Post by Kiserius on Nov 22, 2012 19:23:44 GMT -5
Name: Ylenic A’Kla
Race: Caamasi
Age: 30
Height: 6’0
Weight: 170 pounds
Appearance: Ylenic is not, when it comes to physical appearance, a particularly outstanding Caamasi, at least to those not familiar with the species. He is almost exactly the average height for his species, and does not particularly lean either towards corpulence or fitness. His eyes are the most noticeable feature to those who have not interacted with the species, a calm, deep blue-on-green that tends to shift slightly in color depending on how the light strikes them. He is, however, a tad unusual for his own species, sporting thick, sometimes matted fur that is a far lighter shade of gold than the downy and faded version that is the standard. In addition, the three stripes along his head are not the characteristic purple, but rather a dark shade of brown. His snout is of moderate length, being neither outstandingly large or small.
His attire, unlike his appearance, is quite conspicuous due to an uncharacteristically bold; some would say eccentric, fashion. It is not the clothing itself which is odd: he does wear traditional Jedi robes, which are mostly clean and without sign of wear and tear. It is his choice of color which raises eyebrows. While most Jedi prefer typical dull variants of green, grey, black, brown, white, or tan, Ylenic has chosen to wear clothes that are split exactly in two, one side of his attire being completely white, with the other half being completely black. He carries this style even down to his boots, one of which is black and the other white. When asked why he carries on with such a particularly odd and outstanding outfit that is in no way suited for camouflage and which does not conform to the traditional sense of Jedi fashion, he simply offers a gentle smile towards at them and cryptically states that it is only fitting that he reminds himself and the world that abilities can be used for light and darkness.
Personality: Ylenic’s personality, much like his attire, can come in two colors. In his default state, he is very soft-spoken, gentle, fluid, and reserved, the type one would imagine being most comfortable curled up in some obscure corner of the Archives reading histories and works of literature, preferably with some sort of fine tea near him. He is described by those who know him as bright and knowledgeable about the world, although he would never claim to be a genius, saying that if he was he would not had to have learned lessons through experience rather than books. On the other hand, he can he can be quite forceful, borderline harsh, and surprisingly rigid, although this seems more of an act that he puts on when he needs to play the tough negotiator than a genuine flaw.
He is not particularly introverted, in that he enjoys the company of others, but does need his alone time and will generally not be the one to take the initiative in any sort of relationship. That being said, he can, at times, does break out of this shell with a surprising degree of earnestness, especially if one shows an interest in any subject that he is interested in. If one manages to befriend him, a lengthy and sometimes difficult process, one can find a staunch ally who will, unlike many friends even in the Jedi Order, stick by his or her side to the very end. In matters of love, he is a mostly innocent creature: he is, for a Jedi, quite the romantic, and will secretly watch holos of the latest hit romantic comedies when he believes no one is watching.
Since becoming a full-fledged diplomat Ylenic has found himself perturbed by a certain number of moral issues. Where should he draw the line with his telepathic abilities, when more aggressive telepathy could ultimately work for the greater good yet at the same time violate the integrity, privacy, and free will of an individual? How actively should a Jedi intervene in the affairs between two sovereign parties? Should one respect the wishes of a species if those wishes may come into conflict with the wishes of the wider galactic community? Which side should one pick during a conflict, if both sides are equally firm in their convictions and standing aside would just lead to more conflict? These, and many other questions of diplomatic and telepathic morals, are something that Ylenic spends pondering, and he may be seen using unorthodox methods to achieve conflict resolution, skirt the Jedi Code as he may..
With regards to recent events in the Galaxy, with the return of the Sith and the Mandalorian crusade against Outer Rim Planets and their designs on the Mid-Rim, Ylenic has found himself increasingly straying from the official view of the Council. While this has not yet translated into direct disobedience of their orders, he has found it difficult to stand by as reports of the carnage, bloodshed, and atrocities are relayed to him via his friends in the Republic Diplomatic Service, and he finds himself increasingly restless. As a Jedi Diplomat, who often has to make practical choices and compromises that sometimes run counter to the ideal in order to ensure peace, he sees the Council as being too rigid and unwilling to change with the situation, a view that he sees as dangerous when the political, economic, and military landscape of the galaxy is changing at such a rapid pace. As a Caamasi dedicated to peace, yet one hardened by years of tough diplomacy, he realizes that sometimes inaction runs counterproductive to the goal of resolving conflicts and achieving peace, and sometimes even prevents it. He does not see how continuing to sit idle while the Sith and Mandalorians continue their war of aggression across the galaxy is conducive to this, meditate upon it as he might to try to understand the viewpoint of the Council.
Birth place: Coruscant
Faction: Jedi
Rank: Jedi Knight (Consular, Diplomat)
Light saber: Single, Dual-Phase
Color: Silver
Practiced Lightsaber forms:
Shii-Cho: 5
Makashi : N/A
Soresu: 3
Ataru : N/A
Shien / Djem So: N/A.
>>Sub-form Backhanded
Niman : N/A
>>Sub-form Jar-kai, or Dual Wield
Juyo : N/A
Double Bladed Combat: N/A
Force-Sensitive Abilities or practices:
Telekinetic: 3
Telepathic: 7
Body: 4
Sense: 3
Protection: 5
Healing: 4
Destruction: 0
Specialized Skills: Force Illusion.
Attributes:
Physical Strength: 4
Intelligence: 6
Speed: 4
Leadership: 7
Unarmed: 3
Melee Weapons: 2
Ranged Weapons: 2
Bio:
Birth and Childhood
Ylenic was born on Coruscant, the firstborn child to a prominent Caamasian family known for their charitable work across the Core Worlds. He was discovered to be force sensitive shortly after his birth by a Jedi attending a local fundraiser. It took quite a bit of persuasion for Ylenic’s parents to let him go, which they ultimately did, quite painfully. They took solace in the fact that as a Camaasi, he would never truly be separated from them thanks to the Memnii carried by all Caamasi, and by the fact that he would be able to do the galaxy far more good as a Jedi than as a charity worker. They made particularly sure to make his last days with them extraordinarily happy, so that his last memories of his parents would be those of joy, love, and warmth rather than the sadness and grief of parting.
As a young toddler in the Jedi Temple, Ylenic was noted for being exceptionally empathetic, a trait shared by most Caamasi and greatly reinforced by his connection with the Force. The moment he sensed suffering within another Jedi child, he would immediately either cry to show solidarity with him, or move to comfort or play with him. Likewise, when another child felt joy, he would smile and laugh. He was an eerily well-behaved child, seemingly able to read and formulate the correct response to the proddings of his Jedi caretakers, who only later realized that he was capable of picking up on their slightest unguarded shift in mood, requiring them to take extra precautions.
As a Jedi Initiate .
Ylenic was something of an enigma for a youngling. Originally viewed as something of a minor prodigy due to his childhood empathy and ability to read the emotions of others, he soon fell flat in most of his classes. While other younglings seemingly had little to no issues levitating multiple balls of various sizes with moderate effort, it took Ylenic a great deal of time and trouble to even lift one. He was spectacularly awful at games of hide and seek, unable to sense his pursuers until they were almost upon him. While other younglings seemed to have no problem facing physical tests of skill using the force, Ylenic was lucky to slump by with a passing grade. He did manage to keep pace with the rest of his clan when it came to healing, being noted for a special ability to reduce feelings of pain in a patient. In lightsaber practice, he was completely and utterly clumsy, often burning his classmates and sometimes even the instructor with his training saber. The only classes in which he showed a real aptitude in surpassing most of the other students in was in the creation of barriers and other protective fields, and telepathy, but these was overshadowed by his lackluster and often disastrous performance in his other courses.
