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Arcia Cortel is a former Imperial and a current Obelisk Prelate of House Galeres, Clan Arcona. Having started along the path of the Dark Side, rising to the Light just to ultimately succumb to the Dark Side once again, Arcia has intimate knowledge of many different aspects of the Force and how to go about using it. She was forced to forever relive a lifetime of pain and torment during a short lived duel with a former Master, leading her to nearly mentally collapse and decide that the only way for her to ever best him, is to allow the Dark Side of the Force to completely take hold of her once again.
Character History
A Bright Childhood
In 4ABY, two Officers of the Imperial Navy, named Jasper and Ellie Corden, decided they were at the point in the lives and careers to settle down and have a child. Both were outstanding Officers and were eligible to resign from their positions early, so they quickly took advantage of it and moved to Ellie's home, the fortress world of Anaxes. Ellie was already pregnant, which was why they moved forward as quick as they could with their resignations, and nine months later, their daughter was born. Naming her Destri, the two once Imperial Officers enjoyed raising their daughter and teaching her the lifestyles they learned as children and adults.
The planet Anaxes.
By the time Destri was old enough to be eligible for schooling, she had already been able to test out of many different courses of study and was on the road to graduating early, which is why Imperial Academy Recruiters began to closely monitor her. By 20ABY, Destri maintained her status as top of class and by the age of 16, she graduated with all outstanding honors from her studies and applied to join the Imperial Academy due to her exquisite test results, intelligence and demeanor.
Not even months after applying, Destri was accepted, having learned what to expect already from her parents and was ready to make her mark in the Imperial Navy. When being taken to the Academy shuttles, Destri encountered her first Force user. All common sense immediately drained from her, having only heard of such people in stories and she instinctively reached out towards the man's lightsaber. In a blinding flash, the Sith drew and ignited his saber pointing the crimson blade directly at the girl. Destri stood strong, fearless in the eyes of a much greater man, bringing the Sith to frown, wondering why she did not run in fright as many did in such a situation. Chuckling to himself, the Sith turned, sheathed his weapon and went on his way, leaving Destri to do the same.
Imperial Life
Having been raised by Officers early in her life, Destri somewhat knew what to expect when it came to Academy life. It was difficult, yet informative; easy to succeed on the correct route, even easier to fail without proper guidance. With her excellence in previous schooling, Destri was able to complete most of her initial training with ease, above most others in her class yet again. The more aged recruits scorned her due to her age in life and her knowing more and performing better than them. It was due to this reason and her success thus far in the Academy, that she was chosen to be her training squads leader for the duration of her stay at the Academy.
When it came time to start learning the arts of combat, Destri began to falter. She did not have the physical prowess as most others did, to which they showed her time and time again to keep her knowing of that fact, but where she lacked in the strength to stand toe to toe with her fellow peers, she had the reflexes far superior than any other to keep herself out of the situations requiring strength. Her far above average dexterity paired with her sheer intelligence on any situation placed before her, Destri continued to outperform her squad in many of the physical training exercises as well as the standard course work. This slowly came to fruition when her squad was performing an exercise for visiting officials and a few of them started taking note in her ability to adapt to any situation without much time to prepare.
Destri spent two years training in the Academy as well as being sent to her advanced schooling facilities to learn more about signals analysis and how to insert into enemy territory and erect communications devices for use on the battlefield. So with this training, she learned more of how the communications field worked as well as learning how to keep herself hidden and to blend into the crowd as needed by taking on different persona. When finished with her initial and advanced training around 22ABY, Destri was placed into the Imperial Navy as a Lieutenant in a desk oriented job, against her every fighting will, to assist in handling the orders of different strike teams to insert and erect the communications devices that she had become rather knowledgeable of.
With her disagreement widely known, Destri continued to perform her duties to the best of her abilities, making sure that each job was placed with Imperial Officers and soldiers whose dossier's reflected to be the best choice for the jobs assigned. Even though she disagreed with her placement, all of her superiors continued to tell her that this was a foot in the door for administrative options as well as being viewed by another department for further progression in the Imperial Navy. In 25ABY, after some time completing her job, getting a promotion as well as various medals and awards for overseeing the completion of different missions, Destri was approached by two ranking Imperial Officers while traveling to her place of work.
