| Quartex | |
| Astrographical information | |
|---|---|
| Sun(s) |
1 |
| Moon(s) |
1 |
| Physical description | |
| Diameter |
10,741 km |
| Atmosphere |
Standard (Breathable) |
| Climate |
Dry |
| Primary terrain |
Mixed mountainous and desert |
| Surface water |
Minimal |
| Points of interest |
Stonehead |
| Societal information | |
| Population |
Rock Lords |
| Major cities |
Fossil Kingdom |
| Major imports |
None |
| Major exports |
None |
| Affiliation |
None |
- "Know, O Rock Lord, that between the years when the sea of fire drank Chthonix and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Stonehead, there was an Age undreamed of"
- —The Quartex chronicles
The planet Quartex was originally a Cybertronian colony, established during the Dynasty of the Primes. While it survived the war that bought down the Dynasty, it was in turn subject to its own disasters that would sever it and its inhabitants from their homeworlds. Today it is inhabited by the descendants of those colonists who refer to themselves as Rock Lords.
History[]
Quartex was first settled during the great colonisation period of the Dynasty of the Primes. Initial exploration suggested a planet lacking in sentient life but rich in mineral wealth that would be ideally suited for mining and cyber-forming into a colony. Scientific interest was also garnered from its unique, silicone-based ecosystem. However, its distance from Cybertron, one of the furthest worlds chartered to date, meant that it was low on the priority list for settlement. None the less, it did attract interest, although not in the ways originally intended.
A group of Cybetronians saw Quartex as an opportunity to start a completely new and different civilisation. Rather than follow the Cybertronian philosophy of transforming worlds into the likeness of their home, they wanted to create a new way of life that would do its best to coexist with the natural world. Quartex was seen as an ideal testing ground for their ideas, both due to its remoteness and its rugged environment that was seen as being a stepping-stone between Cybertron and ‘organic’ worlds with carbon-based ecosystems.
Doing their best to understate their mission and claiming that they wished to establish a scientific colony, the colonists’ mission was approved. They set out from Cybertron in the Titan Chthonix during what would become one of the last waves of colonisation. After an uneventful journey, the colonists arrived on their world and set about building their new home, eager to forge new lives and new futures.
Rather than engaging in large-scale Cyberforming, the Quardax colonists built their cities in harmony with nature. They built around and incorporated natural features, treating them as objects of beauty to be treasured and preserved. Their cities were built to open plans, and included nature reserves and wildlife corridors for native creatures, such as Rock Narlies, to use as to minimise the impact on their lives. The colonists deliberately avoided the creation of heavy industry, limiting themselves only to the technologies they needed to survive and sustain themselves.
For a while, Quartex thrived as its people did their best to cut themselves off from Cybetronian civilisation. While not isolationist by any means, its people also cared little for their homeworld and its other colonies, rather being more interested in exploring their rugged new home and its many wonders. Even then, there were a few radicals who called for a complete severing of contact with Cybertron. And while some wished to go so far as sending Chthonix away, they also knew that they depended on it for their source of new Sparks.
This isolationism would come back to haunt them as they remained unaware of the growing rift within Cybertronian society. While they heard the rise of the Fallen’s Legions through second-hand reports and then of the subsequent war, there were many who felt that they should not get involved in the war. Many felt that it was a Cybertron matter, and that they would be best served by riding the conflict out rather than getting involved in a war that may destroy their new home.
However, the Fallen’s legions had other plans. Seeking to prevent Quartex from joining the war, they launched a lighting raid on the planet. The attack crippled Chthonix, leaving it unable to assume its spacebound form while also killing their only City Speaker, essentially marooning the people of Quartex on their planet. Secondary attacks destroyed what little industry they had, preventing them from repairing the Titan.
With the destruction of interstellar travel, the people of Quartex only had the vaguest idea that the war had ended and the collapse of the Dynasty (and Cybertronian civilisation). However, they soon found that they had their own problems to deal with. A massive, unexpected solar flare struck the planet, wiping out the population of Roughex, one of their largest cities. Investigation of the disaster revealed several more alarming facts.
Most worryingly, the solar flare was not a one-off event. Rather, Quartex’s sun was entering a period of intense solar activity that would likely last decades. Furthermore, during this time, it would likely scorch the entire planet, wiping out all Cybetronian life. With Chthonix crippled and no shipbuilding capabilities of their own, the population seemed doomed. However, there was one other surprise in store. Investigation of Roughex found that the native life-forms were completely unaffected by the solar flares with their silicone-based biology able to easily shrug them off.
