Approved Lore Axis of Shadows

[Konrad Harrsk]

Clockwise from top left: Shadows out in the Kandaran Desert, The Hidden Kasbah at Mount Shaykh, Shadows in action utilizing illusionary techniques, Konrad Harrsk training within a gorge on Mount Shaykh, Dhul Qarnayn - Konrad's grandfather and head of the Axis of Shadows, Early morning training in the Hidden Kasbah

My training hasn't been going as well as you would've expected, has it?"
"Training is nothing, Konrad. Will is everything."
―young Konrad Harrsk and Dhul Qarnayn, his maternal grandfather
​

• Intent: Flesh out Konrad's backstory and introduce a set piece to roleplaying.
• Image Credit: Nanda Parbat; noahbradley; Michael Whelan; comic vine; ahmad harun; reddit; logo by me
• Canon: N/A
• Permissions: N/A
• Links: N/A

GENERAL INFORMATION

• Organization Name: Axis of Shadows
• Classification: Secret Society of Assassins
• Affiliation: Dhul Qarnayn and by extension Konrad Harrsk and his mother Mira al Qarnayn. Mutual interests with the New Imperial Order through ideology and Jaeger Harrsk .
• Organization Symbol: Look above. The outer writings are in Kandaran while the symbol in the middle is of ancient Atrisian meaning.
• Description:
  • Overview: The Axis of Shadows is a secret organization of assassins. The Shadows (as they are referred to) included assassinations, espionage, deception, and surprise attacks. They are masters of covert methods of waging irregular warfare.
    
    
  • Training: To become a Shadow is an extremely grueling process, stretching the limits of what a sentient is capable of achieving to the near-impossible reaching a sentient's peak condition. This is achieved both through extreme physical and mental training, along with a rigorous dietary change that is supplemented heavily by the use of stims and other similar chemical concoctions. Moreover, the training includes extensive study of a plethora of cultures that greatly amplify their skills in disguise and deception.
    
    
  • Tactics: As masters of the shadows, they specialize in conducting irregular warfare not limited to espionage, sabotage, assassination, psychological warfare, and countermeasures. However, their tactics are not limited to irregular warfare as they are also capable of waging conventional warfare though their military approach mimics their nature e.g their conventional strategies were largely defensive devoting a great time in preparations and utilizing terrain to their advantage with the aim of preventing open confrontation and minimizing the chance of loss of life.
    
    
  • Equipment: A Shadow is trained to be deadly enough with bare arms due to rigorous training of a multitude of martial arts, some considered quite esoteric and largely unknown to the galaxy. However, it is the smart utilization of a large variety of tools, gear, and weaponry that truly distinguishes them. Shadows rely largely on the contents of their utility belt to truly shine, even if most are of a rather archaic nature.
    • Weaponry: Their weaponry varies depending on preference and skill, often they utilize a wakizashi or a katana as their prefered weapon of choice but not limited to. Often they can be seen utilizing nothing but a kunai and other throwing weapons. They have also been known to use ranged weaponry such as slugthrowers and disruptors.
      
      
    • Tools: Furthermore, they are supplemented with various other tools such as but not limited to gas and smoke pellets, grappling hooks, poisonous darts and other 'honorless' gear.
      
      
    • Outfit: Their traditional outfits tend to be black garbs, with occasionally the addition of intimidating masks but most often each shadow utilizes what best suits their mission.

GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

• Headquarters: The Hidden Kasbah also known as Kasbah Hidden By The Shaykh (Old Man) or Kasbah al Shaykh (Citadel of the Old Man); located on Jabal Shaykh (Mount Shaykh) on Kandara
• Domain: While they operate across the galaxy either for the Axis' agenda or freelancing as mercenaries, their actual direct influence is limited to Mount Shaykh and Kandara as a whole.
• Notable Assets: The Hidden Kasbah; Mining Operations on Mount Shaykh; Various criminal activities across the galaxy.

SOCIAL INFORMATION

​

Hierarchy:​

​

In Galactic Basic​	In Kandaran​	Equivalent To​
Head of Shadows​	Ra's al Zilal​	Chief​
Hand of Shadows​	Yid al Zilal​	Deputy​
Master Shadow​	Mualim al Zul​	Mentor​
Shadow​	Zul​	Member​

• Membership:
  • Selection: Recruitment utilizes a hand picked approach and a right reserved only to a Master Shadow and those above - Hands and Head. Most new apprentices are still children, but that is not a requirement; there has been multiple cases of adult recruits.
    
