Post by Atlantean on May 20, 2014 23:38:34 GMT -5
Name: Ascalon
Age: 78 (Galactic Standard Years)
Race: Morellian
Birth place: Endelaan
Height: 1.83 Meters (6'0 Feet)
Weight: 80.7 Kilograms (179 lbs)
Eye Color: Shamrock (irises glow a bluish-white as a result of Force immersion)
Hair Color: Black
Appearance: Ascalon is a tall Morellian male, and thus aesthetically appears to be Human. He has messy black hair and shamrock-green eyes, although they ubiquitously appear a glowing white due to his high immersion in the Force. Physically, Ascalon appears to be a man scarcely approaching his 30s, due to the exceptional longevity of his Morellian physiology, with the physique to match. Although he lacks any significant markings in the manner of scars, he has a number of bruise-like abrasions due to mistakes in wielding the Force during his youth. These are never seen however, due to the fact that Ascalon never reveals his face or skin publicly. Instead, Ascalon wears makeshift armor and a tattered hooded trench-coat.
Personality:
Profession: Savant of the Primal Force
Mastery Level: Master
Previous Faction/Rank: N/A
Equipment: Ascalon carries very little with him, as he relies almost entirely on the Force throughout his day-to-day life. The only equipment he possess is makeshift armor of a cuirass, protecting his upper torso, and covered with a hooded trench-coat, which he wears long enough over his face to conceal his features.
Starship: N/A
Skills: Ascalon is a skilled farmer, carpenter, lumberjack, mapmaker, aquatic navigator, and survivalist. Growing up with his great-grandfather and the "Taesar", Ascalon learned many skills to survive off the land, ranging from cultivating the ground to carving and shaping wood in order to make tools and furniture. On a more martial level, Ascalon is a superb unarmed combatant, well trained in katas as well as practical fighting. His skill increased several-fold when he participated in the six-year-long Tantalus War, where he picked up the skills of a tactician and strategist. The only extreme defect in his skillset is that Ascalon never learned melee or ranged combat - his talents lie solely in fighting unarmed. Thus, his talent with his lightsaber is non-existent, as he has no formal training whatsoever.
Lightsaber: None
Color: N/A
Practiced Lightsaber forms:
Shii-Cho: 0
Makashi : 0
Soresu : 0
Ataru : 0
Shien / Djem So: 0
>>Sub-form Backhanded: 0
Niman: 0
>>Sub-form Jar-kai, or Dual Wield: 0
Juyo: 0
Double Bladed Combat: 0
Force-Sensitive Attributes:
Telekinetic: 7
Telepathic: 7
Body: 8
Sense: 7
Protection: 8
Healing: 3
Destruction: 3
Specialized Powers: Tutaminis, Force Bellow, Electronic Manipulation/Technometry, Balance of the Force
Attributes:
Physical Strength: 7
Intelligence: 6
Speed: 7
Leadership: 4
Unarmed: 9
Melee Weapons: 0
Ranged Weapons: 0
Bio:
Even at the time of his birth, Ascalon's affinity with the Force was undeniable. This created an unprecedented danger for his family, as the growing number of strong Force Sensitives in one location often drew the attention of Force using warlords, who often feared potential threats in expanding Force Sensitive families. It was decided early on that, in order to raise the children safely and to ensure they become strong enough to defend themselves and ultimately their own families, the children would be sent away to train, grow, and to become strong with their progenitor, Khalas, one of the last first-generation colonists that traveled to Endelaan. With his sister at only the tender age of six, Ascalon himself was barely three years old when he was taken to live in the Great Ukoni Desert, beyond the high mountains of the Syphlus Vale.
The trek to the Great Ukoni Desert was long, tedious and taxing, taking many weeks, which in turn themselves became many months. Ascalon had passed his fourth birthday by the passing of the first month on their journey. Making the journey harder still, was that anonymity, inconspicuousness and deception were the ideal ways to traverse through the unstable and violent series of cities, towns and villages, all collectively known as the Dominion of Tantalus. Barefooted, clothed in rags and decorated by dirt and dust, Ascalon was forced to walk much of the way on his own until he had no energy left, and was allowed to rest. Though ignorant of such matters at the time, well groomed, attired and hygienic individuals often translated to others as an individual with resources and a degree of wealth. In short, a target to seize and plunder.
Ascalon's great-grandfather, Khalas, was fully immersed in his Force Sensitivity and powers - he had nothing to fear from such ones. But with the scene it would doubtlessly evoke, such attention could become the most deadly weapon wielded against him, as the presence of Ascalon and his older sister could catch the attention of a Force-aware minion to a local warlord, who took it upon themselves to purge unaffiliated Force users as potential rivals. The appearance of worthlessness was thus the most valuable disguise attainable. Over days, and from days - weeks, Ascalon's body began transforming to accommodate his attire. His soft, youthful hands became blistered and rough. His tender feet were barefoot and calloused. Nicks and bruises covered his body from occasional scratches from the foliage and rocky terrain, and a malodorous odor seasoned his musk.
For a great length of time, their methods were successful and it served its intended purpose, until days before the third month of their trek. Small nomadic families without land or roots were common, which was how Khalas presented himself and his great-grandchildren. For several days, they would travel from town to town, then rest each time for a few days before taking off again. To sell the deception, Khalas would trade and barter borderline-worthless items in commerce with the poorer merchants, and for their part, Ascalon and his elder sister, Irabelle, would mingle with the children of the marketplaces and alleyways. While Irabelle had already discovered some manifestation of her Force abilities, and known to conceal them, Ascalon left his home too soon to discover his, or even detect when he was involuntarily using them. In most cases, manifestation of Force abilities used on an instinctive level typically didn't develop until after the child was five - at least in Ascalon's family, and thus Khalas felt no need to unduly warn his great-grandson and potentially spur him on to manifest suspicious behavior for a young child.
In the city of Ivor, among the more technological cities on Endelaan's surface, Ascalon inadvertently manifested extrasensory perception; in a game of jatch'et, where a player would use one colored stone to knock several other colored stones in a tiny ditch, Ascalon found that he was constantly, and successfully, predicting which colored stones would be knocked out. While initially accused of cheating, Ascalon's genuine abilities soon started to draw attention, which in turn garnered the watchful eye of a Wrangler; Force-attuned individuals that seek out and conscript Force sensitives for their respective warlord. Almost without warning, Ascalon was attacked from behind and brutally beaten until he was fading in and out of consciousness. Many of the other youths fled in fear, although Irabelle managed to witness the event and psychokinetically struck back at the Wrangler, knocking him back across the street lanes. Shocked and angered, the Wrangler called out for nearby reinforcements - one hundred and twenty mercenaries strong - from the area. Grabbing her still fading-unconscious brother, Irabelle stood surrounded by over one hundred blasters aimed at her and Ascalon.
It was in that moment that Ascalon and Irabelle both saw a glimpse of the power they themselves could potentially awaken within their own selves. Amidst the bustling panic, commotion and hysteria, between the screams and yells of bystanders and mercenaries, and beyond the gaze of the onlookers from the farthest reaches... every man, woman and child of every species and every race, froze where they stood. The mouths of the speaking ones locked into place. The legs of the swift ones became stagnant, with many tipping and falling over as if their limbs had been enveloped in the coldest frost. It was then that Ascalon found himself suddenly feeling revitalized, as both he and his sister saw the one figure from the crowds that continued to move, walking toward them; that being none other than their very great-grandfather, brimming with power and resonating with energy, as he telepathically reached out and stilled every conscious mind and thought in the city's quadrant, held in a catatonic-like stasis.
It was a sight Ascalon would never forget in the decades of his life that would follow, and the sight of it glistened in his mind from day unto day, until half a month's time passed, and in through the depths of the Great Unoki Desert, Ascalon's great-grandfather led him and his sister to a sight of a gargantuan golden pyramid. It was to be their new home, their refuge and their sanctuary. The relic ruin of a people lost to the arctic regions, long before even Khalas himself had arrived to Endelaan. And to his progeny, he called it "the Cyclopean".
RP Sample:
Age: 78 (Galactic Standard Years)
Race: Morellian
Birth place: Endelaan
Height: 1.83 Meters (6'0 Feet)
Weight: 80.7 Kilograms (179 lbs)
Eye Color: Shamrock (irises glow a bluish-white as a result of Force immersion)
Hair Color: Black
Appearance: Ascalon is a tall Morellian male, and thus aesthetically appears to be Human. He has messy black hair and shamrock-green eyes, although they ubiquitously appear a glowing white due to his high immersion in the Force. Physically, Ascalon appears to be a man scarcely approaching his 30s, due to the exceptional longevity of his Morellian physiology, with the physique to match. Although he lacks any significant markings in the manner of scars, he has a number of bruise-like abrasions due to mistakes in wielding the Force during his youth. These are never seen however, due to the fact that Ascalon never reveals his face or skin publicly. Instead, Ascalon wears makeshift armor and a tattered hooded trench-coat.
