Prince of the Stars

Asserted to be the beginning of the Akha'lae race, the Prince of the Stars is largely considered a mythological figure. Except by the Akha'lae, many of whom believe his existence and his story to be the full truth.

Mythology
Nunkonṭā ăluhōn, the people of the stars, children of mud and eternity, born of the Meyalēlīṯā and Nunkonṭā ev Mulōkḇā, learned to build civilization in a generation. While their brethren struggled and died in the wilderness, the People built cities, tamed beasts, and planted fields to feed them. They were the blessed ones and they would control their world by wit and by force. Old ways were forgotten, and even before the loss of the Prince and his Queen, their children had swept across the land, forcing the wild ones into the forests. Then burning their hiding places. Only when the world was laid new and bare had the Empire been established.

The People were not strangers to hard work and the keen survivalist’s wit and unknowable intelligence of their parents bred true. Those few who did not fit the mold, who fought against the wishes of the Prince or the direction of the Queen, were exterminated. Only perfection would be tolerated.

But the perfection of Nunkonṭā ev Mulōkḇā and the perfection of Malkat Šmayyīn were very different ideals. She was his queen and she should obey. Without him, there would be no Queen of Heaven, no nunkonṭā ăluhōn, Star Children. She was his queen and without her he would still be little more than a clever beast. They were at least equals; she was a goddess and should stand above him. He was her master, he had given her form, and she should know and accept her place.

And so for the first time in their short history, the People made war against each other. Against their brothers and sisters and not the beasts they would have been without their royals.

The scant thousand of them that had survived the purge and ruled a continent, had built a city and knew the favor of their Queen and their Prince, turned bitter rivals. Trust and cooperation disintegrated into hatred and savagery that was thought to be abandoned by civilization. One hundred died in the streets of the very first city.

Malkat Šmayyīn left them, but she left them with a curse. Every day, as they had that day, their population would be decimated. A tenth of them would die by their own hands for the betrayal of her prince.

Nunkonṭā ev Mulōkḇā abandoned them as well. The Prince of the Stars retreated, crossed the water that had never been crossed and left his children, although as he had loved his queen once, so he loved his children and blessed them to prevent her curse becoming their downfall. Every night their population would increase by half. And although some sought him after, he ran further, out across the immensity of the universe as soon as he was able.