Kal Vorrac is one of the many Rogue Dark Jedi found throughout the Galaxy. An older man, he has lived under many names and in various different circumstances, but at his core he has adopted the way of the Sith above all other things. A Battlelord of the Brotherhood, he currently aligns himself with no one House or Clan, though he works to have relations and contacts within all seven as well as upon the Dark Council. Little is known of his current doings or whereabouts, though unconfirmed rumours claim that he was spotted in various locales during the Dark Crusade.
Character History(In Progress)
Early Years
Sali Beel.
Kal was born Jev Brokkol on Imperial Center in 15 BBY. His mother, Karina Brokkol, engaged in a tryst with a smuggler called Tyber Vorrac, and the child resembled his true father. Not wanting a divorce from her husband, a wealthy Bakuran named Dovin Brokkol, she abandoned the child on the 827th level of the planet. There, she left a note renaming him Kal Vorrac, as Tyber would have named a son. He was discovered by a Twi'lek named Sali Beel, who ran an orphanage on said level and took him in without hesitation.
Kal's childhood showed a boy with plenty of mental potential and a healthy supply of luck, as well as an uncanny knack for influencing others. To Beel's behest, he came into contact with the young thugs and miscreants that naturally plagued Imperial Center's lower levels, where he began to flourish and not only fall in with them, but influence them himself. Worried, Beel eagerly sought someone to adopt the boy, only to leave the adoption files open on her datapad when Kal happened by it. Infuriated, he fled to the nearest spaceport, stowing aboard a cargo freighter at the age of twelve.
Teen Years
- "You don't know this world, boy, and you don't want to."
- ―Vyra Task, attempting to discourage Kal.
Kal's luck - a manifestation of the Force's will, though he didn't know it - brought him to Nar Shaddaa. There, the boy's luck and intelligence became his survival. Kal became a thief and a criminal, performing odd jobs as he had to and sleeping wherever he could. This lasted for a few months before he stole from a Togrutan crime lord, who was working under a rather important Hutt at the time. However, as the boy was apprehended, he became mixed up in the assassination of said crime lord by a Zabrak woman named Vyra Task. Task, an expert to the profession, was unaware of Kal's presence until she found him in the cargo hold of her speeder. After a savage beating and several scathing words, Kal still begged for her help, so she took him in as a student while following an odd feeling of purpose.
Vyra Task, assassin and unwitting savior of Kal Vorrac.
- "Help me. Make me strong, like you. I wanna be strong."
- ―Kal Vorrac, age twelve.
Task's tutoring of Kal was harsh, to say the least. Savage beatings and vicious education in combat taught him his many combat forms of the future, while scathing and hurtful remarks filled him with rage and loathing for all that were about him. Every day, he learned to use his mind to disappear, to use his luck to pull off a tough job, and to use his body as a machine of quick, silent death. By age fifteen, he was killing targets at Task's order; seventeen saw him lethal, trained in hand-to-hand combat and a crack shot with a blaster. By the age of nineteen, the boy had matured into an adult, a lithe and powerful man. Task, once only a trifling user of narcotics but by now well-addicted and mentally unhinged, forced Kal toward her pleasures in a display of savagery, lethal skill, and impure lust. It was the act that drove the young assassin over the edge.
That night, as Task slept beside him, Kal slit the woman's throat. Taking her starfighter, he made for hyperspace.
The Assassin
- "Heh, right. Had to kill him. Funny how we never hear that from Fett."
- ― A contract provider who shouldn't have put credits over priorities.
Kal's first years as an independent killer were rather messy. His first challenge, that of actually finding work, became difficult as Vyra's well-maintained network of contacts slowly fell apart and began to lose the edge she'd brought them. For a time, he was forced to work for lower-level scum. Initially, he operated as a bounty hunter, going by the alias of Ben Ytarr. As he had no skill or patience taking captives, he always recieved the lower bounty for a dead target. In time, this became something of a calling card for Ytarr, and he recieved fewer worthy jobs while getting in touch with the wrong kind of scum. Inevitably, as his contacts under his assassin alias, Scott Tarkam, grew more lucrative, he was forced to stage the death of Ben Ytarr and fall in entirely as a killer.
Kal, as Tarkam, would go on to slowly establish himself as a skilled killer. His intelligence allowed him to pick up many new languages and his combative skills became ever more sharp. Best of all, though, his apparent luck had truly begun to blossom. It was on a particularly heated job, after a target named Dovin Brokkol - a man who Kal's studies showed as ruthless and cold since the reported abduction of his infant son, Jev - that Kal would find himself overwhelmed and outgunned by his target's security forces. In an unprecedented surge of fear, reflexes, and accuracy, Vorrac managed to shoot all twelve of the men pinning him down while in mid free-run, hitting them without even truly taking aim. This allowed him to reach Brokkol, who tried to bribe his unknowing "son" before threatening that his assets and contacts would go on to vengeful hands if he died. Kal dropped him out of a window in way of response.
