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This page is for factions and characters from space-RTS game Homeworld.

For the characters of Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, please see here.

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Homeworld

Major factions

     Kushan 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hiigaran.jpg
One of two playable factions in original Homeworld, the other being Taiidan. The Kushan storyline is considered canonical.
  • Doomed Hometown: Kharak is bombed into ashes by the Taiidan early in the story, for the crime of violating a four-thousand year old treaty the modern Kushan had no knowledge of.
  • Drone Deployer: One of two Kushan-exclusive unit is Drone Frigate which carries dozen of the things armed with mass driver, though you can't give commands to the drone itself. Very effective against strike craft.
  • Fighting for a Homeland: After Kharak's destruction, the original purpose of the Hiigara expedition turned into this.
  • Future Imperfect: The Kushan religion states that their deity Sajuuk put them on Kharak as punishment, and attempting to leave it would result in Sajuuk's wrath destroying the planet. The Kushan actually used to be the leaders of The Empire, and upon being defeated signed a treaty with the Taiidan (who overthrew them), exiling them to Kharak and forbidding the development of hyperspace technology. The terms of the treaty stated that violation of it would result in the destruction of Kharak by the Taiidan.
  • ISO Standard Human Spaceship: Kushan ships are very thick and boxy in design (even with their strike craft!), and their default colors are gunmetal gray with white markings.
  • The Remnant: With the destruction of Kharak, the expedition became all that remained of the Kushan people, reduced to less than a million people.
  • Sins of Our Fathers: Their Hiigaran ancestors were just as bad as the current Taiidan until the Bentusi decided to deliver their final beatdown. The Galactic Council exiled the Hiigarans away into space shortly after, forbidden from ever developing hyperspace travel again on pain of genocide. Four-thousand years later, the Kushan rediscover hyperspace from an old Hiigaran exile ship, and the Taiidan use the ancient treaty as a convenient casus beli to Make an Example of Them.
  • Spark of the Rebellion: Though they don't realize it until fairly late in the story, the Kushan leaving Kharak and being unfairly punished for it was the Taiidan Empire's attempt to cow their own populace with a show of force. Instead, it instigated a massive rebellion within imperial space. This prompts the Galactic Council (represented by the Bentusi) to discreetly aid the Mothership Fleet's journey in the hope that they'll hasten the downfall of the Taiidan.
  • Stealth in Space: The Kushan have Cloaked Fighters as a faction-exclusive unit in Homeworld.

     Taiidan Empire 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/taiidan_insignia.png

  • 0% Approval Rating: While not revealed until much later, the Taiidan Empire's leadership was deeply unpopular with its long-suffering populace. The destruction of Kharak, would prove to be the last straw, sowing the seeds of rebellion.
  • Bright Is Not Good: The Empire sports the most garish paintjob in the entire series — bright yellow with red stripes, in contrast to the gunmetal grey of Kushani ships.
  • The Caligula: The Taiidan Emperor was well known for being an erratic, unstable individual even before ordering Kharak's destruction.
  • Dark Lord on Life Support: Emperor Riesstiu IV the Second was in a life support pod for almost four hundred years after barely surviving an assassination attempt.
  • Deal with the Devil: The Imperial Taiidani's alliance with the Naggarok, agreeing to repair the ancient vessel and help the Beast spread in return for ruling half the galaxy.
  • Deflector Shield: Taiidan have the Defense Fighter and Defense Field Frigate as their faction-exclusive units in Homeworld.
  • Didn't Think This Through: The Taiidani Empire publicly broadcast the destruction of Kharak in an attempt to dispel any notions of rebellion from its increasingly restless populace. It had the exact opposite effect.
  • The Empire: At the time of the first game, they were one of the most powerful civilizations in the galaxy, though they had grown corrupt and decadent with more focus on a massive military and oppressive policies to keep their citizens in line.
  • Kick the Dog: The Taiidan are introduced by attacking Kharak without warning and annihilating its people with orbital fire, over some four-thousand year old treaty that hardly anyone still remembered. The Taiidan thought a big show of force would discourage dissent within the Empire, but the genocide instead became the Spark of the Rebellion.
  • Never My Fault: Their explanation for working with The Beast in Cataclysm rings very hollow when they try and make themselves seem like the victim when everything that's happened to them since then is their own damn fault.
    Taiidan Flagship Captain: What choice do we have, Hiigaran? Your mad quest shattered our imperial sphere. You took the life of our immortal emperor. Whatever we have been driven to now is your fault.
  • The Remnant: After the liberation of Hiigara, a loyalist insurgency known as the Taiidan Imperialists continued to haunt the Hiigarans and the Taiidani Republic for over a century, even allying themselves with the Beast in an bid to regain power. They're eventually absorbed into the Vaygr by the time of HW2.
  • Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: In Cataclysm the Taiidan Imperialist fleet abandons the Beast during the final battle, when it becomes clear to them that the monster had no intention of respecting their alliance. This proves fortunate for Kiith Somtaaw, as the Taiidani fleet had been preparing a pincer maneuver.
  • Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: Despite the obvious one-sidedness of their alliance with The Beast, which will inevitably result in The Beast coming for them too, the Taiidani Imperialists do not care about the consequences. They cannot accept that the larger galaxy of civilizations could exists beyond their Empire's reign. So they would rather have the entire galaxy be swallowed whole by The Beast, than be reduced as another fallen empire in the footnotes of history.
  • Too Dumb to Live: In order to get revenge on the Hiigarans for resulting in the empire's destruction and taking Hiigara away from them, the Taiidan Imperialists make an alliance with the Beast and help it spread. Predictably, the Beast doesn't honor the terms of their alliance (among other things, the Imperialists asked for control of the Nomad Moon superweapon, but the Beast infests it and gets it destroyed by the Hiigarans), prompting the Taiidani fleet to abandon the creature at the height of the final battle.
  • Vestigial Empire: By HW1, the Taiidan Empire had become a shell of its former self as a result of rampant corruption and decadence, forced to rely on mercenaries like the Turanic Raiders to project power effectively.

Minor factions

     Bentusi 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bentus.jpg
Bentus, the Great Harbour Ship

A mysterious trader race that frequently stop by and helps Kushan's fleet and Hiigara. They're in control of the First Core.


