SWTOR Character Tales: Rise of Mamine Interlude

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den! Before we go into anything, I know a considerable amount of my audience is European, so I think it's important if you read this tweet and watch the video included, and take action. In short, it's about the EU Article 13, and how it'll affect your online entertainment; in short, right now, youtube, twitch, twitter and all kinds of other sites are protected under the United States Fair Use of Copyrighted Material. If Article 13 goes through with its current wording, a LOT of entertainment will be blocked within the EU. We're all affected, so get educated, contact your MEPs, and make sure that they know that this will hurt a LOT of online entertainment jobs throughout Europe.

Sorry for getting serious on my silly storytime post, but this is important, since it affects all of us.

With that out of the way, it's time for Mamine's interlude for the events between chapters 9 and 10!

Over the next two weeks, Mamine took some time to get to know allies and enemies and what they've been doing over the last five years, as well as some people she didn't know all that well.  She first spoke to Master Anstrisil, who had not had an easy time. Even though the Jedi Council had accepted him, the rank and file of the Order never truly did due to him being a Pureblood Sith. They thought he was some kind of infiltrator under the guise of being redeemed, a mindset that baffled him; if the Empire was going to send an infiltrator, they'd select a human or an twi'lek or some other species. A Pureblood Sith wouldn't be able to fool anyone, as all this mistrust had shown. So when Master Satele disappeared after the treaty was signed, Anstrisil was only able to get the people he knew personally, like Gaden-Ko of the Voss, the friends he made from the Rift Alliance, or the mercenaries he'd hired to assist him over the last 5 years. 

However, the other former White Knights had it worse. When Mamine met with Casek, who had since abandoned his Darth Title and position thanks to the restructuring of the Empire, was performing a Sith Alchemy ritual when Mamine visited him in his quarters.  Thanks to his capture by the Hand of Jadus, he had been imprisoned and tortured for three years. And his tormentors had focused on his jaw for most heavily; they had shattered it, let it heal, let it get infected, and shattered it again, all to prevent him from performing any kind of Sith magical incantation.  The only thing that kept him alive during all this time was growing rage and hatred of his captors and the White Knights who had refused to rescue him.  By the time Anstrisil's mercenaries broke him and Yokonari out, Anstrisil's jaw was destroyed beyond repair and required it to be amputated. He now had a vocalizer attached to his throat so he could speak, and a mechanical jaw as a place holder for his face. He was currently trying to perform Sith Alchemy to give him sensation in the cybernetic jaw so he could eventually do things like eating real food, instead of the nutrient paste he was able to consume now, but he didn't want to do too much, since too much Sith Alchemy on a being could erode their sanity.

Yokonari, however, had it even worse than that.  When Mamine entered her quarters, she found Yokonari sitting in a treatment chair, completely nude, with tubes coming out of her cybernetic implants. Mamine apologized for disturbing her, but Yokonari said it was fine, and she wasn't bothered by someone else seeing her nude.  She went on to explain that during her torture, she had been injected with a retrovirus that modified her body to produce fatigue toxins at an extremely high rate, which had severely dampened her stamina reserves for any physical activity.  These cybernetic implants she had now had two jobs; to boost her adrenaline reserves in times of stress, and to perform a detox treatment after an excess of fatigue toxins had built up over time.  She was currently undergoing the detox, Yokonari said, and she felt showing this level of vulnerability helped her focus on her rage and fuel her power in the Dark Side.

Both later told her what happened to the White Knights; the Hand of Jadus' people had hunted them down and destroyed them all. No trace of the White Knights left, and except for Yokonari and Casek, it was as if they never existed. And it was in this state when Anstrisil's mercenaries rescued the pair, and got them to Anstrisil, who got them the help they needed. And together with the mercenaries, they destroyed the the Hand of Jadus and his organization, Yokonari butchering the Hand himself with her bare hands.

Mamine was curious about the mercenaries, and she had her opportunity to meet them in the cantina; they were a pair of Rattataki, a husband and wife team named Azulini and Hardatt.  The woman, Azulini, was the brawn of the operation; she grew up on Rattatak, and was forced to survive on her own wits and physical abilities. Most of the time, she was malnourished, completely lacking clothing at some points, and out in the elements most of the time. But this made her incredible resourceful and very, very brutal in how she fought.

She was found as a stowaway by her future husband, Hardatt, who, unlike Azulini, had grown up off Rattatak, and had learned the ways of the greater galaxy. He was impressed by the fighting capability of this mostly naked woman who stowed away on his ship, and their initial fight turned into a "romantic encounter", which led to Hardatt introducing her to modern technology and society.  Hardatt taught many things she'd need to know, like how to use a blaster, how to speak Basic and Huttese, how to read Aurabesh, and other things she'd need to know to make her way.

The pair had been together for ten years, Hardatt working as the face of the operation and Azulini becoming an accomplished bounty hunter once she was used to technology, though she still struggled with a lot of stuff; reading Aurabesh was hard for her, since she hadn't learned to read anything until well into her adulthood, and there were still terms in Basic and Huttese that she didn't understand.  And that was why Hardatt did all the negotiating, and left the relentless pursuit of their goals to his wife.

Mamine also found out the two had an open relationship when Hardatt started hitting on her. He explained that both had agreed that they could sleep with anyone they wanted, so long as they came back to the same bed, on their ship in this case, when it was over. Mamine, however, wasn't comfortable with getting involved in that, and Hardatt just said that he understood, but it was her loss.

Most importantly for Mamine though, was finding out how her Padawan was doing. Suthazi had been through a LOT of trauma in the last five years; between losing her first master, having to play teacher for a bunch of kids who had barely entered puberty, having to care for these kids, and having to work with a Sith..."Apprentice" was what Brosra called herself even though she had no real formal training or master outside what she learned from the Collective...to fund these operations....it wore on her.  Suthazi, like Mamine, had learned wisdom the hard way, and it was tiring. She was happy now just being a Padawan, a learner, instead of playing the leader.

And one of those responsibilities she was glad she no longer had was dealing with Brosra.  Brosra was the last of her family, an ancient Pureblood Sith bloodline that dated back to her species first and only King. She had been captured by Empress Acina and shoved into a dungeon, and tortured in an attempt to show how weak her family was and the only way for her to survive was to pledge herself to Acina. However, Acina and her men were unfamiliar with Brosra's progress in her family; she had been rediscovering ancient abilities of her family and bloodline, to the point when she eventually become powerful enough to break free of the dungeon and escape.  She joined the Padawan's Collective because, while she had a lot of esoteric powers, she lacked practical abilities. So, Brosra was trained in how to utilize the Shii Cho fighting style, building a lightsaber and other practical abilities in exchange for her family's wealth and some knowledge about making synthetic lightsaber crystals.



Once all these people had been properly greeted, they started to inform Mamine of some specialists that could help the Alliance's war efforts. First, Mamine had to return to Zakuul on the urging of both Doctor Oggurob to retrieve former Havoc Squad member, Yuun.  For Yuun, Mamine had to find some components that Mamine felt a resonance in the Force for Yuun, who then explained that only someone with a unique connection to them could feel that, which bothered Mamine; would she have felt that resonance if Valkorian wasn't in her head? Was gathering those part of his plan?

However, Mamine didn't have time to think about things, since both Yokonari and Bey'wan Aygo had companions to recruit; former Havoc Assault Droid M1-4X and Yokonari's former subordinate, Major Pierce. Yokonari came with Mamine to Dromund Kaas to recruit Pierce, but Mamine went alone to Coruscant and had to go through a lot of effort to convince the droid to join the Alliance.

Mamine's next stop was to Ilum to investigate some murders, only to find them being performed by a familar Kaleesh; Casek's former apprentice, Lord Xalek.  Xalek was killing the miners on Ilum for desecrating his father's grave unintentionally, and his culture demanded a blood sacrifice to sate his father's anger, but Mamine came up with a peaceful compromise; the miners not only restored Xalek's father to his former state, but also create a shrine to venerate him.  They did so, and Mamine offered Xalek a place in the Alliance, but only after Xalek demanded that Mamine beat him in combat.  Mamine fought and defeated Xalek with some things that Xalek had never seen beore, and returned to Odessen with Xalek in tow.

Her next trip was to Yavin 4, with Casek in tow.  Apparently, Casek's archaeologist Talos Drellik, who had thought Casek was dead and having returned to the Reclamation service, was looking for something here, but Casek convinced him that Mamine's Alliance was more important now.  Mamine, curious about what the human was searching for, asked, and was told that he was collecting artifacts that Revan had used to resurrect Vitiate on Yavin 4, and Mamine thought that the study of them would be beneficial to getting Valkorian out of her head, so she and Casek helped him retrieve the items before Drellik and his team headed for Odessen.

Mamine's next mission was a simple one; getting Nico Okarr, a smuggler who got Master Satele and Jace Malcom back to the Republic from Korriban during the Sith Empire's initial invasion.  Okarr simply asked Mamine to give him a mixed drink to "prove his worth".  Mamine did so, and Okarr headed for Odessen.

From there, Anstrisil mentioned how his old companion Qyzen Fess was now leading the Warstalkers, a group of trandoshans formerly led by the Dread Master slave Kephess.  He said that she could recruit them, but to avoid mentioning that she was captured at all costs, as that, in trandoshan culture, meant he was stripped of all renown he would have as a warrior otherwise.  Mamine understood, and explained to Qyzen, when asked what happened to the Jedi who killed the Sith Emperor, simply stated she was injured during the battle where Darth Marr's ship was destroyed, and was only recently recovered by Lana, which, in Mamine's eyes, wasn't a complete lie; the carbonite poisoning was killing her before Lana used the antidote on her. However, Qyzen took these statements at face value, and brought himself and his Warstalkers to the Alliance.


Upon returning to Odessen this time, Mamine was told that HK-55 was finally rebuilt, although he did not retain the memories, or even programming he had before.  During a series of simulations, HK gave Mamine some scenerios to help him designate what was and wasn't a viable target. Mamine made sure HK understood that unarmed and injured individuals were not acceptable to terminate, unless then were attacking him, in which case they were fair game, but even then, they were to be disabled as a first priority. Once all this programming was set, Mamine welcomed the new HK-55 into the Alliance.

From here, Mamine had a few days to breathe before the next leg of the war began.

Yes, I left off Doctor Lokin this time. Couldn't think of a way to get around Allisani's ability to skip the resource gathering aspect, and it's not like he had a big impact on the Alliance anyway, so, yeah.