Commander Rizon and Captain Roche were both a part of Imperial Intelligence and told Destri that she was being watched ever since her first year in the Academy. Everything that she had accomplished in the Navy was a 'test' of sorts to see if she would be proper for an offer that they carried with them. After a short meeting, Destri was taken to the offices of Imperial Intelligence for further discussion. It was there, that Destri was offered a place in the Imperial Intelligence as an Agent, but first and foremost, a massive promotion to the rank of Captain and was transferred to the Communications Dreadnaught Silent Runner.
It was there where Destri was in direct connection with a single strike team assigned to infiltrate enemy forces and disrupt communications to allow for a military occupation. On the side, she would relay information back and forth between the remaining groups of ISB Agents, due to working with one of the most advanced communications and holonet devices in the Imperial Navy aboard her ship.
The next two years were rather uneventful until she was placed in an unfortunate situation upon a recently occupied planet where a massive revolt occurred without warning. Knowing that her uniform would be a blatant scream of her being an Officer in the Imperial Navy, she quickly stripped down to her under clothes and grabbed the closest set of civilian clothing possible. Her only goal now was to escape the planet before any orbital bombardment could occur to quell the revolt, so she used her training from the past to quickly come up with a persona and meet up with members of the revolt to secure passage off the planet. While on this personal mission, she recorded everything she did on a datapad, including information on the revolt, who was leading it, where they received their supplies from and more. When finally back aboard the Silent Runner, she returned to uniform and sent her datapad entries to Imperial Intelligence for further review.
Now a Major, Corden received great praise from her superiors and was offered a once in a life time opportunity that would change her life forever.
A Life in Shadows
According to Major Corden's official dossier, in the later part of 27ABY she went MIA during a training mission with her squadron. Several searches and investigations occurred in attempt to locate her, but were officially halted after orders from Imperial High Command were issued to cease all search and rescue missions. A funeral ceremony was conducted both on the Silent Runner as well as on her homeworld of Anaxes in commemoration to her outstanding service to the Imperial Navy, with both of her parents in attendance.
In an undisclosed location, Destri met with her superiors from Imperial Intelligence after awaking from a drug induced coma. They explained to her that she was taken from her position in the Imperial Navy, falsely declared as dead and stricken from Imperial record to further be of use for II as a Cipher Agent. While working for Imperial Intelligence on sanctioned or unsanctioned missions, she would go by no name, other than that given to her in dossiers at 'drop boxes' or locations rigged for secure transmissions. With all of the training in covert operations, weapons use and communications espionage, she was the perfect choice at being the newest addition to the Cipher ranks. Understanding her new job and position fully, Destri opted to have optical cybernetics implanted to give her more of an advantage in darkly lit areas, as well as the ability to scan, monitor and disrupt many different communications frequencies when approached. Both of her eyes were replaced with such implants and were backed by state of the art electromagnetic resistances to ensure that her vision would not be disrupted by any means. The downside to these implants, as she was warned frequently before, during and after the surgery, is that they had their own rechargeable power sources that would require additional attachments to her temples. After just a few short hours, the power supplies would be fully recharged and she would be able to work without the secondary attachments.
- "Hence forth you shall be known as Cipher X02"
- ―Imperial High Command
Given her designation, she began working towards an ultimate goal unbeknownst to her. Each job she was given was overseen by a Sith Lord by the name of Zeklynd Csularin, the very Sith she encountered before she left for the Academy. Having never met him, however, she did not know this until a year passed by in the field when she was approached directly by the man. He explained that during her missions, both as a Cipher and as an Imperial Officer, she was noticed to have used special 'influence' to get things done her way without any additional quarrel, aside from her eye catching figure, of course. Cipher X02 knew of this, but was unsure how she went about doing so only fully noticing the use of her body as a weapon. To her, all she did was 'emphasize' her words when speaking with others and they would follow orders, give up information, do things they would normally not, on her every whim. Zeklynd educated Cipher X02 that it was through the Force that she was able to manipulate others and that doing so in such manners was his expertise. He then offered to take the woman under his wing and teach her more of the powers the Force and the Dark Side would give her, to which she quickly agreed, still being greatly fascinated by Force users; now being given the opportunity and the knowledge that she, too, can become something she praised so much. With their agreement, Zeklynd bestowed upon her the name of Sephren, sealing their fates together as Master and Apprentice.
