Sic transit gloria mundi
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Firemane's Qadiri forces.
Image Credit: Here.
Role: Strike force, naval infantry.
Permissions: ARGH gear available per this thread. Permission for all ArmaTech gear and all other subs made by Laira Darkhold's writer here. Permission for Taegis shield from submitter here.
Links: Qadiri, Shazora Jai Vahal, Shahbânu Semiramis III.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Unit Name: Golden Dragon Immolators.
Affiliation: Qadiri, Siobhan, Firemane, House Kerrigan-Alcori.
Classification: Marines.
Description: The Golden Dragon Immolators are a crack unit of Qadiri assault infantry whose members have a special affinity for fire and specialise in littoral zones and fighting on the waterways. They use flamethrowers, lava cannons, shotguns and Taegis battle shields to flush out enemies. They started out as ship based marines from Qadiri coastal cities using a variant of liquid fire to board ships and storm defences. The Immolators are mercenaries who are in it for the plunder. They have built up a solid reputation as tenacious fighters and follow a kind of warrior code, but are not picky about who they work for - provided their would-be employer can pay them. Firemane has a contract with them that puts the mercenaries at its disposal for a fixed amount of years, with the option of renegotiation and extension.
This means it has the Golden Dragons on retainer. For their part, the mercenaries like the pay and the access to high-tech. It has allowed them to take to the stars and expand their operations from Tygara. However, they still keep their old traditions and initiation rites alive. They are also quite insistent on being contractors, not Sepoys. Siobhan has impressed them with her combat prowess and provided them with battles, glory and booty, but they do not see themselves as servitors who are bound to her forever. This has limited their access to some pieces of the Firemane arsenal.
There is some tension between the Immolators and Firemane's Qadiri formations that have been recruited from emancipated slaves. While the Immolators were not slavers, they also took slaves as plunder. To them, they were just another commodity to sell since slavery was a fact of life on Tygara. As part of their deal with Firemane, the Immolators had to abandon their slaving ways and set their slaves free. However, this can still cause some issues when they have to work together with freedmen forces.
The Immolators have a rivalry with the Khaimari, a Qadiri people infamous for being corsairs and explorers. This can manifest in form of unfortunate rivalries on the battlefield. They have a special reverence for the Qadiri deities of fire and he sea. This has not stopped them from targeting temples and monasteries in the past. After all, while piety is important, all that gold is very tempting. The Immolators are proud of their martial accomplishments and recruits are expected to learn about the heritage of the group.
Despite having only recently been exposed to the greater Galaxy, the Immolators have adapted quite well all things considered. After all, while the 'sky people' can build fortresses that last eternity, sky-ships and weapons of terrible power that can devastate entire planets, their motivations and drives are no different from those of the elves. Arrogant humans and Eldorai who dismiss them as 'sand babies' get short shrift from them. Firemane employs the Immolators as a mobile assault force that can hit fast and hard.
The Qadiri marines have adapted well to to using modern weaponry in amphibious warfare. It is very similar to what they did in the past, only the technology has changed and tactics have been adapted accordingly. The Golden Dragons have voiced interest in further serving the 'Skyqueen' by carrying out boarding operations in space, but this has been denied. Their mistress finds them useful, but does not trust them enough to give them access to spaceships. Basic is a foreign language to the Qadiri, and so not all Dragons have learned it yet. Hence their helmets are equipped with translation devices.
The group is led by Vahraran Jal Termezi. He claims that he was sold into slavery as a little boy and trained as a pit fighter. He excelled in this role, earning his master so much money that the latter manumitted him shortly before passing away. After having earned his freedom, Vahraran became a sellsword, as fighting was what he had been taught.
His path led him to the Immolators. It was he who brought them into the orbit of House Kerrigan-Alcori. His time in the pits taught him to fight dirty. He has little respect for notions of chivalry and is quite mocking of the Qadiri knighthood, the Cataphracts, and Force-Users. He claims to have killed a Force-Sensitive Cataphract in a duel by sending his lance into his foe's Yazgid mount and finished off his enemy as she lay pinned beneath the lizard.
