Icon by @mmigrainee, sidebar picture in web version by @palepinkycat. Read about me before following. A lot of OCs (who definitely deserve better), half-baked ideas (that are going nowhere), babbling about stuff, and maybe memes.
Post with tags, links to ocs profiles and all that
About me and OC profile pages are in blog's description, but they don't exactly work on mobile, so here's a link to a post with about me info.
Links to posts with basic info on OCs (yes, multiple posts bc it's too much to fit in one post). Some of info isn't full bc I'm still figuring it out, will update once I do.
Lette legacy (Jett as the Outlander)
Seinna legacy (Airistan as the Outlander)
Crustulum legacy (Vintu as the Outlander)
Sinnomin legacy (Imely as the Outlander)
(UPD: now should work on mobile, tumblr pls do the thing properly)
Tags
Regarding older posts that are not tagged, I’ll try to tag them whenever I find time and energy for it, but can’t really promise, sorry.
Class stories spoiler tags:
#jedi knight spoilers
#jedi consular spoilers
#smuggler spoilers
#trooper spoilers
#sith warrior spoilers
#sith inquisitor spoilers
#bounty hunter spoilers
#imperial agent spoilers
Expansions spoilers:
#ilum spoilers
#makeb spoilers or #rise of the hutt cartel spoilers or #rothc spoilers (preferably the last one)
#oricon spoilers or (related) #dread masters storyline spoilers (don’t post often but just in case)
#shadows of revan spoilers or #sor spoilers
#kotfe spoilers
#kotet spoilers
#iokath spoilers (particularly for this planet) and #traitor arc spoilers for the rest of the storyline
#jedi under siege spoilers or #jus spoilers (preferably the last one)
#onslaught spoilers or #swtor 6.0 spoilers
For the new story updates I prefer to go with #swtor (number of expansions) spoilers, but may add names as well. So #swtor 7.0 spoilers and #swtor legacy of the sith spoilers for the upcoming expansion (usually the first one).
Not sure if I should tag any planetary story arcs, but if I feel like I should (maybe there a big plot twist), it’ll be #(planet’s name) arc spoilers (#belsavis arc spoilers for example).
Other tags:
character tags are #oc:(character's name), though it's not set in stone which names are full and which are shortened;
#art with my ocs - as it says
#space barbie is the real endgame - posting about space barbie (we all do that)
#decorations hunting - what it says, me trying to get decos that are either from crafting or reputation or flashpoints
#swtor gone wrong - bugs and other funny stuff (there is a blog with this name, check them out)
#swtor headcanons - as it says
#swtor unpopular opinion (might change to #my unpopular opinions) - as it says
#ask game - posts with ask games and replies
#tagged - if I was tagged for something
#(class name) playthrough - what it says, without spoilers
#swtor pts - if I decide to go through pain of installing PTS yet again (i installed and deleted like like 3 or 4 times)
Event tags (yeah, they all are different):
#double xp event is our lord and savior;
#pirate incursion event;
#rakghoul event;
#gree event;
#swoop rally event;
#swtor life day or #life day shenanigans;
#feast of prosperity;
#bounty week event;
#nightlife shenanigans.
#swtor text posts - screenshots of characters with text posts i them (character memes, in other words)
#swtor meme - as it says
#swtor refs - useful lore and stuff for SWTOR era (though I have like 1 post with this tag)
#other people's good stuff (gonna change to #mutuals' lovely stuff) - reblogs of amazing works of amazing people (though my circle of mutuals is kinda limited), be that writing, art or other stuff.
Star Wars: The Old Republic and the virtues of hiding under a rock
After all the fun I had writing a deep dive on the delightfully unhinged decision-making process that gave everyone in the Sith Empire equal opportunity to shoot lightning out of their fingertips, I decided hey, why not do another post on Sith-side stuff? Why not focus on another aspect of how The Old Republic's backstory set up for the players to run around being special little guys?
Welcome to the Chiss Ascendancy, which really would rather not be here, thank you.
Spoilers for the Imperial Agent plotline, Act 2 of the Bounty Hunter plotline, Act 1 and 3 of the Jedi Knight plotline, and for the expansions up through the Traitor Among The Chiss flashpoint storyline, set just after the Knights of the Eternal Throne expansion. Also, spoilers for a 30 year old novel series, and bits of current canon. Assume all links to Wookieepedia may include unmarked spoilers for anything and everything under the sun.
Also, many, many side rambles in the picture descriptions. As soon as I realized they were a place I could hide secret bits of brain fluff, I could not be contained.
So, for a little out-of-setting backstory first: The Ascendancy is in SWTOR for one reason. If you're a Star Wars fan, you probably know his name by now. You might even be able to pronounce all of it: Grand Admiral Thrawn, known to his own people as Mitth'raw'nuruodo.
Thrawn was a breakout character from the early Star Wars tie-in Heir to the Empire trilogy by Timothy Zahn, which you can see reflected in the increasing amount of cover space he takes up on each re-release. Zahn may not have totally intended for Thrawn to be the character everybody latched onto so hard—I mean, it was originally the Heir to the Empire trilogy, but it's officially the Thrawn Trilogy now. Which makes it confusing, because Zahn has since written two other trilogies that actually star Thrawn as a main character rather than having him as the main antagonist.
Credit really has to go to Zahn for his work on those books, because despite his occasional insistence to the contrary, they revitalized Star Wars as a fandom. It had been seven years since Return of the Jedi came out, and there'd been nothing since then. George Lucas had been pretty burnt out after RoTJ, and the idea of a multimedia franchise wasn't all that common at the time. There'd been Marvel-produced comics, the West End Games RPG sourcebooks, a few tie-in novels, and a boatload of action figures, but all of those save for the West End Games books were produced to market the movies themselves, or directly profit off of their recent release.
All of these were of variable quality and "Star Wars-y" feel. The Marvel comics brought us such incredible things as a carnivorous green rabbit fighting alongside the main cast, and a couple wild comics by Alan Moore where Leia gets her heart turned to diamond by omnipotent Force spirits. The Splinter of the Mind's Eye novel was written while A New Hope was still in production before George Lucas had decided Luke and Leia were siblings, and you can really tell. Zahn, however, helped by the the West End Games books as a worldbuilding reference, did some stellar work integrating his writing into the Star Wars setting, while simultaneously shaping what fans would think of as a good Star Wars outing for years to come. Hell, some of his inventions made their way back into the movies: the name Coruscant is his. But Thrawn is what most people think of as his big contribution.
And it's for good reason! Thrawn is a memorable antagonist. He's smarter than the imperial officers depicted in the movies. He's able to outmaneuver the heroes on multiple occasions. He's got a unique gimmick that dovetails with the Imperial mindset—while the rest of the Empire utterly disdains foreign cultures, Thrawn takes an Orientalist interest in others' art, using it to build theories of a person or culture's psychology to use against them in war. In fact, as we will see repeated in SWTOR, his original role and his people are often used to represent a less obnoxious, more outwardly reasonable sort of imperial behavior.
He's also a cool-looking blue-skinned, red-eyed alien, later revealed to be from a culture of subterranean xenophobes with complex noble house dramas, among whom he's considered to be an outlier. Through all of this, he overshadowed other characters who may have been intended as the center of attention.
