Post by Blue on Sept 15, 2010 6:33:41 GMT -5
Name: Kol Larkin
Race: Human
Age: 17
Birthplace: Uncharted Desert World (know as "the Sandbox")
Allegiance: Sith, previously Jedi Order
Status: Sith Assassin
Rank: Acolyte
Height/Weight: 5'7'', 120 lbs
Appearance:
During his time as a slave and later his torture at the hands of the Sith, most of Larkin's body has become a network of scars. His face in particular was badly damaged, the entire right side was left completely paralyzed and a hole in his cheek reveals the teeth beneath, left that way on purpose by his tormentors.
Larkin's thin face, once weather-beaten and now drained of almost all colour, often holds a bleak expression and is topped by his long dark brown, greasy hair, which drops from his head in no particular style. He has a thin nose and lips with a narrow jawline. When he speaks, which is not often, it is with a quiet, almost whisper like tone that possesses a slightly robotic tint thanks to his speech module. His eyes are an intense pale blue colour and have dark shadows under them constantly, thanks to his light sleeping.
His build is small and wiry, raised to be fast and stealthy. Most of the time, Larkin wears a simple, featureless mask-like helm that dulls bright lights to protect his sensitive eyes and hides his multilated face. He usually dons a tight fitting combat bodyglove, avoiding loose clothing to lower chances of snagging it or making excess noise. He always carries some sort of secondary eye protection in case his mask is damaged or taken, usually in the form of polarized goggles.
Personality:
When first encountering Larkin, most would not think much of him. They might see a young man, back to a corner and mutilated face turning to watch them. They might get the impression of a bird, ready to take flight the moment something comes too close. They might, should they delve into his mind, get a feeling of fear coming from him, an aura so strong that it could have been mistaken for an inferno. They might consider him timid and weak, and put him from their minds as an completely unremarkable creature.
But it would be a bad idea to dismiss the boy as powerless or nonthreatening. For the fear that eats at his soul also feeds him, giving him a terrible strength that drives him ever forwards.
Larkin's fear and pain has twisted his mind and world view. At his core, he is and always will be a survivor. Only, where the Jedi once sought to insert the desire to help others, he now feels only the urge to struggle to the top of the food chain, even should that mean consuming others to do so. The weak die. The strong live. The urge to survive and the fear of failure in survival pushes him onwards to kill, and he does so viciously and utterly until their is nothing left of his opponent.
The hard-won instincts from his life in the Sandbox taught him the patience of a hunter. How to meld with the shadows. When to strike at the right time to get the kill. In his mind, each kill puts him higher up the chain of survival and so no trick, no matter how dirty or low, is off the table. It also left him with a strong sense of independence, fiercely relying on no-one but himself and giving him a powerful distrust of everyone and everything.
Due to the general mix of events in his past, Larkin has a hard time connecting on a personal level. His life in the Sandbox gave him the knowledge that life is brief and often ends violently. His time with his Jedi master and his dismissal from her taught him that no matter how strong or wise a person is, they can fail at their goals. His capture by slavers and torture by his Sith buyer imparted the surety that, regardless how strong a person thinks they are, they can be broken and turned. His Sith teachings reinforced his thoughts that everyone is willing to do terrible things to each other to gain power or knowledge. All of these things fuel his paranoia, which in turns feeds the fear that drives him to become stronger and makes it difficult for him to empathize or feel remorse and leaves him cold.
However, it should be mentioned that he derives no pleasure from the act of killing or the causing of harm. At most, when a life is snuffed from existence at his hands, he may feel a sense of relief. One less person that might threaten his position on the chain, one less threat in a galaxy of dangerous beings. He takes pain that he himself suffers with the same thing in mind; it is a reminder that he is still alive, still struggling to climb higher.
Ships/Vehicles: None
Equipment:
Lightsaber w/ Red colour crystal
Stats:
Strength - Above Average
Agility - Superior
Intelligence - Average
Charisma - Feeble
Force Stats:
Telekinetic - Novice
Telepathic - Novice
Body - Adept
Sense - Apprentice
Protection - Unskilled
Healing - Novice
Destruction - Apprentice
Combat Training:
Marksmanship (Blaster Weapons) - Adept
Unarmed Combat - Adept
Force Training:
Force Cloak - Untrained
Force Drain - Apprentice
Other Training:
Stealth - Expert
Survival Training (hunting, finding shelter, ect) - Adept
Ambidextrous Training (using his off-hand)- Adept
Lightsaber Training:
Shii-Cho - Apprentice
Makashi - Novice
Soresu - Untrained
Ataru - Adept
Shien/Djem So - Untrained
>>Sub-form Backhanded - Untrained
Niman - Untrained
>>Sub-form Jar-kai -Untrained
Juyo - Untrained
Double Bladed Combat - Untrained
Biography:
A couple of hundred years before Larkin was born, a passenger carrier was attacked by pirates and had to make an emergency landing on an apparently unpopulated desert world. The passengers were forced to adapt to their new surroundings before their supplies ran out. Many of the passengers had their own set of skills and talents that they brought to the table and passed this knowledge to the other survivors so that they could assist more. Eventually they grew accustomed to the land, becoming more and more self-sufficient every day. They formed a community around the crashed ship, salvaging parts from it to make shelter and other equipment.
As it turned out however, the survivors were not alone. The desert planet, named 'the Sandbox' by the settlers, was inhabited by a humanoid race covered in thick clothing that instantly attacked the settlement when it was discovered. Though they were fended off by the survivors (who's security force acted as a militia), they always kept returning to attack again. To combat this, the settlers built a makeshift wall to help defend their homes. Now that they had a sentient enemy to defend against, the security force started training the other survivors how to use blasters and other weapons, such as the shock poles that they had in case of a fight on the decks.
