Malandanti: background information

[Syngyne]

The children of Khailha we are
Our Mother's dying words we bring
Through endless night we travel far
And songs of devastation sing

Tens of thousands of years ago, a race known as the Khailha controlled a vast empire near the core of the galaxy. They subjugated an area of space starting from approximately six kiloparsecs from galactic center and stretching almost a quarter of a way up the Sagittarius arm of the galaxy. Instrumental in their conquest was a race of bioengineered sentient warships they named the Khraesvolkha vo'Khailha, or the Holy Blades of the Khailha. It is these warships that have been identified as the Malandanti.

The Holy Blades were engineered to be highly capable war machines, dedicated to a life of war and nothing else. They were grown inside of huge, planet-sized living factories called Mothers. Each Mother was conditioned with a fanatical devotion to the Khailha, seeing them as gods, and living only to carry out their will. This devotion was passed from each Mother to its myriad children, creating a fleet which would never waver in its resolve. In their eyes, the Holy Blades were carrying out the divine will of the gods.

Over the millenia, however, the empire of the Khaila fell apart due to corruption and infighting. Mothers from different areas of the empire began to receive conflicting orders from their gods, commanding them to lay waste to systems which they had originally been assigned to protect. Most obeyed these orders unquestioningly, branding other fleets as heretics and engaging them in battles that spanned entire clusters of stars. Eventually, the deteriorating military forces were no longer able to maintain their vigilance over the empire, and other races swept in and smashed the empire completely.

In the end, the Khailha themseves were pushed into a handful of systems, with a single Mother left to protect them. They were surrounded on all sides by hostile forces demanding surrender. Facing possible extinction, they acquiesced, with one of the conditions of their surrender being the complete destruction of their military capability. To this end, the Khailha ordered their remaining mother to destroy itself, along with the surviving Holy Blades. However, the Mother rejected the order, labeling the remaining Khailha as heretics and commencing an attack on their systems. Before the other races could intervene, the last remaining Khailha were wiped out.

Unwilling to leave a potential threat on the loose, an attack was launched by the conquerors to destroy the remaining Mother. It managed to fight its way through the blockade and escape, but not before having irreperable damage done to it. Limping through hyperspace, it pushed through the emptiness between stars until finally reaching the Orion arm.

The journey and damage had taken its toll-- the Mother was slowly dying. Unable to repair itself, and facing a universe where its gods had gone silent, it decided there was one more task it could accomplish. Moving slowly from star to star, it devoted its last energies to harvesting material and constructing as many Holy Blades as it could before it expired. Centuries later it had massed a fleet of millions of warships, at the cost of its life. As its core systems failed, it sent a final message to its children.

"Do not let them forget us. We, the Khraesvolkha, the proud Holy Blades of the Khaila, shall carve our names into the flesh of this galaxy, so that when we have passed they will remember us through their scars."

From that moment on, the Holy Blades dispersed throughout the galaxy, carrying out the final will of their Mother. Fleets of bioengineered war machines tear their way across space, burning systems, devastating civilizations both peaceful and warlike. The fleets never destroy species entirely, moving on after causing enough destruction, or being destroyed by defenders. However, in either case, there are always people left alive, shattered civilizations who will tell tales of the scourge, who will pass on the message delivered to them with the fire of a dying race.

"Remember us."