Post by Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy on Mar 24, 2012 18:42:16 GMT -5
Name: Lashara “Hara” Elpara
Race: Mirialan
Age: 39
Height: 5’
Weight: 100 lbs
Appearance: Lashara Elpara is a very petite woman at just 5 feet high, is extremely slender and curvy, and possessed of a few distinguishing features apart from her vivid green skin. The first are her eyes, almond-shaped and a vibrant orange color, rare but not unheard of in her species. The second is her hair. She has long raven hair that falls down past her shoulders to her waist, flowing freely. She finds it often gets in the way however, though she still can’t bring herself to cut it, so on occasions where she’s on a mission she’ll put it into a ponytail.
Her face is definitely worthy of description, being rather ‘easy to look at’ as one of her friends once put it. She has a slender face, with high cheekbones, full lips that are almost pouty, and a distinctive patrician nose. Her face is also emblazoned with a distinctive tattoo, one that took her many to complete. It is a large mostly circular tattoo eclipsing the left side of her face. It starts with a trio of arrows merging into one line running down her forehead, covering half her nose, and streaking down to her jaw, where it ends. In and of itself that would be impressive, but it is even more so, as it is composed entirely of triangles.
Interestingly, Hara is a woman who looks much younger than she is, whether due to her force sensitivity or pure genetic luck. It comes in handy on undercover missions, when she can easily pass herself off as just about anything.
Unlike most Jedi, she wears black robes with knee high leather boots, also in a glossy black. The robes are cut in the typical Jedi fashion, and they have no other differences apart from color. Her choice of black is an unusual personal preference, but a conscious choice. She wears the color to 'redeem’ it from the Sith and the Dark Jedi, to show that in and of itself, nothing is wrong with black.
Her lightsaber hilts too are black, an anodized finish that is very forgiving of scratches and scrapes. Both of her sabers are worn on her utility belt at her waist, along with a pair of pouches containing useful items like comm. links, datapads, and credits. She also carries a few sets of binders with her all the time, in case she has to make arrests.
However, very often Hara isn’t in her robes at all. As an Investigator, she goes undercover routinely, and disguises herself as anything from a lady of the evening to a Mandalorian mercenary. For the latter purpose, she even 'owns' a set of yellow beskar neo crusader armor she acquired while undercover among the Mandalorians, whose culture she learned intimately. Technically she admits it belongs to the Jedi Order, but for all practical purposes it is hers, partially because few other Jedi are short enough to fit into it.
She relies heavily on non-Jedi weapons when undercover. She pairs blades with a revolving door of blasters and slugthrowers as each assignment dictates.
On the whole, Lashara is a woman who people usually remember, and whose only low profile is her height.
Personality:
By far Lashara's greatest assets are her powers of observation. From sights and smells to snippets of voices overheard through open windows, nothing escapes her attention. What sets her apart from any other observer is her mind, and the way she uses it. She is highly skilled in finding the bottom line, in reading between the lines to find the true story. She uses reasoning and her senses to narrow down the possible options, and pairs her abilities with proper investigative techniques to always catch her man.
Hara is also known for being “a green Selkath” as her friend once described her. She is painfully neutral, having very few actual opinions besides the dark side being bad and the light being good. She holds absolutely no resentment or malice for those with strong opinions, and she will, quite often, admit she envies them for seeing the world that way. Her own world view is radically different, and she sees every single thing in shades of grey. Every issue that’s raised, she sees at least two sides to. The more thought she puts into an issue, the more opinions she sees. To be true, when it comes to analyzing all those opinions, she becomes intent on classifying them all, and when pressed she will judge them based on validity with a very objective mind.
Objective is another word that can describe Hara. She walls off her personal feelings separately from her judgments. The older she’s gotten, the further the wall has slid, at the expense of her personal opinions. Those few that she does have are the result of years of thought, and are fully based upon facts. Personal tastes, however, are different. On such trivial items as food, clothing, colors, and sports teams, she has no need to support her opinions. One of those opinions that flies in the face of logic is her love for snow, the legacy of her upbringing on Rhen Var.
In her world of grey, the only things remotely absolute in her eyes are the laws of the Republic and the rules of the Jedi Order. She sees these as basically good and worthy of enforcing, even though she considers them flawed at times and in places. Even the flaws though, she understands the reasoning behind. In the wider context of being a Jedi, she does recognize forfeiture of certain things is essential. Relationships, procreation, and all those troublesome natural urges have to be restrained, and while they might be perfectly normal elsewhere, in the Jedi Order they are distractions and problems. Be that as it may, she is more lenient of that offense than others.
She is a realist, a woman who tends to see things free from the dark clouds of pessimism and the sunny aura of optimism, preferring to look at things as they actually are.
Lashara believes in one maxim above all else. All the world's a stage. Everyone in life is acting somehow, playing a part. What sets her apart from many others is the variety of parts she can play, the sheer diversity of roles she has. One serious danger for Hara is her tendency to delve deeply into her roles. She becomes fully absorbed in her cover story, and she embraces it, staying in character like a method actor, truly 'becoming' in an effort to blend in. She excels at it, and if she hadn't been a Jedi she might have had a very good career as an actress or a con artist.
Whenever there is a need for a volunteer, for something to be done, Hara is that volunteer. No matter how dangerous the assignment or how boring the chore, she constantly puts herself up for it. She derives a satisfaction from doing things, and in fact she's quite the dare devil. She is an adrenaline junkie, and lives for excitement.
A true staple for her, a thing she enjoys, is intellectual conversation. Discussion of ideas, philosophies, and current issues always captivates her, and she has no qualms engaging in the discourse, though she is always careful to be respectful and not to judge beliefs unless specifically asked. Often she takes both sides, alternating between the points each make. One of her prime things ‘to do’ personally is to make intricate wood carvings, cut by hand. She makes them and routinely gives them away as small gifts or means of thanks. It is her primary hobby, and one that she finds relieves stress.
Though not technically personality, she speaks Basic, the Mirialan language, Huttese, Durese, Mando'a, and Bocce, and understands binary and Shyriwook.
Birth place: Mirial
Faction: Jedi
Rank: Knight (Sentinel), Investigator
Lightsaber: Two Single blade single phase (anodized black hilts)
Color: Blue, green
Practiced Lightsaber forms:
Shii-Cho 5
Makashi
Soresu
Ataru
Shien / Djem So
>>Sub-form Backhanded
Niman 5
>>Sub-form Jar-kai, or Dual Wield 5
Juyo
Double Bladed Combat
Force-Sensitive Abilities or practices:
Telekinetic: 5
Telepathic: 6
Body: 4
Sense: 6
Protection: 5
Healing: 5
Destruction: 0
Specialized Skills:
Force Stealth
Force Cloak
Attributes:
Physical Strength: 4
Intelligence: 7
Speed: 7
Leadership: 3
Unarmed: 6
Melee Weapons: 6
Ranged Weapons: 6
Bio:
THE BEGINNING
Lashara Elpara was born on the frigid planet of Mirial at the very beginning of the year 3640BBY, the third of four children, and the only Force-Sensitive in the family. Her mother and father were a pair of poor innkeepers with more children than they could afford to feed.
Their story had begun six years previously, at a bar. Ataryn Elpara was a laborer in a foundry, working long hours smelting ore. It was difficult and dangerous work that he hated. One day at the bar he met Namina, a serving girl just a few years younger than he was. They hit it off right away, and soon they decided to make a life together. Ataryn took an early retirement and sunk his pension into a small tavern, where Namina worked. They were married, and together they ran their own establishment.
The first few years went surprisingly smoothly, hindered by an unexpected pregnancy. They hadn’t been expecting to have a child, at all in fact, but they embraced it as destiny, and were proud to have a baby boy, who they named Hiral. He was joined by another son a year later, named Jeris. They proved to be just another burden on an already strained existence, and Namina’s third pregnancy two years later strained the fabric of their relationship even further.
That third pregnancy was Lashara.
Lashara was a miracle baby in a bad way for them, the result of a primitive contraceptive’s failure, and her birth was directly due to her mother’s guilt over the idea of aborting her fetus. They made the decision to have the child and try to place her up for adoption. However, luckily for them, the blood test taken at her birth revealed her to be strong with the Force, and the Jedi Order were notified.
Ataryn and Namina had only a few days with their new daughter before the Jedi arrived to take her with them.
GROWING UP
Lashara was taken to the Jedi enclave at Rhen Var, switched from one icy climate to another. Of course, location was irrelevant for the green-skinned infant. Her first memories were of the nursery there in the enclave, with the handful of other toddlers in the care of Jedi nurses there. It was a small enclave, and a tight-knit community to grow up in, particularly compared to the Temple on Coruscant.
