Kelk History

The Blood Age
For tens of thousands of years the Kelk existed in the madness of blind rage. But eventually they did develop an order to their chaos. They carved statues to their gods of blood and wrath. They sacrificed and painted themselves black with the blood of their enemies. Eventually they began to establish loose groups of Clans, and rules. The Kelk society is one of brutality, and constant war. For them, it is considered good sport to hunt and kill. Killing shows strength, and there is great honor in driving your enemies into the dirt. Trophies taken. Great monuments were built. And eventually, a King crowned.

Since the time of the first War King, it was decided that once every decade, their world would be host to a massive war to fight over the rule of the planet. Hundreds of clans and tens of billions of Kelk gather, battles are waged, old grudges settled, and the most powerful of the clans take on the War King to take control of the clans. The winning army becomes the new ruling faction for the next ten years. The mortality rate is estimated in the billions and whole continents are reduced to rubble. Then they have 10 years of rebuilding before they do it all over again.

Coming of the Winter Pendulum
For nearly 20,000 years the Kelk followed this cycle. Trillions killed, and new clans building their cities on the foundation of bones and blood. Their self annihilation would have kept them reducing their world to ruins forever. It was Humans that would break the never ending cycle. The Winter Pendulum, a Human exploration warship, found the Kelk homeworld and thinking it nothing more than a savage world ripe for the taking, landed.

The Khraw clan watched from the treeline as the massive roar of a mighty metal sky beast descended from the murky cloud cover. On the ground smaller metal creatures with strange round feet crawled from the giant beasts belly. Then the Kelk watched as the men climbed into the small metal creatures and spread themselves thin, making for easy prey. Vograk, leader of the Khraw clan made his Kelk wait until most of the patrols and metal beasts were out of sight and then they charged. Vograk lead the attack on the large metal creature that hand landed in the clearing. It’s skull would make for a great prize as his throne room.

The men were powerful. Their weapons did not look sharp but they let our a great roar and lightning and fire struck his Kelk down from a great distance. But they were many and forced their way into the shadow of the beast. It was a glorious battle. Many Kelk went to the hunting grounds with their god Thule and the pathetic creatures that had come were sent to suffer in the icy darkness with Trhak.

The Khraw Clan took the Human weapons and vehicles. Vograk understood enough to recognize the power of strange new weapons and made sure to spare the lives of some of the weak creatures that used them. He made them slaves to be well taken care of so they can learn from them. The human slaves called Lowra were under his protection and so none would touch them. The humans were fed and protected from the creatures of the Kelk world that would easily snap them up. In time they learned the Kelk language and the Kelk learned the tongue of man as best they could. They could understand the language just fine but their alien anatomy prevented them from forming certain sounds. And after spending years learning about what they found, they were ready for the next big war.

Seizing of the Throne
When the battle for the War King came, Khraw Clan swept across the battlefield with weapons unlike any ever seen before. The Khraw Clan used machine guns and bombs and ripped the enemy clans to ribbons. Great champions who had never known defeat were cut down in seconds. Whole armies slaughters in a matter of days. And great fountains of blood spilled down the ruined rubble steps of the War King’s fortress. In the throne room the King screamed and roared at Vograk who only laughed as he shot the King dead. It was one of the fastest Blood Wars to have even been recorded. As he sat on the blood soaked throne Vograk chose his war council. The five strongest warriors who he singled out as recognition to his victory. And as he made his final choice, Vograk made a change to their tradition that would forever change their world. He chose a human into the War King’s Council. This created a rash of infighting. But Vograk was too powerful to challenge. His new weapons and technology made his rule unopposed.

Fractured Homeworld
With a human on the War King’s council, Vograk was able to guide the Kelk in ways of war, society, architecture, infrastructure, and culture. This gave the Khraw Clan even more power and respect. The ruins of the old world were replaced with new structures, monuments, and temples to the gods. Great factories were made that allowed them to forge more advanced weapons and vehicles. And once the factories were running, star travel was made possible.

