Anya Venari
Star Queen Tirathana VII
Images:
Stone Golem by Wild Weasel on Deviant Art
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/308/c/5/stone_golem_by_wildweasel339-d4f3wto.jpg
Name: Kar’zun, or the Agrai Arishae in Eldorai, which basically means ‘stone demons’. They are usually called ‘Arish’ these days by Eldorai, meaning stone or rock. It’s not a nice term, basically equivalent to the N-word on Earth. More sensitive Eldorai use ‘Kar’zun’. Kar’zun means literally Stone-People.
Designation: Sentient
Homeworld: Kaeshana
Language: Kar’vak or Stone-Voice. There are many dialects and versions, but the ‘proper tongue’ is the one once used by the Kings of Vak’zahr.
Average height of adults: 1.8-2.1 metres.
Skin color: Varies depending on exposure to light and ores consumed. Those who live in caves and caverns tend to have dark grey skin, whilst those who live above ground tend to have paler shades.
Hair color: N/A, Kar’zun do not have hair, though at times they have been known to cultivate lichen or moss for style purposes.
Breathes: Type I or II
Strengths:
Young Kar’zun tend to be pale and shiny like a pebble when they are born. They grow and develop slowly, not reaching full maturity until the age of 100 years old. At that time they become adults after completing a trial of worth (detailed below).
As they get older, Kar’zun become taller, broader, craggier and tougher. A skilled observer can guess the age of a Kar’zun by their size and appearance. Female Kar’zun are almost indistinguishable from males, at least to outsiders.
Kar’zun pregnancies are long and difficult processes, lasting over a year and are quite painful as well. This, along with the lack of pleasure derived from reproduction explains the slow birthrate.
Though simplified as living stone, their hide is reached by nerve endings, though these die off as the Kar’zun ages, eventually resulting in an inability to feel, which goes hand in hand with the Curse of Stone.
Kar’zun teeth are incredibly tough and continually replaced due to their diet of stones and rock ores. Their teeth are made of a semi-organic material of the same hardness as corundum or diamond.
Average Lifespan: 6-800 years. Some especially old and powerful members can avoid the Curse of Stone long enough to live longer, especially the few Force users if they survive.
Races: In their heyday, the Kar’zun had several different groups. The “Kar’nark” or ‘Deep People’ lived in the caves and caverns of the great mountains of Kaeshana. These formed the greatest kingdoms and nations of the Kar’zun. Along with them were the “Kar’lahk” or “Light People” who were lighter of skin and often lived in small tribal groups in the daylight. Finally there were the “Kar’kraz” or “Water People” who lived in the southern islands of Kaeshana and had small kingdoms and principalities of their own. Now these distinctions are largely redundant due to there being so few of the Kar’zun surviving.
Estimated Population: Once numbered in the tens of millions, but now probably less than five million survive total.
Diet: As they are mostly silicon based, it is only natural that Kar’zun eat stones and ores, in the same way that carbon creatures eat plants and animals. However, not just any rock will work, and some are even toxic to a Kar’zun, just like with humans and Eldorai with plants and animals.
Basically, any radioactive ore is toxic to various degrees, with heavier element compounds being preferred. Some of their favourite meals involve copper because of its colour and both many oxides and sulphides. These are prepared and roasted, garnished with crystals and occasionally sea shells. Kar’zun enjoy eating as much as Eldorai or humans, with the richer ones consuming rarer ores with relish.
One thing which is totally anathema is cannibalism, for reasons similar to those humans and Eldorai share.
Kar’zun need to drink water to keep their internal processes working, but less than Eldorai or humans, and sea water is actually preferred.
Communication: Kar’zun have a well-developed vocal language. This language is guttural and harsh to Eldorai or human ears, but has a lot of complexity to it. It has, for instance, several more case endings than Galactic Basic to do with time and intent. Words are often split in two by a ‘ which denotes where they are joined together.
Kar’zun have a complex runic script written by engraving on stone, marking clay or hammering into thin sheets of metal with a die. Due to their good memories and general disposition, written works of fiction are uncommon, with writing being used mainly for accounting and legal transactions.
Later when they developed electronic communication the Kar’zun recorded most of their oral works rather than write them down.
Culture: Kar’zun culture, despite what many Eldorai say, is rich and complex. A brief overview is provided here.
Kar’zun lack the overriding religious theme in their lives that the Eldorai do. They have no monolithic pantheon of deities who guides them. Rather, they believe that the Force manifests certain members of them with power and inspiration. They also believe in a fundamentally Deist vision, where a God named Zak’zakada – or father of all fathers – created the world but then left it to his children, the Kar’zun. The Force therefore is inspiration from the creator.
