Private A Hunger for Darkness

[Darth Callidus]

Tags: The Lord of Hunger

Deep within the abyss, where light fears to tread...

The air was thick with the scent of ancient decay and the whispers of spirits long forgotten. A cold, unnatural wind howled through the great black chamber, carrying with it the echoes of suffering from the abyss below. It was a sound that pleased Darth Callidus, a reminder of the eternal torment that awaited those too weak to grasp true power.

Seated upon her throne of jagged obsidian, she was a figure of still, calculating menace. The throne itself, carved from the remains of a world shattered by Sith sorcery, loomed over the wailing abyss—a chasm from which the cries of the damned never ceased. Her amber gaze, cold and piercing, rested upon the chamber's entrance, awaiting the arrival of her guest. The presence of Lord Credius, the Lord of Hunger, had been requested. The Sith Order stood fractured, its lords grasping at power like starving beasts circling a fresh kill. The question was not whether this strife could be controlled but how best to wield it. Power thrived in chaos, but even the Dark Side demanded direction.

Callidus mused on the nature of the Sith, the eternal cycle of betrayal and ascendancy. It was the way of their kind, an unrelenting struggle where only the strongest endured. Yet strength alone was not enough; understanding was just as crucial. The Dark Side was not simply a means to power, but a crucible of will. It was hunger and satisfaction, destruction and creation. Many Sith mistook their hunger for power as an end in itself, but Callidus knew better. To wield the Dark Side was not merely to take, but to understand the nature of desire, to manipulate the forces that governed all living things.

Credius, she suspected, understood this as well. They were alike in many ways—both saw the Sith not as a rabble of self-destructive warlords, but as a force that could be honed, directed, and exploited to greater ends. The Sith did not need unity; it was an illusion, a cage for the weak. But they did need purpose. That was where the others failed, lost in their petty feuds, unable to see beyond the next betrayal.

Credius had his difficulty with the hunger, but where others surrendered to it, he fought to control it still.

Her fingers curled against the cold stone of her throne. The shadows around her seemed to shift, responding to her thoughts as though alive. A ripple in the Force stirred the chamber. He was coming.

A small, knowing smile touched Callidus' lips, though there was no warmth in it. The Dark Side pulsed in the abyss below, eager for the blood yet to be spilled.

And Callidus was eager to begin.

 

[The Lord of Hunger]

LOCATION: Denab, Dark Sepulcher
OBJECTIVE: POWAH!!
IMPORTANT LINKS: Sword | Armor | Jewel | Ring | Necklace | The Usurper | The guards | The Enforcer
TAG: Darth Callidus


...You will only find monsters.
​

The Ascendant Order, a group of likeminded and powerful individuals whose goals aligned for the time being, whose vision wasn't clouded by the fascetious desires of others to appease some sort of religious aspect within the Sith Order. They all knew to respect, suspect and fear the others in this new order, each had their own specialties, their own skills and their own weight to put in the balance. Yet for now, each of the figures behind this Ascendant Order found themselves in a proper stalemate, the perfect balance to keep eachother on their toes, to maintain a healthy relation in which none had the upper hand. After all, while Imperius and Callidus were truly powerful, with great potential... they were both significantly more powerful and yet at the same time significantly less powerful than the Lord of Hunger. It was this contradiction which seemed to keep Credius from asserting his dominance within this group, but most likely both the Heir of Tenebrea and the Shadow Hand were well aware of this constantly shifting power balance.

Footsteps could be heard, heavy and metallic, with no hesitation to be heard. Like the boots of a marching army, these footsteps were rhytmical, full of confidence and acted as a thunderous heralding of the man who had become a true monster; The Lord of Hunger. With his arrival, so too spread the cold and dread he so naturally exuded, with this aura's intensity being a rather useful gauge to understand the depth of his power at that very moment. What could be felt now, the dread and the drifting bone-chilling icy breeze which rolled out into the air before him, was certainly stronger than what he had displayed on Pergitor, yet less intense than what had been practically palpable on the waystation.

Despite the rather flamboyant armor the Lord of Hunger would wear, it was not the shiny metal which could be seen at first, as from within the shadows, his inhuman eyes, like predatory orbs of gold and crimson, seemed to light up with a twisted intensity, before the deep, hollow breathing could be heard, the footsteps amplifying the weight in his arrival.

"A very interesting place, you have here... Darth Callidus," A dry, somewhat neutral sounding chuckle escaped through the helmet's voicebox, adding to the arrogance that dripped within the Lord of Hunger's tone of voice. "Though since this is no rift...could it be...a nexus?"

