Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Tephrike.
Image Credit: Here. Here.
Canon: N/A
Permissions: N/A
Links: Dominion of Light, Disciples of the Vader, Into Darkness, After Darkness, Mahtara, Force Dead, Cinder Guard, Fort Vigilance, Blackwing Virus, Zombie, Tephrike, Republican Guard, Sithspawn.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Name: They call themselves the Reborn. The living Tephriki have named them Ashspawn.
Designation: Sentient
Origins: Palmyra's Wail, Tephrike.
Average Lifespan: Theoretically unageing since they are undead. They also do not grow sick, though they can be destroyed. However, while the sorcery that animates them will keep their brain functioning unless it is destroyed, their bodies will still suffer from rot and decay. The process of decomposition takes several centuries and can be slowed by various procedures, even if this means emergency 'transplants'. However, there comes a point when Ashspawn must use embalming or mummifying to preserve themselves. Ancient Ashspawn who reach such a state are a lot more physically vulnerable, but can theoretically last millennia.
Estimated Population: Rare.
Description: The Ashspawn - or Reborn, as they call themselves - are reanimated corpses originally spawned by the Palmyra's Wail nexus. Their appearance differs depending on their original species, such as human, Twi'lek, Trandoshan etc. However, common features are an unhealthily pale pallour that gives their skin a corpse-like appearance and fierce glowing eyes. In some cases, their skin may turn sinewy and have a somewhat mummified appearance.
Moreover, they have no heartbeat and their skin is cold to touch. Their bodies may be in varying stages of preservation and can suffer from rot. The preternatural contamination of the nexus can give them a mishapen appearance. Rot becomes more evident with truly ancient Ashspawn, who have to resort to various means to hold it off or carry out transplants. However, overall they take care of themselves or try to at any rate, even if that means repurposing body parts from a dead body. Being dead, their bodies start to smell. This can be countered with perfume and the like.
PHYSICAL INFORMATION
Breathes: Does not breathe.
Average Height of Adults: Varies depending on base species.
Average Length of Adults: N/A.
Skin color: Varies by base species. However, ashen pallid skin are common characteristics, though deviations are possible. Some of the Ashspawn show visible rot, but otherwise the undead are close to what they looked like in life.
Hair color: Varies, depending on base species.
Distinctions: The Reborn - or Ashspawn - are reanimated corpses. Their physical appearance varies depending on their base species. Likewise, it can vary how intact their bodies are. But they uniformly lack a pulse. Sexual dimorphism exists in the sense that their base species tend to have different sexes. However, they are incapable of making more of themselves through intercourse, so the distinction has lost a lot of its relevance in societal terms. Piercing yellow, blue or white eyes are common.
If a researcher were to examine an Ashspawn and run tests on their stomach, they would find that it is empty. The power that has reanimated them allows these beings to sustain themselves without nourishment. Their inability to feel pain makes them very resilient to physical trauma and they retain self-awareness. As they are already dead, they need to be completely dismantled before they have experienced 'true death'.
In short, they must be crushed, dismembered or experience brain death. Unless the brain has been destroyed, everything connected to it can continue to function, even if the only thing left of them is a severed skull. They have a well-developed sense of smell and can distinguish the living from the dead that way. Unlike some undead, such as those created by the Blackwing Virus, the transformation does not give the Reborn super strength. Individual strength is still in keeping with that of the base species and of the person in question. For example, a Wookiee who has been turned into a Reborn will still be as strong as a Wookiee - in other words, very. Likewise, normal human who wasn't particularly strong in life will remain the same. Their sight requires less light than humans to see and they see well in the dark.
Races: N/A.
Force Sensitivity: All. Every single member is born sensitive to the Force, but lack training. Low-grade precog and a telepathic link to others of their kind are innate to them, but anything beyond that like telekinesis etc. requires actual training. All Ashspawn are innately connected to the Force and can utilise it in one way or the other. However, they scale wildly in terms of strength, which means that obviously not everyone has the raw potential, strength and breadth of abilities of a trained Force-wielder. Manipulating and communicating with the dead and using necromancy comes easier to them than most. But this still a learned skill, rather than being something that can be used without training.
