John Blackwood

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Rise of the Brotherhood eraExodus era.New Order era.


John Blackwood
Biographical Information
Homeworld:

Corellia

Date of Birth:

9 ABY (age 34)

Physical Description
Species:

Barabel

Gender:

Male

Height:

2.5M

Weight:

213kg

Hair:

N/A

Eyes:

Yellow

Personal Information
Weapon(s):
  • BR-5010
Chronology & Political Information
Profession:
Position:

Corsair

Era(s):
Affiliation:
  • CorSec (Formerly)
Personal Ship:

The Yastobaal

Dossier:

14751

[ Source ]



"You go in, come out alive. You lie your way through the paperwork, go home, and try to forget about what you saw. Trust me kid, it's the only way you stay sane."
―Blackwood

John Blackwood, also known as Subject Delta, is a male Barabel serving as an operative of Clan Odan-Urr. Found as an infant amid the wreckage of a freak starship crash on the outskirts of Coronet City, Blackwood was taken by a Human couple and raised as their child. Although beset by strange occurrences and freak incidents throughout his childhood, Blackwood would join the Corellian Security Force, serving as a detective and investor. Naturally skilled and observant, Blackwood would serve the organisation well, but would find himself embroiled with occult crimes and strange murders, earning him an ill reputation.

Late into his career, Blackwood would uncover the truth of his origins when facing a spectral entity of a long dead Sith Lord; learning that he had been originally biochemically forged by the Sith to serve it as a bringer of destruction. Although Blackwood was successful in defeating the spirit and the horrifying experiments it had influenced, a growing disgust with CorSec's upper management would lead him to quit the force. Swiftly recruited by Essik Lyccane, Blackwood would join Clan Odan-Urr as a field agent and expert on the Dark Side.

Character History

CorSec Days (9 ABY - 42 ABY)

Trainwreck Beginning

The exact origins and genetic history of John Blackwood were a mystery at the time of his discovery around 11 ABY. A freighter, either due to accident or sabotage, had lost control and crashed while trying to depart from Coronet city, and had crashed on the outskirts. Barely missing the outlying suburbs, the vessel had carved a deep scar into the earth and had been split apart upon impact. Although largely intact and failing to explode, what was found within was more horrifying to first responders than any mound of corpses. The vessel's hold was filled with genetic analysis and experimental equipment, transformed into an extensive lab worthy of any biological research station, and with horrors worthy of an Imperial Dungeon ship. Gene-spliced creations were found amid the wreckage, still hooked to wrecked monitoring equipment or barely alive. Some had been forcibly implanted with symbiotic creatures, while others had been seemingly cloned from multiple sources in an effort to splice a new species entirely. Most were dead, and the few left besides swiftly begged for a merciful end.

As the responders explored the freighter they found darker things; data from the Emperor's Deep Core stronghold, passages from the time of the Sith Empire, and texts apparently crafted outlining cruel means of altering another's biological form. This would soon lead to the involvement of Professor Casath Blackwood, a teacher of archeology at Corellia University who had knowledge of Sith sorcery. Casath was at a loss for how someone had so easily come into possession of so much illicit data, but soon concluded that the creator at the heart of such work was not among the bodies, and had likely been helping guide it remotely. When investigating a symbol escribed chamber at the heart of the vessel, Casath found the infant Barabel. Unharmed by the wreckage but terrified, his lack of mutations was a sign of suspicion but his lack of hostility or tell-tale signs of experimentation spared him from the fate of other victims of experiments.

Casath quickly came to the conclusion that the Barabel child had likely been abducted from another world. Trying to find his family first through genetic links, and then the freighter's flight path, she was unable to find any possible home he might have been taken from. Even a handful of unusual markers within his genetics offered nothing more than a sign of potentially being tested for DNA harvesting, but nothing more. Knowing both the risk he might pose and also spare him the hardship of growing up without parents, Casath adopted the Barabel into her family, naming him John after her father.

The Normal Years

John's upbringing was thankfully uneventful but far from normal. While every effort was successful in integrating him into the Blackwood family, Casath wished to keep a close eye on him. Finding someone in a hellish place such as the freighter had raised her suspicions, and Casath had seen first-hand how the Dark Side could snare someone during the University's efforts to destroy the Cult of Exar Kun. Because of this, John was kept close to her and saw much of the galaxy from an early age, usually being tutored on military bases or joining Casath on archaeological sites. Every effort was made to avoid treating him with suspicion and his history was kept hidden from all but those who saw it as an essential need-to-know security basis. Even so, there were some moments in which John displayed unusual abilities, such as a clear ability to connect with the Force in sensing life about him, or tap into it to enhance his strength. Already growing far stronger than would be expected of a young child; it took considerable effort on Casath's part not to see him as a ticking bomb.

