Tupii, The Surrogate Queen

Ta’Akaix’Tupii’maxk’rekxak K’lax

The Surrogate Queen

Identified by their scent and exoskeleton color:

Unbound: (RGB 41, 150, 23)

Bound Warriors: (RGB 103, 163, 41)

Bound Workers: (RGB 116, 183, 46)

Bulwarks and Breeders: (RGB 6, 124, 18)

Bound Bulwarks: (RGB 125, 136, 29)

Notable locations: Tret, Uueoa-Esa

Also referred as ‘The Queen-Elect’, Tupii’maxk’rekxak is an anomalous case in Vaurca History, becoming Queen of the original K’lax brood. Due to the lifespan of the Tas, the idea of Queen succession is still fairly novel, as traditionally a brood (or a Hive as a whole) would perish after the Queen does. While both the Zo’ra and K’lax have now chosen a High Queen from the lesser ones to act as a leader, for a different lesser Ta to step in and command a brood is something that Queenless Breeders would have dreamed about, but otherwise never allowed before. The revitalization of the K’lax brood, however, required drastic measures to be taken, and new protocols enacted to ensure their survival in this modern era.

Background

Shortly before the Exodus, a great phoron fire struck the royal chambers of K’lax. Many lives were lost, mostly of Viax servants, but also those of High Queen K’lax and some of her Cephalons, which could not evacuate in time. The great loss meant a huge setback in terms of information, the afterlife and technology. The death of a High Queen in such a tragic way, so close to leaving Sedantis, was kept in secret by her daughters to not cause commotion and to not appear weak in front of the Zo’ra.

The calcined body of K’lax was taken aboard the Kloxa’xia, alongside the lost Cephalons. Great efforts were made at first to somehow recover the burnt data from the neural sockets, but all that information was ultimately deemed lost after reconstruction was futile. Different broods approach the situation differently. Famously, Zkaii has been in full denial of the loss, whereas Vetju has been far more cynical. No official stance has been made and the death of K’lax is mostly a rumor, although with millennia it has become nothing but evident. The election of Zkaii as new High Queen has forced the Hive to somehow acknowledge the loss, though an actual recognition is highly unlikely. Normal Workers and Warriors of the K’lax Hive struggle with her shameful death too, and some believe this is what inspired the Mother Dream religion originally.

It is said that K’lax remained aboard the Kloxa’xia when C’thur took over. However, her corpse is now considered lost after the Lii’dra attacked the Hiveship.

The K’lax Brood

The position of the original K’lax brood in the Hive has been a subject of controversy since the incident, and the treatment of the direct descendants of K’lax has been deemed as unfair by the larger Vaurca community. Perhaps infamously, the K’lax brood are the firmest believers in the vassaldom and are known to be servants to the Zo’ra. Their outdated ideals, as well as the denial of the situation by the Queens, eventually pushed the K’lax brood into despair and oblivion.

Dealings with K’lax brood Tas have been difficult, as the most prominent figures are vocal about their opposition to the Hegemony, believing the Hive should reunite with the Zo’ra and re-establish in Tau Ceti instead. A few have been willing to cooperate with their current situation, however. Ta’Akaix’Tupii’maxk’rekxak K’lax, a surrogate of K’lax and one of her confidantes, decided to step in as a brood representative. The process has been an arduous one, making sure the K’lax brood is revitalized to its past days of glory. In the Court of Queen’s Council of 2463, Tupii was presented as the newest queen of the Hive. Despite her leadership of the K’lax brood, she is not to become the High Queen, but a lesser one.

While Tupii was chosen over other K’lax Breeders because of her public support of the current status quo, her true intentions for the Hive’s future as yet unknown.

The Tupii-K’lax Brood

Some have questioned, however, the preservation of the original brood’s identity. While it is common for a brood to die out after the Queen perishes, the K’lax brood has remained more or less close due to the close-knit relationship with their Tas. Opposition to Tupii has not been met so much inside the brood, despite the differing ideals of some, mostly because of hormones and brood loyalty. Those not fond of Tupii, rather, come from the other K’lax broods, though they recognize her importance in taming a group of K’lax they once considered too rebellious to remain the face of the Hive.

Queen Tupii famously opposed the title, claiming she could not fill in the shoes of Mother K’lax. However, she has now fully embraced it, just as she has surrounded herself with regal parafernalia. In Tret, her royal chambers are considered lavish, matching only the ones reserved to High Queen Zkaii.

One of her first decisions as Queen has been to rapidly increase her Warrior populations, and to accommodate them in various positions the Hegemony has requested Vaurcae for, but that the other Queens have not been able to provide. Traditionally, the numbers of K’laxian Warriors has been limited due to the Zo’ra’s desire to keep them subjugated, however Queen Tupii wishes to overturn this.

Due to the state of the brood before her coronation, the Warrior population had greatly declined. In order to boost their numbers and quickly surpass the Warriors of other broods, Tupii developed a new plan. Instead of training new larvae, the bulk of her Warrior force is composed of Hive War veterans, resleeved into new bodies.

The unorthodox solution has caused some controversy. Traditionally, no deceased Vaurcae are requested to return from the Aether. Nonetheless, the remaining Great Hive War veterans have been willing to cooperate with the new Queen's goal.

Alongside Zkaii, she has been building a new capital in Tret, for which demands of Bulwark labor have been required. Because of the status of the brood, Bulwarks of Tupii are still a rare sight, especially outside Uueoa-Esa. Her Workers, however, continue to excel in everything the K’lax brood was once known for: mainly scientific endeavors and engineering. Unlike Vedhra’s focus in war technology, the Tupii-K’lax Workers may be more interested in telescience or research as a whole, with more practical purposes.

