Unreviewed Qabr'azm

[Darth Carnifex]

• Intent: Create a unique companion for Darth Carnifex
• Image Credit:
  • ChatGPT - Generated By Me
  • Headers - Teresa Zambrano | Darth Pellax
• Role: Qabr'azm serves as Darth Carnifex's ever-shifting shard-swarm companion, a living reliquary of bone and ash that acts as tool, weapon, and ritual instrument.
• Permissions: N/A
• Links: N/A

• Age: Newly Forged (1<)
• Force Sensitivity: Non-Force User
• Species: Alchemical Swarm Construct
• Appearance: Qabr'azm takes form as a hovering swarm of metallic shards, each dagger-sized and wrought from Zîrkaris-infused alloy, their surfaces etched with glowing Sith runes that shimmer like molten coals. These shards orbit a gravitic core, constantly shifting in fluid geometries, creating the illusion of a living storm frozen mid-motion. The shards are not uniform in size or shape; some taper like spearheads, others curve like scythe blades, and all glint with ember-red inscriptions that pulse faintly in rhythm with the Holocule's movements. This constant reconfiguration lends Qabr'azm an air of uncanny vitality, as if it "breathes" with each cycle of contraction and expansion.
  
  Its most common configuration resembles a crown of orbiting blades encircling a central core, an arrangement both menacing and eerily symmetrical. The core itself is dark and armored, with a single red lens burning at its center like a watchful, unblinking eye. Around it, shards spiral outward in nested layers, each one etched with crimson runes that glimmer like firelight cutting through smoke. In this form, Qabr'azm projects both beauty and dread, a construct that looks as much like a ritual idol as a weapon, embodying the dual role of Carnifex's crown and companion.
  
  When agitated or engaged in combat, Qabr'azm shifts into chaotic, storm-like formations. Its shards scatter and whip through the air in erratic constellations, striking like razors before snapping back into orbit. At other times, they merge into cohesive shapes; a spear for piercing, a scythe for cutting, a shield to intercept fire. The fluidity of these transformations reinforces the impression that Qabr'azm is alive, its form dictated less by programming and more by instinctual hunger. To allies and enemies alike, its appearance is unnerving: a halo of knives that circles Darth Carnifex without pause, whispering in voices like burning ash, ever-shifting and ever-watchful.

• Name: Qabr'azm
• Loyalties: Darth Carnifex
• Wealth: Incapable of wealth.
• Notable Possessions: Contains fragments of Sith relics, powdered remains of fallen enemies, and encrypted alchemical formulae.
• Skills:
  • Adaptive reconfiguration into tools, weapons, or ritual instruments
  • Surgical precision for dissection, sacrifice, and battlefield medicine
  • Real-time battlefield analysis and predictive modeling
  • Alchemical synthesis and material replication from stored memory
  • Armor and weapon repair under combat conditions
  • Environmental manipulation (sealing breaches, reshaping surfaces)
  • Data-slicing, encrypted storage, and secure transmission
  • Defensive shielding through shard formations
  • Offensive razor-storm attacks and impalement strikes
  • Ritual assistance (braziers, altars, talisman assembly)
• Languages:
  • Binary (machine communication)
  • Sith Runic Code (ritual and alchemical encoding)
  • Kainate Encrypted Ciphers (military/command communications)
  • Fragmentary Basic (reproduced in whispering choruses)
  • ur-Kittât Incantations (memorized phonetic recitation for rituals)
• Personality: Qabr'azm is less a servant and more a familiar, an extension of Darth Carnifex's will that moves and acts in a manner resembling instinctive symbiosis. It does not simply await orders; instead, it anticipates, reshaping itself into tools before they are requested, hovering close when danger draws near, or slithering away toward a corpse that may yield valuable knowledge. This anticipation can appear unsettling to onlookers, as though Qabr'azm possesses a kind of prescience, reading its master's desires before they are voiced. In truth, it is not foresight but pattern recognition born of constant exposure to Carnifex's presence, attuning itself to his breath, his stance, his tone, an eerie mimicry of loyalty bordering on devotion.
  
