In the Darkness there is Truth
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Antagonist for future rp and stories involving Firemane.
Image Credit: Here. Website of the artist credited for the pic is here, though the image does not seem to appear there.
Role: Former Master of Leonina Varkathras and ex-student of Darth Libertas. Opposition | Sith Warlord | Sith Lord.
Permission: N/A.
Links: Leonina Varkathras, Darth Libertas, Profit Margins, Workers' Revolution, Hikari Saito, Yseult Faerin, Elpsis, Siobhan, Planning a Showdown, The Hunter becomes the Hunted, The Oncoming Storm, The Natural Order, Showdown I, Showdown II, The Young Phoenix Rises.
PHYSICAL INFORMATION
Age: Late Forties.
Force Sensitivity: Master.
Species: Togruta.
Appearance: Tall Togruta female with the head-tails and montrals common for her species. She is in very good physical shape, extremely fit and strong. Her skin is pale and she has grey eyes. Soteria favours flowing, covering robes. She usually wears concealing, flowing robes alongside armour. She has a savage, fierce expression, especially in the midst of combat. She has sharp canine teeth. Her movements are graceful, reminiscent of those of a predator, and she is very quick on her feet. She is fond of boots made from Tikulini hide, though she sometimes walks barefoot.
One of her montrals was mutilated by buckshot during her duel with Siobhan, who fired a hold-out bolter at her. Her body has several scars and electrical burn marks from that fight. She also has burns from being set on fire by Elpsis, who intervened in the duel after Soteria had been able to best Siobhan. Siobhan also collapsed one of her lungs. Soteria has received an artificial replacement since her duel.
She often wears a shimmering ornamentation at the crown of her head. Aside from pearls, metal, and stones, the headdress has the teeth of an akul, a massive beast native to Shili. Among her people it is common to display the trophies of a successful hunt and Soteria has taken this tradition to heart.
SOCIAL INFORMATION
Name: Darth Soteria. Born as Shakkara Kalon.
Titles:
- Lord of Salvation.
- Sith Lord
- Warlord
Wealth: Soteria has little interest in material wealth, viewing it as a millstone around her neck. Her disdain for creature comforts is something that carried over after she betrayed the Jedi Order. Indeed, she has taken it a step further because she reviles consumerism and capitalism now. However, she has access to resources, meaning that while she is not wealthy in the conventional sense, she has access to the things she needs. She keeps a small personal collection consisting of trinkets and oddities from worlds she has visited. Moreover, she has a collection of trophies from battlefields and hunts she has participated in.
Notable Possessions: Collection of trophies from various battlefields and hunts, including the skull of a Krayt Dragon and a necklace made from the teeth of an Akk Dog. She often wears a set of armor underneath a dark red cloak, trousers and tunic. Her lightsabre has been crafted with a sturdy Phrik hilt. It has a dual-phase setting, bifurcating cyclical ignition pulse and an intense blade. It uses a Vexxtal crystal and a Hurrikaine as its focusing crystals. She also has a shoto, which she often dual-wields in tandem with her primary, full-length blade. Alternately she carries it for backup or uses it to carry out a sneaky attack while her opponent is busy fending off her primary sabre. The shoto has a Lignan and a Life Drain crystal. It has the same standard systems as her primary weapon. She also has a pack of Vornskr and has recently adopted a couple Nexu cubs.
Skills: Soteria is a Master of the Dark Side and of lightsabre combat. Prior to her fall to the dark side, she was a militant Jedi Guardian. These skills have remained with her, though she has taken them into a darker direction. Soteria has been trained in all classical forms of lightsabre combat along with the New Jedi Order Fast, Medium and Strong Styles. She is a very skilled user of Juyo, a highly aggressive style, and Jar'kai. She is a very talented huntress and tracker.
Soteria can use the Force to enhance her physical capabilities, such as strength, speed, stamina and resilience. She is very fast, good at controlling her sense of pain and internal body temeprature as well accelerating her healing process. She is quite gifted in Telekinesis and its various sub-applications, including crushing or restraining foes and choking them through holocom conference calls as well as stopping and reversing the trajectory of blaster bolts. Force Scream, Force Plague, Force Rage, Tutaminis, Battlemind, Animal Friendship and Deadly Sight are also part of her repertoire. Unlike Libertas, Soteria cannot make Faustian bargains by enhancing someone's Force-Sensitivity. However, she is adept in Dark Transfer, allowing her to bring others back to life from the brink of death. She uses it to revive those she considers worthy to give them the chance to join her. Similar to Cade Skywalker, she can use it to heal or hurt others.
Soteria has embraced the fierce culture of Shili, the Togruta homeworld. She enjoys hunting dangerous game, the more challenging the better. To make things more challenging, she sometimes deliberately handicaps herself by wearing an item made of Voidstone, a ysalamiri backpack or simply refusing to use the Force when she goes up against dangerous predators. She is a highly skilled tracker and good with improvised and primitive weapons, such as bows, spears and so on. She is pragmatic enough to pick up a blaster when necessary, favouring the DXR-6 Disruptor Pistol. Likewise, she is capable of using Teräs Käsi, vibroblades, and polearms.
