Eternal Father
- Intent: Update and modernize the Blackblade Guard Submission to replace all previous Blackblade submissions
- Image Credit:
- Click - Wookieepedia (Edited by Carnifex)
- Click - Amionna@DeviantArt (Edited by Carnifex)
- Click - Brian Hagan (Edited by Carnifex)
- Skull & Spear Symbol Made By Fiolette Fortan
- Click - clipartkey
- Headers -
Ingrid L'lerim
- Permissions:
- Links:
- Unit Name: Blackblade Guardsmen
- Affiliation: The Kainate
- Classification: Elite Mechanized Infantry
- Unit Symbol: The most frequent symbol attributed to the Blackblade Guard was a skull over crossed spears, commonly referred to as the Warrior's Sigil. The origin of the Warrior's Sigil date back to Panatha's ancient past, where it was used by warriors to represent their defiance of death and danger. Carnifex had appropriated its use for his Blackblade Guard, warping its original meaning to now represent triumph over death and mass genocide. This symbol frequently adorned uniforms and vehicle plating.
The other symbol utilized by the Blackblade Guard was the eponymous Blackblade. The Blackblade was an all-black sword wreathed in bright red flame encircled by a white halo over a blood-red sunburst. This symbol has its roots in ancient Panatha as well. It was written in Epicanthix mythology that the God Neaos, who was the Panathan interpretation of the Mortis God known as The Son, wielded a black blade wreathed in flame against his enemies. In Epicanthix tradition, Neaos represented virility, domination, and death. This symbol was normally displayed on banners and flags.
WARRIOR'S SYMBOL | THE BLACKBLADE |
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- Description: The Blackblade Guard looms menacingly in the minds of the galactic populace, a terrible reminder of the terror and depravity that those swayed to the Sith cause can inflict upon the innocent. Slaved to the ambitions of mad tyrants, the Guard exercises its killing potential against their master's enemies; great and small. Those inducted into the Guard know no fear, no shame, no mercy, they will throttle the necks of babes if such a thing was asked of them. Unmitigated by morality, the Guard surges forth across countless battlefields to bring an end to those that stand in the way of a universe shackled to the Dark Side of the Force.
The Blackblade Guard's lethality and expertise in combat were virtually unmatched, due in part to their long and storied history as Jedi-killers and Mandalorian slayers, but also because of the heightened scrutiny and meticulous research put into the development of the equipment they would use. Their training was excruciatingly taxing, killing more recruits than those that passed, but ultimately providing the Guard with a reliable influx of new blood that would carry on the traditions of the Guard beyond those who came before. Those survivors were then bathed in the power of the Dark Side of the Force, their bodies mutilated and internal organs replaced with biomechanical augmentations.
Leading the Blackblade Guard was the Highlord, the most senior warrior of the Guard who had garnered the favor of the Dark Masters themselves. The Highlord was the Supreme Commander of all Blackblade military operations, his authority subordinate only to the Zambrano sovereigns. Beneath the Highlord sat a cabinet of seven distinguished commanders responsible for the administration, management, leadership, and oversight of all Blackblade operations across the galaxy. In most situations very rarely does the Guard need to field more than a single legion asset. However, the command structure is set up to provide a wide range of flexibility for the Highlord to assign and compose forces as needed for military campaigns across the galaxy. A vast majority of the current Guard are on daily operations ranging from protection details of fortresses, securing Zambrano interests, and conducting special operations across the galaxy.
The Blackblades served as the elite mobile shock troop of the Kainate's military, fully independent from the other branches with their own line of command and answerable only to the Dark Lord. They were primarily used to perform the coup de grâce to any engagement, leveraging their advanced enhancements and superior skill to overwhelm any further resistance. As mechanized infantry, the Blackblade Guard was exceptionally mobile with their use of repulsorlift vehicles to swiftly maneuver through combat zones or shift from one battle to another, without being reliant on the standard supply or transport chains that the Kainate army relied upon.
While being the most independent of the Kainate's military branches, and their most elite soldiers to boot, the Blackblade was not an everpresent force in every Kainate operation. By being unshackled to the army and navy, the Blackblades were not beholden to the authority of the field generals and grand admirals that controlled them. The Blackblades conducted their own operations wherever they saw fit, and would only cooperate with the other branches in the event that it was advantageous for them, or if it advanced the ambitions of their Dark Lord.
