#rakghoul plague

[rulimaquina]

[oonaluna-art]

A Patreon commission of a Jedi infected by the Rakghoul Plague ~ Spooky Stuff for the Spooky Season.

—

[My Ko-Fi] [Patreon]

[legends-expo]

Happy 15th release anniversary to Dark Times #11, written by LegendsCon guest Randy Stradley! This issue sees Old Republic Jedi Celeste Morne revived from stasis by Darth Vader.

Love the Expanded Universe? Join us for Legends Con in Burbank, CA on September 9th & 10th 2023!

[sephsekla]

Thinking about how Darth Malgus is still wearing a mask, while all the Jedi gleefully run around being galactic super-spreaders.

Who's the real bad guy here? We can't all heal our Long COVID through meditation, you mystic dicks.

[utskushii-hito]

I have died infected by the Rakghoul plague because I wanted to know how the stages of the disease worked... I didn't think the second stage would have been fatal.

[rinrinp42]

for your snippet prompts: hmm would love to see your take on some clone wars-era QuinObi, platonic or not! perhaps some early days commiserating between Alpha and Quinlan about their shared idiot??

(hope you're doing well, I know we haven’t talked in a long while 🧡)

(I'm doing good and hope you are too!)

!!!  This prompt made me go all gooey!  Have a list of times Obi-Wan made Quinlan's heart race ( though I didn't get Alpha-17 and Quinlan commiserating).  Also Tholme/T’raa Saa and Mace and his tree mom will have to be pried from my cold dead hands so Quinlan gets Little Brother privileges and literally only calls Mace by his first name.

Quinlan nearly dropped the stuffed tooka the younger Initiate had dropped when the Cretchmaster brought in cookies.  The toy was infused with bleak, scary visions. As if it was trying to purge them from the redhead.  Quinlan's heart races with the images, though there's too many and they're too fragmented to tell a story.   They're just the Temple but dark and strange armored figures moving through it.  But… but they're scary, like when his Aunt made him grip the locket…

Quinlan makes up his mind.  He's going to make sure that this Initiate has something good and fun to distract him.  It'll be good for the redhead, he's sure of that.

Quinlan's mouth is dry and his heart races as a wide-eyed Obi-Wan pulled his jacket out of Quinlan's grip.  He had just wanted to stop Obi-Wan and welcome him back.  Master Tholme had said Obi-Wan had stayed behind to help settle some kids away from the fighting on Melida/Daan but what Quinlan just saw was…

Obi-Wan hadn't been hiding with a bunch of Younglings away from the fighting.  He had been leading an army of Younglings to fight against their parents and aunts and uncles and and and 

And Quinlan needs to tell Master Tholme because Obi-Wan needs help.

He may also need Quinlan to not just be standing there like an idiot.  So Quinlan slapped a smile on his face that he could only hope Obi-Wan didn't see through and threw his arms around the other Padawan, babbling about some weird twist to the mission he and Master Tholme had been on.

Quinlan lost his breath as Obi-Wan twisted them around and down onto the mat, pinning Quinlan.

The other Senior Padawan smirked down at him, somehow keeping Quinlan in place even though the Kiffer was heavier.

“Hello there,” he said and Quinlan's heart raced.

Oh.

Quinlan ran through the underbelly of Taris, following the Forcebond he and Obi-Wan shared.  His heart tried to lodge itself in his throat as it raced faster than the exercise should make it.  This was supposed to be an easy mission, and a sneaky way of celebrating that brat Anakin turning 13.  Mace had even helped arrange it!  How did Obi-Wan find some weirdo doctor trying to recreate long gone rakghoul plague?

Small gods, Quinlan hoped he would get there in time to help Obi-Wan.  Aayla and Anakin were ransacking the so-called doctor’s upper level apartment while Quinlan was on Obi-Wan Rescue duty.

Which he would not fail at (he hadn't failed at any of his self appointed Obi-Wan duties yet and had no plans on ever doing so).

Quinlan had been on a time sensitive undercover mission on the other side of the galaxy when the Clone Wars started.  It was another 3 months before he had finished up and could head back.  Mace had immediately sent him to Obi-Wan.  Quinlan's experience with undercover work meant he wouldn't end up with a battalion but Mace wanted him to work with some of Obi-Wan’s boys.  There were a few shaping up to be good at the Intelligence aspect (something niggled at the thought of the Clones and Quinlan figured a squad to back him up would help sus it out).

