Darysi

[hugo]

Darysi Firelords of Vezon Children of the White Flame Name • Darysi (lit. "the people") Type • Near-Human Home World • Vezon (adoptive); Lentyn (original, uninhabitable)  Influence • Darysi are mostly located on their adopted homeworld of Vezon in the Inner Rim, but can be found in small numbers throughout the galaxy.  Dignitaries and merchants are not an uncommon sight in Republic space.  The lion's share of offworld and expatriate Darysi, however, are nedresy, young sons of minor aristocrats or illegitimate offspring who seek fairer prospects among the stars.  They can most often be found as mercenaries, entrepreneurs, explorers, and pioneers of various stripes.  All in all, the vast majority of Darysi are found within the Vezon system or settled in small pockets on nearby worlds, notably Coruscant and Corellia.  Darysi are not a rare sight in the ranks of the Republic military, often serving as officers and strategists.  They are, however, almost never found among the Jedi, owing to centuries old distrust and moral disagreements. Ethos •  Honor, family, and custom represent the most important themes of the Darysi ethos.  What they see in themselves as poise, pride, and persistence, others see as condescension, vanity, and brutality.  They are a warrior culture, with strong, aristocratic roots and are thus quite traditional.  Their faith, Enebyon Shakari or the White Flame, also plays an important role in Darysi society, though it is not a proselytizing religion and is relatively libertine in its moral strictures.   Allies • Galactic Republic  Enemies • Mandalorians, the Sith Empire Rivals • Jedi Order Ecology Darysi are in many ways similar to their human cousins, with a handful of notable distinctions. They are of Sephi, Human, and, some researchers believe, Arkanian, origins.  From their ancient Sephi ancestors they inherited enhanced lifespans, with the average Darys' lifetime being between 160-180 years, and pointed, albeit less prominent, ears.   White, silver, or platinum blonde hair is most common among the Darysi, a peculiarity usually attributed to their Sephi and putative Arkanian heritage; more mundane shades of brown, black, and red are also not uncommon.    They are also normally fair skinned, though some have light pink or bronze skin tones.  Darysi eyes are most often violet, gray, yellow, green, or red, roughly in that order with red being the rarest.   Darysi exhibit somewhat greater sexual dimorphism than baseline humans.  Males are two to three inches taller on average than their Human counterparts.  Females, conversely, are generally shorter than Human women.   They are otherwise identical to Humans in stature and physiology, and can typically reproduce with most of their Near-Human relatives.  Darysi are physically mature at roughly 16 for females and 22 for males, though typically do not begin reproduction until their thirties at the earliest.  Females ovulate half as frequently as human women, so they tend to reproduce at much lower rates.   In addition to their genetic differences from baseline Humans, Darysi have several unique traits afforded to them by adaptation to the harsh environs of their homeworld.  Darysi are resilient to a wider range of temperatures than humans, though extreme heat and cold.  They also exhibit a higher metabolism than the average human and they consume larger amounts of protein.  Darysi sleep less as well, a healthy night's sleep being closer to six than eight hours, a peculiarity theorized to have resulted from Lentyn's short night.  Finally, Darysi have poor low-light vision, but can see farther and more clearly than most humans.  Culture What is Offisya?  Offisya, the Darysi word for duty, or obligation, is the organizing tenet of Darysi culture, politics, economy, and social values.  Offisya applies only to those of noble blood, and especially to those whose bloodlines have been touched by the wisdom of the White Flame, but affects every member of Darysi society.  Offisya encompasses three main duties incumbent upon those the Flame has guided to rule: Honor, Light, and Justice.  Honor encompasses the duty of nobles uphold their right to rule by martial accomplishment and bringing glory to the People, their liege, and themselves.  It includes an expectation of physical prowess as well as strategic and diplomatic accomplishment.  This drives many Darysi to serve in either the Republic or planetary armed forces, and is cause in part for the tumultuous and violent history of the Darysi people. Light represents aristocratic duties owed to the White Flame itself.  Among these duties are supporting the Circle by tithe or by serving in one of  several monastic orders, including the martial Knights of the White Flame or the mystical Firesinger Order.  Light also encompasses an obligation to patronize the arts, particularly music and poetry, both of which play major parts in the faith and in Darysi culture in general.  In addition to tithing and supporting artists, nobles are also expected to spend their considerable wealth advancing the sciences and maintaining public educational institutions.  If a noble family has multiple children and is of sufficient means, it is common practice for at least one of the children,  a Flametouched  if possible, to be given over in service to the Circle or one of its orders. Justice is the duty rulers owe to their subjects, noble and otherwise.  