[Special Classification] Findings of the Serpent

[Leyrah]

Powerbase,

This is a space where all of us may make reports of oddities, esoteric findings, or other knowledge that is related to our current foe. While all of the information is encrypted to only be available in the archives' physical location, each report will also need to be appropriately restricted in accordance to rank. Do not forget to include the Operatives and their ranks in this.

Depending on the information in each report, they may be reclassified according to need or distributed to those who have use of it at that time.
Lord Arcanus Sendahl

Spoiler: OOC

In order to classify your post, just add at the top as written below, and remove those you do not want to include.

CLASSIFIED: Darth Véhemen, Sith Lords, Sith, Incipients, Director, Lead Operative, Spec. Operatives, Operatives.

 

[Zaca Vintaka]

CLASSIFIED: Darth Véhemen, Sith Lords

Subject: Post attack report
----------------
My Lords,

When the previous attack was concluding, a (mental) attack seemingly went out. I'll lay out the symptoms I have felt since:
An unease deep within my being.
Something writhes underneath my skin, wriggling, coiled and alive. It is somewhat subtle.
Uninvited and intimate whispers in the back of my mind, removing defenses and exposing me.
Vulnerability, thoughts feeling noticeable and desires laid bare. It's as if the Patron's gaze is just beyond my sight, drawing me in and inevitable.
It feels as if a mark has been put onto me.

As of right now there are no holes within my memory. There is a possibility this mark might force me to turn against the powerbase.

Signed,

Sith Zaca Vintaka

 

[Calian Tarr]

CLASSIFIED: Sith Lords

Report on the vision I experienced around two weeks after the Patron’s attack on the Tyrant.

I witnessed a fleshy corridor. Seemed almost alive, felt like a pulse. Vague scent of metal in the air.

Joining me in the corridor was a strangely beautiful man. Unnaturally so. Believe it to be the Patron.

Following the appearance of the Patron, the beauty quickly faded as his face cracked to reveal dark tendrils from within. At the same time I felt probing coming from inside me, like bugs under the skin or poking from the inside. Sensation lingers to this day, albeit not quite as intense.

” I let you glimpse the membrane, Calian Tarr. Now feel what presses against it from the inside.” is all that he spoke immediately afterwards.

Finally, the aforementioned sensations have lingered with me since. Even if not as intensely.

Sith Tarr

 

[Zazriel]

CLASSIFIED: Darth Véhemen, Sith Lords.

A report on the events of the attack suffered on the Tyrant above Lesser Gambor some weeks ago.

Spoiler: Report

At the onset of the attack, multiple Sith and Lords were present in the training room. As events unfolded, several were drawn away across the ship to various sections of the crew deck.

I remained in the training room alongside my apprentice Sith Kharib, Sith Vintaka and a newly inducted member of the SOG who's name I still do not retain. There, like everyone else, we engaged an unknown entity.

This entity presented itself in the form of a Hollowed Guard and despite a prolonged engagement, it exhibited no discernible signs of injury or fatigue.

Recognising the futility of a physical confrontation I shifted to a mental assault in attempts to sever whatever connection had brought the manifestation to us. Without restraint, I found myself encountering something beyond expectation.

The presence I touched cannot be reconciled with the assumed capabilities of the Patron. It was vast, ancient, and its reach and power far exceeding the confines of what we believed we were facing. The contact rendered me temporarily incapacitated as a series of words, primitive and utterly alien, forced themselves into my mind.

Upon regaining autonomy, I withdrew to my quarters, committing the experience to memory.

See below the rough pronunciations.

“ITH-RAH-KOOL VESH NAH-THOON”
“THREN-KAI, THREN-KAI”
“RESH-TAHL, OOTH-KETH, VEH-NORR”

Spoiler: OOC Translation to Correct Spelling

“ITH-RAH-KOOL VESH NAH-THOON” = Ythra’kul vesh na’thuun.
“THREN-KAI, THREN-KAI” = Thren’kai, Thren’kai
“RESH-TAHL, OOTH-KETH, VEH-NORR” = Ressh’thal, Uth’keth, Venorr”

The entity also made vague references to "the vessel" as that which split the veil and seeped through the breach. It named this presence as both "aperture" and "membrane" and something that coils beneath the skin.

