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Homeworld: Population

AmDDRed Blog

HW Population

In this article I'd like to gather some numbers and to theorize a bit where it's possible.

Contents

  1. The Sources
  2. The Dark Times
  3. The Old Times
  4. The Exile
    • Pre-Kiithid
    • Religion
    • Matriarchy
  5. After Kharakian Sandfall
    • The Great Desert Landing
    • Kharak Desertification
    • The Xenodigestion Question
    • Pre-launch Population
    • Kiithid Population
    • Mothership Population
    • Survivors of Kharak
    • The Seeds of Siidimism
  6. Kadeshi Population
  7. After Hiigaran Landfall
    • Hiigaran Kushan Population
    • Hiigaran Taiidan Population
    • Taiidan Population
  8. Age of S'jet
    • Kiithless & Kiithid
    • Imogen & Isaac
  9. Outro
  10. Changelog
  11. Read More

The Sources

  • HW1 - Homeworld 1, manual, game
  • HWC - Homeworld Cataclysm/Emergence, manual, game
  • HWCO - Homeworld Cataclysm, outtakes
  • HWWOS - HW and HWC ship descriptions, well of souls
  • HW2 - Homeworld 2, manual, game
  • HW2PR - Homeworld 2, Prima Official eGuide
  • HWDOK - Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, Expedition Guide, game
  • HWR - Homeworld: Revelations RPG
  • HWRS - Homeworld: Revelations RPG Story Seeds
  • HWM - Homeworld: Mobile, homeworldsource.net
  • HW3 - Homeworld 3
  • HWDST - Homeworld Dust Wars drafts

The Dark Times

Well, it all begun with the Progenitors or Sajuuk himself seeding humanity in at least 4 galaxies - OG, Nimbus, Eros and Aurora, and vanishing in a sort of a Civil War.

God's leaving his children on their own - a kind of a modern Zeitgeist. Like, God is Dead (c). Again.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (c) Matthew 27:46

The Old Times

HW POP OldTimes

We do not know much about the pre-Exile period, nor about the Hiigarans, nor about the Taiidans or anybody else. But we do know that there were 16 Empires, including Hiigaran and Taiidan Empires (not certain, if the Bentusi are included in this premium list).

But we do know that the Hiigaran Empire consisted at least of a few worlds, and for sure Taiidan Empire had all of them later with a few fatal exceptions:

Every planet along the way was given the choice: join the Taiidan Empire, or be annihilated… every planet but one. Thinking that the Hiigaran people would not take their threat seriously, Riesstiu ordered the first planet in their path razed and its sacrifice used as an example to the rest of the Hiigaran Empire. It worked: few worlds chose destruction over subjugation, and the Taiidani fleet continued inexorably towards Hiigara
(c) HWR, p.236, C8 Galactic Community, Taiidan, Imperial History, A Cycle of Violence

So, it's not entire Hiigaran Empire was exiled but only the capital of it, roughly speaking, the HQ, the ones who were responsible for the... how to call it... Old Taiidan War. But basically, Old Hiigaran Empire enriched the Taiidan Empire with its population!

After that Taiidan Empire influence would grow up to the half of the galaxy, but people's number counting themselves as nominal Hiigarans would shrink to the Exile convoy ships passengers.

The Exile

HW POP Exile

13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.
14 Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, hand whoever finds me will kill me.”
15 Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him seven fold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.
(c) Genesis 4

The stern of the ship faced the Solar System, where the sun was by now no more than a yellow star just a bit brighter than the rest. The peripheral spiral arm of the Milky Way lay in this direction, its stars sparse. The depth and expanse of deep space exhibited an arrogance that left no support for the mind or the eyes.
“Dark. It’s so fucking dark,” the captain murmured, and then shot himself.
(с) Liu Cixin, The Dark Forest

And thus a millennium journey (GSY 6510-7500 (c) HWR) has begun. Not sure, why so long if they had a hyperdrive, and why so fast if they had not. But it's not the topic of this issue. Let's go on with people.

Of course, there is no data how many people were onboard of each Khar-Toba class ship,

we can only assume, that compared to other ship crews and situation depicted it must have been around 100k - it would be a great irony if only 5 reached the Kharak, and the pretty much the same number of people returned back to Hiigara

but for sure, there were a lot of them, how many ships (though there is a repeating texture of [UO-125] on a nose of Khar-Tobas), and part of them exploded while the journey, part of them settled in the Great Nebula, to be known as Kadeshi, another part settled on Kharak to be known as Kushans.

But a journey in isolated ships to nowhere for sure created a somewhat culturally crippled society.

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
(c) "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy

Pre-Kiithid

FIRST, the kiithid system: while it wasn't yet the one we knew from Kharak End Times, it started to form exactly this time. You know, family gangs, functional guilds and so on, what you might find in this soft but still a prison. People do like to divide others on 'us' and 'them', especially when they are short on resources, and people always require more resources. And probably, as percentage of sociopaths are higher among the power players, and as we already understood, the Exile ships were full of those, the division and corruption has begun quite fast. And the dull cruise ceased to be tedious.

Interpretation of ancient legends and translations of texts found in the ruins of Khar-Toba suggest that our ancestors' journey to this world was arduous enough to break down all social structures except the most basic family bonds. When the power plant at Khar-Toba failed, refugees in all probability fled in small groups of friends and relatives. Harsh conditions and the passage of hundreds of years hardened what was originally a practical system, taking care of your own loved ones first, into a ritualized system of alliances and loyalties we have come to know as the kiith system.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.21, The Kharakid Social System

Reading Homeworld Revelation RPG book, it seems that some of HWR writers were not very attentive, and tried to make the kiithid system a Hiigaran all-the time feature despite the strong message from the very HW1, but you can read more about this in the Stranger Things, Homeworld 2: Too Ancient Kiithid LiirHra.

Religion

SECOND, isolated space with no escape is a great base for a dogmatic religiosity rise: the fate beyond your active control gets in a situation when, for self-preservation, you are forced to believe that there is something more than just a simple matter, that somebody - be it the fate, the universe a the god - would help you out. In the end, our God feeling is something about our life acceptance, the Jungian "Self", so to ease life most of us would follow our brains' monkey pack based natural conformism, changing ourselves for the sake of a overbearing community. There's nowhere to run, there's no place for deviant pioneers. The ship sinks and all the passengers are going down altogether. The old story becomes a myth, myth becomes a holy scripture. Kadeshi, Gaalsien, no one escapes. Want to argue? Here's the Exit.

Matriarchy

THIRD, isolated space with limited resources, established and for centuries non-changing greenhouse would turn the society into "Universe-25" experiment. According to some theories males are an evolution's experimental field passing the successors genes to a female stabilization fund in a whole Species survival adaptation cycle to outer space changing environment, and if the environment doesn't change, a lot of evolutionary mechanisms would be broken, or to be better said - retuned. Natural male instincts of competitive fertilization, that are the same aggression/ expansion/ exploration / pioneering, would be reduced. Especially among those who had lost the war. In Jungian terms, I guess, it's like the Anima's supremacy over the Animus. And the society would become pretty much conservative - which comes close to the restrictive religiosity.

A porn might be a solution here, but it negatively affects the healthy physical and psychological attitude towards sex-relations, and probably it's not the best option in a conditions when we still want to reproduce the next generation and next and so on, so we cannot avoid intergender relationships. It's like giving a child a mobile device to play with instead of playing with him, raising communication skills. The whole situation may lead to a polyandry system as a natural way to control the birth rate in a condition of limited resources, thus making a women a head of a family, The Great Mother (and somewhat antagonizing Shadow figure of The Great Father Sajuuk who came and gone, who was mentioned in HWDOK as a sleeping god that awakened would judge people sins), which is pretty interesting, as the Jewish culture, that biblically affected HW storyline, has a tradition of the nationality to be received by a mother.

Fun fact is that if we take that there are feminatives in Kushan, then the word meaning a leader would be a feminative one - Kiith-S[a].

Adm. Riif-Sa: …Your Kiith Matron!
(c) HW1, p.39, Excerpts from fleet tactical debate 7.12.1302

Of course, after the Heresy Wars, Ifriit Naabal glorious appearance, and AHL Somtaaw lack of women, the situation seems to be in a gender equilibrium, but S'jet line of Rachel - Karan - Imogen shows that this scientific kiith is kind of a very traditionalistic one. Or it's just sequel's "Ellen Ripley" syndrome.

But of course, this topic is pretty much discussible.

After Kharakian Sandfall

HW POP Sandfall

First, it's really hard to understand why the hell Kushani have landed in the Great Banded Desert. If we are talking about the post-landing times, then there is an explanation of the Great Hyper Core acting like hyperjump attractor. But why did the Exiles landed exactly there, in the middle of nowhere - we can only guess.

IMHO, there are few explanations to that.

The Great Desert Landing

FIRST, they got quite stupid during that flight: a dogmatic conservative society (ironically, it should have been a great act of courage to move out for the Kadeshi predecessors!) even fulfilling their goal - finding a planet possible to colonize - still continued to live around their Sacred Home, digging into the sand, growing food on existing ship food farms for 8 centuries (of course, if KDS 0 is Khar-Toba exodus time), until Khar-Toba power plant said "Enough is enough" and failed. Probably, it wasn't something they expected, and it would explain a loss of knowledge and a rollback to medieval times living, but the nature and the conditions they've put themselves into forced to think out of the box, maybe spiritually predecessing the First Migration of Paktu.

And the landing itself could be a consequence of a numbing existence in isolation, there is a suggestion that it was a lot easier for the ship to land in the middle of nowhere as the astronavigational skills where not very useful when it required a skill of piloting and landing: even if there were an AI that would do all the job for you, it's a captain to have a final word, and questioning AI as we know now from Midjourney or ChatGPT experience might a bit tricky, especially if you don't know what you're searching for, yourself.

As well, a landing in a hostile environment of a desert could have been a desperate act of trying to hide a heat signature of an operating ship. In the end, even this didn't help - a satellite detected an anomaly UNDER the sands of the Great Desert, and that was a ship already shut down.

The recorded data had miraculously revealed a large metal object - but it was not in orbit. The sat's spinning path had caused it to repeatedly scan large swathes of Kharak's equatorial region. The power of the radar scan had penetrated to a distance of almost a hundred meters through the shifting sands.
(c) HWDOK, The Jaraci Object

Of course, the sat's tech was pretty advanced tech for Kushans, but was it advanced tech for interstellar factions? Only hope, that no one would do an advanced scan of an unremarkable planet Sajuuk knows where.

Kharak Desertification

SECOND, the desert might have been not so cruel in the Kharak Sandfall times.

The relatively close distance to Kharak's parent star has resulted in ongoing desertification over millennia
(c) HWDOK, I Kharak, Kharakid Environment

So, according to HWDOK, it was really better in earlier days. And must have been a different desert in KDS -794 (HWR), and even in KDS ~700 (HW1) it was harsh but still possible for a tech-conservative Gaalsi to cross the Great Banded Desert to be beaten by Paktu warriors in the end. Even in KDS 178 KDS (HWC) it was possible for Somtaaw to settle in mountains and do some heavy duty work of mining, where the air even less than on a surface.

Gaalsien theologians preached that to deviate from the most accepted and ritualized survival methods was to actually extend the period of time before our people would be lifted back up to heaven. In the early days, this strict dogma paid off and allowed Kiith Gaalsien to survive and prosper during various ecological disasters during the period between 75-250.
(c) HW1, Historical and Technical Briefing, p.23, Kiith Gaalsien

HW POP Gasmask v2

But in KDS 1110 the ecological situation was already not that good that you had to use gasmasks to breath in a desert.

During the last triad of 1057, Kiith S'jet called a meeting of the full Daiamid of Tiir to discuss the results of their first full analysis of the northern desert flow patterns, and their devastating implications. Their investigation of sand flow and weather patterns revealed that the Great Barrier mountain range that protected the northern polar region, which had seemed insurmountable to storm and sand for centuries, would be overwhelmed within a hundred years unless something changed.
(c) HWDOK, II Project Stormbreaker

I believe that Naabali industrial revolution has damaged Kharak ecosystem fastening the inevitable domino-effect atmosphere balance change. Like, it's their Main Great Engineering Project. You know those Kushan barbarians, that come in and touch something they shouldn't - like breaking the existing balance everywhere they go - Old War, Kadeshi Slaughter, Homeworld War, Beast War, Vaygr War, Nimbus War, now it's Anomaly somewhere after they've opened the Eye of Aarran… I guess, the Gaalsi should have been listened to, though, must say, this Kiith had quite ineffective persuasion techniques...

The Xenodigestion Question

Homeworld Mouse

Except for a small variety of bacteria and a single species of small forager, our helix proteins are completely different from all other forms of life on Kharak.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, A Question of Origins

In the Abnormality category, there are only three lifeforms: ourselves, a few bacterial
strains, and the ubiquitous and annoying riiti. In all of Kharak, only ourselves and a small,
grain-eating pest share enough common DNA and skeletal traits to be considered kin.
(c) HWDOK, I Kharak, Kharakid Biology

It seems, that the main problem of the other worlds colonization would not be viruses or bacteria like it was depicted in "War of the Worlds", as human beings are quite complex Earth evolution hand-shaped creatures, and for the life, not visible to the naked eye, to infect a human it would be like launching computer Windows virus on Unix systems - incompatible. Maybe some fatal brute force attack would work, but a dead organism is not a very good carrier, so in the end it's not what those beings are really looking for. Anyway I've tried to explain also in the Beast article, in the Origins: Natural Born Killers section.

But these human organism lines of defense are also more suited for the Earth biome products. So, to have a complex being you need to metabolize complex construction parts, and for us these are proteins called enzymes: food consisting of the familiar enzymes makes the digestive deconstruction process easier. And the alien life would consist of unfamiliar enzymes, thus the efficiency of digestion to be lower, if none: if a consumption of those elements takes more energy than you receive, for some it would be a nice option to get thinner, but in a terms of survival it would mean starvation and death. And we are not yet counting the poisonous and intoxicating cases. It's really like the Humanity has to bring their Texas with them simply to survive.

And we know that the Kushans are alien to Kharak. But in the end, people have survived for at least 1200 years on this planet, and it wasn't a life full of restriction (well, unless you're following Gaalsien Decrees of Kah'a), but there were migrations, wars, trade and so on, and so on, and the population grew. The fact that the Xenogenesis Theory took it's final form only in the Time of Reason, means that in terms of tech-less survival on Kharak, this question is purely scientific. And nor Siidim, who's agenda would greatly support this kind of research, nor Gaalsien, who's agenda would said "we told ya!", never had these kind of arguments before.

While the issue of our distant past was primarily a religious matter, it wasn't until the dawning of the Time of Reason that advances in the biological and chemical sciences revealed a disturbing lack of commonality between our biochemical makeup and that of most Kharakid life.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.1, A Question of Origins

And mice - I guess these animals or ones alike are hidden under that "ubiquitous grain-eating pest forager" - seemed to survive without any help. Maybe it was a reason for "various ecological disasters during the period between 75-250" (HW1), as little harmless riiti had no natural enemies, but were able to find food and multiply. I guess this animal full of familiar enzymes became a disaster, a food and a pet for Kushans. We have a chicken - they had riitburgers and riiti cuisine (and how about a "riititouille" cartoon?). Maybe the landing in a desert was meant to preserve the local life, but Kushans failed epically.

Ratburger by Demolition Man

So, despite those Kushans were not really prepared for leaving Khar-Toba - as it was told, no plants, no seeds, no animals but the riiiti, and some bacteria - it was a pretty successful colonization. I'm no specialist, but maybe, the problem of enzymes is not that binary, YES/NO, but more fluid: in the end, xenobiology is a pure theoretical thing now, and a life evolution might come up to the same or similar technological solutions, especially, if it's an oxygen-based one? Probably, Kharak was selected not only for a breathable atmosphere, but also for a local life being digestive enough for Homo Worldicus? Though then why they've landed in the Great Desert - not to rush into flora and fauna and check things step-by-step?

As well there is an interesting theory, that Homo Worldicus being Homo Progenitaricus descendants might have been genetically improved to remain a stable species despite the time and various ecological situations all over the galaxies. A perfect organism of Homeworld. Could the Beast be one of those species-improving experiments of the Ancient Ones?..
Hiigara paradox is also about this - if the galaxies were seeded by Progenitors, it means that all those habitable world are not really a home for the inhabitants, but whether there were terraformed planets or those blade running humans are genetically improved.
Terraforming

Another option for food are the humans themselves. I guess, the cannibalism is a real thing to happen on the sands of Kharak. Forbidden, of course, disgusting, but when you're on a brink of extinction your morality would shift: like in the Khar-Toba Exodus case, the Heresy Wars and others. For example:

  • Siidim radicals treating Griitidim like animals;
  • Sobani extra survival courses would theoretically accept this behavior;
  • Khaaneph "godless" survivalism, holding captured enemies for slavery and food, and scaring god-feared Gaalsi, that hold to their Decrees of Kah'a;

Probably, the latter guys would be the last ones to be heard of such cases. I guess, some society reintegration program to be launched for them, so that they don't attack Great Northern Way and other caravans, especially, them having Gaalsien scavenged battlefleet, and become the civilized part of united Kharakid.

Mad Max Universe food

All the upmentioned information was purely for a rough understanding how many people could have survived there. We don't know how many people carried one Khar-Toba-class ship, how many ships reached the destination (was it 5?), but the imaginable population chart would show a plateau over 800 years, with a deep dip around KDS 0-250, but with subsequent growth: initially somewhat slowed due to the "global" Heresy Wars, then accelerated due to the peaceful times of the Time of Reason, and again slowed down in the last 100 years due to worsening environmental conditions and food production limitations, theoretically calculated for around 300 million people, although, as we will see later, in the end this number was higher...

Probably, Europe population chart might be the inspiration:

Population dynamics of Greater Europe

Pre-Launch Population

From HW1 we have an information about limits of life sustaining on Kharak:

The polar regions are almost optimal for our people but the limited arable land and scarce resources has prevented our population from growing beyond 300 million people.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.1, Kharakid Environment

And HWR repeats this agenda:

Of a population of three hundred million, only a little over six hundred thousand souls survived into the
exile.
(c) HWR, p. 199, C7 Kiithid Society Briefing, History of the Kiithid

But HWC also indirectly tells us about the population of Kharak:

Only 1 out of every 60 Kushan was aboard the Mothership at launch.
(c) HWC, p.6, THE RUDE AWAKENING

We do know that there were around +/- 600k people of Sleepers, so roughly it's
600k * 60 = 36 millions.

And that's a bit low number. So, we need an order of magnitude larger with that HWC quote, and if we will add a zero to the quote, it becomes "1 of 600 Kushan", thus increasing Kharak's population up to 360 millions. And that fits pretty well.

Though it means, that the biggest problem of Kharak in HW1 would be not the desertification of HWDOK but people starvation, so they are really in a need of colonization of another space objects. Though there would be pretty much the same outcome.

It has become clear through the past 120 years of driven industrial and technological expansion that Kharak can no longer sustain us. While always harsh and unforgiving, our technological development has stripped the planet of what few vital resources it contained, and the narrow bands of temperate climate at the poles have been slowly shrinking. In order to survive as a people we must leave Kharak.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.16, Mission Priorities

Kiithid Population

The details we know about relate to 6 kiiths only: Somtaaw, Siidim, Kaalel, Paktu, Gaalsien and Ferriil.

Looking forward, those kiithid mentioned to be powerful, are not very big, especially looking at 300+ million planet population. So I would assume that Kiithid Political System is somewhat of a corporatocracy. You know, "Kiithid Shrugged". It's like chosen ones and golden million system is built-in to Kushan culture. Not the Republic you wanted but the one deserved!.. Maybe, not the kiithid but THIS trait was brought from Hiigara

SOMTAAW

In HWC backstory we were given a hint that Somtaaw population were 300k+ people on Kharak.

…only 15,000 Somtaaw awakened on Kharak, less than a twentieth of their number, and the vast majority of these were men.
(c) HWC, p.11, KIITH HISTORY: SOMTAAW

And in HWDOK backstory we were given more direct number of 500k people at KDS 1111:

Kiith Somtaaw is now nearly 500,000 strong, and have even built new holdings alongside great industrial kiithid like Naabal and Hraal.
(c) HWDOK, p.32, Expedition Guide, Somtaaw

Is it that Somtaaw numbers reduced in a hundred years, or it was just a rough estimation - 500k is technically still 300k+, though it's a pretty big plus. Feels like retcon.

SIIDIM

Well, with 2k members it's even hard to understand how did they got their 200 places among Sleepers.

By the time the Guidestone was discovered, Kiith Siidim had been reduced to only two thousand individuals-hardly a major Kiith.
(c) HWR, p.217, Kiith Siidim, Siidim Culture

KAALEL

Again this kiithid was not greatest but the smartest one. And their count should have been around 100k! Well, for a country this is a small number, but for a corporation - pretty big.

Thanks to their specialized knowledge of communication technologies, encryption and linguistics, Kiith Kaalel had a disproportionate number of crew members and Sleepers onboard the Mothership. Nearly half of their Kiith survived the Burning of Kharak, some 50,000 men and women!
(c) HWCO, Kiith Kaalel

PAKTU

From the earlier history we would only partial information, about kiith Paktu being collected from ~17 kiiths in the end of the 5th century and being able to make an army of 30k people in the of the 7th century:

Nearly 50 kiithid set out from the plain at Albegiido in 490 KDS and sailed into the Great Banded Desert, sweeping over the burning sands on the winds of the seasonal storm, the Chak m’Hot. By the time the men, women and children of the First Migration reached the shore of the Hunon Mountains, only 17 families were left, and all of them had lost weaker members on the journey. Still more died as they struggled over the Hunon; without anyone to guide them to the easiest pass, they lost many to poisonous water, rockfalls, thirst and lizard-bite.
(c) HW1, Historical and Technical Briefing, p.26, Kiith Paktu

...in the spring of 698 <…> Kim Paktu <…> arrayed an army of 30,000 swords on the shore of the Majiirian <SEA?>.
(c) HW1, Historical and Technical Briefing, p.27, Kiith Paktu

GAALSIEN

And the same we would see that despite the vassal losses - 30- families in the beginning of 8th century (though these dates are discussable) were able to gather 10k army in the 3rd quarter of 11th century, despite being (self)outcast to the desert! (btw, why? have they found something there already?)

in 710, the Gaalsien were down to less than 30 vassal families
(c) HW1, Historical and Technical Briefing, p.23, Kiith Gaalsien

On the first night of the year 1074, ten thousand Gaalsien Fists hit the twin gate wall forts guarding the main access valley to the interior, hoping to raze them and drive on into the rich lands beyond.
(c) HWDOK, The Northern Coalition and Project Stormbreaker

FERRIIL
Once major but no more.

Shortly afterwards Kiith Siidim absorbed Kiith Ferriil’s holdings into their ranks, starting a long-lasting accusation that Kiith Siidim arranged the destruction of the Ferriil army in order to gain their assets and wealth. By the end of the Heresy Wars, Kiith Ferriil was no more.
(c) HWR, p.223, Minor and Vassal Kiith, Kiith Ferriil

Mothership Population

With the scaffold completed, a team of ten thousand workers and twenty five thousand robots worked day and night for eighty years before she was ready to be fitted with the hyperspace module. Over two thousand people died in the process.
(c) HWR, p.178, C6 Historical Briefing, The Mothership

Manned by a skeleton crew of 8,000 engineers, the Mothership provides living quarters for those working in low orbit...
(c) HWC, p.4, History of the Hiigaran Landfall

The exact numbers are not known, but from the provided info we can assume that the crew of the First Mothership should have been around 10k+ people, a small town of specialists.

Of course, we can also get the game unit limits, multiply with with approximate HWC pilot data per ship, but that would be too much assumptions on behalf of the battle fleet only.

Survivors of Kharak

It's just a theory as officially no one's left and everything gone... But HWDOK has added a bit too much of a retcon transforming from Hardware: Shipbreakers, giving GHC more mega-powers while it should have been disabled; filling up The Great Desert with a lot of scattered spaceships, some of them in a perfect condition; reviving Gaalsien, that should have vanished in a desert in a 9th century, as careful archaeologists and technically advanced kiith that managed to multiply and prosper in a desert; and having people wearing gasmasks.

HWDOK Whole ships burried under the sands

Previously mentioned problems of the starvation and desertification would make a desertpunk world: people living in a dense formations, isolated space, relying heavily on technologies, staying inside Naabal mega-structures of a multilayer closed complexes to preserve comfortable temperature and air, having gasmasks and oxygen balloons for outside walks... As well, there could be Somtaaw Khontala mines turned into living chambers, Paktu Majiirian Ocean underwater settlements, S'jet underground labs, Siidim secret facilities, Soban cave training grounds... And, of course, Gaalsien deep desert hiding spots where spaceships buried under ground are excavated and their tech are researched and learned. It's like Kharakians were already living on a spaceship!

Why then nobody survived the ADW? Of course, the atmosphere is being burned in a chain-reaction firestorm and the surface should be melted out. OK, the main strike was at the Northern Pole, though all the previously mentioned facilities could have sustained at least somebody at least for a few days. But the Southern Pole was untouched, as it seems that The Great Banded Desert somehow was a natural border to stop the Burning of Kharak, though the oxygen was not included anymore.

Kharak Burning

So, really, no distress signals from anywhere? Or just the Mothership crew was so keen on a revenge ASAP that they didn't even checked properly, and when the emotions flood away they preferred not to remember, same as with the Kadeshi Slaughter? And what some Sagald archaeological expeditions would find there - letters about how a few tried to survive for a few days but nobody came, and there was only choice of suffocation or suicide? Maybe.

But could have anyone survived in a long term? Somewhat of a crippled survival of isolated groups. Maybe, some hundred people, enough to prolong a century or two, with a very limited resources? Really, hard to say about Northeners or Southeners of the 13th century KDS at their technological peak, but if we're talking about Gaalsien, they for sure had some tech at 12th century.

First, they were able to produce food in a pure desert for thousands of people: there were for sure 10k fighters at Siifar Kor'shesh event, few carriers with each 1000+ people crew were destroyed at Operation Khadiim, and as well we've seen the K'Had gathering, so they had enough produced inside their bases.

Second, if they need power, the sun will shine long enough, but as well, there should be some techy reactors, including the ones from the carriers, for example.

Third, air... yes, that's the problem, even they had filters and extra oxygen, how to produce it? Looks, like a Mark Watney problem multiplied by N people on a base.

Mark Watney

Of course, the question is how long can those isolated survivors sustain themselves, and what they can do... For sure, if these potential survivors would have managed to activate some of the deep underground buried ships, it would be a small step toward survival. Why? What for? Well, while there's hope...

Khar-Toba underground city, you say?...

It could be a Hiigaran Urban Legend, The Underglass Survivors.
There would be horrors about Kharakian Morlock "civilization" that Sagald expedition would meet in these Caverns of Madness:
"Ah, finally you've arrived... Didn't suspect to meet anyone? Admit, you simply forgot about us, you, wanna-be-good Northeners... You were asked not to do one thing... And you failed. Failed us all... In the end, Kharak is ours."
Or some adventure movies: "The Kharakian", about a guy being saved by the ancient ship AI, and captured by Turanic... (there will be sequel).
At least, it could be an interesting scenario for a game. "This Kharak of Mine", Kharakpunk" or "Kharak Shelter". Or some Caverns'n'Kudaarks sessions.

Homeworld: Metro 1217

But of course, in the first place, these are only assumptions and mind-play theories. Still, remember, that HWDOK revealed Taiidans to Kharakids a century before the strike, and Scaffold fleet gave Kushans some time before ADW had been launched...

The Seeds of Siidimism

And if we look at the HWR and HWM illustrations we would see different-color Kushans there, while Taiidans are Caucasians, while it should have been vice-versa, as the Taiidan Empire is more vast for having different type of people communities. But if it's canonical it could mean that "color" Kushans were isolated in their own communities, maybe exiled by Siidim, escaping to Paktu lands (…Isaac Paktu?)…

So, was there a racism on Kharak? And do the seeds of Siidimism, that had been accepted for a pretty long time (HWDOK), are uprooted, and reignited by Homeworld War righteous revenge of the Chosen Ones, the People of Stars, the Unbound, and in Vaygr War to be religiously approved as the Sajuuk-Khar'id, the Progenitor legacy holders? Might this unconscious feeling of сhosenness be the reason for later political struggles in Asaam Kiith'sid and self-isolation in kiithid groups, right after the Homeworld War, and then, Vaygr War, leading to Kushan spreading in and out of galaxy looking for their fate beyond Hiigara?..

Well, it's an interesting situation when in small societies (less than million people) less visual diversity means more inclusiveness due to faster assimilation processes. And vice-versa for the large ones due to slower processes. Though the issue might be in the minorities themselves, the accepting majority, in general, has more possibilities due to our natural wish to follow authorities.

Kadeshi

Kadeshi Assembly Site

Kadeshi are interesting with the fact that they are the direct descendants of the Old Hiigarans, having not lost the cultural features but evolved. Though it must be thought out.

This is the Garden of Kadesh. For thirteen generations we have protected it from the unclean.
(c) HW1, Mission 7, Kadeshi Ambassador

Roughly speaking, these guys had 13 generations in 2000 galactic years, plus a bit of a term that should have been used to to travel to Kharak. Let's say 250 years, though it doesn't really matter. Anyway it seems that Kadeshies are centenarians (2000+/13 = 150+ years of a lifetime), like Karan S'jet, so maybe it's genetical? Taiidan Emperor last clone lived for 4 centuries, so, maybe, it's really the issue of Homo Worldicus being genetically modified space humankind?..

We don't know for sure, how many people were initially, but a cutscene is showing us that at least 4 Exile ships left the convoy when passing the Great Nebula. So, if assume that 1 Khar-Toba contains about 100k people, then a number of people to become Kadeshi would be around the same Kharakian 500k. But there a difference between Kharakid uncontrolled lifestyle, that allowed them to grow up to 360 millions and Kadeshi that were forced to continue their humble life with resources limited, with population growth quotas - and new economics based on that deficit.

There is one interesting thing noted by Kushans:

We also observed that the enemy's hyperspace module has an identical power signature to our own.
(c) HW1, Cutscene 07-08

This oddly gets in line with the information about the Khar-Toba power plant reusage in Mothership:

Toward the lower aft portion of the ship lies the large shielded area containing the Hyperspace Module. This is a direct copy of the one found under the sands of Khar-Toba, but expanded twelve-fold to accommodate a vessel of the Mothership’s mass.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.9, Mothership

So, to remind, hyperspace module consists of a solid-state core, control systems & power systems - and while the Great Hyperspace Core remained the same, the power systems were enlarged. And as it was not really possible to simply copy Progenitor GHC technologies, this means, that the Kadeshi continued to use Khar-Toba-type power plants.

I'd even say, as Khar-Toba class ship is a sort of a mothership type vessel, and vessels raided by Kadeshi should have been not bigger than a carrier class, it was required to use rogue Khar-Toba's hypermodules (Khar-Toba class hyperdrive theory) to build Needleships, thus their number was limited. The Khar-Toba found in the Cathedral of Kadesh should have been an untouched relic to remember, while others were refined for the other needs.

But the thing that they've managed to make several same class ships means that there should be a construction site, a scaffold, big enough to construct a tail and a head, and this place would be habited by tens thousands of people to work and live on a such object, as we would know from the Kushan Mothership construction data.

And we know that even Kushan mothership did not awakened their cryo-passengers as it was not able to operate such large masses beyond its crew of tens of thousands. Needleships of Kadeshi probably contained a crew of the same ten thousands of people, plus they've managed to develop better AI technologies used for swarmers, later reverse engineered by Somtaaw:

The major breakthrough in drone design came from studying the attack swarms used by the protectors of Kadesh. Using that technology as a baseline, engineers were able to design and build their own Swarmer drone fighter, which retained the firepower of the old static drone but combined it with full maneuverability and a combat AI.
(c) HWC, Historical Briefing, p. 88, "Hive" Class Advanced Drone Frigate

So, this all means, that Kushans didn't make a Kadeshi genocide - though it was an important feeling for them to live on with - but they've destroyed their most battle-ready ships with the technologies very hard to get back, and all the crew. It's like the best of the best of Kharakians killed the best of the best of Kadeshians: for sure, it was a punch in the balls of the Kadeshian nation.

But there is a place deep in the Nebula where Kadeshi still live, and we really don't know if those 3 ships were the only ones or there are few more left patrolling the far side of the Great Nebula; and it's pretty much predictable that Kadeshi would have somewhat of Kadeshi Retreat, guarded by hyperinhibitor similar to Taiidani/Vaygr-like devices, but I doubt that they could have multiplied their initial count even twice due to limitations of existence in a pure space. Though I'd say, it's quite rational to welcome a fresh blood in a limited DNA swamp not to have genetical illnesses, these guys should be strictly following "cousin marriage" laws.

Soon the Kadeshi turned to matters of basic needs. Air, food, and water were in short supply, and the merchant vessels that previously traversed their region no longer risked even the slightest shortcut through the nebula, so once again the Kadeshi stepped up to the task.
(c) HWR, p.246, C8, Kadesh, History

As water is a limited resource in the nebula, to be recycled and used in cleaning, food production, and as a necessity for life, to waste water is seen as one of the society’s greatest taboos.
(c) HWR, p.247, C8, Kadesh, The Kadeshi

As well, Homeworld Revelations tries to implement the idea of Needleships count being only three, even giving names and different agendas (the Day’s Moon, Dusk Mist, and Night’s Sun) so that a player has some fun with the factions but that's too much bounding to that number of three (though, I'm not against the idea of ship-based societies, continuation of pre-kiithid divisions):

These days, the key decisions for the fleet are made by the Triad of Custodians, a group of three individuals who each live aboard one of the three largest home-ships of the fleet.
(c) HWR, p.247, C8, Political Leadership

It's OK, as I've told it must have been equal to renegade Khar-Tobas count, but I'd vote for at least 4 Needleships, as they would create a basic 3D figure - pyramid, thus with 1 remaining on a far side, 3 closest ships would arrive at a point of hyperspace disturbance.

There is one more thing mocking me - why Kushan Mothership hyperjump was interrupted so close to the Kadeshian Khar-Toba Sistership?
If a hyperspace jump route is flexed by the gravitational fields and thus all the great object on route are becoming attractors, does that mean that the Khar-Toba was the heaviest object in a local space? Or that only Khar-Toba and three Needleships with their hyperinhibitors managed to flex and interrupt Mothership Hyperjump route? Because it's really strange that Kadeshi would invite uninitiated someone to their sanctuary. And it really sounded that Kadeshi were really scared of that they won't hold the MS almost begging them to stay.
But that would mean that all the Kadeshian civilian society would live on smaller, carrier type ships (excluding the greater place of annual gathering - their version of Needleship Scaffold), thus not being hyperjump gravitationally attractive.
And does the unplanned nature of this stop means that there were more of those sacred patrol Needleships - and those we've met were just the closest ones, like in the first stop where was only one ship in her responsibility zone...

As well, HWR tried to imagine what would happen after the Homeworld War, and the tragedy of those Needleships destroyed:

With the Kadeshis' power broken, the rich elemental wealth of the Great Nebula is again open for mining. Hundreds of fleets converge on the vast space to capture the rarest materials, turning the Garden into a hotbed of conflict, piracy, and skirmishes. Amid the chaos, surviving Kadeshi prey upon
those too weak to defend themselves from their continuing holy war.
(c) HWRS, p.189, The Great Nebula

With the Kadeshi leadership in disarray and its people reeling from the revelations of their history, they underwent a drastic change in outlook. Just over half traveled to Hiigara after the war.
(c) HWR, p.249, C8, The Kadeshi After the Homeworld War

So, in general, I believe that the Kadeshi population has not grown very much since the Exile, it's pretty much stable in numbers, especially after newjoiners have depleted; Kushans have stroke them hard, but it's not the end of Kadeshi: they have the majority of their people left and resources to rebuild, though they might have lost some strategical and tactical advantages in a face of upcoming battles, and their faith not as strong as it was. This might lead to their version of Heresy Wars, with a lot more casualties, refugees to Hiigara and elsewhere spreading the news about Kadesh Nebula is opened again, attracting pirates, thus the population of Kadesh might really be downsized to half remaining, making them meaner and reconsidering their own previously sacred rules...

After Hiigaran Landfall

Taiidani Aquilla

Hiigaran Kushan Population

HWC tells us about the population of Hiigara (though it will be corrected a bit in HWM):

Nearly 550,000 of us survived the Exodus from Kharak…
(c) HWC, p.4, HISTORY OF THE HIIGARAN LANDFALL

One of the most difficult aspects of the Hiigaran Landfall was the revival of our so-called “Sleeper Kiithid”, the 92% of our current population who traveled from Kharak to Hiigara in cryogenic suspension.
(c) HWC, p.6, THE RUDE AWAKENING

We do know that 600k of Sleepers is a loose reference to the Moses Exodus:

The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.
(c) Exodus 12:37

Usually it's said about 603550 men with uncounted Levi's priest in count of 22300 men. Though there are doubts that it could be possible, and there's even a theory that it's a mistake of translating old texts that has some words double meanings that are not actual today, and it could be not 600k but 600 families, but we do not need to dig too deep here.

But that hint of 623850 men could be an unsuspected hint about the crew of the First Mothership - 600k sleeps, 24k people working! But of course, that just an awkward assumption.

There is even more detailed statistics:

  • Reuben - 46,500
  • Simeon - 59,300
  • Gad - 45,650
  • Judah - 74,600
  • Issachar - 54,400
  • Zebulun - 57,400
  • Ephraim - 40,500
  • Manasseh - 32,200
  • Benjamin - 35,400
  • Dan - 62,700
  • Asher - 41,500
  • Naphtali - 53,400

I wouldn't recommend to stick too much to this information as in the end it's a reference, not a source.

But somewhat these numbers match the numbers about the strongest kiithid of AHL.