It demands that a ruler execute the law fairly and impartially, for the good of the domain as a whole.  It also requires him to maintain order, reasonable infrastructure so that commerce can grow; and certain baseline public services such as free healthcare and pensions for the disables and elderly.  Evasion of financial duties is common among the nobility, and has recently been met with harsh punishment by ecclesiastical and royal authorities in a stick-over-carrot effort to enforce offisya.      The Darysi and the Force The Darysi understand the Force through the context of their religion, Enebyon Shakari, or the White Flame in the Basic tongue.  The White Flame is somewhere between a deity and a mystical, impersonal entity that holds true knowledge.  This knowledge, which comes to the Darysi in the form of Force Visions, is known as the Flame Song, and is said to represent a fundamental, omnipresent truth that is beyond physical reality.  Darysi believe most beings are deaf to the Flame Song, and can only observe the shadows it casts in the form of certain ideals or values, such as beauty, valor, or justice.  Some individuals, however, are known as Shakarneesi, or Flametouched, and said to be directly in touch with the will of the White Flame.  They can manifest this with strange talents, such as producing and controlling fire and receiving dreams or visions that give insight into the future. Flametouched, of course, are Force Sensitives.  They are universally held in high regard, serving as military leaders, seers, and healers at different levels of society.  They are drawn from every walk of life, though many of the great noble houses of Vezon boast a long, unbroken line of powerful Flametouched, including the reigning House Valerys.  Families with such bloodlines typically enjoy great power and prestige.  That said, it’s not at all uncommon for Flametouched orphans, commoners, or unwanted bastards to be taken in and trained by an organization known as the Circle of the White Flame.   Members of the Circle serve as religious leaders, advisors, and, at times, crusaders.  Those born into Flametouched bloodlines may also be sent to the Circle to receive training, while others are instructed privately by tutors or family members.   While Flametouched are capable of being taught the ways of the Jedi or Sith, they generally are not due to historical conflicts and ideological differences with either.  The White Flame tradition emphasizes the study of elemental manipulation through telekinesis, specifically pyromancy.  They also specialize in divination, a key part of their training being based around meditation in hopes of gleaning some insight into the future  in the form of vivid dreams or visions.  They are also capable of using to Force to heal.  Beyond those areas however, most Darysi adepts have only a very basic understanding of other Force disciplines more common among the Jedi or Sith. Flametouched warriors normally employ their pyrokinetic abilities alongside precise swordplay or other melee weaponry.     Politics and Society Vezon is currently ruled under the Darysi Freehold, led by King Aemar II of House Valerys.  Political life is organized along feudal and aristocratic lines and Darysi society is heavily stratified. The monarch is technically an absolute sovereign and accedes by birthright, but effectively shares power with the heads of about a dozen important noble houses, whose financial and martial support he or she needs to maintain power.  These houses in turn govern hundreds of minor lords and barons on whom they base their support.  These lords do most of the day-to-day governing within their own fiefs, with more pressing matters of global importance under the control of the King or the greater houses.  Members of this class of nobility are “freeholders” or those that hold and control their own land. Noble titles and their order of precedence-   Aeksios- High King Askandyr- Prince Royal (children of past or present monarch) Hanaryssi- Archdukes/non-royal Princes/petty Kings (grandées of the leading houses) Aryssi- Dukes, Marquesses Syndissi- Counts Faeryn - Barons, minor Freeholders Syndar- Knights, minor nobles without holdings Governance is afforded to an ennobled elite by right of birth.  The vast majority of Darysi, however are commoners, divided into freemen and peasants.   The former make up the Darysi middle class, serving as soldiers, yeoman farmers, merchants, and clerics, though there is a growing subsection of freeman with greater wealth even than some lords. Peasants, on the other hand, officially serve their respective lord.  In practice, most peasants are free to choose their occupation and are spared from taxation, though they are not allowed to own real property.  A common practice among the Darysi is the Corvée, colloquially derided as the sweat tax, where rather than paying taxes, a lord’s peasants are obligated to perform public works or other projects.   Unlike freemen, commoners do not serve in the military or government, though Flametouched commoners of all stripes are eligible for the training, service, and socioeconomic advancement that the Circle provides to its members.  