Star Wars Heresy

Star Wars Heresy

IC Threads

1. On the Death and Life of Qui Gon Jinn

2. Death and Resurrection on Albegas Ka

3. Sentinels of Tython

OOC Threads

The first OOC thread

House Rules

Sith'aari Sword: 15 To Hit, +3D6 Damage

Background

The Sith'aari houses have ruled the known galaxy for 10,000 years, ever since the Great Palpatine, the ever-living, began the New Order which brought forth order from chaos. He taught the first Emperor, the Sith'aari known only as Vader (may the Chosen One be praised), who established rule by the strong, rule by the ruthless, rule by the brave. He established the traditions of the use of the Great Fury and Fear, the manifestation of all life. He brought forth our system of noble houses that keep us strong against extra galactic invaders like the Vong. He was the greatest of an unbroken chain, and our Great Empire is but the latest manifestation of an eternal manifestation of pain, rulership and greatness.

However, there is word of a heresy. Obviously, it must be false, a stratagem or ploy of the Vong or one of the 100 sects of fear and hatred to undermine the Prophets of Fear and our Great Empire.

There have appeared warriors who manifest the skills of the Sith'aari house lords, but who spare their foes, sway them with words of reconciliation. They stop wars. They grant courage without hate. Their use of the Fear and Fury is impossible! They are calm and serene. How can serenity grant power? It's a trick!

But we will be victorious, because never has such a foe filled me with fear and hate.

-- Archlord Rendamous Fel, in a letter to his wife, before the start of the Great Restoration, in the final days of the Great Sithaari Empire, before the establishment of the 3rd Republic.

The Force Will Be With You, Always - Graffiti sprayed on the walls of the Temple of Fear, at the beginning of the Jedi Heresy.

Interrogator - This *Republic* you speak of never existed, heretic! It's a fantasy dreamt up by spy masters. Tell me, what house backs you? Who is your lord?

Prisoner - The Republic endured for 25,000 years, Inquisitor, longer than your Empire. My master told me, because he saw it. My master is Qui Gonn Jinn, who is now one with the Living Force, which is my ally. So, continue with your torture when you're ready.

Jedi heretic and Inquisitor Prophet of Fear, during a confession.

Emotion, yet peace. Ignorance, yet knowledge. Passion, yet serenity. Chaos, yet harmony. Death, yet the Force.

- The reply to the 300,000 word opening statement of the Sith’aari propagandist and preacher Alcorus, broadcast as a meme throughout the Starweb, 10,446 AA (After Ascent). Now commonly attributed to Arcadia Hesh, first of the Restoration Jedi Masters.

These Dark Siders are not true Sith. There can only be two- a Master to hold power, and an Apprentice to hunger for it. And being that I am merely a bodiless phantom, you are in that most wondrous of positions – a Sith without a living master. So, now, go forth, and support your brave and honorable Jedi friends. Bring peace to the galaxy, my apprentice.

Conversation between the Gatekeeper of the Sidious Holocron and a member of the Jedi Restorationists.

--

Imagine Dune crossed with Dark Heresy, Les Miserables and traditional Star Wars tropes. The visuals are gothic, arabic, with a decaying empire, baroque and almost steampunkish technology, and ancient secrets, as well as a galactic society on the brink of great change.

The setting is 12,000 years after Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. The key difference between the canonical ending of the film and the history of this setting is that Anakin Skywalker, while losing his hand again and being defeated by Obi-Wan Kenobi at their duel at Mustafar, does not have his body consumed in lava. Instead, he retains his full power, and swiftly destroys Palpatine, after being satisfied that he has learned all he can from the Sith master. With that, he reshapes the galaxy, destroying all memory of the Jedi and the Republic, creating a system of vassalage, eternal warfare and a dark sider elite to rule the galaxy, instituting Sith rule that lasts for 10,000 years. With this, he breaks the Rule of 2, justifying that, as the Sith’aari, it is his mandate to at once elevate the Sith to galactic rule and to utterly destroy them, which he does. Emperor Skywalker, strangely, never has children. He and Palpatine are instituted as prophets and religious figures upon his death, where a system of house wars overseen by a neutral Sith religious hierarchy ensure the coming and going of various dynasties, while keeping The Weak (those who can not feel the Force, which is renamed The Great Fury)

However, Obi-Wan Kenobi hides the twin children of Skywalker and ensure that the Skywalker bloodline is kept safe, while also creating hidden caches of Republic history and Jedi Lore. No new Jedi are trained. The populace of the galaxy suffers under horrible oppression, as technology stagnates and the Sith’aari houses create a grand and wicked empire that burns out worlds due to millenia of abuse, wars and squandering of environmental resources.

