Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Tephrik and its lore.
Image Credit: Here. Here.
Role: The Cinder Guard is a military unit charged with guarding Palmyra's Wail to ensure that the dangerous Force nexus cannot be tampered with or harnessed by Force-Users. They are also supposed to keep the horrors lurking inside the nexus from corrupting others. The unit answers to the Republican Guard, a Tephriki rebel movement.
Permissions: Can use Firemane stuff because I own the company.
Links: Dominion of Light, Disciples of the Vader, The Republican Guard is the Strongest, Into Darkness, After Darkness, Red Coral City, Tephrike, Palmyra's Wail, Ashspawn, Fort Vigilance.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Unit Name: Cinder Guard
Affiliation: Republican Guard, General Aruunzeb, Tephrike.
Classification: Infantry.
Description: The sword in the darkness; the relentless guardian. The Cinder Guard mans Fort Vigilance, which keeps watch over Palmyra's Wail. Their name refers to the fact that Palmyra is a ruined city that was turned to ashes by a horrible war. Once Palmyra was Tephrike's capital. But a great battle between the Dominion and the Vaderites devastated the city and turned it into a contaminated, dark Force Nexus. Now it is a tainted, radioactively contaminated wasteland. The Cinder Guard holds vigil over the ruins. Some call them the Knights of the Ashes. Fittingly, their leader is nicknamed the Commander of the Ashes. The Cinder Guard's credo is 'Never forget'. The Guard is based in Fort Vigilance, a small outpost located at the edge of the quarantine zone. Their goal is not to harness the nexus' power, but quarantine it so that others cannot be corrupted by it. Their mission is vital, but the Republican Guard is at war, so most of the manpower and material resources are allocated to combat formations on the frontline.
As a result, the Cinder Guard is underfunded and suffers from manpower issues. While the unit has volunteers, an increasing number of members are deserters, thieves and criminals who have been sentenced and given a second chance by protecting Tephrike from the horrors that lie within the nexus. It even includes a few Jedi or Sith who were captured by the Guard and stripped of their powers, but given a chance to redeem themselves for their crimes by protecting the world from the horror that their cults brought into being. Here it is pertinent to note that the Dominion and the Vaderites both view the Force Dead as tainted. This applies to the latter in particular. Thus while it is a second chance for these 'recruits', it also burns their bridges. Such recruits are distributed across the Guard rather than being grouped together. This reduces the risk of betrayal or desertion.
Harsh discipline has been imposed to maintain unit cohesion. The punishments for cowardice or desertion are draconian. Service in the Cinder Guard is not for life though. Criminals, deserters and the like who have served a certain number of years without blemish are considered rehabilitated, especially if they have been wounded or distinguished themselves in combat. Thus it is a way for them to clear their name. Of course, many do not make it that far, but the prospect of rehabilitation gives them hope. It is something to fight for. The Cinder Guard has a tradition of incinerating corpses in order to ensure that they cannot rise again as undead. They preserve the ashes of their fallen battle brothers and sisters though.
Officers from other formations may be seconded to the Cinder Guard. Nonetheless, the members of the group share a certain esprit de corps. It is born out of their isolation and the fact that they have been stationed at a place many Tephriki consider hell and are charged with protecting their people from the horrors that lie within it. Republican Guard propaganda has a tendency of romanticising service in the group a bit. This obviously also a way to attract recruits. What all members have in common is that they are Force Dead, as only those completely deaf to the Force cannot be tempted by the nexus. The Cinder Guard is supposed to get out civilians who find themselves trapped in the forbidden zone, but is merciless in dealing with those who come to exploit it. Sometimes the Cinder Guard conscripts individuals who have entered the forbidden zone.
Aside from direct combatants, the Cinder Guard features support staff. This includes a contingent of combat engineers to maintain the fortifications. They also have a few researchers. Because vast swathes of Palmyra's Wail are contaminated, the soldiers have enviro suits, fully sealed armour and various gadgets to protect them from radiation. However, the Cinder Guards are few in number. Guarding the nexus is important, but the rebels are also engaged in a life or death struggle with their enemies. This imposes limitations on their numbers and their access to resources. It has also forced them to make deals with elements they would normally consider unsavoury. The Cinder Guard has access to a very limited number of suits of power armour. These suits are old and bulky, but do the job. Each suit is scrupulously maintained and passed down to a deserving soldier once the original wearer falls in battle, is discharged or unable to continue their duties.
