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Serqeti Assassins
The assassin is a male-only class whose missions involve in assassinating political figures, powerful demon warlords and working for their clients to fund towards their political goal. Though they are seen as a derogatory class by the females of the Serqeti race, they play a key in the holy war with other Serqeti tribes and Abbadon's faction.
Contents 1. Their Purpose and Mission 2. The Tribal Civil Wars and Clans 3. Initiation, Training and Abilities 4. The Ritual into Acceptance and Ranks 5. Disciplinary, Rules and Moral Codes 6. Other Notes |
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1. Their Purpose and Mission
Purpose The scorpion demons (otherwise known as the Serqeti race) are well-known for having the best assassins and deadly methods of assassinations. The first assassin clans were formed when the tribes needed killers to dispatch enemies, corrupted royalty or rival tribesmen discreetly. Their methods of disposal were foul and underhanded, thus the females consider assassins as a derogatory class and only to be taken up by males. (Also the fact that females prefer to battle upfront and more honorably. They dislike 'contaminating' their hands with corrupted blood.)
Many have viewed assassins as bloody and insane murderers. Despite their deceitful and dark nature, Serqeti assassins are actually very well-disciplined and form very intricate and orderly organizations.
Mission Their missions range from killing small, insignificant people and thinning enemy numbers for their clan funding to assassinating high level archdevils and important political figures in Hell for their tribe's royalty. Since they are very 'underground' and considered as taboo by many Serqetis, royals and officials only approach them as a last resort if the target proved to be difficult to dispose of. Meetings with their clients are always kept confidential and located in very secret chambers.
The assassins' patron god is Osiris, the Egyptian God of the Afterlife (Sometimes other death gods), where they acquire and study sorcery and assassination techniques in the name of Death.
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2. The Tribal Civil Wars and Clans The Tribal Civil Wars
Clans Assassins are organized into many different clans, depending on their alliance with tribes and faction. A faction can make a pact with many assassin clans, but an assassin clan can only be faithful to one faction (In certain cases, some clans only stay loyal to one tribe specifically).
Clans within one faction does not necessarily mean they are allied. Competition for missions and assassination are fierce and tense. Clans belonging to one faction may rival each other to gain favor of their faction. In a rare situation, when an assassin clan is losing men and resources, they may merge with another clan under the watchful eyes of their faction/tribe's representatives.
Assassins hold a very organized and orderly structure within their clans, restraining themselves with a strict set of rules and code of conduct to perform their missions dutifully without any distractions. A clan is ruled by a leader called an 'Assassin Prince', followed by his right hand men and potential heir who will regent in his place when the Prince is not around to do so. Their logistics, armory and infrastructure are tightly watched over and managed with utmost efficiency. All assassins are educated and well-versed in many tactical and historical warfare studies to apply to their warring and strategy understanding. They are not rogues nor greedy mercenaries as so many believed them to be.
While affording a Serqeti assassin is expensive since they are the best of the best and hold very high regard to their skill, most of the payment goes to the clan's funds to prepare for wars which they will be summoned to fight with, as well as food, weaponry, gear and resources for their clan's upkeep. The assassin who does the mission himself only receives a small portion to have his own life expenses and other spending.
The current most powerful clan is Adham'raj, under the leadership of Assassin Prince Zafir. |
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3. Initiation, Training and Abilities Initiation One does not just -join- to become an assassin. An assassin must be 'born' to become one. All assassins were once abandoned baby male scorpion demons, sold to clans by their families. Since daughters are favored and sons were undesired, many families who have too many children, would sell their infant sons to assassin clans in exchange for money. A seer would be present during the 'trade' to inspect the male infant's worth to the assassin clan and to be accepted in. Once accepted, the family would be paid accordingly to the child's worth determined by the seer. The child would be raised by full-fledged assassins and forced into brutal and strenuous training sessions as an initiate.
Training An initiate begins training once at the age of 3-4, the young initiate would be given the best education and training by elder assassins. They would be educated in the history of their tribes and historical warfare to understand warring strategy and politics of their people, toxicology to learn poisons and venoms for their assassination, anatomy and sciences to apply to their methods of killing and sociology/psychology to understand how to bend into the masses and their enemies' mentality. Occasionally, medical studies will be taught too.
As they grow older, they will be taught in survival skills, fighting and assassination techniques, weapon expertise and pushed into grueling and strict training sessions to familiarized with killing. Death and shadow sorcery will be taught as well and applied into their killing methods.
Finally, once the initiates are of age (usually 12-14 years old) and have been educated well, he will be judged in an exam, either through an assassination trial (which usually involved killing someone insignificant or an easy mission offered by clients), dueling against an older full-fledged assassin or a 'death-match' pit against other initiates, demons or monsters (This is rare, though. Usually at the Assassin Prince's whim).
It has been said that their trainings and exams are so strict and cruel that many young initiates could not handle and went insane.
Once an initiate passes the exam, he will be acknowledged as an assassin by the Assassin Prince. They are coined as 'child assassins' and often will take up simple missions or perform scouting roles until they become full-fledged assassins in a ritual. Even after the exams and becoming full-fledged assassins, they continue to study and train themselves to constantly upgrade their abilities and improve themselves. (They even have a library and training grounds for this.)
