On Tuchanka

Dear members of this fine forum. Allow me to impart to you the toils of my day for I have been unquestionably silent and really, what is the point of membership if one refuses to be involved.

Here is how it began:


Here is how it ended:


To elaborate. Me and mine were tasked with escorting an observer and her fellows from the Citadel's most illustrious Demilitarization Enforcement Mission from the north of the Kelphic River Valley to the contested floodplains at Hathrad and the manufactories within manufactories. The alien's presence, and that of our counterparts, the Urdnot Guard was the source of much grumbling on the journey north but we, as ever, abided the decisions of our lords. The sanctity of neutrality cannot be violated, to do so invites temporal retribution and heavenly disfavor.

Besides our compensation was grand and the aims worthy. Hathrad is contested between the Northern clan of Kradai and the Southerners Shalk; the two have have traded the ziggurat and its ruins between them for centuries hence. Warlord Kradai Alkun is the most recent Keeper of the city; having taken it and made it his fastness during the Incursion. He held it against the foul abominations of the darkening would-be Gods and, as the dawn came and dust settled and orange blood clotted the earth, pledged himself to the North. A true ally and a good vassal to we of the Wastes.

However the Southerners would hear none of this and demanded inquest and investigation as to the grievances suffered by the Shalk warriors and workers who have been subsumed by the North. The Whore croaked and the Alliance rumbled and so we went.

Of course, when we arrived we found the walls of the fortress rent and buildings aflame. Warlords Shalk's erstwhile offspring it seems had become tired of his father's meanderings and soft dealings and had taken a company of his Clan's finest warriors into the wastes. For which the whelp must be afforded a degree of respect. A fool. Hotblooded and rash. But a brave fool. The battle had already been joined prior to our advent.

And oh what a battle it was. Oh never fear, we fulfilled the duty charged unto us and bore our burdens well. She was taken from our tomkahs to within the keep as per our orders. That Shalk warriors sought to intervene and disturb our progress was no fault of ours.

But happy times; the assault was broken and hostages were taken. For the sake of his son and warriors Shalk has knelt and swore to a span of peace. They shall be released from their shackles shortly by all accounts.

Now (for it is only proper to after the telling to receive tales in turn) frequently I have asked members of this forum what do they know of my home. Rarely have I received an answer. Now I ask again, once more I invite all to share and respond.

Failing that I will also take questions.

You may begin.

Pfaw, had I known it was you there I'd come in person to hand over the CDEM observers, if only to have a chance to see what kind of hotbreathed krogan hides behind the 'grand' title of SerArcheosEater. But my duties call, and a commissioner cannot spend a day trekking across the wastes on some escort job fit for junior officers.

Your bravado is for naught most esteemed commissariat of the Whore of the South for that is neither a tale nor question. If you desire your idle curiosity sated you must abide by the prescriptions set forth. To do otherwise would be in exceedingly poor form.

Curiously
Do you consult a thesaurus for every other word you post, or did you just eat one?

It is rather like being back at home. This one has a question.

A friend of a sibling was doing a continental scan and reportedly came across some sunken structures in the Juharat Sea. A cursory extranet did not turn up much, and it has not really had the time to look itself to any real depth, so it was wondering if you had any idea where they could be from (an extinct culture from around the sea obviously, but there must be more to it than that)?

I found it to be a wonderful source of supplementary metals though I could have done without the glass shards in my gums. Hours with tweezers. Hours. Simply impractical to do such things outside feast days and the like.

Mmmmm. You must pardon me little lantern, I am from the North, Juharat lays far to the East, and I am no scholar (though I have browsed what histories we have on my own) so my answers may be bereft of what you seek.

The first thing you must understand is that the implication of ancient destruction fails to notably carve away at the body of options. The history of Tuchanka is one of waxing and waning empires, sacked ruins, and shining, towering cities of emberstone and greyscale. Secondly: our seas have shifted over the centuries, in the wake of cataclysm and upheaval both natural and of our own workings.

So here are my choices two for the candidates of your ruins:

The Temple Ships of Overlord Adioc Qar: In ages hence, long before the fall, long before our home was drenched in the sunwarm blood of Aralakh, the Juharat Sea was the dominion of the Adioc; adherents of the Seven Veiled Prophecies and the Words of Lekalt. Their king, Qar, had charged his generals with bringing the east, the dawn's forge, to supplication and they did their work well. Under the command of the famed Calar Zhaka, he who had charted the farthest reaches of the seething oceans and brought the gleaming islands of the Edako to heael, the holy armada set forth. And for forty years they did their work. Leaving in their wake flame, shattered navies, and the banners of the Adioc flying above thirteen kneeling thrones. The grand city of Malash Rok grew fat on the tribute. Luxuries, champions, and wealth flowed to the throne. But rather than know his limits. Qar demanded more. Ever more land. More glory. More power.

Content to lounge on his throne he did not see the danger until the blade was already falling. Fourteen nations. Fourteen imperial colonies and vassals. The entirety of the Eastern Fleet. And his champion, Zhaka. Rising up against him. Against the greed and excess of the Court. Against the prospect of eternity away from their clans. Their hatchlings. Their loves.

Qar sailed forth to meet Zhaka with the might of the royal navy at his back. And Zhaka descended upon him and his city-ships like the fury of the Heavens themselves. The battle raged for two days and three nights in the sun branded seas of the Juharat. And when that vaulted light rose on the third day it did so on the ruins of a throne.

Blessed Adioc, the Line of Sages had fallen. And the First Holy Caliphate of Calar had arisen.

Darkling Bathzian: What is there to say of Bathzian, city of the Twilight, Thane of Shadows, that has not been said by the histories? Their armies were born by the winds. Attacking and retreating in the span of a night, leaving behind the cooling corpses of champions and Royral Krantt. Generals cut down in the cold shade of the evening. Kings torn from their thrones and cast down 'neath the twinkling stars. In the time before Adioc and Calar they ruled the Baloc'natha Archipelago. Honing pen and blade. Their ships plying the golden-hammered waters of the Juharat. They sought not to rule the world like so many others. Their enemies were broken, their thrones made puppets; a border, a buffer, a source of tribute, and little else. Bathzaian cared not for the affairs of the so-called Lords of the West; content to tend to their own affairs, stirring only from their libraries and treasure-fleets to wage wars of whispers and flashing daggers against any who would encroach.

None know of how they ultimately fell. There is only tell of the exodus, of the death of a nation by degrees. First the fleets. Then the nobles. Then the armies. Then the citizens. Falling and fading away into the lands beyond. The subjugated cast off their shackles, though it could not be properly called a liberation if there was no one holding the other end. There are only fragments and remnants from this time but it has been heard tell, in our annals and tomes, of the city being breached decades later, by a brash, young lordling. It is said that he found naught but flooded streets, sleeping mollusks, and a throne swallowed up by the sea.

Kradai still has control then?

Aye. And from the North do the warriors and tomkahs and dasokan and skalja rally and down to the Line do they go. 'Tis a minor victory. A champion of proxy. But it will be jealously defended all the same.