Val Harik

Val Harik after re-emerging from the Unknown Regions, 0 ABY

Val Harik was a male Iktotchi Jedi Master born on Iktotch, who in the waning hours of the Clone Wars fell to the Dark Side and then deserted the Galactic Republic, intent on joining the Confederacy of Independent Systems and becoming of Count Dooku's Dark Acolytes due to growing disgusted and angered by the corrupt nature of the Republic, as well as his perceived foolishness of the Jedi High Council. However, as Dooku had died and the war had soon after ended, Harik fled the emergent Empire into the Unknown Regions until his return to the galaxy following the destruction of Alderaan and the First Death Star in 0 ABY.

## **Biography**

### **Early Life**

Born in one of the cities of the mountainous Iktotch, Val Harik was first noticed as a Force-sensitive by his parents, as Val had been found lifting up a toy up from a table he could not reach with telekinesis. As the Iktotchi had a long tradition of having abilities of telepathy and farsight, Harik's father was able to see a glimpse of the future where young Harik was fighting amongst the Jedi and was one of them. Contacting the local Jedi Watchman of the Iktotch star system shortly after seeing this vision of the future, Harik was handed off to the Jedi as an infant and taken to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.

Growing up at the Temple, Harik showed great promise in wielding and perceiving the Force and quickly learned the ways of the Jedi. Due to being Iktotchi, Val showed especial strength in usage of telepathic powers and mind tricks. A fierce and motivated youth, Harik made many friends among the Initiate clan he was placed into, the Dragon Clan. Harik displayed everything expected of a prospect Jedi Padawan during his trials.

### **Becoming an Apprentice**

Taken as a Padawan by Togorian Jedi Master T'arro, Val spent the next several years perfecting his usage of the Force and learning various lessons at the Jedi Temple and outside it, as T'arro liked to travel around the galaxy and getting to know various species and people. Val continued to grow strong in the Force, while also maturing into an intelligent and tenacious young Jedi. Developing a close bond with his Master during the years of apprenticeship Val spent under the Togorian, the pair went through various challenges and tribulations while travelling around the Galaxy.

One day in the Outer Rim after Years of apprenticeship under T'arro later, Val and T'arro would face off against a band of reavers that had been tormenting a local settlement. During this confrontation, Val would save his master from being ambushed by several of the raiders whilst cornered. In the end, the duo managed to drive off the criminals. Assisting the locals with recovering from the latest attack, T'arro then communicated to the Jedi High Council that he believed that Val was ready to undergo the Trials of Knighthood, having exhibited everything required of a fully-fledged Jedi Knight earlier that day.

### **Knighthood**

After completing the Trials of Knighthood at the Jedi Temple, Val was dubbed a Knight of the Jedi Order. Deciding to soon after take a Padawan of his own, a Duros named Cligha, Val spent several years training his new apprentice with everything he knew of the Force, while also learning a considerable amount about the Force as well. Spending years with Cligha on missions assigned to the pair by the High Council, Val was incredibly proud of the young man the Duros had become over the years while being the Iktotchi's apprentice.

After his first Padawan, Cligha, completed his own Trials of Knighthood and was promoted to the rank of Knight, Val spent a few years studying the Force and perfecting his knowledge of lightsaber dueling before taking a second apprentice, this time a young Bothan male by the name of Kay Lya'Lya. Utilizing the many lessons he had learned during the years he was training his prior apprentice, Harik imparted many lessons on the young Bothan, whom Harik believed to have even more potential in the Force than his prior Padawan.

By the time that Val had seen his second Padawan raised to the rank of Knight, the High Council had offered to him the position of Jedi Master due to his knowledge of the Force and steadfast loyalty to the Order and Republic.

### **Clone Wars**

As a Jedi Master, Harik was among the Jedi arriving to the rescue at the arena during the Battle of Geonosis, where he watched many fellow Jedi, both those he had never known and those he had known closely, among them his former apprentice Cligha, fall at the hands of battle droids. After Geonosis, he was placed in command of the 6th Assault Corps, consisting of well over thirty thousand clone troopers. Partaking in many battles through the war, where he garnered a reputation as a fierce commander and combatant, Harik found himself changing with every standard rotation of the war.