Anyway, look forward to my lightsaber combat update post, where I'm going to do my hopefully final redo of their fighting styles, and then, the next chapter to Rise of Mamine. But until then, stay beautiful freaks!

SWTOR Character Tales: Rise of Mamine KOTFE 7-9

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den! It's time to lead into the Alliance with the Rise of Mamine!

Mamine and Koth entered the bridge and saw Senya standing there, back to them.  Senya plainly said that she knew they had concerns, and she was right; Koth about her loyalties, and Mamine was concerned that she might be a Child of the Emperor after what she had learned from Kira and Anstrisil. Senya may be a sleeper agent for Valkorian without even knowing it.

Koth ranted about Senya and her willingness to fight her children, Senya saying that she accepted responsibility for what they were doing, and also accepted responsibility for being a good parent and stopping them.

Mamine, however, said they were ignoring the bigger threat; Valkorian himself.  Koth balked at this notion, saying he brought "security and direction to Zakuul", and Mamine replied he tried killing every living thing in the galaxy.  And in case Koth wasn't paying attention, Mamine said, that included Zakuul.  He also mentioned, when Senya brought up how cold Valkorian had gotten toward their children, that was the exact timeframe when Vitiate was ramping up his plan to do just that.

Koth still did not believe the notion that his "Immortal Emperor" was a monster, though Senya, who had been close to him, was more willing to accept it.  Thankfully, before the argument could continue, HK informed them that T7 had found intel on "The Lady of Sorrow", who had been searching for information on the Gravestone, and wanted to meet Mamine.  Mamine took Senya to the shuttle, since the zone they were headed, the Old World District, was controlled by a Force Sensitive cult called the Heralds of Zildrog, and Mamine figured a Force user would have an easier time getting through there than anyone else.

Before they could depart, however, Lana pulled Mamine aside and gave her summation on the situation; that right now, trust was hard to come by, and Mamine needed to put in the effort.  Mamine gave Lana her assessment; Senya, so long as they continued to work toward stopping her children, would continue to help, even with the plan to destroy her ex-husband. Koth, however? He was not on board with destroying Valkorian, and Mamine was worried that he may try to hinder that.  Lana, who knew Koth, said that he desired peace more than anything, and after enough time, she'd be able to convince him of Valkorian's danger.  When they were done, Mamine headed down to the shuttle bay to meet Senya.

During the shuttle trip to a drainage tunnel going to the swamp from the city, Mamine heard Senya humming a tune she didn't recognize, and upon landing, she was fully singing it.  And by the context, she thinking about her "romance" with Vitiate as Valkorian.  This dampened Mamine's spirits, because she knew that she'd need to bring up the ritual Vitiate performed on both himself and her Pureblood Sith companion, Scourge.

  Senya told Mamine that the Old World District was very much like Nar Shaddaa, a haven for criminals, but mentioned that she did like the aesthetic, praising Valkorian's vision for Zakuul.  This piked Mamine's curiosity over Senya's relationship with Vitiate-as-Valkorian, and it would have been heartwarming if it wasn't for the fact one of the parties was a monster who was faking all emotions to manipulate the feelings of a young woman.  And it was even more tragic when they had children; they begged for the approval of that emotionless monster, and received none of it.  It was no wonder that Arcann was overwhelmed with jealousy and Vaylin was driven to insanity.  Moreso when Senya told Mamine just how powerful Vaylin was at the start, and what Vitiate did to get her power under control.  The family was broken even before it was formed, and it tore at Mamine's heartstrings.

Senya continued to tell Mamine about how, when she finally realized the kind of monster she had married, she chose to leave, and take the kids with her. And they laughed at her; Arcann and his twin Thexan called her weak, and when Senya tried to take her daughter, she stayed where she was at, even though they were, at the time, torturing her.  So, Senya chose to leave on her own, working in the outer parts of their territory, having no contact with her children since.

It was this moment when Mamine chose to place the final nail in the coffin of her relationship with "Valkorian"; she told her of how, around 1500 years ago, Valkorian, in his original Pureblood Sith body, enacted a ritual that drained all the life, even the Force, from the world of Medriaas, and made his soul immortal at the expense of all emotion, save for fear and anger, the two emotions that fed the Dark Side within him.  No joy, no sadness, nothing but emptiness. And Mamine said she knew this because of the ritual that was performed on Scourge was the same, giving him the same experience.

Senya turned away from Mamine, attempting to process his words, but Mamine had to ensure that Senya understood that she wasn't trying to hurt her; she said "For what it's worth, you have my sympathy when it comes to someone you love that doesn't love you back.", and related how she had unintentionally played with Doc's heart during her journey to stop Vitiate, thinking that their relationship was purely physical, only for Doc to develop feelings. Mamine said that this was one her her greatest shames, and she wouldn't wish that feeling she forced upon Doc on anyone else.

Thankfully, T7 rolled in to the room, distracting them and getting their minds back on the task at hand; finding the Lady of Sorrows.  Mamine was glad to see her old droid companion, and asked if T7 had heard anything from their friends, though unfortunately, T7 had not. He'd been working for Lana for years now, and Kira, Doc, Rusk and Scourge had all gone their separate ways before that.

Once actually getting out of the sewers and into the district, Senya went to meet a contact, so Mamine and T7 went off to use some terminals to triangulate the location of the Lady by tapping into surveillance feeds.  And at one point, when T7 went to meet a droid contact of his, Valkorian appeared and tried talking to Mamine, but Mamine initially refused to respond.  Valkorian pushed, knowing that Mamine was thinking of Senya's reveal, and Mamine responded with "You're still taking a cruel delight in the suffering of others."

After tapping into a few more surveillance feeds with T7, Senya called on Mamine's holo and told her to meet Senya at her current location. T7, who had more objectives to complete, left Mamine to her own devices, and Mamine followed the map she was given to a bar not far from where she was at.  She was met by several lightsaber wielding thugs who utilized the Force in battle. Senya mentioned they were called the Heralds of Zildrog, once a local cult that was now more violent gang vying for territory.

Senya went up to her contact and began to interrogate him, and Mamine recognized the Force technique she was using; it was a way to cause pain in a target without doing lasting harm.  It was meant for children, to teach them how to handle the pain, and wasn't meant to be used for the purpose of interrogation.  Mamine stopped Senya, and said "there are better ways of getting information out of someone", walked up to Senya's contact, and used the Force to dominate his mind with a quick "You will tell us what we need to know.", and the bartender immediately gave the information that Senya wanted and directed them to another contact; a human woman named Mona Gale, a gambling promoter about a few hundred meters down the road.

Senya began questioning Gale upon their arrival, and Mona chose to mock Senya, and demanding to know who Mamine was, only for Mamine to reach out to the Force and touched the mind of Gale, saying "You don't care who I am, and you want to tell Senya what she wants to know", and Mona gale immediately complied. They had just gotten far enough away to not be immediately recognized as Arcann made an announcement about "the Outlander that destroyed a power planet that knocked out power to many city blocks and her accomplice Senya", an announcement that also showed holos of them.

The two fought through Breaktown before being stopped by Koth, saying that the Heralds would respond better to "regular people" than a Knight of Zakuul.  Mamine's thoughts, however, were about getting through the sector; the Heralds had shown themselves to be trained Force users, and based on what she saw, Koth lacked the specialized training and equipment needed for a Force blind to combat a trained Force user; no lightsaber resistant armor, no fire or electricity based ammunition, and no sniping ability. Koth wore average clothes for a spacer and wielded a slightly modified blaster rifle.  Mamine politely told Koth as much, stressing that Mamine was thinking about Koth's safety more than anything else, and led Senya into the district.

After a few dozen fights, Mamine and Senya finally met the leader of the Heralds, a human male filled with Dark Side corruption they called "The Exalted". Mamine knew that, when dealing with slaves to the Dark Side like this, she'd need to show a bit of strength in order for them to understand her power in any negotiation.

The interaction went as Mamine expected; Senya threatened the Heralds, the Exalted threatening Senya, and Mamine doing her best to defuse the situation while still maintaining an aura of strength.  She could tell that lightsabers were about to be drawn when a Nautolan appeared on holo, demanding that the Exalted stop, and showed that The Lady of Sorrow had captured his son, and told Mamine where to meet them.  Mamine, who thought it strange that a Nautolan was living on a human world this far from her home planet, was ready to head off, but still remained prepared for the expected treachery from these slaves to the Dark Side.

And she wasn't disappointed the Exalted, who, despite being ordered not to by the Nautolan, ordered his men to kill Mamine and Senya, and they were force to fight their way out and toward the Lady's base. On the way, they were met by two of Senya's former brethren in the Knights; one of which Mamine recognized the voice of.  Apparently, Vaylin had killed his original partner, and it was driving him to the Dark Side, as evidenced by his yellow eyes.

Mamine and Senya dueled them, with Mamine once again noticing the same flaws in their technique that Vitiate brought with him into this insular society, and dispatched her opponent quickly because of it.  However, instead of killing them like the fallen Knight expected, Mamine simply had them tied up and knocked out while she and Senya rode the turbolift up to the Lady's penthouse apartment.

Once there, they were met by Koth, whom the Lady had shown to have captured earlier on the holo, and a droid model that confused by the appearance; it had a strange crown and female features.  The droid, SCORPIO as Mamine learned, recognized Mamine as the Battlemaster of the Jedi Order, killed the Exalted with a shock from her systems and then asked what Mamine would do with his son, whom she had captured to lure the Exalted himself to her.  Mamine was torn; by his red eyes and pale skin, the boy as as much an unrepentant slave of the Dark Side as his father.  On the other, she also knew that a being could be corrupted to the Dark Side by no fault of their own, as had been done with Leeha Narezz, Tol Braga and Warren Sedoru many years ago.

Mamine said that no one was beyond hope of redemption, something that amused SCORPIO. SCORPIO agreed with Mamine's choice, but let him go for her own reasons, and told the Nautolan, now revealed as "Thea" to continue her operations in her stead, leaving SCORPIO free to join Mamine. SCORPIO revealed two reasons for joining; one, she wanted to talk to the Gravestone, and the other was that Arcann had "taken something of her's."