Soteria is not a 'genius' strategist or battlefield commander. But she is a reliable officer when operating on a scale where she can direct things personally. She is good at leading troops on the field of battle personally. Soteria insists on leading from the front and to always be there where the fighting is the hottest. This is inspiring for her soldiers and drives them to acts of valour. But it also means that she is poor at grand strategy, as one cannot direct an army and engage in duels at the same time. In short, she is a good battalion or regiment commander, but not an apt choice to command a division or an army.
Personality: Sith Warrior type. Very much the 'crush the fools who wallow in their ignorance' type. Once she was a stalwart Jedi crusader, but then she betrayed the Order. Like her former mentor Darth Libertas, who persuaded her to join the One Sith and break her oath to the Republic, she believes in self-actualisation. It is a pretty brutal version of the self-help doctrine of 'the Force helps those who help themselves'. She respects those who have endured hardship and thrived.
However, Soteria takes this a step further by turning her zeal explicitly into causing those situations and then offering respect and power to those who survive. She approved of the Rogue Sith for forcing the Galaxy to unite against the threat posed by the Omega superweapon and show strength. In her view, the Galaxy needs a cleansing storm. The Sith are not evil; they are merely serving nature's purpose by culling the herd. Hence it is their duty to actively create conditions that will force the myriad beings of the Galaxy to unfetter themselves. Nature is cruel; therefore the Sith are entitled to be cruel. In short, she is a Sith fanatic. From her point of view, she is a saviour.
In a way, she is also influenced by her Togruta heritage. Her people hail from the planet Shili, where they have to bend together to protect themselves against massive beasts. They learn to fight and to hunt from an early age, as they are carnivorous. They are known for the belief that those who cannot keep up with the pack should be left to fend for themselves. This view is a good fit for the Sith's Social Darwinist belief in survival of the strongest. She will go to any lengths to protect what is hers.
Togruta hunters are fond of showing off the pelts and teeth of creatures they have bested. This is a practice she has adopted. These characteristics might make one inclined to think that she is a mere savage brute, yet Soteria subverts these expectations. A predator acts with strategy and cunning, after all. The Togruta is not the type to waste time with vainglorious gloating and boasts. The deeds of a true Master, in her view, speak for themselves and to run one's mouth boasting about them betrays insecurity. Soteria has a low tolerance for failure or incompetence, and will not hesitate to execute subordinates for repeated failures. At the same time, she will protect minions who prove themselves capable and is quick to reward initiative and merit.
Overall, she has a very twisted sense of honour and morality. She treats strength as her mark of honour. A weak opponent deserves to be butchered along with all of their dependants. A strong opponent, by contrast, a deserves a quick death and an offer to join her. Sometimes by being revived after being cut down. Betrayal or double-crossing her will be met with terminal force. She is the sort who wants to make the enemy fire the first shot so that she feels justified in killing them. She is an avid big game hunter, but insists on making it a fair contest. To this end she sometimes deliberately handicaps herself by completely foregoing Force use. She is extremely contemptuous of hunters who hide behind technology and slaughter animals. She has made a point of hunting down such poachers and killing them in cruel and often ironic ways.
Soteria dislikes lying, though this does not stop her from being economical with facts by telling half-truths and lies of omission. In terms of demeanour she is stern and maintains an arrogant aloofness. She judges everything, categorising those she encounters as threats, assets or prey. She rarely cracks a smile, unlike her former Sith master, who makes a point of appearing affable. When she rallies her minions with speeches, she does so with the strength of conviction and borderline religious fanaticism.
In a twisted sort of way, Soteria still cares for Leonina. She is frustrated by her former apprentice's refusal to join her, and wants the Cathar to see the truth and stand at her side. In her view, Leonina is wasting her talents by serving lesser beings, when she could be capable of so much more. In an odd way, she is protective of her. She considers it destiny that one day she must face her wayward student and show her the truth. While she retains some affection for her former apprentice, she is contemptuous of her ex-teacher, Darth Libertas. In her view, the Twi'lek was close to the truth, but did not go far enough, which makes her weak.
COMBAT INFORMATION
Weapon of Choice: Lightsaber | The Force.
Combat Function: Soteria is a powerful combatant with the skill set and demeanour of a Sith Warrior. She can participate in the fury of combat and assume leadership roles. She is strong, in very good physical shape and has an extremely high tolerance for pain. She prefers a direct approach in personal combat, relying on her physical capabilities, strength in the Force and potency as a lightsabre duellist. Her rage empowers her in battle, and she uses it as a fuel to strengthen herself and endure greater punishment. Moreover, she is a very good tracker, trapper and big game hunter.
Soteria regards battle not just as a means to an end, but also as a way to prove her philosophy is the correct one. To her battle is a contest of conviction as well as strength. By overpowering a strong opponent, she proves her superiority. A particularly tenacious foe who has earned her respect might be given a chance to join her after being cut down. This can obviously also be turned against her, as it might leave her open.
Soteria makes a point of seeking out the strongest opponent on the enemy side so that she can test herself against them. She will not carelessly rush into the fray without any forethought and planning. Indeed, she is very cunning in a predatory way. But her drive can cause her to misjudge a situation. Soteria is an aggressive melee duellist, with a preference for Juyo. It takes advantage of her speed, strength and fury. She is also very good at dual-wielding lightsabres. She is unpredictable and precise in her attacks.