The dead killed in battle or by the Curse of Stone are often cast into volcanic lava or buried beneath the ground so they can return to the stone from which they came.
Kar’zun place little emphasis on gender, unlike Eldorai. Because of their slow birth-rate and frank indifference to it most times, the Kar’zun often barely understand the fuss about gender. Thus, their culture tends to be fundamentally balanced on gender matters, but more stratified by age and caste.
The Kar’zun are very much defined by social caste. In the High Empire of the Kar’nark, movement between castes was almost impossible except by patronage from a higher caste. Even within castes talent had to make way for age, with a Kar’zun earning promotion and advancement based mainly on age rather than ability. This was different in those in the outside world, especially those living outside in the snows where there was less social distinction.
Linked to this, the Kar’zun tend to be monarchic, though they do not favour absolute monarchs, but rather ones which work in a semi-feudal or representative sense with their powerful lords. Succession and inheritance was almost always by seniority, with a sibling receiving the crown before a child. The gender of the ruler was largely a matter of indifference, so long as they were wise and strong.
Economically, since they ate metal, a currency based on precious metals was not viable, though silver, platinum and especially gold were highly prized as ornamentation. Currency therefore was made first from highly intricate pottery tablets, then later with plastic chips, and finally with electronic silicon chips.
Family life for the Kar’zun was extremely important, with family forming close social bonds along with friends. As marriage was based almost entirely on arranged unions rather than romance, social bonds with other families were key. Practically the only way to advance one’s family would for a wealthy lower caste family to marry into an impoverished higher caste family. This provided benefits for both sides. An odd instance of high caste families contracting lower caste ones to have their children for them, then taking the child at birth as their own was also observed, as hereditary was not considered as important as other aspects.
One other unusual way to rise in society is for lower caste persons to have a Force sensitive child. That child is tested when they are 50 or so years old, and if found suitable they are trained to become priests and their family can experience an increase in personal wealth and prestige because of this.
The Kar’zun lived deep underground in most cases, and as such they developed a different value system from the Eldorai. For the Kar’zun for instance, heaven (or the equivalent) was under the earth, whilst in the open, limitless sky above was only madness and the void. The god Zak’zakada, it is still claimed, sleeps at the core of the world, one day to awaken and lead his people to glory. He had best hurry….
Technology level: Very high. Before their fall, the Kar’zun had developed a very advanced economy, government and military. Before the fall they even developed space flight and launched a ship into space with many on board to seek a home on one of the other planets of the system.
Aside from that, far from being savages, they had vast transport networks, and their capital of Vak’zahr was impressive and filled with complex technologies. Indeed, in many areas the Kar’zun were ahead of the Eldorai.
Their weaponry, unlike the staser plasma weapons of the Eldorai, was based largely on explosives and solid projectiles. Despite this they developed primitive rail weapons and dangerous atomic and neutron armaments. In close combat they favoured the Sarzmigar, a weapon originally their design to make use of their strength and reach. They also used energy shields, heavy armour and flamethrowers.
Though left behind by current galactic tech, the peak reached before their downfall was probably as high as an earth-bound nation could manage.
General behavior: The Kar’zun were and are, on the whole, a stoic, careful people. They were rarely given to extremes of emotion, but tended to be methodical, careful and ruthless when needed. Despite this, all alignments are found among them, good and evil, lawful and chaotic, though generally a Lawful Neutral alignment was the most common.
As befitting a caste society, Kar’zun tend to be cordial and respectful to their elders and betters. Generally Kar’zun are careful with money and due to their long lives, tend to favour long term over short term profit.
Family life though seemingly cold and remote, and without romance, was actually quite loving. Eldorai observers made the claim that Kar’zun did not love or were incapable of affection. This is completely untrue. Despite not finding reproduction stimulating, Kar’zun loved and love their families as much as Eldorai. One’s family was a gift, and so they would fight to protect them at all costs.
History:
To the Eldorai the Kar’zun were the night to their day, beasts created to rival and fight the Goddess’ creations. In a strange way, they were correct, but for totally incorrect reasons. Though thousands of years of propaganda cloud the issue, the truth is that few Eldorai and no Kar’zun know the truth of their creation.
The Rakata came to Kaeshana and made two races to be slave soldiers. The first, the Eldorai, were made to use the Force, to be agile and yet physically weak. The second, the Kar’zun, were made to be shock soldiers, strong yet without the Force and being ponderous in nature.
