Meili Feng
Character
Zanshi Emperor engaging in a traditional duel
- Intent: To create a monster to flesh out the lore of Shuiqui and as an opponent for other’s to RP against.
- Image Credit:
- Flag: Original Image; Photoshop by me
- Top Image: Guild Wars 2 | Elder Dragon
- Canon: N/a
- Permissions: N/a
- Links:
- Name: Dashe
- Designation: Sentient
- Origins: The Netherworld in the area around Shuqui
- Average Lifespan: 2000 Galactic Years
- Estimated Population: Semi-Unique
- Description:
The Dashe are gargantuan reptilian behemoths, beings of such capacity that the Force around them warps in response to them, generating auras of fear or calm depending on the mood of the Dashe. Muscled bodies move with a speed that belies their large size, eating up the distance between themselves and their targets in what many have described as the blink of an eye. Despite their speed the Dashe are ungainly on the ground, lumbering across the ground in an ungainly run which shakes the ground as they walk. It is only when their wings carry them into the air that the agility and beauty of the Dashe can truly be seen.
The Dashe’s bodies are covered by white scales that grow off their body in jagged spikes that give the Dashe a terrifying visage. The edges of these spikes were so sharp that to touch them could cut flesh and armour. Large claws and teeth give the Dashe natural weapons capable of tearing through their opponents and prey, showing them as the predators they are.
- Breathes: Type 1
- Average Height of Adults: 8m at the shoulder
- Average Length of Adults: 60m nose to tail
- Skin color: Scales of differing colours
- Hair color:
- N/a
- Distinctions:
The Dashe are gargantuan lizards that primarily exist in the Nether, creatures born of the tumult of the force within. While each Dashe might be different, shaped as they grow by their own thoughts and desires, some elements remain the same their gargantuan size and almost graceful movements. There were few species in the galaxy that could match the size of the Dashe, those few that did tended to the more muscular than the dragon-like species who augmented their movement and abilities with the force naturally. Generally, the Dashe were surprisingly svelte and graceful for their size covered in a coat of scales. Sharp rows of teeth and vast wings complete their appearance, no-one could ever see the Dashe for anything other than what they were, apex predators. The absolute kings of their domain.
- Races: There are no distinct races within the Dashe:
- Force Sensitivity: All
- Natural Weapons: The Dashe are apex predators, capable of fighting and slaying most opponents that they might meet in the Netherworld, a world full of monsters, nightmares and things that go bump in the night. Their claws and teeth are capable of breaking through armour and the toughest of flesh.
- Emotional Auras: The Dashe are capable of projecting powerful emotional auras into the air around them. These auras can project a fear or calming effect, can make people more susceptible to manipulation or command. They can buoy the spirits of those around them, or leave them quivering in fear. Early during their lifespan the Dashe use their aura as a means of hunting, lashing out at their prey to stun them into paralysis, as they grow older the Dashe are able to use their auras with more finesse.
- The Force: Born of the nether the Dashe are fundamentally linked to the force, while unable to wield it in the same form as force users like the Jedi for most of their life the young Dashe can wield the force like an extra limb. As they grow older their power of the force will grow and develop, allowing them to perform feats that Jedi and Sith could only hope to.
- The Song: The Dashe are connected through a communal telepathic network they maintain. Not a hive mind, the Song is more akin to a constant awareness of the other Dashe, and a medium through which messages can be transmitted to the community as a whole.
- Territorial: The Dashe are apex predators and as such roam over a territory of their own, hunting those unfortunate denizens of the Netherworld who happen to cross their path. While there are many great predators who haunt the dark recess of the Netherworld, the Dashe are willing and able to fight any of them to preserve the sanctity of their territory. The Dashe are drawn to areas of the Nether which are active, where the use of the force in the living universe impacted the Nether. They have settled in the Nether surrounding the planet of Shuiqui, a planet filled with Sithspawn, each of which naturally causes an impact on the force.
- Camouflage: The Dashe are shapeshifters, able to alter their forms. As young Dashe they are able to alter the colour of their scales, to either blend in with their environment or to look impressive. As they grow older the Dashe gain more control over their forms, each settling on a slightly different look and colour as their natural form. The oldest Dashe are able to disguise themselves as other creatures, although their size is often hard to mask.
- Wiser with time: A young Dashe is little better than an animal, responding only on the most basic of instincts. However, as they grow older the Dashe are able to gain a greater level of sentience. An Elder Dashe is a terrifying opponent, mixing the animal instincts it has honed through a lifetime of combat, with a psyche that would put even a Jedi or Sith Master to shame. It’s lucky that few Dashe survive to an Elder status.