Over the course of the next three years ending approximately 31ABY, Sephren went by many names, accomplishing many missions for both the Imperial High Command as well as her new Sith Master. During these years, Zeklynd began teaching his Apprentice many forms of persuasion, manipulation, becoming even more with the shadows that she hid in, all to better achieve her goals as a Cipher and as a Sith Apprentice. When Zeklynd deemed her ready enough, he even offered her his old Lightsaber as a token of good faith towards her further training and taught her the art of saber combat, emphasizing her ability of speed and acrobatics. She learned quickly to use her saber, though the hand me down didn't feel comfortable to her. Noticing this, Zeklynd sent her to an ancient Sith world, full of raw crystals and Force spirits to learn the art of creating her own.
It was here, on Korriban, that Sephren, formerly known as Destri Corden, created her first personal lightsaber after communing with a holocron containing an unnamed Sith Weapon-master’s spirit. What she crafted was an intricately made hilt, with curves and etchings all across the sides emphasizing her connection with the shadows and the Dark Side of the Force. When she began to leave the archaic tomb in which she built her saber, half a dozen Force spirits shimmered to life, beckoning her to challenge them, sealing her fate with her saber. After a rigorous battle, tuning herself with her saber, Sephren emerged from the tomb, tattered and torn from the punishment received. Calling out to her Master through the Force, he arrived with his personal ship, the Spectre, taking Sephren away from Korriban and towards their next mission.
Barely a few months passed from the creation of her own saber before a mission arose that was to impact Sephren's life forever. She was paired up with another Cipher Agent whom she had worked with many times before and had started becoming more and more attached to, even though it was forbidden between Agents. Cipher 23, as he was known by now, was an expert in hand to hand combat and linguistics, thus was instrumental for the mission at hand. The task for the two Ciphers was to infiltrate a heavily guarded installation, all inhabitants of which spoke no common languages, and steal a state of the art design for a new type of star cruiser. The mission was to be lengthy, being under cover for anywhere up to a year. So the two Agents prepared with their new identities and supplies to make their way into the installation and complete their mission.
During their time undercover, Sephren and Cipher 23, going by the names of Qi Dai and Yun Singe, were able to gather the information needed to successfully infiltrate the installation and pass of as militants, particularly security officers that would have access to all areas of the facility. The mission was a lot easier than they had expected and been given more time allotted than needed, they extended their stay on the beautiful planet they were sent to as sort of a 'relaxation' period of sorts. The two grew very close, knowing it was forbidden yet not caring of the fact, and after a few months together after the mission, ended up laying together.
A short period of time before the two were to return to Imperial High Command, Cipher 23 simply vanished. With no word nor sign of where he went, Sephren realized the plans she had lifted from the facility were copied; most likely by Cipher 23 before he disappeared. Knowing that she would be reprimanded severely, Sephren choked up the courage and set forth on her way back to IHC. As she expected, she was severely reprimanded and punished, not being able to perform any missions any longer with the Imperial Intelligence command, giving her more of an opportunity to study and train with Zeklynd, who was also disappointed at the minor failure of her mission. It was only another few months later when Sephren's speculations of her body were apparent to her; she was with child.
One Life Taken, Two Lives Destroyed
The year was 32ABY, Sephren was now 28 years of age and pregnant with child. To her surprise, Zeklynd refused to be around her, acting very very strange whenever their eyes ever did meet in passing. Even though Cipher 23 had vanished, which crushed Sephren's emotions, the news of child brought her spirits back full force and she was ecstatic to give birth to a new life. As a few months passed on, Sephren began to see Zeklynd less and less, though the cold sensations of the Force continued to wrap around her when she thought of her Master. She continued to brush it off until there was a day when she passed by his personal quarters aboard the Spectre and heard Zeklynd yelling about some sort of possible prophecy that would bring end to a Sith Lord, one that must be stopped.
