Mad Vasari Titan

The Mad Vasari Titan event is one of the new random events added in the Stellar Phenomena DLC from November 2013. Note that the name is unofficial; also, the content of this page is subject to revision as more observational data on the event becomes available.

Properties

A Vasari Titan spawns at the local star (likely a random one in multi-system maps) and begins phase jumping around the system, looking for a fight.

Strength

The titan is a standard specimen of its type without any special buffs or debuffs, behaving as if belonging to a player with no relevant research completed (i.e., same as planetary militia). So far, both a level 4 Vorastra (loyalist) and a Kultorask (rebel) have been confirmed seen, but it remains possible that the spawn level is random. All seems to indicate the titan does, takes, and regenerates damage in a normal way and uses abilities and antimatter normally.

Behaviour

Apparently, immediately after spawning the titan proceeds to randomly maraud around the star system in which it spawned. It seems that it does not break off an engagement until it has wiped out the gravity well or until destroyed. Like the militia, it will not attack a TEC Rebel player with Truce Amongst Rogues researched -- even though such behaviour hardly fits the profile, lore-wise: A Vasari titan, especially if 'mad' or 'berserk', would have no reason to spare TEC Rebels... unlike the planetary militias, the intended target of Truce Amongst Rogues, which are meant to be 'homeland defense' forces for isolated and/or non-TEC Trader worlds. Upon the titan's destruction the event ends, with no other apparent consequences.

Allegiance & lore ties

The titan is labelled as a neutral force (like the militias; also like them it is tagged in grey) and listed as belonging to 'Mad Dark Fleet Remnants', being the sole unit so far seen of this new faction. It shows no mercy and gives no quarter to Vasari players of either political bent (loyalists/rebels).

In terms of lore, it is quite possible that the titan's arrival is an unexpected continuation to the ancient Vasari story that out of the entire awesome might of the old Dark Fleet when it threw its full strength against the Ancient Enemy during the Fall of the Vasari Empire, a single, heavily damaged warship is known to have ever returned, when it appeared out of phase space at a frontier Vasari colony, its crew mad with fear. That was when the colony decided to evacuate and became the Vasari Exodus Fleet (or alternatively the Vasari Remnant).

What happened to the rest of the Dark Fleet and the Empire, those aboard that ship no longer had the wits to tell, and even the Vasari of today, the descendants of that one fugitive colony, don't know. But, based on its and its faction's name, the 'Mad Vasari Titan' could be another survivor of the Dark Fleet's final battle. If so, how it and its crew survived the thousands of years intervening between the Fall and present day is a mystery.

Perhaps it was lost in phase space -- Vasari phase mastery is unparalleled, but if anything, that only increases the chances of bizzare side effects (like being thrown out of temporal sync with normal space, for example) of an attempted phase jump when a ship has suffered heavy battle damage and its crew has been driven mad. Or perhaps it simply spent an extended period of time at near-lightspeed velocities -- a few months for the ship could have been millenia for the rest of the universe. Whatever the reason, its arrival bodes ominous for all of Trader space and the races currently locked in a three-way struggle for survival in it.

Through all its millenia-long flight, the Vasari Exodus Fleet has never stopped more than long enough to replenish its stores and resources, dropping warning beacons in its wake as it went. And always, the beacons eventually fell silent, as once the Vasari core worlds fell silent, the unknown Ancient Enemy that consumed them ever in pursuit of the last remnants of the once proud race. Now, the arrival of this mad revenant may mean that the Vasari have finally lingered in one place too long, spending thirty years in bloody battle with the TEC and the Advent. If it has found its way into Trader space, then whatever swept the once invincible Dark Fleet aside as leaves before the storm, whatever drove this titan's crew mad, may be on the verge of breaking in too.

On the other hand, there may be no cause for alarm (other than the natural concern a berserk titan jaunting aroung a system, shooting anything that moves and most things that don't, would cause just about anybody) -- the titan may simply be a regular Vasari Exodus Fleet unit that met with some sort of misfortune (such as exotic particle radiation overexposure, or even something as prosaic as one lost battle too many) fairly recently which induced madness in its crew and/or commander(s). That may make it no less dangerous on its own terms, but at least the leaders of the factions currently occupying the fractured [[[Trader Space]], having accepted this far more believable explanation, can rest easy not having to worry about obscure Vasari racial anxieties... Or should they?

References

[1] The discussion on the official forums where all the listed facts about this event are taken from (aside from the backstory speculation).