The Scalefolk of Caliban

Past the Tombworld of Mars, hiding in the Asteroid Belt, lies the minor planet Caliban. Largely undisturbed due to the shelter of the Belt and the ferocity of the locals and wildlife, it is a Paradise World of soaring cliffs and lush forests, warm oceans and balmy shores. If anything could be said to be the 'home' of Jörmungandr Typhonius, Midgard Serpent and Master of the Belt, it is Caliban, for here live his beloved wife, Echidna Typhonius née Nuwa the Scale Queen, their beautiful daughters the Scale Maidens, and their hardy sons the Scale Men.

While Jörmungandr rules, roams, and protects the vast Asteroid Belt, his wife tends to the affairs of Caliban from within Hive Fortress Xanadu, delved into the rock of Caliban's mountainous equator. Scattered across the planet are the Principalities of the matured Scale Maidens, through whom she maintains good order and discipline as the industrious Scale Men go about their work tending the the continent spanning gardens and managing the populations of fierce wildlife. Such mega-agriculture and conservation is required to sate the hunger of Jörmungandr. Thus is Caliban, the Walled Garden and Jewel of the Belt, maintained.

King and Queen Typhonius (Caliban to scale with Jormungandr only)

One of many entrances to Xanadu

While the Queen Mother remains in her fortress guarding her many eggs and children, her grown daughters, the Scale Maidens, extend her law and order to the far reaches of the planet. Hatched of the rare Royal Clutch, the Scale Maidens vary greatly from one another, each possessing the traits and strengths of a different reptile species. The similarity to Earth reptiles is striking, and some hypothesize that Scalefolk once inhabited prelapsarian Earth, and diminished to dumb animals after the Fall of their Father. Common to all are minor psychic powers that grant them command of the drone-like Scale Men. So also are they all of a curious temperament, for out of a Royal Clutch, perhaps only one will eventually be wedded to a young Midgard Serpent from another system and raise children of her own, while the rest will live out their lives as commanders of warrior-farmers. They are thus both warlike and sweet, fierce but nurturing, stoically resolved to meet whatever fate awaits them.

Princess Molly, the Blood-Eye

Princess Rhyna, the Salt-Crowned

Saboteur Princess Tigra

Princess Chariss, the Cloudglider

Rarer still than the normal Royal Clutch is that which contains the egg of a new Midgard Serpent. Once raised in the arts of etiquette, courtship, war, and rule, the young scion of Jörmungandr will journey forth into the galaxy to find another Scalefolk world, wed a Scale Maiden thereof, and train further to inherit that world and circumstellar disk under the tutelage of his new father-in-law.

From the many other clutches laid by Echidna hatch the hunter-gardener Scale Men. Though called such by Dog Chroniclers for their masculine demeanor and stronger resemblance to their father, the Scale Men are sexless drones, built for hard labor and hazardous environments. While not lacking free will, their greatest ambition is a hard job done well, and they rely heavily on the telepathic guidance and order of the Scalefolk Royalty for broad direction and governance. By externalizing higher-level thinking into the Scale Maidens, the Scale Men are able to focus their energies into honing their fieldcraft and going about their labors with vigor. Unconcerned with aught but their work, Scale Men hold a sanguine outlook on life.

Scalefolk Berserker. Mauler Fists are good for punching and digging!

Scalefolk Royal Guard as sketched by Inquisitor Fats Gregory

More sketches from Fats Gregory's field book.

The Machine Dominions

"Tubalcain, an instructor of every artificer in brass iron."
-Genesis 4:22

“Of him all evil broods were born, ogres and goblins and haunting shapes of hell, and the giants too, that long time warred with God – for that he gave them their reward.”

-Beowulf 89-92

The Machine God

Borne away in safety from The Deluge by Princes of the Middle Air to the iron world he would name Cain Prime, Tubalcain, known to many only as the Machine God, is chief among the Enemies Without. Across the millennia he has built his strength in secret to encompass his one aim: the return to his birthworld and the conquest of his birthright, Eden. As his natural form withered with time, he enthroned himself within the Iron Sepulchre above the vast Charnel Gate of the Tower of Silence. Here his hate-gnawed mind looks forth upon the galaxy, returning its malignant gaze always to the shining jewel of Earth. Through the Tower's maw passes the endless parade of the Flesh Tithe, a macabre procession of victims from across the stars fed to the tower to sustain the Machine God's 

life.

The Iron Sepulchre

The Flesh Tithe enters the Tower of Silence

Father of forgers, Tubalcain exerts his will upon the galaxy through his vast armies of cunningly wrought machines.

Zeroes

Praetor: Barzelcain/Eisenkaiser

Homeworld: Grendel

The firstborn of Tubalcain, created for companionship and labor on Cain Prime. Named Zeroes by the Dogs as they were the first type of Machine encountered by them. The earliest of Tubalcain's work, they possess rudimentary personalities varying from the savage and servile yet gregarious footsoldiers and laborers to the barbaric yet noble knights and warchiefs that command them. Built on a modular pattern, Zeroes are endlessly customizable, making them excellent forces for garrisoning the ever shifting edge of the empire. They favor cheap but effective weapons such as chainglaives and hardlight technologies such as prismatic lances. Higher echelon units have been known to tinker with more experimental wargear, such as the dreaded Hundschrecken or mysterious Gestaltlance. Their Praetor, Barzelcain, dubbed by the dogs 00 and Eisenkaiser, was Tubalcain's first son of iron, and regular tinkering by his creator has given him personality, cunning, and abilities far in excess of his younger brothers. He rules over the planet Grendel, where his foundry fortress delves deep into and soars above the sole landmass of the planet, a lone iron island on a writhing sea of titanic leviathans and behemoths, the monstrous get of Cain.