Over time, the survivors became tougher and more hardened against the horrors they had endured. Several generations were raised to the same standard of self-sufficiency, taught to fight and survive the harsh environment and constant attacks. They occasionally fought back against the aliens on their own grounds, ambushing them up close or sniping them from long distances. When they started to run low on ammunition despite making every shot count, the settlers scavenged the alien's guns and learned to use them. But time took it's toll and eventually the settler's numbers began to dwindle until only a handful remained. Among them, Kol Larkin was born.
Survival had, by this point, become paramount and so the settlers were forced to leave behind their homes since their numbers were too few to defend it from the aliens that they had dubbed as 'Raiders'. Becoming nomads in such a hot climate was not easy, but over the centuries the settlers had learned how to endure, adapt and live through such harsh exposure. They had to fight a type of gorilla warfare with the Raiders, baiting them when they spotted a patrol and ambushing them. They needed every man, woman and able child to assist in these fights just to survive, and as such Larkin was molded into a capable combatant, despite his young age.
What surprised the settlers is just how quickly Larkin picked up the skills for battle. Although he still a far cry from a real soldier in skill, he seemed to have an instinct for when to fight, where to strike or shoot to guarantee that a Raider fell. When it came to hiding, he came close to discovery several times only for a Raider to miss him completely, as if it could not see him. They grew to respect the young boy's words of warning whenever he uttered them and there were many times the child's instincts saved the settlers from an ambush or a patrol, giving them the edge that the more experienced men could use to set up their own attacks.
When Larkin was five, the settlers saw something crash into the sands. Advancing cautiously, they found several cloaked figures exiting a damaged ship under attack from the Raiders. This was the first time that the boy had met anyone outside the settlers group and had no idea who or what Jedi where.
Sneaking around, the small group of desert settlers attacked the Raider's rear flank at close quarters using makeshift weapons, killing five of the aliens before they even knew they were being ambushed. Larkin himself killed a Raider with his shiv when the alien was about to shoot one of the Jedi in the back. It was quickly over, with the few remaining Raiders fleeing back into the desert.
Requesting aid, the small Jedi group soon realized that they would have to give something back if they wanted help. The abandoned cruiser ship that the settlers had originally come from had some weapons hidden on board that they would require, as well as the spare parts needed to fix the Jedi's damaged ship. They agreed to guide the Jedi to the ship if they helped them gain access to the weapons stash when they got there. They reached an agreement and started towards the old ship.
Unfortunately, the old ship was now deep in Raider territory and they would have to sneak through if they wanted any chance of getting what they needed. Used to this, the settlers had no trouble in stealthily making there way. However, when they had collected all they needed, one of the Jedi dropped a piece of equipment, drawing the attention of the Raiders. They came en mass to kill them, but the settlers now had working guns to fend them off.
The way back to the Jedi's vessel was longer than before now that they were fighting every step of the way. The Jedi stood at the rear of the group deflecting the Raider's fire while the settlers sniped them from behind their lightsaber barrier, but they still started to slowly succumb to the heavy level of blaster fire. One of the Jedi and over three quarters of the settlers were dead by the time they reached the ship and when the remaining Jedi had made the repairs all of the settlers had perished. Except for one little boy hidden behind a pile of dead bodies, still taking potshots with his rifle propped on the dead. The Jedi pulled Larkin onto the ship and launched, escaping the wrath of the Raiders.
There was a slight debate between the two remaining Jedi about what to do with the child. One of them, the younger of the two, wanted to take him to the Temple for training since he could feel the Force working within the boy. But the older one was unsure due to Larkin's age and the fact he had killed all those Raiders without an ounce of remorse. She felt that it would not take too much to corrupt the child into falling to the Dark Side. In the end however, they took the boy to the Temple to be trained on the argument that without the guidance and tutelage of the Jedi he might fall to the darkness anyway.
Accepted for training, the young Larkin did not settle in with the other children very well. Most found his appearance to be a bit odd, with his sun-goggles protecting his sensitive eyes and his thick clothing, worn even on hot days. Others found that being around him made them uneasy, others were just plain scared of him. He was definitely a breed apart from his peers, who Larkin considered to be too soft due to the comforts they were given, such as fresh food and comfy beds (Larkin found it almost impossible to sleep on a mattress, tearing it out and sleeping on the frame). He made no friends in the Temple, keeping to himself and focused his studying on lightsaber forms and practical applications of the Force instead of flashy or over the top powers.
He watched and read about the many forms of lightsaber combat and techniques to help supplement the movements and assist in combat. He began training in these areas intensely and as a result some of the other aspects of his studies suffered a little. He specifically struggled with the more telepathic aspects of the Force, eventually deciding to put it aside until he had gained more mastery in the physical applications. Upon learning the Jedi Code, Larkin attempted to incorporate it into the mantra that his people had taught him, believing that the two had very similar principles.
As the years passed, he became well known among his peers as a decent lightsaber user, although they often made fun of him behind his back at his less than impressive skills in using the Force. While Larkin rarely cared what others thought of him, he admitted to himself that they still had a point. He expanded his training, practicing moving things with his mind. Larkin figured that this would give him an edge against opponents should he ever lose his weapon somehow.
Nearing his thirteenth birthday, Larkin had become well versed in the ways of the lightsaber, although he would be the first to admit that he still had much room for improvement. His skill with the Force had also increased with his expansion into telekinetic manipulation. Now at the limit of his time in the Temple, Larkin awaited to be chosen by another Jedi for training, or to be shipped away to one of the corps should he be found wanting.
