My Headcanon- History of Spherus Magna

Creative Content Literature
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So as the title states, this is the first part of what I envision the history of the Planet Spherus Magna to be like. This headcanon of mine is the inspiration behind the copious amount of mocs I’ve been spamming on the message boards and it’s a huge wall of text so I apologize for that, but I am very excited to share all these ideas I’ve had about Spherus Magna and its inhabitants for a long time.

It begins way back with a common ancestor of all intelligent life forms indigenous to Spherus Magna, and this species of beings separated into two main tribes which encompassed the most fundamental “elements” of the universe: darkness and light.

The two tribes were appropriately named the Light Tribe and the Shadow Tribe, and they each worshipped a primitive kind of “Element Lord”. The Light Tribe worshipped Solis, a large feathered dragon who could manipulate light at will. Her name is what is now used as the name of the star that the planet orbits around: Solis Magna. The Shadow Tribe worshipped the creature called Angler, who was a giant sea monster that could control shadow and came to the surface of the Aqua Magna ocean during a new moon. The Shadow Tribe based their most sacred rituals around this event.

Eventually the two tribes, now completely isolated from each other, underwent evolution and split into two distinct species. The Shadow Tribe evolved into amphibious beings who could breathe underwater and on land, and their bodies also adapted to the crushing pressure and lack of light of the deep sea over hundreds of generations as they moved further and further down into the ocean, ultimately reaching the bottom, where no light can reach. They had large fins, webbed fingers and toes, and no eyes. They called their new home the Realm of Eternal Darkness (edgy, I know).

Meanwhile, the Light Tribe founded a civilization in the Bara Magna desert that they called Lhoutaz. After this, several Light Tribe members left their home and explored the planet, undergoing further evolution and forming several new tribes based around the elements they encountered. I tried to create a phylogenetic tree to showcase how all the different intelligent species of Spherus Magna came to be because I’m just that lame lol.

IMG_0053
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CA = common ancestor
ST = Shadow Tribe
G = Glatorian
V = Vorox
S = Skrall
BH = Bone Hunters
Z = Zesk
A = Agori
LT = Light Tribe

The newly-formed tribes were made up of Proto-Glatorian, who evolved into the Glatorian and Agori. They formed eight tribes in total; these were the Fire, Ice, Water, Jungle, Earth, Sand, Iron, and Lightning Tribes. Each tribe established a permanent homeland on Spherus Magna:

The Fire Tribe established Effurnac by the volcano in Bara Magna.

The Lightning Tribe established Electricus in the dunes of Bara Magna.

The Sand Tribe established Varoxia near the sea of liquid sand in Bara Magna.

The Water Tribe established Aquario on the shores of Aqua Magna.

The Jungle Tribe established Yverdure in the jungle of Bota Magna.

The Earth Tribe established Khthon in the caves and canyons under Bota Magna.

The Iron Tribe established Pherrum at the base of the mountains in Bota Magna.

The Ice Tribe established Gleoci in the Northern Frost.

The founding of these eight civilizations is when the the Great Beings first appear in the historical record. They brought tons of new ideas to their respective tribes and became looked up to as god-like chieftains. The Great Beings gave the Glatorian and Agori technologically advanced weapons, vehicles, and body modifications, and restructured each of the tribes’ societies to further fuel their obsession with creating. The mysterious creature Annona probed into their thoughts but was unable to feed on their dreams due to the sheer complexity of their minds. However, Annona’s probing enhanced the Great Beings’ creative genius, making them able to achieve immortality for themselves, furthering their status as gods amongst the tribes. Fearing that the Great Beings would eventually find ways to destroy her, Annona went underground to avoid the Great Beings using her mind to further help with their inventions.

A group of Glatorian from the Earth Tribe broke off and moved to the mountains, evolving into a new species called the Skrall, whose life spans grew exponentially compared to their Glatorian relatives. They established their homeland Skrallhelm at the mountains’ base, making them neighbors to the Iron Tribe. A group of Earth Tribe Agori followed the Skrall, and together these Agori and the Skrall formed the Rock Tribe. Some Agori of the Rock Tribe travelled further, abandoning their new home and moving into Bara Magna, where they became yet another new species of nomadic raiders called the Bone Hunters.