Another unorthodox feature of the 'knights of the ashes' is that some of them carry Force Imbued Blades. This is very controversial among the Republican Guard, as these weapons have been tainted by the malevolent Force. However, the Force Dead cannot be manipulated by the Force. Moreover, the Cinder Guard will often have to put down dark spirits, apparitions and the like. Because the rebels do not have alchemists and ban Force in general, they lack the means to produce enchanted blades of their own. Thus the Force imbued swords in the unit's possessions must be taken from (usually dead) Sith or Jedi, acquired through raids or purchased from smugglers. As a result, they do not have many, but then the Cinder Guard is not a large unit in the first place. Moreover, since lightsabres are incredibly rare on Tephrike, a Force imbued blade is the standard weapon of a Jedi or Sith.
The soldiers answer to the Republican Guard, a secularist, anti-Force-User, revolutionary movement native to Tephrike. It is in a state of war with the Disciples of the Vader, a Sith cult that worships Darth Vader as a god and regards aliens as lesser beings fit only to be enslaved or eradicated, and the Dominion of Light, a totalitarian, fundamentalist Jedi theocracy that follows a warped interpretation of the old Jedi Code. It seeks to overthrow both theocracies and unite Tephrike under the banner of a secularist republic by Non-Force-Users for Non-Force-Users.
The Republican Guard is strongly opposed to Force-Users in general and Jedi and Sith in particular, viewing them as responsible for the manifold suffering that has been inflicted upon Tephrike's people since the outbreak of the Gulag Virus. The Republican Guard believes that all sentient beings are created equal and have the inalienable right to life, liberty and freedom from the oppression of the Force. In keeping with this belief, they view it as important to destroy or hide away Force artefacts and prevent access to Force nexi such as Palmyra's Wail. The Guard refuses to utilise Force-Users. Indeed, it has banned the use of the Force entirely, as it views this power as inherently corrupting.
Moreover, the Palmyra's Wail nexus is too powerful to be cleansed, so the rebels have settled for cordoning it off. The Cinder Guard mans the fort the Republican Guard has constructed at the edge of the nexus. It patrols access ways to the nexus and launches forays to put down monsters and eliminate those who try to enter and harness the nexus. Palmyra's Wail is widely considered to be cursed on Tephrike and the rebels have declared it a forbidden area, so they tend to operate on a shoot on sight principle. The nexus is extremely dangerous and the Cinder Guard is stretched thin, so the rebels are not inclined to take chances. By necessity, the Cinder Guard has its own support infrastructure, such as engineers, trainers, medical personnel, weapons' technicians and researchers. Manpower is precious, so the Guard frowns on vainglorious death charging. A soldier who has been seriously injured can still do useful support work; a corpse, on the other hand, needs to be incinerated and replaced with a new recruit who will require training.
As is common for Republican Guard formations, the unit is multispecies. It has a significant Yuuzhan Vong contingent, but they do not dominate the unit. Kalak Kistono, often called the Old Squid by the soldiers under his command, is in charge of the group. Kistono is rather old, grizzled Nautolan, but still hale and capable of fighting alongside his soldiers. His soldiers affectionately call him the Old Squid. He is a strong, resolute leader and a formidable commander. The old soldier is respected by those who serve under him. He is convinced that great evil lurks in the nexus and is concerned that the Republican Guard's leaders are losing sight of it.
He volunteered to join the Guard after his son disgraced him by collaborating with the Dominion in return for being turned Force-Sensitive. The horrible things he has witnessed at the nexus have left their mark on him and he is troubled by the precarious position of the garrison. Dutiful and stubborn to a fault, he has refused to abandon his post in the face of adversity, lest the horrors that lurk in Palmyra's Wail be unleashed once more. Like all his subordinates, he is Force Dead, having undergone a dangerous procedure to become absent in the Force and thus immune to the mental temptations of the nexus. Keeping the garrison afloat has forced him to make some shady deals he is not proud of, but considered necessary.
