OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Codify a character established in rp.
Image Credit: Here.
Role: Leader of the Harrowed. Point of view character for the Kar'zun.
Permission: Can use Firemane stuff because I own the company.
Links: To Hell and Back, Shatterpoint, The Angelii, Kaeshana, Exodus from Kaeshana.
PHYSICAL INFORMATION
Age: Over a thousand years old. By the time Kaeshana was destroyed, Brak'Vrasz was essentially a rock. However, the Netherworld awoke him from his fossilised state. Reconnecting with the Force seems to have rejuvenated him to a degree. He is not immortal, but his maximum life span is certainly much more than that of other Kar'zun.
Force Sensitivity: Apprentice
Species: Kar'zun,
Appearance: Brak'Vrasz is a Kar'zun and thus essentially a walking rock on two legs. He is craggy, hairless and has bronze coloured skin. He is tall even for a Kar'zun. The stone he is made of is very thick. He has a gnarled body that shows his age. Some of his teeth are missing. Those he has left are incredibly tough and continually replaced due to their diet of stones and rock ores. They are made of a semi-organic material of the same hardness as corundum or diamond. His people can bear the weight of armour for a long time so he inevitably wears it at almost all times. Due to his age, Brak'Vrasz is rather ponderous and walks at a slow pace. But when he gets going in battle, he is a powerful force to be reckoned with.
SOCIAL INFORMATION
Name: Brak'Vrasz
Loyalties: Harrowed, Kaida, Shadow Knights, Shadow Knights (lore submission).
Wealth: Low. Brak'Vrasz is not wealthy at all. To him, it is all vanity. He does not care for material possessions or wealth beyond what is needed to sustain himself and his people.
Notable Possessions: Collection of stone tablets with Kar'zun runes engraved upon them. Some of these tablets are culturally important, others are quite mundane. Owns a Force Imbued Greatsword.
Skills: Brak'Vrasz has an impressive amount of combat experience. He is able to use most melee and ranged weapons. Like many Kar'zun, he has a preference for heavy weapons such as a war hammer, a mace or a large shotgun. Moreover, he is a Force-User. His strength in the Force lags behind his conventional martial prowess since he has only been recently been awakened to it. His preternatural skill set focuses less on brute force and classical hard-hitting powers and more on Sense powers.
His most important power is Shatterpoint. Like Mace Windu, he can perceive Shatterpoints and influence them. They occur in individuals, events and physical objects. It allows him to sense weak points in opponents. However, often Shatterpoints only exist in very brief moments. Theoretically, the power can also be used to shatter objects normally deemed unbreakable. He also has precognitive abilities, is able to use Psychometry and occasionally receives Force visions, though interpreting them is another matter. His Psychometry allows him to pick up impressions and traces of information from objects. It is at its strongest when he uses it on dead bodies, rocks and objects made of stone. This skill is a boon for tracking, but not helpful in the midst of battle and can obviously fail to render useful information.
The time he spent in the warp as well as the manner of his awakening have left him with a connection to the spirit realm. He is good at sending ghosts and has an easier time finding his way through the Netherworld. His connection to the spirit realm allows him to sense Nether energies and other aspects related to it. Brak'Vrasz has some skill as an Earth Shaper, but it is limited in scale and range. Summoning an earthquake, creating an avalanche or splitting the earth is not part of his repertoire. He can employ magnetism though and is good at manipulating rocks, mud and plant matter. However, he cannot project power at far range.
Personality: Brak'Vrasz is ancient. He was there for the last stand of his people. It was the day when they rolled the dice a final time and lost. The Eldorai triumphed. He is the only participant of the final battle on either side who is still alive. He was there when his people withered away. Confined to reservations, they were decimated. He was there when the Kar'zun were emancipated by Tirathana VII, but by then they were a shadow of their former selves. He was there for the cataclysm that destroyed Kaeshana. Unlike many of his people and most of the Eldorai, Brak'Vrasz remained on Kaeshana. The curse of stone was upon him and he had had enough. Instead of trying to escape the inevitable, he would give up his place for someone younger.
