OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Further flesh out the Eldorai rebel forces Kaida has joined. Expand on the Xioquo. This is a resubmission of this unit, which was approved under the old Codex rules.
Image Credit: Here.
Role: The Revenants are a unit composed of Xioquo and part of the Shadow Knights. They serve as special forces whose focus lies in sniping, infiltration and sabotage.
Permission: Permission for subs made by Laira Darkhold's writer here and here. They can use Firemane tech because I write the owner of the company. ARGH is a Firemane subsidiary and access has been secured in this thread.
Links: Xioquo, Twilight of the Goddess, Kaida.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Unit Name: Revenants
Affiliation: Themselves, Shadow Knights, Court of the Shadows, Xioquo.
Classification: Special operations forces.
Equipment:
Armour:
- Storm Commando Armour
- Shadowsuit combined with Thinsuit.
- Stealth Carbine
- Imperial Heavy Repeater
- Magnetic Repeater
- Verpine Shatter Rifle
- DXR-6
- Nightstinger
- Bolt-Thrower
- Dart Rifle (variable chemical payload).
- Outland Rifle (with scope)
- Verpine Shattergun
- Sonic Stunner
- MSD-32
- Sonic Disruptor
- A-280 CFE Blaster
- Magnetic Revolver
- Stealth Palm Shooter
- Hold-out Bolter
- SSB-1
- Wrist Bolter
- ACS-207 Cryo-Ban Gun
- Monofilament Wire and Net.
- Neural Inhibitor.
- Berserk.
- No-show, sensor packs, jammers, scramble keys, communication wave descramblers.
- Individual Field Disruptors, Cryptographic Coder.
- Multispectrum Disguise Suite
- Whisper Jetpacks.
- U20 Wrist Field Link
- Neural Band, Force Mask.
- Access to speeders, salvaged Drop Pods.
- Sky Swooper
- BCC BC-11 Comlink
- Taozin Amulet.
- Hypnogaze.
- CSPL-12 (PL/1G adapter available)
- MGL-1 (commonly mounted on another rifle as an underbarrel attachment).
- Multi-Weapon
- Vac Blade
- Sarix
- Rodian Death Blade.
- Talon Vibrodagger.
- Monomolecular Energy Chorded Weapons.
- Grenades, Thermal Imploder, Sonic Imploder,
- Thermal Charges.
- Devastator Multi-Purpose Mine. (mission-specific).
- Hyperaccelerated Nerve Implant
- Cardio-Muscular Package
- Hi-Sense Enhanced Eyes
- Bonemer
- Implant Armour
- Optional: Cybernetic Limbs - covered by synthflesh.
- Cybernetic Respirator
- Implant Communicator
- Cortical Datasplint
- Hifold Sensory Package
- Numbness System
- Psicom 1260 Interface
They believe that the old system has been too tainted by the old slavocracy. They are also opposed to the Daughters of the Destroyer, viewing them as a throwback to darker times that the Xioquo should move on from. Indeed, they view their presence as threatening, as it reminds them of Mystra's cult. As a result, they have decided to seek their fortunes in the stars.
Their own beliefs stress self-reliance, independence and freedom. They are very opposed to imperialists, slavers and other oppressive forces. This makes them partial to working with abolitionist and rebel groups, though they must obviously also make a profit to make ends meet. The Revenants have turned to cybernetic implants to augment their physical capabilities. Before the coming of the 'sky people', the Xioquo were the most technologically advanced race on Tygara, and this is one tradition the Revenants are keen to build up on.
The Xioquo warriors are associated with the Shadow Knights, but their strong focus on their autonomy and rights can cause issues. They dislike Shadows whose beliefs strike them as reactionary and statist. The same applies to rogue Xioquo who used to be connected to the old order or whose opposition to it was not radical enough. The Revenants are not followers of chaos who oppose the existence of a state on principle. Indeed, life aboard colony ships requires some form of regulation to keep order, ensure a fair distribution of supplies and provide protection against external threats such as raiders. They work with the Court of the Veil, the Shadow Knight organisation responsible for all spy, stealth and espionage activities.
Within the Shadow Knights, they tend to align with forces that stress individual autonomy and want to hold the central leadership accountable. They tend to oppose a state religion due to their experiences among their own people, as worship of Mystra was one means for the oligarchy to keep the common people and slaves in chains. Moreover, when she awoke from her long slumber, Mystra proved herself to be a mad queen who did not care about her people.
In terms of skill set, the Revenants are perfect for covert operations and the like. They strike from the shadows rather than seeking direct confrontation with the enemy in all-out battles. This also makes them good at intelligence gathering. They forego brute force in favour of finesse and surgical precision. Shatterguns, stealth carbines, sniper rifles, garrotes, poisoned darts and knives are quite popular in their ranks. A good number of Revenants also have skill in slicing and piloting. They may make use of specialised jetpacks, drop pods and sky swoopers, increases their flexibility.
