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Ive done a fair bit of refurbishment & so will try to help.I dont know where you live - weather has a huge role to play in what I can recommend. I live in the UK & so will try to offer advice on that basis.I dont know your budget - again, this has a role to play in what I can recommend. To make life easier, I’ll start with small hacks (in price terms) & escalate.Here we go.Bathroom mirror defoggers.You can buy defogging pads that stick to the back on your bathroom mirrors. This means that after having a hot shower, you can still see yourself clearly without having to keep wiping it clean & leave dirt on the mirror. Make sure to wire electric cables into the back of your bathroom mirror to power this.2. USB power socketsBy using these types of sockets, you can power up your USB devices without needing a charging plug.3. Bedside lightingLets face it. Bedside tables are impossibly tiny. There’s barely space for an ipad or a book on most of them.By setting light points into the ceiling or on the side, you save the space of having a bedside lamp & get to keep everything from water, medication & books on your bedside table.4. Lighting (general)You're going to be home more in the evenings than any other time. The right lighting can really lift your mood & creates a sense of well being. Instead of harsh downlights, try to create coves with LED strips that wash the lighting down the walls as you see in the picture. Always use warm white lights instead of pure white/fluorescent lighting.Make sure you run wiring into your garden/patio so that you can do lighting even outside.Try to integrate lighting within the bannister wall of your stair & connect it to a motion sensor + a timer. It will save you from having to switch the light on/off a hundred times a day as you go up and down the stairs.5. Entry way storageMake sure to build enough storage space for when you enter your house. If you live in a cold country, then you're more than likely going to want to take off your coat, your shoes & hang up your umbrella and deal with some post as soon as you enter. Run lighting inside the wardrobes so you can see inside better. Create a space where you can sit and put your shoes on/off with some storage so everything is hidden away. If you have kids, then you also need to consider where the pram is going to be stored/parked.Ideally have a mirror in this space as well.6. Full height doorsYou can easily add a sense of space to a room by building in frameless doors like the one you see in the picture. Its an easy way to make any room seem bigger than actually is. The frame for these doors needs to be set into the walls you build, so plan to do them in advance to make sure that its done well and caters for any movement in the house.7. Full height windowsYou want to flood the house in natural light during the day. Try to make your windows as big as possible. Its easy to block out light with blinds, curtains & shutters later, but its very hard to bring natural light into a dark house.8. Water pressure pump & water softener.Modern shower fittings need a mains pressure between 3–5 bar. Check if your mains water pressure is enough to support this, if not, you may want to invest in a water pressure pump to get the most out of your fittings.Hard water leaves calcium deposits like you see pictured. Without a water softener, over time your rain shower head is going to degrade, as will most of your taps and other fittings. A water softener will go a long way to stop this.9. Rain showerThere is a perceptible difference between a normal shower head where the water falls with a continuous flow vs a rain shower like Dornbracht where the water falls like rain i.e. droplets. They are expensive though & there are better ways to spend your money. However, if you dont care about the cost & you value shower time, then this would be a good way to spend it.10. Garbage disposal & hot water tapThese taps which fit easily next to your kitchen sink & have child proof controls are great for getting instant hot water for tea or coffee or boiling pasta. It saves time & the space for a kettle.Built in garbage disposals are a great way to get rid of organic waste e.g. if you have left over a stew that needs to be thrown out in which case its hard to use a bin.I could go on and on here & many of the other answers have already given you some great advice. You did ask for unusual & I tried to give you some ideas. Some of these may be standard features where you come from & I do apologise if that is the case.I hope it was useful. Lastly, spend a good amount of time deciding which features you want & map it into your electrical plan.All the best with your new home.

