Faction The Worms in the Walls [Sith Order]

[Darth Carnifex]

CORONET CITY, CORELLIA​

"CorSec doesn't poke their noses around these parts, they know better than to jeopardize their lucrative tips."

The man speaking was well into his mid-fifties, a dirty worker overall hanging off of a skin nearly skeletal frame. His greasy graying hair, what little was left, was plastered to the pasty vein-riddled skin of his skull. The cap which normally covered it was held in his left hand, his right pressing a series of numerical keys into the locking mechanism input pad of a large cargo door. Behind him were several gangly brutes, patchwork armor covered a variety of scarred, scaled, or furred skin. Masks covered their faces, concealing their identities, and were sealed with metallic screws that had been bored directly into their skull.

They were the Fellowship of the Eclipse, insane marauders that worshiped the Dark Side and terrorized the less-defended sectors of the galaxy. Never before had they traveled so far into the center of the galaxy, so often a haven of safety from their violent raids. But they had been summoned, drawn to Corellia in great numbers. Like rats, they had proliferated throughout Coronet City's underbelly and established a slimy network in the sewers and waste depots. Their intrusion had brought them into brief conflict with the Grindalid gangs that called the Coronet underbelly their home, but the Fellowship had gradually withdrawn from known Grindalid strongholds and instead festooned in darker recesses.

A curt chime sounded as the correct keycode was entered, and the cargo door hissed open with a breath of pressurized air. The dockworker took a step back as the doors continued to open, darkness greeting them as the dim lights of the cargo bay were not strong enough to fully illuminate the interior. Normally, the entire area would have been saturated in bright floodlights, but the entire system was undergoing a period of extended maintenance thanks in part to a satchel of InterGalactic credits.

The Fellowship goons took a few steps back as something began to emerge from the cargo container, loud thundering footsteps heralding the emergence of a cloaked being wearing a dark cobalt mask with eyes the shape of golden swirls. There were others behind him, all cloaked in darkness. The masked man looked down towards the dockworker, whom he towered over by several feet, and made a brief chopping motion with his left hand. The dockworker collapsed to the ground as his head rolled away from his body, freshly severed by an unseen force. The ghoulish brutes descended on the body, ripping into it and shoving greedy handfuls into their mouths; it had been the first true meal they had experienced in weeks, months even.

The masked man did not pay them any attention, walking further out into the cargo area as more shrouded figures emerged from the container at his back.

 

[Maou]

Maou

Darth Carnifex
​

Maou hated when people couldn't be respectful. He had been so, bowing and scraping to Sith Lord after Sith Lord as he tried to earn their trust and learn their powers. He had given up his most precious face for them and now was forced to hide in shadow as he accumulated power to become the true Daimyo of Coronet. Of course, there were nuisances like Aiko Hayata 's damnable Tiger Cubs causing a ruckus and now some Sith upstarts thought they could mosey on down to Coronet and carve out a space in this too cramped city? No...That had been a step too far. Maou had assumed, hoped even, that these Sith would at least come to him and so he had watched them scuttle about. He'd even paid the Mother of Worms off to stay her hand for a time as these "Fellowship" louts had killed her children and to a Grindalid that meant all those responsible were sentenced to be killed and devoured.

It really said a lot then that not only did these Sith trying to muscle their way into the underworld not respect the Mother of Worms, who had pull in both the Underworld AND in the political sphere of Corellia, but that they then made Maou a liar. No this needed to be dealt with.

"Welcome to Coronet," Maou said, his voice garbled through his mask's anunciator. Beside him were two figures holding menacing blades, their edges glowing with some sort of energy blade. They too wore oni masks along with their red hoodies.

"At least that's what I would be saying had you come to me and shown the proper respects due a fellow Sith and the Daimyo of Coronet. Instead, you toss a wrench into the well-functioning machine that is the Coronet underworld. Why is it you are here Sith?"

 

[Darth Empyrean]

The giant exited the ship with feral beings at this heels, consuming flesh morsels in all their primal glory. Before them stood three oni, from their speech members of the local underworld. Powerful men on Corellia, perhaps even the most powerful - but before them stood Demons of a different variety. Where the great titan of a masked man stood, behind him strode another figure - the mask of a dark god on his features. In his hand, a staff of ill repute - infamous in its design and capabilities.​

​

Kala'anda clicked menacingly against the durasteel offloading ramp, and the cloak bellowed behind the Sith Lord as he moved to stand next to the titan. Dwarfed in stature, the far smaller Sith made up for it with an equally if not more terrifying presence - a dark oily aura that made the skin crawl, sweat, and constrict by sight alone. He spoke through a voice altered vocabulator - twisting his words to sound similar to the death troopers, but marginally more understandable.​

