Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Gold in the Seams [Content Advisory Warning]

The shuttle dipped amongst the city's sprawl, weaving past towering skyscrapers and across vast expanses of residential housing that stretched out as far as the eye could see in any direction. Ravelin was the truest expression of the Sith Empire's power in the galaxy, a sparkling utopia that placed all of their glory on a pedestal for everyone to see. Kintsugi wouldn't find such a magnificent edifice of grandeur anywhere else outside of the Core Worlds.

But the true monument to the Sith was yet ahead.

As they curved around the bend of another glimmering spire, a massive structure dominated their vision that towered above anything else that the young Pantoran had seen so far. Rising three kilometers above the city-scape, the Palace of the Sith Emperor was the largest structure in all of Ravelin and by far the most beautiful. Permanently illuminated by phosphorescent panels, glowspheres, and electroluminescence strips arrayed along its outer walls, even in the brightest day the Palace shimmered like the brightest stars. A series of codes were relayed back and forth from the shuttle's operators and the flight control decks of the Palace's hangar bays, granting them access to land at the highest levels of the Palace's structure.

Typically reserved only for the Emperor and his entourage, but exceptions were made for tributary missions.

As the shuttle came to a rest, a pair of guards commanded the Pantoran to leave the shuttle via the disembarkation ramp. She was then traded off to a pair of the Emperor's own household guards to be escorted to his throne room.

The halls of the Sith Emperor were resplendent in their opulence, a monument to the glory and prestige that his Empire had fought tooth and nail to achieve. The walls were lined with tapestries depicting the various triumphs over the past several years, Krayiss II, Mirial, Thyferra, Alderaan, Coruscant, Ession, and most recently Commenor. Each had been commissioned by the Emperor himself, crafted by the finest weavers in the entire galaxy at the behest of his bottomless coin purse. Bronze busts of Sith Lords, both modern and ancient, were propped up beneath them on pedestals of rich white marble trimmed in gold and inscribed with ancient Sith runes.

It didn't take long for the small Pantoran to come face-to-face with the entrance to the Emperor's throne room.

The doors leading to the Emperor's sanctum were tall, impossibly so, and were gilded on all angles with luminous silver metal while the doors themselves were fashioned from black turadium. There were no guards flanking the doors, only a pair of statues which beckoned with gnarled claws and personified ancient primordial entities from the deepest recesses of Sith lore. Columns of coiling marble flanked a middle walkway upon which a carpet of the richest fabric was laid out with exquisite precision, there was no error in the symmetry of the decoration.

The silence was broken by the tell-tale sound of whirring mechanisms and the gargantuan doors retreated into the doorframe's partition, revealing a chamber of such opulence and grandiosity that it made the waiting chamber look positively dull in comparison. Yet it was not a magnificence that one would expect, the light in the room was dimmed down to barely a flickering glow and the floors and walls seemed to be made out of the darkest substance as if light it was couldn't exist alongside it.


A guard, nearly nine feet tall, emerged from the room to pound the pommel of his vibro-halberd against the floor, drawing the Pantoran's attention to him. "The Emperor will see you now." The guard turned and returned to his station within the chamber, clearing the pathway for the smaller being to enter and begin her trek towards the throne dais. As she proceeded deeper into the chamber, her eyes would begin to adjust to the perpetual gloom as the light of the antechamber receded with the closing of the doors. Mirroring columns of marble lined the pathway to the Emperor's throne, each one decorated with profane and ancient personifications of the Dark Side as depicted in the grimoires of the ancient Red Sith.

The throne itself was raised several steps off of the main floor and had been wrought from a slab of glossy obsidian and inlaid with gold geometry and esoteric symbols, the pelt of a monstrous creature from some distant and primordial world draped over the high back. Yet as grand as the throne appeared, it paled in comparison to the man who sat upon its seat. His muscular body was swaddled in a deep maroon cloak, his torso protected by a cuirass of blackened armor emblazoned with the crest of his house; the dreaded Eye of Solomon. A crown of brilliant rubies sat perched atop his brow, and his luxurious black hair was pulled back in a warrior's ponytail and decorated with bands of gold and shimmering gemstones.

His eyes were like pits of unfathomable hatred, the whites completely corrupted by the Dark Side until they were as black as the empty void between the warmth of the distant molten stars that were his pupils. One brow arched in intrigue as he came to stand before him, his lips peeling back in a callous chuckle as he leaned forward to get a better look at his newest visitor.

