Demiurg Confederation

Demiurg Confederation's symbol: the pick and the hammer

Demiurg Brawler Guard Veteran

The **Demiurg**, known formally as the **Demiurg Confederation**, are a very deceptive and mysterious alien race. Most people in the imperium, if they ever heard of them, don’t even believe they exist. But they have been around for far longer than one might expect. Their history is closely related to the fate of the galaxy. They once were a very united race and had a very strong economic empire during the golden age of the Eldar Empire. Although their power is nothing compared to what it was, they are now growing stronger with every passing year in the ever-changing maelstrom that is the galaxy of the 41st millennium. For countless eons, they have been mining on planets and asteroids in every corner of the galaxy. Though their sphere of influence has fluctuated immensely during all this time, they can still be found everywhere on the fringe of the imperium if one knows where to look. But even if one is lucky enough to spot one of their gigantic vessels, you’ll probably never see an actual Demiurg in the flesh. For even if their wealth growth depends mostly on trading with other races, they remain quite suspicious of others.

Thanks to the profitable trade agreements struck with the T’au Empire and the chaos ensued by the Cicatrix Maledictum, many Demiurg brotherhoods are becoming stronger than ever. Now more and more brotherhoods can be seen around the war zone, hoping to take their share of the loot. Many other are heading to the eastern fringe, hoping that their confederation could rise again along the new T’au Empire. Although some brotherhoods seem to have wholeheartedly joined the greater good, most are wise enough to know that the faster the rise, the more brutal the fall. In any case, this alliance has empowered the whole faction already.

One thing is sure, they will do what they must to survive as they have always done.

## A Unique Faction

In every corner of the galaxy, traces and clues of a very discrete race can be found in asteroid belts and uninhabitable planets. If you live on the galaxy’s fringe, you might even have been lucky enough to see their majestic vessels. And if you’re exceptionally lucky, you are among the very few who have ever heard the deep voice of an actual Demiurg.

Stories about the Demiurg are numerous in the galaxy’s fringe. It is there that, like many others, they have survived and thrived while trying not to get destroyed by the many foes existing in the 41st millennium. Though they may seem scarce, they can be found near most unexploited asteroid fields and planets. If they were to assemble one day, they would represent a real threat to most as their number have been steadily rising over the course of the last millenniums.

   They are mainly traders, and so most relationships with other races are purely mercantile in nature. But they have been known to strike temporary alliances from time to time. Trading mainly minerals and technological pieces, they also employ several mercenaries to defend their operations or attack their enemies. Just like the Eldar, many mysteries surround their origins and their motives. But most imperial agents won’t try to figure them out anyway.

Their technology is far more advanced than the Imperium’s in many ways. Their mastery of artificial intelligence is giving them an almost unlimited access to cheap labourers and fighters. In fact, most AI in the galaxy bore their signature one way or another. It is, in part, what kept them from total annihilation so far.

Although stubborn and proud, they are also quite wise for they have been around for a very long time and their historical data are numerous, precise, and well studied by most Demiurg. The teachings of the ancients are highly regarded in their society. And so, they often act with caution or calculated haste. Their mastery of mathematics and statistics is also unequaled. Coupled with their data analysis capabilities, this has led to rumors about them being able to predict the future.

They once formed a formidable empire, but many calamities befell them. Nowadays, they still form a somewhat united confederation, but their survival is far from assured. Still, after every defeat, they will spring back up sooner or later. Their resilience lies in the fact that the Demiurg strongly believe they have a crucial role to play in the fate of the galaxy. For eons they have been looking for their gods, whom walked amongst them at the beginning of times. They’ve been looking across the stars for them, but to no avail. One day they will join them in the great battle against evil, or so they believe.

The entire Demiurg race is space-borne, though it wasn’t always the case. They live on majestic vessels of epic proportions containing one or many societal groups called brotherhoods. They are stocky and strongly build, with an impressively deep voice and an unsettling living beard. But they rarely show themselves, preferring to send AI robots or alien emissaries to meet representatives of other factions. You’ll only see a real Demiurg if you have something truly special to sell or are looking for the most exotic items!

## The Worshippers of the Ancient

Whatever you may be looking for, the Demiurg can provide… for the right price. Or maybe are you here to sell? Or to offer your services? But be warned: do not waste their time. Or else, your name may end up on the blacklist, and you don’t want that… ever!

No more than a handful of imperial rogue traders and traitor humans have ever reported trading with the Demiurg. And most likely, they talked to a xenos emissary or an AI serving the mysterious alien. And so, information about their appearance and customs are virtually null in the imperium records. Their vessels are a slightly more common sight, and some space-bound skirmishes were reported to the Ordo Xenos. But no artifact or intelligence of real interest has yet to be recovered from them.

There are however a lucky few who did heard the mighty voice and saw the unsettling beard of an actual Demiurg representative. Only some less pious planetary governors from distant worlds looking to trade rare minerals or artifacts ever had this chance among the Imperium. One of them wrote these lines in a letter to a family member about a Demiurg emissary:

"*First, I noticed its size and shape. No taller than the shoulder, stocky, heavy, and then there was this beard. It is living, always moving, searching, touching. Just above it, two small almost completely black eyes deep in a head covered in reddish scales. Then it talked, it did so with a voice so deep it shook me to the core.*"

Don’t be fooled by their diminutive stature, Demiurg are incredibly sturdy creatures. Their visual acuity is not the best at a distance, but they will find you in pitch darkness. Their famous beard is an incredible sensory organ. It can sense air pressure variations, it can taste surfaces, and it is extremely touch sensitive. It is always acquiring information about its surrounding.

The famous voice of a Demiurg is actually part of his upper register. Humans can’t ear Demiurg talking between themselves, the frequencies are usually too low. That’s why it is said that you ear as much as you feel their voice. Most have never heard the famous songs of the Demiurg, but their throat singing can be felt right through the bones.

Whenever they appear in diplomatic official garments, they will wear the traditional high hat and the loose cloak. For less formal meeting, they will usually hide their face behind a mask and under a heavy hood. Defensive protection is rarely needed for these meetings as their scaly skin is as tough as flak armour. Besides, it is said among the Officio Assassinorum that you should always *kill a Demiurg twice*. Indeed, their stubbornness and refusal to die has led many Demiurg to win over foes that wrongly considered them defeated.

These space merchants value wealth above all else. You won’t be able to talk to a Demiurg unless you are looking to buy something incredibly precious and show the capability to buy it or offer something truly valuable in exchange.

## The Demiurg Society

Currently, the Demiurg race is divided in many thousand brotherhoods. These organisations are all independent from one another. They can claim mining grounds, tie economic alliances, and trade rare artifacts and resources without the approval of anyone. Although it is rather unusual, they can even fight each other. Each brotherhood is composed of a few hundreds to many thousand males, usually all descendants from the same female line. They all respond to one of the current six sisterhoods. Every Demiurg alive today were born and raised in one of those sisterhoods. Sisterhoods form the current central government of the demiurg empire. Most female Demiurg lives among one of the sisterhoods where they give and receive many types of formations, going from war tactics and resource management all the way to more abstract field, like history and mathematics.

It also happens that those later make for the most prestigious professions among the Demiurg society. Historians-statisticians, called Prospectors, benefit from an almost limitless immunity to Demiurg laws, even if every brotherhood can make their own. They still must respect sisterhoods’ laws. This makes these Prospectors able to move around and investigate events with ease. They are the ones of a few to have access to the UHR. Almost every brotherhood also hosts a Brewing tradition and a Bard academy. A Brewing tradition is an ancestral practice full of rituals. The ale produced in a given tradition can produce lots of different effects on the Demiurg metabolism. Beer consumption in deeply culturally rooted. Most Demiurg ingest at least a pint of beer a day. It is used as medicine, nourishment, social and religious events, fighting stimulant, or simply to relax. Needless to say, the head of Brewing tradition, the Brewmeister, is a very important Demiurg figure.