…six great Fleets <…> of Manaan, Soban, Naabal, LiirHra, Paktu and Kaalel take turns patrolling the outer systems, guarding our trade routes, and defending Hiigara itself.
(c) HWC, p.4, HISTORY OF THE HIIGARAN LANDFALL

The Paktu, the Manaan, the Sjet, Naabal, LiirHra, Kaalel and Soban are by far the largest kiith groupings in existence, and their combined numbers come to almost 300,000.
(c) HWC, p.5, HISTORY OF THE HIIGARAN LANDFALL

NAABAL

<Naabal> have a slightly higher percentage of Sleepers among the colonists, having argued that their expertise would be needed on their homeworld if it was found uninhabited.(c) HWR, p.210, Kiith Naabal, Naabal History

KAALEL

Thanks to their specialized knowledge of communication technologies, encryption and linguistics, Kiith Kaalel had a disproportionate number of crew members and Sleepers onboard the Mothership. Nearly half of their Kiith survived the Burning of Kharak, some 50,000 men and women!
(c) HWCO, Kiith Kaalel

LIIRHRA

The upstart kiithling LiirHra went on to be a forerunner in Kharak's conquest of space, and they were key contributors to all aspects of manufacture and research of the Mothership. Among the Sleepers, LiirHra had a presence of nearly 50,000 souls, and since the return to Hiigara they have put many of the technological advances we made during the Exodus to good use.
(c) HWCO, Kiith LiirHra

Upon landfall on Hiigara, Kiith LiirHra absorbed the survivors of Kiith Hraal to bolster their numbers
HWR, p.224, Minor and Vassal Kiith, Kiith LiirHra

PAKTU

Kiith LiirHra would compete with Kiith Paktu for aerospace technological prowess, and it was anyone's guess which Kiith would prove the stronger. When Kharak was destroyed in 1216 KDS, Kiith Paktu had a greater number of Sleepers and active personnel on the Mothership.
HWR, p.224, Minor and Vassal Kiith, Kiith LiirHra

SOMTAAW

…only 15,000 Somtaaw awakened on Kharak, less than a twentieth of their number, and the vast majority of these were men. During the Somtaaw/Naabal debate, dispossessed members of many Kharak's devastated kiithid joined the Somtaaw as family members, swelling their ranks from 15,000 to nearly 25,000 in a few short months.
(c) HWC, p.9, Kiith Somtaaw

SIIDIM

Only 200 Siidimi were accepted on the Gold List to become colonists.
(c) HWR, p.217, Kiith Siidim, The Chosen One

It was one of the great ironies of the landfall on Hiigara that some of the few Siidim that remained joined
with Kiith Manaan to survive.
(c) HWR, p.231, Modern Era Alliances, Kiith Mannan, Kiith Siidim

...Kiith Siidim's numbers had diminished too far to stand on their own, becoming absorbed by Kiith Somtaaw after landfall.
(c) HWR, p.217, Kiith Siidim, Aliens Origins

TAMBUUR

No one embodies the Kushan hatred of Imperials more perfectly than the man now known as Iifrit Tambuur'sa. Iifrit is the last living member of the Tambuur kiith, and for the past twelve years he has lived largely in the new Taidan Republic.
(c) HWC, p.7, The Rude Awakening

Only twelve members were selected for the Gold List, and of them only Ifriit Tambuur survived after the
cryo-trays were attacked by the Taiidan.
HWR, p.222, Minor and Vassal Kiith, Kiith Tambuur

S'JET

Lacking the influence of the larger Kiithid, only six hundred of their number were selected for the Mothership Program, and after landfall on Hiigara they once again became vassals to Kiith S’jet simply to survive.
HWR, p.222, Minor and Vassal Kiith, Kiith Sagald

Following landfall on Hiigara, Kiith Jaraci was absorbed into Kiith S’jet. Remarkably, they split again seventy-five years later to once again focus on signals technology, with a preference in Progenitor sciences.
HWR, p.224, Minor and Vassal Kiith, Kiith Jaraci

TO SUM UP

  • Hiigaran Kushan population is 600k large;
  • Paktu, Manaan, S'jet, Naabal, Soban, LiirHra & Kaalel in sum are about 300k;
  • Nabaal - ~50k++ (have slightly higher percentage than others);
  • Kaalel - ~50k;
  • LiirHra - ~50k + kiith Hraal;
  • Paktu - ~50k+ (Sleepers count is bigger than LiirHra's);
  • Somtaaw - ~15k + 10k of other small kiiths, including Siidim members;
  • Siidim - 200 people, joined Somtaaw and Manaan;
  • Tambuur - 1 man survived of 12 Sleepers, probably more to join his Pauura for Taiidani sculps;
  • Sagald - 600 Sleepers, joined S'jet;
  • Jaraci - joined S'jet and 75 years later splintered out;

Hiigaran Taiidan Population

BB: I imagine back in Hiigara, once the Kushan or the Taiidan came back, whicever race you played as, they didn't kill all the people who were already on in the planet. Those people just stayed on Hiigara.
AK: Yeah, and they probably cross-pollinated the designs - the same way Britain started building fighters based on Germany's Focke-Wulf 190 at the end of WWII. The Sea Fury is basically a British version of the Focke-Wulf 190
(c) Homeworld Artbook

HWM has introduced a new Khaaneph - the Kiithless, Hiigaran Taiidans that have not left Hiigara.

Kiithless info

31 million people was there initially, and even we count that about 1/3 of it, those who had money to leave - check the wealth pyramid diagrams, has gone in a direction of Taiidan Civil War, still it's around +20 millions to Hiigara population.

So, with this Kiithless retcon, we have a situation of approx. 600k Kushan Hiigarans vs. approx. 20 millions Taiidan Hiigarans, that no one was writing about in AHL 15, only about the situation with Kiith Somtaaw being wannabe consumed by Kiith Naabal.

I believe that leads to a very unpleasant conclusion that Kushans have created their own version of Golden Million System: with Kiith members of Kiithid being above all the others, thus strengthening the Kiithid political system. Of course, such people rights disbalance would unleash Siidimism seeds, having Taiidan Hiigarans (or Hiigaran Taiidans, if you wish) as the 2nd sort citizens, leaving them to live in a situation of growing unemployment, poverty, criminality, corruption, marginalization, radicalism, thus creating a prejudice of "What good can come out of Taiidan?".

With the constant threat of Imperialist rule, for many Kushan, the only good Taidani is a dead one and even the moderates are pushing for the annexation of nearby former Taidan worlds in the name of security for Hiigara.
(c) HWC, p.6, C1 Historical Brief, The Rude Awakening

Finally, the racism is pretty fractal in it's essence, so in the end the Kiithid would fight for power trying to find out who's the Kushaniest of all the Kushanid, and is most righteous Kiith to become the Sa-Kiith, a leader kiith, and why can't it consume a bit more kiithid for this goal? As we saw in HWC, if you don't have a Battle Fleet, you'd be easily lost in the Game of Kiithid.

Taiidan Population

A powerful group of military, political and economic figures had been plotting a coup in secret for years, staying only steps ahead of one purge or another as they looked desperately for the trigger that could sway 360 billon souls against their God-like Emperor.
HWC, p.14, The Taidan Republic, The End of the Imperial Era

The Taidan Empire of Year 0 AL (9510 Galactic Standard Year) held 150 star systems in its grip...
HWC, p.14, The Taidan Republic, The End of the Imperial Era

So, this is what we know about the Taiidan Empire population: 360 billion people, 150 star systems.

But what about the Taiidan Republic?

After 5 years of skirmishes and all-out battles, the Taidan Republic finally stabilized and established an uneasy peace within itself...but by the time the shooting stopped, only 60 out of a 150 star systems were willing to call themselves Taidani. Most of these loyal worlds are centered in the Galactic Core, while the spiral regions of the old Empire have splintered into a variety of small kingdoms, duchies and independent democratic states.
HWC, p.15, The Taidan Republic, The Taidan Republic

So, we we might only guess how big is the remaining population - if the population would be spread evenly across all the star systems, it would be 60:150*360 ~= 144 billions. But I believe, that the world on the edge of Taiidan Empire had less population than the core worlds. So my guesstimate would be around 60% to remain Taiidani.

At the Empire’s fall there were 137 Saarkin Cho on active duty, and by the time the ashes of the civil war cooled approximately 70 of these heavy carriers were still active, 19 of these flying the colors of the Imperialist faction.
HWC, p.15, The Taidan Republic, The Taidan Republic

Another guesstimate is that this power proportion - 19/51 - might tell us the difference of star systems and population number between Taiidani Republic and Imperialists. But again, this is a linear function which might be not very correct in this case.

Age of S'jet

HW POP Nimbus

A 5-light-year sphere of influence was also granted the new Hiigarans, in recognition of their aid to the Republic during the dark days of the Coup
HWC, p.15, The Taidan Republic, The Taidan Republic

Under the guidance of Karan S’jet, the Hiigarans have forged an empire spanning the Inner Rim.
(c) HW2, Gameplay Guide, p.2, The Hiigarans

I'm not that tempted in politics, but do you know if an Empire can be a Republic?

They were a proud people with an even prouder past, and no longer mere Exiles, but Hiigarans. They had faced endless trials and bitter enemies, and yet in the face of every challenge they had built a republic spanning nearly 40 worlds at its height
(c) HW2PR, p. 167, Appendix C: The History of Hiigara, Rebuilding

Once there were questions if it was possible to make HW2 180 million population of Hiigara out of 600k Sleepers with eventual approximal calculations approving it's possible, but now we can see that it was a wrong question: it appears that 180 millions belonged to just 1 world of 40, thus the total number grows bigger. And it seems that those Taiidan Hiigarans could play a role in this, making this task easier.

As well, it seems that some of these 40 worlds were taken from Taiidan borderland while while they were busy with their Civil War...

…even the moderates are pushing for the annexation of nearby former Taidan worlds...
(c) HWC, p.6, C1 Historical Brief, The Rude Awakening

Kiithless & Kiithid

“The two dark ships became one with the darkness, separated by the Solar System and drifting further apart. Carrying with them the entirety of human thoughts and memories, and embracing all of the Earth’s glory and dreams, they quietly disappeared into the eternal night.”
(c) Liu Cixin, The Dark Forest

However, as those with no Kiith gained power on Hiigara, the ancient clans turned their ambitions outward.
<…>
Each Kiith and clan began to construct their own fleets once again. Though the Hiigaran people were unified by destiny, new ambitions began seeking different paths. All of the Kiith were going their own way.
<…>
Cast out of their world, the old Kiith clans departed. Some would never return.
(c) HWM Intro cutscene

It's interesting to see how Vaygr War has shifted a structure of Hiigaran society: kiithless has prevailed and kiithid used new opportunities to find their ways somewhere completely outside. But it doesn't feel like it was something peaceful in its essence:

"After reinforcing their rule over Hiigara’s central government, the Kiithless moved to gain control over the Hiigaran navy"
<…>
"the Kiithless have begun launching their own treasure-seeking expeditions"
<…>
"Hiigaran Special Service Forces – a new operations force in the Hiigaran navy which is rapidly becoming the militant arm of the Kiithless Hiigarans"
(c) HWM, Ambitions and Vectors

And while administrative part is pretty clear - kiithless have managed to prevail after a century of oppressions - the military power division has its issues: it looks like the new Hiigaran administration is smart enough to not let it loose to the brink of a civil war, irritating the ones with the guns, as they are not really in control there, but they are happy to blow off steam to another galaxy.

So, I assume that post Vaygr War power positions on Hiigara are following:

  • KIITHID FLEETS
    those who hold to good old' Kharakian traditions, Hiigaran Kushans; are they like Yakuza now?..
    Those Warrior Kiiths from HWC - Naabal, S'jet, Soban, Manaan, Paktu, Kaalel, LiirHra, Somtaaw and other kiithid;
    While many of the established Kiith accused Somtaaw of further undermining the ancient social systems for their own benefit, the result was Somtaaw was granted access to the Mothership Station for a period of six months.
    Mothership access for other lesser Kiith soon followed.
    (c) HWC, Historical Brief, p.12, Kiith History: Somtaaw
  • UNIFIED HIIGARAN FLEET
    those who are tired of the old Kharakian traditions; Hiigaran Kushans with Hiigaran Taiidans;
    These guys are controlled directly by the Great Daiamid, but a century of apartheid politics would have added some kiithid-supporting and/or kiithless not supporting guys to the top of command building their own trusted men lines, so Hiigaran Navy obedience is also pretty fragile thing;
  • KIITHLESS FLEET
    those who want to break enslaving Kharakian traditions, Hiigaran Taiidans, in general;
    A new power controlled by the Great Daiamid majority powers, this time without "but's". Technically, is a part of Hiigaran Navy but in time would consume it by putting trusted men to the key positions. At least in the HW Original Galaxy.

It seems that in the Original Galaxy Hiigaran population is getting into a natural order: they are becoming Taiidans with forced influence of Kushan culture. The Hiigarans. Interesting what relations do they have with the Taiidan Republic now?..

Nimbus Galaxy seems to receive a bit of all those guys: kiithid guys, the "Kharakians", UHF guys, the "Old-Hiigarans" and kiithless guys "New-Hiigarans", and probably the amount of them would be the "traditional" number of around half-million people. At least, they managed to establish a separate Hiigaran state of Medea.

Probably, traditionalist neo-feodal Kiithid leaving into Nimbus establishing Medea state is a best way to preserve corporatocratic Kharakian culture, leaving OG to Taiidans that have consumed both old Hiigarans, new Vaygrs and whoever there was in the middle.

As well, we know some Vaygr forces managed to sneak-in to Nimbus, with their number uncertain.

Imogen & Isaac

But it's interesting how HWM and HW3 are having conflicting messages: HWM tells us a story of Kiithid system fall with the kiith traditionalists self-exiling to the Nimbus galaxy, Kiithless prevail and all-Hiigaran unification, but HW3, a century later, still exploits the kiithid feature with Imogen S'jet and Isaac Paktu.

Well, probably, according to the languagial history, Naabal's Northern Coalition spiritually became an owner of Hiigara, and Paktu's Southern Federation descendants still competed it, but being the minority they became kiithid traditionalists.

And S'jet… I guess, S'jet-sid didn't want to let the power strings loose thus remaining a "good ol' Levi's tribe of Kharak". Well, those two kiiths seemed to be pretty much liberal, but it seems that it only seemed - like in those optic illusions when the same color does not feel the same only because of the contrasting color nearby; and in this case the Heresy Wars of Gaalsien and Siidim made future Northern Coalition and Southern Federation look brighter but that Shadow of Kharakian culture is always to remain, unconsciously repeating learned patterns thus old systems and related problems - you know, "artist-creation" issue when you can't hide from yourself.

As well, it looks like Imogen and Isaac are sort of a new Hiigaran Kushan aristocrats, so we still have here Homeworld "princess" situation...

And thus, the Hiigarian Atlas, that shrugged by starting the Old Taiidani War, then Kharakian ecological catastrophe, Heresy Wars, Kadeshi Slaughter, Kiithless Apartheid, probably, Eye of Aarran anomaly, continues to go baldly into the Universe.

Outro

In this article I've tried to think over few things that I was thinking about and discussing lately. Of course, no answers to a lot of issues in HW Universe, as there are blank creative spaces yet to be written, but I've tried to enlarge some of these areas by analyzing existing data, following where could these hints lead us.

And of course, there are still questions:

  • where are those hundreds of Exile ships gone? Are they Turanics now, for example?
  • how many Vaygrs there was, if they've managed to conquer half of the galaxy, including Taiidans?
  • what about the other HW original galaxy factions? Would Marcus Skyler write more about them?
  • would Norsehound create more data about the Nimbus galaxy?
  • what about the other 2 galaxies?
  • and so on...

Anyway, I hope you've found this article worth to spend your time on it :)

Changelog

  • 15.03.24 - updated mouse picture
  • 31.12.23 - finalized v1.0
  • 10.01.24 - added a HWC quote about "good Taiidani is a dead one"
  • 23.01.24 - added a question about Kathedral of Kadesh
  • 02.02.24 - added part about Survivors of Kharak
  • 22.02.24 - added a Hiigara Paradox text

Read More Of Homeworld

Homeworld: The Stranger Things II

HW STRTH2 Header

Though I'd like to, but there is no possibility to include everything in one article as I cannot add a sentence anymore. So I decided to split it to HW1-2-C/E-DOK and HWR-HWM-HW3 dedicated articles.

So, as previously, here I'd like to gather all the mistakes and curious things of Homeworld Universe that I've found. I hope it would be useful the creators of a new HWU content. And I really hope that there would be a proof-reader for the upcoming HW3, because at least the names should be fixed and "canonized" across all the texts.

Contents

  1. The Sources
  2. HOMEWORLD REVELATIONS
    • The Book Cover
    • A Matter of Time
    • The Last Crusade of Gaalsi
    • Planet Killers
    • Star-Metal Scrolls Author
    • Kharakian Artifacts
    • The Return of Gaalsi
    • Rail Paktu
    • United Kiithid of Paktu
    • The S'jet-Sid
    • The Shimmering Path
    • Mevath Sagald's Discovery
    • Who Killed Kiith Ferriil
    • A Question of XenoGenesis
    • Scaffold Once Again
    • The Naabal-Soban Pact
    • The Birthday of Hraal
    • LiirHra The Minor Kiith
    • Swords of Kharak
    • The Core of Youth
  3. HOMEWORLD MOBILE
    • Uncounted Population
    • Unwelcomed Passenger
  4. HOMEWORLD 3
    • Indestructible Cores

The Sources

  • HW1 - Homeworld 1, manual, game
  • HWC - Homeworld Cataclysm/Emergence, manual, game
  • HWCO - Homeworld Cataclysm, outtakes
  • HWWOS - HW and HWC ship descriptions, well of souls
  • HW2 - Homeworld 2, manual, game
  • HW2PR - Homeworld 2, Prima Official eGuide
  • HWDOK - Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, Expedition Guide, game
  • HWR - Homeworld: Revelations RPG
  • HWRS - Homeworld: Revelations RPG Story Seeds
  • HWM - Homeworld: Mobile, homeworldsource.net
  • HW3 - Homeworld 3
  • HWDST - Homeworld Dust Wars drafts

HOMEWORLD REVELATIONS

The Book Cover

First of all, the book's cover: while all the story of HWR is covering HW1 events only and a non-essential bit about the future events, the cover has the HW2 sigil on it instead of HW1's one. And from this point of view, I'd love to see that kind of a picture on a book dedicated to HW1 events:

Stoned Homeworld

Instead of this beautiful art of a Kushan-Taiidan space battle, which right half is positioned on the left side, and left - on the right side of the book, I'd love to see Kharak and Galaxy maps, that are more critical for a RPG player (like it was done in Alien RPG book).

homeworld revelations gamemaster screen

Maybe even I'd love to see several books instead of 1, dedicated to and around:

  1. Kharak civilization times, with Northern Coalition sigil on a cover;
  2. Homeworld War times (~AHL 0), with a classic Guidestone sigil on a cover, including HWC times;
  3. Vaygr War times (~AHL 115), with Unified Hiigaran Fleet sigil on a cover;
  4. Nimbus Galaxy life (~AHL 119), with all the new information created for this project;
  5. And probably, HW3 introducing new Era (~AHL 215) with a new galaxy would require this as well;

But probably, I'm just longing for some HWU art/lore combination book, without any other extras. Somewhat of "Horus Heresy: Visions of Heresy". Anyway, HWR is worth buying, if you like HWU.

A Matter of Time

This a table from HWR, p.168, A Matter of Time. If you would look attentively, you will find that there is a dublication error in between The Exile and Age of Reason.

HWR Timeline

But the main problem is with the Exile finish date (GSY 7800) and the Early Settlement. The very next page tells a bit different story:

• ~7500 GSY Exiles Land on Kharak
• 8294 GSY Kiith S'jet Establishes Kharakian Dating System
(c) HWR, p.169, Timeline of the Kushan

So, when did Kushani landed on Kharak? In GSY 7500 or GSY 7800? So how many did they spent on Kharak before the KDS 0? 500 years or 800 years? And what did they do all that time?..

The Last Crusade of Gaalsi

KDS 700 Final Southern Crusade
(c) HWR, p.169, Timeline of the Kushan

A little bit more details can be found here:

There were at least three major attempts to assault the southern lands from 652-700. The last of these was the most successful; the army of Liam Gaalsi actually arrived at the pass of the Hunon mountains almost intact in the spring of 698, ready to subdue the unruly kiithid of the southlands and their kiith-sa.
HW1, Historical Briefing, p.27, Kiith Paktu

So, I read it as a period of KDS 652-700 is just a round-up, and this really has ended with the Final Crusade of KDS 698. And doubtfully that after such a great loss any new expeditions across the Great Banded Desert would be done in 2 years left. And HWDOK strongly states the date of the last one.

KDS 698
Kim Paktu, the grandson of Majiir Paktu and leader of the Paktu kiith'sa, defeats Liam Gaalsien and his men in the Battle of the Majiirian Sea. It was the last crusade ever attempted against the Paktu.
(c) HWDOK, History of Kharak

Planet Killers

Planet killers

Immense, starship-shaped vessels with atmosphere-igniting missiles, these ships were deployed near the end of the Vaygr War in an attempt to do to Hiigara what the Taiidan did to Kharak. Indeed, some similarities between these ships and those that committed the Kharakian Genocide suggest a common designer, or at least common design principles
(c) HWR, p.194, Planet Killers

That's a really strange sentence. If by "by these ships" are meant starship-shaped vessels, then none of them were seen at Kharak, though the "design" idea might point to the return of T-Mat. If it's about the missiles, then it's OK, Taiidani tech taken by Vaygr.

Star-Metal Scrolls Author

Necronomicon

Said to have been written by Sajuuk himself in a language no others could read, this set of scrolls is sacred to the Somtaaw.
(c) HWR, p.194, Star-Metal Scrolls

Actually, originally the author was a different guy:

…the famed Star-Metal Scrolls, which were alleged to have been written by the hand of Jakuul Himself, in a language which no living man could read.
(c) HWC, p.9, Historical Brief, Kiith History: Somtaaw

That one guy was one mentioned in a relations to the story of the famous heretical Naabal, the kiith who defeated Sajuuk-praying Gaalsi

The Naabal had been keeping the secrets of explosives, steam and refining for more than a hundred years, and when they rose, they swept out of their hidden city of Tiir like the gleaming servants of Jaakul himself.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.33, Kiith Naabal

Naabal-sa, who defeated religious kiith Gaalsien, was called Ifriit. Just listen to this: Ifrit Baal… I guess, it's the link to the theosophical version of Devil: Luciferus, the Light Bringer, the gleaming servants of Jakuul - jackal, Anubis, the God of Death…. No wonder they were considered heretics! This is the world where Baal prophets were the ones who ignited the fire of Prometheus...

And following the reference of Alfred Nobel (will be there any Naabel Prize?), they most probably used a lot of explosions and other chemical fire along machineguns and steam machines. Pure demons! Must have been smoking tobacco from the southern plantations of Paktu, as well!..

Ifriit Naabal loves the smell of Napalm

Kharakian Artifacts

HW STRTH2 HWR Artifacts

Up until the discovery of Khar Toba, most serious Kharakian scholars had assumed that the Somtaaw's Star Metal Scrolls were just a myth, very much like their Chalice of Life or any other mystical refuse from Kharakian legend. Before the discovery of the Guidestone, the Star-Metal Scrolls were put into the same category as Soban's sword Caaliburnos, or the Burning Spear of Gaalsi.
(c) HWC, p.9, Historical Brief, Kiith History: Somtaaw

So, there were Kharakian Legends about Sobani sword Caaliburnos, and the Gaalsi Burning Spear. But instead of sand stories about Soban The Red being given a magic sword by the spirit of Sparkling Desert to revenge, or desperate adventurers expeditions to the lost bunkers of Gaalsien in a search for their ancient Sajuuk magic artifact, we were given some strange stories about pre-Kharak sword, and out-of-Kharak spear.

Initially, it was an actual sword: a relic from the earliest days of Kushan culture on Hiigara.
(c) HWR, p.196, Sword of Caaliburnous

The Burning Spear vanishes entirely from authoritative record-keeping in the years just before Hiigarans discovered the Hyperspace Core. The last vessel to bear a Burning Spear weapon, the Terimah-Datang, exploded losing all hands, during a systems test at the edge of the Hiigara system
(c) HWR, p.196, The Burning Spear

I simply cannot accept those stories as a canon. Well, except maybe for this, looks OK:

In the fifteenth year AHL, a group of engineers from Kiith Naabal forged a new Sword, made of ore from both Hiigara and Kharak, as well as scrap metal taken from the Mothership.
(c) HWR, p.196, Sword of Caaliburnous

The Return of Gaalsi

Gaalsi Attack

The Kiith was thought nearly extinct until they began attacking the northern Kiithid with advanced weaponry salvaged from crashed spaceships in 1075 KDS.
(c) HWR, p.200, Kiith Gaalsien, Gaalsien History

Well, according to HWDOK, Gaalsien attacks began a little bit earlier, there was even a whole The Drifting Seas Campaign in KDS 1081-1083. Strange that this night was not mentioned in Gaalsien history.

KDS 1074
The Night of Fiery Daggers (Siifar Kor'shesh). On the first night of 1074, ten thousand Gaalsien soldiers attack the twin forts along the StormBreaker Wall.
(c) HWDOK, History of Kharak

And those black sado-mazo suits with a superhero capes… Ok, you want them look like Nazi, though it's Siidim thing, but well, the black color is not suitable for the deserts anyhow - nor it's masking, nor it's anti-heat color. Things should be practical - you know, they are living there, not showing off.

Rail Paktu

Desert Train

It wasn’t until Kiith Naabal laid the Great Northern Way, connecting north and south by steam car,
that the Paktu were reintroduced to the rest of Kushan society.
<…>
Though they were invited to the Daiamid in 820 KDS, Kiith Paktu only maintained a token presence there until the Great Northern Way was opened up in 912 KDS by Kiith Naabal.
(c) HWR, p.201, C7, Kiith Paktu

Until the Great Northern Way was constructed in 912, passage to the south was perilous for conventional sand-sailers.
<…>
Although Kiith Paktu officially accepted the invitation into the Daiamid in 915, the southern Kiith maintained only a token presence in Tiir.
(c) HWR, p.227, Kiith Paktu and the Southern Coalition

Actually, according to HW1 and HWDOK kiith Naabal info it has happened around KDS 830+200:

By the Time of Reason 200 years later, Kiith Naabal had replaced the perilous sand-sail routes to the south with rail-mounted steam cars, and had given Kiith Paktu-Sa of the southern polar region a permanent presence in the Daiamid.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.34, Kiith Naabal // HWDOK, Kharakid Social Systems, Naabal

Of course, we can think of it, like there was a Great Northern Way in KDS 912, and then the railways were added in KDS 1030, but still this vague explanation doesn't solve the issue with kiith Paktu Daiamid token and permanent presence times.

United Kiithid of Paktu

HWR has introduced us the Southern Coalition, lead by kiith Paktu:

Kiith Paktu and the Southern Coalition
(c) HWR, p.226, C7

After the Manaan, Kiith S’jet is one of the few to hold respect from the Kiith who formed the Southern Coalition.
(c) HWR, p.230, C7, Kiith Paktu

But, as we see in HW1, it was not another mirror Coalition - it was the Southern Federation:

Prior to the emergence of the Southern Federation and the Naabel intervention, very few Kharakians had ties outside their own kiith…
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.28, Kiith Soban // HWDOK, Kharakid Social Systems, Soban

As well, Southern Federation is mentioned in HWC Outtakes, so the idea of a Southern pole state was pretty much established:

Emerging from under the wing of Kiith Naabal when the Great Daiamid was established, the Hraal were most notable for their application and improvement on the Naabal's basic steam engine. Hraal owned several steam-powered factories by the year 830, and hand in hand with its sister Kiithid, who collectively became known as the "Naabal Kiithlings," the Hraal eventually built the rail lines which linked the northern hemisphere with the rapidly growing Southern Federation.
(c) HWCO, Kiith LiirHra

Prior to Exodus, members of the Southern Federation had the most experience with life in a water- and oxygen-rich climate.
(c) HWCO, History of the Landfall

And the difference between a Coalition and a Federation is like a difference between NATO (maybe EU) and USA, a decree of independence. So this is a bit more important than it sounds in defining the strength of Paktu.

The S'jet-Sid

Rachel Sjet

Karan Sjet, the only daughter of Huur Sjet-Sa and in direct line for the leadership of all Kiith Sjet
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.32, Kiith Sjet

Gaarket, (he's our S'jet-Sa now, can you believe it?)
(c) HWDOK, Rachel's Personal Journal, The Journey Begins

Rachel S'jet was instrumental in the success of the mission and locating the First City of KharToba. Still later as S'jet-Sa she supported the findings of Mevath Sagald when she presented the Guidestone to the Daiamid in 1155 KDS. More recently Karan S'jet, next in line for the position of Sa with her people, offered herself up for an experimental surgery to solve a critical problem with the Mothership's computer systems.
(c) HWR, p.207, S'jet History

So, it feels like the line of S'jet-Sid is the following: Fliir -> … -> Gaarket -> Rachel -> Huur -> Karan.

Of course, it feels like with the words of "Karan S'jet, next in line for the position of Sa" Homeworld Revelations has forgotten about Huur S'jet-Sa, but we do remember.

The Shimmering Path

Tibet Fortress

The origins of Kiith Somtaaw are lost to time, but it is known they must have found passage through the Khontala Mountain range sometime in the mid 200s. Allegedly receiving visions from Sajuuk, the earliest
Sas of Kiith Somtaaw established the thirty three temples of the Shimmering Path leading up to the summit of Lungma Jiin.
(c) HWR, p.215, Somtaaw History

Well, both HWC and HWDOK, tell it has happened a bit earlier, and it's even know who was that Sa:

Starting in the year 178 KDS, Kharakian artists from various disciplines were gathered under the patronage of Teigor Somtaaw, one of the most enlightened kiithid of his time. Employing hundreds of skilled masons, painters, architects and weavers, Kiith Somtaaw began building a series of temples on the slopes of the mountain called Lungma Jiin, “The Roof of the World”.
(c) HWC, p.9, Historical Brief, Kiith History: Somtaaw

Mevath Sagald's Discovery

Sagald Discovery

…the Kiith was the only one specializing in cultural archaeology when Khar-Toba was uncovered in 1110 KDS.
Kiith Sagald was immediately summoned to oversee the excavation work, and after thirty years they were the only ones to remain on the site as interest wandered away from the past. Mevath Sagald, the last director overseeing the excavation of the ancient city, single-handedly discovered the Guidestone
within the shielded celestial temple.
Electing to analyze the object after recognizing its significance, Mevath spend twenty years on the task before succesfully authenticating it.
(c) HWR, p.222, Kiith Sagald

So, according to this info, the Guidestone discovery has happened in KDS 1140, and the authentication of it - KDS 1160, which confronts the previously known data:

In a decade of analysis, we were ready to take our first steps back out into the galaxy, but it was not
until 1135 that it was revealed just how far we had to go.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.4, The Discovery of Khar-Toba

So, 20 years research of the Guidestone is OK - in HW1 the Guidestone is found in KDS 1135, and the Global Plebiscite happened in KDS 1155; but it's 25 years not 30 since the Operation Khadiim of KDS 1110.

But, in the end, it might be just a miswording, and tried to tell, that 30 years since the Jaraci Object discovery the interest to it has diminished, and the Kiith Sagald was only to remain on site…

Who Killed Kiith Ferriil

White Sun of a Desert

Of the three major religious kiithid, Gaalsien, Ferriil, and Somtaaw, it was Gaalsien that preached the strongest message of punishment.
(c) HW1, Historical Brief, p.22, Kiith Gaalsien

While HW1 backstory stated that kiith Ferriil was still there being a major religious kiith - actually, with that statement their insignia is to be put on Khar-Toba wall, - HWR has decided to get rid of them:

Kiith Ferrill: a lesser religious Kiith destroyed by Kiith Gaalsien during the Heresy wars. While active, they were staunch allies of Kiith Siidim.
(c) HWR, p.174, Gone But Not Forgotten

The last and most enlightened of the religious Kiithid of early Kharak history, Kiith Ferriil enjoyed a period of power between 300 and 530 KDS before the Heresy Wars took hold. To oppose the stronger Gaalsien they allied with the Siidim in the belief that the two major religious Kiithid could crush the one.
By the late 700s, however, it was evident Kiith Ferriil was in decline.
At the infamous battle of Danac in 811 KDS, the greatest army assembled by Kiith Ferriil was poised to assist Kiith Siidim in repulsing the relentless assault of the Naabal. The order to advance never came from Kiith Siidim, and the Ferriil found themselves suddenly attacked by the armies of Naabal. Unable to mount a counter-attack of any kind the entire army was wiped out, and with it the largest demonstration of power the Ferriil had.
Shortly afterwards Kiith Siidim absorbed Kiith Ferriil’s holdings into their ranks, starting a long-lasting accusation that Kiith Siidim arranged the destruction of the Ferriil army in order to gain their assets and wealth. By the end of the Heresy Wars, Kiith Ferriil was no more.
(c) HWR, p.223, Minor and Vassal Kiith, Kiith Ferriil

Well, the first quote marks kiith Ferriil as a victim of kiith Gaalsien, the second quote - the betrayal of Siidim and brute force of Naabal. Well, it looks like another hidden agreement of kiith Naabal, this time with kiith Siidim, with making kiith Gaalsien a scapegoat of this story - well, they are sanctified and cancelled anyway, so who cares? Who cared for the truth of J'raal Hraal? S'jet, maybe?..

The family honor comes a poor second, as always, to survival; surrendering to necessity is an ancient tradition among the Kushan.
(c) HWC, Historical Brief, p.5, History of the Hiigaran Landfall

A Question of XenoGenesis

XenoGenesis Conspiracy

While the issue of our distant past was primarily a religious matter, it wasn't until the dawning of the Time of Reason that advances in the biological and chemical sciences revealed a disturbing lack of commonality between our biochemical makeup and that of most Kharakid life. Ironically, it was the birth of the Daiamid
Movement, with its many scientific breakthroughs, that created a philosophical environment where the
oldest myths and the newest theories could be wedded into what we now have accepted as the XenoGenesis Theory.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.1, A Question of Origins

As the Time of Reason progressed, Kiith Sjet expanded their studies and moved away from the tradition of celestial mechanics and mathematics. Various families began to delve into the nature and origin of life on Kharak. Within a century, Kriil Sjet presented a paper to the Daiamid in Tiir presenting the scientific evidence that we bore little biological similarity to the vast majority of Kharakid life.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.31, Kiith Sjet

Combined with genetic analysis provided by Kriil S'jet in 836, the Guidestone offered the final piece of the puzzle of the Kushan's origins on the planet.
(c) HWR, p.227, Post-Guidestone Discovery

Well, while HW1 source states that the Daiamid movement (KDS 830) has created a philosophical environment to debate over new theories, and within a century (KDS 830-930) a XenoGenesis theory was born. So, from this description I'd say that "within a century" would mean some rough round up, like it has happened in early KDS 900's, over 50% of a century. But not only 6 years after the Time/Age of Reason begins.

As well, imagine, that it's like a Darwin's theory in reverse: Kharakian scientist was proving that Kharakid were siidims, people from stars! The news similar to announcement that Kharak is dying, but this time the gospel not of Gaalsien but Siidim. And it would happen in only several years since the Heresy Wars official ended. And anyway it would have some scientific and political reaction, while people would start to accept it, while it goes from science journals to the Daiamid pop-science lecture. So, I believe the author of this article has a bit rushed with a date.

Scaffold Once Again

Scaffold with Mothership

The plan was adopted into action in the first Triad of 1159. <…>
Over the course of 110 years, the Scaffold, and then the Mothership, were slowly built.
(c) HWR, p.228, Post-Guidestone Discovery

It's a quite strange number of years: if we count plus it's KDS 1269, meaningless date; but if we remember the Mothership was finalized in KDS 1216, so the beginning of a "course" should be at KDS 1106, this date is more known, the Khar-Toba detection year. Though it's vaguely related to the previous text, maybe it was the idea the author tried to tell, but I believe it should be rephrased in HWR's next edition.

The Naabal-Soban Pact

Soban Rituals

This treaty held until the Naabal allowed warriors from Kiith Soban to enter an ambush. This betrayal sundered the trust between the two sides, though a permanent alliance was reforged between them during the construction of the Mothership.
(c) HWR, p.230, Modern Era Alliances, Kiith Soban, Kiith Naabal

Probably, this betrayal is a reference to the Dispute of Hatar - though ambush is hardly called "dispute":

Kiith Soban was not blind to the war destroying their planet, but it was paralyzed over which side to assist to end the war. Secretly Kiith Naabal contacted the Soban-Sa with a proposition. In exchange for advanced technology, no Soban would lift a hand against the Naabal. The agreement lasted for a hundred years after the Heresy Wars, ending with the Dispute at Hatar.
(c) HWR, p.205, The Gilded Night

So, the probable date of this agreement should be around KDS 810, and the Dispute has happened around KDS 910. But this is the Time of Reason already, and what kind of battles there were, not clear. For me it's the Night of Fiery Daggers when the Naabali used other kiiths as a bait for Gaalsien, only at last crying "Bring the Red!" for 2 legions of Sobani mercenaries… Anyway, this story should be clarified much more.

The Birthday of Hraal

Tiir Capitol

So, when did the Kiith Hraal born? In texts we can find only relative links to this date:

Hraal was borne out of the chaos at the end of the Heresy Wars. <…> When the sun came up and the doors of the new Daiamid were opened, a new kiith entered and a new Sa took her place among them, seating herself as an Equal among Equals. <…> Kiith Hraal survived, and was recognized formally as a legitimate Kiith.
(c) HWDOK, Hraal

So, the formation date is related to the end of the Heresy Wars and new Daiamid establishment. And HWR makes it tightly bound to this events:

Days after the formation of the Daiamid, five Kiith that faced absorption from the larger Kiithid met in a tent outside Tiir and discussed the fate that awaited them. <…> Only the amused interjections of Kiith Paktu, Somtaaw, and Soban maintained calm, and allowed the proceedings to continue
(c) HWR, p.219, Kiith Hraal, Hraal History

Homeworld manual has set only 1 hard date about these events: KDS 810, the Intervention. Second date we get from "within 20 years" - around KDS 830, Tiir becomes the Northern Capital.

In 810, with all factions exhausted and falling from internal anarchy, a small clan emerged from hiding from the settlement at Tiir. <…> A few decisive battles showed that none of the theological clans could hope to defeat the Naabel and within 20 years Tiir was the new capital and the Age of Reason had begun.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.2, TOR (Time Of Reason)

And third date arrives from the Heresy Wars official beginning, KDS 520: the Wars period for "almost", "nearly" "300 years of war", which means that the ending is around ~KDS 820.

This came to a head in 520... <…> …lasted almost 300 years
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.1, Heresy Wars

But there is a phrase about Ifriit Naabal-Sa ending all the fights in 3 years - so, it's KDS 813! And after that the Kiith-Sa has established the Daiamid.

And in three short years they had done it. Ifriit Naabal-Sa's last act before stepping down as Sa was to establish the Daiamid in Tiir as a place where all kiith, powerful and weak, could gather to resolves disputes and set policy for all of Kharak.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.34, The Kiith Naabal

HWDOK wasn't discussing these dates, as it was concentrating on retconning of 11th and 12th century of Kharakian history, so it has left this vague "approx. 300 years":

Heresy Wars begin (approx. 520KDS to 820KDS)
(c) HWDOK, History of Kharak

But HWR authors took this "approx. 3 centuries" as hard 300 years:

KDS 820 Heresy Wars End
(c) HWR, p.169, Timeline of the Kushan

Within ten years, they won the Heresy Wars.
(c) HWR, p.210, Kiith Naabel, Naabal History

The Heresy Wars lasted 300 years and ended with the capitulation of Kiith Siidim in the three-day siege of Mataar in 820 KDS
(c) HWR, p.216, Kiith Siidim, The Chosen Ones

Though they were invited to the Daiamid in 820 KDS, Kiith Paktu only maintained a token presence there until the Great Northern Way was opened up in 912 KDS by Kiith Naabal.
(c) HWR, p.201, The Distant Kiithid

But probably somebody has read Kiith Naabal history more attentively and that one realised that here is the date and it needs to be put in.

