Valik Kodank

Valik Kodank was a female Near-Human who served the Sith Empire during the Golden Age of the Sith. The consort and apprentice of the minor Sith Lord Janton Belos, Kodank grew in power and founded her own Sith sect and constructed a Sith temple in a star system in the Abrion sector. However, circa 5000 BBY, while attempting a ritual to relocate her temple into the heart of the system's sun, Kodank was killed and transformed into a Sith spirit. Kodank's temple was transported into the depthes of the Tascollan Nebula and she abode there for millennia, seeking someone whom she could manipulate into helping her regain her physical form.
During the time of the Galactic Civil War, Kodank seduced the Rebel Alliance scout Thaum Rystra into her service, taking him as her apprentice. The Sith spirit tasked Rystra with restoring her to life and around 7 ABY the pair lured a group of New Republic agents to her Tascollan Nebula temple so that she could attempt to possess the Twi'lek Force adept Sha'lia. The agents subsequently defeated Kodank and destroyed her spirit.
==Biography==
===Deception and downfall===
Valik Kodank was a Force-sensitive female Near-Human who served the Sith Empire during the Golden Age of the Sith. Kodank became the consort and apprentice of the minor Sith Lord Janton Belos, who trained her in the arts of the Sith in an effort to content her and keep her attracted to him. As Kodank developed her strength in the Force she concealed her power from her master and in secret founded a sect of her own followers that included a number of Sith acolytes. Behind Belos' back she took another Sith Lord as her lover. With her new companion's support she covertly channeled resources into the raising of the Temple of Pain, a large Sith temple sited in a system in the Abrion sector, far from the attention of the other Sith, to serve as her power base.
Around 5000 BBY, amidst the collapse of the Sith Empire in the aftermath of the Great Hyperspace War conflict with the Galactic Republic, Kodank and her lover seized a starship and fled to her temple, taking with them several powerful Sith relics. Kodank arrived at the Temple of Pain to find her stronghold nearing completion and was joined at the temple by her sect of followers. Some lavishly-decorated chambers in the citadel were designated as Kodank's personal quarters and she kept there a Sith amulet capable of enhancing the power of its user. She also used the temple's Room of Change laboratory to conduct experiments and studied a Sith holocron housed in a small chamber in the temple to further her knowledge.
Desiring to transfer her stronghold into the center of the star system's only sun, Kodank and her lover placed the Sith artifacts they had brought to the citadel into the Temple of Pain's central chamber and activated them, hoping to wield the relics' strength. However, the artifacts did not respond as Kodank had expected and the power she unleashed took the lives of Kodank's lover and followers and transported the her deep inside an asteroid in the Tascollan Nebula. Kodank herself was also killed and transformed into a dark side spirit, lacking physical form, with her essence tied to a large, triangular obelisk in the Temple of Pain that had been the focus of the ritual she had invoked.
===A new apprentice===
Following her physical death, Kodank felt in her mind the dark side of the Force mocking her and revelling in her helplessness, feeding off her emotions. Over the millennia her demise, she sought to make contact with someone who she could manipulate into helping her to regain her physical form. During the Galactic Civil War, the Force-sensitive Rebel Alliance scout Thaum Rystra ventured to the Tascollan Nebula on an assignment to chart the nebula's star system. Kodank reached out to him in the Force, claiming to know his desires to destroy the Galactic Empire and promised to teach him the ways of the Sith and help him to gain true power in the Force if he came to her. Guided by her voice, Rystra traveled through the nebula and made his way into the depths of the Temple of Pain. In the large chamber of the temple containing the obelisk to which her spirit was tied, the Kodank manifested and Rystra surrendered to her will and acceded to serve as her apprentice.
Rystra studied under the Sith spirit's tutelage, developing into a Dark Jedi, and he became utterly loyal to Kodank. The spirit reasoned that restoring her physical presence was beyond Rystra's capabilities and she devised to exploit the powers of Caeleb, the prophesied "Child of Light," a boy strong in the Force through whom other Force users could access unlimited Force energy. In 3 ABY, she dispatched Rystra to capture Caeleb for her, . After Rystra returned to Kodank unsuccessful, she was wrathful and sent him on a new errand to locate the ancient dark side relic the Soulsaber, an artfact capable of enhancing her dark side power."Soulsaber" In 4 ABY Rystra recovered the relic the Soulsaber and brought it to her at the Temple of Pain.