Facing the very real threat of complete annihilation, a group of scientists proposed a radical solution to save their people. They developed a virus that would alter the outer skin of Cybertonians, transforming it into a rocky crust akin to that of the native life-forms. It was hoped that this transformation would in turn allow them to survive the oncoming storms and then emerge and rebuild. Desperate for a solution, the planetary leaders approved the plan.
While they saw this plan as their escape from disaster, it would instead unleash an entirely different cataclysm upon the population. An accident saw an early, virulent and concentrated version of the virus released into the atmosphere, quickly spreading planetwide. Far more powerful then the intended final product, this version altered the entire structure of the infected Cybertronians, completely transforming them into stone. Many simply went entirely into Stasis Lock as a result, while those that survived lost much of their memory due to the massive trauma to their neural networks. Even Chthonix did not escape unharmed; the virus coated it in a rock sheath, effectively immobilising it.
Before the surviving population could begin to recover, the solar storms struck Quartex far earlier than predicted, scorching the world. The Cybertronian cities that had survived the first disaster were destroyed in the cataclysm, leaving behind only rubble of their prior civilisation. As expected, the local life forms survived unscathed, as did the now transformed Cybertronians, who were unharmed by what had occurred around them.
What emerged form the rubble was a new order, one with no ties at all to its past. With no knowledge of their history, no clues to their origins and a scant few relics to connect them to their past, the surviving Cybetronians quickly devolved into a primitive culture, divided into tribes of survivors. While at first their greatest enemies were the planet’s aggressive wildlife (that they could no longer control with advanced weapons or other technology), these tribes would eventually come into contact with each other.
What resulted was an endless cycle of wars between different groups, creating a culture of barbarism and savagery. The new order was dominated by the rulers of these tribes, who came to call themselves Rock Lords. Their societies were built on strength and force of arms, driven by a ‘might makes right’ mindset that saw conflict as the only way to resolve disputes. Conquest was a way of life in which stronger tribes preyed on the weaker ones, bringing them together through force.
Eventually, this would result in a stability of sorts as proto-states emerged from these warring groups. Cities would rise up as populations accumulated, leading to bursts of science and learning as knowledge was pooled and shared. However, those same cities would also become targets, bought down in wars with each other or with those barbarous tribes that still made up much of the population.
For ages now, Quartex has been locked in this ongoing cycle of war, renewal and destruction as its people continue to fight among themselves. Over the years, numerous civilisations have risen and fallen across its surface as the battles of the Rock Lords have shaped the world. This has resulted in a stasis of sorts, where the planet and its people will undergo fits and bursts of growth and advancement, only to then collapse back in on themselves.
In recent years, a new order had begun to emerge. Magmar, a powerful warlord, has been growing in strength through conquest of other tribes. Rather than attempting to build cities or harness his lands, however, he has instead run a campaign of conquest and destruction, aimed at unifying Quartex under his rule through force. Those tribes that he has conquered have been forced into his ranks or simply destroyed. Conversely, the cities that he has captured have been raised, leaving nothing of rubble behind.
Description[]
Quartex is a mid-sized terrestrial world, orbiting an unusually unstable main-sequence yellow sun. The world itself has almost no surface water, instead being dominated by a massive supercontinent that is divided up into a number of smaller tectonic plates. In place of rivers and oceans, large seas of molten lava cover portions of its surface, the products of the constant volcanic activity that is one of the world’s defining characteristics. The planet is rich in mineral resources including rare elements and a number of unusual ores that occur nowhere else.
The planet is one of somewhat dramatic landscapes; harsh, jagged mountains, massive canyons, expansive rocky deserts, crystal forests and so forth. As mentioned above, the planet is very geologically active, with earthquakes and volcanic eruptions being commonplace. The result is a constantly shifting landscape, subject to sudden change. Added to this, the planet is subject to periodic bombardments by intense solar storms; while these have very little effect on the native life, they are destructive to advanced technology and deadly to native life forms.
Native Life[]
Unlike many other planets that have carbon-based life forms, all native life on Quartex is silicone based. This trait occurs at every level from the simplest single-celled organisms to the planet’s native massive predators. A good example would be the crystal outcroppings and formations that occur across its surface. These are in fact the native analogues to plant life, and serve similar functions in the planets life cycles.
Two particular native life forms stand out. Rock Narlies is the collective name for a number of different species that are a part of the same extended family, and occupy a number of different ecological niches. The Narlifant, for example, is a herding, grazing animal that eats mineral rich rock and crystal formations. Conversely, the Narlizard is an aggressive predator that preys upon smaller Narlie species. A number of different types of Narlie have been tamed by the Rock Lords for various uses, such as hunting or guard animals.
