#tarso gren

[swtorpadawan]

For NPC Asks how about Rylee Dray and the Lady of Pain?

Ask Me About SWTOR NPCs Thank you, @jjjwhovian !

And… hoo, boy! Did you just hit the jackpot! LOTS of notes on these two!

So first for Rylee Dray - You may already be familiar with some headcanons I have for her in my Halcyon Legacy: The Slice Girls Its possible that not long after Zu'fanda Pampya (my Sith Inquisitor) was killed, the Cult of the Screaming Blade collapsed. Destris Veran, Rylee's partner, was killed during the fallout, and Rylee was soon left on her own, without protection. Its possible that SOMEONE snapped her up, effectively enslaving her for her slicer skills. Maybe its also possible that someone else (like Kira, Mako, and company) will hopefully come rescue her someday. (We can hope.)

The Lady of Pain - the leader of the Exchange of Tatooine - does not take the Eternal Empire's subjugation of Tatooine well. She conducts a vicious guerilla-style resistance campaign against the Zakuulans. But after about a year, it goes south, and she's captured by Tarso Gren, the Exarch of Tatooine. Imprisoned aboard the Star Fortress, she's subjected to…. well. It's bad. I'm not getting into it. A few years later, Tarso is visiting a colleague: Forta Gair, the Exarch of Belsavis. On a lark - visiting a prison-world with a dreaded criminal of his own - he brought the Lady of Pain with him. The two Exarchs were both a bit sadistic by this point, and it eventually occurred to them to have an impromptu gladiator fight between the Lady sand someone Forta was keeping prisoner. (You'll recall Zakuulans have a history of being into gladiator fighting, including with enslaved fighters.) The fight was vicious. It started unarmed, but both were allowed to use random objects as makeshift weapons. Both women were just fighting for survival, knowing what would happen to them if they didn't fight. Ultimately, the Lady of Pain lost. She died because two Exarchs had a bet going, and were looking for cheap entertainment. Oh - and her opponent? Who was forced to kill her? That was an imprisoned twi'lek smuggler named Bas'riish.

Thank you!

Tagging @voidendron - Because.

[voidendron]

Hey, been a while! I was rereading your Exarchs and I do really like what you did by having Hyra Dram be partnered with Draya. Though that has made me curious about the other Paladins across the star fortresses. Do you have anything special for any of them, either related to their respective Exarch or something else?

Heyhey! Thank you for the ask 💚💜

I don't have much planned for most of the Paladins, though that can always change depending on if I get ideas! Hyra Dram is currently the only individual Paladin I've expanded on.

The Paladin groups I do currently have information for, however:

The Hoth Paladins, serving under Jom Vanten. They're....cautious of their Exarch (as well as their Fortress itself, when it chooses to punish its residents for disobeying orders). Some even fearful of them both. With Jom's mind essentially being a program, he can turn on a dime if that's what he's told to do, and he's gotten a lot of his Knights and even some Paladins killed for the recklessness it can bring on.

The Paladins under Jom have no loyalty to him. They only continue serving out of loyalty to their planet.

But for the most part, most Paladins are very loyal to their Exarch with Jom being an outlier. With them being hand-picked by their respective Exarchs to serve under them, many of the Paladins are similar to their Exarchs to at least some extent. (Which, notably, contributes to the downfall of their respective Fortress in many cases.)

The ones on the Tatooine Fortress tend to be more curious, lean more into using their surroundings or technology rather than solely relying on the Force and their pikes. However, with Tarso Gren having discovered his Force-sensitivity so late into life, he never had the chance to develop a close bond with other Knights before taking part in the Project, so his Paladins can be rather distant from him.

On the Nar Shaddaa one, they tend to be older, more experienced. Most of them were veteran Knights Lesin Tyn served with under various stations both on and off Zakuul. They have more rigidity in their combat and how they conduct patrols, and teach any "rookies" Tyn might have allowed into his ranks to be like them. They tend to be less adaptable, unfortunately; "stuck in their ways," so to speak, much like their Exarch.

