The Skaarj (pronounced Scar) are a war-like reptilian race from the Unreal series of video games, particularly Unreal and Unreal 2: The Awakening. Hailing from the planet Skrath, their goal is to conquer the universe. As a species, the Skaarj believe that their race is superior to all others.
Appearance[]
Skaarj are, on average, 7 to 9 foot tall lizard-like creatures that weigh around 385 lbs. The colour of their scales range from light or dark green to blue or yellow. Different variants of skaarj carry different weapons and are classified in a class-based system. Variants are:
- Warriors - Skaarj armed with twin Raziks, skaarj wrist-blades that also launch electro-magnetic projectiles. They are extremely agile and as such, are used as scouts, assassins and, as their name suggests, warriors
- Troopers - Skaarj armed with common firearms used throughout the universe. Ranging from basic troopers to snipers and officers, these skaarj are mostly a threat from range.
- Queens - Currently the only known females of the species, Queens are larger and more dangerous than most Skaarj. Able to teleport at will, launch energy blasts from their bodies, or tear a human (or equivalent) apart with their clawed hands, they are in actual fact non-combatants, their only purpose being the propogation of the skaarj race.
- Warlords - Warlords are an oversized mix of warrior and trooper-class skaarj armed with a rocket launcher and a pair of wings. Similar in appearance to a winged trooper, but with the head of a warrior, they are the main military commanders of their respective clans, second only to the clan's queen.
- Pupae - Pupae are newborn skaarj. Despite having lived for a few days to a couple of months in most cases, these spider-like creatures are already just as vicious as their full-grown counterparts.
- Hybrids - Whilst not true Skaarj, hybrids were the result of secret military genetic research, as an attempt to create the ultimate soldier by mixing human and skaarj DNA. The first sighting of these Skaarj was during the Fourth Tournament, where two teams of Skaarj Hybrids - the Iron Skull and Red Claw teams - entered the Tournament. The Iron Skulls would stay involved with the Tournament at least until its twelth incarnation, though they'd eventually find their members replaced by true Skaarj, led by a warrior known as the Clan Lord.
Conquests[]
The Skaarj have only conquered one known planet, and that is the Nali homeworld of Na Pali. They enslaved the Nali to do their biddings, such as mining valuable tyradium shards. The only other known conquest is the Izarian homeworld. However, humanity (and most other species not yet under skaarj rule) doesn't know the world's name at this moment. In 2215, a year after humanity's first encounter with the Skaarj, the Skaarj almost took Earth, after war had broke out following the recovery of the prison ship Vortex Rikers on Na Pali. However, the final battle was won by humanity when, in a daring suicide mission, a number of one-man fighters attacked the Skaarj mothership to exploit a flaw in its defences their analysis had revealed. This assault was immortalised as of the Twelth Tournament with an arena, Mothership Assault, being based on the final assault on the Skaarj mothership, requiring combatants to either defend or destroy the mothership, playing the roles of both sides of the war.