Clan Naga Sadow/Origins/Page Two

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A New Beginning (19 ABY–23 ABY)

The Temple of Sorrow, the New Sadow Palace.

While the exodus took its toll, the Clan emerged relatively unscathed, escaping the initial brunt of the Empire’s attack while on Klind’arith, with only House Primus Goluud suffering major losses in Battle of Darkened Hearts. Unlike much of the Brotherhood, Caerick had been positioned to prepare the Clan in advance, and he and Zorrixor had for the past year been laundering funds into a dummy corporation in the Corporate Sector, Kaldex Transport Inc. Through Kaldex, construction efforts were already underway throughout the Orian system, with the city of Seng Karash near completion.

Lord Sadow and the rest of the Clan had intentionally been kept in the dark on a strict need to know basis, yet the work of Kaldex had gone on unhindered. Zorrixor had discretely authorised the transport of a number of Saraii—the Chiss colonists of Phare—to Orian to aid in the construction.

The Clan had been forced to relocate earlier than expected so a number of construction projects were still unfinished. House Marka Ragnos established itself in Alabrek castle on Tarthos and oversaw the reconstruction of the renowned Sadow Archives, with work on the surrounding city of Kar Alabrek commencing soon after; House Ludo Kressh settled for now on Dentavii Prime, but also helped oversee the final construction efforts of Seng Karash. House Primus Goluud, having suffered such dire losses, moved into one of the remote temples on Aeotheran that reminded them of their beloved Dargbar'rh Stronghold, hoping to quietly rebuild.

Lord Sadow deemed the exodus a success and selected the Temple of Sorrow, one of seven temples located deep in the jungles of Sepros, to serve as the new Sadow Palace. There he hoped to forge the seat of his new empire, hidden from the rest of the system. To this end, Sadow called forth two of the heroes of the Battle of Phare, Raistlin Majerus and Manesh Pillai, declaring them to be the first of a new Sadow dynasty: the Sons of Sadow.

The insignia of Urias Orian, now adopted by Clan Naga Sadow.

The relocation to Orian saw the Clan immerse itself in the lost teachings of Urias Orian. The Clan’s original seal was exclusively adopted by the Sons of Sadow, and the seal of the newly discovered Sith Lord was taken to be used by the Clan and the Dlarit Corporation instead. Largely unnoticed, the Clan had silently undergone something of an evolution, having moved beyond just being the heirs of Naga Sadow. Now the heirs of Astronicus Sadow himself, his brotherhood a union not only of the teachings passed down by the disciples of Sadow, but also those of Ragnos, Kressh, and now Orian.

Ghosts of the Past (20 ABY—21 ABY)

"We see from beyond the stars
Through the glittering of a million eyes
In a sea of glass."

―From the Tenebric Conclusions

With the exodus over, Trevarus Caerick and Xanos Zorrixor were called to join the ranks of the Dark Council and made the transition to Antei as soon as Kalekka Tower was finished at the Jadan Pass of the Du'san boundary. Thus began a yearlong military campaign to rid Antei and its neighboring systems of the Antaran pirates, culminating with the invasion of Antares in 21 ABY. The Clan aided the Council during this time, while back home in Orian at Amphor construction began on the sky city of San Korinar.

The arrival of the Dark Lords and the war against the Antarans awoke Okemi, the long forgotten Sith Lord who had been exiled from the Sith Empire by Marka Ragnos. Not long after Caerick had moved to Antei, he made contact with a series of voices that proclaimed a desire for fire, destruction, and blood. He recorded his observations in the Tenebric Conclusions but Lords Firefox and Cotelin paid the portents no heed. Shortly after, Lord Firefox departed to the Imperial Remnant on business.

Lord Okemi, Sith King of Antei, now consumed by the Nameless Voices in payment for his "immortality".

