Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Tephrike.
Image Credit: Here. Here.
Role: Inquisitors.
Permissions: N/A
Links: Into Darkness, After Darkness, Tephrike, Cassius, Disciples of the Vader, Republican Guard, Firemane Industries, Diona, Elpsis, Unchained, Inheritors of the Light Father, Heroes of Purity, Nomi Sunrider, Vodo-Siosk Baas, The Ballad of Nomi Sunrider.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Unit Name: Nomi Sunrider Paragon Legion. The name is misleading since the unit is a lot smaller than a legion would be.
Affiliation: Dominion of Light, Battlemaster Mahtara, Tephrike, Jedi Inquisition, Mace Windu Thought, Grand Army of Light, Windian Jedi Order, Ecclesia of the Followers of the Divine Ashla in Her Beatific Form as Mistress of Hope and His Glorious Form as Master of Victory.
Classification: Force Warriors.
Description: The Dominion of Light, a totalitarian Jedi theocracy, has a very electic understanding of history. Tephrike was cut off during the Four Hundred Year Darkness and never opened up again to the galaxy. Isolated, the planet regressed as warring factions struggled for supremacy and sought to reclaim a past they do not remember. The Dominion remembers Nomi Sunrider as one of the first Jedi and as a relentless, militant warrior who smote the servants of the dark side. She knew that one can either join the shining light or fall into the darkest abyss. There is no middle ground. She smote Sith with the power of the Light so that they would return to the Light.
The Nomi Sunrider Paragon Legion has been named after her in her honour. The name 'legion' is a bit of a misnomer, since it would imply a formation that is about the size of a division. In actuality, the Paragons are a far smaller unit. Many armies like to inflate their numbers a bit and Tephriki are fond of bombastic, flowery names. This is particularly the case for the Dominion. Regardless, its members are a branch of the Jedi Inquisition who use the Force to 'expel' the Dark Side from 'corrupted' ones - by whatever means. It is always a tragedy when a sinner perishes, but it also means that their soul can join the Force and will no longer stain itself with sin. And sometimes the purifying Light can cleanse them of the darkness. The Paragons are fond of singing the 'Ballad of Nomi Sunrider' on the eve of battle - or at least what they believe are its lines.
Fittingly, the Paragons are skilled in employing Force Light and suppressing the Force in others. Like their namesake, they are skilled at discerning illusions and can use the Light to counter Sith magic. However, they take their devotion to the Light further than most Windian Jedi. This says something since the Dominion is an anti-individualist, collectivist society. But the Paragons know that the dark side is never far. Its temptations are manifold, for it always seek to push Force-wielders onto the path of selfishness. It is such a quiet thing to fall, but far harder to admit it.
A Jedi is at their strongest when they are united against the darkness. A tight-knit group of Jedi who have no secrets from one another can shield each other from the darkness, and catch a comrade who is at the risk of falling. Thus the Paragons do not just never operate as lone wolves, they make extensive use of telepathy and Force Meld. This has formed strong Force bonds between them. If needed, the meld can embrace the whole unit, but normally it works on a smaller scale.
Each Paragon has Shield Siblings, to whom they are fully bonded. They share emotions and thoughts - to the point of interchanging sentences when speaking to outsiders. It is common for them to finish each others' sentences and for a lot of the communication between them to be telepathic. This can be quite disconcerting for outsiders who have not received the benefit of being bonded. The degree of precision and coordination appears uncanny. A Paragon can only serenely smile at this and mourn the fact that those outside of the group must endure life without a Shield Sibling. Even many Windian Jedi find the Paragons unnerving. Some orthodox Ashlanites alledge that their methods violate the Windian principle of nonattachment due to the unnatural closeness the members share, though few will saw it to their face. By contrast, the hardline collectivists among the Ashlanites view them as the next step in bringing the egalitarian utopia promised by Mace Windu Thought to fruition.
If every being were connected this way, there would be no strife or sin. Sadly, this is not feasible. Contrary to the stereotype, the Paragons are not all drones. Each one of them has their own story, their own thoughts and emotions. However, the line between a Paragon and their Shield Siblings is blurry. It may be accurate to say that each Paragon is an amalgam of their own experiences and those of their 'siblings'. For this reason, the loss of a Paragon in combat is keenly felt. Usually, a Sibling trio includes a Jedi Guardian, a Sentinel and a Consular. One unit can consists of up to four such Sibling trios. The Paragons have no racial barriers, accepting both humans and aliens alike, provided they are devout believers in Ashla. However, most of them are clones.