What's really funny is that the very next year, D&D would get Drizzt Do'Urden, a character who unexpectedly overshadowed the others in his series who'd been the intended center of attention, who was a cool-looking gray-skinned, red-eyed drow, from a culture of subterranean xenophobes with complex noble house dramas, among whom he's considered an outlier.
I don't know what precisely was in the zeitgeist in the early 90s, but apparently it was just a time for cool guys who grew up in caves.
It's probably similar fandom tendencies that have made both the Chiss and Drow big players in people's imaginations. Anecdotally, I'm one of those fans. You grow up liking elves, but you also became kind of a goth about it, maybe had a bit of an edgelord phase. You wanted cool elves. Possibly cool elves in space.
Apparently there was a critical mass of folks at Bioware who also were on board with cool elves in space, so they made their way into SWTOR, originally only playable for a couple of Sith-aligned classes. If you were to summarize their narrative role in a single sentence: they collectively act much as Thrawn did, providing a calmer, more collected, largely amoral presence that's peripheral to the overall setting narrative, but provides more substance to the villains.
If one were to take it less seriously, the Chiss end up as the serious side of an evil comedy duo. They are the deadpan comedic foil to the lightning-shooting madmen and their minions, the most obnoxiously british military to ever sail the stars.
So, let's dig into the Chiss a little. You kind of have to, given the "underground city" thing. Details around Chiss history and even biology have not remained fixed as canon has undergone its various convolutions, but it's generally theorized that they were the result of a genetically isolated human colony established on Csilla many thousands of years ago, which has since evolved into a near-human species, often with higher physical fitness than human average, but lower chance of spawning somebody with a Force-y destiny for whatever reason. When hyperspace travel became common, their region of space was discovered to be nigh-impenetrable due to a high concentration of wandering gravitational anomalies, which could turn your ship into an interesting collection of relativistic scrap metal.
This means that the "Unknown Regions" in the galactic west remained largely unexplored by the Galactic Republic, and local powers had to develop their own means of navigating the region. This suited the Chiss just fine, because they really, really don't like hanging out with other people.
The Chiss Ascendancy is a major power in the Unknown Regions, and it's highly isolationist, xenophobic, and authoritarian. A Secret Police force helps maintain internal adherence to the Chiss power structure. The average Chiss citizen in the Star Wars setting will never meet a non-Chiss in their entire life. That is, unless, they're stationed in the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force.
That's a hell of a name right there.
The CEDF takes an imperial pattern of national defense and turns it into doctrine: they never attack first. But if someone pokes the Ascendancy, the Defense Fleet will respond, and they'll make sure the poker can never poke again. But the Expansionary Fleet will scout out areas on their frontier, so, y'know, good luck to anybody who happens to be living there.
Within the Ascendancy, a rotating cast of Ruling Families run the government, noble houses that generally specialize in specific industries, space sectors, or resources. Most of the best positions go to those born into one of these houses, but a common Chiss can theoretically become a "merit adoptive", basically a probationary house member that can eventually become "trial-born" into the house proper, possibly achieving a status of "ranking distant". That is, unless you're found to be Force-sensitive, which during the SWTOR time period would either get you exiled, or you'd spend your life on Force-suppressing drugs.
This culture is, it should be noted again, not presented as nice or right by Timothy Zahn or SWTOR, though getting into the heads of Chiss characters can make it seem very sympathetic from their perspective.
Especially when SWTOR's backstory rolls around, and the Ascendancy had the misfortune of being "discovered" by the Sith Empire.
This led to a rather surprising pivot in Ascendancy policy: upon getting a whiff of what the Sith were about, their response was "Fantastic! Let's be friends," and swiftly negotiated a treaty to become a vassal state to the Empire, in exchange for the Empire leaving them the fuck alone.
Zahn's novels in the current Star Wars canon allude to this as a time that the movie-era Chiss are not exactly fans of, but it has an undeniable logic. The Sith are, frankly, out of their collective minds. They're also really focused on beating the snot out of the Jedi and the Republic, and they'll roll over anyone who gets in their way. Or might seem to be in their way. Or might, given the right paranoid squinting, one day maybe get in their way.
And given the Chiss and Sith tendencies toward similar, albeit factually incompatible politics around somebody being the most special thing in the universe, the two factions had enough in common to make the deal work. At least, up until the inevitable day when the Sith would presumably try and take a swat at the Chiss. This was a delaying tactic to defend the Ascendancy against an invasion from "Lesser Space", nothing more.
One might ask, if they're worried about the Sith, why not ally with the Republic? Well, there's two issues. One, the Republic doesn't have a damn clue where the Chiss are, and the Chiss want to keep it that way. The Empire has some clue where the Chiss are. That's more clues than the Chiss want anyone but themselves to have, really.
And furthermore, the Republic isn't really a better option from the Chiss perspective. It's an alien government, largely run by more of those weird Humans that are all over the Empire as well. Its history shows periods of aggressive colonization and expansion, and, the Sith would be very quick to tell anybody, the Republic sometimes decides to just completely obliterate their foes. Do the Chiss also do that? Yes, but they're Chiss, dammit, they're allowed.
So really, the ideal outcome for the Chiss would be that the Empire and the Republic beat each other senseless, with the Empire eventually imploding and the Republic never finding out where the Ascendancy is at all.
As Star Wars will eventually bear out, that's what happened. The Sith Empire falls apart at some point past SWTOR's time period. And in fact, the Republic would eventually go on to implode twice before anyone in the wider galaxy remembered that Chiss existed, when that funny little guy named Thrawn showed up. So, the Chiss might be the only ones who technically achieved their goals with this whole fiasco. How did they pull that off? And how funny is it to watch someone turn imperial chauvinism on the Sith Empire? The answers are: improbably, and extremely.
Throughout the initial war between the Empire and the Republic, the Chiss served as an unseen aid to the Sith. They provided resources and covert services, but they were utterly unknown to the Republic. They were also making moves unbeknownst to the Empire—if they were going to be breaking their usual isolationism, well, why not take up some territory that nobody else wanted while nobody else was looking? And even when they did let the Empire know they were on a planet, they didn't actually tell them where, or how many. Because really, the Empire wasn't too jazzed about somewhere like Hoth. But the Chiss? With a frozen homeworld, their cities dug deep into the glaciers and bedrock? Perfect! Just like home, but with more wampas. They built a sizeable forward base there, and kept that to themselves for decades.
In fact, if confronted about the existence of the base by an Imperial agent, the man in charge of the base will respond "Our presence here is legal, based on all existing treaties. The fact that you never noticed us is immaterial."
Lol. lmao, even.
By the time we get to Hoth in SWTOR, that base is still secret, but there's a sizeable CEDF detachment that are embedded with the Imperial forces on Hoth. And it's a decent little slice of folks, at least within the EDF. You get a whole range of people, from utter jerks like Warden Khel who tries to detain precious Jawa angel Blizz, to well-liked and respected commanders like Captains Yunaali and Yudrass, the later of whom has to patiently deal with the dumbest white man in existence.
