Valiens Nantaris
Head Admin
Minor is good.
Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos
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NPCs by Sio
- Thread starter Kaida Taldir
- Start date
Vaena Askari
Lady Cadalthor
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To flesh out Vaena's retinue by codifying an NPC companion.
- Image Credit: Herehttp://www.wallpapers13.com/female-elf-warrior-wallpaper-1225114-2560x1600/. Female Elf Warrior. Unknown artist. Found on www.wallpapers13.com.
- Role: Captain of the Draconian Guard, bodyguard of and confidante to Vaena.
- Links: Draconian Guard, Church of Ashira, Angelii, Lost in Translation.
PHYSICAL INFORMATION
- Age: 75
- Force Sensitivity: Knight
- Species: Eldorai
- Appearance: Tall Eldorai female, with hazel eyes and shoulder-length dark hair. Hair is usually tied back into a ponytail in combat to avoid it getting in the way while she's fighting. Usually wears armour of some sort. Even when formal occasions require her to wear a uniform, she will wear a light combat suit or some form of armoured underlay beneath it. Her movements are economical, her stance alert. She has a number of scars. Among the most prominent ones are those inflicted by slug rounds in her right shoulder and abdomen. Her back has some harsh lines. These are the result of being flogged for disobedience during her time in the penal company.
- Name: Ariawyn Eloris.
- Loyalties: Vaena Askari, House Cadalthor.
- Wealth: Modest. She's the chief bodyguard of an Eldorai Duchess. So when she eventually retires, she will be able to do so quite comfortably. Assuming she does not die in the line of duty. However, Ariawyn is no spendthrift and lives modestly.
- Sarix Mk2
- Dual-phase lightsabre (can switch between regular and shoto length).
- Religious talisman
- Cylix bolt pistol
- ACS-004 Immortal Battle Armor (purchased here, confirmed here).
- Thought Shield
- Force Speed
- Telekinesis
- Enhance Attribute
- Terramancy
- Lockpicking
- Demolitions
- Duelling
Ariawyn is very devoted to her charge, Vaena Cadalthor. Both bonded during their time as Angelii, when Vaena was still known as Vaena Askari, bastard daughter of a Cadalthor noblewoman. Ariawyn was the instructor who taught the young, somewhat shy girl how to use a Sarix and a gun, and both participated in many battles together. These days Vaena is her social superior, but this has not stopped Ariawyn from being very blunt towards her. She serves as something of a confidante for Vaena, who values her blunt counsel, even though she doesn't always follow it! Significantly, she does not chastiste her bodyguard for her frank approach, which has helped maintain a bond between them.
Their relationship has undergone a bit of a strain since Vaena welcomed a Force Dead Knight called Dimeria Nykerian of Alderaan into her retinue. It was not rocket science for Ariawyn to figure out that two are having an affair. Due to her conservative views, Ariawyn regards the Force Dead as soulless creatures, whose word cannot be trusted. In addition to that, she views the entanglement as something her liege's rivals would take advantage of, as House Cadalthor is a nest of poisonous vipers. Ariawyn knows how cutthroat Eldorai politics are and is inclined to believe her liege is a bit too idealistic - and foolish. She is not afraid to make hard, ruthless choices to ensure that her mistress remains on the peak of the pyramid. She will not let morality and phony ideals get in the way of duty. She's shed too much blood in service of the Crown or simple survival for it to be otherwise.
Ariawyn is religiously observant and a member of the Church of Ashira. This is a requirement in order to serve in the Draconian Guard, as House Cadalthor regards itself as a pillar of religious orthodoy. However, she is more drawn towards Valora, the Eldorai War Goddess. She's also devoted to Ardarvia, Goddess of Law and Justice. Her attitude towards the clergy is not free of cynicism, especially when it comes to the upper crust.
COMBAT INFORMATION
- Weapon of Choice: Blade, guns, the Force.
- Ariawyn's chosen element is Earth. Her skills in this field can be compared to those of an Earth Shaper. Aside from levitating stone or earth, she can use the Force to create earthen barriers, create furrows in the ground, raise pillars or spikes of stone. With effort, she can bring down stone from a ceiling, though this is very tiring, requires focus and is best done while she can touch the surface nearby. The concentration required also leaves her open to enemy attacks. Her skill as an Earth Shaper makes her strong at both defence and offence.
- Capable soldier. Ariawyn has been trained in the use of a variety of ranged and melee weapons and has fought on several battlefields during the Eldorai Matriarchy's wars. She is a solid leader on the tactical, though not the strategic level. Ariawyn is a combat pragmatist and has no qualms about fighting dirty.
- Being an Eldorai, she has impressive dexterity and hand-eye coordination. She is also more resistant to disease and infection. Good hearing.
- Ariaywan has received lightsabre training and is proficient in its use. However, her use of it is focused on Form I, Shii-Cho, as it goes well with the use of a battle shield. It is a decent style, but not an exceptional one. As she tends to wear armour in battle, Ataru is not practical and she Djem So requires too much physical strength.
- Traditional Eldorai weaknesses: She is on average physically weaker than a human and has a lower pain threshold. Moreover, she has a higher metabolism.
- Sensitive hearing makes her more vulnerable to sonic weapons.
- Poor pilot.
- Regarding combat against other elementalists, her specialisation makes her strong against fire and lightning, but weaker against ice and water. Both make the earth harder to control. This obviously extends to conventional cold based attacks, such as cryoban weapons.
- While she's trained in the use of conventional weapons, losing the Force means taking away her greatest asset. This puts her at a disadvantage against opponents who use ysalamiri or Voidstone tech, especially if they're physically stronger than her and engage her in close quarters.
Ariawyn speaks very little of her life before becoming a soldier. She was born before Kaeshana was exposed to the rest of the Galaxy. Her family were poor peasants who lived in a remote province away from the capital city of New Santaissa.
Their daily concerns were how to make ends meet, harvest enough grain and meet the demands of their local liege. Eldorai society had - and in many ways still has - some rather rigid class barriers and the common peasants were quite close to the bottom. Manual labour was considered an inappropriate pursuit for an Eldorai, but obviously someone had to do it and in lowborn peasant families even the little girls had to help.
Ariawyn is rather tight-lipped about her childhood, but it can be inferred that it was not a nice one. Among other things, she once mentioned an episode where her family's homestead was raided by corrupt militia, who accused them of hoarding and smuggling. This was supposedly a pretext for them to squeeze the peasants dry. She describes the liege they had to pay tribute to, a local matriarch, as a cruel, sadistic tyrant. Ariawyn ran away from home at an early age. After many twist and turns, she surfaced in the capital, where she ended up in a criminal street gang.
The gang committed various thefts, robberies and provided expendable muscle for the larger criminal groups, along with dealing drugs. A robbery gone wrong changed Ariawyn's life when she manifested her Force powers after being abandoned by her comrades and cornered by militia. It was quite a shock for the girl, who only know of Sciians from stories. She was able to kill one militia member and seriously wound two others, but was taken down. Bleeding from gun shot wounds in the shoulder and leg, she was put in irons.
The fact that she was a Sciian - as the Eldorai call their Force-Sensitives - aroused the interest of higher authorities and so she was interrogated by a Priestess of Ardarvia, the Eldorai Goddess of Law and Justice. She was given a simple choice that had a long tradition in the lives of social miscreants: Army or a rather unpleasant time in jail.
Ariawyn chose the army and was inducted into a penal legion. Service in such units was considered a way for convicts to repay their debt to society and restore their honour. Criminals were conscripted into them in exchange for lighter sentences or a stay of execution. The combination of criminals, political prisoners, and undisciplined soldiers that made up the legion required harsh measures to be imposed for unit cohesion to be maintained. Ardarvian priestesses acted as commissars to keep both the rank and file and the officers in line.
Discipline was iron and the punishments often stomach-churning. Ariawyn experienced this first hand, but over time her attitude changed, as if she'd manifested a desire to rise above her circumstances. It is likely that she was abused during during her time at boot camp. Thus she trained obsessively to become stronger. Given very basic training with rifle and blade, she was thrown into action at the first opportunity. Her first deployment was against a horde of foreign raiders who'd occupied an old fortress. From there, they raided and pillaged, taking Eldorai as slaves.
The approaches towards the fortress had been mined. and casualties were expected to be high. So the penal legionnaires were deployed to clear a mine field and then sent on a forlorn hope assault. This bought time for the Angelii to launch their assault while tying the enemy down. It was a bloodbath, as the Eldorai lacked advanced weapons. The Eldorai troops advanced under the cover of an elemental blizzard, which made it difficult for the pirates to spot them, but also impeded communication on both sides.
Sent into battle with very basic gear, Ariawyn survived against all odds. Perhaps she was lucky - or the Goddess was watching out for her. While they were fighting the raiders for a bridge, she was knocked down by an explosion. It might have jsut been a concussion, but Ariawyn saw a light, and she saw the enemy coming. One of them had a gun and she was sure that she was about to die. But the gun jammed, then exploded in the enemy's hands. The soldier stood and killed the pirate. Ariawyn would claim that she knew something had spared her and that she saw the symbol the fragments had formed. It was that of the War Goddess Valora.
