Krakmars, sun-wielders

This is a War of the Chosens article. It is set in a time long before the Canticles.
 
When war broke out, we were ill-suited for it. Our people were craftsmen, artists, philosophers. As a result, we neared extinction. so we adapted, evolved. Now all shall fear us, for a Krakmar never forgets, and our retribution carries the heat of a thousand suns!
 

Originating from the rocky core of the gas giant Tryoj, Krakmars always have the reputation of being the species with the greatest resistance to heat and radiation. Their impressive size, ten times larger than the average species, made them dreaded adversaries in the early onset of the war, until it was clear their combat prowess was lacking, and the aeons-old civilisation was nearly driven to complete annihilation.

Homeworld

 

The Krakmars have been attuned to the Resonance for a very long time, and learned to refine it to extreme lengths. Most of them don't require the use of an instrument, the complexity of their voice being enough to conjure even the most advanced melody. On their homeworld, they built a megalopolis out of gas, flying freely within the hostile layers of the atmosphere.

 

Nearly invisible to the naked eye, their cities are made of wind currents and slight variations in cloud composition. Once, they had material hold and belongings, crafted goods from the centre of the planet. Their atmosphere provides them with sustenance, energy, and everything they need to live, allowing them to turn their focus to spiritual matters. At their apogee, millions of Krakmars populated the sky of Tryoj, before many set out to the greater universe.

The Kradle

 

To them, the rocky core of their planet is a sacred ground. Despite the crushing gravity and intense heat, it proved to be a safer place than the outer atmosphere for life to appear and evolve. Nowadays, they barely visit it, remaining in their high cities. The Kradle has become a place of rituals, a pilgrimage for juvenile krakmars to reach adulthood.

Craftsmen

 

Beyond their borders, Krakmars inspire awe and dread. Despite this initial fright, they built a reputation for themselves as artists and nebulae shapers. They are the creators of many wonders that were unfortunately destroyed during the war, including the Pillars of Creation and the Face of God. Thanks to their long lifespan, they were acknowledged as wise and masters of their craft. It was not rare for a guildmaster of arts to be one of the flying leviathans. In fact, the opposite was stranger.

 

Heaven's fall

 

The War of the Chosens was a complete surprise for the Krakmars. Uninterested in politics and power struggles, they paid little attention to the turmoil that had been brewing in front of their eyes. All of a sudden associates, partners and friends became sworn enemies. If their intimidating appearance was enough to deter attacks on their person for a time, people eventually came to understand that they were as poor fighters as they were accomplished artists.

 

They began to fall left and right, a whale hunt at the galactic scope. Except these whales had teeth. For a fallen krakmar, tens of thousands others perished. Slowly, but surely, their numbers diminished, their few millions not amounting to much in the face of thousands of billions of individuals. In a desperate attempt to fight back, two krakmars improvised themselves as leaders and called upon their scattered people across the galaxy, to unite and fight together. At roughly the same time, another group had a different idea.

 

Sunfall

 

Arkilar and Vleestern(character) united a never-seen before armada around them. Since krakmars have always been able to travel in the void of space with little to no assistance, they never took interest in spacecrafts. But in a frontal battle, even their ferruginous chitin was of little protection against the relentless assault of hundreds of battleships.

 

Sunfall was arranged around a mothership, the Blazing Star. As large as a small planet, it could shelter up to two millions krakmars, functioning like a mobile homeland. Aboard were hundreds of thousands of individual spacecrafts designed to be piloted by a single krakmar, as well as double that amount of exosuits, acting as plate armour for the warriors.

 

Despite the astonishing display of strength and skill, Sunfall suffered defeats after defeats, always backing down and threatened by fleets ten times larger. Heavy defence was not enough to balance millennia of technological gap in armament. Krakmars were down half of their original number when they found themselves cornered at the Battle of Kalima.

 

The theory was known for a long time, yet it has always been deemed too dangerous to even try. With no other options, Vleestern and six of the most talented fighters took to space and turned themselves into suns. They shattered the enemy fleets with the might of seven suns, annihilating one of the most powerful alliances of the time in an instant. Vleestern perished in the attempt, but it gave enough breathing room for Arkilar to escape with the rest of Sunfall. The armada retreated to their homeworld, strengthened by the experience and decided not to let their race go extinct.

Raging Blaze

 

Of the krakmars that did not respond to the call of Sunfall, many went into hiding, burying themselves deep inside telluric planets and at the core of gas giants, and entering a dormant state similar to hibernation. The rest would not go down without a fight. Among this largely pacifist society, some pursued the way of the warrior. Mainly out of intellectual and cultural interest, a passion they would put to use as they became the most fearsome creatures of the war.

 

Fighting for none other than themselves, members of the Raging Blaze would sometimes appear on battlefields to wreak havoc. They were not looking to tip scales, advantage one side rather than the other, but purely to cause as much chaos and death as possible. They fully embraced the madness of the galaxy, and chose to be an active part of it. Rather be the hunter than the prey.

 

If people thought that inexperienced krakmars were formidable foes, the Raging Blaze was on a whole different level. Favouring ground battle where their huge size was an advantage, they would emerge from the ground and tear through helpless armies, their shrills silencing even the loudest virtuoso. It seemed like they were indifferent to their survival, ignoring gaping wounds and missing limbs, fighting to their very last breath.

 

Sometimes, after an exhausting battle, they would stand on a mountain of corpses, having halted a skirmish by depleting both opposing forces. When their wounds were too severe to keep on fighting, they would dig gigantic craters until they exposed the bursting mantle of the planet, nesting themselves in the depths while recovering. They would wake in hundreds or thousands of years, fully rested and eager to spread death once more.

 

Noteworthy individuals

 

Krawnkollen, second Sun

 

Said to be invincible as long as they could sing, Krawnkollen is the last survivor of the Seven Suns of Kalinka. They once felled an ambush led by a dozen of Klinovian virtuosos by themselves, saving fifty of their kin. Scarred by Kalinka, their connection to the Resonance has been severed and they sing no more. Still, they are a hero among their kin.

Arkilar, grand admiral

 

Though there are no ranks or hierarchy among Krakmars, Arkilar is acknowledged as their leader in all matters of war. An implacable mind that never accepts defeat, their sense of strategy and dedication to the cause is peerless. They are currently leading the reconstruction effort from the military base established on the Kradle, ready to turn their fight for survival into one of conquest.

 

Esnildien the sage

 

The only remaining krakmar living among other species, Esnildien took upon themselves to create a safe haven on the world of Segen Dek. Shielded by powerful chants, this is a place that the war has yet to reach, welcoming refugees from all over the galaxy. The gentle leviathan is the main administrator of the place, sworn to nonviolence.

The Grey Demon

 

A fearsome warrior of the Raging Blaze, they do not don the fiery orange skin of their brethren, but an ashen grey. An outcast even before the war, they are rarely seen, hovering over battlefields like an ominous shadow instead of a flaming lighthouse. Contrary to many warriors, they don't kill indiscriminately and are sometimes even open to discussion. In wartime, mercy is a trait worn by a few, of which they are sometimes.


Cover image: The Temple of Myrliad

Comments

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Sep 13, 2025 23:07 by Michael Chandra

Vindictive and well-deserved, I like these! My kind of creature.


Too low they build who build beneath the stars - Edward Young