Night Sisters

Overview

It would be false to call the Night Sisters a religious sect. While they hold many beliefs, traditions, ceremonies and methodologies, they don’t actually believe in anything in that is beyond their realm of understanding and as such, are not really a spiritual group. A better description of them would be that of a secret warrior sect, minimizing the number of people who know about them and allowing even fewer to know their traditions and methods. Their strength is delved from the psychic realm, where they hold extensive power.

For the most part, their psychic powers are used to increase their perception of the world – allowing them extremely high reaction times and inhuman speed. They can also probe minds – particularly the conscious mind of an individual. However, they have minimal ability to actually manipulate the world around them. Even the most powerful of them, Celeste McNair, has never shown the ability to force a physical change beyond the exterior of her skin.

However, these abilities make themselves extremely capable fighters and protectors – able to predict where attacks are coming from and dodge or block them as necessary. They are extremely loyal to their masters and will follow their orders to the letter – no matter the consequences. Coupled with the employment of a “thinking soldiers” concept, they are the epitome of the “perfect soldier”

They are attuned to the psychic realm where they can communicate with one another over vast distances – to the point that they can even see the world around other Night Sisters and advise on situations their fellow Sisters are in. The collective conscious is known as the Collective and it is the source of their greatest strength. The Collective is used for everything from governing to training to research. Very rarely will Night Sisters use a median other than the Collective to communicate with one another – the rare times generally reserved for when non-Night Sister third parties need to be privy to the knowledge

One cannot simply be trained to become a Night Sister. The ability to perceive the psychic realm is a trait normally inherited from birth, though it is occasionally invisible until a person undergoes a great emotional upheaval. It is unknown if the psychic connection is passed down or not.

Due to the nature of their traditions, Night Sisters do not accept men or non-humans. Most of the highest ranked members are faithful followers of the Nolak faith, but the traditional limitation of new members needing to be Servants of Nolak was discontinued shortly into the “Lost Time” and many members, including Celeste, joined the Collective not believing in Nolak.

Formation

The Night Sisters were formed based upon a theory shared between Kelsey Thompson and Tristan Angel. It would become a part of the Kane Clan and grow slowly as it served the Nolak Clans. Initially, Tristan was the one who lead the Night Sisters and pushed many concepts and traditions upon them, even though she, herself, was not a Night Sister. Regardless, the Night Sisters quickly became an elite unit of soldiers, well known and well respected within the Clans. The Kane Clan would eventually declare that women in territories under its control would better serve Nolak as Night Sisters than birthmothers if they qualified for joining the Collective.

Service to Nolak

During the near-dozen years of service under the Kane Clan, the Night Sisters quickly became a well known and feared unit within the Nolak Clans. Battles where the Night Sisters would join were quickly ended and victory was considered almost a given. Their mortality rate was extremely low for even an elite Nolak unit and it was notable that they often greatly lowered the mortality unit of allied units around them. Combined with Kane Angel’s personal skill as a General and Tristan Angel being an even fiercer combatant than any Night Sister, the Kane Clan quickly became an extremely powerful Clan, eventually rivaling the Great 10 Clans.

However, some of the Great 10 Clans were not amused by the rising stars. Devin Narek, Follower of the Misnew Clan, was particularly notable in this sense. He petitioned for the Nolak Council to disband or destroy the Night Sisters, citing that for every Night Sister, each of the Great 10 Clans would need 200 troops to match and the number quintupled when the Night Sister was supported by as few as 10 troops. When the Nolak Council found itself deadlocked on the matter, Narek took matters into his own hands and attacked the Kane Clan without authorization.

The Night Sisters positioned at the base that was attacked were all slain in the strike – having been wiped out by a missile that was employed for the very purpose of ensuring they would not escape. However, they knew that the assailants were Servants of Misnew and as such, felt it would be unsafe to attempt to return to the Kane Clan. This theory was later vindicated when they discovered that their founder had also not rejoined the Nolak Clans, though they knew not where she had fled to.