Far more dangerous are the massive Rockosaurs. These huge creatures roam the landscape and are the planet’s top predators. Overly aggressive and towering over even the mightiest of Rock Lords, the Rockosaurs devour anything that gets in their way. Their advanced physiology allows them to break down even the most complicated of silicone-based organisms, including the Rock Lords themselves. Rockosaurs have been a major impediment to the development to civilization on Quartex, with rampaging creatures known to flatten cities in order to feast.
While it does feature a breathable nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, the unusual processes that dominate the planet’s life cycles makes long-term habitation by carbon-based lifeforms nearly impossible.
Inhabitants[]
The inhabitants of Quartex are known as the Rock Lords (and sometimes referred to as being Go-Lems). They share the same basic form as their Cybertronnian ancestors, being typically bipedal humanoids who are composed of the same living rock as the other life forms on the planet. As discussed above, the Rock Lords are not natives to the planet, but rather are a lost colony of Cybertronians who adapted themselves to the planet’s unique environment. Due to a series of events, they have no records of their past and believe themselves to be natives of the planet.
The incidents that shaped the Rock Lords rendered their physiologies completely different from those of Cybertronians. The Rock Lords are silicone based life forms, made up of various minerals in organic structures. The Rock Lords do share one trait with their Cybertronian ancestors, however, being the ability to transform between different forms. The typical Rock Lord has two modes; a humanoid form, typically about three to ten meters tall, and a rock form. These alternate forms accord them greater protection, but have limited mobility. Otherwise, no traces of their prior mechanical nature exist.
There is one other similarity of note, however. Rock Lords possess sparks, which form the core of the bodies and animates them. New Rock Lords are ‘born’ from the planet’s lava flows, emerging fully formed from them on their shores. Upon emerging, they rapidly cool and shape themselves into their final forms. While the source of these new Sparks is unclear, it is believed that there are deep subterranean sparkwells that are in turn connected to Stonehead.
The Rock Lords lack any large-scale nation-states. Instead, most of their population live in tribal groups, often nomadic in nature. Sometimes these groups will come together in large bands, usually controlled by a single powerful individual; however, such accumulations rarely outlive their leaders. While many groups will settle in a single place over time, such are usually only relatively temporary settlements that do not really move beyond war camps. More rarely a group will create a more permanent settlement that may grow into a city state.
From the air, there is very little indication of intelligent life on the planet. Much of this is due to the way that the Rock Lords construct their cities. Rather than building artificial structures, they will often adapt existing natural formations as their homes. When suitable structures are not available, the Rock Lords raise structures out of the ground that resemble natural formations themselves. The Rock Lords possess very little in the way of industry or advanced technology, and have no need for agriculture, further reducing their visibility.
A few ruins of the ancient Cybertronian cities still exist. Scorched by solar flares and worn down by the elements across the aeons, very little remains intact within them. Despite that, it is possible that some technology may still remain functioning deep inside of them, but the Rock Lords usually chose to avoid them. Even then, it is questionable if the Rock Lords would recognise such devices and be able to use them.
Notable Locations[]
Stonehead[]
The current seat of power for Magmar’s warband, Stonehead is a massive fortress that has stood for as long as any Rock Lords remember. In past, it was the seat of power for armies that swept across the planet in efforts to conquer it, giving its present ruler an air of prestige and presence that underscores his military strength. Resembling nothing as much as a skull, it is shrouded in myth and legend. Stories tell of powerful weapons, ancient artefacts and treasure troves hidden within its depths for those brave enough to venture into them.
The truth behind Stonehead is more complicated than the Rock Lords understand. The fortress is in fact the slumbering form of the Titan Chthonix, dormant for countless aeons since the cataclysms that reshaped the world. The Titan is barely functional, but still retains enough power to produce new sparks, releasing them into the world so that new Rock Lords may be born. However, restoring full function to the Titan would be well beyond the Rock Lords’ capabilities, even if any of them were aware of its existence.
The Fossil Kingdom[]
While numerous city-states have risen and fallen during the history of Quartex, the Fossil Kingdom has outlasted most others. Dating back centuries, it has stood against all would-be conquerors and the elements, and instead thrived under the benevolent rule of the Fossil Lord. Under his rule, the kingdom has become a centre of science and learning, a bright beacon of civilisation on an otherwise brutal and barbaric planet.
The city itself is built out of a natural rock formation, standing out and looming over the surrounding desert plains. The people live in a mixture of natural caverns and those carved out by them while trying to stay in harmony with their environment. The city is fortified against attacks form other Rock Lords and the native wildlife through a series of barricades and walls that were again raised from the natural environment, blending in with it rather than dominating it.