He wanted to see how the Clones reacted before they knew he was a Jedi.  Especially if Obi-Wan was going to spend the war surrounded by them.  Luckily there was a battle that had finished recently so they weren't in the camp where it would have been harder to get close without revealing himself as a Jedi.  He slipped through the bombed out town, pausing now and then to watch the Clones.  And then he found Obi-Wan.

Quinlan paused in the shadow of a building as the sunset bathed Obi-Wan in color and his heart raced at how beautiful he was.

The Force must have been laughing at him and his constant adoration as it gave no warning before the larger clone slide between them staring down Quinlan with a contained sort of menace.  Kriff but he didn't want to fight one of Obi-Wan's boys.

“Alpha-17, please do be careful, Quinlan is a rather talented fighter.”

“Ah Obes, thank you,” he couldn't help answering with a shit-eating grin.

Though his face was hidden, Quinlan was sure the Clone narrowed his eyes at him.  Eh, deserved.

Quinlan stepped into the medbay, heart racing as his eyes settled on Obi-Wan.  His redhead idiot was in the bacta tank but was there and alive.  He had nearly sobbed when he felt the Bond click back into place.  Waltz and Swing had both been startled to see it, but Obi-Wan had assigned the squad to him with such care that they rallied quickly to make the plans to get to Obi-Wan.

“You're still alive?” a voice asked from a bed.

Quinlan looked away from Obi-Wan to see Alpha-17 on a bed.  But very much alive.

“Su cuy’gar,” Quinlan responded cheerfully.  He liked the ornery bastard and was glad both had survived.

Alpha-17 snorted at him and shifted on the bed.  Quinlan didn't think the clone would be back on the front lines.  But there might be something he could do…

Once Obi-Wan was out of the bacta, Quinlan would run it past the two of them.  They needed a paranoid bastard on Kamino to look into… well all of it.

Quinlan's hand slid into Obi-Wan's as the peace treaty was signed by interim Chancellor Mon Motha.  It turns out not having both sides be controlled by a Sith made peace easier to accomplish.  Who knew!

Obi-Wan squeezed his hand and Quinlan's heart raced.  Small gods but he loved him.

[greyias]

SWTOR Short Stories (and In-Universe Documents)

I know someone else has already done this work elsewhere, but for the life of me I couldn't find it. So, I've put together a comprehensive list of all of the devblog short stories and in-universe epistolary-type documents (documents, journals, dossiers, missives, personnel files, communications, etc). Short stories are bolded and marked, in case you're only looking for those.

2.0 - 7.2

SIS Intel Report: Key locations overview of the planet Makeb

Imperial Intelligence Report: Persons of Interest on Makeb

Facilities: Take a Virtual Tour

A Letter from Special Executive Rasmus Blys

WORK WITH PRIDE. WORK WITH CZERKA.

CZ-198 and the State of Czerka Corporation

CZ-198 – Meet the Staff

HoloNet News Exclusive Interview: Baron Deathmark

HoloNet News Exclusive Interview: Baron Deathmark, Part 2

A Record of the Dread Masters

The Search for Oricon

HoloNet News Exclusive Interview: Baron Deathmark

IMPERIAL EDICT GR-1NC4

Additional Personnel Files

Four More Picks for You

RE: Kuat Drive Yards

EMERGENCY ALERT: Rakghoul Plague Outbreak on Alderaan – AVOID ALDERAAN!

State of the Galaxy

Since KOTOR: Manaan

Lana Beniko’s Journal: Darth Arkous

"Surface Details" (short story)

"WANTED: DEAD AND DISMANTLED" (short story)

"Remnants" (short story)

The Revanites’ Ascendance

"Bedtime on Concordia" (short story)

Rishi: Places of Interest

Raider’s Cove: Persons of Interest

"The Price of Power" (short story)

"One Night in the Dealer’s Den" (short story)

"The Final Trial" (short story)

Go Big, Go Small, Go Nowhere

"Regrets" (short story)

"The Sixth Line: Part One" (short story)

"The Sixth Line: Part Two" (short story)

"Vacation" (short story)

"Brothers" (short story)

"A Mother's Hope" (short story)

"Trading Scars" – A Short Story on Umbara (short story)

