Editing Nobledark Imperium Member States (section)

== Ulmeathic League ==

The Ulmeathic League was a collection of world protected/subjugated (the League did not see the need for a distinction and thus had a single word for both concepts) by the Ulmeatheans, [[Lizardmen#Kroxigor|a species of large (typically eight to nine feet tall, when unarmoured) semi-aquatic reptilian xenos that resemble crocodilians or marine iguanas]]. Ulmeatheans are primarily herbivorous but still retain the sizable claws and fangs of their progenitors, having evolved from more carnivorous ancestors — if relatively recently. Ulmeatheans hides tend to be coloured in variations of green, ranging from a bluish-green to a yellowish-green and covered by white, calcified callouses similar to those seen on marine iguanas or whales — making the challenge of penetrating their considerably durable hides even more difficult. Ulmeathean skin grays with age, becoming more leathery to the touch and with more prominent scales as time progresses. 

Cold-blooded (in the biological sense) and long-lived, individuals typically live for 100-120 years barring major illness or injury, with the recorded longest-lived individual passing at 168. They also possess remarkable regenerative ability, able to recoup from injury or trauma with incredible quickness. Given time, an Ulmeathean will even be able to regrow severed body parts — though a limb will still take a few years. The species is sexually dimorphic — that is, they do have two biological sexes — but the distinctions between males and females are typically lost on outsiders; the tendency for males to dress in brighter colours is about the only clue to the uninitiated. Despite persistent rumours, Ulmeatheans cannot smell dishonesty; their sense of smell is no better than the average human's. Similarly, their visual range does not extend into the infrared. They can, however, distinguish between colours better than baseline humanity, and thus are brilliant at spotting holofields, cameleoline, camouflage nets, and other such attempts at concealment.

Ulmeatheans operate on a very authoritarian way of thinking, with heavy emphasis on the notions of dominance. This is thought to be due to their evolutionary history and social structure; to the Ulmeatheans the strong deserved to rule, and the Ulmeatheans ruled the Ulmeathic League because they were strong and therefore deserved to be at the top of the social hierarchy. Ulmeathic tradition further dictates that the strong have a duty to fight to protect those under their care who are not as strong as them, and the Ulmeatheans are the strongest — physically at least — in the Ulmeathic League. Thus, those who are conquered by the Ulmeatheans almost universally found themselves a protectorate of the League. The Ulmeathic League was primarily governed under a caste system composed of the Ulmeatheans and a few other xenos client species. [[Lizardmen#Saurus|The Ulmeatheans were exclusively rulers and warriors within the League]], whereas [[Lizardmen#Skinks|other species served the Ulmeathic civilization as functionaries, civil servants, and otherwise performed all the other menial tasks associated with governance]]. Those species subjugated/governed by the League had the right to challenge their benevolent overlords for dominance. If their challenge had been successful, their roles could have been reversed — and the Ulmeatheans would have been fine with that. Such was the basic structure of Ulmeathic society, which remained in place for the entire duration of the Ulmeathic League's existence

Ulmeatheans tend to be slow and hard-hitting in battle; an inexorable advance culminating into an overwhelming strike. It is important to note that 'slow' in this context means that Ulmeatheans advance and maneuver on the battlefield steadily and deliberately: opponents thinking them lumbering and awkward in close-quarters are in for a rude awakening. Swords serve as the Ulmeatheans' weapons of choice — though their appearance more resembles metal scavenged from a construction site — which they wield with terrifying speed and a grace belying their heavyset stature. On average, Ulmeatheans have marginally slower reflexes than smaller species — though any who rely on this trait in combat will likely lose limbs quite quickly. Somewhat surprisingly, the Ulmeatheans are also highly proficient at poetry and stonemasonry; the latter to such a degree that even the Eldar begrudgingly note they have a talent for it. This talent is not expressed for any mercantilist or functional purposes, per se, but rather because proficiency in poetry and stonemasonry is expected of the station, much like how noble or warrior classes on ancient Earth were expected to possess ability in etiquette or calligraphy; their duty as warriors necessarily entails these skills. 

