Hoth: Blood and Ice

[Darth Bellious]

There will be recaps and reveals, but if you want some early answers, hit me with them!

[Darth Bellious]

A sneak peek: remember that guy? He was Zakuul.

• Valorus Dooku was born as the second son of Count and Countess Dooku at the turn of 38th and 37th century BBY.
• His planet Serenno at that time was an independent world initially colonised by renegade Tionese nobles at least a thousand years earlier, probably in the wake of the fall of the Old Sith Empire; it had trade relations with the Republic due to proximity of the space lanes, but wasn't a part of it at any point; it had briefly been a battleground during the wars of the 40th century BBY but then returned to independence
• Isolation from grand politics of the galaxy established internal power struggles between six dominant noble families as the norm for Serenno; shifting alliances, court intrigues and succession crises were commonplace even though teachings on noblesse oblige and chivalry persisted in its oligarchic politics.
• By all accounts, Val was born at one of the worst times; House Dooku had secured some wins but had an alliance of other Counts against it. He was a prodigy, honourable, smart, good with the sword, and experiencing some connection to the mysterious phenomenon called the Force. His elder brother Basileus Dooku was both jealous of him and anxious to take the reins of power from their father but assumed that as long as his younger brother existed, he was a potential candidate for the opposition to rally against his plans.
• Val was just shy of his twenties when Basileus dared a palace coup; the young one escaped the assassins and tried to flee to another house, but was instead found by a Jal Shey mentor who had arrived at the planet to broker a peaceful resolution to the conflicts between nobles. Seeing no hope for that, he decided to spirit Val away and groom him to become a man worthy and capable of exacting peace and unity on Serenno one day.
• Val travelled the Outer Rim with his surrogate father and teacher, following his pacifistic and empathetic creed on dealing with social strife and the quest to understand the world. Naturally, the Force was the central consideration, and both visited many a place where the Force could be studied.
• However, the rise of the Sith Empire made explorative travels much harder and peace-making efforts in the Outer Rim much more futile. In fact, the Sith took full advantage of the internal divisions on Serenno and quickly subjugated it, playing houses against each other, and it was Basileus who had invited them, assuming in his hubris that he could outmanoeuvre them. For Val and his Mentor, it was time to part ways. No longer a Neophyte, the noble, then in his thirties, adopted the name Valedictorion, having assumed the Jal Shey rank of Advisor. At that time his understanding of the Force, unshackled from the polar perspectives of the Jedi and the Sith, was significant.
• He returned to Serenno, trying to make peace with his brother, but that was to no avail. Embittered by his loss of real power, Basileus couldn't rein in the hate against his sibling. The secret attempt to broker a common front among the noble houses failed, and Val had to flee, chased by the Sith.
• Disillusioned by the experience, he decided to leave the known part of the galaxy altogether and try to help rogue communities emerging beyond the star maps, in the Wild Space. This is where he learned to appreciate life, learned to play saxophone and enjoy jizz. However, the Force ultimately guided him to the world of Odessen, a powerful nexus, where he remained to study it, living as a hermit for a time. There, he was discovered by the Scions of Zakuul and brought to the attention of the Eternal Empire.
• That was a revelation. The ethos of nobility, strength, order and justice as well as great destiny for the chosen provided a fresh impetus in his life where Jal Shey teachings had ingrained too much doubt and relativism as well as had proven to be ineffective in application in a war-torn galaxy. He desperately needed something to believe in, and so he embraced Zaakul teachings, becoming one of the Knights. He didn't truly abandon his commitment to the primacy of diplomacy and negotiation, but he recognised that strife was needed to shape character, and enforcing peace required power. Eternal Empire held the promise of breaking the ideological deadlock between the Jedi and the Sith.
• He helped the Eternal Empire expand in the Unknown Regions, fighting against violent xenos who couldn't be reasoned with, learning to be the leader of men and the more cynical aspects of statecraft. This is where the news of his brother's execution at the hands of the Sith after he had revolted against them reached him. Heartened by Basileus' redemption and feeling the call of destiny to regain his birthright, he prepared for his return to Serenno. To that aim, he received some military support from the Zakuul as well as means to enlist one of Mandalorian warlords to provide an edge in his confrontation with the Sith occupants.
• None of those would have been sufficient if he hadn't reached out to other Serennian noble houses to broker a new compact with them, based on power-sharing and solidarity. And none of that would have been possible still if not for his preternatural charisma that silenced squabbling and shattered resentment and stubbornness. The Sith, being depleted from their fight against the Republic, had already started losing control of their domains in the Outer Rim, though Serenno was too important to give up easily. Still, a well-timed and executed uprising deposed the Sith government, and Val slew the Sith Lord in charge of the sector himself. As the treaty of Coruscant was negotiated, an independent aristocratic regime on Serenno emerged, with the new Count Dooku receiving the nominal rulership of the planet as Count Serenno, though other houses' interests were also satisfied as they assumed important functions in the government.
• Still, Count Serenno realises that his trump card of being a member of the grand empire meant to end all petty disputes may not come into play soon enough for Serenno not to fall victim to Sith retaliation. For the time being, he has departed his planetary fief to join a festival on Alderaan, a world quite similar to his own in its aristocratic politics, to seek advantageous arrangements with the local nobility, including a political marriage. Throughout his life, he has had little true opportunity for romance, so despite his age it is going to be new to him, even as the priority remains to start forming a broader league of nobles who could help usher a new era in the galaxy. He agrees with Senya Tiral that Alderaan has potential.