Young Lashara was quickly dubbed “Hara” by her fellow children, who found her names a bit of a mouthful. To be honest, she’d never thought about it, though how to spell her name had plagued her consistently. She was, unsurprisingly, not fluent in the Mirialan language, but she proved to be a voracious reader in Basic, even if she didn’t talk particularly much.
In fact, she was a very silent child, and far from the most social youngling. Her favorite pastimes weren’t sparring or meditation, but simply sitting outside bundled in a thick coat and watching the snow fall. Fortunately or unfortunately, she never was able to spend much time outside alone. Her youngling instructor, an Echani woman named Risa, was fiercely protective of little Hara, her favorite pupil. The Mirialan girl was a fantastic academic student, one who was gifted by any standards. She had fantastic information retention, and she never had to study any of the subjects presented in classes. They simply stuck in her mind and remained there, as if by magic. That was partnered with a genuine interest in academics, and the result was a girl who couldn’t help but be the proverbial ‘teacher’s pet.’
If she was loved by Risa, she most certainly wasn’t by most of the other Younglings. She was an odd girl who read a lot, preferred to sit outside in the numbing cold, and who never seemed to study and always seemed to do well. Only two others took the effort to befriend her, a human girl named Pella Danar and a Wookie boy named Rorurra. The latter proved a little problematic at first, since he spoke only his native language, but for Hara it was only a minor obstacle on the road to comprehension. She started to learn to understand Shyriwook through text materials and information from the libraries, one of her favorite haunts.
As it happened, Pella was relatively fickle, and at first she was only interested in getting help with her own academics. Over the course of a year though, she changed, and grew to appreciate Lashara more. Rorurra, on the other hand, had sought out the Mirialan girl in the hopes of finding a kindred soul. He was twice the size of the other Younglings and spoke a different language, but he knew somehow that Hara was an outsider too. He became the green child’s very best friend, not just for her time as a Youngling but for her whole life.
Between the three Younglings, they all achieved a balance of sorts. Pella was the best at commanding the Force, and she shared her tricks and tips with the others. Rorurra was the best at saber combat, and he passed along his knowledge to the others freely. Lashara was the one with all the knowledge of those boring real world subjects all the children were expected to learn. That wasn’t to say she was bad at the Force or sabers, just that she didn’t outshine the others in those respects.
As time went by, the Mirialan girl developed more interests, and refined her skills. One field of study that absolutely enthralled her was body language, the idea of reading someone through their actions rather than through telepathy. However, she wasn't social enough to test it, which led to her preferred method of learning: spying. She would watch other Younglings intently, often from hidden positions, and she would listen in on their conversations, watching them for everything she'd read about. It worked, and she was soon the queen of gossip, privy to everything that went on among the youth of Rhen Var. Even things she didn't know for sure she ventured guesses at, using deductive reasoning based on her 'reads' of people and the evidence at hand.
Other fields of interest were psychology and criminology. Risa had to admit she was a little worried when the datacards borrowed from the library were “Lies and the Liars Who Tell Them,” “Great Criminal Minds,” and “The Sentient Mind.” Ultimately the Echani instructor decided her favorite pupil was just an eccentric flower who was blooming in her own special way, and she worked hard to encourage that.
It seemed like just a few days had passed from her first studies to the point where prospective masters viewed all the Younglings. Hara was eleven years old, albeit eleven very precocious years, and was ready to impress a master. In the first Youngling tournament, she placed in the bottom of the upper quarter, thanks to the tutelage of her Wookie friend, which was enough to make a good name for herself. She knew, however, that her greatest resource was Risa, that prospective masters would ask the Youngling instructor who the best prospect was. It was in that way that her master found her.
One day, Leshara was sitting outside on a stone step, watching the snow falling when footsteps from behind captured her attention. It was a Rodian man named Glaymo, who sat down beside her and started his interview. He was a Jedi Investigator, a veteran of twenty years, and quite skilled. His own list of attributes desired in a Padawan were less focused on command of the Force and use of a saber and more focused on practical knowledge and skills that could be put to use in undercover training. His objective was to sound her out to find if his work was to her liking.
As it happened, it was. The girl was quite captivated with the idea of being an investigator, and readily agreed to be his Padawan. She took her first tattoo from another Mirialan in the Order, an arrow streaking along her forehead, composed of small triangles, in recognition of her acceptance as a Padawan.
LEARNING THE ROPES
As a Padawan, the first thing Hara noticed was the absence of her friends for training, and she clung to Glaymo all the more for it. She needed his training to take her mind off their absence.
Training, the Rodian Investigator had decided, would begin on a planet with a better climate than Rhen Var. He chose Dantooine as a location, as the site for learning at first. He rationalized that by living in a rural setting, she could always use that existence as a background story for her personas. It also was a nice quiet place to train her in all the knowledge he considered prerequisite, which made for a grueling regimen.
To begin with, every morning there were calisthenics, exercises catering to the Mirialan girl’s natural speed and flexibility, with an eye towards enhancing them. After them came practice with the lightsaber, in simple Shii Cho alone for the first five years. Only then did they eat their morning meal. After that came a period of relatively free study, where Glaymo would lay out a series of topics that needed study, and she would pick from them. Then after a few hours of study she would eat lunch with him and discuss their findings. After lunch, he taught her the use of blasters and vibroblades, as well as basic martial arts techniques. He taught her that sometimes she wouldn’t have her lightsabers, and she had to know what to fall back on. She realized the wisdom behind that. After that, she was required to study alien languages, and her first choice was the Mirialan language. As the years went by, Huttese and Mando’a joined it.
Evenings, however, were entirely her own. It was then that she spent time meditating, ate dinner, and took up her hobby of wood carving. She took the hobby on for the only reason she ever did anything: interest. Her first works were crude and poorly done, but over her years as a Padawan she grew in ability to the point where she was making pendants and figurines.
At 15, Hara’s master took her to the Temple on Coruscant, ready to immerse her in the whirl and magic of the city that never slept. Over the course of two years, he took her on outings into the various districts of the city, showing her social interactions and exposing her to the ‘real world’ that most Jedi weren’t aware of at her age. He taught her to steer clear of death sticks, how to use the Force to lessen the effects of alcohol, and how to take care of herself. He also began to teach her the basics of two rare force abilities: force stealth, and force cloak. Glaymo was proficient in both of them, and he was convinced they’d be useful for his Padawan.
Above all he taught her one important lesson. Do not judge before you know all the facts. It wasn’t safe to make half-cocked assumptions and expose yourself based on those, and it was only a mess of trouble if you failed to make the right assumption. He taught her to only act when the facts painted the right picture, and not her opinions. It wasn’t a lesson she learned until years later.
By 17, however, he deemed her ready to join him on investigations in the real galaxy, and he took her on another trip, this one to Ilum in order to build her saber. On the long trip there she assembled the hilt, made from anodized metal, smooth and simple, with very clean lines.
Upon arriving on Ilum she found herself in the third frigid climate of her young life, wandering deep into the crystal caves while wrapped in a warm parka. It took her the better part of a day to find the right crystal, a blue one that called to her. She took it from the formation and brought it up to the temple on the planet.
In her quarters she meditated over the crystal for a solid month, turning it idly in her hands to catch the light, rubbing green fingertips across it. It seemed as if it would never be ready, until one day she knew in her heart it was time to place it into the hilt. She did, and a beautiful blue blade sprang into life. She’d made her first saber.
INVESTIGATION
Lashara’s first investigation took place on Coruscant, and it wasn’t even a particularly dangerous assignment. Coruscant’s Finest, the boys and bots in blue, had been having trouble with a particular gang of thieves who left no traces. The Jedi were called in to augment the police and find the answers that were hidden. It was a prime example for teaching, and Glaymo taught his Padawan the principles of a stakeout, and the importance of patience. The police had set up a shop with flaws in security at the Jedi’s request, and it was used as bait at the very epicenter of the criminal activity. After two weeks of still nights, the street lights were shot out with a soft gunshot, and in came a speeder with no lights. The thieves were there, and started to strip the shop. Glaymo and Lashara stepped in and stopped them.
Surprisingly, there was no real fight. A pair of the suspects tried to escape out the back door and were caught by the police, but the sight of two Jedi had stopped them, and they weren't foolish enough to turn it into a fight, they knew it would only be one-sided and futile. It was then Glaymo taught her something important. “If you ever have to activate your lightsaber, the battle is half lost already.”
Other investigations followed, and all went well with one exception. It was at the end of a stakeout at a long night, and both Glaymo and Lashara were tired, the Padawan especially. Surprisingly, neither of them sensed the danger it was too late, and a volley of slugs hit them from across the street with mere seconds of warning. Glaymo was sitting at the far side of the speeder and was protected, but Hara took two .40 slugs to the chest, and another two to the stomach. Her master tried his healing techniques as the medics were called, and he succeeded in preserving her life long enough for help to arrive. They admitted her to the hospital in critical condition, and she remained that way for two days. She ultimately survived, though it took her a long time to recover.