After the evacuation of Rhen Var, Larkin and many of the other younglings were transported to the temple on Taris. It was here that the Jedi Knight Xierra Zalq discovered him while he meditated under a tree. They spoke, with the Jedi curious about why the other potentials avoided him. After they spoke, she offered to take him on as her Padawan and he accepted.
They made their way to the temple on Coruscant to officiate their new positions. While there, Larkin found the place rather disturbing; the large amount of life and energy of the Temple and the planet itself was a completely new experience for him and he found utterly unsettling. After speaking with his master about this, the two went about in training Larkin in the ways of the Jedi and the Force.
However, as time passed, his master found that his connection to the Force seemed too weak to continue training as a Jedi. Whether due to his age or through the trauma of his life before being delivered to the temple, the young boy did not appear to have the capability nor the temperament to finish his training. As such, Zalq saw to reassigning Larkin to one of the corps. Parting from his erstwhile master and boarding a transport, Larkin faced this outcome with the same quiet resignation with which he faced the rest of the world. Little did he know that this decision, no matter how well intentioned, would shove him body and soul down a wholly different path.
During transit, the vessel that was carrying the failed Jedi came under attack by slavers. The lightning raid was well done and the men swiftly disable the ship. Some fought back, including Larkin. Most were killed. Larkin was nearly among their number, sustaining a vicious wound that tore open his cheek and damaged his throat.
As the slavers made their way through the galaxy to sell off the fruits of their labour, Larkin's health began to deteriorate. Infection soon set into the wounds he had gained trying to fight off the men and the slavers had not the supplies or inclination to heal him. Eventually it got so bad that he could barely eat and he lost the use of his voice completely.
His dark salvation came as the vessel finally came to stop at a planet that had a market for slaves. Hauled off the ship in a cage with the others the slavers had captured and almost too weak to fight back, Larkin was paraded around in front of prospective buyers of all shapes and sizes, until a moment arrived when he saw a chance of escape.
One of the clients asked the slaves to be taken out of the cage so that he could take a better look at them and the thugs complied, confident that the people inside were all too hungry or ill to put up much of a fight. A slaver turned his back to Larkin while the leader tried to haggle with the customer and it was then that the failed Jedi struck. Swiping a blade from the slaver's belt and sliding it between his ribs, the weak boy attempted to make a break for it despite knowing that, in his sickened state, he had little chance of really escaping.
He was stopped before he had taken more than a dozen steps, not by the slavers but by the customer who had been inspecting the people for sale. The person swiftly disabled the boy with a few strikes and, as the darkness enveloped him, he heard a voice state that "he'd do".
When Larkin awoke, he found himself strapped to a table with his protective goggles removed. Bright lights were trained on him and he could barely event squint, they hurt his sensitive eyes so much. A voice, so warped in his fevered delirium that he could not even tell if it was a man or a woman began asking him questions and, when he did not answer, fired lightning at him as encouragement. This went on for a day or two until he opened his mouth to speak... only for nothing to come out save for a rasping choke, a memento from the injury gained at the slavers hands. Knowing that he had lost some kind of battle, Larkin felt a sharp pain as a needle was inserted into his arm and the world went black.
Coming to, he felt a dull pain around his throat as the voice started up again. Larkin's mind seemed clearer and his fever seemed to have broken, but the voice still seemed impossible to place as male or female, as if signals in his brain were muffling it. It spoke Basic, and asked him questions about his life. He tried not to answer and was rewarded once more with lightning. And he screamed. Not a rasping expulsion of air, a full bodied screech of pain, albeit tinted with a flat and robotic tone.
It did not take long for him to break; at most it was a few days, although to the boy it seemed to go on for years. When at the very edge of crumbling, the Sith entered the chamber. They claimed that the boy had disappointed them, that they had thought that he had some hidden potential, a talent for survival, but that they must have been mistaken. The figured pulled a lightsaber from their belt and advanced.
The boy finally snapped. The fear in his mind that he had kept at bay for so long shoved into the forefront of his mind. He felt his mind recoil, reverting back to his childhood in the Sandbox when all there was was fear and death. The Sith's hidden features morphed into the face of a Raider, glaring at him, seeking out a victim. And then Larkin did something he had not done for a long time, not since the Jedi claimed him and tried to instill their philosophies upon him. In his head, something slid into place, almost with an audible click. The Sith paused, the weapon inches from Larkin's throat. The Lord had felt it, that little click in the mind of the young man. The Sith knew that he had been victorious.
"I knew you had potential", the voice said.
Months passed. The boy, broken down into the most base creature so easily by the Sith, was slowly rebuilt. The connection he previously had to the Force, weak through inexperience then neutered and confused by Jedi philosophy, began to reform, stronger than before. The Sith identified the strongest part of Larkin's psyche: the need to survive. Using that, the Lord twisted the failed Jedi to push himself to become more powerful. The Lord encouraged the boy to embrace his fear, claiming that in all the Universe, fear was the most powerful driving force that existed and that he should use it to both empower his determination and disguise his intent.
Training at the foot of the unknown Sith on the space ship that they had imprisoned him on, Larkin dedicated himself to climbing the Chain: the higher he climbed the Chain, the fewer the beings in the Universe that could consume him. Under their tutelage, Larkin learned to better harness his power in the Force. Most of the young man's other training was on lightsaber forms, focusing on one on one combat. Although still too weak and inexperienced to make any use of his innate ability, Larkin remained determined to work towards the day when he would be able to slip from sight at whim and move unseen.
