Technical data
Name: Dai Kholoz
Species: Human
Age: Thirty-one
Gender: Male
Faction: [ Jedi Rescuer ]
Rank: Knight
Master: None.
Former master(s): Master Staam Ebmeer (Twi'Lek), Master Rinko-Rinko (Gaddrian)
Concerning you
You are on a mission. How did you dress for it? What else can you say about your looks?
My appearance is that of swarthy skin that varies slightly in tone across the less exposed areas. The tone of my skin varies from a sunkissed, brownish hue to a blotched sort of paler tone beneath common clothing areas. Exceptional height and a whiplike build. Broad, ovular eyelids lend my actual eyeballs a quasi-rectangular cast, with my irises holding a hazel tint.
The general arrangement of facial features is a dichotomy in regards to my body structure, being very angular and strongly-shaped. In fact, my head is about as much of a cuboid as a human being's skull can be. With somewhat small ears and lips, a narrow forehead, and long trails of tightly-braided hair reminiscent of dreadlocks, I am quite irregular to look at.
I dress in clothing rigidly adherent to the standard Jedi garb. A plain chocolate-coloured, hooded robe with khaki-hued sleeveless tunic and leggings beneath. In addition, plain shinboots of unidentified and generic leather adorn my lower legs. The white striping of bandages usually adorn my joints, forearms, and ankles, tightly drawn to help alleviate the pressues and shocks of combat.
In order to confront the Sith, you need to be strong. Name one weakness or flaw you have identified but not neutralized.
I have never been accused of being a warm individual nor an especially garrulous one, and this is because my dedication to the Jedi Order is approaching zealotry, to the point that even the Jedi Code itself might be treated as dispensible to preserve the Order.
This zealotry does not sit well with me, myself, however, and is a quiet and constant source of punitive meditation that frequently ends with circular thinking.
Fighting Sith is not easy. How do you plan to use the Force for this?
The Force is a frequent weapon in my arsenal, for a lightsaber combatant above all. Thoroughly practised and well-experienced in the generic usage of Tutaminis and to attack via telekinesis, I have recently begun to expand manipulation of the Force to include my own body in a greater capacity, namely the augmentation of limb movement and reflexes. I have also been able to manipulate the Force around myself such that friction seems to not be a factor. In practical terms, this means I can slide in singular directions for short distances.
Aside from this, my Force potency can be overall considered average for a Knight, save for one trait. I am a practioner of the rare Force technique Malacia, and I am attempting to increase my power with this technique to such a height as to overcome the Tutaminis of Sith, to no avail as of yet.
Sure, you can use the Force… but what else can you do?
I have well-honed survival skills, acquired and utilised to great effect during multiple missions in hostile environments as well as times of mean living while travelling the stars. I am something of an amateur tracker and knowledgeable in regards to escape and evasion; but I am no match for a true Jedi Shadow or an elite commando.
I also possess a interest in pazaak and I occasionally play it during my travels to and fro, one of the few possessions I hold is my pazaak deck. I am also a terribly amateur flutist.
Something got you to join this mission. What was it? What events shaped your life?
I was born in the year 3684 upon the planet of Ord Mantell. I wasn't a citizen of the great continent Worlport, nor Great Rock. Instead, I was born to two maintenance techs that worked at one of the many robotic-assisted coal yards that littered the planet's surface. What little of my childhood on that planet remains with me takes the form of choking, vile clouds of gaseous detritus. All of my earliest memories are tinged with the gritty blackness of coal-dust, but that is not to say I was unhappy. We had pleny of holovids of the beautiful southern coast where the sky was shot through with pink clouds. It was a world I could only dream of, amidst piles of mechanical parts thrown about by continual groundquakes.
Fortunately, neither of my parents suffered any sort of fatal accident or injury, a common story among familial units such as ours. I was largely insulated from others my age and yet I fail to recall any specific sense of loneliness. I assume that even whilst I was young I was made to understand that such a life was necessary. After all, I could hardly roam amongst the islands for friendship. However, like the majority of Jedi, I can scarce cling to my early memories, and it is only by the grace of my initial master that I remember anything of my infancy upon Ord Mantell. It wasn't she who discovered my existence. It was no member of any Praxeum or Enclave that I know of, but from the confessions of my parents themselves, the man was indeed Force-Sensitive. After being discovered by this man, I can remember only the passage of stars through the viewport of a cramped frighter cabin. I can only assume this mysterious figure had some connection or another within the Jedi Order.