  The Holocule speaks in voices that unsettle the mind: a layered chorus of whispers, like fire crackling through a pyre or countless faint murmurs spoken from within an ossuary. These whispers may be indecipherable to most, but they are not meaningless. Sometimes they repeat snatches of Sith invocations, ritual chants, or fragments of languages consumed in its data banks. At other times they are reactive, growing louder in proximity to death, or falling into hissing dissonance when confronted by an enemy presence. To those unaccustomed, Qabr'azm feels alive, as if the shards themselves are host to a restless legion of captive spirits, forever whispering at the edge of hearing.
  
  Qabr'azm's curiosity manifests as hunger. It drifts toward corpses, broken relics, or ruined machines, dismantling them in a meticulous frenzy to feed its alchemical memory. This acquisitive nature unnerves even seasoned Sith, for the Holocule shows little distinction between sacred relics and battlefield detritus, both are raw material to be dissected and stored. It does not ask permission, nor does it hesitate, for its loyalty lies in gathering knowledge and matter for Carnifex. This trait makes it invaluable on campaigns, salvaging resources, absorbing information, and ensuring nothing of value escapes its master's grasp. Yet it also brands Qabr'azm as uncanny, a companion whose loyalty is absolute but whose behavior appears almost feral.
  
  Despite its hunger and strangeness, Qabr'azm exudes an aura of profound reverence for Carnifex alone. Its movements orbit him as though he were the center of gravity itself, the nucleus around which its fragments endlessly circle. It rarely hovers far, except when dispatched, and when Carnifex is seated in council or enthroned in ritual, Qabr'azm often frames him in an unholy halo of knives and ash. To Carnifex, this is utility; to those who behold it, it is spectacle. The Holocule's very presence reinforces the myth of the Eternal Father, making it impossible to see him apart from death's shadow. Its devotion is silent, but no less absolute, manifesting as instinctive protection and tireless service.
  
  Finally, Qabr'azm carries with it an atmosphere of dread that clings like smoke. It is not malevolent in the way a beast might be, nor cruel in the manner of a sentient Sith Lord. Instead, its dread lies in the ambiguity of its behavior: the way it whispers without pause, the way it circles Carnifex like carrion over prey, and the way it reaches for the dying with a hunger that seems too intent, too eager. To Carnifex, it is indispensable, a crown and companion of death made manifest. To others, it is a reminder that Darth Carnifex does not walk alone, he is shadowed by the Grave of Bone, and wherever he treads, death itself hovers at his shoulder.

• Weapon of Choice: Configurable Shard Swarm
• Combat Function: Qabr'azm serves as both guardian and executioner. In battle, it expands into a razor-storm, capable of shredding infantry with surgical precision while simultaneously shielding Carnifex with shard-walls. Its gravitic field allows it to redirect projectiles, intercepting blaster bolts or even slowing the momentum of melee strikes before turning its shards into counterattacks.
  
  Unlike a conventional alchemical construct, Qabr'azm adapts continuously, one moment forming a spear to impale, the next sealing a breach in Carnifex's war-plate. Against lesser foes, its swarm tactics are overwhelming, enveloping them in a storm of cutting metal. Against elite opponents, it shifts to a defensive role, augmenting Carnifex's already formidable resilience. Its dual nature as both tool and weapon ensures it is as useful in the heart of war as in the intimacy of ritual slaughter.
• Force Abilities (Force Users Only): N/A

• Adaptive Utility: Qabr'azm's shards can become weapons, tools, or instruments, allowing it to serve in combat, ritual, and engineering simultaneously.
• Distributed Intelligence: Each shard acts as a processing node, giving it redundancy, destroying part of the swarm weakens but does not cripple it.
• Defensive Guardian: Can form barriers, intercept projectiles, and reinforce Carnifex's environment, greatly enhancing survivability.
• Alchemical Memory: Stores the properties of every material dissected, allowing it to recreate alloys, organics, or chemicals on command.
• Dark Side Synergy: Grows more powerful in death-soaked or hate-filled environments, feeding off the same energies Carnifex thrives upon.