Thankfully, Casath's fears proved to be unfounded. Even in an unconventional environment John thrived, and seemed much more at home on the move than staying isolated in any one place. Happy and outgoing, even being left to his own devices resulted in no crises beyond what might be expected of his natural curiosity. Although he shared nothing of Casath's own patience when it came to research, he was keen to listen, and even grew to read and try and understand the history of his own species. Even in these halcyon days, however, there were some warning signs. It could not be denied that certain arachnological digs seemed to become far more dangerous in John's presence, especially those rooted in the history of the Sith. Ancient arcane devices would suddenly activate, or dormant defensive droids would abruptly awaken. Stranger things even occurred on bases he was stationed in, and one notably harrowing visit to a research base uncovered illegal development of nanomachine weapons based upon a Sith superweapon.

Although active during the Yuuzhan Vong War, Casath actively made a point of keeping as far away as possible from the frontlines. Going so far as to accept a temporary desk job - something anathema to her - she worked to accept only tasks far from the battles as possible. This galled John given their past lifestyle but, when pressed as to why she was so actively avoiding the war, Casath indicated only that she had been at the heart of a similar onslaught once before, and would never wish to risk it again.

When the time came for John to choose his path in life, he would break from his family's history of working in educational centres in favour of a far more active judicial role. This was in part driven to his lack of patience for the more academic elements of the work he had found, but also his ability to carefully examine, judge, and come to accurate conclusions of scenes. While Casath did attempt to dissuade John from this path in life, once he was set upon it she ultimately gave her blessing and full assistance in enrolling in CorSec. Although struggling with several written exams, John would pass any basic physical challenge with flying colours in 29 ABY. Although unable to immediately promote him to the role of detective or even investigator, John's superiors were quick to put him on the first steps toward that and fast track him to such a role. This was a choice they would soon some to both celebrate and regret in equal measure.

The Black Dossier


"You can hear them, but you don't really believe they're there. They can't be. You've never seen anything with skin that colour before. That particular texture and sheen. You think you've smelled their breath, but you can't be right. The smell of hospital burn wards, of speeder crashes. The smell of cooked human meat on their breath. That's what you're thinking, isn't it. There are things moving in that building which should not even be alive. Unfortunately, while you might have forgotten about them, they've definitely not forgotten about us."
―Blackwood

Blackwood's initial years within CorSec went without incident, serving primarily as an officer of the law. While often favoured in matters relating to illegally stolen or traded cultural artifacts due to his experiences in archaeological digs, for the most part he was seen as unremarkable. That would begin to change during his promotion to investigator, and the free reign the rank would offer him. Ill tidings would begin to follow Blackwood, beginning with a missing person's case which would lead him to encounter a minor religious cult. The events of the case are a matter Blackwood remains tight lipped about, save for the fact that CorSec uncovered a labyrinthine tunnel network beneath Coronet City which, by all rights, could not possibly exist. In the investigation that followed, three other CorSec officers would be lost along with the hostages. Blackwood's report outlined encountering an abomination shackled to a realm below the city, and that a disaster had barely been averted at the cost of many lives. This would see Blackwood suspended and put under psychiatric evaluation for months, but he would be cleared soon after. Due to his prior record Blackwood would be allowed to return to duty, but it was just the beginning of a series of increasingly strange cases.

Another later case would see Blackwood disrupting a narcotics trade, only to uncover a link to the Sith. Alchemically modified crystal shards resonating with the Dark Side were being traded on the streets, allowing users to briefly feel absolute connection with the Force. Repeated use of them would corrode an addict's soul, until their life essence was drawn away to be consumed by some entity lurking within the Force. Blackwood would personally hunt down and destroy the cult but, having narrowly escaped being accused of insanity before, would omit certain details about the case. Instead, he would soon begin to cover and detail the unabridged truth of each case in a personal file he dubbed the Black Dosser, along with findings about Corellia's underworld.

For the next several years Blackwood would take every effort to conceal the strange cases he would find himself embroiled in. Although sorely tempted to issue the unedited truth if only to force his superiors to accept some of the deeply horrifying things in their universe. Although any would readily accept that the Jedi and Sith existed, that the Force was a singular binding energy to the universe, and that biotechnology had been abused for decades among many worlds, any hint of sorcery would draw only ridicule. Thanks to this and with several near death situations, Blackwood would rapidly begin to expand upon his records. Rather than singular cases or even detailed records, he would soon expand it into details of how his encounters had hidden in plain sight, along with the sorts of individuals drawn to them.

Even with his habitual secrecy, Blackwood would gain unwanted attention when he was required to take on partners. The worst among these were trainees and, while Blackwood would actively try to take only mundane investigations, fate had a cruel sense of humour. Several of these would end with encounters against Dark Jedi seemingly drawn to Blackwood, while another would end with the two facing a madman attempting to draw the spirit of Ajunta Pall back into the physical world.

