In the Badarian Galaxy--at the farthest end of the megaverse--there
is a large green planet named Kefa. Here in this deepest part of space, Kefa stands out in the ebon darkness for the ocean and river waters of this world shimmer
with a phosphorescent glow. The planet is rife with thick rain forests, the canopy of the tall trees stretching toward the heavens.
The inhabitants of Kefa are humanoid in appearance: slender, of medium height, olive complexions,
with dark brown hair and hazel eyes, they rarely live past the age of fifty. Elderly Kefanians are revered for their longevity and are considered gods among the people.
.
There are four classes of inhabitants on the planet: the wealthy ruling class of land owners; the military who run Kefa with an iron fist; the slaves who are the workers
in the society; and the Panthera.
Tall, darkly tanned, muscular men with thick jet black hair worn in long braids, striking amber eyes with elliptical pupils, the Panthera is a race of magic-wielding shapeshifters who
were the original inhabitants of Kefa.
In the year 1463, the first long range cruiser landed on Kefa. Aboard were mercenaries from the Sigma Quadrant looking to exploit the pristine planet's resources, thinking it uninhabited. When
they discovered the Panthera--a fierce tribe of warriors who made it clear they did not want the pirates on their world--the mercenaries fled. Humiliated at his defeat, the mercentary leader, Captain Panahasi Touya, vowed to return. His plan was to subjugate the natives,
force them into slavery and colonize the world for his patron, the very rich and powerful Lord Remmao Hashimi, the governor of Jibadi. Returning with a massive force of brutal militia,
Touya turned his savage hoard upon the Panthera and nearly wiped out 3/4 of the population with flame throwers before subduing the male survivors, locking them in cages, and--in an attempt to completely
demoralize the prisoners--starve them into submission. The females they took as the spoils of war, using them so barbarically, the women did not survive the raping. As the last female left alive took
her final breath, the caged males set up a howl of inhuman agony that echoed through the rain forest.
What Touya did not know was the Panthera were not entirely human. At the rise of the first full moon after the attack, the males began to change, to shift into black jaguars with long fangs
and eyes that turned as red as blood. Stunned by the realization they had very lethal warriors on their hands, Touya ordered the caged males killed. The militia opened fire
on the shapeshifters, thinking his men had killed the Panthera.
That was not to be the case.
Realizing sonic bullets could not kill the Panthera, Touya then ordered they be burned alive.
Flame throwers were directed into the metal cage until the Panthera warriors lay in ashes.
Or so Touya thought.
Unknown to Touya and his men, the Panthera parents had hidden their youngest sons--those who were too young to help fight the invaders--deep
in the greensward of the rain forest. The youngest child was a mere babe in swaddling; the oldest just barely ten. All were males. When a scouting party discovered their hiding place, all but the two eldest of the thirty-four children were dragged back to their village and thrown into the same cage in which their fathers had lost their lives.
Systematically over a period of several months, the terrified and grieving little boys were abused and mistreated until all spirit had been
dredged from their souls, all resistance fleeing.
Realizing the boys had some worth as trackers and killers, Touya began to indoctrinate them, turning them into mindless
machines who would carry out orders without opposition. To ensure the young assassins did not rebel against their masters, Touya commissioned a specialized choker--called a usekh--made from thin crystal filaments that would be wielded into place
around the Pantheras' necks. The choker when activated created an excruciating electromagnetic charge that completely immobilized the wearer. Merely touching the choker will cause a fierce pain to ripple through the wearer's body. Any attempt
to remove the choker will result in the stopping of the wearer's heart--placing him in stasis until he could be retrieved by a bounty hunter and brought back to the compound where
the warrior's were kept.
Lord Remmao saw advantage in having at hand assassins who could rid him of his enemies and was quick to use the warriors all over the Quadrant. Having Touya teach them
all manner of killing skills, how to navigate and fly one-man stealth ships, they were then sent to carry out Lord Remmao's vengeful plans. But when the wrong man was disposed of at Remmao's command, the governor was forced to leave Jibadi, fleeing
to Kefa with his entire household on board. There he set up what would be a fiefdom to rival the greatest in the Quadrant.
His wife, Ezmarelda, took one look at the caged Panthera males and had an idea of her own for their use. She, too, could see an advantage
in having docile males with shapeshifting powers. She begged her husband to allow her to breed the handsome males to a few of the Iracia slave girls she had brought with her. These women had powers of their own: psychic abilities
Ezmarelda had used to her own ends over the years.
To placate his overbearing wife in order to have peace in his household,Lord Remmao gave his wife leave to do as she pleased and when the first Panthera-Iracian male was born with
vast magical powers far outdoing his mother's, the Panthera proved to be a good investment for Remmao. Believing there would be females of the unions to sell, Lord Remmao and his wife were keenly disappointed to
discover only male children were born of the union. They had no idea why this was and the Pantheras did not enlighten them--keeping one last secret to themselves.
Like their Lupine and Canine distant cousins in a galaxy billions of light years away, the Panthera males were host to a revenant worm--the
parasite that gave them their shapeshifting abilities--that had sprang from the seed of the Great God Raphian, the Destroyer of Men's Souls.
And just as with their Lupine and Canine brethern, the hellion saw that no female Panthera were born. The mothers of their males had been from a tribe that had died out long before Touya arrived to enslave the inhabitants of Kefa.
Over the years, the Panthera continued to be kept in captivity. Some were sent to zoos for the amusement of the wealthy colonists--friends and cronies of Lord Remmao--who
came to Kefa to purchase the lush and fertile lands to build their own mini-kingdoms of power. Branded like cattle, subservient, pliant, bowing to their masters' every command, the Panthera rarely rebelled at their fate. Only a few managed to escape
their captivity and against devastating odds found the two elders who had escaped Touya's net so many years before.
Mating only with chosen females, at the mercy of their brutal masters, the Panthera wait in stoic acceptance of their condition, taking whatever savage treatment their masters mete out.
But late of an evening, when the guards are out of earshot, the men in the cages whisper prayers to their gods to
send them a champion who might one day restore the Panthera to their former glory. Giving him the name Veera Nizzi--which means merciless avenger in the Pantheran language--
their champion would lead them into war against their oppressors. And when the last drop of Jibadian blood had been drained from their enemies, the Panthera would at last have their vengeance.
The Reapers
