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Revised Sith Assassin Guide


Darth Nyrys

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Sith Assassin Guide

 

What are Sith assassins?

 

Assassins practice a blend of stealth, social, and mental powers to further the goals of the Sith from the shadows. Whether an assassin focuses on being an invisible killer, masterminding great political schemes, or driving their enemies mad through mental manipulation is up to the player. Assassins are also not limited to those archetypes, and this guide is more of a tool for inspiration and establishing themes than creating hard and fast rules or immutable character templates.

 

In more tactical/gamified terms, assassins tend to be lightly armored strikers and debuffers that kill through precision and exploiting vulnerabilities, and survive through speed and misdirection. Veteran players will be available and willing to mentor new writers that want to improve their craft, but assassins are generally recommended for experienced writers. Our current lead assassin is the Dark Lord Exodus.

 

Key concepts: Fluidity, misdirection, agility, adaptation, stealth, speed, power of perception, poison, mind games, multiple approaches, illusions, unexpected movement, invasive

 

Assassins and recurring themes

 

Politicking: While warriors and sorcerers incidentally gain political power as they pursue their endeavors, assassins often actively seek political power. This unfortunately makes other Sith quick to question whether an assassin deserves the position they occupy, especially when it comes to Sith lords, but by the time an assassin reaches master rank they are generally regarded as proven. While there absolutely are assassins whose ambitions exceed their capabilities, it is worth noting that assassins also have the most training and natural aptitude for leadership roles.

 

From an assassin’s perspective, they are the best suited to leadership, focusing on the larger picture, and are simply doing what is best for the Sith. Alternatively, an assassin may find a skilled warrior or sorcerer that lacks political savvy and offer to serve as council and emissary. In this way an assassin can advance themself through the rise of their ally while largely remaining in the shadows. These situations can be mutually beneficial as long as both Sith understand and respect the power dynamics and roles involved.

 

Mortal ties and fake lives: Assassins are more likely than any other type of Sith to keep or develop ties with people and organizations outside of the order, both to accrue power and to keep their social skills sharp. Pretending to be able to relate to lesser beings is a skillset that requires practice and upkeep. Some assassins also develop ties to serve as emotional fuel for their powers, or because the Dark Side makes using people for pleasure and personal gain so easy. Rarely, Sith will seek out lovers, family, or friends from their lives before the Sith order, but that often ends in tragedy.

 

Some Sith will maintain a family mimicking the motions others go through in advancing politically and professionally. Spouses in these arrangements are almost always either highly independent and occupied with their own lives, or so susceptible to mind tricks that their daily lives are almost like waking dreams of whatever patchwork false reality the Sith wishes to give them. Often these marriages and their offspring are treated as afterthoughts, unless any children possess Force potential, but some Sith cultivate them like gardens and compare them with other Sith in friendly competitions and wagers. Such games can quickly turn torturous or even deadly for the people caught in them.

 

Mind games and control issues: Sith assassins have a penchant for (or some might say obsession with) mind games, controlling the information available to and perspectives of people around them. As self titled masters of manipulation, assassins always want to feel in control, even if that control is not direct. They want to feel like everyone is a piece on a board that they can move when the time comes, and when they can do so, they want people to know who is in charge. On their more benevolent days assassins want to be considered solution finders and match makers, but that’s just the opposite side of the same coin.

When an assassin finds themself not in control of a situation, they tend to react in one of three ways, leaving the situation, hiding until they can understand the situation better, or doubling down on their skills of mind control and manipulation to force control over those around them, or at least the most susceptible person.

 

Showmanship: Assassins don’t just focus on results, they focus on how they can multiply the effect of those results through performance. They make difficult feats look trivial, and mundane actions look flashy. There is music in their steps and poetry in their plans. For many, they embody power, desire, intrigue, and temptation. The assassins have a reputation to maintain, and they expend a great deal of energy doing so.

 

Patience: More than the warriors or even the sorcerers, the assassins practice patience. Their games can play out over years or even mortal lifetimes. There is no bigger picture than the one that assassins focus on. This may make them seem indifferent to more immediate concerns and setbacks, but that’s only because they are.

 

Powers

Duelist’s cloak: An illusion power that focuses on concealing rather than deceiving, the duelist’s cloak let’s the assassin conceal his or her footwork and core stance behind a flowing illusionary robe that leaves them their full range of movement.

 

Phantom step: When the assassin dodges or disengages, for a split second multiple illusionary instances diverge in probable directions and maneuvers to foil attempts to predict the assassin, lead shots, or score attacks of opportunity. OOC( I want to emphasize again the brevity of the illusion here to specify that this is not to create a mid duel shell game, rather just to increase survivability while disengaging an enemy.)

 

Painful truths: The assassin uses illusionry to adopt the persona of someone known to the opponent, and speak with their voice. The goal of the power is not to deceive the opponent by adopting a false appearance (in fact the target often can intuitively detect the deception almost immediately), but rather to damage the enemy’s composure with uncomfortable truths and unspoken doubts. This power works best when the assassin either has been surveilling the target or has performed some sort of invasive mind reading attack.

 

Mind pick: This power lets the assassin project the victim’s mindscape onto reality. While in use, reality, memory, and imagination bleed together to make an amalgam scenario where the assassin can attempt to call upon painful memories or hunt for information by trying to prompt the target to think about it. (Originally this was going to be an opposed romp through the target’s mind with both parties oblivious to real world events, but there was too much potential for other participants in battles to gank one person or the other mid mindscape duel, either trolling or as part of an underhanded one two punch combo. Instead it’s a blend of mindscape and reality to allow both participants the ability to react to events nearby.)

 

Dreadful Morpheus: The assassin can deep dive into the mind of a sleeping or unconscious victim, devoting their full energies to exploring the depths of the dreamscape. While mind pick allows the user to peruse the surface of a target’s mind, dreadful morpheus allows the Assassin to actively dig for memories through neural pathways that connect thoughts and ideas, or to implant dreams into the victim’s psyche. Think of the connection between thoughts as like navigating wikipedia through links. The assassin must start somewhere unprotected, and outmaneuver the victim by approaching the information they need through an unexpected angle. With this power the assassin has a great deal of control over the dreamscape elements, similar to the monster from Stephen King’s It.(Since only the aggressor is making a gamble here with the other party already unconscious or asleep, I felt more comfortable with a deep dive here, rather than giving a player incap on demand.)