Yet it would be one case in 33 ABY which would earn Blackwood an ill reputation among CorSec and the realisation that, even if they did not believe in his cases, he seemed to draw bad luck to him. Paired with a younger Aqualish by the name of Talik, Blackwood was sent to investigate the theft of vital medical equipment from several of Coronet city's major hospitals. Although at first suspecting only a simple theft, the truth behind it would become clear when Talik identified a major power drain drawn into a supposedly abandoned building. Within the two would find a nightmarish scene: Repurposed bacta tanks were being used to flash-grow clones. Malformed and half insane, each were being outfitted with cybernetics to overcome the shortcomings of the crude process, before being outfitted with combat enhancements. Yet perhaps the most alarming quality was that each was powerful in the Force, either through some part of the process or the genetics selected. Although insane and unskilled, the cybernetics could focus this power into crudely destructive means.

The two sought to avoid conflict, but were soon discovered when Talik attempted to draw data from one of the main computers. Blackwood fought to hold the door against two of the maddened creations while Talik tried to finish his work and then destroy the computer. Although successful in his efforts, and even disrupting the cybernetics which guided their mental faculties, the power behind the effort: A coven of Dark Jedi. Survivors from the long gone Second Imperium, they had thrown their lot in with another power and had come to test a technology capable of building armies. Outraged at the setback, the Dark Jedi attacked the two. Talik would lose a leg in the ensuing fight, and the two only survived as Blackwood hurled them through a window, leaving a bundle of explosives in his wake. In the following search, the body of only one Dark Jedi would be found, with all others seemingly escaping.

Unable to downplay what had taken place thanks to Talik's presence, both the destruction, Talik's maiming, and the presence of Dark Jedi would would only worsen Blackwood's poor reputation.

Dangerous Habits

Blackwood was trapped between tasks. The growing insanity and danger of his day job, which inexplicably kept drawing him deeper into business even most Jedi would not encounter in their lifetime, and his superiors who both blamed him for the hostile forces they faced but refused to admit to their real existence. Partially aware of this unconscious contradiction, Blackwood could not help but feel he was increasingly being set up as a scapegoat by leaders more concerned with the quiet running of things more than truly resolving a problem and finding a situation they disliked. His suspicions were only further deepened due to an opposition of contacting the Jedi Order to deal with the threats which had emerged, even just for archival access. Although Blackwood put this down largely to animosity in the wake of the Vong war, the vehemence was suspicious.

For the most part Blackwood returned to his previous work, albeit treading carefully with others now watching his every move. Even while tempted more than once to retire or even go rogue after his department was threatened with closure in the wake of horrific cases, but every time he returned knowing there was little money in waging a private war against an enemy he already hated. Yet it was during this time in which he would become more aware of the threats posed by Force users due to repeated encounters. The first among these was a Sith who, upon learning that Blackwood was creating a personal archive along with the Black Dossier to better combat the strange cases, raided Blackwood's apartment and attempted to depart with several data cores. While the Sith met his end in a hail of gunfire, Blackwood was disturbed by his behaviour, seemingly regarding Blackwood as more of a rival than a foe. This would only be confirmed in a later incident, in which one of the prior Dark Jedi, seemingly outcast from his group, sought out Blackwood and tried then failed to forcibly capture him as an apprentice. This would then extend to a point worthy of a farce when a Jedi Knight appeared mere months later, not to deal with the many threats Blackwood had been waging war against, but to confront Blackwood himself. This last incident would be too much and, after managing to knock the Jedi unconscious via a well placed stun grenade, Blackwood would forcibly sit him down and demand answers.

The Jedi was unreceptive at first, expecting death, but slowly came to realise that Blackwood's obliviousness was no act. Although not fully believing it, the Jedi gave his name as Streen and explained how Blackwood could be sensed through the Force. He described what he felt of Blackwood as a black flame in the Force, actively serving as a beacon to not only entities with an affinity to the Dark Side, but making him appear as if he was no different from any Sith. Blackwood refused to believe this for a moment, but the more Streen spoke the more there was a perverse kind of sense to it. How certain archeological sites had reacted to him, the behavior of his prior opponents, and even how he seemed to stumble from one nightmare to the other with little to no normality amid his work. Streen clearly couldn't quite believe it himself, but his past experiences with powerful Sith made him quite certain of how Blackwood appeared in the Force, but how little this was reflected by his true self.

An offer was made to take Blackwood back to any of the Jedi Academies established in the last few years, but Blackwood refused. He'd known of Exar Kun's revival and, given how darkness seemed to be drawn to him, he did not wish to rush headlong into the Jedi Order as it was still rebuilding. The two would exchange words and promise to remain in communication, along with warning that Corellia and its associated worlds were becoming more hostile to outsiders. This would only become clear over the following years, with the outbreak of the Second Galactic Civil War and the rise of a Sith Lord in power over the nascent Galactic Alliance. With the Sith on one side and a hostile government on the other, Blackwood would actively avoid being drawn into the war and keep to the sidelines as best he could.