The Daiamid established by Ifriit Naabal-Sa in 813 KDS did much to shape the current political landscape of the Kiithid, especially in the north.
(c) HWR, p.225, Kiith Politics, Alliances Form, The Daiamid

A harsh task because originally the Heresy Wars must end and then the Daiamid established, but here we have the Daiamid founded in KDS 813, but the Heresy Wars finished in KDS 820... And if we take it as KDS 813, then it ruins Paktu presence in the Daiamid, as they were invited there only in KDS 820!

No matter, what date it is, the sequence must be following:

  • KDS 810
    Kiith Naabal begins the Intervention
  • KDS 8xx
    The Heresy Wars end
  • KDS 8xx
    The Daiamid established by Ifriit Naabal-Sa
    Kiith Paktu is invited to the Daiamid
    Kiith Hraal is formed
  • KDS 830
    Tiir becomes a capitol of the North

And I'm OK for everything to happen in KDS 820, the capitulation of Siidim, the United Kiithid formation and so, especially the Gaalsien dates of Saju-Ka related evens moved 1 century forward… Though it's would a mystery how the Gaalsien were condemned in a non-existent Daiamid… We can imagine that there were 2 Daiamids - one for Naabali, and the other one was planned by Ifriit Naabal-Sa as the Daiamid of Daiamids, the Great Daiamid, uniting all the Kharak, both polar regions, making Kharak great... for the first time?..

Or everything should be assigned to KDS 813 instead. Anyway, no matter how, the events of those 20 years should be corrected to have one truth.

LiirHra The Minor Kiith

LiirHra Aerospace Industries

When this gambit failed, the entire manufacturing branch of Kiith Hraal broke away and joined with a relatively small kiith that specialized in space technologies. The new kiith, LiirHra, has gone on to take the lead in the design and construction of the Mothership.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.22, the Kharakid Social System

Despite its foundation in adaptability, many engineers and scientists of Hraal broke away to form Kiith LiirHra in 1012 KDS, which shifted their combined holdings from manufacturing assets in terrestrial hardware to aerospace fabrication and orbital deployment. Their argument is that LiirHra will soon be in a position to dominate the next frontier of Kharakian engineering and technology.
(c) HWDOK, Kiith Hraal

By the time of the Exodus, Kiith Somtaaw was nearly 500,000 strong, and had even built new holdings alongside great industrial kiithid like Naabal and LiirHra, to the extent of opening off-planet mines in the Kharakian asteroid belt.
(c) HWC, Historical Brief, p.11, Kiith History: Somtaaw

…the Hraal'sa of the time quickly found himself deposed by his sister. The upstart kiithling LiirHra went on to be a forerunner in Kharak's conquest of space, and they were key contributors to all aspects of manufacture and research of the Mothership. Among the Sleepers, LiirHra had a presence of nearly 50,000 souls…
(c) HWCO, Kiith LiirHra

The Paktu, the Manaan, the Sjet, Naabal, LiirHra, Kaalel and Soban are by far the largest kiith groupings in existence, and their combined numbers come to almost 300,000.
(c) HWC, Historical Brief, p.5, History of Hiigaran Landfall

The result of this phenomenal output has been a new Hiigaran navy, which consists of six great Fleets; the largest of our present-day kiithid have each taken command of an autonomous carrier group. The fleets of Manaan, Soban, Naabal, LiirHra, Paktu and Kaalel take turns patrolling the outer systems, guarding our trade routes, and defending Hiigara itself.
(c) HWC, Historical Brief, p.4, History of Hiigaran Landfall

Well, Kiith LiirHra had been put into the "Minor and Vassal Kiith" chapter (HWR, p.222). Maybe, this kind of situation was on Kharak, but not after Hiigaran Landfall..

And even more, it's strange that there is no LiirHra in expeditions to Nimbus Galaxy (HWM). The reasons for this, I assume, that the LiirHra sigil is still not approved…

Swords of Kharak

This one has a separate article - Homeworld: Swords of Kharak

The Core of Youth

HW KaranSjet Unattached

And as well, in HWR GHC was turned into the Fountain of Eternal Youth trying to explain why Karan S'Jet looks so great:

With her lifespan extended by her cybernetic connection to a ship older than some stars, none can tell how long she will live or what wonders she will witness before her consciousness fades.
(c) HWR, Chapter 6: Historical Briefing, A Brief History of the Kushan, Pre-Exodus, Karan S'jet, p.179

I repeat: the hypermodule is just an engine. It was never meant that there's some alien chamber that this woman is put into for something mysterious to happen. It's a human brain to human-made computer interface, and this computer is sending bytes to operate physical devices that would ignite this oscillation device, which is a complex system of its own. It's a long chain of interaction and there is no particular reason for the writers to make this "magical" shortcut supposing that the Core (be it thousand times Progenitorical) is somehow affecting the Fleet Command.

If there is some kind of "radiation", nanobots like the Dust from the Endless Space (yes-yes, the Dust Wars!) - it should have effected all the crew, but clearly it has not happened. This looks like a comics element brought to a once more or less hard sci-fi universe to justify HW2 мarketer's bite of a girly-looking Karan S'Jet.

HW STRTH2 HWR EternalYouth

I'd better set it as a Bentusi gift to an Unbound person of Karan S'Jet: using their technologies they managed to disconnect her from the Mothership, and to heal the barbaric Kharaki Tech wounds done to her brains, they also made some Bentusi genetical improvements to her body to regenerate (somewhat making her the last Bentusi...). And as these are the brains, still it required a long recovery for her, forcing to live a hermit life. All these factor has affected her significantly (including the voice ;)).

In the end the prolonged life could be a natural Homo Worldicus/Kushanikus trait - Kadeshi lived 13 generations for 2000+ years, meaning there's 150+ years on each generation. Or at least, it could be that every guy of Progenitor seed is genetically enhanced. Or at least, hyperjumps as FTL phenomena are somehow slowing down the aging for everyone involved. At least! But no strange magic in a Sci-Fi world! What next? Dr. Strange with Infinity Stones?

And... Excuse me - "a ship older than some stars"? Sajuuk is billion years old? Who wrote this?..

Homeworld Mobile

Uncounted Population

HWM History Kiithless

HWM has introduced a new Khaaneph - the Kiithless, Hiigaran Taiidans that have not left Hiigara.

31 million people was there initially, and even we count that about 1/3 of it, those who had money to leave - check the wealth pyramid diagrams, has gone in a direction of Taiidan Civil War, still it's around +20 millions to Hiigara population.

But according to HWC, there was a bit different information about it:

Nearly 550,000 of us survived the Exodus from Kharak...
(c) HWC, p.4, HISTORY OF THE HIIGARAN LANDFALL

One of the most difficult aspects of the Hiigaran Landfall was the revival of our so-called “Sleeper Kiithid”, the 92% of our current population who traveled from Kharak to Hiigara in cryogenic suspension.
(c) HWC, p.6, THE RUDE AWAKENING

So, with Kiithless retcon, we have a situation of approx. 600k Kushan Hiigarans VS approx. 20 million Taiidan Hiigarans, in AHL 15 no one is writing about, only about the situation with Kiith Somtaaw being wannabe consumed by Kiith Naabal. And that's leading into a very unpleasant situation of Kushans having created a Golden Million system, where the Kiith members are above all the others, thus strengthening the Kiith political system, pushing forward with Siidimism seeds, creating a 2nd sort citizens of Taiidan Hiigarans, leaving them to live in a situation of growing unemployment, poverty, criminality, corruption, marginalization, radicalism, thus creating a prejudice of "What good can come out of Taiidan?"; and finally, the racism is pretty fractal in it's essence, so in the end the Kiithid would fight for power thinking of who's the Kushaniest of the Kushanid and most righteous Kiith to become the Sa-Kiith, a leader kiith, and why can't it consume a bit more kiithid for this goal?

Well, though it contradicts the lore, it's very logical, creates a very interesting drama to solve, flips the table in understanding if we are really heroes, weirdly fits the HWC backstory, and makes a moral dilemma questions of Hiigarans becoming the Sajuuk-Khar through Karan S'jet, and that line is promised to be continued in HWM storyline. Let's follow it. :)

Unwelcomed Passenger

HWM Gates

If you follow the HW3 social medias you'd find an unknown name in one of those lore-cards.

It appeared that this person made it's way to Nimbus galaxy.

And while it's okay in general, in particular it would be nice to understand how did this person make this journey, as it seems from a new lore inputs that only Hiigarans are controlling those Progenitor gates, to access other galaxies. No other fleet but Hiigaran Navy had made expeditions there, no one but the Star People had been let it.

So, it requires explanation how it has happened. Joanna Naabal demands the report.

HOMEWORLD 3

Indestructible Cores

HW3 Cores Explosion

A very nice Hyper-Core destruction effect is shown in this HW3 promo-material. But.

HW2 had declared that The Great Cores are pretty indestructible:

  1. First, it was Sajuuk Wrath that hyperjumped into the Angel's Moon, and the Second Core remained OK:
    Manually disengaging the mass overrides, he plotted a course for the surface of the Hiigaran moon(c) HW2PR, A DESPERATE ESCAPE
  2. Second, it was Bentusi Harborship, that self-destructed very loud, and the First Core remained OK.
  3. Third, it was Vaygr Flagship, that was destroyed, and the Third Core remained OK.

So, if we take HW2 as a canon, then we admit that The Great Cores are very damage-proof, and it's not just one dramatic scene, but consequent statement.

Well, of course, the Flagship has been exploding earlier - in a single player campaign, and in a multiplayer, but there were no accent on the Cores and them to explode. But here... OK, the effect is beautiful, but it really goes against the established lore.

Change Log

  • 23.10.23 - divided HW: Stranger Things into 2 parts; added info about HWR: The Book Cover, HWR: United Kiithid of Paktu, HWR: Rail Paktu, HWM: Uncounted Population, HWM: Unwelcomed Passenger;
  • 11.01.24 - added chapter about the Eternal Youth Core;

Read More Of Homeworld

HOMEWORLD: THE KUSHAN VOCABULARY

HW XENOLANG Header

I wanted to push everything in one article, but I gotta stop writing such large texts:

The content field can not exceed 100000 characters in length.

Contents

  1. The Sources
  2. Kushan Language Patterns
    • Words Structure
    • Suffixes
    • Feminatives
    • Plural Form
    • Words Joints
  3. Kushan Vocabulary
    • Kharak Biom
    • Kharak Culture
    • Kharak Myths
    • Kharak Religion
    • Kharak Technology
    • Kushan Kiithid
    • Kharak Cartography
    • Kharak Personal Names
    • Ship Codenames
      • Carriers (HWDOK)
      • Gaalsien Desert Vessels (HWDOK)
      • Kushan Ships
      • Taiidan Ships
      • Ancient Hiigaran Empire Ships
  4. Kushan Vocabulary: Analysis
    • Almost Translated
    • Half-Translated
    • Not Translated
    • Literal References
    • Khar
    • Daiam, Kharam, Assam
    • Siidim, Gritiidim, Khadiim
    • ne
    • Kiithless
    • Other Combinations

The Sources

  • HW1 - Homeworld 1, manual, game
  • HWC - Homeworld Cataclysm/Emergence, manual, game
  • HWCO - Homeworld Cataclysm, outtakes
  • HWWOS - HW and HWC ship descriptions, well of souls
  • HW2 - Homeworld 2, manual, game
  • HW2PR - Homeworld 2, Prima Official eGuide
  • HWDOK - Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, Expedition Guide, game
  • HWR - Homeworld: Revelations RPG
  • HWRS - Homeworld: Revelations RPG Story Seeds
  • HWM - Homeworld: Mobile, homeworldsource.net
  • HW3 - Homeworld 3
  • HWDST - Homeworld Dust Wars drafts

Kushan Language Patterns

Here are some patterns that I found after checking the available vocabulary.

Words Specifics

Something that marks Kushan language:

  1. Regular usage of double vowels, but not always:
    e.g.: skaal, faagan, haariri
  2. Regular usage of specific consonant combinations (KH,TH etc):
    e.g.: Khar-Atekh, kiith, A'kadath
  3. Regular usage of apostrophe for non-specific vowel usage (consonant self-sound):
    e.g.: S’jet, J’niira, B'tir
    -- though it's a HWDOK feature and might be defined as old Kushan leftovers or dialect
    -- or it might be another way how to connect words removing some extra vowel
  4. Usually words consist of 1 or 2 syllables, but it depends
  5. Words can have suffixes

Suffixes

There is bunch of word endings, that are quite common, but not limited to that:

  • -el, -al, -il, -'l
  • -an, -en, -im, -um, -ann
  • -ar, -ir, -ur, -or
  • -uk, -ok, -ak
  • -it, -'t, -et
  • -ith, -ath, -oth
  • -art, -ard
  • -ab, -ob
  • -aw
  • -es, -as, -os, -is

There might be a chance that finding those suffixes in the middle of a word could mean that the word is constructed of two roots.

And by the example of the following words, we know that sometimes that suffixes may be removed, for some reason:

  • LiirHra[] <- Li[ir] + Hra[al]
  • Gaalsi[] <- Ga[al]si[en]
  • Siid[] <- Siid[im]
  • Kar[] <- Kar[an]
  • Saju[]-Ka <- Saju[uk]

The last case of Saju-Ka (HW1) is interesting, as there is Sheer-Ka (HWC) word, but maybe this could be applied to another -uuk ending word - Cow Duke, sorry, I mean, Caaw Duuk (HWDOK). So, it might be alternated this way:

  • Caaw Duuk -> Caaw Du-Ka

Though it's hard to tell, as it's not clear what Ka and Duuk means, and if Saju- & Sajuuk connected (Ham and Hamster?).

Feminatives

There are names like Huur[] - Kuur[A], Majiir[] - J'niir[A], and we can define those guys as men and women, so there is a chance that -[A] ending is defining gender. Like, J'niir[A], Kuur[A], Siim[A], Dav[A] etc. Maybe other endings as well contain gender information.

And watching how S[a] turns into S[id], I'd say, there is for sure an ending -A there. And we might even suggest that Sa is a feminative, which leads back to a thought that Kushan culture is very matriarchical one...

Plural Form

There are several ways of creating plural form:

  1. with suffix -id:
    e.g.: kharak/kharakid, kiith/kiithid, sa/sid
    open vowel of the original word is replaced
  2. using possessive adjectives as plural form, with postfix -i/-ii
    +i -> e.g.: sobani, manaani, sjetti, naabali
    +ii -> e.g.: kharakii, manaanii, sobanii
    the accent can be changed here: sobani - sobanii

It looks like -id is not a plural form, but a creation of a new single form word, that means “the bunch of”, like it's done in esperanto: birdo (a bird) - birdoj (birds) - birdaro (flock of birds). In our case it could be the following logic:

  • Kharak - the object, the planet
  • Kharaki - something that belongs to the object, some of the planet habitants
  • Kharakii - many of something that belongs to the object, the multiple units of the planet habitants
  • Kharakid - all of something that belongs to the object, the planet habitants in general

For example, Amar[i][id] flats (HWR) could be translated like this: flats of the all of belonging to a bunch of Amar ones, whatever that means, something like that. Or there is Amari[a] entity, be it people, animal or else.

We can play this game further: Taiidan - whatever -an means, there is all belonging to Tai :D. But that word should be of another language, so never mind.

Words Joints

There are different ways of combining words in Kushan:

  1. Aaa Bbb : Skaal Tel, Sajuuk Cor
  2. Aaa-Bbb : Kuun-Lan, Kiith-Sa
  3. Aaabbb : Griitidim, Hiigara
  4. AaaBbb : LiirHra
  5. Aaa'Bbb : Asaam Kiith'sid, Kor'shesh (?) --not sure about this

But this is too much related to writing and can hardly be distinct in speech, so somehow this should be regulated.

For example, there is “Skaal Tel” and “Skaal Fa”, male and female predators of Kharak, then there is Somtaaw destroyer “Naar-Tel”, and Tel sector, and Coruc-Tel and Seera Tel systems. Skaal, Naar, Coruc, Seera might define some alien life species: Kharakian, Hiigaran or any other planet biome Kushani got familiar with. But on the other hand, “Naar-Tel” is not “Naar Tel” - and we don’t know for sure what’s the difference between “Naar-Tel”, “Naar Tel”, “Tel Naar”, “Tel-Naar” in Kushan language… Or even “Naar’Tel”?..

But we know phrases Sajuuk Cor/Taa, wrath/fist of Sajuuk; and Skaal Tel/Fa/Brii, male, female, kids of Skaal. But the word order makes it somewhat clear. And while I still cannot imagine how to make a "hollow kinswoman" out "J'niira Kiith", for "Siifar Kor'shesh", "Night of Fiery Daggers", it looks like "Siifar" is "Fiery Daggers" and "Kor'shesh" is "Night", though I'd make it otherwise. But let's not forget that the word order not always is stable, and as we don't know the exact word meaning the final result may vary.

The same is about the Kiith-Sa, kiith-leader, leader of kiith, and most probably the order is important, but how it's happening, is it a root-root, root turning into a suffix, can we have Sid-Kiith, how it's Sa of Sa's, Sid-sa? For now it's not really clear, and I'm not ready to imagine a new grammar rule for this. :) Anyone else to define it?.. And why in HWC it's written as "Kiith'sid"?

Kushan Vocabulary

Homeworld series have added quite many words for the Kushan language, and here (I hope) are all that are found to this moment. Though I must admit that using English for alien words might be very confusing because of it's empirical pronunciation rules, when the same letter combinations can be read in a different way, because of the history - e.g., thought / [θot]; because of the dialects - route / [raut] or [rut], either / [izer] or [aizer]?

Homeworld lore has these this as well. C-K problems when JARACI is [JARAKI], but CANGACIAN is [KANGASIAN] - so how would you spell CANGACI? How do you differentiate KOR from COR? Then while everywhere we follow double vowel rule, CLEE SAN is not what it's seems and is pronounced [KLII SAN], so HEESHK pronounced [HISHK] or [HEESHK]? And then we have H letter problem - is it pronounced or not? And, finally, how do you spell name MYTAR - is it [MAITAR] or [MITAR]? How do you spell the clearly French roots (is this some Canadian reference?) name of PER DOINE - [DUEIN], [DUAN], [DUIN]?..

Someone who creates a new word for Kushans, should also write down an approximate spelling of it. Or write words the way there's no ambiguities in their pronunciation.

Kharak Biom

  • B'tir (HWDOK)
    Deep desert brood tunneler
  • Chriil (HWDOK)
    An animal “so clever it hunts its own tail to death” © Rachel S'jet
  • Fiirkan (HWWOS)
    A small hunting bird native to the temperate deserts of Kharak. The Fiirkan hunts by riding the wave-front of the huge seasonal sandstorms, plucking its food as the violent winds drive various small animals from hiding. The bird dives and twists at the edge of the storm, but is never swallowed up by it.
    Could be consisting of two roots - Fi[ir] + K[an]
  • Kudaark (HWC)
    a large burrower from the northern forests of Taiidan
    -- still it looks like originally it was from the northern forests of Kharak…
  • Haarir(i) (HWDOK)
    The largest animal on Kharak: friendly, knee-high, omnivorous
  • Riit(i) (HWDOK)
    A small ubiquitous and annoying and grain-eating forager abnormal to Kharak.
    -- seems that we're talking about usual mice
  • Sam't (HWDOK)
    Sidestepping swarmer insects of the Dry Seas
  • Skaal (HWC)
    The Skaal is one of the most deadliest predators that roam the southern wastes of Kharak, and was the greatest threat to the safety of caravans until it was deliberately hunted to the edge of extinction.
    The male of the species, the Skaal Tel, is a vicious clawed hunter with heavy scales and poison sacks that can blind or kill an unwary opponent at a distance. Though it masses nearly ten times that of an average Taiidani, it is still able to keep up with a warrior at full run. The Skaal Tel hunts for its mate and cubs during the breeding cycle and is capable of dragging its kill back to the den from over a hundred kloms away.
    Skaal Fal is the female of the Skaal species, and, while smaller and somewhat more vulnerable during the breeding season than the male, sports a tail covered with hardened spines which she can fling at an attacker with deadly force from the safety of her lair.
    -- though it was updated in HWC manual, the Kharakian Taiidans still were not proofread out
  • Triikor (HWC)
    Kharakian predator cat

Hiigaran Biom

  • S’chto (HW3)
    A nut, an ingredient of the S’chto Crème ice-cream loved by Imogen S'jet

Kharak Culture

  • A'kadath Su Tiira (HWDOK)
    Victory is work”: ancient Kharakid phrase that ends every briefing for Baserunner crews
  • Chak'm'Hot (HW1)
    The winds of the desert seasonal superstorm, circling the equator every 13 years, it drastically reshapes Kharak's surface in its wake
  • Clean Water Act (HW1)
    The act forbade non-Siidim kiithid from living at the headwaters of a river or stream, lest they foul the water which Siidim downstream would have to drink (~KDS 470)
  • Clee-San (HWC)
    Literary, "Truth Seeker", a temple and a ship.
  • Dhaigren (HWDOK) - Dreamlands (by Gaalsien)
  • Diirvaas (HWC)
    The ancient discipline of sword-dancing.
    Could be consisting of two roots - Di[ir] + V[aas]
  • Daiamid (HW1)
    The place where kiithid, powerful and weak, gather to resolves disputes and set policy for Kushans.
    Could be consisting of several parts - Da[i][am][id], see below.
  • Faagan (HWDOK)
    • the extended rope which runs from one family member to another in a howling sandstorm, and allows them to continue following their leader and cling to one another even when they cannot see or hear for themselves.
    • Gaalsi term for Northern Coalition: “the Bound and the Blind”, Faagani are “Blind Followers of a False God
  • Faal-Corum (HWC)
    Literary, "Silent Wayfarer", a temple and a ship
  • Ferin Sha (HW1)
    The Dancing Ground
  • Fist of God (HWDOK)
    Gaalsien warriors.
    Could be a complex word - Ga[al][si][en], see below.
  • Gritiidim (HW1)
    By Siidim Dogma (KDS 462) non-Siidim kiithid are known as “Gritiidim,” or “sand people”
    Could be a complex word - Grit[i][id][im], see below.
  • Hail-Pyke Maneuver (HWDOK)
    a battle maneuver, performed by Hail Soban and Payke Soban (KDS 1113)
  • Hiigara (HW1)
    Literally, "Our Home".
    Should be consisting of two words - Hi[i]+Gar[a]
  • J'niira Kiith (HWDOK)
    A hollow kinswoman.
    Could have such a structure - J'ni[ir][a]
  • Khaaneph (HWDOK)
    The raiders of the Wastes desert
    • Literally means “Godless”;
    • Khaaneph believe in nothing. No God. No law. No justice. No Kiith. Khaaneph is a person with the soul of a beast. If the ties that bind us to our shared humanity are a rope… a Khaaneph has willingly drawn a knife and cut the cord.”;
  • Khadiim (HWDOK)
    Jaraci Anomaly operation (KDS 1110)
    Could have such a structure - Khad[i][im]
  • Kiith (HW1)
    Society on Kharak is organized along loose family associations, many of which now include hundreds of thousands of members. An extended family grouping is called a kiith (plural: kiithid);
  • Kiith-Sa (HW1)
    The primary family within a kiith is called the kiith-Sa, a political and financial leader
  • Kiith Family Medallion (HWDOK)
    Bearing the individual kiith's family insignia, these medallions were originally a means of identification during the Heresy Wars
    -- dog tags?
  • Kuun-Lan (HWC)
    Literary "Purifying Flame", a temple and a ship
  • Paaura (HWC)
    holy vengeance; for example, Paaura on Taiidani war criminals was declared by the only leftover of once shamanic kiith Tambuur;
    Could have such a structure - Paa[ur][a]
  • Raachok (HWWOS)
    The ancient raachok was a hurled weapon from the early martial period on Kharak. Light infantry used to carry a half dozen of these leaded darts into battle and then throw them in rapid fashion as they closed with the opponent. They were not the most effective weapon for inflicting injuries, but the enemy was forced to raise their shields to protect themselves from the hail of whistling projectiles, and so the infantry could often close and get in the first blow before the enemy had recovered.
  • Seejur (HWC)
    An ancient combat shield from the early Kiith wars. It is meant to be worn strapped to the forearm, and has three sharp spikes mounted along the rim and pointed forward. This allowed skilled warriors to block a critical blow and then drive the sharpened spikes into the enemy with the same motion.
  • Siifar Kor'shesh (HWDOK)
    "The Night of Fiery Daggers", when 10k Gaalsien warriors died
  • Skaal Brii (HWDOK)
    Jaraci Anomaly operation (KDS 1106)
  • Taking the Red (HW1)
    Ritual of accepting unit into Soban
    “Kneeling before the Soban-Sa, individuals forcibly rip the colors of their previous Kiith from their bodies, rejecting ties to the past and entering Kiith Soban with no attachments”

Kharak Myths

  • Star-Metal Scrolls (HWC)
    Somtaaw mythical artifact, located in the last Temple of the Mysteries of the Shimmering Path; alleged to be written by the hand of Jakuul Himself, in a language which no living man could read.
  • Chalice of Life (HWC)
    Somtaaw mythical artifact; probably, a reference to the Holy Grail
  • Caaliburnos Sword (HWC)
    Soban mythical artifact; probably, a reference to the Excalibur
    Could have such a structure - Ca[al]i[]burn[os]
  • Burning Spear (HWC)
    Gaalsien mythical artifact; probably, a reference to the Spear of Destiny

Kharak Religion

  • Sajuuk (HW1)
    Great Maker Sajuuk. The deity that was said to have cast down the kiithid to Kharak. Also known as "He Whose Hand Shapes What Is."
    For example, there is a famous word, heavily reminding the Homeworld's 'Sajuuk':
    The word Yahweh is a modern scholarly convention for the Hebrew יהוה, transcribed into Roman letters as YHWH and known as the Tetragrammaton, for which the actual pronunciation is disputed. The most likely meaning of the name may be “He Brings Into Existence Whatever Exists", but there are many theories and none is regarded as conclusive.
  • Sajuuk Cor (HWC)
    An ancient phrase that translates roughly into "God's Wrath."
  • Jakuul (HW1)
    the deity who's purpose not so clear, might be an aspect of Sajuuk or his antagonist, depends of a sect beliefs;
  • Koshiir Ra (HWWOS)
    An ancient god of protection in the ancient days of the Taiidani people and many of defense fighter pilots carry his symbol, a shield crossed by broken swords
    -- and again, suddenly Kushan codename for the Taiidan vessel is taken from the Taiidan culture, while the other names are pretty Kushan; I believe, it's another example of trying to retcon those descriptions that were not really finalized;
  • Qwaar-Jet (HWC)
    An ancient god of Pain and Enslavement
  • Caaw Duuk (HWDOK)
    An ancient spirit of Harvest
  • Jaanah (HWR)
    An ancient god of accord and trade, this deity temple in Tiir was used by Naabal for Great Daiamid
  • Viin Cal (HWDOK)
    An ancient god of hunters
  • Gaalsien Decree of Kah'a (HWR)
    Kah'a is an ancient set of desert survival tactics that are couched in religious law
  • K'Had Sajuuk
    Seems to be a theocratic title of Gaalsien-Sa

Kharak Technology

  • The Maach-Nar Projection system (HWDOK)
    requires two full laser arrays, spread out on either side of the fighter
  • Phased Disassembler Array (HW1)
    collector, controller, repair corvette, support frigate, minelayer corvette, THE MAGIC

Kushan Kiithid

The current list of known kiithid (and their notable members) is following:

  • Naabal, S'jet, Soban, Manaan, Paktu, Somtaaw, Kaalel, Hraal, Liir (LiirHra), Gaalsien, Siidim, Ferriil, Jaraci, Sagald, Tambuur, Doine, Magann, Riif, Baer, Lehi, Balel, Matara, Atarad, Naael, Thassan, Khaaneph…

Kharak Cartography

Kharakian topographical names can be found in this article.

Kharak Personal Names

Regardless of her desire for privacy, however, her presence is felt everywhere. In the recent Kushan population explosion, the name "Karan" has been given to thousands of baby girls, and even among boys, the name "Kar" is surprisingly common
(c) HWCO, History of the Landfall, Cataclysm Story

Kushan names often make use of double vowels, such as “ii,” “aa,” and “uu,” leading to names such as Majiir or Chiisur. Any easy way to include these into an existing name is to take the name, such as Amara or Idris, and then double up the vowels already in the name, leading to names like Amaara or Idriis. However, many Kushan names break this convention, opting to forgo the double vowels as seen with names such as Karan, Rachel, and Jeremiah.
(c) HWR, p.68, Personal Details, Name

I'd say it's a good hint, though I'd object to the last sentence: don't you dare to use Earth realm names, at least, those that are usual to a popular culture. It's hard to say if HWM has removed regular European names out of their long list, replacing them by eastern exotics (at least there was a small discussion about it on Facebook), but HWDOK has started it all. While HW1 and HWC tried to invent the names out of the other universe, HW2 has added Malketh, and HWDOK even assigned Rachel, Roman and others, for the main roles. And HW3 gives us "Isaac"(!) - why not Isa[ak], for example?...

On the other hand, HWDOK has introduced another type of words, probably influenced by “S'jet” apostrophe: J'dones, K'nsaal, Skaad'l, M'toth, P'torr, P'chirii, Aard'th

Maybe Its Just Cuz All Klingon Names Sound The Same They All Have An Apostrophe For Some Reason

Well, it sounds like some Klingon is calling for Cthulhu, but it's better than plagiarism from the western civilization. Though anyway you'd use language sound combinations just unconsciously - here's the real example where a diversity could help to escape monolingual echo chamber. But it seems that starting with HWDOK people just stopped even trying.

Homeworld and Western Culture

So, the names are here:

  • HW1
    Chiisur, Fliir, Huur, Gar, Ifriit, Jora, Karan, Kriil, Leykab, Liam, Majiir, Mevath, Miirpat, Per, Rei, Kim
  • HWC
    Aart, Dava, Kuura, Teigor, Tiirshak
  • HWCO
    Arban, Kar, Kona, Liir, Ran, Siima
  • HW2
    Malketh(!)
  • HWDOK
    Deckard(!), Hail, Gaarket, Jacob(!), Jean, Jonas, J'dones, Khagaan, K'had, K'nsaal, Masaar, Miirhan, Nathan, Pyke(!), Rachel(!), Roman(!), Stell, Tarsis
  • HWR
    Ajora, Akarda, Ataral, Cassandra(!), Cynsk, Emilia(!), Johnas, Kassalid, Maora, Marala, Mytar, Nissa(!), Ruel, Sasaraad, Sorjan, Taaran
  • HWM
    Joanna(!), Ahab, Enoch, Vashti, Sirocco, Esentra, Amaala, Pagraan, Mehemit, Agnes(!), Marie(!), Jerrisiah, Mahel, Gideon(!), Joshua(!), Jassiah, Thaed, Makhaab .....
  • HW3
    Imogen, Josh(!), Isaac(!)
  • HWDST
    Stig Halmer, Kalgai, Mirabline, Durkarian, Ghiritzen, Cephalon Peake, Ohtaria, Ceratius

Ship Codenames: Carriers (HWDOK)

  • Ifriit Naabal - Northern Coalition Nabaal heavy carrier
  • Sakala - Northern Coalition Siidim desert carrier
  • Kapisi - Northern Coalition S'jet desert carrier
  • Akalon - Northern Coalition desert carrier
  • Fiiskire - Northern Coalition desert carrier
  • Amida - Northern Coalition desert carrier

  • Ashinta - Gaalsien desert carrier
  • Ashoka - Gaalsien desert carrier
  • Renza - Gaalsien desert carrier
  • K'Had Retribution - Elite Gaalsien desert carrier
  • K'Had Sunder - Elite Gaalsien desert carrier
  • Gaalsien flagship, desert super-carrier

Ship Codenames: Gaalsien Desert Vessels (HWDOK)

  • Corvaal - Gaalsien Command Carrier
  • Slaa - Gaalsien Salvager
  • B'tir - Gaalsien Baserunner
  • Sam't - Gaalsien Sandscimmer
  • Aard'th Saar - Gaalsien Assault Ship
  • M'toth - Gaalsien Missile Ship
  • P'torr - Gaalsien Heavy Railgun
  • P'chirii - Gaalsien Assault Railgun
  • F'xbat - Gaalsien Interceptor
  • Bokiir - Gaalsien Precision Bomber
  • Knar-re - Gaalsien Smart munition
  • Caaw Duuk - Gaalsien Production Cruiser
  • Skaad'l - Gaalsien Siege Cruiser
  • Saajuk Taa - Gaalsien Honorguard Cruiser

Ship Codenames: Kushan Ships

  • Khar-Toba (HW1) - one of the Old Hiigaran ships sent Exile to
  • Khar-Selim (HW1) - Kushan sublight ship sent to Kharak System outskirts to aid Mothership
  • Khar-Sajuuk (HW3) - Hiigaran ship sent to investigate the Anomaly with Karan S'jet onboard
  • Khar-Kushan (HW3) - Hiigaran ship sent to investigate the Anomaly with Imogen S'jet onboard
  • Clee-San "Truth Seeker" (HWC) - Somtaaw science frigate
  • Faal-Corum "Silent Wayfarer" (HWC) - Somtaaw command ship
  • Kuun-Lan "Purifying Flame" (HWC) - Somtaaw command ship
  • Somtaaw command ship alternative names (HWC):
    Teer-Gig, Gaal-Ten, Coor-Lan, Naab-Corum, Toet-Coy, Eheb-San, Shuus-Nan, Thuuw-Nan, Morrh-Re, Ruun-Aaid, Shin-Clah, Baar-Ett, Gaar-Balhi, Vhenk-Maan, Maal-Nitz, Feng-Yuun, Thul-Lee, Mholah-Ri, Veer-Kah, Eh-Ghoan, Drun-Kyori
  • Naar-Tel (HWC) - Somtaaw destroyer
  • Bushan-Re (HWC) - Manaani destroyer
  • Caal-Shto (HWC) - Manaani carrier
  • Veer-Rak (HWC) - Naabal carrier
  • Gren-Shto (HWCO) - Hraal ship
  • Steelweaver (HWCO) - Hraal ship
  • Sadaar (HWR) - LiirHra space plane, making a maiden flight in 1106 KDS

Ship Codenames: Taiidan Ships (HW1/HWC)

  • Fiirkan - Taiidan scout
  • Triikor - Taiidan heavy interceptor
  • Kaark - Taiidan bomber
  • Seejur - Taiidan heavy defender
  • Koshiir Ra - Taiidan defense fighter
  • Raachok - Taiidan light corvette
  • Tiirshak - Taiidan salvage corvette
  • Diirvas - Taiidan multigun corvette
  • Wodaan - Taiidan minelayer corvette
  • Kudaark - Taiidan assault frigate
  • Heeshk - Taiidan support frigate
  • Sajuuk Cor - Taiidan ion frigate
  • Tiifal - Taiidan defence field frigate
  • Skaal Tel - Taiidan destroyer
  • Skaal Fa - Taiidan missile destroyer
  • Saarkin Cho - Taiidan carrier
  • Qwaar-Jet - Taiidan heavy cruiser
  • Variis - Taiidan proximity sensor
  • Koraal - Taiidan gravity generator
  • Fushai - Taiidan cloak generator
  • Siim Salla - Taiidan resource controller

Ship Codenames: Ancient Hiigaran Empire Ships

  • Sajuuk's Wrath (HW2PR)
    ancient hiigarian flagship with the Second Core
    -- is it another Sajuuk Cor?

Nimbus Expedition Codenames (HWM)

  • Abiigado (GSY 9626) - carrier-class ship that was first to reach Nimbus;
  • Lazarus (GSY 9631) - mothership-class ship, largest expedition of the first ones to reach Nimbus;
  • Caral (GSY 9635) - an expedition with Gideon S'jet onboard (don't mix with Koraal!);
  • Leviathan (GSY 9635) - an expedition with Mahel Manaan onboard;
  • Ararat (~GSY 9641) - vanished without a trace after departing for Nimbus galaxy;
  • Dark Star (~GSY 9641) - mothership-class vessel under command of Kiithless Kidara Sasan;
  • Mohaava (~GSY 9641)
    - explorer class carrier, converted to repair ship specifications after Kaiasia class explorers began entering service. It was attached to the 8th fleet during Operation Sonasaad to the Withering Gulf and it single-handedly maintained the battered expedition as they returned to civilized space.
  • Tiirshak (~GSY 9641)
    - explorer-class carrier, can be easily recognized by the "07" on its hull. It was the seventh of the first ten explorer type flagships launched in 9629 GSY. Kiith S’jet took it to serve in Operation Silumiin. The Tiirshak is outfitted with greater sensor capabilities for deep space exploration assignments. It disappeared two months into exploring the Lost Coast, a suspected Progenitor gateway, but now seems to have resurfaced.

With Eros and Aurora galaxies and Vinland settlement, it looks like that HWM authors were bitten by some Romans, probably, a Taiidan Kiithless influence on Kushans.

Kushan Vocabulary: Analysis

Almost Translated

Here are the words, that come from the partly translated phrases, so the other part can be logically continued: at least there are versions what untranslated word might mean.

  • Brii (HWDOK)
    if we accept that Skaal Brii is “Skaal's cub”, then Brii is ”cub”, maybe, "cubs"
  • Cor (HWC)
    Sajuuk Cor means God's Wrath, and as Sajuuk is the main deity on Kharak, Cor = Wrath
  • Daiam (HW1)
    if there is Daiamid, and -id is a plural form, then Daiam is somewhat of a “deputy”?
  • Fa(l) (HWC)
    as Skaal Fal is a female of a Skaal animal, then Fa(l) is “female
  • Sa (HW1)
    as kiith-Sa means “kiith leader”, and it used separately and with kiith name directly, like Naabal-Sa, it means, the Sa = leader. But can it be used with other words, like Mothership-Sa - leader of a ship, e.g. captain, or it has some restrictions?..
  • Taa (HWDOK)
    comes from "Saajuk Taa": first, if there is no other word, then it should be Sajuuk, and second, there were Gaalsien warriors named Fist of God, so, maybe, Taa = Fist?
  • Tel (HWC)
    as Skaal Fal is a female of a Skaal animal, then Tel point us that this one is a male, Tel is a “male
    or, as there is so much "Tel" in HWM, maybe, it's reference to the real "Tel", like "Tel Megiddo", the Megiddo hill/tell/mound: so, if Tel is hill and is used as euphemism for male attribute, so what's Fal? - is it "valley"?..

Half-Translated

Here are collected phrases, that have a translation, but the words inside the phrase are unfamiliar so far. So there might be variations of meanings of the used words themselves. For example, "petite mort, translated from French, means “little death”, and is generally used as a euphemism for orgasm".

