Darth Hydra
Character
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Pale tentacles covering his head almost like dreadlocks on a human, he used to be a pinkish colour but a century of dark side use has made him pale. Relatively few scars across his body.
INVENTORY
Lightsaber.
PERSONALITY AND BELIEFS
Peace is a lie. There is only Passion.
War is the ultimate goal. Peace is for the soft and the weak. Passion is the true path. It is an honest path. If everyone was honest with themselves and had the Strength to do so they would follow their passions.
Through Passion, I gain Strength.
Passion is the key to Strength. Without Passion one lacks the strength to seize what one wills. The dedication that fuels discipline.
Through Strength, I gain Power.
Strength gives you Power. Power to dominate your will on the galaxy. Mold the force, yourself and others into your image.
Through Power, I gain Victory.
Victory is only achievable through Passion, Strength and Power. Each builds upon the last. The ultimate victory is in continually searching for worthy opponents to defeat, until one day you are defeated yourself.
Through Victory my chains are Broken
The Force shall free me
The only true freedom is Victory. When you have conquered your opponent, no one can stop you. That is when you have truly harnessed the Dark Side.
Inspired by the Sith Code and his own interpretation of it. Darth Hydra's ultimate quest is to find a worthy opponent. He believes he's never more free than in that moment of victory. That the purpose of the Dark Side is to seek conflict and only then can you be attuned with the Force, free of constraints. Hydra searches for that moment over and over again.
To be clear he is no mere berserker. He finds berserkers too easily manipulated and lured to their death. They may kill their opponent or they may die from a dozen slow wounds or their more skilled opponent need merely wait for them to make a mistake in their unthinking fury.
Hydra also studies Sith philosophy. He's studied multiple interpretations of the Sith code over the years, and has come to the conclusion that everyone's path to the Dark Side is different. That everyone goes on a personal journey. His journey is of continual victory.
He believes each level of the Sith code contributes to the next, but that power is only the tool to gain Victory. Specifically Victory in battle. The moment of Victory is the only moment your chains are broken. True freedom with the force. That it is only a worthy victory where passion, strength, power are each build upon over a worthy enemy to be victorious. Specifically the Jedi as the true enemy of the Sith. He thinks the various sith orders over the years are useful so that sith aren't isolated, hunted down in the shadows, so they're strong presenting a strong force to fight, but he sniffs with derision at the machiavellian schemes as being unworthy of being called victory, and that power is only useful if it serves the purpose of a worthy victory.
The other part of Hydra's journey into Sith philosophy is to share it. He has lived for a century and has had many apprentices. Secretly in the hope that if he couldn't find a worthy opponent he could train one. The ones who survived elected to find their own Sith codes. Except one. Twice. He will hunt him down eventually.
STRENGTHS
Combat- Hydra lives for combat whether it be with a lightsaber or in a ship. His entire philosophy that the closest thing to true freedom is in the moment of victory he has been fighting this way for two centuries.
Force- No mere berserker Hyda studies the Dark Side and Sith philosophies. He does this to further enlighten himself of the nature of the dark side and therefore grow in power. To ignore the Force and focus only on swordsmanship is to be an ignorant fool.
Century of Experience, Centuries to Come- Hydra has lived a long time and expects to live longer. Assuming he continues gaining victories. It also means he has patience few other shorter life spanned sentients have. He plans goals in decades not years.
WEAKNESSES
Bored of Politics- Politics bore him. Sith Empires rise and fall Dark Lords of the Sith with them. The Sith are a useful body from which to declare war, study the dark side and train new apprentices. Without them they would be outnumbered, outgunned, hunted by Shadows, forced into hiding. He doesn't want to go back to that. He realises that and acknowledges that politics and intrigue are a crucial part of any Sith Order. Crucial even for some Siths journey with the Dark Side and their own Sith Codes. That alone makes it tolerable. Darth Hydra prefers to focus on the true enemy of the Sith, the Jedi and anyone else that stand in their way. Unfortunately this makes him vulnerable to the machiavellian manipulations of the Sith Order.
Combat Obsessed- Hydra has tunnel vision constantly searching and seeking out opponents, battles and wars. A smart opponent could use this to their advantage. Or even a treacherous ally.
Code of Honour- Victory is only worthy if it has been achieved honourably. A fair fight, where the one with superior skill and knowledge of the Force wins. Hydra sniffs with contempt at Sith who claim torturing helpless soft and weak people is somehow power. A skilled opponent could manipulate this preference for fair play.