Personality:
Profession: Savant of the Primal Force
Mastery Level: Master
Previous Faction/Rank: N/A
Equipment: Ascalon carries very little with him, as he relies almost entirely on the Force throughout his day-to-day life. The only equipment he possess is makeshift armor of a cuirass, protecting his upper torso, and covered with a hooded trench-coat, which he wears long enough over his face to conceal his features.
Starship: N/A
Skills: Ascalon is a skilled farmer, carpenter, lumberjack, mapmaker, aquatic navigator, and survivalist. Growing up with his great-grandfather and the "Taesar", Ascalon learned many skills to survive off the land, ranging from cultivating the ground to carving and shaping wood in order to make tools and furniture. On a more martial level, Ascalon is a superb unarmed combatant, well trained in katas as well as practical fighting. His skill increased several-fold when he participated in the six-year-long Tantalus War, where he picked up the skills of a tactician and strategist. The only extreme defect in his skillset is that Ascalon never learned melee or ranged combat - his talents lie solely in fighting unarmed. Thus, his talent with his lightsaber is non-existent, as he has no formal training whatsoever.
Lightsaber: None
Color: N/A
Practiced Lightsaber forms:
Shii-Cho: 0
Makashi : 0
Soresu : 0
Ataru : 0
Shien / Djem So: 0
>>Sub-form Backhanded: 0
Niman: 0
>>Sub-form Jar-kai, or Dual Wield: 0
Juyo: 0
Double Bladed Combat: 0
Force-Sensitive Attributes:
Telekinetic: 7
Telepathic: 7
Body: 8
Sense: 7
Protection: 8
Healing: 3
Destruction: 3
Specialized Powers: Tutaminis, Force Bellow, Electronic Manipulation/Technometry, Balance of the Force
Attributes:
Physical Strength: 7
Intelligence: 6
Speed: 7
Leadership: 4
Unarmed: 9
Melee Weapons: 0
Ranged Weapons: 0
Bio:
Chapter I: Birth and Exodus
Khalas, Ascalon's great-grandfather and initial instructor on wielding the "Primal Force"
Ascalon was born long ago, on the world of Endelaan, located in what the majority of the galaxy dubbed the Unknown Regions. Lost to the rest of the galaxy as one of the few worlds charted in the mysterious region of the galaxy, Endelaan was home to warring tribes, marauding bands, and strange aliens never before seen, from the deepest regions of the Core Worlds to the outermost reaches of the Outer Rim. Once colonized by various species ranging from Humans to Talortai to Karkarodons and more, isolation from the galaxy reduced the descendants to primitive warlords, simple farmers and wandering nomads. It was in this world that Ascalon came into being, as the second child of his parents.Khalas, Ascalon's great-grandfather and initial instructor on wielding the "Primal Force"
Even at the time of his birth, Ascalon's affinity with the Force was undeniable. This created an unprecedented danger for his family, as the growing number of strong Force Sensitives in one location often drew the attention of Force using warlords, who often feared potential threats in expanding Force Sensitive families. It was decided early on that, in order to raise the children safely and to ensure they become strong enough to defend themselves and ultimately their own families, the children would be sent away to train, grow, and to become strong with their progenitor, Khalas, one of the last first-generation colonists that traveled to Endelaan. With his sister at only the tender age of six, Ascalon himself was barely three years old when he was taken to live in the Great Ukoni Desert, beyond the high mountains of the Syphlus Vale.
Chapter II: Journey to the Cyclopean
The Cyclopean of the Great Ukoni Desert, Ascalon's new home
The Cyclopean of the Great Ukoni Desert, Ascalon's new home
The trek to the Great Ukoni Desert was long, tedious and taxing, taking many weeks, which in turn themselves became many months. Ascalon had passed his fourth birthday by the passing of the first month on their journey. Making the journey harder still, was that anonymity, inconspicuousness and deception were the ideal ways to traverse through the unstable and violent series of cities, towns and villages, all collectively known as the Dominion of Tantalus. Barefooted, clothed in rags and decorated by dirt and dust, Ascalon was forced to walk much of the way on his own until he had no energy left, and was allowed to rest. Though ignorant of such matters at the time, well groomed, attired and hygienic individuals often translated to others as an individual with resources and a degree of wealth. In short, a target to seize and plunder.
Ascalon's great-grandfather, Khalas, was fully immersed in his Force Sensitivity and powers - he had nothing to fear from such ones. But with the scene it would doubtlessly evoke, such attention could become the most deadly weapon wielded against him, as the presence of Ascalon and his older sister could catch the attention of a Force-aware minion to a local warlord, who took it upon themselves to purge unaffiliated Force users as potential rivals. The appearance of worthlessness was thus the most valuable disguise attainable. Over days, and from days - weeks, Ascalon's body began transforming to accommodate his attire. His soft, youthful hands became blistered and rough. His tender feet were barefoot and calloused. Nicks and bruises covered his body from occasional scratches from the foliage and rocky terrain, and a malodorous odor seasoned his musk.
For a great length of time, their methods were successful and it served its intended purpose, until days before the third month of their trek. Small nomadic families without land or roots were common, which was how Khalas presented himself and his great-grandchildren. For several days, they would travel from town to town, then rest each time for a few days before taking off again. To sell the deception, Khalas would trade and barter borderline-worthless items in commerce with the poorer merchants, and for their part, Ascalon and his elder sister, Irabelle, would mingle with the children of the marketplaces and alleyways. While Irabelle had already discovered some manifestation of her Force abilities, and known to conceal them, Ascalon left his home too soon to discover his, or even detect when he was involuntarily using them. In most cases, manifestation of Force abilities used on an instinctive level typically didn't develop until after the child was five - at least in Ascalon's family, and thus Khalas felt no need to unduly warn his great-grandson and potentially spur him on to manifest suspicious behavior for a young child.
In the city of Ivor, among the more technological cities on Endelaan's surface, Ascalon inadvertently manifested extrasensory perception; in a game of jatch'et, where a player would use one colored stone to knock several other colored stones in a tiny ditch, Ascalon found that he was constantly, and successfully, predicting which colored stones would be knocked out. While initially accused of cheating, Ascalon's genuine abilities soon started to draw attention, which in turn garnered the watchful eye of a Wrangler; Force-attuned individuals that seek out and conscript Force sensitives for their respective warlord. Almost without warning, Ascalon was attacked from behind and brutally beaten until he was fading in and out of consciousness. Many of the other youths fled in fear, although Irabelle managed to witness the event and psychokinetically struck back at the Wrangler, knocking him back across the street lanes. Shocked and angered, the Wrangler called out for nearby reinforcements - one hundred and twenty mercenaries strong - from the area. Grabbing her still fading-unconscious brother, Irabelle stood surrounded by over one hundred blasters aimed at her and Ascalon.
It was in that moment that Ascalon and Irabelle both saw a glimpse of the power they themselves could potentially awaken within their own selves. Amidst the bustling panic, commotion and hysteria, between the screams and yells of bystanders and mercenaries, and beyond the gaze of the onlookers from the farthest reaches... every man, woman and child of every species and every race, froze where they stood. The mouths of the speaking ones locked into place. The legs of the swift ones became stagnant, with many tipping and falling over as if their limbs had been enveloped in the coldest frost. It was then that Ascalon found himself suddenly feeling revitalized, as both he and his sister saw the one figure from the crowds that continued to move, walking toward them; that being none other than their very great-grandfather, brimming with power and resonating with energy, as he telepathically reached out and stilled every conscious mind and thought in the city's quadrant, held in a catatonic-like stasis.
It was a sight Ascalon would never forget in the decades of his life that would follow, and the sight of it glistened in his mind from day unto day, until half a month's time passed, and in through the depths of the Great Unoki Desert, Ascalon's great-grandfather led him and his sister to a sight of a gargantuan golden pyramid. It was to be their new home, their refuge and their sanctuary. The relic ruin of a people lost to the arctic regions, long before even Khalas himself had arrived to Endelaan. And to his progeny, he called it "the Cyclopean".
Chapter III: The Primal Force
A now-adult Ascalon, harnessing the Primal Force
From the time Ascalon and his sister had arrived at the Cyclopean, questions abounded for Khalas, and answers were either few or too abstract to understand. What was their power? How did they come to possess it? Why did some not? How could they hope wield it, as he had? The lessons Ascalon learned were ones he would never truly forget, even in times he'd wished he could. The Force was the power, and their minds were its masters; energy over matter, mind over both. And in the end, the greatest manifestation of this was the way of power long forgotten, and rejected, for thousands upon thousands of years; the path to the Primal Force. In the studies by Khalas, Ascalon learned of the Force, its sides and professed claims to its nature. Emotion and thought, will and determination, these were the hilts as the Force itself was the blade. To Ascalon, Khalas described the Force in four magnitudes.
