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You may direct all questions to Zor-Ath, Ur-Quan Lord #3, on Velpunia 6. By using the Ur-Quan communications grid we are building, you will be able to speak to her from any Ur-Quan colony!
Greetings to the Captain of the League of Sentient Races, from Zor-Ath, Ur-Quan Master #3! I am gratified that you have located us in such short order.
Though we made our voyage to the Kessarri Quadrant on the wings of a new and unproven technology, our faith in you never faltered.
We have begun colonizing with zeal, and even now, our factories churn at full capacity to spawn our latest production model of the Dreadnought.
Our fusion plasma weapons are more powerful than ever, and the warriors who fly the autonomous fighter craft launched by the Dreadnought are ever ready to die in service to the League!
We will stock your Precursor vessel with Ur-Quan Dreadnoughts. In return, we expect more planets for Ur-Quan colonization.
We recognize that we have much to prove to you, to atone for our all-too-recent, and all-too-lengthy Doctrinal Wars, which you brought to an end when you defeated us and destroyed our Precursor Battleship, the Sa-Matra.
In our reckless zeal to carry out our misdirected Doctrines, we tried to enslave or obliterate all sentient life in the galaxy.
But now that is in the past, and we seek to aid you in your quest for the Precursor artifacts that will stabilize the fabric of the space/time continuum.
Yes! Let us put such unpleasant memories behind us, and rise up to grip this quadrant in our iron tendrils and tear its darkest secrets from its innermost heart!
I mean, ah, in a manner that respects the rights of all sentients, of course.
We are in alignment with you, Captain. How may the Ur-Quan be of assistance to the elected leader of the League of Sentient Races?
Such antagonism will not be necessary.
The Dreadnought is a prime fighting vessel. It is the most powerful ship known in our home quadrant. The only ship to rival it in sheer firepower was the Kohr-Ah Marauder.
Of course, that doesn't count one-of-a-kind Precursor vessels, like your old one. Or your new one. The Dreadnought has an immensely powerful, medium-to-long range weapon that fires rapid fusion plasma blasts.
But its strongest feature is its ability to launch autonomous fighters. The fighters each contain valuable crew members, so try not to abandon them in space.
Make certain not to command the Dreadnought to launch all its fighters, or you risk leaving the Dreadnought vulnerable to a lucky enemy strike.
Also make sure not to command the ship to engage in a high-speed tactical retreat while the fighters are still harrying the foe, or the fighters will expire in space.
Remember, this ship was designed by Ur-Quan, and Ur-Quan are unfamiliar with retreat.
Perhaps.
We seek to serve.
The chronicle of the Ur-Quan is a history of the greatest triumphs and deepest regrets.
We nearly enslaved or exterminated all the races of our home quadrant, as Ur-Quan fought Ur-Quan in the vicious Doctrinal Wars.
In retrospect, our tragedy could have been foreseen in our origins.
The Ur-Quan evolved as solitary hunters on a hostile world, and we quickly became the dominant predator on the planet. The only threat to us came from other Ur-Quan.
Civilization did not come easily to us. We earned it by mastering the fierce territoriality and murderous desires that nearly obliterated our species in wars fought with crude clubs and wars fought with atomic weapons.
But we survived our own hatreds, and formed a cooperative planetary culture. This level of achievement allowed us to explore our own solar system in atomic-powered ships.
Then we met the Taalo. In our xenophobia and paranoia, we attacked on sight. In spite of our reckless aggression, the Taalo had glacial patience.
A lesser race would have blasted us back to the stone age, or exterminated us before we could spread to the stars. Instead, they offered us membership in their confederation, called the Sentient Milieu.
We again conquered the hunting beast within us to become a starfaring race and cooperative members of the Milieu.
The Taalo were a slow, serene, quiet race. Of all the species we have met, only the Taalo did not trigger our instinctive territoriality.
