So after reading it all over and seeing it isn’t quite what I wanted it to be and what with the advent of Stellaris: Apocalypse soon to be released I decided to reboot Children of the Sath’ka from scratch. I realised as I looked over it, my style is changing and the story is a bit of a long rambling tale without to much clear direction and it doesn’t show the Tor’van in the way I wished them to be seen.
Aside from the game mechanics making wars extremally long winded, awkward and all in all rather dull, I noticed that the government type I had chosen for the Tor’van was not at all the way I had ended up playing them nor the way I had gone on to write them. What I think I moved into was a very bizarre form of dictatorship (which was meant to be oligarchy) and my attempts at writing it as something different seemed a rather ad hoc and ill thought out result.
Some people like writing AAR’s just as a sort of narrative to the game, I like the game to provide more of a skeleton for a narrative and I really feel I lost that with my first attempt. I also wrote the Tor’van as having a militarist ethos and yet never really explored it whilst also being unsure how to work the concept of the Sath’ka into the tale as we went.
So here goes, we shall start again. Apologies to those who liked the original story and the adventure of Kettril, but I hope this new reboot will sit better…..the Clonisia, Groll, Kapala, Rathnor and Tokkai will still feature somewhere along the line but there are other races added in and some that have been edited, I hope you enjoy reading and I hope more over I myself am happy with what I can create.
Chapter One: The Beginning that is also the End
The Royal Balcony of the Celestial Lance, Hoffmar System along the Eastern Rim, -4,000 years
Five thousand voices rose up from the streets below, throat ripping cries let loose to the heavens in defiance of the endless dark. What utter nonsense.
Odranus turned away from the cityscape before him, his father Kadamos, shaking his fists and raising the peoples anger with a fiery blast of oratory that would set most men’s hearts soaring to heaven. What complete and utter nonsense. He began to ascend the stair, leaving the All-father to address his people.
Seleneus gripped his arm gently, a smile breaking softly on her face “You are his son, you should stay. Let the people see you.” Odranus simply smiled in reply as her hand let him free.
“They have seen me, they have heard me, they know my mind” he knows my mind, ‘What I offer them they do not want and so this war will go on and he will lead them to their doom.’ He began to move further up the great stair toward the palace doors, he knew she wished to stop him, but she did not try again.
This place held nothing for him anymore for he had no wish to dwell amongst the shadows waiting for extinction to take them. Two others broke away from the group, slipping quietly up the steps after him, they too obviously tired of hearing these endless cries to battle that only ever led to them falling further into defeat.
Hellas leapt three steps bringing himself alongside the Prince, “Have you finally decided it is time to leave?”
My friend I decided that along time ago, only now am I ready.
He nodded solemnly ‘Indeera is right, we should have left with her there is nothing left here but ghosts and dead men waiting to die.’ They passed through the door into the inner chamber just of from the royal rooms. Dahamara joined them moments later pulling his electric blue cape around himself as if cold.
“It is over isn’t it? The house of Ka’vos is ended?” the words hung in the air, lifeless and cold as all three of them realised the truth of it. Near four centuries had passed since the Sat’kor had taken to flight, their home world swallowed by the shadows in the stars but despite the time and the ferocity of the war that had waged since, few had been willing to heed the calls for peace, fewer still had accepted that this war had marked the beginning of their fall.
The Prince smiled meekly at his companions ‘My House has fallen yes and our people will fall with it, but that does not mean it is over. We will go to my sister-wife, we will heed her call and help her sow seeds into the ashes and then maybe we can fade into memory and into myth knowing at least that we did not die quietly.’ I could weep, but what would I be weeping for. Another colossal roar went up from the crowds outside, thousands chanting the name of the All-father, desperate to believe the time of their people’s rebirth was on its way, blind to the fact their doom had already come and gone. They all turned for a moment, regret perhaps pulling their eyes back to the door before Odranus pulled himself up, straight backed and firm, ‘We should make haste, it is a long walk to the ships stern, four hours even at a brisk pace.’
Hellas burst into laughter for a split second, though his Princes gaze silenced it within moments. ‘Walk? To the end of the ship? She is the size of a planet my Lord, it would be easier to use the jump drives?’
He shook his head, his eyes still fixed at the doorway ‘I would say good bye properly’ his gaze shifted, taking in the beauty of the royal rooms, the crystalline pillars sparkling with the souls of their ancestors trapped within, he thought for but a few moments more, considering his friends advice ‘we shall walk the streets one last time, we will never see the like of her again I am sure.’