I am aware of the weight of this account.. nonetheless I stand by the accuracy of it.

- Lord Zazriel

 

[Leyrah]

CLASSIFIED: Darth Véhemen, Sith Lords.

Regarding the affliction of my person: It was not too unlike Sith Tarr's experience. I sought answers, and I did so inside his skull, with his consent. There was a feeling of going 'against' something, of potential danger if one pried past, but answers were never something gained by the cowardly.

I recall wriggling beneath my skin, as if something was behind my sockets, in my mind, in my thoughts and pushing my own voice into small, terrified echoes. I remember hearing myself as I did not wish it to hurt, or eat, me. I saw depths without bottom, felt smiling with a familiar allure. Doubt flooded my mind, suspicion on all and everything, and so I made no report - because my own mind believed it was unwise.

Beyond this, the experience was as Sith Tarr's. It is an unexplainable existence, and it is as if there are cracks and broken lines in the Patron's supposed beauty that will tear it open to the world.

---

Furthermore, the Eye of Yndare was used at the behest of the Dark Lord, allowing Sith Tarr and Sith Vintaka to reach out towards two particular choices: the Patron, and the Creature, respectively. The Dark Lord after the fact informed me that the Eye had already been used once in attempt to see the Patron with similar results, a matter previously unknown to me. I have yet to gain Sith Vintaka's report, but Sith Tarr's has been attached below.

Spoiler: Sith Tarr's Report

Lord Sendahl,

I saw a jungle. Ancient ruins. The jungle reclaiming the ruins. Two suns in the sky and… a gas giant. Some kind of planet anyway.

Saw the Patron walking below. Again, hard to look away from. Oddly inviting. An army of Hollow Guard walked with.

Suddenly the Patron spotted me. He smirked at me, left me feeling unsettled. Looked right into me, through me. Like he saw the deepest parts of me.

He addressed me after. Speaking directly about how he sees me. Then I felt a presence that was unlike anything I ever felt. It felt like a weight crushing against me everywhere at once. I’m not sure, but I think he even tried to take my mind.

Something with my head, either way. I’ll try to answer questions the best I can.

Sith Tarr

Spoiler: Sith Vintaka's Report

My Lord,

It started with nothing to see, rather than something to feel. A coiling pressure underneath my thoughts, something shifting where there shouldn't be anything, slithering under my skin. And then it turned into things similar to that evening when this affliction or mark or whatever you wish to label it started. Space fractures. Depths without distance. Angles collapse and bend. Looking for shapes to find none, only certain knowledge of something existing and being utterly, impossibly wrong, almost beyond perception.

Then there were words. Not a language, but understanding. Incomprehensible thought taking understandable form. "Keth'raal oss varuun. Flesh is cloth. We move beneath the weave." Afterwards it felt like tentacles pressing reality around me without touching, as if they might reach for me at any moment.

The following words overlapped, layering itself, spoken from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. "Zha'keth ul venorr. The mask trembles. Remove it and the angles will bleed."

What followed was perception. Curvature without boundary, a thing folding in on itself, endless, patient, pressing against reality as a thing too large to fit within it. Yet to truly perceive it is madness.

The following thought broke as it formed, splintering while the presence shifted impossibly close. "Ressh'thal...beneath his skin we reshape. Beneath yours we wait."

It then noticed. Not through sight, or awareness, but recognition. With perception of it coming closer, terror and truth flooded in, simple and absolute: it is already beneath the skin.

With that last shift, madness came.

I will try to answer any questions to the best of my ability.

- Sith Zaca Vintaka

 

[Anairith]

CLASSIFIED: Darth Véhemen, Sith Lords

First, my former report to the Lords about my own encounter on the Tyrant will be forwarded here again, alongside the recording of my reproduction of the words it spoke to me.

Spoiler: Encounter on the Tyrant

Dark Lord, Lords,

During yesterday's incursion on the ship, I found myself out in the hall initially as the initial surge of power rushed through the ship. The intensity of the agony and overwhelming feedback on our minds rendered me stunned and slumped against a wall for a time, and one of these invading entities that had appeared by the tree in the hall strode past me. It headed into the mess hall and I followed.

