Ashia Kagan Keibatsu is a Krath Pontifex, trained by the Nightsisters, and raised on the Dark Side. She served Clan Naga Sadow in many leadership positions in the past, including Consul and House Revan as Aedile.
Character History
Born on the Run
Vaneera Sarin's dunelizard had crashed on the planet of Dathomir in the Quelii Sector as she was trying to escape a Trandoshan bounty hunter. After running through the Dathomiran undergrowth, she had fallen at the feet of two Nightsisters by the names of Marva and Ja'herott. The Force Witches managed to scare off the Trandoshan but it was too late for the Zabrak. In Vaneera's last breaths, the Nightsisters had discovered that the dying Zabrak was with child.
Thankfully, the child was female, and the pair had decided to raise the foundling as a Nightsister, caming her Axi Zorax, 'Outlander'. Had the baby been male, there is no doubt that it would have been left in the undergrowth.
Brought back to the Nightsister city, Axi was taught the ways of the sisters, how to tame the beasts, how to fight, and how to use the Dark Side. It was her natural affinity for the art that brought more than a few jealous stares from the native Dathomiri. The other Nightsisters feared that the outlander would take control of the tribe, and began to ostracize her more.
Left alone most of the time, Axi began to explore the outlying areas, practicing her skills against the native creatures.
Mother's Legacy
Axi Zorax, Nightsister Axi came across her mother's downed dunelizard in the Dathomiran jungle. It had just enough power for her to check the ships logs:
Iridonian year 32544: I'm being pursued by a Trandoshan in the Quelli sector. I've been hit and have lost power to my shields. I'm landing on Dathomir... maybe the stories will get that snake off of my trail. Hopefully I can get the shields back up so I can make it home. It won't be long before Ashia comes...I can feel her kicking, getting ready to come out. Ashia Kagan. It's a good name. I just hope that the 55 credits I have remaining is enough to get us started. - Vanerra Sarin.
Axi 's mind reeled at the information. Ja'herott had told her that she came from the stars, but left the rest to her imagination, insisting that she was a Nightsister now. Marva was more abrasive, but Axi wouldn't have guessed this. Running her hands over her head, she sought the bony horns that would mark her as a Zabrak, but found none, only bony ridges beneath the wild hair.
Maybe she was supposed to be a Nightsister after all.
The Nightsister's Trials
The time had come. Axi and the other young ones were to be tested, going into the wilds on a number of final training exercises and tests to see if they were strong enough to be called a Nightsister. Even then, treachery had seeped into the game, when the mother of one of her classmates had released a Nexu into the wilds on Axi's day to hunt, fully expecting the wild cat to remove her daughter's competition for the clan leader. Axi would not go down that easily, however, slaughtering the Nexu after a long combat, finally lancing the feral monster with her spear.
There would be more trials, but tradition and honor fouled the progress. Tradition held that any of the students could challenge each other to combat, with the loser being forced to quit the trials, having to wait until next year to complete them. Medezera made such a challenge at the urging of her mother, the current clan leader. Believing herself to be far more graceful than was capable of her stout and stocky form, she had been convinced that she could best the outlander in combat.
Axi refused the challenge, a grave insult to the Nightsister. Flying into a rage, the Nightsister burned Axi's home, and her mother sent warriors to slay the outlander.
Sensing the trauma in the Force long before it arrived, Axi fled the village, knowing that she couldn't stand up to the clan leader's assaults. She ran her Rancor to death, the beast falling dead of exhaustion miles from a pirate outpost. The young Zabrak finally came into the outpost, begging for passage off of Dathomir. She found that 55 credits wasn't nearly enough to book passage to any civilized world, and that she'd have to work aboard in order to get away from the planet.
Axi did what she had to, sneaking aboard a clumsy smuggler's ship, hiding in the cargo hold and using the Force to keep her life signs down until the ship reached a trade outpost on the outer rim of the Tingel Arm. Slinking off the ship as the smuggler unloaded his goods, Axi found that her credits weren't good this far from the core worlds. Hungry, cold, and tired, Axi looked for some way to start a new life.
As it turned out, this new life would be in an Autochthonian uniform.
Autochthonia
The Autochthonian Navy, a foreign legion of sorts, happened to have a ship at the trade outpost, there to escort a dignatary of their government. Axi was drawn to the dark uniforms and sleek ship like a magnet.
