Qual'Zyanya
Xioquo Renegade
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on the Xioquo. This is a resubmission of this unit.
Image Credit: Here.
Role: Force Gunslingers, snipers.
Permissions: Can use Firemane equipment because I own the company.
Links: Grey Paladins, Shonn Volta, Laranth Tarak.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Unit Name: Talxua Serpents.
Affiliation: Shadow Knights, Court of the Shadows, Xioquo, Qual'Zyanya.
Classification: Force Infantry.
Equipment:
Armour:
Rifles:
- A280
- Magnetic Repeater
- Charric
- DLT-19 Heavy Blaster Rifle.
- Nightstinger
- DC-19
- T21 Light Repeating Blaster
- MGL-1
- Verpine Shatter Rifle
- Outland Rifle (with scope)
Sidearms:
- SE-44C Blaster Pistol
- A280 CFE
- KYD-21
- Class-D
- Shattergun
- SE-14r Light Repeating Blaster Pistol
- Sonic Disruptor.
- Renegade Blaster Pistol
- MSD-32
- Magnetic Revolver
Misc:
- Grenades
- Holdout Bolter.
- Force Focusing Visor, Whisper Jetpack.
- Verpine Energy Shield.
- Taozin Amulet.
The Serpents never reconciled themselves to the defeat of the Xioquo and the conquest of the Underealm by Firemane. Their time in the underground and later offworld has forced them to reevaluate some of their views. It has confronted them with the fact just how self-destructive many of the old ways and how small the Xioquo are compared to the rest of the Galaxy. However, they are Xioquo nationalists and believe the present state of affairs is inimical to Xioquo independence. This puts them in opposition to Xioquo matriarchs who cannot think beyond turning the clock back, but also to the Xioquo's new queen, Liavondra, who is dedicated to the Light and working with outsiders.
This has brought the Serpents into a closer affiliation with Qual'Zyanya, a Xioquo matriarch who defied the Council and tried to stop the awakening of Mystra, the dark goddess of her people. Alas, her actions only hastened the return of the first Xioquo and led to her being forced into exile to escape execution. She has gained a following among certain Xioquo renegades who do not fit into the ranks of the arch-reactionaries, the Queen's supporters or the Daughters of the Destroyer. The Serpents work with her, although the matriarch they used to answer to was killed by her for trying to awaken Mystra.
Mystra's brief, destructive reign was proof enough that awakening her was the wrong thing to do. Moreover, she was slain by Siobhan Kerrigan and her allies, which to the Serpents proves that she was not really a goddess. In other words, they are not friends of the crowd that maintains Mystra did nothing wrong and will one day return to get revenge on her killers and on all the Xioquo who failed her. They do not perceive themselves as unquestioning servitors. Zyanya herself is still a follower of the Dark Side, but seeks to use it in a more rational way than her former peers. She rejects the Light as an aberration and sees those who worship the 'Karishzar' as traitors who are just as deluded as those who bowed to Mystra.
COMBAT INFORMATION:
Unit Size: Medium
Unit Availability: Unique
Unit Experience: Elite
Combat Function: Proficient gunslingers, marksmen and sharpshooters who use the Force to enhance their abilities. They also make good scouts. In broad terms, their gunslinging skills can be compared to those of Grey Paladins. Force enhanced aim gives them incredible accuracy with slugthrowes and blasters. Similar to Laranth Tarak, they are accurate and quick enough with their blasters to intercept blaster bolts, slugs and even shrapnel from explosions, either deflecting or destroying them in the process. Their precognitive abilities help them predict where their target will be moving and act accordingly. Using the Force, they are able to guide blaster bolts and slug rounds, similar to the Force-Sensitive sniper Shonn Volta.
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 and detect cloaked enemies, even those who use the Force to conceal themselves. In addition, they can utilise Force Stealth, 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 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 and slugthrowers. 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.
Strengths:
- Elite gunslingers, snipers and stealthy operatives.
- Grey Paladin level gunslinging skills.
- Largely forego classical Force powers.
- Lack heavy weapons or heavy combat vehicles.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
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 awakened by a dark ritual, but slain in battle. In her place, Liavondra was put on the throne as Queen of the Xioquo and enacted several progressive reforms to break with the ancien régime. 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 were 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. Unsurprisingly there were Qadiri Cataphracti who death charged them, so the Xioquo 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 twenty thousand 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 was a mad goddess who turned out to be as much of a threat to her own people, whom she held in disdain, as for the coalition. Those she regarded as defeatist were consumed by her to feed her power and she commanded the Xioquo to fight to the death. She was finally slain by Siobhan Kerrigan with the help of her allies. Some of the Serpents witnessed her last stand, which ended in a huge eruption of Force energy after the killing blow had been dealt.
With their mistress dead and their cause defeated, the Serpents were at a crossroads. In the aftermath of the Twilight of Mystra, they went underground and continued to fight on, soon abandoning their archaic rifles in favour of blaster weapons and shatterguns. They were among a plethora of insurgent groups that opposed the new order, but infighting hampered coordination between them. Nonetheless, the insurgency was a threat, compelling Firemane to commit significant resources and carry out punitive expeditions in the depths of the Underealm. When the Xioquo started moving into the stars, the Serpents believed their time had come. They conspired with some matriarchs to stage a coup, believing that the attention of Queen Liavondra and her followers would be elsewhere. However, the uprising was suppressed. It did not help that most of the conspirators were reactionaries. The Serpents wanted to remove the 'White Queen', seeing her as a foreign puppet. They also felt strong animosity towards the Daughters of the Destroyer, a Xioquo cult that worshipped Siobhan and her power. But they did not want to be under the thumb of aristocrats who, in their view, had cost them the war and let the nation down.
So they went underground and stole a starship to escape offworld, venturing into the stars on their terms. 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 had been slain by her traitorous Eldorai apprentice Illyria, she had used her new-found knowledge to go independent. Zyanya was not reconciled with the new order Firemane had imposed on the Xioquo, but knew better than to participate in schemes she believed had little chance of success. 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. They would not admit it, but it was quite similar to the lesson Liavondra and her disciples had learned before them. 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.
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