Everything you ever wanted to know about Krypton but were afraid to ask.. or Kryptonian RP fun.

[Role Play]
Sigma:

The story of the death of Krypton is often told well..

I was there went Jor-el first beseeched the Council, so moving was his words, so careful his sentiment, I honor him and the ones gone by naming our league The Order of The Red Sun, to remind us all the lessons that Krypton and Jor-El had to teach.


I knew Jor-El's aunt; Zana-El, may God's rays rest upon her, treated as the El's are, like the princess she was. I met Jor-El once, it was after his speech when his aunt approached him to warn him to be careful of his intentions in front of the Council. She introduced me and we spoke briefly but he spoke passionately of his love for Krypton and righteousness, I told him the technology of Krypton was strange .. that it seemed unnatural. When the Kryptonian crystals destroyed the planet, I knew, and remembered that conversation and my friend whom had died.

I was actually in the next system on Xenex, which is.. was a Kryptonian moon colony, the first colony. We saw the flash, a point of light in the sky as the core exploded. The Xenos like the Daxamites are descended from Kryptonians. When the Kryptonians abandoned the Monarchical system, Dax-El the Father of the Daxamites and his family colonized Daxam. The Xenos felt they were an abandoned people, so they gave up having either monarchs or a council..they did not even employ the caste system, and when Krypton tried to enforce it upon them, the Xenos fought back and won, as there was much unrest on Krypton about the whole matter, instead they are a theocracy. Since the time I was there, the Xenos have left and scattered from the moon. Xenex was the principal colony and asif a capital city to all other colonies outside of the Rao system. Every colonist of every Kryptonian colony are of the caste Xen and could legally call themselves this, but as stated their last name does vary due to their culture, familial & personal beliefs. The friend I was visiting was Vana-Xen, she was looking for transport to Havania and a place to stay.

Vana-Xen told me:  'Kryptonians don't like Daxamites and see them as backwards thinking, like 'hillbillies', Daxamites think Kryptonians are stuffy, pompous and self righteous. Xenos don't mind Daxamites but think of Kryptonians as traitors and if a Kryptonian defends the Council in the presence of a Xenos, they will attack them, Daxamites see Xenos as failed experiments and instantly have pity on them.'

There are things of old seldom spoke..

The members House of El, are the last of the principal noble house of Krypton, and while Kara-el is the oldest of the House El, Kal-El is the descendant of the most senior member of that house (Jor-el); Zod and his men while kryptonians are not of noble birth, but are sworn to protect the nobles. This is why General Dru-Zod feels such deep internal conflict.. to attack the 'charge' he is sworn to protect is, even to himself, treason.. even though at times he threatens Kal-El.. he never tries to fully kill him, he can neither lower himself to be the traitor and hypocrite nor give up hope that Kal-El will one day be the first Prince of New Krypton.

While Dru is a Kryptonian supremacist and in many ways could be considered a fascist, those are ideals that do not lend themselves easily to hypocrisy. As odd as that sounds, lowering himself to human standards is not an option. I agree with Dru-Zod on a few points, he is right that Krypton shouldn't die and that abandoning the ideals of Krypton is no way to learn from it's mistakes. But the methods he employs, I do not agree with and have told him myself, he noted my protest.. I was surprised when he remembered me from his childhood.. he called me as he did then 'the Starman'.

But I digress.. of the caste system, each caste are family;

Krypton's caste system I explain thusly:
You are born into your job, it is assigned by your lineage.

The leaders and scientists are of the House of El,
the artists and custodians are of the House of Van,
the engineers and hearthsmiths.. those who build are of the House of Ur,
the priests, timekeepers and chroniclers are of the House of Pax,
the farmers, chefs, and miners are of the House of Bet,
the soldiers and Cromsmen..  soldier-philosophers are of the House of Zod,
the world builders and colonists are of the House of Xen.
The Noble Houses were El, the primary noble House, then Xen, Ur and then mid-noble Van.

There is one name they are forbidden to take.. Rao, as this is their name for God.

