Xaja Taerich

Xaja Taerich was a Jedi Knight of Puris Axiom, stationed on Vornu. An exile from Tython and a survivor from Coruscant, she served with the Jedi Order.
==Personality==
Xaja was reputed by most who knew her to be a stubborn, loyal Jedi, devoted to the Order and the Republic she served. Heedless of her Imperial blood, she devoted her life to service in the Republic, never forgetting the horrors she'd witnessed on Coruscant and vowing to never stop fighting until the last Sith were defeated.
She was hotheaded, and very prone to get into fights over the slightest provocation- in the past, this has led to her expulsion from the Enclave she grew up in. While she tended to make friends fairly well with the people she knows (even so far as to remain friends with Lia Ciobanu), she still possessed a slightly violent tendency to pick fights over negotiations.
While she was stubbornly loyal to the Jedi Order, she certainly questioned several aspects of the Code, including the rules on attachment and emotions. This would become more evident later on in her life with the Enclave, including her relationship with Darren Kota and her quest to find her surviving family.
==Biography==
===Child Of Two Worlds===
Xaja was born on the Mid-Rim world of Lavisar to an Imperial diplomat, whose brother was the planetary governor- and a Sith Lord. Her uncle sensed the Force strongly within his new niece and laid claim on her for Sith training when she was older, along with her cousin- his son Joh'da. However, Xaja's mother, Aerdna Drallig, a Jedi who'd left the Order some years earlier for love, smuggled her baby daughter off the planet within a day of her brother-in-law's declaration. The former Jedi Sentinel safely deposited her daughter with the Jedi Temple on Coruscant (under the watchful gaze of her old friend Jedi Consular Celedurian) before fleeing to the Outer Rim- she was eventually apprehended by bounty hunters sent by her husband and brother-in-law, but refused to give up information pertaining to Xaja's whereabouts.
Three siblings would be born later- Korin Taerich, a few months after his mother's return to Lavisar; and the twins Sorand and Aryn Taerich. Both sons were found to be very strong in the Force, while Aryn was, much to her uncle's chagrin, Force-blind. Korin, having heeded enough of his mother's warnings about the Dark Side of the Force, eventually fled Lavisar rather than become a Sith, while Sorand became his uncle's apprentice and Aryn, to counter for her lack of midichlorians, became a scientist in the Imperial ranks. Xaja's siblings, although unknown to her for the better part of twenty years, would come to figure significantly in her life.
===Early Training===
It was unknown whether the Coruscant Masters ever knew about the young Initiate's family background, or that she was the daughter of one of their exiled. For her first seven years of existence, Xaja was raised as a perfectly ordinary Jedi Youngling, quickly discovering a proficiency for the practice 'sabre. She was also very empathatic to the feelings of others, even as a small child. She soon became close friends with Rokailyn, a headstrong Zabrak girl, and Kelia, a shy human girl. The three clan mates were inseperable until the day that the Sacking occured.
===The Sacking of Coruscant, and The Undercity===
Xaja was only seven when the Sith launched their attack on Coruscant. With Rokailyn and Kelia, she sensed some sort of trouble in the Temple and went to investigate. This proved ruinous, as the girls came across a Sith who murdered Rokailyn and chased Xaja and Kelia into the sublevels of the Temple. Both girls managed to get away from that Sith, although they weren't expecting another to bring the ceiling of the Temple down over their heads. Xaja survived, sheltered by the rubble, but Kelia was crushed by the stone. Leaving both her friends behind as corpses, Xaja escaped the burning Temple with the help of then-stranger Arimand Surik, and made it into the Undercity of Coruscant.
She stayed there for three years as a refugee street rat, stealing and picking locks whenever she could for food or credits, and always living in fear of the Sith- and the bounty hunters and gangs and admittedly violent or creepy sentients she'd meet in the lower levels. At one point, she acquired a blaster pistol for self defense, and had to shoot a Cathar man to protect herself, but the incident scarred her for life, rendering her unable to use a blaster ever again.
