Private Old Sins, Made New

[Darth Empyrean]

Frigid as Gertafuu was, Maliphant had been here before. Dawning a heavy fur coat, the snows and wind met nothing but the harsh leather exterior as he trudged through knee deep snow. Just as his last trip to the distant hostel of the repetitively named ‘Velok’, the snow hit him harder than ever - and visibility was driven to nearly nothing. Were it not for the Force, Maliphant likely wouldn’t have been able to guide himself there this time - carefully keeping his temperature up as he marched onwards, and sensing the distant presence of the whipid’s force presence.​

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When finally his journey brought him to the aging home of Velok, Maliphant took a moment to watch it. The last time he was here, he made a grave mistake - taking the Darkstaff remnants from Velok, and reforging it, assuming he could control it. Just as the others who tried - he lost himself to it, and it corrupted him gravely.​

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Were it not for the Telos Holocron, and his strength, he likely would have died; a sparse husk to the Darkstaff and its machinations. His gaze wandered to his hand - that which held it so long ago, slowly making a fist before knocking on the door. The wind whipped at him while he waited, but for once he let it; a slight punishment for his age old sin.​

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Velok Brokentusk​

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

Darth Empyrean

Velok the Younger was middle-aged for a Whiphid, not even two hundred yet, but the Dark Side hadn't been kind to him. The old man's bone-and-sinew rocking chair creaked by the fireplace, and steam wafted from his mug, which had been the skull of a Draelvasier. "Would you get that?"

"Of course, Grandfather." Velok the Youngest, a significantly larger and younger being - around ninety - got up from a massive data ledger and went over to open the door. The being he saw was slim, pale, and even more hairless than most of his kind. "It's the Slave," Velok said over his shoulder.

The older Whiphid hastily took off a knitted shawl and stuffed it out of sight. "Welcome back, Lord Maliphant," he called. "It's been too long. Come in out of the cold."

 

[Darth Empyrean]

“And here I thought you’d refer to me as Tai Fa again.”, Maliphant jested as he shivered and entered the home.​

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He took a careful moment to slap the snow away from his coat, pull it free and place it on the nearby post. He himself was dressed in little more than well fitted sith robes, black as sin with a contrasting silver hair tied behind his head. Brushing was remained of the snow off of him, he took a few steps into the home - glancing about.​

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He could almost feel the darkness he had taken from this place come back - and it sent chills up his spine. Almost instant anxiety of all he went through came back - and it took much for Maliphant to bury it, for the sake of appearing strong, as ‘Maliphant’. It wouldn’t do well to look weak to other Sith - even Velok, who had once served as a psuedo role model for Maliphant.​

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He found a seat at a nearby rocking seat and glanced from the fire to Velok - looking older in the last decade than he had ever before. A sign of what was to come for himself, he imagined.​

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“How do you and your family fair, Velok?”, Maliphant asked with a quick glance across his features.​

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“I understand these are… trying times.”​

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Velok Brokentusk​

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

Darth Empyrean

The Younger sipped deeply from his Drael-skull mug and watched the fire. The Youngest, for his part, settled into a chair chair made from what might have been rancor bones, the Felucian kind, studded with natural crystal growths.

"Oh, my grandchildren are a delight," said the Younger. "Brokentusk here - you remember Velok the Youngest? - just strongarmed a Jedi prince out of one billion credits without firing a shot. Better yet, Anraqq and Ghunka caught their first motmot. My people are flourishing here, and elsewhere. Only stepping out to claim what we need will get us out from under the thumb of..." He waved absently in the air, an encompassing gesture, and slurped.

"Grandfather's dream," said Velok the Younger, known as Brokentusk after a rogue Sith Lord put his face through a wall. "The Whiphids as a true galactic species with a significant foothold on many planets. Toola will always be sacred, of course, but it's vulnerable. Kaine Zambrano's fifteenth concubine could wake up on the wrong side of the bed one day and our homeworld gets wiped off the map. My great-grandfather foresaw it as a possibility. We've spent four generations working on this."