THE TRIALS
Her trial of courage took place on an undercover mission to Metellos, where she and her master were tasked with busting up a sentient trafficking ring. She was disguised as a slave, her stature and height making her look considerably younger than her age, which was a perfect disarming ability. Her moment to shine came when the operation was burned and they had to escape. Rather than run, she stayed behind and fought a delaying action to buy time for the other slaves to escape. That great risk of her life was deemed acceptable, and her injuries earlier counted for the Trial of the Flesh.
That left only two Trials, Skill and Spirit. She opted to undertake both of them in the comfortable home of Rhen Var. It was icy, and the falling snow was deeply calming for her, allowing her to slip into meditation outdoors on a daily basis. She knew with time one of them would be just what she needed, and she was gifted with success. Outside, clad in a parka, she kneeled in the snow with a master from the enclave observing, and she had her deepest vision of all.
Hara was on Coruscant, in the Jedi Temple there, and it was filled with Jedi of all species and sizes. The Mirialan woman walked down its corridors and every single Jedi she met, she judged. She dismissed every person based on first impression, and she categorized them. The old she dismissed as feeble, the young as immature, the Togrutas as technophobes, the Twi’lek women as lusty, the Kel Dor as bland. Every single person she met was alienated, and no one looked on her with friendship in their eyes. But, as she was feeling despondent, the vision changed. She withheld judgment, and she listened. She looked past the first impressions, and the old became wise, the young vibrant, the Togrutas serene, the Twi’leks vivacious, and the Kel Dor as devoted. Instead of a Temple filled with strangers, it was filled with friends.
When she woke, Lashara’s face was numb, but she was smiling. She’d just learned the key to her status as a Jedi: not judging excessively, but listening and learning. She was ready for the next trial.
Lashara, despite being fast and agile, was not a skilled lightsaber duelist. Luckily, she had a true friend to rely on: Rorurra. He’d been Knighted a year previously, and was a skilled practitioner of both Niman and Jar’kai, the two forms that Hara was learning besides Shii Cho. He agreed to teach her, and the two trained nonstop for a full year on Rhen Var. However, their feverish training paid off well, and she prevailed in a duel with a holo representation of a Dark Jedi, ultimately disarming him with one saber and holding him hostage with the other.
It was during that time of Trials that she took on another one of her unique characteristics, her wearing of black. Increasingly she'd been studying the Mandalorian culture and the Mando'a language, and she felt she had a strong understanding of the people. One of their beliefs was the significance of colors, and black stood for justice. She deemed that appropriate for a Jedi investigator and started a one-woman campaign to prove black was an acceptable color for Jedi to wear. It also served as a lesson for others to not judge the book by the cover.
KNIGHTHOOD
Lashara Elpara was Knighted by the enclave Council on Rhen Var, her Padawan braid was undone, and she was recognized as a Jedi Sentinel and a full investigator. Her title had finally caught up to her feats. She was 22, and once again ready to do what the Jedi Order needed done.
By far her favorite mission was to take down an illegal gambling operation, which entailed rooting out, and trying out, a dozen betting parlors scattered throughout the lower cities. She took names, she gathered up information, and then she handed it all over to the Police and watched like a fly on the wall as her intelligence work paid off.
When she was 24, another undercover opportunity came up, and she was given a dangerous assignment, scouting out Dark Jedi on Druckenwell, where wealthy interests were hosting them. Hara’s experience at disguising herself and her skill at force stealth and cloak meant she could effectively hide her force presence and blend in as a normal person, allowing her to poke around discretely and pin down the whereabouts of the Dark Jedi. It entailed a set of false records, and a cover identity. After that it was careful sweeps of the world for things out of place, following up on the tips they’d received. It wasn’t easy, but after six months she had a solid lead, and she chased it. She followed it directly to a private resort, where right under the nose of planetary security the dark siders were thriving. With their location confirmed, a team of Guardians were sent to apprehend them and Hara was pulled out, just in time for her birthday.
At the age of 27, she took on her greatest and most dangerous assignment of all, deep cover inside the feared Mandalorian terrorist group, the Dha Werda Verda. A string of high profile chemical attacks in the Republic had convinced the Jedi Order to infiltrate the group, and they wanted only an experienced investigator and a hot young asset to back him. Glaymo and Lashara were chosen as their respective parts, both prized for their knowledge of the Mandalorians and fluency in Mando'a.
The details were kept very careful. Glaymo was given a new identity as a disgruntled security guard, complete with employer histories for his whole life, and Lashara was set up as a young Mandalorian girl with a family history dating back to the days of the Mandalorian wars. The illusion was completed, and they were both sent out to live ordinary lives for a year to cement their cover stories.
For the Mirialan Knight, a year away from the Jedi was a strain. Living a normal life was much more difficult than she’d expected, all the while dropping hints in bars that she longed for the old ways and the ‘true Mandalorian faith.’ However, her efforts weren’t wasted, and the Dha Werda Verda contacted her through a lone man. They were impressed by her fictitious bloodline, and wanted to arrange a meeting to see if she would enter their ranks. Naturally she said yes, though only after enough persuasion. Appearing too eager to join could be just as detrimental, particularly when the terrorists were increasingly worried about security.
She was given three days to put her affairs in order before joining, during which time she contacted the Jedi Order and apprised them of the update. They gave her permission to do whatever had to be done, and she set off to infiltrate one of the most dangerous organizations in the galaxy.
It was quite scary, even for an experienced Knight, when her head was stuffed in a black sack and she was taken to a ship. Hara was placed into a room, and kept there for some unknown length of time before something strange happened. Something very strange. When she woke up to the ship landing, the Force was no longer with her. It was silent, and she could sense absolutely nothing. Her first impression was that her food had been drugged, and she tried running through healing techniques designed to purge toxins, but to no avail. In actuality she had arrived on Myrkr, a world with a strange life form known as ysalimiri, which blocked the Force. Their combined overlapping effect blacked out the whole world.
Deprived of her senses, she had to rely on her wits, her knowledge, and her acting ability. Her prime assistance came in the form of reading body language. The human, a man named Verol Paro about ten years her senior, who was processing her entry was someone she could get strong vibes from, and she was able to win his trust by gauging what responses he wanted. She succeeded in portraying a fiery and strong woman, with an attitude. He liked that a lot, and she had him interested in her pretty fast.
Despite her own combat training, she was put through the DWV’s training camps, using their programs. It was good practice for her, and a proper refresher since fighting without the Force left her feeling blind and useless. Somehow she made it through their nine month training program though, and was inducted as a formal member. She took a slugthrower for her weapon and readied herself for action.
Every day she spent with them, she grew closer to them. She felt a strange interest in them even as she felt an inner disgust at what they preached. They were literal believers in Mandalorian myth, believing that Kad Ha'rangir demanded destruction to enter paradise after death. It was fascinating, if deplorable, but there was a kinship among them that couldn't be so easily dismissed. Their unity made them dangerous foes, and they accepted her as a member. Paro was by far her greatest benefactor, and he was itching to get the 'fiery' young woman to prove herself.
As a Jedi undercover, she faced a moral dilemma. Was she justified in killing innocent people to maintain her cover? She knew in her heart that the answer was no, that becoming a murderer wasn’t justified to stop murderers. She resolved to do her best to miss, to hit arms and legs rather than chests and heads, and to rely on fists as much as possible.
As luck would have it, her first mission was to secure weapons for the DWV by raiding a supply depot in the Sith Empire. She had considerably fewer qualms about causing injuries to enemies of the Republic, and she did it with confidence. It was a straight forward mission, one planned out well where each of the five operatives had a role. Hara was the rear guard, tasked with protecting the way out. As it happened, it wasn’t the hardest task, particularly for a Jedi. Free of the ysalamiri, she was able to Force persuade the one guard who approached her, sending him back the way he’d come. She kept the entrance clear, and the others emerged with crates of weapons on hoversleds. She helped them load the goods up, and then she departed with them. It was a textbook operation, and they were pleased with how well she’d done at her simple job.
She dropped hints that she enjoyed seeing the plan, hoping they’d let her into the planning department. As near as she could tell, the planning department was where the sensitive information lay. She was itching to get near it. But even as she felt that desire, she also felt concern. It had been two years since she’d seen her former master, and she found herself wondering what had become of him.
In his absence, she found herself drawing closer to Paro. He trusted her, and was obviously attracted. She felt vaguely guilty for leading him on, but he was high-ranking in the group, and she needed his friendship.
She found out about Glaymo on a relaxed morning as she was doing pull ups on a bar in the training course. Glaymo emerged from a shuttle with a duffel slung over his shoulder. He was a little older, and looked a little tired, but he was definitely the same Rodian she’d known. It took all her restraint and acting ability to feign ignorance and ask the man next to her who the stranger was. However she kept her interest purely passive, knowing he’d make contact when he felt it was safe.