Yudrass is also interesting for a further reason: his voice actor Tony Armatrading was from a British Afro-Caribbean background, and his accent comes through in his performance. In the context where the Empire is firmly Evil Space Wizard Britain, the accents of the Chiss stand out. They're a much more heterogenous mix. Yudrass speaks fluent Basic, but some of the others don't. One speaks Huttese, because he was originally assigned to the Outer Rim and hasn't had the chance to pick up a further language since then. A few speak limited Basic, best illustrated by the guy who gives a delightfully unenthusiastic response to finding out a non-Chiss player character has survived an attack by Imperial traitors: "You're still alive. Huh."
Hoth is also a fantastic place for turning around the chauvinism back on the Imperials, if you're playing as a Chiss. You can summarily ignore human officers in favor of engaging with their Chiss subordinates. You can work to have Yudrass promoted, both because of his competence and because you transparently don't like the other guy's face. You can privilege information gathered by the CEDF, because obviously they don't deal in bad intel. If you're playing an Imperial Agent, you can end up siding with the Chiss so comprehensively that you become a merit-adoptive of a Ruling Family. You can even reveal that you were never earnestly working for the Empire at all.
On the other side of the war, It's unclear when the Republic learns about the Chiss. Probably at some point during the quagmire over Hoth, but they're never thought of as a major player. Nobody in the Republic off Hoth really mentions them. They're treated with extreme suspicion, with a couple lines that are pretty eyebrow-raising. A Chiss defector dies while trying to trade information for asylum, and a Republic major responds to the news with "It's just as well. I'm not sure the men really wanted a Chiss hanging around here." Yikes, my dude.
Still, with their presence revealed, the Chiss seem to have slowly started taking more active roles liaising with the Imperial military, working in Imperial space, or even joining Imperial organizations. This begins as projects by the Ruling Families and other prominent Houses, but individual Chiss also started taking swings at making it in Lesser Space. Some of them may have been average Chiss trying to get ahead outside of the traditional Ascendancy power structure, and some of them might never have fit in well back home in the first place.
This is, for the record, why Chiss are a playable option for the Bounty Hunter class. It's not often remarked on though, and Bounty Hunters don't get much Chiss-specific dialog options.
And it's not like bounty hunters or Chiss are exactly welcomed in Imperial space, though. After all, the Empire has their blood purity laws and all that, if you're a non-human or non-Pureblood, you're constantly subjected to microaggressions and, frankly, macroaggressions. Possibly even megaaggressions. They'd never let Chiss near positions of power, or access to their secrets.
People who've played already know where this is going. And any curious souls who read my last post may recall a really odd evil space wizard gimp who decided he did not give one single fuck about those blood purity laws.
Darth Jadus, blessed maniac that he is, opened Imperial Intelligence to alien recruitment with all the political grace he was known for, which was none, with a side order of self-aware cultic rambling: Everyone should have equal opportunity to access the misery that is the Empire, because the Dark Side likes it when you do that.
And in so doing, he created a very interesting proposition for motivated Chiss willing to take the risk, and an even more interesting proposition for the Ascendancy's Secret Police: they could now embed sleeper agents within an enemy security force by submitting job applications.
And this is why new players can chose to be Chiss when they play as Imperial Agents. You get a lot of Chiss-specific dialog as an Agent. The game supports player choices to explicitly say you reject the Ascendancy, or that you're secretly working for it. Or, hell, you could play a Chiss who says they're in it for themselves, and then secretly confides later that they're actually an Ascendancy spy!
I am so, so tempted to describe the Agent plot in its absolutely bonkers entirety, but let's stick to the Ascendancy view… for now, at any rate. I probably have another of these essays in me somewhere.
So! Sleeper agents. If the Empire won't ever fuck off by itself, then the Ascendancy wanted to make sure that they had options to give it a push. That would allow them to go back to their usual isolationism, if they still wanted it—You hear at least one Aristocra intimate that the Ascendancy might go all British Empire on the rest of the galaxy, if they see the opportunity. Some Chiss now rather like the idea of being the tiny little backwater kingdom that suddenly owns literally everything, as great powers around it weaken.
Complicating their ambitions, things did not turn out that way. Well, not the way they expected. The Ascendancy was out there playing spy chess, while the Emperor was gearing up to eat the entire chess tournament.
Honestly, there was no way the Ascendancy could've predicted the crazy shit that was going to go down in the Empire. Like, really, nobody saw that coming, not even in the Empire. Except for Darth Jadus, if you're weird enough to let him take a swing at running the entire government. Hell, if you're an Ascendancy sleeper agent, maybe he's precisely the sort of destabilizing force you want in the Empire.
So, when it turns out you accidentally allied yourself with an eldritch monster that wants to Pac-Man all life in the galaxy, what do you do? Well, fortunately for the Ascendancy, the Jedi took care of that one for them! Unfortunately, the Jedi didn't count on the MMO having expansions. Turns out, the Emperor was not entirely dead, just a little dead. And also he had a spare Empire hiding elsewhere, just in case the first one didn't work out.
No, I'm not joking, this really happened.
Meet the Eternal Empire, the Sith Emperor's side project where he put all its points toward a cultural victory and military automation, so when he lost control of that empire as well, his usurper was able to just kind of fling remote-controlled fleets at the rest of the galaxy.
With the Republic and Empire all war'd out, they were pretty emphatically steamrolled by the Eternal Fleet. And because the Emperor had known where the Ascendancy was, they were also in the line of fire.
And so the Ascendancy said "Wow! We hate it! Kindly take some planets and fuck off."
And it worked! They had to pay some exorbitant taxes to the Eternal Empire, but not as crippling as what the other powers suffered—because invading them hadn't been as expensive and they made early moves to placate this new empire and its alien human madness, they mostly flew under the radar, and weren't targeted for reprisals.
After that, there was a whole song-and-dance that included a suspiciously protagonist-shaped person uniting the rest of the galaxy against the Eternal Empire, overthrowing two or three usurpers who'd taken over (depending on whether you count the evil mastermind droid who was just kind of there to vibe), and killing the Emperor again for almost the last time, the galaxy could finally stop with that whole nonsense and come to a realization: Everyone was flat broke.
The concessions to the Eternal Empire had crippled the major powers. The Republic was reeling once again, and the Empire had lost most of its leadership and was currently in a very funny series of events that canonically end up with an 87 year old who loves shenanigans assuming the title of Emperor. the Hutt Cartel was probably still having its own problems because it was only a few years since their Supreme Mogul decided to become a raid boss and got killed, then the next one was a violent Hutt supremacist who threw a tantrum that ultimately dropped his own palace on him, and we have no clear successor after that.
The Ascendancy responded to Imperial inquiries with something along the lines of "Oh, yeah, sorry, we'd really like to help, but the Eternal Empire, wow! They really did a number on us. We can't spare any resources right now. We totally would if we could, though."
Literally no one believes them, but because no Imperial ships have ever landed on Csilla, nobody could call them on their bullshit.
And that's about where things stand! There was a kerfuffle where one of the Ruling Families put their drama on display to foreigners, which was a big faux pas. The result is a brief series of missions that actually take place on an Ascendancy world.
