OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: Expand on the Shadow Knights. Sub a fun unit for rp and flavour.
- Image Credit: Here. 'Female Dark Elf' by John Dotegowski.
- Role: Force infantry.
- Links: Xioquo.
- Unit Name: Champions of Azyr.
- Affiliation: Shadow Knights, Xioquo, Qual'Zyanya.
- Classification: Infantry.
- AV-1s Scout Armour
- Verpine prototype shield.
- Ion carbine, Disruptor rifle, Arc Caster or DN bolt caster.
- Shattergun, Sonic Disruptor, Static Pistol or Dissuader KD-30.
- Electrostaffs or Force Pikes.
- Vibroknives, Vac blade.
- Wrist lasers.
- Grenades, thermal detonators.
- Force focusing visor, lightning gloves, Individual Field Disruptorhttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Individual_field_disruptor, lifeform scanners, Ghostwave communicator, anti security blade, scrambler key, data breaker, communication wave descrambler.
- RL-40 stun net launcher
- Availability: Unique
- Deployment: Minor
Strengths & Weaknesses: The Champions of Azyr are a unit composed of Force-Sensitive Xioquo.The unit is composed of Knights. In terms of skill set, they are specialists rather than generalists, focusing on electrokinesis and technomancy. To be precise, the powers they focus on are lightning, disable droid, mechu-deru and electronic manipulation. This makes them very effective against droids, cyborgs or opponents very reliant on high-tech equipment. They can also help overcome security systems and manipulate computers. They possess skill in tutaminis, which helps them absorb and channel energy attacks. They can pool their powers for attacks with a broader scale and range, but cannot summon a Force Storm or something of a similar nature.
Aside from the obvious combat applications, their abilities are also useful for wreaking havoc on infrastructure, which gives them utility as saboteurs. They can help sow confusion and disrupt or impede an enemy's response to attacks. Moreover, they are skilled at close quarters. A number of their conventional weapons are electrical in nature, which has implications when going up against opponents who are shielded against such attacks. Their conventional arsenal is more geared towards combat at medium or close range, which is pertinent if they are attacked from great distances and are not in a position to use their preternatural abilities effectively. This leaves them more vulnerable towards snipers and enemies using heavy weapons at far range.
While their electrokinetic and technomantic abilities are quite strong, their telekinetic abilities are weak, they do not carry lightsabres or heavy weapons like rotary cannons, heavy repeating blasters or anti-tank missile launchers. Lack of heavy weapons enhances their mobility, but leaves them more vulnerable to heavy armour units such as tanks and walkers. Being infantry, long range bombardment from artillery or aicraft is an issue for them. Ysalamiri and Voidstone would deprive them of their biggest advantage. They are trained in the use of conventional weapons and would thus be able to defend themselves if they do not have access to their preternatural abilities, but would be significantly weakened. Electrical discharges are also a very flashy power, which has implications for stealthy operations and makes them easy to spot on a battlefield once they utilise electrokinetic abiities, rendering them obvious targets.
Lightning is one of the few direct Force attacks that works on Vong and other Force Dead, but the Xioquo must still deal with the issue that they cannot sense them in the Force. Rock earths lightning, which makes earth the direct elemental counter to lightning. While a crack unit, it is also a very small unit. This limits the number of warriors that can be deployed to a battlefield, which means they may be outnumbered. Common soldiers may lack their skill and preternatural abilities, but could overwhelm them through sheer force of numbers.
Description:
Azyr is the Xioquo word for sky. For millennia the Xioquo dwelt in the Underealm, a subterranean realm beneath the earth of Tygara. There they grew strong in the Dark Side and become quite advanced technologically by the standards of Tygara. By the time the 'sky people' came to Tygara, the Xioquo could field ironclads, primitive war engines and ornithopters powered by steam and equipped their elite soldiers with bolt action rifles. Their sorceresses were able to use dark alchemy to construct monstrosities and golems. They might have been able to become the dominant race of Tygara, if they had not been held back by an oppressive, darkside mageocracy that enslaved most of the populace, their low numbers and their vulnerability to sunlight.
Living in the Underealm meant they were adjusted to darkness, but it made the sun and other bright lights painful for them, requiring them to wear covering attire when they ventured outside. Furthermore, there was constant strife between them. The matriarchs feuded amongst themselves, while slave revolts and perennial conflict with the Qadiri produced a paranoiac siege mentality. The old order was overthrown when the Tygaran Alliance stormed the capital of Tlaxqui. Mystra herself, regarded by the Xioquo as their Creator and a physical goddess, was slain in the battle. Some Xioquo resented the invaders and dreamt of restoring the old order. Others were quick to grasp the opportunities that had been opened up to them. The canniest among them who did not want to bow to outsiders realised they had to adapt.
The destruction of Mystra left a profound spiritual and political vacuum. The fact that she had turned out to be a mad goddess who fed on her people caused many Xioquo to turn away from her. The vacuum was filled by a variety of cults. Some cooperated with the occupiers, others conspired or opposed them openly. The Daughters of the Destroyer deified Siobhan Kerrigan, elevating her to divine status for vanquishing Mystra. The Seekers of the Sky sought to break with the Xioquo's grim past and embrace the Light, seeing this as the best way to heal their people's wounds and lead them to modernity. This group was sponsored by the new Queen Liavondra, herself a lightsider who had kept her true alignment secret for many years.
