Stellaris Lore: Takzus (Part Two)
Species: Takzu
Homeworld: Vethim, Kandra (Formerly), Earth (Ancestral, Formerly)
Planet Class: Cascadian (Both Kandra and Vethim), Continental (Earth)
Star: Distan, Marsavis (Formerly), Sol (Formerly)
Star Type: Class K (Orange Star, Distan A) Class M (Red Dwarf, Distan B), Class F (White Star, Marsavis), Class G (Sol, Yellow)
Origin: Lost Colony
Empire: United Territories of Vethim
Authority: Oligarchic
Ethics: Fanatic Xenophobe, Militarist
Civics: Fanatic Purifiers, Citizen Service
Government: Citizen Legion
Traits: Reptilian, Adaptive, Hunter-Gatherers, Very Strong, Unruly, Born-Warriors, Impassioned, Charismatic, Nomadic, Multitasking, Keen Predators, Gigantic, Evolutionary Adaptability, Free Spirits, Scaly, Apex Predators, Pack Behavior, Sharp Scales.
Ruler: Grand Margrave Ristanos Heledes
Name List: Space Greek 3
Advisor Voice: Xenophobe
Appearance: Appears as an Allosaurus (from the Animated Saurian Portraits mod)
Ascension Path: Psionic
Diet: Carnivore
Sixty years before the Interstellar Kingdom of Kandra reached spaceflight, during the reign of King Asteri Thaddathan, The Royal Department of Astrology (the Takzu's equivalent of NASA) has been experimenting with space travel with various levels of success. In the early years of their atomic age, the Royal Department of Astrology's first experiment involved launching the first satellites into space. Another experiment involved launching the first Takzu on Kandra's moon. After the success of launching the first Takzu on Kandra's moon, Lazaros Kostas, the head of the Royal Department of Astrology, approached King Asteri Thaddathan with an idea. To send a ship full of colonists to another star with a habitable world. After showing him the report of an exoplanet with life similar to Kandra several lightyears away has been discovered, Asteri gave Lazaros's project the stamp of approval. As soon as the construction for the colony ship began, Asteri and the Royal Department of Astrology started searching for volunteers for the project.
Asteri contacted Patrobus Heledes, one of the astronauts sent to Kandra's moon and a former military officer, approaching him to be the leader of the colonists. Eager at the prospect of creating a second home for his species, Patrobus agreed. The people who were picked to be colonists were selected in a similar fashion to a lottery. The Royal Department of Astrology placed distribution boxes filled with strips of paper with numbers on them at every public space on Kandra. The ship only had enough room for one hundred-fifty thousand people on it including the crew.
The crew, which is of two five thousand individuals, have been selected first. The one hundred forty-five thousand colonists were selected in a raffle that has been televised planetwide. As soon as the ship was finally completed, the individuals selected to be colonists all received a call telling them it was time to go. Lazaros, Patrobus, the crew, and the colonists all were paraded with King Asteri and the rest of the royal family throughout Therosia where a farewell party was held. After the crew and colonists said their final goodbye to their friends and family, they all got onboard.
The colony ship's launch to space was broadcasted across Kandra. Everyone watched as the ship left the planet's atmosphere. Meanwhile onboard the colony ship, everyone watched as Kandra grew smaller and smaller due to the distance. This was their final glimpse of their old home. Patrobus knew he would end up going to space again eventually, but never thought he would leave the planet he was born on.
For one year they continued the journey through the Marsavis system. As the journey progressed, Patrobus and the crew noticed the communications to Kandra were starting to lose signal. Patrobus sent one final message to the Royal Department of Astrology and King Asteri, telling them that as soon as the ship leaves the Marsavis system, he and the crew would no longer be able to communicate with them. As soon as the ship left the system, it lost signal with Kandra.
For three years the ship voyaged throughout space, it eventually arrived at the binary star system dubbed, Distan. Not long after that it arrived at its destination, the cascadian world that would eventually be dubbed Vethim. The ship landed close to an estuary, and as soon as the colonists and crew disembarked, they began to set up prefab shelters. The site would eventually become Jurassos, Vethim's capital city.