  • A'kadath Su Tiira (HWDOK)
    “Victory is work”: if we take straight English translation, then A'kadath = Victory, Su = Is, Tiira = Work, and that fits interesting with Tiir, the capital of Naabal, and that ancient wanderer Tiirshak S'jet But we don't know where a verb is, what the sequence of words is and so on. It's the only full sentence of the Kushani speech we've seen so far!..
  • Caaw Duuk (HWDOK)
    A harvest spirit, but why 2 words?
  • Clee-San (HWC)
    "Truth Seeker"
  • Dhaigren (HWDOK)
    "Dreamlands"
  • Faal-Corum (HWC)
    "Silent Wayfarer"
    Not clear, what is what, and if “wayfarer” is a several meanings combination word, “unit who travels far”, and is this depicted in a phrase; as well, is Corum related to Coruc and Cor?..
  • Faal-Te (HWC)
    the Dark Matter FCluster, where happened intro to the last missions of HWC: don't know what is Te, but if it's mistyped Tel, like other systems, then it could be “Traveler guy” or “Silent guy” or whatever. As well, there could be a new grammar rule for -Te(l) and -Fa(l)?
  • Ferin Sha (HW1)
    Dancing Ground
  • Khaaneph (HWDOK)
    Literally, "Godless". So, what's here is "god" and what's "-less"? Is the name Khagaan related?..
  • Hiigara (HW1)
    Literally, "Our Home", but if it's a combination of 2 senses, not clear what part of the word has such. Hii - our? Gara - Home? Then the name “Gar” - homey guy? or our guy? Or what?..
  • J'niira Kiith (HWDOK)
    "hollow kinswoman" - it's hard to understand if English translation is a non-literal one, literature one, or else; we know word kiith, so J'niira is left, but it's not clear if a gender is included in it - like -iir ending is common, so is it -a to mark woman? - and is there any meaning in a J' beginning.
  • Koshiir Ra (HWC)
    A god of protection, but why 2 words?
  • Khontala (HWC)
    There is the first temple of Shimmering Path, “Oracle of Tala”, so, probably, it's Kh[on]+T[al][a], and while "Khon" may be the same reference as Kuun-Lan, to Kunlun mountains, not clear what it means in Kushan? Is it "Mountain"?
  • Kuun-Lan (HWC)
    "Purifying Flame"
  • Lungma Jiin (HWC)
    "The Roof of the World"
  • Qwaar-Jet (HWC)
    A god of Pain and Enslavement, but why 2 words? Is this anyhow related to S'jet?
  • Saju-Ka (HW1)
    Gaalsien capital city; there a clear connection to Sajuuk, but otherwise too much options;
  • Siifar Kor'shesh (HWDOK)
    Night of Fiery Daggers”: if we take straight English then "Siifar" is Night, "Kor" is Fiery, "Shesh" - is Daggers; but there are at least 3 meanings, and we have here 2 words, one divided by an apostrophe, and no examples of these words usage, so this is purely hypothetical; like Sii might be Fiery, far - Dagger, Kor'shesh - Night , who knows?.. If we take "Triikor" - desert cat - then Kor might mean a dagger like the claws of a cat... Though, still, how to s
  • Viin Cal (HWDOK)
    An ancient god of the hunters, but why 2 words?

Not Translated

Here are the words and the word combinations, that have no translation, but they exist. Are these simply names or some meaning behind - it's not clear.

  • HW1
    • Heeshk, Fushai, Kaark, Saju-Ka, Klaar, Koraal, Koshiir Ra, Qwaar-Jet, Saarkin Cho, Silumiin, Siim Salla, Tiifal, Variis, Wodaan
  • HWC
    • Bushan-Re, Caal-Shto, Coruc-Tel, Coruc Farr, Faal-Te, Hunon, Gren-Shto, Naar-Tel, Sojent-Ra, Veer-Rak
    • Baar-Ett, Clee-San, Coor-Lan, Drun-Kyori, Eh-Ghoan, Eheb-San, Faal-Corum, Feng-Yuun, Kuun-Lan, Gaal-Ten, Gaar-Balhi, Maal-Nitz, Mholah-Ri, Morrh-Re, Naab-Corum, Ruun-Aaid, Shin-Clah, Shuus-Nan, Teer-Gig, Toet-Coy, Thul-Lee, Thuuw-Nan, Vhenk-Maan, Veer-Kah
  • HW2
    • Sarum, Thaddis Sabbah
  • HWDOK
    • Aard’th Saar, Akalon, Amida, B'shiir, Beladin, Biaan, Bokiir, Caaw Duuk, Corvaal, Dassar, F'xbat, Fiiskire, Garaak, K'karr, K'thtaal, Kapisi, Khadiim, Khashar, Knar-re, Maach-Nar, M’toth, P’chirii, P'torr, Riikes, Sakala, Salka, Sarath, Skaad'l, Slaa, Torin, Viin Cal, Vriis
  • HWR
    • Abaard, Amariid, Atekh, Mataar, Nisilbis, Sadsaior

Literal References

Khar

In fact, metallurgy and structural composition are an identical match to the Khar-Toba wreckage on Kharak
(c) HW1, Mission 08, The Cathedral of Kadesh

Khar-Toba appears to be the first city built by our ancestors after surviving planetfall on Kharak.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.3, Khar-Toba Analysis

Despite conditions that would daunt personnel in modern enviro suits, these first brave excavators managed to uncover what has come to be known as the First City, Khar-Toba.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.3, The Discovery of Khar-Toba

Kiith Sjet is, in fact, one of the only kiith to have a validated claim to direct kiith descent from the ancient first city of Khar-Toba.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.30, Kiith Sjet

The only other recorded finding of one of these ships is on Kharak; known as the Khar-Toba, it is the ship that brought the Hiigarans to Kharak, eventually becoming the planet’s first city after it landed.
(c) HWR, p.150, Khar-Toba

The team had found the Khar-Toba, the First City, and everything, everywhere, would change for everyone.
(c) HWR, p.176, The Age of Reason

Khar-Toba, it appeared, had been built around the wreckage of an ancient vessel, perhaps by the very people who landed (or crashed) it on the surface of the world all Kushan then called home.
(c) HWR, p.177, Pre-Exodus

The name can refer to both the Exile ship Khar-Toba, which bore the hyperspace core from Hiigara to Kharak, or the city that accreted around its wreckage in the desert. Historically, however, the city is usually what is meant.
(c) HWR, P.187, Khar-Toba

In the Great Nebula she petitioned Fleet Command to board the derelict sister ship of the Khar-Toba, and in the Sea of Lost Souls she personally investigated the Ghost Ship.
(c) HWR, p.216, Emilia Somtaaw - Fleet Intelligence Officer

There is a word "Khar", used quite often (compared to other words). There are two believed meanings of it: “first” and “ship”. IMHO, both seem to be right, but let's check the usage.

  1. Khar-Toba (HW1)
    City on the ship ruins
    1. Something like "The First City" or 'THAT (The Very One) City';
    2. Ship-city; ship-landing or else. Some are taking this name with guide stone - the reflection to the Kaaba in Mekka (Mekka's "brother" is Sajuu-ka, IMHO), the black stone. This is quite correlating, especially if we know that "kara/khara" in turks language is "black" (even here we can play with 'black/danger/sadness/void/universe' meanings, imaging the whole story behind 'khar' evolution through the physical, association, social and religious applications).
      And Toba in this case might mean "The First". Like "Ship/Place/Location One/First", basically, The First City. Or we can think that the definition "The FIrst City" is just a pseudonym, an alternative name for Khar-Toba.
  2. Khar-Selim (HW1)
    Explorer ship
    1. First explorer/voyager, or the Pioneer, the first to discover something. But does it mean that 'Khar-Selim' can be applied to all pioneers? Or ''The Lonely Wanderer'? Or like in the previous case 'THAT (The Very One) Explorer', as it was very special ship.
    2. Ship-explorer/voyager, very simple.
      But what if the 'Selim' is some name, name of some wanderer and the great explorer, that became a synonim to the marathon voyager? - like it was in the case of taiidani salvette codename - 'Tiirshak', the scientist and explorer of Kharak?..
  3. Sajuuk-Khar (HW2)
    "The Chosen One"
    1. Sajuuk's First?
    2. The placeholder of the Sajuuk, the “sajuukshipped”; the one who's is lead by Sajuuk, the Great Captain Whos Hand Lead Whatever It Is :).
      Maybe, the ship of the Sajuuk could be named nearly the same but in the reverse order - Khar-Sajuuk, and that's something that correlates with the 'Khar-Selim'.
  4. Khar-Sajuuk (HW3)
    HW3 new Karan S'jet's mothership
    1. First of Sajuuk's?
    2. Ship of Sajuuk?
  5. Khar-Kushan (HW3)
    HW3 new Imogen S'jet's mothership
    1. First Kushan?
    2. Kushan ship?
  6. Khar-Atekh (HWR)
    One of the S'jetti-filled cities
    1. First Atekh?
    2. City-ship of Atekh?
  7. Kharak (HW1)
    Khar+ak:
    Planet habited by the Exiles
    1. Guys translated it like "the First Planet" that was possible to habit; or we can transform the word 'first' to the 'the unit', 'the one': like, the planet that we chose. Like the article 'the', but with much more weight: THAT (The Very One) Planet.
    2. "Ship" meaning should not be taken so straight: it could mean something like "place"; but even without it, the planet is a quite big ship - for those who had seen only their prison ship for generations, "ship" could have more sacred, more "world" meaning then we do;
      And "-ak" suffix could mean the greatest level of size: like, the biggest ship/place.
      Actually, there is a city called Al-Karak, and its name once had the meaning 'Fortress'.
      And there are few more ancient city names with Kar/Khar in it. Like Khar-Nak - Egyptian city near the Tanis.
  8. Kharam (HW2)
    Khar+am:
    ship wreckages on a multiplayer map
    1. First-am :). Well, we should know more about this ship and it's purpose. Mb, it's the first, but… we don't know. Or it could mean 'The One' ship, the lonely ship. Or else.
    2. Ship-am :). Well, '-am' suffix meaning could be - 'what's left of', 'abandoned', 'ruined', 'contaminated' and, of course, 'forbidden', as the actual meaning of the Arabic term 'Haram'.

Well, personally I like "ship" version - it's more like translating from other language, where you have to take two or more words and to think what is the logic in their connection to understand the final sense of the phrase. The words themselves have their history, usage habits and cultural background.

How about a fine new word “Khar-Tel”? What could it mean? :)

Daiam, Kharam, Asaam

Well, Daiamid is something like Parliament, and as there is an -id ending, which mean that it's like Semurg, meaning the collection of parliamentors, daiams. So, if the Daiamid is about speaking and negotiating, Daiam could mean somewhat of a guy who's negotiating about something. But that's a complicated idea. What if it's also consists of something more?

We have two more words with the same -am ending, and it's Kharam and Asaam. Cannot say anything about the latter, but Kharam should be a complex word, consisting of root Khar and suffix -am. And then we must understand what the Khar means. As it was mentioned earlier, if -am is somewhat of "forbidden", then it's easy to go with Daiam - forbidden to fight physically! Daiami - of ones who's forbidden to fight physically, and Daiamid, the gathering of all who's forbidden to fight physically. Theoretically :)

Siidim, Gritiidim, Khadiim

If there are Gritiidim, “sand people”, then their antagonists, Siidim, should be somewhat of a “star” / “divine” / “sky” - people (I vote for "Sky" as opposite to earth, sand in our case). So, there's definitely a common part in both words, but what is this? Is it -iidim? -dim? -im?

religious leaders of Kiith Siid and Kiith Gaalsi, which were then the most powerful kiithid of the north
HW, p.24, Historical Briefing, Kiith Paktu

So, probably it's Siid+im, Gritiid+im. And then we can have Si+id and Griti+id. Altogether, it's something like, the people (-im) ones (-id) of Sky (Si) / Sand (Grit). Maybe, Siifar could have the same root there (night = dark sky?)..

And there is a word Khadiim, if we take the upmentioned logic, it will be like people of belonging to some Khad. Could it be the reference to K'had Sajuuk?..

And if the form "Gaalsi" is used, then maybe there is Gaal + Si + en? Something about sky/divinity? :) Need to think :)

ne

There are two names in HWU lore that feel strange:

  • Aart ne Somtaaw (HWC)
  • K’nsaal ne Paktu (HWDOK)

What could this "ne" mean? For sure, it's not somewhat of d'Artagnan (of Artagnan place), because everybody should have used this kind of name form. But this appear only twice.

It was understood that Kaalel must serve as initiates of Sjet for three generations before they would be permitted to take the kiith name and serve in the third tier, as counselors and calendar keepers.
(c) HWCO, Kiith Kaalel

I have a theory that this is something marking the neophyte to the kiith. And in HWC was the situation when 15k kiith Somtaaw accepted 10k new joiners. Who said that Paktu can't do the same?..

Kiithless

This is a new definition in HWU/HWM, but it's how would it sound in Kushan language?

There are 2 words that might help:

  • J'niira Kiith (HWDOK) - "A hollow kinswoman"
  • Khaaneph (HWDOK) - “godless

As we have all that words Khadiim, K'had, Khagaan, Kah'a - let's decide that Kha-K'ha-Kah'a - are the versions of the same root, let it means something like not the God, but Divine Spirit.

Thus we would have [Kha]+[aneph] - meaning somewhat of "God Spirit Missing".

And that would lead us to the word of Kiithless: [Kiith]+[aneph].

Also we can imagine that old J'niira Kiith is a combination of
[J'niir]+[A] [Kiith] = [Empty] + [Feminative] [Family].

We can even imagine that [J'] is a negation, so we would get [J']+[Niir]+[A] = [Not] + [Full] +[Feminative], thus we can even get to the [J'][ku][ul] as the opponent of God, where [kuul] is some quality like "clean", "faithful" etc. Interesting, if we make it as Jaku-Ka, would it mean "the city of a Devil", the Gaalsi swearing for blasphemous Tiir?..

So, I guess, while officially Kiithless would be named as Kiithaneph (Kiith'neph? - sounds better), but unofficially and unpleasantly their name would be J'niiri/J'niirid/J'niirim, J'niiri Griitidim, "the empty ones", zero level citizens.

But, of course, there are a lot assumptions and that's the object of discussions.

Other Combinations

  • Shto: Caal-Shto, Gren-Shto
  • Coruc: Coruc-Tel, Coruc Farr
  • Corum: Naab-Corum, Faal-Corum
  • Faal: Faal-Corum, Faal-Te
  • Ka: Saju-Ka, Sheer-Ka
  • Kyori: Kyori sector, Drun-Kyori
  • Lan: Kuun-Lan, Coor-Lan
  • Miir: Miirpat, Miirhan
  • Nan: Shuus-Nan, Thuuw-Nan
  • Ra: Sojent-Ra, Koshiir Ra
  • Re: Bushan-Re, Knar-Re, Morrh-Re
  • San: Clee-San, Eheb-San
  • Tel: Tel sector, Naar-Tel, Coruc-Tel, Seera Tel, Skaal Tel
  • Tiir: Tiir, Tiira, Tiirshak
  • Veer: Veer-Rak, Veer-Kah

Change Log

  • 18.10.23 - added info on feminatives (uur/uura); added some info on endings and structure;
  • 19.10.23 - added examples of word with ending removed
  • 21.10.23 - created Suffixes section, added text about English writing rules problems
  • 26.10.23 - added a text about ways to translate the Kiithless word into Kushan
  • 29.10.23 - extracted Miir root, idea for Kor, and reference for Siifar Kor'shosh
  • 30.10.23 - added Nimbus expedition names and a bit of minor changes
  • 03.11.23 - added Nimbus expedition of Leviathan
  • 10.11.23 - added Tiirshak and Mohaava carriers to the Nimbus expedition list
  • 01.12.23 - update Riiti information, added S'chto
  • 09.12.23 - added HWDOK's Kiith Family Medallion to Kushan Culture
  • 29.01.24 - added HWDOK's Dreamlands - Dhaigren

Read More Of Homeworld

Homeworld: XenoLanguage

AmDDRed Blog

HOMEWORLD: THE QUESTION OF XENOLANGUAGE

Tiir Capitol Min

Content

  1. The Sources
  2. Intro
  3. The XenoLanguage Question
  4. Kushan Language
    • Kushan Language: History
    • Kushan Language: Specifics
      • Travelling Issues
      • Sea, Ocean and Desert
      • Soban Red
    • Kushan Language: The Sound
    • Kushan Language: The Orthography
      • Kushan Orthography
      • Somtaaw Orthography
    • Kushan Language: The Vocabulary
  5. Taiidan Language
    • Taiidan Language: The Sound
    • Taiidan Language: The Orthography
    • Taiidan Language: Names
  6. Other Languages
    • Race of Naggarok: Orthography
    • Progenitors: The Sound
    • Other Names

The Sources

  • HW1 - Homeworld 1, manual, game
  • HWC - Homeworld Cataclysm/Emergence, manual, game
  • HWCO - Homeworld Cataclysm, outtakes
  • HWWOS - HW and HWC ship descriptions, well of souls
  • HW2 - Homeworld 2, manual, game
  • HW2PR - Homeworld 2, Prima Official eGuide
  • HWDOK - Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, Expedition Guide, game
  • HWR - Homeworld: Revelations RPG
  • HWRS - Homeworld: Revelations RPG Story Seeds
  • HWM - Homeworld: Mobile, homeworldsource.net
  • HW3 - Homeworld 3
  • HWDST - Homeworld Dust Wars drafts

Intro

- 'What did you want?' Hussein asked.
Tatarsky said something extremely inappropriate: 'I just need a second. I wanted to ask you, as a representative of the target group: what associations does the word "parliament" have for you?' In his fright he didn't even notice whether he was speaking normally or not. Hussein wasn't surprised at all. He thought for a moment and answered:
- 'Al-Ghazavi had this poem called "The Parliament of Birds". It's about how thirty birds flew off in search of the bird that is called Semurg - the king of all birds and a great master.'
- 'But why did they fly off in search of a king, if they had a parliament?'
- 'You ask them that. And then, Semurg was not just a king, he was a fount of great knowledge. That's more than you can say for a parliament.'
- 'How did it all end?' asked Tatarsky.
- 'When they had endured thirty trials, they learned that the word "Semurg" means "thirty birds".'
- 'Who from?'
- 'The voice of God told them.'
(c) Viktor Pelevin, Generation P

First, Homeworld charms you with its visual aesthetics, introducing spaceships that are designed so well that you believe in them. Then it gives you the space with a real 3D, being comfortable enough. After that you get to know a heart-breaking story that holds you to the very end. And if you’re patient enough, you may find a background lore, literally building a civilization on a Sajuuk forgotten planet.

Of course, not every game of a series could gather all the bingo like HW1 did. Though HWC had less of hard sci-fi, it was still about taking destiny in your own hands, against the odds, being an actor, not a passive watcher. Though there was a huge upgrade to 3DS RTS gameplay, HW2 felt a bit like a fan serviss, repeating some key elements of the first story, and it was kinda lacking the will of previous games: too many prophecies and uncontrolled hyperjumps. Even Bentusi self-destruct themselves in humility to the prophecy, not in defiance that they will not be bound. "Do not go gentle into that good night" (c)

And after captain Soban escapes Vaygr Thaddis Sabbah station like in a good Hollywood blockbuster (there should be a Homeworld Sobani Renegade shooter about these events), while Kushani prisoner do not survive interrogation - you understand, that R-rating with “Kharak is burning” and “cut us loose” had been replaced by a PG-13 with wizards, princesses, dragons, artifacts and Dothrak's. Somtaaw must have been dwarves of Moria in this kind of universe.

The Somtaaw

HWDOK was a great return to the HWU after a significant pause. There are a few questions about gameplay mechanics, like formations, docking, not really required 3D UI in a 2D RTS, and others, which makes HWDOK a bit uncomfortable after previous HW’s, Dawn of War’s, Ground Control’s etc., and moddability, that feels too much on HW1 level; and additional DLC factions of Soban and Khaaneph, that does not feel like unique things… Well, this game already requires a remake. But not storywise - the story feels good, though it is retconning HW1 lore and adding a few temporal mistakes, with the music of Paul Ruskay it creates an almost cinematic experience with a bit of a grim mood: the planet is dying, the first Jaraci expedition is lost nowhere with Rachel’s brother, the war with reactive elements continues, the traitors are around the corner - well, there is no positive mood of HW1 that the reason and science will overcome everything, thus the Khar-Toba with a HW2 Great Core becomes somewhat of a Deus Ex Machina to save everyone, while in HW1 the Guidestone had a bigger importance as an all-Kharak uniting symbol. But anyway, though I don’t like the Expedition Guide for being a separate application instead of a classic PDF, it has added quite interesting details to the lore of the game.

The next addition to the HWU is Homeworld Revelations RPG. While not being a videogame, as an RPG book it gives an essential glance into HWU lore and makes a half of a step to the old questions, how big are the ships and how do their interiors look by allowing you to create a playable character in this world. Well, I’m into the board games (so, I’ll wait for HW: Fleet Command by the same Modiphius) but I’m not having any Hellfire Club around, so I’d better wait for some Gearbox’s Turanic Borderlands, or Bioware’s Officers of the New Taiidani Republic, or any other RPG video game.

And the last but not least entry to HWU is Homeworld Mobile. While I'm not a big fan of mobile games, and I'd like to have a PC client, or even more - a roguelite/like using these assets (like WH40K: Teamkills used assets of Dawn of War 2), maybe, in a way of HW3 invents its Wargames mode, or some RTS-RPG like the Space Wolves, somewhat to make a King's Bounty out of Might & Magic Heroes, if you know what I mean - the game is pretty decent in a current state, and I see that people are trying create a worthy lore, though it's more related to the Mr. Nimbus Galaxy. But still it's required to come to terms with the technical imperfections of unit movement that was a lot better even in HW1 - like, 24 years ago?

Anyway, like Dune Universe has started with Arrakis, or Star Wars - with Tatooine, Homeworld has its Kharak, that despite being burnt and abandoned still is the key element of HWU. Somehow the authors managed to create a believable picture of a desert surviving civilization, so familiar and not so familiar at the same time. Of course, there are elements of other sci-fi universes, or similar references, but all together they’ve made something really unique, that has the potential of a world class sci-fi series. And unlike them HWU has created its own thing, only by the artists’ natural bias related to our earth civilization.

And it really would be great that this isolation would continue to be. I’m not looking for other space Americans (yeah, I know that Relic/BBI is from Canada). Star Trek, Babylon5, BSG, StarGate, Firefly and a lot of other not so famous series have already done it, even Star Wars are not so far-far away with their space Wild Wild West.

We have a big planet with thousands of cultures, and when we get another B-class sci-fi cowboys or a generic sci-fantasy space opera, it’s getting tiresome. Why to spend time on the same thing just in a bit different wrapper? It's like going to another country and search there for McDonalds. That’s why I’m pushing that some things should be taken seriously, let there be no “blackface'dWakanda stuff, but the real dive into the declared culture, somewhat of Herbert Wells Dune thing, more of Stanislavski's system. Let's not have another Ashf Lshtshfum.

Jason Bourne

The XenoLanguage Question

Kushanian, do you speak it?

When I see “KHAR-KUSHAN” Latin letters on a hull of a new Kushan mothership of HW3, when we get unhidden HW2's Elohim, HWDOK's Rachel, Roman, Nathan, Deckard names in the games, then it looks like the series are starting to forget their father’s face. Or mother, ship, in our case. Yes, we do understand that the story is loosely based on Moses Exodus with 600000 men out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, that swallowed chasing pharaoh army, with the Kadesh passing problems, and Sajuuk's being Tetragrammaton

But it’s not a reason to add everything ending with -a/e/il, especially with an American accent - for example, I still don’t get why the Ray-chill name was chosen? I believe even ”Rakheel” would have sounded more appropriate, no?

Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.
16 Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
17 And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border.
(c) Jeremiah, 31:16

Yes, Frank Herbert had Jews in the very last book of his Dune series, but it’s kind of our universe, only far-far away in the future. Homeworld is a thing of itself, it’s a different Galaxy, seeded by not the father of a millennium, Sajuuk, who came and gone, if we take in account the Dust Wars drafts. And while the references thing is good, it should be set in a less direct way, like it was done with Albegiddo, Lungma Jiin, Caaliburnos, or even with the Chalice of Life - nobody is calling it a Holy Grail, though everyone understands the reference.

And it’s interesting that every game is trying to add something new to Kushan language, but it appears everything but the Kushan themselves are using this language. For HW1 there is a list of Kushan/Taiidan ships and only Taiidan ships have Kushani codenames, Kushan ones have regular English names. HWC continued this tradition, HW2 ignored it, and in HWDOK this fate awaited Gaalsien vessels. But we must admit that this tradition has come out of the fact that HW1 allowed to select the playable race for the campaign - in my case Taiidani more practical, earth-like, design was fighting the Banana Emperor - and because of that these ship description were kind of race-neutral, if possible. Even the background lore was written in a neutral way, in general, not mentioning nor Kushans, nor Taiidans!

And still with KushanImperator” carrier, and very Kharaki names with double vowels, like Kudaark, Seejur, Koshiir Ra - said to be Taiidan, and the very name of a race - brings a Taiidani fly in the Kushani ointment! I believe those descriptions are somewhat messed up, and as they’ve already appeared in a fan public rotation, these should be updated according to the already not new agenda of Bananship prevailing over the Toastership. And that's the reason why I will set it all to Kharakian culture, thus to be Kushan's, unless officially told otherwise.

Well, it could be a funny explanation that everyone is speaking the same language in HWU, but doubtful - there could be a HWU Lingua Franca, but other languages should exist as well. I believe that up to the Homeworld War, and some time after, the Taiidan language was playing this role:150 star systems, 360 billion speakers, and a powerful stability of the 3000 year reign of the Taiidan Empire, influencing all the cultures around… But Kushans could not be influenced by anything as they were out of this information space for those 3000 years!

It could be a real plot twist if Taiidan and Kushan once being brother cultures, and then something like Cain and Abel reference has happened in between; or it could have been a Sarah and Hagar story, and that’s how two nations were born - somehow it’s a twisted link to Hiigara/Hegira/Hagar; or the Esau and Jacob conflict about the birthright; or Joseph story being sold into Exile by Galactic Council brother… Let’s stop here, it seems I went a bit too far with that. Whatever, the first one looks like an actual thing, as Hiigarians who attacked first were exiled to wander homelessly like Cain did.

13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.
14 Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, hand whoever finds me will kill me.”
15 Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him seven fold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.
(c) Genesis 4

Interesting, that Cain is interpreted as a blacksmith, a technological progress prevailing over nomadic "cowboy" being. And that's what happened on Kharak - the sons of Age of Reason, Baal prophets the Lucifers, light bringers, have built their Babylon tower, the Mothership, to win the Promised Land.

Anyway, these assumptions were used as a potential explanation of having one language at least for Taiidans and Kushans.

Then, maybe Kushan and Taiidan are language brothers? Well, there is a problem with that as well.

Language Family Tree

If you take a look at this tree, you may see a cat on a European branch of the Indo-European language. This hypothetical event of language split has happened around 3000 years before - as I am not telling a serious scientific lecture here, I won’t be precise at this moment, especially because I am no serious language scientist. But anyway, it would give an understanding that 3 millenniums of isolated societies can create a giant gap that you should mind. In our world it has created Russian and Norwegian languages - and they are neighbors! Other neighbors, Spain and Portugal, for sure have common language roots, split around the 12th century, but you just listen to the rhythm of the languages to understand they are different!

Languages change over time - no literature norm can stop it, only slow down: sooner or later new words and structure will become a new norm, despite any written examples to follow. People in different areas start pronouncing words differently, find some grammar shortcut, add local important details, some better grammar borrowings from neighbors, and if they get isolated enough their dialect can grow into a full-scale language. Especially if there were some conflicts with the neighbors, speaking almost the same language, there might be a situation when the government institutes starts looking for really different vocabularies, denying any relationship, searching for every word that differs the enemy uses, even if it’s just one village invention. Or vice versa: even in case of different language families the language that put himself in a vassal position for any reason would start adapting foreign words instead of good old native ones, as it would define a belonging to the higher culture, like it has happened with aristocratic French words for the old English, and American words for the modern elsewhere. As well, as quite abstract experiments show, new language speakers from the outside tend to bring some simplifications into language used as Lingua Franca, for example, Russenorsk, so difficult word forms are getting optimized. U ondesten wot I min?

Languages would vary in different ways: are there articles (e.g. a/the); are words genderly specified (une/un); are there word forms; how many times are there (is/was/etc.) and how they are expressed; are there any special sounds, common letter combinations and do the tones make the difference; what about plural form and numerals; how are the word qualities set - are they the part of the word, prefixes, suffixes, infixes etc.; what colors do they have, are the gestures involved, order the word is what, are there any other specifics?.. And that’s what came into my mind just now, probably there are a lot more cases. You can read about the language peculiarities in Gaston Dorren book, “Lingo: A language spotter’s guide to Europe”, and Guy Deutscher’s “Through The Language Glass”.

So, when I was searching out the Kushan words, I was trying to look at them not from the logic of the languages I know. Looking at two word phrases we cannot know what is the primary word and what is secondary, and if there is any strict word order. Like in French there is a difference between une ancienne maison and une maison ancienne, and it’s getting more complicated if we take the words Ham and Hamster, that look similar but are not related.

Of course, there are not many Homeworld languages we know about, but really, after 'Game of Thrones'/'Star Trek' artificial languages, it’s the beaten path already. I don't know if it's possible to use a neuronet to do the stuff? Like get the word pool, with their meanings, add a reference language, add some rules and specifics you’d like to have inside, and get a conlang vocabulary! Somewhat of a deep dream translator.

I believe it could be an interesting thesis for some bachelor/master papers for some linguistics students. I’m no way like that guy - so, who would dare? :)

Kushan Language

First of all, it’s not Kharakian, not Hiigaran, but Kushan civilization and Kushan language, as the ”Kushan” is ontologically higher than any planetary system: like “English” is not British, not American, not Canadian etc. language, and there were no London Empire. So calling Kushans as Hiigarans only is a bit exclusive, especially as there was Kharak already, and it was said that a lot of kiiths went away to seek for other worlds, starting with HWC and continuing with HW2/HWM events. Though it’s quite convenient to name a faction by its capital world, this might have happened in the Taiidan Civil War, having the Taiidan Republic, the Imperialist factions each claiming to be the only successor to the fallen Taiidan Empire, and other worlds. Well, as there was no such situation in Kushan Empire, probably, it can be named Hiigaran Empire as well. But not the language - it may be only the Hiigaran dialect.

Let’s follow the history of the Kushan language.

Kushan Language: History

The fleet began a push from Taiidani space to the Hiigaran homeworld. Every planet along the way was given the choice: join the Taiidan Empire, or be annihilated… every planet but one.
(c) HWR, p.236, Taiidan, A Cycle of Violence

Initially there was the Ancient Kushan language - we don’t know if it was one and only on Hiigara - as it’s the only planet of Ancient Hiigaran Empire that was exiled according to HWR, but, as the Hiigara was the capital of the Ancient Hiigaran Empire, the administrative center, it dictated how the other related worlds should be speaking, and all those who were exiled should have spoken this Old Hiigaran Empire Lingua Franca, and it should have been used as a main language in Khar-Toba’s. So, no matter, if there were any other Hiigaran languages, they can be reduced to the subject, as most probably during the Exile years on sublight convoy ships all the differences have been polished and averaged into a kind of Khar-Tobian mixture, like Belter Creole. Hard to tell if it was related to all convoy ships, what kind of communication and interaction they had, were they exchanging people back and forth, but if they didn’t, then the proto-Kadesh language started its evolution even before the separation, and in 13 generation’s isolation it should have become a thing of its own. Well, unless all people onboard those Khar-Tobas were in a cryosleep, though the reference tells it's not.

It’s interesting that there is a chance that the parts of the Ancient Kushan language had merged into Taiidan language - culturally: words, ideas, religion, maybe even affecting Taiidani Lingua Franca.

Only five Exile ships had reached Kharak - or in other words, they had decided they went far enough, to the very edge of the Galaxy, so they might have a chance to restart their culture. Somehow only one ship was found many years ago, but that’s not the question we are discussing right now. But this could be a source of 5 basic proto-kiiths with their own dialects. Anyway, the Dark Ages has hidden all the perturbations of just kharakied Kushans, so we can only guess what might have happened with them. Most probably, during those years, isolated settlements lost a grand part of previous vocabulary, as useless, and gained a new one, about the Kharakian environment and required actions to survive. The language got balkanized. Only traveling kiithid, like Manaan, S'jet, had a somewhat unifying communication with settled kiithid, not letting the people go wild, exchanging culturally.

The next stage of Kharak language reunification was done in the Heresy Wars: by the will or by the force people learned Gaalsien or Siidim ways. Somtaaw and Naabal were encapsulated in Khontala mountains and Tiir valley accordingly. A new powerful dialect had been born in the South: the kiith Paktu had come to power. Kiith Kaalel had joined the numbers of “mediator” kithid. A small number of war refugees wandered in the deserts to be known much later as Khaaneph.

Naabal Intervention had added another strong dialect into play: establishing The Great Daiamid in Tiir made its influence inevitable. Kiith Gaalsien had vanished in the deserts, going its own way, kiith Siidim has lost its political positions, but stayed around. Kiith Paktu being separated for 200 years in the South, joined the Great Daiamid. Mediator kiithid number grows larger: kiith Hraal is converged from 5 other kiithid, forced to find a common language, and the best candidate is the Naabal dialect. Kiith Kaalel makes a grand step towards Kharak unification, first, by starting a typography business and then radio broadcasts in Tiir, the Northern Capital. Kiith S’jet scientific dialect, based on somewhat of old Kushan “Latin”, affects all Kharakian scientists papers, kiith Manaan trading traditions bring their flavor into economics and entertainment areas, and PMCSoban” have their grip on military sciences.

Kharak seemed to be unified but finding The First City on the remains of Khar-Toba showed a little bit of a different picture. This time it appeared that Kharak has 2 new languages: Gaalsien and Khaaneph. Naabal has strengthened its positions by pushing the Great Engineering Projects. Siidim with the treacherous actions during the Operation Khadiim has isolated itself from the other kiithid, thus going for their language, which won’t be hard with Siidim nationalistic strive for old traditions. Paktu took a little part in the events of the North, also ripening their own language.

All has changed with the Guidestone discovery and another Great Engineering Project: the construction of Mothership. Everyone was participating, even Siidim, so this must have been a language unifying event. And again, it must have been the dialect of Naabal that ruled the ball, with the additions of Somtaaw and Paktu, along with the mediator kiithid.

But after the Hiigara Landing the situation has changed but not that drastically: the most numerous kiithid were Naabal, Paktu, LiirHra, Kaalel, Manaan, S'jet and Soban. Somtaaw also wanted to join the affecting kiith list, but the numbers were talking against them. A lucky event has added 10000 members to their initial 15000 members, thus their dialect had been greatly diluted. So, in the very end only Paktu had been left with their Southern dialect, others using the more or less common Kushan language, Naabal edition.

With the Kiithless retcon introduction to the story (well, that question was never really addressed so it's not really a retcon, though this creates new twisting accents) we would have another turn in Kushan language evolution, that would be marked with even more Taiidan words in the Kushan vocabulary. Despite the apartheid politics of the New Daiamid to preserve Kushan culture of being "pure" and going into pretty radical nationalism to "save the nation" creating isolation from those "j'niiri griitidim" by the language barriers, state propaganda and censorship, forcing to learn only Kushan language and only in Kushan language, still, real life interactions between Hiigaran Taiidans and Hiigaran Kushans would enrich both languages (creating Hiigaran dialect of Taiidan language), in special cases even creating "Spanglish" situations. But, in general, plus to Naabal-Paktu dialects rivalry there will be another antagonism between people language that would borrow all the convenient and most used words and noble language that would hold to the Kharakian legacy and ancient Hiigaran Empire findings.

Though it's not the end point of the Kushan language story: as Vaygr War would mix up the cards granting more rights to the Kiith'neph, making Hiigara political system to not so stable as before shattering pillars of the founding kiithid, some of the those would decide to make Hiigara great again - just outside Hiigara. So all those Kiithid who will be able to organize their own independent existence outside there, would have a chance of their own dialect. And I believe, there will be: HWM is just about those Kiithid to rewrite starting conditions for their kin.

Kushan Language Family Evolution

* In the end of it's existence Ferril have allied with Siidim and then was consumed by it. So I guess, the picture is not that correct in this aspect.

As for Kadeshi, their next milestone of radical language update was a meeting with Kushans after 13 generations, and there were consequences:

With the Kadeshi leadership in disarray and its people reeling from the revelations of their history, they underwent a drastic change in outlook. Just over half traveled to Hiigara after the war.
(c) HWR, p. 249, The Kadeshi After the Homeworld War

With the Kadeshis' power broken, the rich elemental wealth of the Great Nebula is again open for mining. Hundreds of fleets converge on the vast space to capture the rarest materials, turning the Garden into a hotbed of conflict, piracy, and skirmishes. Amid the chaos, surviving Kadeshi prey upon
those too weak to defend themselves from their continuing holy war.
(c) HWRS, p.189, The Great Nebula

Well, there is a probability that Kushans gained a new kiith, but doubtfully that the newbies would join any other kiith or settle on Hiigara. I believe it would be a problem for a descendants from light-gravity Kharak, but for a pure starfaring civilization it would be simply impossible. So, I believe that Kadeshi would continue to stay isolated, but maybe some new words from Kushan or Taiidan languages will appear in their vocabulary.

Kushan Language: Specifics

Travelling Issues

How about changing the directions feeling: we’re used to say that something is located on a side of ourselves, but in case of having more important thing like The Great Banded Desert it might become a measure of all travels, like Polar regions - and we know such cultures having a most observable object on the island to become a measure of their movement. And the fact that Kharak is somewhat of our Mars, creates a question if they could have any means of coordinates as we understand them: like no regular magnetic fields make compass useless. Interesting, how would the Kharakid orient in space? Having an unconscious need for some great object to be assigned to?..

Mars Magnetism

Sea, Ocean and Desert

In HW1 Historical Briefing Majiirian water pool is named both as a sea and an ocean. Though it can be explained by a lack of proofreading, or having both on the South, which is ridiculous and now uncanonical (HWR), this error might be used as a Kushan language feature: Kharakid may not know big water reservoirs, so any of it would be a “sea” - the big water. And as there is only one ocean on Kharak - and quite a few seas, it’s easy to remember that the Majiirian sea is a special one. The problems with definitions will appear on Hiigara… Most probably, the new entities names would be taken Taiidan language - at least, until the archaeologists would dig out old Hiigaran language to replace, while the definitions are not rooted too well. Well, like it was with sputnik replaced by satellite.

On the contrary, there would be a lot of names for the different types of sand, as it plays a crucial role in the Kharakian environment, and separate names for the sand seas and oceans.

Soban Red

As well, color name loss would happen, as everything is getting optimized, and if you don’t see anything why would you need a word for this? I wonder how Soban has gained the red color for their banners? Out of the enemies? The banner is not fully mature till it drinks enough blood? It’s like the legends of how Austrian and Latvian flags were created - probably, this bloody thing was quite common in Medieval times. Same, the Spartans had their cloth red, so that enemies don’t see them bleeding. Maybe in Kushan culture there is a color - Soban, the bloody red, carmine?