===Seduction of Maric Tovar===
Over the next three years, Rystra trained under Kodank at the Temple of Pain and she taught him much about the arts of Sith alchemy and Sith sorcery. The Sith spirit filled Rystra's head with so much new knowledge that her apprentice had difficulty sleeping, leaving him more susceptible to her manipulations. Rystra told his master of a group of Rebel Alliance agents who had hindered his efforts to apprehend Caeleb and capture the Soulsaber. Upon learning of the strong Force-sensitivity of one of the Rebels, the Twi'lek Force adept Sha'lia, Kodank plotted to possess the Twi'lek's body, judging Sha'lia to be the perfect target for her to occupy. To that end, she directed Rystra to conduct research on how best she could
take control of Sha'lia's body.
As an additional ploy to ensure that Sha'lia was delivered to her, Kodank befriended another of Rystra's Rebel adversaries, Maric Tovar, a timid Force-sensitive engineer who held romantic intentions toward the Twi'lek Force adept. Circa 5 ABY, while Tovar was conducting a covert mission for New Republic Intelligence, Kodank reached out into his mind and promised him great power and Sha'lia's love if he brought the team of Rebels to her. Kodank did not reveal her name or identity to Tovar and kept her interactions with engineer secret from Rystra. Tovar agreed to her bargain and Kodank instructed him in the use of the Force. As his training advanced, she promised the Rebel engineer that they would meet in person soon and that when he did their deal would be complete and Sha'lia would be his.
===Confrontation at the Temple of Pain===
Her plans to ensnare Sha'lia all set, around 7 ABY, Kodank instructed Rystra to lure the Rebel agents, who now served the Rebel Alliance's successor the New Republic, to the Temple of Pain. Kodank foresaw that her plan would be successful and by leaking intelligence concerning his location, Rystra drew Sha'lia, Tovar and the other agents in their team to the Tascollan Nebula. As the operatives approached Kodank ordered Rystra to make preparations for their arrival. After the agents landed at the temple and progressed into the depths of the structure, Kodank conjured an illusory version of Rystra sitting on a throne-like chair to welcome the agents. The Sith spirit's Dark Jedi phantom delayed the agents by proffering a game of sabacc and asking Sha'lia if she had yet found her place in the galaxy. To deceive the operatives into venturing further into the temple, Kodank arranged for the sound of an explosion to blast the room and had the illusory Rystra falsely claimed that all starships in the temple had been blown up and that the operatives only means of escape was to press on. Kodank then faded away the phantom Rystra and dispatched a group of Sith war droids to attack the agents. Once the operatives had defeated the droids, Kodank sent a telepathic message to Tovar instructing him to await her orders and promising him that he would soon have all that he desired.
The New Republic agents uncovered the Sith holocron that Kodank kept within her her temple and one of the holocron's gatekeepers, the fallen Jedi Bavik Vannor regaled them with Kodank's personal history. Another gatekeeper, the Sith apprentice Sansin Koriss, also revealed to the operatives that Kodank feared the Sith amulet kept in her personal chambers.
In a large chamber deep within the temple Kodank awaited with Thaum Rystra the agents' arrival. Kodank was keen render Sha'lia unconscious before attempting to possess the Twi'lek and she also ordered Rystra to treat all of the agents other than Sha'lia as expendable. When New Republic agents reached the chamber, Kodank and Rystra observed unseen as the operatives fought off several Sith Guardian Spirits, manifesting and revealing her presence only once the spirits had been defeated. Kodank entreated the agents to join her and Rystra to serve as her chiefs and help her rule the galaxy, or else be destroyed. The operatives rejected her demand and a battle broke out and Kodak summoned a battle hydra to assist her in the fight. She also beseeched Tovar to stun Sha'lia for her. The agents ultimately prevailed and vanquished Kodank's spirit and defeated Rystra. Following her demise the, Temple of Pain collapsed and the agents fled the citadel.
