Pirate Prince
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
While most commonly available in holobook form, physical book copies also exist. Nimdok owns a special author's copy printed on paper and bound in leather.
CONTENT INFORMATION
Prologue: A New Republic
Son of Solo begins by setting the stage, going over the formation of the New Republic after the fall of the Galactic Empire, then gradually narrowing its focus to the Solo family. Rebel war heroes Leia Organa and Han Solo, who were married some time after the deaths of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader on the second Death Star, continued to play a role in New Republic politics and military affairs. Their son Jacen was the second-born of their three children, with an older twin sister, Jaina, and a younger brother, Anakin.
Part I: A New Jedi Order
Leia's twin brother Luke Skywalker, who was trained sporadically by Jedi Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, went on to found a new order of Jedi, with his niece and nephews among his students. This section is mainly devoted to analyzing the relationships Jacen had with his family, mentors, and peers during his formative years in training at the Jedi Academy on Yavin. Particular focus is given to his apprenticeship to his uncle Luke, his bond with his twin sister Jaina, and his friendship with Tenel Ka Djo, his classmate and eventual lover.
Part II: Star By Star
The longest section of Son of Solo opens with the beginning of the Yuuzhan Vong War, a bloody and destructive conflict which raged across the galaxy. Jacen is depicted as a pacifist struggling to reconcile his desire to avoid bloodshed with the ruthless aggression and expansionism of the Vong. His stubborn clinging to his principles earned him the ire and frustration of his fellow Jedi, as well as straining his relationships with several members of his family, particularly his father, who was grieving the loss of his friend Chewbacca. A sub-section focuses exclusively on the Mission to Myrkr and its immediate aftermath, as Nimdok finds it to be arguably the most significant period in Jacen's life. His brother Anakin was killed during the battle and Jacen himself was captured by the enemy.
During his captivity Jacen was tortured, enslaved, and witnessed the remaking of his homeworld, Coruscant, into the Vong homeworld Yuuzhan'tar via terraforming. He developed a complicated relationship with Vergere, the turncoat Jedi who had captured him. She acted as an "anti-mentor" to Jacen, and her unorthodox teachings would help to shape Jacen's new worldview. The two would eventually escape the Vong together, although Vergere would sacrifice herself later on. Jacen's experience during his captivity, learning more about Vong culture, led him to believe that the Vong could be transformed and peace could be established—a jarring conclusion to draw after such extreme trauma, but not uncharacteristic of Jacen up until this point.
One more significant event occurred: Jacen's battle of wills against Onimi, Vong Supreme Overlord Shimrra's jester, thought by many historians to be the true mastermind behind the Vong invasion. Jacen achieved a form of Oneness with the Force in order to defeat Onimi, and in so doing had a spiritual experience which appeared to have prematurely aged him, as several onlookers described him as appearing "older" afterwards.
Part III: A Student of the Force
This section deals with a relatively murky and mysterious period in Jacen's life, about which little is known. After the war, he attempted to distance himself from the Jedi, apparently because he did not want to be hailed as a hero. Nimdok points back to his experience while fighting Onimi, in which Jacen was said to have briefly touched something transcendent, which he would spend the rest of his life seeking to feel again. Jacen envisioned himself as a student of the Force, unaffiliated with any particular Order, and began to travel the galaxy, seeking out different schools of thought. He would not see his family again for about five years, at which point another conflict, the Swarm War, was on the horizon. Jacen and Tenel Ka Djo, by then the Queen of Hapes, had a daughter, Allana, together at around this time, though they kept their relationship and Allana's parentage a secret. Jacen also took his cousin Ben as an apprentice.
What is odd about the Swarm War is that Jacen began to display more ruthless and callous personality traits, most prominently in his support of the extermination of the Killiks if necessary to win the war, and his evident approval of his grandfather Darth Vader's actions during the Jedi Purge. Jacen justified Vader's killing of Jedi in the Temple on Coruscant, including children, by pointing to his motives - Vader believed he was saving his wife and children from a future filled with violence and strife. This bizarre heel turn can only be explained by pointing to the five year gap during which Jacen was not in contact with the greater galaxy. Nimdok concludes that something happened while Jacen was traveling which caused his views to change in dramatic ways.
Part IV: Darth Caedus
The final section focuses on the Second Galactic Civil War and the final years of Jacen's life. Jacen had previously shown that he could tolerate even the deaths of his family members and still cling to idealism and pacifism, but as time wore on he would abandon these ideals, shifting away from compassion and towards dispassion, callousness, and ruthlessness. While Luke observed that Jacen's mind appeared to have been altered during his five-year journey, Nimdok suggests that Jacen never actually recovered from the trauma of the Vong War. He simply buried his feelings, letting them fester inside him without actually dealing with his emotions in a healthy way. This would become a recurring theme throughout his life, causing his heart to harden and, ultimately, his fall to the Dark Side. On the other hand, he did not lose control—instead, he became so obsessed with control and order that he began to turn his self-suppression outward, inflicting it on others.
