- "We limit ourselves constantly. We erect barriers to our own knowledge, our own self-awareness. We tell each other not to delve too deeply into certain studies, impose restrictions on how far we should be able to go. We do this because once we remove the irrational, such as the purely invented concepts of emotion and conscience, we see how meaningless our universe and our existence in it truly is. In the end, we are nothing but dried bones and a collection of dust on a sterilized tabletop."
- ―Dr. Steiner
Dr. Steiner is one of the most mysterious and feared figures in the Brotherhood. The chief of medicine at the Mystics Asylum on Yridia IX, Dr. Steiner has served at the facility dating back to its original designation as a madhouse for insane Force sensitives. Although not able to use the Force himself, Dr. Steiner still manages to illicit extreme apprehension from those Dark Jedi who know of him, most of whom are quite happy that the good doctor spends almost all his time engrossed in his strange and depraved studies.
Character History
Very little is known about Dr. Steiner's early life. What little that has been ascertained is mostly second-hand and in a few cases guesswork. The most reliable rumors suggest that he was once a young and promising medical professional operating in the Core worlds. Some suggest he was a psychiatrist, while others believe he was always a surgeon. Others postulate that he was never strictly one or the other, but was something of a jack-of-all-trades, fascinated by both the physical functions and mental aspects of all sentient creatures. Whatever the case, it is clear that Dr. Steiner was indeed a student of the mind and the body, and that his unorthodox methods started early in his career. Escaping prejudice and even in some places persecution for his unusual theories and experiments, he relocated to the Outer Rim and eventually took as his clients a deranged Dark Jedi Knight known as Camile, a member of the Brotherhood and an inmate at the Mystics Asylum. Acting as Camile's personal physician and psychotherapist, Dr. Steiner seemed to relish the opportunity to understand the thought processes of someone who wield the amazing power offered by the Dark Side of the Force.
Gradually, Dr. Steiner included more and more of the Jedi at the Asylum into his personal care. It is unclear whether this was because activities at the Asylum had become more extreme and increasingly unsettling and Dr. Steiner wanted to see if he could pacify the mounting insanity—or if Dr. Steiner's presence had somehow contributed to the exacerbation of the lunacy. Although this remains up for debate, it is a fact that Dr. Steiner moved into the lower levels of the Asylum, where he set up his own laboratory, presumably to perform experiments directly on the inmates of the Asylum. Although the Asylum itself would not become the research facility it is today until much later, the studies and reputation the Asylum would become known for had their roots in what Dr. Steiner started in those basement rooms.
Since the transformation of the Asylum to its present state and purpose, Dr. Steiner has changed little about himself but has greatly expanded the scope and size of his experiments. What these are exactly are kept largely private and he generally avoids interaction with the other directors of the facility or the research teams that operate there. His army of droids, however, are hard to miss, as they traffic newly delivered samples and test subjects to Dr. Steiner's multiple labs. These droids are essentially his personal attendants and only respond to commands from the doctor himself. However, these droids are not entirely servile, and are prepared for combat—specifically with Jedi.
Dr. Steiner is no fool and, while he has a good thing going at the Asylum, a long history spent around insane Jedi has taught him the importance of being able to protect oneself from a demented adept of the Dark Side. In addition to the droids, Dr. Steiner has a private and well-guarded collection of Ysalamiri and other Force-negating items and creatures. Were the Asylum (and, more specifically, the doctor's labs) to be forcibly shut down, either by the Brotherhood or the followers of Luke Skywalker, Dr. Steiner would not let this happen without a fight.
Personality and Appearance
Appearance
Dr. Steiner is a short and balding white man with a well-kept appearance. Behind simple, thinly-framed oval glasses stare cold, icy blue eyes that, like a scalpel, cut to the core of whatever he is analyzing. In his twilight years, he has ages gracefully and with dignity, and this is helped by the fact that he never shows any emotion at all. He is constantly aloof and composed, never allowing control (either over himself or his environment) to vanish for even a moment. He is always in his plain white lab coat, wearing black boots and protective gloves.
Personality
Though this does not mean that Steiner is mad or insane, Steiner is cold and unemotional. Having spent years researching in the company of Dark Jedi, he has taken on the appearance of the typical ‘mad scientist’, yet retained his eloquent nature. He is a fairly short man, with a very thick accent. As mentioned before, Steiner is a raging lunatic, with the coldness able (and willing) to watch a friend of fifty years being disemboweled without a sound just to see how the man reacted, and to study the body through the death.
Steiner as a doctor is seen as a surgeon, with great knowledge of the human mind. He is seen much like the Watchers in Tarentum, as he is a very dangerous individual, with great knowledge and ability. Even though Steiner is not force sensitive, he is in fact very dangerous. Having access to some items negating force use, and the study of force users of many years has given him sufficient knowledge to deter them, and fight them.