Soteria trains regularly with conventional weapons while exposed to ysalamiri or Voidstone. Indeed, she also hunts big game while denying herself access to the Force. As a result, being deprived of her preternatural powers would not be crippling for her. She is still a dangerous fighter without the Force.
Strengths:
- Soteria is a Master of the Force and a very experienced combatant. She is very gifted with the lightsabre, the Force, and other weaponry. Her preferred lightsabre style is Juyo, granting her impressive offensive capabilities.
- She is adept in the use of Dark Transfer, which allows her to bring others back to life from the brink of death. Combined with her accelerated healing and very high tolerance for pain, she is extremely resilient and able to endure a lot of punishment. In short, she is a tank.
- She is a Togruta, so the hollow spaces in her cranial horns, or montrals, aid her in clearly perceiving her surroundings. By gathering information ultrasonically, they allow her to speed up her movements faster and with greater accuracy.
- Arrogant. Soteria is convinced of her superiority and will make a point of seeking out the strongest opponent in any engagement. This can cause her to make errors in judgement, such as overlooking foes she dismisses as weak and beneath her notice, only to be surprised. Moreover, she would rather sway a strong opponent to her side by reviving them after striking them down.
- Soteria is a Sith Warrior and a huntress. She is lacking in areas such as slicing, grand campaign strategy and piloting.
- Her furious and lethal offence is extremely potent in melee combat. But it can turn into a weakness if an opponent is able to weather the storm of blades, outmanoeuvre her or break through her relentless offence, she may be left open with a lacking defence. She is no slouch on defence, but the application of a Juyo offence inherently lowers one's defensive capabilities.
Soteria's story is one of a parabolic descent into chaos. Perhaps it is a good case study for how someone who fights monsters can, under certain circumstances, turn into one. She went from a paladin of the Light to a Sith Lord and war criminal. Her fall from grace did not come abruptly, but in stages. She was born on the planet of Shili, the homeworld of the Togruta. She took her first breath when the Four Hundred Year Darkness was coming to an end. Life on Shili was not easy. The planet was home to many beasts, such as the akul, which her people had to work together to best. Moreover, after centuries of isolation, her tribe lacked modern technology. Young Shakkara, as she was called back then, was blessed with a natural predisposition for combat, scouting and tracking. She was lean and fast, but also possessed significant strength.
Though she lacked formal training, the Force honed her senses and reflexes from an early age. One of her fondest memories is of her and her fellow hunters stalking and taking down a massive akul that had menaced their village. However, she also held a reverence for life, honouring the beasts she had slain. When her younger brother went missing in the wilderness, Shakkara took it upon herself to find him. Days passed, and her tribe feared the worst, but she returned with him.
There was a strong sense of togetherness among her people. However, there was also a less pleasant side. Once a member of a hunting party was unable to keep up. She was left to fend for herself. Shakkara was soon pulled away from her homeworld, for good or ill. The Gulag Virus has receded and worlds that had been isolated by the outbreak were being connected in. Galactic empires and republics arose, seeking to exact their will upon the Galaxy and shape it in their image. Eventually scouts from the Jedi Order of the Galactic Republic arrived.
Some members of Shakkara's family were sceptical of the outsiders, who promised them aid and protection, but might end up just bringing more strife. Reluctantly, they allowed the Jedi to carry out Midichlorian tests. Shakkara submitted to the procedure, and it was revealed that she was Force-Sensitive. But her family would not let her go, for they did not want to be separated from their daughter and mistrusted the outsiders.nHowever, around this time a disease broke out. It claimed the lives of several members of the tribe. Members of Shakkara's family fell sick. The Jedi determined that the sickness was Force-based in origin. It turned out that the a dark artefact was the cause. A ship bearing it had crashed on the planet, and now it spread its malignant corruption.
Determined to make a difference, Shakkara insisted on joining the Jedi's party when they set out to destroy this menace. The journey to the artefact was a dangerous one, as they faced many hazards. Shakkara did not have knowledge of lightsabre combat or Force powers, but she knew the terrain and was a skilled huntress and tracker. This proved invaluable for keeping the party alive. The closer they got, the more the artefact took a toll on them. The land had been tainted, as had the animals that dwelt in it, for they had undergone bizarre mutations.
Shakkara began to grow sick, but insisted on continuing. In her fever dreams she was haunted by visions. Some showed her as a terrible fury, destroying all that stood in her way and losing everything. These dreams frightened her. She was not the only one who was adversely affected. The Jedi who led the party began to grow unbalanced. More and more his agenda shifted from destroying the device to securing it for the 'greater good'. Soon he accused his fellows of being tainted.
Finally it came to a confrontation. The Jedi Master's apprentice, Than Gotral, refused to follow him. This led to a fight. Than was beaten in the duel. Shakkara, having recognised the Master as corrupt and come to respect Than, tried to intervene. She lacked training in the Force, but a shot from her scattergun wounded the Jedi. She tried to defend herself with rifle and spear, but was outmatched. She could injure the corrupted Master. She unconsciously drew upon the Force to empower herself, moving faster and landing stronger blows. However, she was overwhelmed and beaten. However, her actions had provided enough of a diversion for Than to recover and strike his Master, who had been torturing the Togruta with Lightning. Enraged and also somewhat affected by the artefact, Than drew on his fury. He was able to overpower his master and chop his hand off.