For most of their shared history, the Imperium never engaged with the Ulmeathic League beyond token diplomats and a few Rogue Traders. The Ulmeatheans were between the Ghoul Stars and Tarellians space on the edge of the galaxy, stayed out of other the Imperium's business, and acted as a good buffer against more unpleasant galactic entities; as far as the Imperium was concerned, the League was the epitome of a good neighbour. The Imperium thus left the Ulmeathic League to themselves and focused on [[Chaos|more]] [[Necron|pressing]] [[Tyranids|concerns]]. 

Then Hive Fleet Naga came. 

The first real contact the Imperium had with the Ulmeathic League was therefore a refugee fleet, fleeing from the onslaught of Tyranids and informing the Imperium that the League was gone. 

Just gone. 

To their credit, the Ulmeatheans themselves had fought to last and, bar a very few Ulmeathean children and essential personnel, their refugee ships were packed to the gills with members of their vassal races. The Imperium offered the refugees settlement rights to a few systems with habitable — if not especially pleasant — worlds, gifts the League survivors accept with tears of gratitude (well, Passeri tears at least; the  Ulmeatheans remained as stoic as ever). 

Today these survivors regard the League as a fading memory of better times. The Ulmeatheans — once proud, dominant leaders in the League’s prime — are now a grim and stoic (well, more stoic) people, out of place in a dangerous and unforgiving galaxy. The younger generation are more accepting of their lot, either unhatched when it all ended or too young to remember their people's lost glories beyond their elders' tales of the League's might. Soon a generation will be born and raised without any contact with The League: Imperial Ulmeatheans. The old grey-scales remember and do their damnedest to keep those memories alive. But they too understand that the League will live only in memory now, so they live as best they can in their strange new worlds. The Ulmeatheans have not tried to regain any of their old authority; their whole society is about knowing your place, and they know theirs in the Imperium. They do make very good soldiers.

The combined facts that the Ulmeatheans are reptilian, that their ancestors were carnivorous, and that their homeworld was very close to Tarellian space raises the possibility that they are yet another lost Tarellian colony, ones that became “ab-tarellian” in the same way that Ogryn are abhumans. The Ulmeatheans are incredibly offended by the idea that they were just an offshoot of those tiny pipsqueaks (six feet being pipsqueaks by their standards); they forged their empire themselves, thank you very much. Younger generations are also prickly about it, though some are at least willing to entertain the idea. The Tarellians likewise bristle at the suggestion of being related to Ulmeatheans, as the Ulmeatheans' heavily authoritarian system clashes with Tarellian meritocratic sensibilities: Tarellians leaders are chosen on merit, not because they've sufficiently punched their subordinates in the face. Actual geneticists consider an Ulmeathean/Tarellian shared descent possible, but ultimately difficult to prove given the propensity for Tarellian genetics to shift to fit their environment and reluctance from both peoples towards a definitive answer. It is nevertheless considered an avenue worth investigating — if only as an offshoot of their main project of seeing if Tarellian malleability can be used to create some scaly super-soldiers. 

=== Passeri ===
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The Passeri are an avian race located in roughly the same region of galactic space as the Ulmeatheans, though their tech was universally ahead of the lizards, if still comparable. Even so, they were friendly and a bit naive, so they played buddy with the big lizards and helped them onto their interstellar feet. The two races saw each other as equals- Ulmeathics perhaps begrudgingly, but if the strongest should rule, then those of equal strength should be of equal standing, and the fact that their technology was the source rather than physicality didn't really affect that- strength is strength is strength.

Then some other race in the local galactic neighborhood started expanding, and began targeting the worlds of the Passeri. While their name isn't remembered, their savagery and brutality most certainly is, as well as their penchant for taking slaves to serve as labor and "entertainment." The Passeri fought and fought hard, but while their ships were advanced they had never needed to pump them out on a war footing, and the aggressors had absorbed other races before them and was experienced in the art of killing. World after world fell as their fleets burned and tales of the horrors being inflicted on those who could not flee filtered through, until every Passeri world had fallen and the survivors fled in burning ships into Ulmeathic space, gleefully pursued by the ones who even now caged their families and made them perform for their twisted entertainment.

