Editing Primordial Evolution Game/Central Legends (section)

== The Desert Swarm ==
=== The Perpetual Houyi Conflict===
[[Image:Houyi_perpetual_war.png|thumb]]
[[Image:Houyi_perpetual_war_1.png|thumb|upright=1.50]]
Unbeknown to the tool using species, who only recently have started dabbling in the arts of war, there has been a state of total war in the plains for eons. For countless of generations, the houyi of the plains have waged war against the blade runner swarms, which periodically sweep the plains, eating away anything in their path.

This war has caused the houyi to become even more intelligent, cunning and brutal. Although they remain virtually unchanged on the outside, they are almost entirely different beasts inside their head. Gone are all the bestial inter fighting over females and scraps of food. They have been replaced with cold, tactical and ruthless military intelligence, which works from the back bone of solid co-operation.

The houyi work across the plains almost unified. The blade runners have to be deterred every year, or they would overrun the plains.

The plains houyi, unlike their cousins living in the obsidian fields, do not have a stable food source with no competition over it. No, the competition is fierce. The blade runners are ferociously attempting to oust the houyi from their territories, while the snake like creatures hold the line. They have started working with their digging houyi cousins, who also suffer from the blade runners. Their wast tunnel networks work as a houyi highway, allowing them to move faster from place to place, so that they can flank the blade runners.

Although they are genetically compatible, the species are jet to merge. The alliance between them is growing stronger however.

It is a total bug war out there. The houyi attempt to funnel the swarms to bottle necks so they can get clear kill-zones on them, while the more mobile blade runners attempt to flank the spine shooting beasts. Each day, hundreds, perhaps even thousands die, while even more are born just to join the fray. Whoever wins, will be a species that is a veteran of a war that has lasted for countless of generations.

=== Whispers===
After a brief conflict between the Crest and Plains Houyi against the Blade Runners, most Plains Houyi take there leave. All except one, who is curious about the Crest Houyi allies in the mountains. The Plains Houyi follows the Crest Houyi back to the Hitangans.

Why are the crest houyi so enamored with the fallens Gorirrogs? They were weak, what good are they to the houyi and their eternal war against the bugs.

The Hitangan rejoice as their comrades return! A feast is held in their honour, and special preparations are made for the new Plans Houyi in their midst. Lembut presents an obsidian neckplate she had carved herself depicting hitangan and houyi fighting side my side. Who better to present this to?

That night the Ancients share a single dream. The different Houyi species fight on bloody plains and sands. Their relationship with the Houyi has caused an imbalance in a perpetual war. This imbalance would swing back at the tribe thrice fold and destory all.

The ancients convene in the fortress. The Course of action is to be decided. Lembuts fears are realized. War shall come to them in time, and the Hitangan must be ready.

An emissary team is sent to the Simidan with offerings of their new weapons and a warning of what may come.
An Emissary team is sent to the Hu'Raan bearing an interesting cargo. A medium statue depicting the heroic struggle of the Hu'Raan and Hitangan with Thick Blood is set on a cart, and accompanied by offerings of refined Obsidian jewelry.

The mystics...They see things, but not what was wanted to see "It will start with a firestorm from the cho dragons, then the wesper hordes will strike..there will be calm, then the vietkoburrong will seek asylum with their enemies, for even the hell they inhabit will become too much to survive. Finally, the hordes will come, without end...everything...will die...wait, there is more...the Zu-nul ride worms in the distance...it is not yet told who they fight with...if at all." 

=== The Hu-Raan Outpost Holds===
The air is electric, the Orange tufted VietKoBurrong who abandoned their ways for a
more peaceful life once more apply face paint, and arm themselves with their mortar
and rocket launchers. The rough green clothes have become a standard of the Hu-Raan
army, cultural absorption goes both ways.

A remote outpost of hu-raan spot the incoming enemy forces, so much dust being
kicked up that it looks like an obscuring sand storm. A former VKB soldier looks to
his comrade "BUUUUUGSSS!!!!!" the outpost is overrun with the sounds of mortar fire.
Wild wesper swarms descend so fast there is no time to scream before their lungs
were choked and a moment later their bones stripped.

