence were either excavated or are the ones recalled back to Aiur during the Keltaken invasion, but they came too late. Some of the recalled motherships were subsequently destroyed, while the rest warped out immediately. They met up with the remnants of the Altaran civilization years later, when the wandering fleet of motherships encountered one of the exploration fleets of the Protectorate sometime in 3164.
As of the moment, around 89 motherships are in existence. They are known for apparently warping reality and time itself in some way, covering any friendly forces near it in a cloaking field, using weapons that cast rifts into realspace and catch targets between hyperspace and realspace, and teleporting entire fleets to itself as a surprise.
Length - 2 kilometers
Height - 500 meters
Armor thickness - 20 inches
Armaments - Phase disruptor cannons, plasma turrets, photon torpedoes, rift cannons
Void Stalker - "The void hungers for the souls of the wrong doers."
Cloaked Air Superiority Fighter
When the Protectorate searched for the Tal'darun, they faced, once again, the Kalsari. But this time, the Kalsari sent in heavy fighters to attack them. At the time, the Scout fighters of the Protectorate were too weak to put up a fight against the Kalsari heavy fighters, so the Void Stalker was devised. The Void Stalker was superior to the Scout in every aspect; twin Ion Cannons, twice as fast, stronger armor, cloaking capability, and plasma torpedoes. The new Void Stalker squadrons decimated the Kalsari heavy fighters, and sent them retreating to their dark realms.
Length- 10 meters
Height - 2 meters
Armament - Twin Ion cannons and plasma torpedoes
Purifier Star Cruisers - "Space is such a fitting grave."
Powerful and ancient, the Purifier Star Cruisers have both mobility and extreme firepower. While not having the best armor, they are still a force to be feared. Many of them are yet to be found.
Length - 200 meters
Armor thickness - 9 inches
Armament - 20x anti ship laser batteries, 10 torpedoe launchers
Elthras Class Destroyer - "Revenge for the fallen."
Swift and deadly, the Elthras destroyers are gleaming golden vessels that hide a terrifying strength within their hulls. Armed with gauss flayers and powerful prismatic cannons, they are truly a force to be reckoned with. They are designated to destroy lightly armored foes with little reprisal.
Length - 420 meters
Armor thickness - 6 inches
Armament - 20 gauss flayers, 5 prismatic cannons
Ark Ship - REALLy huge and verryyy rare, built as last havens for the Altarani race when they are threatened with extinction. Only 3 are known to exist. The arkships are incredibly powerful on their own and can fight a prolonged war by itself. Their size means that they can evacuate entire planets of their populations, provided that the planet is not some gigantic metropolis by itself and thus has a population in the hundreds of billions.
The arkships are capable of destroying small moons and asteroids, and an orbital bombardment from one is enough to devastate half a continent the size of Australia. They have spacious holds that can accommodate entire fleets and large numbers of fighter squadrons.
Fighter capacity - 800,000
Length - Unknown, estimated to be planetoid sized
Armament - Purifier beam, plasma turret, solar beam, photon torpedoes, shield torpedoes, gauss cannons, ion cannons.
Purifier Platform - Built as vaults for the Purifiers. Around 10 exist.
The Purifier platforms by themselves are powerful and are a force to be reckoned with. The platforms are armed with ancient technology yet to be decoded by the Altarani scientists, and so their full potential is uncertain. It is known that they are capable of burning planetary surfaces and destroying everything that is not safely underground, fighting off entire fleets on their own, and intentionally crashing their massive hulls against enemy fleets.
Length - 10 kilometers
Height - 5 kilometers
Armament -
Purifier beam, plasma turret, photon torpedoes, shield torpedoes, gauss cannons, ion cannons.
Antiga Class Ultraheavy Battleship - "Nobody will get to see you die..."