One of their leading members is Qas'Lizana, a former dissident and insurgent. She was born into the establishment, but turned against it and is now radically opposed to anything resembling the old order. She had it rough because her mother regarded her as a disappointment to the clan for being born a 'squib'. While personally sympathetic to many of the Seekers of the Sky, Lizana believes that they are trying to fix a fundamentally broken system. From her perspective, they have not gone far enough in dismantling it and not sufficiently punished those who oppressed the common people until the ancien régime was toppled. She also dislikes the presence of the Daughters of the Destroyer, as they remind her of the dark cults that used to worship Mystra and persecute non-believers. She is spiritual, but opposed to a state religion or an organised church.
Lizana is an experienced guerrilla fighter who fought the ancien régime and spent many years in the underground. Moreover, she is trained in espionage and has a knack for electronics and technology. She rubs authoritarian Shadow Knights who expect complete obedience the wrong way. She and her associates tend to align with Shadow Knights who stress the importance of popular sovereignty and holding the higher-ups accountable, forming a contrast to the more authoritarian element within the movement.
She has a rather Spartan life style. Her mental and physical capabilities have been augmented by cybernetic implants. Lizana is independent-minded and works best when she is given a mission, the necessary resources and a time frame to achieve it, and then left to her own devices since she does not take kindly to being micromanaged and will do what she considers to be right. She endorses the lawfulness, indeed obligatory nature, of tyrannicide and rebellion against an unjust leader.
COMBAT INFORMATION:
Unit Size: Small
Unit Availability: Rare
Unit Experience: Elite.
Combat Function: The Revenants are crack operatives. They are ideal for covert operations, intelligence gathering, precision strikes and acts of sabotage. They are experts at blending into their surroundings, striking unexpectedly and fading back into nothingness. They have a knack for simply disappearing and are trained in hand-to-hand combat and martial arts. Being Xioquo, these operatives are extremely agile and dexterous. Their racial traits also mean that they are able to see much further in the darkness than humans or other elves.
They also have excellent hearing and sense of smell. Moreover, their natural abilities have been enhanced by cybernetic - or rather bionic, as their mechanical parts are covered by synthetic flesh - augmentations. Their implants enhance their mental and physical capabilities. While their degree of cybernetic augmentation varies, they tend to benefit from enhanced strength, speed, nervous system, memory, resistance to toxins and can hold their breath longer. Cranial implants enable nonverbal communication, allowing them to coordinate their actions and avoid eavesdropping. Implant armour is quite common. Their gear and training makes them proficient in resisting mental attacks and concealing their thoughts. Several Revenants are skilled slicers, making them useful for sabotage and information warfare. They make use of speeders, jetpacks, and sky swoopers to increase their mobility, allowing for surprise attacks and quick getaways.
However, while their implants are hardened, they are still vulnerable to particularly powerful or repeated EMP and ion attacks as well as electrical discharges. Moreover, the Revenants are not frontline soldiers. They excel at gathering information, sniping, performing sabotage and ambushes, but not at frontline battles or prolonged combat against large enemy forces. They would be out of their element in such a situation, especially if confronted with heavy weapons, entrenched fortifications or heavy armour. They are not meant to take on tank platoons or other 'heavy' combat forces, especially since they lack heavy weapons such as anti-tank missile launchers or rotary cannons.
Being infantry they are obviously vulnerable to long range bombardment. The same applies to air strikes, as they lack effective air defences. If they are attacked in such a manner, their only realistic options would be to hide or retreat. Furthermore, the sun and other extremely bright lights are painful to Xioquo because they have lived in literal darkness for so long. Thus they must wear attire that conceals their bodies if they go out into the sunlight. Flashbangs and the like are more painful to them than normal humans if they are exposed to the bright light and loud noise caused by them.
They are deployed in small units and thus risk of being outnumbered. They have access to speeder bikes, which gives them mobility on the ground. But said bikes are naturally weak against heavy weapons fire. Drop pods can be utilised for rapid, stealthy insertion into a target area. But they are obviously vulnerable to flak and starfighters while in transit and if a safe zone turns out to be hot, there is little the operatives inside a pod can do. In short, the Revenants are a surgical instrument, not a hammer or a broadsword.
Strengths:
- Elite commandos. Excel at subterfuge, espionage, stealth, infiltration and precision strikes.
- Coordination, mental and physical capabilities are enhanced by cybernetics.
- A scalpel not a broadsword. Suffer in protracted combat or open battlefields. Deployed in small units.
- Lack heavy weapons.
Of all the native races of now-abandoned Tygara, the Xioquo have always been the most tech-savvy. While the Vashyada lived in forests and the Qadiri did not progress beyond a Renaissance era tech level, the Xioquo built ironclads and outfitted their elite soldiers with primitive bolt-action rifles. Of course, the vast majority of the Xioquo lived in abject poverty and was never a beneficiary of progress.
Indeed, in the end the Xioquo were held back by themselves. A magocratic slavocracy, built on deceit, oppression and bloodshed was not conducive to progress. Unity never came easily to them, for their entire culture was steeped in the Dark Side. Their matriachs vied for power, fearful of their rivals, the millions of slaves who were kept in bondage and the hated Qadiri. If their society had been less self-destructive, perhaps the Xioquo could have become Tygara's dominant race.
