Sic transit gloria mundi
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: To flesh out Siobhan's retinue and the Granite Guard, an NPC unit I subbed a while ago.
Image Credit: Here. Concept from Thor. Found on comicbook.com.
Role: Personal bodyguard for Siobhan Kerrigan and the Kerrigan clan, Colour Sergeant in the Granite Guard.
Permission: ARGH gear available per this thread. Permission for all ArmaTech gear and all other subs made by Laira Darkhold's writer here and here.
Links: Apocalypse...Not Quite Yet, The Pyramids of Tygara.
PHYSICAL INFORMATION
Age: 702
Force Sensitivity: Non-Force User.
Species: Kar'zun
Appearance: Tall and craggy, a dark shade of grey. Like all Kar'zun, she is literally a walking rock. Her teeth are incredibly tough and continually replaced due to their diet of stones and rock ores. They are made of a semi-organic material of the same hardness as corundum or diamond. Her people can bear the weight of armour for a long time so she inevitably wears it at almost all times. Outside of armour she tends to wear a kilt like thing for modesty sake but not bother anything else. Kar'zun do not have mammary glands, after all. She's cultivated a growth of lichen on her head which is the closest they get to hair.
SOCIAL INFORMATION
Name: Kar'zakush
Loyalties: Granite Guard, Firemane Industries, House Kerrigan, Siobhan, Kar'zun.
Wealth: Modest. She has some loot stashed away and being a member of Siobhan's elite guard force pays well. Should she live long enough to retire before the curse of stone claims her, it ought to be comfortable. Kar'zakush is not a spendthrift or particularly materialistic, but her income should be put to good use supporting her family and her clan.
Notable Possessions:
- Ironside Heavy Assault Armour.
- Ancient talisman of her ancestors
- Pendant with pictures of her son and granddaughter engraved on it
- A battered, no longer functional plasma cannon called Bianca. Kar'zakush is rather fond of the 'old girl' and calls Bianca her lucky charm. She is still quite insistent on keeping her around, but a Sunstriker Plasma Cannon called Vera has replaced her on the battlefield.
- Various mementos from planets she's visited or battlefields she's fought on.
- Ashira's Maul
- Agneya Particle Rifle
- Eradicator Blaster
- Sarzmigar Mk2
- RSIC-11 "Suncrusher" Blaster Pistol
Personality: Like many old veterans - or old people in general - Kar'zakush has a no-nonsese attitude and the mentality of someone who's seen it all. Or at least does a good job of projecting such an attitude. She is old, almost ancient. She's seen countless empires rise and fall into the dust bin of history, has experienced triumphs, defeats and heartbreaks many times over. She's seen great conquerors and so-called deities humbled and freedom fighters turn into tyrants many times over.
This long life gives her a dispassionate, almost philosophical outlook, as she is a bit removed from the daily hurly-burly. She still retains the characteristic dislike that many of her people feel towards the Eldorai for the suffering they inflicted upon the Kar'zun. While she used too despise them, now she is too old to still pursue such hatred. However, this does not translate into forgiveness. In her way, the Eldorai never atoned. She will feel sympathy for individual Eldorai who are evidently suffering and not part of the elite, such as slaves or mistreated commoners. But she has harsh views of them as a collective. Moreover, she refuses to take orders from Eldorai or otherwise defer to them. She is very loyal to her people and will not perform actions she believes will cause harm to them or go against their interests. Her clan is very important to her.
Kar'zakush is not the type to act rashly or given to flights of fancy, especially in a fight. On the battlefield, she is logical, calculating and disciplined. This is not to say that she is an emotionless automaton, far from it. She has a dry, sarcastic wit, though it is sometimes difficult to get her somewhat obscure references or tell whether she is joking or not as Kar'zun expressions are very difficult to read. She has a very irreverent streak. Being made of stone, they tend to look stoic and impassive. Outside of her work, she can be a surprisingly gentle giant and is particularly friendly to children. Like a good grandmother, she's also quick to offer advice and words of wisdom to the young ones, though they do not always heed her counsel, despite her centuries of life experience!