The House of Pax is exempt from being either noble or worker caste as they are the Priests of Rao.
There was some debate about female priestess' they debated it for hundreds of years, then eventually there was an agreeable compromise, some of the House of Pax were given the Outlyer, which was a vast tundra on Krypton, there they made a huge kind of monastery and if anyone honoured the 'new way' they may come and worship there also.. none are turned away, and if you return to your city, you are welcome there also, none are turned away. Priestess' would visit the cities.. you could see them acting like nurses to the children.. it was nice. Before any of this females were not allowed to have any part of the priests portion, and could only be timekeepers and chroniclers. Members of the House Pax are free to marry and not forbidden to stay to caste, they may marry from any House, however they must give up their order.. this is why out those who take this option many many are females.

Jura-Zod, Dru-Zod's mother was Zana-El's bodyguard, from the time Zana-El became chief of the genetic council, I got to know Jura-Zod as a friend too. Impressive combatant and a great passion for righteousness..

She would talk sometimes about how angry little Dru would get if he didn't get his way. Zod's father however was ice cold and refused to speak to me.. I got the feeling he would kill everyone if he could only find the justification to do it.. believe it or not Zod is an improvement on his father. Dru is named after his mother, and his father was the head of the House of Zod, the Chief Supreme Guardian of Krypton, General Zal-Zod. This title passed to Zod upon his father's death, some years later.

Jura was nice.. serious but nice, I was sad to hear of her passing, she was a good friend, may God's rays rest upon her. I attended Dru's 10th Shopnah.. for humans' it's like a mix between a spelling bee and a birthday party.. he came best in show. Jura was very proud.

There are also 'rogue' family names inherited by lineage, these came from mixed marriages with Daxamites and Xenos, as Daxamites and Xenos did not have the caste system.

I would guess Dru-Zod is very surprised the head of the House of El has a surviving heir.. so surprised that it fascinates him, the idea that Kal-El could be the linchpin restore Kryptonian society.

Zod's forces are not all of the House of Zod, some are rebels who joined forces with Zod on hearing of the Council's failure. All Houses except Pax have joined Zod's cause, but none from the House of El, which Zod feels he needs to restore Krypton. There are less than 20 members of the Kryptonian House of El remaining, and Kal-El is suspected to be the last male of his House.

Some of Zod's Cromsmen act like priests and healers towards Zod's men.. he does not however allow them to lead bystand to Rao, only a priest or head of House may do this, so he does this himself..
Zod finds this very shameful, as it is traditionally a priest but necessary as he has none of the House of Pax to fill this role. It is shameful to him that his Cromsmen act like priests, they should not being doing this out-of-caste behaviour for a sacred act and shameful to him that he cannot provide all his men need,  I'm using 'men' as a majorative, I say 'men' but as you know the caste system has no differation between genders except as explained the House of Pax.


The House of El has many facets that it was the original house of Royalty, as it was on both on Daxam and Krypton, this is why Mon-EL is a prince of Daxam. Even though Krypton has 'done away with' the royalty aspect of governance, it is still very present in the minds of Kryptonians, that should a member of the House of El be of high prestige, he or she is STILL treated as royalty, Krypton changed to the caste system, but in this, there was still a council of Kryptonians who were held absolute in judgement.

Lara was Kal-El's mother, her caste was Van and like all others in her caste she was forbidden to marry outside of it, but Jor-El asked special permission of the Council for them to marry and it was granted, but for the remaining time, everytime Jor-El went to the council, they dismissed his requests and treated him less than is usual for an El, .. in fact I think they treated him more like a member of the House of Van.

Jor-El was once one of those council members until he married then he explored the sciences, his decline from a Council member was slow one.. he didn't just get up one day and he was fired, Council members can't fire other Council members without a law being broken.. allowing him to marry a Van was a political move for most of the Council.. then it begun.. the ignoring him in passageways when he said hello, not inviting him to Council adjournments or notifying him of Council meetings, it became very awkward for him.. eventually Jor-El got the hint and just resigned.
As his father was head of the House of El.. and was elderly it was pertinent in the Councils minds to reduce Jor-El's prestige within the House .. and as Jor-El was young this made for easy sport as he was not familiar with such twisted politics, it was easy prey.
He was 35 years old, like 19yo is to humans. to think he was only 55 years old by the time.. Krypton.. so young.
An easy way to remember Kryptonian aging is whatever age a Kryptonian is they would be considered approximately half their age if they were human.. Kal-El being afaik 32 years old at present, is only 15 in Kryptonian culture.. a teenager.

