Planet Zolaria Arc of Destiny, Ring 7

Planet Zolaria Arc of Destiny, Ring 7

Within Floor 25891 is one planet among a micro-interstellar space occupied by a council of 1892 independent species within a single galactic starcluster. These salamanders learned to hold a spear before they acquired a spoken word. It was said they were also taught magic by Ellie in their early stages, for unknown reasons to them. Their blood colour was a deep purple, giving the hue an almost mystic, sacred significance in their culture. Due to the brutal predators on their planet, the harsh weather conditions and scarce food supply, the Zolarian's acquired bodies that could go 188 days without eating. Their entire culture was based on pillaging, warfare and at times, cannibalism of their young (As unfertilized Eggs). The signal of sexual attraction and subsequent mating rituals was brutal combat, a peacock dance whose colors were lit up in violet. And so it followed from evolution, that their historical progress saw them becoming a race of marauders, warlords and pirates in successive dynastic generations. By the time they'd massacred the crew of space travelers coming to visit them and learned of their technology, the planet was unified under one such warlord, Zelga the merciless, and the golden age of space piracy began. This warlord saw the distinctive lack of culture in his people outside barbarism, and began to take other elements from surrounding races they conquered. Species with black and white rubber skin who didn't speak and considered the gestural act sacred. Civilizations that perfected the art of juggling and made laughter an equivalent artform to assassination, races that wore the cowl as others wear a crown. [Speculation of Ellie's influence on said races, unconfirmed] The king adopted these artifacts for his own marauding legions, and passed them down the dynasty's generational line yet to come. It was said that King Zelga knew Ellie well and was fond of her jokes, his scales would change colors constantly while he laughed, and she taught him to shift his camouflaged hues in decorated, festive circus-like ways.

A time centuries later another successor took the throne, Julius the Ornery, also known as the Starlight prophet. He saw these clowny antics as a distraction, and believed it, laughter, among other feminist reforms were making his empire weak. Under the thumb of his wife, Harlequest IV, Julius began to resent a suffragette movement taking root in recent decades. The Corsair Cosette arose as a guild of female pirates and electrical saber-rattling dames marking their claim throughout the stars. Terrified of emasculation, Julius received a prophecy from one of his oracles that one day an especially potent female would destroy their entire race. In this he went thru great lengths to summon Ellie, and ask for a pact.

In exchange for his entire homeworld's worth of treasure, Ellie would switch fate around - rather than this prophecy coming true, the prophesied child would merely destroy the Corsair Cosette and end his fear of encroaching female supremacy. He was given one of her artifacts as a consolation, but this pact came with a costly curse. His son, a prince and fledging pirate, was swapped in mind with Aumauna-Ra, the daughter of the leader of the CC. In howlish laughter Ellie and Harlequest took in the irony. By ancient tradition, there could be no one else to take the throne of Zolaria but this prince, even with the soul of another displaced in him. Sparing their awareness, was the fact this girl was a witch-in training and would take the mantle of the throne with overwhelming potency, in a powerful guise as the Prince. The Prince in another's body, being raised to lead the Corsairs armada faced far less success. The two inevitably came to a clash, and Aumauna-Ra subjugated the CC after a lengthy off-world campaign. As longtime rivals, the two agreed to cease their fight, and the Prince's Corsairs became the new Galactic Fleet, assimilated into Aumauna-Ra's empire. The two became lovers as Aumauna-Ra succeeded the throne and per the witch's ideals, began to embrace pacifism for their world. An era of peace and prosperity followed, but the events granting it gave the former King nothing but bitterness and resentment. Soon the prince and witch had a child, a son. To add insult to injury, the king discovered their wedding was not even consummated by a violent combat ritual per ancient rites dictate, Harlequest having given her blessing to both.

Their son, Prince Kaleido lived a troubled existence. From a young age he was fascinated with the cultural artifacts that had become widespread- buffoonery, vaudevillian acts, outlandish performances. He was so fond of these rituals, he dyed his skin in pale pigments and welded a cowl to his head, calling himself the jester prince. In concert, the boy had his grandfather whispering in his ear throughout his youth and formative years. And so he too, began to see his parent's legacy as one of weakness and a vile act of societal feminization. He was consumed by a desire to bring glory and tradition back from his ancestral race. The Corsairs of his mother, lead by violent pirate women however treated him much how he dressed himself- a clown. He began to learn the sorcery of his "mother", the prince, and became maddened by the dark and esoteric arts that Aumauna-Ra taught him on one side and his grandfather Julius's regressive ideology on the other. Dabbling in not only witchcraft, he began obsessing with mutilating his scaled body and augmenting himself with cybernetics, taking on a sleek, metallic harlequin appearance with porcelain mask and colorful steel bodysuit.