To make the Kar’zun, the Rakata combined carbon and silicon based life to create something capable of sentience and yet to be tough and resilient. As strong as the mountains, yet not immortal or unbreakable. One of their objectives; to deprive them of Force sensitivity, failed as a very rare few are capable of this.
During the War in Heaven, as the Eldorai call it, or the Azr’vrakvar – Sky burning fire – the Kar’zun scattered to the mountains mostly in the south and west of the planet of Kaeshana.
Over time the Kar’zun population grew, law was imposed and mining and smelting begun. Within five thousand years, ten generations of the Kar’zun, a nascent realm had been established in the high mountain caves. The first of the Kings of Vak’zahr took power, and it was this family, the Kra’taza, who would rule for almost twenty thousand years. Though, to be fair, the line was not strictly hereditary, with adoptions and the occasional cadet branch taking power. Still, it was an impressive feat.
It was not until about 10,000 years before the present that the Kar’zun came into contact with the Eldorai. Immediately the two polar opposites came to fight each other. The matriarchal, highly religious Eldorai living under the sky fought the asexual, spiritualist mountain dwellers, there was little to compromise between the two.
A tale of these early struggles would largely be a waste, but the results were clear. Kaeshana has a single massive continent, and roughly a third of it was taken by the Kar’zun, the rest by the Eldorai. However, it should not be believed that there was constant war or that was all both sides thought about. Rather, one side or the other would instigate a conflict locally, push at the enemy for a while before focusing elsewhere. Neither side possessed the technology or central organisation to make anything more than small gains. Nor were there strict lines of control, rather in many mountain areas Kar’zun lived whilst the Eldorai lived on the plains.
Matters began to change in the time around 2400-2300BBY in the outside galaxy. In this time a powerful Kar’zun ruler came to power named Arok’kazna II, and he systematically united almost all of the Deep Dwellers to his cause. Eldorai raids and attacks led by the petty dynasts and leaders of the scattered realms had intensified, led by an upsurge in religious zealotry. The Kar’zun crossed the inner sea at its narrowest point, utilising firearms and organised legions of soldiers, and smashed several Eldorai armies. Finally, they fought and destroyed the army of the Eldorai Queen Aegina and sacked Santaissa. Their point made, the Kar’zun installed a puppet and left, not expecting the profound and permanent changes this would wreck on the Eldorai.
The Eldorai, seeing their complete inability to defend themselves, came together into a union under a single Queen. This ‘Star Queen’, Tassaria I, was crowned in 2293BBY, beginning a line of Queens unbroken to the present day, even if the dynasty frequently changed.
The Kar’zun, seeing this, implemented better controls and began to develop oil refining for both fuel and for plastics which replaced the wood and bone the Kar’zun did not use. The next 2300 years were almost an endless pattern of wars, some small, some great. Some gains were made by both sides, thousands fell, technology improved, and both sides were ever to be found trying to weaken their enemy from within.
During a particularly turbulent time in Eldorai history, the great Civil War; also known as the Time of Troubles, where no less than nine queens ruled in less than ninety years, the Kar’zun were heavily involved. During this conflict they took advantage of the anarchy to establish a bridgehead on the eastern side of the Inner Sea, and sacked Santaissa once again. Though the Matriarchy recovered under the 4 Vanias of the Aristide family, the conflict had entered a long stalemate.
It was during the end of the Vania IV’s reign that the trouble began anew. The Queen had no legitimate heir, and the crown passed to her cousin Silaqui I. Silaqui was seduced by the daughter of an apocalyptic prophet named Eldasir Nait’an. The Queen was murdered and the daughter of the mad cleric was placed on the throne. Throughout this, the Kar’zun were happy to give aid in the discomfit of their enemies, and when collapse and civil war set in, they began to move aggressively, conquering fortress after Eldorai fortress. The King, Arz’alor, seemed unstoppable, but his aims were unknown. Did he wish to exterminate the Eldorai or merely defeat them and expand his territory? The answer was more likely the latter, though Eldorai propaganda would always declare it was the former.
Finally, a reaction was born. Ariane Saedaris, one of the great generals and nobles of the Eldorai, seized control of Santaissa and preached a veritable crusade against the Kar’zun. Queen Ariane I brought the worship of Ashira to new heights of zealotry, and using new weapons including some from the first outsiders to arrive on the planet, she formed a massive army.
The fate of Kaeshana, quite literally, came down to a few days in the year 85BBY when the two armies met. The Kar’zun fought with ruthless skill and brutality as always, but a new fervour was driving their opponents, new weapons armed them, and a new Queen led them. The result of the Battle of Az’vakarz was a total defeat of the Kar’zun. Indeed, that name means Death Sorrow, and the King was slain in battle.
