Lords of the Sith [Training Thread 1]

[Darth Voyance]

LORDS OF THE SITH​

PART 1: MASTER and APPRENTICE​

​

​

​

Aboard the Dark Lord's Transport
Outside Korriban

​

Pythia awoke from her meditations. Weeks had passed since the Dark Lord of the Sith [member="Darth Carnifex"], had freed her from her enslavement as a spice dancer at Grebb's Slaver's Bazaar. Now she had found herself inside a private chamber withing the Dark Lord's personal transport. Her dancer clothes had been destroyed along with the body of her friend Zerra on the Sith Empire capital world of Bastion in a pyre cremation. Her past life was literally ash. And yet she could still feel its pull, feel Grebb's touch, feel the pain of seeing Zerra's corpse with a blaster wound in her chest. She closed her eyes. She tried to focus on the words of her master when she was newly arrived on Bastion.

Meditate. Clear your mind. And end that which you once were.

Even in her new Sith robes, with its long crimson cloak over a darker red robe tunic did not bring about the illusion of a new beginning. The past still lingered and it was bolstered by questions her master had yet to answer. What were her powers? What were the Sith? Where they the "lying mystics" Grebb cursed?

What was this power, she had become drawn to?

Once again Pythia tried to meditate. She sunk into her powers, attempted to summon a calm, and sweep aside visions of her past. The seeped into her mind like creatures in the dark. Pythia squinted with her eyes closed as if the physical action could perhaps dispel these nostalgic nightmares. The darkness spoke to her, but, she had no way of channelling its powers to help her reach a sharp focus - like her master's. Giving up she opened her eyes. It was hopeless, perhaps this was all an illusion. This removed from her prison and she still felt trapped. Pythia clenched her fingers into a fist and grimaced at her own weakness. The room around her rippled with the invisible rage she bent onto the Force that unbeknown to her was bending to her quiet rage.

"Where do I find this power to control my fate." Pythia hissed, frustrated.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

​

​

Korriban
Stygian Caldera

After nearly twenty years, Korriban belonged to the true heirs of the Old Empire once again.

The battle had been hard fought, but in the end the New Empire had triumphed over the duumvirate that defied it. Unfortunately, the Magister of Korriban had slipped through his fingers, no doubt scurrying back to his fellow Magister like a rat with its tail firmly tucked between its legs.

It wouldn't matter how far how hard they ran, Imperial Justice would catch up with them eventually. Even now the best and most tenacious trackers in the Empire we working tirelessly to uncover the hole they had burrowed into, scouring every square inch of the Stygian Caldera and leaving no stone unturned. Hundreds had been detained and interrogated, their minds pilfered of everything they had known or seen until they were nothing more than a mindless husk.

The Saaraishash was nothing if not ruthless in its pursuit of justice.

But none of that was why Carnifex had brought his newest apprentice to Korriban, birthplace of the Sith. He brought her here so she could bask in the glory that was the ancient Sith, to see their monumental works and feel the presence of the Dark Side of the Force permeating the planet.

Yet even still she found it difficult to summon the power that lay at her fingertips, hungry and waiting.

However, her frustration pleased him as the air shimmered with her anger, the walls quaking in response. "It is within you, Pythia. It had always been within you, but those vermin addled your minds with drugs until it served their purpose rather than your own. That is why I have brought you here, apprentice, to the birthplace of my sacred order. This world has been called many names over the years, Korriban, Pesegam, Moraband... But whatever the name, whatever the owner, it has always been a place rife with the echoes of old power. Come, we will explore the tombs of our forefathers and explore your past, present, and your future."

[member="Pythia"]​

 

[Darth Voyance]

[member="Darth Carnifex"]

Pythia flinched in a startled jolt of her spine when she heard the words of her master. He had entered her chamber without her even noticing. Truly he was a dark shadow - the one that had protected her all those years within the Slaver's Bazaar. Pythia stood up and bowed her head, having only recently learned the etiquette of the dark order her master belonged to. The order for which he was its greatest lord and commander. The thought that such a powerful being took interest in her made her shiver with timid guilt.