Quodeith Krazhmir is a Yuuhan Vong member of the Cinder Guard. He is not thrilled about being posted here. Though the partisans like to pretend otherwise, they have their share of factionalism and intrigue. Quodeith had the misfortune of being on the losing side of a power struggle. He was exiled to Fort Vigilance to get him out of the way. Quodeith has served the Cinder Guard diligently, performing the duties of the head trainer responsible for breaking in new recruits.
New conscripts can expect harsh drills and constant insults. He is fine at his job, but takes no pleasure in it. For one, many recruits are petty criminals, deserters and 'cured' Force-Users. On one mission, he and a squad of soldiers were trapped by a storm and assailed by Sithspawn monstrosities for several days. When help finally arrived, he was one of two soldiers left alive and had close to death. This has left him with mental scars. He is a bitter man and has become rather cynical about the lofty ideals the Republican Guard claims to espouse. Quodeith has acquired a reputation for surviving situations that by all rights out to kill him. His comrades quip that he is too angry at the world to leave it.
Yethias Zorre is another Nautolan member, though an unwilling one. She is a more typical recruit for the 'knights of the ashes'. Pressganged into the army from her settlement during the Netherworld War, she did a couple tours reluctantly. But the high casualties, horrors of war and poor conditions got her. The pay was poor, the soldiers often had to forage and the threat of Dominion bombardment was always pervasive. However, she was found and sent to the Cinder Guard as punishment after a brief court-martial. Her skills were good enough for her to merit the chance of rehabilitation...if she survived long enough in the blasted hellscape. As a deserter, she was often given dangerous tasks such as scouting, clearing monster-infested tunnels, laying and clearing mines. She unexpectedly proved quite apt at surviving. Yethias resents being under the rebels' thumb, but has unexpectedly found a feeling of camaraderie among the order of the damned.
One of the Force-Users turned Force Dead warriors of the group is a human female called Kybele. She got indoctrinated into the Disciples of the Vader early on, but grew to hate both them and herself for the Force's corruption. Unlike other former Force-Sensitives who have been conscripted and 'cured', she is an actual volunteer who wanted to rid herself of the 'dark taint'. She is very zealous and has become one of Kistono's trusted officers. Kybele is a descendant of Darth Malita, who along with Battlemaster Mahtara can be considered the 'creator' of the nexus. It is a very distant relation and her family stopped leading the Disciples a long time ago anyway, but it still weighs on her. Her family wanted to 'reclaim the birthright', she wants to cleanse it. It is said that she once found a few holy Jedi texts in the ruins, and burnt them. She keeps a picture of a Vaderite massacre as a reminder of what she rebelled against.
COMBAT INFORMATION:
Unit Size: Medium
Unit Availability: Unique
Unit Experience: Elite
Equipment:
Armour:
Primary Rifles:
- Outland Rifle (with scope)
- Scatter Gun
- Bowcaster
- Slugthrower Rifle
- DC-15A Blaster Rifle
- FC-1 Flechette Launcher
- Imperial Heavy Repeater
- Stouker Concussion Rifle
- Verpine Shatter Rifle
- J-301 Pulse-Wave Saboteur
- Mk II Boltgun
- Enforcer Pistol
- Dissuader KD-30
- Ripper
- M9 Boomer Heavy Pistol
- Sonic Disruptor
- A280-CFE Blaster
- Hard-Sound Gun
- Verpine Shatter Gun
- PLX-1 Missile Launcher
- Machine Gun
- CSPL-12
- Model 134a Buzzsaw Rotary Cannon
- D-93 Incinerator Flamethrower
- Model 201 Mortar System
- Model MGL-1. Usually mounted on another rifle as an under-barrel grenade launcher.
Attached Weapons:
- Vac Blade Launcher
- Gatling Gauntlet
- Firestorm Under-Barrel Flame Projector
- ZX Miniature Flame Projector
Misc:
- Grenades, HX-2 Anti-Personnel Mines, LX-4 Proton Mines, Sonic Imploder, Thermal Imploder.
- Radiation Deflection Badges.