The Bard academy also share an important cultural role. Most Demiurg chants are unimaginably old, and they’ve been heard by countless generations. Just as beer, songs a present in most aspect of the Demiurg life, even in war. The chants are so ingrained every Demiurg’s heart that hearing them will provoke true physical reactions. Many battles were won by outnumbered Demiurg riled up by a particularly talented bard. The headmaster of every Bard academy is called a Horn Tooter. These musical virtuosi have mastered every chant and every sacred instrument. They will often be deployed on the battlefield but only in significant battles. The Brawler cult is a huge support both to Brewing traditions and Bard academies. Another true power influencing the brotherhoods are the Artisan Guilds. Artisans are the great maker of the Demiurg society. They have developed probably the most evolved artificial intelligence in the galaxy. Their mining servants are truly fully autonomous machines. Many uncontested mining grounds can be colonised by a small army of these robots and abandoned there for a few decades only to be recontacted later to pick up every valuable mineral dug up so far. These “Stone Golems” can repair, replicate, create, adapt, conceive solutions to complex problems. They can even defend themselves in limited measures. The Iron Brothers are something else entirely. As Artisans consider themselves creators rather than destructors, they never made truly military-oriented AI work. Conversely, the human once converted Demiurg AI into true killing machines. These abominations were caught and tamed by the Demiurg many millennia ago. The heavy mining suit is more representative of the Artisan’s style. This suit is operated by a Demiurg assisted by an AI.

The Demiurg society is based on science and statistics, but it also honours old traditions like no other races. Even though it does not make sense mathematically, the day-to-day life of a Demiurg is full of little superstitions, rituals, and sayings. One example of such tradition is the ‘’ground cleansing’’ ceremony. It happens after a prospected mining ground as been rid of any nuisance, and before the proper digging starts. It is performed by members of the Brawler cult. During what can last many hours or many days, these monks will wrestle one on one in a pentagonal ring until a grand champion is declared. The winner will have the chance to fight against the Ancient Brawler. If he can push his adversary out of the ring or topple him, it is usually the guarantee of a promotion among the order. Either way, this completes the ritual, and the mining ground is said to be sanctified, or cleansed. If the ancestor-gods are pleased by the ceremony, the veins should be plenty and unending… or so it is believed. No statistic analysis has been able to prove it so far, but Demiurg are stubborn beyond comprehension in keeping their traditions alive. The Brawler cult represents a spiritual power in every current brotherhood. The monks of the cult are maintained and armed by the brotherhood, in exchange for the blessing of the ancestor-gods and a cheap military force. They also require the service of the Artisan guild for all their holly machines, and a Brewmeister house for all the ceremonial ale that is necessary to their training. But in the end, dying a good death is the ultimate goal of every member of the cult.

As any other power of the galaxy, the Demiurg has an official military, the Fusilier Force. It’s current from is relatively recent, as true regiments of Demiurg foot soldiers weren’t really heard before the Demiurg confederation made contact with the T’au Empire. The training regiment of the Fusilier trooper is a version of the T’au Fire warrior’s. Their ion blaster is wielded the same way as the T’au pulse blaster. Some brotherhood’s troopers actually serve a ten-year military service for the T’au as breachers. Troopers that show a real talent can expect to be assigned to a Thunder weapon team, where they will learn to shoot at a distance the famous Thunder mortar. If they survive and show honourable behavior, they might get the chance to join the Heavy fusilier forces. These are trained to use the powerful ion rifle. The sharpest shooter among a Heavy fusilier team will usually be entrusted with a mighty ionized-plasma cannon. Those who shows real talent at close range will be trained instead with the neutron flamer. Some fusiliers choose to be assigned to operating a Tunnel crawler instead of going through the Heavy fusilier ranks. It is the favored vehicle in the Fusilier Force. Last but not least, the final rank of the Fusilier ladder is the Fusilier Overseer. The Overseer is the general captain of a brotherhood’s Fusilier detachment. This individual has most likely studied under the best school of war of his brotherhood’s affiliated sisterhood, or even on a T’au sept.

The Demiurg differ in one aspect to the T’au xenos policy. Demiurg don’t try to roll up ideologically every new race they encounter into their confederation. Instead, they tend to evaluate if a trade agreement would benefit them first. Then they might look to employ warbands to complete their forces. Demiurg pay well and grant bonuses on performance, which is closely monitored. As a result of these policy, Demiurg employ a great number of alien and human mercenaries. Some Demiurg vessels even transport more mercenaries then actual Demiurg. The most common ones are the Zoats, who serve many roles in the Demiurg society. Humans aren’t rare either among Demiurg ranks. Those are usually issued from renegade warbands. These men and women often have no other way of travelling through the galaxy and they’ll often become dependant of their employer for traveling. This position has led to many brotherhoods to keep their human mercenary in a state closest to slavery. The third most often employed mercenaries are the Kroot kinbands. The kroots are appreciated for their efficiency at tracking and eliminating specific targets. They usually travel through the galaxy aboard their warspheres and will often accept repairment and maintenance as payment for their services.

Each brotherhood is usually led by a council which members are all representatives of the most important institutions of the Demiurg society. Most council are composed of the High Captain, who’s in charge of the brotherhood’s vessel, a Great prospector, agent of the sisterhoods, the Brawler Ancient, spiritual leader on this particular vessel, the Fusilier Overseer, highest instance of the military, the Grand Artisan, from this sector’s Artisan Guild, a representative of the Merchant Consortium and the brotherhood’s Elden One, the dean and most honorable Demiurg. Some brotherhoods’ high council might also include an influential Brewmeister or a famous Horn Tooter, but only if the brotherhood’s Brewing tradition or Bard academy is powerful enough.

But every brotherhood, or almost, is swayed by the sisterhoods one way or another. They have eyes everywhere and their influence, although subtle, touches every sphere of the Demiurg society. They hold no real power over the brotherhoods, but their weight alone in enough to effectively steer them. They are knowledgeable advisor, brilliant tactician, trusty concubine, unequaled spies, mothers of all. No brotherhood can reject the call for an official pilgrimage to a sisterhood’s citadel.

## History of the Demiurg

As with most other races of the galaxy, it is hard to say exactly when the Demiurg first came to be. All that is known for sure is that they are very ancient. Their beloved homeworld was called Kazad. It was a gigantic rocky planet rich in minerals and subterranean life. Its crust was also unusually thick, going as far down as half the radius of the planet. It is at depths where gravity was weak enough that the seven ancestral clans of Demiurg prospered. The oldest entry in the UHR is a transcription of an ancient song about how the Old Gods first created them. It tells of how these gods lived amongst the Demiurg for a time and taught them many things before embarking on gigantic vessels that departed for the stars and were never seen again.

From this point on, the Demiurg have always tried to rejoin their Gods in the heavens, for they knew they were needed to fight alongside them. Through this common cause, the Demiurg eventually reached nearby moons and asteroids. They quickly depleted all the available mineral resources to built enormous starship ready to conquer the stars.

### Before M14 - First Contacts

As the Demiurg ventured into interstellar space, they soon met with the Aeldari Empire. At the time, the Eldar were slowly becoming the masters of the galaxy, but they saw no threat in this young race. After all, the expansion of the young demiurg empire was very limited as they had no means of traveling faster than light.  They quickly understood the real power of the Aeldari and so, avoided conflict with their neighbours at all cost. They only looked for mining grounds that were of no interest to the pointy ears. The Demiurg still expanded rapidly, and they soon started trading with the Eldar. However, the Aeldari always felt inexplicably uncomfortable around the small aliens, and their minds worked so differently.

Fortunately, the Demiurg also encountered the nomadic race known as the Zoats in those years of exploration. As soon as the bearded ones started to employ Zoats to represent them in diplomatic meetings, their relationship with the slender ones improved greatly.

The Demiurg’s wealth then expanded tremendously through economic agreements struck with the Eldar. At this point, the Eldar tolerated this new empire, as the Demiurg were not very warlike and avoided conflict with their neighbour. They kept mining on lifeless asteroids and planets always further, on which they might build some settlements that would last for a few centuries. They would always return to their homeworld eventually when the mineral resources were depleted. They’d rather built new and bigger vessels instead. Soon, entire brotherhoods would be almost perpetually spacebound, going back to Kazad at least once in a lifetime, in a sacred pilgrimage.

