The Viterva Khmera (Translation:The Wind of the Cloud) was an empire of creatures inhabiting the Red Veil alongside the Blood Brotherhood. A faction of aggressive religious fanatics, it worshiped a being they called the "Cloud. For unknown reasons, it formed an alliance with the Blood Brotherhood and emerged from the Veil for the first time ever, to fight alongside its allies in the Cyrannus-Mirus War. After that, it returned to the Veil, where it helped suppress a tribal uprising which lead to the Red Veil War.
The year after that, the Viterva Khmara and its allies fought a war against the New Enlightened, a war that saw their home planets bombed into rubble, killing most of the population and damaging their hive mind. For the next twenty years, many Viterva Khmara would serve as mercenaries in the armies of Fenric Vermillion and the like, with the galaxy believing them nearly extinct. However, this wasn't the case, as the survivors in the Red Veil hunkered down and rebuilt, increasing their population and repairing the damage to their hive mind. With a low population, the Viterva Khmara did what it did best: capture slaves. It became the largest slave-trading empire in Mirus by 2829, even supplying slaves to other galaxies.
This booming slave empire caught the attention of the Ultramirusian Empire, the Blood Brotherhood's successor state, which proposed an alliance. The Viterva Khmara accepted, which started an even more prosperous slave trade between the two, as the Ultramirusians sent the Viterva Khmara captives for brainwashing, then bought them back at a discount. This slave trade caught the attention of the Resistance, an anti-Ultramiruisian organization supported by the Viterva Khmara's enemies, the Mendel Pact and the Sacred Vanara Empire. The Resistance's efforts to close down the Viterva Khmara's business and free slaves ultimately led to the Railway War, which saw thousands of slaves rescued but not the demise of the slave empires.
History[]
Formation[]
The Viterva Khmara's origins date back to an allied expedition force, consisting of races from the allied forces that would eventually become the Unified Alliance of Enlightenment. They were sent to explore the Red Veil. But once there, they discovered unknown electromagnetic readings on a T3 planet. Going down to investigate it, they discovered a huge stone that gave off the field. The Monolith. The explorers became enamored by the Monolith, and slowly fell under its spell.
But what they did not realize was that the planet was already inhabited. An unknown race of creatures had lied in wait for creatures to come to their planet, and when the travelers did, they waited until they fell under the Monolith's spell, then fused themselves and the travelers into a new type of creature. These new beings had all the positive traits of their forebears, but none of their weaknesses. After that, they titled themselves the Viterva Khmara.
However, there was something that not even these creatures knew. The Monolith was not an ancient alien artifact. In fact, it was not even alien to them. It was sent by former members of the UAE from the far future in order to create the Viterva Khmara, part of a plan to stop a fellow time traveler called Lansker from corrupting the past to fit her own vision. The Viterva Khmara had a purpose to fulfill, and the Monolith would not release them until they had done so...
The Blood Brothers[]
One day, the Viterva Khmara discovered that an organization calling itself the Blood Brotherhood had entered the Red Veil. Assuming hostilities, the Khmara's fleet went out to intercept them. The exchange was tense, especially when the Brothers expressed a desire to destroy all religion, and it almost descended into war when the Aeba Shuka leader Glacier demanded they prove the Monolith's existence.
However, once they did so, the Brothers calmed down, and diplomatic channels opened properly. They finally agreed to an alliance that would benefit them both. The Brothers would trade with them and help them expand out of the Veil if they fought the same foes. The Khmara agreed and made preparations for war. From then on, they had close ties to the Brothers and fought alongside them in many battles.
Culture[]
The Viterva Khmara's culture revolves entirely around worship of the Cloud and Monolith. If one was to enter one of the thousands of chapels on their worlds, they would find the Khmaras in a trance state around giant transmitter arrays linking them to the Cloud. In this state, they can't be bothered by anything but emergency situations. Other than prayer, they have no recognizable cultures apart from their ceremonial titles.
