Faction In Memoria

[Darth Malum of House Marr]

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"Thank you," He offered to Elise, as she offered reply to his sneeze, even as the amusement was brimming in those red orbs so much like his own.

He let out another sigh, as masked eyes darted between both of them, "What have I done this time for both my beloved sisters to side against me?" He despaired, even as the smile within his voice was laid so thickly one would have to be deaf to not hear it, of course, the smile did easily fade, even hidden as it was, at least one reason he could come up with for why they were. Though for Malum he had a brother, for his sisters, they only had him, what possible explanation could he offer either for why he was risking his life?

He could lie to them, say it was all a ploy to secure the Inquisition, yet as much as the Lord of Deceit was comfortable lying, to say he was to his sisters... all the while being unsure if they would be able to see through it or not... Suffice it to say, he was glad that even though they were unhappy being in this temple, they had not brought that up, yet.

Still, perhaps they wanted to forget about that looming event as much as he did.

Yet, for now, he had the opportunity to spend time with his sisters, and Bogan knew he had long neglected them already, he would not waste this opportunity to his own mind's anxieties. Even if at this moment, spending time with his sisters meant debating them. His vision followed Sophia as she began to speak, as she moved to the altar herself, he held his tongue at her almost casual... touch, of their ancestor's place of... it was not here that he rested, he supposed.

Her words, he imagined had their intended effect, as his heart soared, even as he scoffed, "You have more faith in me, than I do in myself, sweet sister," Malum countered, even as the ghost of a smile forced itself on his face. She truly did, after all for all that he wanted, for all that he desired, for all as far as he had come. How could he ever reach the heights these old Lords, those current Lords, had? Yet, he was touched even still. His hands motioned through the air, by his palm, a single flame burst forth, shifting quickly from orange, to white, before settling on blue, a dangerous power at the worst of times, a cheap parlour trick now, "They are still with us, Sophia, their actions shaped the present in which we live, their presence remains in the Force that we wield... for the great Darth Marr, his blood still flows in our veins," It was sentimental he would admit, but for the sibling between them so obsessed with histories and philosophies, the one who held the hidden sensitivities, was it at all surprising?

His gaze settled on them both as the flames flickered away, "And pray tell what does a statue need of a lightsabre?" He replied, the mirth audible in his voice, "Trust me, when I say there are far too many in this galaxy that would pay a premium for our blood," There was power in it, which was why though even when they left this place, he had made certain one of his would observe for any foul play.

Still, he had hardly a moment to enjoy the retort, before they united yet again, head turning to both, one after another, to deliver a long, withering, look, even if the effectiveness was greatly reduced by the fact that neither could actually see his eyes, "One day remind me to allow you both to hold the amulet, trust then, that when the dead talk, it is brief," Along with many other things, he turned to specifically Elise, "Swift too," It was something which he had never truly considered, as much as the amulet had guided him to finding those of his blood, the visions it granted confirming it for so many, of his immediate family, only his father had held the amulet to be given the sight himself.

It was no easy thing he knew, and hardly something he wished to put his sisters through... yet... it was too a sight that one did not easily forget.

As both signalled his intentions, he allowed himself a soft chuckle, "Alright, alright, my apologies for clearly keeping you both here for so long, what would you both like to do?" For all that he was about to put them through, he might have agreed to anything.

Sophia of House Marr Elise of House Marr

 

[Svenja Fürstin Von Exocron]

The Academy student spoke up. Their eyes playing over my uniform and noticing the rank I held. Holding one that was of a higher status than that of himself. Even mentioning it after providing a name. The confused apprehension of my speaking to them, was what made it clear they were used to many others pushing them around, giving them no room to move, grow, or just exist. Looking away from the man to the statue that stood before us, I looked up. Finding the face of the man.

Being in what was essentially the middle ranks of the Academy came with some benefits. However, I would still have to fight to reach the upper ranks. I was still beneath those who were there. All ranks were cutthroat. Everyone always against one another. Always seeking to better themselves. It was the way Sith were. Even in my own life, that was what happened with royal families and what they desired. It was normal. Commonplace for such things to transpire. With watchful eyes, and deft ears to keep track of every move. Then the vocal mouths that which spewed forth rumors, lies, manipulations to get the attention they wanted, where and when they wanted.