There was a single Skrall who was also gifted with the ability to create amazing inventions, and he wanted to become part of the Great Beings, but they rejected his request and forced him back to Skrall society, where his inventions were never appreciated and even destroyed. What became of this single Skrall is unknown.

Annona became curious about the creatures of Spherus Magna and, believing their minds were all too complicated to feast on, she instead granted the female members of the Skrall psionic powers, hoping they would use them to destroy the males of their species and then go on to attack the Great Beings. However, while the female Skrall did use their powers to manipulate the males, they never outright destoryed them. The males came to distrust the females and separated themselves from them, leaving the female Skrall to form their own mini-tribe within the Rock Tribe called the Sisters of the Skrall. Though the males and females were now separated, they both still remained in Skrallhelm but never interacted with eachother, each having their own part of the province.

To help control the tribes while they were busy creating and to prevent further breakages of the tribes, the Great Beings selected eight Glatorian warriors, one from each tribe, and one Skrall warrior to be imbued with immortality and special elemental powers and become the respective leaders of their tribes in place of the Great Beings. These nine warriors were turned into the Element Lords:

There was Balamber, the Element Lord of Fire

Qaynuqa, the Element Lord of Lightning

Aquitanian, the Element Lord of Water

Rollo, the Element Lord of Ice

Vinoviloth, the Element Lord of Jungle

Thelir, the Element Lord of Iron

Scythian, the Element Lord of Earth

Zoskales, the Element Lord of Sand

And Octamasadas, the Element Lord of Rock

Immediately after their creation, the Element Lords of Iron and Lightning rebelled against their creators, using their powers to destroy much of the laboratory and kill several of the Great Beings. They were swiftly imprisoned in special cells that cut off their elemental powers, making them unable to escape.

The Element Lords were able to keep their tribes in line, and also kept tabs on the Iron and Lightning Tribes to make sure they behave despite not having Element Lords to rule them. Thanks to this, the Great Beings could begin their newest and most grandiose project yet: a Great Spirit Robot. They assembled the tribes to begin constructing this giant robot, and when it was finally finished, the Great Beings were more than ready to do a test launch. However, during the launch the robot exploded mid-flight, causing its pieces to become scattered across Bara Magna and become eventual landmarks.

That’s the end of Part 1. Part 2 will focus in on the interactions between the tribes, meaning there are a lot of conflicts and wars to come lol. I am very interested to know what you guys think so far (especially if you managed to read it all the way through, which I would definitely understand if you didn’t lmao), so feel free to leave feedback of any kind!

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so does this contradict the canon at all?

if your on the boards, you’re lame. nothing you can do about that.

better than what greg gave us

why did they do this?

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My goal is to not contradict canon at all but instead just weave around it and fill in gaps.

I honestly didn’t come up with a fully fleshed out reason for why the Rock Tribe broke away from the Earth Tribe but maybe it can be something like they didn’t like how the Great Beings were running everything and making everyone work for them and build their technologies so they just peaced out and went to go be anarcho-primitivists in the woods.

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peace and skrall shouldn’t be in the same paragraph

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They peaced out because peace went OUT of their society :smile:

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turn your glatorian life counter to zero and leave /jk

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Very interesting so far - I like the idea of the Shadow Tribe and rebellious Element Lords.

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Part 2:

After a time of relative peace and stability between the tribes, everything began to go downhill after the explosion of the prototype Great Spirit Robot. For one thing, it made the general population’s awe for the Great Beings dwindle quite a bit, poking holes in their shiny veneer as gods. This was the first of their creations that failed, and it did so rather catastrophically, deeply damaging their reputation. After this, the Element Lords came to an agreement amongst themselves that they would no longer serve the Great Beings and went rogue, with their respective tribes choosing to follow them.

Shortly after the Great Spirit Robot’s explosion, a few Shadow Tribe members, perhaps curious to see how the surface world has changed since their departure or perhaps just homesick, came out of the water to explore. They wore breathing apparatuses and special sensors to help them “see” on land, and they traversed Bara Magna until they reached the robot’s severed head. Here they established a colony where they lived for hundreds of thousands of years undiscovered.

