Ashin Varanin
Professional Enabler
Corporation Name: Ke’dem
Headquarters: Jurgoran Prison on Dromund Kaas (secret)
Locations: The Shrine of Krul on Balowa, various mobile locations, Trevel'ka.
Operations: Paramilitary/acquisitions contractor, alchemy (sideline)
Rationale: After the One Sith captured and tortured her wife, Ashin Varanin went from penniless, grumpy, has-been hermit to something an awful lot angrier. Ashin has trained many, many people in the ways of the Force. Some of them remember her. Others have been recruited during raids on Sith facilities. Resources have generally come from raids also, such as the one on Odacer-Faustin, though some resources were provided through Ashin’s longstanding relationship with the Archivist, Dissero. Ultimately, there are an awful lot of angry people who have no love at all for the Sith, primarily the One. It is from this pool of potential supporters that Ashin has drawn her recruits -- and her backers. Turns out startup capital and fence services are stunningly easy to procure when you have a grudge against the same people that everyone else hates and fears.
Note: the name Ke’dem means ‘condemned’ or ‘fallen’, and is the Corellian term for ‘Dark Jedi.’
Tier: 3
Description:
BUSINESS MODEL
At Tier 3, Ke’dem depends on a good-sized, mobile raiding force designed to hit outlying Sith temples and comparable sites, exterminate what needs exterminating, and acquire both recruits and materials. Ke’dem makes its money via resale of the acquired assets. Sometimes that means auctioning rare objects, expensive personal ships, trophies, and so forth. Other times it means Force-severing especially depraved or irritating Sith acolytes and selling them to slavers. Still other times, it means acquiring the particulars of various Sithlings’ private fortunes (they all have one these days). The general business model hinges upon picking targets whose assets and people might be of use as well as of worth; for this reason, Ke’dem affiliates are urged to choose Dark Side targets over Light Side. But, like much of what Ke’dem does, that’s more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules.
Though Ke’dem often picks its own raiding targets, it frequently contracts with local citizens’ associations, interested businesspersons, political rivals, secret cabals, and other people who might be willing to cough up some cash for the vicious, potentially anonymous, elimination of a Force-related threat. It also attempts to keep good relationships with Marrow & Illskins, the Coldharbour mobile bazaar, and various auction houses (primarily on Contruum). Alchemy is a minor sideline. Though Ashin is a moderately competent alchemist in some respects, Ke’dem’s alchemical creations vary widely in frequency and ambition; they are incidental to the process, except insofar as they facilitate better raids or make a lot of money. Generally, Ke’dem prefers to turn to specialists for its alchemical needs. Ke’dem seeks working relationships with guilds, associations, and lone alchemists, and access to Ke’dem’s immense hoard of bits and bobs is part of the appeal. At least, that’s the idea.
ORGANIZATION
Ke’dem employs some associate subcontractors, such as Mandalorian mercenaries, and its employee base is in a constant state of renewal. Qo’saarai tuk’ata are fairly common, as are representatives of species with good reason to hate the One Sith and their progenitors: Togorians, Mon Calamari, Wookiees, Selkath and so forth. Force-sensitives on the Ke’dem payroll generally range from neutral to very dark indeed. Ke’dem prefers Dark Jedi, but recognizes that the terms ‘Sith’ and ‘Dark Jedi’ mean all sorts of things to all sorts of people and furthermore overlap like crazy. The institutional culture of Ke’dem is derived from the Lords of the Fringe, in that there are few rules. Atrocities will get you fired or, possibly, executed. That’s about it. Frankly, though, that puts Ke’dem about half an ethical step above your average PMC these days, so most people don’t complain too often. Participation, especially material contributions, raids, and personal achievement, is commemorated with the same forearm tattoos once used by the Secret Order of the Emperor. Trust me: you don’t want to go down a grade.
