Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on the Vaderites and Tephrike. Provide an antagonist for possible rp.
Image Credit: Here.
Role: Fascist dictator. Dark Lord of the Disciples of the Vader. Antagonist.
Permission: N/A
Links: Tephrike, Prosperity Quarter, Hope Falls, The Valkyrie's Diary, Adlerberg, Dominion of Light, Republican Guard, Into Darkness, After Darkness, Glorious Conflict, Kyriaki, Castle Maysaf, Yuuzhan Vong, Elpsis.
PHYSICAL INFORMATION
Age: Early Sixties.
Force Sensitivity: Master.
Species: Human.
Appearance: Once Darth Eisen was a dashing fighter pilot. Muscled and photogenic, he looked good on recruitment posters. However, he is no longer a young warrior. Eisen is a gluttonous man who is prone to excess. There is still some muscle behind the fat, but his age and life style have taken a significant toll on his physique. As a result, he is very obese. His weight is about 280lbs and he is 5'10 tall. He is balding and his red hair has started to grey. However, Eisen is vain, so he dyes it. He has broad lips, a fleshy face with puffy cheeks and crafty eyes. His weight means that his physicality is poor and he lacks mobility. However, his demeanour is affable and he often has a smile on his face.
Eisen has an enduring love affair with extravagant outfits and flamboyant uniforms of his own design. His clothes are all made from the finest fabrics. His fingers are bedecked with large bejewelled rings and his nails are often coated in red varnish. Medals and decorations adorn his uniform. Sometimes he wears a gold and white toga with a golden wreath on his head, but he has also been known to don a huntsman's costume or elegant robes that resemble the apparel of ancient Sith kings.
SOCIAL INFORMATION
Name: Darth Eisen. His birth name is Alec Dragoumis.
Titles:
- Dark Lord of the Disciples of the Vader.
- Supreme Leader and Imperial Chancellor of the Greater Sith Imperium.
- Vicar of Vader.
- Leader of the Humanist People's Party
- Grand Marshal.
- Minister of War.
- Grand Moff.
- Supreme Commander of the Legions of Dusk.
- Imperial Hunting Master.
- Etc. He likes to collect.
Wealth: Eisen is the corrupt dictator of a cleptocratic régime that allows its leaders to exploit the people and natural resources of their territory in order to enrich themselves. He has no qualms about embezzling funds at the expense of the general population, or exploiting his power to receive bribes and special favours. The same applies to seizing resources and valuable assets. As a result, he is quite wealthy due to his influence and resources. Tephrike is almost totally isolated from the interstellar economic system and what currency is used on the planet would be worthless outside of it. However, it has natural resources he has no qualms about exploiting for his personal gain.
Notable Possessions: Eisens possesses a crossguard lightsabre with a Qixoni crystal. He owns significant real estate. An example is a opulen mansion called Sophiahall, named after his beloved first wife. It is built on an enormous hunting estate. The residence is filled with sculptures, paintings, furniture and has a model train. It is also the destination for most of his looted art treasures. There is also a mausoleum that contains the remains of his wife. Endangered species roam the grounds of his estate. Eisen keeps pet Akk Dogs and is quite affectionate to them. Much to the chagrin of his guests, they have the run of the house. He also possesses a yacht called Sophia II. He uses it to traverse the seas of Tephrike in style, especially when he wants to impress members of high society. Furthermore, he has mansions in Adlerberg and near Hope Falls. The latter is large enough to be used as an improvised field hospital.
One of his most prized possessions is a vast collection of stolen artworks. He has a a collection of uniforms, medals and valorous decorations. Some of them invented by himself just for him. On a more practical level, he has a Cloak of Hate and wears armor and tunic underneath it. As is common for masters of his order, he has a helmet that resembles a Vader mask.
He owns a large number of hunting rifles. Moreover, he owns a large number of slaves. Many of them toil in the fields, factories or mines, others are part of his personal household. In addition, he owns various mansions, factories and mines. He is a cleptocratic dictator, so strictly speaking all the territory under his control constitutes his patrimony. Eisen does not distinguish between the private purse and the public one. To him, the treasury is a source of personal wealth.
Skills: Though his appearance is not that of a warrior, Eisen is a powerful Sith Sorcerer. He has a natural affinity for the more destructive and dark aspects of the Force. Moreover, he is a strong mentalist, able to awe, sway, terrify and mentally dominate others. His repertoire includes Sith Magic, Dominate Mind, Force Drain, Force Net, Force Stealth, Force Lightning, Consume Essence and Force Insanity. Eisen started his career as a pilot, and is still skilled at using the Force to augment his piloting abilities. In addition, he has a talent for Mechu-Deru. This first manifested when he tinkered with engines and fighter craft.
Eisen is good at cloaking himself with the Force. His rivals have marvelled at how such a large individual can remain hidden in plain sight. He has some understanding of the White Current, though it is not at the level of a true Fallanassi elder. In other words, he cannot create illusory fleets, armies etc. or say conceal an entire town. However, he can accomplish a full immersion to conceal himself and others, summon potent illusions and mentally manipulate his foes.
