| Nichos Rhade
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Umbara
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Unverified
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Umbaran
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Male
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1.89 meters
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96.78 kilograms
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None
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Blue (transparent)
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Blue (single bladed)
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Banlanth, Form Zero
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- "Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust, like diamonds we are cut with our own dust."
- ―Nichos, regarding life and purpose.
Nichos Rhade is an Umbaran Obelisk Jedi Hunter belonging to House Tarentum. A former Rootai noble, Nichos joined the Dark Brotherhood amidst the reclaiming of Antei during the Ninth Great Jedi War, serving on the surface of the planet against Omancor Crask and his rogue Jedi. Following the conflict he endured a near-fatal drug addiction, leaving the Brotherhood for a time. He now operates as the Commander of the Reckoners, Tarentum's own clandestine special forces sect.
Character History
Origins
Born on Umbara, a shadowy world in the Ghost Nebula, darkness has been a constant in Nichos Rhade's life since he was born. As twilight is perpetual on their planet, Umbarans have naturally pale and even distinctly gaunt features, with superb low-light vision and standards of behavior that match the shadows cast all over.
Nichos was born into the Rhade lineage, a family of noble Rootai directly related to Umbaran agents employed by the Brotherhood of Darkness during the New Sith Wars - the Shadow Spies. These operatives were cunning, deadly, and strong in the Force - traits celebrated and honored by Nichos' bloodline. For this reason, Rhadites (as they sometimes pridefully referred to one another) were set apart even from other aristocrats. Surviving the treachery of Darth Bane during their era, Nichos' forebears were the sole proprietors of their kind.
From an early age, he learned about his rich heritage, enrolled in the martial arts and taught to wield the Force in combination with his species' already impressive mental and emotional capabilities. He completed education (albeit grudgingly) at prestigious institutions, from colleges to finishing schools and even special tutorials on Political Science and Senate Procedure. No amenities were spared in Nichos' breeding. He was a credit to his bloodline. His family did what they could do uphold the traditions and expectations of their ancestors, and he relished such distinction. However, he would eventually sacrifice his life of hedonism and wealth in a bid for true power.
Molding a Monster
As he came of age, Nichos would bear witness to the demise of his entire family during a political coup. With over a hundred levels of social prosperity, acts such blackmail, sedition and cool assassination were all typical aspects of Umbaran society - day to day operations, even. As a member of the Rootai caste, and thus the planet's ruling council, the Rhade clan had been the target of numerous attempts to usurp power. Slaughtered before his eyes, Nichos barely escaped with his life, departing into unknown regions to escape his would-be assailants. Unsure of how they were able to perpetrate what they did (and who indeed "they" were), Nichos panicked in a state of peril, thrust into bouts of depression and uncontrollable anger as he ventured deeper into the stars.
It was during this time that he would find the Dark Brotherhood.
With plenty of time for contemplation, Nichos pondered how he would ever return to his planet. It was clear that he would never be able in his current state, and he yearned for power beyond his bloodline's diluted arts of murder and persuasion...things darker than shadows. Bloated with power and contention, Nichos felt as if strife, struggle, and blackness were, perhaps, the natural order of things. The Brotherhood beckoned.
Salivating at the prospect of becoming a Dark Jedi - a creature of even more prowess and legend than his ancestors - Nichos resolved to leave impotence behind forever, led by a stranger on a transport that would carry Nichos through things he had never seen. Transferred to the former Shadow Academy flagship, Arcanum, Nichos excelled, entering the Order of the Obelisk. As a Journeyman, Nichos was dispatched with a mobile unit to Antei as the Vong War came to its end, among the ranks of Brotherhood troops intent on reclaiming the planet from Omancor Crask and his rogue Jedi.
Call to Arms
Nichos was ripe and eager to test his skills in contemporary wafare, a wish granted when The Dark Brotherhood came into conflict with an unorthodox Jedi Master (and former Sith Lord) named Omancor Crask, who had descended upon the world of Antei and usurped the Iron Throne by military force. Tattered and ill Yuuzhan Vong remnants still lingered on the planets surface, though their presence was moot as both Brotherhood and Jedi troops finished them off decisively.
In the beginning, forward command for Brotherhood forces (the Force users themselves called "fox-trot uniforms" by the enlisted) assumed that their modern technology might easily defeat Crask's militia, comprised mostly of outdated and almost archaic war droids and relics from past galactic conflicts. It couldn't have been further from the truth. The Jedi had modified their forces and outfit them with anti-personnel and counter-overload devices, among other things. Flechette launchers saw frontline use for the first time in years, as Brotherhood troops were incapacitated and delivered to the Jedi for indoctrination and interrogation. Their methods were brutal and cruel in their own right, Crask either bending prisoners to his will or twisting them into Force-lightning conducting berserkers, sending them on kamikaze runs against their own units.
Rhade, having never tasted true battle of this proportion, was unprepared to say the least. Comrades fell in vast numbers, corpses lining the battlefields with the stench of decaying (or in some cases cauterized) flesh and stale blood. Though his training provided him the strength to defeat a considerable amount of drones and Jedi troops with his unit. he endured grievous wounds trying to engage a Jedi with little more than his first lightsaber, who made quick work of the prideful ancestor of Sith spies. His body obliterated from the inside out, Nichos was tossed aside as little more than a bag of broken bones. However, his efforts did not go unnoticed - his sacrifice had distracted the veteran Jedi long enough for his battalion to be overwhelmed, and he was awarded a Silver Nova for battlefield bravery.
Despite victory in the end, Nichos was disillusioned and increasingly homesick, taken by despair and the memories of his murdered family. Nothing could sate his rage or his sadness, the war having served to undermine his confidence and rob him of his health. It was a darkness he was not eager to explore.