Ke’dem attempts to serve as a brotherhood and an association, not highly regimented. Drawing from the flat operational hierarchy of the Underground -- an organization with which Ashin has crossed blades and collaborated -- Ke’dem is not structured like a vanity project. (That its existence has a great deal to do with Ashin’s unshakable hubris is constructed as being beside the point.) Drawing from her long experience as a founder and Arbiter of the Fringe, not to mention Sith Empress, Ashin plays a role in evicting problematic employees, and recruiting new ones. Otherwise, she generally delegates, and many decisions taken by Ke’dem at various levels do not stem from her. Granted, at Tier 3, there isn’t much complexity to Ke’dem’s decision-making structure apart from ‘found another academy; let’s torch it and sell what’s left.’ Good times.
Then we get to the important part: the take. Special prizes generally get kept by those who earned them, and the rest gets split up so everyone gets a full share. A good chunk also goes toward operational expenses -- fuel, ammunition, and so forth. At Tier 3, Ke’dem works more or less like a pirate/salvager crew so far as profits go, though quasi-independent groups do many of their own jobs and keep most of their own take.
LOCATIONS
Jurgoran - The secret heart of Ke’dem, accessible to few (and generally only after travel with a blindfold and a ysalamir), is a lair inside the catacombs of Jurgoran Prison. Jurgoran, a forgotten locale, comprises miles of tunnels buried under a temple/crypt like any other. Its quasi-functional prison regions are patrolled by terentateks that even the strongest members of Ke’dem avoid. The catacombs are also home to cannibals, and at least one deep crypt contains an alchemy chamber where Seydon of Arda was once transformed. Ke’dem controls a fluctuating portion of the immense, ancient prison, sometimes recruiting from the prisoners. Ke’dem also tries to keep a working relationship with the nearby post-apocalyptic settlements of Hythe Park (a former Kaas City suburb run by Commander Adraste Boudica (Codex NPC)) and Dinora (a much smaller town near the ancient slave camps). ‘Don’t defecate where you masticate’ is the order of the day.
However, the Jurgoran location is only a fallback point and a secret coordination base. Most Ke’dem operations are run offworld through mobile, ad hoc raiding crews and waystations. Ke’dem employees know there’s a secret sanctum in the old Sith worlds, and they generally know someone who knows someone who got to go there once. The main reason for this secrecy, apart from the obvious, is that Dromund Kaas is owned by Kaine Zambrano on behalf of the Primeval, and his quarantine and the Saiba terraforming efforts will mess you up. Suffice it to say, infrequent traffic to and from Jurgoran -- a forgotten and wholly underground location -- is managed via stealth ships and other surreptitious means. Once more, ‘do not defecate where you masticate’ is the paramount principle.
Shrine of Krul - Ke’dem also possesses a monstrous collection of Dark Side-related odds and ends, the junk drawer of Dissero’s personal archive plus the detritus of the Fringe and the spoils of many raids. Shelves and boxes overflow with half-finished manuscripts, slightly busted datacrons, assorted training toys, and trivia with dubious connections to historical figures. Though you’ll never find grand treatises on the Ultimate Powers of the Dark Side, there’s plenty of worth in the accumulated dross for the ambitious and dedicated student. The collection of excellent junk is split between various ships, Jurgoran Prison, and the Shrine of Krul on Balowa -- a wonderful if somewhat Spartan locale.
The Shrine of Krul is a remote, obscure, unimpressive Dark Side nexus, comprised of a massive Greater Calama shell at the bottom of a swampy lake. Since being rediscovered and abandoned by Darth Kryptus and Rave Merrill, the Shrine of Krul has remained secret and ignored for years. The surrounding lake and forest are heavily tainted by the Dark Side, and haunted and so forth. It’s delightful. Convenient, too, as Balowa is just down the Mara Corridor from Dromund Kaas. Ke’dem employees often test themselves against the twisted creatures of the area, practicing for combat against nastier things. Most of the creatures are left alive to keep up the illusion that the lake is as it always was.