At some point the Aeldari and the Demiurg grew quite close. Exchange of technology and knowledge were common sight. Enough so that the Demiurg learned of the existence of the warp and the webway from their pointy eared economic ally. But, of course, the smugly Eldar never shared the secret of how to use these sub-realms.

First contacts with the Orks were, as one might expect, brutal. There was almost no way of trading with the barbarian green skin aliens and the Demiurg soon learned to avoid altogether any planets colonised by these tusked brutes. And so, they would only fight the Orks to defend themselves in retreating skirmishes.

### M15-M17 - The first calamity

The first of many calamities befell the Demiurg during M15. In those times, it seemed that the number of Orks encounters was growing steadily. Soon enough, the first ever major Orks Waaagh! occurred. Of course, the Orks had already been on campaigns of destruction for eons now, but they rarely hit more then a handful of planetary systems. The Eldar had kept an eye on those campaign so far and had been intervening when necessary. Since the Demiurg homeworld was neighbouring the Eldar Empire, which was at its culminating height back then, the space miners usually received their protection. Many campaigns against the green skins had been won by Demiurg and Aeldari alliances throughout the millenniums.

This time though, it was different. The great warboss simply known as "Tha Worl’Smasha" had already gathered much momentum when the Eldar and the Demiurg understood the menace. The green tide washed over Kazad and deep in the heart of the Eldar territory. This Waaagh! had drawn in a significant portion of the Orks living in the Segmentum Solar and Segmentum Pacificus.

Under the assaults, the Demiurg trapped on Kazad had to retreat ever deeper under its crust. While the brotherhoods stuck in space had to hide and survive on their own, cut from each other for the most part. The Orks were almost impossible to push back, even with some help from the Eldar, and so the Demiurg had to try and hold the line long enough each year until hopefully the Orks were to be depleted.

It was during these years that the primarily non-militaristic race first had a chance to see their Aeldari neighbours in combat. Needless to say, it was quite an eye-opening experience. Macro-strategies to micro-manoeuvring, so many alien concepts were displayed by the Eldar forces. And then there was the warp jumps. It was hard at first for the Demiurg to grasp what was going on with entire ships or individuals vanishing in thin air or appearing in a flash. A couple brotherhoods were able to retrieve warp jump generator from eldar wreckage.

After decades of resistance, the surviving Demiurg of Kazad had to finally evacuate the planet at the cost of many lives. The race was for the first time entirely spacebound. The Orks had won, and worst, they had ravaged a vast territory in the sector.

At first, each brotherhood fought for itself. It took many long years to regroup the brotherhoods under the same banner and organise the first reconquest crusade. Nogr’Od of the Teljar Brotherhood took the high command of the coalition as his brotherhood was very powerful and his martial prowess had been proved during the siege. At the time, the eldar were in no position to come and help as they had their own tendrils to push back. Sadly, the Demiurg offensive was less than successful as every brotherhood used this conjuncture to settle old grudges toward one another. And although many assaults were launched, in the end, the first crusade was a crushing failure. It took many decades to recover from this defeat. No other crusades were to be expected soon as a great schism had formed amongst the brotherhoods. The name of Commander Nogr’Od fell in disgrace, and he was never heard of again. The brotherhoods then dispersed widely and lost contact for a time.

It was during this era of strife that the Demiurg had to developed ever faster ships to get away from the still growing Ork menace. The great exodus that followed lasted for millennia and brought some brotherhoods in contact with humanity. First interactions were sometimes messy as some human colonies showed a high level of xenophobia. In these days, it seemed that every planet inhabited by human was its own empire with different cultures and values. They eventually struck trading agreements with many more open-minded colonies. As trust grew, they shared knowledge with some of them, especially related to technology. The human spirit sure was closer to the Demiurg’s than they were to the Eldar’s.

The most advanced and powerful group of humans at the time were a multi-planetary spanning organisation calling itself the "Golden Sons". The colonies under the rule of that organisation were outstandingly advanced technologically and culturally. More and more brotherhoods started trading with them throughout the centuries. In time, the two groups grew quite close. Exchange of knowledge regarding philosophy and science started slow, but utterly, the Demiurg shared their advanced knowledge of artificial intelligence craftsmanship. More specifically, they taught them how to build thinking machines like the ones they had been largely using as servitors for millennia already. These machines were not only able to complete complex task, but were also able to replicate, to make other thinking machines to aid them reach their goals. Humans were initially very interested in the capacity of these machines to innovate and create.

In exchange, the Golden Sons helped crack the mysteries of the Eldar warp jump generator scavenged from defeated Aeldari units during the war against the Orks. Eldar technology was at the time impossible to comprehend for the Demiurg. It took almost a millennium for the inter-racial scientific cooperation effort to understand then create their first fully functional warp drive. This event was to change the whole power balance of the galaxy, but although the Demiurg realised the miracle that had just been achieved, they could not have guessed how much they had impacted the future of the galaxy.

At the time, the first warp drives fitted on actual spaceships were not yet very useful as members of both races soon understood. The warp is a very hazardous dimension, traveling through it proved to be extremely difficult. Not only that, but it also appeared that the demiurg vessels that did come back from these calculated jumps were mostly intact, while some human vessels often reappeared with less than intact crew or traumatised and bloody survivors if they reappeared at all. These events made the human empire a bit suspicious and any further scientific research cooperation was interrupted.

### M18-M20 - The reconquest war

During this period of prosperity, a new form of central government appeared. The conglomerate of brotherhoods had elected a high council constituted of the leaders of the most powerful brotherhoods. Sometimes during M18, Ttrika All-mother, as she was later known, became the leader of the Thur’rinn Brotherhood after the death of her father and every male member of her brotherhood in a warp jump incident.

The high council, upon hearing of the peculiar case of the Thur’rinn Brotherhood proposed to dissolve the all-female brotherhood. Ttrika had been trained just like her brothers, in the art of leading. She was expected to help whichever of her brother would become the leader of the Brotherhood. She strongly disagreed with the decision of the high council. As her father had many allies, she gained a strong support from numerous lesser brotherhoods. Enough so that she was able to retain her newly acquired title and her brotherhood avoided disbandment. And so, appeared the first demiurg sisterhood.

For the next centuries the Thur’rin Sisterhood grew in power through alliances and the creation of a very well-respected school of war. This school only accepted woman Demiurg and created very potent war-strategy adviser. Soon enough female Demiurg trained by the Thur’rinn Sisterhood occupied important positions in every demiurg brotherhood. Many Demiurg chieftain also had concubines from the Thur’rinn sisterhood. Every female child born this way was claimed and raised by the sisterhood. It grew largely in size, but always remained an exclusively all-female organization.

Eventually, the Sisterhood counted so many members it had to build a new class of vessel: the Citadel-class space station. The sheer size of the construct allowed them to produce Stronghold-class and Bastion-class commerce vessels in their docks at an unprecedented rate. This soon gave them the monopoly of vessel building. This increased immensely the power of the sisterhood.

The Thur’rinn sisterhood used their immense influence to bring contingents of females from every brotherhood on the Citadel-class space station. Training them in the way of the sisters before returning them home, or keeping them as hostages to force the hand of less cooperative brotherhoods. Slowly but surely, the sisterhood made it so every female Demiurg had to be raised or spent a part of their life among the sisters. This created a form of central government the like of which the Demiurg had never seen.

It is under this monarchy that the Demiurg were able to organise their great reconquest crusade.

From then it still took a few centuries of research before generations of the smartest Demiurg mathematicians and statisticians successfully created a virtual model of the warp. Although the warp seems completely chaotic, they still found patterns through this chaos.

The Demiurg have a very rational mind and their statisticians are the best in the known universe. And although the warp can never be mapped or perfectly understood, the outcomes of a warp jump can be roughly estimated with enough calculation power.