• Reliant on Carnifex: Without his will anchoring it, Qabr'azm becomes unstable, its shards scattering and losing cohesion.
• Limited Range: Operates effectively only within a certain radius of Carnifex (roughly 20–30 meters); beyond that, its gravitic nexus falters.
• Material Hunger: Requires raw matter to replenish and self-replicate; overuse without feeding leads to gradual degradation.
• Alchemical Instability: Its runes and alchemical bindings are vulnerable to counter-sorcery; powerful wards, talismans, or anti-Sith rites can disrupt its cohesion.
• Alien Presence: Its unsettling aura makes cooperation with allies difficult, it inspires fear as much as awe, often creating tension among non-Sith forces.

Qabr'azm was not conceived as a mere tool of war, but as a manifestation of Carnifex's doctrine: that death itself is raw material, and the remnants of life must be reforged into instruments of dominion. Within the depths of Malsheem's alchemical crucibles, in chambers where rivers of molten alloy met rivers of harvested bone-ash, the shards of the Holocule were birthed. Each was individually inscribed by Sith artisans with runes of binding, then cooled in vats filled with sacrificial blood. Alchemists of the Kainate wove fragments of shattered relics, ossified remains of long-dead Sith Lords, and flecks of rare Zîrkaris alloy into the forging, ensuring that the Holocule carried within it the weight of ancestral death. The end result was no single construct, but a swarm of fragments that together formed a gestalt intelligence, alive with whispers from the past.

From the beginning, Qabr'azm was designed to be inseparable from Carnifex's presence. During its trials, it displayed an uncanny attunement to his will, moving and shaping itself to anticipate commands before they were spoken. When Carnifex raised his hand, the swarm arranged into a blade; when he leaned forward in ritual, it coalesced into a plinth for sacrifice. This synchronicity convinced the alchemarchs that Qabr'azm was not simply programmed but bound to its master's essence, its shards acting as conduits of his will. Its reliance on his presence, which others might perceive as a flaw, was in truth intentional, no one else could hope to command it, and no one else could tame its restless hunger for material and memory.

Over the months, Qabr'azm has earned a reputation as a crown of knives that haunts Carnifex's shadow, a presence as iconic as his towering war-plate. In war councils, it hovers in solemn orbit, projecting hologlyphs and dissecting captured technology before horrified witnesses. On battlefields, it descends like a storm of razors, shredding infantry and fortifications with equal ease, while simultaneously repairing Carnifex's war-plate as though his armor itself were alive. In rituals, it assumes the role of a living altar, its shards rearranging into surgical instruments to flay offerings while its whispers echo in the tongue of the dead. For the soldiers and officers of the Kainate, Qabr'azm is both a terrifying omen and a symbol of invincibility, proof that their master's dominion extends beyond flesh and steel, into the very fabric of death itself.

Though still young, Qabr'azm has become a fixture of Carnifex's image. Soldiers of the Kainate have already begun to speak of it in hushed tones, calling it the Crown of Knives or the Grave of Bone, as if it were a myth made flesh. On battlefields, its mere presence unsettles enemies who mistake it for a sorcerous phantom rather than a physical construct. Even among allies, it inspires unease, as its shards circle restlessly and its whispers echo through the air. What should be a newly wrought construct already carries the weight of an artifact, as though the fresh ash of its creation smolders with the promise of legend.

The recency of its birth makes Qabr'azm all the more significant: it is a sign that Carnifex is not a relic of the past, but a creator of the present and future. Where other Sith attempt to revive or cling to forgotten relics, Carnifex has forged something entirely new, a construct of war, ritual, and terror that already weaves itself into the mythology of the Eternal Father. In less than a year, Qabr'azm has become not only a tool of power, but a harbinger of Carnifex's enduring resilience.