Placeholder 0128
Character
OOC: Please post along with your fellow reps. Posting order will be decided simply by whomever posts first. Feel free to draft your posts beforehand, but please wait until the rest of another party has finished posting before you do. If a writer fails to post for 48 hours without explanation, they will be passed over in the posting order.
The record seemed to hiss as its performance drew to a close. The cacophony of sound with which it had entirely polluted the cave was slowly starting to ebb away; replaced with a silence that allowed little more than a base understanding of the record's core purpose. The sound itself had been of a delirious sort; what had played could scarcely be called music, yet it was obviously a mortal creation. The record in question was a simple holodisk attached to small holoemitter. The emitter was far louder than something of its size had any right to be; the message it expressed was similarly unpleasant.
The faint sound of flowing water bubbled up through the cavern as the silence dinned. The river would not have stopped moving - it seemed the record possessed some capacity for limiting sound along with its other perks.
Cedric scowled at the thing.
"I'm no seer." The youth mumbled under his breath. The record's contents had proven to be disorienting, but was otherwise entirely illegible. He felt the air around him grow pregnant with a foreboding sense of malice, yet nothing ever came of it. Though frustrated, Cedric toggled the record's power button one more time.
The cavern filled with the record's thrumming music almost instantly. At first, all was as it had been; Cedric grimaced and prepared to return the record to its cell. Then the voices spoke, and the words were crisp enough to raise goosebumps along his arms. They spoke in raspy tenors that should have been difficult to pick out amidst all the cacophonous sound, yet it seemed to rise to the fore of the musical parody. Something turned in Cedric's stomach, and he began to feel his eyes start to water at the corners.
The malignancy had grown to encompass the entire chamber. It felt as if the underground sections of the Graywall had been whisked away from Ruusan to some far off hellish realm, and Cedric had been left as the sole prisoner within it. In this chamber, Cedric Grayson was utterly alone: the force was entirely deafened by the power of the record.
"Explain this," his voice was a quiet whisper, yet it bounced off the cavern walls as if he had shouted. The corners of his vision darkened with a violent crimson filter the color of fresh vitae, and with it came a blast of cold air that made him pull his furs tight about him.
The cavern shook as a guttural voice spoke.
"The end."
The record's holographic projection flickered twice before solidifying into the image of a singular reptilian eye. It peered down at Cedric in the way a god might regard any mortal curiosity. The eye spoke, though the words were whispered into his mind in a far softer manner than forms of communication used previously. It was deceptively kind.
"I know you. Your ancestors locked me away ages ago," a noise that sounded like a large creature licking its lips smacked through Cedric's psyche. The youth grimaced at the overpowering sensation. "Why do you come to me now?"
Words were difficult to grasp when one's sense of self had vanished. His name and identity were lost to him, but the answers were dredged from the back of his shattered musings with little trouble.
"Curiosity. My ancestors built this place, and I wanted to see what they left behind."
The presence shook the boy's skull with laughter. "Curiosity is often the end of the courageous and the foolhardy. I am the one who watches, and I will show you that which will come to pass. Your force is out of balance. The veil between life and death has been lifted. Reality and the ethereal have blended in such a way as to make this reality ephemeral. I will show you."
Cedric parted his lips to speak, but even his words were lost to the ego death that this spirit brought about. Tears spilled down the youth's cheeks as he collapsed onto the damp cavern floor, the demon's voice echoing from around and within him.
"The death of worlds."
Portals expanded far beyond their original dimensions to encompass entire systems. The realm of death and that of reality were joined in a violent copulation that split the very heavens themselves. Trillions of souls were extinguished instantly as their worlds passed into the twilight that followed the union of physical and ethereal. Their deaths served to fuel the expansion of this twilight realm in a process that began to consume the galaxy at large.
Memories beyond measure were destroyed as the lives that carried them were snuffed out. Stars burst from the stress of such an unnatural change, creating galactic phenomena never recorded in sentient history. Different realities bled into one another; time ceased to have any sense of meaning.
There was a reason this world and the netherworld of the force had been kept separate. There was a reason that Netherworld Portals were a new phenomena. There was a reason more war had been waged in the past fifty years than had been in the twenty thousand before it.
"One of many futures. One that may not come to pass. One I crave," the spirit chuckled. "You understand the cause?"
The boy did not answer. His knees were pulled close to his chest; his expression was that of stone. He had become entirely aware of just how insignificant he was to the galactic plan. No matter what he built or what he destroyed, all would continue to follow the cycle that it had been following since the beginning of time. The Sith would rise. Empires would fall. The Republic would reform and then it would collapse once again.
