Justinios Drake is a Ranger that currently holds the positions of Proconsul of Clan Taldryan. As a former Professor, Justinios' once focused on continuing his academic research into the true nature of The Force. After seeing the damage caused to the common beings under Taldryan's protectorate by the ceaseless battles of the Brotherhood, he has since devoted himself to standing up for those who can not fight for themselves.
Character History
Early Life
Many generations before Justinios was born the Drake family immigrated to Coruscant from their native Aleen. The first member of the family to immigrate to the Republic capital world took on the surname Drake as an attempt to assimilate into the local culture. The Drake family also has a long tradition of attempting to give their children "high class" first names in the hopes that it will assist with their ascent from a lower middle class alien family to the ranks of politician, officers and other roles of high import. Even after decades of living on Coruscant the Drake family had not improved much in their ability to select names actually used by those of higher social status and instead mostly ended up naming their children a seemingly random mashup of a positive personality trait and a suffix that sounded fancier than it really was. This is exactly the same method that was used when Valorium and Ulis Drake had their first child, Justinios, in 1 ABY.
Vaolorium Drake held down a well-paying job within the Coruscant Public Works department as a maintenance worker. Although the elder Drake did experience some discrimination based on his non-human status, his willingness to use his small stature to access the hardest to reach and most dangerous areas of Coruscant's infrastructure kept him gainfully employed despite any prejudice. The Drake family led by Valorium did not live an extravagant lifestyle but they never wanted for basic necessities in life and even enjoyed the occasional family vacation. All in all Justinios Drake had an uneventful early childhood, one devoid of any great tragedies or major defining moments.
It was a student where Justinios stood out a bit from his peers. All throughout his early education, the Aleena was a well-behaved student who performed exceptionally in most classes, especially with regards to exams. HIs effort level quickly became the Aleena's biggest roadblock to his own success. He would ace all his tests but struggle to hand in homework and projects in on time for no reason other than procrastination. This became an issue when Justinios began to look into where he would attend university and with lingering non-human bias on Coruscant he found many doors closed to him. As the Aleena's senior year drew to a close, he had received acceptance to a handful of the school's he had applied to but without any financial aid available to him he was not able to afford to attend any of them.
Desperate to attend post-secondary school, Justinios applied for admittance at his regional public institution. The Coruscant system of regional colleges requirements were simply the ability to pay the highly subsidized tuition and pass a very simple entrance exam. Justinios attained an almost perfect score on the entrance exam (although to this day he will argue the test was wrong regarding the question he missed) and the cost was so highly subsidized that he was able to attain very low-interest loans to cover tuition. Additionally, scoring so high on the entrance exam got the attention of the President of the college who would eventually become a key player in Justinios' academic career.
Academic Career
Once Justinios entered the more unstructured world of post-secondary education he began to thrive. He continued to quickly master new concepts and with classes that focused more on formalized testing versus regular assignments, Justinios began so coast through his first semesters. At the end of his first year, Justnios received an invitation from Olg Morinth, the college president. During their meeting, Olg expressed that he thought Justinios had a gifted mind and offered to mentor the almost sophomore. Justinios accepted quickly, knowing it was not an opportunity one passed up, and the two began to work on a more concrete plan for Justinios' education. It wasn't until almost halfway through his second year that the two formally decided that science, specifically particle physics, was where Justinios would focus his long-term studies. Starting with his junior year Justinios took a very strictly prescribed set of classes designed to make him "marketable" to a graduate program. At the same time President Morinth began working his exhaustive contact list within Coruscant's academic community to find a suitable home for his protege. Before the start of his final semester Justinios found himself accepted into a doctorate program at the Coruscant Institute of Technology (CIT).
Within the high-pressure environment of one of the galaxies best graduate programs Justinios thrived. As the expectations increased and the difficulty ramped up quickly Justinios kept up with his new requirements step for step. Four years later the Aleena had presented his thesis which was the culmination of his research into effects of hyperspace on subatomic particles. The review board accepted his thesis after requiring a very strong defense but with a newly minted doctorate in hand Justinios began to search for a professorship at a research institution. With the help of his long-time mentor, the now-retired Olg Morinth, Justinios was able to land a position as an Associate Professor of Physics at New Republic University. Justinios spend years teaching and continuing his research until one day in 34 ABY that he first learned of the lost religion of the Jedi and their belief in The Force.