When the ruins of the original Star Chamber were unearthed, a plague spread across Antei, infecting anybody Okemi’s blood came in contact with, driving them mad with the screams of thousands of voices and dominating them like puppets. Caerick was infected, but the Amulet of Orian sheathed him in a cocoon to try and prevent the corruption spreading. But Lord Cotelin sealed the system off, masking the plague and allowing Kem-Shu Maeda to spread the madness through the Brotherhood. An attack against Clan Arcona by a false Black Guard was staged in the Dajorra system, drawing the disciples of Sadow into the crisis. The voices fed off destruction and the ensuing conflict allowed them to spread, infiltrating the Clan to ransack the library on Tarthos. During the battles, the Obelisk centurion Korras Aquillarum helped lead much of the Clan’s forces into battle.

Count Zorrixor managed to escape from Antei and bring word of what had happened to Lord Firefox at Muunilinst. The Grand Master returned and assembled a force from those still in possession of their faculties and led a direct assault on Antei. The conflict reached its climax when Lord Firefox took up arms against Lord Cotelin as Zorrixor held off Kem-Shu Maeda. Zorrixor was mortally wounded and Maeda escaped; however, Firefox defeated Cotelin and made his way to the ruins of the ancient Star Chamber where he slew Okemi with the Sword of Son’Jiatt, silencing the voices.

While a full civil war was averted, the Clan still suffered heavy casualties during the crisis. The staged attack on Arcona had led to retaliatory strikes and the attack on Alabrek Castle had cost a number of lives. Still reeling from the Battle of Darkened Hearts, House Primus Goluud finally collapsed, with too few left to train others in its traditions. The disciples of Kressh quickly laid claim to its former possessions and established a permanent base in Seng Karash, destroying all evidence the House had ever existed. Years later, some would speculate it was a curse that had brought the House down, dating back to the betrayal of Gav Daragon during the Battle of Primus Goluud in 5,000 BBY.

House Primus Goluud was not the only loss the Clan suffered in the crisis. The Amulet of Orian may have prevented Caerick from being infected, but it also stopped the infection from being destroyed when Okemi was slain and Caerick’s mind was lost to the madness of Shan Long. With Caerick gone, Zorrixor renounced his position on the Council and went into exile in search of answers for his loss; and Lord Sadow was left to mourn not just a House but two of his greatest sons as well.

The Keibatsu.

While Zorrixor disappeared into the unknown and Caerick remained trapped inside his own mind, bound in chains on Antei, uttering mindless prophecy; the Clan sought to rebuild, forced to deal with the loss of House Primus Goluud. It was around this time two brothers—though they were unaware of their connection at the time—first walked the halls of Sadow Palace: Muz Ashen and Nekura Manji Keibatsu.

The pair was the first of the Keibatsu family to join the disciples of Sadow, marking the dawn of a new chapter in the Clan’s history. As time passed, further members of the family appeared, such as Tharivol Endymiron, who upon his return to the Brotherhood was discovered to be the lost relative Shin’ichi. The Keibatsu inexplicably appeared drawn to the Clan, as if they had all been beckoned into the service of Lord Sadow. An explanation for this apparent link between the Keibatsu and Sadow bloodlines remains unknown, should one even exist.

The hole that had been left following the upheaval of the exodus and the trauma of war appeared to have been filled as a new sense of family emerged. The Clan led numerous expeditions to planets throughout the Sith Empire while the Clan’s influence grew within the Orian system, as envoys scouted the Rims for suitable candidates, and colonists were recruited from various worlds. At a hidden shipyard in the Corporate Sector, work continued on the future Dlarit Navy, under the mask of Kaldex Inc.

A major challenge emerged for the Clan a year after the chaos on Antei. The Brotherhood had been in the possession of a number of relics belonging to the mysterious K’hamar’an cult for years, but the move to Antei had brought the missing artifacts near to the planet K’hamar’a, and the cultists’ attention. When the K’hamar’ans infiltrated the Brotherhood to recover the relics, the Krath High Priest took steps to root out the spies. The Clan rallied to the cause, having lost several artifacts in its own possession, with the Keibatsu brothers spearheading the efforts alongside Clan Taldryan.

The wake of the K’hamar’an crisis saw glimmers of Trevarus Caerick echo through the madness of Shan Long. The Oracle journeyed to K’hamar’a itself, a world he had visited many years earlier, as he still struggled with his inner demons, wrestling for control of the Dragon that continued to make claim to his body; his mind still wrought with the lingering voices from the previous war.