"I speak who whom I deem appropriate, when I deem it. Ranks in the Academy are to break us down. Its a system to make us go against one another. Yet in the same breath, show that those who are at the lower ranks, can work together to rise above their status. Breaking their chains and becoming something... more."

My vision broke from visage of the man. Turning to the student, Dreadmoor. Noticing that he too brought an offering, but releasing that thought.

"The slave, can be just as powerful as a King. All one needs, is opportunity. Your rank means little to me. Moreover, this is a gathering to respect those who have come before. We should focus on that. Not the trivialities of schooling, training, or otherwise."

Soldane Talon

 

[Darth Moskvin]

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Gear: Staff of the Damned / Talisman of the Witch / Magical Gems / Bow of Immolation / Hilt
Familiar: Archimedes
Tags: N/A​

The onset of frustration began to settle like cold blood in my gut as the shrine was being molested by a numerous amount of Sith, some holding trinkets and gadgets and urns and other miraculous objects they believed to be a proper offering for a dead Lord. But it wasn't the masses that annoyed me as much as the disorganization of it all. It was the clutter, no clear lines had been drawn, and I felt as I was being forced to witness a mass gelatin of flesh piled together in preparation at a meat processing factory. I looked to Archie, who seemed content with our current predicament, and held back chiding the fiend. His patience in this situation was warranted, there was nothing I could do to hurry up the blob. Standing and waiting didn't take long to wear my patience thin, and I still had not fed since our arrival. The creeping Hunger was on the move, and no better time to sate than now.

My eyes began its predatorial hunt, searching for the right victim to pluck and dine whilst in the mobile position. Normally I would take any unsuspecting victim, draining their flavorable life essence and discarding the corpse at will. But over the countless years I learned to hone my feeding, taking what I needed and through the Force erasing their memory of my existence and the act itself; naturally I only opted for this particular choice when discarding the body was impractical. Such was the case now. However, my options were limited. Though I had no fear of the living or the dead, feeding from a fellow Sith would pose headaches I simply didn't need. And I was alone, no ally outside of Archie, to come to my defense; and outside of me who can actually communicate with him, most of his squawks would be just that to the untrained ear. I needed a citizen, or a drunken soldier, or heartbroken young maiden like her. Fate had selected me a weeping young woman who was walking away from the crowd of people, praise to the Fanged God.

For a couple of blocks I followed the woman, smelling her blood and sorrow like a mixed cocktail, until we were the only two around, minus the fowl. Hungry and frustrated still by the shrine's overpopulation, I snatched the young maiden from behind, sinking my teeth into her neck, my fangs penetrating deeply trough her soft, pinkish flesh. The iron taste of her crimson blood flowed down my waiting gullet, pushing back the Hunger with every drop. Satisfied and filled, I spun the girl around and erased her memory; yet an odd sensation came over me as she looked familiar. Then the realization of recognition fell upon me quickly. I did in fact know this girl, this traitor, this deceiver, this betrayer. She was to be my progeny, my first child. But she had tricked me, me of all killers, and it was her motives that nearly led me to my second, and possibly my final, death. To say I'm not a vengeful person is a sorely misunderstanding of the facts surrounding my nature, and thus with a just enough force I ripped her head from her shoulders, placing it in a dirty bag I found lying on the ground. I took out the small idol from my cloak's inner pocket, the one that I was going to offer to Ajunta himself and tossed it aside. I now was in possession of a better offering for him, a severed head. What dead Sith Lord wouldn't appreciate such an offering from the result of a murder on a night such as this?

 

[Aerik Lechner]

WEARING: xxx
TAG: Irina Jesart | OPEN

Tonight was going to be a full moon. Aerik knew it when he accepted the invitation to attend the memorial festival. His father was going to be there unless one of the pups went through their first change. He had not wanted to say anything, but Aerik knew he would not make it past another moon without transforming. It had been close the last time, too close. It was a risk to say yes, not because there was a chance he could but because he knew he would.

