Vaena Askari
Lady Cadalthor
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: To codify the personal guard of House Cadalthor. In terms of function, it can be compared to the Imperial Royal Guard.
Image Credit: Here.
Role: Praetorian guard.
Permission: They can use Firemane tech because I own the Company. Permission for all ArmaTech gear and all other subs made by Laira Darkhold's writer here.
Links: Qadiri, Inexorable, Xioquo, Denouement, Ashiranism, Pious Deliverance, Eldorai.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Unit Name: Draconian Guard
Affiliation: Vaena, Righteous Way, House Cadalthor, Ariawyn Eloris.
Classification: Elite infantry.
Equipment:
Armour:
- They wear armor similar in construction to Imperial Knight Armour of the Fel Empire for protection, complete with a helmet to cover their faces and protect them from chemicals. The helm features a voice modulator, rebreather, HUD and other standard systems.
- Seraph Battle Shield.
- Magnetic Repeater
- Mk 1 Bolter
- ARC Caster
- Reaper Plasma Shotgun
- ACS-205 Dual Weapons System
- ACS-202 Vanquisher Light Repeating Blaster
- ACS-205 Blackblade Modular Rifle
- Magnetic Revolver
- Cylix Bolt Pistol
- Renegade Heavy Blaster Pistol
- MSD-32
- Sonic Disruptor
- Verpine Shattergun
Melee Weapons:
Vehicles and Starships:
Misc:
- Ghostwave Communicators.
- Vibrobayonet
- Cyanide suicide pills
- APE Boltgun Ammunition
- Grenades
- ACS-207 Aerosolblaster.
- Wrist Bolter
- ACS-208 Wrist Ion Beamer.
- ACS-208 Wrist Charric
- Under-Barrel Miniature Flame Projector
There are many advantages to bringing in outsiders. The Qadiri members lack Eldorai patrons other than her and are thus dependent on her favour, which makes them more loyal. It helps that many members of House Cadalthor are extremely racist. While Vaena is religious and has many conservative views, she does not share the extreme racism of many of her relatives, which means she is more open-minded about the Eldorai's 'cousins'. This also reduces the Guard's incentive to back rivals in her family. Many members of the Qadiri contingent are freed slaves. Others are professional soldiers attracted by the promise of adventure, a chance to see the stars and earn some coin. In some cases, their families have been settled on Cadalthor lands.
Of course, integrating them has caused issues, especially related to language, which is why language courses are mandatory. Ironically, this makes the Draconian Guard more progressive than Firemane’s Sepoys. Then again, the unit is a lot smaller since it numbers less than two hundred warriors, so the comparison is a bit unfair. Vaena is rather fond of ‘her’ Sepoys. Suffice to say she favours them and reacts poorly when Eldorai soldiers or her family members treat them in a demeaning way. Her detractors spread lurid rumours about just how close the young duchess is to her guards.
Members of the Draconian Guard swear a sacred oath to be loyal to the Duchess unto death, defend her and keep her secrets. Unsurprisingly, training is quite thorough. There is a trial for the guards called the taste of death. All the applicants are brought food or wine and told that one has deadly poison. Any who hesitate are excused immediately. Another test is to tell a guardswoman that a dangerous intruder is on the way to assassinate her liege. She is given a gun and told to lie in wait until the attacker shows herself. When they do, she realises it is a loved one or comrade. Sometimes her gun has blanks, at others the attacker is using a holographic disguise. Either way, if they cannot pull the trigger, they are out. It also includes survival training in inhospitable areas. One group of guards is dropped in the wilderness with few supplies and weapons, must survive long enough to reach a specific location and send a signal, while being harassed by machines and wild animals. If they are captured, they are put through interrogation for several days to see if they break or not. The interrogators are obviously not allowed to do anything that would ruin a potential guard, but are supposed to make things as realistic as possible.