Using their immense knowledge of A.I., every Demiurg vessel soon received what would become the Universal Historical Record. This data base is way more than compiled reports, it contains the complete knowledge or the Demiurg race. It also connects every vessel to one another as every UHR station is quantumly entangled to one another. This means every station can instantaneously teleport data to one another, so the UHR is constantly being updated throughout the whole fleet. This also means the UHR works as one machine across the whole galaxy through the computational power of every vessel. The sheer amount of calculation power and data from every Demiurg ship combined is what is needed to calculate a single somewhat safe warp jump.

All these events took place during the unusually long life of Ttrika All-mother. Though she did use the power of her sisterhood to make every brotherhood bend the knees and rallied every female under her banner even through force, she was still the first to successfully unite the race.

Unified under the Thur’rinn sisterhood’s flag and using the new warp drive technology, which they call "warp drills", the Demiurg Empire finally came back to Kazad. The entire planetary system had been turned into a true Ork stronghold.

One by one, the Ork defenses fell in front of the Demiurg combined forces, until the battle was taken to the very depths of Kazad. Once the reigning warboss was defeated, it still took almost a decade to destroy every last Ork warbands in the planetary system.

Sadly, Ttrika All-mother died during the fights when her personal descent vessel was attacked by a kamikaze ship before she had the chance to set foot on the beloved mother-planet.

The Demiurg alliance stood strong in the face of adversity, but it wouldn’t be long before old inner grudges came back into play. The death of their great leader didn’t help either in keeping the race united.

To appease the incoming internal turmoil, the sisterhood reinstated the old council of brotherhood leaders to reign over the planet. The members were carefully chosen so the sisterhood still had total control over the council decisions. This facade kept the fragile status quo among the brotherhoods.

The great works of restoration started soon after. Immense efforts were first put to cleanse the soil of ork spores. This ruthless task alone took many centuries. Meticulously using fire and chemicals to restore the sacred grounds, no part of the planet was spared. Pockets of savage orks were still being found every now and then in the deepest crevice and darkest caves. But eventually, no more orks were born on Kazad.

The rebuilding process took another few centuries but finally, a millennium after the Demiurg empire had return, Kazad’s greatness had been restored.

During this time, the number of Demiurg grew steadily and the Thur’rinn sisterhood became increasingly powerful. It wouldn’t be long before the different schools and factions inside the gigantic organisation started a tug of war for dominance. Once again, the Empire blew apart as brotherhoods fought against brotherhoods, sisters against sisters.

In a very unexpected way, it was the Kazad’s council of puppets that brought the conflict to an end. The war had loosened the control the sisterhood had on the chosen leaders. Furthermore, the Empire having a homeworld again meant that the monopoly of ship building was less of an issue.

Summoning old alliances and grudges, the council was able to bring the conflict to a truce and convene at the same table every leader of the sisterhood’s rival factions. Then and there, it was conceded that the amount of power the sisterhood yielded would bring the Demiurg to their doom. And so, it was decided the Thur’rinn sisterhood would be split in seven new sisterhoods. Each one was to take control of a Citadel-class space station and elect one member each to sit at the great leading council of Kazad.

The next centuries would be spent building these gigantic space stations and reawakening old alien alliances, first with the Zoats, then with the Aeldari among many others.

### M21-M24 - The age of expansion

From M21 onward, the seven sisterhoods and their affiliated brotherhoods roamed the length of the galaxy. Establishing mining operation on countless celestial bodies and trade agreements with more and more xeno races. Thousands of new brotherhoods were founded during these abundant years.

They eventually came across humanity once again. Their growing empire had now vastly expanded across the stars. It seemed they too had mastered the warp jump through mysterious ways (many scan of warp jumping human spacecraft showed a very low count of living bodies.)

The Sons of gold were no longer existing it seemed, and most human settlement was xenophobic to a degree. This made it so trading agreements were few and fragile.

It also seemed the Eldar were far less omnipresent. By this point they had abandoned many worlds. Maybe the war with the Orks had showed them the weakness of having an empire spread too thin. Or maybe their thoughts were now elsewhere, and the fate of the galaxy didn’t interest them anymore. Who ever knows with these odd pointy eared?

The galaxy was in quite in a turmoil still. Shifting powers were just tides that could be exploited for the Demiurg. Business was booming all across the Demiurg widespread empire. The warp drill meant that they could reliably steer out of trouble and transit precious material between distant clients.

It came a day when the galaxy was mostly split between the Human and the Eldar empires. Ork whaaagh! were few and far between. Lesser alien empires were many and were now the main clients of the Demiurg.

Indeed, it seemed at this point that the Eldar had truly lost interest in the fate of the galaxy. Or so it seemed to the Demiurg as they rarely traded with them anymore. The humans were also less and less interested in trading with them.

Soon, many Demiurg brotherhood came to understand how humanity had expanded so quickly and successfully. They found on most human planets strange thinking machine called "Men of stone". These constructs were used for everything: space exploration, terraforming, mining, working the fields, building, etc. They undeniably bore the signs of Demiurg technology, they were quite good copies of their Stone Golems.

By now, Demiurg had a total understanding and control of their AI. They had experimented with the dangers of autonomous AI since before the days of star travels. But the human did not. Also, it was quite worrying when the first "Men of iron" were sighted by the Gromli brotherhood. Those machines it seemed were created as war waging robots. To defend and conquer it seemed.

As these became more and more common in human expansion efforts. The Demiurg sensed the danger they represented for the galaxy. Once they successfully studied these metal men, they saw how far from their perfect servitors these had go astray. Quick estimations of their numbers and capabilities still confirmed the urgency of acting now before it was too late. But no Brotherhood had the kind of influence over any human main factions to warn them of the danger.

And so, the Demiurg had to turn their back on the humans, as their calculations showed the AI rebellion was imminent now. And it did happen as the Demiurg had foretold in M23, but not in the scale they had thought. The "Cybernetic Revolt" as it came to be known shook the whole galaxy to its core. Worlds were burned, ripped, or destroyed. Even stars were extinguished. No one empire was left untouched from the Men of iron, but it was the humans who suffered them the most.

This galaxy-wide war lasted many centuries, but it did come to an end, through the combined efforts of almost every spacefaring faction. Not under a single unified banner, but they all got a role to play in defeating this menace to life itself.

### M25-M30 - The great calamity

After this era, the Demiurg became way more secretive and jealous of their knowledge. They could not trust the younger races or the humans with their creations. Some brotherhood even took on themselves to capture any Men of iron they would encounter as to keep the secrets of their craft from anyone.

The only race that had grew in power during the war was of course the Orks. In the aftermath of the Cybernetic revolt, the Demiurg were more frequently coming across drifting green skins flotilla in the interstellar space.

The Eldar were now absent from the affairs of the galaxy. Never leaving their worlds, or so it seemed, and not interfering with anyone anymore. Demiurg vessels even started to avoid Eldar controlled space. Horrific rumors had started to float around about these allies of old. Rumors about blood cults, torture practices, sexual depravity, fighting arenas. They became ill-regarded and eventually feared.

Any contact with human colonies were also definitely broken. The human empire was in quite a state of misery and decay. Inner war rotted the bleeding human empire. Xenophobia rose again to unprecedented levels. The Demiurg had no choice but to lay low for a while, only doing commerce with xeno races on the galaxy fringes.

Then, a great shift started to be felt across the galaxy. The currents of the warp became increasingly difficult to predict and dangerous to navigate. Oracles and diviner of many different races talked erratically of great calamities to come. Such end time annunciator was common sight, but this time they seemed to all have the same visions. No proper Demiurg would admit any superstitious belief, after all only cold hard data can hold the truth, but uneasiness was rising among every faction it seemed.

Great warp storm soon became more common and lasted far longer than usual. Ork raids also grew more frequent. The Demiurg had to adapt, and each brotherhood became more independent. But they also had to assemble in great leagues to face some threats such as Ork Whaaghs!!! or human xeno hunts. The decaying Aeldari empire was of no use now for the Demiurg either.

