The Box App (WIP)

[forcewalker]

Player Information
Player name: Laure
Contact: reflected.stasis[@]gmail[.]com
Are you over 18: yup
Characters in The Box Already: N/A

Character Information
Character Name: Lord Nuriêl Faust Kellig
Canon: Star Wars: The Old Republic Online
Canon Point: Mid-Chapter 3, after traveling to the Dark Heart located on Voss and completing the ritual to gain full mastery of the four ghosts bound within her.
Is your character Dead, Undead or Alive: Alive
History: Gamewise, she's from the Sith Inquisitor story route, so the route specific history is here: HERE. Keeping with the start of the route, I've created a pre-prelude personal history for her.

Nuriêl should have been born on Serenno in 3661BBY, however that was not to be the case. Her parents met the year before, when her father, Kieran Faust, was sent as a padawan member of the jedi vanguard envoy to set up a tactical command center at House Palerma on Serenno. At that time her mother Korin, a minor functionary working for the Senechal of House Palerma, was appointed as the House liaison between the House and the jedi. Their story seemed to be one of a normal one of young love and impetuous choices, of marriage in a time when the Order frowned upon such emotional attachments but had not yet banned them. It would have stayed as such a story had Darth Malgus not activated a sleeper Cipher Agent within House Palerma, or Kieran not been the unfortunate jedi that unwittingly discovered the identity of that traitor through his connection to Kieran's Imperial wife, who was in actuality a member of the Agent's cell.

Kieran and the Agent battled immediately and during the struggle the Agent managed to deliver a mortal blow to her father before being subdued. Kieran did not live to see the Sith Empire attack the villa, much less see many of the Hosehold's people taken as slaves - including a disgraced Imperial agent contaminated by her jedi husband, the then six-months pregnant Korin. Thus, a child of the Republic was born a slave to the Empire. Their only saving grace was that it was an elderly couple of minor nobility in need of a housing servant that bought her mother instead of somewhat else. They were nice enough, in their own way, and treated Korin with an even hand throughout the final term of her pregnancy - so much so that they even allowed her to keep the babe after Nuriêl was born.

Like her father, Nuriêl is force sensitive. In order to protect her, Korin did her best to hide her daughter’s attunement to the force from her owners and taught her daughter as best she could of her father's beliefs. Unfortunately, Nuriêl lost her mother’s protection when a rising Sith lord discovered her abilities at the age of ten. He recognized what her previous owner had not and, upon taking ownership of her, began to rigorously train Nuriêl in the rudimentary of sith dogma until such time that she was deemed ready to attend the Sith Academy at eighteen.

The training she received at the hands of the sith lord taught her much, and often at not-so-blunt force range. Outward passions and rage, anger and revenge, these were the motivators that enabled her to survive her early training. It gave her the understanding of sith ways needed in order to take this personal deception to a new level, in order to fully conceal the core influence within her: her father, as seen through her mother's eyes.

The ability to appear the ideal sith before her superiors while still espousing her father's beliefs was instrumental in guiding her actions during her academy trials. With each, she was careful to reflect a cool ruthlessness in her approach while her superiors were watching, yet always tempered sith rage with jedi thought as the opportunities presented themselves - and always ensured she could provide a reasoning for said action that appeared to benefit the Empire. Thus, during her trials, she used a cool intellect and a calm nonchalance to explain how various acts of compassion or mercy could have a longer-lasting impact in the Empire's favor.

Once she won her place as Lord Zash's apprentice, however, she no longer had to worry quite so much about appearing the ideal sith under watchful eyes. Instead, she did as her lord and master bid, searched for the artifacts that would enable her master to perform a mysterious ritual, and used the general fear and intimidation that automatically came with the title 'sith' to act with thought and compassion without fear of such acts becoming widely known. She was so effective in this method that she liberated a cult on Nar Shaddaa from a rival sith and turned them into a quickly growing cult for her. In addition to the companions she gathered as she completed each task, she was also re-united with a blood ancestor on her mother's side - the ghost of an ambitious and powerful sith by the name of Lord Kellig.