Strengths:
- Resilient. Being undead, the Ashspawn cannot get sick, do not need to breathe or eat and do not require a heart, lungs or other major organs. This does make them a bit more hardy than they might otherwise be. This probably accelerates their recovery time since internal damage to organs is not a problem. Radiation does not bother them. Moreover, they do not feel pain. Limbs can be severed, but like a droid they will press on. As they are already dead, they need to be completely dismantled in order to terminate them. An Ashspawn can function as long as the brain remains intact, even if it is literally just a skull and thus incapable of actually doing anything. However, just because they do not feel pain it does not mean that they won't still be affected by physical injuries. It is worth noting that while their resilience is considerable and they do not get tired from physical exertion, their physical strength will remain the same as that of their base species. In short, a person with baseline strength in life will not gain superhuman strength if they are transformed.
- Endurance. Ashspawn subvert the stereotype of shuffling zombies. They do not automatically get speed superior to that of their base species, but they will never get fatigued from running. This is not super speed, but means they can cover way more miles in a day than the average person.
- Intelligent. Unlike the typical undead, the Ashspawn retain their mental faculties. Memory gaps are common and some are driven feral by the nexus. But the vast majority of them retain their sentience. As a result, they can communicate, use tools, build things and form their own communities.
- Inherent telepathic abilities. This is comparable to how, for example, Zeltrons have inherent empathy and pheromones and how the Grey Ones have inherent telepathy. The average specimen can communicate with others of its kind within a five-hundred-metre radius. More than that requires training. Smaller groups may form tighter bonds.
- They are resilient and feel no pain, but this does not translate into immunity to physical damage, such as to muscles. They are safe from their major organs being damaged causing them to die, but they can still be disabled or slowed from damage to muscles and tendons, as their bodies rely on a standard understanding of biology. For example, the trapezius still moves the head and shoulders. And naturally a maiming is a maiming, so while they will not be in pain after an arm is chopped off, it still means they have lost one.
- Much of what makes life worth living they can't fully enjoy - the warmth of a spring wind, the smell of fresh flowers, the touch of a lover or friend, taste of food and drink.
- An Ashspawn's morals vary individually. However, they have been spawned in part by a dark side nexus. As a result, Force Light can weaken or damage their physical bodies.
- As a Force-Sensitive species, Ashspawn are susceptible to Force null zones such as those generated by ysalamiri, which means they will not be able to use the Force if exposed, while Void Stone can weaken them. Moreover, exposure to a ysalamiri field will cause the usual physical decay, even if they are at an age when it would normally not set in yet, though this takes several days in a ysalamiri field to reach full impact.
- Detectable and socially ostracised. Many Tephriki view them as abominations. The Ashspawn tend to be pallid, they have no heartbeat and their skin is cold to touch since they do not generate body heat. In some cases, the influence of the nexus has left them mishapen or with strange physical mutations. Among Force-Users they will feel 'off'. All this limits their ability to pass in normal society.
- Technologically backward: While not primitive, the Ashspawn lag behind galactic standards when it comes to technology. Older Ashspawn may remember that spaceflight is possible, but the species lacks the means and know-how to build spaceships. Younger Ashspawn only know them from stories of the elders. They are talented scavengers and improvisers, but the technology used by them tends to be centuries old, often dating back to the Galactic Civil War or even further back. Tephrike has been isolated for many centuries and even now contact with the outside galaxy is limited and the Ashspawn are a very isolated group. Moreover, their undead nature makes attempts at diplomacy with offworlders difficult.
- Unlike many forms of zombies, they cannot make more of their kind by infecting others via bite. Since zombies cannot procreate due to being undead, this means new Ashspawn can only come into being via sorcery.
- As mentioned, while their brain keeps going, rot and decay will affect their bodies over time. This takes centuries and can be held off through various means, but extremely old Ashspawn have to resort to mummifying or embalming. This preserves them, but leaves them more physically vulnerable.
Diet: Being reanimated corpses, they run on their own power and do not require sustenance. In theory, they can try to eat or drink, but have no digestive or circulatory activity. In short, they derive no nourishment from food. Moreover, they cannot keep it down or feel taste.
