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| Aneurin Cynewulf
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7056 BBY (age 7100)
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Echan
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Echani
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Male
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1.82 m
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220 lbs
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White
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Silver
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Pale
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14751
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- "I am whatever the Jedi required me to be. You need only look at the history of our galaxy to see why I have become so proficient at taking lives."
- ―Aneurin
Aneurin Cynewulf is a male Echani serving Clan Odan-Urr. A particularly long-lived example of his kind, Aneurin was a Jedi knighted during the Hundred-Year Darkness, fighting against the Dark Jedi who would one day become the Sith Order. A living prison to Lord Tycheros, a monstrously powerful Dark Jedi who had escaped death repeatedly thanks to Essence transfer, Aneurin would spend centuries at a time in exile on Rhen Var, departing only in times of great crisis. Guarding the tombs of Jedi and any relics left on the world, Aneurin would only move openly once more in 44 ABY after several tombs were raided by the Children of Mortis. With few Jedi left in the galaxy and unwilling to let such a major threat be ignored, Aneurin joined Clan Odan-Urr, swearing to stand with them until the Children of Mortis were defeated.
Character History
The First Era (7100 BBY to 3954 BBY)
To Distant Stars
Born in the days before commonplace space travel, Aneurin was the third child to a family of shipwrights. Far from auspicious in any regard, he was raised as any family was on Echan, with a focus upon discipline, control, and to excel from an early age. With their society's emphasis on combat, Aneurin was taught how to fight from almost as soon as he could walk. Although unremarkable in many regards, he was noted for the ability to overcome more experienced combatants by countering their actions almost as soon as they took place, as if predicting them a split-second ahead of time. This was enough to earn a modest reputation and offer some minor opportunities as a bodyguard, but little else. Opportunity fell into his lap more due to fate than skill, as his family was selected to help support a colony established in the last decade. This was due more to the skills of his parents and that he and his siblings were of working age than anything on his part. Although Aneurin accepted this with the same quiet stoicism expected of his kind, inwardly he was excited to see what a new frontier would hold for them.
Boarding a sleeper ship alongside one-hundred-and-forty other colonists, they would be dispatched into orbit and to a world on the edge of their solar system. The cause behind the tragedy which would follow would remain forever unknown, but the ship never arrived. Through malfunction or impact with a stellar object, the vessel was stricken and send on a course out of the system. The piloting crew of the time were killed immediately, and the primitive computer was left to maintain and sustain those in suspended animation. Frozen in time, it would be over a century before they were found again, and would awaken to a far more hostile world.
The ship would be found in 6030 BBY during the Hundred-Year Darkness, and located by a fleet aligned with the Dark Jedi. Although with little technology or equipment of worth, a hundred new souls were seen as a viable resource for further experiments or bolstering their armies. Aneurin would only be awakened some time after the ship's discovery, as part of the third group to be selected for processing and study. Taken onboard the group's flagship, he was deemed a useful asset for their military, he was set aside to serve as a slave-soldier during the group's next conflict against the Jedi Order. This would prove to be a mistake as the influx of new slaves from a society which valued combat swelled the holding pens. A rebellion was soon devised and then acted upon, quietly killing the guards, and then releasing a small group of captive Jedi. Although casualties were high, the rebelling slaves were able to lay claim to the armory and then the ship's gunnery decks. Within a day, the flagship was sailing back to the nearest Jedi stronghold, with its escorting fleet in ruins and original crew dead.
Drums of War
The culture shock of adapting to a world a century past when he had left took some time for Aneurin to fully accept. Discovering that not only had faster-than-light travel been made possible, but much of the known galaxy had been seeded with life, and now there was a major war among a holy order he had barely heard of was a shock. The surviving Echani made themselves useful now knowing that the colony they had been sent to support was a thriving world, and that the Echani themselves had joined the Jedi against those tapping into darker powers. With his family having to re-learn their craft and struggling to catch up with a century of technological advances, Aneurin put himself forward as a blade for hire. The Jedi needed soldiers and his skills of taking lives could at least offer his family some limited income. Yet it was while being tested for his skills and to start his training that the Jedi took interest. Aneurin's uncanny ability to read his opponent and predict their strikes was a passive means of tapping into the Force, marking him as a person of interest to them. Though wishing to know far more of the Jedi first, Aneurin accepted on the agreement that his family would be cared for and granted a stipend to help rebuild their lives.