Nothing mattered. None of their efforts could accomplish anything. He was little more than a child thrown into the role of leader because of his bloodline. There was nothing he deserved, nothing he could truly cling to while his mind lay scattered in shattered pieces along the cavern floor.
"Have I lost you?"
He drew in a deep breath. Exhaled. The Jedi Code could be heard rebounding off the walls as he mumbled to himself. Finally, the boy spoke. "If we put efforts toward closing the portals and slowing the death, balance may be restored?"
"Perhaps. I truly do not know; this is all unprecedented. Whatever actions you take are your own: I have only shown you the true nature of your situation."
On the final consonant of the last word, the spirit vanished. Its malignant presence faded from the cavern as if it were little more than a show cloth to be yanked away when required. There was nothing in the cavern, save for Cedric's sobbing form left to wither on the cavern floor.
He was in no position to make a proper call, but one had to be made anyway. Recent stories of war crimes committed on the SJO's part during the battle of Mirial had prompted the idea. While Cedric seriously doubted the claims of a single master possibly being able to wipe out a city block on her own, he knew the Sith propaganda machine well. The story was likely another tool in a long game of Sith lies that had started long before Cedric was even a thought.
The mentioning of these crimes had merged with the revelations presented to him just a few days earlier. When thrown together, Cedric had begun to understand their purpose.
The draft had been a simple write up with the help of [member="Kei Raxis"]. It wasn't meant to be complicated, only to bring in representatives from the galaxy's great powers. If all went well, it would be expanded upon. If not, then he supposed the draft wasn't going to matter much anyway.
It was only his former position that truly gave him any speaking weight. Most knew of the Dominion; many had been its enemy. Much like his progenitors, Cedric had little love for standing down when faced with adversaries. Such an attitude had expanded to his people, whom had busied themselves with the war at the edge of the stars while their worlds were occupied.
In the end, the war they had fought was far more important than the one they had left behind. Cedric had no regrets about his choice to accompany the military expedition during their campaign against the great enemy, but he still felt a sharp sadness when recalling the fall of his people. Many of them had died for a galaxy that would never understand the sacrifice they had made.
"Perhaps they will now," Cedric lifted himself from his seat at the table. The room was empty, save for one of the Graywall's many servant droids. The protocol droid looked at him with confusion; Cedric simply waved him off as he poured himself a glass of wine. "Ignore me. I'm anxious," he offered the automaton a smile, which got him a bow in return. Then the droid was gone, and Cedric was alone once more.
The room he had chosen was stationed at the top of the Graywall. Miles of Ruusan's hill pocked surface could be seen from its high windows. The table itself was a large slab of obsidian engraved with various runes that represented Essonian origins. A number of extra chairs had been arrayed around the meeting table for any guests those present might have brought along with them.
The outer courtyards of the Graywall were already filled with denizens from each of the great powers. Some had created camps at the castle's base for their military personnel. Others had arrived early and chosen to take one of the many guest suites within the castle. The halls were patrolled by loyal men of the 501st, whom had served House Grayson since the death of [member="Darth Arcis"]. They no longer wore their traditional stormtrooper war gear, favoring simple security uniforms to provide the visitors with a better sense of comfort.
Weapons were not permitted in the meeting chamber by any parties. Hopefully the representatives would abide by that choice.
Cedric had clad himself in his father's furs. He'd chosen to remove the armored portions of the garments, leaving him with a black fur cloak and heavy leathers as his sole means of protection. His lightsaber had been left with one of the guards outside.
Members of the press were waiting at the castle gates to be let inside. If all went well, they would be allowed inside. As things were, they were only going to serve as a distraction during the talks. With a quiet sigh, Cedric ran a hand over his shaven skull and peered down into the courtyard. It was from here that the representatives would enter.
"We managed to pull in someone from almost every nation," the youth mused to himself, "Now we just have to convince them to listen."
Kei would be on his way shortly, as would the others. The doors slid open as soon as Cedric finished the thought. Surprised, Cedric whirled about on his heel and offered whoever happened to be coming through first a friendly smile.
"Good morning, allow me to welcome you to the Graywall. I am Cedric Grayson," a hand had already been offered: the words were spoken on instinct before Cedric could register just who or what had stepped through the door.
Approved Guests
------------------------------------------------------------
The Galactic Empire
Commenor Systems Alliance
Order of The Silver Jedi
The Galactic Alliance
The First Order
The Confederacy of Independent Systems
The Outer Rim Coalition
Prologue
The record seemed to hiss as its performance drew to a close. The cacophony of sound with which it had entirely polluted the cave was slowly starting to ebb away; replaced with a silence that allowed little more than a base understanding of the record's core purpose. The sound itself had been of a delirious sort; what had played could scarcely be called music, yet it was obviously a mortal creation. The record in question was a simple holodisk attached to small holoemitter. The emitter was far louder than something of its size had any right to be; the message it expressed was similarly unpleasant.