Justinios swiftly became obsessed with The Force and he convinced himself it had to be part of the fabric of reality, like gravity or electromagnetism, that science had never taken the time to understand or explain. He also quickly found that there was little information on The Force since the Empire had done a very good job of purging the Jedi from history. Lacking the ability to learn more about this mysterious energy field Justinios focused his research onto the most advanced and least understood areas of physics hoping to find any clue of the intersection between the four major forces and The Force itself. All the while Justinios also used any resources he could muster to search for any lost knowledge of the Jedi.
Finding the Brotherhood
Using the age-old tactic of making your graduate assistants do the dirty work, the Aleena had set his student workers out to find any references to ancient repositories relating to the Jedi or any group with the ability to manipulate the Force. In early 35 ABY, one of Justinios' graduate assistants came to his office with a hyperspace map leading to an all but forgotten backwater planet. The student explained that his brother's, best friend's, wife's, third cousin was on a freighter crew that works off of the normal trade lanes and that at a family gathering his brother's best friend overheard his wife's third cousin telling unbelievable stories of what he has seen on his travels. While Justinios' student assistant and his brother were laughing at all of the likely over-exaggerated tales, one of them mentioned what sounded like an impressive library. The point that had finally gotten the grad student's attention was that he claimed that the planet was full of Jedi.
This was all that Professor Drake needed to hear, as soon as the semester was over he made arraignments to travel to the mysterious planet during his summer sabbatical. There was not one single transport would take him that far off of the main hyperspace routes but after contracting with over a dozen different pilots, all of varying reputation, the Aleena landed in Karufr City. Although he did not see any immediate indication the planet was inhabited by Jedi, the library itself did not prove to also be a fabrication of a bragging cousin. It took a few days but he was able to negotiate access to the first two sub-levels with the local bureaucracy. The day after he gained access, the professor excitedly entered the library and began gathering up as many scrolls and holographic articles as he could carry. Unfortunately Professor Justinios Drake would never get the opportunity to read a single word on any of the documents because as soon as he plopped himself down at a table, fire began to rain from the sky. The professor, he would find out later, had found himself in the middle of an internal power struggle.
Justinios survived the bombardment but was caught under rubble in a now occupied city. Before the invading soldiers could take custody of the Aleena, who was now far outside his comfort zone, a Jedi from Clan Taldryan by the name of Rian Taldrya slew the attending troopers and called out to Justinios. Rian was escorting other survivors out of the destroyed city and offered to rescue Justinios as well. As if being saved from certain death wasn't enough Justinios jumped at the chance to tag along with what seemed to be a real live Jedi. Little did Justinios know at the time but Rian didn't just offer his assistance soley out of the good of his heart, he sensed a strong presence in the Force emanating from the tiny blue alien. As soon as the party had safely made it off of Karufr and reunited with the remnants of the Clan Taldryan fleet Rian handed Justinios off to Vodo Biask Taldrya who gave Justinios the good and bad news. Justinios was advised that he happened to be Force Sensitive and that the organization Vodo belong to, Clan Taldryan of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood, had the ability to develop his abilities. The other side of the coin was that Justinios had stumbled into an internal struggle between the Clans of the Brotherhood and their ruling Dark Council. If Justinios was the learn the ways of the Force it would only be in exchange for his services on the battlefield. Seeing this opportunity as the best way to send his research to the next level Justinios agreed to the deal and his training commenced.
Early Training and Knighthood
Justinios found that living aboard a fleet on the run was extremely different from his time at the University. As the forces of the Dark Council pursued the Taldryan Fleet the Aleena found that much of his training took place on the battlefield. By applying the same studiousness that had helped him climb the ranks of academia Justinios was able to accelerate his studies. Justinios used almost all of the free time he had between missions to study the Force and expand his own abilities which he would use to increase his power on the battlefield. His time learning among the experienced members of Taldryan was the classroom and missions became the labs in which he would turn theory into practice.
