Astrid Blackspyre

[tenkalus]

Character Name Full Name •Astrid Blackspyre Nickname • "Iron Hand" Race • Epicanthix Birthplace •Panatha Age • 19 Gender • Female Sexuality • Hetero Faction • Sith Concept • Apprentice - Cult of Strife Languages • Epicant, Basic, Sy Bisti  Assets • Cortosis weave Gauntlets and Bracers Appearance Face Claim • Alyssa Sutherland Height & Weight • 6'1'', 205 lbs Overall Looks • Black shoulder length hair (typically braided and tied up for combat), dark brown eyes and comely facial features. She wears her hair long most of the time, to hide the slave branding on the back of her neck. She also tends to wear loosely sleeved tunics and garments to hide the chiseled muscle she has maintained throughout her body. Falling in line with Epicanthix standards, Astrid puts equal emphasis and pride in her combat training, and physical appearance. She is a pretty young woman who sometimes understates her beauty by lack of cosmetics or accessories, but is nonetheless quite stunning if she takes time to prepare. Her eyes are slightly more narrow than a human woman’s, but without a comparison side by side it would be difficult to tell the difference. Astrid is very situational oriented. While very artistically creative, she tends to wear clothing and accessories that befit whatever situation she may walk into. While aboard a ship, she adopts a set of a simple gray or black coveralls, and keeps her hair loose but professional. When attending any officially sanctioned event, she will be found in elegant but tasteful clothing, which is never worn at the expense of practicality. And during battle situations, Astrid is usually found in a matte black, flex-form bodysuit and standard armor to protect her vital organs. Due to her size however, “standard” armor tends to be of a slightly heavier design for normally sized people. Given her musculature however, she is able to remain quite dexterous without being over-encumbered. Personality Profile Quiet by nature, not prone to great outbursts unless pushed far enough, and at one time an easy spirit. But given the weight of events in her life, Astrid has shifted from a cool and calm individual to a certifiable rage monster only a stone's throw from snapping at any moment. When she experiences true emotions, they tend to be extremes. She is slow to trust, but when trust is earned it is absolute. When loyalty is given, it is given utterly and completely. And while not an overt supporter of the Order in which she serves, silently, Astrid believes fully in the ideals of Imperial service, and happily embraces the merger of Empire and Sith forces. She believes that too many traditional Sith have perpetrated the schism which has historically led to their demise. IE, overly aggressive bids for top seat, and inspiring fear amongst subordinates and peers through violence. While she is indeed a fighter by her very nature, the tactician in her sees a different path to victory outside of slaughtering everyone in her way. Astrid’s mantra is that she gains power to better herself, for the betterment of all. She merely wants to be strong enough to defend her ideals and let someone else play politician. Like most members of her species, Astrid is genetically predisposed to be resistant to Force-based mental attacks. As such, she tends to be a bit naive when it comes to the use of them, as she has never been subject of a successful attempt at control, or subjugated to the subtleties of a Mind Trick. Having been the focus of a joke or two during her time at the Sith Academy (given her size, stature, and birthplace at the edges of known space), Astrid has become something of a stoic and protector of the weaker candidates flowing around the Sith ranks. While she herself is not at all what one would consider weak in the Force, to her detriment, she finds it difficult to tap into the energy of the cosmos at will. Because of her homeworld being distant from coreward worlds where “civilization” is heavily cultivated, Astrid has often been seen as beneath the social elite who come from prestigious and powerful families. Due to that, Astrid Blacksprye sincerely enjoys showing wouldbe aristocrats exactly how “galactic yokels” deal with their problems. It usually ends in broken furniture and trips to the med center… Astrid Blackspyre employs a unique fighting style not common among her Sith brethren. While not completely hopeless with a sword or training saber, her strength lies more in her body, and as such, she has developed a hand to hand style that breaks the defensive ring of lightsaber wielding opponents. Utilizing cortosis weave gauntlets and bracers, Astrid is able to effectively block a lightsaber with her arms and fists for a limited time as she works into a zero range, where opponents are not able to swing a weapon effectively. Because of her lack of ranged acumen and heavy emphasis on martial arts, Astrid becomes a bit of a berserker in combat, which is highly effective at dealing damage to enemy forces, but in turn also leaves her generally exposed to punishment herself. In her quiet moments, Astrid finds comfort in sketching armor designs