Dakos Khanid (22984 AD-23043 AD) was a member of the Khanid Family and younger brother of Garkeh Khanid who was assassinated by his adopted son's hand during the Dakos's Rebellion. He was the former admiral of the Third Fleet of the Imperial Navy.
Early Life
Dakos was born in 22984 AD and the the second son of the Khanid Family Heir. His older brother, Garkeh, was the chosen successor to his father and was groomed to one day become the Emperor. It left Dakos to thrive in his brother's shadow, but Dakos looked up to his elder brother as a role model and often as a surrogate father. 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 sense of loyalty to the Empire into Dakos which he graduated at the top of his class.
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 hatred of those beneath him. Words of his faults were 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 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 Raiders. 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 Third 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 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 regrouping to 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 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 and destroying 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 instead Heideran Kador claimed victory in the Succession Trials instead. 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 renamed himself “King Khanid II” and renamed his domains the Khanid Kingdom.
Dakos was shocked by the actions of his brother. Though he had long sought to follow in his brother's footsteps, his service in the navy had 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 Third Fleet was more loyal to his brother instead of him. He took an oath of loyalty to King Khanid, but behind the scenes he search to find other dissenters.
This was initially difficult, as few trusted the brother of the new king to be disloyal and 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, though, Dakos had managed to amass enough support to launch a rebellion against his older brother.
Dakos's Rebellion
Dakos had declared himself the rightful Heir to the Khanid Family, as Garkeh had lost the Succession Trials and had refused to commit Shathol'Syn, showed his brother 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 building up their own power. However, they did provided with funds that 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's violent tendencies got worse with 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 halted as he was captured by the Kingdom.
Assassination
Luxian was reportedly brought before King Khanid II himself. Khanid II had tried to praised him, then reminded him of everything the Khanid Family has done for the Khanid and how many Khanid have come to the Kingdom in support of him. He then offered to make Luxian a Holder should he kill Dakos. Luxian initially shaked the thought of killing his adopted father, but Khanid II reminded him of the many punishments Dakos had inflicted on him.
Luxian, after being swayed, agreed to the plot. His escape attempt was staged and Luxian returned to Dakos's camp in a stolen shuttle. Dakos met his adopted son with open arms, but in private Dakos berated his adopted son 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 to death.
Before his actions could be discovered, Luxian fled in an attempted to return to the Khanid lines, but his shuttle was destroyed by Kingdom forces.
Following Dakos's death, the rebellion fell apart. Many of the Holders who had been loyal to him surrendered to Khanid II, who accepted them back, but had their ranks and titles lowered. The few who desired to continue the rebellion realized they could not do it alone, so they ceded their territories to the Empire, which by this time had stabilized enough to send their forces against the Kingdom.
Legacy
Dakos's failed rebellion had strengthened the Khanid Kingdom. The civil war had hardened the Khanid fleet's commanders, giving them the tactical advise to fight against the Empire when it tried to invade in the following decades. Those Holders who remained in power were intensely loyal to King Khanid II and had to deal with little in the way of dissent.
However, Khanid II realized that his own family was his greatest threat. In response a 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