Though I initially engaged with hostility, it became quickly clear that such efforts were fruitless. It possessed no true physiology but seemed to churn within, impossible shapes held together into a facsimile of a humanoid shape, its being seeming more like a window into another reality than a body. It appeared to be a male in black robes, wearing a mask to cover its face.

While engaged, I elected instead to investigate given the pointlessness of offensive efforts. My hand phased through it once entirely, another time touched something vaguely physical, and yet another time felt as if my hand was lost to a void sprawling within it, disconnected from my body as if it had never been mine in the first place. It made contact mentally and I elected to try to ask questions of it. I cannot say whether it truly spoke to offer me answers or not, but it said plenty... and showed me more.

It was not the only presence and voice I felt in my mind during the altercation, however. Whilst I was connected to this entity following my attempts at probing to learn more, I learned that it had no desire to destroy or harm me. I also learned of the singularity. The point at which everyone, everything and everywhere converge, a pinpoint place where reality collapses. Memory of what has been, is and shall be, and information overflowing to such a point that my mind could not grasp it all... truths no one was meant to see, a place none should or has tread. I couldn't grasp it then and still cannot find a way to truly capture what I saw, as my head aches just seeking out the moment in my memory.

The other presence... it bubbled with laughter underneath my skin, and a child's wail pierced my ears, once. Then I felt it moving under the ridge of my eyes, with a voice taunting me, saying that my eyes were windows. It could see, and I should blink slower for it.

Whatever this creature is, it was found outside this reality by 'him', and when I inquired whether it meant specifically our enemy, it was vague but still continued to imply that the Patron himself is the vessel it inhabits and has reshaped. It is vast, ancient and beyond understanding... though not necessarily directly hostile. If all entities on the ship were aspects of this creature, wisps of its true form, then... I have a feeling this is not the last time we will hear from it.

The words spoken by this entity burned into my mind, and I have recorded them to the best of my ability, in vaguely the order I remember them.

Make of them what you will.

Lord Anairith

Spoiler: Encounter on the Tyrant - Recordings

- Keth'raal oss varuun. Flesh is cloth. We move beneath the weave.
- Uth'kael ven'orr... do not confuse us with corruption. We are refinement.
- Uth'keth zhorrath. The galaxy is too wide. We will narrow it.
- Athrakat a'ar Ma'at. There is justice, hidden beyond.
- He sought depth. We answered with depth without bottom.
- Ressh'thal... beneath his skin we reshape. Beneath yours we wait.
- Thren'kai... thren'kai... The spiral tightens. Purity is constriction. Excess form will be pressed flat.
- Gha'zul ith marreth. Your bones hum with forgotten tides. We were in that ocean before it had water.
- Rathrak a'ar Ma'at. You have seen the justice. We have been the guide. The centre awaits.
- Gha'zul ith... stars are malformed. Minds malformed. We correct both.
- Ythra'kul vesh na'thuun. The vessel split the veil. We seeped through the gap in reality. He is aperture. He is membrane. Beneath the skin we coil.
- Zha'keth ul venorr. The mask trembles. Remove it and the angles will bleed.
- Raeruq'ai tr' Ma'at. The justice to shape was served. The vessel was rebuilt.
- Ul'gorrath thess vael. Do not name us. Naming reduces curvature. We are older than the collapse of your first red star.
- Al'ikr ar'tharass. There is understanding beyond.

---

Second... the report following my own and Lord Zazriel's excursion to Dromund Kaas and Korriban, to investigate the potential origin of this entity and whether there are any records of its appearance in the past.

Spoiler: Report - Lord Anairith and Lord Zazriel's Conclusion

Dark Lord, Lords,

Per our assignment to continue investigations into the unknown entity that boarded the Tyrant through vestiges some time back, myself and Lord Zazriel travelled to the Imperial capitol to make inquiries and access and peruse archives, reports and writings on Dromund Kaas and Korriban that could grant us insight into the entity's nature.

