Arx is the current seat of power for the Brotherhood residing in the Arx System.
Landmarks
The following map details the major landmark locations the Dark Brotherhood utilizes on Arx.
Detailed map of Planet Arx
History
Reforming the Brotherhood after the destruction of Antei, Darth Pravus set his sights on the Star Chamber's long-term plan to move to a populated, industrial planet able to meet the needs of a New Order. Using an existing infrastructure that was built under the guidance of the Star Chamber’s subordinates, he established an immediate and total rule over Arx. Militaristic governments were formed under the Star Chamber’s guidance, making way for Grand Master Pravus’ New Order in 35 ABY.
Atmosphere
Il'var - the great lake Sustaining diverse biomes and a plethora of flora, Arx has a breathable Type-I atmosphere that is saturated with greenhouse gases due to the constant pollution of planetary industries, making for a warmer climate towards the equatorial regions but a colder one towards the poles. Temperatures fall within the ranges expected of a standard terrestrial planet, though certain extremes are noticeable at the desert-like and tropical equatorial regions and the snow-capped poles.
Due to the constant shifting of tectonic plates, volcanic activities and the concentration of crystals being released from the planet’s crust in certain regions, Arx’s climate varies from continent to continent, but remains heavily studied under Arx’s many observatories both on and off-world. Storms are commonplace over the oceanic regions as submerged kyber crystals are released from the planet’s crust to ionize the atmosphere, in addition to the calm, warm ocean waters creating convection currents in the air above the surface. This makes travel to Arx’s cities and continents from the atmosphere troublesome, but not impossible.
Contained within a planetary shield that has not one, but several shield gates forming checkpoints at access points to the surface, Arx’s best and brightest scientists, tacticians and architects have created a method to circumvent the complications of travel to the surface — all while bolstering Arx’s security measures. All of the shield gates are built as structures that are each suspended by skyhooks from the surface, eliminating the need for offworld vessels to land on the surface of Arx. Visiting starships are instead moored to the skyhooks while their occupants are sent to the surface via turbolifts or private shuttles shielded from the dangerous electrical currents, normally reserved for the Dark Council and their envoys.
Geography
With a slight axial tilt and a circular orbit, Arx experiences a regular seasonal rotation throughout a local orbital period. Geothermal activity venting into the atmosphere through volcanoes on the surface exude greenhouse gases that add to the planet’s warmer regions, making Arx a geologically active planet that is situated close to its sun.
Lush and colorful from the concentration of greenhouse gases, the equatorial regions of Arx’s surface can be described as ranging from tropical and boreal to barren. While just over half of the planet is engulfed by a dark blue ocean, Arx is comprised of several large islands that from larger land masses that make up three continents: Elos Vrai, Uskul, and the Sorasu Desert.
The planet’s tectonic plates have formed mountainous ridges in the center of some of the larger continents. The farthest tip of the planet is an icy tundra that spills over onto the largest of the three continents, Elos Vrai.
Continent I - Elos Vrai
Geographic map of Elos Vrai
Main Article: Elos Vrai
Continent II - Uskil
Geographic map of Uskil
Terrain
Marshes of Uskil
More a collection of large islands than a single landmass, Uskul is home to storms that have ravaged the northernmost island.
Due to the close proximity of the islands, the water surrounding them is often shallow enough to walk between them, making the area something of a marsh or bog when compared to the other continents.
Seemingly endless, the storms are rumoured to be the remnants of Dark Side energies, but all such rumours are pure baseless conjecture. In truth, the separation of the continent’s main landmass has uncovered several troves of kyber crystals beneath the surrounding ocean, which was studied within the Shadow Academy and proven to produce odd properties in the environment and climate. Inexplicably, the concentration of crystals has resulted in the ionization of the continent’s atmosphere, producing the catalyst needed for the tropical storms to maintain their charge.
Locations
Shadow Academy
Marshes on the outskirts of the Shadow Academy. Constructed around a central spire, each of the outer structures are designed like a three-sided pyramid, pointing inward towards the center. A series of skyways and walkways form the vein-like paths connect the satellite campuses to the Academy proper. For newcomers, the Shadow Academy provides a visual taste of the world they have just begun to enter. It is a place of subtle grandeur and utmost efficiency, ready to take them on their first steps into deeper knowledge.