Trevel'ka - Ke’dem maintains a low-profile property on Trevel’ka, a densely populated, heavily polluted, totally ungoverned world. The Ke’dem facility, Fort Kalokaa, is comparable to a Sith temple or academy. Building materials comprised Dark Side-imbued stone from the Odacer-Faustin temple, and Dark Side-imbued soil from the Murakami valley on Orsonian. Built in the heart of one of Trevel’ka’s many ten-billion-occupant slums, and surrounded by a secure perimeter, the Ke’dem facility comprises a single stone building and a landing pad. The location can support a number of corvette-sized vessels or smaller. The Trevel'ka facility is protected by an ICE/ AEI White Iron Essential Facility Shield Generator.
Ke’dem does not have the mandate or resources for large-scale relief efforts. Nevertheless, in the surrounding slum, word of mouth brings the desperate for testing -- for themselves or their children. Force-sensitives are detected, evaluated, and trained either in Fort Kalokaa or offworld. Highly competent non-Force-sensitives are also evaluated and trained. Due to the common medical concerns of Trevel’ka’s inhabitants, a number of medical droids are onsite. The standard accepted applicant is mildly or moderately Force-sensitive, malnourished, suffering from various diseases (particularly respiratory diseases), desperate to succeed, and deeply frustrated with the galactic governments whose neglect has perpetuated the Trevel’ka situation.
While those seeking testing are evaluated and, if successful, welcomed, Ke’dem has precisely zero patience for undue belligerence from failed applicants, local crime leaders, and so forth. Training methods can involve active purges of the nearest rapists and murderers (such expeditions being a solid test of telepathic and combative aptitude). Ke’dem personnel wear breath masks or practice certain Force disciplines while outside the sealed environment of Fort Kalokaa. Force-sensitive Ke’dem personnel assigned to Trevel’ka generally acquire a high level of skill in basic techniques like adiabatic shielding, poison control, and breath control, all of which can fortify them against Trevel’ka’s atmosphere in various situations. These skills are among the first taught to local Force-sensitive recruits.
Further Plans - At Tier 3, plans for greater things are in the offing. Ke’dem employees are well aware, for example, that Ashin stole the heart of the Odacer-Faustin Sith Academy some years back. That raid yielded thousands of tons of stone imbued with the memory of Darksiders slaughtering Darksiders. Likewise, raiding a moon in the Shri-Tal system produced large quantities of genuinely Dark dirt. And for that matter, the galaxy is full of half-forgotten Dark Side temples and academies, most built within the last couple of decades. Ke’dem may yet find a good solid base of operations. Or, you know, several.
GENERAL APPEARANCE
Ke’dem associates, employees, and subcontractors frequently provide their own attire, armour, weapons, etc. Some raids require disguise. Others require shock and awe. Thus, there is no company dress code.
For some operations and appearances, Ke’dem provides its people with optional, high-end uniforms, purchased from corporations that specialize in such things. Ke’dem people frequently modify those uniforms, and a ritualistic, grunge, or cyberpunk edge is not out of place so far as ornamentation goes.
In most professional circumstances, Ke’dem prefers its people to dress in a way that inspires respect and nervousness, but not outright terror. But again, these are suggestions, not rules. Apart from ‘atrocities get you fired,’ Ke’dem isn’t big on rules. Its collective purpose generally keeps its people on the same course, and when sparks fly, the big picture still dominates.
Subsidiaries:
Primary Source: None.
Headquarters: Jurgoran Prison on Dromund Kaas (secret)
Locations: The Shrine of Krul on Balowa, various mobile locations, Trevel'ka.
Operations: Paramilitary/acquisitions contractor, alchemy (sideline)
Rationale: After the One Sith captured and tortured her wife, Ashin Varanin went from penniless, grumpy, has-been hermit to something an awful lot angrier. Ashin has trained many, many people in the ways of the Force. Some of them remember her. Others have been recruited during raids on Sith facilities. Resources have generally come from raids also, such as the one on Odacer-Faustin, though some resources were provided through Ashin’s longstanding relationship with the Archivist, Dissero. Ultimately, there are an awful lot of angry people who have no love at all for the Sith, primarily the One. It is from this pool of potential supporters that Ashin has drawn her recruits -- and her backers. Turns out startup capital and fence services are stunningly easy to procure when you have a grudge against the same people that everyone else hates and fears.