HISTORY
What is your character's backstory? What are their origins? What did they do before they started being RP'ed? Feel free to edit this later to recount their further adventures.
0-15-Born Hive. An angry young boy, Hive got into a lot of fights, his father was a cad. When Hive was 15 he kicked Hive out.
15-25 Hive became a Bounty Hunter working for a crime syndicate. They gave him training, a job, a place to stay and a sense of camaraderie and belonging. Hive felt like he'd finally found a family. He became a loyal soldier rising through the ranks. One day their bounty was on a Sith. Hive brought a whole crew with him a dozen bounty hunters for one guy. He defeated them all.
25-35 Hive woke up from being force choked out to find the Sith standing over him in the cargo hold of the Sith's ship. He introduced himself as Darth Nergal. He said Hive had a choice. Become his apprentice or die here. Hive made the obvious choice. Darth Nergal laughed and said it wasn't that simple. First Hive had to pass the tests, then he was hit with Force Lightning.
Hive doesn't know how long he was up there. Darth Nergal seemed particularly fascinated with his Feeorin physiology. Eventually Hive broke, begged him for relief, he'd become Nergals apprentice or just kill him just end it. Nergal showed him the tests. He'd have to kill the surviving bounty hunters that came with him. His brothers. Hive passed the test.
But it didn't stop there Darth Nergal decided that the crime syndicate would have to pay for daring to put a bounty hunter on him. It was Hives task to dismantle the syndicate as part of his training. It would be good training of his skills as he learned them.
So for the next ten years Hive learned and he hunted his former family. Nergal would teach him a skill. A new lightsaber form. Force lightning. Force choke. Force drain. Force Fire. Unarmed combat. After each skill he was given a target to eliminate using only that skill. It was do or die each time. If he failed, if he ran Nergal would kill him. Painfully.
It took ten years of this training but he eliminated the syndicate down to the last man.
35-45 On his last kill Nergal gave Hive his Sith name Darth Hydra. He had passed all the tests and was now truly a Sith Lord's apprentice. Nergal started teaching Hydra Sith philosophy from ancient tombs and holocrons of Sith Lords.
Nergal also told Hydra his next target wouldn't be petty gangsters. It would be Jedi starting with a Padawan. Hydra would choose the target himself, study them, hunt them. Hydra did so. Wanting to prove to his master that he was worthy he chose an Echani padawan a promising prodigy and swordswoman. Hydra waited till she was alone, challenged her, she denied the challenge, so Hydra attacked. She was a slippery target avoiding and evading his strikes. Evantually Hydra relied on the force with Altered mind it distracted her long enough for her to be impaled. Her last words were "I forgive you."
Nergal was pleased and told Hydra he'd be hunting one Jedi a year. Padawans for the first three years, knights for the next three, masters for the last three years. The final year he'd be facing Nergal himself.
Hydra relished the challenge. Hydra spent each year preparing for his next battle studying his chosen targets making sure each was better than the last. The Knights were his first real challenge. Sentinel, Shadow, Guardian in that order. The first master was a challenge it was a master padawan pair. Hydra used a double bladed lightsaber that could be split into Jar'kai the padawans death to enrage the grief stricken master, bringing him close to the dark side. Hydra used an unusual tactic for him switching from Djem So to Soresu. Waited for the right moment disarmed him and killed him. In that moment of victory he truly felt free. The second master was the head of an jedi outpost. Hydra had trouble getting through his force push, and force shield, till he kept up a constant stream of force lightning forcing the master to maintain tutaniminis while Hydra stepped ever closer. The master had no choice but to engage with a lightsaber, but his skills were rusty. Hydra dispatched him quickly from their. Hydra's last master was a Jedi Council Member. He was a skilled swordsman, good application of the force. It was a tough battle. Hydra was disarmed at one point, he fell back on tutanimis and unarmed combat. Finishing with force choke so strong it snapped the masters neck.
Finally he was ready for his own master Darth Nergal. The battle was tough. Hydra gained the upper hand. Nergal hit him with force fear reminding him of the time in Nergals cargo hold, the fear he felt under his fathers house as a young boy. Hydra snarled and fortified his mind and finished off Darth Nergal. Hydra's final trial was complete. He was now a Sith Lord.
45-49 Suddenly free. Free from his master, free to choose his own path and most of all free from the victory he had achieved. Hydra was unsure what to do with himself. He thought about getting his own Sith apprentice as was tradition when a Sith defeated their master, but the thought wearied him.
