Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Tephrike and a custom species.
Image Credit: Here.
Role: Zombie rangers protecting the border and warding off outsiders. A twist on a common trope.
Permissions: N/A.
Links: Dominion of Light, Disciples of the Vader, Into Darkness, After Darkness, Mahtara, Force Dead, Cinder Guard, Fort Vigilance, Republican Guard, Sithspawn, Palmyra's Wail, Tephrike.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Unit Name: Duststalkers.
Affiliation: Ashspawn/Reborn, Tephrike, Disciples of the Dust.
Classification: Rangers.
Description: The dead do not rest easily in Palmyra's Wail. This once proud city is now a radioactively contanimated husk dotted with ruins and cursed by a dark side nexus. The air is full of ash, freak weather patterns are common and rainfalls can be acidic. It is populated by ghosts, undead, Sithspawn and other creatures. But not all undead who are reanimated by the Wail's dark energies lose their mental faculties and become ravenous, mindless beasts. A select number retain their sentience. They are capable of reason and have the memory and motor skills to use weapon. They call themselves the Reborn, though to Tephriki at large they are known as the Ashspawn.
Their nature is poorly understood. The Disciples of the Vader see the undead as creatures to be enslaved; the Dominion of Light rejects them as abominations spawned by a dark nexus; the Republican Guard regards them with a mixture of pity and hostility due to them being Force constructs, for it fears the Force due to all the misery its cultists have brought to the planet. Palmyra's Wail has been under lockdown for centures. First the Dominion tried to keep the horrors inside and exploiters out, now the Guard. Neither has been able to purge the nexus.
The Duststalkers, ironically, play a similar role on the side of the Ashspawn. They operate as rangers and ambushers, charged with patrolling the borders of their 'territory', and stopping intruders from entering. In addition, they put down monsters and wild creatures that threaten their communities. It goes without saying that they have acquired a lot of experience tracking and taking down monsters as well as Force-Users rendered unstable by the nexus. Their primary purpose is defensive. Some have penetrated the containment wall to provide protection to Ashspawn who have escaped. Their skills make them a good fit for reconnaissance and raids. They may also assist and escort Ashspawn who attempt to breach the containment wall to infiltrate the world of the living.
While the survival of their people is their foremost concern, some Duststalkers take pity on living who have crossed the border to the cursed city because they are fleeing oppression or have been lured there due to tall tales of treasures. In a few cases, they briefly provided protection and shelter before leading them away. There is a practical side to this. Not everyone who dies in the city of ashes rises again as an Ashspawn. And many living fall prey to the nexus' dark influence, which can drive them insane or possess them. Even some Ashspawn succumb to this curse. Then it is the task of the Duststalkers to save their comrade from themselves by giving them final death. Old veterans among the Duststalkers may look a bit patchwork, since the undead revenants have a habit of carrying out 'transplants' by taking body parts from corpses if they have say lost a limb or a digit.
Ashspawn are pretty good at ambushing and stealth since they can stay hidden or in places where the living would find it difficult to stay, such as by hiding under water or in bitter cold or even in burning heat. Radiation does not bother them. While not endowed with super strength or speed, Ashspawn feel no pain, do not fatigue and are very tenacious. Due to their undead physiology, they must be completely dismantled to grant them final death. The Dusstalkers do make use of reanimated animals to carry out certain tasks, such as to transport equipment, patrol or scout. They treat them the way a living person would treat a pet instead of as servitors.
The composition of the Duststalkers is diverse. A hard core of the group is composed of former Vaderite or Dominion soldiers who fought each when both totalitarian theocracies clashed centuries ago in Palmyra's ruins - and perished before being reborn. Others are civilians who perished in an atomic firestorm when the Dominion nuked the city to prevent the Vaderites from opening a portal to the Nether and bringing forth horrors. Others again are the scavengers and freebooters who came after. Or even the odd Republican Guard partisan who died fighting abominations during the Netherworld war. The curse of undeath can affect any species, so one finds human Ashspawn just as well as Twi'lek, Zabrak, Trandoshan or Devaronian ones etc. The curse does not discriminate on the basis of species, gender or creed.
Regardless of who they are, the Duststalkers are their home now, for they cannot go back to the living and live their old life. For obvious reasons, the Duststalkers favour Ashspawn who had some martial or survival experience in life, but they provide training to those who do not but have the will to learn. The Duststalkers select recruits and leaders on the basis of merit, peer selection and projected manpower needs. Some of the rangers are centuries old, having been there from the beginning. It is not uncommon for the undead rangers to come together, socialise and sing songs. Their experiences of mutual loss is their bond, even if they used to fight each other while their hearts still beat.