Many of the K’lax brood turned into the Mother Dream to explain to themselves what happened to their leader. Queen Tupii is not enthusiastic of this religion, and new pupae are indoctrinated to the Modern Pantheon faith.

Her Realm

More than two millennia later, the K’lax brood has their own Realm in Virtual Reality again. While the original plan was to recreate that of Mother K’lax, Queen Tupii has instead opted for an experience that can only be described as the birth and death of the universe, with the K’lax Hive as their protagonists. The old motto, ‘The Hive that turned to the stars’, has been revitalized under her reign.

Hidden deep in the supernovas, her virtual residence is a cosmic palace that requires a long arduous pilgrimage for a regular Vaurca to visit. While Queen’s chambers are not often made public in most of the Realms, Tupii has her doors always open for those that have proven themselves by reaching it and accepting her as their new Queen. Depictions of the place are contradictory, with those claiming to know the residence having unique tellings that do not match each other in anything other than Queen Tupii knighting them as Xol’raii’kl’ox (‘Followers of the True Queen’).

Xakat’kl’atan

As a reinvigorated brood, Tupii has yet to announce her own Masters of forms. However, the legendary K’lax Xakat’kl’atan are still venerated masters by their community.

Ka’Akaix’Hhenik K’lax

While the Vaurcaesian technology to travel among the stars wasn't as fast as the Bluespace of the Spur, they still reached impressive speeds in spite of their limitations, largely thanks to the inventions of Hhenik. While it was Queen Vetju's Yix who is credited with the design of the Hiveships, it was Hhenik who was tasked with developing the warp-engines that would carry them through the stars. Since the K'lax arrival in the Spur and the Vaurca species discovery of Bluespace, Hhenik's drive has been reinvigorated; their original belief that what they had developed was the peak of faster-than-light technology dashed. Although Vaurcae are discouraged by galaxy powers from researching and piloting faster-than-light engines on their own, Hhenik seems undiscouraged, and their interest in Bluespace could be seen as problematic for the Hive’s interests. Nevertheless, Hhenik claims that it has no intentions of recreating or proving Bluespace theories, despite their virtual laboratory stating otherwise.

Za’Akaix’Omynx K’lax

Omynx is one of the most firm believers of the K’lax status as vassals to the Zo’ra, and one of the most belligerent Vaurcae to ever have existed. If Omynx was not protected by the Tas that have had to learn how to deal with their new situation under Tupii’s reign, it is likely its memory would have been voided by now. As an act of respect for the Hive politics, however, Omynx publicly congratulated Tupii and accepted her as the new Queen. While Omynx has opposed Unathi rule, its military experience led some other Xakat’kl’atan of different broods to propose it as the strategist behind her plan to expand the Warrior forces —the Warrior limitation being one of the only few things Omynx would dare to criticize about the Zo’ra. It is unlikely it will be chosen, however, as Tupii has found other Masters in the brood that are willing to support her and her goals.

Weavemakers and Notable Subrealms

Queen Tupii has only recently begun to appoint Weavemakers, weighing each one individually. Due to her recent appointment, the majority of her Weavemakers instead come from the original K'lax brood, many of whom are considered experts in the field capable of creating truly compelling experiences. Uniquely, the desperation caused by the death of Mother K'ax led to a phenomenon of Weavemakers abandoning their creations in despair. With the appointment of Queen Tupii, many of these old realms are being rediscovered and re-opened to the general Hive once more.

Sedantis Phrontistery

The simply named Reka'Phalkon, or "Sedantis Phrontistery," is one of the few remaining places where Great Hive War veterans pass on their knowledge to the next generations, which, aside from typical Warrior training, is notable for teaching mostly forgotten combat arts such as spelunking. It was designed long ago by Za'Akaix'Rei K'lax, a decorated Warrior of the Hive War, who remains in charge to this day. Rei believes that whilst these techniques may have fewer applications now than they once did, the principles are applicable across all types of combat. There would seem to be some truth in this, with Vaurca actively working to adapt some of the concepts behind spelunking into the Spur in the form of extensive EVA combat training and unique ship boarding techniques that have seen some success.

While the Phrontistery offers its knowledge to all K'lax Warriors that seek it, it has recently seen use as the primary training facility for Queen Tupii's revisitation of her brood, with the same Hive War veterans that run the Phrontistery using it as a location to polish long-forgotten skills. The building itself typically appears not unlike an ancient fortress on Sedantis, merging multiple locational styles together.

Infinity Complex

Infinity Complex, otherwise known as Icak'Rapa, is a realm designed by Za'Akaix'Opo K'lax, accepting players from all Hives. Participants in the trial are given a random assortment of weaponry and then tasked with clearing floors of enemies in ever-changing environments such as starship interiors, megacorporate skyscrapers, winding tunnels in Sedantis, and even space debris fields manoeuvring between asteroid outposts. The goal is to clear as many floors as one can, with every ten leading to a new environment until the eventual player’s death.

Warriors can earn a lot of prestige by finishing in the top three in the weekly and monthly scoring modes, and material awards are not unheard of. Some have criticised the elements of randomization, which, while less prevalent in the competitive scene, are still present. One notable example is that the highest ranking participant for the month entered a level and was only given a partially broken sword, whilst the second highest obtained a Zo'rane energy blaster, seeing the first be dethroned with ease. Opo has defended this by stating that Infinity Complex is never impossible, and being given a seemingly unfair hand is simply a reason to adjust and learn.