In the Underland, creatures are named for what they do. Stingers sting. Fliers fly. Killers kill. The name signifies what is the natural act of the creatures. What cannot be helped and what is immediately noticed by others. Crawlers cannot help but crawl. Fliers cannot help but fly. Gnawer cannot help but gnaw. And killer cannot help but kill.

They were not always called killers. Once, they came only very rarely for rituals or gatherings. They came not to disturb but take part, not to invade but share. They were few. Some learned a language or two. Crawler, Hisser, Gnawer. But the killers who were not then killers were not common. They were more myth than actual creature, so few were the visitors. Some called them crafters for their ability to create contraptions and systems with their limbs. Perhaps, had things gone differently, that might have been their name. But things be the way things be, and so, they are killers.

When they began coming many at a time, enough to be fact rather than myth, they came as invaders. Only a few learned a language and then proceeded to forget it as soon as their allies had learned theirs. Or so the stories go. And almost as soon as they had arrived, they set out to conquer. Where fruitful land was found, they made it theirs by the easiest means possible — killing. Death is common in territory disputes. But the killers brought with them death on an entirely new scale.

The digger lands were plentiful. Rivers, impenetrable rock, soil, space. They had long been coveted, but never taken. This would not be the time either. Or so it seemed. The newcomers did not take well to defeat. No, they brought death on an entirely new scale. They slaughtered the diggers with no blood on their hands. And a creature whose first action is to kill — what other name might he have?