In his younger days, Eisen was a daring pilot and capable squadron commander. However, he has moved up in the world since then. He has risen to the position of Grand Marshal due to his political connections, skill at intrigue and the fact that he is a Sith Lord, as the Vaderites believe that Force-Users are inherently superior to Non-Force-Users. As a result, he is a poor general, especially on a grand scale, such as theatre level. He is a good shot with a rifle and a pistol though. Lightsabres are extremely rare on Tephrike, and Eisen is one of the few Sith who owns one. He sees it as a mark of his exalted status, but prefers to use the Force. Makashi is his preferred form when he has to cross blades.
Personality: One day Darre, the minister of agriculture of the Vaderite regime, visited Darth Eisen while the Sith Lord's valet was dressing him. A second servant presented a cushion. Twelve rings lay on it - four of each were red, blue or green. "Today, I am displeased," Eisen told the minister with the utmost seriousness and no small amount of campiness. "So we shall wear a deeper hue. But we also desire to show that were are not beyond hope. So we shall wear green." On another occasion, a woman invited to tea found the Grand Marshal wearing a toga, jewel-encrusted sandals and rouged lips.
He wears flamboyant uniforms of his design that are bedecked with medals. The lurid picture of his person clad in fine togas and jewel-encrusted sandals with pet kath hounds by his side, owning a castle filled with stolen art works, is completely accurate. Sometimes he greets diplomats and dignitaries holding a spear and dressed in a medieval hunter's costume, or wearing a red toga.
He is the most self-indulgent and corrupt of all the senior Vaderite leaders. The Sith Master has a strong craving for sugar and fine dishes. These increase his size, and the discomfort he feels. He diets and exercises in spurts, but always gains back any weight he loses. It is a constant struggle for him and he has never been able to really achieve a lasting victory in it.
Eisen is a Sith, a humanist and a reflexive speciesist. But he is no zealot. Zealotry requires too much work that could be best spent elsewhere. Like going on hunting trips, procurring precious art works, planning extravagant construction projects or accumulating a ridiculous number of titles. He is power-hungry, but a good deal less fanatical than several of his peers. This makes him more flexible on certain policy issues, as he approaches them more from the standpoint of personal gain than ideological imperatives. His flamboyant attitude, gluttony and obvious decadence had deceived many into thinking that he is a mere buffoonish fop.
This is true, but Darth Eisen is an extremely ruthless political operator. A swaggering, flamboyant individual who relishes luxury and excess, Eisen is also an ambitious schemer. In contrast to many gloomy, preachey or openly sadistic Sith leaders, he is wreathed in smiles and decorations and receives visitors gaily. At times his sybaritic excesses and jovial attitude have given rise to a misleading picture of him being an amicable 'moderate'. Although obese and morbidly unhealthy in terms of appetites, he is cunning and will stop at nothing to attain power. He has an immense drive for self-gratification. This is paired with a high amount of cynicism.
"Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob in a village risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his village in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Nexus City nor in Red Coral City nor for that matter in Adlerberg. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, no matter the system of government. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
Eisen pays lip service to Vaderites' ideology, but cares little for it when it gets in his way. When it was brought to his attention that one of his top minions might have some alien blood in him, he is said to have declared: "I decide who is an alien." He treats his personal slaves better than the typical Sith Lord. This has not stopped him from authorising atrocities. He is bombastic, corrupt, a good public speaker, and prone to bluster. The Sith Master is a charming sociopath with a distaste for heavy lifting. He has a primitive mentality, but is quite intelligent.
His actions are governed by an innate belief in his own uniqueness and that it is his destiny to rule. Eisen profoundly believes that Tephrike has waited for him for hundreds of years to lead it to glory. In his view, he had to spend many years taking orders from lesser men. His immediate predecessor, Darth Furcht, repulsed and frightened him in equal parts. This has fuelled his determination to inscribe his name in Tephrike's history books.
He possesses one of the key characteristics of a manipulative charmer, namely the ability to be all things to all men. He can hold up a mirror to his interlocutor that reflects back their wishes, convincing each that he perfectly understands and supports them. He can treat people with kid's gloves or with an iron fist. He is very clever at tailoring his response to the individual. Rigid stances are not for him. He is very good at putting on a show. Eisen enjoys reading, especially detective stories and tales of ancient conquerors. He has an appreciation for fine art and is a major collector. He uses every opportunity to stalk his private woods with a gun and shoot animals, but he has ironically done a great deal for Tephriki wild life.
