The Crux, sometimes elongated to The Crux Space Pirates or Crux Space Piracy (more often than not when dealing with races who know of other affiliations referred to as "Crux"), are a major space pirate ring in the Kyklos Galaxy, greatly exceeding the range and numbers of the like-minded Scourge and numerous other space pirate affiliations by leaps and bounds. It is notable as being one of the affiliations of man, though unlike a good number of other affiliations, Terrankind have no sway amongst The Crux and simply serve on a per-individual basis for those seeking opportunity within enormous piracy ranks.
Background history[]
The Crux was founded by a solitary individual in 4769 BC. This individual was a Kravvyn by the name of Seikrabh, and unbeknownst to even his eventual right- and left-hands, he was the one and only Kravvyn in the entirety of the Kyklos Galaxy. The Kravvyn are themselves a huge intergalactic empire who send a solitary member of their species, at the age of maturity, to a galaxy unclaimed by their species, where they are given express orders to overtake that galaxy in any way that they see fit and bring it into the fold of the Kravvyn Empire. In Seikrabh's case, he chose to begin raiding ships, slowly but surely building up a tremendous space pirate ring whose strength rivaled some full empires. Seikrabh's rise to power was partially aided by his discovering a Sphere Diimon named Okegliz and actually subjugating the Diimon to his will, forcing it to serve him and only him. Okegliz has since grown to have great respect for his master and does not seem to seek the company of the rest of the Chaos Legions as a result.
Although the Crux for the most part sticks to simple raids on ships, an uncountable number of raids on colony worlds have occurred, either periodically to supply worlds on the fringes of an empire's expansion space which cannot be easily defended, terrorizing the citizens on these planets and returning later once they have reproduced whatever product the Crux members are personally seeking from them; or through official planetary raids to permanently overtake a planet in the name of the Crux. For the most part many empires considered this an unfortunate but likely event that could not be permanently ended until Undyrlunth, the homeworld of the formerly peaceful and agricultural race, the Mohm, was invaded. Considered a poorly strategic backwater world, no affiliation stepped in to stop the invasion and the world was quickly overtaken. The Mohm citizens who existed at the time were forced to have their spirits broken and built back up through periodic but constant abuse into hardened, violent creatures. At this point they were freed and armed with battle suits and powerful weaponry, transmogrified into one of the Crux's now-primary enforcer troopers. With their extremely powerful sense of smell and taste they could easily track down citizens and round them up, and their hardened lifestyle as simple farmers had over time dulled their senses to the point of them being able to shrug off several blaster wounds each.
With each generation for the next 11 generations the Mohm just became more battle-hardened and ferocious, leading to the first unanimous decision amongst the various existing affiliations at the time, even those at war with one another that having let the Mohm homeworld fall was a very bad decision. All of these cultures agreed to work to stop the Crux when they rooted out a cluster of them for the sake of both their own affiliations' safety as well as the safety of the galaxy at large. Though many of these groups would continue a vigilant watch, the Iskian Empire, which rules much of the Scutum–Crux Arm, would eventually become swayed by the opportunity that could be found by purchasing from the Crux's black markets and by secretly trading with and supporting the piracy acts. Overlord Chamelouge would be the Isk to be "corrupted" by the Crux's promises, although the Iskian Empire as a whole was not far above stooping to these deplorable acts to begin with, believing in doing pretty much whatever it takes to benefit themselves.
During a raid on the planet Zharkul, a Crux force managed to locate and free a powerful and deadly Zharkulan prisoner that had been placed in a maximum security internment penitentiary deep within a seamount at the bottom of the ocean. This prisoner, an Abyssal Zharkulan named Transpose, would escape and wreak havoc across the planet, though when the Crux forces were eventually pushed back by the combined ferocity of the many Zharkulan species, Transpose fled aboard a large pirate vessel. For several years he violently rose through the ranks of the Crux until he became one of Seikrabh's most trusted and respected members. Despite this, Transpose would come to strike out on his own, forming the Scourge, a smaller but almost equally dangerous group of pirates that worked on different principals from the Crux, and focused on uplifting and converting new races to the lifestyle instead of infiltrating spacefaring culture worlds and corrupting individuals within. Seikrabh is a surprisingly unselfish being considering his (secret) mission in life, and held no qualms against Transpose, now known as Lord Transpose. The two continued to remain in contact with one another and have since created a minor alignment.
After the Zolacia Invasion in which the Crux took over the planet with the help of the majority of the subjugated species on the planet, the planet was renamed Hydroth in honor of the new lead race, the Hydrothi, and the former rulers of the planet, the Zolacians were forced into back breaking manual labor from youth until death. Although many billions of Zolacians have perished working in mines and various other dangerous locations in Crux "society" with absolutely no rights whatsoever, the UFCL formed a Freedom Fighter task force known as the Zolacian Liberation Front to fight to free as many Zolacian slaves as possible. Although the battles are little more than guerrilla tactics against such odds and often only a few Zolacians are freed at a time, enough Zolacians have been freed to set up a new homeworld, named New Zolacia. Under the current rule of the first freed Zolacian, Zuni, the free members have begun to serve the UFCL, primarily seeking to collapse the Crux and especially take back their homeworld.