In a more peaceful era Aneurin would have been trained slowly and far from the frontlines, but with them hard pressed in the war against the Dark Jedi, Aneurin was seconded to the Jedi Master who had found him and taken to the nearest battlefront. The Jedi, Taenar, opted to keep them far behind the frontlines in an effort to start teaching Aneurin in a more controlled location. A healer and swordswoman in equal measure, Taenar was a controlled but focused figure who understood how best to shape Aneurin's mind to best tap into the Force without falling prey to darker impulses. Remaining there for several months, Aneurin would learn the essentials with remarkable speed, but favoured applying his abilities in the most practical and direct methods possible. Even so, Aneurin would only remain with Taenar for barely two years. A raid far behind the lines would lead to her death, and Aneurin would find her corpse surrounded by eight fallen Dark Jedi in the middle of their hospital encampment. Without a means to contact the Jedi, Aneurin would remain on the planet and assisted with its liberation, hunting and killing the enemy leadership on the battlefield. By the time that the Jedi found him again, Aneurin had broken the entire command structure of an enemy front, turning the tide of the conflict on the planet.
Although concerned that Aneurin was too focused upon the ways of war, Aneurin was granted another Master to learn from and sent on his way. Although Aneurin displayed interest as both a healer and diplomat, he was granted few opportunities to practice his skills and foster any significant talent. Instead, Aneurin became increasingly focused upon the ways of war and taking lives. With his history of being what his family required of him, he rapidly took that same mindset with the Jedi he served, with his skills focusing steadily more upon combat. Although in any other age this might have been seen as a concern, in the war they fought it was a great asset. With little strategic or tactical skill, Aneurin would turn his focus toward destroying the command structure of any enemy force, hunting down leaders, champions, or essential figures to break opposing legions on the battlefield to limit the number of casualties.
By the time he was knighted, many of Aneurin's masters had met similar fates to Taenar in battle, and it made Aneurin a distant figure even among his comrades. Yet none could question his steadfast loyalty or willingness to put himself ahead of others. Single-handedly breaking the back of a Sithspawn horde unleashed upon Balmorra would earn him the moniker of the "Winter Blade" and a reputation as a monster slayer.
Anchorite Ascendant
Aneurin would fight unrelentingly throughout the war, moving from one battlefront to the next. For decades he would dedicate himself to helping end the threat posed by the Dark Jedi, ceaselessly moving and fighting as he hunted one target after another. Yet there was one particular threat which had eluded him. Known by the moniker of Lord Tycheros, a powerful Dark Jedi had ravaged multiple planets with the sheer power of the Force alone. Aneurin had found and killed Tycheros more than once, yet regardless of how trying a battle or certain he was of the Dark Jedi's end, Aneurin would only hear of his return within a matter of months if not weeks. The reason would only be uncovered in the final days of the war, as Tycheros had learned the power to transfer his spirit from one being to another, living on in unwilling victims like a parasite. Each would be hollowed out and destroyed by him within a matter of days, reshaped by his will and allowing him to rise from the dead.
With the Dark Jedi slowly losing ground and their numbers thinning, there was hope for the war's end. Yet while Tycheros lived there was no hope for a true conclusion to the conflict. Having never fully escaped that his time was passed, Aneurin volunteered for a mission which might fully destroy Tycheros once and for all. Ambushing him on a world where he was attempting to rebuild his forces, Aneurin was part of a small strike group sent to behead their foe. The battle was long and devastated the land about them, but Aneurin was eventually able to bisect Tycheros and end his physical threat. Yet as his spirit rose once again and then tried to possess Aneurin, the Dark Jedi found himself trapped and powerless within his old foe. Known only to a few, Aneurin had agreed to have his body ritually altered to contain Tycheros' spirit but give him no power. Yet Tycheros could not be fully silenced and constantly spoke to the Jedi who had bested him. Unwilling to risk Tycheros' escape once more, Aneurin would enter self-exile and head for the wastes of Rhen Var. Having suffered an atmospheric cataclysm, the once verdant world had been transformed into a frozen domain where few would ever visit. There he hoped to die and carry out the final stage of their plan, with a peaceful death which would allow him to pull Tycheros into the Force with him.
Yet fate would play a cruel trick upon Aneurin. An unforeseen result of the alterations to his body and Tycheros' imprisonment extended Aneurin's lifespan and even physical needs. Rendered ageless and with no means to peacefully end his life, Aneurin found that he had become an eternal prison to his old enemy. Any end through blade, poison, or blaster would almost certainly free Tycheros once more, and Aneurin was denied the capacity to peacefully pass on. Yet rather than surrendering to despair, Aneurin vowed to serve as Tycheros' eternal jailer, until either the stars burned themselves out or he could uncover a means to end his now eternal duty.
