Maraudus

Maraudus is a Jiralhanae warrior of the Banished and Chieftain of the clan of the Mourning Star. A grizzled veteran of both the Human-Covenant War and the Great Schism that followed, Maraudus and his clan are the latest addition to Takra 'Ravakrae's Banished legion. Absent of any ambition, Maraudus' brutal campaign against the human survivors on Zeta Halo is driven by revenge and revenge alone.
==Biography==
===Early Life===
On Doisac, there exists a stretch of gray land, made up of gray cliffs overlooking grayer waters. It is a hard land, where few things grow and the only trees are the burnt out husks of the once mighty gnarlwoods that sprout from the cold ground like tombstones. These are the Mourning Lands, and those that call it home are of the Mourning Star.
It was in such a minor, meager clan that the twin brothers Maraudus and Ravitis were born. One with fur as black as night, the other bone white but both with flecks of gold in their eyes. Opposites, or more precisely, two halves of the same whole.
While the younger twin, if only by a few minutes, Maraudus, may have been gifted with a warrior's skill and strength, he always deferred to his brother for guidance. For while Ravitis may have been adept enough at combat to avoid shaming himself or his clan, it was clear from a young age that his true talents laid with the mental rather than the physical.
Ravitis would often read to Maraudus. Histories of chieftains long dead, wars and feuds of various ancient tribes-- but what young Maraudus loved the most were tales of grand heroics. Of Stygoran Sapphire, Tylabe, Champion of Malkadyr. And Bartium Star-Chainer, who was claimed to have bound Oth Sonin to Doisac in myth and legend.
===Service In The Covenant And The Great Schism===
By the time the twins were born, the Covenant had already absorbed their race into its galactic empire. When the Covenant encountered Humanity and their destruction was ordained by the High Prophets, the pair were grown warriors aboard a ministry vessel, eager to prove themselves in a proper war.
There would be no shortage of such opportunities, for the humans had spread themselves far and wide across the stars, and the Covenant always welcomed more troops to fight and die for the sake of the Gods. The two fought across dozens of worlds in just as many years of service in the Covenant, cutting a bloody swath through human space and rising to the rank of Captain within their pack and commanding lesser Jiralhanae warriors of their own.
When the Prophets began to cast the Sangheili aside in favor of their new Jiralhanae protectors, Ravitis saw the opportunity this presented for their kind, and began to plot with his brother.
Within the pack, there were whispers that Maraudus with his incredible strength and prowess would surely become the next Chieftain of the Mourning Star clan. And indeed, such was his intent, just as his brother had planned. Their people respected might alone, but Maraudus only believed in his brother's wisdom and guidance. He would claim the title of Chieftain, and through him, Ravitis' will would be done, leading their people into a new age of unity, abundance, and enlightenment. Unfortunately, this never came to pass.
Ravitis was cut down in battle against the Sangheili. The plan was for the Jiralhanae embedded in a Sangheili-controlled fleet to turn on their former superiors from within and take control of their vessels. However, their plans had been betrayed, and the Sangheili slaughtered many of the Jiralhanae before they could draw their weapons. Including Ravitis. By pure luck, Maraudus survived. In a blind fury, the Captain led his warriors into battle despite the odds against them, and joined with the current Chieftain of the Mourning Star, Prevatus. Together they captured the bridge of the Sangheili heavy corvette, the Sacred Oath and escape the system.
===New Beginnings===
Without his brother, Maraudus was unmoored, his dream-- their dream, shattered. They had come into the world together, trained together, fought together. But now, for the first time in his existence, Maraudus was alone. All that kept him going as his clan fought to make their way back to Doisac was his determination to ensure that Ravitis' body was returned to the Mourning Lands.
And so, after a harrowing journey, the corvette, now renamed the Severed Fate, managed to limp back to the Jiralhanae homeworld for repairs, resupply, and to offload the dead. Most opted to bury their dead in the ground, as the Covenant had long since banned the traditional practice of committing bodies to the flame. This was because as part of the clan's old beliefs, it was thought that the rising smoke from such a pyre would carry the spirits of the dead into the night sky, where they would become one with the gods. Which of course, was seen as an affront to the Great Journey, for it was only the sacred fire of the holy rings that could accomplish such a thing. Not any meager flame.
With word spreading of the Covenant's defeat at the Ark, Maraudus saw little reason to cling to the ways of a dying empire, and set himself to the grim task of building his brother's funeral pyre alone. But he would not be alone for long, as a young Jiralhanae whelp approached Maraudus, badgering the aged warrior with the sort of inane questions only important to children. Maraudus could have easily sent the child running off with a growl and the back of his hand, yet there was something strangely familiar about the whelp. His fur was more brown than black, but in his eyes were specks of gold.
His suspicions were confirmed when he asked the boy his name. "Bartium", he said. Clearly, years before his death, Ravitis had returned to the planet and sired a son, Maraudus believed. Who, exactly, this mystery paramour was, he never found out, as she had apparently died of sickness while Bartium was too young to remember her. The female villagers who had remained when all the males had gone off to war proved little assistance as well, despite having buried her themselves. This made Maraudus wonder whether she had even been from the village at all, or had merely come looking for her child's father before she the end came for her.
Whatever the case, it was in his nephew that Maraudus found new purpose. He could not protect his brother, but he could do right by Ravitis' son. 
===The Banished and Zeta Halo===
Sometime after the Covenant's collapse, Chieftain Prevatus committed the Mourning Star's warriors and their ship, the Severed Fate, to the legendary Atriox and his cause. Flying the red and black banner of the Banished, the Mourning Star feasted on glory and riches like they never had before, even under the Covenant's control.