Stopped at the dock by security, she begged to be allowed in, trying to explain that she wanted to join the armed force as the noble moved past. Eyes moved toward the commotion, and the High Lord Darrow and his dark-robed Jedi saw her. Quick words were exchanged between the two, and the order was given to bring her aboard and clean her up.
Axi had decided with this new life, she would use the name her mother had chosen for her. Ashia Kagan was reborn that day.
She found herself in new clothes and well fed in a matter of minutes, one of the sergeants taking her to the training hall aboard the ship to test her skills as a soldier. Impressed by her hand to hand skills, but less so for her poor handling of a blaster, the High Lord had decided that she would be trained as a member of his personal security detail.
She would find herself training under the Darrow's Dark-Robed Jedi, an exile by the name of Muz, as they would keep the High Lord safe on his reckless adventures across wild space. A relationship bloomed between the pair, brought closer in their odd master-student pairing. He taught her the ways of the Jedi, and even helped her build her own lightsaber.
Yet, something within the Jedi was wrong to Ashia. She watched him in combat, his demeanor changing as he tore through those who would harm the High Lord, disembowling them with ease and gusto. The Jedi was vicious, and seemed uncontrollable when he would go into combat. And Ashia knew that it was a bad idea...that if he knew what grew in her belly...
Ashia left the Autochthonians, slipping off-board when Muz was deep in meditation, and catching a ship far away.
A Child is Born
Sanjuro was born in 17 ABY on Cerodross. Alone, with little money left, and the ship she had bought needing repairs, she knew that she couldn't raise the boy on her own. She had decided that she would go to Yavin, seek out the Jedi that taught Muz before he had left to the Autochthonians, complete her training, and be able to support her and her son.
One thing remained: Muz had told her how the Jedi of Yavin eschewed personal relationships. She knew that this meant that they would take her boy away from her, raising him themselves, with her possibly not even involved in the rearing of her son.
This was unacceptable to her. She decided to move on her own, bringing the boy to a monastery while she went to the Jedi for training. The monks would watch her son for a few months, keeping him safe until she would reclaim him. She left her new name with him, taking up the mantle of 'Axi Zorax' as she headed for Yavin.
Heading Towards the Light
She found the new Jedi Academy without much hassle, the Force guiding her directly to the Skywalker's school. Once there, the masters pelted her with questions, about the Nightsisters, about her time away from them, and what she had done since leaving Dathomir. She was careful in what she shared, knowing full well that if she told them about her child that they would go and claim him for their school.
Jedi Knight Axi Zorax
Having sated their inquiries, she began to be tutored in the Ways of the Force, their teachings trying to overwrite the cruelty that the Nightsisters had ingrained. They felt good in her, sensing her drive to suppoprt her son, no doubt.The Masters were a bit anxious about her age, but her previous training, however it may have come, made her an asset to the Academy. Even if they wouldn't use her in the field, she could help underneath the Masters.
One of the Masters, a grizzled old jedi by the name of Eojin Quon-Shen, stayed close to the young Zabrak. He sensed the essence of one of his old students on the girl, feeling ties that bound her to him somehow, however faint. He tried to find out information from her, to the whereabouts of Muz, trying to find him so he could bring him back to the light, but she would not say anything.
Much to Eojin's annoyance, Axi was finally deemed ready for the trials to Knighthood. She constructed her saber with ease, her methods ringing familiar with several of the Masters on the council, and the rest of her trials went as easily for her. She was quickly Knighted, and given a position in maintaining the growing library.
This post did not suit Axi. She had hoped for a regular sort of assignment, sent out as a peacekeeper, off on missions where she could stop by and see her son between checkpoints. As discontent grew in her, she became more and more insular, until she finally finished repairs on her ship and left.
Drifting Backwards into Darkness
Cerodross was not the place she had left. Returning to retrieve her son, she had found the monastery a smouldering ruin. Filled with sorrow and rage, Ashia vowed to destroy the people who had taken her son from her.
But she would have to find them first.
Heading to Bespin, she knew she could find a way to make money in the gambling pens of the Cloud City. Aided by the Force, the Zabrak found herself much richer when she left, several nobles having left with considerably less money than when they arrived. She headed back to the Trade Outpost, deep on the Tingel Arm, hoping to catch an Autochthonian ship, and maybe even Muz, but without luck.
She did however, find an opportunity to increase her connections. By working for EbonArms, a wild space manufacturer of weapons, she could ferry weaponry across the borders of the New Republic, build up an entourage of soldiers loyal to her, and build up enough wealth to make sure that she could continue her hunt.