Communication: Capable of speech. The language they will use will vary depending on base species and which language the individual knew in life, though Basic is the most common because it is the lingua franca on Tephrike, but common alien languages are in use, too. The Tephriki version of Basic is corrupted by now so their accent is a really thick brogue of some form. Moreover, the Ashspawn have innate telepathy and frequently use it to communicate with others of their kind. It is also a useful way to remain in contact with those among them who rest in sarcophagi.
Technology level: Technology on Tephrike regressed during the Four-Hundred Year Darkness and is thus somewhat behind galactic standard. For instance, the natives know about spaceflight, but Tephrike's spaceflight capabilities are primitive and they lack ships capable of hyperspace travel, though the planet has a nonfunctioning hyperspace cannon.
The Ashspawn know how most forms of technology work. Ironically, some of their older members might have a better understanding of advanced techology than their younger comrades or living Tephriki, for that matter, because they remember a time when the planet was not such a hellhole. For instance, one Ashspawn might have been a pilot in life who used to fly a shuttle but then had the misfortune of dying during the battle. However, he lacks the means to acquire or repair a new vessel. If one were to give him a modern vessel, he would probably require a learning period to familiarise himself with all the new features that have been invented in the interim.
Similar things would apply to an Ashspawn who was a slicer in life. To illustrate, Tephriki computers are big, bulky things that need to be plugged in with a big keyboard and monitor. The Ashspawn do have some ability to reproduce tech that would be typical for frontier worlds on the outer rim. Undead workers are tireless and do not require break periods, so in theory they have plenty of time to hone their craft. They have managed to set up some workshops and basic factories in Palmyra. But resources are scarce, which limits their output and what they are able to produce. Younger Ashspawn know only of spaceships from stories their elders told them.
Religion/Beliefs: In a way, the undead are the product of a religious war, namely that between the Dominion and the Vaderites. Both of these nations are theocracies that follow Force-based monotheism. Moreover, the undead were spawned by an apocalyptic event. Some of the sentient undead revere Palmyra's Wail, since it gave them life and power. To a degree, this is not unjustified, since the nexus does seem to protect them. However, the dark side is a slippery ally at best, and there are Ashspawn who have been driven to madness by the nexus' power.
Some of the Ashspawn try to find solace in whatever religious or mystical beliefs they followed in life. Others, by contrast, completely give up on spirituality or become plain nihilistic, seeing their condition as proof of the cruel nature of the Galaxy. If there is a higher power, it must be evil, for otherwise it would not allow such an unjust world. While no species is a monolith, unless it is an extreme mind, on average the Ashspawn favour a grey approach to the Force. They are conflicted about the means they were animated by. Some see it as a spiritual journey, others see it as a curse - or as a calling to punish the living for their manifold sins.
There are Ashspawn who treat their condition as a spiritual and physical rebirth. These undead have popularised the term the Reborn for their species. All of the Ashspawn were dead before arising as reanimated corpses. As a result, they would have seen the Netherworld, if only briefly and presumably not the same areas. Thus they have evidence that there is another world after death, but they were denied entrance.
The big question is: why? Was is because of some failing on their part, the fundamental injustice and cruelty of the world or because they have a larger purpose to fulfil? This experience has solidified the views of the Lifebound, the ones who feel cursed and the Awakened, who feel like it was a sign of rebirth and a spiritual awakening. A third group, the Relentless, feels that they must do all they can to avoid a final death as well. Embalming and mummifying is treated as a religious rite of sorts.
One religious group that is prominent among the Ashspawn are the Disciples of the Dust. This is a spiritual group of seers, teachers, embalmers and healers who trace their foundation back to Hecate and provide spiritual guidance. One of their duties is the preservation of knowledge of the past and the dissemination of her Force teachings. Moreover, they are responsible for embalming and mummifying Ashspawn whose bodies have become too decrepit or damaged. They also carry out transplants.
