Wyrd

The Wyrd were a dark side coven of Tarasin witches from the planet Cularin who adhered to the dark side of the Force. The Wyrd opposed the presence of off-world settlers on Cularin and believed that Cularin should be inhabited by the Tarasin people only. The witches were widely feared by Cularin's Tarasin population and during the waning years of the Galactic Republic the Wyrd fell under the leadership of Liriana, an exile from the Tarasin Hiironi tribe.
Under Liriana's rule, the Wyrd developed into a significant threat to the inhabitants of Cularin, conducting raids on Tarasin settlements and kidnapping children. During the Clone Wars, the witches discovered an ancient dark side artifact on the volcano Cloud Mountain and used the relic to harry a nearby Wookiee colony. Around 20 BBY, various factions on Cularin united to launch a military operation against the Wyrd and the witches suffered significant losses, including the decimation of much of their leadership. In a final gambit, circa 19 BBY the Wyrd attempted to corrupt Cularin's ch'hala trees to either take control of or destroy the world's ecology. However, the witches were thwarted in their endeavor by the Jedi Master Lanius Qel-Bertuk, who sacrificed himself to save the ch'hala from the Wyrd. The defeat crippled the witches and rendered them no longer capable of threatening the Cularin people.
==History==
===An emerging threat===
The Wyrd were a coven of dark side Tarasin Force witches who resided deep in the jungles of the planet Cularin, the homeworld of the reptilian Tarasin species.Living Force Campaign Guide The Wyrd were formed at least several generations prior to the Clone Wars by Tarasin Force Adepts who had been driven to the dark side of the Force by their efforts to oppose the influence of off-worlders on Cularin. Most Tarasin were familiar with legends of the Wyrd; the group were widely feared and many Tarasin were unsettled by the mere mention of the word "Wyrd." Awareness of the Wyrd was not commonplace among Cularin's non-Tarasin population and the witches were not discussed by the Tarasin outside of their own communities. Tarasin parents would often frighten their children with tales of poorly-behaved Tarasin children being taken away by the Wyrd into the Cularin jungle. These stories were not entirely fictional and the Wyrd was indeed know to kidnap Tarasin children.
Decades prior to the Invasion of Naboo,The Living Force Campaign Guide states that the initial setting of the Living Force campaign is one year after the Invasion of Naboo, an event that is dated to 32 BBY by The New Essential Chronology. As the Living Force adventure Philology moved the campaign forward ten years to the time of the Clone Wars, the events depicted in From the Trees can therefore be dated to circa 21 BBY. The Living Force adventure Night's Homecoming established that by the time of that adventure over a year had elapsed since the events of Philology. Therefore, Living Force modules set subsequent to Night's Homecoming, including the events of At Your Service, can be placed in around 20 BBY. the Tarasin Liriana was banished from her tribe, the Hiironi irstat, into the jungles of Cularin and sought out the Wyrd. Liriana succeeded at joining the witches and eventually became the leader of the Wyrd. Though the Hiironi knew of Liriana's intention to enlist in the Wyrd, they received no word from her for years and did not know whether she had found the witches. When Liriana's younger sister Dariana approached her eleventh name day, Liriana contacted her sister and attempted to coerce Dariana into joining the Wyrd, having sensed Dariana's strength in the Force. Dariana declined, due to the ways of the Wyrd being counter to everything that she had learned from her mother and the Hiironi.
Across Cularin many other Tarasin did surrender to the call of the Wyrd. At some stage, while she was 12 years old the Tarasin Besaama came across the Tree, a large tree that was inhabited by the Wyrd, and felt a powerful call to enter the structure. After a door in the side of the Tree opened for her, Besaama entered and presented herself to the Wyrd. By the time that she left the Tree two days later, Besaama had surrendered to the dark side of the Force and joined the ranks of the Wyrd. Elsewhere, the Force-sensitive Human Kirasha was taken in by the Wyrd after surrendering to the dark side and murdering her foster family.
In due course, Dariana became the Mother, or spiritual leader, of the Hiironi irstat and vowed to protect the Tarasin and the wider Cularin population from the threat of the Wyrd. However, as Cularin became increasingly colonized by non-Tarasin immigrants and new cities developed, Dariana found it harder to keep innocent people safe from the Wyrd. Under Liriana's leadership, the Wyrd grew in strength and for half a decade Dariana channeled all of her energies into keeping the witches at bay. Dariana's efforts to contain the Wyrd were assisted by her familiarity with Liriana's way of thinking and also by support provided by other Tarasin irstat tribal groups.