Ashia's Headhunter, the PersephoneShe began running small amounts of cargo across the border in a ship that the company provided, her own personal ship, a Z-95 headhunter she called the 'Persephone', stowed away in the docking bay.
What she didn't know was twofold. The cargo she was moving was Adegan Crystals, and that EbonArms was owned by Muz. She would run the crates of Adegans from the Trade Outpost and take them to a backwater planet called Kyataru, dropping them off at a shoddy landing platform next to a damaged castle. Her only contacts were droids on either side, but the credits paid well, and she was able to speak with a lot of other smugglers, building her own spy network.
Word had come in one day, that the Cerodross incident was incited by Dark Jedi from a place called Antei, somewhere deep inside the ancient Sith empire. Ashia began to formulate a plan, debating if she should bring the Jedi she left to take on the Sith, her revenge becoming complete against those who took her son from her.
Her plan never reached fruition, a young Zabrak boy with violet eyes catching her by surprise off of Kyataru. He had stunned her and injected her with some sort of sedative. Something about the boy was too familiar, and in dreams, she slipped and called him Sanjuro.
Sepros
She woke on soft cushions, her eyes catching an all too familiar sight. The swords of Muz sat on a table not far from where she lay. She was aboard an Autochthonian ship, she could tell by the sound of the engines. Panicking, she thought that Muz had discovered that she had given birth to his son, and had gone to kill the monks, his son, and now, her.
The truth was further removed. Muz had found his son indeed, and he had been waiting for the right time to bring her back to his side. Once again, Muz brought her to him, and began reteaching her the things that she needed to know, telling her about the Brotherhood, Antei, and how the Dark Side really worked.
Ashia digested all of this, and finally, the desire to be with her family won out over her reservations. In the darkness, it seemed that Muz had found the resolve to keep his demons at bay, to keep them leashed to his will. No longer pretending at being a neutral servant of the Force as the Jedi had tought them, Ashia joined Clan Naga Sadow.
Kyataru
As Ashia fought her way back up the ladder of power, she flourished under the training of the Herald, his lessons helping her strength grow as they had helped their son. She had begun her Knight trials, having claimed several sabers for herself in personal combat.
Muz had decided that it was time.
He took his sos and the rest of his previously lost family to their homeworld, preparing to take back the planet, his birthright. He had amassed a small army of clones and droids and was going to devastate the people who split his family apart so many years ago. Ashia wanted to go with them, but she was told of another, more important, plan.
She would go to Kamino, bringing back necessary reinforcements for their war effort, sealing the fate of the Nagahide forces that fought the Keibatsu. The death of the warlord at Muz's hands had secured their rightful place as rulers of the realm. Standing at the dawn of a new age for the bloodline and his people, Muz asked Ashia to join his family as his wife.
Malachor V
In the shadows of the ancient ruins on Malachor V, Ashia faced a horror she had thought long since passed. Something tracked them in the ruins, having killed great creatures before they had the chance to hurt her and her comrades.
When Muz appeared, all knew that the Herald had gone mad, succumbing to his inner darkness much as Ashia had feared. He faced his brothers in combat, distracted from murdering them only by the timely arrival of Eojin Quon-Shen.
Dark Jedi Knight Ashia Kagan KeibatsuAshia tracked the two as the vanished into the darkness, aided by the Krath witch Xia Long, a longtime ally of the Keibatsu. She had to see this ended, and could not bear to think of repeating history. Delving into the Dreamworld, the Krath and her found the Herald, locked in combat with his own demon, a writhing mass of Hatred that was unlocked by recent events on Antei.
Ashia had stared into the abyss, and he had stared right back, its eyes burrowing into her soul.
Muz had finally chained the beast in his own hatred, hatred for what the Jedi had done to him and his family, and used his prowess to drive the Master off, Eojin scurrying away in regret and fear. As for Ashia, she was haunted by the beast within her lover, as his madness would touch her mind from time to time.
Ashia had overcome her final trial, and was once again, named as a Knight, this time of the Dark Brotherhood.
The 7th Great Jedi War
The 7th Great Jedi War in 25 ABY divided the clans, the houses, everyone when a clone of Jac Cotelin appeared claiming to be the Grand Master. Ashia pulled up the specs on the Grand Master's saber's from database on the Fallen Spear. She realized that the Herald put a signature on all his sabers and that would prove which one was the clone.