My love to you is of color soban
Without you
I will be dead like the ones who betrayed the deal with Soban
You took my heart
Like Sobani took the boys who’s fathers betrayed Soban
Leaving you
Make me feel the mothers who’s boys were taken by Soban
But you stay cold
Like the Sobani ordered to fight each other to death
I’m loosing you
Like the new Sobani is losing one’s kiith

And then I remembered that Sobani were childfree, so no Janissary references (maybe, for Siidim?)… Though, in the earlier days there might have been such a thing, and in the modern days there might be military colleges for orphans.

Interesting, how do Sobani manage pregnancy situations…

Kushan Language: The Sound

We don’t really know how the Kushan language sounds. But we have some hints.

Culturally, the lore refers to a lot of things - you know, first, it’s Exodus and stuff, then it’s collective Genghis Khan; words “Kushan”, “Thaidan” and “Kharak” would lead you to Afghanistan, India or even China… By the way, there’s a song about Kharak..

Well, it’s kind of the collective East, like, the desert part of it. So, maybe we should listen to the languages used there? Maybe there we could find some interesting features, like the Frenchr” - but this time, for example, it could be “H”, that’s not lost but pronounced separately - kH (khattak), tsH (Tskhinvali), gH (Singh), tH (thug) and so on…

As well, there are names that could also serve as a pointer to the language music. I won’t repeat everything that is already collected below - in the end you can just rewatch all the Homeworld Movies - but I especially like how the Somtaaw-Sa is pronouncing the following text and especially the name “Clee-San”:

And speaking of the Jakuul, of the music, we have some Kushan songs from HW2 OST:

Anybody knows what this “[Un Nagana Travi Sana]” means?!..

And here... Something very familiar in this Indian melody... Is this really the coincidence that capital of Hiigara is named Asaam, like one of the Indian states?

Kushan Language: The Orthography

From the trailers, we’ve seen the HW3 mothership with a bold name “Khar-Kushan” written with Latin letters. Earlier, we’ve also seen a KUNDE ship from HW2 concepts, and there’s V for Vaygr, and the most iconic HW sigil is “15” written with Arabic letters… Looks like there is a contraband leak of Latin letters from our universe to HWU.

KUNDE Tanker

I don’t know if this is the reaction to HW2: FXmod implemented possibility of naming ships, and in HW3 we would have the same ability in Multiplayer; or it was meant that Kushans are understanding their language, as we are - our own, and as we’re playing as Kushans we should understand it as well, that’s why we’re reading some untranslated text… The first explanation is understandable for MP, but not for SP; the second one is too complicated. I believe the strategy of using the Roman alphabet should be constricted.

Gaalsien Reliefs

This picture of Gaalsien sand relief has directed me to some thoughts. No matter what scribing system there was before, it had to be modified to Kharak conditions. From Khar-Toba to the North Pole there is hardly any suitable material for scribing, at least for the guys who were used to the poor but high-tech conditions of a spaceship. This also might have been a reason for knowledge loss.

Of course, people would adapt to this. First of all, people with intelligence of auditory type (VAK learning theory) would gain prevalence, because people would tell stories orally. There might be the guys assigned as cultural ambassadors, as priests to save and retell the best stories, with the most valuable ideas gained so far.

For example, S’jetties might have ciphered some scientific principles into fairy stories the Liu Cixin way, making their own canon that would be better understood on a certain technological level. Though sometimes this all event may turn into a cargo cult replacing the initial idea in generations of Chinese whispers, like it happened with Gaalsien and Siidim - and most probably other kiithid. So, you’d still need something for saving information in its initial form.

And this sand relief has reminded me of a cuneiform: something from the same climatic region, using something that should be very common in deserts: sand, clay and stones. I don’t know how canonical is kiith Kaalel printing press invention in KDS 857 (HWCO), but it somewhat fits the idea Gaalsien being eco-terrorists and Naabal being igniters of irreversible ecological catastrophe, by cutting the forests for their steam factories, cutting the lungs of the planet… Like the key situation of "Saw" movie: the protagonist gets to know where is the key only after he already lost it.

Cuineform

So, second, I believe, kiith S’jet would invent their own alphabet more appropriate for these materials. They might come to this eventually, evolutionary, generation by generation; but even if they planned using it just for their astronomical records - hey, remember Guidestone? - it expanded everywhere. Theoretically.

Moses and the tablets

Anyway, things that are getting used often, tend to get optimized reasonably.

BullA

And now, let’s see what the game has shown us.

Kushan Orthography

On the stone was etched a galactic map and a single word more ancient than the clans themselves.
Hiigara. Our home.
(c) HW1, Intro cutscene

If we take a look at the stone, we can find 2 star systems: the right one looks very much like the Kharak System, and the left one, what’s left of it, looks like the Hiigara System. And there 3 coordinate lines with symbols and also the symbols under the Kharak System. If we don’t care about those 3 extra words, does it mean that Kharak is a new Hiigara, our home?.. Or there is a dark side of the Guidestone?

Guidestone

As well, we can see that the normal position of a stone shows us Kharak system on the right side and Hiigara system on the left. While it's not the case that the Exiles knew the Final Destination, it could a be a hint the way they were looking at texts: unlike Europeans, they could be writing from right to left, well, how it's done in the Middle East.

It’s hard to understand what’s written on a stone, wherever the picture is taken from: be it HWR, HW1RM updated movies, or the picture from HW1 Historical Briefing. Though the latter has symbols that more resemble the map shown next. Maybe, the only word “Hiigara” is not from there, but from this map? And it looks like:

Text Hiigara Our Home

Though, in HW1RM the guys have also added the Kharak name on it, thus missing the “single word” moment. But on the other hand, we now have examples of post-exile Kushan written language examples. One should mean “Kharak”, the other - “Hiigara”.

Kushan Text Galaxy Map

The problem is that 1 symbol of the left word is the 3rd symbol of the right word. There might be different systems of writing words, like by each sound (with special combinations, like in English or French or else), by syllables, by meaning - hieroglyphic, and by whatever method there is. And as there are too many symbols, I guess, it could mean that it’s the first system. But besides Occam's razor explanation that these symbols are just a random set, I can guess that in Kushan language KH = GH, explaining the mentioned symbol repeat. But all the other letters… Well, you simply can’t make a word “infinity” out of the letters “r”, “a”, “e”, “s”. So, yes, it’s a random set. But it’s a good material for creating an alphabet.

From HW2 we also got some letters, if we can call them this way: there was something blinking in the right corner of the screen while analyzing the Progenitor ship. And it was used in a flipped mode, so I believe it’s the same random set of something that is even harder to call letters as they look pretty unstandardized. What designer made this font?!..

Text Kushan HW2

And in HW3 we might see both examples again:

HW3 letters

Somtaaw Orthography

It looks like HWC tried to go on with the Kushan language: a lot of words added, also some kind of alien symbols shown in Somtaaw reports… But if you take a look attentively, you’d see that those symbols just repeat randomly.

Text of Somtaaw

Though it’s a good try, being honest. Same, these letters, symbol = meaning, with a little filtering out, could be used. I'd say these look like hieroglyphs, it can explain why there is the same symbol on Acolyte and Worker (don't know about any other vessel) - could it be "Kuun-Lan"? - but it means that there should be thousands of such hieroglyps, with specific combinations and liaison. Though this first 'X' on the engine looks suspiciosly like one of the HW2 symbols…

Somtaaw Acolyte

Somtaaw own half-isolated sub-civilization in Khontala mountains had its sequences. Well, if the Israel state has revived Hebrew, then stubborn Somtaaw could do a similar thing as well, at least the writing traditions.

Acts 7:51: Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

But there is another alphabet used in their reports:

Greek letters on Somtaaw map

Probably, Barking Dog were short on time and they thought that the Greek letters look alien enough for modern youth. You know, those ρμγςίχ and Math’i’mess’X

Kushan Language: The Vocabulary

This part of the article was developed last, and didn't fit the limits of ModDB article, so you can read about the words of kushan language in the next article...

Taiidan Language

It’s interesting that while we don’t have any examples of Taiidan vocabulary, we have both the examples of their speech and alphabet, shown in HW1.

From the words we know, there is the name of captain Elson, his destroyer strike group named “Kapella”, and two squadrons named “Jasah” and “Cor” - to be honest, the latter looks too much like Kushancor”- “wrath”. If it’s true, then we might know another word from Kushan vocabulary, though it strange for Taiidani squad to be named in Kushan, needs some explanations. Otherwise, it may be the writer’s bias of creating “alien languages” - for example, Peter Watts' HW Dust short draft contained names like Kalgai, Durkarian, Ghiritzen etc, foreign enough, but not Kushan enough; in our case it might the opposite case when the author has not turned off the connection to Kushan civilization, imagining few names for the other one. And the last but not least, the famous Taiidan Emperor Riesstiu IV-2, earlier known as Khaldeesh - yes, again the double vowel - who’s name was brought to us by HWC.

It would be good to remember that the HW Galaxy is not only about the Kushan culture, to put those doubles everywhere, it’s more vice versa, like it was mentioned before, Taiidan culture to be affecting all the others. And it’s good to see that HWR tried to make a distance between Taiidans and Kushans, though the added Lords names reminded me for some reasons Victorian England of Dishonored.

But let’s check what those Taiidanies have.

Taiidan Language: The Sound

If you want to know how Taiidan language sound, just go HW1 cutscene 05-06, and you’d hear a Taiidan imperial broadcast:

And there is a hint. Those who know Russian will find something very familiar in it. It appears that the broadcast contains part of this message:

“In those historical moments when the spaceship "Vostok" ("East") made its flight with the first man, cosmonaut Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin, over our planet, two-way radio communication was established between the Earth and the spaceship. Comrade Gagarin reported to Earth how he was feeling, how the flight was going. During short communication sessions, the Soviet cosmonaut transmitted: "I am observing the Earth. Visibility is good. I can hear you perfectly." After a while: "The flight continues well. I observe the Earth. Visibility is good. You can see everything. Some space is covered with cumulus clouds." Some time later, Comrade Gagarin reports: "The flight continues. Everything is fine. Everything works fine. Everything works fine. Let's move on." And again after a while: "I feel good. I am cheerful. I continue the flight. Everything is going well, the ship is working normally." These laconic messages, full of courage and confidence, which already today belong to history, are recorded on magnetic tape. Hear the voice of the world's first cosmonaut Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin from the Soviet spaceship-satellite "Vostok".”

So, the mystery is solved, Taiidanies are speaking Russian. Case closed.

But ok, let's be more serious. Like it was said in the article about HWU cartography, let's not mix inspiration and plagiarism, especially as it’s a really cool sci-fi reference. So, Taiidan is not Russian, but it may sound Russian. And there are languages that sound close to Russian, this is not a unique feature.

Taiidan Language: The Orthography

From the same broadcast about Gagarin you’d learn examples of the Taiidan writing. To be honest, it looks very suspiciously familiar there, but very fractured in the style of a cuneiform, maybe even Predators triangles. This seems to represent a system of letter-sound, so it might be a good resource for building a conscious Taiidan alphabet. 25-35 letters, Arabic digits, that’s it!..

Text Taiidan Broadcast Original

Text Taiidan 01 RM
Text Taiidan 02 RM
Text Taiidan 03 RM
Text Taiidan 04 RM
Text Taiidan 05 RM
Text Taiidan 06 RM

Taiidan Language: Names

For some reasons they don't use surnames, to mark their family or vassalage. Looks like among 360 billion of Taiidani people there is no other Elson or Perillier (sarcasm).

  • Cpt. Elson (HW1) - you know this cap
  • Riesstiu (HWC) - the dynasty of Taiidan Emperors, started from Admiral Riesstiu (does it mean that there were only 5 emperors in 3000 years?)
  • Khaldeesh (HWCO) - name of the Last Emperor in the HWC beta-version
  • Assembly of Lords (HWR)
    • Lord Rashor, Mother of Medicine—Health care
    • Lady Asha, Exarch of the Air and Keeper of the Eternal Strings—Entertainment
    • Lord Gisdalve, King of the Oceans of Knowledge, Knower of Knowledge, Abrogator of Lies and Destroyer of Falsehoods—Historical Records and Archives
    • Liege Barbola, Conductor of the Million Mouths—Food and Resource Logistics
    • Lady Eytapea, Keeper of the Keys and Holder of the Sky’s Ear—Internal Security and Navy Liaison
    • Lady Korvakke, Supreme Justice Keeper of the Known Galaxy—Law and Justice
  • Liege Ayshus (HWR), Liege of the Unfettered Thought
  • Lady Corvux (HWR), Lady of The Darkness and Potentate of Strategic Thought
  • Lord Walia (HWR), Diplomat-Lord to the Outer Realms and Guardian of Anthropological Accords
  • Rien (HWR), Bannerbearer to the Favored Colonies of Riesstiu IV the Second, Captain of the Lightning’s Triumph
  • Perillier (HWR), Imperial Assassin

HWM has also added a kiithless Hiigaran Taiidan name - Kidara Sasan.

Other Languages

Race of Naggarok: Orthography

It’s the thing from the Naggarok pod. Well, it looks a bit like one of those Somtaaw symbols, but it’s not verified in the Somtaaw reports set. Probably, the same bias of inventing alien language: this time an artist had not closed his connection to Somtaaw culture.

Text of Naggarok

Progenitors: The Sound

Besides the word “Sajuuk”, which appears to be known in the other Galaxy (Xajuuk - HWM), we have somewhat of a speech by Progenitor Keepers.

Of course, it’s not a language, it’s an Easter Egg… But still, could it mean that Progenitor language sounds like reversed English? Or is this some kind of Tenet technology, and Keepers time goes backwards, like Merlin’s?!. Nah, most probably, Keeper told Kushans to go hyperjump themselves in AInian dialect of Progenitarian.

Other Names

Well, you see it yourself: Manaan - Makaan - Araan - L’haanVaygr, Turan and a girl from another galaxy (well, I don’t know, she may be a descendant of Eye of Aarran failed expeditions, lost for a hundred years…). But it shows a bad tendency of inner plagiarism from Kushans. Or it requires explanation - do Turans belong to the lost Exile tribes? Is Makaan the rogue Kushan?.. You never know!..

  • Vaygr - Makaan (HW2), Jochilk Kaan (HWM)
  • Kesura Oasis (HW3) - L'haan
  • Turanic Raiders (HWR) - Tikk and Cosgrove, Araan Kalik
  • Kadeshi (HWR) - Areshem, High Gardener
  • Galactic Council Worlds (HWR) - Kariak, Ygri, Arthoe

Change Log

  • 18.10.23 - added a note about Kushan writing direction, and about Soban orphan schools;
  • 23.10.23 - moved HWR book cover review to Stranger Things II, and added a few words about HWM;
  • 26.10.23 - updated History with HWM Kiithless and consequences

Read More Of Homeworld

Homeworld: Cartography

AmDDRed Blog

Homeworld Cartography Cheat Sheet

HW CART EN Header

When I’ve read Homeworld Revelation RPG book, I understood that I was missing some maps: a map of Homeworld Galaxy, where all the fun happening - it’s not that populated, but still, and a map of Kharak, as there is quite tense action happening related to Kushan history. Also, we have information on Kharak and Hiigara systems so why not add them as well? RPG books should ease this kind of things. Instead of HWR's beautiful art of a Kushan-Taiidan space battle, which right half is positioned on the left side, and left - on the right side of the book, I’d love to see Kharak and Galaxy maps, that are more critical for a RPG player (like it was done in Alien RPG book).

So, I decided to gather the info here, especially as I will need a part of it in my next research. I will be talking about Kharak, Hiigara and Galaxy overall.

Contents

  1. The Sources
  2. Kharak
    • Planetary System
    • The Sun
    • The Planet
      • Northern Hemisphere
      • The Great Banded Desert
      • Southern Hemisphere
      • The First Migration
      • The Great Stormbreaker Wall Guardian Forts
      • Cities
      • Tiir
      • 33 Temples of The Shimmering Path
      • Corporations
      • Khadiim Operation (HWDOK Journey)
      • The End
  3. Hiigara
    • Planetary System
    • The Planet
    • The Moon
  4. Homeworld Galaxy
    • Maps
    • Known Actors
    • Inner Rim
    • Galactic Rim
      • Outer Western Rim
      • Outer Eastern Rim
    • Planets
    • Expeditions
      • HW1 Journey
      • HWC Journey
      • HW2 Journey
      • HW3 Journey
  5. Homeworld Mobile "Nimbus" Galaxy
  6. Other Galaxies
  7. Links

The Sources

  • HW1 - Homeworld 1, manual, game
  • HWC - Homeworld Cataclysm/Emergence, manual, game
  • HWCO - Homeworld Cataclysm, outtakes
  • HWWOS - HW and HWC ship descriptions, well of souls
  • HW2 - Homeworld 2, manual, game
  • HW2PR - Homeworld 2, Prima Official eGuide
  • HWDOK - Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, Expedition Guide, game
  • HWR - Homeworld: Revelations RPG
  • HWRS - Homeworld: Revelations RPG Story Seeds
  • HWM - Homeworld: Mobile, homeworldsource.net
  • HW3 - Homeworld 3
  • HWDST - Homeworld Dust Wars drafts

Kharak

Planetary System

According to what we see in the Guidestone, Kharak is positioned in the mixed orbit of Venus, Earth and Mars. And it’s interesting that the first orbit is occupied by a planet with a satellite, like in the old (and not actual now) theory that Mercury was a moon of Venus once. Though it feels like the Guidestone is positioned upside down: it should be turned 180 degrees to have a familiar picture. Does it mean the Kushan are writing from right to left?..

Guidestone Info

According to this map Kharak system should consist of:

  1. KS I: Stone planet with a moon
  2. Kharak: Stone planet
  3. KS III: Asteroid Belt
  4. Haarsuk: Gas planet
  5. KS V: Double stone planet

The Sun

If Kharak age is around 6.7 billion years, then Kharak System sun is around the same age, maybe it's 6.8 billion years old, which means it's older than our Solar System, which leads to interesting conclusions.

There is such a thing as a habitabitable zone:

Habitable Zone

If we take a look at our sun, which might be applied to Hiigara System sun, it's 4.5 billion years old. And in 1 billion years our Earth due to 10% sun brightness increase, will be no more in this habitable zone. It will the time for Mars, and so on.

Solar Red Giant Habitable Zone

So, when we say that Kharak's orbit is the same as Hiigara's orbit, and Kharak System sun is around 2 billion years older, that means it should be a smaller sun than Hiigaran one. And we see it: around 5 planets of Kharak System and around 9 planets of Hiigara System.

It would be cool to get an astronomer to clarify some things.

The Planet

HWU Kharak

Homeworld's epic tale begins in the far reaches of the universe. You were the benign lords of a peaceful society located in the center of a lush spiral galaxy. For as long as anyone could remember, no one challenged your peaceful existence. But then came the conquerors, invading with the sole purpose of overtaking your world. Billions died, and the survivors were relocated to a cold, lifeless planet on the edge of the galaxy.
(c) Homeworld Old Description

I guess, Mars was kind of an inspiration for the Kharak. It's the same deserted planet in the end of its geological life, similar size, the same cold as it was told in the early Homeworld description, only not so far from the Hiigara/Earth. Maybe the war between Mars and Earth was the very early stage of the Homeworld script?.. Or is it just an ecological situation metaphor?

Planets: Kharak & Mars
* according to the calculations from Reddit :)

However, something important happens when planets decrease in size: as they warm, their atmospheres expand outward, becoming larger and larger relative to the size of the planet. These large atmospheres increase both the absorption and radiation of heat, allowing the planet to better maintain a stable temperature. The researchers found that atmospheric expansion prevents low-gravity planets from experiencing a runaway greenhouse effect, allowing them to maintain surface liquid water while orbiting in closer proximity to their stars.
(c) A goldilocks zone for planet size

Habitable planet sizes

Maybe, if Mars and Venus switched places, our Solar System would have had 3 habitable world for now. But no, we have only one homeworld, one hell and one freezer.

But OK, let's return to Kharak. That’s how we saw the planet in Homeworld 1:

Homeworld 1 Classis Kharak

After that fans were imagining how Kharak would look like in better details:

Kharak by fans

That’s what we saw in HW1RM:

Map Kharak HW1RM M01

The same time BBI was working on their new HW IP - “Hardware”, set on a desert planet LV-27

Hardware Concepts

And with Gearbox acquiring the original HW IP - “Homeworld”, BBI decided to return back to Kharak

Kharak Sketch Map

And here is the globe done for HWDoK:

HWDOK Kharak

Being honest, to show Scaffold as large as it's shown in Homeworld Historical Briefing, I believe it should be located on the orbit similar to HW2 Mission 15:
HW1 Scaffold

Kharak Close Orbit

The Expedition Guide globe is not very HD, but it has names on it.

Map Kharak 3D

And there is a map, made most probably by Adam Whitehead, that looks cool and pretty canonical:

Kharak Map

Northern Hemisphere

  • The Great Northern Highlands
    • The Seas of the Three Sisters (HWDOK)
      a.k.a. The Three Northern Seas (HW1)
      known to be dry in 200 years (~KDS 1110) according to HWDOK;
      • The Salt Sea (HW1)
        known to be the homeland of kiith Paktu exiled by kiith Siidim
      • The Second Sea (HW1)
        known to be the homeland of kiith Soban (HW1), thus Lehi and Balel (HWR)
        • Sparkling Desert (HW1)
          • Desert Proving Grounds (HWDOK)
        • Valley of Tiir (HW1)
          the homeland of kiith Naabal (HW1), and kiith Tambuur later (HWR)
          • Tiir (HW1)
            capitol city of kiith Naabal
        • The Powdered Sands (HWR)
          For generations the Kaalel lived on the shores of the Powdered Sands where they operated the most ornate theatre constructed before the Heresy Wars. Kaalel seems to be situated inbetween Gaalsien, Naabal and S'jet, maybe the opposite shore of The Second Sea
        • Walking Dunes (HWCO)
          known for kiith Kaalel decision to break with kiith S'jet
        • Dassar grasslands (HWR)
          Territories of kiith S'jet
      • The Third Sea - ?
  • Khontala Mountains (HWC)
    known to be origin of kiith Somtaaw
    • Lungma Jiin (HWC)
      "The Roof of the World", the highest mountain of Kharak
    • Red Creek Valley (HWC)
      the location of rich iron ore fateful for kiith Somtaaw
    • The Kasaar Desert (HWC)
      the entrance to Khontala Mountains
      • Kasaar Road (HWC)
        known by the protection agreement between kiith Soban and Somtaaw
    • Hameln, Gydeo (HWC)
      cities of kiith Somtaaw
    • The Shimmering Path (HWC)
      the complex of 33 Somtaaw temples, from Kasaar to Lungma Jiin
  • Great Barrier Mountain Range (HWDOK)
    natural sand baffle of hundreds of kilometers across the surface of Kharak
    • The Great Stormbreaker (HWDOK)
      a wall thousands of kilometers long, designed to save civilization in the North
    • Faaern Gorge (HWDOK)
      a natural geological formation
      • Kriil Firebase (HWDOK)
        it was used for deep desert reconnaissance and supply missions, in KDS 1111, it was overtaken by desert encroachment and abandoned
    • Tarsis Line (HWDOK)
      named after the Coalition's Defense Minister Tarsis Naabal, is a line of early warning scanners and sensor outposts constructed and deployed by the Northern Coalition on the edge of the Great Banded Desert east of the capital Tiir. It was built immediately following the Gaalsien attacks on the north in KDS 1110
    • Drifting Seas (HWDOK)
      known for the Drifting Seas Campaign of 81-83, Roman S'jet was there
    • Riikes Dune (HWDOK)
      known for the Battle of Riikes Dune, Roman S'jet was there
  • The White Desert (HW1)
    there were first records about Manaani
  • Shiiaro Mountains (HWM)
    200 miles from the White Desert, a place with labyrinthine mountains, leading to Manaani Ferin Sha
    • Trader’s Bargain (HWM)
      A lone rock concluding confounding rock pillars, behind which was found a secluded desert basin where the 1st Ferin Sha happend, massacred by Siidim forces in KDS 513
  • Plain at Albegiido (HW1)
    the last point before the Great Banded Desert in Paktu Migration to the South
  • The Wastes (HWDOK)
    Khaaneph wandering grounds
  • Wrending Peaks (HWDOK)
  • Cape Wrath (HWDOK)
    A place of death of Nabaal heavy carrier Ifriit Naabal
  • Searing Flats (HWDOK)
  • Wanderer’s Pass (HWDOK)
  • Sarathi Basin (HWDOK)
    A site of alien ship Kalash
  • Beladin Dune Sea (HWDOK)
    A place of death of Gaalsien carrier Ashoka with her captain Khagaan
  • Garaaki Highlands (HWDOK)
    A place of Gaalsien carrier Renza death; the location of ancient ship fleet

The Great Banded Desert

  • The Great Northern Way (HW1)
    railroad built by kiith Naabal to connect Northern Coalition with Southern Federation
  • Glass Basin (HWDOK)
  • Dreamlands / Dhaigren (HWDOK)
    • Khar-Toba site (HW1/HWDOK)
      you know it, it started it all

Khar-Toba

Southern Hemisphere

  • Hunon Mountains (HW1)
    a place of kiith Gaalsien defeat by kiith Paktu, the end of the Last Crusade
    • Burning red canyons (HW1)
      a place of despair and hope, as well, of Majiir Paktu words "I can smell the sea"
    • Silumiin (HW1)
      rocket launch site
  • Amariid Flats (HWR)
    the 2nd Ferin Sha of Manaan
  • Great Majiirian Ocean / Majiirian Sea (HW1)
    "members of the Southern Federation had the most experience with life in a water - and oxygen-rich climate. Paktu fishing operations have been highly successful, and their orchards and farms have prospered more than those of any other kiith" (HWCO)

The First Migration

  1. The Salt Sea
  2. Plain at Albegiido
  3. The Great Banded Desert
  4. Hunon Mountains, Red Canyons
  5. Majiirian Sea/Ocean

The Great Stormbreaker Wall Guardian Forts

  • Biaan (HWDOK)
    Jacob S'jet serving place
  • K'thtaal (HWDOK)
    Jacob S'jet serving place
  • Vriis (HWDOK)
    Jacob S'jet serving place
  • K'karr (HWDOK)
    Roman S'jet commandiring place
  • B’shiir (HWDOK)
    Fallen fortress, where Gaalsien Honorguard "Sajuuk Taa" Cruisers were seen for the first time

Kharak Stormbreaker Wall

Cities

  • Tiir (HW1)
    capital of kiith Naabal, capital of the Northern Coalition
  • Saju-Ka (HW1)
    capital of kiith Gaalsien
  • Mataar (HWR)
    capital of Siidim
  • Majiir (HWR)
    capital of kiith Paktu, capital of the Southern Federation
  • Gydeo (HWC)
    capital of kiith Somtaaw, 7th temple of the Shimmering Path
  • Hameln (HWC)
    city of kiith Somtaaw
  • Frein (HWCO)
    city of kiith Hraal

S'jetti Centers (HWR):

  • Abaard
    kiith Gaalsien attacked S'jet in there, thus they were punished for 100 years
  • Sadsaior
  • Khar-Atekh
  • Saju-ka

Tiir

  • The Great Daiamid (HW1)
  • University of Tiir (HWDOK)
  • Naabal Tech Creche (HWDOK)
  • Sjet Tech Creche (HWDOK)
  • Tiir Barracks Complex (HWDOK)
  • Tiir Primal Tactical School (HWDOK)
  • Tiir Command School (HWDOK)
  • Tiir Officer Training Academy (HWDOK)
  • Academy of Advanced Sciences (HWDOK)
  • Soban Advanced Warfare Academy a.k.a Soban Red Academy (HWDOK)

Tiir

33 Temples of The Shimmering Path

Norsehound has a theory that the names used in HWC multiplayer as alternatives to Kuun-Lan, might be used as other unknown temple names. I believe, it's a good theory, there's nothing against it, it's even in line with known ship names. Of course, there is only 21 name, but if we take that these are the missing ones - well, among them there is nothing containing "Tala" part for "Oracle of Tala" - then we have 27 unique names, with 6 missing. You just don't know what is what here. Though that "Vhenk-Maan" looks suspicious…

  • 1st: "Oracle of Tala"
  • 7th: "Dome of Heaven"
  • Xth: Faal-Corum "Silent Wayfarer"
  • Xth: Kuun-Lan "Purifying Flame"
  • Xth: Clee-San "Truth Seeker"
  • 33rd: "Temple of the Mysteries"
  • Teer-Gig, Gaal-Ten, Coor-Lan, Naab-Corum, Toet-Coy, Eheb-San, Shuus-Nan, Thuuw-Nan, Morrh-Re, Ruun-Aaid, Shin-Clah, Baar-Ett, Gaar-Balhi, Vhenk-Maan, Maal-Nitz, Feng-Yuun, Thul-Lee, Mholah-Ri, Veer-Kah, Eh-Ghoan, Drun-Kyori

Corporations

  • NaabalTech
  • Hraal Industrial Works
  • Somtaaw Industries

Plus, as we can see out of Kapisi carrier description, there were S'jet, Paktu and Jaraci companies for sure.

Khadiim Operation (HWDOK Journey)

There is a detailed fan map, that is really worth sharing. Most probably, done by Adam Whitehead.

Operation Khadiim

The End

But, no matter how we develop the depths of Kharak’s history, like in the Star Wars, the end is known.

ADWs (Atmospheric Deprivation Weapons) are some of the most destructive weapons ever used. They are detonated in low orbit and the result is literal deprivation of the planet’s atmosphere. Temperatures
on the surface can reach so high that the air burns. Any living creature is quicky incinerated due to the heat, or choked by the lack of essential gasses, such as oxygen. Even after the atmosphere is destroyed the planet remains uninhabitable by any kind of life, as well as vulnerable to space debris collision and radiation.
(c) HWR, p.96, Other Weapons

Kharak Map HW1 Classic
Kharak Map HW1RM

Though the question about the Southern Federation is still remains open.

Hiigara

Planetary System

There is no direct information about the Hiigara System, but we can find something out of the HW1 loading screens:

Map Hiigara System HW1

And the other half of Guidestone:

Guidestone Info

So, Hiigara System contains:

  • HS I: Stone planet
  • HS II: Stone planet (most likely)
  • Hiigara / Angel Moon: Stone plane with a moon, double planet
  • HS IV: Stone planet (most likely)
  • HS V: Stone planet
  • HS VI: Gas Giant with at least 2 moons
  • HS VII: Gas Giant with at least 3 moons
  • HS VIII: Stone planet with a moon
  • HS IX: Stone planet

Of course, there is a question if any planet was not shown inbetween the Guidestone and the loading screen, and if there is an asteroid belt on orbits with no planets shown, but in general it's so.
Anyway, there is a nice Norsehound’s Hiigara System fanfic map, though it's discussable:

Norsehound Hiigara System Map

The Planet

HWU Hiigara

Hiigara looks very much like Earth, and even without the "Kharak-Mars" theory. it might have been done intentionally: the game credits with that Yes song were aiming to our "Earth is our Home" feelings, with this old "Promised land" concept. And Deserts of Kharak somewhat repeated in a way of "Take care of your home", feel lucky that your world is still hospitable for you - is it? Or you have 2 centuries left to build a Mothership?..

So, it's not surprizing that there might been a though that Hiigara was meant to be a future Earth. For example, like in this continent movement simulation video:

Well, the idea is interesting but not exact. But let's see how does Hiigara look in the games.

HW1 Classic Mission 016:

Hiigara Map from HW1 Classic

HW1 Classic Mission 016:

Map Hiigara HW1RM M16

HW2 Classic Mission 02:

Map Hiigara HW2 Classic

HW2 Remastered Mission 02:

Map Hiigara HW2RM M02

HW2 Classic Mission 15:

HW2 Hiigara Map M15

HW2 Remastered Mission 15:

Map Hiigara HW2RM M16 A

Ah, what a beautiful sight…

And that's the HWRM story trailer, which shows us completely different continent:

Map Hiigara HW2RM M16 Story

There was a HW2 mod "The End of Times" a.k.a. T.E.O.T.. These guys have been modelling HIigara by the HW2 Classic data. Map Hiigara Globe

Map Hiigara Globe Versions

Map Hiigara Map by T.E.O.T

And during the map creation it's been noted that quit a lot of Earth continent data had been used for this map. For sure you'd notice North America, Eurasia etc. Even in HW1RM M16 map, a new research, there are Australia trails and others… So, is Hiigara a future Earth? Well, let's not mix inspiration and plagiarism.

If we take a look at Homeworld Remastered, that, surprisingly, we would find that HW1 Hiigara and H2 Hiigara are quite different. So, this is HW1RM continent:

Hiigara Map HW1RM Supercontinent

But if we compare to HW2RM, then we would find that this big guy is on the globe, but suddenly it has changed its size.

Map Hiigara HW2RM Continent

I believe all these troubles can and should be solved by some official map and globe.

As for the notable locations on Hiigara, there is:

  • a capitol, Asaam Kiith'sid (HWC)
    • with The New Daiamid (HWC) established,
    • and there is Hiigara Star Navy Academy (HWM), not sure if it's located in Asaam.
  • Massalo (HWM) - the Third Ferin Sha place (probably the similar desert like the one used for Burning Man Fest) - well, according to HWRS, technically it's the Forth, as the Third was organised at some unused Mothership Hangar during the Homeworld War, after the Kadeshi genocide - well, as explained not to celebrate but to release the emotions of that "why the Jakuul" moment.

The Moon

HWU The Angel Moon

Well, the moon is situated quite close to the planet, looks like unlike Earth's Moon, Angel Moon is going to cosplay Moonfall movie in uncertain future. Well, another one Kushani timebomb unless they are building somewhat of "Wandering Earth" engines there.

Earth Moon

Map Hiigara HW2RM M16

And here's Hiigara's Moon map by T.E.O.T.'s Hix:
Map Kharak Angel Moon

Homeworld Galaxy

Homeworld Original Galaxy was most probably inspired by our Milky Way:

Milky Way

and M51a "Whirlpool" galaxy:
M51

Maps

So, Homeworld Original Galaxy is a spiral type galaxy ("whirlpool" subtype), of approximately 70000+ light years large.

This map is pre-HW3, made by BBI, so it's fully canonical:
Homeworld Galaxy

This was the map from Homeworld Historical Briefing:
HW1 Galaxy Map

In HW1, we have a map projection in space by Bentusi, showing us some pre-exile Galaxy. In HW1RM version there are not so much dots, and it feels like that this circle dot is Hiigara, which means the screenshot should be turned 180 degrees. And in old HW1 there were more details:
Map Galaxy PreExileMap Galaxy PreExile HW1 Classic

Norsehound tried to compile another map out of this, though it's still not clear who is who here:
Map Galaxy PreExile Norsehound

HWC has shown us Taiidani Empire fracture in the center of OG, though it's not easy to understand things. Surprisingly, it looks like located in-between Galactic Rims, roughly, Hiigara and Kesura:
Map Taiidani EmpireMap Taiidani Civil War

HW3 has added these things:

HW3 Demo map

HW3 Galaxy Right Half

There are some names like:

  1. Center: Balcora Gate, Tenhauser Gate, Elson Gate, Hiigara, Tanis, Karos, Bentus Graveyard
  2. North: Satori Sequence, Animus Arm, Dakhara Arm
  3. East: Kesura
  4. South: (deeply in the Vaygr Reaches) Noctuaa 27
  5. West: Taiidan Research Station, Ghost Ship, Diamon Shoals, Kharak

Looks like Tanis was moved across the galaxy closer to Hiigara. Which is reasonable.

And the Anomaly of the Noctuua-27 Gate.

HW3 Demo map Noctuaa 27

Which looks like situated somewhere around the Vaygr Reaches according to HW2:
Map Vaygr Territories

As well, there is a map of a neighboring galaxy or whatever it is where Naggarok came from, though the Homeworld galaxy looks a bit strange.

HWC Galaxy

Maybe, all this was drawn in a fast mode, to finish the product in time, but still to give a general idea of what's happening. Well, HWC deserves a proper remaster :)

As well HWM intro cutscene also confirms this "tail" galaxy is actually a part of the original whirlpool:

HW Map Galaxy Original

Same here in HW3 trailer galaxy map:

HW MAP HW3 Galaxy

There are more things from the earlier staff, where Kesura and Noctuaa 27 Anomaly are seen on the far edge:

HW3 Map

And to think, HWC also shows in a similar manner where the Naggarok was found, though it hard to understand where everything is, and a meaning of these sector lines, or it's just for fancy look, like using Greek alphabet:
Map Galaxy By Somtaaw

So, it appears we've found out the approximate location of the final mission of HWC: the Naggarok came out of this ponytail galaxy and got stuck in the Vaygr Reaches region. And there is a question if HW3 Anomaly is somehow related to this, and if the Taiidan Republic base was so far away close to the Vaygrs, and close to the Progenitor artifacts - maybe they were also searching for the Core?..

