Liir Biocollective
The Suul’kan came from the sky, Steam and poison heralding their descent upon the surface of Vaal'Lara with the massive metal carapace beasts that ferried them appearing like mountains hovering above the planet's surface.
Eggs rained from the sky, released from the mountain-sized creatures upon the ocean homes of the Liir dispensing smaller metal creatures, Demons, and Pure heat. This catastrophe from the sky left the Liir in a state of pure panic. The song that all liir shares with each other was nothing but pain and screams of despair.
Their homes boiled as though the great underwater heat vents had rained themselves from the sky, all the while Demons slaughtered the Liir that had fled and captured those that hid from the cataclysm, Nothing on Vaal’lara escaped from the grasp of the Suul’kan.
Those of a more aggressive bent among the Liir attempted to crush the Demons with the Songofmovementandforce, a desperate attempt To save their clutchmates and children from the Slaughter even as the current ran with blood and poison. These Liir failed, the bodies of the creatures resisting the their brief amount of time it took them or another of their number to kill the Liir in question.
The liir were contained in dead stagnant water, kept habitable only by the slight current that ran through it. The poison in the water burned the Liir, and weakened them so even as the thought of causing their new Captors, Now, Owners, harm came to them they were left too weak to break them with the Songofmovementandforce and too mentally exhausted from the sheer sense of dread, despair Pain pain pain that had flooded the song of the Liir to truly struggle using that song, as abhorrent as using it as a weapon may have been..
The Liir were separated from each other, prodded and tortured as their captures took the Liir apart, in order to understand their new slaves in all ways.
The destruction of Vaal’lara Submerged your species in nothing but pain and despair for what has been lost.
The treatment of the remaining Liir in the aftermath of their species being conquered by the Suul’kan taught them what Anger/Hate/Wrath was.
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The rule of the Suul’kan was a harsh one. To the Enemy, no life was actually Life, merely various states of biological automata that moved and lived according to their biological programming, And only they counted as true LIFE. Whether the Suul’kan arrived at this Philosophy from some form of species-wide trauma, Religion or Philosophical pondering it mattered little to the millions owned and broken by Suul’kan population.
Any form of torture that they inflicted upon another being was no different from the act of breaking a rock to make a tool or bending a piece of metal for some momentary amusement.
As a telepathic Species it was harder for the suul’kan to break them to their rule then normal, solely because it was difficult to get across meaning and no sound thinking Suul’kan would allow a Liir inside their mind in order to for the bond required for communication, lest they find their mind break under the retribution of the Song of the Liir.
Eventual crude communication was established, after the deaths of half of the captured Liir. With communication possible, it was only a matter of time before the new species would break, and become tools of the Suul’kan, as some many species had before them. In the Enemies mind and that of their Sl’Ta’Mar (Roughly translating to those that cause pain in the name of breaking or simply Slave tamers), it was only a matter of time.
And seemingly it was so, Liir fulfilling their purpose for the suul’kan that they were trained for, All signs of their culture wiped away and the older generation dying off after ensuring that there were newborn liir to take their places once they passed.
The Liir were Pets, Toys, Assistants, Interrogation tools and research assistants for the Suul’kan. Their telepathic and telekinetic abilities making them extremely suited for the tasks and well as their pleasing looks (Not that way). Their use was similar to living Personal devices.
Generations passed under Suul’kan rule, No Signs of rebellion present as they fulfilled their purpose and life to the T after their initial training and indoctrination.
Under the Façade however, the Liir Lived on in will and culture, Even as the Song of the Liir was tinged with ever more Anger/Hate/Wrath from the generations born under their rule.
Their culture was passed on from the old to the new through the song, The only freedom available to them even as their submission was Unquestionable in the physical realm.
The song was the savior of the Liir, For the Suul’kan knew no species that had the ability and years of research had been unable to decipher the means, or at least, with the Liir subtly sabotaging the efforts at every turn.
Generations of slavedom, of torture and unimaginable cruelty. Any other species would have broken, becoming nothing more but Biological Automatons as the Suul’kan wanted, like so many before them, if not for the Song of the Liir. While the song was incapable of stretching between worlds, Enough Liir were used as assistants on various Suul’kun ships that they could act as carriers of knowledge, named the Ka’Del’ir within the song. (Conveyers of distant song)
Finally, the time came to pass, the watchful eyes of the Suul’kan turned, preoccupied with the two dozen species that had been conquered after the Liir, with no attention spared for the Apparently broken cetaceans beyond the individual in front of them.
Thus their work began, Minutes stolen inside Top-secret research facility to work on the project, Notes never Created in a physical, written form. All information stored within the Song of the Liir, among a million minds.
Slowly, it took shape even as the rest of the Liir prepared in different ways for the exodus to come.
A weapon of true horror, to even contemplate releasing it almost put a stop to the preparation as it took place, the horror a managing to overcome the
Anger/Hate/Wrath that had been given birth so long ago and that had been fed more and more by every generation. Even, in their Wrath, they could not release this weapon.
