ClabiusPrime
New Member
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
A tall, vaguely masculine humanoid with black, geometric tattoos adorning his red skin. Long white hair is often kept loose, a thin smile on his black lips. His narrow eyes reflect crimson red from beneath the shadows of his hood. A long, thin, whip-like tail with a bladed end flicks restlessly around his legs, and his nails are long and clawed. His throat is covered- or rather consists of- black plates belying his cybernetics.
INVENTORY
Possesses the starter kit provided by the Desevro Academy. A simple black robe, winter gear, a suit of Acolyte Armor, and a training saber, with little else.
PERSONALITY AND BELIEFS
A perfectionist with a strong need for control, Valephor has an incredible hatred for the concept of 'forbidden knowledge', firmly believing that all progress is not only a moral good, but an imperitive. Sees all of reality as a machine, with life itself simply being another form. Similarly, he does not recognize a difference between Science and Mysticism, firmly believing the Force and other metaphysical phenomenon must adhere to set rules, even if those rules are not particularly well understood.
STRENGTHS
Life Is A Machine
An expert in biotechnology and back-alley, hack-job cybernetics, Valephor sees living beings as little more than living machines
Heave Ho, Thieves And Beggars
Spending a few years as the bottom rung heal-slave teaches you a few things. Not necessarily nice things, but useful things all the same
WEAKNESSES
Sheltered
Growing up within a xenophobic religious cult that sees the rest of the galaxy as infidels is not an environment conducive to developing good social skills. Or coping mechanisms. Or achieving a well-rounded education. Or really much of anything a being would need to function in the greater galaxy. It doesn't help that he's spent most of his time post-cult learning about machines instead of people or galactic history
Don't Smoke Kids
Valephor has a literal hole in his throat. Granted, its been patched up, but there's still a force-damned hole in his throat
HISTORY
Valephor's ancestors were some of the first Langhesi to move to Zonama Sekot. There they lived with the Ferroans, developing a relgion that worshiped the planet as the living embodiment of the Potentium. After the Vong War, they assisted in shaping the biosphere to be compatible with the planet's new inhabitants, a calling that would extend well after Zonama Sekot had disappeared into the Unknown regions.
However, despite the Yuuzhan Vong's attempts to reform, not all of them were so keen on giving up the tenants of the True Way. The fracturing of their philosophy led to secretive cults that syncretized the True Way with native Potentiate beliefs, the caste system reformed to work around the explicit bans, and a shift from the belief that conventional technology (called dead tech) should be forbidden for its lack of a spirit, towards the idea that it should be forbidden for its lack of connection with the Force. The Living Path, with force-sensitives capable of connecting with biots forming the top level 'life-singer' religious cast. One of Valephor's ancestors would join the cult, starting a family line that carried on the tradition for centuries. Even after leaving Zonama Sekot, they would bring their beliefs with them, living on bio-engineered stations and ships.
It was within this environment that Valephor was born. His path from birth was set, to spend his life eking out a meager existence taking care of the cramped bioship in which he resided. It did not take long for his innate curiosity to develop into prodigious perspicacity. Combined with his Force sensitivity, his family was ecstatic, pushing him towards religious studies and the ritualized care of the biots, their expectations growing with every passing day.
Then, tragedy struck. An accident with a hydrogen gas bag explosion injured his throat. A routine medical procedure in the greater galaxy would have fixed it, but such a thing was profane to the Living Path, and without access to more advanced biots, the wound was left to heal naturally, leaving behind a permanent disability. Thus, Valephor's bright future was strangled as he spent his time struggling to breath or talk. To add insult to injury, the community refused to accept the consequences of their restrictive beliefs, continuing to push him to perform at his previous level. Years of this abuse left him angry and confused, but he was trapped within the bioship. And perhaps, there he would have remained, if it were not for the attack.
A band of pirates, seeing the ship for the easy opportunity it was, disabled the vessel and boarded it, ransacking it for exotic biotechnology they didn't understand. They took the families within as slaves, including Valephor. However, they did provide a single saving grace, a well-used, mass-produced cybernetic that allowed Valephor to speak and breath normally. After being installed, his family shunned him completely, believing him tainted for all time. They declared him dead, and refused to acknowledge his existence, just in time to be separated for good as they were sold off.
Alone and abandoned to the slavers, Valephor broke tradition to buy his survival, cooperating with the pirates to keep the biots they had plundered alive, teaching 'infidels' how to use the sacred biotechnology of the Living Path. Seeing the opportunity for what it was, they continued to hunt down other bioships, their wealth growing as they became the only source of such exotic devices.
Here, Valephor learned the trade of pirates and slaves, as irreplaceable as he was ostracized. As he languished, his expertise grew, almost a decade of resentment fueling him as he absorbed 'forbidden' knowledge of dead-tech. The more he learned, the more he saw how the two forms of technology seemed to make up for each other's weaknesses, and in doing so he developed the beginnings of a new philosophy. Just as there is no Dark or Light, only the Force, there is no Life or Death, only technology.
Sometimes, the pirates would pick up an individual worthless on the slave market. Too old. Too sick. Too injured. And there, Valephor had an opportunity. To hone his craft. To find the limits of the technology that made up a sentient being, and how it could be improved.
In the midst of this revelation, the long arm of the law- or what passed for it in Sith space- finally caught up with the Pirates, and after a rather unnecessarily brutal boarding action, Valephor found himself once again in chains, bowed before a Sith Order officer. Understanding from the interrogated pirates that he was Force Sensitive, the officer gave Valephor a choice: join the Academy, or be executed for his 'crimes'.
The choice was simple.
Yet as the virtues of the Sith were extolled to Valephor, he came to a realization. The Sith did not recognize anything as 'forbidden'. To them, there were no limits. No boundaries. With the Sith, his curiosity could finally be sated, and he could erase the boundary between Life and Death forever.
Last edited: