Thyrsian Culture and Species Lore.

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Despite being flavoured by the regional dialects of its people and various tribal customs, the Culture of Thyrsus fundamentally remains as a warrior society. Formed upon the three pillars that are commonly seen amongst similar sentient collectives, those of martial strength, community and religion, the Thyrsians developed into a fiercely independent people, whose traditions diametrically opposed their genetic cousins in the Echani. As one can imagine, having developed on the surface of a harsh, and arid world, the Thyrsians were not tolerant of weakness, and often set about culling their weakest links - either by casting them out in the hopes that they would return stronger, or by feeding the native population of worms that dominate the sands. From this seemingly heartless stance, comes the widespread drive to worth and respect the balance between the strength of an individual's character, and their natural abilities to surmount their myriad flaws. While this wasn’t an accepted practice amongst several of the planet’s clans, it was a widespread belief due to the fact that one’s own spirit reflects their outwardly, and martial prowess.

Unlike their genetic cousins and eventual enslavers, the Thyrsians are a male-dominated and patriarchal species, as many ageing warriors find themselves taking political and authoritative roles within the Clans. This fact was only true because of the lower birth rate of females amongst the populace, which resulted in periods of sexist discrimination throughout the ages. However, such ideals faded when Thyrsus was enslaved by the Scions of Eshan and was supplanted by a meritocratic mindset, where everyone - regardless of their gender - has the chance to retain their varied positions in society if they proved themselves capable of doing so to any that strived to advance themselves. Originally, this was believed to be a temporary setback in their misogynistic ways, but as the war for their independence dragged on for nearly four generations - it became an essential part of their traditions. All stood equally judged under the light of the Sun.

With many believing that the greatest dividing force between Thyrsians were their genders, the concept was born from the viewpoints established after the conflict known as the Bengali Uprising, where a male-dominated culture of Thyrsus fought a female-dominated culture of Eshan. While that may be a preconceived notion, it was the furthest thing from the truth. Instead, the true dividing line between the myriad peoples of Thyrsus was the concepts of personal power and material wealth; where those who possess an abundance of the former rise to heights undreamed of by those found lacking the latter. While many amongst the stars believe that this mindset is detrimental, often leading to periods of chaotic repetition, such an uncivilized demeanour suited the Thyrsians perfectly. If someone in power proved to be unworthy, more often than not, the figure with an equal mixture of wealth and power was violently deposed; only to be replaced by someone believed to be more competent.

Aside from the two materially-bound portions of Thyrsian culture, there was a caste system that existed between the varied Clans that were remnants of the hierarchy that existed in the days following the colonization of their new homeworld. There were five known castes that presided over the populace and held little restrictions that locked one person in a particular role, allowing for their effort to determine where they belonged. The first and most prominent societal caste was that of the Warrior; who were primarily formed from those that were the protectors and eventual rulers of the Clan - whose efforts were ultimately supported by those outside of the caste. This stance was meant to keep those within the Warrior caste cognizant of the dangers that an elitist mindset creates, essentially creating a cultural mindset of self-policing, as anyone from any Caste may replace them at any time. The second caste was that of the Technologist, whose primary concerns were of using their intellect to drive the technological advancements of their respective tribes and provide the warrior caste with a vast array of deadly new weapons. While this afforded them great power over the other castes, they were kept in check by their supposed betters - who relished reminding these errant souls of their place in society.

With their power being reportedly less than the Warriors and the Technologists, the third caste was that of the Merchants, who primarily dealt with the acquisition, or manufacture of any and all materials needed by the Clan. These individuals were also known to traverse the dunes during the eras they had yet to master the technology that had brought them to Thyrsus, and sailed upon the solar winds when they took to the stars. However, through the acquisition of wealth, there has been periods throughout Thyrsian history were a Merchant had sought to acquire power that wasn’t theirs; hiring several of the warrior caste to do their dirty work. This practice hadn’t started off well, as when the wellspring of coin had dried out, the Warriors beat their paymaster to death. Underneath the Merchants, and forming the second largest portion of any of the Clans, were the Labourers - who worked with the other castes, getting their hands dirty and forming the foundations of Thyrsian society.