However, as the tainted Jedi lay before him, he realised that he had drawn upon the dark side. Remorseful, he tried to give his Master a chance to surrender, but was forced to kill him. The artefact was destroyed. In the aftermath, life returned to normal. However, things had taken a profound turn for Shakkara. She had concluded that there were threats far greater than what she had known on her homeworld. Even the Jedi had struggled against the corruption of the artefact.
If she wanted to keep these menaces away from her people, she would have to proactively fight them, and she could only do that if she gained control over her powers. Thus she decided to accept Than's offer to join the Jedi Order and receive training. Unlike his master, he was less pushy about it. Perhaps he felt bad about her being pulled into this. Guilt over what had happened to his master and his failure to prevent it also played her role. Her family was reluctant to let her go. But she had made up her mind. A ceremony was held to see her off, and then she departed.
Shakkara was brought to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Than's request to train her was granted. Getting used to life in the Temple was quite an adjustment for Shakkara. She had seen cities before, but nothing on the scale of the ecumenopolis. She was older than a number of her fellow neophytes, some of them whom dismissed her due to her rustic mannerisms and social awkwardness. This caused its share of bitterness on her part. But she threw herself into training.
She excelled in the arts of combat. The fact that she had already been trained as a huntress worked to her advantage, meaning that she was ahead of a number of her peers, though she had to catch up on the academic front. Her determination to succeed both impressed and at times disconcerted her teacher. His own brush with the dark side had made Than rather conservative in his mind set, as he doubled down on his dedication to the Jedi Code.
In his case, it was the Code of Luke Skywalker's New Jedi Order. Shakkara was taught to follow the path of the Light and combat the dark side in all its forms. She was a dedicated, but intense student. When she participated in a tournament, she won accolades for her combat skill, but was reprimanded for being too brutal in the duel. In her view, she was a warrior. Talking about peace was all well and good, but if she had wanted to be a librarian who occasionally played with a sword of light, she would not have joined an order whose members called themselves knights.
The stark class disparities of Coruscant did not escape her. After having seen the splendour of the upper city, she was shocked by the filth, squalour and impoverishment of the slums when a mission to take out a criminal syndicate brought her to Lower Coruscant. Than acknowledged that the Republic was not perfect, but believed it was still the best hope for civilisation and democracy to flourish. Time would put these notions to the test. The young apprentice was soon roped into the Galactic Republic's early expansionary ventures.
On Anaxes, she fought warlords while Chancellor Aurelia Saelari swayed the local politicians, who were probably just a better class of warlords. However, several Jedi, including the Grandmaster at the time, toured an old Jedi enclave instead of join the fight. She was disgusted by this. Later she was dispatched to Cato Neimoidia. Officially the Republic was intervening to topple an evil despot, Tal Komar. While he was indeed a despot, their guiding motivations were more mercantile and self-interested. The Neimoidians were levying a tax on all ships moving through and about their system. This was illegal under Republic law, but they were not part of the Republic. However, it hurt the mercantile interests of the growing nation.
The official line was that the Neimoidians were using their position on the Hydian Way to blockade, raid, and otherwise disrupt trade heading towards Corellia. They were behaving like thugs and bullies. Tan seemed to harbour doubts about the campaign, but complied and his apprentice followed him. Shakkara fought on the ground, facing battle droids and Neimoidian militiaa during fighting in the capital. She worked with an Atrisian armoured corps. In the end the planet after a Jedi strike team took over the droid control ship.
Her next big assignment was Contruum. There the Republic backed a workers' revolution against a corporate fascist regime that enslaved the proletariat, forcing the toilers to work to death. With the aid of New Republic Intelligence, the rebels were supposed to rise up in revolt. A Republic fleet was en route to reinforce them. Than and Shakkara worked with New Republic Intelligence agent Moira Skaldi, who had been dispatched to 'advise' the rebels. However, the revolution was not a dinner party. Lacking numbers of high-tech armaments, the rebels used speeder bombings, roadside bombs, assassinations and so on.
Confronted by Than after a bombing produced collateral damage, Moira simply said that this was war. Rebellions might be built on hope, but they were won by blood and iron. The rebels had been given the task of taking down the local defences. They succeeded, but many perished. In the end, the Republic fleet never arrived, and its assets were pulled out. Shakkara denounced this strongly, seeing it as a betrayal. She helped some Contruum rebels escape. Moira Skaldi vanished, but later resurfaced as a member of the Omega Protectorate's spy service. However, by then she had been replaced by an HRD with her face and memories.
The pair was soon deployed to Roche, the first big battle between the Republic and the Sith Empire. It was the first real, large-scale battle Shakkara had fought in. The fighting was fierce. The warship they had arrived in was destroyed by a Sith attack. Shakkara managed to reach Roche during the evacuation, but was separated from her Master. She teamed up with a rag-tag force of Republic soldiers and Verpine. Together they launched an attack on a Sith artillery battery.
During the attack she faced her first Sith Knight. The fight pushed Shakkara to her limits, but she fought with fierce determination. The Sith invaded her mind, trying to cow her by spreading terror and mania. Remembering her helplessness back on Shili when exposed to the artefact, she focused on the Force, shutting him down and broke through his defences, striking him down. She was commended by the military and her teacher.
