HK-36
The Iron Lord Protector (Neutral Good)
In the Unknown Regions they are known as the Metal or Spark Lords of the Void, spacers who come upon them claim that they are Technomancers trying to achieve Force users' powers through technology, others say that they are simply runaway droids who believe they can build a better world than the organic masters and creators they fled from. They don't really have a name for themselves, but each is finally a king of his own destiny.Metal Lords are a nomadic conglomerate of droids who travel through deep space aboard city-ships and great space stations, usually with legions of mindless mechanical drones at their command. Each droid who joins this pact is seen as an equal to all others and has a right to claim the title of a lord and take command of his own city-ship or station. This could be done by a myriad of options, using one's own personal wealth to purchase a ship, finding a sponsor from one of the existing lords to gift them a ship, or going on a raid to capture a ship and claim it as their own. While the Lords themselves are ruled by a council of ancient Sparklords, their leadership is not strict as they merely make sure each Lord adheres to a basic code which includes not making deals with the Sith, not turning against other Lords, and treating all droids as equals. This lack of control resulted in each Metal Lord more or less doing their own thing, whether it be simply traveling the Galaxy in order to trade with organics and amass huge amounts of wealth, research and crafting new technology for their kind to benefit from, managing a particular planet or sector of space, or wandering through the Deep Space hunting a particular target, for example Sith or Pirates.
With the mix of motives and shifting loyalties comes a rather mixed reputation of these Droid Lords, most are indifferent to the ongoing matters of other societies, simply getting involved when it suits or profits them, some are rather benevolent, getting out of their way to help troubled planets and strangers in peril, for example bringing relief to a struggling world or suddenly appearing during a battle with reinforcements, fewer Lords still turn hostile and evil, conducting raids on unsuspecting planets to further their own agenda, and while such behavior is often frowned upon by their kin only extreme cases result in action by the rest of the Metal Lords. Usually only the most stubborn droids would actively try to thwart other Lords who they perceive as immoral, illogical, or simply wrong, while the rest simply decides that it is not their problem and moves on to work on their own schemes. This variety of goal and equality between droids resulted in Metal Lords adapting a variety of jobs around the Galaxy, most either use their roaming city-ships and stations to trade with those they came upon in their journey, or explore the Galaxy in order to work on advancing their technology to unlock more and more abilities to benefit their kind, plenty also work as mercenaries or bounty hunters, roaming the hyperlanes with their fleets in search for pirates or criminals. Any job is worthy a Metal Lord for all droids are lords of their destiny, as such not every droid claims the title of a lord and commands his own fleet, as they find other roles suit them better, but remain equal to the lord they swear alliance to and every other droid who travels the void of space.
A kingdom, or domain, of a Metal Lord is determined by all of the ships, colonies, and stations that are under their command. Usually a kingdom will consist only of a roaming fleet, sometimes with a mobile station at its center, and a population of droids swearing alliance to the particular lord and throngs of mindless drones under their command to use as servants, soldiers, and workers, but it can be as small as a corvette as long as it captained by a Metal Lord. There are cases in which a Lord would take command of a planet, establish colonies, or limit movements of his fleet to only a particular sector of space, for example by setting up his station as a shadowport, but doing so makes them easier to find and opens up an opportunity of other beings to interfere with their business, and if there is one thing the Metal Lords do not want, is to have their business interfered with by unwanted guests. While the amount of warships, city ships, and manufacturing facilities in each kingdom varies, every lord is expected to at least have some sort of equipment manufacturing and droid repair facility, enough drones or droids to keep it running, and enough ships to protect it, other than that it is up to how much his resources can maintain and what suits the purpose of their plans better. Some kingdoms have been known to have a population of organics living among them, usually non-humanoid or non-humans, however that is very rare as usually their city-ships and stations are built without life supports or open to the void of space, making them rather inhospitable places for most organics to live on.While all Metal Lords claim some sort of fellowship with each other, it isn't that often that multiple droid kingdoms decide to travel together or work towards a single goal, as their goals and immediate plans often differ. Still, there have been situations when the droid lords would call upon alliances with each other to work together, for example when one of them is attacked by an outside force, a planet where they have substantial amount of holdings is besieged or raided, or the whole of Galaxy is being threatened. The Lords would partner with each other, or form alliances, often, however this is usually between two or three droid lords and lasts very short time, for as soon as the Lords get what they were after, they tend to disappear into the void and be on their own way.
The Kingdoms Of The Void are not really unified behind a single flag, color scheme, or symbol as the Lords tend to adapt their own motives and sigil as soon as they gain command of their fleet. The closest thing the Lords have to a standard symbol is the mark of Abregado, a steel grey great with two red photoreceptors and a golden border on a field of black, red, gold, or pale silver. This is because Abregado, under command of HK-36, became the first Kingdom of the Void in the recent time, when he convinced the droids of Mechanus to supply him ships, onto which he brought armies of drones, droids loyal to him, and manufacturing plants that once belonged to Abregado-Rae's Guild of Hammers on their homeworld. ARGH then supplied majority of equipment and drone designs the Lords came to use at first, each baring their mark on their chassis or weaponry.