Most worlds are now deserts, burnt out wastes, fetid jungles or poisonous ruins, due to millenia of wars between Sith’aari houses and sects. The Weak labor in great factory-worlds that are pollution clogged furnaces, to create the war materiel that each house needs to prosecute it’s wars. The Strong and their attendants live on gilded worlds of glass and marble, keeping what remains of gardens and unspoilt life to themselves. The Great Guilds fight their wars of commerce, being ultimately tools of their Housed lords, as they are Weak.

The last Emporer, Vecundus of house Tarkin, died in his sleep (a feat he swore he would live up to during his 300 year reign), having lead the Sith’aari against the extra-galactic Vong foe. This ancient master of the black iron poison blade and the Sith arts of battle sorcery has been interred on the ancient crypts of Tattooine, after the mandated 3 year mourning period. Now, overseen by the Voices of Fear and Hate, the galaxy trembles as another war for succession begins, and the 12 great houses struggle to determine which of theirs will sit upon the Bleak Throne located in the Imperial Palace, situated in the asteroid ruins of the dead world Alderaan.

A curious development has been noted as an aberrant sideline to this war of succession. Since the Throne is being contested, the Hands of the Emperor, the Empire’s internal security service, lacks the usual razor sharp direction it usually has. As such, a strange new heresy has arisen.

Groups of this particular sect claim that an actual galactic political body called the “Republic” existed before the rise of the Chosen One arose, before the Prophet Palpatine united the galaxy as the First Emperor. They use a strange, exotic variant of the powers of the Fury, in which they used emotions such as compassion, hope, love. Any sage of the Fury knows this is impossible. They seem serene in combat, exercising a strange discipline over their emotions. Certainly, this is some illusion, a trick to mislead a combatant.

But worst of all, they use a weapon sacred Red Blade of the Chosen One. He was and is the only Sith’aari who ever used the sacred blade of hate. These heretics add insult by their blades being all manners of colors. They call these weapons “lightsabers”.

Like all the illegal sects of Hate and Fear, they will be destroyed in time.

--

From the Kenobi Holocron

By the grace of the Force, my consciousness has slept inside of this crystal for a long time. The Republic I lived and fought to defend is long gone, just as much due to my own personal blindness and arrogance as much as from the machinations of the Sith Darth Sidious. Now, the republic has been replaced by a monstrosity, and I suppose that my punishment has been to witness it all. But, as my master Qui Gon Jinn put it, “The Force does not judge, and neither do Jedi.” I can say that the Force has in a way been merciful to me, for now in this time of great change I can perhaps make amends for my own blindness and crimes. I remember feeling Anakin’s hate for me on that fateful day at Mustafar. It is very hard for me to feel that it was not justified. I hope that across the millenia and the Force, that you might still forgive me, just a bit, my brother, student and best friend.

I know that you are not from our galaxy. So, I will summarise what I know of the state of the Force, galactic culture, society and the nature of Sith’aari Force practice.

Anakin Skywalker, after slaying Emperor Palpatine, after the Republic had been consolidated into the Empire after the Clone Wars, took the lore that he had recovered on worlds such as Korriban to heart. He essentially recreated a Sith Empire from what he learned from the discorporated spirits of such luminaries as Marka Ragnos and Naga Sadow, casting aside the revisionist doctrines of the line of Darth Bane. In his reforging of society during the 300 years of his life, Skywalker essentially fufilled the dream of many Sith masters, sects and cults – a return of the Sith empire that had been established by the exiled Jedi of Tython. In his hatred of the Jedi Order, he had Jedi practices and techniques obscured and buried, and all knowledge of Jedi Force doctrine erased from known history.

The very last Lightsaber to ever be wielded was his. The practice of alchemically creating dark side infused blades was resurrected. Force practice was drenched in ancient Sith occultism and ritual. Finally, the only way of knowing the Force in Skywalker’s new galactic culture is the Dark Side of the Force. As is fitting for the Force’s dark side, this lie has become social truth and history for this Sith empire. Ironically, the entirety of the Jedi and Sith conflict has been wiped from history, with Force use being ascribed to various fractious sects and practices before the rise of the prophet Palpatine and the Chosen One. I myself find it ironic that Palpatine’s legacy is to be used as a tool of state, a kind of herald prophet for the Chosen One, who’s role is downplayed in the official Sith’aari histories. The only ones who know the truth concerning the nature of the Force are the Emperor, to whom this is revealed upon his or her ascension, the highest of the Prophets of Hate and Fear, and select agents of the Emperor’s Hand, who in concert with the Great Temple destroy all traces of competing Force traditions.

