Faction The Heresiarch's Stand

[R'ayne Asara]

The Heresiarch's Stand

[]

Savage Queen of Hearts - by Neon Dreams

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Tags: Darth Strosius - Christoph Kudmol Voytger - Madrona A’Mia - Revna Marr - Taeli Raaf

I lifted my gaze toward the bruised heavens above the city, watching the girl and her family dwindle into silhouettes against the dying horizon. Their figures grew smaller with each passing moment, yet they were not the only movement beneath the sky. The new arrivals brought a sense of curiosity to me. I observed them in silence before allowing my attention to drift down the fractured streets.

There, hidden among ruined structures and whispered allegiances, lingered the insurgents. Piece by piece, I measured their hypothetical strength against the newly arrived Sith warships hanging in orbit like executioner's blades.

The answer came easily. Courage and conviction were admirable qualities, but neither stopped turbolaser fire. The pieces aligned themselves with disturbing simplicity.

A faint smirk touched my lips as I considered the pattern unfolding before me. The Sith had always possessed a singular talent for turning ambition into conflict. Dynasties rose from betrayal and collapsed beneath it, only for the cycle to begin anew beneath a different banner.

"Nothing speaks Sith quite like a political power struggle," I remarked with dry sarcasm, my voice carrying only far enough for my Legionnaires to hear. "Not my concern. Let them squabble. Venting would do them good." My eyes narrowed slightly as I studied the distant skyline, the dark amusement lingering for only a moment before fading back into cold indifference.

I turned from the horizon and extended a hand. Immediately, the Sith Legionnaires responded with practiced precision, armor clattering softly as they formed ordered ranks behind me. Discipline replaced chaos in an instant.

"Forward," I commanded.

The column advanced through the neighborhood, polished armor moving like a tide through the narrow streets while wary loyal citizens retreated from our path. I walked at their head without hesitation, my robes stirring around me like living shadow.

Others could concern themselves with loyalties, pacts, and endless schemes for power. Such burdens belonged to those foolish enough to place faith in causes greater than themselves.

My loyalty remained where it always had, within my own grasp. There were no squabbles there, no rivals to appease, and no masters to disappoint.

Only certainty.​

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Darth Strosius Revna Marr Madrona A’Mia
​

Once she had issued her questions, she would remain respectfully silent, waiting for the responses that would either absolve the Prophet of the Wonosa or condemn him. She thought she was being rather reasonable about the situation, offering him just enough of an open hand that he might, just might, start mending some of the damage his reputation had taken among the Sith Order. All he had to do was make an effort, to show that he might be trusted with such an important world, that he wouldn't foment rebellion within the Sith's territory.

Revna jumped in first, agreeing with her assessment and asking the same question of her Father as she had. What could he offer to show he was worth investing in? It didn't escape her that Revna was coaching it in terms that would make it appear more palatable than agreeing purely with the Lady of Secrets, but that was fine. It was another open hand that he could grasp hold of, and she would receive the whispered message in her mind from the younger woman.

The response would slide into Revna's mind, patient and measured. 'I understand, my dear. You need not explain a careful diplomatic maneuver to me, and I will not hold his actions against either you or A'mia if he chooses to not heed your words.'

The connection would drift away again as A'mia spoke up, pushing for collaboration and pledging the resources of Brosi to further stabilize Seswenna. The Neti, like Revna, understood the situation well and was trying to position herself as an intermediary between the Alisteri and herself. She had to respect both women's attempts to keep the situation from devolving and recognizing that Taeli was being incredibly patient. She hadn't even, in her order, stated that the Wonosa needed to leave. Only that they would turn control of the planet back over to the original government and would jointly operate with the forces she brought to get everything settled here. That's really, in all their interactions, that Taeli had expressed a desire for. Stability and a quieter control, and yet...

All that depended on the masked Sith and what he did next.

He chose... poorly. As he started his response, stating he and the Wonosa could offer nothing to Revna or A'mia to justify the investment because they were despised and disadvantaged, she could already tell where his thoughts were heading. Which meant she was slightly surprised, an eyebrow arcing slowly, as he further stated that the Wonosa would leave immediately, as he felt that she would not judge their forces to be up to standard. She hadn't said he needed to leave, and she was about to start forming that very sentence, to continue that open hand... when he made his threat.

The tone of the conversation shifted immediately as he implied that an insurgency would form, and oh how so unfortunate that the Wonosa would not be available to stop it because they hadn't secured everything from the attack and oh how unfortunate that these forces would be tied down and not investigating the excursion through the Blackwall. The threat continued and then he tried to twist the knife even more by bringing up Ziost and its defense.