Fearful, Sephren didn't know how to react or what to do, not wanting to harm the child growing within her. She made her way to the bridge of the ship, intent on securing an escape pod to remove herself and her unborn child from the reach of a madman, but was unable to due to security measures that even she could not identify nor break. Without warning, she was lifted off her feet by forces unknown and slammed into the bulkhead nearest to her right side, crashing her back into various electronic paneling. With a sharp cry, Sephren instinctively brought her hands to guard the child within her and pushed out with the Force to allow herself to drop from the foreign attack, drawing her saber in one fluid motion. She was immediately met by a crimson saber that flashed her back to her childhood days, realizing that it was Zeklynd attacking her without warning. Strike after strike wore the young woman to the ground, not having the physical prowess to withstand such an onslaught. Her saber was quickly stripped from her hands and she was forced to look eye to eye with the blood crazed Sith Lord as he grabbed the scruff of her shirt and drew her in close.
- "I will not let that child be born..."
- ―Zeklynd Csularin, Sith
The most powerful of crys erupted through the Force from both Sephren and her unborn child as she felt Zeklynd wrap the Force around the baby within her and squeeze. Psychically feeling the child crumple against the sheer force of the Sith Lord before her caused her throw up in pain and agony, blood spewing from her lower portion unto the durasteel plated flooring beneath her. The final jolt of agony was displayed when Zeklynd ripped the remains of the child out of Sephren with aide of the Force and dropped it to the floor in a bloody heap. Sephren could not make a sound, the pain too terrible to react to as she began to fade into unconsciousness. The last thing she saw was Zeklynd leaning over her with a dark hood, then it all went black.
Sephren was taken to a location far from the reaches of any law enforcement of any kind and was imprisoned indefinitely. She did not speak, feed, or even move for weeks after being thrown into her tiny cell, which seemingly became smaller and smaller each day she remained. In order to try and keep her sanity, Sephren placed herself into a meditative state to try and preserve whatever mind she had left as well as heal the damage that had been done to her by Zeklynd, however, due to the considerable amount of physical and mental damage done to her, she could not properly connect to the Force to do so. She eventually began eating the rot that was given to her, as it was the only means of sustenance, when Zeklynd appeared before her in her cell. He simply watched her, it having been nearly a month since she was thrown into confinement and he chuckled. Turning to his lead guard, he ordered him to take Sephren to the barracks to give the soldiers some 'relief.'
To her horror, Sephren, too weak to fight back with the Force, was taken to the military barracks, clothing torn and ragged, and was thrown into the fray. She was immediately seized by one of the larger guards and the remainder of her outer garments were torn from her. With a cry she attempted to fight back only to receive a swift blow to the stomach, knocking the wind out of her and causing her vision to fade. Not knowing what was happening at that point, she felt herself thrown onto a table as the guard began to have his way with her. Repeatedly for the remainder of the day, she was abused and raped by the majority of the soldiers in the barracks.
When finally thrown back into her cell, broken and sobbing, she heard whispers to her from a cell next to her own. The words were calm, smooth, composed. They told her it would all be better in time and to shut herself out of her own body when they came to take her again. The voice was there to help, it said, and Sephren believed it. The voice even ‘coached’ her into relearning her connection to the Force and through that training, a slow track to healing ensued. Sure enough, over the course of the next year, Sephren was taken multiple times throughout the weeks to be raped, broken and abused by the soldiers as a trophy for their own successes. From time to time, Sephren was also tortured for the sake of enjoyment of others, ending up with various scars and burns across her body and face.
