Placeholder 0128
Character
501st Legion, Sons of Ession
OOC InformationIntent: To update the 501st's original submission to reflect their current status in the galaxy.
Image Credit: Here, image edited by myself.
Role: To serve as an experienced and elite warband that will spearhead the Republic's campaign against the Hutts, along with later campaigns. To continue to serve as backdrop for the storylines of House Grayson and House Lussk as their stories legion.
Links: Original Submission, Kingmakers, The Slog, God Machines, We Come For Booty, The Chorus of Chaos, We Are One, Contempt, The Full Reach of Law
The New Boss, Heir To The Empire, Ave Imperator
-------------------------------------------------
General Information
Unit Name: The 501st Legion, The Sons of Ession, Lussk's Legacy, The Spear of The Republic.
Affiliation: The 501st Legion was officially adopted as a Republic asset after Cedric Grayson was commissioned as a Field Marshal by the Supreme Chancellor. The 501st acts more as a warband than a traditional army, and its members generally owe loyalty toward one another, their families, and House Grayson. They tend to serve whomever their liege lord chooses to side with, the Republic being chief among them. (Cedric Grayson, The Republic Remnant)
Classification: Elite Infantry (Heavy Infantry)
-------------------------------------------------
Equipment
- Republic Infantry Armor
- Military Mobility Shield
- Baradium-core Code Key Thermal Detonators
- Equalizer MK 1 Rotary Cannon (3 Per Company)
- RR HRB E-19 (3 Per Company)
- RR-22 Missile Launcher (4 Per Company)
- Vibroblade
RISRS21 (10 per Company)
The Lucky Seven
RR Defender (Officers Only)
RR-AW Prowler Eradicator (2 Per Company)
RR-AW Prowler Destroyer (1 Per Company)
RR-AXC-3 (4 Per Company)
RR N-9s Battle Rifle
M-1016 Blaster Rifle
RX-329 Blaster Rifle
-------------------------------------------------
Combat Information
Availability: Rare
Deployment: Mass
Numbers: 8600-8700 soldiers accounted for not counting support staff.
Company Size: 120 Soldiers.
-------------------------------------------------
Strengths
Never Surrender: The 501st will rarely if ever give up on a battle unless expressly ordered to do so. They are held to an extremely high standard, and all within the legion know how dishonorable surrendering oneself to the enemy truly is unless it holds strategic significance.
Versatile: Decades of constant warfare have honed the 501st Legion into a deadly weapon. The legion has fought across every kind of environment, across a hundred different worlds, under a dozen different banners. They know what it means to adapt, and there are very few situations the legion has not faced at some point before.
Strike Fast, Strike Hard: The 501st operates on a doctrine of efficiency. The goal with every battle is to end it as quickly as possible; with this in mind, the 501st's battle doctrine often revolves around brutal drop pod insertions and mechanized charges to first shatter the enemy's morale, and then shatter him.
Heroes of The Republic: The 501st's history is a checkered one, but few in the Republic would want them gone. The legion has grown exceedingly popular with its assistance in the campaigns against the Hutts, and often serves as a morale booster for other regiments in the field.
-------------------------------------------------
Weaknesses
Essonian Blood: The vast majority of the legion hails from Ession. Most have cut ties to their forsaken world, but all retain its heart. They are a fiery bunch with tempers that often mark them from soldiers hailing from other worlds. Rifts between the Essonians and the newer blood often form as well, causing no end of trouble for the officers attempting to keep the legion together.
Vainglorious: The 501st believe themselves to be the greatest soldiers in the galaxy, and some of them might be correct. Even so, their reputation has given them quite the ego. They tend to take the route to the greatest possible glory when it presents itself, often to the detriment of themselves or their comrades. Furthermore, the 501st do not play well with over infantry based legions. Whilst they appreciate the assistance provided to them by both their aerial and mechanized brethren, the 501st rarely if ever believe that lesser soldiers have a place in the field alongside them. Most of the time they just get in the way.