It is not at all uncommon for a lord or wealthy freeman to sponsor a commoner’s Force education in exchange for a period of service once their training is complete. Language The eponymous Darysi tongue is a melodic, complex language that became their common tongue by 10,000 BBY.  The letter y signifies a short e sound, so for example the male given name Haerys is pronounced like hare-eez.  Additionally, in Darysi the ‘r’ sound is always trilled, and they often have a hard time pronouncing Basic words with the untrilled r.  The “v” sound does not exist in Darysi, so all but the most fluent Basic-speaking Darysi have a hard time pronouncing it. Note- Darysi is heavily based off High Valyrian from ASOIF universe, with Russian Spanish Arabic Japanese and Latin influences. Most Darysi can speak Basic, though with a thick and distinctive accent, much like a Brazilian accent in English.  Like everything Darysi, however, language is the source of intense pride, and it’s considered unpatriotic to speak in Basic when on Vezon or with other Darysi speakers.  Conversely, Darysi consider it incredibly rude to exclude others from conversation due to language barriers, so they will speak Basic to foreigners and each other when foreigners are present out of respect.  Sex, Children, and the Family Family is central to the structure of the Darysi way of life.  Beyond day-to-day family affairs, much of a Darysi's life is dictated by what family he or she is born into.  All Darysi have a family name, which denotes their close relatives and immediate family. The typical family structure is a male head of the household, his two wives, and their children, who are raised in common.  Neither wife is considered more significant than the other, and Darysi custom dictates they be treated and loved equally. Polygamy has been a feature of Darysi life for thousands of years, originating in a period when a large portion of the male populace was killed in a series of brutal wars and has continued ever since.  It is an increasingly tolerated practice for a man to have a husband and a wife, or a wife to have two husbands, but this is highly frowned upon among the elite and in conservative circles.  Marriage practices are generally less restrictive for commoners than for nobles.   It is common for the higher nobility, who marry for power as much as love, to have official mistresses or paramours alongside their wives or husband. Children are coveted, and are never whipped or physically reprimanded.  Unlike many noble cultures, parents are expected to play an active role in rearing their children.  Darysi are considered children well into their thirties, and don’t enter adulthood fully until their fortieth birthday.  During these years, a noble would be educated and trained in either private academies or by private tutors.  Commoners of means attend private lyceums and later university, while the poor receive free, public education centered around basic subjects and technical education.  The children of freemen and low nobility are a common sight in the various military academies. Industry and Commerce The Darysi economy is diversified, with its principle industries being arms manufacturing, light shipbuilding, agriculture, and artisan exports.  Most major industries are operated as royally chartered monopolies, with a majority stake being held by the Crown. The agriculture industry is fueled by a robust system of peasant labor and indentured servitude (mostly by alien contract workers).  Vezon is also home to several large, professional mercenary companies that lend out their services to the highest bidder. Darysi armor is widely sought after for its lightness and durability, and vibroweapons made by the master craftsmen of Vezon are as renowned for their artfulness as their deadliness.  Arms manufacturing is controlled by Vezon Royal Battleworks, a planet-wide monopoly owned fully by the Crown.  VRB also produces and exports large numbers of assault carriers, armed transports, and hovertanks to both the Republic and private contractors.   Due to their long lives, working Darysi typically choose a craft and spend nearly a century of their lives honing and perfecting it, resulting in myriad, high skill export industries, notably glass making, cybernetics, and fine jewelry.   Naming Customs Darysi have three or four names: their personal name, their paternal name, maternal name, and House name if they are freeholders.  The paternal name is taken from the fathers paternal name, while the maternal name is taken from the mother’s paternal name. When women are married to a man, they drop their maternal name and assume their husband’s paternal name.  Many personal names are unisex, and it is not uncommon for a son to be named after his mother or a daughter her father.  Some common names are as follows. Male- Raelys, Raemar, Aelon, Samaender, Laerion, Vismyr, Haerys, Daemar, Lucan, Nylas, Gaelahan Female- Raelys, Aryssa, Samaenda, Cymella, Nylaenda, Maelynda, Zeryna, Sanaerys Recreation The Darysi are a competitive and war-like people, and nowhere is this on display more than in their games.  Noble boys and adolescents play games meant to prepare them for their duties as rulers.  Adults entertain themselves in much the same way other peoples of the galaxy do, with pazaak, alcohol, and gambling.   