This ring is visually and materially identical to all of the rings made to honor the ascension of a new Scion of Taldryan. Its solid platinum construction gleams when polished, as does the embedded obsidian encircling the amethyst crescent, sapphire claw, and ruby star jewel insets that make up the Clan emblem of Taldryan. This ring was awarded and worn, proudly displayed for over a decade, on the right hand of Vodo Biask Taldrya as Taldryan's Consul and then still as a Dark Councillor of the Grand Master, until his death in 38 ABY. Its beauty and heritage hide a secret however.
General Info
The Ring is identical to all those given to newly risen Scions of Taldryan and bearers of the Clan name Taldrya. This ring was one of Vodo's prized possessions symbolizing his uncharacteristic and intense devotion to the Clan. Unknown to others, the Sith Warlord experimented on the Ring seeking a manner in which to infinitely prolong his life and as a safety measure to insure against death. The Ring is one of three such unique items that the Twi'lek experimented upon and enchanted, and all three were intended to be worn and used to capture his departing spirit in the case of his own death. At the time of his sacrifice however the Warlord was only wearing one of three artifacts, his Ring.
The Will of the Ring
The ring is not conscious nor is it truly the repository of Vodo Biask's entire soul. Unable to capture the entirety of the soul, the Ring instead attempts to reunite with the next closest thing: the soul of Zakai Biask. Those who come into the proximity of the Ring may find themselves drawn to it, particularly if they are Force Sensitive and susceptible to the Dark Side. Touching the Ring can cause, with time, the possessor to become enthralled by the Ring's aura and desires. New and erratic habits, which may express themselves as obsessive-compulsive behaviors, can be observed by those nearby-- though they may not necessarily notice at first. The Ring desires to unite with Zakai Biask but the boy, unaware of the Ring's possession, wants nothing to do with the most enduring symbol of his abusive Father and has refused offers to gift it to him. The Ring, denied the right soul, seeks powerful host bodies to corrupt, influencing and pushing them to find ever more suitable new hosts until united with Zakai at last.
History
In 38 ABY Vodo Biask Taldrya sacrificed his life to save the lives of his clanmates during the events of the Fourteenth Great Jedi War. Faced by enemies on all sides, unable to extricate himself and save his clanmates as well, he buried his lightsaber in a powerful generator, causing it to explode and ruin the plans of the Collective to utilize dangerous bio-weapons on the battlefield surrounding Elos Vrai in the Arx System. After the battle Taldryanite Dasha 'Jala' Talus came across the blackened, but otherwise undamaged, ring the Sith Warlord always wore displayed on his right hand. Drawn to it by its hidden luster, and perhaps the barely perceptible suggestion of something more, Jala picked the ring up intending to gift it someday to her romantic crush Zakai Biask, the son of the late Vodo.
Zakai accepted the ring from Jala but soon after decided to hurl the hated thing off a tall parapet of the Taldryan Temple. He turned his back on the ring as it flew away and grew too small to see with the naked eye. It landed in the landing field used by large ships neighboring the Temple complex, and would have been lost among the dirt and gravel if not for the fact that it was highly polished by Jala's obsessive desire to clean the charred artifact. A passing Ewok, Teebu Nyrrire, was momentarily distracted by the glinting ring and picked it up-- inadvertently awakening the small creature's latent Force Sensitivity.
Rise of the Force Sensitive Ewok
Following the awakening of his force sensitivity, Teebu had quickly begun to pick up lightsaber combat and force ability usage similar to that of someone who had been doing it for decades. This caught the attention of both Taldryan Consul Appius Wight and Grand Master Evant Taelyan, though the latter remained silent regarding this mysterious awakening much to Appius' surprise.
As the War of Port Kasiya began in full swing, the small Ewok continued to utilize the power of the ring having found out that it was the direct connection to it. With it's removal, his force latency faded. So long as it remained on his finger, those abilities were available to him in full. This proved to be a negative however, since to his body was not used to the level of force ability being exerted by him. His demeanor and mannerisms began to change as well, eerily reminiscent to that of Vodo Biask Taldrya as noted by former Taldryan Consul Seraine Ténama. His deep ability in the Sokan style of Form IV only went to solidify this given he had received no training at all in lightsaber combat, much less this style.
