The Magog.	The Magog.		The Magog.
Magog. Homeworld: Magog-Class "World Ship." Affiliation: Tiamist Magog have aligned themselves to some non-Magog settlements. No other affiliations exist. Forms Of Government: Wild Magog: Theocratic Junta (militry leadership as religious leaders); Wayist Magog: Theocratic Autocracy (religious hierarchy as leadership); Tiamist Magog: Theocratic Autocracy, with "breeders" as Theocrats. Overview The Magog are a race of bipedal, furred sentient beings that were the single most feared species in all the known worlds of the former High Nenomause Commonwealth. While the Magog did not destroy the Commonwealth, they certainly gorged themselves feasting on its remains. Since their catastrophic attacks in the waning days of the Nietzschean uprising, the Magog have roamed through the Known Worlds nearly unchecked, launching devastating raids against populated worlds only to retreat again, leaving devastation in their wake. Thus far, no political or military entity has been strong enough to check their depredations, though the worlds of the Than Hegemony and more powerful Nietzschean Prides stay relatively safe. But despite causing widespread death and destruction, the Magog have not expanded their former range in a concerted fashion, aside from turning a handful of former Commonwealth territories such as Double Happiness, Dyhedra, and Zinn's World into breeding worlds. For their own mysterious reasons, the Magog largely prefer to live on their own planets in the former Quarantine Zone. The other significant change since the Commonwealth's fall has been the conversion of some Magog to the new religion of Wayism. Unfortunately, Wayism's tenets of peace and cooperation only appealed to a tiny minority of Magog, while the vast majority remain as violent and bloodthirsty as ever. Over a billion Magog on the breeding world of Dyhedra were killed when their solar system was nova bombed by their former victims, a group of child warriors living on a nearby abandoned High Guard space station. The station has since become a protectorate of the restored Systems Commonwealth, with the governments of Xinti and Castalia helping rehabilitate the station and its inhabitants. History The Magog's origins are unknown. This ultra violent species seemed to appear out of nowhere attacking Known Space with great force. After a vicious strike on several of the Commonwealth worlds on the edge of the galaxy, most notably at Brandenburg Tor, the High Guard was so stunned by the appearance of such an enemy Commonwealth Military High Command felt that it no choice but to send the Andromeda Ascendant to ascertain the source of the invasion. It would be during this mission that the crew of the Andromeda under Perseid Captain Perim discovered the World Ship, a massive miniature solar system composed of numerous hollow spheres filled with trillions of ravenous Magog. The Magog quickly responded with a Point Singularity Projector, immobilizing the vessel while thousands of Magog warriors swarmed over just as it retreated back to slipstream. Every single member of the roughly 4000 member crew were subsequently killed by the Magog as the Andromeda Ascendant Artificial Intelligence wandered lost in the slipstream. The Treaty of Antares was soon signed to ensure an armistice. But when the Commonwealth and the Nietzschean fleet practically annihilated each other, the Magog crossed the Quarantine Zone in great number, destroying all forms of civilization. 300 years into the Long Night, the Andromeda, this time under the command of Captain Dylan Hunt, rediscovered the World Ship. In a small battle, the Swarm ships invaded the ship while the World Ship's Point Singularity Projector blasted a hole in the ship. They barely escaped, but dropped a Nova bomb, destroying the World Ship's sun. It is estimated that it would take two to three years before the Magog could replace their sun. Eventually the Worldship was repaired and arrived at Arkology for the Battle of Arkology. Despite all attempts to defeat it, the Worldship proved too much for the Andromeda and destroyed Arkology. Even every Nova Bomb Andromeda possessed being fired into it had no effect. Finally, Trance Gemini piloted the Andromeda into the Worldship and caused it to go supernova, apparently destroying the Worldship. It is later revealed that it survived, but was badly crippled. The Magog took a serious blow when the Andromeda destroys the Spirit of the Abyss, the Magog leader and creator. Physiology The most frightening and formidable adversary ever faced by Commonwealth civilization, the Magog are coarse-furred bipeds which average 1.5 meters in height. The Magog secrete paralytic venom from their fangs and are also armed with razor-sharp claws, superior senses which include echolocation abilities, swift reflexes and physical strength a Nietzschean would envy. In addition Magog warriors have been known to spit what appears to be a form acid from their digestive tracks directly into the face of their enemies immobilizing the victim before they feed on them. They're also incredibly resistant to injury and damage and extremely intelligent, though Magog cunning seems almost entirely directed toward killing other sentient beings or using them as unwilling hosts for their progeny. In