A messenger from the overrun outpost arrives. Traveling across the desert takes a
long time by ramel. Many weeks have already passed since the outpost was lost.
Hunastrus, who has already been declared king of the Hu-raan, sets off to the
Hitangan Capital to meet with their leaders to discuss what should be done in
response to this. He bids farewell to his queen and children, then heads out.

The outpost holds the line, but barely. Every passing day, more and more waves of
bugs push forward. Food is low, and the soldiers are running low on moral. At any
moment they too could be overrun.

"Legatus, what is the status on holding off the bugs?"

"Go look yourself. I don't have time to deal with new recrui- Y-your Majesty! Uh,
not good sire. Every day they push the line closer. I fear we'll be overrun by the
week's end."

The king and legatus walked out to a balcony where the battle could be seen while
discussing the situation at hand. Hunastrus came with supplies of food, ramel armor,
weapons, and reinforcements for the outpost.

"It's odd. No matter what we do, or where we go, creatures such as these always seem
to follow our people," said Hunastrus, examining a mounted mortar. "Especially the
worms."

The legatus looked over to his king with a somewhat confused expression. "I mean no
disrespect, but why is it you wish to talk about such things right now?"

"Because... Because for the first time ever, I hope this to be true." Suddenly, King
Hunastrus took hold of the mortar cannon, and fired into the swarms.

''Archivist Note: Please excuse the lack of resolution to this section of the Swarm War. The secrets of the past are not always recorded exactly as they happen. And sometimes they aren't recorded at all.

''Yet if you do across the North Road often, you have seen the aftermath of this battle. Out in the desert you can walk among the ruined walls of the Hu-Raan outpost. There you will see a statue of Hunastrus firing a mortar cannon. The base of the statue is craved with his biography up to this battle.

''Further pass the walls of the outpost you will see a great crater. Some believe that his cannon was so powerful, Hunastrus defended the outpost with that single weapon. Others believe the cannon fire called a giant sand worm to shallow the Swarm whole.

''Whichever the case more evidence is needed to confirm either story.''

=== The Frilla Advances to the Front===
The front lines of the coming conflict are easily scouted by the Ry'lai in their
flying fortresses. The largest danger for Alc'mund and the Ry'lai come from airborne
threats. In the initial early skirmishes Ry'lai webseers try to keep the front lines
relatively healthy, while the engineers give steel to all the front line races.

It quickly becomes apparent that the webseers influence makes the difference between
life and death for many of the wounded. In fact the death dealers left to the front
lines rack up massive kill counts. The central lines become a sort of spear head and
break the charging forces of the insectoid swarm.

On the eastern and western flanks it is a different story. The webseers cannot focus
on everything at once and these sides are left with only small contingents of
healers. While they help the dissolution of the defense is all but inevitable.
Fal'kest is last seen along the eastern side with his war-tree, a heavily armored
frilla bristling with cannons that serves as a command and control post.

Fa'lkest's Frilla ship is brought down but as it crashes the forces rally to it. The
insects around them swarm and push but the fallen war-tree thrives on the blood and
war. It serves as a relative safe point on the eastern front.

The western flank dissolves and makes way towards the Hitangan capital cities.
Alc'mund chooses to bring the majority of the Ry'lai and the war-trees to this
location to fortify it. Without the Hitangan cities the allied forces will not have
the industry to support the frontal forces.

Onolkeshan forces pepper the enemy with their cannons. The Lem experience heavy
losses, unable to be healed, they make a fighting retreat to heavily booby trapped
and abandoned villages. Once the enemy was inside the trap they blew it. The Lem
looked to the carnage, and the first wave was broken. They gave it as good as they
got it.

As the hordes descend on the Hitangan cities the combined air superiority of Houzi
on war-trees, and Ry'lai steel with hitangan strength quickly becomes the cliffs
that break the Sand Runners charge. Each day the bugs blot out the sun and each day
they are repelled. Death dealers go out to the swarm never to be seen again but they
leave a swath of destruction that clears the path. Clears a path for the beserkers
of the Lem and Hitangan to push back the horde.