 

[Darth Callidus]

Tags: The Lord of Hunger

Callidus smiled, the expression more calculated than warm, as she cast a fleeting glance toward the Lord of Hunger. The glow of her eyes—two burning coals in the abyssal darkness—reflected the ceaseless desire that simmered beneath her composed exterior. Very little escaped Credius's notice. That was to be expected. A being of his experience, his insight, did not ascend through the ranks of the Sith without learning to see beyond deception, beyond the veil of words and facades.

"Quite right," she admitted, her voice a smooth purr that reverberated in the cavernous chamber. She gestured with one elegant, clawed finger toward the unseen depths of the Sepulcher, the very walls of which pulsed with a silent, malevolent energy. "This place—my lovely Sepulcher—is more than mere stone and shadow. It is a Nexus of the Dark Side. A powerful one. One of the strongest I have ever encountered. Its strength is unwavering. Unyielding. It demands much…" Her lips curled into something between amusement and reverence. "But it offers so much more in return."

We don't like him.

The voice slithered through her mind like a whisper carried on cold winds. Callidus stiffened, only slightly, but enough for those who truly watched to notice. The voices had always been there—whispering, muttering, watching. Ever since she had begun descending deeper into the Sepulcher's secrets, their presence had grown stronger, more insistent. More demanding. Every shard of knowledge she claimed, every fragment of power she siphoned from the abyss, carried a price. And she paid it willingly.

But still, the question lingered like a specter in the back of her mind.

When would the cost become too great?

She dismissed the thought. There was no room for weakness.

"I appreciate the haste of your arrival, Credius," Callidus said smoothly, pushing herself up from her throne in a fluid, almost predatory motion. Her fingers flicked casually through the air, and with a whisper of unseen power, the massive throne behind her trembled before vanishing into the abyss below, swallowed by the eternal dark.

"There are things that must be discussed."

The air in the chamber grew heavier, thick with anticipation, with the unspoken weight of what was to come. The Sepulcher watched. And waited.

 

[The Lord of Hunger]

LOCATION: Denab, dark sepulcher
OBJECTIVE: Powah
IMPORTANT LINKS: Sword | Armor | Jewel | Ring | Necklace | DIII Gluttoneria | The guards | The Enforcer
TAG: Darth Callidus

Letting out a soft chuckle, the masked and armored Credius moved forward, only to halt in front of the basin, his eyes moving from it to the Sith Lady with a slight hint of glee visible within his vibrantly burning, inhuman eyes. There was amusement to be had in this encounter after all, whether it was a way to gain more knowledge or just outright some sort of flex from the Shadow Hand's side, it did not matter to the Lord of Hunger, as long as he was entertained, it would make the long trip to this place worth it.

"Hmm...hmm?" He wasn't quite sure if she had been distracted or heard something while she had been explaining the dark sepulcher itself. While it seemed rather subtle, Credius quickly picked up on the hesitation within her movement, the slight pause in her breathing and her voice. If he had been even a smidgen less keen on this meeting, he'd have probably missed that slight break in her character, but whatever it was, it didn't seem to be more than an instant worth of time in which Callidus' demeanor seemed to change. Considering the fact that in all honesty, he did not care for any sort of hassle she'd be dealing with, the Lord of Hunger shrugged and poured his full attention on the nexus again, barely hearing the woman continuing to speak...though when she mentioned that there were things that they had to discuss, Credius could not help but think about her earlier statement:
​

Its strength is unwavering. Unyielding. It demands much…" Her lips curled into something between amusement and reverence. "But it offers so much more in return."

"Perhaps we do indeed have quite a few things to discuss," squinting his eyes ever so slightly, the Lord of Hunger seemed to convey that he was at the very least intrigued and interested in this place and the secrets it might hold...

 

[Darth Callidus]

Tags: The Lord of Hunger

"Much to discuss, yes..." Callidus murmured, the words slithering off her tongue like venom. Her amber eyes flickered for a brief moment, narrowing as though listening to something only she could hear. The pause lingered—perhaps a touch too long—before she slowly turned to gaze into the abyss behind her.

Shadows coiled within the seemingly endless cavern, shifting like living things, layered upon one another in an ocean of writhing, oily blackness. It was not mere darkness—it was something deeper, something sentient. It did not speak, yet it whispered. It did not breathe, yet it cursed. This was not an absence of light, but the Dark Side of the Force made manifest, a wound in the fabric of reality that pulsed with unseen malice.

A slow, wicked smile curled Callidus' lips as she turned back to her companion.

