Editing Nova Legion (section)

====The Lighthouse====

The Lighthouse was the political, economical, AND societal hearth of the planet Taros. Towering well above the rest of the city of Askelis, scraping the clouds where other building would merely go above dozens of meters, the most advanced tech the world had to offer were there, the brightest minds Taros had ever known also called the Lighthouse their home. The Primarch promised himself that one day he would be a part of it, and from this day on he worked to achieve that goal.

His parents warned him that only the sons and daughters of the most privileged families of Taros could ever hope to join the Lighthouse, only them could afford the expensive and utterly complicated education necessary to pass the test to enter the Institute. But the Primarch had a gift that would help him thwart the opposition.

Being born a Primarch, Rook already had a more than human intelligence, but his talent as a Primarch was in using it not only with tech but with people too. Armed with his everlasting smile, the Primarch amassed knowledge, tomes, information on the subject studied at the Lighthouse. Through dedication he built his first own machines. In a couple of years, the Primarch was ready.

He was to be the first commoner presenting himself to the test of admission to the Lighthouse. The news quickly traveled around the globe, and soon enough the Primarch became a popular, loved person among the populace.
His popularity only skyrocketed when he got first place at the admission test and thus became the first commoner to not only join the Lighthouse in ages but also to reach first place on the admission test.

=====Life Among the Elites=====

Soon enough, Rook became an inspiration for all commoners on the planet, he had proved that it was possible to join the elites of the Lighthouse despite humble beginnings. Such was this influence then not too long after, two of his siblings, Naok, the eldest of his brothers, and Tami, a younger sister, would pass the admission test and join him at the famous institute.

Naok had the same dream as Rook, enter the Lighthouse whatever it would take, but he had this dream for somber reasons than his younger brother, motivated by a desire for power. Tami, on her side, was motivated by a feeling that with the technology and knowledge she would learn there, she could help people live better. So the siblings worked together, each with a somewhat shared dream but with different motives.

Life in the Lighthouse was far from easy. The Lighthouse housed not only the most brilliant minds of the planet, but also the most driven, all coming from powerful families and estates. Thus the Primarch had to prove himself everyday, and despite his genetically enhanced intelligence, that fight was not easy. More importantly, the Primarch had insulted the pride of many from those prestigious families, who saw the arrival of a commoner among their ranks as a grave insult.

But still, where he managed to get an upper hand was in the dealing with people. The Primarch had a knack when it came to getting people on his side, armed with his eternal smile, through it he managed to access knowledge, tech, but more importantly the influence to get closer to the DAoC relic, the hearth of the Lighthouse, each day. Naok was not as successful but still managed to climb the ladders, slowly but with a rare determination, Tami on the other side was content with just learning and thus stayed in the lowest echelons of the Lighthouse.

=====The Prized DAoC Relic=====

Ultimately, both brothers attained the upper echelons of the institute. Rook finally had access to the famed DAoC relic, a relic of a golden age, one that barely survived the violent wars for its possession during the Age of Strife, but ultimately was there.

The DAoC relic was a technological achievement without compare, a plasma reactor capable of producing tremendous amounts of energy. Many wondered how come the relic managed to remain stable despite the immense amount of plasma the reactor used. The relic was unknown to many of the denizens of Taros, knowledge of the relic being one of the many consequences of the wars men waged on men during ancient times. The days of the greatest minds of Taros was spent in fanatical analysis of the relic in order to break its secrets and recover the secrets still inside.

This is when the miracle of Taros happened.

Rook, still new to the DAoC relic, was forbidden access to it like many. But through the calling of favors and an almost suicidal drive, he managed to gain access to the machine for less than an hour. Rook had done many good things for a lot of people and as always his smile captured the minds of the people he dealt with, thus he could easily call for favors of this magnitude especially when combined with his natural Primarch charisma. As the hour passed, Rook accomplished what generations before him failed to do. Rook discovered one of the secrets of the machine!

After examination of the machine, Rook understood the importance of the Promethium in it. The Promethium of Taros had properties that were theoretically not expected to be there, Rook managed to extract those properties by examining the machine's use of it.

Rook established a pattern out of this discovery. It contained the tech for the creation of plasma containers that would never overheat or go unstable thank to the use of the special properties of that special type of promethium. The scope of such a discovery was immense, with it a more widespread use of plasma technology was possible!

And thus Rook came back to his peers with his discovery!

=====The Stolen Light=====

The only thing that allowed the Primarch to avoid the punishment of death was the astonishment he provoked in the most seniors members of the Lighthouse. It had been decades since a pattern had been extracted from the machine, and each time it happened great changes swept through the world of Taros. The elites were not too sure how to deal with this new dependence they had on this youngster who managed to do the impossible and was eager to do more!

Still they agreed to a ruling. The pattern discovered by Rook would be kept by the Institute, Rook would have to keep working on the recovery of more patterns but would be forgiven from ever talking about it and his discoveries.

The ruling drove the Primarch to the brink of anger. It had revealed a truth that Rook never realized or even imagined possible, that the Lighthouse court was not one working for the common man, for the sharing of knowledge, for the betterment of science. If anything, the Primarch saw in their demeanor that personal gains and fear motivated them. The Primarch could not abide with that ruling.

And thus for the first time in ages the Lighthouse court was defied. Rook shared the discovery of the new pattern with the planet at large, despite the Court orders. Of course everyone on the planet now considered Rook as a hero, but because the Primarch decided not to reveal the treachery of the court, the people were oblivious to the deception their elite were ready to pull on them.

Rook believed that by seeing what the world could do of this discovery the Court would see the errors of its way. Unfortunately they did far from that.

=====The Treason=====

While Rook joined his people in celebration of this new tech, becoming more and more the prized celebrity of Taros both in hearts and minds, the court invited his brother, Naok, for a meeting.

The court planned to have his brother turn on the Primarch, and judging from the interaction they had witnessed between the two the plan was certain to work. Naok had nourished a deep jealousy for his brother, a jealousy for his work, for his mind, but more importantly for his ability to get people behind him. The drive for power of Naok had not only isolated him, but made many enemies for him, and he could not understand how his brother with all his smiles could surpass him to such a degree.

Naok accepted to work with the council to undermine and ultimately vanquish his brother Rook.

=====The Diffamation Campaign=====

And thus their plan began. Naok was sent to every major family on the planet to speak of the recent actions of Rook. Most of those elite families had felt insulted by the opening to commoners Rook allowed on what was considered the chasse-garde of the best of the best. Naok used that feeling and one after one, turned each of those families against the Primarch. Rook was a danger to the statu-quo of Taros, one that would see the crumbling of the power structure they worked so hard to establish.

Each of those families then started sullying the name of Rook, Naok at the tip of spear. Naok revealed details about the deviant ways of his brother, his troubled origins, the possibility he might be an alien or worse coming from the stars, about the numerous breach of ethics he had allowed in his scientific work, all forged by the Court and their allies. Despite the obvious falsehood of those claims, the damage was done. Rook's credibility and popularity plummeted. Soon he was to be considered a pariah.

Rook accepted the decision to have him expelled from the Lighthouse, what he did not accept was his sister Tami to be also brought down in this mess. The girl would also be expelled, while his treacherous brother Naok would now inherit from his seat near the Court.

Rook learned well from this lesson, his natural optimism was not shattered, but he understood that not all people could be trusted to do good. Some people were rotten to the core and such could only be cast away as the light cast away the shadows.

The Primarch returned to the familial house, wounded in his pride but not defeated. If the Lighthouse was under the control of such shadows then he would have to be the light that would free this world from their influence.