And then in a voice overflowing with authority and immense cruelty, "So, this is the gift that Inquisitor Trellux spoke of. You don't look like much, girl, but appearances can be more than deceiving... Tell me who you are."


[member="Kintsugi"]
 

Valgærd

Well-Known Member
The capital was spectacular.

Tall spires reached for the sky, the entire city a standing monument to the emperor that resided here. As we moved through it, for just one moment, I was able to forget my predicament and allow the awe of the city to take my breath away. Sith Empire or not, it was a marvel of architecture and engineering. I was grateful that I had the chance to see it, having no idea what awaited me at the end of my journey. Eventually we came to the biggest and tallest of the spires; the obvious seat of the Emperor's power in this magnificent city.

Like a piece of cargo, I was handed off from one set of guards to another. All the while I kept my head down and did as I was told immediately, doing my best not to draw any attention or give them any reason to... correct me. However, they seemed to treat me with relatively little regard as I was marched through incredible halls decorated with tapestries. I gazed wide-eyed at them as I was marched past, a shiver racing down my spine.

All the while, the dark side had been growing stronger, cold and suffocating as it seemed to seep into my very core. There was powerful corruption here, something I did not want to confront.

Unfortunately, it didn't take much to figure out what the source of that dark side corruption was.

The entrance to the throne room yawned up at me. Everything about this enormous, magnificent, terrible place made me feel tiny and frail and insignificant. My heart pounded in my throat, blood racing in my ears. I fought to keep myself calm, to swallow back the overwhelming fear and keep my breaths steady and even. However, I still flinched when the enormous guard slammed his pommel into the ground, a squeak escaping my throat before I could stop it. My hands wrung together in front of me as I entered the throne room.

The man sitting on the throne made me stop and gasp. He was huge, over eight feet tall surely. He was clad in maroon and black, his stature--even seated in the throne--suited his surroundings perfectly; a being of magnificent and terrible power. I felt my legs tremble as my knees threatened to buckle and give way. As I caught myself a rogue thought forced its way into my mind; a musing that my body seemed to want to bow before this creature almost instinctively.

But it wasn't just his physical stature that shocked me. To say that the dark side of the force was strong with him would be a most egregious understatement. Those terrifying eyes of black corruption seemed to capture and hold my gaze; keeping me trapped there like a deer in the path of a hunter. I gasped, fighting to catch my breath as the overwhelming presence in the throne room seemed to close in on me, crushing me.

He spoke, my entire body trembling as the Emperor of the Sith addressed me directly. I swallowed, fighting to find my voice.

"I-I'm...K-Kintsugi, Sir..." I stammered, my words coming out as quiet squeaking despite my trying to force myself to be heard.

I wanted to tell him I wasn't with the Jedi, that I had been picked up by mistake. I wanted to explain that I had a family to go home to. I wanted to fall at his feet and beg to be allowed to leave. But... he would have already been told of all that. The Nazzar inquisitor, whose name had caused me to flinch, seemed to have either accepted the truth, or stopped caring. I doubted the Emperor would take my word over his anyway.

"... I'm a healer."

Please... please let that be enough to keep me alive.

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[member="Darth Carnifex"]​
 
"Yes, a healer."

In one fluid motion, he rose, descending the steps surrounding the dais of his throne, and came to standing only a couple of meters away from the smaller Pantoran woman. At this distance the Emperor's stature was truly frightening, the Dark Side rolling off of his muscular warrior's physique like heat from an open furnace; though this unnatural frigid heat cut right down to the bone and iced the blood in her veins. He was forced to crane his neck to look down at her, his eyes regarding her in the same manner that one observed a small insect and debated whether or not to cruelly crush it beneath their boot.

"But you are no Jedi, that much is clear. My Inquisitor was too zealous in his interrogation and forgot his manners, a mistake that he will not so easily forget. But let us not linger on Trellux any longer than we have to, my interest is with you... Kintsugi." He crouched down on his haunches, a hand reaching out to cusp her chin and cheeks between his fingers as he forcefully drew her gaze up to meet his own. His eyes bore into hers, unflinching and piercing as the sharpest blade. His touch was repellent, mere contact delivering minute jolts of electricity into her system as the Dark Side poured out from him and into the Pantoran.

"Tell me, Kintsugi. What was your childhood like?"

[member="Kintsugi"]
 

Valgærd

Well-Known Member
I let out a sudden wince, visibly flinching as suddenly the Emperor stood from his throne. My heart leapt and an audible squeak escaped as he descended from the throne, looming over me as I was completely enveloped by his shadow.