"The Dark Sepulcher is vast, Lord of Hunger," she said, choosing to use his preferred title rather than the Darth honorific she knew he found so tedious. "I have studied it for years, yet even now, new corridors reveal themselves. Entire survey teams venture into its depths, never to be seen again. Or worse—seen again, but changed. Their minds shattered. Their flesh... altered. But the fate of disposable menials is irrelevant." She waved a hand dismissively before her expression darkened. "What matters is what they uncovered before they perished."

"You are wasting time..."

The voice slithered into her mind, a cold whisper edged with amusement. It did not belong to her companion, nor to anything that could be seen or touched. It was ancient, familiar, and unwanted.

Callidus did not react.

"You already know where this leads. You see it, don't you?"

She exhaled slowly, as if bored. If she acknowledged the voice, it would only linger. Instead, she withdrew a brittle scrap of parchment from the folds of her robes—though to call it parchment seemed a disservice. The edges were torn and uneven, the material rough and eerily organic, like tanned flesh stretched thin. She extended it toward the other Sith, the slightest smirk playing at her lips.

The ink-black letters that slithered across its surface were no ordinary script. They moved, rearranging themselves in fluid, unnatural motion, shifting between unknown tongues with a malicious, almost mocking intent. Every so often, for the briefest moment, the jagged glyphs of ancient Korriban appeared—twisted into a dialect so obscure that only a handful of scholars in the galaxy could even hope to decipher it.

"This," Callidus purred, tilting her head slightly as if listening to something unseen, "was found clutched in the stiff fingers of a dead surveyor." Her eyes gleamed with a mixture of curiosity and amusement. "At first, I dismissed it as another fragment of madness, to be cataloged and ignored. But then..."

She flicked a single, gloved finger toward the parchment. The symbols writhed in response, twisting and shifting until, for the briefest heartbeat, a string of coordinates emerged from the chaos—only to be swallowed again by the storm of shifting text.

"You see the pattern. You always do."

Callidus inhaled sharply, jaw tightening for the briefest moment—but the expression vanished as quickly as it had come. She would not acknowledge it. Not now.

Instead, she exhaled a quiet chuckle, her voice as smooth as ever. "It would appear the Sepulcher is speaking to us," she mused, gaze flickering toward her companion. "And it wants to show us something. I do not know what might be found at these coordinates, Credius, but there are few I would trust enough to journey there with me to discover."

 

[The Lord of Hunger]

LOCATION: Denab, dark sepulcher
OBJECTIVE: Powah
IMPORTANT LINKS: Sword | Armor | Jewel | Ring | Necklace | DIII Gluttoneria | The guards | The Enforcer
TAG: Darth Callidus

Something was certainly odd about Darth Callidus, one truly had to be a fool not to notice how her reactions seemed muddled, her expressions shifting from both vacant to present and back to absent. Tilting his head a bit, the Lord of Hunger seemed to be rather curious of what it all meant, wondering if perhaps there was something he was missing something he wasn't seeing. Alas, the thing drawing most of his own attention was the endless cavern, the neverending basin of power, the Dark Sepulcher itself. The whispers, the roars, the sounds of movement within both managed to intrigue and annoy the Lord of Hunger.
​

"What matters is what they uncovered before they perished."

"Do go on, you have my attention," Credius' inhuman eyes squinted, it was a joyous thought to have seen these surveying corps himself, but he reckoned that Callidus wasn't going to send others to their death if their death did not yield proper results. At least she had some pragmatism, enough for her to actually be considered intelligent enough in Credius' book.

When she suddenly started mentioning something about the last surveyors having retrieved something from within the deep vestiges of the dark sepulcher, Credius stopped in his tracks, a faint hum escaped his lips, his eyes slowly running over the brittle piece of parchment the lady sith held out towards him.

The Lord of Hunger noticed how the patterns seemed to shift upon the strange piece of material, only to momentarily reveal something to the woman as her finger flicked at it. So, whatever it was, there was clearly some meddling done with it, perhaps sith sorcery or even nightsister magicks, whatever had been the underlying reason for the strange material and the writing upon it to act so strange was a point of interest to Credius...but it had to wait, for when Callidus spoke up again, her words while seeming cryptic finally made a whole lot of issues rather clear within the present situation.

"It isn't speaking to us...my dear Callidus," The Lord of Hunger chuckled as he moved a bit closer to the woman, knowing she wasn't one to accept any physical contact, the monster just made sure to remain shy of a few inches away from her, though the armored hand of his moved forward, the tip of his index finger nearly touching the woman's collarbone. "It seems it is speaking to you...if that is the case, it considers you either worthy of its power...or it considers you a perfect tool for whatever ambitions lie within the dark heart of the force."

