OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Add some flavour to Eldorai forces.
Image Credit: Here. 'Rhona'. By RinRinDaishi.
Role: Force support unit, elemental artillery.
Permission: Can use Firemane stuff because I own the company. Permission for all ArmaTech gear here.
Links: Church of Ashira, Eldorai Exodus, Shadow Knights, Eldorai.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Unit Name: Icewind Ravagers
Affiliation: Lilandra Taeyr, Sahome Tyral, Ashiranism, Aspirants.
Classification: Elemental mages, support unit.
Description: They are a unit of Force-Sensitive Eldorai who specialise in cryomancy. Eldorai possess a higher than average Force affinity than humans. While the figure for humans is unstated, the figure for Eldorai is about one in a thousand have some minor Force ability. Usually this manifests itself simply as empathic or persuasive or having a good danger sense, but rarer individuals have stronger affinity with the Force.
Under the law of the Eldorai Matriarchy, all Force-users, or Sciians, as the Eldorai call them, have to be trained. Most are allowed to live their lives the way they see if after that. But those with the greatest martial aptitude are conscripted into combat units. This is a rule most Eldorai splinter groups, such as the Shadow Knights and the Aspirants, also abide by. Most Force-Sensitive Eldorai have a strong affinity for one of the four elements. Those with combat prowess are trained as elemental warriors. The Icewind Ravagers attract those who have a strong affinity for ice and water. They are trained as long range fighters, making them a potent support unit. For instance, they could summon a blizzard or a snow storm. In addition to having power over ice and snow, they can manipulate water and the wind.
Today they are a force of exiles fighting for a homeland. They have adapted to being part of a spacefaring people - Space Elves in the most literal sense. The ability to create a thick fog and similar has proved useful during raids. The ability to make metal brittle through cold is useful when forcing an entry. They are obviously still best utilised in ground warfare. Their Force Sight helps them spot targets under conditions of low visibility without needing to resort to tech that might be compromised by the weather. Their conventional loadout focuses on heavy weapons that have a lot of firepower.
In terms of composition they are a mixture of rogue Angelii, Eldorai who went through basic training to learn how to control their powers but did not join the Angelii corps and only served with the part-time Reserve and young Forsaken recruited during the Long Night on Kaeshana. Some are also Eldorai who were abducted by slavers at a young age but later freed. Their leader is Lilandra Taeyr, a former Angelii who went rogue during the reign of Star Queen Tirathana VI.
She belongs to the Aspirants, an Ashiran sect that feels the orthodox Church has chosen gold over the true message of the Goddess. In what could be called a Reformation, they have abolished formal ecclesiastic titles and returned to the teachings of the scriptures. They reject the idea that the Star Queen is Ashira's emissary and viceroy in this world. Lilandra is the type to inspire her comrades with passionate speeches, which is something the laconic Kaida hates doing. She is strongly motivated by a desire to atone for war crimes she committed while in the service of Tirathana. She is devout, but opposed to mindless obedience. In keeping with Aspirant teachings, she believes in justification by scripture alone. Every Eldorai can find her way to the Heavenly Mother.
In the spirit of gender equality and sheer pragmatism, the Icewinds allow male Eldorai to join them, despite the conservative family values of many Aspirant leaders. Lilandra lacks Kaida's staunch sexism, and so men have better chances to get promoted in this unit. Lilandra lived through the cataclysm on Kaeshana, while Kaida was one of the exodites. This probably contributed to Lilandra being more open-minded, as the old gender policies were too impractical for the Forsaken to maintain. However, conversely she is less understanding and a bit ignorant of the Tygaran elves, as she has not been exposed to them that much. Unlike her, Kaida spent many years on Tygara, trained and commanded native Sepoys, which gives her a somewhat different perspective.
The group is loyal to the Aspirants and their cause, though this does not make everyone a zealot. The Aspirants are a rather broad tent, united in their conviction that the Ashiran faith and the Eldorai require a reformation. Nonetheless, religion is quite important to them in their daily life. Their conviction also helps steel their morale, enabling them to fight even when the situation is at its direst. It makes them very difficult to scare or mentally manipulate.