Their assault on the Ulmeathians can be likened to slamming headfirst into a wall.

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The Passeri had not hidden their plight from the Ulmeathians, and had been sharing all of their information on the invaders, especially once it became clear the end was coming. Technology once reserved to stay competitive was now given freely, along with the scientists and scholars who could teach and implement the new knowledge. They knew the Ulmeathians well enough to understand that doing so meant they would never again be free, that the Ulmeathians would demand their subjugation as they were no longer equals, yet they chose to at least sell their freedom to the masters who would not slit their throats in front of their families and laugh. For some, it was simply passing on the torch in hopes that maybe their neighbors would survive the onslaught in some fashion, unlikely though it seemed. Those who thought so grimly were unprepared for the Ulmeathian response.

Unlike their plucky neighbors, the Ulmeathians were prepared for conflict, and had already set their war machine into terrifying motion, the steady beat of a heavy drum announcing their slow but steady march upon the warpath. Asteroids were ground to dust for shipyards that worked beyond their designed parameters, every male and female unnecessary for production drafted and pressed into service, and generals and admirals meeting daily to review new information, give orders, and draw up battle lines and strategies.

When the enemy came, they found fleets triple the size of any they had faced before, worlds hardened and prepared to endure sieges for years, and cold reptilian minds unflinching in the face of their vessels decorated with the corpses of their victims. The fight was long and bloody, the Ulmeathians never hesitating to sacrifice lives if it created an opening, never failing to go for the kill on a fleeing opponent, never falling back or giving so much as a single inch. 

Then the Ulmeathians began to push the invaders back.


Their advance through what were once Passeri worlds was slow but inexorable, their industrial might combined with Passeri advances meaning their losses were always replaced by stronger, improved forces. Ship by ship, world by world they advanced, each world retaken immediately being mined for resources and fortified against counterattack, the rubble of a destroyed civilization being used as bricks in defensive walls.

The Ulmeathians had taken prisoners at first, respecting those who submitted to those stronger than them. Then they reclaimed their first Passeri world, and saw what had been wrought. There was no more mercy after that.

The once-haughty invaders began to crack against this onslaught; once-timid races they had subjugated began rebelling once more, their leadership bickered and set upon one another with pointed fingers and bitter accusations that may have robbed them of their finest minds. They saw the stone boulder rolling towards them, and could not comprehend why their slaves could not match the efforts of a numerically-inferior force. They did not understand the unquantifiable multiplier of a willing workforce who did not need to be whipped to work long beyond when their bodies should give out.

The end was a long time coming, but inevitable. Whatever it was the Ulmeathians had seen that so incensed them has been lost, or rather destroyed. Their march did not stop at the worlds of their former neighbors, but onward through the stars claimed by these aggressors, freeing many who had been under them so long they did not know the taste of freedom, and accepted their new masters willingly. 

Their crusade was unforgiving and absolute; the vile homeworld of the aggressors was burned to uninhabitable rock, and their works and knowledge ground into dust, even their name struck from all records to erase all trace of who they were. Considering speculation that they had fallen to the Ruinous Powers, this may have been for the best.

It was a bitter victory for the Passerians; while their friends had won, the nation founded by their people had burned, their worlds broken and their cities reduced to rubble that had now been used to build fortresses and machines of war. No longer were they caged, but shackles still weighed their ankles, and now if their new masters chose to they could easily inflict the same pains upon them, and this time there would be no salvation. Many wept bitter tears as they braced for the victorious Ulmeathians to turn their gaze from the broken enemy back to their new possessions- for that was surely what they had been reduced to, a prize to be taken for having bested the adversary.

Their tears fell anew when the Ulmeathians pressed tools into their hands, and bid them build not bunkers and bullets, but homes and cities of Passeri design. Where they had braced themselves for an iron fist, they found an open hand upon their back; controlling, yes, but also steadying and pushing them back onto their feet. Their brightest minds were accommodated for and recognized, and while they were ruled they were not unrepresented, electing parliaments and senates from their own to implement laws not far removed from their own.