That was until one evening, after what he viewed as a particularly scary lecture about a mildly dangerous variant of a Corellian Durni, one of the Jedi caretakers sensed terror and fear in a small closet in the youngling corner. Upon opening the closet, the caretaker found a young Ylenic cowering inside of a small metalic bin, with an extremely amateur and bloated illusion of the rabbit circling the crate and attempting to jump at him. After dispelling the illusion and coaxing the trembling Ylenic out of the crate, it was learned that he was not only good at reading the minds of others, but of manipulating them and even his own, and he was encouraged to spend some of his free time practicing meditation and learning to control his fears so that he would not inadvertently cause so much stress to himself again.
The next few years passed by in much the same manner. Ylenic was quite gifted in the areas of Telepathy and Protection, average in healing, and absolutely dismal in every other subject. His self-control and willpower benefited immensely from the extra hours of meditation given to him: as a Caamasi and a Jedi, he was exceptionally vulnerable to traumatic experiences, either of himself or others, since his Memnii would always ensure he would relive those events at their full intensity. As such, it took far more out of him to get through daily life than other students, but it nurtured a strong, if sometimes faltering will to continue onward.
The Initiate trials were hard for Ylenic. Though he easily passed those dealing with the Jedi Code, he struggled with showing enough competency force manipulation and especially lightsaber combat: he was a creature skilled in a few areas, and such tests were holistic and therefore massively difficult for him. It was only through sheer willpower, and perhaps the slightest hint of kindness by the Masters, that he was able to pass days before he would have been sent to the Agricultural Corps. Further kindness, if not the will of the Unifying Force itself landed him a Padawanship at age 12 with the kind, elderly Master Rachella Sairek, a Jedi Diplomat typically assigned to less dangerous missions.
As a Jedi Padawan
Master Rachella Seirak’s decision to accept him as a Padawan raised more than a few eyebrows in the order. At the age of sixty and having already trained two Padawans to Knighthood, many expected her to slowly decrease her workload, not dramatically increase it for a decade or more. Ylenic himself could not hide his astonishment when the short, frail-looking human woman with silverly hair and hazel eyes informed him that she would be taking him as her padawan. When he asked why she would do so, despite her age, she simply smiled at him and thought it would be a tremendous waste for an initiate who was so empathetic and whose skills were almost entirely suited to benefiting others should be shipped off to an isolated planet due to a lack of proficiency in general testing.
The first lesson that Master Seirak taught him in the arts of Jedi Diplomacy was that 99% of it was rather drab, uneventful, and thankless work. The goal of the Jedi Diplomat, she said, was not to leap into a conflict, but to stop it and prevent it from reoccurring in the future, or in the event where a conflict may happen, to preclude it and stop it from happening at all. If things escalated to the point where one actually had to draw their lightsaber and kill, the mission was already a failure in many ways. It was thus that the majority of Ylenic’s first five years was spent studying intergalactic relations, the cultures of the major races in the galaxy, and the majestic arts of endless paperwork, which, was in many ways, far more dangerous to one’s mental and physical health than even a battlefield conflict. A Jedi’s patience has perhaps never been more tested then, when after putting hundreds of hours into paperwork, it is thrown out on a technicality or due to incorrect formatting. Most of the missions that he accompanied his master on dealt with comparatively moderate efforts, in tandem with the Republic Diplomatic Corps: economic contracts, minor political disputes, resolving issues of intergalactic law, negotiating the rights of colonists, ensuring minority groups had adequate protection, solving waste disposal and mining disputes, and solving all kinds of legal hassle. He was rather glad that he liked reading and had a good memory because he would have otherwise been left hopelessly far behind.
Master Seirak was not neglectful of her duties as a master, however, and pushed Ylenic to his limits in both his force abilities and lightsaber skills. She was a firm believer in the arts of discipline: she believed that although Ylenic may never be proficient at some subjects, through enough determination he could learn enough to survive in tandem with his other abilities. The goal of a Jedi Diplomat’s martial skills, to her, was survival as long as a greater good could be served . Yes, a Jedi may very well have to take call up the call of martyrdom, but if the Jedi died while he or she could still accomplish much more good while remaining alive, she saw it as a tremendous waste of potential and perhaps even a sin toward the galaxy itself.
She was particularly harsh, perhaps even bordering on cruel, in her requirements for what he was adept in. She required him to hold low-level protective shields at all times from dawn to dusk, and demanded that he be able to raise them to full protective ability within milliseconds, often viciously probing his defenses at random intervals. Since his ability to sense danger was remarkably lackluster and often limited to within mere seconds of a dangerous event occurring, she forced him to expand his telepathic senses to their limit, and constantly probed his mental defenses to ensure that he would at least be able to sense an intention to harm, kill, manipulate, or deceive him.
She especially honed his talent for crafting realistic illusions, as she saw that as best means for survival: it took far less energy from him to create an illusion that an attacker would either run away from or assault than it did to block an attack with his shields or engage in lightsaber combat, and could be used to protect key diplomatic sources and even enable him to masquerade as an animal or compatriot of the enemy to enable speedy escapes. She always emphasized using illusions in synch with his telepathic ability, so that he could create realistic illusions and mind tricks that his enemy would actually believe and avoid creating an illusion that would be counterproductive to a situation. For example, what if he disguised himself as a small creature to elude a guard, but what if that guard liked shooting at small creatures? What if he conjured an illusion so terrifying that it might end up giving someone a heart attack? She always advised him to be extremely circumspect and careful with his telepathic abilities, as she noted that it was only a matter of philosophy, not technique, which separated them from Dark Force users.
She pressed him most on his lightsaber skills during the early years of their relationship, demanding at least three hours of practice every day from him, stating that she would not feel comfortable taking him with her in more dangerous situations until he was able to hold his own. Perhaps it was also because her own physical skills were waning that she stressed it so heavily: though the Force could compensate for age, there was only so much it could do. At first, Ylenic was a miserable failure: she did not even have to call upon the Force to bring him to his limits for the first few years. Many an interested bystander found it immensely amusing that such a small, fragile lady could so easily defeat the far larger and far younger Padawan. Slowly, gradually, painfully he mastered the ways of Shii-Cho, eventually achieving a solid mastery of it through sheer repetition. Afterwards, his Master advised him to undertake the study of Soresu, which he agreed with wholeheartedly. First, it embodied the principals of a Jedi Diplomat such as survival rather than victory. Second, it was extremely effective against blasters, which was what a Jedi Diplomat was most likely to face in their travels. Third, it allowed control of a combat situation and more importantly gave the Diplomat choice: should one wound, kill, or attempt to reason with an opponent? He devoted quite a bit of time into the style, and, after years of it consuming nearly one fifth of his waking hours, achieved mastery of it roughly two years before the end of his Padawanship.