Aria Paragon, Atia Paragon and Akia Paragon form one such Shield Sibling trie. They share a spirit but have different personalities. Aria is the Zealot and the most fierce and brave of the three. She is always seeking out enemies of the Light to smite. She is known as the unbridled flame. Atia is male and the Judicator. He is the legalist and judicial of the trio. He is analytical and carefully collects information on cases and seeks to use them against enemies or gain an advantage. He has an impressive knowledge of Ashlanite canon law. Akia Paragon is the defender. She is a steadfast and tenacious protector of her siblings. In short, she is the tank and renowned for her endurance and ability to resist pain. The strongest and most skilled warrior of the three but not much of an investigator. The three are clones, hence the similar names. Their templates were a male and female twin pair. Paragon is essentially their surname. The Dominion does not like familial surnames, so clones receive job labels.
As is typical for Tephriki Force-wielders, the Paragons utilise Force-Imbued Blades. Lightsabres are incredibly rare on Tephrike, and so Jedi and Sith alike tend to use enchanted or alchemised melee weapons. They also receive training in the use of conventional weapons, but prefer to rely on blade and the Force, for the Light is their ally. Fittingly, the primary foes of the Paragons are darkside adepts, darkside entities and Sithspawn. Those are the targets they will seek out on the battlefield. They are less adept at dealing with Force-Dead demons, as many powers of the blessed Light are not effective against these cursed abominations. Thus fighting them is often left to other specialised warriors of Ashla.
COMBAT INFORMATION:
Unit Size: Small
Unit Availability: Rare
Unit Experience: Elite.
Equipment:
Armour:
- Armour, complete with a helmet to cover a warrior's face and protect them from chemicals. The helm features a voice modulator and other basic systems.
Melee Weapons:
- Force Imbued Blade. Alternately a similarly Force imbued mace, hammer or polearm.
- Vibrodagger
- ATA Pulse Wave Blaster
- Enforcer Pistol
- B-200 Pulse Wave Needler
- DC-17 Hand Blaster
- Ripper
- Wrist Blaster
Combat Function: The Nomi Sunrider Paragon Legion is a unit of Forcewielders that focuses on combating Sith, Sithspawn and the like. They are the fiery sword of retribution and purification, not stealthy operatives. On the battlefield they stand out due to their distinctive armour and the powers they call upon. By summoning withering blasts of Force Light, they can weaken a darksider's connection to the Force, purge or contain darkside manifestations, spirits and the like. They are very skilled at combating Sithspawn and other alchemised creations. Moreover, they are talented at identifying, resisting and combating illusions, especially those created via Sith magic. Their Force Sense abilities are well-honed.
A Paragon can temporarily suppress another adept's connection to the Force. If multiple work together as a team, they may be able to sever it, though this is taxing and requires a lot of uninterrupted concentration. Due to the nature of their telepathic bond, the Paragons are extremely well-coordinated and can quickly share information and draw strength from one another. It is part of their doctrine to be there where the fight is the hottest so they can smite dark Force-Users and their monstrous creations as well as inspire allied soldiers. As a result, the Paragons are not suited for stealth and have no real interest in it. They are meant to be the fiery sword that burns the darkness away, not hide in the shadows.
Unlike their idol Nomi, the Paragons do not have lightsabres, but they wield their Force-Imbued Blades with great precision and skill. However, they are Jedi warriors alone and thus forego heavy weapons, armoured fighting vehicles, bombers and the like. They are among the more conservative warriors of the Windian Jedi and thus prefer to rely on the Force and their enchanted melee weapons above all. Thus they will require support in larger engagements and are less well-suited to combating Force-Dead foes such as Yuuzhan Vong, as most of their Force techniques will not work on them or be less useful. Long range bombardment, snipers and the like can also become a problem.