Presently, Kar'zakush is in the services of Lady Siobhan Kerrigan. The Karishzar is just the latest in a long chain of employers and commanders. The stone woman may end up outliving Siobhan, unless she gives her life on the battlefield. Or the human uses esoteric techniques to prolong her life span while her guardian succumbs to the curse of stone. The relationship between the two differs in a number of ways from the typical interactions between Siobhan and many of the members of her retinue.
There are obviously no fade to black scenes due to incompatible tastes. All things considered, Kar'zakush cannot understand why humans in general and her present employer in particular make such a fuss about coitus, as her people derive no particular enjoyment nor passion from such acts. That aside, the stone woman has served many masters during the course of her long life, and this gives her a high degree of independence. In her dealings with Siobhan, she is honest and forthright, even on occasions when the Lady is in a mood.
Kar'zakush is the kind of grizzled, irreverent, at times cranky NCO who cannot be bothered to fawn over a superior...especially one who's not even a fraction of her age. She has repeatedly turned down offers to promote her, saying that she cannot be bothered with fancy titles. She has a tendency to assign nicknames to people she meets. Depending on her view of them, these can be endearing or very disparaging. On an idiosyncratic note, Kara'kush is not keen on birds. Damnable feathered creatures. Or being referred to as a golem. Both tend to make her cranky.
COMBAT INFORMATION
Weapon of Choice: Various ranged and melee weapons. Has a preference for heavy weapons at range. Favours a war hammer, greatsword or polearm close-up.
Combat Function: Kar'zakush a tank. Her primary combat function is as a bodyguard, small unit leader, non-commissioned officer and heavy assault trooper. She can protect members of House Kerrigan-Alcori, command small units and participate in the fury of combat. She is a Sergeant, and thus a vital link between officers and the grunts. She ensures that orders from on high are carried out and drills grunts hard, but also makes sure the officer in charge knows what the conditions are and what the soldiers can and cannot do. She's too hold to play coy and not voice hard truths.
Being a Kar'zun she is literally a walking rock, possessing the strength of stone. Thus she is incredibly strong, tough and resilient. Kar'zun grow stronger as they age, making her particularly tough. Being made of the toughness of stone, she is extremely resistant to cold and heat. While intense amounts of both can still hurt her, it would require sustained exposure.
Being an unusual type of creature, her people are almost impossible to mentally dominate. Couple this with her long experience, and she resists mental attacks easily. Kar'zakush is extremely proficient in the use of heavy weapons. She can easily use the heaviest weapons Firemane can equip her with. Favouring overwhelming weaponry, she can deliver a fearsome punch both at range and in melee. Her skill, incredible strength and durability make her a fearsome melee combatant. She favours war hammers, axes and polearms such as the Sarzmigar. Unfortunately, being a walking rock, she is also quite slow and ponderous. This is something a more agile opponent could exploit in combat.
Her size can make her difficult to transport, she cannot swim and would sink in a swamp. Muddy terrain is rather difficult to traverse. It also makes her terrible at stealth. Bottom line, an opponent will hear and see her coming, and depending on the terrain, her size can become a disadvantage. She is a tank, plain and simple. While tough, she is vulnerable to sonic and pulse weapons. Her hide provides protection against glancing blows from a lightsabre, but cannot tank full-on contact, and so she wears heavy armour.
Strengths:
- Stone warrior. Kar'zun are walking rocks and have the strength of stone. Kar'zakush is extremely strong, durable and resilient - and get tougher over the centuries. She is very resistant to intense cold and heat. Due to being an unusual type of creature, Kar'zun are almost impossible to mentally dominate with the Force. She resists mental attacks with ease.
- Crack soldier. Kar'zakush has many centuries of battlefield experience. Furthermore, she is very skilled in small unit leadership. She is very disciplined and calculating in combat.
- Ponderous. Unfortunately, being walking rocks also makes her slow. Her people grow more ponderous as they age and she is very old. This has implications in combat, especially against more lightly armoured, agile opponents.
- She is very big and made of rock. As a result, she is not good at stealth. Her appearance is always obvious and her power armour is very distinctive. She is a hammer or a broadsword, not a scalpel.
Kar'zakush was born on Kaeshana, centuries before the outbreak of the Gulag Virus brought galactic civilisation to its knees. It had been a century since the legions of the Eldorai Star Queen Ariane I sacked Vak'zahr, capital of the Kar'zun, eradicating any of the stone people they found. On that day, the fate of Kaeshana had been decided for good. The surviving Kar'zun were broken into small groups, moved into reservations and persecuted. So many had died in the great war, and so few children were born, that their race was driven to the brink of extinction.
