Post by Ghev Dralin on Aug 19, 2009 16:14:21 GMT -5
Lord Kroenen in battle
Name: Darth Kroenen
Known As: The Lord of Anguish
Age: Unknown
Race: Cyborg, Epicanthix (near-Human)
Homeworld: Panatha
Gender: Male
Height: 6'3''
Eye Color: Red cybernetic implants
Hair Color: None (formerly dark brown)
Current Affiliations: The Sith Initiative
Former Affiliations: The Brotherhood of Darkness
Ships: The Omega Array
Weapons: Lightsaber (Crimson blade)
Lightsaber Forms: Form II, Form V, Form VII (uses a reverse-grip backhand style)
Known Master(s): Lord Xallin (blademaster, deceased)
Known Apprentice(s): Lord Draven (Hand of Kroenen), Ilanah Thanatos (Hand of Kroenen)
Known Subordinates: Colonel Vahn Kramer, General Mael Hardac, Commander Kyr Raboc
Known Allies: The Yuuzhan Vong, Drake Paladin
Usually Worn Clothing: Sith Stalker Armour, Stalker Battle Armour, Sith robe
Distinguishing Traits: Considers himself above a normal plane of existence, and views his body as symbiotic with his life-force, rather than the thing that makes him who he is
Notable Physical Features: Sith armour grafted to his skin and bones, skin translucent and thin-looking. Beneath his helmet, he has no lower jaw, no lips or eye-sockets, and metal plates where his ears should be, to connect his helmet and encase his auditory cybernetics. Various other cybernetics are hidden within his armour.
________
The Brotherhood
Darth Kroenen confronts the Dark Council
Perhaps the day the Brotherhood of Darkness sealed it's doom was the day it abducted a Force-Sentitive child from Panatha. Discovered by chance by a scouting team, the child they would come to name 'Kroenen' radiated an affinity for the Force, such that the Brotherhood immediately raised questions as to his future.
One, a self-proclaimed prophet, said she foresaw Kroenen breaking free of his chains and taking the Brotherhood with him; some interpreted this to mean that he would grow too strong to control, and that he would end the Brotherhood entirely, while others believed it to mean he would elevate the Brotherhood beyond it's current nature.
Whatever their theories, the decision rested on one man; Darth Carnifex, ruler of the Brotherhood of Darkness, a man content to let generations of Sith exist in shadow and secrecy. Whether he had a plan, nobody knew; but all in the Brotherhood feared him, and bowed to his will without question.
The Dark Lord deliberated Kroenen's future; Kroenen, still a child unable to form words, remained blissfully ignorant as his fate was cast by Lord Carnifex... and Lord Carnifex decided to let him live. Though the Dark Lord had a watchful eye kept on Kroenen, he was allowed to flourish - to an extent.
In secrecy, Kroenen would practice and study the many aspects of the Force, and read the history of the Jedi and Sith with great fascination. The more he read, however, the more he wondered why the Brotherhood chose to remain so sheltered.
By the time he was a teenager, Kroenen was a proficient student, and dominant above his fellow apprentices; his dominance, however, was not in sheer strength or brute force, but in the way he asserted himself and his views over others.
Lord Xallin, the Brotherhood blade instructor, was so impressed with Kroenen's early mastery over Form II and Form V, that he took it upon himself to teach the young man Form VII: Vaapad. Despite Kroenen's personal liking for a back-handed style, Xallin found that the apprentice's technique was perfectly suited for Vaapad, and so Kroenen became the second known Vaapad user in the Brotherhood.
Kroenen developed a liking for traversing beyond the Temple, and ventured often into Republic territories, to gaze at worlds that he envisioned he'd one day rule.
Gradually, Kroenen aged, and the Republic became an Empire, ruled by a Sith who wasn't afraid to step outside the shadows of his sanctuary; Kroenen felt a sense of pride for the other Sith, and yet abhorred him at the same time; his Empire seemed like nothing but a warmongers dream, an excuse to rip apart the galaxy and crush it beneath his fist.