"It is within you, Pythia. It had always been within you, but those vermin addled your minds with drugs until it served their purpose rather than your own. That is why I have brought you here, apprentice, to the birthplace of my sacred order. This world has been called many names over the years, Korriban, Pesegam, Moraband... But whatever the name, whatever the owner, it has always been a place rife with the echoes of old power. Come, we will explore the tombs of our forefathers and explore your past, present, and your future."

Pythia raised her head and looked at her master. She mouthed the words of the ancient world of darkness.

"Korriban?" Pythia continued, "Is this the place where your Sith come from?"

Pythia wondered about this Sith. During her re-cooperation on the capital world of Bastion, she had come into contact with some holo-archives that spoke of the Dark Side and the ancient Sith Lords. Immense and unimaginable beings of unparalleled power like her master. Masters of fates. Pythia stepped forward walking close up to her master staring into the golden eyes that had persuaded her to follow him.

"Will I become them...a Sith?" Pythia questioned.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"Over seven thousand years ago began a conflict known as the Hundred-Year Darkness. It was an internal schism in the Jedi Order between those who believed that all aspects of the Force, Light and Dark, should be studied and those whose rigid dogmatism shunned anything that was not of the Light. As the name suggests the conflict lasted for a hundred years before those who had been bold enough to venture beyond the safety of the Light were bested at Corbos, and were banished from known space by the victorious Jedi."

The Dark Lord's shuttle dipped down into Korriban's atmosphere, hundreds of miles of red sand and rock rising to dominate the ship's viewports. Distant temples and pyramids stood out among the wastes, the echoes of a long gone civilization that gave birth to the Sith Order in more ways than just name.

"These Exiles wandered the cosmos, tapping into the Dark Side of the Force to safely navigate their way here. Here they found a race of red-skinned aliens known as the Sith who were inexorably tied to the Dark Side of the Force, and had built the structures you see beyond the confines of this shuttle. To the ancient Sith the Exiles were as Gods, and they were quickly conquered and made to serve the Exiles who had been scorned by their brothers in the Force. From that day forward they were known as the Lords of the Sith, with the man known as Ajunta Pall becoming the first Dark Lord of the Sith. I am the heir to that legacy, for now I hold the title of Dark Lord of the Sith."

The Valley of the Dark Lords now came into view, a canyon filled with monuments and tombs dedicated to the deceased Dark Lords of the Sith who had ruled the Sith across the eons of time. The shuttle settled down on one of the newer landing platforms that had been erected in the Valley.

"You and I will explore these ancient ruins, and through them you will learn what it means to become a Sith."

[member="Pythia"]​

 

[Darth Voyance]

[member="Darth Carnifex"]

The tale of the great old Sith Lords, exiles of the Jedi, played out in vivid imaginations in Pythia's mind. For a brief moment she thought of Grebb who had once beaten her for daring to discuss the force users who lingered beyond the horizons of Ventooine. "Do not speak of those lying mystics!" she remembered him howl. Now she knew why, it was not some arbitrary punishment she had wrought. But, it was an illusion designed to hid her vision from power. True power. For Pythia realised had she ignored her fear and delved into the Sith or Jedi she would have realised what her powers and the shadow within her truly were, seeds of power.

For a brief moment, Pythia grew enraged deep down. While her expression became deadpan and respectful, her soul screamed. I should have learned of the Sith years ago. Then I would have killed that monster earlier and spared Zerra! The rage however, subsided into guilt and remorse. And as quickly the flame of power came to her did it dim to dark embers in the cinders of her soul.

"You and I will explore these ancient ruins, and through them you will learn what it means to become a Sith." said her dark master. Pythia felt the transport shake as it landed. Pythia slowly rose to her feet, still clenching her fists. She nodded and followed her master as they strolled down the transport corridors.

"Master..." Pythia began hesitant to ask, "How...how is it the Sith are capable of using their powers? I have tried to meditate as you intructed, to imitate the dark rage that empowers you...like the one I felt when I touched your hand and was swallowed by visions of your might...how may I use it?"

Pythia felt ashamed of what she had to admit next, "My rage is weak and it burns like a thin candle."

 

[Darth Carnifex]

The shuttle's ramp descended, exposing the Dark Lord and his apprentice to the blistering winds of the Sith homeworld.