Force Abilities (Force User Units Only): All members of the Nomi Sunrider Paragon Legion are Jedi and thus Force-Users. They make extensive use of Force Meld, boosting their individual and collective strength, resilience and coordination. Each Paragon has two Shield Siblings, with whom they share a potent Force Bond. Moreover, they specialise in Force Light, Force Resistance, Dampen Force, Telekinesis and its various sub-applications. If several Paragons work together as a team, they may be able to sever a hostile adept's connection to the Force, though this is taxing and requires a lot of uninterrupted concentration. Their Force Sense and precognitive abilities are very well-honed. Paragons learn Force healing, but they can only practice it effectively amongst bondmates.
Strengths:
- Very well-coordinated due to the meld. It transmits thoughts and emotions, allows them to draw strength from each other and fight as one. They are very strong against mental attacks and illusions. Force bond strengthens all members of a trio.
- Strong Force warriors. Courageous, steadfast and with high morale. Can unleash withering blasts of Light, temporarily block other adepts from the Force and potentially sever them from it. They are particularly strong against darksiders, dark side entities and Sithspawn.
- The meld works both ways. Pain can be transmitted through the bond and it suddenly being severed is painful and potentially disorientating.
- Depriving them of the Force robs them of their biggest advantage.They are also less adept at fighting Yuuzhan Vong and other Force-Dead, as many of their offensive abilities are ineffective against them.
- Due to their vows, they forego heavy integrated support, armoured vehicles and heavy weapons. They also lack long-ranged weapons and snipers in general.
- They are also not a particularly subtle unit and not a good fit for operations that require stealth.
In one form or another the Jedi Order has existed for over twenty millennia. Its great heroes - and those who turned to evil - have been immortalised in history. But memory is a fickle thing, and twenty-five thousand years is a very long time. Knowledge is lost, distorted or altered to suit a specific agenda. To the average sentient being - and even the typical Force-User - what happened millennia ago is not relevant to their lives. At the same time, a supposedly glorious past is a source of legitimacy for any government, even if the one presented to the public has little to do with what actually happened.
On Tephrike, the Four Hundred Year Darkness never came to an end. When civilisation collapsed, the planet was split into warring factions. Each tried to exact its vision on the planet, trying to reclaim a past they did not remember. It was a brutal struggle for survival. One of these groups was the Dominion of Light, a Jedi theocracy. Its leaders believed that all galactic civilisation had been destroyed by the Gulag Virus. As far as they knew, it had been a machination of the dark side and they were the only Jedi left alive. The servants of the Light had failed in their duty to protect the people. Billions upon billions had died because they had not been vigilant enough. The only solution was to do whatever was necessary to ensure that the last bastion of Light did not fall - regardless of the cost.
Nomi Sunrider became one of their heroes. Time, deliberate manipulation and the accidental loss of many historical records has distorted their understanding of history. According to them, she was one of the first Jedi. Trained by the venerable master Vodo-Siosk Baas, she became the first Grandmaster and led a relentless inquisition to bring the Dark Lords to heel in the Great Sith War. Her cleansing light destroyed the Sith Purebloods, a race of demonic manifestations of the Dark Side. However, they had passed their teachings on to weak people who became the Sith of later times. As Jedi chancellor, she was a practitioner of Mace Windu Thought before it even existed. Sadly, unworthy successors forgot the true path.
When Grandmaster Tsal Te Mong instigated the Cultural Revolution, his Blue Guards unleashed a wave of terror. The Blue Guards were a mass paramilitary movement composed of students, Padawans and young Knights. It was supposed to usher in a utopia where all would be equal and no one would experience toil and misery. But to reach this promised land, the fervent followers of Ashla first had to 'smash the four olds' and destroy all forms of old thinking.
The Paragons came into being after the recalcitrant Grand Inquisitor was purged by his successor Dree Annora. She had a background in the field of Force research and believed in absolute collectivism, denouncing individuality as selfishness. If all citizens of the Dominion were literally of one mind, greed, hatred and other negative desires would cease to exist. Thus a collective consciousness would revolutionise society and redefine what it meant to be sentient. No citizen would ever be alone or stand apart from the people.
The Paragons were created as an educational and training group to teach young Jedi new ways of thinking. They were part of tests to create the 'Perfect Ashlanite'. To this end particularly zealous Blue Guards were recruited for these trials. Dree attempted to combine telepathic powers and alchemy to create a collective consciousness failed. Indeed, one experiment impaired her connection to the Force, which some viewed as judgement of the Light.
