Portal to the Gods/Transmitter to Daemons

The ancient empire that Frontier archeologists called the Tetrarch Societies settled the S’sessu – an offshoot of the Sathar race – on the plant Phri’sk in the Kashra’sk system a little over 10,000 years ago (Galactic Standard Time). The name Tetrarchs applies to four –or more – races that were predominant in this empire.

Very little is known about them, but it is believed that the Tetrarchs “lifted up” or used many minor races – including the Sathar, S’sessu, Eorna, Clikk, Na’dezh’da, Zethra, Saurians, and Drowlasites. These minor races were used as servants or slave laborers. Once the Tetrarch Societies fell, the theory is that the S’sessu and Sathar were cut off from each other until the UPF found the S’sessu’s homeworld.

At least, that’s the official story.

While the vast majority of S’sessu forgot about their proto-Sathar brethren, the Sathar remembered the S’sessu as “traitors to the way of the Great Worm” or simply the “great defilers of the Way.”

According to Sathar legends, one of the early clews who were “not Sath” betrayed the other clews when they sided with the great lizards afflicted them. The traitors or “Raa’Ssa’Thaar” were the “dark attendants” of the daemons (the lizards). The daemons separated the apostate Raa’Ssa’Thaar from the other proto-Sathar and took them to “stars far away.”

After a “war of tribulation and despair,” a league of minor races by the great warlord Sath’Shatha liberated the proto-Sathar and other races. Though Sathar stories paint Sath’Shatha as a Sathar, it is unclear if he/she/it was actually a Sathar.  Some legends talk about Sath the Greater and Sath the Lesser along with another early hero called Shan’Tar. It is possiblethat the Sathar’s conception of its founder is actually a conglomeration of different individuals from separate past eras.  

The proto-Sathar who followed Sath’Shatha named themselves after the warlord, becoming the Sathar. The hunted down and killed what pockets of Raa’Ssa’Thaar they could find, vowing that none should be left alive.

Centuries passed and the early clews evolved into first clans. The Sathar fought many battles and wars –amongst themselves and their former partners. The goal of hunting down apostate Raa’Ssa’Thaar was put aside and almost entirely forgotten. But some remembered.

Various early Sathar clans were annihilated in intra-racial religious wars over time. Some were alleged to have found pockets of Raa’Ssa’Thaar and, instead of destroying them, took the apostates as mates. Cowards of these debased clans fled for the stars, looking for the lost clews of Raa’Ssa’Thaar.

The S’sessu Legends

S’sessu legends from ancient times say that the Great Worm was offended by how the “First Ones” were too satisfied to wallow in the soils of paradise, an Eden-like place called Kei-Phak. 

The Great Worm sent a scourge to the First Ones in the form of great walking lizards. Becoming the masters of the First Ones (or proto-Sathar), the lizards took the ancient worms to the stars to fight many enemies including a race of worm eating insects.

S’sessu histories speak of the “S’slu Zatt’ar,” who were zealots that sought to overthrow the masters. Angered, the Great Worm split the S’slu Zatt’ar into squabbling factions, but one group was shown favor.

The Great Worm gave the S’slu – renamed as the S’sessu – the world of Phri’sk, which was a world of many delights but also dangers that would challenge and confront them to grow. The S’sessu were warned not to conquer Phri’sk’s environment but rather toa dapt to it, hence they have not tried to greatly alter its climate to be more worm friendly.

The Great Worm then banished the Zatt’ar w to the darkness of the stars, never to find peace or rest. The Zatt’ar were said to be allied with daemons because they ate their children.

Despite their god’s directive to adapt to Phri’sk, ancient S’sessu often found themselves outclassed by Phri’sk’s fearsome flora and fauna. Over time, the Great Worm sent messengers from the skies who became saviors, but deceivers of daemons also arrived and brought death and destruction.

According to one legend, only a few clews were left and were on the edge of dying out when the first messengers arrived. The messengers took mates and raised up new, stronger clews whose descendants expanded like the host of glowworms in the heavens.