It takes a lot of time to train a single Guard. As a whole, the unit is a small one. Prospective Guards must be selected, vetted, trained and so on. Obviously the process is less time-consuming for experienced veterans, say former soldiers from Eldorai army But many of the Guards are Qadiri, who while often combat-expeirenced first need to get used to modern weapons, a new language and so on. As a result, the Guards’ numbers are very small and mass deployment on a battlefield is pretty much impossible. Creating a large force could also arouse the ire of the Crown or rival noble families, as it could be interpretred as a power grab. Moreover, it would also not be cost-effective. The noble house had to pay reparations to Firemane and one of Vaena's policies has been cutting unnecessary expenses. Bottom line, the Guards’ main duty is protective instead of storming the trenches. Should the entire unit be deployed on a battlefield it would be a very big deal.
Religion is rather important in the Guard. Vaena is a pious Ashiran and does not like or understand atheism. From her point of view, secularism, materialism and unbelief are among the ills plaguing modern-day Eldorai society. She is opposed to witch-hunts and heretic burnings, but has a bias against those who do not believe in the Goddess or only pay lip service to the creed. As a result, she does not allow atheists to join. However, she is tolerant of alternate expressions of Ashiranism, viewing them as different paths to the same truth. Qadiri worship Kashara, who is their version of Ashira. As a result, the faith practiced by the Guard rather syncretic.This has drawn criticism from those who maintain that House Cadalthor should be the foremost pillar of Ashiran orthodoxy. Vaena encourages a pan-Ashiran ideology. This school postulates that all elves were created by Ashira, who has appeared to them in different guises that empathise the various aspects of her heavenly being. It tries to include all the various cultures into a single philosophy.
Ariawyn Eloris serves as Captain of the Guard. Like Vaena, she is a former Angelii, though her past is a bit checkered. Born into a family of poor peasants who were oppressed by a local noblewoman, she ran away from home at an early age and joined a gang. A robbery gone wrong changed Ariawyn's life when she manifested her Force powers after being abandoned by her comrades and cornered by militia.She was given a simple choice that had a long tradition in the lives of social miscreants: Army or a rather unpleasant time in jail. Ariawyn chose the army and was inducted into a penal legion. Service in such units was considered a way for convicts to repay their debt to society and restore their honour. Discipline was brutal, and enforced by commissars. Unlike many of her comrades, she survived the forlorn hope charges her unit was often ordered to conduct. She distinguished herself fighting foreign raiders and the rebel army of a charlatan who tried to usurp the throne. Her skills were noticed and she was inducted into the Angelii.
There she met Vaena. The two bonded. When Ariawyn killed the local matriarch in retaliation for the murder of her parents, Vaena helped her and covered things up. This made the formal penal legionnaire loyal to her. When Vaena was ennobled, Ariawyn left the Angelii to support her friend, despite - or perhaps because of - her disdain for the duchess' family. She's proved herself a severe, but effective commander of the guard. She has taken the time to familiarise herself with Qadiri culture, as many of the guards have been recruited from that Eldorai subrace. She is strong and rigid in her beliefs. Firm and unyielding, she views compromising on her beliefs as weakness. She has a good work ethic and a strong sense of discipline. She can show a more lighthearted, even amusingly crude side in private. Ariawyn is religious and particularly devoted to Valora, the Eldorai War Goddess. She distinguishes between the goddess and her mortal servants though. Ariawyn is distrustful of humans, but sympathetic to the Qadiri, particularly those who come from low class backgrounds like her.
Estera Jai Nasra is one of the senior Qadiri warriors of the Guard. Born into one of the feuding Qadiri states of Khawjar, she was enslaved at an early age and later trained as a slave-soldier. This was normal for the Qadiri realms, as Mamluks often provided the backbone of their armies. Constrained by her status as a servitor, she nonetheless distinguished herself in many battles and caught the eye of Lady Bharria, the Nawab of Surani. Her valour gained her the favour of the high lady. Vaena and Bharria struck up a friendship during the former's stay in Surani. Though a bit perplexed by the sky people's values, Bharria proved open-minded on the issue of slavery, as she was dispassionate about it. Moreover, she was a bit of an inventor and very enthusiastic to learn about their tech. When Vaena was ennobled, the Nawab sent Estera and a couple other former slaves to the new duchess as a sign of friendship. At first Estera was distrustful of her mistress and resentful of the idea that she should be grateful to her, for she had learned that people were only kind when they wanted something.
