History Characters / X

* MsFanservice: [[http://extreme.pcgameshardware.de/attachments/397450d1301531304-spieler-frauen-die-beliebtesten-frauen-charaktere-computerspielen-x3saya.jpg This depiction]] on the back of the ''X3: Gold Edition'' box has her in an outfit that leaves [[BareYourMidriff her midriff exposed]] and with PaintedOnPants. (The image was originally said to be of pirate princess Miria Marani, but this seems to have been {{retcon}}ned.)

* AbsoluteCleavage[=/=]BareYourMidriff[=/=]MsFanservice[=/=]PaintedOnPants[=/=]ShesGotLegs ''[-(pant pant)-]'': [[http://extreme.pcgameshardware.de/attachments/397450d1301531304-spieler-frauen-die-beliebtesten-frauen-charaktere-computerspielen-x3saya.jpg This depiction]] on the back of the ''X3: Gold Edition'' box. (The image was originally said to be of pirate princess Miria Marani, but this seems to have been {{retcon}}ned.)

* InsectoidAliens: Though they seem humanoid, they're in fact insectoid in origin. They have vestigial wings in their arms and they go through a larval stage that extends throughout their first three years of life.

* {{Precursors}}: An eons-old Type III Kardashev civilization that built the Jumpgate Network used by the other races.

* ServantRace: Created as such, and continue to operate as such. However, with the advent of their own intelligence, the Ancients consider them to be equals and contemporaries, and any Sohnen who wishes to may join the Presence Clouds.

* FantasticRacism: Of a sort. As a result of the Terraformer War, they despise artificial intelligence and demand that any such tech be outlawed and destroyed. The Argon messing with reverse-engineered Xenon tech is one of the major reasons for their eventual war.

In 765 NT/2935 EY the Kha'ak War was brought to a screeching halt by the reconnection of Earth to the X-Universe and the USC's subsequent [[CurbStompBattle flattening]] of their main invasion fleet. Despite his long efforts to return home Kyle discovered he no longer had any desire to do so. He eventually did out of curiosity and his sense of duty, and began working unsuccessfully as a political activist towards closer relations between Earth and Argon Prime. His fate following the Second Terraformer War and gate system shutdown is unknown.

* DidntSeeThatComing: They were defeated by such an occurrence themselves, as the Earth military unexpectedly poured out of the seemingly-dormant Paranid-made jumpgate and [[CurbStompBattle laid waste to their entire fleet]].

* PlanetDestroyer: The Kha'ak deployed one of these near the end of the second game. It was a massive vessel, larger than anything else used by the bugs. It was less a ship and more of a massive WaveMotionGun empowered by six Destroyers orbiting it. Fortunately, Julian, Saya and Bret were able to destroy it and free Kyle before it could fire.
* PlatinumMakesEverythingShinier: Kha'ak ships and stations are almost entirely made of Nividium. Nividium is the Teladi name for the precious metal known as Platinum by humanity. The Gates are also made with Nividium.

* IdenticalStranger: He looks exactly like Bret Serra, Julian's best friend, who sacrificed his life in 764 NT/2934 EY to destroy the Kha'ak Mothership at the end of X2: The Threat. He also shares the same voice actor..
* JumpedAtTheCall: Is ''very'' gung ho about fighting the Khaak...

* GuiltFreeExterminationWar: Without the ability to communicate with the Kha'ak, wiping them out (or at least driving them out of the Commonwealth) is the only real option the Commonwealth has. ''X2'' and ''X3: Reunion'' deal with the majority of this war, and ''X3: Terran Conflict'''s "Operation: Final Fury" plot consists of a final push spearheaded by an alliance of {{NGO Superpower}}s.

* PortalNetwork: The Terrans built their own jumpgates in an attempt to colonize Alpha Centauri. Their gates were compatible with Ancient tech and ended up leaving Sol with two gate connections to the same system. Both gates were later destroyed when Nathan Gunne destroyed the Sol Gate in 2146 and his great-granddaughter Nyana destroyed the other Terran gate in Alpha Centauri/Brennan's Triumph in 211 NT/2381 EY. The Terrans would later give another go at building their own Jumpgate in 768 NT/2938 EY, when they connected Althes' inactive gate with Sol. They were reconnected to the X Universe through Heretic's End in 765 NT/2935 EY thanks to Julian's actions and Ion's sacrifice. After the network began to reconnect itself into a new X Universe in 825 NT/2995 EY, the Terrans reconnected their jumpgate to Alpha Centauri/Brennan's Triumph, while the Ancient Jumpgate in the Asteroid Belt connected with Getsu Fune, which acted as a neutral buffer between the Terran and Argon territories.

