Rience Vries

*"Suddenly, it was as if someone else had taken possession of Rience's body. Gone was the timid man who froze whenever he heard gunshots on the distance. As the Zracons came at us, he was the first to fight back, screaming bloody murder as he made two warriors burst into flames. I still feel chills when I remember their screams, amplified by those war masks they wore. Rience however did not stop. Fleeing or wounded, it mattered not to him. He kept throwing cones of fire, vaporizing dying Zracon with his burning hands...by the time there were no more enemies left, he did not even realize he had been the one who killed all the dead, smoking Zracon around us. Like leaves in the wind, their bodies heading east to the Menstire mountains."*

-Teresa Kolens, member of one of the PR squads sent to New Sajar in her writings on Exoblog 'Warpaint'-

   **Rience Vries**(2202-2288) was a citizen of the Commonwealth  born in the planet of Ortus and one of the first to acquire psionic powers after a trip to Redamon Prime. Gifted in the use of pyrokinesis, he was nicknamed the "Devil of New Sajar" after taking part in the invasion of New Sajar during the Aramathi liberation war. Afterwards, he took part on other invasions and battles beyond the Commonwealth  borders, from Fal'Kaboss to the core worlds of the Yaanari league. He met his end in Voice, the Biluan  world, alongside many other millions of soldiers trying to put an end to the Biluan mind.

Rience Vries is seen as many experts as an example of the difficulty of handling psionic powers and the strategies the users have to take to remain sane while using them. RIence himself was known by his family and friends as a shy, yet kind man, someone happy to work a few extra hours if that meant the job was done.

The soldiers he fought alongside with however tell of another story. The moment a fight began, Rience Vries was pushed back into a void inside of himself, so the "Devil of New Sajar" could take the reins. Determined, aggressive and devoid of mercy, whenever Rience unleashed his psionic powers, he made sure his foes would become like dust... Such was Rience's focus while playing this persona that, when he stopped and returned to normal, he never managed to remember a hint of what happened and was horrified when recordings were presented to him of what he had done with his gifts. Despite wanting to quit the army and retire for good many times during his career in the army, Rience always found a reason to stay. Either, a feeling of duty towards his fellow soldiers, or a secret enjoyment of burning foes with a mere thought, is a mystery Rience took with himself to the grave.

As it happens with many other users of psionic powers, Rience's mastery of them developed as time went on. Going from a flamethrowing stormtrooper on New-Sajar, to the Commonwealth's first 'Flamburge-psycho', able to become a burning tower of wrath and death equal to Brancki's mecs of the 01 brigade. By the time of the war in Voice, recordings show ally Commonwealth soldiers having to keep a distance from him as the area around him boiled, almost as if Rience had become a small, human-sized sun. Yet the more his powers grew, the harder it became for him to keep control over them. In Fal'Kaboss for instance, an attack to a Karthemas fortified position ended up with Rience unleashing so much fire, it extended to a nearby city, then field, then nearby factory of explosive armaments...the resulting explosion killed between 10-12 thousand people in the villages of Sar'gaimond and Postur, as well as utterly leveling the city of Mah'kulm.

Voice, a planet which had only three psychics survive ordeals on the ground (of which all three would later be driven mad) pushed the human mind to their true breaking point...one which resulted in Rience Vries dying not out of overload from the mental strain of becoming a flame tower reported by many to be: "Like a glowing sea" in size...

But, instead, dying of exhaustion and overdose of combat stimuli...

His body was amazingly recovered, a rarity that even Brancki was unable to given...and was later entombed in the Psychi Myrad's Emporium of Soldiery.

A Second Chance, at peace at last...