Gradually, as Seirak aged and as Ylenicbecame more skillful, she allowed him to come along to more dangerous missions, those involving ongoing galactic conflicts. Negotiations with armed rebel groups, terrorists, criminals, and a whole slew of political and economic figures that could, with a few well-placed words, end the lives of hundreds, thousands, or even millions of beings. Enforcing arms embargoes, assisting in the evacuation in the refugees from hostile warzones, preventing coup d’etats, and on more than a few occasions assisting Republic Intelligence, with whom the Republic Diplomatic Core had a long and friendly relationship with. Ylenic was, slowly but surely, learning to defuse situations that were only one wrong word away from erupting in violence, death, or even mass genocide. After he managed to successfully negotiate the release of third-party hostages by an Outer Rim terrorist group based off Tatooine by himself, and feeling that there was not much more she could teach him that experience could not, Seirak decided that he was ready to face the Knight Trials after an unusually long fifteen year padawanship.
Trial of Skill: Ylenic’s trial of skill occurred within the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. It was originally intended to be a scenario wherein Ylenic would have to stand up against a Jedi Master in his prime for a satisfactory amount of time. Ylenic had considered himself decently skilled after years of practice, but it had always been against an elderly Jedi in her waning years. It was thus that Ylenic’s skills were pushed to the test: For ten minutes, he had to hold out against the furious force and lightsaber assaults of a Jedi Master far more skilled than him, and far younger than Seirak. It was a harrowing ordeal for him, and one that took him multiple tries to perfect: he was forced to split his attention between his saber technique, telepathically creating realistic, instant illusions against a skilled force user almost instantly, reading the intentions of his opponent, and throwing up defensive shields where his saber technique, illusions, and telepathy failed. In the end, he managed to pass, just skirting by at the ten minute and twelve second mark to a beautifully coordinated assault by the Jedi Master, who used a large Force Push to force Ylenic to redirect his slowly atrophying mental concentration to his shields and drop his illusions, then launched a furious lightsaber assault wherein he was able to inflict light, yet painful strikes on Ylenic's arms and legs, which forced him to flinch and cause his Soresu to falter. A well-placed lock and grapple later, and Ylenic was on the floor with a lightsaber inches above his neck. Exhausted from his constant use of real-time illusions with no time for preparation, use of barriers, and lightsaber combat against someone who wasn't elderly, Ylenic stumbled out of the chamber, tired but smiling.
Trial of Courage: Ylenic singlehandedly secured the fate of ten hostages in a fierce labor dispute between disgruntled , extremist farmers and corporate managers on the Outer Rim World of Agramar. He took their place in the standoff between local police, military and corporate factions and the extremist group, which had been known for murdering several officials they thought were corrupt and who had cheated many local farmers out of their holdings. Ylenic successfully managed to convince them to pursue their cases through the civil system, with the assurance that he would watch over the proceedings and ensure that they went according to Republic law, and that they would not be prosecuted or face retaliation for the actions that they had already committed.
Trial of Flesh: While on a mission to investigate possible war crimes in a medium-intensity civil war on the desert planet of Gacerin, Ylenic was kidnapped by the rebel party. He was given evidence of the local government's war crimes, and was told to report those and those only on the local holonet channels. When he refused, saying his mission was to find the truth behind the atrocities of both parties, he was subjected to harsh interrogation.He was blindfolded, taken to a secure location, and forced to endure a barrage of tactics, ranging from beatings, to injections of truth serum, to electric shocks, sleep deprivation, food and liquid deprivation, all aimed at breaking him. Though he could have easily escaped through manipulating the minds of the guards, creating illusions, or a whole slew of other tactics, Ylenic realized that if he did so they would view the Jedi Order, and by extension the Republic, as weak and thus not accept their authority to mediate. Ylenic thus resolved to stay until they recognized that they would get nothing from him and that he was an impartial mediator and would not sway from that stance, even at the cost of his life. He managed to deal with the torture through meditative techniques and by inducing positive and pleasurable delusions on himself, so as to lessen the pain that he felt. After two weeks, he was finally released, a little emaciated and weak, when the rebels realized that they would not be able to sway him to their viewpoint, and that killing him would only bring many more of those with as much mental fortitude as him to the planet. Ylenic, for his part, did not hold any grudges against the rebels for their actions, since he understood that passions ran high in such brother against brother conflicts, which would make normal people do unthinkable things in order to achieve victory. In the end, he was able to present a complete account of the crimes of both sides, which were approximately equal in number to, to the Galactic Senate for further action.
It was thus that Ylenic passed his Knight Trials, and at the age of twenty-seven was knighted and accepted a position as a Jedi Diplomat, taking Seirak’s place as she finally decided to retire to the Temple to write her memoirs and teach Intergalatic Relations.
Post-Knighthood Activities: Growing Instabilities and Coruscanti Politics.
Ylenic’s appointment as a diplomat came at a tumultuous time. Soon after his appointment, the Sith and Mandalorians launched massive offenses against Republic Worlds. With the resources of the Republic stretched thin to defend its territories, political malcontents and those who would serve them have seized upon numerous opportunities to advance their own power, and civil turmoil and war threaten to tear apart the galaxy and the Republic itself. The Jedi Diplomats and their allies in the Republic Diplomatic Corps have been stretched to their limits in an attempt to contain this, faced with increasingly limited resources and the waning influence of the Republic in the face of several major military defeats and economic turmoil. Worlds that were once staunch loyalists to the Republic are now seen teetering on the edge. Ylenic has found it increasingly difficult to reject the requests of longtime friends and associates to assist them in war negotiations for the Republic.
He has spent the most recent phase of his career on Coruscant, as he has found that he is able to manage far more cases and do far more good on a grander scale by having constant access to Senators and Ambassadors with who he is able to coordinate meetings with. Instead of solving one dispute a week by physically travelling there and mediating the situation, a few well-placed nudges, suggestions, and slightly veiled threats to men of great power and influence can bump that up to around ten. This, unfortunately, has made very few dents on the increasing numbers of serious issues and mountains of paperwork that being a diplomat on the losing side of a galactic war entails. He does, however, feel that this constant interaction with Senators and Ambassadors has comforted and improved relations with a few shaky constituencies, and enables him to make sure that they can feel safe in their offices without fear of being assassinated like the former Supreme Chancellor.
How he will act in the next phase of the conflict is uncertain, but with the situation turning ever more dire in the political and diplomatic spheres, he may be forced to disobey the council and actively negotiate for the Republic war effort, fully aware that with every deal he makes for the Republic, he throws countless lives away in a desperate gamble for lasting galactic peace.
Into the Maelstrom.
This section is to keep my internal chronology in order since Ylenic's acceptance on SWU.
Diplomatic Distress
Ylenic, exhausted and demoralized by the overwhelming amount of diplomatic duties placed upon him as more and more of the Order are drawn into the ever-widening galactic war, met with Jedi Master Levin Caelum and Knight Lock Nemsee to discuss the ongoing conflict and a possible different future for him with the Blades.
swrponline2.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=coruscant&action=display&thread=18218
The Battle of Thila
Ylenic's first real assignment for the Blades. Rushing from Coruscant, he reached the fortress of Bak'Mral shortly before hostilities began, and was assigned to a support role, becoming the reserve in the event of a possible breach of the defenses. Realizing that the battle would in large part be decided by wielders of the Force, Ylenic sought to create a force of soldiers trained to use weapons that were difficult for a Force user to stand against and guide them in how to use them effectively in an attempt to counter the Sith attacking the fortress. Unfortunately, since such a force relies heavily on specialized weaponry, Ylenic was only able to gather about a half-company of said soldiers, just enough to reinforce one of the possible breach points. [To be continued].
swrponline2.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=miscplanets&action=display&thread=17674
RP Sample:
It was sweltering inside the small, makeshift conference room located in the backroom of the Anchorhead Cantina. The air conditioning unit had been made off with by a Jawa mere hours before the conference, and with a fierce sandstorm now brewing outside, the manager had not been particularly inclined to fix it, even when offered a rather outsized amount of credits. Ylenic was sweating rather profusely: although his barriers could keep the sand away from him, they could not keep out the heat.