Our search parameters included reports and writings of encounters of entities of similar nature, any sightings or writings suggesting encounters whether real or imagined with aberrant Force phenomena, or any evidence of recordings that could give us a trace of the language utilized by this creature to hint towards its origins. Records consulted included historical documentation, archaeological records verified by the IRS or scholars submitting their findings to public archives, intelligence records from expeditions or prior explorations of encounters of note, and scouring through reports that defy standard classification and were largely filed away or discarded for lack of relevance. Furthermore, we compared the languages encountered against ancient Sith dialects, Rakatan remnant scripture and what obscure notations and recordings could be found that were attributed to entities beyond known space.

I make note of this to communicate the breadth of our investigation and the thoroughness with which we've combed available materials in search of answers or any evidence that connects to our encounter. The sources were plentiful and the records and reports, countless.

We focused our search on the periods of time spanning between the first known encounters with the Patron and his resurfacing in more recent times in an effort to narrow down an already broad search and perhaps produce more promising results, consequently.

What we've found, at the end of our search, is this:

There is no record of the entity nor the language it spoke. While there are skin-deep similarities and shared themes with other known entities and encounters, the structure and behaviour we've observed on the Tyrant does not translate or repeat in any other record we have perused. No verified archaeological records provide any confirmed instance of the language we've heard, not in recent years or during the time that the Patron has been active.

There is no record, no evidence, no footprint. Nothing. What we have found through our search thus far is total absence and nonexistence.

Thus, we can come to the conclusion that whatever this entity is, it is not part of this galaxy's history, nor necessarily a part of this galaxy at all. That it has been observed by us is an anomaly, and a first. Our written experiences and reports of it are the only ones in existence. We will learn nothing more of it from searching in records, and all we can learn of it - we must learn through direct exposure.

Signed,
Lord Anairith

 

[Zazriel]

CLASSIFIED: Darth Véhemen, Sith Lords

Following on from previous reports I had another conversation with Sith Calian Tarr about his experiences. His recounting of events are all accurate and I see no discrepancies in the report he gave.

There were some matters I queried further with him which I believe merit some mention. Perhaps it might spawn further lines of investigation.

Spoiler: Assassination attempt on Lord Vyshtal

I do not believe this has been reported on as of yet.

My line of questioning began around Sith Tarr's episode and the influence on his mind that resulted him being confined to the medbay. He recounted that he and Lord Vyshtal were engaged in a spar when an imperial arrived.

The imperial claimed to be making a delivery but was acting suspicious and perspiring excessively. After a failed attempt with a grenade Sith Tarr states he and Lord Vyshtal were apprehending the assassin when he blacked out.

When he regained control he and Lord Vyshtal were in a stand-off with their lightsabers before he blacked out again. He claims he did not feel the presence had as strong a hold as it could of.

He felt the presence's attention was elsewhere. Something to look into.

Sith Tarr claims he remained fully lucid afterwards and has not felt any manner of influence over him since this episode. This remains to be seen.

Spoiler: Sith Tarr's Report #2

Spoiler: Original Report

Lord Sendahl,

I saw a jungle. Ancient ruins. The jungle reclaiming the ruins. Two suns in the sky and… a gas giant. Some kind of planet anyway.

Saw the Patron walking below. Again, hard to look away from. Oddly inviting. An army of Hollow Guard walked with.

Suddenly the Patron spotted me. He smirked at me, left me feeling unsettled. Looked right into me, through me. Like he saw the deepest parts of me.

He addressed me after. Speaking directly about how he sees me. Then I felt a presence that was unlike anything I ever felt. It felt like a weight crushing against me everywhere at once. I’m not sure, but I think he even tried to take my mind.

Something with my head, either way. I’ll try to answer questions the best I can.

Sith Tarr

As previously mentioned all recounts of this report are accurate but Sith Tarr did mention the figure believed to be the Patron stating; "I see you, little spy."

When question if he felt the Patron he was caught offguard by his presence he did not know.

I find it strange though. Why would the Patron address him as a spy if he purposefully pulled Sith Tarr into the vision? Or did someone or something else do it?