Internally, students are provided with common study rooms, libraries, and lecture halls. The study halls are sound-proof rooms that must be signed out through administration. These rooms provide a distraction free means of learning, housing empty shelves for any learning materials that the students may bring with them as well as a central table. The lecture halls are much larger variants on the study rooms, offering a series of seats for learners that rises up and away from the professor's table, which stands at the head of the hall. Two large viewscreens stand to either side of the professor's table to provide additional material for lectures.
Master Archives
The combined records of the Brotherhood’s database are sorted in stacks in each of the sections. Octogonal arrangement of the stacks ensure that storage of the digital holodisks is maximized, and that there is suitable provisions made for consoles and holoprojectors on the ground level. Each of these holodisks is discreetly marked, setting off a silent alarm whenever one leaves the premises without express authorization. In the event that one is lost, another can be recreated. Pulsating with blue light, the stacks emit a faint hum that can be heard as one peruses the database. Forbidden lore is protected via code cylinders, requiring a certain level of authorization to retrieve the most dangerous texts.
Reserved for an elite few, the vaults below contain the forbidden lore and knowledge of books, tomes and holocrons not found in the general archives. Cloistered far below the Shadow Academy, it is forever permeated in near-darkness with temperatures that decelerate the decomposition of the precious texts and scrolls locked in its vaults — original texts that have since been scanned into the central database. Polished to mirror-like perfection, the walls and floors are marbled between shades of black and grey, bouncing the faintest light of the dim strips of pure white lighting above and below each row of vaults. Most who venture to the archive’s depths prefer to bring along a glowrod rather than additional lights to reduce the amount of light absorbed into each of the timeless pages.
Built into the walls, the largest vaults often contain the most exotic records and experiments to ever be locked within the archives, not even excluding the presence of the controversial and dangerous Abersyn Symbiotes responsible for the fall of many historical empires. Requiring the use of specific code cylinders for access, one of the most notable vaults contains shelves upon shelves of holocrons dating back to Darth Bane. Because of the scarcity of Jedi holocrons and the volatile nature of storing them together with Sith holocrons, the Grand Master’s personal vault is bathed in a permanent red ambient glow that envelops the entire room. Ghastly sounds can be heard from the other side of some other vaults, live experiments conducted by the Dark Council’s most trusted alchemists never to see the light of day.
Combat Training Center
A hall of the Training Center
Two towering, tinted, transparisteel doors slide open to grant access to the central chamber of the Combat Training Halls. The main room is wide and open and as large as a holoball field. Tall walls stretch towards a domed ceiling that is made up of rows of ambient lights that spread out and fill the room with soft even lighting that eliminates any shades or shadows. Those same walls are lined around the perimeter with racks and stacks of varied weaponry: everything from swords and polearms to rifles and flamethrowers.
There are two signs that hover over each weapon rack to create an alternating motif in the Combat Training Hall: “No Explosions” and “Accorded Neutral Territory”. While the first is fairly obvious, the second speaks to the single law of the Training Halls: all members of the Brotherhood are welcome, and no member is to be killed or maimed without incurring the wrath of the Grand Master and the Inquisitori.
A trio of training dummies are statically set up and spread out in a line, each made out of a blend of alloys and padding that can withstand blows from any standard weaponry with the exception of lightsaber blades. To the side of the dummies, a large sparring mat has been stretched out to create a larger footprint than the typical shockboxing ring. The padding is good for helping to teach new combat students how to take a fall without injury and offers firm footing, but the hard rubber mat is hardly forgiving.
Behind the sparring area is a door that leads to a small archives that combat students can use to view holorecordings of fights and duels from the past as well as relevant information on combat tactics, techniques, and forms. On the opposite side of the archives at the far end of central room is the locker room where members can safely store their equipment.
The final and probably most important element of the Combat Training Hall is the onsite Med Ward. The maglock door is sealed off and can only be opened by an attending Medic. The Medical facilities feature state of the art bacta tanks for recovery and aftercare. A combination of observation and waiting room rests adjacent to the recovery center and features two large monitors that display a live feed of the central room.
The Combat Halls are staffed around the clock, allowing combat students and mentors alike to come and go as they please at odd or regular hours. It is also reserved for members looking to prove their worth to compete in the Antei Combat Center.