In time Vaena was able to gain her trust and Estera has served her faithfully. The Qadiri warrior has made great efforts to familiarise herself with the way the sky people do things. She has found that while the people from beyond the stars can fly through the void, use weapons of great power and build metal fortresses of eternity, but in some ways are just the same as her own kind. She may eventually succeed Ariawyn as leader of the Guard and is a bit of a protege for the Eldorai. Estera was one of the warriors who helped Vaena 'put her house in order'. Ambitious, boisterous and brave, Estera does not kowtow to haughty Eldorai. The Qadiri warrior is Force-Sensitive and has received some minor Forc
The Draconian Guard has a few Xioquo, who can be likened to the drows of myth. These are outnumbered by the Qadiri though. Vaena was part of the Eldorai force that assaulted the Underealm. There is some tension between Qadiri and Xioquo members, as both races have long been foes. However, the Qadiri tend to be recruited from a region on Tygara that was less afflicted by Xioquo raids. One of the Xioquo members is Kadaltha'Xarz. He is a bodyguard for Vaena Cadalthor. Traditional Xioquo society is even more misandrist than its Eldorai counterpart. Xarz was raised as a slave and served as a bodyguard for a Xioquo mistress. He had family that was sent off to fight and die in the final battle against the Eldorai and Firemane, while he was ordered to stay back and guard his Mistress. Outraged by her callousness, he turned on her and dragged her to the Eldorai forces, after killing her other guards who stood against him and recruiting the rest.
He ended up running into a Angelii unit led by Vaena, which had advanced into the city as part of the Eldorai vanguard. Xarz swore allegiance to the new regime and worked with the occupation administration. He and Vaena became close during her time with the occupation force the Eldorai Matriarchy had left behind. She became his sponsor of sorts. Deeply religious, he gravitated to her. He joind her personal guard after her ennoblement. Xioquo are treated with scorn by racist Eldorai, who deride them as 'darklings'. It is especially vexing for reactionaries that he calls himself Kadaltha. It is not uncommon for former slaves among the Xioquo to take the last of their liberator or patron. For instance, many slaves freed through Siobhan's efforts call themselves Karrigan. Xarz does not have Force powers, but is very tough and strong. Rumours say that he does more than just guard the Duchess. They are probably correct.
COMBAT INFORMATION
Unit Size: Medium
Unit Availability: Unique
Unit Experience: Elite.
Combat Function: The Draconian Guard performs the combat function of a praetorian guard unit. In broad terms, one could compare them to say the Sun Guard or Palpatine's Imperial Guard. It is a pure infantry unit. Its members are capable warriors, able to protect their leader against assassins and other attackers. They serve as the personal bodyguards of the Daughter of the Dragon, swearing an oath of loyalty to her. They also have some ceremonial duties as retainers and acclaimers, and perform some police duties in the Cadalthor lands, especially in cases of treason and conspiracy. Mundane police work is left to the militia. With military training, discipline and equipment, they can hold their own in the field. However, they would be at a big disadvantage if they had to go up against enemies with heavily armoured vehicles or aircraft because heavy weapons are very rare.
While ranged weapons such as bolters and blasters are in use, there is a strong preference for melee attacks, which is why their rifles tend to have vibrobayonets, even though these are rather impractical in modern combat. Furthermore, they favour weapons such as pikes, Sarzmigar polearms, Sarixi blades and so on. The bond with their leader and religious indoctrination gives them a fanatical loyalty. While Askari differs from her relatives in many ways, she is just as devout, believing that those who fall in battle in service of the faith will go to heaven and sit at the Goddess’ side.
