The Shynoi

Silent, patient, enduring.

First created by Elodan DiMarzio during the Ascendancy era, these silent assassins were inspired by his lethal skills with bladed weapons, worshipping and seeking to emulate his intimdating talents. Many commented on his ability to carve squadrons of Pantheon to nothing despite the limited range of his only weapon.

He forged his blade, Ieanorie — Silence — using a frozen harmonic of his own voice and encouraged his followers to do the same. As his group of loyal followers grew, he moved this fledgling chapter of Vanguard to a distant universe, one in which they located a desolate, frozen planet, a world populated only by snowstorms and permafrost. They chose this tundra-consumed planet for their new home. Elodan had hoped the isolation would encourage clarity and peace, an opportunity to reflect on their skills in the comfort of the planet’s ethereal silence. He had also hoped the relentless cold would breed sturdy warriors, as only the strongest could survive the planet’s unforgiving nature.

On his deathbed, Elodan slowly rotted away to consumption, and could utter no words in his weakened, sickly condition. Out of respect for this condition and his talents with the sword, his followers forged the Oath, and silence has followed them since. To break this Oath of silence means to dishonour their heritage and is punishable by immediate execution. 

Prohibited from using weapons such as firearms, the Shynoi became skilled at infiltration and stealth, spying and stalking, gradually evolving into the assassins that they are today.

Their approach to cleansing their ranks — only by killing their superior can they promote themselves in their place — was introduced thousands of years after by the Rook Jahara, who believed by encouraging internal conflict, the Shynoi would be blessed with continual, endless evolution and development, and it would remove the weaker specimens from their crowded ranks, leaving only the strongest to strive.

Now, their infighting has become so prevalent and distorted that the rule of one was introduced by the Circle to limit the savagery and stop the infighting spreading to other branches of the Vanguard. Only one Shynoi is permitted to operate in an assassination or on a mission, and where multiple Shynoi must be in the same place, they are to be kept as far away from each other as possible. Certain Circle adjutants have allowed the rule of one to be exercised violently. 

This infighting has indeed renewed their ranks, but so much time is spent by the Shynoi learning how to fight and kill each other, to promote themselves, that there is little time spared on learning how to fight Thorns or Executioners, and their enemies have steadily outclassed them.

The current Rook is Edjin, who has held the position for several hundred years.