Name: Mahlzaren of the Swarm
Faction: The Swarm
Rank: Apprentice
Species: Human
Age: 24
Sex: Male
Height: 5’7”
Weight: 125 lbs
Eyes: Look like black orbs
Hair: Very short, though mostly covered by his mask
Skin: Pale
Force Sensitive: Yes
+ Rhetoric of the Hive: The words of Mahlzaren can be very convincing to weak willed individuals. All shall join the Swarm.
- Hive Reliance: While he may be a Shaper, he is by no means a warrior. He spreads the word of the Hive, but relies on the Swarm to protect his physical form.
- Curse of the Swarm: Having spent a lot of years in direct connection to a hive lord, Mahlzaren has become fairly reliant on the feeling of being connected. If his connection should ever be severed, it would have catastrophic consequences for his psyche.
Appearance & Personality:
His face is hidden behind a wooden mask, the only visible feature being his completely black eyes. The mask itself is adorned with many twigs and branches from Kashyyyk’s Wroshyr trees from which he has hung many little trinkets, like special stones or bone charms. With the mask he looks to be taller than he actually is, especially when he wears large pelts from various creatures he has slain. Additionally, he wears many necklaces made of the bones of those same creatures and has made a large feather collar to complement the mask. The pelts and collar combined make him appear as if he were a fairly tall and strong man, although underneath he is merely a lean but sturdy man. He is usually seen barefoot and with simple cloth pant that give him a slight monk-ish vibe. Even in the more uncivilised parts of the Galaxy he stands out, looking like a savage from a backwater world, though appearances can be deceiving.
Though much of his former personality was removed by the Swarm, his old self still slumbers somewhere within his subconscious. Most of hi actions are, however, driven by the Swarm. He puts the Swarm before himself in most cases, seeing the cause of assimilating and converting more joiners or securing new living ground for the Swarm as his most important goal wherever he goes. Now, this does not mean he's a complete zealot. To an outside observer it would merely seem like he is very fond of this thing he calls "The Swarm", although most people are still put off by his very odd appearance and unnatural movements that sometimes seem almost jerky, as if he wasn't completely himself.
Born to a Shaper family in a very traditional Shaper Clan, Mahlzaren was destined to become the next leader. His training started at an early age and he seemed to excel at using the powers of the elements. He made good progress and seemed to be a very promising student. However this only lasted until he started showing more aptitude towards unseen powers of the Force. The first time it happened was when he was trying to reach for an amulet by manipulating the ground and launching it towards him, but instead of the earth moving, the amulet moved on its own and flew into his hand. It was a great shock to everyone in his Clan. The future of the leader’s son was in jeopardy. He would have to redeem himself somehow, by working even harder than he had before. However his efforts were in vain as he started displaying more and more affinity towards unseen powers. He started to be persecuted by his Clan and eventually even his family.One night the Clan gathered and during this meeting they made the decision to banish the young shaper so that their Clan’s honour may remain intact. And so they did, throwing the young man out into the wilds of space. Here, he drifted for some time, until he finally came across the planet Kashyyyk, where he started living as a recluse deep within the jungles.
It was here that he met his new family, a small village of Wookiees that he helped defend against Trandoshans one day. He remained with the Wookiees, learning their ways, helping them against external threats and living amongst them as an equal.
One day, however, when he was out hunting the Trandoshans returned with a far greater force. They weren’t simply hunting anymore, they were out for revenge. They murdered many of the Wookiees and took the rest as prisoners with them to their personal hunting grounds. Mahlzaren could only see the Trandoshan’s ships leaving when he returned. No one was there anymore, he had lost another family now and he started to blame himself for these unfortunate events.
After the events of that day he left Kashyyyk and started wandering the skies once more. A Shaman, lost, with nowhere to call home. He didn’t belong amongst civilisation, he had spent too much time in the wilderness of Kashyyyk, he didn’t belong to any tribe or clan either, not anymore. It was just him, on his own, isolated amongst the stars.
Until he met it.
It was a creature unlike any he’d ever seen. It was similar to a large dog, but had no fur and seemed far more primal. It’s claws were far longer and its teeth as sharp as blades. It also emanated an unsettling aura. It reminded him of the feeling a Jedi’s presence gave him, but more twisted and dark. The creature was wounded and despite his gut reaction telling him to get away as quickly as possible, Mahlzaren decided to care for the creature. He had found it on a fairly isolated planet that didn’t seem to have much wildlife, so he and the creature were fairly undisturbed.
After a few weeks the creature was able to walk again, though Mahlzaren had grown attached to it. When it suddenly decided to leave, he followed. The creature wandered through the landscape of the planet for a few weeks and finally arrived at a cave entrance. Mahlzaren could feel more life forms inside and guessed it would be the creature’s pack, but the sounds he heard didn’t match any of the ones the creature had produced in its time with Mahlzaren. So curiosity got the better of him and he entered the cave.
Inside it turned out to be a very expansive complex of tunnels and caves. If it wasn’t for the sounds and the feeling of life he could follow he would’ve surely been lost. As he got closer and closer he started noticing more and more things changing. The stone of the walls was starting to get covered by some kind of biological looking carapace, the ground he was treading on was becoming softer and covered in some kind of new texture. He started noticing what seemed to be eggs on the walls, most of them fairly small, barely the size of a pebble, but others were bigger, at least the size of a Huttball. And the closer he got, the bigger they grew until they were large enough to fit a Wookiee into one. He had also started feeling more lightheaded and strangely at ease. The feelings had gradually gotten stronger and he had only just now noticed it.
Then he saw a light at the end of a tunnel, however it was no natural daylight, it was some different, ominous glow. As he got closer the feeling of calm started intensifying with every step, until he reached the entrance of where the glow had come from.
It was an enormous cave, filled with biological structures of many different kinds and shapes, all looking organic however. There were beings flying from structure to structure on insect wings, though they were too far away for him to get a closer look. He continued observing in awe when he spotted the creature he had followed here. It was lying next to some kind of large flesh-like orb. Mahlzaren couldn’t tell if the creature was dead or simply asleep, so he had to get closer.
He inched his way forwards as stealthily as he could, not making a single sound. In addition to the artificial calmness, tension and panic started growing, though he was sure those were his own emotions. It took him a bit but he finally reached the creature, seemingly undetected. It was merely asleep, a relief for Mahlzaren who got closer and tried to touch the creature to wake it up. When his hand was about to make contact with the creature’s skin, he sensed some movement in the corner of his eye, turned and recoiled in shock.
The orb’s flesh-like outer shell started to part, revealing what looked to be a large eye with a vertical pupil, staring directly at Mahlzaren.
“Welcome. We have been awaiting you.”