He slept through the many upheavals his homeworld endured. Then he was awoken when the planet was dragged through the Netherworld. Born again in hell, he found a new purpose, and made friends among the people who had once been his arch-enemy. The relic from a bygone age who had turned into a hermit and been brought to death's door was now became a leader.
The key word to describe Brak'Vrasz is detached. He has very much got his mind on a different reality, and a different way of seeing things. He has a very different conception of morality now than he used to have. The traditional Kar'zun attitudes have combined with the centuries he spent as a rock as well as the time in the void. Today, he cares very little about personal property or government or religion. Nor is he particularly concerned with the acquisition of material wealth beyond what is needed to sustain his people. This does not make him apathic though, but priorities have shifted. Mundane crimes and day-to-day politics do not concern him.
Instead he cares about crimes which injure or kill, as that snuffs out life, and life is something he does care about. That does not make him a pacifist though, far from it. He is accustomed to taking a long view on things, and can arrive at a conclusion after some very interesting and speculative analysis. For instance, slavers and pirates are bad because they disrupt the natural order of things. Their vocation is to kill, maim and injure. He will do whatever is needed to nullify them in order prevent them from being an issue. By contrast, smugglers or thieves are minor issues and below his concern. Moving around goods does not concern him, no matter whether it is done legally or illegally.
However, if he feels, using his perspective and the Force, that an individual might become a danger he might seek to change the pathway to danger or eliminate it entirely. For instance a corrupt leader or politician or an ambitious general might one day become a danger and threat, so he would seek to guide them away from thread and then take more drastic action if needed. Brak'Vrasz is not above using violence, but it will not necessarily be his first recourse.
The taking of another life is a serious matter and what may seem like an easy solution in the heat of the moment can easily be the cause of greater tragedy in the future. As a result, he acts with prudence and deliberation. One could liken it to the perspective of mountain or an ancient tree. What matters to him are the patterns and trends, not the individual actions. His ability to perceive Shatterpoints ties into this. Brak'Vrasz is no Jedi or Sith and interprets the Force differently, but these fault lines are an important part of his philosophy.
This is not to say that Brak'Vrasz is wholly a creature of logic and devoid of feelings. Indeed, he feels affection for his comrades, the Harrowed. Unlike them, he can feel the Force now, but this does not make him better. Indeed, it imposes a special responsibility on him. His group is composed of Eldorai and Kar'zun. Once the space elves were his enemy, but he treats those who belong to the Harrowed no differently from his fellow stone people. Like him, they endured hell and were forever changed by it.
All the Kar'zun who marched to the final battle with him are dead, so are all the Eldorai he fought against. Pursuing a grudge will not bring them back. One could argue that the Harrowed are an equivalent to wards. He is more than capable of meting out violence on their behalf in order to protect them. One of his goals is to find the Kar'zun Paragon, the Progenitor of his species. To this end he has teamed up with Kaida Taldir and Eyrecae Alzari. He and the primeval Eldorai did not start off under the most optimal of circumstances, as he punched her in the face to make sure she was not a ghost or an illusion. Nonetheless, they work together well enough. Besides, she has potent regenerative abilities, so some pain and a little blood should not be an issue. Kaida finds some of his eccentricities annoying, but approves of his focus. The Kar'zun has a habit of talking to himself. At times he can seem like is off in his own world or has somehow received insights others are not privy to. His manner of speech is urbane.
COMBAT INFORMATION
Weapon of Choice: MkI Bolter, Sarzmigar Mk2, Power Hammer, Cylix Bolt Pistol, Force Imbued Greatsword. He is able to use any personal weapon except lightsabres however. Favours a Reaper Plasma Shotgun for close assault work and a Mk3 Heavy Bolter for when he needs a lot of heavy firepower.
Combat Function: Brak'Vrasz a tank. Being a Kar'zun he is literally a walking rock and tough as a mountain. Thus he is incredibly strong, and resilient. Kar'zun grow stronger as they age, making him particularly tough. Being made of the toughness of stone, he is extremely resistant to cold and heat. While extreme amounts of both can still hurt him, it would require sustained exposure.
