Sic transit gloria mundi
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Sub a cool unit. Make use of some fun beasties.
Image Credit: Here. Tineye gives me nothing, so this is the best I could find. The rider and the mount would generally wear armour in combat and Nocur look a bit different, but the pic is great.
Role: Armoured owlbear cavalry.
Permission: They can use Eldorai gear since I am one of the co-creators of the species and have received ooc permission from the submitter,
Valiens Nantaris
(Anya Venari is an alt). ARGH gear available per this thread. Permission for all ArmaTech gear and all other subs made by Laira Darkhold's writer here. Links: Tylania.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Unit Name: Thunderous Ones.
Affiliation: Vashyada, Tylania. Firemane.
Classification: Cavalry.
Equipment:
Armour:
Misc:
- Nocur (used as mounts).
- Nocur Battle Barding (used as armour by the Nocur).
- Grenades
- ACS-208 Wrist Ion Beamer
- Magnetic Revolver
- Renegade
- FWG-5 Flechette Smart Pistol
- Shatter Pistol
- Cylix Bolt Pistol
- SP-2
- Wrist Bolter
- ACS-202 Vanquisher Light Repeating Blaster (commonly attached to one of the battle barding's hardpoints, but can be detached)
- Energy Bow
- Magnetic Repeater
- BH-21 Particle Beam Rifle
- A280
- Shattering Bowcaster
- Z-6 Rotary Cannon or Heavy Repeating Blaster (attached to one of the battle barding's hardpoints when used, but can be detached)
Description: Of all the Eldorai subraces, the Vashyada have the deepest connection to nature. Having dwelt in the vast, dangerous forests of Yarkul for centuries, they are a hardy, tough people. Unlike their cousins, they are the least inclined to bloodletting and warring amongst themselves. Their isolation prevented them from developing advanced technology and so they are fairly primitive. However, this does not make them savages. Far from it. Rather they adapted very well to their environment and learned to use it to their advantage. Both the Qadiri and the Xioquo as well as foreign slavers discovered to their peril that the Vashyada are far from helpless. For the wood elves have repelled many incursions into their territory and are excellent irregular fighters. Their Force wielders tend to excel at healing, stealth and earth manipulation. The Thunderous Ones represent a bit of a departure from typical Vashyada tactics. Traditionally the wood elves resort to stealth, subterfuge and surprise rather than brute force. They are used to quiet and stealth. However, they are tough warriors in the field. Moreover, they are good with animals.
Firemane has had a long-standing business relationship with the Abregado-Rae Guild of Hammers as well as with HK-36, the former droid ruler of Abregado-Rae. This has given the corporation access to some of the planet's resources, including its wild life. Thus Firemane has decided to give Vashyada warriors allied with it a potent tool on the battlefield. The Thunderous Ones are a unit of shock cavalry, riding Nocur owlbears into battle. The Nocur are aggressive, ferocious and tough. They represent brute force and strength. Their charge is a powerful one, though the Thunderous One prefer to use shock tactics rather than headlong frontal assaults.
The Nocur's armor has special foot-pads and saddle for a rider to use when sitting on top of the beasts, as well as a hardpoint on top of their humps. A light or heavy repeater is commonly attached to this hardpoint a light or heavy repeater in order to use the beasts as mobile weapon-support platforms. Of coruse, the riders are armed with personal weapons. However, weight specifications impose certain limitations on how much gear they can carry. Nocur are very tough and strong, but even their carrying capacity has limits. For this reason, their riders wear light armour.
Each rider is carefully selected and builds up a bond with their mount. The Vashyada have experience with domesticating dangerous animals, as their cavalry consists of giant spiders. This makes them a good fit. They also favour temperature climates, which is beneficial because the Nocur do not like extreme heat. Each Nocur receives a suit of barding armour to protect it against enemy fire. This further increases their toughness. The Vashyada treat their mounts as akin to companions. Each Nocur has a name and is cared for by its rider. This imposes certain expenses on the riders, which limits access to the unit. The riders tend to be from Vashyada clans that have strong trade relations with the sky people. Many of these warriors are the younger sons or daughters of chieftains looking to make a name for themselves.