Salvaging the dead man's remaining weapons, she was able to save two squadmates while being pinned down by heavy enemy fire, in terrain lined with explosives, despite having suffered several wounds. With so many of her superiors dead, she was temporarily in command of her squad. Ultimately, the fortress was stormed after the Angelii managed to infiltrate it. All the pirates the Eldorai could get their hands on were slaughtered or executed later on, but some had managed to escape in spaceships loaded with slaves. Making a snap decision, Ariawyn and some of her comrades took control over the fortress' defence guns and fired on the fleeing spaceships.
After discovering the horrible abuse the enslaved Eldorai had suffered at the hands of the pirates, she executed several raiders herself. A profound change overcome her, as she realised the nature of the threats her people faced. Her actions earned her a commendation and she was eventually made a squad leader.
However, her next deployment was not long coming. It caused an inner conflict in her because this time her enemies were not raiders and slavers, but her rebels among her own people. They called themselves the New Green Ribbons, after a radical egalitarian movement that had rebelled against the Crown during the Time of Troubles many centuries ago.
Labelling the Star Queen was an unjust tyrant, they declared that she must be overthrown in the name of the Goddess Ashira. Significantly, their leader was a royal pretender. For she claimed to be Aspasia, a scion of the Evora branch of the royal family, which had been ousted by Tirathana VI. In truth, she was probably an army deserter who'd discovered that she possessed talent as a demagogue.
It helped that many ordinary people had never met a royal. The usurper promised an end to oppressive taxation, freedom from exploitative nobles and 'forgiveness for all previous crimes'. Peasants would no longer toil the land for a lady or pay tithes to a corrupt Church. Every woman would reap what she had sown, from the highest lady to the lowest gutter rat. She would scour Santaissa, starting with the Star Queen and her decadent court. Ariawyn could not help feel sympathetic to the goals the rebels claimed to espouse.
But the uprising was a brutal one. The pretender's make-believe utopia was played out against a backdrop of blood and terror. The faux royal decrees unleashed a frenzy of hatred. Peasants rose up and butchered the matriarchs, their families and hated tax collectors. Some nobles were dragged from their burning mansions, flayed, burned alive, hanged from trees or executed in other grisly ways. Even children were murdered. Brigands, who claimed to be affiliated with whichever faction seemed ascendant at the moment, attacked merchants and raided settlements. The retaliation from the government troops was just as brutal. 'Examples' were made of those who defied the régime.
Shaken by the savagery both sides induldged in, Ariawyn nonetheless did her duty. She also had her family to think of. If she defected to the rebels, it would reflect poorly on them and invite unpleasant consequences. Moreover, she knew of the foreign menaces that assailed the Eldorai. They could only have a chance to defend their homeworld if they stayed united. Things came to a head when loyalist and rebel armies clashed in her home province. Ariawyn and her squad had been sent on a recon mission, but were found out and captured by the rebels.
Some of her squadmates defected when offered the choice. Ariawyn did not. Suffice to say this made her captivity very 'unpleasant'. However, one of her siblings, her brother Calixt, had joined the rebels. He'd grown disenchanted with the 'glorious revolution' and refused to abandon his sister. He overpowered her guards and with his help she was able to escape and set her remaining comrades free. However, Calixt refused to join the loyalist army with her, as he was too desillusioned. So the two siblings bid each other farewell and he vanished, eventually leaving Kaeshana to become a smuggler.
Ariawyn returned to the government forces and stayed with them for the rest of the uprising. The rebels were losing ground. Divisions in their ranks and savage policies caused much of their support to diminish, though the hardcore renegades fought on fanatically. Ariawyn fought the New Green Ribbons in one of the last battles of the uprising. She displayed her terramancy during fierce fighting when she rained down rocks upon enemies who'd pinned down loyalist soldiers and shielded wounded soldiers with a barrier. The effort exhausted her, she was burnt and temporarily blinded by a rebel pyromancer.
The aftermath of the uprising was brutal, for the Star Queen had decreed that examples should be made of the renegade leaders. Ariawyn was recuperating in a military hospital when she received a visit from the Ardarvian Priestess of her penal company and an Angelii Host Leader. The young soldier was informed that due her conduct in the field, her debt to society had been repaid and she was to be considered a free woman. Furthermore, her Sciia abilities merited induction into the Angelii. So without further ado she'd been conscripted. Refusal was obviously impossible, for it was the law that all Force-users had to learn how to control their powers - and the strongest were conscripted as soldiers by the Angelii corps. So Ariyawyn accepted and was sent to train with the Angelii as soon as she was able to leave the hospital.
Angelii training was extremely gruelling, both mentally and physically, for the 'Heavenly and Wrathful Angels of the Great Goddess Ashira' were expected to be the Matriarchy's best soldiers. Charged with protecting the Star Queen, they were royal guards and elite shock troops. Though Ariawyn had small unit leadership experience, she started at the very bottom. Then again, all her experience had been obtained in a penal unit. But she displayed her usual work ethic and trained very hard. She fought slavers, Reavers and local rebels, among other things. Bravery in the field and leadership skill won her a promotion to Wing Leader and eventually Talon, making her the Angelii equivalent of a Sergeant. Change slowly came to Kaeshana, as foreigners were allowed to trade and reside in a special district of the capital. Ariawayn viewed these developments with distrust, having only experienced the darker side of contact with foreigners.
During this time, she became acquainted with and befriended a young Angelii recruit called Vaena Askari. Little did either of the two know that Vaena was actually the bastard of a noblewoman of the illustrious House Cadalthor. As far as Vaena knew, she was an orphan, who'd been raised by the benevolent Church of Ashira. The young girl had discovered her Force powers when a fire broke out on a farm and she instinctively used her powers to absorb the heat and save a friend who'd been trapped. It was not long before the Angelii knocked on her door. Young, idealistic and sheltered, Vaena had a somewhat romantic view of the Angelii. While their backgrounds were very divergent, Ariawyn took the younger woman under her wing. Both fought on the loyalist side during the two palace revolutions after the death of Star Queen Tirathana VI. These ended with the defeat of hardline reactionary factions and the ascent of the exiled Princess Anya Venari to the throne. Taking the regnal name of Tirathana VI, the new monarch sought to usher in an era of enlightened despotism, where the Eldorai would open up to the outside world and seek foreign alliances to assure their independence. Persecution of nonbelievers was abolished and steps were taken to limit the power the upper class wielded over the common people, though these met with mixed success as the queen could not risk destabilising her rule and thus placing her reforms in jeopardy.
Ariawyn remained sceptical of a number of the changes that took place, but soldiered on like a loyal soldier. Leaving Kaeshana for the first time, she fought on foreign battlefields, such as on Gehenna, where she fought Bando Gora remnants. Ariawyn and Vaena were separated during the Netherworld Event. While Vaena was left behind, Ariawyn was whisked away into the netherealm, along with trillions of other people from across the Galaxy. Forced to traverse the realm of the dead, she was confronted by the spirits of some of the people she'd killed. Ariawyn barely speaks of this event, but it was clearly a trying time for her. It certainly shook her faith, though eventually she concluded that it must have been the den of Illyria, the Eldorai Goddess of Death, who'd been banished into the pit for rebelling against Ashira. Eventually, she managed to escape through the Alderaan portal. There she encountered the vicious Vong, who were demons to her. Fighting these 'abominations' was a learning experience for her, as she was almost killed the first time she battled a Vong and was lucky to survive thanks to Alderaanian partisans. Linking up with elements of the local resistance, she fought the in her eyes demonic creatures, until she was able to hitch a ride when the Republic reclaimed the planet.
After a few more twists and turns, she finally found her way back to Kaeshana. By then much had changed on her homeworld. Little did Ariawyn know that the Queen and a select few among the Eldorai and Firemane leaders had learned that the planet would be destroyed by an enormous asteroid in less than a year. All resources were being devoted to building an evacuation fleet that could save as many Eldorai as possible - and fine a new home. Ariawyn missed the expeditions to Arkas and Tygara, but she and Vaena were reunited shortly thereafter. However, Vaena was a changed woman now. More confident and determined than the girl Ariawyn had left behind. She'd grown close to her superior Kaida Taldir, whom Ariawayn disliked. Moreover, she'd been promoted during the crisis, which put her above Ariawyn. This was a result of the fact that so many Angelii had vanished during the crisis, but though Ariawyn was happy for her friend, it stung a bit. Not the least because Ariawyn was stuck with being a Talon. It was an unspoken fact that her past as a criminal and her time in the penal legions meant that she'd hit a glass ceiling.
At the same time, she was confronted by a family tragedy. Ariawyn's mother had risen from her impoverished circumstances to become a local community leader for the peasantry. However, the family's activism and refusal to toe the line aroused the ire of the local matriarch, who had long considered them a thorn in her side. So matriarch Benaezia schemed to get rid of them. When Ariawyn returned to Kaeshana, she was informed that her parents had vanished in the Netherworld without a trace.
She was inconsolable, stricken with grief and regrets. However, doubts began to manifest. These strengthened when she ran into one of her cousins, who was in hiding and on the run from armed thugs. Ariawyn defended her and learned that her parents had been murdered. Enraged, she swore to avenge them. Benaezia was a powerful local leader and a noblewoman, but she did not care.