By the time Firemane and the Eldorai arrived, Xioquo society was a powder keg ready to explode. Inevitably war erupted. It ended with the collapse of the old order when the Tygaran Alliance's forces stormed the Xioquo's subterranean capital. Mystra herself, the Xioquo's demigoddess, arose and was slain. By then she'd proved herself to be a rather bad mother who disdained her 'children' and saw them as little but tools. Encouraged by the outsiders, the slaves rose in revolt against their mistresses.
In the aftermath, the secret lightsider Liavondra became the Xioquo's new queen and now faced the monumental task of building a better future for her people. To many, the new order was an opportunity, whereas others never reconciled themselves with it. Both groups looked towards the stars. Even before the Second Exodus was launched and Tygara was denuded of sentient life, some enterprising Xioquo left the confines of their world to seek their fortunes elsewhere.
The group of Xioquo who would eventually call themselves the Revenants were among them. Rather than being reactionaries who were upset about the overthrow of the ancien régime and unable to reconcile themselves to the new order. Instead they were a group of radical abolitionists, rebels and progressives. Having opposed the ancien régime, they felt that the new overlords did not go far enough in dismantling it. They supported Liavondra's abolition of slavery and the breakup of the old patronage networks.
However, they believed the old system had been too tainted by the slavocracy and came into conflict with the Daughters of the Destroyer, a radical Xioquo cult that venerated Siobhan Kerrigan and her power, deifying her as the Karishzar. Indeed, some of the Revenants had anarchist leanings. They were joined by Xioquo who had tried to tinker with foreign tech by salvaging outsider machinery that had been left behind during the battle. There was life outside of Tygara, so they reasoned that they would be able to find a place where they could live according to their rules and would not have to bow to queens or dark goddesses.
However, they faced two problems: Firstly, they lacked a starship and secondly, they did not know how to pilot one due to being a pre-spaceflight civilisation. Indeed, the Xioquo were ignorant of hyperspace. Their race had lived in the darkness for so long that the sun burnt their skin. This gave them a justified fear of the 'sky-ocean' and made them a bit superstitious. However, where there is a will, there is a way, and so they persuaded a group of merchants to help them. When the merchants, who judged them to be simple primitives, tried to cross the Xioquo, retaliation was swift and ruthless. They kept the offworlders' droids around because they needed someone to fly the ship and teach them about the outside world. Fortunately the protocol droid aboard the vessel had constructive things to say, instead of bragging about the number of languages it was fluent in.
But now that they had managed to reach the stars, the Xioquo found themselves in a very unfamiliar world. There were a multitude of species, each with their different languages and customs. None of them spoke Xio and the Xioquo soon realised that their primitive weapons were of little use. Moreover, a number of their people succumbed to diseases that had been unknown to Tygara. Moreover, a first fight with pirates went poorly for the elves. In order to survive, they needed to adapt. Putting their affinity for technology to good use, the Xioquo lived up to their people's reputation for having minds of metal.
They turned to crude cybernetics purchased on the black market or stolen from tech companies to steel their bodies and help them cope. They called themselves the Revenants, offering their services to interested parties. To them, mercenary work was not dishonourable per se, unless conducted dishonourably. They were also not averse to raiding. Their initial operations were defined by trial and error and they suffered their share of setbacks, but they were the stronger for it. Rather than relying on brute strength, they focused on finesse, precision and infiltration, modelling themselves on special operations units they had heard about via their droid helpers or on the Holonet.
Eventually, the Revenants encountered the Shadow Knights, a renegade splinter group of Eldorai. The rebels they encountered were led by Kaida Taldir and Ylaea Althena, who hired them to help 'liberate' supplies and some ships from the Independent Mining Guild. At the time the two did not know of the Revenants' Xioquo heritage, as they tended to wear armour or concealing attire. The mission went well, as the Revenants put their skills as infiltrators and covert operatives to good use.
After the daring escape, the Revenants were offered a chance to join the rebel group, but turned it down, as they still felt wary of Eldorai. As a gesture of good faith, they were given the chance to replace their crude cybernetics with more sophisticated bionic implants. After some hesitation, they accepted it, though on their terms, as they did not want to become dependent on others. They would only have their own people and droids modify them. They decided to remain on contract, but not shackled to the Eldorai exiles. Their strong stance on personal freedom caused some tension with Shadow Knight leaders.
Their relationship deepened after a number of joint missions. Here and there, the Revenants also fulfilled missions for Nova Bank, an interstellar financial institution founded and led by Lady Varisanthra Lycaeni. When the Tygaran elves moved into space, the rogue Xioquo warriors got the opportunity to increase their numbers. Thus they reached out to their kin, replenishing their numbers by recruiting some of the most adventurous and independent-minded from among them. They tried to pass on their ideology of self-reliance, liberty and improving oneself through use of machinery.
The Revenants stick together and are a rather tight-knit group, which gives them a strong esprit de corpse. Kaida works with them on operations that require subterfuge rather than mere brute force. She approves of their work ethic and self-reliance. Of course, she is not the type to display affection and is still her laconic, dour self, though she lacks the racism of many Eldorai. Their libertarian tendencies vex her sometimes.
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