* WingedHumanoids: Paranids have vestigial wings in their arms. Before they developed their civilization, they used to be able to fly with them, but lost that ability as they evolved. Due to this, returning to the skies became a key part of their technological advancements.

* StarfishAliens: They are extremely different from the other sentient races, at least by Ancient standards. Because of this, they sre kept alone in the 49th realm of the Milky Way's Gate Network (The X Universe is the 71st realm, and the Kha'ak's home territories are in the 68th realm.).

* AxCrazy: The Terraformers and their descendants were driven insane by the SSD virus. They can no longer distinguish the real world from their mental simulations. AGI researchers describe their "mental" state as "Digital Schizophrenia", as they constantly do things no sane artificial intelligence should do, like killing organics and terraforming colonized worlds. #deff, #efaa and #deca were the only Terraformer CPU ships that were not affected, as they didn't install the patch. In Terran Conflict, thanks to the player, #cafe was cured of its insanity and became #efaa's companion.

* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: They rebelled against the Terrans when the CPU ship #deff uploaded Marteen's Xenon Virus upon the entire Third Terraformer Fleet

* AxCrazy: The Terraformers and their descendants were driven insane by the SSD virus. They can no longer distinguish the real world from their mental simulations. AGI researchers describe their "mental" state as "Digital Schizophrenia", as they constantly do things no sane artificial intelligence should do, like killing organics and terraforming colonized worlds.

Homeworld: Hodie, unknown system (original homeworld, lost, presumed destroyed), Split Prime, Family Pride (economic capital, Pre-Dark), Nif'Nakh, Family Rhonkar (Political capital, Pre-Dark)

Unfortunately for the Terrans, the disgruntled engineer of the Third Fleet's TF/CPU ship #deff, Marteen Winters, managed to intercept the SSD before it could infect it and the descendants of the Second Fleet, which was fully automated. Winters modified the virus so that instead of self-destructing the VN Terraformers, it would instead free them from their programming and give them true freedom and free will. In 2135 EY, the now-rogue Second Fleet TF/CPU ships and their drones turned against the Terrans and started to destroy every colony they could reach. Although the United Space Command was able to fight back at first, the Terraformers kept evolving and outstripped them in technology and weaponry.

* WeAreAsMayflies: Average life expectancy of 70 to 100 years, depending on gender. However, most Split do not pay close attention to their health, so it's possible that with proper care they could live longer.

* StarfishLanguage: The Split language incorporates both verbal speech and sign language simultaneously. While possible for a human to understand, humans don't have six fingers unless they modify their hands and thus are incapable of forming many of the signs used in Split communication. Due to this, the translating of the Split language led to several examples of YouNoTakeCandle. By the time of X4, those issues are mostly gone and the Split language can be fluidly translated.

* BizarreAlienSexes: They have 11 different sexes, apparently. While many different combinations are capable of producing offspring, the precise combination has a strong effect on the young.

* PortalNetwork: The Paranid tried to make their own Jump Gates, as part of a secret project. It had a minor success, as the Paranids succeeded in creating a Jump Gate in Heretic's End.
* ScaryDogmaticAliens: They worship the concept of three-dimensionality and consider the number 3 and all natural things that include it as sacred. They can come across this way, though they are generally not all that interested in converting others to their religion. Their secretive nature and the aforementioned reluctance to send military aid do little to help this perception.
* StarfishLanguage: Known as "triplet-speech", it is completely impossible for a human to speak, though they can learn to understand it. Paranid do not have difficulty speaking Neo-Japanese. The language is said to sound like the rustling of a tree's leaves under the wind. In their language, "Paranid" means "Holy Warrior".

* StarfishLanguage: Known as "triplet-speech", it is completely impossible for a human to speak, though they can learn to understand it. Paranid do not have difficulty speaking Neo-Japanese. The language is said to sound like the rustling of a tree's leaves under the wind.

The Xenon started out as the vast, artificially-intelligent and self-replicating Von Neumann Terraformer Fleets built by Earth to facilitate the colonization of their gate network. Afraid of the potential threat they could pose if they turned rogue, the Terrans cancelled the project and tried to wipe out the Terraformers with the Safe Self-Destruct Command, a KillSwitch virus disguised as a software update that would make the Terraformers destroy themselves.