Due to being near an estuary, it was an excellent source of fishing. Patrobus sent some colonists who were fishermen back at Kandra to catch some food and even set up a makeshift fish hatchery. Patrobus and some of the security crew went to look around the woods to find what they could hunt. They found that the planet is home to abundant megafauna, just like Kandra. Patrobus sent scouts to a mountain not too far from the settlement, the scouts reported that the mountain has minerals and metal ore, making it a good place for mining. With the resources secured, Patrobus and the colonists got to work establishing themselves in their new home.
However, life was not easy for Patrobus, the crew, and the colonists. A team of fishermen went on a voyage that was supposed to last for a week. A week has passed, and they have not returned. Patrobus and a search party took to the sea to find them. Only two survivors were found. The survivors tell Patrobus, that they were ambushed by a monster that they dubbed "G'aerk Slorr". The words mean "Giant Shell" in Therosian. G'aerk Slorr, is described as a seventy-five-foot molluscoid monster with a giant spiked shell, four eyes, and eight large tentacles, with two of them being longer than the other six.
As they were about to leave G'aerk Slorr emerged from the water. Patrobus and the soldiers drew their weapons out and opened fire on the sea monster. The monster managed to take out two vessels. Patrobus and the soldiers were having a difficult time trying to kill the monster. Patrobus looks at a tank of pressurized air and comes up with an idea. He picks it up and throws it at the monster who catches it with one tentacle. When questioned as to what he was doing, Patrobus ordered the soldiers to throw the cans of pressurized air at the monster. Twelve cans of pressurized air were thrown at the monster. Some landed on its shell and the monster caught some with its tentacles. Patrobus ordered the soldiers to shoot the air tanks as he picked up a rocket launcher. Simultaneously, Patrobus and the soldiers shot all twelve of the tanks, destroying the monster's shell and mortally wounding the monster with the resulting explosion. Patrobus dealt the last blow and fired a missile at the monster's head, killing it.
Patrobus, the soldiers, and the fishermen gather the remains of G'aerk Slorr and head back to the settlement. The pieces of the shell were studied by the scientists and the soft flesh (whatever is left) has since been used as food. After the monster's death, there were no incidents of fishermen disappearing.
Four years after the G'aerk Slorr incident, a hunt gone wrong occurred. Patrobus was with his hunting party stalking a herd of mammalian creatures dubbed "oterans", they were attacked by a pack of ten reptilian creatures dubbed "kukol-ranuks" (means "saber-lizard"). The kukol-ranuks are forty-five feet reptilians whose behaviors are similar to lions. They managed to kill two soldiers. After killing one of them, Patrobus did not see four more closing in on him, they pounced on him and started mauling him. Just when it seemed he was about to be mauled to death, a female soldier pulled them off of him and killed them. The female soldier is Galatea Athanaki. Galatea is able to pull the severely wounded Patrobus to safety while the rest of the soldiers kill off the kukol-ranuks. It took four months for Patrobus to fully recover from the attack and Galatea was right by his side the whole time.
Galatea and Patrobus eventually end up in a romantic relationship with each other. They got married and had a clutch of eggs of their own. The city of Jurassos was starting to take shape. One day Patrobus received a report saying a hunting party sent out had disappeared. Fearing the worst, Patrobus, Galatea, and a team of soldiers went to find the hunting party. When they found the bodies, they found evidence that it wasn't Vethim's wildlife that did it. Another species was living on the planet alongside them. They were not alone. Patrobus and the soldiers rushed back to Jurassos to tell everyone of the discovery. By the time they got there, they arrived at the aftermath of what appeared to be an attack on Jurassos. A survivor told them that the attackers were tribal arthropoids. They killed whoever stood in their way, stole anything of value, and they stole the clutches of eggs and kidnapped some of the hatchlings. Horrified at this revelation, Patrobus and Galatea rushed back to their home to check on their clutch. Their home of course had been broken into. When they got inside, their clutch of eggs was gone. The grief-stricken couple let out grief and anguish-stricken roars. However, they noticed movement coming from inside a curtain. Galatea opened the curtain revealing that one egg was left. It was about to hatch. Sure, enough a baby Takzu did end up hatching. Their son Epizón Heledes was born.