Instead, it was a different note that pushed the Song of the Liir forward with its plan. Thoughts of the future and other species falling under the Suul’kans Yoke ensured that they had to release it, or else tens, Possible Hundreds of other species would suffer the Fate of the Liir. The boiling, the torture, the mountain raining Eggs from the sky down upon them. It had to be done.
The Liir had the chance to Stop the Suul’kan Now, Something that no other species could say, known and very possible unknown. It had to be done, for the future. Even if Trillions in the present died.
The Virus was completed, A work of generations. A work of the finest technology in the most top-secret research labs of the Suul’kan. Only the strand weaving of the Liir could create an Abomination like this.
After a long argument, another feature was added to the virus. Some claimed that it was unnecessary and they should Share the fate of the others, while others claimed that some life deserved to survive this, and there was nothing they could do for the other slave species.
At the last minute a change in the virus insured that 10% of the Liir would be immune.
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The virus would infect its host, and incubate for almost a month, turning the host into a Factory for an invisible virus even as it incubated, present in every bit of their being, from the very air they breathed to their blood and the water they drank infecting anyone that was near the host.
Air born infection for the virus had a Range of kilometers, as the virus was carried by wind and refused to die. Water infected with the virus would remain infected for Centuries before the virus finally died from a lack of substance. A single host could infect a city by their lonesome in the month they spent incubating.
The spread of the virus through airborne vectors grew with the amount present in the air. A modern city, of millions of life forms, would have an airborne infection range of a whole planet.
Next, Applied through very careful and limited application of telepathic abilities that virus would trick its host, convincing them that they were perfectly healthy as well as those around them, leaving the combating of the virus to the healthy.
After 1 month of Incubation inside of a host body, the final stage was initiated. Every cell in the host body Would go into overdrive at the same time, from the cells in the lungs to the cells in the brain, every single one would begin to pump out the virus at a speed that would normally be impossible, If it wasn’t for the virus boiling through the bodies reserves as fast as possible. A single host will fill the air with enough virus cells that it will almost become visible in the air, as a translucent film, or a trick of the light.
With the mental block in place, other hosts will quickly inhale this mist, triggering their incubation early. At the end of the final stage it is not uncommon for a City world to Have a slight rainbow colored film when observed from orbit, as every biological organism on the planet is transformed into more virus.
Some virus hosts do not undergo this process, instead of having a Strong, telepathy-induced desire to travel to an inhabited planet nearby, ensuring the spread of the virus.
When the atmosphere has been fully saturated by the virus, a chain reaction occurs.
The infected planet in question is quickly set aflame, at temperatures that even the virus cannot survive. The planet is a Ball of fire when observed from orbit.
A sun in miniature.
The fire reduces the planet to naught but rock with all life, including the virus, Burned away to ashes. A barren ball of ashen rock floating in space. Only orbital debris remains to signify the presence of the Suul’kan or any of their many slaves.
The virus was never named, for the Liir refused to do such, The virus Will never have a name to be referred by. It is only known to the Liir as The Horror or The Virus.
After the virus was released, the 10% of Liir that were immune managed to swiftly escape between the time that the incubation had finished, but before the planet was reduced to naught but ashes. They took with them Ships and supplies to escape the fall that they had set in motion.
A portion of the escaping Liir fleet was tasked with ensuring that the Suul’kan truly died out, traveling to all recorded system and ensuring that the virus had done its task, any surviving orbital facilities, were quickly destroyed by the fleet who took on the name “Bela’no’Liir” (Meaning, watchers of the death the Liir have brought”
Much of the Suul'kan empire was made up of outposts and way stations, with only the core systems and the various slave planets making un the planet-bound territory held by the Suul'kan. Their war fleets were unmatched, and as such they had felt that only small outposts were even necessary to hold their territory. While the costs in Lives Were mind-numbingly large, Into the Trillions and perhaps beyond, the actual total of planets reduced to naught but ash by the virus was surprising low for the death knell of a Galaxy-wide superpower. The final total measuring in at just over a hundred arcology filled worlds.
The rest of the Liir returned to Vaal’Lara and resettled it, slowly transforming it to a state resembling the times before the Suul’Kan . even now the scars remain, however, with grand areas of land and ocean where life refuses to grow. The planet left with a blotchy brown, green and blue look from orbit.
The Ability to create the virus was lost, as the creators of the virus ensured they either died of it or Ended their own song soon after. All knowledge concerning it was removed from the Song of the Liir, so as not to taint it any longer. And the Facilities to create the virus were destroyed by the virus soon after it was released.
The Virus, So horrible the Liir refused to give it a name, was lost to the sand of time. And the Liir will ensure it, and any brethren of its, will remain that way for as long as the Song remains.
The virus was released 10,000 years ago, by Terran standard.
