Ravenna Lang

**Ravenna Lang** - styled as **Lord Lang** - was a force-sensitive human female, a noble-born from the planet Serenno and a lord of the Sith Empire. A powerful force user and skilled combatant, Lang was known for her calm and collected nature both on and off the battle field. As with the vast majority of Sith, she began her journey at the Sith Academy on the planet, Korriban before serving the Sith Empire under two masters through the latter years of the Cold War and the Galactic War as a member of the Sphere of Mysteries.

## Biography

Born in 3659 BBY on Serenno as the youngest child of Tarsus and Petra, Ravenna Lang had a privileged and comfortable childhood in relative isolation from the rest of the world. From an early age, tutors infused her with a passion and reverence for learning, so much so that she would often visit the archives in her free time to learn what there was not time for in her lessons. Aside from her tutors and her siblings, her contact with the outside world was minimal as she was largely restricted to her family's estate and surrounding grounds. With her brothers and sisters, she enjoyed traversing nearby rivers and forests where they would spend hours upon hours playing. As they grew older, the forests became a destination for leisurely walks and conversations regarding matters ranging from trivial banter to dark secrets. During one such outing when she was 14, Ravenna and one of her sisters, Taraya, were caught in a freak storm during which a dead tree almost collapsed on Taraya. As if by instinct, Ravenna blasted the tree from its destined course and saving the life of her sibling. When they returned home, her sister was quick to tell their parents of Ravenna's heroic actions, news which left the lord and his wife disheartened. Newly sworn to the Empire, they were keenly aware that it was their obligation to contact the Academy on Korriban at the first appearance of force sensitivity in any of their children, but they were also, like many, fearful of the reputation of Korriban and hoped to spare their daughter the fate of the many who traveled to its rusty surface. Initially, they decided to bury the truth, hoping to conceal the truth of Ravenna's nature and keep their family in tact.

However, their ambitions were proven misplaced when word reached them of another family from Ziost who had, as they had done, concealed the force sensitivity of their child only to be discovered by the Sith. After the child was claimed and brought to the Academy, his family had been tortured and executed, news which birthed great fear in both Lord and Lady Lang. With their minds changed all but changed, it was with heavy hearts that her parents informed the Academy on Korriban of Ravenna's gifts and weeks later received a representative of the academy arrived at their estate to judge for himself the worthiness of her abilities. Fearful and slightly reluctant, Ravenna was unable to complete the tasks the representative asked of her causing him to lash out in anger, threatening the lives of her parents as the cost for wasting his precious time. Flustered, afraid and angry, the young girl unleashed a powerful force wave that tore through the heavy stone decorations adorning the Lang estate's courtyard and knocked back both the Sith and her parents. Satisfied with the results, the representative informed Ravenna that she would be joining him in his return trip to Korriban and, as a kindness, allowed her a moment to say goodbye to her family. Barely had she embraced her eldest brother when the Sith Overseer grabbed her shoulder and swept Ravenna onto his ship leaving her staring out the window, sobbing as her parents and siblings dissolved into the distance of her home. Feeling slightly betrayed, alone and scared about what she had heard of the Sith Academy, Ravenna comforted herself by deducing that there must be other acolytes like her that had been swept away without a choice, acolytes that she could bond with, who could potentially help her survive whatever awaited her.

When she arrived on Korriban, she found that her hopes for her time at the academy could not have been further from the truth: if there were any acolytes who shared her way of thinking, they had either been hardened by their experiences or been killed. For three long years, she spent most of her time at the academy in the library studying Sith rituals and histories of obscure Sith Lords who had not earned their place in the mainstream curriculum while the rest of  her time was spent watching her fellow students from a distance, searching for soft spots and vulnerabilities that she could relate to and potentially exploit if need be. During this time, another acolyte noticed her unorthodox behavior and resolved to join her in her observation, eventually confessing to having issues with his own studies, something he was terrified to admit to anyone else, particularly the overseers. She stoically agreed to help him though she was secretly delighted to have found someone she could potentially relate to. The two bonded quickly with Ravenna helping the acolyte, Mavrex, improve his fighting forms along with his general knowledge of Sith history. Being in separate acolyte groups made it easier for the pair to help one another with the completion of their tasks and eventually a romantic bond formed between the two. She became distracted, abandoning her usual perch in the library to spend time with her new obsession out of sight of overseer and acolyte alike. However, as their finals evaluations drew closer, Mavrex drew Ravenna into the nearby Tomb of Ajunta Pall in the dark of night where he revealed that he had used her to advance his own position at the academy and informed her that he had gotten all he could out of their relationship. Taunting her for being soft and stupid, he attacked her. Forced to defend herself, Ravenna tearfully pulled down chunks of the ceiling upon him, poetically leaving his body as broken as her heart. Without a friend or reason to trust another, Ravenna doubled her efforts in preparation for her final trials and, with a renewed cold resolve, completed them flawlessly making her an appealing candidate for an apprenticeship with any Sith Lord or Darth. For her efforts, she was quickly assigned to be the apprentice of Darth Astor of the Sphere of Mysteries who carried her away from Korriban which held nothing but suffering and pain for the changed girl.

