Kumun Hegemony

**Dev. Status** | Conceptual

*"How does it feel, ah how does it feel?*

*To be on your own, with no direction home*

*Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone"*

- "Like A Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan
The **Kumun Hegemony** can be said to be the first Quantum faction to be entirely unique to it and not either ported from the fanwiki or based on a fanwiki faction. It is a faction of literal intelligent mole people who have evolved separately from humanity in a sort of underdark of enormous cavern complexes. Convinced that humanity is doomed to destroy not only the surface world but their own world, the Kumun are starting to sally forth to protect their homes by forever eliminating the possibility that humanity can threaten them.

## At A Glance

 **Visual Themes** | The molepeople/skaven miner's union goes to war with solid, sturdy but small and angular contraptions

## Background

### I am a Mole and I'm Digging a Hole

The Kumun Hegemony has its origins far back in the past, where populations of a creature that shared traits with both star nosed moles and rats started digging deeper and deeper into the Earth and explored ever darker caverns. In this time before time, millions of years before the dawn of man these pre-sapient moles came upon a fascinating discovery. Miles below the surface was a network of enormous tunnels, caverns, and an underground world with areas so vast that many of them had flight capable fauna and pools of water rivaling many lakes and rivers on the surface. From the surface, these burrowing mammals colonized this new ecosystem, lit by bioluminescent fungi and creatures rather than the sun and inhabited by life that those from the surface would find strange. Evolution would take these beings down a new path. To prosper better in their environment, some of the mole populations grew smarter and larger, they developed thumbs to start manipulating their environment, and in trying to cleverly manipulate their environment and solve the puzzle of social interaction and the next day's meal, they grew smarter and cleverer, dividing into five main subspecies, four of which are born only male and the fifth that are born only female, but who can give birth to all five subspecies. The stout and tough Stone Kumun were thick of limb and short of height, being the best adapted to burrowing through tough materials. The long tailed, skinny, and swift Warren Kumun, who make up half of the birth litter, inhabited the various tunnels and warrens, evolving to swarm over their competition; the huge and muscular Underworld Kumun took their homes in the largest of the "underworld" expanses, having sheer power to call their own. The so called Ruler Kumun, the fourth and second most reclusive variety of Kumun, arose from Kumun who needed their height to brown for food from tall funguses and to amplify the effects of their tool use; exemplified by their larger brains in proportion to their body size that caused them to become the rulers or advisors of the Kumun. And finally the Brood Kumun, said to inherit the best traits of the other four as the largest, strongest, and yet the rarest variety that is the only female of the species, who can be impregnated by the other four male subspecies, in fact they can have simultaneous pregnancies, and give birth to all five subspecies in huge litters (which is always randomized no matter the donor), making them essential to the Kumuns survival, and thus live in hidden warrens (not even the other four knows where they live) that are heavily protected, and in exchange for resources they can’t get by themselves they would breed with the clans to produce more Kumun (with the child of other subspecies given to the others), but in the rare times they were forced to fight they were a terror on the field, whose combat capabilities are unaffected by potential pregnancy.

They started fashioning simple tools and weapons, developing more complex social hierarchies as they started to form tribes and clans. In time, fire was utilized by harnessing the power of things burned by the deadly flame breath of an underworld predator, and they made their own fire, treating it far more religiously and reverently than those on the surface due to fire's ability to steal oxygen, dangerous in the cramped tunnels, but also because of its power to shape the metal that they needed to master the Underworld. From their origin point, the Kumun began spreading out to all corners of the Underworld. From this deep, dark realm the descendants of these moles, with great sensitive eyes to better capitalize on the luminescence of their home, they built themselves civilization. They farmed crops of fungus and chemosynthetic plants, they tamed the wild of the Underworld as they spread across all over the world. They built themselves homes to shelter themselves against the hostile wild places of the world.