While lacking in formal education, he is quite street smart, aware of the world he is operating in and capable of cutting the knot to solve problems. It helps that he bypasses morals completely. Vahraran has a mercenary's conscience. That is to say, none at all. He is self-centred, greedy, and hedonistic, but self-aware and observant. Vahraran does, ironically, not think particularly highly of the Immolators' founder, believing that Bahadur had it all and could have gained even more, but just had to remain obsessed with one city because his mother had ruled it.
COMBAT INFORMATION:
Unit Size: Medium
Unit Availability: Rare
Unit Skill: Veteran
Equipment:
Armour:
- Sentinel Battle Armour. Katarn Class Commando Armour. The first is used by the rank and file, the second by officers and select soldiers in the vanguard. They have translators built into their helmets.
- Taegis Battle Shield.
Sidearms:
- DC-17 Hand Blaster
- Sonic Disruptor
- Magnetic Revolver
- Cylix Bolt Pistol
- Renegade Blaster Pistol.
- Verpine Shattergun
- SH-9.
- Reaper Plasma Shotgun
- DXR-6 Disruptor Rifle
- BR-4 "Baleful Bantha" Blaster Rifle
- MKII Boltgun.
- A280 Blaster Rifle.
- DC-12U Beam Rifle
- T-21 Light Repeating Blaster
- ACS-207 Aerosolblaster.
- Wrist Bolter
- Dur-24 Wrist Laser
- Under-Barrel Miniature Flame Projector
- ACS-207 Acidthrower
Misc:
- Neural Band
- APE Boltgun Ammunition
- Grenades (Various, such as ion/emp, incendiary, plasma, stun, flash, frag, smoke, thermal etc.)
- 53-R High-Yield Thermite Explosives.
- Aulanerk Tactical Assault Boat
- Patriot Class Amphibious Landing Craft
- Wayfarer Class Patrol Boat
- Bantha Class Armoured Transport
To maximise their ability to flush out enemies, they use crowd control weapons such as shotguns, lava cannons and flamethrowers, focusing on close quarter engagements. The Immolators use the MKII variant of the Boltgun, which has a higher rate of fire and is more practical in close engagements, though also less versatile. They carry Taegis battle shields to provide cover from enemy fire and are able to form a shield wall. This can give them an advantage in melee combat, though such a phalanx may be vulnerable to flanking attacks.
The Immolators have a very aggressive mind set, which can turn into a weakness. As their name implies, they have a special affinity for fire weapons and so flamethrowers or lava cannons are more common in the individual units than is typical. This is very good for crowd control and can help them clear out bunkers and other enemy strongpoints, but obviously they must take care that they do not experience unfortunate accidents.
Being Qadiri, they have inherent navigational talents. One can liken it to a sort of internal compass. This is helpful during seafaring and landing operations, but also for finding one's way on a chaotic battlefield. The Immolators are composed of Non-Force-Users, and thus must rely on skill, ingenuity and tech to prevail.
Strengths:
- Crack marines. They specialise in amphibious warfare.This can involve boarding and cleansing a surface ship on the waterways, carrying out raids and landing on a hostile shore to secure tactical objectives etc.
- They have high morale and an aggressive mind set.
- The Immolators are focused on hitting hard and fast. They suffer in pitched engagements against heavy armour or artillery. They are trained for rapid strikes and shipboard skirmishes.
- Lack aircraft, spacecraft and the like. This means they will require support to protect them from air strikes during larger-scale amphibious landing operations.
War for the Qadiri has always been a daily part of life and politics. While Tygara was isolated from the rest of the Galaxy, technology of war became a highly skilled art over time. The use of mercenaries and professional soldiers was common, leading to long campaigns of manoeuvre and position. Defeating an enemy without fighting a battle was seen as noble, not cowardly, and rash commanders looked down on as uncontrolled.