The end of the K’hamar’an crisis saw the return to the Clan of Count Zorrixor, who had spent his exile touring the lost worlds of the Sith Empire, and returned with a renewed zeal—almost an obsession—to overcome the weakness that had almost cost him his life against Maeda. Lord Sadow quickly made the count his consul once more after the Korras Aquillarum was called to the Council, his efforts in rooting out the K’hamar’an spies having not gone unnoticed.

But it was clear something had changed in Zorrixor during his exile. Having brought the holocron of Tulak Hord back with him, he retreated to his study for much of the following year, working with Muz Ashen to unlock the ancient Dark Lord’s secrets. Where before the exodus the count had personally overseen the planning, working in secret with Trevarus Caerick; now, Zorrixor delegated much of the day-to-day oversight of the Dlarit Corporation to others, and entrusted the Houses with their own training, emerging from his seclusion on Sepros once a month to convene a conclave.

Kiln Tobasa, leader of the Marked.

A year passed as the Clan continued to grow in strength, fully recovered from the damage of the last war. However, in early 23 ABY, a number of high profile assassination attempts took place across the system, with the survivors speaking of ghosts and moving shadows. Questions were raised, but the consul had mysteriously disappeared. The situation reached a peak midyear when troops marched on Sadow Palace demanding answers, and rogue units bombed Alabrek Castle.

Eventually, Count Zorrixor emerged from hiding. He had disappeared in the hope of luring out the true culprit behind the attacks. Upon his return to Sadow Palace he found his answer: Kiln Tobasa, a man meant to be seven years dead, who proclaimed the coming of the darkness to end all darkness. Zorrixor slew the sorcerer, only to find it had merely been a shade. Nonetheless, the threat exposed, the crisis throughout Orian eased and civil war between the Houses was averted.

The barrels of the turbolasers had barely cooled when Korras Aquillarum, now the Obelisk High Commander, issued a call to arms for forces to assist in an invasion of the planet Coratua. The space lanes around Antei had recently been besieged by pirates and the Council was growing concerned it would bring unwanted attention from the Republic. The Clan gladly heard the call of their former clansman and assembled a force to travel to Coratua; led by Zorrixor and Ashen themselves, who had completed their study of the Hord holocron and wanted to put their research to the test on the field of battle.

Omens (24 ABY–26 ABY)

Darth Severak, the leader of the True Brotherhood.

With its value proven in battle, the contents of the Hord holocron were entered into the archives of the Shadow Academy, bringing both Ashen and Zorrixor to the attention of the Council. Zorrixor was made a Master, but it would not be long before crisis hit the Clan once more with the emergence of the True Brotherhood, led by the false Sith Lord Darth Severak.

Orian was undergoing many changes in early 24 ABY. The appearance of Kiln Tobasa had troubled Zorrixor, who had begun having nightmares of Antei rendered lifeless. The Council had dismissed it, but Zorrixor had grown paranoid and ordered the construction of an immense skyhook to orbit Seng Karash, and diverted addition funds to Kaldex to speed up the construction of the new fleet. With the consul starting to echo his master, spouting lines of incoherent prophecy, the Clan was caught unaware as agents of the True Brotherhood infiltrated its ranks and began luring apprentices away.

When the True Brotherhood’s existence was discovered, the Clan sent a task force to its holdout on the nearby world of Kangaras to wipe it out. The faction on Kangaras was utterly destroyed, along with Darth Severak’s two foremost apprentices, Severina and Tslotha Garnath, but the Sith Lord himself escaped to join his other forces on Mustafar. The victory was a testament to the efforts of many of the Clan’s junior knights, such as Macron Goura and Malisane de Ath. With the threat of the True Brotherhood believed vanquished, Muz Ashen stepped up to join the ranks of the Dark Council.

"The night beyond darkness dawns when all shall surrender to dusk."

―Xanos Zorrixor

Zorrixor's visions of destruction.

