Names: Serrulata Syn, Sith Lord
Aliases: Serra Drosa
Race: Force-Sensitive Human
Age: 26
Height: 5’9”
Weight: Proportionate to Height + Muscle
AppearancePhysical Attributes (With the Force)
Strength: Amazing (Fantastic)
Agility: Amazing (Fantastic)
Durability: Amazing (Fantastic)
Willpower: Zen
Force Power: Extremely High
The Force is an energy field created by all living things, binding all that lives together into one unified whole. It concentrates strongly in certain creatures more strongly than others, and this ‘sensitivity’ passes on through their bloodlines. These fortunate individuals and their families possess the potential to harness the Force to perform amazing feats and acquire incredible abilities beyond those otherwise found in nature. The defeat of death, the destruction of worlds, these are feats just beyond the grasp of the galaxy’s inhabitants through the power of the Force.
But not all ways of using the Force are equal to one another, in power or in character. Those who cleave to the Light seek a selfless harmony with the Force, to become its ally and be guided as its instrument. They use their powers to defend themselves and others, and to maintain the very life which the Force depends on for its existence. They limit themselves and their ambitions for the sake of the many.
But the Dark Side offers a power that can come only from within. The Force may draw fuel by powerful emotions - fear, anger, hatred and love - to achieve heights of power and advanced techniques that those standing in the Light would require years to achieve if ever they could. It is ever eager to provide its aid in the fulfillment of a wielder’s desires, even when those desires are unwise. Through the fulfillment of personal desires, and the infliction of death and suffering, the Dark Side serves as an endless temptation to every generation of Force Sensitive to ever be trained. It is the only pathway that Serrulata Syn, Sith Lord, has ever known.
Any effects of the Force that Lord Syn uses which affect the minds of others rather than herself or the world around her may work freely on those with
average willpower or less, with increasing amounts of concentrated and uninterrupted effort against those of
gritty or zen, and under certain circumstances by exploiting the psychological weaknesses of
determinators.Control is the art of bringing one’s own self under control through the Force. All properly trained Force Users are taught how to maintain their body’s functionality and their mind’s focus in the face of adversity, allowing for fantastic feats of concentration and endurance. They could draw upon immense reserves of energy to move faster, strike harder, and leap great distances in a single bound. Lord Syn has enough control over her body to purge it of most poisons and diseases, arrest the effects of the others long enough to seek treatment, and to push on through any injury that isn’t immediately incapacitating through the power of her rage.
One’s presence in the Force is also brought under control with time. Lord Syn may protect herself from being directly affected by many of the abilities of sorcerers and other Force users, deflecting them away or absorbing them to fuel their own abilities. To a lesser extent this also applies to other forms of energy, such as plasma - she could catch and hold a lightsaber blade at bay for a few seconds. Masking her presence in the Force to occlude the sense that she is anything more than an ordinary individual is becoming almost second nature since coming to the Nexus.
Sense is perhaps the most instinctive of the Force’s capabilities. Even those without training can feel the presence of powerful manifestations of the Force, and experience discomfort around the unnatural energies of magic. Many also have a sense for the emotions and desires of those around them, with the most talented picking up on surface thoughts through protracted interaction.
With experience and study a Force Sensitive such as Lord Syn learns to direct these abilities deliberately to achieve preternatural senses of empathy, read the deeper thoughts and memories of others, communicate across great distances and past language barriers, and see without sight. The most immediately useful of these abilities in a fight is a form of precognition. Short-term foresight allows Lord Syn to predict the actions of her foes to avoid ambushes, respond to attacks faster than her own capabilities would normally allow, and overcome the risk of simple ambushes.
Seeing further into the future is something Lord Syn has not been taught in great detail, and her own efforts to piece the technique together are still a work in progress which current leaves it incredibly vague and unreliable.
Alter encompasses the most iconic set of Force Powers: those which directly affect the world around the wielder. Serrulata is capable of moving objects and people with her mind, producing bursts of kinetic force in various directions outward from her body. Such kinetic abilities require noteworthy amounts of concentration and effort to use above a High rank, scaling up as she attempts to constrict or move up to Very High and then Extremely High. She can also generate enormous storms of electrical energy from her fingertips with which to torture and murder her enemies. Against weaker foes, inanimate objects, and projectiles such as blaster bolts and bullets the Force can even be used to temporarily halt them in place with no loss of forward momentum with but a wave of the hand.
It is not merely the physical that is within a Sith’s grasp. She can reach into the minds of those who see and hear her and increase their susceptibility to her statements and suggestions, an old ‘mind trick’ known and feared by many. False sensory inputs are entirely plausible to produce, such as sounds and flickers of imagery that only exist in the mind of the subject. With effort Lord Syn may even occlude the senses of those nearby to exclude her presence entirely, allowing for a form of cloaking. The spiritual is not off limits either - the spirits of the ancient sith are ripe for exploitation, and by shrouding herself in the Force this Sith Lord can take the first step toward this by becoming able to interact with them physically. Greater masters of this art may exorcise spirits outright, or bind them to their will.
