Vyre

This article describes a Xenos species in the /tg/ Heresy project, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40k universe.

On the Emprah's galactic crusades, certain small and otherwise harmless looking inhabited systems were avoided all together, and for good reason. Inside these innocuous systems floated small, dark planetoids of heavy metals and circuitry surrounded by energy shields and odd, kite shaped vessels marked with complicated characters. Inside these structures live creatures known as the Vyre. Empy avoided Vyre held systems with good reason, for while vastly decreased from their once glorious multigalactic empire, the Vyre are still a proud, possessive and very deadly race.

The 'Dark systems,' as they are called by the few members of the Imperium that know of them, are quite equally spaced out around the galaxy, due to the nature of the crumbled Vyrran empire, however they are actually more prevalent completely outside of the galaxy, to the galactic east of the segmentum ultima. The denizens of these systems rarely venture from their vessels and shield-worlds; the Vyre only go to war in the direst of circumstances.

History

Birth

The Vyre are incredibly old. Both as a race and individually. The Imperial Domain of Vyrrah was founded and destroyed before even the Old Ones came to the fore. many hundreds of millennea ago a group of scientists were commissioned to create a perfect weapon; a weapon that would operate, maintain and direct itself. Their answer to this question was the Vyre; tall and silent, the first hundred Vyre marched out of the air transport to greet the world leaders who had paid for the archangel project. Exactly thirty two minutes later all one thousand six hundred and fifty seven soldiers, staff and guests on the site were dead, and the newly established Vyrran race had secured its first foothold in the bloodiest civil rights war in the history of the universe. Over the next forty years the population of that planet in the outskirts of the ultima segmentum was reduced by almost one half from twelve billion to just over six as the fury of Vyrra overtook the planet. in this time, twelve thousand new Vyre were created by a mixture of breeding and the passing on of the curious virus responsible for the incredible abilities of the Vyre. after this time the vyre disappeared into their mountaintop strongholds for a few centuries, over which time they came to realize that they were quite possibly immortal. bolstered by this knowledge, and other discoveries, four hundred years later, thirty thousand Vyre came pouring from the mountains, took the world by storm, constructed far greater space vessels than had ever been seen before and promptly went on to conquer the whole known universe

The age of Eli

Several thousand years after the rise of Vyrra, a sixteen year old human by the name of Elijah Crane was attacked by a dog carrying the Black Blood virus. A good chunk of his stomach and left side was eaten by the dog, who then left the boy bleeding to death. When Eli awoke, his heightened senses overloaded and knocked him back out again. When he came to the second time he met Michael Belaire, a man who would ultimately become his firmest friend and greatest ally. Normally turned Vyre, while powerful for humans, are impotent compared to their pure-blooded counterparts; not even a tenth as strong, and barely able to wield the most basic of energies. However, even by pure blood standards, Eli was a prodigy the likes of which are only seen once in a millennium, under the tutelage of Michael, he mastered his natural talent for manipulating electricity at the age of eighteen, by which time he was also proficient with fire and ice techniques. Eli rose quickly in the ranks of the Vyrran military, achieving the rank of Knight Commander in the legions of the Baliqa clan at the age of thirty nine. After this stellar rise in the military, the Patrician of the Baliqua had become quite suspicious of Eli; he believed that being turned, there was no possible way that Eli was as powerful as he was purported to be. Thus the clan head promoted Eli to the rank of Vyre lord, in the employ of his nephew, Michael Belaire. while Eli was delighted to be once again working with his old friend and superior, he felt that he would be a poor statesman and applied immediately for his appointment to be redacted. the request was, of course, denied, so Eli halfheartedly applied himself to his new job, at which point the whole of the empire was thrown into an extremely violent civil war, started by the demise of the emperor. The war concerned the Baliqua and Volkiskreb clans, who tried to oust the currently ruling Vijaya clan. At the climax of the war, Eli and Michael faced down the entire ruling courts of the Vijaya clan. Nothing is known of what happened in the throne room that day, for sixteen men walked in and only two walked out. nonetheless, whatever Eli and Michael did to defeat those ten men earned Michael a Clan Lordship and Eli an entire new clan to call his own, made up of volunteers from other clans and Turned Vyre. thus began Eli's career as a clan head, and eventually, as emperor.

The Ride of the Horsemen

after several hundred years of mostly peaceful rule, when Eli was aged approximately thirteen thousand years a small industrial system named Balmorra started a surprisingly strong rebellion against the crown. This spread like a cancer to other mortal systems, the traitor systems quickly outnumbering loyal ones. eventually all that was left in Eli's hands were the imperial homeworld and each of the clan stronghold systems. it was at this point that Eli himself decided to leave the granite circle and go to war; the effect was instantaneous. Even if the traitor races could not remember why they swore allegiance to Eli the Dragon, they soon remembered; and so it was, in the fields of choris on balmorra IV that a tank round hit the empress, Eli's wife in the head. If it had been any normal bullet, Maria Crane's helmet would have saved her. This however, was no ordinary bullet. It was a Gungnir shell; an unstable singularity trapped in a box launched at five thousand miles per hour. Maria was instantly torn into shreds by the fluctuating gravity fields created by the device. As Eli watched this grisly scene, he felt something he hadn't felt in thirteen thousand years, then fainted. Apophis woke up. he had been forced asleep by that idiot Eli for thirteen millennia and was pissed off. over the next week, Balmorra and other nearby systems systematically had the life sucked out of them. Eli's Inverse Soul, Apophis, who has the impossible power to simply devour energy, can reduce entire populations to dust in days. eventually, Apophis' anger was pacified by gorging itself on the souls of those whom it had killed. Eli's son and two daughters had similar reactions, releasing their own Inverse Souls; Set, Erra and Serkhet respectively. Although they were powerful, their impact was far less. The Inverse Souls of Eli and his children would eventually become known as the four horsemen.

Dissolution of the Empire

Following the Fall of Balmorra much research was done into Inverse Souls and eventually a decree was passed; all members of the Granite Circle and High Court are to be locked into a purpose-Built Star cruiser named Nilfheim, where they would remain in artificially induced hibernation until they were needed. All members of the Imperial Court Guard were to be sealed in individual adamantium vaults, Eli's immediate family and a few other extremely powerful Vyre, including Michael's family were to be sealed in bloodstone Vaults to be cast adrift in space. Eli and Michael themselves exhausted the Imperial reserves of Corpse Glass creating two individual Tartarus Vaults tailored exclusively to counteract and repress their respective Inverse Souls. After Nilfheim and the Vaults were launched, the Empire of Vyrra was dissolved, leaving only garrison systems and clan home systems officially under vyre control.