Velok the Younger
When I Was A Young Warthog
Image Source: Here and here
Intent: Basic armor for Seren
Development Thread: Here
Manufacturer: Seren Ordavo, w. ancient Taung beskarsmith
Model: N/A
Affiliation: Personal
Modularity: Each piece is separate and could be swapped out for pieces of another armor set. The chains are easily detachable.
Production: Unique
Material: Duraplast, spun-plast, Dark Side-infused beskar (shoulders, knuckle plates, elbows, knees, belt plates, boot toes/soles, and chains)
Classification: Multipurpose
Weight: 8kg, not including chains
Quality: 4 (throughout), 8 (shoulders, knuckle plates, elbows, knees, belt plates, boot toes/soles)
Special Features: Some areas lightsabre resistant, as mentioned above. Includes sheaths for four knives, as well as an underarm holster for a sidearm, and can be worn with a lanvarok on the left forearm. Includes attach/detach points for four beskar chains, generally worn wrapped around thighs and forearms.
Description: The armor of Seren Ordavo is very minimalist, designed for maximum range of motion and long-term wear, as well as joint protection while brawling, Seren not being overly fond of amputation. The majority of its coverage relies on flexible spun-plast, with duraplast slats to protect the gut, back, tops of feet, back of neck and other common target areas.
The beskar has a bit of a story to it. Looking to replace his long-lost favorite quasi-indestructible cord, Seren returned to his old home, Dxun and the Tomb of Freedon Nadd. The tomb, composed entirely of Dark Side-imbued Mandalorian iron, had long resisted any attempts to pillage its structure, both through the malevolence of those who had died or been interred there, and through the immense natural strength of well-forged Mandalorian iron. Seren's most prominent Force-related skills are temperature manipulation, fine-point telekinesis, and the invocation or banishment of spirits. His first step was to ward away whatever spirits or negative influences might attempt to interfere with him. His second step was to begin to use his control of heat and matter to reshape a minor piece of beskar ornamentation deep inside the tomb. His third step was to search in the instilled but faded memories and personalities of those who had died there, a common trait of Dark Side nexuses (as with the Dagobah cave, the tomb of Darth Bane, the Valley of the Dark Lords, and the tainting of the Coruscant nexus at the death of Nyax), for a faded shade he had encountered before, a Mandalorian beskarsmith who had died protecting the construction site.
Seren's goal was to invoke and borrow whatever remained of the ancient beskarsmith's instincts. Instead, he lost some measure of control and sense of self, as he underestimated the ancient shade's strength of will. The imprint of her ancient death had created a more powerful memory than he'd anticipated, one which he woke up. In the process of creating his chains and attempting to work the beskar into the shapes he required, Seren found himself deep in the remaining memories of the shade. He experienced Mandalore in roughly 4000 BBY, in the person of a female Taung Field Marshal -- the shade -- who had helped Arca Jeth create the tomb of Freedon Nadd. He experienced the mining of the original ore, and its refinement on Mandalore, then portions of the tomb's construction on Dxun. Though comprehensive detail had long since fled from the imprinted memories, he was able to begin work on a few basic pieces of armor, but became more and more overcome by the instincts he'd too-successfully borrowed. The end result was not the armor he would have crafted for himself. Instead, it was shaped by a blend of their levels of expertise, their aesthetic and combat inclinations, his challenged presence of mind and her erosion into the Force. Seren was not able to create armor with more coverage, or even a blade. Even long after the shade's dissipation, Seren continued to suffer from flashbacks to the Mandalore of forty-eight centuries ago, as well as other faded life experiences of an ageing alien woman, and was well reminded of why he'd long ago sworn not to try to do wonky things with the echoes of the dead that endured in some Dark Side nexuses.
The final plates, though heated and cooled by his temperature-manipulation expertise and some fraction of an ancient beskarsmith's creative instincts, are not the equal of masterforged beskar. They are equivalent in armor rating to the standard recruit armor of the modern Mandalorian faction, and cover much, much less of the body. In short, the only parts of Seren's body which are lightsabre-resistant, or partake of any serious armor rating, are about half his major joints, and only from certain directions. Your average stormtrooper is better armored.
As for the chains, Seren's preferred weapons alongside a standard forearm lanvarok, a total of four were forged -- crudely, as they were Seren's first attempts at working beskar with the Dark Side. He generally carries one to four, depending on the situation, and uses them with a combination of physical (sometimes Force-enhanced) strength, physics, and fine-point telekinesis. The two short ones are one point five metres long apiece, and the two long ones are three metres long apiece, half of which is studded with crude short spikes. The chains' ends are basic small weights, though the chains barely need them, being very heavy themselves. There is nothing special about the chains apart from their beskar construction.
The Dark Side infusion in the metal, a leftover from the Freedon Nadd tomb, allows Seren to be more attuned to his armor and chains, and make them less susceptible to the control of others, as well as more resistant to Light Side powers in general, including Shatterpoint. These are all either minor benefits or very rare incidents. Conversely, wearing this metal can render Seren an easier target for various Dark Side powers. Lightning, for example, will jump to him more readily and not be absorbed by the metal, as the metal is not alchemized. (The armor has no resistance to Shatterpoint as used by Darksiders, apart from being contained within the defensive aura of a Dark Master.) The armor is intolerable to wear as a Lightsider, uncomfortable to wear while trying to access the Force with calm, and uncomfortable to those who cultivate both Light and Dark abilities, shoot for a 'gray' alignment, or qualify as, for example, 'Jedi in name only.' Jedi overwhelmed with 'righteous anger' and 'on fire for justice' find the armor pleasant and accommodating, which is probably not a good sign. Extended wear of the armor will turn pretty much anyone to the Dark Side.
Primary Source: None