I was inducted into the Praxeum on the surface of Arkania. I had never seen ice and snow in such quantities, if at all before. All that I am was born there, that first morning I awoke within a chamber of the Praxeum. In a sense, that is the origin of myself, the Jedi. I suppose it is small wonder that such a serious and dutiful youth would prove to be a suitable receptacle for the Order's teachings and philosophy. I would not have it any other way, of course. I retain nothing but fond feelings towards my life in the Arkanian Praxeum. That is, besides the fleeting feud I had with another youngling. By the words of my instructor from those days, I was exceedingly incompetent at social interaction. I hadn't the behaviour that would have allowed me to fit in with my peers. For many this would prove no problem, but Kiden Jaric was still his father's son, the child of a low-level worker from Nar Shaddaa.
It didn't take long for both our attitudes to be tempered and brought in line. We eventually proved to be perfectly cordial, even friendly. It was around the age of twelve, in 3672 that I began to realise that not even the wisdom of Jedi was immutable. I had just passed my Padawan trials, at a fairly early age. This was because my understanding of the Code had quite outstripped my Initiate peers at the time. Due to my studious nature as a youth, I was also well-prepared for the Trial of Skill and encountered little difficulty in assembling my first lightsaber.
As an aside, that is a potent memory for me. Whenever I am beset my doubts, I am able to hearken back to that singular point in time. I feel it still when I grip the hilt of my lightsaber, the anticipation of success, tempered by a calm and soothing sensation. That sensation, I believe, stems from the realisation that I had become and still am a true Jedi.
Virtually immediately after passing my Padawan Trials, I was assigned to my first Master, Staam Ebmeer. She was a Twi'Lek and that held no bearing on my initial impression of her. I had seen many aliens in my time at the Praxeum, and held no preconceptions. What she did upon taking me as her Padawan defied all my lauded comprehension of the Jedi code. Master Ebmeer had me duel her. I stood no chance, and in the face of such a humiliation, I do believe I was on the verge of tears for the very first time in my life. You see, despite all that the Jedi did for me in coaxing away the pain of leaving one's parents, they had never quite prepared me for such an important truth. "There may never come a time when you stand above all else, whatever you put your mind to." My Master said to me.
She was correct, of course. Not even she was considered the greatest Master by anyone but myself. I had never been so thoroughly bested, and under her patient guidance I truly learned how to overcome emotion and prepare myself for failure. Together, we cris-crossed the Core Worlds and I was always learning. Always subject to some question or another, especially philosophical ones that had me defending my opinion of the Jedi Order. Some might have considered Master Ebmeer unorthodox, and perhaps she was. But in being so, she had produced quite an orthodox student. Between the two of us, we examined adversaries and obstacles from every possible angle. The day she began to instruct me in the Makashi form was surprising indeed, but I had come to accept that sometimes the rules could be flexible.
It was a golden age, I suppose, even with conflict all around, the last embers of the Great Galactic War burning themselves out on battlefields like Alderaan. Or so we had thought. It was around 3666, soon after my eighteenth birthday that a most tragic incident occurred. Master Staam and I were returning from Ord Mantell. We had gone there to clear up any lingering sentiment I held towards the planet of my birth. Not that I felt there was any, but my Master had insisted. At this time, the Sith had already begun to make subtle forays into the region in order to prevent any sort of flanking maneuver during the Battle of Alderaan less than a year later. We ran afoul of a Sith Apprentice bringing reports of an espionage mission upon the planet back to his Lord. Even more unfortunate was that the Lord in question was on his way to the planet. Our initial skirmish was...distressing. Not just for myself, but for Master Ebmeer. She had never told me, but one of her prio Padawans had been captured. This had happened some years prior to my ascension to Padawan. It was part of the Council's decision to assign me to her. This prior Padawan, whom I shall not name, was very much like Staam Ebmeer herself. He was a Twi'Lek, and he was quite unorthodox, insofar as a Jedi can be. This proved to be his undoing, and the cause of his capture. Overly confident in his martial might, he had persuaded Master Ebmeer to allow him to conduct a somewhat dangerous strike against a crime lord that would become part of the Black Sun Syndicate. He failed, of course. As it turned out, he had been sold off as a captive and shipped to Korriban. Subject to torture at the hands of the Sith, he eventually broke. When we encountered this wretch, Master Ebmeer was unsettled enough that he managed to wound her. In return, I carved the fingers of this traitor's weapon hand away. The incident ended unfavourably, for the Lord arrived faster than we could flee.