  • And I Must Scream: The fate of any Bentusi whose ship is infected by the Beast in Cataclysm, which is why they'd rather have themselves blown into a billion pieces.
  • Arms Dealer: Several times to you in Homeworld and Homeworld 2. Though instead of giving you actual ships they sell technology which gives you the ability to build them.
  • Beam Spam: All Bentusi tradeships have three pulsing Ion Cannons, which have incredible tracking abilities and are more than capable of destroying any ship, including fighters. Their Acolyte fighters also have each a pair of ion cannons, which makes them extremely dangerous as they can attack in large groups.
  • Better to Die than Be Killed: The first Bentusi to experience Beast infection realizes quickly the Fate Worse than Death in store for them, and they promptly self-destruct their tradeship to avoid becoming "bound".
  • Beware the Nice Ones: In general they are peaceful, if a bit haughty, traders and will generally abstain from violence. However, push them enough and they will not hesitate to fire back at whatever poor sod that tested their luck one step too far.
  • BFG: According to the Somtaaw, the Siege Cannon is of Bentusi origin, from the time before they got rid of most of their weapons tech.
  • Break the Haughty: While initially shown as quite smug and overconfident in Cataclysm, believing themselves as invincible to whatever the galaxy can throw at them. After they had their encounter with the Beast however, they are left trying to flee the galaxy in a panic, reduced to shivering wrecks.
  • Condescending Compassion: While they largely present themselves as noble, wise merchants, reading between the lines shows that there's a degree of Enlightened Self-Interest involved in their aid to the Kushan. Cataclysm further establishes that, when genuinely threatened to the point of terror, the Bentusi are willing to abandon the entire galaxy to save themselves, to the point of opening fire on anyone trying to stop them. When confronted, the Bentusi try to justify their conduct by claiming that the knowledge of thousands of civilizations will be lost if they fall, outweighing the plight of "flickerlives" in the Beast's rampage. The Somtaaw fleet command isn't impressed, remarking that "at least (the Beast) doesn't pretend to be righteous!"
  • Cyborg Helmsman: Their entire race are apparently wired into their ships the way Karan is. Part of the reason they're so eager to help the Kushan in the first game is that they feel sympathetic towards her as fellow Unbound.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: In all fairness, they do give you plenty of warning and firmly (but politely) ask that you stop, but if you continuously attack the Bentusi they will obliterate your entire fleet, including the Mothership (which they are aware is carrying the last of the Kushan people) then jump off. By the point they start firing, there's no more talking to or negotiating with them. Your fate is sealed.
  • Gold-Colored Superiority: Their ships' hyperspace drives form golden quantum wavefronts, like the Progenitors. They're also the most advanced race that's still active in the series.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: In Homeworld 2, the last Bentusi in the galaxy scuttled the Bentus to destroy the four Keepers of Abassid, leaving behind the First Core for the Hiigarans.
  • I Will Fight No More Forever: If you bother reading the backstory and fluff of HW2, turns out the Bentusi did this trope after they manhandled the Kushan's ancestors in a epic battle between the Harborship and the Wrath of Sajuuk and have relegated themselves to reluctant law-upholders and Arms Dealer ever since. Though as evident, their trade ships are still armed to the teeth with rapid fire ion cannons but they only ever use them for self-defense, making it a justifiable use of weaponry on their part.
  • Martial Pacifist: The Bentusi may not enjoy fighting others, but they will not hesitate to destroy the poor sod that decides attacking them is a good idea. If pushed far enough, they will even attack others who stand in their way if they threaten their survival.
    Kuun-Lan Fleet Command: Attention, Bentusi trading station! You are NOT being attacked by normal pirate vessels! Do NOT let them get close!
    Bentusi: It does not matter what they are, only the mad would attack the Unbound. Hostile ships will be... regrettably destroyed.
  • Mighty Glacier: Bentusi Trade Ships have tons of health and put out an obscene amount of firepower; however the guns are all on the same small arc and it turns like a barge. Even the enemy AI is smart enough to exploit this by distracting them with strike craft while the heavy hitters get in position.
  • Mr. Exposition: The Bentusi sure love the sound of their voice(s).
  • Obi-Wan Moment: The last Bentusi ship in the galaxy sacrifices itself to destroy the Keepers of Abassid, entrusting the Hiigarans with the First Core.
  • Precursors: According to Word of God in The Art of Homeworld, they're either remnants of the Progenitors or a civilization that coexisted with them during their time.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Most of them evacuate the galaxy in Cataclysm to avoid being assimilated by the Beast, which for the Unbound is an especially grim Fate Worse than Death. By the time of Homeworld 2, only a single Bentusi ship is still around.
  • Smug Super: In Cataclysm they are shown as being quite sure of themselves as they are both Unbound and quite powerful at that. Unfortunately, when they finally run into something that can genuinely threaten them (the Beast, which inflicts a Fate Worse than Death on the unbound), the Bentusi fly into a blind panic and start to evacuate the galaxy, going as far as to open fire on anyone who tries to stop them. It takes the Somtaaw fleet command angrily calling them out for their Condescending Compassion before they have a Heel Realization and calm down.
  • Space Nomads: Apparently by choice, in contrast to most examples. Being unconstrained by organic limitations like needing to eat or breathe since they turned themselves into Unbound, they have long since abandoned their home planet and live their entire lives in space.
    • The majority of their race, even more so after Cataclysm. Without the First Core, they're probably going to be wandering through extragalactic space for a long time.

     Turanic Raiders 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/turanic.jpg
A minor group of raiders canonically hired by Taiidan Empire to attack Kushan's fleet.
  • Baby Planet: Their "homeworld", seen in the extra mission of the Homeworld demo and Remastered Collection, is a dwarf planetoid that the Raiders have covered with hangar bays and facilities.
  • Bizarre Alien Biology: According to the Cataclysm manual they breathe some kind of liquid, though given the various races' implied origins, they may simply be genetically engineered that way. Presumably their homeworld is mostly underwater. It's also possible that if the dwarf planet seen in the bonus mission is, in fact their actual home planet, that they need the buoyancy of a liquid to cope with exposure to G-forces because their bodies are adapted to a low-gravity environment, not unlike the Belters in The Expanse.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: Which is an impressive feat considering they have no dialogue. The very first glimpse of them you get features a pair of Turanic ships drag racing and playing bumper cars with each other as they scramble to get the first kill against your forces.
  • ISO Standard Human Spaceship: Despite being one of the least humanlike races in terms of what we know about their physiology, their ships fit the trope better than any other faction, being grey, boxy, unsubtle things equipped with machine guns and/or missile pods. The one exception to this is their Ion Cannon unit, the Dagger class, which is long and thin with four spindly solar-panel arrays attached.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: First time you meet they are pushovers who launch a few weak fighters at you from their poor man's mothership and call it a day, but the second time they show up they have broken out their ion array frigates (that have the firepower to kill your mothership), seven of which will jump in near the mothership, and their carrier is actually a Battlestar with two ion cannons and a lot of hit points.
  • Meaningful Name: The name Turanic is likely based on Turan, a region in Central Asia commonly associated with raider civilisations like the Turks and Mongolians. It matches both the barbarian horde look-and-feel of the Raiders and the game's overall mood that often evokes Middle Eastern and Asian influences.
  • Pelts of the Barbarian: Invoked. Several of their ships are painted to look like they're wearing tiger skins.
  • Space Pirates: Technically Space Privateers, as they've hitched their wagon to the Taiidan Empire. Their name in the game files and concept art is "Pirates 1".
  • Used Future: The Turanic Raiders are the dirtiest of the bunch, barring derelict hulks. Their only ornamentation is an occasional tiger-stripe paintjob.