The faint sound of flowing water bubbled up through the cavern as the silence dinned. The river would not have stopped moving - it seemed the record possessed some capacity for limiting sound along with its other perks.
Cedric scowled at the thing.
"I'm no seer." The youth mumbled under his breath. The record's contents had proven to be disorienting, but was otherwise entirely illegible. He felt the air around him grow pregnant with a foreboding sense of malice, yet nothing ever came of it. Though frustrated, Cedric toggled the record's power button one more time.
The cavern filled with the record's thrumming music almost instantly. At first, all was as it had been; Cedric grimaced and prepared to return the record to its cell. Then the voices spoke, and the words were crisp enough to raise goosebumps along his arms. They spoke in raspy tenors that should have been difficult to pick out amidst all the cacophonous sound, yet it seemed to rise to the fore of the musical parody. Something turned in Cedric's stomach, and he began to feel his eyes start to water at the corners.
The malignancy had grown to encompass the entire chamber. It felt as if the underground sections of the Graywall had been whisked away from Ruusan to some far off hellish realm, and Cedric had been left as the sole prisoner within it. In this chamber, Cedric Grayson was utterly alone: the force was entirely deafened by the power of the record.
"Explain this," his voice was a quiet whisper, yet it bounced off the cavern walls as if he had shouted. The corners of his vision darkened with a violent crimson filter the color of fresh vitae, and with it came a blast of cold air that made him pull his furs tight about him.
The cavern shook as a guttural voice spoke.
"The end."
The record's holographic projection flickered twice before solidifying into the image of a singular reptilian eye. It peered down at Cedric in the way a god might regard any mortal curiosity. The eye spoke, though the words were whispered into his mind in a far softer manner than forms of communication used previously. It was deceptively kind.
"I know you. Your ancestors locked me away ages ago," a noise that sounded like a large creature licking its lips smacked through Cedric's psyche. The youth grimaced at the overpowering sensation. "Why do you come to me now?"
Words were difficult to grasp when one's sense of self had vanished. His name and identity were lost to him, but the answers were dredged from the back of his shattered musings with little trouble.
"Curiosity. My ancestors built this place, and I wanted to see what they left behind."
The presence shook the boy's skull with laughter. "Curiosity is often the end of the courageous and the foolhardy. I am the one who watches, and I will show you that which will come to pass. Your force is out of balance. The veil between life and death has been lifted. Reality and the ethereal have blended in such a way as to make this reality ephemeral. I will show you."
Cedric parted his lips to speak, but even his words were lost to the ego death that this spirit brought about. Tears spilled down the youth's cheeks as he collapsed onto the damp cavern floor, the demon's voice echoing from around and within him.
"The death of worlds."
Portals expanded far beyond their original dimensions to encompass entire systems. The realm of death and that of reality were joined in a violent copulation that split the very heavens themselves. Trillions of souls were extinguished instantly as their worlds passed into the twilight that followed the union of physical and ethereal. Their deaths served to fuel the expansion of this twilight realm in a process that began to consume the galaxy at large.
Memories beyond measure were destroyed as the lives that carried them were snuffed out. Stars burst from the stress of such an unnatural change, creating galactic phenomena never recorded in sentient history. Different realities bled into one another; time ceased to have any sense of meaning.
There was a reason this world and the netherworld of the force had been kept separate. There was a reason that Netherworld Portals were a new phenomena. There was a reason more war had been waged in the past fifty years than had been in the twenty thousand before it.
"One of many futures. One that may not come to pass. One I crave," the spirit chuckled. "You understand the cause?"
The boy did not answer. His knees were pulled close to his chest; his expression was that of stone. He had become entirely aware of just how insignificant he was to the galactic plan. No matter what he built or what he destroyed, all would continue to follow the cycle that it had been following since the beginning of time. The Sith would rise. Empires would fall. The Republic would reform and then it would collapse once again.
Nothing mattered. None of their efforts could accomplish anything. He was little more than a child thrown into the role of leader because of his bloodline. There was nothing he deserved, nothing he could truly cling to while his mind lay scattered in shattered pieces along the cavern floor.
"Have I lost you?"
He drew in a deep breath. Exhaled. The Jedi Code could be heard rebounding off the walls as he mumbled to himself. Finally, the boy spoke. "If we put efforts toward closing the portals and slowing the death, balance may be restored?"
"Perhaps. I truly do not know; this is all unprecedented. Whatever actions you take are your own: I have only shown you the true nature of your situation."
