Homeworld Manual

part i: historical + technical briefing PAGE 1 homeworld a kharakid heresy wars tor mission silumiin riots question of origins environment CIRCA 520 CIRCA 810 CIRCA 1024 A1 A2 A3 A4 The debate over our past on this world Kharak is an old planet Early history on Kharak The Heresy Wars left our Space exploration was not reaches back through the entire documented (6.7 billion years) that is marked by conflicts people on the brink of greeted favorably by the history of civilization, a period covering over is nearing the end of its between various clans extinction, with precious entire population. Large 1300 years. The harsh conditions across this geological activity. Most based on territorial consi- resources and infrastruc- factions from some of world, Kharak, [A1] fueled the myths of major terrain features derations and religious ture destroyed during three the poorer clans believed other places and times where we did not have have been weathered dogma. This came to a head centuries of religious technology and industrial down, and vast deserts in 520 when the two conflict. In 810, with all output was being wasted on to spend so much of our strength on simple Fig 1.2: cover most of the world largest clans in the north, factions exhausted and this effort. They thought it survival. While the issue of our distant past Peering toward the heart of our own spiral galaxy. The except for the polar the Siiddim and Gaalsien, falling from internal would be put to better dark horizontal band is a vast bank of interstellar dust that was primarily a religious matter [A2], it wasn’t regions. These are shielded went to war over the issue anarchy, a small clan, from use trying to alter Kharak obscures the more distant bright core region until the dawning of the Time of Reason [A3] from the encroaching of what had caused the the settlement at Tiir, or at least discover ways to approximately 35,000 light years away. that advances in the biological and chemical sands by the three gods to place us on such a emerged from hiding. This support more people and the xenogenesis question sciences revealed a disturbing lack of northern seas and the world. The Siiddim believed obscure northern clan was hold back the encroaching and early spaceflight missions commonality between our biochemical great Majiirian Ocean in we once were a great race the first to develop deserts. As final prepa- the south. Temperatures living in paradise but had chemical explosives and was rations for the first orbital makeup and that of most Kharakid life. It was becoming more obvious that we, as a Ironically, it was the birth of the Daiamid along the equator can been punished by the gods thus unmatched in clan flight were being made, approach the boiling for our hubris and cast warfare. It also preached a an obscure theologian named species, were relatively new to Kharak. Movement, with its many scientific point of water, and the down to this world. The worldview based on science Per Doine provided the However, this theory alone did not bring breakthroughs, that created a philosophical only life forms larger Gaalsien believed this idea and logic and offered unifying force for these peace to our world. The mechanism used environment where the oldest myths and the than microbes survive by to be heretical arrogance protection to anyone who factions by resurrecting the and reason for our arrival was still being newest theories could be wedded into what burrowing deep under the in light of their belief that wished to live in such a old myth that tragedy would hotly debated and was even cause for a we now have accepted as the XenoGenesis sands and along sub- we had been created to world. A few decisive befall our people should theological revival on the eve of our first Theory. Except for a small variety of bacteria surface water channels suffer from the beginning battles showed that none we offend the gods with orbital flights. [A4] The age of orbital and a single species of small forager, our helix or by hibernating during and Kharak was all we of the theological clans another act of arrogance. exploration revealed the first clues that we the hottest months. The could hope for. The could hope to defeat the This religious revival spread proteins are completely different from all were not indigenous to Kharak. Once we polar regions are almost conflict eventually spread Naabel and within 20 years throughout both polar other forms of life on Kharak. We are left with optimal for our people, to the southern zone as Tiir was the new capital and territories and it culminated had progressed to piloted flights, reports of no other choice but to seriously consider the but the limited arable land well. Even more obscure the Time of Reason had with an attempt by a frenzied unusual pieces of metallic debris in high theory that we are aliens to this world. Of and scarce resources have points of theology provided begun. mob to tear down the Silumiin orbit soon led to dedicated retrieval course, this answer only leads to more prevented our population the rationalization for a launch vehicle on the eve of missions, with surprising results. While questions. from growing beyond 300 series of wars, large and its liftoff. This disaster was nothing larger than a handspan could be million. small, that lasted almost averted only by the wisdom found, samples were brought down from 300 years and created clan of the High Technocrats who orbit and soft landed in the High Desert. feuds that would not be put stood on the launch base Initial analysis made it obvious these were to rest until the discovery defense turrets, preventing of the Guidestone. them from firing on the pieces of advanced manufactured and crowd, and preached reason machined structures. Detailed atomic to the crowd for the entire analysis revealed trace elements and isotope 14 hours required for combinations unknown on Kharak or, as it launch. Per Doine slipped was eventually discovered, anywhere else in through the cordon and the stellar system. prayed for salvation beneath the rocket’s main engines Fig 1.1: This was yet another piece to the puzzle of until they ignited, vaporizing The desert planet Kharak him. He died a martyr for the our origins, but it did not truly confirm as seen from space. cause. anything except that some kind of alien device or ship had once orbited our world. Though not decisive, the discovery of this PAGE PAGE homeworld 1 HISTORICAL + TECHNICAL BRIEFING 2 opened a shielded chamber containing the remains of the ancient tiny debris belt spurred great leaps in metallurgy and khar-toba analysis ship’s power plant. Painstakingly transported to the modern polar manufacturing simply by showing that exotic, high tensile composite materials could exist. This in turn A5 capital of Tiir, this ancient device was back-engineered to provide led to advances in propulsion, first with limited Khar-toba appears to be another generation of breakthroughs in power and material sciences. the first city built by our fissioning of unstable heavy elements and then with But what catapulted our technology 500 years forward was the analysis ancestors after surviving more viable hydrogen fusion power plants, as of a module attached to the power plant. This device was nothing less planetfall on Kharak. than a solid state hyperspace induction module. In a decade of effective shielding systems became lighter and Analysis of the ancient analysis, we were ready to take our first steps into the galaxy, but it smaller. The combination of these technologies infrastructure seems to was not until 1135 that it was revealed just how far we had to go. spurred our fledgling space program even further and indicate this ancient our first steps became leaps. We were poised on the vessel suffered irreparable threshold of space, looking outward for answers, damage and was unable to The discovery of the power plant and hyperspace module was when a twist of fate turned our eyes back to the move its crew to a more considered the gem of ancient Khar-Toba, and with them safely in surface of our adopted world. temperate polar climate. research labs in the temperate poles, the old city was left in the hands Thus the city spreads of a few dedicated archaeologists. They struggled to do their work the discovery of khar-toba radially around the wreck under some of the harshest conditions on Kharak. Led by a young and much of it is woman named Mevath Sagald, they gave our entire civilization an underground where we answer and a goal as she pieced together the location of the mythical In 1106 a powerful radar satellite was launched in the believe our ancestors went Observatory Temple of Khar-Toba. Accidents left her to excavate the hopes of detecting larger debris belts elsewhere in seeking relief from the site nearly single-handedly, but when she opened the inner chamber our star-system. A malfunction in its maneuvering high desert temperatures she recognized immediately the full import of what she found etched jets caused the satellite to turn toward Kharak and and regular sandstorms. on a single piece of black stone. scan the surface. Leykab Jaraci, a technician on the Many of the structures project, noticed a strong return where there should closest to the hull are made have been none. A quick analysis showed the up of patched sections of the guidestone powerful radar had penetrated the equatorial desert hull plate. As the city grew outward, more sand to a depth of 75 meters and there was strong Archaeologist Sagald had found something that was as unremarkable evidence of an ancient city centered around a large rudimentary structures were carved from the local to the casual eye as it was monumental to the future of our people.

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