To the Kar'zun, it was a shocking near-genocide, and Ariane was a war criminal and savage oppressor, whom they called Az'varik, or deadly flame. To the Eldorai meanwhile she was a hero, a woman who brought a terrible war to a close, turning the tide when it seemed like the Eldorai would face enslavement at the hands of the Kar'zun. Which viewpoint is true? Regardless of the answer, Kar'zakush first breathed air far away from the ruins of her people's capital, for she came into being in a remote 'reservation'. She grew up in a clan that had suffered greatly during the war and the aftermath. In their ballads, they sung about their past glory, honoured their ancestors and lamented their tribulations and lost kin.
Like all Kar'zun habitats, the reservation was under the yoke of the Eldorai. House Cadalthor, a staunch supporter of Ariane's Crusade, held sway over the land, and launched harsh crackdowns on any sign of opposition. A council of Kar'zun clan elders was caught in the middle, being forced to appease both the victorious conquerors and their resentful constituents, who viewed the 'collaborators' as sellouts. One year, controls might be relaxed, the next tightened, the reservation would be altered and redrawn. As a young child, Karza'kush had to leave the reservation with her family, for after unrest had broken out, the Eldorai decided to tighten the noose, moving the clan away from their ancestral mountainous habitat in order to make them more dependent on their mistresses. Resistance to the deportation order was treated harshly.
As a young one, she lashed out violently against the occupiers, and paid the price as she learned the consequences of defiance. Some of the elders of the clan suffered the curse of stone on the way. One of her uncles joined a group of insurgents, but was eventually killed by the Angelii. Her resentment towards the Eldorai grew. When she was older, she was conscripted to work as an indentured labourer in a distant mine. Being physically strong and extremely durable, the Kar'zun were suited for this, which is why the weaker, more nimble Eldorai utilised them for labour that normal organic beings would consider backbreaking.
Ironically, it was outsiders who gave Kar'zakush an opportunity to leave Kaeshana. To be precise, it was slavers. The generally physically appealing appearance of the Eldorai, combined with their low pain threshold, made them attractive targets for traffickers in sentient flesh. Moreover, the Eldorai's isolation ensured that they were technologically behind the galactic standard. In this particular case, it was a gang called the Iron Buccaneers. For a while, they'd had a deal with the local Eldorai prefect, exchanging tech for gold. However, then they decided to loot and pillage instead. Supposedly after being cheated.
Seeking riches and easy prey, the slavers struck the gold mine she laboured in, along with the nearby Eldorai settlement. Using the heavy guns of their ships, blasters and vibroblades, the pirates attacked ferociously, slaughering those Eldorai who resisted and claiming the rest as slaves. For Kar'zakush, it was a chance to rise up and rebel against her hated overmistresses, utilising mining tools as improvised weapons along with her natural strength. Indeed, she ended up saving the life of one of the corsairs' leaders. In the future, she would have cause to regret aligning herself with the raiders...but at the same time it was her ticket to freedom.
Eldorai troops attacked in full force, compelling the raiders to flee with their booty. The spaceships took to the sky, blasting away with their cannons while using their speed to evade the forces the space elves had amassed. Kar'zakush went with them, having earned some favour with them due to her strength. Undoubtedly seeing space for the first time was an unsettling experience for the young Kar'zun. She'd also never met aliens before, and was wholly unfamiliar with their language. Her stony fists were good at shutting down racist comments about her being a golem though. Presented to the Buccaneers' leader, she became a member of the gang. Subsequently, she participated in a number of raids on Kaeshana and neighbouring worlds. In each, she proved her strength and got the chance to exact vengeance on her tormentors.
However, her hatred for the Eldorai did not extend to other races, and over time further got watered down when she saw that all of them were Cadalthor stooges, but innocent civilians. Exposed to the cruel way the captives were being treated, she gained some sympathy for them, especially after she saw one of the slave markets they were being sold on life stock. It did not help that many of the pirates continued to treat her with contempt. After seeing a young slave being savagely beaten and crying out for help, she decided to take action. One night, when the corsairs were celebrating after a successful raid, she struck. Pirates put up a fight, pirates died.