The return to the Gravestone bridge was as unpleasant as Mamine expected; Koth argued with SCORPIO, HK-55 threatened to shoot SCORPIO, tempers flared.  Mamine got frustrated with it and walked out of the bridge, and Lana followed, informing Mamine about the people offering to ally with Mamine now that it was known that she was awake.  Mamine joked that it might be fun to have people not looking down on him for once, but before the conversation could continue, Lana got a comm from the Scion Heskal, telling Mamine to come alone once they landed on Asylum.  Mamine headed up that way with her faithful companion T7-01, and were met by Heskal being held in place with the Force in the middle of the room they had fought days earlier.  His body was then tossed aside, revealing that Arcann was there.  Arcann revealed that Heskal had betrayed Mamine to Arcann, and Arcann offered a peace agreement; he'd let the people Mamine had gathered go, but Arcann got the Gravestone. Mamine, in the meantime, would be returned to carbonite while his people researched the means to remove and destroy his father.

Mamine knew the truth, however; Arcann had no intention of removing Valkorian from Mamine's mind. He wanted his father as a trophy now. Mamine "agreed" and was given a moment to "tell her forces to stand down".  Mamine turned around and activated her comm, but instead of telling her forces to stand down, she warned them that Arcann was here and ready to fight.  Mamine spun around while drawing and activating her lightsaber, and prepared for battle.

The battle went the way Mamine expected; Arcann exhibited the same flaws in his style that his father did on Dromund Kaas and Ziost, though he chained Force abilities into his attack sequences more freely than his father. But with Mamine's strong telekinetic barriers protecting her from being tossed around, and what she didn't think her barriers could protect, she knew to dodge. It wasn't long before Mamine managed to out duel Arcann and tossed him through the wall as the roof collapsed.

Mamine and T7 made their way back to the docks, only to see Heskal being dragged by a couple of Knights. Mamine struck them down, and Heskal said, as he lied there dying, that "everything was happening as forseen". This upset Mamine; he stated that according to the Jedi, the future was always in motion and that no vision was ever absolute.  "You doomed people for a possible future, not an absolute one."  Heskal, however, continued to smile as he died, justified in his vision of the "glorious future".

Mamine and T7 continued down toward the docks, only to find out she had to head back up to unlock the docking clamps.  She was forced to flee when Senya challenged Vaylin in order to fight her way up to the docking clamps. Shee and Lana were eventually met by Koth and former Havoc Squad member Tanno Vik and his gang.  Lana stayed behind to defend the entrance while Mamine and Koth headed up toward a warehouse landing pad for a transport ship that would take them up to the tower they needed to get to.

Unfortunately, Koth again showed his loyalty to Valkorian when he asked if he had any tips for Mamine. Mamine again condemned Valkorian, and vocalized her worry about Koth still worshiping a monster even after Mamine and Lana telling him what he did and what he tried to do on a galactic scale.  Koth said "He was always good to Zakuul," and Mamine replied with "A serial murderer who is a good father to a favored child is no less a serial murderer."

After landing, Koth and Mamine stopped at the tram needed to get Mamine to the docking controls, and Koth and HK-55 stayed at the start of the tram to defend it.  Mamine reached the platform and let loose the Gravestone, only for her Force enhanced senses to alert her of Arcann's presence. Mamine dodged Arcann's strike and activating her own lightsabers to begin this final duel.  She continued to exploit the weaknesses in Arcann's style, while HK-55, who had taken the tram up to assist Mamine since she was taking too long, fired upon the Zakuulan Emperor as they fought. Eventually, Arcann got fed up with the droid and used his power to destroy it.

It was this poing when Valkorian chose to offered Mamine his power, saying she risked death if she didn't take it. Mamine knew that Valkorian was only trying to manipulate her, again denied the power Valkorian offered, but when Valkorian disappeared, Mamine noticed something different; Valkorian had her frozen in place. And this gave Arcann the time he needed to reach out with the Force and grabbed Mamine, and pulled her toward Arcann, impailing Mamine on his lightsaber.

Arcann took that moment to taunt Valkorian, shouting "Feel that, Father?", but Mamine just grinned.  "He doesn't feel anything, Arcann. Not pain, not joy, nothing." And while speaking this, Mamine gathered telekinetic energy and and thrust her hands forward, and pushed herself off the blade and pushed Arcann off the platform with the Force and into the depths below.

It was then that Koth made his presence known, helping Mamine down to the docks, where she passed out on the bridge.

She woke up many hours later, surrounded by the allies he had gathered, save for the destroyed HK-55.  Her allies had recovered the droid's body, but his memory core had been destroyed. They also told her where they were and informed her of the allies they had gathered. Moment took a moment to look at Koth and told him that, if it hadn't been for his Immortal Emperor, they'd have been able to capture Arcann before this war had even started, and explained exactly what happened before Koth found her.  Mamine did not relent and stated that, as long as Valkorian was in her mind, she'd be unable to defeat Arcann unless it directly benefited Valkorian's plan. This took Koth aback, trying to rationalize the benevolent Emperor that he knew with the actions he had taken during this battle with his son, and how it prolonged the coming conflict.

After leaving the ship, Mamine indeed saw the gathering of the people there; Republic, Imperials, Jedi, Sith and all sorts of criminals and mercenaries. Mamine looked around for something to get everyone's attention, and found it with a giant drill they would use to create an entrance for the facility that was partially built behind them.  She activated it, and started in on a rousing speech of how they needed to work together for a better future.  Once she was done, she went off with Lana, Koth and Senya to begin to make plans for this new Alliance base and the structure; there would be a Commander of the Alliance to make executive decisions about the path they would take, a circle of advisors for the Commander, and people to run the day to day operations.  Mamine didn't know the role she was going play in this Alliance, but she assumed s he'd be some kind of rallying figure at the very least.

In the coming days, Mamine met some of the members of the Alliance, including some old friends and allies.  She met Master Anstrisil, last member of the Jedi Council, though he'd been unable to rally anyone to his cause save for the people he had direct relationships with thanks to Republic distrust of his species. He said he was tired of conflict, and hoped that the Alliance would finally offer something different. She was also introduced to Anstrisil's mercenaries, Hardatt and his wife Azulini.  They had been working for Anstrisil for quite some time, and had even been involved in the rescue of Yokonari and Casek.

Yokonari and Casek, however, had been in bad shape. After Revan had outed them as Light Side, it wasn't long before their entire White Knight sect was discovered by the Hand of Jadus. The Hand of Jadus had let an assault on their estates, captured the Empire's Wrath and Darth Imperius and destroyed both of their families and the entire sect. For four years, the two of them had been tortured in and permanently scarred before the Rattataki Mercenaries sprung them; Casek's jaw had been repeatedly shattered and was unable to talk without cybernetics, and Yokonari required extensive cybernetics to get herself back to the physical capabilities she was at before. Both were filled with rage over those that hurt them, and both had fallen completely to the Dark Side.

However, not everyone's fate was as dark as those three's. Once the construction was nearing completion, Lana informed Mamine that the last of the Alliance inner circle had arrived and wanted to meet er; Theron Shan, former SIS operative.  They spoke for a while about things that Lana didn't have the answer to, and Theron showed Mamine another thing he had retrieved; her old Defender starship.  And out of the Defender bounded a young Cathar girl that Mamine swore looked familiar. The Cathar girl ran toward Mamine, and she finally recognized her as Suthazi, the youngling that she had bonded with during her redemption.


Suthazi told Mamine of what had happened to her over the past five years; she got a Master and was made a Padawan, but during a mission to Alderaan, a Zakuulan assassin was trying to kill a member of House Organa to destabilize the peace efforts and Suthazi was forced to leave her Master, at her request, to protect the Organa, leaving Daashla Myr to die in combat. With nowhere to turn, Suthazi decided she was going to help any Padawans displaced by this war and gather them all in once place to continue their training the best they could. Currently, she had about a dozen members of her "Padawan's Collective" at verious stages of training, but without any means of building lightsabers thanks to a lack of safe places to get Adegan crystals. Mamine said she'd get them all trained by the Jedi here, and Suthazi said she wanted Mamine to be her master. Mamine initially denied this due to her feeling unworthy to teach anyone, but she came around to the idea when Suthazi explained that Mamine had learned the dangers of the Dark Side the hard way, and understood better than anyone the signs of falling to the Dark Side. Mamine relented, and took Suthazi as her Padawan, promising that she'd try to be a good example for this young woman.


It was shortly after that when a young Pureblood Sith came up to Suthazi and introduced herself to Mamine; Brosra, the last of house Adas, the oldest noble bloodline in the Empire. It was she who had been funding the Padawan's Collective, which included their food, clothing, fuel and other supplies a Jedi Training vessel required, in exchange for a berth on Mamine's ship and protection from her enemies.



Once this was done, Mamine met the leaders of the specific aspects of the Alliance; Admiral Bey'wan Aygo of the Republic fleet, whom she had served with during the battle of Kuat, as the the one in charge of her military, Hylo Visz, who was in charge of getting supplies and funds, Doctor Oggurrobb, the Hutt who helped her on Makeb in charge of science, and the Voss Mystic Sana-Rae in charge of matters pertaining to the Force.  Mamine was hesitant was introduced to Sana-Rae after what she had done on Voss all those years ago, since Sana-Rae had no idea about what Mamine had done,she accepted this Voss woman as her Force advisor.  From here, Mamine was told that there was a party going on in the cantina upstairs and that Mamine was asked to make an appearance, she agreed, figuring that it would be a good idea for their rallying figure to be seen as a "woman of the people".  From here, she took Theron aside and continued her conversation from earlier.  Once they were done, the party was winding down, Mamine headed back into the facility to find Senya standing by her ship's hangar, musing about the future. She told Mamine what Vaylin told her while on Asylum; that her other son, Thexan, wasn't killed in battle in the Core Worlds. It was Arcann who killed him out a fit of jealousy and rage.  This affirmed her desire to stop her children before heading off. It was then that Valkorian made his presence known, and asked Mamine what kind of future she saw for the galaxy, and Mamine was blunt, saying "A future without you." and stormed off.

She received a message from Lana to meet her in the military hanger.  Once there, Lana led Mamine back to the main area of the base and told her that she was now the Alliance Commander herself.  She was not only the rallying figure for the Alliance, but the one calling the shots. She joked that she thought Lana hated titles, who replied that she hated having them, but enjoyed giving them, before turning her attention to her people and gave them a rousing speech.

As before, I'm going to do an interlude chapter where Mamine gets to know what's happened to the White Knight characters, gets to know Brosra a bit, gets to know the Rattataki Mercenaries, and takes Suthazi to gather the Alliance alerts.  I'm also going to update the lightsaber form post again with some new ideas I had a couple nights ago. Look forward for those chapters over the next couple days, and stay beautiful freaks!