He was there to mediate between leaders of a group of Bothan and Human settlers who had recently settled on the uninhabited Outer Rim world of Ancathia. Both parties lived in separate communities, but from time to time engaged in vital trade and shared the revenues from the planet’s lone starport. With the outbreak of the current galactic war close to their borders disrupting external imports and raising transport costs, hostilities had risen between the two groups. The humans accused the Bothans of price gouging them on food, whereas the Bothans claimed that the humans were ignoring their territorial claims and expanding onto land that they rightfully owned. A brief conflict had taken place over a disputed farm, leaving several on both sides dead. The leaders of both sides had publicly refused to negotiate, but in private had requested Jedi meditation at a secure offworld location, far, far away from their planet. Each side wished to promote itself as the victor in the negotiations, but the way things were going, it didn’t look like it was going to be possible.
“Maybe we wouldn’t have to expand so much if you didn’t try to screw us out of every little credit we have! You know we don’t have much hard currency…” shouted Drefyl, a large, stout brown-haired, blue eyed man of pale complexion attired in brown miner’s clothing with two purple stripes down his right arm.
“You know as well as I that since we can’t import as much food and fuel costs have soared. Believe it or not there is something that free people do called capitalism, where the seller determines how much he is willing to part with goods, and we are the ones with most of the domestic food stores." Countered Brevi, a small, wizened albinto Bothan with a rasping voice.
“There’s a difference between capitalism and extortion! A 400% price hike? Does that sound reasonable to you, Jedi?” Drefyl said, casting a glance at him. Ylenic remained entirely impassive, knowing better than to take the bait. Once, when he was younger, he made the crucial mistake of showing a reaction in favor of one side and as a result the other party refused to accept his neutrality and he had to crawl back to his master and ask her to intervene.
“There you go again, trying to bring him into it! If our goods are so expensive, why don’t you just import from offworld?”
“We would, if merchant ships would come with some regularity. You know the pirate attacks have been getting worse with the Republic Military being distracted…”
“Then it looks like you’re going to have to deal with our prices. Maybe we should raise another 400% to compensate those who died in your attack on our farm!” Brevic said, raising his voice slightly.
“Do that and you’ll see how much you’ll be able to sell when we
burn the all down!” Drefyl growled, standing up and beginning to reach for his blaster.
“We won’t need to sell you food if you’re dead!” Brevi said, going for his own.
The room suddenly shifted. No longer were they in a sweltering bar on Tatooine, but on the plains of Ancathia. Rolling hills covered with bountiful stalks of yellow-gold wheat, interspersed with pure, clear rivers, along with large, thick trees flush with enormous ripe fruit. Small stone cottages with lush gardens dotted the landscape. Children, both human and Bothan, played happily in the river, floating on small, toy rafts. Males and females of both races lounged on either side of the river, happily enjoying drinks and various small snacks in the summer sun.
“What the hell?” Drefyl asked, looking dazed, trying to grasp at one of the straws of wheat, but seeing his hand pass through it.
“Jedi?” inquired Brevi, very carefully, searching for the Caamasi who had seemingly entirely vanished.
A single red/orange pillar blossomed in the far-off distance, soaring up into the sky, capturing the attention of both Drefyl and Brevi.
“What is that?”
“An eruption…?”
More pillars began to blossom, this time close enough to see the details. Walls of flame blanketed the horizon, with black clouds of dust and debris soaring upwards from their base. Loud thumps and whines could be heard as the pillars moved in an ever-quickening arc toward the families and the fields.
“A-Artillery?” gasped Drefyl, horror creeping onto his features.
“Why aren’t they moving?” shouted Brevi, growing more distressed by the moment.
The barrage began to strike the peaceful summer scene. All of the children seemed to look at the both at the two leaders, faces contorted with mixtures of fear and pain, just seconds before the artillery vaporized them and turned them into fire and ash. They had just enough time to glimpse the horrified, agonized faces of the parents before they, too, were reduced to nothingness. The houses exploded into ash and rubble, the fields caught fire, the trees burned, their fruit catching on fire , crackling, turning to black mush. When the artillery fire finally stopped, all that was left was a blackened landscape strewn with ash, rubble, and the occasional limb.
Drefyl and Brevi had both collapsed to their knees, and had unconsciously embraced each other.
“I didn’t mean it….I didn’t mean it…I was just bluffing and angry…I never wanted this….” Howled a mournful Drefyl, burying his face in Brevi's shoulder.
Brevi remained silent, staring with horrified fascination at the head of a decapitated Bothan child which was slowly turning to ash before his eyes, before turning his eyes away.
This is the delusion that you wished for. This is the price that war will bring to your people. Ylenic projected to them
with a solemn, didactic mental tone.
Moments later, the illusion shattered. They were back to the small, sweltering conference room on Tatooine. Ylenic sat, still with the same, impassive and blank look on his face, though his blue on green eyes now surveyed them both carefully.
“Y-You made your point Master Jedi.” Said Drefyl, wiping tears from his eyes.
“I…believe that we can come to an understanding.” Said Brevi, looking shaken.
The negotiations were concluded in short order. The humans would respect Bothan territorial rights, and in return the Bothans would both slash their prices and accept labor as an acceptable form of payment. They would also set up a bi-species council to resolve any land disputes, and work toward better integration of the two cultures on the planet. Furthermore, revenues would be raised from both camps to help purchase a few patrol ships or hire mercenaries to deal with the local pirate infestation in order to encourage traders to return back to the planet.
The two shook hands, and then turned and smiled at Ylenic.
“Thank you once more Master Jedi. You know, we think we will be returning together, and announcing this is as a joint declaration. We actually have a lot in common; Brevi here and I, and I think we’ll learn to be good friends over the hell we’re going to receive from our people over this. It’s a shame we actually had to see what the consequences of our actions would be before we realized how wrong we were. I guess we’re just fools.” Said Drefyl, smiling at him and petting Brevi on the head.
“I’m not a dog you know!” protested Brevi , shirking away from him slightly.
“No, you two are not fools. The fools are the ones who see how wrong they are and continue going on anyway. You just needed a slight nudge in the right direction.” Ylenic said, breaking into a smile for the first time, rising to shake their hands.
“Would you share a drink with us Master Jedi?” asked Brevi.
Ylenic looked at them mournfully, then glanced at the clock on his data-pad, and the list of appointments he had to keep for the week.
“I would, friends, but I have a date with Lady Paperwork, and she tends to be quite mad and get quite fat if I’m not on time.”
“Hah, I think we all know that feeling. Come on Brevi, let me buy you a drink. Do you want a treat too?”
“I…am…not…a…dog.”
As the two walked out to the bar, Ylenic went through a small series of stretches before glancing back at his datapad. One appointment request down…twenty-seven more to go this month, and those were just the offworld missions. He did not even want to conceive thinking about his backlog. He sighed, pulled his cloak over his head, and began to make his way toward the door, back out into the wilderness that was the galaxy.