fact the Magog are so resistant to damage that they can be shot in the chest and continue fighting as if nothing happened. Though they can and have been known to use weapons, they usually do not, seeming to prefer tactics of swarming their opponents on foot, fearlessly charging over the bodies of other dead Magog to attack. Reproductive Method The Magog are all one gender, and reproduce by laying eggs in the paralyzed bodies of large organisms, preferably sentient ones. The Magog “parent” then watches over the host for the time it takes for its young to hatch and eat their way out of the host organism, which in the process dies a slow, agonizing death. Interestingly, the resulting Magog young seem to contain small amounts of DNA from the host as well as the Magog parent. The rate at which Magog offspring grow to physical adulthood is believed to be a function of how much food is available to the young. This fact in addition to the Magog's numerous offensive adaptations have lead many to believe that the Magog were originally engineered by the Spirit of the Abyss. Culture Magog society seems to be little more than an aggressive all-consuming horde. The Magog produce no distinguishable art, nor music, nor literature or other signs of ‘culture' as it is normally known among the rest of the galactic humanoids. It's not known how such an aggressive, uncooperative species could have developed the spaceflight capabilities and sophisticated technologies the Magog are known to possess. In fact, some researchers theorize that the Magog are not a natural species at all, but rather some kind of bio-engineered weapon, programmed to replicate themselves and destroy everything they come in contact with. But only the Magog know for certain, and they've steadfastly refused to answer questions regarding their own origins. While the Magog are an aggressive species they do not hate their enemies. To them it is simple matter of predator vs prey with themselves as predators and with every sentient being in the known worlds as prey. It should be noted that the Magog do have a concept of religion as they worship and obey the Spirit of the Abyss like it is a god. Within the Horde, the possession of weapons and, perhaps especially armor, may be a sign of rank, as demonstrated by Bloodmist's apparent elite status, and ability to command other, non-armored Magog.
Technology Of The Magog.
As a general rule, Magog hardware is hunted down whenever it's seen; However, they have World Ships and Swarm Ships.
The Magog.	Wayist And Tiamist Magog.		The Magog.
Overview. The Way, also known as Wayism, is a pacifist religion founded by the Magog prophet, The Anointed One. It teaches about the Divine, an entity of love and peace. The "People of the Way" (Wayist) follow this religion. Beliefs. Wayism is presented as an omni-religion, with an overall overtone of Zen-Buudhism. The phrase 'blessed be,' which is taken from Wicca/neo-paganism, is frequently used by believers. Some wayist monistaries reflect a gothic architectural inspiration that is part of monotheisitic religions. Divine. The Divine is the term used for the god figure in The Way religion. It is stated to be the sentient life force of the universe itself. History. The People of the Way were formed following the Nietzschean Uprising against the Systems Commonwealth which saw the collapse of that great interstellar civilization. In the aftermath of the Fall and the Long Night, the Magog emerged from the Magog Quarantine Zone in large numbers by CY 9886, and began to attack all of known space. Amongst the worlds they attacked was Earth in CY 9797 where a human holy man was paralysed by the Magog and later infested with Magog eggs. However, despite this being the case, he surprisingly managed to remain conscious during the entirety of the incubation period where he spoke to his Magog captors. During this time, he spoke of the various human religions of his world as well as a number of philosophies. His words were known to had a resounding effect on the Magog who renounced violence and thus created the Wayists. Though the holy man died in the birthing process of the Magog progeny, these newborn became the first converts of the new religion who rallied behind the teachings of their prophet who was a Magog that was only known as the "Anointed." By 9892, the Wayists came upon the isolated world of Kalfus IV and renamed it Krishnamurti which became the center of their learning as well as their young religions first Novitiate. Following the death of the Anointed, the religion was held by a number of successors who held the title of Keeper of the Way. Similar feats of conversion of feral Magog continued in the years afterwards with Brother Thaddeus Blake travelling into a horde of Magog on the planet Kingfisher and converted them to the Way. Amongst the newborn Magog born from their hosts included one known as "Red Plague" who later took the name of Rev Bem. By CY 10087, this post was held by an Amber Than-Thre-Kull by the name of Vision of Faith VII, who held the place as keeper of the faith for almost twenty years. After becoming a crewmember of the Andromeda Ascendant, Rev Bem used the vessel as part of his attempts at spreading the Way to other worlds and made regular reports to his comrades in the