On the Belsavis one, they're more sadistic, cruel, viewing anyone who isn't deemed "worthy" as an object instead of a person and treating them as such. That also means they can go at each others' throats at times, and Forta Gair has to forcefully separate them. Belsavis very likely has the most infighting between Paladins.

[voidendron]

Heya, hope you don't mind an extra question. I just really stan for your Exarch headcanons. Out of curiosity, how do each of your Exarchs feel about the respective planets they govern? How fond of it are they (if at all), are they just rulers or more authoritarian, ect? Thought it'd be an interesting part of them to explore.

oh I am ALWAYS happy to answer Exarch questions, don't you worry 💚💜

thank u for the ask you've opened up a whole can of worms that I can now infodump unto my unsuspecting dashboard

it kind of ends up varying Exarch to Exarch as to how they run their Fortress. so long as they keep blockade over their respective planet, Arcann doesn't really care What they do to the world itself. they have free reign to fire upon them as needed, use whatever force necessary to do their job, make their presences as obvious or hidden as they desire

so, that said!

Lesin'taliva "Lesin" Tyn (Nar Shaddaa): more....I suppose basic ruler, doesn't care how Nar Shaddaa's residents view him so long as they don't cross him. he's indifferent about the moon itself (if a little exasperated over the huge cantinas/neon lights/parties/etc aesthetic), he's just doing his job. he keeps travel and shipping routes on-and-off-world blocked, using force when necessary. he ends up the cause of a lot of bankruptcy, owed debts, cantina closures, and increased gang violence because no one can get supplies while his Fortress orbits the moon

Zar Draya (Alderaan): she's more subtle about it. She keeps travel and trade restricted with force, yes, but she also quietly blackmails nobles and makes them think things that are untrue in order to raise tension with the already-strained relationships of the various Houses. She does it more for her own (and Zakuul's) amusement, broadcasting squabbles to her homeworld and trying to exacerbate the tensions into becoming another civil war.

She does like Alderaan, though. Just....is more distracted with getting the Houses to go for each others' throats than to admire the world's beauty. Maybe in another life, she'd have appreciated its mountains and even gone to visit there with Hyra.

Forta Gair (Belsavis): She rules over Belsavis with an iron fist. Nothing - and I mean nothing - happens planetside without her approval first. She had crop fields burned, supply stockpiles ransacked, cuts the power on the regular in colder areas, picks random victims for experimentation. All because she can and she wants to see what will happen as the inmates get desperate.

She hates Belsavis. She's incredibly jealous of the other Exarchs' stations, finds the worlds they rule over far more interesting than her planet full of convicts and segregated cell blocks; those forced to live in the shadow of her Fortress suffer her ire and ill temper over it.

Jom Vanten (Hoth): uh. His is. Complicated. It's whatever he's programmed for, honestly. He holds trade and travel hostage, and when White Maw start overstepping their control he doesn't hesitate to step in and have his Fortress fire upon them - albeit with a "low" setting, but that's still plenty to decimate whatever group he shot at. Occasionally his programming is altered, and he may let up - or he may strike even more mercilessly than before. It wholly depends on who sets his mind - and he's Definitely the worst when Vaylin orders an alteration.

He's indifferent about Hoth. He doesn't have the capacity to feel like, nor dislike, for the world nor its inhabitants.

Now, pre-Exarch Jom? He would have disliked the planet's cold, but been fascinated with the snow since he'd never seen it before, and the creatures adapted to live in it.

Tarso Gren (Tatooine): Basic rule. He has no interest in starving or killing everyone planetside for no reason, so does allow some trade, but all ships are scanned before leaving or entering Tatooine's atmosphere. Those with weapon shipments and the like are taken into custody or shot down. While Tatooine's residents Do want him gone, they're certainly better off with him than some of the others.

He likes the planet, if only because it has vast stretches of uninhabited desert that he can test weapons on. Doesn't mind the heat, either.