 

Gale Blade: Less a distinct power and more a refined aspect of telekinesis, this skill lets the assassin affect the arc that a blade or other weapon travels in when thrown. This should not be treated as a homing attack, but rather the ability to throw around cover or in a manner that returns the blade to the hand without sacrificing lethal momentum. The assassin should already be visualizing the arc before the blade leaves his hand. Gale blade also preserves the momentum of a throw even after impact.

 

Grasping Fetters: This simple ritual allows the assassin to treat a throwing weapon as the point of origin for telekinetic throws, holds, and pulls, allowing them to apply resistance from unexpected angles. Alternatively, the assassin can treat the weapon as sort of telekinetic grapple point to swing or redirect their movement with.

 

Shadow Lash: The assassin relies on distraction and controlling the battlefield, and this application of illusion exemplifies their ability to strike unexpectedly at range. The lash that the Sith appears to conjure allows them to deliver painful strikes with considerable reach. While the pain is illusionary, that makes it no less vicious to the senses of anyone struck. A Sith Lord can create more complex illusions where the lash touches, especially if it entangles a limb or weapon. Flesh might bubble or become covered in cancerous lesions, or weapons may rust and crack, it’s all a matter of personal preference.

 

Cloak of Lies: This illusion power allows the assassin to appear as someone that belongs in an area. It doesn’t replicate an existing person’s appearance, but rather just extrapolates an appearance of an appropriate look of a low key identity. For example, the Sith may look like a janitor, secretary, security guard, or office worker. The power doesn’t force people to believe that the Sith does in fact belong in the area (that’s the realm of a straight up mind trick), but it does lower the chances of people noticing them to begin with. This power works best in locations where staff or security are too numerous for everyone to know each other.

 

Sudden Reversal: The assassin uses the Force to form an invisible barrier momentarily for them to springboard off of, allowing rapid changes in direction, aerial course correction, and otherwise impossible maneuvers like double jumps. This power can also be used to reduce falling impact by breaking the descent into multiple segments rather than a long fall.

 

Sinister Brand: The assassin can mark a victim’s soul like ranchers brand cattle. The power is not a direct link, but rather an affliction of the spirit designed to be readily recognizable by the Sith that embedded it. Once a Sith has branded a person, it becomes significantly easier to pick them out in the Force. The more insight the assassin has into the person, the stronger the brand becomes, not only making them easier to track, but also metastasizing the darkness within. The weak willed find themselves becoming more ruled by their passions and less able to function with a clear and calm mind, eventually becoming slaves to impulse and their own dark desires. The iron willed (read PCs) won’t be dominated by the mark, but must wrestle with their own inner darkness more as the brand grows in power. It’s important to note that Sinister Brand does not appear as foreign or alien to non Sith that observe it, instead it appears to be someone losing control of their own demons.  

 

Empathic Delirium: The assassin unleashes a deluge of emotional energy onto the mind of a target, attempting to overwhelm the victim and throw them off balance in a fight or make irrational decisions while suffering from a state of severe emotional imbalance. The power can only project Dark Side related emotions like fear, jealousy, lust, and anger, and the more tone appropriate the emotion is, the more effective the power is. As with many other mental powers, understanding your target is key to getting the most out of this application.

 

Toxic chemistry: This power allows the assassin to manipulate a victim’s response to fear and excitement. The neurochemistry of a sentient brain has the same trigger response for both, and the brain tries to file it afterwards according to various parameters. By adjusting those parameters, the assassin can seduce with terror and make the victim fear healthy attraction to others. OOC(This power is meant more for use on NPCs to recruit cultists and PCs that have consented for the purpose of storylines, as always, ship responsibly and remember to respect other players’ boundaries.)

 

Lingering Doubts: A more subtle tool in the assassin’s mental arsenal, Lingering doubts allows the Sith to implant a thought, mental image, or short scenario into the victim’s mind, or tag a memory that the assassin knows of. Whichever route the assassin chooses, the power creates a small but nearly indelible mark in the victim’s psyche, causing the mental payload to be repeatedly brought to the surface of the mind. This is not a brute force mental attack, but rather the means to slowly make people question themselves or others, what they want, and who they are.

 

Shadow Step: The assassin is adept at manipulating their weight and center of balance, allowing them to move silently and traverse over loose material like snow instead of through it. Particularly skilled practitioners can use this power to walk on the surface of fluid bodies.

 

Storm Dash: With a powerful burst of TK energy, the assassin flings themself in a direction of their choosing. This power allows the assassin to change direction or misdirect opponents easily, but is more draining than sudden reversal.

 

Death by Inches and Degrees: Originally a warrior’s application of the Force, Assassins who favored piercing weapons adapted this power with a more subtle approach. This power prevents a Sith from thrusting too deep into a target, using telekinetic control to stop the blade the moment a killing strike has been delivered. When engaging multiple targets, this is crucial in making sure the assassin is not hindered by having their blade too deep into the enemy.

 

Nightmare Lurch: Through illusion and focused muscle control the assassin moves in disconcertingly unnatural and erratic ways. This can be used to both intimidate and to confuse opponents.

Blood Echo: The assassin can cut themself and use the blood to broadcast a false ping of their presence in the Force. The range of this power is roughly twenty meters, and it pairs well with throwing knives.

 

A Truth Amidst Ten Thousand Lies: The assassin floods the Force with thousands of potential strikes to conceal one attack that lacks any kind of Force guidance, making the attack both less accurate and less likely to be deflected by Force users.

 

Punish the Weak: By probing through the Force, the assassin determines which opponent is most vulnerable to being overwhelmed quickly. This should not be treated as a variation of Shatterpoints, as it does not reveal how to strike or guide the attack, it’s simply sizing up opponents through preternatural abilities.

