Bare Hand was an elite unit in the Geban Empire’s military structure, formally established during the Era of Late Conquest by Imperator Kenez’Feraaz of Thazvaar. Created for deep infiltration and sabotage, the unit operated within enemy territories undetected—its presence confirmed only in hindsight.
Methods and Discipline
Unlike traditional Yurvaari martial schools, Bare Hand abolished the ceremonial restriction against external weapons. Its operatives trained to kill with any object—or none. Improvisation defined their method. Their Yurvaari roots remained only in motion, not in restraint. Though based in Yuvaar, the Empire never invaded the region. Instead, Bare Hand studied native forms and stripped them of their limiters, creating the most dangerous unarmed combat discipline in the imperial doctrine.
The unit’s strikes were surgical. Entire factions collapsed before realizing infiltration had begun. Yuvaar chroniclers catalogued their contests as unlike any other in Geba. Many veterans returned to Yuvaar post-service, seeking simplicity in the culture their doctrine once consumed.
Collapse and Evolution
Bare Hand dissolved after the Fracture. But remnants continued, reorienting their skills toward covert stabilization. During the Shadow Rule, these survivors evolved into the first generation of Shadow Operatives—agents who pursued global balance over imperial loyalty.
In the Warlord Eras, they resurfaced across factional lines, eliminating tyrants, preempting bombs, and softening theaters ahead of recursive escalation. Their work went unclaimed, and their alignment remained buried.
Modern Legacy
No formal branch known as Bare Hand remains. But its methods endure. Modern Shadow Operatives—where they still exist—train in stripped Yurvaari form fused with imperial pragmatism. Their presence is unacknowledged. Their influence is real.
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 greatest warriors of the mountain passes become 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. The last emperor is assassinated and the throne shatters. Civil wars consume the planet. But the answer is not collapse. The Shadow Rule forms from what the empire left behind, ends the warlord broadcasts, and holds the world together without a crown. They are the empire made quiet: continuity without ceremony.
Today, the Shadow Rulers still govern from the background while the Energy Wars decide who controls grids, relays, vehicles, and culture. Nine faiths compete for how the world understands itself. Tour racing draws audiences as large as the Yuvaar Hunting Games. Relaymen carry broadcast rigs into corridors and criminal networks to capture what the governed world is never meant to see. Contractors move through contested territory for manufactory interests. Syndicates operate trafficking networks through grey zones the empire tolerates rather than confronts. The Engineered, once created as instruments of war, now live as citizens, athletes, engineers, and parents.
Stories range from relay field defenses and inland recoveries to city governance and frontier resettlement; from airship crews racing through volcanic caverns to truth seekers embedding in syndicate operations; from arena fighters practicing an ancient faith through combat 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.