It was Vaena who noticed that Ariawyn had vanished and went after her. Surprisingly, she elected to join her friend after confronting her. Using their military experience, they infiltrated Benaezia's mansion, put her minions to the sword and killed the matriarch, though not before Ariawyn tortured her until she confessed. Thereafter, Vaena helped Ariawyn cover things up. This reestablished the bond between them. Indeed, it strengthened. Ariawyn was also one of the few Vaena told about her encounter with her biological mother, a Cadalthor noblewoman. At the time Vaena wanted nothing to do with the family that had scorned her. Both soldiers grew closer as a result.
What followed was the sequence of events so familiar to Eldorai, especially those who served in the forces: The Exodus from Kaeshana, the colonisation of Tygara and the Xioquo War, the Kaeshana Rebellion. Ariawyn was involved in all these events, doing her duty. She fought alongside Ariawyn, Kaida and Firemane forces when they stormed the Cadalthor compound after Duchess Tarissa Cadalthor's failed coup following the Kaeshana Rebellion. Tarissa, Vaena's cousin, was executed by Siobhan Kerrigan.
This left a vacuum in House Cadalthor...and to everyone's surprise the new duchess was none other than Vaena Askari, who'd been approached by the Queen. Needless to say her family members were not happy about this. Previously they'd done well scorning her, now she'd suddenly been placed at the top of the family. In the case of many, contempt turned to outright hatred. Ariawyn had mixed feelings about her friend leaving the Angelii corps and entering the nest of vipers. However, when Vaena approached her, Ariawyn volunteered to join her personal guard. In gratitude, Vaena appointed her as Captain of the Guard. The new duchess was determined to restore House Cadalthor to its former glory, believing it to be her duty. To do so she needed people around her could trust, as it would be only a matter of time before someone in her family tried to topple her. So Ariawyn left the Angelii corps and pledged herself to House Cadalthor, though it is clear that her loyalty is to Vaena alone, not to the noble family, as she feels contempt for most of their members. She's proved herself a severe, but effective commander of the guard. She's taken the time to familiarise herself with Qadiri culture, as many of the guards have been recruited from that Eldorai subrace. More recently, Ariawyn has had to deal with the fact her liege and friend decided to welcome a Force Dead Knight from Alderaan into her inner circle.
Valiens Nantaris
Head Admin
[member="Vaena Askari"]
Looks good. What appearance did you think for her? Blonde hair or black?
Looks good. What appearance did you think for her? Blonde hair or black?
Vaena Askari
Lady Cadalthor
[member="Valiens Nantaris"]
1. Dunno. Depends on the pic. You got any? Something martial and not gaudy.
2. Any suggestions re backstory?
Right now she is captured by rebels. So she needs to get out of that. And do something that ends her penal legionnaire status and gets her into the Angelii, where she eventually meets Vaena.
1. Dunno. Depends on the pic. You got any? Something martial and not gaudy.
2. Any suggestions re backstory?
Right now she is captured by rebels. So she needs to get out of that. And do something that ends her penal legionnaire status and gets her into the Angelii, where she eventually meets Vaena.
Vaena Askari
Lady Cadalthor
[member="Valiens Nantaris"]
Completed the Ariawyn sub. Check it out when you can.
Enough weaknesses?
Which lightsabre forms would you suggest?
Completed the Ariawyn sub. Check it out when you can.
Enough weaknesses?
Which lightsabre forms would you suggest?
Valiens Nantaris
Head Admin
[member="Vaena Askari"]
Maybe put in a weakness regarding piloting etc. Is that something she is capable of?
Could give her an aversion to tactics such as ambushing, sniping or long range bombardment, reflecting her more direct martial ethos.
I'd suggest Form IV to take advantage of her agility. She doesn't have the strength for V or VII, and I feel that an Eldorai would not consider I or III especially advantageous as they are more aggressive. She doesn't duel many lightsabre users so Form II seems a bit wasted.
Will get to the bio soon, promise! How long is it anyway? >_>
Maybe put in a weakness regarding piloting etc. Is that something she is capable of?
Could give her an aversion to tactics such as ambushing, sniping or long range bombardment, reflecting her more direct martial ethos.
I'd suggest Form IV to take advantage of her agility. She doesn't have the strength for V or VII, and I feel that an Eldorai would not consider I or III especially advantageous as they are more aggressive. She doesn't duel many lightsabre users so Form II seems a bit wasted.
Will get to the bio soon, promise! How long is it anyway? >_>
Vaena Askari
Lady Cadalthor
[member="Valiens Nantaris"]
The actual backstory is 3070 words.
That could work. Also gives her a weakness because Form IV is a very tiring style ill-suited for prolonged combat. I agree that she probably doesn't get into many lightsabre duels. Form V is is right out due to the lack of physical strength (she can enhance it via the Force, but only temporarily, so it's not applicable). Same with Form VII, which in any case doesn't seem that appropriate for an NPC, especially since she's a knight (and I can't imagine how she would have found someone to teach her).
Hmm On the other hand, you can't really combine Ataru with a shield and I believe it's impractical in armour because it relies on acrobatics a lot. She's no Jedi, so she wouldn't go into battle wearing robes. Or light combat suits. She's a soldier, after all. Thoughts?
The actual backstory is 3070 words.
That could work.Valiens Nantaris said:
I'd agree if she were an Angelii with a more conventional background. But she started as a common criminal and then was conscripted into a penal company. While she would have changed a bit after becoming an Angelii, I don't think she would have suddenly become super chivalrous. She's also fought dishonourable outsiders.Valiens Nantaris said:
Valiens Nantaris said:
That could work. Also gives her a weakness because Form IV is a very tiring style ill-suited for prolonged combat. I agree that she probably doesn't get into many lightsabre duels. Form V is is right out due to the lack of physical strength (she can enhance it via the Force, but only temporarily, so it's not applicable). Same with Form VII, which in any case doesn't seem that appropriate for an NPC, especially since she's a knight (and I can't imagine how she would have found someone to teach her).
Hmm On the other hand, you can't really combine Ataru with a shield and I believe it's impractical in armour because it relies on acrobatics a lot. She's no Jedi, so she wouldn't go into battle wearing robes. Or light combat suits. She's a soldier, after all. Thoughts?
[member="Valiens Nantaris"]
Minor or Mass Deployment? Common Shadow Knight grunts.
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
GENERAL INFORMATION
Standard:
COMBAT INFORMATION
Description:
The Shadow Knights were born in the hour of cataclysm, namely during the devastation of Kaeshana and the Eldorai Exodus. Composed of Eldorai rebels, survivalists and dissidents, they sought to build a new future for their race unbound by the three pillars of crown, temple and nobility. Electing to stay behind on war-ravaged Kaeshana rather than flee to Tygara, they provided protection to surviving Eldorai communities, defending them against slavers, warlords and other menaces. The events of the Kaeshana Rebellion and the subsequent First Order takeover of the planet the rebels to leave the ancestral homeworld and seek out a new home in the stars.
From then onward, their efforts would be centred on a nomadic migrant fleet. It was apparent to the leaders of the survivalist movement that they would need to rebuild their military forces, which had taken significant losses during the conflicts back on desolated Kaeshana. Composed of hardened partisans, ex-soldiers who'd deserted from the Eldorai army, volunteers and conscripts, the Caerith Darin represent the common troopers of the Eldorai exiles.
The Shadow Knights firmly adhere to the principle that service guarantees citizenship, meaning that only those who prove themselves willing to make sacrifices on behalf of the community should have a say in how said community is run. This is, of course, a rather idealistic goal that creates problems of its own, but it is one they pursue with vigour. Service is the only pathway to citizenship and only citizens have full legal rights. Those that choose not to do so, called civilians, still have an expansive set of rights, but they do not have the right to vote or run for office. This has produced a highly stratocratic society, especially since high office is open only to those who have served the Shadow Knights with 'distinction', which largely applies to officers.
This makes the Caerith Darin an important component in the society being built by the Eldorai exiles. Lacking preternatural powers, the women and men who serve in these units must rely on skill, ingenuity, tactics, discipline and tech to prevail in battle. Their primary duty is the defence of the Eldorai migrant fleet, but also of settlements under the protection of the Shadow Knights, though they can also act as shock troops and perform offensive operations. In the light of the fact that the Shadow Knights are a nomadic group, it is no surprise that the Caerith Darin are proficient in Zero-G combat, boarding and counterboarding operations. The backgrounds of many of their members also makes them proficient in ambushes and the like.
The Shadow Knights are not a monolith, rather they are a somewhat awkward merger of Eldorai rebel groups that for this or that reason became disillusioned with the Eldorai Matriarchy, but are still adamantly opposed to the First Order and other powers considered to be imperialist and inimical to Eldorai interests. As a result, a number of citizen-soldiers in the Caerith Darin hail from factions that until recently might have viewed the other as rivals or even fought against each other.