​

"A fellow Sith?", he said, testing.​

​

"I was not aware Sith still lived outside the Maw's embrace."​

​

He avoided the question of 'Why', instead choosing to let his fellow Dark Council member Demiurge explain what he would, or would not. Maliphant was here to watch, to enforce, and to assist. He'd follow the Asha'kurat Lord's decision as the titan saw fit.​

​

Darth Carnifex // Maou​

 

[Maou]

Maou

Darth Carnifex Darth Empyrean
​

The Maw. For a time he thought the Maw was his only escape. After his master was killed and Darth Solipsis slithered his way into the senate Maou assumed that they could work together to take vengeance on the Jedi and the Alliance for what they had done to the Sith Order. But no, that day on Coruscant had been a disaster. He had revealed himself for nothing. That old man...Maou wanted him dead.

"You weren't aware," Maou began, the yellow photoreceptors in his helmet falling on the giant man, "Because you insist on entertaining relics and old ideals of strength and power rather than looking forward. There's no more profit to be made, no real power to be had merging our strength. The same failing as the Brotherhood." He folded his arms.

"I live here, under the nose of the Alliance and the Jedi despite their enclave being right on top of me and I do so because I do not disrupt. Something your lot most certainly have. The Jedi are already investigating the Grindalids' little war with your...associates" He peered at the creatures still devouring the dock worker. "The Mother of Worms is not a woman you anger if you want your stay on Corellia to go unnoticed and unmolested. You are lucky I stayed her blood feud with the Sith or she would have already alerted the Green Jedi to your presence and devoured the lesser of you, as is their way."

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"The error lies in those willing to live in timorous harmony."

The voice of the Masked Man was like the clapping of thunder, the breaking of stone. The very air quaked with the utterance of each baleful syllable. But the giant did not move a muscle, he stood there, implacable as the mountain, the golden swirls giving no indication as to where his attention was directed. Those behind him slowly fanned out, a wall of rough cloaks and sordid masks concealing grotesque countenances and hateful glares.

All the while, the ghouls continued to gnash flesh between their sharpened teeth, ignorant of the confrontation playing out before them. They were ignorant creatures, bound entirely to the will of darker beasts, and were regarded as little more than animals. They existed at the pleasure of the Dark Side.

"The dispositions of lesser creatures does not concern us. We have greater ambitions." He spoke more to his smaller companion than he did to those who were standing in his way. The masked face tilted up slightly, the trajectory of his golden swirl eyes leading towards the distant control center that overlooked the dim-lit cargo area. In that span, the masked figure had displaced the space between himself and that control center, disappearing one moment and reappearing the next to the place his mind had been focused.

The control officer sitting at the console, the very same who had been paid off to allow the cargo container to enter the hold, let alone be opened, recoiled back in shock and horror at the masked man's sudden appearance. He was rewarded for his corruption with a hand through his chest, puncturing his rib cage and destroying his heart in one swift motion. Hand bloodied, the masked figure reached out and deactivated the lighting system of the entire hold, casting the entire expanse from twilight gloom to sheer encompassing darkness.

Darth Empyrean | Maou ​

 

[Darth Empyrean]

"How strange.", he replied from behind the mask.​

​

"To take pride in being insignificant. Truly, the Sith are broken if that is considered the new 'strength'."​

​

The giant teleported in an instant, and the Dark God Tiamat stood unwavering. When the lights fell and darkness became all consuming - he would not move; against standing and watching, watching and standing. Others fanned out to do what their orders ordained, but Tiamat - the masked visage of Maliphant - stood waiting for Maou to continue his schpeel, or make an aggressive move.​

​

"Do you think you've done us a favor by stopping a conflict, 'Sith'?", he said with a touch of sardonic overture on the last word.​

​

"Conflict breeds strength. The death of the lessers is a boon, not a burden - their liability is cancer on the whole. Do you honestly believe making no wake mean's something, or is it an excuse you've made to not sacrifice your pride while you live in fear?"​

​

Quietly, in the darkness, the Sith would raise a hand, offering it to the Sith before him.​

​

"Do you always want to live in fear? Insignifigant to the day you die, proud that the Jedi never noticed the rat starving in its walls? Or would you like to be great - do great? I could offer you destiny, here and now - if you surrender your childish fantasies."​

​

Darth Carnifex // Maou​

 

[Maou]

Maou

Darth Carnifex Darth Empyrean
​

In the dark Maou's photoreceptors were some of the only light, twin pinpricks of yellow-orange light illuminating the sharp features of his mask. He had tried to warn them, but their little clandestine jaunt to Corellia had turned into a front-pager for the Underworld of Corellia. Eventually, everything they did would bubble to the surface if it hadn't already.

