Sorry about the delays in getting this up, army annoyances and surgery were partially responsible, internet outages were another. This will also be divided into two separate character Studies-first for Treuten then another for Kosh tomorrow.
Treuten Teradoc was born into a lower middle class family on Er' Kit. From an early age he developed a rivalry with his brother Kosh. They competed in all things and always strove to outdo one another as many siblings often do, but with Treuten it became a lifelong obsession nearly. Both brothers grew up watching adventure holos of pirates and treasure, Treuten determined to gain the power and glory he saw in these early holos for himself and as a way of fully outdoing his brother by joining the Imperial Navy-however Kosh joined at roughly the same time. At the academy, Treuten was a poor physical specimen but his fierce need to outstrip Kosh drove him relentlessly forward in his studies and performance. He was judged competent enough and was assigned to the Crimson Command with the commission of Captain-the same as Kosh- who was given command of an ISD while Treten was given a smaller and older VSD, which infuriated him and drove him to push himself to new heights of strategy and tactics gaining enough notice from his commanders to rise rather quickly to the position of High Admiral over Kosh-a fact he never failed to lord over Kosh. Ironically however this promotion was when Treuten began to stagnate. His rivalry with Kosh was what drove him to excellence, now that he had apparently 'won' he no longer saw the need to further improve his skills.
Then came the death of Palpatine and Vader at Endor and the Empire was thrown into chaos. Seeing a chance to achieve all his childhood dreams for glory and wealth Treuten followed Harrsk's example of Warlordism and seized the Maldrood sector and several surrounding systems by imprisoning his superior Grand Moff Selit after he had declared for Warlord Zsinj-also seizing control of the Crimson Command in the process and earning the permanent enmity fo Zsinj. By promising protection to rich and industrial Imperial Worlds from Warlords, pirates and the New Republic in exchange for their financing his war Treuten gained a powerful military state with relative ease and speed. It was around this time his brother Kosh sought sanctuary in the Deep Core, much to Treuten's amusement, he now felt as ruler of his own nation state and Kosh only commanding a single ISD that he had without a doubt proven his superiority to his old rival sibling. He further stabilized his kingdom by seizing much of the Perlimean Trade Route and shipyards making his holdings relatively self sufficient. While clearly a rogue nation now Teradoc maintained nominal loyalty to the central Empire so as to avoid their attention. Secure in his power and arrogantly convinced of his own invincibility Treuten descended into gluttony and sloth. Becoming exceptionally fat and lazy he stayed away from the front lines, becoming detached and stagnant, his only concerns now living a life of luxury and comfort. He remained at his capital for the campaign which quickly bogged down and achieved nothing but a waste of resources at the expense of a new enemy. To his north the border skirmishes with Zsinj further drained resources with no results, Teradoc attempted to launch a campaign against the NR and launch campaigns against the Hutt's to his south, believing the gangsters to be weak and vulnerable to a human led faction. The NR, whom he detested as rebels and a nuisance to his ambitions turned out to be more dangerous than he realized. The campaign was an utter failure with his planned expansion to Kashyyk smashed and the loss of Togoria cutting him off from the mainstream Empire. While Teradoc was secure in his own borders he was incapable of leading successful offensives against his enemies which always ended in inconclusive stalemate or defeat. In spite of these setbacks, when Coruscant fell Treuten felt secure enough to declare himself fully independent titling his nation the 'Greater Maldrood', while he did loan some forces to Isard at Thyferra when that unit was damaged he withdrew it and cut ties with her mockingly and returned to a sedentary life style in his holdings.
Things remained fairly stable in the Greater Maldrood for the next year and a half with only border skirmishes and little attention from the NR due to their focus on Isard then on Zsinj. Treuten felt that when Zsinj earned the ire of the mainstream Empire and the NR that he had an opportunity to strike at his hated enemy and launched attacks along Zsinj's border with the Maldrood, again nearly all of these ended inconclusively- a testament to Teradoc's degradation of command ability and inventiveness due to his complacent lifestyle. Only when Zsinj was killed at Dathomir did Treuten begin enjoying success in his offensive operations. He expanded well into Zsinj's former holdings absorbing some forces that had no where else to turn to but him. He expande dhis title to High Admiral of the Mid Rim to match his new status, but got caught in a war with Rogriss and Ackbar. He defeated Teren Rogriss at Feriae Junction after a hard fought campaign ending Rogriss's participation and earning him much of Zsinj's former forces that rallied to him. Teradoc seemed poised to take Zsinj's place as the premier Warlord however he lacked Zsinj's tactical and strategic ability. He inherited a disorganized and largely demoralized force that only joined him for lack of any other options and was not used to coordinating with him-in fact most of these units had viciously fought AGAINST him for years. Teradoc then took this mass force and promptly attacked Ackbar and was badly beaten by the elite NR Admiral at key worlds deep in Maldrood territory- Maridun and Thanos. Reeling from the defeats and now the sole focus of attention from the, IR, hutts and NR's Forces that were caving in his borders at from every direction Teradoc realized he could not salvage the situation himself and desperately put out a call for help to his brother Kosh who far from dying alone in the Deep Core had FLOURISHED, developing new tactics, carving out a small but very powerful military state with battle hardened units reared on endless civil war while Teradoc's had grown sloppy and lethargic in their comfort. Realizing that Treuten's attempts to hold a massive frontier and expand had led to this state Kosh demanded operation control of the Mid Rim Forces while Treuten was to take the Crimson Command and hold the now relatively stable Deep Core Empire of Kosh. The two Kingdoms would be joined into the Federated Teradoc Union. Treuten at first refused but after Kosh fought his way to the Mid Rim with a relatively small force and stabilized the deteriorating Greater Maldrood Treuten bitterly agreed and fled to the Deep Core while Kosh performed a gradual fighting retreat in the shrinking Greater Maldrood.