Being an unusual type of creature, his people are almost impossible to mentally dominate. Thus he resists mental attacks with ease. Brak'Vrasz is extremely proficient in the use of heavy weapons. He can easily use the heaviest weapons available. Favouring overwhelming weaponry, he can deliver a fearsome punch both at range and in melee. His skill, incredible strength and durability make him a fearsome melee combatant. He favours war hammers, maces and polearms such as the Sarzmigar. Unfortunately, being a walking rock, he is also slow and ponderous. This is something a more agile opponent could exploit in combat.
His size can make him difficult to transport, he cannot swim and would sink in a swamp. Muddy terrain is rather difficult to traverse. It also makes him poor at stealth. Bottom line, an opponent will hear and see him coming, and depending on the terrain, his size can become a disadvantage. He is a tank, plain and simple. While tough, he is vulnerable to sonic and pulse weapons. However, while he is an impressive conventional combatant, Force-wise he is only an Apprentice. This means that he is better off relying on his martial prowess rather than Force abilities if he faces an experienced Force-User. His Force powers are focused on Sense abilities. Shatterpoint is his strongest power. He has some skill with Earth Shaping, but nothing exceptional. Brak'Vrasz has not been trained in the use of a lightsabre and prefers weapons with actual weight behind them.
Strengths:
- Stone warrior. Kar'zun are walking rocks and have the strength of stone. He is extremely strong, durable and resilient - and get tougher over the centuries. He is very resistant to intense cold and heat. Due to being an unusual type of creature, Kar'zun are almost impossible to mentally dominate with the Force. He resists mental attacks with ease.
- Crack soldier. Brak'Vrasz has impressive combat experience and is good at leading small units. He is skilled in the use of most ranged and melee weapons.
- Shatterpoint. Like Mace Windu, he can see the weak places in an opponent. They can occur in individuals or in events. He is able to perceive these fault lines through the Force and influence them. This also applies to physical objects. He can perceive an item through the Force, taking note of where it comes together and discover weak points in its composition. Thus he can effectively shatter an object by willing the Force to surge through the weak point. This even applies to materials that are normally near-indestructible, such as beskar. However, applying this ability in such a manner requires a lot of concentration and is very taxing.
- Ponderous. Unfortunately, being walking rocks also makes him slow. His people grow more ponderous as they age and he is ancient This has implications in combat, especially against more lightly armoured, agile opponents.
- He is very big and made of rock. As a result, he is not good at stealth. His appearance is always obvious. He is a hammer or a broadsword, not a scalpel.
- Brak'Vrasz is an impressive conventional combatant, but Force-wise he is an Apprentice. This limits his strength in the Force and the powers that are available to him. He has a very narrow focus and thus uses the Force as a supplement rather than the mainstay of his skill set.
Brak'Vrasz is the last surviving participant of the Battle of Az’vakarz, on either side of the conflict. Centuries before the outbreak of the Gulag Virus, Kar'zun and Eldorai fought for dominance over Kaeshana. It was the battle that decided the fate of Kaeshana and ensured that Eldorai, not Kar'zun, would dominate it. It also led to the near-extermination of the Kar'zun species. Ironically, Brak'Vrasz was a nobody, yet now he is the only one still alive who fought on that terrible day.
At the time of his birth, Arz’alor was the King of the Kar'zun. The Eldorai were in a state of turmoil, weakened by civil war and strife, while the King led the Kar'zun to victory after victory. However, Brak'Vrasz was not a member of the aristocracy or the offspring of a mighty warrior. Instead he was born into one of the lower classes. Kar'zun society was very much defined by social caste. Movement between castes was almost possible except by patronage from a higher caste. Moreover, advancement and succession was strongly tied to seniority. One unusual way to rise in society was for a lower caste person to have a Force-Sensitive child.
Those with a strong enough connection to the spirits were trained to become priests and their family experienced an increase in personal wealth and status. However, this did not apply to Brak'Vrasz. He had no noteworthy Force connection and no patron. Born into a low caste, he found work as a delver. This was one of the lowest paying jobs in Kar'zun society. One could compare it to that of a miner, except that it was just about doing the work to create tunnels and caverns for people to live in. His salary was low. The nature of his work that he literally ate what he dug.