Dezaar "Dez" Tora (Bothawui): Not only rules over Bothawui with an iron fist, but also didn't hesitate to use her Fortress' strongest weapon settings to fire upon it at first inkling of a rebellion. She's extremely paranoid about her own death at the enemy's hands, and the Bothans contacting the Alliance spooked her something fierce. After she killed thousands, the world went quiet - it was as if everyone was holding their breath, afraid of setting her off again.

She doesn't care about Bothawui itself; it's just a station to her. It's the people she doesn't care for - she's had visions of her own death at the hands of rebellion, so.... well. Need I say more? ;)

Elle Malforia (Balmorra): We'll just say.... she takes "follower of Tyth" to a whole different level - especially when compared to the far calmer Tarso who was raised by followers of Tyth but...is pretty much never angry?? Anyway, this is about Malforia, not Tarso. She ruled pretty strictly over Balmorra - and she was also the only Exarch who consistently showed her face publicly and personally carried out public punishments to Balmorra's people when they went against her rule or tried to sneak around her blockade of the world.

She's the one who captured Tai, Zasha, and Malita and sent them on their way to Zakuul to face Arcann's wrath - and in the meantime held a public execution for his vice president to send a message to the world's people. She would have continued to be a thorn in Balmorra's side for a long time if the Shroud hadn't blown up her Fortress and taken her captive......

She doesn't like Balmorra. The bugs are too big, the ground and water too irradiated, the people too goddamn stubborn why do they keep rebelling dammit.

Andur Melor (Voss): Andur... Oh, Andur, my dear. He feigns a strict rule - but then turns a blind eye when smugglers are trying to run life-saving supplies to the people of Voss, allowing them to "sneak" through uncontended as if he never noticed them there. He's mostly quiet, blocking trade and travel when needed to keep Arcann, Lesin, and Tarso off his case, but he has no interest in stifling the survivability of the world's people.

He's fascinated with Voss. Its culture, its species, the way it seems to be in a perpetual state of autumn with the colors of the leaves. He regrets what he has to do and that he makes the world suffer as a result of it.

Adhi'ren "Ren" Zotar (Old World, no Fortress): Zotar is. Incredibly jealous of the other Exarchs for getting their grand Fortresses and ruling over their very own planets, while he's stuck babysitting the Old World. He tries to control it with force, resorting to violence to try keeping it in a chokehold that it always slips out of the moment he turns away.

....at first. When multiple attempts to end the Arena fights fail, and he gets into an argument with some of the champions, well. When he's goaded into the ring, his career takes off and he grows Pretty Damn Fond of the Old World, to put it mildly.

[voidendron]

...It would appear I have more NPC clones than I thought I did.

oops.

the Exarchs are MINE, bioware, mine I say

[voidendron]

How well do Tarso and Forta get along? Because I have headcanons.

Thank you for enabling my Exarch rambling 💚💜

For my versions of them, they're mostly indifferent toward each other. Tarso is too busy upgrading his Fortress and crawling through the EPHEMRIS code of his and the others' to make sure it's running properly, to have much of a relationship with the other Exarchs.

And Forta.... Well, she likes to keep to herself for the most part.

Some quick background, Tarso helped build the Fortresses. So, he has A Lot of access to them, know how they work inside-out, and his cybernetic upgrades even allow him to, essentially, be part of his Fortress. Not only that, but he can access the cameras and various computer systems of the other Exarch's Fortresses to a more limited degree. Needless to say, he's on a tighter leash than the rest of them because if it.

Anyway.

Tarso does eventually get really disturbed by what Forta's doing with Belsavis, however, and that indifference he had for her before becomes disgust. He was debugging her EPHEMRIS, saw that she was literally feeding dead inmates to the others as she starved them to see what they'd do, and from that point on acted cold toward her.

Now, Tarso is certainly no angel, either - he just couldn't believe what she was doing with that world. They're both the villains, but Forta was terrible even by Tarso's standards, type of thing.

Forta, for her part, remains indifferent toward him. She has more important thing to worry about than why one of the other Exarchs started giving her the cold shoulder.