Once he finished his last word, as it slipped from the mask and she could see the faint golden gleam in its visor, there would be a very long... very deliberate pause. On the bridge of the Star Destroyer around her, there was complete and utter silence.

"Perhaps there was an interruption in transmission there, Lord Strosius, but I certainly couldn't have heard you were implying an insurgency would form on Seswenna if the Wonosa leave and the planet is returned to its rightful officials," she said, her tone quiet in that way before something utterly terrible occurred. "I must be mistaken, of course."

Unlike Tund, when mist had formed to announce her presence, stepping through the hologram, there would be no warning. One moment she was a hologram, and the next... she stepped off the projector, amethyst eyes as hard as their namesake gemstone. Black mist started to drift from her body as armor formed around her, called by its Mistress through the magicks of the Nightsisters.

"Do you know what world remains in my purview, to this day, Lord Strosius? Ziost. Do you know what world I fought to defend three times, whose magic even now suffuses it as a protection from any that would step foot upon it without my permission? Ziost. Do you know who never lost control of the planet even when it was under the Ashlan Crusaders because her control shifted from the traditional structures of power to a softer one to avoid detection until the time was right? Me."

Her voice would be dripping with exactly how done she was with him, with his vitriol, with his actions against both herself and the Sith as a whole. She had given support when her apprentice, his friend, asked her. She had tried diplomacy; she had tried to show his actions had consequences for those around him. She had tried to be reasonable. She had tried to be patient and understanding. She had allowed the insults inflicted upon her when he killed her apprentice to slide because she came back, but that mark had remained. She had not chastised him or excoriated him for the role he played in the Ouroboros Crisis. She had shown leniency when he took her grandchildren even if he didn't see it that way. She had burned an entire galactic government for the insults they gave her sister, so what had happened to Formos had been mercy.

And none of it seemed to get through the mask this man had forged for himself, through the delusions he had constructed.

And she. was. done.

There would be one more glance at A'mia and Revna, and in that, there would be an apology for what happened next. That she didn't blame them. That she appreciated their attempts at trying to make the diplomacy she offered work... and a promise that she wouldn't kill him. This time. And they were not to interfere.

"I have been reasonable. I have been patient. I have been forgiving. I have fought against my own instincts and my wife's instincts to try to teach you how to do all of this properly. If you won't learn the other way... on your head be it."

She would shift her hand... and an eruption of purple-tinted blue flames born of the dark side would issue forth towards the Prophet. Taeli Raaf was gone for the time being, and in her place stood Darth Arcanix, Dark Councilor of the Sith Order, the Lady of Secrets, and Mother of Monsters.

And she would see him... KNEEL.

 

[Revna Marr]

Tags: Darth Strosius // Taeli Raaf // Madrona A’Mia ​

Revna knew the moment she heard her Father’s soft scoff, that her efforts, A’Mia’s efforts and the hand extended by Taeli towards Darth Strosius, would be spurned. The little Marr simply knew her Father too well - though she had dared to hope.

There was a moment of silence, a heavy pause that felt like the calm before the storm, and then Darth Strosius sighed and pulled away from His proximity to the Neti.

"I'm afraid that I have nothing to offer you in consolation, Lady Marr, Lady Madrona. For I and my followers are indeed a disadvantaged and evidently despised lot."

Those words were the final “nail in the coffin” to Revna’s hopes - and the moment she knew for certain that this interaction was not going to end well. She withdrew her mental connection completely from her Father in that moment, allowing a cold silence to replace that familiar tether as Alisteri turned His attention back on Taeli and put into motion events that Revna knew could not be turned back. Revna turned her ember gaze towards A’Mia, and the Neti would feel an immense amount of sorrow flow through the connection created between them at the last battle of Brosi.

As the venomous words of her Father spilled forth, the little Vahla felt herself grow colder and colder as dread began to fill the space behind her breastbone. That dread settled like a heavy stone in the pit of her stomach when He threatened insurrection.

Taeli might have allowed Him to walk out prior to such a statement being made - but now that He had said such a thing, Revna knew that was unlikely to happen.

“You fething fool.” Revna whispered, her voice carrying the weight of her disappointment, the pain at seeing her Father put Himself into harm’s way again, and for what?! Her eyes hardened as she stepped back and turned away from His side to stare at something else for the time being - doing everything in her power to shove down the violent surge of rage that burned through her veins.