But otherwise, the Chiss have maintained their isolationism up to the present day of SWTOR's story. Are they right to do so? I mean, the game remains pretty consistent with the rest of Legends on the Ascendancy: they're a bunch of very pretty jerks who only look better in comparison to their competition, who are grand champions of jerkassitude, and because we're not in a position to see the Ascendancy inflict itself on other people. If they were a major power on the level of the Sith Empire, we'd probably see a lot more of their ugly side.
And what about playing the part of being one of these people? It's not good, certainly. Turnabout may feel like fair play, but it's not great at actually improving the situation overall.
…But it can be fun to indulge in a bit, in the fantasy of an MMO. Especially when the Empire is just so, so dunkable. It's like a less dangerous version of when the English cricket team of 1932-1933 decided it was entirely sporting to give Australians skull fractures, right up until the West Indies cricket team said "Now hear us out—what if we attacked you with the ball as well?"
And beyond that, this is the game where you can get the chance to shoot lightning at people while your eight foot tall cannibal thrall-maybe-turned-husband approves on the sidelines. If anything, the Ascendancy might suffer from being less goofy than that. But taken in full context of the MMO, they're often standing in as the reserved or reluctant bunch who got collectively dragged into this whole mess and are just trying to ride out the chaos with all clothes, dignity, and eyebrows intact. When subjected to the galaxy's shenanigans, the Ascendancy would rather take the advice of the skeleton meme:
Name: Imely Veres
Age: 23 (beginning of the class story, 10 ATC), 34 (Onslaught, 26 ATC) (five years lost from calculations bc of the carbonite freezing)
Gender: female
Species: chiss-human hybrid
Origin story: Sith Inquisitor
Discipline: Assassin
Weapon: modified Lord Zash’s first lightsaber (red crystal), modified Kallig’s lightsaber (purple crystal) - both changed into double-bladed lightsabers; ornate double-bladed lightsaber, made on Odessen (white crystal)
Occupation: Sith Lord, member of the Dark Council (formerly), co-leader of the Alliance
Alignment: briefly DS -> LS
Allegiance: Sith Empire (formerly), Alliance
Physical Appearance
Complexion: greyish blue
Eye color: red
Hair color: black with brown undertones
Height: 170cm
Scars/Birthmarks: scars left from a shock collar on the back of the neck, burn scar from a lightsaber on the left shoulder, circle shaped burn scar from fight with Arcann, small scars from numerous battles
Other distinguishing features: small mark under the left eye
Disabilities: none for now, though there’s probably something related to being in carbonite for years
History
Birth date: 13 BTC
Place of birth: unknown
Family: Ralis (father, deceased), Klia (mother, estranged), Rholona (grandmother on father's side, alive), Zem (half-brother, but neither know this nor each other)
Love interest: Nevanor Irinú (they're in a polycule, but she's in a relationship only with him)
Imely is a child of a secret affair between an imperial soldier and an officer of the Chiss Ascendancy. She ended up in slavery because of her mother's efforts to hide any traces of the relationship she came to regret. Imely's father was also sentenced to forced labor for trying to smuggle her out and for previously abandoning his duty for months. His family could try and bail him out, but the same couldn't be done for Imely, and he didn't want to leave her alone, so Ralis decided to not fight the charges.
Ralis tried to make the most of this situation by teaching Imely imperial history, military stories, tactics, etc., hoping it would give her a chance for freedom by joining the military, should they ever lift the non-human restriction. Imely was a quick learner and picked up those topics well. More so, she showed interest in ships and piloting them, and while her father couldn't teach her to fly (obviously), he shared all the theoretical knowledge on basic piloting. Generally, they carried on with hope that one day Imely would no longer be a slave.
Growing up, Imely was closed off, more invested in her own interests, thus struggling to connect with others. The only close friend she had was Nevanor - a kid her age, brought from a recently invaded Mirial. He saw that she was often excluded by other kids, and made an effort to befriend her. Because of his efforts, Imely had an easier time with other people, and in turn, she stood up to those who would try to take advantage of his kind and sympathetic nature.
When they both were 12, they discovered that Nevanor was Force-sensitive. Ralis saw this as an opportunity - if the kid becomes a Sith, he can free Imely and her father, and no one would go against a decision of a Sith. It would take years, but it was better than any other hope they had. Imely knew that her friend was going to agree to this, despite his hatred for the Sith Empire, so she fought her dad to not go through with his idea. Ralis eventually caved in, but he'd already sent a message to a Sith Lord about a Force-sensitive slave, promising to reveal their name in person. Realizing his mistake, he decided to lie and face whatever consequences will follow. The Sith was insulted by the time he wasted, and killed Ralis for that. Imely was devastated, as one of the two pillars of her support was gone, and the chances for a better life decreased significantly.
Several months later their place was visited by a stranger, who turned out to be a Jedi on a covert mission to rescue a PoW. When she sensed Nev's connection to the Force, she offered him to become a Jedi. Her only condition was to go with her right at that moment, as she wouldn't have the opportunity to come back, and she could only take one person with her. Imely didn't want to be left behind, but she knew that was probably the only chance for her friend to be a Jedi and escape the Sith Empire, and encouraged him to agree. He did, only after the Jedi promised to send someone to get her out as well.
Imely was promised a rescue in a matter of weeks, months at most. Instead, she was sold to a different owner merely days afterward. This made her fear that Jedi's associate won't be able to find her. On the other hand, Nevanor would do something to make sure that she's safe, right? As time went on, no help arrived, Imely lost any hope and concluded that her friend got into trouble, possibly died. Feeling trapped, with no way to escape, she carried on.
Years later, something pushed Imely over the edge, leading her to lash out with all the emotions that have been piling up for a long time, which manifested in a wave of Force energy. This discovery kind of messed her up, causing much confusion and frustration. As she was taken to Korriban, however, those feelings were replaced with determination - this time, Imely was not going to let this opportunity slip away, no matter what. Completing the trials and becoming lord Zash's apprentice opened many new doors for her, and meeting her ancestor's ghost gave her a purpose beyond simple survival. While ancient Sith history, rituals and artifacts were not exactly her thing (she's more military oriented), she was going to do her best to fit in and succeed.
In addition to searching for the artifacts her master requested, Imely assisted a number of Imperial officers in their operations in order to test her theoretical knowledge, gain experience and influence in the military sphere. It also during this time she learned her friend's fate from a news broadcast, as she recognied him in one the two Jedi who defeated Darth Angral over Tython. Yet another revelation that has shaken her to the core. She thought about tracking him down, demanding an explanation, even making him pay for betraying her like this. Another part of her didn't want to even pay attention, since she had no need for a rescue anymore and was building a new life, in which there was no place for a Jedi.
Regardless, Nevanor found her. The reunion was a mess - heated words, hurt feelings, misunderstanding and unwillingness to listen to each other - all of this lead to a fight, which left Imely injured and Nevanor unconscious. She ordered the Imperials under her command to not do anything about the Jedi, and left the place.
After this, as the young Sith was dealing with Darth Thanaton trying to eliminate her and her growing powerbase, she tried to ignore the turmoil caused by aforementioned confrontation. After a while though, Imely concluded that she couldn't let it go, and to move forward she needed some closure. Luckily, the former friend sent a message, asking for a meeting to explain everything, and she agreed. After hearing what he had to say, Imely decided not to hold the whole situation against him, but ultimately this didn't change the past or the paths they walked now. Some unpleasant words were exchanged again, and they separated, each unhappy with the outcome.