General behavior: Contrary to the stereotype of mindless, ravenous undead, the Ashspawn, or Reborn as they prefer to call themselves, are sentient, social beings. This means their behaviour is as multifaceted and varied as that of any sentient species. While memory gaps are common, they tend to retain a certain degree of knowledge about their past lives. Thus they also retain their skills, can learn new things and form communities. Since they do not require sleep or sustenance, they theoretically have all the time in the world to apply themselves in their chosen craft or learn new skills.
However, they are also broken beings. They are stuck in limbo between life and death, and animated by a power they do not quite understand. Their bodies are largely free of decay, but parodies of what they were in life. An Ash zombie does not feel pain, but he or she will also not feel the simple pleasures living beings take for granted. Some of the undead choose a new name after rising again, cutting all ties with their past. Others try to hold on to as many aspects of their former lives as possible, even if this becomes increasingly difficult. Some have been known to make up entirely new names that "feel right".
The sorcery animating an Ashspawn is potent, but they do suffer physical rot over time, though their brain keeps going. Truly ancient Ashspawn are forced to resort to embalming and mummifying methods to extend their existence. The zombies have developed this into an art form and embalmers are highly respected among their people. Some elders who have grown weak rest in specially built Force imbued sarcophagi to regenerate in. Divulging their location to elements hostile to the Ashspawn is regarded as a grievous sin to be punished with final death. Being sentient creatures, the Ashspawn do form social networks. It is common for an older Ashspawn assume a mentoring role for a newly-risen and act as their guide until they are able to function in their new condition. A newly risen undead is expected to learn and contribute, but a neglectful mentor would be looked upon poorly.
Overall, the Ashspawn are quite methodical and logical in their approaches to problems and solutions. Untethered by the needs to sleep, eat, exercise etc, they can apply themselves fully to an art, trade or skill. This means they can actually get really good at some things. So they are not just untiring, but also very skilled, to the point of becoming specialised in a way a human can't.
In contrast to many forms of undead, the Ashspawn cannot transmit their condition via bite. Instead there are two ways for new Ashspawn to be created. Firstly, people who perish in Palmyra's Wail are reanimated by the nexus. Secondly, an individual Ashspawn gifted in necromancy can raise the dead to make more of their kind (they would naturally need the training and all that, as this is not an inherent racial ability). This process is not entirely reliable, as some of the reanimated may just get up as regular zombies. It is tied to age and experience of the necromancer. Some malicious Ashspawn have lured the living into the nexus or outright kidnapped them in order to expand their numbers. Of course, the reanimated may feel vengeful after that. Most mainstream Ashpawn do not approve of this because, ethics aside, it generally just creates a mess for them to clean up. They tend to prefer outcasts and fellow victims. Blood-soaked, war-torn Tephrike produces many of those.
The energies of the nexus does not discriminate based on species, so one can find human, Twi'lek, Mon Calamari, Duros and others have been turned into Ashspawn. While it is difficult to make sweeping generalisations for a species, on average the Ashspawn value self-control. While the radiation that permeates Palmyra's Wail does not affect them, they are not immune to the dark influence of the nexus. As a result, some succumb to madness. Thus control over one's emotions is important to them. Because they do not age, they are accustomed to taking a long view of things and planning ahead. One aspect of Reborn culture that the living might find odious is their penchant for 'repurposing' the limbs and other body parts of the dead who no longer need them. They have flesh crafters who specialise in carrying out transplants so that a Reborn who has say lost an eye, leg or ear can get a new one. Their engineers have built underground facilities to provide sanctuaries for their kind and allow them to engage in productive enterprises.
The Ashspawn place little emphasis on gender. They are animated corpses, so they cannot reproduce in the conventional sense. As a result, there is no division based on gender. This obviously does not prevent the individual Ashspawn from having sexist views because they had them in life, but they would be seen as...very weird by their peers. Their culture is balanced on gender matters. Instead it tends to be stratified by age. In terms of government, they have a preference for oligarchic gerontocracy. As a rule, consensus-based leadership is preferred to authoritarian government. This is no surprise since the Ashspawn experienced two brutal dictatorships. Leadership positions are typically granted on the basis of a combination of merit and experience. Their nature precludes a tradition of inherited power.