Note: the name Ke’dem means ‘condemned’ or ‘fallen’, and is the Corellian term for ‘Dark Jedi.’
Tier: 3
Description:
BUSINESS MODEL
At Tier 3, Ke’dem depends on a good-sized, mobile raiding force designed to hit outlying Sith temples and comparable sites, exterminate what needs exterminating, and acquire both recruits and materials. Ke’dem makes its money via resale of the acquired assets. Sometimes that means auctioning rare objects, expensive personal ships, trophies, and so forth. Other times it means Force-severing especially depraved or irritating Sith acolytes and selling them to slavers. Still other times, it means acquiring the particulars of various Sithlings’ private fortunes (they all have one these days). The general business model hinges upon picking targets whose assets and people might be of use as well as of worth; for this reason, Ke’dem affiliates are urged to choose Dark Side targets over Light Side. But, like much of what Ke’dem does, that’s more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules.
Though Ke’dem often picks its own raiding targets, it frequently contracts with local citizens’ associations, interested businesspersons, political rivals, secret cabals, and other people who might be willing to cough up some cash for the vicious, potentially anonymous, elimination of a Force-related threat. It also attempts to keep good relationships with Marrow & Illskins, the Coldharbour mobile bazaar, and various auction houses (primarily on Contruum). Alchemy is a minor sideline. Though Ashin is a moderately competent alchemist in some respects, Ke’dem’s alchemical creations vary widely in frequency and ambition; they are incidental to the process, except insofar as they facilitate better raids or make a lot of money. Generally, Ke’dem prefers to turn to specialists for its alchemical needs. Ke’dem seeks working relationships with guilds, associations, and lone alchemists, and access to Ke’dem’s immense hoard of bits and bobs is part of the appeal. At least, that’s the idea.
ORGANIZATION
Ke’dem employs some associate subcontractors, such as Mandalorian mercenaries, and its employee base is in a constant state of renewal. Qo’saarai tuk’ata are fairly common, as are representatives of species with good reason to hate the One Sith and their progenitors: Togorians, Mon Calamari, Wookiees, Selkath and so forth. Force-sensitives on the Ke’dem payroll generally range from neutral to very dark indeed. Ke’dem prefers Dark Jedi, but recognizes that the terms ‘Sith’ and ‘Dark Jedi’ mean all sorts of things to all sorts of people and furthermore overlap like crazy. The institutional culture of Ke’dem is derived from the Lords of the Fringe, in that there are few rules. Atrocities will get you fired or, possibly, executed. That’s about it. Frankly, though, that puts Ke’dem about half an ethical step above your average PMC these days, so most people don’t complain too often. Participation, especially material contributions, raids, and personal achievement, is commemorated with the same forearm tattoos once used by the Secret Order of the Emperor. Trust me: you don’t want to go down a grade.
Ke’dem attempts to serve as a brotherhood and an association, not highly regimented. Drawing from the flat operational hierarchy of the Underground -- an organization with which Ashin has crossed blades and collaborated -- Ke’dem is not structured like a vanity project. (That its existence has a great deal to do with Ashin’s unshakable hubris is constructed as being beside the point.) Drawing from her long experience as a founder and Arbiter of the Fringe, not to mention Sith Empress, Ashin plays a role in evicting problematic employees, and recruiting new ones. Otherwise, she generally delegates, and many decisions taken by Ke’dem at various levels do not stem from her. Granted, at Tier 3, there isn’t much complexity to Ke’dem’s decision-making structure apart from ‘found another academy; let’s torch it and sell what’s left.’ Good times.
Then we get to the important part: the take. Special prizes generally get kept by those who earned them, and the rest gets split up so everyone gets a full share. A good chunk also goes toward operational expenses -- fuel, ammunition, and so forth. At Tier 3, Ke’dem works more or less like a pirate/salvager crew so far as profits go, though quasi-independent groups do many of their own jobs and keep most of their own take.
