Editing Ourworld:Ailokim (section)

== History ==

Once upon a time the Aaru lived happily with their coevolved psionic cousins the Aalu. The Aaru speak insistently of the lost times when together their ancient cities reached high into the skies, their culture spanned the planet and their remarkable technologies and magics were able to twist the very reality of the world and all upon it. One day a dark omen in the form of a small asteroid fell from the sky and was seized by the Aaru as an intriguing research opportunity. Too late the Aaru discovered that it carried a hideous plague that after an incubation period slowly turned sentient life into powerful and extremely resilient carnivores. The plague caused increasingly erratic and eventually psychotic behaviour as the victims eyes slowly turned red, sinuous muscles worked with emerging talons and sharp teeth to slaughter the living. Worse still was the effect when the plague spread to the Aalu as they manifested extremely powerful psionic abilities that eventually proved too much for the highly advanced combined forces of the Aaru and Aalu to defeat. Fighting a losing battle the Aaru retreated to heavily fortified cities and tried to outlast the inevitable. The Aalu however were not content with the inevitable, while sheltering in the Aaru capital they combined their extraordinary psionic powers in a terrible ritual that doomed their planet to a great ‘Sundering’ in order to purge all upon it.

The ‘Sundering’ was a cataclysm of sorts that began about 1500 years ago an ended around 1000 years ago. It began with the appearance of a star in the night sky that continued to grow at an alarming rate, as it grew the temperature dropped rapidly freezing many life forms to death and destroying agriculture. The Aaru magics sustained their culture largely through this period. As this star of doom grew larger still the world began to get hotter again, and hotter still until the world was aflame. Again the powerful magics of the Aaru preserved them. The world erupted into rivers of lava and began to break up, mountains drifting slowly into the sky as the world broke itself apart. Many perished at this point, though many in main population centres persevered though extraordinary arcane feats never fully understood. Surviving on islands of molten rock the few remaining Aaru cities were then slammed at vast speeds into other vast rocks and finally into the fateful star that doomed them. That a few hundred powerful individuals survived was miraculous and a testament to extraordinary powers that have now been lost.

The great sundering destroyed virtually all of Aaru civilisation, land, lore, technologies, magics, spirit, their ability to bear offspring and even drained the pigment from their hair. The handful of Aalu psionicists that also survived were initially hated for what they had done, though a grudging respect eventually formed between them, they were never to be welcome in Aaru cities again.

Of the mere hundreds of Aaru that survived the disaster most lapsed into despair, a few however used what gifts they had left to try and preserve their race and culture. Using some remnants of their arcane lore and technologies they created three ‘Soulifactories’; giant pyramid shaped devices able to create life in the form of one of three young Aaru chosen for their unique qualities. As a result all Aaru under the age of 900 bear a striking resemblance to each of these chosen three. There are a slowly diminishing number of unique and venerable Aaru that remember the sundering, a selection of whom form the Majestic Twelve; the Aaru’s ruling body. These Twelve have overseen the slow salvaging of elements of their former culture and wealth for over a millennium.

Today the Aaru number around 20,000 and occupy four city sites on the Western continent of Elysium. The embittered Aaru have been peaceful from necessity; painfully aware of the slow rate at which they are able to reproduce they value their lives highly. So far the greatest Aaru scholars and scientists attempts have failed to replicate the success of the original ‘Soulifactories’ or discover additional ways of reproducing themselves. In their experiments however they have created/bred a slave race that they find useful for industry and warfare known as the ‘Umberkim’. 

The Umberkim are the result of the Aaru’s best efforts at creating a fourth more efficient Soulifactory around 500 years ago. Unfortunately all they could manage were a dull witted but powerful mutant race with a short life span. The rapidly produced Umberkim number around 80,000 spread across the five Elysian cities and serve as the mainstay of Elysian military, agriculture and industry. Maturing quickly, Umberkim slaves live on average for a mere 25 years in part due to the hazardous tasks given to them by the Aaru. Augmented with the powerful magics and technology of their masters, the combined Aaru/Umberkim military are one of the most formidable standing armies in the world, though have seen relatively little action. The ‘special forces’ division of the Aaru military on the other hand is famed for it’s daring and bewildering raids across the span of the planet. This brings us to another defining characteristic of the Aaru.