Gladiatorial combat is a traditional, but increasingly frowned upon, aspect of Darysi culture.  Most modern exhibitions are not fought to the death, though it remains a popular and dangerous sport.   Law and Order Judicial power is exercised exclusively by each freeholder over and within his domain, with the High King being the supreme appellate authority.  Some nobles take great interest in dispensing justice, while others use their position for corrupt gain.  In either case, most legal legwork is effectively done by a small class of educated clerks and lawyers, mostly minor nobility and freemen who could afford a robust legal education.  These "knights of the letter" often serve as appointed magistrates who sit in tribunals to preside over most disputes, with the most public and important of proceedings being adjudicated by the lord himself.  Law enforcement is also under the responsibility of each freeholder within his respective domain. The Circle has full control over family and estate disputes, and handles all investigations into Force-related crimes or allegations of heresy.  Increasingly, the King has delegated the responsibility of uncovering and eliminating corruption among the freeholders to the Circle's inquisitors in an attempt to promote transparency and impartiality. History The story of the Darysi begins not on their current homeworld of Vezon, but on the desolated Outer Rim world of Lentyn.  Originally discovered by human settlers from the Core, it was conquered in 12,000 BBY by the Force-sensitive Sephi adventurer Haerys the Great.  Haerys and his small cohort of Sephi warriors established a planet-wide kingdom known as the United Lentyn Freeholds, ruling through great noble houses headed by the greatest of Haerys' disciples.   During the millenia that followed, the people of Lentyn became so genetically intermixed and culturally distinct that they began to develop into a unique people, the Darysi.  In the years following Haerys' death, a constant cycle of war between his various successor states and their successors in turn.  This period of tumult and warfare, which lasted unabated for 5,000 years, forged the Darysi identity.  High casualties gave rise to extensive societal reforms, most visibly the gradual acceptance and eventual promotion of bigamy.  The Circle of the White Flamed emerged, initially as a mystical order of the most talented Flametouched, and quickly grew to be the dominant moral and social force among the Darysi.  During this period of infighting, sometimes called the Burning Years, Lentyn became a backwater, isolated afterthought to the wider galaxy.  It was officially closed to off-worlders in 5,976 BBY, which only widened their  technological and cultural rift with the wider galaxy.   In 5,201 BBY, the Long Red Night occurred.  The planet was at the time sundered into two main factions, each a coalition of various houses and their armies.  They met for the infamous Battle of Castaer's Gate, with hundreds of thousands of soldiers on either side.  Leading each army were the Flametouched scions of the opposing great houses.  At some point several weeks into the battle, an attempt by the greatest pyromancers to create a massive explosion meant to cripple the other side went grievously awry, creating a miles wide, all consuming flame that consumed both armies and, eventually, most of the continent.   Even with their greatest technological and mystical efforts, the lords of Lentyn could not extinguish the ravenous inferno, which spread across the land and consumed the centuries old, proud warrior civilization they had built.  It raged for years, killing a great number of the populace.  Initially,  the Darysi tried to stop the flames, but many believed the White Flame was punishing them for their hubris and wanton abuse of its gifts.   Spurred by a series of prophetic visions of a new world where the Darysi could start anew.  They thus began the Long Cold March, as nomads in search of their new home.  For a period of a few decades, they worked as roving mercenaries, fighting the wars of foreign princes to fund their exhaustive search.  Finally, in the year 5,158, they found it. Seers believed the system, which they named Vezon, literally "new star,' was the destination foretold decades before, and what remained of the Darysi civilization rushed to the planet to claim it as their new Lentyn. It was not unoccupied.  Though it had no intelligent life of its own, it was home to millions of colonists from around the galaxy, most Twi'lek, Ithorian, and Human refugees and escaped slaves.  They had built a fragile, anti-slavery republic in the preceding centuries, but had been suffering greatly at the hands of the nearby Mandalorians, who had set up a fortress on the world from which to extort tribute from the unprotected locals.   The Darysi came to Vezon not as liberators, but as conquerers.  Just as they were the descendants of off-world conquerors, the Darysi would take Vezon by force.  The War of Conquest lasted only three years.  The initial assault from the combined forces of the Darysi flotilla were too much for the meager naval forces of the Vezon Mandalorians, though fighting on the surface was brutal and dragged on long enough for several Mandalorian clans to join their brethren in an attempt to repel the flamebending, pointy eared invaders.  