The undead are removed from many organic concerns, since they do not require nourishment, do not age and cannot experience physical pleasure. While young ones will presumably still be quite close to what they were like as say a human, an ancient Ashspawn who has existed for a very long time will probably be very removed from that, grown cold have little empathy for the living. The majority of the Ashspawn are concentrated in the ruins of Palmyra, now called Palmyra's Wail. This area has been placed under lockdown by the Republican Guard. The rebels' fortress is supposed to prevent demons and Sithspawn from leaving the radioactively contaminated, cursed ruins and keep Force-Users - and anyone else really - from entering the nexus so that they cannot harness and be corrupted by it.
However, the wall is not impenetrable since the garrison is undermanned, and so some Ashspawn have been able to escape. This has given rise to a few scattered communities outside of Palmyra, though these must restrict themselves to remote areas or live in hiding. The guiding principle of the Ashspawn are survival, resilience and understanding their condition. The living generally consider them abominations that must be put down or, in the case of the Sith, beings without rights that should be exploited and enslaved. This has fostered a tight-knit, but also paranoid mind set. They are a bitter, angry and suspicious people. But they can be reasoned with.
Many of the original Ashspawn were former soldiers who once served the Dominion or the Vaderites - or civilians forced to helplessly watch as both powers turned their city to ruin. As a result, martial virtues are important to their society. But this does not take the form of venerating glory-seekers. Self-restraint, dutifulness, subtlety, perseverance and foresight are valued traits. From the perspective of the typical Ashspawn, the 'ideal' soldier uses cunning and strategy to accomplish an objective while minimising loss to their own side. And knows when to retreat instead of pointlessly wasting assets out of dumb pride. Hatred also unites - against the Dominion and Vaderites who used and abandoned them, and against the Republican Guard that tries to imprison them.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The Ashspawn are the produce of tragedy. A dark secret those in the know would rather forget about, for it relates to one of the darkest chapters in Tephriki history. When the Gulag Virus sent the galaxy spiralling into chaos, civilisation collapsed on Tephrike. Cut off from its vital trade partners the planet depended on, the planet was rocked by violence, disease and starvation. The rabid fearmongering of extremist groups that denounced the virus as a hoax and - more often than not - an alien conspiracy contributed to the misery.
With the federal government seemingly unable to solve the crisis, the local Jedi order staged a coup to restore order. But the Jedi faced oppposition on manifold fronts - from government loyalists, grey Jedi, human supremacists, Sith and rebels. This caused them to radicalise, creating a dictatorship in the name of protecting what they believed was the last bastion of civilisation. It was called the Dominion of Light.
Cade Seward, a Jedi knight charged with peacekeeping operations, fell to the dark side. While he lay sick from disease in the inhospitable jungle, he believed that Darth Vader appeared to him in a dream, ordering him to take up his sword and eclipse the light. Calling himself Darth Malitia, the traitor gathered an army of traitorous Jedi and human supremacist militants. These Disciples of the Vader waged war against the fledgling Dominion of Light. Supporters of the Dominion were massacred en masse to be raised as zombies or turned into Sithspawn abominations. He also did not shy away from using nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. The Dominion was driven to radicalise even further. All aspects of life were subordinated to a total war policy.
Jedi General Mahtara, the future Battlemaster of the Dominion, was one of the Jedi commanders who faced Malitia in the field at the ruins of Palmyra, the former capital of Tephrike. She received her promotion to Master in the field after holding off a Sith attack. However, the battle was going ill. Both the Dominion and the Sith troops fought fiercely. Humanitarian conventions had been abandoned in the favour of what was considered efficient. City districts were shelled with artillery. Dominion troops were forced to fall back after the Sith performed a dark ritual to create a huge Deadly Field and later raised countless dead as zombies.
Defectors claimed that Malitia had gone mad and was using blood sacrifices to power a ritual that would create a tear in reality, allowing him to open a gateway to the depths of Chaos. It is no longer possible to verify these rumours. Either way, the Dominion had been driven to the brink and was desperate. Thus Mahtara was authorised to unleash a terrible nuclear weapon Dominion scientists had built in secret.