"Copero Short Story Blog" (short story)

Jedi Under Siege: State of the Galaxy

Dantooine Tactical Report

"Quite A Story To Tell" (short story)

"Seeing Red" (short story)

Intelligence Report: Historical Analysis of Manaan

Mission Abstract: Investigate link between Darth Malgus and the planet Elom

"All That’s Left" (short story)

"Bottled Fury" (short story)

"Snare" (short story)

[lavampira]

suddenly just remembered I dreamt last night that I got sent in a space ship with others to a new planet, while bringing buildings and nonperishable goods from earth so my escape pod nearly crashed into a hotel on the way to land, after nearly freezing to death in space from a crack in the glass on the pod, and I went grocery shopping with meredith grey once I arrived. we stocked up on waffles and freeze dried strawberries. also ffxiv guydelot was there and had a crush on alex karev who was sick with a swtor rakghoul plague outbreak for the third time. and no I don’t know how to explain any of this

[ospreyeamon]

All the SWTOR levels being designed for viewing from the third-person camera makes it feel like the galaxy is really into monumental architecture during this period of history. Which is … plausible?

The Sith Empire wanting to project grandeur and intimidation through all its public buildings, from military bases and factories to stations and government offices, would be very on brand for them. The hutts need their doorways to be at least 3x3m rather than standard humanoid scale and engage in self-aggrandising nonsense like solid-gold statues. The Alderaani nobility have clearly been sliding into dysfunctional decadence for a while, given the mess they’ve made of their planet.

So, the Great Houses of Alderaan built monumental country estates and museums, the hutts built monumental casinos and palaces, the Sith Empire built monumental temples and state offices, but that still leaves questions about other parts of the Republic. The Jedi Temple on Tython is explicitly of Alderaani architectural design so … huge light airy spaces are in fashion?

It might say something about the Republic’s problems with prioritising and corruption, if you wanted to look at it that way. On Coruscant, the Senate Rotunda is flush with gilded decorations, but parts of the ecumenpolis’ basic infrastructure down in the Works are still on fire after the Sacking. The recolonisation of Taris is a white elephant, with a bonus additional risk that the rakghoul plague will escape the planet through the increased traffic. Corellia’s “morale-building” museum of industry that its government built at great expense in the middle of an economic depression, instead of using the funds for any of the thousands of more sensible projects you could engage in during a depression. All those Senators accepting bribes from the Sith Empire (and the Migrant Merchants Guild, and Czerka, and-) would be the kind to greenlight fancy buildings to frequent at the expense of more effectively equitable projects.

[incorrect-kotor-quotes]

Revan: Bastila, I think we need to talk about- By the Force, what is happening?

Bastila: *brandishing a pair of handcuffs* You are under arrest, Revan.

Revan: Oh yeah, for what?

Bastila: For war crimes. No, uh- For being too fit. Too fit for the streets.

Revan: Cool.

Bastila: You're a danger.

Revan: Can I talk to my lawyer?

Bastila: Your lawyer- No, you can't actually, he has the day off. For personal reasons.

Revan: Oh? What personal reasons?

Bastila: His child has the rakghoul plague. *breaking character* No, no no no-

Revan: Bastila, we need to talk, I think.

Bastila: No, sorry, my name is not Bastila.

Revan: What is your name?

Bastila: My name is Master Shan.

Revan: What the hell.

Bastila: Jedi Master Shan.

Revan: No.

[swtorramblings]

I'm honestly not sure that reclaiming Taris was ever a good idea. Huge amounts of resources being expended for one world when they're already stretched thin, the likelihood that the Rakghoul plague would get out, the distinct feeling that it was a political stunt.

A political stunt that could certainly lead to good things, but still.

On the other hand, expending effort to stop it solely to show the Republic that what the Empires did cannot be undone is just as much a political stunt and seriously makes you the bad guys.

[mayxthexforce]

What Lurks Within || Celeste & Vader

Starter for @corruptedforce

3944 years, trapped...

