#this was So Much Fun and also it is so long akdfjhglsdfg

[azems-familiar]

For Storyteller Saturday: give me five head canons you have about Zakuul

oh BLESS i love you. someone has to do the hard work of fleshing out Zakuul since bioware won't!! .......... coming back up here to say i'm putting this under a readmore because i think i wrote like over a thousand words of rambling and it's So Long

the first one is one i've talked about before in other posts, so i won't go much into detail about it, but it involves the Old Ways and worshipping the machine gods. i've developed several different rituals to mark the year (a sort of wheel of the year thing but for the six gods), there's a whole thing, but the Old Ways are sort of... looked down upon by a lot of Zakuulans. the mainstream Zakuulan religion these days is based around worshipping their Immortal Emperor, who is basically their god - he took control by styling himself the machine gods' prophesied demon slayer (canon iirc), even though he wasn't actually, and so to follow the Old Ways devoutly basically implies that you don't believe he actually killed them and don't trust in the Immortal Emperor, etc. so very few people actually admit to openly being devout.

however! the Old Ways are not forbidden, and many of the festivals are still around today, just turned into parties - there was one involving human sacrifice that turned into effigy burning, another that involves ritualistic walking barefoot across hot coals where people can get the damage fixed up directly after. lighting a candle for Scyva in midwinter is a common way of remembering those lost, especially Knights of Zakuul fallen in battle. Valkorion didn't outlaw the practices, because it gave his people something to focus on, sort of like how Firebrand was allowed to do a little terrorism. perfection can get boring after all.

the people who still follow the Old Ways tend to be in one of two categories: the thrill-seekers who do it for a rush, or the truly devout who don't believe in Valkorion as a god. there are a lot of fascinating implications there and i have THOUGHTS about the Scions who believe Valkorion is the literal avatar of Izax and so practice a modified version of the Old Ways, and the Heralds of Zildrog who are a fascinating cult who practice modified versions of the holy days, including actually keeping up with the human sacrifice bit. it's considered an honor to be the person sacrificed to Izax so that he will not come to claim more souls for the rest of the year.

all of this leads into HEADCANON TWO! which is that after Valkorion dies and Arcann takes over as the Emperor of Zakuul, there is the formation of a.... sort of cult probably? a religious group of fanatics on Zakuul who worship the Outlander, either as a reincarnation of Valkorion or as a being more powerful than him, because who but another god can kill a god? there are absolutely some wild ass memes about it on the Zakuul holonet and a lot of theories. the Scions definitely think the Outlander is basically the new vessel for Izax's spirit and that's why they ally with them, it's a tossup on whether they believe "Valkorion" was ever a real person at all, or just their terrible, horrible god. (because in the end, the most fated thing about any one person's life is that they will die.)

headcanon three, which i really need to make a post about: METALWORKING AS A CULTURAL SKILL!!! most of the actual work on Zakuul is done by droids, so most people actually have a basic understanding of mechanics and like, very basic metalworking. the Knights of Zakuul forge their own armor as part of the final step from training into becoming full knights, and they are responsible for repairing it themselves. Arcann repairs his own mask and his own arm. all of this ties into my fourth headcanon, because there's two here, which is about gift giving!

gift giving is a cultural way of showing affection to people, of course, but gifting someone something handmade, generally jewelry or other bits of metal, is A Statement. it's usually done as an affection gift or a mark of loyalty and care. this is why, for example, Arcann forges the Commander a Knight of Zakuul breasplate. there are people who make metal sculptures, too, it isn't just about jewelry and armor but also about art! Zakuul is absolutely full of art because as a society they have so much more energy and time to be creative because so much of the essential work is performed by droids. artists are absolutely held in very high esteem there - this is supported in canon, see the Zakuulan singer who turned traitor being a respected leader for her people. ...that's probably a fifth headcanon but i'll give you one more anyway

okay for my LAST headcanon, i haven't developed this super thoroughly yet, but! some thoughts about the Knights of Zakuul. so most of them are found fairly young. Zakuul is a nexus in the Force and so a higher population than normal of Force-sensitives are born there, mostly because children who would have been weaker or only Force-attuned are able to get their senses sort of... blown open wide by living on a world so naturally strong in it. this is part of why we see some insanely strong people from Zakuul. (and part of why the Sith pureblood species, originating from Korriban, was nearly entirely sensitive, which became a genetic trait that has weakened since they were forced off their homeworld.) sometimes Force-sensitives from conquered worlds are brought into the Knights if they show signs of being loyal. Zakuul, after all, isn't the only world in its empire, there are several other planets in that area of Wild Space (not supported by canon, unfortunately, but canon can shut up. Zakuul being that fully combat ready just does not make sense otherwise, through sheer logistics. they have too many numbers) and all of them fell to the Eternal Empire a long time ago, but there is still fighting on the frontier worlds near the very far edges of the galaxy pre-galactic war, and of course the actual war with Republic and Empire.

so Knights are usually trained from a fairly young age. they are taught to view the Force fundamentally different from Jedi or Sith or other Force-using traditions, and many of them would fall where you consider morally neutral, but just as there is no actual grey in the Force, they don't actually use one side or the other. some are more in tune with the light, using the Force through selflessness and emotion frequently focused on protecting and bettering the Empire as a whole, rather than themselves; some use the dark, wielding it through a selfish lens, grabbing onto its power for their own gains. either way, which side of the Force is used isn't actually regulated. Knights are trained on both the basic single blade and on the lightsaber pike, and many of them carry both weapons on them and can switch between the two, as well as a blaster-resistant energy-field shield for front lines combat. they are also trained in hand to hand, though that gets used less often, and offensive and defensive Force use. there are no Force-blind Knights.

Knights go through a pretty intense set of final trials before they are named a full member of the force, usually involving a survival test on a remote world, as well as forging their armor to wear in battle. they have to forge their armor before the test and wear it to face their enemies during the survival challenge - if the armor isn't forged properly, it will not protect them, and they will more than likely die. if they die they weren't worthy of the gift of the Force (earned in service to a greater goal, aka their empire and emperor), etc etc. when Knights die their fellows will usually attempt to recover a piece of armor or a weapon to enshrine as a memory to the person who made it.

armor has to be uniform, but as i've mentioned Zakuul is All About Art, so the weapons can be customized in small ways! also a lot of Knights will add designs to the insides of their armor pieces as a way to mark them as theirs. if a fully intact piece of designed armor can be recovered from a dead body, the dead person's friends and family will often come together to paint the forged designs and turn it into a real artwork.

there are definitely Funky Religion Things going on with a lot of the Knights too but i need to figure out more of that before i start putting it on tumblr lol so! i'm sorry this is so long you did NOT know what you were getting into when you asked me this but Thank You