In the light of the war crimes committed by the Sith, he may have more concern for wildlife than sentient beings. One of his weaknesses is sloth. He has powerful bursts of energy when he assumes a new office, plots against someone or works on a project he considers interesting. However, this dissipates soon and he often overloads himself. Eisen is paranoid about being usurped, which is understandable since the Sith preach rule of the strong. So he has consistently refused to appoint a deputy for his many offices and when one of his subordinates becomes too powerful, he plots to undermine them, often by promoting rivalries between his minions. This allows him to stay in power, but creates a poisonous, toxic atmosphere characterised by administrative inertia and sycophancy. He is also an unrepentant nepotist and surrounds himself with a court of sycophants. These are the usual tricks of someone whose power rests on a shaky foundation. In short, he is a good schemer, but a poor administrator.
Despite - or perhaps because of - his eccentricities, he is quite popular among many of the human subjects of the Vaderites. Perhaps his quirks make him seem more 'human' and easier to relate to. He is a gregarious and optimistic contrast to dour and openly cruel Sith. His weight and penchant for medals and titles have made him the butt of jokes, but he takes them in stride. When he learned that a popular soubrette was being held by the secret police because she had made fun of his silver epaulettes and medals, he ordered her immediate release. "Idiots!" he thundered. "If they make jokes about me, it only proves how popular I am!"
One day another comedian had made a reputation for himself with a witty and biting Eisen parody. "Let's go and hear him," Eisen told one of his generals, "but make sure he does his act even though I am there." The comedian trembled with fear as the Sith Lord, who held power over life and death, listened to his song. He was not at his best that night. "I bet he suffered more than if I had locked it up," an amused Eisen commented. Sadly, the comedian took things too far after that and made jokes about Darth Furcht. It ended poorly for him.
Eisen is not without some positive traits. He is genuinely affectionate to his wife, daughter and grandchildren. Moreover, he is very generous with gifts and fond of animals. He has invested a lot in wild life and nature conservation and considers vivisection of animals to be barbaric. He has also had a hand in setting up concentration camps, ordered carpet bombings of population centres, the disappearance and murder of political enemies, ethnic cleansing, enslavement and murder of civilians as well as the torture and ill-treatment of prisoners of war. Eisen has never set foot in a concentration camp himself or even personally tortured someone. He is fond of saying, "I've never been cruel, I've been hard." But he presides over a comprehensive system of terror and exploitation.
He understands the importance of information and maintains a private signal intelligence and cryptanalytic spy agency to keep tabs on his foes. Eisen considers himself the rightful leader of the Sith, but has a poor work ethic. Despite his vanity, he has the support of certain sections of the military and the Sith, who were frightened by Furcht's extremism or resent the way he favoured the members of his power base.
Recently, Eisen has taken on a young Disciple called Kyriaki as a ward. She is the clone of Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori and was created by the Dominion. She is also sickly. In short, she is thrice damned by Vaderite dogma. Initially he regarded with her some amusement, treating her as a puppy that needed guidance. However, he soon recognised her cunning. He appreciates her intelligence and shows her some fatherly affection. Eisen is not the type to randomly murder minions unless they actually betray him. But she is still a pierce on the board. Recently he has been looking for a minion to marry her off to in order to shore up his power base.
COMBAT INFORMATION
Weapon of Choice: Lightsaber | The Force | Minions. He is the supreme leader of the Disciples of the Vader, so their armies are at his disposal. Eisen is a Master of the Force, but prefers to leave the bloodletting to minions.
Combat Function: Eisen is the supreme leader of the Tephriki Sith, so combat is not his primary role. He has a realm to govern, after all. However, he still a Sith Master. Moreover, he lives in a society where upward mobility can be achieved by defeating one's superior in a duel to the death. He is a good shot with rifle and a pistol. Eisen has some stout strength, but is not fast and lacks physical endurance, requiring the Force to boost it. As a result, he is better off ending the fight quickly when he is forced into melee instead of drawing it out. He is not a master swordsman and relies more on the Force to prevail in combat. For this reason he prefers to engage opponents from a distance. When he does fight with a lightsabre, he gravitates towards Form II as he considers himself a man of distinction and class. His physique is ill-suited for Ataru.
His strength lies in his formidable command of the Dark Side of the Force, especially Sith sorcery. He is a very powerful Master of the Force, and particularly fond of draining opponents of their life force. He is capable of performing area of effect Force Drain. He also likes making use of mental abilities and Force Net. In addition, His ego gives him dominance over others and he can use his talent for sorcery to create illusions, mentally torment others or summon powerful blasts of dark side energy.
Eisen is remarkably good at using the Force to cloak himself or mask his presence, even from other powerful Force-users. As a general, Eisen is not inept, but unimaginative. His tactics are simplistic in nature, relying on brute force and stalwart soldiers. Thus he is better off delegating to his generals and setting broad objectives for them to accomplish.
Strengths:
- Powerful Master of the Dark Side of the Force. Eisen is a powerful Sith Sorcerer. His true strength lies in his mind and his ability to harness the destructive aspects of the Force. He is also extremely skilled in concealment powers.
- Eisen is arrogant and pompous, but he knows when to fold 'em. He sees no honour in dying pointlessly and will retreat when he is outmatched. He is also absolutely ruthless and has no qualms about sacrificing pawns to get what he wants.