Thanks to Colors And Joy1. The Euphoria-lock keeps your ice cream safe from prying fingers, only allowing access to the lid when the correct combination is recorded.2. One-handed bottle opener, for the individual that needs to open two beers at once.3. Oven rack guard to prevent burns.4. Self-heated butter knives makes applying spreads to bread a breeze5. Scrap Trap container.6. If you run, this water bottle with a built in wallet is a must.7. A cooler complete with bottle opener, blender and smart phone charger.8. Various hidden flasks for smuggling in booze.9. Hands-free book holder.10. Wine sippy cups for adult spillers.11. A highlighter that uploads text you go over to your computer.12. Cover Blubber – a reusable rubber wrapping material for saving leftover food.13. The Biolite camping stove is a wood burner that also produces electricity to power any USB device while camping.14. Lockitron lets you unlock your door from your smartphone if you lose your keys.15. Adjustable scissors that cut perfect sizes.16. Solves the issue of losing bottle caps as they fling off.17. A hook for carrying bags without destroying your fingers.18. A dustpan that keeps dirt from clinging to the broom.19. Glow in the dark toilet rim.20.Torch White LED Light GloveHere is another unique conceptual torch light ‘Torch White LED Light Glove’ designed by Slovenian designer Tilen Sepic. Shaped just like a glove which can be worn around the wrist, the device will produce a working light without the hassle of shadows being reflected in the object. The light is emitted through the white LED which is a part of the device. It also features a battery pack with the light being transferred through the attached optical fibers to a specified location. Just simply point at the location and you will see light21.22.Power bridgeManaging power-cords is more of a hassle for folks with kids and those who like the wire-free look. Just how to manage those damn wires? With the elegant Power Bridge, of course! It eliminates the need to hide wires in order to make the room look neat or safe. This sturdy strip has the plug-slots beneath the bridge for better plug management. An indicative light on each plug outlet also displays the amount of power being used by that particular device, making you aware of the energy consumption. A refreshing approach for the wires-issue.23. In my younger years I drove an ambulance, and while I saw a broad range of nastiness, the most consistently horrific things were injuries sustained in automobile accidents. It was the era before airbags became ubiquitous, and there were still plenty of people who refused to wear a seatbelt. A subset of people subscribed to this ridiculous conventional "wisdom" of the time: "If I wear a seatbelt, I could be trapped in a burning or submerged car and die because the belt was locked shut." There are no statistics that support this as a likely occurrence, either then or now; but pass through any junkyard and you'll see your share of pre-airbag cars that bear the clear marks of a human head going into the windshield.I bring this up because of the object pictured here. That's Gerber's GDC Hook Knife, a little two-inch device meant to be worn on a keychain, and the blade "can be used to quickly cut yourself out of a piece of clothing, seatbelt or other safety strap."My first thought was that it's an unnecessary device, as that scenario is unlikely—but then I realized this $11 device could have saved a lot of lives. Not by allowing people to cut themselves free from seatbelts, but by assuring people that they could do so, and hopefully encouraging them to strap the goddamn things on in the first place. It's a strange kind of product design placebo.#Edit

The Kree. By a huge margin. By a gigantic, super massive margin. It’s almost laughable at this point. Although as of right now, none of the three major space empires are doing that great. And you can’t actually talk about them independent of each other, because they are so closely tied to each other. So let’s have a long, complicated discussion about the Kree, Skrull, and Shi’ar. Again, this answer will be long, really, really long.In the Marvel Universe, there is a very careful balance of power between the three major space empires: the Kree, the Skrull, and the Shi’ar. Each control about the space of a galaxy. Additionally there are a whole slew of minor empires that are not as powerful, but are nevertheless important… such as the Brotherhood of Badoon, the Dire Wraiths, the Ovids, the Brood, the Sisterhood of Badoon, the Centaurians, the Kymellians, the Galadorans, the Church of Universal Truth.But the big three are the Kree, Skrull, and