Nyokai

Nyokai are unmistakably reptilian. They are described as having scales, serpentine eyes, and a forked tongue.

Vrax provides the most detailed individual example. He is an unusually large Nyokai, approximately 2.4 meters or eight feet tall, with iridescent emerald scales, a serpentine head, a prominent crest, yellow eyes with vertical pupils, fangs, a forked tongue, a tail, and long articulated clawed fingers. His eyes can turn solid black during heightened predatory focus, while his crest and neck scales react visibly to anger or threat.

Vrax should not automatically be used as the biological template for every Nyokai, however. The ICIA file specifically identifies him as unusually large.

Nyokai also have a significant physiological vulnerability: low tolerance for cold. Uyrth Mes Vonti specifically describes exposure to frigid temperatures as a method humans used to torture captured Nyokai in his universe.

The existence of hatchlings is directly established, indicating some form of egg-based or hatching reproductive cycle, although the exact reproductive biology has not yet been defined.

The most consequential thing about the Nyokai may be how long they have known us. A hidden Nyokai population tells KAVOE pilots Delaron and Laurona that Nyokai have been watching humans for nearly a million years. They also claim humans are substantially older than humans themselves believe.

Trans Porter Ada independently reinforces the basic premise of ancient interference. Li-Ming says that the Nyokai have been influencing humanity for centuries and living under humanity's noses. Brian points out that the Nyokai possessed sufficient power that they could have exterminated humanity long ago, yet humanity survived and eventually became an interstellar civilization.

That suggests Nyokai objectives cannot be reduced simply to human extermination. They have repeatedly had the opportunity. They haven't done it.

Black Supreme Masey goes considerably further. According to Masey's account of records recovered from a captured Nyokai vessel, the Nyokai were responsible for accelerating the development of the first civilizations on both Teira and Earth. They introduced knowledge that encouraged agriculture, specialization, mathematics, law and other foundations of civilization.

Masey explains that this wasn't originally altruistic. According to the recovered records, increasing human civilization also increased the human population, benefiting Nyokai who preyed upon humans. When Teira's population and technology developed too quickly, the Nyokai allegedly engineered events leading to the nuclear exchange of 1284 — reducing human development without completely destroying their population.

The darkest part of Nyokai history is their predatory relationship with humans. Black Supreme Masey says Nyokai had been feeding upon abantu for thousands of years in Teira's history.

The later Nyokai encountered by Delaron and Laurona acknowledge this history themselves. They explain that most modern Nyokai no longer feed on human flesh, pain, or suffering, although some still do. Those remaining predators are one reason the Nyokai maintain covert surveillance — including surveillance of other Nyokai.

Vrax demonstrates that the practice hasn't disappeared. His Trans Porter Ada material establishes that he is physically capable of killing and consuming a human. This therefore isn't merely an ancient legend or accusation made by enemies of the Nyokai.

At the same time, it would be inaccurate to write simply that "Nyokai eat humans." The better canon formulation is:

Some Nyokai have historically preyed upon humans, and some individuals continue to do so, but later sources explicitly establish that most Nyokai have abandoned the practice.

Tumor Rick gives us the clearest sustained conversation between ordinary Nyokai scientists. Their disagreement is revealing.

One scientist objects to performing neurological experiments on humans without consent and asks why they cannot continue using volunteers. The senior scientist dismisses conventional morality, arguing that ethics, morals and emotions belong to less-evolved civilizations and interfere with pursuit of truth.

But the younger Nyokai does feel remorse. That matters enormously. The scene establishes that even within a scientific hierarchy, Nyokai don't necessarily agree about the treatment of humans.

The senior scientist believes civilizations eventually enter periods of social stagnation and require intervention. He says he has visited more than twenty-one star systems and considers humanity's primitive survival behavior an impediment to further social development. His worldview is summarized by the belief that growth requires pain and progress requires struggle.

This resembles the philosophy encountered elsewhere: humans are treated less as equals than as a developing species requiring management.

The more benevolent Nyokai encountered by Delaron and Laurona use essentially the same paternalistic framework without the overt cruelty. They describe humans as children who need guidance.

These Nyokai monitor humanity and other members of their own species. They openly explain their activities, treat Delaron's burns, repair the humans' fighters, provide intelligence about the Kaizoku pirates and ultimately return the pilots to their spacecraft with fully armed weapons. Their leader is Velokrosh.

