In the days of the K’ias Wars, at the height of what was called the Early War, the armies moved against the Nightmare Lords. The K’ias armies were secretly moving from planet to planet, banishing any Malevolents or Soul Takers they found among the native population.
Any planets which had hosts to the greater fiends or one of the mighty four Ancient Evils, would result in a visit from the K’ias Emperor’s flagship.
Mar’un’ga, K’ias emperor, would declare the planet beyond recovery and his son, the half-breed monster Daemonsbane would be deployed. Released would be a more apropos, as the beast would kill most living things in its mindless goal of hunting and feeding demons to its living sword. Sword and beast, living twins able to cleanse an entire planet in a shockingly quick amount of time considering the ground they had to cover.
As he traversed space and distant dimensions hunting down and killing Warmonger’s enemies, the K’ias peoples thought they were doing good work cleansing the world of demons. Yet in many cultures there is a saying resembling, Its better the devil you know, than the devil you don’t.
One thousand years into this purge, K’ias Spymaster Desher discovered the level of corruption that had infused the Empire. He knew the Empire had failed the Peace of Falos in their given duties as Balancers and Peacebringers. When he stumbled upon a planet of aquatic aliens whose primary worship was the Ancient Evil known as the Maw of the Deep, he learned the truth about why the Emperor was choosing the specific targets he was.
The K’ias Emperor had fallen under the influence of the upstart fifth Ancient Evil, The Warmonger. Feeding off the pointless slaughter and pain and hardship of meaningless war, wars for profit and conquest, he had grown strong until the Warmonger was ready to claim total ownership of the hell dimensions and our own.
Spymaster Desher along with the K’ias hero Tabarrd, and the first Black hole warrior Remis stood an epic final stand against the K’ias Emperor. It was said before they were dead that day, fully half of the K’ias Ziggurat fleet was destroyed.
News of their rebellion spread quickly, and it was one wise K’ias who helped pass the message along. He was a general on the battlefield against the rogue HiveQueens of the Quall N’drone Progenitor Queen. In his service was the first unit fully composed of Olgog tribals from the planet Refuge. Unit 817 was a desperate measure as the supplies of dead K’iorn, Baribur and Vorin were running low. It was also built entirely by the K’ias Holys, and never felt the truly corrupting touch of Lord Vul. When Holys delivered Unit 817 to the General would lead them, there was an instant connection.
Unit 817 loved their K’ias General, and this K’ias loved his Dead soldiers equally. Unlike so many of the Dead Units, Unit 817 was given great freedoms in how they waged war. They did not use terror tactics, preferring swift merciful attacks that won quickly without high casualties.
Learning that as he defeated these Quall, other Quall serving Hav’aun HiveQueen were being given commissions in Mar’un’ga’s army, their K’ias General had a crisis of faith in the Empire’s cause.
This General had extensive holdings, and was preparing to birth a child of his own. When he learned that the Emperor’s elites were coming for him, this K’ias General sent out his dead surgeons to make alterations, protecting his soldiers from the demonic influence of the Warmonger.
The K’ias General was taken and Mar’un’ga issued an edict declaring him the Unnamed, and making it a crime punishable by death by experimentation for any who ignored the edict.
Soon after the K’ias Emperor officially declared himself the Warmonger, and shattered the Peace of Falos.
The Unnamed was stored away in a secret place, though some whisper he was slain and used by the Warmonger to make a weapon of equal destruction to the love in the Unnamed’s heart.
Unit 817 was taken offline, shut down by surgeons and placed in storage boxes. They were of course conscious through the process and for the long time they stayed in storage. Through the boxes they whispered of the Redeemer, a name that filtered through the K’ias army for the punished general.
(the following is known to the Unit 817, Krodnok, and One Eyed Willie only)
Aboard the Sea Kings carrier craft, Captain Torkol’ab watched the K’ias child as he moved across the deck. They had rescued the Son of Redeemer from a fort hidden on the plane of Awareness. Originally both they, and the Redeemer’s own steward thought they were busting the Redeemer from his prison.
Instead they had found a child, a K’ias who had never trained with any species and knew nothing of the distant shores. For Torkol’ab it was a challenging moment, he had hoped to give up command to the wisdom of his former General. Now he had a K’ias child to raise.
The Son of the Redeemer had already doppelganged half of the pirate crew that had aided Torkol’ab in the extraction. His knowledge of curses in Earther, Olgog and High falos was prodigious. And like a child, he repeated them in a sing song way.
It was almost cute, but the Dead Captain could not forget the moment a sail whipped too close to the child’s face, the child shapeshifted into an Illuminated and annihilated it, mast and all.
Torkol’ab had been careful to make sure the Son of Redeemer did not touch the Zela metal of his prison. The Dead Captain suspected once the Son of the Redeemer became an adult, he would be able to spawn full K’ias. Every K’ias who survived the war had been wounded by zela metal, poisoning their blood and making them unable to birth full K’ias, only Annihilators. But this child was untainted.
Seeing the sun setting over the sea, Torkol’ab wondered at what to do…