Being a silicon based life form, the Kar'zun eat stones and ores, in the same way carbon creatures eat plants and animals. However, not just any rock will work, just like a human does not consume any type of plant or animal. Brak'Vrasz was a good worker, though he chafed under the lack of respect he got. His low salary would also make it difficult to provide for a family. However, he was diligent and hoped to secure an apprenticeship under an engineer. However, the war interfered. His clan lived far from the frontlines, but news still reached them.
At first the Kar'zun had gone from strength to strength. But then a reaction was born. Eldorai propaganda claims that Arz'alor intended to exterminate them. There is no evidence of this. It is far more likely that he intended to expand his empire and defeat them. However, Ariane Saedaris, one of the greatest generals and nobles of the Eldorai, united the elves under her banner. She seized control of Santaissa and preached a veritable crusade against the Kar'zun. They were not merely enemies of the Eldorai state, but stone demons who had been spawned by Illyria to destroy Ashira's children. To kill the Agrai Arishae was not a sin, it was the pathway to the Goddess' love. The new Star Queen brought the worship of Ashira to new heights of zealotry, forming a massive army.
At first the Kar'zun still experienced victories. The Valora's Chosen, an company of Angelii, was annihilated at the Battle of the Pass of Thermiscyra. Eldorai clerics declared the dead Angelii to be martyrs, who had given their lives for Ashira. Divya Tarai, a soldier in the army of Ariane, managed to hold off a Kar'zun assault on the fortress of Oritave, making use of mining equipment along with blasters purchased from an offworld smuggler. The Kar'zun forces should have pressed on towards Santaissa, but made the mistake of deciding to grind down their enemy like an unstoppable glacier. This caused a delay that helped Ariane muster her forces.
After centuries of strife, skirmishes and all-out war, it all came down to one battle. Brak’Vrasz was a young Kar'zun, barely an adult, when he marched to war. The situation had become critical, forcing the Kar'zun leaders to mobilise their reserves, even those who would under normal circumstances would have been rejected. While he was resentful about his menial position in society, Brak'Vrasz was a patriot and wanted to his part - and survive. Service in wartime could also be a way to improve his lot in life. So he joined the army as part of the last levy. After some basic training, he marched to battle with his much older cormades. They were warriors as tough as granite, but they had been kind and taught him well. With the fate of their people hanging in the balance, there was no time for social snobbery.
The two armies met on the field of battle. The location they fought over was called Az’vakarz, Death Sorrow. King Arz'alor himself led his warriors into battle. The Kar’zun fought with ruthless skill and brutality as always, but a new fervour was driving their opponents, new weapons armed them, and a new Queen led them. The Eldorai imagine the battle as a glorious victory, and the Kar'zun as a cruel massacre. Both are not quite true. It was war, plain and simple, destructive, bloody and vicious. Brask'Vrasz was part of an assault company that tried to breach the Eldorai lines.
The howl of aircraft dogfighting and of artillery shells being fired could be heard as they advanced. Kar'zun soldiers charged in formations, crossing trenches defended by mines, protected by artillery and heavy anti-personnel weapons that could damage even the rocky Kar'zun. As Brak'Vrasz and his comrades advanced in small columns, each team covered by a shieldbearer, they came under heavy fire. The Eldorai fired for their lives, and Brak'Vrasz fired wherever he saw an enemy emerging. The Kar'zun warriors charged into battle, releasing war cries that sounded like the bellowing echo of a great rockfall. Special Kar'zun troopers cleared out bunkers and foxholes, using flamethrowers and polearms.
Brak'Vrasz was injured, though not seriously, and managed to take down an Eldorai. Strangely enough, they met little resistance. None of the witches, as the Kar'zun called the Eldorai's Force-Users, seemed to be present. Battle raged on in the trench, and the final Eldorai bunker was immolated with flamethrowers. The assault company advanced further, followed by tanks and other vehicles. As they advanced the internal between trenches grew wider.
However, little enemy fire came their way, aside from small arms fire from infantry. The Kar'zun advanced steadily. As far as anyone could tell, it seemed like an easy victory, as if the Eldorai were already retreating. Then the thunder rolled. What Eldorai propaganda consistently fails to mention is that they triumphed through trickery, for they had been able to enlist the support of humans, who possessed technologically more advanced than anything available on Kaeshana.