The Antiga Class Ultraheavies are extremely rare and ancient, built nearly 20,000 years ago. They are massive, heavily armored, and have powerful shields and weaponry. While it is indeed once in a lifetime to face one in combat, those that live to tell the tale speak of EMP charges disabling shields right before laser barrages lace their way through armor plating. Only the Lost Fleets wield these leviathans.
Length - Unknown, estimated between 3-6 km.
Armor thickness - 19 inches
Armament - 100 EMP charge launchers, 100 laser batteries, 100 kinetic cannons, 500 ion defense batteries.
Planetary Forces
Storm Guardians - "Death to all who oppose us!"
Melee fighters. Can charge up to enemy troops with lightning speed and hack their formations apart with a whirlwind attack.
The Storm Guardians are lower ranked members of the warrior caste of the Khalai, the Templar. As their name suggests, they are devoted to the Khala and will not hesitate to strike down those who dare threaten their people. Higher ranked Zealots become Dire Avengers - which will be shown below. Storm Guardians are armed with energy axes that double as pulse rifles. Thus, Storm Guardians are able to engage both in heavy fire fights and bloody melee combat.
Type - Melee Infantry
Armor - Light
Armament - Energy halberds/axes
Death Stalker - "From the void I serve."
Fragile, high mobility ranged support. Uses both rapid walk speed and short range teleportation for its mobility.
The Death Stalkers are Shadow Templar warriors fused to the machine. The machine gives them higher durability and survivability than they normally would. Their phase disruptors are adept against both ground and aerial targets and are most effective against armored targets. These weapons strike their foes at the molecular level and eventually tear away at the atomic structure of whatever protects them, making them highly effective against chitinous carapaces and plate armor. They are designated mainly as anti-armor support troops.
Type - Mobile Ranged support/ harassment
Armor - Light
Armament - Phase disruptor
Titanic Watcher - "Incinerate!"
17 story high nigh sentient robotic walkers that spread destruction in their wake.
The Watchers were first built during 3000 - HSC. They proved to be destructive in combat, as shown in their performance against the Tagal insectoids in 100 HSC, wiping out 80% of ther population and sending them back to the Stone Age. The general population became so horrified of their destructiveness, that the watchers were sealed away within asteroid bases and the various colonies of the Empire, only to be reactivated when needed. The Protectorate reactivated them around 3158, utilizing them as one of the most destructive weapons the Empire ever devised.
Type - Robotic siege, swarm destroyer
Armor - Heavy
Armament - Thermal lance
Undying Immortals - "From the grave I return."
Powerful robotic tank walkers. Piloted by fallen warriors, their shields are so hard to crack that they can take things like cannon shells, anti-tank missiles, and tachyon turbo lasers without leaving much of a scratch. They function as the perfect frontline forces; crushing armored resistance in their path and soaking up massive amounts of attacks. However, they are vulnerable against aircraft and swarms of smaller, faster enemy forces.
The Undying Immortals are upgraded Dragoons. Dragoons used to be the main ranged support forces of the Altarani, until the Fall of Aiur, when the blueprints for creating them were lost. The remaining Dragoons were upgraded into the Undying Immortals. However, when the arkships were found, they had plans for the Dragoons in their systems, so Dragoons are now created in a regular basis, though many of these are eventually upgraded into Undying Immortals.
Type - Superheavy tank
Armor - Heavy
Armaments - 4 Plasma blasters
Archseer - "Our minds are as one."
Powerful psykers, physically weak. Torments foes with psychic storms and lightning bolts.
The strongest amongst them have telekinesis.
Higher ranked members of the Templar caste, they often used to be ordinary Templar until they decided to make their psionic powers improve. Thus, an Archseer is on the making. By meditation, training, and honing their minds, the Archseers improve their psychic powers. However, this path is a perilous one, and not all survive it. Many either lose their lives or their sanity, and those who survive are hardened veterans that cast down electrical destruction towards the enemy.
