Homeworld: The Stranger Things blog - AmDDRed

HOMEWORLD: THE STRANGER THINGS

Here I'd like to gather all the mistakes and curious things of Homeworld Universe that I've found. I hope it would be useful the creators of a new HWU content. And I really hope that there would be a proof-reader for the upcoming HW3, because at least the names should be fixed and "canonized" across all the texts.

I was forced to separate the article in two, as it didn't allow me to add any more sentences, so if you want to read about lore problems with HWR, HWM and HW3 - welcome here.

Contents

1. The Sources
2. HOMEWORLD
   • Global Plebiscite
   • Scaffold in the Sky
   • Fleet Debates
   • The Story of Saju-Ka
   • A 4000 Years Old Treaty
   • Sublight Drives
   • Five Khar-Tobas
   • May the Core Be With You
3. HOMEWORLD: CATACLYSM
   • Population of Kharak
   • Old Worker Designs
   • Flipped Maps
4. HOMEWORLD 2
   • Too Ancient Kiith LiirHra
   • Dreadnaught Twins
   • Nameless Captains
   • No Surrender, No Retreat
5. HOMEWORLD: DESERTS OF KHARAK
   • Too Ancient Kiiths of Khar-Toba
   • Northern Coalition Carriers
   • Classified Officers
   • The Age of S'jet
   • Rachel S'jet Letters
   • Malfunctioning Taiidani Carrier
   • Time Travelling Taiidani Carrier
   • Powerless Core

The Sources

• HW1 - Homeworld 1, manual, game
• HWC - Homeworld Cataclysm/Emergence, manual, game
• HWCO - Homeworld Cataclysm, outtakes
• HWWOS - HW and HWC ship descriptions, well of souls
• HW2 - Homeworld 2, manual, game
• HW2PR - Homeworld 2, Prima Official eGuide
• HWDOK - Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, Expedition Guide, game
• HWR - Homeworld: Revelations RPG
• HWRS - Homeworld: Revelations RPG Story Seeds
• HWM - Homeworld: Mobile, homeworldsource.net
• HW3 - Homeworld 3
• HWDST - Homeworld Dust Wars drafts

HOMEWORLD

Global Plebiscite

For the past two hundred and fifty years there have been no significant conflicts or bloodshed. We have dedicated our entire industrial and scientific resources towards a single, common goal: Returning to HIigara, our Homeworld.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.5, "The Guidestone"

Despite the fact there has not been a major war on Kharak for 200 years…
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.30, "Kiith Soban"

Global Plebiscite year, when Mevath Sagald had found the Guidestone, was KDS 1135. And if we try to add 250 years, it's KDS 1385 - of course, it's goes with a course of Fleet Debates, and with a remark of a very first Historical Briefing page telling that:

"The debate over our past on this world reaches back through the entire documented history of civilization, a period covering over 1300 years"
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.1, "A Question of Origins"

And if we count back, even from the very Mothership Launch, then what to think of HWDoK events, Northern Coalition war with kiith Gaalsien? Is this a significant conflict? Anyway I think, that this "200/250 years" thing was just ignored in HWDOK, thus creating a little bit another picture of the latest days of Kharak: like, HW1 was depicting a united society without wars and great problems that was punished unfairly, but HWDOK made Heresy Wars to continue and Kharak to become a time bomb. And HW2 made war criminals out of ancient Kushans…

Scaffold in the Sky

Fig. 1.5: "Four generations witness the Scaffold silently orbit the moonless Kharak"
(c) Homeworld Historical Briefing, p.7, "Construction Challenges"

If we count even the whole time from the beginning of the building of Scaffold, KDS 1179, up to the Mothership launch, KDS 1216, then it's 37 years. Are there 4 generations? Maybe, grandpa, father and son would see the start and grandson would see the finish. Of everything…

Fleet Debates

1. It's interesting that Fleet Debates from HW1 Historical Briefing happens in KDS1302 - if we convert it to the Hiigarian years, it's AHL 86, 30 years left till Makaan invasion. Really, a good time for fleet renovation!
2. In Fleet Debates - what did admiral Riif-Sa meant saying "Your kiith Matron!" - was he swearing?..

The Story of Saju-Ka

I don't know if it's an error or not, but I believe that it would be more logical that the story of Saju-ka is moved 100 years forward. And there is a line marking that the story should belong to the Age of Reason (KDS ~830-1106):

By the time the Time of Reason was at its height in 710, the Gaalsien were down to less than 30 vassal families… <…> The whole of Kiith Gaalsien was convicted in absentia by the Daiamid in Tiir and deemed an outlaw kiith
(c) HW1, History Briefing, p.23, Kiith Gaalsien

The lesser kiithid, brutalized by nearly 300 years of war, gratefully accepted his terms, and soon the Naabal army had grown fifty-fold with kiithid whose only desire was to end the Heresy Wars any way they could.
And in three short years they had done it. Ifriit Naabal-Sa’s last act before stepping down as Sa was to establish the Daiamid in Tiir…
(c) HW1, History Briefing, p.34, Kiith Naabal

This came to a head in 520... <…> …lasted almost 300 years
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.1, Heresy Wars

So the story overall should look like this:

