Vhalkai (Warbred) : Version #198

Warbred Vhessen are highly modified creatures, far removed from their ancestors, the regular Vhessen that wander Lumivalis and thrive there.

They were created by King Zarkhan, commonly known as Blackwyrm, or the Shadowed King. There will be more information about him and his kingdom once that page is added

Warbred are quite literally bred for war, given orders on who to mate with. When not being bred, they are given a contraceptive implant which is removed once the orders are given. Most Warbred will follow these orders without question. Those that do not, are not bred. This has furthered the selection towards docile, loyal, obedient Warbred. The King takes the eggs as soon as they are laid for his own purposes. Warbred do still have very strong maternal instinct; and this leaves them very antsy for a while after the egg is taken. However, they usually shake it off and get back to their duties within a few days. Once the eggs hatch, the nymph is placed in a special stasis chamber that speeds up time, where all basic knowledge is put into their mind with enchantments while time is sped up. From hatching to adulthood, the chamber takes about a year, instead of the 16-ish years it'd normally take to wait for a Warbred to mature naturally. They are taken from the chamber as a sub-adult, so they reach full maturity while in training. Zarkhan found this made for stronger, surer, better-formed and healthier Warbred. Upon leaving the Chamber, the young Warbred are sent off to training, where they will train for a few years before being sent off to where they are stationed. Those who do not make the cut are either stationed somewhere undesirable or outside of the city, or simply killed off to not be a burden on the Kingdom. Warbred the King intends to breed are kept in outposts around the Capitol, while others are sent to less important outposts.

There are some that go from the chamber into a hidden underground facility instead of going into training; mostly from very desirable lineages, siblings of Warbred that came out the way he wanted them to, and raised like common beasts. Used for breeding to further bolster their species number or add more to desirable lineages. Eggs from these Feral stock are treated as normal, and their lineage is listed as coming from a full sibling of the Feral, since the Ferals are top secret. Only Zarkhan himself, his head scientist Lumus; a psychotic butterfly with no empathy but is damn good at what he does, and the automatons he built deal with them.

Those who highly disappoint the King or disobey direct orders also end up in the underground facility, caged up like the ferals. These ones are most often used for experimentation, to push a Warbred as far as they can be pushed to see what they can handle and figure out how to bring out traits that he wants more. They are still bred, depending on how desirable t heir lineage is. He may pair one with a more docile Feral that shows the traits he does want and that he feels will counter the bad traits; but he is very careful with this, as explaining the lineage would be difficult and strange Warbred from lineages he hasn't bred before may be cause for suspicion, as well as Warbred coming from a soldier who disappeared and should be dead. He leaves all of this to Lumis, as he generally doesn't care about the breeding side of things aside from the strong, useful nymphs that come out of it. While Lumis is responsible for most of the cruelty inflicted on the Warbred in the hidden facility, Zarkhan is fully aware and simply turns a blind eye because in the end, he gets what he wants. The Warbred belong to him, after all. He created them. Warbred who age out of usefulness but still have valuable genes are put up in retirement, usually around the edges of the Capitol City. Their only duty is to offer their genes when a younger Warbred is sent over. Early generation/elder Warbred have healthy and strong genes that are somethings bred back into certain lineages to increase their health as later generation Warbred are proving to have some health problems starting to crop up in connection to some of the traits the King is trying to encourage.

Warbred have been in the process of creation for numerous generations, and are known for being big and powerful Vhessen, towering over their already tall ancestors.

By and large, Warbred are a new species.  They are only seen within the borders of Reinvari itself, as they are a specially created and modified creature and the Shadowed King holds them close.

The generations have passed more quickly than otherwise due to the use of Time Chambers, using rare and powerful magic fueled by Zarkhan himself.

Warbred are separated by Generation, though later generation Warbred are separated by their lineage or purpose.