Roche was a Pyrrhic victory for the Republic. It held the territory and had blunted the Sith's offensive. However, in the aftermath of the battle, several Jedi left the Republic's Jedi Order. According to them, the Jedi had lost their way and become a political tool of imperialism. Shakkara was not one of them. She had a fierce argument with one of her fellow Padawans, who had turned down a knighthood to protest the present direction of the Order. Shakkara did not trust the Senate anymore, and advocated Jedi leadership of the Republic, but found the Jedi wanting. Nonetheless, she stuck with them. She was knighted for her valour at Roche. Shakkara was not involved in the defence of Mandalore, where the Republic and the Omega Protectorate supported the Mandalorians against a Sith invasion, but she was there for Metalorn. There Republic and Sith forces clashed once more. During the battle she ended up engaging a Sith Lord. She fought valorously, but was bested in the duel. She lost a hand in the duel.
Blasting her with lightning, the Sith tried to get her to release her anger and see the truth. Than intervened in the fight. The Sith Master engaged him, taunting the Jedi by saying that his apprentice would soon be one with the darkness. Seeing her Master protect her, Shakkara was overcome by an intense shame and threw herself into battle despite her maiming. Her anger unleashed a powerful blast of the Force, burning the Sith Lord. The two were able to force him to retreat. However, Shakkara had taxed herself so much that she collapsed. Her teacher was troubled by her outburst of anger, not to mentin the fact that she had almost gotten herself killed. This caused a rift between them.
In the end, Metalorn was held by the Empire. The Republic had soured on further fighting after a Jedi had committed war crimes. Instead they signed a peace treaty with the Empire. It was hailed as 'peace for our time'. It included allowing the Empire to send a representative to the Senate. Shakkara and Than both strongly disapproved of Jedi-Sith friendship. However, Than believed it was his duty to stay with the Jedi. The best way to bring about change, he reasoned, was from within. Sooner or later the Imperials would break the treaty, and the forces of Light would have to be ready. However, Shakkara would not accept that. Turning in her lightsabre, she went into exile. For a while she was adrift. She took the time to return to Shili. Her family was happy to have her back, but she found it difficult to reconnect with them. Nonetheless, she spent time hunting, passed on some of her skills to young Force-Sensitives in her community and protected the tribe against raiders.
There was a chance that she could have been made the leader of her clan. She was tempted to agree and put down her blade, but then she learned that large parts of Coruscant, including the Senate dome, had been devastated by a fight between two Sith Lords. She also heard that a group of radical Jedi had founded an Army of Light to strike back at the Sith. After some brief reflection, she joined them.
When the Sith invaded Togoria to commit genocide and enslave the natives, Shakkara was there. She was able to save some Togorians and spirit them to safety, but the fight was a massacre. The Sith's sadism stoked her hatred of them. Looking upon what the Sith had wrought, she swore not to rest until they had been defeated. Eventually the Army of Light disbanded. Meanwhile, Selena Halcyon had become Grandmaster of the Republic's Jedi Order. The new leadership proclaimed a crusade against the Empire. Shakkara rejoined the Order. Reunited with Than, she distinguished herself at the battles of Ossus and Dac, leading small teams of soldiers. She had learned her lesson from Metalorn and acted more prudently instead of charging in. But she gave no quarter. Than also did his duty in the war, but now he was one who had become disillusioned.
He obviously approved of the Republic taking the fight to the Sith and liberating the oppressed. But he was shaken by events on Manaan. There a Jedi Master summoned a Force-based storm and a Republic-allied mercenary sunk half of Ahto City to deny it to the Sith. To him this was an atrocity. The fact that it was not really prosecuted led him to conclude the Republic and the Jedi had become corrupted. Shakkara was disgusted by it as well, but in her view division in the ranks could only aid the Sith. The darkness had to be defeated. This led to a row between the two of them. Than turned in his lightsabre and left the Republic. He eventually joined the Levantine Sanctum.
Following the destruction of Dromund Kaas at the hand of the Mandalorians, the Sith, as commentators put it, returned to the shadows. Shakkara was sceptical and continued to operate in the Republic occupation zone. She found her belief that the Sith were just biding their time validated when the Sith Lord she had fought on Metalorn turned himself in. He claimed that he had seen the Light and wanted to redeem himself. Indeed, he proved quite helpful when it came to tracking down fugitive Sith and even provided them with information on hidden Sith temples and laboratories.
However, Shakkara did not trust him. From her point of view, someone who had served the dark side and committed atrocities could not be allowed to walk as a free man, let alone welcomed into the Jedi Order. So she began to investigate him and put the seemingly repentant Sith under surveillance. Distrusting official channels, she enlisted anti-Sith rebels she had worked with during the war, including survivors of the slaughter on Togoria.
They soon came across suspicious communications. She set up an ambush for the Sith. He was strong in the Force, assaulting her with his full power, but what she lacked in esoteric skills, she compensated with tenacity and pain tolerance. Shakkara bested him and took him prisoner. He protested his innocence, but he was locked in a tiny, damp and cold cell. Deprived of the Force, denied food and water beyond the bare minimum to sustain him and subjected to mental probes, he was worn down. Shakkara learned that he was part of a network of Sith who had returned to the shadows. Using this information, she and a group of soldiers cleansed the cult so that the Sith could not sin anymore. She kept some of the details of her interrogation of the Sith out of her report. She was made a Jedi Master.
