Qual'Zyanya
Xioquo Renegade
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on the Shadow Knight forces.
Image Credit: Here.
Role: Force Gunslingers, snipers.
Links: Xioquo, Grey Paladins, Shonn Volta, Laranth Tarak.
Unit Name: Talxua Serpents.
Affiliation: Shadow Knights, Xioquo, Qual'Zyanya.
Classification: Elite infantry.
Storm Commando armour.
A280, Charric or DLT-19 heavy blaster rifle.
DC-17, SE-44C Blaster Pistol, A280 CFE, KYD-21, Shattergun.
Nightstinger (snipers).
T21 light repeating blasters: Squad support weapon. Used by automatic rifle(wo)man.
SE-14r Light Repeating Blaster Pistol, Sonic Disruptor.
Optional: MGL-1.
Wrist lasers.
Vibroknives, vibroblades.
Smoke grenades, frag grenades, sonic imploders, thermal detonators, concussion grenades, EMP grenades, Dampener aerosol grenades.
Force focusing visor, grappling hooks, jump/jetpacks, Verpine energy shield.
COMBAT INFORMATION
Availability: Unique.
Deployment: Minor.
Moreover, they can also utilise grenades more effectively, as they are able to curve them exactly. For example, if an enemy is hidden inside a bunker with only a small slit, Force-enhanced accuracy enables a Drow gunslinger to get a grenade through. These skills make the Talxua Serpents very dangerous with ranged weapons. Their Force Sense abilities are very advanced, which helps them anticipate dangers, detect concealed enemies and enhance their aim. In addition, they can utilise Force Reflex, Tutaminis and augment their body with the Force. However, they are specialists as opposed to generalists.
They are trained in martial arts and use of melee weapons, but they do not carry lightsabres or receive training in their use. They can use telekinesis, but only the basic applications such as push and pull that any Apprentice would know, whereas advanced techniques such as wide-ranged telekinetic blasts of the Force Repulse variety elude them. The same applies to crushing opponents with their mind, hurling boulders at them or summoning telekinetic whirlwinds.
The Drow warriors forego heavy weapons such as heavy repeating blasters, anti-tank missile launchers and rotary cannons in order to stay mobile. This has implications in pitched combat, especially if they are confronted by 'heavy' armour vehicle formations or large numbers of enemies. Furthermore, their main weapons are blasters. Being infantry, they are vulnerable to air and artillery strikes. They are a strong unit, but will require support, such as pilots, heavy infantry and duelists. In big fights they should not operate in a vacuum, but as part of a larger force.
The Drow gunslingers are able to enter into a Force meld, enabling them to draw strength from one another and coordinate their actions. This is a strong ability, but a double-edged sword. A great disturbance in the Force could overwhelm the melding participants as they received the pain through their enhanced senses. If the pain is caused by the minds the melding participants were touching, it could have very negative repercussions for the participants. Ysalamiri will obviously deprive them of their preternatural powers, whilst Voidstone weakens Force use. If they are in the middle of a mind meld and are suddenly deprived of the Force, the sudden loss will not just be very disorientating for them, but also painful. They would still be able to fight, but this is something a canny opponent could exploit. Skill-wise the unit is composed of experienced Knights, and some high Apprentices.
Description:
Blasters are uncivilised weapons. Unlike lightsabres, they are random and crude. At least this was the opinion of Obi-Wan Kenobi, though he still found productive use for a blaster when he was deprived of his lightsabre during his duel with General Grievous. One may debate how elegant and civilised a plasma sword that can cut through almost any metal alloy and maim or kill living beings with ease is. The grievous burns caused by a lightsabre are far from elegant.
Ironically, their preternatural abilities ought to make Jedi very good shots. Using the Force, they would be able to achieve preternatural aim and accuracy, as evidenced by Luke Skywalker relying on his preternatural powers to land the fatal shot on the Death Star's tiny weak spot, succeeding in a shot that seemed 'impossible'. Incorporating ranged weapons into their arsenal might have increased their survival rate during the Clone Wars, where charging the enemy head-on to face him in 'honourable' one-on-one combat produced unnecessarily high casualties, especially among their clone troopers. Even the best Jedi could only defend 180 degrees at once. If you have one surrounded all it takes is one bolt. As seen with Order 66.