The Alpha's with their influence on Thick Blood have even helped the Ry'lai on their
bombing runs into the unending horde of creatures. Saki runs the forges night and
day producing anything he can. In a stroke of genius he creates large propellers
that the war-trees launch into the bugs. They serve as spinning death cutting out
the menace beneath the war trees.

Meanwhile Urza and Alc'mund together can direct the mobilized war-tree fleet,
massive in number and each one a floating pillar of steel they serve to guard the
trade routes and as spearheads when the allied forces charge.

=== The Schism of Zu-Nul===
The reports of the massive blade runner swarms moving through the desert first reach
the Zu-nul through the traders. Rumours of untold carnage and bloodshed start
circulating within the tribe, but overall, they do not feel threatened. They know
that the Hazuvaat will keep them safe within their protective rock formation.
Zhen'qual however, is quite exited about this development. The hordes of sandonis
moving through the desert mean massive amounts of biomatter, that her spawn can
feast upon. She sends deep vibrations through the sand, calling for her children,
informing them of the feast that they can partake in. This war might allow her to
seize the moment and become the dominant godworm of this desert.

Thick Blood attempts to communicate with the suzumou of the Zu-nul. It is a simple
greeting to its distant kin. It holds a desire to draw these sentients to inhabit
its body and become better caretakers than the mindless drones it currently has.
The Zu-nul's illusion of safety is broken swiftly. Although the swarms didn't reach
the small canyon in which the hazuvaat rests, the Zu-nul themselves were no longer
confined to the protective rock formation. Their farms, trading burrows and caravans
were defenceless against the blade runner hordes.

The survivors from these outlying settlements retreated back to the Hazuvaat. It was
clear that they had to fight, but the ways of war were unknown to the suzumou. The
tribe attempts to prepare to defend their home. Tooth spears are crafted along with
knives and clubs. Tunnels are made and fortified, traps are constructed.
The jet wespers allow the Zu-nul to conserve their own energy while moving swiftly
in the air, making the jockeys using them exceptional scouts.

The worms summoned by Shen'qual attempt to attack the sandoni hordes moving through
the oasis.

The Zu-nul are nearly overwhelmed by the sandoni onslaught. When all seemed to be
lost, rain of fire descended upon the swarm, allowing the Zu-nul a little respite.
The strange voice form the sky that followed the strike demanded a tribute of few
pairs of suzumou. The suzumou were in a state of terror and awe. Some were
suspicious of this voice, others intrigued. The godworm could not sense the other
voice, and thus, before it even realized, few of her worshippers had flown to the
sky, towards the call.

The Zu-nul attempt to use the time bought by the cho-dragon's bombardment to
reinforce their tunnels, and investigate why their traps failed. With the combined
power of the sandworms and the bombardment from Thickblood, the sandoni swarm is
driven away, for now at least. 

As the dust settles, the suzumou gaze at the true scale of the slaughter that
occurred in the gates of their beloved home. And this was only just a minor swarm.
The sandworms are happily feasting on the bodies of the dead, and the Zu-nul quickly
join the fray, in an attempt to gather as much resources as they can. Suddenly, the
skies darken with the wespars. Thickblood's feeding swarm also descends to the scene
of battle, attempting to devour what they can.

The sight of these fliers stealing away the food the blessed worms and the suzumou
paid with blood, causes anger within the hearts of the Zu-nul. They are powerless to
stop them, but a deep resentment towards the ones who abandoned them in their moment
of plight and answered the call from above forms within the tribe.

Zhen'qual doesn't take the news of how these heretics any lighter. She had sensed
the presence of Thickblood, from the signature vibrations its bombardment causes,
and she remembers how it mortally wounded one of her children. The knowledge that
the cursed creature had lured away her worshipers without her noticing it makes her
angry.

