Drathraq Culture, Technology, and Terms

The Drathraq are Dray’vn who have given up their previous lives in order to follow the God-Emperor Nachtaf in undeath. How, exactly, Nachtaf gained immortality is not known. Some say that he stole the secrets of a forbidden lore from the Wu archives. Others say he journeyed to the outer realms and made a pact with a dark god in the null reaches of forbidden probability. Regardless, it is clear that Nachtaf has gained a power that most typically regard as vampirism, and the Drathraq are frequently regarded as Dray’vn vampires. Given that Nacthaf's career among the Dray’vn was that of a Necromancer, the results of his transformation seem to overlap with his professional pursuits.

After gaining his power, through whatever means, Nachtaf began the cult of the Drathraq on Xull, the Dray’vn homeworld in the Realm of Arae. For nearly thirty thousand years, the underground dwelling Dray’vn on Xull had sculpted their world, creating a place of beauty and horror as befitted their psychological preferences, perversions and fetishes. Dray’vn technology was highly advanced. Of the Tanalithic realms, only the Dray’vn and the Wu knew the art of creating new skeins. The Wu used this technology for exploration and for the benefit of the realmhead. The Dray’vn used it to plumb the depths of their own depravity and twisted imaginations.

Nachtaf's cult rose to power of several hundred years. Games of political intrigue too numerous to count and too detailed to explain brought him high in the Dray’vn hierarchy until he stood second only to the Dray’vn Emperor. And with each new recruit, Nachtaf gained in strength. Eventually, he was unstoppable, and determined to take his cult and the technology of the Dray’vn and begin again. Xull was too small for him. He sought an entire universe of darkness to sculpt as his own. He found it in the Realm of Hulu - a place where the quantities of matter and void existed in reverse, and gravity was abnormal and localized.

Taking tens of thousands of his followers with him on the night of the Great Betrayal, the great exodus of Drathraq left chaos in its wake. Afraid that his enemies, the Vaz'lyn, would follow him, Nachtaf sabotaged the skeins of Xull, rendering them incapable of creating gates across the hdrav (probability). Thus he trapped the Dray’vn in the Realm of Arae. But even this was not enough. On the final hour of his departure, he unleashed a Kuduu core seed brought from the Realm of Tolos. Sealed on their world, the Dray’vn Empire faced the growing threat of a rapidly spreading Kuduu infestation.

At the time this book occurs, ten thousand years have passed since Nachtaf's Great Betrayal, and the Drathraq have grown to become a major power in the Tanalithic realms. Given their need for blood and flesh, they farm the realms of the Wu, taking over planets, enslaving populations, and threatening the Wu itself. And the Wu, being primarily an organization that exists to broker trade between realms, has no standing armies of its own. Their control over the skeins is their primary method of enforcing their regulations. The Drathraq see this as an affront against them, and have announced their intention to supplant the Wu as the regulatory force for the realmhead.

Why Tolos? Realms at Risk, Why Em, Why conquer Em
The Drathraq have long desired to assume domination of Tolos because it serves as a stepping stone into other realms of the Wu. Should they do so, the realms of Dakon, Re’thaa, and ManacuraTankathroPai shall become available for invasion and thus further threatened by the Drathraq as they are aleady being invaded.

It is important to note that only the Skeins of Eadros are capable of being retargeted to realms other than those previously encoded into them. Most skeins can only link to specific other skeins. The skein at Dorfhead is one of the rare Skeins of Eadros, making it somewhat valuable. However, targeting other realms using a Skein of Eadros is error-prone, and requires a master mage familiar with Tanathian skein technology (such as Achu Bon or Kamboolii).

The value of the skeins on Tolos is that they can be used by the Drathraq to move their troops to three other realms where they are currently at war. Additionally, the world of Em on Tolos is considered a soft target by the Drathraq, a world easily taken. This is largely because the humans of Em are forced to live on reservations, and the Uuboreal appear naive to the Drathraq. In short, Em looks like an easy world, and it contains the skeins they need. Once it is taken, the Drathraq plan to proceed with "gate" construction. A technique by which they alter the skeins, opening them semi-permanently, and expanding them large enough to transport armies and ships through.