A small number of the Guards are Force-Sensitive. However, they tend to have little formal training, unlike Angelii, Sith or Jedi. This is because the Crown would get suspicious if the Duchess openly created her own Force-Using corps. However, their Force connection grants them enhanced reflexes, precognition, Force Sense powers and telepathic abilities. The latter are used as a way to augment the coordination of the unit. The Non-Force-Using unit have been trained enough not to be disconcerted if it is used for communication. Some Force-Sensitive members can utilise a form of Force Valour to boost their allies.
The Draconian Guard has always been stepped in faith and this has not changed, though the faith it practices is rather syncretic. This gives them a high morale, makes them more resistant to fear and gives them the ability to fight on when others might quit, but can also manifest in extreme stubbornness and irrational acts of bravery. Soldiers often decorate their armour with runes that display the image of the Dragon. This does not give them any special benefits, but strengthens cohesion and gives them another means of identification. In addition to being taught how to wield melee and ranged weapons, the warriors also receive training in various martial arts. One of them is the combat discipline of Teräs Käsi, which is particularly useful against Force-users and grants the Guards greater resistance against mental attacks. The Draconian Guard can be deployed on the battlefield. However, their primary duty is to protect their feudal overlord, not single-handedly carry out an assault on the frontlines. They represent a crucial reserve that is deployed at the critical moment.
The Draconian Guard has a very small air arm, which consists of a few X-Wings. Its primary mission is to conduct patrols and fly escort for Vaena, other members of the house or her worldship, the Pious Deliverance. Thus their role is primarily a projective one. However, they have the skill and experience to participate in the heat of combat. Qadiri possess inherent navigational talents, which makes them good pilots.
Strengths:
- The warriors of the Dragon are elite soldiers. They are very skilled, resourceful and loyal. Though the few Force-users in the unit have only a limited command of the Force, they are still dangerous foes and their presence improves the coordination of the unit. The combat abilities of the Guards make them able to take on Force-Users.
- The Guards are extremely loyal to their liege. Only the most reliable are allowed to join the Guard, after undergoing a thorough screening process. Coercion and bribes don’t work and they are extremely resistant to torture. While not immune, they are conditioned to be extremely resistant to attempts to influence them via mind tricks, Fear-based powers and other forms of mentalism. Religious indoctrination does its part to affirm their loyalty to their leader.
- The Guards are at a strong disadvantage when they have to go up against foes with armoured vehicles, artillery and so on. They are infantry at heart and lack craft beyond airspeeders and a few X-Wings. Thus they forego heavy combat vehicles. Their main job is to protect House Cadalthor in general and the chief matriarch in particular. While they can engage in frontline battles, they would require support and possibly additional gear in a larger scale conflict.
- Their fanaticism makes them loyal, but could also be used against them. Guards would rather fight to the last drop of blood than surrender, for they view capitulating to the enemy as dishonourable. They are also loath to retreat from a battlefield. Such zealous devotion is a powerful force, but could be turned against them.
It is a truism that power comes out of the barrel of a gun – or at the tip of a sword. It has certainly been true amongst the Eldorai, whose history is steeped with blood and whose annals are filled with stories of Byzantine intrigue, palace revolutions and wars. The royal family has the Angelii and the Eldorai army to protect its rule and defend the Eldorai Matriarchy. Usually these two duties overlap, though not always. The noble families have their house guards. In the old days, when royal authority was weaker and Eldorai society more feudal, the great houses could muster their own armies. There were times when these were able to seriously challenge the authority of the Star Queen. However, for obvious reasons in this day and age the matriarchs are forbidden from marshalling large armies, though many of the officers in the regular army are still drawn from the scions of the great houses.