Three days after his arrival a knock came on Hara’s window, and she found a note written in his handwriting giving her a time and a place to meet him. She snuck out of her room and stood watching the forest, smoking a cigarette. Sure enough, Glaymo walked over by her side and they exchanged stories.
While Hara had been scooped up promptly, it had taken a full two years for her former master to catch the attention of the DWV, and had required him to build up a reputation in the criminal underworld as a master planner. The reputation was mostly false, but it gave him an in. The DWV had accepted him readily, and sent him straight to the planning department, that coveted objective of the Mirialan Knight. He made the suggestion they meet each other for the ‘first time’ the next day, and promised he’d try to bring her into the planning department as well. However, he was also concerned about security. The DWV was hard-pressed by the Sith and the Republic alike, and the enemies were everywhere. They were playing with fire.
In reward for her elevation to the planning department away from field jobs, Paro passed along a token of his affection: his mother's beskar. It was a yellow set of neo crusader armor built for a short woman, one he'd been saving for Miss Right for a long time. It would have been foolish not to accept, so Hara took it. And she had to admit, there were worse fates. In another life she might even have reciprocated his feelings.
However, it was only a matter of time before they were burned. A year later, the counter-intelligence experts in the Myrkr base intercepted a data card meant for Republic Intelligence, a document describing planning and patterns, one that had to have come from inside the camp. Immediately suspicions were heightened. It was a whole four days before Glaymo could find time to privately have a word with his former Padawan.
They were at a juncture, and he told her with a sad weariness that her destiny lay down a different path from his, and that the only way to fulfill the mission was for him to be a sacrifice. And the only way for Hara to gain the full trust of the terrorists was for her to be the one who turned in Glaymo. That was perfectly logical, and she knew it was the only way to complete the mission, but she protested anyway, a feeble protest where she already knew the answer.
The next day she spoke to the counterintelligence officer and denounced her former master, suggesting he was a Republic mole and she’d seen him behaving suspiciously. It never occurred to the officer that one spy would denounce another, and it catapulted her directly into his newly vacated spot in the office. He was executed a week later.
After his death, everything was darker and harder, and vastly more lonely. Passing along information was hard, and receiving orders was even harder. Paro was the only company, and she even let their relationship evolve to hugs and kisses. But one mission, five years after she went in, Lashara received orders to withdraw. The Republic, thanks to her intelligence, was wiping out every base of the Dha Werda Verda within reach. Her work was done there at the age of 32. She never knew what happened to Paro.
Growing older was something she didn’t mind, and she was enjoying her downtime on Rhen Var, catching up with Rorurra whenever she could and furthering her training. She felt the need to work ever harder to catch up for the time she missed while on missions, and to be an excellent Jedi. She did feel ambivalent about one thing in particular: the possibility of a Padawan. She knew that raising up a Padawan to a Knight was the most sure way to become a master, and she knew she had valid knowledge to pass along. However, she wasn’t exactly a great leader. She had intelligence, and she had skills, but she’d never even tried to pass along knowledge to others. She decided to simply wait a few years and resume her training and missions.
Things took a turn for the worse though, as just a few days after busting a spice-smuggling operation she returned to the enclave on Rhen Var with the intent of relaxing amid the snow. Instead, just a week later, she found a Sith invasion underway. Lashara found herself assisting in the evacuation before finally leaving behind her childhood home herself.
That loss left a bitter taste in her mouth as she resettled on Coruscant, and proceeded to bury herself in work. Undercover or not, she did it all, adopting a policy of immersion to distract her from the loss of Rhen Var. She also redoubled her training, particularly focusing on Force Cloak and Force Stealth.
She also developed the quirk of always volunteering for everything, the more dangerous the better.
RP Sample:
Lashara Elpara stood in the black night on Myrkr, a dark so thick you could cut it with a knife. Out in the woods were all kinds of creature sounds, wafting through the air to the Mirialan Jedi’s ears. Only the tabac cigarette she was smoking provided light, just a glowing spot in the dark. To be honest, it ruined her night vision, but it gave her an excuse if the guards caught her. Nothing but an innocent cigarette break in the night, craving a bit of stillness.
The dark didn’t bother her however as much as the strange blackness in her mind. Something about this planet blocked the Force, severed her from it. That made her job vastly more dangerous, but she couldn’t simply walk away from it. This was deep cover, and the result of two years of work. Hard work, convincing everyone she was a Mandalorian named Hara Trobona, from Concord Dawn and the last of a line of Mandalorians dating back to the wars.
Hara was a petite woman at five feet tall, slender, but blessed with curves. Certainly she wasn’t what people expected of a Mandalorian, which was the reason why she’d had to fight harder than the others, and be tougher. It had taken a year to gain their trust, but she’d won it. And now she was risking all that to get in touch with Glaymo, her Rodian former master.
She turned her head, and eyes a vibrant shade of orange detected a shadowy figure moving toward her. She looked intently, though she still smoked the cigarette nonchalantly to keep up her disguise. As the figure drew nearer however, she could make out it was a Rodian, and then as he drew further still it became clear it was indeed her master.
“Lashara,” He said softly, “It’s good to see you again.”
The Mirialan Knight nodded her agreement. “It’s good to see you too.”
“I don’t have much time, and I can’t afford to blow this cover. They’ve put me into the planning department, I’ll need you in with me. Tomorrow at lunch we can meet for the first time, and when we hit it off I’ll bring you into the Office too. Are we clear?”
Hara dropped the butt of her cigarette and stepped on it, extinguishing the glow with her boot. “Crystal.”
Her master turned and walked silently back in the direction he’d come from, and she stared for a few minutes longer at the tree line, as if expecting something to happen. Nothing did, of course, and she turned and headed back to bed herself, anticipating the developments of the next day.
Eight Years Later
"Call," Lashara Elpara stated flatly to the man across from her in the cantina, the one she was very carefully allowing enough rope to hang himself with. "Who's the target?"
The Quarren looked furtively around the room, checking for eavesdroppers. He was oblivious to the fact that the woman in Mandalorian armor before him was no assassin, but actually a Jedi Investigator, and a good one at that.
"A Mon Calamari named Bac, he double-crossed me. But I warn you, he has influential friends who won't be interested in seeing him go."
The Mirialan woman interlaced her fingers behind her head and leaned back in an agonizingly relaxed fashion as she looked down at the sabacc cards on the table.
"And fold." The Quarren added belatedly, tossing his own cards down.
Hara pulled the handpot to her and swept the credits into a pouch, idly running an armed hand over her helmet, which was sitting on the edge of the table. People liked seeing the face under it, seeing long black hair, green skin, and orange eyes. She obliged them.
"If he has friends it's 2,000 up front and 3,000 on completion of the job. And remember, if you don't pay me, I get you."
Though the Quarren wasn't aware, Hara knew as much about Bac as he did, about how the Mon Cal had tipped off the Republic about an arms smuggling ring he'd been in, how his testimony had shut it down. They'd anticipated his partner at large would want revenge, and they'd subtly inserted her into the mix to secure his conviction. Luckily the Jedi could move fast when needed, when a life was on the line.
"All right, deal." The Quarren slid across a few credits, the Mirialan took them, and the deal was done.
Lashara put on her helmet, stood up, and shifted her lightsaber into her hand, the one she'd convinced him was a trophy. He turned and she tapped him on the shoulder to gain his attention. As he spun around she tightened her grip, her voice transmitting through the helmet. "Under the authority of the Jedi Order, I am placing you under arrest."
If you have to ignite your lightsaber, you've lost half the battle already.
Her departed master's words rang in her ears as she held the Jedi weapon. So far she hadn't been defeated today, and she was hoping for a complete victory. It all depended on how it went, on what the Quarren did.
Hara could see multiple options leading to different solutions. Option one. He runs. A force pull grabs him and pulls him to her, a prompt punch to his face stuns him, and binders to his wrists secures him. A few seconds only. Option two. He fights. With the blaster at his waist he draws and fires. Her saber is ignited, and severs his weapon, disarming him. He runs, the situation remains the same. A few seconds longer. Option three. He surrenders. Binders are put on to secure him, shortest delay.
Option four was the most interesting. A false surrender buys him a few extra seconds in which to run or to fight, but ultimately it results in the same thing. The conclusion was inevitable.
The Quarren turned and sprinted as fast as he could towards the door, and it was clear he'd chosen option one. Hara's hand darted up and she pulled him to her telekinetically, his arms flailing as he stumbled backwards against his will. She punched him in the face and he stumbled worse, off balance. The Mirialan Jedi threw him to the ground and lowered her knee to his back, pulling his hands together and slapping on a pair of durasteel binders.
Done. Captured successfully in under thirty seconds. No lightsaber was activated.
