The Storyline

Sith Preservation's RP storyline
Current Preservation's storyline starts right after the Battle of Ashfall Pass. Story updates and more paragraphs will be added as the story progresses further in-game.

The cult's resurfacing
After defeating Nexuth and his followers, Sith Preservation slowly started to rebuild it's ranks and resources, trying to compensate for the heavy casualties it suffered. One day, however, while hunting an Imperial traitor, Darth Ediarrir and Darth Argehar encountered a strange individual on the moon Nar Shaddaa, the person claiming to be a faithful worshiper of... Darth Nexuth. This event raised a red flag in Preservation's structures, simply because all of Nexuth's followers were believed to be eradicated. Not long after, Argehar felt a small, but strange disturbance in the Force, and he went to investigate it, which led him back to the Ashfall battleground. There, burrowed deep in the dust, he found a weird, small object, heavily radiating with some kind of twisted Force energy. He brought it back to Preservation's ship. Upon closer examination by Argehar and mysterious Darth Nidus, the object turned out to be the Dread Shard, one of Nexuth's remaining possessions, highly saturated with his own power.

Mission on Belsavis
After reporting their findings to Master Architect Jemorri, Preservation members got commanded to retrieve as many of those artifacts as possible, if there would be any more. A strike team was sent back to Belsavis again, to further investigate the Ashfall site. There, they found a pair of Nexuth's cultists, which ultimately proved that his followers are still out there... The fight erupted and eventually cultists got bested and another Shard was found. However, Darth Nidus started to notice Argehar's strange behaviour from the day he found the first one and concluded that those objects have a severe impact on one's mind, slowly taking their sanity away. After returning the second Shard to the Preservator, Argehar asked for permission to safely secure them in his Yavin compound, and he got it.

Escalation of mistrust
In the meantime, tensions started to rise between Darth Nidus and other members of the organisation, not finding him trustworthy at all, despite his attempts to actually help the Preservation to deal with the cult threat. An assassination attempt took place on the ship, which evolved into an intense fight between Nidus and the assassin, but it got interrupted by Jemorri himself, who put both of them back in their place and threathened to kill them both, if they won't cease fire. Darth Nidus got deeply offended by this situation and he left the ship, leaving everyone else to solve their own problems without his ultimate knowledge about Sith sorcery and artifacts. When Darth Argehar found out about this, he started to investigate, only to discover that it was his fellow Architect, Darth Ediarrir, who ordered the assassination of Nidus, as some form of test. Argehar snapped out at Ediarrir and explained, why Ediarrir's plan was in fact dumb as f*ck. Then, he went to get Nidus back, to finally deal with the Shards. Darth Nidus agreed to return, although he was still suspicious about Argehar's state of mind, since the other Darth seemed to spend a lot of time in the Shard's close proximity.

Confrontation with Jemorri and Darth Nidus' demise
Then, Preservation members, including Commander Torl'es, Darth Argehar, Darth Ediarrir, Lord Gizhaka and Darth Nidus started to actually suspect their own leader, Jemorri, to work for the Cult. Master Preserver seemed distant, unbothered by the flow of events and his orders seemed strange and unrelated to Imperial cause. Argehar started to talk openly about overthrowing him and bringing order back to Preservation's ranks, which raised a total alarm in Nidus' head. Nidus decided to lure Argehar into an empty warehouse, sending him an anonymous hint that another Shard might be there. Then, upon other Darth's arrival, he used Sith sorcery powers to discover that Darth Argehar has been mildly corrupted by the Dread Shard's power and he attempted to shield his mind from it, which partially worked.After that, both decided to confront Master Architect Jemorri about their suspicions towards him. They both ventured into Jemorri's throne room aboard the Preservator and Argehar started to openly threaten Jemorri about ending his reign. Master Architect told Nidus and Argehar that he doesn't have to stand up for this and he ordered both Sith to take up their weapons and fight each other. Both Darths refused, then Jemorri changed his mind and asked Nidus to stay for a talk, with everyone else out of the room. Commander Torl'es, however, who was also present during this confrontation, dropped an eavesdropping device right behind one of Architect's thrones, so everyone else could know what transpired behind the closed door. Jemorri told Nidus that he wants both Shards to be taken from Argehar's possesion and placed elsewhere, one in Rishi HQ, another one preferably in Nidus' hands. After a short talk, everyone was allowed to go back into the throne room and Jemorri said, if anything like this will happen again, every single one of them is going to be executed. Darth Argehar, immensely furious about all of this, returned to Yavin, followed by Nidus, who then tried to explain his plan to expose Jemorri as a traitor. Nidus demanded the Shards to be handed over, but Argehar lost every single bit of trust for the other Sith, which ended in Nidus being attacked by him. The long, intense fight blew up, and with a great effort and a bit of luck Argehar managed to split Nidus in two with his lightsaber, ending his life. After that, he decided to send one Shard to Rishi, to avoid suspicion, and keep the other one on Yavin, claiming that it had been moved elsewhere.

