Calo Nord

Calo Nord was an infamous Human male bounty hunter who lived during the Jedi Civil War, a galaxy-spanning conflict initiated by the Sith Lords Darth Revan and Darth Malak. Nord was sold into slavery by his mother and father at a young age. On his sixteenth birthday, he killed his slave masters and tracked down his parents, murdering them as well. A bounty was placed on Nord, but he eliminated every mercenary that pursued him. Once the attempts on his life ended, Nord murdered those who had placed the bounty and became a bounty hunter by trade, taking assignments from any party that paid. Nord occasionally worked for the Exchange criminal syndicate boss Davik Kang but had been also contracted by the Galactic Republic for operations in the Core.
During the final year of the Jedi Civil War, Nord was on the planet Taris for business with Kang. Following the attack on the Republic vessel Endar Spire, Malak, who had betrayed Revan and usurped control of the Sith Empire, quarantined the planet in order to search for the Jedi Knight Bastila Shan, who had become marooned on the Tarisian surface. Malak eventually ordered the planet's destruction in an attempt to kill Shan. When the Sith began to bombard Taris, Nord and Kang attempted to flee aboard Kang's freighter Ebon Hawk and caught Shan and her companions during their attempt to steal Kang's flagship. A firefight ensued, which ended when Nord was caught under falling debris and trapped. The bounty hunter was able to flee Taris and evade the devastation wrought by the Sith. He was subsequently hired by Darth Malak to track down Shan and capture her alive. Nord located Shan's companion, Revan—now a partially retrained Jedi Padawan—in the Eastern Dune Sea on the desert planet of Tatooine as he was searching for the ancient Rakatan space station known as the Star Forge. As Revan and his team exited some ancient ruins, the bounty hunter confronted Revan. Nord was overmatched by Revan and his companions, resulting in his death.
==Biography==
===Early life and bounty hunter===
When the Human male known as Calo Nord was a young boy, he was sold into slavery by his mother and father. During his time as a slave, Nord learned to be ruthless and cold-hearted. After turning sixteen years of age, Nord butchered his slave masters. Free, he located his parents and murdered them. A bounty was placed on Nord's head, and the young man was pursued by many bounty hunters. Nord observed the means and methodologies of the bounty hunters who tracked him, learning and acquiring trade skills. He used his new-found skills to eliminate each one that was in pursuit. Eventually, the attempts on his life ceased.Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: Prima's Official Strategy Guide The Bounty Hunters' Guild had deemed Nord too dangerous and cancelled the contract. Nord, however, found and killed the people that had placed the bounty. Nord became a bounty hunter himself, taking contracts from whoever paid him. Among these contracts were operations on behalf of the Galactic Republic in the Core. As a bounty hunter, Nord commissioned the building of personal armor, based on the design worn by the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders. Following its completion, Nord killed the maker of the armor to make sure that it would be unique to him, and also to keep from paying the designer.
He occasionally worked for Davik Kang, a crime lord of the Exchange crime syndicate whose operations were based on the Outer Rim ecumenopolis of Taris. When contracted, Kang hired Nord to kill and bring back the heads of rancors so that the crime lord could mount the heads in his trophy room.Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Datapad containing records of Nord's trophy kills Among the locations Nord visited while on Taris was the Hutt Zax's bounty office, an establishment contained within the Lower City locale of Javyar's Cantina. By the time of the Jedi Civil War, a galaxy-spanning conflict initiated by Darth Revan, Darth Malak, and their Sith Empire, it had even been said that Nord had killed more people than the Iridian Plague.Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Revan's conversation with Mission Vao in Javyar's Cantina
===Jedi Civil War===
====Destruction of Taris====
In 3957 BBY, Darth Malak usurped the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith when he betrayed his Sith Master Revan as the Jedi and Republic forces tried to capture them both. One year later, Malak conquered Taris; and, after the Jedi Knight Bastila Shan crash-landed on Taris, the Dark Lord quarantined the planet and ordered his fleet to blockade the planet so that the Sith forces could search for Shan.
During the Sith's quarantine of Taris, Nord, who was on the planet for business with Davik Kang, encountered a Republic soldier named Revan on two occasions. Revan, who was unknowingly the former Dark Lord of the Sith, had been marooned on Taris with Republic commander Carth Onasi, and they were searching for Shan. Nord first met Revan in Javyar's Cantina, where the bounty hunter killed three Black Vulkars for having disturbed him. Revan tried to engage Nord in conversation, but the departing Nord desired not to be bothered. Revan complied, not wanting to provoke the bounty hunter into attacking him. Nord later encountered Revan when the soldier was exploring the Lower City's apartments. There, Nord killed two Rodians—the assassin Luugro and his companion—so that he could collect the corresponding bounties.