The Draconian Guard serves as the personal bodyguard detachment of the Great and Noble House of the Daughters of the Dragon – House Cadalthor. The annals of the House claim that its first commander was a former Angelii and that it has been in existence since the time of Valeria Kaldis, the founder of the house. She lived during a period of turmoil and infighting among the Eldorai. The last Kaldis queen, Anais IV the Proud, was murdered by a cabal of nobles led by Valeska Masana, following a devastating Kar'zun offensive. What followed was a period of widespread chaos, during which no less than nine queens ruled in less than ninety years. With the Matriarchy weakened by internal strife, the Kar'zun seized the opportunity to strike deep into Eldorai territory and sack the capital city of Santaissa.
It was the time for the Cadalthors to rise. Despite their regicide, Valeria Kaldis backed the Masana family during this tumultuous period. If you would ask the Cadalthors, they would say it was because Anais IV was an unworthy ruler and that while her death was unfortunate, she'd clearly lost the mandate of heaven. Besides, having one Star Queen was better than nine. Moreover, it was every good Edorai's duty to rally beneath the holy banner to prevent the Kar'zun from exterminating the entire race. Whether the Kar'zun actualy intended to do such a thing is another question. It is claimed that the Draconian Guard fought at the Battle of Centui, an infamous defeat to the Kar'zun. The family suffered heavy casualties on that dark day. The Guard maintains that their ancestors went down defending the banner of the Dragon. To this day, every Cadalthor is expected to memorise the names of all those the house lost at this dark day and to recite them on the Day of Martyrs.
Regardless, the Kaldis cadet branch also used the chance to expand their own power, carving out their own petty kingdom. Valeria either declared herself Duchess of Galondrona - or received the title from the 'legitimate Star Queen' according to the Cadalthor annals. She was a ruthless, but effective ruler committed to law and order. Taxes were collected, schools and churches, bandits and brigands hanged and it is said that for the first time in ages, merchants could travel from town to town without fear of being robbed or murdered. The Duchess personally led raids deep into Kar'zun territory until an injury sustained in battle crippled her and forced her to focus on administration. After she personally executed an usurper, the honorary title 'daughter of the dragon' was conferred upon Valeria. Over time, it became the family name.
The Guard protected its matriarchs and fought its battles, battling Kar’zun, pirates and the warriors of rival noble houses in the constant game of stars. The Cadalthors were enthusiastic supporters of Ariane the Great's crusade against the Kar'zun. This culminated into a near-genocidal campaign, where most of the Kar'zun were wiped out or forced to live in inhospitable reservations. The Draconian Guard's numbers swelled during these blood days until it was as large as an army corps. However, Ariane II, nicknamed the Diplomat, brought order to the realm. Letting the noble families maintain private armies that could challenge royal authority after the war had been won threatened the Queen's peace. Thus she took measures to disband or downsize the private armies that had swelled during the period of strife. House Cadalthor was compelled to reduce its forces, including the Guard. It helped that Celestyne Cadalthor, a successful warlord, had died under mysterious circumstances and her lands had been inherited by her inexperienced daughter. However, though the Guard was reduced in scale, House Cadalthor maintained an unofficial paramilitary force in form of the Legion of the Faithful. While officially it was just a part-time militia composed of Ashiran believers, it was an open secret that in actual fact the Legion was funded by and loyal to the Dragon.
Both the Legion and the Guard played a leading role in the failed Cadalthor Insurrection following the Kaeshana Rebellion, fighting loyalist Eldorai soldiers and Firemane troops in New Santaissa, the Eldorai’s capital on Tygara. Both units were decimated and ultimately the Cadalthor compound was seized by loyalists.The exposure of the Cadalthor’s treasonous plot to usurp power and purge all foreigners and nonbelievers had significant consequences for both units. While the Legion was disbanded, the Guard was downsized and a number of officers were put on trial before Eldorai military courts. Some were banished, others incarcerated in an Angelii prison and a few were executed by firing squad. With Tarissa Cadalthor dead by the hand of Siobhan Kerrigan, leadership of the house – and by extension the Guard – fell to the most unlikeliest candidate, Vaena Askari. Now known as Vaena Cadalthor, the new Duchess set to work to rebuild her broken house.