 

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A discussion on stealth and invisibility: I remember a while back watching a video on Force use that used the example that a Jedi could fly, but the strain of using that much Force for an extended amount of time made it impractical, especially when other forms of conveyance were readily available. I think a similar argument could be made for invisibility in that it is feasible but not practical for an assassin of any worth as they have powers and skills that let them operate at a lower baseline of Force use.

 

During downtime a Sith may choose to indulge in invisibility in a place with enough supplemental Dark Side energy, such as a Sith temple or personal lair. Should the Sith decide to do this outside of their lair, they will forgo their Force senses and quickly become fatigued from extended use. Passing out while invisible means passing out without the aura of self that traditionally protects Force users, leaving the Sith vulnerable to Dark Side spirits.

 

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Poisons: Sith Poison is an oft mentioned aspect of the Sith arsenal, but its applications have been glossed over or used more as a justification for bringing Jedi to the Dark Side. Here are some alternative interpretations of side effects from poison as it spreads.

 

Breathstealer: Swelling in the throat makes it difficult for the enemy to catch their breath, and impossible to do so quietly.

 

Blinding Hypocrisy: This poison dilates the eyes to an extreme degree, making bright lights unbearable and even normal light sources difficult to look at.

 

Trembling Doom: Micro spasms and muscle twitches course through the victim’s body, making fine motor control difficult.

 

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Forms of Control

 

Political Office: Excepting times of overt Sith rule, assassins who hold power through politics are the most at risk for having their identities compromised, but the rewards for maintaining a public persona of power can be monumental. While we’re all familiar with the heights that Palpatine rose to through politics, even on a smaller scale the Sith can be afforded opportunities and tools of great value. I assume we’ve all seen the movies so this entry is more of an acknowledgement of the method than a complete overview.

 

Cults: There are several avenues that Sith can use to establish cults and secure recruits, and while cults may not have the direct power of some of the other entries in this section, the inherent secrecy and zealous nature of cult members provide their own advantages. The recruitment process is made easier by the fact that Sith actually do have access to mystical powers, instead of just relying on charisma, subverted faith, and drugs. Furthermore, assassins can use the Force to erase memories and manipulate perceptions, allowing them to control the experiences that members have completely.

 

The vast majority of Sith cults are cons to gain power and influence, but on rare occasions the cult leader might actually be a true believer. The Sith are indifferent to this as long as the cult serves its purpose, but players should keep rule 6 of the universal Force guide in mind if they go this route. It’s also a good idea to avoid the “everyone was a cultist the whole time!” trope.

 

Some Sith dispense with pretense and simply form cults around their Sith personas, but these groups are used more to attend to ego than accomplish any secret objectives. The exception to this is power players who don’t want to admit that they’re in a cult and think that because they have lunch with Darth so and so they’re totally in the inner social circle of that Sith. They are not. But they are still useful.

 

In terms of writing, it’s better to portray cultists as people that came from somewhere and were consumed by this hidden life rather than just faceless bodies that do whatever they’re told. Cultists should have their own internal logic for doing what they do, whether it’s seeking power of their own, wanting a sense of belonging to something larger, or even because they’ve been brainwashed by the Sith, but relaying that information gives depth.

 

Celebrity: A Sith who uses celebrity wields an indirect and difficult to anticipate power. Celebrities have access to places and people that might otherwise be unreachable, and while they can’t directly control their fans, they can have a disproportionate effect on public opinion. Managing stardom’s never ending demands can be hellish for a Sith, but the money and fame can be intoxicating. Some Sith cheat and use mental control to attach themselves to a celebrity as part of their entourage or as a lover or agent, controlling a star from the shadows. This is a far more viable method for active Sith to utilize celebrity over the long term.

 

The Devourers of Stars are a group of Sith assassins and body hoppers who offer a third option, abducting celebrities, taking over their lives, and then publicly burning out when their usefulness expires or a new celebrity catches their eye.  

 

Media: There are two different ways that assassins can exploit the media. The form most commonly associated with the Sith is the use of propaganda, whether in the form of defamation of enemies, propagating anti-xeno sentiment, glorifying Sith accomplishments, and vilifying enemy factions. Propaganda is rarely one hundred percent successful, but it doesn’t need to be as long as it convinces a suitable percentage of the masses.

 

A more subtle approach involves Sith masquerading as investigative journalists to perform character assassinations with surgical precision. Even pillars of virtue can be twisted under the corrupting touch of an assassin, or at least convincingly made to look like a monster. Amusingly, if an assassin ever decides to take the role seriously, they’re actually quite capable

 

Crime: Criminal organizations allow Sith to achieve their objectives through unexpected avenues, provide excellent financial resources, and generally don’t mind that they are working with evil space wizards should the subject arise. Many Sith cultivate ties with smaller criminal organizations or even local street gangs to act as muscle or perform simple but less than legal tasks.

 

Some Sith even form their own criminal syndicates, after all, Sith powers are especially suited for crime. While such endeavors are more time intensive than a simple business relationship, the profits are notably sizeable. Alternatively, some crime lords have built significant empires before discovering that they were instinctively using the Dark Side to enhance their command.

 

Business: Corporate and Sith psychology tend to go hand in hand, and the perception of Sith seemingly having limitless resources is fed largely by their mastery of the corporate sector. A Sith Lord can use the Force to manipulate deals, force acquisitions and mergers, and cause untimely deaths for rivals. Assassins that have mastered the Sith hive mind power can create soul crushing never ending crunch periods, causing mental breakdowns and collapses from physical exhaustion.

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Lairs: A lair is many things to an assassin. It’s a temple to the self, where they go to recenter after a deep infiltration mission. It’s a walk in multi story closet where they perfect disguises and hand craft their looks. It’s a theater and a funhouse where the assassin can torment unassuming guests or impress their fellow Sith with displays of grandiose illusion. It’s a trophy room of their favorite kills and deceptions. It’s a workshop for designing concealed weapons and mixing deadly poisons. It’s a study for planning future missions and reviewing intel. It’s a powerful conductor attuned to the assassin’s soul.

 

Lairs are meant for plot and not PvP (luring the enemy to your super secret nerve center is not a sustainable strategy). It’s a chance to explore the psyche of the character outside of their on mission personas and look at what matters to them. Lairs are too personal to be part of locations like major Sith temples or other areas with major through traffic.