However, to a small degree her tests bore fruit. The Paragons who bonded with a Shield Sibling did achieve what amounted to a lasting meld. Together the Jedi were strong. The Dark Side sought to divide the servants of the Light. But through their bond they would never be far from one another. A Paragon would support his or her comrades and ensure they never strayed from the path of righteousness.
They featured prominently in mass rallies where the faithful proclaimed their loyalty to Ashla and denounced the forces of darkness and reaction. But they were also actively deployed to smash the forces of reaction through terror and intimidation. The Grandmaster's contradictory proclamations led to factionalism in the Blue Guard movement. The excited youths had been manipulated into treating his word as holy writ, and so they engaged in verbal and physical skirmishes. The Paragons preferred not to kill rivals, but to intimidate and 'enlighten' them. The Cultural Revolution sent the nation spiralling into chaos, forcing the military and the old Windian Jedi establishment to step in. The Blue Guards, once the standard-bearers of the Ashlanite revolution, were dropped in the interest of stability. Indeed, they were often denounced as counter-revolutionary and sent to the countryside for re-education.
The Army of Light violently put down a Blue Guard uprising. Mass executions were carried out. The Paragons were disarmed by their former comrades in the Inquisition. Some Paragons had their mental bonds severed, which in a number of cases caused depression or even suicide. However, the oligarchs that took power after the death of the Grandmaster and the purge of the so-called Gang of Three saw use in the unit. Thus while Grand Inquisitor Dree was posthumously expelled from the Windian Jedi Order and declared a traitor, his legacy lived on in form of the Paragons. Members who were willing to work with the new regime were amnestied and classified as having been 'misled by corrupt elements'. The Paragons were transformed into a combat inquisitorial group.
They were soon at the forefront of the military operations of the Jedi Inquisition. Their actions on the front lines were immortalised in songs. They fought Vaderites, heretical 'Grey Jedi' and other servants of evil who defied Ashla. Like their namesake, they purged the Force from 'corrupt' ones and made them see the Light - by any means necessary. They helped beat back a demonic incursion at Palmyra, the former capital of Tephrike and now a cursed hellscape and a darkside nexus. Sadly, some Jedi were lost to the corruption of the nexus, but their abilities helped the Paragons affirm each others' resolve and faith and banish undead and malevolent spirits. In a way, sending them to this cursed place had been a test from their new overlords.
The Paragons drew nationwide attention when they managed to defeat and capture Darth Basil, a marshal and the commander of the feared 6th army, one of the most potent tank armies in the Vaderite military. The Dominion had managed to lure his army into a trap and encircle them. When this happened the Paragons fought their way to his command post, overcame his elite guard and managed to not only defeat the Sith Lord, but redeem him with purifying light.
The Sith was carted around for press tours, proclaiming the superiority of the Light and urging other Sith to turn their weapons on the true enemies of Tephrike. The Dominion used him as a propaganda mascot and had him visit prisoner of war camps to speak to captured Vaderite soldiers. In reality, he was basically a shell kept under house arrest, and essentially lobotomised until he died.
The Paragons conducted a brutal purge of the Order of the Blessed Way, a cult of pacifist Jedi hippies, and the 'Grey Jedi', a heretical sect that claimed to follow the teachings of Qui-Gon Jinn. As everyone who adhered to the true Light knew, Qui-Gon had been a heretic and an anarchist whose beliefs corrupted Anakin Skywalker. However, these false beliefs spawned a violent uprising, supported by deserters and fallen Jedi. The Paragons purified villages and Jedi enclaves that had succumbed to heresy. The heretics who saw the error in their ways after being purified were given a second chance as penitent, while the rest were
Despite having suffered heavy losses due to the rapture, the Paragons fought valiantly during the Netherworld War, where they primarily did battle against the Vaderites. They fought at Battle of Grimwater Swamp, a battle so brutal that the Dominion considered deploying tactical nuclear weapons. Though strictly speaking more an inquisitorial asset than a direct assault one, the Paragons were deployed as a shock unit. They also carried out Commissar justice to steel the resolve of wavering Dominion conscripts and clone troopers.