Carnifex took point, his footfalls thundering down the ramp in long purposeful strides. Each gust of wind unsettled mounds of sand and dust that had settled during the brief lulls, and already the fresh landing platform was covered with copious amounts of red dirt. The Dark Lord paid them no mind, he walked through the gale unperturbed as he answered his apprentice's questions.

"The Sith derive their power from the Force, specifically the Dark Side of the Force. The Force is an energy field that connects all things in the galaxy. All energy from the Living Force, from all things that have ever lived, feeds into the Cosmic Force, binding everything and communicating to us through the midi-chlorians. To most the Force is unseen, untouchable, and wholly separate from their beings. But for people like you and I, those who possess an innate sensitivity to the Force through the midi-chlorians, can tap into the wellspring of power that is the Force and manipulate reality to our desires. Beyond the Living and Cosmic Force there are two more sides, that of the Light Side of the Force and that of the Dark Side of the Force."

They continued on through the valley, encountering wind-swept statues of ancient Sith Lords whose names have long eroded away into the annuls of history and the sun-bleached bones of those too weak to survive in the barren wastes, some of which sported the tattered remains of acolyte robes.

"As I said before, we Sith tap into the Dark Side for our power. The Dark Side itself feeds off of more intense, raw and darker emotions such as fear, anger, hatred, passion, and aggression. It is the darkness of our own soul, Pythia, emerging only when such emotions are invoked. When your former 'master' murdered your friend in the Bazaar, the Dark Side fed off of your emotions and granted you the power to exact vengeance. When his blood stained your hands the Dark Side flickered and died, like a fire without oxygen to fuel it. You have left your past behind you, but that does not mean to forsake it completely. Always remember where you came from, Pythia, remember the hordes of vermin using you to slate their own desires, those memories will never leave you. Do not bury them, remember them vividly. They will be the kindling that will set alight the Dark Side within you."

A tomb loomed before them, its entrance shadowy and seeping with the Dark Side of the Force.

[member="Pythia"]​

 

[Darth Voyance]

[member="Darth Carnifex"]

Pythia listened to her master as the departed the shuttle. Korriban had been what it always was, a graveyard for the darkest of the Sith Lords, still whispering within their tombs. It shall always be a source of evil, spawning threats throughout the millennia. It hot wind carried the winds of the dark side in engulfing waves in the Force. Pythia struggled to keep up with her master, as her empathic abilities resonated with the darkness of Korriban, and that within her. Like a beast once starved for meat being teased a feast, the dark side roared within her. It was intoxicating. Pythia stopped and took in a deep breath. She looked down at her hands and could feel it, sense it, the power of the dark side. She wanted to tap into it and yet she still could not over come the mental barrier that dragged her backwards. She grew frustrated again.

As they traversed the desert wastes, Pythia heard of her master speak of her past.

"You have left your past behind you, but that does not mean to forsake it completely."

"They will be the kindling that will set alight the Dark Side within you."

Pythia wrinkled her brow. She thought of her past, of being drugged and used, abused. Back then she would have cowered into a corner to quietly weep away the pain. Now she was free, set free by the dark side. Now she would use the pain to fuel her darkness. She tormented herself by summoning the image of her dead friend Zerra and the eerie phantom sensation of Grebb's touch on her skin. Her mouth bent and she narrowed her vision, fuelled by the dark winds of Korriban and her reconciling with her past, she brooded.

"I will not fail, master." Pythia hissed. "I will become a Sith....and make a new home in the depths of the Dark Side."

Her master stopped. Pythia had been lost in her dark meditations and did not notice. She flinched first staring at her master and then at the monstrous shadow that they had walked into. It was the shadow of an ancient Sith Lord's tomb. A monolithic monument to the dark side. It sent a deep chill through Pythia's body. A chill she new well from when her mind dipped into the dark abyss of her masters on Ventooine. But, the abyss that emanated from the tomb was horrible and great, but, also alluring to Pythia. Pythia indeed, had made a home in the abyss of the dark side. But, would this home - welcome her.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

The Tomb of Vilia Calimondra awaited the Dark Lord and his astonished protégé.