After freeing the slaves, she left them with tools and supplies, then left. Free but unable to return to Kaeshana after all she'd done, she became a wanderer. An entire Galaxy full of possibilities, both fascinating and scary, was open to her. One of the freed slaves, to whom she'd shown kindness, became her pilot. Over the decades, Kar'zakush became a smuggler, mercenary and bounty-hunter. Though the Second Imperial Civil War had ended with a combined Alliance-Empire-in-exile victory and the dissolution of Darth Krayt's Galactic Empire, there was no shortage of low-intensity conflicts in the Galaxy.
So she became a sellsword, lending her blade to various factions that in this or that way sought to impose their vision on the stars. Or just make a profit. She tended to outlive her employers, as they either died peacefully died in bed or were killed by their rivals. Or sometimes turned on her, in which case she killed them, though she stuck to a code of always honouring a contract unless she was given good cause to do otherwise. For a while, she ran a syndicate of bounty-hunters operating out of Corellia, accepting contracts from crime lords, politicians, police agencies and corporations. Later, she served as the bodyguard of an ambitious Galactic Alliance Senator after she caught his attention by tracking down a murderous rogue Jedi who had gone on a killing spree...because the Dark Side told her. Or something of that nature. Baffled and disgusted by such craven excuses, the Kar'zun brought her to justice, dismissing claims about redemption.
Regardless, the bodyguard job paid well, and there was no shortage of people who wanted to assassinate the ambitious politician or kidnap family members. Or who needed a beating because they were in his way since her employer had no qualms about doing shady things if it helped him advance his career. The Senator later fell from grace after he got embroiled in a corruption scandal that ended up being leaked to the press. Kar'zakush walked away and soon found new employers.
At some point, she made the acquaintance of the enigmatic Tamara Peregrinus, who may or may not have been a time traveller. Or an immortal. She certainly did not age. Anyhow, the two ended up becoming buddies and had several adventures together, despite being rather different in temperament and methods. Unsurprisingly, said adventures were filled with meta references and fourth wall breaks. Among other things, they visited the Rishi Maze, Korriban and Csilla. Another journey took them to Tatooine, where Kar'zakush complained about the sand because it was coarse and irritating, and fought a Krayt Dragon.
Eventually, they drifted apart and Kar'zakush continued her travels independently. She found employment in a series of conflicts between the Galactic Alliance and the resurgent Empire, working for whichever side was offering. Working alongside Imperial marines, she once boarded and successfully sabotaged a prototype Alliance warship. Then the Gulag Virus broke out and everything went to hell in a hand basket. It started on Csilla, but soon spread across the Galaxy, bringing galactic civilisation to its knees. Entire star systems were cut off, trillions perished, empires collapsed and chaos reigned. Karza'kush happened to be on Coruscant when all hell broke loose, having returned there completing a job.
Alas, her employer of the week was in no position to compensate here due to being infected. She tussled with an apocalyptic doomsday cult of human supremacists that believed that virus was the doing of alien conspirators who wanted to exterminate humaninity for...some reason. Amidst all the looting and general panic, the stone woman got caught up in the turmoil and teamed up with some soldiers and low-class refugees to escape. Her assault cannon proved its utility when it came to securing appropriate transport. When it turned out that a member of the rag-tag band of misfits had been infected by the virus, Kar'zakush reluctantly mercy-killed the poor unfortunate soul. For a while, she made a living as part of a smuggling gang that ferried supplies to worlds that had been cut off. But even this became hazardous.
After her ship was damaged in a skirmish with pirates, she was stranded on a remote, primitive planet called Raevana. Seemingly on her own, she was forced to subsist by herself for a long time. Luckily, Kar'zun eat stones and ore. Eventually she was able to secure passage offworld when a group of explorers stumbled on the planet, after she saved them from savage lizardmen. By then several decades had passed, but something truly unexpected happened when she encountered an independent Kar'zun clan.