An Unpeaceful Exile
Aneurin's exile would stretch across centuries, and then millennia, as he held true to his promise. Although Rhen Var was a barren world with no true life to it, Aneurin was able to slowly cultivate his surroundings and form them into a small living space for himself. Spending ages at a time exploring the ruined settlements and lost cities, he would understand that the world had once been ruled by an even older civilisation and that between they and the Jedi, many lost treasures were now trapped far beneath the ice. On rare occasions Jedi would visit the world, but Aneurin would avoid direct contact with them, and merely observe their actions. Yet it would be during some such visits that he would learn of goings on in the wider galaxy. Rather than an era of eternal peace, the galaxy had continually slipped into war. Petty conflicts, vendettas, and empire building dominated key worlds, with the Jedi preserving peace however they could as the Republic.
The first true test of Aneurin's oath would come in 5000 BBY, when a vast warship crashed onto the world's icy surface. Ruined from turbolaser exchanges and burning as it struck the world, the design and very aesthetic was unknown to Aneurin but he felt a chilling dread upon seeing it. Investigating the wreck after several days travel to the crash site, Aneurin would learn that the ship was part of a vast armada which had invaded Republic space. Yet a far greater concern to him was its origin. The ship's captain, a red skinned being of an unknown species had survived and drew a lightsaber, challenging Aneurin to battle. Although Aneurin defeated this mysterious foe, he recognised much in its fighting style and was concerned to see traces of the same Dark Jedi he had fought so long ago in it. Although Aneurin would destroy the vessel by overloading its reactors, he would take with him a handful of logbooks and historical records, and spend an age deciphering them. It would be through these that he would learn of what had become of the Dark Jedi, and that some had been exiled only to go on and found a vast empire in the unexplored reaches of the galaxy. One of them, a descendant by the name of Naga Sadow had led them in a vast invasion of the Republic. Although sorely tempted to find a way to depart Rhen Var and finish what his kind had started so long ago, Aneurin chose to remain in exile. He was certain the Jedi of the new age could deal with whatever threat arose, and refused to allow any rash decisions to potentially release Tycheros and make a bad situation worse.
Aneurin would slowly find purpose in guarding the secrets lost on Rhen Var and maintaining the tombs of Jedi there. It would be centuries before he would learn of all that transpired in the wake of Naga Sadow's invasion, with the Post–Great Hyperspace War counterinvasion, Gank Massacres, and the Third Great Schism. Yet it would be the start of what would become known as the Krath Holy Crusade which would draw Aneurin back into the wider galaxy once more.
Dread Night
It would be another thousand years before another major event arrived at Rhen Var. When they arrived, Kharse initially believed they were similar to prior threats he had seen off - Smugglers or pirates seeking to carve out a base on a supposedly forgotten world. Yet what he found instead was far more disturbing. A detachment of cultists and battle droids on a ship large enough to ferry a small army. Initially Kharse still believed that they were similar to the vagrants he had fought before, but his initial encounters with their scouts proved him wrong. Each was a zealot, enthralled to the Dark Side and embracing the same insanity he had read within the Sith texts. They seemed to revere it and, having taken a prisoner, Aneurin was able to easily coax more knowledge from them. The events in the wider galaxy that he raved about spoke of a mass uprising, a cult worshipping dark magic and now seeking out the relics of past ages. That was what had brought them there, seeking the lost relics of the world, now long buried. Yet there was more. The Krath spoke of other wars, of uprisings, and of the new dawn their leaders offered. Aneurin would attempt to reason with the cultist and even take them alive, but after breaking free he would attempt to alert his allies before ending his own life.
Kharse would spend almost a month on the world, fighting and killing the newly arrived Krath, and not halting until he was certain all were dead. Then, taking longer to learn how the ship operated, he would depart Rhen Var to rejoin the Jedi. Whatever the risk of Tycheros' release, he could not ignore the rising threat of the Krath and anyone aligned with them. Arriving a short time after the Battle of Deneba, Aneurin would take some time to learn how the galaxy had changed since he had departed it. First of the prior wars, and then the steps which had gradually led to the Dark Jedi, or Sith as they were now know, to gain a resurgence.
Physical Description
Personality
Powers and Abilities
The Force