This is evident in both his militaristic political career with the Galactic Alliance (the new identity of the New Republic in the aftermath of the Vong War), and his years as a Sith. Sometime after the Swarm War, Jacen began having prophetic visions in which the galaxy became doomed, apparently because Jacen did not become a Sith. After encountering Darth Lumiya, a Sith Master and longtime rival of his uncle Luke, he was impressed with her self-discipline and agreed to become her apprentice, ostensibly to prevent the doomed future he had seen in his visions from coming to pass.
Lumiya's training and the version of the Sith philosophy she imparted emphasized "necessary evils" to maintain peace and order, as well as self-sacrifice. Her influence on Jacen was such that he even considered sacrificing Tenel Ka and Allana, should he be able to justify their deaths. But ultimately, to complete his training, Jacen—now having taken the name Darth Caedus—chose his aunt, Mara Jade Skywalker, as his victim. The choice to kill her was at least partly motivated by her nosiness; Caedus had been busy ordering assassinations of political figures who stood in the way of his utopian vision, and he even staged a coup, becoming the new Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance. Mara had evidently discovered his responsibility in some of these events, and she intended to kill him for it. So he killed her both in self-defense, and to keep her silent—the fact that she was his aunt and therefore "close" to him made it all the more convenient.
Initially, the identity of Mara's killer was unknown to the Jedi; Caedus even attended her funeral. Ben Skywalker suspected Caedus was responsible, but Caedus convinced him Cal Omas, the Chief of State whom Caedus had deposed in the coup, had ordered her death. Ben may have assassinated Omas as revenge. Luke also mistakenly believed Lumiya was the killer and slew her in a duel. It wasn't long before Caedus revealed his true nature, however. After pressuring Ben until he struck out at him, he took Ben captive and attempted to turn him to the Dark Side via torture—using the Embrace of Pain, which had been used on Jacen himself during his captivity by the Vong. His plans failed when Luke arrived to rescue Ben and defeated Caedus in combat.
By then Caedus had made his opposition to the Jedi clear, having declared them traitors after Luke retracted their aid during the Second Galactic Civil War. Tenel Ka also betrayed him, ordering her fleet to fire upon his ship when he refused to surrender. It would appear Caedus had all but snapped when he kidnapped Allana and brought her to Coruscant, leaving behind a message threatening to kill his own daughter if the Hapans didn't ally with the Alliance. Allana would later be rescued, prompting Caedus to brutally execute the troops under his command he deemed responsible. With Ben having rejected the Dark Side, Caedus took a new apprentice—Tahiri Veila, who had been his brother Anakin's girlfriend.
Caedus became concerned that he had lost his way without Lumiya's guidance, becoming more like the emotion-driven, out of control Sith Lords of earlier eras. He endeavored to rein in his temper and practiced restraint. But it was ultimately all for naught, as Caedus' days were numbered. He was slain in a duel against Jaina. In his final moments, he used the Force to warn Tenel Ka of an impending attack. According to Jaina, just before he died their twin bond, which had either been clouded or severed following his fall to the Dark Side, suddenly returned, implying that a portion of Jacen remained within Caedus and was able to find peace.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
With much of the academic community having at that point discredited the "legendary" Canon B sources, Nimdok embarked on an in-depth study of all available B materials pertaining to Jacen in hopes of writing a biography. The research for this project, combined with the writing of the book, took over ten years to complete, but the final result is one of the more comprehensive tomes written about the subject.
- Intent: To expand on Nimdok’s work as a historian and writer.
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- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links:
- Media Name: Son of Solo: The Life and Times of Darth Caedus
- Format: Book/Holobook
- Distribution: Common
- Length: Epic
- Description: Nimdok’s personal favorite of all his projects, Son of Solo is a comprehensive biography of Darth Caedus, aka Jacen Solo - a historical figure whom scholars are not sure actually existed. The tome also explains the difference between "Canon A" and "Canon B" (technical terms used by Alderaanian historians to refer to two distinctly different sets of records, Canon A is the more commonly accepted version of events, whereas Canon B was once the primary source of historians, but has since fallen out of favor due to lack of archaeological evidence), as well as the gaps in knowledge left by the “intellectual dark age” following the outbreak of the Gulag Plague.