The first was the "Light Force", powered and associated with positive emotional manifestations, such as compassion, mercy, empathy, kindness, and hope. With the Light Force, power was unlocked that opened the path to vast healing powers, the ability to cure diseases and poisons, the power to manipulate life, and the power to absorb harmful forces of countless natures. Calmness, patience, inner peace and harmony was the catalyst to the Light Force, and its nature expounded upon finesse, control and discipline. The second was the "Dark Force", which in turn was empowered and strengthened by negative emotional manifestations, such as rage, aggression, hatred, savagery, and despair. The perfect antithesis to the Light Force, the Dark Force awakened within a person to destroy life, dominate minds and wills of others, and to feed off emotion and convert it into raw power. Wrath, impulse, hubris and discord festered with connecting to the Dark Force, and as such, it bestowed upon its wielder immense and raw power.
The third was the "Void Force", which stood neither with the Light Force nor the Dark Force, but instead resided in-between, aligned at the threshold at the epicenter without roots in emotional manifestation or moralities. The Void called upon forces that both the Light Force and Dark Force utilized in the most rudimentary sense. As it stood isolated from either extremes of the Forces, wielders of the Void Force harnessed the Force in its most basic forms while still able to call upon the powers of either side at will, albeit to a minor degree. However, as Khalas taught Ascalon and his sister Irabelle, it was the fourth that was said to be the greatest; the "Primal Force". In opposition to the Void Force, which is the Force manifested without allegiance to either the Dark Force nor the Light Force, the Primal Force delves deeply into the powers of both sides, Dark and Light, and conjoins the energies of both to release the Force in its purest and most primal form, hence its namesake. Inherently unstable, undeniably powerful, Ascalon was taught - not of shunning the Darkness or forsaking the Light - but of achieving a balance of the two. In doing so, the wielder welcomed a power eclipsing any other.
Almost instantly, Ascalon became fascinated with the Primal Force, and immediately began his training to withstand it. Khalas' way of training the mind began with honing the body. While it did not become especially-strenuous in his youth, Ascalon was subtly trained to harden his body into a physique of strength and health. Within the massive Cyclopean, Ascalon worked in the botanical gardens, where his great-grandfather grew and harvested foodstuffs in the arid desert wasteland. For many hours, Ascalon would cultivate the grounds with various tools, working hard to make sure the foliage would grow properly and most efficiently. Particularly, it was during this time that Ascalon picked up his talents in farming, cultivating and harvesting crops. As regards to the Force, only knowledge was imparted to him and his sister; no practical application or exercises. This process continued on for many years, until Ascalon entered into his adolescent years. After his fourteenth birthday, his training increased tenfold.
In the years up to his adolescence, Ascalon gradually received additional duties aside from his work in the botanical gardens. Once physically adjusted to cultivating the ground, he assisted his great-grandfather in his carpentry work, lumberjacking and carving the wood materials with only tools and imparted knowledge. His body grew strong over the years, through this work; lean and fit, sturdy as well. And as his endurance reached that proper point, along with his age, physical exercises began. Martial training regimens began for Ascalon at roughly 10 years of age, and encompassed work-outs, kata maneuver training, and sparring matches with his sister and great-grandfather, who himself remained physically strong through the Force. In this, Asclaon showed little in-born talent, but tediousness, tenacity and tendencies of hard-work engrained within him pushed him to succeed, adapting to his lack of natural prowess with training and practical knowledge to pave his way. All the while, philosophy on the Force, all sides as well as the Void, were deeply inculcated into him. And in time, it came that his knowledge would be put into effect.
Ascalon began training in the Force after they proceeded to a particular level with their martial training. His reflexes became honed, his movements were solidified via muscle-memorization, and his mind was sharp and of clarity. It was then that he began with the basic and the foundation; the Void Force. Ascalon's progress began with where his physical training ended; enhancing, hardening and strengthening his body through the Force, as well as controlling his inertia. Calling upon its power, Ascalon was taught to run faster, jump higher, strike harder, and endure the harsher, and to maximize the benefits reaped, learned to use the Force to magnify his natural senses; to the present, this remained among his greatest skills in the Force. Conjoining this with his training, Ascalon was conditioned until utilizing the Force with his martial arts became second-nature to his mind. After the physical came the metaphysical; empathy and telepathy.
His empathy began with difficulty, at first. The test of sensing another's emotions, sensing deceit and truth, deception and honesty, was strenuous for him. The practice was constant, as throughout his day-to-day activities, Khalas would constantly lie to both Ascalon and Irabelle, just as they were to lie to him and each other. Only by sensing the emotion, the truth or untruth of the matter, could they navigate their day without stumbling. For Ascalon, he repeatedly fell short; when searching for supplies, he was constantly directed to wrong locations, when asking for food, he was sent to an empty food basket or vacant table. All the while, Ascalon's own deceptions were clearly seen through. It was weeks before Ascalon began to hone his ability, and even then, only after constantly attempts and sessions with his sister to help him. And thus, when his training in telepathy began, his excelled much easier than previously.
Ascalon's training in telepathy came in three facets - the Three Pillars of the Mind, as Khalas called it. Reception, projection, and shielding. Now a learned adept in empathy, the art of hearing thoughts manifested quickly as Khalas taught him. In fact, once taught the method of reaching out to hear the thoughts of others - be it the simple impressions from animals or the complexities of sapients - Ascalon began finding it hard to block them out, which resulted in a difficult few months of not being able to shut them out. In time, Ascalon did indeed refine his ability, even learning to search and draw out specific information in an individual's mind. This then led to the second aspect; projection. While more difficult, Ascalon came to get a handle on the opposite aspect of telepathy as well, as for almost half a year, the vast majority of conversation was only permitted through telepathic speech. Much more difficult was the third, the art of shielding his thoughts. When opening his mind to others, and also others being open to him, was the norm, closing his mind was both unnatural for him, and uncomfortable. Indeed, while Ascalon made great strides in this regard, he never truly managed to progress greatly in this regard until many years later.
The training in sensory Force abilities came next, which also and again, tied into his training in the martial arts. Precognition stood at the forefront of his exercises. This began with blinded sparring, where Ascalon's ears were blocked, eyes were covered, and through his great-grandfather's Force power, even his sense of smell and touch were suppressed greatly. Ascalon could no longer see his opponent, hear them, feel the vibrations of their motion or even the scent of their musk to help them. And it was after many, many sessions that this ability became honed to the degree of practical application. By this time, Ascalon was already twenty standard years of age, and still his training continued.
From learning to sense life around him, to learning to track such life through the Force, Ascalon found a special relationship in Force Sight, where he could perceive the universe through the Force itself. Although overly fascinated, Ascalon did indeed find this ability taxing, and for almost a year, could not sustain it for longer than a few minutes, with strain. However, as he did, he was taught and learned its counterpart, Field Detection. Where one sight showed him the world from what the Jedi Order would call the "Living Force", the other showed him the galaxy through the "Cosmic Force". In the place of seeing the Force and life, Ascalon saw the presence and direction of various energy fields in a spectrum on brilliance. Through it, Ascalon could see the vast and overwhelming array of electromagnetic and gravitation fields generated from the planet itself. Over many months of honing what he could see, refinement of this ability later allowed him to see the surges and fluctuations of the many electronic devices on the planet's surface; from communication emissions to sensor resonances.
Telekinetics came late to Ascalon, and due to his natural inclination to utilize his body to meet with conflict and confrontations, usage of the ability - while fairly accessible to him at the current point in his training - did not come naturally. The abstract method of altering the world around him instead of the body displaced him from his comfort zone. Months passed before naturally calling upon his telekinesis was as nature to him, and although it never became his preference, Ascalon learned to take an alternate approach by using telekinesis as a projected manifestation of his physical interactions. And with the principals in mind, Ascalon's training in manifesting Force Armor went far more smoothly, and his readiness to rely upon it came more naturally. Almost another year passed, however, before he truly became comfortable in using it at a moment's notice. Upon returning to his roots, at his great-grandfather's allowance, Ascalon then went on to train in the technique of Crucitorn, breaking down his mental barriers and augmenting his pain threshold and tolerance, and also proceeded to train in the bio-chemical Force art of Convection.