Not long after, Nuriêl received the title of Sith Lord and had to face her first major betrayal all at once - at the hands of her master. Unfortunately for Lord Zash, however, the timely interruption of Nuriêl's deshade (a monster bound to her by her strong will and use of the force over it) during the aforementioned mysterious ritual stopped her master from transferring her mind and soul into Nuriêl body - trapping it instead within the deshade. Now free of a master, she took her Lord Zash's new apprentices as her own and received the lightsaber left in the care of the descendants of the most loyal servant to the Kellig line, enabling her to be formally recognized as Lord Nuriel Kellig. She also found herself facing a new threat in the personage of Darth Thanaton, an enemy of her former master. After barely surviving a confrontation with him, she followed the advice given to her by the ghost of her ancestor, Lord Kellig, and sought out the help of other powerful sith lord ghosts by mastering the dangerous force-walking ritual. To this end, she made a blood contract with the Servant of Ergast, the lord that had discovered the key to the force-walking ability. After Ergast, she made a similar contract with the ghost of Darth Andru before confronting Darth Thanaton again. Unfortunately, the power was too new to her and not enough to defeat Thanaton - however it was this bond with the ghosts that kept her from dying in that confrontation. Thus, in order to grow stronger she sought out two other ghosts - Kalatosh Zavros,a former jedi turned sith, and Horak-mul, a pure-blood sith.

It was a ritual that came with more drawbacks than strengths, however, and they came into play when she attempted to confront Darth Thanaton a second time - weakened from their battle, her physical and mental will was not strong enough to keep the four ghosts bound to her under her control. They betrayed her at a critical moment, allowing Darth Thanaton to escape with the thought that he'd killed her. It was then that the Servant of Ergast told her of the rule of not binding more than one ghost, and that the effects of binding four ensured her death. Her companions saved her and between them and Lord Zash, they began to research the force-walking ritual more in depth, thus leading her to discover the fatal realities of using it. In doing so, they found the holocrons of two darths that had also performed the ritual, then sought ways to fix their weakened states. In order to combat the slow erosion of her health and mind by the bound ghosts, she followed the investigations of both of the darths and traveled first to Belsavis in search of technology that was capable of remaking her body into something stronger, and then moved on to Voss, where she learned how to dream-walk in order to gain mastery over her mind. It is after the successful completion of this that she arrives at the Box.

Personality:
Jedi Code
"There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the Force."

Sith Code
"Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, power. Through Power, victory. Through victory, my chains are broken."

Caught between her mother's early teachings of her father's code and her second owner's training in preparation of attending the sith academy, Nuriêl learned early on to bury deep the compassion that seemed to 'flaw' her mother in the eyes of her fellow Imperials. She's ever cautious, ever careful to not let anyone get too close to the core of who she is, not really. Instead, she focused on becoming a good orator, someone that can mouth the core ideals of the Empire with an impassioned mien and yet, deep down she's fully cognizant of a truth she sees.

Her Empire is intrinsically and undeniably flawed.

That it is great, she does truly believe - but she also believes that they are just as blinded as the Republic and their jedi. Because in her eyes, for all that the Republic recognizes the strengths of non human or sith races, they lack the resolve to effectively wield that strength. And her Empire is no better. With the Empire, they're so attached to their antiquated ways that they wear down and over extend the resources they have while stubbornly ignoring the strength that can be found in those so-called lesser races.

Nuriêl is enough her father's daughter that she can see that strength for what it is, and it's why she does not hesitate to support her deshade's quest for his past, or take the opportunity to create an alliance with a young and promising jedi padawan - and it's also why the time comes to replace her dead acolytes, she chooses the kaleesh that was like herself - a former slave - because despite his alien nature, she can sense his strength in the force.

And as she faces each trial along her path as a sith, her perception of the Empire is reinforced - each time, she finds allies to the Empire that help her reach her goals and yet those superior to her continually want to reward that help with the betrayal of death. Thus, it is through mercy that she finds the means to tighten the Empire's shackles around the leadership of that planet, and she does so in such a way that leaves in place resources that are loyally beholden to her. It's this that neither side really sees - how to combine the Republic's mercy with the Empire's ruthlessness.

She has strength tempered by wisdom, confidence won through the constant test of both wit and arms, and a dry, sarcastic sense of humor that can be a touch self-mocking at times. Cruelty is a weapon to be use when wit fails - or to maintain the facade of mindless strength so admired by those above her - but the true weapon, the one she feels can truly conquer the galaxy for the Empire, is an understanding of how the hopes and fears, the angers and sorrows of the individuals they come across can be used to fuel change in their own favor.

To this end, she feels neither remorse nor the need for hesitation when she deems the situation requires her to take a life, and any death at her hands, while not something she enjoys, she sees as merely a necessary means to an end. She is a sith, through and through, and respects shows of power, however misguided. She would much rather face an enemy on the battlefield than cut them down in secrecy - and for those that try to run away?

Well they deserve a quick death for such a craven display.