- Eisen is very overweight. This impairs his mobility, endurance and speed. He is not someone to run a marathon. A layer of cushioning fat can be an advantage since it might help absorb a punch or two, but he is also more quickly out of breath when he has to physically exert himself a lot. In addition, he has also started to suffer from arthritis.
- Weak telekinetic powers. Perhaps it is some form of mental block or simply genetic. Either way, his telekinetic powers are rather unimpressive. He is limited to very basic uses, and even then only small objects with significant effort and concentration.
- Limited skill as a general. He is not inept, but unimaginative and relies more on brute force than tactical finesse.
Tephrike has been isolated from the rest of the Galaxy since the outbreak of the Gulag Virus. Originally colonised during the twilight years of the Old Republic, it was subjugated by the Galactic Empire. The human supremacist regime established by the Empire was overthrown with the aid of the Rebel Alliance and the planet emerged as an unstable, multi-species federation.
Then the Gulag Virus sent the Galaxy spiralling into chaos. Warlords, Jedi, Sith and rebels vied for power. Prolonged warfare and the use of primitive weapons of mass destruction brought great devastation to the planet. Benign intentions turned to evil over time. Jedi who sought to restore order and reunite the planet fell to the darkness they claimed to oppose, while still believing that their intentions and actions were good. In so doing, they followed in the footsteps of Atris and Joruus C'boath. Believing that they alone could lead Tephrike out of the darkness, they created a theocratic dictatorship.
Renegade Jedi established a Sith cult called the Disciples of the Vader, for they idolised the long-dead Vader as a god and believed it was his will to enslave all those who could not wield the Force and were not human. The Republican Guard, a faction that glorified the Old Republic and staunchly opposed Force-users, was founded by disgruntled clone slave-soldiers and racial minorities that declared war on both Force cults. In between these three extremes, several smaller factions tried to carve out a niche for themselves. The planet was locked in stasis, divided by riven groups trying to recall a past they did not remember. Here, the dark age never ended.
The Disciples of the Vader were rounded by a fallen Jedi Knight called Cade Seward. Thrust into command at a young age, he fell to the dark side. A vision convinced him that Darth Vader had chosen him as his champion to eclipse the light. For Vader had experienced apotheois and was now a Dark God. Indeed, the Gulag Virus had been the doing of a conspiracy of alien Jedi and alien financial elites to wipe out mankind. However, Vader had preserved the chosen few and it was their mission save Tephrike. Cade chose the name Darth Malitia and was able to assemble an army that became a serious threat to the Dominion. His dark crusade was halted at Palmyra, Tephrike's old capital. But victory came at a staggering cost for the Dominion, for the city was turned into a cursed, dark side nexus.
But the Vaderite threat did not vanish. The Sith managed to carve out their own state. It was built upon a foundation of slavery, human supremacism, and tyranny. Humans who professed faith into the Vaderite religion were coopeted as a new middle class and given preferential treatment. They became the soldiers, officers, administrators and technicians of the new regime and were organised in the Humanist Party, a political machine responsible for the promotion of Vaderite ideology. Meanwhile, aliens were enslaved, confined to ghettos or exterminated. Rule of the strong was enshrined in the Vaderite's Sith ideology, for there could be no place in the New Order for those deemed weak, mentally or physically defective.
Taking the Sith's obsession with rule by the strong to its logical extreme, the Disciples dispensed with more rational means of promotion by allowing a Sith to challenge his direct superior to combat to the death. The rationale behind this was that any man who could not physically defend his position did not deserve to hold it. The Sith remained at war with the Dominion and the Republican Guard, seeking to bring all of Tephrike under their jackboot.
This was the world Eisen grew up in. He was born as Alec Dragoumis. His father was a civil servant who had served the Sith régime as a local governor. As a result, the family was affluent and Alec grew up in privileged circumstances. Like all citizens of the régime, he was educated in the belief that the Sith had an inherent right to rule. Power belonged to those who could command the Force, instead of letting it command them.
Of all the myriad species in the Galaxy, only humans were capable of creating civilisation. Every manifestion of human culture, every product of art, science and technical skill, was almost exclusively the product of human creative power. The divine spark of genius was only found in humans. They were the ones who kindled the fire that illuminated the dark night and allowed humans to attain mastery. By contrast, aliens were parasites. The Dark God Vader and his loyal servants had recognised that there was a natural order.
Some people were natural slaves, and it was the duty of their masters to assume the burden of responsibility. But democracy, racial mixing and the Jedi faith had undermined the heroism and camaraderie of the human master race, corrupting it from within. The Gulag Virus had been a cleansing storm that allowed humankind to rise again. Now the heirs of Vader were engaged in a life or death struggle against the forces of anarchy. Should they lose, a profound darkness would descend upon the world; all human culture would vanish and the world would become a desert.