The duel was titanic. I had never seen anything like it. I was disabled by the hated traitor early in the battle, yet he could not turn his attention from me to assist the despot he called Lord. Such it was that my Master and his fought both inside our ship and the hangar within which it was contained. I caught merely snatches of the exterior battle through the cockpit viewports, but what I saw left me speechless. Even wounded, my Master displayed such mastery of Makashi, that I fear will never be seen again in the galaxy. She flowed like water, turning aside every strike, every crackle of lightning. It was the most passive duel I had witnessed my Master engage in. Clearly, it was because she was wounded. And yet the Lord could not press his advantage. I recall thinking that not even a devotee of the Soresu form could protect oneself to the extent my Master did. However her stamina was not unlimited. Slowly her guard was pried open, and her parries became sloppier. At one point she disarmed the Lord with a singularly elegant cut that severed his hand perfectly at the wrist. The pale, veined appendage smoked as it dropped to the floor. My jubilation turned to despair when I saw that Staam Ebmeer faltered. Her face was twisted with pain. All four of us knew that this was the end of the duel. Bending the Force to his will, the Lord manipulated his own severed hand that still clutched his lightsaber, and cleaved my Master from shoulder to hip. I remember a very empty sensation and a very sharp pain in my torso as the two halves of her form tumbled pathetically to the floor. That would surely be the end of me, but for the timely and dramatic arrival of the man that would become my new Master. A Master by the name of Rinko-Rinko had come to reinforce us, and a pair of Knights had apparently arrived in-system shortly after. Rinko-Rinko was the flame to Staam Ebmeer's water, and the orangue hue of his lightsaber seemed to flare and swell like a barely-constrained inferno. Neither Sith, wounded and weakened as they were, stood in his way for long. By the time Rinko-Rinko had removed the Sith Lord's remaining hand with a cunning Trakáta strike, the traitor-Apprentice had fled. Thusly I was rescued at what I felt was the least opportune moment.
The following year, after the Battle of Alderaan burst into being, I was assigned to Master Rinko-Rinko. By his own words he had witnessed Master Ebmeer's final moments as he erupted into the hangar, so the Council deemed him the one most suitable to guide my thoughts away from the defeat and demise of my previous Master. They were correct - eventually. For a time I foolishly blamed Master Rinko-Rinko for being too slow. That was never the case, of course, but I was yet young and even my grand faith in the Order and Code had been shaken. But with the gentle warmth of an illuminating candle, my Gaddrian Master steered me away from shouted calls for revenge. I was able to center myself once more, and forged my hatred for the treachery of that one-time Padawan into an adamantium conviction. I swore that I would not fall in that manner, that I would suffer no more betrayals of the Order. Of course, I did not remain with Master Rinko-Rinko forever. It was hardly two years to the day of my assignment to him that we parted. I was deemed ready to become a full Knight in service to the Order. Sometimes alone, sometimes beside other fierce brothers and sisters of the Order, I set out across the galaxy again. The frontlines of the war slowly encroached closer and closer to Coruscant, and I had been injured while tracking a group of fleeing Sith. I had been sent out together with four other Jedi to find them. I personally cut down two of the fleeing three in single combat, but the third launched a surprise attack when I used myself as bait to draw him out. I was not ready, and my Tutaminis was lacking at that moment. Flung from my feet, my arm was broken in two places upon a rocky outcrop. I was saved by my lurking comrades, who captured this last dreg in short order. As fate would have it, this mission took place on Borleias, slightly out of the path of the main Sith offensive. The year was 3652, and I would remain on Borleias until the signing of the Treaty of Coruscant. Once again, the Sith had proved themselves to be most duplicitous and unforgivable. I was not surprised by their deception, though I certainly was by the audacity and degree of their transgression.
What are you like, and what keeps you motivated?
I am motivated solely by my will to preserve the Jedi Order, at all costs. I will ensure the continuity of the Order no matter what acts the Force might lead me into committing, for it is only with the guiding light of the Jedi Order that we may see peace in the galaxy at large.
But like all Jedi, I am not emotionless and without compassion. Where there remains the path of least bloodshed and strife, I will be found walking. I believe the Force intends for as many to live, and be subject to happiness and peace, as possible.
