- "Sometimes you just gotta hit someone"
- ―Salbecca
Salbecca, or Sal to his friends, is a Wookiee Jedi born in the city of Warralokk on the Wookiee home world of Kashyyyk. A member of the Jedi Order in the waning days of the Old Republic he fought in the Clone Wars and survived Order 66. After decades in hiding Sal has once again taken up his lightsaber as a member of House Odan-Urr.
Character History
Early Years
The Wawaatt Archipeligo
Sal was born in Warralokk, a city in the Wawaatt Archipelago, on the Wookiee home world of Kashyyyk sixty-nine years before the Battle of Yavin. His father Torralraa was a fisherman working the waterways of the archipelago while his mother Kerriwarr took care of Sal and his older brother Arrichit. His first few years of life were not unlike that of most young Wookiees, spending his days in Warralokk's nursery ring learning what it meant to be a Wookiee, to show respect for Kashyyyk with it's many dangers, and spending his nights at home with his family. However a few months before his fourth birthday Sal's life changed forever.
As a member of the Galactic Republic, Kashyyyk was obligated by law to test the force sensitivity of all newborns, and Sal was tested just like every other Wookiee cub born on there. Unlike most other young Wookiee's Sal's test came back as positive for midi-chlorians. Upon discovering Sal's force sensitivity the Jedi Temple on Coruscant was contacted and after much discussion between Sal's father, his clan chief and representatives of the Jedi Order it was decided that Sal would remain on Kashyyyk until he was old enough to be brought to the temple to begin his training .When the time came for Sal to be taken to the Jedi Temple, a Devaronian Jedi Master named Lok Tharnas arrived on Kashyyyk to take the young cub to Coruscant. Upon arrival, Sal was placed with the other younglings of the Savrip training clan where he was initially trained by an old Quarren Jedi Master named Chelin Frose. For the next twelve years Sal learned everything from politics and galactic law to lightsaber and unarmed combat. It was in the latter two that the young Wookiee excelled, regularly beating older students when they sparred.
The Jedi Temple on Coruscant
Eventually the time came for him to be chosen by a Master. Sal was chosen by Naree Cloudsinger, a human Jedi Knight from Tatooine. She was in her late thirties with deep chestnut brown hair, with snow white streaks throughout and piercing green eyes. She had been a Jedi Master for five years before it was decided by the Jedi Council that she was ready to train a Padawan of her own, and Sal was her first student. As a Jedi Guardian it was Naree's responsibility, and Sal's by extension, to maintain order throughout the galaxy. Over the next few years the pair traveled the galaxy resolving disputes, hunting down criminals and generally keeping order wherever they were required. About eight years after taking Sal on as her apprentice she decided he was ready to take on the trials, however things didn't quite go according to plan.
A Different Kind Of Trial
Sal's master Naree Cloudsinger
Naree and Sal had been sent to a small mid rim planet called Verapin 5 to mediate a dispute between the planets ruling body, The Council of Seven, and a resistance group calling themselves the Red Hand. The two sides had agreed to a ceasefire after seven months of all out war that threatened to spill over into the streets of the capital Verapin City. Things seemed to be going well and the talks progressed steadily over the next few weeks until the Red Hands leader Mathias Burns was assassinated. That same night the Council of Seven were rounded up from there homes by operatives of the Red Hand and taken to an abandoned farm a few miles north of the city were they were to be executed at first light. To further complicate matters the Red Hand had managed to procure several canisters of a toxin called Metaformin D and had spread them throughout the city. Originally intended as a pesticide it was discovered that Metaformin D was far more lethal to those using it than to the pests it was intended for.
With no way to save the council and prevent the murder of thousands of innocent civilians without splitting up, Naree decided that she would rescue the council while Sal aided the local authorities in searching for the Metaformin D canisters. With the aid of a government informer within the Red Hand the locals determined the location of the three canisters and Sal decided to head for the one that posed the greatest risk to the populace. Taking off through the city in great loping strides he quickly made his way to a large stone building in the center of the city. As he got closer he could sense the presence of half a dozen scared and angry individuals spread throughout the building. Being as stealthy as a seven foot tall Wookiee can be Sal approached the side of the building and using his claws began to scale the wall to the roof. When he'd reached the roof he managed to peel back the sheet metal that it was made of and slipped silently through the hole. With senses more keen than any human could hope for, he began to quietly disable the guards stationed throughout the building. A choke hold here, a strike to the head there until only the trigger man and his off-sider remained.