Having not foreseen the True Brotherhood threat, Zorrixor realized his gift of second sight was not the gift he had hoped it to be and that he still needed to master it. The Council had grown tired of Shan Long, believing they would divine nothing further from sorcerer’s mindless prattle, so the count requested that he be handed over to the Clan. Shan Long arrived at Sepros clapped in irons, the mind of Trevarus Caerick utterly lost to the madness of the nameless voices. Zorrixor managed what no other had in the two years since the war on Antei: pull Caerick’s mind back from the abyss.

With the True Brotherhood believed dealt with, while Caerick was tutoring his old apprentice in the ways of prophecy the Keibatsu family assembled a task force to reclaim their ancestral homeland, the Kyataru system. Heading off with a number of the Clan’s best knights, the Keibatsu vanished for three months to wage a brutal campaign against the warlords who had taken control of Kyataru. It was not long after they returned when Marshal Aquillarum had need of the Clan’s services again, this time requiring a strike team to secure the sunside of Antei. The Clan saw action at the Jagred city of Om'Jagred, the battle seeing the first in combat deployment of Violator gas by Macron Goura.

Back at Orian, with much of the Clan away, Caerick’s return stirred a threat in the temples on Sepros. In the ruins of the Temple of the Void, he encountered Kiln Tobasa—the real Kiln Tobasa—who had survived their duel years earlier. This time Caerick made sure his old master would remain dead, obliterating his spirit permanently. In the depths of the ruins, the pair discovered an ancient Star Map and surmised that it may have been the cause of Tobasa's insanity, but for now the ancient emitter matrix remained inactive so was therefore useless. However, the rogue sorcerer’s death did not silence Zorrixor’s dreams of a coming darkness, and eventually Lord Cotelin summoned him to Antei to teach what Caerick couldn’t, not believing the Star Chamber should leave the future to chance.

As Masters Caerick and Zorrixor left for Antei, Aquillarum returned to the Clan after the completion of military operations on the sunside of the planet. The shadow of the count’s premonitions loomed over the Clan like a grim specter as it entered 25 ABY. The threat of the True Brotherhood returned after Sildrin Rys-Hastur was arrested when evidence emerged that she had been supplying Jagred partisans on Antei with bioweapons. The arrest sent shockwaves through the Clan and Muz Keibatsu returned from Antei, convinced of Hastur’s innocence.

Darth Severak reborn in his new body.

With all the players assembled, the True Brotherhood sprung its trap. Muz Keibatsu slew the cult’s leader, Darth Severak, but the Sith Lord transferred his essence into the body of a young journeyman and kidnapped Malisane de Ath, following the discovery de Ath was his son. The Clan pursued the leader of the True Brotherhood across the Galaxy to a hidden base on the distant planet of Mustafar. The Clan managed to stop Severak as he attempted to sacrifice his son, killing him again and forcing him to jump to a third body. De Ath sabotaged the Sith Lord’s hyperdrive when he tried to escape, trapping him in hyperspace, hopefully forever.

Relations between the clans had been weakening for some time as they each kept largely to their own systems to continue their rebuilding following the exodus and the last war. For one of the few wargames still carried out together, the Clan sent a task force to the Aranna system, the abandoned homeworld of the former Clan Satal Keto. The wargame proved to be a set up when the four clans taking part were attacked by pirates. The clans fought off the attack and the disciples of Sadow returned to the Orian system with only minor casualties, but their trust had been broken, with each clan having accused the other of setting them up and the truth never discovered.

The Brotherhood Civil War (25 ABY)

While the Clan was fighting pirates at the Aranna system, similar betrayals were unfolding between other clans at the Selen system. Relations between the clans had reached historic lows and the Dark Council had grown increasingly distant, isolating itself on Antei. Unknown to the Clan, Lord Cotelin had cloned himself; he had left his clone to attend to the mundane running of the Brotherhood, while he trained his new apprentice and searched for answers to the coming darkness.

Jaac Cotelin, the clone of the then true Grand Master, Jac Cotelin.