Many, though not all, have chosen new names to reflect their rebirth. And they hold vigil for those who suffer final death. Where possible, they will collect the remains of the dead so that they can be mummified. This is also a common practice for Ashspawn whose bodies have decayed to such an extent that they cannot move about anymore and even 'transplants' are no longer sufficient. It stands in contrast with the habit of the Cinder Guard, the protective force of the Republican Guard that protects the living from the nexus, for they incinerate corpses to prevent them from rising as zombies or being possessed. However, some Dusstalkers who regard their existence as a curse do choose cremation so that their spirit can join the nether. Their ashes are preserved by their comrades.
The Duststalkers' actions are very calculated and precise. They carry out thorough reconnaissance before carrying out an assault. If they cannot beat a foe outright, they will lay traps, pick off vulnerable enemy soldiers and sow confusion and terror until the enemy breaks. Each operation has a withdrawal plan. Command is quite decentralised, applying mission-based tactics. The commander orders a mission, organises the forces and sets the aim. But junior officers and NCOs are ordered to complete the mission as they see fit.
Tal'Valla is a Twi'lek Ashspawn and a long 'dead' Jedi who 'lived' to see how terrible the Dominion of Light has become. When his body was still warm, the Dominion was already a repressive dictatorship that trampled on civil liberties. However, there were still limits to its tyranny. But now every facet of their lives must be controlled by the state. In life he was a Jedi Sentinel. Having been raised from the dead, he is a senior commander of the Duststalkers. Now he uses his skills as a living man combined with those gained since to be a pathfinder, ranger and leader. Tal'Valla views his condition as a curse, but stays with the Dusstalkers out of a sense of duty and revenge on the living. He still wears tattered Jedi robes on top of his armour, and carries the Force-Imbued Blade he wielded as a Jedi.
Calista was a human female, a thief and former prisoner who was being held in Palmyra when it all went to hell. After eventually getting free they changed their name and joined these rangers in order to use her skills to aid and help the Ashspawn. She has such a need to cling to life that it surpasses all sense of mortality. Conversely though she has remade a new image for themselves whilst Tal'Vall retains his name and identity. There are things she misses about being alive, but she has found a new sense of community among the undead. Besides, the living reject her kind, so she might as well embrace her nature instead of torment herself about it. Her skill with tech and stealth is very handy for the group.
Nhiahli Jaliahd is a Mon Calamari Ashspawn. In life, the undead Dusstalker was a respected Republican Guard partisan from a family with a peerless revolutionary pedigree. She fought the Dominion, the Ashspawn and the monsters of Palmyra when the rebels assaulted the nexus at great cost. Martyred in a battle against a demonic incursion, she was raised again. Jaliahd is not happy about this in the least. She feels self-loathing about now being a creature of the Force - the very thing she hated and feared. But she is unable to return to what she used to be, and unwilling to end her existence. So she has fallen in with the Duststalkers out of lack of options. Taciturn and laconic, she has a knack for demolitions. Comrades quip that she is too angry for final death.
Palmyra's desolation has left the city with little infrastructure. The Ashspawn know how technology works, but the circumstances limited industrial capacity. Moreover, Tephrike is a very isolated world and most living are unwilling to trade with them. Thus the equipment of the Duststalkers is a mish-mash of gear they stole, scavenged, purchased from black market dealers and treasure hunters brave or foolish enough to travel to the cursed city or the Ashspawn manufactured themselves. They wear armour scavenged from the dead, which means it can be patched together from multiple sources, but they are experts at scavenging and improvisation.
However, while their gear is old by galactic standard and they only possess a limited number of heavy weapons, it works and they are ingenious when it comes to setting traps and preparing ambushes. Ashspawn do not require drink or nourishment, which keeps their baggage train light. Moreover, every Duststalker is Force-Sensitive, though their level of ability varies. They benefit from an telepathic connection that is inherent to their species. The bond is particularly helpful since commlinks and other forms of electronic communication are not always the most reliable in Palmyra's Wail. Sometimes they do not work at all, or someone using one hears a deceptive shade.
COMBAT INFORMATION:
Unit Size: Medium
Unit Availability: Rare
Unit Experience: Veteran
Equipment:
Armour:
- Camouflaged Stormtrooper Armour. It tends to be ragged and patched together from various sources.