Healing was the slowest power Ascalon progressed in, further made difficult in that he began training to real himself, and others, relatively late in his training with Khalas. While he could use the Force to heal his injuries at supernatural speeds, it was unrefined, inefficient, and couldn't be sustained for long periods of time. This became more obvious when Ascalon and Irabelle would injure one another in sparring; while Irabelle would be fully restored in days, it would take Ascalon weeks to recover. While he did improve in a technical sense, Ascalon still rarely applied such skills properly until he was forced to during and in the aftermath of the Tantalus War. It was Ascalon's lack of desire in properly becoming familiar with healing, and Light Force in general, that led to his next lesson being Emptiness; the Force technique that allowed him to purge overwhelming emotion from his mind so that he could have clarity, and the art of Force Sustenance, feeding on the Force to sustain his own life for long periods of time. Two years passed before Ascalon could properly do so, and months longer before he could perform it for longer than a few days.
However, what would become Ascalon's most iconic ability during the Tantalus War was centered around - not his body, but his voice. Ascalon learned sound mimicry fairly easily, although as he infrequently interacted with anyone aside from Irabelle or their great-grandfather, he rarely used it. In the times he did, though, Ascalon's imitation was virtually flawless, able to replicate the voices of Khalas and Irabelle to very fine degrees. While people and creatures were more simple for him, imitating the sounds created by machinery or technology proved much more difficult, and Ascalon never truly perfected it. More practical, in his view, was the amplification of his voice to devastating levels. So much so that Ascalon would frequent the dunes of the desert to refine and practice his ability, honing it until he could direct it like any other weapon. Ascalon was almost twenty-six standard years of age before he was finally seen by a nomadic clan traversing the Great Ukoni Desert; a Kage male named Daxom Kreed, a man who would become both a brother and a catalyst that would propel Ascalon into the continental Tantalus War.
Chapter IV: The Tantalus War
One of many battlefields burning across the Dominion of Tantalus
Nomadic warrior, mercenary, and self-proclaimed revolutionary, Daxom Kreed was the first friend Ascalon made outside of his family. Life on Endelaan was often a struggle, with trust rarely being extended to strangers meeting in the wilds, outside of the cities and domains. As such, the two met as enemies upon their first meeting. Traversing the desertlands less than a kilometer from the Cyclopean, Ascalon sensed a foreign presence from outside. Both intrigued and suspicious of the event, Ascalon departed from the Cyclopean to investigate any potential threat, finally catching sight of a masked man, a Kage, attired entirely in black. On sight, Ascalon was met by two electro-swords pulled from the Kage's back. A brief and wordless match ensued, with the Kage aggressively charging at Ascalon, who with relative ease, parried blow for blow by closing in range and disarming the Kage's strikes by blocking at the wrists and forearms.
Somewhat taken aback by the unprecedented situation, Ascalon attempted to buy time during their match to think of how properly to proceed. Growing increasingly frustrated with his strikes being deflected or avoided altogether, Daxom entered into a dervish of swirling strikes in a fanatical attempt to take Ascalon down. Distracted both by his thoughts and the unfamiliarity of interacting with someone other than his sister and great-grandfather, a moment's absence caused him to be slashed across the forearm, both cutting into him and shocking his body. With a new-found ire toward his new opponent, Ascalon moved past the pain like he had trained, and decided to simply pacify his opponent. Upon the now-more-confident Kage's next strike, Ascalon gracefully pivoted his body in a side step away from the blow, caught the blade by its dull edge, and through the use of Tutaminis, channeled the electrical energy from the electro-sword and into his body like a conduit, and upon grasping the back of the Kage's head, then routed the electricity back into the Kage, electrocuting and stunning him until Ascalon could sense his conscious mind retreat.
The entire encounter was brief and intense, lasting no longer than a full minute, but still attracted the attention of his sister, who brought the Kage in with Ascalon. Then restrained, the Kage awoke surprised to find himself still alive and unharmed. After attempting to question who he was and why he was there, Ascalon briefly explained he attacked out of surprise, that the Kage had approached his home, and that he meant him no harm. Initially, Ascalon had intended to keep the Kage there until Khalas had returned from his trip to the domains of Tantalus of the central part of the continent, information that he shared with Irabelle who had been unaware. Careless and unaccustomed to having guests, let alone captives, Ascalon shared this information in earshot of the Kage, who ultimately overheard him, and it was then that he finally spoke, informing Ascalon and Irabelle that if his great-grandfather had departed to the holds of Tantalus, he was almost certainly dead.
Rattled, although unconvinced, Ascalon quickly inquired further, and finally the Kage began to speak, informing them that war had broken out between the warlords controlling the various cities of Tantalus. Without hesitation, Ascalon reached out empathically to sense any abnormalities in what the Kage spoke to him. In that, he was able to sense that, while the Kage did indeed speak in spite, believing he would be killed there and hoping to spell discord in his captors before it would occur, Ascalon did not sense deception or untruth. War had truly erupted across Tantalus, at least from the Kage's understanding. Although he could think of none more powerful than his great-grandfather, Ascalon could not enable himself to idly wait for Khalas' return, and drew a proposal to the Kage; freedom in return to being led to the province of Tantalus where his great-grandfather was to have traveled to. After some time of silence, the Kage agreed, as Ascalon expected he would have, but distrusting the Kage, Ascalon reached out in constancy when around him, and would continue to do so, to prevent himself from being done in by any attempts at deception along the way.
By nightfall, Ascalon had left the Cyclopean in his sister's care, and he along with the Kage set off through the Great Ukoni Desert. On the fourth day of their journey, Ascalon and the Kage had reached the outermost province of Tantalus, known as Telikos, which was where they had attained most of their information on the events that erupted across the dominion. After nightfall, Ascalon used the Force as his sight in order to most effectively and efficently stalk the soldiers garrisoned in the city, and did so until he found one that isolated himself from the others to release his bladder. In a burst of Force augmented speed, Ascalon ran from his place just outside the city until in but a few moments, he sped behind the unsuspecting soldier, and tightly bound him in a choke-hold and proceeded to grasp the man's head and forcefully probe his mind through telepathy. It was through this that Ascalon came to the knowledge of recent events, which he shared with the Kage after returning to the city's outskirts.
Tantalus had been divided between nine major warlords, with Telikos falling under the control of the warlord, Jurate. The others were Xalon, Gurnan, Hatados, Tenge, Asa, Ar'thum, Elaeos, and Dazu'gan. Each of them held armies under their control, and after the chaos of the initial conflict between the many warlords of Tantalus, these nine were the ones that survived and seized power from the aftermath. Nearly one hundred cities had been razed, leveled and pillaged if not outright destroyed. Thousands were dead, and tens of thousands more in the local warlord Jurate would have his outspoken plans realized; the annihilation of every army that stood against his own, as well as the sundering of their cities, people, and rulers. With no other relevant information, Ascalon released the now unconscious man, with the only conclusion that the world around him was nothing short of insane, and run by madmen. Disgusted and repulsed by the "outside world", Ascalon thought only about how he had hoped he would never have to venture to any place but his family's residence and the Cyclopean.
Returning to the city's outskirts to inform the Kage, who himself confirmed several details Ascalon learned, Ascalon told the Kage that they would move on. To his surprise, the Kage refused, claiming that the local chief of Telikos was weak and could be overthrown by another Force wielder. Ascalon refused, only to criticized by the Kage for not using his power to end the oppression right before him. The Kage's words chimed with Ascalon, who couldn't deny the terrible conditions he saw. The Kage convinced Ascalon that if his great-grandfather was a Force wielder, the chief may have information as well, meaning that bringing him down would serve two purposes. And with Ascalon on board, the Kage led them both through the city to the citadel where the chief resided. In contrast with Ascalon's expectation of utilizing stealth to infiltrate, the Kage took the frontal approach and charged before the entire city watching. And as he charged, so too did Ascalon.
In his charge, Ascalon stiffly struck his fists toward either side, as if striking the air, and two guardsmen charging at him were struck at the sides of their temples, as if struck with invisible blows to the head. Augmenting his speed, Ascalon ran ahead of the non-Force sensitive Kage, and with a single telekinetic blast, blew open the large citadel doors, allowing the two of them inside. Once in, the crowd of soldiers charged for Ascalon and the Kage, and his training took over. His eyes in that moment atrophied, and he saw only through the Force, causing his irises to glow white. As a soldier's blade fell over Ascalon, the young Force warrior fell backwards, and with an uppercut strike, kicked the soldier in the head, plunging him into the ceiling. Back-flipping from the encounter, Ascalon elbowed the ribs of another soldier a few meters behind him, launching him through the wall outside. As the soldiers clustered up, Ascalon leapt up with the Force, barrel-rolling until his feet touched the ceiling, and then forcefully launched himself back down in the center of the group, punching the ground as he released telekinetic energy in a cascade to knock them all away.
