The Iteru Genocide

Prelude (21-14 BR)

In 21 BR, Iteru, a small moon of the Planet Awal, reported its first case of The Blood Bleaching, a virulent plague that originated on Vigam and had infected a few other planets, spreading along the galaxy's trade routes. Iteru did not have the technology to fend off this disaster, resulting in the plague spreading rapidly through Iteru's capital (the only major city on the moon). Many people ran out into the desert, forming small squatter towns on the fringes of the planet's small band of habitable land surrounding Lake Bahariya to escape the plague-infested city. Nefertari, the Queen of Iteru was among those killed by the plague, devastating Nuterhek, the Pharaoh of Iteru. Nuterhek began building a colossal tomb for her dubbed the Pyramid of the Plague. However, the Iteru commoners were simply dumped in mass graves out in the desert when the planet's pre-constructed tombs ran out of room. The citizens, wanting in on the Pyramid of the Plague if they died, threatened to revolt. Knowing that he could not afford to suppress a revolt while a plague was going on, Nuterhek agreed to allow any plague victims who so wished to book a spot in the Pyramid of the Plague in case they died. Although the pyramid had room for thousands of mummies, the Iteru were dying so rapidly that the entire pyramid was booked in less than a year, meaning the Iteru had to return to using mass graves in the desert. In fact, Iteru were dying so rapidly that houses were demolished as soon as their inhabitants died and the rubble from the demolitions was able to construct the Pyramid of the Plague in less than two years. Meanwhile on the fringes of Iteru's small habitable area, trouble was brewing. Kroksses II, a member of an aristocratic Krok family which had been chafing under the rule of the first non-Krok dynasty since the end of Aurean rule, had joined Tate's Cabal years prior and was in on the plan. Tate tasked Kroksses with sabotaging Iteru's military and making it easier for Tate to invade the planet. Kroksses's aristocratic background gave him clearance to the lower level of Iteru's royal palace, as well as the Iteru barracks. The night before Tate and his invasion force was supposed to arrive, Kroksses and his own followers snuck into the Iteru barracks and destroyed the Iterus' battle armor. Also, it is worth noting that by this time, the plague had mostly passed.

Genocide (14 BR)

The following morning, the Iteru Army woke up to prepare for battle, but were shocked to find that their armor had been completely destroyed. Meanwhile, Tate had landed his smaller army on the outskirts of the city. The Iteru Army, already weakened from the plague, was in almost no shape to fight without its armor, so Tate offered them a deal: if Nuterhek handed over the Eye of Heru, an ancient magical artifact and the reason Tate had any interest in Iteru to begin with, he would leave the planet in peace. Fearing what would happen if someone like Tate got their hands on the Eye of Heru, Nuterhek had his priests open a portal to The Duat and throw the Eye of Heru in there, effectively leaving it under the stewardship of The Gods. Upon hearing this, Tate grew so furious that he condemned all of Iteru to death, using Storm Magic to instantly evaporate all of the water from Lake Bahariya, Iteru's only source of fresh water and the only reason the planet was habitable in the first place. Tate then summoned a massive sandstorm with Rock Magic to bury the lakebed before angrily leaving with his army, Kroksses, and his supporters just as quickly and as mysteriously as he came. 

Iteru was already running out of stored food after the plague severely reduced the number of Iteru's farmers, and this was the final blow. A famine began to set in, with many starving in the streets, especially peasants. While Iteru had a somewhat advanced freshwater storage for drinking, there was not enough to irrigate any fields in the desert climate, and even these stores would eventually run dry too without intervention from the Ishgas, the only power advanced enough at the time to transport large quantities of water through space. Nuterhek desperately appealed to the Ishgas for help, but the greedy Ishga royal family did not share any of Ishga's food with Iteru and only gave them a token amount of water, insisting Iteru needed to "pull itself up by its bootstraps" and that it would be more than enough to last until the lake refilled. In an effort to speed up the natural refilling of the lake, Nuterhek tasked thousands of workers with excavating the lakebed, but thanks to the workers starving, the process took far longer than it normally would have; and when the lakebed was finally reached, barely enough water had seeped in from the underlying aquifer to sustain Iteru's population for a few more weeks.

 Nuterhek tried appealing to other planets, such as Aztlan and Arturia for help, but these planets could not spare any food because they too were recovering from the plague. The only planets that could spare anything were Ryu 108 and Aurea, which the plague largely missed because of the former's cold climate and the latter's recent isolationism. The 108ers sent a few thousand mammoths to Iteru, but these were not enough to feed the entire population, and the Iteru ran out of mammoth meat before long.  Aurea, who had ruled Iteru as a colony only a few centuries earlier, sent rice and wheat, but by the time the shipments arrived, the Ishgas' meager water rations as well as Iteru's own stores had run dry, so it was too late. 

Nuterhek began to realize that he and his people were doomed. He sent Taftenkhamun, his only son, off-planet in the one-person royal evacuation pod (which the Ishgas had sold Nuterhek years earlier at an exorbitant price) to continue the legacy of Iteru. Then, Nuterhek jumped from his palace balcony, dying instantly as he hit the ground. Knowing that their fate was sealed, many Iteru chose to follow the example of Nuterhek, ending their own lives instead of waiting for dehydration to claim them. Within three weeks, there was no sentient life left on Iteru. Taftenkhamun and Kroksses were the only survivors of the proud Iteru race.

Aftermath (14 BR-Present)

Taftenkhamun would go on to become an ace pilot, mechanic, and one of the galaxy's best generals. He joined Weasel and his friends in their quest to stop Tate from rewriting the fabric of the galaxy, and Taftenkhamun was instrumental in distracting Tate long enough for Weasel to become the Man of Light and Shadow. Kroksses fought for Tate for the entire war and was killed by Taftenkhamun in the final battle, finally avenging the Iteru race. However, Taftenkhamun would die of his wounds after the battle, leaving the Iteru race extinct for a time. In spite of this, the Ishga Government, using DNA extracted from the mummies in Iteru tombs, successfully cloned up a colony of around 1,500 Iteru. This colony would eventually go on to repopulate Iteru and revive the culture that Tate destroyed in his quest for galactic supremacy.