• -KDS 810
  Kiith Naabal act like Kadeshi, forces all the guests of their valley to become a spy of Naabal or to be removed at once;
• ~KDS 800 (previously KDS 700)
  Saju-Ka city is endangered to be swallowed by desert sands;
  An engineer Gar Naabal builds protection in favor of his kiith spies in kiith S'jet;
• KDS 810
  Naabal-sa decides it's time to join the Heresy War; Naabal conquistadors start the Intervention;
• KDS 813
  Heresy War Ends, the Daiamid of Tiir established
• KDS 817 (previously KDS 717)
  Miirpat Gaalsien-Sa orders to destroy Saju-ka protection defiled by the heresy of Naabal and S'jet;
• KDS 818 (previously KDS 718)
  Kiith Gaalsien is declared outlaw in the Daiamid;

And now it really looks like kiith Gaalsien are like terrorists revenging for their loss.

Otherwise it doesn't feel like Naabal were saviors from the Heresy Wars: if we take KDS 717 as the date of Gaalsi escaping to the desert, and Siidim not really resisting the Intervention, then it looks more like a simple power deal by retaking lesser vassals from weakened major kiithid. But you know, recalling HWC, with Naabal trying to consume Somtaaw, and those stories about trader kidnapping, it gets in a one line… Maybe, Siidim was winning the war, but suddenly Naabal has appeared with fresh forces against the bleeding enemy?..

In latter Homeworld installments, everything went in the direction that the Heresy Wars ended in 10 years, in KDS 820:

Heresy Wars begin (approx. 520KDS to 820KDS)
(c) HWDOK, History of Kharak

KDS 820 Heresy Wars End
(c) HWR, p.169, Timeline of the Kushan

Within ten years, they won the Heresy Wars.
(c) HWR, p.210, Kiith Naabel, Naabal History

The Heresy Wars lasted 300 years and ended with the capitulation of Kiith Siidim in the three-day siege of Mataar in 820 KDS
(c) HWR, p.216, Kiith Siidim, The Chosen Ones

Well, even with the Heresy Wars ending in KDS 820, moving Saju-Ka destruction to KDS 817 feels OK. Then KDS 820 is just a round up date of kiith Gaalsien traces being lost in the deserts since KDS 817... Like here:

Devoted to what they believed was saving the planet from sinful living, they instigated the Heresy Wars in 520 KDS. Three hundred years later they were defeated, and after destroying the temple city of Saju-ka in a fit of madness, they were exiled to the desert.
(c) HWR, p.199, Kiith Gaalsien

As well, HWDOK Somtaaw story tells us that in the 8th century the kiith still felt the consequences of Siidim and Gaalsien struggle, which means that the Gaalsi didn't vanished in the deserts yet.

The centuries of the Heresy Wars were hard times for the Somtaaw; their Khontala mountains provided a natural barrier between the forces of Gaalsien and Siidim, and both sides struggled urgently to subdue or seduce the Somtaaw for nearly two hundred years.<…>
Eventually, in the year 675 KDS, all 33 of the Somtaaw temples were closed to outsiders… <…>
Contact with the outside was sporadic throughout the seventh and eighth centuries… <…>
This changed in the year 789 KDS, when Kuura Somtaaw <…> awoke one night from a strange dream.
(c) HWDOK, IV Kharakid Social Systems, Somtaaw

So, probably it should be somewhat like that: around 800's kiith Naabal is at the edge of presenting their might to the world, so their engineers are offering their services to the potential allies - as well saving architectural and historical monuments in case of need.

Kiith S'jet has been a constant presence across society on Kharak; rather than cluster in one place they tended to gather where they needed to in order to gather data. Before the Heresy Wars their greatest learning centers were clustered in Sadsaior, Abaard, Saju-ka, and Khar-Atekh.
(c) HWR, p.207, Kiith S'jet

These secret Naabali used their positions of Sjet immunity to move through the various warring factions and carry out missions of retrieval and intelligence-gathering.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.31, Kiith S'jet

When the Naabali Intervention breaks out, Gaalsi find out that Soban mercenaries are unpurchaseable, Kaaleli messengers and assassins vanished, S'jetti are spying for Naabal, so Gaalsi go postal and attack S'jet center of Abaard seeking for revenge for betrayal, and to gather information about what the Jakuul start to happen by torturing S'jet responsible persons. Naabali rush on to protect S'jetti centers, but Saju-Ka is already occupied by Gaalsien forces. Anyway, there is no chance for them to hold the city, so Miirpat Gaalsien-Sa orders to destroy the sand protection.

- Destroy those fagaani creations.
- No, Gaalsien-Sa, please, no! It will also destroy the city!
- Then… The Sajuuk's will will be fulfilled. Sajuuk's great, and He knew that you will defile this sacred place with your heresy, and it was meant to be saved of your lies. But your faagani buildings prolonged the life of it, so you like B'tiirs would be feasting on a corpse of a once pure city created in a fame of Sajuuk… This blasphemy must be ended.
- Nooo! Noooo! Here so much.. In this library…
- Kill him. Or wait! Tie him up in his famous Library, so he can see how his faagani books are erased from this world. And maybe the mercy of Sajuuk will spare your soul. Though I doubt it.