- Suicide Pill.
- A number of Decon Droids.
Moreover, every member of the unit is Force Dead. This renders them completely void within the Force, granting them an immunity to it comparable to that of Yuuzhan Vong and their biots. This is a great benefit, as they cannot be sensed in the Force or mentally manipulated by it and are immune to most direct Force attacks. However, it does have the normal associated downfalls in that they cannot be aided by the Force either. Additionally they are not immune to Force Lightning, and can be indirectly affected by the Force.
A few members of the Cinder Guard have access to power armour. However, they constitute a minority of the group. Such armour tends to be restricted to officers and select NCOs. Overall, the Cinder Guard is a fairly small unit, which imposes restrictions on how much manpower and firepower they can bring to bear in a fight. They are a defensive force that has had to deal with manpower issues. Moreover, because the location they are stationed in is rather remote, their supply train is irregular, though they are masters of improvisation and scavenging.
The unit is strong at defensive warfare, which it combines with forays and ruthless search and destroy raids, seeking to disorientate and overwhelm its foes. They have access to armoured personnel carriers as well as a small number of Clone Wars era walkers. This improves their firepower and mobility, though the walker's open cockpit design makes the pilot vulnerable to sniping. They will make frequent use of land mines, traps and improvised explosive devices to shift the scales in a fight. They also have no qualms about using weapons like gas and flamethrowers.
The Cinder Guard has an integrated unit of combat engineers and reconnaissance specialists. They are ingenious when it comes to setting up traps, obstacles and the like. The Guardsmen are very good at defensive and urban warfare, setting up traps and using the terrain to their advantage. Tephrike has been isolated for several centuries, the Republican Guard is poor and only has a limited industrial basis. This means that while the gear used by the Cinder Guard is rugged and serviceable, it tends to be older than modern galactic standard.
Strengths:
- All members of the Cinder Guard are Force-Dead, completely void within the Force granting them an immunity to it comparable to that of Yuuzhan Vong and their biots.
- Crack soldiers. They are particularly talented in combating Force-Users, Sithspawn, demons and the like.
- They are extremely experienced in operating in hazardous and hostile environments, such as radioactively contaminated hell zones with freak weather patterns.
- They are Force-Dead and thus completely void within the Force. While a great benefit, it does have the normal associated downfalls in that they cannot be aided by the Force either. Thus techniques like Force Healing, Valour or Battle Meditation will not help them. Additionally they are not immune to Force Lightning or Force Net, and can be indirectly affected by the Force.
- Small fighting force. The Cinder Guard has manpower issues. Attrition, rigorous training and the fact that the Republican Guard needs most of its soldiers elsewhere keep their numbers down.
- Being mainly an infantry force with some light vehicle support, they lack integrated heavy support such as tanks, gunships etc.
Centuries ago, Palmyra was the capital of Tephrike's democratic, federa government. Then the Gulag Virus broke out, causing the Galaxy to fall into a new Dark Age. Cut off from the rest of the Galaxy, Tephrike was ravaged by the plague and civil war. The federal government proved unable to solve the crisis. Warlords and criminal gangs contested it. Many people succumbed to disease, malnourishment or the bloodletting in the streets. Desperate to restore order, Tephrike's Jedi Knights launched a coup with the backing of elements of the military. Palmyra fell under the Jedi's control. However, fierce fighting broke out between the Jedi junta and the Alliance of Democratic Forces. The capital became a war zone. What was supposed to be a temporary dictatorship evolved into a totalitarian theocracy, the Dominion of Light.
Cade Seward, one of the Jedi Knights tasked with suppressing rebels, succumbed to the Dark Side. Visions and fever dreams convinced him that he was the Sword of Vader. He called himself Darth Malitia. Gathering followers, he mustered a Sith army and marched against the Dominion. Supporters of the Dominion and non-humans were massacred en masse. The Dominion was driven to radicalise even further. Jedi General Mahtara was one of the Jedi commanders who faced Malitia in the field at the ruins of Palmyra. 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. City districts were levelled and chemical weapons were used freely. Dominion troops were forced to fall back after the Sith performed a dark ritual to create a Deadly Field and raised countless dead as zombies. Defectors claimed that their dark lord had gone mad and was using blood sacrifices to power a ritual that would allow him to open a gateway to the depths of Chaos. Either way, the Dominion had been driven to the brink and was desperate. Thus Mahtara was authorised to unleash a terrible weapon Dominion scientists had built.