- Author: Professor Errik Nimdok
- Publisher: University of Alderaan
- Reception: Taking over a decade to complete, Son of Solo was well-received by some historians, though many who discount "Canon B" sources as false or "legends" considered the project a waste of time.
While most commonly available in holobook form, physical book copies also exist. Nimdok owns a special author's copy printed on paper and bound in leather.
CONTENT INFORMATION
Prologue: A New Republic
Son of Solo begins by setting the stage, going over the formation of the New Republic after the fall of the Galactic Empire, then gradually narrowing its focus to the Solo family. Rebel war heroes Leia Organa and Han Solo, who were married some time after the deaths of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader on the second Death Star, continued to play a role in New Republic politics and military affairs. Their son Jacen was the second-born of their three children, with an older twin sister, Jaina, and a younger brother, Anakin.
Part I: A New Jedi Order
Leia's twin brother Luke Skywalker, who was trained sporadically by Jedi Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, went on to found a new order of Jedi, with his niece and nephews among his students. This section is mainly devoted to analyzing the relationships Jacen had with his family, mentors, and peers during his formative years in training at the Jedi Academy on Yavin. Particular focus is given to his apprenticeship to his uncle Luke, his bond with his twin sister Jaina, and his friendship with Tenel Ka Djo, his classmate and eventual lover.
Part II: Star By Star
The longest section of Son of Solo opens with the beginning of the Yuuzhan Vong War, a bloody and destructive conflict which raged across the galaxy. Jacen is depicted as a pacifist struggling to reconcile his desire to avoid bloodshed with the ruthless aggression and expansionism of the Vong. His stubborn clinging to his principles earned him the ire and frustration of his fellow Jedi, as well as straining his relationships with several members of his family, particularly his father, who was grieving the loss of his friend Chewbacca. A sub-section focuses exclusively on the Mission to Myrkr and its immediate aftermath, as Nimdok finds it to be arguably the most significant period in Jacen's life. His brother Anakin was killed during the battle and Jacen himself was captured by the enemy.
During his captivity Jacen was tortured, enslaved, and witnessed the remaking of his homeworld, Coruscant, into the Vong homeworld Yuuzhan'tar via terraforming. He developed a complicated relationship with Vergere, the turncoat Jedi who had captured him. She acted as an "anti-mentor" to Jacen, and her unorthodox teachings would help to shape Jacen's new worldview. The two would eventually escape the Vong together, although Vergere would sacrifice herself later on. Jacen's experience during his captivity, learning more about Vong culture, led him to believe that the Vong could be transformed and peace could be established—a jarring conclusion to draw after such extreme trauma, but not uncharacteristic of Jacen up until this point.
One more significant event occurred: Jacen's battle of wills against Onimi, Vong Supreme Overlord Shimrra's jester, thought by many historians to be the true mastermind behind the Vong invasion. Jacen achieved a form of Oneness with the Force in order to defeat Onimi, and in so doing had a spiritual experience which appeared to have prematurely aged him, as several onlookers described him as appearing "older" afterwards.
Part III: A Student of the Force
This section deals with a relatively murky and mysterious period in Jacen's life, about which little is known. After the war, he attempted to distance himself from the Jedi, apparently because he did not want to be hailed as a hero. Nimdok points back to his experience while fighting Onimi, in which Jacen was said to have briefly touched something transcendent, which he would spend the rest of his life seeking to feel again. Jacen envisioned himself as a student of the Force, unaffiliated with any particular Order, and began to travel the galaxy, seeking out different schools of thought. He would not see his family again for about five years, at which point another conflict, the Swarm War, was on the horizon. Jacen and Tenel Ka Djo, by then the Queen of Hapes, had a daughter, Allana, together at around this time, though they kept their relationship and Allana's parentage a secret. Jacen also took his cousin Ben as an apprentice.
What is odd about the Swarm War is that Jacen began to display more ruthless and callous personality traits, most prominently in his support of the extermination of the Killiks if necessary to win the war, and his evident approval of his grandfather Darth Vader's actions during the Jedi Purge. Jacen justified Vader's killing of Jedi in the Temple on Coruscant, including children, by pointing to his motives - Vader believed he was saving his wife and children from a future filled with violence and strife. This bizarre heel turn can only be explained by pointing to the five year gap during which Jacen was not in contact with the greater galaxy. Nimdok concludes that something happened while Jacen was traveling which caused his views to change in dramatic ways.