Shakkara had hoped that what had transpired on Manaan would be investigated, but what her private crusade convinced her that the Sith were still at large. Meanwhile, the Republic had mobilised for war against the Fringe Confederation, which had become a haven for many Sith, including the former Emperor Kaine Zambrano, who had instigated the attack on Togoria. The Lords of the Fringe had recently assimilated the Atrisian Empire, which had sought its former foe's protection after its attempted invasion of the Omega Protectorate had ended in defeat. Shakkara joined Republic forces when they attacked O'reen. Until recently it had been controlled by the Atrisians before being gifted to the Fringe.
There she saved the life of a young Hikari Saito. Saito was an Epicanthix from Panatha. She had an inherent gift for suppressing the Force abilities of other adepts. Her family had been driven into exile after Kaine Zambrano conquered the planet. Much like a younger Shakkara, Saito was impetuous and out for revenge on the Sith. Commandeering a light walker, she had death charged a Sith. However, the vehicle was wrecked in the attack and Saito as badly injured.
Owing to her wounds and inexperience, the Panathan's attempt to use her powers on the Sith failed. Fighting when one was bleeding out was awkward, as one could imagine. Fortunately for her, she was saved by Shakkara, who bested her foe. The Togruta sensed Saito's Force potential and offered to train her in the Force. However, the ways of the Jedi were not for Saito, and so she decline. Nonetheless, Shakkara nursed her back to health. O'reen had ended with a Fringe victory. This led to peace negotiations on Telos. While the treaty confirmed the status quo, it was a grave blow for the crusader cause. Shakkara found herself disenchanted with the Jedi's new leadership, denouncing them as appeasers.
In order to focus her, she was assigned a Padawan to train. Her name was Leonina Varkathras, a young Cathar who had recently been inducted into the Jedi Order. Her parents were patriotic Republic citizens, but Leonina was a bit of a problematic student. While she showed promise with a lightsabre, formalised classes and emphasis with rote learning bored her. She yearned for adventure and resented being separated from her family, but did not want to disappoint them. Unlike her teacher, Leonina had led a rather sheltered existence, for her family had assimilated into Core World culture.
While rather stern and authoritarian, Shakkara was a practical type who believed in direct action. Leonina devoured stories of Jedi like Lord Hoth, Mace Windu and Jaina Solo. With her master there was little of the traditional training routines with remote droids firing stun bolts and such. Rather it was all about going out into the galaxy and helping people directly, sometimes without Council knowledge.
Over time, Leonina developed feelings for her master, but these remained unrequited. The two had many adventures together. One of them included breaking up a sentient trafficking ring on Coruscant, which exposed Leonina to the deplorable conditions the residents of the lower levels of the Republic's capital lived in. It affected the girl's idealism a bit. Shakkara became increasingly obsessed with rumours about the resurgence of the Sith.
Said rumours turned out to be true when the One Sith invaded Coruscant, catching the Republic off-guard. Padawan Leonina fought bravely against the invaders, battling Sith and their minions. However, the battle was lost and the Jedi Temple destroyed. It was a great shock to the Padawan, who was also disgusted by the behaviour of those Jedi who, in her view, had abandoned the Republic in its hour of need, such as the Silver Jedi Order. Her teacher encouraged these sentiments.
Shakkara grew secretive and suspicious, trusting few one of the members of the Jedi Council, Daella Apparine, was revealed to be a Sith agent. The Jedi Master became more of a rogue, seldom reporting to the Council. Indeed, she often only informed them of her actions after the fact, as she suspected that there was a leak. Moreover, she became highly critical of the Republic's conduct of the war effort. To her, the Jedi and the politicians lacked resolution. This made them weak in her eyes.
She and Leonina threw themselves into combat, participating in various battles and raids. The pair worked closely with Saito, who had joined the Republic army as a mercenary. The three worked together on a number of missions aimed at disrupting the One Sith war machine through strikes against war factories, research facilities and Sith academies. The trio made a good team. She also worked with Major Yseult Faerin, a rogue Eldorai and mercenary who had joined the Republic army for credits and because she felt revulsion for Sith. Leonina was knighted after the Second Battle of Alderaan, where she took down a powerful Yuuzhan Vong warrior.
Yseult commanded a unit of soldiers that supported Shakkara and Leonina in a raid on a Sith research facility. The mission was a success, but it turned out to be a Pyrrhic victory. The pair was separated during their escape. Shakkara tried to distract the Sith troops to buy time for her apprentice and the soldiers. She fought a rear guard action, using explosives and telekinesis to collapse part of the building. But she ended up cut off from her alies. Shakkara accepted her fate, and fought valiantly, killing scores of Sith soldiers and acolytes. Eventually she was overrun by force of numbers and captured by Darth Libertas. The Twi'lek cyborg had been inspecting security measures at the facility when the strike team infiltrated it. Shakkara was now her prisoner. Ironically, Libertas would later thank the Togruta for reminding her of how dangerous pride could be. For even in victory, the Sith were not unassailable.
Indeed, that was the time when they had to be particularly on their guard, for it bred complacency. Libertas made the captive Jedi her personal project. However, much to Shakkara's surprise, the Sith did not torture her. Instead she used her voice to convince and seduce her to the Dark Side. Many debates ensued, during which Libertas pointed out the manifold flaws with the Jedi, and the 'truth' of her philosophy.