Occasionally, the Sith Lord who bought him gave him tests like interrogating a prisoner or entering part of the vessel that he should not have access to. But most of his time and energy went into sharpening his skills, his fear granting him a focus that shoved all other concerns into the background. The Sith even presented him a gift after successfully performing one of these tasks: a mask-like helmet, plain in appearance but one that hid his damaged face and shielded his eyes from the light that left him half blind.
Some years later, a new challenge presented itself. Something went wrong with the ship. Larkin never found out if it was just a major malfunction, an attack, or outright sabotage, but the cause concerned him little as the craft began exploding around his ears. Snatching up his helm and a sharpened piece of metal he kept under his bunk, he made his way to an escape pod.
Moving stealthily as he always did, he entered the small pod and began the sequence to fire it away when he heard the stamping of feet nearby. Slipping from sight behind a small alcove, the robed figure rushed into the tiny space, almost bumping into the unseen boy. Pulling speed from his flare of fear, Larkin struck out and hit the person square in the throat with his hand from his hiding place. They fell back, choking from the attack but still reaching into the folds of his clothes for something. A weapon. Larkin was faster, lancing forward with his makeshift knife and sliding it proficiently past his ribs and into his foe's heart. They slumped dead at his feet and Larkin (after ensuring they were actually dead) strapped into a seat without a second thought of the life he had just snuffed out.
He floated around in the pod for some hours with no-one for company but the corpse. With little else to do, he searched the body and discovered something he had not expected.
A lightsaber.
It was not long before another Imperial vessel came along to snap up the surviving crew. When they opened the pod, they had just enough time to register a red light before they died.
It was not as hard as he initially thought to blend in on the ship. As it turned out, it was carrying many other Sith and Imperial troops to the Ojoster Sector. The name was familiar: it was the sector that housed Taris, the place where his former master had taken him as her Padawan. He appreciated the way the universe came back around.
Now, with a full scale war about to be unleashed and his mysterious Sith buyer gone, Larkin would need direction. A new master to tell him where to strike, how to grow stronger. With bloodshed all but inevitable, he had few doubts that that would surely fall into place in time.
Roleplay Sample:
The man sat on the floor of the cage, finally coming to. He had been in that small, enclosed space for nearly two weeks. He had been captured trying to sabotage the base's reactor but was caught before he could do much harm. They had thrown him in here to rot. Occasionally, the Imperials brought him food, occasionally they would torture him. Out of the two, the latter was far more common.
His master had given him this task because the Lord had thought that it was beyond his apprentice's skills. He was expected to fail. Larkin nodded. It was time.
Groaning and holding his head, the soldier's eyes snapped up as someone entered the chamber. Behind the blank, featureless mask that shielded the world from his face, Larkin stared at the man. He was well muscled, and possessed a stern face, not unlike many others in his profession. He had proven loyal to his Republic, so loyal in fact that he had endured torture under the hands of a Lord of the Sith and still not broken. And now, it was Larkin's turn.
Wordlessly, the boy made his way to the cage. His footsteps made very little sound; over the lowkey humming that sounded throughout the base, they were all but silent. In his hands he held a tray with food on it. More food than they had previously been giving the prisoner. The soldier eyed the consumables warily.
"So, you weren't able to break me with torture so you thought you'd try a little sweetness, eh?" The soldier spat at the floor near Larkin's foot. Or at least he would have, if the electric field encasing the bars had not caught the fluid, sizzling momentarily at the contact.
The dark clothed lad did not reply, pausing in his approach only to deactivate the field so that he could slide the tray into the cage. Holding for a moment, Larkin reached up to his face and released a catch, slowly pulling the mask away to reveal his mutilated face. To his credit, the man did not flinch at the sight. He was a soldier, after all; he had more than likely seen far worse sights.
"You are not the only one who the Sith have captured and... harmed", Larkin said, his soft, whisper like voice tinted with a robotic monotone.
"Suppose you think that means we got something in common, huh? Well, think again. You turned, obviously. You walking around free. You their little dog now", the trooper snarled, spitting again. This time, the spit landed right on the tip of Larkin's boot. The boy did not react to it. He looked up at where the camera watching the cells was installed, rotating back and forth.
"Yes. I'm their dog. For now", uttered Larkin, still watching the camera. The soldier, following the boy's gaze, turned to the camera just as it suddenly stopped.
"You have sixty seven seconds. Everything you need is in the tray. This is your only chance to escape; I will not be able to give you this window again." Larkin made his way swiftly to the door, turning at the portal when he noticed the man had still not moved. "You now have sixty seconds. Good luck".
With that, the boy vanished around the corner.
---
The memory of what had occurred earlier that day flitted through Larkin's mind as he stalk silently after his prey. To his credit, the soldier had used the small window that had been provided to him well. He was out of his cell and out of the base before anyone had even had a chance to sound to alarm. But so desperate was the man to reach the destination that he thought of as safety, he was not making sure he was not being followed.
The man had stopped. He was smiling. Behind Larkin's mask, nothing changed.
The man fell, silently. He was gasping for air as his lungs filled with fluid. He gazed up into the featureless mask and knew that he had been deceived. Rage etched on the trooper's face for a moment before it went slack.
The Sith acolyte's head turned to the direction the soldier had been staring, kneeling next to the corpse to avoid being seen against the rising sun. A small circle of men, dressed in the same fatigues and gear the dead man had been wearing before his capture, were chatting in very low voices. The Imperial forces on this world had been having trouble routing out the guerrilla army hounding them by destroying key buildings. One such group would no longer be an issue come dawn.
Larkin wiped his blade on the shirt of the dead soldier and vanished.