Shattered
Disturbed by the horrors of real warfare, far from the glorious tales told by his family of the Umbaran Shadow Assassins to whom his blood was tied, Nichos fled Brotherhood space for a time. While conscious he experienced daymares far greater than the pains of early Brotherhood training, his own cruelty lending itself to his flashbacks, resulting in even further horrifying manifestations while he slept. Tormented by memories of vivisected allies and his own broken body, Nichos tried to escape reality and everything else - even the Force.
To this end he became involved with criminals and other nefarious entrepreneurs, developing an addiction first to spice and, later, to death sticks. Mocked by the drug lords who employed him, who were aware of his apparent talents and origins, Nichos continued to do their bidding, fearing sobriety and a departure from his narcotic-fabricated world to the real one. The death sticks dampened and faded his connection to the Force the more he used them, eventually causing him great amounts of pain and the inability to sleep or rest at all. It was these extreme conditions which finally goaded Nichos to snap out of it - though the process was far from easy.
In the end, it was Nichos' bloodline that saved him. His midichlorian count, and therefore sensitivity to the Force, was just strong enough to withstand the damage he had wrought, allowing him to slowly rebuild and rekindle his relationship with a Dark Jedi's greatest weapon. Through meditation, and repetition of Brotherhood-trained techniques, Nichos was finally able to escape his addiction - and the people who had caused it. Overwhelmed with a hatred of spice lords and, most of all, himself, Nichos slew his vile masters, claiming his right to power in much the same way as the Sith do.
The experience was not all bad, however - due to his experiences and contacts made as a part of the criminal element, Nichos became well suited to espionage and navigation of the criminal and socio-political underworld. Such talents could only serve him well as he strove to attain his destiny.
In Darkness
Of course, returning to the Brotherhood was not without it's consequences. What precisely those consequences were are unknown to all but Nichos, the Dark Council, and Colonel Dralin Fortea. The latter, pending the aforementioned sealed terms, tentatively allowed Nichos to return to active duty. Eventually, he became a full fledged member of Fortea's black ops outfit, the Reckoners, founded as a catch-all wetwork unit for Tarentum's more "delicate" engagements. Nichos identified with the shrouds and secrets of his duty as many of his kind do. Utilizing his particular skillset for the good of Tarentum, he felt as if he might - through sacrifice, perseverance, and passion - attain.
Nichos first assigment under Fortea and the Reckoners was the investigation of an unidentified vessel in Tarentum space. Boarding the lumbering vessel with a small, cloaked craft, Nichos was surprised to find the vessel mostly unremarkable. However, as he approached the bridge, he was confronted by a group of beings who surprised the assassin - they could see through his camouflage. Following a few esoteric words from an elderly, bearded man (who appeared the be the captain of the ship), they all committed suicide en masse. After Nichos returned to YSC Intel to report his finding to the Tarentum summit, the vessel and the remains within were quickly destroyed (following an extensive investigation). Nichos never fully learned the intentions or origin of the strangers.
Disorder
As bonds among members of the Brotherhood began to dissolve, conflict saw the divide of countless alliances throughout the Sith Cults. Dark Jedi again stood amongst members of their own Order, the three distinct societies struggling against one another for power. Not even the most powerful Lords were free from widespread dissent, with the leaders of the Brotherhood double crossing and undercutting one another in a bid for superiority.
Such is the nature of the Dark Side.
With vaults plundered and secrets stolen between the warring factions, Nichos suddenly could no longer turn to allies even in his own House (few as they were). Pursuing a moment of clarity, Nichos visited Umbara for the first time since his exile - and joining the Dark Brotherhood. There, he would visit the crypt containing the still remains of his entire family, even unearthing his mother's corpse. The strange, grisly ritual would be one of Nichos' first encounters with a type of Force influenced out-of body experience - a memory, more than a vision or premonition. Regardless, his purpose was served, the somber warrior reaching an epiphany deep in the Rhadite tomb. Rather than seek the banners of Council members, he chose to stand beside Ronovi Tavisaen, a powerful, beguiling woman he had seldom met and the matriarch of his native Tarentum.
When Michael Halcyon, a former Brotherhood member turned Jedi, was discovered as having perpetrated the conflict by tainting holocrons, Nichos realized the grave importance of allegiances and vigorously reasserted his to Tarentum. His faith in the Dark Side (and in his Masters) renewed, Nichos began seeking a more active presence within his House, at every moment unnerved by the concept that the Jedi, somewhere, must be rebuilding. This, combined with his experiences battling Omancor Crask early in his career, crafted Nichos' supreme focus. A paranoid hatred of the Jedi (both in practice and in theory) began to seethe and further emerge, swiftly guiding the ambitious killer further down the the Dark Path.
Shortly following the ordeal, Nichos was promoted to Commander of the paramilitary black operations team he belonged to - the Reckoners.
DJB Facts
Positions Held
Outstanding Achievements
Skills & Abilities
- Having completed extensive aristocratic schooling Nichos is multilingual, fluent and literate in a wide array of languages. He is also an accomplished historian, capable diplomat and lore enthusiast.
- Between his family's lineage, Brotherhood indoctrination and rigorous training, Nichos is a consummate spy and assassin. He is adept at hacking, slicing, and other aspects of piracy (sabotage, covert ops, surveillance, electronic theft, propaganda, anti-insurgency, etc.)
- Having once endured a drug habit as an enforcer for drug kingpins, Nichos is familiar with the structure and nature of the criminal underworld.
- Cabalistic and predatory, Nichos relishes the thrill of warfare, versed in the use of advanced military weaponry, tactics, and combat systems. This is best exemplified by his mastery of the martial art, K'tara.