Being one of the Thunderous Ones requires a very specialised degree of skills and a readiness to take calculated risks. Nocur are aggressive, require careful handling and thorough training. It takes a skilled rider to retain control over their mount in the heat of combat. The owlbears are tough, but the sheer firepower of modern weapons often makes death charging a bad idea. The Thunderous Ones regard themselves in a manner akin to knights and follow a warrior's code of honour. Their members have a bit of a reputation among their fellow Vashyada for being flashy and arrogant. This is obviously a stereotype, but it has some merit. One could compare it to the friction that has been common between infantry and cavalry throughout the ages. They have a bit of a friendly rivalry with Vashyada warriors who continue to ride on arachnids. Being a member of the corps requires a lot of bravery, but also cunning and calculation. Quite what the Nocur make of the Vashyada is another question, but they do not seem to mind being ridden into battle by them. The Thunderous Ones are affiliated with the Vashyada people and Firemane, though their primary allegiance is to the former. However, has provided the modern gear, and enabled them to ride the Nocur in the first place.
The Thunderous Ones are led by a Vashyada warrior called Sava. Unlike some of the more flamboyant members of the cavalry unit, he has common origins and rose through the ranks. He grew up as a spider wrangler and was successful at taming Qadiri Yazgid mounts. He has some minor Animal Friendship skills, which make him more attuned to animals than people sometimes. It gives him a strong bond with the creatures under his care. He also has impressive physical strength and tenacity. Sava is a tough sort who can be daring, but does not bother with flashiness. One of his cousins, Vessa, is a member of Siobhan Kerrigan's staff, serving as one of her 'personal attendants'. Ironically, the two do not get along. Sava regards his cousin as a decadent turncoat, while she sees him as an uncultured brawler. He does not take kindly to others gossiping about his cousin though, in spite of disapproving of her life choices.
Vylecae is an officer and the chief scout of the Thunderous Ones. While a skilled rider and scout, she is the dashing, flamboyant type. She embodies both the positive and negative traits of a cavalier. She is chivalrous, but also a vain showoff. The warrior is a flashy dresser, who has cultivated a cavalier image. However, at the same time she is known for her mastery of reconnaissance and her skill in using cavalry in support of offensive operations. She will often scout ahead of the main force and is a good climber. Vylecae is very brave, sometimes to the point of foolhardiness. She is good with blade, rifle and bowcaster. In contrast to the lowborn Sava, she is of relatively highborn birth, having been born into a chiefly family. She is outgoing, confident and with a penchant for action.
A male Vashyada officer called Taras acts as second in command of the Thunderous Ones. He is also of a higher social status than the lowborn Savas, as he was born into the landed gentry. In terms of personality, he stands in stark contrast to Vylecae. Where one is flashy and outgoing, the other is a plainly dressed introvert. He is a solid, resolute leader and a devout believer in the old Vashyada deities, especially Gaea. He fervently believes that she guides him in battle and that he owes his success to her favour. He is plain in speech, but has a very practical intelligence.
COMBAT INFORMATION:
Unit Size: Small
Unit Availability: Rare
Unit Experience: Elite.
Combat Function: The Thunderous Ones are a unit of Vashyada warriors who ride armoured Nocur mounts into battle. Their mounts are tough, aggressive and ferocious in battle. They have very strong beaks and claws, and their bodies themselves are weapons. Being creatures of brute strength and power, they are strong in headlong charges, though modern weapons make death charges with them impractical. Where they truly excel is in shock warfare tactics, especially in areas vehicles have difficulty moving in. This includes forests, mountains, swamps and ruins. The Nocur are used to temperate climates and do not like a lot of heat, which means they should not be deployed in a desert environment or on a hellish hothouse such as Mustafar. A Nocur can knock back whole lines of enemy soldiers and rip enemies apart. The owlbears possess incredible eyesight, especially in low-light environments. Thus they can hunt for prey no matter whether it is day or night. They can use their beaks to crush enemies, even those in armour.