By around 31 BBY, the emboldened Wyrd frequently raided isolated Tarasin settlements to steal supplies and children. Dariana believed herself to be reaching the end of her lifespan and feared that her passing would mark a turning point in the struggle against the Wyrd and allow the witches to overrun Cularin. The Hiironi matriarch also felt regret about having failed to curtail the threat of the Wyrd. In an effort to seek help, Dariana sent out a message to known heroes in the Cularin system, publicly revealing the existence of the Wyrd and pleading for help in protecting the Cularin population from the witches.
Around this time, Liriana and the Wyrd plotted to disrupt an annual celebration by the Hiironi irstat of the Cularin Compact, a peace accord between the Tarasin and Cularin's off-world settlers.Living Force Campaign Guide The witches believed it an affront for the Hiironi to commemorate an agreement that conceded land and rights to non-Tarasin colonizers. While several Wyrd members drove a group of sclarin predatory reptiles in the Hiironi village at which the memorial was hosted, Liriana used her Force powers to strike the settlement with an intense storm and observed from a distance the unfolding chaos.
Some time after, a message of uncertain provenance highlighting the emergence of the Believers Sith cult was posted on all Cularin news boards. The message claimed the cult was believed to be a separate organization to the Wyrd, but that is was suspected that the two groups could be co-operating. The Wyrd did indeed establish links with the emergent dark side cult, though the witches had little commonality with the Believers. The cultists in turn sought to expropriate the Wyrd's dark side powers to use against their enemies, the Jedi— an order of Force-using monastic warriors.
Following the discovery of the Pulas, a powerful, ancient Sith artifact, by the Jedi Order, the Wyrd witch Es'Loma supported the Believers in an effort to steal the relic. Es'Loma traveled to the planet Coruscant, to which the artifact was transported by the Jedi, and she assisted the cultists in purloining a Mandalorian iron box that the Believers incorrectly thought to contain the Pulas. Sometime thereafter, the Ithorian Herdship Bazaar visited the Cularin system and many local people came to see the vessel. Among the visitors to the Bazaar, a rumor circulated that the Wyrd were infiltrating the Cularin Government.
===The Hand artifact===
Around 21 BBY, during the time of the Clone Wars, Liriana departed Cularin to assist some plots that she was working on and in her absence, her lieutenant Xinishia schemed to supplant Liriana as the leader of the witches. While investigating an unknown passage on the dormant Cularin volcano Cloud Mountain, Xinishia discovered a chamber that housed the Hand artifact, an ancient, hand-shaped dark side relic that allowed the user to enhance their own Force strength by draining the life energy of individuals placed on the hand's thumb. Under Xinishia's command, a group of Wyrd witches took up residence at Cloud Mountain and established an enclave at the site of the artifact. The witches then used the relic to imbibe the life forces of several captive individuals, resulting in their subjects being transformed into dark side spirits. One such victim was a female Tarasin Force Adept, whose dark side spirit came to serve the Wyrd as a guard of the Hand artifact.
A colony of Wookiees established the village Kiirloor close to Cloud Mountain and Xinishia ordered her Wyrd witches to drive the Wookiees away, opposing the presence of off-worlders so close to the Wyrd enclave. In an effort to expel the colonists, over a period of two months, witches sabotaged the Wookiees' efforts to the develop the village, all the while keeping themselves unseen from the settlers. Initially, the witches limited their incursions to the theft of food and supplies, but after several weeks the witches escalated their raids and in addition damaged the Wookiee's tools, vehicles and other equipment.
With their initial efforts to expel the colonists unsuccessful, the Wyrd kidnapped the Wookiee child Chywarra from Kiirloor, seeking to increase the pressure on the settlers to leave. The witches took Chywarra to their Cloud Mountain enclave to serve as a new victim to power the Hand artifact; the child survived his first session in the relic which led the witches to believe that he was strong in the Force. Chywarra's mother Risstenni tracked her missing son to the Wyrd enclave and confronted the witches, however Xinishia persuaded her to surrender. The Wyrd witches installed the Wookiee mother within the Hand artifact to serve as their next victim and initiated a ritual that drained Risstenni's life and turned the Wookiee into a Force ghost.