- Slugthrower Rifle
- Outland Rifle (with scope).
- Scatter Gun
- Bolt-Thrower
- Imperial Heavy Repeater
- DC-15S Blaster Carbine
- Stouker Concussion Rifle
- J-301 Pulse-Wave Saboteur
- Verpine Shatter Rifle
- Submachine Gun
- Verpine Shatter Gun
- Enforcer Pistol
- ATA Pulse-Wave Blaster
- Hard-Sound Gun
- FWG-5 Flechette Smart Pistol
Support Weapons:
- Model MGL-1
- FC-1 Flechette Launcher
- RPS-6 Rocket Launcher. Only available in limited numbers.
- Machine Gun
- CSPL-12 Projectile Launcher
- Grenades (various - frag, gas, smoke, flash, incendiary, thermal, ion/emp etc.), Land Mines, Detonation Pack.
- Monofilament Wire and Nets, Monofilament Screen Guard.
- Taozin Amulet.
- BARC Speeder.
- Vac Attack Mk-127
- Undead Orbak mounts, Ravens and Kath Hounds.
When they strike, they do so quickly and ruthlessly. They are armed as light infantry and thus not equipped for pitched front-line combat. When forced to go up against heavily armoured enemy troops or armoured fighting vehicles, they will seek to outmanoeuvre and lead them into traps. To this end, they may harass the enemy and then stage a feigned retreat to lure them into a careless pursuit, or pick off vulnerable enemy soldiers at night.
Ashspawn have good night vision and a well-developed sense of smell, so night attacks are part of their repertoire. The Dusstalkers are good at sneaking. It helps that Ashspawn have no heartbeat and their bodies are cold, which can give them an advantage against certain types of scanners.
They may sneak into an unprepared enemy encampment to knife sentries and officers in their sleep and commit sabotage before vanishing again. Their lack of integrated heavy support makes them poor at attacking enemy strongpoints directly, so they must rely on subterfuge. They will often set booby-traps or use land mines to undermine the enemy. An enemy soldier who is trying to seek shelter in the only intact building left in the street may find that the door or a cupboard inside has been booby-trapped. Or an abandoned vehicle or random items that might attract interest.
A few Duststalkers have access to Force-Imbued Blades. These come in handy against Force-Users, Sithspawn and dark spirits, though they only have enough of these swords to equip a minority of their members. Thus they tend to be given to officers or meritorious NCOs. The Duststalkers make use of zombie animals, such as reanimated kath hounds, birds and horses, for patrol and recon. The horses are also helpful for transporting equipment, since while the Duststalkers have speeders, acquiring fuel is not easy.
Force Abilities (Force User Units Only): The Dusstalkers are composed of Ashspawn, a Force-Sensitive species. All Duststalkers receive training to protect their minds from Force-based manipulation. Such a thought shield is particularly pertinent because the nexus is deceptive and manipulative. It has spawned them, but it is not their friend. There are Ashspawn who have been driven to madness, so the corps must take precautions. Moreover, they have Animal Friendship and can use the Force to conceal themselves from sight or mask their Force presence. Several have telekinetic abilities, though they favour precision over raw destructive power. Telepathy is inherent to their species, so individual teams often make use of it to enhance their coordination, allowing them to work together more seamlessly than would be the case if they relied purely on verbal or electronic communication.
Strengths:
- Crack infantry specialising in irregular warfare. They are veteran rangers who excel at stealth, tracking, laying traps, and carrying out rapid strikes and ambushes. The Dusstalkers are well-coordinated and surgical in their actions.
- Highly tenacious due to Ashspawn racial traits, as they do not feel pain, tire or need to breathe. Unless the brain has been destroyed, everything connected to it can continue to function, even if the only thing left of them is a severed skull. It is pertinet to note that while they cannot bleed out or feel pain, their bodies still rely on a standard understanding of biology. For example, broken bones and torn tendons will not hurt them, but do hamper their movement.
- They are all Ashspawn, a Force-Sensitive species originally spawned by cataclysm. Being within the Force null zone generated by a Ysalamiri weakens them. Force Light can weaken or damage their physical bodies.
- Not equipped for direct assaults on heavy fortifications, heavily armoured infantry or open combat with tank formations and the like. They are rangers, not frontline assault troops and lack integrated heavy support.
