Approved Tech The Soul Star

[Darth Voracitos]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To salvage the creativity that went into the Superweapon Contest for the TSE into an interesting side-story piece for the Devastation Event involving an artifact which opened up the events during the Invasion of Rhen Var.
• Image Source: N/a
• Canon Link: N/a
• Primary Source:
  Voracious Victory
• Fell Star
• Iris of Ligier
• Shadow's Folly

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Name: The Soul Star
• Manufacturer: Darth Voracitos
• Affiliation: Darth Voracitos
• Modularity: No
• Production: Unique (Only One Character)
• Material: Arcane Metals and Crystals

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Classification: Artifact
• Size: Average
• Weight: Very Heavy

CONTENTS

• Powered by the Nethermantic Magics of Darth Voracitos amplified by the enigmatic Fell Star (which started this war on Rhen Var), The Soul Star is a mechanism of insidious desolation. With a hungry gluttony, this weapon tears open the veil of reality into the depths of Chaos. Given a skilled practitioner familiar with its innner workers, the tear it generates will consumes the matter and life force of a target and send it into the maddening realm of the Netherworld.

Strengths:

• The Iris of Ligier - A genuine weapon of the darkside in its own right, the Iris of Ligier was fused into the amalgamation of artifacts that would become The Soul Star, through an intricate alchemical ritual by Darth Voracitos. The artifact itself acts as a direct line into the realm of the dead through its malevolent green sun, creating a vacuum of the force which absorbs the force within real space, sending it all directly into Chaos.
• Shadow's Folly - An amulet with a more utility function, the Shadow's Folly acts as a kind of focusing lens for the once extremely volatile opening created by the Iris of Ligier, able to redirect its desolate radius into a destructive cone or beam.
• The Fell Star - The piece which makes the wielder of the weapon, all the more capable of influencing the creation of a weaponized rift through real space into the depths of Chaos, to harness the power of the dark side with a fine degree of control relative to their individual potential. The Fell Star acts as the key which allows the user to properly amplify the rift to any division within Chaos that the light of Ligier touches.
• The Soul Star - By these artifacts combined, under the careful hands of a masterful dark sider with studied knowledge of each artifact and their use, with a force bond and physical contact to the dreadful weapon, they are capable of rending a small piece of reality and sending it to the depths of hell. The Soul Star opens a rift through the Iris of Ligier to the void between the Green Sun of Chaos and reality, the Fell Star amplifies the users control over the Shadow's Folly, which allows the user to extend and limit the destructive power of the Iris of Ligier to a specific direction, allowing them to send anything into Chaos without fully sacrificing themselves. The only cost they suffer is taxing exhaustion, the inability to hide from their atrocities, and the gradual loss of control over the artifact, subtly inviting their own eventual doom...

Weaknesses:

• A Beacon of Jealousy - Given the inherent properties of the Fell Star within The Soul Star, it is a potent artifact that shall attract the attention of many potential owners. This is sure to draw conflict wherever it is presented, even if it should have an ultimate owner at the end of a given conflict, a new conflict is sure to follow it. This is not a mere indirect property either, it is inherent to its nature in the force, to call out to would-be possessors and bring them to conflict. It may even entice the formerly loyal to betray one another to possess it for themselves...
• A Beacon Cannot Hide - To carry the Soul Star, is to invite all living things and those things touched by the force to seek out the one possessing it. It calls to them all, and there is no place to hide while it is in your possession.
• A Bond Close to Death - To open the Iris of Ligier, a force bond must be established between the user and the artifact. Furthermore, to will the Iris to open requires physical contact with the Soul Star, bringing them closest to its destructive power and self-harm. Indeed, even under perfect conditions while using the artifact, the rift created by the Iris can never be perfectly contained and thus begins to consume an individuals force bond for every use over time. After a certain amount of time open, and/or after a certain number of times opened, the force bond will deplete to such levels that the individual will be unable to open it again (indefinitely). There is no means by which a force bond between the artifact and an individual can be reestablished after it has been consumed in this way. Additionally, if the weapon were to ever be turned against an individual who possess a bond to the artifact, will find themselves prioritized above everything else by the Iris of Ligier, consumed by it more quickly than everything else surrounding them.
• Improper Use - Only a master of the force and of the darkside can hope to tame the horrific power of the Soul Star, and without the specific knowledge of the artifacts that make it up, any who attempts to use it in such a way will find themselves at the mercy of the Iris of Ligier. It will destroy the other artifacts it contains by stripping them of their force properties (rending them force dead), and do the same to the rest of its surroundings, very likely including the foolish dark sider who dared open it in full ignorance of its power. In the end, only the Iris of Ligier will remain.
• Alchemical Weakness - Despite the awesome power granted to The Soul Star through the use of Sith Alchemy, as an artifact of the force and the dark side, obviously it is subject to destruction or nullification through the use of weaponized Force Light or effects which nullify the influence of the force within the domain of the artifact, respectively.
• Wounds Heal - If for whatever reason the Iris of Ligier should open unhindered by the Shadow's Folly, and opens naturally to conduct its destructive process, it will create a wound in the force so potent as to render even the inanimate force dead. With the exception of the Iris of Ligier, the other artifacts surrounding it will no longer retain their properties in the force, destroyed in the process. However, just as it was before being fused with The Soul Star, even this wound in the force shall heal with time, returning a scarred environment back to its natural state before the Iris opened.

DESCRIPTION

Long is the history of Darth Voracitos in his insatiable quest for ever greater power, but the culmination of that power can be succinctly described by just three artifacts: the Iris of Ligier, the Shadow's Folly, and the Fell Star. Representative of his oppressive desire to consume, the Iris of Ligier has been the sorcerer's threat of choice since its acquisition within the depths of Moridin's Citadel, a threat as likely to destroy himself as his victim so as to convince them of the lengths the Sith Lord would go to achieve his goals. Representative of his control over desire, the Shadow's Folly has been within his grasp long before the Iris came to be his, mirroring his control over his desire long before it grew to such destructive proportions. Lastly, representative of his undeniable power, the Fell Star completes the trifecta on the dawn of Voracitos becoming as truly monstrous in appearance and power as he had always been within himself from the beginning. Separately, each artifact possesses within it a specific utility, but forced together through the Nethermantic Alchemy of Voracitos, they become a weapon unlike anything that had come before it.

If the Iris of Ligier represents a door into Chaos, and Shadow's Folly represents a lock to limit it's opening, then the Fell Star represents the key which unlocks both to their furthest conclusion: a gateway by which anything within the material realm its wielder desires gone, is forcibly locked behind the veil of death in the realm of Chaos...

 

[Darth Voracitos]

[member="Runi Verin"] this is ready for judgement! Thank you!

 

[Vora Kaar]

Under Review.

 

[Vora Kaar]

[member="Darth Voracitos"],

Can you please provide links for the Fell Star, and the Iris of Ligier, within the submission? As you mention both of these artifacts, it would be good to provide context to what is being used for this. Secondly, would this submission be considered Reverse engineering of the Iris of Ligier?

 

[Darth Voracitos]

[member="Vigil Rostu"] I apologize I thought I had done that, but in fact, I had only done that on the Voracious Victory (the primary source). I have since linked the Iris of Ligier, the Fell Star, and the Shadow's Folly as both primary sources as well within their respective areas in the strength field.

As for reverse engineering, I was going for a concept similar to the construction of a lightsaber in a sense, where it has multiple component pieces to create the effect of a lightsaber, but if you deconstructed the lightsaber you still have your kyber crystal and focus lens, etc..

For this artifact, I was thinking that the Iris of Ligier would be the heart of the weapon which provides the power (like a kyber crystal), while the Shadow's Folly amulet and Fell Star together act as a kind of focusing lens for its destructive power. Just to be clear, the Soul Star is not a lightsaber, I'm just giving a good example of how I feel this artifact to be constructed.