As another soldier came, Ascalon heightened his senses with Force speed, delivering eight blows in a flash of motion, four to the chest, three to the face, one to the neck, and then finishing with a swift kick to his hip, kicking the soldier into another. In that same motion, Ascalon turned his kick into a roundhouse against another approaching soldier, breaking his neck as the kick connected with the soldier's face. Then planting his feet again firmly onto the ground, Ascalon charged again with great speed as he tightened his fist and struck the lower abdomen of yet another soldier, who then burst into flames as his clothes and skin caught flame from Ascalon's use of convection. As he both burned and was knocked away, Ascalon used repeated bursts of speed in rapid succession, striking soldier after soldier with one blow as he set them aflame and knocked them away, appearing to teleport to the untrained eye. Suddenly then, a burst volley of green flash showered over him as he turned and stretched out his hand, "catching" and absorbing the bolts of energy as they came into contact with his body.
With the room almost cleared of melee soldiers, those armed with blaster rifles came into play, and Ascalon then relied more heavily than every on his senses, his sight through the Force, his perceptions of Force speed, and his precognitive reflexes. In an almost dance-like maneuver, Ascalon fell into a kata of sequences dodging what he could, and absorbing that which he could not, all the while keeping in motion to become as difficult a target as possible. Eventually the room began to flood with more soldiers, who in a break in firing, took up new positions to see that Ascalon would have no escape room. Inhaling deeply, Ascalon opened his mouth and unleashed a colossal Force-imbued shout at the crowd, blasting them all back through several walls until the entire group was pulverized out the back of the citadel wall. The shout was so loud, the entire city was able to hear of it, drawing crowds around the citadel from one end to the other. It was finally then that the chief, watching the entire time, had shown himself.
As a wielder of the Force himself, the chief, who revealed himself to be Farthux, inquired as to Ascalon's seeming lack of intent behind the attack. Upon inquiring about an old man who wielded the Force, Farthux revealed he had no knowledge of the man Ascalon sought, although his mind was shielded too well for Ascalon to sense deception or truth. Empathy had never been Ascalon's greatest gift, and he had not been trained well to pierce mental barriers, as there was never a need to do so among his family. Convinced he was holding back under the claim of ending his domineering tyranny, Ascalon confronted Farthux, who himself was a superb telekinetic, another less-than-strong suit of Ascalon's. The entire environment became the battleground as everything from tables and pieces of walls to stones plucked from the ground became projectile weapons.
At the inherent disadvantage, it took everything Ascalon had to survive the dervish of the telekinetic maelstrom swirling around him. Constantly being taken aback and kept off balance by the non-stop projectiles, Ascalon was finally struck when a dura-crete panel from the wall struck him from his side, slamming him into the wall back against the citadel. Splinters of metal pierced his side, causing blood to spill out over his abdomen. The shock of the pain almost blinded Ascalon, causing him to black out for a fraction of a moment before quickly utilizing the Crucitorn mediation form, calming himself and heightening his threshold for pain, numbing the searing sensation. Now revived, Ascalon telekinetically hurled the dura-crete panel away, and without a moment's hesitation, unleashed a storm of splintering telepathic energy. Changing the engagement to one where he could hold the advantage, Ascalon did not discriminate, and the surrounding crowd along with Farthux let out an outcry as their minds were wracked with pain.
Ascalon let out the telepathic wave for but a moment though, and it was all that he needed, as in that moment, he again surged the Force within him to lunge himself in a burst of speed, and focusing the concentration of his Force energy into his body, plunged his fist into, and through, the chest of Farthux, punching through his heart and body in a single, bloody strike. Farthux coughed blood as his body shivered in a death rattle, and fell limp. Ascalon pulled his fist back out of Farthux's body, and not yet noticing the audience that had been watching, looked back for the Kage, who himself was simply sitting cross-legged ahead of several corpses that lay dead with gashes over their bodies from being struck with blades. Upon seeing that he was alright, Ascalon came to his senses again, grimly and suddenly realizing that he'd killed the man he meant only to further interrogate.
Unnerved by the unusually brutal way he'd taken a life as he stared down at the corpse of Farthux, and then at his bloodied hand, Ascalon glanced up and about as he saw the crowd of people staring at the ruins of the citadel. With his powers primed from battle, Ascalon could feel the overwhelming emotion flowing from them; fear, anxiety, even awe to a degree. But as he fully expected them to turn and flee in terror, the most unexpected thing occurred; the inhabitants of Telikos gathered around the rubble of the ruined citadel and let out a cheer that shook fires around them. Some cried, many hollered, and the Kage walked up behind Ascalon, asking him if he felt it was worth the price to see freedom for the people again. And in that moment, Ascalon had almost entirely forgotten about his great-grandfather, and became enthralled by the affection being displayed toward him, although he regained his composure soon after.
It was then that the Kage offered Ascalon a new deal from their first; he would accompany Ascalon to each new town in search of Khalas, and in return, Ascalon would help to liberate the city were it under oppression. And Ascalon agreed. It was then that the Kage finally revealed his identity; Daxom Kreed - a rare individual of Endelaan, who held a family name, and once lived at the center of the civil war of Tantalus. From that point onward, Ascalon spent many weeks with Daxom, traversing from town to town and from city to city, engaging and confronting chiefs and warriors of the nine factions of the Tantalus warlords while gathering whatever information he could find on the whereabouts of Khalas. It was not long, scarcely a few months in passing, before the reputation of Ascalon and Daxom began to emerge as rumor of two freedom fighters against the old warlords. The first was known as a master swordsman wielding swords of lightning, and the second as a man with a voice that could unleash terrible and mighty shouts.
While his name was something unknown to the mass, as a figure, Ascalon had achieved renown and praise, dethroning tyrant after tyrant in what most assumed was a war being waged for freedom. Ascalon had no intention of remaining within Tantalus any longer than he needed, although because his reputation made traversing Tantalus easier among the citizens that favored him, he saw fit to leave the mistaken impression of him in place. With rumors fermenting and spreading about, insurrections rippled about throughout Tantalus, specifically Jurate's holdings, spurring an inevitable increase in oppression. In an event called "the Culling", Jurate ordered the execution of a relatively small town, brutally slaughtering nearly eight thousand people as a message of the price of uprising. Initially, Ascalon felt little beyond normal humane pity for the fates of such ones, but a new interest took hold when rumor of an old man that had allegedly managed to rescue several families from the Culling. Without haste, Ascalon made way to the ruins of the now purged town, arriving almost six days after the news reached him.
Reaching out with the Force, Ascalon attempted to absorb any imprints in the Force etched in the surrounding area, an ability his great-grandfather had told him about, but never taught him. Psychometry, it was called, but in spite of Ascalon's best efforts, the concept was too alien to him, too unfamiliar. While he could not sense past events that occurred in the area, Ascalon did not despair, and searched restlessly through the Force from some trace of his great-grandfather's presence having been there. And finally, after hours of meditation and scouring, a trail was indeed found. With a firm hold on Khalas' Force imprint in the area, Ascalon reached out in the Force to track and trail the trajectory of where the presence in the Force veered off to; in his mind, this was the mark of the end of his journey, although drew new worries. Ascalon was bonded through the Force with his sister and great-grandfather. That bond allowed themselves to easily sense one another's presence - indeed, it allowed Ascalon to stay in telepathic communication with Irabelle on multiple occasions to confirm Khalas hadn't returned. That his great-grandfather was still alive and yet could not be sensed - and hadn't even called out to them - unnerved the young man.
Gathering Daxom, who had become a brother in battle over the months with Ascalon, the two then set out to follow the Force trail of Khalas. It was a journey of nearly two standard weeks of non-stop travel over rough terrain, and ultimately led them to the last place they'd hoped. Sicarius, the capital city of Jurate's domain.
Chapter V: Betrayal and Self-Exile
Ascalon, beginning his self-imposed exile in the arctic Northlands
Chapter VI: The Taesar of the Northlands
Q'vakas, the Taesar Savant who becomes Ascalon's second instructor in the secrets of the Primal Force
Chapter VII: Return to the Cyclopean
Ascalon returning to the Cyclopean with Irabelle to find the Chamber of Twilight
Chapter VIII: Avatars of the Twilight
The Avatars of the Twilight, Ascalon's final instructors on mastering the Primal Force
Chapter IX: Advent of the Blazing Chain
Thorr Ivonus, Adacap of the Shadows and Blazing Chain
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Chapter X: I, Savant
Ascalon meditating in the Chamber of Twilight before the final battle with the Blazing Chain
A now-adult Ascalon, harnessing the Primal Force
From the time Ascalon and his sister had arrived at the Cyclopean, questions abounded for Khalas, and answers were either few or too abstract to understand. What was their power? How did they come to possess it? Why did some not? How could they hope wield it, as he had? The lessons Ascalon learned were ones he would never truly forget, even in times he'd wished he could. The Force was the power, and their minds were its masters; energy over matter, mind over both. And in the end, the greatest manifestation of this was the way of power long forgotten, and rejected, for thousands upon thousands of years; the path to the Primal Force. In the studies by Khalas, Ascalon learned of the Force, its sides and professed claims to its nature. Emotion and thought, will and determination, these were the hilts as the Force itself was the blade. To Ascalon, Khalas described the Force in four magnitudes.