 

Sample Lairs

 

A forgotten tenement in a rundown part of the city serves as a lair to an assassin who grew up in poverty and favors targets of wealth and hedonism. After he kills them, he binds them to one of the crumbling and rotten apartments to exist in squalor for eternity.

 

An abandoned theater serves as a shared home for a close knit troupe of assassins who reenact their favorite kills on stage for friends and potential clients. Occasional squabbles between members turn the theater into a nightmarish phantasmal killing ground, but amends are made in time.

 

A manor home that has outlived its foundations. Reluctant to lose such an important memory, the assassin has allowed a family to move in and renovate, completely unaware of the Sith’s presence. The family is now the Sith’s new chew toy.

 

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Sith Assassin Fighting Styles

(These are sample styles and by no means the end all be all of Sith assassin combat styles.)

 

Treacherous Blade: This fighting style focuses on baiting, redirection, and punishing enemy attacks. To the untrained eye it may seem like a reactive style, but in truth the Sith is controlling the flow of the duel by feigning vulnerability and drawing out strikes. The style lends itself to parrying weapons and off hand strikes, along with limited special armor use on the hands and feet. While many techniques of the style can be used in full armor, true mastery requires freedom of movement, speed, and maximum awareness.

 

Hidden Path: With so many Sith assassins using concealed weapons it was inevitable that a style would develop that catered to their usage. Hidden Path is a precision fighting style that achieves victory by systematically crippling the opponent. Depending on the weapon, Hidden Path will target joints, arteries, and pressure points until the enemy is unable to effectively retaliate and a killing blow can be struck.

 

Poisonous Little Death: As the name suggests, this style focuses on poison usage, almost always as the opener. Rather than endeavor to deliver a killing blow, the intent is to distract the victim from getting help or otherwise neutralizing the poison, while also pushing the heart to beat faster and therefore spread the poison more quickly. The style is acrobatic and ostentatious, relying both on physical theatrics and illusion to harry and startle the victim into a state of reactionary panic.

 

Spiral Ghost Dance: An evasive style that has the assassin perpetually engaging and disengaging to capitalize on advantageous moments and prevent the enemy from pressing any sort of attack. If the enemy is skilled in close quarters combat, the assassin keeps distance and distracts or throws off the the enemy’s balance with throwing knives or lanvarok disks, only closing when the enemy is overwhelmed. If the enemy is a ranged combatant then they are given no room to breathe as the assassin dogs them relentlessly.

 

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Rituals and other diversions

 

Rituals of youth and beauty: There are many variations that have been developed by the Sith over the years, but ultimately the general metaphysical mechanics are the same. The young and beautiful are sacrificed, or at least have their youth and beauty drained out of them to a crippling degree, and the vital energies are imbued to some medium that the Sith can apply or imbibe to absorb them. In terms of results, many consider it the most effective and undetectable. Sith who rely on it must be prepared to routinely invest time in performing the ritual, and increasing the number of sacrifices as they age. The greatest issue with this method however is the eventual development of a mental condition that makes the Sith begin to perceive flaws and imperfections in their appearance, despite no observable change to anyone around them. If pressed to explain what they think is wrong, they tend to be at a loss for words, desperately trying to grasp a way to communicate what they are seeing but usually falling back on words like “blight” and “rot”. This condition tends to manifest three to five years into using the ritual, and slowly worsens over time, although no actual perceivable deterioration occurs.

 

Ritual of Tainted Perfection: An attempt to provide a solution to the creeping madness of the sacrificial rituals, this one concentrates Dark Side corruption into a single feature that becomes undeniably warped. The rest of the body ceases to change or age, other than to grow more fit and attractive with the accumulation of Dark Side energies, however the corrupted feature proportionately continues to worsen. Clawed fingertips may metastasize into arms covered in scales, black eyes might start weeping blood continuously, a serpentine tongue that constantly tastes the air might start imbuing words with an otherworldly tone. While many Sith consider it a worthy tradeoff or even relish in the reactions they get to their mutated appearances, their warped visages undeniably out them as Sith, which can be problematic for infiltrators. Sith who work wholly within the Sith Empire such as government officials benefit from propaganda portraying the mutations as noble sacrifices made in service to the Empire.

 

Black Rite of Apoteras: If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, is not any quest for supreme beauty flawed? Is it not better to sculpt perceptions than the body? Apoteras is about embracing one’s own monstrous nature and forcing people to love it, rather than trying to sculpt a perfect body through sorcery and lifestyle. Upon performing the rite, the Sith’s body rapidly transforms into a corrupted state of “otherness” that is alien and monstrous. Each transformation is unique, and unsettling to look at. Or it should be. The horrific underlying power of Apoteras makes its disturbing form inexplicably desirable to those that behold it. Witnesses are acutely aware of their revulsion for the Sith, but are overwhelmingly compelled to also desire it, as if driven by some sense of morbid curiosity turned unhealthy fixation.

 

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Sith Assassin places of power

 

The Broken Halls: A locus of Dark Side energy in a dilapidated castle overrun with phantoms and dessicated Undying who have outlived their usefulness. An intricately woven veil of illusion covers the grounds to make the denizens fair and delightful to look upon, and the decor and structure well maintained, but this illusion varies from most in that it is only visible to those skilled in the art. To the uninitiated, the Broken Halls is a desolate place of nightmares, wandered aimlessly by shriveled and gangly monstrosities. That is why the assassins come here to train in intrigue. A novice must learn to hide their reactions behind a pale mask of lies, to convincingly profess love to unspeakable horrors, to smile and make small talk with feculent courtiers who smell of offal and rot.

 

The Theater of the Gods: An ancient fane located in a partially submerged cave network where primitives used to go to seek the wisdom of their divinities, researchers would later discover that the stories of mythical encounters were tied to a mixture of hallucinogenic mold spores, plants with mind altering effects in the water, and natural gases that bewilder the senses and steal away focus. While no mechanical lighting is installed in the fane, the molds and algaes in the caves are bioluminescent with a wide array of colors. The Sith have begun using the caves to practice mental warfare, learning how to cope with an uncooperative and deceitful mind of their own and also how to effectively alter the minds of others.

