E T E R N A L - E M P R E S S
- Intent: Shadow-borns who have already lost their lives and have been in the Netherworld for millennia get their story as shadow demons.
- Image Credit: Shadow Knights; modify by me; Border; Headers:
Kainan Wolfe
- Role: Bodyguards and sorcerers (evil paladins) of Ingrid L'lerim-Vandiir.
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: Shadow-born | Sith magic | Sith Necromancy
- Unit Name: Hadzuska Zirgas | The Shadow Knights
- Affiliation: The Night Queen (Ingrid L’lerim-Vandiir)
- Classification: “Paladin” (Knights and Sorcerers)
- Description: They look smokey with red eyes and look like they’re in full black armour, which is really real and with them they can even turn completely smoke because they are, so to speak, formed of themselves. In the form of smoke, they look like completely black smoke, but even in their completely physical form, the smoke around them is present, it is always visible. They basically use spells, if they get into melee, they are able to create a weapon with Sith sword properties and use it. Their behaviour is basically passive, defensive; they only attack if they are ordered to do so, in their own defence, or if the person / location to be protected is at risk.
- Unit Size: Small (8 members only)
- Unit Availability: N/A (They are irreplaceable)
- Unit Experience: Elite
- Equipment: Ancient Sith Armour | Sith Sword (Both formed from shadows, details above)
- Combat Function: As this is another irreplaceable unit in Ingrid’s repertoire, he is reluctant to use them either, at most in the last case. She mainly uses them to protect her own palace, and to protect her husband and children (Eyjolf and Adrian), and of course her own. This is helped by the ability of Shadow Knight members to hide in the Force and become invisible and appear in their physical form only when needed. They typically provide bodyguard or building protection, in most cases they do not show up. However, they can only conjure and intervene in the world of the living in their full physical form, otherwise they can only whisper or telepathically communicate and fight in this form, only in their physical form.
- Well Protected: In full physical form, they have Sith Armor-like armor that appears completely black on them. The same is true that in this form they also have a sword with one or two handed Sith Sword properties that they can use. They only have them in full physical form when they are most vulnerable.
- Sorcerer and Magic: They were great sorcerers even before they died, and that hasn't changed in the years (millennia) since they died. They are still at the master level. But even these abilities can only be used in full physical form.
- Immaterial: Basically, when they are summoned from the Netherworld they are invisible and immaterial. In this form, they are very difficult to perceive because they hide themselves in the Force. If anyone can detect them though, they look like simple wandering, harmless souls, or just fog, or black smoke. They are also able to pass through walls if needed in this shape.
- Hard to Destroy: The best method against them is probably banish, but with that you can get them back to the Netherworld, from where they can be summoned again later. This does not mean that they are immortal, because a very strong Force User may be able to permanently destroy them. In intangible form, they are less physically vulnerable, although banish still works against them, in physical form they are most vulnerable to physical attacks.
- The Light Side: The Light Side Force effects have a greater effect on them, making them more sensitive to them. They can be banished by the Light side, but to destroy them permanently they first have to be entrapped in some manner. Doesn't have to be rituals, necessarily, could be a powerful Jedi Master keeping them from escaping (back to the Netherworld) as the Light purges them.
- Immaterial: This form also has disadvantages, not just advantages. In this form, they are incapable of interfering in the real world in any form. Although they can penetrate walls, they can do no physical damage. At most, they can whisper or telepathically communicate, but they cannot cast spells, or fight or harm anyone. Conversely, if someone is able to perceive or see them, they can hurt them or banish them back into the Netherworld, or if they are capable, they can destroy them.
- Summoning: Summoning them basically requires a long ritual of at least an hour. Thus, if one can banish them in a fight, it is impossible to summon them again in the midst of war or situations where there is no opportunity to perform a long ritual.
- Irreplaceable: Since the Shadow knights became from the former Shadow-born members (of the eight souls that did not perish, there were a total of ten, two have already perished), so their deaths are final and they cannot be replaced. As they were members of a doomed race in their lives, all this did not change as a demon / spirit.
- Vulnerable: They are vulnerable in all their forms, although they are more difficult to spot and perceive in immaterial form. The more they have a physical shape, the less vulnerable they are to physical attacks (whatever the type of attack). If their physical body is destroyed (not the soul), the soul is returned to the Netherworld, from where it must be summoned again.
- Degeneration: As spirits, they are nowhere near as strong and powerful as they were in their lives. Back then, they were perhaps the most powerful creatures of their age, Force-entities with almost divine power, well, as a Shadow knight, this can no longer be said of them at all.
There were once ten, the Night Spirit / Tharagorrogaraht made ten Shadow-born to serve him as lieutenants. Later, he became the eleventh Ingrid L’lerim when Night Spirit perished. The original ten died many hundreds, but rather many thousands of years ago, after they were the most powerful users of power of their age by the grace of their goddess. As usual, their souls went to the Netherworld. It's not true for everyone.
Two out of ten were trapped in the world of the living because they were both tied to an artefact or a holocron, which prevented them from getting their souls into the Netherworld. These two were completely destroyed, one on Bursol II, the other on Trenwyth, but that’s not their story right now. But the remaining eight.
These eight souls, spent the last millennia at Netherworld, were the ones who did not try to find a solution to their own immortality. Or if they did, they were not successful. And the Netherworld did not spare them, they changed; it was the price of not being nothing, not actually being one with the Force. Price, in addition to change, was a significant part of their power because they lost it and took a much more militant form.
This was necessary because they were placed in a part of the Netherworld where the Force was of less use, the actual fight was more important. In their lives, they were never really warriors, just sorcerers. But now they also had to learn here how to assert themselves as a warrior. They had millennia to train in such a field as well, for they did not want to be lost in the darkness of oblivion, forever. Thus, with this decision, their change from their original form became actual.
As time went on and on, probably none of them thought they could ever reach the world of the living again. But fate or the Force intervened. Meanwhile, Night Spirit died and Ingrid became the last Shadow-born who wanted to know after that what happened to the other eight, about whom she knows nothing.
AMCO
was there to help and the two of them finally found clues that led to the Shadow Knights.Ingrid, only after Adrian's death, was it possible for her to deal with these souls/demons again, looking for a way to reassemble her husband's soul. With that, she made no progress, but she brought out various information and knowledge from her mind (which she had previously stolen from Night Spirit and one of the two dead Shadow-born) and then used it to write the spell and ritual with which the Shadow Knights were able to summon Netherworld and set them her own service.