They were the only people we could talk to without the hunter inside us screaming 'Kill the interloper! Rip out its life!'
We believe that their rock-like, silicon-based biology was the vital factor that made the Taalo seem non-threatening to us.
Whatever the reason, they cared about the Ur-Quan and respected our potential when all other races saw only a brutal enemy to be destroyed.
With their unconditional acceptance and devoted guidance we grew into a proud and mighty race. They were the only species we ever called "friend." And then... we met the Dnyarri!
Nearly twenty-five thousand Earth years ago, our home quadrant birthed the greatest confederation of starfaring races ever known. The Sentient Milieu existed to provide a safe haven for emerging sentient species.
It governed itself with an enlightened respect for all species, much like your League of Sentient Races. The six founding races were the Taalo, the Drall, the Faz, the Mael-Num, the Yuli, and the Yuptar.
They even found a place for the Ur-Quan, who could not tolerate the presence of other sentient beings. The Taalo championed our membership, and ameliorated the trouble we caused.
We became scouts and solitary explorers for the Milieu. We proved our worth over and over again, defending the Milieu from slavers and dictators.
We are excellent fighters because we do not fear death. We know that if we do our duty, in our next life we will be reborn as another Ur-Quan! Our association with the Taalo and the Milieu lasted for three thousand years.
Three thousand of the brightest years in the painful and tormented history of the Ur-Quan. Three thousand years, until the day of the Dnyarri.
On a routine planetfall, we discovered some anomalous energy readings; a sign of Precursor installations. There we met a race of bloated, evilly intelligent, toad-like creatures called the Dnyarri.
They possessed ghastly psychic powers to control the minds of other sentient beings, and they wanted to rule the entire universe. They enslaved our minds, and forced us to transport them to the Milieu's capital world.
The insidious war for dominance was quick and nearly bloodless. Within weeks, the Dnyarri had psychically dominated six of the seven races in the Sentient Milieu. But they could not control the Taalo.
We suspect that the same unusual, rock-like biology that made the Taalo seem non-threatening to the Ur-Quan also gave the Taalo natural immunity to the Dnyarri's psychic compulsion.
But the Taalo had no immunity to the weapons of the Ur-Quan. While the Taalo labored to create a device to free us, the Dnyarri ordered us to open fire on our dearest friends.
The Taalo refused to take up arms against us, and were slaughtered. To our eternal shame, we committed genocide, burning them from the face of the galaxy.
The Dnyarri were evil, hateful, depraved creatures from a world they called Glilandy. We don't know how they got their mental powers, or why a race with such powerfully advanced minds was isolated on one planet.
We know little about them, save that they were the greatest menace the galaxy has ever known.
For thousands of years, we were unthinking slaves to the Dnyarri, carrying our their every depraved command.
Like the five other surviving races of the old Milieu, we had no choice but to obey. The Dnyarri's compulsion was too strong to resist.
The Dnyarri said the Ur-Quan were their favored slaves because we were so easily compelled, but we prefer to think that we were simply the most mentally sensitive.
We were forced to destroy those races which did not serve with the efficiency and speed demanded by the Dnyarri.
They decided that the Yuli and the Drall were inferior. They instructed us to incinerate their worlds, and we did. The once-great Sentient Milieu degenerated into nothing more than a great galactic prison camp.
But when the Dnyarri sought to manipulate the Ur-Quan genes, they brought about their own downfall!
The Dnyarri were not content just to exploit our bodies and corrupt our minds. They blasphemously defiled the very soul of our race by toying with the priceless genetic codes that created us!
Using ancient Precursor technology, they ruptured the Ur-Quan into two sub-races. They created the Green Ur-Quan to be administrators and planners, and they made the Black Ur-Quan to be warriors and builders.
Our species would never be the same again.
A brilliant Green Ur-Quan researcher named Kzer-Za made the cataclysmic discovery that led to the violent overthrow of the Dnyarri Slave Empire!