The Kumun, as they came to call themselves in the now dominant Warren Kumun language, discovered writing and metal working in good time as their civilizations entered a new era. They made war, they made art, they made song and dance, and crafted great monuments to whatever needing memorializing. One constant was that each of these cultures learned how to work the stone and metal like few on the surface ever could. While never learning how to work with things like wood for lack of trees to harvest, they did discover the utility of lighter metals such as titanium and aluminum long before the surface did to serve much the same purpose and created factory like coal powered blast furnaces while mankind was still stumbling with cottage industry, creating vast amounts of worked metal in a sort of early industrial revolution. The dangers of using coal fired machines underground were of course noted, and they quickly turned to other sources of energy, eventually discovering the mysterious metal that they dubbed elerium (when translated into our tongue, it is natively called "Urgudalak"), which they used to power their machines as well as a special compound that produced an eerie green flame when it burned, and they found it could burn even on water and several kinds of metal; or even explode if powdered (as opposed to its normal jelly form) and ignited sufficiently violently that they called "Hyruzin".

Thus the factory-forges became sacred places, and the already revered fire became a universal constant in their religions, with blacksmiths and stone masons taking on holy tones. Like the humans, they had their religions, their songs, their poems, their stories, and their flags. Elerium would be seen as a gift from their Underworld gods, and those who understood its ways were revered as wisemen above wisemen. For the longest time, Elerium was simply seen as magic, and due to a lack of a scientific method, little progress was made in advancing their primitive devices for ages. Writing, done with the dyes of common animals and fungi, written on the dried opaque film of a kind of chemosynthetic lichen, helped them record their holy works and communicate across their burgeoning countries. Like humans, they would fight, bleed, and die for these things, their homes, their religion, their languages, their families, and they cherished them no less than we would.

Sometimes these Kumun would find ways to the surface, where they found that the light was far more hateful and bright than what they were used to down and down in the deep. They found that the surface was actually, to their surprise, populated by creatures no less strange and terrifying to them than their own creatures would be to us. Some later scholars in Kumun society who had some knowledge of human society later came to believe that some early contact with the "shaved surface folk" was what lead to tales of creatures like the mole people and giant rats first taking root. For their part, accounts of whatever lived on the surface became tales of shaved monsters, likely suggesting that in this time immemorial, early Kumun and man often did come to blows that would be forgotten by both societies.

But writing was a much more universal and widespread invention among the Kumun than it was on the surface, and so these encounters were recorded and so better remembered. Caution would be taken with the naked men of the upperearth, but it would be enlightened caution. The other commonly encountered problem they would face would be the hairy, but still shaven by their standards, squat devils and their pointed eared kins of the sea, the seven Dawuardin clans, people of Atlantis, and her other cities. The first meeting between the two people is lost to time, but according to the Kumun, the Dawuardin started initial hostilities by, in their unlimited greed, desecrated a treasure of great clan importance to a particular and powerful Low King of the Kumun, leading to a long on and off series of conflicts between much of the Kumun species and much of the Alaeva subspecies, mainly the Dawuardins who lived above them. The Dawuardins of course, give a different reason but why would you trust those lying hairy faced scum?

The wars with the Dawuardin, and their allies the Atlanteans, would give the disparate governments that ruled over the Kumun the idea of a united Kumun people, as despite the Kumun's larger numbers, the greater unity of the Dawuardin, their greater mastery of crafting and metallurgy, their use of explosives, and their Atlantean ally allowed them to repeatedly hold the advantage in their secret clashes in underground strongholds, underwater domes, and in the Underworld. Though a war never recorded by surface historians as the surface world turned, with Antiquity finally perishing and giving way to the Medieval era. But then the Kumun discovered something that was able to help them drive out the Dawuardins and Atlanteans from their homes when the war had thoroughly turned against them. Firearms, as they found a way to make both gunpowder and a dropleted form of their burning jelly. The Atlanteans, terrified of fire and finding it hard to keep up with the development of Kumun cannonry, eventually came to peace talks, even as the Dawuardins stubbornly held, as the Gunpowder equipped Kumun drove them back out of their territory, eventually reaching a stalemate on neutral grounds that ended in an unfriendly peace. But while the Dawuardin followed the peace, after some arguments, they have still reinforced their borders, and their hatred for their sea-kins “cowardice” had further soured their already rocky relationship.

