Erinos

The Erinos Clan is a family of Grey Jedi and Mandalorians in the Dark Brotherhood.

Introduction

The Erinos are a prominent family of Force Sensitive Mandalorians from various Mandalorian clans, notably the Skirata and the Kodiak clans. Each of the Founding members of the Erinos Clan have pledged their allegiance to the fraternity they’ve fostered.

Membership in the family is decided on the combat prowess of the inductee. If he or she has displayed formidable ability in a certain area of warfare or is a warrior of renown in general, then they will be indoctrinated into the Mandalorian way.

As with all Mandalorian Clans, The Erinos believe that aliit iru'shya tal'din – Family is more than bloodlines. As such, The Erinos family, whilst predominantly human, would never hold species against a prospective member, as long as their skill in combat was acceptable.

Humble Beginnings

As they were growing up, Zandro and Xayun Erinos knew nothing of their heritage. Their father, the son of a former Mandalorian by the name of Kal Skirata, had resented his father ever since he abandoned him. Their father grew up as a staunch Imperial loyalist and pressed these attributes onto his sons but not his daughters, stating that ‘Men will teach men and women will teach women.’ This meant that their mother who was much more sympathetic towards the Rebellion raised the female Erinos sisters. However, their father never revealed their heritage to them, as the memories were too painful. He blamed the Mandalorians for his father’s ineptitude as a parent and so vowed to be a better father for his own sons, believing that this could be achieved by ignoring his own Mandalorian ties.

Some Mandalorian traits he could not shake off though, and he taught his sons that discipline was the key for any soldier. You could make the best fighter in the universe, but if he were part of a team where he and his team-mates had no discipline, he would be wasted. He taught them how to fight and that athleticism was important for any man. He was passionate about what he believed in, and was filled with pride when first Xayun and then Zandro both entered Imperial service. However, he feared that he couldn’t hide his sons from the truth of their Mandalorian heritage forever, and knew that one day his sons would discover their ancestry and confront him.

They had an uneventful childhood, safe in the knowledge that both of their parents loved them in their own ways and provided the boys with a decent education at one of Yaga Minor’s primary academies and were both well prepared with the social niceties required for an Imperial Officer of the Navy when they enrolled at the Vensenor Flight Academy, a prestigious branch of the Imperial Academy. They both excelled at piloting, whilst Zandro also showed an affinity for intelligence-related work and a tactical savvy rarely seen. Xayun however was much more comfortable with what his instructors classed as ‘fine detail’ work, in that anything that required intense concentration and focus for short periods he seemed at home with, whilst tasks that required extended exertion weren’t his forte, unless of course he was in the cockpit of a Starfighter.

Both brothers were renowned for their quick wits and sharp tongues. Eventually the brothers both graduated near the top of their classes and were assigned to various branches of the Imperial Navy – Xayun to the Carrack Cruiser Vindicator II whilst Zandro was sent to serve in the Emperor’s Hammer Strike Fleet. .

The Living Force

Time passed as the two men worked their way through the Imperial Navy and then onto the Dark Brotherhood as they realised their potential and Force abilities. When they rediscovered each other once more, they were overjoyed to find that they were in the same organisation and that they could keep in touch and support one another. Whereas Xayun was in Clan Naga Sadow, Zandro was situated in Clan Arcona, where he had been the apprentice of Sashar, an orphaned Mandalorian who had taken the younger man under his wing. The two spent so much time in each others company that they developed a strong bond that most people felt was merely that of a Master and a Student, but felt closer than that – even going so far as to feel each other’s pain when each other were physically hurt, and unconsciously boosting each other when using force augmentation on themselves: They were linked by a force chain.

All was revealed to Sashar when he joined Zandro and Xayun on their mission to track down the killers of Zandro’s dead fiancée. The mission spanned several weeks and as the trio worked closely together, they felt a bond between them which had previously been buried and hidden from them. The only time Zandro had felt anything like it was with Xayun, which led him to wonder as to the true origins of Sashar. With the mission’s conclusion, the group confronted Zandro and Xayun’s parents with their feelings and findings and were shocked by the truth which was revealed to them. Their mother revealed that she had had an affair when she was younger and before either Zandro or Xayun were born to a Mandalorian, who was killed before their mother gave birth to Sashar. Following his wishes, Their mother had Sashar sent to the Kodiak Clan on Dxun once he was born, but the craft crashed due to being caught in a huge storm in Dxun’s upper atmosphere. Sashar was thought dead. She revealed that the child had been Sashar, and that he was technically an Erinos by blood, elder brother to the Zandro and Xayun and her son. The news, while not unwelcome, shocked the two brothers to the core. Their world seemed to stop as they tried to comprehend the sudden reappearance of a brother they had never known.