The Lost Time

The Lost time was a period extending just over 4 years from Misnew’s assault on the Kane Clan to their return to Tristan Angel’s side. During this time, they decided the best way to utilize their time was to expand their ranks and give their master an even more powerful army for when they were reunited. To this goal, they quickly discovered that the Collective could not keep its membership limited to Servants of Nolak as they no longer had a pool of candidates to recruit. As such, they allowed non-Servants of Nolak into the clans – an action that frustrated some of the more hard-line factions within the Collective. These issues would continue for many years including through their service to Forgottenlord and wouldn’t really end until their founder activated the Angel of Light Operation

However, their numbers quickly exploded as many talented psychics from the much larger pool of candidates joined their ranks. The feared unit that had numbered only dozens quickly became a force of hundreds and counted its numbers amongst the thousands by the end of the period. No longer limited by Tristan’s vision of the Night Sisters, their knowledge of the psychic realm and abilities likewise exploded, particularly towards the end during Celeste McNair’s extensive Developer work.

Return to the Master

In 2716NY, the Night Sisters discovered the location of their lost master, ruling over Angel Fire, a nation named after Tristan’s nickname. The trip took most of a year and was heavily dominated Celeste McNair passing around theoretical questions. Little else of note took place during the trip.

Upon arriving in the presence of the Angel Fire, the elders quickly re-pledged the loyalty of the Collective to her service. However, Tristan had a different idea. She, instead, pledged the Collective to her brother’s service, wishing to attempt to repay him for harboring her and giving her a nation of her own.

The Night Sisters were not pleased with this choice. The Elders were still mostly composed of former Servants of Nolak and to serve someone who had never followed His path was an outrage in their eyes. However, their master’s adamancy on the matter prevented their complaints from going very far. They knew she had been moved by their loyalty, but she was set on her decision. In a last ditch attempt, they pushed for Tristan to be considered an equal master to Forgottenlord, a request she hesitantly accepted.

A New Leader

A small group of Night Sisters composed of the entirety of the Elders and Celeste McNair headed down to Forgotten City to meet their new master. Forgottenlord was curious about what services they could provide and quickly warmed to them. However, it was to Celeste that his greatest interest was focused. She had been selected to join the entourage because she had quickly gained reputation within the Collective as possibly the greatest of them. When he questioned her, he found that she had a great number of ideas and suggestions with which to expand the methodology of the Night Sisters and challenged many of the long-held beliefs of the Collective. This would lead to her appointment as the Head of the Night Sisters – an act of necessity in his mind due to the sheer size of the Collective and the number of responsibilities he personally had to see to.

Celeste, with Forgottenlord’s blessing, change many aspects of the Collective including abolishing many of the rituals that stemmed from Nolak religious rituals – arguing that those that still followed the Nolak religion could practice such rituals on their own, but they would not be mandated for all. She also greatly changed the complexity of the Warrior Branch allowing for one’s rank to not necessarily correlate with one’s ability to fight but rather based upon all sorts of categories ranging from ability to utilize specific weapons and their prowess with them to secrecy and espionage to leadership abilities.

She also changed the requirements for advancement on the Holy Branch effectively allowing talented individuals to advance faster while not, necessarily, making the skills needed fewer.

Additionally, Forgottenlord changed their purpose from assassins and front-line support to security and espionage – a choice that is believed to have given them more usage than had they remained his soldiers. However, it is noted that he didn’t stop himself from deploying them as soldiers during the Hekloslogravian Civil War amongst other, smaller incidents.

From Forgotten Territories

During their time serving in Forgotten Territories, the Collective played prominent roles in multiple battles including the Dancing Bananland Terrorist Attack including the Raid on the Kane Clan, the Hekloslogravia Civil War and the later Hekloslogravian Coronation Incident along with losing numerous members during Nikki Ronalk’s Rampage.

Departure

Following the Angel of Light Operation, the Collective joined the Forgottenlord-Angel family in exile. However, a few dozen dispersed Night Sisters remained behind – too few and too far apart to maintain the Collective, but still truly fierce opponents. The Night Sisters that remained behind would mostly go on to become mercenaries within Aberdeen, though they tended to be selective of who they served based upon what they knew their masters would have wanted.

