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And so we return to our warrior-scientists of grey flesh and pale eyes. Historically, the bare minimum of information found within the Tri-Cluster regarding ancient Macien culture is unsatisfactory at best. As the point of these loredumps is to...well, explain a story, we'll thus be going a bit out of character.

It can be pointed out that, thanks to the nature of most preserved data on Ylenir, it's completely possible early Maciens wrote such horribly vague and looping records to intentionally give curious scholars or students a headache.

They're all kinda trolls.

Moving on to actual story.

So, after the War, the Macien soldiers returned en masse to their nigh-frozen homeworld of Ylenir. They had, understandably, had their fill of both humans and war- the two instances seemed bound together in an unpleasant messy knot. Whatever happened, they made it plain that humans were not welcome on Ylenir anytime soon; of course, within the next thousand years, the little sign tacked to the Monolith Bridge requesting 'No Friendly Interplanetary Visits' must have fallen down since humans showed up again. Thankfully by that point, both species had advanced to a level of civility that allowed for cooperation.

The interesting part, of course, is what in the world the Macien clans were even doing during that millennia.

Fighting stuff.

Or, to be more precise, hunting everything that moved courtesy of the ADAM Project, killing it, and dissecting its remains. The results of the Project were not so limited as to only encompass humanoid soldiers- the Vikars, in their twisted form of artistic genocide, restructured other forms of organic life as well. Dozens of species native to the Tri-Cluster were altered and resurrected, biomechanical monsters that never saw any use during the War. They remained on Ylenir, wild and brutal- and provided ample challenge for the Macien clans spread so far across the planet's surface.

Each of the clans, particularly the Hama, adapted differently to the circumstances found in their region. The Jigoku warlords and Tai chemists, still driven by the active spirit found in their ancestors, organized a sportlike hunt of the monsters, albeit with varied goals- some partook for the sake of testing their physical bounds, others intrigued by the scientific information such creatures might yield.

The Mainstriders, comprised of the Hama and Shin, pursued no less aggressive means of living. Hama rangers became renowned for their tracking abilities, long hours spent scavenging the ruins of Ylenir conditioning them for the dangerous trade journeys across the planet. The Shin, though of a less combative persuasion than the other three clans, delved deep into the study of the Macien body- its composition, design, every aspect of function. Dissection of fallen warriors was not an unusual, nor taboo, practice.

Similar to the apparently bleak planet they lived upon, however, the Macien's culture delved far deeper than its surface. Past the harsh living, beyond the coldly scientific study of their own kind, ties ironlike in strength held the clans together. Love and loyalty, though sometimes taken as a given, laid the foundation for Macien existence. Without that love, their original purpose- remorseless killing machines- would have been recognized all too quickly. The extremity to which Maciens, at least during ancient times, went in order to prove their loyalty to another would, for the majority of humans, appear as insanity. The terror of death did not factor in as a hinderance to a relationship. Indeed, Macien society demanded that one be entirely ready to die at a moment.

There are many stories and legends of such fearlessness in face of death or injury, but such are not the point of this document. Perhaps at another time they will be covered.