    
  • Trials:
    • Trial of Nature: also referred to as The Culling, is the first stage of training. Apprentices undergo a radical dietary change which mainly contains the consumption of a multitude of stims, chems and other concoctions with the aim of pushing the body's limits to the very possible peak and slightly beyond. The survivability rate is considered low. Nature takes it course.
    • Trial of Body: as the name suggests this is the stage where apprentices undergo grueling physical training to reach their new potential unlocked by the Trial of Nature. Through this trial an apprentice reaches the absolute peak sentient physical condition.
    • Trial of Tools: Apprentices are inducted it into dozens of martial arts, from unarmed to armed combat, to tactics, tools and other neccessities required to perform their role as Shadows.
    • Trial of Books: Apprentices spend their whole time learning about the galaxy. From different culturues to the current geopolitical situation in the universe, while maintaining physical shape.
    • Trial of Will: The final stage before an apprentice becomes a Shadow. The apprentice undergoes numerous tortures and interrogation techniques with the intent of turning their mind into a fortress to resist mental intrusions of both conventional and ethereal nature.
  • Size: About two hundred Shadows and a dozen apprentices.
    
• Climate: The climate is one fitting a martial arts school and very down to business. There is hardly any idle chat as Shadows convene only when they are called for a specific matter.
  
  
• Reputation: Near Mythic; considered mostly a conspiracy or a legend of old; however, their existence is well known on Kandara and to governmental intelligence services and info brokers. Largely regarded as incredibly dangerous by those aware of their existence.
  
  
• Curios: Some might wear the symbol of the Axis on either their clothing or other accessories but only when disguised. Their identities tend to be kept a secret.
  
  
• Rules: As masters of disguise and deception, the Axis' identities tend to be secretive although the rule is not really enforced to those capable of covering their tracks well enough. For example, a Shadow may retain their affiliation to the Axis a complete secret but someone like a Master Shadow or a Hand do not strictly adhere to it. Another rule is obedience to those above, most notably (of course) the Head of Shadows. Furthermore, members of the Axis most often undertake freelance mercenary jobs and follow their own ambitions or even serve in other organizations, governmental or not. Yet, they are bound to follow the Head's orders if and when they are issued. For example, Konrad Harrsk pursues his own ambition of power within the New Imperial Order but is required to heed the Head's call when summoned.
  
  
• Goals: The current goals of the Axis is to establish influence across the galaxy from the shadows and usher the universe into a New Age.

MEMBERS

CURRENT​

Name​	Rank​
Dhul Qarnayn​	Head of Shadows​
Mira al Qarnayn​	Hand of Shadows​
Konrad Harrsk​	Hand of Shadows​
Lady Indra​	Master Shadow​
Dr. Enrst Tannhauser​	Master Shadow​
Keishiro Hayata​	Master Shadow​
Aiko Hayata​	Associate​
Saiko Hayata​	Associate​

FORMER​

Name​	Rank​
Rohak Vizsla​	Master Shadow​
Cromwell​	Shadow​

HISTORICAL INFORMATION

I - Origins | Abbas, Son of No One​

Millenia ago lived a man by the name of Abbas, the direct ancestor of Dhul Qarnayn and thus Konrad Harrsk. He was a simple mercenary, living in one of the most treachorous mountain ranges on Kandara, then known as Jund, and offering his services to the highest bidder. He was not the strongest, neither was he the fastest. What he had in abundance was wit. Wiser and innovative beyond most of his peers and people. He led a simple life and married a woman of the Jund tribe. The tribe's elder refused to give his daughter to a man of no name and no stature, but made a compromise for his daughter - those willing to marry the daughter were to untie the Azharian Knot atop the mountain. An impossible task as the Knot had never been untied ever before, leaving corpses in its wake of men seeking to untie it in the frigid cold for days. A task to deter the suitors as the elder saw none of them as worthy.

One half folded, the rest boldly and foolishly embarked on the journey to untie the Azharian Knot. Each had three days. One to reach it, two to untie it and return. None returned. When Abbas' turn arrived, the elder's daughter begged him to not venture. He refused her pleas and set forth to the mount's peak. At the top of the mountain, bones chilled to ice by the cold, Abbas did not untie the knot. Drawing his sword, he cut the Azharian Knot and returned taking the Elder's daughter as his wife.

Abbas and his wife, Samra, settled upon the foothills of the same Mountain and lived a simple but happy life. Abbas turned away from the life of a mercenary and became a hunter. He was no exemplary marksman, but relied on his wit leading him to develop innovative (at the time) and efficient methods of hunting and trapping. He devoted his free time to his wife, raising their children together, preferring the solitude of home.

