by Nanorat » Thu Aug 02, 2018 8:41 pm
AHHHH omg they're EPIC!!! (okay sowwy, wall of text went a bit overboard
2800 words last I check, wow)
(aaand I dont know that song but more awesome couples is always good!
)
Xira was born ages before the Clone Wars - at the days of Old Republic, when sith were much more numerous and powerful. She was a lorekeeper - organising holocrons, retrieving, appraising and supervising the artifacts, and so forth. Unfortunately, the jedi also wanted the artifacts sith possessed. The main temple was attacked, and to save at least some artifacts in case of defeat, Xira gathered whatever she could and fled to a distant outpost in the Outer Rim - but was tracked down thanks to the artifacts' strong force energy vibes. Xira was not an enemy to take lightly, however, and killing her proved to be an impossible feat for the small interception team. During final battle, the few jedi that survived eventually managed to drain Xira out of force for a moment and lock her inside a casket, sealing the lid with an artefact to stop her from ever breaking out. The once rich temple was then pillaged and abandoned.
What the jedi did not know, was that by placing this artifact on Xira's prizon, they have also saved her life. The artifact, known as the Starveling Eye, was indeed draining the force from whoever it was placed upon, preventing the sith inside the casket from using it to escape, but it also channeled part of the energy back, essentially supporting life in the victim for an unlimited amount of time - an actual jailing device meant for long-term containment and storing the excess force of the prizoner. Xira was fully aware of the Eye's power and knew she will not die as long as it is active - she needed only to wait for her rescue. She realised with siths it might not come too soon, but the order was declining rapidly and before anyone would arrive to save her, the golden age of sith in the galaxy came to an end. The very few yet aware of the temple soon perished, its location was lost, and Xira remained locked for many centuries.
She fell into a dormant sleep to preserve her mind, knowing that nothing in the galaxy stays lost in oblivion forever - some day, temple will be discovered and a chance to escape will provide itself. The artifact kept slowly and steadily cumulating extra force power it drained from Xira over all the years, using only small part of it to support her life, and eventually it accumulated enough to be a decent power source - it couldnt be used to free her due to artifact's jailing limitations... but it could be channeled on something outside the casket. Someone, to use that power instead.
Personality:
Xira is an "ordered evil" type. She can and will do violence when she deems it necessary and she wont hesitate to do it, but at the same time she's not entirely unscrupulous and graditude and honor arent empty words for her. As merciless as she is to her enemies, she also bears strong compassion to those she considers allies, and has some sympathy to innocents when circumstances allow her to be soft. She sports prevailing demeanor towards everyone, a trait hailing from her controlling an entire temple dedicated to sith artifact collection, and is a demanding master - she is, however, fair to her subjects, and unlike many sith, cares about them and their wellbeing. Meeting her high plank claims hails her subordinates honest rewards and she very rarely uses the traditional sith deceit of promise then betray, only resorting to it in dire circumstances. She can be charming and seductive when need be, however it is not her usual way of communicating.
Unique Power:
- Force Empathy is her unique power, and the one she mastered to near perfection. She can feel emotions of others, be it sentient beings, animals, or even objects - which she widely used during sith golden age in her work with artifacts. It is next to impossible to hide your emotions from her, she will sense them through near any force block. During her meditation, she can "reach out" wider than usual and "scan" the nearby locations for possible artifact vibes. Her power also allows her to extend her emotions to others, for example comforting someone with it or to the opposite, making someone suffer emotionally. It can also be used to create force-infused objects like holocrons.
Rythor (formerly CT-6237 "Keen")
Keen had shown no premise he would ever tread the path of evil in his early life - much to the opposite. He was an ever optimistic, enthusiastic clone, always eager as a puppy and trying please his superiors. The most conformable of his squad, he never broke any rules, worked his hardest on any tests and simulations, and overall did his very best just to recieve a praise. Even a simple "good work, soldier!" made him feel good, like he's living up to his life role. When his unit was assigned to work with a jedi general, he was overjoyed - he heard stories of how Rex and others worked with jedi, and it always seemed so exciting to him. He was very determined to do his best to impress his general.