Almost four millennia spent in Dreypa's Oubliette, surrounded by NOTHING. An endless darkness. Forgotten by everyone, never to know if Carrick had even so much as tried to find her help, if he'd just ran off the moment he was rid of her, lived the rest of his days as a cowardly rat while she ROTTED in that casket. Her connection with the force severed from the rest of the galaxy, leaving her connected to no one but her torturer, her PARASITE, Muur. And oh, what pleasure he drove from fulfilling his role. Not a day had gone by within the confines of the casket where she wasn't made acutely aware of exactly how long she'd been there for. Hours become days, days become months, months become centuries. In a —very ironic— way, the battle of wits with Muur was the one thing that kept her from slipping into madness.

And then she'd finally been released, greeted by no healers, no masters. Just HIM.

She hadn't been thinking clearly. So focused on the relief of freedom from the casket and the comforting presence of someone other than Muur, she'd just fallen into a desperate embrace. Perhaps, if Vader'd shoved her off, the memory of his arms around her and the strange apparatus he wore on his chest whirring softly as she pressed her cheek to it wouldn't still haunt her almost as insistently as Muur did. But he hadn't, he didn't push her away. In fact, she was the one who pulled back.

Things had gotten much more complicated after that.

There was no place for Jedi in this galaxy anymore. The dark side reigned over almost every corner. ALMOST. Some derelict moon in the outer rim became her hideout, a new type of prison.

3944 years imprisoned in a Sith's torture box. Now, another five years imprisoned in some barren, lonely moon, seeking nothing but solitude. And yet, the Empire still comes after her. Still looks to hurt her.

Celeste had no way of knowing that the group of imperial troopers that landed on her moon was merely a scouting mission. A group of men who were either the least fortunate or luckiest people in the galaxy for stumbling upon her hideout without intending to– if she had to pick, she'd say they were quite unfortunate. She took no prisoners. The talisman controlled the rakghoul plague, and she controlled the talisman– but it longed to spread its disease, longed to feed in the despair of those infected, and who was she to deny it such cravings when the victims had aimed blasters at her?

She kept them for a few days. Long enough for them to start cannibalizing each other, but still retaining some of their armor. Then, she packed them back into their ship and sent them back the way they came. A message. A WARNING.

[opinated-user]

I've seen people cite Aliana glassing a planet in TSR as en example of Lily writing dictators suffering no consequences for their actions and making it so their always in the right. Before I continue, I'm gonna preface this with I'm not defending LO or her writing choices.

IIRC, back when I still followed her on Tumblr, she had said the reason Aliana did that was because there was an outbreak of the Rakghoul plague, which is basically space zombies and is canon (prior to Disney wiping the EU clean but I digress). So Aliana glassing a planet over a Rakghoul plague outbreak is not unreasonable, if the plague had spread across the entire planet and infected a large majority of the population. However knowing LO part of me suspects this isn't what happened but I might be wrong.

In Knights of the Old Republic, there's a mission early on where you have to help a doctor on the planet Taris try to develop a either a cure or a vaccine against the Rakghoul plague and it succeeds, but the Sith glass Taris and the cure is destroyed. And given how dangerous the Rakghoul plague is, it makes some level of sense to just declare a planet suffering an outbreak a lost cause.

HOWEVER, because a cure was at one point discovered, that means it's possible, and given Aliana is just the fucking leader of the galaxy now, she definitely has the resources to be able to put together an effort to find or rediscover the cure, so her glassing a planet was ultimately pointless and poor writing, especially if the Rakghoul outbreak was small scale and not planetwide.

I'm not defending LO, I just haven't seen context for that tidbit about TSR and wanted to provide some and in the process further point out how dumb a writing decision that was that LO made.

someone correct me if wrong, but i understood that alaina blows up a planet before becoming officially the leader of the galaxy which opens up the next questions: 1. why it had to be alaina of anyone else on the universe the one to decide to carry out a genocide or not? 2. if this event is not going to have further consequences for the other characters... why is there at all? if my memory serves me right, i think the way this event was handled was just a little bit of angst for alaina and to be an excuse to have some hurt/comfort with rey later on. i don't care about having scenes like that, i just wonder if genocide was really the only thing that we could have used for that. it could have been used for alaina to want to discover that cure at all cost and do her absolute best to eradicate that disease so an event like that never has to happen again... but LO never even mentioned that happening. alaina just destroyed the entire population of a planet, is sad for a few paragraphs and apparently never thinks about it again. never uses it as a motivator to want to save more people in the future. it just happens and then we move on to the next thing. on top of that, remember that LO has a thing about liking to write genocidal dictators whose choice are deemed good just because. before alaina it was lord ryder, who destroyed planet earth because someone was rude. my guess is that LO just likes to have that kind of power. it's part of her power fantasy to just be able to carry out genocide.