Black and Green Ur-Quan joined together and fought their oppressors. But galaxy-spanning empires do not fall easily. The war raged on for years; years of ceaseless agony.
We allied with races like the Faz, an old ally from the Sentient Milieu. Finally, the great Ur-Quan Slave Revolt was won. But in our jubilation over our great victory, we sowed the seeds of a greater downfall.
Kzer-Za had been commanded to study the severe mental trauma caused by long-term exposure to the Dnyarri's psychic compulsion.
Kzer-Za knew that when a slave died, the Dnyarri who controlled the slave had to rapidly disconnect from the slave's mind or the Dnyarri would die as well.
But Kzer-Za discovered that the Dnyarri also temporarily disconnected when the slave experienced extreme, nearly lethal pain. Kzer-Za entered a state of excruciating pain, and in a moment of freedom, broadcast this secret to the entire universe!
In all parts of the Dnyarri Slave Empire, the Ur-Quan gashed open their own bodies, burned themselves, hurled themselves into jagged heaps of scrap metal - anything to purchase the few precious seconds of freedom necessary to grab the nearest Dnyarri and crush the bleating creature to jelly!
This primitive mortification of the body gave way to more sophisticated tactics. Alas, Kzer-Za did not survive to see the day that the Ur-Quan perfected a ghoulish torture device called the Excruciator.
They inserted the Excruciator directly into their own brains, where it unleashed an unending stream of agony which released them from the grip of the hated Dnyarri.
The gutless slavers squeamishly recoiled from the minds of the Ur-Quan, and were slaughtered! We butchered most of the Dnyarri, but made the mistake of leaving some alive, to serve as our translators.
Exterminating the Dnyarri was not punishment enough to satisfy the Ur-Quan, who had suffered enslavement, biogenetic degradation, and years of screaming pain.
A slow death was too kind a fate for such monsters. The combined Ur-Quan star fleets decided to inflict a vicious form of poetic revenge upon the Dnyarri.
WE genetically modified THEM. We gutted their minds, turning them into sub-sentient, dumb animals. That way, they could never again dominate our minds, and we could stop using the Excruciators.
And then we further degraded these once-omnipotent creatures by forcing them to serve as our translators. They became our talking pets.
After the horrors of the Dnyarri Slave Empire, the Ur-Quan had become more xenophobic than ever. We considered all other races so grossly inferior that merely speaking directly to another race was a revolting act.
We used our "Talking Pets" to do that dirty job.
We had won the Ur-Quan Slave Revolt and were the preeminent power in the galaxy. After years of mind-wrenching agony, we refused to ever be enslaved again.
But our racial divisions were deep, and we could not cooperate on this goal. In our paranoia, we split into two sub-species factions and created two conflicting doctrines designed to ensure our freedom.
We Green Ur-Quan now called ourselves the Kzer-Za in honor of the Ur-Quan who triggered the revolt. The Black Ur-Quan called themselves the Kohr-Ah, in honor of the charismatic fleet officer who commanded them.
Neither faction would embrace the doctrine of the other faction, and so we fought another long and bloody war - this time against each other.
The Green Kzer-Za established the "Path of Now and Forever," a doctrine which required all other sentient species to serve as our slaves or have their planets forever imprisoned beneath impenetrable force shields.
The Black Kohr-Ah found this plan too complicated, and marred by the same error that brought down the Dnyarri; the mistake of allowing potential enemies to live. They created a simpler alternative.
Their 'Eternal Doctrine' called for the systematic eradication of all sentient life in the universe- all except the Ur-Quan. Before we could stop them, they "cleansed" the homeworld of the Yuptar, destroying yet another Milieu race.
We protected the Milieu race called the Faz beneath an impenetrable slave shield and stopped the Kohr-Ah before they could destroy the planet of the last remaining free race--the Mael-Num.