Letting out a chuckle, the Lord of Hunger took a step back, crossing his arms as he tilted his head to the side again. "Trusting me is...not smart though, but I will admit that I am very much interested in what information, what knowledge can be gained from this... venture."

​

 

[Darth Callidus]

Tag: The Lord of Hunger

The whispers of the Dark Sepulcher twisted through the air like smoke—shifting, slithering, brushing against the edges of Callidus' mind. She could feel the presence of something beyond sight, lurking in the abyss, watching. Waiting. The cavern stretched endlessly, its depths layered with shadows so thick they felt tangible, writhing with unseen movement.

She stood poised, yet still. Her glowing red eyes, dim embers in the gloom, flicked toward Credius as he moved closer. Her expression did not shift, though there was a subtle tension in the way she held herself—aware, calculating, ready.

Then, his armored hand lifted.

Callidus did not react outwardly, though she had already decided that if he so much as brushed her skin, she would remove the offending limb. The faintest flicker of warning passed through her gaze as his fingertip hovered just shy of her collarbone. Close, but not foolish.

Good.

His words were another matter.

"It is speaking to you."

Her grip on the parchment tightened ever so slightly. Callidus did not look at it. She had felt it shift beneath her fingers, the ancient symbols rearranging themselves like a living thing. It had shown her something—brief, fragmented, and yet unmistakably meant for her alone.

It should have pleased her. It did not.

The voices in her mind whispered their own thoughts, threading into the chorus of the Sepulcher's call. The idea that something within this abyss sought her, that it had chosen her for whatever unknowable reason, made her skin crawl in a way she refused to acknowledge.

The moment passed.

She exhaled, slow and deliberate, schooling herself back into the moment as the Lord of Hunger stepped back. His words were filled with amusement, but beneath them, she could sense something else. Curiosity. Interest. Perhaps even a hint of wariness.

Good. Let him wonder.

"Trusting you would be a mistake." Callidus' voice was smooth, measured, lacking the sharp amusement she often laced her words with. She turned her head slightly, regarding him with an unreadable expression. "But trust is not necessary when we both understand the stakes."

Her eyes flicked briefly to the shifting parchment before returning to his own gaze.

"For now, we stand to gain more from cooperation than conflict." She let the words settle before the corner of her mouth curved ever so slightly. "But should the day come when that changes, I assure you—you will know."

There was no boast in her voice, no arrogance. Just certainty.

Callidus let silence hang between them for a moment before she finally turned her attention back to the abyss before them. The Sepulcher whispered, the rift churned, and the air hummed with a power that neither Sith could yet claim to control.

"This venture will give us answers. Of that, I have no doubt."

But what it would take in return?

That remained to be seen.

 

[The Lord of Hunger]

LOCATION: Denab, dark sepulcher
OBJECTIVE: Powah
IMPORTANT LINKS: Sword | Armor | Jewel | Ring | Necklace | DIII Gluttoneria | The guards | The Enforcer
TAG: Darth Callidus

​

"But trust is not necessary when we both understand the stakes."

A dry chuckle resonated through the Lord of Hunger's voice box, his eyes clearly radiating with glee behind the visors of his mask. It was clear that he really did like this response coming from Callidus.

"But should the day come when that changes, I assure you—you will know."

As if to reiterate his amusement, once more the monstrous being let out a chuckle. perhaps it was arrogance, perhaps it was insight, but Credius was certain that this was an empty thread in the grand scheme of things. Callidus was strong, powerful and held great potential, but also seemed to be rather overly selfconfident, something she had shown quite a few times now... Maybe she could beat him, maybe she couldn't... but he did hope that should she ever decide to attempt such a feat, Callidus would be wise enough to truly face him with all her might.

"I probably will indeed know it, should that time come," A low laughter erupted from the abomination's voice box, as if this was all just plain amusing to him. He didn't really fear death as much as other sith, for death was after all just another phase, one he had come into contact with far too many times by now. "But let us not make any pointless threats... for now, let us focus on...whatever is clouding your mind and dulling your senses."

While these words could be construed as an insult or a denigrating comment, Credius was not exactly lying, the moments in which Callidus seemed to lose herself, where she seemed to wander off somewhere in her mind had certainly become frequent, the telltale signs of either madness or possession. Perhaps if need be, the Lord of Hunger could call upon the power of his family's jewel to solve this issue, but as long as these lapses did not affect the outcome of their current partnership, the Lord of Hunger would keep it to simply pointing out the defect rather than actively attempting to alleviate his colleague from this affliction.

