Tarask Kahzan

Kahzan, by Mitchell Walls

## Biography

Cairon Saar was born on Serenno into a servant family to the opulent and sinister House Vin. As a boy, Cairon was badly abused by his keepers, fostering in him a treacherous hatred of authority and the Vin dynasty.

At 15, he befriended Dreyo Vin-Saar, a bastard son of the Vins who was barely considered nobility, much less respectable. Cairon and Dreyo covertly navigated the beaurocratic lattice of the Vins and eventually began to sell Vin information and supplies to the Exchange, Cairon acting as liaison and adopting the name Kahzan.

Unlike Cairon, who found that criminal collaboration came naturally, Dreyo suffered instability in his limbo between noble life and the criminal underground, and he soon found himself in trouble with both factions, having botched (and in doing so revealed) an important operation. Cairon was able to use his rapport with the Exchange to secure a pardon for Dreyo, and in a daring escape, the duo commandeered the Vin warship Vindicator and fled to Nar Shaddaa.

On Nar Shaddaa, Cairon and Dreyo made a name for themselves in the Exchange, Cairon eventually achieving leadership status among their expeditionary forces. Dreyo worked odd smuggling jobs, resisting promotion within the Exchange to conceal a dark secret he’d been harboring: his growing affinity with the Force.

When Cairon was 32, he discovered a stache of ancient artifacts on a derelict warship. Fearing that the Exchange might use these artifacts (which would inevitably attract the attention of Force users), Cairon and Dreyo resolved to hide the artifacts from the Exchange. Finding traces of more artifacts, they decided to follow the trail and lead a secret campaign to find the rest of them, in doing so unknowingly assembling the pieces of the Mind Collector.

When he was 36, Cairon discovered a Republic criminal database called the Nexuspire. Employing top slicers (including Aren Vesano, though the two never met), he stole the data and began to wield it against his criminal rivals, revealing their secrets and movements. Before long, Cairon was an Exchange commander, expanding his influence even beyond the jurisdiction of the Exchange.

The duo’s continued proximity to the dark artifacts had adverse effects on their minds; Cairon grew darker and more distrustful, and Dreyo’s Force abilities grew uncontrollable.

When Cairon was 40, he led an assault on the fortress of Lord Bast, who controlled the last of the artifacts. During the battle, he was separated from Dreyo, who was trapped in the mindless, winding catacombs of Bast’s fortress. By the time Cairon was able to access the catacombs, Dreyo and Bast were already duelling; Cairon witnessed Dreyo accidentally channelling the Force to kill Bast and took it as a betrayal. When Cairon moved to attack him, Dreyo sent a burst of Force energy into Cairon and absconded with the artifacts.

The two were separated, seemingly forever; Cairon continued to search for his old friend but failed. The last vesige of his past gone, Cairon forsook his birth name in favor of Tarask Kahzan. The artifacts gnawed at Dreyo’s mind with such swift brutality that, two years later, Dreyo would not even recognize his old friend when they were reunited aboard the Astral Tortoise. Unbeknownst to Kahzan, Dreyo lost the artifacts to a Rakatan warlord named Ryvor.

When he was 42, Kahzan assembled a team to target the Beacon Company initiative, which was intent on digging up information on Deepridge Station and which had grown dangerously close to uncovering information about the artifacts.

Kahzan led the assault on the Republic warship The Condor, which succeeded in crippling the vessel but not in killings all of its crew; the remaining crew members fought to the bridge and captured Kahzan.

Recognizing their talents, Kahzan formulated a plan to use the party to find the artifacts again, then take them for himself. During his time with the crew, he was reunited with Dreyo, whom he interrogated in secret but found to be completely devoid of information; Dreyo was later killed, and Kahzan proceeded in stride, ignoring the pang of guilt in his chest.

Ultimately, he was able to track the artifacts to a fallen Jedi named Azkal Rahm; armed with this information, he led the crew into a trap on Rhen Var and left them for dead.

Kahzan assembled his crew aboard the Vindicator with the intention of taking the fight to Rahm and reclaiming the artifacts. He captured the crew of the Beacon Company, who had escaped his ambush on Rhen Var, intending to manipulate them into helping him find the artifacts. The Beacon Company crew infiltrated the ranks of his vessel and orchestrated a mutiny; Kahzan was murdered on the bridge of his own ship.

In the Netherworld of the Force, Kahzan was stung by a single word: ‘Cairon.’ He found Dreyo waiting for him, and in that moment Kahzan became Cairon once more as the artifacts were destroyed by the Beacon Company. The two shared a moment of boundless understanding and brotherhood before becoming One with the Force.

Recent information has revealed that Kahzan was in fact resuscitated by Doctor Zanni; beyond this, his whereabouts are unknown. Disturbingly enough, while his body was reconstructed, his shattered mind was bereaved of Cairon, the light of the Force within him -- he's a dead man walking.

## Behind the Scenes

Shailey Ostlund was obsessed with this NPC. She even bought a custom bumper sticker that said "I Love Kahzan".