From a balcony above them he could hear them speaking to one another and it was clear to Sal that neither of them would hesitate to trigger the canister and release the toxin. With lightsaber in hand Sal leaped over the railing landing a few feet from the pair. Almost before they could react Sal unleashed a wave of force energy knocking the off-sider off his feet and flying through the air to strike the wall with a thud. Just as Sal began to move on the trigger man he was informed that it was a dead man trigger and if dropped the toxin would be released. Stopping mid stride Sal's eyes narrowed as he contemplated his next move. With subtle manipulations of the force Sal gripped the trigger man's hand in a bubble of force energy and in one quick motion and a blur of green removed the trigger man's hand from his arm, the force preventing the trigger from firing. After a short while the authorities arrived to disarm the toxic bomb and take the rebels into custody.
While waiting for the bomb squad to disarm the device Sal heard from Naree. All the hostages were safe and were preparing for a fresh offensive against the Red Hand. They had less than 48 hours to discover what really happened to Burns before the planet became a battlefield once more. Starting their investigation where Burns died they discovered that the small apartment where he'd died hadn't been broken into and there were no signs of a struggle indicating that not only did Burns know his killer he also trusted them. While it was a start it hardly got them any closer to preventing a war. Their big break came when they began to study holo tapes from the buildings security system. It showed one of Burns' lieutenants, a man named Fraser, entering Burns' room less that an hour before his death and leaving later in different clothes than when he arrived. Racing to confront the suspected murderer, the pair of Jedi were confronted by a dozen armed freedom fighters protecting their new leader, Fraser.
With a few subtle force aided nudges from Naree they managed to talk there way into an audience with the head of the Red Hand and confronted him with what they new. With a laugh Fraser admitted to killing Burns before ordering his men to kill the Jedi. Almost before the men could react Naree was already moving, the blade of her lightsaber a dancing blur of green energy deflecting blaster bolts left and right. Sal was half a step behind her his lightsaber redirecting bolts of energy back in the general direction they had come from. After a brief flurry of activity that left all twelve gunmen either dead or incapacitated and Fraser pleading for his life, Naree gave him the option of coming peacefully and confessing to his crimes or not co-operating with a not too subtle hint that Sal would become involved at that point. One look at the Wookiee's toothy grin was enough to convince him to confess to his crime. With the murder solved the talks got back on track. After a few more weeks of negotiation an uneasy alliance was reached and Naree and Sal headed back to Coruscant.
When they reached the Temple, Naree gave her report to the Jedi Council who after listening called Sal forward. It had been decided that due to the nature of there mission and his role in it that he would not need to sit the trials and that he would be elevated to the rank of Jedi Knight effective immediately. Engulfing Naree in a massive hairy hug he let out a roar of joy before quickly composing himself and bowing to the council.
The Clone Wars and Order 66
The Battle of Geonosis
By the time the Clone Wars began, Sal had been stationed in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant as a lightsaber instructor. When the call came for Jedi to travel to Geonosis to rescue Obi-Wan Kenobi, his padawan Anakin Skywalker and Senator Padme Amidala, Sal was one of the first to volunteer. As Mace Windu and his force of fifty Jedi entered the Geonisian arena to rescue the hostages Sal was in the cargo bay of an Acclamator assault ship with a regiment of clone troopers. As the Acclamator entered the atmosphere and landed on the dusty surface of Geonosis Sal let out a battle roar and led his troops into the fray. Through the dust and smoke Sal's lightsaber flashed left and right deflecting droid blaster bolts until the two sides clashed in a dizzying melee. As droids and clones fell around him Sal cut down droid after droid. For what seemed like hours the battle raged until the droid army were in full retreat. Stopping to catch his breath Sal looked around and was stunned at the amount of death and destruction at his feet.
With the battle of Geonosis won and the Clone Wars underway, Sal was made a Jedi General and given command of a legion of clone troopers and sent to a small mud ball of a planet called Kiffen. Covered in swamps the planet would have been inconsequential in the greater scheme of things if not for the large trade federation droid factory in the planets southern hemisphere. For the next year and a half Sal and his clone troopers fought when they could, ran when they had to and made life as difficult as possible for the Neimoidian general leading the droid armies on planet, but for every droid killed the legion payed a terrible price as there numbers began to dwindle. Hoping for reinforcements Sal led a small squad on a patrol of the swamps when Darth Sidious made his play.