 

[Darth Empyrean]

Maliphant nodded as he listened - his gaze following to the fire as they spoke. He could appreciate the calmness of this, of having a family, even if they were as wild as the Velok Clan seemed to be; just being able to enjoy the small things of it all. He exhaled heavily with a glance back to Velok;​

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“I suppose I’m about in the same good prospects.”, he mused with a slight upturn of his smile.​

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“Started the IGBC, have heavy stakes in most major galactic economies, started ‘dating’ - unofficially used, mind you - the Dread Queen of the Confederacy.”, Maliphant spoke candidly as he rocked in the chair he was in.​

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“And I destroyed the Darkstaff. You were right about it, by the way. I did regret taking it.”, he said with a quiet sigh.​

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Velok Brokentusk​

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

Darth Empyrean

The old Whiphid laughed phlegmily. "Embracing youth while it lasts, I see. Is fatherhood in your future now that you've found companionship, Maliphant? For all the flaws of our fathers, parenthood isn't unnavigable-" He drowned a hacking cough with another long drink. "By the Force, I hated my father. I decided early on that a key aspect of my revenge was becoming a better one than he ever was. A low bar, of course. I'd like to think I achieved it."

If that sounded like bragging, it was, but self-congratulation that failed to conceal deep sadness. His oldest son Torkan - Velok Brokentusk's father - had died before his time. The nature of that incident was not something the old Whiphid had ever shared with Maliphant.

"Or do you feel destined to die alone?"

 

[Darth Empyrean]

Maliphant gave a small noise of discontentment as he readjusted in his seat. He had expected to come here and talk to Velok about the usurpation of the Sith Throne, or at least see the Empire brought beneath their collective bootheel - and Velok, unknowingly, had managed to turn the table on Maliphant and make him all the more uncomfortable.​

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“I… never had a father.”, he sighed.​

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Velok wasn’t like the other Sith - he didn’t need to put on the ‘airs’ of Maliphant before him. Of any he had met, Velok wasn’t nearly as power hungry - and Maliphant didn’t need to feel so ‘protected’ from him by acting as callous, cunning, and charismatic as he usually did. A soft sight left his lips as he leaned back in the chair once more;​

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“I’m not sure, Velok. I doubt I’d be a very good one - creating a blade that can conquer a planet, and raising a child are very different things.”, he mused with a half-hearted smile towards the aging whipid.​

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“I did come to ask you something though; about the Sith.”, he quickly mentioned as he tried to steer the conversation away from his own father issues.​

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“The Sith are fracturing, and I was curious where you - and Brokentusk - stood on things.”​

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Velok Brokentusk​

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

Darth Empyrean

The Younger devolved into a heavy coughing fit. Velok Brokentusk leaned forward in concern, but his grandfather waved him off and gestured for him to speak.

"I've marched with quite a few of the Empire's recent operations," Brokentusk said. "So far I've seen little worth my respect. Poor choices of enemies." He sat back in his giant chair and interlaced his equally giant fingers pensively. "I raised a little fuss at the great Sith convocation, flirted with treason, but didn't go nearly as far as others present. It's no secret that my respect for the Zambrano dynasty is...tenuous. And that's not a matter of personal feeling, it's an observation of the Empire's leadership deficit and lack of vision. Grandfather is a Sith; his father was a Sith as well. Me, I've fought alongside them, visited several of their temples and academies, and I still have no true desire to become one. The Force is strong enough with my for my purposes. I haven't yet seen - with respect to the both of you - any good reason to pursue the Sith tradition. Except that Toola will probably need an explicitly Sith patron again."