The last and most recent addition to their caste system was the Helot caste. When the Echani had enslaved the Scions of Thyrsus and sought to break their supposedly barbaric culture, they ironically passed along the fundamental ideas of slavery. After Thyrsus fought for its freedom and independence from the rule of distant Eshan, they had taken their captives and pressed them into service - using them in place of droids because of the mindset that flesh was cheap and that a droid was better suited to exist in the Labourer caste (simply due to the manufacturing costs.) These Helots were often forced to work in the harshest environments and were considered less than sentient- if not property - by those that had the luxury of owning a gaggle of slaves. In the time after their successful rebellion against the Echani Command, this caste was primarily filled with forgotten prisoners of war and Echani who couldn’t flee the Thyrsus system once the Pact at Almera was made. However, due to recent events have echoed the past, this caste is all but non-existent.

What has lasted throughout the ages, however, despite the various attempts to crush their culture, was the Thyrsian belief in the Sun holding the secrets of creation. To them, their twinned Suns were the drought from which all life had supped, and considered to be the remnants of ancient gods that had once dominated their culture. Before the coming of the Echani, it was believed that the gods proved to be more troublesome than they were worth, having become meddlesome in the lives of mortals - thus resulting in a mythical figure rising up from amongst the ashes and slaying their ancient pantheon. The names of these gods were meaningless and were even forgotten during the Echani occupation, but the Thyrsian who slew the gods became an everlasting fixture throughout the ages. This man was known to the masses as the Son of Suns. His legend came with an old prophecy, one that stated he would one day be reincarnated when the need was most dire, and the scales between the forces of light and dark needed to be balanced.

With a preference shown towards the reverence of a warrior’s legacy or an astronomical object, rather than a figment of imagination concocted by the weak to control the masses, the Thyrsian thirst for conflict became their primary means of worship.

 

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Disputes amongst the Thyrsian people were commonplace, as were the methods in which they settled them. However, over time these methods began to narrow and formed the basis of what would eventually become their chosen methods of resolution. It would’ve been foolish to outlaw infighting all together, as conflict was an essential pillar in the foundation of Thyrsian society. Therefore, during the interim of the Schism, and the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, the Council of Elders convened and transcribed the aptly named; The Five Trials.

Through these combat rituals, the overarching threat to their society, and the collateral damage suffered during their warlike evolution would be lessened to the point of extinction. To ensure a degree of fairness, and that the various rules were followed, every Trial would be overseen by a Clan Elder. Or, if none were immediately available someone with a blood connection and the knowledge would be chosen instead.

The Trials often began with a formal declaration, which took many forms, as one party sought to challenge another. There was the possibility that this provocation could be refuted, but that risked the refusing party being labelled as a coward; which was the gravest of sins amongst the sands of Thyrsus. However, should the challenged party accept - they would proceed towards the nearest arena or battle circle where they would fight and see who emerged victorious in the end.

Although these Trials were martial in nature, there was the possibility for them to be adapted for non-combative applications where the Clan Elder, or an agreed upon third-party, would act as an impartial adjudicator.

• Trial of Ascension:
• Trial of Assimilation:
• Trial of Defiance:
• Trial of Eradication:
• ​Trial of Grievance:

 

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“In the hour of the twinned rising suns, the sacred dunes of Thyrsus were bathed in crimson, giving life to those that would call this harsh world home.”​

- From the Thyrsian Creationist Myths.​

The Bengali Uprising - Wookieepedia Article.​

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From what we have gathered about our storied past, the Thyrsian people are believed to be originally ancient Humans that were captured by the Arkanians, who elected to experiment with the versatile genetic structure they offered. With the stark resemblance to those birthed by the unaltered genome, we Thyrsians and our cousins, the Echani, bear a similar biology and appearance to our genetic ancestors - aside from a few differences in the baseline anatomy. As you can imagine, this allowed for our predecessors to adapt to whatever world they had chosen to be our future home, and permit the tenets of evolution to take hold over the successive generations to come. While the records are unclear, and rife with conflicting accounts, it is said that the first of our kind had broken away from the Arkanian Geneticists. They found themselves settling on a world rich in natural resources - but dominated by harsh, planet-wide desert that would inevitably breed out the weakness perceived in man’s fickle heart. It was here, that sacred Thyrsus was colonized, despite the hardships, and christened in honour of the stolen Arkanian vessel that had ferried our people to freedom.

