Roan Saal

Artist: Unknown

### Relatives

Keshani Hord (mother, deceased), Aria Massani (daughter), Ihlik Saal (son, deceased)

## Physical description

### Eye color

Slate grey (natural), Orange-yellow (Dark side)

## Roanan Saal

Roanan Saal a.k.a "Darth Noctis" was a Sith Lord descended from Tulak Hord and member of the Dark Council; father to Aria Massani (Saal) and Ihlik Saal. He survived Lord Bracknell's initial purge of Force users and played a pivotal role in helping Aria and Yerbol to gather other survivors and find the group a safe place to shelter away from Bracknell's attacks. An avid lore enthusiast and a brilliant critical thinker, Roan played a key part in the strategy which won the war against Bracknell, culminating in the other Sith Lord's eventual defeat and the subsequent rise of the new Qyaari order.

## Early Life/Chwuq and Taral

Roan was born the only child to Sith Lord Keshani Hord (Darth Malady) and Imperial Grand Moff Roran Saal. Despite his height and broad-shouldered build, Roan was scrawnier and less physically strong than both his parents, a fact which his mother constantly sought to remind him of throughout his childhood. Keshani claimed he would have been a disappointment to her as a son, had it not been for his inherently strong Force abilities inherited from her. Both parents were eager for him to enroll in the Korriban Academy and hone his abilities, and Roan himself would eagerly throw himself into his training in a bid to prove himself to his mother.

to be continued

## Myla Thulie and Ihlik

Roan and Myla met through Cheriss when he accompanied the Dathomirian on a negotiation mission with the Senate. Roan was intended to be a witness as the Dark Council did not trust the Republic Senators not to attempt to back out of the negotiations if there wasn't another witness present.

The chemistry between the pair was undeniable, despite the fact that they belonged to opposing political factions. Roan was smitten from the outset and ignored Cheriss' warnings "not to play with fire" in order to pursue a relationship with Myla anyway. Roan originally hid his rank in the Dark Council from Myla, fearing that she would be afraid of him or be less likely to trust him if she knew. Roan persistently attempted to convince Myla to defect from her allegiances to the Republic and join the Sith Empire instead where he claimed she would be safer as he could better protect her and they would not have to be so guarded about their relationship, but despite his best efforts Myla continued to refuse. Two years into the relationship, Roan proposed and the pair were married in secret. However, when their son Ihlik was born and began to show signs of Force sensitivity, Roan was forced to reveal his true allegiances to Myla and insist that for their sons safety he should take him to Korriban to train. Myla was angry he had lied to her, but agreed to let him take their son when he was old enough.

Ihlik displayed fairly powerful aptitude for the Force and learnt quickly, however he was not as skilled as his father and that ultimately led to his assassination at the hands of another acolyte (Lord Bracknell's son). Ihlik's death estranged Myla from Roan somewhat as she blamed his carelessness for their son's death and held him responsible. Roan suspected that Bracknell had ordered his son to kill Ihlik in order to weaken Roan and so he later tracked down Elias Bracknell and killed him out of revenge, causing the tension between himself and Bracknell to reach breaking point.

Roan did his best to make up for his mistakes and the pair agreed to not speak of Ihlik again as it upset Myla too much. Aria was born two years after Ihlik's death, due to his ties to the Dark Council and the Sith Empire's mounting war effort against the Jedi he was not able to spend as much time with Aria though he secretly watched her for signs of Force sensitivity as well. Though Myla attempted to hide Aria's abilities from Roan he would discover them anyway and begin tutoring Aria in secret. When Aria was four the couple would argue over her fate again, as Myla insisted he would not take their daughter to Korriban (for fear she would suffer the same fate). Roan would ultimately go behind Myla's back and enlist Cheriss' help to take Aria to the Academy by force, fearing that the young girl's abilities would be too powerful left raw and untrained.

While he could not formally train Aria himself, he would keep a much closer eye on her and train her alongside his own apprentice Vano, allowing her to keep in contact with her mother sporadically over the years. When Aria reached the age of sixteen, Roan could no longer make excuses for his failure to bring Myla over to the Sith's cause and was forced to concede she had to be killed to prevent her from leaking damaging intel to the Dark Council's enemies: the Jedi. Unable to bring himself to kill her himself and failing to persuade Cheriss to help him, Roan puts Aria up to the task as part of her Initiation trials.

## The True Sith and Bracknell's purge

Roan tasks Aria with tracking Lysa through Naga Sadow's tomb to retrieve the artefact, but when Aria fails to contact him again after accompanying Yerbol to Taris, Roan and the Tuk'ata venture into Sadow's tomb to uncover clues and attempt to track Aria's whereabouts. Here, Bracknell attempts to seal Roan inside the tomb permanently as he begins the purge on Korriban at the same time as Soto launches her attack on Tython. Roan, Chwuq and Taral narrowly escape and use Roan's personal ship to travel to Manaan where they rescue Aria and Yerbol from their imprisonment.

Aware that Cheriss was not on Korriban when the purge began, he contacts her and the pair later join Aria, Yerbol and Neta on Zinuthra and begin to form the resistance which will later thwart Bracknell's plans. Roan was a key orchestrator (alongside Neta and Elara)

## Trivia

* Roan's Darth name comes from the Latin word meaning "of the night" and was given in honour of his clever manipulation of the Tuk'ata
* The Elvenqueen secretly regrets killing him off (even though it was a big character development point for Aria), which led to his spirit popping up as a cameo every now and again in subsequent Acts and Interludes
* In an original draft, Roan was far more controlling and manipulative, with his only interest in Myla being to acquire an "heir" to take his place on the Dark Council one day