Race: Caamasi
Age: 30
Height: 6’0
Weight: 170 pounds
Appearance: Ylenic is not, when it comes to physical appearance, a particularly outstanding Caamasi, at least to those not familiar with the species. He is almost exactly the average height for his species, and does not particularly lean either towards corpulence or fitness. His eyes are the most noticeable feature to those who have not interacted with the species, a calm, deep blue-on-green that tends to shift slightly in color depending on how the light strikes them. He is, however, a tad unusual for his own species, sporting thick, sometimes matted fur that is a far lighter shade of gold than the downy and faded version that is the standard. In addition, the three stripes along his head are not the characteristic purple, but rather a dark shade of brown. His snout is of moderate length, being neither outstandingly large or small.
His attire, unlike his appearance, is quite conspicuous due to an uncharacteristically bold; some would say eccentric, fashion. It is not the clothing itself which is odd: he does wear traditional Jedi robes, which are mostly clean and without sign of wear and tear. It is his choice of color which raises eyebrows. While most Jedi prefer typical dull variants of green, grey, black, brown, white, or tan, Ylenic has chosen to wear clothes that are split exactly in two, one side of his attire being completely white, with the other half being completely black. He carries this style even down to his boots, one of which is black and the other white. When asked why he carries on with such a particularly odd and outstanding outfit that is in no way suited for camouflage and which does not conform to the traditional sense of Jedi fashion, he simply offers a gentle smile towards at them and cryptically states that it is only fitting that he reminds himself and the world that abilities can be used for light and darkness.
Personality: Ylenic’s personality, much like his attire, can come in two colors. In his default state, he is very soft-spoken, gentle, fluid, and reserved, the type one would imagine being most comfortable curled up in some obscure corner of the Archives reading histories and works of literature, preferably with some sort of fine tea near him. He is described by those who know him as bright and knowledgeable about the world, although he would never claim to be a genius, saying that if he was he would not had to have learned lessons through experience rather than books. On the other hand, he can he can be quite forceful, borderline harsh, and surprisingly rigid, although this seems more of an act that he puts on when he needs to play the tough negotiator than a genuine flaw.
He is not particularly introverted, in that he enjoys the company of others, but does need his alone time and will generally not be the one to take the initiative in any sort of relationship. That being said, he can, at times, does break out of this shell with a surprising degree of earnestness, especially if one shows an interest in any subject that he is interested in. If one manages to befriend him, a lengthy and sometimes difficult process, one can find a staunch ally who will, unlike many friends even in the Jedi Order, stick by his or her side to the very end. In matters of love, he is a mostly innocent creature: he is, for a Jedi, quite the romantic, and will secretly watch holos of the latest hit romantic comedies when he believes no one is watching.
Since becoming a full-fledged diplomat Ylenic has found himself perturbed by a certain number of moral issues. Where should he draw the line with his telepathic abilities, when more aggressive telepathy could ultimately work for the greater good yet at the same time violate the integrity, privacy, and free will of an individual? How actively should a Jedi intervene in the affairs between two sovereign parties? Should one respect the wishes of a species if those wishes may come into conflict with the wishes of the wider galactic community? Which side should one pick during a conflict, if both sides are equally firm in their convictions and standing aside would just lead to more conflict? These, and many other questions of diplomatic and telepathic morals, are something that Ylenic spends pondering, and he may be seen using unorthodox methods to achieve conflict resolution, skirt the Jedi Code as he may..
With regards to recent events in the Galaxy, with the return of the Sith and the Mandalorian crusade against Outer Rim Planets and their designs on the Mid-Rim, Ylenic has found himself increasingly straying from the official view of the Council. While this has not yet translated into direct disobedience of their orders, he has found it difficult to stand by as reports of the carnage, bloodshed, and atrocities are relayed to him via his friends in the Republic Diplomatic Service, and he finds himself increasingly restless. As a Jedi Diplomat, who often has to make practical choices and compromises that sometimes run counter to the ideal in order to ensure peace, he sees the Council as being too rigid and unwilling to change with the situation, a view that he sees as dangerous when the political, economic, and military landscape of the galaxy is changing at such a rapid pace. As a Caamasi dedicated to peace, yet one hardened by years of tough diplomacy, he realizes that sometimes inaction runs counterproductive to the goal of resolving conflicts and achieving peace, and sometimes even prevents it. He does not see how continuing to sit idle while the Sith and Mandalorians continue their war of aggression across the galaxy is conducive to this, meditate upon it as he might to try to understand the viewpoint of the Council.
Birth place: Coruscant
Faction: Jedi
Rank: Jedi Knight (Consular, Diplomat)
Light saber: Single, Dual-Phase
Color: Silver
Practiced Lightsaber forms:
Shii-Cho: 5
Makashi : N/A
Soresu: 3
Ataru : N/A
Shien / Djem So: N/A.
>>Sub-form Backhanded
Niman : N/A
>>Sub-form Jar-kai, or Dual Wield
Juyo : N/A
Double Bladed Combat: N/A
Force-Sensitive Abilities or practices:
Telekinetic: 3
Telepathic: 7
Body: 4
Sense: 3
Protection: 5
Healing: 4
Destruction: 0
Specialized Skills: Force Illusion.
Attributes:
Physical Strength: 4
Intelligence: 6
Speed: 4
Leadership: 7
Unarmed: 3
Melee Weapons: 2
Ranged Weapons: 2
Bio:
Birth and Childhood
Ylenic was born on Coruscant, the firstborn child to a prominent Caamasian family known for their charitable work across the Core Worlds. He was discovered to be force sensitive shortly after his birth by a Jedi attending a local fundraiser. It took quite a bit of persuasion for Ylenic’s parents to let him go, which they ultimately did, quite painfully. They took solace in the fact that as a Camaasi, he would never truly be separated from them thanks to the Memnii carried by all Caamasi, and by the fact that he would be able to do the galaxy far more good as a Jedi than as a charity worker. They made particularly sure to make his last days with them extraordinarily happy, so that his last memories of his parents would be those of joy, love, and warmth rather than the sadness and grief of parting.
As a young toddler in the Jedi Temple, Ylenic was noted for being exceptionally empathetic, a trait shared by most Caamasi and greatly reinforced by his connection with the Force. The moment he sensed suffering within another Jedi child, he would immediately either cry to show solidarity with him, or move to comfort or play with him. Likewise, when another child felt joy, he would smile and laugh. He was an eerily well-behaved child, seemingly able to read and formulate the correct response to the proddings of his Jedi caretakers, who only later realized that he was capable of picking up on their slightest unguarded shift in mood, requiring them to take extra precautions.
As a Jedi Initiate .
Ylenic was something of an enigma for a youngling. Originally viewed as something of a minor prodigy due to his childhood empathy and ability to read the emotions of others, he soon fell flat in most of his classes. While other younglings seemingly had little to no issues levitating multiple balls of various sizes with moderate effort, it took Ylenic a great deal of time and trouble to even lift one. He was spectacularly awful at games of hide and seek, unable to sense his pursuers until they were almost upon him. While other younglings seemed to have no problem facing physical tests of skill using the force, Ylenic was lucky to slump by with a passing grade. He did manage to keep pace with the rest of his clan when it came to healing, being noted for a special ability to reduce feelings of pain in a patient. In lightsaber practice, he was completely and utterly clumsy, often burning his classmates and sometimes even the instructor with his training saber. The only classes in which he showed a real aptitude in surpassing most of the other students in was in the creation of barriers and other protective fields, and telepathy, but these was overshadowed by his lackluster and often disastrous performance in his other courses.