Although much of what has been recovered bears little on our historical significance on our rise to galactic prominence, what we have made available to you is an account of our fight for independence from our Cousin’s militant grip. As I mentioned earlier, when our ancestors had first settled on Thyrsus, they found the planet to be rich in natural resources, many of which had allowed us to develop new methods in which to tame the dunes of our new homeworld. Or, build ourselves a paradise amidst the oppressive sandstorms and rampaging desert fauna. This had drawn the attention of our soon-to-be Echani masters, as they sought to claim the star cluster for their own. Like every stellar empire, including ourselves and what little holdings we can say that ours, strives to feed its people and foundries in order to drive the cycle of progress even further. The Daughters of Eshan had swiftly become a formidable naval power, as they nestled themselves in a bounty of natural beauty and opulence, and had little need to focus their technological efforts on simply surviving. They quickly spread throughout the star cluster that they arrogantly named the Six Sisters, and colonized many of the worlds within their reach. This path to power had led them to Thyrsus, and it was there that the Echani Command had peacefully negotiated a trade agreement with our forebears.

One, which had soured over time, as the Scions of Eshan hungered for more resources to manifest their Imperialist destiny.

As the Echani had garnered a reputation for being cunning, and utterly manipulative, the trade agreement between the two systems had been altered throughout the years, becoming entirely unfair to those that toiled day and night - whilst the Daughters of Eshan reaped the spoils. This subterfuge had gone unnoticed for centuries, choking the coffers of our people to the point where they began to resemble the dune wastes of our world, and forcing us into “accepting” the “aid” of our genetic cousins. This led us to become enslaved, shackled, and forced to serve as unwilling labourers as the surface of our world was despoiled. Everything that we had built over the ages, and everything we had claimed to be our own, was destroyed and replaced by what the Echani considered beautiful. This was a dark period of time for our people, where our cultural advancement was stifled under the oppressive heels of our genetic cousins, and we were forced to endure… until their brethren from the world of Bengali had torn themselves from the bonds of enslavement and risen up against the Daughters of Eshan. Like the crackling flames that warms the flesh under the shadows of the moon, when the news of the rebellion had reached Thyrsus, that singular act proved to be the spark that re-ignited the fires of pride and ambition.

With the information recovered from the archives, it is known that our ancestors had begun their rebellion as the shadows of night were dispelled by the light of dawn. It was said that the first blood that was drawn, was that of an Echani Mistresses who had overseen one of the many camps that secluded our ancestors. That this nameless woman, who was cruel in ways that we can only imagine, had her throat opened to rot and wither under the wrathful judgement of the Sun. With her moon-worshipping blood spilled across the silken sheets, it was said that our ancestors had proclaimed that that bloody morning as the Crimson Dawn - a tribute not only to our culture’s violent rebirth but to the twin crimson suns that claimed dominion over our homeworld. For nearly a century, we fought alongside our brothers on Bengali, and we managed to push our oppressors off our homeworld - freeing ourselves from the iron talons of the Echani Command.

However, while we had made successes in reclaiming our culture and sense of self, our brothers on Bengali hadn’t fared as well as we did. They were closer to Eshan and were subjected to a ceaseless stream of reinforcements from the enemy homeworld. Their fight against the Echani was admirable, and while we can fault them for their decision to rejoin the Daughters of Eshan, we didn't mourn their loss. Nevertheless, we carried their torch forward and forced the enemy to submit to our demands - to live as we once did - as equals, despite our many and varied differences. It was on the world of Almera, nearly two-hundred and fifty years after the Crimson Dawn, that a Pact was forged between our two peoples. Where we, the Scions of Thyrsus, had fought, bled, and died for the right to be independent - to co-exist amongst the stars with our genetic cousins.

While the events of our past are unclear, all of our records show that the Pact of Almera was the pivotal turning point in our culture, and the planet's history. Where we rose from the shadows of anonymity and our heralds - the Sun Guard - had taken the galactic stage. As such an event bears so much significance to who we Thyrsians are as a people, it requires another entry - please refer to the article; The Pact of Almera.

 

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“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”​

- From the Thyrsian Creationist Myths, Penned by Alexander Bell​

Pact of Almera - Wookieepedia Link.​

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For nearly three centuries, after the fateful events of the Crimson Dawn, the Scions of Thyrsus waged a war for its independence against the Daughters of Eshan and the remaining subservient worlds. In the beginning, we fought side by side with the disparate peoples of Bengali -- but they crumbled halfway through the war. By what means did they capitulate in the end? No one knows. Sadly, the truth was lost in the aftermath of the Gulag Plague and the lack of our collective ability to care for their crippling weakness. They betrayed the cause and paid for it with their lives. The annals of history have forgotten about them, and their culture, and inevitably we’ll mock the ashes of their bones just as someone will with ours in time. It must’ve been heartbreaking for our ancestors, as they took up the banner of rebellion and carried on fighting -- despite their one and only ally turning the other cheek. Nevertheless, the ancient Thyrsians soldiered on for another century, fighting many battles and skirmishes against the militant branch of the Echani Command.