Indeed, most Eldorai do not know any better. The humans deployed a large spaceship. The Kar'zun had used bombers and jet fighters, but nothing this big. At first it bombarded them with laser fire. Beams of red energy threw the Kar'zun forces into disarray. Then it dropped a large sonic bomb, producing a massive shockwave. While Kar'zun are very hard to kill, sonic pulses affect their unique life chemistry, not unlike concussion waves affect Eldorai. While his ears rung and he staggered, a banshee like cry was heard. Hordes of Eldorai soldiers swarmed them, proclaiming death to the 'Arish' and glory to Ashira.
The Angelii led the charge, easily recognisable with their brightly coloured armour and gleaming Sarixi. Brak'Vrasz and the surviving members of his company stood their ground. They fought bravely and gallantly, and ultimately futilely. Brak'Vrasz faced the Angelii, the best warriors of the Eldorai. In spite of his inexperience, he managed to defeat two of them. He fought with increasing desperation as his comrades died around him. They were outnumbered and outgunned. A torrent of lightning from an Angelii Host Leader brought him to his knees, but as she raised her blade to kill, one of his badly wounded comrades used what little energy he had to take her down, then died. Abandoned and lying in a pile of bodies, Brak'Vrasz collapsed. The cheers of the Eldorai grew fainter they pushed on. When he awoke, it was all over.
An Angelii officer was leading Queen Ariane across the battlefield. However, when he started to rise, the Angelii spotted him. Her name was Seraph Taldir, a very distant ancestor of Kaida Taldir. Full of hatred for the 'Arish', the Angelii asked the Queen whether she should give the 'stone demon' the Goddess' mercy. However, Ariane ordered her to spare him. She proclaimed that it was not her goal to exterminate the Kar'zun. They had to be made safe, and never harm the Eldorai again. All prisoners were to be spared.
Ariane admonished Brak'Vrasz to remember what had hapened thos day and that resistance was futile. Brak'Vrasz, badly injured, shellshocked and full of survivor's guilt, said he would never forget. While he was being led away into captivity, he heard that the King had fallen in battle and that the rest of the Kar'zun army was being pursued. The Eldorai were not content with breaking the Kar'zun army; they wanted to end the eternal war and ensure that the stone people would never be able to rise again. The humans who had aided the Eldorai were rewarded and sent away. Ariane covered up their role because it did not fit the narrative.
Brak'Vrasz spent the rest of the war in a prisoner of war camp. Conditions were very poor. Casual violence and abuse was common. He and the other prisoners were used as forced labourers. This, the Eldorai proclaimed, was penance for their sins against Ashira and the mistress race. At first the camp was just an open area sealed off with a wall and watchtowers with no inmate housing. They had to endure a terribly hot summer. Some prisoners tried to fight back or escape. Brak'Vrasz did his best to try and keep things together, acting as a sort of spokesman for a group of prisoners. The Kar'zun were left to provide for themselves, so he tried to keep them together and organise medical care for the sick and wounded as well as the construction of shelters. The fact that he was low caste did not matter anymore since they were all in the same boat now. While imprisoned, he learned that the Kar'zun capital had fallen.
The Eldorai had brutally sacked Vak’zahr, and eradicated all the Kar’zun they found. The final member of a line which had gone back (in name anyway) twenty thousand years, was killed and her body smashed with hammers and burnt to ash. The surviving Kar'zun capitulated. It was an unconditional surrender. With the conclusion of hostilities, Brak'Vrasz was repatriated, but he was not allowed to return to his home, for it had been decreed that the Kar'zun were to be deported to reservations far away from their ancestral homelands.
The attrition rate of the deportations was staggering. While the Eldorai did not want to completely exterminate the Kar'zun, they wanted to crush them completely and forever. The Kar'zun received few supplies, and the slightest infraction was used as an excuse to arrest or murder one of them. Some Kar'zun tried to flee and hide in the mountains or foment rebellion. So many Kar'zun had died in the war, and so few children were born that their population was decimated.