Shi’ar.Our story begins a million years ago…The Skrulls were a race of shapeshifters (due to the cosmic interference of the Celestials), who were peaceful and were looking for new trading partners. They came to a planet called Hala which was home to two sentient species. There was the humanoid Kree and the plant-based Cotati. Deciding that only one species would represent the planet to the Skrull traders, they decided to pick the most worthy one through a test of culture. This, by the way, was a terrible decision that the entire universe would suffer for most of its history because of.They took representatives of both the Kree and the Cotati to a far off planet’s moon (we know this moon as the moon), built them an arena with functioning gravity and atmosphere and left them there to use the resources in order to build something impressive.The Kree built a gleaming and glorious city. The Cotati built a beautiful garden. When a year was over the Skrulls returned and judged that the Cotati had made something of far more value. This drove the Kree mad, and they killed the Skrulls and the Cotati and then reverse engineered the Skrull technology in order to learn its secrets.The Kree then began colonizing their home galaxy and spreading their empire. Eventually launching a surprise (and devastating) attack on the Skrull empire.As the war between the Kree and the Skrulls dragged on, both societies became increasingly dedicated to the war effort. This war lasted for hundreds of thousands of years and spread across many other galaxies and systems. The Skrulls went from being peaceful and compassionate, to devious and malicious, while the Kree became hyper militant.The Skrull government was ruled by a monarch, with a rigid aristocracy. The Kree, needing to keep up with the more advanced and more powerful Skrulls, instead created a living supercomputer out of the minds of the best and most intelligent Kree to ever live: the Supreme Intelligence.The Shi’ar were not mentioned in the original question and yet are incredibly important to answering it. Let’s talk about them!Meanwhile, another great power was emerging. The Shi’ar are a much, much, much younger race than either the Skrulls or the Kree. They are descended from bird-like creatures, and there are the occasional hints that their technology was given to them, allowing them to advance more rapidly than their species normally would. The Shi’ar operate under a monarchy. The Shi’ar believe in conquest and marriage. When they conquered another nation, the absorb it believing the new, unified whole would be stronger for it. While the Shi’ar have lots of regional enemies (most notably the Brood and the Phalanx) their empire developed in a relatively distant galaxy, and managed to stay clear of the endless warfare that defined the Kree and Skrulls. Which allowed them to prosper and eventually eclipse both of those empires militarily.While both the Kree and Skrull empires comprise many other species, the Shi’ar are a truly cosmopolitan empire with hundreds of other species fully integrated and equal. The government is dominated by the Shi’ar species, though. The royal family of the Shi’ar is protected by the Imperial Guard which is comprised of the best and most powerful members of the various species making up the empire. Most of the members of the Imperial Guard are specific species titles, with when one guardsman dying they are replaced by the next in line for the title. The Imperial Guard was lead by Gladiator.Born Kallark, he is a Strontian, a species with incredible psionic powers. Centuries ago the Strontian people were horribly riddled with a magical plague called the Wraith Plague. The Shi’ar have a long history of magic and so were able to cure it in exchange for Strontia becoming a part of the Shi’ar Empire, and the Strontians swearing loyalty to the Shi’ar royal family. In order to see if they actually did have that loyalty, the Shi’ar Emperor ordered ten cadets (including Kallark) to murder their Council of Elders. Only Kallark succeeded in killing them.In this storyline it is heavily implied that the Shi’ar created and released the Wraith Plague instead of the Dire Wraiths as a means to neutralize an incredibly powerful species. But the Strontians eventually became near extinct with only a small handful ever appearing.Let’s get back to that Kree-Skrull War…The Kree and Skrull empires fought for a million years. And the war (which ironically started on Earth’s moon) washed up on Earth multiple times throughout that million year history. Just like it did lots and lots and lots of planets. Starting with the city in the Blue Area of the moon from the very moment the conflict