     Kadeshi 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kadeshi_mothership.jpg
The keepers of a massive nebula known as the Garden of Kadesh, encountered by the Kushan fleet along the way.
  • All for Nothing: They died trying to stop you from leaving because they were terrified of the Taiidan, but by the time the game starts, the Taiidan are a Vestigial Empire.
  • Ambiguous Situation: It's not clear if the Kadeshi in the needle ships represented their entire race or not. This has led to ongoing fan debate as to whether they still exist or died to the last man. In-universe the Mothership Fleet doesn't stick around to find out.
  • The Artifact: In Homeworld Remastered, strike fighters no longer require fuel, but Kadeshi fighters still have a fuel mechanic as their Achilles' Heel.
  • Cargo Cult: They worship the nebula they live in.
  • Church Militant: And any travelers who don't agree to stay and worship their nebula with them are in for a very bad time.
  • Crippling Overspecialization: The Kadeshi are reliant on hordes of strike fighters during naval engagements. Once you've unlocked the designs for anti-fighter corvettes, the battle quickly turns in your favor.
  • Derelict Graveyard: The Garden is littered with the wreckage of ships who tried to steal gas particles from the Kadeshi. Or were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
  • Forbidden Zone: Because the Kadeshi capture or kill everyone who enters the nebula, it has been declared off-limits by other space-faring civilizations. Even the Taiidan are scared of them.
  • Mirror Character: Kiith Naabal also endured a similar situation to the Kadeshi, being forced into hiding to survive and forcing others to Join or Die if they found their home.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Dear GOD the Kadeshi Swarmers and Advanced Swarmers. They far outmatch any strikecraft you can field in terms of sheer speed and damage, and they're so fast that some of the Kushan battle chatter while attempting to (and failing) fire upon Kadeshi swarmers is something along the lines of "Target's too fast". Luckily they've got some fuel problems, and you're eventually able to field multi-gun corvettes that are great counters to the Kadeshi in general.
  • Long-Lost Relative: Turn out to be descendants of the Hiigaran passengers of one of the Khar-Toba's sister ships. The Gaalsien remembered, but the rest of their people didn't.
  • Scary Amoral Religion: Their hostility and insularity — allowing no one to leave the Garden of Kadesh alive, either through destroying them or having them join their society — is an attempt at keeping The Empire from finding them.
  • Space Clouds: They live in an extremely dense, reddish-orange interstellar gas cloud which apparently contains enough resources to synthesize everything they need to keep a functional (if crazy) civilization going. Understandably, they don't like it when outsiders try to harvest its particles for themselves.
  • Space Nomads: To an extent. Since the Garden of Kadesh has no planets, or even fully-formed stars, the Kadeshi live their entire lives on giant, white mushroom-like motherships, endlessly circling the nebula.
  • Space Pirates: They attack any ship that enters the Garden of Kadesh for resources, killing or enslaving the unfortunate crews. Their name in the game files and concept art is "Pirates 2" ("One" being the Turanic Raiders).
  • Wacky Wayside Tribe: Apart from their connection to the Kushan, they have little plot relevance.
  • White and Red and Eerie All Over: Their ships are completely white, and they're a crazy cult of Space Nomads obsessed with keeping their existence a secret. When their ships jump to hyperspace, their quantum wavefront is crimson red, opposite to the Kushan's blue.
  • Zerg Rush: Their fighters aren't called "Swarmers" for nothing. Their fighters are small, fast, and abundant, but run out of fuel very quickly.

Kharak's Kiithid

Note: For Kiith Somtaaw, see their folder in Homeworld Cataclysm section below.

A Kiith (Kin/Family in Kharakid, the Kushan/Hiigaran language) is an extended family grouping, whose inner loyalties form the primary allegiance system on Kharak. Some of the Kiithid had their stories selected and displayed in Homeworld 1 manual due to historical importance.

     Gaalsien 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kiith_gaalsien.jpg
One of the most ancient Kiith. Kiith Gaalsien is a strict religious group, preaching the righteous suffering Sajuuk (The Great Maker) bestowed upon people of Kharak. Their culture puts emphasis on survival such as conserving resources or not risking the future on untested method, and arrogance was to be punished, believing that they were created to suffer from the beginning. This stems from harsh condition of Kharak's desolate desert environment. Because of this, Kiith Gaalsien remained a major political and spiritual influence on the planet for a long time. Only when people migrate to more-survivable polar region, where technological advancements (something Gaalsien was largely against) were more favorable, did Gaalsien lose its power.

The Gaalsien and the Siiddim, both the largest Kiithid in the north, once fought each other in a conflict known as the Heresy Wars, over the issue of whether the Kushan were all from another world, or only the Siidim were. Beaten by the Naabal, the Gaalsien committed even more extreme act and was branded an outlaw Kiith. Its people wandered the Great Desert, occasionally conducting raids on scientific communities.


  • Ascended Extra: Went from only being mentioned in the manual to becoming the Big Bad of the prequel.
  • Crazy Survivalist: Complete with fanatical religious overtones.
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over: Their kiith colors are dark grey and red.
  • Book Burning: Eventually get into this at one point before Guidestone discovery.
  • The Extremist Was Right: They are right about the punishment thing. It wasn't about god though.
  • Knight Templar: Justified. Initially.
  • Science Is Bad: Because they feared that Sajuuk would punish them if the Kushan tried to leave Kharak. This point of view got out of hand, however, when the Gaalsien were declared an outlaw Kiith, and even more so after Khar-Toba was rediscovered, to the point of full-on war. This didn't stop them from reverse-engineering the alien wrecks in the Great Banded Desert, which allowed to use far more advanced technology than the Coalition, like hovercraft and giant railguns.

     Paktu 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kiith_paktu.jpg
Kiith Paktu was a minor farming kiith living on the slopes above a salt sea. The Paktu along with other lesser kiithid were forced out of their homeland when the conflict between Gaalsi and Siidim came to a head and Siidim's Clean Water act has been passed. The Siidim believed that they were of divine origin and all other native Kharakians were corrupting their land. The Gaalsien were no better either, demanding brutal punishment on their enemies and forcing everyone to burn their 'sinful' books and belongings.

Caught between two sides, the leader of the kiith Majiir Paktu, gathered the misplaced people and led them into a perilous journey across Great Banded Desert looking for new land. After a long journey and many deaths, they found what they're looking for, settled and set to go back to tell the tale 2 years later. Magiir Paktu did not survive the second attempt. But 7 of his followers continued to speak of the new land. The Gaalsien and Siidim, not quite finished with their conflicts, repeatedly sent armies to subdue the southern vassal kiithid to no effect.

Kiith Paktu remained as leaders of all southern kiithid, their story a symbol of freedom, hope and faith.


  • Catchphrase: "I can smell the sea" was this to their people. The word came from Majiir Paktu who encourageed his people to not to give up during The First Migration.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: During the Heresy Wars, they left the northern hemisphere of Kharak, to avoid the fate other Kiithid suffered at the hands of the Siidim.

     Soban 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kiith_soban.jpg
Before the intervention of Kiith Naabal, being Kiithless was equal to death sentence as allegiance cannot be easily changed. Most of the ties between kiithid back then were of dominance and submission. Kiith Soban started off when Soban the Red and fellow villagers fled across Sparkling Desert to tell their kiith-sa of savage killing of men, woman and child done by stronger neighboring kiithid, seeking vengeance. Only for no responses to be made for fear of retaliation. Members of smaller kiithids continued to join the blood of their murderers. Disappointed, Soban and his followers tore off their kiith colors from their body in shame, an act unheard of at the time. He declared that the word 'kiith' were meaningless if any kiith-sa could turn a deaf ear to the blood of children crying on the ground. The next thing they did is to return to the place of killing and razed everything — both their former land and their invaders — until nothing was left, starting Kiith Soban's bloody reputation.

