Dawnbreaker: Episode III

A page documenting the troubled development of the abandoned RP, Dawnbreaker: Episode III.

Authors

 * Garyn Dakari
 * JA-394
 * Legend
 * Lord Darkon
 * Rattler20200
 * Tarakus Deadmerit
 * Ty294
 * Wolfy

Information
The first attempt, simply titled Dawnbreaker: Episode III, began on April 8th, 2011, with little plan or preparation. Every participant from Episode II returned, joined by the one-time poster Tarakus Deadmerit and newcomer Wolfy. Spanning 346 posts, it lasted only until June 11th, barely two months after it began, collapsing due to infighting among authors and Darkon's forced departure from the group.

Story
Taking place one year after the events of Episode II, the sequel began with the mercenary Ty294 on the planet Nar Shadaa. Haunted this past year by dreams involving the alien threat faced in the previous episode, he realizes his dreams are more than that as a Legion Diablok makes an attempt on his life. Seeing the face of Sasha O'Neill, captain of the Terran Confederation's Excalibur, he flies to the Yavin system where the Terrans' fleet is located, after escaping the Diablok. Together they see a vision of the yet-unnamed Assailant, and realize that the three of them are the only ones capable of ending Legion's threat once and for all. Meanwhile the Assailant himself was currently in the prison of a warlord known as Gornall, being tortured for information regarding the Terran Christopher "Rattler" Johnson, descendant of the extra-planar being Ganos Lal, whom Gornall was obsessed with, bent on capturing. Ty294 teams up with the Terran Confederation, and a rescue operation is mounted to break the Assailant out.

Trouble brews elsewhere in the galaxy as the long lost great-grandson and apprentice of The Gatekeeper, Tarakus Deadmerit, allies himself with the Shadow Empire. Together they destroy a branch of the TEC known as the Rogue Traders, then take the Uberweapon to the Mudara system, where they find the Gatekeeper and Kane's FATHER, Harrington. Afterwards, with the help of Admiral Grage, they continue to weed out TEC spies within the Shadow Empire, as well as engage the Reborn True Sith Empire's experimental ship factory.

The RTSE meanwhile finds competition in the form of a second Sith Empire known as the True Sith Supremacy, lead by Lord Xenos and his apprentice Darth Syren. They battle the New Republic, the New Ethorean Federation, and the Shadow Empire, continuing their vision of Galactic domination. Lord Darkon's apprentice, Lady Deathstrike, kills Kyle Katarn's apprentice Jaden Korr, and his lover Jan Ors, sending the Jedi Master down the dark path of vengeance, unaware that his apprentice was resurrected by Ganos Lal, and sent on a mission to find Chris Johnson.

How the story would have resolved itself will forever remain a mystery.

Second attempt

 * Garyn Dakari
 * Inyri Halon
 * JA-394
 * Legend
 * Rattler20200
 * Tarakus Deadmerit
 * Ty294
 * Wolfy

Information
Five days after the original story came to an abrupt halt, the second attempt began on June 17th, 2011, also under the name of Dawnbreaker: Episode III, the only change in authorship being the lack of Darkon and the addition of Inyri Halon. It took a completely different take than the original, though after 2,009 posts it too came to a premature halt on February 8th, 2012 due to infighting and poor plotting.

Story
Though a very different story than its predecessor, it contained most of the same cast, including Syren, Remus Von Grath, Tarakus Deadmerit, Deathdragon, etcetera. It began with Ty294 seeking revenge on crime lord Wurak Rowan, for killing past friends of his. The mercenary Syren was apparently also after Rowan, needing him, and Ty294 captured alive for the Imperial Remnant officer Argon. Failing to take either of them, Syren joined forces with Ty and the two of them flew to Bastion to infiltrate an Imperial base and confront Argon. Much to his surprise however, Argon is no imperial officer, but his comrade from last year, the Assailant, in disguise. After the trio escape the empire, the Assailant reveals to him that he is being blackmailed and needs something of Rowan's. They track Rowan down, but the Assailant is attacked by a silent Sith assassin, distracting him long enough that Ty kills Rowan before the Assailant can extract his information.