### To Dig and Dig Makes Us Free!

The idea of a united Kumun people had been formed, but the hard part would be creating that unity. As soon as the war was over, old rivalries flared again and the Kumun turned to war with one another for centuries. The records spoke of constant conflict in the centuries of conflict between the end of the Dawuardin/Atlantean wars and the rise of the Hegemony. But the nation most important to the unification of the Kumun species is almost certainly Garadogon. There the Low Queen of that place dreamed of a unified people under the earth. And while most other rulers also dreamed of such a thing, it was her dream that won out. Low Queen Kudurukuk proclaimed that her people must fight for the unity that had always seemed to elude not only people of her own Viziduk Ethnicity (of the Brood Kumun), but all Kumun.

Kudurukuk first fought numerous wars for the sake of uniting her own ethnicity, having to use clever diplomacy and the skilled usage of Causus Bellis to take more and more of her own people's back under her thumb. The Low queen's armies battled for decades, in countless confusing and convoluted realms within the darkest, deepest realms of the Underworld. She and her Chancellor worked tirelessly to unite her nation, proclaiming the idea that all Viziduks should be as one people. Thus, the idea of a Viziduk nation was born, and further aided by the revolts of people who wanted to join the rising nation of Garadogon, Kudurukuk saw all of her people united under one crown and one low queendom. All the tribes, all the kingdoms, duchies, principalities, republics, clans and more of her people now pledged allegiance to her throne, which she renamed the Empire of Vizadaka.

In the more surfacewards conflicts of the Viziduk unification wars, her soldiers claimed to encounter armored humans bearing the symbol of a golden eagle and a black shield. They told her of their battle with these armored figures bearing crosses and clad in fine metals competing with the likes of the Dawuardins hated Mythril, a thought terrifying to the Kumun who prided themselves on the quality of their mastery of the stuff of the Earth (something they consider are more superior to the Dawuardins). The motivations and the identities of these attackers was never made clear to Kumun historians, but it was known that they were violent and powerful, and unlike many other surface raiders, meticulously mapped out the passages of the under-earth they found. But Kudurukuk died before anything could be done, and her successors were far more interested in finishing the dream of uniting all Kumun people than dealing with any surface raiders, so the incident was buried in the pages of history.

The Kumun unification wars would span centuries. Continuing improvements, though not guided by a scientific method for many years, were made as the Kumun sought to unite themselves under one flag or the other. Due to the shorter than average lives but fast breeding and fecundity of the Kumun, wars often stretched on for a long time and were generally bloody, protracted affairs. Whereas the scientific method in the world above was a product of peacetime enlightenment philosophers, the scientific method was instead formulated centuries into the unification wars to gain military edges over opponents. As more and more smaller countries disappeared into empires or ethnically homogenous nations, the various wars spread across Kumun history got increasingly more violent.

Numerous Vidaka rulers took to the throne in these times, usually meeting their end either by assassination or dying on the battlefield as tradition asked that they lead from the front. But the dream of a united Kumun peoples proved to be inescapable. Even as technology marched on and the industrial revolution truly got underway with the harnessing of electricity and the application of mathematics and science to their earlier religious industrial practices, the Kumun went from pike and shot formations to testing out automatic weaponry and massed explosives in wars of colonization, unification, and conquest. Finally in the very late 1800s, a great power war was fought, one that stretched until 1933, a conflict that would finally answer the question of who would dominate Kumun politics. And that answer was a very firm "Vizadaka" as the treaty of Urgukak proclaimed the foundation of the Hegemony.