Anyway, the Saju-ka city conserved under the fire sand glass would be a great opportunity for hiigarian archaeologists…

A 4000 Years Old Treaty

The captain claimed our planet violated a 4000 year old treaty forbidding us to develop hyperspace technology.
(c) HW1, Mission 03, Ending Cut-Scene

The Guidestone.
Found in the ruins of Khar-Toba, it has been dated at over 3000 years old.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.4, Fig.1.3

The trip was a major turning point not only for the Kushan people, but for most of the civilized galaxy; our return to Hiigara was not only the end of our 3,000-year exile, but the end of the Taidani Empire, and its tyranny over billions.
(c) HWC, Historical Brief, p.4, HISTORY OF THE HIIGARAN LANDFALL

3000 years passed, and the exiles drifted to the end of the galaxy. On a desert planet some 2000 years after the exile, a signal is detected in the sand.
(c) HW2DST, Background

For 3,000 years, the Exiles survived on Kharak.
(c) HW2PR, Life on Kharak

Four thousand year passed before the Second Core was discovered on a desert planet
(c) HW2, Intro Cut-scene

Unbeknownst to any Kushan, this experiment had violated a four-thousand-year-old treaty forbidding hyperspace travel to the Kushan.
(c) HWR, p.180, Exodus

These exiles inhabited the planet for nearly four thousand years.
(c) HWR, p.186, Kharak

For the next four millennia, Taiidani society rebuilt and flourished.
<…>
Four thousand years of civilization, however, have taken their toll on Taiidani culture.
(c) HWR, p.236, A Golden Age?

When the Kushan, remnants of the Hiigaran exiles, made their first hyperspace jump in four thousand years, their efforts were detected by sensor posts in the surrounding Taiidani space.
(c) HWR, p.237, The Homeworld War

the Bentus was the vessel chosen to receive the Second Hyperspace Core from the Hiigarans four
thousand years ago
(c) HWR, p.253, Bentusi, Bentus

There is a HW1 mission 03 cutscene, where a storyteller tells us about a 4000 years treaty, that was violated by the Exiles. At the same time there was the 3000 years old Guidestone, made in the very time of being exiled from Hiigara, according to HWC historical brief… So for how many years the Exiles were already punished? 4000 years? 3000 years? Was it initially meant that the Guidestone had been made in the time of Exile, or it means that 3000 KDS years are 4000 GSY years?.. Or was it just a simple mistake when all the written game's texts were brought together?..

- Answer, bitch, why did you destroyed our planet!
- Treaty…
- What treaty?!!
- It was signed many thousand year ago!
- How much?!!
- Three.. Four… I don't remember!..
- So is it three or four?!!
- Four, four, please don't… !
- Don't?!!!

Object did not survive interrogation

But if we think, then we can combine it this way: there was a treaty with term of 4000 years, and only 3000 years have passed. To justify Kushan's decision even more, in "Deserts of Kharak" only 200-300 years were given to them till a total desertisation of the planet.

But Homeworld Revelations states that the treaty had no terms!

The Hiigarans were to leave the Inner Rim, never to return - and never again to use hyperspace technologies of any kind. (c)
(c) HWR, p.171, Pre-Exile

With this information, is even less clear what 4000 years old treaty the interrogated Taiidan was talking about… And to make it even more less clear in HWR there is a phrase:

Little by little, over the first decades, the Kiithid rebuilt. <…> Some felt guilt over the aggression that
started their five-thousand-year sojourn.
(c) HWR, p.183, Post-Exodus

Sublight Drives

For generations the convoy moved silently through space. They endured great difficulties… …imperfect technology…
(c) HW1, Mission 11, Ending Cut-Scene

The Hiigarans would have a single month to board a sublight transport departing toward the galactic outskirts
(c) HW2, History of Hiigara

All surviving Hiigarans leave their home on a generations-long journey across the stars.
(c) HWR, p.166, The Exile

The Hiigarans were to leave the Inner Rim, never to return - and never again to use hyperspace technologies of any kind. (c)
(c) HWR, p.171, Pre-Exile

Peering toward the heart of our own spiral galaxy. The dark horizontal band is a vast bank of interstellar dust that obscures the more distant bright core region approximately 35,000 light years away.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.2, Fig.1.2

GSY 6510 - Hiigarans exiled
~GSY 7500 - Exiles Land on Kharak
(c) HWR, p.169, Timeline of the Kushan

And yet the greatest question of Homeworld is: if the hyperspace tech was forbidden, then how it came out that the Exiles made the path of 35000 light years on sublight drives in less then 35000 years, but even in less than 3000 years?

Probably, they all had short jump hyperdrives - otherwise it would be hard to hide the built-in Great Hyperspace Core, and later tech similarities with the Kadeshi, - but they were limited in usage of it, though it would be strange as the Hiigarans were building those themselves. I guess, the answer might be invented out of the fact of the "month":

The Hiigarans would have a single month to board a sublight transport departing toward the galactic outskirts.
(c) HW2PR, p.176, Appendix C: The History of Hiigara, Exile

Many of these were created in the space of a single month on the orders of the Galactic Council after the decision was made to exile the Hiigarans.
(c) HWR, p.150, C5, Khar-Toba

The shortage of time forced them to use already known solutions and those were not meant for such an edgy situation of transporting thousands of people. For example, the Power Plant would be working at the peak of its possibilities and it would be like "jump once or continue to live for 50 years". The Great Jumping Event once in a generation. Thus, posteriori, those ships were sublight.