Aerik’s choice to attend had the potential to endanger everyone, especially his fellow students.

He should have stayed back. Aerik needed to tell his father to meet him outside of the city, somewhere private as they had for the last couple of months. Instead, the pup drug himself to the event, drawn by the promise of a night away from the academy which was not only sanctioned, but encouraged. The carnival promised to be something where the students could have fun. When was the last time he had been free to simply enjoy himself?

His mind went to the woods on Stewjon. There was a cottage deep in the woods just behind the Lechner home. Gerwald had rebuilt it after it had been burned. It was a story which Aerik knew he did not know all of. It seemed their father had his secrets, those which he wanted to keep hidden away for now. Aerik could understand, but he also wanted to know. Palm-Imer had visited them that day. He and his siblings had just finished a hunt and roasted it over the fire. It had been autumn, or near. The smell of the changing leaves still lingered in his memory.

The air was different on Jutrand. It smelled urban, nothing of nature seemed to be around them at all. The academy had been worse, especially in the fifth cohort’s accommodations. It smelled like sewage most days. Aerik could smell the sugar in the air before he smelled anything else. He could not remember the last time he had smelled so much sweet wafting about. It was coming from the carnival, but also from inside the ballroom.

Aerik recognized his parents right away, and then settled on his friend. They had agreed to meet, but as the sun set and the light of the moon began to take over, Aerik was in pain. He stumbled his way to the carnival slowly. Most looking would not discern what was happening, they may think he had been injured in a sparring session and was willing himself though the event. The look in his eyes had dimmed. They were still bright, but muted in some way.

In truth he had not really been paying attention to where he was going. His nose was leading him to where they were supposed to be meeting. By the time he realized where she was exactly, it was too late. The pup had run into her. He did not know if he knocked her down in the process, but he knew he was on the ground. It would be difficult to get him up as he immediately clutched his chest and groaned in pain.

Did she remember what he had said about the next full moon?

His eyes opened wide as he gasped for a breath. A loud pop and crack echoed around them, the sound bouncing off the stone walls of the nearby palace. It was too late to leave. Aerik should not have come, but there was no going back now.

He was about to change, or die trying.

 

[Matteo Guo-Yian]

Lunaria Talon

"Well, I am several years older than you after all." He said with a haughty sniff that was immediately ruined as his eyes lit up at the way the apple came out all caramelized. Clearly he wasn't too old to enjoy the sight of candy being made right in front of him. Even if in a way it was kinda fake. What kind of candy was basically a fruit (healthy) covered in sweets (unhealthy)?

It must have been some sort of trick.

"I don't know if anyone has ever said that to me before…Not that…Not that they would even know I needed to hear it…", her admission was coupled with sweet, precise babbling. Her tone was thoughtful and eventually a small smile started to tug at the kiss of her mouth. "It's kind of…nice."

"Then they should have!" Squeezing her hand as they joined the queue to make the point. "That's on them, not you. I have seen you train almost 'til the bone showed on your hands. Nobody can ever tell me you aren't enough, Art."

Finally letting go of her hand though as they got closer and closer to the caramelized sweetness.

It did look kinda sticky and messy. He had never had one before but he didn't wanna show that. So Matteo was doing his best to watch how other people were eating them covertly. Nobody seemed to be having a good time of doing it without getting their mouth all messy. Maybe that was part of the appeal?

Matteo wasn't sure.

As he looked at his half of the apple, trying to see from which side to tackle it, Artemis was moving her way towards the subject. The painful one that seemed to bring her down so much.

An eye over the apple as she managed it.

"Hey. Look. She is your mom. I don't know her, obviously, but I know my own mom. She would never show it because she believes it is weakness and a way to get hurt... but she loves me. Even if she never told me that in so many words." Matteo nodded there, almost to reassure himself. "Did your mother make sure you can fight? Survive? Make sure you can live and stay alive? Then she loves you."

A soft shrug there.

"I think that's the best us Sith can do... make sure the people we love stay alive... to survive. Don't you think so?"

