The Ascomanni are the descends of Obsidians that escaped The Society’s purge after the end of the Dark Revolt and established their own civilization in the Kuiper Belt.
Their name was later adopted by bands of Terran and Martian Obsidians who turned to piracy after The Fall of Luna.
Origins[]
Following the end of the Dark Revolt, many of the Obsidians who fought alongside King Kuthul fled as The Society began a genocide of their color. Some hid in the Asteroid Belt, while their fleet was smashed when some were chased to Neptune. Olympic Knights and Society kill squads hunted the remaining stragglers and were believed to have wiped them all out.[1]
In reality, several war bands evaded the Society’s pursuit and fled into the Kuiper Belt, taking captured carvers with them. Over the next several centuries, they established their own asteroid city states and modified their bodies through carving to survive in deep space.
When these changed Obsidians were discovered by the Society sometime before the 7th century PCE, they were given the name Ascomanni, derived from the Germanic term for “Ash Men.”[2]
Appearance[]
After centuries of genetic modifications by enslaved carvers, Ascomanni have earth-red, pressure-sealed skin, more similar to hide, and covered in white scars. They are capable of night vision, with pure black eyes, and amphibian-esque folds that cover the eyes, ears, and nostrils. They also have unnaturally large heads, shaved except for a strip of long, coarse, black hair. They do not wear any form of clothing and specialize in moving under low or entirely null gravity.
Their skin coloration is believed to be the result of gene sculpting with Deinococcus radiodurans, an extremophilic bacterium known for its high resistance to dehydration, cold, vacuum, and radiation.[1]
Berserkers[]
While powerfully built, Berserker Ascomanni are much shorter than Obsidian berserkers, comparable in height to a teenage Red. This allows them to fit into smaller spaces than their taller counterparts. Their movement has earned comparisons to demon crabs scuttling along the floor, while their appearance has been compared to baboons.[3][4]
Harbingers
Harbingers Ascomanni are eight feet tall and specialize in stealth, serving as an advance guard to strike ahead of the main force and sow chaos and confusion among their enemies.
Culture[]
Based on reconnaissance reports by The Society, Ascomanni society is at least partly made up of nomadic ice mining caravans with spares populations that dwell in underground city states beneath the surface of asteroids.[1]
For much of their history, the Ascomanni were divided into multiple different tribes, all of whom hated each other. Many tribes held grudges against each other for so long that the original reason for their feud had been forgotten.
The centuries in the Kuiper belt taught them that poverty and starvation can only be staved off by violence. This has resulted in inter-tribal feuds having a reputation exponential violence and cruelty, as well as theatricality in carrying it out.[5]
According to the Gorgon Fergarus, mercy is a foreign concept in Ascomanni society. They are claimed to only seek domination, and destroy anything that does not fit into their paradigm.
Due to their limited resources, Ascomanni regularly engage in cannibalism, and are said to derive pleasure from extreme pain.
The Ascomanni prize the enslavement of other colors, stealing generations of Blues, Oranges, Violets, Greens, and Reds for labor that Ascomanni themselves are not good at. Ascomanni kings are known to be willing to risk thousands of their braves in order to capture a single Orange, while Brown growers of Demeter’s Garter were worth risking ten thousand due to their role in food production.[6]
They carry their weapons in long, pale, leather sacks on their backs, and use spears, axes, and hammers made of metals from the Kuiper Belt, with runes painted on.[7]
The Ascomanni language is speculated by Solar Republic Intelligence to have incorporated parts of the lost Obsidian language Tetkjr.[1]
Reputation[]
The Ascomanni remained largely unknown for several years after the Society publically declared all warbands of the Dark Revolt exterminated. Their early encounters with Society ships in the Kuiper Belt were initially blamed on pilot error and equipment degradation from the environment until one vessel escaped with welding patterns found on the outside of its hull.