The Force is known as the Fury, or sometimes the Great Fear or the Great Terror. While a large numbered of very small cults exist, the notion that the Force is only composed of hatred and fear is so pervasive that no one who uses the Force in this age can concieve of any other way of using the Force than by way of the Dark Side.

Galactic society is divided upon two lines – The Weak, who are the mass of people who do not hear the Force, and the Strong.

Traditionally, The Strong are divided into twelve Great Houses, who hold planetary possessions as their fuedal holdings on behalf of the Emperor. Since the Fury manifests in family lines, each house carefully monitors lineage and makes strategic marriage alliances so as to maintain the strength of the houses scions. Each house consists of a number of families who war with and dance with each other in an incestuous struggle to determine power and leadership within the house. Each house has normal troops, armed with conventional armor, and has it’s own house armies in addition to the troops that are required for the Emperor’s Legions. Further, each house must send 1 out of 10 of it’s Strong scions into Imperial service, either as Throne Knights who serve the Emperor directly, or as Templars, who enter the Temple heirarchy as priests.

Houses are free to wage war upon each other as they wish, so long as they follow the approved protocols of struggle, which include limitations on collateral damage that can adversely effect the Empire as a whole. This includes use of forbidden Force techniques which can ravage worlds, use of biologics or fusion weapons which can destroy multiple worlds, and so forth. These are reserved for the Emperor alone, although this has been invoked retroactively when a particular house candidate wins the Throne. The Throne only uses these means against the Vong, during various rebellions, and when the Throne wishes to crush a Great House for whatever reason.

The neutral arbiter and enforcer of civilian policy and law is the Temple of Fear. Representing the life concerns which create wise reaction which preserves life and leads to hate, the Temple of Fear has the absolute authority to enforce treaties between houses, adjudicate legal disputes and see to the care of the Weak. A common truism in the Empire is “For the weak, fear. For the strong, Hate. One leads to the other.” Most of the civilian populace despise the Temple even moreso than the great houses or the Emperor, who are admired by some or even revered, but always feared. The Temple conducts inquisitions against political movements, guilds and various small Force sects that arise amongst the populace, and disturbingly resembles in many ways our old Jedi Order of the post-Draggluch period. The Temple of Fear is in some ways the filter between the Great Houses, the Emperor, and the great mass of non-Force Users in the galaxy, acting all at once as religious authority, legal system and secret police. The Temple of Fear can occasionally act as a court of respite against House Lords and planetary governors who abuse the populace more than usual, but only if those involved can be successfully accused of violating imperial law.

The top rung of Weak society… pardon me. I do not enjoy using that term for people who can not hear the Force. Ahem, the top rung of society that does not regularly use the Force are the Great Guilds. Transformed versions of megacorporations such as Kuat, Sorosuub and Seinar, the Great Guilds wield much power, as the houses and Temple absolutely rely on them to produce manufactured goods of all kinds. Curiously, at the very beginning of the Sith’aari empire, Skywalker forbade the newly forming Great Houses or Temple to directly own or command any manufacturing or business infrastructure, forcing Force Users to deal with other people who did not use the Force and creating within the Great Houses a crippling weakness. Of course, the Throne itself or the Great House from which the current Emperor hails does not have this restriction. Winning a war for the throne usually ensures that the house of a seated Emperor will enjoy much wealth and power. The seated Emperor usually makes it clear to his former house that any attempt to abuse this position and to usurp him or her will result with every individual in the house being exterminated to the last man, woman and child, and the House being refounded with candidates from the Emperor’s Legion. This has happened on a few occasions in Imperial history.

There are approximately 300 Great Guilds, with some of them commanding as much power as a great house. The Great Guilds, while permitted ‘security forces’ and ‘body guards’, are closely watched by the Great Houses, the Temple and the Throne to ensure that they do not habor thoughts of rising above their station. And while powerful Guild Factors might have minor adepts of the Hundred Sects of Fear and Fury on staff as ‘advisors’, any serious attempt to challenge the Houses or Temple in the use of the Force will meet with swift and terminal action. In large part, the Great Guilds exist as a means of supervision over the masses of ordinary people who create the Empire’s wealth and as a safety valve for those with ambition to rise in station, although the Guilds, with their arcane politics, initiations and customs, are as despotic as their force-user rulers.