The year that followed would be one of waiting and keeping quiet, along with quietly removing a few dangerous figures who wished to take advantage of the chaos. Instead Blackwood would speak with his adoptive mother and learn the full details of his origins, and what had been found in the freighter crash. Although he had known the essential details, it would only be now that he would come to learn of the experimental documents and abused creations he had been found with. This would cause a rift between the two, and Blackwood would not speak with Casath for some months afterward. Even then it would only be in order to confirm something he was increasingly certain of - Blackwood was powerful in the Force, and capable of channeling it unconsciously in crude ways. Although this threatened to be a rift between them again, Blackwood would come to accept that his mother had made the right choice; first in hiding his original from him if only for his own sanity, and then not sending him to the Jedi out of a fear of what he could easily become. Even after learning this and the risks his origins posed, Blackwood would soon return to his work; reasoning that wherever he went the Dark Side would find him. At least by hunting it down, he could do some good and remove a few threats before they claimed innocent lives.

The Drowning City


"There's no hope for this city. If Coronet is the heart of Corellia, it's one from a guy who smokes twenty a day, and washes it down with discount whisky. There's a lot of history here, but no future. Only that history isn't what it was yesterday."
―Blackwood

In the relative peace and rebuilding following the war, Blackwood was granted some surprising months of stability. Although he faced a number of undeniably curious cases, most were down to mildly powerful relics that had become active again over the true monsters faced throughout much of his career. Even the most notable of these, a supposed mummified remnant of a Krath war leader rising from its tomb to stalk a museum, proved to be a hoax by a group planning to steal priceless items to sell on the black market. Although Blackwood suspected that this might be due to other entities perhaps drawing from the Dark Side given what little he heard of developments surrounding the Jedi, Blackwood would soon become far more concerned with direct matters. Chief among these was the increasingly tyrannical behaviour of the victorious Galactic Alliance. Although not treating the Confederation as a conquered people as he had briefly feared, there was an undeniably Imperial aspect with their approach to enforcing order.

Even once the current threat had been ended and some normality was restored, Blackwood noted a distinct change on Corellia. It had been growing for some time, not only a sense of fatalism but a reluctance to address the present. Blackwood would find many cases or attempts to study events blocked, and even entire records erased. At first he assumed this had much to do with some sense of cultural shame over the Second Galactic Civil War, but there seemed a near fanatical desperation to deny huge swathes of galactic history had taken place. Even when Blackwood attempted to approach secondary sources, he would find that the Diktat had ordered for many books and works to be removed and destroyed. Seemingly not knowing the origin of this, Blackwood was so stunned he at firs thought he had been drugged, but instead soon found it to be genuine. The more shocking change came when certain records were returned but dramatically altered; going so far as to alter key dates of past historic events and omit others entirely. This would soon coincide with both a decree to reset the galactic year across the galaxy, but sweeping changes across Corellia. Where once the world had been a jewel of the Core, it was rapidly being torn apart. Vast swathes of once beautiful cities were ripped up and transformed into a grey choked abominations, more factory than any place of culture or dwelling place. So far as the history books detailed or anyone he spoke to, Corellia had always been this way, and those who believed otherwise soon disappeared.

The changes would be accompanied by further complications when it came to Blackwood's job. Besides their stubborn refusal in past events, now Blackwood could not access even the records he needed on the Second Imperium, with claims that it had never existed. For a time Blackwood felt as if he was going insane, and almost welcomed the return of the occult cases when they returned once more. A large file was forwarded to his office, detailing multiple outbreaks across months, leading Blackwood to believe that his employers had simply tried to ignore them at first, before forwarding to him to resolve with no further options. Most, thankfully, proved to be easy matters to ultimately resolve. Many were simply cases of criminals using seemingly supernatural cases to hide far more mundane crimes, and divert suspicion from their activities. Yet it would be the last which would come to haunt not only his sleep, but worry him during his waking hours.

Dispatched in order to carry out a missing persons investigation on Sunless Rock lighthouse, Blackwood was sent far out into the ocean, on the very fringes of Coronet city. Although largely a relic of past days, the need for a marine fleet for certain cargo shipments kept the lighthouse in operation, serving as both a communications relay and visual beacon. In poor condition, the three individuals crewing it were gone, along with several further disappearances along the surrounding island fishing facilities. Dropped off via airspeeder, Blackwood spent hours investigating the lighthouse with little indication of what might have happened.