- Unit Size: Medium
- Unit Availability: Rare
- Unit Experience: Elite
- Equipment:
- Armament (Melee)
- Armament (Ranged)
- Armor
- Cybernetics
- Droids (Combat)
- Droids (Non-Combat)
- Equipment
- Explosives
- Vehicles
- Specializations:
- Environment-Specialized:
- Arctic
- Aquatic
- Desert
- Forest
- Magma
- Subterranean
- Wet-Weather
- Zero Gravity
- Role-Specialized:
- Artillery: Specialized in mortar weaponry.
- Grenadier: Equipped with grenade launchers and a variety of handheld grenades.
- Incinerator: Equipped with flamethrowers.
- Jump: Equipped with jump/jet packs and rocket launchers.
- Medic: Equipped with medical equipment and defensive armament.
- Recon: Lightly armored and rode speeder bikes to patrol and scout.
- Sapper: Armed with high explosives and entrenching tools.
- Sniper: Lightly armored and equipped with a sniper rifle.
- Elite:
- Deathmark: Deadly assassins equipped with lethal bladed weaponry and trained in the art of Teräs Käsi.
- Gorebound: Fearsome commandos heavily augmented with cybernetics on a far greater scale than their contemporaries.
- Ophidiae: Blackblade soldiers injected with the Ophidiae serum, transforming them into venomous snake hybrids.
- Environment-Specialized:
- Combat Function: The Blackblade Guard was destined to become the ultimate force multiplier in the armed forces of Carnifex and his followers. While not large enough to constitute an army of their own, the Blackblade Guard was nonetheless crucial as a rapid-deployment shock infantry and shock cavalry. The Guard would be deployed tactically where they could inflict the most damage on their enemies, whether that be a heavily defended fortress or a weakly defended front, and deliver the most effective coup de grâce. Comprised primarily of mechanized infantry, the Blackblade Guard was exceptionally mobile and could move independently of larger Kainate army formations to respond to constantly shifting battle conditions.
- Elite Force
- Mechanized Speed
- Unflinching Loyalty
- Selective Use
- Difficult to Replace
- Expensive and Lengthy Training
HISTORY BEFORE THE FOUNDING
The origins of the Blackblade Guard can be traced back to the personal guard of Solomon the Black; Dread-King and Sorcerer-Tyrant of Panatha. Seven hundred years before the present day, Solomon Zambrano had usurped the throne of Panatha from his father, Magnus the Red. Having uncovered the ancient ruins of the Infinite Empire buried deep beneath Panatha's surface, Solomon appropriated their lost knowledge to make himself an all-powerful magician.
With this newfound power, Solomon upended thousands of years of tradition and holy scripture to reshape Panatha in his image. He slaughtered the priests of the three divines, Nereus, Nussyn, and Neaos; replacing them with the worship of himself as the single god of the Epicanthix people. To this end, he adopted the epithet of Nemeroth, a new name for his elevated godhood. Enraptured by his madness and tyranny, Solomon created a cadre of powerful warriors that would serve him as loyal guardians.
He called them the Dizayd, the Devout. Inspired by the revelations of the ancient Rakatans, Solomon dressed his warriors in a similar manner to the Predors of the ancient Infinite Empire. Their visage became synonymous with fear during Solomon's reign, the epitome of his cruelty and malice towards his own people. When the Jedi came to tear down Solomon's blasphemous Empire, the Dizayd fought to the last man to defend their God.
Images of Solomon and his Dizayd were destroyed following his death at the hands of the Jedi, the Epicanthix people eager to bury the horror they had endured and embrace a brighter future. His most loyal followers, those that survived the ensuing purges, hoarded what graven idols they could and fled into the dark catacombs beneath the Iron Mountains. The surviving members of the Zambrano family officially recanted Solomon's madness and moved to atone for their predecessor's crimes. But, in secret, the Zambranos continued their dark worship of Solomon and proceeded to wed brother and sister together for the next seven generations.
THE FOUNDING AND THE FIRST AGEAt the end of that seventh generation was born a son to Ashriel and Hazael Zambrano, a son they named Kaine. In the decades after Kaine's birth, he rose to become lord and master of the Zambrano family through guile and violence. With the aid of his great-uncle Braxus, Kaine uncovered the hidden troves of Solomonic knowledge and the secret history of the Zambrano family. Drawing inspiration from their ancestor, the pair modeled their own followers after those who followed Solomon. What originally started out as a small team of bodyguards grew into a well-disciplined fighting force that could equal or even surpass the Mandalorians in prowess and lethality.