The way I see it, each of these three artifacts (Fell Star, Shadow's Folly, Iris of Ligier) still exist, inside a common casing (The Soul Star), but if any of the artifacts are removed from the artifact it will cease to function properly. For example, if you were to remove the Fell Star from the artifact, it will lack the ability to amplify a user's intention to use Shadow's Folly to limit the power of the Iris of Ligier (without shutting it out completely), thus causing its effects to be out of a user's control. Without the Shadow's Folly, there is no way to control the rift caused by the Iris of Ligier. Finally, and most obviously, without the Iris of Ligier there is no rift created to be controlled.

The casing provided by the Soul Star is intended to make the act of removing them more difficult, as well as protects them individually from immediate destruction if the artifact is subjected temporarily to say, Force Light. The Force Light will still destroy the Soul Star, but if the Force Light is brief, each of its components might still function individually but not together.

If there are any changes that need to be addressed in regards to that vision, just let me know!

 

[Vora Kaar]

[member="Darth Voracitos"],

I have been reading over this, and consulted other judges on some of the wording that is within this submission. Specifically the usage of three amulets/Force Relics that are wholly independent of one another, now becoming one whole piece of a larger puzzle. I want to give this a fair shake as this clearly has had a lot of work and care invested into this.

Firstly, I personally would like to see some of the wordage taken a notch or two down. The descriptions of the abilities and such, allude to this being a relic that can quite possibly, do anything related to the Netherworld, and its various aspects. I enjoy the very heavy tone of this being powerful and in some cases awe inspiring. Yet, its very heavy handed should this be used in a PVP scenario and so I would like to see some of this toned down.

Specifically with the first two weaknesses you have provided. They seem almost as a subtle strength, or not really a weakness in terms of PVP or potential for this relic to be beaten in some form. The only weakness that can really be quantified of this, is the alchemy based, where Force Light, and Nullification fields can restrict, or even destroy the Soul Star. So I will go ahead and from the three submissions given in the past, provide similar weaknesses to which you could potentially add in somewhere. You are not limited by what I suggest here. You are more than welcome to add your own, or only use ones you can provide and that I have not thought up of on the spot.

• Stealth - There is no way with someone wearing this, that they could hide. With the amount of power required to be able to harness such an item, it stands to reason they could be the epicenter of a massive presence or "signature" within the force.
• Iris of Ligier - Force Bond, You mention that within this submission that a force bond is required in order to activate the powers within the relic. Would it stand to reason that because the Iris was included to this relic, that it would still be required?
• Horror - What could become of someone should they use this, without previous knowledge of the relic? or otherwise, what are potential downsides for some random Joe-smoe who comes around were to pick it up and play with powers they don't understand?
• Does the relic require power from the wielder in order to use such abilities? Or does using could lead to damage to the user if they use it in an incorrect fashion? Maybe it harms them regardless?

Second, Shadow's Folly, as you also linked that while I had forgotten to ask of such in my first post, is owned by another writer on the site. While you do have access to such an item as per linked within the submission of the artifact, I would like approval or confirmation that you would be allowed to alter the Shadow's Folly to be used in your submission. It's extremely close to crossing the line for the rules regarding Reverse Engineering. While yes, you are not directly making a copy of the artifact in question, nor are you destroying it, you are altering the items intended purpose to be used within this submission comparable to that of Shadow's Folly. I would rather have bases covered with this even if it may not be related to such rulings.

Third, I understand your sentiment for the usage of this in such a form much like a lightsaber, or using parts of a puzzle to complete the whole. If you were just putting together these items into one submission that "stacked" or acted together as they already are, then I would be fine. However, you are altering what is considered a canon artifact, and two submissions to create a, while similar, but different effect. The altering of these relics together to create a new one, means the old one you have, is no longer correct. So I would like for the previous submissions of the Iris, and the Fell star to be archived.

 

[Darth Voracitos]

[member="Vigil Rostu"] I truly enjoy your feedback, informative and constructive!

So, the first thing I am going to address is the Shadow's Folly: in the submission itself for the Shadow's Folly I am credited as possessing access to it, and obviously the submission says it has no modularity. As far as I can tell, I am not modifying its ability to "manipulate rifts in real-space" as described in its contents, or its Riftborn strength to have "greater control over rift ceremonies". I will say, however, that I may have neglected to add its "anti-stealth" weakness explicitly only because I personally thought it was rather self-evident given the Soul Star's cumulative effect. I will still ask for permission.

