Xakt, Queen of Corpses

Ta’Akaix’Xakt’yagz’isk Zo’ra

Queen of Corpses

Identified by their scent and exoskeleton color:

Unbound: (RGB 91, 31, 0)

Bound Warriors: (RGB 121, 71, 0)

Bound Workers: (RGB 81, 21, 0)

Bulwarks and Breeders: (RGB 81, 35, 10)

Bound Bulwarks: (RGB 73, 29, 5)

Notable locations: Luthien, Tau Ceti

Placed upon the desert planet of Luthien, Xakt’yagz’isk’s brood has quickly monopolized the planet’s cheap labor workforce. Xakt'yagz'isk originally oversaw all matters concerning tech and tech implants aboard the Hiveship. She also supervised Reclamation, the process of reclaiming the implants of dead Vaurca, making many Zo’ra associate her with death.

Xakt herself is uncharacteristically distant, often too busy or wrapped up in her own projects to care about what the rest of the galaxy is doing. Her current focus has been ramping up industrial capabilities for Luthien and pouring over ancient schematics and technical data from Titan Prime. She sees the overall suffering of Unbound Zo’ra throughout Tau Ceti as distractions from the primary goal of fixing the Hiveship. Her efforts in this are not in vain, and over the years has made measurable progress in repairing the damaged Titan. To her, the events of the last few years were a failure of planning, one that must be fixed quickly if the Hive is to succeed. The Unbound of her brood largely share this approach and rarely attempt to make personal attachments to any of the alien inhabitants of Tau Ceti. This thinking is exacerbated further by the knowledge of mother Zo’ra’s death. To Xakt, they are the last of their kind, and she cannot suffer the unknowable intentions of humans to decide the fate of Zo’ra.

Xakt’yagz’isk was the first Lesser Queen of the Zo’ra to denounce K’lax independence. She knows better than any Zo’ra alive the nature of K’laxian innovation and why they were worthy to be vassalized in the first place.

Her Realm

Xakt’s VR is scarce at first glance compared to all other Zo’ra Queens. The few Unbound here inhabit a blank slate, a type of physics and engineering program that models reality to exactness. Here, ancient and new technologies are built, virtually. Complex mechanisms and constructions are laid out in organized grids, littering the featureless void with countless engineering projects. Each a ‘working’ solution to the overall problems that the Zo’ra face. Xakt’yagz’isk rarely manifests herself here, with the few notable times when a Zo’ra claims to have built something ‘K’lax-like.’

Her Brood

Upon Luthien itself, her brood has thrived, creating massive k’ois fields that pose little risk to their surroundings. The fungus burrows into the silt-like sand of the desert, and finds little purchase, but grows all the same. The sands make it harder for the plant to grow uncontrollably, allowing large-scale cultivation. Armies of Bound Workers work tirelessly in the sweltering heat of the blooming desert, exporting tons of k’ois throughout the system.

Both Unbound Workers and Warriors also find work with several exotic florae, or weapons testing labs scattered throughout the planet, respectively. Others may field massive scrap yards, full of debris from across the galaxy, searching for exotic tech that may catch the Queens’ eyes. They are also known to cooperate with the human outposts at Luthien, and have prevented recent mycosis outbreaks, as well as developing newer methods to prevent the spores from quickly adhering to the human lungs.

The single largest employer of Vaurcae, however, would be the Getmore Corporation, who source their refined k’ois products here. The massive plantations that cover the desert sands of Luthien are dwarfed only by the processing plants themselves. Since landing, Xakt’yagz’isk, with support from her Getmore suppliers, has created several Uta’ka’yat or ‘All-Factories’. According to Vaurca claims, these All-Factories can fabricate any complex or simple part using revolutionary mass production techniques and are limited only by their size.

Many of the Bulwarks have found a place in the All-Factories, as they can speed up the process. However, those that are not posted in Luthien usually will take miner or botanist jobs, as their training may be directed towards the acquisition of raw materials and goods.

Xakat’kl’atan

With her large Bound numbers, Xakat’kl’atan are scarce among her brood. However, a few remain relevant today.

Ka’Akaix’Rytzk Zo’ra

Ka’Akaix’Rytzk Zo’ra was the mind behind many ergonomic implants used by Vaurca today. Often regarded as the forefather of the modern Hivenet implant, it is said that Rytzk also developed the prototypes for many of the modifications that have become quintessential for the modern Vaurca.

Many seek to learn from Rytzk and master the natural and ingenious methods of implementing technology into the regular Unbound while retaining their signature versatility, as well as perfecting the Bound parts so their maintenance costs become cheaper. Its current research has led it to innovate the storage capacities of the Cephalon, if their current storage ever becomes insufficient.

Za’Akaix’Cimm Zo’ra

The Vaurca responsible for a number of the more practical vehicles employed by all Vaurca hives. Known to some human historians as the Vaurca Nikola Tesla, Cimm battled Yix of K’lax when the challenge came to designing the first hiveships. Ultimately losing, Cimm faded from inter-hive prominence before dying under mysterious circumstances just before the Hiveships were first launched.

Cimm became a master of ideal forms while alive, and is credited for the creation of nearly all practical designs of earthmovers as well shuttlecraft and larger dropships. It is particularly famous throughout the hives for the creation of Da’loks, a one-wheeled vehicle that maintains a personal gravity field around itself. This allows the Da’lok to travel across land and sea with little difficulty and is employed by Vaurcae to this day as a personal and commercial transport in their colonized worlds. Cimm is infamous among the Zo’ra Hive for its sour disposition, yet this does not stop new Vaurcae from seeking tutelage under it.

Weavemakers and Notable Subrealms

Placing scarce little value on entertainment, Queen Xakt has few Weavemakers appointed, and those that she does have focus instead on realms that help her practical activities. Members of her Unbound searching for entertainment typically do so by going to another Queen's realm.

Titan Prime

Titan Prime, like the real Zo'rane Hiveship, also goes by Klo'xryek. It is a near-exact replica of the gargantuan vessel before it left Sedantis on the great Exodus. It was "designed" by Ka'Akaix'Yrt Zo'ra with instruction from Queen Xakt, using teams of Bound to map out areas on the real ship with specialist tools and then recreate them with as much accuracy as possible in Virtual Reality.

The brood uses this model to assist in their repairs of the vessel, ensuring they match it as close to the original designs of Ka’Akaix’Yix K’lax as possible. Yix is even rumoured to have personally contributed to the project, but this remains unconfirmed. Visitors from Zo’ra Hive and beyond are welcome but often receive a cold reception from Xakt's brood, who regard their work as more important than mere nostalgia or virtual tourism.

Resurrection

One of the few subrealms that can be seen within the niche of entertainment for Xakt Unbound, Resurrection, also known as Ghe’myk, is an experience where participants attempt to give an artificial second life to reclaimed corpses. The creator of this subrealm remains unknown, as it is regarded as a collaborative project by Xakt scientists. Because the Frankensteinian revived Vaurcae decay much as in real life, the Unbound of the brood have seized the simulation to further experiment with the conservation of organic matter.

Recent Events

The beneficial partnership with Getmore has pushed Xakt to strike a deal to produce the Zo’ra Soda branch, which has become famous all across the galaxy. The brand has proven successful enough that even the other Hives have attempted to produce their own versions, with the few K’laxian and C’thuric flavors being popular mostly locally. While Xakt herself sees the cooperation with Getmore as only a means to acquire capital and fulfill the needs of her Hive, her sisters have pushed her to continue the partnership.