Intent: Make use of Spirit Gems.
Image Source: Here.
Canon Link: N/A.
Primary Source: Inspired by Eldar Wraithguard. Eldorai Spirit Gem. Similarities exist with this submission (made for another alt of mine), but the methodology is different and overall the Guardian is less powerful.
PRODUCTION INFORMATION
Manufacturer: Yohara Taenasi. Nameless Eldorai researchers and engineers.
Affiliation: Shadow Knights.
Model: N/A
Production: Limited.
Modularity: Weapons and attachments can be substituted.
Material: Duranium (Skeleton), Laminanium (Body), Quadanium (Armour), Reinforced Duraplast, Agrinium, electronic components, Spirit Gem.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Classification: Not directly applicable, as it is controlled by a Spirit Gem. But strictly speaking it would be Fourth Degree.
Weight: Very Heavy
Height: Large
Movement: Bipedal
Armaments: Hard-sound gun and miniature proton torpedo missile launcher embedded in gauntlets. Poison dart launcher on the left arm. Retractable Knuckle Blade. These in-built weapons' systems can be substituted as needed. Aside from them, the Guardian is capable of utilising a broad variety of melee and ranged weapons.
Misc. Equipment:
- Audio/Visual Recorder with Playback
- Vocabulator
- Gyroscopic Stabiliser
- Droid Deflector Mark III
- Combat Sensor
- Multi-Frequency Targeting and Acquisition System
- Multi-Spectral Target Assessor
- Broadband Antenna and Rangefinder
- Macrobinoculars (x10)
- Radiation Shielding
- Anti-Corrosion Coating
- Myriad Visual System
- Sensors (Visual, Motion, Thermal, Audio)
- Scanners (Infrared, Sonar, Radar, X-Ray)
- Encrypted Internal Segregated Comm-Link
- Repulsor Lift Boosters
- Fire Suppression System
- Eldorai Spirit Gem.
- Enhanced Servos
- Internal Repair Unit
- Ionisation Buffer
- Energy: Very High
- Kinetic: High
- Lightsabers: Average
- Other:
- Ion/EMP: High
- Sonic: Average
- Elemental: High
The Sciiac Guardian is a droid unit controlled by a the soul of a fallen Eldorai warrior housed inside a Spirit Gem. As a result, a living intellect steers its artificial body. The spirit is trapped inside the gem, but can use its droid body to interact with the world, use weapons and engage in combat. This makes the Guardian a hybrid, not quite organic, but also not a pure droid.
The soul retains its memories and life experiences and is able to learn and adapt. The unit can utilise a variety of weapons. The Guardian possesses an advanced suite of sensors and scanners. Their mobility is improved by repulsor lift boosters, which compensates for their cumbersome nature. Laminanium grants self-healing qualities. The unit can be equipped with armour that is scaled to accommodate its size.
Strengths:
- Powerful, tenacious war machine. The Guardian is very heavily armoured, resilient and extremely strong. It can take a beating and dish out.
- Use of Reinforced Duraplast and gadgets provides a degree of resistance against ion, electricity and EMP.
- Laminanium grants it self-healing qualities. The Laminanium is good at regenerating from damage inflicted by blaster and slugthrower weapons within minutes. More extreme damage takes less than a day.
- Combines mechanical strength, resilience and tirelessness with organic ingenuity and flexibility. They do not feel physical pain and will press on and fight even if they lose a limb.
- While not terribly slow, the Guardian is not very spritely and lacks agility. This is something a more mobile opponent could use to their advantage.
- Though tough, the machine is not invulnerable. Heavy blaster fire, strong explosions, anti-armour weapons and direct lightsabre strikes can damage the Guardian. It resists glancing blows from lightsabres, but not direct impacts.
- The Laminanium is of limited help against massive amounts of damage. It is better at repairing small penetrations or cuts, but less effective against severe blows, explosions and heavy weapons.
- The spirit gem is its most sensitive component. It is heavily reinforced and shielded, but heavy attacks or massive ion damage can disable or destroy it. A functioning spirit gem is needed to give commands to the mechanical body. Should the gem be broken, the spirit will be released into the Netherworld and the mechanical body will become inert.
- Though the body is mechanical, the soul inside the gem is still that of a living being. As a result, they can have emotional responses to situations, unlike a true droid, which is guided solely by machine logic and programming. This also means they do not share a droid's immunity to mentalism. This vulnerability erodes over time, as the soul inside the gem becomes more droid than organic, but this also makes the Guardian more machine-like in terms of mentality.
- Bit of a situational issue, but while the soul gems can house the essence of both Force-Users and Non-Force-Users, they are based on tech rather than sorcery. Should a Force-Sensitive undergo the process, they will retain only the most basic Force skills, such as precognitive and extrasensory abilities as well as very basic telekinesis. As the unit becomes more machine-like, these fade over time. Thus they are not on the same level as a Shard. One can chalk it up to the process not being perfect and reliant on tech.
Religion has long played a major role in the daily life and politics of the Eldorai. It is something that distinguishes them from an on the whole rather secular Galaxy. Ashiranism, the main religion of the Eldorai, divides the universe into good and evil, pure and impure. Those who follow the Great Goddess Ashira and the lesser deities stand on the side of the light. If they live a virtuous life, they are promised ascension to paradise when they die. Those who violate her dictates can expect a wretched existence of punishment and torment in the hellish realm of Illyria.