Ancient Ruins
Ancient Ruins
Sunken below sea-level, the lost remnants of a primitive civilization have fallen to decay. Predating the Brotherhood’s resettlement of Antei, the ruins harken back to lost tribes of the Sith with several structures intact beneath the surface. Most of these ruins are located beneath what was once a great continent, now a spiralling chain of islands at the center of which the Shadow Academy now stands. Constructed with function over aesthetic, the least damaged buildings are still watertight and contain breathable air despite being at the bottom of the ocean.
References to Mortis — the Son, in particular — are inscribed on the sides of an obelisk at the ocean’s floor, half-buried beneath the seabed. Archaeologists and researchers at the Shadow Academy have theorized that other monoliths connected to other aspects of the Force — the Daughter and the Father — can be the foundations of an earlier religion practiced on Arx before the Brotherhood’s establishment. Others have dismissed these accusations and believe that Arx’s forebears were a cult exclusively of dark side practitioners.
Special access to the submerged ritual chambers can be requested via Trident-class assault ships that are used by Arx’s archaeologist divisions entrusted with uncovering and recording found passages, chambers and hieroglyphics beneath Arx’s oceans. However, access to a few secretive locations are reserved for those with the proper access codes and identification.
Colosseum
The Colosseum
The structure was rebuilt and renovated from the shell of an ancient foundation that had barely weathered away by time. High walls, tall enough for even the most savvy Jedi to find unscalable, line a large field of ancient sand and sediment the size of a holoball field. The spectators' chairs are divided into neatly organized sections with seats bunched close together to accommodate anywhere up to a few thousand people. At the center, an elongated platform “box” has been constructed with a central throne of stone with various seats of smaller scale lined beside it in both directions.
While unassuming at first glance and looking very much like an archaic gladiatorial arena, the Colosseum features a medley of traps and surprises built into the floor and walls at random intervals. These obstacles include, but are hardly limited to: retractable nozzles that can shoot out gouts of flame; battery-coils that can spit out tendrils of electric current; receding floor panels with electric shock panels; deep pits with sharpened spikes and more. At some points, the ground can simply erupt upwards and create a concentrated, if not impromptu angular-platform that could be used as a springboard or temporary high ground. While seemingly random, these obstacles are handled and triggered by a manned-operator in a control room within.
Outside the fighting arena, the Colosseum features on-site, state of the art medical facilities that can bring nearly anyone back from the brink of the death and offer a full team of trainers, doctors, and rehabilitation units. There is also a neatly kept armory and a basic training center with mechanical-dummies, and private sparring chambers.
Abandoned Mines
Pulley-operated, mechanical lifts descend into the earth below the Arena. The Abandoned Mines pre-date the Galactic Empire by thousands of years. Once used as mining routes, the long forgotten network of interconnecting tunnels has held stalwart against the sands of time. Sporadic crystals protrude from the walls to quietly radiate ochre light like naturally-forming torches. The small alcove gives birth to a maze of wide tunnels supported by old, steadfast wooden beams.The tunnels spider and split off into various directions, some leading to dead ends while others ultimately leading back to the central Mining Shaft.
The central Mining Shaft is a square well that descends into a deep pit that radiates a luminescent, cerulean glow from the horde of crystallized shards still growing below. The air hangs with a cool, windless chill. Stone stalactites hang ominously overhead, flanked by jagged jutters of rock and sediment that line the ascending walls.
To reach the surface, blocks of stone wide enough for two humans to stand side by side on shift back and forth in a combination of lateral and ascending patterns. Each cubic platform is controlled by a mechanical pulley and each cubic platform will eventually pass close enough to step over to another. The spacing and timing is not attuned to any formal pattern, giving equal balance to both Force users and Mundanes. Whatever your talents, the shifting cubes are the only way to ascend back to the Arena.
Continent III - Sorasu Desert
Geographic map of Sorasu Desert
Terrain
Sorasu terrain Split into two main halves, the continent is often referred to as a dried-up desert. Close to the equator, the region is too hot and lacking sustenance to preserve more than a lean strip of tropical growth near the shoreline and within few small oases scattered throughout the continent with one larger more notable one. It is a barren land that is populated with the Iron Legion’s sandtroopers and shoretroopers to maintain order for a select few inhabitants.