Known Actors

  • Progenitors (HW2)
  • Bentusi (HW1)
  • Galactic Council (HW1)
    • 16 empires (pre-Exile) (HW2PR)
  • Taiidan Empire (HW1)
    • Taiidani Republic (HWC)
    • Taiidani Imperialists (HWC)
  • Old Hiigaran Empire (HW2PR)
    • Kadeshi (HW1)
    • Kharakian Kushans (HW1)
      • Hiigaran Kushans (HW1)
  • Turanic Raiders (HW1)
    • Turanic Kingdoms (HWC)
    • Rackam's Raiders (HWM)
  • Frerrn Aggregate (HWC)
  • Vaygr (HW2)
    • Incarnates (HW3)
  • Independent Worlds
    • Tarsus (HWM)
    • Ur (HWM)

Inner Rim

  • Hiigara System (HW1)
    known as a capitol world of ancient Hiigaran Empire, Taiidan Empire and Kushan Empire
  • Tenhauser Gate (HW1)
    known as a location where Taiidan Empire fleet attacked Bentusi
  • Gorth's Rift (HWWOS)
    known as a location where the original prototype of Kushan "Imperator" carrier was heavily damaged
  • Vorshan's Rift (HWC)
    known for Taiidani Rebels unsuccessful riot, Captain Elson escaping right into the hands of Kushans
  • Karos Graveyard (HW1)
    huge debris field located in an unoccupied system within the Galactic Core, this interstellar junkyard is the final resting place of derelict and abandoned starships by the tens of thousands (HWR)
    • Shining Hinterlands (HW1)
      known as a location where the communication link for Taiidani Rebellion was hidden
    • Progenitor Mothership parts (HW2)
      known as The Second Mothership destinations set by Oracle
    • Karos Canyonlands (HWDST)
  • Bentus Graveyard (HW2)
    a place of The Great Bentus explosion remains
  • Tanis (HW2)
    known as a place where The Second Mothership was constructed
  • Sarum (HW2)
    known for captain Elohim shipyard
  • Tel Sector (HWC)
    known as a sector where Kuun-Lan lost a half of the ship that subverted into the Beast mothership
    • Coruc-Tel System (HWC)
      known as a meeting location of Kuun-Lan, Clee-San and Turanic Raiders
    • Aiowa System (HWC)
      known for Bentusi using self destruction against the Beast, damaging Manaani Caal-Shto
    • Kadiir Nebula (HWC)
      known as a location where Kuun-Lan escorted Caal-Shto,
      known as a location of an Imperial Base
      known for Kuun-Lan saving Taiidan Republican convoy DX-307 from the Beast missiles
      • Zeta Gate (HWC)
      • Epsilon Gate (HWC)
    • Seera Tel System (HWC)
      The Beast Cruise Missile was first seen in Seera Tel system, when a Manaani frigate squadron sent a frantic message that it was under attack by an unknown drone craft
    • Fornax System (HWC)
      known for its star went nova forcing its habitant flee in Taiidan Republican convoys
  • Koreth's Rift (HWC)
    known as a place where Kuun-Lan met Taiidan Republican spy with an important info
    known as a place where Kuun-Lan has found its Siege Cannon and tried it out for the first time
    • Gozan System (HWC)
      known for Gozan IV, Taiidan Imperialist research planet, experimenting with the Beast
    • AZ-23769 System (HWC)
      known as a meeting place of Kuun-Lan, Faal-Corum and The Beast
  • Kyori Sector (HWC)
    known as a 3rd place where Turanic Outpost was found - by Kuun-Lan
    • Sheer-Ka System (HWC)
      Hiigaran Fleet Intelligence suspects that one Turanic Outpost may be located here
      -- it's not said that Sheer-Ka belongs to Kyori, but it's not said that it's not
  • Coruc Farr System (HWC)
    known for a Battle of Coruc Farr, where the captain of Somtaaw Naar-Tel destroyer, applied what will be named Naar Directive, destroying part of the ship to save others from the Beast infection
    must have been after the research of destroyers (AZ-23769 System), could be the event of both Kuun-Lan and Faal-Corum, and yes, it could be a good story about Faal-Corum journey

Galactic Rims

Well, as the maps in HWC were strangely positioned, there is no confidence were to position the last act of HWC. But for sure we know that Tel Sector neighbors Koreth Sector, and both are full of Taiidan Republic/Imperialist forces. So, these are the remains of Taiidan Empire. Kyori Sector is full of Turanic Raiders, but as we've already met Turanics in the Hiigara Sector and Tel Sector, it means it's very close to each other. It's the Galactic Core.

As for the final missions on the Galactic Rim the latest information from HW3 points at Vaygr Reaches location and HW OG tail subgalaxy.

Outer Western Rim

  • Kharak System (HW1)
    a temporary home for Kushan exiles
  • The Great Nebula (HW1)
    a temporary home for another Kushan exiles
    • The Garden of Kadesh (HW1)
      "There is no withdrawal from the Garden" (c) Kadeshi
    • The Cathedral of Kadesh (HW1)
      known as a sacred location of Kadeshian Khar-Toba
    • The Cloister of Kadesh (HWR)
      The individual from the crew would be chosen personally by the Custodian of the ship, and would often spend months in an area of dense gas known as The Cloister with minimal food and water. Should they survive and get back in contact with their home-ship, they would be celebrated as symbolically surviving on the very essence of the nebula itself, and be chosen to speak for the Kadeshi people to those who breach their borders (HWR)
  • Turan sector (HWC)
    known as a sector where Turanic Raider's were first met

Outer Eastern Rim

  • Gulf Sector (HWC)
    known as a place where Naggarok had drifted away to
    known as a place where Bentusi built their Hypergates, destroyed by Kuun-Lan
  • Dark Matter FCluster Faal-Te (HWC)
    known as a meeting place of Kuun-Lan and Manaani fleet, to find subverted Clee-San
  • Far Reaches Sector (HWC)
    • Sojent-Ra System (HWC)
      known for positive Siege Cannon test on The Beast mothership and Clee-San
    • Republican Naval Base Alpha (HWC)
      known for Nomad Moon and Naggarok defeat by Kuun-Lan
  • Vaygr Reaches (HW2PR)
    • Gehenna (HW2)
      known as a primary location of mysterious Oracle
    • Thaddis Sabbah (HW2)
      known as a sector where Captain Soban was prepared for interrogation
    • Hethlim Ice-Fields (HW2PR)
      known as a primary location of the Third Great Core, found by Makaan
    • Noctuaa 27 (HW3)
      known as an epicenter of the Anomaly
  • Kesura Oasis (HW3)

A bit closer look at Kesura Oasis:

HW3 Kesura Oasis

Planets

  • Hiigara (HW1)
    the Exile's old planet
  • Kharak (HW1)
    the Exile's new planet
  • Haarsuk (HW1)
    Gas Giant from Kharak System
  • Nisilbis (HWR)
    When the exiles interfaced with the intergalactic community, they inadvertently discovered the truth
    of Kiith Siidim when their sigil was recognized by the Bentusi.Evidence points to the Siidim being the descendants of a lost thirty-five-ship convoy that departed from Nisilbis nearly three thousand years before the exiles returned to Hiigara. (HWR)
  • Taiidan (HWWOS)
    the capitol world of Taiidan Republic, contains Taiidan Veteris, the memorial to Taiidan Genocide performed by Hiigarians
  • Gozan IV (HWC)
    Imperial Taiidan outpost planet
  • Ferox (HWR)
    Taiidani Navy planet
  • Resta (HWRS)
    Taiidani border world, where was a small rebellion
  • Triistara (HWR)
    Taiidani city-world (planet??), destroyed for the rebellion by Riestiu IV-2
  • Elaprasa (HWRS)
    Taiidani tourist world, attacked by Turanic Raiders
  • Telapé II (HWRS)
    some independent world, ransacked by Turanic Raiders
  • Yggrisix (HWR)
    an agricultural planet, a.k.a. “Breadbasket”, controlled by a Turanic Raiders "entente"
  • Brauntor (HWR)
    The tidally-locked planet of Brauntor shows a unique situation when it comes to planetary makeup. With one side constantly facing its sun, the consistent twilight in a thin ring around the planet allowed for a civilization to spring up.
    – interesting concept but is this even possible???..
  • Fortune (HWR)
    less than a hundred years after joining the Galactic Council, corporate greed has strip-mined the planet to the brink of complete ecological collapse
  • Halashen (HWRS)
    some independent world, a corporate controlled world with heavy security
  • Mirballa (HWR)
    a planet that needed evacuating a century ago due to the collapse of its closest star. The Council was in the second year of negotiating the method of evacuation when the star went supernova, bringing an effective end to continued negotiations
  • Stenstorp (HWRS)
    a primitive planet that contains some Progenitor artifacts
  • Tarkos I (HWR)
    was evacuated due to dangerous stellar phenomena, and then purchased and transformed by Galactic Council into the largest sporting and leisure facility in the known galaxy, Eclipse Park
  • Welga VI (HWR)
    a planet with Council University

Expeditions

HW1 Journey

  1. Kharak System
  2. Great Wastelands
  3. Diamond Shoals
  4. Kadeshi Nebula
  5. Sea of Lost Souls
  6. Supernova System
  7. Tenhauser Gates
  8. Galactic Core
  9. Karos Sector
  10. Hiigara System

HWC Journey

  • Galactic Core
    • Hiigara System
    • Tel Sector
      • Coruc-Tel System
      • Aiowa System
      • Kadiir Nebula
    • Koreth's Rift
      • Gozan System
      • AZ-23769 System
    • Kyori Sector
  • Galactic Eastern Rim
    • Gulf Sector
    • Dark Matter FCluster Faal-Te
    • Far Reaches Sector
      • Sojent-Ra System
      • Taiidani Republic Naval Base Alpha

HW2 Journey

  1. Tanis
  2. Hiigara System
  3. Sarum System
  4. Gehenna System
  5. Karos Sector
  6. Great Wastelands
  7. Thaddis Sabbah
  8. Balcora Sector
  9. Hiigara System
  10. Eye of Aarran

HW3 Journey (mb)

  1. Hiigara
  2. Kesura Oasis
  3. Another Galaxy
  4. Eye of Aarran

The Homeworld Mobile "Nimbus" Galaxy

A new field of mobile exploration with a lot events happening there:

Nimbus Galaxy Map

And thanks to HWM RU fans, here we have a map of Nimbus Galaxy starpoints - not all, but we can see the names, though I'd say there is too much Kushan language influence in them (until we meet Mesoamerican Tanoch Empire):

HWM named map

And the known actors are:

  • Progenitors
  • Hagthar Empire
    • Amassari
  • Yaot Federation
  • Tanoch Empire
    • Tecuban
    • Chicuat
  • Cangacian Pirates
  • Iyatequa Traders
  • Medea, the Hiigaran state
    within the Empty Quarter, with Lazarus Base as a capital
  • Vaygr Opona

HWM Banners

And for Cangacian (pirates?) I have not found a proper size logo.

Places

  • Wiracoda Gates (HWM)
    there were too much of hostile Progenitor Keepers
  • Star Totek (HWM)
    Tanochet holy place
  • Sijin Lighthouse (HWM)

HWM Wiracoda GateHWM Star TotekHWM Sijin Lighthouse

Other Galaxies

Intergalactic gates of HWM have unveiled two more directions:

  • Eros Galaxy - with a a research outpost (HWM)
  • Aurora Galaxy - with the Vinland settlement (HWM)

…contact with these outposts became a classified matter for their protection...
(c) HWM, The Gates

Homeworld Galaxies

Maybe, as these space objects were so clearly shown, it could be that those unknown galaxies on the left and on the right to the original galaxy are the ones? And the left one is the one from HW3 map background?.

HW3 Unknown Galaxy

It's said that we would see a new galaxy in HW3, so this could be the one, but on the other hand it could be a view from some distant place, like the same Noctuaa 27.

Links

Change Log

  • 18.10.23 - added another HW3 galaxy image
  • 29.10.23 - added other galaxies names
  • 07.01.24 - added a possible all-4 galaxies intergalactic image
  • 15.01.24 - added Kesura to HW3 galaxy places
  • 17.01.24 - added galaxy picture from the HW3 map backgrounds
  • 04.02.24 - added Milky Way and M51 Whirlpool galaxies pictures
  • 07.02.24 - updated OG with new data from HW3 demo
  • 22.02.24 - rearranges some galaxy maps, added Wiracoda Gate

Read More Of Homeworld

HOMEWORLD: SWORDS OF KHARAK

I wanted to add this to the "Sins of Homeworld Lore" article, but I was told that I have exceeded limited number of symbols already…

Kiith Soban Fighter

More I am looking at this picture, the more I'm getting annoyed.

The hair length of this elite military unit is raising some questions, but more questions are about the melee weapon she cannot even use in a tight room. Of course, swords are attractive: there is something tribal about them, even Freudian. Artists love them, we all love them, Conan The Barbarian is the witness.

The Northman

Larger life forms include insects, avians and several marsupial species, the largest being the friendly, knee-high omnivorous haariri.
(c) HWDOK, Expedition Guide, Kharak, Kharakid Biology

But first of all, there is no horses in Kharak reality. And the sabers are something that developed as a weapon of chevaliers, horsemen, as the weapon curved form allowed them to slash from the top position with an centrifugal inertia auxiliary force. And the pop-cultural katana technically is a sabre, that had been adapted to the changing war conditions and then quite peaceful 3 centuries of Edo period, the time of duels with no armor, and no significant technical progress, that lead to Japan forced reopening to the outer world by US Commodore Matthew C. Perry.

Katana and Tachi

Besides, there is a question to the quality of Japanese iron ore, and Japanese warlords tend to use European cuirass instead of their "native" armor. So, no doubt, there is a great cultural layer of Japanese martial arts, that build a strong spirit, discipline and so on. But the question is: was the katana of something that would overcompete the European war machine with the iron of really good quality, or is it something that was born out of the isolation specific conditions?

Russian Empire Cossacks

Then, if we take out the horses, these medieval tanks, out of the equation, then the pedestrian warrior most likely would use a short straight sword instead of a sable, but it won't be his main weapon, it will be an auxiliary weapon when his spear range is over, and it will be used to thrust, not to slash. And for Soban there are our reality examples:

Greek Warriors

Roman Legionaire


Roman pilum was something that was mentioned in the Kharak history:

The ancient raachok was a hurled weapon from the early martial period on Kharak. Light infantry used to carry a half dozen of these leaded darts into battle and then throw them in rapid fashion as they closed with the opponent. They were not the most effective weapon for inflicting injuries, but the enemy was forced to raise their shields to protect themselves from the hail of whistling projectiles, and so the infantry could often close and get in the first blow before the enemy had recovered.
(c) HWWOS, Taiidani Light Corvette

Most probably, a gladius type swords also were used.

Gladius and Pugio

Maybe some other types of straight sword over time:
EuroSwords

Even Soban sigil tells us about the handle of a straight sword:

Sigil of Kiith Soban

But there were no Edo period in Kharak history, with the somewhat of sword sacralization. Naabal Intervention quickly switched the technological level of war to the next stage, and the melee weapon became useless in battles. The Age of Reason asked warriors to sharpshoot not to chop and stab. Swords became a ritual weapon only, something for the parades. And with the machinery development, it's hardly believed that any soldier or officer would take a big heavy useless pile of iron into a tight cabin of any vessel - only the Japanese officers holding to the old imperial traditions were last to use swords - looks like Siidim story, but they are gone. It's better to take few rifle magazines instead. As well, it's completely useless on a spaceship: are you going to persecute your battle comrades, Mr. Commissar?. But HWR put those swords everywhere: Taiidans, Turanics… Yes, there is a mechanic of melee fighting in RPG, but don't get too attached to it.

Even in Star Wars, that initially were loosely based on Akira Kurosawa samurai traditional strengths exaggerating movies, only the Force-holders used some advanced swords. And in the Dune universe the melee weapon was used because the warriors had personal force fields. In other words: it's not WH40K, it's HW10K!

Mashad Siidim commands his carrier with a sword

The developers of "Alfa: Antiterror" were asked why there is no knifes in their tactical game, they answered that the special forces units had recalled no case of using knives, despite they had those. The firearms is the main weapon of war, there is no point to teach soldiers how to use melee weapon. Maybe the basic martial arts training, maybe the knife training, but it's not essential. It's better to give them some courses about surviving in unfriendly conditions, about medical care, add a specialty of operating battle machine. Modern war is a ranged war. So any sword fighting would be just one's free time leisure, no other value in it. Especially as swordsmanship requires you to save knuckles, so the one can hold a sword tight. That's why the Karate was considered as a plebe's martial art. Thus you won't get in special forces, and they are relying on stealth, the sword might be a hinder in this task… The era of soldier-sword system is a past, soldier-ranged-weapon system is a future.

An enemy won't hit you with a knife if you shoot off his head

OK, there are Sikhs, and their religion requires them to have a Kirpan - a ceremonial sword: there is no fixed style of Kirpan and it can be anything from a few inches to three feet long. And a small auxiliary ritual weapon in the size of Rambo knife, wakizashi, dirk or dagger won't be burdensome and be even practical like khukuri of British Gurkhas.. Especially if there will a very tight combat in a spaceship. Though, if I'd be a salvager, I'd avoid salvaging a ship without a huge EMP strike, and an armored specialized spacesuit with a short-barreled autoshotgun: those appear to be quite effective in CQBs…

Gurkhas with Khukuri

But anyway, this kind of a melee weapon could be a public sign of affiliation to Sobani, not a sword kept for rituals and parades. But again, the question why would you need a notable lethal weapon among the unarmed civilians, if your fists and kneels are already a trained weapon, that can do enough damage to harm an offender, with less probability of killing him?..

Kharaki Battle Monks

And now, Khindu'annah Sagald will demonstrate an old proverb “Sajuuk created all kharakid, but Samaal Naabal made them equal”.

Gun vs. Sword

Read More Of Homeworld

Homeworld: Timeline

AmDDRed Blog

HOMEWORLD: A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE

HW Universe timeline by HWM

Content

  1. The Sources
  2. Intro
  3. The Dates
  4. The History of Kharak
    1. The Dark Ages
    2. Early Settlement
    3. The Heresy Wars
    4. The Time of Reason
    5. Khar-Toba Era
  5. The History of Homeworld Galaxy
    1. TENEBRIS TEMPUS
    2. PAX PROGENITORES
    3. PAX NIMBUS
    4. PAX BENTUSI
    5. PAX CONCILII GALAXIA
    6. PAX TAIIDANI
    7. INTERBELLUM
    8. PAX KUSHANI
  6. The History of Nimbus Galaxy
  7. Links

The Sources

  • HW1 - Homeworld 1, manual, game
  • HWC - Homeworld Cataclysm/Emergence, manual, game
  • HWCO - Homeworld Cataclysm, outtakes
  • HWWOS - HW and HWC ship descriptions, well of souls
  • HW2 - Homeworld 2, manual, game
  • HW2PR - Homeworld 2, Prima Official eGuide
  • HWDOK - Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, Expedition Guide, game
  • HWR - Homeworld: Revelations RPG
  • HWRS - Homeworld: Revelations RPG Story Seeds
  • HWM - Homeworld: Mobile, homeworldsource.net
  • HW3 - Homeworld 3
  • HWDST - Homeworld Dust Wars drafts

Intro

During the reading of Homeworld Revelations RPG, I saw that the authors were missing some dates - maybe not so crucial but still mentioned on the pages of progenitors, so I decided to gather up all the dates available in one place, and maybe that would bring some insights for those who would be imagining new plots for their RPG adventures. Why not in homeworld.fandom? Well, after seeing information on Taiidani Republic and Taiidani Loyalists, I understand why Wikipediaes are considered to be not trustable sources: everyone can write in the information they like, and even articles with large number of specialists involved may have the initial circle of biased authors.

After all I really hope that Gearbox and BBI would restructure and recanonise some dates and ship descriptions of HW1, kiithid stories of HWC, background story of HW2, and make HWDOK completely fit the predecessors' lore for the upcoming HW3, for example, by making a website with not editable articles considered to be a general source of truth or hiring some person to be responsible for the HW Universe canon, like it's done for other franchises, like Disney's Star Wars or Ubisoft's Might & Magic etc. The franchise grows big, and maybe some day it will be competing Dune, BSG, Star Trek, Star Wars and other sources of inspiration, so the student will become the master…

The Dates

SolarYear

And still I don't understand why Galaxy Standard Year = Hiigarian Year = Kharakian Year. Can we relate this to HWM Nimbus Galaxy as well? And the other ones, including HW3? Seems like Hiigara should have been a very special place for all the Progenitors...

A year is a time a planet goes full orbit around the star, and there are so much variable parameters… It's even OK for galaxy year to be the same with Hiigarian, and I won't wonder if some great progenitor artifact is found on Hiigara (a Celestial ;)), but Hiigara and Kharak having the same year time… As I understand HWC writers tried to get away from it with these lines:

In honor of the momentous occasion, Kiith Sjet declared the beginning of a new calendar on the day the returning Kushan first set foot on our homeworld. By decree, the Hiigaran Landfall marked the first day of a new Year Zero. From that time on, “days” have been measured by Hiigara’s period of rotation, and “years” according to the revolutions of Hiigara around its mother sun.
(c) HWC Historical Brief, p.4, "HISTORY OF THE HIIGARAN LANDFALL"

No mixtures of AHL and KDS, like it happened later, and in the earlier version of a text there were no GSY. Only in some places additions of an Imperial calendar:

The Taiidan Empire of Year 0 AL (Year 2924 by the Imperial Calendar) held 275 star systems in its grip, but not easily. Emperor Khaldeesh the Second was rapidly approaching his 4th century of life, and his pogroms and agendas were becoming increasingly bloody and erratic.
(c) HWC, The End of the Imperial Era, an earlier version of a text

And that's more logical: yes, it looks like that the Taiidani Imperial Calendar year is set when Hiigara became a new Taiidan Empire capitol, so AHL year = TIC year, and 3000 KDS years of the Guidestone age may be 2924 TIC/AHL years. Of course, in the same text below there is a remark about "3000 years of political stagnation" but it could have been a simple rounding. But for some reason, mysterious GSY has appeared, and all the dating systems became equal… Yeah, seems like people are not yet ready for the relativity of time.

Anyway, I will be using GSY as a basis, and I will consider KDS to be ended with the life on Kharak.

The date with a link would mean that there is some problem with that story element.

The History of Kharak

hwdok transmission evil empire

The Dark Ages

  • ~KDS -794
    Exiles Land on Kharak (HWR)

Early Settlement

  • KDS 0
    Kiith S'jet Establishes Kharakian Dating System (HWR)
  • KDS 75-250
    Ecological disasters (HW1)
  • KDS 178
    Teigor Somtaaw initiates building of 33 temples "The Shimmering Path" (HWC)
  • KDS 300-530
    Kiith Ferriil enjoying a period of power (HWR)
  • KDS 313
    Kiith Sjet accepts kiith Kaalel to become their vassals (HWCO)
  • KDS 337
    Jun Kaalel-sa dies, her son Liir Kaalel becomes kiith-sa (HWCO)
  • KDS 339
    Kiith Kaalel breaks ties with Kiith Sjet (HWCO)
  • KDS 340
    First historical mentions of kiith Manaan being accused of stealing food and water (HW1)
  • KDS 348-360
    Kiith Kaalel establishes chains of communication across Kharak using smoke and drums (HWCO)
  • ~KDS 387
    Liir Kaalel-sa dies (HWCO)
  • KDS 416
    Kiith Balel attacks kiith Lehi; Lehi-sa refuses the call for vengeance asked by Soban Lehi (HWR)
    Soban The Red leaves his kiith and thus a mercenary kiith Soban is born (HW1)
  • KDS 462
    Kiith Siidim Council announces a new Dogma of their people being of divine origin (HW1)
  • KDS 488
    Kiith Paktu among the others is marked as Gritiidim (sand people) and displaced by kiith Siidim (HW1)
    Kiith Gaalsien starts their expansion of influence on "Gritiidim" kiithid (HW1)
    Khaaneph movement begins out of several Gritiidim survivors (HWDOK)
  • KDS 490
    50 kiithid under the lead of Majiir Paktu-sa travels to the South Pole across the desert (HW1)
  • KDS 493
    Majiir Paktu moves back to North, and is not among those 7 who survived (HW1)
  • KDS 497
    Few manaani returns from the South with a new sand ship technology (HW1)
  • KDS 510
    The city of Tiir is founded (HWR)
  • KDS 513
    Kiith Siidim makes a massacre out of the Ferin Sha of kiith Manaan (HW1)

The Heresy Wars

The Time of Reason

  • KDS 830
    Kiith Naabel settlement - Tiir - becomes a new capital (HW1)
    Age of Reason begins (HW1)
    Kiith Hraal owns several steam-powered factories (HWCO)
  • KDS 836
    Kriil S'jet presents the scientific evidence of Xenogenesis to the Daiamid in Tiir (HWR)
  • KDS 857
    Kiith Kaalel invents the printing press after corporate espionage at Naabal (HWCO)
  • ~KDS 890
    The century-long Kasaar agreement between Somtaaw and Soban has ended (HWC)
  • KDS 902
    Kiith Kaalel makes a truce with kiith Sjet by publishing Sjetti Holder's Almanac (HWCO)
  • ~KDS 910
    The Dispute of Hatar has ended a secret nonaggression Naabal-Soban pact (HWR)
  • KDS 912
    The Great Northern Way is opened up by Kiith Naabal (HWR)
  • KDS 913
    The first Kaaleli newspaper is distributed in Tiir (HWCO)
  • KDS 915
    Kiith Paktu officially accepted the invitation into the Daiamid (HWR)
  • KDS 998
    The first public radio broadcasts, with popular Ran Kaalel (HWCO)
  • KDS 1012
    Kiith LiirHra breaks off from the main body of the Hraal (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1024
    Kharak's first orbital flight - mission Silumiin - is launched. The Silumiin Riots (HW1)
    Gaalsien messages about Khaaneph people are discovered by Masaar Manaan (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1026
    Massar Manaan is put in charge of an intelligence task force dedicated to find Khaaneph (HWDOK)
  • ~KDS 1030
    Kiith Nabaal builds rails to the South and gives kiith Paktu a place in the Great Daiamid (HW1)
  • KDS 1044
    Deckard Naabal, the future captain of Ifriit Naabal heavy carrier, is born (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1057
    Project "Stormbreaker" - a giant wall to hold desert storms - is initiated (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1059
    Roman S'jet, the future captain of Kapisi desert carrier is born (HWDOK)
  • ~KDS 1060
    Documented superstorms rate start to increase (HWDOK)
    Gaalsien production cruiser Caaw Duuk started his career (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1061
    During a manned space flight, crew members discover floating debris in high orbit. (HWDOK)
    The study of Kharakian space debris leads to great scientific progress (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1068
    A launch of Siila's Eye generation of environmental monitoring satellites (HWDOK)
    Jacob S'jet, the future science officer of Ifriit Naabal heavy carrier, is born (HWDOK)
    Nathan S'jet, the intelligence officer of Kapisi desert carrier, is born (HWDOK)
    Roman S'jet, the future captain of Kapisi desert carrier is graduated, Tiir Barracks Complex (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1069
    Clea Soban, the future Fleet Operation officer of Kapisi desert carrier, is born (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1073
    K'zell Naabal reports that Siila's Eye sats data confirms that Kharak becomes inhospitable (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1074
    The Night of Fiery Daggers (Siifar Kor'shesh): 10k Gaalsi Fists intrusion fails (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1075
    The first generation of combat crawlers enter service, Roman S'jet commands one of these (HWDOK)
    Gaalsi attacks the northern Kiithid with advanced weaponry salvaged from crashed spaceships (HWR)
  • KDS 1078
    Rachel S'jet, the future science officer of Kapisi desert carrier, is born (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1081-1083
    The Drifting Seas Campaign happens, Roman S'jet is a participant (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1090
    Nathan S'jet is graduated, Tiir Officer Training Academy (HWDOK)
    Nathan S'jet enters Soban Advanced Warfare Academy at age 22 (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1094
    Nathan S'jet is graduated, Soban Red Academy (HWDOK)
    Gaalsien main battle carrier "Corvaal" first time spotted (HWDOK)
  • ~KDS 1097
    J'raal Hraal tried to raise an alarm of climate change and was ostracized and cancelled (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1099
    Deckard Naabal started his service in Heavy Patrol Crawlers along Strombreaker Base line (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1100
    Project "Viin Cal" - a series of potent deep-scan radar satellites - is initiated (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1102
    Roman S'jet becomes a commander of K'karr Stormbreaker Fortress (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1103
    Jacob S'jet started his service in defence team and counter insurgency, Northern Operations (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1105
    The Soban-sponsored first Sakala-class carrier clears the constructions yards (HWDOK)

Khar-Toba Era

  • KDS 1106
    Leykab Jaraci discovers strange desert object (Khar-Toba) by Radar Satellite (HW1)
    First Jaraci expedition - operation Skaal Brii - is initiated (HWDOK)
    The contact with "Ifriit Naabal" heavy carrier is lost after a month in the Great Desert (HWDOK)
    LiirHra test out the Sadaar space plane (HWR)
  • KDS 1107
    The flagship carrier Ifriit-Naabal and her crew are officially declared lost. (HWDOK)
    Second expedition - operation Khadiim - approved by the Daiamid (HWDOK)
    The construction of a new Sakala-Class Deep Desert Carrier is accelerated (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1108
    Rachel Sjet makes a decision to be a part of the second expedition (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1108
    Sjetti SJF-14 "HAMMER" Strike Fighter is accepted for the Alliance (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1109
    The S'jet Carrier Kapisi, Sakala-class deep desert carriers, is put into service (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1110
    Operation Khadim - an expedition into the Great Desert - is initiated (HWR)
    Kiith Siidim is expulsed from the Great Daiamid (HWR)
  • KDS 1111
    Alliance SJB-18 "ANVIL" Tactical Bomber is replaced by Salka Attack Bomber (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1112
    Discovery of an ancient technological artifact in Khar-Toba (Second Hyperspace Core) (HWR)
  • KDS 1113
    First usage of Hail-Pyke Maneuver of 3 Base Runners near The Shallows (HWDOK)
    A S'jet analyst discovered an intricate intelligence network of Kaalel (HWR)
  • KDS 1115
    The Ifriit IV Deep Space Probe is delayed twice (HWDOK)
    Kiith Soban starts using marking the target tech by Sobani railgun utilizing a laser designator (HWDOK)
    Nathat S'jet is a Deputy Director of Military Intelligence Umbra Division (HWDOK)
  • KDS 1122
    Kharakian scientists understood that they've found a solid state hyperspace module (SHC) (HWR)
  • KDS 1135
    Rediscovery of Guidestone (HW1)
  • KDS 1155
    Mevath Segald presents the Guidestone to the High Ministers (HWR)
    Global Plebiscite (HW1)
    Rachel S'jet is S'jet-sa (HWR)
  • KDS 1159
    A final plan is accepted for the vessel that would follow the path indicated by the Guidestone (HW1)
    A heavy cargo re-entry vehicle is used to haul crews and raw components to/from low orbit (HWWOS)
  • KDS 1179
    Infrastructure required for the construction project is built up (HW1)
    The primary resource collector design created (HWWOS)
  • KDS 1185
    Rei Magann tests out the cryogenic pod while flying in space for 6 months (HW1)
  • KDS 1189
    Scaffold is completed (HW1)
  • KDS 1204
    Cryogenic pods are getting filled with volunteers (HW1)
  • KDS 1206
    Khar-Selim is launched (HW1)
  • KDS 1210
    Kiith Nabaal invests in off-Kharak facilities (HW1)
  • KDS 1216
    Launch of the Mothership and The Burning of Kharak (HW1)
  • KDS 1217
    Asaam Kiith'sid establishes as New Capital of Hiigara (HWC)
  • KDS 1302
    Fleet Tactical Debates (HW1)

The History of Homeworld Galaxy

taiidani gates

TENEBRIS TEMPUS

  • GSY -???
    Unknown race ship arrives to the Sea of the Lost Soul sector (HW1)
    Unknown race expedition ship is infected by The Beast (HWC)

PAX PROGENITORES

  • GSY ???
    Unknown Progenitors rise, live, and die (HWR)
    Unknown Progenitors travel to "Homeworld" Galaxy (HW2)

PAX BENTUSI

  • GSY +0
    Galactic civilization begins (HWR)
  • GSY ???
    Bentusi discover the First Hyperspace Core (HWR)
  • ~GSY 3500
    Earliest records of Hiigaran Empire (HWR)
  • ~GSY 5000
    Bentusi start spreading hyperjump technology among the galaxy (HW2PR)

PAX CONCILII GALAXIA

  • ~GSY 5500
    Hiigarans get their part of hyper-technologies (HW2PR)
    Galactic Council of 16 Empires Formed (HWR)
  • GSY 6509
    Discovery of the Second Hyperspace Core (HWR)
  • GSY 6510
    Guidestone Created (HWR)

PAX TAIIDANI

  • GSY 6511
    Taiidan Empire Relocates Capital to Hiigara (HWR)
    Admiral Riesstiu begins his dynasty as a Taiidan Emperor (HW2PR)
  • ~GSY 6510-7500
    Around the middle of that term a part of Exiles settle in Great Nebula to be known as Kadeshi (HW1)
  • ~GSY 7500
    Exiles Land on Kharak (HWR)
    - on the other page there is a date of ~GSY 7800, but this page table is full of errors so I'll ignore it.
  • GSY 8123
    A group of five worlds grew restless under the bureaucracy and difficulties of Galactic Council (HWR)
  • GSY 8133
    Five worlds form the Ambition Commonwealth, profiting from illegal elsewhere markets (HWR)
    Galactic Inspectors joint military force was disbanded with Taiidans taking responsibility (HWM)
  • GSY 8294
    Kiith S’jet Establishes Kharakian Dating System (HWR)
  • GSY 9035
    First records of Turanic Raiders made in Turan sector (HWC)
  • ~GSY 9110
    Taiidan Emperor Riesstiu IV The Second commences his rule (HWC)
  • ~GSY 9275
    First of two known cases when Turanic Outpost was found, object self-destructed (HWC)
  • ~GSY 9410
    Riesstiu IV The Second start supporting Turanic Raider (HWC)
  • GSY 9435
    Saarkin Cho class taiidani carrier production started (HWC)
  • GSY 9503
    Bentusi suspended all trade contact with the Taidan (HWC)

INTERBELLUM

  • GSY 9510
    The Homeworld War (HW1)
    Kharakian Genocide: Taiidan Fleet uses Atmosphere Deprivation Weapon on Kharak (HW1)
    Kadeshi had been living in a Great Nebula for 13 generations and were beaten by Kushans (HW1)
    Taiidani Emperor orders the fleet to seek and destroy Bentusi ships (HW1)
    The Battle of Vorshan's Rift: a rebellion against Taiidani Emperor failed (HW1)
    Taiidan Emperor Riesstiu IV The Second is killed (HW1)
    Kushan new capital is the Asaam Kiith'sid of Hiigara (HWC)
  • GSY 9514
    The New Daiamid was built in Assam Kiith'sid (HWC)
    First major incursion of Taiidan Imperialists (HWC)
  • GSY 9515
    The end of civil war in Taiidan Republic (HWC)
  • GSY 9516
    Taiidan Republic signs a formal non-aggression pact with the Exiles (HWC)
  • GSY 9517
    Kiith Naabal tries to consume kiith Somtaaw (HWC)
    Kiith Somtaaw number rises from 15k to 25k (HWC)
    Kiith Somtaaw builds Kuun-Lan, Faal-Corum, Clee-San in 6 months (HWC)
    Karan Sjet retires (HWCO)
  • GSY 9519
    Second major incursion of Taiidan Imperialists reaching Hiigara (HWC)
  • GSY 9520
    Kiith Hraal becomes a vassal of kiith LiirHra (HWCO)
  • GSY 9521
    Hiigaran food rationing program finished (HWC)
    Third major incursion of Taiidan Imperialists reaching Hiigara (HWC)
  • GSY 9523
    Turanic Raiders activity around hiigaran combat and transport vessels grows (HWC)
  • GSY 9525
    Some Naabal engineers forge a new Caaliburnous Sword (HWR)
    Forth major incursion of Taiidan Imperialists reaching Hiigara (HWC)
    The Beast War (HWC)
    Third Turanic Outpost was found (HWC)
    Part of the Bentusi depart to supposedly another Galaxy (HWC)
  • GSY 9530
    Kiith Soban begins renting its services out to other star civilizations within the galactic core (HWR)
  • GSY 9531
    Vanaar Manaan-Sa family gets a new personal color scheme (HWM)
  • GSY 9550
    Hiigarans reveal ancient documents about the true nature of the Mothership HyperCore (HW2PR)
  • GSY ~9551
    Vanaar Manaan-Sa's color scheme granted for general use among the Manaani. Often flown by counter-culture Manaani to protest the decisions of the current Manaan-Sa (HWM)
  • GSY 9585
    Kiith Jaraci split out of Kiith S'jet to focus on signals technologies and Progenitor sciences (HWR)
  • GSY 9586
    The last of "Perdition" class Missile Destroyer of original Kushan Fleet is retired (HWM)
  • GSY 9595
    Fleet Tactical Debates (HW1)
  • GSY 9599
    Mehemit Matara, the notable Fleet Officer of the last Nimbus expedition is born (HWM)
  • GSY 9602
    Pagraan Matara, the notable Fleet Officer of the last Nimbus expedition is born (HWM)
  • GSY 9609
    Joanna Naabal, the Fleet Intelligence Moderator of the last Nimbus expeditions is born (HWM)
    Esentra Magann, the notable Fleet Officer of the last Nimbus expeditions is born (HWM)
  • GSY 9612
    Amaala Magann, the notable Fleet Officer of the last Nimbus expeditions is born (HWM)
  • GSY 9624
    Makaan locates the Third Hyperspace Core at Hethlim Ice-Fields (HWR)

PAX KUSHANI / AGE OF S'JET

  • GSY 9625
    The Vaygr War (HW2PR)
    Karan S'jet returns to her role of Fleet Command (HW2)
    Kushans collect all three Great HyperCores (HW2)
    Discovery of the Eye of Aarran (HW2)
  • GSY 9626
    Eye of Aarran is opened (HWM)
  • GSY 9629
    The first expedition to reach Nimbus galaxy was the Carrier Abiigado. Expedition lost. (HWM)
    Expedition destroyed by Progenitor Keepers and survivors captured by Cangacian pirates. (HWM)
    First ten "Explorer" class flagships were launched, Tiirshak among them (HWM)
  • GSY 9631
    The Lazarus Expedition is the largest and best-prepared expedition of three sent to Nimbus (HWM)
  • GSY 9635
    Survivors of Abiigado expedition appeared at Lazarus base (HWM)
    Gideon S'jet, right hand of Karan S'jet, becomes the part of Caral Expedition to Nimbus (HWM)
    Mahel Manaan, departs with Leviathan Expedition to Nimbus (HWM)
  • GSY 9638
    A supply network has been established to allow Lazarus base to serve as a fleet base (HWM)
  • GSY 9641
    The last Nimbus Galaxy expedition begins (HWM)
  • GSY 9706
    Karan S'jet gets lost with a mothership Khar-Sajuuk (HW3)
  • GSY 9726
    Imogen S'jet takes control over a new mothership Khar-Kushan(HW3)

The History of Nimbus Galaxy

  • ~GSY -360
    The Tanoch Empire established (HWM)
  • ~GSY 2500
    The Hagthar Empire exists (HWM)

Links

Changelog

  • 29.10.23 - added dates from HWM "The Stranded" piece of lore
  • 03.11.23 - added Leviathan expedition, added Tanoch & Hagthar Empires, separated Nimbus history
  • 10.11.23 - added info about HWM 'Explorer" type flagships production start
  • 23.11.23 - added info about old Hiigarans receiving hypertech date
  • 08.12.23 - removed Hiigaran population text from the Intro, as there is HW Population article
  • 25.12.23 - added info about 10k years old Tanoch Empire, added link to Homeworld: Population
  • 03.01.24 - added info about Vanaar Manaan-Sa and his color scheme, rearranged chapters;
  • 07.02.24 - added info about Karan S'jet and her Khar-Sajuuk

Read More Of Homeworld

HOMEWORLD: KARAN S'JET AIN'T GETTING YOUNGER

HW Karan Sjet AmDDReds

Or is she?..

