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| Saal Kesyk
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Coruscant
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12 ABY
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Human
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Male
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appr. 5'8
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150 lbs
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Brown
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Blue
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Red
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- Corellian Kickboxing
- Whiptree
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Soldier
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The Blood Eagle
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Kamalis Creed
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13033
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Saal Kesyk is a Sith Warrior, currently allied with Clan Plagueis. He is the leader of Black Flag, a criminal network of pirates, smugglers and spies which he employs the use of to attain his social and political goals.
Joining the Brotherhood
In 27 ABY, Saal graduated from the Shadow Academy at the age of 15. He was selected to apprentice under the Arconan Sith Kamalis Creed. Creed was a Zabrak whose lineage traced back to Darth Kraygus, a Sith Lord and Wrath of an ancient Emperor. A cunning tactician and ruthless master, Creed would lay the political foundations of and set the stage for Kesyk’s rise to status and power within the Brotherhood. Under his tutelage, Saal Kesyk was trained to be a marauder, a ferocious force on the battlefield. Excelling in the dominant forms of Djem So and Juyo and possessing a natural aptitude for conjuring Sith Lightning, the young Sith quickly became outfitted as a weapon of warfare.
The Dark Crusade
In 30 ABY, the Sith was given his first taste of warfare. Recovering from the Horizons Plague and Zoraan’s attempts at revenge, the Brotherhood now found itself in conflict with the One Sith. After Muz Ashen issued the order for the Brotherhood to conquer their new enemy, Kesyk was dispatched to aid the Arconan war efforts on Barghebba. The Sith would operate within a covert Arconan strike team comprised of other Dark Jedi, their mission being to perform a raid on a Mecrosa outpost that the other clans were unaware of, which contained a warehouse full of Sith relics and artifacts.
The strike team, composed of seven Dark Jedi, took heavy casualties, to the point that by the time the Arconans had infiltrated the stronghold, cleared it of enemies and deactivated the anti-aircraft artillery around the base to make way for Arconan freighters, there were only three remaining: Kesyk, a fellow Sith knight and an acolyte. Upon completion of the mission, Kesyk plunged a Mecrosan dagger from a nearby corpse into the acolytes heart. Being the strongest warriors of the group, Kesyk and the knight had plotted to provide minimal aid and coverage to their allies, allowing their comrades die and even killing some in the midst of the chaos so that they could pocket some of the powerful Sith artifacts for themselves. Kesyk and his master believed that a scroll containing the teachings of Darth Kraygus and hinting at the location of his scattered strongholds was within the confines of the warehouse. After locating and recovering it through the Force, Kesyk and the knight made a pact of silence, agreeing to contend that their allies had fallen to the Mecrosa’s defensive tactics and that only they had survived. This raised the eyebrows of some Arconan military officers, as the strike team was considered sufficient in size and was expected to make easy work of this operation, but Kamalis Creed’s influence within this Arconan military ranks allowed him to keep the results of the operation under the radar. Together, he and his apprentice planned to work in the shadows to locate the vast resources that Darth Kraygus was said to have left behind, and use it to build their own Sith Empire under his teachings, unbeknownst to the other members of the Brotherhood.
A few weeks after the raid on Barghebba, the Sith Knight who had plotted with Kesyk was found dead under suspicious circumstances.
The Beginnings of Black Flag
Through years of hard training and participation in various Arconan military operations, Saal rose through the ranks and eventually surpassed the rank of Knight. In the shadows, he and his master build the foundations for a group known as Black Flag. This network of criminals would serve as both an important intelligence-gathering effort for the Sith duo and as a channel of power which he would use as a front and as a means to execute his political will.
The organization started as a simple pirate gang, gathered from taverns and cantinas. Led by the Sith and a handful of Captains in an equal partnership, the group began conducting raids on merchant ships and attacking other pirates throughout different trade routes in the Outer Rim. As the raids yielded greater wealth and led to the expanding web of connections and power for the organization, Kesyk’s leadership skills and tactical ability earned him the respect of the captains and other power players. Eventually, the group expanded into a small but growing network of pirates, smugglers, spies and all other manner of unsavory consorts.
Betrayal and Ascension
In 42 ABY, Kesyk, Creed and a small unit of former Shadow Gate operatives were dispatched on a covert operation to the Outer Rim planet Nar Shaddaa. Arconan forces were hired to assassinate Faddon Thek, the leader of a Plagueis-backed gang that had been undermining Hutt operations in their area. Unbeknownst to the Arconan leadership, Kesyk had already made contact with and alerted the target. Disenfranchised with Arcona’s shift towards a more neutral paradigm within the Force, Saal had chosen to betray the Shadow Clan in an effort to gain an audience with Clan Plagueis’ leaders, seeing the rival clan as a better home for him to build upon his base of power. Upon infiltrating the gang’s safe house, the Arconans found themselves outnumbered and locked in a firefight. As the Arconans were picked off and forced into a surrender, Kesyk approached his master from behind and ignited his lightsaber, disabled it and reignited it once more, piercing both of the Zabrak’s hearts. As the Sith fell to his knees, Kesyk uttered the words “for our Empire,” before the young Sith landed a decisive slash, decapitating the elder Sith, thus severing their relationship as master and apprentice and establishing himself as the stronger Sith of the two.
By betraying Arcona, Kesyk had accomplished two major goals: dispatching his master and thus surpassing him as a Sith, and earning an audience with agents of Clan Plagueis, the Dark Side clan of the Brotherhood. In addition, for his role in thwarting the Arconan assassination attempt, the Hutt rival gifted him an apartment on Nar Shaddaa to use at his leisure. The young Sith immediately began converting it into a safe house of his own, intending to claim his own stake in Nar Shaddaa’s criminal underground.
Joining Clan Plagueis
After being connected with agents of the Ascendant Clan, the Sith was granted an audience with the faction’s leadership. having already been made aware of the young Sith due to his involvement in prior Brotherhood conflicts, the Plagueians hesitantly accepted him into their ranks, with the intent of keeping a watchful eye on the Sith and his dealings. A fresh face within the Ascendant Legion, Kesyk eagerly accepted his place within the ranks of the clan’s military and immediately began plotting his efforts to maneuver the political structure of the clan. Unbeknownst to those around him, the chain of events which Kesyk had set in motion were all part of a greater motive: to start a new, separate Sith Empire, with himself as leader. He would continue to conceal this as he worked to expand his sphere of influence amongst the Sith within the Brotherhood’s Dark Side clan.