It was when the Zoats, most ancient and close ally of the Demiurg, left the galaxy entirely that the Demiurg truly felt that something was wrong. The Zoats seemed to have disappeared without a word, all ties were cut. Entire Eldar planets were also deserted it seemed.

This was soon followed by an unheard-of warp currents frenzy. For a few centuries, warp travel was completely impossible. Many brotherhoods became completely isolated in the far corners of the galaxy. And then came a great lull.

The warp stood still.

And then there was madness.

In an instant, the galaxy shook. A great rift open at the heart of the decadent Aeldari empire, swallowing so many worlds, amongst which was Kazad. The Demiurg homeworld, the holly ground, the pilgrim’s dream, the dear mother, the stone cradle crossed to the immaterium in an instant.

The UHR was quickly updated and soon the entire Demiurg cried for it knew it was now orphan. New songs were even written from this sadness.

In the following years, even the mighty Saardu Sisterhood fell to the destruction and madness bursting through the galaxy. So many brotherhoods were also lost to demon incursions and rampaging ork warbands.

### M31-M34 - Iron brothers and Brawler cult

The next few centuries are wrapped in darkness. Without its central government, without safe warp travel and with the immense power shift through the galaxy, the Demiurg society went through a phase of turmoil.

The UHR never had so many holes and stretch of times without a valid entry. The Demiurg as a race survived by hiding in every corner of the galaxy, weathering the storm as well they could.

    The silver lining came from the Belg’oz brotherhood who first managed to repair and fix captured and neutralized Men of iron. A few centuries of research were needed, but in the end, their AI became completely docile. This was quite an achievement in itself, but the true value lied in the fact that no war machines made by the Demiurg ever were so deadly and specialized for war.

The secret of the Men of iron repurpose wasn’t simply uploaded on the UHR. The Belg’oz refused to freely share their discovery. But Demiurg being Demiurg, a profit had to be turned from this. They started turning other brotherhoods’ captured Men of iron for hefty prices.

This gave an edge to many brotherhoods who suddenly became able to defend themselves. It also made the Belg’oz brotherhood immensely rich and powerful. Eventually, its influence rivaled even the sisterhoods’.

Eventually, the situation became problematic. The council of the sisterhoods demanded the Belg’oz representants upload the conversion method to the UHR, or to face a shortage of new males. The Belg’oz leaders refused these conditions, starting a lengthy conflict.

The first sanctions were the removal of the Belg’oz rights to claim mining grounds, but this did little as it was not their main source of profit anymore. Then they lost their right to get trading agreements with xeno races. When this same right was also removed for trades with other brotherhoods, then troubles really began.

Many Demiurg brotherhoods which were long time clients of the Belg’oz kept their trading contracts with them nonetheless. Soon, they faced the menace of getting sanctioned too. This created a great split among the brotherhoods, that eventually transformed into a true conflict.

At first, economic ties were severed. Then armed skirmishes and mining grounds theft. After a few years of operating without the approval of the sisterhoods, the separatists eventually succeeded in convincing the Norod sisterhood to join them.

At this point, true large-scale engagements became more common and deadly. At the same time, the galaxy was not getting safer, and many human crusades rolled over entire brotherhoods. In desperation, the remaining sisterhoods heartbreakingly voted to cut the Belg’oz botherhood, the Norod sisterhood and their allied brotherhoods from the UHR. This completely paralysed the seceding sub-faction, as it made it impossible to warp travel, but it also erased for ever a significant portion of the UHR shared data vault.

This sacrifice had to be done to break the secession and save the whole Demiurg confederation. Again, new hymns were written to remember this fateful day.

It then took many centuries to retrieve and recontact every lost brotherhood. Many were never found, and sadly the Norod sisterhood disappeared. The Belg’oz brotherhood was eventually detected. The negotiations were short, and in the end, the Men of iron conversion method was uploaded to the UHR in exchange of the full reintegration of the wandering brotherhood.

Around this same time period, the Demiurg also faced a great loss of faith. With Kazad soiled and unreachable, they were spiritually shaken. The UHR data destruction probably didn’t help either.

This context gave rise to a new religious movement. Naming themselves *the priests of The sacred ground*, these individuals started to go around the brotherhoods, carrying diverse relics and pieces of stone that were supposedly originating from Kazad itself.

Nobody knows now where they originated from, but their ground cleansing ritual became quite popular in a short period of time. This ritual was meant to bring good luck on a digging site by making it temporarily a spiritual part of the mother planet.

This had for effect of rebinding the isolationist brotherhoods to the main conglomerate and gave rise to a powerful ecclesiarch caste. Many brotherhoods did not welcome them, especially those affiliated with the Krun’Kni sisterhood. But after a few centuries, it became normal to see them accompanying almost any mining expedition.

The lowly monks were drawn from repentant criminals, honor lacking folks, and spiritually seeking youth. The violent rituals saw a number of them dying, but for those who survived, their life gained meaning and honor.

Around M32, the famous cult high priests gained a place at the leader’s table of most brotherhood. After that, the monks and the many ranks of priesthood became part of a new militarised reformed movement: the Brawler cult. This solidified the power of the cult and of every brotherhood that welcome them.

Lending monks and weaponry in exchange of patronage was a good deal. The brotherhoods gained military forces and good fortune, while the cult got resources and its members a sure way of regaining one’s honor by dying on the battlefield heroically.

The democratisation of the Iron brother conversion method and the spreading of the Brawler cult brought great stability to the confederation for a while. Being better able to defend themselves meant the brotherhoods’ mining and trading operations got safer and more profitable.

Through this new sense of security, the Kazad calamity was now investigated by more and more Great prospectors from many different brotherhoods. It was not long before the fateful event was discovered to be linked to the former Aeldari Empire. The true comprehension of what happened came much later at the cost of many brutal interrogation sessions. The implications of the creation of the eye of terror remained ungraspable to the cartesian spirit of the Demiurg, but it was understood that the Eldar race was to blame for the desecration of Kazad.

The UHR was immediately updated and, for the first time in millenniums, the whole federation rose, and a global retribution crusade was organised to punish their old neighbours. Even though no Demiurg alive then had ever known Kazad, this grudge had been passed down generations without any culprit to be found in the UHR *Grudges repository*. The rage of their ancestors was still alive. Every Demiurg brotherhood begun actively hunting any Aeldari ships, planets, or craftwolds. Any rumour of a sighting was good enough to heat the engines and draw the guns.

This bloody era lasted a long time and costed both factions so much. At one point, the sisterhoods had no choice but to call an urgent assembly to put an end to the purge. Every brotherhood’s resource had been stretched thin. So many had been caught underprepared by a sneaky Ork warband or a Human fleet while giving chase to a hearsay. Or were completely obliterated by their prey. Vessels of the faction that became known as the Drukhari were especially dangerous to give chase to.

So, to preserve the whole confederation from total collapse, it was decided that the Eldar survivors were to be left alone except in the case of direct encounters. This new rule was applied to different degree by the brotherhoods. Many were in no shape to keep fighting. But all had added many names to the UHR register of grudges.

### M35-M37 - The age of turmoil

The Demiurg confederation must now regrow in strength. The Imperium of Mankind, as it boastfully calls itself, raises back from its internal war in full force. Many brotherhoods are lost, some by direct assault, some lured and tricked by the promise of commercial exchanges.

This is an era of change. Many old alien species, trade partner or not, are whipped off the face of the universe. Nothing can stop the humans. The Demiurg needed to play their cards carefully. They became even more secretive and discrete than ever. Their mining operations only taking place in empty asteroid fields and planetary systems.

The galaxy fringe was still full of alien empires eager to strike a deal with them, but these clients could disappear at any moment by now.

Around M35, the warp became more dangerous to navigate again. Chaos incursions and Ork warbands ravaged whole systems and scoured the in-between stretches of space. War was everywhere again.