The Celestial Lance, Two hours later
“Be at peace with it brother, it is a necessary evil” the Prince gripped his friend Hellas’ shoulder as the young soldier whipped a tear from his eyes. The vibrations could still be felt in each of their steps and far up above a colossal aura of fire and elemental gases was dancing along the Celestial Lances shield matrix. You would have thought you would have grown used to it by now.
“Every time…..every time it happens it feels like my heart will burst with the pain. Surely, we could have researched or refined a better way than that…for a ship of such wonder, her methods are brutish at times.” Sadness sounded in Hellas’ voice as ever it did.
A ship the size of the Celestial Lance, colossal in scale to the point where it could dwarf whole worlds and moons, required an incredible energy source and not content with the slow steady recharge of solar panels and ever fearful of anti-matter technology the Sat’kor had designed an ingenious method of feeding the star-breaker class vessel. Its name is not given by chance.
Her bow was shaped into a mega-lance which when her course set into a stars heart, the engineers would drive her through the pulsing, scorching core of a systems star, bursting its heart and draining from it every scrap of solar energy that the ships collectors could rape from them.
Dahamara strode past them at pace, his feet merely glancing along the glass floors ‘Can we get a move on, the reaping will give the ships dimension drive a boost so we can cover more ground’ they both lengthened there step at the wise ones words, for he was right, the ship twisted reality around the main jump stream allowing its citizens to miss whole streets and levels in a heartbeat ‘but if we are still here by the time she jumps we will never be able to reach Indeera’s fleet.’
They went on a little further, moving at speed before Odranus stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes glazed over and his face ashen for a second. Hellas and Dahamara turned to him curious, the young soldier looking concerned ‘The All-father?’
Their prince nodded, his hands reaching up to remove the circlet from his brow, its little blue stone glowing sharply. He tossed it over the side of the platform into the cavernous depth of the city proper, light returning to his face as he did so, ‘He is looking for us, he knows we plan to leave I am sure.’ You will not stop me this time father.
Turning on his heel, Dahamara gripped the Princes arm ‘Then we must make extra time, or else we need not worry about being stranded here, you father will have my head and yours if he believes we are abandoning him.’
Off they flew, down the long gangway, passing shops and houses as they went in a blur, the reality stream projecting them along their route.
The Gateway of the Celestial Lance, One hour further
Pulse shots blasted the stone work along the opposite wall into a thousands shards, five guardsman stood in the door way, their spears lowered taking aim, one lay prostate on his back. Mercy be yours.
Odranus and his two companions raced across the hall and as they moved the Prince noted the female figure stood by the console, her hands connecting with the gateway by a coursing thread of electricity rising up from the panel and merging with her flesh, she turned to them, it was Selenus “BE QUICK YOU FOOLS, WE HAVE TO GO!” What are you doing here, the Prince turned to Hellas, who offered a reluctant smile as they ran. “Vor’ka stop them” the Princess waved to her body-guard and his men who were even now returning fire toward the doorway.
“Cousin” he gripped her upper arm tightly yanking her away from the console ‘What are you doing here? You will not stop me?’
She smiled at him again, yanking her arm free ‘I have no desire to stop you, I am coming with you’ he looked at her in astonishment as she continued her reply ‘The gods have fallen, I will not fall with them.’ They all ducked down low as a blast of blue lightening hit the gateway.
‘We must go now my Prince’ Dahamara raised his own hand to the console, closing his eyes for but a moment to feed the co-ordinates into the vessels system. In but an instant the liquid metal cover of the gateway began to melt and morph, pouring itself down into two huge basins either side of the ramp ‘It knows where we are going, now quickly! Get moving!’
Hellas did not need telling twice and with a heartbeat he had hold of Selenus pulling her through the swirling vortex at the heart of the gateway, with a nod seconds after Dahamara flew from the console, up the ramp and in a flash, was gone. Odranus turned to the door they had raced through, seeing more guards appearing “VOR’KA? QUICKLY END THIS AND COME WITH US!”
