The Xhin'Dau, or Akuun'Dur generals, are generally the last creatures a breached planet will witness. Formed from nightmare shapes like some unholy blueprint meant to terrify and dismay opposing forces, the generals tower into the sky hundreds of feet, bellowing with a thousand voices like a gurgling chorus of drowned men as they drag themselves forward on squatty infant bodies by knotted masses of tentacles that burst from the ends of their quivering trunk-like arms. Their lower bodies end in a roiling mass of tentacled blackness, leaving a trail of toxic black sludge as their great heads roll and moan with each pull toward their unfortunate enemies.

From the gaping mouth of the Akuun'Dur general spews an endless living fog, like an oily smoke that coalesces to form nightmare winged shapes, this fume poisons the sky until even the stars are hidden in its folds. Air forces of defending planets are at risk of being shredded by the nightmare claws and tentacles that solidify in the mist, making the breath of the general nearly impossible to navigate but harder still to avoid.

Once any trace of significant resistance has been purged from the planet's surface the Xhin'Dau will look to the blackened sky and call to the Morarchs, so that they may begin to consume the world.

Coredawn is copyright B.L. Hull 1993-2017