During the closing stages of the war during a banquet with the leaders of the various gangs of Port Kasiya, an order called The Last Command had been given by Teebu. This command originally was to signify the leaders to be terminated, but had been modified by Appius to include the slaughter of the gangs themselves in each district and direct control given to Taldryan throughout the city. Teebu had modified it where they would be incapacitated and transported to another world, with careful targeting of their families as well to keep them out of harms way.
What was unknown to the small Ewok however, was that the command had not been modified by Appius but instead by the former Kasiyan Governor. In turn, he saw this updated order and uploaded yet another modification...total indoctrination. Appius saw this, and sent the 1st Legion to intercept Teebu's shuttles and prevent them from taking the leaders and their families from the various districts. Teebu, in turn, saw this as a direct assault on what Taldryan stood for.
The two faced off in the heart of the Arroyo district, with this being the first time that the mental form of Vodo took full control over the Ewok's own mind. Accusing the Consul of attempted genocide, Teebu engaged him in direct combat. Appius could not figure out why he was talking in the way he was, much less how he knew so many details of how Taldryan used to be and what it truly meant to be a Taldryan. Despite the normal power difference between the two, Teebu's anger pushed his body to it's physical and force usage limits and allowed him to overcome him. Before he could eliminate him however, the ring's influence caused Teebu to reach a breaking point where his mind had started to shatter. With the quick thinking of Appius, the ring was removed and seized.
After the war was over and an understanding re-established between them, the ring had been given to Dasha 'Jala' Talus for safekeeping. After she was kidnapped however and taken to the prison world of Orth, Teebu inadvertently came across the ring once more when he located the armory storage where her items had been kept.
The First Corruption
Keeping the ring with him, Teebu studied Vodo in great detail both in Brotherhood and Clan archives. Reunited with the ring, and the knowledge he learned of him, Vodo began to appear in a corporeal form that was visible and only heard by the Ewok. They both figured that the fragment of his soul combined with his newfound knowledge of the formerly living Twi'lek combined to create an upgraded version of the soul that had been contained inside.
Finally able to be 'free' from the ring, albeit in a...unique...way, the two struck up a strong friendship and mutual understanding of each other with Teebu wearing the ring full-time in place of his Scion ring to keep it hidden from Appius. Unbeknownst to both Teebu and Vodo however, the ring's original influence of wanting to be on the finger of Zakai was still present. This influence began to slowly corrupt Teebu, causing him to become more and more like Vodo, even quoting and acting like him at completely random times, as the fragment of his soul began to bleed into his own mind. He even began to resent Zakai as someone who failed to live up to his expectations...even though he personally did not know him. This especially surprised the two of them, knowing that something was wrong.
Upon visiting a trusted friend on the world of Seitia Prime, a specialist in neuropathic medicine, he learned that something was slowly replacing the cells and structures within his long term and short term memories, similar to that of a data chip being overwritten by new information. To the specialist, this condition was already in a terminal corruption stage for Teebu. Not revealing the full truth, both Teebu and Vodo knew what this meant. For some reason the ring was content on it's current wearer and had begun to implant the soul fragment into his mind. And this bode ill for the Ewok, as the ring had begun to interact with him in a very dangerous way which eventually would cause only Vodo to remain given enough time.
The only alternative being to remove the ring and never use it again, even that not being a guarantee of reversing what had happened, would at the least result in the disappearance of Vodo once again to nothing but the fragment that was in the ring as it originally was. Teebu refused to do this much to the Twi'lek's surprise. He swore they would find a way for him to retain his new form and knowledge, no matter what. As time continued however, the frequency of when Vodo's mind took over Teebu's increased significantly and for longer durations as the ring was utilized.
They knew they were on borrowed time as the corruption would only continue to become worse, with increasingly dangerous effects.