Troubled by the use of the nuclear weapon, Mahtara insisted on accompanying the bomber crew that would drop the weapon upon 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. Mahtara gave the order to drop the bomb. Palmyra ceased to exist.
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. The loss of life among Dominion followers, Sith and civilians had been staggering. Palmyra had not just been destroyed, it had been irrevocably tainted. Feeling immense guilt about her actions, Mahtara put down her lightsabre and resigned from active service. It soon dawned upon Dominion leaders that the weapon had been even more devastating than they could have anticipated. The cataclysmic battle had spawned a dark side nexus. Efforts to cleanse the nexus failed, so the Dominion settled for containment. The Vaderites tried many times to take control of and harness the nexus.
Palmyra's Wail was seized by the Republican Guard during the Netherworld War. In contrast to the Dominion and the Vaderites, the Guard was composed of Non-Force-Users 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.
Even after its grand offensive against the Dominion faltered, the Rebels stubbornly clung to the nexus. The Cinder Guard was born out of disparate militias and partisans. The Republican Guard quickly figured out that Non-Force-Users could not safely withstand the nexus' influence, and introduced the practice of requiring every member of the unit to be Force Dead. Fittingly, the first commander of the Cinder Guard was driven mad, and the second was killed in action. Aided by retreating Republican Guard partisans who had been driven back after the disastrous battle of Fortress Purity, the Cinder Guard was able to hold off a Dominion assault. However, they also had to deal with internal betrayals. Captive Jedi or Sith were often shot out of hand.
Moreover, they came across sentient zombies who called themselves the Reborn, though they were commonly referred to as Ashspawn. Reanimated by the nexus, these Force constructs were intelligent and had retained their sentience. Their wretched existence and centuries of isolation had left them bitter. The Ashspawn and the partisans, 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. 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.
At one stage during the Netherworld War, the disappearance of many members and forced conscriptions back to the regular forces for the Battle of Purity, Palmyra's Wail was left almost unguarded. The result was a demonic incursion. 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 to hold back the tide of darkness, 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. An uneasy stalemate developed. Some Ashspawn had managed to get out used various means, using esoteric means to avoid or pass as one of the living after escaping the ruined city.
The rebels stubbornly clung to Palmyra's Wail, fearful of what could happen if Force-Users took control of the nexus and were corrupted by its power. When the dark power gathered inside the nexus caused corpses to rise again, the Cinder Guard implemented a policy of burning bodies. The Cinder Guard took over the Dominion's old outpost. Geography and freak weather patterns made it difficult to supply the garrison, though it also impeded Dominion or Vaderite attempts to reclaim the nexus. The Cinder Guard held vigil, while also launching periodic forays into Palmyra's ruins to put down dangerous Sithspawn or apprehend and eliminate intruders.
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 serious manpower issues. Thus the rebel movement's high command introduced the controversial policy of conscripting felons who had been sentenced for their crimes, but were considered redeemable. If they served without blemish, they would be considered rehabilitated and allowed to rejoin society.
Captive enemy Force-Users who had undergone a procedure to turn them Force Dead - and survived it - were also conscripted after swearing an oath of loyalty to the partisans. Old guard members viewed these changes with distaste, but the high attrition rate made certain moral compromises necessary. By raiding old arsenals and making deals with criminal elements, the Guard was able to acquire a limited consignment of ancient but still potent power armour.
A sect of Vaderites tried to break through to gain what they believed would be 'unlimited power'. This was folly, of course. Most of the attackers were stopped and killed by the Cinder Guard. One managed to get through and reach the epicentre, where he was amped up by the energy of the nexus, but also overwhelmed by it. The soldiers had to put down this even more powerful threat. In present days, the Republican Guard is on the offensive again, having conquered Fortress Purity through an alliance of convenience with Firemane. However, the Cinder Guard continues to hold vigil over the ashes of Palmyra.
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