Private Acquaintances-LOTS

[Darth Acharon]

Spoiler: Palace of Thorns

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Darth Acharon stood on the steps leading up to the Palace of Thorns, his rather recently secured new home. Banners shifted slowly in the breeze, the red and white of the Empire of Ailara standing out starkly to the freshly painted grey walls of the Palace itself. Just beyond the steps was a large courtyard, nearly two kilometers long and bordered on either side by governmental and military buildings. Those Ailaran citizens that worked within the government structure of the recently proclaimed Empire of Ailara had just made it to work when the rain that had been expected for days began to roll in.

The constant drumming of rain on the marble courtyard soothed Acharon as he stared up at the dark clouds above, waiting for the first signs of his visitor. It had not been long since Acharon had joined the fledgling Lords of the Sith, an organization of like minded individuals, though he had not learned he shared their ideals until given the option to explore them. Their philosophy of returning to the ancient ways of the Sith, of allowing and encouraging its members to carve out their own domains, not because they were ordered to by some greater force, but because they could. Since that first meeting Acharon had become a firm adherent to the Lords of the Sith, and they were the reason he had started his plot on Ailara so long ago. Within the Sith Empire, he had been but one of many, a soldier expected to die without a name to be remembered on whichever battlefield the Empire chose.

Now? He had a name, he had an Empire.

Granted they were nothing compared to others still, but they were a start. For his name to wet the lips of countless beings across the galaxy, he would need to find allies for himself and the Empire of Ailara. That was the reason he now stood in the pouring rain, his cloak soaked and clinging to the back of his armor. A new member of the Lords of the Sith had begun making outreaches to try and find adherents and supporters for them. Acharon had no intention of bending the knee to another ever again, even the Worm Emperor would never be graced with that sight, but the chance to form a bond with a new and rising Sith power could not be passed up.

"Emperor, they have arrived." The brief communication from an Ailaran soldier over his helmets communication drew Acharon's eyes skyward, eagerly waiting to see how this first meeting would go.

Dresta

 

[Dresta]

The Evertide zoomed forward through hyperspace, the stars twisting to become a blurred tunnel of bright, unrecognizable lights that Dresta’s eyes bore witness to. As they moved through the systems, hurdling towards the throneworld of Darth Acharon - Ailara - Dresta sat in her captain’s seat which had become very much like her own throne. She could feel the lives in the systems that the Evertide passed by, coming into reach of her Force sense, and then fading out of existence. It had been this way ever since she had disappeared from the depths in which her people hide their Sith Praxeum, and aimed the Evertide towards another’s realm.

Invited for a personal audience in her search for allies, Dresta was not entirely aware of who Darth Acharon was, though she was certain her presence in the Force - her oneness with the Dark Side - would be obvious, once she was within sufficient range. Perhaps overwhelming, even, when she entered the Sith’s personal presence. Such was the curse of being the Everchosen. Blinding to the majority of conventional force users, the Everchosen was… a power rarely granted. It was peculiar, even in the chaos of this era. It was the Dark Side of the Force.

Dresta wondered, then, what the opinion of Darth Acharon would be of her. Even more so since, buried beneath the Force and within her armor, Dresta was a wookiee with a further peculiarity. A massive form - even for a wookiee, and especially for a female wookiee - white fur, and a royal heritage that she hoped to use to, one day, lay claim to Kashyyk. But she needed allies. A power base. A larger army. A more powerful armada. A world. Perhaps more than one. Then she would strike at Kashyyk, and seize control of her homeworld.

The Evertide stopped just above the atmosphere of Ailara, before entering orbit and then proceeding to glide down towards the world after getting permission to park the vessel at their assigned landing location. This, of course, broke the stealth of their imperial stealth coating, but nonetheless the vessel continued forward with Dresta confident enough that Darth Acharon would not try to eliminate her that she had avoided the mistake of bringing a warship. With engines at low power, the Evertide descended and soon landed.

Darth Acharon

 

[Darth Acharon]

Acharon watched the final approach of the vessel, his armored form shifting only slightly when he felt the presence in the Force of the being coming to meet with him. It was just a fact of the galaxy that there would almost always be someone stronger than you, and having met the Worm Emperor, been in the presence of Carnifex, and many other Sith Lords, what he felt approaching him now did not worry him. A time would come when he himself would grow stronger, and establish himself as an entity to be feared by his mere presence, but all good things came in time.

For now, he turned his attention to the large form that emerged from the vessel. By the gait and size of the individual, he had to assume whoever was beneath the armor came from only a few worlds, with the gait specifically hinting at a Wookie origin. Still, they were tall for the species, and Acharon wondered idly if the doors within the Palace of Thorns would be large enough for his guest.

Giving a brief bow of his head in greeting, Acharon began the discussion. His voice emerged from his helmets voice filter, distorted and resonating. "Welcome to Ailara, I am Darth Acharon. I extend to you guest rights and welcome you into my home."

Dresta

 

[Dresta]

As the Evertide descended using the auto-landing program, Dresta and her two guards - part of the Evertide’s crew - moved towards the rear of the vehicle where they would exit the vessel to see Ailara for the first time. Not from the atmosphere, not in the holopictures the ship grabbed from the Holonet when Dresta’s curiosity urged her to study this world before coming, but on the ground. To breathe in the scents of the world, to see the soils and tree, to be seen by the people. Viewing a world from afar and being on it were two very different things to Dresta, and seeing the world in person would highlight exactly what kind of Sith that Darth Acheron was. Already, Dresta did not approve of what she heard from contacts was pushed back by the Imperial government on Ailara of non-humans in government.

Speciesism amongst the Sith was a ridiculous leftover from a more primitive age that crippled the potential of the entire religion! All who were Force-sensitive could become Sith, and all could serve Sith. Variety was strength. Lack of diversity led to loss. Just as one’s inability to adapt to a certain fighting style due to being stuck in one’s ways and never spreading one’s wings to learn things outside of their comfort zone could lead to a Sith’s doom, so too could a Sith’s inability to accept the usefulness of people who had done nothing wrong, to suit their own petty agenda. It was barbaric, and quite beneath Dresta, of course as a wookiee, but humans and near-humans nonetheless were often weak and petty. The downside of them being so widespread, so widebred, is that their most foolish members were often also quite prominent not by luck, but because there were so many foolish humans with foolish ideas that inevitably one of them would end up in charge of something - spreading their stupid ideas as far as they could possibly make them go.

The sound of the hydraulics of the Evertide whooshed throughout the air, with a metallic clank sounding as soon as the stairway of the Evertide reached the landing pad. Already prepared to exit the vehicle, Lord Dresta descended with the helmet of her juggernaut armor in her hand, with two cyborg guards carrying staffs flanking her. She gazed upon Darth Acheron, and moved her head to the right, taking him in, before it snaked back forward with a slight tilt to the left. Both of her eyes studied him, first the right, then the left, then both together, perhaps trying to see if any of them had different perspectives they could offer on this Sith.

Dresta nodded politely at Darth Acheron.

”We extend our thanks...” The guard on the right said. The guard’s voice had a slight rattle to it, like the end of certain serpent’s.

”For this welcome.” The guard on the left continued.

Darth Acharon