 

There are a number of cenotes that connect to the cave system, and masters are known to toss apprentices down them to see if they can make it out from the deepest parts of the caves. Not all do, many dying due to starvation or the paranoid delusions of their peers. Some become the madness that they have consumed, learning to live in the caves in a state of permanent delirium, and becoming a serious hazard in their own right.

 

The Impossible Labyrinth: Built to test the skill and determination of assassins through massive free for all brawls, this structure is a grand maze with overwhelming verticality set within a massive gyrosphere, allowing the whole structure to spin, tilt, or even invert itself at its master’s whim. Furthermore, the entire interior is kept pitch black. Its creator shares the video feeds with a select few, who watch its bloody proceedings for entertainment.

 

Still Lake Manor: A strangely placid manor adjacent to a calm fog shrouded lake, the peaceful location certainly does not strike one as a Sith holding. Inside the manor the furniture is dated but of high quality and appears barely used. The servants are obedient and attentive, and the head butler will readily hand over keys to new guests that open any door in the manor save for a wing on permanent reserve for Luxia Ravelle. Still Lake Manor is largely seen as a token of favor given out by the Dark Lord to Sith that have earned his attention, and sometimes, it is exactly that. Other times, however, when a rival Sith’s star starts burning too brightly the Dark Lord sends a very special invitation to the would be challenger.

 

At first glance, their treatment seems the same as any other guest’s. Over time however, they may start to notice holes in their recent memories, and that they drift off more easily than normal, but it’s easily explained by the sedated atmosphere and copious amounts of food and wine. Things unravel however as the periods of missed time grow from minutes to hours to days to months to years, until suddenly it’s decades that are unaccounted for. Time has passed, because if the Sith struggles they can remember random details from what otherwise seem like gaping holes in their memories, and they can be prompted to remember certain events, but what they can recall is limited. Eventually they fade away entirely, lost to old age and a catatonic mind. But it has only been a week or two.

 

The Time Drinkers are a secret (even by Sith standards) group of assassins that report directly to the Dark Lord and possess a very specialized skill set focused on numbing and circumventing a Force user’s ability to detect threats and external manipulation. The initial blackouts are caused by sedatives delivered through whatever means are most likely to be consistent with the current Sith. Sometimes it’s food or drink, sometimes it’s skin contact. Sometimes it’s in the bed sheets or the freshly laundered clothes. During the blackouts false memories are implanted but buried deeply to make them seem distant and the incompleteness implies memory loss, and the Time Drinkers use illusion to appropriately age all of the staff for bouts of wakefulness. The staff seems familiar with the daily habits of the Sith because they put them there. Throughout the process, the dosage sizes increase until finally the Sith fades away. A perfect murder through stagnancy.   


 

Worldbuilding

 

The Charybdian Hollows: Imagine beings so filled with vain self loathing and envy for the lives of others that they became singularities among a sea of stars. Drawing in light and sound, joy and warmth, the Charybdian Hollows spend most of their existence as featureless shades, faces distorted by reality’s inability to handle their non identity. While in this state, the hollow feeds on the world and the people around them, creating an aura of disquiet and suffocating ennui. Upon reaching a satisfactory level of satiation the hollow devours it all en masse, transforming from a desolate singularity to a brilliant star. Exuding powerful charisma and raw force of personality, the hollow explodes into the public eye, burning through their energy stores at breakneck speed. The high may only last a night, or at most a few days, but during that time the hollow is the life of the party, the center of attention, and the object of desire in the minds of everyone around them.

 

The Godbeasts of Onderon: While the implications of Exodus’s seeding of Onderon with the Dark Side will be seen to some degree planetwide, none were more deeply affected than the Beast Lords. Some tribes feared the changes brought on by eating corrupted beast flesh, and other tribes simply tried to endure it as a new facet of survival. A handful however sought mastery over this newfound power. Considered mad by the other tribes, they had their greatest hunters, shamans, and chieftains gorge themselves upon the meat of Sithspawn. Most were driven mad and heavily mutated by the Dark Side taint, but a select few of profound spiritual strength mastered the power that they had consumed and became monsters with insight ascendant.

 

The hunters became quadrupedal beasts with fangs that could tear through durasteel and hardened skin that was as resilient as heavy armor, their bodies growing to the size of a landspeeder. The shamans and shamanesses, trained in the path of walking between two worlds, became bestial hybrids, able to evolve their own bodies to adopt the traits of the beasts they had eaten. The chieftains found a higher truth and became as dragons.

 

While many understandably mistake the Godbeasts as warriors, their animal cunning and preference for stalking prey makes the assassin arts of highest appeal to them. The Godbeasts that spiritually guide their tribes also use the illusive powers to craft powerful internal journeys of the mind and to walk among their tribe unseen.

 

The Procurers: While assassins are largely assumed to use their skill sets for murder for obvious reasons, there are other very lucrative outlets that they can be put to. The Procurers are Sith specialized in providing for the special needs and rarefied tastes of their fellow Sith. Alchemical components, ancient texts, rare ores, people of a specific type, whatever the Sith need, the Procurers can provide for a price. While some requests can be obtained easily through legitimate means, the majority involve theft or kidnapping. Procurers love solving puzzles and beating challenges, and security systems and guards are like high stakes puzzles and challenges that try to shoot you. The harder the heist, the more Procurers are into it. The Procurers routinely confound museum and private collection security teams, and have absconded with an astounding number of members of planetary royalty.

 

For these mystical thieves, wealth is almost an absurd abstract of which they have an overabundance of and yet little use for. Even the most high tech thieving gear does little to put a dent in their carefully hidden bank accounts. As such, Procurers have something of a reputation for frivolous and nonsensical spending. Some of it could be considered vaguely charitable (sometimes they tip service industry people so obscenely that they never have to work again, or they might build a school or a hospital to impress a romantic interest), but to them it’s just finding amusement in their fortunes.

 

The Kennel Masters and the Friends of Luxia Ravelle: Two groups of Sith assassins that enjoy a symbiotic relationship occupying the galactic party scene. The name Luxia Ravelle is a myth spoken of in reverent tones by bon vivants and hardcore party goers alike, an urban legend synonymous with extravagant bacchanals and wild excess that sounds too grandiose to be true.