After an earthquake struck Kiirloor, a passing Wyrd witch cast a fiery Force illusion to spook a herd of kilassin reptilians into charging into the village, considered this to be a perfect means compounding the damage to the stricken settlement. In the aftermath of the quake, as a final stratagem to displace the Wookiees, the Wyrd strove to use the Hand artifact to reactivate the dormant Cloud Mountain volcano. In preparation, the witches disabled the vehicles of the Wookiee colonists to inhibit the settlers' ability to flee from the impending lava flow. A group of Wyrd witches then gathered at the Hand artifact and initiated a ritual to draw upon the power of the relic to unleash an eruption and wipe Kiirloor from existence.
As the ritual progressed, the heroes of Cularin, a group of freelance agents searching for the missing Chywarra, clambered up Cloud Mountain. Seeking to prevent the agents from disrupting the Wyrd's ritual, a lone witch fired upon the operatives to delay their ascent. The witches soon successfully completed their ritual and lava spewed down the slopes of Cloud Mountain toward Kirrloor.
Moments after the eruption began, the heroes of Cularin reached the Wyrd enclave and confronted Xinishia and her followers. Seeking to avoid conflict with the agents, Xinishia made an offer to release Chywarra and to quickly carry the freelancers down the mountain to the stricken Kiirloor. In return, the Wyrd leader sought for the operatives agree to keep the location of the enclave a secret and to persuade the Wookiee colonists to permanently relocate away from Cloud Mountain. The agents accepted the offer and Xinishia also agreed to have the witches leave the enclave, reasoning that to be a minor concession because the immobile nature of the Hand artifact meant that it would be straightforward for witches to return in the future and recommence the operation of the relic. Six witches then carried the agents at speed down to the village and the Wookiees agreed to depart Kiirloor to rebuild their colony elsewhere.
As agreed, the Wyrd enclave on Cloud Mountain was abandoned by the witches and the entrance to enclave through which the heroes of Cularin had passed was sealed off. However, the witches left open several other concealed entrances to the tunnel network in order to retain access to the Hand artifact.
===Escalation===
Circa 20 BBY, a Dark Jedi initiated an unsuccessful plot to discredit the Jedi Order by crashing a comet into a Sith fortress on the planet Almas and implicating the Jedi as being behind the scheme. A committee of Jedi and commercial representatives convened on Almas to investigate the conspiracy and speculated that both the Wyrd and the Believers could have been responsible. The Jedi also suspected that the Wyrd occasionally co-operated with the former Jedi Zelice Sturm and her criminal group.
Around this time, the witches stepped up their activities on Cularin, leading to an increase in Wyrd-relayed violent incidents and attacks on Tarasin villages. To highlight the hazard posed by the Wyrd, the Cularin Central Broadcasting reporter Yara Grugara held a news broadcast highlighting the Wyrd as a new significant threat to the people of Cularin. Grugara claimed that the Wyrd were dangerous and one of the most insidious groups to menace the Cularin system, with Liriana being the most intimidating of the witches. For added dramatic effect, within a studio mock-up of the Cularin jungle Grugara had the Tarasin Raouul dress as a member of the Wyrd and feign an attack on her.
The Wyrd continued to escalate their terror offensive on Cularin and moved from a focus on scare tactics to a campaign of overt assaults on Tarasin settlements. A Wyrd messenger visited the irstat of the Tarasin Tanora with an ultimatum, threatening to wipe out the tribe unless they joined with the witches. The irstat mother requested a week to reach a decision, though the Wyrd ignored her plea and attacked the settlement, wiping out all of the villagers other than Tanora. The Thaereian military, an armed force enfranchised to police the Cularin system, sought to ally with the empowered Wyrd and dispatched a team of mercenaries into the Cularin jungle to contact the witches and offer the Wyrd support in cultivating insurrection on Cularin. The Wyrd rejected this entreaty and ambushed and killed the mercenaries. Despite their initial hostility to the Thaereians, the Wyrd subsequently had dealings with the Thaereian military.
===Hunted===
Concerned by the escalating and increasingly troublesome activities of the Wyrd, the Cularin Militia, a Cularin nationalist military group, decided that it was time to confront the Wyrd and curtail the witches's operations. Major Xirossk, the head of the Cularin Militia's intelligence division convened with Mother Dariana, Jedi Master Devan For'deschel and a small cadre of support staff to study reports of Wyrd movements and determine how best to confront the witches. Dariana's inclusion brought significant expertise on the Wyrd to the effort, as Xirossk judged that she knew more about the witches than any other non-Wyrd person. Xirossk and his allies successfully identified a number of locations at which the Wyrd were suspected of gathering their forces for attack.