Securing the Preservator and more discoveries
Meanwhile, Ediarrir and Torl'es discussed the conversation between Nidus and Jemorri, since Torl'es managed to eavesdrop on it and share his concerns with Ediarrir. Ediarrir decided to wait and observe, how the turn of events will look like, Torl'es started to work on securing the Preservator and the headquarters a bit more tight in terms of surveillance. Meanwhile, he found out that cult is trying to target the Preservation's members, be it indirectly, assaulting their most valued properties or relatives, such as Argehar's family or Ediarrir's construction sites. Torl'es and Ediarrir then interrogated the cultist captured on Belsavis, demanding answers about what's the cult up to. They got some cryptic information about some kind of ritual they want to perform, but nothing really solid. Then Torl'es performed an autopsy on another cultist, encountered by Argehar's sister on Nar Shaddaa, and found out a little implant, finding out that the cult has the third Shard already... and directing him towards an idea that the Preservator might be bugged by someone who has access to the security grid.

Torl'es' and Argehar's missions
Meanwhile, Argehar got contacted by a Sith Lord, who claimed to know something about the cult's base of operations and their plans. Darth Argehar then tried to get an authorization from Jemorri for going to meet the Sith, but was unable to get one, so he decided to go unauthorized, asking Ediarrir to give him an alibi for his absence. In the same time Torl'es got ordered by Argehar to go to Voss, where he would find one of really, really few remaining Ashfall veterans, being a Jedi who left his order after the battle. Torl'es found the man and got a few names from him, mostly of the people already cleared of suspicion or dead, such as Ventialus, Thanuil, Jemorri or Argehar. However, he also said some names that could be potential new cult recruits. With that knowledge, Torl'es headed back to the Preservator, but he got attacked by a mysterious assassin. He survived the encounter and resumed his route back home. Meanwhile, Argehar arrived at the Sith Lord's Asha'saarai's compound, greeted with a friendly approach and an invitation for a talk. Still on his guard, Argehar agreed to stay and exchange a few words with a Sith, to his surprise finding out a lot about the cultist's plans and their members... But on his way out, he got laughed at by the other Sith, realizing it was all a setup. After a long fight with the Sith's forces, he got beaten down and imprisoned somewhere by Asha'saarai, who turned out to be the cult's associate.

Missing Architect
Then, the cult decided to send out Lord Ashwanav, also one of Ashfall veterans, to seek out Jemorri, report to him what really happened ot his Architect and offer his services to the Master Preserver as Argehar's replacement... And trusted associate to the Preservation's leader as well. Jemorri refused though, knowing that this would raise too much suspicion. However, Ashwanav remained on the ship, authorized to move freely around it on Jemorri's behalf. Meanwhile, Torl'es and Lord Nahuni noticed Argehar's disappearance and started to investigate it further, finding his ship parked on Dromund Kaas with no signs of its owner. After checking the ship's datalogs and it's black box they discovered that it was in fact brought here all the way from Aldeeran without Darth Argehar on board. With that information, along with that there's still a third Shard out there, and a compound full of cultists around it, they concluded they will need far more manpower than the two of them to fix it all up.