When she dealt with Thanaton, Imely was offered a seat on the Dark Council, specifically her rival's old seat. That was disappointing, as she hoped to work within a different sphere. When she brought it up, Marr and others agreed to pause assigning the new leader of the sphere of Military Strategy, giving Imely a chance to prove herself to them. She would do this by successfully stopping Malgus and his new Empire. The Republic was also attempting the same thing, and Darth Occlus saw an opportunity in combining their forces to defeat the false Emperor. Leading the Republic strike team was none other than Hero of Tython, which she feared could make things awkward, but to her surprise, they worked well together, and their conversation after the battle even ended on a friendly note. As a reward for dealing with Malgus, Imely got the seat on the Dark Council as the head of Military Strategy.
In this position, she planned and led multiple campaigns, including the assault on Tython and reclaiming Korriban in cooperation with Darth Arkous. Having suspicions about Arkous' motives, Imely works with Lana Beniko to investigate the matter. Uncovering the Revanite plot, they joined forces with Theron, Jakarro and Nevanor. Working with the old friend and new allies, coming after the Nova Blades, rescuing slaves, helping others made her feel more alive than anything she'd been doing for the Sith Empire. Up until this point simply existing in this regime was an uphill battle, often hiding her true self behind a mask so that other Sith wouldn't destroy her for a 'weakness', which she has put up with in order to carry on her family legacy and enact some change within the Empire to ensure its survival and growth. Now, the struggle doesn't seem worth it as much.
Another thing that caused this doubt is Nevanor's presence. They've been running into each other before, but now they had an opportunity to properly reconnect, and as the result, developed feelings for each other. Starting a relationship was a whole another question, and they both had concerns about it (working for the opposite factions that are at war, Imely's parents' secret affair that ended badly, etc.), but both were willing to risk to be together, albeit secretly for some time.
After personally witnessing the tragedy on Ziost, Imely has joined Darth Marr's coalition to find and kill Vitiate. As they were expecting the arrival of their Republic allies, Marr's forces were attacked by the Eternal Fleet, and the two Dark Coincillors were taken as prisoners. When brought before the very person they were looking for, Marr refused to kneel and was killed. Imely, carefully considering her disadvantged position, pretended to take Valkorion's offer in hopes of bying herself time and warning her allies about this. She didn't count on Arcann betraying his father and killing him.
Knocked out unconscious, Imely was then put in carbonite, later rescued by Lana, Koth, T7 and HK-55. As she was briefed by Lana on the state of things, Imely learned that 5 years have passed while she was trapped on Zakuul, her powerbase was pretty much gone, and the Eternal Empire has successfully conquered the known galaxy. Hearing that her work was reduced to nothing was a little disheartening, though it also gave her a sence of relief, since now there was no pressure to return ot the Sith. After getting away from Zakuul, Imely contributed to the creation of the Alliance, becoming one of its military leaders along with admiral Aygo.
While Imely wasn't the Commander of the Alliance (that title went to Nevanor), she was a key figure. As the Alliance has removed Arcann and Vaylin from power, she dealt with Valkorion in her mind. Taking control of the Eternal Fleet, the Alliance dedicates itself to helping the galaxy recover, and later - to keeping the allied worlds out of the renewed war betwen the Republic and Sith Empire.
Well, the current profile is taking an embarrassingly long time to complete. Maybe I should fill out some profiles with basic info and a short description of their role within their respective legacy, and then expand on it later. This way, the masterpost won't be empty, and I'll leave the space to work on more detailed descriptions.
This is outside the scope of what I usually post, but I just got some bad news and at this point I'm willing to try anything.
Early this morning the Texas Hill Country flooded—again.
This man is my cousin. His name is Mark Steward. His home was washed away by the Guadalupe River flood with him inside it. His wife is currently in Dallas for work and is doing everything in her power to get back.
I'm begging anyone that this reaches in the Kerrville area, if you see him please help him. Anyone else, I would greatly appreciate reblogs to get his image out there. Pray if that's your thing. Mark is a good man, my family is heartbroken and devastated.
One problem with the worldbuilding I've got for my version of the Sith academies is just... logistics. So, it's got the population of a city, education lasts three years, and trials come every half-year. That means, every half year, there's a sudden influx of a city's worth of people all doing *something* major as part of their education all around the same time, possibly in the same place.
Now, I can make it easier on myself if intake is on a quarterly basis. That splits the numbers in half, thereabouts. Those who start their training at the start of the 1Q and 3Q will have their trials at the end of the 2Q and the 4Q. Those who start their trials at the start of the 2Q and 4Q will have their trials at the end of the 1Q and the 3Q. That doesn't do much, though, because half a city's worth of people is still half a city's worth.
Now, I'm also playing with the idea that the academies have a sort of elimination round set up, based on the fact that every trial has at least *one* of your fellow acolytes die in game. This is part of a broader idea that, at least for acolytes from Imperial families, the academy is far less lethal. They're still at risk, of course they're at risk, but most acolytes from Imperial families are merely removed from their coterie should they fail a trial, to be shifted into a new coterie at a later date. Those from vassal states and those who were once slaves have far less protections and the latter are often killed for their failures — a sort of rebellion against the Emperor's decree. Those who survive... it depends. Lord Spindrall collects some of them, but the rest may go elsewhere.
It will also help that not every trial is so... messy as the ones requiring an acolyte to delve into some lost forgotten tomb. Imagine even a fraction of a city's worth of people all occupying Ajunta Pall's tomb, all searching for *something*. I can't imagine the IRS would be too happy about that. No. I think most trials are somewhat artificial, for lack of a better word.
The first and second trials for both classes would be examples. For the Inquisitor, the death battle between you and the failed acolytes is artificial. You can repeat that for as long as you have failed acolytes looking to earn their way back into the academy (former slaves denied re-enrollment like the rest of the acolytes until they prove themselves). For the second T&I trial... so long as there's prisoners who have information the Sith want, there'll trials about getting that information. The same applies to the Warrior's second trial, too.
For the Warrior's first trial, my guess is that the Sith warblades are, like... just put there by Sith who want their acolytes to find a Sith warblade within a tomb. It's not some ancient blade that's somehow remain untouched for thousands of years. It was put where it was put so an acolyte can fight their way through flesh eating slugs and other beasties to fish it off a rack. Kind of ruins the mystique, but that's the only way I could rationalise that trial.
Another way I could go about ensuring that the academies aren't so much a mess is probably just have the trials all taking place over a period of a few weeks. Instead of everyone flooding in at once, they're staggered over a period of two weeks (however long a week is for your Sith calendar). Mmm. Thoughts.
Yay logistics!! Stoked to see someone else post about this, as it's actually something I've put way too much thought into. Imo, it only makes sense for the Empire to have a very organized and efficient system going back hundreds of years, and I honestly see the Korriban academy as an outlier in its chaos - k'lor'slugs georg, if you will.