Feeling the pull of the Dark Side gnaw at him with growing intensity, Harik begun to doubt whether the war was being fought for the right reasons, and whether the High Council were too clouded by the Dark Side to see so. A second severe blow to his previously steady adherence to the Light Side was when his second former Padawan, Kai, and his own apprentice were caught in a trap by the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Tortured immensely for several days before the pair succumbed to their wounds, Val found himself quickly filling up with hatred for both the Republic and the Council.

### **Fall to the Dark Side**

By the latter end of the Clone Wars, Harik would have lost all faith in both the Republic and the Jedi High Council. Knowing that the leader of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, Count Dooku of Sereno, was a former Jedi, and that several former Jedi had served him, Harik intended on entering the service of the Count and deserting over to the Confederacy from the Republic. Going missing for an extended period of time during a battle in the Outer Rim, Harik was assumed either killed or captured by the CIS. However, he would have instead deserted, embracing the Dark Side and attempting to contact Dooku.

However, to his surprise, Dooku had been executed by Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker. Knowing that he could not go back to the Jedi, Harik found himself alone on a deserted moon while the war concluded shortly afterwards. As the Empire rose and the Jedi were declared traitors to the Republic, Harik left the Outer Rim for the Unknown Regions, intent on going his own way instead of either serving or fighting this new Galactic Emperor. Bleeding his lightsaber crystal and commandeering a transport shuttle, Harik departed the new Empire before it had even truly found it's footing.

### **Unknown Regions & Return**

Facing tribulations beyond count in the Unknown Regions and having to commit a manner of nasty things to feed himself, Harik was pulled considerably closer to the Dark Side during the many years he spent in the uncharted parts of the galaxy. Traveling from world to world, Val on one occasion discovered an ancient tomb of a long-dead Force-wielder. By the tomb, he discovered a set of lightsaber-resistant vambraces, a holocron and a lightsaber. Utilizing parts the fallen Force-wielder's lightsaber and it's Kyber crystal to modify his lightsaber into a dual-bladed split-saber, Harik also bled the second crystal. Studying the Holocron left at the tomb, Harik learned much about the nature of the Dark Side, as well as the Force in general.

Spending several more years in the Unknown Regions as a warlord of sorts, Harik would sense a great disturbance in the Force, when millions perished on Alderaan. Deciding that it was time for him to return to the galaxy soon after, he would return from the Unknown Regions and begin traveling across the Outer Rim once more as a Dark Jedi. Finding the galaxy in a very different order than it had been when he departed from it, Harik is at an enormous crossroads of possibilities.

### **Roleplay Events**

#### **0.5 ABY**

###### **Return**

Soon after surfacing in the known galaxy, Harik would make his way onto the planet of Dathomir, and settle in an abandoned rural village. Sighted by the locals wielding the Force, an Imperial Inquisitor would soon be dispatched to investigate these rumors. Encountering the Inquisitor inside the village he was staying at, the pair soon fought eachother. While Harik had been a truly formidable swordsman in his prime, his skills had notably atrophied from spending nearly twenty years in the Unknown Regions, and while both participants were wounded by eachother, Harik eventually lost the duel and was taken into Imperial custody aboard a Star Destroyer. After a period of torture and captivity, Harik would break out of custody on a transport shuttle, all the more eager to destroy the Empire.

## **Personality**

Due to his Iktotchi nature, Val was an outwardly stoic and quiet person. However, Val was deep within a highly emotional and caring person. However, he was almost always at odds with someone or something, and was quite unruly at times. Always having been surrounded by the Dark Side, Harik was able to remain steadfast on the path of the Jedi until the onset of the Clone Wars.

After falling to the Dark Side, Val had become considerably less stoic and much more outwardly emotional. While he actively attempted to not fully embrace his anger and hatred, he was in a constant state of emotional imbalance after falling to the darkness, and was fighting a losing battle against being completely filled by the Dark Side.

While an adherent of the Dark Side, Val was not outright evil or cruel in his acts. While he was certainly capable of a manner of horrible acts, he did not enjoy torturing others, and instead utilized the Dark Side as a tool. But as the Darkness is all-consuming, he was often consumed by his fury.