Moreover, there is an understandable degree of awkwardness and suspicion when it comes to getting former enforcers of the Crown and 'rebel scum' to cooperate. For a while some rebel groups experimented with direct soldiers' democracy, elected officers and similar esoteric concepts, but such experiments have been suppressed. Initiative is rewarded, in contrast with the way things are handled in the Eldorai royal army, but disobedience is punished harshly. The maxim 'with great power comes great responsibility' is applied in their their criminal justice system. Thus when an officer commits a crime she receives a punishment far more severe than an enlisted soldier would because as an officer she should have a better understanding of her crime and its consequences. As a result, a crime that would result in a common grunt being flogged might result in a death sentence if an officer commits it. Unsurprisingly, Kaida is a harsh disciplinarian.
The Caerith Darin excel at being mobile infantry, but this can turn into a disadvantage when facing armoured enemy units. Eldorai are agile and dexterous, but the opposite of physical powerhouses. However, they have access to some specialised weapons that can be useful for countering Force-users and are trained accordingly. Soldiers also receive training in hand-to-hand combat and knife fighting. All in all, they are solid soldiers, but not at the level to make them truly elite. They are not special forces, cybernetically or genetically enhanced supersoldiers or Force warriors, they are grunts who want to protect their people and do that job well. They work alongside the common militia that maintains order on the vessels that make up the migrant fleet. This militia answers to the individual ship captains, but comes under the command of the Caerith Darin in cases of crisis. The standard equipment of a soldier consists of a rifle of some sort, a sidearm, a couple grenades and a vibroknife. As in any military unit, variations exist based on the roles a soldier plays, such as heavy weapons specialists, demolitions experts and so on. The Eldorai soldiers show no mercy to slavers or other opponents considered similarly heinous. Such enemies tend to be killed on sight, as surrenders from such individuals are not accepted. Or tossed out of airlocks into the cold vacuum of space.
The Caerith Darin diverge from Eldorai orthodoxy on the matters of gender and religion. Here it should be noted that exposure to the outside world had already causes the Eldorai Matriarchy to become more liberal in these areas by abolishing theocratic persecution and giving men more rights, though these still fall short of equality. Men are allowed to serve in the Caerith Darin alongside their female comrades and can even become officers. This is partly the result of the fact that some factions in the Shadow Knights espouse the unorthodox concept of male rights. However, it's also a pragmatic concession because it would have been impractical to continue the old sexist policies on post-apocalyptic Kaeshana, as the survivors needed all hands on deck and could not afford to exclude people due to their gender. Women still tend to dominate the upper ranks though.
The Shadow Knights practice a policy of religious tolerance, but many of the soldiers are atheists or religious nonconformists such as Illyrians or members of other religious fringe groups. Indeeed Ashirans have complained about it being more difficult for them to get promoted. Clerics are allowed to minister to soldiers who seek spiritual guidance, but the contents of their sermons are carefully vetted by commissars to ensure that it does not contain seditious content or spread discord.
Minor or Mass Deployment? Common Shadow Knight grunts.
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To sub the basic soldiers of the Shadow Knights and thus flesh out the ranks of Kaida's minions.
- Image Credit: Here. 'Soldier' by Hokunin. Found on hokunin.deviantart.com.
- Role: Frontline soldiers and marines of the Eldorai renegades. Their duties encompass raids, frontline battles and protection of the Eldorai migrant fleet and Eldorai settlements affiliated with them. As Shadow Knight Strategos, Kaida Taldir is their overall commander.
- Links: Eldorai, Order of Fire, Firemane Industries.
GENERAL INFORMATION
- Unit Name: Caerith Darin (Eldarai for Shadow Guard)
- Affiliation: Shadow Knights, Kaida Taldir, Naesala Faethyra
- Classification: Infantry, Marines.
Standard:
- Plastoid battle armour with vacuum sealed bodyglove and internal life support system. It is comparable to Stormtrooper armour in quality and function. Can be coloured and camouflaged as needed to match terrain. Suit has sonic dampeners to reduce risk of injury from loud noises such as those caused by explosions or high-pitch frequencies. Equipped with Magno Grip Boots when in Zero G.
- Blaster rifles, particle beam blasters, sonic blasters or Mk2 bolter.
- Blaster/sonic pistols.
- Vibroknives
- Grenades, thermal detonators.
- Rebreathers, military rations, medkits, grappling hooks, macrobinoculars, Lifeform scaners, digging, welding and climbing tools etc.
- Missile launchers (heavy weapons specialist)
- Flamethrowers, grenade launchers or personal sonic cannon.
- Portable shattergun rotary cannon (automatic rifle(wo)man)
- Cylix bolt pistol (officers and NCOs)
- Sapper Charge or a 53-R High Yield Thermite Explosive (when boarding a ship or facing a ground installation)
- Flechette launchers/pistols.
- Plasma cutters/torches (in case of boarding operations).
- Access to boarding craft in case of boarding operations in space.
COMBAT INFORMATION
- Availability: Uncommon
- Deployment: Minor
- Dedicated and zealous
- Skilled in urban warfare, boarding and counterboarding operations
- Training emphasies disciplined fire over blazing away. The Shadow Knights' resources are limited, so their soldiers are taught to make the most of what they have and make every shot count.
- Eldorai are dexterous, have impressive hand-eye coordination and very good hearing.
- Common soldiers with no superpowers or genetic/cybernetic enhancements. They bleed and feel pain like normal mortals, they have no special defences against preternatural powers.
- Light infantry. Lack of heavy combat vehicles and aircraft can put them at a disadvantage on the ground, particularly in prolonged battles.
- Armour is decent, but nothing fancy. Full-on impacts from lightsabres will cut through it like paper. It is also vulnerable to heavy blasters, high calibre firearms, explosions and the like.
- Eldorai are on average physically weaker and have a lower pain threshold than humans.
Description:
The Shadow Knights were born in the hour of cataclysm, namely during the devastation of Kaeshana and the Eldorai Exodus. Composed of Eldorai rebels, survivalists and dissidents, they sought to build a new future for their race unbound by the three pillars of crown, temple and nobility. Electing to stay behind on war-ravaged Kaeshana rather than flee to Tygara, they provided protection to surviving Eldorai communities, defending them against slavers, warlords and other menaces. The events of the Kaeshana Rebellion and the subsequent First Order takeover of the planet the rebels to leave the ancestral homeworld and seek out a new home in the stars.
From then onward, their efforts would be centred on a nomadic migrant fleet. It was apparent to the leaders of the survivalist movement that they would need to rebuild their military forces, which had taken significant losses during the conflicts back on desolated Kaeshana. Composed of hardened partisans, ex-soldiers who'd deserted from the Eldorai army, volunteers and conscripts, the Caerith Darin represent the common troopers of the Eldorai exiles.
The Shadow Knights firmly adhere to the principle that service guarantees citizenship, meaning that only those who prove themselves willing to make sacrifices on behalf of the community should have a say in how said community is run. This is, of course, a rather idealistic goal that creates problems of its own, but it is one they pursue with vigour. Service is the only pathway to citizenship and only citizens have full legal rights. Those that choose not to do so, called civilians, still have an expansive set of rights, but they do not have the right to vote or run for office. This has produced a highly stratocratic society, especially since high office is open only to those who have served the Shadow Knights with 'distinction', which largely applies to officers.
This makes the Caerith Darin an important component in the society being built by the Eldorai exiles. Lacking preternatural powers, the women and men who serve in these units must rely on skill, ingenuity, tactics, discipline and tech to prevail in battle. Their primary duty is the defence of the Eldorai migrant fleet, but also of settlements under the protection of the Shadow Knights, though they can also act as shock troops and perform offensive operations. In the light of the fact that the Shadow Knights are a nomadic group, it is no surprise that the Caerith Darin are proficient in Zero-G combat, boarding and counterboarding operations. The backgrounds of many of their members also makes them proficient in ambushes and the like.
The Shadow Knights are not a monolith, rather they are a somewhat awkward merger of Eldorai rebel groups that for this or that reason became disillusioned with the Eldorai Matriarchy, but are still adamantly opposed to the First Order and other powers considered to be imperialist and inimical to Eldorai interests. As a result, a number of citizen-soldiers in the Caerith Darin hail from factions that until recently might have viewed the other as rivals or even fought against each other.
Moreover, there is an understandable degree of awkwardness and suspicion when it comes to getting former enforcers of the Crown and 'rebel scum' to cooperate. For a while some rebel groups experimented with direct soldiers' democracy, elected officers and similar esoteric concepts, but such experiments have been suppressed. Initiative is rewarded, in contrast with the way things are handled in the Eldorai royal army, but disobedience is punished harshly. The maxim 'with great power comes great responsibility' is applied in their their criminal justice system. Thus when an officer commits a crime she receives a punishment far more severe than an enlisted soldier would because as an officer she should have a better understanding of her crime and its consequences. As a result, a crime that would result in a common grunt being flogged might result in a death sentence if an officer commits it. Unsurprisingly, Kaida is a harsh disciplinarian.