[voidendron]

also 🗡🗡🗡🗡 for your Exarchs-turned-OCs 😈

Send 🗡️ and I will rate my muse’s danger level in several category in a number of stars out of 5. (Max: ★★★★★)

I got the BIGGEST grin at seeing this one ty November ajklsd;jdskl. YES let me ramble about my children >:D Draya up top, the rest below the cut!

Zar Draya

Raw Power: ★★★★★

She's carefully honed both her Force-sensitivity and brute strength to be able to comfortably--and to deadly efficiency--be able to tear through her enemies regardless of whichever she's using. Her physical enhancements from Project: Exarch only increased her brute strength further.

Formal Training: ★★★

She was trained to be a Knight from the time she was old enough. However, as she's still quite young, she has much yet to learn, and would have continued some form of informal training on her Fortress had she not been killed, to further round out her skills.

Combat Experience: ★★

Hasn't seen many battles. Most of her combat experience stems from protecting the Spire as a Knight, and facing Nox and the Barsen'thor were her first true opponents outside the training ring.

Willingness to Kill: ★★★★

She'll take prisoners if ordered, but prefers to end it there. She has no qualms against taking the life of anyone who opposes Zakuul.

Previous Victims: ★★★

Most victims consist of criminals on the Spire, and the occasional Alderaan nobles who were ruining Zakuul's "entertainment." Has an average body count for someone in a war and formerly one of the policing bodies on her home planet.

Jom Vanten

Raw Power: ★★★

His Exarch enhancements came more in the form of inhuman calculations and speed/agility. He's not meant for brute-forcing anything, and instead relies more so on wearing his opponent down and calculating what their next move will be long before they make it so he can react accordingly.

Formal Training: ★★★★★

Graduated from the Academy to become a Knight. While not top of his class, he passed with flying colors.

Combat Experience: ★★★

Most combat experience is from dealing with criminals on Zakuul, though has gone planetside on Hoth a few times to gather things that may be of interest to Zakuul, where he got into skirmishes with White Maw.

Willingness to Kill: ★★★★★

Due to the Project essentially erasing his mind and making it programmable, he'll do literally whatever his higher-ups tell him to without question. He feels not an ounce of guilt or remorse, and unless strictly ordered otherwise, he'll go straight for the kill.

Previous Victims: ★★★★

Aside from the Bothawui Fortress Exarch (yet undesigned/unamed), Jom has the highest kill count of his peers. He doesn't hesitate to have his Fortress fire upon Hoth's surface, and has decimated White Maw forces there, as well as caught various others in the blasts. He's also killed a number of his own Knights, both directly and indirectly, because he calculated it was "worth the loss" or that they'd make the same mistake again and weren't worth the risk of having around.

Lesin Tyn

Raw Power: ★★★

He just waits for his opponents to exhaust themselves as they deal blow-after-blow to him that heal in record time, then he goes in for his own attacks when they start slowing down. Rather than overpower, he out-endures, allowing his self-healing and-repair systems to do all the work. If it wasn't for his mostly-cybernetic body and the abilities built into it, he'd lose in hand-to-hand combat, as his physical strength is lacking in his old age.

Formal Training: ★★★★★

Graduated from the Academy. Also, being the oldest of his peers, he's had plenty of time to keep learning and bettering himself.

Combat Experience: ★★★★

He's straight-up just been around a lot longer than the other Exarchs, so has the experience to match. When battles need a little extra help, he'd put one of his trusted Knights in charge of his Fortress so he could leave and aid the battle (usually in form of tactical know-how, and actually fighting only when necessary), and before the Project he'd dealt with a lot of criminals on Zakuul.

Willingness to Kill: ★★★★★

Only Arcann or Vaylin themselves can keep Lesin from killing an enemy to Zakuul once they're at his feet.

Previous Victims: ★★★

Doesn't really have that big of a kill count. Mostly criminals, and a handful of enemy forces in battles to expand Zakuul's reach. Enough to give him experience, but that's about it.