(disclaimer that the following worldbuilding is all pulled out of my ass - idk what the devs' intentions were, but i've connected the dots they put down and drawn a few of my own, and this is the picture that makes sense to me. feel free to take bits for your own headcanons or leave it, as you will :)
I've gone with the idea that the chance of notable Force-sensitivity is roughly one in a million across the Imperial population (much higher in Sith lineages, but lower in the vast majority of families). In a planet with a population of 10 billion, that would be roughly 10,000 Sith + acolytes (in peacetime, when they aren't all dying - functionally it's less, even during SWTOR's cold war era. infighting go brrrr.) To deal with those thousands of acolytes, there are several government-run Sith Academies on each Imperial planet, one per major city, each capable of handling at least several hundred magical angry children. (This is most likely the Sith Inquisitors' biggest job, imo - enforcing Academy rules, weeding out dissenters and making sure the youngest acolytes are effectively indoctrinated to prevent things from boiling over once they hit puberty. Picture your worst teacher but with Force lightning and an interrogation chamber. Yeah.)
That said, some acolytes will be privately educated, especially at younger ages. Of course, some of those acolytes end up becoming militant cultists or fanatics of the houses or individual Sith who took them in - but it's still permitted by the Dark Council, as it eases strain on the public Academy system. Not to mention the Councilors certainly benefit from having their own private cohorts... and trying to put a stop to the practice would just cause a civil war even faster.
Canonically, Scourge and Malgus were said to have trained at a Sith Academy on Dromund Kaas, and the Sith had to study somewhere before Korriban was reclaimed. So I've expanded that to a more reasonable size: in my headcanon, there are dozens of Academies across Ziost, Dromund Kaas, Dromund Fels, Ashas Ree, Begeren, etc., each having a few hundred to a couple thousand students at most. And then there's Korriban, both the oldest and the most recently (re)established of them all.
At the time SWTOR begins, the Sith Academy on Korriban is far from the only one, but it's the most dangerous and the most prestigious; anyone who survives its trials is almost guaranteed an apprenticeship, as the Dark Council and other high-ranking lords hang around to pick off the most promising candidates for themselves. I figured it would actually have fewer acolytes than most Academies - usually a few hundred at a time, more of a village than a city - but who are constantly coming and going, rarely studying there for longer than they must to complete the trials (which are themselves definitely at least a few weeks/months, longer than the game would imply). Korriban has a very small long-term population, due to the risk of madness and hostile terrain which forces its inhabitants to rely on supplies from other worlds, so its overseers would have to take applications or travel offworld to scout acolytes from the wider Academy system.
As a result, the acolytes who end up on Korriban fall into two categories - the nepo baby/tryhard Imperials (SW, Eskella, Vemrin, Ffon, etc.) and the slaves and aliens (SI, Kory, Xalek, etc.) who were either born on the planet or sent there to die, as the overseers' unsubtle backlash to the changed admittance rules and fodder for their preferred acolytes. The majority of acolytes in the other Academies are more middle-of-the road, and don't have to deal with quite as much competition; their trials are less deadly, and no acolyte-on-acolyte killing is sanctioned, but they're also less likely to get apprenticeships and someday become lords or Darths.
To illustrate a couple examples of how this all works practically:
my SW was a freeborn zabrak whose Force-sensitivity was discovered early on; he was educated by the Sith lords his parents served until he was old enough to be sent to a public academy, where he survived the usual anti-alien hazing and was successfully indoctrinated; he would have graduated as a middle-of-the-road Sith and gone on to work as an assassin for his lords, if Tremel hadn't scouted him as a potential candidate for Baras' apprenticeship.
my Cathar SI was born and raised as an Imperial slave, but her Force-sensitivity being discovered as a violently rebellious teenager meant that she was sent straight to Korriban in hopes that the system (via Harkun) would get rid of her, or at least spit her out as somewhat controllable cannon fodder.
Thus, the game's origin stories end up as obvious endpoints of the dichotomy this system creates. (I was very amused when I realized this. Ah, serendipity.)
I love your take on the trials' different stages, and the quarters - the calendar system and timing is a part of this that has always escaped me. So far, I've figured that there's an eight-year "lower" program meant for kids 6-14 and a six-year "upper" program for 14-20; final trials for the 20-year-olds last several weeks and happen year-round on Korriban, with acolytes steadily coming in from offworld to compete for the lords' attention and hopefully graduate with all their limbs intact...
...but that's as far as my brain managed to get. Korriban apparently has a 28-hour day and a 780-day year (more than two galactic standard years), for whatever that's worth. (on the subject of numbers, it also has a gravity of 1.4, which exhausts me just thinking about 💀)
Also, the idea that some overseers or their flunkeys are sneaking into the tombs to reset traps and plant warblades is perfect - it's the kind of worldbuilding/lampshading that's both very funny and fitting, imo. 💖
For the worldbuilding I use, I'm mostly standing atop the shoulders of giants: fluffynexu and inquisitorhotpants. The latter has an entire post about populations of the Sith Empire (here), with the conclusion being that there's about eight-hundred billion Force sensitives within the Empire, those who have been trained and those who will be.
According to Dee's worldbuilding, about a hundred billion of preparatory school age (5-15), two-hundred billion attending an academy (15-23/25), and five-hundred billion serving the galaxy.
There are, canonically, many academies across the Empire. One of which was written about is the Odacer-Faustin Sith academy, which was destroyed eight years after the Treaty Of Coruscant, two years prior to the start of the game (source: Star Wars: Red Harvest).
I'm inclined to agree with Dee's assessment on academies in the Empire. One academy per system capital, with massive elite academies that service millions of acolytes at any one time. Most academies have upwards of thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of students, with the elite having a potential for millions.
As for calendars... the answer is rather simple, actually. Though I have no doubt that there's local calendars for every planet, the Sith Empire itself would run off a single universal calendar across every planet. Local time verses Standard time. There is an argument for Korriban to serve as a basis for Standard time: it's the Sith homeworld. However, I feel like the Empire would use either Dromund Kaas or Ziost for the basis of their Standard calendar.
Dromund Kaas is their capital, and has been for over a thousand years. Compared to the Korriban calendar, it's much more reasonable with a 24-hour day and a 312 day year. Dee created a calendar based off Dromund Kaas (here).
I went with Ziost (here). It's the other Sith homeworld, served as a major hub for the Sith people for over twenty-two thousand years. It was the capital of the Old Sith Empire, and the Reconstituted Sith Empire is a direct continuation of that Empire. Not only would it be a source of consistency for the recently exiled Sith, but it'd be a sort of promise that they would return, eventually, and reclaim their home.
So, for my worldbuilding, it doesn't matter where you are in the Empire, you're going to use the Ziost calendar as the Standard. This goes for the academies, too.
The actual mechanics of the academies are tricky, though. Both the Inquisitor and the Warrior begin their story with a set coterie of six acolytes, slave-caste, with an additional acolyte from an older Sith family; they both begin with a Sith Lord who has already claimed said coterie; they both have six trials to complete over the course of their training; and acolytes are picked off one by one with each trial.
It's very different from how we're introduced to Sith academies elsewhere. In both KotOR and the Bane Trilogy, we're given academies that are more a free for all with all acolytes vying for the attention of a Sith master, not a trial to be seen, and with students actively cheating or otherwise sabotaging each other.