The battle was entirely won.
Race: Mirialan
Age: 39
Height: 5’
Weight: 100 lbs
Appearance: Lashara Elpara is a very petite woman at just 5 feet high, is extremely slender and curvy, and possessed of a few distinguishing features apart from her vivid green skin. The first are her eyes, almond-shaped and a vibrant orange color, rare but not unheard of in her species. The second is her hair. She has long raven hair that falls down past her shoulders to her waist, flowing freely. She finds it often gets in the way however, though she still can’t bring herself to cut it, so on occasions where she’s on a mission she’ll put it into a ponytail.
Her face is definitely worthy of description, being rather ‘easy to look at’ as one of her friends once put it. She has a slender face, with high cheekbones, full lips that are almost pouty, and a distinctive patrician nose. Her face is also emblazoned with a distinctive tattoo, one that took her many to complete. It is a large mostly circular tattoo eclipsing the left side of her face. It starts with a trio of arrows merging into one line running down her forehead, covering half her nose, and streaking down to her jaw, where it ends. In and of itself that would be impressive, but it is even more so, as it is composed entirely of triangles.
Interestingly, Hara is a woman who looks much younger than she is, whether due to her force sensitivity or pure genetic luck. It comes in handy on undercover missions, when she can easily pass herself off as just about anything.
Unlike most Jedi, she wears black robes with knee high leather boots, also in a glossy black. The robes are cut in the typical Jedi fashion, and they have no other differences apart from color. Her choice of black is an unusual personal preference, but a conscious choice. She wears the color to 'redeem’ it from the Sith and the Dark Jedi, to show that in and of itself, nothing is wrong with black.
Her lightsaber hilts too are black, an anodized finish that is very forgiving of scratches and scrapes. Both of her sabers are worn on her utility belt at her waist, along with a pair of pouches containing useful items like comm. links, datapads, and credits. She also carries a few sets of binders with her all the time, in case she has to make arrests.
However, very often Hara isn’t in her robes at all. As an Investigator, she goes undercover routinely, and disguises herself as anything from a lady of the evening to a Mandalorian mercenary. For the latter purpose, she even 'owns' a set of yellow beskar neo crusader armor she acquired while undercover among the Mandalorians, whose culture she learned intimately. Technically she admits it belongs to the Jedi Order, but for all practical purposes it is hers, partially because few other Jedi are short enough to fit into it.
She relies heavily on non-Jedi weapons when undercover. She pairs blades with a revolving door of blasters and slugthrowers as each assignment dictates.
On the whole, Lashara is a woman who people usually remember, and whose only low profile is her height.
Personality:
By far Lashara's greatest assets are her powers of observation. From sights and smells to snippets of voices overheard through open windows, nothing escapes her attention. What sets her apart from any other observer is her mind, and the way she uses it. She is highly skilled in finding the bottom line, in reading between the lines to find the true story. She uses reasoning and her senses to narrow down the possible options, and pairs her abilities with proper investigative techniques to always catch her man.
Hara is also known for being “a green Selkath” as her friend once described her. She is painfully neutral, having very few actual opinions besides the dark side being bad and the light being good. She holds absolutely no resentment or malice for those with strong opinions, and she will, quite often, admit she envies them for seeing the world that way. Her own world view is radically different, and she sees every single thing in shades of grey. Every issue that’s raised, she sees at least two sides to. The more thought she puts into an issue, the more opinions she sees. To be true, when it comes to analyzing all those opinions, she becomes intent on classifying them all, and when pressed she will judge them based on validity with a very objective mind.
Objective is another word that can describe Hara. She walls off her personal feelings separately from her judgments. The older she’s gotten, the further the wall has slid, at the expense of her personal opinions. Those few that she does have are the result of years of thought, and are fully based upon facts. Personal tastes, however, are different. On such trivial items as food, clothing, colors, and sports teams, she has no need to support her opinions. One of those opinions that flies in the face of logic is her love for snow, the legacy of her upbringing on Rhen Var.
In her world of grey, the only things remotely absolute in her eyes are the laws of the Republic and the rules of the Jedi Order. She sees these as basically good and worthy of enforcing, even though she considers them flawed at times and in places. Even the flaws though, she understands the reasoning behind. In the wider context of being a Jedi, she does recognize forfeiture of certain things is essential. Relationships, procreation, and all those troublesome natural urges have to be restrained, and while they might be perfectly normal elsewhere, in the Jedi Order they are distractions and problems. Be that as it may, she is more lenient of that offense than others.
She is a realist, a woman who tends to see things free from the dark clouds of pessimism and the sunny aura of optimism, preferring to look at things as they actually are.
Lashara believes in one maxim above all else. All the world's a stage. Everyone in life is acting somehow, playing a part. What sets her apart from many others is the variety of parts she can play, the sheer diversity of roles she has. One serious danger for Hara is her tendency to delve deeply into her roles. She becomes fully absorbed in her cover story, and she embraces it, staying in character like a method actor, truly 'becoming' in an effort to blend in. She excels at it, and if she hadn't been a Jedi she might have had a very good career as an actress or a con artist.
Whenever there is a need for a volunteer, for something to be done, Hara is that volunteer. No matter how dangerous the assignment or how boring the chore, she constantly puts herself up for it. She derives a satisfaction from doing things, and in fact she's quite the dare devil. She is an adrenaline junkie, and lives for excitement.
A true staple for her, a thing she enjoys, is intellectual conversation. Discussion of ideas, philosophies, and current issues always captivates her, and she has no qualms engaging in the discourse, though she is always careful to be respectful and not to judge beliefs unless specifically asked. Often she takes both sides, alternating between the points each make. One of her prime things ‘to do’ personally is to make intricate wood carvings, cut by hand. She makes them and routinely gives them away as small gifts or means of thanks. It is her primary hobby, and one that she finds relieves stress.
Though not technically personality, she speaks Basic, the Mirialan language, Huttese, Durese, Mando'a, and Bocce, and understands binary and Shyriwook.
Birth place: Mirial
Faction: Jedi
Rank: Knight (Sentinel), Investigator
Lightsaber: Two Single blade single phase (anodized black hilts)
Color: Blue, green
Practiced Lightsaber forms:
Shii-Cho 5
Makashi
Soresu
Ataru
Shien / Djem So
>>Sub-form Backhanded
Niman 5
>>Sub-form Jar-kai, or Dual Wield 5
Juyo
Double Bladed Combat
Force-Sensitive Abilities or practices:
Telekinetic: 5
Telepathic: 6
Body: 4
Sense: 6
Protection: 5
Healing: 5
Destruction: 0
Specialized Skills:
Force Stealth
Force Cloak
Attributes:
Physical Strength: 4
Intelligence: 7
Speed: 7
Leadership: 3
Unarmed: 6
Melee Weapons: 6
Ranged Weapons: 6
Bio:
THE BEGINNING
Lashara Elpara was born on the frigid planet of Mirial at the very beginning of the year 3640BBY, the third of four children, and the only Force-Sensitive in the family. Her mother and father were a pair of poor innkeepers with more children than they could afford to feed.
Their story had begun six years previously, at a bar. Ataryn Elpara was a laborer in a foundry, working long hours smelting ore. It was difficult and dangerous work that he hated. One day at the bar he met Namina, a serving girl just a few years younger than he was. They hit it off right away, and soon they decided to make a life together. Ataryn took an early retirement and sunk his pension into a small tavern, where Namina worked. They were married, and together they ran their own establishment.
The first few years went surprisingly smoothly, hindered by an unexpected pregnancy. They hadn’t been expecting to have a child, at all in fact, but they embraced it as destiny, and were proud to have a baby boy, who they named Hiral. He was joined by another son a year later, named Jeris. They proved to be just another burden on an already strained existence, and Namina’s third pregnancy two years later strained the fabric of their relationship even further.
That third pregnancy was Lashara.
Lashara was a miracle baby in a bad way for them, the result of a primitive contraceptive’s failure, and her birth was directly due to her mother’s guilt over the idea of aborting her fetus. They made the decision to have the child and try to place her up for adoption. However, luckily for them, the blood test taken at her birth revealed her to be strong with the Force, and the Jedi Order were notified.
Ataryn and Namina had only a few days with their new daughter before the Jedi arrived to take her with them.
GROWING UP
Lashara was taken to the Jedi enclave at Rhen Var, switched from one icy climate to another. Of course, location was irrelevant for the green-skinned infant. Her first memories were of the nursery there in the enclave, with the handful of other toddlers in the care of Jedi nurses there. It was a small enclave, and a tight-knit community to grow up in, particularly compared to the Temple on Coruscant.
Young Lashara was quickly dubbed “Hara” by her fellow children, who found her names a bit of a mouthful. To be honest, she’d never thought about it, though how to spell her name had plagued her consistently. She was, unsurprisingly, not fluent in the Mirialan language, but she proved to be a voracious reader in Basic, even if she didn’t talk particularly much.