Scientific research and technological innovation in the Empire, by decree of the Temple and the Throne, have sat at a standstill for the past 10,000 years. I estimate that the technological capabailities of Empire roughly correspond now to what was used during the Great Hyperspace War. The nav computers and advanced hyperdrives of my day are a thing of the past – now, hyperspace beacons are regularly used. Diseases which had been eliminated in my time commonly ravage the populace. Droids, while still heavily used, are now the province of the wealthy. Automated factories do not exist – workers build goods in unsafe manufactories that are hundreds of years old.

--

A word from the Restorationists

If you have received this, your old life has ended.

Right now, guided by the Force, the inquisitors of the Temple are on their way to you. You will either be indoctrinated as a Prophet of the Temple, recruited as an initiate into a Great House, or seized as a soldier of the Emperor’s Legion. Your life will be sacrificed on the altar of the Fury, which the sages of old called the Dark Side of the Force. While you may think you’re a god, you will sink into a life of pain, madness, and constant fear and misery. I know, because I studied under the Emperor himself.

However, there’s another way. When you’re calm, at peace, good with yourself, when you think of those things which are worthwhile and not toxic in your life – the love of your family, watching a sunrise, seeing the smile on the face of someone who you helped for no gain of your own, the shake of a hand in brotherhood – you will be filled with a power that can perform miracles. What you know as the fury is always there – we’re people – it can be resisted. You can say no to misery. Understand that it will always lie to you, and to trust your instincts.

The Sith’aari are killing the Force. If you chose to join us, we’ll explain more. Half the galaxy is dead. Once, there was a Republic where freedom reigned, where people could have a decent shot at not living in squalor and misery. In this place, the people who had the power served those who did not. A Senate of the people ruled.

You can either make the choice for hatred and fear, or you can chose hope. You can join us, and undertake the Jedi Way. The galaxy and the Force itself needs you. The danger will be immense, and you will most likely die. But, as fear is an illusion and hatred is a lie, there is Death, yet the Force, as the ancient Code says.

The Force will be with you, always!

Technology in the Sithaar'i Imperium

Unlike during the former Galactic Republic or in Palpatine's Empire, technology in the Sithaar'i Imperium has regressed considerably from that of the galaxy's height, immediately before the Clone Wars. Unlike many other aspects of Anakin Skywalker's plan for the galaxy, the technological and social regression from the heights of the Republic were not intended - Dark Side empires, even if they endure for millenia, eventually fall, cannibalizing the galaxy at large. Simply put, Dark Siders do not make for wise rulers, consumed as they are by hatred, fear and aggression. 15,000 years of needless wars, reckless consumption of resources and pointless projects dedicated more to vainglory or short term agendas than to long term ecological and economic stability have created a galaxy that is a burnt out shadow of its former self.

Medical Technology

While such things as Medpacs and the like are still in use, wide scale inoculations and the cheap medical treatments of the Republic era are a thing of the past. Occasionally, virulent plagues such as the Blue Rot and Vendagar's Gasp ravage the populace. The Imperial Nobility usually does nothing, as this is seen as a way to keep the populace controlled. Depending on the world, sanitation and public health technologies are of near-Republic levels (Tarkin worlds) or non-existent and medieval (Antilles.) Some families join the military en masse, simply as a means to attain health care. What public health infrastructure exists are maintained by the great Labour and Craft guilds, for their members and families.

Bacta is a thing of the past, with the last colonies having died off 100 years ago. Traditionally, those who lose limbs and such have them replaced with cybernetics.

Information Technology and Droids

Information technology has not suffered nearly as badly, as computers and droids are necessary to wage war with. While computers have not degraded in capability, they have become larger, more unwieldy and more expensive. Droids are seen ironically as status symbols, due to the fact that they are mobile and can carry large amounts of information. People are used in most tasks that Droids were, with the exception of the Brastrim, who hold the old fleetyard world of Kuat. They construct terrifying, many-limbed monstrosities of droids that would barely be recognized as such by anyone from the Republic era. Most Droids in the Imperium are difficult to maintain, and are usually called by names, since they are so much more rare.