He was fifty of age when his life turned upside down. The colonists from Socorro, which would much later be known as Kandaran and rename the world to Kandara as it is known now, entered a brutal war with the tribes of the desert after years of relative peace. The war defiled the land and the people and took Abbas' most precious - his family. Devoid of will to live, Abbas left to die in the endless deserts. He wandered for forty years, unable to die, barely feeding off the very few plants that survived the scorching heat and infertile land. Abbas' wandering in the desert would later become part of the Trial of Nature - a forty day march through the desert towards Mount Shaykh with nothing but stims and other hardly nutritional chems.

In the endless meander across the deserts, Abbas found the spark to live once more and enact justice upon those who had done him wrong. At the age of ninety, he departed to the stars in the quest for power.

II - Inception | The Old Man of the Mountain​

Abbas' journey across the stars was shortlived. Records are uncertain how or why, but not long after his departure from Kandara he arrived on Atrisia. Fascinated by its culture, he chose to stay and learn more about the Atrisians. Homeless, he knew if he was to return to Kandara enlightened and empowered, he was to somehow gain access to the court of the Emperor Uueg Tching. Ever the trickster, he resolved to make virtue of poverty and cynicism. He became a loud critique of Atrisian values and cultures on the streets and often performed philosophical stunts such as carrying a lamp during the day claiming to be looking for an honest man. More often than not, he spent the nights jailed for disrupting the public order until his notoriety of ridiculous stunts took the attention of the Emperor who invited him to the palace to meet the foreign man.

There, Abbas continued with his abrasive and direct nature mocking the Emperor. His attitude and beliefs not only stunned Tching but impressed him and the Emperor took what many saw as a man bereft of sanity as an informal advisor. Remaining at the Emperor's side, Abbas was able to learn directly from the man all that would eventually be written in the Sayings. In time, when Abbas believed he had learned all he could to bring justice he confessed to the Emperor of his deception. The Atrisian's surprise earned Abbas the Emperor's praise, noting the similiarity of both's use of deception to attain their goals. A final farewell between the two and Abbas returned to Kandara with a copy of the Sayings, along with his own notes and additions, eager to see retribution upon those who had wronged him.

On Kandara, the frail old man announced to the tribes that he is embarking on a journey to the mountains 'from whence great wrath shall be enacted upon the colonists'. He ventured to the mountain, just like he had many many years ago to cut the Azharian Knot, but never returned dying of old age in a cave.

"They call him Shaykh-al-Jabal. The Old Man of the Mountain.
He is their Head, and upon his command all of the men of the mountain come out or go in
... they are believers of the word of their head and everyone everywhere fears them, because they even kill caliphs."
—Ibn Sufyan, Kandaran historian​

III - Wrath | Axis of Shadows​

A few years later three young men of the tribes embarked on a journey to the mountain seeking to find what had happened with the Old Man, driven by the adventurous spirit of youth. They found Abbas' remains and the copies of the Sayings still intact. Out of curiousity, the three read the copies. Fascinated by its contents, they saw the Sayings as a manual to become rich. From Tching's mastery of the art of espionage, assassinations and deceptions and from Abbas' knowledge of plant life gained during his forty years in the desert, the three men would become known as the Axis of Shadows.

Well enough trained, boosted by concotions, the three offered their services to the tribes as spies and assassins. Their first use of misinformation was creating the legend of the Old Man of the Mountain - a fearsome figure borne of shadows whose wrath one should not incur. Initially, it was a method to frighten superstitious tribal elders to be true on their payments for the service of the three men, but then it grew into a terrifying myth both among the tribes and the Kandarans as the assassins grew in fame and notoriety.

IV - Ascent | He of Two Horns​

For millenia the Axis of Shadows became a league of nightmares, assassinating tribal elders and Kandaran caliphs for the right sum or for their own protection. They grew in number and built the citadel known as the Hidden Citadel which would become the Axis' base of operations. However, they never expanded beyond mere mercenary work of avarice and adventure. It was when a young man of the tribes, claiming to be descendant of the Old Man, returned from a decade long journey across the stars, including Atrisia. This man would be known as Dhul Qarnayn, He of Two Horns (due to the two white streaks of hair at each side of his head resembling horns), grandfather of Konrad Harrsk and a graduate of the School of Carp. A man who saw the honor of the Carp as a hindrance and the Axis as an untapped potential and a rightful claim of his due to heritage.

Dhul Qarnayn reformed the Axis into something far beyond a mere, highly skilled band of assassins and spies feared more from ancient laurels to a secret society of killers employed across the galaxy furthering his ambitious agenda. Almost every knowledge of Dhul Qarnayn's background has remained a mystery except to his daughter, grandson and those from the School of Carp such as the Ashina clan.

 

[Onansi of Thyrsus]

Approved.