Elsewhere in the galaxy, The Gatekeeper destroys the Shadow Empire government so that he may have ultimate rule himself, and destroy his nemesis, Kiro Vapthes, apparently the being that actually accomplished the deeds The Gatekeeper had previously laid claim to, such as creating all but three of the known galaxies, the Force, and the lightsaber. The NEF and SE alliance is dissolved, and the Gatekeeper invades the Republic of Sinya, which seeks refuge with the Terran Confederation at the Yavin system, while Tarakus Prime and Darth Sicol investigate the grave of Kiro Vapthes.

Ty294 and the Assailant arrive at Yavin and land on the Excalibur, shortly before the Shadow Empire, lead by the Gatekeeper, and the Ekatra Sentinel, lead by Remus Von Grath, the final form of Kiro Vapthes. The Shadow Empire attacks the Terran Confederation and their Sinyan refugees, while the Ekatra defend them. Meanwhile on the ship, the crew is introduced to the Assailant's sister, who attempts to kill him, only to be stopped by Ty and Remus. She reveals that she was previously imprisoned by the man blackmailing the Assailant, the same man who sent him to unite the Gatekeeper and Darkon a year ago to defeat Legion.

Divergence

 * Legend
 * Lord Darkon
 * Ty294
 * Wolfy

Information
Created by Darkon shortly after his ejection from Episode III, this RP entitled Dawnbreaker Episode: Divergence was based on a retcon altering the events of Episode II, dictating that the RTSE was pulled through a portal into a duplicate universe during the final battle against Legion. It began on June 22nd, 2011, and was just under 700 posts long when it met the same fate as the first two Episode III attempts on October 7th, 2011. Unlike the Second Attempt of Episode III, this one kept the original Episode III as its story basis, or at least the RTSE portion of it.

Split Destiny

 * Black Widow
 * JA-394
 * Lord Darkon
 * Ty294

Information
Beginning a month after Divergence failed, this reboot again began with the same parallel universe premise, though did not include any old Episode III content. Unlike the others, this RP was actually completed, after 900 posts from November 1st, 2011 to June 10th, 2012. Despite being finished however, it is not considered Dawnbreaker Canon, due to the fact that it was set in an alternate universe and contained little connection to other entries.

Third attempt

 * Black Widow
 * Garyn Dakari
 * Inyri Halon
 * JA-394
 * Rattler20200
 * Ty294
 * Wolfy

Information
After waning interest levels and the departure of authors Tarakus Deadmerit, and Legend, Black Widow joined the project and everything involving the NEF, Gatekeeper, Remus, and Tarakus Deadmerit was scrapped, resulting in a 'soft reboot' to the Second Attempt of Episode III, keeping most of the Terran, Rowan, and Assailant plot lines intact. The arrival and subsequent battle of Yavin scenes were restarted on February 9th, 2012, and the story continued until December 5th, when it again halted.

Story
The beginning of the Second Attempt, involving Rowan, Ty, Syren, and the Assailant remained unchanged, however the Shadow Empire and the Ekatra Sentinel never arrived at Yavin in this incarnation. Instead, a new faction known as the Hydrae Alliance came in through a portal and began negotiations with the Terrans. They were lead by Commander Gornall - a character who, like Syren and Kiro, have their roots in the original Episode III but were completely re-imagined for this one. Negotiations turned hostile however after Gornall demanded that the Terrans turn over the Assailant, whom he held a personal grudge against. Meanwhile the Assailant's sister, as well as a Hydrae assassin both infiltrate the Excalibur and attempt to kill the Assailant, among other things. The Assailant's sister, known only as The Intruder, explains that she was held captive by a mysterious Sith Lord, who soon enters the system with a fleet of his own, forcing the HA and the TC to temporarily cease hostilities to battle the common threat.

Elsewhere in the galaxy, completely unrelated to the Yavin conflict, The Gatekeeper and his Shadow Empire take advantage of the power vacuum left by the RTSE's sudden disappearance, and begins conquering the galaxy, forcing the Ekatra Sentinel, the New Republic, and the Imperial Remnant to form a Coalition against him.