Race: Human
Age: 17
Birthplace: Uncharted Desert World (know as "the Sandbox")
Allegiance: Sith, previously Jedi Order
Status: Sith Assassin
Rank: Acolyte
Height/Weight: 5'7'', 120 lbs
Appearance:
During his time as a slave and later his torture at the hands of the Sith, most of Larkin's body has become a network of scars. His face in particular was badly damaged, the entire right side was left completely paralyzed and a hole in his cheek reveals the teeth beneath, left that way on purpose by his tormentors.
Larkin's thin face, once weather-beaten and now drained of almost all colour, often holds a bleak expression and is topped by his long dark brown, greasy hair, which drops from his head in no particular style. He has a thin nose and lips with a narrow jawline. When he speaks, which is not often, it is with a quiet, almost whisper like tone that possesses a slightly robotic tint thanks to his speech module. His eyes are an intense pale blue colour and have dark shadows under them constantly, thanks to his light sleeping.
His build is small and wiry, raised to be fast and stealthy. Most of the time, Larkin wears a simple, featureless mask-like helm that dulls bright lights to protect his sensitive eyes and hides his multilated face. He usually dons a tight fitting combat bodyglove, avoiding loose clothing to lower chances of snagging it or making excess noise. He always carries some sort of secondary eye protection in case his mask is damaged or taken, usually in the form of polarized goggles.
Personality:
When first encountering Larkin, most would not think much of him. They might see a young man, back to a corner and mutilated face turning to watch them. They might get the impression of a bird, ready to take flight the moment something comes too close. They might, should they delve into his mind, get a feeling of fear coming from him, an aura so strong that it could have been mistaken for an inferno. They might consider him timid and weak, and put him from their minds as an completely unremarkable creature.
But it would be a bad idea to dismiss the boy as powerless or nonthreatening. For the fear that eats at his soul also feeds him, giving him a terrible strength that drives him ever forwards.
Larkin's fear and pain has twisted his mind and world view. At his core, he is and always will be a survivor. Only, where the Jedi once sought to insert the desire to help others, he now feels only the urge to struggle to the top of the food chain, even should that mean consuming others to do so. The weak die. The strong live. The urge to survive and the fear of failure in survival pushes him onwards to kill, and he does so viciously and utterly until their is nothing left of his opponent.
The hard-won instincts from his life in the Sandbox taught him the patience of a hunter. How to meld with the shadows. When to strike at the right time to get the kill. In his mind, each kill puts him higher up the chain of survival and so no trick, no matter how dirty or low, is off the table. It also left him with a strong sense of independence, fiercely relying on no-one but himself and giving him a powerful distrust of everyone and everything.
Due to the general mix of events in his past, Larkin has a hard time connecting on a personal level. His life in the Sandbox gave him the knowledge that life is brief and often ends violently. His time with his Jedi master and his dismissal from her taught him that no matter how strong or wise a person is, they can fail at their goals. His capture by slavers and torture by his Sith buyer imparted the surety that, regardless how strong a person thinks they are, they can be broken and turned. His Sith teachings reinforced his thoughts that everyone is willing to do terrible things to each other to gain power or knowledge. All of these things fuel his paranoia, which in turns feeds the fear that drives him to become stronger and makes it difficult for him to empathize or feel remorse and leaves him cold.
However, it should be mentioned that he derives no pleasure from the act of killing or the causing of harm. At most, when a life is snuffed from existence at his hands, he may feel a sense of relief. One less person that might threaten his position on the chain, one less threat in a galaxy of dangerous beings. He takes pain that he himself suffers with the same thing in mind; it is a reminder that he is still alive, still struggling to climb higher.
Ships/Vehicles: None
Equipment:
Lightsaber w/ Red colour crystal
Stats:
Strength - Above Average
Agility - Superior
Intelligence - Average
Charisma - Feeble
Force Stats:
Telekinetic - Novice
Telepathic - Novice
Body - Adept
Sense - Apprentice
Protection - Unskilled
Healing - Novice
Destruction - Apprentice
Combat Training:
Marksmanship (Blaster Weapons) - Adept
Unarmed Combat - Adept
Force Training:
Force Cloak - Untrained
Force Drain - Apprentice
Other Training:
Stealth - Expert
Survival Training (hunting, finding shelter, ect) - Adept
Ambidextrous Training (using his off-hand)- Adept
Lightsaber Training:
Shii-Cho - Apprentice
Makashi - Novice
Soresu - Untrained
Ataru - Adept
Shien/Djem So - Untrained
>>Sub-form Backhanded - Untrained
Niman - Untrained
>>Sub-form Jar-kai -Untrained
Juyo - Untrained
Double Bladed Combat - Untrained
Biography:
A couple of hundred years before Larkin was born, a passenger carrier was attacked by pirates and had to make an emergency landing on an apparently unpopulated desert world. The passengers were forced to adapt to their new surroundings before their supplies ran out. Many of the passengers had their own set of skills and talents that they brought to the table and passed this knowledge to the other survivors so that they could assist more. Eventually they grew accustomed to the land, becoming more and more self-sufficient every day. They formed a community around the crashed ship, salvaging parts from it to make shelter and other equipment.
As it turned out however, the survivors were not alone. The desert planet, named 'the Sandbox' by the settlers, was inhabited by a humanoid race covered in thick clothing that instantly attacked the settlement when it was discovered. Though they were fended off by the survivors (who's security force acted as a militia), they always kept returning to attack again. To combat this, the settlers built a makeshift wall to help defend their homes. Now that they had a sentient enemy to defend against, the security force started training the other survivors how to use blasters and other weapons, such as the shock poles that they had in case of a fight on the decks.