Never had she wanted to attack her own Father as much as she wanted to in that moment, and the violence that bloomed through her mind startled even her - a thundering pulse in her ears that drowned out the rest of Darth Strosius’s words to Lady Raaf.

There was another very long pause when Alisteri finished speaking His mind and saying what would likely damn Him and any and all efforts taken on Seswenna thus far.

Revna turned partially to stare at Him, her anger barely concealed or restrained. Her gaze was hard, and lacked the warmth it usually held when she regarded her Father. She had no words to say, nothing more to offer. She could either stay to see whatever punishment was dolled out on Him, or she could simply take her leave. Her anger told her leave, but the familial bond forced her to stay.

The little Marr steeled herself when Taeli finally began to respond, noting how the Councilor’s tone of voice had become dangerously quiet. There was a heartbeat of stillness, and then Taeli was simply there - in person, armor forming to wrap itself around her. She continued her chastisement, her voice as equally dripping with venom as Alisteri’s had been, and the tension in the chamber mounted to a breaking point.

There was only one way this was going to end.

Taeli paused briefly to direct a glance towards A’Mia and then to Revna - and within those amethyst eyes Revna saw an apology, but also the warning for them to not interfere. Then she returned her focus back on Darth Strosius and that was when Revna felt a surge of power before purple tinged blue flames would erupt from Taeli’s hands and towards Him.

The little Vahla had expected some sort of lash back - but what she hadn’t expected was her own nightmares to force their way to the surface without care or mercy. The sight of the flames, the dark surge of power, snapped something within her mind and she was dragged into an abyss she thought had been locked away and sealed forever.

Her vision swam, and the chamber where they all stood flickered as someplace else replaced it entirely - a place that still drew forth raw dread from the little woman. Memories collided in violent fashion and though the power that Taeli wielded was not directed at Revna, the little Marr still found herself staring at the blue fire that had erupted from the palm of the Shadow Hand, and felt the last surge of defiance in the face of total annihilation that came in the form of powerful arcs of Sith lightning that erupted from her small, pale hands. Then she felt the pain - though it was phantom - as it raced across her skin as if she was being burned alive again. She would have screamed, had she not found her throat to be suddenly sealed shut.

All she could think of doing was fighting back - unaware that the surge of lethal red tinged lightning that was blasting out from her was aimed towards the people in the chamber she cared for the most, and not at her most hated foe. ​

 

[Madrona A’Mia]

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Though she needn't breathe in the same way so many other sentients did, A'Mia had picked up on various mannerisms over the years and the expression of exasperation was one of them. It was still a mild response, all things considered, but the woman gave a rather obvious outward sign in the way her eyes rose, tracked sidelong to where Alisteri was making a rather interesting choice, then forward again with a very flat expression.

Well, this'll be interesting, she thought.

Though muted in comparison to Revna's blatant anger, the neti was disappointed they hadn't managed to steer things in a more productive direction. Alas, best laid plans oft go astray.

Heightened energy in the room soon reach fever pitch and a cascade of effects occurred at once. Controlled violence from a newly materialized Taeli Raaf, danger-sense rippling across A'Mia's bark like skin, then a troubling shift in Revna's demeanor.

Before reason or rationale could be accounted for, A'Mia was already moving toward the raven-haired woman. Not fast enough.

Lightning arched and split the room, anyone and everyone an unwitting target. Still, A'Mia moved to interpose herself between the attack and Alisteri. Steeling herself and reaching out to Revna's mind, the arboreal woman's form stuttered as she took hit after hit of the brutal crackling bolts. Rooting herself in places so as not to be blown backward or toppled, A'Mia's smooth red-brown skin began to blacken and split open in places, her robes scorched and billowed.

Using her kinship, care and connection to Revna, A'Mia bridged the gap between their minds and called out to her, lost as she was in the throes of a memory most gruesome.

Revna… Return to yourself, come back to us…
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The neti sent a wash of calming energy through the bond even as pain and physical damage threatened to tear through her focus. With a grimace she sank deeper into those mental efforts. A'Mia didn't want to have to strike out at the woman with Shatterpoint but held the option in reserve if need be.

​

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[Darth Strosius]

In the back of His mind, Darth Strosius idly felt the mood of the two women at His side shift. From apprehension into distress and discomfort respectively, with Revna being far more curt in her severing of their brief mental tether and A'Mia letting out a sigh as one might do when inconvenienced. He could only assume that they were as disappointed in the state of affairs as He was, Seswenna would be a valuable asset but its position had come down to this one unfortunate conversation.