started, Earth has all sorts of abandoned weapons and technology lying around from various ideas the Kree and the Skrulls had and then abandoned (this includes the entire Inhuman species).Eventually the Kree-Skrull War would come to a head with the both sides fighting more or less openly on Earth, involving the Avengers in their cosmic war. These stories are collected in the Avengers: the Kree-Skrull War tpb. The end result is that the Hulk’s friend Rick Jones gets some cosmic powers and is able to (temporarily) end the war. It was more of an end to open warfare, rather than an outright cessation of hostilities.Meanwhile, the Shi’ar were having problems of their own.The Shi’ar never had much in the way of external enemies. Which just meant that the empire was unstable due to internal factions and rivalries. The first born child of the Shi’ar royal family was Cal'syee Neramani. She was an “evolutionary throwback” to the species’s avian ancestors, possessing functioning wings and super strength. She was exiled after murdering her mother, and had her name stripped, forcing her to go by the name “Deathbird.”The second child of the royal family was D’Ken Neramani. He was completely insane. He developed an obsession with using the legendary M’Kraan crystal to take over the universe. Which, given that the M’Kraan crystal would destroy the universe, this caused his younger sister Lilandra Neramani to attempt a coup to overthrow him. A coup which failed and she was branded a traitor and had to flee. She became psychically connected to Charles Xavier, leader of the X-Men and called on him to help her.It should be noted that humanity’s first contact with the Shi’ar was D’Ken abducting Katherine and Christopher Summers (the parents of X-Men Cyclops and Havok) from a plane. D’Ken sexually assaulted Katherine.Katherine was pregnant with a third child, was eventually murdered by D’Ken in front of her husband. D’Ken took the child from her womb and put it in an artificial womb and sent the child off to Earth to work as slave labor, but he escaped and eventually hooked up with Charles Xavier. This child was Gabriel Summers, the legendary third Summers brother. Meanwhile Christopher Summers goes on to become Corsair, leader of the pirate Starjammers.D’Ken was not successful in his attempt to corrupt the M’Kraan crystal, due to the intervention of the Phoenix Force, which is heavily implied to have manifested explicitly to prevent that calamity. D’Ken is ultimately left comatose due to the experience, leaving Lilandra to take over the throne.But Lilandra had to deal with her sister Deathbird allying with the Shi’ar’s ancient enemies the Brood in an effort to overthrow her. Deathbird briefly managed to win the throne with the help of the Brood, Badoon, and Skrulls, however she was soon deposed by Lilandra once again.It’s Time For the Skrull Empire to Break!Bad times are about to happen to the Skrulls.Galactus, the devourer of worlds appears above the Skrull homeworld. He descends and eats the planet, killing both the seat of Skrull government and the entire leadership of the Skrull Empire.Lacking the royal family to unify the Skrulls, the entire Skrull Empire fractured, with various barons and warlords taking over portions of what’s left and fighting between each other. The Skrulls would never recover from this loss and were always fractured and weak from this point going forward.Hey, shouldn’t there be another massive war?The Skrulls sent agents to infiltrate and replace key members of Lilandra’s court. These agents then manipulated the Shi’ar to go to war with the Kree. And manipulated Lilandra to create an ultimate weapon in the form of the Negabomb. This brings the war to Earth, which involves the Avengers. Two teams of Avengers travel to space, with one approaching the Kree and the other approaching the Shi’ar. Neither is successful. In order to end the war, Lilandra approves sending the Negabomb to the Kree galaxy. However the Avengers are able to reveal the Skrulls’ manipulation and she orders it recalled. The people manning the ship the Negabomb is on are, of course, Skrulls in disguise and so set the bomb off, which destroys something like 10% of the Kree galaxy and devastates the rest.The Avengers travel to the Kree capital, Hala, and discover that the entire war was orchestrated by the Supreme Intelligence manipulating the Kree, the Skrulls, and the Shi’ar in order to use the Negabomb to jumpstart the evolution of the Kree people. Half the Avengers (lead by Iron Man) believe for his act of galactic genocide the Supreme Intelligence should be executed, half of them (lead by Captain America) believe he should be arrested. Iron Man’s faction