In short, the Eldorai consider death a natural part of life. Moreover, traditionalist Eldorai dislike droids, regarding them as mechanical parodies of Ashira's creation. However, as with many other people, the Eldorai have on occasion found cause to make pragmatic compromises. Certain individuals are too valuable to be allowed to pass away. In the past, Eldorai alchemists used sorcery to trap the life essence of select individuals in Force Imbued gems. This was a reliable way to preserve their skills and Force abilities. It gave them a long unlife, but could not grant immortality, only a reprieve. Moreover, these gems could only be produced on a very limited scale.
However, now the Eldorai are a scattered people. Kaeshana is an inhospitable, cursed tomb world, the Eldorai are fractured and the Matriarchy's hubris has produced calamity and exile. The Eldorai have also adapted foreign technology. This allowed the refinement of the soul stones. The Shadow Knights, a nomadic group of Eldorai rebels and survivalists, used technology captured from Archangel to create a new, tech-based form of soul stones, based on the entechment process.
These gems are less durable than those made by the Force. Moreover, those trapped inside have a shorter unlife. The souls inside the gems are not tormented, but on a spiritual level their existence is comparable to purgatory. They are not dead, but not quite alive either. As time passes, the essence inside the gem begins to fade away. However, the soul gems can be plugged into vehicles and droids, allowing the trapped Eldorai to continue to serve as a soldier, pilot, teacher, advisor, lorekeeper and so on. Yohara Taenasi, an Eldorai scientist, supervised the project. She had once been an iconoclastic member of the Truth Bringers, an Eldorai order of scholars, healers and wise women that served the Matriarchy. Cast out for her radical views, Yohara invented the new soul gems.
Having been inspired by Archangel's use of entechment for its HRDs and having acquired the suitable materials, her team set out to create a robotic body that could house the soul gems of fallen warriors who had volunteered to continue to serve in unlife. These would only be deployed in limited numbers and when the situation was dire. Though they are revolutionaries who have rejected the old ways, many Shadows are uncomfortable about the process. Putting the essence of an Eldorai in such a machine is considered similar to necromancy. None can deny their effectiveness though, and desperate times call for desperate measures. Comparisons can also be drawn to Shards.
The process is limited to select individuals, namely particularly skilled warriors who have been critically injured or are dying of sickness, old age etc. Volunteers are also accepted, though not en masse. It is considered an honour, yet also a curse of sorts. It is effectively a soul prison and thus not pleasant. Their families receive pensions. The Shadows had modified captured HRD bodies in order to house soul gems, especially those of fallen comrades meant to serve as pilots, advisors, or commandos. However, this design would be a war machine. What it lacked in subtlety it would compensate with power, strength and intimidation. It was called the Sciiac Guardian. Sciia is the Eldorai term for soul or spirit.
The Sciiac Guardian is designed to protect crucial areas aboard the worldship, but also be to deployed into a combat zone and unleash hell on the enemy. It is heavily armoured, shielded and capable of using most weapons, including the heaviest. This makes it a good fire support machine. The machine is not overly slow, but heavy, which means it is not very spritely or agile. This is a tradeoff for its strong body and thick plating. To compensate for its reduced agility, the design incorporates repulsor lift boosters. These gadgets enable the Guardian to make significant jumps and survive significant falls from great heights.
Its head features a targeting system and is reinforced against attacks. Moreover, it has a full sensor suite. Aside from integrated, auxiliary armaments, the Guardian can be equipped with a variety of melee and ranged weapons. The Guardian possesses considerable strength. It can crush bones with its hands, punch through a wall and smash through obstacles. This can make it a potent force in melee combat, especially if equipped with a polearm or an anti-armour weapon such as a war hammer. The body of the Guardian is made of Laminanium, which the Shadows captured during the raid.
The fact that they only have a small stockpile, as well as the complexity of the soul transfer process and the various support systems, significantly restricts the number of machines they are able to manufacture. Thus the machine can only be produced in limited numbers. Those among the religiously inclined who have a positive view of the use of soul gems treat the Guardians as noble warriors who have chosen to postpone their reward in the afterlife in order to continue protecting their people in the material realm. Quite what the Guardians think of the nature of their existence obviously varies based on the individual.
The Guardian combines mechanical strength with organic ingenuity. They are still the original person rather than a replicant and can make their own decisions. The soul inside the gem retains memories of their skills and past life experiences. They can still think on their feet, learn and improvise. Unlike droids - especially standard battle droids - they are not bound to linear programming. However, though heavily reinforced and shielded, the soul gem is not invulnerable. Breaking the gem would release the spirit into the Netherworld. Moreover, the gem cannot hold the spirit forever. Over time, the essence is diluted. This takes a very long time, but eventually the spirit in the gem will become more mechanical, losing its original personality, and then fade away entirely as it enters the Nether. If the machine is damaged, but the gem has not been destroyed, the latter can be removed so that it can be kept safe or plugged into another droid body or vehicle. In such an event, the Shadows will treat the recovery of a spirit gem as a priority.