She left immediately left for Karufr and the Taldryan Headquarters to try to prove her theory.
Posing as an Arms Manufactuer she fooled the small minds at the service entrances and made her way towards the main audience chamber where she found Duga announcing what he believed to be the true Grand Master. A man that looked exacately like Jac Cotelin approached the podium accompanied by his Deputy Grand Master, Xanos Sadow.
Slinking through the shadows, Ashia watched from a distance as the 'Grand Master' addressed the crowd. She noticed something. He wasn't wearing his sabers. Something was definitely wrong...the Grand Master wouldn't be seen with out his sabers. She had to get to the bottom of this.
She slide through the hallways and moved upwards silently until she reached the upper chambers and found what she sought... Jac Cotelin's sabers. One had been crafted by Cyris Oscura and the other by her husband, Muz Ashen. She picked up the one that was done by Muz and reached out with the Force. She examined it closely and found her suspcions to be true, it was a fake. A reproduction. She hung it from her belt and turned to leave only to be encounter by Xanos himself.
Knowing she could never fight him, she tried to reason. She explained that Muz put a force signature on all his sabers so they couldn't be copied. All he had to do was look at it through the Force. The Jedi Master took the sabre from her and sent her off. She never knew why he didn't kill her, but it left a distrust between the two that only seemed to grow deeper with time.
Eventually, her suspicions were realized as the idenity of the real Grand Master was revealed and the clone was destroyed.
Rite of Supremacy: Second Darkness
Ashia helped forge forward with the clan as Grand Master Sarin announced the military exercises outside the Shroud of Antei. A joint effort between the clans with many simulations held in space, the exercise went interestingly for her.
Throughout the aggressions between the clans, she felt something; a subtle glimmer of betrayal from within the Brotherhood. She brought this to conversation with her husband, the Herald of the Brotherhood, and the feelings were easily dismissed. Returning to the fray with her son and the rest of her family, she sought to prove Sadow's mastery on the battlefield.
As the exercise drew to a close, medals were awarded, and her husband was named as Deputy to the Grand Master, the parties were about to erupt aboard the Naga Sadow flagship when the unspeakable happened.
The 8th Great Jedi War: The Incursion
Ashia, during the Vong WarThe Yuuzhan Vong attacked the Brotherhood at the least opportune time. Soldiers weary and weapons charged for simulation, it was all that anyone could do to survive the first onslaught. The Orders from the Dark Lord reverberated through all the ships of the clans. They were to escape.
They had already thought of that. Interdictor mines laced the area, tearing one of the Taldryan ships to shreds as it tried to flee. Panic set in, as the orders changed.... to escape into the miasma of the Shroud. As they retreated, Ashia stood aboard the bridge of the Sadow capital ship, the Covenant, watching in terror as a behemoth of warfare, a capital ship of the Vong, seized the Vae Victus and tore it asunder. She felt the connection between her and her husband flicker and fade.
Tempering her grief into rage, Ashia drew her strength to her as best as she could, trying to rally the Sadow toward Antei, to regroup with old allies there and make a stand.
As Quaestor of House Ludo Kressh, the Archpriestess felt it was her duty to be on board her own vessel at this time. Her brother-in-law, Shin’ichi, who had just been named Proconsul by Consul Macron Sadow, argued with her as usual, but realized it was a pointless battle.
As she battled her way to the hangar bay, she ran into, Trevarus Caerick and Lord Vexatus. It was at this time that she saw Shan Long emerge for the first time. She watched in utter horror and disgust as the beast devoured the Vong, escaping into the belly of the ship in search of more prey.
After finally reaching her own command, the Wandering Soul, she discovered Ashura Isradia had set off the decompression system. Crew members, Dark Jedi and Vong alike spewed forth from the ship like so much space trash. Once aboard, the Keibatsu made for the bridge only find a smug smile on Isradia, a burning animosity swelled between the two.
As the Shroud destroyed the navigational capacities, she lost track of several of the smaller Sadow ships, including the transport that her own son had been aboard. Having lost both her husband and her son, rage crossed over into fury. Meanwhile as, Trevarus Caerick was reigniting the fear of the journeymen with his wanton displays, Ashia's violence was more precise and doubly so as she felt a glimmer through the force that let her know that her lover was still alive.
Retreating from Antei to return to the Orian System, the clan was demoralized. Having been beaten by a superior force for the first time in history, the Brotherhood retreated to nurse their wounds. Word came in that her husband was found, strapped into a Vong Coralskipper and saved by Kaine Mandaala and Sarin. She took her leave of Orion, rendezvousing with one of the new Dark Council ships to sit at the side of Muz's bacta tank, hoping for a recovery.
