Badasses of your Conworlds

[cybrxkhan]

In our world we have certain people or groups/classes of people that are (justified or not) considered badass in the popular conception, such as Teddy Roosevelt, samurai, ninjas, Gurkhas, or pirates. That said, are there any "badasses" in your conworlds? People or groups of people whom the masses think are absolutely insanely powerful and accomplished in combat (regardless of whether this is true or not)?


In my conworld, the Aidisese Imperial Legions (the elite of the elite of the Aidisese armies) have attained a reputation of badassery - probably the greatest anywhere - over their millennia of existence. Mere armies will rout at the hint of their prescence, so it is said, and it is also claimed that a single Imperial Legionnaire can take down entire companies of soldiers, even elite soldiers of other armies. Within the Imperial Legion, the White Company of the Imperial Legion has also attained a unique status of badassery of their own, merely because the White Legion, as they are known, are composed solely of women (although historically a noticeable amount of men have joined their ranks, and one of their founding members was a man anyways - but stereotype ignores this). Even the other companies of the Imperial Legion stereotype the White Legion as more badass than they are. All in all, in reality, while the Imperial Legions are probably one of the best military units fielded in my conworld's history, they are still defeatable, and while their martial skills are the cream of the crop, they are not the nigh-invincible millions-slaughtering demigod machines everybody makes them out to be. In fact their martial quality probably has declined slightly over the years as generals are unwilling to use them too recklessly in combat, for fear that they might screw up and completely demoralize the rest of the army.

Another group of supposed badasses in my conworld are the Daikyotei, which collectively refers to several different groups of warriors from Kensalus, and specifically from Yuhan. The Daikyotei superficially resemble our world's Samurai and late medieval Chinese warriors, but are extremely, extremely heavily armored. The Daikyotei probably more resemble the Shaolin monks or the warrior monks of Japan in terms of their function. Still, the Daikyotei are the Kensalan equivalent to the Aidisese Imperial Legion in terms of awe and reverence, and they are also said to be nigh-invincible in combat and expert in various heavy melee weapons such as axes and cleavers.

In my conworld, in the minds of most people, the awesomest badass vs. badass match (like pirate vs. ninja or samurai vs. whatever in our world) would be the Daikyotei vs. the Imperial Legion (especially the White Legion), particularly since the two fought against each other in the crossbow trench warfare of the Great Wars.

[Micamo]

In the Essun creation myth, there's The First Dragon: When she was born, her birth sent a gigantic wave of black fire everywhere that destroyed the entire world, killing almost all the gods, with only 44 surviving. And the survivors were so weakened they had to retreat deep underground, where they still hide to this day.

According to myth, this First Dragon is still out there somewhere, waiting for the day when she'll eat all the suns and bring the end of the world.

[Ànradh]

Thus far I can think of two, both nameless as of yet (and without giving too much plot away at this stage).
Antagonist of story arc 1, protagonist of story arc 2; wants to become a god and gets pretty close. Causes a lot of backlash in the process, starts a few wars, blows up some land, awakens fallen godlings... His fate is intended to be bitterly ironic.
Protagonist of story arc 1 (This character must be female must be at least bisexual, according to my girlfriend... O_o); wipes out a slaving party with crafty guerilla tactics then screws up the antagonist's plans royally and gets away with it, becoming a something of a boogeyman (or woman) among the antagonist's citizens as a result.

[mbrsart]

I would have to say that the biggest mental badass in my conworld Hra is Chf'aza. She's a real "renaissance man" of a woman; she's a linguist, scientist, archaeologist, queen, special forces commander, and interplanetary diplomat (jeez, she sounds like a Mary Sue). She wouldn't be nearly as badass, though, without the Shadow Guard ("Molsa'korakesi" in my conlang) backing her up. They're like a combination of the Green Berets and the Navy SEALs.

[thaen]

The Zealots. The Zealots are a special order of Krwx (basically dragons) who go through a ceremony that makes the stronger, increases their mental capacity/strength, and heightens their senses and reflexes. They take vows of celibacy and lifelong service, and may be of either sex. The way a Zealot can be told apart from a regular Krwx is that during their ceremony, they receive monochromatic marks along their body. They employ special weapons and tactics, but are not invincible, though are really hard to defeat.

Also, there is a another order of assassins who are non-Krwx. In fact they were founded to kill the Zealots. Anyway, they are more known than the Zealots, but that is because they were comprised of the races who remained after the Krwx were forced into hiding.

There are plenty more elite groups, but those are the most developed (by me) so far.