Brak'Vrasz tried to get better conditions for his community. He led a group of labourers and engineers that did work for the Eldorai occupation authority. Realising that further fighting was futile and would only motivate the Eldorai to destroy them for good, he spoke out against acts of terrorism. However, this caused more radical Kar'zun to label him a collaborator. Bizarrely, the Eldorai put him on a watch list and he was imprisoned a couple times as an agitator. The Eldorai commander in the reservation happened to be a member of House Cadalthor, which stood for ultra-orthodoxy and strict enforcement of the Matriarchy's religious laws. When an Eldorai garrison was attacked by rebels, Brak'Vrasz was blamed for it. He refused to implicate his fellow workers, despite being tortured. He was eventually released from jail after a more moderate Queen took the throne.
However, his tenacity had caught the eye of a radical group of Kar'zun rebels, the Legion of the Damned. The Legion wanted to avenge itself on the Eldorai at any cost. To this end they would leave Kaeshana and gather their strength in order to one day strike back. They regarded Kar'zun who submitted to their oppressors as weak. One of their recruiters offered him a place in their army. But Brak'Vrasz declined. He was forced to kill the recruiter in order keep the Eldorai from learning about the offer. Otherwise there would be grave consequences not only for himself, but his people.
The act of killing a fellow Kar'zun tormented him deeply. These experiences soured him on contact with the outside world. He retreated from daily life, and became something of a hermit, writing some history and cultural books. The Eldorai had looted Kar'zun museums and temples, destroying or stealing what they could, so he tried to preserve what was left of his people's lore. Time passed, and he became more and more withdrawn. Kar'zun were allowed to own property again, but could not leave the reservations.
Controls would be relaxed and then tightened, reservations would be altered and moved away from mountains to make the Kar’zun dependent on the Eldorai. The numbers of the Kar’zun declined and dwindled. Things changed with the accession of Queen Tirathana VII. Deeply troubled by the past treatment, she ordered the quarantine lifted, letting the Kar'zun return to under the mountains. But many Eldorai still feared that one day they would be strong enough to oppose the Eldorai. A Kar'zun elder was appointed to act as a representative to the Crown. But conditions remained poor. Brak'Vrasz went with his people, but seldom interacted with his people. He had become a relic from a bygone age.
He carried the memories of the Deadly Sorrow, but time has distorted even his recollection of what had happened on that day. The curse of stone was drawing near. When the Lost Kar'zun invaded Kaeshana, intending to annihilate their hated foes by dropping a massive asteroid on the planet, he took up arms against them. It was supposed to be his last battle. He returned to the ruins of his former home to become one with the earth. When he learned that Kaeshana's destruction was imminent, he showed no desire to leave the planet. Firemane had successfully lobbied for the Kar'zun to be evacuated as well, but he had decided to stay and gave up his spot so that someone from the younger generation could live.
At this point he was barely able to move anyway. He had had enough. Time passed. Kaeshana was devastated by an asteroid and turned into a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Later it became a battleground between the Galactic Alliance and the First Order, then an occupation zone. Brak'Vrasz barely knew anything about these events. Some Eldorai refugees, fleeing the war and Kaeshana's First Order occupiers, sought shelter in his cavern. He did not interfere. Then one day Kaeshana went to hell - literally. He stopped being a bystander.
The end of Kaeshana came to pass as the result of aftershocks of the Netherworld Event. The Netherworld's shockwaves had yet to fully conclude, and so strange and nightmarish things could still occur. Kaeshana was dragged through the Nether. There had been time to evacuate, so any soldiers or civilians in a position to flee would do so. But not everyone made it off. When Brak'Vrasz, he discovered that he had been seemingly cured of the curse of stone. He could walk again.
However, exposure to the warp had also turned him Force Dead, though this was something he did not quite understand at the time. Many of the few survivors had been driven insane. The ghosts that dotted the hellscape could not mentally assail him due to his new condition, but he had to protect himself against the ravenous beasts that stalked the hellscape. Even once peaceful animals had been turned into aggressive monsters. Spectres of Eldorai and Kar'zun who had perished during the Kar'zun War, the casualties of Eldorai dynastic conflicts, the Exodus and the Battle of Kaeshana were all locked in never-ending battles. Awakening in hell compelled Brak'Vrasz to shake off his lethargy. He set about trying to gather and protect survivors of the cataclysm.