Troubled by the use of this weapon, yet desperate, Mahtara insisted on accompanying the bomber crew that would drop the weapon upon Vaderite lines in Palmyra. It was not possible to evacuate all Dominion troops and Jedi in time, as they were still locked in combat with the Sith legions. Lacking conventional stealth systems, the bomber was concealed by illusions. However, a Sith mentalist managed to see past the concealment and the bomber came under fire. Insisting on completing the mission, Mahtara gave the order to drop the bomb. Palmyra ceased to exist. But the Sith crusade came to an end. Malitia's forces retreated, going on the so called Arduous March. He was eventually slain by one of his lieutenants. The Vaderites regrouped at Castle Maysaf, but their bid to conquer Tephrike had failed.
On paper, it had been a victory for the Dominion. However, it was a Pyrrhic one. Not only had the loss of life been staggering, Palmyra had been turned into a radioactively contaminated hellscape. The mass deaths had irrevocrably tainted it, turning it into a dark side nexus. Moreover, the dead had been unable to pass on into the cosmic Force. Many lingered on as spirits, being driven increasingly mad. But that was not the end of it, for the dead rose from their mass graves and charnel pits. Some say it was on the third day after the cataclysm. Jedi and Sith, soldiers and civilians - across the hellish ruins of Palmyra, dead sentients rose.
Many of them had been turned into mindless beasts that resembled the ravenous undead of stories. But a select few had retained their sentience, and were able to communicate...and thus comprehend the hell they had woken up in. And they felt great anger towards the living who had done this to them. Some Dominion search parties joined them after perishing in the nexus. The Dominion placed the nexus under lockdown, erecting an outpost to keep the zombies, demons and spirits contained. The first Ashspawn groups were ad hoc affairs. Reanimated Dominion and Vaderite soldiers tried to flock to their old units - or parodies of them, at any rate. Indeed, the initial reaction of many of them was to fight each other, for they had been foes until recently. However, they were all labelled unnatural and threatening by the Dominion and cut off from the rest of Tephrike. Their existence was a cause of shame, and their nature was frightening. The Vaderites reacted, by contrast, saw them as something to be exploited.
Condemned in undeath, the Reborn started to become organised. They had all been damned by the living and the Force, so they might as well band together, if only to spite the cruel world and make sense of the nature of their existence. A Reborn called Hecate is often credited with being the first of their kind to unify them. Some acolytes claim that she was the first of their kind to rise from the grave, though this is assuredly poetic licence. Regardless, she would be venerated as a prophetess. Much of the city had been levelled by the atomic blast, though Ashspawn with experience as engineers started setting up underground production centres. It worked to their advantage that the nexus made the area difficult to scan.
While the Dominion tried to lock down Palmyra's Wail through the Shield of Light outpost, it could not exert total control. The Vaderites were drawn to the nexus, and unlike the corrupted Jedi did not want to purify it, but control it. A powerful Sith Lord came was attracted by stories of 'undead hordes'. The self-proclaimed 'Titan of Death' sought to use his dark power to control the 'Army of the Dead'. Darth Moratus was riddled with bullets for his troubles.
The Netherworld Crisis had a profound impact upon Tephrike, as was the case virtually everywhere in the galaxy. The Ashspawn were confused and troubled by it, for they also experienced raptures. However, the most immediate effect was that the Dominion garrison keeping them contained had been much reduced. Moreover, the Dominion soon faced all-out war with its foes, the Republican Guard and the reformed Vaderites.
Taking advantage of this, the Ashspawn staged a large breakout. Amidst the chaos, a number of their people were able to break out. Away from the nexus' influence, they replenished their numbers by scouring battlefields and broken, destroyed villages to reanimate the recently deceased. Or just get spare parts for their bodies. Their search for new recruits was not mindless, for they targeted outcasts and the like. People who had been callously sacrificed by the riven factions. Until now only a select few Ashspawn had ever left Palmyra. Those who returned to the nexus brought back stories of a world gone mad and of mind-boggling cruelty its tyrants indulged in.
Stories abounded of Ashspawn coming across mass graves of innocents who had been pointlessly slaughtered by the minions of this or that warlord. It was often a harrowing experience for Ashspawn who had families outside of Palmyra and now tried to learn of the fates of their long-dead loved ones. Some would run into their descendants and tried to aid them, using illusions or other forms of trickery to obfuscate their true nature. This, however, clashed with the priority of maintaining secrecy.