During one of the Iron Tribe’s mining projects, they began digging into a patch of untouched land that had already been claimed by the Rock Tribe, unbeknownst to them. When members of the Rock Tribe came to begin development on the land and saw that the Iron Tribe had already developed on it, they were furious, and without so much as asking for an explanation from the Iron Tribe, the members went back to Skrallhelm, informed Octamasadas of the Iron Tribe’s infraction, and began preparations for war. Only days later, the Rock Tribe marched to Pherrum and began a siege of the province, lead by Octamasadas and four leader-class Skrall members: Tuma, Alaric, Roscius, and Sweyn. The attack sparked swift retaliation from the Iron Tribe, though they were not confident in their odds. The four generals of the Iron Tribe, absent an Element Lord to lead the charge, led their armies into battle; they were Ceolwulf, Onomaris, Masinissa, and Naqia. The mountainsides and their surrounding jungles became a warzone, with Skrall and Iron Tribe soldiers flowing through the land like rivers of armor and weapons and clashing into each other in powerful waves of battle, culminating in the First Mountain War. The Iron Tribe lost devastating numbers to the Skrall, eventually turning to their longtime allies the Earth Tribe for support. Scythian and her reinforcements, led by the warriors Indibilis and Pythia, were just what the Iron Tribe needed to gain the upper hand, and with their combined forces, the Iron Tribe and Earth Tribe forced Octamasadas to surrender, making the Rock Tribe retreat back to Skrallhelm in defeat. As a trophy for their victory, the Iron Tribe was able to keep the patch of land that started the whole fiasco in the first place.

Despite their victories, the Iron and Earth Tribes knew the peace would not last, and soon had to deal with frequent raids by Skrall into their territories. The raids were not conducted by Octamasadas, instead being carried out by rogue elite-class Skrall, but the Element Lord of Rock did nothing to stop them. These ambitious Skrall expanded their raids to the entire Bota Magna region, raiding into Jungle Tribe territory and even occasionally going into the Northern Frost to raid the Ice Tribe. The raids were small and quickly extinguished and their damage was minimal, so there was not much concern had by the other Element Lords, and they did not feel like trying to convince Octamasadas to intervene since they knew he never would; the raids simply became the new way of life for the tribes of Bota Magna.

The Great Beings witnessed the chaos and destruction of the First Mountain War and the less destructive but still concerning Skrall raids, but could not do anything about it. They used up all their resources to build the prototype robot, and since the tribes were no longer working for them, they had no one to collect new raw materials for them; they were completely powerless.

Meanwhile in Bara Magna, a new conflict was looming on the horizon. The Glatorian warriors of the Sand Tribe, who called themselves Vorox and were lead by Zoskales, were rapidly expanding their borders, beginning the Sand Tribe’s conquest of the desert. The expansion was led by two generals, Tarquin and Zivon, acting under the Element Lord of Sand’s command. They and the rest of the Sand Tribe believed themselves to be the rightful rulers of the entire desert since they were the best adapted to the harsh environment, and soon enough their expansion brought them into conflict with the other tribes living in Bara Magna.

Their first clash was with the Lightning Tribe, who had put the vast majority of their resources and labor into developing agricultural and infrastructural technologies and therefor had a minimal army and barely any weapons to fight with, all the while they were without an Element Lord to guide them. Their two commanders, Sisocostus and Thaqafi, tried their hardest to resist the Vorox invasion of Electricus, but it was in vain- the Lightning Tribe fell to Varoxia within a matter of hours.

Up next came the Fire Tribe, who put up much more of a fight. Their battles against the Vorox were the longest, with Balamber raining down fire onto Zoskales’ troops, covering the sandy battlefields with a layer of hot glass. But Zoskales retaliated- he used large mounds of compact sand to block Balamber’s fire and shattered the glass into shards which he lauched back, and his sandstorms disoriented and blinded the Fire Tribe’s soldiers. The two Fire Tribe generals, Segovax and Hastayara, were extremely skilled fighters and led powerful armies, but the Vorox were better. They used their knowledge of the desert landscape and climate to their advantage, and their armor allowed for effective camouflage used for ambushes. The Agori of the Sand Tribe, called Zesk, were also fierce warriors and experienced medics in their own right, giving the Vorox yet another advantage on the battlefield compared to the other tribes, whose Agori were strictly civilians with no battle training or experience. After a months-long siege, Effurnac was absorbed into Varoxia and the Fire Tribe found themselves alongside the Lightning Tribe at the mercy of their new Sand Tribe overlords.