We challenged them, and as we fought, the Mael-Num slipped away. We were never able to find the Mael-Num again. But it did not matter. We had matters of far greater import before us. The first great Doctrinal War had begun.
Our Doctrinal war raged for decades, and ravaged worlds that had barely begun to recover from the horrors of the Dnyarri Slave Empire. The two Ur-Quan sub-species careened down the path to mutually-assured destruction when the Green Kzer-Za discovered a Precursor Battleship.
This massive vessel, which we called the Sa-Matra, was infinitely more powerful than any ship ever seen before. It sliced through the Kohr-Ah forces in just a few days, and defeated them utterly.
But we Kzer-Za were humble in victory, and allowed our Kohr-Ah relatives to live. Besides, we were no longer convinced that our doctrine was superior to theirs.
We decided to put both doctrines to the test in opposite halves of the galaxy, and determine which was superior. We exiled the tattered Kohr-Ah fleet to travel in a direction that went against the spin of the galaxy, while we traveled in the other direction.
When the Ur-Quan would meet again, we would fight in ritual combat. The superior doctrine would prevail, and that faction would control the Precursor Battleship.
If the Eternal Doctrine proved strong enough to let the Kohr-Ah rebuild their shattered strength and actually defeat us, we would stand aside and let them kill every sentient being in the galaxy.
Many millennia later, the two Ur-Quan factions met in a large area centered near the Crateris constellation to fight the second, and final, Doctrinal War.
The Kohr-Ah were armed with the resources of the many races they had exterminated. The Kzer-Za were aided by eight great races arranged in a rigid hierarchy- which we called the Hierarchy of Battle Thralls.
Our war was going splendidly until YOU appeared on the scene.
The Hierarchy consisted of nine starfaring races, including the Ur-Quan. The Androsynth were genetically manipulated clones of your race, Human. They mysteriously disappeared before the end of the second great Doctrinal War.
The Ilwrath are a race of peace-hating, highly religious, spider-like creatures who were fanatically devoted to their gods Dogar and Kazon.
They were one of the strongest of the Battle Thralls until you deceived them into attacking one of our other races, the arrogant, brutal, Thraddash, using a HyperWave caster you took from another of our races, the Umgah.
The Umgah are blobbish, multi-eyed creatures that relied on biomechanical hybridization for their technology. All these races have now been pacified by you and your allies.
The Vux and the Mycon were also pacified, but agreed to give up conquest and join your expedition here to the Kessarri quadrant.
The Spathi and Yehat left the Hierarchy during the war to become your allies. They are also part of this expedition, though the Yehat have since merged with the Pkunk and are now part of the Pkunk race.
We imprisoned many worlds to save them from the horrors of the Eternal Doctrine. One of these worlds was your planet, Earth.
We did not know that a colony of Earthlings had left the planet and crash-landed on Unzervalt, an undiscovered Precursor planet.
Evidently you were born there, grew up with Precursor artifacts for play-toys, and found you had an affinity for the powerful devices.
You were able to create a Precursor ship and use its power to unify many enslaved and shattered races into a formidable Alliance.
You were able to find the one remaining sentient Dnyarri that still had its compulsion powers, as well as a hatred for the Ur-Quan. And you found the Mind Shield that the Taalo had built to save us from the Dnyarri.
You cleverly employed all these things to approach and blow up the Ur-Quan Sa-Matra Battleship. Both the Kzer-Za and the Kohr-Ah were crushed, and neither doctrine prevailed.
It was as if the Taalo had reached across the eons to smite the Ur-Quan, their genocidal proteges.
That is true.
The remaining Kohr-Ah refused to surrender. They were taken into custody by your Alliance, and remanded to our care.
The remaining Kzer-Za surrendered, realizing that neither doctrine was correct. All Ur-Quan gave up our reliance on the Dnyarri to translate for us, and now speak directly.