His one and only gamble seemed to still be rolling around in Raaf's mind, given the pause that she held after His words were done. Perhaps she'd actually listen to reason and heed them for once? A faint hope but the alternative was simply abandoning all of their work and leaving another world at her behest. Revna's whisper made Him quirk an eyebrow but before He could glance back at her to determine why she had stepped away so abruptly the Councilor spoke once more.

A measured and ominously soft response that almost reignited the hope that she might actually relent for once. A hope that was quashed the moment the holoprojection suddenly became very physical, and armored at that. "The feth?!" The masked man stepped back in surprise and alarm, His only play vanishing in a moment, with His lightsaber quickly summoned into one hand whilst the other darted to the hilt of His sword. Her patronizing drew a sneer from Him but He didn't ignite His blade just yet, mostly due to His fingers being used to urge A'Mia and Revna to step back.

The last thing they needed was to be caught in the crossfire unnecessarily, before they were ready to intervene at least. He had stood alone against Raaf before but He knew that neither His daughter nor A'Mia would simply allow her to have her way again. It was high time to avenge Formos and now was the perfect chance to do so. "'Soft control' bah! Cope with your loss however you want, wretch, the facts don't change! You cut and run the moment you could and the moment it became convenient to return you did! Don't act like you would have cared at all if Ziost was despoiled by the Jedi even now!"

He cast one last glance between Revna and A'Mia before setting His sights firmly on the Councilor. "You're a coward. A traitor! All you do is use the Sith for your own means and selfish gain, only to abandon us when it suits you! I'm not letting you rob my people of another world just because you can't handle competition!" Finally the crimson blade hissed to life as His sword was drawn into His grasp properly, both weapons guarding His front as He fell into a natural stance and prepared to meet her head on.

"Reasonable?! Forgiving?!?! YOU GOT MY DAUGHTER KIDNAPPED YOU-"

There were several moments that passed by in the span of one blink. First came some unnatural flame from the hands of His foe, arcing towards Him with a hunger that it shouldn't have had. Then from His side came a barrage of lightning so bright and potent that even through His darkened visor He was forced to wince at the sight, and then forced to stumble back whenever it crashed into Him as the fire washed over His distracted form. Last but certainly not least was the movement of the Neti to block the incoming storm, allowing Him to realize who it was originating from.

Revna was out of control, although why was a mystery at present. One that He'd have more time to think on whenever He wasn't on fire and A'Mia wasn't weathering a literal storm on His behalf. A glance at Himself showed how the fire had leapt onto His robes but also revealed something interesting, that His lightsaber had managed to block some of it. Somehow. Whatever it was that Raaf was wielding couldn't have been too dissimilar to lightning in at least that one regard then. He could maneuver and block the flame as best as He could whilst aiming a strike still.

And yet His next glance shot to the Neti, her form already growing scarred from the lightning whipping across her body. His fangs tightened against one another. "Oh damn it all." Darth Strosius leapt into action, bringing both of His blades high over His head and hurling them around A'Mia so that they'd embed themselves into the ground before her. Given the direction they would be able to somewhat stifle and redirect the storm coming from Revna away from either of the pair.

Which left Him without a proper weapon against Raaf and with the unusual flames growing on His robes by the moment. All He could think to do without retrieving His lightsaber was to try and focus, summoning a gust and then a full on wind to blow across Himself and hopefully do something to slow or ideally douse the fire entirely. The masked man doubted that simply trying to put it out with His gauntlets would work after all.

Taeli Raaf / Revna Marr / Madrona A’Mia

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Darth Strosius Revna Marr Madrona A’Mia
Phone post!
​

It all happened in rapid succession, within seconds of the fight beginning. His lightsaber ignited in one hand, the other going for the sword on his belt, even as her conjured flames started to catch hold of his form and wrapped around and away from the lightsaber. She strongly suspected he thought these flames would be the sort that Malum had created in their faux Kaggath, and was unaware of their true nature.

Revna, on the other hand, seemed to know fire in an all too unpleasant way. She felt the mental shutdown, that feedback loop of panic and blankness that could only be created from significant trauma. And much like her response to such, Revna reacted on purely instinctual level. Red arcs of Force Lightning erupted from her, targeting all present. A'mia moved to intercede on some of it that was heading towards Alisteri, blackened marks forming as she took strike after strike. Alisteri reacted, throwing away his saber and sword to try and help ground the lightning hitting the Neti, and in the process stirring up wind to try and deal with the purple and blue flames.