SWTOR Character Tales: Rise of Mamine KOTFE 1-6

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den! With today marking 6 years of me playing SWTOR, I'm taking some time to post Rise of Mamine.

Now, keep in mind that, unlike Ragdat, Mamine will call Vitiate "Valkorian", as a way to show that she accepts his new identity, but she won't forget that the darkness that the man has always illustrated. Also, as a quick reminder of her character arc, she's a Dark Jedi during the events of the game up to Ilum, and then began a path of redemption after having the Cathar officially exile her from their homeworld. With that in mind, it's time for the story!

Our story begins when Mamine steps off of her Defender starship with her best friend, Kira Carsen.  After a bit of banter, Mamine clumsily admits that she has romantic, but not sexual, feelings toward Kira. Kira is taken aback a bit, and says she's flattered, but she's not into other women, and Mamine said she wasn't either, but she just wanted Kira to know how much Kira mattered to Mamine.

Kira returned to the Defender trying to process this information, and Mamine made her way to the bridge of Darth Marr's ship, only to begin sensing the presence of her old enemy.  As she and Darth Marr begin to plan, Marr's ship is attacked by strange ships with strange troops.  Mamine heads to combat the troops, droids as she discovers, wading through blaster fire and directing the shots back at her foes.  After rescuing both Republic and Imperial troops, Mamine is informed to return to the bridge, only to find that the Defender is stuck; no one can get in or out.  After releasing the docking clamp, Mamine is forced to regretfully inform Kira that she can't get out.  Kira, who shouts at her that she won't leave Mamine behind, is forced to do when Mamine says that they're Jedi and both have a job to do.

 Mamine heads to where Darth Marr was located, which was down in engineering, and fought along side him until they got to the terminal near the hyperdrive. Supercharging the shields, Mamine orders the crew to abandon ship, but Mamine and Marr are unable to get to safety themselves. The attackers take the ship, capturing Mamine and Marr and bringing them to the being they've been searching for; Vitiate, though using a new name, Valkorian.  On the way, they meet Arcann, Vitiate as Valkorian's son and slave to the Dark Side like Vitiate himself, and the blind seer Heskal.

Valkorian begins offering power to Mamine and Marr, and both refuse, but for different reasons. Marr, refusing to bend knee to Vitiate again, holds true to his own philosophy and accepts death. Mamine, however, held true to the lessons she had learned. She had seen the horrors of the Dark Side, and wanted nothing to do with its influence. She also refuses, but Arcann chooses this moment to attack his father when told to execute her, giving Mamine's lightsabers back to her, and allowing Mamine to strike down Vitiate's new body, saying she hoped it stuck this time.

However, things did not happen as they should; Valkorian releases a great deal of power, knocking Mamine out, allowing Arcann take Valkorian's throne and to toss Mamine into carbonite, where Mamine is forced to dream of Vitiate in his Valkorian form, the form she assumed he saw himself as from this point on. Valkorian tried to convince Mamine of his philosophy, but Mamine fights back with philosophy and combat when necessary. Eventually, Mamine is awoken by a woman that she first confuses with Kira, but turns out to be Lana Beniko with a new hairdo and a new outfit that lets her go unnoticed better, as well as her old friend, the astromech T7-01.  Lana lead Mamine out of the facility, and just as they are about to leave, Lana's partner, Koth Vortena, contacts them via radio.  Koth, a product of Zakuulan society, immediately annoys Mamine when he calls Mamine "Outlander", a term that Arcann called him and, as he finds out later, blames for all of what he's done and will continue to do to the rest of the galaxy.  However, she did understand why Koth called Mamine that; Koth had no other reference point for Mamine.

Mamine and Lana continued to fight their way to Koth, Mamine performing some impressive physical feats when she cut out the knees of a walker droid before blowing the cab into the air and off the bridge, however, she does not nail the landing and knocks herself out.  Awoken by Lana within moments, they continue to fight their way to Koth, but not before Mamine is forced to shut down a reactor that would have destroyed several city blocks if she hadn't.  But before they could board Koth's ship, Mamine and Lana are forced to fight two Knights of Zakuul, where Mamine is finally able to analyze their fighting style; Form VI lightsaber combat, or Niman.  This gave them an answer to everything, but mastery over nothing.

Mamine and Lana defeated their enemies their own way, forcing one to retreat, but Lana was about to choke the life out one before Mamine stopped her.  Moments later, they were met by Valkorian's daughter, Vaylin.  They were about to engage Vaylin and her Knights, but Koth Vortena opened fire with his ship's cannons.  Vaylin used the Force to rip a piece of walkway to hold off the shots. Lana escapes, but while Mamine was jumping, Vaylin throws the metal at the ship, forcing it away, and Mamine was about to plummet to her doom, only to be saved by an HK-55 unit.  It is here where Mamine finds out that she's been in carbonite for five years, and her first thoughts were of Kira and Suthazi, her friends who led her out of darkness through the support and desire to provide an example for.

They head out of the city, crashing into the swamp, and Mamine is given time to get to know Koth and HK a little before heading into the swamp.  Mamine was actually awestruck by the feeling of the swamp; so alive, so different than the city.  She could feel the ebb and flow of both the Dark and Light sides of the Force here, and all that nature had to offer.  If she wasn't running for her life, she felt she could actually enjoy her time in the "Endless Swamp" as Koth called it.

A few moments after Mamine took this in, Koth and Lana choose to set a trap for any Skytrooper droids that search for them, Mamine and HK headed into the swamp to find the "technological object" that HK had detected, and was informed that HK's new highest priority was the protection of Mamine.  Upon finding the object, Koth started freaking out over it being the Gravestone, a ship from Zakuulan legend.  Mamine and Lana, who didn't know the legends, did accept that this was going to be the best means get off the planet.

Mamine, with Koth at her side, cleared out large insects from the ship, which allowed Koth the time and space he needed to look over the condition of the combat frigate, mentioning that they might be able to find the parts needed to do the necessary repairs to get the Gravestone space-born, and Lana mentioned that they might want to hunt through the swamp for fresh water and access to safe food.    Mamine went with Lana first, who helped her get up to date on current events over the last five years; the Sith Empire and Republic no longer had the political, financial or military power to fight Arcann's Eternal Fleet, and were forced to pay a heavy tribute of credits and resources, and Mamine's friends were missing.

Upon returning to the ship, Mamine followed Koth through the swamp, searching for some parts he had jettisoned before the crash, though, upon finding the last cache, mentioned his belief in destiny.  Mamine mentioned how destiny is rarely pleasant, and brought up the story of Andor Vex as an example, or her own, which was a path that caused a LOT of pain and suffering to people who didn't deserve it, a path she still regretted to this day.

Upon returning to the Gravestone and helping Lana and Koth clear out stuff on the ship and help repair it, she found herself heading down a few decks and ended up in front of, what she learned later, was a control node for the Zakuulan "machine god", Zildrog, where Vitiate, still using his Valkorian form, chose to show himself as a ghostly form and started talking to Mamine.  He talked about the downfalls of his children and told Mamine that she needed to kill them, but Mamine was having none of it;  she had seen the end point that the dark path took her, and was certain that the only way to both stop them and stop Valkorian was to neutralize them while keeping them alive.

However, before any philosophical debate could take place, the ship was attacked by the Skytroopers. Mamine took Lana outside to fight them off while Koth got the ship off the ground.  They fought side by side for a bit, until one of the Knights flew in on a speeder, dropped a thermal detonator at the feet of several Skytroopers, and jumped off, igniting a unique lightsaber; one with an electrum guard.  And since electrum was rare and, among the Jedi Order, an indication of Mastery of either the Force or the lightsaber, she knew this woman was special. In fact, Mamine, a Battlemaster and lightsaber form instructor, had earned the right herself, but didn't feel worthy of the electrum finish on her weapons.

The three fought the Skytroopers and Knights until Valkorian chose to freeze time and lie to Mamine; that if Mamine didn't relinquish control of her body for a few moments, Lana would die to an unavoidable lightsaber strike to her shoulder.  Mamine refused, of course, and just after Lana was injured, Koth and HK exited the ship and gunned the individual who struck Lana down, as well as the others that Mamine, Lana and the Knight that Mamine now knew to be Senya Tirall, hadn't gotten to.  And after a brief argument between Koth and Lana over Senya joining their crew, HK reminded them that they were not safe.

Mamine, Lana and Senya all waited outside the ship and used the Force to life the ship out of the muck, before leaping up to the airlock and leaving the planet.  But of course, they weren't safe yet. Mamine had to run down to the main cannon and fire it, annihilating many ships ahead of them before they were able to get into hyperspace. Unfortunately, they had to perform a blind hyperspace jump, which burned out the hyperdrive, which hadn't been used in centuries, as well as the Gravestone's main cannon.  Luckily, they were within sublight engine range to get to a safe haven, a space station known as Asylum.

After returning to the bridge, Mamine saw the three humans arguing.  Senya and Koth didn't get along due to a shared past, and Koth was upset that Lana hid her allying with Senya.  Mamine understood why the humans were so upset with each other, but she still needed to fully regain her strength, and decided that it was time to find a place to meditate. After doing so, Mamine went and talked to Lana and dressed her wounds, then went to talk to Koth, who annoyed  her slightly, but after explaining why being called "the Outlander" bothered her, Koth backpedaled, not realizing that what he was saying was offensive and not wanting to do so later. But when Mamine said she was willing to give Senya the benefit of the doubt, Koth said "Don't forget who dropped everything to get you out of the Spire.", a clear attempt to play on Mamine's emotions. Mamine just rolled her eyes, and said "You've got a real bad habit of shoving your foot in your mouth, Koth," before explaining how he had just come across.  Once again, Koth sheepishly apologized, and as Mamine left, she wondered how he had made his way as a military officer without upsetting a superior with his "foot in mouth" tendencies.

Senya was at the Zildrog control node, and she and Mamine introduced themselves to each other.  Senya mentioned an appreciation of the Jedi philosophy even though it didn't work for her, though Mamine mentioned how it hadn't been enough combat her Dark Side either, at first. However, when Mamine mentioned how Arcann had pushed her and her support network apart, Senya offered compassion, and mentioned how she had some personal reasons for wanting to bring Arcann down, though Mamine could tell she wasn't ready to tell him why.