Dru-Zod is 105 years old.. I wonder if he got to complete his final Shopnah before the end of Krypton. The final Shopnah is the most important one.. you are bathed by the priests and timekeepers and dressed in gold.. females may request that the males including the priests are not present until the dressing is complete but they *must* allow the priest to wash their face and hair with special oil called Rah-hom-nah.. the bath is this oil, a genetic blend of all comparative genes in your 'pool' it is seen a 'birth of life'.. the final Shopnah is like a wedding to your life.. you are married to your adult life. Most final Shopnahs occur around a Kryptonians 80th birthday.
It's beautiful, I have attended three including Zana's daughter Mara. We obviously don't see the bathing, but the dress is a *bit* revealing as it's only meant to be family members attending. The scene is amazing though, a golden room with special crystals all refracting light so much that it unites again into white light.

I told Kara about this and she just said 'eioeww.. so you mean I was meant to take a bath in my dead relatives?' to which I replied..'no it's not like that.. you aren't actually related, it's not ashes.. these are synthetic genes made for just for you, only in that bath but yes they have every combination of every gene in your House'.. she replied '.. still. eioiew.'

She's still young, should I lose hope or keep it? She's 30 years old.. 14 years old by Kryptonian culture. She also thought it sounded like 'a creepy disco' which kind of shocked me being honest, as the light is nothing like that. It's like everything you see is rainbow of bokeh, with the gold reflecting the light it's not dark. It's beautiful.

Kryptonians marry between the ages of 20 and 25, any older and it's considered *very* embarrassing. If you can't find a spouse on your own you have the option of going to the priests who will try to find a match for you.. none of this is obligatory, no more than humans using dating sites, a priest will suddenly out of the blue come and want a quick chat to you about everyday banal things, this is him in secret checking if he thinks you are suitable match then he will leave and say nothing. If you are both considered a match you both will get a love letter from the Priest in a non sexy but passionate way of how he believes you are a match and inviting you both to to come to Temple for the bystand and service to Rao.. afterwards one asks the other if they would like to go for food or neither or both.. there is no obligation to say yes, but most Kryptonians will at least try this 'date' as they are flattered by the effort taken to attract them.

Kryptonians allow each other dual-marriage, that is if one spouse asks the other and they agree, they can marry another person and remain married to the first. For whatever faults.. in the Kryptonian caste system, divorce is pretty much unheard of on Krypton. I will note that marriage is seen very differently than on Earth, marriage is seen as a skill you learn, like to humans learning to ride a bicycle or tie their laces. You may love each other or appreciate each other.. marrying purely for love on Krypton does happen but then again many learn the skill of care with their partner and then they fall in love with each other later.. because the time taken and the care and skill. This is also why Kryptonians marry young, because it takes time to learn those skills, and hastens their maturity.

Mentally, 20-25yo's, compared to mighty intellect of their fellow Kryptonians are very young, the caste system speeds this understanding, and ensures that the people produced are ready to deal with harder tasks than marriage, which humans struggle with.

Superman, Kal-El.
All the Earth know of him.. but what are his motivations?
Does he not care about Krypton?
He has shown in many many instances preferring Earth to anywhere else including Krypton.

WHY? Why is it so easy for him to disregard his heritage? Is it solely his upbringing.. or could it be in his eyes.. Krypton as a society failed and he keeps his thoughts secret. Although I don't entirely agree with him.. I can see some of Zod's points. Kal-El knows he is meant to be the next 'prince', but that seems to mean nothing to him. What are his true motives other than protecting the Earth? I trust Kal-el's intentions towards the Earth.. but towards his own people, if he ever became their prince?.. I am not 100% sure I would trust him with this.

Would Zana-El his great-aunt approve of him having non-kryptonian children?.. I don't know but the question goes round & round in my mind that the Kryptonians are so depleted, could he not marry both Lois AND a female kryptonian noble? One marriage for love and the other to restock the nobles?
I'm no way suggesting Kara his cousin or Alura his aunt, but there are Ur's and Xenos and Daxamite EL's he could marry to restore his lineage. But humans would never accept him having two wives, as I see on TV the women are quite angry about even having one husband.

