[hider=Valsil Malki'na]

[B]Species:[/B] Twi'lek
[B]Age:[/B] 24
[B]Rank/Title: [/B] Jedi Knight (junior)
[B]Planet of Origin/Birth:[/B] Corellia
 
[B]Appearance:[/B][INDENT]Green skin and a lean, healthy physique. His manner of dress is conventional in the extreme, and plain -- traditional Jedi robes and virtually no adornments of any kind. His demeanor is unshakably, disconcertingly calm. He carries himself confidently and seems never to take an extraneous movement -- never three steps where two would suffice. At rest, his hands fold behind his back, and his face takes on an expressionless quality. He has a tendency to close his eyes during conversations.[/INDENT]

[B]Skills/Abilities/Talents/Training:[/B][indent]
- [b]Jedi Reserve[/b]: Valsil maintains an uncanny, even an unnatural control over his own emotions. He is seldom rattled by anything, and virtually never excited. A prototypical Jedi.
- [b]Attunement[/b]: The force surrounds all things. Valsil is connected to the physical world like a boat on a rolling tide; his spatial awareness seems to transcend even his own consciousness. His feet guide themselves like water in a stream.
-[b]Spiritualist[/b]: Valsil has wholeheartedly adopted the teachings of the Jedi. He is intimately and completely adherent to the principles and beliefs of the order. He would describe this connection as unshakable -- but we'll see about that, I suppose.
-[b]Stalwart[/b]: Though he has seen only a little combat, his defensive skill with a lightsaber is considered well above normal. His energy does not flag, and his endurance -- so far as it has been tested -- does not fail. He can meditate for days without sleep, and run for hours without rest.
-[b]Soresu[/b]: The core defensive/passive lightsaber form. Also knowledgeable (but hardly expert) in Form V, though he utilizes it only rarely.
-[b]Mechanical Mind[/b]: Engines, structures, moving parts, and just about anything else that doesn't complain very loudly -- Valsil can make sense of these sort of systems (ventilation, propulsion, transmission, robotics, etc.) and turn them to his advantage very quickly. It's not high-level hacking theory or anything like that, but he's fairly handy with manual bypass and routine maintenance, and if there is a major weakness in a system, he can usually at least identify it.
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[B]Flaws/Weaknesses:[/B][indent]
-[b]Hateable[/b]: Valsil's near-fanatical devotion to the Jedi code and his uncompromising persistence leave all the wrong impressions, especially among non-Jedi. 
-[b]Out of Touch[/b]: To say Valsil has the personality of a trash compactor on thorazine would be putting it lightly. He is almost entirely unrelatable -- to others, and even to himself. More on this in Psych.
-[b]Reluctant Offense[/b]: Attack is an integral component of any combat. Valsil seems to experience little or no aggression, and his offensive moves are mechanical at best. He is not an unwilling participant in war or single combat -- just a damned stoic.
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 [B]Equipment:[/B][indent]
- [b]Double-bladed lightsaber[/b], yellow: Frequently he utilizes only one of the blades, which allows the saber to function as an oversized and heavy dueling sword. The second is activated only when it is practical to do so, and utilized primarily for extra defense, or to rebalance the playing field against a skilled opponent. 
- [b]Conventional Jedi kit[/b]: A minimalist, Valsil abstains from carrying more than the bare essentials of a Jedi knight. Communicators, datapad, and not a whole lot else.[/indent]

 [B]Psych profile:[/B][INDENT]
In his basic state, Valsil shows no measurable emotion whatsoever. His grim honesty is sometimes mistaken for veiled sarcasm or elaborate riddles -- but really, there's nothing clever about his interactions with other life-forms. He exerts no effort or influence towards changing the reality that he perceives. THIS WILL BE TESTED! The truth is that his passive acceptance of real-time events is incompatible with the war he is about to enter. When people talk about the folly of the Jedi code, they might not know it, but they're talking about Valsil. He embodies the cold, distant inhumanity of the Jedi, which invariably leads to an existential crisis of character. When Valsil encounters emotion within himself, he consciously crushes it in its infancy. This natural instinct has not been adequately tested in his training, and only his closest masters have an inkling of the danger that fact presents. His faults have slipped past them; his training is NOT sufficient for the horrors that await.

But enough bleak. Valsil is undeniably quick of mind and spirit, and generally his emotionless insights are actually on the wiser side of the spectrum. He is utterly fearless, and occasionally inspirational. Since I like metaphors, he's kind of like an apple tree -- he's probably not actively feeding anybody, but there's plenty of fruit and you can pick as much as you like. An exceptionally resilient soul, he does not shy away from personal sacrifice. He believes that his connection to the force will never fail to guide him to the proper conclusion, so even when the best course of action is not immediately apparent, he does not hesitate to act.[/INDENT]

[B]History:[/B][INDENT]
Forthcoming. In brief -- he was a model Jedi Academy student, with unremarkable beginnings. He adapted completely to the Jedi mindset. His time as a padawan was spent under a somewhat-preoccupied consular, performing diplomatic and civic responsibilities in a manner that could best be described as 'Entirely adequate.' Nothing he encountered seemed to challenge him greatly; but then, he never encountered a war like the one he is about to enter. Though he passed all the necessary tests, he has not truly been tested.