Blackwood would spend days on the island attempting to find out the cause behind this, to the point of taking up residence within the lighthouse itself for a time. He would eventually find the gristly truth behind the disappearances on the fourth day. Finding crumbling stonework within the lighthouse's cellar, Blackwood would investigate the the area and find a passageway leading ever deeper into the underground. Remembering his past experiences with mysterious subterranean facilities, Blackwood remained extremely cautious and was ready to withdraw and simply level the place. Yet what he found convinced him that pursuing the area for proof was the right choice. Hooded and cloaked figures surrounded a gargantuan creature, half-dead and seemingly being integrated with obscene machinery. Blackwood was quick to recognise both. One was a Yuuzhan Vong Capture beast, albeit one which had undergone mutations. The others surrounding it were similar to the Dark Jedi that he had faced attempting to clone warriors. They were half-worshipping and half-experimenting upon the creature, seemingly meshing it with technology in an effort to gain control of its form.

Blackwood would take the time to photograph and record his findings but, upon hearing that their modifications were close to completion, he acted directly. Blackwood closed in, quietly killing two cult members before opening fire on the beast's exposed innards. Driving it to lash out in pain and rage even as the other figures assailed him, Blackwood was able to goad the beast into launching a frenzied attack on anything nearby. Over the course of the fighting, the beast collapsed the cave and took with it the members of the cult and all related evidence. It was enough to partially destroy the island, collapsing it into the sea. The force of this change was enough to send a small tidal wave toward Coronet City. Even with the barriers intercepting the worst of the impact, the blame was placed squarely upon Blackwood's shoulders.

Blackwood initially accepted the fallout of his actions, but grew argumentative over the nature of its depiction. Almost everything involving the case was either redacted or had been significantly altered from his report, and the visual proof he retrieved was quickly ignored as being a faked creation. Attempts to argue otherwise and even citing similar monsters in past wars were met with harsh rebukes from his superior, and quickly suspension. Blackwood returned to his apartment, thankfully having had the sense to keep records of his findings after the originals were confiscated and abruptly disappeared. Tired of working in the dark, Blackwood chose to expand this investigation on his own time.

The Conqueror Worm

Blackwood would find that many of his usual methods would be held back by both his ill reputation within CorSec and also the growing changes within the New Republic. Having already abandoned its prior identity as the Galactic Alliance, many databases and resources were suddenly cut off. Some were destroyed outright, while others were claimed to have never existed along with the events in which they detailed. A concentrated purge of certain events seemed to play out, and even efforts to contact the Jedi, Streen, for help came up short. The world seemed to pretend that he had never existed. Blackwood was left questioning his very sanity, but a handful of surviving texts and other works which had been kept on his own shelves and those of his parents confirmed that much had been rewritten of history and abruptly changed.

Believing that the link would lie with the cult-like group of Dark Jedi he had now repeatedly faced off against, Blackwood would spend months hunting them down. Using some scant information he had been able to retrieve from the island prior to its destruction, Blackwood was able to identify and then kill several of their outlying agents. Provoking the group into a hostile response, he was able to kill another of the Dark Jedi before finally capturing one of their acolytes. The following interrogation would be short-lived, with the Jedi soon killing himself via an implanted device in his skull, but items on his person pointed toward an offworld facility and a mysterious cargo ship. The hunt would play out for some months, with seemingly no way to access either listing through covert or direct means, with even smugglers and a few criminal connections refusing to approach them due to bleak stories surrounding those that tried. Matters would be made all the more complex following the fall of the New Republic and the rise of the First Order in its place, with Corellia's new proxy government seizing the opportunity to reshape itself under the new regime over preserving any of the past.

Blackwood would see some good fortune when older contacts would soon message him, seeking Blackwood out for help. A small resistance group seeking to reverse the rot which had destroyed the New Republic and depose those ruling worlds in the name of the First Order approached him with an offer. Information in exchange for services. Blackwood would help them identify and destroy certain Sith relics that were being targeted and stolen, along with indications as to what their purpose might have been, while they would work to gain further details on the group that Blackwood opposed. This exchange would carry on for some years as they painstakingly worked to identify the nature of his enemy while undermining the First Order. It would be this exchange that would lead Blackwood to meet with Essik Lyccane and join his growing number of informants and agents, working as an information network for the nascent Templar Jensaarai and similar groups.

After helping Lyccane to track and confirm the location of Hogriz Arani, a figure with links to the Collective and darker powers, his efforts were finally rewarded with the exactly location of the ship he hunted and its nature. The ship and the facility were one and the same, but conflicting information and high level security barriers had been used to throw off where it was hidden. Now more of a space station than a vessel, it had been anchored on the edge of a navigational anomaly in deep space, using its sensor disrupting properties to hide from prying eyes. Borrowing a ship and a droid pilot, Blackwood was able to secure access codes to travel to the vessel. Although planning to merely identify its nature and gain proof over launching an assault, the matter was soon taken out of Blackwood's hands when the code raised an automated alert and the ship was pulled inside the facility. Yet, to his surprise, the same security measures soon stood down, identifying Blackwood as Subject Delta, and granting him partial access to the majority of areas.