When it was too time for him to take the throne, his own parents hired assassins from other worlds to attempt to prevent him from becoming a lord, perhaps fearing his ascension would mean a return to instability and patriarchal norms. His magical indulgences, along with his grandfather's artifact and his excellent luck kept him alive after many such attempts. When his parents could no longer stop his inevitable reign, he too turned on them and changed them into a pair of velveteen, children's dolls, even painting them in black and white stripes to signal what they should be - Forever silent. And so Kaleido ascended the throne and became ruler of his race.

 

He could hardly, however, be called a leader. More concerned with glory and nostalgia than practical governance, the loss of his parents lead the galactic Corsairs to secede and turn on his world's army, leading to an interplanetary civil war. Starvation, anarchy and destruction followed, but the maddened Kaleido considered this not a pox for his race- it was how their people should be, he believed. Other worlds saw the Marauders in a state of insurrection, and only after their intervention and significant loss of his planetary forces did Kaleido see the dominos begin to fall around him. The Corsairs had crushed the homeworld's resistances, and other species flocking to join them threatened to secure that loss. Frightened of his dream of a vaunted return to ancestral glory forever dying with his loss, Prince Kaledio did as his grandfather did, he turned to a summoning. He turned to Ellie.

The skies open wide with warships firing down and the royal palace was soon to be rubble, Kaledio in his own clownish way, begged Ellie for the power to stop his enemies. She laid out her price- his gender. He would become a woman, just as his "father" had before him. To lose his status as male, would be a grave insult, an indignity worse than any other. He refused, but asked if someone could save his glory dream yet, perhaps to send someone powerful enough to revive his dream. Reluctant, Ellie granted this and stopped the invaders.

She blew up Zolaria entirely.

The Prince was spared, of course, as was his palace and royal consorts, numbering a few thousand. They watched on a space vessel as their homeworld exploded. Ellie utilized the artifact that she'd given Kaleido's grandfather. Normally its ability would contain a disaster or force of destruction inside an eggstone, but in this instance the power was reversed- it caused it, as a necessary sacrifice. The explosion of their entire planet led to the materialization of a single purple egg.

From this egg, hatched the last daughter of Zolaria. The planet would never sire another.

Kaleido lost his planet, but gained a new heir. He gifted the infant Zolarian with two clownish plush toys- his former parents.

She was named Zelga, taking after the ancient warrior king of Zolaria that unified the world. Her smooth purple scales were positively radiant, her tail slathering with the yolk she'd cracked out of. Her sense of smell and infrared perception with slit pupils saw with crisp clarity what her ancestors had not in thousands of years. As she grew older, she was much shorter in stature than most females, who by nature were larger than Zolaria males. Often quiet, with lonely stoic eyes. But she was very quick to learn and better to fight, a prodigy by any standards of her race. And from her very birth, she was gifted with immeasurable power to destroy. Kaledio, had been named the Jester Prince who lost his Circus, or "Circus-Less" - The Ciruless in mockery. Kaledio saw this potential as a new start. He accepted the title of Ciruless with honor. He 'upgraded' his attire and cybernetic shell with a large cloak, bells and decorations, looking more like a nefarious masked ringleader of a circus than a pirate like his parents were.

The remainder of their race started harvesting the debris of their homeworld, and constructing ships. Hundreds of years passed, the child seemed to age slower than usual for their race, but her power terrified those left to witness her. By the time she was of mature age, the crew of Ciruless's armada numbered in hundreds of thousands. Although a paltry force of bandits compared to the once-glorious Corsairs, they had a single tool who outshined any number of space navies prior- Zelga, Ciruless apparent. The child whose birth was weighed on the scales with the destruction of their homeworld, Kaleido decided was more valuable than any inch of it.