Likewise, the deceivers of daemons who were clothed in the skins of S’sessu came down. Bearing “weapons of fire and light,” they sought to conquer the clews, but were eventuall yvanquished by the descendants of the messengers, sometimes after epic wars that lasted centuries.

Later S’sessu stories, even into more modern times, would still mention that visitors from the stars came to Phri’sk. Sometimes these visitors abducted S’sessu and left or impregnated them with their space daemon spawn. 

Some S’sessu anthropologists – often derided as fringe,“tin-foil hat” conspiracy theorists – believe that the later “visitors” were the ones who gathered enough followers to begin the S’sessu nation states.

By the time the United Planetary Federation discovered the S’sessu, their homeworld had a population of 3.8 billion with four large nation states – the S’sostra, the largest with 3.8 billion, the Ssar’phesk with 1.2 billion, the Pho’Trass’Nsk with 480 million, and the Usalas’ak with 180 million citizens. Then there were about a dozen or so lesser nations.

It was thought that the bloodline leading the Pho’Trass’Nsk had some kind of hypnotic powers. This bloodline was led by the dictator Sk’ky Srung-Ut – or “Fatty Sk’ky” – and were much darker skinned than the typical S’sessu.

When the Sathar invaded and conquered much of the Frontier, they sent a special elimination fleet that sacked Phri’skand killed off some 90 percent of the planet’s inhabitants. Fatty Sk’ky’s forces initially allied themselves with the invading Sathar, which led to the defeat of the other S’sessu nations. 

The Sathar then betrayed Fatty Sk’ky by taking the dictator as a prisoner and destroying the Pho’Trass’Nsk nation.

Tetrarch Ruins

Several ruins of the Tetrarch Societies could be found on Phri’sk including a large pyramid that was uncovered in modern times near one of the S’sostran’s major cities. S’sessu anthropologists eventually dated the ruins to some 10,000 years in the past and that they were not of S’sessu origin.

These discoveries awakened the S’sessu’s desire to explore space. During the early days of exploring the worlds of their home system (Kashra’sk) cosmonauts from S’sostra discovered ruins of the more Tetrarch ruins on the second planet (Za’thora’sk). 

It was this barren, nearly airless world where S’sessu origin legends say that the lizard masers first took the First Ones before taking them to Phri’sk.

The planet Za’thora’sk once had a thicker atmosphere and water, but it was lost in some kind of cataclysm nearly 10 millennia ago. This disaster dates to the time of the Tetrarchs. Also on this planet, the S’sostran discovered an artifact that they called the “Wonder,” which UPF analysts believe was some large, partially functioning automated machine/computer.

The S’sostran claimed the artifact for themselves. They established military and scientific facilities on the planet.

The “Wonder” is actually a poor translation of the original S’sostran word into the Pan-Gal language. The S’sostran term has a number of different meanings including wonder of: “ecstasy and agony,” of “enlightenment and madness,” and that it is a “portal.” The portal in this case has the meaning of “radio to god or daemons.”

The first S’sessu researchers learned that the Wonder offered a limited telepathic link. But all who connected themselves to this ancient machine went insane and soon died. Further S’sostran tests went much slower, with very little headway until the Sathar destroyed their home system.

Most of the S’sessu survivors now live in pressurized domed cities on the colony world of Phri’sk’sree (NewPhri’sk) in the S’seuden star system. New Phri’sk’s atmosphere is toxic to Satharoids. Although the S’sostrans had made plans to terraform the planet to the S’sessu’s liking, the effort has turned to ways the S’sessu can adapt to the world through bio-engineering themselves.

After the great Sathar invasion was over, scouts from new Phri’sk discovered that the Sathar had removed the Wonder from the Za’thora’sk. It was as though the great machine had blasted off from the planet’s surface, leaving a huge gaping hole behind.

Madness of the Sathar

Over the millennia since the fall of the Tetrarch Societies, many Sathar clans arose and then disappeared. The clans that invaded the Frontier – X, Y and Z – were simply some of the Sathar that lived near there.

Each clan has its own character. For example, Clan X heavily concentrated on bio-engineering and creating attack monsters. Clan Y was heavily dependent on robotics. Clan Z worked on starships.