From then on Kiith Soban were completely landless and existed purely as mercenaries, taking part in every single military conflict on Kharak in the name of others regardless of personal cost. But only for duration of term of service, after which Sobani men and women will put down their arms, remove their adopted kiith colors and return home no matter how far they were or how battle was going. Their contact only renewed through their respective kiith-sa. Marriage was forbidden, and those who have children are asked to leave Kiith Soban to raise them.

Even in more peaceful era of Kharak, 200 years before Guidestone discovery, Sobani intelligence staffs and security officers are still in high demand. And almost all modern-day admirals and commanders are trained at Soban-run academies. Kiith Soban represents unified discipline and solidarity, regardless of status quo.


  • Give Him a Normal Life: The Sobani consider it unethical to raise children in their martial lifestyle. If two Sobani conceive a child, either one or both parents have to resign at least until the child comes of age to look after it or else give it up for adoption.
  • Legion of Lost Souls: Their acceptance of all bears a hint of this.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: Unusually for this trope, Kiith Soban is a dedicated mercenary group. Moreover, they never claimed any territory as their own.
  • Red Is Heroic: Their kiith colors are red and white.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: They raged so hard they burn down their former homeland along with its oppressors. In a way, they are denouncing the concept of Kiith as a power to wield and not as a union.

     S'jet 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kiith_sjet.jpg
Kiith S'jet is one of the six kiithid that has a direct claim of descent from the first city of Khar-Toba, where their ancestors built a temple-observatory upon the Guidestone to protect it. Despite their expertise that has been courted by Kiith-Sas all across the planet, they never transform that reputation into political power. They were the first who charted Kharak's star system, discovered the 13-year sandstorm cycle around Kharak's equator and predicted where rain would fall every end of cycle among many other knowledge. Most of the record regarding the Heresy Wars were also penned by S'jet historians. Thus, Kiith S'jet was too valuable as ally to be turned into vassal. Any Kiith who killed or harmed a S'jet would be shunned by science philosophers for at least a century, in order to prevent the corruption of knowledge.

Their history was not without crisis however. During the Heresy Wars, it was discovered that the S'jet had sworn a secret secondary oath to Kiith Naabal, carrying out retrieval operations and intelligence gathering for them. This led to a hot and passionate debate over the usage of Science as a weapon that still continues to this day. While Fliir Sjet-sa realized the extremity of the situation that justified the betrayal and managed to stop the conflict from breaking out, there is still a lingering distrust between the S'jeti and the Naabali. Only in the Time of Reason, when Kiith Sjet moved on to study life and nature of Kharak itself were they able to pour their effort into a singular, shared goal. Especially society-shaking researches that lead up to Khar-Toba and the Guidestone's discovery, such as Kriil S'jet's XenoGenesis Theory, which postulated that the Kushan didn't originate in Kharak, as nearly all the planet's lifeforms were biologically unrelated to them.

  • The Assimilator: Back in Kharak, the S'jet had a system of peaceful vassalization and assimilation of other kiithid.
  • The Hero: Their current Kiith-Sa, Karan S'jet, is the protagonist of Homeworld and Homeworld 2. The protagonists of Deserts of Kharak and Homeworld 3, Rachel and Imogen, are also S'jet.
  • Light Is Good: Their colors are white and red, an inversion of Kiith Soban's.
  • The Smart Guy: Their trait.

     Naabal 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kiith_nabaal.jpg
Kiith Naabal's ancestors were the engineers and technicians of the Khar-Toba, the ship that brought the exiled Hiigarans to Kharak. They made sure the ship kept running without the malfunctions that claimed several other ships of its class. The Naabali symbol was found in the Khar-Toba alongside other Kithiid's symbols, as they were one of the original Kiithid that arrived on Kharak. After Khar-Toba's abandonment, however, they disappeared from history for a few centuries.

Kiith Naabal was an almost unknown Kiith in the early history of Kharak - their name only rarely appeared in the context of tradesmen or heretics. One possible reason for this is that, for centuries, they were met with hostility by many of the other Kiithid, especially Kiith Gaalsien. Kiith Naabal is one of the most industrious kiith and is famed for its role in ending the Heresy Wars.

During the Heresy Wars, Kiith Naabal was mostly isolated. Small parties, always made up of families with direct fealty to Kiith-sa, were occasionally sent out to recover endangered texts or 'spirit away' imprisoned scholars who were deemed heretic. It was only when Ifriit Naabal-Sa realized that the war was destroying all on Kharak that they decided to intervene, ending the conflict by force using the secrets of explosives and steam-powered machines. Their soldiers, carrying repeaters rifle and supported by cannons, routed armies of marauders 20 times their size. Ifriit Naabal-Sa never forced any of his gained holdings to come under his rule, only asking for the war to end. His last act before stepping down as Kiith-Sa was to establish the Daiamid in Tiir as a place where all kiithid, powerful and weak, could gather to resolves disputes and set policy for all of Kharak.

Kiith Naabal, alongside their fellow Kiithid S'jet and Soban led the Operation Khadiim expedition that discovered Khar-Toba and subsequently the Second Core's discovery and the construction of the Mothership. They decided the quietly fade away from both the political and industrial scene, focusing on investing in various off-planet facilities. Some have noted the slightly higher ratio of Naabali cold-sleep volunteers to be loaded into Mothership.


  • The Dog Bites Back: Against Kiith Gaalsien.
  • Hidden Elf Village: After the Gaalsien and the Siidim tried to wipe them out, they fled further north and built the city of Tiir. After the war ended, Tiir became the capital of the largest government of Kharak, the Coalition of Northern Kiithid. To protect the secrecy of Tiir's location during the wars, the Naabali did the same thing as the Kadeshi, offering their discoverers to Join or Die.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Their role during the Heresy Wars.
  • Superweapon Surprise: How they ended the centuries-long Heresy Wars in only 3 years. While the Gaalsieni and the Siidimi were killing each other with swords and sticks, the Naabali had developed gunpowder, explosives, repeater firearms and steam-powered vehicles. With them, Naabali forces were able to slaughter entire armies despite being outnumbered 20 to 1.

     Manaan 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kiith_manaan.jpg
Perhaps the strangest of Kiithid. Manaan was a nomadic kiith consisted of men and women of different appearance and traditions. They were constantly wandering, stopping by watering places, expecting hospitality everywhere they go. This had made other kiithid look down on them with contempt. This reputation was made notorious when farmers near White Desert reported that the Manaanii they turned away in the morning 'came over the walls by the hundreds' by night and stole many tons of food and water, the incident made strange by the fact that the Manaanii were mostly non-hostile and almost never travelled in groups bigger than an extended family.

A key commodity the Manaanii brought to the holdings they visited in return is entertainment. The Kiith survived by their wits and their ability to amuse hold-born Kharaki. Singers and poets, magicians, dancers, actors and con men — there was nothing to the rumor that Manaani could perform dark magic, but they could certainly make your purse and your 15-years old daughter disappear.

During the beginning of Heresy Wars, Kiith Manaan suffered badly under both Gaalsien and Siiddim. Their yearly celebration at Ferin Sha, where one could have found a large festival of celebration and drinking, was attacked in 513 by a Siidim army, resulting in a massacre and the end of the tradition. In response, some of the Manaanii became pirates, killing and terrorizing the Siidim near the White Desert. A small portion of them also played a part in Kiith Paktu's Great Migration, traveling on iconic three-masted ship and returning to the North with many improvements to old technologies and several new ones.