Alec absorbed these teachings. One day, his school class visited the ironically named Prosperity Quarter, a ghetto. Here, aliens and 'impure' humans lived an impoverished existence defined by oppression, fear and deprivation. The propaganda tour was designed to confirm all the stereotypes his teachers had fed him. Using alien forced labourers to do menial chores was par for the course for the circles he walked in. One of his exams was about a propaganda movie called The Eternal Neimodian. A maths assignment was about calculating how much money the government could save and spend on 'deserving citizens' if the mentally or physically disabled were 'euthanised'. A doctor who worked at a psychiatric clinic gave a lecture on this topic, describing his work as a necessary sacrifice for the people's community. He also attended a stoning of a mixed species couple. This was one of the events of a carnival.
Throughout his life, Alec remained a committed humanist. However, he was not extremely zealous about it. Indeed, he was a rather spoilt youth, who was used to getting his way and having his desires catered to. He attended an elite boarding school, but showed little interest in his studies. He found the food poor and the discipline too harsh. Some of his teachers complained about his wilfulness. After growing frustrated, Alec simply went back home and feigned illness. Someone of less exalted status would have been punished, but his family was part of the elite. It helped that his grandfather had been a Sith Knight. Having a Sith in the family was a mark of prestige, though his grandfather considered it a disappointment that his son was a squib.
To teach him some discipline, his father sent him to a military academy. This tallied with Alec's own desires as he had been interested in a career as a soldier from an early age. Having been raised on stories about Sith Knights and Stormtroopers fighting the enemies of order, he was eager to attain fame and glory. The discipline was quite harsh and more than a little on the sadistic side. But Alec turned out to be a good student at the academy. He enjoyed playing war games and was commended by his instructors. He became an avid mountain climber and enjoyed studying Sith legends and sagas. After graduating with distinction, he joined the army.
At first he was assigned to an infantry regiment, fighting the Dominion and the Republican Guard. It turned out to be a lot less glamorous than he had expected. There was little glory to be gained in trench warfare. Using his connections, Alec was able to arrange a transfer to the Legions of Dusk, the air force. Strictly speaking, he informally transferred himself and was sentenced to punishment when he was discovered. However, the sentence was never carried out. His wilfulness frustrated and concerned his family, but he displayed genuine skill as a pilot, flying one of the aging TIEs that were used by the Sith aerial forces.
Brash, arrogant and daring, he was personally fearless in combat, but backed it up with cunning. At first he flew reconnaissance and bombing missions, targeting Republican Guard rebel camps. He flew escort when Sith bombers carpet bombed a town that had rebelled against the Sith government and joined the Guard. Soon he was engaged in dogfights with Dominion fighters and targeting their tanks. His fearlessness in battle earned him the nickname 'Iron Alec', and he scored several air victories. The fact that he was unconsciously using the Force to enhance his aim, senses and piloting skills helped him. Dissatisfied with the primitive tech, he tinkered with his fighter craft and its engines in his free time, after an injury to the hip resulted in him being grounded for almost a year. He ended up with a working prototype for a more modern TIE fighter with a more powerful engine and better speed.
He rose to the position of squadron commander after his commanding officer perished in battle. However, while skilled, his arrogance made him unpopular and he was later accused of having inflated his score. Still, he was able to build lasting connections with some of the members of his squadron, who would go on to be his henchmen when he rose to power. Alec caught the eye of the Sith when he distinguished himself in a fight with Dominion pilots.
The Sith forces had been fed false intel and lured into a trap, for they were ambushed by Jedi ace pilots when they tried to attack a base. Alec ended up facing one of the aces. The Force was strong in this foe. No matter what Alec did, his opponent seemed to have already foreseen it and devised a counter. His fighter was damaged during the dogfight. Fighting for his life, Alec claims to have heard an inner voice. The realisation that he might perish triggered a rage inside him. Unconsciously, he managed to touch the mind of his enemy, feeding on his fear and rage. The enemy pilot was momentarily distracted by what was an instinctual manifestation of Alec's latent talent as a mentalist.
Relying on what he later learned was Force-based targeting, Alec fired a missile and managed to destroy the enemy craft. The operation had been a failure, but the fight had not gone unnoticed. When the squadron managed to return to base. His commander, afraid that he might be accused himself, tried to pass the buck to his subordinate. This put Alec in difficulties, as he found himself accused of poor leadership. However, then the charges were dropped.
One of the Disciples had taken an interest in the affair and discovered Alec's strength in the Force. He was a human and the Force was strong in him, so he would be trained as a Sith. If he had been an alien, he would have been killed, for xenos who possessed such powers were deemed an aberration. The revelation that Alec was strong in the Force boosted the prestige of his family. However, when he was reunited with his father after their long separation, the latter had mixed feelings. Perhaps because his own lack of Force-Sensitivity had made him a disappointment to his own father.