The first was the "Light Force", powered and associated with positive emotional manifestations, such as compassion, mercy, empathy, kindness, and hope. With the Light Force, power was unlocked that opened the path to vast healing powers, the ability to cure diseases and poisons, the power to manipulate life, and the power to absorb harmful forces of countless natures. Calmness, patience, inner peace and harmony was the catalyst to the Light Force, and its nature expounded upon finesse, control and discipline. The second was the "Dark Force", which in turn was empowered and strengthened by negative emotional manifestations, such as rage, aggression, hatred, savagery, and despair. The perfect antithesis to the Light Force, the Dark Force awakened within a person to destroy life, dominate minds and wills of others, and to feed off emotion and convert it into raw power. Wrath, impulse, hubris and discord festered with connecting to the Dark Force, and as such, it bestowed upon its wielder immense and raw power.
The third was the "Void Force", which stood neither with the Light Force nor the Dark Force, but instead resided in-between, aligned at the threshold at the epicenter without roots in emotional manifestation or moralities. The Void called upon forces that both the Light Force and Dark Force utilized in the most rudimentary sense. As it stood isolated from either extremes of the Forces, wielders of the Void Force harnessed the Force in its most basic forms while still able to call upon the powers of either side at will, albeit to a minor degree. However, as Khalas taught Ascalon and his sister Irabelle, it was the fourth that was said to be the greatest; the "Primal Force". In opposition to the Void Force, which is the Force manifested without allegiance to either the Dark Force nor the Light Force, the Primal Force delves deeply into the powers of both sides, Dark and Light, and conjoins the energies of both to release the Force in its purest and most primal form, hence its namesake. Inherently unstable, undeniably powerful, Ascalon was taught - not of shunning the Darkness or forsaking the Light - but of achieving a balance of the two. In doing so, the wielder welcomed a power eclipsing any other.
Almost instantly, Ascalon became fascinated with the Primal Force, and immediately began his training to withstand it. Khalas' way of training the mind began with honing the body. While it did not become especially-strenuous in his youth, Ascalon was subtly trained to harden his body into a physique of strength and health. Within the massive Cyclopean, Ascalon worked in the botanical gardens, where his great-grandfather grew and harvested foodstuffs in the arid desert wasteland. For many hours, Ascalon would cultivate the grounds with various tools, working hard to make sure the foliage would grow properly and most efficiently. Particularly, it was during this time that Ascalon picked up his talents in farming, cultivating and harvesting crops. As regards to the Force, only knowledge was imparted to him and his sister; no practical application or exercises. This process continued on for many years, until Ascalon entered into his adolescent years. After his fourteenth birthday, his training increased tenfold.
In the years up to his adolescence, Ascalon gradually received additional duties aside from his work in the botanical gardens. Once physically adjusted to cultivating the ground, he assisted his great-grandfather in his carpentry work, lumberjacking and carving the wood materials with only tools and imparted knowledge. His body grew strong over the years, through this work; lean and fit, sturdy as well. And as his endurance reached that proper point, along with his age, physical exercises began. Martial training regimens began for Ascalon at roughly 10 years of age, and encompassed work-outs, kata maneuver training, and sparring matches with his sister and great-grandfather, who himself remained physically strong through the Force. In this, Asclaon showed little in-born talent, but tediousness, tenacity and tendencies of hard-work engrained within him pushed him to succeed, adapting to his lack of natural prowess with training and practical knowledge to pave his way. All the while, philosophy on the Force, all sides as well as the Void, were deeply inculcated into him. And in time, it came that his knowledge would be put into effect.
Ascalon began training in the Force after they proceeded to a particular level with their martial training. His reflexes became honed, his movements were solidified via muscle-memorization, and his mind was sharp and of clarity. It was then that he began with the basic and the foundation; the Void Force. Ascalon's progress began with where his physical training ended; enhancing, hardening and strengthening his body through the Force, as well as controlling his inertia. Calling upon its power, Ascalon was taught to run faster, jump higher, strike harder, and endure the harsher, and to maximize the benefits reaped, learned to use the Force to magnify his natural senses; to the present, this remained among his greatest skills in the Force. Conjoining this with his training, Ascalon was conditioned until utilizing the Force with his martial arts became second-nature to his mind. After the physical came the metaphysical; empathy and telepathy.
His empathy began with difficulty, at first. The test of sensing another's emotions, sensing deceit and truth, deception and honesty, was strenuous for him. The practice was constant, as throughout his day-to-day activities, Khalas would constantly lie to both Ascalon and Irabelle, just as they were to lie to him and each other. Only by sensing the emotion, the truth or untruth of the matter, could they navigate their day without stumbling. For Ascalon, he repeatedly fell short; when searching for supplies, he was constantly directed to wrong locations, when asking for food, he was sent to an empty food basket or vacant table. All the while, Ascalon's own deceptions were clearly seen through. It was weeks before Ascalon began to hone his ability, and even then, only after constantly attempts and sessions with his sister to help him. And thus, when his training in telepathy began, his excelled much easier than previously.
Ascalon's training in telepathy came in three facets - the Three Pillars of the Mind, as Khalas called it. Reception, projection, and shielding. Now a learned adept in empathy, the art of hearing thoughts manifested quickly as Khalas taught him. In fact, once taught the method of reaching out to hear the thoughts of others - be it the simple impressions from animals or the complexities of sapients - Ascalon began finding it hard to block them out, which resulted in a difficult few months of not being able to shut them out. In time, Ascalon did indeed refine his ability, even learning to search and draw out specific information in an individual's mind. This then led to the second aspect; projection. While more difficult, Ascalon came to get a handle on the opposite aspect of telepathy as well, as for almost half a year, the vast majority of conversation was only permitted through telepathic speech. Much more difficult was the third, the art of shielding his thoughts. When opening his mind to others, and also others being open to him, was the norm, closing his mind was both unnatural for him, and uncomfortable. Indeed, while Ascalon made great strides in this regard, he never truly managed to progress greatly in this regard until many years later.
The training in sensory Force abilities came next, which also and again, tied into his training in the martial arts. Precognition stood at the forefront of his exercises. This began with blinded sparring, where Ascalon's ears were blocked, eyes were covered, and through his great-grandfather's Force power, even his sense of smell and touch were suppressed greatly. Ascalon could no longer see his opponent, hear them, feel the vibrations of their motion or even the scent of their musk to help them. And it was after many, many sessions that this ability became honed to the degree of practical application. By this time, Ascalon was already twenty standard years of age, and still his training continued.
From learning to sense life around him, to learning to track such life through the Force, Ascalon found a special relationship in Force Sight, where he could perceive the universe through the Force itself. Although overly fascinated, Ascalon did indeed find this ability taxing, and for almost a year, could not sustain it for longer than a few minutes, with strain. However, as he did, he was taught and learned its counterpart, Field Detection. Where one sight showed him the world from what the Jedi Order would call the "Living Force", the other showed him the galaxy through the "Cosmic Force". In the place of seeing the Force and life, Ascalon saw the presence and direction of various energy fields in a spectrum on brilliance. Through it, Ascalon could see the vast and overwhelming array of electromagnetic and gravitation fields generated from the planet itself. Over many months of honing what he could see, refinement of this ability later allowed him to see the surges and fluctuations of the many electronic devices on the planet's surface; from communication emissions to sensor resonances.
Telekinetics came late to Ascalon, and due to his natural inclination to utilize his body to meet with conflict and confrontations, usage of the ability - while fairly accessible to him at the current point in his training - did not come naturally. The abstract method of altering the world around him instead of the body displaced him from his comfort zone. Months passed before naturally calling upon his telekinesis was as nature to him, and although it never became his preference, Ascalon learned to take an alternate approach by using telekinesis as a projected manifestation of his physical interactions. And with the principals in mind, Ascalon's training in manifesting Force Armor went far more smoothly, and his readiness to rely upon it came more naturally. Almost another year passed, however, before he truly became comfortable in using it at a moment's notice. Upon returning to his roots, at his great-grandfather's allowance, Ascalon then went on to train in the technique of Crucitorn, breaking down his mental barriers and augmenting his pain threshold and tolerance, and also proceeded to train in the bio-chemical Force art of Convection.