For Queen Ariane I though there would be no rest, and the status quo would never be enough. Instead she sought the total, final, complete defeat of the Kar’zun, and marshalled her people to accomplish this brutal crusade.
The resulting war was terrible, resulting in tens of millions of Eldorai and Kar’zun deaths. However, outnumbered and now faced by an implacable enemy, the Kar’zun could not turn the tide back. Within ten years they had been forced back into a remnant of their old realm. Peace feelers were sent out and ignored; the Queen decided to systematically exterminate the Kar’zun to ensure that there would be no threat to the Eldorai again.
At a final battle in the capital of Vak’zahr, the Eldorai brutally sacked the city and eradicated all the Kar’zun they found. It was a shocking act, yet it broke the Kar’zun forever. The final member of a line which had gone back (in name anyway) twenty thousand years, was killed and her body smashed with hammers and burnt to ash.
In the years and decades after this tragedy the Kar’zun were broken up into groups and moved to reservations in the open, forced into alpine and tundra areas where the Eldorai did not live. So many had died in the war, and so few children were born that a population collapse of 90% occurred within just two hundred years. It was a shocking near genocide, and by the time Ariane I died in 6ABY the Kar’zun were effectively dead as a people as well.
The Queen’s daughter was not as much of a zealot as her mother, but kept the strict controls during her nearly two hundred year reign. After her death a series of less powerful Queens took over, and the lot of the Kar’zun improved to the point that they could once again own property in their reservations.
Thus a pattern was established. Controls would be relaxed and then tightened, reservations would be altered and moved away from mountains to make the Kar’zun dependent on the Eldorai. And always the numbers of the Kar’zun declined and dwindled.
It has only been in the last two decades, as more outsiders have come in and the rise of more liberal opinions in the Eldorai that things have changed. The current Queen Tirathana VII, deeply troubled by the past treatment, ordered the formal quarantine lifted, letting the Kar’zun return to under the mountains. Many Eldorai fear that one day they will be strong enough to oppose the Eldorai, but Tirathana has been an exile in the wider galaxy and knows that only through understanding can peace finally come.
The story of the Kar’zun is essentially a tragic one. The endemic warfare shaped both Eldorai and Kar’zun, but it was the actions of Queen Ariane I which made their sad fate possible. To the Kar’zun she is a war criminal, a genocidal murderer they called Az’varik, the deadly flame. To the Eldorai meanwhile she is a hero, a woman who saved her people and brought them victory over their enemies. Which is true? Possibly both, but regardless of the morality or lack thereof, her actions ensure that it was Eldorai not Kar’zun who would rule Kaeshana.
Many Kar’zun indeed have left Kaeshana, seeking a better life in the stars. Their skills make them useful mercenaries and traders, but they will always dream of that time they once held Kaeshana in their palm as a golden age now lost forever.
Notable Player-Characters: None yet.
Intent: To create a second intelligent race for Kaeshana, the foil and rival of the Eldorai. Also allows this writer to expand on a concept they find fascinating; silicon based life and its implications. It also allows this writer to provide moral questions about the problems of racism, bias and appearance.
Stone Golem by Wild Weasel on Deviant Art
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/308/c/5/stone_golem_by_wildweasel339-d4f3wto.jpg
Name: Kar’zun, or the Agrai Arishae in Eldorai, which basically means ‘stone demons’. They are usually called ‘Arish’ these days by Eldorai, meaning stone or rock. It’s not a nice term, basically equivalent to the N-word on Earth. More sensitive Eldorai use ‘Kar’zun’. Kar’zun means literally Stone-People.
Designation: Sentient
Homeworld: Kaeshana
Language: Kar’vak or Stone-Voice. There are many dialects and versions, but the ‘proper tongue’ is the one once used by the Kings of Vak’zahr.
Average height of adults: 1.8-2.1 metres.
Skin color: Varies depending on exposure to light and ores consumed. Those who live in caves and caverns tend to have dark grey skin, whilst those who live above ground tend to have paler shades.
Hair color: N/A, Kar’zun do not have hair, though at times they have been known to cultivate lichen or moss for style purposes.
Breathes: Type I or II
Strengths:
- Strength of stone: Kar’zun are literally walking rocks. They are incredibly strong, tough and resilient. Through their lives the Kar’zun get tougher and stronger, with their age giving a good indication of their armour class. So whilst a young Kar’zun of 100 has an armour class of 1, a particularly tough ancient of 700 would have an armour class of 7. This can be increased by equipped armour.