[raven-of-domain-kwaad]

OC Tag Game

Got tagged by @starknstarwars thanks very much!

Will give out some no pressure tags to @swtorpadawan, @a-master-procrastinator, @dream-of-tanalorr, @imperial-topaz2003, @voidendron and anyone else that sees this and wants to give it a go!

favorite oc - Amarra Kine

I have fallen so hard for my girl Amarra. She is a force for political change yet has no vision for the future. She is one of the most powerful individuals in the empire yet has no ambition for personal power. She loves her family more than anything and yet she is completely alone in the empire. She is the deadliest warrior in the galaxy yet she wants peace for herself and her people. She is a mess of contradictions and I love her for it.

newest oc - Lana Kine

Lana is my OC Kelsa Kine's youngest child. Lana was named after Kelsa's mother Lana Beniko.

(Lana is in the background and Kelsa is in the foreground)

oldest oc - Ryscha Kine

When I made the decision to give SWTOR another chance at the start of the pandemic, I made Ryscha. She began as a semi-self insert before I just started making my Kine Family of OCs and she became her own person. (I did have two previous SWTOR characters that I made in like 2012 but I never really developed them into actual characters)

meanest oc - Avaraxi Dagan

My mad scientist OC that will happily vivisect anyone if it gets them more usable data points. They did vivisect and ran numerous experiments on Kelsa Kine, even harvesting some of her eggs for later which is how Lana Kine and her siblings came to be.

Also diversity win! The mad scientist that's running unethical experiments on you is non-binary!

softest oc - Bryala Kine

All Bryala wants in life is to be a good person and not disappoint those closest to her. And if she can help others along the way then she'll happily do so.

most aloof/standoffish oc - Keras'eren'naru

She is a Chiss that believes in Chiss supremacy. Everyone else is beneath her and her people.

dumbest (affectionate) oc - Inara Almari

She spent her early young adult life raiding dangerous tombs and ruins on the off chance that there might be ancient knowledge she can study. She will also forget about lab safety procedures if she gets too carried away while running experiments. Because she focuses so much on her work she was captured by Zakuulan forces on three separate occasions and all three times resulted in her being rescued by Ryscha Kine who eventually took her on as an apprentice. Inara might have also accidentally infected Ryscha with the rakghoul plague while developing a vaccine. Whoops sorry Master!

smartest oc - Serra Kine

I mean she helped develop the refined Children of the Emperor procedures for Vitiate. Was trusted to develop a Children of the Emperor 2.0 generation using children actually sired by the Voice of the Emperor. While doing all this successful force experimentation, she also planed out a coup against Vitiate (which while unsuccessful in her life was more or less carried out by her daughters Amarra and Ryscha). She also discovered Nathema on her own and managed to negotiate an alliance with the spirits of Marka Ragnos, Naga Sadow, Tulak Hord and Exar Kun on Yavin IV to help her take down Vitiate.

horniest oc - Élise Kine and Braken Rist

This married couple enjoy dominating the other nobles of Alderaan in their spare time and will also happily engage in the whole sleep with a target before killing them assassination special. They usually go at it again with each other after said assassinations too.

oc you'd bang - Damar Nakash

Damar is kinky, caring and enjoys making his partners quiver. Also those sith ridges are always mmmm

oc you'd be best friends with irl - Inara Almari

I love folks that have special interests and hyper-fixations. Listening to them info dump passionately is always great and I enjoy learning new things that way. Inara fits that bill. She is also the right type of dumb ass that I would probably laugh a lot with her

[lily-orchard-gossip-blog]

The mention of Arthas' infamous slaughter is funnier because that is basically what Lilly's rakghoul scenario with Aliana was, killing innocent people to stop the spread of a world-ending plague. Only Arthas legitimately had no better choice because he isn't Lily's OP self-insert; they had no way to tell who was infected until they turned and the undead would quickly overwhelm Arthas' forces, so either he kills them or quarantines them, which would just end with the infected killing them anyway.

Never let it be said that Lily is above stealing a good idea.

[stellevatum]

In case you needed to hear it: I hope you get torn apart by rakghouls and die horribly of the plague. 💜