But I have a feeling that HWC with those Taiidan refuge ships being attacked by the Beast Cruise Missile was trying to feel this gap by introducing the Slipgates…

Five Khar-Tobas

Only a single ship made it to Kharak
(c) HWR, p.172, Exile

Well, you see it yourself, even in HWRM. So, where are 4 more vessels? Is it the Somtaaw's Shimmering Path with the Star-Metall Scrolls? Or Siidim beliefs of them being from the stars? And what about another 2?..

I guess those ships were meant to be destroyed on the high orbit of Kharak:

Once we had progressed to piloted flights, reports of unusual pieces of metallic debris in high orbit soon led to dedicated retrieval missions, with surprising results. While nothing larger than a handspan could be found, samples were brought down from orbit and soft landed in the High Desert. Initial analysis made it obvious these were pieces of advanced manufactured and machined structures. Detailed atomic analysis revealed trace elements and isotope combinations unknown on Kharak or, as it was eventually discovered, anywhere else in the stellar system.
(c) Homeworld, Historical Briefing, The Xenogenesis Question and Early Spaceflight Missions

Even with the leaps and bounds in power and metallurgy that the orbital debris ring has brought us, our best case scenario is that in less than 350 years, Kharak will be unable to support our species.

Metallurgy matches orbital debris

Had our initial boosters been just a little more efficient, our first launches would have been high enough to be destroyed instantly by the debris belt, instead of safely discovering it.

KDS 1061 During a manned space flight, crew members discover floating debris in high orbit. It is determined that the debris is metallic, but its atomic composition shares no similarities to anything known to exist on Kharak.

KDS 1061-1110 The discovery and study of Kharakian space debris leads to great scientific progress in metallurgy and manufacturing, along with the development of fission and fusion power plants.

(c) Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, Expedition Guide, The Jaraci Object

But you know, after we have seen Khar-Toba, Taiidani carrier and some Kalash wreckage, it's really hard to believe that a city-sized starship would just be grinded in high orbit. Unless they did a kind of BSG2004 trick: one ship was used for landing all the people and others were sent into the sun. But why there is so much of wreckage and artificial debris? This looks like a secret of Kharak itself, invented by Hardware: Shipbreakers project turning into HWDoK, and some Kharak archaelogical mission definitely would find more than they hoped for!..

May the Core Be With You

In the final mission of "Homeworld", there were a moment, when the Taiidani Emperor with a words "Karan, You've taken one step too close to me" knocks out her, so that the mothership becomes paralyzed.

No physical touch was there, even hyperinhibitors with forced exit out of hyperspace didn't harm Karan S'jet. Maybe the way how she is connected to the mothership is the key to what has happened?

Neuronisist Sjet suggested using an existing brain - her own - to bridge the gap between living nerve
branches and the Mothership’s data shunts.
The drawback was that her research was still decades away from even a basic neuronic interface, and the only way to patch someone into the data system of the Mothership was to lay a nerve trunk open and attach the shunt directly with a bio-circuit interface. In order to serve as a living command core to the Mothership, one of our people would have to volunteer to be surgically altered so that most of the nerve trunks serving limbs and senses would be patched into ship systems instead. The subject would then have to be embedded permanently in the bridge of the ship.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.11, Karan Sjet Solution

Well, the old HW2 drafts may tell something:

When attatched to HS module, the person acquires telepathic connection with other HS Mod users (Emperor, Bentusi)
Emperor has one of the old HS Modules
“Touches” Karan with it.
(c) HWDST, New Story Spin

So, the Emperor was Unbound as well. But still it's not clarifying anything, because, Karan S'jet is connected to the bridge of the Mothership, not the HyperCore directly. It's doubtfully that any problem with the systems should create a painful experience for the Fleet Command. And to be clear, a HyperDrive is just a type of an oscillator:

The solid-state Hyperspace Module is a quantum oscillation device capable of generating a waveform throughout any surrounding structure. It does this in order to induce an effect known as quantum tunneling.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.9-10

But though the initial idea didn't make it to the end, a part of spaceoperish Homeworld Dustwars continued to live in Homeworld 2 rebooted development, thus we got a magically evil artifact out of 3:

But the magic Progenitor Core telepathy continued to exist in the Homeworld Universe along the mysterious prophecies. And it's interesting if there will be at least a parascientific explanation of this wizardry.

In the end, does it mean that the Emperor did the similar operation as Karan S'jet? Or how does the Emperor have learned this tricks using just a regular HyperModule? Does it mean that Taiidani Empire had so greatly progressed with the hypertech so that they can compete with the Progenitor tech without the help of Bentusi? Or this is the T'Mat gift?..

HOMEWORLD: CATACLYSM

Population of Kharak

HWC tells us about the population of Kharak:

Only 1 out of every 60 Kushan was aboard the Mothership at launch.
(c) HWC, p.6, THE RUDE AWAKENING

Which is, roughly speaking, 600k * 60 = 36 millions people.