- Elemental Resistance: Being made with the toughness of stone, Kar’zun are extremely resistant to heat and cold. Intense heat or cold will still hurt them, but only with sustained exposure. They are immune to even the most fearsome arctic weather, but do not do well in jungles or hot deserts.
- Expert artisans: Kar’zun are exceptional metal smiths and stone masons. Their weapons, armour, technology and underground buildings are a wonder to behold. In pottery, mosaic and work with precious gems and metals they are also exceptionally skilled.
- Mental strength: The Kar’zun, being an unusual type of creature, are almost impossible to dominate with the Force. They resist mental attacks easily.
- Long lives: Growing to such ages, the Kar’zun have long periods of time to perfect their skills. Kar’zun artistic works, especially poetry, hymns and visual arts are profoundly moving.
- Slow hunger: As discussed in diet, Kar’zun eat certain metals and ores, but they can go without food and water for many days without suffering adversely.
- Ponderous: As Kar’zun age they become tougher, but they also become slower and more ponderous. This does not reflect on their mental abilities, but an elder of 700 years simply cannot move very fast. In battle, an opponent can use this to their advantage. Add to this that their hide provides only glancing protection from lightsabres, Sarixi and Sarzmigars and there is a definite balance which the Eldorai exploited.
- Elemental weakness: Due to their unusual properties, Kar’zun are vulnerable to lightning and electricity. They are also vulnerable to sonic and pulse weapons. Their eyes are also vulnerable to attacks more than any other parts.
- Inorganic materials: Kar’zun make use of few organic materials such as wood, fleece, material or organic dyes. Thus, they lack skills in areas which other races excel in such as textiles, painting, woodwork or farming.
- Few Sciians: Whilst Sciians (as Eldorai call Force users) are common among the Eldorai, they are exceptionally rare amongst Kar’zun. Perhaps less than one in a thousand has any perception of the Force. Those which do are usually made priests regardless of their previous social status and specialise in elemental applications of the Force.
- Slow growth: Kar’zun reproduce very slowly, usually less than once or twice a century. Furthermore, unlike Eldorai they derive no particular enjoyment or passion from reproduction. It is simply something which has to be done. Since Kar’zun also mate for life, the loss of a mate can kill a family or bloodline.
- Curse of Stone: Whilst Kar’zun become tougher and stronger as they age there is an inevitable downside to this. Unlike carbon based creatures who tend to become frail, Kar’zun become too tough. Over time the organic impulses which drives their brains and movements become slowly interrupted making them slower and slower until eventually they eventually stop being able to move at all and become essentially a dead statue.
Young Kar’zun tend to be pale and shiny like a pebble when they are born. They grow and develop slowly, not reaching full maturity until the age of 100 years old. At that time they become adults after completing a trial of worth (detailed below).
As they get older, Kar’zun become taller, broader, craggier and tougher. A skilled observer can guess the age of a Kar’zun by their size and appearance. Female Kar’zun are almost indistinguishable from males, at least to outsiders.
Kar’zun pregnancies are long and difficult processes, lasting over a year and are quite painful as well. This, along with the lack of pleasure derived from reproduction explains the slow birthrate.
Though simplified as living stone, their hide is reached by nerve endings, though these die off as the Kar’zun ages, eventually resulting in an inability to feel, which goes hand in hand with the Curse of Stone.
Kar’zun teeth are incredibly tough and continually replaced due to their diet of stones and rock ores. Their teeth are made of a semi-organic material of the same hardness as corundum or diamond.
Average Lifespan: 6-800 years. Some especially old and powerful members can avoid the Curse of Stone long enough to live longer, especially the few Force users if they survive.
Races: In their heyday, the Kar’zun had several different groups. The “Kar’nark” or ‘Deep People’ lived in the caves and caverns of the great mountains of Kaeshana. These formed the greatest kingdoms and nations of the Kar’zun. Along with them were the “Kar’lahk” or “Light People” who were lighter of skin and often lived in small tribal groups in the daylight. Finally there were the “Kar’kraz” or “Water People” who lived in the southern islands of Kaeshana and had small kingdoms and principalities of their own. Now these distinctions are largely redundant due to there being so few of the Kar’zun surviving.
Estimated Population: Once numbered in the tens of millions, but now probably less than five million survive total.
Diet: As they are mostly silicon based, it is only natural that Kar’zun eat stones and ores, in the same way that carbon creatures eat plants and animals. However, not just any rock will work, and some are even toxic to a Kar’zun, just like with humans and Eldorai with plants and animals.