Alas, I didn't stay in the game long enough to make any of this really relevant.

[Baesal Zyn]

Le gasp!

[Katarzyna Panteer]

What does the future hold for Moyr, Oddyn, and Valorus? Will they survive the war?

[Baesal Zyn]

Your turn girl!

The moment of the biggest satisfaction?

The biggest regret, now that everything is set and done?

The most unnerving unfinished business?

The biggest self-inflicted facepalm that made curses fly?

The biggest WTF/screen-spitting moment?

[Pipka]

I enjoyed the Count quite a bit. If Jocasta hadn't been a contender for the Prince's favor or if at least things had been better off on Alderaan and she wasn't so motivated to get in there and try to break the cycle and encourage some stability, she would've pursued the Count if he was open to it.

Not sure how things would've played out once it came to light he was affiliated with the Eternal Empire. While she goes hard for Alderaan and the Republic it helped found, there are things about Zakuul that would be appealing to her as well. The whole invading others to bring into their utopic society would probably not fly for her.

Considering their very strong personalities and convictions, how do you think an encounter between Count Serenno and Moyr would go?

[Darth Bellious]

I enjoyed the Count quite a bit. If Jocasta hadn't been a contender for the Prince's favor or if at least things had been better off on Alderaan and she wasn't so motivated to get in there and try to break the cycle and encourage some stability, she would've pursued the Count if he was open to it.

Not sure how things would've played out once it came to light he was affiliated with the Eternal Empire. While she goes hard for Alderaan and the Republic it helped found, there are things about Zakuul that would be appealing to her as well. The whole invading others to bring into their utopic society would probably not fly for her.

Considering their very strong personalities and convictions, how do you think an encounter between Count Serenno and Moyr would go?

Actually, between Jameela and Jocasta becoming out of reach for noble colligating, this was a big reason why I succumbed to rl pressures and slipped from the game. Let it be the measure of the Count's openness to it. I don't know how it would play out, but he would make it mediated by his noblesse rather than cynicism. In his lifetime, it is the only third path between the Republic and the Empire. It is perfectly possible that it would Jocasta who would sway him into Republic fold in the end. We'll never know.

As cheesy as it is to admit, my Dapperverse characters share a certain core. Moyr could understand his thinking because she can empathise with some of Val's core principles even if she'd never go with the Eternal Empire herself. There's some analogy to the Aphr situation. Moyr is a proselytiser of the Sith Code given chance as Pipka experienced herself, she'd at least probe him with that. I think Val would be far less forthcoming than her though, because of her Sith label and his own well-grounded convictions. His beef with the Sith was real. It would very unlikely come to blows though, as he detests wanton violence, due to his Jal Shey background. Just a sort of moral-philosophical-political standoff.

[Darth Bellious]

What does the future hold for Moyr, Oddyn, and Valorus? Will they survive the war?

Still waiting for roll results. Will share it then!

[Darth Bellious]

Your turn girl!

The moment of the biggest satisfaction?

The biggest regret, now that everything is set and done?

The most unnerving unfinished business?