The front entrance was flanked by two weather-worn red sandstone statues of the late Sith Lady holding swords with their blades pointed vertically towards the ground, while the immediate interior was only illuminated by the fading light from outside. The deeper in their delved, the darker the tomb would become until all that surrounded them was inky blackness pierced by the baying cries of hungry predators.

But the Dark Lord did not seem to be hindered by the sheer darkness that concealed the secrets of the tomb, "Vilia Calimondra was a Sith Lady who lived nearly two thousand years ago. Through political ambition and marriage she amassed a great deal of territory during the Republic Dark Age, and established her own Empire in the Grumani sector. Though her Empire was torn to pieces upon her death by her squabbling grandchildren, she is remembered for the brilliant politician and strategist she was during her lifetime. Her remains are entombed here on Korriban alongside the other Lords and Ladies, her memory preserved in edifice."

More history, more names. It would be prudent for Pythia to ready herself for the copious amount of exposition on the eons of Sith history that her master retained inside of his cranium, for despite his talents lying in the realms of the physical he was a voracious scholar of ancient Sith history and philosophy.

[member="Pythia"]​

 

[Darth Voyance]

[member="Darth Carnifex"]

The tomb was a well of darkness both, in absence of light and vibrancy in the dark side of the force. Pythia stood by her master and revelled in its power. As they progressed into the tomb Pythia began to wonder about the Lords of the Sith and how they commanded such power. What did it mean to weild such power? What made this Calimondra such a champion of the Dark Side and the Sith? Pythia then thought of the Force, the Dark Side and what her master lectured upon as they had approached the tomb. The Force grants power, and that power grants strength - strength over oneself and others. Pythia nodded and looked to her master.

"Will I find the power Lady Calimondra wielded here?" Pythia asked, "How did she gain such skill in the Dark Side?"

Pythia the paused and suddenly could feel the darkness within tomb. There were others in that darkness. Pythia looked about the grand chamber they had entered and looked into its many dark corners. This place was dead and yet living - the dark side made it so.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"What power Calimondra wielded has long since withered away without fuel to sustain it."

Beyond the decaying corridor was another chamber, this one larger and more grandiose than the ones that preceded it. This time the Dark Lord used his powers to illuminate the chamber, a mere wave of his hand caused several torches to burst into flame that dispelled the lingering shadows of the tomb.

​

A raised platform upon which sat the sarcophagus of Lady Calimondra comprised the center of the chamber, and around it were nondescript statues of faceless individuals sculpted to resemble the ancient Sith who once occupied the planet's surface en masse. Carnifex ascended the steps and stood tall before the entombed remains of the Sith Lady, his hand reaching out to caress the stone and marvel at the craftsmanship put into its construction by those who had long since passed.

"She, like you and I, was born with the innate ability to tap into the Force. Like with any skill the more you train and hone it the better it will become, and she lived a long life. Entire decades were spent dedicated to the acquisition of power, with the preservation of such power put into practice in her final years. Sadly her Empire did not survive her nor her children, and what she had built had been destroyed by the Jedi."

He drew his hand back from the sarcophagus, but as he did the chamber shuddered as darkness encompassed the stone coffin with reality warping energies. "But while her power may be gone, her spirit still holds the wisdom and knowledge of its past life. Touch Vilia Calimondra's grave, and let her speak through you."

[member="Pythia"]​

 

[Darth Voyance]

[member="Darth Carnifex"]

Pythia followed her master as they spoke and approached sarcophagus of Lady Calimondra. Thoughts of the powerful sith lady during her prime filled her head. Could I wield such power? Pythia thought. Her master willed her forward to approach the sarcophagus. Slowly Pythia took a step. With each step she tried to put into practice what her master had taught her - about reaching out, reaching far, and deep into the dark side. The dark side feed from want and desire. What did Pythia want? What did she desire?

Power...power to control destiny, control fate....she wanted it all.

She extended her shivering hand forward and with a gentle tap rested it on the plinth that worn effigy of Lady Calimondra rested on. At first she only felt the stone. Pythia stroked its textures. Cold, ancient, and cracked. Then it began to resonate, not aloud, but, voluminous in the force. It snapped out like a pulse and clung to Pythia. The startled twi'lek shook and she squeezed her eyes shut. The entity within the sarcophagus was trying to consume her! Had she been tricked? Had her master betrayed her? Pythia cried out in a shriek of pain. But, Pythia knew pain. She clenched her teeth and threw her other hand onto the plinth and dug into it. She pushed her entire mind onto the entity trapping it inside her.