COMBAT INFORMATION:
Unit Size: Medium
Unit Availability: Unique
Unit Experience: Elite.
Equipment:
Armour:
Rifles:
Support Weapons:
- Lance Missile Launcher: Requires two-man crew; a gunner and a spotter/ammunition carrier.
- Grenade Launcher
- EMP Launcher
- FC-1 Flechette Launcher
- Heavy Bolter
- Renegade Heavy Blaster Pistol
- Cylix Bolt Pistol
- Magnetic Revolver
- Flechette Pistol
- Hard-Sound Gun
- Verpine Shattergun
- Sonic Disruptor
- Adjudicator
- MSD-32
Misc:
- Grenades, Dampener Aerosol Grenades, Sonic Imploders, Thermal Imploders.
- MM9.
- APE Boltgun Ammunition
- Jetpack
- Verpine Prototype Shield.
- Access to Speeder Bikes and Bladesinger Combat Speeders
- Dur-24 Wrist Laser
- Wrist Bolter
With enough focus and concentration, they can create a snowstorm or icestorm, even a blizzard, though this would require a group effort. In doing so they can reduce visibility and complicate targeting for aircraft and artillery. It can also wreak havoc on infrastructure. Heavy snowfalls can also make driving vehicles hazardous. Their abilities can also allow them to damage enemy aircraft. Moreover, they can create rainfalls and, with enough time and the right conditions, an ice quake. Their affinity for all things arctic can encompass initiating avalanches and glacial quakes. Their control over their bodies and affinity for the cold allows them to drastically lower their body temperature to evade detection by heat scans. This can be helpful for getting into position.
The Ravagers are proficient in Force Sight, which is especially useful in conditions of lowered visibility. They can enter a Force Meld to boost coordination and draw strength from one another. Ice is less blatantly destructive than fire, but a strong support power. Their elemental abilities help a bit with evading detection as they can lower their body temperature, making it more difficult to detect them via heat scans. Due to their powers they are adept at shielding themselves from elemental hazards and attacks. They can use the Force to enhance their physical capabilities such as strength and stamina, which is useful for the type of weapons they tend to carry.
Unsurprisingly, the Ravagers are at their strongest in cold climates. They possess extreme cold resistance, but are far less effective in hot climates. Thus they are a poor unit to send to a place like Tatooine or Mustafar. By their very nature, the Ravagers are a support unit. Many of their techniques focus on engaging enemies at range and shaping the battlefield. They would also be weakened by ysalamiri fields, as they would lose their greatest asset if deprived of the Force.
Being a support unit, they are not meant to engage enemies head-on or lead a charge. They are a small unit and thus easily outnumbered, Careless use of their abilities can cause them to hurt allied forces as much as the enemy. Assuming they are spotted, they are also vulnerable to long range bombardment, since they are an infantry unit. While they have means to defend themselves against aircraft, there is not much they can do against long range artillery except use their powers to conceal themselves and make it difficult to target them. If that does not work, they are in trouble.
On the conventional front, the Ravagers are equipped with weapons such as missile launchers and bolters. These give them capabilities against heavy armour and enemy clusters. However, careless use of their ice powers can spoil the effect of missile attacks. These weapons also tend to be rather loud. The weight of their weapons can slow them down, which has implications for their mobility, especially if they have to switch positions to evade enemy counterfire. This makes them reliant on speeders for transport. Bolters hit hard, but have a low firing rate and small ammo capacity. Their main ammo, explosive bolts, is also not practical at close range, as they have a minimum range. This applies even more so to Heavy Bolters.
Their armour is decent, but vulnerable to heavy weapons and only has minor lightsabre protection. The Ravagers are a pure infantry force and lack support forces aside from speeders.Their airspeeders are fast and have mounted weapons that give the cryomancers additional firepower, such as via rotary cannons. They are good infantry shredders, but weak against tanks and other heavily armoured vehicles. Moreover, careless use of the Icewind's abilities can spoil their retreat or make it difficult to navigate. Outside of the speeders they are reliant on their personal weapons and elemental abilities.
