Palak
Warmaster, Prince Consort, Captain of the Anvil of Dawn Palak Dracondis (a.k.a. the Dark Warrior, the Lover, Favored by the Mother, (Broken Shell), (Social Climber), (the Upstart))
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Palak is a full-blooded Obsidian, a strain of dragon that hasn't been seen for many millennia. Unlike those of lesser bloodlines, his wings are full body, with the membrane stretching down his back all the way to the mid point of his tail. He is capable of full flight, independent of his telekinetic abilities, though those can augment him while in flight.
Body Features
Palak is covered in black scales that are irregularly shaped, but bilaterally symmetrical. This isn't common among Obsidians, who tend to be completely irregular across their entire bodies.
His crown horns, jaw spikes, ridge spines and plates are all alabaster white. The ridge spines and plates go down his back all the way to halfway again past where his wings fade back into his tail.
Facial Features
Palak has a distinct, sharp jawline, lines with spikes. His eyeridges, which are the analog of eyebrows, are also spiked. The end of these rise back to become his crown horns, which curve back toward his back, but not in towards his neck. There is a spike at the tip of his nose and trailing spikes that follow his snout back towards his eyes.
His eyes are Obsidian white, but change the color of his glow and its intensity with emotional state and stress levels.
Identifying Characteristics
Full wings. Palak is the only living dragon to possess them.
Physical quirks
Palak has personally slaughtered thousands of Sergal in hand to hand combat, and so he has an extensive and intricate set of Bloodmarks that come out when he confronts them. He is considered a living nightmare among the unblooded, who will not face him, even with overwhemlming numbers.
Special abilities
Palak is a potent Telelpath, able to sense lifesigns at astronomical distances, dismantle mental defenses with a touch, and even read genetic memories of any species by touch.
He is also a powerful telekinetic, able to lift extraordinary mass and stop molecular movement in a considerable volume at range.
Show spoiler
He has also rummaged through the life history of the Emperor, and knows his secret.
Apparel & Accessories
Palak is not fond of clothing. Obsidian clothing isn't designed for someone with full wings, and wearing normal clothes makes him uncomfortable. It's like wearing clothing that too small for you. It constricts his wings, makes him feel closed in, and tends to trigger more flashbacks.
Consequently, he doesn't wear normal uniforms or clothing. As even belts are problematic, he wears a modified uniform that drapes over him and has a seal that adheres to his scales at his waist. It does require that he have assistance to dress, though this is common for Obsidians, anyway.
His scales have been modified to include tracings of scarlet and deep crimson that are hard to see beneath the black of his scales, but which become more noticable as under certain specific wavelengths of light.
Specialized Equipment
Palak is captain of the Anvil of Dawn. He has all of the resources of his armada at his disposal. This includes nearly five times the normal number of Juggernauts typically assigned to a group of his size. All of them volunteered to serve him specifically.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Palak started life as an orphan in the Imperial Fostering System. While hatchlings are never terribly well monitored, those assigned to foster care because they have no parents to speak for them are considered even less of a priority. While it's still a crime to exploit them, it is easier to get away with than for normal hatchlings.
Thus was Palak abused, exploited, beaten, and robbed for most of his young life. So little care was given to him that in order to protect himself, he took to a life of petty theft and criminal activity, which he faked being bad at so that official notice would fall on him. It worked too well. He was apprehended in the act, and instead of being put in a facility or placed with a monitoring family, he was remanded to the Academy, a school for privileged hatchlings and non-dragons who had enough money to keep their children out of the normal schools.
The error in doing this was almost immediately obvious to his monitoring agent. Palak was never socialized, and even being nearly 2000 years old, approximately, Palak had never learned to get along with others. But far from being a bully or disruptive influence, he was shy, in the extreme, hiding when he wasn't supposed to be in class, and showing up at the last second when he was scheduled to be somewhere. And the worst part is that he could never be found when he didn't want to be. No one could track him, and so he became something of a ghost, despite being in his classes as he was required.
This didn't go without notice by the students, either. Through diligence and effort, as well as the use of a student with no psionic talent whatsoever, he was followed to his hideout. However, instead of giving the monitors the information, the students decided to steal everything from Palak, and then beat him mercilessly, leaving him unconscious.