They became known as the Blackblade Guard, a name that would echo throughout the coming years to embody death and destruction. Subjected to brutal experimentation, the strength of each Blackblade grew to be more than any ordinary man or woman. Brainwashed to faithfully serve the Zambrano family and obey any order, no matter how destructive or self-harming, the Blackblade Guard quickly accumulated a reputation for merciless brutality.
Two Guardsmen rose to jointly lead the Blackblade Guard during this early period, their names Baelric and Xander. Both were native Humans of Outer Rim worlds, having known only instability and chaos in the post-Darkness galaxy. The Zambranos lifted them up out of insignificance and exposed them to the intoxicating power of the Dark Side, augmenting their bodies with extensive cybernetic enhancements. The pair would continue to lead the Blackblade Guard as their lords and masters accumulated authority within the Eighth Sith Empire, with Kaine eventually becoming the Emperor of all the Sith.
At that moment, the Blackblade Guard's ranks swelled with new recruits. The training process was refined and new technologies allowed for quicker and more cost-efficient cybernetic enhancements to be grafted onto the Guardsman's bodies. The Blackblade not only strengthened its position as the personal force for the Sith Emperor, but its most skilled members became the first Crownguard; a cadre of a thousand Force-sensitive guardsman who protected the Zambrano family directly. The Crownguard was more heavily vetted than the standard Blackblade and had their bodies further experimented on, transforming each Crownguard into a mute guardian.
Unfortunately, the Guard alone was not sufficient to protect Kaine Zambrano from being apprehended by the Jedi Council and Republic forces during the Battle of Mon Cala. Control of the Guard fell into Braxus' hands during this period, and he marshaled them for the defense of Korriban against encroaching Republic forces. Republic forces eventually pushed both the Blackblades and the Sith garrison off-world, with Baelric and Xander receiving critical injuries during the desperate fighting. Though they might've died of their injuries, Braxus nursed both loyal Guardsmen back to health and elevated them as the leaders of the Crownguard because of their devotion.
Kaine was eventually freed from Republic custody by agents of the One Sith, an order that he would eventually pledge himself to and take on a new name; Darth Vornskr. Reuniting with Braxus and what remained of the Blackblade Guard over Panatha, Vornskr announced that he would use what forces were at his disposal to reclaim what he considered to be his family's heirloom; the throne of Panatha. With Braxus and the Guard at his side, Vornskr swept through the Steward of Panatha's defenses and secured the throne for himself and his family. All who opposed him were put to the sword, while those that pledged themselves to their new King were granted the opportunity to join the Blackblade Guard.
THE SECOND AGEWith Panatha secure, Vornskr moved to rendezvous his forces with those of the One Sith on the Deep Core world Prakith. Braxus would join him as well, their bond growing stronger in this new age of adversity for the pair, and would take the name Prazutis for his Sith title. The Blackblade Guard would be but one of the many swords in the scabbard of the One Sith, putting entire systems to the torch in their rapid and violent expansion out from the Deep Core and into the Core Worlds. As the personal soldiers of Vornskr and Prazutis, the Blackblade Guard was afforded special privileges and their choice of the latest technology and military innovation.
However, while the Guard was exceptionally skilled at ravaging worlds and routing whole armies, they lacked specialization and variety. They were more akin to a blunt hammer than a sharpened spear, their tactics crude and cumbersome. Following the first death of Darth Vornskr several years into the war against the Republic and the Jedi, the Blackblade Guard was taken into the hands of Darth Prazutis and remolded. Prazutis; a military genius and tactical innovator, improved training methods, upgraded combat doctrine, and reorganized the Blackblade Guard into mobile legions.
One of the issues of the early Guard was that it was too monolithic, it couldn't be everywhere at once where it was needed. Now, the Guard could more easily spread across an entire front, with neighboring units coalescing against stronger concentrations of enemies before dissolving into their constituent divisions.
Following the broad reforms to the Blackblade Guard, Prazutis also established the Gelian Sentinels and the Nerean Crownguard, created in part because of the Blackblade's and the Crownguard's failure to prevent the death of Darth Vornskr. The Gelian Sentinels would fulfill the role of general security for the Zambranos, garrisoning their various facilities and estates. They were not as skilled as the Blackblades nor were afforded the greatest armor and weaponry, but they were just as devout. The Nerean Crownguard would be a small group of eight individuals, later increased to sixteen, that would personally guard Vornskr and Prazutis wherever they went.
The Nerean Crownguard was chosen from among the most skilled and loyal of the Crownguard, with the first two chosen being Baelric and Xander. They would abandon their identity and all memory of who they were before they were chosen, the ultimate sacrifice to serve their masters.