- "You're just a job, old man."
- ―Scott Tarkam, before murdering Dovin Brokkol.
Kal's years as an assassin would continue to sharpen and escalate, with emotional surges bringing on such bouts of near-superhuman ability. At times, he would know exactly where and when to move when under threat. At times he would predict the actions of his foes, or simply move faster than his enemies. At times, he simply gained far more strength than usual, moving insanely heavy objects or simply breaking men in impossible ways. At first, he tried to dismiss these outbursts, but eventually accepted them as a tool to be use. At times, they even swelled his pride, and he came to grow arrogant as well as furious during combat.
Complications
- "You gonna untie me, buddy, or just stare?"
- ―The Midnight Rose
It was near the end of the year 16 ABY that Kal took a job to eliminate a Falleen money launderer by the name of Zax Pintell, whose residence was on the planet Sluis Van. "Scott Tarkam" moved in as he usually did, covertly assessing the man's routines and habits. He made a habit of studying the man's departure and arrival to the manor of a Sluissi businessman who made heavy use of the Falleen. Infiltrating the manor, Kal came upon the Sluissi's greatest secret - a bound human woman, apparently delivered by some underworld associate. After a rather humorous exchange, Kal came under attack from the manor's security droids, only for the woman to call for Vorrac's aid and offer to help.
On a hunch - something that Kal had come to trust - he unbound her and armed her. While Kal eliminated Pintell, the woman broke into the Sluissi's private art gallery and reclaimed a stolen heirloom. After the assault, she introduced herself as Brijha Mortashka, the Midnight Rose. Though Kal tried to abandon her, she managed to follow him on civilian transport and, after sneaking into his cargo hold, found herself on the wrong end of a blaster and explaining herself. Inexplicably, Kal's hunch told him not to kill her, so he grudgingly allowed her to stay within his safehouse after stripping her of any communications and weapons. She was allowed to use his shower and refresher as needed and given some of his spare clothing, but was otherwise ignored or even rudely turned aside by Vorrac. The man had not had any intimacy, outside of when a contract demanded it, since his rape at the hands of Task; the old scars ran deep.
Brijha Mortashka, the Midnight Rose
- "It's like a fire in your eyes. So much hate, and... pain. Who did this to you?"
- ―Brijha, asking Kal about his past.
Mortashka would continue to stay with Kal, eating his rations and using his gear, but otherwise was shut out from the world beyond. This suited her - her family had died at the hands of the Sluissi a couple of years before, and she'd been operating as a bounty hunter and small-time thug to get by until she could recover her heirloom. After several jobs, though, she became restless, going so far as to attempt leaving the safehouse. This at first drew Kal's ire, but in time, he came to regret keeping her locked away. Much as he knew his security depended on it from Vyra's teachings, he could not help but relate to her. In time, she found her way through his rage, and Kal eventually gave in to the romance that was budding between them. He and Bri came to share a bed, a step toward healing his bitterness and isolation. Within the next few weeks, she announced a pregnancy, further complicating matters and leaving Kal with attachments.
After taking a few months to help Bri and securing a medical droid for her, he went on another contract, this time to kill a lead opponent of an Aleenan Senator. Upon his return, he was greeted by the sight of his safehouse raided, arriving just in time to be blasted backward as a Skipray blastboat reduced the building to rubble. Scott Tarkam was officially dead, and Kal, believing his lover and child gone, set off with a new purpose; for the first time, he sought revenge.
Matricide
- Karina Brokkol: "Tarkam! You bastard! But how... wait... Jev? M-my Jev?! I'm your mother!"
- Kal Vorrac: "My name's not Tarkam. My name's not Jev. My name is Kal... and hers was Brijha.'"
- ―Kal Vorrac to Karina Brokkol, moments before killing her.
Searching through the galaxy for leads, Kal found his contacts were slowly being eliminated, his resources sold out and eradicated. One by one, every safehouse he had was destroyed, all of his assets were siphoned away, and everyone he'd ever come to rely on had been killed or had betrayed him. Over time, Kal turned Scott Tarkam's name into one of bloodshed and retribution, brutally interrogating and killing everyone he could get his hands on. Eventually, he tracked his mark back to the Brokkol Estates on Coruscant. Apparently, Dovin's heirs apparent had made good on his promises. Infiltrating the complex, he found it heavily protected, the tenants prepared for an army to descend. Instead, Kal made an effort to kill each and every one of the people inside as only he could, his rage empowering him with decades of lethal practice and moving him to impossible feats again and again. Only once did he pause, coming across a long-abandoned nursery; there, he felt a tug of some ancient instinct, almost like a memory. Only his fury stopped him from investigating further.
