A Khazard'Vaari phylactery ship, guarded by many smaller vessels.
"How the hell are we supposed to fight against that?!"
"We pray to whatever God is out there that we never have to battle them. THAT is how."
~ Lieutenant Vsevolod Berdan and General Elena Trotskaya.
Introduction
The Khazard'Vaari (singular: Khazard'Vaar) are an ancient species of transcendent cybernetic beings, having roamed the universe for an unknown period of time before humans and other sentient species did so. They are the creators of the archaelects, the Empyreals and the first wielders of psionics, with the few survivors being some of the most powerful psykers in existence.
The word 'Khazard'Vaar' in their language translates to 'those who embrace the machine', referring to their immortalisation as a result of advanced mind-transfer techniques.
History
The origins and early history of the Khazard'Vaari are unknown, though they are much older than almost every other sentient species in the galaxy, with the possible exception of the race responsible for the creation of Comet Ituyle. It is known, however, that they are a species that seeks infinite knowledge and perfection. This scientific quest led them to construct mechanised, immortal bodies for themselves and to develop technological necromancy, their progress reaching its apex with the creation of the 'phylactery ships' that granted the elite of Khazard'Vaari society almost godlike psionic power.
At some point before the evolution of humanity, the most powerful of the Khazard'Vaari, the Machine King Vaar'madr, disappeared, plunging the species' once-great empire into total disarray as factions began to compete with each other for leadership. For millennia, the inactive phylactery ship occupied by Vaar'madr would drift lifelessly through space unbeknownst to his warring subjects before he crash-landed on Earth in 1907.
Relevance to the narrative
Though Vaar'madr was all but destroyed after he attempted to enslave humanity and his omnipotent technology scavenged for their own use, many attempts were made by lone Khazard'Vaari to hunt for the missing Vaar'madr, with several coming extremely close to locating it. The cyberlich Qh'naaz even pinpointed the exact location where Vaar'madr crash-landed and where his successor, an 'Optimised Transcendence Acceleration Nexus', was built, but his departure from Earth was cut short when he was struck and disabled by a Soviet nuclear warhead in 2013, crash-landing close to Chelyabinsk.
Though he lost the necessary coordinates when his phylactery ship was broken apart in the crash, Qh'naaz successfully eluded the human soldiers sent to capture him and managed to escape to North America. He hid in the Rocky Mountains for 65 more years before he was discovered in 2078 by Jedidiah Rogers, who was seeking passage across the Pacific Ocean to lead his people to safety. The lich agreed to assist him and even granted him powerful psionic abilities of his own, on the condition that he help him locate and retrieve his ship's missing navigation computer. They only learned in 2134 that the computer had been salvaged and destroyed by OTAN, but they did discover that the archaelect had used its old body to father a human child, Elena Trotskaya.
In 2135, another cyberlich, Yah'thuzol, arrived in the Sol system, briefly skirmishing with OTAN on the system's outskirts before being forced to retreat after facing imminent destruction. He did, however, succeed in making contact with Qh'naaz, who in turn introduced him to Rogers. It was Yah'thuzol who suggested the kidnap of Trotskaya in order to bait OTAN into reckless action, beating it in open battle, and claiming the immense power and knowledge of Vaar'madr for himself and Qh'naaz. However, Yah'thuzol was unable to approach Earth directly and Qh'naaz unable to leave it, otherwise they would attract the unwanted attention of OTAN as well as the other archaelect present and be destroyed. They thus elected to use Rogers as a pawn until he was slain by Trotskaya in 2152, much to both of their great surprise.
Main Canon
After the fall of Pandemonium, the blue vizier, C'shaanj, spent the next 23 years searching the galaxy for Vaar'madr with his band of loyalists. Knowing that the vizier would lend his assistance should it be requested, OTAN concealed a secret message in the Golden Record sent aboard the Voyager spacecraft for him to find. However, Voyager was intercepted by a Utannic fleet commanded by Yuga Valeris. Learning of the presence of the two archaelects guarding Earth, Valeris launched an all-out invasion of Sol in order to claim their power herself and use it in the Infinity War. Though Valeris never came even close to defeating the human race, having been outfought and outsmarted by Frenkish Empress McKenzy Tandi on every level, General Vaasi Idris, House Valeris' finest ground commander, nearly seized the OTAN Complex and subjugated the archaelect housed within for himself. However, he was defeated and killed by Trotskaya and Golovkin after a ferocious battle.
The Complex would be attacked a second time by (insert Nexus commander here – Kaleb? Apollyon?) during the Nexonic Global Crusade, this time the enemy forces actually succeeding in occupying it. Only at the very last second was the Nexus stopped from taking over the archaelect by the intervention of Trotskaya and the sudden arrival of C'shaanj's band. Though Trotskaya was mortally wounded in the resulting ferocious battle, OTAN used the last fragment of its consciousness to save her life and transfer all of its psionic power to her, fulfilling her destiny to inherit the might of Vaar'madr and take her father's place as stewardess of the Mechanocratic Vision before he was finally destroyed. C'shaanj and the rest of the Khazard'Vaari immediately pledged their fealty to Trotskaya, referring to her as Yog'vaar'madr – the Masterpiece of the Machine King – before they together drove Nexonic forces out of the Mechanocracy and, with the invaluable assistance of the Frenkish Empire and the Commonwealth, ultimately the solar system.
Altcanon
Through Rogers, Yah'thuzol and Qh'naaz also learned of Alain's quest of personal revenge against Victor Golovkin, Trotskaya's second-in-command and lover. Qh'naaz suggested manipulating the Judicator's plot to both his and Yah'thuzol's advantage, recruiting the assistance of Tz'shir'nagul, a prominent member of the Empyreal Devastator caste, to further their plot to bait Trotskaya away from the safety of the archaelects. (wip)
Culture
A lone Khazard'Vaar cyberlich outside of his phylactery ship.
The Khazard'Vaari are actually a largely peaceful race, preferring to be left alone in isolation to embark upon their scientific pursuits rather than waging war with a xeno species that it considers so lesser than themselves that they are not even worth fighting. They are not, however, above manipulating them for their own ends, sometimes guiding entire civilisations along the lines that they set in order to obtain the knowledge that they seek. When said civilisation has expended its usefulness to them, they typically either obliterate or assimilate it, depending on how much of a threat that said civilisation is perceived to be.
Only after the establishment of the Mechanocracy of Mankind does the Khazard'Vaari civilisation adopt a truly-warlike nature as some of the most faithful servants of Supreme Leader Elena Trotskaya. For instance, they played an instrumental role in the Schism War and numerous conflicts between the Mechanocracy and the Autem Galacticus Nexum. Their role was most notable when the cyberlich Thaan'kor opened a portal directly from Vyyrahk to Earth, thus allowing Trotskaya to assault the very heart of the Pan-Terran Imperium with a gigantic invasion fleet – a battle that was only lost because she destroyed Earth in a terrible outburst of rage upon learning of the defection of her son, Evgeniy.
The ultimate motivation behind the Khazard'Vaar species' constant knowledge and power-seeking is their own pursuit of the perfect being, to elevate themselves as a race of infinitely-powerful machine gods.
Trivia
- The Khazard'Vaari are heavily inspired by the Reapers from the Mass Effect franchise, as well as incorporating elements of the Necrons from Warhammer 40,000.