For the remainder of the war between the One Sith and the Galactic Republic, the Blackblade Guard would continually fight on every battlefront and compete in every test of arms that would break out between the two sides. They would be guided by their Dark Masters, every battle a lesson that had the potential to yield something that the Guard could learn and improve from. When the war ended and the Galactic Alliance rose to replace both the One Sith and the Galactic Republic, the Blackblade Guard dutifully followed its masters Carnifex (having abandoned the name Vornskr at the war's end) and Prazutis out of the Core and into the Outer Rim.
THE THIRD AGEFollowing the collapse of the One Sith, the Blackblade Guard no longer had a larger political entity to attach itself to other than the personal kingdom of the Zambranos on Panatha. Bereft of large-scale engagements to whet their blades on, the Guard was forced to resort to mock war games and anti-piracy action concentrated around Panatha and its neighboring systems. A new entity, the First Order, came to claim authority over the Pacanth Reach and surrounding sectors but allowed the domain of the Zambranos a great deal of autonomy in exchange for military levies. The Blackblade Guard dispatched several legions to aid the First Order in several engagements but was never used to its full effect during this brief period.
The Blackblade Guard would find its footing again following the establishment of the Tenth Sith Empire, a successor to the earlier Eighth Sith Empire and the One Sith (posthumously referred to as the Ninth Sith Empire), on the fortress world of Bastion. Carnifex was declared the new Empire's first Dark Lord while Prazutis served as his Shadow Hand; his second-in-command and military executor. The Blackblade Guard would again serve in a similar capacity as they had when Carnifex ruled over the Eighth Sith Empire, his personal force whose ranks would swell with thousands of recruits from across the Empire's ever-expanding territories.
Military reforms continued under Prazutis' meticulous authority, the contents of every battle report transferred directly to him. Through this data, Prazutis was able to better adapt new and existing Blackblade legions to the ever-changing threats faced by the nascent Empire. Minute improvements to Blackblade armor and weapons ensured that no two engagements against the same enemy were the same, the Guard's tactics against that enemy likewise improving following each battle.
Cybernetic enhancements were improved during this period as well, as the Guard benefited from the Sith Empire's rapidly growing treasury and scientific sector. Because of the Sith's lack of ethical codes regarding scientific experimentation, researchers were able to amass copious amounts of data regarding the melding of living tissue and biomechanical implants. They were also able to gather data regarding the resiliency of organic tissue when subjected to extreme stress, allowing for the Blackblade Guard to be retroactively enhanced artificially to become stronger and more actively resist environmental factors. The vast majority of these experiments were carried out on unwilling subjects, typically slaves imported from the Zygerrians and other affiliated organizations.
With these advancements, the Blackblade Guard rose from merely being highly skilled soldiers to transsentient warriors capable of exuding greater strength and endurance than average sentient lifeforms.
THE FOURTH AGE
Following the abdication of Darth Carnifex from the throne of the Tenth Sith Empire, and with Darth Prazutis rising to take his place as Dark Lord, the Blackblade Guard continued to fulfill its role as the Zambrano's personal force. The equipment and training of the Guard had plateaued at this time, having reached a level of advancement that was difficult to overcome. The tactics of the Guard would continue to improve with every new foe they met, with new tactics having spawned from their brief encounters with the Draelvasier of the Bryn'adûl Covenant.
The Blackblade Guard would find themselves working alongside the Phantom Army of Malsheem, an army of strand-casts created by Darth Carnifex to serve as the footsoldiers of a hidden Empire stretching across from one corner of the galaxy to the other. Soon, the most experienced members of this Phantom Army would become honored brethren of the Guard and imbued with the same enhancements as those who came before.
This marked a new era for the Guard, one where they were not merely the personal soldiers of a warlord or Empire, but the harbingers of destruction that would seek to plunge the entire galaxy into apocalyptic fire.
6/04/2021
- Complete replaced the 2015 NPC era formatting and information with up-to-date and relevant 2021 Lore formatting and information
- Added Organization and Specialization as custom bullet points under the Composition Information category.
- Edited Submission Name
- Exchanged the Army Lore template for the NPC Unit template
- Added Permissions
- Changed Army Name to Unit Name
- Edited Unit Name
- Edited Classification
- Edited Affiliation
- Changed Army Symbol to Unit Symbol
- Removed Social Information, Composition Information, and Members
- Added Combat Information, Strengths, and Weaknesses
- Added Specializations under Combat Information
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