Moreover, their riders can use them as a weapons' support platform by mounting weapons on them. These tend to be light and heavy repeaters. The Vashyada riders can fight as cavalry or dismount and fight on the ground. Nocur are aggressive creatures and difficult to domesticate. Both beast and rider need a lot of training. This limits the size of the Thunderous Ones, meaning this is a small unit. As a result, they cannot be the mainstay of an army. Like any cavalry unit, they are best deployed in conjunction with other units that can exploit any gains they make and protect them from enemies they are weak against. The Thunderous Ones are vulnerable to aerial bombardment. While a Lightbow is able to bring down a starfighter with a direct hit, this is pretty variable. As a result, they will require protection from air strikes.
The owlbears are large and distinctive unit, making them an obvious target for artillery, air strikes and infantry with anti-armour weapons, though they are more difficult to spot in forests. The Nocur's battle barding armour increases their toughness, giving them resilience equal to that of light walkers. Anti-tank weapons, lightsabres and so on are still an issue, though death charging an armoured owlbear is still rather hazardous for glowstick-wielders. The battle barding armour increases the deadliness and armour penetration of their claws. The Vashyada warriors who join the Thunderous Ones are carefully selected beastmasters. They are also trained in ranged and melee combat.
The Nocur are strong enough to wear their battle barding armour and carry a fully armoured rider. However, wearing a heavily armoured rider and being armoured themselves makes them very heavy and slows them down. So their riders tend to don light armour in order to keep their mounts from being impeded. This obviously leaves the rider more vulnerable if deprived of their mount, though in that case they may have bigger problems to worry about. The warriors selected for the Thunderous Ones are skilled riders, marksmen and melee combatants. They can fire weapons from their mounts or fight on the ground if dismounted.
Strengths:
- Strong cavalry. Nocur are tough, have powerful claws and beaks. They can knock back whole lines of troops and tear enemies apart. The Thunderous Ones are very useful for shock warfare tactics in regions where vehicles are not easy to move. This applies to forests, of course, but also mountains, swamps or ruins. Nocur are creatures of brute strength and power, but even though they are large, they are quite fast.
- The war beasts' armour is tough. It is comparable to that of a light walker, making them even more tenacious. Weapons such as light or heavy repeating blasters can be mounted on them. The rider can also bear arms, enabling the Thunderous Ones to act as a mobile weapons' support platform.
- Crack warriors. The Vashyada selected for the Thunderous Ones are skilled riders, marksmen and melee combatants. They are well-attuned to their beasts and can control and direct them during combat.
- The Nocur's armour is vulnerable to lightsabres and heavy weapons such rotary cannons and anti-tank weapons.
- The charge of the Thunderous Ones is a powerful one, but rushing head-long into entrenched fortifications is ill-advised. This applies even more if they end up facing tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles.
- Small unit. Nocur, being rather aggressive creatures, are difficult to domesticate, especially if one wants to use them in battle. The Vashyada are very good with animals, but this still limits their availablity and the size of individual squadrons.
- Owlbears are big and heavy, meaning they are hard to miss. It is easy to target them on the battlefield, although they are not easily spotted in the wilds.
Use of animals in battle has long been a mainstay of warfare in more traditional - or primitive - cultures. The Witches of Dathomir are famous for riding Rancors in battle, and various Sith Empires and cults have utilised Sithspawn war beasts for millennia. Technological advancement and the large-scale availability of armoured fighting vehicles such as walkers and battle tanks has often eclipsed war beasts, but not entirely removed them from the battlefield.