A few hours later, the Gravestone had docked with in Asylum, and after marching out the cargo hold door, Mamine was immediately met a group of humans.  The humans appeared hostile, demanding entrance to the ship, and Mamine said that threats weren't the best way to get what they wanted out of her, and floated her lightsabers into her hand, but did not activate them, showing the thugs that she was more powerful than they were. Seeing the standoff, Koth ran up to Mamine and assured her that they were Koth's people.  Mamine stood down, but took a moment to gently chastise Koth for not telling her what was going on; Mamine could have easily killed Koth's crew, she explained.

After a brief conversation with Corporal Ralo, the Republic soldier from Darth Marr's ship that she'd saved, Mamine was asked to find the final member of Koth's crew, a human named Tora. HK had Tora's information in his databanks, and Mamine and HK headed into the so called "Free Zone" to retrieve her.  After fighting through a bunch of gangsters, Mamine was met by Tora, who was signified by her blue hair and obnoxious laugh, and a weequay with a Havoc Squad badge on his armor. She found out he was Tanno Vik, former demolition expert of Havoc Squad, but was sadly dishonorably discharged due to his criminal activity after his CO disappeared .

Mamine rolled her eyes over how stupid the argument was; Tora refused to pay for the weapons she bought, and Vik, now a gangster, wanted to kill her.  Mamine said they were both being ridiculous, and ordered Tora to pay what she agreed to and apologize for insulting his dead mother.  Vik was perturbed that he couldn't afford to be weak, and Mamine reminded him that he negotiated a deal in his favor from a Jedi Master.  Vik agreed, and all parties parted ways, but not without some choice words from Tora, who claimed she'd never apologized in her life. Mamine, not happy with the mouth on Tora, told her to just say "thank you" and head back to Koth, and directed her toward the Gravestone.

A few minutes later, Mamine and HK were met by Senya, who led them into the Scions' compound. However, an ion charge knocked out HK, and this was met by Mamine immediately drawing, and activating, her lightsaber and dropping into attack position. Shee didn't trust Senya or these Scions at this point, and wasn't afraid to let them know that.

As it turned out, these Scions were confused that they couldn't read Mamine's future, and wanted to know why, but what really surprised Mamine was that Senya stood at Mamine's side, not the Scions.  Unfortunately, these Scions believed like the Sith and Voss about visions; they were absolute certainties, and not like the Jedi, who believed that visions were suggestions about possible futures, and that the future was always in motion.  And Mamine knew the truth about visions; they were only true if followed, if what Mamine had done on Voss with Sel-Makor had been any indication.

Mamaine and Senya fought through the Scions' "tests", doing their best not to harm them, before meeting Heksal, the leader.  Mamine recognized Heskal, but she could also feel the overwhelming darkness within him, it being so similar to her own so many years ago, meaning his vision was tainted.  Mamine calmly said that so long as Heskal said she must, she would refuse to kill Arcann, because she would not be a part of Heskal's dark designs.  This brought on the duel between then, and Mamine's superior focus and greater skill in lightsaber combat brought her to the edge of victory, only for Valkorian to freeze time and offer his power to speed things up, since "this was all pointless" Mamine refused and continued dueling Heskal.

The duel ended with Heskal's defeat, and Mamine said that the Scions' vision was tainted when Senya said they needed the Scions, mentioning she knew better than anyone how the Dark Side clouded the mind of anyone under its thrall.  This is when Lana, Koth and his men came up behind them, and demanded they disarm.  Heskal claimed that every moment since they landed on Asylum, even this moment, had been foreseen, and asked Mamine about how she'd fix the galaxy when she won, and Mamine essentially said "Whatever way denies your dark visions and helps those being hurt". And this is when Valkorian decided to make his presence in the Force known, which created chaos among them all. Heskal, the Scions and Koth were all elated that Valkorian was alive, while Lana, whom Mamine had told about Vitiate invading her mind in the Endless Swamp, was appropriately concerned.

However, the building anger in Mamine erupted when Koth called her "Outlander", and though he immediately apologized, it still caused Mamine to shout in Koth's face about why that term bothered him.  Apologizing for yelling after it was over, she then clearly spelled out what "Valkorian" had done as Vitiate, as well as what he tired to do on Belsavis, Voss and Corellia before Mamine stopped him on Dromund Kaas, and was just about to storm out before Senya revealed that she was Arcann and Vaylin's mother.  Mamine knew at this moment that he needed to cool off, and returned to the Gravestone to meditate.

And that's the first post of Rise of Mamine.  As always, I put links for things that I'm not certain would be easily understood by my foreign audience, and I did my best to swap out the "he" and "him" into "she" and "her", since this is the editted version of Ragdat's version, like I did over at fanfiction.net before taking these two down.

For now, look forward to the next set of chapters, and stay beautiful freaks!

SWTOR Character Tales: Ragdat's Darkest Days Traitor Saga

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den! It's time to get through the, as of the date of writing this, completion of Ragdat's Darkest Days.


The search for the traitor was slow going. The leaders of the Alliance were concerned that their people may have betrayed them, but were at least happy that their Commander respected their privacy. However, it turned out that not everyone did so; it turned out that Allisani had been monitoring everyone's communications and activities from the day she landed on Odessen, which is why she had learned as much as she had about their enemy, the Order of Zildrog, before anyone knew whom they were fighting. She even intercepted a communication between the traitor and the leader; the bodies and voices were distorted to protect their identities, but as Allisani told Ragdat, the traitor was not Lana with 100% certainty. When asked for the reason, Allisani said she was with Lana at the moment of the timestamp of this recording, and when Ragdat asked what they were doing, Allisani just grinned and said "A lady doesn't kiss and tell, Master Jedi, and a gentleman doesn't ask." which took Ragdat aback for a moment before regaining his composure. He was happy that they had found each other, but he missed Kira all the more with this information.


Allisani went on to say that based on what she could tell from the cleaned up analysis, both the traitor and their enemy were male, of average height, and of a relatively normal build. She could also tell, from the message, that the traitor was to prove himself on Umbara, which she, and later, Lana, found a trail for them to follow.



The trail led them to a hovertrain with a stockpile of Adegan crystals, where a transmission with the same encryption as the one from Iokath was detected. Lana, Theron and Ragdat boarded the speeding train to intercept and stop the traitor, while Allisani piloted Ragdat's Defender to drop them off, and eventually pick them up. The investigation led them to the control cabin of the locomotive, where the three reached it to find the cockpit of the train empty. It was this moment when Theron revealed himself as the traitor, shooting at Ragdat, only for Lana to jump in front of him. Ragdat was irritated; both at Theron for betraying them, and that his danger sense didn't alert him to the threat, and what that meant. Theron locked Ragdat and Lana inside the cabin and told Ragdat why he was betraying him; that the Alliance had become a symbol of oppression despite Ragdat's best efforts, and Ragdat replied that he never wanted any of this, and that he wanted to destroy the fleet, not take control of it. Theron said sadly that intention and action and action weren't always the same, and sabotaged the train's tracks, which would cause the train to crash into the side of a mountain, which, Theron stated, would be vaporizing Ragdat, Lana, and the crystals.



Managing to bail before the impact and survive the crash while Theron escaped on a speeder, Ragdat and Lana went after Theron on foot, while also fending off local wildlife. During this trip, Ragdat asked Lana how long she and Allisani had been together, and Lana said this wasn't the time for this conversation, and Ragdat said he knew, but it would get his mind of the betrayal and focus on something good while the fought, which would make him stronger, and that thinking about her lover would stoke Lana's passions and make her stronger. Lana rolled her eyes at this, but knew that Ragdat was right, and stated that they'd been together for about two years at this point. They had been friends during the Revan conflict, and they'd worked together as much as she had with Koth and Senya during Lana's search for Ragdat. Things became "official" when Lana spent a night at a safehouse Allisani utilized, and Allisani, who was there for reasons of her own, helped Lana de-stress one day. Ragdat smiled and said he was happy they found each other, with Lana saying that he'd find Kira again soon enough, knowing him full well that he missed her.



They eventually caught up with Theron, but were unable to stop him before his shuttle left Umbara and were forced to contend with an Umbaran Spider Tank which covered Theron's escape. Returning to Odessen empty-handed, Ragdat sent a galaxy-wide message on the HoloNet about his desire for peace directly to Theron in regards to his treason, and ordered Lana and Allisani to use every resource at the Alliance's disposal to locate Theron's whereabouts and intentions.



It wasn't long after this when Arcann asked to speak to Ragdat in private. He met Ragdat outside his Defender, and mentioned he never thought he'd set foot on Odessen as anything but a conqueror, and Ragdat mentioned how Arcann was a better man than he was when they met. Arcann thanked him and presented Ragdat with an armored shirt that he'd been making since landing on Odessen. The Knights of Zakuul had taught him how to craft his own armor, he said, and that if he was unable to be there to protect Ragdat, Arcann could be certain that this would. Ragdat inspected the armor; it was light, yet sturdy. And the chest, back and wrist pieces felt like the same material that his own chest, back and wrist pieces were. Ragdat then asked if this was Force imbued, and Arcann confirmed that it was, which showed Ragdat that it was resistant to lightsaber strikes. Ragdat could then detect strong feelings toward Ragdat coming from Arcann, and all that did was make Ragdat miss Kira again. He said, without realizing he had, that Kira would love to see him in this, which got a smile out of Arcann, which indicated that if someone else made the person he cared about happy, then he should be happy for the both of them, and said "We'll find her, Commander." before heading inside.



Within a week, Ragdat's message reached the right ears and Aristocra Saganu of the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force arrived to Odessen personally, having been greeted by his former lover Allisani, and revealed that Theron was being sheltered on Copero by the rogue Syndic Zenta of the Inrokini Family. To avoid a political conflict, Saganu asked Ragdat to deal with the traitor personally, sending a Human Lieutenant Raina Temple, whom Ragdat recognized as a Padawan, with them to watch for Chiss Ascendancy interests. When Ragdat mentioned that he recognized her, Temple told Ragdat she was a "cultural explorer" to the Ascendancy thanks to her experience with the Chiss, despite not being able to complete her Trials of Knighthood thanks to a lack of a Council. She also mentioned that she wasn't comfortable with a lightsaber, and so stuck with her blasters from before, now being far more accurate, even able to deflect incoming fire with her own shots, an ability even more difficult than doing so with a lightsaber. Ragdat was impressed, and agreed to take her along, along with Allisani, who knew the terrain of Copero very well.


