The Vyrak Legions were a force of clones created by the Reawakened. They were cloned from the corpse of the slain Anzat Dark Jedi Sacco Vyrak after his death on Daispin and used as shock troops in their masters' war with the Golden Empire.
History[]
In a duel with Aria Nikina during the Defense of Daispin, Sacco Vyrak was impaled through the head and then beheaded. Aria decapitated the Anzat and took his head, but Vyrak's Skavik army recovered the rest of his body. It was borne back to Kizav, where Ador Hentral and Desha Marad considered what to do. Vyrak's death was unraveling the already-tenuous mental link among the remaining Dark Jedi, and his fall deprived them of their greatest warrior. It was the Arkanian Marad who proposed the idea of cloning Vyrak, doubling and redoubling their Anzat killer to unleash as payback against their enemies.
Using a combination of science and alchemy, Marad presided over the growth of two dozen clones in the swampy muck of Kizav. In a hurry, he grew them in just under a standard month. Hentral and the Iktotchi telepath Karshi Saan assisted in the process, guiding and forming the minds of the clones. Hentral and Saan were able to help the clones deal with clone madness, but the result was almost purely instinctual beings. Meanwhile, Meerto Adrimbani led the Skavik in assembling lightsabers for the clones, carefully aligning and finishing them himself.
The first group was pronounced satisfactory by Hentral; though unequal to Vyrak himself, they retained vestiges of his master swordsmanship and command of the Force, and were more talented than some of the Dark Jedi who had forged them. However, Saan and Hentral had installed subconscious obedience in their minds. Hentral deployed the clones first in the assault on Rykar, but he was displeased with the result. Though three Centurions died at the blades of the clones and several more were injured, all twenty-three clones on the surface were killed.
Returning to Kizav, Hentral demanded that Marad create more clones, and the operation expanded. Instead of the initial two dozen, the Arkanian began to grow clones in the hundreds. Each "generation" had more failings than the previous one, and the death of Karshi Saan on Awpierh forced Marad himself to split his focus between the actual growth process and working on the clones' minds. These clones were quicker to fall in battle, more easily dispatched by lesser Centurions. Around this time the Empire learned the truth of the Reawakened's background, including their names, and it was Tariun Sakaros who coined the term "Vyrak Legions" to refer to the Anzati clones as a group.
The clones' utility in combat began to falter further after the Battle of Keliso, when Breek Zagrev debuted the Anzat hounds. When Rin Sakaros destroyed Kizav's star, the resulting decimation of the system annihilated Kizav and killed Marad, along with hundreds of nascent clones. Roughly two hundred Vyrak clones remained, and Hentral took all of these to the Battle of Dolomir. Most of them participated in the attack on the Sith Star, though Hentral kept a few dozen aboard his flagship as a rearguard. Hentral's corps of clones were killed off by Breek Zagrev and her strike team, while those aboard the Star were hunted down and killed by Centurions and Anzat hounds.
Traits and failings[]
The clones all generally resembled Sacco Vyrak. The first generation were the phenotypically closest to their template, and possessed Vyrak's pale skin and black eyes and hair. Most wore their hair loose and shaggy, though some tied it up. The only clearly observable difference between the clones and Vyrak was that the clones looked more gaunt and haggard. Later generations of clones grew progressively more wasted-looking, resembling the aberrant clones of Galen Marek. These mass-produced clones often had skin lesions, open sores, rotted flesh, and areas which looked simply undeveloped, as well as suffering baldness and gum decay. Most of the clones reached Vyrak's 1.88 meter height, although some were stooped and a few were simply shorter.
Mentally, the clones possessed Vyrak's connection to the Force and some shadows of his memories, but not his intellect or ability to plan. Desha Marad, Ador Hentral, and Karshi Saan gave them some semblance of Vyrak's personality, cobbled together from the echoes of his Force signature present in their genes and the memories the Dark Jedi had shared with the Anzat through the centuries. Attempts to avert clone madness experienced mixed success; while the majority of the clones were generally obedient to Hentral and Marad, in battle they would become creatures of violent instinct, often barely distinguishable from feral Anzati. Most of the clones could speak, although those who did usually only spoke a single word at a time.
Due to Vyrak's muddled memories and their own Force-sensitivity, the clones were capable of wielding lightsabers. The earliest clones were skilled duelists; while they were not what Vyrak himself had been, they were dangerous enough that one managed to wound Selish Anteran, considered an exceptionally talented swordsman by his fellow Centurions. When Marad began mass-producing the clones for quantity rather than quality, their swordsmanship was among the qualities that suffered. As early as the Mission to Awpierh, Kylaea and Malyri Porén together were able to kill five clones, though they suffered serious injuries in the process.