"Bane, Sideous, Valkorion. I doubt any would call them insignificant yet they chose to live under the radar, out of sight as they grew and recovered. They knew when they had lost a battle and did not go charging through their enemy's territory with all of the subtly of an Orbak through a porcelain shop."

"There is a difference you see between being insignificant and unassuming. Just as there is a difference between flight and a tactical retreat. Only a fool seeks a storm when all they have is a paddle boat full of holes. Besides, your Sith's poor attempt at being subtle tells a different story. You did not come here seeking conflict so let's not pretend you all came here looking for a fight with the Alliance and their Jedi Order to 'breed strength'."

Fear? It was just common sense. Don't go starting a war with one of the most vindictive and powerful people on Corellia if you wanted to keep your arrival and activities secret. Don't pay off CorSec and no-name dock workers, send the Daimyo a gift, and pay your respects to the Mother of Worms. These Brutalist Sith really didn't have a subtle bone in their body. No wonder their empires continued to fall. Then again, he wondered if both large groups of Jedi and large groups of Sith were destined to be their own downfalls. All that being said, Maou was a coward when it came to these sorts of things. He'd rather get his way without sticking his neck out and he'd only joined the Maw because Solipsis had threatened him when he arrived in the Senate. But it didn't take a coward to see the mistakes these Sith were making.

In the distance, the howls of Corellian hounds could be heard. It was unfortunate really. Whatever the Sith did here, in all their gruesome and shallow brutality, would no doubt land on his desk, dragged in like the unwanted gift of a too-friendly loth cat. The Grindalids that had come for their pound of flesh would also probably be slaughtered by the Sith but when that happened he didn't want to be around.

"The age where Sith can pretend to skulk about while leaving a trail of mutilated bodies and missing persons through the Galaxy is over. The enemy has had four decades of practice watching that charade. They know the signs. In fact, you might as well have left one. As a word of advice from a fellow masked Sith - Don't be afraid to be the anooba. They can all see a rancor from a mile away."

And like that the masked "Sith" was gone. Definitely in a much less flashy way than the giant, but gone all the same. The howls grew closer and the worms came to collect on a debt they would no doubt not be collecting this night.

 

[Darth Empyrean]

"Ignorant to the last.", he offered to none but himself.​

​

Ignoring the howls and chirps, he moved forward and awaited the return of the titan. His gaze was focused on nothing, dancing through his own thoughts until Demiurge returned to his side; and then he would speak again.​

​

"The pest is gone. Do whatever it is you intend to do - I tire of parading around the core dueling words with fools."​

​

Darth Carnifex // Maou​

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"Fools permeate every stratum of galactic society, that is why we find ourselves outside it."

The titan returned from the darkness, cloak billowing about him, as he returned to Maliphant's side. The Yōkai had disappeared as the sounds of approaching worm-kin grew louder and more boisterous. The brief intervention by the Yōkai had only delayed the Sith's inevitable meeting with the Grindalids, the true purpose of their intrusion upon Corellia. The killing of their worm-kin by the Fellowship ghouls had been a provocative act to lure the worms into meeting them headfirst, an injury that could not be ignored or negotiated.

So as members of the Grindalid syndicates emerged to exact whatever vengeance they desired from those who had thinned their ranks, the dark titan turned to face them. He raised one hand, dark magic coiling through his extremities, and conjured forth a gnarled staff of burnished metal topped with a leering Human skull enveloped by metallic vines. The eyes of the skull glowed purple within sight of the Grindalids, and all of their number (even their hounds) came to a stop before the titan. In that instant, the memories of their reason for coming to this place vanished like ink in the rain.

They meandered for a moment, trapped in the haze of memory-erasure, before disappearing back the way they had come. The dark titan's staff dematerialized with another brief flourish of magic. He walked forward to where the Yōkai had been standing, pausing as if to think. He then raised his right hand and dragged the tips of his fingers down the front of his mask, which transmogrified to resemble the iconic Oni masks worn by the Yōkai.

"But even fools may provide wisdom, wouldn't you say?"

The titan then walked towards where the Grindalids had disappeared to, silently urging his compatriots to follow him into the darkness.

Darth Empyrean | Maou ​

 

[Ikrarbytec]

.