"Know this my children, those who abandoned us today are no longer your
siblings...they failed to protect you, failed to protect us when it mattered the
most, and then they stole from us, despite our need for food...they are traitors and
heretics of the worst kind. We will hunt them, they won't have a moment of peace.
Every time they attempt to take steps on this ground, we will be there, we will make
them pay for their treachery. They will have to cover behind their flying master,
for there will be no respite or mercy for them on the ground. Never again, shall
they feel the warm sands underneath their claws."

Thickblood's new keepers are much more capable and are a welcomed addition. They
have fed him much information of their tiny lives. It was apparent that allowing
this new horde to kill everything would make like quite hard on him. It had a vested
interest in seeing the war won for the little weak ones.

The few suzumou who answered the call of Thickblood investigate their new host. The
constant data feed transmitted by the massive flying creature has broadened their
view of the word significantly.

The desert seems to be so small from this high up. To some of them, this has been
mentally devastating. To see how small they really are, and how insignificant their
lives have been, has caused them to break down. To others, this has been an eye
opening experience. The godworms they used to worship clearly aren't the true
masters of the world. How could they be, they have never seen the world the way the
suzumou now see.

The some members of the group start calling themselves Inzi-fen, to distance
themselves from their former lives.

They also attempt to breed and lay eggs in the flesh of their new host.

=== The Rescue Mission===
A Messenger is sent to Knixi, which tells her to try to acquire anything that would
help the Zu-nul better defend their home, and then return urgently. The quake worm
must wait. She attempts to learn from the Hitangan archives what her hosts know of
the blade runners.

In her studies, Knixi finds that the Hitangan don't know much about the blade
runners, as they aren't native to the obsidian fields. The tidbits of information
that they do know are quite interesting however. It seems that the dreadful houyi
creatures that still daunt her have in fact been in a constant state of war with the
blade runners for thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years. This
information doesn't really help her at aiding her tribe. She hopes that the rescue
fleet Ry'Lai will be able to aid her people more than she can right now.

Hitangan elders speak of god worshippers in the sands. A singular wespar female
worries about her home but does not ask for much. This changes when a messenger
arrives. He brings news of the Zu-nul’s retreat to the underground. Knixi does not
even need to ask. The council and hitangan shamans quickly move to send a rescue
fleet.

The Ry'lai battle group uses the berserkers charge as a spear head for their
movements. However, as the berserkers charge ends the Airships begin to ascend. They
will hold off the bugs as long as possible. A flare is sent off for the fallen
comrades.

As soon as the sun sets the Airships quickly are beset on by wespar swarms. Very
quickly the rear guard is seen with large holes punched through its armor. It goes
down and while the crew tries to escape the wespar swarms becomes a purple wall. No
survivors...

As dawn break the entire group is struggling already. Only the lead tree is doing
well its webseers still keeping it healthy. To make progress there will need to be
distractions. The wounded ships offer to distract the main forces of the bugs. The
main group needs to make it to the Zu-Nul.

They split. The two distraction ships breaking from formation and going east and
west. Their firebombs draw large swaths of bugs attentions underneath them.
Meanwhile houzi on the larger group keep wespar swarms off of them, but not
entirely. Another ship in the main battalion is punctured its crew only partially
surviving.

In the distance the distraction ships can be seen but they are both obviously going
down. Fires can be seen all over the desert and the group of 4 that was once 8
remembers their comrades losses.

The group of 4 ships find that a tighter formation allows them to break through the
lines of the bugs. There are casualties but nowhere near as many as the first half
of the journey. The trees are kept healthy by the redoubled efforts of the webseers.
The lem gliders return with reports of what seem to be giant pits, each covered in
the blood of sand runners and titandonis. The group must be nearing the Zu-Nul.
Before long the Hitangan have guided the group to an old suzumou settlement only to
find it abandoned. The area collapsed and what appear to be tunnels leading to the
dark. Flares are dropped but no one knows what to do. The ship will defend this
position while the webseers see if they can locate the Zu-nul.

''Archivist Note: Again please excuse the abrupt end to this saga. As I continue my research into this turbulent time, more secrets are found. I will continue publishing my findings. Hopefully the Central Continent's History will be completed in the future.''