Dakos Khanid (born 22984 AD, died 23043 AD) was the younger brother of King Khanid II and a former Admiral of the Amarr Navy, who rebelled against Khanid II following Khanid's rebellion against the Amarr Empire. Dakos was leading a successful insurgency before he was assassinated by his adopted son, Luxian Khanid.
Early Life
Dakos was born in 22984 AD, the second son of the Khanid Family Heir. His older brother, Garkeh, was the chosen successor to his father and was being groomed to one day become the Emperor, leaving Dakos to attempt to thrive in his shadow. Despite this, Dakos looked up to his elder brother, viewing him as a role model and often treating him as a surrogate father, as his real father was too often occupied with his concerns as the Heir.
By the time Dakos was a young man, Garkeh had already attained a high posting with the Amarr Navy. Dakos desired to follow in his brother's footsteps and enrolled with the Imperial Academy, where he quickly earned a reputation for an enthusiastic but temperamental cadet. He was prone to violent outbursts and frequently clashed with those who harshly criticized him. However, thanks to his royal birth, he was afforded heavy leniency. Nevertheless, his time at the academy drilled a strong loyalty to the Empire into Dakos and he graduated at the top of his class.
Naval Career
Dakos was given a posting on board a patrol ship at the fringes of Amarr space. He served as the head of the gunnery team, where he quickly gained a reputation as a harsh, exacting commander. He often enforced discipline through violence, which earned the enmity of those beneath him. Word of his faults was suppressed by his superiors, who wished to gain favor with his father and brother, who by this time had attained the rank of Navy Admiral.
Because his service reviews spoke glowingly of him, Dakos was quickly promoted through the ranks. Within a decade, he was a captain of his own battleship, serving under the command of his elder brother. As a captain, Dakos's fierce nature made life on board his command miserable, but served him well in encounters with Minmatar rebels and Blood Raider heretics. His ship regularly led the charge against enemies of the Empire, coming back heavily damaged but with numerous kills to its credit.
When his father died in 23033 AD, Garkeh was made the new Khanid Heir, as expected. Garkeh was subsequently made the Grand Admiral of the Imperial Navy. One of his first acts was promoting Dakos to Admiral of the 3rd Fleet, a fleet with much history among the Khanid Family.
Dakos aggressively used his fleet to track down and eliminate heretics, rebels, and traitors. He brutally put down several slave revolts, slaughtering the rebellious slaves and harshly punishing their Holders for allowing conditions to deteriorate.
Brush with Death
In 23037 AD, Dakos lead a patrol of the Bleak Lands in an effort to root out a Blood Raiders sect that had become entrenched in the area. The patrol had not seen any sight of the enemy, when suddenly they detected a cynosural field being deployed. Dakos ordered one of his wings to investigate, which reported three Blood Raiders carrier with a light escort. He then ordered half his fleet to engage the carrier.
This proved to be a mistake. Soon after the engagement was joined, the Blood Raiders deployed warp disruptors on the attackers. Moments later, a large Blood Raiders fleet poured into the system and ambushed Dakos's command ship and escorts. His ship's engines were disabled and the Blood Raiders boarded, hoping to capture the Admiral and relative of the Khanid Heir for their own nefarious reasons.
In the fighting, Dakos was heavily injured. However, a young gunnery sergeant of Khanid birth named Luxian saved Dakos, carrying his admiral to the escape pods while fighting off Blood Raider boarders. Luxian was wounded several times as well, and at one point had to discard his sidearm and fight with a jagged sharp of metal.
Dakos's fleet suffered heavy losses before managing to regroup and fight off the invaders, but the Admiral had survived and vowed revenge. He also heavily rewarded Luxian for his bravery. When he discovered the man was a commoner who had lost both of his parents at a young age, he decided to adopt him as his own son. Despite Luxian's lack of experience or proper educations, he gave him a field promotion to Captain and gave him command of his own cruiser.
Once Dakos had recovered sufficiently from his injuries a month later, he made a second assault on the Blood Raiders in the Bleak Lands. This time, the patrol was much more successful, and destroyed several Blood Raider installations and routed a large fleet of heretics, shattering the power base of the Blood Raiders in the Bleak Lands for several decades.
