K'Chain Nah'ruk
Description
'Standing beside the pit was a reptilian monstrosity, two-legged, the hanging arms oversized and overlong, talons scraping the pavestones. It was tailed, but that tail was stunted and thick. The broad-snouted jaws were crowded with interlocking rows of dagger-long fangs, above them flaring cheekbones and brow-ridges protecting deep-set eyes that glistened like wet stones on a strand. A serrated crest bisected the flat, elongated skull, pale yellow above the dun green hide. The beast reared half again as tall as the Toblakai.' (BH UKTpb, p.98)
Kep'rah Weapons
The Nah'ruk were half again as tall as a man and perhaps twice the weight. Little of their upper bodies could be seen, even as they drew to within two hundred paces, for they were clad in sheaves of enamel or boiled leather armour extending out to their upper arms and reaching down to protect their forward thrusting thighs. The stubs of their tails bore similar armour, but in finer scales. Wide helms enclosed their heads, short snouts emerging between ornate cheekguards. Those in the front lines held arcane clubs of some sort, blunt-ended and wrapped in bundles of what looked like wire. For each dozen or so one warrior walked burdened beneath a massive ceramic pack that sat high on its shoulders.
Behind this first line of warriors the other ranks carried short-handled halberds or falchions, held vertically. Each phalanx presented a breadth of at least a hundred warriors, all marching in perfect time, upper bodies leaning forward above their muscled, reptilian legs. (DoD UK HC p.837)
The wire-bound clubs in the front line seemed to ignite like torches. Lightning arced from the blunt heads, two serpentine tendrils snaking into the air. From each weapon, one of the bolts twisted and spun to sink into one of the strange ceramic packs – a dozen such arcs for each pack. The second crackling tongue of white fire seemed to throb for an instant, and then as one they lashed out, a score or more converging on the charging, ice-clad rider and horse.
The detonation engulfed Ruthan Gudd and his mount, tore gouts of earth and stone from the ground in a broad, ragged crater. - (DoD UK HC p.840)
The strange two-legged lizard, all clad in black gleaming armour, its tail nothing more than a stub, standing on a stone landing of some sort, whilst rivers of blood flowed down gutters to each side. Its unhuman eyes fixed unblinking on the source of all that blood – a dragon, nailed to a latticework of enormous wooden beams, the spikes rust-hued and dripping with condensation. Suffering roiled down from this creature, a death denied, a life transformed into an eternity of pain. And from the lizard, cold satisfaction rose in a cruel penumbra. - (DoD UK HC -Prologue)
Another voice spoke. 'They killed a dragon for this power, Icarium.'
Taxilian?
'Its blood had burned this hole – if you fail, the sky shall fill with the enemy machines – and the Nah'ruk will triumph this day. See the K'Chain Che'Malle, Icarium? They can win this – if you stop the Gath'ran Citadels, if you stop them from entering this realm. Seal the gate!' - (DOD UK HC p.879)
The War between the Nah'ruk and the Che'malle
"The slaves are loose," Gesler replied. "With a few hundred generations of repressed hate to feed off. They won't be satisfied until the last Che'Malle is a chopped-up carcass."
"And then?"
Gesler met the man's eyes. "That's what scares me."
"We're next, you mean."
"Why not? What's to stop them? They fucking breed like ants. They're laying waste to warrens. Gods below, they're hunting down and killing dragons. Listen, Stormy, this is our chance. We've got to stop the Nah'ruk. Not for the Che'Malle – I don't care a whit for the Che'Malle – but for everyone else." (DoD)
Nah'ruk City and Shadow
“K’Chain Nah’ruk, these ruins.”
“You still here, Wither? Why?”
“This was once a plateau on which the Short-Tails built a city. But now, as you can see, it is shattered. Now there is nothing but these dread slabs all pitched and angled -- yet we have been working our way downward. Did you sense this? We will soon reach the apex, the heart of this crater, and we will see what destroyed this place.”
“The ruins,” said Udinaas, “remember cool shadow. Then concussion. Shadow, Wither, in a flood to announce the end of the world. The concussion, well, that belonged to the shadow, right?”
“You damned fool, listen to me! We came to the edge of this place, this high plateau, expecting to see it stretch out nice and flat before us. Instead, it looks like a frozen puddle onto which someone dropped a heavy rock. Splat. All the sides caved inward. Wraith, I don’t need any secret knowledge to work this out. Something big came down from the sky -- a meteorite, a sky-keep, whatever. We trudged through its ash for days. Covering the ancient snow. Ash and dust, eating into that snow like acid. And the ruins, they’re all toppled, blasted outward, then tilted inward. Out first, in second. Heave out and down, then slide back. Wither, all it takes is for someone to just look. Really look. That’s it. So enough with all this mystical seal-shit, all right?”(RG)
K'Chain Nah'Ruk Feeding Habits
"K'Chain Nah'Ruk," it said in a low voice. "A battle and a harvest."
"Harvest?"
The creature point at the distant mounds. "They butchered. They fed upon their fallen enemy."
Masan Gilani shivered. "Cannibals?"
General Information
Spite referring to the Nah'ruk : 'There are godless ones walking the sands of Seven Cities once again. ' (BH)
'the assaults on the four sky keeps had yielded only marginal effect, despite the Short-Tails being few in number' ( MT uk mmpb p.20)
'Now, only Morn remains, and that on a distant continent - where the Short-Tails even now break their chains in bloody rebellion' (MT uk mmpb p. 22)
Icarium on the body within the sky-keep mechanism : 'Strange creature,' he said again. 'So reptilian. Dessicated of course, as one would expect. Powerful, I would think. The hind limbs, the forearms. Huge jaws. Stubby tail -'. (BH UKTpb. p.122)
“Silchas Ruin’s dread secret. He parleyed with the Nah’ruk. There was this civil war going on, you see….”(RG)
Sag Churok : A Caste. Fifty. Forty-nine now. Four wield Kep'rah, weapons of sorcery. A Crown commands them, they flow as one.(DoD UK HC p.440)
You had to see for yourself, Matron, Gesler said, but those Nah'ruk are bred down, past any hope of independent thought. Those sky keeps were old. They can repair, but they cannot make anything new. They are the walking dead, Matron. You can see it in their eyes.- (DoD UK HC p.884)
“Udinaas,” Seren said, “I see puddles of gold in the ashes.”
“I found pieces of a picture frame.” He shrugged. “Odd to think of K’Chain Nah’ruk hanging pictures, isn’t it?”
Seren looked up, met his eyes. “K’Chain --”
Silchas Ruin spoke as he stepped round a heap of cut stone, “Not pictures. The frame was used to stretch skin. K’Chain moult until they reach adulthod. The skins were employed as parchment, for writing. The Nah’ruk were obsessive recorders.” (RG)
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