Type - Psionic support warriors
Armor - Light
Armament - Their powers
Light Protector - "You built me to aid you in your darkest hour."
Support drones. Summons force fields, guardian shields, and replenishes shields.
The Light Protector were built in light of the depleted population. With fewer warriors that can be fielded, the Light Protectors fill in the ranks, pestering their foes with immovable force fields, protects allied troops with guardian shields, and replenishes shields.
Type - Support drone
Armor - Light
Armament- Disruptor beam
Warp Prismite - "The fate of war is at my hands."
Warp Prismites are robotic reality warping transporters. Reinforcements can be warped in the area in close proximity to the warp prismite. It also functions as a transporter by turning targets into pure energy and returning them to their original state upon deployment.
The Warp Prismite possesses limited sentience, due to processing near infinite amounts of data per second. Fortunately, they see themselves as one of the flickering lights of a dying race, and they do their duty with devotion.
Type - Transport/Reinforcement beacon
Armor - Light
Armament - None
Night Haunter - "The darkness writhes."
The Night Haunters are assassins that stalk their prey in broad daylight. They are Shadow TEmplar that have walked the Path of Darkness, a ritual that allows them to become true Shadow Templar warriors. Their newfound powers allow them to cloak themselves without technological support. They are especially difficult to detect with standard sensors, but robots and psykers are easily disturbed by their presence.
Type: Cloaked assassin
Armor: Light
Armament: Warp blade
Terror Blade - "You think you are scary? You know nothing of fear."
Not all Shadow Templar walk the Path of Darkness. Some choose to become part of the Shadow Legion of Shakuras. The Terror Blades are named so after the jaws of creatures they wear on their faces, which is straightly terrifying. In addition, they can temporarily stun enemy troops with blasts of psychic energy from theirmodified warp blades, giving them an enormous advantage in close quarters combat.
Type: Terrifying melee warriors with stun attacks
Armor: Medium
Armament: Modified warp blades
Ancient Protector - "I defend what is left."
Purifier warriors raised from death... literally. These robotic warriors are capable of reconstructing after being destroyed, making it a tenious process to kill one, unless if one knows their weakness: their power core.
Type: Heavy melee warriors
Armor: Heavy
Armament: Energy spears
The Fallen Ones - "I may have fallen, but my spirit never will."
Robotic walkers piloted by fallen warriors injured beyond repair(hence their name). Has more armor than Death Stalkers, but has less mobility. Served as the primary ranged support force of the old Altaran Empire.
Type: Ranged robotic walker
Armor: Medium
Armament: Phase disruptor
Star Gazer - "I live on."
The Star Gazers are a terrifying presence in the battlefield. These Purifier machines launch blasts of solarite at the foe, and is also capable of turning into a ball of pure energy, which then charges into a huge mass of enemy troops. This either burns those it hits directly, or kills a good number of enemy troops by the purification nova that soon follows. The Star Gazer releases a ring wave of energy, damaging or killing everything within a short vicinity.
Type: Levitating Robotic Anti-Infantry
Armor: Light
Armament: Its very own power core
Dire Avenger - "Glory to the Firstborn!"
The Dire Avengers are levitating warriors armed with prism glaives that are essentially miniature prismatic beams. They deal continuous focus damage on a single target, burning it to death with the high temperatures of the beam. The Dire Avengers levitate at around 30 - 40 feet above the battlefield, depending on the planet's gravity strength. They fly using a combination of anti-gravity generators and cold fusion jet engines.
Type - Flying high damage infantry
Armor - Medium
Armament - Prism Glaive
Void Spectre - "The light will shine once again."
Elite warriors. They are Dire Avengers that have proven themselves time and time again in the battlefield, promoting them to the Void Spectres. Void Spectre's are armed with n even more potent prismatic cannon, which is highly effective against armored targets and are invariably fatal to infantry. These flying elites cut flaming swathes through tight enemy formations, making them the perfect anti-swarm troops.
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