Regardless, Alec was sent to Castle Maysaf for training. There his instruction in the ways of the Force began. It was a brutal and often sadistic process. One of the trials a young acolyte had to undergo was bayonet a criminal or fugitive slave. This was supposed to pour steel into his veins. Alec learned from early on that only the most cunning and ruthless would survive. Around this time Alec grew close to a Sith from a good humanist family called Sophia Anastas. She was a dedicated humanist. Indeed, she was a lot more of a zealot than her husband and heavily into mysticisim. She got him interested in the arcane aspects of the force.
Thirsting for glory, he resolved to be at the top of the pack. At first, Alec wanted to continue flying, but it was soon discovered that he possessed significant mental talents and was quite good at concealment. These skills recommended him for the spy service, the Protection Squadron. He came to the attention of a Sith Master called Lord Acholus, a Sith sorcerer.
Alec disliked being under someone else's thumb and wanted to keep flying, but the Sith Master showed him who was boss, putting him in his place. This created a feeling of resentment inside Alec, but also fed his hunger for power. Over the next few years, he bathed in the knowledge of the Sith and the arcane aspects of the dark side. However, while his teacher gave him some access to his library, Alec always had the feeling that he was holding back. Wetting his appetite, but not really sating it.
These suspicions were correct. Thus Alec started to try and acquire ancient tomes and devices in secret. As part of his training, he was dispatched to the ruins of the Golden Future Binary Fusion Plant. It had been the site of a terrible disaster shortly before the outbreak of the Gulag Virus, which turned the area into an irradiated wasteland. The Sith used the area to conduct experiments, feeding on all the deaths that had taken place here. Alec contracted radiation sickness during his time in the exclusion zone, but learned how to devour ghosts.
He made himself a name in hatchet work and espionage. His growing talent in using the Force for cloaking and concealment allowed him to infiltrate a Dominion temple and bug a conversation between generals. This allowed the Vaderites to smash a Dominion offensive and score a notable victory over the Jedi. It put Alec on the radar. His master commended him, but also warned him against getting ideas about his station. Later Alec organised the assassination of a dissident Sith scientist who had fled with compromising information. Both the Republican Guard and the Dominion unsuccessfully tried to retrieve the scientist. Around this time Alec and Sophia got married. The marriage made political sense, but Alec seems to have felt genuine affection for her.
When Lord Acholus was appointed governor of a province, he took Alec with him. He was just supposed to be his troubleshooter, but Alec muscled his way into the position of security chief. There he made a genuine impact, purging the local security forces and filling them with his cronies. He also initiated a programme of forcibly relocating the alien population to make room for loyal human citizens. Many of the deportees ended up as forced labourers. Alec also managed to win over 'respectable society' by putting the Party militias on a short leash and closing many of the 'wild' concentration camps. The camps set up by Alec's minions were no less brutal, but better organised. It also gave him plenty of opportunity for graft and embezzlement. Alec himself never visited the detention centres, but was fully aware of what happened there.
He also initiated an operation to round up thousands of so-called 'asocials'. Under the Disciples' laws, 'asocials' were persons whose behaviour was defined by 'habitual' misconduct or repeated violations of the law or who did not fit into society and violated the 'natural order'. Those most affected were vagrants, beggars, prostitutes, alcoholics, thieves, humans who had engaged in sexual relations with aliens and aliens who had been caught outside of their reservation zones without official permit.
Outwardly he was nothing but loyal to his master, flattering him and feeding his vanity at every turn. However, Acholus started to grow suspicious of him, having noticed that Alec was trying to bypass him and build connections with the Vaderite government. His master continued to deny him access to the holocrons he so craved. When a Jedi Shadow who had led a raid against a Sith research facility was being apprehended, Alec sabotaged the investigation so that he could claim the agent for himself.
Officially the Shadow was killed during the pursuit. Alec went so far as to arrange for a body double. In truth, had the Jedi captured and interrogated to learn some of his master's secrets. Once the Jedi had suffered sufficiently, Eisen appeared and turned on the charm. However, Acholus was not idle and sought to curtail his power over the secret police and had some of his associates arrested. He also accused his apprentice of corruption and heresy, having built up a file that showed Alec's devotion to the Dark God was less than pure. Behind the scenes, the power struggle grew violent. Indeed, Sophia once saved Alec from a Republican Guard attempt on his life. Alec later claimed it had been orchestrated by Acholus, though this cannot be verified.
Despite being under surveillance, Alec managed to sneak out of the provincial capital and reach Castle Maysaf. Acholus had removed him from office, but Alec managed to present his case to the Dark Council. His wife's connections helped, for Impaler was fond of her. This allowed Alec to present doctored evidence of Acholus being involved in treasonous activities, including aiding and abetting rebels and enemy agents. Furthermore, he alleged that Acholus might have alien blood. The incident managed to make Acholus look bad and gave Alec an opening to challenge him. He managed to gather a coterie of allies through bribery and trickery. Invoking his rights as a Sith, Alec challenged him to a Kaggath. It was a hard-fought battle.