Abilities While abilities may vary from assassin to assassin, these are the common abilities and powers they are capable of:
- Invisibility, stealth: Using the power of Osiris, they perform Death's Cloak to cloak themselves into the shadows and appear invisible to their enemies. - Weapon mastery: Assassins are experts in blades, commonly katars, kris, daggers, gauntlet swords, claws, throwing knives, etc. but will never ever use heavy or cumbersome weapons such as broad or large swords, maces, nunchakus or staves. Their weapons must be easily hidden and ready to withdraw in enemies' surprise. In rare instances, there are assassins who prefer guns and bows. - Assassination techniques: This covers infiltration, art of clean kills, assassination tactics and different methods of killing. (E.g. poisoning, stealthy kills, viscera extraction, etc) - Toxicology: Assassins learn the art of poison making and toxin studies to apply to their methods of killing. If an assassin possess a natural lethal venom of their own (from their scorpion tail), it is considered as a huge advantage to their assassination. - Death and shadow sorcery: This is required as they are blessed by Osiris. Knowing some sorcery would provide them with more deadly attacks and some defensive magic to protect themselves. - Experts in martial arts/combat: Self-explanatory. Mandatory for any assassin to learn. - Academics/Applied knowledge: Able to use their knowledge and wisdom learnt through training and apply into their assassination. This includes warfare strategy, cartography, survival skills, etc.
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| 4. The Ritual into Acceptance and Ranks
The Ritual The young assassin will swear in and abide by the strict rules and moral codes of the clan. They will be given a potion contained in a glass vial shaped like a heart pierced by a dagger, then vow to abandon their emotions and desires for a life of a cold-hearted assassin and drink it. Though the potion does not do anything, this ritual is symbolic and required for every assassin to cast away their personal feelings and desires. Emotional detachment is very important in order to become an assassin. Once the oath is done, the full-fledged assassin will be given his own gear, veil or mask, weapons and room. He will receive a portion of the money from his mission for his own spending and will be allowed to go to the outside world freely during his breaks or free time. The missions issued to him will be much more challenging and risky and will be decided in the presence of the Assassin Prince. More privileges will be given to a full-fledged assassin over a child assassin. As stated, it doesn't matter what rank the assassin is, he will still continue to train (usually more bloody and brutal as they go) and indulge in academics and research to constantly upgrade his skills and knowledge. Ranks/Roles Initiates: Usually age 4 to 13, this is the period where young assassins will go through strenuous and cruel trainings and intensive academic studies to learn how to become an assassin as explained under the Initiation section. Child assassin: Around 12-14 years old, the initiate will go through an exam and if they pass, they will become child assassins and take on simple missions or scouting roles. Full-fledged assassin: Once they have taken up enough missions and show impressive performance in what they do, they will go through a ritual and swear in to adhere to assassin rules. They will be given harder and more significant missions. Elites: There's no age limit for this but if an assassin is a virtuoso and able to take on difficult assassination attempts higher than expectations, he may be promoted to an elite and constantly given highly paid missions issued by royalties and officials. Their missions become more contributable to clan interests and make an impact in political wars. Elders: Elders are old veteran assassins and are highly respected among their clans. They may or may not be elites but they often deal in logistics, administration and upkeep of the clan's structure. They are often advisors, right hand men, councilmen, scouts, spies or mentors to younger assassins. Assassin Prince: The Assassin Prince
is the fortitudinous leader of the clan. It is he who oversees the
whole organization and activities of the clan and as well as making
important decisions for his men. He will rule the clan with an iron
fist and enforce rules and moral codes, also meting out punishments.
The Assassin Prince is usually selected by the previous prince as
the most powerful and tactical assassin in the clan and elders will
stand by the previous prince's decision in selecting his heir before
he retires. However, certain cases, the position of the Assassin
Prince is challenged through duels or the ability to murder the
current prince and take charge of the clan. |
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5. Disciplinary, Rules and Moral Codes
Though I have not fleshed out
thoroughly, here's some of the rules (Any suggestions and feedback
are welcomed!): - Tattoos, any form of self-identity markings (natural face markings are okay since they are born with them) or scars are strictly prohibited. This is to make sure enemies do not discover or familiarize themselves with an assassin's identity or when an assassin's corpse is found, the identity of his clan will be kept safe from.
- Must be dressed in dark colored gear.
Punishment for not abiding them are
usually warnings first. On subsequent offenses will lead to
flagellation and gating of an assassin until he repents.
Rules and Moral Codes - An assassin must attempt his very best to kill his targets only and not others who are not involved in the assassination deal. Only as a last resort if the untargeted is hindering the assassin's work, he may be allowed to kill.
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Other Notes
More to come... |
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Introduction
As
explained in the 
Once
a child assassin becomes of age (Usually 16-18) and has gone enough
simple missions to take on harder missions and more significant
assassins to contribute to their clan and faction, he will go
through a ritual in front of the entire clan and the Assassin Prince
to become a full-fledged assassin.
Assassins
adhere to a set of strict rules and code of conduct. Even their
dress code and etiquette are strictly monitored. Often, the
punishment and disciplinary meted out are very severe for not
abiding the rules. Every assassin is given a pill for suicide which
will combust his body into flames instantly if any given dire
situation that requires the assassin to not expose his identity
desperately.