The Caerith Darin excel at being mobile infantry, but this can turn into a disadvantage when facing armoured enemy units. Eldorai are agile and dexterous, but the opposite of physical powerhouses. However, they have access to some specialised weapons that can be useful for countering Force-users and are trained accordingly. Soldiers also receive training in hand-to-hand combat and knife fighting. All in all, they are solid soldiers, but not at the level to make them truly elite. They are not special forces, cybernetically or genetically enhanced supersoldiers or Force warriors, they are grunts who want to protect their people and do that job well. They work alongside the common militia that maintains order on the vessels that make up the migrant fleet. This militia answers to the individual ship captains, but comes under the command of the Caerith Darin in cases of crisis. The standard equipment of a soldier consists of a rifle of some sort, a sidearm, a couple grenades and a vibroknife. As in any military unit, variations exist based on the roles a soldier plays, such as heavy weapons specialists, demolitions experts and so on. The Eldorai soldiers show no mercy to slavers or other opponents considered similarly heinous. Such enemies tend to be killed on sight, as surrenders from such individuals are not accepted. Or tossed out of airlocks into the cold vacuum of space.
The Caerith Darin diverge from Eldorai orthodoxy on the matters of gender and religion. Here it should be noted that exposure to the outside world had already causes the Eldorai Matriarchy to become more liberal in these areas by abolishing theocratic persecution and giving men more rights, though these still fall short of equality. Men are allowed to serve in the Caerith Darin alongside their female comrades and can even become officers. This is partly the result of the fact that some factions in the Shadow Knights espouse the unorthodox concept of male rights. However, it's also a pragmatic concession because it would have been impractical to continue the old sexist policies on post-apocalyptic Kaeshana, as the survivors needed all hands on deck and could not afford to exclude people due to their gender. Women still tend to dominate the upper ranks though.
The Shadow Knights practice a policy of religious tolerance, but many of the soldiers are atheists or religious nonconformists such as Illyrians or members of other religious fringe groups. Indeeed Ashirans have complained about it being more difficult for them to get promoted. Clerics are allowed to minister to soldiers who seek spiritual guidance, but the contents of their sermons are carefully vetted by commissars to ensure that it does not contain seditious content or spread discord.
[member="Valiens Nantaris"], [member="Nima Tann"]
Not sure I'm happy with the pic in the above sub. It's elfy...but it seems too shiny for the Shadow Knights' grunts. And the cloak is kinda out of place. A soldier wouldn't wear one, as opposed to a palace guard or aristo.
Not sure I'm happy with the pic in the above sub. It's elfy...but it seems too shiny for the Shadow Knights' grunts. And the cloak is kinda out of place. A soldier wouldn't wear one, as opposed to a palace guard or aristo.
[member="Valiens Nantaris"]
Some alternatives:
https://pre00.deviantart.net/3247/th/pre/i/2013/293/9/c/eldar_scout_by_davidap-d6r7edm.jpg (admittedly I already used this for Firemane's Wood Elf scouts)
https://pre00.deviantart.net/5145/th/pre/f/2016/090/f/4/eldar_by_timokujansuu-d9x5fjh.jpg
https://www.frontlinegaming.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/1ab09923b68b458b434f158143192a25.jpg
Some alternatives:
https://pre00.deviantart.net/3247/th/pre/i/2013/293/9/c/eldar_scout_by_davidap-d6r7edm.jpg (admittedly I already used this for Firemane's Wood Elf scouts)
https://pre00.deviantart.net/5145/th/pre/f/2016/090/f/4/eldar_by_timokujansuu-d9x5fjh.jpg
https://www.frontlinegaming.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/1ab09923b68b458b434f158143192a25.jpg
Nima Tann
Master of Her Own Destiny
[member="Kaida Taldir"] [member="Valiens Nantaris"]
More alternatives
https://zel.artstation.com/projects/lE30e
https://orig00.deviantart.net/c874/f/2013/155/1/5/da_by_hokunin-d67v9ij.jpg
More alternatives
https://zel.artstation.com/projects/lE30e
https://orig00.deviantart.net/c874/f/2013/155/1/5/da_by_hokunin-d67v9ij.jpg
Valiens Nantaris
Head Admin
[member="Kaida Taldir"] [member="Nima Tann"]
I kinda like Nima's second one. Just forget they're Eldorai in appearance at all and use a more muted colour palate.
I kinda like Nima's second one. Just forget they're Eldorai in appearance at all and use a more muted colour palate.
Sic transit gloria mundi
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To flesh out the ranks of the Order of Fire and Firemane.
- Image Credit: Here. 'New Conglomerate female medic' by Hebime. Found on hebime.deviantart.com.
- Role: Specialised unit of healers.
- Links: Order of Fire, Firemane Industries.
GENERAL INFORMATION
- Unit Name: Order of Fire Hospitallers
- Affiliation: Siobhan Kerrigan, Order of Fire, Firemane Industries.
- Classification: Healers, combat medics.
- Sentinel Battle Armourhttp://starwarsrp.net/topic/85302-sentinel-battle-armour/
- Magnetic Repeater or Blaster Rifle
- Cylix bolt pistol, DC-17 blaster pistol or Shatterpistol.
- Combat vibroknives
- Grenades (smoke, frag, concussion, adhesive).
- Standard medical equipment, including medkits, rebreathers, medical scanners, vibroscalpels, laser scalpels and laser cauterisers. Backpack contains numerous bandages, antibiotics and bacta products.
- Generally assisted by medical droids to help in diagonising and treating injuries. Access to air ambulances, medical shuttles, field bacta tanks.
COMBAT INFORMATION
- Availability: Unique.
- Deployment: Minor
- The Hospitallers are composed of Force-users who have the skills of an Apprentice or Knight. They specialise in Force healing, Force shield and Force Stun. They can also use their powers to control and mitigate someone's pain.
- Highly capable healers, doctors and medics. Their skills can be compared to those of Jedi healers, but they're also trained in the conventional skills of a combat medic and field surgeon.
- Combat training and equipment enables them to defend themselves and their comrades, especially their patients. Receive the same combat training as Firemane riflemen.
- Support unit. They're equipped as light infantry and lack heavy weapons. Their focus is on saving lives by getting wounded away from the battlefield, treating the sick and injured. While they can defend themselves and take their place in the trenches, they're not equipped or meant to take on large numbers of enemies, armoured vehicles, fortifications and so on. Or meant to have dramatic duels with hostile Force-users.
- Limited offensive Force powers.
- While they're trained to fight as common soldiers without the aid of the Force, ysalamiri take away their greatest advantage.
- Armour is made out of Duraplast, similar to the ancient Clone Commando armour. This gives them solid protection against a variety of hazards. But direct, heavy impacts from lightsabres will cut through. Heavy weapons such as laser cannons and thermal detonator explosions will easily penetrate it.
Description:
Disease, enemy fire, 'friendly' fire - all produce fatalities. Huge casualties tend to be demoralising and skilled soldiers are difficult to replace. Especially since people are more reluctant to flood the recruiting stations if soldiers on your side keep dying like flies. This makes having good medics essential. Thus Firemane Industries' paramilitary forces maintain their own medical corps of dedicated combat medics and physicians. Within this corps, the Order of Fire Hospitallers occupy a rather special role, for they are trained to use the Force to heal serious inuries and treat diseases.
The higher-ranking members of the group can carry out complex surgeries, though these are obviously performed far away from any battlefield. In that regard their role can be compared to that of a Jedi healer, with the difference that they are part of the command structure of a paramilitary corporation's Force-using branch as opposed to a monastic order. The combination of conventional and preternatural training makes them highly proficient medics.
However, though their primary duty is to save lives, this does not mean they cannot bring on the pain if need be. Every Hospitaller is a certified rifleman or riflewoman, able to defend themselves and their patients if need be. Aside from healing, the Force powers they focus on are Force Shield and Force Stun, which tallies with their defensive focus, as they can use their gifts to protect themselves and their comrades from attacks or immobilise opponents. They are professional, disciplined and dedicated to saving people from the harshest of trauma.
Outside of combat situations, Hospitallers also participate in Firemane's humanitarian operations, providing medical care to those in need, especially on more primitive worlds where healthcare is lacking. Moral considerations aside, this is also helpful when it comes to building up a support base among the indigenous population. Thus they help win hearts and minds, aiding the wounded and sick in hospitals set up by Firemane. They have performed such tasks in conflict zones as diverse as Arkas, Tygara and Kaeshana. They also appeared on Dromund Kaas to aid in relief efforts following a zombie outbreak caused by the Witch-Necromancer Matsu Xiangu. More recently, they performed the same task on Arkas, where an undead plague on the island of Serenade had to be contained via bombardment.
Their training is rather intense, which keeps their size limited. Thus the Hospitallers are a relatively small unit and cannot be deployed en masse. In the early days, before Firemane had sufficient trainers, many Hospitallers trained with Priestesses of the Church of Ashira or members of fringe Force organisations. While critical mass has been reached, it still maintains ties with these groups. Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori, a Mistress of the Fire Order, spent some time with the Hospitallers to hone her skills as a healer. A few Hospitallers have been assigned to Firemane's exploration subdivision, which is headed by Tegaea Alcori.