LOCATIONS
Jurgoran - The secret heart of Ke’dem, accessible to few (and generally only after travel with a blindfold and a ysalamir), is a lair inside the catacombs of Jurgoran Prison. Jurgoran, a forgotten locale, comprises miles of tunnels buried under a temple/crypt like any other. Its quasi-functional prison regions are patrolled by terentateks that even the strongest members of Ke’dem avoid. The catacombs are also home to cannibals, and at least one deep crypt contains an alchemy chamber where Seydon of Arda was once transformed. Ke’dem controls a fluctuating portion of the immense, ancient prison, sometimes recruiting from the prisoners. Ke’dem also tries to keep a working relationship with the nearby post-apocalyptic settlements of Hythe Park (a former Kaas City suburb run by Commander Adraste Boudica (Codex NPC)) and Dinora (a much smaller town near the ancient slave camps). ‘Don’t defecate where you masticate’ is the order of the day.
However, the Jurgoran location is only a fallback point and a secret coordination base. Most Ke’dem operations are run offworld through mobile, ad hoc raiding crews and waystations. Ke’dem employees know there’s a secret sanctum in the old Sith worlds, and they generally know someone who knows someone who got to go there once. The main reason for this secrecy, apart from the obvious, is that Dromund Kaas is owned by Kaine Zambrano on behalf of the Primeval, and his quarantine and the Saiba terraforming efforts will mess you up. Suffice it to say, infrequent traffic to and from Jurgoran -- a forgotten and wholly underground location -- is managed via stealth ships and other surreptitious means. Once more, ‘do not defecate where you masticate’ is the paramount principle.
Shrine of Krul - Ke’dem also possesses a monstrous collection of Dark Side-related odds and ends, the junk drawer of Dissero’s personal archive plus the detritus of the Fringe and the spoils of many raids. Shelves and boxes overflow with half-finished manuscripts, slightly busted datacrons, assorted training toys, and trivia with dubious connections to historical figures. Though you’ll never find grand treatises on the Ultimate Powers of the Dark Side, there’s plenty of worth in the accumulated dross for the ambitious and dedicated student. The collection of excellent junk is split between various ships, Jurgoran Prison, and the Shrine of Krul on Balowa -- a wonderful if somewhat Spartan locale.
The Shrine of Krul is a remote, obscure, unimpressive Dark Side nexus, comprised of a massive Greater Calama shell at the bottom of a swampy lake. Since being rediscovered and abandoned by Darth Kryptus and Rave Merrill, the Shrine of Krul has remained secret and ignored for years. The surrounding lake and forest are heavily tainted by the Dark Side, and haunted and so forth. It’s delightful. Convenient, too, as Balowa is just down the Mara Corridor from Dromund Kaas. Ke’dem employees often test themselves against the twisted creatures of the area, practicing for combat against nastier things. Most of the creatures are left alive to keep up the illusion that the lake is as it always was.
Trevel'ka - Ke’dem maintains a low-profile property on Trevel’ka, a densely populated, heavily polluted, totally ungoverned world. The Ke’dem facility, Fort Kalokaa, is comparable to a Sith temple or academy. Building materials comprised Dark Side-imbued stone from the Odacer-Faustin temple, and Dark Side-imbued soil from the Murakami valley on Orsonian. Built in the heart of one of Trevel’ka’s many ten-billion-occupant slums, and surrounded by a secure perimeter, the Ke’dem facility comprises a single stone building and a landing pad. The location can support a number of corvette-sized vessels or smaller. The Trevel'ka facility is protected by an ICE/ AEI White Iron Essential Facility Shield Generator.