Forta Gair

Raw Power: ★★

If anything, her Exarch enhancements decreased Forta's physical strength. She can move in ways and at speeds no normal human ever should, and bend in ways that make her limbs appear artificial, but when it comes down to brute force, she's...lacking. She's built to move quickly to reach her opponent's weak points, not to take or deal a blow. Her Force-sensitivity is a bit weaker than her peers', too. She's instead learned to outsmart and outmaneuver her opponents.

Formal Training: ★★★

Didn't attend the Academy, and instead trained alongside Zotar from retired Knights. Only underwent any sort of formal training after the Project.

Combat Experience: ★★★

Similar to the majority of her peers: Most of it's from facing Zakuulan criminals before the Project.

Willingness to Kill: ★★★★★

She's the most likely of the group to disobey a direct order. If she wins, she wins, and the fate of her opponent should be up to her as far as she's concerned. If they opposed Zakuul, they deserve only death, and only Arcann himself could stay her hand (or Vaylin, because she's scary, too).

Previous Victims: ★★★

She's in charge of the Belsavis Star Fortress - the way she sees it, the criminals of that planet are all pests. She has prisoners killed and/or experimented on on the regular, and her body count got considerably higher than a lot of the other Exarchs' as a result, though still nowhere near if she'd actually had her Fortress fire upon the prison-planet.

Tarso Gren

Raw Power: ★★★

Like Forta, Tarso wasn't enhanced to be able to brute force anything. He's light on his feet and can't deal or take much of a hit. His Force-sensitivity, however, is considerably stronger than Forta's, and allows him to strong-arm certain situations that his physical strength probably couldn't on its own.

Formal Training: ★★★★★

Was trained as an engineer before attending the Academy to graduate as a Knight. Better with machines than combat, but can still wield a shield and saber pike with the same ease as his peers.

Combat Experience: ★★

Solely with criminals on Zakuul before the Project.

Willingness to Kill: ★★★★

More practical than a lot of the others, but still has no qualms against ending a life if it's the better option.

Previous Victims: ★★

A few criminals on Zakuul who made him resort to killing them, but that's it.

Andur Melor

Raw Power: ★★★★

Pretty strong in both body and Force abilities. He's probably second-strongest of the Exarchs, right behind Draya. If he wanted to, Andur could easily brute force a situation, either by strong-armijg his opponent, or using the Force to subdue them.

Formal Training: ★★★★★

Not only did Andur graduate the Academy to become a Knight at the top of his class, he also took extra lessons on the side from both current and retired Knights to further hone his skills.

Combat Experience: ★★

Solely with criminals on Zakuul before the Project.

Willingness to Kill: ★★

The other Exarchs tend to find Andur "too soft." He's willing to talk peacefully and doesn't go into a situation wanting a fight. He'll kill if his hand is forced, but he'd much rather subdue his opponent than end their life.

Previous Victims: ★

His kill count is exactly one person: A criminal from Breaktown, who tried to bomb a shuttle port. Andur didn't even kill her himself - she got herself cornered and fell off the damn Spire because she didn't watch her step when she backed away from him.

Ren Zotar

Raw Power: ★★★

While he can hold his own in a fight, he relies a lot on his Exarch enhancements to win his duels. Able to slice and reprgram machines with ease just by being in their immediate vicinity, he can call on an army of machines to do his fighting for him. He relies on his machines - specifically, stolen Republic walker After Shock who's his favorite of the bunch - to wear down his opponents to the point he can leap in with his pike ready.

Formal Training: ★★★

Never actually attended the Academy. He received informal Knight training directly from other, retired, Knights, and from personal trial-and-error. He was made a Knight after showing he had the same skills as Academy-trained ones. He was accepted when he volunteered for the Project because of his natural skills and loyalty to Zakuul, and it was only then that he underwent any formal training.

Combat Experience: ★★★★★

He was made the Exarch of the Old World. While certainly not the intention when he was put in place there, he took to the Eternal Championship like a moth to flame. He's fought and won countless battles in the arena, and uses his fame to keep control of the Old World and even Brraktown to some extent, with far more ease than any Knight before him.