Content

  1. The Sources
  2. The Age of S'jet
  3. The Look of S'jet
  4. The Voice of S'jet
  5. My Conclusions
  6. P.S.
  7. P.P.S.
  8. P.P.P.S.
  9. Links
  10. Change Log

The Sources

  • HW1 - Homeworld 1, manual, game
  • HWC - Homeworld Cataclysm/Emergence, manual, game
  • HWCO - Homeworld Cataclysm, outtakes
  • HWWOS - HW and HWC ship descriptions, well of souls
  • HW2 - Homeworld 2, manual, game
  • HW2PR - Homeworld 2, Prima Official eGuide
  • HWDOK - Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, Expedition Guide, game
  • HWR - Homeworld: Revelations RPG
  • HWRS - Homeworld: Revelations RPG Story Seeds
  • HWM - Homeworld: Mobile, homeworldsource.net
  • HW3 - Homeworld 3
  • HWDST - Homeworld Dust Wars drafts

The Age of S'jet

HWU Karan Sjet

Karan Sjet, the only daughter of Huur Sjet-Sa and in direct line for the leadership of all Kiith Sjet, was a neuroscientist in charge of the research division that was designing the command and control systems in the Mothership. Many other researchers would have balked at having to tell an entire world that its dream was impossible, but Karan was true to the spirit of her Kiith, and not only broke the news to the Daiamid, but also suggested a terrifying solution. Again, as a Sjet, she rejected fear in the face of the Truth and demanded that her own system, using a living being as the command core for the Mothership, be applied to herself.
(c) HW1, Historical Brief, Kiith Sjet

In order to serve as a living command core to the Mothership, one of our people would have to volunteer to be surgically altered so that most of the nerve trunks serving limbs and senses would be patched into ship systems instead. The subject would then have to be embedded permanently in the bridge of the ship. Karan Sjet refused to allow her technology to be used on anyone else.
(c) HW1, Historical Brief, [A9] Karan Sjet Solution

Construction and Launch
The final hurdle in the Mothership’s design was in how to deal with the number of people needed to manage the main bridge. With incredible amounts of data needing to be processed in a short period of time, the bridge crew would have needed to be in the hundreds. Having that many command staff on the bridge was unmanageable, paralyzing the chain of command, and by extension the ability to keep the ship running optimally. With this issue threatening to put an end to the hope of returning to Hiigara, Karan S’jet, a neuroscientist, came forward, producing research that she believed could help. She suggested using a living brain to process the data alongside the Mothership’s computers and offered herself as the subject. She was wired into the ship’s central processing core using her own research to successfully integrate herself into the ship, effectively becoming the mind of the Mothership and the voice of Fleet Command. Eventually, eight decades after the first construction began, the ship would be ready for the first test of the hyperdrive.
(c) HWR, Chapter 5: Ship Combat, Motherships, The Kushan Mothership, p.134

Fleet Command.
Karan S’jet bound herself to the Mothership in order to become Fleet Command. Only with a living brain handling the huge data shunts that the Mothership requires can it function properly. Karan can handle every update and alert that the Mothership produces and can then choose to deal with them automatically or alert the crew. During combat she can observe the status and position of every ship in the fleet, as well as analyze all systems and combat response activities within the Mothership.
(c) HWR, Chapter 5: Ship Combat, Motherships, The Kushan Mothership, Key Areas, p.135

Although she was a brilliant neuroscientist, Karan S’jet was not prominent enough to make a name for herself but for a twist of fate. When technical difficulties with controlling the Mothership made it clear they would need to create a neural link between the ship and a live being, S’jet was in a fateful middle position. She was established and experienced enough to succeed at the task, yet not so senior she wasn’t expendable should the attempt fail.
It did not fail. She became Fleet Command of the Mothership, and the first Unbound of the Hiigarans, leading her people across the galaxy and to their home. She detached from the ship to walk her new homeworld for some 115 years before the Vaygr War called her once again to meld her mind with a machine. By the end of that war, she linked with the Progenitor Mothership Sajuuk. With her lifespan
extended by her cybernetic connection to a ship older than some stars, none can tell how long she will live or what wonders she will witness before her consciousness fades.
(c) HWR, Chapter 6: Historical Briefing, A Brief History of the Kushan, Pre-Exodus, Karan S'jet, p.179

HW Karan Sjet Unattached

Karan S'jet - Fleet Command
Regarded in hindsight as the most pivotal figure in the entire Kushan Race, Karan S’jet’s sacrifice allowed her to command the Mothership’s computer systems with her brain and solve a critical problem that threatened to scrap the Mothership Program entirely.
Her background, by contrast, is surprisingly modest. Though she was born to Huur and Ajora S’jet-Sa, she was effectively raised by her maternal grandfather Cambaal S’jet. He imbued her with a gentle respect for life and sparked her interest in neuroscience, which led to her enrollment in the Academy of Advanced Sciences in Tiir. She later accepted an invitation to join the Mothership Program in part to escape the responsibilities of leadership her father was thrusting upon her.
Karan’s research into developing a neural network proved to be a key solution to a complicated problem facing the Mothership Program. While no computer network could keep up with the staggering processing load from so many systems, a living brain could, and Karan would not allow anyone else to undergo the procedure she developed. Over the objections of her father, it took three months to install Karan as Fleet Command. She required multiple surgeries to adapt and prepare her body and limbs for the connectors, wires and transmitters needed to join her with the Mothership, and whole crews of engineers worked to build the chamber she would reside in. Ultimately these were a success, and even after being successfully disconnected from the Mothership upon landfall on Hiigara, Karan regained normal functionality of her limbs and mind.
Her journey from simple researcher to guardian angel and savior of the Kushan people is a thing of legend. Even before landfall on Hiigara, Karan was becoming revered by those who equated her with the gods of old. Though she modestly declines to accept her fame, the Hiigaran people cannot stop praising the one who gave up everything to lead them all to paradise.
(c) HWR, Chapter 7: Kiithid Society Briefing, Kiith S'jet, Significant S’jet, p.208

Kiith S'jet
During the Homeworld War and afterward Kiith S’jet gained a newfound reputation as their own Sa, Karan S’jet, was hailed as the savior of the Kushan people. Though Karan S’jet commanded significant influence, as did her Kiith by extension, both were careful never to abuse their power.
(c) HWR, Chapter 7: Kiithid Society Briefing, Modern Era Alliances, p.230

Karan S'jet, Neuroscientist (Major NPC)
In the years before and after the Kushan Exodus, Karan S’jet was human and only that. She loves her people and revels in scientific discovery. Born on Kharak to a prominent neuroscientist, she
discovered a fascination for and aptitude in theoretical computing, especially the interface between man and machine. After the discovery of the Guidestone, she turned her mind to solving the problems of creating a computer powerful and responsive enough to control the titanic Mothership, finally proposing the installation of a human brain.
Showing the courage of her Kiith, she volunteered her own brain for the experiment. Even as the Mothership’s construction neared its end, she had her own nervous system altered to connect with the vessel’s systems. Technicians installed her and she became, for a time, Fleet Command (see below).
When the Kushan reached Hiigara, Fleet Command was the last to step onto the planet’s surface. Although some feared she could not be safely extracted from the Mothership’s CPU, the procedure was successful, and she walked among her people once more as Karan S’jet.
(c) HWR, Chapter 10: Non-Player Characters, Kushan Fleet Personnel, p.305

Karan S'jet was the first Kushan to become Unbound, but the practice was already common among the Bentusi by that time.
(c) HWR, Chapter 6: Historical Briefing, Artifacts, The Unbound, p.194

HWU Kiith S'Jet - Karan S'Jet

If we count, Karan's age is:

  • HW1: AHL 0, Karan is around 30/40 - because she is a mature proven herself scientist, and these kind of things are achieved after 30;
  • HWC: AHL 7, Karan's out of business;
  • HW2: AHL 115, Karan's back to business;
  • HWM: AHL 130, Karan's MIA;
  • HW3: AHL 215;

So, in the events of HW2 she's approximately 150 years old. Like, going for bicentennial lady status, that has seen 2 galactic wars, genocides, great scientific miracles, religious revelations, and she was the Mothership, twice, Sajuuk-Khar and so on. So, she's a women you'd hardly impress.

Given the many trials our people have had to face since landfall, some analysts believe that it would be impossible to hold Kushan society together without the influence of Karan Sjet.

Karan has been the Sa of Sa's in the New Daiamid since its first vote. The Sjet'sa has spent the last 15 years serving as an arbiter in the Daiamid's power struggles, and her efforts to bind our people together have kept the Kushan from fragmenting, despite the tremendous pressure on our people from without and within. To have some inkling of the duties Sjet'sa has performed in the past 15 years, one has only to look back over the list of our achievements.

In the first year after Landfall alone, Sjet'sa presided over the ground-breaking ceremonies of over 150 new cities, towns and small settlements. She settled 36 disputes in the New Daiamid, blessed the hulls of four newly-built carriers, and personally oversaw the filing of land claims in the Shaar peninsula.
The second year after Landfall, Sjet'sa proposed a monument to the Martyrs of Kharak, and personally selected a site in the Desert of the Bones; over the next several months she oversaw the engraving of nearly 300 million names on a free-standing spire of basalt in the desert. Many Kushan since then have traveled to her Tower of Names to find the people of their own kiithid, and make offerings for the peaceful rest of their one-time lovers and friends.

One of the most controversial relief mechanisms that Sjet'sa has adopted for the benefit of Sleeper kiithid has been to grant limited access to the Mothership's building facilities. Sjet'sa has permitted several small families, exhausted by the struggle for land and influence on Hiigara, to seek their fortunes among the stars. Many of these smaller kiithid have built themselves carrier-class vessels, ships with a powerful enough PDA to build and support small colonies off-world. Most of these tiny settlements are dedicated to mining, hydroponic farming or manufacturing. While so many others continue building new settlements on Hiigara, these small, hard-working kiithid prosper in trade, and provide much-needed supplies to the outbound fleets. Coincidentally, the small star-faring kiithid control a much greater tonnage of ships, collectively, than any one of the major kiithid can control alone…

The Sjet'sa no longer appears daily in the New Daiamid; she presides over the Assembly only on special occasions, or when a matter is put up for her special arbitration. Since the year 7 AHL, the Sa of Sa's has become increasingly reclusive, and appears less and less frequently at social events. Kiith Sjet has built a special compound for her in the Suungo mountain range, and she occasionally mans the observatory there; she has also been seen aboard the Mothership, sometimes wandering in the unmanned passages near the old control core.

Regardless of her desire for privacy, however, her presence is felt everywhere. In the recent Kushan population explosion, the name "Karan" has been given to thousands of baby girls, and even among boys, the name "Kar" is surprisingly common.

(c) HWCO, History of the Landfall, Cataclysm Story

The Look of S'jet

Reddit KaranSjet

karan s jet wallpaper by firegar

HWR Karan S'jet

The Voice of S'jet

And here comes the voice acting:

Homeworld 1

Heidi Ernst



Homeworld 2

Jennifer Dawne Graveness

Homeworld 3

Amanda Silvera

My Conclusions

The Egghead LeaderThe Hobbit's Galadriel

Well, with age Karan Sjet is getting more and more sexualized, like the artists are not getting learnt how to draw not a sexy ideal women. And I don't like it, because it goes against S'jet character. It does not mean that she should look and behave like an old grandma, having no sexual life, but it does mean that she should not look and talk like a 20 years young girl with "breathy seduction" voice. She should represent the maturity, she is an descendant of people surviving the harsh conditions of Kharak, of a culture of losses, restrictions, self-control and self-sacrifice; a scientist; a war chief; a political leader. The women of deeds. Who's not afraid to shave her head and be more practical. :) Dreamer, but the one that knows that it requires blood, toil, tears and sweat to fulfill. Maybe, somebody like The Expanse's Chrisjen Avasarala with a moment of perfection vibe by Samuel Anderson of BSG. Unless they wanted to make an eternal elf demigod out of Karan

Ok, she lives in a star civilization, having all the best regeneration technologies possible, botox, makeup whatever. Of course, there might be some deep symbolism of Karan's model look, like she's a star child, she is the perfect waifu of kushan people, her big… mhm.. eyes represent her open soul… There are beautiful women that don't age like others, but everyone changes over the time. The behavioral habits become your second nature, facial expressions are getting imprinted in your face muscles, events are getting reflected in the eyes, a person learns and changes. The hero should not return the same from the journey.

Come And See

If you want to continue the story of Karan S'jet - though I do not define her as a key element of Homeworld series, and HWC proves this, as it's not personal but people's story (and a Fleet Command was kind of a Silent Protagonist, like a player is the one who commands, not some Isaac Paktu) - please, pay respect to her character and develop it accordingly not just because of the fancy idea. Yes, Karan S'jet, as she should be, might be a not very convenient character from the writer's perspective as it hard to understand what development she might have, as strong people are unbound to the external conditions, but the lamest path is just to forget what she has been and seen, as you, people, wouldn't believe

And that's why I don't like the latest trailer of HW3: the look, the voice acting and the words are something that I would not expect from Karan S'jet. As well, the new voice is so much different from HW1 & HW2.

I guess, the only plot explanation for all of this might be that Karan is really gone - any reason - and due to some "battletechy" neurolink problems - like a new pilot should adapt to the existing neurointerface - The Three Core System rejected new fleet command, until some young and naïve S'jet descendant, that "never asked for this". The Cores' Electronic Echo of Karan S'jet got activated and consumed the mind a living person, and that's why this girl tells that she's Karan, while not, and she remembers something… But tbh that's kind of Deux Ex Machina. I doubt that HW requires these kind of twists.

Anyway, let's see where we will arrive with that… Rap battle, you decide! :)

P.S.:

P.P.S.:

HW3 Story Update, https://www.homeworlduniverse.com/, 24.08.22

P.P.P.S.:

Homeworld 3: Revenge of Karan S'Jet!

Links

Change Log

  • 11.01.24 - added link to the "Youth and Immortality" issue in Homeworld: Stranger Things
  • 14.01.24 - added HWR Karan's picture

Read More Of Homeworld

Homeworld: The Beast

AmDDRed Blog

HOMEWORLD: THE BEAST

HW BEAST Header

This article was created as an attempt to separate the info about the Beast from the description of my vision how the Beast fleet realization could look like.

Contents

  1. Origins
    1. The Spin-Off
    2. In The Beginning Was The Word
    3. Tropes
    4. Natural Born Killers
    5. Human Factor
  2. Infection
  3. Evolution
  4. Intelligence
  5. Links

Origins

There is something wrong here. A presence. We sense its hunger. Not infant race. Not Unbound. Something other. Something older. Something from Outside!
(c) HWC, Mission 5

HWU The Beast

The history of HWC's Beast is pretty straight-forward: it was found on a million years old intergalactic ship "Naggarok", the crew managed to irreversibly destroy the engines, but the beacon pod with the virus was released. Somtaaw mining ship "Kuun-Lan" crew had found it and somewhat released it into the world with a half of the ship. After many fights, negotiations and betrayals, the Beast of Kuun-Lan and repaired Naggarok had been destroyed. However, who knows how many Beast remnants were left?.. At least, the Somtaaw themselves should have an example of it to work out the vaccine. As well, never say never: from my professional perspective, you can say for sure that there are bugs in app, but you can say only with a certain level of probability that there are no bugs.

For years to come, isolated pockets of the cancer would flare up to threaten the quadrant. But the new technologies born from Somtaaw's bitter campaign soon rendered Hiigaran ships immune to the infection. In time, the last remnants of the monster were crushed. The Beast never rose again.
(c) HWC, Cutscene 17

Origins: The Spin-Off

AK: …As we said, thought all the people were humans - mutated humans, humans that had evolved in part, but still humans. <…> We were a little disappointed with what they did with Homeworld: Cataclysm, because they went with the space meat. Considering all the things you could think about space - it could be pirates, plus tentacle beasts, plus energy cloud beasts - we thought, No, we have enough material with people and pirates. We care about the drama. We write good stories…
(c) The Art of Homeworld. Second Edition

Any thinking being from some other world that has been able to reach the Cosmos must be just as perfect and universal as the humans of our Earth, and hence just as beautiful. There can be no thinking monsters, no mushroom-men, no octopus-men! I cannot say what we shall meet in reality - some similarity of form or other aspect of beauty, but that it will be beauty, I have no doubt. <…>
No, I do not expect to find monsters with horns and tails in the space ship we shall meet. Only the lower forms of life differ greatly from one another; the higher the form the closer it is bound to be to us Earth-dwellers.
(c) Ivan Efremov, Heart of the Serpent, 1958

Well, HWC originally was Homeworld "DLC", that turned out to become stand-alone because of rigidness of original HW1 engine, and that influenced the choice of the antagonist.

Initially, the villain of the game should have been T-Mat: the cut-out species that were designed as Sea-Stars and natural enemies of Bentusi - and we had to fight with them in the 11th mission "Tannhauser Gates" instead of Taiidans. But the models were too complicated for the HW1 engine, so their design were changed to Lava Ships. And Lava Ships ended with being one (and the only shown) of the races of the Galactic Council appearing after the final battle - if you take the T-Mat/Lavashi Megaship concept-art you may read there that they even were intended to "help" by destroying Taiidani base instead of you - well, the info from the HW2 draft gives us an image of a chtonic arch-puppeteer like the Shadow of Babylon5. And as we've seen star-shaped ships in HW2, probably, this idea was not abandoned completely.

An ancient race of technologically advanced nomads who travel about the galaxy completely stripping star systems of all usable matter, energy, and biomass to sustain their considerable consumptive needs. Though not overtly belligerent, the ruthlessness of T-Mat resource consumption, and their uncaring attitude towards the devastating effects of their practices, has resulted in their being feared throughout the galaxy. The appearance of a T-Mat mothership in ones space is rarely a good omen.
…Few civilizations actually possess the ability to fabricate warp cores and few of those know how they work (The Bentusi, and T-Mat).
(c) HOMEWORLD 2 SINGLE PLAYER GAME STORY OUTLINE DOCUMENT — 11/16/99

Interesting, that HW2 drafts were full of non-human aliens that later were cut with all the spaceoperish emperors and princesses due to technical limitations of upcoming HW2 engine, and the story went into the direction of a straight-forward megalomaniac men of Vaygr conquering everything simply "because", basically replacing Taiidan, and leaving even less factions in-game. It seems that "only humans universe" with a promise of researching post-interstellar mutated humanity - probably, concept similar to Guild Navigators of Frank Herbert's Dune or Ousters of Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos - were just later memories, that retconned initially more liberal approach to race diversity. And, I guess, HWC writers - actually the ones that participated in HW1 story writing - used somewhat of a Star Trek approach, building more dense universe with different relations between factions.

Interesting that if we think about the only human universe, then I believe Homeworld Universe would conceptually look like Star Trek.

Star Trek Races

Think about it: though the humanity ancestors were from Africa, they've spread across the globe, adapting to surrounding conditions. And now we have people looking differently because of it. And if we're talking about the different planet colonization, when it's not just a climate, but different air consistency, gravity, and as well, isolated DNA pool, then we might get humanity cousins, like tigers and lions, still possible to have common cubs, but already considered as different species. Though it's not always successful: donkeys and horse may have an offspring, but it will be sterile…

The only exit out of this situation is not to wait for humanity to be irreversibly physiologically separated and have a good interstellar logistics, for human DNA exchange, if you know what I mean. Large interstellar empire would do.

Taiidan Empire

Thus we may count that Kushani branch is now a completely different people than they were on Hiigara, and same is Kadeshi branch. Of course, the question is - are 3000 years enough to make those people look so different to understand that they are from one place? But of course, these places were so specific that I believe they would really affected people - here on Earth we already have places where 6-finger people is a normal occasion… Then, adapting to spaceship space and diet would change Kadeshians:

The Kadeshi themselves have largely grown up in environments which make little use of gravity, artificial or otherwise. As such, they are generally taller than other humanoids, with slim bodies and longer limbs.
(c) HWR, p.247, The Kadeshi

And hot harsh conditions of lower gravity Kharak would make microevolutionary changes in Kushani as well, for example, something like anti-sand long eye lashes, anti-sun darker skin and heat resistant organism - so that the typical Kharakian would look like anthropological Jesus who had been depicted white Caucasian because of European medieval painters' bias… But you know, it looks like Rachel S'jet was a quite aristocratic white skin girl that didn't spend much time outside!..

Well, if the first Russian rapper - a poet with African roots, that died in a firefight (joke) - "the Sun of Russian literature", Alexander Pushkin, was naturally "white-faced" in a prevailing conditions, while his grand-grandfather was an afroboy that Russian emperor Peter the Great made a nobleman,

then I'd say that in 3000 years, that's around 100 generations, Kushans should have became "averaged" in look, especially, if their number was 360 millions max, which is double less than the current Europe population.

And if we look at the HWR and HWM illustrations we would see different-color Kushans there, while Taiidans are white, while it should have been vice-versa, as the Taiidan Empire is more vast for having different type of people communities… But if it's canonical it could mean that "color" Kushans were isolated in their own communities, maybe exiled by Siidim, escaping to Paktu lands… So, was there a racism on Kharak? And do the seeds of siidimism, that had been accepted for a pretty long time (HWDOK), are uprooted, and reignited by Homeworld War righteous revenge of the Chosen Ones, the People of Stars, the Unbound, and in Vaygr War to be religiously approved as the Sajuuk-Khar'id, the Progenitor legacy holders? Might this unconscious feeling of сhosenness be the reason for later political struggles in Asaam Kiith'sid, right after the Homeworld War, and then, Vaygr War, leading to Kushan spreading in and out of galaxy looking for their fate beyond Hiigara?..

Well, it's an interesting situation when in small societies less diversity means more inclusiveness due to faster processes. And vice-versa for the large ones due to slower processes.

And btw, why there is no other alien sapient life? Did the Progenitor wiped out all the alien forms but humans? Or was it like The Beast did it but then the Progenitor Automatons removed The Beast?..

In the end, instead of a "new" T-MAT race, The Beast was a budget compromise for a "Stand-Alone DLC" using already existing assets, but still it was a better mirror into human HW Universe, than Vaygrs and Progenitor AI's of pretty sterile HW2. As well, HWC had brought a lot of elements that were used in later games - story-wise in HW2 (finding mega-gun and repair of it by Bentusi, Bentusi suicide) and gameplay-wise in HWDoK, and it feels quite unfair that this member of HW family is kept being unrecognized.

- Good work with that Kaalel frigate, workers 5 and 7. I'm sure they'll forget to thank us later!
- You got that right!
(c) HWC, Cutscene 01-02

Origins: In The Beginning Was The Word

With Naggarok's name being straight-forward link to Cataclysm of Ragnarok, and continuing the Bible theme from HW1, the name of this apocalyptic enemy of the righteous and religious kiith Somtaaw with Kuun-Lan vessel, from the Lungma Jiin mountain, that did not bow before the kiith Nabaal expansion (China-Tibet reference?), most probably is the reference to the Beast of the Apocalypse:

1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
(c) Revelation 13

As well, as The Beast of Bible is associated with The Red Dragon, then we can add kiith Somtaaw to the Dragonslayers club.

"But as Siegfried earned, he must then taste the dragon blood, in order to take to himself something of that dragon power. When Siegfried has killed the dragon and tasted the blood, he hears the song of nature. He has transcended his humanity and re-associated himself with the powers of nature, which are powers of our life, and from which our minds remove us.<…> Psychologically, the dragon is one's own binding of oneself to one's own ego."
(c) Joseph Campbell

Origins: Tropes

"Formless protoplasm able to mock and reflect all forms and organs and processes - viscous agglutinations of bubbling cells - rubbery fifteen-foot spheroids infinitely plastic and ductile - slaves of suggestion, builders of cities - more and more sullen, more and more intelligent, more and more amphibious, more and more imitative! Great God! What madness made even those blasphemous Old Ones willing to use and carve such things?"
(c) H.P. Lovecraft, "At the Mountains of Madness"

Shoggoth

The Beast concept comes from such classical movies as "The Thing" and "Alien" - the latter brings a lot of scenario and artistic input into the game. Well, the similar concept is the basis for the alien of "Life" (2017), the Protomolecule of "Expanse", the Necromorphs of "Dead Space", The Many of "System Shock 2", Zergs of StarCraft and Tyranids of W40K. Probably, the same concept is in all this movies about some alien organism controlling society, while some individuals disobey hive mind - I believe this comes from the Cold War fears of communism. Star Trek's Borgs are in the same list. And finally Zombie-movies, with the social context of consumerism. As well, "Resident Evil" game series with all the zombies and T/G-viruses… Maybe, we can add "Mimic" and "Virus" movies to the list. If you have some more examples, ping me.

Virus (1999)

Anyway, as we see, The Beast concept might be trashy from the first point of view, but it's pretty classic and might bring lot of interesting context if served well. And that's not just a "space meat", as Aaron Kambeitz has named it in HW Artbook interviews. Though it might be disgusting for a tech guy to see such a chaos onboard :)

SCORN screenshot

Origins: Natural Born Killers

Well, in real life, sophisticated relations beyond simple death happens only in case of quite long co-evolution: too weak viruses are destroyed, too strong viruses are dead with their victims; others are adapting to carriers, and vice versa, so that a virus has more carriers and they are producing more units of a virus. The current pandemic situation is a nice example of it: after Nth wave there will be whether a virus modification that is mediocre enough to coexist with the humanity, or only those humans will survive that can coexist with a strong virus, and their children will have this trait. And the mass vaccination can make a shortcut in this circuit, but the evolution never ends. As well, we know that there are parasites that co-evolute into symbiotes, and later become one - that's how our body cells had been created in billions of years.

But there are some bigger parasites that use someone, like insects, as zombies to get into other species, like mammals. There are examples of such coexistence. Will it work if the carrier is changed? I guess, no.

Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis

It may be some advanced slime but most probably, like in "The Last of Us", the most appropriate the Beast reference is Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis which is an insect-pathogenic fungus that injects in a ant's nervous system but leaves the brain untouched. It leads the ant out of the anthill, where the carrier finally dies, but fungi lives in a more appropriate place. So, is the Beast a bio-mechanical Fungi shooting spores? :) There were already fungus-based aliens, for example, Lovecraft's Mi-go.

https://www.delta-green.com/mi-go-experiments/

Origins: Human Factor

In the meantime, we continue with our surface studies. Samples taken from the beacon's hull indicate an age of roughly a million Hiigaran years.
(c) HWC, Cutscene 03-04

Engineers report 7.2
We have finnaly been able to translate the data we downloaded from the alien pod. It was launched from some kind of alien exploration vessel called the NAGGAROK. Telemetry data indicates the NAGGAROK came from outside the galaxy nearly a million years ago. It was using an experimental hyperspace drive of immense power.
We're not clear on this next section, but the visual data seems to be showing that the alien ship picked up some sort life-form in Hyperspace. The organism we know as The Beast.
(c) HWC, Cutscene 06-07

Little is also known about hyperspace. It is theorized that hyperspace does not exist independently of normal space but is instead created when the hyperdrive is engaged. There are other theories that suggest hyperspace is its own independent space, with the possibility of lifeforms existing within it, but this is yet to be proved.
(c) Homeworld Revelations, p.136, "HyperDrive Technology and Hyperspace"

HWC Galaxy

Well, it's not really clear what does it means - "life-form in Hyperspace", especially when there is no solid theory of what is hyperspace: is it some kind of 4D-space, Immaterium of WH40K, Hell of "Event Horizon", The Void Which Binds of Hyperion Cantos, Outside of Enderverse, Wormhole/Slipgates, quantum oscillations phase shifting, teleportation or else. If we use it as a Universe building block, then it turns out to create a horror picture of everyone endangered going through Hyperspace… Who knows what kind of ecosystem is in there? But definitely that's not how the Homeworld's hyperspace travels were imagined. Though there is a Star Trek "Discovery" idea of interstellar shroom net as another way of travelling…

The Beast Universe

But if we look at it from another angle? With all the ideas about the post-interstellar humanity evolution, why there is no ideas that galactically lonely humanity would eager to create another kind, like it was done in David Brin's "Uplift Saga", be it AI, genetically modified human, some smart mammal or completely new creature? Even on Kharak there were plenty of non-human life, so where's the alien sentient one in a vast cosmic space?

Hundreds of thousands of species used to inhabit Kharak...
(c) HWDOK, Kharak, Kharakid Biology

By the way, we've seen some examples of limited AI's - Ghost Ship, Junkyard Dawg, Progenitor Guards… Even Bentusi can be considered some sort of cyborg! So, where is the Skynet?.. If there is no Sajuuk everything is permitted (c) Dostoyevsky. Like, le Dieu est mort, vive le dieu!

Alien Covenant

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
(с) Ozymandias (Shelley)

I think, it would be even better to rebrand The Beast from hyperspace originated to something that was done by humans themselves. Who knows, what these researchers of Naggarok were experimenting with? What if Naggarok had its own "Philadelphia Experiment"? It could be unsuccessful attempt of prolonging crew life with the help of experimental technologies. Or maybe it was a result of striving to become immortal by improving themselves by vaccinating some virus-nano-machines, - biomechanical (c) Giger - whatever. But that would describe why The Beast was salvaging humanoid ships so easily. Thus we would see not the another race, but the consequences of immoral human activity, what may be if the bioweapon is unleashed…

Of course, it was told that Naggarok is a million years old spaceship, but I don't think that any ship could survive for such a long time due to the law of Conservation of Energy and Entropy - be it the Ghost ship from HW1 that allowed to have such phenomena in HW Universe; or the Naggarok that had been an homage to 1mln year old ship of LV-426... I don't know, maybe, it could be explained by some radiation effects, or the mistakes of non-specialized miner equipment, or else. Bentusi memories could be explained by the fact that they had some hidden Progenitor memory banks, and The Beast was really created by the hands of Sajuuk - well, some of the ancient Progenitor people… Or could the original TMat be the creator of the Beast?..

For example, we can take Naggarok experimental drive and say that it creates a time-fastening field effecting only the hull: like, from the insider view it moves very slow and carefully, really doing those years, but the outsider sees it moving very fast. This can give us 2 hints:
1) The Beast on hull fastened evolution;
2) The Ghostship could be of the same kind, and the Bentusi could receive upmentioned memories after HW1 Mission 9 event.

At least, it would be an interesting move to reintegrate the pure homage thing into the very tissue of HW Universe. And this memory banks thing could be a way how the Bentusi share their knowledge: they upload info and just know it without differentiating if it their memory or not. And that's why they are like one person even if these are different ships, and that's why in case of emergency data backup ship is launched.

Btw, it's interesting how Bentusi appeared just in a moment of time when the Ghostship was disabled. Maybe, their knowledge of hyper-tech is so great, that they know how to lay low in a hyperspace, like bentos on the ocean floor, listening there to Hyperspace songs, just rarely emerging to normal space surface?.. Somewhat of a hyperspace submarine :)

Anyway, I believe all this non-essential details can be retconned just fine, same it was done to HW1 by HW:DoK "our planet is dying" wars and HW2 "Trinity" cores. Especially, as HWC artists had clearly drawn Naggarok crew as humans. Very old race, indeed.

HWC: Naggarok Command Deck

Infection

The Devourer does not kill us when it tries to take our ships. It leaves us in place, but corrupts our being. We die, but we are not dead. We would be trapped, slaves within our own bodies eternally.
(c) HWC, Cutscene 15-16

Ship's Engineer's Report 1.2 - With the CLEE-SAN and their science team lost, my engineers are now analyzing the subversion entity we have codenamed The Beast.
The Beast seems to infect vessels with a kind of particle beam that layers the target with techno-organic robots.
Once these entities make contact with a compatible surface they begin to absorb material and infiltrate the target structure. When they make contact with organic matter, they use the mass to form a neural control network that then takes control of the ship.
Each beast cell functions like a bio-mechanical virus. It's capable of using and subverting living cells in much the same way that it subverts and uses non-organic technology. More studies need to be done... but we are engineers, not biologists.
Analysis of the infection attack indicates that the Beast particles ride the charged plasma beam and then coat the target. The charged nature of the beam allows it to jump from target to target. Infection per shot seems based on the mass of the target ships. Again, more qualified analysis is desperately needed if we are to find a counter to this beam.
(c) HWC, Cutscene 04-05

- KUUN-LAN! Come in! You would not believe what the inside of the CLEE-SAN looks like! The surviving bio-circuitry alone could revolutionize our ship tech!
- Try to remember, that bio-circuitry was your own Kiith brothers and sisters, not so long ago.
(c) HWC, Mission 16

The price was heavy. Kiith Somtaaw burned out the heart and mind of the Beast, but the bodies of their loved ones could never be recovered. All that remained of them was a glittering infinity of wire, mysteries and microcircuits.
(c) HWC, Cutscene 17

And, while the price in Hiigarian life is always high, instant death in a blast of high-energy plasma is preferable to the twisted immortality of becoming part of the Beast.
(c) HWC, Ships, p.91, “Deacon” Class Destroyer

Kuun-Lan parts… We want beacon brain. Give us data, or we take data with your parts.
(c) HWC, Mission 10

Beast Infection

So, how does it work?

It's essential for the Beast matter to get to the human pilots of ships. Uncontrolled Beast matter, for example, injected by the infection beam, would just consume every non-organic matter on its way, converting it into the Selves. This happens until it meets the organic matter, when it starts to replicate living beings, weaving their nerves into the common bio-circuits thus 'understanding life' and learning by the reaction of consumed - well, like the Machines of AniMatrix did. And that's makes The Beast interested in human brains, like a typical zombie! Just for another reason - not to eat, but to consume.

Matrix has you

But that means that remotely piloted ships - the Somtaaw Way - or AI-controlled ship would be just destroyed by a savage consummation of The Beast raw matter. And the gameplay mechanics, as well as the fleet structure, give a hint that this explanation might be true. At least, need to check if the infection beam does less damage than microship health. :) Anyway it does not look like the AI-controlled ships can be salvaged otherwise than with an advanced salvage ship, raised inside the Beast mothership, sharing the gathered knowledge, and infecting the ship with sophisticated version of the Beast matter, that would know the key knots of a ship. But it's too much effort and no food. At least, for no-pilot vessel it's a lot easier to self-destruct - if humans have invented Naar Directive of sacrificing the part to save whole, then AI would know no hesitation.

Neil Blomkamp's Oat Studios

As for the Naggarok beacon - probably, like Ripley of Alien, somebody has tried to escape within it, but the tiny portion of The Beast has compromised this persons attempt to die alone in space… It could have been a great short cinematic, for example, for Neill Blomkamp!

HWC: Inside of Naggarok

As for living beings, their touch with The Beast would result in some "Color out of space" body mixtures, Cronenberg body horror with half-sane leftovers of people, half-grown into floors and walls and slowly dissolving as the time passes - like in "The Thing", "Aliens" or "Event Horizon" movies. Well, it feels like another definition of being one with your ship, "Unbound", just in a perverted way. Not the Bentusi Way. Probably it would look like the scenes of "Nightmare on the Elm Street 5" or "Tetsuo The Iron Man" - well, nothing pleasant there.

Akira

"Over ninety percent of this one's genotype is pure human. Its nervous system has been tuned to transmit constant pain, something roughly on a level, I understand, with being burned alive except that the pain never overloads the organism's brain and senses and never dulls. Its brain is fully functional, and according to its papers it was link-educated so that it could, ah, fully appreciate its predicament. That adds so much to the work's meaning, you know. It is not simply a live sculpture, something pretty to look at, but a thinking, knowing soul trapped in a living hell."
(c) William Keith, Warstrider III

But if we believe Warhammer(40K), some people like Chaos influence, having no understanding what their existence might be. Here is the potential of a new cult, considered a heresy by Somtaaw, and its Inquisition zealots, acolytes and martyrs would crave for an extermination of a non-human form of life.

HWC: Object Interrogation

But on the other hand, The Beast victims become one with the Ship, the Beast Hunger now becomes victim's hunger, thus, and like in a real cult, their existence might be even happy! Disjoint and dissolving bodies would lose their physiological and emotional ties, except for basic The Beast needs, but being joint in one neuron net means that the Beast won't harm itself, thus there will be no pain, except for the one the Non-selves would bring. Join the Matrix.

Matrix: Neo wakes up

Evolution

Situation Report 10.5 - The Siege Cannon failed to harm the Beast. Analysis of combat recordings show that the Beast cells were able to re-grow almost instantly after exposure to the beam.
...
It is the opinion of the Ship's Engineer that the Beast's cells have mutated and adapted since our samples were taken. He believes a sample of the original structure of the Beast could be used to adjust the cannon to do maximum damage.
(c) HWC, Cutscene 10-11

Analysis of combat behavior seems to indicate that the Beast Mothership behaves like a living thing, concentrating its strength in certain areas for a limited time before “exhausting” itself. So, like an athlete pushing himself hard, the Beast Mothership seems capable of shunting power to its maneuver drives and other systems: it can build ships faster, research faster, or even fire faster, for a limited period of time. During this time the hull appears to degrade slowly, as if the Beast is weakening somehow from the strain of shunting power to these subsystems.
(c) HWC, Ships, The Beast Mothership

Once a ship is subverted, it is not known exactly what changes are made in performance and firepower, but initial analysis indicates that while the transformed ships are slightly slower than their un-infected counterparts, they have an added layer of organic armor. Unsubstantiated reports claim that this armor layer can regenerate over time, if damaged; this may also be true of intricate systems and drives aboard a Beast vessel. If the Beast is capable of healing itself, Allied Commanders are warned to engage and destroy any Beast vessel as quickly as possible; any cripples should be finished off before they can heal.
(c) HWC, Ships, The Beast

The Beast cells high regeneration rate would make subverted ships tougher, self-repairable, but slower as well, as it requires a lot of energy, and that's why the reactors won't be able to feed engine at full capacity. As well, with the possibility to change themselves to connect to the living creatures neural system, it gives The Beast one more feature: to reproduce Selve-ships The Beast would need to recreate the human node inside of it.

Theoretically, The Beast could learn how to regenerate human body or maybe even replicate it with its own cells, but that would happen when The Beast becomes body-positive enough for a long enough time to accumulate enough knowledge to produce the sophisticated enough matter, in case if it's possible to produce something other than itself. So, having a lot of human remains inside of it, used as a meta-nodes for its neural network, The Beast can transform into something of a meta-human. Imagine 'Anti-Karan', the Hive Queen! The question is, will she be a puppet, or as integrated entity will influence or even control the instincts of the Beast. You know, even human brains might be considered as a parasite to a body, consuming too much energy for some off-topic activities…

…and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns (c) Revelation 17-3

Alien Covenant: Elizabeth Shaw

The only problem that it's probably a bit hard to control all these united minds and voices, like the new organ appears and you're the child not knowing yet how to control it at full, like Billy Miligan with all of his personalities. Well, even the Naggarok had its problems of Self-control when the Taiidani Imperials had abandoned "Beast-Imperial Pact". Some explain it with The Beast using old radio-messages, somewhat of a maniac letters, I'd explain it with new organs of grown mouths to speak - something that was optimized and turned into ship bio-circuitry million years ago…

http://alienexplorations.blogspot.com/1973/04/landscape-xx-wrk-219.html

Intelligence

The fact it sent a fleet to infect the most powerful ship in the sector means that it is not a simple viral creature. It understands our data banks and technology.
(c) HWC, Cutscene 05-06

The Imperial scientists were working on a way to take control of the Beast and turn it into a living weapon system. Their experiments to control the Beast by partially grafting it onto living subjects were unsuccessful. The native intelligence of the Beast fragment ultimately defeats any control system.
(c) HWC, Cutscene 09-10

It's gaining intelligence as it absorbs new data.
(c) HWC, Mission 10

For a million year we have been trapped in this ship, listening to the electromagnetic chatter of your tiny self/worlds. We know you better than you know yourselves. Your enemies came to use us and instead we shall use each other. In return for their help, the ones known as Imperials will be given half the galaxy. An ample return for repairing this ship's systems and leading my children back to me.
(c) HWC, Mission 14

When the Beast takes over a new kind of vessel, encountering technology It has never seen before, It brings the ship in to dock and basically absorbs it, seemingly to learn the new design or technology. From that point on, It can incorporate those technologies into new designs—or even order Its ships in the field to grow the new parts themselves.
(c) HWC, Ships, p.123, Beast Mothership

As such, the Beast fleet is composed of literally whatever Taiidan, Turanic or Hiigaran vessels have been unlucky enough to cross paths with it. Only two ships seem to be fabricated from primarily Beast technology, these being the command vessel known as the Beast Mothership, and a small kamikaze corvette known as the Cruise Missile.
(c) HWC, Ships, p.123, The Beast

And here comes the question of how intelligent is The Beast.