The Militia assembled a body of volunteers for the anti-Wyrd operation that included Tarasin tribes and several Jedi. Teams were dropped into the Cularin jungle in various regions in which it was assessed that there was a high chance of Wyrd activity, with instructions to search a pre-assigned quadrant over a period of two weeks for any Wyrd hideouts. The teams were then to eliminate any Wyrd members that they encountered before the witches could disappear. One of the team, Sabre Eight, was ambushed by Wyrd and reported missing. The witches recovered the group's comm system and monitored the device, allowing them to eavesdrop on the communications of the other teams participating in the anti-Wyrd operation.
Elsewhere, the witches staged a trap for the heroes of Cularin, who formed one of the other teams dispatched to target the Wyrd. As a lure, the witches left a crying Tarasin baby next to a stream and cast a Force illusion next to the child of the body of the baby's mother; the Wyrd witches then attacked when the freelance agents approached the baby. The ambush was unsuccessful and the operatives defeated their assailants.
Shortly thereafter, three Wyrd sisters and a group of Wyrd-led Tarasin soldiers mounted a surprise night time raid on the village of the Rinajaa irstat Tarasin tribe. The witches captured and killed many of the villagers, focusing first on taking the life of the irstat's leader Mother Kimania and also the community's hunters. The Wyrd sisters made threats to the surviving villagers about what would become of them if the stricken irstat resisted and proclaiming that all males and children of the tribe were of no use to the Wyrd and to be killed.
The heroes of Cularin struck against the witches that had harried the Rinajaa irstat and liberated the tribe from the depredations of the Wyrd. Several Wyrd members were taken captive; the prisoners were placed by the enraged villagers inside the hut of Kimania and the structure set alight, in an attempt to honor the fallen Tarasin mother by killing her attackers. However, the heroes of Cularin persuaded the villagers to reluctantly hand over the witches and the captive Wyrd members were airlifted out by the Cularin Militia to a securer location. Afterward, the surviving Tarasin of the Rinajaa irstat abandoned their village and fled, fearing that they would fall victim to further Wyrd attacks if they remained.
The heroes of Cularin learned from the prisoners the location of the Zhadorii irstat, a nearby Wyrd-controlled village and power base. Evading Wyrd patrols as they went, the freelance agents approached the Wyrd stronghold and called in an air strike from the Cularin Militia to blitz the settlement. While awaiting for the air strike to arrive, the operatives raided the central hut of the village and fought and defeated the Wyrd sister in charge of the settlement. The agents then liberated several female Force-sensitive Tarasin children that had been taken by the witches to be trained as future members of the Wyrd. Following the air strike, Cularin Militia ground troops, Office of Peace and Security law enforcement officers and Jedi forces soon arrived and attacked the surviving Wyrd forces and the witches' settlement was completely destroyed. The Cularin Militia operation to combat the Wyrd drew to a close and served as the witches' first major setback; many Wyrd members were taken prisoner and a significant portion of their leadership decimated.
===Final gambit===
Despite having suffered considerable losses, the Wyrd were not defeated and remained active within the jungles of Cularin. The Wyrd conspired with the Believers to discredit the Jedi and the Cularin Militia by planting evidence linking both organizations to the Confederacy of Independent Systems, a separatist state that opposed the Galactic Republic. The Wyrd witch Sheel met with a Believer agent and Separatist forces aboard a Confederate corvette in the Ando system to explain how the ploy could be enacted. At some stage, the leader of the Wyrd sensed a decline in the power of the Tarasin loyal to Dariana owing to the Hiironi mother's efforts to conceal a shelter for Force-sensitive individuals. The Wyrd adept Kirasha was assigned to investigate what Dariana was up to and after four days of searching she located the shelter. However, Kirasha was redeemed from the dark side by Jedi Master Darrus Jeht and abandoned the Wyrd without reporting her discovery to the witches.
By the later stages of the Clone Wars, as a result of their various setbacks the Wyrd were reduced in strength, with only a few diehard fanatics remaining among their number. Some of the witches abandoned the Wyrd and felt embittered towards their former comrades, believing the Wyrd to have lied to them. Around 19 BBY, many of the remaining witches gathered at a temporary encampment in the jungles of Cularin under the leadership of the First Witch of the Wyrd and her second-in-command, a younger witch designated as the First Witch's successor.