As Order 66 was executed, Sal could sense something through the Force. Spinning on his heel he lashed out with his lightsaber, the heads of the closest two clone troopers falling from there bodies. With a blast of the force he set another trooper flying into a distant tree before the first clone trooper struck. A blaster bolt caught the big Wookiee in the thigh before another caught him in the shoulder. Pushing through the pain he dodged and parried blaster bolts, cutting down clone troopers left and right. When the skirmish was over and every clone trooper lay dead at his feet, Sal surveyed his wounds. Apart from the two blaster shots, he'd suffered some minor burns and scrapes but nothing life threatening. Taking off deeper into the swamp he managed to find a small cave a few miles from the site of the battle and, heading as far into it as possible. For the next few days Sal meditated in a deep trance, using the force to heal his wounds.
When his wounds had healed Sal left the cave and headed for the nearest spaceport. Stealing a shuttle he contemplated heading for Kashyyyk but thought better of it, knowing that if the clone army knew he was alive his home world would be one of the first places they looked. Searching through the shuttles database he began to look for an out of the way world where he could hide for as long as possible. He eventually landed on the moon of Nar Shaddaa hoping to become lost in the sprawling city that covered the moon. Putting away his lightsaber and robes, Sal opened a small store where he could put his natural mechanical skills to good use. For the next two decades he eked out a meager existence fixing everything from blasters to hyperdrives. Eventually news reached the Smugglers Moon that the Empire had been defeated at Endor and Sal felt it was now time to go home.
Return to Kashyyyk
Kashyyyk
For the next few years Sal saved every credit he could spare until, ten years after the Empire's defeat at Endor, he'd managed to save enough credits for passage to Kashyyyk. After a few weeks travel he finally arrived on his homeworld - a world he left over seven decades before. But despite all that time away, the moment he stepped off the landing craft he felt home. For a few minutes he stood silently letting the cool, sweet air of his homeworld fill his lungs and rustle his fur before heading further into the spaceport to arrange transit to Warralokk. That was easier said than done however as Warralokk had been destroyed by the Empire more than a decade before and every Wookiee that survived the attack taken by the Empire as slaves. Heartbroken Sal pleaded with the young Wookiee at the transit office to get him home and, feeling sorry for Sal, the officer agreed. Less than an hour later the small shuttle was circling what was left of Sal's childhood home.
Putting the shuttle down on the largest of the intact branches of the wroshyr tree that made up the main section of the destroyed city, he walked among the destroyed houses and shops of his birth place it was all Sal could do not to give in to grief and despair. Snapping a young branch from the wroshyr tree he placed it carefully into his satchel and asked the pilot to return him to Rwookrrorro. Upon returning to Kashyyyk's capital he did his best to investigate the fate of his family. From what little records that had survived the imperial occupation he discovered that his parent's and brother had been alive at the time but little else. With little else to go on Sal decided to head for the centre of government bureaucracy, Coruscant, to see what he could dig up.
Return To The Jedi
Sal's brother Arrichit
Arriving on Coruscant he began to search the extensive imperial records left over after the Republic took control of the planet. For months he sifted through any record he could find regarding the occupation of Kashyyyk or the slaves they took off the planet. It was tedious work but eventually it paid off. In a dusty box of old hard copy reports he found a list of slaves transported from Despayre after construction of the first Death Star was complete. As he scanned over the list of names he saw one that stood out, his brother Arrichit. He, along with about 300 other Wookiees, were being transported to a prison on the planet Averum when the ship disappeared in the Judecca system. An imperial recon team had been sent to the system to ascertain what had happened to the ship and its cargo but, discovering nothing but the wreckage of a number of starships, assumed the ship had been destroyed. They did however recover several pieces of wreckage including the flight computer from a destroyed fighter. The data dumped from the flight computer indicated that, in the midst of a battle between Trandoshans and a Hutt cartel, a squadron of X-Wing fighters entered the system and engaged the forces in system in battle. After quickly destroying both the Trandoshan and Cartel ships they escorted the prison ship out of the system on a heading that would take them close to a number of systems but only intersect with one, the Yhi system.
