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Xenology (2006), p61 — Study of Q'Orl text-glyphs, taken 5.909.799M41, Segmentum Pacificus

Text-Glyph Translation.
Author: Xenolinguitor Servitor ARG-391-ZXX

Annotated by Inq. Ralei. See attached notes.

Title Glyph: "History of Most-Great Enemy that is Once-Friend".

First stanza:
In age of [untranslatable]1 queen, at hand of eight-disc red.2 Beset was the swarm by corrosion named [untranslatable],3 passed-in by Larvae of the Dead Man-Queen.4 Great Horrors and pains came then, and many dead shells scattered on Holy SwarmWorld. Grief.

Second stanza:
At height of [untranslatable] came friend-things, named [untranslatable].5 In aspect akin to Dead Male-Queen's swarm,6 but slender of limb and high, and unalike within. Assisted in defence of swarmworld and drove out [untranslatable] enemy. Corrosion passed away. Rejoice.

Third stanza:
In time after friend-things [untranslatable] insist, in pay-exchange for aid. Request not [untranslatable] nor mineral nor royal-soup7 but great [untranslatable] queen herself. To build a swarm un-corroded. Resistant to [untranslatable].8 Refusal. Kinship shattered.9

Fourth stanza:
At loss of kinship friend-things enemy. Turned in villainy [untranslatable], and stealth-and-shadow-slip. Stolen away was great [untranslatable]-queen, and lost to the swarm. Horror and grief.10 Fortune alone endows royal comb-cell egg, and begets Great [untranslatable]-queen. Joy and prosperity in her.11

Key

  1. Untranslatable signifier. Probably the runic 'name' of the swarm's queen at the time this historical event occurred. If the matriarchs typically live for hundreds/thousands of years, it's reasonable to assume the Q'Orl use their names as identifiers of particular historical periods.
  2. 'Eight Disc Red': maybe a reference to the novae in the Rolland Rift (Seg. Pacificus) - the 'crown of thorns'? If so, we can date this event to approx. four thousand years ago - the end of the 37th millennium.
  3. Some form of disease? Chaotic in origin?
  4. 'Larvae of the Dead Male-Queen' - literally: Children of the Dead Emperor. Which is to say: mankind. Q'Orl sickness transmitted originally by human settlers? Influence of Nurgle?
  5. The Q'Orl are assisted in their struggle against disease/Chaos by another race of aliens.
  6. Eldar? Why would they help?
  7. Ah... As soon as the war was won the pointy-ears turned round and demanded payment...
  8. Very strange. The Eldar want to take away the Q'Orl queen? Why? And what's this uncorroded swarm? A race resistant to disease? Or resistant to Chaos itself?
  9. The Q'Orl are having none of it. They dissolve the alliance and hold onto their queen.
  10. Except the Eldar don't give up so easily. Some sort of treacherous act? Did they spirit-away the queen?
  11. Luckily for the swarm there's a queen-egg already laid, and so begins the reign of their next matriarch. But the history's title suggests they're not in any hurry to forgive.

What in the Emperor's name did the Eldar want with a Q'Orl swarmqueen?