Non-Standard Recruitment: The 501st retains a tradition of recruitment unlike normal methods. Possible members of the legion must approach an officer, who will then judge whether they are worthy of joining the legion. Numerous field tests and a year long course of training follow, in which the vast majority of candidates do not pass. Because of this, the legion's soldiers are especially effective, but incredibly difficult to replace.
Warband: The 501st Legion operates more as an independent warband than a standard army. They are used to operating with a full sense of autonomy, having supported themselves with the spoils of war, and donations from the Essonian people previously. Now they are funded by the Republic, but much of that autonomy remains, allowing the 501st to act as its own crusading fleet without the need to consult higher command. That being said, were Cedric Grayson to be killed and no suitable successor found, this warband would fracture at its very core.
-------------------------------------------------
Description
The history and accolades of the five hundred and first legion stretch back decades. Initially formed under the leadership of [member="Darth Arcis"], the legion was given the honorary designation of 501st in imitation of the legendary imperial legion. For years, the 501st gained renown as Arcis' first, doing battle across Sith space against anything that dared to threaten the Sith's dominion over their ancestral worlds.
From thereon, the 501st continued to serve Arcis until the fall of the One Sith. It was there that Arcis entered a kaggath against the Jedi Master turned Sith Lord, Darth Mephirium. Mephirium won the duel, and as per the tradition of the kaggath, the 501st was his. Those that swore to serve him were allowed to retain their positions; the few rebels either left of their own accord, or were executed shortly thereafter.
A battle on the Sith capital of Coruscant followed shortly thereafter. Civil war engulfed the planet as Mephirium and his cohort challenged the Dark Lord. The 501st suffered grievous losses in the name of their new lord, but it was not in vain. The Dark Lord was slain, the brief conflict ended, but things would not go as the legion expected. Rather than take the throne and rule, Mephirium cast aside his Sith title and simply left.
The One Sith crumbled inward shortly thereafter, just as Mephirium had intended. It was then that the Sith Lord revealed his true intentions to the legion, explaining that he had only given into the dark side for the purpose of dismantling the Sith Empire and saving the remains of the Republic. Many men rebelled. Other fled. Eventually, five thousand souls remained. With nowhere else to go and having just recently turned against their leaders, the wayward men of the 501st pledged their full loyalty to Mephirium and his line.
It was shortly thereafter that Mephirium gathered what few Sith Lords he could to his side. Intent on utilizing these Sith as tools to reforge the Republic and eventually discard once peace had been achieved, Mephirium took his legion to Atrisia in hopes of pulling King Mythos to his side.
Unfortunately for Mephirium, one of Mythos' allies made a rather big show of their gathering, pulling in the attention of the Galactic Alliance. A battle ensued born of miscommunication and confusion, one that there was no way the legion could win.
Rather than flee, the legion stood and fought alongside its liege lord. Time was bought as members of the legion and nearby civilians were evacuated off planet. The vast majority of the legion was ordered to flee to planet before Mephirium brought about a decisive end to the battle by convincing his fellow Sith Lords to sacrifice themselves. With the power their deaths granted him, Mephirium opened a rift between reality and the empyrean, birthing a force storm in the skies over Atrisia. Millions lost their lives as the alliance fleet was sundered, along with the majority of Mephirium's powerbase.
Lost, the legion returned to their lord's home of Ession. It was there that they helped to establish the Dominion, a successor state to the Republic that would suffer its same fate. Their loyalties translated to Mephirium's son, Cedric Grayson, and the majority have since become fanatically loyal to the Jedi Knight. The first generation of the legion either rose to the veteran first company, whilst the rest of the legion became filled with new blood. Children of former soldiers flooded in, hoping to outdo their fathers' glories. Prisoners of war and lost mercenaries trickled in by the dozen.
Over time, the legion grew from an imperial formation to a beast all its own. Its newfound diversity is as much a weakness as it is a strength, but one constant remains; the ties of unity and brotherhood that kept them together after the empire's fall in the first place. Now, they fight to restore the Republic, and are enjoying every bit of glory it brings them.
One can only wonder how long that success can continue...
