Inonibird

Welcome to the Master Post for my fanfic Sahuldeem, a six-part exploration of the Star Wars character General Grievous, expanding on his backstory as it has been presented mostly in Legends (but reconciling with Canon details).  The entirety of the story was scripted out during the first half of 2020, and I've been adapting it to prose ever since and posting it to AO3. Every chapter is linked back here to tumblr, and is usually accompanied by an art post. The links below will take you to story itself on AO3 and to any interesting/important supplemental material that I have posted here. Thanks for reading!

SAHULDEEM Series Page Part One - Qymaen | 57-53 BBY | (complete) Part Two - Sheelal | 48-41 BBY | (complete) Part Three - Sahuldeem | 40-32 BBY | (complete) Part Four - Collector | 32-24 BBY | (complete) Part Five - Martyr | 24 BBY | (complete) Part Six - Grievous | 24-?? BBY | (in progress) Sahuldeem / Kaleesh Q&A #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | | Language | #5 | #6 | #7 | #8 | #9 | Other Subjects Kaleesh Naming | Kuu-lir | The Word Sahuldeem | Map of Kalee | Kaleesh Religion | Motion Sickness | One of the Earliest Doodles

Spotify Playlist Tags #Sahuldeem #General Grievous backstory #Sahuldeem spoilers

Supreme Commander of the Separatist Droid Army. The Knight Slayer. A ruthless general. A renowned Jedi killer. A cybernetic monstrosity. But before that, he was something else. A legend. A warrior. A hero. The Dreamer. He was Qymaen jai Sheelal, and this is his tragedy.

“What if I told you that there was a way for you to fight again?”

_

Chapter 3 of Part Six - Grievous of the Sahuldeem series is up!

Watching the Tales of the Empire trailer with no prior knowledge: “Meh.”

Spotting battle droids defoliating Dathomir: “…Wait. Could it be?”

Finally seeing the blue and green lightsabers: “HELLO THERE!!!”

“So it wasn’t enough for them, to doom my people, to leave us broken, starving, dying? They had to come back for me—the Martyr—my Izvoshra—they had to finish me off, like this?!” A snarl escaped his chest, the ventilator working doubly hard to match his heaving breaths. “Well, I am not finished yet! They should have killed me themselves, face to face—the cowards—Jedi scum! I—I-I—they…” He broke off, wheezing, then began coughing furiously. His arm flinched in the direction of his face in a vain attempt to cover a mouth that was no longer whole or functional with a hand that wasn’t there. The coughs transformed into wracking, electronically distorted sobs, the anger to misery. “They—they took everything from me.”

San Hill’s smile faded, not out of sympathy, though perhaps there was a shred of pity buried in his rotten core. He gave Qymaen a minute to himself, who seemed to have forgotten the Muun was even there. When he did speak again, it was with gentle, silky menace, as he placed his hand on the outside of the bacta tank. “Grievous, my dear, old friend. You said it yourself a moment ago: you are not finished. You survived.”

“What sort of life is this?” demanded Qymaen, wretched. “I am useless to my people. I—I can’t return to them. I can’t fight. If I can’t fight, I-I am...nothing.”

San Hill leaned close to the transparisteel, breath pluming against its surface. “What if I told you that there was a way for you to fight again? To move. To run. To shoot. To kill.”

—

Chapter 3 of Part Six - Grievous of the Sahuldeem series is up!

Soap adventures!! This is what I’ve been doing for the past few weeks, lol…and a lot more than what’s pictured here, actually. Lots of gifts and samples for friends and family! You can see I’ve been playing around with my Sahuldeem ideas (I think I’ll share the fragrance combos in a separate post for those), but also is now a good time to mention I’m playing Overwatch again after taking a break for a few years? Couldn’t resist using a few of my favorite heroes for inspiration. ;)

Anyway! Fun times! More to come (and candles, too). ^_^

Qymaen woke to a wash of lurid green.

No part of what he experienced in his first minute of consciousness made sense to him. Warm liquid pressed in on all sides, pinning him in suspension, but it was too thick to be water. Numbness hung heavy through his body, though the slightest tension of muscles or flexing of joints sparked incredible pain that set him gasping. The sharp intake of air threw him into further confusion as he realized there was something on his face, something that aided almost aggressively in his breathing, pushing and pulling at his lungs with a mechanical hiss that made his scales crawl. There were other noises, all muffled: a bone-shivering, droning hum, the purr of circulating fluid, an ensemble of beeps sounding off at regular intervals. The rhythm of the beeping stuttered as he slowly blinked and took in his surroundings. A cavernous room loomed beyond his bubble of warmth, evocative of the subterranean entrance to Abesmi, but he could make out little more than that.

Nor did he care to.

He closed his eyes, trying to will this strange, painful world to slip away.

—

Chapter 2 of Part Six - Grievous of the Sahuldeem series is up!

Wait, candles are cool

but also consider:

s o a p ?

An acrid billow of hot smoke penetrated the depths of his hood, and he turned away from the wind. They were close enough now that his maneuver scarcely managed to alleviate the choking reek; the wreckage of the Kaleesh shuttle scattered the waves all around their vessel, flames lashing through the darkness and warming the cool ocean air.

Small spotlights illuminated the choppy surface of the sea, guiding the aqua droids to their target, half-submerged in the water some distance from the bulk of the smoldering debris. He watched as they swam their cables out toward the bobbing, damaged cockpit, cracking its canopy open like a bivalve and clambering inside to secure the asset. The anchored cables began winching the droids back to the ship, a tortured screech of metal on metal in dire need of lubricant. With a gesture, he directed the IG-series units to step forward and help the aqua droids haul a tattered shape up over the side of the ship to drop, unresisting and dripping brine, at his feet.

Count Dooku stared down at a promise.

—

Chapter 1 (Prologue) of Part Six - Grievous of the Sahuldeem series is up!

Sinking below the roiling water. Black eternity opening beneath his feet. A thresh of bubbles swirling and propelling him ever deeper with tremendous force, as if he had fallen from a great height and would keep falling for the rest of time. He reached, clawing for the surface, but his hands failed to move. He tried to kick with legs that were no longer there. Fluid clogged his lungs. He screamed static.

~

(aka, an old vision is finally going to catch up with him...)

Me: Gosh, making my own candles would be a fun little project to try out sometime, maybe I should do it~ :3

Also me: Wouldn't it be neat if I made a bunch of unique scents that shared a theme or came from the same story? :3c

Also also me: Zigmash Simsu Kuninda Ulekni Seshu Zuulum Tukbrush Sandanul Nuurma Kushlal 83c