Fighting his way to the top floor, Kal finally found his target - none other than Karina Brokkol. After eliminating her droid bodyguards, Kal blasted through the thick walls of her panic room, and he tore the door open with his own bare hands. After a few moments of pleading, a moment of clarity allowed Karina to see Tyber's strong likeness in Kal. It was then that she recognized her son, begging him not to kill her. Angrily, he declared her to be dead to him, and devoted the kill to Brijha before emptying an entire blaster clip into Karina's corpse.
Afterward, Kal doused all of the bodies in starfighter fuel before setting the Estates alight. The blast was almost as intense as the flames that followed.
Burning Bridges
Kal's brief vendetta had changed the man's situation drastically; for the first time since his teenage years, all of his contacts had disappeared. Nevertheless, Vorrac maintained many skills in the arts of disguise, espionage, and assassination. These would allow him to ply a far less lucrative trade than he previously had as an enforcer and hitman for many different factions, going under a trio of aliases known as Tulo Marn, Mack Wessel, and Alistair Black. However, where he had once served the upper echelon of crime lords and politicians, now he was working for far smaller goals and gains, which forced him to use the three nomickers and identities to work for and against several of his own employers at the same time.
Though he was able to keep up the many ruses this required, his increased activity introduced him to new levels of fatigue, which compounded with his grief to drive him toward the vice of adrenal stims. Originally buying the injection cocktails from spice dealers and the like, he would come to experiment with and synthesize his own, making him dependent on increasingly more volatile drugs and forcing him into far worse states of mind. In time, he would come to lose his edge in many ways, forgetting or outright ignoring many of the steps that had made him such a lethal killer. Where once he'd been trained to be silent and invisible, he became loud, aggressive, and extremely violent. This would eventually lead to many of his clients and employers discovering his dishonest dealings, leading him to fake the death of his Tulo Marn alias and establish fake records of Alistair Black leaving the criminal underworld and going legitimate in the Mid Rim.
It was during 18 ABY when he began to start needing to kill his own clients that his work as an assassin dried up almost absolutely, to which Kal would respond with more rage and dirty dealings against his clients. Soon, the name of Mack Wessel, his last safe alias, recieved the death mark in no fewer than five star systems. Following this, he would be forced to flee into Imperial space, where he would find some small employment with one group that massively needed able hands - the armed forces of the Imperial Remnant.
Signing up with the Imperial Army, he proved far too volatile for either the Stormtrooper Corps or Intelligence division and very nearly faced court-martial on multiple occasions. However, he would earn his keep fighting alongside ground units against the New Republic. While his tactics often put his allies at risk and would even lead to their deaths, he was forgiven due to the combination of berserk, drug-addled ferocity he exhibited, his elite combative skills, and his uncanny insights regarding the ebb and flow of combat. However, after the signing of the Pellaeon-Gavrisom Treaty a year into his service, he would refuse to stand down against the Republic, leading to a massacre that saw "Mack Wessel" charged with war crimes and sentenced to life in an Imperial prison.
Kal didn't care. At this period in time, he had been fighting, killing, and doping to quell the grief. Some have speculated that, at this period in time, he approached a sense of madness.
The Steel Nova
- "I saw you manhandle that guard, and slip the cuffs they put you in. How about getting off this tub?"
- ―Arcadian, speaking to a closed-off Kal Vorrac.
Vorrac's sentence would begin on an Imperial prison barge, where he was forced to sober up and face his demons in the darkness of his cell. It was here that he fell into a deep despair, with the weeks-long voyage seeing his hair become unkempt and his face grow a considerable beard. For the assassin, it was a first; never before had Task's iron training been so solidly ignored. Kal had to face the realities of Bri's apparent death, as well as his own atrocities; he had raped, killed, and tortured many, completely abandoning the codes and principles he had been clinging to for years. It was not until he met another captive, the mercenary Arcadian, that he would begin to speak again. Arcadian, a member of a group called the Steel Nova, was planning an escape.
Kal kills a fellow student while training with the GMRG.