Like the Ashspawn or Reborn as a species, the Dusstalkers are children of the apocalypse. The great battle between the Dominion of Light and the Disciples Vader turned Tephrike's former capital into a radioactively contaminated, cursed hellscape. The cataclysmic struggle spawned a dangerous darkside nexus, for the land had been irrevocably tainted. Moreover, the dead had been unable to pass on. Many lingered on as spirits. But this was not the end, forthe dead - both Jedi and Sith, soldiers and civilians - rose from the mass graves and charnel pits. Some say it was on the third day after the cataclysm. Most had lost their sentience and been turned into mindless abominations. But a select few had retained their sentience.
The Tephriki called them the Ashspawn. The first reaction of many reanimated Dominion and Vaderite soldiers who had retained their mental faculties was to try and rejoin their old formations. But they were all labelled unnatural and tainted. The Dominion tried to purify the nexus, and, when that failed, to contain it by building a fortress and a containment wall. The existence of these dark parodies of life was a cause of shame to the Jedi. And the Vaderites only saw slaves to exploit and regarded Palmyra's Wail as a source of dark power to harness. Condemned in undeath, the Ashspawn started to get organised to protect themselves from these threats.
The Duststalkers attribute their foundation to a quasi-mythical Ashspawn called Hecate, who came to be seen as a prophetess of sorts by her kind. It is likely that they started out as a rag-tag, ad hoc group that was later formalised. A long night had descended upon the wasteland. It was dark and full of terrors. Spirits haunted the nexus; Sithspawn beasts and ravenous undead prowled the broken streets. And some Ashspawn fought each other, continuing the war that had destroyed their lives, for not all accepted the message of solidarity and unity among the dead that was propagated by Hecate. The Dusstalkers fought against such threats, trying to wrest some order from the chaos that engulfed the city's ruins.
The Dusstalkers fought several skirmishes against Dominion troops. Initially the Jedi tried to cleanse the nexus and purge the dark side from it. This also involved fighting the creatures and abominations that dwelt inside it, and they did not discriminate, viewing the sentient zombies as tainted. The rangers were able to ambush Dominion troops and disrupt reinforcements to their base, the Shield of Light. An ambitious Jedi paladin full of crusading zeal and her men were ambushed by the rangers, who assaulted them with sharpshooters and triggered explosives to trap them in the ruins. Cut off from reinforcements, the Dominion troops were slaughtered. However, the fortifications were too strong for them to overcome. When a large assault threatened to break through, the Dominion deployed bomber-gunships to rain down hellfire on the attackers and dispatched seasoned Jedi Masters to blast them with the cleansing Light. The Dusstalkers suffered heavy casualties and had to retreat. Thereafter, the Dusstalkers avoided the base and resorted to attacking the Dominion's supply lines and patrols.
They also faced a vainglorious Sith necromancer who claimed to be the 'Master of Life and Death' and sought dominion over the undead. Darth Blitz led an assault on the Dominion's fortress. It was repulsed and it was believed he had been killed. But his soul had been tethered to a soul jar and so he arose again. Using his necromantic powers, he began to bind zombies and other creatures that dwelt in Palmyra's Wail to his will. The Dusststalkers were canny enough to ambush him. They planted false information about there being a wellspring of power in the nexus that was waiting for a worthy master to claim. Blitz committed the folly of trying to force his will upon the nexus, which fought back. The rangers engaged him and his cohorts while allied necromancers turned several undead creatures on him.
Dusstalkers were tested by the Netherworld calamity. The mass rapture badly weakened the Shield of Light, allowing the Ashspawn to stage a breakout. However, it also triggered a demonic incursion in the nexus. Some Ashspawn, including a prestigious Dusstalker commander, succumbed to its malign influence. Moreover, the Dominion troops were driven away by the Republican Guard. The partisan movement considered itself the vanguard of the Force-Dead and the Non-Force-Users. The tyrannical rule of Jedi and Sith alike had made them very hostile to the Force and those sensitive to it. A clash was inevitable. The Republican Guard lacked the heavy firepower of the Dominion or the Vaderites and did not use Force-Users.
But it had mastered guerrilla tactics similar to those utilised by the Duststalkers and their Force-Dead soldiers were immune to many aspects of the Force. The demonic invasion was threatening enough that both sides had to agree to an uneasy truce to confront this menace. Hecate herself led the Dusstalkers and other Ashspawn warriors, fighting alongside the Republican Guard troops. The rebels were decimated, dying to a man, 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. They did witness some Ashspawn raising dead rebels, so they had good reason to be suspicious. The undead rangers withdrew into the shadowy ruins of Palmyra's Wail.
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