She ran into fellow Kar'zun warriors doing a job where it turned out they'd been hired by different sides. After spending some time shooting at each other, the stone warriors realised they were of the same race and decided to band together. Kar'zakush continues to insist she would have won. The Kar'zun she ended up marrying politely agrees to disagree. Understandably, their employers did not like the sudden switch. After fighting their way out, she was brought to the clan, which was centred on a few spaceships. The clan had turned its back on Kaeshana and lived a nomadic life, never staying at one place for long. Here, the restless Kar'zakush found some stability, after being accepted into the clan. It pained her stone heart that conditions on Kaeshana were still poor for her people. Eventually, she married one of warriors and had a son.
Time passed, and the Galaxy pulled itself out of the Dark Age. New powers rose and tried to force their vision upon the Galaxy. Now taking a step back from an active role in combat, Kar'zakush nonetheless accompanied younger Kar'zun warriors into battle to mentor and supervise them, as mercenary work was one of the ways for the clan to gain funds and resources. Thus she fought at Denon, when Omega Pyre liberated the planet from zombie hordes. She received word that conditions were changing on Kaeshana. Queen Tirathana VII, disturbed by the past horrors, lifted the age-old quarantines and allowed the Kar'zun to return to their old habitats. However, Kar'zakush was unwilling to become the subject of an Eldorai Queen, no matter how liberal she appeared to be. A turning point came during the Great Exodus from Kaeshana, when she returned to her doomed homeworld to help her people escape. It was during this time that she came to the attention of Firemane.
Lady Siobhan Kerrigan had lobbied for the Kar'zun to be saved rather than abandoned on the doomed planet. Since she was the one providing the ships for the evacuation fleet, the Eldorai were not really in a position to refuse. After all, even though many of them liked to think they were the overmistresses of the Galaxy...they were just small fish. In return for Firemane's aid, the Kar'zun clans provided warriors, mechanics and other personnel. One of those who volunteered was Kar'zakush, who served with Firemane ever since, though she regularly sent money and gifts home to her clan. Many Kar'zun left the corporation after their service had come to an end, settling either on Tygara or sticking with one of the independent clans, but she stayed.
Kar'zakush was one of the Kar'zun warriors deployed to Atrisia to aid in dealing with a number of Sithspawn that were left in the wake of the Sith Lords' defeat at the hands of the Galactic Alliance. The cataclysmic events of the battle turned Jar'kai into a Dark Side Nexus. As Siobhan quickly recognised, Kar'zun would be perfectly suited to help secure the area because they would be able to resist the dark influence. The population treated them with wariness, but Kar'zakush and her squad managed to gain their trust. They were among the few who could venture into the hellscape without being tainted. This gave her a taste of being considered noble and heroic. Some trapped survivors had been so affected by the nexus that they mistook her for a demon, as she rembled a golem. However, recognising that they were traumatised, she went to great lengths to stun them nonlethally when they attacked her, even when they used lethal force.
The Kar'zun made herself a name fighting Sithspawn and rescuing survivors who had been trapped inside the hellscape and often mentally afflicted by it. On one such hunt, she saved some beleaguered Firemane soldiers from a vicious terentatek. Kar'zakush and her squad also provided security for Firemane engineers engaged in civil construction projects to help restore Atrisia. Some of the were Kar'zun who would go on to help reform the Disciples of Stone, an old, prestigious unit of Kar'zun engineers. Renewed contact with her people gave her hope for the future.
She fought during the Kaeshana Rebellion, linking up with Kar'zun who'd elected to stay behind. The aftermath of this battle caused a rift between Firemane and the Eldorai after Tarissa Cadalthor, an Eldorai noblewoman, tried to seize power in a coup, blaming 'human monkeighs' for the defeat. After personally executing Tarissa for treason in front of the Eldorai Council and informing the nobles about the consequences of messing with her, Siobhan decided to found the Granite Guard, a unit composed of Kar'zun warriors. Kar'zakush was one of those who volunteered for it. Increasingly suspicious of those she'd once considered her allies, Siobhan picked the taciturn Kar'zun for her personal squad, which was charged with protecting Firemane's first family. Kar'zakush fought at her liege's side during the Battle of Hoth, participating in the assault on Outpost Veers.