Physical Description
Vorrac has black hair, emerald eyes, and skin as pale as ice. While not an overbearing man, he is fairly tall at six feet and keeps his medium build well-toned and as healthy as possible. His hair is kept short enough for a soldier, and his face is kept free of facial hair. His left arm and both legs are prosthetic parts, painted a low-lustre black. Kal always wears his Brotherhood robes, both for effect and to conceal his false body parts.
Personality
One could say that Kal Vorrac is an example of life's shaping influences. Between abandonment and abuse at all levels of childhood to a career of assassination, followed by a life of subterfuge and manipulation, all at risk of betrayal, he has become both emotionally scarred and completely self-sufficient. He is known for his deep-set paranoia and his extreme patience and thoroughness, which works with his intelligence and years of experience to make him over-compensate for weaknesses.
He truly fears only complete helplessness. This fear is so prevalent that he will literally force himself through the gauntlet as his legs give out. Until he is proven useless and someone strikes him down, he will keep fighting. This makes him manipulate and destroy to secure his place of power, but ultimately means that he will likely die a lonely and unfulfilled death.
Philosophies
Rule of Two
Atypically for a Sith of the Brotherhood, Kal considers one of the most successful and prominent Dark Lords of the past to be Darth Bane. Whereas most of the Brotherhood's Dark Jedi believe that Bane was a fool for reducing the Sith in number to only two, or that he was too cowardly to build up a force and take his enemies head-on, Vorrac's view is that the Sith'ari was brilliant in his decision.
Any scholar who is honest would agree that, between the time of Kaan's Sith or even those of the True Sith and the time of Bane's Order, the power of all given Sith was known to increase. Sith of Kaan's time or before typically had varied studies and experiences, coveting knowledge that could empower the entire Order in order to elevate their own station; the Sith under Bane either came to know each and every known Dark Side lesson and secret, or died in the attempt. Evidence of this difference in power can be seen in the duality between Kaan and Bane themselves - one had a mediocre, balanced skill with many Dark Side doctrines but a mastery of none, while the other was not only masterful in the ways that Kaan had dabbled in but had recovered and learned such incredible techniques as Essence Transfer and Holocron construction.
Interesting, however, is Kal's view of the Brotherhood in relation to the Rule of Two. Rather than a divergence of it, Kal sees the Brotherhood as a unique and thriving take on the Rule; this view is largely justified by the fact that Brotherhood members are taught all aspects of the Brotherhood's knowledge within their particular Orders, learning new abilities when they become powerful enough to ascend in Rank. It is also justified by the fact that, while the Dark Council holds great power and presides over the Houses and Clans, all are Sith servants and devotees of the Dark Lord and his Shadow Hand - a Sith Lord and his true disciple. In this manner, many Sith have had Dark Side Adepts as their servants without them truly being Sith.
Finally, Kal views the Brotherhood as an expanded and evolved culture based around Bane's rule - as House is to Clan, as Clans are to Council, and as Council is to the Throne, the Brotherhood is based around the mighty endowing those below with greater knowledge and power, until ultimately all members are surpassed and replaced. Thus, Kal is able to rationalize the Brotherhood as both a true Order of Sith and an expression of the Rule of Two.
Sith Divergence
Kal is, as he has explained to many others in the Dark Brotherhood, a Sith purist; he emphatically insists that he is not a Dark Jedi at all, and will correct others who call him as such if necessary. This is because he has never had any interaction with the Jedi Order or its teachings, aside from instances of combat. He considers himself a Sith, and interestingly, considers all members of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood to either be Sith or their divergent cousins, though he acknowledges their status as Dark Jedi.
Vorrac is of the belief that both the Obelisk and Krath Orders are still forms of Sith - the Obelisk are the ilk of Ferran, who was a member of the Sith cult known as the Mecrosa Order, while the Krath originated as the cult from the Empress Teta System; Tiamat herself was originally a Sith Sorceress - and thus, refers to all Brotherhood Dark Jedi as Sith at times.
As is typical for a member of his Order, he has an arrogant standpoint on "pure" Sith of the Brotherhood; while Krath have their place as scholars and sorcerers and Obelisk are ideal as warriors and assassins, in Kal's mind, it is the place and way of the mainline Sith to rule over the "lesser" divergent Orders. The only exception seen in these views are afforded to Sith Lords of the Brotherhood, who in his mind have risen above the divergent groups and become total masters of the ways of the Dark Side - true Lords of the Sith.
Weapons and Equipment
Having lived the life of a contract killer and having devoted most of his credits to weapons and equipment, Kal has an intimate knowledge of blasters and other guns. While he prefers pistols for their availability and ease of concealment, he's not loathe to pick up a rifle when the situation calls for it; often, he'll grab a spare off of a dead enemy when in a tight spot. Unlike some Dark Jedi, Kal treats the blaster as a ready secondary weapon in most situations; his lightsaber is fearsome, but when confronted with range, his skills as a marksman allow him to quickly end lives without putting his own in danger.