The Defector
Despite that fact, Torl'es went to investigate Lord Asha'saarai's manor on Alderaan for any clues on the missing Architect. He was greeted by Asha'saarai himself, who denied as if he could have any knowledge about the whole situation. Commander Torl'es and Lord Nahuni, who was assisting him on this mission, returned back to Preservation's HQ, unsure what they should do now. Unexpectedly for both of them, when they were casually meeting another allied Sith, Rha, three of them got approached by a mysterious woman, Irya Vae, who claimed to be a cult defector and to have information they were looking for – cult's base location and Darth Argehar's whereabouts. After a long and intense argument, Torl'es, Nahuni and Rha had no choice but to keep the girl alive, hide her somewhere and squeeze every single detail out of her, until they could finally craft a successful assault or rescue plan.

Setting the stage
To everyone's surprise, the cultist turned out to be a really coopeartive being. She passed the exact location of the Asha'saarai's compound to the Preservers, and shared every single bit of knowledge she had on it. Unfortunately, this alone wasn't enough for them to make a plan out of it. Lord Nahuni, being deeply aware of that fact, ventured to the base of Darth Rha. Knowing that his skills in the Force, especially the ones required for a successful infiltration are extraordinary, she asked the Darth for his help. Rha agreed to lend his hand on penetrating the compound and he ordered his most skilled men to sweep it's area, looking for possible backdoors and security breaches. In the meantime, Torl'es decided to lift the arrest off Irya, allowing her to leave his hideout, where she was being kept. However, both of them agreed on the fact that the girl should still keep a low profile, since the risk of cultists, or even the Preservation members trying to get her out of the play was more than obvious. At this point, every single one of the Preservers had no choice but to wait for Darth Rha's report, which would give them a signal to act.

Infiltration
Finally, the signal was given - Preservation's team, carefully picked by Commander Torl'es and Darth Rha arrived on Dromund Kaas, to penetrate the Cult's base and it's defenses and get Darth Argehar out. Their plan was to divide into two smaller groups, one providing distraction, and another one focusing solely on infiltrating the upper floors of the main building. Upon their arrival the both groups met with heavy resistance - first one had to deal with bloodthirsty cult forces, storming the lower level, while second group encountered even greater challenge - Asha'saarai himself. The cult's leader threathened everyone with an armed explosive, but to his utter shock he got beaten down by noone else than Irya herself, who took a desperate strike just when Asha'saarai was about to set the explosives off. Commander Torl'es straight away ordered for the traitorous Sith to be encased in carbonite and transported to the Preservator. Then, the team rushed into the prison block, disarming the one final locking mechanism and they finally reached their missing Architect, finding him in a really terrible shape after weeks of violent interrogation practices that he has been treated with. After quickly stabilizing his vitals, Torl'es called for an evacuation protocol, and Preservers escaped via the shuttle awaiting for them near the HQ's balcony, taking Argehar with them and completing the mission.

Rishi HQ attack
Almost immediately after their return Commander Torl'es got called to investigate some disturbing news, coming from Preservation's main HQ on the planet Rishi. As it turned out, the cult launched a surprise attack, trying to take an advantage of the most valuable Preservation's assets being developed somewhere else. Torl'es arrived there just to find out that the fight was over, and to his ultimate shock, the Dread Shard was no longer safe - in fact, it was completely gone. However, after quick investigation Torl'es and Lord Nahuni found out that it's very unlikely the cultists managed to lay their hands on the artifact. After going through tons of datalogs and Rishi camera feed, they concluded that the Shard got stolen by someone else, an enigmatic figure that Torl'es didn't really want to share his thoughts about. That raised some suspicions in Nahuni, and she left the Commander to do her own investigation. Torl'es still needed some answers, though, and he confronted Darth Argehar about his findings, believing that the Sith may know something about the mysterious thief. As it turned out, Argehar already had some trouble at his head - Master Architect ordered him to cover up the Rishi incident by any means possible. This led to an intense argument between Torl'es and the Sith, almost ending up with the Commander being killed by the other. Fortunately for the Chiss, Preservation's newest recruit, Irya, somehow managed to convince Argehar to stay his hand, saving Commander's life. Then, Torl'es agreed to erase or alter all known recordings containing information about what really transpired in Preservation's HQ. Argehar also informed him that everyone is strictly forbidden from even looking into the topic, even the Darth himself.