She has no patience for those that try to use guile and misdirection when she wants a clear answer, and is not above shocking those she questions until they come around to a more cooperative attitude.

Items on your character at canon point:
Saberstaff inherited from ancestor, Lord Kellig, clothes, light armor including vambraces and greaves, holocom, and credits. Four ghosts knocking about in her head, quiet for now yet waiting, just waiting for her will to falter once more...

Abilities, Strengths and Weaknesses:
Even for a sith, Nuriêl is strong in the force - and that power is multiplied four times over by the blood contracts that bind the ghosts of within her.

Force-walking - Requiring a Sith of great strength of will, the ritual of Force-walking allows the user to bind the restless ghosts of dead Sith to themselves. Once the ghosts are bound, the ritualist may draw from their power, channeling it into a powerful exertion of Force energy against his enemies.

Dream-walking - the ability to enter her own mind in a trance-like state and face the manifestation of her own fears, hopes, loves and rages in order to seek spiritual balance and health.

Stealth - the ability to cloak her presence with the force, making her seemingly invisible to those who do not have a heightened situational awareness.

Electrocute - Causes mild damage and stuns a target into immobility.

Force Lightning - Channel lightning into your foe for high damage.

Crushing Darkness (often seen as force-choking) - encases target in a dense shroud of Force pressure meant to cause moderate levels of crushing damage over time.

Discharge - Causes Force-based damage by sending an energy blast towards the enemy from her saberstaff.


A few favorite quotes!
"What do you think, Khem? Care to eat him?" She's certainly not above offering her enemies to her Deshade (a monster that eats force-sensitive beings).

"Ah, you don't know me. Has our family fallen so far that the daughter of my daughters does not know the name of Kallig? The name so long revered in the annals of the sith. You are my descendant! By how many years I do not know, but know this, flesh of my flesh - your strength in the force has awakened me from my stupor. But when you first grasped your lightsaber, I knew my hour had come and gone. It is your strength, not mine, that will return our family to glory." Lord Kellig upon their meeting.

"Passion is the method, power the end." Lord Zash to her.

"This is what we call a classic reversal of fortunes." to Lord Zash.

"With great power comes a lot of nagging, actually." Said about the four ghosts currently residing within her.

Samples
Network/Action Spam Sample:

[The video flickers on to reveal a young woman, long honey-blonde hair caught up in an intricate braid and umber eyes heavy-lidded as she blinks at the device in her hand. Her expression is bored, almost haughty as she cants her head to the side.

And when she speaks, the clipped tones of her Imperial accent are unmistakable (some might recognize it as quite similar to a British one).]

My understanding is that this place is called the 'Box' and that some foolish people have abducted us here. What I want to know is this - is it possible to speak to these idiotic captors and, more importantly, what do they think they'll accomplish by confiscating my lightsaber?

[And her she smiles, cold and mirthless.]

If they think that alone can disarm a Lord of the Sith, they are very much mistaken.

Prose Log Sample:
Someone was going to pay for their impertinence. True that she'd passed out, weak in her exhaustion following the dream-walking ritual that strengthened her body, but to wake up without her lightsaber, and here on some strange place that could not possibly be Voss? Oh yes... when she gets her hands on that foolish being, she would teach them the folly of interfering with a Lord of the Sith.

For now, however, she needed to find a replacement for her holocron and she needed to contact her crew so that they could get her from... wherever here actually is.

To that end, she glances around as she pushes to her feet, frowns at the grave markers. They look like miniature statues, memorials for those long past and she has to wonder just how primitive this world is, that they seek to memorialize their dead in plain earth instead of proper temples. It's an oddity, but one that's easily dismissed as she starts to make her way out towards the dubious sounds of life, easy to sense just beyond this deadly quiet place - and once there, it's no effort on her part to catch the first passerby in a force-choke.

That, she's sure, is more than enough to garner their undivided attention, and to that end she's absolutely right.

She gives her captive an option: to answer her questions peaceably, or through force, but she's clear in clarifying that the latter will involve considerable pain on their behalf - and that, in the end, she'd still get the answers she desires.

It only takes once, but the long moment of electrocution goes far to drive her point home and the answers flow quickly after that. Answers, and a new communication device, also primitive to her eyes.

It doesn't even connect to the holonet.

This day just keeps getting better and better.

Still, this human had been useful, and may be still in the days to come, which is why she dismisses the woman with a wave of her hand before walking over to sit on the steps before the abandoned police station. Time to see just how effective this...this cell phone device truly is.