Alec was badly burnt when Acholus assaulted him with shadowy tendrils of dark side energy. He managed to momentarily disorientate his master, but Acholus blocked his lightning with contemptuous ease and proceeded to smash him with telekinesis. This was a power Alec was very weak in. However, then Acholus was suddenly struck from behind. Alec had used his master's momentary disorientation to cloak himself and summon a doppelganger in his place. Acholus tried to defend himself by summoning a Force Demon, a construct he had used to show his apprentice who was boss in the past. But Alec managed to overcome it and drain him.
Darth Hyperion, also known as Darth Impaler, Dark Lord and Supreme Leader, acknowledged him as a Sith Lord and conferred the name Darth Eisen upon him. He had now joined the circle of power. Power, wealth and influence allowed him to amass a large collection of expensive artworks, speeders, and mansions. He ruled like a feudal lord from his palatial residence. It also allowed him to bestow favours on his cronies and his family. His dandy image made him a source of mockery behind his back, but he was also a figure of ebullient entertainment. This made him popular with many human citizens of the realm. While not a great orator, he had a gift for managing and exciting a crowd.
The conflict with his master had taught that power flowed from the Supreme Leader. So he did his best to cultivate a close relationship with Darth Hyperion. The dark lord was an imperious, intimidating figure who was quick to suspect betrayal and had a habit of pitting his minions against one another. It kept them dependent on his favour. To flatter his master, he personally oversaw the creation of a mountain retreat for him. The construction was carried out by forced labourers, who had to labour under appalling conditions. Their suffering did not faze Eisen, as long as the deadline was met. Impaler was pleased with his work, but ironically only spent little time in his new mountain villa.
He recognised the Leader's almost pathological need for self-aggrandisement. Taking advantage of this, he took the dark lord's glorification to a new level by producing a hagiographic biography. Doubtless Eisen did not personally write it, but he oversaw the process. Impaler had risen from relative obscurity, but his self-proclaimed 'first paladin' fabricated an illustrious lineage for him.
Finally, Impaler promoted him to general and made him supreme commander of the Legion of Dusk. Eager to make his mark, he brought in his old cronies from his days as a pilot. Not all of these choices turned out to be apt. Nepotism was a pervasive issue. But Eisen set his sight upon expanding his force. To provide it with more resources and expand his patronage network, he seized control over several businesses, using a mixture of charm, bribery and intimidation.
However, Eisen's ascent was marred by the death of his wife, for Sophia had died in childbirth. He tried to save her by Force draining slaves and feeding her with their life force, but it was not enough. Unlike Anakin Skywalker, Eisen had good grounds to be afraid about his wife dying while giving birth. Sadly, Tephrike does not have the sophisticated medical technology of a First World planet like Coruscant. He also did not choke his wife. Eisen was deeply shaken by her death and mourned her. He named his country residence Sophiahall to honour her. Fortunately, his daughter had survived. He eventually remarried.
He soon learned that being so close to the sun could be perilous. Months after placing a general's epaulettes on his shoulders, Hyperion forced Eisen to relinquish control over his spy agency. It came under the control of Darth Furcht, a rising leader in the Knights of the Ebon Claw. Eisen was annoyed about having his wings clipped, but had to comply. Because he wanted some insurance, he set up his own signals intelligence and cryptanalytic agency in the Legion, the so-called Research Office.
Eisen believed he could control Furcht, especially since many of the officers of the Protection Squadron were still his cronies. This turned out to be an error in judgement. His relations with Impaler deteriorated. As the Sith embarked on a campaign of subjugation, Eisen found his chief's ideas for pacification disagreeable. He had no objections to using death squads, enslaving people and the like, but he considered impaling and salting the earth of potentially valuable slave labour to be unwise. Eisen also unsuccessfully argued in favour of ignoring the Republican Guard, and just focusing on the Dominion.
Moreover, the Legions of Dusk suffered setbacks. At the start it achieved notable successes in the field against the Dominion by delivering close air support against its troops in the field. However, when it attacked a major Dominion stronghold, the Jedi activated a weather control machine. The Sith bombers got taken down by Jedi aces who had Force melded to move through the storm. Eisen ordered the bombers to continue their attack despite the weather and the fighters were unable to keep formation, so the bombers suffered disastrous losses.
It was a major humiliation. The situation was exacerbated by the Dominion dropping some bombs on the Sith capital. Eisen had wanted to focus bombing raids on military targets, especially Dominion air bases, but Hyperion ordered him to 'grind the Dominion into dust' by carpet bombing cities. Bomber losses were high. Resources were wasted on the construction of a huge strategic bomber because the Dark Master commanded it and Eisen did not dare contradict him. There was now a rift between them, and others in the inner circle took note. Eisen bore witness when Impaler made an example of a marshal who had failed him, which increased his fear of him. It was paired with resentment. His loss of influence drove him to hedony. Furcht, meanwhile, rose in influence and directed his agents to spy on Eisen, whose flaws as a long-term administrator left him vulnerable.