Exhausted, Pythia collapsed onto her knees and slumped onto the plinth's base. All was quiet.

Except for a deep and dark voice that spoke back to her.

Thus spoke, Lady Calimondra.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

The voice of Lady Calimondra filtered throughout the chamber, ethereal and distant.

"Recognize and know me as Vilia Calimondra, Warlord of the Grumani Empire and Lord of the Sith."

There was no visual specter that manifested itself before them, save for the cold gale that swept through the room like a wicked tempest. Whatever power the ancient Sith Lady had possessed had withered away in isolation, but Pythia's interaction with her tomb had reinvigorated the spark of darkness that had since quieted to embers. The spirit of Calimondra was undoubtedly voracious for energy, sapping his apprentice of her physical strength as she slumped against the plinth in exhaustion.

A blazing fire ignited from the sarcophagus, roaring up into the air before coalescing into a vaguely humanoid shape wearing the face of Lady Calimondra. This illusion was conjured by the lingering Dark Side energy residing within her tomb, drawing off the lingering imprint of her withered corpse and the latent power that was still contained within it.

The specter pointed a wizarded finger at Carnifex, "I acknowledge you, Dark Lord. Why have you come to my tomb?"

"To teach my student of your glories and your failures."

The specter looked down at the Twi'lek that had fallen at the base of the tomb, "Very well, ask and you may know of my past."

[member="Pythia"]​

 

[Darth Voyance]

[member="Darth Carnifex"]

Pythia tried to summon some lingering strength to prop herself up against the plinth. Slowly she rose up and looked towards the glowing apparition.

"My dark lady." Pythia said. "I come from nothing. I am no one. Yet the dark side resides in me. It whispers. Gave me counsel and warmth in my time as a slave."

"But...frustratingly...I cannot wield it. I cannot forge its powers into a weapon to finally control my destiny."

"How! How did you master it?"

Pythia reached out to the apparition. Her innate empathy force powers fuming and raging like a fire. Her consciousness leapt to meet the sith lady.

"Teach me!" she begged,

 

[Darth Carnifex]

The apparition shimmered with dark mirth, "The Dark Side is not so willing to give up its secrets, young one. It may have nurtured you for these past troubling years, but to truly grasp hold of it you need to rid yourself of weakness." Lady Calimondra gestured with her right hand, clenching her fingers into a fist to increase the emphasis of her statement. "Your master has taught you well in the invocations of the Sith, of our ancient philosophy and of our methods, but there is one thing that has not yet been cleansed from your soul." She reached out towards Pythia, ethereal fingers cusping the soft curves of her chin as an unearthly chill continued to spill out into every corner of the room.

"A true Sith has no fear, Pythia of Ventooine, and I sense much fear in you."

Calimondra's face contorted and shifted until it resembled the rictus grin of a skull, the intangible flesh peeling back as the illusionary spirit of Lady Calimondra as her voice rose to a thundering roar. "I came to prominence in an era of chaos and discord and made my fortunes by amassing power in the material and in the Dark Side. I made my children fight to the death to secure their right as my heir, and when they were all destroyed I forced my grandchildren to do the same. In the end, all my legacy amounted to was civil war and ruin and the Jedi cast down my family and destroyed all that I had painstakingly built. Division from within is the downfall of all Sith, there can only be one to harness the ultimate power of the Dark Side!"

The tomb of Calimondra shook and shuddered as gargantuan stones moved between gears and lifts to pull back the sarcophagus, revealing a jagged pit that stretched deep into the darkness beneath Korriban. "Learn from my mistakes, young Pythia, and cast yourself into the darkness of the void to purge yourself of fear!" And like that the spirit was gone, vanishing as quickly as she had apparated, leaving only Pythia and her master to stand in the shadows of the tomb. Carnifex said nothing, merely watched his apprentice with cold unblinking molten eyes.

She knew her next task.

[member="Pythia"]​