Weakened and fatigued, the witches plotted a final gambit to achieve victory on Cularin by taking control of the planet's ecology. Len Markus, the leader of the Believers, shared with the witches a holoprojector containing teachings on how to launch a plague capable of corrupting Cularin's ch'hala trees. The ch'hala covered the jungles of Cularin and in a secret known among the Wyrd only by the First Witch, the ch'hala of Cularin were all one life-form with a powerful Force presence, the World Tree Ch'hala. The Wyrd hoped to use their newfound knowledge to either force the ch'hala to submit to the dark side of the Force under their control, or to kill it and thereby cripple the ecosystem of Cularin and shatter the resolve of the Tarasin people. Once they had familiarized themselves with Markus' teachings, the Wyrd mostly destroyed the recording that he had shared with them. Unbeknownst to the witches, the information provided by Markus was drawn from the teachings of the Sith, an ancient order of darksiders.
Over the period of a few weeks, the Wyrd infected the ch'hala with the plague, causing the ch'hala trees and jungle animals of Cularin to become enraged and randomly attack passers by. As the Wyrd prepared for a final effort to complete their corruption of the Cularin ecology, the witch Cheelru, a member of the Inner Circle of senior Wyrd members, spoke out against the First Witch's plans. Cheelru believed that if the Wyrd were to kill the ch'hala then the resulting damage would leave the witches little on Cularin to rule and would therefore represent a failure of the Wyrd's aims; the First Witch rejected this dissension and had Cheelru chained up.
Accompanied by her second-in-command, five witches of the Inner Circle and the remnants of the fanatical Wyrd elite guard, the First Witch traveled to the Heart Tree, a large ch'hala tree and keep part of the World Tree Ch'hala. Protected by a force field from a mobile shield generator, the group initiated the Ritual of the Power of the Dark, the rite through which they sought to complete the corruption of the tree to the dark side, channeling their energies into a young ch'hala sapling situated next to Heart Tree and chanting in an archaic form of Tarasin speech. Dariana and the Jedi Master Lanius Qel-Bertuk sensed through the Force that the Wyrd were targeting the ch'hala and Dariana summoned the heroes of Cularin to meet with her at the village of the Hiironi irstat to assist in preventing the witches from completing their plan. Seeking to fend off any disruption to the First Witch's plans, a Wyrd strike team ambushed the freelance agents, Dariana and her Hiironi guards. The freelance operatives and Hiironi Tarasin successfully reprised the Wyrd assault.
The heroes of Cularin learned from their Wyrd attackers the location of the witches' encampment. The Wyrd guards posted at the camp were listless and downhearted, expecting to meet their demise if the First Witch's endeavor to corrupt the ch'hala was unsuccessful, and the freelance agents evaded the sentries and infiltrate the enclave. The captive Cheelru informed the operatives of the ritual that the Wyrd had commenced and the operatives subsequently journeyed to the Heart Tree to challenge the First Witch and her associates.
By the time the freelance agents reached Heart Tree, the Wyrd had been conducting the rite to subvert the ch'hala for eleven hours. The operatives attacked the witches, forcing the First Witch and her supporters to abandon the ritual. In a final desperate ploy, the First Witch slew her second-in-command to invoke the Path of Blood, another of the rituals communicated by Len Markus, and in doing so destroy the Heart Tree and kill the ch'hala. However, Jedi Master Qel-Bertuk sacrificed himself to thwart the witches, merging his consciousness with the ch'hala to enable it to fend of the attack. The First Witch exploded as her ritual backfired and some of the witches fled while those that remained were defeated by the freelance agents.
Several of the defeated witches were captured by the Hiironi irstat and escorted away. The defeat left the Wyrd crippled and no longer capable of posing a threat to the Cularin population.
==Philosophy==
The Wyrd were isolationist and xenophobic eco-terrorists who opposed the influence of off-worlders on Cularin and sought for Cularin to be for the Tarasin people only. They embraced the dark side of the Force in their quest, surrendering to their fury and their hatred in pursuit of power; the witches had no reservation against using their powers for ill ends or in perverting the powers of nature to defeat their enemies. Many members of the Wyrd were fanatical in their belief in the witches' cause, to the point that when captured they would try to commit suicide in order to avoid disclosing details of the Wyrd's plans.
The Wyrd believed that targeting those weaker than themselves ensured their own survival. The witches showed little clemency to their enemies and enjoyed inflicting pain, often laughing while conducting their attacks. They believed male Tarasin and children to be of little use to them and we willing to take other Tarasin as slaves. When targeting the village Kiirloor, the witches bore no personal grudge against the settlement's Wookiee inhabitants but opined that they could not permit outsiders to steal land claimed by the Wyrd.