Rather than outright conquer the other peoples, a Hegemony was established. A blanket organization for all Kumun people where each of the fighting nations would be represented at a council with their own sub-parliaments. Though Vizadaka would dominate this hegemony, as the name implied, all the nations of the entire Kumun species would be represented and their borders would be respected even as they were now turned into protectorates of Vizadaka. Now, there was at last unity and peace after so much warfare. A day of celebration was declared even as those who had met their doom on the battlefield were mourned. A new age was finally established. An age of the Hegemony. And it was hoped that would be the end of war for the Kumun.

### We Do Not Fear What Lies Above

But that hoped for peace proved to be short-lived. For the first time, the Kumun started to grow truly concerned with the progress of civilization above them. Mankind was growing ever more adept at destroying itself and threatening the safety of everything else that shared the planet with it. The second world war was a cause of some concern, though many Kumun disregarded it. After all, Humanity was still using standard explosives with some sprinklings of chemical weapons. The war wasn't even as lethal as their last so called "world" war in terms of humans killed by the conflict, though the MAD tanks certainly were a cause for concern due to their seismic nature. Even the outbreak of the third world war did not really worry the Kumun, the weapons that humanity used; while imaginative, were not particularly more destructive than standard explosives. Sometime during the third world war however, the Hegemony came from attack by the surface and a great many kumun were killed by gas attacks and explosives causing cave ins. When the attackers assaulted the palace, Garadata found to her horror that her brood was slaughtered to the last. Too old to reproduce any further, this meant that her bloodline was extinguished and would end with her. Pained and anguished, she discovered that this was the work of humans instead of simple human pawns of rival kumun factions, and vowed to wipe out the human race so that they would all know what it was like to lose their children.

Though powerful, Garadata could not singlehandedly summon the Kumun to war; despite the brutal murder of her brood and a series of destructive attacks started but many Kumun did not yet feel that retaliation was needed. Yes it was tragic, but not all humans could surely be like those who struck in the month of woes. But like the Dawuardin/Atlanteans, what really set them off was the usage of nuclear weaponry in the closing phase of the Chinese Civil war. For the first time, humanity had unlocked the capacity to destroy itself and spread ruin to all the Earth. This could no longer be tolerated. The time to wage war to defend the world from the folly of man had come, the people of stone would have to punish the men of the overworld for playing with toys they could not possibly control. To the mass approval of her fellow Kumun, Grand Low Queen and Supreme Hegemon Garadata declared that no longer could the Kumun just idly stand by and watch as the world burned, finally rallying Kumunkind to her desire to punish humanity for their role in the deaths of her brood and the month of woes. Though low level conflicts with strangers and rebels had forced the Kumun to remain at the ready in the decades since the declaration of peace in the Underworld, this would be the first time that the Kumun had experienced total war in more than thirty years. Garadata called for an army of vast size to have her vengeance.

Hundreds of millions of clansfolk answered the call to war and the forges churned out a vast panoply of everything needed for war; forming an army numbering in the billions. Propaganda reels were created, assuring the Hegemony of the inevitability of victory and the very real nature of the threat from the peoples above. Molerats of learning were contacted and put their minds towards the ways of war as a truly frightful mobilization was undertaken for the sake of the entire world. As the Chinese civil war began dying down and Atomic China rose, the Kumun Hegemony began to send out its first feelers onto the surface to determine the extent of the threat posed by humanity and to act as a vanguard for the full scale war machine that was waiting behind them, and taking this “Jade” which they have a strange obsession with. Due to their mastery of the world of the Underworld, the Kumun could easily pick and choose their battles and retreat before anyone could be alerted of the forces working to literally undermine human civilization.