or just drawing in general. Art is an important part of her mental balance, which keeps her calm and focused when she needs to be. Background Father • Xephael Blackspyre, (Deceased) Former Panathan warrior of renown Mother • Yuulara Blackspyre, (Deceased) Overall History •  Astrid Blackspyre was born to be a soldier. Very early on, she was reminded by total strangers on her homeworld that her father was on of the best warriors their military had ever seen, both in physical and mental prowess. Indeed, Xephael Blackspyre was every bit the conquering hero that their people were known for. But what the people didn’t know about Xephael, was that he was also a loving and doting father. When not in battle, Xephael would be at home, teaching his daughter how to defend herself with both mind and fist. At age 6, Astrid was competing in fighting competitions and coming out on top due in no small part to her father’s instruction. It seemed that Astrid was going to follow in her father’s footsteps and one day become a great warrior that her people could look up to and depend on. But history has a funny way of making legends. One does not become a wartime hero, without first making enemies. Such was the case of Xephael Blackspyre. Along the road of the Epicanthix peoples assimilation of certain cultures they had conquered, the Blackspyre name had circulated to ears that were looking for revenge. And so it was that Astrid’s career as a rising star and daughter of Panatha, came to a screeching halt when one day she went missing and the rest of her family were found dead in their home, having been killed while they slept. Astrid herself was kidnapped and beaten daily to aid in her abductors “healing process” as they called it. Every day they took their frustrations at losing their home out on the young girl, who only seemed to survive the beatings by sheer force of will alone. She was a warrior, and the daughter of Xephael Blackspyre. She decided that she would not be defeated by cowards and thieves. Eventually, her captors grew tired of the extra mouth they were having to feed and inevitably sold her into slavery for a paltry sum. For the years that followed, Astrid bid her time as much as possible. She learned from her surroundings, picking up a trade language common in the Unknown Regions, and kept in shape when no one was paying attention. She filled out as a woman and while certainly of average height for her people, at 6’1 she began to tower over females of the human variety, thus making her stand out in her immediate surroundings. As she grew stronger, her masters began to worry about the potential of a revolt. Their slaves started to embolden themselves when they saw the younger Astrid and her fiery spirit. So it was, that Astrid was sold again. Only this time, she was sold into hard labor. Astrid was sent to an asteroid mining colony in the Outer Rim and spent the following three years mining gems for a shady business conglomerate. The three years of physical labor did little to the teenage Blackspyre except hone her muscle further until her arms (while physically not all that large due to Epicanthix physiology) became as honed and etched as the stones she was pulling from the rock around her. When at age 16, Astrid had finally had enough of living in bodage, and began to devise an escape plan. She was going to make a break for freedom. It was merely a shadow of a hope, but she continued to nurture the thought that one day, she wouldn’t have a shock collar on her neck and would breathe free air again. Her plan was set in motion much earlier than she intended however. A short time after she had begun preparations for escape, an Imperial patrol made a pass through the system and caught wind of the illegal mining operations therein. Stormtroopers flooded the asteroid and filled the facilities and caverns with chaos and blaster fire. Astrid tried to take advantage of the situation by attacking her captors in the confusion. It seemed like things were looking up, as her body remembered its early lessons and dispatched the lesser trained thugs like a water dancer striding across a pond. In some cases, she broke the bones of her enemies as easily as if she were snapping twigs. She took them down with the physical strength that they had imposed upon her. It was all going so well, until a guard finally came to his senses and stopped trying to fight an escaped slave, and instead activated her shock collar. And as quickly as her break had started, it was over in a flash. The guard just laughed and turned up the power on the collar, intending to kill the young woman, and it was there, writing in pain and screaming for him to stop, that Astrid Blackspyre found a new kind of strength that she’d never before known. The pain and anguish and sorrow coursed through her until she subconsciously reached her hand out to the guard and released everything she was. In a surprise move, it seemed as though the electricity from the collar funnelled through her arms and intensified tenfold as it escaped her fingertips. The guard was caught off balance and unawares with the new assault and the power of the