Over time, the survivors became tougher and more hardened against the horrors they had endured. Several generations were raised to the same standard of self-sufficiency, taught to fight and survive the harsh environment and constant attacks. They occasionally fought back against the aliens on their own grounds, ambushing them up close or sniping them from long distances. When they started to run low on ammunition despite making every shot count, the settlers scavenged the alien's guns and learned to use them. But time took it's toll and eventually the settler's numbers began to dwindle until only a handful remained. Among them, Kol Larkin was born.
Survival had, by this point, become paramount and so the settlers were forced to leave behind their homes since their numbers were too few to defend it from the aliens that they had dubbed as 'Raiders'. Becoming nomads in such a hot climate was not easy, but over the centuries the settlers had learned how to endure, adapt and live through such harsh exposure. They had to fight a type of gorilla warfare with the Raiders, baiting them when they spotted a patrol and ambushing them. They needed every man, woman and able child to assist in these fights just to survive, and as such Larkin was molded into a capable combatant, despite his young age.
What surprised the settlers is just how quickly Larkin picked up the skills for battle. Although he still a far cry from a real soldier in skill, he seemed to have an instinct for when to fight, where to strike or shoot to guarantee that a Raider fell. When it came to hiding, he came close to discovery several times only for a Raider to miss him completely, as if it could not see him. They grew to respect the young boy's words of warning whenever he uttered them and there were many times the child's instincts saved the settlers from an ambush or a patrol, giving them the edge that the more experienced men could use to set up their own attacks.
When Larkin was five, the settlers saw something crash into the sands. Advancing cautiously, they found several cloaked figures exiting a damaged ship under attack from the Raiders. This was the first time that the boy had met anyone outside the settlers group and had no idea who or what Jedi where.
Sneaking around, the small group of desert settlers attacked the Raider's rear flank at close quarters using makeshift weapons, killing five of the aliens before they even knew they were being ambushed. Larkin himself killed a Raider with his shiv when the alien was about to shoot one of the Jedi in the back. It was quickly over, with the few remaining Raiders fleeing back into the desert.
Requesting aid, the small Jedi group soon realized that they would have to give something back if they wanted help. The abandoned cruiser ship that the settlers had originally come from had some weapons hidden on board that they would require, as well as the spare parts needed to fix the Jedi's damaged ship. They agreed to guide the Jedi to the ship if they helped them gain access to the weapons stash when they got there. They reached an agreement and started towards the old ship.
Unfortunately, the old ship was now deep in Raider territory and they would have to sneak through if they wanted any chance of getting what they needed. Used to this, the settlers had no trouble in stealthily making there way. However, when they had collected all they needed, one of the Jedi dropped a piece of equipment, drawing the attention of the Raiders. They came en mass to kill them, but the settlers now had working guns to fend them off.
The way back to the Jedi's vessel was longer than before now that they were fighting every step of the way. The Jedi stood at the rear of the group deflecting the Raider's fire while the settlers sniped them from behind their lightsaber barrier, but they still started to slowly succumb to the heavy level of blaster fire. One of the Jedi and over three quarters of the settlers were dead by the time they reached the ship and when the remaining Jedi had made the repairs all of the settlers had perished. Except for one little boy hidden behind a pile of dead bodies, still taking potshots with his rifle propped on the dead. The Jedi pulled Larkin onto the ship and launched, escaping the wrath of the Raiders.
There was a slight debate between the two remaining Jedi about what to do with the child. One of them, the younger of the two, wanted to take him to the Temple for training since he could feel the Force working within the boy. But the older one was unsure due to Larkin's age and the fact he had killed all those Raiders without an ounce of remorse. She felt that it would not take too much to corrupt the child into falling to the Dark Side. In the end however, they took the boy to the Temple to be trained on the argument that without the guidance and tutelage of the Jedi he might fall to the darkness anyway.
Accepted for training, the young Larkin did not settle in with the other children very well. Most found his appearance to be a bit odd, with his sun-goggles protecting his sensitive eyes and his thick clothing, worn even on hot days. Others found that being around him made them uneasy, others were just plain scared of him. He was definitely a breed apart from his peers, who Larkin considered to be too soft due to the comforts they were given, such as fresh food and comfy beds (Larkin found it almost impossible to sleep on a mattress, tearing it out and sleeping on the frame). He made no friends in the Temple, keeping to himself and focused his studying on lightsaber forms and practical applications of the Force instead of flashy or over the top powers.
He watched and read about the many forms of lightsaber combat and techniques to help supplement the movements and assist in combat. He began training in these areas intensely and as a result some of the other aspects of his studies suffered a little. He specifically struggled with the more telepathic aspects of the Force, eventually deciding to put it aside until he had gained more mastery in the physical applications. Upon learning the Jedi Code, Larkin attempted to incorporate it into the mantra that his people had taught him, believing that the two had very similar principles.
As the years passed, he became well known among his peers as a decent lightsaber user, although they often made fun of him behind his back at his less than impressive skills in using the Force. While Larkin rarely cared what others thought of him, he admitted to himself that they still had a point. He expanded his training, practicing moving things with his mind. Larkin figured that this would give him an edge against opponents should he ever lose his weapon somehow.
Nearing his thirteenth birthday, Larkin had become well versed in the ways of the lightsaber, although he would be the first to admit that he still had much room for improvement. His skill with the Force had also increased with his expansion into telekinetic manipulation. Now at the limit of his time in the Temple, Larkin awaited to be chosen by another Jedi for training, or to be shipped away to one of the corps should he be found wanting.
After the evacuation of Rhen Var, Larkin and many of the other younglings were transported to the temple on Taris. It was here that the Jedi Knight Xierra Zalq discovered him while he meditated under a tree. They spoke, with the Jedi curious about why the other potentials avoided him. After they spoke, she offered to take him on as her Padawan and he accepted.