LONG VERSION: And not that long, because looking back, this is already a friggin' wall of text. Everything through the Padawan phase is routine and boring, so let's skip right to the final mission before his knighthood trials. He was padawan to a consular named Cait Garrent, a respected keeper of the peace with a sour demeanor. She and Valsil were sent to investigate a series of troubling murders among the local population on Ord Trassi, and restore confidence in the Republic. Valsil assisted Garrent in uncovering a conspiracy within the Republic garrison -- a small group of soldiers who used their credentials to smuggle in surplus arms, and sell them to the Black Sun. The investigation ended in an ambush, but the two Jedi were able to power through the small band of criminal soldiers. Each took minor wounds. while they recovered, Valsil sensed that one of the conspirators remained at large. The base commander allowed the pair of Jedi to inspect the ranks again. They found their man, but not until scrutinizing most of the soldiers on the base.

Afterwards, Garrent presented her student to the council. They concluded that his conduct, both in battle and in the investigation, satisfied the purposes of the Trial of Skill and the Trial of Courage. His blast injuries from the ambush were considered, but ultimately he was given an additional 'flesh' component in his Insight trial, in the form of a noxious choking gas chamber. Healers were present if it had gone ill, but Valsil was able to complete his task -- assembling a scrambled Holocron -- before the effects became life-threatening. Weakened, he emerged from the chamber to learn that the holocron contained his next Trial. The image of an ancient Jedi master guided him into a special meditative trance, where his darkest feeling emerged as enemies with mystical powers. Valsil fought the embodiments of his fear, his anger, his passions and his ambitions. Their powers extended into his own mind, shaking him and pressing in with blades and chains. He persevered, though, and slew his enemies... and then.... nothing. For hours he wandered in a vacant wasteland, alone. There were no more enemies to face, yet he remained -- for what felt like days. 

When at last he awoke from his trance, the masters assured him that less than an hour had passed. He explained what he had experienced, and listened to their insights about the trial's meaning. When asked how the long isolation made him feel, he said simply, 'Alone.' The masters pressed him -- what if you had been alone for years? Forever? "Then the Force must have guided me there for a reason, and I must continue to wait.' The questioning was relentless, but uncovered no sign of affinity for the Dark Side. No matter how he was asked, Valsil did not regret seizing control of his emotions. They sensed that he was ready to begin the next path of learning, and conferred on him the rank of Jedi Knight. 

Very shortly after this, he was sent to Cathar with a contingent of Council loyalists, including Ihna Zhiss and others. The Revanchists, they sensed, could become a threat to the Jedi Order and to the peace of the Galactic Republic. Valsil had proved his capacity as an internal investigator, and his devotion to the Jedi Code was beyond reproach. They experienced Revan's vision together, and Valsil began to suspect that it was the Force itself -- and not simply the Council -- which had brought him here, to some greater purpose. He took his place in the Republic force and set himself to the task at hand -- protecting the people still left, and aiding the soldiers in the coming battle.
[/INDENT]

[B]Relationships and Acquaintances:[/B][INDENT]
Krayt Breath Brigade -- a hardened unit, which was gutted and reassigned in the wake of Cait Garrent's investigation on Ord Trassi. Notable remnants are Master Sergeant Blain Corsoe, Corporal Tabitha Stokes, and Corporal Segan. These three were all subjected to close scrutiny by the Jedi, especially Corsoe, and none harbor any special love for their new Twi'lek commander. Stokes, a mother, seems the most able to speak to him without trading punches. There is a running joke within the unit that Valsil is secretly her child (she is a human), and they like to reference it whenever the two speak. Corsoe is a hothead, who fiercely protects his men. Segan, the lone Zabrak in the unit, is the designated marksman, aptly described as a merciless bastard and sort of a jerk. Collectively, their general perception of Valsil is that he is a robot, remote-controlled by a rat. They are not fond.

Valsil has, at various points in his journey, crossed paths with some of the other Jedi in the group, typically while following Cait Garrent on consular duties. As neither master nor padawan were particularly (or at all) personable, these encounters tended to be brief. He once lost a sparring match with Elara Rahn on Balmorra -- Master Garrent never admitted to losing money on the duel, but Valsil had his suspicions. 

Also it stand to reason that Valsil and Zhiss would become acquainted, if only recently, given their respective standings with the Council. I wrote us riding in together in my history section, but yell at me if you don't like it, I can change anything.

To comply with the IRSOG mission directives, the Council encouraged Valsil to accept an apprentice upon arrival at Cathar, to bolster his stabilizing influence in the Jedi contingent. By chance or fate (he believes the latter), he has been paired with Leto -- a headstrong and aggressive padawan. It will be Valsil's first experience as a master, and he takes the responsibility very seriously, though he is the first to admit his own inexperience. [/INDENT][/hider]