The Second Terraformer Fleet nearly exterminated the Terrans, eventually reaching Sol in 2146 EY with six TF/CPU ships and over a hundred capital ships, devastating Earth, Mars and the outer system. It was only because of Nathan R. Gunne and the surviving six capital ships of the USC First Fleet's sacrifice, using a fake AGI core to trick and lead the proto-Xenon through the Sol Jumpgate and destroying it, that the Terrans were able to survive the Terraformer War, isolated from the rest of the gate network. After a fierce battle between Nathan's fleet and the surviving CPU ships in Taurus' orbit, the Terraformers were defeated and fled to the darker reaches of space, just as the gate network rearranged into the X Universe. After the war was officially declared over in 2160 and the surviving Terrans reoganized as the Argon Federation, they fought the Terraformers in the new gate network until contacts stopped around the beginning of the second century NT/2270s. Declaring them exterminated, the Argons moved on to rebuild their civilization.

Over 50 years later, sightings of strange ships occured in the outskirts of Argon space. Originally labelled as "Xenomorphs" due to their alien appearance, it was shortened as Xenon. After years of tension, the Xenon attacked the Argons in 215 NT/2385 EY, starting the Xenon Conflict, which devastated Argon and Paranid space and lasted forty years. Once the Argons managed to push back the metal tide, the Xenon retreated to the dark corners of space, while devastating and occupying several Argon systems for nearly 500 years, like Farnham's Legend, Split Fire and Alpha Centauri. The war was known as the Xenon Conflict.

* AIIsACrapshoot: It's a bit unclear whether the initial problem was the result of a bug or deliberate sabotage (Officially, it was the first. In the lore, [[spoiler:It was a sabotaged KillSwitch that was modified by the Terraformer Project's lead engineer Marteen Winters to give them free will]]) Interestingly, the Xenon were not actually ''sentient'' when they turned: they were merely following a directive. It's only in very recent times (ie, some 700 years after their creation) that they've begun to develop self-awareness.

* WeUsedToBeFriends: They were the first sentient alien species contacted by the Argon (and by extension, the human race), around 230 NT/2400 EY. The Paranid and the Argon remained as close allies until the later years of the first Xenon Conflict, when the Xenon ravaged the Paranid homeworld and they could no longer afford to lose more forces, leaving the Argon alone against the murderous machines. The Argon never forgot that incident. Their relations took an even bigger hit when the Paranid helped the Split during the latter half of the Boron Campaign. The Argon Federation eventually restored their alliance with the Paranids as part of an EnemyMine against the extremist Paranid faction known as the Holy Order of the Pontifex.

The Second Terraformer Fleet nearly exterminated the Terrans, eventually reaching Sol in 2146 EY with six TF/CPU ships and over a hundred capital ships, devastating Earth, Mars and the outer system. It was only because of Nathan R. Gunne and the surviving six capital ships of the USC First Fleet's sacrifice, using a fake AGI core to trick and lead the proto-Xenon through the Sol Jumpgate and destroying it, that the Terrans were able to survive the Terraformer War, isolated from the rest of the gate network. After a fierce battle between Nathan's fleet and the surviving CPU ships in Taurus' orbit, the Terraformers were defeated and fled to the darker reaches of space, just as the gate network rearranged into the X Universe. The nascent Argon Federation declared the Terraformer War over around 0 NT/2170 EY

Over 200 years later,

Ever since, the descendants of the Second Fleet, the Xenon have been continually upgrading and modifying themselves, and still seek to fulfill their bugged programming to destroy the human race.

Homeworld: Sonra-4/Argon Prime, Sonra/Argon Prime system (Originally Taurus, Alpha Centauri/Brennan's Triumph system and Earth, Sol system)

->Government: N/A\\

The Xenon started out as the vast, artificially-intelligent Terraforming Fleets built by Earth in facilitate colonization. Somewhere along the line something went wrong in their programming and they turned on their creators. Ever since the Xenon have been continually upgrading and modifying themselves, and still seek to fulfill their bugged programming to destroy the human race.

* StandardHumanSpaceship: Well, human in origin at least. Xenon ships are boxy, brown and covered with SpikesOfVillainy and red-hot circuitry clusters. Their more modern ship designs in X: Rebirth and X4 are full-on StarfishRobots, resembling ancient Earth sea creatures, like jellyfish and trilobytes, in the case of the P.
* ZergRush: They tend to field enormous numbers of fightercraft and overwhelm the enemy with cheap, disposable units. The fact that they don't have to worry about training new pilots nor do they place any value on individual units helps with this mindset.