Come 33ABY, Sephren sat in the center of her cell, completely in a meditative state as she had been since the beatings became worse midway through the year. She didn't even acknowledge being taken anymore, as there was nothing she could do about it. The only thing she ever listened to was the voice that helped her fight her own internal battles and regain her attunement to the Force, though not fully connecting as she once was. The voice had told her a few months prior that an attack on the facility they were imprisoned in would be taking place soon and that help may arrive. She just needed to stay alive. It was that hope that caused Sephren to close herself off to the world so that she wouldn't anger anyone or anything enough to kill her outright; the hope of rescue was enough to keep her going.
The day finally came when the alarm klaxons sprang to life in the installation and explosions rang out, snapping Sephren out of her meditative trance to look around, her eyes wild. She had forgotten how long she had been imprisoned, only that her and the voice were best of friends. Guards and soldiers cried out in the halls around her as they were shot, cut down, thrown out of windows by forces unknown. When Sephren's cell door opened, she looked up expecting to see Zeklynd come to finish her off, but instead it was the face of a much older man, abused and torn the same as hers. He offered a hand, to which she took reluctantly and was taken from the prison that became her hell for over a year of her life.
Reborn of Light
The man that offered his hand of assistance to Sephren went by the name of Okan Corinya, a Master of the Jedi Order. He spoke at length with Sephren, helping her regain her composure and trying to help her forget everything that had happened to her while imprisoned. Even though he knew of her past, he knew that she was punished for it already and wanted to help her find the right path to take at this point in time, offering to teach her what he had learned from the Jedi Order in his life. She weakly accepted, not knowing what she would do without him and realized that she would need a new name, Sephren being the tie to cut from the Dark Side of the Force and Destri Corden being a name many Imperials would be looking for.
Taking the name Arcia Cortel, the name she would have given her daughter, she went with Jedi Master Okan to learn the ways of the Force again and to change her life for the better. To her, the girl that was imprisoned had died in there and she was a newly reborn woman bathed in Light. While traveling with Okan, Arcia met a master weaponsmith that claimed to be able to create any sort of weapon out of anything. So to challenge this man, she took her previous Master’s old saber and her own custom built saber and told the man to create two blasters out of the metals he would get from melting down the plating and power them with the crystals and focusing lenses from the sabers of her old life. Excited to work with such devices, the man quickly went to work. He melted the saber plating down, molded pieces into that for blaster pistol construction and inserted the crystals as the bolt charging devices. As added flair, he made the twin blasters able to connect together to create a very high powered rifle. Arcia quickly paid the man for his time with what little she had remaining from her stash while traveling with Zeklynd over the years, sadly wiped the man’s mind of having ever designed and crafted such a pair of weapons, and went on her way.
For the next two years, Arcia worked with Okan to become one with herself, as well as the Force, and to use her powers for the greater good. Knowing what she had accomplished in her life as a Sith as well as an Imperial Agent, Arcia was sworn to never allow someone she knew to fall into the darkness that she grew into at the early stages of her life. So with the teachings of Master Corinya, she found that the powers she grew to use under Zeklynd could be turned around to be used for the Light; healing instead of harming, teaching instead of taking. This brought a wave of calm over the woman, knowing that her life was not lost, simply reborn. She also took this time to craft herself a new saber that had no connection to the darkness that she embraced many years ago, its blade a shimmer of green, rather than the crimson red that signified her connection to Zeklynd.
After traveling the galaxy with Okan, Arcia began hearing of a large gathering of Dark Jedi controlling several system of planets. She learned of this information from a smaller group of Jedi who believed they could be infiltrated and Arcia quickly sought them out, with the good graces from her new Jedi Master. Okan told Arcia that there was nothing else he could teach her and that she had come a long way since first speaking with her in the prison. She had once been a being full of hate, darkness and disarray. Yet now, she was composed, calm and more pure than she had ever been in her life. She was ready to venture off on her own, almost as a child would leave home for the first time.
So, come the later part of 35ABY, 32 year old Arcia Cortel ventured into the Esstran Sector, specifically the Yhi System, to seek out the group known as Odan Urr to offer her aide in their struggle against the Dark Side of the Force.
A Light Snuffed Out
- "Destri is gone...Sephren is dead...and you can join her."