Arriving on Copero, Ragdat, Allisani and Temple were informed that Force sensitives among the Chiss were considered "impure", which is why Valss was so protective of Syndic Zenta. The three fought their way through the Copero City, eventually engaged Zenta in combat inside her starship factory. Defeated and subdued, the Syndic explained that Theron had betrayed her as well, using Valss to steal the location of a holomap by slicing into her personal datapad. The map had long been kept in secret on Copero and led to yet another superweapon of the Sith Emperor Vitiate. Having learned Theron's location, Ragdat was about to continue their pursuit, but Saganu demanded that they take Zenta's life. Ragdat said that Jedi don't kill their prisoners, and Saganu claimed there would be no deal between the Alliance and the Ascendancy otherwise. Allisani was quick to remind both Saganu and Ragdat that Saganu was only one member of the ruling families, and that the rest wouldn't be too pleased that an outsider killed a high ranking member of house Zenta. With this in mind, Ragdat said that Zenta would be arrested by the Alliance and would be tried for espionage against the Alliance  and would be tried by a tribunal of both members of the Chiss ruling families and Alliance officials. Saganu was not pleased at this; both by Ragdat ruining his plans and that his former "red flame" was openly going against him like this.


Eventually reaching Theron at Allisani's guidance, Theron destroyed the holomap after learning the superweapon's location, but as he and Valss prepared to leave, he noticed that the three had arrived to stop them. Valss stayed behind to buy Theron enough time to escape, and Ragdat struck the Valss down in a lightsaber duel, his first one since being freed of Vitiate, a fact that he thoroughly enjoyed.


Once again again returning to Odessen without Theron, Raina Temple mentioned the fallout in the Ascendancy with Saganu in serious trouble, and volunteered to stay with the Alliance, and Ragdat said he could contact Vedere about getting Temple through the Jedi trials. Temple thanked Ragdat, but stated that she never really felt at home with the Jedi's structure. Ragdat said he understood, but the Trials were merely the Council recognizing what the Force had already proclaimed, and that Knighthood for her would simply be recognition of the autonomy she already had. Temple smiled and said that when they had the time, she would undergo the Trials, but her duties to the Ascendancy and Alliance came first. Ragdat agreed, and contacted Vedere to set things up.


Eventually, smugglers working for Hylo Visz intercepted a message to the Alliance from an Abandoned Listening Post and Ragdat went there with Lana and Allisani to personally investigate it. They discovered that the abandoned station served as the Order of Zildrog's base of operation for months, and that the Order was able to watch the Alliance that whole time despite the regular security sweeps on Odessen. Holorecordings revealed that the Order was led by former Horizon Guard Vinn Atrius, who planned to awaken another superweapon from Iokath called Zildrog and use it against Odessen. During this whole thing, Ragdat noticed one of the holorecordings was the one that Allisani had shown him several weeks before; of Theron talking to Vinn Atrius about Umbara. However, the final message entered just before their arrival also revealed a set of coordinates on Nathema, which Lana recognized as coming from Theron due to the unique encryption they developed together on Rishi. Forced to flee as the self-destruct mechanism was activated and completely obliterated the station, the three returned to Odessen just when the work of restoring the holomap from Copero was finished, revealing a location on Nathema that matched the coordinates left by Theron.


To stop the Order's plan and deal with Theron one way or another, Ragdat, Allisani and Lana traveled to Nathema, where they were shocked to see once lifeless world overgrown with plant life. After dealing with several Nathema Zealots and escaped beasts from the Sanitarium, they reached the coordinates where Theron approached them and revealed himself to be secretly working for the Alliance's interests the whole time. Lana was confrontational, of course, but Allisani was the most understanding, having had to "betray" people she was working for the entire time before, and explained that this was probably why Ragdat's danger sense didn't alert him to Theron's betrayal on Umbara; he was in no real danger from Theron, despite him having to make things look convincing. However, everyone agreed that the Order should be stopped, and the four headed towards the Emperor's Vault under an ancient Sith Temple, where Zildrog was located., while Theron and Lana hammered out issues the entire time. Theron even echoed something Lana said to him on Rishi years ago, how they "had to be kept in the dark" in order for the plan to succeed.


They tried to enter the facility, only to be stopped at a terminal, where a holo of a Pureblood Sith activated and started raging at Ragdat for killing his master. He revealed himself as "Servant One", a member of Vitiate's Emperor's Hand, and was upset because his "master was his life", and wanted to help the Order of Zildrog to help destroy the Jedi who killed Vitiate 3 times and his Alliance once and for all, sending out a giant Guardian droid for the four to battle.


The battle was won, and they continued on into the facility. When they reached the Vault, Vinn Atrius and GEMINI 16 were already in the process of awakening Zildrog. Theron shot Atrius, and Atrius raged over how his people had suffered under Ragdat's actions. Ragdat, however, stated that every event that had happened over the last six years was engineered by his "Immortal Emperor"; the Eternal Fleet attacked the capital worlds of both the Republic and Sith Empire all to lure Ragdat out. He then destroyed an entire scout fleet without warning, and faked his death at Ragdat's hands, which allowed Arcann and Vaylin to kill quadrillions of people throughout the galaxy before he could finally be destroyed once and for all. All Ragdat had done this entire time was mitigate the damage and helped people, even providing relief for the people of Zakuul once he stopped the Fleet's rampage. Vinn Atrius shouted for Ragdat to "Shut Up!" and that "Valkorian brought peace and prosperity to Zakuul!", which caused Ragdat to shake his head and say "You can't reason with a fanatic." However, GEMINI 16 trapped all of them in a force field and finished summoning Zildrog, allowing it to remotely take over the Gravestone that remained parked on Odessen.


Controlling it through the Dark Sanctuary, Zildrog took the Gravestone, though not before the crew had a chance to evacuate, into Odessen's orbit and proceeded to repeatedly fire the omnicannon at the Eternal Fleet, which sat defenseless in the absence of orders from the Throne. Colonel Strannos contacted Ragdat and informed them of the crisis, but they were unable to do anything to stop Zildrog from completely annihilating the Eternal Fleet. Zildrog then targeted Odessen itself, but needed to recharge the omnicannon before the next attack, forcing GEMINI 16 to engage the Alliance directly. Lana, Theron Allisani and Ragdat destroyed the last remaining GEMINI droid, and Theron attempted to shut Zildrog down, but was stabbed in the back by Vinn Atrius with a lightsaber pike.


Atrius then ordered Zildrog to augment him with its power and attacked Allisani, Lana and Ragdat with his new increased strength, but thanks to Ragdat's ability to see Shatterpoints, the three defeated Atrius without much difficulty and destroyed Zildrog, which also caused the self-destruct of the Gravestone and disabled the "Eternal Throne."


Ragdat marched toward Atrius, glaring at the man while he taunted Ragdat. Atrius told him to "Just kill me and get on with it. Be the hero, like you always do!" while Lana tended to Theron's wounds, determining that he needed to be immediately brought to Odessen for treatment. Ragdat said once again that Jedi don't kill their prisoners, and that he'd be given back to his own people and be put on trial by them, a fact that shocked Atrius to his core.


Ragdat had Allisani stabilize Theron and took them all back to Odessen. Once back, Lana reported to Ragdat that although Odessen suffered minimal damage with no casualties to Alliance personnel, the Gravestone and the Eternal Fleet, two of the Alliance's greatest weapons were gone. Ragdat was relieved at this fact, since he never wanted the fleet in the first place, but, as Allisani added, without them, the Alliance no longer possessed the military force to rival that of the Republic and the Sith Empire, who redoubled on their preparations for the inevitable renewal of open hostilities. Additionally, though many members like Adaso, Maircus, Colonel Strannos and the leadership choosing to remain, many Alliance members choose to leave and rejoin their original factions, since the Alliance's initial goal of toppling the Eternal Empire accomplished, requiring the Alliance leaders to choose which faction to support. Ragdat jokingly asked if Lana would have any reservations about joining the Republic, and she jokingly added that she wouldn't if the Republic didn't have a problem with her interrogation methods. Ragdat said that she'd be right at home with the SIS as she said Theron came into earshot. At that point, Ragdat, Lana, Theron and Allisani stood in the hangar, and mused on the future now that the shadow of Vitiate had finally been been illuminated.


And that's it, as of November 21, 2018, for Ragdat's Darkest Days! And yes, that whole thing about Lana and Allisani being together is indeed a nod to my playthrough of Allisani through KOTFE and KOTET. I will mention them getting married at some point in the future like the game allows them to now, but for now, look forward to Rise of Mamine, which I intend to get out before December 1st. But for now, stay beautiful freaks!

SWTOR Character Tales: Ragdat's Darkest Days-War for Iokath

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den! It's time for the shortest chapter of Ragdat's Darkest Days!

Six months had passed between the Alliance dismantling the Eternal Throne and now, and Ragdat had worked tirelessly to repair the damage that Vaylin did.  Zakuul was slowly learning how to rule themselves, but so much of their infrastructure was tied up in the droids performing all tasks for them that they didn't know what to do once they were shut down for good.  Ragdat had hoped that they would have some semblance of survival instincts, but he was proven wrong time and time again, forcing him to take a heavier hand than he liked in teaching them how to survive. It didn't help that, for the first time in their history since Vitiate took over, there was famine and disease for the general populous, so Ragdat was forced to bring in supplies and medicine for them, which cut down on the resources he could be using to help the people of the Republic.

It was at this point when the radiation levels on Iokath had finally subsided, and Lana led an Alliance team to claim it for the Alliance. She contacted Ragdat and Theron with a status report, which was interrupted by arrival of Imperial and Republic forces on Iokath, who were fighting for control over a superweapon. Ragdat summoned the Eternal Fleet to Iokath, where contact with it was mysteriously blocked and Theron suggested to look for the source of the transmission on Iokath. After landing, Theron and Ragdat fought their way across the surface and finally got to the the Fleet Spire to meet with Lana, where the Alliance began landing their forces and started setting up a base of operations. Lana also mentioned that she managed to capture two emissaries send by the Republic and the Empire; Captain Elara Dorne, formerly of Colonel Strannos' incarnation of Havoc Squad, and a Captain Quinn, whom Adaso later mentioned was a relative of Malavai Quinn, whom Adaso had killed for siding with Darth Baras against him almost 13 years prior.