Heirarchy

There are three branches of advancement within the Night Sister heirarchy: battle, holy and developement. All Night Sisters, once they have attained the rank of Night Sister, advance upon all three branches. Night Sisters are Padawans until they are permitted and complete the Ceremony of Acceptance. Once done, they are full Night Sisters. They start off as a rank of Junior in all three branches by default and begin training on the three branches - sometimes all at once, sometimes focusing on one over another.

Holy Branch

Regardless of which of the other two branches Night Sisters train on, their mere presence within the collective helps them develop their Holy Rank. The Holy Branch deals with the spiritual elements of the Night Sisters - though not in the sense that most understand spirituality. To an outside observer, it deals with how developed they are when it comes to understanding their psychic power and how attuned they are to the Collective. While a Junior can feel the Xollective and can sense those souls around them, knowing what those souls feel and perhaps even think, a Preist can monitor and participate in the Collective and can predict or analyze the souls around them. In essence, a Preist has developed control of her powers.

The Elders, however, have a much different experience with the Collective - almost as if to be removed, to be separated from the Collective would be a fate worse than death. They develop a connection with the Collective that's so strong that they would do anything for it and follow its collective will. In short, they have lost any essence of individuality and given themselves completely to the sisterhood. This, too, comes with its own powers - such as being able to manipulate the world around them and being able to react without thought - but these powers can often be seen in many long-standing Preists who have never been able to shed their last particles of individuality.

Battle Branch

With the founding purpose of the Night Sisters being death, the Battle Branch is a natural aspect for being one of the three pillars of their culture. The Battle Rank a Night Sister holds, however, is only a wide generalization of her skill. Even within the Battle Branch, there are dozens of pillars of ranking, each with their own levels of rankings. Overall, there are over 100 different branches of development, each with anywhere from 5 to 50 different levels of skill – though most have 20 different levels – and more are added as more discoveries are made. These branches are grouped into 5 vast categories which give a rating based upon the average rating in the branches within that category.

The Night Sister's Battle Rank is based upon her average rating across the 5 categories with a required minimum rating in each category. The overall ranks that a Night Sister goes through are Junior, Warrior and Blademaster. While generally speaking, a Blademaster will be much more capable than a Junior, a Junior who suffers from excelling too fast in a few areas and not at all in others would be able to fair much better than a Blademaster in certain situations. In truth, a Blademaster is a more rounded warrior, capable of many more things than the lesser ranks.

Originally, one’s rank on the Battle Branch was related entirely to their abilities in battle. As such, a Night Sister who had learnt how to fight before joining the Collective would have a head start – though few were able to actually advance very quickly and even the fastest to advance to Warrior, Celeste, had no training beforehand.

Developer Branch

There are few Night Sisters that would ever pretend to claim that they know everything there is to know about the psychic realm. Those that do are often just shown the latest thing that the Angel Masters have developed and the skeptism disappears instantly. However, not all are attuned to invention, and the Elders felt a need existed to promote such activities. Thus they established their third pillar - recognizing the great intelligence and spiritual ability needed to be a developer.

The ranks indicate more of what sort of level of difficulty a Developer invents. They truly represent inventions that have been made rather than one's continual inventive prowess. However, because so many of the Angel Masters have also obtained the rank of Elder, their bond with the Collective makes them incapable of ceasing their quest to better the Night Sisters as a whole – in fact, Celeste McNair was the only one who limited her work on the Developer Branch after achieving the rank of Angel Master – and only because she had so many responsibilities as the leader of the Collective. The Developer ranks go Junior, Visionary, and Angel Master. The latter is named in honor of the Angel Fire who was the first developer. The idea is that an Angel Master has mastered the ways of the Angel Fire.

Characters

Celeste McNair: Head of the Night Sisters Kelsey Thompson: First Night Sister, Elder Jane Allen: Night Sister Elder Joanne Rhodes: Night Sister Priest, Blademaster. Considered second best fighter after Celeste Jolene Bindo: Assistant to Kane Angel

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