Somewhat ironically, the Passeri probably have better records of Ulmeathian history and culture than they do about their own; life was good under their rule, and they still remember their debt. Plus they love singing, so writing ballads about the exploits of Ulmeathian heroes is something they genuinely enjoy.

For the Ulmeathians are not slavers, just authoritarian. Though they have no qualms about ruling over their once-equals, they still remember when they stood side by side, and would not allow the kindnesses shown when they themselves were weak to go unrepaid.

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=== F'feng ===

The F'feng are a desert-dwelling humanoid species. Mostly nocturnal and spent the daylight hours in borrows. They had primitive firearms, some success with agriculture and a very limited industrial base when the Ulmeatheans discovered them. In their way the Ulmeatheans took pity on them and conquered them for their own good, as is their way. All in all they were better off under League rule and in the end, when Hive Fleet Naga came calling, the lizards fought hard to buy some of the F'feng time to escape their doomed world. Technically, the term "F'feng" isn't the name they call themsleves, it's actually derived from a slightly obscene word in base-Ulmeathic that translates to moron. The planet was called Nok-F'feng which was Idiot Town for all intents and purposes. The F'feng had no word for themselves as a species that didn't just mean "people" (and therefore excluded everyone not from their world and quickly fell from common usage) and had no actual word for the planet as a whole.

The Chief Commander who took over the running of Nok-F'feng was unusual and was almost certainly given the "great honour" of being a planetary overseer fore being so unusual. Jovial Ulmeathics do not exist or if they do they are so rare as to be not a consideration and are considered by their peers to be damaged in some way. Krupfoth was possibly a female of good cheer but it was channeled into the usual displays of power and authority that so characterize her kind. Having been given rulership of the Worst Planet in the League she set about making it less shitty. She made all wars illegal on the planet without her permission and declared that she would eat the chief of which ever tribe instigated hostilities. After a few F'feng chiefs being invited to dinner the message was taken seriously.

The energies of the tribes were then set to more constructive uses. Mostly this consisted of diverting or damming rivers, building vast irrigation systems, and generally maximizing the usefulness of what water the planet had whilst simultaneously getting the orbiting patrol boats to nudge chunks of space ice into the path of the planet. As the first stages of the work were reaching completion fruit trees were planted along the banks of new waterways and lakes to hold the earth together.

Krupfoth was not popular with the F'feng as they saw her as enslaving them to her will and denying them the freedoms they had enjoyed as little as a generation ago. But she did not care for the petulant mewling of idiots and her fellow Ulmeathic enforcers ensured that rebellions were short lived and ended brutally. It could not be denied by sensible F'feng that things were objectively better for the average subject if they kept their heads down and didn't cause trouble. They were better fed, less likely to die in skirmishes and raids, there didn't seem to be as many virulent diseases as there used to be and it wasn't as if the Chief was working them to death.

Many of Krupfoth's public speeches had such wonderful lines in them as<br>
''"Cower before the might of League engineering prowess"<br>''
''"Plague and Contagion are slain without mercy"<br>''
''"Resistance to my agricultural reforms are futile"<br>''
''"All will tremble as I take your wastelands and beat them into gardens"<br>''
''"Your petty squabbles are nothing compared to the might of League Law"<br>''
''"Quake in fear as I call for rain upon the desert"<br>''
''"Your homes are being protected, peace is been imposed and nothing you can do can stop this"<br>''

Nobody could tell if she was taking the piss or not because all Ulmeathic public announcements blatantly emphasize the strength of the current leader, what that strength is being directed towards and a declaration of challenge to any opposition.

Krupfoth was a 112 and very grey in the scales when the Hive Fleet arrived. She did not survive but many of her subjects did. The F'feng no longer hate her, time has changed her in the memories from a tyrant to a noble protector.

=== Helith ===
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While the Ulmeathians did their best to erase all the works and identity of the Nameless Enemy, there is one piece of their legacy that could not be stamped out- not without crossing a line they could never uncross. Thus, some semblance of a legacy lives on within the race known as the Helith.