Basically, any radioactive ore is toxic to various degrees, with heavier element compounds being preferred. Some of their favourite meals involve copper because of its colour and both many oxides and sulphides. These are prepared and roasted, garnished with crystals and occasionally sea shells. Kar’zun enjoy eating as much as Eldorai or humans, with the richer ones consuming rarer ores with relish.
One thing which is totally anathema is cannibalism, for reasons similar to those humans and Eldorai share.
Kar’zun need to drink water to keep their internal processes working, but less than Eldorai or humans, and sea water is actually preferred.
Communication: Kar’zun have a well-developed vocal language. This language is guttural and harsh to Eldorai or human ears, but has a lot of complexity to it. It has, for instance, several more case endings than Galactic Basic to do with time and intent. Words are often split in two by a ‘ which denotes where they are joined together.
Kar’zun have a complex runic script written by engraving on stone, marking clay or hammering into thin sheets of metal with a die. Due to their good memories and general disposition, written works of fiction are uncommon, with writing being used mainly for accounting and legal transactions.
Later when they developed electronic communication the Kar’zun recorded most of their oral works rather than write them down.
Culture: Kar’zun culture, despite what many Eldorai say, is rich and complex. A brief overview is provided here.
Kar’zun lack the overriding religious theme in their lives that the Eldorai do. They have no monolithic pantheon of deities who guides them. Rather, they believe that the Force manifests certain members of them with power and inspiration. They also believe in a fundamentally Deist vision, where a God named Zak’zakada – or father of all fathers – created the world but then left it to his children, the Kar’zun. The Force therefore is inspiration from the creator.
The dead killed in battle or by the Curse of Stone are often cast into volcanic lava or buried beneath the ground so they can return to the stone from which they came.
Kar’zun place little emphasis on gender, unlike Eldorai. Because of their slow birth-rate and frank indifference to it most times, the Kar’zun often barely understand the fuss about gender. Thus, their culture tends to be fundamentally balanced on gender matters, but more stratified by age and caste.
The Kar’zun are very much defined by social caste. In the High Empire of the Kar’nark, movement between castes was almost impossible except by patronage from a higher caste. Even within castes talent had to make way for age, with a Kar’zun earning promotion and advancement based mainly on age rather than ability. This was different in those in the outside world, especially those living outside in the snows where there was less social distinction.
Linked to this, the Kar’zun tend to be monarchic, though they do not favour absolute monarchs, but rather ones which work in a semi-feudal or representative sense with their powerful lords. Succession and inheritance was almost always by seniority, with a sibling receiving the crown before a child. The gender of the ruler was largely a matter of indifference, so long as they were wise and strong.
Economically, since they ate metal, a currency based on precious metals was not viable, though silver, platinum and especially gold were highly prized as ornamentation. Currency therefore was made first from highly intricate pottery tablets, then later with plastic chips, and finally with electronic silicon chips.
Family life for the Kar’zun was extremely important, with family forming close social bonds along with friends. As marriage was based almost entirely on arranged unions rather than romance, social bonds with other families were key. Practically the only way to advance one’s family would for a wealthy lower caste family to marry into an impoverished higher caste family. This provided benefits for both sides. An odd instance of high caste families contracting lower caste ones to have their children for them, then taking the child at birth as their own was also observed, as hereditary was not considered as important as other aspects.
One other unusual way to rise in society is for lower caste persons to have a Force sensitive child. That child is tested when they are 50 or so years old, and if found suitable they are trained to become priests and their family can experience an increase in personal wealth and prestige because of this.
The Kar’zun lived deep underground in most cases, and as such they developed a different value system from the Eldorai. For the Kar’zun for instance, heaven (or the equivalent) was under the earth, whilst in the open, limitless sky above was only madness and the void. The god Zak’zakada, it is still claimed, sleeps at the core of the world, one day to awaken and lead his people to glory. He had best hurry….
Technology level: Very high. Before their fall, the Kar’zun had developed a very advanced economy, government and military. Before the fall they even developed space flight and launched a ship into space with many on board to seek a home on one of the other planets of the system.
Aside from that, far from being savages, they had vast transport networks, and their capital of Vak’zahr was impressive and filled with complex technologies. Indeed, in many areas the Kar’zun were ahead of the Eldorai.
Their weaponry, unlike the staser plasma weapons of the Eldorai, was based largely on explosives and solid projectiles. Despite this they developed primitive rail weapons and dangerous atomic and neutron armaments. In close combat they favoured the Sarzmigar, a weapon originally their design to make use of their strength and reach. They also used energy shields, heavy armour and flamethrowers.
Though left behind by current galactic tech, the peak reached before their downfall was probably as high as an earth-bound nation could manage.