A week or so later Sal was sitting in the passenger hold of a smuggler's ship on his way to the Yhi system, specifically New Tython. He spent the trip to New Tython deep in meditation but the thought of finding his family was never far from the forefront of his mind. Eventually the ship touched down on New Tython, a few miles outside of the capital Menat Ombo. After a brief farewell Sal began walking in the direction of what, from the air at least, appeared to be a Wookiee village in a forest to the west.
A few hours later Sal was greeted at the perimeter of the village by a large young Wookiee with shaggy brown fur, a bowcaster in hand and a ryyk blade on his hip. Greeting the younger Wookiee, Sal requested and audience with the clan chief and was led through the village to a large hall at its centre. As he entered he saw a large black furred Wookiee who was introduced to Sal as Liika. Introducing himself to Liika Sal began to recount his story to the leader of this Wookiee enclave. Telling him everything from his Jedi training to his service in the Clone wars to his years of exile on Nar Shaddaa. The entire time the old wookiee said nothing until Sal had finished talking before asking how he could help. Sal explained that he believed his family had been on the prison ship that had brought them to New Tython and that he'd hoped to find some trace of him. Once Liika had been informed of the name of Sal's brother he sent a runner to fetch Arrichit.
It had been nearly one hundred years but as soon as Arrichit entered, Sal knew it was him - as if by some miracle he'd found his brother. With tears streaming unabashedly down his hairy face he engulfed his brother in a huge hairy hug and howled with joy. Taking their leave of Liika the two brothers headed for Arrichit's house. When they arrived Sal was introduced to Arrichit's mate Jowbev and son Lakdrrl. The reunited brothers talked well into the night, Sal finally learning the fate of his parents. His father had died during the imperial invasion of Kashyyyk while his mother had been worked to death on Despayre. Sal also learned that Arrichit and his son were members of the Chosen of Bacca, a wookiee regiment in service to the Jedi of Odan-Urr and that every Wookiee on the prison ship had pledged a life debt to them. After learning more of House Odan-Urr Sal decided to make himself known to them so he, for the first time in decades, donned his Jedi robes and lightsaber and headed for their complex with an honour guard of wookiee warriors. When the group arrived Sal was introduced to the leaders of Odan-Urr and, after relaying his story, offered his services to the House. After much deliberation his offer was accepted and Sal became a member of House Odan-Urr.
Character Information
Physical Appearance
Large even for a wookiee, Salbecca stands well over 7 feet tall and is covered almost head to toe in deep black fur. The only part of the big Wookiee that differs from this uniform blackness are three white stripes. The first begins just below his bottom lip and runs diagonally down to his throat. The other two begin on his forhead, running down his face to meet at a point just above his nose. He also possesses a pair of piercing blue eyes. He can usually be seen wearing robes similar to those he wore during his time as a Jedi prior to the fall of the Old Republic at the end of the Clone Wars.
Personal Possessions
Lightsaber
Sal's lightsaber
Sal's original lightsaber was, like most Jedi, made completely of manufactured products like durasteel and plastics. However after joining House Odan-Urr Sal took the wroshyr branch he'd acquired on Kashyyyk and, after hollowing it out, used it as the basis for a new lightsaber. In this way he can always carry a piece of his home with him at all times.
Other Weapons
When he put aside his lightsaber at the end of the Clone Wars Sal needed something to keep himself safe on the near lawless moon of Nar Shaddaa. The first weapon he constructed started life as a broken down old DC-15A blaster rifle Sal found on a trash pile that would eventually become a bowcaster. Stripping the weapon down to the frame he attached a pair of polarizing orbs and removed the tibanna gas cartridge to create space for the magazine of 10 explosive bolts. Once the bowcaster was complete Sal took a piece of starship hull and fashioned himself a ryyk blade.
S.P.O.T.
A few years after arriving at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant Sal became tired of the translator unit the order had given him so he decided to take matters into his own furry hands and create his own. Starting with a standard training remote he removed everything but the repulsorlift engines before taking the AA-1 VerboBrain and TranLang III communications module from a 3PO droid he found on a temple junk pile and, with a little forceful encouragement, installed them into the shell of the remote. Once he was done he chose to call his new translator S.P.O.T which is an acronym for Self Propelled Oratory Translator.