Ke’dem does not have the mandate or resources for large-scale relief efforts. Nevertheless, in the surrounding slum, word of mouth brings the desperate for testing -- for themselves or their children. Force-sensitives are detected, evaluated, and trained either in Fort Kalokaa or offworld. Highly competent non-Force-sensitives are also evaluated and trained. Due to the common medical concerns of Trevel’ka’s inhabitants, a number of medical droids are onsite. The standard accepted applicant is mildly or moderately Force-sensitive, malnourished, suffering from various diseases (particularly respiratory diseases), desperate to succeed, and deeply frustrated with the galactic governments whose neglect has perpetuated the Trevel’ka situation.
While those seeking testing are evaluated and, if successful, welcomed, Ke’dem has precisely zero patience for undue belligerence from failed applicants, local crime leaders, and so forth. Training methods can involve active purges of the nearest rapists and murderers (such expeditions being a solid test of telepathic and combative aptitude). Ke’dem personnel wear breath masks or practice certain Force disciplines while outside the sealed environment of Fort Kalokaa. Force-sensitive Ke’dem personnel assigned to Trevel’ka generally acquire a high level of skill in basic techniques like adiabatic shielding, poison control, and breath control, all of which can fortify them against Trevel’ka’s atmosphere in various situations. These skills are among the first taught to local Force-sensitive recruits.
Further Plans - At Tier 3, plans for greater things are in the offing. Ke’dem employees are well aware, for example, that Ashin stole the heart of the Odacer-Faustin Sith Academy some years back. That raid yielded thousands of tons of stone imbued with the memory of Darksiders slaughtering Darksiders. Likewise, raiding a moon in the Shri-Tal system produced large quantities of genuinely Dark dirt. And for that matter, the galaxy is full of half-forgotten Dark Side temples and academies, most built within the last couple of decades. Ke’dem may yet find a good solid base of operations. Or, you know, several.
GENERAL APPEARANCE
Ke’dem associates, employees, and subcontractors frequently provide their own attire, armour, weapons, etc. Some raids require disguise. Others require shock and awe. Thus, there is no company dress code.
For some operations and appearances, Ke’dem provides its people with optional, high-end uniforms, purchased from corporations that specialize in such things. Ke’dem people frequently modify those uniforms, and a ritualistic, grunge, or cyberpunk edge is not out of place so far as ornamentation goes.
In most professional circumstances, Ke’dem prefers its people to dress in a way that inspires respect and nervousness, but not outright terror. But again, these are suggestions, not rules. Apart from ‘atrocities get you fired,’ Ke’dem isn’t big on rules. Its collective purpose generally keeps its people on the same course, and when sparks fly, the big picture still dominates.
Subsidiaries:
- Shule's Workshop (Tier 1) - Though the Workshop is somewhat diminished now, as most Jal Shey don't approve of the course that Ashin is taking, some darker-leaning Jal Shey and various other employees remain on. Others have left for the Silver Sanctum or taken up permanent residence on Yavin IV. The remaining employees and assets provide some crafted items for Ke'dem, and explore creative arts apart from standard Sith alchemy. While these terms of inclusion are something of a bastardization of the Workshop's original intent, Ashin is in no mood for compromise.
Primary Source: None.
Pertient Development Threads:
- [Link] - [Raid on TOS, accompanied]
- [Link] - [Raid on TOS, accompanied, acquisitions]
- [Link] - [Acquiring training materials - agreement with Dissero of Marrow & Illskins]
- [Link] - [Raid on TOS, accompanied, recruitment]
- [Link] - [Raid prep vs. TOS, acquisitions and supply lines - agreement with Ostanes of Akure Executive Interstellar]
- [Link] - [Working on training model]
- [Link] - [Raid, accompanied]
- [Link] - [Raid on Shadow Empire, solo, investment in public relations]
- [Link] - [Raid on Black Sun, accompanied, acquisitions]
- [Link] - [Raid on the Republic, accompanied, acquisitions]
- [Link] - [Raid on a quarantine moon, accompanied, acquisitions]
Rationale: Set up a facility on Trevel'ka.
Pertient Development Threads:
Pertient Development Threads:
- [Link] - [Establishment of Trevel'ka location]