Finally, the Sand Tribe invaded Aquario. Zoskales used his control over sand to absorb the tsunamis and other watery attacks thrown toward him by Aquitanian, and the heavier wet sand strengthened the Vorox’s defences. The two Water Tribe generals, Thumelicus and Tjekker, evacuated the land half of Aquario and moved everyone to the water half, but the Vorox were persistent. Whenever the Water Tribe retreated to the ocean, Zoskales would raise the sea bed up above the water, making them lose their advantage and temporarily cutting off Aquitanian’s power source. The Water Tribe put up a valiant effort, but after another siege that lasted months, they too were defeated by the Sand Tribe and made a part of Varoxia.

During the Sand Tribe’s expansion, Tarquin’s legion of troops came across a small settlement of Light Tribe members, though Tarquin did not know their identity, assuming them to be refugees from a previously conquered tribe. When Tarquin commanded his Vorox to attack the settement, they fought back valiantly. Callicratidas and Nodjmet, two commanders of the Light Tribe, cornered Tarquin and forced him and his soldiers to retreat under threat of death. Tarquin felt so humiliated by his defeat that he never spoke of the incident to anyone for as long as he lived, and swore all of his soldiers to secrecy, though not all of them listened.

After years of conquest, Varoxia now stretched across almost the entire desert of Bara Magna and had three tribes paying them tribute. Balamber and Aquitanian still had direct control over their tribes, but they were now under the command of Zoskales, who forced them to quash any resistance from their tribes or else he would cause the sand under their civilizations to collapse, sinking their entire tribes’ populations into the desert. Varoxia had become the highest power in the world.

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Part 3:

After years of raiding the neighboring tribes, the Skrall, led by the Element Lord of Rock, coalesced their armies and once again launched a full-scale assault on the Iron Tribe out of revenge for the outcome of the First Mountain War. This began the Second Mountain War, and much like the first, the Iron Tribe gradually became overpowered by the Rock Tribe’s forces until the Earth Tribe swept in with reinforcements and turned the tide in the Iron Tribe’s favor. However, unlike the First Mountain War, the Earth Tribe’s warriors leaving their home to help the Iron Tribe presented an opportunity to the recently-formed imperial superpower of Bara Magna.

Seeing that Khthon was unguarded, the Empire of Varoxia made an attempt to expand their borders beyond the desert and invaded the Earth Tribe’s homeland. Khthon was quickly taken by the Vorox, after which they moved on to Skrallhelm, which had also been left unguarded save for a few militias. When word reached the Skrall that their homeland was being overrun, they immediately retreated and fought back against the Sand Tribe invaders. The Earth Tribe retreated as well, realizing that if the Vorox were trying to take Skrallhelm, then they were beginning a conquest of the mountains and had most likely invaded Khthon as well; when they returned, they were dishearteningly proven right.

Now fighting on two fronts, the Vorox began to lose confidence in their ability to fulfil the ambitious expansion of their empire, but their hope was restored when the Iron Tribe aided in their invasion of Skrallhelm as revenge for the Skrall’s initial attack on Pherrum. This turn of events was met with staunch disapproval by the Earth Tribe who, for the first time in millennia, ulitmately decided to join forces with the Rock Tribe in order to push the Sand and Iron tribes back. Unfortunately for them, their combined strength did not last, as the Vorox had begun conscripting soldiers from their Fire, Water, and Lightning Tribe territories and hiring Bone Hunters as mercenaries, led by the Bone Hunter chieftains Boz and Vinithar. But another development yet again changed the tide when a battalion of Vorox, whose confidence in their abilities had been restored, attacked an outpost of the Jungle Tribe as the first step in their conquest of the jungle. This signaled to the Jungle Tribe that Varoxia intended to conquer them as well, so they joined the fight alongside the Earth and Rock Tribes, and this final installment of troops on the battlefield was enough to drive the Sand Tribe back to the desert and the Iron Tribe back to the mines, ending the Second Mountain War in a decisive victory for the Earth, Rock, and Jungle Tribes. In their victory, the Rock Tribe took large swaths of land from the Iron Tribe.