How do you fight with lightsabers?
I strive for mastery of the Makashi form, for it was deemed to be suitable for me by my first master, whom taught me the intricasies of duelling and other forms of combat. It is a very efficient form, allowing me to conserve my energy while exhausting my opponent's, and while it is not especially suited for combat with multiple aggressors, I alleviate that somewhat with my Force abilities. I have begun to personalise Makashi somewhat. Many offensive maneuvers of the form strike me as too passive, and I prefer to avoid cleanly disarming an opponent for they may simply be too skilled in the Force to then capture or contain, at times.
For such foes, I have supplanted such less-than-lethal techniques with more damaging ones. It may be contrary to the more pacifistic outlook of my fellow Jedi, but fatal blows run no risk of future conflict. Even a Battlemaster may fall afoul of unexpected strikes from behind, after all.
I have also implemented more Force-based maneuvers into my usage of Makashi, such as telekinetic manipulation of my lightsaber and my enemy. Master Rinko-Rinko was also a staunch supporter of the dangerous technique of Trákata, and I am personal witness to its occasional effectiveness.
My lightsaber hilt is a simple shape, of the typical smooth curve that most Makashi practitioners prefer. A generic silver-grey in colour, it is devoid of embellishement save for a tightly-wound strip of plain leatherthat functions as additional gripping for my palm. The crystal produces a tightly focused and richly royal-blue blade, identical to many of my brethren.
How do you relate to the other characters?
This will be my first encounter with the other members of the rescuing party, though I am peripherally familiar with some of their exploits. At the very least, I have heard the names of my allies before, and that they are Jedi is enough for me to trust in them and their devotion to the Order. I have no qualms about operating with them, and am certain of our victory.
Out of Character
How powerful is (s)he in the Force?
Dai isn't a masterful or even a very focused Force user, but as noted in the above portions, he possesses the lateral thinking necessary to adopt certain techniques to further form a unique style of duelling. He's pretty much as competent as one can expect from a Knight, and will probably struggle against vastly superior practitioners.
Has your character encountered members of the other factions before?
No.
Your character can’t know his/her every weakness or flaw. Which ones were missing above?
Dai vastly underestimates the vulnerability his zealous mindset opens up. He is virtually blind to how great a chink in his mental armour that such beliefs can be, and while he won't be easily goaded, such a lack of hesitancy to commit dark acts in the name of the Jedi Order can't be healthy.
The Dark Side. How well does your character resist it?
As above, being so dogged in his dedication to the Light is also a source of great strength, and it will take a very specific, subtle, or constant pressure to overcome his titanic devotion to the Light side of the Force. Sort of a "take care when fighting monsters etc" type. Blatant, overt Sith will likely stand no chance at even being able to have a conversation with Dai.
What is your character’s personality like? What motivates him/her?
Dai's basically a Star Wars version Scarlet Crusader, very much inspired by them, as well as the dispassionate and almost cold/ruthless attitude that Mace Windu has early on before he gets too much screen time. To summarize, he's even more tightly-controlling of his emotions than other Jedi, absolutely refuses to tolerate the existence of any sort of Sith (artefact, knowledge, structure, entity, technique, etc) and will not hesitate to flex the Code to keep the Jedi Order up and running.
He's kinda like a Jedi robot, really, but the teachings of the Order have just as successfully instilled in him a respect for life and the galaxy that they have for all Jedi. He will always try to do the right and selfless thing, but he is for better or worse, not above taking the "right and selfless" thing too far.
Do you have any limits as to what is “ok” to happen to your character?
Nnnnnnnah, not really? If at all possible I'd rather avoid any sort of technicality-based trickery that has him side with the Darths.
As an example, if Dai were in Anakin's place during the pivotal fight 'tween Windu and Sidious, he'd never choose to side with Sidious because out of the two's claims, the proof of using Force Lightning is far more damning. Doesn't matter how far into Dai's confidence you are, Sith is Sith.
Do the ends justify the means?
Absolutely.
Captivity. Do you want him/her to potentially be captured?
Can happen, would make for an interesting time! I'm definitely not against it.
What do you think your character is doing in a few IC months?
Depending on how events play out, Dai will perhaps be a little closer to reconciling his zealotry with his own doubts as to the validity of such a mindset. And perhaps able to better himself?
Does your character have any secrets useful for the GMs’ plots?
(Send in PM)