Ironically, around this time Eisen's Research Office received intelligence on a sect of 'Light Sith', who preached a heretical doctrine. These heretics claimed that Vader had turned away from the Dark Side and sacrificed himself to save his son and kill the evil Emperor. It was their duty to follow in his footsteps by atoning for their sins and restoring balance to the Force. Somehow, Eisen neglected to pass any of this on to Impaler or Furcht.
Instead he directed his agents to keep the group under surveillance and try to subvert it. But the Light Sith slipped from his grasp during the Netherworld Event. Like virtually every world, Tephrike was affected by the mass raptures. The result was chaos. It triggered a serious crisis. Impaler reacted with purges, believing it was the end of days. Eisen wanted to make his move, but his forces were weakened by the mass disappearances and the casualties they had sustained on the front.
The Light Sith had outgrown his ability to manipulate them and now instigated a mass uprising of slaves and members of the under classes. Eisen had hoped to be able to rally the loyalist forces after Hyperion's defeat, but he underestimated what had been unleashed. Darth Krieg, the leader of the Light Sith, assumed control and adopted the name Salus. Defeated, Eisen went into exile. Ostensibly he continued to fight the 'heretics', but in reality he was focused on protecting himself and preparing for an eventual return.
The Light Sith proceeded to invade the Dominion, becoming co-belligerents of the Republican Guard. The Dominion was pushed to the brink. But the de facto alliance was an uneasy one as both sides despised the other. Moreover, a number of Vaderites who had bent the knee to the new régime had not really changed their ways. This soured the accord even more, as did the Guard's policy of rounding up Force-users in communities it managed to liberate. Soon sporadic fighting had broken out. The chancellor who had supported the deal was toppled by the Guard after their failed attack on Fortress Purity, a major Dominion citadel.
This left Salus vulnerable and he was murdered. Eisen had used the chance to return from exile, but events overtook him. Radical Light Sith and freed aliens took over Prosperity Quarter and much of Adlerberg. But Furcht crushed the ghetto uprising with extreme brutality. Eisen's troops had helped defeat the Light Sith. Indeed, he had arranged for Salus' death. But his success was overshadowed by Furcht, who proceeded to blackmail him with information about his contacts to the heretics. Eisen ground his teeth and bent the knee to him. The new Dark Master unleashed a wave of purges against so-called deviants and unbelievers.
The bloodletting did not stop at Eisen's doorstep. The Sith Lord was forced to sacrifice trusted minions to the meat grinder. Eisen scapegoated his chief of staff for failings in his force. This caused the general to commit suicide. As a 'reward for for unflinching, loyal service', Furcht promoted Eisen to the rank of Grand Marshal. Eisen considered this to be a personal slight, since it was a hollow title that gave him no additional authority and his actual power base had been seriously weakened. Then the star people arrived. The Sith saw the starships appear in orbit, but were unsure what to make of them. When they learned that the outsiders were bombing the Dominion's capital and that the Jedi Temple had been destroyed, they were jubilant. Furcht declared it a sign of the Dark God.
Eisen was publicly exultant, but sceptical in private. It seemed too good to be true to be a blessing. While he believed in his sect's ideology, he did not put much stock in omens and prophecies. The outsiders and the Republican Guard proceeded to take Fortress Purity. Word spread that the Dominion's Grandmaster was dead and that part of the army was in open revolt. The Sith leaders were in the midst of planning a great offensive to take advantage of the turmoil, when suddenly the outsiders bombarded Castle Maysaf.
Furcht ordered the Council members and sorcerers present to conduct a ritual with him. They struck back by summoning demons aboard the Firemane flagship. Eisen was not among the Sith who joined the ritual. Instead he had used the chance to sneak away. This turned out to be a wise choice, for while the Sith's ritual was successful and Firemane had to fight to take its warship back from the eldritch entities, Castle Maysaf was levelled. Furcht died in the bombardment.
Eisen witnessed Maysaf's destruction from afar. He was both awed and intimidated by the 'magnificient desolation'. His musing about what the Sith could accomplish with such power was cut short by the realisation that the Council had been decimated. He sent his minions to the castle to verify that Furcht was dead. After reaching Adlerberg, he addressed the people of the realm and declared himself leader of the Sith. Now was his chance to take the reins of power. However, he faced opposition from other claimants.
Moreover, the destruction of Castle Maysaf sparked uprisings among the slave population. Now his first order of business was disposing of any potential rivals and consolidating the Sith under his rule. To this end he led a campaign against the 'boy-king' Achilles, the son of Furcht. Eisen's troops managed to prevail in a short, but bloody war. Moreover, he an unexpected prize fell into their hands, namely the clone of the 'space woman' Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori. The clone had managed to sabotage the shield generator of Achilles' stronghold. She was named Kyriaki and Eisen took her on as a ward. However, he still faces rivals and has been focused on consolidating his power. Then he intends to get the campaign to bring the planet under Sith control back on track.
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