But there is another information:

The polar regions are almost optimal for our people but the limited arable land and scarce resources has prevented our population from growing beyond 300 million people.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.1, Kharakid Environment

And it sounds like they've reached the number. So, we need an order of magnitude larger with that HWC quote, and if we will add a zero to the quote, it becomes "1 of 600 Kushan", thus increasing Kharak's population up to 360 millions. And that fits pretty well. Though it might mean, that in HW1 the big problem of Kharak would be not the desert but people starvation, so they are really in a need of relocating people to another space object.

More detailed info you can find in a separate article - Homeworld: Population.

Old Worker Designs

While most Kiith still use the primary resource collector design created nearly 50 years ago during the Mothership's construction, Kiith Somtaaw has been forced by circumstance to radically redesign the entire resourcer concept.
<…>
Then, deep in the Mothership's main databanks, a Somtaaw engineer came across a hull design for a heavy cargo re-entry vehicle. It had been used 120 years earlier on Kharak to haul crews and raw components to and from low orbit during the construction of the Mothership Scaffolding.
(c) HWWOS, Somtaaw, Worker

If the first date, for the primary resource collector design, look good - KDS 1216+15-50=1181, which correlates with the date of commencing Scaffold construction, it's KDS 1159+20=1179, well, both around KDS 1180 - and yes, that's it!

But the second date, for heavy cargo re-entry vehicle design, is totally not good: if we apply the same formula, KDS 1216+15-120 = 1111, and that's the Khar-Toba expedition time, Mothership construction would commence in 60 years only! So what is this strange date?!!.. But if we remove that "1", leaving the text as "It had been used 20 years earlier… during the construction of the MS Scaffolding", then we would get a pretty correct date! 20 years earlier, relative to the resource collector design date, there was a date of all the Mothership works beginning: KDS 1159.

Of course, if we go on further, we should say that Mothership construction had been initiated 40 years ago, and Mothership Scaffolding - 10 years earlier, but fixing the mistype of "120 years" to "20 years" already makes a lot more sense than it was before.

Flipped Maps

Looks like some of the maps where inverted and not checked properly before the release. Especially I like those Greek symbols instead of name - though there were a try to "invent" somewhat of an alphabet for Somtaaw (anyway it was one line repeated everywhere).

It looks like to make it right, the map should be flipped and turned this or that way. And yes, looks like all the HWC action was about the Inner Rim...

HOMEWORLD 2

Too Ancient Kiith LiirHra

There are such words in the Homeworld 2 "historical briefing":

On the matter of the Bentusi, the words of Malketh LiirHra - Kiith-Sa of his people and their representative at the Daiamid - have been preserved to this day.
“We are a people forged in the struggles of battle, conflict, and death. Where others see pride, we see only duty. Where invaders see weakness, we see honor. As individuals we go to war, yet we return as family, Hiigarans, Kiith. <…> Are we to be remembered as Hiigarans, or do we bow to the sands of time?”
(c) HW2PR, History of Hiigara, Prelude to the Ends of Time

Well, if we don't take in an account that the kiithid system is seemed to be born out of the Exile:

The Kith develop out of early interstellar explorers in the 21st and 22nd centuries. Because of the effects of time dilation associated with travel at near-light speeds, the Kith maintain separate settlements ("Kithtowns") in which care was taken to keep their language and culture consistent over the course of millennia.
(c) Kith by Poul Andersen

All below mentioned cases can be explained that gangs of people that we will know as kiith were taking already existing sigils from the ships side under their responsibility, not necessarily meaning that there were kiithid system:

Most archaeologists agree it is a social artifact that dates back before our arrival on Kharak itself. Interpretation of ancient legends and translations of texts found in the ruins of Khar-Toba suggest that our ancestors’ journey to this world was arduous enough to break down all social structures except the most basic family bonds. When the power plant at Khar-Toba failed, refugees in all probability fled in small groups of friends and relatives. Harsh conditions and the passage of hundreds of years hardened what was originally a practical system, taking care of your own loved ones first, into a ritualized system of alliances and loyalties we have come to know as the kiith system.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.21, The Kharakid Social System

Based on the fact that the Naabal crest, a Kharaki silhouetted against a background of tiny circles and stripes, loosely resembles symbols found etched into panels on the wreck at Khar-Toba, some archaeologists have put forth the theory that the Naabal are actually direct descendants from some sort of engineering core that ran the ship that brought us here. While the theory is convenient in terms of linking the unknown past with the present age of exploration, the evidence is just too circumstantial for most scholars to give it much weight.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.32, Kiith Naabal

Upon the doors into the Temple Observatory where the Guidestone was found, the seal of Kiith S’jet had been boldly carved.
(c) HWR, p.207, Kiith S'jet, Serving the Truth

Kiith Siidim sigil was recognized by the Bentusi. Evidence points to the Siidim being the descendants of a lost thirty-five-ship convoy that departed from Nisilbis nearly three thousand years before the exiles returned to Hiigara.
(c) HWR, p.217, Kiith Siidim

Thus we can imagine that the Naabal was an Engineering Guild, the S'jet was a Navigation Guild, and the Gaalsien was Khar-Toba's Command Deck, that held this ship together till the very end like William Bligh on his boat - and maybe they decided to land on Kharak, that was not really that good, because of mutiny atmosphere, and then finally lost control on a surface… What more guilds were there on a ship, hard to tell, it must have been an evolutionary forming of ship-prisoned gangs turning into pre-kiithid, that finally let loose on Kharak. And if we believe the Kushan Timeline of HWR, then there was almost 800 years on Kharak before any documented history appeared - maybe, it's the sign that exactly around KDS 0 the local tribe of people finally formed into something we are familiar as kiith S'jet?. Like it's the beginning of conscious kiithid system existence.