Embittered by his imprisonment to the Brotherhood, Kroenen approached Xallin for advice; the Sith Master, however, grew reproachful at Kroenen's questioning.
Soon after, Kroenen was called before the Council, where to his surprise he was granted the rank of Master. He noted their apprehension; there was something they weren't telling him.
Whatever it was, he didn't dwell on it; with his new entitlement, he had to set plans in motion, plans to bring the Brotherhood out of it's self-imposed exile and install it as the supreme power in the Galaxy.
Slowly but surely, he began to gather a following, the first of which was Lord Draven, son of Xallin. He ventured off-world more and more, exploring avenues of opportunity, but was dissatisfied with the results.
Meanwhile, Carnifex and the Dark Council grew wary of him; they'd heard of some of his actions, and had begun to fear that the prophecy of his rise was going to come true.
After Kroenen and a Bounty Hunter called Cyrus Kaulitz assisted the Empire with the plague of Omiddelon III, a devastating act which not only wiped out the Jedi Sanctuary located there, but all life on the planet, the Brotherhood chose to act.
They began to plot Kroenen's assasination, but unaware to them, Lady Nefari - Kroenen's Right Hand - had seen something in Kroenen's plans which she believed could benefit her. Swayed to his cause, she alerted him to the plot on his life, and Kroenen knew his time had come. Ordering his followers to prepare to leave Anoth and the Brotherhood behind, he decided to counter-act Carnifex's order with an assasination of his own.
Killing his would-be murderer with ease, Kroenen began a destructive rampage through the Sith Temple, slaughtering Apprentices and Masters alike, until he was confronted with a familliar face: Lord Xallin. The two duelled in what proved to be a short-lived affair, with Kroenen displaying his superior skills and killing the blademaster outright.
No longer hindered, he entered Carnifex's private chambers... only to be confronted by Drake Paladin. Drake, an erstwhile supporter of the Brotherhood though not a part of it, revealed he'd made a pact with Carnifex, though the details remained a mystery.
Their duel spilled onto the Temple battlements, the low-gravity storm-ridden atmosphere providing the backdrop for what would become Kroenen's near-undoing.
Relieved of his weapon, Kroenen engaged Drake in a test of strength using Force Lightning; the resourceful Drake, however, turned the tables on Kroenen, blasting Lightning directly into the Sith Lord's mouth, burning him from the inside out.
In a moment of clarity, Kroenen realised that to survive, he'd have to sacrifice himself; at least, his physical self. Using his entire body to dissipate the Lightning, his skin erupted with a blast of energy that knocked Drake flying, and tore at the structure of the Temple exterior.
Thrown clear of the rooftop, Kroenen found himself pinned to the ledge by a piece of fallen rubble, his arm trapped beneath. With Drake advancing, promising imminent death, Kroenen unsheathed his vibroblade - the weapon he'd planned to cut Carnifex's throat with - and cut off his own right arm at the elbow, freeing himself.
He fell, for what seemed like an age, finally smashing to the ground, shattering his spine and, on the rebound, tearing his lower jaw almost cleanly from his face. His body, already torn apart and withered from the immense expulsion of Lightning, was carried aboard the waiting ship of his followers...
The Transformation
Kroenen reborn
He awoke several months later, strapped to a metal medical table. With much of his physical form destroyed, he had been rebuilt in a set of sustaining armour provided by Lady Nefari; over the course of the next few days, he discovered how much he'd been altered, to the point that he was no longer recognisable as the man he'd once been.
Inside, however, he felt stronger and more focused than ever.
His followers hadn't risen over him to kill him in his weakened state, and Carnifex wasn't pursuing; clearly, the Dark Lord no longer thought Kroenen posed a threat.
Taking the opportunity to explore much of the galaxy relevant to Sith and Jedi history, Kroenen began to build up a store of knowledge, and with the help of his Artefact finder Lord Draven, was able to discover secrets long forgotten.
