Wakanda Civil War

In 1500 BCE, a tribal chief named C'Muro seized the throne from King T'pwen in a bloody coup, aided by a cabal of priests worshipping the god Seth. The Wakandan Royal Family was exiled and forced to flee into the jungle. C'muro consolidated his power and began launching expeditionary forces into the neighboring nations using the weapons derived from their Kheran ancestors. Styled as Overlord, C'muro rapidly conquered a great deal of territory. The Wakandan armies wore ceramic armor and carried energy weapons as well as spears. They attacked the ancient Bunyoro Empire, annexing the far-flung tribes and destroying their military. One of the great kingdoms of Africa was simply annihilated and removed from history. No part of Africa was safe from the flying armies that could traverse mountains and oceans on a whim, and a corruption of their name became associated with legends of flying sky gods of Africa: The Chwezi.

C'muro's armies were depleting their ancient reserves of Kheran weapons and equipment. The Kherans had guaranteed Wakanda's borders would be secure but after almost ten generations, much of the technical knowledge and raw material needed to sustain their armies was being lost to attrition. Ambitious and considering the possibility of striking north after the vast Persian empire and the wealth of the Nile floodplains, C'muro sent his armies to capture another isolated nation: the Steel City of the Inhumans.

Never had anyone tested the full might of the Inhumans, and the response was a war the likes of which had not been seen since Atlantis. The conscripted slaves fighting for Wakanda were routed immediately and the Inhumans proved to be more than a match for even the elite Wakandan warriors.

C'muro's armies were routed and thousands of true Wakandans died in the retreat. The Inhumans launched attacks against Wakanda itself, though the Kheran automated weapons took their share of casualties from them. Wakanda was laid to siege as their automated defenses engaged the Inhumans. C'muro retreated to the palace, defeat chilling his blood.

Among the many trophies and weregilds paid to Wakanda were relics and items of power that had been scoured from all corners of Africa. Among them was a sealed metal box covered with dire warnings should it be opened. Diviners among the priests said it contained 'nqwenela ilitye', the 'wish stone'. Ignoring the warnings, a desperate C'muro shattered the box and reached inside, gripping the long-lost Cosmic Cube.

C'muro wished for 'weapons to defeat his foes'. The Cosmic Cube crackled with power and every piece of steel in Wakandan hands-- spears, swords, axes, armor-- was transmuted into vibranium. A hill near the palace exploded and upheaved, the ore beneath the soil converted to vibranium as well.

Armed with vibranium arms and armor, C'muro's armies closed ranks with the Inhumans again. The resulting battle caused the deaths of many Inhumans, turning the tide of the war once again. They succeeded in capturing the palace, where the Cosmic Cube was taken from C'muro's treasury. But then the Inhumans were pushed back again, forced out of the capital and back to their skyship which loomed overhead like a squawling, fixed stormbank.

Finally, the Inhumans unleashed the Terrigen Mists and other bioweapons on their vessel. By a cruel twist of fate, the Terrigen Mists were fatal to those who had consumed the Kheran herb. C'muro had taken the sacred plant and distributed it to every one of the warriors of Wakanda who swore loyalty to him.

The population of Wakanda was decimated in minutes. With his dying breath, C'muro detonated a Kheran energy weapon. It ripped the Inhuman ship apart as they were attempting to fly away. The impact broke the ship. Half of it crashed into the deserts of Syria hundreds of miles north, while the other half surged into a moment of uncontrolled FTL travel. Shedding debris over thousands of miles, the colony ship was wrecked against the northermost point of Greenland and subsumed under the cracking ice floes.

With C'muro dead, the royal family returned from their exile and the Wakanda Civil War closed.