Healing was the slowest power Ascalon progressed in, further made difficult in that he began training to real himself, and others, relatively late in his training with Khalas. While he could use the Force to heal his injuries at supernatural speeds, it was unrefined, inefficient, and couldn't be sustained for long periods of time. This became more obvious when Ascalon and Irabelle would injure one another in sparring; while Irabelle would be fully restored in days, it would take Ascalon weeks to recover. While he did improve in a technical sense, Ascalon still rarely applied such skills properly until he was forced to during and in the aftermath of the Tantalus War. It was Ascalon's lack of desire in properly becoming familiar with healing, and Light Force in general, that led to his next lesson being Emptiness; the Force technique that allowed him to purge overwhelming emotion from his mind so that he could have clarity, and the art of Force Sustenance, feeding on the Force to sustain his own life for long periods of time. Two years passed before Ascalon could properly do so, and months longer before he could perform it for longer than a few days.
However, what would become Ascalon's most iconic ability during the Tantalus War was centered around - not his body, but his voice. Ascalon learned sound mimicry fairly easily, although as he infrequently interacted with anyone aside from Irabelle or their great-grandfather, he rarely used it. In the times he did, though, Ascalon's imitation was virtually flawless, able to replicate the voices of Khalas and Irabelle to very fine degrees. While people and creatures were more simple for him, imitating the sounds created by machinery or technology proved much more difficult, and Ascalon never truly perfected it. More practical, in his view, was the amplification of his voice to devastating levels. So much so that Ascalon would frequent the dunes of the desert to refine and practice his ability, honing it until he could direct it like any other weapon. Ascalon was almost twenty-six standard years of age before he was finally seen by a nomadic clan traversing the Great Ukoni Desert; a Kage male named Daxom Kreed, a man who would become both a brother and a catalyst that would propel Ascalon into the continental Tantalus War.
Chapter IV: The Tantalus War
One of many battlefields burning across the Dominion of Tantalus
Nomadic warrior, mercenary, and self-proclaimed revolutionary, Daxom Kreed was the first friend Ascalon made outside of his family. Life on Endelaan was often a struggle, with trust rarely being extended to strangers meeting in the wilds, outside of the cities and domains. As such, the two met as enemies upon their first meeting. Traversing the desertlands less than a kilometer from the Cyclopean, Ascalon sensed a foreign presence from outside. Both intrigued and suspicious of the event, Ascalon departed from the Cyclopean to investigate any potential threat, finally catching sight of a masked man, a Kage, attired entirely in black. On sight, Ascalon was met by two electro-swords pulled from the Kage's back. A brief and wordless match ensued, with the Kage aggressively charging at Ascalon, who with relative ease, parried blow for blow by closing in range and disarming the Kage's strikes by blocking at the wrists and forearms.
Somewhat taken aback by the unprecedented situation, Ascalon attempted to buy time during their match to think of how properly to proceed. Growing increasingly frustrated with his strikes being deflected or avoided altogether, Daxom entered into a dervish of swirling strikes in a fanatical attempt to take Ascalon down. Distracted both by his thoughts and the unfamiliarity of interacting with someone other than his sister and great-grandfather, a moment's absence caused him to be slashed across the forearm, both cutting into him and shocking his body. With a new-found ire toward his new opponent, Ascalon moved past the pain like he had trained, and decided to simply pacify his opponent. Upon the now-more-confident Kage's next strike, Ascalon gracefully pivoted his body in a side step away from the blow, caught the blade by its dull edge, and through the use of Tutaminis, channeled the electrical energy from the electro-sword and into his body like a conduit, and upon grasping the back of the Kage's head, then routed the electricity back into the Kage, electrocuting and stunning him until Ascalon could sense his conscious mind retreat.
The entire encounter was brief and intense, lasting no longer than a full minute, but still attracted the attention of his sister, who brought the Kage in with Ascalon. Then restrained, the Kage awoke surprised to find himself still alive and unharmed. After attempting to question who he was and why he was there, Ascalon briefly explained he attacked out of surprise, that the Kage had approached his home, and that he meant him no harm. Initially, Ascalon had intended to keep the Kage there until Khalas had returned from his trip to the domains of Tantalus of the central part of the continent, information that he shared with Irabelle who had been unaware. Careless and unaccustomed to having guests, let alone captives, Ascalon shared this information in earshot of the Kage, who ultimately overheard him, and it was then that he finally spoke, informing Ascalon and Irabelle that if his great-grandfather had departed to the holds of Tantalus, he was almost certainly dead.
Rattled, although unconvinced, Ascalon quickly inquired further, and finally the Kage began to speak, informing them that war had broken out between the warlords controlling the various cities of Tantalus. Without hesitation, Ascalon reached out empathically to sense any abnormalities in what the Kage spoke to him. In that, he was able to sense that, while the Kage did indeed speak in spite, believing he would be killed there and hoping to spell discord in his captors before it would occur, Ascalon did not sense deception or untruth. War had truly erupted across Tantalus, at least from the Kage's understanding. Although he could think of none more powerful than his great-grandfather, Ascalon could not enable himself to idly wait for Khalas' return, and drew a proposal to the Kage; freedom in return to being led to the province of Tantalus where his great-grandfather was to have traveled to. After some time of silence, the Kage agreed, as Ascalon expected he would have, but distrusting the Kage, Ascalon reached out in constancy when around him, and would continue to do so, to prevent himself from being done in by any attempts at deception along the way.
By nightfall, Ascalon had left the Cyclopean in his sister's care, and he along with the Kage set off through the Great Ukoni Desert. On the fourth day of their journey, Ascalon and the Kage had reached the outermost province of Tantalus, known as Telikos, which was where they had attained most of their information on the events that erupted across the dominion. After nightfall, Ascalon used the Force as his sight in order to most effectively and efficently stalk the soldiers garrisoned in the city, and did so until he found one that isolated himself from the others to release his bladder. In a burst of Force augmented speed, Ascalon ran from his place just outside the city until in but a few moments, he sped behind the unsuspecting soldier, and tightly bound him in a choke-hold and proceeded to grasp the man's head and forcefully probe his mind through telepathy. It was through this that Ascalon came to the knowledge of recent events, which he shared with the Kage after returning to the city's outskirts.
Tantalus had been divided between nine major warlords, with Telikos falling under the control of the warlord, Jurate. The others were Xalon, Gurnan, Hatados, Tenge, Asa, Ar'thum, Elaeos, and Dazu'gan. Each of them held armies under their control, and after the chaos of the initial conflict between the many warlords of Tantalus, these nine were the ones that survived and seized power from the aftermath. Nearly one hundred cities had been razed, leveled and pillaged if not outright destroyed. Thousands were dead, and tens of thousands more in the local warlord Jurate would have his outspoken plans realized; the annihilation of every army that stood against his own, as well as the sundering of their cities, people, and rulers. With no other relevant information, Ascalon released the now unconscious man, with the only conclusion that the world around him was nothing short of insane, and run by madmen. Disgusted and repulsed by the "outside world", Ascalon thought only about how he had hoped he would never have to venture to any place but his family's residence and the Cyclopean.
Returning to the city's outskirts to inform the Kage, who himself confirmed several details Ascalon learned, Ascalon told the Kage that they would move on. To his surprise, the Kage refused, claiming that the local chief of Telikos was weak and could be overthrown by another Force wielder. Ascalon refused, only to criticized by the Kage for not using his power to end the oppression right before him. The Kage's words chimed with Ascalon, who couldn't deny the terrible conditions he saw. The Kage convinced Ascalon that if his great-grandfather was a Force wielder, the chief may have information as well, meaning that bringing him down would serve two purposes. And with Ascalon on board, the Kage led them both through the city to the citadel where the chief resided. In contrast with Ascalon's expectation of utilizing stealth to infiltrate, the Kage took the frontal approach and charged before the entire city watching. And as he charged, so too did Ascalon.
In his charge, Ascalon stiffly struck his fists toward either side, as if striking the air, and two guardsmen charging at him were struck at the sides of their temples, as if struck with invisible blows to the head. Augmenting his speed, Ascalon ran ahead of the non-Force sensitive Kage, and with a single telekinetic blast, blew open the large citadel doors, allowing the two of them inside. Once in, the crowd of soldiers charged for Ascalon and the Kage, and his training took over. His eyes in that moment atrophied, and he saw only through the Force, causing his irises to glow white. As a soldier's blade fell over Ascalon, the young Force warrior fell backwards, and with an uppercut strike, kicked the soldier in the head, plunging him into the ceiling. Back-flipping from the encounter, Ascalon elbowed the ribs of another soldier a few meters behind him, launching him through the wall outside. As the soldiers clustered up, Ascalon leapt up with the Force, barrel-rolling until his feet touched the ceiling, and then forcefully launched himself back down in the center of the group, punching the ground as he released telekinetic energy in a cascade to knock them all away.