 

[Darth Empyrean]

“In your defense -”, Maliphant offered with a would-be glance to the younger whipid,​

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“- the Sith Empire isn’t truly sith at all. An imperial cult, scaled up of the Panathan state religion used by Carnifex to subject his people with a thin mask of ‘Sith’ aesthetic. There is no Sith among them, or they would’ve attempted to usurp him.”, Maliphant chided, seemingly at nothing.​

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“In truth, with how potent and corrupting the Dark Side tends to be, I’m hard-pressed to believe that any of them are even strong with the Dark Side - as they’ve been able to temper themselves and their ambitions so well.”​

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Though he paused for a moment as he considered that Darth Voracitos was actually as corrupted as one could get - and had shown this evidently by his wonton disregard for true ‘stability’ and only what he got out of it.​

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“... Well, most.”​

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“Tell me about Toola - why does it need a Sith patron?”​

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Velok Brokentusk​

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

The Younger hacked a laugh. "Saying they're no true Sith reminds me of those who say that true communism hasn't been enacted before. The Sith have existed for thirty-eix thousand years, and in that time, what fraction fit those exacting criteria? One percent, perhaps? Even Palpatine - think how few of his Sith associates fit like he did. Vader, Maul, even Tyranus - not just biding their time, but willing instruments without agency or functional ambition. That's the lens through which I see the Empire. For every Palpatine there's a thousand Mauls, a hundred Vaders, and a dozen Dookus."

Brokentusk grunted. "Followers or those too lazy to lead. As for Toola - imagine I went beyond my little games, Lord Maliphant, into real treason. Within a week, the Whiphids of our homeworld would be exterminated, conscripted, and/or alchemized."

 

[Darth Empyrean]

“I can’t deny the Sith are ever evolving, but at what point does the color red become pink?”, Maliphant said with a cock of his brow.​

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“When we say it does.”, he said with a smile.​

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“So, do you intend to offer your services to the Empire to protect your homeworld?”​

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Velok Brokentusk​

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

The two Whiphids exchanged a long glance.

"I wouldn't," said Brokentusk. "Grandfather tells me I should."

The Younger drained the last of his mug. "In a limited capacity, anyway. Nobody know how this Sith civil war will end, but I'd say there's a two-thirds chance the Zambranos or their friends remain in power over the territory that includes Toola. As long as the boy here refrains from drawing excessive attention or irritation from the rebels, they'll have bigger problems and better targets. So my strong advice to him is to quietly pledge allegiance to Kaine Zambrano and support the loyalists. The Whiphids live on many planets, but tens of millions of lives still hang in the balance."

Brokentusk waved it away. "Bah. I've heard it before and he can guess it all, Grandfather. What neither of you know is that I've already signed on to fight in Darth Quercus's legion. The plant is a loyalist but not a zealot. I'd call Quercus levelheaded if they had a head. I don't expect to be put in any position that'll bring excessive risk on Toola."

 

[Darth Empyrean]

Maliphant listened to them speak, and offered a slow, though vaguely disappointed nod. A sigh, and he glanced to them again;​

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“I’ll do what I can to make sure their gaze doesn’t look on Toola then - assuming Brokentusk doesn’t raise too much concern.”, he said with a glance to the whipid.​

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“Some of the loyalists already speak to me about their plans, and what will come of it. If you ever find yourself wavering in that 2 thirds split; let me know, and I’ll do all I can to use it effectively.”, Maliphant smiled.​

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Velok Brokentusk​

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

"And we appreciate that, old friend," said the Younger. "In any other circumstance..."

Brokentusk nodded unhappily. "We've got more at stake than most. It's not about fear of losing a comfortable personal fiefdom. It's about safeguarding the entire future of our species. If things change, we'll reevaluate." Massive knuckles cracked, each the size of one of Darth Empyrean 's knees. "Reevaluate hard."

 

[Darth Empyrean]

“Think nothing of it.”, Maliphant said with a wave of his hand.​

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“Until you have to.”​

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“For now, if you don’t mind, I would appreciate a hot meal and a place to sleep; at least until one of you decides to build a reasonable accessible space port directly outside your door.”, he mused as he moved to rock once more.​

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Velok Brokentusk​

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

Darth Empyrean

Brokentusk got up even before his grandfather glanced his way. "Of course. I'll set you up a room."

As Brokentusk ducked through a Whiphid-scale door, his grandfather chuckled. "The inaccessibility is part of the charm. Imagine, oh, some irritated Sith Lord trying to march a legion into the Temorzhai. Tasty frozen treats for years. And it really does winnow my visitors down to the few, the proud, and so forth. No more...greedy begging sycophancy. Just purpose. And occasional good company."