Hune Empire

The **Hune Empire** is an autocratic, imperialist Empire which controls significant territory in the **Pridwen Galaxy**.

## Biology

Despite the outward appearance of their **Encounter Suits**, the **Hune Empire** have an anatomy almost identical to that of regular **Humans** and **Aventis**. It is unknown how this evolution is possible and has been speculated that it may be due to **Convergent Evolution** or some shared ancestry, as improbable as that may seem.

Despite many encounters, records from the **Ekwidine Republic** have very limited information on the biology of the Hune due to Hune culture, which forbids them from leaving their **Encounter Suits** except on their own vessels or planets. Therefore data on the Hune's natural appearance is extremely limited, with most of that data coming from external non-invasive **Sensor** scans.

The Hune are able to exist underwater for a considerable length of time as their home planet of **Huune**, is a tropical **Class-O** world consisting of only a few island chains, none of which contain Hune cities. This has led Ekwidine scientists to speculate that the Hune live underwater in order to protect themselves from external threats. Ekwidine probes have discovered significant carbon dioxide in the oceans of Huune, which provides evidence to this theory. It is believed that the Hune may have begun as "regular" **Humans** but may have gained the ability to breath underwater, either through genetic engineering or natural evolution.

This has also led to speculation that the Hune may not be able to breath typical **Oxygen/Nitrogen Atmospheres** of many worlds, leading to another reason for why they wear **Encounter Suits** and that they may have evolved **"Gills"** to aid in respiration underwater.

## History

The Hune developed space travel somewhere in the **Terran 20th Century** and began to colonise outwards from their homeworld. Their early history is one full of conflict, with several groups of Hune fighting each other as each colony world attempted to gain independence from the capital planet.

The period eventually ended when the Hune encountered the **"Balnazzar"** and group of **"Demons"**, who had settled on the planet of **Voltaire VI** and had been living there peacefully for about five hundred years. The Hune reacted with horror and disgust when they were invited to meet the Balnazzar and saw the extent of their power. Treated with trust by the Balnazzar that failed to see the Hune as a threat, the Hune gained access to the **"Diadem Protocol"**, a secret, ancient algorithm which would temporarily alter the conditions of the **Tasi Universe Simulation**, changing the base code of the universe to allow for changes to be made.

The Hune altered the code to strip the **"Balnazzar"** of their reality-warping powers, while at the same time empowering their own warriors. This resulted in the Hune massacring all fifty-three Balnazzar. Their manipulation of the Diadem Protocol also had an unintended side-effect as the Hune lacked the ability to perceive the code properly.

The code did not just strip the Balnazzar of their powers, it also retroactively deleted the **"Sentience Containment Program"** which kept the **The Primordials** from becoming sentient, as before they were carrying out their programming with no independent thought. Due to the nature of the Diadem Protocol, the Hune retroactively provided sentience to most of the Primordials, besides **Iparun**, allowing them to begin altering history to fit their own machinations, with the effects on the original timeline being minimal but unknown to all the species of the **Tasi Universe**. The changes were subtle, like for example, **The Abyss War** would never have happened as the Abyss would never have gained sentience and manipulated **Aza'lon** and the **Jaqc Monocracy**.

Over time, the **Hune Emperor** slowly learnt how to use the **Diadem Protocol** to alter himself into something resembling a **Primordial** himself, creating the conditions for the alteration of **Physics** so that **Magic** could exist in the **Pridwen Galaxy**, the **Black Eye Galaxy (M64)** and others. Due to his own **Human** arrogance, he lacked the foresight to see how the **timeline** would be affected by messing around with the **Diadem Protocol** and altering the **"Base Code of the Universe"**.

Despite his ability to alter himself, the Emperor struggled to imbue his entire species with **"God-Mode"**, the ultimate developer code in the **Diadem Protocol** and over time, became less and less concerned about the welfare of his own people and more concerned about his own **Immortality** and **Glory**. He taught some of these abilities to his **Technomages**, creating the **Technomancy Corps** but never any abilities that he felt could be used to overthrow him. He and his **Technomages** invented **Magical Technology** and empowered their ships, technology that was never meant to exist in the Tasi Universe and only could be created through further manipulation of the Diadem Protocol.

Overnight, the Hune were transformed into a powerful Empire and attempted to conquer most of the Pridwen Galaxy, finally being stopped by the Ekwidine Republic, who employed expansive research and guerrilla tactics to push them back.

The **Primordial Emperor** retreated behind his borders to continue his research on the Diadem Protocol, hoping to unlock the secrets of **Immortality**, as even though he was able to extend his own lifespan significantly, his body still continued to decay.

## Society

Hune society is deeply secretive, with very few records made available to outsiders in order to learn about them. Based on several encounters with the Ekwidine Republic, the Hune are a deeply traditionalist society in which **Hune Warriors** are forbidden from showing their faces to outsiders, compelling them to wear their **Encounter Suits** at all time.

Hune society is also deeply mystical and spiritual but they do not seem to have an **Organized Religion**, instead Hune possess abilities which some species would consider to be **"Supernatural"** including the ability to manipulate bodies of water through sheer willpower alone. This ability resembles ancient descriptions of **"Magic"** across many folklores and have caused many species to panic when facing **Hune Technomages** on the battlefield. This has led to intense debate amongst Ekwidine scholars as to if their abilities are magic, or some advanced form of technology.

Hune society is strictly regimented and is almost completely devoted to the expansion of the military, as a result, the Hune have annexed many worlds over their history, relishing in the chance to face other species in battle. Such wars led to the extinction of the once prominent **"Balnazzar"** species, a surprisingly powerful species that were until recently considered **"Demons"**, when actually they had been an offshoot of the **Ghast Dominion** who had fled the oppressive rule of **Carmine**. Ekwidine scholars believe that this is where the Hune learned the secrets to control their fusion of **Magic** and **Technology** as Ghast possess a powerful ability to reshape **"The Tasi Universe"** to their will.

The Hune Empire is led by a **"Primordial Emperor"**, an immensely powerful Emperor who is said to be **Immortal** and claimed his throne by destroying **"Lilac"**, the "**Hell Queen"** of the **Balnazzar**, absorbing her powers into himself and becoming a **"God"**. The Emperor resides in the capital city of **Astravoda** under the waters of Hunne and is attended to by the **Technomage Corp**, a group of powerful and ambiguous elite warriors who are said to possess incredibly powerful magical abilities, achieving incredible feats with their wills alone. The Technomages exercise almost complete and total control over the Hune state, having many slaves and puppets to do their work for them. Overall, **Five Technomages** make up the **"Magi Council"**, the ruling council of the Hune.

One such invention of the Technomages is the **"Domination Crown"**, a piece of **Ghast Magical Technology** which, when placed on a victims head, renders that person incapable of independent thought and subservient to the Magi's will.

The Hune fully embrace slavery as a concept of extending their dominion, considering all other species to be inferior to themselves and their Emperor. They have employed brutal slave labour to construct everything from ships to buildings and will give some slaves more benefits then others in order to keep the slaves fighting amongst themselves rather then turning on the Hune themselves.

The Hune Empire's general population are almost completely subservient to their Emperor, worshipping him as a God and seeing him as their divine protector against the "**Demons"** that attacked them centuries ago. There is an unparalleled fanatical zeal, with different factions in the Hune Empire's partially democratic **Grand Council** who are voted for by the general public but in truth, have very little power as the **Magi Council** and the **Emperor** sit above them.