The Aleen quickly increased his power using this technique and it wasn't long until he found himself being looked at by the other members of his clan as a fully-fledged member as opposed to a fresh-faced trainee. After a year of lending his support to Taldryan in surviving the pursuit of the Iron Navy, a new threat to the Brotherhood emerged.
Great Jedi War XII
The sudden emergence of The Collective quickly created an uneasy truce between Clan Taldryan and the Dark Council. Almost none were ready to forgive the Dark Council for their attacks on Taldryan's holdings but the threat this new organization faced could not be ignored by the Clans or the Dark Council. Justinios found himself on the frontlines as Taldryan's Consul Rhylance deployed the Clan's forces around Nancora. The former professor was initially station on a Corellian Gunship, surviving the ships near destruction in an escape pod. After the capsule landed in the Badlands of Nancora, Justinios survived only by turning himself over to Collective forces. After escaping custody, Justinios returned to the orbiting Taldryan fleet which made a quick exit from the star system. Rhylance, it seemed, had plans for the Clan that didn't involve fighting against The Collective.
A New Home and A Few New Roles
In the aftermath of the war against Rath Oligard and his anti-Jedi crusade and the year of surviving the Dark Council's pursuit, Taldryan leadership knew that the Clan was in need of a new home. However, before the forces of Taldryan could begin to rebuild there was an abrupt change in leadership. A small group of Taldryan's force users removed Rhylance from the office of Consul and replaced him with Rian Taldrya, a long time member of Clan Taldryan and a former Consul. Most importantly to Justinios, this also left the position of Quaestor of Ektrosis open. The new Consul approached Justinios with an offer to take the position over, which the Aleena initially rebuffed. The more senior Jedi was very aware that Justinios would not easily be wooed away from focusing on his own research and presented the Aleena with an offer that was impossible for him to pass up. In an effort to rebuild the might of Taldryan, Rian conceived of an organization that would be one part intelligence service and one part advanced research division. Justinios, as Queastor, would have the opportunity to help shape this new unit and, if he saw fit, use its resources to supercharge his own research. Justinios accepted the position and with that decision, the Sphere of Research and Intelligence was born.
Under Justinios' leadership the SRI absorbed most of the assets that remained from the Taldryan intelligence services and it established a base of operations on Iosan. Although the SRI saw its share of setbacks, the fledgling organization began to stand on its own under the Aleena's leadership. More importantly, the selfish and apathetic Justinios became exposed to the galaxy outside of his own mind. When Drayen Ky'Lian, possessed by the spirit of a Sith Lord, attempted to take over the Caelus system Justinios was appalled by the damage. Recalling the destruction of Karufr Justinios saw war for what is truly was, a way for the ruling class to use the common folk for their own machinations. Justinios saw children younger than those he taught at university dying for no reason other than who controlled what dirt. From this point forward, Justinios shed his apathy and devoted himself to protecting the downtrodden and disadvantaged.
Shortly after this event, Justinios was also given the title of Scion of Taldryan and Proconsul of the clan. With these new titles, the Aleena's access to clan resources expanded significantly. His first action was to recruit the bruising veteran soldier Byron Martel and the sniper Liya Oldag into his personal retinue on the promise that the three of them would operate outside of the standard command structure. Both Martel and Oldag had previously received demerits for insubordination for failing to follow orders that would have caused significant collateral damage. Both Officers also wished to protect those who found themselves between warring faction while simply trying to get by in a violent galaxy. Together, Justinios promised, the three of them would do all they could to prevent the wars for power from effecting those going about their everyday business.
Physical Description
Justinios is a veritable giant among his own people but to the unfamiliar eye he would look indistinguishable from the rest of his species but someone unfamiliar with the diminutive species would have a difficult time noticing the variation. From his scaly blue skin, to a mouth far too large for such a small head the only distinguishable features of this Aleena are height and weight.
The Aleena is usually found wearing a snug fitting, but comfortable bodysuit. Even in combat, it is rare to find Justinios wearing armor plating but he isn't often seen eating with his backpack of scientific equipment. The former professor can commonly be found within all manner of situations with data collection tools on him, including data pads and holorecorders, in the place of military weaponry or equipment.
Partly due to his history in the academic profession, Justinios is also comfortable dressing himself up to meet the requirements of any formal occasion preferring the classical formal robes of academic society.