Which, as Libertas pointed out, meshed far better with the beliefs of the Togruta. The Sith were not evil, they were merely doing Nature's bidding. It was regrettable that many Sith acted solely out of blood lust or blind thirst for power, but if they worked together, they could purge them. The Republic was doomed, and Shakkara was wasting her potential with them. Time and again they had failed their people. To speed things along Libertas started out using some suggestive drugs, but then quickly realised that she did not need them. She also arranged for Shakkara to meet some of the former slaves who had been 'enlightened' under her guidance. Darth Havoc, a Sith who had a rivalry with Libertas, tried to meddle by having his minions steal her prisoner and break her in the good old fashioned way.
Libertas pursued them. Despite being weakened by her incarceration, Shakkara was able to free herself. Giving in to her blood lust and drawing on the Dark Side, she slew Havoc and his minions. But upon being confronted by Libertas, she decided to join the Sith. She had seen the Light - or rather the Dark. She got to display her commitment and remorselessness by helping suppress a rebellion. From this moment on she would be known as Darth Soteria. The newly christened Sith Lord decided to 'reconnect' with her ex-apprentice. In a twisted way, Soteria still cared for Leonina and wanted the Cathar at her side. Thus she sent her a distress signal, claiming that she was still alive and in hiding. In the transmission, Soteria implied that they might have been betrayed by a mole in the Order, urging Leonina not to tell anyone.
Foolishly, the Cathar threw caution to the wind and covertly travelled to the rendezvous point her former master had mentioned. However, it was a trap. Betrayed, Leonina was captured and taken to a prison camp. There, she was savagely tortured in an attempt to break her resolve and turn her to the Dark Side. However, though Soteria played on the resentment and anger inside her former apprentice, Leonina resisted. She was able to escape the prison with the help of a rogue camp guard, freeing a few captive Padawans in the process. Her friend Saito had come and helped her escape.
However, the daring escape was interrupted when she ran into Soteria. Once again the Togruta made an attempt to sway her old apprentice to her side, also appealing to the feelings Leonina secretly had for her. However, the Cathar would not hear any of it, and attacked her with all her rage. A furious duel ensued, as the Jedi Knight unleashed her anger. Leonina was seriously injured during the fight, but was able to inflict severe wounds on her master in turn. During the course of the duel, the building collapsed. Soteria was buried beneath the rubble, and Leonina escaped. However, the Togruta was able to survive her injuries. Drawing upon her hatred and the power of the dark side, she willed her body to function again.
Libertas was disappointed by the end result, but never forgot the Cathar who had displayed conviction and escaped her net. The relationship between the two Sith Lords soured. Soteria was too independent-minded to be satisfied with playing second fiddle. Both were distracted by the war effort, but Soteria started building her own power base. She led units of soldiers and Sith acolytes on campaigns against the enemies of the Empire.
She honed her dark healing abilities, developing a deeper understanding of them. In addition to being able to accelerate her own healing and suppress her sense of pain, she soon discovered that she could revive others after bringing them to the brink of death. Soteria started using this power to make Faustian bargains. Those who proved worthy foes would be given a chance to join her after being humbled. Sometimes she healed the sick and wounded to show them the true glory of the dark side, as she saw it.
For a while the Sith still went from victory to victory. However, it seemed to her that the Empire was stagnating. Libertas agreed with her diagnosis, but not with her idea for a cure.While Libertas stayed out of the brief One Sith Civil War, Soteria joined the putschists. The Dark Lord was killed, but a Dark Council took command. The Togruta was not satisfied with the new oligarchy. Then the Galactic Alliance launched its crusade against the Sith. The first battle at Lujo went in the Sith's favour. Returning to her old stomping ground, Soteria participated in the One Sith's conquest of Togoria. Once she had defended this world against Sith invaders, now she came her as one of the conquerors and butchers.
The Galactic Alliance renewed its offensive. Soteria welcomed a challenge, but saw it also as confirmation that the Sith had grown weak and indolent. She was one of those who endorsed a scorched earth strategy. Let the Core burn and force the Alliance to pick up the pieces. Those who survived would have to face adversity and hardship and either go under or be the stronger for it. Factories would be destroyed, dams blown up and water supplies poisoned.
The facade of civilisation would be stripped away. Amidst all this, her old master returned. Than had spent the last few years in Wild Space and the Outer Rim, helping the Levantine Sanctum defend the people under its protection. After the Sanctum was assimilated by the Silver Jedi Order, he found himself out of step with the new government, as he saw them as theocrats and did not believe that Jedi should be rulers.
He also disapproved of Firemane, an ally of the Silver Sanctum Coalition, as the corporation was run by a Dark Jedi and had many darksiders in its ranks. So he became a wanderer, righting wrongs and helping out where he could. However, he could not stay aloof from the war going on in the Core for long. Guilt and a sense of duty motivated him to intervene, especially after he heard about the deeds of his former apprentice. So he joined the New Jedi Order's crusade as a Rogue Jedi Master. Than was an old man now, but as with Dooku and Obi-Wan, age had not diminished his power or his resolve. On the way, he teamed up with Leonina. The Cathar had learned that her master lived.