What Blackwood found on that ship was something he would refuse to speak of to anyone, and even his journals only outlined the barest hints of what lurked within. However, the glimpses offered indicate a nightmare facility run amok, of half-completed biological creations, insane rotting mounds of half-alive meat, and things which should have never been brought into being. The entire ship was being used to cultivate and form new organs to help forge a new industry for Corellia to expand its new influence following the fall of the New Republic, but others were being utilised to try and form weapons experiments to enhance soldiers. Blackwood found enough to indicate a link with his creator, and it was even why he was able to move about much of the ship with only limited resistance from its security measures. Yet even so, Blackwood would swiftly destroy the facility in his departure after finding something at its core. His only words when asked why were to describe it as a mercy killing.

Only able to flee via an escape pod, Blackwood was taken and captured by the nearby military patrols. Arrested for the destruction of a vital facility, Blackwood was taken to a holding cell and kept there. Although the influence of some of Essik's allies would help to prevent his execution, and the fact details of the facility had been quietly slipped to them via a data crystal left a hanging sword over the authorities, allowed Blackwood to be freed. However, it was a bittersweet victory. Blackwood was outright exiled from his home and sentenced to the mines of Kessel, to remove him as a threat entirely from their influence. Locked in a cell for several weeks, Blackwood would only learn further details of how life was changing in the galaxy for the worse in passing, as even famous technological breakthroughs, figures of history, and locations were seemingly erased from all knowledge.

Blackwood would be taken on a transport to the planet, but would escape as it was brought into orbit. Managing to avoid being tagged and tracked among the mass of prisoners, Blackwood would flee the world within a day by hiding on the same ship, fleeing the facility and disappearing out into the void. Without a home to return to or allies I could easily contact, he was nevertheless free and with a destination memorised from the data he had scoured - Coruscant.

The Darkening Coil

The transport ship would jump to a trading post on the Outer Rim and Blackwood would quietly depart from the cargo hold, absconding with enough credits to barter passage on another vessel. Between this and acting as a gun for hire, Blackwood was able to steadily make his way back toward the Core Worlds. Although he expected to be found and confronted by Corellia's agents soon after arrival, he learned of the Diktat's death. Much of Corellia and its associated territories were in a state of upheaval and unable to waste time hunting so minor a target as himself. Making contact again with some of Essik's own agents, he was able to gain access to the data once more and learn of one key location. The destination was an unknown area hundreds of levels into the undercity, close to what was suspected to be the planet's surface. Dangerous beyond reckoning and largely populated only by the insane, desperate, and the droids needed to maintain it, the place was hostile beyond reckoning.

Blackwood would find his way down there with relative ease. Despite his exile, the chaos had ensured that he was still listed as an active member of CorSec, with all the authority that role allowed. Framing his investigation as a duty he had been tasked with, to confront a threat to Corellia, Blackwood was able to easily pass most security checkpoints. After passing down one level after another, Blackwood was given the repeated sense of being watched. While not confronted directly or facing any true hostility beyond several attempted hold-ups, he was given the sense that his moves were anticipated. This would be proven correct when a Dark Jedi ambushed and attempted to kill him on the lowest levels, wearing a similar garb to those he had killed beneath the lighthouse on Corellia. Blackwood was able to kill his opponent by throwing him down a turbolift shaft, but gained details on what awaited him below. Whatever they had been working with and serving under, it waited within.

Blackwood would breach through several levels and bypass a number of traps before reaching the location. Ancient to the point where some of the machinery within had been fossilised, he entered a place which was half lab and half temple. An insane amalgamation of primordial chaos and corrupted science, the place had a sense of wrongness which made Blackwood wish to flee. Only a certain curiosity and determination to see this through kept him from running. It was a choice he would come to both celebrate and curse in the years to come.

Blackwood would be ambushed by three remaining Dark Jedi, rendering him unconscious through the use of toxin grenades. When he awoke strapped to a medical gurney, Blackwood would face not only the three Dark Jedi but also a hovering wraith that seemed to be a hovering wound in reality. Ornately garbed in ragged robes of a Sith Lord, the wraith looked upon Blackwood with amused fondness, even as Blackwood tried to free himself.

The spirit thanked Blackwood for returning to him, saying that he would overlook the other problems Blackwood had caused him by serving him once more. Blackwood realised the wraith was speaking more to the Dark Jedi than himself, but gleaned details. Namely that the wraith was the remnant of an ancient Sith Lord bound to a molten red obelisk in the room's centre. Opposing an ancient enemy of an unknown nature, the wraith had claimed the Dark Jedi as servants following the Second Imperium's collapse. Blackwood was a creation of his experiments, a Sithspawn made to serve as an infiltrator and butcher as needed in the long rivalry. Yet more than that, with his better choices gone, Blackwood could serve as a more effective vessel.

