Kalis (polity)

As of 09/25/2019 (User:Bzero), Kalis (polity) is Neutral. Autobots within the territory are no longer in control, Decepticons within the territory are usually safe from the rare Autobot patrols, and Unaffiliated Inhabitants are notably absent. How do I change this?

Kalis refers to a city/region on the planet Cybertron.

Kalis borders the Decepticon region of Tyrest.

The residents of Kalis may not be warm, but they're always welcoming.

Description

Kalis, once glorious even as a ruin, is laid waste. Although the brutality of the Decepticon occupation and the abandonment of the city had long since been a distant memory, the empty shell of Kalis that stood as a silent witness to the passage of eons was still full of the promise of new life. The empty art galleries, stadiums, and forums that remained shone against the blackened Cybertronian sky like gleaming pillars of ivory even as they crumbled under the weight of the passage of time. However, the Decepticons used the tunnels beneath the city as the focal point of their plot to push Cybertron into closer orbit around Citctus Minor.  The city was utterly destroyed by the engines and ionizing radiation that forced the relocation of the entire planet several hundred thousand kilometers closer to its sun. The excited tones of Geiger counters are the only voices heard here now in a wasteland where no two stones stand atop one another.  The center the planet itself is laid open into a void, an unwilling participant in the violence, and now an open grave for the shattered corpse of the once great metropolis.

History

Marvel Comics continuity

Once renowned across the galaxy for its art, philosophy, and culture, Kalis was a thriving metropolis welcoming to artistic and intellectual luminaries from all around Cybertron and beyond for hundreds of millennia. However, as the Decepticon forces marched relentlessly across Cybertron, Kalis became another casualty in the wake of destruction. While the city was initially spared for their cooperative surrender, some of the citizens responded with organized, yet peaceful, protests of the Decepticon occupation.

Megatron’s reaction was as swift as it was brutal; after ordering the arrest of the protesters, he forced them to watch as he had every citizen of Kalis executed before releasing the protesters unharmed into a city littered with the broken and battered corpses of young and old, Autobot or neutral. Some of the horrified protesters were so overwhelmed by the unrelenting barbarity of the Decepticons that they simply ceased to function and dropped where they stood, lying dead next to the unfortunate souls lining the streets. Others swore revenge and joined the Autobot resistance. While still others simply disappeared from the city, never to be seen again.

The war between the Autobots and Decepticons consumed the city, in common with the rest of Cybertron over the millions of years of the conflict. Vast numbers of dead bodies were left untended in the city, and the city itself is more or less a ruin.

There were two significant things about the city that made it worthy of note:

The first was that the city was positioned directly above a massive fusion reactor and propulsion engines that were the first stage of Megatron's plan to rework Cybertron into a travelling battlestation and thus conquer the universe. The reactor's engines, if ever activated, would have destroyed Kalis.

The second was that the Autobot resistance on Cybertron, led by Emirate Xaaron, chose Kalis as the site for an Autobase in the year 1987.

Kalis borders the Decepticon region of Tyrest, and also contained a large-scale radio transmitter called the Baird Beaming Facility. In Kalis there was a huge mass grave, hastily dug for those killed in Megatron's purges. It was also the site of the Kalis Energon Refinery.

MUX continuity

When the Dweller rose in 2012, his minion UberSeeker dug up corpses in Kalis to serve as undead troops.

In seeking the Dweller, nano-virus-controlled Bombshell and Windshear sought a path to the Hiberation Chamber through the tunnels beneath Kalis, only to be stopped by the Centurion droids.

Eventually the Uber-Seeker was found by Decepticons Bombshell and Windshear. Windshear challenged the Uber-Seeker for leadership of the Dweller cult, and demonstrated his ability by leading a successful attack against the Centurion droids. However, soon after the battle, Bombshell and Windshear were tracked down by Blaster and Scourge, who subdued Bombshell and Windshear and brought them back for examination towards a possible cure for the Dweller nano-virus. At Windshear's command, the Uber-Seeker took his shambling horde of undead and retreated to the Underworld.

When Hurricane, Typhoon, and the Weatherbots entered the Kalis tunnels, the Centurion droids attacked them, only to be easily defeated in their weakened state. Bombshell and Windshear returned, and Windshear took control of the droids, leading them down into the Underworld. Unfortunately for Windshear, the Uber-Seeker took control of the droids at once, and used them for defense in a fight between the Uber-Seeker and Windshear. During the fight, the Dweller was released from its subterranean prison, and proceeded to eat or smash the remaining droids, as well as the Uber-Seeker himself.

In 2017, Megatron met Nemesis in a cavern beneath Kalis, where together they plotted to finish an old plan of Megatron's that was started but abandoned -- the construction of giant fusion reactor and massive propulsion engines to move Cybertron towards a dying star, thus fulfilling part of Vector Sigma's prophesy. Nemesis vowed to complete the project at once with the assistance of the Constructicons.

Once completed, the planetary engines were fired, destroying what was left of Kalis. Later that year a team of Autobots destroyed the planetary engines.

Notes

• Kalis may be named after Kali, a Hindu goddess associated with death and destruction, given the thrust of the original Marvel UK story that introduced Kalis was dead corpses walking around.

Shattered Glass

Kalis was once the site of a millennia-old civilization, a flourishing culture known for its art and philosophy. A peace-loving people overall, they didn’t resist when Emperor Prime invaded with his legions. Not wanting to risk massive destruction on both sides, the people of Kalis submitted to Prime, and were initially spared. However, as Prime’s cruelty and tyranny became more manifest, a few citizens of Kalis organized non-violent protests against Prime’s rule.

Prime’s reaction was swift. Seizing the protesters and making them watch, Prime had every other citizen in the city – young and old, Decepticon or neutral – executed, their bodies stacked along the city streets or hung from the walls as a message to others. The protesters were then released unharmed. Some broke down right there; some joined the Decepticon resistance, but most simply disappeared, never to be seen again.

Abominus, ever the sophisticated mechanoid, based his fighting style on Kalistian interpretive dance.

In 2006, Secret construction began on Metroplex in Kalis, overseen by Emir Xaaron.

Graveyard in Kalis

In Kalis there is a huge mass grave, hastily dug for those killed in Emperor Prime’s purges before the surviving population fled the city-state. Partially-buried bodies decompose in the night air, mostly stripped for parts by scavengers animal and mechanoid alike. From below, unsettling sounds bring to mind images of the restless dead trying to dig their way back aboveground. Whether they are caused by turborats or something else, the creepy feeling of the area keeps away all but the most courageous, desperate, or foolhardy.