​

​

Worms in the Walls​

​

One could find all manner of trinkets and loot within the sewer system of Coronet City. Just today he had found a pair of discarded corpses laying in wait beneath the murky and foul smelling water. No doubt that they had crossed someone important on the surface and the bodies thrown into the water system. Eventually making their way down into the domain of skraal and dwarrow. The depths were there domain on any planet and they knew their way around. Of course he had grabbed a map of the sewer line from a not so friendly CorSec Officer. The Dark Forgemaster of Banathruon had looted his corpse as well and stuffed them within a large sack that he now carried upon his back. He had never personally been to Coreilla because it was nothing important within his eyes. But now having walked the sewer for a few hours and discovering all the shiny stuff that people dropped down the drain. He was starting to like it.​

​

Looking down at his map, as he picked up a pocket watch from another corpse within the sewer. Stuffing it within his large sack which seemed to almost explode with the amount of stuff that he had picked up. He was currently within the sewer line 38 and would need to go further to reach the line 64. That line was directly underneath the homes of the rich and famous here on Corellia. The Dark Forgemaster didn't have to worry about being discovered by the jedi enclave because his actual presence within the force was limited. He could handle force deflection and other defensive measures but anything else would turn him into stone. Walking along in his dwarrow armor, and smashing through the door into the next line.​

​

"People throw all kinds of goodies into the sewer line, melting these down will give me a good profit." Khoh said to no one but himself, as he saw the sewer line and the exit port. Brushing his long black beard with his free hand, he figured that reaching the next line would be easier if he walked on the surface. So with a mighty shove of his foot into the exit port. It would pop open into an alleyway of some kind within the depths. All could be seen was a large bag being thrown into the wall and a small dwarrow emerge from it a second later. Brushing himself off with his now unoccupied hands. His long power hammer equipped to his side​

​

Darth Empyrean Darth Carnifex Maou ​

​

 

[Darth Carnifex]

The Grindalids led them through a long, winding tunnel, one that stretched deep beneath Coronet City. With their compulsion to avenge their murdered kin erased from their minds, these particular Grindalids were now being compelled to return to their point of origin; the den of the Worm Mother. Thanks to the dark manipulation that guided their actions, they were rendered unaware of the small troupe of Sith that shadowed their every move.

At their head was the masked Demiurge, his countenance concealed by a vicious scarlet Oni mask crowned with a pair of rounded horns. The mask's mouth was pulled up in a mocking sneer, elongated teeth overlapping with the lips to form an interlocking jigsaw puzzle. Whether the other members of his group had adopted similar disguises was inconsequential to Demiurge, who often seemed to act in accordance with his own will rather than that of the group's.

As they delved deeper into Coronet City's sub-surface infrastructure, the colder and darker their surroundings became. They became aware of the existence of other Grindalids lurking just beyond the short periphery of their sight, the creatures existing in great multitudes in the blackened tunnels. But that did not deter Demiurge, who followed the ensorcelled Grindalids even as the last vestiges of surface light had long faded at their back. The darkness did not frighten him, he was a master of the shadows, a lord of the Sith.

So when they entered the chamber, wider than the tunnels and half-submerged in placid water that deepened at the far end, it was Demiurge who raised his hand and illuminated their surroundings with faint blue globes that rendered absolute darkness into pale gloom. Many Grindalids were at their front and flanks, dozens upon dozens of generations, all born within these lightless depths. Despite the intrusion upon their domain, they did not near the Sith. Not because of any restraint or hesitation, but because an unseen force rooted them in place and restricted their movements.

The power of the Dark Side nestled in the dark places of the galaxy, and down here it was no different.

Demiurge approached the center of the room, the Grindalids forced to part for his passage. He neared the point where the shallow water dropped off into an endless abyss, the bottom unperceivable even without the oppressive gloom that throttled the light. The water rippled before bursting up as a great creature rose from the darkness, the Mother of Worms rising up as filmy water sloughed off her segmented body. She was adorned with a great number of trinkets and jewels, a glittering veil draped over her head and face.

"You must be truly arrogant," rumbled the Mother of Worms, "To believe that you could trespass with impunity upon our domain. The Sith no longer hold court over Corellia, your kind have been sent scattering like vermin. You have come here to find your doom, Sith, and the desecration of my children will be repaid with your flesh."

The red mask tipped up to look at the looming Mother, and through it came the voice of the Dark Lord, "Then let this be a small token, a thimble of blood to slake the dark water's thirst." The Sith Lord extended an ornate dagger from the confines of his sleeve and drew the edge across the palm of his other hand. Blood, dark as the void of space, dripped out from the cut and splashed into the water. The blackness spread quickly from the droplets given, eventually turning the entire water as black as sackcloth.

"Let it bring enlightenment."

Darth Empyrean | Khohnuirrann Stormmantle XXXVI ​