The Zaryn evolved from the survivors of yet another colony ship during the Gyllean Project. However, the world their kind crash landed upon is unknown, as they have sought hard to hide their homeworld's location after the Soleian Crisis.
They are by far the most feared of all offshoot species, even in the shadow of their ancestor's great empire. Choosing their sides carefully, they officially consider themselves members of the Scourge, a smaller branch of the Crux space pirates, although many hire themselves out to other parties (mostly to more shady organizations and people). With the end of the Soleian Crisis, however, many Zaryn would throw down their loyalties to other species if it immediately threatened their homeworld. Their workings with the Scourge put them in the closest relationship with the Isk, who, under Chamelouge's rule, make occasional dealings with the Crux.
Zaryn are physically considered somewhat strange in comparison to the other offshoot races. They have bulked up significantly, gaining a bit of muscle; but they have also obtained sharp teeth and, their most prominent feature, a long horn that extends backwards and displays sexual dimorphism.
History[]
The Gyllean Project[]
When the Isk discovered science, they hit a power renaissance that put them in the fast lane into civilization. It did not take them long to invent powerful space flight that left them able to explore, mine, and eventually colonize the nearby planets in their planetary system. Unfortunately, travel was slow during this period and the Isk, ever industrious, desired a faster speed to move between worlds, with the hope that they could explore the stars that surrounded them.
This would eventually lead to the invention of hyperdrive systems. Although built by scientists they were not tested, thanks to the pride of the species. This would lead to the Gyllean Project, which was the Iskian government's attempt to commercialize interstellar travel. A thousand colony ships were built and installed with the newly-produced hyperdrive systems to colonize other worlds. They were given communication systems so they could report their success. However, the Isks were not as smart as they would think they were, and neither their knowledge of exoplanets nor their knowledge at the speed of which radio signals traveled. This of course meant that for those ships that arrived at planets where the species could actually survive on, their communications wouldn't arrive for many light-years.
Believing that each and every ship had subsequently been lost forever, the Iskian government was dealt a heavy blow, nearly mortal. This unmitigated disaster dampened their species' progress into space for a whole millennia.
However, the first of the signals would arrive to Iska a thousand years after the initial project, leaving the species to suddenly return to their idea to enter space again with due diligence. As all of their blueprints had survived in some fashion, they were able to return to their former interstellar level before long, and it would not be too terribly long before they could begin to subjugate hundreds of forcibly-allied species.
Bloody Soleia IV[]
The most infamous victim of the Zaryn World Cleansers, the world once only known as Soleia IV was once the homeworld of the Soleians, a group of sinister merchants that discovered the Zaryn homeworld and threatened the species' homeplanet for a nonstop payment of credits. The Zaryn delegation, knowing what this would mean, elected to employ their World Cleansers, who are used typically only in emergency situations.
The Soleian kept their vessels orbiting the Zaryn homeworld for 3 full years. Sneaking the World Cleansers aboard one of the Soleian starships bound for refueling and restocking of food and water supplies back on Soleia IV, the crew had no idea that they were sealing the fate of their species. With the World Cleansers now stationed on the planet, they quickly began "cleansing" the entire world, while at the same time slowly removing the water supply to the absolute minimum to keep the Soleians alive; the Zaryns instead used the remaining water to keep their own numbers alive, and to send back to their own homeworld for use as supplies on their own ships.
With only 50 World Cleansers existing at any given time and the Soleian population numbering into the billions, it took the World Cleansers approximately 30 years to cleanse the entire world. By this point, all of the water had been smuggled off-world, and the blood that had been spilled had successfully overflowed, and replaced the old oceans. Few species were capable of adapting to life without water, and most species went extinct. Those to survive were mostly hemophagic reptilians and the like, but these were few and far between. This world quickly became known as "Soleia IV: The World of Blood", but this eventually was just shortened to "Bloody Soleia IV", and finally, the planet was officially renamed to "Blood". No races chose to take up residence here, due to the horrific scene of the oceans of blood. This led to the planet becoming the secret training grounds of the Zaryn World Cleansers years later.
Allies[]
Major Allies[]
- Abyssal Zharkulan
- Avin
- Olostrum
- Phoid
- Savpraxx
- Sectyd
- Stralk
Enemies[]
Major Enemies[]
- Grand Zharkulan
- Hammerzhark
- Soleian
Minor Enemies[]
- Wygonakan