The Champions of the Azyr were one of many cults that sought to take advantage of the power vacuum. They had fought against the Tygaran Alliance and Firemane but had seen which way the wind was blowing when the allied troops knocked down the gates to the Underealm. Recognising that the Xioquo's strength had been their affinity for technology, they sought to learn as much about the designs of the sky people as possible. While they did not mourn the mad goddess, they regarded the Xioquo's new overlords as foreign occupiers. True to their name, they believed the Xioquo needed to become self-reliant and reach for the stars. Though the 'natives' were underdeveloped, they were not inferior to the outsiders in any way outside of technology. Rather than wage guerilla war against the sky people, the group collaborated with them with the aim of expanding its knowledge of the outside world and its mysteries. As a result, they earned the contempt of diehard Mystra zealots and other partisans, but they considered this course to be wiser in the long-term.
They understood that the sky people were just that - people, not demons or deities. Of course, their technology was beyond anything the Xioquo had possessed, but could be roughly understood in terms that made sense for them: Blasters and bolters were high-tech versions of the rifles the Xioquo used, starships were metal ships that traversed the sky-ocean and so on. Their desire to master outsider technology reach the stars soon acquired a religious aspect, as they believed that they were being guided by the spirits to escape the confines of the Underealm.
This was reflected in their devotion to Azyr, which is not just the Xioquo word for sky, but also its deified personification. While Mystra, or, as the Xioquo call Myrou, had always been the supreme deity, the Xioquo acknowledged the existence of minor deities and primordial forces. Azyr was one of them, though the devotees at times skirted dangerously close to heresy; heresy was a wonderfully vague term that could be used to justify purging political rivals. The devotees of Azyr regard it as a powerful elemental force; one they fear but are also in awe of. They resolved to one day acquire metal wings, face the perilous rays of the sun and reach for the sky.
On the day when Tygara was evacuated by its people, the Champions of Azyr seized a Firemane ship to ensure they would be able to leave the planet on their terms and become an independent fraction. Their expanded knowledge of technology and its vulnerabilities came in handy in that regard. The Champions recruited their members from the ranks of Force-Sensitive Xioquo with a knack for electrokinesis and manipulating machinery through the application of technopathy. Their aptitude for machines was a boon for them when they found themselves in an unfamiliar Galaxy. Initially they relied a lot on the stolen ship's reprogrammed droids. They learned how to cope in an unfamiliar world through trial and error.
The group aligned itself with the Shadow Knights, whose agents they had encountered during the exodus from Tygara. They are a rogue organisation of Eldorai dissidents opposed to both the Eldorai Matriarchy and Firemane. Coincidentally, the Shadow Knights had often found themselves in conflict with a machine cult called Archangel. This made the devotees of Azyr particularly useful because their skills were quite effective against droids and cyborgs. In addition, their knack for tech makes them useful for breaking and entering missions. The Champions of Azyr have tried to share their insights with other Xioquo who have joined the movement, seeking to encourage them to follow their example so that they would not be beholden to their Eldorai 'cousins'. Having been raised in a harsh, cruel culture, they are ruthless fighters.
The Champions are allied with Qual'Zyanya, a young Xioquo matriarch. Zyanya was the scion of an influential house that had grown rich through shipping, the slave trade and the construction of war engines. The grand citadels that protected the Underealm from external attack were built by them. Their war machines proved vital in repulsing an invasion by the Qadiri Mirza of Lakish. However, they were not enough to stop the forces of the Tygaran Alliance. When the Xioquo Council voted to awaken Mystra, Zyanya and her sister Qual'Ixtar dissented. They conspired to assassinate the council with a bomb in order to prevent the awakening. Their assassination attempt was successful, but backfired as Mystra fed on the deaths and rose from her tomb.
The Quals were denounced as traitors and Ixtar was murdered, but Zyanya was able to escape. Unwilling to submit to the Tygaran Alliance, Zyanya teamed up with Sumiko Tanaka and become the her apprentice. She travelled with the Sith Lord for a while, seeking to learn her secrets while competing for her favour with the Eldorai Illyria, her rival for the position of First Apprentice. She swallowed her pride to learn all she could about foreign tech and the Force. Eventually she returned to Tygara, arriving just in time to play a part in repulsing a Kraal raid. While her role was minor, it helped boost her prestige amongst the Xioquo. For a while she acted as a secret agent for her mistress, trying to ingratiate herself with the new Xioquo Queen. Some Xioquo reviled her as a traitor or were suspicious of her motives, others saw her as heroine for trying to stop Mystra. She subtly began to distance herself from her Master. Conveniently Sumiko was murdered by Illyria, freeing Zyanya from her puppet strings.
Zyanya, who believes the Xioquo must rise anew and that her house is best equipped to bring this about, conspired with the Champions after reclaiming her heritage. Both share a belief in progress and self-strengthening. She helped them acquire technical know-how and shared some of her knowledge of the greater Galaxy with them. This helped the renegades find their way after departing Tygara during the Exodus. Some of the Champions are Xioquo who were recruited by Zyanya during her exile. She continues to be associated with them, seeing them as a means to increase her personal power and implement her progressive ideals. It is an alliance based on convenience, but also ideological affinity.