Ritually cut in multiple places and slowly bled, symbols were carved into Blackwood as he was prepared for one task before he could be claimed. The Sith spoke to him directly then, praising his "Devourer of Worlds" and promising that the purpose he had been founded for would be fulfilled. However, a careless motion by one Dark Jedi nicked the edge of the shackles that held Blackwood in place. Blackwood held for some time, enduring the pain, before lashing out.

Tearing one arm free from his restraints, he snatched up the lightsaber from one Jedi's belt and hurled it at the monolith. The damage was enough to open a vortex within the Force. The Sith Lord's essence was damaged, forcing him to feed upon his servants to try and endure the damage. Promising eternal damnation in response to Blackwood's rebellion, the Sith Lord tore through the his body with Force Lightning, unleashing agony upon him. The impact brought untold pain, but also gave new strength to Blackwood, and he was able to rip himself free with newfound might. Hurling himself into the spirit, Blackwood lashed out in a mad frenzy of attacks. His body seemed to be anathema to the Sith Lord, and he punched rents through his body. The wraith was rapidly dissipated under the assault, his last words promising that the Shadow in the Force who was his rival would not grant Blackwood so merciful an end as he had offered.

Although tempted by the knowledge that the lab might hold, Blackwood decided he had seen enough. Ignoring all thoughts of gaining further understanding of what had created him, Blackwood settled with ending the threat that had haunted him for so long. Torching the lab, Blackwood made his was back to the surface. With no way back to Corellia and his task done, he chose to find Essik Lyccane and fully join his organisation.

Jedi Business (42 ABY - Present)

The Right Man At The Wrong Time

Speaking with other contacts, it would take Blackwood weeks to fully learn of a location here he could find the aged Gand. Eventually learning of the Kiast System, Blackwood used the last of his credits to barter travel to there and the capital world of the Vatali Empire.

Soon after his arrival, Blackwood would be arrested after being detected by the Jedi who called the world their home. It would only be then that he would learn of both Clan Odan-Urr and the Dark Jedi Brotherhood which they were a nominal part of. Each Jedi knew he was not a member of their kind, but felt an intrinsic foulness within his essence. Not fully knowing what to make of him but not trusting him, even mentioning Essik's name held little value. The Gand had been killed only a few months prior, and his closest companions had departed to places unknown.

Upon their return toward the end of 42 ABY, Blackwood would learn of the bleak conflict which they had been embroiled in. The war against the Shadow in the Force, known as Perdurabo, and the battles which had raged across multiple worlds across the galaxy. With Essik dead and Ka Tarvitz gone, only Nikora Rhan and Sirra Werd'la remained of the original group. Neither knew what to make of Blackwood and were unwilling to trust him thanks to his clear link to the Dark Side. Nikora, as the de facto leader now, would only opt to release Blackwood into their custody after learning of his connection with Essik. With no detailed knowledge of the network of agents he had formed, Blackwood was their only possible link now. This proved to be by no means a one-sided animosity, as Blackwood was disgusted to learn of how the Jensaarai utilised Sith Alchemy as a key part of forming their equipment and reacted with hostility upon learning of the sheer number of Sith tomes the group had gathered.

Although Blackwood opted to remain with them eventually, thanks largely to speaking with Orion of the Free Droid Enclave, he would opt largely to strike out on his own and return only to the others as and when needed. Even while accepting they were in an alliance of convenience, Blackwood nevertheless looked into working both with the Vatali nobility and Quorahi tribes, but each had little need for a detective of his skills.

Physical Description

A hulking brute of a man, Blackwood's sheer physicality is by far his most striking quality. Although of only an average height for a Barabel, Blackwood towers over the average sentient and has a broad-shouldered and massively muscled build worthy of any Outer Rim prize fighter. With scales the colour of red clay, Blackwood's complexion makes him stand out even among his own kind. Yet even once this is overcome, many more minor odd differences are quickly noted. Chief among these is how broad and toughly built his features are, to the point where many have cited that Blackwood appears to be less serpentine than he is mastiff. This aspect is only made far more starkly evident both due to the notably thickened cranial plating of his brow but also the deep orange of his eyes. Although most put this down to genetic quirks or even having adapted to stranger worlds, Blackwood has quietly admitted in the past that he frequently has to take extra steps to even pass himself off as a member of his species. If left unattended, his scales can rapidly toughen past even their usual state until it resembles that of a shark, while his claws rapidly lengthen to the point where they cannot be retracted and must be filed back on an almost daily basis. Although Blackwood is certain that each of these oddities are almost certainly the result of his alchemically modified origin, he has since accepted this and believes he was fortunate when compared with most Sithspawned victims.