It turned out that Quinn represented Empress Acina, while Dorne was working for Supreme Commander Jace Malcom. Both sides arrived on Iokath looking to claim the superweapon and both pleaded to the Commander to join forces against the other, both trying to appeal to Ragdat's honor. But when the time came to choosing an ally, Ragdat simply stated that "As far as I'm concerned, Malcom, the Alliance has always been allied with the Republic from the very beginning. I'm just glad to have someone finally recognize that.", which got an insult spouted from Acina, who then ordered Captain Quinn to implement her back up plan by throwing a flash bang, setting off several charges on Alliance vehicles, and ran off before being confronted by, and run through, by Adaso, who stated that "siding with the wrong Sith must run in his family" before joining Ragdat in the command center. Ragdat, after nodding at Adaso after his vision cleared, ordered Dorne to keep them in contact with Malcom as they reinforced the Republic's defenses. 

After doing so, Ragdat and Theron went into a weapons cache to retrieve Iokath weapons and knowledge on how to use them. Theron downloaded the files from an ancient console, learning about the superweapon that both the Republic and Empire were chasing; it was powerful enough to wipe all organic life on Iokath in the distant past, in addition to ten trillion lives on other planets. Ragdat recoiled in horror, and said that no one should ever get their hands on something like that, and they needed to covertly do everything to prevent the Republic from getting their hands on it while they actively doing the same for the Empire.

When the two reunited with Lana, she revealed to Ragdat that the conflict was orchestrated by an unknown outside force, which leaked identical data regarding the superweapon to all three parties, luring them all in the same place and at the same time. And since the "Eternal Throne's" control over the Eternal Fleet could only be sabotaged by an Alliance member, Lana suspected a traitor in their ranks.  Ragdat just shook his head, saying this was the last thing they needed while trying to prevent both sides from getting access to a superweapon.

However, he was forced to push these thoughts out of his mind as he and Theron moved to prevent the superweapon's activation by Acina, who had called to taunt them about her now controlling it, but they were unsuccessful and the legendary Six Gods of Zakuulan legend were awakened. With the control over the Eternal Fleet was restored, Theron stayed behind to delay the superweapon activation, while Ragdat went inside superweapon command point, taking control of a throne similar to the one that he had dismantled, and witness Tyth, the first of Six Gods, revealing itself to be a very powerful droid. Tyth looked at Ragdat's soul, and stated that he was an "unworthy sacrifice" given his lack of unending rage being not enough to empower it. Tyth then revealed what Lana suspected, that a close companion of Ragdat's was responsible for starting the war and awakening the Six Machine Gods, hinting it to be someone consumed with anger and despair. And while Ragdat was beginning to become consumed by Tyth while he was still was plugged in, the Throne was sabotaged by SCORPIO, who had chosen to aid him for some reason, and he ordered the Eternal Fleet to fire on the droid, knocking it out of commission, but not destroying it.

He awoke back at the Fleet Spire a few hours later, and confirmed Lana's suspicions that there was a traitor in their midst. And since there was no way to narrow down the list of suspects, Lana asked them to approve full-time surveillance by an independent party, monitoring of even herself, to which Theron strongly opposed.  Ragdat was tempted, but in the end, chose to alert the Alliance to a traitor, and to watch out for any unusual activity while still performing their day to day. This, Ragdat figured, would make them suspicious of each other for a while, but still content that their Commander trusted them. And after a brief conversation with Malcom about them controlling the resources of Iokath, he was alerted that a Scion of Zakuul wanted to speak with him. The Scions informed him that their Machine Gods were now active, and that Ragdat needed to gather his forces to destroy them. 

It was at this point when many of his strongest allies had gathered around him, ready to aid him.  He expected Adaso and Maircus, as they had come to Iokath with him, but he was notified that the now Grandmaster Vedere Marr was here to help, as was her bodyguard Vizhdam.  Also among them was the Sith Warlord Darth Nox, who surprised him by giving him a holo of her son. Apparently, the boy wanted to thank the man who "kept his mommy alive" during all her time away.  She said that the boy really looked up to the Jedi now, and Ragdat could tell from the holo that he was loved by both of his parents.

Ragdat was not surprised to see Allisani and Curoda join in the battle; both had worked together in the past, and Allisani had gathered a great deal about the capabilities of these Machine Gods.  But what truly put a smile on Ragdat's face was the fact that Colonel Strannos had managed to gather her incarnation of Havoc Squad, even convincing Tanno Vik to come back for one last battle. Vik was being heavily paid for this, of course, but Ragdat was pleased that the best demolition expert was working for him, even if it was only temporary.

Ragdat led his team into battle, going through Tyth, Aivela, Esne, Nahut and Scyva, before finally confronting Izax in one massive, climactic battle, finally destroying the Six Machine Gods, Iokath's greatest superweapons, once and for all. However, Ragdat remembered one more name from Zakuulan legend; Zildrog. If these Machine Gods were the gods of Zakuulan legend, Zildrog must be a real entity as well.  He would need to deal with Zildrog when it eventually appeared, but for right now, as he parted ways with his allies, he decided that dealing with the Traitor was more important at the moment. He'd need to keep his guard up for the near future.

And that's it for the War for Iokath.  Since I've never completed the operation myself, and wookieepedia doesn't exactly spell out the details, I just chose to gloss over the events. The Traitor Saga will be much more detailed, I promise, with Allisani taking a larger role in the Traitor among the Chiss point, since she didn't do much during the KOTFE/KOTET portion. Look forward to it, as well as Rise of Mamine, and stay beautiful freaks!

SWTOR Character Tales: Ragdat's Darkest Days KOTET 7-9

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den! Today, we're finishing off KOTET for Ragdat!

A few hours after meeting Mako, Ragdat had gathered his Force advisors for an important meeting; how to defeat Vaylin without killing her.  Now that they'd revealed her conditioning to the galaxy, Vaylin would be more dangerous due to her desire to remove the conditioning, and they needed a way to prevent Vitiate from absorbing her power, since unlike Arcann, Vaylin showed no good in her and had no desire to be a better person.  Neither Sana-Rae nor Darth Nox had methods to defeat her without killing her, though Nox presented the idea that if they timed it correctly, she could Force Walk Vaylin's ghost to prevent Vitiate from getting access to Vaylin's power. However, it was Vedere that presented the idea that they could cut Vaylin off from the Force. It was a last resort, and only possible by a person who had both raw power and unquestioned purity, so someone like Sana-Rae or Darth Nox would not be able perform the ritual. Ragdat decided that this was what they were going to do until they could finally find the means to destroy Vitiate once and for all, however, Vedere added the one possible problem; that thanks to the shielding of Terrak Morrhage's plague victims still weakening her, she didn't have the required power to do so. Ragdat then asked if he could do it, and she also replied negatively, since, thanks to Vitiate's presence, he lacked the purity. Vedere said she'd find the Jedi she needed to boost her strength for the ritual, and they broke the meeting from there.

When Ragdat slept that night, Vitiate chose to allow Ragdat to glimpse "Valkorion's" memories of Vaylin's return to Zakuul after her conditioning on Nathema, and Vitiate suggested that Vaylin may have found a way to break her bonds in the place they were created. Vaylin had indeed vanished from Zakuul, and when Ragdat brought up the dream, Darth Nox mentioned she'd been on Nathema and found an abandoned facility. A facility that, upon scanning, they found a transmission to Vaylin that was detected during the Festival. With all signs pointing that Vaylin did indeed return to Nathema, Ragdat, Lana, Theron and Darth Nox geared up for battle, while Arcann stayed to watch over his still comatose mother, though Ragdat did mention that despite Arcann's personal doubts about himself, Ragdat believed that Arcann was strong enough to resist the pull of the Dark Side on Nathema.

Theron piloted the shuttle to Nathema, and Lana, Ragdat and Darth Nox began feeling the effects of the Force void before even setting foot on the planet. Even Vitiate found his power diminished in this place, though he promised to shield them from from its worst effects. And almost immediately after, Darth Nox mentioned that she knew a ritual to do the same thing, and Ragdat said not to use it on him. When Nox expressed confusion, Ragdat said that Vitiate would be expending his power to shield Ragdat, and that meant he'd be weaker and unable to force any desired outcome. Nox smiled and nodded, and performed the ritual on only Lana and herself, leaving Theron behind in the shuttle, which he returned to orbit so he wouldn't be affected by the void in the Force.

Making their way through the planet's surface, which was left lifeless ever since the Ritual of Nathema over a millennia ago, the trio reached the Sanitarium, the only structure still showing signs of life on the planet, with Vaylin already inside. Dispatching several Horizon Guards, Nathema Zealots and Keepers, the three explored the inner workings of the Sanitarium, learning about Vaylin's past there from holorecording left by an Anomid named Jarak, a name Ragdat recognized as the architect of Felix Irresso's current mental state.

Meanwhile, the ritual to break Vaylin's bonds when out of control, with Vaylin's power vaporizing those in her vicinity and Ragdat, Lana and Darth Nox came upon Jarak, who offered to take them to a place where they could take shelter. Ragdat didn't trust Jarak after what was done to Felix, but recognized that this was not the time to act upon the distrust; the three of them would be able to handle any trap that Jarak set up.

 In the Sanitarium's lower levels they reached the Immortal Emperor's vault, where Vitiate stored artifacts even he deemed to dangerous, and the group barely managed to get inside in time. Once inside, Ragdat recognized that Vitiate was somehow blocked inside this room, and finding the door stuck, Ragdat realized that this was likely their only chance to hide something from Vitiate. Lana and Ragdat went to activate the backup power generator, while  Darth Nox killed the vault guardian that killed Jarak, though she did stand there and watching him die, removing any chance of betrayal. Inside, the three made an important discovery of Dramath's holocron, which still housed the essence of Vitiate's father that he killed over 1300 years ago. Dramath told them that the holocron, which Darth Nox had searched for the last time she was here, held the power to destroy Vitiate once and for all. Dramath asked to release him and grant him oblivion, to which both Darth Nox and Lana disagreed, but in the end, Ragdat's Jedi mindset won out and Ragdat released Dramath from his purgatory. Ragdat then ordered Lana to take care of the holocron, since he wanted to keep the fact that they had it a secret since as soon as they stepped outside, Vitiate would have access to Ragdat's body once again. Eventually unlocking the door that trapped them inside and defeating several Voreclaws, the three learned from Theron that Vaylin has already left the surface and escaped the Sanitarium which now threatened to collapse. Ragdat, Darth Nox and Lana rushed outside where Theron picked them up, but before they could rest, they learned from Bey'wan Aygo that Vaylin launched another assault on Odessen.