The Wyrd operated with stealth, often hidden and unseen by others, keeping their agenda to themselves. The witches rarely left Cularin though there were occasions when Wyrd witches did travel off-world. They made only limited use of technology and wielded a mixture of modern and archaic weapons. Members of the coven commonly were equipped blaster pistols, knives or wooden staves and wore dark-colored robes and jewellery formed from small bone fragments. The witches were also know to carry Force talismans, Force imbued items that gave protection of the bearer from other Force users.Star Wars Roleplaying Game Revised Core Rulebook As a result of their use of the dark side, many of the witches developed dark-colored scales that absorbed light. Some witches also adorned their scales with tattoo-like patterns.
Consumed by their hatred and driven to despair and madness by the dark side of the Force, by the time of the Clone Wars the Wyrd had abandoned their initial purpose of opposing outside influence on Cularin. The witches instead broadened their objectives to seeking the extermination all Tarasin and offworlders who did not submit to the rule of the Wyrd. In this unsound state, the witches preferred to see Cularin destroyed than overran by outsiders; when the First Witch of the Wyrd enacted her plan to corrupt Cularin's ch'hala trees believed that crippling the planet's ecosystem would provide them a fitting legacy. The witches opposed the Jedi Order and also were hostile to the anti-Thaereian Cularin self-government cause advocated by the Cularin Militia.
The Wyrd strayed from their isolationist and xenophobic principals by having dealings with the Thaereian military and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, considering it reasonable to that the witches use off-worlders to target other off-worlders. Though the witches also co-operated with the Believers, they had little use for the Sith cult other than as an ally in combating the Jedi and planned to eliminate the cultists if the Wyrd attained power on Cularin.
==Organization and structure==
Members of the Wyrd were known as Wyrdlings. The Wyrd was dominated by Force-sensitive female Tarasin Wyrd sisters, whose numbers included junior acolytes and more senior adepts. The leadership of the Wyrd included a number of lieutenants who reported directly to Liriana, and an Inner Circle of senior witches also served the Wyrd leader. By the time of the Wyrd's attempt to corrupt Cularin's ch'hala trees the Inner Circle was comprised of six Wyrd adepts, though their numbers had previously been greater.
The ranks of the Wyrd also comprised non-Force sensitive male and female Tarasin hunters and soldiers who had chosen to serve the witches both out of fear of the witches and due to the lure of the Wyrd's power. These included the Wyrd elite guard, an elect force of male Tarasin fighters who zealously supported the Wyrd's ideals. At their Zhadorii irstat stronghold, the Wyrd enforced a strict caste system, with Force-sensitive Wyrd sisters at the top, Tarasin hunters and soldiers ranked beneath them and captive Tarasin slaves at the bottom. The Wyrd sisters would deal severely with any members of the lower castes that caused the witches any irritation.
==Common abilities==
The Wyrd were devoted to the dark side of the Force and used unusual powers not previously known to other Force-using groups, such as flying unsupported and summoning storms capable of crashing starships. They could move with stealth and nimbly scale the walls of caves or branches of trees as easily as umo lizards, making use of the natural camouflage abilities of the Tarasin species to blend into their surroundings. However, the tattoo-like patterns that many Wyrd used to adorn their scales often hindered their ability to camouflage.
Members of the Wyrd were commonly proficient in the use of the Force to sense things, push objects, move silently, affect the minds of others, conceal their presence and to enhance their physical attributes, and also in the use of the powers Drain Knowledge and See Force. Some of the witches were also adept in wielding Force lightning and using the Force to drain energy. Some members of the Wyrd were also known to cast illusions of darkness when attacked in order to cover their escape. The witches were highly proficient fighters and in combat were willing to use blasters in addition to wielding the Force against the enemies, as they were aware that continued use of the Force would fatigue them.
==Members==
===Leaders===
Liriana served as the leader of the Wyrd around the time of the Invasion of Naboo, becoming the most capable and esteemed of all of the witches. A devious and dangerous individual, she was full of anger and rage and was banished and shunned by the Hiironi irstat as punishment for her disloyalty. She had dead black eyes and as a result of spending much of her life hiding in the shadows she developed scales a darker brown tone than was standard for a Tarasin. The witches who served under Liriana were unwavering in following her instructions. When under attack, Liriana would stand behind her subordinate Wyrd witches and use Force-based attacks including Force lightning to attack her enemies. She was however willing to flee if she felt threatened and to abandon her followers to fend for themselves; her disciples were aware of this possibility.