succeeds in terminating the Intelligence (seemingly, this is comics so the Supreme Intelligence will be back).The Shi’ar then take control over the Kree empire, and Lilandra places Deathbird as regent.This is important to Avengers history because the Avengers lose, and lose utterly. Everything they attempt, they fail at. And the end result is that the team is fractured and demoralized. It counts as possibly the most significant loss in the history of the team.What happens next is confusing and nonlinear.I am not going to talk about everything that happens from “Maximum Security” to Captain Marvel vol. 4. None of it actually matters, all of it is deeply confusing, there are multiple examples of time travel and reality warping, but the end result is that the Kree are independent again.Time For the Biggest War in the History of the UniverseIn a parallel universe called the Negative Zone exists the followers of one of the most powerful beings in any universe, Annihilus.Annihilus is even more powerful than Thanos. And he has always viewed our universe as an existential threat to the Negative Zone. He is normally contained by the Fantastic Four, because the Fantastic Four are the people you call when an all powerful genocidal monster invades your reality.Annihilus invaded the universe via a portion of space known as the Crunch, where the cosmic prison the Kyln exists. And by invades, I mean invades. Annihilus assembles the largest army in the history of the universe which does nothing except destroy and kill everything it comes across. And it sweeps its way through the universe on a direct line towards Earth.As you can see the direct path of the Annihilation Wave is through the Skrull Galaxy and then through the Kree Galaxy to the Milky Way. The Shi’ar galaxy is sort of off to the side. The first stop of the Wave is Xandar, home to the Nova Corps. They destroy the planet and every single Nova except for Richard Rider who is given the entirety of the Nova Force. Then it hits the Skrulls.The Skrulls are weak and disorganized and completely obliterated. The Wave moves through the Skrull galaxy with ridiculous speed and the Skrulls provide almost no resistance.Elsewhere the Kree Supreme Intelligence had been usurped by House Fiyero, a merchant guild, who wanted to take the Kree Empire in a more commercial direction. Knowing Ronan the Accuser’s fierce loyalty to the Kree ideals of Justice, they fabricated charges of treason against him, and sent him in exile.As the Annihilation Wave is moving forward, Thanos, urged on by Mistress Death, offers his services to Annihilus. Annihilus seemed unduly interested in the Power Cosmic, searching out the cosmos for Galactus’s many heralds. In order to provide assistance, Thanos is able to convince two cosmic beings to attack Galactus, and then is able to take Galactus’s severely drained and recuperating body, and weaponized it.Did I mention this is the biggest war in the history of ever? Because it is. The Marvel Universe had seen wars that lasted a million years, and wars that destroyed chunks of galaxies, but nothing like this. In fact, I can’t think of any fictional universe with a war this big.After the Annihilation Wave utterly destroys the Skrull galaxy, it moves on to the Kree galaxy. The Shi’ar adopt a “wait and see” attitude as they had their own problems at the moment and weren’t overly concerned about the destruction of their two rivals. The war is directed by Richard Rider, using mostly the Kree military. They are helped by the remaining Heralds of Galactus. Gamora runs black opps. Ronan acts as the general of the Kree army.Initially the invasion goes well for the Annihilation Wave. But the Kree are stronger and more organized than the Skrulls. Eventually, however, they are able to keep the Wave bogged down and push to a standstill.This continues for awhile, however House Fiyero betrays the Kree and tries to form a secret alliance with the Annihilation Wave. Thanos discovers that Annihilus’s real plan, and the real reason he was so interested in Galactus is that he plans to unleash a wave Power Cosmic that will destroy both the Marvel Universe and the Negative Zone, leaving Annihilus as the sole being alive in either universe.When Ronan discovers this he leads an invasion of Hala where he finds House Fiyero guilty of treason and sentences them to death. He then discovers that House Fiyero had deactivated the Supreme Intelligence and held it in living death. He is prevented from mourning the death of the Supreme Intelligence by the Annihilation Wave initiating orbital bombardment of Hala.Meanwhile Drax the Destroyer finds Thanos (who has kidnapped his daughter, Heather), and kills him. Then, in