Though, trying to make consistent story, Homeworld Revelations tries to incorporate all the series backgrounds: and IMHO it shallows the sacrifices and social changes made by the Exile and generations spent in ships and harsh conditions of Kharak that rolled back Hiigaran post-industrial era society to Kharak's feudal clans and families of kiith:

The Kiith system existed long before the Exile
(c) HWR, p.174, Gone But Not Forgotten

Anyway some time ago I've been writing about this case, imagining how a LiirHra member could appear in a very past… But still, the thing is that the kiith LiirHra is born on Kharak by the alliance of kiith Hraal and kiith Liir:

The entire manufacturing branch of Kiith Hraal broke away and joined with a relatively small kiith that specialized in space technologies. The new kiith, LiirHra, has gone on to take the lead in the design and construction of the Mothership.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.22, The Kharakid Social System

Kiith LiirHra: the most recently formed Kiith, born of an alliance between Kiith Liir and Kiith Hraal.
(с) HWR, p.173, The Kiithid of Kharak

--Though this name of "Liir" was first met only on HWR pages, long after HW2..

But especially touching phrase about the "sands of time" is more appropriate for a Kharakian or post-Kharakian culture. Looks like somewhat of inappropriate copy-paste of initial HW2 story draft…

Dreadnaught Twins

In HW2 there were 2 Dreadnaught Berths: one for Makaan, one for Karan (in 9th mission one berth was outside the map). But the ship is one. So I don't get the point - whether there were two Progenitor Motherships, or it's the one part split into two pieces?..

Nameless Captains

There are two guys in HW2 that have strange names: all the captains seems to have only name or surname, not clear. For example: captain Soban tells his kiith/surname, but Captain Elohim from the shipyard Naabal - a name, Elohim Naabal? Or is there a kiith Elohim in Kushan kiithid?

Well, there is another captain that uses 1 name only: it's Captain Elson. Maybe that's the name - Captain?..

And there is question to Captain Soban: fleet Ferin Sha, seriously? A non-aggressive event of Manaani?..

To find Manaani “by the hundreds,” one would have had to seek them out at a Gathering, their yearly meeting on the sands of Ferin Sha (“The Dancing Ground”). Not only was Ferin Sha nearly 200 miles from the White Desert, but focus at such a Gathering would be celebration and drinking, not killing and looting.
(c) HW1, Historical Brief, p.35, The Kiith Manaan

No Surrender, No Retreat

It seems that the great plan of Makaan involved this points:

1. go to Balcora with one Great Core
2. destroy the Balcore Gate cut off Balcora place from visitors
3. find Khar-Sajuuk that requires 3 Great Cores
4. …
5. become Sajuuk-Khar and return back!

I'm having issues with the 4th point plan part, what would have happened if both the Gate and the Mothership are destroyed?..

HOMEWORLD: DESERTS OF KHARAK

Too Ancient Kiiths of Khar-Toba

We see all the official kiithid insignias on the wreckage of Khar-Toba: S'jet, Somtaaw, Gaalsien, Naabal, Paktu, Soban, Manaan.

Same 7 kiiths are here: besides showing local Fremen's stillsuit, we can see this ancient wall of Gaalsi with pictures of Angel Moon and aggressive Taiidani Empire insignia.

Of course, it would be interesting to get to know the roles of these kiiths - Sjet/Astronavigation and superjetting; Naabal/Engineering - like JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) relations… But actually it's quite surprising to see some kiith insignias onboard:

1. Nabaal: ok, the engineers having somewhat of an engine-related image;
2. Sjet: their insignia shows us a solar eclipse, that clearly not belongs to the Kharak, but is an artifact of Hiigara and Angel Moon;
3. Gaalsien & Somtaaw: they may have belonged to the Khar-Toba crew, hard to tell - some religious guys with an abstract insignia, so everything possible;
4. Paktu: the kiith was a minor farming kiith that rose big only after settling on the Southern pole, and this happened only after 490 KDS, as well, their insignia is the consequence of The First Migration, so they don't belong to the murals;
5. Soban: the kiith was born on Kharak from the scratch in 416 KDS, with the sword handle as an insignia, so they don't belong to the murals;
6. Manaan: their picture shows the sand dune, and it's clearly Kharak originated as the kiith itself, as only after 340 KDS they got to be known, so they don't belong to the murals;

I guess it would be more interesting to put the vanished kiithid insignias there, like kiith come and go, no matter how old are you:

Of the three major religious kiithid, Gaalsien, Ferriil, and Somtaaw, it was Gaalsien that preached the strongest message of punishment.
(c) HW1, Historical Brief, p.22, Kiith Gaalsien

But it looks like the game artists just took existing HW1/HWC insignias and put it on a wall without thinking what questions would it raise.