Drathraq Culture
Insidious, evil and vile, but also beautiful, the Drathraq are identical to the Drow in almost all ways. Betrayal is an art form. Perversion is a category of expression. Love and loyalty are commercial items. Telepathic by nature, the Drathraq and the Drow both commune extensively with others of their respective races. Trust between Drath is a matter of value to be weighed at all times.

Possesed of infrared vision and used to dwelling in darkness, the Drow and the Drathraq both paint in heat. Those capable of seeing infrared wavelengths would notice this in their structures. This is in addition to normal spectral light, which both races also use. A Drow/Drath painting, for example, extends from near ultraviolet coloring down into the infrared ranges. Signs in the Realm of Hulu are typically infrared.

Most Drathraq, the majority, dwell in the Trilius, storing their bodies in communion vessels that resemble coffins to must humans (save that they are also tubed and wired to provide nutrients). The minority of Drathraq that live outside the Trilius also partake of the Trilius when they wish. These are the "working Drath" who manage the physical aspects of reality in Hulu. But in terms of actual labor, that is all performed by slaves.

Slavery is essential to the Drathraq. Most species they have conquered that possess any type of talent useful to the Drathraq are mindbent and collared thralls who seek nothing more than to please their masters. The Dvorkinnian species is one of the few allowed any autonomy. The Dvorkinnians are a hybrid race of Dwarves and Humans who once dwelled in a distant realm where they achieved great mundane technological prowess. As such, the Dvorkinnian slaves are usually controlled via drugs and by threats to their families. Their free-will is used as a tool to further the integration of other technologies into the Drathraq knowledge-base.

Money
The main unit of monetary transfer is the Xeo. Drathraq have an odd form of trade, mainly due to the availability of mineral weath on Hulu. Gold and other precious metals exist in vast quantities (as they also do in Celestus) therefore the Drathraq have established the Xeo as a set-point trading currency with its exact value set by the God-Emperor. Trade (good-exchange) is more prevalent in Drathraq society. Therefore, the question becomes, what do the Drathraq value?

Blood is valuable, but that is supplied by the Hakonuer, a technomagical device that tracks and charges for blood-slaves and their use. Even so, to supply the blood trade, Drathraq "hunters" exist to acquire those rare and valuable bloodlines that the Drathraq covet the most. Other things of value to the Drathraq are emotions and memories. Then there's power, usually in the form of favors or in actual physical artifacts. All of these are trade items.

Drathraq Terminology
Terminology specific to the Drathraq.

Obsidian League
Some kind of organization within the Drathraq that any servant race of the Drathraq may join.

Hakonuer
Drow term for the machine that feed them slaves stored on metal plates. Z’kaal eats one of them in his introduction.

Ravager
Ravagers are Drathraq psychics specializing in remote possession. They can use a crystal substrate (a drug) on their victims to enhance this ability and improve range. The drug is called Simla’ebar.

Xeo
Drathraq unit of currency.

Hangaramath
Drow insult (asshole)

T'landr'l
Gourd-shaped craft split in the middle. The rider sits on the flat bisected bottom part and the top part hovers over the flat space. An energy field inbetween the two holds them together and protects the passengers.

Aath'tae ith na
Eating one's own emotions to survive, or surviving on one's own emotions.

"Ith nah tor dath'e"
Better eaten from another - emotions that would be better if they came from someone else because they are unpleasant to consume coming from one's self.

Laelath
There was an emotion given by the Drathraq that few other species understood as did the children of Nachtaf. It was an unrequited love, but specifically, a measured form. Unrequited true love was rare – the juxtaposition and the collision of two perfectly matching souls, but specifically, their concept applied to those situations where one soul chose to reject the other, despite the congruence. The pain brought about by this rejection was both absolute and eternal. For one entity to truly love another was a marvel, a beauty to behold. And for two such beings to fall into place like two puzzle pieces was even greater. But there was something even beyond. “Laelath,” they called it in the Dray tongue of old, for the Dray knew it better than others. The Dray found it... valuable. Compounded by a suffix denoting the level of destruction, it described the emotional turmoil suffered by the rejected party of the two unlikely true-loves.

Seibra
Dearest and most beloved enemy.

Morfasth
Person that procrastinates one task to the extent that they will perform much more difficult tasks first in order to avoid the easier task simply because they dislike it so much. Or, "a duty so hated than any other might be preferred, despite the effort."

Ibiri
The pondering of fate.

Drathraq Technology
Technology specific to the Drathraq.