This caused him to miss nearly an entire days worth of classes, which did provoke a panic with the monitors. After sweeping the grounds, they moved into the steam tunnels and access ways, which, for some reason, they never thought an obsidian would go into willingly. When he was found, their panic intensified, because he was barely alive.
His physical rehabilitation after he was stabilized marked a transformation in his personality, and not for the better. Seeing that leaving others alone wasn't going to work, he became darker, angrier, and retaliatory. When he was able, he provoked the students that beat him into being more open with their bullying. After several public attacks, one of which gave him a hairline fracture in one of his wings, he set them up to come at him in one of the school corridors. Getting them to finally bloody him, he used the pyroclastic nature of Obsidian blood to trip the school's fire suppression system, which put force fields into place, confining them in with him. Then he filled his mouth with blood, and sprayed it all over them as the fire suppression system struggled to put it out.
While they would live, and medical technology would see to it that they wouldn't be permanently disfigured, Palak hoped the message was clear. Leave him alone and he wouldn't destroy you. Sadly, his own generally poor health, bruised and battered body, and weak immune system left him at the mercy of the suppression system, too.
When he came to, he was in the custody of one of his fellow students, the Crown Prince himself. He was under arrest for the assault on his tormentors; the Crown Prince seemed to know he had engineered the incident in an attempt to set them up for his retaliation. Instead of allowing himself to be taken easily, he sank into Stonesleep, ossifying himself into a living statue. Drakkon nearly shattered him in frustration, but was stopped by the Superintendent of the Academy reminding him that he was still a student, and his own assault on another student would subject him to the same punishment he was about to mete out.
Instead, he was taken in statue form before the Emperor, who was amused that his son was acting more like his short-sighted brother than normal. However, when Palak came out of stonesleep, he was terrified to be before the Emperor, and that didn't sit well with Grallax. Grallax required he be taken to a private room to be cleaned up and and calmed down. This task was handed to Tranak, the son of the Emperor's Prime Minister, Lord Chamberlain Branagh.
Many truths were shared soon after that. Drakkon learned the truth of Palak's world. Palak learned the ins and outs of courtly life. Palak became closer with both Tranak and Drakkon, and, quietely, Grallax, as well. He had come into heat, and by an ancient process, came to be mated first with Tranak, and then with Drakkon. After clutching his first brood, he became a dedicated student at the Academy and eventually graduated around his estimated 3000th Hatching Day with High Honors and a decorated member of six sports teams.
During this time, Pollar, the younger son of Grallax, was maturing. Palak and Pollar had a complicated relationship, owing to Pollar's unstable personality and being upset about constantly being shown up by his brother, Drakkon. Palak had opted to mentor the young Prince in how to find peace with who he was, thought that met with limited success. By the time of Pollar's first heat, the only thing that was certain is that Palak was the only person that Pollar trust not only to tell that he was in heat, but to guide him through the inner turmoil of his cascading emotions and hormones. It was to the be first and only time that Palak and Pollar mated, and Pollar clutched soon after, to the surprise of most, as Palak had not told anyone that Pollar had come into heat. Pollar did not name Palak as the sire, and the hatchlings, once they hatched, were put into royal fostering at various academies. Neither Palak nor Pollar spoke of their intimate moment, neither with one another nor others. It was a moment of calm in Pollar's turbulent life.
From there, Palak joined the Imperial Armed Services, transitioning from ground to space forces over the course of 2000 years. Because of being an Obsidian, he was commissioned immediately as an officer, though the Admiralty put a note in his record stipulating that they objected to this because he was an orphan. After another 1000 years, he was finally given his own ship, over protests from the Admiralty, who again declared he was unfit to command given his status as an orphan. They continued to ignore the Emperor having personally adopted him, which was an insult directed at both Palak and the Emperor.