Willingness to Kill: ★★★★★

Very few of his opponents in the arena walk away alive. He doesn't hold back, and won't hesitate to strike them down himself, or order one of his machines to do the dirty work for him.

Previous Victims: ★★★

Consist mostly of former arena opponents, and the occasional Zakuulan criminals. He's not as worried about criminals, however - he knows there's a lot where he's in charge, and is instead more worried about keeping things in check so Arcann can focus on more important things.

[voidendron]

Tarso Gren, Exarch of the Tatooine Star Fortress, was originally an engineer who helped with the development of the battle stations that would be sent to orbit multiple worlds.

Though not physically the strongest of his peers, Tarso's strength came in other forms. His Force-sensitivity was certainly of note, but he was also a master engineer. Though he eventually trained to become a Knight, he continued to put his talents to good use, and aided with not only the development, but also the construction, of the mighty Star Fortresses.

His enhancements are the most visibly subtle of the other Exarchs' (his eyes were actually from long before the Project, after a machinery accident), allowing him to have a direct connection with anything in his Fortress and, to a lesser extent, the other ones as well. It allows him to perform security checks of his own and the others, run defensive and offensive systems directly through his cybernetics, and easily communicate with the other Exarchs through their Fortresses no matter where he was in his own. Though, this was at the cost of the increased strength, inhuman speed and agility, or healing factors, that his fellow Exarchs possessed - leaving him at the mercy of his own skills.

As one of the developers, and the only one to have volunteered for Project: Exarch, Tarso was offered first choice of Fortresses to take charge of. He chose the one that would find its position over Tatooine, allowing him to test things with it in open desert. His Fortress had the most defensive measures put in place, as he continued working on it long after it was deemed finished and put in orbit over the planet.

The turrets, enhanced Skytroopers, infrared cameras, and both automated and manual defenses systems, all proved exceedingly more difficult to get past the farther into the Fortress one ventured. Lords Raphios and Beniko had to fight tooth and nail every step of the way to make it to the reactor. All those defensives were to the point that the occasional Knights they came across felt like a reprieve. Unfortunately, even in their injured and exhausted states, they had little difficulty dispatching Tarso himself when they finally reached him - after a short duel, and one clean swipe of a lightsaber when he focused a moment too long on one but not the other, he found himself no longer needing his head.

[voidendron]

I have headcanons about Tarso Gren, but i want to hear yours, first!

Ooooh thank you! I love rambling about the Exarchs and you are Enabling me 😈 (I'd also Love to hear about your version/headcanons for him!)

I'll start by linking this, his brief info thing like I've slowly been doing for all of the Exarchs

Now, some other stuff....

-He didn't realize he was Force-sensitive until pretty late into his life. There were things here and there that kinda made others go "uhhhhhh you sure you're not???" But he didn't really find out until he tapped into it in a panic when a project he was working on nearly killed him and his crew.

-Speaking of his crew, he was an engineer for most of his life, and didn't train as a Knight until after he'd recovered from the aforementioned incident. He was a weapons engineer, so even as a Knight his engineering talents were often put to use.

-The incident resulted in the loss of both eyes. His cybernetic replacements have a few different settings: night vision, infrared, and "normal" vision on the Human spectrum but with the addition of a HUD.

-He's one of the primary minds behind the Star Fortresses, and they're his proudest project.

-He's practical, and doesn't go out of his way to cause any more harm than necessary. It's also why he chose the Tatooine Fortress, so he could test new weapons he built in the open desert without causing too much harm.

-He's not as....extreme as his fellow Exarchs, and can actually be a decent conversation partner. He didn't let his enhancements and promotion go to his head like most of them did.

-Even so, he tends to prefer the company of droids over people. He may not be able to communicate/control them like Zotar, but he still likes being around him. It fascinates him how droids can have personalities given enough time and limited memory-wipes.

-He believes the Fortresses, like some droids, had begun developing "personalities" within their advanced AIs. The other Exarchs think it's crazy, but Tarso swears the Fortresses were learning.