a union
The three highly intelligent spieces of life in the Tarapor star system — Ainashians, Bakkor and Thynaks — coexisted in a time of cooperation, prosperity and, for the most part, peace. An Ainashian named Ainashavar had a vision of unity among their people. When the Ainashians developed the technology, with the help of mysterious sentient constructs called Keepers, to travel to other worlds in Tarapor, their goal was to spread the Union — and they succeeded.
For over one hundred Earth years, life in Tarapor existed side by side and intertwined with one another, each prospering greatly with the help of the others. When the Humans reached Tarapor in their interstellar Explorer class space craft — The Outreach —they were welcomed with peace and offered a place within the Union.
Human technology was by far and away the most advanced in all of Tarapor and with the help of their artificial intellignece translation technology, over the course of only three years, the Ainashians, the Bakkor, and the Thynaks were all able to speak and understand the human language with varying degrees of ability. This development saw interspecies relations jump to great, new heights and only strengthened the Union.
stillness lost
This time of Union was known in the Ainashian language as ‘Sahaa’ — a word used to describe the rare occurrence when the almost continuous winds cease to blow across the vast desert plains of their homeworld; in the Human tongue, it means ‘Stillness’.
This Stillness lasted more than a hundred years under the guidance of Elder Mehakeena, until the passing of the Great Watcher of the planet Bakkoroth — a planet home to a proud, physical and determined species of life known as the Bakkor — would set events in motion that would ultimately see the Stillness of Tarapor shattered and life forced into a fight for its survival on a system-wide scale.
The Stillness was brought to a close by a horrific accident known as the ‘Rupture’, that saw not one but two species all but eradicated from the system and for the first time a war had fallen upon Tarapor. Though, in the face of great turmoil came the forging of an even greater bond between the civilisations of Tarapor. Life may have been changed forever by the Rupture and the ensuing invasion of the interdimensional creatures known as Sprites. But the Stillness — a time of peace and prosperity — was far too cherished and too important to give up on without a fight.
valoras
After being exiled from their home world of Ainash for crimes of smuggling and theft, an Ainashian named Valoras decided not to return to their old way of life. One evening, drowning in self-pity in a small tox lodge in a dusty settlement just outside a major space dock on the junction moon of Niiva’at, they happened to witness a group of racing enthusiasts hurtle around a makeshift track far out in the dark fields behind the lodge. As the racers stormed around the track they gave little heed to the safety of themselves nor that of their competitors - this is where I first met Valoras.
Many years went by during which Valoras established themself as a regular at the race events and offered up ideas on how to make the event more ‘interesting’, as they put it at the time; doing away with the racing aspect and turning it into a contest of vehicle-based arena combat.
Using what was left of their frayed interplanetary contact network in the Tarapor system, Valoras poured their old wealth into establishing regular events in which drivers would come from all over the moon, and eventually the entire Tarapor system, to compete for fame and fortune. Valoras ensured a tantalising prize fund was on offer to draw in the competitors and it soon became one of the most lucrative ways to earn a living.
Though, the Ainashian Elders quickly became opposed to this bloody event and as soon as Valoras’ name was mentioned, they sent the Harah D'thil — Enforcers of the Union — to shut the events down. In exchange for allowing the events to continue unheeded and to show that they were no longer an enemy to the Union, Valoras declared that Hukk Industries, a technology development company they had established to create weapons and tech for the event competitors, would use revenue from the events to help supply weapons and equipment to the Tarapor Defence Organisation to aid them in their fight against the parasitic Sprites that plagued our system. After some hesitation, but unable to deny Tarapor of the help offered by Valoras in its fight against the Sprites, the Elders agreed.
And so, the event known as Charred Axle became apart of life across the Tarapor system; and having a distraction, just something to take our minds off the unrelenting horror that had invaded our system was desperately needed.
​
Fragment 3 from the diaries of
Lilapol — Arena Overseer.
Translated & abridged by — The Administration of Interspecies Relations