Ultimately, it depends on how you interpret the game, how much you want to keep, how much you want to change. I like some of the ideas presented in SWtOR, like the overseer-coterie system. A Sith educator has a small group of six or so acolytes who they dedicate their time to teaching. I like the idea of trials defining education.
It sucks that we're given no real time-scale to look at. Like, at all. We very rarely get any idea of what an "average Sith's education" looks like in any source material. Bane's the closest, not even a SWtOR Sith, but his education isn't "average," and only lasts for about a year or two. After that, he somehow becomes powerful enough to challenge his teachers for one reason or another.
I went with three years for a variety of reasons. The first is that I don't think Zash would be willing to wait too long for an apprentice, even if she is following her visions. That means that the Inquisitor, at the very least, has a rather short education cycle.
The second is that I feel like the Sith academy isn't about creating fully fledged Sith. The education is well rounded, but it's more foundational than anything. Their proper education begins under their Sith master, or it's supposed to at the very least.
I also like the idea of the trials defining an acolyte's experience at the academy, and two trials a year seems reasonable, all things considered. Three years is the lowest I could go while keeping Trials at a regular, mathematically pleasing interval.
I could do six years, too, but six years is a lot of time and, as someone writing about an acolyte's journey from start to end, I feel like it'd be a lot harder to write. A lot of skipped time, all of which wasted unless I get really creative.
I'm open to being convinced otherwise, but that's how I envision it.
Acolytes begin their education at 16 (though, former slaves can and do pop into the academy at any age over that), and a little detail I like is that acolytes who haven't passed their first trial go by "neophyte."
As it stands, I think most of one's time at the academy is spent, well... learning. There's physical conditioning, martial training, military training. Students will be expected to get their pilots license, and have an understanding of philosophy, history, and the laws of the Empire.
Specific "scenes" I can imagine are acolytes doing wilderness survival, thrown into the wild and expected to return to the academy / civilization on foot. There'd be mock-battles and war games with acolytes expected to take on the roles of grunts and commanders. I also think that any trial an acolyte is set to partake influences their education. When Harkun hands you off to Zyn, your Inquisitor ends up studying torture and interrogation for months prior to actually doing your trial and interrogating Alif.
All things considered, I feel like there's four endings to an acolyte's time at the academy.
They pass their trials and are taken on as an apprentice.
They pass their trials but aren't taken on as an apprentice, instead being drafted into the military spheres to earn their eventual lordship in service to the Empire instead of service to a Sith Lord.
They fail their trials yet live, being allowed to re-enrol at a later date, or else be shunted off elsewhere to serve the Empire, but not as Sith.
They die.
Most acolytes don't actually die. It's entirely possible, but the academies aren't meat grinders... for most. The ones who have to watch out are those who were slaves, who face discrimination by their overseers, who aren't given the privilege of prior education at a preparatory school, and who are legally owned by the Korriban academy until they graduate.
playing a million different characters and stories in swtor back to back as you're getting immersed in the world while being allowed to basically do everything like it's an offline rpg with the occasional random and deeply weird chat message on dormund kaas of two people arguing over the least arguable topic possible is a gaming experience flavor everyone must taste
Purely anecdotal, but if you need Emperor’s Casino Chips for Nightlife and you don’t want to spend credits on them (🤮), go kill mobs on a starter planet. I got 34 on Tython just running a new character’s story, which is more than I’ve gotten on any other character on any other planet while committing mass amounts of murder and mayhem for heroics, bonuses, and DEs.
From OC x Canon Ask Game: 3, 10, 11, 13, 18 and 20 for Saarai and any of her partners?
[OC x Canon Ask Game] (for the prompt list if anyone wants to use it for their own blog/wants to send in other questions for this! <3)
(This pride art from 2022 is the most recent art I have of all 3 of them so do forgive how bad Koth's hair looks ^^; I really should draw them again, esp since I am MUCH better at rendering Koth's hair than I was in 2022 lol)
Thank you for the ask @a-master-procrastinator! I shall try and do both Lana and Koth for most of them, though a couple I will have to do one or the other purely bc sometimes I have a solid answer for one but not the other!
Also I noticed there are 2 question 13's on the list so since I wasn't sure which one you were thinking of I decided to do both :D I missed talking about these 3 and had a lot of fun answering these so apologies for the text walls but hopefully you enjoy the lore 🤗 💖
3. How did each realize they had feelings for the other? (I.e. the "oh no... I actually have feelings for them" moment)
Lana: it was pretty much the cliche love-at-first-sight with Lana I'm ngl. Took Rai a while to admit it to herself ofc, it was probably just before the big fight with Arkous and Darok that she went "oh. oh okay I'm in love with her" :'D
Koth: for Koth it took a while. Quite a long while. Being vague here bc their story is actually perfect for question 13(1) so I'll go into detail there!! <3 They had a rocky start, there was a lot of jealousy (from both sides) when they first met. They became friends first, and she slowly fell for him the more time they spent together until the relationship was less of a V with Lana as the hinge and more a throuple thing :'D
10. How do friends/family of each character view the relationship?
The only one who has family I can really talk about here is Rai (I haven't got solid headcanons for any family for Koth and Lana yet!) so I'll do family for Rai and then friends for Lana & Koth! :3
Rai's main family that's around most are her twin, Ni'kasi, and her son from a previous relationship, Tyûk.
Ty liked Koth almost immediately, but was nervous of Lana because she sort-of-kind-of startled him (not hard to do, he's very skittish!) on Rishii when they first met.
Scary Sith lady who has a tendency to get snippy when someone doesn't like her way of doing things makes him feel threatened/nervous. Rai kind of had to play mediator there.
Koth is much more amicable and chill so he was easy to talk to, and given how fond he is of the Gravestone I kind of peg Koth as a bit of a ship nerd. Ty likes mechanics - he's a little more into lightsaber mechanics as a job once the Alliance forms, but he very much likes building/fixing things with his hands and once he was old enough to also go out and work while he and Rai were living on Rishii, Ty mostly did ship and speeder repairs. So he and Koth have an interest in common and probably spend a lot of time together maintaining the Gravestone and some of the other ships in the Alliance. Koth would definitely be his "favourite" of the two partners if he had to pick one, but he's less scared of Lana now and they're chill!
Kas was the other way around! She briefly knew/met Lana on Korriban during their trials (they were both Overseer Harkun's students, though they were in different groups they most definitely could have run into eachother during their trials. I have Ideas(tm) for that and hope to put together a oneshot eventually for how that goes 😉) and ofc they worked together extensively during Makeb before Rishii. It was actually thanks to Kas that Lana knew who Ty was when she ran into him, and also thanks to Kas that she could yell "waitwaitwait your sister sent me to find you!!" so that Rai didn't immediately fold Lana like a cheap suit when she saw Ty freaking out and trying to get away LOL They had a little rough patch when Rai and Lana broke up post-Rishii since Rai wouldn't go back to the Empire with them and Lana ended up taking the job with Marr, Kas gave Lana a bit of a shovel talk about breaking her sister's heart after that 😈 BUT after they team up to rescue Vano from carbonite prison and rekindle they smooth things over and become friends again.