Alas, her job was not an easy one. She had been born a bastard, raised by the church and spent most of her life as a soldier. Moreover, most of her relatives loathed her, believing that she’d stolen what was rightfully theirs. Moreover, House Cadalthor had many rivals, who obviously sought to profit from the noble family’s humiliation. It was obvious that she needed a reliable personal guard or else her time as matriarch would be a short one. Vaena was new to courtly life, but she understood battle. Some of her relatives ‘advised’ her to reconstitute the Legion in secret, but she dismissed that idea as foolish. She reached out to former comrades in the Eldorai army, offering them positions. The first to join was Ariawyn Eloris, her former trainer. With her help, Vaena removed many of the Draconian Guard's old officers.
They had been the appointees of Tarissa or of Mikela, Vana's grandmother, and thus were considered disloyal. Moreover, she took the controversial step of allowing members of the Forsaken to join. These were the Eldorai who had been left behind on Kaeshana during the Exodus. Many of them belonged to the lower castes or were considered dissidents. A significant number had fled with the Firemane and Eldorai fleets when the First Order conquered the planet. Needless to say Vaena, being a devout believer, expected those who joined the Guard to believe in the Goddess. Secular revolutionaries and atheists were a step too far for the pious woman. Naturally this limited the recruitment pool. Finally, because she was not done with giving her reactionary relatives an aneurysm, she announced that henceforth Tygaran natives would be allowed to join the unit. Provided they passed a thorough training programme and proved themselves, they would be allowed to serve as equals alongside their Eldorai cousins.
This was anathema to Cadalthor conservatives, who were quite adamant in their beliefs that the natives were inferior to the 'superior' Eldorai. For they were like children, not fully formed by the Goddess. It is said that one of the family’s old crones almost had a heart attack when she heard the news. By and large, the native recruits are drawn from the Qadiri. In terms of culture and traditions, they are the natives most similar to the Eldorai. Moreover, they have a strong martial ethos. It helped that Askari had established a rapport with Nawab Bharria of Surani and helped train the Qadiri fiefdom’s soldiers during her time as an Angelii. She also recruited a few Xioquo she had come to know during her time in the occupation force. Her conservative relatives soon came to dislike the Guard, which was composed of 'sand babies' and 'darklings'. It even had malelings in it.
The Draconian Guard played an important role in an internal house-cleaning operation. The Great Exodus had been extremely costly for the Eldorai Matriarchy. The Matriarchy had not fully recovered from it when a humanitarian relief operation sent to provide aid to the Forsaken turned into a war with the First Order. Moreover, House Cadalthor was forced to pay reparations to Firemane after Tarissa's failed coup. Most aristocrats insisted on maintaining a face of splendour, while being deeply in debt. Further expenses accummulated when the Eldorai launched a large colonisation fleet to seek out new worlds. Digusted by the materialism of her peers, Vaena was determined to put her house on a sound footing. To this end, she tried to enact austerity policies. However, she was met with opposition. Her opponents saw her actions as theft. They also (correctly) regarded it as a power grab, Vaena sought to centralise authority that had diminished after Tarissa's fall from grace. Moreover, many saw her as illegitimate due to her being a bastard and thus being 'tainted' in the eyes of the Goddess.
Things came to head when a gathering of Cadalthor nobles ended in deadlock, with her opponents demanding that she yield most of her powers to an oligarchic council composed of them. Vaena felt scornful and feared a cabal of her relatives might be planning a coup to unseat and assassinate her. Thus she decided to decapacitate her rivals by carrying out a purge. The Draconian Guard acted as her shock troops, executing the sentences their feudal overlord had passed. There were no trials, but then the Eldorai are an autocratic monarchy, not a liberal democracy. A number of Cadalthors were incarcerated, executed or sent into exile. Their assets were confiscated by the duchess, who used them to help pay off her family's debts. She also announced that their lands would be used to settle retired soldiers, Eldorai refugees and emancipated Qadiri on.
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