The ancestors of these clans had destroyed the Eorna and then fought a genocidal war with the Clikk, which nearly brought about the destruction of both. The Sathar fell back into a centuries-long dark age after the Clikk war, until the rise of clans X, Y and Z and their resurgence into the region of the Frontier and Rim.

Clan X initially fought with the Zuraqqor, seeking to subjugate them. But then something remarkable happened, the Zuraqqor somehow won the Sathar’s respect and they became allies against another foe.

Clan Y led the invasion of the Frontier during the First Sathar War. They were responsible for the ignominious defeat at the hands of the Core Four races. Although they lost status, Clan Y and Clan Z later attacked and destroyed much of the Saurian planets and then invaded the Mhemne’s system, setting up robotic ship factories there.

Along with its religion, the Sathar had found a way to keep peace among the clans by creating something that the UPF theorized was a type of supercomputer. This supercomputer, establishedby a Sathar known as “Imperial Lord.” It was used to arbitrate disputes between the Upper Caste leaders of the various clans.

It was a classic fusion of Sathar biology and technology. Numerous tubed Sathar brains – those of great leaders –were integrated into the computer. Some of these brains would last hundreds of years before finally succumbing to death and decay.

To them, the S’sessu’s Wonder was an old Tetrarch city ship. The destruction of Phri’sk was to get the S’sessu out of the way so they could take this ship for further study.

Unfortunately for the Sathar –but fortunately for the Frontier races – when the SuperComputer tried to linkup with the Wonder, it caused madness amongst the tubed brains. 

But was this madness due to other outside influences, such as a Mechanon betrayal? 

Or was it some ancient trap by the extinct lizard masters?   

Dragon’s Teeth: The Rebirth of the Clikk

An ancient race in the galaxy are the Clikk.

They existed before the rise of the Tetrarchs Societies.

They fought against the Tetrarchs, but were decimated.

They survived the fall of the Tetrarchs, but retreated to the vast expanses and desolate worlds where they slept. Every few eons they would reemerge, build vast nations, but then mysteriously disappear.

Some 2,000 years ago, the Clikk had reemerged, building a star empire with captive slave/food races. Their reign began stretching into the Frontier area where they encountered the Eorna and then the Sathar.

After the Sathar eliminated the Eorna, they turned their attention to the Clikk. They realized it was their race’s ancient enemy from the time of the Tetrarchs.

The two sides fought a bitter, genocidal war. The Clikk scourge was eradicated, but the Sathar won a pyrrhic victory. The worms were thrown back into a centuries-long dark age where they retreated deep into their territory.

For centuries, the Sathar clans thought they had permanently purged the galaxy of the Clikk, but they were wrong.

Like Cadmus

In Greek mythology, King Cadmus sowed the ground with the teeth of a dragon he had slain. From these planted teeth sprang the Sparti, fierce warriors. Most of these warriors killed each other, but the survivors soon had great power under the king.

Like the dragon’s teeth of Greek mythology, the Clikk seeded worlds with caches of equipment. These crypts also held warriors and their slave attendants in suspended animation for a time when they could re-emerge and take their vengeance.

That time has come.

Sathar Cyber Titan

Type: Omnivore

No. 1-3

Size: Ultra (80 meters tall; 200 meters long, head-to-tail; 20 meters wide)

Move: Medium

IM/RS: 6/60

STA: 2,000 special (characters can target individual sections of the creature)

Head: 300

Torso: 500

Right Arm: 150

Right Leg: 300

Left Arm: 150

Left Leg: 300

Tail: 300

Attack: 80

Damage:

Claws: 15d10

Bite: 12d10 +S5/T10! poison

Tail: 10d10+50

Special Attack:

Bio-missiles. This creature sprouts 20 missile-like quills on its arms and back. It can fire these quills at ranged targets. Each quill does 15d10 points of explosive damage. It has the range of a pistol. It takes the cyber titan a day to grow new missile quills.

Shades. The creature can spawn four nano-attack monsters during an encounter. Shades are dark, shadowly serpeants that will attack any non-Sathar creature or robot in the area. When they die, they release a toxic vapor (S5/T10!) over a 10 meter radius. Size: Small, Move: Fast, IM/RS: 7/70, STA: 100, Attack: 70. Damage:10d10. Shades only last 30 minutes. The cyber titan can only spawn these creatures once per day.

