Walking on Sunshine: Sunstalkers, Suns and those Who Hunt Them (Patreon)

We get insights into the world of Kingdom Death through a bunch of snippets of lore sprinkled between the resources, hunt events, store lore and in some cases, campaigns.  However, mystery tends to shroud many of the monsters, and in my opinion there are precious few we know much about.  The exceptions to this are; the Gorm, the Dragon King and Sunstalkers.  

Because of the detailed nature of People of the Sun; we know an extraordinary amount about the Sunstalker life cycle, their nature and the survivors who dedicate their lives to them and to killing them.

Physiology

The visual nature of the Sunstalker demonstrates a great deal of its nature; like the vast majority of monsters in this game it is a chimera of many different aspects. Combining parts of sharks, squid, slugs and seaweed along with the now traditional human "body horror" design which is endemic to the world of Kingdom Death.  Thematically the monster looks like a star from the top, and its primary mechanical themes are aquatic and photon in style.  

They honestly remind me a great deal of the massive vampire warriors written about in Brian Lumney's Necroscope series.  To quote from wikipedia on them: 

"Created by the Wamphyrii as their primary battle creatures warriors can best be summed up as living flying biological tanks. Rivalling small tanks in size, built with armored hides for war, and the ability to fly through the use of gas bladders and exhausts these creatures are armed with pincers, claws, mandibles, and every possible biological tool to inflict carnage at their lords command. Warriors typically eat raw meat and have very limited intellect. "

As we will see later, Sunstalkers contain a similar form of gas bladder and will take to the skies in the final part of their lifecycle. However, it is clear that Sunstalkers have a keen intelligence of some form, with a cunning that is way beyond that of just an animalistic instinct.

The Sunstalker resource cards give us several insights into interesting features of the sunstalker.  I'll list some of them here:

• Their bones are filled with water
• Their blubber, when filled with air, floats
• Their gills emit colour
• They have ink glands that create shadows that disappear in the light
• The fertility tentacle, despite looking like a penis, is actually a female structure. It's an ovipositor, used for laying eggs.
• Their skin is covered in scales which are reflective and colourful. Underneath it is a dark layer that blocks light.
• Their teeth have plant-like structures in them called 'dicot stems' 

Additionally fighting against them demonstrates a whole bunch of other traits: 

• They move exceptionally quickly (Spd 16)
• They can vomit ink
• They can create illusionary images
• Their blood is ink-like 
• They generate intense heat and light

Essentially, they are living celestial bodies, destined to one day squid their way across the skies of the world, growing larger as they age, until one day they reproduce and slumber above their young.

Lifecycle

The KD:M lore descriptions of the Sunstalkers gives us the first look at their life cycle. 

"Sunstalkers are rarely seen creatures that manipulate and swim through light, shifting the colors of the spectrum at their whim. As they reach adulthood they become voracious, attempting to ingest a lifetime of food before they lay their young and take to the sky. There, from immense altitudes, they shine a radiant, warm light that slowly matures their spawn over countless human generations.

Ancient Sunstalkers will sleep for centuries at a time, floating high in the sky and pulse with vibrant rays of light as they slowly and deeply breath."  

People of the Sun also provides an intimate look into the development of the Sunstalkers while they are young.

"A tribe of humans began to worship a very ancient Sunstalker as the sun itself when it stepped down from the sky to rest on a mountain top. Countless generations and centuries have passed and a strange symbiotic relationship has emerged between human and monster. The human culture tends to the Sunstalkers young spawn, feeding it with a combination of food and ritual sacrifice. Only the fairest of maidens are selected for the horrifying honor of being a caretaker and not many survive the creatures period of infancy.

In an attempt to create a lasting relationship between the human and monster, the child of a mighty sunwarrior is umbilically attached to the young Sunstalker. This is a highly dangerous practice that occasionally results in a symbiotic link between man and monster. Sometimes the human child gains some of the creatures strange ability to manipulate light."

There are multiple of these settlements, as there is not just one Sun Entity, but many.  We learn about one of the Sun's which the Entity Storm captured in one piece of lore, and we learn about others in the Infant Sunstalker lore.

However, the largest part of the Sunstalker lifecycle is contained in People of the Sun.  Fully developed, aerial based Suns will find a place where they can create a bacteria rich pool to lay their eggs.  They will then slumber, occasionally refilling the pool with vomit, the way that a bird will regurgitate food for its young.  This will continue for years, with the young sunstalkers hatching, and spending their time swimming around in the pool like necesant tadpoles. Eventually, their parent will awaken and they will travel across the world, eating and growing until they too take to the skies.

Sometimes, as in People of the Sun, survivors are drawn to these 'safe' havens, being an opportunistic creature, the Sun will not harm these creatures and instead uses them as caretakers for its children. Feeding them with knowledge (survivors only gain knowledge from other monsters - such as The Sun, The Watcher and The Tyrant) and using the settlement the way a cuckoo uses other birds. Letting them do the vast majority of the caring for its young.

Eventually it decides to end this cycle in the case of People of the Sun, however there are indicators that this story ends in different manners for other tribes that worship a Sun.

Which brings us nicely to the story in the Sunstalker expansion that most people miss.

Sunslayers

"As the Sunstalker uses light to travel, a known technique to hunt these dangerous entities is to travel with a strongly dyed piece of fabric and monitor it closely for strange color shifts and de-saturation patterns. "

I don't know what the actual name is for these wandering survivors, so I have dubbed them Sunslayers.  Where they come from originally is something you can only speculate on, because we don't know who the original Sunslayer was.  

What we can surmise from the behavior of these people is this.  

Somewhere, far back in time, a settlement encountered a Sun and experienced the betrayal that occurs when the Sun awakens and it's young start attacking the settlement that provided their nursemaids.  This Sun was slain by a katana wielding survivor (or survivors), who saw the devastation that this caused and swore to try and stop it happening ever again.  They left the ruins of their village to seek out others.

They are looking for one of two things, settlements of People of the Sun and other settlements that demonstrate an exceptional level of strength at hunting nearly fully grown Sunstalkers.  The two triggers for this are 5 Innovations (PotSun) and the first time a settlement kills a L3 Sunstalker.  

This second trigger is the one which I think is the most indicative of the Sunslayer's doctrine.  They were out hunting powerful Sunstalkers/Suns themselves and learnt of a place which has demonstrated the potential to help with the crusade. They test the survivors in the Edged Tonometry event - and those who demonstrate the ability to see light being cut gain an intrinsic understanding of the Sunslayer's path and the way that Katanas are intertwined with the fate of Sunstalkers.

Additionally, it is noted that the entity Storm has a captured Sun at its realm and this suggests (along with the text on Katana Mastery) that Storm is linked to Katanas in some fashion. Perhaps as their patron entity.

This is why Katana Mastery works the way it does.  

That is why I personally believe that Katana Mastery is one of the most interesting and thematic elements of the game and why I will happily train up a Katana Master all the way until they leave the settlement.  I love the entire story, the hints, the tragedy and the mystery surrounding this weapon type. It's a better version of the Twilight Sword story, and it's my favourite weapon proficiency in the game.

It also helps that the specialisation ability is really amazing.