The Helith are a strikingly alien species, bearing close resemblance to an old-Earth jellyfish in some respects, with a series of air-bladders they use to float above the ground and four tentacles that split into fine cilia on the ends, similar to fingers, which they use to manipulate tools and pull themselves along. Their "head" sits on a thick, prehensile neck, and possesses six nostrils and four eyes. Their initial homeworld was a Gas Giant whose gravity was heavy enough to form a solid core but not quite enough to form a proper planet. The exact location is both lost and irrelevant, for they had only just begun to take their first steps into the Great Void when the Nameless Foe found them.

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How long they were enslaved is unknown; none of their records survived, and information had to be passed on by word of mouth. It is known that at some point, their captors pulled enough of their ancestors from their homeworld to have a stable population, then forced every last one of them to watch as their homeworld was bombarded, the weaponry intentionally igniting the planet's gasses and turning the entire planet into a raging inferno bright enough to illuminate every vessel within several hundred kilometers. Some stories tell of transmissions being kept on and forcing them to listen to the screams of the dying, others tell of complete silence as they watched their home burn. As none who witnessed the event survived to be liberated, the accuracy of this tale cannot be verified. What came next, however, is all too observably true.

Flesh-crafting must have been a hobby for the Nameless, as they turned it on the Helith with unspeakable glee. The gas-people were already of a delicate biology by the standards of other races; the Nameless broke them and twisted their bodies into something grotesque, organs vital to their survival made dependent upon mechanical implants to continue functioning, if not replaced entirely. Their genetic code was altered, curled around the finger of their masters before a yank snapped it in twain, ensuring that their children would be born broken and deformed. While the exact method has been lost and forgotten, the consequences paint a grim picture of how the Nameless Foe violated them. Where once the Helith would have used their gas-sacks to float through the sky, now they require thrusters to compensate for the weight of their mechanical augmentations. The thrusters were added by the Ulmeathic; apparently the Nameless took great amusement in watching the Helith be forced to drag themselves along the ground.  Several organs simply do not form for them anymore; when a new Helith is born, the delivery doubles as a surgery to install their first mechanical parts before the newborn's body dies. Without a healthy specimen to determine the makup of these organs, or what they once were, replacing them is all but impossible.

When the Ulmeathics first found the Helith, they did not immediately recognize them as sentient beings, thinking them some form of twisted fleshy design to amuse the Nameless, though whether this is a reflection on a propensity for flesh-crafting as their main technology or simply indicative of their personal tastes can only be speculated at. Upon discovering that the bloated blobs dragging themselves upon the ground were not only sapient, but fully aware of their condition, it was debated on whether the greater kindness would be to simply put them out of their misery. The Ulmeathic were not cruel, but it was late into their campaign; their renowned endurance was wearing thin, their soldiers growing weary and their ranks tattered by their ceaseless advance. The resources simply could not be spared to care for those who could not lift a weapon or constuct fortifications when their own forces were beginning to wear thin.

It was when members of the Helith were brought to Ulmeathic medical wards in order to better study their physical state that their propensity for medicine was discovered. The Helith would seek out any injured they could reach, at first by dragging themselves through the halls, then carted along by nurses once their intentions became clear. Using the multiple fibrous cilia that are their analogue to fingers, they could delve deeper into wounds than fingers could dare go, stitching veins and tissues with a precision most would require tools to achieve. Shattered bones were reassembled and properly aligned, and soldiers thought to have been put out of action for good were able to stand and take up arms once more. While they were not miracle workers and could not save those beyond saving, the Ulmeathics were quick to flood their hospitals and regimental medical staff with their newfound workers. When the Nameless counterattacked, they found the forces that should have been breaking bolstered by troops thought eliminated, and resistance stiff enough to hold out for reinforcements instead cracking from the pressure. In thanks for ensuring their campaign could continue, and seeing them through to the end, the Ulmeathics and Passeri did all that they could to help improve the Helith's lot, and restored them to at least some semblance of a normal existence.