Astor challenged Ravenna, forcing her address her biases, preconceived notions and habits that, according to him, left her blind in terms of understanding her the perspectives of those around her, both friend and foe. He reminded her often that those worthy of permanence in history could understand any perspective and bend it to their own use. During their travels, he spent much time explaining the nature of the force and using their historical surroundings to reinforce his teachings in a way that a master from any other sphere would be incapable of. She learned the dark, dirty side of politics and how to operate from the shadows in a far more effective manner while also being taught to open her mind and move beyond the pains of the past to become a more well-rounded individual. Astor would often remark that their work was proof that the Sith code and way of life were not perfect. Ravenna learned much from Astor, but their time was cut short as he was slain at the outbreak of the Galactic War with the Republic following the initiation of the fabled Plan Zero.

She was eventually reassigned to Darth Harad of the Sphere of Military Offense and forced to join the war effort against the Republic. Harad was younger, harsher and radically different philosophically from Astor. He was rigid in his stance that her abilities with the force alone would not keep her alive and, despite her proficiencies, forced her to engage in daily lightsaber exercises and trials allowing her to become a master in both Form II: Makashi and Form IV: Ataru. While her time with Darth Astor had been typically defined by time either on Dromund Kaas or in tombs on distant worlds, Ravenna found Harad sweeping her from one battle to another as the conflict with the Republic intensified. Eventually, Ravenna was given command over a collection of Imperial special ops troopers and was often deployed behind enemy lines to weaken the Republic position before a major attack.

Ravenna won her lordship while participating in the Assault on Tython helping the Empire claim a decisive victory over their ancient enemy. Her victory was not to be enjoyed for long as news had reached her and her master of the simultaneous Republic attack on Korriban. While her master investigated the apparent treachery that had prompted the two attacks, Ravenna was ordered back to Korriban to help reestablish order. She remained at the Academy until after the battles of Rishi and Yavin IV when her master collected her to rejoin the war effort. Their bloody path continued until Korriban was attacked yet again and Darth Marr disappeared into the depths of Wild Space. Along with the rest of the Empire, Ravenna and her master were taken by surprise when the Eternal Empire emerged from the unknown and began to overwhelm both of the major galactic powers. Darth Harad fell in one of the ensuing battles leaving Ravenna masterless yet again, a free agent within the chaos of the Sphere of Military Offense.

For the next six years, she did what she could to help the Imperial effort to reorganize and rebuild while being constantly deployed on missions by otherwise nameless superiors. It wasn't until after the fall of Zakuul that she began to feel disillusioned with her role in the Military Offense Sphere. She was being used as a tool and she resented it. She sent in request after request to be transferred back to the Sphere of Mysteries only to receive denial after denial. Refusing to retaliate or engage in further infighting within the already fragile remnant of the Empire, Ravenna waited for an opportunity to present itself that would allow her to climb out of her hole of obscurity, an opportunity that presented itself when a lord of the Sith found her on Dromund Kaas contemplating the greater meaning of it all. Their friendship bloomed rapidly. Through this friendship, Lang was restored to the Sphere of Mysteries under the guise of being a member of the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge. In this position, she assisted the was able to help the lord's powerbase deal with a rogue sith lord with grand plans to topple the Empire in addition to hunting down an archaeological expedition that had been corrupted by a set of ancient Sith artifacts that granted them extraordinary powers and filled their heads with delusions.

The friendship with this lord was short-lived however as Lang discovered that the man was far from who he presented himself as, a discovery that dissolved any trust she had placed in him and compelled her to move on to more worthwhile enterprises. One such undertaking made itself available to her via a connection with a Sith Lord from the Sphere of Military Defense: Darth Magne. Magne, seeing potential in Lang, invited her to join an initiative known as the Imperial Vanguard, a collective of self-declared Sith reformists committed to changing the shape and image of the Empire.

## Personality

Initially, Ravenna was a kind-hearted and naïve girl. Due to her isolation as a child, she had trouble forming bonds with others and many on Korriban sought to take advantage of this. Her experiences twisted her into a distrustful, closed-off, independent woman devoted to her work who was reluctant to engage in any personal relationships that didn't directly benefit her. A scholar and strategist, Ravenna reveled in her studies and relished learning from the sith lords of old, educating herself in histories, techniques and abilities with vim and vigor. A skilled combatant, Ravenna would only seek out combat if the action was deemed necessary and resented the notion of wasted time and effort. That being said, when she had set her mind to something and determined its completion essential, she'd move heaven and earth to see it through.

## Powers & Abilities

Ravenna was a force to be reckoned with. Strong with the Force and a natural practitioner of Sith Sorcery, Ravenna tended to be over-reliant on her abilities and preferred fighting her battles with an optimal distance from her opponent. Her favorite ability to deploy in battle was the dark force blast. Despite being proficient in a number of lightsaber forms, Ravenna's hang-to-hand combat abilities were not nearly as strong as her abilities in the Force. Preferring graceful flourishes and fluid strikes, Ravenna was a technical master of Form II: Makashi, which was her preferred form when she was forced to utilize her lightsaber. However, despite learning the form to technical perfection, in active execution, she could become overconfident bordering on cocky and be easily overwhelmed. As a combatant, there was no doubt that Ravenna's deadly strength flourished when she utilized the Force and fought from a distance.
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