Vanguard Family

The Vanguard is an old well respected family in The Five Star Alliance. They currently hold the title of most popular family, dethroning the Doyle Family who previously held the title for their long service as chairmen of the Alliance Council.

The Vanguard family consists of nine sisters, all identical in appearance except for the small differences in appearance due to age. The eldest of the family is Cecilia Vanguard. From there, in descending order of age, the sisters are Rachel Vanguard, Fae Vanguard, Gwen Vanguard, Serena Vanguard, Mabel Vanguard, Brooke Vanguard, Phoebe Vanguard and Jane Vanguard.

The Vanguard family are extremely reclusive, with very few of its members being major players in society at large, despite the colossal influence of the family. Cecilia Vanguard is the most up front member of the family, having been elected as the people's voice on the Alliance Council, a role previously held by Cadman Doyle. Due to her role as the public figure of the Vanguard family, Cecilia is also seen as the official head of the Vanguard family. As family head, Cecilia is one of the few members of the Vanguard family to remember the family's darker past and deep secrets, as told to her by Brooke Vanguard, the one pulling the strings of the family from the dark.

Past
The Vanguard family is the oldest recognized family in recorded history. Their origins date back before the end of the Ingashian conquest. Though a family in the traditional sense (ei. parents and offspring), the Vanguard sisters refer to themselves as a family due to their shared supernatural origins.

The origins of the Vanguard start with the Dark Primum who returned to the Inbetween after fleeing the ever increasing cruelty of the 4 sons of Darkness. Though there are still tensions between the Dark Primum and Light Primum that now find themselves in the Inbetween, the to parties live in relative peace. Hoping to spark conflict in the Inbetween, allowing his sons to enter the physical world, the Dark warns a Dark Primum child of the dangers in the Inbetween and promises a solution. This solution comes in the form of 13 dark seeds and a word of caution: should she accept this gift and not use it, the power of the dark seeds would devour her from the inside out. The power of the dark seeds are used for the first time when the dangers the Dark warned the girl about finally arrive. The first of the 13 seeds is used to call Deeoth into the Inbetween. Deeoth creates a plague that ends the Ingashian Conquest before turning his eyes on the rest of the Inbetween. The fall of Ingashia released previously unknown horrors into the Inbetween. The second dark seed is used to seal away the The Rage beneath the sands of Ingashia. The third dark seed is used to seal away The Sorrow deep beneath the surface of the final Ingashian colony. The fourth dark seed was used to seal The Fear and Deeoth behind The Electric Curtain.

The nine remaining seeds were left unused by the Dark Primum child as as the Dark promised, the power of seeds began to eat the Primum child from the inside. Looking for a way to save her life, the Primum child travels to the Light's realm to ask the Light for help. The Light offers the the child a fruit from the trees that grow in the Garden of Light, the antithesis of the fruit the child originally ate to obtain the 13 dark seeds. The polar forces inside the girl's body caused her to regurgitate the seeds where they fell on the ground and began to sprout. The seeds were something entirely new, being the first things to ever have been made by both the Light and the Dark working together, and they did not know what shape to take. They decided to copy the image of the Primum child they had spent so long living inside. These nine seedlings and the Primum child, who they refer to as The Eldest formed the Vanguard family.

The Vanguard family stayed for a time in the Garden of Light learning what the Light was willing to teach them, but as conflict started to stir in the Inbetween the sisters found themselves drawn to it. Having no alliance with any faction who resided in the Inbetween, the sister floated from group to group, helping and harming who they pleased. The Eldest decided who they allied with and who to fight while the sisters blindly followed. This was the way the Vanguard Family functioned until the Eldest died of old age.

With no central command, the sisters were lost on what to do. They looked towards each other for guidance and found none. The family fractured as each sister found themselves drawn towards a new leader. For a time the sisters lived separately, even fighting each other when the factions they followed fought. As peace settled in due to Dorunian influence, the sisters were drawn back together, each now having separate experiences to share with the rest. Cecilia was designated the new leader of the family and it was once again decided that the family would help itself as its own faction, and that they would permanently live in the Inbetween.

Biology
The Eldest of the Vanguard is known to be a dark Primum; however, the remainder of the Vanguard sisters do not share this trait. Unlike the Eldest, who was mortal, the Vanguard sisters are seemingly immortal, with the ability to regenerate from any wound. The time this regeneration takes entirely depends on the severity of the wound. An example of this being when Serena Vanguard cuts off Gwen Vanguard's little finger for an "experiment." It takes two weeks for the finger to entirely grow back. The regeneration is also point specific. It does not center around the largest part of the remaining body, but rather is centered around the remainder of the dark seed inside each one of the sisters chest. Should this seed ever be removed, the body of the Vanguard sister in question would begin to regrow around that seed while the old body rots. Parts cuts from the Vanguard sisters also have a very short shelf life. Any body part cut from a Vanguard sister will immediately begin to rot. The process being described by Face as, "Like pumpkins rotting after being carved and left out for a week." For small body parts, the rotting process will only take 10-12 hours, while entire bodies take 2-3 days to fully rot.

With the dark seed being the center of the Vanguard sisters being, it is not possible for the body of a Vanguard sister to continue functioning when the dark seed is removed. Even if the body is entirely untouched other than the removal of the seed, the sister will still 'die' despite the seed serving no purpose in the overall processes of the body. The memories of each Vanguard sister also seemed to be tied to the dark seed and not the brain. Long term memory is retained even when the brain is severely damaged, but there is some loss in short term memory retaining to events just prior to brain death. With brain processes like memory and personality being retained in the seed, this leaves the brain with more room to preform other processes. As a result each Vanguard sister is extremely smart and are able to preform greater mental feats than a normal Terrian.

The first tell tale sign of the Vanguard sister's alien nature is their blood. Rather than the normal red of Terrian blood, the sisters have thick, black, viscous blood. The smell of overripe fruit becomes immediately apparent when Vanguard blood is drawn. Due to the bloods viscous nature, it does not take long for Vanguard blood to clot, making their natural regeneration process all the more quick.

The Vanguard sisters have no set form, they simply choose to appear similar to the members of the faction they align themselves. Though this originally was a conscious process, over the course of the sisters' long lives they have completely forgotten how this power works, and that they have this power at all. For the most part, the sisters have settled on a terrian like form, allowing them to work their way into the affairs of the Terrian Alliance with little question, much to the Doyle Family's displeasure.