When she was nine, she was nearly kidnapped by a Zabrak man for slavery- she escaped, but was chased by the same Zabrak for the next year, until she finally snuck onto a loading dock to escape him. For lack of anywhere else to go to escape, she snuck onto a freighter and hid herself in the cargo bay. The Zabrak never caught her, for not long after she got on board, the ship took off for Ord Mantell. Xaja was found about an hour into the journey by the ship's engineer, but saved from being chucked into an escape pod and abandoned by the first mate. She was put off on Ord Mantell, with a few more credits to her name and a leather jacket donated by the captain himself.
She hung around the spaceport for a couple of days until she tried to pick a soldier's pocket. She was caught, and despite her attempts to run, was captured by Jedi Padawan Kichan Dalconter of Tython and brought before his Master, Gilrad, a Councillor. He recognized the little street rat as a former Jedi and brought her back to Tython to continue her training, although through this, a rivalry between Kichan and Xaja started that would last them for years.
===Tython===
It took a bit for Xaja to re-adjust to a Jedi lifestyle where she didn't have to live in constant fear, or steal to survive. She distanced herself from her age-mates, unwilling to make new friends that she could lose in an instant, but threw herself into training. As a result of the trauma she'd endured (and partially because she was so reluctant to talk to anyone on Tython about what she'd gone through), her ability to use the Force for telekinesis had suffered and almost completely atrophied. However, she still retained a basic telepathic ability to sense other people's emotions, and her prowess with a blade was still very advanced for her age group. When she was twelve, she was apprenticed out to Tirana Pedaen, a young Knight herself of Tython.
But Tython wasn't a happy ending. The young student's violent habits picked up from Coruscant weren't easy to let go of, and her rival Kichan was usually on the recieving end of her short temper (which he often instigated). To keep the peace between both students, Kichan was sent to work a cycle with the Agri-Corps, and Xaja's lightsabre was taken and she was sent to Vornu to learn peace.
===Training on Vornu===
Upon her acceptance to Vornu's Enclave, she was assigned to Chief Healer Kylin Kdan as her temporary Padawan. On her first meeting with the young Healer, Xaja experienced a vision quest of Lavisar- it was then that she learned, through the Force, of her family's convuluted history, including the brother who'd run away, the other brother who was training as the Sith that her uncle wished she had been, and the Force-blind sister who was a genius scientist. Once she'd emerged from the vision, Xaja decided to circumvent the Code and search for any record of her family within the Jedi's archives. With the help of her friend Arkanus Serren, Xaja found the Archive's records about her mother.
She shortly finished her training under Healer Kdan and was accepted as a full member of the Vornu Enclave. With her graduation, she was assigned to Muse Squadron to serve under Master Yvain Allende. Shortly after, Xaja approached the Squad Leader and requested formal training as her Padawan. Master Allende accepted Xaja as her student.
===Padawan of the Order===
Over the course of her apprenticeship to Master Allende, Xaja came to befriend many of the people on Vornu, making such friends as Arkanus Serren, Tali Kuti, Ellina Kast, and Darren Kota. She also established contact with her two younger brothers Korin and Sorand, and even made friends with certain Imperial agents, including Gane Norvak, Je'ka Cuyot, and T'lanna Harran, some of whom she fought beside during the Rakata invasions of Vornu and Nogatan. After sustaining serious injuries in combat against the Rakata, Xaja was made a Knight of the Order.
===Off-Duty===
In between missions, Xaja found time to train and continuously befriend people in the Enclave. Early in her apprenticeship to Master Allende, she took Initiate Ellina Kast under her wing briefly, to give the younger student a hint of what full membership in the Republic's ranks would be like and to help train if she could. She also came across Arimand Surik again, where both Jedi realized they remembered each other from the chaos of the Coruscant Temple being destroyed, and formed a friendship- aided in part by their mutual friend Bell'aria.
After the mission to Balmorra, Xaja approached Instructor Slaine Drucker, a friend of hers from her days as an Initiate, and asked for training in Jar'Kai- in a way to honour her mother's memory, but also to improve Xaja's own skills as a combatant. Slaine recognized the potential for Xaja to possibly become a Weaponsmaster of the Enclave, and started to train her in Niiman and Jar'Kai. At another time, Xaja also was sent for flight training with the rest of Muse Squadron.
Between the missions to Alderaan and Taris, Xaja met Republic Sergeant Darren Kota during an evening at Nightcore Cantina. Jedi Code notwithstanding, Xaja found herself attracted to the chivalrous trooper. Despite Xaja's fears of being discovered by the Jedi Council, their relationship continued covertly, with immediate knowledge of their doings only granted to their close friends Arkanus Serren and Ellina Kast, and suspicions held by Master Allende and Captain Reths.