Like with all subdivisions of the Order of Fire, the Hospitallers follow a dual rank system. This means that every member has a rank in the Order and a corresponding one in Firemane's military hierarchy, which reflects their skill, experience and years of service. Thus a Hospitaller cannot overrule a 'mundane' officer just because he or she is a Force-user, though on the flip side a Firemane member would be expected to heed their advice in an area they're clearly an expert.
The Force may be a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural, but it does makes you fit for command without having the necessary experience and qualifications. The unit is led by Chief Apotheracy Atsuko Kitazawa, a stern Atrisian soldier, healer and doctor.
Valiens Nantaris
Head Admin
[member="Kaida Taldir"]
I think minor fits their status as a rebel unit. You have them at uncommon availability so you can get several groups when needed.
I think minor fits their status as a rebel unit. You have them at uncommon availability so you can get several groups when needed.
Sic transit gloria mundi
[member="Valiens Nantaris"], [member="Laira Darkhold"]
Think Hospitallers are done.
Think Hospitallers are done.
Valiens Nantaris
Head Admin
[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Looks good.
Looks good.
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Hierarchy: Utilise a cell like structure.
Membership: Registration. Unofficially there's a good deal of screening. In principle, any Eldorai can join. The group does not discriminate between female and male Eldorai. However, only atheists are allowed. Every member must swear a solemn vow, disavowing belief in the Great Goddess Ashira or any other deities.
Dogma/Doctrines: The Blades of Reason see themselves as warriors for progress and freedom. In that regard, they're more radical than many Shadow Knights. While all of the Shadows reject the authority of the Eldorai Crown, many of them still believe in the Eldorai deities, though their beliefs are generally unorthodox and considered heretical by the orthodox Church. However, the Blades reject religion entirely. They believe it is not enough to do away with the temporal power of the clergy. If Ashira ever existed, she was a purely mortal woman, not a deity or a being with a divine and a mortal side. Their slogan is 'to struggle against religion is a struggle for liberty'. Thus they call for a policy of state atheism to free the Eldorai from the grip of superstition. Rather than wait for nonexistent deities to save them, the Eldorai must take their fate into their own hands. The Blades are supportive of technological advancement, which is why they are more positive about using droids and cybernetics than conservative Eldorai. Above all, they stress the importance of self-reliance.
In addition, the Blades support equal male rights. Being Eldorai, they're still a bit patronising about it, despite claiming to be progressive. One of their spokeswomen once said: "We support males in most arms of the military, but there are some they are not physically or psychologically capable of serving in. That's basic biological science."
Their radical atheistic beliefs put them at odds with the Children of Ashira and the Illyrian Harbingers of the Deliverer, two religious groups that have a presence among the Shadows. However, despite their heterodox views, the Blades are Eldorai patriots. They want the Eldorai to be able to decide their own fate and be free of foreign dominance. Thus they oppose foreign regimes that wield power over the Eldorai, which is why they regard the First Order's occupation of Kaeshana as illegitimate. They also look very poorly on Eldorai who collaborate with slavers and sell out their own kind. In theory, the Blades allow members of the Eldorai's Tygaran cousins to join.
However, only a few do because the Blades are extremely Eldorai-centric. It does not help that their progressive ideology is extremely culturalist, since by their standards the Tygarans are primitives in need of enlightenment. Many of the Tygaran natives who join tend to be Xioquo. This is understandable because Mystra, the Xioquo's 'Creator', turned out to be a genocidal mad goddess who did not care about her people and would have led them to their doom if she had not been thwarted by Firemane and their Eldorai allies.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
In the beginning, Ashira was created by the sun, the moon and the stars to create a chosen race which would one day inherit the universe. She in turn created the pantheon, infusing part of her knowledge into each, and together they formed the Eldorai to be perfect creatures in her image. One of Ashira's daughters, the Death Goddess Illyria rebelled against the Creator out of jealousy, spawned demons and was banished to hell.
This is what Eldorai ought to believe in. Made in Ashira's image, they are perfect - excluding the manlings, the poor, the disobedient, the heretics and so on and so forth. The Star Queen is Ashira's viceroy on earth and so all Eldorai owe her fealty. When an Eldorai dies, she is brought before the divine tribunal and judged for her deeds. The righteous are granted entrance into paradise, are reunited with their loved ones and bask in the presence of the Great Goddess. The wicked are cast into the pit of hell, a place of punishment and suffering.
Alas, a number of Eldorai do not believe or have found good cause to doubt the orthodox teachings. Exposure to the outside world, foreign invasions, planetary cataclysms and so on have undermined the old beliefs. It has become rather difficult to claim that the Eldorai are superior beings and the only intelligent race in the Galaxy...since many foreigners have more advanced tech and a foreign power rules the Eldorai homeworld, Kaeshana. As a result, many Eldorai leaders have tried to enact reforms, seeking to preserve the independence of their people by adapting. The current Star Queen, Tirathana the Seventh, pursues a policy of religious tolerance and enlightened despotism.
For some this does not go far enough. The Blades of Reason are one such group. They rebel against the tripartite alliance of crown, temple and nobility that has been the bedrock of Eldorai society for centuries. Even among the Shadow Knights, a group of militant survivalists and renegades who strive to lead the Eldorai exiles, they're a radical fringe movement. Like many other Eldorai revolutionary societies, the Blades have their origins in secret societies.
Unlike populist movements such as the Green Ribbons, the Blades originated from amongst the middle class. Many of their early members were merchants, intellectuals and officers. This is only natural because they were influenced by ideas from outside Kaeshana and these were the classes most likely to get into contact with offworlders. This applied to merchants in particular, who tended to be looked down upon by mainstream society. Initially, the Blades were a reformist club that sought to achieve change through peaceful means. Regarding themselves as Young Eldorai, they strove to preserve the Eldorai Matriarchy by modernising it. Some even proposed constitutional government and a separation of church and state. However, over time they radicalised.
Repression during the paranoid, reactionary reign of Tirathana the Sixth, the present Queen's mother, drove many club members to radical political agitation. A number of members were interned in the Island of Fallen Angels, the Angelii's ghost prison, for espousing heretical ideas, such as that Ashira was a mortal woman and humans and Eldorai shared a common origin. Some were put to the torch to make an example. The Blades carried out terrorist actions, focusing a lot of their murderous attention on members of the clergy and other 'outposts of reaction'. One of their victims was the head cleric of the Cathedral of Ardarvia, who'd proclaimed that to not believe in the Goddess was to be soulless. The group espoused a strategy of insurrectionary action and propaganda of the deed, carrying out several politically motivated assassinations and terrorist actions.
During the reign of Queen Silaqui, repression loosened somewhat since the new monarch sought the support of the Omega Protectorate - and had perhaps realised that locking up heretics in ghost camps or burning them at the stake did not kill their ideas. After Silaqui was assassinated by reactionary traitors among the Angelii during a failed conservative putsch, her successor, Anya Venari took the throne, assuming the regnal name Tirathana the Sixth. Determined to liberalise Eldorai society and push them towards modernity, she enacted reforms and released many political prisoners. In response to the Queen promulgating freedom of religion, the Blades' leadership made a declaration disavowing violence as a means of achieving political change. However, tensions remained strong. The security police gained a measure of control by planting double agents in subversive organisations.
Soon the new generation was not satisfied with crawling towards progress at a slow pace The new cadre was less composed of intellectuals and more of soldiers who'd served abroad and realised how much more there was to the Galaxy than Kaeshana. One of them was Aravae Elsatra, a junior officer who'd studied at the Omega Protectorate's Military Academy on Fondor and fought at the Battle of Gehenna. Taking control over the Blades' leadership committee in what can only been described as a coup after exposing her predecessor as a government spy, she pushed them towards a radical direction.
During the Netherworld Crisis, Kaeshana exploded in paroxysms of violence. Countless people vanished, religious fanatics declared that the end of days was at hand and that therefore the only way to avert hellfire was to regain Ashira's favour by purging the unbelievers and 'human monkeighs'. Nonbelievers were targeted by militants and the surviving Blades responded with violent action. The security forcess were caught in the middle, trying to impose order and keep the Matriarchy from descending into chaos.
Some Eldorai who'd been teleported into the Netherworld returned to Kaeshana with their faith reaffirmed. Others concluded that the church's teachings were a lie. There was no heaven, no goddess, no divine wrath. Driven into exile by the crackdown, the Blades reconstituted themselves. Having been deprived of much of their support base on Kaeshana, they became a potent voice amongst the communities of Eldorai exiles. They continued to agitate on Kaeshana, spreading propaganda among the disgruntled, though this limited them to the urban classes as they failed to reach the rural folk. However, their activity shifted from violent action towards political work and propaganda. Some Blades dreamed of one day returning and launching a revolution to topple the monarchy, others reasoned that it made more sense to seek a new home for 'enlightened' Eldorai. The second option was moot since the overwhelming majority of Eldorai lived on Kaeshana.
Until the Great Cataclysm. A huge asteroid devastated the planet. Three billion Eldorai managed to escape, but many had to be left behind. The Shadow Knights arose out of the ashes, dedicated to protecting the 'Forsaken'. Feeling embittered towards the now Tygara-based Eldorai Matriarchy, they reached out towards rebel groups such as the Blades. Thus the Blades became part of the revolutionary bloc the Shadows strove to build. Members of the group took up arms as soldiers of the Shadows during the failed Kaeshana Rebellion.