That was until one evening, after what he viewed as a particularly scary lecture about a mildly dangerous variant of a Corellian Durni, one of the Jedi caretakers sensed terror and fear in a small closet in the youngling corner. Upon opening the closet, the caretaker found a young Ylenic cowering inside of a small metalic bin, with an extremely amateur and bloated illusion of the rabbit circling the crate and attempting to jump at him. After dispelling the illusion and coaxing the trembling Ylenic out of the crate, it was learned that he was not only good at reading the minds of others, but of manipulating them and even his own, and he was encouraged to spend some of his free time practicing meditation and learning to control his fears so that he would not inadvertently cause so much stress to himself again.
The next few years passed by in much the same manner. Ylenic was quite gifted in the areas of Telepathy and Protection, average in healing, and absolutely dismal in every other subject. His self-control and willpower benefited immensely from the extra hours of meditation given to him: as a Caamasi and a Jedi, he was exceptionally vulnerable to traumatic experiences, either of himself or others, since his Memnii would always ensure he would relive those events at their full intensity. As such, it took far more out of him to get through daily life than other students, but it nurtured a strong, if sometimes faltering will to continue onward.
The Initiate trials were hard for Ylenic. Though he easily passed those dealing with the Jedi Code, he struggled with showing enough competency force manipulation and especially lightsaber combat: he was a creature skilled in a few areas, and such tests were holistic and therefore massively difficult for him. It was only through sheer willpower, and perhaps the slightest hint of kindness by the Masters, that he was able to pass days before he would have been sent to the Agricultural Corps. Further kindness, if not the will of the Unifying Force itself landed him a Padawanship at age 12 with the kind, elderly Master Rachella Sairek, a Jedi Diplomat typically assigned to less dangerous missions.
As a Jedi Padawan
Master Rachella Seirak’s decision to accept him as a Padawan raised more than a few eyebrows in the order. At the age of sixty and having already trained two Padawans to Knighthood, many expected her to slowly decrease her workload, not dramatically increase it for a decade or more. Ylenic himself could not hide his astonishment when the short, frail-looking human woman with silverly hair and hazel eyes informed him that she would be taking him as her padawan. When he asked why she would do so, despite her age, she simply smiled at him and thought it would be a tremendous waste for an initiate who was so empathetic and whose skills were almost entirely suited to benefiting others should be shipped off to an isolated planet due to a lack of proficiency in general testing.
The first lesson that Master Seirak taught him in the arts of Jedi Diplomacy was that 99% of it was rather drab, uneventful, and thankless work. The goal of the Jedi Diplomat, she said, was not to leap into a conflict, but to stop it and prevent it from reoccurring in the future, or in the event where a conflict may happen, to preclude it and stop it from happening at all. If things escalated to the point where one actually had to draw their lightsaber and kill, the mission was already a failure in many ways. It was thus that the majority of Ylenic’s first five years was spent studying intergalactic relations, the cultures of the major races in the galaxy, and the majestic arts of endless paperwork, which, was in many ways, far more dangerous to one’s mental and physical health than even a battlefield conflict. A Jedi’s patience has perhaps never been more tested then, when after putting hundreds of hours into paperwork, it is thrown out on a technicality or due to incorrect formatting. Most of the missions that he accompanied his master on dealt with comparatively moderate efforts, in tandem with the Republic Diplomatic Corps: economic contracts, minor political disputes, resolving issues of intergalactic law, negotiating the rights of colonists, ensuring minority groups had adequate protection, solving waste disposal and mining disputes, and solving all kinds of legal hassle. He was rather glad that he liked reading and had a good memory because he would have otherwise been left hopelessly far behind.
Master Seirak was not neglectful of her duties as a master, however, and pushed Ylenic to his limits in both his force abilities and lightsaber skills. She was a firm believer in the arts of discipline: she believed that although Ylenic may never be proficient at some subjects, through enough determination he could learn enough to survive in tandem with his other abilities. The goal of a Jedi Diplomat’s martial skills, to her, was survival as long as a greater good could be served . Yes, a Jedi may very well have to take call up the call of martyrdom, but if the Jedi died while he or she could still accomplish much more good while remaining alive, she saw it as a tremendous waste of potential and perhaps even a sin toward the galaxy itself.
She was particularly harsh, perhaps even bordering on cruel, in her requirements for what he was adept in. She required him to hold low-level protective shields at all times from dawn to dusk, and demanded that he be able to raise them to full protective ability within milliseconds, often viciously probing his defenses at random intervals. Since his ability to sense danger was remarkably lackluster and often limited to within mere seconds of a dangerous event occurring, she forced him to expand his telepathic senses to their limit, and constantly probed his mental defenses to ensure that he would at least be able to sense an intention to harm, kill, manipulate, or deceive him.
She especially honed his talent for crafting realistic illusions, as she saw that as best means for survival: it took far less energy from him to create an illusion that an attacker would either run away from or assault than it did to block an attack with his shields or engage in lightsaber combat, and could be used to protect key diplomatic sources and even enable him to masquerade as an animal or compatriot of the enemy to enable speedy escapes. She always emphasized using illusions in synch with his telepathic ability, so that he could create realistic illusions and mind tricks that his enemy would actually believe and avoid creating an illusion that would be counterproductive to a situation. For example, what if he disguised himself as a small creature to elude a guard, but what if that guard liked shooting at small creatures? What if he conjured an illusion so terrifying that it might end up giving someone a heart attack? She always advised him to be extremely circumspect and careful with his telepathic abilities, as she noted that it was only a matter of philosophy, not technique, which separated them from Dark Force users.
She pressed him most on his lightsaber skills during the early years of their relationship, demanding at least three hours of practice every day from him, stating that she would not feel comfortable taking him with her in more dangerous situations until he was able to hold his own. Perhaps it was also because her own physical skills were waning that she stressed it so heavily: though the Force could compensate for age, there was only so much it could do. At first, Ylenic was a miserable failure: she did not even have to call upon the Force to bring him to his limits for the first few years. Many an interested bystander found it immensely amusing that such a small, fragile lady could so easily defeat the far larger and far younger Padawan. Slowly, gradually, painfully he mastered the ways of Shii-Cho, eventually achieving a solid mastery of it through sheer repetition. Afterwards, his Master advised him to undertake the study of Soresu, which he agreed with wholeheartedly. First, it embodied the principals of a Jedi Diplomat such as survival rather than victory. Second, it was extremely effective against blasters, which was what a Jedi Diplomat was most likely to face in their travels. Third, it allowed control of a combat situation and more importantly gave the Diplomat choice: should one wound, kill, or attempt to reason with an opponent? He devoted quite a bit of time into the style, and, after years of it consuming nearly one fifth of his waking hours, achieved mastery of it roughly two years before the end of his Padawanship.