Trilius
The unreal realm – a telepathic network that the Drathraq have created in Hulu for communication and communion. Uses “Trill” nodes. Third cluster of Ahtrith – a vestibule. Essentially the Drathraq version of the Ultralatim – a virtual reality world using organic nodes and telepathy. The Drow had this technology as well, and it still exists on Xull.

The Trilius operates through the use of Trill Nodes. Trill are a cross of animal and plant that live in a liquid medium. They function as "routers" for all Drathraq telepathic communication. Trill possess memory, and function much like a brain. The Trilius itself exists solely within the Trill collective. The majority of Drathraq (and Drow for that matter) live within the Trilius, leaving their bodies to exist in storage mediums. Or, in the case of the Drow, they exist solely inside the Trilius as virtual copies of themselves, while their bodies are converted to stone.

Although technically digital, it's organic, so digital in the same way as a neural network. It was originally constructed by the Drow from concepts taken from the Tanathians (a dead empire) some 40,000 years ago (the Tanathians had a similar network called the Ultralatim that spanned a world). The Drow copied the technique and used it on their homeworld. When the Drathraq vampire cult arose within the Drow, they took the technology with them when they left the Drow home world and established it in the Realm of Hulu where the Drathraq Empire grew to its current size. As to who maintains it, that would be the inhabitants of the network, and the connected sub-systems, some of which are massive and constructed from nascent elemental essences extracted prior to their origin point (birth if you will) and imprisoned to add stasis to the reality. Their will is unnaturally focused on maintaining the unreal environment. Essentially they imagine it over and over again, keeping it intact. There are many of them, creating redundancy. There are also other mentalities, banks of minds, some of which were once Gods in other realities that have been trapped by the Drathraq and forced into servitude to perform actions in the Trilius. Their minds form the backbones of some of the more useful structures existing in the Trilius. Lastly there are the trill nodes themselves - the individual access points in the network that hold some of it and also operate like routers and hubs. Though they aren't sentient, their organic minds can channel huge amounts of telepathic traffic.

Telekon Node: Telekon nodes exist in the realm of Hulu and are devices used for telekinetic and telepathic control over various systems. They are runic in nature and non-organic.

Athraxis Majorum
A device capable of putting thermal energy resonating within the aether of Em.

Mibidian Draxain
An older version of the Morain shape-shifters. The Draxain can’t shift, but they’re big and they can regenerate

Windrakes
Flying beasts ridden by Morain. There are roughly 200.

Resonator
The Drathraq mages have built some kind of resonator that interferes with the skeins while they’re being operated in Em’s aether. They can still be used to cross realms, but not to teleport anywhere on Em.

Renquar
Constructs. Ten to twenty Renquar, those huge walking rocket platforms. They were assembled on Em, though, from components shipped through the skein from the realm of Hulu. They aren’t entirely stable, but they’re still dangerous. These are essentially mecha.

Vorel
new type of Morain. They’re tougher than the Morain, and they can shift into multiple forms. They’ve been used to infiltrate some of the outer Kingdoms. You can’t trust anyone you run into. Some of them are also inside the Nakrillian capital city of Zaor. One’s named Captain Loris Aealon, and another is Commander Netz Kalbee. There may be more, but I remember those two for certain. They’ll attempt sabotage and assassination. If you make it that far, you’ll have to kill them

Kilomani
The airships will be defended by kilomani - they're giant wasps that are breed by the Drathraq and will seek a target and then try to explode on or near it. The Drathraq keep them converted to stone inside the dirigibles and transform them to flesh when needed, releashing them from exterior launching hatches. They're not as fast as cannons or magical energy weapons, but they're self-guided.

Blackout Shield/Cloak
How the Drow survive in the sunlight.

Nocteene
Black lightning, the ultimate weapon of the Drathraq. It is emitted from their claws and controlled via skin-scribed runes on their hands and forearms.

et’ehrra
Device used to prevent locale skein transposition. See resonator (same thing).

Lexxian
Type of under-armor worn by Drathraq. Liquid crystal.

simla’ebar
Drathraq drug (crystal substrate) added to the “medications” used by Akrocham to enable psychic domination by the Ravager Me’hinn N’kla.

slennorium errithrite​
Ta’koti’s sword. Mined on the planet N’nendee in the Realm of Luxx, the only known source of slennorium, and it was virtually indestructible.