Siobhan took a liking to the old Kar'zun and she became a very visible presence at her side, frequently accompanying her on inspections and to negotiations. She also got to know Siobhan's little wards, Livia and Adril. Kar'zakush and the Granite Guard participated in the final battle against the League of Krolis. This was an alliance of Qadiri states that had banded together against Shahbânu Semiramis, who wanted to unite the Qadiri under her rule and ensure that her candidate was chosen as Saoshyant, the high priestess of her people. Semiramis was a Firemane ally, which pulled Siobhan into the conflict. After a long, bloody counterinsurgency campaign, Firemane was able to force the League into a pitched battle. When a Force-based sandstorm caused Siobhan's gunship to crash, she and her praetorians came under heavy fire.
The Granite Guards acquitted themselves well, helping their boss fight against a superior enemy attack. Indeed, Kar'zakush saved Siobhan's life in the fight, shielding her from an explosion. She clashed with Qadiri earth and fire mages, while Siobhan duelled Sahali Jai Bysara, High Mistress of the Sistren of the Eternal Flame and Jaziri of the League. Sahali destroyed Siobhan's lightsabre with her enchanted blade, but was ultimately defeated by the Dark Jedi in a fierce duel. Sahali managed to get away and conduct a retreat, but was murdered by traitorous nobles, who blamed her for defeat.
Ironically, the same nobles had pushed Sahali into meeting Firemane in open combat because they selfishly deemed her all-out guerilla campaign to be too costly for them. However, when they presented her head to Siobhan, she was disgusted by the betrayal and personally executed their ringleader. After the Granite Guards and Siobhan's Xioquo warriors had overpowered the conspirators, they were sent to Sahali's loyalist for execution. Likewise, the dead Qadiri general's body was returned for a proper burial. Kar'zakush remained at Siobhan's side.
More recently, she accompanied her liege-lady on an adventure to a supposedly cursed pyramid on Tygara. For centuries the Great Pyramid had lain dormant in the Dune Seas of Tygara. The Qadiri avoided it, considering it cursed, for those who ventured into the structure came back mad, assuming they returned at all. A Qadiri potentate had once tried to enter, but he had succumbed to insanity. However, Siobhan took an interest into the structure after her Hutt scientist Varosh informed her of strange readings. According to him, the pyramid was emitting steadily rising levels of Zeta Radiation. He theorised that the structure had been built by a species of alien precursors that had once ruled the planet.
A desire for adventure as well as sense of duty motivate Siobhan to investigate this personally. She took Kar'zakush with her. They ventured to a Firemane fort on the planet. There, Sahal Jai Azhal, one of Siobhan's Qadiri vassals, was based, alongside a Sepoy unit from the Firemane Auxiliary Corps. Sahal was the sole survivor of the failed Qadiri expedition to the pyramid. The events surrounding it had been very traumatising for her. However, she was devoted to her Lady and thus volunteered to accompany her. They were joined by a squad of her Sepoys. One of them was Sahmara Jai Saobana, a former slave who had taken Siobhan's name after being freed by her. Kar'zakush found cause to snark about she fangirled about Siobhan. Regardless, the party arrived at the pyramid and set up camp. However, they were assaulted by a mechanical monstrosity. Working together as a team, the dynamic trio was able to take it down.
Then Siobhan, Kar'zakush, Sahal and Sahmara entered the pyramid, while the squad guarded the camp. Inside the pyramid, many hazards awaited them. They had to fight war droids and traps left behind by the pyramid's former masters. Kar'zakush distinguished herself, smashing a huge cyborg beast with her war hammer. She also made many fourth-wall breaking references, when she was not complaining about her favourite holodrama being ruined by bad writing. However, guardians were not the only hazard the quartet faced. The the pyramid's creators had imprinted powerful illusions on it. Rooms, staircases and doorways disappeared, voices tried to turn the members of the party against each other and at one point the trio was seemingly trapped in an enormous hall that warped itself whenever they tried to break out.
However, the party was able to overcome these hazards. After communicating with a hologram, they learned that the pyramid was in fact a ship. Radiation was approaching critical levels, but Kar'zakush was able to discover what they had to do to shut down the reactors. On the way, they faced a horde of zombies. After overcoming this final hazard and shutting down the reactor, they came across the tomb of an ancient warlord. His ghost awakened and speechified about his glorious return to power. However, Siobhan had enough and drained him from existence. Thereafter, the quartet headed to the bridge, where Siobhan took possession of the pyramid-ship. The ship was still functional and she piloted it, picking up the Qadiri Sepoys along the way.
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