Space Travel

With the decline in exploration, constant war with the Vong, and the constant wartime footing of the economy, space travel in general has suffered. In these times, the only people with easy access to space travel are the Weak and Strong Nobility, agents of the Magisterium and Legion, and the merchant princes of the great houses. Space travel is fraught with peril due to pirates who raid commerce and Vong raiders who strike into Imperium space to take slaves. However, there are brave souls who still, as in Han Solo's time, work to make their way with dilapidated old ships as small haul freighters, independent scouts, bounty hunters and the like.

In game terms, all ships have double the normal hyperdrive multiplier that Old Republic/Rebellion era ship types would normally have - a typical freighter will have a X4, a top of the line Starfighter (such as the Imperial Talon fighter) can make a X2, and bulk freighters can only make X6. Further, due to the lack of astrogation infrastructure, all Astrogation checks are increased by 5 in difficulty.

The computers on fighters can only store the coordinates for 2 sets of hyperdrive coordinates. Normally, small ships make use of the network of imperial navigation satellites, which are a throwback to the technology that was used during the era of the Great Hyperspace War 25,000 years ago. Small vessels can leap frog from beacon to beacon, forming routes throughout the Imperium. Most fighters travel in convoys or as wings of larger naval vessels.

The Vong maintain biotechnology that is equivalent of what was encountered by the New Republic. The Imperium maintains parity by superior numbers, massed firepower and the large scale, destructive use of Force powers.

The Use of the Force in large scale combat

One of Emperor Skywalker's great acts was to research the ancient Sith techniques of large scale use of the Force in naval combat, which is echoed in the likes of the actions of Naga Sadow and his causing two stars to nova, the fleet level illusions of Aleema Keeto and the terrifying hunger used by Darth Nihilus. While he maintained the greatest secrets for himself and future Emperors, Skywalker taught the new Force using nobility powers that would lay armies and fleets to waste. His series of tomes, the Codex of Annihilation, is taught as the standard texts at the naval academies of both the Great Houses and the Legions, to varying degrees. House Tarkin uses a minimalist, surgical approach to the use of the Fury in combat, while the small fleets of the Orantei can unleash Terror-based sorceries that can cripple larger opponents. Palpatine, for his part, preferred to rely on technology to enforce his will, using the Force subtlely, since he knew of the destructive effects of such powers on the Force from prior precedents, such as Malachor V and the destruction of Ossus. For Palpatine, the Force was a tool, while for Emperor Skywalker, it was both a means and an end.

Usually, these involve a leader who has several adepts assisting him. Special fleet-affecting powers that manifest physical force, radiation, explosive energies and other dark side effects can be used to engulf enemy fleets. These powers will use the leader's normal dice codes for Control, Sense and Alter - the assistants enable the leader to increase the scale of his or her die codes and effects or normally known powers from the personal up through the vehicle, starfighter and capital ship scales, dependiing on the Force Strength and skills of the Adepts involved.

As a point of information, the techniques of the old Sith Empire, from which the Sithaar'i derive their naval sorceries, were lost upon the fall of the ancient Sith empire and were not resurrected until the Sithaar'i era. The Jedi, for their part, never dealt with such egregious disruptions of the Force, with one notable exception - the incomparable power of the Jedi Battle Meditation. First developed in the Great Hyperspace War, this harmonious power robbed opponents of the will to fight, ending physical conflict at it's source and opening the door for negotiations. As much as they tried, the Ancient Sith could not find a means to counter Jedi Battle Meditation, which could be used to counter fleet-wide fear powers, enhance morale while sapping the will to fight of opponents. As much as he tried, Skywalker The First could never rediscover the secrets of Battle Meditation, which caused him to rage through his palaces. The ancient Jedi of the Great Hyperspace War era also devised counters to Sith fleet sorceries, but due to their lesser numbers, were more likely to attack Dark Side adepts at their source, in strikes of Jedi Knights supported by Republic rocket jumpers and the like.

PCs

Terik Djo, outcast Sith'aari Minder of House Dathomir. - played by Gyrfalcon.

Neana Torsin, Imperial Strong Legionnaire - played by OldKentuckyShark.

Kell Bahabb Legionnaire Weak Warmaster - played by Sabermane

Juto Wibom, House Orantel Terror Adept - played by Beezledude

Syrna Keloth, Legionnaire Weak Scout - played by Kacie

Jevan Toldreyn, Weak Independant Bounty Hunter - played by ColosussCrusher

Andyr Turon, Guild Factor. - played by Ovid

Other

Interest/Recruitment thread