Thorn

The Thorn are a race of intergalactic conglomerates.

Biology
The Thorn are white-skinned lanky humanoids that stand around seven feet tall with black eyes and long limbs.

History
The Thorn arrived on the world of the Nine Realms in the midst of the Nine Kingdoms battle in overthrowing Ichnar the Wraith King. The aliens flying their ship over the natives' battlefield, proceeded to bombard the armies of both sides into oblivion. Subsequently the Thorn sent out their Shrikes to being subjugation of the inhabitants of the Nine Realms. The Thorn's forces using their technological superiority destroyed the ork kingdom, scattering the survivors. Later they found resistance among the Stone People but managed to drive the ancient race to their capital before obliterating the remaining members of the species from the skies. The other Nine Kingdom fared no better, as the Dryads ancestral forest were burned to the ground and the kingdoms of man were dismantled. Having eliminated all military resistance, the Thorn ruler, Duke Eschatus then began to begin operations in extracting Aether from the planet. To his surprise he found that the sought resource was not just in the planet but also within all the inhabitants of the Nine Realms and able to manipulate it through their magic. Eschatus being the nephew of the current Chairman of the Corporate Corpus resented his lowly noble status and sought to use the inhabitants of the Nine Realms in an eventual plan to create an army to launch a coup on the current Chairman and install himself as the new one. To hasten his plans, Eschatus needed powerful magic casters like wizards into his future army. The Thorn put out contracts on magic wielders and recruited the dregs of the Nine Realms willing to survive to bring them to him,

One powerful wizard known as Albard of the Grey Order was hunted, though his capture was hindered thanks to the ork Crixus. The wizard albeit was hesitant to trust the ork due to his previous encounters wit his kind, however he became intrigued to learn that the ork had witnessed a giant hand rise from the earth to destroy one of the invaders' vessels. He interpreted it as a sign that the world spirit of Ebora was reaching out to save the world and believe that the war against the Thorn was not lost.

The two became unlikely allies and were hunted by the Shrikes. The duo eventually managed to reach a safe zone in the Heartwood of what was left of the dryads forest. There Albard met his old friend King Tycho, but the dryad king betrayed them having joined the Thorn in order to save his race from extinction. Tycho's daughter, Princess Yarrow though disagreed with her father's collaboration with the invaders and joined the duo in their escape.

In the aftermath of the failure to capture Albard, King Tycho was brought before Duke Eschatus. While Tycho expected to be executed for his failure, the Thorn instead offered the king to serve him at his side and opened the dryad to the greater universe. Eschatus offered Tycho to become part of his coup against the Chairman, promising him power. To solidify his loyalty, Eschatus had Tycho kill his General-At-Arms who was a spy for his uncle.

Tycho now the general of Eschatus's armies used his knowledge of magic to empower the Shrikes armor to be immune to magic and continue the pursuit of the fugitives. The fugitives were now of personal interest to Eschatus, as not only the wizard would be vital to his plans but the ork Crixus as well due to a special connection he had with the Aether.

Unknown to Duke Eschatus, his uncle, Chairman Pallas Aghori Shaitan III had just been informed of his plans in launching a coup. The Chairman disappointed in his upstart relation trying to usurp him, then made preparations to send out his Paragons to put down his nephew's rebellion.

Tycho would once again fail in his mission to retrieve the fugitives, but brought a parley from them. However when he approached his master of the message, he was horrified to find that Eschatus had become possessed by the evil spirit of Ichnar the Wraith King. Now possessing an army at his beck and call Ichnar demanded Tycho to serve him or die. The dryad king was horrified by this revelation but refuse to bow before his old enemy as there were still lines he would not cross. The forces of Duke Eschatus took the change in regime in stride as the alternative of rebelling against a member of the Thorn was death even in this situation. Ichnar now commanding the Thorn's forces that occupied the Nine Realms then launched his newly claimed forces to attack the capital of the Stone People to capture the Crixus who was revealed to be the avatar of the Quintessence of the Nine Realms.

The attack failed though thanks to a United effort by the remaining resistance forces of the Nine Realms. Before another attack could be launched, Crixus launched a sneak attack directly to Ichnar’s space station. The ork opened a magic portal causing the possessed Thorn to fall into the void of space and suffocate.

Their leader now dead, the remaining Corporate Corpus forces stationed on the Nine Realms then convened to address the power vacuum. It was decided that Crixus’s killing of the Duke could legally be interpreted as a hostile takeover and thus all property rights of the former duke were transferred to the ork. The ork officially became the rightful ruler of his homeworld though he now had the responsibility to mine the Aether of the world for the Corpus.

Culture
The Thorn are are organized into various ancient noble houses which are collectively called the Houses of the Thorn. The Thorn society is feudalistic, which each house holding control over various functions of their kind. The Thorn were conquerors though prized efficiency and acquisition of resources. Their culture was decadent and their technology totally fetishized with the incorporation of Quintessence that it was virtually found everywhere in their society from technology, ships, architecture and even life extension. Their need for the resource meant that the Thorn would bleed worlds dry of it, eliminating any that stood in their way and then move unto the next world to repeat the process.

Due to their society relying on Quintessence in every aspect, the Thorn moved rapidly to seek out the resource. In doing so, they enfolded hundreds of worlds and races into its order. Despite the Thorn lording over their subjugated races, they were generous to those that showed them respect and loyalty and even elevated them based on their deeds. However the Thorn still maintained an air of arrogance over the races and superiority.

Politics
The Corporate Corpus was the main political body of the Thorn. It was structured as a corporation and was overseen by a Chairman, who acted as both head of state and leader of the noble houses. There is much Machiavellian overtures amongst the houses, resulting in power struggles. The current Chairman is said to have remained in his post for far longer than prescribed, however none of the families have dared to go against him due to his military control.

Lesser nobles acted as managers to sectors or planets of the empire. Absolute obedience to hierarchy was expected to the Corporate Corpus. That even insubordination or even harming a member of the Corpus had one fate, the execution of the perpetrator and the perpetrator's family.

Aggressive competition was encouraged between the Houses of the Thorn, and assassination was accepted to achieve advancement.

In rare instances if the noble was killed and had no heirs then the Corporate Corpus would transfer all property rights to the victim’s killer as legally it would be recognized as a hostile takeover.

Military
The military of the Thorn were composed of Shrike Troopers, which were made up of subjugated races from the Corporate Corpus's conquests. Members of the Shrikes were allowed to advance in rank based on their merits.

The personal elite guards of their military were the Paragons, and were under the direct command of the Chairman.