KMC Forums - Tanic's Biography

This is a biography, made mainly for Rex to use, of my character, Tanic Starguard, in Ushgarak's Star Wars RPG. Tanic is a Dark Side character.

________________________________________________

…Jedi Archive…
…File Number 01234213382…
…Subject Name
Tanic Starguard
…Status
Missing/Presumed Dead
…Race
Human
…Profession
Jedi Knight

…Biography…
Born on Coruscant in the lower levels, Tanic was drafted at age 8 into one of the many gangs that control the levels. [See ‘Organisations – Shadowrats’] As an unknown force-user, Tanic was quickly discovered when rumours of his ‘magic’ spread into the sunlight. Kay Crystal, Jedi Knight, was sent to apprehend the child before the misuse of his powers grew to the Dark Side.

Crystal easily found Tanic, and with only a short conversation, convinced him to leave his life and join the Jedi. Tanic’s only condition was that his mother, who had contracted a life-threatening disease, was brought up and treated. Age 9, Tanic underwent his first lesson in controlling the force. For the next 4 years Tanic stayed in the Jedi academy, learning the lessons of the force. Dedicated to his mother, who was now dying, he arranged with his masters to take a month from his studies. Organising a space cruise for her, they spent her last few weeks together.

When he returned notes from his masters marked Tanic as changed, less predictable than he had been, beginning to throw himself into the psychological and trickery side of the force. Often he was found using his powers as an amusement for the other apprentices. A year after his mother’s death, aged 14, the council judged Tanic as an acceptable padawan, beginning his service to his old companion, Kay Crystal. By all accounts, the relationship between master and padawan with the pair was more one of friends, as Tanic was much like Kay, ironic and good-humoured.

Tanic worked astoundingly with Kay for the next three years, eventually earning the title of Jedi Knight. This pairing continued for another four years until a mission over the planet Garel. A story of an uncontrolled latent force-user possessing an entire space station. Upon the arrival of the two knights, with Kay on the verge of becoming a master, the puppet-master fled to Garel. Pursuing this evil, Kay commandeered two speeder bikes, and the chase continued. Eventually, as Kay writes in his report;
“The Puppet-Master took over a land train, on which he made his stand. As we boarded it, he sent dozens of the passengers to accost us. Using the Force, we easily subdued them, causing no lasting injury. In the last ten carriages we encountered no people. However, in the last carriage, before we could overcome him, our quarry unleashed the remaining passengers. At first we used the Force, but soon we were forced to pull our nightsticks, wielding them as lightsabers. Unfortunately, I was surrounded by the mindless puppets, and the brought me to the floor, more and more of them piling atop of me. From the sounds I could hear, Tanic had reached the Puppet-Master. Although I couldn’t hear the ensuing accusations, I did hear the snap-hiss of a lightsaber igniting. Suddenly the puppets increased their attacks, and I felt my spine cracking. Letting my consciousness go, I performed a meditation to avoid the pain. I do remember what I saw in those next, painful images.

Tanic, his blade flashing, scythed the passengers of the train from on top of me. I could sense a whirlwind of emotions, his mind unleashing havoc on the hapless puppets. He saw my face, my still motion, and I was aware of him looking into my eyes. I wish he could have known I wasn’t dead, only unconscious, but he did not realise. Howling, he used his sabre and cut a hole in the wall, chasing the fleeing Puppet-Master, who I later learnt fled when Tanic turned his attention to me.”

The aftermath of that failed arrest is a textbook case. Chasing the criminal into one of the gas storage plants that Garel is famed for, all that is officially known is that an explosion tore through the building, incinerating everything for miles around. Tanic is presumed dead in the explosion.

…Higher Pass Code Needed…
…Code accepted…
Welcome, Master Crystal

…Resurrection…
As ordered by the council, I have compiled any and all sightings of what might have been the human known as Tanic Starguard. However, as an unofficial document, it will not be as formal as the report.

According to a single witness at Gerul’s capital starport, a man matching Tanic’s description took a ship apparently without payment, but with the full consent of the previous owner.

Two weeks later, on Alderaan, a major shake up came about when one of the leaders of the great families was killed. It emerged after his death, that he had funded the space station in which the Puppet-Master had held court.

For the next year, killings occurred system-wide, all linked, however indirectly, with the Puppet-Master and the apparent death of Master Crystal. Each death was different and imaginative, until Tanic was faced with the crime empire of Yiu Pity. Limited holographic recordings of the scene show a figure, masked in white (the colour of justice on Coruscant), of approximately Tanic’s size and build, kicking open the double doors of Yiu’s throne room. Brief conversation ensued, almost indecipherable on the recordings, and Tanic draws his lightsaber. However, definite proof of this being Tanic is still required, as the lightsaber used by the executioner was purple, not the original green of Tanic’s Jedi days.

Apparently using the Force, the figure commands Yiu’s many eunuchs to turn upon their queen. However, when Yiu draws her blaster, they attack the masked figure. For the next few moments the images move too fast to be captured on camera, and when the picture returns, all of Yiu’s bodyguards are lying, dead, around Tanic. He walks up the stairs to her throne, using the Force to take her blaster away. Pocketing it, Tanic begins to choke the woman, and lifts her off her seat with his mind. Choking her in the air, Tanic’s blade flashes again, and Yiu’s head falls to the ground. Marching to the throne, Tanic seats himself upon it, and looks to be meditating.

That is the last known piece of evidence for Tanic Starguard’s survival. However, it is known that for the next two years Yiu’s crime empire continued to function, until it was finally destroyed in an internal power struggle. Rumour has it that all challengers to the throne were executed by a seared wound, such as a lightsaber would inflict. When the power struggle was over, even though the leader of the faction was alive, he chose to leave. In supposition, if Tanic Starguard was to still be alive, the announcement of Kay Crystal’s survival should have been enough to return him to the light side.

Even if Tanic were still to live, the likelihood would be that he would be alone, somewhere on the outside edge of the galaxy, with little or no allies. Almost certainly Tanic is not a threat to the safety of the Republic, or at least one that cannot be dealt with by a planetary government.

…Psychological Comment…
Although it is stated above that the announcement of Kay Crystal’s survival would have returned Tanic to the council’s heart, this is not necessarily true. How would Tanic have known that the council did not blame him for the deaths of the people he killed, or maybe he was so overcome with guilt and grief that he could not bear to look upon the face of his old mentor and friend. Maybe this kept Tanic Starguard away from the wisdom of the council, something that well increases the chances of a fall to the dark side.

__________________
"If clowns warred on monkeys, and the monkeys had guns, and were trained to use them, who would win?"

Death only gives another set of choices.

He who dies with the most toys. Still dies.