The witch Xinishia served as a lieutenant to Liriana and sought to supplant Liriana as the leader of the Wyrd. Xinishia gained command of the Wyrd's enclave on Cloud Mountain and she stronger and more powerful than followers. By the later stages of the Clone Wars, the First Witch of the Wyrd, also known as the Wyrd Mother, held authority over the witches. An aged female Tarasin who was strong in the Force, the First Witch was a ferocious fighter and driven to insanity. She bore no name, having forsaken it as one of her first acts upon joining the Wyrd. The First Witch appointed a younger Tarasin female as her second-in-command and designated successor. This deputy acted as an assistant to the First Witch and relished the prospect of one day ascending to lead the Wyrd.
===Adepts and other Wyrd members===
As a member of the Wyrd Inner Circle, the witch Cheelru held a high-ranking position that she believed demanded respect, even after she was imprisoned following her disagreement with the First Witch. A depraved, sociopathic murderer, Cheelru was among the witches who operated the Hand artifact on Cloud Mountain under Xinishia's command. Other senior Wyrd members included the witches Baeshana, Naelora and Torunin.
The Tarasin Besaama was lured into enlisting with the Wyrd as a child after being drawn to their settlement at the Tree. She later abandoned the witches and gave an account of how she can to join the Wyrd. Besaama was familiar with only one isolated group of the witches that operated deep within Cularin's jungles, but believed her experience of how she was seduced by the Wyrd to be not uncommon. The Human Wyrd adept Kirasha was a steadfast servant to the witches and considered it an honor when she was tasked by the Wyrd leader with uncovering the cause of a drain in the strength of Mother Dariana's followers. Despite her strong support of the Wyrd, Kirasha felt a strong sense of self loathing due to her past transgressions and abandoned the witches when offered a place in Dariana's shelter for Force-sensitives.
The Tarasin females Amasi and Kua were also among the adepts of the Wyrd and while neither was as terrifying as Liriana, both were disagreeable in their own idiosyncratic ways. The Wyrd witches Es'Loma and Sheel both had dealings with the Believers and were among the few Wyrd members to travel off-world. The ghost of a female Tarasin Force Adept served the Wyrd at their Cloud Mountain enclave and attempted to possess the heroes of Cularin when the agents ventured to the Wyrd base to confront the witches. The soldiers Kosaa, Savina and Veshin were among the non-Force sensitive Tarasin that served the Wyrd.
==Locations==
The Wyrd generally operated from hidden locations deep within the jungles of Cularin. The forests of Cularin had many dark places strong in the dark side of the Force at which the Wyrd would gather, and the witches favored cave networks, ruined structures and former settlements razed by natural disasters or kilassin attacks as sides for their enclaves. Some of the witches also dwelled within Gadrin and Hedrett, Cularin's main population centers. The Wyrd kept themselves highly mobile and would quickly disappear if one of their settlements was discovered.
Following their discovery of the Hand artifact on Cloud Mountain, the Wyrd established an enclave in the cavern that housed the relic, considering the site to be a sacred place. The Zhadorii irstat was bastion of the Wyrd situated at a remote site in the Cularin jungle. The presence of the Wyrd caused the area of forest surrounding the village to be tainted by the dark side of the Force. The jungle gained a dark and oppressive atmosphere, with the air colder and heavier than the surrounding woods and was silent, with all of the usual sounds of the forest absent. The region was protected by regular Wyrd patrols. The Zhadorii irstat itself was home to a large assemblage of Wyrd sisters and their support, housing around 50 Force-using sisters and between 250 and 300 Tarasin soldiers.
The group of Wyrd witches to which the Tarasin Besaama gave her allegiance resided within a large, centuries-old tree in the Cularin forest that was three meters wide and included chambers inside its trunk. The tree was surrounded by the rotting corpses of deceased birds and smoke poured out from knotholes in the tree's upmost levels. By the later stages of the Clone Wars, the Wyrd had became too fragmented to maintain any permanent settlements or bases. Prior to the witches' endeavor to corrupt the ch'hala a number of Wyrd members gathered at an interim camp on Cularin made up of a group of huts sufficient to house forty individuals. The camp was sited next to a cave system, which included an outer cavern utilized as a temporary residence for the Wyrd's leaders and an inner chamber employed as a religious shrine and work area. The inner chamber also housed a number of scrolls bearing the writings on the tenets of the Wyrd.