When other worlds saw that the once-horrifying reptilian marauders of the stars were little more than fleeting ships with a motley crew onboard, the impetus to rush and destroy them quickly sent threats reeling towards the new armada. Zelga, even before the Circuess could groom her in the ways of magic, banditry and esoteric secrets, exhibited enough strength to fly out in interstellar space and engage armies and adversaries by her lonesome. She destroyed fleets single handedly. She gave victory to the piracy of the Ciruless, and even helped them conquer entire worlds. The off-world Corsairs started to hunt the survivors of Zolaria. But even as a young child, these gathered female-led forces proved no match for Zelga's cunning and abnormal supernatural strength. They were all extinguished within a single year. Zelga grew as a soldier for these pirates, a child the Ciruless groomed to teach all his secrets to. He taught her dark magic, and their race's long, turbulent, violent history. Each triumph raised her infamy and every encounter grew her power. The Ciruless grew unspeakably proud of the girl, gifting her both his grandfather's artifact and a cowl of her own, labeling her the Circulet Magistrus. His right hand enforcer, heir to groom and lover.

The two began a passionate relationship.

In time the armada thrived. They descended upon world after world, and the Circuless started a great reign as emperor, with the Cirulet at his side. Zelga, for all her incredible strength, was often very lonely. As loyal a henchwoman as she was for her emperor, brawling and conquest was her solemn purpose in life. She'd finally raised the violent tradition of their ancestors back to prominence as roaming pirate gangs. So far did their empire spread thanks to her, that the Circulet was soon said to be the 'Captain of a million ships and circus tent of a thousand worlds.' (External confirmation and research does show it was probably only around 400)

One day however, within 50 lightyears from the Ciruless's flagship, a conquered planet attempting to break the pirate's tyranny rose up. Zelga was sent to deal with them, believing the rebellion to be of especially patriotic origin. When Zelga arrived, she was instead faced with the bounty hunter Titania. Titania was said to be an especially dangerous enforcer who spelt death to outlaws, her parents having been killed by one at a young age. It was rumoured she was injected with avian DNA from an advanced parasitic race to make her the perfect bounty hunter. The lizard girl faced down the armored titan, her arm-cannon laced with plasma electrodes and visor scanning Zelga carefully. The two engaged in an intense fight, and for the first time ever in her life, the Cirulet was challenged. Challenged, but not beaten. Despite the critical damage and lethal injuries, Zelga overcame the bounty hunter. She finished her duel with a pie-throw to the corpse's face, before collapsing on her knees. A shadowy figure appeared.

 

It was Ellie. Ellie and the dying Zelga began to speak, and Ellie thanked the Circulet for her 'riveting performance.' With confusion and pain, Zelga began to realize that she had been manipulated, and not only her existence, but the Emperor's, and much of her entire race had been existent for a single purpose. It was nothing personal, Ellie assured her, she merely needed to deliver justice in a more poetic way. When looking over at Titania's slain body, she realized that purpose had been fulfilled. Confusion, indignity and overwhelming sadness filled her. As thanks for her victory, Ellie healed her wounds and sent her back on her way, taking them both to where the Emperor was.

Kaleido was dead.

Zelga saw much of their forces ravaged, and the Circuless had fallen. Zelga wasn't aware who did it or what happened exactly, and despite her shouts and demands, Ellie claimed not to know either. After their long struggle, the Emperor had been slain and much of his armada and armies destroyed. The bounty hunter had seemingly lured Zelga away from protecting her lord, and paid for it with her life. The remaining forces of the marauders begged Zelga to be their queen. Even the late Ciruless's druids believed only Zelga was fit to restore them now, with their empire splintering virtually overnight and collapsing to countless insurgencies out of naked, angry rebellion. Zelga had a mental breakdown. Ellie announced that she had fully served her purpose, and that Ellie had even gifted her with a special spot in the Tower where she would be able to raise her son or daughter, after pointing out the Zolarian was pregnant.

And so she fled.

It was reported many cycles later that Zelga did indeed have a daughter. In a dark latex cloak that hides all but her head and tail, and constantly moving throughout the tower in secrecy, she seeks answers to that fateful day, to her own existence and an uncertain future, keeping her spawn close to her. Traveling from floor to floor, universe to universe, she occasionally paints her face and has been known to juggle for not only her child but others aswell, spreading mirth and entertainment as a front for her esoteric travels, shelving her past. Behind a clownish face hides a girl who had renounced conquest, rested her former master and seeks new ground for the tomorrows yet to come.