Khanid Rebellion
In 23041 AD, the Amarr Emperor died. Garkeh Khanid was considered the favorite to win the throne, and named Dakos as his chosen Heir, but Heideran Kador claimed victory in the Succession Trials instead. Garkeh famously declared "I will not be ordered by some whimpering fool to destroy myself when my work is unfinished. You will not take anything from me, not my kingdom, not my people and least of all my life." Rather than commit the ritual suicide expected of him, Garkeh openly rebelled against the Empire.
He stole one of the Empire's two titans and a large portion of the Amarr Navy loyal to him, called on all Holders loyal to him to retreat to the Khanid region, and declared independence from the Empire. Garkeh styled himself "King Khanid II" and renamed his domains the Khanid Kingdom.
Dakos was horrified by the actions of his brother. Though he had long sought to emulate his brother, his service in the navy had drilled a strong sense of Imperial loyalty to him. He wanted to oppose his brother's rebellion, but was initially unable to act against him, as the majority of the 3rd Fleet was loyal to his brother ahead of him. He took an oath of loyalty to King Khanid, but acted behind the scenes to find other dissenters.
This was initially difficult, as few trusted the brother of the new king to be disloyal. Additionally, Dakos's fiery temper won him few friends. In one vital incident, after failing to secure the loyalty of a powerful Holder, Dakos struck out at Luxian and threw a ceremonial dagger at his adopted son.
After a year, however, Dakos had managed to amass enough support to launch a counter-rebellion.
Dakos's Rebellion
Dakos declared himself the rightful Heir to the Khanid Family, as Garkeh had lost the Succession Trials and had, by refusing to commit Shathol'Syn, shown himself to be a heretic. Holders who were loyal to him and the Empire rose up in rebellion against the young kingdom. Initially, the Empire did not openly support them, as Heideran VII and the other Heirs were busy consolidating their own power. However, they were provided with funds from the Empire, which Dakos used to construct ships and hire mercenaries to fight on his side.
Dakos made several initial gains in the war, taking a number of systems on the border between the Empire and the Kingdom. After a month, however, the advance stalled and the fighting bogged down between the Nohshayess and Finaka constellations. Many battles consisted of Dakos attempting to apply overwhelming force with superior Kingdom admirals outmaneuvering and defeating him. During this lull, Dakos fell into further violent tendencies, repeatedly browbeating his subordinates and making excessive demands of his admirals.
His commanders quickly came to resent him and complained amongst themselves about his harsh methods. At one point, Luxian overheard a captain complaining, and had him whipped as punishment. When Dakos learned of this, he was furious, as the captain was one of the few who had continued to make significant victories. He ordered Luxian to lead a dangerous assault on a heavily fortified Kingdom installation.
Luxian followed Dakos's orders without complaint, but his attack was predictably halted. Luxian was captured by the Kingdom.
Assassination
Luxian was reportedly brought before King Khanid II himself. Khanid II praised Luxian and showered him with gifts, then reminded him of everything the Khanid Family had done for the Khanid people and how many Khanid had come to the Kingdom in support of him. He then offered to make Luxian a Holder should he kill Dakos. Luxian initially balked at the thought of killing his adopted father, but Khanid II reminded him of the many punishments Dakos had inflicted on him.
Swayed, Luxian agreed to the plot, and an escape was staged. Luxian returned to Dakos's camp in a stolen shuttle. Dakos met his adopted son with open arms, but when the two were in private, began to berate Luxian for his failure. Seeing that Khanid II was right, Luxian leapt on his adopted father, declaring, "The King has sent me to eliminate traitors!" and strangled him.
Before his actions could be discovered, Luxian fled. He attempted to return to the Khanid lines, but his shuttle was intercepted and destroyed by Kingdom forces.
With Dakos dead, the rebellion fell apart. Many of the Holders who had been loyal to him surrendered to Khanid, who accepted them back, though many were lowered in rank and title. The few who desired holding out realized they could not stand alone, so ceded their territories to the Empire, which by this time had stabilized enough to project force against the Kingdom.
Legacy
Dakos's failed rebellion cemented the strength of the Khanid Kingdom. The civil war hardened the Khanid fleet's commanders, giving them the tactical know-how to fight against the Empire when it tried to invade several times over the following decades. Those Holders who remained in power were intensely loyal to King Khanid II and he had to deal with little in the way of dissent.
However, Khanid II realized that his own family was his greatest threat. In response, he ordered that each branch of the family submit a hostage to him. They lived in splendor in the royal palace on Khanid Prime, but were disallowed from leaving the grounds. Over the centuries, these hostages grew in number from only a single person to every woman and child in the family.