Since the strength of the Demiurg was growing back, they were still able to survive. The constant monitoring of events and the UHR not being affected by the winds of the warp or anything else, meant that almost every conflict and warbands in the universe was known to the whole confederation.

They eventually learned to revel in this chaos. Cleansed systems were easy to mine, sieged planets could not defend their asteroids, and waring factions did not care about where their weapons were coming from. Although it was a dangerous business, many daring brotherhoods became insanely rich and influential. These tactics were not universally approved of, but profit is almost as important as honour in Demiurg society. Many hundreds new brotherhoods were founded during these troubled times.

    Another unlikely source of power came from this conjuncture. The state of the human empire led to many human colonies to be left to themselves. This gave rise to many bands of mercenaries travelling through the galaxy on their own, looking for profit and fame. Many brotherhoods began taking up these warbands with them on many military operations to great success. Although, some mercenary gangs became quite entangled with their employer as they depended on them for travel, food, and shelter, to the point where many gangs effectively became enslaved by their associated brotherhood. This was not the case of most, but a kind of stable symbiotic relationship was achieved in many instances. On the other hand, brotherhoods that chose to bring human along were confined to short warp drill ride, as some case of disaster were reported on the UHR when drilling for too long in the immaterium. None the less, this extra military force helped many brotherhoods to keep their operations going through the ravaged galaxy.

Blackstone is a substance that was known to the Demiurg forever. It had been of some interest at some point because it gave the Demiurg hewers a hard time when trying to break it. But eventually, generations of Grand Artisans had managed to design the fusion drills capable of cutting through it. Apart from its incredible toughness and resilience, the material had poor properties and were of no interest to most. It was too hard to harvest and too rare for it to be useful on a large scale.

Nonetheless, there was always some brotherhoods finding a client willing to pay for it, but they were few and unusual. That is until the Thrrain brotherhood’s eccentric Artisan Guild found a way to refine the material. They found that if the material was wrought under colossal pressure at temperatures neighboring the ones reached at the core of small suns, the dark material’s molecules could start vibrating in exotic ways when approaching any Demiurg vicinity.

It wasn’t long before the first tests were conducted on this Darkstone, as it was called. It proved very efficient at repulsing any fast-approaching projectiles. It still needed to be in contact with a Demiurg, but this gave rise to the most notorious and widely used personal under armour in the whole military history of the race: the dark mail.

The price of a single cargo skyrocketed in a matter of a few years. Entire brotherhoods turned their activity to Blackstone prospecting and mining. This sudden popularity of the sought-after material also slowed down its exportation toward alien clients. The very rare buyers had to be astute negotiators and immensely wealthy to get it from a Demiurg merchant. Still, a representative of the Merchants consortium managing the trades of the Blue Furnace conglomerate struck a deal with a mysterious figure in M36.

Demiurg are no fools, they always consult the UHR to identify, and background check their potential client. Weirdly though, this new hooded emissary didn’t ring any bell to the supercomputer. This should have been enough to make any Demiurg turn heels and don’t look back, but the profit potential was overwhelming.

Through deeper investigation though, it was realized that the unknown individual was tied to the many tomb-world scattered in the galaxy. Minimal data on these worlds was registered in the UHR, but it was enough to conclude that these had to be avoided at all costs.

Still, the Necrons offered a good source of wealth for the sable material. What’s more, the Demiurg were some of the very few able to mine the Blackstone effectively. Conversely, some Necron forces started to attack Demiurg vessels to steal the precious material.

From this point on, Necron emissaries, armadas and worlds were entirely avoided if possible. They still caused the loss of many brotherhoods up to the current era.

The Demiurg did not know the same thing would happen a few millenniums later with the forces of the Adeptus Mechanicus. The later were equally avoided as it seemed they were also especially interested in the Iron brothers at the time.

The 7th Black crusade, as the Imperium of man calls it, had a different impact on the Demiurg as the forces of chaos spread through the entire galaxy instead of heading directly for imperial strongholds as before.

The warp is a chaotic place, and chaotic entities actions are the hardest to predict for the UHR, especially in such numbers. This means that many unsuspecting brotherhoods got caught by the chaos crusade tendrils. This called for new innovations.

First came from the Grand Artisan Bjergis Stone-Edge of the Kimri brotherhood a new type of weapons: ion weapons. So far, every Demiurg war weapons were derived from a pre-existing tool. It was culturally how innovation was driven, first trough the appeal of commercial profit, then through the need to attack or defend. This time though, it was different, ion technology was developed with the purpose of making weapons. And it worked great as every brotherhood started to use and adapt the technology to different weapon class.

Then, Firi Iron-Will, Grand Artisan of the Thurm brotherhood, created the most emblematic Demiurg war vehicle: the trackster. This machine was an instant success. It became so emblematic the brawler cult included it in its priesthood path.

With these new technologies at hand, war changed. Brotherhoods could no longer flee in the face of every foe, only to fall under the barrels of another one. The galaxy was more and more dangerous with every passing century.

This era toughened every surviving brotherhood. They became ruthless, just like the universe.

### M38-M39 - The new age

Sometime in M38, the Un’Dras brotherhood needed to assassinate the leader of an isolated human planet. The UHR computation shown that this would cause a civil war of such magnitude that mining operations in the most desolate regions of the world would be safely possible for at least ten years.

They searched for quite a while for anyone who would be interested by the contract. A client eventually introduced them to a Kroot kindred. A contract was struck, but the Demiurg doubt that this feral kill team would succeed. Surprisingly, the leader was swiftly killed in a brutal fashion, and the warband was extracted safely. Only one Kroot had fallen, but the kindred asked for no bonus and seemed completely unphased. This event greatly impressed the Demiurg of the Un’Dras brotherhood. As predicted, the world fell into a violent global civil war that lasted for 12 years. This gave the Demiurg all the time they needed to mine the planet to its core.

The Kroots services were bought again several times in the next years, always to great success. The rise in power and wealth of the Un’Dras Demiurg was noticed by many other brotherhoods. Soon, Kroot kinbands were common sight along Demiurg forces. The rational mind of the Kroots made them natural allies of the Demiurg. The hate of Orks was also shared between the two races.

The Kroot also profited immensely from this new employer. They often take as payment reparation and maintenance of their associated warsphere. Rare and exotic meat is also accepted in exchange for their services. As much as UHR produced prediction maps for the appearance of space hulks.

In late M38, contact was made with an unknown armada of familiar signature in the Segmentum Tempestus area. It had been almost ten thousand years since this specific kind of biotechnology had been seen in the galaxy, but the UHR recognised the strange vessels as Zoat’s.

Where they had been, nobody knows. Why they came back, they didn’t say initially. One thing was sure though, the Zoats were changed. The armada seemed tensed, reacting aggressively to any object getting in their flight path. Further investigations showed that many vessels were in bad shape. They seemed to be collecting any resources they could find, showing that they had used and burned much of theirs to get back in the galaxy.

Though the Zoats showed the be way more hostile-oriented than before, communication was eventually established and emissaries from both factions were exchanged. Through the promise of help from the Demiurg confederation, the ancient alliance was revived, old oaths reviewed and agreed upon.

It wasn’t long before Zoats were part of almost every brotherhood’s entourage again. Their natural flair for diplomacy and negotiation guaranteed increased profits. They also proved to be worthy fighters nowadays, and it wasn’t rare to see some deployed alongside Demiurg squads. Their neutron-based weapons proved to be quite lethal and it is now abundantly used in Demiurg flamers.

While many brotherhoods got caught in the great turmoil in the Segmentum Obscurus occurring around M39, the rest of the Demiurg confederation fared quite well. Prosperity seemed guaranteed. A new Citadel-class space station was even in construction as the Thur’or sisterhood was growing in power and number beyond what was calculated to be politically sustainable. The sisterhood would be able to split into two new sisterhoods.