Hunters

Praetor: Huntmaster

Homeworld: Nimrod

Forged by the Machine God to hunt down his hardiest enemies, from uncooperative vassal governors to wild monsters run amok, Hunters are the most varied of Tubalcain's sons. Possessing distinct personalities and minds, Hunter cores inhabit purpose built bodies, bristling with exotic weapons and variegated means of locomotion. Though designated using the arcane yet standardized serialization system of the Machine Dominions, after a successful, or at least survivable first hunt, new Hunters are christened with a callsign by their peers upon their return to the Giantkiller's Lodge. Part workshop, part museum of galactic natural history, and stomping ground of Hunters between assignments, the Giantkiller's Lodge is the only blot of Machine Civilization on the pristine paradise world of Nimrod. Here Huntmaster holds court. Left to his own devices when not on assignment, he oversees the Corps of Hunters and manages the ecosystem of Nimrod's gargantuan flora and fauna, at the pointy end whenever he can. Caring little of conquest and war, Huntmaster would have broken ties with his father eons ago, were he not enticed by the opportunities presented by a lodging on Earth: a chance to hunt the Leviathan and the Behemoth, not the echoes and shadows ruled by his master.

Reapers

Praetor: Lord Carnifex, the Fleshthresher

Homeworld: Cain Prime

Soulless, ruthless, merciless, feared even by their fellow Machines are the Reapers of Cain Prime. Directed by their Lord Carnifex from the Tower of Silence itself, they have but one purpose: Flesh for the Flesh Tithe. Let the Zeroes fight and conquer on the battlefield, the Hunters slay their mark, Reapers live only to feed their dark god. Though oft employed as terror troops due to their dread presence, they might just as easily be seen raiding a tight-pursed vassal world. Wherever you see them, they will not rest until every last penny is paid.

Witches

Praetor: The Weird Engine (Hecate, Medea, Circe)

Homeworld: Endor

After conquering Endor, Planet of the Witches, the Machine God learned of the sorcerers' Devil Engine technology, and promptly exploited it for his own armies. Driven not by a mind of cogs and heart of sparks, but a trapped spirit, Devil Engines are cunning and resourceful in ways matched only by Praetors, Hunters, and high ranking Zeroes, all of whom share an existential dread of the cursed devices. The more powerful spirits can even work spells, enchantments, and sorceries with their steel bodies. The spirits of sacrificed familiars, minor devils, and damned souls drive the bulk of the Deviltry, but the background static of Machine communications whispers of Hell Engines, driven by Princes of the Middle Air themselves. Furthermore, even the meanest ghost confers strange regenerative powers on its engine, making them impossible to kill unless one can destroy the core tying the spirit to the machine, or exorcise the pilot spirit.

Orbiting Endor is the moon of Nimue, her surface a blasted wasteland, doubtless the consequence of some occult holocaust. Her core, however, is a worm-eaten maze of tunnels between great chambers where the witches keep their supply sacrificial victims imprisoned. Patrolling the tunnels are the witchworms, great serpentine devil engines, whose single glowing eye is a ruby encasing the corpse of the familiar powering it.

This hellish system is ruled over from Cruach Keep, wherein dwells the Weird Engine. Thrice possessed by the Weird Sisters: Hecate, Medea, and Circe, it is the most powerful Devil Engine on the planet. Nothing is known of its shape or size, few have ever glimpsed it, yet the cryptic and profane utterances that steal from the keep are interpreted by the many high-ranking astrologers, magi, alchemists, and sorcerers in various and contradictory ways, resulting in a steady state of bureaucratic anarchy that mockingly resembles a government.

Flesh Apostates

Praetor: The Flensed Exarch

Homeworld: Eridani

Once fanatical Zeroes and Hunters, the Flesh Apostates are now a canker on the Machine Dominions. Not actively disloyal to the Machine God, and eager to conquer new worlds, the Flesh Apostates draw their name from their refusal to pay the Flesh Tithe to Cain Prime. If flesh strengthens the Machine God, greatest of all Machines, why should it not strengthen his servants as well? Devoted to improvement and self-perfection, the Flesh Apostates continuously incorporate the organic matter of conquered worlds into their bodies, melding flesh and steel into blasphemous mannikins. Better to be taken by Reapers, some worlds say. Hailing from Eridani, they control a handful of planets from which they harvest and experiment. Ruling from the Cathedral of Chimera on Eridani, the Flesh Apostate's agendas and experiments are directed by the Flensed Exarch, a charismatic yet nightmarish figure of metal and bare sinew. Once clad in radiant skin of living metal, the Exarch's hide now girds the loins of Lord Carnifex, who made an example of the Exarch for his treachery, yet was driven off by a great mob before he could deal the executioner's blow. He has ordered that no Hunter may claim the head of the Exarch, he alone will wait until the time is right to strike, in what is perhaps the only time a Reaper has shown a glimpse of steely humanity.