Fourth attempt

 * Black Widow
 * JA-394
 * Rattler20200
 * Ty294

Information
The forth and final attempt at Episode III began on December 17th, 2012 following increasing levels of dissatisfaction and low interest levels for the Third Attempt. It featured a substantially smaller number of authors than any other official attempt, and spanned 576 posts before suffering the same fate as most others, due to infighting and author dropouts, on March 31st, 2013.

Story
Smaller in scale than the other versions, this Episode III lacked nearly all major factions and a great deal of previous main characters. Instead it began with an Imperial Remnant scout discovering the stranded Terran Confederation fleet at the Yavin system. While initially opening peaceful negotiations, Admiral Grage hired the ex-Shadow Empire bounty hunter Kaiba to round up and capture as many of the Terrans as he could. After having Chris Johnson and his squadron in captivity, he tests his new serum on them, turning them into alien species, or reversing their genders. Chris, now a female human, was delivered to Korriban, where she was met by Ty294 and a Nightsister of Dathomir named Cyaina. Cyaina double-crossed Ty and gave him the same serum Grage had given Chris, then explained that both would travel to Dathomir disguised as Nightsisters, to rescue her brother.

Legacy
While Episode III was never officially finished, it did have a great deal of subtle, and obvious impact on later stories and events.

The Dawnbreaker Tavern

 * Black Widow
 * Garyn Dakari
 * JA-394
 * Legend
 * Lord Darkon
 * Rattler20200
 * Tarakus Deamerit
 * Ty294

Initially and unintentionally created on April 21st, 2011, just days after the first Episode III began, The Dawnbreaker Tavern was a non-canon, fourth-wall breaking RP involving a literal Tavern where any and all the Episode III characters could meet, talk, drink, and kill each other. It ran near-constantly in the background while all other Episode III versions were attempted, and eventually it was decided that The Tavern should become the official Episode III itself. Thus after over two years and 25,000 posts, the massive RP was concluded on August 12th, 2013, and served as the basis for all future canonical Dawnbreaker stories.

Dogs of War

 * JA-394
 * Lord Darkon
 * Ty294

The sequel to Dawnbreaker: Split Destiny, titled Dawnbreaker: Dogs of War, began on August 3rd, 2012, and ceased due to infighting and lack of interest nearly a year and 911 posts later, on June 3rd, 2013.

What Could Have Been

 * JA-394
 * Tarakus Deadmerit

Nearly two years after his abrupt departure from the Second Attempt, Deadmerit returned, only to find Episode III to be cancelled and replaced by the now concluded Tavern. On September 9th, 2013, he and JA-394 created a 'what if' story involving each of their previously established Episode III and Tavern characters, including the Gatekeeeper, Kane, Remus Von Grath, Harrington, Iron, K-6, Kiro Vapthes, Kira, Tarakus Deadmerit, Ironhead, Lovionin, Gualtullo, Bar Traskaow, and more. It lasted under a month, ceasing due to lack of interest, 458 posts in.

Lovionin Chronicles: A Disjointed Crossing

 * JA-394
 * Rattler20200
 * Tarakus Deadmerit

While not a part of the Dawnbreaker universe, it does have connections, and was partially based of plots and characters created for Episode III, including the characters of Tarakus Deadmerit, Tarakus Prime, Kane, and Remus Von Grath. It began September 30th, 2013, and as of late 2015, is still ongoing between Rattler and Deadmerit.

Untitled non-Canon Dawnbreaker story

 * Rattler20200
 * Ty294

Beginning December 7th, 2013, a new RP was created, titled To be renamed later. It re-purposed the Grage and Terran plot lines of the Fourth Attempt, dropping the Nightsisters altogether, and was concluded 1,313 posts later, on August 14th, 2014. However, as is the case with Split Destiny, it is not considered canonical to Dawnbreaker despite being finished, due to The Tavern and Legacies taking precedent.