Part IV: Darth Caedus
The final section focuses on the Second Galactic Civil War and the final years of Jacen's life. Jacen had previously shown that he could tolerate even the deaths of his family members and still cling to idealism and pacifism, but as time wore on he would abandon these ideals, shifting away from compassion and towards dispassion, callousness, and ruthlessness. While Luke observed that Jacen's mind appeared to have been altered during his five-year journey, Nimdok suggests that Jacen never actually recovered from the trauma of the Vong War. He simply buried his feelings, letting them fester inside him without actually dealing with his emotions in a healthy way. This would become a recurring theme throughout his life, causing his heart to harden and, ultimately, his fall to the Dark Side. On the other hand, he did not lose control—instead, he became so obsessed with control and order that he began to turn his self-suppression outward, inflicting it on others.
This is evident in both his militaristic political career with the Galactic Alliance (the new identity of the New Republic in the aftermath of the Vong War), and his years as a Sith. Sometime after the Swarm War, Jacen began having prophetic visions in which the galaxy became doomed, apparently because Jacen did not become a Sith. After encountering Darth Lumiya, a Sith Master and longtime rival of his uncle Luke, he was impressed with her self-discipline and agreed to become her apprentice, ostensibly to prevent the doomed future he had seen in his visions from coming to pass.
Lumiya's training and the version of the Sith philosophy she imparted emphasized "necessary evils" to maintain peace and order, as well as self-sacrifice. Her influence on Jacen was such that he even considered sacrificing Tenel Ka and Allana, should he be able to justify their deaths. But ultimately, to complete his training, Jacen—now having taken the name Darth Caedus—chose his aunt, Mara Jade Skywalker, as his victim. The choice to kill her was at least partly motivated by her nosiness; Caedus had been busy ordering assassinations of political figures who stood in the way of his utopian vision, and he even staged a coup, becoming the new Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance. Mara had evidently discovered his responsibility in some of these events, and she intended to kill him for it. So he killed her both in self-defense, and to keep her silent—the fact that she was his aunt and therefore "close" to him made it all the more convenient.
Initially, the identity of Mara's killer was unknown to the Jedi; Caedus even attended her funeral. Ben Skywalker suspected Caedus was responsible, but Caedus convinced him Cal Omas, the Chief of State whom Caedus had deposed in the coup, had ordered her death. Ben may have assassinated Omas as revenge. Luke also mistakenly believed Lumiya was the killer and slew her in a duel. It wasn't long before Caedus revealed his true nature, however. After pressuring Ben until he struck out at him, he took Ben captive and attempted to turn him to the Dark Side via torture—using the Embrace of Pain, which had been used on Jacen himself during his captivity by the Vong. His plans failed when Luke arrived to rescue Ben and defeated Caedus in combat.
By then Caedus had made his opposition to the Jedi clear, having declared them traitors after Luke retracted their aid during the Second Galactic Civil War. Tenel Ka also betrayed him, ordering her fleet to fire upon his ship when he refused to surrender. It would appear Caedus had all but snapped when he kidnapped Allana and brought her to Coruscant, leaving behind a message threatening to kill his own daughter if the Hapans didn't ally with the Alliance. Allana would later be rescued, prompting Caedus to brutally execute the troops under his command he deemed responsible. With Ben having rejected the Dark Side, Caedus took a new apprentice—Tahiri Veila, who had been his brother Anakin's girlfriend.
Caedus became concerned that he had lost his way without Lumiya's guidance, becoming more like the emotion-driven, out of control Sith Lords of earlier eras. He endeavored to rein in his temper and practiced restraint. But it was ultimately all for naught, as Caedus' days were numbered. He was slain in a duel against Jaina. In his final moments, he used the Force to warn Tenel Ka of an impending attack. According to Jaina, just before he died their twin bond, which had either been clouded or severed following his fall to the Dark Side, suddenly returned, implying that a portion of Jacen remained within Caedus and was able to find peace.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
“Caedus is a personal obsession of mine—though depending on which source you consult, he was either Jacen Solo, the eldest son of Han and Leia Solo, or he never existed at all.” - Nimdok, “Heart of the Universe”
Nimdok first became interested in the contradictory records regarding the Skywalker/Solo clan while still a university student. He had previously written articles on the structure of the post-imperial Jedi Order under Grandmaster Luke Skywalker, which included short biographies of Skywalker's apprentices. He developed a particular fascination with Darth Caedus, who for him represented an atypical type of Sith tyrant, one who was determined to impose peace and order—concepts normally pursued by the Jedi—through force.
With much of the academic community having at that point discredited the "legendary" Canon B sources, Nimdok embarked on an in-depth study of all available B materials pertaining to Jacen in hopes of writing a biography. The research for this project, combined with the writing of the book, took over ten years to complete, but the final result is one of the more comprehensive tomes written about the subject.