General behavior: The Kar’zun were and are, on the whole, a stoic, careful people. They were rarely given to extremes of emotion, but tended to be methodical, careful and ruthless when needed. Despite this, all alignments are found among them, good and evil, lawful and chaotic, though generally a Lawful Neutral alignment was the most common.
As befitting a caste society, Kar’zun tend to be cordial and respectful to their elders and betters. Generally Kar’zun are careful with money and due to their long lives, tend to favour long term over short term profit.
Family life though seemingly cold and remote, and without romance, was actually quite loving. Eldorai observers made the claim that Kar’zun did not love or were incapable of affection. This is completely untrue. Despite not finding reproduction stimulating, Kar’zun loved and love their families as much as Eldorai. One’s family was a gift, and so they would fight to protect them at all costs.
History:
To the Eldorai the Kar’zun were the night to their day, beasts created to rival and fight the Goddess’ creations. In a strange way, they were correct, but for totally incorrect reasons. Though thousands of years of propaganda cloud the issue, the truth is that few Eldorai and no Kar’zun know the truth of their creation.
The Rakata came to Kaeshana and made two races to be slave soldiers. The first, the Eldorai, were made to use the Force, to be agile and yet physically weak. The second, the Kar’zun, were made to be shock soldiers, strong yet without the Force and being ponderous in nature.
To make the Kar’zun, the Rakata combined carbon and silicon based life to create something capable of sentience and yet to be tough and resilient. As strong as the mountains, yet not immortal or unbreakable. One of their objectives; to deprive them of Force sensitivity, failed as a very rare few are capable of this.
During the War in Heaven, as the Eldorai call it, or the Azr’vrakvar – Sky burning fire – the Kar’zun scattered to the mountains mostly in the south and west of the planet of Kaeshana.
Over time the Kar’zun population grew, law was imposed and mining and smelting begun. Within five thousand years, ten generations of the Kar’zun, a nascent realm had been established in the high mountain caves. The first of the Kings of Vak’zahr took power, and it was this family, the Kra’taza, who would rule for almost twenty thousand years. Though, to be fair, the line was not strictly hereditary, with adoptions and the occasional cadet branch taking power. Still, it was an impressive feat.
It was not until about 10,000 years before the present that the Kar’zun came into contact with the Eldorai. Immediately the two polar opposites came to fight each other. The matriarchal, highly religious Eldorai living under the sky fought the asexual, spiritualist mountain dwellers, there was little to compromise between the two.
A tale of these early struggles would largely be a waste, but the results were clear. Kaeshana has a single massive continent, and roughly a third of it was taken by the Kar’zun, the rest by the Eldorai. However, it should not be believed that there was constant war or that was all both sides thought about. Rather, one side or the other would instigate a conflict locally, push at the enemy for a while before focusing elsewhere. Neither side possessed the technology or central organisation to make anything more than small gains. Nor were there strict lines of control, rather in many mountain areas Kar’zun lived whilst the Eldorai lived on the plains.
Matters began to change in the time around 2400-2300BBY in the outside galaxy. In this time a powerful Kar’zun ruler came to power named Arok’kazna II, and he systematically united almost all of the Deep Dwellers to his cause. Eldorai raids and attacks led by the petty dynasts and leaders of the scattered realms had intensified, led by an upsurge in religious zealotry. The Kar’zun crossed the inner sea at its narrowest point, utilising firearms and organised legions of soldiers, and smashed several Eldorai armies. Finally, they fought and destroyed the army of the Eldorai Queen Aegina and sacked Santaissa. Their point made, the Kar’zun installed a puppet and left, not expecting the profound and permanent changes this would wreck on the Eldorai.
The Eldorai, seeing their complete inability to defend themselves, came together into a union under a single Queen. This ‘Star Queen’, Tassaria I, was crowned in 2293BBY, beginning a line of Queens unbroken to the present day, even if the dynasty frequently changed.
The Kar’zun, seeing this, implemented better controls and began to develop oil refining for both fuel and for plastics which replaced the wood and bone the Kar’zun did not use. The next 2300 years were almost an endless pattern of wars, some small, some great. Some gains were made by both sides, thousands fell, technology improved, and both sides were ever to be found trying to weaken their enemy from within.
During a particularly turbulent time in Eldorai history, the great Civil War; also known as the Time of Troubles, where no less than nine queens ruled in less than ninety years, the Kar’zun were heavily involved. During this conflict they took advantage of the anarchy to establish a bridgehead on the eastern side of the Inner Sea, and sacked Santaissa once again. Though the Matriarchy recovered under the 4 Vanias of the Aristide family, the conflict had entered a long stalemate.
