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VESSELBORN — Kenez’Feraaz

Kenez’Feraaz

Alias: Founder of The Bare Hand
Era: Late Conquest ~2,200–2,000 Years Before Modern Geba
Affiliation: Geban Empire, The Emperor’s Shadow, Thazvaar regional authority

Kenez’Feraaz was a Thazvaari imperial appointed over the mountainous corridor from coastal and inland Thazvaar down to the northern border of Berinu. His heritage kept him under constant scrutiny, since any misstep would be read against Thazvaari bias. Before this appointment he served multiple tours with The Emperor’s Shadow, moving deep inland to map war fortresses, trace ancient relays, and track civilians pushing the imperial relay outward. He identified networks that could not be broken by force and learned from senior operators that inland Thazvaar does not yield to direct approaches over time.

He adopted deep cover and earned trust as the only durable method to dismantle hostile groups, but the timelines required exceeded what The Emperor’s Shadow allowed. After leaving the field and serving as a director within the service, he built regional alliances, advanced through politics, and was appointed Imperator when the domain expanded and needed a steady hand.

A brief visit to Yuvaar reframed his doctrine. If they could fight with such instinct unarmed, then trained operatives freed from Yuvaari restrictions on weapon use could infiltrate and eliminate while remaining unseen. He formalized The Bare Hand during Late Conquest as an infiltration and sabotage force built on that conclusion. Training emphasized lethality with any object or none, preserved Yuvaari movement while removing ceremonial limiters, and made improvisation a core rule. They also specialized in very long deep-cover placements—officials, farmers, pirates, and warlord underlings—on timelines far beyond anything The Emperor’s Shadow would permit.

The Bare Hand studied in Yuvaar and learned quietly. They participated in local games, studied how He Who Allows represents self-will beyond perceived limits, learned advanced rope techniques, hunted unarmed, and were repeatedly beaten in training by seasoned fighters and hunters. Most never mastered those techniques, but they learned enough to return to the Empire and refine them into the philosophy that became The Bare Hand. They then dissolved threats from within across Thazvaar and the borderlands. Many became attached to Yuvaar and retired there permanently after service. After the Fracture the unit was dissolved, but its survivors carried the method forward through the Shadow Rule and Warlord Eras, laying the groundwork for later Shadow Operatives who prioritize global balance over banners.

About Vesselborn

Vesselborn is the story of Geba — a world that has carried an empire for six thousand years.

It begins with Vaer’karesh, who unites five nations into the first empire and fixes a common language and law. Across the ages, the empire fights and finally breaks Thazvaar, welcomes Jeyrha through engineering and diplomacy, and liberates Berinu by choice. In Ngorrhal, the people of the mountain passes lose their ancestral name and are permanently renamed the Frost Sentinels, whose strength helps secure imperial rule. The Haavu cannon systems cement that dominance.

At its height, the empire spans continents and raises relay towers that bind cities, coasts, and passes into one network. Assassinations and civil wars follow — the Fracture — but the answer is not a vacuum. The Shadow Rule forms from imperial networks and manufactures peace, ending the warlord broadcasts and taking the world back from collapse. They are the empire made quiet: continuity without ceremony.

Today, the Shadow Rulers still govern from the background while the Energy Wars — covert struggles over power grids and relays in uncivilized regions — decide who controls energy, transport, and culture.

Stories range from relay-field defenses and inland recoveries to city governance and frontier resettlement; from rail lines and air programs that stitch regions together to festivals and work crews where culture and politics collide; from Frost Sentinel memory to families choosing the safety of hub clearings or the risk beyond the grid.

This is Geba.
It began in silence.
It has not yet ended.