Eventually the Manaanii laid down their weapons and turned their fleet completely to trade. The questing spirit of the Manaani is not dead even today. Kiith Manaan still controls enormous wealth, and of all the Kharakid kiithid it is the most likely to produce a diplomat or a statesman. Manaani also are common in the ranks of Scout pilots and are always eager to volunteer when it’s time to fly an experimental craft. Being the first to see anything new and different is a hunger that still burns deep in their blood.


  • Beware the Silly Ones: Back in the days of Kharak, they were just nomadic dancers and maybe thieves with strange traditions. Then the Siidim attacked their dancing grounds and butchered the Manaan present, and the rest of the Kiith raided Siidim settlements on the border of the desert for one hundred years, possibly preventing them from winning the Heresy Wars that were raging.
  • Expy: Of the Romani people; as was common in the 90s, it's a Roguish Romani stereotype, even if sympathetically portrayed.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Attack their dancing ground, and they'll make you pay for one hundred years.

Individuals

     Karan S'jet (Fleet Command) 

Voiced By: Heidi Ernest (Homeworld (Classic and Remastered), Homeworld 2 Remastered), Jennifer Dawne Graveness (Homeworld 2 Classic)

A Kushan neuroscientist who managed to solve the flaw of the communication bottleneck of the Mothership through a brain-machine interface, using herself as its subject. After Kharak's destruction, she became the S'jeti's Kiith-Sa and led the Kushan back to their original homeworld, Hiigara, to retake it from the Taiidan. After her people's return to their home, Karan was named the Sa of Sas by the Daiamid, effectively becoming the leader of her entire race.


  • Cool Ship: All four of the ships she's commanded qualify. The first was the original Mothership in which her people returned to Hiigara. The second ship, the Pride of Hiigara, was a stronger and better Mothership she designed herself. To end the Vaygr assault on Hiigara, she retrieved the Progenitor battleship Sajuuk, bearer of the Trinity, and unleashed its power on their Planet Killers.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: She pretty much designed the tech that made her an Unbound by herself. She also began designing the second mothership, Pride of Hiigara, during her people's journey back home.
  • Machine Monotone: Karan S'jet shows little emotion, which wavers between creepy or reassuring depending on the situation. Though this might not be so much because she's rigged up as a machine, but because she's in charge of a Generation Ship carrying over half a million lives and has to remain calm and disciplined under stress.
  • Older Than They Look: By the time of Homeworld 2, she's over a century old but hasn't aged one bit. It's implied connecting herself to the Second Core stopped her aging. She's still alive even by the time of Homeworld 3, two hundred years and change after the Kushan first departed from Kharak.
  • Princess Protagonist: Unmentioned ingame, but the lore mentions her father Huur was Kiith-Sa of Kiith S'jet, and she was the first in line of succession. After the Taiidan burned Kharak to the ground, she succeeded him as such.
  • Spaceship Girl: She became one with the Mothership when she became an Unbound.
  • Wetware CPU: She's the current page image. This was her solution to the communication bottleneck of the original Mothership, and she refused to let the technology be used on anyone else but her. She also returns to perform this role for the Pride of Hiigara in HW2.

     Fleet Intelligence 
A group of officers commanding various efforts on the Mothership.

Homeworld Cataclysm

     Kiith Somtaaw 
A small mining kiith. Their efforts to remain competitive with other kiithid on new Hiigara leads them to investigate an unknown distress beacon with disastrous consequence...
  • Action Survivor: Collectively speaking. Kiith Somtaaw are the smallest of the kiith, working as miners with cheap, modular vehicles. Unlike the stoic professionalism of most factions in the series, the operators of Somtaaw ships are working joes and soldiers-of-the-rear with rather informal dialogue. Once The Virus gets loose and starts consuming the quadrant, the terrified Somtaaw miners are forced to scavenge supplies, fight for their lives and improvise new tech on the fly.
  • Badass Boast: The Fleet Command drops a small one that can be easily missed yet still very powerful. When they make their way to finally face the Naggarok head on, they refer to their former mining vessel as a warship, and they have earned every right to call it that.
  • Beam Spam:
    • The Dervish Multi-beam Frigate has five anti-fighter Ion Cannons in each side of the ship. At the end of the game, they obtain the original Bentusi Acolyte designs, which they use against the Naggarok.
    • In the same vein, their Multi-beam Frigates pack five smaller ion cannons into a single vessel.
  • Blue Is Heroic: Their kiith colors are cobalt blue and white. Their shade of blue is deeper than the one used by the Hiigaran Navy.
  • Cool Ship: They start off as a rather simple mining barge, but throughout the campaign against the cataclysmic threat of the Beast, they turn into a warship.
  • Death Seeker: The Mimic's pilots are made up of cryogenically frozen colonists who found out that they are the last remaining members of their families thanks to the Taiidan's attack on Kharak. Finding out that they have no living relatives left has driven them into suicidal fanaticism.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Yes. After all, they have to clean up their own mess. Afterwords, Kiith Somtaaw is finally given the respect it deserves, complete with a new moniker: the Beast-Slayers.
  • 11th-Hour Superpower: In the final level of Cataclysm, the Bentusi hand over the highly advanced schematics of their own strike craft, the Bentusi Acolyte armed with multiple ion cannons, so Kiith Somtaaw can have a fighting chance against the Final Boss.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare:
    • They were a humble mining clan before the events of Cataclysm. Before that, they were a religious Kiith, like the Gaalsien and the Siidim. In fact, they were on the verge of being absorbed by a much larger clan and overall aren't really respected. You can see it in the way other factions treat them.
    • Embodied by the evolution the Kuun-Lan undergoes over the campaign, from a glorified refinery with engines to a world-class warship which is arguably superior to the Mothership itself.
    • They had also undergone this to a lesser degree before the game started. Kiith Naabal tried to forcibly absorb them due to their lesser numbers, only for Somtaaw to refuse, setting off a massive debate that saw numerous other small Kiiths joining Somtaaw, almost doubling their numbers, and eventually gave smaller Kiith access to the Mothership's shipyard, allowing them to build their own ships and seek their fortunes in space rather than being forced to rely on the larger Kiith's fleets.
  • Fusion Dance: The Kiith Somtaaw were given the authorization to have ship combination technology, allow two similar but small craft to combine to form a larger powerful version of itself but with a tradeoff.
  • Holographic Disguise: The Mimic strike craft have holographic projection systems that allow them to assume the disguise of either being an enemy spacecraft or a small asteroid. These holographic disguise capabilities are made stronger when they combine with a similar Mimic strike craft.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: Missile launchers figure much more prominently into Somtaaw ship design than other Kiith, from single shot tubes on Acolyte fighters to the six repeating racks in the bow of an Archangel dreadnought.
  • Meaningful Name: The three Somtaaw ships built by the Mothership were named after temples of the Shimmering Path of the Lungma Jiin, one of the tallest mountains of Kharak. The Kuun-Lan, your main ship in Cataclysm, means “Purifying Flame”. The research ship is the Clee-San, or "Truth Seeker", and the Kuun-Lan's sister ship is the Fal-Corum, or "Silent Wayfarer". Their names are in Kharakid, the language of the Kushan/Hiigarans.
  • Ramming Always Works: Ramming Frigates, originally used for pushing asteroids out of the way. Having said that, the point of the Ramming Frigate is to push its target out of battle; any damage done by the collision is almost incidental.
  • Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Many of Somtaaw ships have religious names, which is fitting, given that they were originally a religious kiith before becoming miners. Their two command ships are named after their ancient temples on Kharak, while ship class names (Acolyte, Martyr, Dervish, Shaman, Deacon, Archangel) are clearly of religious nature.
  • The Stoic: As in the previous game, Fleet Command normally keeps a cool head under almost all circumstances, until...
    • Not So Stoic: He outright loses it in Mission 15 against the Bentusi. It's very understandable when you take into the account everything that has happened leading up to itnote .
      Fleet Command: You are killing us. You and your precious stories. Who will remember the crew of that ship? Or are flicker-lives not worth remembering?!
      Bentusi: You seek to trap us in a diseased galaxy. This cannot be. Desist and we will allow you to leave. We... regret the loss of your memories.
      Fleet Command: REGRET?! We regret the loss of the whole sand-cursed galaxy! Stop murdering us and help us kill the Beast!
      * beat*
      Fleet Intelligence: They've stopped firing. Keep it up, you're getting through to them.
      Bentusi: The Devourer cannot be stopped. We must flee or even memory will die. We will not be Bound-
      Fleet Command: Yes, yes... We will not be Bound, whatever that means. Well, guess what: we won't let you go! It doesn't matter how we die, one ancient monster is as good as another!
      Bentusi: We are NOT monsters.
      Fleet Command: Aren't you? Look around! Look around what you've done to our fleet! All because we dared to get in your way. Look at yourselves, the Aloof and Mighty Bentusi! Slaughtering the people who asked for your help! YOU ARE WORSE THAN THE BEAST!! AT LEAST THE BEAST DOESN'T PRETEND TO BE RIGHTEOUS!!
      Bentusi: We fear... For the first time in countless orbits... we fear.
      Fleet Command: Join the Kiith. We're not blind, just scared. As scared as you. Now, are you gonna help us? Or are we gonna have to ram this mining ship down the throat the first station that approaches?
      Bentusi: That will not be necessary. We see our own madness reflected in yours. We will do what we can to help.
  • Suicide Attack: Their unique strike craft the Mimic's only form of attack is kamikaze-ing themselves onto enemy aircraft. This mainly stems from their pilots being Death Seekers.

