Skrull

Skrull origins

Skrulls are an ancient spacefaring race with a vast empire than spans thousands of conquered worlds.

The Skrull race was a byproduct of Celestial bio-engineering. Initially Skrulls derived from a lizard-like base stock. Evolutionary competition resulted in two races; the Prime Skrulls, of unadulterated genetic stock, and Eternal Skrulls engineering to the 'apex' of evolution by the Celestials. A third and most populous race, Deviant Skrulls, appeared to have little in the way of special capabilities.

Deviants proved to be accomplished diplomats and interstellar merchants. Rather than fight wars for conquest or territory, they simply adapted to meet the needs of their new trading partners. Settlement became a matter of commerce and exchange rather than occupation or conquest.

War With the Kree

The Skrulls inevitably ran into other major spacefaring races. Approximately 100,000 BCE, they met the Kree. At that point in time the Kree Empire was one of the younger spacefaring races. The Skrulls proposed a contest for the residents of the Kree homeworld, Hala, to determine preferential trade status. The warlike Kree found a 'solution' in that they simply executed their pacifistic co-habitants. The Skrulls were appalled by this act. The Kree attacked the Skrulls after negotiations broke off; the Skrulls gradually became a violent and warlike race bent on conquest.

Effects of Brood Invasion

The war between the Kree and Skrulls raged on until an outside invasion into that area of the galaxy gave both empires a new enemy who required their attention. The Brood spread like a plague at first, and took large swathes of star systems, infecting the inhabits and converting them into more Brood. They spread widely until the efforts of many races to contain them stopped the Brood from spreading further. By the time the Brood's spread was halted several thousand years ago, they had taken the entire frontier between the Kree and Skrull empires. This forced isolation from each other effectively put an indefinite hold on the active Kree-Skrull war.

Current State

More recently, Jean Gray as the Phoenix wiped out the Brood in this section of the galaxy. Left behind were countless planets where all sentient life had been converted to Brood, and thus was eliminated. At present the Skrull have not remerged on the galactic stage, and indeed it could take generations for both Kree and Skrull to resettle enough planets to make contact again. Though being shapeshifters, it is also possible the Skrull have begun moving on their old enemy without being detected yet. It is even possible other planets could be under the secret control of Skrull who continued on after being separated from their empire by the Brood's invasion.

But if the Kree, Xandarians, Oans or other races are aware of current adversaries who shapeshift, that information is compartmentalized to avoid spreading a panic. Instead the Skrull are a historical footnote that are largely unknown even to those Earthlings who have taken to space.