Because of the uninhabitable nature of the continent, the Iron Legion saw fit to use it for questionable means without interference from outside forces. Factories operate around the clock, mines and the Crucible are all cloistered far from civilization and tell of a far different lifestyle than the citizens of Arx are familiar with.
Sorasu Desert
Locations
Iron Garage
Iron Garage facilities.
Responsible for outfitting the Brotherhood’s armies with repulsorlift vehicles, the Iron Garage, also known as Arx Armor Workshop, works around the clock to build and repair a wide range of ground-based vehicles for military requisitions. Producing all things ranging from landspeeders and bikes to tanks and walkers, the Iron Garage is advertized as an all-automated workshop. In truth, the Iron Legion utilizes Arx’s civilians as labourers that work to fill quotas in exchange for meager rewards and little sleep.
The Garage itself is a large sector including complexes for the various assembly lines that produce each model of ground-based transport. These complexes include the necessities for worker living: basic compartmentalized lodgings, mess halls and break rooms. Mechanics and drivers for each of the vehicles receive their training at an on-site academy teaching the operation of transportation and armor from the smallest landspeeder to the biggest all-terrain walker.
Automated belts run throughout each of the Garage’s complexes, requiring manual inspection and, at times, emergency operation from the workers relocated to live in the lodgings. As mechanical components are fed through the assembly lines, pre-programmed welders and pneumatic devices assemble the largest pieces while the workers are tasked with managing the smaller components and wiring for each of the models and testing them to ensure that no sabotaged vehicles leave to fill a requisition order. In addition to worker inspections, the Iron Legion often sends officers to conduct impromptu evaluations of the factories and employee roster checks.
Antei Armaments
Arx’s largest and most diverse arms manufacturer, Antei Armaments, makes use of droid and civilian workers to fill its roles in refurbishing and recreating blasters, slugthrowers and melee weapons from all known organizations. Several on-site complexes are outfitted for mass-production of the Iron Legion’s most common armaments, while smaller surrounding facilities concentrate on specialized gear made-to-order for clientele with different tastes.
Due to the abundance of raw resources that can be mined on Arx, the components for common arms are made on-site from scratch using blueprints identical to those that can be found at the Galactic Empire’s or First Order’s factories. Less common blasters or blades requiring exotic materials and components are trickier to create, often requiring the insight and resources of Antei Armanent’s skilled quartermasters to import whole or partial weapons from off-world dealers.
Oasis
Desert Oasis A lone oasis is found to the south of the leftmost landmass of the Sorasu Desert. A few small-scale establishments have naturally popped up in the area, with the Wonderwall Cantina the most prominent.
The Crucible
The Grand Master's Royal Guard has established its facilities in an unforgiving and hostile environment where the best soldiers are hand-chosen to hone their skills with the intention of becoming one of the Grand Master’s Royal Guards. The Crucible acts as a training ground for the members of the Royal Guard, and a pseudo-battleground for the armies of the Brotherhood. The design is practical, consisting of a networked system of barracks and armories, culminating at the center of a dried-up desert continent acting as the training grounds. Built under the same style as the Dark Ascent, but more restrained, the Crucible’s structures are scattered throughout a large region that can be reorganized to replicate different battle scenarios.
The Sepulchrum
Underground cells
Situated in the forgotten corners of the planet, the Brotherhood reserves a special place for those it seeks to contain. Run in secret by the Inquisitorius, the Sepulchrum was constructed to house enemies to the Brotherhood and to provide a venue away from prying eyes to conduct extensive interviews to gather information. It is recognizable as a prison built into the very mantle of the planet, possessing a single entrance in the form of a tightly guarded lift. This lift reaches several kilometers deep before giving way to a network of caves.
When mapped out, the caves spiral out from the central lift, sloping downwards and further away from the surface as they expand outward. The cells closest to the lift are used as temporary facilities, for interrogation and processing. If deemed necessary, the furthest cells from the surface are used for more long-term confinements. Only the most necessary of provisions needed for life are provided, light being limited to the halls in order to illuminate the paths for the guards and only for short periods within the cells themselves. Enough heat is provided to ensure the prisoners remain living, but nothing more.
The message of the Sepulchrum is clear, even to its visitors. It is a grave, for those still living.