But in these vanguard conflicts and skirmishes, the Hegemony's initial suspicions about other mysterious forces at work intensified. The men in their blessed steel were found to be more than just rumor, the purple and silver tide of machines was a threat much vaster than they had initially anticipated from their initial skirmishes with burrowing elements of the protectorate, the stars themselves seemed to be bringing forth great numbers of heavenborne aggressors, and men were pouring forth from another reality in two varieties, one shouting about mankind's destiny, the other shouting about their great gods, and many more from other realities. And this was before one counted those who, while not fully secret, involved themselves heavily with the secret world, and of course those who were wholly invested in the worlds it appeared to be.

Furthermore, the Continental Revolutionaries were heavily involving themselves into furthering their research in seismic technology and were continually working to expand their reach underground to keep out of the reach of Allied and Unionist airpower. The Network eagerly sought to uncover the secrets of what lay beneath, the Unionists, Soviets, and Cyberbolivaran Forum both sought to build and expand heavily underground to keep their most precious assets safe. The Combine and Allies, seeking to both preserve more delicate resources and explore the uncharted depths of the underground world, were also furthering their tunneling efforts. These and other programs made to build and grow in a dimension relatively untouched by mankind until now further deepened the worry of the Hegemony, which seems moribound on a collision course with the world above.

And so the Hegemony has constructed a plan to forever eliminate the threat of the surface world. Devastate the world above, level all traces of industrial civilization and roll back the clock of human development to the medieval era. Cut down the human population down to a manageable one hundred and fifty million, excepting some populations of humans who can be trusted to help watch over the reduced population of the shaved surface creatures for the Kumun. Then colonize the surface world to keep a close eye on their corralled populations of humans. This would require a war of apocalyptic proportions, one that the Hegemony feels is necessary to protect Kumun civilization. That it requires the kneecapping of human civilization is irrelevant to the leaders of the hegemony. An army more than four billion strong will be readied to crush the human-things under a carpet of fur and teeth.

## Gameplay

### Build Mechanics

Due to the Kumuns life underground, all of their structures are built instantly and anywhere on the map the commander has vision. However, they are inactive for some time as the mining crews must dig a tunnel and connect it to the Turgarajun, with the time to come online depending on the distance to the nearest Kumun structure and cost of the structure, where a barracks would be instantly built when next to the Turgarajun it could take minutes to build it if on the opposite side of the map. And during this time these structures are even weaker and can be easily demolished once spotted.

### Power Mechanics

Though their power plant initially starts with lower power, the Jusktajun can have engineers garrisoned who offer extra power by digging up extra fuel and further purifying the fuel they receive. And at max capacity is above the average of most power plant.

### Unit Mechanics

All Kumun production structures can switch between producing units or supporting the same structures nearby. By supporting the same structures the Kumun would accelerate the build time and reduce the units cost by 5%, stacks up to ten times.

### Tier Mechanics

Tiers are unlocked by researching technologies at the Porlanjun that provide for assorted minor upgrades like the Allied protocol screen, forming a relatively simple tech three one can ascend to unlock more units and structures.

### Technology

 File:IconKumun.png | Electrochemical Guns
 File:IconKumun.png | Green Fire
 File:IconKumun.png | Elerium
 File:IconKumun.png | Electro-Magnetic Pulses
 File:IconKumun.png | Burrowing

## The Vermintide

*"They're everywhere! A tide of vermin scratching and clawing beneath our feet! In our own arrogance we've awakened the rage of the Earth itself and they will not rest until we are all destroyed! They teem in a tide of vermin beyond counting, striking us at their leisure! We cannot survive this, none of us can survive this! Death, by God, Death is here!"*

-Last words of famed adventurer Jorge Núñez, discovered by a team of explorers

### Aircraft

 File:IconKumun.png | Ikonahuk
 File:IconKumun.png | Ulhanahuk
 File:IconKumun.png | Turehuk
 File:IconKumun.png | Gorkahuk

### Navy

While the Kumun Navy is quite weak, it still packs some teeth.

 File:IconKumun.png | Zaranak
 File:IconKumun.png | Nanarnak
 File:IconKumun.png | Hurgnak
 File:IconKumun.png | Urgalnak