They have been part of the Shadows' nomadic fleet ever since the rebels had to evacuate Kaeshana following the First Order's annexation of the planet. They are an influential voice and one of those most vocal when it comes to casting aside the old traditions of the Matriarchy. A number of Blades have joined the Shadow Knights' council and they are devoting a lot of their efforts towards educating the next generation of Eldorai. Detractors accuse them of intolerance and have given them the derogatory name 'Cult of Reason', accusing them of being just as stiffling as the Church of Ashira they despise with such vehemence.
Kaida is close to them, as she shares their radical atheistic beliefs and belief that faith in the 'false deities' must be stamped out. She sympathised with their beliefs during her time as an exile and Omega Pyre soldier after losing faith in Ashira. However, their violent actions turned her against them, especially after her own exile was lifted and she became an Angelii officer. After turning her back on the Crown for good and joining the Shadows, she built ties to them. A number of her staff officers belong to the group. However, she is still averse to showing them favouritism, as the group discovered when there was a brawl between Ashiran Shadow Guards and Blade-affiliated ones. Kaida's response was to demote those involved in the brawl, have them flogged and assigned menial tasks. Lawful Neutral abhorrs nepotism or disorder.
- Intent: Flesh out Eldorai lore and add some flavour.
- Image Credit: How to properly source your imageshttp://starwarsrp.net/topic/99224-how-to-properly-source-your-images/
- Role: Poliitical party/rebel movement.
- Links: Eldorai.
- Group Name: Blades of Reason.
- Classification: Rebel organisation, political party.
- Headquarters: No fixed headquarters. Part of the Shadow Knights' nomadic migrant fleet. Have cells in several Eldorai population centres and settlements.
- Loyalties: Shadow Knights, Kaida Taldir.
- Group Sigil: Hexagon with each opposite line connected to represent their six key tenants.
- Description: The Blades of Reason are an atheistic, areligious, antiaristocratic and anticlerical organisation that developed in Eldorai society in opposition to the influence of the Church of Ashira. It embraces members of all social classes, though it is dominated by soldiers and intellectuals. It propagates atheism, scientific advancement. Identifying religion as superstition utilised by the upper classes to keep the people in bondage, it seeks to impose its atheistic views on Eldorai society and culture and endorses a military citizens' republic as a form of government. Influenced by non-Eldorai viewpoints, they reject the idea that the Force is a Goddess-given gift. While well-organised, they are a fringe group among the Shadow Knights.
Hierarchy: Utilise a cell like structure.
- High Illuminatrix/tus: The leader of the group.
- The Committee of Rationalist Security: Or CRS for short. A council of eight who act as the group's leadership committee.
Membership: Registration. Unofficially there's a good deal of screening. In principle, any Eldorai can join. The group does not discriminate between female and male Eldorai. However, only atheists are allowed. Every member must swear a solemn vow, disavowing belief in the Great Goddess Ashira or any other deities.
Dogma/Doctrines: The Blades of Reason see themselves as warriors for progress and freedom. In that regard, they're more radical than many Shadow Knights. While all of the Shadows reject the authority of the Eldorai Crown, many of them still believe in the Eldorai deities, though their beliefs are generally unorthodox and considered heretical by the orthodox Church. However, the Blades reject religion entirely. They believe it is not enough to do away with the temporal power of the clergy. If Ashira ever existed, she was a purely mortal woman, not a deity or a being with a divine and a mortal side. Their slogan is 'to struggle against religion is a struggle for liberty'. Thus they call for a policy of state atheism to free the Eldorai from the grip of superstition. Rather than wait for nonexistent deities to save them, the Eldorai must take their fate into their own hands. The Blades are supportive of technological advancement, which is why they are more positive about using droids and cybernetics than conservative Eldorai. Above all, they stress the importance of self-reliance.
In addition, the Blades support equal male rights. Being Eldorai, they're still a bit patronising about it, despite claiming to be progressive. One of their spokeswomen once said: "We support males in most arms of the military, but there are some they are not physically or psychologically capable of serving in. That's basic biological science."
Their radical atheistic beliefs put them at odds with the Children of Ashira and the Illyrian Harbingers of the Deliverer, two religious groups that have a presence among the Shadows. However, despite their heterodox views, the Blades are Eldorai patriots. They want the Eldorai to be able to decide their own fate and be free of foreign dominance. Thus they oppose foreign regimes that wield power over the Eldorai, which is why they regard the First Order's occupation of Kaeshana as illegitimate. They also look very poorly on Eldorai who collaborate with slavers and sell out their own kind. In theory, the Blades allow members of the Eldorai's Tygaran cousins to join.
However, only a few do because the Blades are extremely Eldorai-centric. It does not help that their progressive ideology is extremely culturalist, since by their standards the Tygarans are primitives in need of enlightenment. Many of the Tygaran natives who join tend to be Xioquo. This is understandable because Mystra, the Xioquo's 'Creator', turned out to be a genocidal mad goddess who did not care about her people and would have led them to their doom if she had not been thwarted by Firemane and their Eldorai allies.
- Curios: Nothing fixed. They wear a coded item, which changes frequently. For instance, a silver ring on one particular finger, a particulalry coloured lapel pin etc. This is followed up by a coded message to ensure the cell members are real.
- To 'liberate the Eldorai from mysticism and superstition and lead them to enlightenment'. To this end they want to impose atheism and attain progress through reason and science and eradicate the influence of nobles and clerics. The group promotes gender equality and social justice.
- To unite the Eldorai under the banner of a military citizens' republic.
- To liberate those Eldorai who live under foreign dominance.
- High Illuminatrix Cadera Naeyra. A former theological student and professional revolutionary who came to power after her predecessor Aravae Elsatra's death.
- Kaida Taldir. Shadow Knight Strategos.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
In the beginning, Ashira was created by the sun, the moon and the stars to create a chosen race which would one day inherit the universe. She in turn created the pantheon, infusing part of her knowledge into each, and together they formed the Eldorai to be perfect creatures in her image. One of Ashira's daughters, the Death Goddess Illyria rebelled against the Creator out of jealousy, spawned demons and was banished to hell.
This is what Eldorai ought to believe in. Made in Ashira's image, they are perfect - excluding the manlings, the poor, the disobedient, the heretics and so on and so forth. The Star Queen is Ashira's viceroy on earth and so all Eldorai owe her fealty. When an Eldorai dies, she is brought before the divine tribunal and judged for her deeds. The righteous are granted entrance into paradise, are reunited with their loved ones and bask in the presence of the Great Goddess. The wicked are cast into the pit of hell, a place of punishment and suffering.
Alas, a number of Eldorai do not believe or have found good cause to doubt the orthodox teachings. Exposure to the outside world, foreign invasions, planetary cataclysms and so on have undermined the old beliefs. It has become rather difficult to claim that the Eldorai are superior beings and the only intelligent race in the Galaxy...since many foreigners have more advanced tech and a foreign power rules the Eldorai homeworld, Kaeshana. As a result, many Eldorai leaders have tried to enact reforms, seeking to preserve the independence of their people by adapting. The current Star Queen, Tirathana the Seventh, pursues a policy of religious tolerance and enlightened despotism.
For some this does not go far enough. The Blades of Reason are one such group. They rebel against the tripartite alliance of crown, temple and nobility that has been the bedrock of Eldorai society for centuries. Even among the Shadow Knights, a group of militant survivalists and renegades who strive to lead the Eldorai exiles, they're a radical fringe movement. Like many other Eldorai revolutionary societies, the Blades have their origins in secret societies.
Unlike populist movements such as the Green Ribbons, the Blades originated from amongst the middle class. Many of their early members were merchants, intellectuals and officers. This is only natural because they were influenced by ideas from outside Kaeshana and these were the classes most likely to get into contact with offworlders. This applied to merchants in particular, who tended to be looked down upon by mainstream society. Initially, the Blades were a reformist club that sought to achieve change through peaceful means. Regarding themselves as Young Eldorai, they strove to preserve the Eldorai Matriarchy by modernising it. Some even proposed constitutional government and a separation of church and state. However, over time they radicalised.
Repression during the paranoid, reactionary reign of Tirathana the Sixth, the present Queen's mother, drove many club members to radical political agitation. A number of members were interned in the Island of Fallen Angels, the Angelii's ghost prison, for espousing heretical ideas, such as that Ashira was a mortal woman and humans and Eldorai shared a common origin. Some were put to the torch to make an example. The Blades carried out terrorist actions, focusing a lot of their murderous attention on members of the clergy and other 'outposts of reaction'. One of their victims was the head cleric of the Cathedral of Ardarvia, who'd proclaimed that to not believe in the Goddess was to be soulless. The group espoused a strategy of insurrectionary action and propaganda of the deed, carrying out several politically motivated assassinations and terrorist actions.