I'll admit I don't know but I feel Zana-El would find him selfish and self-serving to not even consider a dual marriage. And while the taunts Zod throws at Kal-El about Lois being his 'pet' and an unfit wife are unpleasant, what I feel Zod is really saying is Kal-El thinks like a little child and only of himself.

Kandor is a bottled city. Using Kryptonian science, one city of Krypton was saved.
I heard rumors Brainiac had done this.. but I knew of a secret technology developed by Zor-el of shrinking large objects, but when I first heard this, it was in mid stages of development.

I mentioned Zor-El, he is Jor-El's brother. Alura is now his widow, their daughter is Kara-el who on earth is known as Supergirl. Alura is the leader of Kandor, She pardoned Zod and Ursa for their crimes. Alura is of the House of El, not by marriage but by birth, she is Zor-El's fourth cousin, by Zana's great-grandfather.
I have spoken in passing a couple of times to Kara about her great-aunt .. she smiles politely to me because she never really knew Zana, this was after Zor threw Zana out of his workshop for visiting him while he was busy and she never returned. Zor-El was named after Zana.. the insult of being thrown out wounded Zana deeply. She was so upset when we spoke she let slip about the aforementioned shrinking technology. In Kryptonian culture being named after someone gives you.. a 'twin' like status together. They call it a 'life-bond'.

(Sigma remembers the 'original timeline' and does not realize things have changed, in the original timeline; Kandor was shrunk by Zor-El and placed in the phantom zone inside a secret crystal, years later Brainiac hearing about the death of Krypton and learning of the shrinking technology, travelled back in time and stole Kandor, using the technology Zor-El developed. When Superman and Supergirl freed bottled Kandor, Brainiac travelled back in time once again and bottled Argo City, he remained with his younger self, Brainiac still owns Argo City. The removal of these two cities destabilized Krypton all the more, which sped up the decline by around 50 years, in the first instance Supergirl was shrunk by her father and put into Kandor, in the second timeline there was not enough time to complete the shrinking project, so Zor-El used some of Jor-El's birthing chamber technology combined with a rocket to earth to save Kara-El, it was all very rushed and not Jor-el's field so he miscalculated the time dilation. Unknown to Superman, Supergirl and Mon-EL, Brainiac also bottled and owns the Daxam 'Temple of the Ancients' with around 1000 yellow sun powered Daxamites in 'sun chambers' forever sleeping.)

Jax-Ur Zod's Scientist, he is also a noble, but is completely devoted to Zod's ideals. I suspect he pretends to be Zod to further Zod's cause, a body double where people are not sure what the original looks like. He just tells them he's Zod and they believe him. He is a member of Non's original team, Non's 'lab assistant' on Krypton, their engineer, there he studied everything Non and Jor-el did.

I learned Non had become mad, such a shame for such a meek man.. I did not know him myself but Zana-el would send him food with little messages to remember to eat and not work too hard.

Non's full name is Non-Ur, he began as an Engineer but was so talented in the sciences many El sought to work with him, they did not interest him, until he met a young Jor-el. Non is also a noble, but driven mad by regret. Dru-Zod does not see him as a candidate for restoring the nobles due to his insanity and while his House is noble; is not El.

I mentioned Non's madness.. such a shame. Non has been driven mad by both the Phantom Zone, and the Kryptonian Councils betrayal of him and Jor-El, their betrayal meant billions of lives perished on Krypton, as Non and Jor-El were the only two to tell the people the truth of Krypton's imminent destruction. Ursa was the next to find out when she interrogated Non and Jor-El, many Kryptonians believing the Council's lies for a long time, she took the proof of Non and Jor-El's discovery to Zod, which in turn led to a revolt on Krypton.

Billions of lives could have been saved if the Council had approved Non and Jor-El's plan for evacuation of Krypton, however even knowing the truth, they refused to sacrifice their technology, status and lifestyle.. A very flippant reason.. it was politically unsustainable; that if they led the evacuation of Krypton the remaining Kryptonians would have banished them to the Phantom Zone for losing Krypton in the first place.