However, I'd like to ask, if I am only using it as a component piece with no modifications made to it specifically, why is this necessary?

Next, I will address the weaknesses appearing to be either not applicable to a PVP scenario or as "false-weaknesses". My intention for the weakness "Beacon of Jealousy" was that it was actually, literally, a beacon. In that the artifact cannot be hidden, and will also impart the desire into others (loyal or otherwise) to betray/attack the wielder for possession of the artifact. So perhaps it was not worded clearly enough, or maybe this isn't actually sufficient, I'll leave that to you to say after I've finished my edit for clarity. As for the Beacon of Horror, I think this is a case of flowery language muddying up what I was attempting to get at, which was this is a Beacon for dangerous hostile elements in the Netherworld, with the intention of them being just as dangerous to the wielder as to others, but perhaps that phrase "as to others" is the problem here. I can see how that could come across as trying to sneak in extra strengths without guaranteeing any liability to the user. I will reevaluate this one until it is sufficient.

So on to your suggested weaknesses:

• Stealth, as mentioned in the first paragraph, the only reason why stealth was not already a weakness was because I neglected to add it given I found its nature as a Beacon to be a self-evident antithesis to stealth. It will be added now explicitly.
• Iris of Ligier, of course! Among the many details brought together, while I was editing the submission it must have been lost as it was rewritten here. In fact I know it was, as I went through several revisions where it was mentioned, but in somewhere in the process of revising, it was neglected to be re-added as an additional weakness. A bond is still required to open the Iris, and physical contact with the Soul Star "casing" will be sufficient for the Iris' condition requiring physical touch to open.
• Horror, if joe-smoe is not force sensitive, the only artifact he'd be able to interact with is the Shadow's Folly (if providing a drop of blood as indicated in its submission), which is encased inside of the Soul Star, so it would be a heavy but largely inert paper weight to him. To a force sensitive joe-smoe, who doesn't know the inner workings of the Soul Star and its individual components, I imagine they would lack the necessary knowledge to control the rift caused by the Iris (assuming they made a bond to it), most likely resulting in their own destruction, along with the accompanying artifacts alongside the Soul Star (with the exception of the Iris of Ligier, which causes the destruction).
• A master level force user would be the minimum amount of ability a user of the artifact would need to use it effectively without causing its own (and consequently their own) destruction, as mentioned above. I think it would be relatively fair that the process of managing the Soul Stars components in-concert would be extremely taxing. Additionally, to give it some level of personal sacrifice beyond simple exhaustion, the rift caused by the Iris might not be able to be perfectly controlled, meaning that the longer or more frequently it is used, it consumes a part of the force bond allowing the user to open it. Meaning that after a certain length of time, and/or number of uses, a given force user will have their force bond to it depleted, such that they may never form a new one with it again (meaning they are no longer capable of using the Soul Star/Iris of Ligier at all, indefinitely).

Lastly, I am cool with archiving my submissions for the Fell Star and the Iris of Ligier if that's what needs to be done, but I have a question: say the Soul Star is broken up, revealing the artifacts inside (assuming they are relatively intact), do they become unarchived? I guess I'm just a little weary of archiving them since in my mind at least, they still exist, and could potentially (if the circumstances were right) exist independently of each other in the future.

For example, people all the time make custom weapons to put inside of custom ships, so I guess I'm just not certain why this wouldn't be similar. I understand though that using artifacts in this way is probably unprecedented, so I will defer to your and the other judges decision.

I hope I've cleared everything up! I will begin my edits now and mention you when they are finished, but feel free to respond before I finish them if I have misunderstood anything or if you have additional edits you need made. Thank you for your time to read my submission!

 

[Darth Voracitos]

[member="Vigil Rostu"] I believe I have finished my edits, and I have gotten the approval of [member="Daro Tarsi"] (the writer for Cerbera) over discord to use the Shadow's Folly in my submission.