At first he was focused on finding his remaining people, but over time he also came to work with the most unlikeliest of allies: Eldorai. Two of them were Macrina Lithala and Eliyen Kriswenys. The first had been a normal Eldorai woman who had been forced to become a hardened survivalist after the first cataclysm. She went a little mad when Kaeshana was sent to hell and embraced Illyria, the Eldorai Goddess of Death. The second was a former Ashiran fundamentalist who used to conduct terrorist attacks against infidels and 'human monkeighs'. Waking up in hell and being turned Force Dead caused her to reevaluate her beliefs and become an atheist.
The two became his friends, or at least as close as three rather damaged people could become that. Circumstance compelled them to band together to survive in the hellscape. The three worked together to take down a demonic entity that had gathered strength from the mass deaths. Survivors banded together around them. Brak'Vrasz, who had spent the last couple centuries in isolation and had wanted to be left alone, rose to the occasion as a leader. Not all were willing to move on from the past. Being trapped in hell drove many to madness. He had to battle a Kar'zun guardian who believed that the spirit of the long-dead Arz'alor had commanded her to be his wrath. Likewise, a radical sect of Ashiran fundamentalists believed the best way to escape hell was to cleanse it of demons and infidels. Other groups that sprung up included the Sicarii, a sect of Illyrian assassins, and the Hellbreakers, a group of survivalists led by a Dashdae Eldorai terrorist called Morwen. Relations with them varied. Brak'Vrasz focused on survival. His at times eccentric behaviour and the strange insights he claimed to receive from the stone caused many to consider him mad. None doubted his prowess though.
The struggles made the Harrowed hard, but also left them deep scars on their psyche. It also left them deeply embittered towards the powers that be. Time passes differently in the warp, so when Kaeshana finally appeared on the other side of the Galaxy, they emerged changed. The same applied to Kaeshana. The planet was now in a greatly weathered, aged state, as if a century had passed in the warp. It had been near scoured of life.
By then word of the strange events on Kaeshana had spread. Various independent Eldorai factions in the Galaxy took notice, though many suspected some form of trickery. One of these groups were the Shadow Knights, a nomadic faction of renegades. They dispatched a task force to investigate Kaeshana and, if possible, evacuate survivors. However, the time Kaeshana had spent in the warp had created a disruption field. It caused the Shadows' ship to crash near Santaissa's ruins. Led Kaida Taldir, formerly a royalist Angelii, the Shadows tried to locate survivors and find a way off the planet. After linking up with Morwen's crew, fighting beasts and Ashiran zealots, they ran into Brak'Vrasz and his crew. Guided by insights he claimed to receive from the stone, Brak'Vrasz had been looking into a way to get off the rock. However, the Harrowed were assailed by mutated beasts. The Kar'zun and his two comrades battled a twisted Rancor.
After taking down the beasts with the help of the Shadows, they confronted the newcomers. Needless to say the Harrowed were quite suspicious, as they could easily be illusions or shades. Brak'Vrasz identified one of them, Eyrecae, as Tarissane, a ghost from the past. “But you're not like any other Eldorai I've seen. I have seen many Eldorai...many. 785, 519 Eldorai. No, that is too many. Hmm...if you are a ghost you must be gone from the ancient days. Yes! I will name you...Tarissane. Yes. What do you want, ghost of the past?“ Eliyen abrasively demanded that the newcomers prove they were real by shedding some drops of blood. Eyrecae was unable to do so since her blood would turn to ash once exposed to the air, so the Vashyada Ranger Tryana did so. Macrina confirmed it was real by licking it off. This left Eyrecae. The Harrowed did not like secrets. According to Macrina, they had to be revealed and picked apart. Brak'Vrasz punched 'Tarissane' in the face. It turned out she was solid. She was angered and warned him not to touch her again. For his part, the Kar'zun recognised her as one of the progenitors.
Once these niceties had been handled and the Harrowed had learned of the newcomers' endeavour, Brak'Vrasz was able to combine their knowledge with what he had already learned about the anomaly that kept them from leaving. The Sicarii had already reached it, but would be unable to overcome it alone. On the way, the party had to deal with various spirits. Some had been driven mad and attacked them. Others had been so traumatised that they had created a world of make believe, where everything was still fine on Kaeshana. Being Force Dead, the Harrowed were not affected by them, but most of the newcomers were.