Midway through 25 ABY, the clone revealed itself existence and declared itself to be the true Jac Cotelin. The clans saw the clone’s appearance as an opportunity to settle their growing differences. War erupted, sending the Brotherhood into full blown civil war. None could identify the true Grand Master, with one summoning those loyal to him to Antei, as the other assembled an army to assault the planet. As war descended on Antei, Muz Keibatsu and Kaiann Entar found themselves leading the opposing armies to war, eventually facing off in single combat inside the Dark Hall itself. The Clan fought valiantly in the Civil War, seeing heavy combat against the clone’s forces at the city of Milmefia, earning the favor of the true Grand Master. The war reached its climax when Jac Cotelin squared off in single combat against Jaac Cotelin and finally slew his clone.

The dust had scarcely settled when the clans, fed up of being ruled by a seemingly out of touch body, laid siege to the Antei system, blocking all transport and supplies in or out, demanding their voices be heard. Neither the Dark Council nor the clans could afford further hostilities, and the stalemate held for several weeks until Lord Cotelin agreed to grant the clans seats on the Council.

As Cotelin’s apprentice, Xanos Zorrixor may potentially have been able to have told the Grand Masters apart to have ended the war earlier, but early on in the conflict after a narrow escape from a duel with the false Jaac Cotelin, Zorrixor disappeared inside the ruined archives of the Star Chamber. As the war raged aboveground, Zorrixor was paralysed by shockwaves in the Force, sensing a great shadow falling over the Galaxy. There in the Star Chamber, he uncovered the holocron of Darth Maestus and studied the secrets of the ancient Sith Lords as the six month long campaign waged on the surface. With the damage to Antei, it appeared his premonitions had come true, and the Star Chamber deigned fit to make him one of them and declared him a Sith Lord. But the months in seclusion had twisted his mind, and he remained adamant that the true threat had yet to befall them. When the Star Chamber denounced Lord Zorrixor’s prophecy as false, he deserted them to return to the one he saw as his true master at Kalekka Tower: Trevarus Caerick.

The Brotherhood Civil War may have ended with the death of Jaac Cotelin but its legacy would haunt the Clan for years to come. The Star Chamber gave nothing away for free; while Lord Zorrixor’s omens had been denounced in public, in secret many saw the approaching storm as an opportunity to remind the clans their place. But the internal schisms had blinded all to the events unfolding unnoticed on the edge of the Outer Rim: for the Yuuzhan Vong invasion had already begun.

Marakith Skyhook over the mining metropolis of Seng Karash.

After a series of preliminary strikes the previous year, 26 ABY saw the main Yuuzhan Vong invasion begin in earnest. The extragalactic invaders quickly spread across the Outer Rim, striking at the Core at Duro, and making numerous gains through the Mid Rim. The Brotherhood remained divided on how to respond: many believed it was not the Brotherhood’s fight; others were troubled by the threat to the Force the existence of the Far Outsiders represented; but all accepted the Brotherhood was in no shape for another conflict so soon after Civil War.

To assist with the rebuilding, a small expedition was dispatched to venture across the Outer Rim back to the Clan’s former home in the Phare system to recover the supplies it had been forced to leave behind back in 19 ABY. The mission to the ruins of the old Sadow Palace recovered the Sword of Sadow, which had been lost during the evacuation. A separate team also visited the abandoned fortress on Ullyr to secure additional supplies, should the war drag on and supply lines to the Core be cut off for longer than expected.

The Clan began to stockpile resources, commissioning a new mine after baradium deposits were discovered beneath the new Sadow Palace. The year also saw the completion of Marakith Skyhook above the city of Seng Karash, as well as the Dystopia nightclub in the entertainment district. Hopes that the war would be over within the year were dashed when news reached that the Jedi Academy on Yavin 4 had fallen, bringing the Yuuzhan Vong perilously close to Antei and Orian. The news also saw the disappearance of Lord Zorrixor who, after his clash with the Star Chamber, had deserted the Brotherhood to seek answers to the galactic crisis elsewhere, but was instead captured by the Vong.

The secret cloning labs located underneath the Cenota Facility on Gamuslag.

There were a number of further low key excursions across the Galaxy to secure supplies that Orian could no longer obtain from the Core. In an expedition to Jaginos, the Clan secured a number of Spaarti cloning cylinders, with which it initiated the Delta-class Advanced Commando project to produce a batch of thirty-four genetically enhanced super soldiers each year.