They made their way to the temple on Coruscant to officiate their new positions. While there, Larkin found the place rather disturbing; the large amount of life and energy of the Temple and the planet itself was a completely new experience for him and he found utterly unsettling. After speaking with his master about this, the two went about in training Larkin in the ways of the Jedi and the Force.
However, as time passed, his master found that his connection to the Force seemed too weak to continue training as a Jedi. Whether due to his age or through the trauma of his life before being delivered to the temple, the young boy did not appear to have the capability nor the temperament to finish his training. As such, Zalq saw to reassigning Larkin to one of the corps. Parting from his erstwhile master and boarding a transport, Larkin faced this outcome with the same quiet resignation with which he faced the rest of the world. Little did he know that this decision, no matter how well intentioned, would shove him body and soul down a wholly different path.
During transit, the vessel that was carrying the failed Jedi came under attack by slavers. The lightning raid was well done and the men swiftly disable the ship. Some fought back, including Larkin. Most were killed. Larkin was nearly among their number, sustaining a vicious wound that tore open his cheek and damaged his throat.
As the slavers made their way through the galaxy to sell off the fruits of their labour, Larkin's health began to deteriorate. Infection soon set into the wounds he had gained trying to fight off the men and the slavers had not the supplies or inclination to heal him. Eventually it got so bad that he could barely eat and he lost the use of his voice completely.
His dark salvation came as the vessel finally came to stop at a planet that had a market for slaves. Hauled off the ship in a cage with the others the slavers had captured and almost too weak to fight back, Larkin was paraded around in front of prospective buyers of all shapes and sizes, until a moment arrived when he saw a chance of escape.
One of the clients asked the slaves to be taken out of the cage so that he could take a better look at them and the thugs complied, confident that the people inside were all too hungry or ill to put up much of a fight. A slaver turned his back to Larkin while the leader tried to haggle with the customer and it was then that the failed Jedi struck. Swiping a blade from the slaver's belt and sliding it between his ribs, the weak boy attempted to make a break for it despite knowing that, in his sickened state, he had little chance of really escaping.
He was stopped before he had taken more than a dozen steps, not by the slavers but by the customer who had been inspecting the people for sale. The person swiftly disabled the boy with a few strikes and, as the darkness enveloped him, he heard a voice state that "he'd do".
When Larkin awoke, he found himself strapped to a table with his protective goggles removed. Bright lights were trained on him and he could barely event squint, they hurt his sensitive eyes so much. A voice, so warped in his fevered delirium that he could not even tell if it was a man or a woman began asking him questions and, when he did not answer, fired lightning at him as encouragement. This went on for a day or two until he opened his mouth to speak... only for nothing to come out save for a rasping choke, a memento from the injury gained at the slavers hands. Knowing that he had lost some kind of battle, Larkin felt a sharp pain as a needle was inserted into his arm and the world went black.
Coming to, he felt a dull pain around his throat as the voice started up again. Larkin's mind seemed clearer and his fever seemed to have broken, but the voice still seemed impossible to place as male or female, as if signals in his brain were muffling it. It spoke Basic, and asked him questions about his life. He tried not to answer and was rewarded once more with lightning. And he screamed. Not a rasping expulsion of air, a full bodied screech of pain, albeit tinted with a flat and robotic tone.
It did not take long for him to break; at most it was a few days, although to the boy it seemed to go on for years. When at the very edge of crumbling, the Sith entered the chamber. They claimed that the boy had disappointed them, that they had thought that he had some hidden potential, a talent for survival, but that they must have been mistaken. The figured pulled a lightsaber from their belt and advanced.
The boy finally snapped. The fear in his mind that he had kept at bay for so long shoved into the forefront of his mind. He felt his mind recoil, reverting back to his childhood in the Sandbox when all there was was fear and death. The Sith's hidden features morphed into the face of a Raider, glaring at him, seeking out a victim. And then Larkin did something he had not done for a long time, not since the Jedi claimed him and tried to instill their philosophies upon him. In his head, something slid into place, almost with an audible click. The Sith paused, the weapon inches from Larkin's throat. The Lord had felt it, that little click in the mind of the young man. The Sith knew that he had been victorious.
"I knew you had potential", the voice said.
Months passed. The boy, broken down into the most base creature so easily by the Sith, was slowly rebuilt. The connection he previously had to the Force, weak through inexperience then neutered and confused by Jedi philosophy, began to reform, stronger than before. The Sith identified the strongest part of Larkin's psyche: the need to survive. Using that, the Lord twisted the failed Jedi to push himself to become more powerful. The Lord encouraged the boy to embrace his fear, claiming that in all the Universe, fear was the most powerful driving force that existed and that he should use it to both empower his determination and disguise his intent.
Training at the foot of the unknown Sith on the space ship that they had imprisoned him on, Larkin dedicated himself to climbing the Chain: the higher he climbed the Chain, the fewer the beings in the Universe that could consume him. Under their tutelage, Larkin learned to better harness his power in the Force. Most of the young man's other training was on lightsaber forms, focusing on one on one combat. Although still too weak and inexperienced to make any use of his innate ability, Larkin remained determined to work towards the day when he would be able to slip from sight at whim and move unseen.
Occasionally, the Sith Lord who bought him gave him tests like interrogating a prisoner or entering part of the vessel that he should not have access to. But most of his time and energy went into sharpening his skills, his fear granting him a focus that shoved all other concerns into the background. The Sith even presented him a gift after successfully performing one of these tasks: a mask-like helmet, plain in appearance but one that hid his damaged face and shielded his eyes from the light that left him half blind.