The old warrior turned, smiling at the young Prince, resignation on his face and then he spun again his fist punching out into the open air, a shockwave of kinetic energy laced with red fire projecting forward and bowling over three of the royal guards. They lay there twitching a moment as the old man turned back to his Prince, he thrust out his free hand sending another pulse of energy out that cast Odranus hurtling through the air and through the pulsating energies of the gateway. “Good bye my Prince”
Aside from the game mechanics making wars extremally long winded, awkward and all in all rather dull, I noticed that the government type I had chosen for the Tor’van was not at all the way I had ended up playing them nor the way I had gone on to write them. What I think I moved into was a very bizarre form of dictatorship (which was meant to be oligarchy) and my attempts at writing it as something different seemed a rather ad hoc and ill thought out result.
Some people like writing AAR’s just as a sort of narrative to the game, I like the game to provide more of a skeleton for a narrative and I really feel I lost that with my first attempt. I also wrote the Tor’van as having a militarist ethos and yet never really explored it whilst also being unsure how to work the concept of the Sath’ka into the tale as we went.
So here goes, we shall start again. Apologies to those who liked the original story and the adventure of Kettril, but I hope this new reboot will sit better…..the Clonisia, Groll, Kapala, Rathnor and Tokkai will still feature somewhere along the line but there are other races added in and some that have been edited, I hope you enjoy reading and I hope more over I myself am happy with what I can create.
Chapter One: The Beginning that is also the End
The Royal Balcony of the Celestial Lance, Hoffmar System along the Eastern Rim, -4,000 years
Five thousand voices rose up from the streets below, throat ripping cries let loose to the heavens in defiance of the endless dark. What utter nonsense.
Odranus turned away from the cityscape before him, his father Kadamos, shaking his fists and raising the peoples anger with a fiery blast of oratory that would set most men’s hearts soaring to heaven. What complete and utter nonsense. He began to ascend the stair, leaving the All-father to address his people.
Seleneus gripped his arm gently, a smile breaking softly on her face “You are his son, you should stay. Let the people see you.” Odranus simply smiled in reply as her hand let him free.
“They have seen me, they have heard me, they know my mind” he knows my mind, ‘What I offer them they do not want and so this war will go on and he will lead them to their doom.’ He began to move further up the great stair toward the palace doors, he knew she wished to stop him, but she did not try again.
This place held nothing for him anymore for he had no wish to dwell amongst the shadows waiting for extinction to take them. Two others broke away from the group, slipping quietly up the steps after him, they too obviously tired of hearing these endless cries to battle that only ever led to them falling further into defeat.
Hellas leapt three steps bringing himself alongside the Prince, “Have you finally decided it is time to leave?”
My friend I decided that along time ago, only now am I ready.
He nodded solemnly ‘Indeera is right, we should have left with her there is nothing left here but ghosts and dead men waiting to die.’ They passed through the door into the inner chamber just of from the royal rooms. Dahamara joined them moments later pulling his electric blue cape around himself as if cold.
“It is over isn’t it? The house of Ka’vos is ended?” the words hung in the air, lifeless and cold as all three of them realised the truth of it. Near four centuries had passed since the Sat’kor had taken to flight, their home world swallowed by the shadows in the stars but despite the time and the ferocity of the war that had waged since, few had been willing to heed the calls for peace, fewer still had accepted that this war had marked the beginning of their fall.
The Prince smiled meekly at his companions ‘My House has fallen yes and our people will fall with it, but that does not mean it is over. We will go to my sister-wife, we will heed her call and help her sow seeds into the ashes and then maybe we can fade into memory and into myth knowing at least that we did not die quietly.’ I could weep, but what would I be weeping for. Another colossal roar went up from the crowds outside, thousands chanting the name of the All-father, desperate to believe the time of their people’s rebirth was on its way, blind to the fact their doom had already come and gone. They all turned for a moment, regret perhaps pulling their eyes back to the door before Odranus pulled himself up, straight backed and firm, ‘We should make haste, it is a long walk to the ships stern, four hours even at a brisk pace.’
Hellas burst into laughter for a split second, though his Princes gaze silenced it within moments. ‘Walk? To the end of the ship? She is the size of a planet my Lord, it would be easier to use the jump drives?’
He shook his head, his eyes still fixed at the doorway ‘I would say good bye properly’ his gaze shifted, taking in the beauty of the royal rooms, the crystalline pillars sparkling with the souls of their ancestors trapped within, he thought for but a few moments more, considering his friends advice ‘we shall walk the streets one last time, we will never see the like of her again I am sure.’