===Knighthood and Captivity===
Not long after her Knighting, Xaja experienced a powerful vision of her youngest brother Sorand screaming in agony. Knowing through the Force that he was in mortal danger, Xaja left Vornu to track her brother down, and found a message addressed to her from a Sith she'd fought on Taris during a mission with Darren Kota. The Sith, Ny'killia, had kidnapped her brother and threatened Xaja with his death unless she travelled to Tatooine. Xaja flew to the designated meeting place, after alerting Korin to their brother's danger, but was attacked mid-route by Ny'killia's coworker, the Sith assassin M'Shar. The assassin left a poisoned Jedi to stagger into the cave where her brother was being held, and be too far away and slowed to do more than scream as Ny'killia drove a lightsabre into her brother's chest. Korin ran into the cave not a minute later as Sorand died in Xaja's arms, and started shooting at his sister in blind rage. Xaja was forced to flee the cave with her surviving brother in pursuit as Ny'killia had set the cave to collapse around them, leaving Sorand's body to be rescued by Je'ka's brother and Korin's friend Tal Cuyot. Tal eventually managed to resuscitate Sorand and get him to a medical facility, although his older siblings were unaware of this.
Vowing revenge, Xaja hid from Korin in Anchorhead, set on tracking down the Sith who'd killed her brother. She was unaware, however, that word of Sorand's death had already gotten back to their father, who'd raised the price of the live bounty on her head. The bounty contract was taken up by Wraythos Vi'garion, a friend of Sorand's from Nogatan, who tracked her down with Xaja's one-time friend T'lanna, now known as Lord Eratos. Tricked by T'lanna and overpowered by Wraythos, Xaja was taken prisoner and brought to Nogatan, where she encountered Darth Cideon. The Emperor, instead of permitting Wraythos to collect his bounty, had her thrown into a cell in the Dark Temple. Eventually, Watcher 18 had the exhausted Jedi taken out of the prison and taken to the Citadel, a laboratory and prison in the Nogatan wasteland, where she was thrown into another cell with Darren Kota, who had been taken prisoner in battle by Darth Tsuin. The two Republic prisoners (who were secret lovers on Vornu) managed to briefly comfort each other in the cell, until their Imperial captors decided to up the torture, beating both of them, using their bodies for experimentation purposes, and subjecting Xaja in particular to rape.
Eventually, Darth Ixion had both prisoners transported onto a barge as bait for a trap for the Jedi Council. One of the Council, Master Irilend, took the bait with a Republic squad of troopers and Captain Mal Ellert, a smuggler in her employ. Xaja and Darren were both rescued, but at the cost of Master Irilend's death, as well as the death of her squad. Captain Ellert managed to get both his passengers back to Vornu, but the nightmare wasn't over for Xaja, as the healers discovered during treatment of her torture-inflicted wounds that she was pregnant. When Xaja told Darren of her pregnancy, he grew angry that she'd kept the baby instead of aborting it, and nearly hit her so as to terminate the pregnancy early on the assumption that the baby was that of a nameless Sith rapist. Unable to stand being near a child that was presumed to be a Sith's baby, Darren abandoned Xaja and went on to Coruscant under the premise of repairs for the extensive damage to his cybernetics- by the time that Xaja had a paternity test done and discovered that her babies (for she was in fact pregnant with twins) were fathered by her former lover, Darren was long gone.
After Xaja's rescue from Nogatan, her younger sister Aryn came to collect the bounty on her. Obviously unable to bring the Jedi in question back to Lavisar with her, she instead took samples of Xaja's blood and travelled to Kamino to have a clone of her sister created. The clone would come to be known as Xalia.
===Master of the Order===
During Xaja's pregnancy, she was introduced to the spoiled Jedi initiate Niya Venorryn, a Sephi noble who had been brought to Vornu for training in the Order. Despite their initial mutual dislike of each other, a Force-bond formed between both Jedi and Xaja took on Niya as her Padawan. Not long after Xaja gave birth to her twin babies, she took on a second Padawan, Azrael Than.