In battle there was a complex interplay between cavalry, infantry, archers and Force users. Each was countered by another, and is in turn counters another. For instance archers were formidable at cutting down infantry, but were easily dispersed by Yazgid mounted riders, who in turn could break formed infantry. The perfect timing and co-ordination required in a general made successfully ones highly honoured.
All of the Qadiri realms were exceptionally skilled at producing ships and navigators to steer them. It was a Qadiri captain who managed to circumnavigate Tygara. Clashes on the sea between Qadiri fleets and those of the Xioquo, their arch-rival for dominance over Tygara, were common. This culture of warfare spawned a variety of knightly orders, Force cults and mercenary companies. Unsurprisingly, the line between them often blurred, depending on the economic situation and whether there was a war going on. The Golden Dragon Immolators were one of these soldiers of fortune.
Their founder and first captain was a condottiere called Bahadur Jal Torkan, the son of a noble house from the state of Jakai. As a rule, the Qadiri practice enactic-cognatic succession. This means a female will inherit before the male, but the male sibling will not be passed over beyond that. Bahadur was the eldest, but his gender meant that his sisters would come first in the line of succession.
This was the cause of resentment on his part. When he tried to force the issue and seize power over the fief, he and his followers were defeated. Having been undone by betrayal and force of arms, he was compelled to go into exile. Lacking in prospects, he became a sellsword, or, depending on one's point of view, a bandit and a raider. Over time his mercenary group grew from a small force of bandits, deserters and never-do-wells to a professional military outfit. They called themselves the Golden Dragon Immolators and came to specialise in ambushes on the seas and coasts of Tygara.
He became adept at exploiting divisions between the Qadiri realms. When the Kashari Church was split in two by a schism due to the election of two Saoshyants, who promptly proceeded to excommunicate each other, his mercenaries placed themselves at the disposal of the candidate backed by the Amikarese Empire. They participated in the now infamous sack of Krolis, proving their prowess as naval warriors by launching a daring boarding action on the flagship of the 'Anti-Saoshyant'. Employing a variant of liquid fire and their prowess in melee combat, they were able to sweep away resistance aboard the vessel and overwhelm the elite guard of the 'false' Saoshyant.
Needless to say they used the chance to plunder. Krolian nobles, merchants and clerics were held for ransom and their mansions were looted. Indeed, the rapaciousness of the mercenaries and of their own soldiers was a cause of embarrassment for the Amikarese Empire. Bahadur was not satisfied with coin and the favour of the Imperial court. First he battled the Xioquo, then accepted a contract with a noble house that was a rival to his family. He proceeded to use the wealth he had accumulated to bribe their mamluks and instigate a revolt.
Having framed his erstwhile patrons as traitors, he sought to give his regime a veneer of legitimacy by putting a daughter of the deposed Mirza, who was still a child, in power as puppet ruler and married the Mirza's sister. However, his regency was not to last, for his foes intrigued against him at the court of Zeheb, capital of the Amikarese Empire. His sister, aware that he sought to take away her birthright, was not idle. The Immolators repulsed an attack, but Bahadur was struck by an arrow and died from infection. Having lost their leader, their officers accepted a bribe to pull out. This was probably the prudent thing to do.
Now under less ambitious and perhaps more realistic leadership, the Immolators made themselves a name as sellswords, fighting in various petty wars between Qadiri states as well as with the Xioquo. They acquired a rivalry with the Khaimari, a Qadiri people renowned as corsairs and explorers. Both clashed over booty. Indeed, the Immolators were hired by some Qadiri city-states to protect their convoys against Khaimari pirates. In that capacity the Immolators repelled boarders and took the fight to the corsairs. Of course, their motivation was plunder. Mostly it was gold, sometimes it was slaves.
The Golden Dragons played a role in the brief Amikarese succession crisis. The Shahbânu died while her daughter and heir Semiramis was away on an inspection tour. A cabal of nobles and military leaders proclaimed Jaamini, Semiramis' cousin, the new ruler. Assassins were sent after Semiramis, who managed to evade them but was shipwrecked. However, she and her loyal slave managed to reach Mansura and gain an ally in Satrap Ardashir.