- Slave to their instincts: While the Dashe are able to gain increased sentience as they grow older, in their basic state is one of an instinctive predator and those instincts are a strong presence in their reactions. It is very easy to distract the Dashe with weaker or injured prey. Only the oldest and most intelligent Dashe are able to override the lure of their instincts
- The Song: While the Song allows the SDashe to communicate with one another, they only gain access to it upon a certain level of maturation when they become adults. Before this, the fledgling Dashe have no access to the story and so are vulnerable to other predators..
- Limited Manifestation: The Dashe are creatures of the Force, created and manifested through that energy that flows through the Nether. While it is possible for them to be summoned to the real world, the weaker energies that flow through the material plane cause the Dashe to only partially manifest, robbing them of much of their power. Still, a deadly opponent, manifested Dashe are significantly weaker than they are in the Nether. Their primary focus is mainly to pull opponents back to the Nether, where they can use the full powers available to them to overwhelm their opponents.
- Territorial: Due to their territorial nature the Dashe rarely cross paths unless one is seeking to annex the territory of another resulting in a titanic clash that can send shockwaves through the Netherworld. The only time that the Dashe will work together is when they are threatened by a major power, a leviathan of the Nether that requires them to work together under the guidance of the elder Dashe.
- Instinctive Manipulations: The Dashe are not trained to use the force but instead rely heavily on instinct. This means that despite their prodigious strength they are very limited in the abilities they can use. Basic abilities like elemental manipulation and telekinesis are commonly used, whereas more advanced abilities like psychommetry are not.
- Not Battlemeditation: While the Dashe’s Auras are powerful tools, they pale in comparison to the Battle meditation used by the Jedi and the Sith. The Dashe are only able to project one aura, and anyone caught within its radius is pressured with that feeling, they are unable to selectively focus their abilities to target just a few targets, or apply different emotional manipulations to allies and enemies.
- Force No More: The Dashe are creatures of the force, born and bred in the Netherworld where they live their entire lives. The force is as much a part of them as their limbs, as breathing and eating are to an organic, it is through this that they are sustained and through the force that they communicate and breed. As such, creatures like Ysalamiri and materials like voidstone prove anathema to the Dashe. A voidstone weapon is able to hurt one of the Behemoths far more than one would expect. If forced into an area where the force is negated, such as the field around a Ysalamiri the Dashe will weaken until it eventually falls unconscious. If kept within this area for long enough death is inevitable.
- Diet: Carnivore | The Dashe are carnivores, hunting the creatures of the Nether that pass through their territory, using their control of the force to batter and stun their prey.
- Communication: Verbally only capable of roars and hisses, the Dashe primarily communicate telepathically. Due to their physical limitations, they even lack written language.
- Technology level: N/a
- Religion/Beliefs: N/a
- General behavior:
The Dashe are an asexual species, not relying on normal methods of reproduction to propagate their species. Instead, new Dashe are born when an older Dashe chooses to separate off some if it’s life experience and life force, creating the core of the new Dashe. This core will manifest as an egg which is then placed in a secure nest within an area of the nether which correlates to a location of high force use in the real universe. The egg will absorb the emanations given off in the Nether by that force use, providing the fledgling Dashe with nutrition.
The young Dashe will eventually hatch once they have absorbed enough ambient energy from the force. Due to the means of their reproduction the young Dashe already have the instincts they need to survive and prosper in the Netherworld, without their parent being forced to teach them. While the parent will remain in the area to protect the egg from predators, upon its birth they will leave, letting the young Dashe seek out it’s own territory. After a young Dashe has found a territory of its own they will settle, learning the ins and outs of its territory. As it explores and feeds it will grow, absorbing the ambient energy a well as the energy of those that it eats.
Gradually as it grows the young Dashe becomes aware of its abilities, of its connection to the force. At first it’s barely able to use it’s powers, treating them like a bludgeon rather than a more refined tool. It is during this period of their life that a Dashe is the most destructive, the most primal. Their emotional auras batter everything within range, their attacks are indiscriminate. They are pure animals governed by instinct, large hunters who will prey upon those prey who pass through their territory.