Nord was present at Kang's estate when the crime lord's enforcer, the Mandalorian Canderous Ordo, brought Revan, Onasi, and Shan—who had been successfully rescued by the two Republic soldiers—to the estate. Ordo introduced Revan to the crime lord as an individual interested in joining the Exchange. Nord told the Mandalorian that it was not like him to take on partners and taunted Ordo. He then accompanied Kang while the crime lord treated Revan and his companions to a tour of his estate, showing them his freighter, the Ebon Hawk. After the tour, Nord and Kang took Ordo, Revan, Shan, and Onasi to a guest room and warned Revan to stay in the guest wing of the estate. Kang left to look into Revan's background, as a standard precaution, and told Nord to come with him.
Aboard his flagship Leviathan, Darth Malak concluded that his troops' search for Shan was taking too long and ordered the Sith Admiral Saul Karath to have the Sith fleet destroy Taris in order to kill the Jedi. Nord and Kang, hoping to flee the bombardment, entered the hangar where the Ebon Hawk was housed, but they discovered that Revan and his companions were attempting to steal the ship. After Kang spoke to the group, Nord told the crime lord he would kill them, stating that he had looked forward to doing so for a long time. Kang implored the bounty hunter to hurry, saying that if they did not escape, the Sith's lasers would be their demise. In the ensuing firefight, Nord realized that he and Kang were outmatched. Kang perished, and Nord—who was not willing to let Ordo, the Republic soldiers and the Jedi escape—tried to use a thermal detonator to kill everyone, including himself. Instead, the bombardment partially destroyed the hangar, causing Nord to be buried underneath a heap of rubble. Leaving Nord and the deceased Kang, Revan's group boarded the Ebon Hawk and gathered the rest of their companions before fleeing Taris and the Sith bombardment.
====Death====
Even though he had been buried in rubble on Taris, Nord survived the attack and was able to escape the planet. He was later granted an audience with Darth Malak aboard the Leviathan. Admiral Karath brought Nord in as an eyewitness of Bastila Shan's survival. When the bounty hunter entered the bridge, Malak expressed his surprise that Nord had managed to survive his encounter with Shan and Onasi, to which the bounty hunter replied that he was difficult to kill. Nord agreed to capture Shan, and Karath assured Malak that the bounty hunter's services were worth the demanded price. Malak told Nord that he desired Shan taken alive, if possible, but that the Jedi's other companions were of no value. Nord and Karath then privately met with Malak away from the crew on the Leviathan bridge, during which Nord revealed to Malak that his former Sith Master, Revan, had survived and was one of the members responsible for Shan's escape.
Nord set out to find both Shan and Revan, who was now a retrained Jedi Padawan tasked with searching for the mysterious Rakatan Star Forge space station under Malak's control. The bounty hunter located Revan in the Eastern Dune Sea on the desert world Tatooine and hired two Rodian and two Aqualish henchmen to confront the elusive Jedi. Nord set an ambush while Revan was inside a cave where a krayt dragon had taken nest. Nord confronted Revan after the Jedi found a second Rakatan Star Map, which was needed to locate the Star Forge, inside the cave. Nord gave Revan credit for having evaded him thus far but stated that no one could ultimately escape him. The bounty hunter and his accomplices were overmatched and killed by the former Sith Lord and his companions.
===Legacy===
Shortly after Nord's death, Admiral Karath informed Darth Malak of Nord's failure. Malak told Karath that the penalty for failure was death, but that the failure belonged to Nord, not Karath himself. Malak dispatched his Shadow Hand, Darth Bandon, to kill Revan and capture Shan. Prior to his death, the leaders of the secret bounty hunter guild known as the GenoHaradan had considered admitting Nord into their organization, although he had not yet proven himself worthy of joining. Due to Nord's death at Revan's hands, however, the GenoHaradan's overseers opted to approach Revan with an invitation instead. Four thousand years after Nord's death, he was primarily remembered as a footnote in Revan's career with his exploits forgotten.
==Personality and traits==
Calo Nord was a diminutive Human male who seemed harmless upon a first glance. Nord spoke Basic, the Republic's trade language. He moved with careful, deliberate precision and possessed an expressionless face. He was willing to take contracts from anyone who paid him well. Even though his ultimate loyalty was to whomever offered him the most credits, Nord also worked for the thrill of the hunt. He enjoyed toying with other mercenaries. Nord had a reputation of being unafraid of potential adversaries, in addition to his regular perception of being cold, menacing, and unapproachable. He also possessed innate instincts for both survival and killing. Nord's story was dismissed by some as a myth that was created to scare aspiring criminals. No name was more feared among the criminals in the Outer Rim than Calo Nord.