There were several instances of either side claiming victory throughout the years, but all paled in comparison to the tumultuous Battle of Almera; where both sides threw everything they had into that cauldron.

The world of Almera was strategically situated near the Hyperlane know as the Path of the Six - which connected the entire Echani Star Cluster together. It was the final gateway for the Scions of Thyrsus to batter down, and take their long-awaited vengeance on the Tyrants of Eshan. As one would expect, the planet was a bastion -- brimming with heavily armed orbital stations, with their weapons pointing towards the stars. Minefields stretched out across the stars, painting the once beautiful ocean of midnight a dull hue of lustreless steel.At first glance, there was little possibility of victory -- as the Thyrsian Navy was comprised of battle-tested and void-worthy vessels that were converted into warships. Engaging their forces in a pitched battle would’ve been suicide. That was when the descendant of the infamous Hero of the Crimson Dawn stepped forth. He took handfuls of willing souls, most notably those of the Thyrsian Special Forces, and filtered them into derelict vessels that were deprived of the most essential systems. They were placed in stasis cabinets and stored away in the darkest depths of the spatial debris; which were then sent into the fold.

Those souls would pave the way for what would become the Sun Guard. However, in that moment and at that time, they were nothing more than helpless souls set adrift through the minefields - which perceived the debris as non-threatening and harmless. Thus, their gamble worked. Nearly ten thousand souls found themselves at the mercy of the orbital stations, but by some stroke of luck - or misguided curiosity - the Echani fell for the plot. It seemed that the centuries of war had left them in need of every scrap of war material they could acquire, thus they tractored in the derelict ships to see what they could salvage. When their newly claimed wrecks were within range of the orbital defence network, the stasis capsules deactivated and set the entombed Thyrsians free. From all the accounts we could recover, it wasn’t long after that those ten thousand souls took a vast swathe of the orbital stations, and turned their ship-killing arsenal on those stations that still kept a watchful eye on the horizon, as well as on the minefield that sat in the stillness of space.

What was believed to be suicide, turned into an even playing field as the planetary bastion and outer defences crumbled from within. With the gap made, the ad-hoc flotilla of Thyrsian warships poured through - taking up station above the planet and turning their guns on the station’s still firmly-kept in Echani control.It wasn’t long after that the remnants of the ten thousand took to the planet’s surface, standing alongside their brothers and sisters as they besieged the fortresses that sought to shoot their kindred from the skies. As debris rained down from the heavens, the events that transpired thereafter have become unclear, as there was little information that was recorded or survived through the dark times. We can surmise that the battle for the surface lasted long enough for the Echani’s reserve forces to drop into the system and engage the ragtag fleet in orbit, as there is evidence that leads us to believe the conflict lasted for days; rather than the various skirmishes that transpired before.

Thousands of soldiers from either side perished atop the crucible of war, and Almera soon became a living graveyard - with bodies and debris orbiting the planet, and carpeting the planetary installations below. The world was forever scarred, becoming a monument to independence and slaughter that survived even to this day. In the aftermath, when the corpses began to rot, the Matriarchy of the Echani Command sought out an end to the hostilities - seeking to end the bloodshed and centuries of warfare. With the cessation of conflict, after nearly two-hundred and fifty-five years, the Scions of Thyrsus found themselves able of taking a seat at the table; finally capable of directing their own fate. It was an unprecedented time of prosperity for the Thyrsians; they finally achieved the goals of their grandfathers and grandmothers. Our world was free.

Collectively, our people celebrated their triumph for months as we returned home to live out our lives in relative peace. We were protected by the boundaries of the Pact, which was then further enforced by the recognition of the Galactic Republic. We few; We mighty few did the impossible and won. It was unbelievable. There were some of us who relished this period of peace, and went on to live out their days on the surface of our homeworld -- yet there were those who were haunted by what they did during the war, and sought to live out the rest of their lives embraced by the fires of conflict. It was all they knew and all they could ever do with what remained of their lives. Thus, those Ten Thousand - reinforced by the willing souls wracked by their nightmares - were led into the darkness of space by the Descendant; seeking a glorious death and an end to their suffering amongst the stars.

Those souls, ensnared by the ever-shifting tides of violence, became the first iteration of the Sun Guard - who was revered and rightfully feared across the stars for hundreds of years after their inception until they were blissfully forgotten by the fickle waves of history.