exchange for saving his daughter, he rescues the Silver Surfer who in turn rescues Galactus.Galactus, in his rage, destroys three whole star systems, kills a Watcher, and wipes out 74% of the Annihilation Wave. This happens in the span of about a minute. Annihilus himself is left so weakened that Nova is able to kill him. At the same time Ronan successfully repeals the Wave from Hala.The Annihilation Wave sues for peace, and is granted the Skrull galaxy, and portions of the Kree galaxy, including Kree-Lar, the former capital of the empire.As I said, this is the largest war ever fought. It resulted in the ruination of the Skrulls and the near destruction of the Kree. It created an incredibly powerful new empire in the universe. Ronan the Accuser becomes the leader of the Kree. And the universe lost the Nova corps. In fact Richard wound up tell off Tony Stark for all that ridiculous nonsense about the Superhero Civil War, which could not possibly have been more petty and insignificant compared to the Annihilation War.Hey, all that sounds really devastating. The Kree couldn’t possibly immediately get into another war, could they?What happens next requires a bit of backtracking to discuss Marvel’s most mysterious and ellusive space species: the Technarchy. Technarchs are massive techno-organic beings who feed off the life force of living beings by infecting them with the transmode virus which converts organic life into energy for Technarchs to consume. In order to aid this process, the Technarchs release creatures known as Phalanx which covert as much organic life into sustenance for the Technarchs as they can on a planet, and then they build a babble spire to summon the Technarch to consume.After the Annihilation War, Peter Quill, major hero of the war and former Star-Lord, was working on rebuilding the defenses of the Kree Empire. In order to upgrade its technology he accepts the help of the Galadoran Space Knights, however once they have access to the Kree defense network they reveal they are infected with the Phalanx. The Phalanx use their babble spire technology to erect a shield around the entire Kree Empire, preventing anything from going in or out. And almost instantly the Kree Empire is conquered.Meanwhile, Moondragon and Phyla-Vell discover that Adam Warlock is actually alive and in a cocoon, and the Phalanx are hunting for him. In order to atone for his role in the conquest, Peter Quill has to take over an insurrectionist cell that will sabotage the babble spire. And the new character Wraith discovers that due to his Exolon infected biology, he can confuse and frighten the Phalanx. Eventually it is revealed that Ultron had taken over the Phalanx which was why they were acting wildly unlike normal.With the help of Adam Warlock, Wraith, Phyla-Vell, the Technarch (and former New Mutant) Warlock, Ultron is ultimately trapped in a single body and destroyed. The Phalanx are eventually purged completely, but not at the cost of billions more lives and massive devastation to the Kree Empire.In the fall out of this, Peter Quill decides that there needs to be a group specifically dedicated to preventing these types of wars before they happen, and creates the Guardians of the Galaxy out of Mantis, Gamora, Phyla-Vell, Adam Warlock, Rocket Raccoon, Groot and Drax. It is important to note that the galaxy the Guardians of the Galaxy are guarding is not our own, but the Kree galaxy, and the people they are specifically trying to protect are the Kree.Is it time for a Secret Invasion? It’s time for a Secret Invasion.One of the major reasons why the Skrulls did so poorly against the Annihilation Wave was that a huge portion of their population had embarked on a theological crusade. The fanatically religious Princess Veranke of the Skrull royal family proclaimed that the Skrull homeworld would be destroyed, but she would lead them to a prophesied new homeworld. When the Skrull homeworld was consumed by Galactus she was among the leadership left alive, and lead an enormous number of Skrulls to embark on an attempt to conquer the Earth.The Skrulls poured all their technology and resources into planning this invasion. They created dozens of super-Skrulls whose powers mimicked the powers of Earth’s heroes. They infiltrated every major organization on Marvel’s Earth. The even took and replaced members of the Avengers and Fantastic Four. They gently edged the Earth to all sorts of discord.The Skrulls simultaneously strike all across the planet, declaring themselves the new rulers. And the heroes are constantly beset by the problems of having no idea who is and who isn’t a Skrull.However the Skrulls severely underestimated the level of resistance