He spent 3000 years patrolling the borders of the Empire, engaging sergal raiding groups, rescuing stranded travelers, and putting a stop to smugglers. He actions raised him up to progressively better vessels, and, as is the custom in the Empire, he took his ship Core with him. On his last outing with his destroyer, the Victory Rising, he encountered a smuggler vessel that was trading in weapons with Federation agents. After a brief chase he finally ran the vessel to ground, literally, in an asteroid belt where his marines sieged the airlocks and after a three day standoff that resulted in nearly three dozen of his crew being incapacitated by traps, sealed hatches, bulkheads, and the occasional firefight, Palak addressed the last smuggler standing.
All of his companions had been captured in the first hours of the siege, but they had failed to account for one of the mercenaries working for the group being a professional. After waiting half an hours for him to reply, Palak decided to advance himself, only to discover the final combatant had succumb to his wounds and passed out. His medical officer told him that the K'zo merc had probably been unconscious for the better part of the previous day, and it was a wonder he hadn't died. Palak was less than pleased with his crew's timidity, but equally impressed by the K'zo's gumption. He had held off some of the best marines that Palak had served with, and intimidated them into a stalemate while he was passed out.
Palak contacted Lair, and made preparations. He had plans for this merc, and those included putting him under his command. He made the K'zo a Dalva at first, though he modified the Collar of Service before he presented it, so that the K'zo could retain his name and not be forced to answer to Dalva. He made certain that the K'zo understood that he was his only out. The merc had no position in Alliance space, and he would be deported there without resources, connections, or possibly even a welcome. It was a little heavy handed, but Palak knew what he needed to do, and this K'zo was a part of it.
Because of his successful record, the capture of the weapons smugglers, and the successful conscription of a particular K'zo operative, Grallax promoted Palak to Warmaster and assigned a him as captain of a newly completed battleship. He made Palak into a celebrated hero, denying the Admiralty any further capacity to hold Palak back from where the Emperor needed him to be. The Core that Palak had brought with him from ship to ship was installed in the newly commissioned ship, rewakening its memories from its previous time in a capital ship. It christened the new vessel the Anvil of Dawn. Several of the Admiralty collapsed, frothing at the mouth that the Emperor had managed to conceal the Dawn's Core and give it to the social climber they all hated. For his part, Grallax only cheered and applauded along with most of Lair.
Over time, Palak would come to entwine his relationship with the K'zo to be more physical, and eventually took him as his First Mate, as he was allowed to acknowledge neither Tranak nor Drakkon as mates, though he was now the Prince Consort to Crown Prince Drakkon. He released the K'zo, named J'dan, from his service under the collar. This followed on the heels of having repelled a sergal attack on his Dawn, at the cost of one of his best pilots.
During this time, he formed a political alliance with another of his crew, a Ruby from the bloodline of Igneous, the head of House Ruby. After mating with him, Palak offered him the position of first mate aboard the Dawn, and revealed that the ship had been recalled to Lair to be retrofitted into a Dreadnaught to serve as the flagship of his own armada. There was a new threat that they were going to be investigating and putting an end to, if possible.
Gender Identity
Palak is an Obsidian, and therefore has only one gender identity. He is both male and female in one, and does not feel any differentiation in those roles. Like all Obsidians, he uses a masculine pronoun in difference to his God, the Mother, who is the one who brings life to all things. It is considered tactless to refer to one's self as female any time other then when in heat.
Sexuality
Palak is pansexual. He has no problems with mating with males, females, or Zoan. He is willing to engage in sexual conduct with any species, as well. This is a fairly typical attitude among Obsidians. His attitude towards sex in general is very relaxed and casual. He has no problem with his body, and nudity is no taboo. Nor is engaging in casual sex while others are present, thought the location should be appropriate.
Education
Palak began receiving his formal education very late in life as a hatchling. Until he was sentenced to the Academy, much the way one might be put into military school to reform wayward children, his life was that of living on the streets, hiding from those who wanted to hurt him, and stealing what he needed to survive. He understood little of the society in which he was hatched. What he did learn is that those who would hurt him were afraid of those in authority, and so he just needed to get the notice of the authorities in order to keep himself safe. However, they authorities didn't concern themselves with a hatchling, so he was forced to commit crimes to get their attention.
