Character
FACTION: Silver Jedi Order
RANK: Jedi Knight
SPECIES: Trandoshan
AGE: 27
SEX: Male
HEIGHT: 6'5"
WEIGHT: 210 lbs; heavily muscled
EYES: Yellow, black pupils
HAIR: N/A
SKIN: Brownish-green scales.
FORCE SENSITIVE: Yes
STRENGTHS/SKILLS:
- Physical Strength: An exemplar of his species in terms of fitness, he can deadlift over half a ton without the aid of the Force, and has even wrestled a Wookie into submission.
- Courageous: though not fearless, it is nearly impossible to rattle him.
- Force Channeling: While lacking refined control of the Force outwardly, his true strength lies in pushing the capabilities of his body to supernatural limits.
- Endurance: A product of a combination of physical fitness and unerring resolve, if there's a fight to be won and there is yet breath in Nik's lungs, he will still be standing.
- Pilot: Can pilot small craft reasonably well, though he is no ace. He's learned the rudimentary basics of space travel in order to pursue his desired vocation of Sith hunting.
- Heat Vision: His Trandoshan heritage has afforded him a natural ability to sense heat differences in the environment, much like a thermal camera. It acts both as a sort of night vision and a way to see through conventional invisibility/illusion. However, it isn't something he can do for long, as excessive use gives him crippling headaches and dizziness.
- Lightsaber Combat: After mastering the basics of lightsaber combat, Niklasz found the six forms of canonized lightsaber combat that were conventionally taught, even that of Ataru to be too limiting. Through research he eventually discovered records of a seventh lightsaber form, one that not only accepted the necessity of ferocity in battle but encouraged it. Seeking to learn further, he eventually asked his Master about it. After many years of denial and pushing it off to the side for the sake of Nik's safety, his Master finally relented after he became a Knight. He saw potential in the Trandoshan's remarkable channeling ability and his ironclad resolve, despite his reservations concerning his anger. And so, under his strictly supervised tutelage, Nik began to learn the ways of Juyo. While Vaapad is still beyond Nik's level of mental control, he finds the direct aggression of Juyo to be a release valve for his natural anger, and has become an adept practitioner of the style.
- Hunting: a pastime of Nik's that he engages in when on leave from his duties. Rudimentary marksmanship and tracking are also things he gets from this. And, surprisingly, he's even able to manage being patient when hunting big game.
WEAKNESSES
- Prone to Anger: His rage is all too easily stoked even by petty disagreements. His Master had tasked him with slaying the beast dwelling within his psyche since he was a Padawan, but it is still a fight he often loses.
- Stubborn: He is headstrong to a fault, and always ready to jump to action. Anything that makes a concerted effort to get in his way, regardless of their intentions, he sees as a enemy in the heat of the moment. It takes a great deal of effort to even convince Nik he's wrong about something.
- Lackluster Force Control: his inward control of the Force is second to none, but the minute it comes to affecting things other than himself his power becomes about as useful as a bludgeon. He can push and pull with great strength, but not much else, telekinesis usually ending in something being flung across a room instead of being brought to his hand. Even his senses are lacking, not optimally functional unless he focuses hard enough.
- Impatient: Strategizing and subtlety, beyond pursuing a mark in a hunt, is not Nik's forte. He prefers to solve problems with brute force, and believes diplomacy is entirely useless, especially when dealing with Dark-siders or those complicit in their actions.
- Irreligious: Not a conventional weakness perhaps, but as a Jedi it certainly is. It both prevents him from attaining more mastery over the Force and from socializing with his fellow Jedi.
- Loud-mouthed: Speaking with grace has never been a strong point of his. Even when his anger is solidly under control, he's incredibly passionate about a great many topics. Sometimes it brings out a happier side of him when talking about pastimes, but with matters of great import involved he can rarely shut his mouth, and what comes out of it can be divisive and derisive.
- Teetering: The struggle against the Dark Side is one Nik fights daily. His hatred of it and what its disciples have wrought, ironically, is a large part of why he focuses so much on trying to calm his mind and remain true to the Code he has sworn to uphold. This imbalance in himself, however, is also probably what hinders him in using the Force beyond affecting himself.