When the Ascomanni were first discovered by The Society, they were written off as being of little concern.[1] As a result, while they became infamous in the Rim for raiding colonies on Pluto and the moons of Neptune, the Core considered them a legend at best, used as a boogeyman to scare children into behaving.[6]
During the Solar War, several bands of Obsidians, whether out of a desire to use the freedom gained with the success of The Rising, or disillusionment with the Republic’s war effort, turned to piracy among the Asteroid Belt. Inspired by the legend of forefathers that had escaped the culling of their color after the Dark Revolt, these Obsidians named themselves after the Ascomanni to instill fear in their opponents.[2]
History[]
The Dark Revolt[]
- 3rd Century PCE
Lead by an Obsidian known as King Kuthul Amun, the Obsidians nearly toppled the reign of Golds from the Society in 200 PCE. In response, The heart of King Kuthul was pierced onto the Dawn Scepter, and nine-tenths of Obsidians were culled, technology was stripped from them, and were forced to treat Golds as living Gods. Their paternal, Mongol based culture was replaced with a maternal, Norse based culture, and the language of Nagal replaced that of Tetkjr. They were banished to the Ice.
Some of the Obsidian Warlords of the Dark Revolt escape to the Kuiper Belt, where they individually conquer the dwarf planets of Charon, Haumea, Xena, Eris, Makemake, and Ultima Thule,[8] and enter over four centuries of tribalism and fighting for territory in the Kuiper Belt.
First Contact[]
- 4th-6th Century PCE
100 years before the reign of Sovereign Octarius au Lune, Society ships began to go missing in the Kuiper Belt as a result of Ascomanni attacks. Due to the lack of survivors, the disappearances of these ships was written off as pilot error or environmental degradation on their equipment. Eventually, one vessel escaped with welding patterns on the outside of the hull from diamond drills, and the crew reported a loss of artificial gravity, light failure, and sounds coming from outside the hull.
The first Kuiper Obsidian were spotted during the reign of Octarius au Lune, and the name Ascomanni began to circulate.
Over the centuries, the Ascomanni began to periodically raid the colonies of Neptune and Pluto, occasionally hitting peripheral industries such as gas refineries, ice speculators, terraformers, and onyxian mines. However, due to a lack of heavy warships strong enough to meet The Society in battle, they were not able to mount a substantial threat against The Rim.
Due to the size of the Kuiper Belt, the Sovereigns of House Lune considered finishing the Ascomanni off to be too costly, as their estimates indicated it would take the Sword Armada five thousand years just to search half of the outer belt.
At some point between 733 and 741 PCE, The Society was able to capture several Ascomanni warriors. They were transported back to Luna, where Octavia au Lune exposed chained them up in collars in the bedroom of her grandson Lysander to “inoculate him from fear” until he could fall asleep at the drop of a pin.
The Arrival of Volsung Fá[]
In 739 PCE, Octavia au Lune dispatched Atlas au Raa and a division of Legio Zero Pavor Nocturnus to eliminate the Ascomanni. A year later, he reported back that the situation was untenable, having been ambushed and lost all but two of his ships.
The Solar War[]
After being liberated from the ice of Earth and Mars's poles, several Terran and Martian Obisidians became space-faring pirates and began calling themselves Ascomanni after the legends of the Dark Revolt's survivors.
Iron Gold[]
One crew of such pirates boarded the cargo ship Vindabona as it was transporting Seraphina au Raa to Asteroid S-1392. The ship's distress call was answered by Lysander, Cassius, and Pytha, who rescued several survivors before fleeing in their own ship Archimedes. The pirate Ascomanni pursued them to Asteroid S-1392, where they were destroyed by the Rim warship Charybdis.[9]
Dark Age[]
In January 754 PCE, Volsung Fá arrived on Mars with a band of Ascomanni from the Kuiper Belt, and led them in an attack on the Pandora, seizing the ship as part of Atlas’s plans to destabilize Sefi Volarus's leadership over the newly established Alltribe.
Light Bringer[]
Notable Ascomanni[]
- Ur, the Eater of Joy. Spear to the throne of Ultima Thule.
Quotes[]
- "They've not so much left the Ice, as they've brought the Ice to the stars." - Lysander describing the Obsidian pirates who name themselves after the Ascomanni.
- "Night vision. Berserker psychoactives and pressure-sealed skin. Someone had a fun time making you ugly f*cks." - Fig describing true Ascomanni during the capture of the Pandora.
Notes[]
- It is worth noting that “Ascomanni” is early German for “Viking.”