After he was sent to the Academy, he was a less than model student, at least at first. After a rough start, he attracted the attention of the authorities, again, and this time, it was the Crown Prince. He was brought before the Emperor, who decided to adopt him after finding out the horrible circumstances of his life thus far. The Emperor had other motivations, too, but he kept those secret for a while.
After returning to the Academy, this time as prince of the Imperial family, Palak applied himself more carefully, and studied hard. While nothing came to him as easily as it did the Crown Prince, who was his mentor now, he did well. His grades were considered to be exceptional, though not top of the class, and he tried out for many of the school sports teams, not only showing aptitude for game strategy, but also leadership qualities and an aptitude for teamwork that he hadn't been able to express previously.
After reaching maturity for a dragon, after what was estimated to be his 3000th year, Palak finally graduated with High Honors.
Employment
Palak serves the Empire as a Warmaster, heading up an armada of ships in the Empire's defense.
Mental Trauma
Palak suffers from PTSD. He is still occasionally haunted by his past life as a hatchling. He sometimes viscerally relives his beatings in his mind. He has nightmares, too. Thought he puts on a calm and collected exterior, and would never allow himself to break, he is still able to be brought back to being that timid little hatchling that no one cared about.
Intellectual Characteristics
Palak's defining mental characteristic is his sound analytical mind. His grasp of tactics and strategy is second to none in the Empire. He has never been bested in s battle, though he has been brought to a stalemate on several occasions. He then turns his intellect to brinkmanship and has been able to make diplomatic moves that secure better outcomes for the Empire than might have been obtained otherwise.
Morality & Philosophy
Palak has been made privy to some of the Empire's greatest secrets. As such, his is trusted completely by the Emperor, and has been gifted with great authority and even greater responsibility. In as much as he is willing to obligate others to his cause, he is as much a servant as they. He loves the Empire, the Emperor, his bondmate Tranak, his First Mate J'dan, and his first mate Inferno. Palak will do anything to protect them, and failing that, he will raze everything in his way to avenge them.
Palak also have a rather strained relationship with the Mother. Her plans for him have often conflicted with his heart's desires, causing him to question his faith in her on several occasions. It is to his credit that, despite his crises of faith, he has never once wavered from what needed to be done.
Taboos
Palak is a person of strong moral character now. That said, he isn't above stooping to underhanded techniques to get what he wants. He will coerce, threaten, destroy and obliterate those who stand in his way for the great good. He doesn't have any qualms about his mission, and anyone who is obstructing him is just another challenge.
His only rule is not to engage in wanton destruction. While his reaction might not be proportional, he tries not to be too over the top.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Service to those he loves.
Service to the Mother.
Service to the Empire.
In that order.Hygiene
Palak is looked up to by billions of Imperials. He always presents are properly maintained and cleaned presence.
Social
Contacts & Relations
Palak has made a secondary career out of making contacts everywhere he can, in almost every quarter he can. While he has a reputation among the criminal underworld in the Empire, he is able to find someone just about everywhere who either works well with him, owes him something, or can be manipulated into being cooperative.
His official relationships include Crown Prince Drakkon, High Chamberlain Tranak, Emperor Grallax XIV, Inferno of House Ruby, the Shadowhunter Shadowpaw, Fang J'dan, Prince Kharzhan Starhunter/Tanrac Starsong, and the Archangel Jerodan (Gabriel).
Religious Views
Palak has an on again/off again relationship with the Mother. She asks much of him, and often takes things he wants to hold onto. He finds it hard to keep his faith, despite knowing that he needs to do what he's been asked because the stakes are far too high for him to abandon his mission.
Social Aptitude
Palak is considered a social climber by the Admiralty and many in the Courts. That he has managed to ingratiate himself with some many of the dragon Houses only infuriates those who believe his humble beginnings should have been his only legacy.
Still, he is mated to, or aligned with members of, the House of Ruby, Pearl Lord Leviathan and at least one of the three Beasts who rule the Jade. That last one is considered blasphemous by the Jades, but he still has her support, and therefore the support of the House as a whole.
Because of this, and his status as a Warmaster, Palak is well connected, financed, and has the popular support of the people as a hero who has repeatedly put his life on the line to protect them.
