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Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? This article details the history of a character who no longer actively takes part in current events.
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Castor Paratus is an Alleman Engineer and a former Jedi Knight of the Galactic Republic. Following the calamity of the Jedi Purge, they fled Coruscant in an antiquated cargo ship from the junkyard. After a swift check-over and installment of a stasis pod on Alderaan, Castor set course to [[starwars:Tattooine|Tattooine[[ and programed the stasis pod to revive the two in three years after a massive life support failure occured. The circuitry failed however several years in, and after a crash landing on Aliso in 31 ABY, the two were revived and started working on a second craft until they were stumbled upon by members of Plagueis who were checking out the downed cargo ship that served as their home.
Capturing one of the incapacitated Plagueians in their mined front yard set off a game of cat-and-mouse game that ended when the two discovered the Plaguians were not Imperials that had been sent to complete Order 66. Their celebration was cut short by Plagueian reinforcements responding to the scouting party's distress call. When Castor and Pollus learned of the Empire's downfall, they happily celebrated for a brief time until he realized what this now meant after speaking with the Plagueian more as additional forces arrived on the plains by their home. Castor would have to join with them willingly, and serve the Dread Lord Teylas Ramar as a Dark Jedi, be indoctrinated into their forces as a slave, or face the full wrath of Plagueis and perish. Reluctantly, he agreed to join them on the condition that his brother be allowed to come as well, and that no harm would befall him.
Character History
Early Years
Childhood
Castor and Pollus Paratus were born as twins on Aleen in 44 BBY. Castor was brought to Coruscant at a young age like most younglings, however was completely inseparable from his brother Pollus who came to Coruscant along with him. Though his brother was not allowed in the temple, Castor kept a very close eye on him and watched over him from afar. Like his brother, he had a natural affinity for technology and quickly became adept at creating and repairing things, sometimes much to the chagrin of his Masters at times. His brother however, was quite adept at blowing things up and destroying things, which often created much trouble for Castor. Over the years Castor eventually rose to the rank of Peacekeeper which allowed him to venture into the streets of Coruscant more often, and to be able to see his brother much more often than he had been since they arrived years ago and keep a much shorter leash on him.
He had been at his brother's apartment, helping him move his belongings from the ruins of his previous apartment, when the first fires and explosions broke out from the Jedi Temple. Castor had begun to sense that things were very wrong, and at that similar moment with a cry from Pollus he managed to evade blaster fire from his Clone Trooper escorts and eliminated them. Pollus grabbed what belongings he could and set several explosive traps at the door, but Castor quickly grabbed him and blew out one of his apartment windows.
They escaped down the sides of the building directly next to the apartment building, and as they reached the bottom a harrowing explosion rocked Pollus’ apartment. Narrowly dodging falling debris, Castor swore to chew him out...later. They made their way through the back platforms and made their ways into the lower levels of Coruscant. His heart felt torn as he wanted to return and help his Master and his comrades, but he knew he had to get his brother to safety first.
Together they made their way to one of the many scrapyards on the southern edge of the Temple district, and together they cobbled parts together to make an old Dynamic-class Freighter functional once again. Using the freighter, they blasted their way off of Coruscant during the confusion using an old pre-installed clearance code, that surprisingly worked despite Castor’s worries. As they departed the planet, his heart felt shattered with a sense of betrayal. He looked upon the Jedi Temple one final time as they went into the atmosphere and departed into space.
Fugitives
Following their escape from Coruscant, the brothers were constantly chased by Clone Troopers and newly-named Imperial vessels. The ship, renamed the ‘’’Paratus Partus” because of all the random parts they had shoved into it, continued to have malfunction after malfunction from the jury-rigged systems and makeshift parts that were used to even make it functional again. Narrowly they were able to make it to Alderaan where they were able to relax finally for a short time. Castor landed the ship just outside of a lush forest, having inched it into the treelines as far as he was comfortable doing. As nightfall came, Castor had built a small fire a short ways into the forest where he sat and contemplated returning to Coruscant. He had heard the transmissions to return to the Temple, that the war was over. While it was true that the enemies that had chased them had ceased doing so, the lack of contact with any other Jedi made it seem questionable, especially with no contact from his Master since the attacks began.