"You lead the way, Lady Callidus... but I wonder..." Upping his pace a bit to stand next to Callidus as they continued to walk, Credius tilted his head a bit backwards, reaching for the bottom of his mask with his left hand's index finger as he let out a sigh. "A force nexus generally doesn't exactly have a mind of its own...unless, well...unless if it has had a conduit before..."

 

[Darth Callidus]

Tags: The Lord of Hunger

Callidus did not immediately respond. Instead, she let the words settle, let the weight of the Sepulcher's whispers press against her mind like a suffocating fog.

Clouding your mind. Dulling your senses.

A lesser being might have taken offense. Callidus did not. Because there was truth in what Credius said, as much as she loathed to acknowledge it. The whispers had grown louder, their presence more insistent the deeper they traveled. Was it madness? A remnant of her own fractured mind clawing its way to the surface? Or something else entirely?

Her fingers curled slightly, an unconscious motion as she restrained the urge to silence the voices by force. But there was no silencing them, not here.

Not yet.

She exhaled, slow and measured, shifting her gaze toward Credius with something between amusement and wary contemplation. "A force nexus may not have a mind of its own," she admitted, "but neither is it without will. The Dark Side has never been a passive thing. It consumes. It chooses. And when one lingers too long within its grasp..."

Her red eyes gleamed in the dim cavern light.

"They may not leave as they were."

Callidus resumed her stride, the parchment still clutched in one hand, though she had long since stopped reading its shifting script. Her mind was already ahead, piecing together the possibilities, the implications of what Credius had suggested.

A conduit.

Yes. That made sense.

"If this place has had a conduit before, then what we seek is more than knowledge. More than whispers." She turned her head slightly, crimson gaze flicking toward her companion. "The Dark Sepulcher is not simply watching, Credius. It is waiting."

A slow, knowing smirk curled at the edges of her lips.

"And if it has waited before… then we are not the first to stand at the precipice of its secrets."

She turned forward once more, her pace unwavering.

"We will find our answers at the coordinates." Her voice carried certainty, tempered with something sharper—anticipation. "But whether we will like what we find?"

Her smirk deepened.

"That is another matter entirely."

 

[The Lord of Hunger]

LOCATION: Denab, dark sepulcher
OBJECTIVE: Powah
IMPORTANT LINKS: Sword | Armor | Jewel | Ring | Necklace | DIII Gluttoneria | The guards | The Enforcer
TAG: Darth Callidus
​

"They may not leave as they were."

A chuckle escaped the Lord of Hunger's lips, near silently, but still...it was a chuckle, as if he found this statement amusing, especially given the context. Darth Callidus was right though, one would never leave the darkness the same way as they entered. He was painfully aware of this fact, aware of how much the dark side of the force could corrupt and change a person both mentally as well as physically. yet there were always those whose will, whose very mind was beyond the reproach of the very force itself, those who so staunchly held on to their self, their inherent ego, that not even the force could shape them and in fact, they were among those to shape the very force itself.

"The Dark Sepulcher is not simply watching, Credius. It is waiting."

"And you want to know what it is waiting for...but you also seem...cautious, perhaps even affraid of knowing the answer," Credius expected these words to draw out a bit of a reaction from the generally somewhat stoic Callidus, he knew she valued power and strength and had that same demand to herself, miroring herself to the exacting standards she seemed to demand from others. He did wonder how she'd feel knowing that her belief might have been looked at as nothing but a façade. "Don't worry, fear is a great motivator...it brings out our weakness, it confronts us with said weakness and allows us to challenge it head on."

He wondered if she knew where she was going, what those coordinates were, yet he remained silent on that part, being awfully curious as to see how it all would play out. Clearly Callidus was hungry for knowledge and willing to go to great lengths, something which in turn intrigued Credius.

"It is quite rare to be the first at anything, lady Calidus," It may have sounded a bit vindictive, a bit mocking, considering the Lord of Hunger was not the first to bear that title, nor would he be the last. he understood that with the age of the galaxy, nay the cosmos at large, claiming to be the first at anything was a rather pointless afair in most cases. "However... this should never be a discouragement, for being the first does not equate to being the best. If what you stated earlier is correct, than considering it now seems to lack a conduit of its will, its 'ego' in a sense, either the last conduit was... incompatible or simply not strong enough to actually maintain control. That is where you will need to make the difference if you are inclined to become this nexus' conduit: you need to maintain it, take absolute control... and if you wont...I will."