 

There are people you know, people that claim they know Luxia and can get you in. They don’t look exceptionally beautiful, well connected, or even the partying type, and yet there they are, insisting on being able to accomplish an absurdly impossible thing. They’re coworkers, book club members, friends from sabacc night, and shy college students. But you humor them, you say yes, and then that weekend they deliver you into paradise. The drinks are the best and worst kind, the kind where you don’t realize how much you’re drinking, and drugs are on the house upon request. Maybe you hesitate at first, you’ve never done anything like this before, but your friend dives in headfirst. A transformation takes place and they’re no longer a quietly average  wallflower, even though they look the same now they’re an eleven and everyone wants to be around them and you want that too, even just a piece of that. That’s how they get you to swallow the hook.

 

There are two types of predators working this hunting ground, Trainers and the Friends. Trainers are Sith who use access to the party as a carrot that quickly leads into a cycle of blackmail and increasingly severe tasks. The ones who stop trying to fight back are called hounds, and that is where the group gets the sobriquet of the Kennel Masters. The services of their hounds can be purchased for the right price by other Sith…

 

The Friends are the actual party runners, using illusion where necessary to create the grandiose extravagances of the party until it can reach its own critical mass with bodies. They use that same talent with illusionry to kidnap and impersonate people that nobody pays attention to. The Friends have less of an interest in making people do bad things for them and more of an interest in making people want to do bad things. These assassins use an umbramantic ritual with the bacchanals as a focal point to infect people with darkness, nurture that darkness, and then feed on it. When the party bloats to sufficient size, the Friends consume all of the guests not claimed by the Kennel Masters in a cannibalistic bloodbath that rejuvenates their flesh and makes their power swell. When the Friends emerge from the cocoonlike mound of half eaten bodies, they now wear the features of their former guests, and the legend of Luxia Ravelle continues. It is unknown if there even is a Luxia Ravelle, or if it’s just another part of the theatrics...

 

The Kind Ones: A peculiar breed of Sith Assassin that has an unusual path to power. A Kind One will enter the service of a household appearing as a member of the staff through illusionry. In larger households they will often go unnoticed, but in smaller or more perceptive families a great deal of confusion may arise over an unknown but helpful individual that no one can recall hiring, or even seeing beyond a brief moment of passing. Superstitious people may even whisper of ghosts or otherworldly beings. But over time, the family and the staff come to accept the mysterious entity as being benign, both through its actions and a general sense of kindness surrounding any passing encounters. Furthermore, a sense that the being’s presence is a secret of utmost importance to keep from outsiders infiltrates the minds of everyone.

 

After some time of enjoying the quiet industriousness of the Sith, either the matriarch or patriarch of the family (Or sometimes both, if the Sith has their eye on an heir of age) will begin to suffer a wasting disease that burns through them quickly. Exploiting the grief of the survivors, The Kind One will assert more and more influence into the lives of the household, replacing the lost parent as a romantic partner and cementing their place until they become the head of the household. If the children are well behaved and useful, The Kind One will allow them to persist, but if they rebel against its presence it will kill or otherwise remove them from the board of the game that it is playing. While the goal may seem like a crass desire for material wealth and possessions, and sometimes that is exactly what it is, more often The Kind One has a more sinister purpose for its manipulations.

 

It was not just wealth and privilege that attracted The Kind One to the family, but some nascent spark of Force potential. While rarely do any of the members have enough talent to be Sith in their own right, they carry enough power to virtually ensure Force sensitive offspring and also have proven that they can function in a family unit, and that is the true prize that the Kind Ones seek, future soldiers for the Dark Lord’s forces raised in secrecy. The assassin does its best to both protect and grow the family, dealing with threats both without and within. It is harder on its own children than the original heirs, in a calculated move that both makes the original children more sympathetic to the half outsider, and inures the Sith child at a young age to hardship. In fact The Kind One often appears to spoil its stepchildren, fattening the lambs for a coming slaughter. If the Sith children appear to be lacking in Force ability by the time they come of age, The Kind One shows them how slaughter their step siblings and steal their power for their own. The Kind One does not aid the Sith children in this, that is not the way of the Sith, and if the originally family overcomes their murderous stepkin, the Sith will instead channel the power of their failed offspring into the survivors, ensuring that either way a crop of new recruits is harvested.

 

The Kind Ones represent the usurpation of family and the desire to twist a loving place of sanctuary into a means to an end. While The Kind Ones are probably better as NPCs due to what actual play for them would be like, I’m adding them here because they also make for great character background fodder, if the player chooses to be one of The Kind One’s descendants or surviving stepchildren.    

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Tales of madness told by Chosen Myyrdokk (Submitted by Solus)

 

Apart from their exotic teachings of the Force and trainings of Sith Assassins, the Temple of the Spider have gathered a vast collection of data, including stories, myths, and tall tales. Despite most (if not all) of these being works of pure fiction and entertainment, the Temple of the Sith has used many of these to help their own teachings and to enhance their abilities with the Madness. 

 

Below are some of the works that Chosen Myyrdokk is especially fond of using in his teachings. More so, these stories seem to hold an ounce of truth to them, indicating that they may be more than just the fictitious works that most force users tend to dismiss them as.


 

Betelgeuse of the Ebon Star 

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“Before there was life, there was the Force. And before there was the Force, there was the Ebon Star” is how all stories about the great dragon Betelgeuse starts. 

 

The stories usually take veering plots, but typically feature two planets orbiting the Ebon star, both with primordial life, and one creating the dragon Betelgeuse to destroy the other one. However, the dragon ignores this and proceeds to consume the matter of several nearby stars, dooming their orbiting planets to eternal darkness.

 

Some of the stories end with the life forms on both planets then revere the dragon as a god, who only then consumes them as well. Other stories end with the Dragon returning to the Ebon star and subjugate the life on both worlds to lives of slavery to build a mate. And finally, some stories remark that the dragon returned to the Ebon star and drove both species to madness so they would destroy themselves. 