The Helith appear to have grown kind from their suffering; their entire race knows basic medicine as a necessity for their condition, and have become known as gentle and caring healers, treating each patient as precious as family. They are meek, yet when first the Ulmeathic found them, they wasted no time in seeking to treat the wounds of their liberators, enabling those initially deemed combat-ineffective able to return to the fight. They became the League's respected doctors and flesh-weavers, growing renowned for their compassion, gentle nature, and skill at the mending of injuries. Yet for all their knowledge and skill, there was always a quiet melancholy for the Helith, for they could not find a way to fix themselves.

Considering their subservient, empathetic natures, it is shocking to note that these passive, amicable xenos were also the source of the greatest diplomatic incident between the races of the Ulmeathic League and the Imperium.

The Admech officially arrived soon after the refugees from the League were accepted into the Imperium, eager to convince their new clients of the superiority of Mars-approved designs, especially when it came to their downright-primitive augments. For a time, all went well; the Helith were well aware of their augment's failings, having started from the worst possible designs and working their way backwards towards pure functionality. Admech's insights into the craft was already revealing flaws they had not realized needing fixing, and the techpriests were pleased to have such a rapt audience willing to accept their teachings without question- or at least, without contest; the questions were many, but in pursuit of elaboration, and there are few topics as appealling for a techpriest to discuss as the virtues and details of mechanical augmentations. The relationship was shaping up to be very pleasant and amicable.

Then one of the techpriests made the mistake of replacing his own biological arm with the servo-limb he'd been preparing, to give a demonstration.

The Helith were utterly horrified. They had thought the techpriests a race like their own, twisted by others or necessity into reliance on augments, or the injured and sickly of humanity who sought to overcome their sacrifices. That they removed their own flesh willingly to replace it with wires and welding, that they SMILED as they brandished the twisting of their form into something of oil and steel instead of flesh and bone... It was an insult, a slap in the face, a dismissal of the suffering of their race, the pain they had to endure, the sense of being 'wrong' that they still felt every time the thrusters did not respond as quickly as inflating their sacks would have, the itch in their flesh from atmosphere missing something that had been abundant on their homeworld, when flight that should have made them feel free instead made them feel the downward tug of the metal within them dragging them away from the sky that was their home. Why, they asked frantically, desperately, searching for something, anything to explain why these beings hurt themselves so, Why do you do these things to yourselves when the flesh is still good?

"The flesh is weak," said the befuddled techpriests, unsure why such a normal thing had disturbed their new clients so, "and thus we forge ourselves anew, that we may be better." For surely these beings who also sought the strength of the machine, who could not have traveled the stars if not for the augments within their flesh, surely they understood the importance of improving yourself by excising the limitations of your flesh?

''("Your flesh is weak," said the cackling horde that dragged them from their clouds and strapped them to tables, "and thus you are nothing. but rejoice," their hushed taunts carrying over the whirring of saws that smelled so strongly of wrong. "For we shall forge you anew- to better suit your stature.")''

The main reason no Mechanicus died on that day is because the Helith are utterly unsuited for violence. Weapons drag them to the ground, and they cannot compete the swing of a blade or handle the recoil of a gun. All they had was the grip of their tentacles, knowledge of the workings of the body, and a furious, hysterical rage. The cogpriests lost many of their parts, including the offending arm, before managing to lock themselves within a room the Helith could not enter. Intervention was slow in coming; it took several hours of argument, transmittion of shaky holovid recordings, and a relating of the sequence of events from one of the clearer-headed techpriests before any authority could be convinced that the Helith, of all people, were rioting.

When it was finally accepted that the Helith were on the warpath, Nakaidos' response was swift and brutal; the Ulmeathic may not be unkind, but they have little tolerance for rebellion or disorder, even from a race such as the Helith. This did much to soothe the Mechanicum's ruffled feathers, as did the ban placed on Helith access to Imperium technology for several year's time. That this was done in part to prevent further contact between the Helith and Admech goes unspoken by those in power, both in the Ulmeathic League who wish to protect their fellow member-race, and by those in Imperial governance who recognize that the Mechanicum is at least partly at fault for skimming over the details of exactly how the Helith came to their current state. As for the Helith, their care is now handled by the Adbio, with whom their relationship has proved much less turbulent.

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[[Category:Nobledark Imperium]]