It was during the end of the Vania IV’s reign that the trouble began anew. The Queen had no legitimate heir, and the crown passed to her cousin Silaqui I. Silaqui was seduced by the daughter of an apocalyptic prophet named Eldasir Nait’an. The Queen was murdered and the daughter of the mad cleric was placed on the throne. Throughout this, the Kar’zun were happy to give aid in the discomfit of their enemies, and when collapse and civil war set in, they began to move aggressively, conquering fortress after Eldorai fortress. The King, Arz’alor, seemed unstoppable, but his aims were unknown. Did he wish to exterminate the Eldorai or merely defeat them and expand his territory? The answer was more likely the latter, though Eldorai propaganda would always declare it was the former.
Finally, a reaction was born. Ariane Saedaris, one of the great generals and nobles of the Eldorai, seized control of Santaissa and preached a veritable crusade against the Kar’zun. Queen Ariane I brought the worship of Ashira to new heights of zealotry, and using new weapons including some from the first outsiders to arrive on the planet, she formed a massive army.
The fate of Kaeshana, quite literally, came down to a few days in the year 85BBY when the two armies met. The Kar’zun fought with ruthless skill and brutality as always, but a new fervour was driving their opponents, new weapons armed them, and a new Queen led them. The result of the Battle of Az’vakarz was a total defeat of the Kar’zun. Indeed, that name means Death Sorrow, and the King was slain in battle.
For Queen Ariane I though there would be no rest, and the status quo would never be enough. Instead she sought the total, final, complete defeat of the Kar’zun, and marshalled her people to accomplish this brutal crusade.
The resulting war was terrible, resulting in tens of millions of Eldorai and Kar’zun deaths. However, outnumbered and now faced by an implacable enemy, the Kar’zun could not turn the tide back. Within ten years they had been forced back into a remnant of their old realm. Peace feelers were sent out and ignored; the Queen decided to systematically exterminate the Kar’zun to ensure that there would be no threat to the Eldorai again.
At a final battle in the capital of Vak’zahr, the Eldorai brutally sacked the city and eradicated all the Kar’zun they found. It was a shocking act, yet it broke the Kar’zun forever. The final member of a line which had gone back (in name anyway) twenty thousand years, was killed and her body smashed with hammers and burnt to ash.
In the years and decades after this tragedy the Kar’zun were broken up into groups and moved to reservations in the open, forced into alpine and tundra areas where the Eldorai did not live. So many had died in the war, and so few children were born that a population collapse of 90% occurred within just two hundred years. It was a shocking near genocide, and by the time Ariane I died in 6ABY the Kar’zun were effectively dead as a people as well.
The Queen’s daughter was not as much of a zealot as her mother, but kept the strict controls during her nearly two hundred year reign. After her death a series of less powerful Queens took over, and the lot of the Kar’zun improved to the point that they could once again own property in their reservations.
Thus a pattern was established. Controls would be relaxed and then tightened, reservations would be altered and moved away from mountains to make the Kar’zun dependent on the Eldorai. And always the numbers of the Kar’zun declined and dwindled.
It has only been in the last two decades, as more outsiders have come in and the rise of more liberal opinions in the Eldorai that things have changed. The current Queen Tirathana VII, deeply troubled by the past treatment, ordered the formal quarantine lifted, letting the Kar’zun return to under the mountains. Many Eldorai fear that one day they will be strong enough to oppose the Eldorai, but Tirathana has been an exile in the wider galaxy and knows that only through understanding can peace finally come.
The story of the Kar’zun is essentially a tragic one. The endemic warfare shaped both Eldorai and Kar’zun, but it was the actions of Queen Ariane I which made their sad fate possible. To the Kar’zun she is a war criminal, a genocidal murderer they called Az’varik, the deadly flame. To the Eldorai meanwhile she is a hero, a woman who saved her people and brought them victory over their enemies. Which is true? Possibly both, but regardless of the morality or lack thereof, her actions ensure that it was Eldorai not Kar’zun who would rule Kaeshana.
Many Kar’zun indeed have left Kaeshana, seeking a better life in the stars. Their skills make them useful mercenaries and traders, but they will always dream of that time they once held Kaeshana in their palm as a golden age now lost forever.
Notable Player-Characters: None yet.
Intent: To create a second intelligent race for Kaeshana, the foil and rival of the Eldorai. Also allows this writer to expand on a concept they find fascinating; silicon based life and its implications. It also allows this writer to provide moral questions about the problems of racism, bias and appearance.
