The first artifact of Tulak Hord that I needed to get was on Balmorra. Balmorra was a world that was abandoned by the Republic in the war and taken over by the Empire, and now at least some of them want to take it back, either for the Republic or, if they could manage it, for themselves. But they can’t get it for themselves, because it’s too important a planet and too big a symbol for that to happen. And since the Republic abandoned them once, that should be a big hint that Balmorra’s not important enough to the Republic for them to fight hard enough to keep it. Things don’t look good for Balmorra, because even though they make great weapons, politically they’re really screwed.
Sticking to my plan to work with the rank-and-file of the ordinary people, I decided to run some jobs for the local military to help out with keeping things calm. I don’t really care about the Balmorrans, of course, one way or another. I think it might be kinda fun if they screwed with the Sith for a while. But I want to forge alliances with the rank-and-file and be seen as one of them unlike the elite Sith above them, and so working with them will only make that easier. That’s also why I was pretty friendly with the Imperial officer who was assigned to help me find the artifact. I worked closely with him and treated him well, and even went to save his Sith son who got himself in trouble looking for a holocron. When I found him, he kept badmouthing his father and talked about how the ordinary people were just there as fodder for the Sith. I could have killed him and taken the holocron, I guess, but I knew his father thought highly of this idiot and didn’t want to offend him, which is why I didn’t even tell his father what his son thought of him. Let him think well of his idiot son and appreciate my help, and let someone else bear the brunt of his grief when his idiot son gets himself killed.
It worked out well enough; he even gave me a gift when I left. That’s the sort of appreciation and loyalty that I’m trying to get from the ordinary people. It gives me a power base that the Sith aren’t usually going to get, even the ones that are smarter and more disciplined than the average.
Like the new governor of Balmorra, Darth Lachris. When I came in to meet her, she was solidifying her position by choking out the guy who held the position before her. I didn’t interfere, because from what I’d seen and heard he probably was incompetent and while I don’t think that the best way to deal with incompetent subordinates is to kill them — although I’ve gotta admit I was tempted to do that to Hamr a few times — I wasn’t going to get in her way. After that, though, she was a saner Sith than I expected, coming up with a reasonable if somewhat suicidal plan and thinking about all the possibilities and the political realities. Yeah, it was a tough mission, but she gave me support and didn’t blink an eye when I spared the Republic general for his testimony and let the non-combatants go in return. If more Sith were like her, I might not hate them so much.
Getting the artifact was fun. I had to fight my way into a Republic base and then go into a damaged lab filled with toxic waste, taking a shot first that changed my genetics somehow to be like some strange reptilian creatures that eat the stuff. So I had to kill some of them on my way, too. This list of indignities I added to the list of things I hold against the Sith. It makes me more angry, and my anger will bring me power.
But I got the artifact, and now am going to head out to Nar Shaddaa to get the last one. I hope that Khem Val, the creature I picked up on Korriban, doesn’t whine as much, as he griped about me keeping him under control rather than earning his loyalty despite the fact that I didn’t really have any choice in the matter. He reminds me a lot of Hamr in his desire for violence and killing, but at least Hamr didn’t whine that I wasn’t nice enough to him. I wish I could give him a better personality, or at least one that would shut him up.
Tags: TOR Diary
The Verbose Stoic 
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