Seeking answers
Jemorri's order was clear - no one should ever try to look for the lost Shard, to avoid raising suspicions, however both Commander Torl'es and Darth Argehar decided to do quite opposite. While the Commander tried to carefully dig up some traces that might give him anything concerning the Shard's whereabouts, the Architect has crafted way more dangerous plan - yet again, he began to tamper with the dark energies of the Shard he was still in possession of, which seemed rather irrational to those still having in mind what happened last time the Darth was meddling with the artifact's power. It didn't go unnoticed, and soon Torl'es and Irya, now officially being recognized as Argehar's apprentice, started to notice his unusual behavior. Both of them had little explanation to why Argehar decided to go for the Shard, but as he revealed to Torl'es and later to Irya that it was Jemorri himself who commanded him to guard and attune to it for whatever reason, everything slowly started to fall into place.

With a clearer picture, Irya felt as if her master was pushing her aside instead of sharing his burden with her. Even after long talk she had with him trying to ease her master's mind, Argehar finally made a wrong move which led Irya to leave Preservers. Despite Torl'es's dissuasion, Irya left them eventually, risking her life as deserter.

After everything that transpired, Commander decided to go and try to talk some reason into Darth Argehar. Unfortunately, the side effects of exposition to this powerful Dark Side object rendered Darth Argehar's powers highly unstable, as well as his mind. Torl'es, being afraid of losing the Architect as they had lost Nexuth before, ventured to find the Sith and assure him that he doesn't have to deal with anything alone and convince Argehar to drop whatever he was planning to do. Their confrontation didn't end well for the Commander, as the Architect couldn't keep himself under control anymore due to the Shard's dreadful influence. He attacked Torl'es, and he would have killed the man, if not for the moment of hesitation just before landing the fatal blow. After breaking out of the madness, Darth Argehar finally realized that he might have not be prepared for the task Jemorri has put in front of him. He quickly had the Commander transported to the Preservator's medbay and started to look for an alternative solution for the Shards - if they couldn't have been contained, they had to be destroyed. The Sith rushed to his Master Architect once again, this time asking for being relieved from the duty. Jemorri refused to grant one, yet again reminding his subordinate that his service isn't made up by choice. When Argehar insisted, Master Architect suggested him a solution the younger Darth was so desperately trying to find - a ritual that would be capable of obliterating the Dread Shard. Although it seemed impossible at first, Jemorri had found a way to permanently neutralize the dark artifacts of Nexuth and he was more than eager to share his knowledge with his Architect. Armed with it, Argehar stormed out of Jemorri's office, now being sure, if he would try to put an end to the threat coming from the Dread Shards, he musn't do it alone. The only thing he still needed to do, is to find the missing one... and most importantly, the person who was still carrying it.

Repent
Argehar's apprentice ended up with, nonetheless than a mercenary by the name Vekori, who accompanied Torl'es on the day when he tried to prevent Irya from leaving. Young apprentice grew found of Mandalorian eventually spending some times aboard his ship until one day she overheard his talk with a well known voice over holocall. Her master wanted to have a word with mercenary who was employed by Preservers on too many occasions already. Irya felt uneasy, not being able to explain the reason behind all those feelings, having too many things on her mind. One of them telling her that she may have put Vekori in danger by staying with him, and Argehar being aware of that, decided to summon him and kill him, eventually killing her as well. Also, recent talk she had with Mandalorian told her that he had a connection to a person sentenced to death just by being witness to HQ Rishi attack, while Vekori being totally ignorant of that case. Since she decided not to speak or warn him of that danger still not being sure whether it was the case for summon, or something else, she decided to go out and follow Vekori unnoticed, prepared to meddle in if something goes wrong, although she knew there may not be much she could do in case things go thus far. But what set her mind on this to begin with is something being off with Commander Torl'es, and sensation she felt some days ago, especially after Vekori informed her about Commander's non respondents to a holocalls.