SpecialDefense:       

Bio ArmorPlating. The bio armor plating will deflect 80 percent of inertia damage, 75 percent of any laser damage, and 50 percent of any sonic/maser/bolt weapon damage. The creature is impervious to non-powered melee weapons and electrical attacks.

Rapid Healing. It will heal 50 Stamina points per day of rest.

Poison Death. Upon dying, the cyber titan releases a cloud of poison gas that affects all plant and animal life within the area (100 meter radius). Other cyber titans are immune to the poison which is a S15/D20!

“They say the bigger they are, the harder they fall. But, damn, these cyber titans die hard.”

--a quote from an unidentified Landfleet soldier during the Third Sathar War

A creature of horror, the Cyber Titan was the Sathar’s ultimate attack monster that was unleashed during the Third Sathar War. Studies of dead specimens reveal that, like most of the worms' attack monsters, it was a chimera. Bio-engineered by taking traits from numerous creatures—including Sathar DNA too—it is a formidable fighter. It is also very intelligent being! The Landfleet’s early encounters with these creatures ended badly because Frontier soldiers underestimated the creature’s cunning and understanding of modern warfare.

As expected, during a defense, the Landfleet would concentrate their fire on a cyber titan, which allowed other Sathar attack monsters and troops to close in. The Sathar were, of course, prepared for the release of any poisonous cloud if their titan died in battle.

Other average stats of the creature: Strength: 1,000, INT/LOG: 50, PER/LDR: 30/25.

Sathar would bring in an immature cyber titan to a world. In this state, it is not much larger than an average Frontier character, but it would grow rapidly over the course of a week.

A big drawback is that these creatures need to eat and eat a lot during their growth phase. They consume an average of 1 ton of food per day for 10 days, otherwise they starve and growth slows or stops. An adult titan only needs to consume 1 ton of food during a month to survive.

Sathar Mercy Giver

Type: Omnivore

No. 1-5

Size: Medium

Move: Medium

IM/RS: 6/60

STA: 250

Attack: 4/40

Damage: See below

Special Attack:

Energy Ball. When attacked, the Sathar Mercy Giver releases an electrical discharge of energy that does 5d10 points of damage. It is a ranged attack (PB 4/S 8/M 12/ L --/E --).

Poison Cloud. The creature can also release a poisonous sleeping gas cloud over a 10 meter radius. The poison is a S2/T5. Anyone breathing in the gas needs to make two separate stamina checks. The first is to avoid the poison, the next is to avoid falling asleep.

Special Defense:

Chaff Smoke Cloud. The Mercy Giver can also release a smoke cloud that is impervious to IR/UV and radar sensors, which may permit the creature to escape.

Special Abilities:

Heal Others. The Mercy Giver has the ability to release a nano cloud with healing properties for biological creatures (i.e. carbon based lifeforms). This cloud will instantly heal 3d10 points of Stamina damage, while also providing the benefitsof an anti-toxin that can cure poisons, cure or reduce the effects of infections, trim the damage of radiation poisoning, cure infestations and the like. In fact, if its opponents die, fall asleep, or stop attacking, it will heal their injuries! It can bring a character back from -29 Stamina points!

Described as resembling a cloud of insects, the Sathar Mercy Giver appears to be an artificial being. Frontier specialists are not even sure if the worms actually created it or not. It’s primary purpose is to heal other creatures. While it seems to possess some level of intelligence, it is only estimated to have an LOG score of 25, but does not seem to possess a language. Frontier mentalists report they can communicate with the being, but it has rather simple thoughts, little sense of self or understanding of complex concepts such as good and evil.

During theThird Sathar War, the worms had Mercy Givers operating in their rear areas to heal soldiers. Inevitably, some of these creatures escaped. Many were attacked by fearful Frontier colonists until the nature of these beings was understood.

These beings do eat. Heal at rates normal to other Frontier creatures. They can spawn progeny through asexual reproduction, typically once every four years. Their average lifespan is 20 years.