==Personality and traits==
Kodank possessed an exotic beauty and wore loose, silky clothes clad with jewels. Intelligent and ruthless, she was adept at deceit and lies and during her lifetime exploited her partner Janton Belos and her other Sith Lord lover to mastermind her rise to power. She ruled her minions through through fear and cunning but eventually her ambition led her to overreach herself and she was transformed into a Sith spirit.
In the aftermath of her death, Kodank's spirit was left feeling emotional. In her incorporeal form she radiated the dark side and could not physically interact with the world around her, being limited to floating around only within the temple that she had built for herself. She became vulnerable to attacks from those harnessing the power of Force artifacts and therefore feared the Sith amulet kept in her personal chambers as the relic could be used destroy her. Her spirit was however immune to certain Force-based attacks including Force lightning and the use of the Force to grip or push her.
As a spirit Kodank manipulated others as she had in life, convincing Thaum Rystra and Maric Tovar to serve her cause, and was willing to exploit the innocent child Caeleb to further her aims. She was eager to regain her physical form and had aspirations to rule the galaxy. When Rystra lured his New Republic agent adversaries to the Temple of Pain she relished their arrival, smiling for the first time in millennia.
==Powers and abilities==
Kodank practiced the dark side of the Force and under the training of her mentor and lover Janton Belos quickly mastered the arts of the Sith. She was proficient in Sith alchemy and Sith sorcery, and was also versed in the use of the Force to move objects, sense things, affect the minds of others and cast illusions. The Sith was also familiar with the Force powers Battlemind, Drain Knowledge, farsight and Force empathy.
Upon becoming a Sith spirit, Kodank lost the capacity to use some of her Force powers, including battlemind and her abilities to grip objects and perform Sith alchemy. Despite her spirit being tied to the Temple of Pain, she could through the Force telepathically communicate with other individuals over vast distances and she used this power to project her voice and images of herself into the mind of Maric Tovar when enlisting him as her servant. She was also capable of manifesting and controlling phantom illusory versions of other individuals. She was multi-lingual and in addition to being able to speak and write Basic and Sith she could also speak the languages Dosh and Ryl.
==Behind the scenes==
Valik Kodank was created by Lee Pickler and served as one of the main antagonists of the Child of Light saga, a Star Wars Legends trilogy of roleplaying adventures published by RPGA. She was first mentioned in the opening adventure of the saga, Child of Light, in 2000, and appeared in the final adventure of the trilogy, Light and Dark, in 2002.
An inconsistency exists between and outline of the Child of Light saga set out in Child of Light and Light and Dark regarding the means through which Kodank attempts to regain physical form. In Child of Light it is stated that in the final adventure of the trilogy, Thaum Rystra attempts to return Kodank's to life by drawing Force energy from the Child of Light Caeleb and using the Soulsaber to convert this power into dark side energy sufficient to restore her physical body. However, in Light and Dark, Kodank seeks to regain physical form by possessing the Twi'lek Sha'lia and Caeleb and the Soulsaber have no role in her scheme. This article presents her resurrection attempt in line with the events depicted in Light and Dark.
In the Child of Light saga, the players roleplay as the New Republic agents that Kodank draws to the Temple of Pain and her confrontation with the them can play out in a number of ways depending upon the players' actions and decisions. During her fight with the agents it is possible for Kodank to attempt to take control of Sha'lia's body and if she is unsuccessful at possessing the Twi'lek it is possible that she instead tries to inhabit the body of Maric Tovar or that of the former Imperial senator Mina Dhori Tolas, another of the agents. The battle can conclude with the player characters vanquishing Kodank's spirit through either stabbing her with a Force-imbued knife, destroying her with the Sith amulet from Kodank's chambers or by obliterating the obelisk to which her spirit was linked. It is alternately possible for Kodank to succeed at possessing Sha'lia and for the Sith spirit and Thaum Rystra to defeat the New Republic agents.
==Appearances==
*"Child of Light" 
*"Soulsaber" 
*"Light and Dark" 
==Notes and references==
Category:Females
Category:Force ghosts
Category:Near-Humans
Category:Sith of the Sith Empire