This establishes something critical about Nyokai society: Being technologically superior to humans doesn't produce a single Nyokai conclusion about what should be done with humanity. One Nyokai may regard manipulating humans without consent as justified. Another questions it. Another treats injured humans. Another eats them. Another becomes a criminal operating extensively inside human society.

The Nyokai operation depicted in Tumor Rick occurs in Low Earth Orbit on June 7, 2022. Their ship remains hidden using a cloaking device while Nyokai scientists perform neurological experimentation on an unwilling human subject.

Their technology includes a microscopic neural device that enters the bloodstream and reaches the brain. Once attached, it increases processing speed and creates synthetic synapses connecting previously separate areas of the brain, producing an immediate increase in neurological processing capability. They also possess technology capable of wiping or altering memories so that an abducted subject remembers the experience as little more than dream fragments.

The Nyokai then initiate Phase 3, involving mosquitoes. This demonstrates their ability to use existing terrestrial organisms as delivery mechanisms for biological or technological intervention.

More broadly, Tumor Rick establishes that human development isn't merely something the Nyokai watch. At least some Nyokai actively conduct what they call "adjustment projects" intended to alter humanity's development.

Tumor Rick also reveals that the Nyokai Empire banned harvesting humans for livestock. This tells us several things. First, some form of Nyokai political structure is explicitly called an Empire in this story. Second, human consumption was once sufficiently widespread or institutionally significant to require prohibition. Third, the existence of the prohibition suggests that Nyokai institutions aren't necessarily aligned with predatory Nyokai behavior.

Uyrth Mes Vonti is one of the most important Nyokai characters because his story introduces the multiversal dimension of their relationship with humanity. He tells Valerius that the Nyokai aren't attempting simply to destroy humanity but to guide it.

He also says:

There is no need for a hierarchy in the way you humans perceive it.

That statement complicates the reference to a Nyokai Empire in Tumor Rick. This isn't necessarily a contradiction. Uyrth may mean Nyokai social organization isn't hierarchical in the human sense, despite possessing institutions humans translate as an empire. Alternatively, his universe's Nyokai may differ politically from those in the primary continuity.

A Pal in Rome establishes that Nyokai civilization — or versions of it — exists across alternate realities. Uyrth says the universe he comes from has become dominated by humans and that his people are slaves. He describes witnessing Nyokai being roasted alive and eaten in front of their hatchlings and claims human-controlled forced-labor camps exist on Titania, Europa, Sudana, Beylth, Thestias and elsewhere.

His objective is therefore preventative. He believes intervention in another universe can stop its humans from eventually becoming the civilization that enslaved his people.

This creates an extraordinary inversion of the usual human-Nyokai relationship. In one history, Nyokai manipulate and consume humans. In another, humans enslave, torture and consume Nyokai. Neither species occupies a permanent moral position across the multiverse.

A Pal in Rome establishes plasma weaponry capable of inflicting catastrophic damage against ancient human forces. Valerius recognizes the weapon and also realizes that such attacks consume considerable energy. Nyokai weapons therefore aren't magical or unlimited. Their technology obeys constraints, including energy expenditure.

The broader stories establish additional advanced systems, but not every mysterious alien weapon appearing near a Nyokai should be assigned to a standard species-wide arsenal without explicit textual confirmation.

Stealth technology is one of their most consistently demonstrated advantages. The Tumor Rick spacecraft can sit in Low Earth Orbit incognito beneath a cloaking device.

The Nyokai facility encountered by Delaron and Laurona goes considerably further. What appears to be an uncharted moon is actually a cloaked space station inhabited by more than 1,000 Nyokai. Pirate spacecraft pass directly by without discovering it. That helps explain how a civilization this advanced could observe humanity for enormous periods without being openly discovered.

Vrax represents a highly unusual form of Nyokai-human interaction. Unlike most Nyokai, he spends extensive time around humans and has learned human commerce, criminal behavior, institutional vulnerabilities and technology. He operates primarily from the asteroid field between Mars and Jupiter and maintains a broad criminal network.

ICIA identifies him as a major organized-crime figure and a suspect in multiple assassinations and killings of IMOS officials, as well as smuggling and related organized criminal activity. His known associates include Garth and Ek'Dorthuna ("Thuna"), along with hired human and nonhuman operatives.