She took a different approach to the portion of the lighting arcing towards her. Her free hand, the one not conjuring the fire, rose with two pointed fingers, her stance shifting as she channeled the Force through her. Tutaminis and Force Absorption were two key skills to learn for any Force user, and she employed them here. The lightning was drawn to her two fingers, flowing down her arm and flowing back out to join the fire that was leaving her other hand, turning the flames into grasping tendrils that would wrap around Alisteri's limbs, drawn to his form by the flames already flickering on his robes.

"You label me a coward and traitor because, even after fighting on the frontlines of that ill-fated war, after defending my world three times, that I did what many Sith have done in the past and retreated into the shadows and bided my time, while still holding influence over my world," She said, her voice still dangerously soft. "Let's try some accountability, see if that breaks through your delusions."

She would suddenly pull her hand back, and the tendrils would pull taut to hold him in place.

"Your people only scrounge and squat on worlds because your actions deprived them on their home. Your daughter was taken by the Zambranos because your actions, although I suspect that perhaps she still would have come to the attentions of Braxus and Kaine because her pure, raw potential made her someone to keep an eye on for advancement. Perhaps that would have occurred in more favorable and amiable ways, but your decisions took that choice away. Every terrible thing that has happened to you, and your followers, can be traced back to the choices you have made."

"Do you think I want to be the consequences for your actions? Do you think I enjoy having to teach you this lesson time and again? I let your murder and consumption of Alina to become a Highblood pass because she was revived by Quinn later. I tried to offer you a better way to control Tund if you had just agreed to come meet with me, and you decided the answer to that hand was to kidnap members of my family. That led to everything that happened to Formos and earned you enemies you couldn't afford to have, even to this day. That decision led to your daughter being taken, tortured, and also trained by Braxus. She saw opportunity even in the face of her horrendous situation when she was placed on Korriban and she has thrived since. She has earned her Darth name... you have not."

The derision for him, the sheer pity she felt for a man so consumed by the past and unable to see that he had never grown would be evident.

"I see a child play acting as a Lord, a child that never came to grip with the collapse of an empire that happened over forty years ago now. A child that lashes out at anything and everything, that can't or wouldn't be able to handle that anyone close to him might form connections and alliances with his enemies because they realize those enemies aren't their enemies. A child that those same people lie to because they know how he would react if they even spoke to his enemies."

For a moment, it would appear their exasperation would distract her, that the tendrils would loosen enough for him to slip through and attack.

"Your daughter and apprentice should be the Master, and you her student."

 

[Revna Marr]

Tags: Darth Strosius // Taeli Raaf // Madrona A’Mia ​

The scene before her eyes played itself over and over again - arcs of lightning, blue flame, the corrupted eyes of a Dark Lord that did not know the meaning of mercy. It was sheer survival instincts that drove her now…but as the seconds ticked by, the edges of her memories began to grow fuzzy, as if something else was trying to intrude.

Revna, caught up in the claws of her worst memories, feared that it was yet another nightmare reaching for her. What would happen next? Would she wake up in the Black Cells again, without any way to tell space or time apart from one another? Would that thing still be attached to her spine…?

Icy cold dread flooded her entire system. Pain and pressure wrapped further around her ribcage, threatening to suffocate her. No, she could not go back there. Had this all been a dream? Her rescue? Being reunited with her Father?

…Had her beloved Caedes been nothing but a fever dream too?

The edges of her awareness began to tremor further, and she felt something reaching for her.

It made Revna pause further as she felt the intrusion upon her mind grow more intent in purpose. There was a sudden spike of fear that rose up from the dark depths of her spirit - she remembered when Prazutis had forced his mind into her own, looking for the locations and whereabouts of Wonosan elements in the Outer Rim. Panic seized her once more as instinct told her to force out the intrusion. It was a trick, it had to be a trick, for her to lower her defenses. She couldn’t do it, she wouldn’t do it.

Not again.

The mental connection between Revna and A’Mia snapped shut as nigh impenetrable mental walls wrapped themselves around the little woman’s mind. Fortunately, the shift in memories and the reaction was enough to bring an end to the expulsion of her power via Sith lightning, bringing it to a sharp end.

But now she was a statue, unblinking eyes fixated upon nothing in particular, her pale face set into a cold mask of stone and raw determination to keep a perceived Dark Lord out of her mindscape. ​