Northern Coalition Carriers

About carriers:

The Sobaan-sponsored Sakala was the first carrier of this design to clear the constructions yards in late 1105 with the Kapisi following two triads later. While the Kapisi is being fitted for Operation Khadiim, the Sakala has served in combat operations nearly non-stop since her inaugural shakedown patrol and has already earned distinction in two major offensives against Gaalsien raiding formations. There are plans for eight other Command Carriers in this class with Nabaal and Hraal claiming construction priority for the next two.
(c) HWDOK, Vehicle Manifest, Coalition, Carrier

So:

1. Naabal: "Ifriit Nabaal" class heavy carrier (KIA)
2. Siidim: Sakala, "Sakala" class desert carrier
3. Sjet: Kapisi, "Sakala" class desert carrier

And 8 Sakala-class carrier more:

1. Nabaal +1
2. Hraal +1
3. Soban +1?
4. and 5 more

As well here is problem with "Sakala" and "KDS 1105". A letter from KDS 1108:

“Operation Khadiim: Confirmed.
Funding: Confirmed.
Design of Sakala Class Carriers: Confirmed.”
(c) HWDOK, Rachel's Personal Journal, A NEW EXPEDITION

To combine it together I can only assume, that the first carrier name was "Sakala" and this name served as a name for the whole class, like it happened with the "Dreadnaught". And later Soban has given this very first carrier to Siidim. Or we simply need to admit that there is a problem in a story consistency.

Classified Officers

In HWDoK Expedition Guide there are description of KDS 1106/1110 expeditions, with main officers files.

In case of KDS 1106 expedition there were two classified officers, one of them was easily recognized as Roman S'jet, the intelligence of Kapisi (KDS 1110) as the main info was the same. Yet it would be interesting to find out why he's alive after all the initial Jaraci Anomaly expedition had failed.

The second officer blackened photo profile was similar to Rachel, but it had different info at the expedition of KDS 1110. Only comparison to picture in Developers Comments proved that it is a Rachel's picture.

So why information has changed? What has happened?.. Or is it a different person, and the picture is just a quick usage of existing media, just lit black and horizontally flipped, as the ears of hidden officer also suspiciously remind us Nathan S'jet from the same picture?..

The Age of S'jet

Personal files of Jaraci Anomaly expeditions officers have a data about their age. And while it's logical to assume that "Ifriit Naabal" heavy carrier files are related to KDS 1106 and "Kapisi" desert carrier files are related to KDS 1110, Nathan S'jet information makes you doubtful.

It is said that Nathat S'jet is 38 years old, but if you check further you'd see:

Education:
Basic Training, Tiir Barracks Complex. Tiir Officer Training Academy, Class of ’90.
Soban Red Academy, Honors in Military History and Philosophy, class of ‘94.
Nathan entered the Soban Advanced Warfare Academy at the age of twenty-two and graduated four years later with honors.
(c) HWDOK, Expedition Guide, VI Operation “Khadiim”

So, the direct age number suggests that the guy's date of birth is at KDS 1110-38=1072, but the text insists that the date is KDS 1090-22=1068, and the file belongs to KDS 1068+38=1106, thus is would mean that the real age of Nathan is 42. Well, the same as Jacob S'jet if he'd survived, almost the same as Clea Soban which is 41 - of course, if her card is from KDS 1110...

And of course, here comes the question - is this some miscalculation, like Nathan file was copy-pasted of Jacob's, and not all the old traces were properly erased, or we can imagine story, for example him being in a reserve crew. Probably, after Roman S'jet classified file, we need those stories :) Oh, those S'jetties! Always having some secrets behind…

Rachel S'jet Letters

The first, a reminder to everyone that the Ifriit Naabal ceased communications two years ago during a storm that covered almost the entire southern hemisphere of our world. It included a list of the people and resources they had committed in the interim, trying to find any trace of that magnificent carrier.
(c) HWDOK, Rachel’s Personal Journal, "RACHEL’S LOSS"

When one of those loyal digital agents returned to my wrist today like a bedraggled little bird which finally wings back to its cages after being lost for years… it took all my will not to burst in tears of relief in the middle of the gymnasium.
“Operation Khadiim: Confirmed.
Funding: Confirmed.
Design of Sakala Class Carriers: Confirmed.”
(c) HWDOK, Rachel's Personal Journal, "A NEW EXPEDITION"

And I have less than two years to do it. Less than two years to transform myself from a S’jet Data Jockey to a military officer. No. Not even just an officer… but a scout-qualified officer. I have to be out tasting the desert on the wind, feeling the dune shift, seeing the signs I can trust no one else to see.
(c) HWDOK, Rachel's Personal Journal, "A NEW EXPEDITION"

So, if we compare this info to the official Kharakian dating system, then we have a few issues:

• Approval of operation Khadiim is marked by KDS 1107
• In Expedition Guide Ifriit Naabal MIA declaration is marked both on KDS 1107 and KDS 1108
• First, Rachel S'jet tells that 2 years passed since missing - Operation Skaal Brii had happened in KDS 1106
• Second, Rachel S'jet tells that operation Khadiim is confirmed
• Third, Rachel S'jet tells that she has 2 years to join operation Khadiim
• Operation Khadiim happens in KDS 1110

The only mathematical solvation to this puzzle is that the approval of operation Khadiim and official recognition of Ifriit Naabal MIA has happened in KDS 1108, not in KDS 1107. Well, maybe, in New Year's Eve.