Following an uneventful Blackstone extraction operation, the Angor brotherhood came in possession of a strange artifact of unknown origin. It was believed to be some sort of energy generator and a team of artisan started to test its potential uses. The weird object’s functioning kept evading the Demiurg grasp for many years. As a last resort, the relic was placed in an analyse chamber where the UHR would compare it to its immense amount of data. This should have cracked open the enigmatic item. Instead, after years of computing, the UHR came almost empty handed. It did identify its origin though: necron.

But then, hundreds of Bastion-class and Stronghold-class vessels lost connection to the UHR. Those who were still connected found that it was not as reliable as usual. It seemed that something was corrupting its data. The necro-virus, as it was later called, incapacitated the whole confederation for just long enough for disaster to strike. Some vessels got lost in the warp forever, others fell to the expanding Ork WAAAGH! Murgor.

The corrupting was quickly stopped by counter-measure systems. But then a Necron armada appeared from nowhere. It struck at the most densely populated area of space: the shipyard of the new Citadel-class space-station. The many vessels that were going to-and-fro carrying the necessary resources got caught unprepared for this attack.

Devastation ensued; hundreds of brotherhoods were destroyed along their vessels. The remaining ones fought tooth and nail to allow the Thur’or sisterhood to charge up its massive warp drill and escape. The superior technology of the attacker took the defenders by surprise. The new Citadel was destroyed along the remaining brotherhoods.

This somber day is known as ‘’the corrupting’’ as the UHR was nearly destroyed on that day. Never before was it attacked with such strength. Much of the corrupted data was never retrieved. The Thur’or sisterhood lost much in the attack and never came back to its former power.

In the following centuries, known unawaken Necron tomb worlds, that were until then avoided at all costs, were attacked, and disabled by special task forces. Necron technology was intensely studied by the many artisan guilds, so that they could be better prepared next time they face.

### M40 - The military overhaul

In M40, the Demiurg confederation came in contact with the T’au Empire. The Demiurg confederation had fail to notice this new galactic player as it defied expectations. Even in the wildest of simulations, never the UHR could have predicted a new empire could grow this fast. This would make for lucrative new untapped market.

The Srry’tok brotherhood was first introduced to the Tau of the water caste from the Dal’yth sept through the Kroots. Trading agreements were quickly established, and both factions benefited from this.

Through the next centuries, many more brotherhoods came to the farthest corner of the Segmentum Ultima to strike a deal with the young empire. The Grand Artisan Kroml Copper-Pick from the Thurm brotherhood took particular interest in the T’au technology at the time. A delegation of Zoats met the water caste representants of the Fal’shia sept and an exchange congress was organised between the Artisan Guild of the sector and the highest members of the sept’s earth caste.

This event brought ion technology in the arsenal of the T’au, In exchange, the Artisan Guild got a more stable form of plasma weapon. Other technologies were exchanged in many other fields. The Grand Artisan was able to take a look at the drones of the T’au Empire, and although they did not seem to pose a threat, the Demiurg are keeping an eye on those to this day.

But the most influential agreement was reached by the Srry’tok brotherhood. By the end of M40, it was agreed that the brotherhood was going sent a delegation of young warriors on Dal’yth to go through the fire warrior training regiment in exchange for ten years of military service. Ten years is not much in the life a Demiurg, who can often live two to three hundred years. Ans so, when most of the sent Demiurg came back after their service, they had been trained in the modern ways of waging war on foot.

For quite a while now, most brotherhoods rarely deployed their militia. Except for the Brawler cult, they preferred to sent Iron brothers and mercenaries do the heavy lifting during grounded confrontations. There wasn’t even a possible purely military career in the Demiurg society. But the Srry’tok agreement changed everything.

The battle tactics were uploaded on the UHR and in a few decades the Fusilier Force was a new part of almost every brotherhood. Many other brotherhoods signed the same agreement with the T’au Empire. Extensions were added to the agreement so that especially talented Demiurg could go back after their service to study in revered T’au military schools.

This path became the best way for a lowly Demiurg to gain fame, glory, and wealth. Soon enough, the Fusilier Overseer rank was created for the greatest hero of every Fusilier Force. In time, this position came with a seat at the table of the high council of almost every brotherhood.

### M41 - The schism

In M41, the ion weapons got miniaturized with the discovery of mor’tonium alloy. This allowed for the development of the ion blaster, based on the T’au pulse blaster. It quickly became the signature weapon of the Fusilier Forces.

Just has many brotherhoods were traveling through the eastern part of the galaxy, the first signs of what the Zoats had called ‘’the great devourer’’ were registered in the UHR. Hive Fleet Behemoth only grazed the T’au Empire, but the devastation it left in its path couldn’t be unnoticed at a galactic scale. Nothing could have prepared the Demiurg for that kind of new foe, the UHR had nothing to compare it to. The Demiurg losses were still minimal, but the Tyranids left an impression on the space miners.

Although, no sane Demiurg likes to witness death and suffering, this new threat also came with an unexpected opportunity. The Tyranids do consume entire planets’ biomaterial, water, and usable minerals, but it was realised that on planets with particularly thick crust, the great devourer didn’t waste too much energy getting the deepest minerals.

For anyone else, these minerals wouldn’t be of any interest, as getting to them would simply not be profitable. But the Demiurg mining technologies and techniques are so much more efficient than any other faction counterpart. And so, many brotherhoods started to prospect behind the Tyranid’s desolation path.

Of course, there’s always Tyranids lifeforms left behind on every planet, usually in the deepest crevices. But although this new business was risky, it was quite lucrative. To be able to dig without caring about the inhabitants of a planet was a blessing for the Demiurg. The biggest risk still came from wanting to be the first brotherhood on the newly barren planet and making the hive fleet turn back for an easy snack.

In time the Demiurg learned to fight the new menace efficiently enough to safely retreat in those cases. They have been successfully harvesting behind the Hive Fleet Gorgon and Kraken mainly.

As M41 was drawing to an end, a most peculiar vessel was identified by the Garag brotherhood. It bore every mark of an ancient Demiurg vessel. Contact was made. The inhabitants were undeniably Demiurg, but they were definitely speaking an old form of classic Khuzul, the main Demiurg language.

The strangers pretended to be coming from the most unlikely origin. They had to be brought in front of the Krun’Kni sisterhood, who then called for an urgent reunion of the high council of the sisterhoods.

Then the leader of the small group of strange Demiurg said what he came to say: they were from Kazad. The planet had somewhat endured being plucked out of existence. More surprising still was the fact that its inhabitant could have survived somewhat. And finally, how could this group of Demiurg could have found their way out of the labyrinthine dimension without the help of the UHR?

Stranger still, was the fact that time did not seem to affect Kazad and its inhabitants the same way as real-space. Indeed, the visitors seemed to say that only a few centuries had passed since the calamity.

This impactful event couldn’t be kept a secret for long. The UHR was soon updated. This created a great debate among the brotherhoods and even between the sisterhoods. Was it the truth? Was Kazad really out there? Lost in the warp, but still intact? This created two sub-factions: the believers and the non-believers.

The first crusade of believers entered the warp in search of the lost holly planet a few years later. It simply never came back. Many more searching missions were organised, but without any success so far.

The gap between believers and non-believers only widened with time. It is still keeping the Demiurg Confederation from uniting under a single banner to this day.

### M42 - The Age of Rise

Many brotherhoods were still searching the warp when the Great Rift appeared. Although the UHR had been able to calculate that the warp was indeed agitated, the violence of this event could not have been predicted. Needless to say, none of these brotherhoods were ever seen again.

In an instant, the power layout of the galaxy was changed once more. The Confederation will have to adapt like it did before. After all, good clients and good mining ground are everywhere.

This time though, they cannot keep a passive role like they did in the past. They are more embroiled in the fate of the galaxy than ever. Every major power wants a piece of them, and it looks like their salvation could come from their cooperation with the T’au Empire and the strength of their other economic alliances.

## Forces of the Brotherhoods

### HQ

#### Great Prospector

Venerable among the venerables, the Great prospector is the most respected member of the Demiurg society. They are the historian-statistician-king of their kind. Anything they say is taken as holly truth. They are always directly connected to the UHR, taking in the precious data from the battlefield and issuing orders based on the calculation and processing of these data. They will usually carry a Great rock splitter which can split any material, but most importantly, truth and lie.