Returning to Odessen, the team found the battle already raging on multiple fronts. Theron and Darth Nox volunteered to sneak behind the enemy's lines, both from different avenues, while Lana and Ragdat made their way to the Gravestone, which was still in dry dock, unable to take off until the Iokath upgrades were completed. Commandeering an Eternal Empire Walker, Ragdat and Lana made their way through the front lines, eventually meeting Arcann and the now awoken Senya Tirall at the Gravestone, as it was finally able to take off.  Pleased to see Senya at full strength, Senya renewed her commitment to the Alliance, Ragdat and the desire to stop Vaylin once and for all.

Lana went to join Theron while Ragdat contacted Vaylin via a holo-call, successfully taunting her to abandon the safety of her flagship and travel to Odessen surface for a face-to-face confrontation. Immediately after, Ragdat contacted Vedere, who told him that she hadn't found enough Jedi to grant her the power to perform the ritual without hurting herself, but she said she'd be wherever Ragdat needed her when the time came.

Ragdat, Arcann and Senya fought through the battlefield, only to receive a message that Vaylin was holding Torian hostage, and that Vaylin awaited on the Alliance landing platform. It didn't take long after that for Ragdat and Vaylin's family to get to Vaylin, and did their best to duel her, though not before she killed Torian before they could stop her. Only seeing the Shatterpoint was what allowed Ragdat to defeat Vaylin, though Vedere and her people where nowhere to be found. Indeed, when Ragdat contacted her, she said the lift had been damaged, and they couldn't get to Ragdat in time. With Vaylin's power raging out of control, she began causing a massive Force Storm, leaving Ragdat no choice but to strike her down. And just as he suspected, Vaylin's soul was absorbed into Ragdat, confirming that eating his children was part of Vitiate's plan.

 As Vaylin laid dead, Senya and Arcann lamented her loss, but were relieved that the conflict was over, though their spirits were dampened when Ragdat informed them of what happened. However, he admitted that this was a victory, as the fighting on Odessen was over as Zakuulan forces surrendered en masse, but the war was not, as with Eternal Throne empty the GEMINI Captains have gone rogue, bombarding the capital worlds of Coruscant, Dromund Kaas and Zakuul into rubble. Ragdat grumbled, since claiming the Eternal Throne was the only way to stop the destruction, which he knew was part of Vitiate's plan, and was forced to lead the Alliance to Zakuul.

Catching some sleep on their way via the Gravestone, Ragdat experienced a vision of the Eternal Throne surrounded by their allies and Vaylin, who rose from the dead to strike them down. Waking up, Ragdat feared that this was how Vitiate was going to win, and ordered Lana to bring Dramath's holocron along. Vitiate intervened again, dismissing it as a useless dusty trinket, and Lana could finally feel his presence in the Force, illustrating how much more powerful he was now. More powerful than even Ragdat's iron will, they feared.

The major players then gathered on the bridge, with entire fleet at their back, where after dropping out of hyperspace, they witnessed the Spire blockaded by the Eternal Fleet, though Iokath upgrades of the Gravestone allowed Colonel Strannos, the new Commanding Officer of the Gravestone, to breach the blockade. Senya and Arcann volunteered to accompany Ragdat to the Eternal Throne and together they traveled down to surface in a boarding pod that landed in the Garden of Izax. The three of them made their way to the Spire as the Eternal Fleet burned Zakuul around them, receiving unexpected assistance from Indo Zal and his Zakuulan rebels. Fighting through the skytroopers and Knights of Zakuul, they finally took a turbolift to the Eternal Throne, but Vitiate tried to seed doubt in Ragdat's mind, telling him to strike down Senya and Arcann to avoid any competition for the Throne, though Ragdat simply stated "one more word out of you, and I'm giving back to Arcann just to spite you."

After entering the Eternal Throne room, Arcann was taken aback at seeing his old Throne and lamented the death of millions he caused while holding it, while Senya assured him that he became a better man since then. However, it was this moment when Ragdat found himself moving without any desire to, and walked up to it and took the Throne, which sent a shock through his body and pacified the Fleet. Senya congratulated him, but immediately afterward, Vitiate revealed his ultimate goal, dominating Ragdat's will and forcing him to kneel and proclaiming his desire to eradicate the Ragdat's mind and take possession of his body, shocking him into nothingness and forcing his mind to go black.

Ragdat awoke inside his own mindscape to the sound of his own voice, which was doing all it could to reassert his identity. However, Ragdat was now wearing Valkorion's skin in a subconscious attempt to save himself from being completely erased, realizing that Vitiate wouldn't destroy himself before he had beaten Ragdat completely. At this point, he had vague memories that the voice had managed to save for him; he was a Jedi, a Battlemaster, he had defeated Vitiate once before, and he was the Commander of the Alliance. He also knew someone was important to him, but he didn't know who or why they were.  There were so many gaps in his memory, and he only hoped he'd fill them before he was able to face Vitiate again.

Ragdat traversed the bizarre mindscape, cleansing his corrupted memories, confirming that Vitiate only pretended to abandon his body on Odessen and later absorbed Vaylin's spirit after her death, giving the Immortal Emperor the key he needed to conquer his vessel's mental defenses. And during these efforts, he regained his memories of Kira, the one person who mattered to him more than anyone or anything else. Ragdat would have wept over the fact that he could ever forget Kira where he not fighting for his mind, and that strengthened his resolve to end his evil once and for all.

Eventually locating the mental image of Dramath's holocron, Ragdat took control of it and regained control of his form, forcing Vitiate to once again manifested in his Valkorian guise. This proved to Vitiate that Ragdat's iron will was strong enough to overcome anything Vitiate threw at Ragdat, but when Vitiate summoned Vaylin's enslaved spirit, he proved that his will was stronger than her's, and placed her under his spell and commanding his daughter to destroy Ragdat.

Ragdat, however, had learned much in his time as a Jedi, and figured that a battle of the minds was determined by who had the stronger will, and since Ragdat's will was stronger than Vitiate's, he was easily able to defeat Vaylin in the mental mindscape. Vitiate, however,  easily restored her spirit, which gave Ragdat the idea to use the representation of Dramath's holocron to free Vaylin from her father's mind control. At this point, Arcann has joined them inside Ragat's mind by using the physical holocron located in the Eternal Throne room, adding their strength to Ragdat's own.

Ragdat and Arcann were able to convince Vaylin to join them against Vitiate, however, as Vitiate began to summon up power to battle the trio, Ragdat decided that enough was enough, and used Vaylin's conditioning code, "Kneel before the Dragon of Zakuul" to turn the tables on Vitiate and rob the Emperor of his strength. Vitiate was horrified that this worked, claiming that this only worked on Vaylin, Ragdat smugly stated "My mind, my rules. And I say what works on Vaylin, works on you." This delighted Vaylin, who demanded that her father "Kneel before the Dragon of Zakuul", in a way saying that Ragdat, not Vitiate, was the Dragon that held all the power now.

With Vitiate overpowered and helpless, Senya joined her children in Ragdat's mind and together the family watched the "Immortal Emperor" shout his final words, which were purely insults and condemning their weakness, though Ragdat shot back that their "weakness" is what gave them the strength to end him once and for all before he put a final end to his millennia-long existence.

Back in the physical world, Senya congratulated the Commander on finally putting an end to Valkorion and opened a system-wide holochannel to announce the Alliance victory. And this was when Ragdat recognized what this moment was; Lord Scourge's prophesy.  The players were different, with Senya being the one to put the crown upon his head, but all the aspects of the prophesy; people kneeling before him as he held Vitiate's power in his hand. So Ragdat decided that he would not follow the prophesy to completion; he would not take the throne, instead, allowing Zakuul to finally rule itself. From there, he proclaimed the age of the Eternal Alliance, unifying the military of Zakuul and the Eternal Fleet with the cause of the Alliance, with the Eternal Throne dismantled and the controls moved to Odessen and the Eternal Fleet now under his control.

In the coming days, many of Ragdat's people began packing up and preparing to leave, as he expected they would. Curoda stated that now that the threat of Vitiate was over, she needed to return to a level of independence that a Pirate Fleet required, though she stated that she'd covertly support the Alliance and Ragdat's eventual "return" to the Republic when the time finally came.  Vedere also gathered her people, stating that the Jedi needed to rebuild, and with Satele fully stepping down as Grandmaster, it fell to Vedere to rebuild.  She echoed Curoda's statement about Ragdat's heart lying with the Republic, and added that she'd continue to search for Kira for him.

Ragdat was also not surprised that Darth Nox was leaving, but he was surprised at the reason.  Oh, she said that she wished to return to the world she ruled, but what got Ragdat was that Darth Nox said that her son missed his mother dearly.  When Ragdat asked for clarification, Nox stated that her son had recently turned four, and had been sending messages almost daily with the assistance of his father, wondering when she'd be returning.  However, she also added that she wouldn't stand against Ragdat when he returned to the Republic, since rejoining the Empire would put her under Acina, and she would never look at Acina as anything more than an equal.

Adaso, however, remained with the Alliance.  He said that the Empire had nothing for him now; no family, no power base, and ruled by the one who destroyed them. Even his brother and his clan were gone, having fallen in the struggle against Vaylin. All he had left was a wife he was estranged with ever since he joined a Jedi, and the wealth that he was utilizing to help fund the Alliance. His only desire now was actually quite similar to Scourge's all those years ago; to train with Ragdat and to ensure that the Jedi who destroyed Vitiate continued to deserve that distinction.

The rest of the people Ragdat expected to remain; Colonel Strannos was now the Commanding Officer of the Alliance flagship, so while she wasn't on the ground anymore, she was still out there and fighting. Maircus also remained, stating that Odessen was a good place to operate out of while hunting bounties, and that his family was there, though he did express regret over the death of Torian, his "vod" or brother in Mandalorian.  Allisani also remained, though at this point, he suspected that she wasn't just an "agent of the Specter", but the Specter herself, who expressed, in private, a desire to help Ragdat bring down the Empire once and for all.

All was relatively quiet as Ragdat's Eternal Fleet patrolled the galaxy, assisting in recovery efforts on Zakuul and everywhere else. But Ragdat knew that this wouldn't last forever.

And that's it for Ragdat's Darkest Days KOTET.  I'll be doing Iokath as one post, though I'll include the events of the operation, and then, do the Traitor Flashpoints in one as well. Look forward to those, as well as Rise of Mamine, which I'll be doing those in quick succession, though, you're in for a few surprises with that one. But for now, stay beautiful freaks!