- ―Arcia Cortel confronting Zeklynd
Arcia unfortunately didn't take to the teachings of Odan Urr as she expected she would and, after offering minimal assistance against the Dark Brotherhood, decided to part ways after only a short stay with the group of Jedi. She travelled the Galaxy, searching for anything to link her to a past devastation and ultimately met her lifelong journey’s end on Vjun. Arcia will never be able to explain why she went to the planet, only that a strong calling through the Force beckoned for her to venture out into the controlled regions of the Imperial Remnant.
She still travelled with her old belongings, including her uniform of service and went through great means to make herself presentable as an Officer once again, ensuring to make her Intelligence badge visible to keep any questions from being asked. This would allow her to breeze by any lower ranking patrols that didn’t know her face, giving her access to the deeper regions of the surface.
She made her way towards a strong presence in the Force, doing her best to suppress her own presence in hopes she would gain the element of surprise when confronting the man whose power she recognized from past horrors. Tension within the woman elevated with every step she took towards a standing fortress causing her to rethink her actions, but continuing with a sense of duty to herself; she would have her revenge one way or another.
Not many details have been recovered regarding the encounter between Arcia and her past, only that she discovered her former Master Zeklynd and little words were exchanged before the greatest fight of her life ensued. Unfortunately, her powers and grasp of the Light Side of the Force were not enough for her to carry out her will. She was nearly struck down and mentally devastated by the counter attack Zeklynd threw at her. Narrowly escaping with her life, Arcia fled, nearly broken and knowing she would have to rediscover her old self before confronting the man again.
Selen
Arcia left Vjun a changed person. She no longer held true to the teachings of Okan, nor to her past as Zeklynd’s Apprentice. Arcia secluded herself in her ship, adrift in space, placing herself into a deep meditative state; contemplating and reviewing her life up to this point. She was adrift for weeks before finally being discovered by a passing ship on it’s way to the Dajorra System.
It was explained to her that while in her meditative state, she occasionally emitted a wave through the Force in the immediate vicinity of her ship, which the owner of the Dajorra bearing ship picked up on. He introduced himself as Teroch and informed Arcia that he had scanned the databanks of her ship, including decrypting her private files, as he wished to know if she was to be a threat before approaching. Teroch admired her past experience in the field of Intelligence and the various missions she undertook under the cloak of shadow. She was just the type of person he was looking for.
After coming to an agreement where Teroch would assist her in elevating her hold of the Dark Side in exchange for her special skill sets, Arcia travelled with Teroch to Selen, where she was introduced to the summit of Clan Arcona and performed various tests and answered questions of her past, her present as well as what she expected the future to bring. After all was said and done, she was admitted into House Galeres and granted their rank of Obelisk Prelate, as her tests had proven her to be worthy of such.
Now having a home of sorts and a means of moving forward, Arcia works her hardest to ‘fit in’ with the Shadow Clan and perform her duties to the best of her abilities. With rumor of a newly outfitted reconnaissance ship overseen by the Dajorra Intelligence Agency, Arcia has been appointed Executive Officer as well as maintaining the various personnel dossiers that are associated with the ship.
The Shadow Clan
Clan Arcona 
’’’WIP’’’
Any continuity errors and/or canonical errors can be brought to Esca's attention before any alterations need be made.
Personality
Arcia can be very cocky in certain situations. Whenever she is not taking on a different persona, it slips out in great frequency; many a time getting her in trouble. While posing as someone else, however, all traces of herself are gone as she is 100% immersed into the role.
Arcia tells it like it is and doesn’t hold back, most of the time. She once explained that she hasn’t the time nor patience to sugar coat things for the ‘kids.’
Personal Weaponry
Lightsaber
Custom Made Twin Force Accelerated Blaster Pistols
Interesting Facts
- Arcia is the second complete character Esca has used in the DJB, following Ethran Sayre Isradia.
- Arcia was the first Light Side oriented character Esca has ever made, in or outside of the DJB, which ultimately ended up being Dark Side again.
- Though Arcia's optical implants resist any sort of outside influence, in the ACC this may not be the case at hand...
- Esca will be writing short fictions that go into more detail of Arcia's past missions and accomplishments. Stay tuned!