## **Psychical Description**

Val Harik stood at 6'2" in height with a wide endo-mesomorph hybrid build. While not particularly muscular, Harik was quite strong and agile, though due to being Iktotchi, he had below-average dexterity.

Light in skin color, Val has two standard-length Iktotchi horns and orange eyes, though due to years of tapping into the Dark Side, his eyes have turned a fierce tone of yellow.

His usage of the Dark Side had somewhat degraded his physical appearance, as he had lost some weight over the years, which has been directly caused by the Dark Side. His skin has also been visibly affected by the Dark Side, though only slightly.

## **Abilities**

### **Force Abilities**

Having always been very strong in the Force and highly advanced at percieving and wielding it, Val was also especially strong in telepathic capabilities due to the Iktotchi having an natural affinity for telepathy.

Some of the noteworthy abilities of Val Harik, graded between Novice, Intermediate, Proficient, Advanced and Master:

**Telepathy: Master**

* Due to his Iktotchi background, Harik was extremely skilled in many applications of telepathy. Among other things, he could proficiently read the thoughts of even those that were actively shielding them, as well as communicating telepathically with others.

**Mind Shard: Advanced**

* Due to his high proficiency in telepathy, Harik was capable of causing immense imagined pain against others to disorient them. Primarily using this ability to negatively affect their abilities in combat, it can also be used to interrogate others.

**Force Confusion: Proficient**

* Val was capable of confusing his enemies into fighting eachother, and misleading them in other ways.

**Force Stealth: Advanced**

* Capable of both minimizing his noticeable affinity to the Force as well as concealing from Force-sensitives that he is a Dark Sider, Harik's usage of Force Stealth is highly advantageous.

**Pyrokinesis: Advanced**

* Harik was capable of generating and controlling fire with his bare hands by rubbing together air molecules telekinetically, which he weaponizes with fluid streams and balls of red, orange and blue fire, the color and intensity of the fire depending on the amount of utilized energy and concentration.

**Tutaminis: Advanced**

* Capable of dissipating and redirecting energy via the Force, Harik primarily uses tutaminis to not burn himself while utilizing pyrokinesis. He can also deflect blaster bolts and slug rounds, and then redirect their energy into his reserves of Force energy.

**Force Rage: Intermediate**

* Tapping into the Dark Side and allowing it to flow through him, Harik was capable of enhancing his psychical capabilities and willpower. However, he's actively avoiding becoming completely absorbed by the Dark Side, and as such uses this ability sparingly.

**Force Crush: Proficient**

* Val is adept at crushing inanimate objects telekinetically, though the ability has it's limits. He also believes that it's too barbaric of a thing to do against an animate being, though that doesn't mean that he isn't capable of it.

### **Lightsaber Abilities**

Val Harik was regarded by his contemporaries as a highly skilled lightsaber duelist, though he was by no means one of the reigning dueling masters during his time at the Temple. Having first studied the fourth form of lightsaber combat, Ataru, as his specialization, Val proceeded to study several other forms of lightsaber combat after becoming skilled in Ataru. Allowed to study the restricted seventh form, Juyo, after displaying proficiency in several other forms of lightsaber combat, Val's style of fighting with a lightsaber was ferocious, fluid and agile. Val was both adept at both fighting with a double-bladed lightsaber, as well as dual lightsabers.

## **Equipment**

### **Lightsaber**

During his time as a Jedi, Val wielded a standard length single-bladed lightsaber which emitted a blue blade and was powered by an Ilum crystal. After his fall to the Dark Side, he bled his crystal to emit a crimson red blade. During his stay in the Unknown Regions, Val used the parts and crystal of an ancient Force-wielder's lightsaber he discovered to modify his lightsaber into a dual-bladed split-saber, which can be both wielded as a singular saberstaff, or two single-bladed lightsabers.

### **Armor**

Coming in possession of a pair of decorative vambraces consisting of ultrachrome, with a blend of durafiber and armorweave below in the form of gloves, at the tomb of an ancient Force-wielder in the Unknown Regions, Val has chosen to equip himself with them. Of course, as they consist of ultrachrome, they are not totally impervious to energy blades and will melt with sustained contact. He also wears an over-tunic made of a similar blend of durafiber and armorweave as his vambraces.