Khet

The **Khet** were a sapient race that lived in the outwards regions of the Demise in the Aoshtai Galaxy. Regarded as a race of spacers and astrobarbarians, they are infamous for the political manipulation and invasion of the local polities of the Nequedes star cluster in the event known as the Bacchulite Revolt. Little knowledge beyond firsthand accounts of the conflict and secondary sources are available to detail the various aspects of the Khet, leaving much to speculation regarding the species's biology, culture, and other fundamental aspects.

They are considered to be extinct in the modern day, with most citing the end of the Bacchulite Revolt or the subsequent Tesari conquest of the cluster as the point of their extinction.

## Biology

While a Khet was never seen outside of the protective mechanized armor that their kind utilized in combat situations, eyewitness accounts from legionaries sent to quell the revolt describe the Khet as an insectoid species that stand around two-and-a-half meters tall on average. They are described as lithe, almost anorexic in their frames, with four long limbs that allow them to climb and reach holds in their spaceborne habitats.

It has been speculated by various historians that the Khet encountered within the Revolt were entirely composed of spacers, and thus were not the baseline for their species; the baseline Khet is believed to be somewhat similar in build, if only shorter and more firmly built in comparison.

## History

The first reference in official documents to the Khet (or a race similar to the Khet) comes from an etheric transmission dating to around 71,000 BNE, specifically a communique to the Order of Lessos. Within the communique, a colonial lord requests the services of a missionary expedition to their land, as they had made contact with a *"race of strange space-living folk"* whom they had not yet managed to speak with. While documents do exist to confirm that a group of missionaries were sent to convene with the aliens, it is unclear from hereon if the race described within is the Khet or a similar species, as well as being unclear upon the success of the mission’s efforts to make contact and proselytize upon the aliens.

Exact references to the species’s name come from the late 65,000's BNE, when detailed reports of small-scale skirmishes in the Demise borderlands detailed the similarity between attacks made across the region, declaring that all attacks were made by the same group, which was generally referred to as "Khet". Various mentions of the Khet among local media and military documents would cement the name among the imperial consciousness, with most mentions of the race being used as a derogatory term for non-Aoshanti enemies of the Empire, or within propaganda campaigns that sought to raise awareness of the actual Khet and to recruit officers into the imperial navy.

The most notorious and well-documented knowledge of the Khet race’s history is with their actions leading up to and involved within the Bacchulite Revolt. Near the collapse of the Empire, various astrobarbarians were attempting to force their way into the Empire’s territories, conquer their own swathes of land or settle within the Empire to ensure their own safety. From what is known, it appears that the Khet were among those spacer barbarians, though were among the more deceptive and manipulative of the groups; it is well documented that there was, or at least was believed to be, dozens of examples across several Demise-based polities where members of government were found to be colluding with or replaced by Khet and their collaborators in an attempt to weaken the astropolitical state of the region in advance of a major military offensive by the Khet.

Having infiltrated several states, the most successful and significant espionage was done within the Duxate of Bacchulis, where the ruler was most receptive of the Khet’s deals to him- believed to be an independence and assurance of his state’s protection- and would subsequently rebel against the Empire in a revolution supported in part by the Khet and those forces levies to their side. However, due to political pressure and various favors and agreements, the Empire was quick to put a stop to the rebellion. The retaliation from Imperial forces against the Khet was swift and final, forcing all but a few stragglers and fleeing vessels to retreat into the Nequedes cluster, where the ever-shifting etheric walls and constant etheric storms meant that the last cohesive Khet forces were lost to history.

While remnants remained outside of the cluster for some time, it is assumed that the remaining Khet were wiped out when the Tesar invaded the Demise and conquered the region, including the Nequedes.

## Society

If they are to be believed, scattered military reports that detail the limited nature of Khet society describe what was possibly the largest cohesive spacer civilization to have existed before the unification of the Tesar, with an estimated upper limit of around five hundred million Khet within the fleet that took part in the Bacchulite Revolt. They were believed to be a complex society in terms of technology, capable of standardized factory production through the utilization of assorted assembly stations, and agricultural sectors allowing them to maintain their populations without necessitating planetary settlements or piracy, though the exact complexity of their society is unknown.

However, others argue that this view of the Khet is romanticized and dramatized beyond reason, and that the Khet, as a culture, were no more developed or culturally adept as Tesar, with many suggesting that much of what is detailed in many reports is based on exaggerations, propaganda, and poor data. Historians have argued the nature of the Khet society as a spectrum between the two points for millennia since their extinction.

### Artifacts

Few remnants exist from the Khet race or their structures, but nearly all known remains and artifacts are in the hands of the Order of Lessos, gained either through Lessoan expeditions into the cluster for the sake of archiving religious and general knowledge, or acquired from private sellers. Findings on the artifacts are open to the public as with most knowledge held in the Lessoan archives, while actual examinations of both recreations and the artifacts themselves remain private affairs.

While many have either been lost or have decayed away due to the time between the disappearance of the Khet and the modern day, all are thoroughly documented, often used by some xenohistorians and archaeologists as a basis for various research papers and publications.

* **"Satyr Painting":**

> One of the first artifacts recovered from private collectors by Lessoan scholars, the "Satyr Painting" is the remains of a semi-intact painting *(original dimensions believed to be 18"x24")*. The general name provided to it is due to the contents of the painting, which focuses on a stylized Khet individual, whose ungulate-like legs resemble those of a goat or a similar animal. This, combined with the documented malicious and manipulative nature of the species, has led to the name to stick in the general public, much to the chagrin of researchers.
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* "War-Spade:"

> One of the few weapons recovered from the Khet and one of the only remaining artifacts taken from the initial suppression of the Bacchulites and the Khet, this weapon was a long-reaching melee weapon ending in a wide, wedge-shaped hardlight foil. The detail and craftsmanship put into the design of the handle, along with the esoteric markings across the majority of the weapon, indicate that it was likely a more personal and hand-made weapon. This, along with the Khet’s prior lack of general interaction with the outside galaxy and thus lacked access to large amounts of empyrean power crystals, likely meant that hardlight weaponry was a relatively new technology for the Khet by the time of the Bacchulite Revolt, and that hardlight weapons were held by experienced warriors and served as both practical weapons and status symbols in whatever hierarchy the race’s society held.
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* **Khet statuettes:**

> One of the most common forms of Khet artifacts, various small statuettes have been found across the Demise that can be surmised, both by their proximity to the range of Khet society’s expected presence and their similarity to one another, to have been created by the Khet for cultural, possibly religious purposes. The figures range in appearance from figures similar to the Khet, believed to potentially be effigies to cultural icons and heroes, to depictions of Aoshanti and Humans sculpted in a similar fashion, to a spherical form with six appendages forming a spiral around itself, the northeastern limb most prominent of them in every circumstance. It has been argued that this is a representation of Aoshtai or Rhya, with the larger northwestern arm depicting the Demise and its prominence in the Khet’s identity.
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* **Balae Needle Inscription**

> *To be added.*
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