They eventually reached the anomaly, where they were confronted by the Sicarii and their suspicious leader Raekana. The anomaly was a curtain of red, a dome of crimson surrounding a darkening void. As Yohara, the Shadows' researcher explained, heart was a pure pierce of Nether energy, which should not exist inside the realspace of this galaxy. Therefore, the Force had formed a barrier around it. However, this in turn had caused an opposing barrier of Force null to form. Thus the barrier was composed of three layers, and the party required the three opposite to penetrate through: A Force-User, a Force Dead being and a Non-Force-User. Kaida went through first, refusing to let a subordinate take her place and put themselves at risk. Thus she penetrated the first layer, using a machine Yohara had built.
She was able to succeed in this task, though her trek was arduous. Power spiralled out like a vortex, with Kaida at the centre. Her immense Force power strove to take the strain. Kaida was transfixed by the power bearing down on her. She was saved by her amnesiac sister Lavina, who regained her memories once she was exposed to the Nether energies. However, both paid a price, for the blast temporarily stripped them of their Force affinity or Sciia, as the Eldorai would call it.
Brak'Vrasz penetrated the next layer. When he marched through the void, he was brought back to the battlefield of Deadly Sorrow. He relived that terrible day where the Kar'zun had been shattered. What both he and indeed everyone else had forgotten was that the Eldorai had won the battle due to human intervention. It was not the glorious triumph Eldorai propaganda claimed it to be, but also not the pure slaughter the Kar'zun remembered. Brak'Vrasz was able to overcome this trial and activate the machine.
The massive blast of Force energy was agonising and drove him to the ground, but when he arose the Force had returned to him. His companions and Eyrecae quickly linked up with him. The primeval Eldorai penetrated the final layer. Brak'Vrasz and the others shared a vision she received of the progenitors of their races, including the first Kar'zun. There was also another vision that only Eyrecae saw. It took Brak'Vrasz a while to put the pieces together, but he soon realised that the progenitor of his species was still out there. The final layer penetrated, the field was overcome and their Shadows were able to send an evacuation ship.
Incidentally, it was the first time Brak'Vrasz had ever left Kaeshana. They were received by a Shadow Knight welcoming committee once they got aboard their worldship. The Archon, the elected leader of the rebels, gave a speech. Brak'Vrasz cared little for the riven factions of the Shadows, but was determined to make sure the rights of his people were honoured. They could work with the rebels, but on their terms. The many centuries he had spent as a hermit and his time in the warp had shifted his perception of things and his moral compass. Politics and government were not matters he cared about. Instead he cared about the preservation of life. Like a mountain or an ancient tree, he cared about patterns. He also had another mission, namely finding the lost Progenitor of the Kar'zun. He had determined that Eyrecae and Kaida would be important for his quest, so he resolved to remain in contact with them.
Unfortunately, not all denizens of the Defiance took the revelations about what had really happened at the final battle between Eldorai and Kar'zun well. Eldorai nationalists, angered by what they regarded as an insult to their people, rioted in the streets. Protesters who believed the visions were true and that the Eldorai should denounce the lies of the Queens of yore and join with the Kar'zun clashed with those who believed the visions were lies that spat on the sacrifices of Eldorai patriots.
Fighting broke out in the streets. Some of the refugees were attacked. There were cases of arson and looting, as some disturbers of the peace tried to take advantage of the unrest, seeing it as a chance to loot. Brak'Vrasz was attacked by Eldorai nationalists and had to defend himself. The Vigiles, the Shadow Knights' police force, were deployed to quell the riots. Brak'Vrasz was put in 'protective custody' for his own protection. He took this fairly calmly. Later Kaida and Lavina visited the maximim security facility he was being held in to check up on him. After some discussion, he agreed to call his followers and order them to remain calm, so that an already volatile situation would not spiral out of control. Meanwhile, Eyrecae Alzari was attacked by one of his would-be assassins. She was able to capture the attacker, enabling Brak'Vrasz to identify her. The Kar'zun was eventually released from custody, enabling him to reunite with his followers and focus on his new quest.
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