However, the aftershocks of the Netherworld Event also spawned various demons in Palmyra's Wail that threatened them. Moreover, the Republican Guard deployed troops to seize Palmyra, taking over the much-diminished Dominion outpost. In contrast to the Dominion and the Vaderites, the Guard was composed of Non-Force-Users and Force-Dead who considered the Force to be a curse. Fearful that the Jedi or Sith might utilise the nexus to bring forth horrors, they targeted it.
Lacking Force-Users, the Guard was obviously unable to even make the attempt to cleanse or contain it. Moreover, their soldiers suffered from the negative effects of the nexus, causing many to get lost, lose their mind or suffer physical deformities. For this reason they came to rely on Force-Dead soldiers. This unit became known as the Cinder Guard. Undermanned and underfunded, it stubbornly clung to the rechristened Fort Vigilance, fearful of what could happen if Force-Users took control of the nexus and were corrupted by its power.
The Ashspawn and the Republican Guard, who considered the undead unnatural, clashed almost immediately, while at the same time being opposed to the Dominion. An emissary sent by the Ashspawn was beheaded by the rebels, who were rather freaked out when the brain kept working. The Cinder Guard held vigil to keep the Force-Users out and the preternatural creatures in. The Cinder Guard implemented a policy of burning bodies to keep its losses from being reanimated by the nexus. Geography and freak weather patterns made it difficult to supply the garrison. However, with most of the Republican Guard's troops focused on prosecuting a guerrilla war against the Dominion and the Vaderites, the Cinder Guard suffered from manpower issues. Thus the rebels started conscripting felons who had been sentenced for their crimes, but were considered redeemable.
The desperate situation forced the Cinder Guard to make a desperate decision that would have resulted in them being denounced as traitors. When faced with a massive demonic incursion, they had to make a secret pact with the Ashspawn. There was profound distrust on both sides. The rebels were horrified and disturbed by a species of undead, Force constructs, the Ashspawn feared they would be wiped out. But the demons threatened both. As a gesture of good faith, the Ashspawn handed over a bunch of Force-Imbued Blade they had found, as conventional weapons would be less efficient against the demonspawn.
A battle was fought in the ruins of Palmyra. The Republican Guard troopers were decimated, dying to a man, but many Ashspawn suffered final death. Hecate unleashed her full power to destroy an extremely powerful demonic entity from the Nether. But she was damaged so badly that she needed to be entombed. When Republican Guard reinforcements arrived, they beheld a scenery of devastation. They remembered their lost comrades in songs, but did not know the full truth of what happened and the bargain they had struck. Indeed, they suspected the undead had worked with the demons. In all fairness, they did witness some Ashspawn raising dead rebels, so they had good reason to be suspicious.
However, Kalak Kistono, commander of the Cinder Guard, learned the truth. The 'Old Squid' could not admit it to the public or even tell all his comrades. But he did make a secret bargain with the main group of Ashspawn. He could not tolerate them leaving Palmyra, but the Guard would...leave them alone, though it would still need things to report to high command. This was not an alliance, for both groups remained hostile to each other. But they tried to avoid an escalation. Occasionally they exchanged intellignece. An uneasy stalemate developed. Some Ashspawn who had managed to get out used various means, especially the Force, to pass themselves as living and gather information on or manipulate the 'warm'. However, this bore a high amount of risk. Some built a sanctuary in the far north of Tephrike, where the arctic condition formed a barrier against the intrusion of the war-torn planet's main factions.
When the 'star people' arrived on Tephrike, the Ashspawn took notice. They had managed to get the telecscope of Palmyra working again, and some zombies that had managed to slip through the wall brought word back. However, what information they got was often garbled, but they learned the space people waged war against the Dominion and entered an uneasy arrangement with the Guard. But the star people's presence was too brief for the undead to encounter them. However, their augurs are certain that this was not the last time the greater galaxy affected Tephrike. And so the Ashspawn wait, prepare and plan.
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