On the final consonant of the last word, the spirit vanished. Its malignant presence faded from the cavern as if it were little more than a show cloth to be yanked away when required. There was nothing in the cavern, save for Cedric's sobbing form left to wither on the cavern floor.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Present
He was in no position to make a proper call, but one had to be made anyway. Recent stories of war crimes committed on the SJO's part during the battle of Mirial had prompted the idea. While Cedric seriously doubted the claims of a single master possibly being able to wipe out a city block on her own, he knew the Sith propaganda machine well. The story was likely another tool in a long game of Sith lies that had started long before Cedric was even a thought.
The mentioning of these crimes had merged with the revelations presented to him just a few days earlier. When thrown together, Cedric had begun to understand their purpose.
The draft had been a simple write up with the help of [member="Kei Raxis"]. It wasn't meant to be complicated, only to bring in representatives from the galaxy's great powers. If all went well, it would be expanded upon. If not, then he supposed the draft wasn't going to matter much anyway.
It was only his former position that truly gave him any speaking weight. Most knew of the Dominion; many had been its enemy. Much like his progenitors, Cedric had little love for standing down when faced with adversaries. Such an attitude had expanded to his people, whom had busied themselves with the war at the edge of the stars while their worlds were occupied.
In the end, the war they had fought was far more important than the one they had left behind. Cedric had no regrets about his choice to accompany the military expedition during their campaign against the great enemy, but he still felt a sharp sadness when recalling the fall of his people. Many of them had died for a galaxy that would never understand the sacrifice they had made.
"Perhaps they will now," Cedric lifted himself from his seat at the table. The room was empty, save for one of the Graywall's many servant droids. The protocol droid looked at him with confusion; Cedric simply waved him off as he poured himself a glass of wine. "Ignore me. I'm anxious," he offered the automaton a smile, which got him a bow in return. Then the droid was gone, and Cedric was alone once more.
The room he had chosen was stationed at the top of the Graywall. Miles of Ruusan's hill pocked surface could be seen from its high windows. The table itself was a large slab of obsidian engraved with various runes that represented Essonian origins. A number of extra chairs had been arrayed around the meeting table for any guests those present might have brought along with them.
The outer courtyards of the Graywall were already filled with denizens from each of the great powers. Some had created camps at the castle's base for their military personnel. Others had arrived early and chosen to take one of the many guest suites within the castle. The halls were patrolled by loyal men of the 501st, whom had served House Grayson since the death of [member="Darth Arcis"]. They no longer wore their traditional stormtrooper war gear, favoring simple security uniforms to provide the visitors with a better sense of comfort.
Weapons were not permitted in the meeting chamber by any parties. Hopefully the representatives would abide by that choice.
Cedric had clad himself in his father's furs. He'd chosen to remove the armored portions of the garments, leaving him with a black fur cloak and heavy leathers as his sole means of protection. His lightsaber had been left with one of the guards outside.
Members of the press were waiting at the castle gates to be let inside. If all went well, they would be allowed inside. As things were, they were only going to serve as a distraction during the talks. With a quiet sigh, Cedric ran a hand over his shaven skull and peered down into the courtyard. It was from here that the representatives would enter.
"We managed to pull in someone from almost every nation," the youth mused to himself, "Now we just have to convince them to listen."
Kei would be on his way shortly, as would the others. The doors slid open as soon as Cedric finished the thought. Surprised, Cedric whirled about on his heel and offered whoever happened to be coming through first a friendly smile.
"Good morning, allow me to welcome you to the Graywall. I am Cedric Grayson," a hand had already been offered: the words were spoken on instinct before Cedric could register just who or what had stepped through the door.
Approved Guests
------------------------------------------------------------
The Galactic Empire
- [member="Vilhelm Balfour"]
- [member="Desmond C'artyom"]
Commenor Systems Alliance
- [member="Veiere Arenais"]
- [member="Lady Kay"]
Order of The Silver Jedi
- [member="Stephanie Swail"]
- [member="Valae Kitra"]
- (Extra) [member="Sko'saht"]
The Galactic Alliance
- [member="Jaius Sovv"]
- [member="Ryan Korr"]
The First Order
- [member="Natasi Fortan"]
- [member="Valessia Creed"]
The Confederacy of Independent Systems
- [member="Darth Metus"]
- [member="Idaren Verd"]
The Outer Rim Coalition
- [member="Jorus Merrill"]
- [member="HK-36"]
- [member="Lord Mettallum"]
- [member="Darth Vesper"]
- [member="Darth Saarai"]
- [member="Vitor Avendahl"] (Undefined)
- [member="Katarina Vox"] (Extra)