The biggest self-inflicted facepalm that made curses fly?

The biggest WTF/screen-spitting moment?

1. There are several comparable, for different reasons. Getting a kyber on the very first day on Korriban through determination vindicated her as a future Sith. This 'you have already won' Dapper said off-handedly at some point stuck as a motto. Becoming a Darth was the conclusion of that path and felt good for crowning the consequence. Dantooine Rebellion enabling the Sacking of Coruscant is in its own basket as the thing that has always kept me going in campaigns is story relevance, and this felt as multiple mission accomplished due to Moyr's private revenge against corrupt Republic elites, anarchistic ideologies, and just being the kind of Sith that can do it. In fact, it made coming to Hoth a way to be at the end of the story, rather than for finding any sort of confirmation any more. However weird it can sound, Moyr at this point is content in departments Sith power-grabbers are not, and she's been seeking other developments and closures than aggrandisement. It is perhaps the only time I played a character whose place in the world was what they wanted it to be?

Ah, and I full-modded that crystal throughout 4 games, on 2 green, making it a legendary sabre for the ages, DR10 CR1 VIcious3 Linked1 thing. Hope some future Sith will make better use of Passion than I ever did.

2. For Korriban, investing myself in love drama that ended badly. For NS, losing the mask. For Ziost, killing Shae Vizsla. For Hoth, not being there for Valkorion reckoning. On OOC level, losing Dur as apprentice due to lack of overlap in game appearances.

3. Depending on whether Moyr lives or dies, and how will Dapper implement her end goal, that may be it. Otherwise, I think she might be the first character that has got to completion.

4. Initially, Korriban love situation, but I have long got over it and was happy to play this game in a way that reflected it for Moyr. If anything, it made the whole effort worth it as it led to Moyr and Syl to come to terms with each other and turn it into a relationship I was feeling good about. While Moyt turns into a ball of bad feelings after his death, this time it is just staying true to the character. So killing Shae Vizsla, probably. I have never felt even remotely fine about it, also because I cowed to Vitiate's ultimatum there. But I curse a lot before my monitor so there were many other smaller cases of spicy self-derision.

5. Dynos Val soaking my Linked damage and demolishing me and you, and cyberwampa doing the same here. Made me feel like I just couldn't accomplish anything cool with my sabre at all throughout the games, even when I finally got the dicepools.

[Darth Bellious]

So, Moyr rolled alive, Serenno rolled alive, Oddyn rolled dead. I developed different versions of a story in which their fates intertwined in my head for other combinations of alive/dead while I was waiting for DD to make those rolls. This is the one that resolves things:

https://hoth.fallenash.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=915

[Zeno Thul]

Moyr was a fun read and a good companion when we got to work together. If Zeno had stayed in the empire he'd be espousing Sith rhetoric still too. Might have even asked her if she wanted to kill his father with him. Patricide is the coolest!

It's too bad nobody ever really used Zeno's obsession with loyalty as a tool to manipulate him (outside his father). Moyr probably was the most likely to have seen it for the opportunity it was and just never did.

I feel like Moyr's view of him probably shifted a fair amount from a negative initial opinion that improved significantly with each time he agreed to work with her for nearly no prompting or reward. Is that relatively accurate?

For him, she was a friend, and nothing she ever said or did was worse than the sometimes brutal razzing he'd get from fellow Deathwright trainees. So he was always up for breaking things with her. While he didn't shout the code from the rooftops, he still tended to live according to it almost effortlessly.

[Darth Bellious]

Moyr has ever appreciated camaraderie, and from our earliest exploits together Zeno has been a buddy. She never had too much of the 'exploit trust for your advantage' thing in her so she was glad she'd found a fellow team player. Back in Korriban she knew what she roughly wanted from her life but she was also stupid about many things. Zeno as someone reliable was a good anchor. A lot of things she accomplished wouldn't have been possible without him and she saw it for what it was. NS was the golden age of our close cooperation. They saw eye to eye on some ruthless Dark Side agendas, something Moyr couldn't say about pretty much anyone else. And his departure for the Republic was a big downer. If he'd ever asked for her help in the patricide thing, she'd have assisted. She had equally shitty parents.

All in all, Moyr will forever remember Zeno as a friend, and count the relationship as one of few relationship successes in her life.