She didn't dislike Koth when they met, but it definitely took Kas much longer to warm up to Koth - not because of anything he did specifically, moreso that Rai's taste in men had a poor track record up to that point and Kas really didn't want her sister to get hurt again. Once she got to know Koth and realized he was nothing like Rai's ex-boyfriend, she was a lot more accepting. They don't have a lot in common and Kas makes Koth nervous sometimes because he doesn't really know how to "read" her moods as well, but he knows he can trust her especially when it comes to helping him protect and/or support Rai <3
For Lana and Koth I'm gonna combine them into one paragraph-section-thingy bc their friend groups intersect a bit with Theron and co. Most of their friends like Rai. It's kind of hard not to like Rai. She might be very big and downright deadly on the battlefield but off the battlefield she is just Massive Golden Retriever Energy(tm). Post-Nathema Conspiracy Theron is a little more nervous around Rai because (understandably) Rai flipped outtt when Koth told her what happened.
Some of Lana's friends (namely Aria and Vano but I'm gonna go into more detail in the next question) don't like Koth very much, but they're good friends with Rai too. Rai's saved Vano's life at least twice at this point, and she has a lot in common with Aria since both of them are from Sith bloodlines with a lot of history, and both of them have a lot of interest in said history, the Gods they worship, and so on. After Lana, Koth and Kas, Aria is probably one of Rai's best friends :D
11. Who is the biggest supporter of their relationship... and who is their biggest hater?
Kas is absolutely the biggest supporter of the relationship. The three of them have sort of formed an unofficial "keep Rai from working herself to death" task force. Kas also knows how much these three love eachother so when the credit chits are down, she'll go to bat for either Lana or Koth just as fiercely as she does for her sister. They're her sibling-in-laws now, so anyone who messes with them gets to answer to both the Ahaszaai twins mwahaha
For the biggest hater, it's probably Vano (and by extension Aria, at least as far as Koth is concerned). Mostly for Koth. Vano really doesn't like Koth, she's not really willing to examine the reasons why he's so pro-Valkorion when they first met and that kind of sours every single one of their interactions forever. If Vano never had to deal with Koth again in her life she'd be happy, but unfortunately he's Rai and Lana's boyfriend(and eventually husband) so she has to put up with him. She'd never do anything OR say it to Rai's face, because she knows it won't break her way. But she reeaaaalllyyyyyy wishes Koth would leave and never come back hahaha. And being Vano's wife, Aria really doesn't enjoy how stressed out being around Koth makes Vano. But again, she values her friendship with Rai & Lana so she's not stupid enough to ever say anything to their faces about it 👀
13(1). What is one of the most pivotal moments when they are well within the timeline of their romantic relationship?
I'm cheating a little bit with Rai and Koth here, since I'll be talking a little bit about their friendship/platonic relationship as well. However ☝️☝️ it is also not cheating really, because their friendship is kind of inseparable from their romance, if I had to describe their relationship I always default to "QPR with romance sprinkles" for that reason. The "pivotal" moment for Rai was definitely during their time in the swamps on Zakuul, where she finally stopped treating Koth as a threat with no room to budge on that, and actually sat down and got to know him as a person and realizing they had a lot more in common than they first thought. For Koth, it was similar, in that when they first met she was sort of scary to him. She's way taller and heavier than him, and he very much thought if he wasn't very, very careful, this Sith might kill him. This got worse at first after he saw her fight and realized "yep. Oh gods, I am SCREWED." But then she she covers his back while they fight their way out of Zakuul and into the swamps even though he's very sure she hates him and is also in love with Lana, she puts herself between him and Senya when she notices he's uncomfortable with having her around, and she volunteers to stay with him at the Gravestone so he has a Force user to sense out any threats that come their way. So he tries to relax around her more and have a conversation with her, and because he relaxes she does too and they have a really deep heart-to-heart while Lana and Vano are off in the swamps looking for supplies and such. He realizes that "yeah, she probably could kill me if she wanted to, but she isn't".
Then she says "sorry" for being snappy. And it becomes a lot clearer to Koth that while there was some jealousy there, a lot of Rai's reactions to him were driven from reflexes she developed due to past trauma. Not only that but Rai also identifies that introspectively and then makes a conscious choice to start ignoring those reflexes and approach their relationship more logically. It takes time and is definitely a slow build sort of thing. Rai's still skittish about him touching her sometimes - because those trauma reflexes run deep D: - but they have a deep emotional connection that allows them to work around it together. She's still not ready (at least for now) to go any further with him physically than kissing or cuddling but that's okay. He doesn't push her for anything she's not ready for. (I don't know if they'll get to that point eventually, maybe they will. I'm not rushing them either so we'll see where it goes, but I'm not ruling out a retcon/development there in the future either! <3)
Rai and Lana's moment is a little bit shorter, but the thing they tend to butt heads about is Rai is a lot less scared of death than Lana thinks she should be, and one of their biggest fights ever happens before the final confrontation with Tenebrae, because Rai very much went into that fight with the attitude of "I'm probably going down too, but I'm at least going to take that fucker with me." Lana didn't like that, and it was something Rai refused to budge on, they got into quite a big fight about it, but I'm still hammering out the details of how that shakes out, so I can't say too much more about it yet! Expect more on it later on down the line once I do though! :D
13(2). What is your favorite trope or aspect about their dynamic?
For the ship as a whole, definitely "why fight about it? We all have two hands!!" because honestly that's just the ship in a nutshell lol. I also enjoy that from Lana's POV it's usually Rai getting into a situation, Koth going along with it because he's not gonna let Rai do something stupid (read: recklessly heroic) without him, and Lana finding out about it after the fact through the grapevine and going "Those are my idiots, unfortunately. Excuse me while I go and rescue them, again" hahaha
For Rai and Koth specifically, I had really thought I was setting them up to be friends who happened to share a partner in Lana, I did not expect it to develop any further than that between them but how deeply Koth is in-tune with Rai's emotions, sometimes in ways that even Lana isn't, is really sweet to me.
I care them all very much, your honour 🥺👉👈
18. What does the future look like for them? Happily ever after? Doomed? Short lived but bittersweet in its end?
100% happily ever after!! They are not splitting up ever! (Unless/until Lana and/or Koth dies since they're human and not immortal, buuuuutttt I'm putting my thinking cap on there because my personal lore/worldbuilding for Subterfugeverse is definitely heading in the direction of a possible workaround for that 👀 so we'll see! hehehehehe)
Kids together (or more kids in Rai's case) is probably not gonna happen for them. With them all having quite time-intensive roles in the Alliance I just can't see these three being able to take time off to raise a baby. Sometimes Rai is disappointed about that, she loves kids, but they gotta think practically about that hahaha.
20. What do they think of each other's fashion sense? (If they wear clothes)
And this one's gonna be a short one, mostly because I don't think it's really something they consciously think about?
Though I will say, given that Rai was dressed-down in civvies for most of the time Lana knew her on Rishii, she was probably very surprised by how easily Rai "cleaned up" into something fancier. It makes sense once she realizes "ohhhh they're Old Sith Nobility I get it now". But when they first met, I think Lana very much couldn't envision how Rai looked in less plain clothes because she'd never seen her in anything but civvies or armour.