It was only a few short months before they had gotten word of Sanjuro's survival. Rallying the bloodline and a few close allies, they made their way into Lost Space, near the Autoch space to track down a wounded Vong ship and lay waste to those that would harm a Keibatsu. Reunited, they returned home, where Ashia was named first as Trevarus's Proconsul in Sadow, then as his successor as he retired to delve deeper into his studies.
Politics in the clan rose to a fever pitch after the chaos of losing Antei came to bear on them all. Resentment bred in dark corners of Sepros, and those who once counted themselves as Ashia's allies began to speak spiteful things, undermining her actions as consul. Deciding to retire rather than fight against former allies, Ashia began to spend more and more time on Kyataru with Shin'ichi and Sanjuro.
Great Jedi War 9 - Unification
When the fleets jumped back to Antei, using the assembled Grand Masters of the Star Chamber to guide them, they were surprised. Instead of finding the Vong, who they had hoped to have the chance to brutalize, they found them already dead or dying. In their place, a twisted Jedi named Omancor Crask and his force of Jedi and battle droids had taken over the Dark Hall.
Ashia had taken her leave of the Brotherhood with Grand Master Sarin’s approval and went in search of answers to questions she’d had for quite some time. Who was her father? She traveled to Iridonia and spent the next couple of years in seclusion. Only being in contact with Shin’ichi and Sanjuro and her husband from time to time, however, months would go by without any contact at all as she meditated, searched and honed her skills.
Upon her return to the Brotherhood, she learned of the war and of Sarin's death, which left a Son of Sadow on the Iron Throne for the first time in History, there was much jubilation even as they completed the campaign, routing many of the droids from the Hall of Immortals, which was sadly devastated.
It was at this time Ashia’s loyalty was divided between Clan Naga Sadow and the oath the Keibatsu had sworn to Astronicus Aurelius Sadow and her husband, Muz Ashen Keibatsu, a true Sith Lord. Ashia spoke to the family and division there ensued. Some agreeing they should be following Muz and the rest feeling they should keep their oath to Astronicus.
The Call to Revan
As the dust settled, and the Clans retired to their homes again, rumors began to surface that Raken, the former confidante and Praetor to Sarin, was unhappy with the change of leadership and had been seeking to create a new home for himself, having eschewed clan life for much of his time in the Brotherhood. When word of the house reached Ashia, it came with an interesting request from the Dark Lord.
Muz had reason to suspect that Sarin had been resurrected and was seeking to reclaim the throne by way of this new house. She, along with her son Sanjuro and Brother-in-law, Shin'ichi Keibatsu were tasked with infiltrating the organization and subverting any plots before they came to fruition. The time had come and her loyalty was no longer divided; she would renounce her loyalty to Naga Sadow for that of her husband.
Receiving the secret transmissions from coded frequencies, Ashia led the triumverate of Keibatsu through the ranks of Revan, securing their place within the organization, serving under the man who would later be revealed to be Sarin himself.
Right of Supremacy: Spoils of War
Seeking to test the Brotherhood as well as seize control of a planet without dedicating more of his valuable troops to the cause, Muz drew the Clans and Revan to Salas V to defeat the indigenous creatures there as well as prove their superiority. This time, the youngest House proved its viability, defeating clans twice their size in open warfare and thanks to superb tactics, revealing Sarin as himself to the Dark Council once more.
Muz immediately summoned the Sith Lord into service as his deputy, a reversal of the roles played by the pair before, leaving House Revan adrift, leaderless. Ashia took it upon herself to take the young Eiko Lanzer under her wing, helping him assume the mantle of Quaestor of Revan, a position with many a bullseye on it, due to the attention garnered during the Rite of Supremacy.
DJB Facts
Positions Held
- Tetrarch of the Jade Serpents, Ludo Kressh of Naga Sadow
- Black Guard to Shikyo Rurouni Keibatsu
- Envoy for House Ludo Kressh of Naga Sadow
- Aedile for House Ludo Kressh of Naga Sadow
- Quaestor for House Ludo Kressh of Naga Sadow
- Consul for Clan Naga Sadow
- Aedile for House Revan
- Magistrate to the Grand Master
- Aedile for House Taldryan
- Magistrate to the VOICE
Outstanding Achievements
Trivia