Irya sneaked out of the ship trying to conceal her emotions. The slight slip up would be noticed by a Darth. But intense conversation that developed between Argehar and Vekori, managed to shake her feelings eventually loosing her focus and giving herself away. Although outcome was totally opposite of what Irya predicted, where Argehar, openly admitting his wrong doings, asked her to come back to Preservers, to him.

Resolve
It was still a matter of finding the stolen Shard, and its carrier. Darth Argehar believed that by allowing himself to be consumed by the Dread Shard's power once again, will lead him to that person. Although reluctant to the idea of his young apprentice being exposed to this overwhelming dark energy, Argehar didn't want to make same mistake again, by shutting Irya off. Eventually it proved as a good choice when she had managed to pull him back from the madness caused by dwelling inside the heart of dreadful stone.

A day or half may have passed. The time stood still, and what Argehar saw in his vision projected by the power of Shard was only known to him. Slight details slipped out when Irya pushed the subject further. But her persistent argue with her master over how he should proceed let to yet another incident. Still being worn down by the dreadful power or the Shard, Argehar lashed out at his apprentice, and if it weren't for his subconscious that kept his full power under control the outcome would be fatal for his apprentice who purposely caused him to snap, but also being able to pull Argehar back from the depths of Darkness.

Argehar's farewell
''Damned are the souls of those who carry hidden scars. Even though chains being broken to yet another bound, weighting down already burden heart.''

It was clear that, if Preservers are to survive, it was a matter of grave sacrifice, and in Argehar 's case, it was a matter of Love more than a duty. He found a way to destroy the stone, and more importantly he found a person who carried the other Shard, the person who he deeply cared about, his beloved one, Alyria.

Argehar left his apprentice in the bed sheet making sure she's safe with one last smile, even though it was a fake one, his words making it sounds like he'll be right back before she even wakes up, while in truth both of them knew it was a journey without return, place where it all began and where it all ends.

Beginning
Two shards have been destroyed, Argehar’s ultimate sacrifice, was not for naught. The cultist's plan was hindered, for now. With one shard left, the power of Darth Nexuth seemed unreachable and yet, they still had hope.

As long as even a slight bit of Nexuth’s presence remaines, the cultists wouldn’t give up, with their new goal. Find whatever there is left holding essence of the Dread Masters. Their only hope was to salvage what was left of the power Nexuth himself tapped into.

Preservation took a big hit, their Architect was gone, the overall mood of the ship and base was dark and depressing, yet everything seemed silent. For a moment, everyone thought that they might have won, at a great cost. One day, a new information was delivered to the Intelligence HQ, the cultists were sighted around remains of Dread Master ruins. Their intentions were unknown, but it matters not, their sole presence is an insult to the Preservation. The fact that they still operated was bad enough to hear, and with that, the time of content ended and a new hunt begun. It had one simple objective, wipe out every last cultist that still dared to follow Nexuth’s teachings, as they were still a threat to the galaxy.

Time for mourning has passed. Commander Torl’es made sure to quickly get back to work, burdened by the recent losses, he felt the weight of things falling onto him. He knew that if Preservation is to survive, they need new strong members and the current ones to become even stronger. He did not hesitate at all and made sure to look through the whole galaxy for fresh members willing to join Preservation’s cause, with the aid of Lord Deik, whose connections throughout many noble houses helped with finding even the most notorious criminals. And yet, there were still things that needed to be resolved within the Preservation itself, with the loss of an Architect, someone needed to take his place. That someone, was for Master Preserver to choose. Everyone waited with anticipation and a slight fear, as the position of the Architect brings many burdens along with its benefits.

In the aftermath of what happened, Commander buried himself deep into his work, yet his mind always drifted to those he felt were lost. One of the people he worried the most was Irya. She took the loss of Argehar the hardest, with her master gone, she shut herself off from others, even those very close to her. Still, she was Preservation’s ally, and an ally Commander felt really close to himself as well, thus he hoped that Irya would join their cause, officially, becoming a member of Preservation and avenging the lost Architect, no matter what it takes.