Suul'ka

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".

Suul'ka and the Liir
The Liir empire and its interstellar navy were created for no other purpose than to find and destroy the surviving Suul'ka that previous generations had unleashed on the universe. Only the leader of the Liir naval forces, the great elder known only as The Black, has ever battled the Suul'ka face-to-face and lived. The Black himself was the "living weapon" launched 200 years ago to battle the Suul'ka in deep space. He has killed at least one of the Suul'ka and possibly dozens of them, leaving their empty armor in derelict fragments throughout the sector.

Suul'ka and the Zuul
The author of the Zuul's existence was a brilliant bioscientist among the Suul'ka; so gifted in his manipulation of life as an art form that they call him "He Who Shapes". For more than a century after they were created, the entire Zuul race worshiped the Suul'ka, in general, as gods and He Who Shapes, in particular, as the "father-creator" of their species.

Recently, however, some members of the Zuul race have begun to see things differently. Led by a single Zuul known as the Deacon, these rebellious Zuul have rejected the divinity of the Suul'ka and adopted a new way of life. Instead of serving the Suul'ka, they have joined with the Liir to form a new faction called the Liir-Zuul Alliance. Meanwhile, Zuul who retain their traditional values and culture have evolved into a more sophisticated version of their former cruel glory and call themselves the Suul'ka Horde.

Suul'ka and the Morrigi
When the Morrigi first met the other Races in space, their tribes were suffering in the aftermath of an incredibly costly war with the Suul'ka. A sizable percentage of all Morrigi fleets had been wiped out, as well as the majority of their colonies. As they recuperated and tried to move in to recover their lost territory, the Morrigi discovered that the younger races had already claimed dozens of ripe worlds and even looted some of the ancient Morrigi tombs. After their initial anger and a century or two to think it over, the Morrigi decided that rather than try to evict the new tenants of the galaxy, they would appoint themselves to serve and protect all of the people of any race who would otherwise be unable to defend themselves and remain free.

That said, the Morrigi still remember the Suul'ka with great hatred and fear. They want blood, and they have a particular grudge against a Suul'ka known as the Siren, who led countless Morrigi fleets to their doom.

Suul'ka and the Humans
The only known contact so far was Black 20, presumably a Suul'ka which hit the Argos Naval Yard and took the SFS-1 Leviathan with all hands without firing a shot.

Suul'ka and Hivers/Tarkas
There is presently no known history between Suul'ka and either of the Hivers or the Tarkas.