     Taiidan Republic 
One of the successor states of the Taiidan Empire, and allies to the Hiigarans. The Kuun-Lan and its fleet encounter them on some missions to help them against the Beast.
  • Heel–Face Turn: They have taken the side of their former enemies.
  • Light Is Good: Their ships have a white and teal color scheme.
  • Redeeming Replacement: They seek to become this to the old Empire. Unfortunately, the Imperialists and the Beast aren't making that job easy.
  • Super Prototype: They built the Nomad Moon, a powerful experimental defense station that has several anti-strikecraft Ion Cannons that can fire continuously. It also has a powerful repulsor field that can even deflect Siege Cannon shots. Unfortunately, the Naggarok infects the Nomad Moon for their own uses.

     The Beast 
A parasitic organism that unleashes itself upon the galaxy in Cataclysm.
  • Big "NO!": When the Naggarok is destroyed, the Beast howls a massive one that lasts for 30 seconds. It's also mixed with several Little Nos and degenerates into a cacophony of screams.
  • Brown Note: The Naggarok's Beast infection acts as one to the Bentusi, twisting their thoughts just by being close to it.
  • Chain Lightning: The infection beams mounted on larger Beast vessels chain to nearby ships, quickly corrupting entire formations of fighters and corvettes.
  • Dead Person Impersonation: At one point, the Beast attempts to lay a trap for the Kuun-Lan by impersonating the military carrier Caal-Shto, claiming to be arriving with the promised warrior kiith reinforcements and asking Kuun-Lan to regroup at their position. While Fleet Command initially buys the ruse (being under attack at the time and eager for help), the player is unlikely to be convinced, and fortunately the Taiidan Imperialists you're fighting intercept the carrier and spring the trap instead.
  • Disc-One Final Boss: The Beast Mothership formed out of the Kuun-Laan's ejected research module is an Advancing Boss of Doom for most of the storyline, but is eventually used to demonstrate the power of the completed anti-Beast energy cannon in the penultimate level.
  • Eldritch Abomination: An unimaginably ancient hyperspace organism that corrupts everything it touches. It's very presence has an adverse effect on the psychic Bentusi.
  • Enemy Exchange Program: Beast ships are more expensive than normal to build outright, but they have special weapons like Infection Beams and Cruise Missiles that spread their corruption to other ships, allowing a Beast player to snowball by hijacking their opponent's units.
  • Evil Is Not a Toy: The Taiidan imperial remnants attempt to weaponize the Beast after its discovery, designing guided cruise missiles to deliver payloads of Beast biomass to enemy ships. When their experiments fail to control the Beast, they decide to strike up an alliance with it, agreeing to repair the Naggarok in return for the Beast allowing them to control "half" of the galaxy. Fortunately, the Imperialists eventually realize the Beast isn't trustworthy and abandon it when Kiith Somtaaw gains the upper hand against the Naggarok.
  • Evil Is Visceral: Ships controlled by the Beast are covered in patches of bright red Meat Moss formed from the melted flesh of their unfortunate crews.
  • Fate Worse than Death: If a ship with an Unbound is infected by the Beast, their mind will survive, but they'll be trapped helplessly within the mass of circuitry and flesh that used to be their ship. The Bentusi, an entire culture of Unbound, are understandably horrified by this — the first Bentusi ship to become infected self-destructs when it realizes what is happening, and the rest of them start fleeing the galaxy in a blind panic.
  • Hive Queen: Rather than a true hive mind, the Beast seems to operate under a Monster Progenitor style hierachy — initially, the beacon pod/Beast Mothership that first started the outbreak is in charge of the horde, but it wants to capture the Kuun-Lan so it can reunite with its "birthself", the Naggarok. The infestation of the Naggarok is the oldest and most intelligent Beast organism in the galaxy, and it immediately exerts control over its "children" upon being discovered. Once both the Naggarok and Beast Mothership are destroyed, the less mature Beast organisms lose cohesion and revert to their basic instincts, allowing the Hiigarans to mop them up with little trouble.
  • Hungry Menace: It's a monstrous, all-devouring, cancerous monster seeking all life to sustain its never ending hunger. While the ancient infestation within the Naggarok is intelligent and suave enough to convince the Taiidan Imperialists to form an alliance with it, it only does so to make consuming the rest of the galaxy that much easier.
  • Hyperspace Is a Scary Place: Supposedly, the Naggarok simply encountered the Beast at random when traveling through hyperspace. No other info is given as to its origins. This also raises the question of what else could be encountered there.
  • Keystone Army: The Naggarok, in the words of the Bentusi, acts as the heart and mind of the Beast. When it's destroyed, lesser Beast organisms across the galaxy revert to their baser instincts and lose coordination, allowing the Hiigarans to mop them up easily.
  • Knight of Cerebus: By far the darkest antagonist in the Homeworld universe, its appearance serves as a Cosmic Horror Reveal and a hard swerve into story tropes more fitting of a survival horror game.
  • It Can Think: Quickly proves itself to be intelligent, using the knowledge absorbed from its victims, to the point of communicating with other vessels. The Somtaaw first realize it's not a mindless contagion when it singles out the most powerful vessel in the area (a Bentusi trade ship) for infection. The original organism found on the Naggarok turns out to be highly well-spoken as a result of studying galactic communications for millennia, striking up an alliance with the Imperialist Taiidani and convincing them to do repairs on the ship.
  • Meat Moss: Ships infected by the Beast are visibly covered with red gunk on random parts of their hulls, which gets even worse in the ship's interior. It's all made from the ship's materials and the crew's living tissue, forming organic wiring and circuitry to puppet the vessel.
  • Nanomachines: The purest form of the Beast, capable of interfacing with organic cells as well as non-organic technology, to horrific results. The "infection beam" weapon that appears on the hulls of larger infested ships is a particle beam that sprays other ships with Beast nanomachines.
  • Organic Technology: The Beast infection is described as microscopic "techno-organic robots" that assimilate any compatible material they come in contact with. The unfortunate crews of infected starships are rapidly melted down into Meat Moss that serves as organic wiring and circuitry to interface with the ship's systems.
