The outer plane of Starless is indeed a strange one. Its only planet (called Starless, too) hangs in the sky, surrounded by millions of miles of empty space. Not a single star can be seen from its surface and only a little weak and pale sun lights its wastes.

On this lonely planet an ancient race of insect-like creatures acquired the spark of intelligence: they learnt to talk. Eons after they developed magical abilities. They managed to unite their whole world under one kingdom and they called themselves 'The Masters'.

However, life on Starless was very hard: little water and many famines, few people and a lot of free space. Magic was the only way to survive the rigors of a "weary" world.

But the fate of Starless was already written in the (unborn) stars. Its little sun was burning out; year after year its pale light faded away...

The Masters, with the most powerful of all their spells, created big caves under the surface of Starless, summoning big fire elementals to warm their bones. Like bears, the powerful Masters went into hibernation in the depths of their own cruel world. And so they died one after one, frozen while they were fighting for a piece of bread.

But Pyx, the biggest hero of The Masters, knew that their magic could not help them. The solution to the problems of Starless was far away from it, somewhere in the darkness that surrounded it. Somehow Pyx sensed the existence of other planes of life, first among all the magic-users of his race.

He roused some of his companions from their torpor and urged them to act! Magic was useless, and so they had to rely upon the mundane arts.

A few years before the last sunbeam hit the surface of Starless, a "flaming sphere" was seen rising in the horizon and heading straight for the sky, forever vanishing into the darkness of space.

Pyx had managed to do it! His allies and him had built a new race, a new kind of servants: the Meks. On Starless nobody trusted them: "If even magic is useless, - they said - nothing can help us now". But he stubbornly went on with his plan, and now he was traveling beyond the horizon of the place where he was born, with a dozen companions and hundreds of meks...

But their journey (their space odyssey) was long and difficult. During the trip many of his friends left his side to colonize nearer planets.

But Pyx continued along his way, leaving a mek in all the planets he could find. He ordered those meks to obey the natives of the planet, and he became soon a symbol of civilization.

Old by now, he settled in an outer plane (later this plane became one of the 24 planes of Mazikeen - See IM3), where he built a temple to house the information needed to built the meks. He had fulfilled his fate and now he was waiting for death to come.

And he did die, but by the hand of a Draeden. This powerful creature entered the plane of Pyx, overcame nearly all the meks of Pyx and destroyed him and the information in the temple. Why did it do this? Nobody knows, but many believe that the Draeden wanted to stop the construction of meks. Why? Because they are DANGEROUS!

The hope of Pyx for a better world built around the work of the meks died with him. The meks (only 30) which survived the attack of the Draeden, destroyed all the lifeforms in the plane trying to obey the last order of Pyx.

But, what happened to the meks of Pyx' companions? After leaving Pyx, they reached other empty worlds, where they built some colonies.

Here, they just sit down, waiting for their meks to do all the work.

They didn't need friends or relatives anymore and so, years after years, the family ties became less and less important. After a few generations all the descendants of the first settlers were spending their lives alone, surrounded by hundreds of miles of fields and woods tended by meks.

In these worlds, everyone was as lonely as the "now frozen" Starless was alone in the black sky. Nobody was interested anymore in relationships and in this situation no coupling was possible. The "sons of Pyx' Dream" died alone, without an offspring, each surrounded by hundreds of meks who, after saving their lives on Starless, had slowly killed them.

Maybe the Draeden was right...

The meks are the most perfect robots ever created. They were built by their masters to take care of them and to do all the hard work on their home planet. Every mek was designed for a special task and was built with the form that suits better this task. For this reason they can look like many different animals or objects and come in different sizes and shapes.

Mek Bodyguard: Today these are the most common meks (see below). They are very resistant (AC -4, immune to fire, and so on) and strong. They are born to fight for protecting their master. They can even change their shape to offer a better protection (such as the mek in M5). Usually they can fly and swim, so that they can follow their master everywhere or pursue his enemies. They are very good fighters, but they aren't very intelligent.

Mek Farmer: It is built to work in the fields. Usually it has the shape of a farm tractor. They are not intelligent and they never fight.

Mek Miner: It works in the mines.

Mek Technician: His task is to work in the factories. It looks like a humanoid with many arms. Some of them can repair or built others meks.

Mek Supervisor: This is the most intelligent mek. They have the shape of a man and they usually control many less intelligent meks. They can direct the work in the fields or the production of a factory. Today there are only a few exemplars of supervisors left. Since they are the only really intelligent meks, they are the only ones who know the true story of their masters.

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