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This article is about the Magog Species. To view the article about the song, go here.
Rev Bem
Magog
Homeworld: World Ship
Form of government: Unknown

Overview[]

The Magog are a race of bipedal, furred sentient beings that are the single most feared species in all the known worlds.

While the Magog did not destroy the Commonwealth, they certainly gorged themselves feasting on its remains. Since their catastrophic attacks in the waning days of the Nietzschean uprising, the Magog have roamed through the Known Worlds nearly unchecked, launching devastating raids against populated worlds only to retreat again, leaving devastation in their wake. Thus far, no political or military entity has been strong enough to check their depredations, though the worlds of the Than Hegemony and more powerful Nietzschean Prides stay relatively safe. But despite causing widespread death and destruction, the Magog have not expanded their former range in a concerted fashion, aside from turning a handful of former Commonwealth territories such as Double Happiness, Dyhedra, and Zinn's World into breeding worlds. For their own mysterious reasons, the Magog largely prefer to live on their own planets in the former Quarantine Zone. The other significant change since the Commonwealth's fall has been the conversion of some Magog, namely Rev Bem to the new religion of Wayism (see The Way). Unfortunately, Wayism's tenets of peace and cooperation have only appealed to a tiny minority of Magog, while the vast majority remain as violent and bloodthirsty as ever. Over a billion Magog on the breeding world of Dyhedra were recently killed when their solar system was nova bombed by their former victims, a group of child warriors living on a nearby abandoned High Guard space station. The station has since become a protectorate of the restored Systems Commonwealth, with the governments of Xinti and Castalia helping rehabilitate the station and its inhabitants.

History[]

The Magog's origins are unknown. This warlike species seemed to appear out of nowhere attacking Known Space with great force. After a vicious strike on several of the Commonwealth worlds on the edge of the galaxy, most notably at Brandenburg Tor, the High Guard was so stunned by the appearance of such an enemy Commonwealth Military High Command felt that it no choice but to send the Andromeda Ascendant to ascertain the source of the invasion. It would be during this mission that the crew of the Andromeda under Perseid Captain Perim discovered the World Ship, a massive miniature solar system composed of numerous hollow spheres filled with trillions of ravenous Magog. The Magog quickly responded with a Point Singularity Projector, immobilizing the vessel while thousands of Magog warriors swarmed over just as it retreated back to slipstream. Every single member of the roughly 4000 member crew were subsequently killed by the Magog as the Andromeda Ascendant Artificial Intelligence wandered lost in the slipstream.

The Treaty of Antares was soon signed to ensure an armistice. But when the Commonwealth and the Nietzschean fleet practically annihilated each other, the Magog crossed the Quarantine Zone in great number, destroying all forms of civilization.

300 years into the Long Night, the Andromeda, this time under the command of Captain Dylan Hunt, rediscovered the World Ship. In a small battle, the Swarm ships invaded the ship while the World Ship's Point Singularity Projector blasted a hole in the ship. They barely escaped, but dropped a Nova bomb, destroying the World Ship's sun. It is estimated that it would take two to three years before the Magog could replace their sun.

Eventually the Worldship was repaired and arrived at Arkology for the Battle of Arkology. Despite all attempts to defeat it, the Worldship proved too much for the Andromeda and destroyed Arkology. Even every Nova Bomb Andromeda possessed being fired into it had no effect. Finally, Trance Gemini piloted the Andromeda into the Worldship and caused it to go supernova, apparently destroying the Worldship. It is later revealed that it survived, but was badly crippled. The Magog took a serious blow when the Andromeda destroys the Spirit of the Abyss, the Magog leader and creator.

Physiology[]

The most frightening and formidable adversary ever faced by Commonwealth civilization, the Magog are coarse-furred bipeds which average 1.5 meters in height. The Magog secrete paralytic venom from their fangs and are also armed with razor-sharp claws, superior senses which include echolocation abilities, swift reflexes and physical strength a Nietzschean would envy. In addition Magog warriors have been known to spit what appears to be a form of acid from their digestive tracts directly into the face of their enemies, immobilizing the victim before they feed on them. They're also incredibly resistant to injury and damage, they can survive without oxygen for an hour and in the vacuum of space with the assistance of an oxygen mask. Able to survive for several weeks without food one of their few weaknesses is they are carnivores and must kill their prey (animal or fish) to initiate the digestion process, they cannot digest stored or non freshly killed food.

Intelligent, able to talk within days of being born and utilizing extremely advanced (gifted) technology they however generally exhibit and prefer a feral, caveman like lifestyle with Magog cunning almost entirely directed toward killing other sentient beings or using them as unwilling hosts for their progeny. Though they can and have been known to use weapons, they usually do not, seeming to prefer tactics of swarming their opponents on foot, fearlessly charging over the bodies of other dead Magog to attack.

Reproductive Method[]

The Magog are all one gender, and reproduce by laying eggs in the paralyzed bodies of large organisms, exclusively sentient ones. The Magog "parent" then watches over the host for the couple of weeks it takes for its young to hatch and eat their way out of the host organism, which in the process dies a slow, agonizing death. Interestingly, the resulting Magog young seem to contain small amounts of DNA from the host as well as the Magog parent, this likely introduces genetic variation and why they require a sentient host. The rate at which Magog offspring grow to physical adulthood is believed to be a function of how much food is available to the young, with abundant supply this can be as little as a fortnight after emerging from their host. This fact in addition to the Magog's numerous offensive adaptations have lead many to believe that the Magog were originally engineered by the Spirit of the Abyss.

Culture[]

Magog society seems to be little more than an aggressive all-consuming horde. The Magog produce no distinguishable art, nor music, nor literature or other signs of culture as it is normally known among the rest of the galactic humanoids. It's not known how such an aggressive, uncooperative species could have developed the spaceflight capabilities and sophisticated technologies the Magog are known to possess. In fact, some researchers theorize that the Magog are not a natural species at all, but rather some kind of bio-engineered weapon, programmed to replicate themselves and destroy everything they come in contact with. But only the Magog know for certain, and they've steadfastly refused to answer questions regarding their own origins. While the Magog are an aggressive species they do not hate their enemies. To them it is simple matter of predator vs prey with themselves as predators and with every sentient being in Known Space as prey. It should be noted that the Magog do have a concept of religion as they worship and obey the Spirit of the Abyss like it is a god.

Within the Horde, the possession of weapons and, perhaps especially armor, may be a sign of rank, as demonstrated by Bloodmist's apparent elite status, and ability to command other, non-armored Magog.

Technology[]

The Magog are a savage race interested only in eating and reproducing, but have been able to be a spacefaring race. It is unknown where their technology came from. They could have stolen what they needed from a local race to expand, but it is strongly hinted at that the Spirit of the Abyss taught them how to create, or at least gave them, their technology. Even if they did steal their technology, they are intelligent enough to learn how to operate it effectively. Currently they use gauss guns for personal weapons and possess powerful spacecraft.

Known Magog[]

Trivia[]

Gallery[]

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