Character History
From Hero to Traitor
3 BBY to 10 ABY Early History
After graduation from the Imperial academy Michael Arkarso started a career as fighter pilot few years before the incident on the moon of Yavin IV. His first assignment was in a TIE Fighter Squadron on the VSD Narrador. He wasn't the best pilot, maybe not even a good one, but he had a clear view on dangers, wasn't too heroic and with some additional luck he was able to manage to survive in his squadron, a squadron with a very high loss rate.
A bit more than a year had passed till Admiral Demetrius Zaarin took notice of Michael, who had achieved the rank of Lieutenant in the meantime . The admiral transferred Michael to his own fleet, first as pilot, but pretty soon in management positions in his various fighter development projects. Within five years under the command of Admiral Zaarin Michael became Rear Admiral and a person with some influence in Admiral Zaarin's fleet. Dreaming of a glorious career in the navy Michael didn't realize Zaarin's motivation fully. Not that he didn't expect Zaarin turning sides, but he didn't expect Zaarin proceeding with his plans that early.
Michael might have played an important role in Zaarin's plans, but he got captured by loyal imperial units pretty early in the conflict between Zaarin and the emperor.
Michael got imprisoned on an unimportant swamp world, waiting on his trial that was scheduled for a time when the empire would have already stopped Zaarin's rebellion and would have captured all of Zaarin's command officers, but the fate of the galaxy was about to change and the empire started to concentrate on the Rebel Alliance. So the Imperial Army abandoned the swamp world and left Michael in a dark cell without any daylight. In the darkness of his cell Michael started to notice his growing force senses which finally helped him escaping from the prison. Those who knew Michael before would have said he changed in that time others would have said he got mad.
He returned to a remnant group of Zaarin's fleet that defected to the Rebel Alliance short later, like most of the remnants of Vice Admiral Harkov's and Admiral Zaarin's fleets. In the civil war that followed the death of the emperor Michael fought on the side of the Rebel Alliance, later on the side of the early Republic. In the late stages of this war Michael recovered his emotional balance.
Prophet of Damnation
10 ABY to 22 ABY In the Star Vipers
Six years after the Battle of Endor and 10 years after the Battle of Yarvin Michael returned to Arfis, the home of House Arkarso. Even after a few weeks being back there, he took notice of the old rivalries between House Arkarso and the other houses, especially House Berkana, that had turned into a hot conflict. Duga Arkarso wasn't only the head of House Arkarso at that time, his influence in the council of the houses also started to grow. The first clash between the houses was on a dark rocky world where Michael managed to escape from a duel with the leader of the Berkana family, Phoenix Berkana, barely alive. The conflict, later references as 'War of the Seven Moons', ended without a clear winner leaving the question for the dominating house undecided.
In the following two years Michael risen in the ranks of the Dark Jedi of House Arkarso, while the house managed to stabilise the position as the dominating house and Duga became leader of the council. In this period there was just a single longer incident with the other houses, but House Arkarso managed to dominate this conflict. But the seismic waves of a Republic dominating the remaining conflicts and increasing their influence all over the galaxy had finally reached Arfis and the power of the house was shrinking.
Michael, like many of the lower Arkasan were blinded by arrogance and didn't realize the danger in the situation, until a former member of House Arkarso, Morgan Arkarso, was leading a coalition of the Houses Berkana and Laconius into rebellion against Lord Duga Arkarso and the dominance of his house. Michael Arkarso was leading a regiment on Sef Narandos in the Nos Versam system. They were soon the last resistance on the planet trying to defend the great hall against the armies of both houses. Duga Arkaso fortified the Arkarsan homeworld in the mean time. Michael wasn't able to hold the positions close to the hall and they were forced to retreat.
The remnants of the regiment managed to escape from the Sef Narandos and returned to Arfis. The battle on that planet was already over and the planet was abandoned again. Just the burned down ruins of the once so great House Arkarso were remaining. Michael stayed a few days in the ruins of the temple on Arfis before he took his last possessions an left the planet.
Michael spent the next years wandering through the without a greater plan. He spent a lot of time on Coruscant and Yavin 4 studying the path of the Jedi.
Covered by Darkness
22 ABY to 26 ABY In Clan Taldryan
22 years had passed since the Battle of Yarvin when Michael joined House Dinaari and Clan Taldryan like Duga Arkarso did before. He was pretty soon assigned to the Dark Fire Brigade, where he fought a couple of minor battles in the name of the Clan. For a long time he stayed pretty much unnoticed by clan leaders and became a faceless soldier in the ranks of the clan in all the conflicts with the other clans. One year after he had joined the clan he fought together with Duga Arkarso and Shadow Taldrya in the Obelisk Rite of Supremacy. In the second year in his clan he even achieved the position of Battleteam Leader of the Dark Fire Brigade, but through political struggles and personal disappointments he gave up the position a short time later.
25 years after the Battle of Yavin Michael got reactivated again. The Third Brotherhood Civil War has started. A clone of the Grand Master of the Brotherhood, Jac Cotelin, was trying to conquer the throne from his original. For a long time most of the Dark Jedi weren't sure who was the real Jac Cotelin. Michael had fallen into a deep rage in this conflict, fighting even clan mates, obsessed by being on the side of the right Jac. At the end of the conflict he had earned a Grand Cross of the Dark Side.
After the war Michael seen the turning point in his life. The last three years had driven Michael deeper into the realms of the dark side than he ever imagined. He began to return to return to the path he followed earlier in his life.
Half a year after the end of the civil war Michael became commander of the Dark Fire Brigade again. Michael disappeared on a boarding mission, where the brigade got the assignment to take out a Stardestroyer of the Imperial Remnant short after Michael got the command.
For a few weeks he stayed with the survivors of the remnant forces before he returned to Coruscant again.
Changing his own Fate
26 ABY to 31 ABY In Clan Scholae Palatinae
Later in the same year Michael appeared in the ranks of the Clan Scholae Palatinae. Again Michael fought in the wars, first in the Second Darkness and one year later in the Vong Incursion, but different to most of the other Dark Jedi that were shocked by the fact that the Yuuzhan Vong had conquered Antei, Michael's fear had been gone.
In the following three years Michael had several more or less unimportant positions within his new clan. Most of the time he stayed below the radar of the higher ranked clan members.
30 years after the Battle of Yavin he wasn't able to avoid the conflicts anymore. Like many of his clanmates he got embedded into ground units, triing to conquer the Dark Hall again. He was there when the last resistance of the rouge Jedi defending the Dark Hall broke.
Trivia
In a few rare moments you can see Michael walking with a stick. His leg got injured years before. With the force he is able to compensate his injury, but when he is tired he sometimes uses a stick to walk.
Most of the time Michael is wearing a grey Imperial navy uniform in Galactic Civil War style with rank emblems of a Rear Admiral. A blue slash and a belt in typical Jedi style with his light saber still identify him as force user.
DJB Facts
Positions Held