Sorcerers of Rhand

"*Only power is real, and the only real power is the power to destroy. Existence is fleeting. Destruction is '**eternal.*****"**
―The core tenets of the Sorcerers of Rhand
The Sorcerers of Rhand live deep in the Unknown Regions, hidden by the red flow of the Perann Nebula from any disciples of the dark side who wish to tap their knowledge. Their reclusiveness is a blessing, for if the Sorcerers were to unleash the full entropic power of what they call the Dark, the entire galaxy might come to ruin. The Sorcerers of Rhand are united by a common condition rather than a shared genetic code. Although they retain a semblance of their original forms, they are twisted beyond the natural abilities of their native species. By following the Will or the Way of the Dark, they were granted special powers.

## **Philosophy and Motivation**

An overriding faith in the Dark motivates the Sorcerers of Rhand. This concept, unrelated to the Force practiced by the Jedi and Sith, is interpreted to mean the ultimate end of all existence. Scientists refer to the Dark as the concept of entropy, and others brush against its meaning when they complain that "*things fall apart*." But the Sorcerers of Rhand believe that the Dark is everything, and therefore the only true source of power.

The greatest civilization, the grandest palace, the noblest warrior everything collapses, crumbles, and dies. Destruction is inevitable. Nothing escapes its grip, not even the universe itself. Most beings spend their time
building institutions and making rules, revealing themselves in the Sorcerers' eyes as small-minded children. In time their work vanishes, unmourned, and unremembered.

The Sorcerers are realists. They understand that the power of destruction, coupled with time, has more ability to change the universe than any effort of creation. They devote their efforts to understanding its purpose and
ultimately divining a way to become agents of the Dark. By manipulating the forces of destruction, they can bring their enemies to ruin.

### **Way of The Dark**

The **Way of the Dark**, or simply **the Dark**, was the name used by the Sorcerers of Rhand to describe their view of the universe, which was unrelated to the Force.

Effectively the polar opposite of the Potentium, but taken a step further. This Way of the Dark belief didn't just deny the existance of the Light side of the Force, it stated that the Force itself, both Light and Dark side, was irrelevant in scope compared to the Dark. This system stated that entropy and destruction was the universal constant that all things worked towards, going so far as to call it the "will of the universe". In the absence of life was the void, the foundation of truth, which to the Sorcerers became known as the One Truth. To them the Force, which was an energy field created by living beings, was itself fleeting and destined to fall to the Dark as the universe approached complete entropy: heat death.

An initiate was taught that if one made destruction his primary goal, with whatever scheme he was taking part in being a secondary objective, then the Dark would effectively reward the initiate for the devastation caused by pushing the secondary objective to success.

### **Abilities**

Chief among their tools is the gift of Darksight, which allows a Sorcerer to see the future as a branching path-each path defined by the forces of destruction that trigger change. A Sorcerer can choose a path and encourage the inevitability of that future (and its associated outcomes of death and ruin).

The Sorcerers also wield a type of battle meditation that is essentially a more immediate expression of Darksight. While viewing armies engaged in warfare, a Sorcerer can sense how close each soldier is to die and nudge individuals into decisions that bring about their immediate annihilation.

A more direct method of contro l also exists through the use of Nihil smokestone, a native mineral with the ability to act as a mental transmitter and receiver. By imprinting slaves with smokestone- via skull implants or removable cranial harnesses one Sorcerer can control a horde of so-called Pawns. The controlling Sorcerer is required to wear a shadow crown made from smokestone, but he or she gains the ability to receive the collective sensory input of the Pawns or give them primal commands (such as kill, run, or feed). Pawns can also be directly controlled like the marionettes of a puppeteer.

Finally, in the rare event that the Sorcerers are threatened in a face-to-face confrontation, they have mastered an arcane technique for channeling the Dark in a sustained, directed burst. A Darkshear strike causes the victim to suffer the cumulative damage of years of atrophy. Armor becomes rusted and brittle, power cells drain, and machinery jams. Individuals can age 30 years in an instant, and individual body parts-a heart, a lung, a knee joint-might fail in the midst of battle. The damage can sometimes be reversed with bacta, but it might
require prosthetic replacement.

## **Description**

The Sorcerers have no uniform appearance and are not presumed to be members of the same species. Yet no one is clear on what, exactly, the Sorcerers are.

Succate, a chronicler from Carrivar, assembled the largest collection of information on the Sorcerers 80 years before the Battle of Yavin. According to her recounting of a meeting in the central ruin of Rhand, each Sorcerer manifests in a unique state of disassembly and decay. One lacked skin and oozed bodily fluids with every step. One was merely a blackened skeleton. Another appeared to have been turned inside out, with clean white teeth poking jaggedly from a raw mass of a head. A fourth existed as a long ribbon of flesh that swirled and coiled throughout the Rhandite receiving chamber.

Succate could not determine whether these were mortal beings that had been transformed into such states, supernatural entities that had taken strange forms, or simply illusions. But despite their unsettling appearance, the presence of additional black-cloaked figures hovering on the periphery engendered even more dread - for Succate's imagination conjured even worse horrors that might lie beneath their black folds.

Most Sorcerers appear to walk on two legs, but some hover above the ground at a height of half a meter, the hems of their robes dangling above the cold stone. Others have four or more legs and scuttle close to the floor with heavy blankets draped over their backs. A few rare members of the order flap high above their gatherings on wings, unwilling or unable to descend to ground level. Meeting an assemblage of Sorcerers is a disorienting and sometimes terrifying experience.

## **History**

The Sorcerers of Rhand were the absolute rulers of the twelve stellar clusters known as the Nihil Retreat, which surrounded the Perann Nebula in the Unknown Regions.

The sorcerers called themselves Rhandites and believed in the One Truth: *"Only power is real, and the only real power is the power to destroy. Existence is fleeting. Destruction is eternal."* For them, destruction was the will of the universe. They called this the Way of The Dark.

   The Sorcerers are the culmination of threeancient philosophical schoo ls. The first is the Knell of Muspilli, a death cult from the moon trees of the Gunninga Gap that transcribed the Taurannix Codex to call forth apocalyptic deities from beyond the Gap's spatial fissure.

The second school is the Kanzer Exiles, a fanatical flock of reptilians led by the Lord Ravager Korman Lao. These exiles expanded their faith through mental enslavement and built a world-sized temple near the Valtaullu Rift. The third school is an offshoot of the Warriors of the Shadow-Taung soldiers beaten by the Battalions of Zhell in the prehistory of Coruscant.

After surviving the war and a volcanic plume of ash that filled the skies for two years, the priestly sisterhood of the Taungs fled to the Unknown Regions to seek atonement through meditation and in sight. Thousands of years bring about the merging of these belief systems on the worlds of the Nihil Retreat near the Perann Nebula.

Deep within the nebula itself, on the planet Rhand that gives the new movement its name, the greatest Sorcerers take up residence in the dark ruins of a long -dead species.

True Sorcerers are rare on the Nihil Retreat worlds, and the acolytes that live on there are little more than obedient thugs. Reaching Rhand inside the Perann Nebula is impossible without specific coordinates obtained at the Retreat (or the guidance of a Force-user) .

## **Members; Past and Present**

* Cronal
* Blessed Toxmalb
* Dagger Bacquin
* Diablo Mandagoran
* Invidia Decuir
* Kai Mandagoran
* Kain Bacquin
* Loki Mandagoran
* Matthias Konrad
* Oz Marzullo
* Santeria Decuir
* Sephoria Decuir
* Spike Mandagoran
* Vishnu Merchion

## Sources

* *Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side*
* *The Unknown Regions*