Galatea chose to stay and look after Epizón while Patrobus and a large team of soldiers and armed volunteers launch a rescue mission to rescue the eggs and hatchlings from the arthropoids. They followed a group of arthropoid scouts to a village in the mountains. They managed to keep themselves out of sight. What they saw was truly horrible. They saw a sacrificial altar, with dried blood on it, the hatchlings tied up next to it. They saw the stolen eggs placed on a huge table in front of the altar. The arthropoids resemble bipedal scorpions that are the same size as the Takzus. One of the arthropoids picks up an egg and eats it. This horrifies the Takzus just enough that they roared and started attacking the village. Killing any of the arthropoids that stood in their way. After annihilating the village, Patrobus and his army managed to rescue the eggs and hatchlings and return them home. Before leaving the village, Patrobus and the scientists who joined in the rescue/massacre were able to get information on why the arthropoids attacked Jurassos. According to the murals that the arthropoids made, when attacking an enemy tribe, they sacrificed the enemy tribe's children to a bloodthirsty god, and they eat the eggs that have not hatched yet as part of the ritual. All of the hatchlings are alright, half of Jurasso's egg clutches have been eaten. Epizón was the only one of Galatea and Patrobus's clutch to have survived.
After this incident, Patrobus, Jurasso, and the rest of the Takzu settlements that have since formed are worried about the possibility of another attack. Patrobus and the settlements' military leaders have formed a system where every Takzu is now required to be part of the military. Training will begin once a young Takzu has reached the age of fifteen years. They would be required to serve a minimum of four years. This was all in an effort to prepare and prevent another attack. The settlement leaders are known as "Margraves". Patrobus has become the main leader with his title being known as the "Grand Margrave". Thus began a fifty-year long revenge campaign to wipe out the arthropoids.
When Epizón reached adulthood, he and his father managed to wipe out the final holdout of the arthropoids from existence. With the arthropoids wiped out, Epizón felt it was time for the Takzus to reach the stars once again and desired to reunite the Takzus with their counterparts back at Kandra. Patrobus, after serving a twenty-year term as Grand Margrave, ended up retiring. Epizón followed in his father's footsteps and was elected as Margrave of Jurassos. The council of Margraves elected him as Grand Margrave. Epizón poured a lot of resources into space exploration as he and the next generation wanted to see Kandra. Shortly after getting re-elected as Grand Margrave, Epizón met and fell in love with Rena Maralli. They got married and had a clutch of three eggs. Two males, Tolis and Ristanos Heledes. One female, Petroula Heledes. Ten years after their grandchildren hatch, Galatea got sick and passed away. Patrobus believed he was going to die shortly after. He told Epizón, Rena, and his grandchildren that they were going to have to continue guiding the United Territories of Vethim and lead the Takzus back into space on their own. Patrobus and Galatea's bodies were cremated and placed into urns with their final wish was for Epizón and their grandchildren to scatter their ashes on Kandra in the event they were able to find their homeworld.
Nineteen years later, the United Territories of Vethim finally reached spaceflight. Distan's starbase was finally built. The first construction ship and first science ship have left Vethim's atmosphere. The scientist aboard the science ship, awaiting their first order. The first fleet of corvettes ready to patrol the Distan system for any kind of threat. Epizón and Rena have since retired. Petroula and Tolis have since joined the military. Tolis has become a general, Petroula has received admiral training. Just like Petroula, Ristanos has received admiral training, he ended up following the footsteps of his father and grandfather. He became Grand Margrave. In his inaugural speech, Ristanos promised one day the people of Vethim will be reunited with the people of Kandra and to wipe out any xeno threat that got in their way.
Author's Note: For those of you who play Stellaris, you should know about the United Nations of Earth and the Lost Colony origin which led to the existence of the Commonwealth of Man. So, I thought, why not create a xenophobic evil twin empire of the Interstellar Kingdom of Kandra that would make the Commonwealth of Man look like saints in comparison.