 

[Soldane Talon]

Tag | Svenja Fürstin Von Exocron​

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How egalitarian of her.​

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Soldane was oddly surprised at her words, they seemed relatively genuine. The problem was that he had heard people act more geninune, and there was no clear line to believe her. Not yet, at least. Instead, Soldane would keep her an arm's length away, so that if her words turned out to be more poison than honey, he could still leave quickly.​

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"Interesting how you say that.", he mused as he turned towards the statue of his Father-not-to-be-claimed.​

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"This one, Darth Maliphant, was born a slave. In fact, in most records of that time, he was even known as 'The Slave'. It was from that position of less than nothing, to rising to a powerful Sith Lord before his death. An offering to him is supposed to bring luck in rising above your station.", or the idle hope they'd be able to speak to one another.​

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"Is that your intention? Make an offering and hit the First Cohort next week?", he said with a glance over to her.​

 

[Fiolette Yvarro]

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"Melori." Fio recognized the bust almost immediately, "not exactly a one for one, a little garish but I suppose that this is what passes for art in the realm of the Sith, mhmm?" Never one to mince words, she appeared in a more apparition form to her wife, "for the record, the girls are asleep, so my time here is limited. Though you can brief me in person, imzadi." There was a small pause as she knelt down beside the brunette, "something troubles you? Ails you perhaps? Tell me." It was taking a lot to project across such a distance most especially with the maternal duties that waited her.

Still, Fiolette could feel through the bonds that something needed spoken. "You know you can't hide much from me, imzadi. Are we to raze another pathetic Sith Lord's fortress? Shall I send forth the fleets and legions to bring civilizations to ruin in your name?" A tease, perhaps, but she knew better and knew how tender Taeli was when it came to her family, her siblings especially, "I cannot offer you my actual shoulder, but I am here if you wish to grieve for Melori." The once Lord Admiral gestured toward the bust, the redhead was never particularly good with these sort of emotions but she had been working to be more present for her wife in these delicate times. Delicate, for the moment at the very least.

Silence befell them for the briefest of moments, and then it went on longer. The apparition merely turned to Taeli, and gave her a reassuring smile. "There a tale you wish to share of her? Perhaps something I can share with our newest additions?" She offered, although these sort of stories were typically reserved for their home, their sanctuary, an unmarked world far from the dangerous pursuits that haunted them both.

Taeli Raaf ​

 

[Kaila Irons]

Kaila smiled at Tamsin's curiosity. It reminded the sith of her younger self, a being who was comparatively naïve and so awed by the very concepts she was now sharing with a student of her own.

"Excellent questions. Let us start first with the shrine," she approached the one Tamsin had pointed out with a glint of recognition in her eye.

"This is- oh...? That is not Marka Ragnos, but that is his staff..."

She paused, observing the statue more carefully. It was then that she noticed the staff was broken, and dusted off the plaque with a gloved hand.

"Ah! This is Tavion Axmis, I should have known. She was the led a cult after the fall of the first galactic empire"

While it seemed unusual to enshrine a Dark Jedi cultist, she had to admit that the disciples came closer than most cults to to achieving greatness.

"These people worshipped Marka Ragnos, a great sith king who once ruled over the original sith empire, although the cult began thousands of years after his death. They hoped to resurrect him by empowering his staff, but were stopped by the Jedi after much conflict"

"Ragnos has actually appeared many times from beyond the grave" she added with a look of quiet wonder.

"There are a few ways in which Sith have become immortal, Tamsin. Our most powerful often do so as spirits, far more powerful and far more dangerous than the ones I have bound. Ragnos may be the most powerful of all, a figure who was respected by the sith both in life and in death. This woman here, Axmis, was a Dark Jedi who became his apprentice, even in his ghostly state. Rumor has it that she willingly let his spirit possess her in battle"

Kaila shuddered at her own words.

"Why someone would ever willingly let their master control their body, I do not know. But I suppose she must have had a very different relationship with her master than I do with mine"

"Though I am curious," She turned to Tamsin

"Does this shrine interest you for any reason in particular? I could check my collection for any books on the cult if you wish"


Tamsin Graves