His position creates jurisdictional problems because IMOS isn't part of the Lurran Consortium. His technology creates another problem: human surveillance and security systems can't always reliably penetrate, track, disable or interpret Nyokai systems, forcing ICIA to approach Vrax investigations as both criminal cases and technical-intelligence operations.

View the Kaizoku Database for related organized-crime intelligence.

Trans Porter Ada connects Vrax to mysterious crystals possessing significant biological effects. The crystals have healing effects on humans but harmful effects on Nyokai. Consequently, Nyokai purchase, steal and mine them whenever possible.

Vrax's interest becomes particularly serious. Brian claims Vrax sent Trebor to kill Ada's parents because of their acquisition of the crystals. The same conversation reveals that the Nyokai harbor a historical hatred of Valerius, described as a Nyokai slayer from the first century B.C.

Yet Brian and Morace also indicate that Nyokai aren't willing to initiate an outright war merely over possession of the crystals. That suggests limits even to Nyokai strategic behavior.

The connections between A Pal in Rome and Trans Porter Ada are particularly important. Valerius isn't simply an ancient man who once encountered a Nyokai. By Ada's era, stories about him apparently survive among the Nyokai themselves. Brian calls Ada's ancestor a "Nyokai slayer."

A Pal in Rome shows why. Valerius knows what Nyokai are, understands aspects of their technology, recognizes plasma weapons and confronts Uyrth Mes Vonti directly. That gives the Nyokai-human conflict an unusually long historical continuity.

The Nyokai are central to Masey's strategic worldview. In Black Supreme Masey, the civilization of Teira expands into space and eventually encounters Nyokai forces whose weapons initially exceed its own. Teiran humans discover that Nyokai have preyed upon them for thousands of years and allegedly manipulated the rise and collapse of human civilizations.

Masey's larger campaign is consequently directed substantially against the Nyokai. Her strategy is described as attempting to change humanity and force it toward greater unity in response to threats including the Nyokai.

Masey 637, or Mazie, eventually demonstrates her own autonomy by protecting Lucas Earnheart/Luke from a Nyokai, even though doing so requires acting against Number One's intentions.

The combined stories strongly argue against presenting the Nyokai as a monoculture. We have evidence for:

• ▸Scientists who experiment on unwilling humans
• ▸A younger scientist who objects on ethical grounds
• ▸Historical Nyokai who consumed humans
• ▸Modern Nyokai who reject that behavior
• ▸Nyokai who monitor dangerous members of their own species
• ▸Nyokai who regard humanity paternalistically as children
• ▸Nyokai who provide medical assistance to humans
• ▸Nyokai who help KAVOE personnel fight pirates
• ▸Cross-universal Nyokai acting to prevent their own future enslavement
• ▸Vrax, who operates as an independent criminal deeply embedded in human affairs

Even A Pal in Rome explicitly rejects a simplistic centralized model when Uyrth tells Valerius that he is merely "one of many" and says Nyokai don't require hierarchy in the way humans understand it.

There is no single Nyokai attitude toward humanity.

Across the sources, three recurring motives appear:

But guidance does not necessarily mean benevolence. A Nyokai may sincerely believe that causing suffering is justified because suffering accelerates development. That makes them more interesting than a species whose only objective is conquest.

The Trans Porter Ada discussion indicates Nyokai territory lies sufficiently close to Squelgian space for Brian to joke that the Nyokai's unwillingness to wage war over the crystals is fortunate for Squelgians near their border.

The scientists in Tumor Rick are extremely important for understanding Nyokai society but are not named in the passages recovered so far.

There are several areas where the canon remains open for development. Canon does not currently establish the Nyokai homeworld, complete evolutionary history, normal lifespan, average size, reproductive mechanism beyond hatchlings, sexes/genders, population, complete diet, exact governmental architecture, Imperial leadership, currency, religion, ordinary family structure, formal military ranks, complete language structure, or the limits of their propulsion technology.

We also shouldn't assume that Vrax's emerald coloration and eight-foot height are normal Nyokai characteristics. And the multiverse matters enormously — information Uyrth gives about the enslavement of Nyokai is explicitly about his universe and should not be silently transferred into the primary timeline.