The realization of their heritage also led them to confront their father, something he had been dreading since they had been born and he made the decision to cut them off from their ancestry. He explained to the men the story of his own father, and how his Mandalorian nature had been the thing which, in their father’s eyes, made his own father a poor one. He had left his family and disappeared, leaving nothing more than rumours as to his situation, whether it be dead or alive. The brothers understood their father’s reasoning and they recovered quickly, and as they headed back to Brotherhood space the trio had a sudden idea. Sashar knew of several Mandalorians in the Brotherhood, and he believed that they could be united under a single name to form a family. With this unification, he believed that they could aid with the Brotherhood’s struggle, while also claiming power and glory for its members. He foresaw redemption of the Mandalorian name in the Erinos family, giving berth to a new generation of super-commandoes blessed with Mandalorian fighting prowess and tactical savvy mated with the Jedi’s famed preternatural abilities.

However, the family is also rumoured to harbour resentment towards the Keibatsu family, seeing them as their main opposition in their bid for creating a clan of…singular combatants.

Genesis

With the idea firmly stuck in their heads, the three brothers set out to find worthy members to join in their new family and get it started. They knew that, to begin with, they needed to find another two members, and they also knew exactly who they would choose. Their first stop was with Sashar’s newest apprentice, another Mandalorian from the Dxun camps by the name of Juda. Seeing him as a great asset to the family and their drive for superiority and prestige, they confronted him at the Arcona barracks and told him of their plan. He was quick to join up with his Sergeant and his Master, and gladly agreed to join them in their quest, vowing to do all he could for the family in its drive for success. Their next stop was to find the last member of their new family and one of Sashar and Zandro’s closest ner’vod, the Mandalorian named Kieran. Upon arrival at his room in the Soulfire barracks, the Mandalorian took some initial persuading by the duo as they tried to get him to join them in their quest. They described their vision and showed him how he would fit into it and how it would also aid him in his personal development, as well as furthering the cause of true Mandalorians everywhere. While initially weary about joining them, as he learned more of their plans he began to become more interesting and felt as though he could connect with their ideas and was finally persuaded, agreeing to join them.

Whilst Juda worked with Xayun in scouting out a possible location in the Dajorra system, Sashar and Zandro set out to try and persuade one more person to join their brotherhood – another former Soulfirian and Sashar’s second apprentice Malidir. Whilst not a Mandalorian by blood or upbringing, he had demonstrated time and time again that he was a brilliant combatant with his racking up a huge number of kills during his tenure in House Galeres. He was all for the fraternity offered by the two brothers. Whilst Sashar petitioned the Clan Arcona summit for land on Arconae Primus and Juda continued to scout out possible locations on Arconae Primus, Zandro and Xayun headed back to Yaga Minor to acquire the parts and labour needed to construct a new family home. Kieran however took it upon himself to get the nucleus necessary for starting a new Mandalorian clan – he took Malidir with him back to the Kodiak Clan on Dxun and let it be known that he was starting a new family. Malidir was enrolled in the training regime at Dxun – the Erinos family were firm believers in carrying on the heritage of the Mandalorians, and even their adopted brothers were expected to learn about the history of the Mandalorians (Malidir didn’t need the combat training however, he’d been Sashar’s apprentice and a member of Soulfire Strike Team; both of which gave him the Mandalorian combat ideal). He also started to learn Mando’a, a relatively simple language that had resisted change admirably over the millennia.

The Erinos Family reconvened nearly a month later. Zandro and Xayun had successfully been able to acquire a pre-clone wars colony prefab building as well as a droid construction team required to construct the compound and also get started on making the colony self sufficient in terms of necessities such as food, water, and tradable goods. Kieran brought with him seventy of Clan Kodiak’s Mandalorian men and women to populate the Erinos Clan (as well as a fully indoctrinated Malidir). Juda had found the ideal spot for the Colony to be set up, and Sashar had persuaded the Consul of Arcona to allow them to ‘set up shop.’

All the pieces were in place. Their final task was to seek the approval of the Master at Arms to be officially recognised as a Family.

Current Members

Sashar Kodiak Erinos

Zandro Savric Erinos

Xayun Erinos

Juda Kodiak Erinos

Kieran Kodiak Erinos

Malidir Erinos

Welshman Corsair Erinos Tarentae