You did not destroy either faction of Ur-Quan, and representatives of Green Ur-Quan came along on the expedition to demonstrate our new status as functioning members of the League. Even though there are Kohr-Ah Observers in our expedition, we brought none of their Marauder ships to the Kessarri Quadrant.
Daily contact with the Kohr-Ah reminds us of the great punishment we must bear.
The unnatural genetic division of Green and Black Ur-Quan remains to this day, causing no end of sorrow and distress for us. We feel palpable pain to look upon an opposing member of our divided species.
Our race will never be whole again, and there may be no hope for the two factions but to partition our species forever.
Yes.
May your mission meet with the greatest success.
Captain of the League of Sentient Races, this is Zor-Ath, Ur-Quan Lord #3!
We understand your consternation. The Ur-Quan were surprised to see the terrifying outline of the Kohr-Ah Marauder crest over the horizon!
Our suprise was compounded when we identified the Ur-Quan as members of our expedition.
Some Ur-Quan have decided to follow the path of the Kohr-Ah, and turn to the forbidden practice of the Eternal Doctrine.
We were not vigilant enough in suppressing dissent.
I do not know. Perhaps they feel the Eternal Doctrine is not all that discredited. After all, the Kohr-Ah had great success in the first Doctrinal war, except for our fortuitous discovery of a Precursor Battleship.
And the Kohr-Ah had great success in the second Doctrinal war, except for YOUR fortuitous discovery of a Precursor vessel. Perhaps they feel that their destiny cannot be forever denied.
Your side, Captain. Your side. Ur-Quan Lord #3 stands by your side even if all other Ur-Quan falter.
Yes. We agree.
We do not know. We suspect that an Ur-Quan who sympathized with the Eternal Doctrine smuggled the technical specifications for the Marauder aboard this expedition, and diverted precious League resources to build it in secret.
Black Ur-Quan, here to observe the mission, have rebelled. They and their Kzer-Za sympathizers took command of a Marauder and escaped.
The thought sends shivers along my tendrils and makes my sheath retract! It IS possible. But wouldn't the Dnyarri want to control EVERYONE, and not just a few Ur-Quan?
But then, Ur-Quan are the easiest to control - I mean, the most mentally sensitive of all races. And the Dnyarri could not control very many sentients, if there were very few Dnyarri involved.
Or only one Dnyarri... Oh NO! It must be the one remaining sentient Dnyarri that you used to destroy us! We believed that it had perished with the Sa-Matra, but if it is back...
I do not like to consider the possibility.
Very little. It's a pity you lost the Taalo Mind Shield when you crashed your FIRST Precursor ship into the Sa-Matra!
From this moment forward I shall keep sharp implements handy in case I need to cause myself profound pain to dislodge the Dnyarri's control. I suggest you do, too.
And I must be ready at all times to implant an Excruciator in my brain. I would give you one, but one jolt kills humans instantly.
I wish I had more information for you. We will tell anything else we uncover. Should we take extreme measures to crack down on any talk that is not completely pro-League?
It shall be as you say. I would normally ask for more worlds to colonize, but I fear that the Kohr-Ah would take them over.
We hear and heed.
The Kohr-Ah Marauders I knew were marvels of war machine technology. They were almost as powerful as our Dreadnought, and they gave us many difficult battles.
It fired blade-like missiles that continued to move until commanded to remain in place. These blades could be used to form a protective barrier. It also fired an expanding ring of fiery, super-heated gasses.
That does not seem like a very heroic way to stop the Eternal Ones. We would like to rend them limb from limb... er, particle from particle... er, CRUSH them!
But feeding them seems far preferable to our entire species dying in agony. We agree to donate sentience energy. Captain, you have again impressed the Ur-Quan with your resourcefulness!
Perhaps, in your next incarnation, you shall be born as an Ur-Quan! We do have one request, however. We request that the League find a way to defeat the Eternal Ones before their next attack.
Text below this point is not used in-game, to my knowledge. Treat with caution.