Gradually, as Seirak aged and as Ylenicbecame more skillful, she allowed him to come along to more dangerous missions, those involving ongoing galactic conflicts. Negotiations with armed rebel groups, terrorists, criminals, and a whole slew of political and economic figures that could, with a few well-placed words, end the lives of hundreds, thousands, or even millions of beings. Enforcing arms embargoes, assisting in the evacuation in the refugees from hostile warzones, preventing coup d’etats, and on more than a few occasions assisting Republic Intelligence, with whom the Republic Diplomatic Core had a long and friendly relationship with. Ylenic was, slowly but surely, learning to defuse situations that were only one wrong word away from erupting in violence, death, or even mass genocide. After he managed to successfully negotiate the release of third-party hostages by an Outer Rim terrorist group based off Tatooine by himself, and feeling that there was not much more she could teach him that experience could not, Seirak decided that he was ready to face the Knight Trials after an unusually long fifteen year padawanship.
Trial of Skill: Ylenic’s trial of skill occurred within the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. It was originally intended to be a scenario wherein Ylenic would have to stand up against a Jedi Master in his prime for a satisfactory amount of time. Ylenic had considered himself decently skilled after years of practice, but it had always been against an elderly Jedi in her waning years. It was thus that Ylenic’s skills were pushed to the test: For ten minutes, he had to hold out against the furious force and lightsaber assaults of a Jedi Master far more skilled than him, and far younger than Seirak. It was a harrowing ordeal for him, and one that took him multiple tries to perfect: he was forced to split his attention between his saber technique, telepathically creating realistic, instant illusions against a skilled force user almost instantly, reading the intentions of his opponent, and throwing up defensive shields where his saber technique, illusions, and telepathy failed. In the end, he managed to pass, just skirting by at the ten minute and twelve second mark to a beautifully coordinated assault by the Jedi Master, who used a large Force Push to force Ylenic to redirect his slowly atrophying mental concentration to his shields and drop his illusions, then launched a furious lightsaber assault wherein he was able to inflict light, yet painful strikes on Ylenic's arms and legs, which forced him to flinch and cause his Soresu to falter. A well-placed lock and grapple later, and Ylenic was on the floor with a lightsaber inches above his neck. Exhausted from his constant use of real-time illusions with no time for preparation, use of barriers, and lightsaber combat against someone who wasn't elderly, Ylenic stumbled out of the chamber, tired but smiling.
Trial of Courage: Ylenic singlehandedly secured the fate of ten hostages in a fierce labor dispute between disgruntled , extremist farmers and corporate managers on the Outer Rim World of Agramar. He took their place in the standoff between local police, military and corporate factions and the extremist group, which had been known for murdering several officials they thought were corrupt and who had cheated many local farmers out of their holdings. Ylenic successfully managed to convince them to pursue their cases through the civil system, with the assurance that he would watch over the proceedings and ensure that they went according to Republic law, and that they would not be prosecuted or face retaliation for the actions that they had already committed.
Trial of Flesh: While on a mission to investigate possible war crimes in a medium-intensity civil war on the desert planet of Gacerin, Ylenic was kidnapped by the rebel party. He was given evidence of the local government's war crimes, and was told to report those and those only on the local holonet channels. When he refused, saying his mission was to find the truth behind the atrocities of both parties, he was subjected to harsh interrogation.He was blindfolded, taken to a secure location, and forced to endure a barrage of tactics, ranging from beatings, to injections of truth serum, to electric shocks, sleep deprivation, food and liquid deprivation, all aimed at breaking him. Though he could have easily escaped through manipulating the minds of the guards, creating illusions, or a whole slew of other tactics, Ylenic realized that if he did so they would view the Jedi Order, and by extension the Republic, as weak and thus not accept their authority to mediate. Ylenic thus resolved to stay until they recognized that they would get nothing from him and that he was an impartial mediator and would not sway from that stance, even at the cost of his life. He managed to deal with the torture through meditative techniques and by inducing positive and pleasurable delusions on himself, so as to lessen the pain that he felt. After two weeks, he was finally released, a little emaciated and weak, when the rebels realized that they would not be able to sway him to their viewpoint, and that killing him would only bring many more of those with as much mental fortitude as him to the planet. Ylenic, for his part, did not hold any grudges against the rebels for their actions, since he understood that passions ran high in such brother against brother conflicts, which would make normal people do unthinkable things in order to achieve victory. In the end, he was able to present a complete account of the crimes of both sides, which were approximately equal in number to, to the Galactic Senate for further action.
It was thus that Ylenic passed his Knight Trials, and at the age of twenty-seven was knighted and accepted a position as a Jedi Diplomat, taking Seirak’s place as she finally decided to retire to the Temple to write her memoirs and teach Intergalatic Relations.
Post-Knighthood Activities: Growing Instabilities and Coruscanti Politics.
Ylenic’s appointment as a diplomat came at a tumultuous time. Soon after his appointment, the Sith and Mandalorians launched massive offenses against Republic Worlds. With the resources of the Republic stretched thin to defend its territories, political malcontents and those who would serve them have seized upon numerous opportunities to advance their own power, and civil turmoil and war threaten to tear apart the galaxy and the Republic itself. The Jedi Diplomats and their allies in the Republic Diplomatic Corps have been stretched to their limits in an attempt to contain this, faced with increasingly limited resources and the waning influence of the Republic in the face of several major military defeats and economic turmoil. Worlds that were once staunch loyalists to the Republic are now seen teetering on the edge. Ylenic has found it increasingly difficult to reject the requests of longtime friends and associates to assist them in war negotiations for the Republic.
He has spent the most recent phase of his career on Coruscant, as he has found that he is able to manage far more cases and do far more good on a grander scale by having constant access to Senators and Ambassadors with who he is able to coordinate meetings with. Instead of solving one dispute a week by physically travelling there and mediating the situation, a few well-placed nudges, suggestions, and slightly veiled threats to men of great power and influence can bump that up to around ten. This, unfortunately, has made very few dents on the increasing numbers of serious issues and mountains of paperwork that being a diplomat on the losing side of a galactic war entails. He does, however, feel that this constant interaction with Senators and Ambassadors has comforted and improved relations with a few shaky constituencies, and enables him to make sure that they can feel safe in their offices without fear of being assassinated like the former Supreme Chancellor.
How he will act in the next phase of the conflict is uncertain, but with the situation turning ever more dire in the political and diplomatic spheres, he may be forced to disobey the council and actively negotiate for the Republic war effort, fully aware that with every deal he makes for the Republic, he throws countless lives away in a desperate gamble for lasting galactic peace.
Into the Maelstrom.
This section is to keep my internal chronology in order since Ylenic's acceptance on SWU.
Diplomatic Distress
Ylenic, exhausted and demoralized by the overwhelming amount of diplomatic duties placed upon him as more and more of the Order are drawn into the ever-widening galactic war, met with Jedi Master Levin Caelum and Knight Lock Nemsee to discuss the ongoing conflict and a possible different future for him with the Blades.
swrponline2.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=coruscant&action=display&thread=18218
The Battle of Thila
Ylenic's first real assignment for the Blades. Rushing from Coruscant, he reached the fortress of Bak'Mral shortly before hostilities began, and was assigned to a support role, becoming the reserve in the event of a possible breach of the defenses. Realizing that the battle would in large part be decided by wielders of the Force, Ylenic sought to create a force of soldiers trained to use weapons that were difficult for a Force user to stand against and guide them in how to use them effectively in an attempt to counter the Sith attacking the fortress. Unfortunately, since such a force relies heavily on specialized weaponry, Ylenic was only able to gather about a half-company of said soldiers, just enough to reinforce one of the possible breach points. [To be continued].
swrponline2.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=miscplanets&action=display&thread=17674
RP Sample:
It was sweltering inside the small, makeshift conference room located in the backroom of the Anchorhead Cantina. The air conditioning unit had been made off with by a Jawa mere hours before the conference, and with a fierce sandstorm now brewing outside, the manager had not been particularly inclined to fix it, even when offered a rather outsized amount of credits. Ylenic was sweating rather profusely: although his barriers could keep the sand away from him, they could not keep out the heat.