During those thousands of years, the Liir did their best to rebuild, both the ruined planet that they had returned to and their species.
During the Initial landing upon Vaal’lara it was argued whether the Liir Should discard technology and return to the way that they had lived before. However, before was hundreds of generation ago by this point, and the argument was created, of the possibility of a second Suul’Kan. At the very thought, The song was put into discord for three days, the very thought of another species deserving of the horror. The very thought almost caused more discord then had ever truly been present before in the Liir population.
The argument was made, to all of the Liir BioCollection, That the Suul’kan succeeded as long as they had because no species was capable of defeating them conventionally, with ships in the void of space and forces on the surface of planets.
The Liir Must not, The argument was made, Discard technology but prepare and ensure that if there is a second Suul’kan, that we can defeat them without the need of something like the horror ever.
As such the decision was made, The Liir Biocollective would not return to the ways of the old, and instead would forge forward on the quest for knowledge.
The Liir had lost must, both in their escape and in the subsequent rebuilding. While they swore not to revert back to the Liir of the past, They where almost at the same technology level by the Time they were settled on Vaal’lara. With only odd trinkets and rusty, breaking Ships the signs that remained of the technological prowess of the greatest strand weavers to walk the galaxy in a very long time.
With the bioprinters and the other scraps of technology they began to drag themselves up and out of the pit that their species had been in. 75,000 Liir Grew and flourished. The song was filled with new life, who had no known the pain of service to the Suul’kan, The song grew more light-hearted, Singing of happier times even as melancholy and depression and wrath grew ever more distant.
Eventually, after they had completed their task, wiping the galaxy clean of all signs of the virus and removing any chance of its survival, the Bela’no’Liir re-joined their brethren.
The Bela’no’liir were changed by their task, as any being would be. They remained morose, their Song tainted by the death and blood that they had spilled and witnessed. It changed them and their song, The Bela’no’liir had known this as well and as such, they did something unprecedented, something truly insane.
They cut off their song from the rest of the Liir’s.
With the fear of infecting the song of the rest of the Liir's with the death and blood that stained their song, they cut themselves off from the rest of the liir. And dedicated themselves to learning the art of war, reasoning that if the their song is already so tainted, then they shall take war upon themselves and ensure that the rest of the Liir will not be tainted as such.
The rest of the Liir disagree, and the Split choirs remain a heated talking point to this day. The Liir were unwilling to allow the Bela’no’liir to shoulder all war for them, for many reasons in truth, but the Bela’no’liir remains some of the most elite Liir in the art of war to ever walk the surface of vaal'lara to this day and serve alongside the rest of the Liir military.
Many Liir of the older generations had problems with robotics, reminding them too much of the drones, the torture machines of the Suul’kun. Some of which were still being pulled up from the ocean seafloor at rare times, rusted beyond belief and completely out of power, degraded by the very same poison that the Suul’kun had dumped into the ocean during their invasion.
The newer generations of the liir had grown to be much more excepting of robotics, but the Specialty of the Liir is and would always remain biological creations, and that showed.
The Liir of Vaal’lara are firm believers that they have two duties to the galaxy as a whole, to recompense for the untold death that was initiated by the virus, and the pain they and many others felt at the hand of the suul’kan.
The first is the firm belief that the only reason that their empire, no, the Liir as a whole was allowed to survive the virus was so as to ensure that any many of Suul’kan empire that formed in the future had an opponent that would, and could, stand in the way of their cruelty and ambition.
In the present generations, this belief usually manifest as a form of an intense watch of all their neighbor empires, watching for any sign of a second Suul’kan Empire. This has led to the Liir Biocollective being very … twitchy about any signs that an empire could be attempted to take territory from them, as they take it as a sign of the second coming of the Suul’kan, even if cooler heads decided that that was really not true later. (*Cough Cough* How we managed to get embroiled in a three-way war)
The second Core belief of the Liir is that it is their duty to ensure that nothing like The Virus is ever created again. They feel this is their only true repentance, ensure that a repeat of that horror is impossible. If there are any signs of Such a plague, The liir Feel like it is their duty to do that same to it as The Virus. Consigning all Signs and memory of it to the Sands of time. All knowledge of how to create it is to be purged, all Facilities and reduced to nothing more than dust. The virus is exterminated with the creators of the virus Consigned to the same fate.
In the history of the Liir after resetting Vaal’lara, there are two Liir driven mad, that decided to create a virus and a plague.
These traitors were reduced to nothing more than a pair of labels, with all other sign of the traitors cut from the song.
The names of the greatest villains and traitors in Liir history. Tu’Ada and Gor'Adama
He who betrays all Liir.
He who follows in the footsteps of grand betrayal of all Liir.
We are the greatest monsters in the universe, becoming so to stop a lesser monster from becoming greater.
We are the ones who remember true evil, both in our actions and from the enemy.
We are the ones who will prevent another of such tragedy’s.