Force Lightning took him off his feet. She continued screaming at the top of her lungs as she regained the ground beneath her and continued pouring her pain through her fingers and into the guard, who by that point was already a blackened husk. When it was over, Astrid dropped back to the ground and didn’t expect to wake up again as the darkness took her. Fortunately for her, an Imperial soldier had reported what he’d seen, and instead being resigned to death, Astrid woke up free of her shock collar, and on a transport bound for the Sith Academy. The Empire had saved her, and made good on their new relationship with the Sith. The lightning was not something that Astrid had been able to replicate since the mining asteroid, and in fact, she seemed quite weak in her command of the Force despite her mental discipline. And while exceptionally talented in hand to hand combat, she seemed downright clumsy with a practice saber. Her hardships did not end between slavery and the Sith Academy. To other acolytes, she was nothing more than a lucky slave, jumped up from her station and lot in life for a shot at the big time. She was nothing to them, and became the subject of many wampa or wookie jokes due to her size. Her Outer Rim accent also marked her as beneath them socially and her meager command of the Force made her laughable. It wasn’t until a certain Sith Lord arrived to the Academy, having just returned from assignment, that Astrid’s stars seemed to change. The Chiss had heard of Astrid’s story and on a whim, engaged the young woman in a brief conversation about her circumstances. After the short conversation, the two went their separate ways, much to Astrid’s growing despair. It wasn’t until a few days later that the Chiss Sith found her again, and gave her a task. He told her that one of her fellow acolytes had recently stolen a precious stone from his personal collection, and that he wanted her to investigate and get it back for him. Astrid meekly accepted the task and quickly deduced by proximity and process of elimination, who could have possibly had access to the stone, given their tasks within the recent days. She narrowed the suspects down to four within a few hours and caught them in the mess hall, all taking lunch together. As one would expect, the Acolytes did not take kindly to being questioned. A fight inevitably broke out and the four suspects started beating mercilessly on Astrid as academy instructors simply watched. Blackspyre tried to use her barbed training sword to stave off the onslaught but almost immediately had her weapon knocked from her grip. The group had her on the ground and continued kicking and striking her over and over again. But she’d had enough. Astrid had tried her best to do things the Sith way, to learn their strength by their rules. But she was a Blackspyre at heart. She cultivated her own strength. One final strike of a training sword fell upon her. Only this one landed square in her waiting palm. The pain was unbelievable, as such training weapons were tipped with a local venom that burned on contact. But she didn’t care. In an instant, her strength returned as the raw power of the Force flowed into her limbs. The attacking acolyte tried to rip his weapon free of her bloodied grip, but found it was held fast, as though stuck in stone. Astrid attacked the weapon itself, bringing her opposite palm down on the base of the blade squarely, with enough force to snap the weapon in half accompanied by a battle cry. This one strike mingled with her physical power would later follow her, as individuals who had seen the event would immediately begin to refer to her as “Iron Hand” But then time melted away as she fell into the familiar dance her father had taught her. Students were thrown across the room and over (but occasionally through) furniture, with the power of her muscle and only a small touch of the Force itself. Arms and noses, and shins and wrists were broken as her body descended into its battle sleep and instinct and training took over. Joint locks and pressure points were all known to her on an instinctual level. When it was all over, she was bruised, and bloody. Her face was puffy on one side from that same burning venom in her hand, and one of her eyes was swollen shut. But retrieve the stone, she did. She limped back to the Chiss who had been watching the scene unfold, and returned his property to him, a purple Hurrikane gem, she realized. One she’d seen many times before in likeness in her time in the mine. She found out much later that the entire scene had been set up by the Chiss. And that it had been a test to see if she had any worth. “You are raw and unrefined. Your weapon technique is a joke, and you need to learn how to guard your face....” he’d said to her then. “But you have potential. Come with me, Apprentice. I have much to teach you.” And so for the past three years, Astrid Blackspyre has been slowly growing in her abilities in a more intimate setting, one on one with her new Master. A Master, of which she knows saved her life, and showed her how to be strong. A Master, she didn’t mind at all calling, Master.

[Meira]