Short list of changes made:

• Clarified the exact capabilities of the Soul Star in the Contents section so that it is less ambiguous (i.e. sends something to Chaos)
• "Added" a Strength that clarifies what the cumulative effect of the three artifacts combined into the Soul Star produces (i.e. makes a rift which swallows a target into Chaos)
• Removed Beacon of Horrors and replaced it with the following weaknesses:
  A Beacon Cannot Hide - To carry the Soul Star, is to invite all living things and those things touched by the force to seek out the one possessing it. It calls to them all, and there is no place to hide while it is in your possession.
• A Bond Close to Death - To open the Iris of Ligier, a force bond must be established between the user and the artifact. Furthermore, to will the Iris to open requires physical contact with the Soul Star, bringing them closest to its destructive power and self-harm. Indeed, even under perfect conditions while using the artifact, the rift created by the Iris can never be perfectly contained and thus begins to consume an individuals force bond for every use over time. After a certain amount of time open, and/or after a certain number of times opened, the force bond will deplete to such levels that the individual will be unable to open it again (indefinitely). There is no means by which a force bond between the artifact and an individual can be reestablished after it has been consumed in this way. Additionally, if the weapon were to ever be turned against an individual who possess a bond to the artifact, will find themselves prioritized above everything else by the Iris of Ligier, consumed by it more quickly than everything else surrounding them.
• Wounds Heal - If for whatever reason the Iris of Ligier should open unhindered by the Shadow's Folly, and opens naturally to conduct its destructive process, it will create a wound in the force so potent as to render even the inanimate force dead. With the exception of the Iris of Ligier, the other artifacts surrounding it will no longer retain their properties in the force, destroyed in the process. However, just as it was before being fused with The Soul Star, even this wound in the force shall heal with time, returning a scarred environment back to its natural state before the Iris opened.

[*]​Over all, minor edits to clarify purpose and add emphasis on user skill for desired effects, along with catastrophic effects should a user lack certain skills or knowledge in operating it.
I hope that is sufficient!

 

[Vora Kaar]

[member="Darth Voracitos"],

As you have mentioned, I may have missed it or atleast found it difficult to see all of the weaknesses due to the flowery language that you used. To me, it seemed like the weaknesses as the time were pseudo-strengths by declaring of how powerful it was. However, now that you have explained that it was already there to begin with, I thank you for clearing it up enough to be more forward in its capabilities.

As for the archival, It was my thought that this is the "whole" and as such, the "whole" of the submission would not work correctly without all parts being present. As such, the items presented to work together were "altered" to work in this fashion. While they may have not been physically altered in any sense, or changed, it felt to me like you are taking these relics and attuning them to work together, rather than just independent pieces that you happen to wear at the same time. Much like how with a Lightsaber, as you so mentioned before. A lightsaber cannot work without a crystal, and if you have multiple crystals, while they may not be physically changed, the crystals all have to be attuned to the same "frequency" in order to work properly. Hence why most master craft lightsabers can have 3 or more crystals, but if you aren't good enough to attune them all, then you can't have all of them working together, because it can't.

I hope this explains my thoughts on the subject at hand. If this is supposed to be the amalgamation of all of the parts into one "whole" If one of the parts were missing, now it wouldn't work as effectively/at all because it's missing it's pieces.

I find that your edits are sufficient and your explanations are par for the course. The edits you have done are great. If there are any more questions you have, please do not hesitate to ask. If you feel this is adequate, then we can have the other submissions archived for you upon/before approval of this relic.

 

[Darth Voracitos]

[member="Vigil Rostu"] I am finished with my edits, the Fell Star and Iris of Ligier are free to be archived upon approval!

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Darth Voracitos"] [member="Vigil Rostu"]

Apologies for the delay on this one. Entirely my fault. Since this was such a different request, I wanted time to properly and thoroughly read through to make sure everything was on the level. Unfortunately events occurred that made it difficult to synch up my calendar, but this isn't really an excuse.

Upon reading the above, I'm still a little leery on some aspects, but I feel its sufficient to pass this as is with the standard abuse and lose disclaimer that all factory submissions carry.

 

[Runi Verin]

Approved.