Xardas
The Writhing Steel
Xardas Uk Ythaldsha
NAME: An image of ship hull twisting and elongating into tentacle-like tendrils, Xardas Uk Ythaldsha, translated as the Writhing Steel
FACTION: The Deep Ones- Hive-Fleet of Strangling Fangs
RANK: Sorcerer-Cast, Shiplord, and Master Alchemist (In title only)
SPECIES: Deep One
AGE: Around 25
SEX: Asexual
HEIGHT: 2.50 meters
WEIGHT: ~60 kilograms
EYES: Pale milky white
HAIR: Whispy grey neckbeard hidden beneath his tentacles
SKIN: Sickly light grey and blue slimy skin with darker highlights on the tips of his tentacles and yellowed liver splotches throughout his body
FORCE SENSITIVE: Yes
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STRENGTHS
- Force Adept- Like most other members of his species, Xardas is a capable telepath and telekinetic, capable of effortlessly levitating himself instead of walking and speaking to multiple beings at the same time through the Force as well as creating mind-trick like illusions and affecting minds of his foes in other ways.
- Metallurgy- Xardas is a naturally capable metallurgist and in some regard alchemist, capable of creating new inventions, suits of armor, weapons, and ships that stand out in their quality and extravagance when compared to works formed by most of his kin.
- Conniving- a cunning and conniving being, Xardas was able to plot and scheme his way into a leadership position, awarding him with his own fleet and army of thralls at his command, but ranks of enemies from his greedy cephalopod brethren looking upon him in envy as well.
- Strangling Grasp- Like other Deep Ones, Xardas' tentacles are exceptionally strong, able to break bones, tear limbs from sockets, and in some instances even crush durasteel within their grasp.
- Pestilent Gut- another ability of the Deep Ones is to continuously produce offspring, which are held within their intestines, as such should it be needed Xardas is able to vomit out a number of his larvae offspring upon his enemy, coating them in putrid juices and a swarm of wriggling parasites hungry to borrow and tear into flesh.
- Frail- Outside of his tentacles and head, Xardas' body is frail and thin, like a malnourished walking corpse with a bloated gut, it possesses little to no physical strength and is damaged easily through various attacks like just throwing it around.
- Mute- like other Deep Ones, Xardas is completely mute, unable to speak or make any sounds outside of the wet noises of his tentacles moving and slapping around. To communicate with other beings Xardas is able to send feelings, thoughts, and images telepathically as well as write in an ancient script of the Deep ones.
- PTSD- one of the deepest secrets of the squid man is that he has a post-traumatic stress disorder, although he does not exactly realize it. After surviving an attack by the Metal Lords on his ship and becoming a sole survivor of his fleet, Xardas developed fear of facing droids in combat, or allowing machines to board his vessels. More than that, Xardas has recurring night terrors and occasional flashbacks to the battle, sometimes panicking and making a mistake in the heat of combat. Since fear is seen as a sign of terrible weaknesses among the Deep Ones, and there are plenty of other Squids waiting to replace Xardas, he never speaks of this to anyone and those that learn of it do not get to live much longer. As such, the crew of his bridge usually gets replaced quite often after battles.
- Droid Hunt- Not truly understanding his mental scars, the Deep One launched a campaign of raids and hunts aimed at the Metal Lord holdings, chasing what causes crippling fear to him in hopes that should he finally succeed and break his mechanical foes, he would finally be rid of his fear and the terrors once and for all.
- Force Limitation- Like other Deep Ones, while Xardas' Force abilities give him a natural boost to telepathy and telekinesis, he is still quite limited in other regards, probably never able to learn any more Force powers and tricks than that.
Xardas could accurately be described as a squid riding around on a headless corpse puppet. His head is large and bulbous, with multiple long tentacles writhing as they protrude low from it, thick with muscles, with more tendrlis extending out from various other points throughout his body. His gut is always bloated, like a corpse of a drowned man, but the rest of his body is thin and frail, malnourished. His skeletal thin legs look as if they would not be able to support his weight, should he for once walked instead of floating, and the spindly thin fingers end in yellowed sickly claws like sickles. His large eyes are milky white, and although they look as if he was blind, there is still an intelligent and wicked crimson spark hidden behind them, betraying more danger lurking within this ill-fated animal than it would appear at first.
BIOGRAPHY:
Xardas is a relatively young Deep One, although still his life has been marred with much struggle and success. He first came to be aboard Hive-Fleet Writhing Mass, one of the more prominent Deep One fleets to come throughout their journeys around the edge of Galactic Disk. The story has it that Xardas was born out of a corpse of a captured Ithorian Jedi Master, forced to take a bath in the Spawning Pool of the fleet's large cruiser, the one lucky larvae among hundreds to burrow his way inside the corpse and survive as his other siblings were either too slow or devoured by each other before they could reach their destination. Over his gestation period Xardas ate the corpse of a Jedi from within, consuming the large hammerhead first and eventually replacing it as he grew larger off of his host's flesh. Eventually he would stretch and warp the original body, changing it into the tall, thin, roughly humanoid looking being that he is today.
Although a Deep One's abilities are not dependent on the body they develop in, Xardas has shown great penchant for alchemy and imbuement, using the Force and his own tentacles to warp and shape metals how he pleased, quickly rising in ranks of craftsmen and alchemists within the Writhing Mass fleet. However his fortune did not last long as it was around that time when Metal Lords and the Deep Ones first encountered each other. Great battles were waged between the two nomadic forces, with droids originally finding themselves at an advantage as they hunted the Squids indiscriminately for their practice of using captured traders and travelers as sacrificial hosts, with much of the Deep Ones' abilities being useless on droids. It was in one of those battles that the Writhing Mass was boarded and overwhelmed by forces of one Iron Lord Protector, the droids spread through the ship as they cleansed the large vessel from Deep Ones, however they failed to sink or capture the vessel as more Squid ships came to its aid, driving the foes away. What Metal Lords also failed was to complete cleansing the ship, as Xardas survived the battle, cowering within a cupboard of one of the memory-absorption chambers until the droids passed.
As the sole survivor, and with any competitors from outside fleets being quickly eliminated by the Deep One, Xardas was named as the Ship Lord and Master Alchemist of the Writhing Mass, with no one else left to object him the titles fell to him easily, regardless whether he truly had skills to match them or not, as he was good enough to kill the rest of his competition and not many were willing to fight for fate of already doomed fleet. With the Writhing Mass broken, Xardas renamed the hive-fleet and its flagship to Strangling Fangs and went on a long journey of rebuilding its might so that he might seek vengeance upon the machines who forced him to cower for his survival.
Now the Deep One is finally done, and although he is still young and there is much knowledge he could still gather, he is hungry for revenge more than anything, perhaps seeing the machines broken and cowering as he once was would heal the scars left behind in his mind, perhaps he would no longer feel then that crushing terror whenever he reminiscent on the day the Writhing Mass was turned to ashes. With Strangling Fangs closing upon the Droid Territories, time to strike is neigh, and Xardas found a perfect opening as a organic-crewed patrol fleet belonging to the Metal Lords strays into Deep Space, he would kick off events which reminded the droids what still writhed in the darkness.
SHIP:
Xardas commands what Metal Lords refer to as Kraken-class Cruiser, once upon a time it used to be the flagship of the Writhing Mass, now belonging to the Deep One Ship Lord he will use its thick armor, potent turbolasers, and thick powerful boarding tentacles to wreck havoc upon his mechanical enemies.
KILLS:
N/A
BOUNTIES COLLECTED:
N/A