I see it as a neural network that solves tasks through multiple attempts, and while it's really not an issue, as human brains are basically the same neural net of billions connections and re-connections, creating quality from the quantity, it might be a problem of understanding each other. Feeding and breeding are the basis for every life in a universe, so these we call instincts. The problem is in between of instincts and sanity: the product of billion years long evolution, your body generates hormones and other stuff, so you feel emotions and you can read it from other people if your EQ is high enough, and by these mediators you can foretell what you might expect from the other person. And sometimes there are false predictions when some animals are humanized in the eye of the beholder, which leads to incidents, as the beast remains a beast. Same, other culture representatives behavior might be confusing, especially if there are already some stereotypes and biases that would lead to incorrect conclusions based on a somewhat survivorship bias. Most probably, our computer-learned children would have difficulties in communication...

In case of alien evolution organisms, or AI, they simply don't have your inner organs to feel the same. And while they can mimic you - interesting, will be there some "The Uncanny Valley" effect in this case? - you would not be sure if their intentions are really as claimed, if you really understand each other like in a case of talking with a philosophical zombie that only behaves like you in every aspect while being something different. While it seems to be OK on a political level, it might be disturbing on a personal level, as it would feel like a dialog with a sociopath. Convergent thinking tasks, that have a few solutions, like engineering, cannot approve that the divergent thinking tasks of with a lot of solutions, like diplomacy, would be solved in the same manner, therefore it's hardly predictable when the infinite game, best played in cooperation, becomes zero-sum finite game of war. In other words, technological level does not define the system of values. And it would affect political level even more, leading to somewhat "Dark Forest" situation on an interstellar/inter-species level, when the civilizations stop looking for each other being afraid of becoming a victim of an alien mind… On the other hand, an old foe is almost like a friend, but that's the privilege of the strongest.

The lack of control is causing aggression and conflicts: if you cannot foresee and plan what’s coming out of your “collocutor”, you feel endangered. The other edge is that you may foresee the danger coming with a great probability. To avoid this, both sides should understand their antagonists are not rabid dogs and there can be a negotiation process so that rules and fore/planning/seeing could be achieved, and they won’t be broken.

This is a problem even for social type animals like humans, though our fragility has required us to cooperate at least in a circle of our kin in a course of evolution, and willingly stop our natural impulses in favor of future incomes or to other paradoxical to surviving ideas, making us adapt to our conditions not in hard way - by changing our body, but in a soft way - by changing our minds.

Piaget eventually came to believe that intelligence is a form of adaptation, wherein knowledge is constructed by each individual through the two complementary processes of assimilation and accommodation.

Is there a chance that it can be applicable to the Beast having no socialization skills and thus only a hard but effective way of adapting, that limited it in the very end? Can it be the problem of all lonely Solaris-like alien intelligences? Is there even an intelligence at all without the mind-mirrors of communication, without the opponent to understand, without the self-consciousness?..

Alien Prometheus: David and The Goo

In the end, in HWC we haven't seen The Beast big enough to be more than a hungry beast, a vile child hardly controlling itself: even in case of Naggarok, its crystallized intelligence might have been huge after listening to the Galaxy for over 9000 years, still, its fluid intelligence was not high enough, though it had shown some fore-planning skills, but still it was playing zero-sum game in a long term, and cooperation game in a short term, while it should have been doing vice versa. I believe, that such a long term of waiting defines that this Hunger is not so much about feeding, to live, but about breeding, to reproduce itself, which brings some maniacal sexual obsession brushstrokes into the "psychological" picture of The Beast, with all those ejaculation beams…

H.R. Giger Necronom IV

Interesting, what would happen if, for example, Turanic Raiders Planetoid would be infected? Could it gain enough of mass to become something more sophisticated, for example, like it happened with protomolecule of Expanse? Could it gain more control over the instincts?

Expance's Protomolecule Diva

We can imagine the entire Solaris-like planet, though it might be not so safe for visitors, like the colony of Enderverse's Lusitania that had an alien-created terraforming "super-intelligent" Descolada virus, destroying everything not fitting the established Eco-system. HWC didn't show us The Beast infected planets - was this just the budget thing, or this was a hint of The Beast not being interested in consuming biomes, but human beings? Was it their artificial nature approval, their strive for concentrated intelligence or shadow, like-unconscious, will of consumed human crews?.. As well, will more human brain meta-nodes make The Beast smarter if it uses some kind of average output of all of them thus making its intelligence limited?.. What if The Beast can think only through the others, replacing the needs of intelligent creatures by the needs of Selves, and leaving the intelligence to solve this Tantalean problem with the Sisyphean perseverance?

The tragedy was that, with their inside-out worldview, they could never conceive of another intelligence, outside of their own. As far as they were concerned, they were simply utilizing the resources of their universe. Adapting. Surviving. They could never even approach their full potential with the baggage of their old, organic philosophy.
But by the same token, they never had the . . . intuition that would let them overcome that philosophy. They couldn't innovate, only react. Maybe, in the end, they were more like machines than organic life after all.
(c) William Keith, "Warstrider"

And it's interesting, that the Beast Selves are initially the mixture of machine, some human controlling part and a glue of the virus. Human brain is somewhat of a "monkey on a crocodile" thing, and in case of The Beast created vessels, most likely that the spaceship would replace the lizard brain, the beast cells would replace limbic system, leaving neocortex to be a replacement of an AI modules, thus creating a living machine, a bio-mechanical creature…

Triune Brain

For sure, we can tell that at least The Beast could have the concept of self-identification, almost quoting "Cogito, ergo sum": "We think, therefore… We live". Minds of Many alloying in a new parasitic neuronet Identity.

Frankenstein

Links

Read More Of Homeworld

LEFT 4 DOOM 3

L4Doomers

Contents

  1. Pre-Intro
  2. Intro
  3. Unique Selling Points
  4. Feature Summary
  5. LEVELS
  6. ENEMIES
    • Knock-downs
    • Waves
    • Baby Smashers
    • Z-Smashers
    • Z-Emphasizers
    • D-Emphasizers
    • Enforcers
    • Challengers
  7. RPG SYSTEM
  8. WEAPONS
    • Pistolero
    • Lights Off
    • Weak Spots
    • Gunshops
    • Keyboard
  9. DOOM CHAMPIONS
    • idWorkshop
    • idGames
    • idClasses
  10. OUTRO

Pre-Intro

Ok, it was promised in the analysis of Wolfenstein Youngblood, let’s switch back to the mods. And I’d like to revisit and enlarge one of my old concepts - Left4Doom3, inspired by Left4Dead series.

In the 2000s computer capabilities have grown, and a general game design's vector has started to drift from arcade to more realistic approach. Somewhat started with pseudo-3D of Doom, which was actually 2D with an illusion of height (I wonder, why nobody has remade original Doom into 2D top-down arcade shooter a-la Hotline Miami... oh, wait, there is a Brutal MooD!), continued with real 3D of Quake, and reimagined genre in Half-Life etc. With a help of technologically advancing video cards it created a hope for a cyberpunk-like virtual reality just one step ahead… Only later, like in an art of the 20th century beginning having futurism burst in, a game developers pursuit of maximum realism has been diluted with indie-game’s more abstract and stylized art design.

Crysis screenshot

Doom3 was one of the first to introduce dynamic shadows and very high-detailed models, but it has stopped on a half-way, staying in a classic FPS gameplay of a series, while having new realistic picture horror elements. Has this happened because the IdSoftware leader John Carmack was a techno-geek, missing a balance of John Romero's game design? Or have the Doom fans simply not noticed that an old concept of a regular marine trying to survive on a hell-damned Martian base was about the same idea? Well, just compare how it feels to play original Quake1 and how it feels in Doom3 mod Shambler Castle, recreating a Quake1 level. Or feel the difference of Q3DM17, The Longest Yard, in Quake3, Quake4 and Quake Champions...

QC TheLongestYard

But the grass is greener on the other side, and most of the players are recalling not the mood of a lonely survivor in a horrific environment, but the mood of "I'm not locked in here with you, you're locked in here with me!" that is inevitable for a player having replayed the beloved game several times on the hardest difficulty. And the next IdSoftware more dynamic and ferocious games, Quake I-III, have even more confirmed that feeling of a player being the scariest monster in a game. Thus the slight Doom3 gamedesign paradigm shift has became somewhat of a shock for hardcore gamers that had been awaiting for a little bit different from the legendary game studio. And thus, for idSoftware, which has lost all its founding fathers, the game design transition to a concept of Super Doomguy of Doom2016 was somewhat natural. And now the Doom lore even counts Doom64 as a true triquel instead of Doom3.

Well, for me Doom3 seemed to be OK, with its own thick and oppressive mood that I liked, though I'd want to have a little bit more of a horror hardcore with power of emotions a-la Half-Life, AvP2000, System Shock 2 and similar.

Intro

I have some positive bias towards Doom3 as a game that wasn't shy to allow a player to make deep modification, thus continuing the traditions of Doom I/II, and as a game with idTech4 game engine - the last engine of John Carmack that was released to GPL, that allows to develop it by enthusiasts up to this day. Of course, there are plenty of games that, in terms of modding, are allowing themselves even more than Doom3 - well, the same Half-Life2, a distant relative of idTech2 engine. And the engines themselves have become easier to use - Unreal, Unity and so, lots of them - so you can build your prototype relatively easy and fast.

But there is something contradictory about Doom3, like in a case of Youngblood - the situation, when a game has some flaws, no doubt, but that does not make a bad game, it's just a reason to think over possible game improvements to make it better. And what is the most interesting, that different gamers require diametrically different improvements! I guess that some would be more happier with cancelled Doom4 instead of Doom2016, though there is Rage for them, which I believe was collected from Doom4 unused assets and a horrible texture-blinking early version of idTech5 (when they will release the remaster of Rage?..).

As for me, I will think about improvements to Doom3 in terms of a co-op shooter.

Doom4

Unique Selling Points

It seems to me that co-op is a better option for Doom3 than a classical Deathmatch, as it allows to use an experience of a single player campaign. There are already co-op mods for the game, for example, OpenCoop or Mars City Security. Honestly, the latter, in a chase for graphic improvements, has overblurred the original clear picture. But otherwise the mod allows you to play both arena maps a-la “kill‘em all” and campaign maps a-la “kill’em all but with a purpose, though no, just kill”. But there is always something to improve, as the ideal is by definition unattainable…

As it was told already, besides the fun of playing together, there is a need for mechanics creating the necessity of it. And I believe that the horror component of Doom3 is much more appropriate for co-op. Well, as it's easily seen from Blade Yautja mod, a player is forced to play more classical shooter instead of using thief-tactics of The Dark Mod, as the original Doom3 AI is not so sophisticated. Thus it's better to concentrate on the Action-Horror genre, like AvP, F.E.A.R., Metro, Dead Space etc, although the mod might have been a good GTFO alternative if AI is tuned… But of course, dreams always look better than their realization.

AvP2010

Feature Summary

  • Co-op gameplay
  • Action-Horror
  • Wave system
  • Mash-up

LEVELS

First of all, we need a location to play. I really doubt that original Doom3 single-player level design can give the best co-op experience, though it’s always fun to do things simply together - like playing through Half-Life levels in Sven Co-op stand-alone mod. So for players to find this kind of experience, new maps should be created tuned up for co-op specifics. And like the monkey from the joke that couldn’t decide if it’s being smart or beautiful, we want this location to look good and to play good © James Brown

Doom3's visual look is based on a shadow play and I believe that this key component should be saved. I hope to see ray-traced Doom3 some day, maybe, with with some open source fork. Maybe, AMD can help with it, to introduce their RTX rival and Vulkan drivers, like Nvidia has introduced RTX in QuakeII?..

As it was said earlier, we’re orienting on the Action-Horror genre. So, it requires to have different spaceship-in-distress-like claustrophobic dark locations, with a bit of a labyrinth taste to get lost for those who don’t stay with their team, and where a flashlight used as a separate weapon should become a mechanic for a co-op interaction, similar to the motion sensor from Aliens: Colonial Marines. Otherwise, it should be about all the space horrors classic audio-visual look, not the Killing Floor 2 mad circus show. :)

Doom3 in Unity by Raihan Erviansyah

From this and other similar type games, level designers can get all the kind of ideas for creation of edgy situations on the same map, like:

  • stay alive until some event;
  • defend the location until some event;
  • protect the other player while he’s doing something eventual;
  • escort something;
  • assault to the randevu place;
  • don’t raise the alarm
  • airless environment (air-stations checkpoints)
  • etc

So, there are options to use. Multitask maps with alternative routes would be great, with different pace, like exploration and battle phases… Fighting all the time is tiresome, and Doom Eternal DLC approves it.

Also, levels might be randomly generated, like in a typical RogueLite. It's not about the creating a level from a scratch, but using some sublevel nodes to construct a playable level - like it's done in Vermintide 2 Roguelite mode or elsewhere. But, probably, it's more complicated from the coding perspective, while easing the life for level-designers, that could add these sublevels into the common pool - just need to strictly define the design rules; and it would greatly increase replayability. I believe that especially Quake's dimensions are something that would fit well with such 'Gunfire Reborn'-style campaign, with a bit of 'Clive Barker's Undying' Oneiros-style world and 'Call of Cthulhu' game vibes…

Void Bastards Map Example

ENEMIES

Doom 3 BFG Hi Def

Knock-downs

Well, as Doom3 was not only about battling through the hordes of hell, but also to get scared - or at least to have some tension on Nightmare with only 25 HP handicap - I think that overall its monsters fit the survival co-op genre. Of course, it would be nice to have pinner” enemies, for example,

  • Tentacle Commando acting like L4D Smoker;
  • Imp and demons alike to run to crawl the walls and to jump over like L4D Hunter or Payday2 Cloaker;
  • Cacodemon to spit the acid like his "brother" from Prodeus or L4D Spitter;
  • Ticks and Trites to act like L4D2 Jockey;
  • Hellknight to “bash a player into shit” like L4D2 Charger in a Hulk-Loki style or just kick him hard and fly him to the moon like L4D Tank does…

But I think that these dreams would require a lot of animation rework, so it’s a lot easier to implement the quite common mechanics of falling: if you’re hit hard, by a jump of Imp or Vulgar, Pinky’s attack, Commando kick, Z-Sec Shielder knock-back, Hellnight’s jab, spiders ambush or else, you’re down - but still you can use your pistol to shoot offenders.

If your HP>0, then you can help yourself to get up by holding the “use” button in case nobody interrupts you.
If your
HP<=0 then a timer starts and you have to count on your team members, that would use the same “use” button.
Uplifted player’s
HP=25 if his current HP<25.
If nobody manages to help you, sorry, you’ll have to wait for the respawn point, but for now there is a chance that your body will transform into
Z-Sec

Another option for a fallen comrades would be to implement additional salvage operation from the special rooms with the sacrificial circle/table being activated after some player is lost and teleported there. In the end, a player can always be left as is, like in a Freeze Tag mode, until another player saves him. Anyway, options from L4D2 (dying and shooting), Payday2 (waiting and shooting), Vermintide2 (dying) and DRG (freeze) are available, as well, as the number of rise ups may vary - if you exceed, you just die.

Payday2 player fallen

Waves

Besides the monsters themselves, a very remarkable moment is how they appear in-game. And here I’m not talking about the positioning of enemies, though it’s an important question not to turn the game into Serious Sam. I’m talking about the replayability of the levels. Of course, the map can have some wonderful manually set scripts with enemy number and quality but continuous play on the same maps would bore the players. Well, maybe, except for speedrunners.

So, instead of manual scripting it would be cool to have something like the AI-controlled wave approach of enemy spawn, similar to Deep Rock Galactic, Payday2 etc., based on the player's positions, health, ammo and already spawned monsters number - well, something like The Director of L4D2. I’m not skilled enough to reproduce the full pipeline, but I will do my best and will make at least a sketch just for fun. As well, it’s interesting what rules of summoning has Archvile? Maybe, his AI might get us at least a base for the further improvements…

Doom Eternal Archvile

To form waves we need to split existing monsters into groups: most basic categorization is about regular monsters and special ones. And the special ones may vary - support specials, boss specials, usual specials… In short, it reminded me Mike Birkhead’s classification, with four enemy roles:

  1. Smasher - somewhat of a cannon fodder;
  2. Emphasizer - the guy with a feature, but you don’t need to follow his dance;
  3. Enforcer - this guy will force you to follow his rules;
  4. Challenger - well, that’s the Boss.

I don’t pretend to be 100% correct, but I’ve got this picture:

  1. SMALL SMASHERS:
    Tick, Trite, Lost Soul, Forgotten One, Cherub
  2. SMASHERS:
    Zombie, Zombie Fat, Zombie Wrench, Zombie Flame
  3. EMPHASIZERS (Z-Sec):
    Zombie Chainsaw, Z-Sec Pistol, Z-Sec SG, Z-Sec MG, Z-Sec Shield, Commando CG, Commando Tentacle
  4. EMPHASIZERS (Demons):
    Imp, Maggot, Wraith, Vulgar, Pinky
  5. ENFORCERS:
    Cacodemon, Revenant, Hellknight, Mancubus, Archvile, Bruiser
  6. CHALLENGERS:
    Vagary, Guardian of Hell, Sabaoth, Hunter Helltime, Hunter Berserk, Hunter Invulnerability
  7. BIG CHALLENGERS:
    Cyberdemon, Maledict

So, what do we have here? There are small smashers to scare alones in the dark and to be annoying during the battle; regular smashers for entourage - well, in Doom2016+ they served as medpacks; emphasizers to be the main enemy soldiers, some enforcers added to spice up a battle depending on a level of the hell invasion, and challengers spawned by special script as a peak of a game. Big challengers would really require their own arena due their size, so they should be noted by our theoretical The Director of Doom to solve the balance issues, but never spawned if not asked by the map itself.

Baby Smashers

Small smashers consist of 3 enemy types: spiders (don’t know what’s the difference between these two), flying heads (same) and baby demons. These are small enemies, mostly for distraction in an active battle. While the direct battle mode is not activated for players, these, same as zombies, should create a nervous environment for a player, when exploring extra rooms for some random loot.

Doom3 Spiders

First, there must be a chance not only to spawn a monster, but not to spawn him, except for its sounds in a dark corner nearby but not in players’ sight. Like it was said, there is nothing more pleasant than a baby’s laugh, except for it’s 3AM, and you’re alone in your apartment (c).

Second, for spiders I’d have added some special places to respawn - some unreachable ventilation shafts, that would be activated upon player approximation, but release the spiders only when a player does not look at it, in a random amount of time - 1-10 seconds, for example, so that a player doesn’t count cards. Cherubs should be spawned just out of sight.

Doom3 Cherub

Third, it would be nice to upgrade these spiders and cherubs with a little bit more of social AI, similar to the houndeyes of Half-Life or spiders of Metro. If too close to the player, spiders and cherubs should attack players, otherwise they should avoid flashlights and hide away, while others of the pack surround and backstab the self-confident victim. Single spiders and cherubs should have a chance of being despawned, so that a player tries to find the black cat in a black room, especially if there is no cat inside...

Forth, flying suicide heads are pretty straight forward, and I believe they are good at what they doing. Only, I think that our Director of Doom should spawn them in large rooms, same for cacodemons: for example, it can be achieved by a bigger ‘spawnbox’, thus these are placed only in a flyable space. Maybe, it is done otherwise, I’m just guessing here.

Z-Smashers

Regular smashers consist of different zombies, the ‘calm’ ones. But regular zombies should have a sleeper mode, when they don’t move whether they are spawned in a lying or standing position, until a player finds him. Then a group of zombies close to a loud player should awake and try to attack. Well, the main idea of zombies is in their number and ‘social’ interaction, isn’t it?

Doom3 Zombies

As well, it would be cool, if an old Doom3 idea of indestructible zombies is implemented. Like you’ve calmed it down, but after some time if players are still nearby it gets up and asks for more brains or soul, hard to understand what it wants. It would add a timer feature to these enemies, so that players know that in case they want to avoid fighting zombies again, they should decide whether to move to the next location or to overkill their bodies with Rocket Launcher or Chainsaw. Maybe, overkill is too much, and a good old headshot would be enough - I believe, there were models without a head? Then these can be removed from the spawn list, and this blown head could replace all headshot zombies’ heads to recognize deactivated ones, of course, if it’s possible within Doom3 - or am I thinking in terms of Quake3 right now?..

Z-Emphasizers

Emphasizers start with Zombie Security - Z-Sec - soldiers. It would be nice to have for them some updated AI, so that they act like a team. On the other hand, when I played Doom3 on Nightmare without HUD, Z-Sec’s were the ones that created most of the troubles for me, as I had no chance to get close to them with a shotgun, and without the cross sight it was hard to be precise with MG or pistol. With F.E.A.R.-like behavior (or at least Half-Life one) and grenades added to their arsenal and “zombies not dead” feature, they would become the main workforce of L4D3. It would be nice to learn Commando's how to use not only CG, but as well, other specialist weapons. In return, Z-Sec’s and Commando's will serve as the ammo and weapons refill packs. As well, Z-Sawyers will share their Chainsaws.

Doom3 ZSec

D-Emphasizers

Emphasizer demons can throw fireballs, jump-attack, and some of them can crawl walls… The difference is in spawning: demons can be summoned via pentagrams directly into the battlefield, for Z-Sec, it is required to be spawned out of sight, to give a feeling of guys coming for help. And, demons have their timings which allows you to predict their attacks, even grab their fireballs, while Z-Sec’s shoot the same guns you have.

Doom3 Vulgar

Enforcers

Enforcers are some serious demons that will require some attention from players. In Doom Eternal they are just emphasizers but playable characters in multiplayer - well, that's not our case, Doom Guy yet to become Doom Slayer. In our case, these guys bring some bloody flavor into the battle, as they have some special features and a lot of health. Of course, if these are made available for a Versus match, with demon players sabotaging human players progress, it would be really cool. But I believe that it will require some effort if a player would have his own progression system (evolution like in Natural Selection, Tremulous or AvP2?), GUI to select a monster and his spawn location. Probably, an easier solution in case of having our theoretical The Director of Doom would be to possess already spawned monsters.

doom 3 bfg edition hellknight

Challengers

And finally, Challengers. For Doom Slayer these are Enforcers. Well, these guys should be an extremum of a gameflow, while being inside of it. With that I mean that while Big Challengers have their own gameflow concentrated on them, smaller Challengers are something of a battle wave finalizer on later game stages, despawning other monsters except for smashers. Something like an improved L4D Tank.

Doom3 HellHuntersRoE

So, trying to predict some initial numbers per wave, I’d say that max numbers should be - 1 challenger per battle plus 15 smashers; and 3 enforcers, 6 emphasizers, and 10 small smashers. Only testing can reveal more balanced numbers.

As well, if new monsters are added then they should be added to the appropriate enemy type list, maybe, some exceptions added, if it’s a flying one, a social animal, should not be spawned in numbers or else. Otherwise, The Director of Doom should not feel the difference.

RPG SYSTEM

Doom RPG

First, we must understand if an extra RPG system with the progression outside a one game session is really required. I believe, not. Of course, there is a potential for Doom3 to be enhanced in a System Shock way, a possibility to add new classes with extra bonuses for every 5 levels in a Killing Floor style, but I don’t think that L4D3 would be played 24/7. Unless somebody makes such an add-on and makes a non-stop server for it… Anyway, if a session itself is not involving, then it’s too early to think about the meta-game.

Second, if there is no meta-game, there is no need for any Hub, as nothing to store there, except it's a part of a certain map (like the Kshatriya map for Metro Last Light).

On the other hand if a few maps form a campaign then it’s required to store information on players stats, and I don’t know if Doom3 can offer such a feature. For example, in Sven Co-op each Half-Life original campaign map started with the default player weapons, not saving the collected ones.

So, if there is a discussion about the in-session character upgrade, and if we’re not talking about the new item receiving, then we can add small upgrades of max health, max armor, max agility, max ammo etc. But I think that for a core gameplay it’s not really important. Such upgrades might be added later in addons.

Doom3 had no RPG elements. On the other hand, new weapons added to a player's arsenal were something of a measure for the game progress, and they were like new skills added to a player, new more powerful magic spells of your battle mage. The thing is that while it’s completely OK to have one-man-army in a single-player, in co-op it’s advised to have less versatile characters so that there is a need to support each other.

Well, that mage thing reminds me somehow of Quakeguy of Dreamlands and Doom Slayer: what if they were able to generate new weapons and ammo because they were a sort of unconscious mages like WH40K orkz having ammo in their guns while they believe it’s there? Ok, Doom Slayer is a primeval avatar of humankind according to the latest lore in a situation of an unnatural two dimensions merge, but Quakeguy might be the one who is strong enough to resist the voices of the Elder Gods though they have managed to call him in their dreams realm where everything is possible. If so, then it’s kinda cool that Blazkowicz and Quakeguys families were united to give a birth to a worthy descendant to become a humankind avatar with the help of Samuel “The Wretch” Hiden. It’s interesting that what seemed to be an issue with anger management in a regular situation, with the right place, the right approach, and the right application has been carved into Humanity Hope. Ok, that’s just my retcon fanfic…

Aliens!


WEAPONS

Weapon limitation would form the L4D3 fluid class system: not the characters define what items they are allowed to take (like in AvP2 or else), but the items define the character. The classics, like L4D, AvP2010, Payday2, Metro, F.E.A.R. and other more modern shooters, suggest approximately the following scheme: primary weapon, secondary weapon, special item, melee and support item.

Well, that reminds me of Half-Life: 5 weapon categories, melee, handguns, rifles, heavy arms and support items. Actually, I believe that categorization wasn’t accidental, and in some point of game development it was planned to be more realistic, but in the end the Quake spirit of idTech2 has prevailed in the game design of the upcoming game. Anyway, Counter-Strike has revealed the hidden truth and the era of a few weapon shooters has begun, I guess. In AvP2000 there already were marine specialists with one weapon and pistols only…

If weapon limitation is not enough, than a weight system can be added, assigning some kilograms to every in-game item, that will affect how fast is the player, how high he can jump, and how agile is he to turn around with a big gun in his hands (and as well strength might be added to improvable RPG-parameter).

For L4D3, I suggest the following scheme: there will be 3 main slots, handguns, light and specialist. The handgun fits all 3 slots, the light weapon fits its own slot and a specialist one, and the specialist weapon goes only in its own slot. Thus, for the beginning of a game there would be a possibility to have dual pistols, and MG/SG combination while the heavy armament is not yet available.

  • Handguns: Pistol
  • Light weapons: MG, SG
  • Specialist weapons: SSG, PG, CG, RL, BFG, Chainsaw, Grabber, Spiderbot, Medpack, Shield
  • Grenades: Grenades, Glowsticks
  • Melee: Fists
  • Flashlight

This might be discussable, especially some weapon’s category: for example, SSG is something very powerful, though it’s hard to say that it belongs to heavy arms; Grabber as well is something really specific, that it’s also might change category to light, so that the specialist weapons are combined with this and not vice versa… But this must be tested, as always.

Next, there are Spiderbot, Medpack and Shield. Usually, games with classes offer several ones, among those are engineers with turrets, medics with drugs, and gunners with heavy arms, and others seem to be irrelevant for L4D3.

D3 SentryBot

So, for a potential gunner there is a choice of PG, CG, RL, BFG and even the Chainsaw if a player wants to go Berserk. For an engineer there is a Doom3 turret - spider droid, that will have a timer to reset, or ammo limited to reload. For a medic there is a need for a portable medkit-resurrector that would use medpacks and medicomp as a recharge tool. Maybe, potentially, there is a place for an armor fixing tool and additional ammo replenishing bag.

Pistolero

As for the Shield - this is a part of a pistol upgrade program, where our handgun, usually useless in a classic all-weapon scheme (which was proven right in Doom Eternal), can be combined:

  • with a flashlight, useful in the dark corners;
  • with another pistol, useful also in a situation of knock-down;
  • with a protective shield, with a possibility to knockback personal space invaders;

To knockback: hold the melee assigned button to cover up completely, charge and hit on release. The Shield will have its own armor counter that will be possible to fix with the help of an armor-fix tool. But in the end the Shield is a feature nice to have, not a must.

dualpistols by doomtrinity

Lights Off

Next, about lights and shadows: I’d like to introduce glow sticks, AvP2-like, as an additional alternative to the flashlight, used like grenades; and I’d like to improve flashlight by combining it with the pistol forever, as it was mentioned earlier. As well, it would be cool to have DRG-like light gun, something similar to Kampfpistole from Wolfenstein II or Firestorm Revolver from RAGE2, only with fire mechanics: shoots with a slight curve, sticks to the surfaces, and if touches enemies, then they burn for some time with some damage per second giving a light around.

Thus even the total lights off won’t be a problem anymore, while remaining a game design tool. And how to use this tool there were some examples, like Half-Life's discharging built-in flashlight, Metro series manually recharged flashlight, AvP series glowsticks and flashlights, Deep Rock Galactic simply being set in a no-light cave thus allowing to spawn monsters just around the corner and forcing players to use flashlights, glowsticks and Scout's light gun; and of course Vermintide 1/2 with its levels where you're forced to take a torchlight instead of a weapon or follow the only light source of a moving cart with a lantern… So, if not overused, light-missing mechanics can be cool.

Metro series flashlight charger

I've never considered separate flashlight as a game design flaw. Well, this Martian base should have been a calm place and with people dying from a boredom and accidents, so, the Doom Marine should have played HL Barney role, simple security guy, somewhat mixed with Adrian Shepard and no Gordon Freeman. I have another a different objection that while we're having such a pretty realistic approach to a flashlight thing, everything else remains pretty arcade. So, commencing to use both marine hands should fix this situation as well.

Weak Spots

Weapon limitation would create a shortage of ammo, as there is no more option to switch to another gun, except for a pistol - some games even make pistol’s ammo infinite. The solution to this problem might be various: first, to lower down monsters’ health, but it would require rebalancing; second, to increase up carried ammo amount (no Doom Slayer is here!); third, to introduce weak spots, to make headshots possible, for example.

I like the third option, as it improves the efficiency of a handgun and light guns, and adds strategic depth to a battle. It’s like playing Doom2016 after Doom Eternal, you lack some battle features of the sequel that forced you to think and aim fast. But accuracy should be balanced, so there is a need to make weapons less precise with cross sights (or just get rid of them) and be accurate with iron sights, which can be achieved with the help of CED's Assets Pack add-on. It was made as a part of S.T.A.R. 1088 mod. I still hope we'll see the release of it someday.

D3 IronSight

From Doom Eternal we can take the enemy vulnerability to a specific weapon as well, so that there is no chance that one specialist weapon would rule them all, and you will need to cooperate and talk with your team members to plan next moves.

Gunshops

Doom2016+ offers weapon upgrades as well. I don’t think it’s necessary for a basic L4D3. Maybe later some add-on would offer upgrades for reloading time, accuracy improvement, attachments or even adding new special effects like fire via upgrades or ammo itself. These upgrades might help to differentiate player purchased weapons and to keep them instead of picking up the basic ones from Z-Sec's.

So the question is, how to get all these weapons, items and potential upgrades? In this case I prefer the Counter-Strike / Killing Floor system, that gives a short time to buy weapons and stuff in special places for a certain price. This is a good option not to lose the pace of a game, especially with 4 or 5 live persons. Of course, in-game currency entails the necessity of balanced economic system, so that the game is nor too hardcore, nor too casual.

If any other weapon introduced like various shotguns from every mod that tries to fix the original one or to get rid of RoE dependency (well, maybe now mods should initially be developed for a fork of BFG edition?), then the new weapons should be defined in a list of Handgun/Light/Specialist weapons, with a cost and upgrades, if any, to be available for a purchase.

D3 Phobos Shotgun Render

Security booths can be these shopping places: restore health via medicomp, and even use it for buying stuff. As an option, the computer will give you a security code to apply on a nearby locker, where the stuff will be generated.

D3 SecBooth

Keyboard

In the end, there should be some changes in key binding (of course, with possibility to change them):

  • 1 - handgun:
    pistol; if pressed repeatedly
    flashlight and pistol combination will appear; if a second pistol and/or a shield is available then pressing 1 will consequently scroll through available pistol options (somewhat like it was done in Necrovision, or RAGE, when multiple same weapon selection forced the ammo type switch);
  • 2 - light weapon
  • 3 - specialist weapon
  • G - grenade:
    hold and release to wait, throw and return to the weapon (
    not counting as a previously used weapon);
  • V - melee:
    press to hit and return to the weapon (
    not counting as a previously used weapon). If the weapon is pistol+flashlight or pistol+shield, then the flashlight and the shield are hitting. This is a cheap alternative to a Duke Nukem’s boot and L4D weapon repulsion;
  • F - flashlight:
    if pressed, switches weapon to a pistol+flashlight, if hold then a flashlight only appears, and return to the weapon (
    not counting as a previously used weapon)
  • H - drop weapon: hold to throw (just an idea);
  • RMB - ironsight: hold or press to enable;

DOOM CHAMPIONS

Game market is oversaturated, and that means that the quality of a game means more than a date when it was released: that’s the story of an indie-game Among Us. A good game design can overweight photorealistic graphics, which means that good old games can bring money, especially if they are supported on modern equipment and they have a community that supports the game. Up to this date a bunch of mod files for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. appears on ModDB, up to this date patches for Half-Life are released, and while Doom3 and Quake4 are not abandonware and are sold in Steam, Gog and Karmack knows where, a player should manually modify configuration to have a today’s de facto standard widescreen resolution! It’s not hard, thanks Karmack, but why is it not a default thing?.. The same thing with Aliens: Colonial Marines! And then they say that the game's sales are bad, so we won’t support it, while the game's sales are bad because it has no support! It’s not always a quick run like a lottery, it might be a marathon like a bank deposit interest. At least, that’s how I see it.

idWorkshop

I believe it would be a win for idSoftware/Bethesda/Microsoft to create their own alternative to Steam's workshop and Half-Life 1&2 mod ecosystem, only with support of open source idTech1/2/3/4 - creating a possibility and tools to construct mods from all the official assets. I strongly believe that such workshop creation would increase an interest for Bethesda's own launcher (don’t know if it’s actual yet after Microsoft deal), long-term game support and it would serve as a source of new quality content, game design concepts and talented game developers by reusing old assets that won’t be used for new games.

RamboTerminator

Mash-ups are quite popular nowadays: Broforce, Mortal Kombat, comics multiverses and so on. Quake3 was the first id-verse introduction, then there was a Quake3: Generations Arena mod, where mod creators have split in classes all IdSoftware games characters, from Wolfenstein3D up to Quake3; and there is Quake Champions that essentially does the same.

idGames

Doom3 is built on idTech4 engine - the latter has started with Doom3 and has ended with it. And it would be cool to unite all the games of idTech4 engine that use more or less the same grimtech realism art approach. And that is, being honest, almost every game released on IdTech4 - Doom3, Quake4, Prey2006, Wolfenstein2009, ETQW, Brink. And if it would be possible to get assets from cancelled Prey2, Quake4:Awakening and Sin2:Reborn prototype, then it just would be just breathtaking.

  • Doom3 is idSoftware and Prey2006/2 are Human Head Studios, both are now Bethesda's inner studios, so there is a chance that these can share assets for a good cause. But there is a question why Prey2006 is not sold anymore?
  • Quake4 and Wolfenstein2009 are Raven Software who were id-satellite and now are Activision Blizzard. This is also tough. And there is a question why Wolfenstein2009 is not sold anymore? Maybe with Microsoft that now owns both Bethesda and Activision Blizzard some things could change?
  • Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and Brink are Splash Damage who were id-satellite and now Tencent. This is also tough. And there is a question why ETQW is not sold anymore? Though the Brink is still available for playing by Bethesda
  • Quake4:Awakening and Sin2:Reborn are Ritual Entertainment, another id-satellite. Quake4 DLC was cancelled but some assets were created, and Sin2 was cancelled as well: there was just an idTech4 few weeks prototype to attract investors, but they failed. Anyway, if Nightdive Studios has the Q4A and Sin2:Reborn assets left from bankrupt Ritual and can share them for modders' fun, I think it would be a nice advertisement for the upcoming Sin remaster.

Q4Awakening by Ritual

But OK, it was a long intro, and I don’t know if it’s really possible to gather this idTech4 dream team, but it’s fun to dream about it. Anyway, there are enthusiasts that start implementing Quake4 on open source fork of idTech4. What's next - Prey?..

idClasses

So, here is the idea: there will be classes in L4D3, but in a different way. Every game character is considered as a class: there will be Doom3 guy, Quake4 guy, Prey2006 guy, Wolf2009 guy etc. Each class should have an armament of their own game. Will this weapon be available only to them, or it would be possible to use combinations - this is the question to the realization and balance.

Prey2006

For now I’ve made an approximal prototype of how the weapon categorization might look, and it already shows that some weapons should be shared among all characters, like BFG, Dark Matter Gun, grenades, glowsticks, shield, grabber, chainsaw and a flashlight. Anyway everything is discussable when it comes to the realisation.

IdTech Games Comparisson

As we see the later games offer more upgrade options (marked with +), which means that they offer more variety in a game progression. As well, secondary fire can be added as an upgrade. And Wolfenstein2009 is a winner here by the upgrade count, but its weapons don’t fit the futuristic line of art, though it might be interesting to shoot out hell demons with Reich weapons and Reich demons with hell weapons.

Wolf2009 Tesla

Magic items, Soul Cube and The Artifact, are not to be used, as they are something out of scope: what’s next, Ranger’s Orb from QC, portals and gravity change for Prey2006 guy? Now even Grabber looks like a magic telekinetic heresy. Though it's always possible to look into the magic realm...

And of course, the same way other character classes will be added to the list, for example, Q1 Shambler Castle and Q2 Lost Marine mods weapons (and other assets) can be added with the introduction of Ranger and Bitterman. For example, I've included idTech5's RAGE as it actually shares the same 2000's ideology of FPS games, not yet going into Wolfenstein2014 or Doom2016 FPS-RPG systems.

Outro

In the very beginning it was a 3 page light description but then it has grown into a 13 page google document, absorbing some earlier ideas and getting more details. This mod pitch was just something that I wanted to do, for fun, for applying the idea of co-op gameplay to different situations, and to express myself. And if somebody would be inspired by these ideas then it’s great. I hope it was thoughtful to read and you have not wasted your time here.

P.S.:

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