It was evil and self-serving.. and Zod killed them for it. The remaining Council members and a few powerful custodians imprisoned Zod and his forces in the Phantom Zone moments before Krypton's destruction. For millennia.. no Kryptonian had killed another Kryptonian, it was beyond forbidden, this is another reason Zod cannot bring himself to actually *kill* Kal-El.. this is why the Phantom Zone exists as a prison, because murder of their own kind is abhorrent to them. Zod broke this rule nearing Krypton's end..he was not the first as I heard of rumors that had surrounded his father, but I imagine it still chokes him.
Non was still standing with Ursa as his guard from earlier.. he went in too, whether the Council meant it or not.

Zod often taunts Kal-El that Jor-El was a traitor; this is false in his eyes, he does it as an insult but not how we simply understand it; in fact he does not believe Jor-El was a traitor at all, or how could he bring himself to have company with Non. no, it is a feign; a soldier taunting a noble that the other nobles are fighting amongst themselves... this is lost on Kal-El, he does not realize the significance, because he was a newly minted coin by Jonathan and Martha Kent, as shiney upon the Earth that coin might be.. by Kryptonian standards, Zod finds his intellect.. lackluster to say the least.

Zod chooses his words carefully, as do all Kryptonians, for Zod.. Kal-El's innocence of what Zod's remark signifies, also could show that Krypton as a society was a success; that Kryptonians are NOT inherently smart but it was Kryptonian society and the caste system that made them smart. This would give Zod great pleasure being of the soldier caste. But also a crux that to rebuilt it must be the perfect likeness of itself.

Zod is a serious man. He would not state Jor-el was a traitor without assigning equal blame to Non.

Ursa is Zod's wife. Ursa was the person given charge to arrest Jor-El and Non for treason, however she discovered that they were telling the truth, she freed them and reported the truth to Zod. Zod started a war on Krypton, believing that the Council had hidden the truth, this is also why he doesn't blame Kal-El for Krypton's destruction.

Zod believes in the caste system absolutely, and the thought of 'breeding for choice' disgusts him.

Daxam still exists after the explosion of Krypton but 1/3rd of the whole planet is a burnt wasteland, like after a nuclear war would be on earth. Krypton and Daxam were much like The Earth and Mars are but closer together.

Last year I returned to Daxam for the first time since Krypton's destruction. I don't know many Daxamites but have a couple of acquaintances.. I visited Sim-Vur he is a priest of Rao on Daxam, he said 'things have just gotten worse since we last seen each other.. the royal family have gone a little mad to be honest, they often talk to all of Daxam in their decrees about conquering the galaxy.. however alarming this is, the more alarming thing is we haven't just abandoned Daxam and gone off to seek a new home.'

I know Sim-VUR as a wise person in the matters of Daxam, he is very long lived and has seen much. Normally saying the royals 'have gone a little mad' would be treated with the highest order of treason.. but he is so old, nobody minds him or bothers him when he says these things, he could probably even say this in front of Queen Rhea-EL and she would just call him 'you old coot!'. The killing of priests is forbidden on Daxam, and is punishable by abdication and banishment, but that doesn't mean it has never happened, BUT Sim-VUR is the OLDEST priest and if Queen Rhea killed him the priesthood would come out in force to act on that law.

While Daxam had the same technology as Krypton in the interim, it diverged.. Daxamites don't just throw a crystal on the ground and it builds a house for them, which was how Krypton eventually exploded too many crystals invading their planet, Daxamites have special laser technology, they send drones in search of mountains and rock formations that fit their desired requirements and the drones use the lasers to burn away the excess rock.. can I just say this is; in my humble opinion, a much smarter way of doing things, I have no idea why Kryptonians think Daxamites are 'hillbillies'.

About Krypto the dog.. I don't know but I find this very odd that Krypton had dogs and strongly suspect that Kryptonians had been to Earth long ago.. I suspect genetic experiments very long ago as even Daxam has elephants... it's weird.

You sometimes see elephants in their iconography, they are a symbol of power much like lions are on Earth. If you go the Royal Necropolis, which is a huge and vast structure, you can see Kings and Queens riding elephants in war.. I don't know if they found a way to *actually* do it but in the icons depicted their trunks jet fire.