It was in meditation on Korriban, working on his own holocron, that he learned his greatest secret thus far. Unfortunately, another had found his way to Korriban; a Jedi called Roth Fenix. The two duelled, neither man gaining the upper hand; Roth withstood everything Kroenen threw at him, and Kroenen endured Roth's legendary skills, until finally withdrawing, leaving behind his holocron.
Kroenen charges down on Roth Fenix
Deciding that the time had come, Kroenen and his Sith Initiative departed for the Unknown Regions. There, he quickly learned of a man called Colonel Vahn Kramer, a military genius who had single handedly carved himself a reputation throughout those parts of space.
He recruited the Colonel, and together with the Initiative, they conquered first the Nagi, then the Tof, enslaving those that were unwilling to join his cause.
Kramer accepted Kroenen's offer to become Supreme Commander of the Initiative Military, and at Kroenen's behest, began to unravel his latent Force talent with the assistance of Lord Draven, Hand of Kroenen.
Over the years, the Initiative grew in size and number, dominating world after world and adding to it's ranks of slaves and soldiers both. Kramer designed a uniformity for the ranks of soldiers he'd dubbed DeathTroopers, and put the slaves to work on new vessels for the Initiative fleet.
The arrival of the Yuuzhan Vong, however, changed things. Kroenen struck a bargain with them; knowledge in exchange for expertise. In return for providing the wayward warriors with the location of a galaxy rife with potential worlds for the picking, he wanted their help building the ultimate weapon; a mobile Academy, a fusion of organic matter and technological terror.
With the help of the Yuuzhan Vong and the hundreds of thousands of slaves, the Academy was completed in record time; dubbed The Omega Array by Kroenen himself, it became the ultimate icon of apocalyptic destruction, an icon that would remain untested until much later.
True to his word, Kroenen provided co-ordinates to the charted expanses of the galaxy, and after many scouting missions, the Yuuzhan Vong launched their invasion. Many Yuuzhan Vong vessels were left behind, as a reserve, but it wasn't long before Commander Byrne'kst and his forces came limping back to the Initiative.
Proclaiming them all Shamed Ones, Kroenen took the Yuuzhan Vong within his grasp, demoting them to little more than footsoldiers in his vastly growing Empire; promising that he would assure their return to glory, he cemented their place within the Initiative.
Soon after, the Omega Array was test-fired on Althir, with positive results. Knowing that the time was approaching for the Unification of the Galaxy to begin, Kroenen recalled his contact from Republic space; a Sith called Ilanah Thanatos. Knighting her with the title 'Lady Nevana', he proclaimed her a Hand of Kroenen, and dispatched her along with Colonel Kramer to make contact with the last vestiges of the Imperial forces, to negotiate an alliance.
With that alliance confirmed, Kroenen then left the Unknown to meet face-to-face with Drake Paladin on Ziost; no longer consumed with thoughts of revenge on Drake as he had once been, he offered the other man a place within the Initiative, as an equal and an ally. Drake accepted, though his travelling companions did not.
Little did they know that Kroenen, by means of a spy planted among Nefari's Krath, had learned of the pact made by Leah Tasidor, Raeph Sunder and Darth Nefari. Citing their agreement as an act of desperation brought on by distrust and paranoia, Kroenen offered them a place within the Initiative, assuring them that if their deceptive nature reared it's head, he'd kill them.
Speaking for the group, Leah angrily rejected Kroenen, who chose to turn his back and walk away. Making a fatal mistake, Leah loosed her enslaved servant on Kroenen, injuring him, and causing him to retaliate by murdering Lady Nefari from afar and collapsing the surrounding forest to drive Leah away.
With much of the future to consider, Kroenen returned to the Omega Array with Drake Paladin, to discuss the destruction of Carnifex and his Brotherhood.
Kroenen ignites his lightsaber to honour his newfound alliance with Drake