Unfortunately, not all jedi were content with clones. Some ignored them, others treated them as nothing more than droids, but some, were disgruntled by them - and sadly, the general Keen was assigned to belonged to the latter. An old, grumpy rodian, he despised clones, deeming them not just inhuman but abominations, mockery over the nature itself. He could not disobey the orders of the jedi council, but neither was he happy about being forced to work with someone he did not approve of. His command style was worse than Krell's, he thrown clones into every fire hole without a slightest concern to their deaths, and he was always unhappy with whatever they did (a grim joke started to circulate in his squad "with our general, you can even die wrong"). The entire troops were a bit down with such treatment, but it hit Keen most painfully. He couldnt escape feeling conscious over constant scolding, like it was something he, Keen, did wrong, not just their jedi being unreasonable. He literally jumped out of his hide to do at least something that would please their commander, and should he be somewhere else like with 501st, he'd have already been an arc trooper. But nothing he did was ever met with anything but more disdain.
It all came to it's climax on a harsh weathered, desolate planet on outer rim where their troop caught up with a separatist vessel; space battle ended with both groups grounding each other to the surface, where they remained waiting for reinforcements, still trying to destroy one another. In the heat of battle, Keen selflessly covered his general from a backshot, getting badly wounded and thrown to the edge of nearby gorge. Despite all his hostility to clones, the jedi was still his commander, and Keen did what he felt was right. For a second, he thought that maybe at least now he have done something his general would appreciate... but when the battle was over, and the general walked towards him, Keen's world shattered. As the old rodian, leaning over wounded clone, hatefully hissed "Still alive, you nuisance? Will you die already." and with a barely noticeable gesture, pushed Keen over the cliff. As he was falling - into the deep pit, and into unconsciousness - Keen could hear the general replying to medic's shocked gasp "no matter, he was already dead anyway". After that, everything dropped into cold darkness.
Keen awoke few hours later on the bottom of the gorge, in pain both physically and mentally. He was devastated by his general's betrayal and immobilized by wounds, but among despair and agony, he felt something else taking root. A hot, straining feeling squeesing his chest - hate. He hated the general. With all passion he was capable of. Every insult, every hurt that he suppressed, were all coming back now. And that tide of hate, somehow, overpowered the pain. He crawled towards the wall, into the shadows so he wouldnt be noticed by droid patrolls, and half-slept there for a few more hours, gathering remaining strength. He didnt yet know what he will do next, but he couldnt just wait to die. Not like this, his hatred put him back on his legs. He walked the gorge only for half an hour or so, but it felt like days to him with his burnt back and broken ribs; suddenly, a faint red glow caught his attention. Runes, like he've never seen before, were carved in the wall, hidden by a rocky cap so it couldnt be seen from above. It was a door, and when Keen touched it, it silently slid away, revealing a dark passage. Heavy aura emanated from it like something evil was hidden further on. Keen stepped inside without hesitation - he was desperate to get away from the chilling wind. The passage was steep, leading down, and he could hardly hold to the walls to stay standing. What he saw there swept his mind.
Where did he get the saber?:
It was a black pyramid inside a giant cave. There was nearly no light, but its polished surface somehow glimpsed in the dark. Air here was hot, almost grasping your throat with every breath... but the feeling was so familiar? The same hot air pressed at Keen's chest from within, his hate nudging him to keep going. The pyramid's door was open, and as wounded clone went through, pale runes on corridor walls glowed brighter. When he reached the inner chamber, he saw the casket with a glowing red orb on its lid. That was the moment Xira first spoke to him through force. She spoke carefully, softly, asking Keen who he was and how he got here. He was not in a state of mind where one can doubt if he really should talk to strange voices in his head, so he started talking without holding back. His story intrigued her. She felt pain and hatred within Keen, and manipulated it skilfully, weaving it like a spider web, whispering him soothing words of comfort and nudging him towards the thoughts of revenge on the one who betrayed him, untill Keen was fully in her grasp. Xira needed someone to finally set her free of her prizon - and she got a perfect minion.