Greetings, Captain of the League of Sentient Races.
I have information for your immediate attention.
Captain, I hesitate to bring this up, but it is my judgment that you should know it. Some unidentified Ur-Quan have begun to speak openly of the wisdom of the forbidden Eternal Doctrine.
Should we launch an investigation and torture to death those involved?
It shall be done as you say.
The support for the Eternal Doctrine is growing.
We have identified Ur-Quan who have openly said that you are coddling the local races. These Ur-Quan believe that slaughtering the local races is the only path to respect.
Captain, rumors have started that Kohr-Ah Marauders have been spotted in this quadrant.
If the rumor is true, it could be that not all the Kohr-Ah were involved in the final Doctrinal War. Perhaps some stayed behind in this part of the galaxy.
Remember, they did travel through the entire galaxy.
Captain, we are very concerned about our troubled colony.
Captain, I have some exciting news! We scavenged the wreckage of a crashed Marauder after we shot it down during its failed bombing run. A brave Ur-Quan ran in and disassembled the self-destruct mere seconds before it erupted.
We have lost many other troops in similar attempts, but this one succeeded! Upon examining the wreckage for enemy secrets we made an amazing discovery.
We have discovered the egg sac of an expectant Ur-Quan. Upon examination, the eggs contained Brown Ur-Quan larvae, similar to out ancient forebears. The forbidden relations between Green and Black Ur-Quan have proven we can be one race again after all.
That's what the Dnyarri TOLD us. But this shows that the Dnyarri genetic manipulation did NOT alter us in any manner other than a superficial modification to our sheath coloration.
Since we are one race, there can be no essential difference in our innate capacities! We had believed the Dnyarri when they told us we were separate races, but now we see that they lied to us!
They were attempting to divide us to prevent the kind of race cooperation that could have overthrown their unlawful rule! They are a subtle and manipulative race.
Captain, could this mysterious Ploxis race be the Dnyarri?
We are pleased with the discovery that we are one with the Black Ur-Quan. We now feel a greater kinship to the Black Ur-Quan back home than we feel towards our fellow Green Ur-Quan who have betrayed us!
Captain, we have made another great discovery. We have finally uncovered the Kohr-Ah secret. One of our loyal Ur-Quan troops captured a Kohr-Ah recruiter alive.
The trooper resisted an attempt to recruit him, and managed to take the recruiter prisoner. He had to forcibly remove the recruiter's lower mandible to prevent the recruiter from swallowing an acid capsule.
The recruiter perished after a very brief interrogation session.
Before the recruiter died, he revealed the secret appeal of the Eternal Doctrine.
During the Ur-Quan Slave Revolts, the charismatic Ur-Quan leader named Kohr-Ah learned that the Dnyarri were terrified of someone or something called the Eternal Ones.
The Dnyarri believed that the Eternal Ones would one day extinguish all sentient life in the galaxy. This bothered Kohr-Ah greatly, and he set out to extinguish all sentient life before the Eternal Ones could.
Kohr-Ah was not trying to prevent another race from enslaving the Ur-Quan, he was trying to prevent the Eternal Ones from sensing the sentience in our galaxy and destroying all intelligent life here!
We do not know. Apparently the Dnyarri were not as troubled by this knowledge as Kohr-Ah was. Or if they did care, they did not care enough to systematically eliminate every race.
Or perhaps they thought they had a lot of time. After the millennia passed, the secret ended up known only to the Primat of the Kohr-Ah and her eight direct subordinates.
The recruiter said that the fifth subordinate to the Kohr-Ah Primat revealed it to Kzer-Za troopers in the tumultuous days after the destruction of the Sa-Matra.
The Ur-Quan troopers who heard these words were forever changed by them, and pledged themselves to rebuild the Kohr-Ah.
They took the plans for the Marauder from the subordinate, and began their conspiracy to save the galaxy by sacrificing every sentient being in it.
My duty is to the League.