During the reign of Queen Silaqui, repression loosened somewhat since the new monarch sought the support of the Omega Protectorate - and had perhaps realised that locking up heretics in ghost camps or burning them at the stake did not kill their ideas. After Silaqui was assassinated by reactionary traitors among the Angelii during a failed conservative putsch, her successor, Anya Venari took the throne, assuming the regnal name Tirathana the Sixth. Determined to liberalise Eldorai society and push them towards modernity, she enacted reforms and released many political prisoners. In response to the Queen promulgating freedom of religion, the Blades' leadership made a declaration disavowing violence as a means of achieving political change. However, tensions remained strong. The security police gained a measure of control by planting double agents in subversive organisations.
Soon the new generation was not satisfied with crawling towards progress at a slow pace The new cadre was less composed of intellectuals and more of soldiers who'd served abroad and realised how much more there was to the Galaxy than Kaeshana. One of them was Aravae Elsatra, a junior officer who'd studied at the Omega Protectorate's Military Academy on Fondor and fought at the Battle of Gehenna. Taking control over the Blades' leadership committee in what can only been described as a coup after exposing her predecessor as a government spy, she pushed them towards a radical direction.
During the Netherworld Crisis, Kaeshana exploded in paroxysms of violence. Countless people vanished, religious fanatics declared that the end of days was at hand and that therefore the only way to avert hellfire was to regain Ashira's favour by purging the unbelievers and 'human monkeighs'. Nonbelievers were targeted by militants and the surviving Blades responded with violent action. The security forcess were caught in the middle, trying to impose order and keep the Matriarchy from descending into chaos.
Some Eldorai who'd been teleported into the Netherworld returned to Kaeshana with their faith reaffirmed. Others concluded that the church's teachings were a lie. There was no heaven, no goddess, no divine wrath. Driven into exile by the crackdown, the Blades reconstituted themselves. Having been deprived of much of their support base on Kaeshana, they became a potent voice amongst the communities of Eldorai exiles. They continued to agitate on Kaeshana, spreading propaganda among the disgruntled, though this limited them to the urban classes as they failed to reach the rural folk. However, their activity shifted from violent action towards political work and propaganda. Some Blades dreamed of one day returning and launching a revolution to topple the monarchy, others reasoned that it made more sense to seek a new home for 'enlightened' Eldorai. The second option was moot since the overwhelming majority of Eldorai lived on Kaeshana.
Until the Great Cataclysm. A huge asteroid devastated the planet. Three billion Eldorai managed to escape, but many had to be left behind. The Shadow Knights arose out of the ashes, dedicated to protecting the 'Forsaken'. Feeling embittered towards the now Tygara-based Eldorai Matriarchy, they reached out towards rebel groups such as the Blades. Thus the Blades became part of the revolutionary bloc the Shadows strove to build. Members of the group took up arms as soldiers of the Shadows during the failed Kaeshana Rebellion.
They have been part of the Shadows' nomadic fleet ever since the rebels had to evacuate Kaeshana following the First Order's annexation of the planet. They are an influential voice and one of those most vocal when it comes to casting aside the old traditions of the Matriarchy. A number of Blades have joined the Shadow Knights' council and they are devoting a lot of their efforts towards educating the next generation of Eldorai. Detractors accuse them of intolerance and have given them the derogatory name 'Cult of Reason', accusing them of being just as stiffling as the Church of Ashira they despise with such vehemence.
Kaida is close to them, as she shares their radical atheistic beliefs and belief that faith in the 'false deities' must be stamped out. She sympathised with their beliefs during her time as an exile and Omega Pyre soldier after losing faith in Ashira. However, their violent actions turned her against them, especially after her own exile was lifted and she became an Angelii officer. After turning her back on the Crown for good and joining the Shadows, she built ties to them. A number of her staff officers belong to the group. However, she is still averse to showing them favouritism, as the group discovered when there was a brawl between Ashiran Shadow Guards and Blade-affiliated ones. Kaida's response was to demote those involved in the brawl, have them flogged and assigned menial tasks. Lawful Neutral abhorrs nepotism or disorder.
Valiens Nantaris
Head Admin
Very nice!
For curios perhaps a coded item they wear which changes frequently? For instance, a silver ring on one particular finger, a particular coloured lapel pin etc. This is followed up by coded messages to ensure the cell members are real.
For curios perhaps a coded item they wear which changes frequently? For instance, a silver ring on one particular finger, a particular coloured lapel pin etc. This is followed up by coded messages to ensure the cell members are real.
[member="Valiens Nantaris"]
Good idea.
Hmm I need something to serve as a pic for the submission.
Good idea.
Hmm I need something to serve as a pic for the submission.
Sic transit gloria mundi
Some pics I should use:
1.
https://pre00.deviantart.net/c266/th/pre/i/2012/356/3/5/jena_shepard_by_jinxiedoodle-d5ornph.jpg
Finally a pic of a female soldier who doesn't look like a fashion model. Firemane commando/wet works type?
Completed
2.
https://d1u5p3l4wpay3k.cloudfront.net/eternitywiki/thumb/e/e0/Pallegina-portrait.jpg/265px-Pallegina-portrait.jpg?version=6ef34d687c401f6016d021930502b404
Dahomian chick? Has feathers though. Hmm.
3.
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/b/b3/GarnacHS-SWE.jpg
Trandoshan mercenary for Enyo?
4.
https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/008/291/794/large/sungryun-park-elf3.jpg?1511806815
Shadow Knight Vashyada?
Completed. Used a different pic though.
5.
https://cdn.gamerant.com/wp-content/uploads/dishonored-2-death-of-the-outsider-billie-lurk-trailer.jpg.optimal.jpg
Another Dahomian, perhaps. Seems somewhat mechanised.
6.
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/d7/0c/1e/d70c1e250f009b29adda74a295ab7e7f.jpg
Cybernetic armour? Metal fused to an organic body.
7.
https://orig00.deviantart.net/81f1/f/2008/077/c/a/ca9c79ec71fba967.jpg
A vampire that actually looks vile and creepy.
Completed
8.
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/8b/25/1c/8b251c55d5203dd4375e163172f11503.jpg
Drow with clothes.
9.
https://pre00.deviantart.net/24c5/th/pre/i/2017/348/d/8/darth_gean___order_of_the_sith_lords_series_by_automatan-dbwp05m.jpg
Twi'lek Cyborg
Completed
10.
https://img00.deviantart.net/3972/i/2006/239/9/4/revenge_by_tansy9.jpg
A Twi'lek that looks legitimately dangerous instead of being a sex symbol.
11.
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/0d/54/e5/0d54e511d33f1b0529183b401043152e.jpg
A sophisticated, monocled Wookiee
Completed
12.
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/0a/a9/26/0aa926fda96d6682f6fea6ed81c57951.jpg
A murderous Wookiee
13.
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/2/23/Qyzen_Fess.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/500?cb=20151027172408
The Jedi Consular's Trandoshan companion in TOR. Firemane?
Completed
14. http://articles.edhrec.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Shanna_BG.jpg
Qadiri Queensguard for Vaena.
15. https://melsmifgames.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/ilvara.png
Xioquo cultist/witch. Maybe for Sio.
16. https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars-exodus/images/b/be/B7_HRD.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20070523054210
Tess. Archangel HRD.
Completed
17. https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars-exodus/images/d/d9/Suqi_Choarl.png
Lin Brakka, Firemane Sergeant.
1.
Completed
2.
3.
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/b/b3/GarnacHS-SWE.jpg
Trandoshan mercenary for Enyo?
4.
https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/008/291/794/large/sungryun-park-elf3.jpg?1511806815
Completed. Used a different pic though.
5.
https://cdn.gamerant.com/wp-content/uploads/dishonored-2-death-of-the-outsider-billie-lurk-trailer.jpg.optimal.jpg
Another Dahomian, perhaps. Seems somewhat mechanised.
6.
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/d7/0c/1e/d70c1e250f009b29adda74a295ab7e7f.jpg
Cybernetic armour? Metal fused to an organic body.
7.
https://orig00.deviantart.net/81f1/f/2008/077/c/a/ca9c79ec71fba967.jpg
Completed
8.
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/8b/25/1c/8b251c55d5203dd4375e163172f11503.jpg
Drow with clothes.
9.
https://pre00.deviantart.net/24c5/th/pre/i/2017/348/d/8/darth_gean___order_of_the_sith_lords_series_by_automatan-dbwp05m.jpg
Completed
10.
https://img00.deviantart.net/3972/i/2006/239/9/4/revenge_by_tansy9.jpg
A Twi'lek that looks legitimately dangerous instead of being a sex symbol.
11.
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/0d/54/e5/0d54e511d33f1b0529183b401043152e.jpg
Completed
12.
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/0a/a9/26/0aa926fda96d6682f6fea6ed81c57951.jpg
A murderous Wookiee
13.
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/2/23/Qyzen_Fess.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/500?cb=20151027172408
Completed
14. http://articles.edhrec.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Shanna_BG.jpg
Qadiri Queensguard for Vaena.
15. https://melsmifgames.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/ilvara.png
Xioquo cultist/witch. Maybe for Sio.
16. https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars-exodus/images/b/be/B7_HRD.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20070523054210
Completed
17. https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars-exodus/images/d/d9/Suqi_Choarl.png
Lin Brakka, Firemane Sergeant.