Within twenty years the Lowra took the Kelk from savage Clans and drove them to a thriving society that sought for more than the blood of their next war. They built massive cities and the infrastructure to maintain it. Great gladiatorial arenas were constructed to help curb the violent urges of the Kelk. And on the surface all appeared well. But after the third Blood War won by the Khraw clan, violence and treachery began simmering in the hearts of the Clans that were so easily swept aside.

The Lowra had become as second class citizens and had some level of autonomy. It was not uncommon for some to cause insult or be killed accidentally. It was the mass murders of Lowra that alerted Vograk that all was not well. He soon learned of a blood cult called the Skull of Trhak. Skulking in the shadows and seeking to erode the the world he had built. He also learned that all of the clans had secretly formed an alliance that would bring his rule to an end.

Exodus
For the last 30 years the Kelk had been learning to travel the stars. And with the Computers of the Winter Pendulum, the Kelk had pre-knowledge of the neighboring star systems that would be a good start for exploration and expansion. For nearly thirty years the Kelk were able to build ships and explore the Black Sky. The Kelk began to spread to many other worlds and formed new colonies. The Kelk society was not organized or advanced enough to maintain good communication or proper control of the worlds they concurred. Many worlds fell into anarchy and followed the old ways of war and bloodshed. Many of the Klans blamed the Khraw Clan for the failed attempts to spread into the stars. But Vograk knew this to be the precursor of the combined attack that would see the end of his clan. With the next Blood War coming he prepared to leave the Kelk homeworld. He gathered as many of his clan as he could. Gathered all of the Lowra and took to the stars.

Chaos in the Dark
As the Khraw clan settled on a new world the rest of the Kelk rampaged across the stars and called it the Black Sky War. They conquered worlds and found the edge of human space. The Kelk launched many attacks on human worlds and even captured a few. The humans sent great warships with power the Kelk could not match in the Black Sky. So they learned the tactic of avoid space combat and forcing the humans to fight on the ground where the Kelk and Humans were more equal match.

The Kelk focused on grabbing as many worlds as possible but quickly found that their lack of communications and widespread direction spread them too thin. The Humans started sweeping back over the worlds and taking them back slaughtering tens of billions of Kelk.

Thrack’s Vengeance
The Kelk saw the coming of the Astral Anomaly as divine retribution of the gods. They called it Trhak’s Vengeance. Vengeance against the Humans for the billions of the Kelk killed in the Black Sky war. This sentiment was driven by an unseen force in Kelk society. The secret order of the Skull of Trhak had been lurking in the shadows since the Exodus of the War King.

The Skull saw the human forces withdrawing from Kelk space. Saw weakness in their defenses. Whole worlds were left unguarded. Vengeance would be theirs. The Skull send orders to his spies and rallied the Kelk armies into a single driving force with the goal of cutting off the human head. They swept back over the world that had been lost. Drove deeper into human space and stabbed at the heart. Earth. The humans were so scattered and weak from Trhak’s Vengeance that there was less resistance than the Skull thought. They invaded the seat of power and crushed it. Their sky fortresses fell in flaming ruin. The steel and glass burned to ho slag. And the people so weak and easy to kill proved no challenge. Disappointing and pathetic. How did a race so weak ever gain so much power.

With bloody victory in had the Skull of Thrak sat upon a pile of corpses and claimed his new homeworld and the seat of power for the Skull of Thrak.''' '''

The Collapsing Tide
After the war with the humans the Kelk forces did what they always do. Scatter. They turned to infighting and warring with themselves. The worlds they conquered ripped apart as the clans kill one another to claim their prize. It took the Skull another decade to redirect their focus. But by then everything had changed. The humans, while scattered, became more dangerous. The smaller kingdoms the rose from the ashes the Kelk left in its wake were more powerful and much more organized. Their technology had evolved through the use of some strange new magic acquired from Trhak’s Vengeance. Future victories would be much harder to win unless they acquired some of the power the Gods chose to share with the humans.