Serrulata’s most terrible talent is in the consumption of the Force, and of the life dependent upon it. It is a technique that is almost as old as the Sith themselves - a means of severing connections between life, the Force, and feeding upon the death it causes. It cannot be taught - only gained through instinct, through experiencing its effects, first-hand. In doing so they may sustain their own Force abilities beyond their normal limits, and restore her own vitality to the point of extending her life.
A special technique combining all three techniques is known as
Battle Meditation. It is the ability to use the Force to coordinate allies, allowing them to perform at maximum efficiency, acting as a single entity with the ability to counter every enemy move quickly and effectively. At Lord Syn's adequate level of competency it provides benefits for the group in question roughly equivalent to the benefits of being affected by a
lesser intimacy. She may also simultaneously sap the will of her foes, inflicting a similar amount of discord and disrupting their morale.
Sorcery is the ancient birthright of the Sith, the product of a culture immersed for thousands of years in the Dark Side. Performed through the medium of spells and rituals, it is a pathway to abilities many would consider to be… unnatural. They require more time, concentration, and sometimes preparation to perform than other expressions of the Force, but are all the greater for this when permitted. The simplest applications are but refinements of the Force’s other destructive abilities, allowing for the caster to crush the spirits and sear the flesh of their foes with bolts of concentrated malice. Lord Syn’s signature spell along these lines is to condense their hatred into a seething black mist from which serpentine tentacles rise up to swarm their victims, sharing the caster’s suffering and rapidly annihilating matter they come in contact with.
More advanced techniques draw the Dark Side across the senses and into the minds of the sorcerer’s victims. Serrulata can cast spells which draw out the greatest fears and insecurities of their foes to haunt them as a series of hallucinations affecting all five senses. Less individually tailored illusions are within their capabilities to create, but can be overcome by pinpointing inconsistencies in their presentation when they are created with haste. Other rituals can tamper with the memories of their victims, allowing Lord Syn to rewrite periods of time in their lives. She uses this to create operatives - or cover up her own indiscretions.
One minor spell which Lord Syn uses frequently enshrouds their face in a perpetual shadow beneath their hood, and endows their voice with a haunting reverb. The combination prevents others from pinpointing their precise identity during interpersonal interactions even if someone were to get cheeky and shine a flashlight in their face.
Finally, the Force may be infused through the sorcerous sub-discipline of
Alchemy into objects and locations, or used to twist life to according to the wielder’s design. Places where sith magic is performed with frequency become suffused with the Dark Side, and serve as reservoirs of power allowing for Force users to go beyond their limits of endurance as long as they are willing to surrender to it. Amulets that provided unique skills or amplified the power of the Dark Side for their user are common creations, as are blades and armor resistant to energy and capable of withstanding a higher form of battle than otherwise mundane items. Other examples include scepters that drain vital energies and reproduce them into blasts of destructive power, masks that hold the spirits of the dead so they might possess their wearers, and blasphemous texts which corrupt the spirits of their readers with the Dark Side.
The multitude of monstrosities the Sith have created over the millennia are too varied to describe in detail here. Existing species may be altered in ways that last for generations, given greater base attributes while enhancing their aggression and obedience. The corpses of the dead may be restored to a malicious mockery of motion, temporarily. Terrible poisons the like of which natural science cannot synthesize weaken their victims’ connection to all but the darkest sources of power.
However, the greater the powers invoked, the more terrible the costs involved. A simple bauble is but an afternoon’s desecration of nature. A grand artifact or terrible monster with power capable of changing the tide of a battle exacts a toll in suffering and souls no creature of conscience could abide. Serrulata Syn is not an expert at the art of Sith Alchemy at this time, recognizing that achieving more than acceptable results in small test groups, or crafting generic objects of power, is the limit of her expertise at this time. She seeks to change this by drawing upon whatever resources and subjects they may get her hands on.
Other Abilities Bioenhanced: Serrulata has undergone extensive genetic modification through a combination of advanced technology and Sith Alchemy. These modifications, when combined with a series of cybernetic implants buried into their deep tissue, provide them with increased strength, agility, and durability compared to an ordinary human being. These alterations cause Lord Syn a consistent amount of low level pain under stress which fuels their strength in the Dark Side, while also increasing their resistance to that same power’s long-term withering effects. It is estimated that Serrulata will be less affected by aging than other Force Sensitive humans.
Combat Skills: Basic skills with firearms and blasters, ground vehicle and starship operation, these were expected of every Sith so that their inferiors could hold nothing over them on the battlefield. Despite how useful these are they are secondary to Lord Syn’s skills with a lightsaber. There is no particular area of lightsaber combat where Lord Syn is deficient, but neither are there areas of particular excellence. She is capable of handling multiple opponents at a time in a defensive battle, deflecting blaster and bullet fire in active combat, and maneuvering enemies into the optimal position to destroy them with the Force.