As another soldier came, Ascalon heightened his senses with Force speed, delivering eight blows in a flash of motion, four to the chest, three to the face, one to the neck, and then finishing with a swift kick to his hip, kicking the soldier into another. In that same motion, Ascalon turned his kick into a roundhouse against another approaching soldier, breaking his neck as the kick connected with the soldier's face. Then planting his feet again firmly onto the ground, Ascalon charged again with great speed as he tightened his fist and struck the lower abdomen of yet another soldier, who then burst into flames as his clothes and skin caught flame from Ascalon's use of convection. As he both burned and was knocked away, Ascalon used repeated bursts of speed in rapid succession, striking soldier after soldier with one blow as he set them aflame and knocked them away, appearing to teleport to the untrained eye. Suddenly then, a burst volley of green flash showered over him as he turned and stretched out his hand, "catching" and absorbing the bolts of energy as they came into contact with his body.
With the room almost cleared of melee soldiers, those armed with blaster rifles came into play, and Ascalon then relied more heavily than every on his senses, his sight through the Force, his perceptions of Force speed, and his precognitive reflexes. In an almost dance-like maneuver, Ascalon fell into a kata of sequences dodging what he could, and absorbing that which he could not, all the while keeping in motion to become as difficult a target as possible. Eventually the room began to flood with more soldiers, who in a break in firing, took up new positions to see that Ascalon would have no escape room. Inhaling deeply, Ascalon opened his mouth and unleashed a colossal Force-imbued shout at the crowd, blasting them all back through several walls until the entire group was pulverized out the back of the citadel wall. The shout was so loud, the entire city was able to hear of it, drawing crowds around the citadel from one end to the other. It was finally then that the chief, watching the entire time, had shown himself.
As a wielder of the Force himself, the chief, who revealed himself to be Farthux, inquired as to Ascalon's seeming lack of intent behind the attack. Upon inquiring about an old man who wielded the Force, Farthux revealed he had no knowledge of the man Ascalon sought, although his mind was shielded too well for Ascalon to sense deception or truth. Empathy had never been Ascalon's greatest gift, and he had not been trained well to pierce mental barriers, as there was never a need to do so among his family. Convinced he was holding back under the claim of ending his domineering tyranny, Ascalon confronted Farthux, who himself was a superb telekinetic, another less-than-strong suit of Ascalon's. The entire environment became the battleground as everything from tables and pieces of walls to stones plucked from the ground became projectile weapons.
At the inherent disadvantage, it took everything Ascalon had to survive the dervish of the telekinetic maelstrom swirling around him. Constantly being taken aback and kept off balance by the non-stop projectiles, Ascalon was finally struck when a dura-crete panel from the wall struck him from his side, slamming him into the wall back against the citadel. Splinters of metal pierced his side, causing blood to spill out over his abdomen. The shock of the pain almost blinded Ascalon, causing him to black out for a fraction of a moment before quickly utilizing the Crucitorn mediation form, calming himself and heightening his threshold for pain, numbing the searing sensation. Now revived, Ascalon telekinetically hurled the dura-crete panel away, and without a moment's hesitation, unleashed a storm of splintering telepathic energy. Changing the engagement to one where he could hold the advantage, Ascalon did not discriminate, and the surrounding crowd along with Farthux let out an outcry as their minds were wracked with pain.
Ascalon let out the telepathic wave for but a moment though, and it was all that he needed, as in that moment, he again surged the Force within him to lunge himself in a burst of speed, and focusing the concentration of his Force energy into his body, plunged his fist into, and through, the chest of Farthux, punching through his heart and body in a single, bloody strike. Farthux coughed blood as his body shivered in a death rattle, and fell limp. Ascalon pulled his fist back out of Farthux's body, and not yet noticing the audience that had been watching, looked back for the Kage, who himself was simply sitting cross-legged ahead of several corpses that lay dead with gashes over their bodies from being struck with blades. Upon seeing that he was alright, Ascalon came to his senses again, grimly and suddenly realizing that he'd killed the man he meant only to further interrogate.
Unnerved by the unusually brutal way he'd taken a life as he stared down at the corpse of Farthux, and then at his bloodied hand, Ascalon glanced up and about as he saw the crowd of people staring at the ruins of the citadel. With his powers primed from battle, Ascalon could feel the overwhelming emotion flowing from them; fear, anxiety, even awe to a degree. But as he fully expected them to turn and flee in terror, the most unexpected thing occurred; the inhabitants of Telikos gathered around the rubble of the ruined citadel and let out a cheer that shook fires around them. Some cried, many hollered, and the Kage walked up behind Ascalon, asking him if he felt it was worth the price to see freedom for the people again. And in that moment, Ascalon had almost entirely forgotten about his great-grandfather, and became enthralled by the affection being displayed toward him, although he regained his composure soon after.
It was then that the Kage offered Ascalon a new deal from their first; he would accompany Ascalon to each new town in search of Khalas, and in return, Ascalon would help to liberate the city were it under oppression. And Ascalon agreed. It was then that the Kage finally revealed his identity; Daxom Kreed - a rare individual of Endelaan, who held a family name, and once lived at the center of the civil war of Tantalus. From that point onward, Ascalon spent many weeks with Daxom, traversing from town to town and from city to city, engaging and confronting chiefs and warriors of the nine factions of the Tantalus warlords while gathering whatever information he could find on the whereabouts of Khalas. It was not long, scarcely a few months in passing, before the reputation of Ascalon and Daxom began to emerge as rumor of two freedom fighters against the old warlords. The first was known as a master swordsman wielding swords of lightning, and the second as a man with a voice that could unleash terrible and mighty shouts.
While his name was something unknown to the mass, as a figure, Ascalon had achieved renown and praise, dethroning tyrant after tyrant in what most assumed was a war being waged for freedom. Ascalon had no intention of remaining within Tantalus any longer than he needed, although because his reputation made traversing Tantalus easier among the citizens that favored him, he saw fit to leave the mistaken impression of him in place. With rumors fermenting and spreading about, insurrections rippled about throughout Tantalus, specifically Jurate's holdings, spurring an inevitable increase in oppression. In an event called "the Culling", Jurate ordered the execution of a relatively small town, brutally slaughtering nearly eight thousand people as a message of the price of uprising. Initially, Ascalon felt little beyond normal humane pity for the fates of such ones, but a new interest took hold when rumor of an old man that had allegedly managed to rescue several families from the Culling. Without haste, Ascalon made way to the ruins of the now purged town, arriving almost six days after the news reached him.
Reaching out with the Force, Ascalon attempted to absorb any imprints in the Force etched in the surrounding area, an ability his great-grandfather had told him about, but never taught him. Psychometry, it was called, but in spite of Ascalon's best efforts, the concept was too alien to him, too unfamiliar. While he could not sense past events that occurred in the area, Ascalon did not despair, and searched restlessly through the Force from some trace of his great-grandfather's presence having been there. And finally, after hours of meditation and scouring, a trail was indeed found. With a firm hold on Khalas' Force imprint in the area, Ascalon reached out in the Force to track and trail the trajectory of where the presence in the Force veered off to; in his mind, this was the mark of the end of his journey, although drew new worries. Ascalon was bonded through the Force with his sister and great-grandfather. That bond allowed themselves to easily sense one another's presence - indeed, it allowed Ascalon to stay in telepathic communication with Irabelle on multiple occasions to confirm Khalas hadn't returned. That his great-grandfather was still alive and yet could not be sensed - and hadn't even called out to them - unnerved the young man.
Gathering Daxom, who had become a brother in battle over the months with Ascalon, the two then set out to follow the Force trail of Khalas. It was a journey of nearly two standard weeks of non-stop travel over rough terrain, and ultimately led them to the last place they'd hoped. Sicarius, the capital city of Jurate's domain.
Chapter V: Betrayal and Self-Exile
Ascalon, beginning his self-imposed exile in the arctic Northlands
Chapter VI: The Taesar of the Northlands
Q'vakas, the Taesar Savant who becomes Ascalon's second instructor in the secrets of the Primal Force
Chapter VII: Return to the Cyclopean
Ascalon returning to the Cyclopean with Irabelle to find the Chamber of Twilight
Chapter VIII: Avatars of the Twilight
The Avatars of the Twilight, Ascalon's final instructors on mastering the Primal Force
Chapter IX: Advent of the Blazing Chain
Thorr Ivonus, Adacap of the Shadows and Blazing Chain
hbgh
Chapter X: I, Savant
Ascalon meditating in the Chamber of Twilight before the final battle with the Blazing Chain
RP Sample:
I know you've got a couple other WIPs kicking about, I just wanted to ask if you're still working on this guy?