The war further decimated the already thinned ranks of the Darysi fighting population, but in the end they were able to secure an honorable peace and a clear victory.  Though the fighting was ferocious, indeed a struggle for survival on both sides, the Darysi and Mandalorians developed a deep, mutual respect for the others' martial prowess.  Respect would not keep the rival warriors at bay forever though. Initially happy to be free from their Mandalorian overlords, the locals were promptly subjugated by the labor and resource hungry Darysi.  A system of indentured servitude instiutionalized near slavery-like conditions on peasant Darysi and non-Darysi locals alike, a system that persists however tenuously today.  Aliens, including humans, are afforded very little in the way of political or economic rights, though they are officially afforded equal protection of the courts and are usually exempt from taxation, corvee, or conscription.   The millenia that followed was known as the Nine Golden Centuries, where the Darysi affected a cultural and societal renaissance as they reconstructed their battered civilization on a new, strange world.  The Circle flourished as new movements of philosophical and forceological thought and heavy involvement in the rebuilding process greatly added to its influence and prestige.  Seeking to avoid another cataclysm like the Long Red Night, the Circle formalized and restricted the curriculum of Flametouched students.  Music and epic poetry also flowered into a distinctive, if sorrowful, art movement.  Flametouched artisans began experimenting with Force-guided glassmaking, producing works of art and china for export.   The Nine Golden Centuries was also when Vezon joined the Republic, first as an associate, then as a full fledged member in 4,800 BBY, seeking technological modernization, trade opportunity, and, most importantly, allies in their sporadic conflicts with the fearsome Mandalorian clans.  This was an uneasy and unpopular transition, but was one of many political changes that came as a result of centralizing royal authority.  Under the nascent House Valerys, the current ruling house, King Daemar XV eneacted a series of reforms to noble privileges and political power designed to avoid the infighting that had set Darysi civilization back so many times and at such great expense.  A notable vestige of these reforms is the tradition of the second in line to the throne being appointed as Galactic Senator for life, an arrangement designed to keep royal ears close to the ground on Coruscant as much as it was to prevent potential rivals to the heir apparent away from the seat of power and safely out of the reach of intriguers and opportunists. The Mandalorian Wars were unkind to the Darysi, who suffered great casualties as the war raged on.  The inaction of the Jedi Council, with whom they already had a deep distrust and acute philosophical differences, further chagrined the Darysi, who felt their world was in grave danger of reconquest by the Mandalorians.  They enthusaistically served under Revan in his crusades, but were recalled to Vezon during the Jedi Civil War by order of the King, who did not wish to promote the Sith anymore than he wished to promote the Jedi.  Whatever animosity remains between the Jedi and Darysi today pales in comparison to the Darysi aversion to the Sith and Dark Side in general, which they view as a perversion of the perfect will of the White Flame from whom all force powers stem. In the period between the events of the Mandalorian and Jed Civil Wars and the latest conflicts between the Republic and Sith, the Darysi continued the process of rebuilding their lost glory.  Arms manufacturing became a major sector in this time, and orbital shipyards above Vezon were soon producing landing craft and assault transports and exporting them in large numbers.   Today the Darysi feel they've all but revived their proud kingdom, but tensions persist.  The intriguing machinations of the various Houses as they scrap and jostle for power and influence.  Even as political and economic power has increasingly been transferred from the myriad freeholders to the Crown or the Circle, political life on Vezon remains a dangerous game.  Controversy and discord are in no short supply, as various political factions debate the future of Vezon and the Darysi Freeholds as a whole.  Most are decidedly pro-war, eager to prove their martial prowess against the Sith Empire.  The majority of the freeholding populace is also in favor of war with the Mandalorians, who, respected adversaries or not, they see as threats to Galactic stability.  The large arms manufacturing and shipbuilding industries are also hawkish, for obvious, financial reaons.  Others, particularly those at the top of the political hierachy, are less bullish about war with either power, unconvinced it is a war the Republic is ready to win.  Calls for independence, not new by any means, have also seen a resurgence, though the Crown is quick to table any discussion of seceding from the Republic. Legacy Clause • Open to anyone who is interested in the event that I go inactive.  Also, feel free to send me your suggestions and critiques, and please take as many liberties as you'd like when making a Darysi character.

[Neology]