Delant (a one-off)

First time at this blog? Check out Home for details on the project and the Character Index for more of an overview of the characters.

(Note – I’m taking a break from The Journey; I’ll likely return to it later to feel up the magical kingdom a bit. I’ll start another project soon – for now, a one-off fanfic character).

Delant Xarman (52)

Project: Fanfic

Known as: The Jedi Ghost

Real name: Delant Xarman

Group affiliation: The Jedi Order, the Sith Academy (spy)

Physical description: Delant is from the planet Kelsar. Kelsarians appear largely human, but are hairless with smooth, unmarred pale blue skin. Delant has yellow eyes and is short by human standards (5’2”). He is thin, but Kalsarians’ musculature make them stronger than humans. He made an easy transition to the Jedi academy sartorially, as Kelsarians largely wear simple robes.

To survive on Beltrank he had to change his attire. While still wearing robes, they have been regularly smeared with the sap of a specific tree. His robes have dark, irregular stains and an very unpleasant odor. He has to scavenge and adapt to keep himself covered, so his robes are accented with animal pelts and the like. He also wears a head covering which was originally white but has been likewise sap-smeared (creating what at first glance looks like a horrific face). Wear he doesn’t have clothes (e.g., his hands) he is wrapped so none of his flesh is exposed. He cuts a frightening, eerie figure.

Personality: Delant is unusual, even by the standards of Kelsar. He is almost always calm – sort of in a meditative state most of the time. This does not give him the vibe of a wise master who has earned this calm through dedication. Rather, he seems to be born without the typical range of emotions (this becomes obvious as he is often puzzled by the behavior of others). He has troubles focusing on things that don’t interest him and often gives the vibe that he is off in his own world. If he is interested in something, his focus is amazing. For example, when practicing with his lightsaber he might decide to work on creating the perfect downward cross-stroke and will practice the same motion over and over endlessly (forgetting to eat or sleep). Though it will look to others as if he is simply repeating himself, he is focusing on the most minor of differences.

History: Delant was born a rare Kelsarian who was force-sensitive. The people of Kelsar are not given to extremes of emotion, but Delant seemed to be nearly bereft of emotion (excepting perhaps creativity). He did somewhat fit into society as he was careful to follow the rules of society. This made him “good”, but he was not driven by empathy or compassion. On the other hand, this made him extremely principled and resistant to corruption.

Once his force sensitivity was discovered, he was quickly sent to the Jedi academy (the people of Kelsar would be quite pleased by a Kelsarian Jedi). He was a polite and generally obedient student but did not form friendships with his fellow students. He also was a limited student, failing to absorb lessons that did not interest him. The things that did interest him, however, he mastered at an extraordinary pace.

Most notably, this included developing skills with a lightsaber. He quickly outmatched his peers and was soon sparring with more advance students (and ultimately full Knights). It was obvious to the Order that he was a dueling phenom and had the potential to be the finest duelist of his generation.

The problem, however, was that his other skills were distinctively lacking. For example, when trying to move things with the force he largely only managed to nudge the smallest of objects. This presented a challenge to his instructors, as it mystified him how he could easily use the force to make superhuman jumps but seemed unable to apply the same ability to another object. A number of instructors and masters tried a number of approaches, but it eventually became clear that Delant was both extraordinarily gifted and tragically limited.

Ultimately Delant was unable to pass the range of requirements to become a true Jedi Knight. They could not advance him based upon current standards so felt compelled to send him home despite his abilities. Their structure simply had no role for such an extreme specialist. Furthermore, a number of Jedi worried that his focus on combat made him a candidate to be lured to the Dark Side.

The decision was made to send him home to Kelsar but one Jedi master had another idea. This master knew that the Sith would often target Jedi Academy rejects as potential recruits. However, this master was not worried about Delant being lured to the Sith, knowing that he was simply too principled and lacked the anger and hatred to ever fall. This presented a unique opportunity. The master decided to encourage Delant to join the Sith as a spy to provide intel to the master.

Soon enough, the Sith did approach the gifted duelist and he agreed to join them in accordance to the master’s plan. He was taken to a Sith academy on the planet Krovus. Krovus was an unusual and extremely dangerous planet that had no humanoid inhabitants other than the academy. The reason was that while Krovus was reasonably safe during the day, at night a ravenous cloud of insects emerged and destroyed most things in it’s path. Some of the flora and fauna had developed special methods to avoid or repel the insects, and others had a single-day lifecycle as a consequence. No creature from anywhere other than Krovus had been known to survive on the planet’s surface at night without a very tightly-constructed shelter. The Sith selected the planet purposefully for concealment (Krovus is generally understood to be uninhabitable) and as a lesson (or punishment) to the students.

If Delant was a challenging student for the Jedi, he was an impossible one for the Sith. The ways of the Dark Side were impenetrable for a person largely without anger and hate. His only use was as a sparring partner to help the Sith students develop their lightsaber skills. Soon enough, Delant started to seem like a possible threat to the Sith instructors as they began to wonder if they could best him in combat (and in truth he was for reasons that they didn’t realize – he was passing information).

Delant was known to explore the jungle around the academy during the day regularly. The flora and fauna sparked his interest and he began to observe things others missed. One day when the Sith decided Delant’s threat outweighed his usefulness they simply locked him out of the academy one day to meet his fate. He survived the night because he had observed that turtle-like creatures on the planet were among the survivors, as they could seal themselves in their shells at night. Finding an empty shell from one of these creatures, he managed to survive the first night.

From there, he continued to adapt. Realizing that the insects didn’t bother certain species of trees, he covered himself in the sap as an additional safety measure (the shell was too heavy to carry). Covering himself from head to toe, sap-stained, and smelling terrible, he became a frightening figure. Invariably he came in conflict with several of the Sith and soon he began to collect lightsabers.

Thus began the legend of the Jedi Ghost of Krovus.

Role in the narrative: Protagonist of a short story.

Abilities: Tremendous lightsaber duelist. Surprisingly limited in applying his Jedi abilities in any other way.

Inspirations: Star Wars, clearly J. I actually started this as what I thought was an original story, but then noticed many Star Wars parallels and so I set it in that universe as fanfic. As fanfic, it is lazy and awful. Were I to actually write a story here I would do my research and change many things. I cheated – I invented new planets, species, etc. to avoid any inconsistencies (personally, I prefer fanfic where people really study the setting and make their story fit in). Also I ignored the version of the Sith where there were only two (I much preferred the version in some works/video games where there were more Sith). I also have been flirting with writing a character that is not neurotypical but I chickened out and made an alien instead (I worried I’d end up writing stereotypes – another thing I’d like to research before trying to write). He is also something of an inverted Mr. Spock (an emotional person disciplined to be logical vs. a somewhat emotionless person trying to fit in). The bugs appearing at night is a nod to Pitch Black.