In a couple cases, when someone disturbed Nord, he counted to three, with a number after each interjection. Having counted to three in order for the being to escape his anger, he opened fire on the nuisance for bothering him. Nord was not willing to let anyone defeat him and would go to great lengths to ensure that an individual never did. When Shan, Ordo, and Revan overpowered him on Taris, Nord threatened to kill himself with a thermal detonator in an attempt to ensure their deaths. The bounty hunter also aspired to claim a pearl from a krayt dragon on Tatooine. He considered one of these pearls to be the greatest of hunting trophies.
When Calo Nord was a boy, he was sold into slavery by his parents. He murdered his slave masters when he turned sixteen and tracked down his parents, murdering them. After establishing himself as a bounty hunter, Nord worked for any individual who offered him the most credits. He had working business relationships with Exchange crime lord Davik Kang, the Galactic Republic, and Darth Malak's Sith Empire. Nord periodically taunted the Mandalorian Canderous Ordo, who was also an employee of Davik Kang. Darth Malak's Sith apprentice, Darth Bandon, disliked Nord and viewed him as pathetic. Bandon expressed this opinion to Revan when the Sith confronted the Jedi.
==Equipment==
Calo Nord used two Mandalorian heavy blasters as his primary weapons, but he was capable of fighting with a vibroblade when pressed. Nord also carried four stun grenades and two thermal detonators in his arsenal. He possessed a pair of goggles that granted him low-light vision when he wore them and used a prototype energy shield of Verpine design for extra protection during battle. Nord carried 2,000 credits on his person and employed a datapad, on which he kept a record of his thoughts and trophy kills. At some point during his life, Nord ordered a custom suit of battle armor that was based on heavily modified Mandalorian designs. After the suit was completed, Nord murdered the armorer to ensure his suit would remain unique.
==Behind the scenes==
===Character development===
Calo Nord was first created by the developers at BioWare as a boss-like villain for the 2003 Xbox and PC video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. A miniature of Nord was released in the Bounty Hunters (Star Wars Miniatures), an expansion set of Wizards of the Coast's Star Wars Miniatures role-playing game. The set was released on September 23, 2006. Unlike the in-game outcome, Nord's entry in the Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide states that he died during the Sith bombardment of Taris. His entry in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, however, states that Nord was killed near Rakata Prime during the final battle of the Jedi Civil War. A blog entry entitled So Uncivilized: Great Gunslingers in Star Wars, the first part of which was published on September 19, 2013, confirmed that Calo Nord met his fate on Tatooine.
When John Jackson Miller—the writer of the Knights of the Old Republic comic series—was asked if there any other Knights of the Old Republic video game characters that he wanted to include in the series, Miller mentioned that he regretted not putting Nord in the comic. In June 2013, Calo Nord's outfit was added for male and female players to purchase in the Cartel Market in the video game Star Wars: The Old Republic as part of the Archon's Contraband pack.
===Player options in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic===
The planet on which Revan battles Nord is determined by the order the five Star Maps are obtained. Nord may appear either on Tatooine, the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk, the Selkath homeworld of Manaan, or the ancient Sith tomb-world of Korriban. On Tatooine, Nord is accompanied by Rodian and Aqualish henchmen. Nord confronts Revan with Wookiees loyal to Chieftain Chuundar on Kashyyyk. On Manaan, Nord is accompanied by two Twi'leks. Should Revan encounter Nord in the Hrakert Station on Manaan, Nord explains that he used an underwater vessel to reach the station. On Korriban, Nord is accompanied by two students from the Sith Academy.
The first time Nord is encountered in gameplay is in Javyar's Cantina in the Tarisian Lower City. If the player attempts to speak to Nord, the bounty hunter simply replies to go away. If the player opts to keep speaking to Nord, the bounty hunter counts to three. Should Nord reach the end of his three-count, the bounty hunter attacks, and the player is unable to defeat him and will be killed. However, it is possible to escape death by quickly leaving the conversation, which Nord calls a smart move before leaving the cantina. Should Canderous Ordo accompany the player when Nord confronts Revan for the last time, Ordo will make note of the fact that Nord brought backup and taunt the bounty hunter.
==Appearances==
*Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 
*Star Wars: The Old Republic Cartel Market 
*Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes
==Sources==
*Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: Prima's Official Strategy Guide
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*Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide
*The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
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*Star Wars: The Old Republic Encyclopedia
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*The Bounty Hunter Code: From the Files of Boba Fett
==Notes and references==
Category:Bounty hunters
Category:Darth Revan's Sith Empire individuals
Category:Enslaved individuals
Category:Exchange members
Category:Galactic Republic military personnel
Category:Humans
Category:Hunters
Category:Males
Category:Mercenaries