In fact, she was a very silent child, and far from the most social youngling. Her favorite pastimes weren’t sparring or meditation, but simply sitting outside bundled in a thick coat and watching the snow fall. Fortunately or unfortunately, she never was able to spend much time outside alone. Her youngling instructor, an Echani woman named Risa, was fiercely protective of little Hara, her favorite pupil. The Mirialan girl was a fantastic academic student, one who was gifted by any standards. She had fantastic information retention, and she never had to study any of the subjects presented in classes. They simply stuck in her mind and remained there, as if by magic. That was partnered with a genuine interest in academics, and the result was a girl who couldn’t help but be the proverbial ‘teacher’s pet.’
If she was loved by Risa, she most certainly wasn’t by most of the other Younglings. She was an odd girl who read a lot, preferred to sit outside in the numbing cold, and who never seemed to study and always seemed to do well. Only two others took the effort to befriend her, a human girl named Pella Danar and a Wookie boy named Rorurra. The latter proved a little problematic at first, since he spoke only his native language, but for Hara it was only a minor obstacle on the road to comprehension. She started to learn to understand Shyriwook through text materials and information from the libraries, one of her favorite haunts.
As it happened, Pella was relatively fickle, and at first she was only interested in getting help with her own academics. Over the course of a year though, she changed, and grew to appreciate Lashara more. Rorurra, on the other hand, had sought out the Mirialan girl in the hopes of finding a kindred soul. He was twice the size of the other Younglings and spoke a different language, but he knew somehow that Hara was an outsider too. He became the green child’s very best friend, not just for her time as a Youngling but for her whole life.
Between the three Younglings, they all achieved a balance of sorts. Pella was the best at commanding the Force, and she shared her tricks and tips with the others. Rorurra was the best at saber combat, and he passed along his knowledge to the others freely. Lashara was the one with all the knowledge of those boring real world subjects all the children were expected to learn. That wasn’t to say she was bad at the Force or sabers, just that she didn’t outshine the others in those respects.
As time went by, the Mirialan girl developed more interests, and refined her skills. One field of study that absolutely enthralled her was body language, the idea of reading someone through their actions rather than through telepathy. However, she wasn't social enough to test it, which led to her preferred method of learning: spying. She would watch other Younglings intently, often from hidden positions, and she would listen in on their conversations, watching them for everything she'd read about. It worked, and she was soon the queen of gossip, privy to everything that went on among the youth of Rhen Var. Even things she didn't know for sure she ventured guesses at, using deductive reasoning based on her 'reads' of people and the evidence at hand.
Other fields of interest were psychology and criminology. Risa had to admit she was a little worried when the datacards borrowed from the library were “Lies and the Liars Who Tell Them,” “Great Criminal Minds,” and “The Sentient Mind.” Ultimately the Echani instructor decided her favorite pupil was just an eccentric flower who was blooming in her own special way, and she worked hard to encourage that.
It seemed like just a few days had passed from her first studies to the point where prospective masters viewed all the Younglings. Hara was eleven years old, albeit eleven very precocious years, and was ready to impress a master. In the first Youngling tournament, she placed in the bottom of the upper quarter, thanks to the tutelage of her Wookie friend, which was enough to make a good name for herself. She knew, however, that her greatest resource was Risa, that prospective masters would ask the Youngling instructor who the best prospect was. It was in that way that her master found her.
One day, Leshara was sitting outside on a stone step, watching the snow falling when footsteps from behind captured her attention. It was a Rodian man named Glaymo, who sat down beside her and started his interview. He was a Jedi Investigator, a veteran of twenty years, and quite skilled. His own list of attributes desired in a Padawan were less focused on command of the Force and use of a saber and more focused on practical knowledge and skills that could be put to use in undercover training. His objective was to sound her out to find if his work was to her liking.
As it happened, it was. The girl was quite captivated with the idea of being an investigator, and readily agreed to be his Padawan. She took her first tattoo from another Mirialan in the Order, an arrow streaking along her forehead, composed of small triangles, in recognition of her acceptance as a Padawan.
LEARNING THE ROPES
As a Padawan, the first thing Hara noticed was the absence of her friends for training, and she clung to Glaymo all the more for it. She needed his training to take her mind off their absence.
Training, the Rodian Investigator had decided, would begin on a planet with a better climate than Rhen Var. He chose Dantooine as a location, as the site for learning at first. He rationalized that by living in a rural setting, she could always use that existence as a background story for her personas. It also was a nice quiet place to train her in all the knowledge he considered prerequisite, which made for a grueling regimen.
To begin with, every morning there were calisthenics, exercises catering to the Mirialan girl’s natural speed and flexibility, with an eye towards enhancing them. After them came practice with the lightsaber, in simple Shii Cho alone for the first five years. Only then did they eat their morning meal. After that came a period of relatively free study, where Glaymo would lay out a series of topics that needed study, and she would pick from them. Then after a few hours of study she would eat lunch with him and discuss their findings. After lunch, he taught her the use of blasters and vibroblades, as well as basic martial arts techniques. He taught her that sometimes she wouldn’t have her lightsabers, and she had to know what to fall back on. She realized the wisdom behind that. After that, she was required to study alien languages, and her first choice was the Mirialan language. As the years went by, Huttese and Mando’a joined it.
Evenings, however, were entirely her own. It was then that she spent time meditating, ate dinner, and took up her hobby of wood carving. She took the hobby on for the only reason she ever did anything: interest. Her first works were crude and poorly done, but over her years as a Padawan she grew in ability to the point where she was making pendants and figurines.
At 15, Hara’s master took her to the Temple on Coruscant, ready to immerse her in the whirl and magic of the city that never slept. Over the course of two years, he took her on outings into the various districts of the city, showing her social interactions and exposing her to the ‘real world’ that most Jedi weren’t aware of at her age. He taught her to steer clear of death sticks, how to use the Force to lessen the effects of alcohol, and how to take care of herself. He also began to teach her the basics of two rare force abilities: force stealth, and force cloak. Glaymo was proficient in both of them, and he was convinced they’d be useful for his Padawan.
Above all he taught her one important lesson. Do not judge before you know all the facts. It wasn’t safe to make half-cocked assumptions and expose yourself based on those, and it was only a mess of trouble if you failed to make the right assumption. He taught her to only act when the facts painted the right picture, and not her opinions. It wasn’t a lesson she learned until years later.
By 17, however, he deemed her ready to join him on investigations in the real galaxy, and he took her on another trip, this one to Ilum in order to build her saber. On the long trip there she assembled the hilt, made from anodized metal, smooth and simple, with very clean lines.
Upon arriving on Ilum she found herself in the third frigid climate of her young life, wandering deep into the crystal caves while wrapped in a warm parka. It took her the better part of a day to find the right crystal, a blue one that called to her. She took it from the formation and brought it up to the temple on the planet.
In her quarters she meditated over the crystal for a solid month, turning it idly in her hands to catch the light, rubbing green fingertips across it. It seemed as if it would never be ready, until one day she knew in her heart it was time to place it into the hilt. She did, and a beautiful blue blade sprang into life. She’d made her first saber.
INVESTIGATION
Lashara’s first investigation took place on Coruscant, and it wasn’t even a particularly dangerous assignment. Coruscant’s Finest, the boys and bots in blue, had been having trouble with a particular gang of thieves who left no traces. The Jedi were called in to augment the police and find the answers that were hidden. It was a prime example for teaching, and Glaymo taught his Padawan the principles of a stakeout, and the importance of patience. The police had set up a shop with flaws in security at the Jedi’s request, and it was used as bait at the very epicenter of the criminal activity. After two weeks of still nights, the street lights were shot out with a soft gunshot, and in came a speeder with no lights. The thieves were there, and started to strip the shop. Glaymo and Lashara stepped in and stopped them.
Surprisingly, there was no real fight. A pair of the suspects tried to escape out the back door and were caught by the police, but the sight of two Jedi had stopped them, and they weren't foolish enough to turn it into a fight, they knew it would only be one-sided and futile. It was then Glaymo taught her something important. “If you ever have to activate your lightsaber, the battle is half lost already.”
Other investigations followed, and all went well with one exception. It was at the end of a stakeout at a long night, and both Glaymo and Lashara were tired, the Padawan especially. Surprisingly, neither of them sensed the danger it was too late, and a volley of slugs hit them from across the street with mere seconds of warning. Glaymo was sitting at the far side of the speeder and was protected, but Hara took two .40 slugs to the chest, and another two to the stomach. Her master tried his healing techniques as the medics were called, and he succeeded in preserving her life long enough for help to arrive. They admitted her to the hospital in critical condition, and she remained that way for two days. She ultimately survived, though it took her a long time to recover.