Political Acumen: The Sith are the ruling class of a galactic empire, and endowed with both military and political authority that stands adjacent to and above the normal hierarchy. This did not make any of them immune to knives in the dark customary to any imperial enterprise, and so Lord Syn has become intimately familiar with how to measure and manipulate power throughout their young life. She may enter nearly any power structure and comprehend its intricacies in a very short amount of time. Politicians and military officers are open books for Serrulata to read at their leisure even before the Force comes into the picture.
Resilience: Sith training is an exercise in torture, built on deprivation, cruelty, and trials of fortitude. What Serrulata Syn went through makes the average Sith’s training look like a warm up, and lesser horrors have little impact on their state of mind. Hours spent trapped in nightmare landscapes made of their worst fears and insecurities taught them to see through falsehood, and multiple invasive surgical procedures performed without anesthetic have increased their pain tolerance to inhuman levels. It takes a truly wretched soul to conceive of something that could overcome the pain resistance of Lord Syn... or someone with far too much knowledge of what makes her tick.
AssetsChair of the Columbian House Committee on Armed Services: In the handful of years Serrulata Syn has been active in the Nexus she has created an identity which has achieved a position of prominence within the Republic of the District of Columbia. Through independent wealth, youthful enthusiasm, and Force of personality, they are in the running for youngest congressman to ever be elected to the House, and most certainly the youngest to become a committee chair. Through this position Lord Syn has influence over budgetary issues for the Columbian Armed Forces, and has oversight authority regarding newly developed technologies with military applications.
Citizen’s Arsenal: As a citizen of the District of Columbia, Lord Syn’s cover identity owns a considerable arsenal of slugthrowers such as hunting rifles and pistols, as well as a month’s worth of ammunition for the collection were it to be used in active combat at any given time. She also keeps a functioning military surplus M41 Walker Bulldog light tank at the center of the main courtyard. It serves as an adequate smokescreen for visitors to her well appointed mansion, so that they do not think to look further for the real treasures.
Congressional Custodians: As a congressman, Lord Syn has been assigned a detachment of the Congressional Custodians - a unit of the national guard devoted to the defense of the persons of those actively serving in Congress. They are as well equipped as any professional military group, and in times of trouble escort Lord Syn to and from official business in APCs or transport helicopters as appropriate.
The Diary of Sorzus Syn: A copy of a much older text, this diary is a fragment of the writings of the Dark Lord Sorzus Syn, Serrulata’s ancestor by genetic modification if not by birth. It contains an overview of the ancient Dark Lord’s experiments with the alchemical and sorcerous lore of the Sith Race. Lord Syn is still deciphering this text, but every paragraph is a treasure trove of historical knowledge and Dark Side lore.
Fixers: Lord Syn maintains a small network of covert operatives for use by her true self, not her public identity as Serra. Consisting entirely of non-Columbian Nexus natives and modeled loosely after Imperial Intelligence, her 'Fixers' perform black ops work that cannot be associated with anyone reputable. Their numbers are few, but their dedication is strong and some of them have been 'improved' through dark rituals to overcome other human covert operators.
Syn’s Lightsaber: A small yet durable metal cylinder that Syn carries around hidden in her robes, or elsewhere on her person if in disguise. It produces a crimson blade of energy of great power. A lightsaber blade is a mass-less form that neither radiated heat nor expended energy, other than that emitted as visible light, until it came into contact with something solid. The power of the energy blade is sufficient that it can cut through most things up to Legendary rank, although the speed through which it cut depended on the density of the subject. Only certain energy-resistant or magically enchanted materials can avoid being seared through by the lightsaber’s blade below that rank.
WeaknessHunger: The Dark Side is a dangerous weapon to wield. Serrulata is more resilient to its hardships than most creatures, but even they must be cautious not to overuse the most terrible techniques it makes available. Consuming too much power, too fast, is a pathway to overload and self-harm that can take Lord Syn out of the fight at an inopportune moment. More experience and knowledge is required for this Sith to exceed their current limits for long.
Malevolence: The greatest of dark rituals disrupt the balance of the cosmos in ways that are visible to the senses. Without proper precautions such as isolation and warding rituals the disruption can reach the point of causing unnatural weather phenomenon and instilling a chilling cold in the surrounding area. This makes the creation of sorcerous relics and alchemical abominations more complicated.
IntimaciesGreater Phobia: Losing Control
Lesser Cause: The Corruption of Columbia
Lesser Principle: “Through victory, my chains are broken.”
Lesser Tie: The Dark Side (Addiction)
Lesser Tie: My Family (Bitter Hatred)
Lesser Tie: Myself (Vengeful Pride)
Lesser Tie: Columbia (Poisonous Loyalty)
Origin: Serrulata Syn does not have a history worth speaking of. She was nobody, a helpless child taken by a monster to be his heir. For decades the Dark Councilor has labored to transform Serrulata into vessel for the legacy of Syn, filling her with its hunger for power, twisting them into a creature of loathing and rage. He succeeded, only to find his creation slipping free of his grasp to a place far, far away.
Now Lord Syn seeks to build her own base of power in this new world, and had sunk her tendrils into one of the largest military and economic powers around. It is only a matter of time before they twist it into her instrument, as her creator once did to them… assuming it doesn’t get to her first.