The Celestial Lance, Two hours later
“Be at peace with it brother, it is a necessary evil” the Prince gripped his friend Hellas’ shoulder as the young soldier whipped a tear from his eyes. The vibrations could still be felt in each of their steps and far up above a colossal aura of fire and elemental gases was dancing along the Celestial Lances shield matrix. You would have thought you would have grown used to it by now.
“Every time…..every time it happens it feels like my heart will burst with the pain. Surely, we could have researched or refined a better way than that…for a ship of such wonder, her methods are brutish at times.” Sadness sounded in Hellas’ voice as ever it did.
A ship the size of the Celestial Lance, colossal in scale to the point where it could dwarf whole worlds and moons, required an incredible energy source and not content with the slow steady recharge of solar panels and ever fearful of anti-matter technology the Sat’kor had designed an ingenious method of feeding the star-breaker class vessel. Its name is not given by chance.
Her bow was shaped into a mega-lance which when her course set into a stars heart, the engineers would drive her through the pulsing, scorching core of a systems star, bursting its heart and draining from it every scrap of solar energy that the ships collectors could rape from them.
Dahamara strode past them at pace, his feet merely glancing along the glass floors ‘Can we get a move on, the reaping will give the ships dimension drive a boost so we can cover more ground’ they both lengthened there step at the wise ones words, for he was right, the ship twisted reality around the main jump stream allowing its citizens to miss whole streets and levels in a heartbeat ‘but if we are still here by the time she jumps we will never be able to reach Indeera’s fleet.’
They went on a little further, moving at speed before Odranus stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes glazed over and his face ashen for a second. Hellas and Dahamara turned to him curious, the young soldier looking concerned ‘The All-father?’
Their prince nodded, his hands reaching up to remove the circlet from his brow, its little blue stone glowing sharply. He tossed it over the side of the platform into the cavernous depth of the city proper, light returning to his face as he did so, ‘He is looking for us, he knows we plan to leave I am sure.’ You will not stop me this time father.
Turning on his heel, Dahamara gripped the Princes arm ‘Then we must make extra time, or else we need not worry about being stranded here, you father will have my head and yours if he believes we are abandoning him.’
Off they flew, down the long gangway, passing shops and houses as they went in a blur, the reality stream projecting them along their route.
The Gateway of the Celestial Lance, One hour further
Pulse shots blasted the stone work along the opposite wall into a thousands shards, five guardsman stood in the door way, their spears lowered taking aim, one lay prostate on his back. Mercy be yours.
Odranus and his two companions raced across the hall and as they moved the Prince noted the female figure stood by the console, her hands connecting with the gateway by a coursing thread of electricity rising up from the panel and merging with her flesh, she turned to them, it was Selenus “BE QUICK YOU FOOLS, WE HAVE TO GO!” What are you doing here, the Prince turned to Hellas, who offered a reluctant smile as they ran. “Vor’ka stop them” the Princess waved to her body-guard and his men who were even now returning fire toward the doorway.
“Cousin” he gripped her upper arm tightly yanking her away from the console ‘What are you doing here? You will not stop me?’
She smiled at him again, yanking her arm free ‘I have no desire to stop you, I am coming with you’ he looked at her in astonishment as she continued her reply ‘The gods have fallen, I will not fall with them.’ They all ducked down low as a blast of blue lightening hit the gateway.
‘We must go now my Prince’ Dahamara raised his own hand to the console, closing his eyes for but a moment to feed the co-ordinates into the vessels system. In but an instant the liquid metal cover of the gateway began to melt and morph, pouring itself down into two huge basins either side of the ramp ‘It knows where we are going, now quickly! Get moving!’
Hellas did not need telling twice and with a heartbeat he had hold of Selenus pulling her through the swirling vortex at the heart of the gateway, with a nod seconds after Dahamara flew from the console, up the ramp and in a flash, was gone. Odranus turned to the door they had raced through, seeing more guards appearing “VOR’KA? QUICKLY END THIS AND COME WITH US!”
The old warrior turned, smiling at the young Prince, resignation on his face and then he spun again his fist punching out into the open air, a shockwave of kinetic energy laced with red fire projecting forward and bowling over three of the royal guards. They lay there twitching a moment as the old man turned back to his Prince, he thrust out his free hand sending another pulse of energy out that cast Odranus hurtling through the air and through the pulsating energies of the gateway. “Good bye my Prince”