THE TRIALS
Her trial of courage took place on an undercover mission to Metellos, where she and her master were tasked with busting up a sentient trafficking ring. She was disguised as a slave, her stature and height making her look considerably younger than her age, which was a perfect disarming ability. Her moment to shine came when the operation was burned and they had to escape. Rather than run, she stayed behind and fought a delaying action to buy time for the other slaves to escape. That great risk of her life was deemed acceptable, and her injuries earlier counted for the Trial of the Flesh.
That left only two Trials, Skill and Spirit. She opted to undertake both of them in the comfortable home of Rhen Var. It was icy, and the falling snow was deeply calming for her, allowing her to slip into meditation outdoors on a daily basis. She knew with time one of them would be just what she needed, and she was gifted with success. Outside, clad in a parka, she kneeled in the snow with a master from the enclave observing, and she had her deepest vision of all.
Hara was on Coruscant, in the Jedi Temple there, and it was filled with Jedi of all species and sizes. The Mirialan woman walked down its corridors and every single Jedi she met, she judged. She dismissed every person based on first impression, and she categorized them. The old she dismissed as feeble, the young as immature, the Togrutas as technophobes, the Twi’lek women as lusty, the Kel Dor as bland. Every single person she met was alienated, and no one looked on her with friendship in their eyes. But, as she was feeling despondent, the vision changed. She withheld judgment, and she listened. She looked past the first impressions, and the old became wise, the young vibrant, the Togrutas serene, the Twi’leks vivacious, and the Kel Dor as devoted. Instead of a Temple filled with strangers, it was filled with friends.
When she woke, Lashara’s face was numb, but she was smiling. She’d just learned the key to her status as a Jedi: not judging excessively, but listening and learning. She was ready for the next trial.
Lashara, despite being fast and agile, was not a skilled lightsaber duelist. Luckily, she had a true friend to rely on: Rorurra. He’d been Knighted a year previously, and was a skilled practitioner of both Niman and Jar’kai, the two forms that Hara was learning besides Shii Cho. He agreed to teach her, and the two trained nonstop for a full year on Rhen Var. However, their feverish training paid off well, and she prevailed in a duel with a holo representation of a Dark Jedi, ultimately disarming him with one saber and holding him hostage with the other.
It was during that time of Trials that she took on another one of her unique characteristics, her wearing of black. Increasingly she'd been studying the Mandalorian culture and the Mando'a language, and she felt she had a strong understanding of the people. One of their beliefs was the significance of colors, and black stood for justice. She deemed that appropriate for a Jedi investigator and started a one-woman campaign to prove black was an acceptable color for Jedi to wear. It also served as a lesson for others to not judge the book by the cover.
KNIGHTHOOD
Lashara Elpara was Knighted by the enclave Council on Rhen Var, her Padawan braid was undone, and she was recognized as a Jedi Sentinel and a full investigator. Her title had finally caught up to her feats. She was 22, and once again ready to do what the Jedi Order needed done.
By far her favorite mission was to take down an illegal gambling operation, which entailed rooting out, and trying out, a dozen betting parlors scattered throughout the lower cities. She took names, she gathered up information, and then she handed it all over to the Police and watched like a fly on the wall as her intelligence work paid off.
When she was 24, another undercover opportunity came up, and she was given a dangerous assignment, scouting out Dark Jedi on Druckenwell, where wealthy interests were hosting them. Hara’s experience at disguising herself and her skill at force stealth and cloak meant she could effectively hide her force presence and blend in as a normal person, allowing her to poke around discretely and pin down the whereabouts of the Dark Jedi. It entailed a set of false records, and a cover identity. After that it was careful sweeps of the world for things out of place, following up on the tips they’d received. It wasn’t easy, but after six months she had a solid lead, and she chased it. She followed it directly to a private resort, where right under the nose of planetary security the dark siders were thriving. With their location confirmed, a team of Guardians were sent to apprehend them and Hara was pulled out, just in time for her birthday.
At the age of 27, she took on her greatest and most dangerous assignment of all, deep cover inside the feared Mandalorian terrorist group, the Dha Werda Verda. A string of high profile chemical attacks in the Republic had convinced the Jedi Order to infiltrate the group, and they wanted only an experienced investigator and a hot young asset to back him. Glaymo and Lashara were chosen as their respective parts, both prized for their knowledge of the Mandalorians and fluency in Mando'a.
The details were kept very careful. Glaymo was given a new identity as a disgruntled security guard, complete with employer histories for his whole life, and Lashara was set up as a young Mandalorian girl with a family history dating back to the days of the Mandalorian wars. The illusion was completed, and they were both sent out to live ordinary lives for a year to cement their cover stories.
For the Mirialan Knight, a year away from the Jedi was a strain. Living a normal life was much more difficult than she’d expected, all the while dropping hints in bars that she longed for the old ways and the ‘true Mandalorian faith.’ However, her efforts weren’t wasted, and the Dha Werda Verda contacted her through a lone man. They were impressed by her fictitious bloodline, and wanted to arrange a meeting to see if she would enter their ranks. Naturally she said yes, though only after enough persuasion. Appearing too eager to join could be just as detrimental, particularly when the terrorists were increasingly worried about security.
She was given three days to put her affairs in order before joining, during which time she contacted the Jedi Order and apprised them of the update. They gave her permission to do whatever had to be done, and she set off to infiltrate one of the most dangerous organizations in the galaxy.
It was quite scary, even for an experienced Knight, when her head was stuffed in a black sack and she was taken to a ship. Hara was placed into a room, and kept there for some unknown length of time before something strange happened. Something very strange. When she woke up to the ship landing, the Force was no longer with her. It was silent, and she could sense absolutely nothing. Her first impression was that her food had been drugged, and she tried running through healing techniques designed to purge toxins, but to no avail. In actuality she had arrived on Myrkr, a world with a strange life form known as ysalimiri, which blocked the Force. Their combined overlapping effect blacked out the whole world.
Deprived of her senses, she had to rely on her wits, her knowledge, and her acting ability. Her prime assistance came in the form of reading body language. The human, a man named Verol Paro about ten years her senior, who was processing her entry was someone she could get strong vibes from, and she was able to win his trust by gauging what responses he wanted. She succeeded in portraying a fiery and strong woman, with an attitude. He liked that a lot, and she had him interested in her pretty fast.
Despite her own combat training, she was put through the DWV’s training camps, using their programs. It was good practice for her, and a proper refresher since fighting without the Force left her feeling blind and useless. Somehow she made it through their nine month training program though, and was inducted as a formal member. She took a slugthrower for her weapon and readied herself for action.
Every day she spent with them, she grew closer to them. She felt a strange interest in them even as she felt an inner disgust at what they preached. They were literal believers in Mandalorian myth, believing that Kad Ha'rangir demanded destruction to enter paradise after death. It was fascinating, if deplorable, but there was a kinship among them that couldn't be so easily dismissed. Their unity made them dangerous foes, and they accepted her as a member. Paro was by far her greatest benefactor, and he was itching to get the 'fiery' young woman to prove herself.
As a Jedi undercover, she faced a moral dilemma. Was she justified in killing innocent people to maintain her cover? She knew in her heart that the answer was no, that becoming a murderer wasn’t justified to stop murderers. She resolved to do her best to miss, to hit arms and legs rather than chests and heads, and to rely on fists as much as possible.
As luck would have it, her first mission was to secure weapons for the DWV by raiding a supply depot in the Sith Empire. She had considerably fewer qualms about causing injuries to enemies of the Republic, and she did it with confidence. It was a straight forward mission, one planned out well where each of the five operatives had a role. Hara was the rear guard, tasked with protecting the way out. As it happened, it wasn’t the hardest task, particularly for a Jedi. Free of the ysalamiri, she was able to Force persuade the one guard who approached her, sending him back the way he’d come. She kept the entrance clear, and the others emerged with crates of weapons on hoversleds. She helped them load the goods up, and then she departed with them. It was a textbook operation, and they were pleased with how well she’d done at her simple job.
She dropped hints that she enjoyed seeing the plan, hoping they’d let her into the planning department. As near as she could tell, the planning department was where the sensitive information lay. She was itching to get near it. But even as she felt that desire, she also felt concern. It had been two years since she’d seen her former master, and she found herself wondering what had become of him.
In his absence, she found herself drawing closer to Paro. He trusted her, and was obviously attracted. She felt vaguely guilty for leading him on, but he was high-ranking in the group, and she needed his friendship.
She found out about Glaymo on a relaxed morning as she was doing pull ups on a bar in the training course. Glaymo emerged from a shuttle with a duffel slung over his shoulder. He was a little older, and looked a little tired, but he was definitely the same Rodian she’d known. It took all her restraint and acting ability to feign ignorance and ask the man next to her who the stranger was. However she kept her interest purely passive, knowing he’d make contact when he felt it was safe.