  • Outside-Context Problem: The Beast is a hyperspace organism brought to the galaxy when alien explorers from another galaxy accidentally picked it up during an experimental warp jump, and it spent a million years drifting before it finally came in contact with more prey. It's so ancient and alien that even the Bentusi barely have any idea what it is.
  • Patient Zero: The plague originates from an ancient alien vessel called the Naggarok, which picked up the Beast during an experimental hyperspace jump. After Somtaaw's first attempt at creating an anti-Beast energy weapon fails, they decide to seek out the Naggarok in the hope that their weapon can be perfected through studying the original lifeform. Fortunately, Naggarok turns out to be a Hive Queen whose destruction causes the rest of the infected ships to lose cohesion.
  • Reactionless Drive: The Naggarok, a ship created by an unknown Higher-Tech Species, has a unique propulsion method that involves "sliding" through normal space with a sustained hyperspace field, allowing it to move as fast as a strike fighter despite dwarfing the player's mothership. Fortunately, EMP pulses can immobilize it.
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over: Beast ships are painted brownish-grey like dirty metal, with red engine/hangar lights and patches of gory red Meat Moss coating their hulls.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: In their final moments, the Naggarok's crew destroyed their ship's engines to keep the Beast from devouring the galaxy they arrived in. Unfortunately, the sabotage caused the ship to automatically launch a contaminated emergency beacon, which reached the Hiigara System a million years later.
  • Time Abyss: The Beast infestation in the Naggarok is one million years old. It's so ancient it predates the Bentusi and the Progenitors.
  • The Virus: A sentient bio-mechanical Grey Goo-like organism capable of consuming and converting both people and technology into extensions of itself. For all intents and purposes, the Beast is a plague of zombie spaceships.
  • We Can Rule Together: The Naggarok makes this offer to the Taiidan Imperial Remnant. They accept. They later try to do the same to Kiith Somtaaw near the end of the game. Of course, they refuse, especially as they know the Beast won't comply with its part of the deal and just wants to eat everything.
    Naggarok: So the miners are now warriors? You have come far, little Kiith Somtaaw. You can still join us and be rewarded, as the Imperialists will be. We can make your kiith supreme upon Hiigara. Is this not what you wanted, when you awakened my children?
    Kuun-Lan Fleet Command: Not this way! We make no bargains with you. Not now, not ever, Monster. We may not be a true warrior kiith, but we were good enough to burn your first two children to ashes.
    Naggarok: Our children are not ourselves. We have been, and always will be. With this vessel around us fully functional, we will never be contained again.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: But doesn't really bother to keep up the presence and the moment the Taiidan voice any discontent, it turns on them. When the Taiidan call them out on this, the Beast drops all pretenses and simply tells them they're food to it, just like all other living things.
    Taiidan Flagship Captain: This is Imperial Flagship Vengeance to all ships: Break off attack and fall back to rendevous point.
    Naggarok: Wait! What are you doing, ally? Continue to attack and destroy the Hiigarans!
    Taiidan Flagship Captain:You lied to us, creature. First about giving us the Nomad Moon and then about the Bentusi being neutralized. The Taiidani... are no one's fools.
    Naggarok: You are what all life is to us: FOOOOD!!
  • You No Take Candle: Most Beast ships that try to talk speak this way, though how they can send a voiced radio transmission startled Kuun-Lan bridge officers at first; justified by the fact that it assembles its lines from the ship's log recordings and victim memories. The Naggarok however can speak perfectly albeit in the Voice of the Legion, having spent a million years studying the communications of other races.
  • Voice of the Legion: It uses the voices and memories of its victims to increase its intelligence. Once it can speak, the Beast does so with a female, a male, and a chittering chorus of voices talking in semi-harmony. The Naggarok does one utilizing this trope with perfect cogitation.

Individuals

    Somtaaw Fleet Command 
The unnamed captain of the Kiith Somtaaw mothership Kuun-Lan.
  • The Captain: For the Kuun-Lan, notable in that he's a traditional captain rather than a Cyborg Helmsman like Karan S'jet.
  • Cold Equation: When the Beast first infects the Kuun-Lan, the research director begs Fleet Command to jettison the infected modules to save the rest of the ship — At this point, nobody knows or understands what is happening, but Fleet Command only hesitates for a moment before giving the order.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers an epic and furious rant to the Bentusi, shaming them for trying to abandon the galaxy and attack people who just wanted to ask for their help — the latest of a long line of factions who had dismissed the Somtaaw as unimportant. It's enough to get the Bentusi to stop firing and listen. He later seems ready to give a similar rant to the Taiidan Imperialists for allying with the Beast, but the Tactical Officer cuts the comm channel to keep Fleet Command focused on the ongoing battle.

    The Caal-Shto 
An Imperator-class carrier from Kiith Manaan that the Kuun-Lan rescues from the Beast and escorts to safety.
  • Escort Mission: The Caal-Shto's hyperdrive is badly damaged by the self-destruction of a Bentusi tradeship, and the Kuun-Lan guides it through a nebula to provide cover until it can be repaired.
  • Killed Offscreen: After leaving to get help from Hiigara, the Caal-Shto returns and claims (in a very suspicious and creepy voice) that it has brought reinforcements and that the Kuun-Lan should regroup with it. The Taiidan Imperialists intercept the carrier and spring the trap first, revealing that the Caal-Shto has been overtaken by the Beast, and that the fully-formed Beast Mothership is right behind it.

Homeworld 2

     Hiigaran (HW2
115 years after returning to Hiigara, the reborn Hiigaran people took up arms once again when the Vaygr invaded them, led by the Sa of Sas, Karan S'jet.
  • Blue Is Heroic: Hiigaran Navy ships are pale blue and white.
  • Jack of All Trades: Most of their ships can fulfill multiple roles, but the Vaygr's more specialized ships can perform better in the right roles.