Predecessors: Taken directly from Lumivalis after they were abandoned, Zarkhan modified them to make them fiercer and stronger. He started with around 50 individuals chosen from the many he brought in. Those that showed traits he preferred, he modified and trained, those that did not he simply abandoned back in Lumivalis. Kavuta, the albino Wyrm that created the Vhessen, was unaware of this. They closely resemble regular Vhessen (See more about Vhessen on their page along with their lore), and in a sense still are. Some features are exaggerated, but subtly, but there were limits to what he could do to them. From there, he would need to breed those who displayed desired traits together. He started work on the Beast form, and soon managed to have a good starting Warbred species. Because the predcessors were created using the power of an ancient Root of the Life Tree, they were highly adaptable and he was able to modify them far more than he would have otherwise. He greatly boosted their fertility in hopes of them successfully breeding, and he made great use of his enchanted time chambers so they could be out and ready to pair off. At this point, they were all kept in his vast underground facility, caged up. He had the help of his head scientist, a butterfly named Lumis, through all of this.

It took a while for the Warbred characteristics he wanted that became a part of his final product to appear. They didn't start to appear until the 3rd and 4th generation of the Predecessors. Each generation was highly modified using magic, and a strange otherworldly science he discovered around the place he founded his Capitol City before to bring out and strengthen the traits he wanted, and he continued to carefully pair them together making fully sure to track whose line came from who. He started adding his own blood to the mix, using intensive magic, experimenting with a powerful were-like beast form. The first attempts failed, but once he succeeded, every Warbred was given the Wereform. At this point, he felt they were complete. He had a good starting population, and the first generations that were not to his desire were culled

Because of this, all Warbred have their massive beast form. He was still working on improving them, so hadn't made use of them within his Kingdom yet. They were significantly larger than the Vhessen they descended from by this point, becoming a distinct subspecies. Longer spines on their limbs, thicker in build, larger horns. The beast forms made them even tougher. Many around this point were quite aggressive and could be hard to manage due to enhancing their powerful predatory nature. He then began adding things to make them obedient, loyal and docile.

The King started to see improvements in the aggression around the 8th generation of modifying them, they were becoming loyal and obedient, and very strong.

Finally, after working on the Predeccessors for around 14 generations, he felt they were ready. He had about 300 individuals at this point, all sporting what he wanted. They were stationed all throughout the Capitol, and from this point they started being counted by Generations.

Around this point, Zarkhan started keeping a few siblings of those who had the best genes caged up and raised like simple beasts. They were bred, on occasion, to bolster the numbers of some of his favorite lineages, but they were mostly kept as backup to keep certain genes in the pool in case one of his prized Warbred was killed off. A notable individual among the feral stock is simply known as Ferus, though Ferus eventually managed to break away from the automatons when being exercized in a hidden courtyard, and ran off. Security was improved at this point. His current location is unknown. His scientist, Lumis, would provide a cocktail of potent drugs that would block out their sapient mind, causing them to behave on instinct alone. Because of Lumis being in charge of these "Ferals", they are not treated well at all and are usually kept packed up in tiny cages, tended to by the King's Automatons. These 'Feral' Warbred act on instinct alone, and do question orders. Zarkhan was worried the drugs could effect their nymphs, but those descended from the Ferals show no difference from those descended from Warbred within the army.

Warbred are all assigned ID numbers. These are used in the King's notes to track the individual. He keeps their family trees very carefully tracked.

The format of the ID number is as follows

G#[Number of Generation]-[Letter denoting their bodytype]-[Important Lineage Abreviation if there is any]-[Sire]+[Dam]

Their name would be listed after this with an abbreviation next to it. If two had the same abbreviation, the rest of the ID number would tell him what he needed to know.

An example would be

G13-A-Vherr,Vhel-Lar+Vir: Keldris

This denotes a 13th generation Warbred of the average bodytype, bearing the lineages of Vherra and Vhelos, child of  Larion and Virek, with their name added.

Warbred are quite aware of their ID number, and even to a point what they mean. They know it tells who their parents are and they know it's used to track their lienages. This, however, is all they know so they do not see it as odd. The King awakens them from the Time Chambers, and they are told that he is their creator, and that he created them, saved their ancestors from being abandoned and that they exist to serve him and his kingdom. Very few question this.