Nik is almost always shirtless, though he has Jedi robes that fit his bulk just fine. He feels restricted by them, especially while training or in combat, and usually the only way he's seen wearing them is to formal events. Most of the time, he wears pants composed of a comfortable dark khaki mesh most of the time, with a thick tactical belt that usually doesn't contain much more than his lightsaber, credits, and his comm device.
His lightsaber, made of a strong ivory from the tusk of an animal he hunted while training on Kashyyyk, and slightly modified for ease of use in a Trandoshan's tridactyl grip, projects a thin, long, yellow blade.
BIOGRAPHY:
Trandosha was the closest inhabited planet to Kashyyyk, the home of Silver Rest and the Jedi Order that maintained it. While Trandoshan society was never overtly attacked or changed, the Jedi presence was certainly felt. And slowly but surely, the insular reptilians of the planet began to open up to their new guardians.
Part of that opening up was allowing Jedi to come to the planet in search of Force Sensitive children to recruit, especially among the more open-minded clans that saw the Jedi as potential allies, rather than affronts to their way of life. Niklasz Tassik was a middling child in one of those clans, an unremarkable specimen among his numerous siblings and even more numerous cousins, seemingly destined for a relatively normal life on his home planet. But, he had aspirations; he had grown up to stories of Jedi valor from an uncle that once fought alongside them, and he himself often dreamed of bringing justice for the weak (an oddity in and of itself, as justice was never particularly crucial to Trandoshan thought to begin with) and attaining greatness beyond his clan. Thus, when he was picked out from his many brethren as having the makings of a Jedi by a passing Knight, he was as ecstatic as his parents and clanmates were. Without hesitation, he was shipped off.
But many difficulties laid in his path, and despite a reasonable midichlorian count it seemed his connection to the Force was tenuous at best at first. The frustration of trying to stand out to his Masters and trainers just echoed the frustration of trying to stand out among his brothers and sisters. And his temper, born of natural inclination and a desperation to be unique among his siblings, soon became apparent.
It only got worse when he became a Padawan, training alongside his Master, a kindly human with far more patience than he. Though he learned much about himself, he also learned much about the outside world...especially the Jedi's adversaries, the Sith. More and more, the young Trandoshan wondered why the Jedi Order didn't just crush the Sith entirely, and confront more evildoers directly instead of remaining passive. And more and more, he felt a rage within him begin to burn at the fact that the Jedi seemed content with allowing these beings of evil to exist in the same galaxy as they.
It came to a head when, after a particularly ruthless genocide came to his knowledge, he became so infuriated with the platitudes and worthless explanations he received in response from his Master that he finally drew his lightsaber on him, demanding actual answers and action against the Sith in a fit of rage. He would never forget that day...both with how swiftly he was defeated, and how dangerous to himself his anger could truly be.
He still remembers it to this day. Laying helpless, supine and disarmed, his own lightsaber in the man's hand...only for him to stow them both away at his belt, speaking to him as though nothing at all had happened.
"Sith are beings of anger, Niklasz. To fight them with anger is to fuel their power. This wrath you feel only strengthens them, and only weakens you. You are a just man...but you cannot let your emotions corrupt your senses like this. Perhaps...I made a mistake in not saying this to you from the very beginning. But your rage is all that holds you back. It is the beast that keeps you chained...and it is the beast you must slay before you face anyone that calls himself a Sith."
It was grounds for expulsion, what had happened that day. But his Master had kept it to himself for Niklasz's sake, and instead had him devote his training entirely to mental control. Though the battle against his anger is one Nik still fights, and he has a lot yet to learn from what his Master had told him all these years, he has managed to make it to the rank of Jedi Knight.
Still, everyday he trains. Everyday, he channels his anger into growing stronger, rather than succumbing to it. Even as his patience with himself and with the Jedi Order wears thin at times, he maintains his hope that maybe one day, he'll be the one to personally knock the Sith Emperor's corpse off his throne.
SHIP:
Stock X-wing with a hyperdrive ring granted upon his ascension to Knighthood.
KILLS:
None
BOUNTIES COLLECTED:
None
ROLE-PLAYS:
Coming Soon!
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