People of the Way. During this time, the famous Wayist known as Serenity Vikram Singh Khalsa was killed by the Restorians and replaced with a nanobot copy as part of their plans to destroy the Andromeda Ascendant. During this time, the Restorians were known to had masqueraded as Wayists until their plan was uncovered and they were defeated by the Andromeda Ascendant. Afterwards, Thaddeus Blake discovered the Hajira and converted their species into Wayists, and also attempted to retain their innocence due to the fact that they possessed genetic memory of their ancestors. However, the colony was under attack from slavers which saw Captain Dylan Hunt and Rev Bem come to their aid. Brother Blake was killed in the struggle as he attempted to prevent the Hajira from learning violence. In desperation, the Hajira known as Tiama forcibly used Rev Bem to implant Magog eggs in her body. The newborn progeny were successful in eliminating the slavers and retained the Hajira genetic memory thus spawning an entire brood of Wayists warrior monks at the expense of the Hajira's innocence. A year later, the People of the Way sponosored a relief convoy protected by the Andromeda Ascendant in order to journey through Drago-Kazov Pride territory in order to aid the plague ridden world of Rogina. Background. Much of the background and teachings of the Wayists were based around the words of the Anointed who was the Magog prophet that founded their faith based on an amalgamation of several human philosophies. As a result of those teachings, the Wayists tended to be peaceful as well as generous beings that consisted of believers from many different species. Their ultimate goal was to strive for good and follow the path shown by the Anointed. This remained the case even after the Anointed had passed away with the Wayists following his succesor namely the Keeper of the Way. The belief of the Wayists centered around a deity that encompassed all of existence which they called the "Divine" which was responsible for creating everything. Amongst the ranks of the People of the Way included clergy of many different orders, one of them the Society of Wisdom who were active proselytes as well as educators that sought to induct other beings into their faith. Other orders included the contemplative Whisperers of Truth, the administrative Order of Unity and the charitable Merciful Breath. There were a number of different philosophical paths within the Way which included "the Mountain Path". This belief was one of acceptance by the believer of the surrounding environment and they forsook medicinal treatments, instead accepting even disease as part of their faith. Locations. Krishnamurti: Formerly known as Kalfus IV in the Commonwealth era and was located in the Sukarit Globular Cluster. Its isolated nature meant it served as the perfect post to become the Wayists center of learning. There was a movement to open the planet to outsiders in order to spread enlightenment but it was rejected by the Novitiate. A place known as the "Shouting Cliffs" was where Wayists shouted their frustrations and desires in order to release any burdens on their mind. Starlight and Stillwater Orbital Monastery: A supposed Wayist monastery and observatory, it was actually a masquerade used by the Restorians who operated the station as an outpost. Members. The Anointed: a Magog born on Earth after a holy man was infested, the Anointed became the leader of the Wayist movement. One of his sayings in CY 9799 was "Only those born guilty recognize innocence for what it is: The rarest thing in the universe, and the most precious." Vision of Faith VII: an Amber Than who served as Keeper of the Way by CY 10087 and hailed from the Merciful Breath order which had grown in influence since her appointment. She was noted for being deeply spiritual and true to her convictions with one of her goals being to overthrow the caste based system of her species. One of her sayings was "The truest measure of a society is how it treats its elderly, its pets, and its prisoners." Vision of Faith: a Keeper of the Way who said in CY 10003 "Beneath knowing, understanding. Beneath understanding, seeing. Beneath seeing, recognizing. Beneath recognizing, knowing" Rev Bem: Reverend Bem, a Magog born on Kingfisher and converted to the Way by Thaddeus Blake. He was known to be a member of the Society of Wisdom in the orders of the People of the Way. In CY 10090, he wrote "A Wayist Practicum" where one of his phrases was "To the question of life after death: Not whether such a thing exists, but… What manner of life?" Brother Thaddeus Blake: a male Human who was known to have travelled to the Magog ridden world of Kingfisher and converted their number to the Way which included a newborn Rev Bem. Serenity Vikram Singh Khalsa: a famous male Human Wayist who was killed and replaced with a nanobot duplicate by the Restorians. One of his sayings was "Many say living in The Way is difficult. Is sleeping difficult? Is waking?" Michio Von Kerr: a Wayist physicist who in CY 9942 said "We say atoms are bound by weak attractors. Why not admit the Truth: The universe is held together by Love." Quotes. "When events test men, angels then appear." -- Wayist Verse CY 1015. "My pain belongs to the Divine. It is like air. It is like water."
Tiamist Magog. Tiama (last name unknown) was a devoutly religious Hajira who fought for the freedom of her people against the slavers who threatened their planet. She had a younger brother, Arun, who sought a less violent solution, and became a Wayist, under the tutelage of Brother Thaddeus Blake. Tiama ultimately died after stealing genetic material from Rev Bem, which she used to infest herself with Magog larvae, in an attempt to create fierce warriors to assist the Hajira in their battle. The genetic memory Hajira inherit from their parents made her Magog "offspring" unique, and far less feral in a general sense than their species. In the end, her sacrifice was instrumental in driving back the slavers, and her "children" remained with the community, under the care of Arun. Since then, however, some of Tiama's children have left Serendpity with Hajira caretakers. They have settled many world, protecting their charges- Rather pointedly. Tiamist Magog espouse peace as an ideal, but will not let ANYONE threaten their charges. They will not lift a finger in self-defense, but if anyone threatens a Hajira they will kill, without remorse, pity, or hesitation, and feel abosutely no remorse for whatever suffering they inflict in their victims; Perhaps due to the nature of their founding, that being Tiama's "rape" of Rev Bem, they breed in their victims whenever possible. Any would-be Tiamist Magog that shows the SLIGHTEST deviation from the breeding with willing victims or would be victimizers is slain, without pity, but isn't used for breeding, as their genetic memory might contaminate future generations- This line is finished, and they want nothing to do with it. Note: Tiamist Magog only consider the Hajira, especially the members of their own community, as charges unless the local authorities claim an outsider as one of the community. If an REF member, regardless of why he's there or what he's doing, is threatened by another outsider, the Tiamists in the community will not do much to help him, unless it is a Magog that has attacked him or the local authorities ask for the assistance. That is why Hajira settlements that have joined the UGC have made it a point to inform their Tiamists that UGC memebers on their worlds are friends.
Legal Standing. Wayist Magog have NO rights under UGC law; Part of the reason is the Restorian counter-cult. The Restorians were wiped out before even the coming of the UGC, but the specter of their outrages hangs heavy upon the Wayist movement. The Tiamists fare no better; Tehir only 'legal' protection is in the presence of Hajira settlers, who will not brook their favored guards to be harmed- The only exception to their anti-violent stance. They are treated, legally, of the property of the Hajira, who are FULLY responsible for the actions of their "pets." This notwithstanding, Wayist and Tiamist Magog are, for the time being, considered under the protection of the UGC in the same sense that cattle are, although in this case the "cattle" have certain rights; Murdering a Wayist or Tiamist Magog can be a capital offences. For their part, the Wayist and Tiamist Magog take very little offense; They themselves can't tell the difference between their members and wild Magog, if the wild Magog is wearing the Orange robes of the Wayist or the Yellow robes of a Tiamist, and have, on occasion, killed fellow members of their own and each other's factions is "unfortunate misunderstandings."
Technology Of Wayist And Tiamist Magog.
As a general rule, Magog hardware is hunted down whenever it's seen; However, Wayist and Tiamist Magog are exept. They are authorized to have World Ships and Swarm Ships; However, these are CAREFULLY tracked. Wayist Magog rarely make use of Swarm Ships, since they don't need an attack platform. Tiamist Magog don't make use of World Ships, since they always traveling with their Hajira protectees. They paint their ships very bright colors to make them easier to see; They also have installed radio transponders so that other parties can see them on radar much easier. They also use individual sized rail guns, though Tiamists are much more likely to use them in defense of a charge.
Planets And Systems.
Krishnamurti. Overview: Location: Sukarit Globular Cluster. Diameter: 10,638 miles. Water Coverage: 62%. Climate: Temperate to arctic. Population: 11,400-20,000 (various). Starlight And Stillwater Observatory. The Wayists have a few facilities that are exclusively their own; Tiamists have none, as they remain tied to their charges. Krishnamurti. Location. A remote and uninhabitated world during the Commonwealth era, Krishnamurti's (formally known as Kalfus IV) isolation made it an ideal location for the newly-formed Way to establish the young religion's first Novitiate in CY 9892. Krishnamurti remains a main center of Wayist learning and activity to this day. Some in the Wayist hierarchy have proposed opening the planet to outside visitors seeking spiritual enlightenment or natural wonder (the planet's Shouting Cliffs are famous throughout known space), a move has been strongly opposed by the Novitiate's administrators. The planet has however been opened up to UGC and High Nenomause Commonwealth observers to ensure that the Wayist movement remains a truly peaceful movement; A full legion of Swiss Custodes are garrisoned here with orders to defend the Wayists and massacre them on a moment's notice (an order the Novitiate is well aware of and has adamantly refused to oppose). Starlight and Stillwater Orbital Monastery. Starlight and Stillwater Orbital Monastery is a Drift originally located on a large asteroid in the Omicron Theta system, and is a well-known place of contemplation and learning operated by the Wayist faith. Visitors are greeted by the monastery's famous hand-carved statue of the Anointed, who holds the always-lit Eternal Flame of Knowledge in his hand. Originally founded by Restorians who operated the station as an outpost, the plot was uncovered, and the Restorians massacred- Unfortunately, a lot of innocent Wayist Magog were killed as well, a shame the Wayist movement has yet to fully absolve itself of, even if everyone else has long since commended them for "purging" the infiltrators. There had been an interst to move the observatory to Kishnamurti for many years; However, until the UGC came along with fold technology, it was impracticable. With the Council's help, Starlight And Stillwater now sits on the edge of the Sukarit Globular Cluster.