Maraudus himself gained more and more responsibility within the clan, eventually becoming Prevatus' second in command, despite the two sharing little love for the other. This was because other, younger Captains reeked of ambition, and Prevatus was especially wary of rivals and backstabbers ever since they were betrayed on the Sacred Oath. At least with Maraudus, he knew that if the aged warrior was ever going to challenge his position, it would have happened long ago, when his brother still drew breath.
Prevatus was not wrong to believe this. After his brother's passing, Maraudus' greatest ambition now was merely to ensure that his nephew grew to be a strong, capable warrior. Not a Chieftain, not some great unifier of Doisac. Just a warrior who would carry the memory of his father forward into the future.
On December 12th, 2559, the Severed Fate joined the Banished ambush of the UNSC Infinity and its escorts. During the brief fight, the Severed Fate brought down a human frigate, and later Maraudus and the other captains were tasked with exterminating the humans who had survived by escaping the doomed vessel in lifeboats and drop pods while Prevatus attempted to secure the crash site of the human vessel. In the Banished, it was the custom that the one responsible for a kill had the right to the plunder, and the Chieftain was eager to claim whatever remained of the human frigate for his own.
Believing that his nephew was now old enough to be blooded, Maraudus charged Bartium with investigating the projected crash site of a single human drop pod, and gave him a handful of Unggoy to command and a Kig-Yar Sniper named Kit to watch over him. However, when Bartium failed to report back after hours of silence, Maraudus flew to the crash site himself.
There, he saw the Unggoy and Kig-Yar slain, and Bartium pinned against a cliff face by the human drop pod. The Captain's heart dropped upon witnessing the scene, and he rushed from the Phantom to free his nephew, but it was too late. Bartium was already dead, and his human killer fled.
Things had not fared much better for Prevatus either, as his attempt to plunder the human frigate was met with stiff resistance in the form of a HAVOK nuclear bomb. The Severed Fate was too close to the bomb's epicenter and was heavily damaged, and Chieftain Prevatus perished in the blast, alongside a large portion of Banished legion that the Mourning Star originally belonged to. In one fell swoop, Maraudus was made the new Chieftain of his clan and the subordinate of Takra'Ravakrae, as what remained of their forces were absorbed into the Battlemaster's legion.
Maraudus had become Chieftain as he had once wanted. But that was when he was younger, and full of dreams. Now, he was only an empty old man.
The first thing Maraudus did was to commit Bartium to the flames, as he had done for his father before him. Only this time, as Chieftain, he had commanded his warriors to attend the ceremony. One of the younger Captains, a stout Jiralhanae named Gortrex, grew angry with this, and challenged Maraudus' authority outright, claiming that as Maraudus had not slain Prevatus himself, he had no right to style himself Chieftain. After all, in the Banished, you kept what you killed.
Gortrex laying dead at his feet moments later quelled any further insubordination.
In his youth, he had wanted the chieftainship in order to make Ravitis' dream come true. Now, he would use it and all its power to avenge his beloved nephew.
In the days that followed, Maraudus wrecked havoc on the human survivors of Zeta Halo, flushing them out of their hiding places by setting the woods ablaze and torturing those that fled into giving up the location of more of their kind. When he was done, he either slew them there and then, or shipped them off to the Battlemaster's prison facility, the Downfall of Spirit. All in the service of finding Bartium's killer, who Maraudus only knew to be what the humans called an "ODST".
Any marine in the distinct black armor that crossed his path came to know what it truly meant to descend into Hell.
==Personality==
Maraudus is self-aware enough to know that he is no great tactician, scholar, or charismatic leader. He believes in the direct approach, and that his strength and skill will carry him through any and all obstacles. Sullen but quick to anger, Maraudus has little patience for the failure and incompetence of others. Especially following the death of Bartium, whom he loved as a son.
Never placing much stock in the Covenant's faith, Maraudus was quick to identify with Atriox's message of self-determination and vision for their species. While it was not exactly what Ravitis would have wanted, it was not entirely contradictory, either. However, he could never find it in himself to treat the Sangheili as brothers in arms, least of all the enigmatic Battlemaster who now commanded him.
While Maraudus clearly had a deep love for his immediate family and a fondness for his clan as a whole, he has no mercy or restraint when it comes to his enemies. As such, it frustrates him to send human prisoners to the Battlemaster's Downfall of Spirit, as he would much rather end the human infestation as soon as possible.
Currently, revenge for Bartium is all that drives Maraudus. What he plans to do if or when he gets it, even he doesn't quite know.
==Equipment==
Maraudus as both a Captain and Chieftain wears the black and red of the Banished, as well as the gold of the Mourning Star upon his armor. As Prevatus had both the ancestral hammer and armor when he was vaporized by the nuclear blast, Maraudus has had new regalia fashioned for himself. Such as a helmet boasting a large horned crest, similar to a rhinoceros beetle and a long-shafted gravity mace named "Star-Chainer" in reference to Bartium's namesake.
He has chosen to retain the Jump-Pack he wore as a Captain, affording him greater mobility.
Aside from Star-Chainer, he carries a common Spike Revolver, or "Mangler" for self-defense, and has grown increasingly fond of the moral-shattering terror provided by Veporokk Workshop's "Ravager" Plasma Tosser.
==Gallery==
File:ChieftainMaraudus.jpg|Maraudus in full Chieftain regalia
Category:Banished
Category:Jiralhanae