However, the Paragons suffered a defeat at the hands of the Republican Guard when the partisans took control of the Dominion outpost controlling access to the Palmyra's Wail nexus. The rebels used Yuuzhan Vong and other Force-Dead soldiers, who were resistant or immune to many Force techniques. Captured Paragons were killed or subjected to cruel experiments meant to inflict the Vong's curse on them. The Dominion launched several counter-offensives, but even after their assault on the Dominion's heartland ended in a debacle, the rebels stubbornly clung to the base, not understanding that containment would not suffice and only the light could cleanse the dark nexus.
The Paragons remained ever-vigilant against the forces of heresy. During the Netherworld Conflict, the Vaderites had undergone a civil war that briefly saw a faction of Light Sith come to power. These heretics had refused the Dominion's generous offer to rejoin the Light and instead waged war against the great nation. The old guard had predictably returned to power. However, some of the information from the Light Sith's heretical book had crossed the line.
Indeed, for a while some Dominion leaders were ready to grant them sanctuary, seeing them as a useful tool against the Vaderites. Then some people tried to say the Jedi should not be a totalitarian dictatorship. In concert with the rest of the Inquisition, the Paragons conducted a fiery purge, eliminating a Light Sith camp. However, they failed to capture the Illuminator, as the supposed leader of the sect turned out to be an illusion, leaving some Inquisitors to suspect it might be a group of people or just a projection.
The Paragons missed Firemane's brief, but intense campaign against the Dominion due to the simple fact that they were not at Fortress Purity when the space people and their Republican Guard allies attacked. The Grandmaster at the time was obsessed with spiritual purity and purging, believing that the Dominion had become infested with traitors. Thus they had been dispatched to another part of the Dominion's realm. There they dealt with heretics who shared the Jedi's dualistic views of the Force, but believed it was impossible to explain and live without both sides. They shared the Dominion's view about chastity, considering sex a product of a corrupt world. However, they saw clones as trapped spirits kept tethered to the sinful, mortal world.
Moreover, they maintained that any of the faithful could become Jedi. The ability to use the Force was not some mystical gift, but something anyone could use. To this end, they had conducted Force research to awaken the innate potential of mundanes and ascend them. This cult had become popular among the common folk of the distant province of Languedoc, and even among the local elites. Realising that this was heresy, the Paragons conducted a crusade to tear out the weeds in the garden. This culminated in laying siege to and storming the fortified city of Carcassonne, which had sadly fallen into sin. Sadly, it was difficult to distinguish the faithful from the heretic, but the Light would know its own.
In the middle of the purge, the Dominion made first contact with a group of outsiders called Firemane. In his wisdom, the Grandmaster realised that this was an armada of darkspawn. Unfortunately, traitors in the Dominion's leadership, chief among them Battlemaster Mahtara and Jedi Master Airla secretly conspired with the space people. Fortunately, the Inquisition under Grand Inquisitor Antonius stepped in and managed to arrest a Firemane siren called Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori.
But rather than repent after their evil conspiracy had been uncovered, Firemane bombed the Dominion's capital. Destruction rained down upon the Jedi Temple, and the traitorous Battlemaster went into hiding to rally her supporters. The Paragons were rushed back to Nexus City to protect the holy person of the wise Council. After learning about the attack on Fortress Purity, their commander requested permission to reinforce General Kennobi's garrison against Firemane and the Republican Guard.
The Grandmaster refused, insisting he needed them in the capital. In response, they asked if they could guard him. But he dispatched them to hunt down Sith agents he was certain were lurking in the capital, including many of Mahtara's followers. This also meant that the Paragons were not on the spot to protect the Grandmaster when he was killed by Firemane bombs - or, as certain heretics say - assassinated by the Council.
The Grand Inquisitor was declared a traitor who had been collaborating with the outsiders, and a new junta took power. It was headed by Mahtara, who apparently had not been a traitor, but in fact a loyal servant of the martyred Grandmaster. The Paragons had to swear allegiance to the new regime, though the Battlemaster's choice in Grand Inquisitor left a number of them unhappy since it was an outsider. They had slain several collaborators of the regime's new strongwoman, but that was fine, they had only been doing their duty. Moreover, they were an important symbol and represented the mailed fist of the Jedi Inquisition.
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