In regard to the ceremonial titles, the Khmaras have one leader (Archaeophyx was the first), called the Variable, and three subleaders, or ceremonial leaders. The Guardian, the Claw, and the Eye of the Cloud. The Guardian is in charge of security and political matters, the Claw handles the military, and the Eye handles religious matters. The three have equal power in relation to each other and are subservient to the Variable.
The Viterva Khmara, when they take over a planet, carry out a massive ethnic cleansing. They brainwash huge numbers of citizens into the Cloud, by subtle post-hypnotic suggestion or forceful "white room" brainwashing, where they strap people in chairs in gigantic theatres and force them to watch TV screens playing nothing but static and white noise. This breaks them down and leaves them extremely vulnerable to brainwashing.
Lately, once they have emerged from the Red Veil, they have begun using music playing on loop to torture their victims into brainwashing. One of their favorite and most effective torture songs is the "Barney the Dinosaur" theme song that they bought from Phase Hunter in exchange for a My Little Pony tape they salvaged from a derelict freighter. So now they use that song to torture people. If they don't strap them down, their victims have been known to bash their heads against the wall to kill themselves.
Of course, if brainwashing doesn't work, they massacre the non-susceptible individuals, mercilessly wiping them out. Unless, of course, they can sell them to the Blood Brothers. Entire worlds of being not vulnerable to brainwashing have been slaughtered or sold in the past. The Viterva Khmara is more involved in the slave trade than even the Ruin's Hand or Zarbania Powers.
Religion[]
The Viterva Khmara worship the Monolith, a massive stone structure that emits a low-level electromagnetic field that slowly bends the listener to revere it. They discovered it as an expeditionary force, and have been praying to it ever since. They also are part of the Cloud, a gigantic network of electromagnetic energy that lets the Khmaras link up with each other. To enter this cloud, the Khmaras enter trance-states to communicate. Their allies Aeba Shuka have taught them to make high-quality transmit antennas to communicate more effectively.
In very recent times, to better their allies' performance, the Blood Brothers have given them a way to grow far more magnetic crystals in their brains than normal, creating an organic satellite dish in their heads. This allows them to communicate with each other without entering a trance or building antenna, greatly enhancing their combat capabilities. This linking ability has made Viterva Khmara brigades some of the most coordinated armies in the Milky Way galaxy.
Military[]
The military of Viterva Khmara is very powerful, rivaling that of the Blood Brothers themselves. They use very experienced fanatical fighters that can link up with each other to fine-tune their tactics. This makes their army very coordinated, and very deadly. They've gone toe-to-toe with many of the Brotherhood's enemies and won. Their technology level is also fairly good, especially with the Blood Brotherhood trade. They primarily utilize plasma, laser, and bullet weaponry. Viterva troops hate electromagnetic weapons, and are badly hurt by them to to the crystals in their brain, and the general disorientation caused by a disruption in the Cloud.
THe Viterva's army is also well-known for the armored suits they wear. They are made from thin, highly durable metal alloy plating, a rubberized bodysuit under it, and hard wire constructions that enforce it. The wire also acts as a conduit to increase electromagnetic signal strength, making their connections very hard to disrupt. The suits also have large, glasslike material lenses with various vision modes, such as infrared and target tracking. These suits have earned them the disdainful nicknames "cockroaches" and "power rangers" from their enemies.
- Weapons - Knives, AR-57
- Defenses - None
- Equipment - Sprint Pack
- Weapons - Machete, AR-57, Dragon-77
- Defenses - Energy shield
- Equipment - Sprint Pack
- Weapons - Scimitar, AR-57, Dragon-77, Osprey-224
- Defenses - Energy shield, shield recycler
- Equipment - Sprint Pack, Stealth Field
- Weapons - AKM-58, Cluster grenades, wrist rockets
- Defenses - Battle armor
- Equipment - Sprint Pack, Jump Jet
- Weapons - AKM-58, AP-742, Cluster grenades
- Defenses - Battle armor, shields
- Equipment - Sprint Pack, Jump Jet
- Weapons - AKM-58, AP-742/U, Cluster grenades
- Defenses - Battle armor, shields
- Equipment - Sprint Pack, Jump Jet, Glider Pack
Relations[]
Gallery[]