Malfunctioning Taiidani Carrier

According to what we've seen, Khar-Toba Core in its best times was able to malfunction hyperdrives of incoming ships, making something similar to what we've seen in Kadeshi missions. Also, it had possibility to redirect jump into the planet. Probably, good Hyperspace module have possibility not only jump but, as well, not to let go enemy out of the certain range?..

Probably, that happened with all the ships that came to Kharak - well, I guess, it was another mysterious place like The Great Nebula with hidden Kadeshi… But at least the sand-hyper-spaced ships origin mystery had been solved.

Kiith Siidim's origins are hazy, though it is now known they are survivors from the various ships that crashed upon Kharak after the exiles' arrival. They always believed they came from the heavens, and the first mention of them in Kushan history speaks of travelers emerging from Cape Wrath bearing unbelievable riches and speaking in tongues.
Kiith Siidim sigil was recognized by the Bentusi. Evidence points to the Siidim being the descendants of a lost thirty-five-ship convoy that departed from Nisilbis nearly three thousand years before the exiles returned to Hiigara.
(c) HWR, p.217, Kiith Siidim

But there was something strange about the Taiidani carrier, that has fallen to Kharak: she was not damaged, she was on a stable orbit - as the satellite launched was hanging there pretty long time; and it seems that in HW there is antigravity, as we've seen frigates on a ground of Hiigara. But what has happened to the carrier so it crushed? What more mysterious powers does The Great Core have?..

Time Travelling Taiidani Carrier

If we compare these 2 dates:

• KDS 1110 (GSY 9404)
  Operation Khadim - an expedition into the Great Desert (HWR)
• GSY 9435 (KDS 1141)
  Saarkin Cho class Taiidani carrier production started (HWC)

The Saarkin Cho class carrier has been in continuous service for nearly 90 years (galactic standard) at this point, and due to the fall of the Taiidan Empire it seems unlikely that it will be replaced in front line service anytime soon.
(c) HWC, p.116, Ships, “Saarkin Cho” Class Carrier

then we would see that goes in direct contradiction with HWDOK where Saarkin Cho class carrier was found 30 years before it's production started… Well, even if we count down 15 years, so it's AHL 0-90, not AHL 15 - 90, still it doesn't work.

Powerless Core

According to HWDOK plot, the Great Hyper Core acted as a local Bermuda triangle, making flyby ships to stop their hyperdrive in a close proximity of Kharak. But there is a question how did it do this, as it seems that, according to HW1, Khar-Toba had been depowered for a very long time:

The massive fusion core had obviously been moved from the ship to the underground chamber where it was found in order to feed power to the original city, which probably fell soon after the ship's plant failed for the last time.
(c) HW1, Historical Briefing, p.3, A5: Khar-Toba Analysis

So the abandoning of a city was next to power plant failing.

And in a regular world, where a Hyper-Core is just a high scientific oscillation device, no power - no action, no ships to attract into Kharak, no Taiidani carrier falling, though it's another question, nothing.

But if we declare it's an ancient wizard magic tech, then everything could happen. It could be even logical, that such a rare artifact, a Great Hyper Core, would distort hyperspace routes so that some advanced races would find them some day. Like, a fine tuning, no gravity field only hyperspace distortion by the fact of the artifact itself.

And even more, in HW2 3 of GHCs powered up the Khar-Sajuuk, which might be a hint that Progenitors could use the Cores not only for jumping but also as a power reactor somehow... But it's really strange: if the device is attached to a power, it's not working, if detached it's working. So anyhow the presence of the GHC can be reveled. So how had the ancient Kushans escaped with such a treasure?..

Though we try somehow to explain a retcon once again.

Change Log

• 23.10.23 - divided HW: Stranger Things into 2 parts;
  added HWC: Population of Kharak, HWDOK: Powerless Core;
• 18.12.23 - updated HW1 Sublight Drives, removed extra info from HWC: Population of Kharak
• 25.12.23 - added link to Homeworld: Population

Read More Of Homeworld

• Homeworld: Timeline
• Homeworld: The Stranger Things
• Homeworld: The Stranger Things II
• Homeworld: Cartography
• Homeworld: XenoLanguage
• Homeworld: XenoLanguage II
• Homeworld: Hyperspace Technologies
• Homeworld: Population
• Homeworld: Endless
• Homeworld: Bentusi
• Homeworld: Kadeshi
• Homeworld: The Beast
• Homeworld: Kiithid
• Homeworld: Kiith S'jet
• Homeworld: Kiith LiirHra
• Homeworld: Hiigarans
• Homeworld: Sajuuk-Khar
• Homeworld: Swords of Kharak
• Homeworld: Karan Sjet Ain't Getting Younger
• Homeworld: Baserunners
• Homeworld: Kickstarter
• Homeworld: Taiidani Fleet - The Key to a Victory
• The Pitch. Homeworld2: Emergence
• The Pitch. Homeworld2: Taiidani Mod
• The Pitch. Homeworld2: The Beast Mod
• The Pitch. Homeworld: Kharak Total War
• Gamedesign: Homeworld Series As An Example of RTS Unit Systems
• Games: 3DS RTS