The Tygaran elves evolved in isolation. Lacking the means and the know-how to industrialise, their form of warfare was more traditional, though still intricate. Cavalry assumed great importance for the Qadiri, who used giant, ferocious lizards known as Yazgid on their mounts. The Vashyada, more focused on stealth and subversion than set piece battles due to living in dense forests, had their best warriors ride on giant arachnids. The Xioquo, meanwhile, created war beasts similar to Sithspawn and while they eventually developed ironclads, it was a mark of prestige for a Xioquo noble family to command a kraken.
The coming of the sky people was a culture shock for the natives. Though canny and tough, they found that many of their weapons were outdated, as they lacked spaceships and blasters. As a result, the elves started to adapt. Several Qadiri Cataphracts sought to replace their lizard mounts with battle vehicles or found that the starfighters of the outsiders were appropriate steeds for knights. The fact that Qadiri have inherent navigational talents helped.
The Vashyada have sought to preseve their old traditions, but have taken inspirations from species such as the Wookiees and the Ithorians, both of whom maintain an advanced, yet highly nature-based civilisation. The elves send delegations into the stars to learn from the outsiders, and see which techniques they could adapt without compromising their culture. Firemane provided aid in this regard, as it sought to recruit formations of elves to bolster its forces. The Thunderous Ones came into being as a way to harness the Vashyada's natural talents and provide a heavy-hitting unit of cavalry.
The idea was conceived during the visit of a Vashyada delegation to Abregado-Rae, the homeworld of the Nocur. The planet was a member state of the Omega Protectorate prior to the federation's dissolution in the aftermath of the Netherworld Event. For many years it was ruled by an eccentric droid called HK-36, a close ally of Firemane's ruling couple since their mutual time of service to the Protectorate. The couple act as custodians of the Guild of Hammers. Aside from its industry, the planet also has a rather varied wild life. The wood elves' trip had been sponsored by Firemane. The Vashyada delegation came across the Nocur during a visit to one of Abregado-Rae's forests, where the warriors had been conducting a training manoeuvre with Firemane soldiers.
Indeed, one of its members, a druid called Calana, was confronted by one of the huge owlbears. Fortunately, the Vashyada were able to use their skills of stealth and evasion to escape it. It helped that Calana had some strong mental abilities. This saved the lives of a few Firemane soldiers who had been pursued by the large beast. Impressed by the majestic creatures, the Vashyada spent some time observing them. The Gados and Moochers, two alien species that live on the planet, gave them some information on the Nocur. The most adventurous of Gados sometimes hunted these creatures and took a liking to wearing pendants made of Nocur claws and beaks. A few ambitious beast trainers had even been able to domesticate them.
Abregado-Rae's former droid baron had used the Nocur as war beasts and created armour for them. Firemane had been aware of this, but not exploited their potential until now. Thus the Vashyada got the idea to put these impressive creatures to use as war mounts. Thus they set out to acquire, and train some of the Nocur. Some particularly daring Vashyada volunteered for this venture. It received the backing of Firemane, even though some conservative officers deemed it to be of questionable value. Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori, the daughter of Firemane's leader, liked the idea and worked with Vashyada beast trainers to bring it to fruition. Elpsis has a natural affinity for animals, which proved very helpful.
Firemane obtained permission from the government of Abregad-Rae to utilise a select number of Nocur. Training the owlbears was a long process. The warriors spent a good deal of time bonding with their mounts and took them on hunts. A lowborn Vashyada animal trainer called Sava rose to command the Thunderous Ones due to his skill as a rider and leader of warriors. He was able to tame a particularly aggressive Nocur that his comrades had given up on as too volatile to handle. General Devotion, Firemane's army chief of staff, eventually inspected the new unit. The Vashyada and their warriors were pit against a large force of war droids. The Thunderous Ones passed the test, ambushing the droids in a forest and overcoming them with a spirited charge. They soon saw battle against the foes of Firemane and the Vashyada.
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