Personality

Uncomplicated and with a layman's view of the world, Blackwood is a normal man trying to deal with a deeply abnormal life. More concerned usually with just doing his job, getting paid, and going home for the day, any casual conversation could allow for a passer by to mistake him for any blue collar worker. It's only when Blackwood gets into the specifics of his work that this illusion is broken. Blackwood will speak of horrifying rituals, serial killings, and macabre with the same nonchalant ease as a construction worker outlining fitting a roof into place. Although far from amoral or uncaring, decades of dealing with the more esoteric aspects of the Force has left Blackwood with a near unshakable disposition which is rarely surprised or horrified anymore. Short of bursts of rage when he is truly infuriated or in the heat of battle, Blackwood is more prone to dry humour or resigned irritation when dealing with matters of the Force.

Although typically laconic unless forced to get a serious point across, Blackwood could be highly personable and sociable with those he was able to rely upon. A few too many betrayals left him with severe trust issues, and as such such a circle was small indeed; a problem only further exaggerated by how few friends and allies he was able to retain in CorSec thanks to his poor reputation for heralding disaster and general weirdness. A former partner once commented that "You know things have gone to kark when Blackwood is given the case. It could be a Rodian taking the credit chit from someone's old granny, and two days later we'll find it's all part of some elaborate neo-Krath doomsday ceremony." It was a point that Blackwood could hardly deny.

Both his method of creation and many cases left him with little to no respect for practitioners of the Dark Side, and distrust for those who favoured its means. Even after long accepting that Nikora Rhan, Ka Tarvitz, and members of the Templar Jensaarai were as far from the Sith who created him s possible, he still never fully accepted them. Although open minded enough to accept and respect the Jedi, even following attempts on his life following misunderstandings due to his knowledge and relationship with the Dark Side, some histories simply ran too deep to fully bury.

Yet perhaps what people most commonly forget is that Blackwood considers himself human in all the ways that matter. Raised by humans, growing up among humans, and working with humans, he did not even meet another Barabel until well into adulthood. Going so far as to take classes to overcome the typical cadence and speech impediments of his kind when speaking Basic, he would only opt to learn his species' language after being prompted by members of his family.

Equipment

Often working more with anything that Nikora Rhan, Clan Odan-Urr, or the Free Droid Enclave can supply over his own materials, Blackwood has relatively few items to his name. Relying much more upon his wits than gadgetry, he typically operates with little more than the clothes on his back and a gun in his holster. Both are among the few items he kept with him after moving to Clan Odan-Urr, with a BR-5010 slugthrower pistol being the most valuable item still to his name.

Powers and Abilities

Combat

Although experienced in a variety of weapon types, ranging from Slugthrowers to blades, Blackwood lacks any noted talent. Passable at best in these fields and with only somewhat better capability when it comes to a wider variety of disabling weapons such net guns, even his experience with explosives is born more from the use of flash grenades and being talked through disabling bombs over real training.

Instead Blackwood's talent lies far more in his physicality, utilising his sheer strength and stamina to overcome opponents. This is paired with his expertise in both Mandalorian Core and the Imperial Martial Arts System, to overcome, disarm, and then disable enemies. Although much of his experience stems from training, this has been further enhanced through harsh combat, with Blackwood learning how to turn effectively any discarded item into an ad hoc weapon; something he actively pursued after being forced to disable and then kill a mutated Rancor with a sharpened length of rebar. When paired with his natural analytical skills, this allows Blackwood to quickly identify a likely weakness in his opponent and exploit it, relying upon little more than anything he can pick up during the fight.

Detective

Although far from the superhuman genius most experienced detectives are stereotyped as, Blackwood's attention to detail and ability to rapidly piece together information has served him well over many decades. Typically patient and methodical, but more than willing to take a leap of faith when needed, Blackwood's main strength lies in his ability to judge the motives of people as much as the detail found within a scene. Although hardly unconventional, it is Blackwood's ability to take the Force into account which has led him to at least survive an extremely dangerous life. With Blackwood's habit of stumbling into dangerous remnants of Sith power or ancient knowledge being warped to churn out horrifying creations, the fact he can consider them without losing his grip on the more mundane aspects of everyday life has helped him to solve both legitimate supernatural cases, and recognise when old ghost stories are being used to disguise a more conventional crime.

The Force

Blackwood's relationship with the Force is distinctly complicated. Although he has displayed a natural affinity in many areas, Blackwood actively squanders his potential and avoids utilising it save for the most necessary of situations. This is not so much thanks to concerns about his creation so much as the risk of what he might become, as he knows he lacks the same discipline and mental state of a Jedi to avoid the risks of falling to the Dark Side, or even the discipline needed to not be tempted by the quick and easy path. Even were this not the case, Blackwood remains worried that he might even be hard coded to follow certain paths leading toward being a Sith. This has left Blackwood doing little more than utilising some basic abilities of amplifying his physical attributes and tapping into the Force to sense his surroundings, largely to give him some edge against his usual foes.