It is in the hunting and slaying of these prey that the Dashe grow and develop. As beings off the force, the Dashe don’t require physical sustenance, instead they prey upon the life force of their prey. Absorbing it to sustain themselves, to grow. As they absorb more and more life force a Dashe will grow in size and capability, allowing them to hunt larger and more dangerous prey. Over time this growth, the increase in experience allows a Dashe to gain more sentience. This sentience in turn allows them to use their powers in new and more versatile ways, allowing them to hunt more powerful prey.
This constant cycle of growth and improvement doesn’t just let the Dashe develop physically, it also develops their minds and their powers. Constantly evolving tactics and abilities force the Dashe to an increasing level of thought and cunning. However, it is not until over a 1000 years after their birth that the Dashe can be truly considered adult, before their minds have developed to the point where they are truly capable of thought and being. It is at this point where the Dashe will become aware of others of its species, being welcomed into The Song, a telepathic network all Dashe are joined to, allowing them to communicate with one another as needed.
Even after they reach adulthood, the Dashe area very solitary species, tending to avoid others of their own kind where possible. Each Dashe is comfortable in its territory, and might use their powers to subdue some of those they come across, to force them into servitude. That is not to say that the Dashe don’t have friend or enemies amongst their kind, two Dashe might clash or form a friendship, an alliance as they watch one another’s backs against moves from another Dashe or other foes. Those conflicts between Dashe are generally over territory, though the Dashe themselves rarely are involved in the conflict, instead sending those they force under their command to fight on their behalf. Even those friendships that exist between the Dashe, rare as they are, are conducted at arms length, the individuals only meeting in person every few centuries.
Only one thing can bring the solitary Dashe together into a cohesive whole, a summons from the Elder, the single most powerful and capable Dashe. If the song were to have a focal point it would be the Elder, the single Dashe who stands at the centre of the community. Just as the Dashe might impose their will on others through the use of their abilities, the Elder is able to impose its will on the other Dashe through the song. This summons is only used when the Dashe are faced with a significant threat, a threat of such magnitude that they are forced to work together to defend themselves.
The combined force united under the command of the Elder has yet to fail to protect their territory. The flight of the Dashe is so incredible that it leaves the Nether twisting around it. An incredible storm of power united under a singular will. The Elder is a product of the song, the Dashe possessing the greatest will and intellect. Upon the passing of one Elder, the Song will hand loose until another steps into his place. There is no combat for this position, but rather a battle of wills, as the most capable Dashe vie against one another for supremacy. Eventually one will take up the loose threads, weaving them into a whole that will complete the song and allow the new Dashe to evolve into the Elder, the final stage of growth.
Excerpt from the log of Auksifas Kal'Evos
I’d long since sensed the movement in the nether around Shuiqui, th ripples of some gigantic beast or the other that had settled close to my planet. My planet. In my arrogance I thought myself a match for the beasts of the nether. Had I not tamed an entire planet, shaping its landmasses, it’s flora and fauna? Was I not the master of all I saw?
I took a party of Acolytes into the nether with me, I didn’t think that I’d need anymore, a quick foray into the world beyond, to ascertain the nature of the beast and deal with it. I thought that maybe I’d find a curiosity, perhaps a subject for a new experiment. I didn’t think I’d come face to face with creatures of such staggering power and intellect that I felt small. I’ve never felt that...weak that pathetic, not even before the sith emperor himself. Yet thosemagnificent beasts...those dragons, they were a lifeform I had never been able to imagine.
From the moment we stepped into their territory, into the nether we came under assault, their presence twisting the force around them as the creatures of the nether drove themselves against us, driven by their will. A never ending assault on our base, yet, an assault we were more than equal to. We left their creatures piled in heaps around our camp, a wall of flesh to protect us against future assaults. For a time I thought that this was what I had come looking for and I felt disappointed...until a shadow fell over our camp.
The indiscriminate slaughter had attracted the attention of one of the Dashe, the very entity whose territory we had walked into. I thought I knew how to wield the force, to bend nature to my will. How wrong I was. The Dashe threw everything he had at us and we were hard-pressed to defend ourselves. We couldn't defend ourselves, not really. I watched the best and brightest of my acolytes reduced to dust, tearing their own eyes out in horror at the sights they saw. However, I would’t be beaten.
I don’t know how long we fought, it might have been days, it could have been minutes but...somewhere along the line I realised that it wasn’t a beast I was fighting but a creature with intelligence comparable to my own. At some point hte fight became more than that, became a dance. A communication.
I had been searching for the inspiration of my next creation, the peak of the army I was building. In the grace and power of the Dashe I found them, and in them, I found a partner.
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