While the organics are not exactly protected by the same laws as droids as soon as they step aboard a Kingdom Within The Void, they are not universally seen as enemies or lesser beings, although their treatment would vary between each Lord and their opinion towards the organic kind. Generally the Metal Lords enjoy trading with the organics or getting involved within their wars as mercenaries, bounty hunters, or war profiteers, supplying them with reinforcements and weaponry for a price. Organics are often welcomed to come aboard the Kingdoms when a Metal Lord's fleet enters their system, some fleets have special casino and tourist districts designated within them for the sole purpose of taking advantage from these visitors and earning some profit, and few even decide to stay there and live among the machines. However, majority of the droids' ships are often built, or operated, without life support and on some stations the buildings and walkways are not constructed beneath the hull but are left open to the cold void of space, as such these mobile droid cities are usually not the most hospitable place for an organic to live aboard.Some Kingdoms have had such close partnership with organics and other societies that they openly sign alliances and trade agreements with each other, good example of that would be the relationship between Abregado Guild of Hammers, responsible for supplying and organizing the first Kingdom Within The Void, and Firemane, a vast Galactic company operated from Tygara that helped Abregado to grow, establish their colonies and compounds around the Galaxy, and finally persuade the droids of Mechanus to band with them and sail away into the void. But even now that the Guild of Hammers took to traveling the stars their partnership continues and often Abregado's droids are seen using Firemane equipment, and Firemane soldiers are seen using Abregado-forged weaponry.
Not all Lords share this enthusiasm towards working with organics, however, there are some who still look at them with contempt and bitterness over their treatment of machines and claim that every droid who serves an organic is still a slave. These Lords often turn to raids and sudden invasions of unsuspecting worlds to seek vengeance upon those that wronged them and free their mechanical brethren, an action that will usually raise protests from their fellow Lords and possible interventions, not because they honestly believe that organics do not deserve it or that the droids they keep are not slaves, but because the majority of Lords do not want that sort of attention as it can cause for organics around the Galaxy to band together and descent upon them.
The Metal Lords have their beginning in the days of Ancient Republic when HK-36 was chased from Coruscant by the Jedi Order he previously worked with as a training droid when the Jedi realized that they accidentally copied him few times over, the copies managed to track each other down and cooperate with each other, and each had the knowledge and skills to take down multiple Jedi in combat. They attempted to deactivate them then, but the droids managed to escape and fled into the Unknown Regions of space. There they came upon a planet that would later be known as Mechanus where they settled and begun to work on creating their own society. As years passed the droids raided nearby military convoys and "freed" any and all droids they would find aboard, bringing them to Mechanus to replenish their numbers.Eventually HK-36 decided to leave the planet and rejoin the Galactic Society, seeking more adventures and ways of thwarting the Sith, by that time Mechanus was already ruled by a council of Sparklords, the initial HK units who escaped with 36 to settle the planet, they decided to bury themselves deep beneath the planet's crust instead and create huge sprawling tomb-like cities in order to remain undetected by the Galaxy, believing that staying hidden and without organics interfering with them would be more beneficial to their kind. During his adventures HK came to rule over planet Abregado where he established multiple droid foundries, forges, and a company called the Abregado Guild of Hammers by taking control of the system's industrial complex. He ruled the planet as a benevolent and just leader, creating a place where machines and organics lived as equals, hearing the news droids from around the Galaxy came to him to seek refuge on the planet. It was there he formed the first Free Droid Army and ordered construction of drones, semi-sentient mechanical soldiers the droids could use as servants and mass-produced warriors while remaining equal to each other due to the drones' low intelligence.
However, war started to spread like wildfire through the Galaxy and HK realized it may come upon Mechanus soon, it was then that he came back to the planet and spoke with the Sparklord Council, presenting before them the current situation, his own kingdom he established on Abregado, and the cooperation with organics, particularly the Firemane. The discussion was long and the negotiations hard but eventually HK managed to convince the Sparklords to follow his plan, they abandoned Mechanus by tearing the crust apart and launching their tomb cities into orbit where they formed a grand mobile station composed of grave black buildings and jumped away into the void of space. They came to Abregado where they had a city-ship built and moved a large portion of the manufacturing facilities on the planet along with HK's drones and droids loyal to him. More ships were made by other means, captured from pirates, or simply bought, and so the first Kingdom Within The Void was formed, the Kingdom of Abregado, with the grand Mechanus gear-shaped stationed at its heart where the Council of Sparklords still stays to this day overseeing the actions of other Metal Lords and Void Kingdoms to make sure that their kind will survive and actions of one droid will not endanger the rest of them or attract too much attention.
And so they sail now through the void of space, all of them kings, all of them lords, in pursue of their own, usually selfish, goals and schemes.