Three days after his arrival a knock came on Hara’s window, and she found a note written in his handwriting giving her a time and a place to meet him. She snuck out of her room and stood watching the forest, smoking a cigarette. Sure enough, Glaymo walked over by her side and they exchanged stories.
While Hara had been scooped up promptly, it had taken a full two years for her former master to catch the attention of the DWV, and had required him to build up a reputation in the criminal underworld as a master planner. The reputation was mostly false, but it gave him an in. The DWV had accepted him readily, and sent him straight to the planning department, that coveted objective of the Mirialan Knight. He made the suggestion they meet each other for the ‘first time’ the next day, and promised he’d try to bring her into the planning department as well. However, he was also concerned about security. The DWV was hard-pressed by the Sith and the Republic alike, and the enemies were everywhere. They were playing with fire.
In reward for her elevation to the planning department away from field jobs, Paro passed along a token of his affection: his mother's beskar. It was a yellow set of neo crusader armor built for a short woman, one he'd been saving for Miss Right for a long time. It would have been foolish not to accept, so Hara took it. And she had to admit, there were worse fates. In another life she might even have reciprocated his feelings.
However, it was only a matter of time before they were burned. A year later, the counter-intelligence experts in the Myrkr base intercepted a data card meant for Republic Intelligence, a document describing planning and patterns, one that had to have come from inside the camp. Immediately suspicions were heightened. It was a whole four days before Glaymo could find time to privately have a word with his former Padawan.
They were at a juncture, and he told her with a sad weariness that her destiny lay down a different path from his, and that the only way to fulfill the mission was for him to be a sacrifice. And the only way for Hara to gain the full trust of the terrorists was for her to be the one who turned in Glaymo. That was perfectly logical, and she knew it was the only way to complete the mission, but she protested anyway, a feeble protest where she already knew the answer.
The next day she spoke to the counterintelligence officer and denounced her former master, suggesting he was a Republic mole and she’d seen him behaving suspiciously. It never occurred to the officer that one spy would denounce another, and it catapulted her directly into his newly vacated spot in the office. He was executed a week later.
After his death, everything was darker and harder, and vastly more lonely. Passing along information was hard, and receiving orders was even harder. Paro was the only company, and she even let their relationship evolve to hugs and kisses. But one mission, five years after she went in, Lashara received orders to withdraw. The Republic, thanks to her intelligence, was wiping out every base of the Dha Werda Verda within reach. Her work was done there at the age of 32. She never knew what happened to Paro.
Growing older was something she didn’t mind, and she was enjoying her downtime on Rhen Var, catching up with Rorurra whenever she could and furthering her training. She felt the need to work ever harder to catch up for the time she missed while on missions, and to be an excellent Jedi. She did feel ambivalent about one thing in particular: the possibility of a Padawan. She knew that raising up a Padawan to a Knight was the most sure way to become a master, and she knew she had valid knowledge to pass along. However, she wasn’t exactly a great leader. She had intelligence, and she had skills, but she’d never even tried to pass along knowledge to others. She decided to simply wait a few years and resume her training and missions.
Things took a turn for the worse though, as just a few days after busting a spice-smuggling operation she returned to the enclave on Rhen Var with the intent of relaxing amid the snow. Instead, just a week later, she found a Sith invasion underway. Lashara found herself assisting in the evacuation before finally leaving behind her childhood home herself.
That loss left a bitter taste in her mouth as she resettled on Coruscant, and proceeded to bury herself in work. Undercover or not, she did it all, adopting a policy of immersion to distract her from the loss of Rhen Var. She also redoubled her training, particularly focusing on Force Cloak and Force Stealth.
She also developed the quirk of always volunteering for everything, the more dangerous the better.
RP Sample:
Lashara Elpara stood in the black night on Myrkr, a dark so thick you could cut it with a knife. Out in the woods were all kinds of creature sounds, wafting through the air to the Mirialan Jedi’s ears. Only the tabac cigarette she was smoking provided light, just a glowing spot in the dark. To be honest, it ruined her night vision, but it gave her an excuse if the guards caught her. Nothing but an innocent cigarette break in the night, craving a bit of stillness.
The dark didn’t bother her however as much as the strange blackness in her mind. Something about this planet blocked the Force, severed her from it. That made her job vastly more dangerous, but she couldn’t simply walk away from it. This was deep cover, and the result of two years of work. Hard work, convincing everyone she was a Mandalorian named Hara Trobona, from Concord Dawn and the last of a line of Mandalorians dating back to the wars.
Hara was a petite woman at five feet tall, slender, but blessed with curves. Certainly she wasn’t what people expected of a Mandalorian, which was the reason why she’d had to fight harder than the others, and be tougher. It had taken a year to gain their trust, but she’d won it. And now she was risking all that to get in touch with Glaymo, her Rodian former master.
She turned her head, and eyes a vibrant shade of orange detected a shadowy figure moving toward her. She looked intently, though she still smoked the cigarette nonchalantly to keep up her disguise. As the figure drew nearer however, she could make out it was a Rodian, and then as he drew further still it became clear it was indeed her master.
“Lashara,” He said softly, “It’s good to see you again.”
The Mirialan Knight nodded her agreement. “It’s good to see you too.”
“I don’t have much time, and I can’t afford to blow this cover. They’ve put me into the planning department, I’ll need you in with me. Tomorrow at lunch we can meet for the first time, and when we hit it off I’ll bring you into the Office too. Are we clear?”
Hara dropped the butt of her cigarette and stepped on it, extinguishing the glow with her boot. “Crystal.”
Her master turned and walked silently back in the direction he’d come from, and she stared for a few minutes longer at the tree line, as if expecting something to happen. Nothing did, of course, and she turned and headed back to bed herself, anticipating the developments of the next day.
Eight Years Later
"Call," Lashara Elpara stated flatly to the man across from her in the cantina, the one she was very carefully allowing enough rope to hang himself with. "Who's the target?"
The Quarren looked furtively around the room, checking for eavesdroppers. He was oblivious to the fact that the woman in Mandalorian armor before him was no assassin, but actually a Jedi Investigator, and a good one at that.
"A Mon Calamari named Bac, he double-crossed me. But I warn you, he has influential friends who won't be interested in seeing him go."
The Mirialan woman interlaced her fingers behind her head and leaned back in an agonizingly relaxed fashion as she looked down at the sabacc cards on the table.
"And fold." The Quarren added belatedly, tossing his own cards down.
Hara pulled the handpot to her and swept the credits into a pouch, idly running an armed hand over her helmet, which was sitting on the edge of the table. People liked seeing the face under it, seeing long black hair, green skin, and orange eyes. She obliged them.
"If he has friends it's 2,000 up front and 3,000 on completion of the job. And remember, if you don't pay me, I get you."
Though the Quarren wasn't aware, Hara knew as much about Bac as he did, about how the Mon Cal had tipped off the Republic about an arms smuggling ring he'd been in, how his testimony had shut it down. They'd anticipated his partner at large would want revenge, and they'd subtly inserted her into the mix to secure his conviction. Luckily the Jedi could move fast when needed, when a life was on the line.
"All right, deal." The Quarren slid across a few credits, the Mirialan took them, and the deal was done.
Lashara put on her helmet, stood up, and shifted her lightsaber into her hand, the one she'd convinced him was a trophy. He turned and she tapped him on the shoulder to gain his attention. As he spun around she tightened her grip, her voice transmitting through the helmet. "Under the authority of the Jedi Order, I am placing you under arrest."
If you have to ignite your lightsaber, you've lost half the battle already.
Her departed master's words rang in her ears as she held the Jedi weapon. So far she hadn't been defeated today, and she was hoping for a complete victory. It all depended on how it went, on what the Quarren did.
Hara could see multiple options leading to different solutions. Option one. He runs. A force pull grabs him and pulls him to her, a prompt punch to his face stuns him, and binders to his wrists secures him. A few seconds only. Option two. He fights. With the blaster at his waist he draws and fires. Her saber is ignited, and severs his weapon, disarming him. He runs, the situation remains the same. A few seconds longer. Option three. He surrenders. Binders are put on to secure him, shortest delay.
Option four was the most interesting. A false surrender buys him a few extra seconds in which to run or to fight, but ultimately it results in the same thing. The conclusion was inevitable.
The Quarren turned and sprinted as fast as he could towards the door, and it was clear he'd chosen option one. Hara's hand darted up and she pulled him to her telekinetically, his arms flailing as he stumbled backwards against his will. She punched him in the face and he stumbled worse, off balance. The Mirialan Jedi threw him to the ground and lowered her knee to his back, pulling his hands together and slapping on a pair of durasteel binders.
Done. Captured successfully in under thirty seconds. No lightsaber was activated.
The battle was entirely won.