#### Brawler Ancient

The most legendary brawler can, after a life of self sacrifice, be promoted to the rank of Ancient through the Ground cleansing ceremony. These true living hero of the Demiurg often have the most impressive resume of vanquished enemies. From Tyranid Tyrant to Demon Prince and Ork Warboss, nothing can stand in their way. They bear the honorable horns and the modest crest on their helmet to show where they come from and where they are right now. They will often ride into battle onto their own track-shield, wielding a massive Slayer hammer that can crush or pierce almost anything.

#### Grand Artisan

The great artisan is a master of crafting Demiurg equipment. They are true genius who can analyse, comprehend, and repair any machine in matter of seconds. It goes without saying that they are most valuable on the battlefield, as they bring a baffling degree of resilience to the army they accompany. He also is the only one who can repair and maintain the Iron brothers. On the battlefield, they will usually be following units of Iron brothers or stay close to pieces of artillery.

#### Fusilier Overseer

These particularly ambitious individuals have rose to the highest echelon one lowly Demiurg brother can attain through military feats alone. Now well respected, they lead other fusiliers’ regiments to war. Thanks to their incredible skills, they can also be deployed on their own, seeking to cripple enemy lines by eliminating important actors or by causing confusion and destruction among rank-and-file units. They are fitted with equipment that allow them to truly adapt to any situation.

### Troops

#### Fusilier Trooper

The fusilier is usually a low ranked member of the brotherhood seeking fast glory. The military career is a risky but sure way to gain prestige and wealth in the demiurg society. These adventurous individuals are sent to the Dal’yth sept to be drilled by the T’au Empire training regiment. They are usually deployed as foot soldier for a Demiurg warband or whenever a sisterhood request aid. They wield the latest improvement to infantry weaponry, developed by a Demiurg and T’au collaboration: the ion blaster, derived from the pulse blaster. They also borrow much of the standard fire warrior equipment as it is most suited to modern warfare and facilitate coordination with the Tau.

#### Brawler Monk

Demiurg who have lost their honour, broken a promise, or are serving jail time can redeem themselves by undergoing the Brawler priesthood. The spiritual journey aim at being the living embodiment of the ancestor gods or die trying. Only by defeating foes in the most heroic manner can this be achieved. The death rate is extremely high among these monks, but such is the price to pay to recover one’s honour. They are fitted with a decorated Setlan pickaxe, the very symbol of Demiurg society, and show the traditional fiery crest.

#### Human Mercenary

Between the glory seeking fusilier recruits and the brawler redeemers, the brotherhoods never have enough foot soldiers. Most brotherhoods will bring along a plethora of xeno and human mercenaries to complete their forces. These star corsairs are far more common than the Imperium might think. Some of them have been fighting for Demiurg brotherhoods for so long they gain power and trust from their employer. The greatest and most trusted human chieftain can wield various gifts such as the Slayer hammer and the Ionized-plasma pistol.

### Elites

#### Brawler Guard

The brawlers that survived the gyro-drifter and trackster trials, and proved to be most heroic while doing so, are usually granted the rank of Brawler Guard. They lose the wings and win their horns, the greatest honor achievable. They will usually be attached to an Ancient Brawler, or any other important leader, which they will protect at all costs, throwing their life on the line without a second thought. These hardened brawlers are literally as tough as rock.

#### Iron Brother

The Artisan Guilds are quite proud of how they tamed and improved these terrible human constructs. The marvellous war machines have been upgraded to make them even tougher. They’ve also been fitted with the best and most polyvalent weapons the Demiurg forges can produce. So perfect is their creation, they are now revered as walking embodiment of the ancestor gods.

#### Zoat Emissary

The very first xeno allies of the Demiurg have returned to the galaxy at last. The Zoats are massive and cunning aliens who bring with them their own very lethal and exotic armament. Their very aura can disrupt or ease the mind of anyone who crosses them. They can be teleported to the battlefield trough a portable portal that can be carried by infantry units.

#### Kroot Tracker

A tracker team is a special operative force of highly experimented Kroot carnivores. Their wages are a bit higher than ordinary kindreds, but they are far more efficient at taking down valuable targets. They are set loose on the battlefield to disrupt enemy lines and inflict massive damage to their selected prey. They can bring a wide variety of weapon so they can adapt to any situation.

#### Brewmeister

Brewmeisters are as much master brewer as they are legendary fighter. Their inebriating brew can harden any demiurg to insane levels and even get him back on its feet. Each lineage of brewer has its own secret recipes that it will fight to death to keep from anyone. They usually bring a Forge fist to the battlefield, which are specifically crafted for them as only a truly strong willed and heavily inebriated Demiurg can wield such great weapon.

#### Horn Tooter

The Horn tooter is one of the most appreciated actor on a battlefield. These wild individuals trundle on war thorn terrains with a great horn and a powerful voxcast interpreting the most beloved and engaging tune of the Demiurg. Their charism and flaming personality can bring out any emotion from a Demiurg heart.

### Fast Attack

#### Gyro-Drifter

The brawlers who survived the most dangerous campaigns and did so in honorable ways lose the crest on their helmet and are awarded the wings. These represent the swiftness of the death to some as they begin the Gyro-drifter trial. The drifters will usually descend upon the enemy backlines, dealing massive damage at close range. They are the most likely to suffer major casualties, but it’s the best way to regain one’s honour. Their cutting beam and energy drill can pierce almost anything.

#### Trackster

The most honourable brawlers that survived the Gyro-drifter trial can then be allowed to drive the most venerable demiurg battle vehicle: the trackster. These are usually split into small independent squads that can advance up front into enemy territory or flank enemy lines to crush them like iron under a hammer. These brawlers will become more than brothers as they might survive a few engagements. Each trackster team is usually accompanied by a heavy trackster. It borrows the same basic chassis as the trackster, but can carry much scarier weapons.

#### Tunnel Crawler

These small vehicles are the perfect platform for middle range heavy weapons. They are adapted to many types of terrains and can navigate through tunnels with ease. They are constructed by the Artisan Guild, but operated by fusilier troopers.

### Heavy Support

#### Heavy Fusilier

The most talented and weathered Demiurg fusiliers that can go up the ranks by joining the Heavy fusiliers. These are as heavily armored as they are armed. They are usually equipped with ion rifles or ionized-plasma cannon. Those showing a talent for close quarter encounters can be granted the honour of wielding the famously lethal heavy neutron flamer. The Harpoon cannon each team brings provides mobility to the team.

#### T.R.O.L.L. Mining Suit

The most well guarded secret of the Demiurg mining technology is probably the T.R.O.L.L. mining suit. These robust constructs are tougher than it is reasonable to be. The driver is usually a great warrior and a veteran mechanic, making taking the suit down even more difficult. The true secret of its success though is the fact that the suit itself is quite self aware. When the suit and his driver are perfectly in sync, there’s very little they can’t accomplish.

#### Hill Leveler

These vehicles are just as sturdy as an imperial tank. They are as much mining and battle vehicles. Each brotherhood will ornate and shine their Hill levelers as it is a great source of pride. They also bring to the battlefield the most destructive weapons or the Demiurg arsenal.

### Transports

#### Assault Drill

This most iconic Demiurg vehicle is vastly used through every brotherhood. It is used in exploratory missions as well as militaristic operations. It can move with ease through any kind of terrain with its massive drill head and powerful tracks or cut clean through tougher material thanks to its mining beams. Many battles were won only because of the strategic value of the assault drill. Bringing troops and small vehicle in the heart of the enemy army by blasting the terrain from beneath their feet is indeed remarkably effective.

#### Honour Trackster

Only the most incredibly talented trackster driver gets the opportunity to drive a honour trackster when it is promoted to the Guard rank. This vehicle is exclusively used to carry the most important individuals and commanders around the battlefield.

## Sources

* *Fanmade Codex: Demiurg confederation* (9th edition)