 

Ideas of what Betelgeuse is and what the Ebon star is are as varied as the stories themselves. The most popular image of Betelgeuse is a draconic being of some kind, big enough to swallow entire star ships, but some place him like a sentient black hole, a living embodiment of a Force Wound, or a star weird with no limitations of power. The Ebon star has been painted as either a brown dot in a sea of black, or something like a black hole, with its accretion disk providing a tiny amount of light around it. Madmen and small cults have tried to map the galaxy to find the Ebon star over the years, but to no avail, usually disappearing outside of the known galaxy.

 

While most scholars consider stories of Betelgeuse to be works of fiction, recent discoveries have left many unnerved. Old stories from Devaronians tell of a great dragon swallowing entire stars. Several stories from different cultures across the galaxy evolving nearly identical stories of Betelgeuse separately. A treasure seeker on Roon discovered pictures of what looked like Betelguese fighting the image of a Starbird. Historians are unclear if this was a historical recording or a prediction. 

 

A recent incident launched stories of Betelgeuse into popular culture: The Star Seeker is a ship that crashed into Coruscant a few years ago. While there were no survivors, the corpses were identified as members of a cult seeking the Ebon Star, but on a different ship as far back as 456 BBY. All over the walls as well as the corpses bodies were wildly inaccurate star charts painted in blue ink, as well as the words “Leave it be” tattooed on their arms in the same ink. 

 

    Chosen Myyrdokk of the Temple of the Spider often uses these stories as inspirations for the Disciples to use in giving into their madness. To summon the image of Betelguese into one's head and calling it forth, giving it a semblance of life, is terrifying to behold, and believing to hear the dragon’s voice can be enough to push one down the path of Madness. Other assassins call up the image of the aliens that helped create the dragon, who are monstrous to behold as well.

 

That Between the Force

    These lengthy data reports from a disgraced Kaminoan Scientist talks about how in the process of trying to clone Force Sensitives, or by implementing Midichlorians into subjects, small, almost unnoticeable microbaterial life forms seem to surface. They only existed for a short period of time within dying subjects, and vanish after the subject is deceased. There seems to be no evidence they even existed after the subject has died, making it more difficult for the Kaminoan Scientist to prove their existence. 

 

    However, these ‘life leeches’ as the scientist describes them, seem to be alive, albeit dening most conventional forms of life. They move of their own accord, seeking dying tissue to consume. While they do not procreate, the scientist notes that the ‘leeches’ do gather together briefly as if to converse with each other. The scientist even notes that while she has no proof, she thinks that these things could be sentient, if such a thing was possible. 

 

    Eventually, the data reports turn into mad ramblings, becoming more like personal journal entries then official reports. The scientist seemed to have made illegal data requisitions into the ‘Whills of the Force’, believing these ‘life leeches’ had some sort of connection to them. 

    “I do not know if these things are the Whills…” The final report states. “...or if these ‘leeches’ are adversaries to them, like some kind of predatory creature. Or perhaps these things are what feeds on Midichlorians? I know, according to religious texts, the Force feeds on life, but i don’t think its meant to be like this. If my research is to continue, I will need more test subjects. Many more subjects. To kill slowly seems to be the only sure way of attracting the ‘leeches’, and I must study them. Who knows what discovery I’m on the brink of?” 

 

    The final report has some extra information added by an unknown author, stating that the Scientist was restrained and executed for committing crimes against all life. All information from the reports was to be classified and not opened again.  

 

    Chosen Myyrdokk likes ‘That Between the Force’ because it seems to be proof that the madness has a legitimacy to it, and had the scientist come to the Temple of the Spider, or a Force Wound, she would have been able to understand exactly what these ‘leeches’ are and why they exist. While he refuses to explain what these things are, he points out that ‘some things we should never know, even the Chosen and Disciples’. Sometimes knowing that there is always something incomprehensible out there is more unnerving than any conjured monster.  

 

Children of Aboleth

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    This lengthy novel was found by a Pyke archeologist on Zerm in 5 ABY amongst the ruins of a destroyed village. According to official reports, the village died of a plague virtually overnight, but the lack of bodies and evidence of bodies being disposed of, as well as the lack of reports of the plague numbers, made the entire scene a mystery. The only clue the Archeologist could find was a data novel entitled “The Children of Aboleth”

 

The story detailed a group of people who, through the Force, was able to visit worlds beyond the material realm of this galaxy, where the Force was not only connected to everything, it was everything. However, this small group of people went mad over the following year as they felt touchings of something within this place had touched them and granted powers in the material world. 

 

The story then switched to a point of view of an observer who had to kill apparently monsters roaming the streets at night. Descriptions between each monster vary, but the only consistency is they are vaguely insectoid.  It was then revealed that at the story's halfway point that the monsters were warped by whatever that existed in that ‘world beyond worlds’. After killing the monsters, the character then killed the rest of the villagers, then himself. The story then went into a full detailed history of several events in the galaxy, and ended with an unknown “knowledge seeker” finding the tomb of ‘The Last Child’, doomed to rise again. 

 

    While unnerved, the archeologist dismissed the story and dug deeper into the village's destruction. Still lacking bodies, the only further clue about why the village died out was a massive coffin. Inside the coffin was only one body, but it was not a Pyke. Instead, it was something more monstrous, without any signs of decay. The Pyke government quickly covered up the archeology site when this was reported, and the Archeologist was never seen or heard from again. What happened to the coffin and the corpse inside is a mystery.

 

    Jedi Scholars are quick to point out the similarities between this story and the Mindwalkers of Sinkhole Station. A world where the Force was everything and not just connected to everything sounded very much like the realm of Beyond Shadows, and the very name of the novel is the same name as Aboleth in Beyond Shadows. The fact that the story was found on a planet in the same sector as the Maw, where Sinkhole station rests, was unsurprising. However, no one can explain the few reports about the archeologist that were leaked, and the Pykes deny the existence of such a village.