In the Deep Core holdings of Kosh Treuten stewed, he had been forced to call his rival to save his life and Empire and now sat on rear guard while Kosh scored victories against opponents Treuten had been roundly bested by with far less forces than Treuten had at his disposal. For a time the situation stabilized and the brothers prospered, then Palpatine returned and demanded fealty from Teradoc. Determined to change his losing streak and prove to Kosh he was still viable as a commander Treuten accepted the call and-against Kosh's wishes- launched into a vicious series of attacks on the NR in the mid rim while his judgement was clouded by emotions and his desire for comfort. Treuten enjoyed almost no success in Shadow Hand and his forces suffered horrible casualty rates at both the NR and other Warlords. With Palpatine's death and the NR counter attack treuten was again and again handed a string of defeats to the point the Mid Rim holdings were almost non existent and Kosh in exasperation sent his brother back to their shrunken Deep Core Holdings. Humiliated and driven by blinding rage and pride at this point Treuten sought to prove to his brother that he was still the better commander and so launched a series of surprise hit and run attacks on Harrsk's holdings with the intention of absorbing the Warlord holdings. The campaign went poorly, while damage was inflicted on both sides Treuten could not deliver the knock out blow he sought because while he would commit waves of forces against Harrsk he would not commit fully to a decisive battle that might lead to his final ruin and as a result created a prolonged civil war that bled his brother's few holdings to near galactic insignificance while achieving nothing-exactly as he had done against Zsinj, the Hutts and NR in his early years. Despite having one of the greatest commander sin Imperial Service on retainer- Gilad Pellaeon, Teradoc would not allow Pellaeon to determine strategy, even though he promoted Pellaeon to Vice Admiral he micro managed him to the point Pellaeon essentially was still performing a captains role-further hindering the campaign's effectiveness as Teradoc commanded from far from the front lines, often not aware or able to adapt to a changing situation as it occurred- much to Pellaeon's frustration. Treuten also slipped fully into debauched gluttony tripling his weight in a single year alone, becoming so fat that he could barely stand and never venturing far from his command bunker-further detaching himself from reality. He had lost any and all care for his men, seeing them as disposable drones for his use and neglecting duties as a commander toward them in favor of his own comfort.
This might have continued on for years had Natassi Daala and Gilad Pellaeon not cooperated to end the futile bloodshed. Deciding to go to the meeting at Tsoss Beacon to see if an advantage might be gained that he could then lord over Kosh rather than any desire to actually unify-his belief in ANY Empire other than his own had died with Palpatine- Treuten went without Kosh's knowledge and in his belligerent arrogance and unrepentant animosity he first mocked the reunification bid by Daala and declared that no Empire existed save for the Warlord's individual ones- showing he had firmly left the path of the Imperial he once was. He provoked Harrsk to the point the little man choked Treuten. At this point Daala had enough, realizing that if left to their own devices the Warlords would just destroy themselves and the Empire with them in time. She gassed them all. Teradoc was the only one to remain at the conference table-not by choice, but because he had become so morbidly obese that he could not even stand up under his own weight, Instead he slapped the table frantically and choked ironically dying after all the other Warlords in the room, sagging into his chair a sorry mass of fat that had driven itself to it's end in a last attempt to outdo his Brother Kosh who ironically looked back on their rivalry with sorrow, missing his brother, even though Treuten never had anything but rivalry and hatred for Kosh.
In summation Treuten made himself who he was out of a desperate desire to be better than Kosh, in many ways he had an inferiority complex to kosh who he always saw as superior to him and drove himself to overcome that gap. When he had 'surpassed' Kosh he immediately fell into stagnation and over indulgence having lost his primary motivation in life. After his Empire caved in due to his indifference and indulgence he called Kosh for help in salvaging a situation HE couldn't with more forces suggesting that deep down he saw Kosh as his better-even if he hated him for it. When Kosh succeeded it was salt in the wound for Treuten, he descended into angry depression lasing out at subordinates, insisting he alone had authority to command and driving himself further and further down the path of self destruction that culminated in his pathetic death at Tsoss Beacon.
Topic: Character Study Treuten Teradoc (Read 6938 times)