Since becoming a Dark Jedi Knight, as he was a Journeyman in the time before armory lightsabers were issued, he has carried a saber of his own at all times. In his free moment and at his place of residence, he modifies and constructs several replacement hilts; while his blade is one of the few things he truly loves, he will discard it at the first necessity, refusing to become attached. As such, many places he inhabits such as homes, offices, and even temporary headquarters will have the weapons concealed in ideal spots.
The Force is also something of weaponry and equipment to Kal; his injuries during the Second Battle of Antei left him greatly weakened, as replacement organs and the requisite surgeries worked with missing limbs and age to destroy his prior physical ability. In his rehabilitation, he came to understand the Force more deeply, and often uses it for camouflage, subterfuge, protection, self-augmentation, healing, weaponry, and even to resist the cold of Morroth during his treks with new Apprentices. His familiarity with it is so deep that he will use it by reflex for tiny tasks like opening doors, or grabbing a drinking glass; it's as familiar to him as using his hands.
The newest weapon in the entourage of Vorrac is the whip. Since becoming the Taskmaster of Plagueis, he has taken to the use of a simple leather whip, finding the sting and crack of it effective in schooling Journeymen. When outside of combat, he takes instead to a scourge with five thongs. Each is made of a three-foot strip of braided rancor leather, and is tipped with a cruel durasteel hook made for sinking into flesh. When not surgically removed, these usually leave the body in a cruel manner, ripping apart the muscles and tendons that they are embedded in on their way out.
Armor, robes, and clothing for Vorrac depend greatly on the situation; he is fixated on no one set. Should the event occur where it is necessary to be protected, he will don such equipment as Stormtrooper garb or even stolen durasteel variants of Beskar'gam. In other situations, he will stick to lighter armor or simple clothing, while still other incidences see him down to underclothes to escape the heat. Clothing is just that to Vorrac's sensibilities, gear to be changed at first need and without attachment or preference.
Only one article holds any attachment to the Sith: A Krayt dragon pearl, engraved faintly with his insignia and kept on a cord of bantha leather. Upon being asked about it in the past, he has reacted violently, even going so far as to mortally wound a questioner. It is kept securely guarded in a bank on Coruscant, inside one of the deepest-kept vaults he could afford.
Apprentices Trained
Dark Jedi Knight or Above
Kal has seen many of his Apprentices become true Dark Jedi, mastering his Sith teachings and rising above the level of Journeyman. These he still considers Apprentices under him, if unofficially, but in the manner of Bane and his Order rather than that of Sidious and his Adepts.
Jedi Hunter or Below
While Kal trains many Dark Jedi, those below Knighthood are treated by him as minions and tools to be used and sacrificed - similarly to how Darth Sidious would train many Dark Adepts, but would only have one Sith Apprentice.
Notable Achievements
- Known as the Last Son of Plagueis, being the final di Plagia named before the closing of Old Clan Plagueis.
- Recipient of the Seal of Loyalty.
- Has achieved the rank of Sith Battlelord.
- Wrote and designed the Plagueian Path Master/Student Program.
- Rewrote Morroth and wrote its Temple of Plagueis article.
- Wrote and rewrote Sigil 2, incorporating Si'Tilk and Fort Ash.
- Wrote the majority of the Taking of Si'Tilk plot and competitions.
- Received a Crescent with Diamond Star for victory in Tempest Omega.
- Wrote the storyline for Shards of a Lingering Darkness, an incredibly successful PLA-HSP-IHR event.
Positions Held
Trivia
- Kal is a master of the game Dejarik, having studied the game as it was played on six different worlds.
- Kal was temporarily part of both the Krath and Obelisk Orders - he incorporates this into his backstory by saying he learned from both, but chose the studies of the Sith.
- Though Kal is a part of Plagueis, he does not consider himself a Dark Jedi - he has never had anything to do with the Jedi themselves, and thus he considers himself purely a member of the Sith Order.
- Kal enjoys gambling for the same reason he enjoys manipulation - overcoming an enemy and gaining from their loss - but has a strong dislike of wealth and luxury. He believes they are a path to weakness.
- Vorrac, while taking women to his bed from time to time and unafraid to pose as a lover to gain information, will never take another wife; the loss of Brijha and his children has hardened him against such things.
- While he has had many years speaking Basic to cover it, Kal's first language was Huttese and he does, in fact, have a very faint Hutt accent. It can only be heard when he does not actively try to cover it.