 

    When Chosen Myyrdokk uses these stories teaching Disciples and Initiates, he seems to focus on the idea that something greater and more powerful than anyone out there exists. The idea of Aboleth, while confirmed, is not widely known to the galaxy, and the fact that the Pyke government and their crime syndicates do not share this information freely indicates that they are afraid. If such a tiny event can unnerve so many, how much more can the Madness outside the Temple do? These lessons also tend to include making images of ‘Aboleth’s Children’ to frighten those who may be especially susceptible to superstitions about what exists in the darkness between the stars, and to cause distractions in battles.


 

The Dathomirian Doll

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    This collection of ship manifests, government reports, journal and diary entries, as well as several pieces of music literature, works like a found footage story, allowing the viewer to come to their own conclusions. Taking place across an entire century, it tells how a raid during the time of the Empire brought home a supply of prisoners and confiscated goods. Among the goods was a simple doll made of black straw, dried tar, and string. Over the course of the documents, it becomes apparent that the doll has some connection to the dark side, as all the male owners of the doll, or antagonists of the owner of the doll, have gruesome fates befall them. Such fates include spontaneous gunshots, landslides, house fires, animal attacks, and unfortunate mechanical failures with ships. Each time, the doll somehow survives and gets passed on to someone else.  The last entry in the collection indicates the doll was being taken to Coruscant to the Emperor’s Office, just before the destruction of Death Star II.  

 

    Despite the fairly easily traceable evidence, most people wave off the collection as nonsense. Plenty of evidence outside of the collection directly contradicts what the collection states, and no doll has ever been retrieved. That said, people who read the collection can’t help but wonder how much of this story could be true, and how many ‘accidents’ are really works of the dark side. 

 

    Chosen Myyrdokk seems to especially focus on how stories like this make people lose their nerve over a long period of time, and given enough time, this will spread to other people. By focusing on a person over a long period of time, an assassin can bring even the greatest of foes to their knees, and with the Madness, they can affect entire groups of people. Myyrdokk also seems to enjoy how this story implies that sometimes the force isn’t necessary to drive a being mad. Sometimes, only well placed rumors and killings are more than enough. 

 

The Ghosts of Spira

 

    This long story novel talks about how on the vacation planet of Spira, with its golden beaches and temperate climate, received a visitor in the form of a large cruiser falling from the sky into the ocean. In the many weeks before the ship completely submerged into the water, villagers and tourists reported their children being stolen in the night, with video feeds showing them being snatched out of their beds by invisible hands. The story only got more bloody from there as guards and investigations turned up slashed to death as if by wild creatures. Then, bodies of children were found in the waters near the sinking ship. 

 

    The ship itself was impenetrable for the longest time, until a nameless Jedi joined the fight. Together, the author, the jedi, and a small group of men attack the ship in hopes of finding the children who still lived. During this, each member of the team gets picked off one by one until only the author and the jedi are alive.

 

      During their exploration, the two discovered that the 'ghosts' were actually Defel wolfmen,  genetically altered to be permanently blinded but could sense via echolocation.  These near invisible defel were kidnapping children in service to their master, an ancient and near rabid Anzac, who demanded the 'soup of the young', and was a powerful force user in his own right. The story ends with the nameless Jedi fighting the Anzat as the entire ship sinks to the bottom of Spira's ocean, with the author barely escaping with a small group of surviving children. 

 

     The entire work is obviously fictional, as the work was written at a time when tourism across the galaxy was at a low point, and the novel seems to be a large, albeit creative, advertisement to come to the world. However, the remains of a large unknown ship do exist on the ocean floor of the Shinkaii Abyss, and the local government has outlawed all efforts to see the ship in person. There are rumors that some of the 'ghosts' still haunt the planet.

 

     Myyrdokk seems to like this novel just for the fact that it entertains him. He points out that those with an obsession with death are more vulnerable to ghost illusions, and encourages potential assassins to learn how to make ghosts seem all the more real to their targets. 

 

The Droid who Wanted Skin

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    These lengthy bounty reports from a famed hunter talks about a journey to capture the elusive E-110, a droid of unknown make and design. However, the droid avoided capture and destruction multiple times by hollowing humanoid victims out and wearing their skin until the body rotted away. According to the hunter, E-110 even mimicked their targets lives for several days before disappearing. The hunter gives his own theories on where the droid came from, and the psychology behind whoever programmed such a droid. The report ends with the droid supposedly getting destroyed in a fuel explosion, though no body was found. It is noted that at the end of the report, the hunter speaks very differently and it has been theorized that the droid escaped with the hunter as his latest victim. 

 

      In many social circles, it is debated on the authenticity of these bounty reports. The hunter in question was a real individual, and had a tendency to record his hunts, and the fact that the story appeared shortly after his disappearance makes many think there is an element of truth. However, no other reports about the droid have ever come to light, and the bounty hunter was known to dramatize some of his more mundane hunts. Still, when the reports came out, there was a brief spike in demand for technology to test whether people were actually people or droids in disguise. 

 

     Chosen Myyrdokk uses these reports as an example on how assassins can use other people to their advantage. Whether it's copying their image or voice through sorcery or surgery, or simply their printed names, chosen Myyrdokk encourages his disciples to never discount the idea of becoming a copycat. And if an assassins identity gets discovered, the paranoia the people will experience afterwards will bring them a step closer to the Madness. 

 

Tales Beyond the Tomb

 

    A collection of holorecordings featuring an eccentric and decrepit droid, Tales Beyond the Tomb tell numerous self-contained short stories that tend to feature horrific imagery and some supernatural effects that may or may not be connected to the Force. Some of the stories included things such as a rich business man feeding the homeless to his eel farm, a cheating wife behing chased by her dead and murdered spouse, the smoke man of Mustafar continually exhaling smoke after betraying the native insectoids, and a beauty queen staying young forever by slowly freezing in carbonite despite being nowhere near carbonite freezing chambers. 

 

While each story was clearly a work of fiction, the imaginative imagery, the grotesque content, and the lively narrator all made Tales Beyond the Tomb a favorite entertainment piece in the galaxy. It is for these same reasons that Chosen Myyrdokk enjoys this collection, and encourages his Disciples to pull the imagery from these stories to frighten their targets. Whether its by making the image of the eel farm filling the landscape, or making a target believe they are being frozen in carbonite, Chosen Myyrdokk says the imagery of horror is an effective weapon. 

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