abstract
| - As the Winter Wars begin, the Liir are struggling with both terror and shame. Now that the Suul'ka have returned, the Liir are no longer able to hide the truth: The Suul'ka, who made them slaves and killed thousands of them at regular intervals for millennia, are nothing more and nothing less than their own Great Elders run mad, placing their own existence and their own needs above all else. It is a form of insanity that can only exist in the eldest of their people...that single Liir who becomes so ancient and powerful that his telepathic will can dominate and control the entire race. The majority of Liir elders choose to relinquish life and simply let themselves die when they eventually become too huge to continue swimming and breathing. But every so often over the course of their history, the eldest have rejected death and chosen to live forever. These Suul'ka force marched the entire species through a rapid industrial revolution, making the younger Liir work as slaves to forge very special suits of armor designed to gird the great elder for the transition from sea to space. The very first jump from their oceanic origin into orbit always brings with it a sphere of salt water, which freezes instantly in a vacuum. Shattering this cocoon of ice is the moment of rebirth, when a "winter mind" becomes truly immortal. These Suul'ka are the immortal gods of the Zuul who have returned to rule and to punish all those who dare to oppose them. Dressed in high-tech battle suits and using powerful psionic abilities they can literally fold space, transporting their own massive bodies and even hundreds of tons of other material that surrounds them. The combination of icy rebirth, sociopathic madness and relentless will to power has earned them the name "Lords of Winter".
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