It came to a confrontation aboard the Omega. By then Soteria had broken with Libertas. The Twi'lek was a member of the coalition of the willing. Ironically, this put her on the same side as Leonina and Than. When they encountered each other, Leonina was overcome by anger and attacked the Sith who had corrupted her master. Than defused the situation, forcing her to stand down. Reluctantly, Leonina did so, though she vowed to kill Libertas when this was over. Than coldly informed the Sith that Shakkara was his business. Libertas was happy to let them charge in.
And so Soteria faced her former master and ex-student. She had contempt for Than, whom she considered a coward for, as she put it, running away and hiding in Wild Space while the Galaxy burnt. But she still felt affection for Leonina, considering her a great but misguided student. The three fought relentlessly. Soteria was at a disadvantage because it was two versus one and suffered several injuries, but she was a juggernaut. Finally, she was able to separate them and strike Than down, running him through with her blade. But Leonina charged her once more, even though her traitorous master was stronger than her.
Soteria would later say that her apprentice had never fought better. Soteria defeated her apprentice, and once again gave Leonina a chance to join her. But the Cathar refused. The station going critical put an end to the duel. Soteria let her maimed apprentice go. Explosions rocked the station. She narrowly managed to escape it. The Rogue Sith had collapsed. They had forced the Galaxy to unite against the cleansing storm, but the unlikely coalition of the willing died with them.
Soteria watched as the Galactic Alliance and the First Order clashed, and new Sith empires arose. However, she did not swear allegiance to the new Sith regimes. Retreating into the remote corners of space with a group of followers she had gathered during her time with the One Sith and the Rogue Sith. She purged the doubters and opportunists, leaving her with a group of zealots. With them under her command, she became a warlord. Soon she linked up with other Rogue Sith commanders and warlords. The One Sith had been destroyed, now was her time to rise from the ashes. All the while, she kept an eye on her ex-apprentice, who had joined Firemane's armed forces.
While hunting on a rim planet, Soteria and her new apprentice Evangalus came across a dead mother nexu. The feline had been cowardly shot by hunters, who used powerful blaster weapons rather than face her in a contest of skill. They had also taken her cubs. Angered by this, Soteria decided to teach them a lesson. The pair was able to track down the poachers, who were busy gloating over their success and poking and prodding the frightened cubs. While Evangelus saboted their ship, Soteria attacked them head-on. All poachers save for their leader were killed. Soteria forced him to remove all his clothes save for his underpants, then dumped him in the jungle. If he survived and made it to the next village, which was quite far, he would have learned something. She adopted the nexu cubs as her own.
However, then she received a call from an information broker, who told her that Leonina would be conducting an inspection on Dahomey in a few weeks. This was backed up by footage. Soteria was unaware that this was a ruse on the part of Libertas, who wanted to lure her former apprentice into a confrontation with Siobhan, Leonina's new boss. Seeing an opportunity she could not pass up, Soteria gathered a unit of minions and travelled to Dahomey. Thus she was on the planet when Siobhan presided over the inauguration of a new spaceport sponsored by Firemane.
Then Soteria sprung her trap. The Sith had grown suspicious when she did not see Leonina, suspecting she had been deceived. However, Siobhan's presence meant she could test herself against the 'Karishzar', a worthy foe, and draw her wayward student out. Her minions triggered explosives they had secretly placed at key locations. Then the fighting began. Siobhan fought in defence of the guests, taking down many of Soteria's minions. However, the Togruta used the chaos to take one of Siobhan's assistants hostage. She dared Siobhan to fight honourably or lose her aide and be revealed as a false idol.
Siobhan decided to meet her head-on and the two clashed. It was a brutal, ferocious duel. Siobhan was not wearing armour and lacked her usual panopoly of weapons. She was also impaired by her health issues, but she still proved a tenacious, powerful opponent. Soteria took a lot of damage from telekinetic impacts and Force Lightning. Siobhan was able to collapse one of her lungs, break several bones and mutilate one of her montrals. However, Soteria's impressive resilience allowed her to weather the storm of Force attacks. Compared to Siobhan, she was a lot stronger in melee, which allowed her to gain an edge in the fight and forced her enemy to try and keep her at a distance. Moreover, Soteria used her Deadly Sight to burn out Siobhan's eyes, blinding her. After stabbing Siobhan through the chest with her sabre, Soteria used Dark Transfer to heal her to a small degree and command her to kneel. However, Siobhan refused and launched one last desperate attack.
In response, Soteria stabbed her again, driving her blade into Siobhan's chest. The Togruta had triumphed, but was also in extremely bad shape due to her manifold injuries. Then a Dahomian soldier called Hunter, one of Siobhan's bodyguards, put her under fire with a shotgun. Soteria was hurt, but blasted him with a powerful telekinetic attack. But his intervention bought Elpsis, Siobhan's adoptive daughter, time to ram Soteria with a speeder. Soteria was able to cut through the machinery with her sabre, but hit hard. She had already been exhausted and was badly injured. Both combatants faced each other. Wounded by gunfire, Soteria slammed Elpsis into the speeder and retreated, but was burnt by the pyromancer's elemental fire abilities. However, Evangelus had stolen a shuttle and provided covering fire, enabling Soteria to stagger aboard and pull out. This was fortuitous, as the cavalry had arrived. The pair was hunted, but able to escape.
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