==Behind the scenes==
The Wyrd featured as recurring antagonists in RPGA's Living Force campaign, a roleplaying series set within Star Wars Legends continuity. The Wyrd was first mentioned in the article Liriana: Dark Force Witch of Cularin by Morrie Mullins, published on Wizards.com on September 13, 2001 as a tie-in to the Living Force campaign. The article introduced Liriana and the Wyrd as adversaries to players of the campaign and provided roleplaying statistics for Liriana and a standard Wyrd member to allow gamemasters to incorporate the Wyrd into roleplaying adventures. The witches made their first appearance in the 2002 roleplaying adventure Holes by Lee Pickler, which served as the third instalment of the Living Force campaign's Blinking Eyes trilogy.
The Wyrd were subsequently referenced in numerous Living Force adventures and Living Force Wizards.com tie-in articles, making significant appearances in the 2003 adventure From the Trees, the 2004 adventure Hunting the Wyrd and the 2005 adventure A Plague of Darkness. The Wizards.com article News of the Wyrd by Morrie Mullins, published on September 18, 2003, provided roleplaying statistics for two additional Wyrd witches, Amasi and Kua, at differing power levels, for inclusion in roleplaying adventures.
===Possible Living Force roleplay outcomes===
In the Living Force campaign, the players roleplay as the heroes of Cularin and various outcomes are possible depending on the actions and decisions of the player characters. In From the Trees, when the player characters encounter Xinishia and her Wyrd followers at their enclave on Cloud Mountain, it is possible for the players to either negotiate with the Wyrd to secure the release of the captive Wookiee Chywarra or to engage them in combat. The adventure however suggests that the player characters will likely loose such a fight and that in the event that the players are incapacitated by the witches, the Wyrd stabilize and tie up the injured freelance agents and then decamp from their enclave. In disdain, the witches also leave behind any equipment carried by the player characters.
In the Living Force adventure Hunting the Wyrd, when the player characters are ambushed by the Wyrd after being lured by the sight of a Tarasin baby, the witches seek either to kill or cause as much harm to the freelance agents as they can before retreating. It is possible for the player characters to capture some of the Wyrd witches that attack them, though the witches reveal no information and make every effort to run away. When the player characters venture to the village of the Tarasin Rinajaa irstat it is possible for the player characters to attack the settlement's Wyrd attackers or for them to not engage the witches. If the players defeat the witches, any caprice witches perform mind tricks via the Force to try to coerce the Rinajaa villagers into killing them. The villagers attempt to burn any captive Wyrd members and it is possible for the player characters to either allow the Wyrd witches to be killed or for them to intervene and save the prisoners. Afterward, it is possible for any surviving Wyrd detainees to be airlifted away by the Cularin Militia.
When the player characters venture to Zhadorii irstat Wyrd stronghold it is possible for the players to call in an air strike against the Wyrd settlement and for them to assault the witches present in the village's central hut to rescue the captive Tarasin children held there by the Wyrd. It is possible for the players to encounter there the leader of the Wyrd settlement and their personal bodyguard, though the identity of the leader and their escort varies depending upon the roleplaying experience tier of the player characters. Players in the mid-level roleplaying tier can fight the Wyrd sister Naelora and her protector Kosaa, while player characters in the high-level roleplaying tier can challenge the witch Torunin and her defender Savina and player characters in the upper-level roleplaying tier can face off against the Wyrd adept Baeshana and her guard Veshin. If the Zhadorii irstat is struck by an airstrike it is also possible for some surviving Wyrd witches and soldiers to flee to village into the jungle and be attacked by the player characters.
During the events of the Living Force module A Plague of Darkness, the player characters are attacked by a group of Wyrd members while meeting with Mother Dariana at the village of the Hiironi irstat. If the players struggle to fight off their Wyrd attackers, Jedi Master Lanius Qel-Bertuk arrives and assists them in defeating the witches. Later in the adventure, when the players raid the Wyrd encampment at which the witch Cheelru is imprisoned, it is possible for a group of Tarasin ex-Wyrd members to assist the player characters in attacking the Wyrd witches present at the camp. Following the death of the First Witch of the Wyrd at the Heart Tree, it is possible for some of her Wyrd followers to surrender and be taken into custody by the Hiironi irstat.
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==Notes and references==
Category:Dark side organizations
Category:Religious organizations
Category:Tarasin culture
Category:Wyrd members