the Earth would give them. As well as the intelligence and power of Earth’s superhumans. Despite some initial success, the tide was fairly quickly turned and the Skrulls mostly eliminated, with Princess Veranke being killed in Central Park. Thus ended the Skrulls. While some small pockets of Skrull civilization still exists as any sort of nation, they no longer exist. They have ceased to be. The final portion of their death as a space empire died with the princess.Perhaps the most unexpected development was the Skrull infiltration of Attilan. They killed many Inhumans and destroyed large portions of the city. Remember how long, long ago I said that the Inhumans were an entire species of weapons created by the Kree to fight in the Kree-Skrull War on their behalf? Well, the leader of the Inhumans, Blackbolt, decided that this infiltration by the Skrulls was the final straw. The Inhumans would no longer be batted about by the whims of fate, to be abused and attacked. With the help of his brother, Maximus the Mad, he converted Attilan into a spaceship and traveled to Kree Empire out in deep space. Where he declared himself King of a united Inhuman/Kree civilization.Now you said the Shi’ar were having their own problems… What were those?Their problem was Gabriel Summers, also known as Vulcan. All the Summers children possess unbelievable energy generation and manipulation powers, but Gabriel was truely off the charts. Gabriel had escaped Shi’ar slavery and wound up in the care of Charles Xavier. Xavier sent him on a doomed mission which left Gabriel in an asteroid around the planet Earth. When he was recovered, years later, he had a violent confrontation with the X-Men before heading off to space for the Shi’ar Empire.Charles Xavier pursued him with a team of X-Men including Polaris and Havok. As Vulcan violently destroys portions of the Shi’ar Empire, he comes into conflict with the Imperial Guard, and is eventually defeated by Gladiator and thrown into the same prison as Deathbird. He becomes embroiled in Shi’ar politics, an anti-Lilandra faction of the Shi’ar wanted to use him to revive D’Ken. Which he does, and after which D’Ken asks him to marry Deathbird, which he also does.After the wedding Vulcan assassinates D’Ken and declares himself emperor of the Shi’ar, deposing Lilandra. Lilandra leads a group of renegade Shi’ar military that includes Xavier’s team of X-Men and the pirates the Starjammers. Initially the forces are fairly evenly matched, but Vulcan is able to secure all the X-Men, the Starjammers, and even Lilandra. He then declares he will return the Shi’ar empire to its glory days and begins a heavily expansionist agenda. He engages in war with literally all of the Shi’ar’s neighbors. Completely obliterating old enemies like the Z’nox.Looks like it is time for the Kree to be involved in yet another war.In an effort to secure the union of the Kree and the Inhumans, Blackbolt agreed that his wife’s little sister, Crystal, should marry Ronan the Accuser. That would merge the former ruler of the Kree into the royal family of the Inhumans and secure the alliance. Crystal used to be married to Pietro Maximoff, the son of Magneto, with whom she had a daughter. Magneto had a daughter by another woman, and that daughter was Lorna Dane, who became the X-Man Polaris. This complicated section of Marvel’s family tree is vitally important.The X-Men, Starjammers, and Lilandra are able to escape from the Shi’ar. But there’s only one potential place for them to look for sanctuary.Because of Lorna’s weird, complicated relationship to Crystal, the crew of the Starjammer are allowed entry into Kree space, officially so that Lorna can attend Crystal’s wedding. As Lilandra is traveling with them, this allows Lilandra the opportunity to request amnesty from Blackbolt in the Kree Empire.As Lilandra is attending the wedding as a guest of Polaris, Vulcan uses it as a pretext to engage in a surgical strike against the wedding, in order to recapture her and perhaps take out the Inhuman leadership of the Kree. This would, of course, provoke war with the Inhuman/Kree empire… however that was a war Vulcan saw as easily winnable.Remember how misfortune after misfortune after misfortune after misfortune befell the Kree? Going all the way back to the first Kree-Shi’ar War? Yeah, the Kree weren’t exactly in a position of strength. Meanwhile, as I have noted, the Shi’ar sat out all the terrible things that happened to the Kree and Skrulls. The Shi’ar were always a larger and more powerful empire… but now it was an empire that was unaffected by the series of calamities that befell the other two empires.Capturing Lilandra was merely a pretext for Vulcan to