He was there to mediate between leaders of a group of Bothan and Human settlers who had recently settled on the uninhabited Outer Rim world of Ancathia. Both parties lived in separate communities, but from time to time engaged in vital trade and shared the revenues from the planet’s lone starport. With the outbreak of the current galactic war close to their borders disrupting external imports and raising transport costs, hostilities had risen between the two groups. The humans accused the Bothans of price gouging them on food, whereas the Bothans claimed that the humans were ignoring their territorial claims and expanding onto land that they rightfully owned. A brief conflict had taken place over a disputed farm, leaving several on both sides dead. The leaders of both sides had publicly refused to negotiate, but in private had requested Jedi meditation at a secure offworld location, far, far away from their planet. Each side wished to promote itself as the victor in the negotiations, but the way things were going, it didn’t look like it was going to be possible.
“Maybe we wouldn’t have to expand so much if you didn’t try to screw us out of every little credit we have! You know we don’t have much hard currency…” shouted Drefyl, a large, stout brown-haired, blue eyed man of pale complexion attired in brown miner’s clothing with two purple stripes down his right arm.
“You know as well as I that since we can’t import as much food and fuel costs have soared. Believe it or not there is something that free people do called capitalism, where the seller determines how much he is willing to part with goods, and we are the ones with most of the domestic food stores." Countered Brevi, a small, wizened albinto Bothan with a rasping voice.
“There’s a difference between capitalism and extortion! A 400% price hike? Does that sound reasonable to you, Jedi?” Drefyl said, casting a glance at him. Ylenic remained entirely impassive, knowing better than to take the bait. Once, when he was younger, he made the crucial mistake of showing a reaction in favor of one side and as a result the other party refused to accept his neutrality and he had to crawl back to his master and ask her to intervene.
“There you go again, trying to bring him into it! If our goods are so expensive, why don’t you just import from offworld?”
“We would, if merchant ships would come with some regularity. You know the pirate attacks have been getting worse with the Republic Military being distracted…”
“Then it looks like you’re going to have to deal with our prices. Maybe we should raise another 400% to compensate those who died in your attack on our farm!” Brevic said, raising his voice slightly.
“Do that and you’ll see how much you’ll be able to sell when we
burn the all down!” Drefyl growled, standing up and beginning to reach for his blaster.
“We won’t need to sell you food if you’re dead!” Brevi said, going for his own.
The room suddenly shifted. No longer were they in a sweltering bar on Tatooine, but on the plains of Ancathia. Rolling hills covered with bountiful stalks of yellow-gold wheat, interspersed with pure, clear rivers, along with large, thick trees flush with enormous ripe fruit. Small stone cottages with lush gardens dotted the landscape. Children, both human and Bothan, played happily in the river, floating on small, toy rafts. Males and females of both races lounged on either side of the river, happily enjoying drinks and various small snacks in the summer sun.
“What the hell?” Drefyl asked, looking dazed, trying to grasp at one of the straws of wheat, but seeing his hand pass through it.
“Jedi?” inquired Brevi, very carefully, searching for the Caamasi who had seemingly entirely vanished.
A single red/orange pillar blossomed in the far-off distance, soaring up into the sky, capturing the attention of both Drefyl and Brevi.
“What is that?”
“An eruption…?”
More pillars began to blossom, this time close enough to see the details. Walls of flame blanketed the horizon, with black clouds of dust and debris soaring upwards from their base. Loud thumps and whines could be heard as the pillars moved in an ever-quickening arc toward the families and the fields.
“A-Artillery?” gasped Drefyl, horror creeping onto his features.
“Why aren’t they moving?” shouted Brevi, growing more distressed by the moment.
The barrage began to strike the peaceful summer scene. All of the children seemed to look at the both at the two leaders, faces contorted with mixtures of fear and pain, just seconds before the artillery vaporized them and turned them into fire and ash. They had just enough time to glimpse the horrified, agonized faces of the parents before they, too, were reduced to nothingness. The houses exploded into ash and rubble, the fields caught fire, the trees burned, their fruit catching on fire , crackling, turning to black mush. When the artillery fire finally stopped, all that was left was a blackened landscape strewn with ash, rubble, and the occasional limb.
Drefyl and Brevi had both collapsed to their knees, and had unconsciously embraced each other.
“I didn’t mean it….I didn’t mean it…I was just bluffing and angry…I never wanted this….” Howled a mournful Drefyl, burying his face in Brevi's shoulder.
Brevi remained silent, staring with horrified fascination at the head of a decapitated Bothan child which was slowly turning to ash before his eyes, before turning his eyes away.
This is the delusion that you wished for. This is the price that war will bring to your people. Ylenic projected to them
with a solemn, didactic mental tone.
Moments later, the illusion shattered. They were back to the small, sweltering conference room on Tatooine. Ylenic sat, still with the same, impassive and blank look on his face, though his blue on green eyes now surveyed them both carefully.
“Y-You made your point Master Jedi.” Said Drefyl, wiping tears from his eyes.
“I…believe that we can come to an understanding.” Said Brevi, looking shaken.
The negotiations were concluded in short order. The humans would respect Bothan territorial rights, and in return the Bothans would both slash their prices and accept labor as an acceptable form of payment. They would also set up a bi-species council to resolve any land disputes, and work toward better integration of the two cultures on the planet. Furthermore, revenues would be raised from both camps to help purchase a few patrol ships or hire mercenaries to deal with the local pirate infestation in order to encourage traders to return back to the planet.
The two shook hands, and then turned and smiled at Ylenic.
“Thank you once more Master Jedi. You know, we think we will be returning together, and announcing this is as a joint declaration. We actually have a lot in common; Brevi here and I, and I think we’ll learn to be good friends over the hell we’re going to receive from our people over this. It’s a shame we actually had to see what the consequences of our actions would be before we realized how wrong we were. I guess we’re just fools.” Said Drefyl, smiling at him and petting Brevi on the head.
“I’m not a dog you know!” protested Brevi , shirking away from him slightly.
“No, you two are not fools. The fools are the ones who see how wrong they are and continue going on anyway. You just needed a slight nudge in the right direction.” Ylenic said, breaking into a smile for the first time, rising to shake their hands.
“Would you share a drink with us Master Jedi?” asked Brevi.
Ylenic looked at them mournfully, then glanced at the clock on his data-pad, and the list of appointments he had to keep for the week.
“I would, friends, but I have a date with Lady Paperwork, and she tends to be quite mad and get quite fat if I’m not on time.”
“Hah, I think we all know that feeling. Come on Brevi, let me buy you a drink. Do you want a treat too?”
“I…am…not…a…dog.”
As the two walked out to the bar, Ylenic went through a small series of stretches before glancing back at his datapad. One appointment request down…twenty-seven more to go this month, and those were just the offworld missions. He did not even want to conceive thinking about his backlog. He sighed, pulled his cloak over his head, and began to make his way toward the door, back out into the wilderness that was the galaxy.