The Golden Dragons sided with Jaamini's faction, as it controlled the capital and most of the Empire. They were deployed to raid and punish a coastal city that had declared for Semiramis. In this task, the Immolators succeeded. Qadiri mages manipulated the elements in the air and sea, and the Golden Dragons secured a beachhead for loyalist troops, capturing the port. However, despite lacking these reinforcements, Semiramis still marched on Zeheb, knowing that if she turned away, she would forfeit her claim.
In his battle, Semiramis' bravery and a well-timed cavalry charge by Ardashir snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Jaamini fled, but was betrayed and murdered by her allies, who were trying to curry favour with their vanquisher. Disgusted by the betrayals, Semiramis had them executed and gave her cousin a proper burial. With her accession, the Golden Dragons found themselves on the outs. It also meant that they did not get paid. The new Shahbânu dispatched a punitive expedition to their fortress, forcing them to retreat. They eventually sought a royal pardon, presenting her with the head of a noble who had backed Jaamini, then fled and tried to hire them.
The Golden Dragons did a few jobs for Semiramis, fighting Xioquo and other Qadiri groups. While between jobs, they were contracted by a coalition of Qadiri states called the Northern League. One of their members, the city-state of Karahamor had fallen under the control of an army of rebellious slaves. The slaves had toppled the 'wise mistresses and masters' and now wanted to spread their revolution. The Emir of Nishapur spearheaded the counterattack. The Golden Dragons participated in the siege and the blockade of the rebel city, scoring a tactical victory over the slaves. However, the rebels were tenacious.
The mercenaries managed to take prisoners from among the rebels, including some prominent leaders. When Shazora Jai Vahal, a senior rebel leader, offered gold in exchange for the return of three prominent hostages, the Emir refused, as he had no need of money. The sellswords wanted the deal and grew angry when it was refused. After all, even the Emir of Karahamor had not paid them and dismissed their tactical contributions. Shazora offered bribes. When they were given the order to attack, the mercenaries dithered and did not intervene when the situation turned critical and the rebels used civilian transports as fire ships to break the blockade. Ultimately, the coalition broke apart, saving the rebels from destruction, though at a cost.
The arrival of the 'sky people' brought a profound change to the political and social landscape of Tygara. The Qadiri had long had a tradition of believing that there was life in the stars, but now it turned out that the myths were true. Strange outsiders descended upon their planet in sky-ships and started building settlements. The Immolators ended up in contact with a group of outsiders that called themselves Firemane. Lady Siobhan offered the people of Tygara protection, advanced technology and the chance to move into the stars. However, she also demanded submission to her as their suzerain, eventually and the abolition of slavery. Some embraced the sky people and, in some cases, even came to see them as messianic saviours due to their leader's prowess in battle. Others saw them as foreign invaders that had to be resisted.
The Golden Dragons fought on Firemane's side during the Xioquo War. The mercenaries used the chance to familiarise themselves more with the technology and methods of the outsiders. They were brought into Firemane's orbit when Siobhan marched on a Qadiri city that defied her. The Firemane leader took note of their martial skill during a skirmish on the sea, where they fought well despite their technological backwardness. In turn, they witnessed her power during that fight, as she cut down scores of warriors.
Their captains attended a parlay with Siobhan, who demanded submission. One of their captain was won over and engineered a coup. He presented the heads of his dead colleagues to Siobhan. Supposedly they lay in a basket filled with blood oranges. Siobhan accepted the offer, but kept them on a short leash and demanded fealty. A number of unsuitable members were eliminated or removed from the corps. The Golden Dragons played an important role in the siege by raiding the city's fortified shipyards called the Arsenal. Firemane has kept the Qadiri sellswords on the payroll since then. They are a useful instrument, albeit one that merits some monitoring.
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