Some years later, a new challenge presented itself. Something went wrong with the ship. Larkin never found out if it was just a major malfunction, an attack, or outright sabotage, but the cause concerned him little as the craft began exploding around his ears. Snatching up his helm and a sharpened piece of metal he kept under his bunk, he made his way to an escape pod.
Moving stealthily as he always did, he entered the small pod and began the sequence to fire it away when he heard the stamping of feet nearby. Slipping from sight behind a small alcove, the robed figure rushed into the tiny space, almost bumping into the unseen boy. Pulling speed from his flare of fear, Larkin struck out and hit the person square in the throat with his hand from his hiding place. They fell back, choking from the attack but still reaching into the folds of his clothes for something. A weapon. Larkin was faster, lancing forward with his makeshift knife and sliding it proficiently past his ribs and into his foe's heart. They slumped dead at his feet and Larkin (after ensuring they were actually dead) strapped into a seat without a second thought of the life he had just snuffed out.
He floated around in the pod for some hours with no-one for company but the corpse. With little else to do, he searched the body and discovered something he had not expected.
A lightsaber.
It was not long before another Imperial vessel came along to snap up the surviving crew. When they opened the pod, they had just enough time to register a red light before they died.
It was not as hard as he initially thought to blend in on the ship. As it turned out, it was carrying many other Sith and Imperial troops to the Ojoster Sector. The name was familiar: it was the sector that housed Taris, the place where his former master had taken him as her Padawan. He appreciated the way the universe came back around.
Now, with a full scale war about to be unleashed and his mysterious Sith buyer gone, Larkin would need direction. A new master to tell him where to strike, how to grow stronger. With bloodshed all but inevitable, he had few doubts that that would surely fall into place in time.
Roleplay Sample:
The man sat on the floor of the cage, finally coming to. He had been in that small, enclosed space for nearly two weeks. He had been captured trying to sabotage the base's reactor but was caught before he could do much harm. They had thrown him in here to rot. Occasionally, the Imperials brought him food, occasionally they would torture him. Out of the two, the latter was far more common.
His master had given him this task because the Lord had thought that it was beyond his apprentice's skills. He was expected to fail. Larkin nodded. It was time.
Groaning and holding his head, the soldier's eyes snapped up as someone entered the chamber. Behind the blank, featureless mask that shielded the world from his face, Larkin stared at the man. He was well muscled, and possessed a stern face, not unlike many others in his profession. He had proven loyal to his Republic, so loyal in fact that he had endured torture under the hands of a Lord of the Sith and still not broken. And now, it was Larkin's turn.
Wordlessly, the boy made his way to the cage. His footsteps made very little sound; over the lowkey humming that sounded throughout the base, they were all but silent. In his hands he held a tray with food on it. More food than they had previously been giving the prisoner. The soldier eyed the consumables warily.
"So, you weren't able to break me with torture so you thought you'd try a little sweetness, eh?" The soldier spat at the floor near Larkin's foot. Or at least he would have, if the electric field encasing the bars had not caught the fluid, sizzling momentarily at the contact.
The dark clothed lad did not reply, pausing in his approach only to deactivate the field so that he could slide the tray into the cage. Holding for a moment, Larkin reached up to his face and released a catch, slowly pulling the mask away to reveal his mutilated face. To his credit, the man did not flinch at the sight. He was a soldier, after all; he had more than likely seen far worse sights.
"You are not the only one who the Sith have captured and... harmed", Larkin said, his soft, whisper like voice tinted with a robotic monotone.
"Suppose you think that means we got something in common, huh? Well, think again. You turned, obviously. You walking around free. You their little dog now", the trooper snarled, spitting again. This time, the spit landed right on the tip of Larkin's boot. The boy did not react to it. He looked up at where the camera watching the cells was installed, rotating back and forth.
"Yes. I'm their dog. For now", uttered Larkin, still watching the camera. The soldier, following the boy's gaze, turned to the camera just as it suddenly stopped.
"You have sixty seven seconds. Everything you need is in the tray. This is your only chance to escape; I will not be able to give you this window again." Larkin made his way swiftly to the door, turning at the portal when he noticed the man had still not moved. "You now have sixty seconds. Good luck".
With that, the boy vanished around the corner.
---
The memory of what had occurred earlier that day flitted through Larkin's mind as he stalk silently after his prey. To his credit, the soldier had used the small window that had been provided to him well. He was out of his cell and out of the base before anyone had even had a chance to sound to alarm. But so desperate was the man to reach the destination that he thought of as safety, he was not making sure he was not being followed.
The man had stopped. He was smiling. Behind Larkin's mask, nothing changed.
The man fell, silently. He was gasping for air as his lungs filled with fluid. He gazed up into the featureless mask and knew that he had been deceived. Rage etched on the trooper's face for a moment before it went slack.
The Sith acolyte's head turned to the direction the soldier had been staring, kneeling next to the corpse to avoid being seen against the rising sun. A small circle of men, dressed in the same fatigues and gear the dead man had been wearing before his capture, were chatting in very low voices. The Imperial forces on this world had been having trouble routing out the guerrilla army hounding them by destroying key buildings. One such group would no longer be an issue come dawn.
Larkin wiped his blade on the shirt of the dead soldier and vanished.
You really shouldn't have more than one or two. Also, after talking over with other admins, we think Force Camoflauge (which is apparently going by Cloak these days... the one that makes you invisible) is beyond what this character should really be able to do. It's not a banned power, but something more suited to higher-level characters because it's such a potentially powerful.... er, power. I know you've got it pretty ingrained in your bio, so that's gonna make for a bit of editing :x Apologies for that