ʜᴄ sᴠɴᴛ ᴅʀᴀᴄᴏɴᴇs
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION- Intent: An artificial heart to empower Antherion and justify his continued existence and ability to face his rivals head-on; to find an interesting and active manner of using a Unique Canon Item.
- Image Source: Gonti's Aether Heart
- Canon Link: N/A
- Restricted Missions: We Come For Booty (Capture of the Seed of Rage).
- Primary Source: The Seed of Rage
- Name: The Heart of Rage
- Manufacturer: Antherion
- Affiliation: Antherion
- Modularity: No
- Production: Unique
- Material: Self-Replicating Tissue Culture; Fabrication Matrix; The Seed of Rage(Destroyed during creation); Human Heart; Kyber Crystal Mesh-Web, Purified Spirit Fragment
- Classification: Synthetic Organ
- Size: Core can be held in one hand; Lattice is lightweight yet spreads itself rapidly throughout the host proper.
The Heart of Rage is a multipurpose organ that acts as an interface between the flesh and the spirit of an individual. Upon being implanted within the subject, the Heart will begin to intertwine itself with the subject over the course of several days, creating an intricate, vein-like web of semicrystalline connections that cannot be fully extracted without shredding the host's innards. After it is completely interlaced with the being's biological structures (or what remains of them), it will begin to 'beat'. This steady, grotesque combination of throbbing and the sparking of twitching machinery conveys energy throughout the body in a 'safe' fashion -- venting excesses, sparking life, and filling a being with the Dark Side of the Force.
The heart is implanted within the chest cavity - the core is protected by the bearer's ribcage but the workings spill out and are visible above the skin of the bearer. The most vital part is as protected as any organ, but certain systems for distribution and regulation of the flow of power and vitality are visible and more easily vulnerable to attack without having to dig through skin.
Strengths:
"It's Alive! It's Alive!": The Heart of Rage, first and foremost, is designed to give animus to something that may not otherwise be able to exist. Larger than a heart by far, it fills the entire chest cavity with an elaborate, pulsating device that supplements the functioning of organs with machinery. The metabolism slows so that one can survive in the vacuum of space for up to an hour before pressure pries into the bloodstream. Food and water are only needed in one-tenth the quantity that might otherwise be required. Sleep can be replaced with four to six hours of uninterrupted meditation and refocusing. Drugs and diseases progress more slowly through the body.
"I live as energy. I am the Dark Side!": The body becomes an extension of the Heart with this device. Flesh and metal generated by the device accelerate the natural healing process. This function is a form of healing trance that may be entered when severe trauma is suffered, wherein the user falls insensate and the flesh is slowly restored. This process takes a few hours for blunt trauma, extremities, and shallow lacerations, up to a week for the rupturing of organs, and multiple weeks for wounds that might otherwise be mortal and regenerating severed limbs.
"Power overwhelming.": The host's power in the Dark Side increases as it courses. Comparable to a fragment of a nexus, this sliver of trapped energy was excised from the depths of Antherions' own consciousness and, after being scoured of evidence of possession, implanted within the thrumming engine of destruction to send it into overdrive. Powers can be used with mere gesture, and stores of stamina increase to allow for the unleashing of greater sums of energy. Even the physical rot of the Dark Side is offloaded to the web of indifferent circuitry and gemstone.
Weaknesses:
Nullification Vulnerability: The machinery is subject to disruption by Force Light, Voidstone, and Ysalimir, which all cause a cessation of normal function. Someone implanted with the Heart will not die, but also will be unable to access the Force and suffer secondary symptoms of cardiac arrest - chest pain, unconsciousness, and lightheadedness as their biological processes begin to shut down. Extended time exposed to Force-blocking effects can kill the host as the Heart is forced into dormancy.
Ion/EMP Vulnerability: Currents of electricity and certain wave distortions and cosmic storms can interrupt the heart's function, causing physical weakness, pain, paralysis, and interrupted concentration as the delicate machinery begins to malfunction.
Fragility: The Heart of Rage is difficult to fully repair, requiring personal attention from its creator and the expenditure of expensive materials. Similarly, in combat, it is acutely vulnerable, causing pain to reverberate throughout the body as nerves fire all over, and less durable to blunt force than most organs - a single, brass-knuckled fist to the core could shatter it to the point where one has no choice but to flee. Two strikes could see the host at the attacker's mercy.
Eternal Covenant: Once activate for three months in a single being, the Heart of Rage cannot be removed without destroying the host.
Malice Beyond Shadow: The intense Force energies constantly being used as a furnace to fuel the powers of the Heart of Rage render the user unable to mask their Force presence -- even an Apprentice could detect the incredible malice as a distinct presence from miles away. A dogged Master could easily track the foe through space and time, albeit the incredible Dark energies of a Nexus can be used to conceal the presence of the being.
Light-Scorned: While implanted with this vile machinery, any attempt to use a Force Power attuned with the light causes injury and pain. The redemption of a monstrosity that would pervert their body in such a fashion, or even one who had the artefact forced upon them, would cost them their life.
Madness: A malicious pseudo-consciousness pulsates within the Heart. Anger saturates a being until other sensations begin to grow numb, and negative emotion dominates them. Hallucinations of voices, visions, and inability to distinguish friend from foe and thought from reality all threaten constantly to seize upon one whose focus breaks.
Torpor: The Heart beats steady, but it also beats slow. Beneficial drugs such as bacta, kolto, painkillers, and stimulants have less effect and require time to take effect. Due to the stasis in flow of blood and oxygen, physical performance is reduced - the body can no longer adapt to high effort by raising the heartbeat, forcing a perpetual state of languid activity.
DESCRIPTION
It was when Antherion lost his little finger trying to type on a datapad that he realized his burst of life was just that - a temporary burst. Nothing was protecting the corpse he was existing in from simply decaying into lifeless dust under the stress of the evil sorcery that the Sith constantly indulged in. As he grew closer to mastery, Antherion also grew closer to annihilating himself with his own power. He was not a true physical presence, but rather an inanimate object being moved by the power of the Force, with no anchor but hate and desire to prevent himself from being pulled away.
This needed to change.
The Seed of Rage, the masterwork of the genius Lord Fulminiss, projects anger and hatred into matter, causing insanity to drench the very ground. Writhing spires of flesh and hulking beasts lope and lumber where it is laid. Normally, Antherion wouldn't have the know-how to warp the weft of the device to his own ends, but he had the fortune of having embarked on the project of the dreaded Chinvat Monolith with a certain slave, sharing its designs and studying them.
[TBD, Restricted Mission]