Mannerisms
Palak is circumspect, sometimes to the point of inaction. He will think about a situation until he is certain he knows everything that can happen and how he would react to it. He leaves little to chance. All of this is typical of dragons, but Palak is regarded as a master strategist because his intuition allows him to make leaps that others don't see, and account for things others weren't even aware might be issues. It has caused him to lose one engagement, militarily, but he was still able to salvage the situation and come out ahead.
Speech
Palak likes that his enemies find him intimidating. Further, he likes it when people treat him with proper difference. The Admiralty does neither of these things, and so, since he no longer needs to listen to them, he treats them with the same contempt that they use on him.
Palak's reaction to, treatment of, and concern for others is governed completely by whether or not he needs something from them. Those from whom he needs nothing, can do nothing for him, or expect more of him than they are willing to commit are treated like pests or annoyances, and tend to be brushed aside like one would a buzzing fly. If they insist on annoying him, they might find themselves getting swatted, verbally.
Relationships
History
Palak and Drakkon started out on the wrong foot. That changed quickly, and they grew to be friends, confidants, and lovers. The love affair, however, is mostly a smoke screen to protect another of Palak's love interests, Tranak, who cannot openly have a sexual relationship with Palak.
Relationship Reasoning
The relationship is one of both convenience and trust. Palak is Drakkon's protector, confidant, and occasional lover. They have had several broods together. But this does not bind them together in love. Still, they are best friends, and nothing, save death, could tear them apart.
Commonalities & Shared Interests
Both are absolutely dedicated to their mission.
Shared Secrets
Both share the knowledge that Palak and Tranak have at least one Shifter child, Mikh, and both are aware that Tranak has also sired another Shifter, Alexander, with Drakkon. The half-brothers were raised and trained together, but assigned to different roles.
Legal Status
Recognized, Public
Relationship Reasoning
Both Jeerodan and Palak are both children of She-Who-Is-Mother-To-Us-All, the psychic embodiment of the Universe. While Jerodan is a Kitsune, one of the Firstborn, Palak is a direct decendent of the first bloodline of the Empire. Both of them have divine bloodlines, and both of them recognize that their goals are, for the greater portion, aligned. Neither will willingly betray the other, but they don't alwys have to agree on what they think is the best course of action.
Commonalities & Shared Interests
Both believe heavily in defeating the Darkness and winning the bet for their mother, mostly because it means all of their friends and companions will remain alive. But they have vastly different paths to that goal, with palak seeking a military vicroty, defetaing the Darkness in a glorious fleet battle in deep space, whereas Jerodan wants to bring the Darkness over to their way of thinking about Life, and get it to understand that all Life isn't the to blame for what happened, only those who didnot heed the warnings they had been given, and whom have already paid the ultimate price for their arrogance.
Shared Secrets
Jerodan and Palak both hide their divine natures from the others. Only Dellyn shares this secret because he has recently become the avatar of his own now dead universe. They refer to themselves as brothers, and everyone takes that to mean the same thing as the Shiang saying they are all brothers.
Wealth & Financial state
Palak has access to a powerful range of assets and resources, and is not above doing what he has to in order to secure something he needs. As such, nothing is beyond him.
Alignment
Lawful Driven
Species
Honorary & Occupational Titles
Prince Consort to the Crown Prince
Ward of the Emperor
Warden of the Empire
Warmaster
Child of Igneous
Herald of the Jade Palace
Leviathan's Honored Bond
Year of Birth
7245
9257 Years old
Circumstances of Birth
Unknown. Palak is an orphan, and even the dragon that laid his egg is unknown.
Birthplace
Unknown
Spouses
Siblings
Jerodan
(Brother)
Children
Current Residence
Anvil of Dawn
Gender
Intersexed Hermaphrodite
Eyes
Dragon
Hair
Crown horns, facial and jaw horns, and spines/ridges down his back are all alabaster white.
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Black scales, shot through with deep crimson and scarlet veins on his body, wings and tail.
Height
4.9 m
Weight
1330 kg
Owned Vehicles
Aligned Organization
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