==Powers and Abilities==
Xaja was, admittedly, a horrible Jedi in terms of using the Force. She was a bad healer and a worse diplomat, and considered it a good day when she could lift a small stone. But she excelled at most forms of combat arts, and so devoted her time to the study of fighting. Her preferred form, learned under Master Pedaen, was Ataru, although she learned Juyo from a holocron that she and Arimand Surik discovered, and asked Knight-Instructor Slaine Drucker for further training in Niiman and Jai'Kar, in an attempt to honour her deceased mother's memory.
When Xaja was able to use the Force in battle, she tended toward utilizing Force Speed. She was naturally a very quick person, and the Force enhanced this. As well, she was very good at moving stealthily, and rarely needed the use of a stealth generator. It's theorized that while she lost the ability to use the Force as effectively as she once might have been able to due to the trauma of the Sacking and the lack of a proper teacher, she developed stealth and speed so as to facilitate her survival, as well as her aggressive combat-centred tendencies.
She was also inclined to telepathy, discovered and trained under Master Allende. Eventually, she herself took on telepathic Padawans Niya Venorryn and Azrael Than.
==Relationships==
The first lasting relationship that Xaja developed on Vornu was with her Master, Yvain Allende. Even after Xaja's Knighting, she continued to respect Master Allende like her own mother, and did so until Master Allende resigned from the Order to return to her own home planet. She developed a sibling-like relationship with Arkanus Serren, which was returned in kind, as was her close friendship with Ellina Kast.
Arkanus and Ellina were the only ones to know that Xaja and Darren Kota were secret lovers, despite the Code's rules to the contrary. Darren and Xaja were lovers for a couple of years during Xaja's apprenticeship and early Knighthood, until Darren found out that Xaja was pregnant after their rescue from Sith captivity and unsure as to who the father of her unborn child was. Unwilling to be around a child that wasn't his own, Darren abandoned Xaja after threatening harm against her baby.
==Trivia and Behind The Scenes==
Xaja's middle name is Elynnai, the name she eventually gave to her newborn daughter. Elynnai's twin brother got their father's middle name, Zayne. Currently, Xaja is the only one of Celebril's characters to have an established middle name.
For all the nonsense about being a fearless Jedi, Xaja lived in mortal terror of spiders, a reflection of her writer's insectophobia.
Xaja Taerich was first created as a pre-TPM roleplay character on FanFiction.Net, the Padawan of Jedi Battlemaster Cin Drallig and a friend of Obi-Wan Kenobi. She eventually morphed into Zara Taerich for fanfiction writing. She's always been a short red-haired combatant in that form, although the similarities end there.
Celebril very nearly made Xaja a Sephi instead of a human, and still somewhat regrets not doing so.
"Xaja" is a variant on one of Celebril's real-life nicknames, AJ. When trying to guess her real name, one of Celebril's friends guessed "Ajax", and Celebril used that name on all of her online accounts until the day it wasn't an available option. However, "Xaja" was available, and the name stuck. There is no explanation for "Taerich" (pronounced TAY-rick). Also, Xaja is the only one of Celebril's characters to have a complex meaning behind her name.
Fun fact- Niya Venorryn's writer Rahmiya was one of Celebril's recruits to the Axiom, and their apprenticeship was founded on their real-life friendship. Azrael Than was also picked for a Padawan due to a RL-friendship with both Celebril and Rahmiya.
Xaja was created in Axiom-lore to be a Jar'Kai user, a difference from her fanfiction counterpart Zara. Celebril based Xaja's combat style, and her clothing, off of Serra Keto from the Revenge of the Sith video game. Her style of combat also dictated her advanced class in Star Wars: The Old Republic. It should be noted that when cosplaying Xaja, Celebril only uses one lightsabre and more traditional Jedi garb, although in Xaja's tones of greys and browns. It's been speculated that Xaja was originally intended to use a sabre-staff and not twin blades.
Xaja also exists in the MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic as a level-capped Jedi Sentinel named Xàjà. In-game, she works beside (and has a fiery hatred for) Wray'th, who is Wraythos Vi'garion in disguise as a Jedi Master. She also has a thing going with the gunslinger Aetrian, as Darren does not exist on the Ebon Hawk server.
==Appearances==
Category:Republic
Category:Order
Category:Old Republic Era