Sorand Taerich

Sorand Taerich was a Sith Acolyte in the True Empire. The son of an Imperial ambassador and a fallen Jedi Knight, he fled the Empire after being attacked by his own order for being related to Jedi, and took on a position of a healer within the Vornu Military.
==Sith Heir==
The youngest son and second-youngest child born to Ambassador Taerich of the Lavisar System, Sorand and his twin sister Aryn were born just under two years prior to the Sacking of Coruscant. As a child, Sorand was trained in the Sith way beside his older brother Korin, who grew to be his best friend and confidante, more so than his Force-blind twin sister.
Despite the Sith training from their uncle, Lord Maglion of Lavisar, their mother (Aerdna Drallig, a fallen Jedi Knight) did her best to instruct her children in the ways of the Light Side and of the Jedi. Korin heeded his mother's lessons a bit more, and eventually took her word enough to abandon the Empire as a teenager, but Sorand, being the younger and somewhat more impressionable of the boys, leaned more towards the Sith way. However, his mother's teachings would come back to affect him later in life.
When Sorand was approximately twelve years old, Korin finally gave up dealing with the Empire and ran away from home. It wouldn't be discovered until years later that he'd fled to Coruscant on his mother's directions, as he hid his tracks well and Aerdna faked ignorance. Berefit of his best friend and angry at the galaxy at large for letting Korin leave him alone at a Sith's mercy, Sorand fought his way through Sith training on his own for the next four years, until Maglion finally chose to send him to Nogatan for training. By the time he left Lavisar, he had nearly forgotten all of the Jedi traits that his mother had tried to instill in him, as Aerdna had died not long after Korin's flight- officially passed on from illness, although Sorand always suspected that his uncle had poisoned his mother to death.
Upon arrival to Nogatan, Sorand met the Mandalorian warrior Je'ka Cuyot, and developed a close bond of friendship with the older man. Je'ka went so far as to adopt Sorand as an honourary member of his clan on Mandalore, and indirectly introduced him to Shara Verhoyc, whom Sorand would eventually marry in the Mandalorian tradition. During his time on Nogatan, Sorand also met Lia Ciobanu, a Republic defector who first gave him news of Xaja's survival and life with the Jedi Order, and arranged a meeting between the distant siblings. He also met and made friends with the Miraluka Sith Wraythos Vi'garion, and went so far as to request that Wraythos bring Xaja to Nogatan so she could be part of the Empire like his family had always wanted. When the Rakata invaded Nogatan, Sorand was part of the resistance in the Academy, going so far as to gain the attention of Gane Norvak and Trase Scarden.
==Flight from the Empire==
Not long after Sorand found out that his wife Shara was pregnant with their first child, he was attacked on Mandalore by a Sith Assassin by the name of Ny'killia, who had been defeated once on Taris by Xaja and was out for revenge against the Jedi. With the aid of her cohort M'Shar, Ny'killia brought Sorand to Tatooine as bait for the Jedi, who called Korin as soon as she knew where her youngest brother had been taken. Korin in turn called Je'ka, who was unable to come to his adopted son's aid due to his committments within the Empire, but sent his mercenary brother Tal after Sorand instead. This proved to be a very wise choice.
When Xaja arrived at the cave where Sorand was being held, already having been poisoned and weakened by M'Shar, Ny'killia taunted the Jedi before driving a blade into Sorand's chest, the Sith having already been weakened by days of torture. The assassin then fled the cave, launching a series of detonations to bring down the rock structure over the siblings' heads. Sorand stopped breathing in Xaja's arms, but while his sister was fleeing for her life from their enraged brother Korin, Tal took the injured Sith and got him out of the cave before getting his heart going again. Sorand eventually woke up in a medical bay in Anchorhead, and when Tal offered a ride to Vornu (his next destination), the Sith accepted, realizing that the Empire wanted him dead. He called Shara and Je'ka to let them know he was alive and where he was going before falling back unconscious for most of the flight there.
Upon arrival to Vornu and meeting Shara (who'd beaten him to the Jedi planet), Sorand was met by Commander Tali Kuti, a friend of Xaja's and an officer in the Vornu Military. She told Sorand that his sister had been reported missing by the Order not long after Sorand's brief death, as well as giving him the news of Je'ka's death in combat (and his will, which left everything including his baby daughter Rav'ika to Sorand) and offered the ex-Sith and his wife refuge on Vornu. While Sorand was accepting, Shara's water broke. She eventually gave birth to their son Cuyan. Not long after his son was born, Sorand offered his services to the Vornu Military, knowing he would never be accepted into the Jedi Order with a family he wasn't willing to let go of, and enlisted as a healer.
Not long after, Korin arrived on Vornu's surface, having recieved word by means of a holomessage from Sorand that he had survived Tatooine and had defected. The brothers reunited with much relief at the other's state of well-being, and waited together until Xaja was finally rescued from Nogatan and brought home to Vornu to reunite with her brothers.
==Personality==
Interestingly, despite his status as a Sith, Sorand was a relatively gentle, easy-natured individual. He always preferred to negotiate his way out of a fight- his reasoning while working for the Empire was that people persuaded to join the Empire were always more useful than people killed in the Empire's name.
At some point, he discovered a small proficiency in healing, and when he fled to the Republic, sought more training in this area. As a Sith, he discovered the use of Force Lightning and made use of it in combat. For being a diplomat first and foremost, Sorand was no weakling, and could wield a lightsabre as easily as any other Sith of his rank.
Much like his mother and sister, Sorand also had developed telepathy, although not as strongly as Xaja. This was arguably one of the reasons why he didn't necessarily like to kill other living beings.
==Behind The Scenes==
Sorand is very loosely based off of Celebril's youngest brother.
Sorand exists in Star Wars: The Old Republic as a Sith Sorceror with the Healing specs. Currently he's working through Voss and is almost to Level 50. Also, for a Sith, he's rather light-sided, in accordance with his forum counterpart.
It was discovered during a roleplay that Sorand was absolutely terrified of heights. He was also initially designed to be very shy around girls.
Category:The True Empire
Category:Old Republic Era