Strengths:
- Powerful cryomancers. Their affinity for air, ice and water allows them to act as elemental artillery. They can create rainfalls, ice quakes, snow and ice storms as well as blizzards. They can freeze enemies, give them frostbite and so on.
- Heavy firepower in form of bolters, missile and grenade launchers.
- Ysalamiri, Voidstone and the like deprive them of their biggest advantage.
- Ranged warriors and thus at a disadvantage up close. Careless use of their Force powers can also spoil their retreat option or have a detrimental effect on allies. Their weapons have a lot of firepower, but are also heavy. This affects their mobility when outside of their speeders.
Thus they have had to think outside the box when it comes to support forces. The Icewind Ravagers are a result of this. The unit is composed of Force-sensitive elves who specialise in ice, water and air. They are meant to engage enemies at range, providing the Eldorai exiles with a long distance bombardment force. Turning to Force-users makes sense because the Eldorai possess a higher than average Force affinity than humans. Elementalists are quite common among their Force-users.
The Icewinds were conceived during the Long Night, as the Forsaken refer to the time after the Great Cataclysm. Long story cut short, Kaeshana, the Eldorai homeworld, was devastated by an asteroid. Most Eldorai managed to flee before the impact, but a remnant was left behind and had to survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Strife was common, as the survivors vied for control over resources. Foreign pirates and slavers tried to take advantage of the Eldorai's plight.
The Shadow Knights were founded to wrest some order from the chaos and protect the surviving Eldorai communities against the manifold threats that assailed them. Comprised of exiles, religious and political dissidents, they rejected the authority of the ancien régime. Many of them were hardened revolutionaries or ex-soldiers who had grown disillusioned with the old order. They formed an uneasy alliance with the Aspirants, a sect of Ashiran reformists who were also trying to protect the Forsaken.
Sahome Tyral, the prophetess of the Aspirants, had elected to stay on Kaeshana to provide aid to those who had been abandoned. One of her disciples, an Eldorai renegade called Lilandra Taeyr, created the unit. She had once been an Angelii, which gave her the skill and command experience. The fact that she had disavowed the Crown a long time ago was also helpful. To her protecting the Forsaken was a way to make amends for crimes she had committed while in the service of Queen Tirathana VI. For a while it was a joint unit of Shadows and Aspirants.
It was intended to give the Forsaken an edge against the warlords, pirates and the genocidal machine cult Archangel, which launched raids to acquire Eldorai so that they could be processed into machines. With resources so scarce, the Forsaken had to rely on what tech they could scavenge, barter or acquire through raids. The Icewinds proved their mettle during the Long Night. Their elemental abilities proved quite useful against Archangel's droid forces, as these were very tech reliant. The Eldorai combined these preternatural techniques with guerilla tactics to ambush raiders. In one instance heavy snowfalls wreaked havoc on a convoy of raiders and collaborating Eldorai warlord forces, enabling the Shadows' partisans to strike.
When the Shadow Knights allied with the Galactic Alliance, Firemane and the Tygaran Alliance during the Kaeshana Rebellion, the Icewinds were deployed to the ruins of Santaissa. Once this proud city had been Kaeshana's capital, but the asteroid had destroyed it, turning it into a ghost town. Still it was a combat zone in this battle. For the sake of the common cause, the Icewinds linked up with other Forsaken and royalist Angelii commanded by Kaida Taldir, who at this point was still an officer of the Crown. They combined their powers to summon a blizzard in order to impede the First Order forces in the city and provide protection against enemy air strikes. This turned out to be vital, for the blizzard protected the force of Angelii that tried to secure Santaissa when they came under assault by First Order TIEs.
Ultimately, however, the First Order took control over the planet, and the allied forces retreated. Thus the Shadows were forced to vacate the planet, after evacuating the Eldorai civilians who had sought refuge in the ruins of the Citadel of Dusk. The Icewinds went with them. Later the Aspirants formed an independent migrant fleet and Lilandra took her followers with her to join it. The Icewinds that did not go with her were integrated into the Shadow Knight nomad fleet.
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