My whole body trembled, never had I felt so small. I had to crane my neck to look up at him, not that I could. His entire, monstrous form completely overwhleming and commanding the room. Even without the force, his sheer physical demeanour was intense and overpowering. I bit my lip, keeping my head bowed low in submission. With every word that came from the mouth of his mountain of a man, I felt my breath catch in my throat. I whimpered as he spoke my name, finding myself strangely torn. His entire atmosphere was of the dark side; the words of the Nazzar still echoing in my head regarding the nature of the man. However... his words made me ache with longing. There was... not a kindness necessarily, but there was no cruelty in them, yet.

As he said my name, the Emperor crouched to so we were eye to eye, even though my gaze was fixed on my toes. At least... it was, until he grabbed my chin and tilted my face up to his. I winced, flinching as I felt the sting of almost pure dark side flowing through me from his touch. I squirmed reflexively, my body tugging at his grip while my gaze was lifted into his. I stared up, wide eyed, trapped like a deer before a hunter.

Then he asked his question.

It... caught me off-guard. Perhaps in another life I'd have wondered why he would ask something so seemingly mundane. Why such a powerful and important being would even care what a tiny thing like me had to say. However, staring up into those terrifying black eyes, the only thought in my mind was obeying him.

"... i-it was hard..." I confessed. A pause. I had intended to give him some nothing answer, a polite 'good, Sir' and move one. Flustered and blushing, I found myself compelled to continue, "I lost my parents to some war or other. The sisters raised me in an orphanage. I-I'm grateful for them... so I dedicated my life to giving what they had given me; a chance at life."

I bit my lip, my cheeks burning a deep blue,

"Wh-what are you going to do?"

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[member="Darth Carnifex"]​
 
"Ah, yes."

There was sympathy in his voice, though whether or not it was entirely forced was lost upon the young Kintsugi as he relinquished hold of her face and let her eyes fall where they may. He then stood back to his full height, circling the kneeling girl like a predator sizing up his prey. "The life of an orphan, you and I are not so different. I was rendered an orphan as well, you know. Sixty years ago I lived on the planet of Denon with my mother and father, who taught me that reason and justice are the providence of all sentient life in the galaxy. They were ardent supporters of liberty, you see. They believed in the system and had worked to ensure that it kept me and my siblings safe from harm..."

His expression turned somber, his voice falling to a husky whisper as he recounted this false testimony of his earliest years. "Then the Jedi came to our home, they wanted to take the children away... Myself included. Mother and father, while staunch believers in democracy, were firmly against the dogmatic traditions of the Jedi cult. They denied the Jedi their prize, and so the Jedi murdered both of my parents right in front of our faces. Then when I too resisted they skewered my gut with a lightsaber and left me for dead in the smoldering remains of my burning childhood home." A single tear rolled down from his face, a perfectly poised display of sorrow designed to elicit sympathy and compassion.

"I never knew what truly happened to my siblings after I hauled myself up from the brink of death, they died in some Jedi war or another. Either way, I pledged to myself that I would avenge the wrongful death of my family and rid the galaxy of the Jedi plague once and for all. But in order to do so... I had to make many difficult choices, some that have been vilified by the Jedi and their Republican dogs. The freedom and liberty that my parents believed in with all of their hearts are dead, Kintsugi. The galaxy is in utter disarray and the Jedi do little to inspire change in the common people, so I have taken hold of the reins to will the galaxy into a place where the proud citizens of the galaxy no longer need to live in fear of the unknown."

He reached out a hand towards Kintsugi, beckoning that she take it. "And I could use your aid in bringing forth peace and order."

[member="Kintsugi"]
 

Valgærd

Well-Known Member
I did my best to suppress a shiver as the mighty dark lord spoke, his words carrying... almost an air of sympathy.

With a gasp, I collapsed when he let go of me, dropping to the ground as my knees gave in and my muscles ached from straining to hold my composure for so long. Stifling a sob, I hurriedly pulled myself to my knees as I listened to his story. It... struck me. Crouched where I was, knees on the hard floor, I gazed up at the Emperor in earnest, seeing him as if for the first time. There was... humanity there. For the first time I saw him not as some insentient manifestation of the dark side... but as a person, one who'd once been very young, very hurt, and very afraid.

In that moment I felt my heart break for him.

How lonely had his road been? How much horror had he suffered to have been given so completely over to the dark side? How much had he been hurt that this existence had been become preferable to that one? How had I been so blind as to only just be seeing this now? My chest ached, tears pricking the back of my eyes as I felt as if the wind had been knocked out of me. When I spoke it was barely above a whisper.