Hydra decided to meet other Sith, he met the One Sith. Hydra was only with them for four years, but he enjoyed his time with them up until the end. Fighting alongside other Sith, revelling in the dark side, learning the differing philosophies. The battles, the glory.
49-55 Darth Hydra joined the Sith Empire, becoming an instructor at the academy on combat. Hydra finds he quite likes teaching young Sith. Their successes were his successes, their failures his.
55-65 Hydra felt it was time to get his own apprentice. Hydra was doubtful his first apprentice would be capable of defeating him, he'd also studied enough Sith philosophy to know the rule of two wasn't the only philosophy to have. He needed valuable commanders and agents for his ever growing empire. Still Hydra didn't want to start from the beginning so he studied Jedi to turn to the dark side. It would be a challenge and a feather in his cap a victory to turn one. He found a padawan from a monastery that emphasized martial arts. A Yinchorri named Xuan Wu. It was easier to turn him then he thought. Xuan Wu had a desire to be the best warrior he could be, albeit for soft hearted reasons. Hydra defeated him in combat, offered to teach him some moves, every lesson touching on the dark side. It only took a year before Xuan Wu was his apprentice in full. Hydra gave him more freedom than most Sith Masters, believing that personal ambition could only be fostered through personal growth. It was a corruption not a coercion.
They were together for seven years, they bonded, they fought together as blood brothers, as father and son. Hydra brought him on fleet actions, raids, gave him command of troops, fought jedi together. One year Hydra sent Darth Wu to kill a Jedi Master. Vodet. When Darth Wu returned Hydra embraced him and congratulated him on the kill. Darth Wu started to cry. He said he was confused, that he couldn't kill Master Vodet, that he didn't want to disappoint Hydra but he couldn't do it. Wu didn't think this life was for him anymore, he wanted to go back to the monastery.
Hydra's heart broke, then he felt disgust and rage at Wu's weakness, he struck him, they fought. Hydra hoped the fight would give Wu the spark of the dark side again, but it didn't. Hydra called him weak, soft he should have never recruited a weakling from the jedi to be his apprentice. He'd been far too gentle with him in his training. Wu calmly took the criticism and fought with poise, with calm, refusing to rise to the bait. Wu won the duel. Hydra waited for the final blow, it never came. Wu walked away.
65-70- Humiliated by his defeat Hydra sought a way to reclaim his honour. Hydra started hunting Jedi again. All the while searching for Wu. Hydra fought on the front lines. Sith Empire, Brotherhood of the Maw. Hydra joined as each rose and fall. To Hydra it was more important that the Sith stay strong together then whatever philosophical differences they may have. The true enemy of the Sith were the Jedi. He was offered promotions several times, the power was tempting, but Hydra hated politics and couldn't take way focus from his mission. Hydra had to eliminate his shame.
70-75 Then something unexpected happened Hydra found another apprentice. This time it was a Nightsister Morrigan Nexus. They became lovers. Hydra could almost forget his shame with Wu while he was with her. She taught Hydra the value in having a deeper connection to the force than just the practical elements of combat. Hydra was getting tired of the politics both of Sith and the Galactic stage.
Hydra decided to seek his own personal power. Politics disinterested him as too cowardly, not enough of a direct confrontation. Hydra decided go back to his roots and seize power in the underworld. This time as a pirate.
Hydra took over a pirate crew, then a star destroyer and reshaped it into an elite fighting force
75 It was Morrigan who found Wu. She was tired of it holding Hydra back. They found him on Genbara. Morrigan suggested they blast the temple from orbit, or go in force, but Hydra would have none of it. This would be a victory for Hydra, he would finally be free. They found Wu and his apprentice meditating. Hydra was so focused on killing Wu he didn't look out for Morrigan, who was force pushed over the water fall. Wu used his affection for her to distract him and pierced him through his body.
Morrigan made her way back to the temple and healed Hydra who was once again ashamed.
75-102 Hydra needed time to heal from his wounds, got tired of the infighting between the three factions of the Sith and stayed a Sith Warlord. He would unite with the Sith whenever they fought the Jedi, but otherwise stayed out of the internal bickering between the three factions. Hydra was an enigma a powerful warrior, but unlike most Sith he sought power only as a means for Victory in combat. This meant he could never rise high in the Sith Orders ranks. Hydra didn't particularly mind. He still taught at the Sith Acadamy. Hydra still searches for Wu and knows time is running out. He may have long time to live, but Wu didn't. He may already be too old to be a fair fight. So he searches for Master Wu of the Jedi.
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