Using the artifact which cumulated her force over milennia, she infused the clone with power to take down the jedi. A lot of force was lost in transfer, but what made it through was enough to grant even a clone a full array of jedi powers for a limited time. Keen's wounds healed in a second from the massive amount of force pouring into his body. The energy rash struck him in the head, filling him untill his entire conscious bathed in intoxicating darkness. At that moment, Keen died and Rythor was born. Xira gave him a new name, and an order: kill everyone on planet's surface and bring her the jedi's lightsaber; Rythor ardently obeyed. The separatists were already defeated, albeit at a great cost - all of the clones in rodian jedi's squad, pushed into fruitless battle against fortified droid positions. Only the general and his adjutant officer from Coruscant were left, and no one stood guard to notice how a clone they considered dead swiftly walked through the camp, into general's tent. Old rodian was sound asleep, unaware of death creeping up on him. With every step closer to the general, Rythor felt energy within him violently seeking a way out, like a flow of molten lava hitting his skin from inside, sparks cracking at his fingertips, his hatred raging like stormy sea. His betrayer was there, right in front of him, defenceless in his sleep, all in his power... Desperate scream woke up the only other survivor, the officer. What he saw next would cause even the battle-hardened veterans to shiver in horror. Former subordinate, Keen, was standing in jedi's tent, holding his lightsaber in his hand. Rythor stood still, doubting, for a few seconds; if only the clueless officer waited, or asked him what happened, or... but startled, the officer screamed and reached for his blaster, and with it, Rythor's doubt vanished. He carried out his new master's orders, slaying the final survivor. Turned against its own master, the lightsaber's blade turned red.
Rythor returned to the sith temple with a lightsaber and cut down the locks in Xira's prizon. Together they collected what little was left useful in the old temple and waited, observing the battle field from a secure location, untill a search party ship of separatists came to investigate their missing group. A new space battle was already firing up in the sky between heavy fighters of separatists and republic, and nobody noticed how a single craft left the planet on the other side and disappeared into the endless space. The awokened sith and her corrupted clone companion remained undiscovered, as each side assumed the other responsible for the slaughter; Repiblic assumed Ventress have executed the rodian jedi's squad remnants, and separatists figured the jedi destroyed their scouting unit as they often do. Only the most sensitive jedi could feel a tinyest tinge of new presence - a ripple on the water, a grain of sand in the wind - but even they did not pay it much attention, leaving the two to their exploits in relative safety - for a while.
The tragic events on the nameless planet affected Rythor's personality strongly. His previous desire to live up to his superior's expectations and appeal to them, with the injection of dark side power, have turned into a maniacal passion. Striking out his former life because its too painful to remember, he's fully focused on his new role as Xira's right hand and doing everything to cater to her every wish. This time, to his relief, his efforts are not unheeded, and Xira, empathically sensing his need for it, bestows praise to him in appropriate moments.
The force infusions have become a second passion Rythor acquired. Pulsing force boiling inside him, making him feel invincible, granting him powers he never dreamed of - that power became a crave for Rythor; it is a short-living feeling as force does not stay for long in body not adapted to it since birth, and the effect wears out in maximum an hour. Xira grants him force insurges whenever she needs him to do a more complicated job for her, or when training to use more specific force powers, but in no other cases, so it is a rare and desired pleasure for him. Despite him craving the power badly, he would never take the orb and use it himself without Xira's consent - he's frantically afraid to disappoint her. Disappointment could make her leave him, and he grew so emotionally dependant on her that he cannot tolerate the thought of it.
"Toxic" would be a more correct word for their relationship at the beginning of it, however it does change over time to become a proper mutual feeling. At first Xira did not even consider taking the first met person as her companion, and thought about resorting to unfavorite but effective sith tactic - promise a lot, then stab in the back when you get it. But as she had Rythor help her scoop the temple for whatever useful remained inside and had a chance to observe his (genuine) eagerness to please her, she changed her mind. A devoted servant is very easy to control, and she decided, at that moment, to not throw this away for now - in her shaky position, alone in age unknown to her, she could use a shoulder to lean to. She manipulated and used Rythor's emotional dependancy on her at first, but over time, she grew more and more attached to him, untill eventually he have proven his unquestionable loyalty to her and became her permanent right hand. She did not quite pick up the moment she fell in love with him; she used to give him emotional comfort through her force power so often that she eventually stopped telling where her emotions end and his emotions start. Since she realised she loves him, however, she's trying to break that "emotional chains" that bind Rythor to her too strongly and teach him to be more independant and firmly stand equal with her, a difficult task provided he have always been taught to be dependant on commanders. They keep travelling across the galaxy together, searching for artifacts Xira locates from time to time and slowly gathering intel for Xira to properly navigate through all the recent happenings, and it's over 1000 years that's "recent" for her so there's a long way to go still before she can feel comfortable to start the actual sith job - conquest. Their main income source is robbing the robbers - setting up a trap for bandits to raid a ship, killing them and using whatever they had in their possession. They have already moved up to a nice big ship that way.
Last edited by
Nanorat on Tue Mar 14, 2023 10:44 pm, edited 48 times in total.
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