He quelled his thoughts and pushed them aside however as he watched his brother Pollus, who continued to work on repairing the Partus. His love of technology proved a wanted distraction, as Pollus was smiling and cheery the entire time as he considered what to move and what to try and replace, as well as what to scrap. Though very little ever saw a scrap pile, much less remained there. As a rain storm started in, they both returned to the ship and went to sleep for the night.
By the next morning however, Castor was in utter shock as Pollus had snuck off during the night and ‘’requisitioned’’, as he so delicately put it, additional parts and components from a city several miles away and had the ship started on a path back to being fully operational. At least, that was as much as Castor was able to discern of it. Over the next two weeks, they worked together on getting the Partus repaired and operational. As they reached the end of their spare part supplies, and angry patrols began searching the areas near where they were trying to find the creature who ‘’requisitioned’’ parts, they departed from Alderaan and headed back into space.
As Castor considered where to go next, where would even be safe or friendly to them, a massive malfunction occured in the ships life support systems. Having examined the navigation system, there was no chance of them being able to return to (Insert Planet Here). Having almost resigned himself to the high chances of death, Pollus interjected with a gleeful demeanor and explained that he had installed a Stasis Pod into the ship just in case they needed to travel a long distance, or something critical like this occured.
Castor once again was in disbelief at his brother, but overly happy that he had thought ahead enough to consider this scenario as a possibility. He programmed the Stasis Pod to remain sealed for a duration of three years, with the ship on autopilot to Tattoine, using several hyperspace pathways as well but very few due to the ships limited power capacity.
Reluctantly he climbed inside with his brother, and activated the Stasis Pod. His last cognitive thought was that he hoped, for once, his brother did not make any mistakes. The last thing he wanted was to be an Aleeman Popsicle for some giant Rancor or something.
Arrival on Aliso
The smell of fresh air and scent of flowers invaded Castor’s nose like an annoying plague, so much so that it jolted him awake. He glanced around, suddenly aware that he is sitting on a grassy hill by himself. For the briefest of moments Castor went into a panic, feeling a sense of dread that he might be dead.
Suddenly Pollus tapped him on the shoulder, causing Castor to go into a fit of anxietial panic. After calming down, and kicking his brother in the rear end repeatedly while chasing him around the hills, they followed a path of debris that eventually brought them to the shattered ruins of the Partus. Giving it a brief examination, there was no chance of ever making it space worthy much less repairing it.
Pollus quirked a small comment that once again made Castor chase him around in a fit of anger at his obliviousness. “Brother..” Pollus had started. “..I don’t think this isn’t Tattooine.” Unfortunately, with his less-than-adequate knowledge of survival techniques, he was forced to defer to Pollus multiple times to acquire food and find fresh water sources. As time went on, they carried and transported remnants and fragments from the ship to a small enclave of open rock that was burrowed into a cliffside.
At this stage, they had decided that the best means of survival was to make a safe and established home for themselves here on this strange world, and search to find ways to possibly create a smaller, functional ship from what was left of the Partus since the original ship was scrap.
Several years went by and the construction of a new ship went very slowly, with some parts crafted using the planet’s natural minerals and deposits. Castor gradually began to contribute less and less, his nightmares becoming more and more prevailent as time went on. The anger, and disgust, of leaving his friends and comrades behind still leaves a sour feeling in his stomach. And the thought of them being found here on this strange world made him even more on edge.
Pollus however, caught on to this fairly early on and was willing to do what it took to keep them both safe, since his brother was in a bad position mentally at the time. He crafted and made various explosives that he buried just under the ground all around their home, and even made a considerable number that were held aloft in the air with sticks that Castor could hide using the force in the event the Empire arrived.
The Dark Jedi Brotherhood
Physical Description