Despite their victory and subsequent land grab, the Rock Tribe was not satisfied and intended to resume their initial assault on Pherrum. They believed the Earth Tribe would now join their side or at least allow them to attack the Iron Tribe without interference since the Iron Tribe provided aid to their enemy, but this was not the case. The Earth Tribe made it clear that they would not sit back and allow the Skrall to decimate the Iron Tribe, so the Skrall changed their plan and attacked the Earth Tribe. The Iron Tribe, seeing their former ally in trouble and desiring to mend their relationship, joined their side in the fight against the Skrall, sparking the third and final Mountain War. The Jungle Tribe aided the Earth Tribe as well, sending a message that their technical allyship with the Rock Tribe was done out of necessity and that they do not condone the Skrall’s repeated assaults on other tribes.

The combined might of the three tribes was easily able to overpower the Skrall and force them to surrender, officially ending the Third Mountain War. After the Skrall’s defeat, land was restored to the Iron Tribe and the Earth and Jungle tribes annexed even more of the Skrall’s land into their own tribes as punishment for their repeated attacks and raids. They also executed most of the Skrall’s leader class and elite class members, only sparing those who fully accepted the Rock Tribe’s punishments. The severe loss of land and men caused the Rock Tribe to dwindle to the point of obscurity, and they would not be seen or heard from again for quite some time.

The tribes of Bota Magna had not forgotten what Varoxia did to them, and they were fully prepared to retaliate. The Earth, Iron, and Jungle tribes marched across the desert, sacking Sand Tribe ports, towns, and outposts along the way, creeping closer and closer to the Sand Tribe’s original homeland. The Vorox met them on the road and engaged in battle, but something was stirring in the territories of Varoxia; the Fire, Water, and Lightning Tribes had heard about the breach of Varoxia’s borders and saw is as an opportunity. Led by their respective element lords, the conquered tribes of Bara Magna revolted, causing devastating damage that the Vorox warriors could not quell since they were preoccupied with the advancing invasion from Bota Magna. Together, the incursion from outside Varoxia and the revolt from within brought a long and drawn out but thorough end to the empire as it slowly crumbled over months of chaos and warfare. After the collapse of the empire, all six tribes who were responsible sacked Varoxia for weeks. They ravaged the region for food, water, raw materials, weapons, livestock, anything they could get their hands on, and by the time it was over, there was not a single ounce of resources left for the Sand Tribe to use. The other tribes returned to their homelands, and all that the Sand Tribe was left with were empty, destroyed buildings and trashed roads under the scorching desert sun. The empire that devastated half the world had itself been devastated, and the devastation was ruthless and unforgiving.

The Great Beings saw the Sand Tribe at their lowest point and brought them even lower. They abducted every single member of the tribe, Vorox and Zesk alike, and used what little resources they had managed to gather and experimented on the captives in their laboratory, giving them claws, pincers, and tails with long stingers on the ends. The Great Beings claimed this was all done as further punishment for the Sand Tribe’s conquests. To avoid this punishment, the Element Lord of Sand submerged himself beneath the Sea of Liquid Sand, but the Great Beings put a bounty on his head for the other Element Lords to collect; despite this, he was never found. After the experiments, the Vorox and Zesk were put right back where they were taken from and left to fend for themselves.

Many of the Sand Tribe members left the desert and traveled to Bota Magna for a new start. They believed there would be more abundant resources and that they could live peacefully secluded from the other tribes. They went deep into the undergrowth at the heart of the jungle and hid themselves, never being seen again. The rest of the tribe chose to remain in Bara magna, refusing to abandon their original home. They had lived with and even mastered surviving the harsh conditions of the desert before, and they believed they could do it again, no matter what- but this was a different time they were living in. Every other tribe, when seeing the Vorox try to rebuild, would stop them at any opportunity. Their expeditions to gather what few materials and resources they could find were raided, their newly-built structures were destroyed, and any Vorox or Zesk who fought back were swiftly killed. They were repeatedly crippled, never allowed to progress beyond their most primitive state- so that is what they became. Over generations, the Vorox and Zesk of Bara Magna evolved into primal, animalistic forms who acted purely on instinct. Their language turned to screeches and hisses, they walked on all fours, and they ate raw meat and roots. They had gone from the highest power in the world, the mighty Empire of Varoxia, all the way down to undignified, unintelligent beasts who crawled and scrounged for scraps; they were brought from the highest high to the lowest low.

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