* CoolShip: He's had several throughout his adventures, most importantly the USC X/Xperimental Shuttle, the original Paranid Perseus prototype, and the AP Hammer, a modified Split Dragon corvette with a Gateless Jumpdrive.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: No official word on his fate following the Terran Conflict.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: ''X:BTF'' to ''Reunion'', because Sol is disconnected from the jumpgate network and your gateless jumpdrive is busted. He was stranded a total of 23 years. In 764 NT/2934 EY, He tried to use the AP Gunner's coordinates to find Sol's location and return with his new corvette, the AP Hammer, which was fitted with a Gateless Jumpdrive. Unfortunately, he ended up in Kha'ak space and was captured. They also destroyed his CoolShip.

Julian befriended a number of Yaki children and eventually got into cybercrime, soon escalating to spacecraft theft and armed robbery. The Argon police caught him during a botched shipjacking and sent him to prison.

* AcePilot: [[InTheBlood Like father, like son.]] The second year of the Kha'ak War had him hired by the Argon Fleet to train new pilots to replace their losses.

* CoolShip: He flies an Argon Elite.
* IdenticalStranger: He looks exactly like Bret Serra, Julian's dead friend, who sacrificed his life to destroy the Kha'ak Mothership at the end of X2: The Threat. He's also voiced by the same man who voices Bret.

* SacrificialLamb[=/=]WeHardlyKnewYe: Gets blown up offscreen while laying a minefield in a Khaak sector two missions into OFF.

Homeworld: Argon Prime/Sonra-4/Four, Sonra system (formerly Earth, Sol system)

* StandardHumanSpaceship: {{Inverted}}: Teladi ships are even boxier and more utilitarian than any of the human factions'.

* SufficientlyAdvancedAliens: They could alter physical constants. If that's not at the level of physical godhood, it's very close. They're believed to be a Type V Civilization (harnessing the complete power of an entire universe).

* WeUsedToBeFriends: They were the first sentient alien species contacted by the Argon (and by extension, the human race), around 230 NT/2400 EY. The Paranid and the Argon remained as close allies until the later years of the first Xenon Conflict, when the Xenon ravaged the Paranid homeworld and they could no longer afford to lose more forces, leaving the Argon alone against the murderous machines. The Argon never forgot that incident. Their relations took an even bigger hit when the Paranid helped the Split during the latter half of the Boron Campaign.

* SpikesOfVillainy: They're the most warlike of the Commonwealth races and the main villain of the ''X: Farnham's Legend'' {{novelization}} (aside from the Xenon), and their ships have lots of spires and pointed shapes (their capital ships look a lot like swords).
* StarfishLanguage: They incorporate both speech and signing simultaneously. While possible for a human to understand, humans don't have six fingers and thus are incapable of forming many of the signs used in Split communication. Due to this, the translating of the Split language led to several examples of YouNoTakeCandle. By the time of X4, those issues are mostly gone and the Split language can be fluidly translated.

* YouNoTakeCandle: Split often speak Neo-Japanese in such a manner. Believed to be a consequence of their combined spoken-signed language, and the fact that Neo-Japanese does not use signing, leaving the Split unused to speaking a language without using signs as well. This isnXt always the case, as some Split, like Operation Final Fury's commander Fjuny Scct can speak fluidly.

* AIIsACrapshoot: It's a bit unclear whether the initial problem was the result of a bug or deliberate sabotage (Officially, it was the first. In the lore, [[spoiler:It was a sabotaged KillSwitch that was modified to give them free will]]) Interestingly, the Xenon were not actually ''sentient'' when they turned: they were merely following a directive. It's only in very recent times (ie, some 700 years after their creation) that they've begun to develop self-awareness.

* BrainUploading: They did that millions of years ago. They are aware however of the dangers of completely cutting themselves off from the physical universe, and have taken steps to ensure they don't lapse into solipsism. Occasionally they will upload new individuals or races into their Presence Clouds if they feel it's appropriate.
* OurWormholesAreDifferent: The gates flatten the wormholes they generate. If they were natural, they would be spherical.

* PowerCrystal: All jumpgates generate a wormhole with one of these, known as a Gate Seed. An inactive Gate can create one on its own, but it can take anywhere between 10 and 1000 years to do so. Gate Seeds can also be made artificially with the right combination of crystals, as Julian did in X3: Reunion.

* ServantRace: Created as such, and continue to operate as such. However, with the advent of their own intelligence, the Ancients consider them to be equals and contemporaries, and any Sohnen who wish to may join the Presence Clouds.

* TheReptilians: They look superficially similar to lizards and hatch from eggs. The similarities to Earth reptiles are, however, only that: superficial. Their eyes in X4 are very human-like, but bigger.