start a war he always intended to start. And so at the wedding of Crystal and Ronan, he sent the Imperial Guard to attack and do as much damage as possible.Don’t mess with the Inhumans. Just don’t do it. And so began the second Kree-Shi’ar War.The Shi’ar are initially quite successful with their war with the Inhuman/Kree. They manage to blow up many, many worlds and destroy most of the fleets they come into contact with. However….eventually the flaws in their battle strategy coupled with the advantage the Inhumans have in technology grinds the war to a halt. See, the Shi’ar could never focus on just the Kree. If they could, they would have won. The Shi’ar were still engaging in wars with everyone else around them. They were explicitly stated to be involved in 96 other military campaigns as they were fighting the second Kree-Shi’ar War. 96! That meant that the biggest, most powerful empire, the Kree, only ever had to engage with a small portion of the full military might of the Shi’ar. This was coupled with the Inhumans advantages in technology. They had teleportation technology derived from Lockjaw, and weapons designed by Maximus the Mad and fuled by Blackbolt’s voice.The Starjammers are able to rescue Lilandra, and in an even more helpful turn of fate, Gladiator joins with them. Lilandra returns to the Shi’ar throneworld and confronts the Shi’ar legislature to demand her right to replace Vulcan as empress. The Shi’ar legislature votes in her favor, but in order to be reappointed she has to walk to the temple of the Shi’ar gods and redidicate herself. As she is walking an assassin strikes, killing her.With Lilandra dead, Blackbolt sees that the immediate termination of the war is necessary. Maximus has built a bomb that will force the Inhuman terrigenesis upon this entire sector of the universe. It will force the uplift of every species, excluding the Kree who are immune. The bomb is powered by Blackbolt’s voice and so he intends to die in order to make the universe Inhuman. Crystal, horrified at this, interviens and teleports onto the bomb. Meanwhile, Vulcan, seeing the bomb, attacks and gets into a massive fight with Blackbolt. Crystal renders the terrigenesis crystals inert and attempts to teleport Blackbolt to safety, but Vulcan continues fighting him… eventually setting off the bomb…. which destroys 86% of the Shi’ar forces and kills Vulcan and Blackbolt. With their armies destroyed and their leadership dead, the Shi’ar surrender unconditionally to the Inhuman/Kree Empire.Medusa takes over leadership of the Empire, and as a vassal state she intends to put Crystal as regent of the Shi’ar. However, the Shi’ar decide to choose their new emperor…Gladiator is considered an acceptable choice to Medusa and the Kree/Inhuman/Shi’ar alliance is born.This is sort of the end of the conflicts between the three empires. There are several more wars. First against the Cancerverse. Then against the Builders. Both those featured all the space empires fighting in unison. The Inhumans eventually abandoned the Kree, and a newly revived Supreme Intelligence took over. J’son of the Spartoi, an incredibly minor power, created a new Galactic Council featuring the Kree, the Shi’ar, the Annihilation Wave, the Brotherhood of Badoon, the Brood, and the Asgardians, all in an effort to play kingmaker. Some lingering remnants of the Skrull Empire pulled itself back together under the leadership of Kl’rt the Super-Skrull.So where does that leave everyone?The Kree are technically the strongest species left in the universe. But that is a severe technicality. They are incredibly weak from a historic perspective, almost to the point of complete exhaustion and depletion.The Shi’ar had most of their military destroyed, however they have strong and effective leadership in the form of Gladiator, and most of their infrastructure and commerce exists, so rebuilding the empire should be relatively easy.The Skrulls are close to extinction and have been driven from their galaxy.War Totals:The Kree-Skrull War: both sides lostThe Kree-Shi’ar War: the Shi’ar wonThe Annihilation War: the Kree wonThe Annihilation Conquest: the Kree wonThe Secret Invasion: the Skrulls lostThe Second Kree-Shi’ar War: The Kree wonFurther Reading:Avengers: The Kree-Skrull WarX-Men: The Phoenix SagaX-Men: The Dark Phoenix SagaJohn Byrne’s Fantastic FourX-Men: The Brood SagaAvengers: Operation Galactic StormMarvel Comics AnnihilationMarvel Comics Annihilation ConquestNova Vol. 4Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2X-Men: The Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar EmpireX-Men: Emperor VulcanMarvel Comics War of KingsMarvel Comics Reign of KingsThe Thanos Imperative