"Oh you poor, poor soul." I murmured, reaching out to take his offered hand.

But I paused, my fingers hovering above his, perhaps an inch apart. There was something still deep in my gut, a sensation of dread, a knot tightening. I frowned, feeling as if, somehow, I had been led into a trap--the door to which was now closing. Daring to take in a breath, I retracted my hand, assuming he didn't stop me.

"But this... this isn't the way," I whispered, craning my head back to force myself to look into those eyes, "... this... is wrong. Let me take your pain from you... but this... this isn't right."

Why couldn't I shake this feeling of dread, even as I offered to do the one thing I was really truly made for?

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[member="Darth Carnifex"]​
 
He allowed his hand to linger for a moment longer before it fell back to his side, "You are young and naive, Kintsugi. My pain does not cripple me like it would any other affliction, for by the grace of the Force I am empowered by it. Pain gives me motivation, sharpens my focus, allows me to go as far as is necessary and ensure that I do not waver in my conviction. Coupled with anger and rage, pain is the most powerful force in the entire galaxy, Kintsugi."

She had only tasted but a fraction of his power since she was introduced to him, the rest of his immense strength hidden behind safeguards to be unleashed when threatened. He slackened the restrictions on some of his power at that moment, allowing the young Pantoran a glimpse into the horrible intensity that seethed beneath his scar-ridden skin. Words were inadequate in their effort to describe it, for it was a primordial feeling that went beyond such simple constructs. A feeling that churned in your gut, inspiring dread in every possible thought, and demanding subservience from life itself.

That was the power of the Dark Lord of the Sith, the one they admired, feared, reviled, respected...

That was Darth Carnifex.

"And I can teach you how to harness it if you would accept my offer."

[member="Kintsugi"]
 

Valgærd

Well-Known Member
I was completely taken aback.

Especially after Trellux and his... interrogation... I had not expected the Emperor to be so... reasonable. He spoke again, letting the hand fall to his side as he called me out for being naive. I had experienced the phenomenon he described; a warrior's passion, spurred on in the heat of battle by the searing pain from their wounds, driven by agony to fight all the more ferociously. My head dropped, still flinching slightly as he mentioned me by name.

Suddenly something shifted.

It was as if some veil had been dropped, revealing a boiling, seething, agonising sensation that seemed to suddenly flood out from the Emperor and envelop me completely. A shriek escaped a few moments before I realised it had been my own. The sensation was overwhelming causing my knees to tremble and give out.

I fell to the ground, a hand clutching at my chest as I struggled to draw in breath around this intense, agonising fury. Wide eyes gazed up to the Darth with pure fear... and wonder. This... this... was why the force had never led me into the path of Darth Carnifex. This was
why it had been foolish to think I ever stood a chance against such a force.

This was true power.

It was tempting, so tempting... I could use such power for good, protect myself and my patients while I healed them... never again let myself get captured. The thought of that poor man's execution flashing through my mind. I flinched. He was offering me the chance to stop that from happening, ever again.

"I... could help so much more..." My words were small, barely above a whisper. It was almost as if I was afraid to speak, afraid to admit to my own desires. "... No, I can't. Nothing good comes from the dark side."

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[member="Darth Carnifex"]​
 
She was at the precipice, he could sense it.

All she needed was a shove in the right direction.

"Nothing good?" He chuckled, his jovial chortle making light of her lack of knowledge. "Did you happen to peer out at the city as you arrived? Half a decade ago this city was in ruin, wasting away under mismanagement from a chaotic cult dedicated to ancient primordial gods. Now, look at it, a glittering city of gemstones that spans an entire continent..." He had walked behind her as he spoke, his gnarled hands coming to rest on either of her shoulders, fingers gently tapping against her. "And Ravelin is not the only city to receive the blessing of the Dark Side, nil rzuus. Every world my armies have passed over have been elevated to grandeur the likes of which they had not experienced since before the Four-Hundred Year Darkness. Worlds once lost to squalor and corruption have been scoured clean and given new meaning, new purpose."

With frightening ease he picked her up by her shoulders, turning her around on her feet so she could face him again. But now his position before her was clear, he looked down on her with all of the scrutiny and malevolent of an absolute king looking down upon a subject. "And your thoughts do not betray you, child. You could wield a similar power and extinguish those things which bring you discomfort, and I can guide you on this journey of evolution."

[member="Kintsugi"]
 

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