     Vaygr 
A confederation of nomadic warrior tribes recently united under a warlord named Makaan, who claims to be the chosen of Sajuuk. They're in possession of the Third Core, and have launched an invasion of Hiigara to capture the Second.
  • Ambiguously Human: Concept art of the Vaygr depicts them as thin, lanky humanoids with frog-like limbs, features hidden under gas masks and latex bodysuits. Makaan, meanwhile, seems to be completely human (besides being Unbound).
  • Crippling Overspecialization: Vaygr ships are usually designed for specific roles in contrast to Hiigara's more well-rounded fleet. In their designated role, Vaygr ships are nearly undefeatable, but if they're fighting something they weren't designed to, they will lose handily.
  • Evil Counterpart: Their wholly nomadic lifestyle and invasion of Hiigara after discovering the Third Core makes for a grim parallel to the Kushan of the previous game, who undertook a similar journey after finding the Second Core on Kharak. Both groups are even led by Unbound. Where the Kushan were sympathetically Fighting for a Homeland, however, the Vaygr are simply power-hungry Hordes from the East.
  • Hordes from the East: Nomadic warrior tribes said to hail from the "eastern" galactic fringe, united under a conquering warlord whose title (Sajuuk-Khar) is very reminiscent of "Khan".
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over: The default Vaygr colors are light grey and dark grey, with engine/hangar lights and the Vagyr emblem marked out in red. Makaan's Praetorian Guard swaps the greys for solid black.
  • Scissors Cuts Rock: While the Vaygr still follow the usual Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors, they have some units specifically designed to fight enemies that would normally counter their class, like the Lance Fighter (anti-corvette) or the Laser Corvette (anti-capital).

     The Progenitors 
  • Attack Drones: Their space structures are guarded by drones of all types. The Movers are maintenance drones that make repairs and keep constructs and other ships functional, the Drones are corvette-sized and very maneuverable fighters that will slaughter most Hiigaran strikecraft, and finally there's the Keepers, which are destroyer-sized drone carriers that are nearly indestructible.
  • Cargo Cult: Sajuuk, the god worshiped by the Hiigarans, is the Progenitor that first invented Hyperspace technology, who had a powerful battleship named after him. That same battleship is powered by Sajuuk's greatest work, the Three Cores that allowed the Progenitors to unlock the mysteries of Hyperspace.
  • Energy Weapons: All Progenitor guns seem to be this. They have Ion Cannons that never need a cooldown period, their strikecraft (The Movers and the Drones) are armed with Plasma Cannons, and then there's the Progenitor Dreadnaught, which is built around a massive Wave-Motion Gun known as a Phased Cannon Array.
  • Gold-Colored Superiority: Their quantum wavefronts are golden, unlike the Hiigarans' blue and the Vaygr's green. They're also the most advanced civilization known in the series.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: The Keepers are impossible to defeat with conventional weaponry. The moment they suffer critical damage, they activate their shields and jump to hyperspace to regenerate. The Karos Keeper is only stopped by luring it into the Power Modules (which overload it so much it explodes), while the Keepers of Abassid are completely unstoppable and it takes Bentus' Heroic Sacrifice to destroy them.
  • Nanomachines: The Sajuuk's point defense pulsar-like beams are known as "Nanite Beams".
  • No Warping Zone: The Karos Keeper has a hyperspace inhibitor that keeps the Hiigaran fleet from fleeing until it's trapped with the Power Modules.
  • Portal Network: They built highly advanced Hyperspace Gates to connect their empire across multiple galaxies. The Hiigarans reactivated it with the Trinity at the end of the second game, and are still exploring it by the time of Homeworld 3, over a century later.
  • Precursors: The creators of Hyperspace technology. May or may not be humans from Earth. According to Bentus, Sajuuk was one of them.
  • Wave-Motion Gun: The Phased Cannon Arrays. Mounted on their Dreadnought/Gatekeeper and the Sajuuk.

Individuals

     Makaan 
Leader of the Vaygr. He looks to reunite the Three Cores to take the Sajuuk for himself.
  • Big Bad: Of Homeworld 2.
  • The Chosen One: Believes himself to be this, and his adoption of the title Sajuuk-Khar ("Sajuuk's First") reflects that.
  • Dark Messiah: Is believed by himself and his followers to be the Sajuuk-Khar.
  • Evil Sounds Deep
  • Galactic Conqueror: Makaan is the supreme overlord of the Vaygr, having crushed all his rival lords using the Third Core and taken control of their fleets. He considers the other two Cores of the Trinity, held by the Hiigarans and the Bentusi, to be his by divine right to allow him to possess the power of Sajuuk and conquer the galaxy.
  • Spaceship Boy: He lives suspended in a liquid tank on his Flagship, with Brain/Computer Interface wires and life-support apparatus implanted in his head that allow him to control the Flagship as an extension of his own body.
  • Wetware CPU: Like Karan S'jet, Makaan is an Unbound cybernetically wired-in to his Flagship so he can coordinate the massive numbers of vessels in his fleet.

    T'saan Soban 
A Hiigaran specops commander infiltrating the Vaygr.
  • Badass in Distress: One mission has you attacking the Vaygr outpost Thaddis Sabah to rescue him.
  • The Cavalry: Early in the game, Captain Soban's fleet arrives to assist the Pride of Hiigara while it is still operating with a skeleton crew and limited resources.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: His defense fleet has black ships, but they're just as heroic as other Hiigarans.
  • Last-Name Basis: His first name is never revealed.
  • Legendary in the Sequel: In Homeworld 3, set a hundred years after 2, the Hiigaran fleet carrier is named the T'saan-class in recognition of Soban's deeds during the Vaygr War. Notably the description identifies him as an admiral, indicating that he climbed up the ranks after the war's end.

Homeworld 3

    Hiigaran (HW3
The Hiigaran civilization after yet another hundred-year timeskip, having spread across the galaxy through the Progenitors' portal network. Now they've come under threat by an unknown force that destroys the portals and cuts off chunks of their empire, prompting an expedition into the growing dead-zone called the Anomaly.
  • Blue Is Heroic: They keep the paintjob from Homeworld 2, blue with white stripes and emblems, in contrast to the Red and Black and Evil All Over used by the Incarnate.
  • Stealth in Space: Sho'az-D fleet bombers can be upgraded to cloak and become undetectable, though the cloak drops once they start shooting.

    Incarnate 

  • Crippling Overspecialization: Like the Vagyr before them, Incarnate ships are noted to be overspecialized in their chosen roles, as opposed to the generalist design doctrine of the Hiigaran navy.
    Compendium entry on Incarnate multi-beam frigate: The Fracture-class beam frigate seems to reflect two aspects of Incarnate combat philosphy. The first being the almost casual deployment of high tech weapons systems, and the second is a tendency to design to intended mission parameters even to the detriment of the platform. The Fracture exists to bring down other frigates. Full stop.
  • Evil Is Angular: In contrast to the rounded shapes of the Hiigaran faction, Incarnate ships are more vertical and dagger-like in appearance.
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over: The default Incarnate paintjob is black with red striping, contrasting with the Hiigarans' continuing Blue Is Heroic palette.
  • Reporting Names: The names of Incarnate ships in the Lore Codex are codenames given by Hiigaran intelligence analysts.

Individuals:

    Imogen S'jet 
Descendant of Karan S'jet and protagonist of the third game.
  • Cool Ship: The Khar-Kushan, a new Mothership that shares its predecessors' banana shape and seemingly has the Trinity installed in it.

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