Although the Crux terrorize nearly all other cultures and empires, they have an extreme distaste for both the Followers of Vuul'huukos and the oft-dreaded Chaos Legions. However unlike most cultures, the Crux simply seem to believe that if either of these two factions succeed in their plans and destroy life, the Crux will have nothing and no one left to exploit. Interestingly, the Crux has three fully-inducted species in their midst that would actually better fit amongst the Chaos Legions, had the Legions discovered them first. These three, the Dementian, Frenzish and Lunacite, are violent to an absolute extreme, and are fielded by Crux pirates as seemingly unstoppable forces. However, all three races must be experiencing violence on almost a daily basis, or they are liable to tear apart the Crux from the inside-out. Seikrabh however never finds a shortage of battles to send this triumvirate into to cut their preferred swathes of blood and gore throughout.
Media appearances[]
The Crux have been a major antagonist in a large number of video games and media produced by Lunatic Entertainment over the last 25+ years.
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Old Artwork (1994—1997)[]
Members of the Crux when they were simply referred to as the SKULLs were drawn as early as 1994 where they were considered to be a space gang.
Intergalactic Bounty Hunter (2006)[]
Some of the bosses in this 2D platformer Mega Man clone are members of the Crux. This includes Slugg, Thrapp, and the game's final boss, Seikrabh.
Master of Survival (200X)[]
In this horizontal scrolling shoot 'em up game several enemies in this game happen to belong to the Crux.
Master of Survival: Slipaway (2009)[]
In the sequel to the previous title above, several enemies are again members of the Crux.
Battle Royale (2010)[]
Amalgam Online (2010)[]
Master of Survival: Deliver Every Friday (2011)[]
Xrosroads (2011)[]
Immortal Greed (2012)[]
The Crux are one of the six playable factions in this 3D MMOFPS. The 10 playable races that can be selected from include the Dementians, Frenzish, Henzap, Hydrothi, Lunacites, Mohm, Zazlotl, and three that were never decided upon.
Monster Space (2013)[]
Dangeorus Wilds (2014)[]
Star Cleaner (2014)[]
Immortal Greed 2: Unrest (2014)[]
In this sequel to the previous MMOFPS that can be played right inside the original game, the Crux has split into three smaller factions due to the in-fighting that has begun to take place across the planet. One faction is the Crushers (consisting of Dementians, Frenzish, and Lunacites); the SKULLs (Henzap, Mohm, and one unspecified race); and the Remnants of Hydroth (Hydrothi, Zazlotl, and another unspecified race). The final unspecified race can belong to any of these three groups.
Long Story (2015)[]
Choice (2015)[]
Grown (2016)[]
Junker: Slow Orbit (2016)[]
While they don't physically appear in this game, they are mentioned by name in information dumps about the Dementian Cannon and the Lunacite Chop, both of whom had abandoned the space pirate organization to work as freelance junkers instead, pointing at bad blood developing between the pair and their former allies.
Immortal Greed 3: Chaos (2016)[]
In the final game in the Immortal Greed trilogy of MMOFPSes (all of which can be played out of the same executable as they release, allowing players to either move characters to the next title in the series or jump back and forth between any character in any of the three settings), the Crux in the region have disbanded completely, as have all other factions. Players can still choose from its ten playable races, but they now are completely freelance and have no ties to any one group.
Kid Spuid (2019)[]
Thrillseeker Killseeker (2019)[]
One level in this run and gun game is dedicated to the Crux Invasion of Earth. Crux enemies are the foes fought in this mission and its boss is Seikrabh himself.
Tower of Vuul (2021)[]
Roguestar (2022)[]
Starcatch (201X)[]
Members of the SKULLs are one of the major antagonist gangs in this monster catcher game, known as the Skull Gang. In it they have a gang rivalry with the Bane Gang (a gang version of The Scourge) and the Chaos Cult (members of the Chaos Legions.) The player character is caught in the middle of this trifecta gang war. The Skull Gang is led by a currently unnamed stylized version of Seikrabh made to appear more Human.
Diakatan Online (201X)[]
The planet Diakatan suffers from the machinations of a SKULL cult as one of its many antagonist groups.
Master of Survival: Quit Using Inside the Office (201X)[]
Like other games in this series, Crux enemies appear throughout the game's many stages. One of the final stages in the game has the player fight the Crux mothership as a stage boss. After this, no more Crux appear.
Crux: Scourge II (201X)[]
The Crux are the main antagonists in this top-down multidirectional scrolling shooter. In it, they have arrived to take vengeance for the defeat of the Scourge in the previous title.
Grand Collage Project (2020—current)[]
Various members of the Crux are planned to appear in Somarinoa's ongoing character battle collage.
Galleries[]
Individuals in Crux[]
These are notable individuals inside the Crux Space Piracy.
(An Abyssal Zharkulan and former high ranking member of Crux, but later formed his own piracy known as the Scourge
Occasional Members[]
These races have a significant amount of individual members with the Crux to be considered affiliates, but at the same time are not fully inducted or nearly-fully inducted into the group. Currently, species marked with the Crawler card do not have images uploaded to this wiki at this time.''
(Extremely Rare)
(Black Market Salesmen)
(Extremely Rare)
(Slum Lords)
(Illegal Drug Runners)
(Fairly Uncommon)
(Extremely Rare)
(Black Market Dealings)
Full-Fledged Members[]
These races are considered full or nearly-full inductees into the Crux. As the Crux is so vastly spread out across nearly the entirety of the Kyklos galaxy in numerous pocket clusters, their homeworlds can exist virtually anywhere.
(Spies)
(Heavy Weapon Specialists)
(Founders and Leaders of the Crux Space Piracy)
(Raiders)
(Slaves)
Known Worlds of the Crux Space Piracy[]
These worlds have become bases of operations for the Crux Space Piracy. Worlds with no images are represented by Crawlers.