Regardless, the Xioquo do not have the same scruples as conservative Jedi. In all fairness, they also never developed lightsabres. While they were able to create alchemised blades, similar in nature and properties to Sith sword or Force imbued blades, those were reserved for a select few. Xioquo society was a hierarchised, despotic slavocracy where power rested in the hands of a few powerful noble families, who relied on fear to keep the lower classes in line. However, by the standards of Tygara, they were very advanced. Their best warriors were equipped with 19th and early 20th century technology. One can speculate about what this ingenious race might have been able to accomplish if it had not been held back by a self-destructive system that turned their society into a powder keg.
Said powder keg exploded when the forces of the Tygaran Alliances conquered the Xioquo's subterranean capital. Mystra, the primeval Xioquo who had been both worshipped and feared by her people, was slain. The old order was turned tupsy-turvy. Being conquered placed the Xioquo under foreign rule, but in a way it also set them free. Some clung to the past and sought to recreate it, others took advantage of their new freedom.
The Talxua Serpents are a product of the old order, but broke away from it when it collapsed amidst the storm of change that swept over the land. In the old days, they served as scouts, sharpshooters and skirmishers for the matriarchs. They were designed to cut down enemies quickly with well-aimed volleys and also to assassinate specific enemy VIPs and Force Users. Their perennial enemies, the Qadiri, used heavy, Force-using cavalry called Cataphracti and probably there were Qadiri Cataphracti who death charged them so they got accustomed to shooting down mages. In that time they used revolvers or bolt action rifles, trained to hit weak points in enemy armour.
Things changed when the world as the Xioquo knew it was torn asunder. The Talxua Serpents fought the forces of the coalition that brought the war to the gateways of the Underealm. Indeed, they were part of the Xioquo forces that originally skirmished the sky people who descended down towards Tygara. In this conflict they met their match, for the outsiders possessed technology far in advance than that of the Xioquo. In concert with the Qadiri, they also had the numbers. The Talxua Serpents won their share of tactical successes, exploting their knowledge of the land and using guerilla tactics. Displaying a pragmatic streak, they sought to gain as much information as they could about the outsiders and to appropriate their weapons for themselves. They became known for their skill to pick out and snipe Firemane, Qadiri or Eldorai officers. One of Firemane's early campaigns was dedicated to rooting out the Serpents' island base. In the end it was taken, but at a cost.
At the time they served Taal’Xioas, foremost among the Xioquo matriarchs. Although in theory all of the nine Ladies of the ruling Council were equal, she happened to be more equal than the others and was a powerful patron. When the assault on the Underealm began, the Xioquo sharpshooters used guerilla tactics to stall and harass Firemane and Eldorai forces. However, the bulk of the Xioquo forces crumbled.
In desperation, Taal'Xioas and the majority of the Council decided to awaken Mystra. All of the Council knew that waking the Queen could be…dangerous. There was a reason why no one had tried it for 20,000 years. What would the Queen think of her people, or the ladies who ruled in her name? Two Xioquo matriarchs Qual'Ixtar and Qual'Zyanya tried to stop the awakening with a well-placed bomb. Unfortunately, Mystra fed on the deaths and arose. She soon turned out to be as much of a threat to her own people, whom she held in disdain, as for the coalition. She was finally slain by Siobhan Kerrigan with the help of her allies.
With their mistress dead and their cause defeated, the Serpents were at a crossroads. In the aftermath of the Twilight of Mystra, they continued to fight on, soon abandoning their archaic rifles in favour of blaster weapons. Eventually they stole a starship and escaped offworld, leaving Tygara behind them. Ironically, it was Qual'Zyanya who helped them depart. Having lost her sister Ixtar to Mystra's fury, she had briefly become an ally of the Sith Lady Sumiko Tanaka and explored the stars. After her mistress died, she used her new-found knowledge to go independent. Strange times led to strange alliances. Qual became their new patron, though without the absolute authority the Taal matriarch had possessed.
However, the Xioquo gunslingers soon found that the greater Galaxy was not an easy to place adjust to. Out here, the Xioquo were just a very small fish in a huge ocean populated by huge sharks. They would have to adapt if they wanted to be more than prey. Some outdated traditions would have to be thrown over board. Eventually they found their footing. There were plenty of people who could make use of their services and they got in touch with other Xioquo exiles who had made the choice to leave the confines of the Underealm and traverse the stars on their own terms. This also brought them into an alliance with the Shadow Knights, a group of Eldorai renegades opposed to both Firemane and the Eldorai Matriarchy.
