#Marked it with Vaylin because she was most of why I wrote this one

[swtorramblings]

Name: Richerd Class: Jedi Sage (formerly Seer, currently Telekinetics) Server: Star Forge Legacy: Ordannes

This one’s longer than usual, so it gets a cut.

Game role (my canon story for him): Former Alliance Commander, retired from that role after the events of Knights of the Eternal Throne and the second invasion of Odessen. While he understood that her history and her own choices may have doomed her no matter what he did, he never forgave himself for killing Vaylin. Not after listening so long to the monster that had made her what she was, not after using the techniques of that monster to control and humiliate her of his own free will. How had he expected her to react to that?

Was it his will? He is not truly sure. But, in that case, didn’t it mean he was too weak?

He may have been able to accept that. However sorry he felt for her, how many had she killed? How many more would she kill if allowed to continue? But then, with her death, with the urging of Valkorion and no attempt to take her alive, the Eternal Fleet went berserk, killing untold thousands, possibly millions. The final tally has still not been made.

And he was complicit in that horror, by provoking the Empress to bring her close in order to kill her, all according to Valkorion’s plans. It is what finally broke him.

He could not release his attachment. He could no longer be a Jedi, or the leader of the Alliance. He took the Throne, he freed Vaylin’s spirit at last, and together, he and Valkorion’s own family finally destroyed him. Having done what he could, he put down his lightsaber and rejected the Force. The Alliance he left in the hands of his advisers, who were always in charge anyway.

His sole order to the Fleet was to return to Iokath, to guard the riches and weapons he knew could be found there. He also hoped that, just perhaps, SCORPIO could return their free will once again.

After that, he lived in the Odessen wilderness for several years, wanting only to be left alone. Nothing bothered him, not predators, not people. His only contact was Lana Beniko, who insisted on bringing him supplies that she felt he would need and couldn’t acquire himself.

She had always cared for him, even when he did things that infuriated her Sith sensibilities, but perhaps there was more to it. Perhaps she blamed herself for putting a healer in charge of an army.

He kept a small farm there, and was reasonably content. Lana eventually stopped visiting. He was as safe as possible, she was busy, and she couldn’t stand seeing him give up any longer.

Eventually, though, things changed. It was not Lana that visited him that time, but his former Padawan, Nadia Grell. The Eternal Fleet was destroyed, the Alliance in tatters, Iokath was being fought over by fools. Beniko and Satele Shan had vanished. The best hope for the survival of the Jedi Order had been found by its enemies, which is what had brought Nadia to ask for the Alliance’s help, only to find they were in no condition to.

As he opened his mind again to the universe, he realized that, yes, he had made mistakes, he had been afraid, perhaps weak. He had taken the easy way and paid a steep price. That isolating himself had been one of those easy choices. How much of this would have changed if he’d stayed? He could never know.

But he is done shirking his responsibilities. He has let go of his guilt, but not the lessons. He cleared the cobwebs from his lightsaber, and the crystal sang in his mind again, a joyful song. With that, he and Nadia have returned to the eternal war.

May the Force be with them.

Stories I Shall Save Myself (2nd Draft): As in the canon story, again the Alliance Commander, but when he finally attempted to kill the Eternal Empress, she turned the tables and inflicted the very injury he had meant for her. Everything changes from that moment onward, including the fate of Senya and her two remaining children. The plan is for him to step down in that story, as well, but I’ve never gotten that chapter to work.

Bonds: The story where James Buchanan Barnes visits the Old Republic during KotFE/KotET, preventing the use of the command phrase on Vaylin and then guiding her to do certain things differently. Richerd is the Alliance Commander again, though in this story it is made very plain that he and much of the Alliance is being influenced by Vitiate lurking in his mind. He is likely to remain in that position after the Avengers arrive to help the Alliance take down Vitiate once and for all…

Relationships Richerd and Nadia were never a couple. He was her teacher, she was recovering from the murder of her father and her own barely controlled powers. Neither ever considered it. (Note: Yes, way back then I just went along with it, but I feel dirty now for having done so and I don’t want to go through the pain of the Lana breakup again if I can avoid it, anyway. I go through some effort now to make all the apprentice romance stories less awful, which, seriously, ALL FOUR Force sensitive classes?! And only the female characters? Ugh.)

His first official romance was with Lana, though it’s more than a bit rocky. Make no mistake, it doesn’t make sense to either of them, but war and trauma can make for strange relationships. Is it healthy? Neither of them are sure of that, either, but they are trying.

Felix is his best friend, and if Jarak weren’t already dead, he might have taken some time to hunt him down. He’s not entirely sure what would have happened.

Random Character Notes

He lost his healing powers soon after taking command of the Alliance. They just didn’t fit his new role, so his powers slowly shifted. He wishes he hadn’t changed so much, and is now trying to return to what he was in his connection to the Force. The galaxy doesn’t need more warriors, it needs healers.. (This is literally true, I changed him from Seer to Telekinetics either during the early stages of KotET or the later stages of SOR)

Random Other Notes This was my first character in SWTOR, way, way back when. And, yes, his specific story is informed by my feelings at the time when I played through those two expansions. I played him very little during the years since, pulling him out to get a few more tokens for the slots and things like that. Part of the point of the above longer-than-usual story is to explain his absence as I try to play him a bit more. For a while, every time I heard the male Consular voice, I kept hearing the smug, “Do your people know your… weakness?” It really left me turned off playing him.

I’d try to start his story off during happier times, but it’s been almost a decade since I played him through the class story, and the Knights stories are the ones that left their indelible imprint on me, so we start there.

He’s mostly based on an old Champions character, Richard Powers, the Sorcerer. I suppose he could have been Sith, but other than the name, he made more sense as a Jedi.

He’s also the closest I’ve ever made to a player insert, though it wasn’t really my intent at the start. He’s fitter and generally just better than me, sure, but I tried to make as much as a three choice system allowed the choices I approved most of, whether DS or LS or nothing. Not the ones I think I would actually make, since I’m not that good, but the ones I thought were right. I think that the fact that I couldn’t find any choices by the end of KotET contributed to whatever that was, along with the real life stuff I’ve alluded to before. I didn’t care for it.

Doing better now and would like to get him at least to Echoes of Oblivion, for reasons. My brain will keep chewing on this a little at a time until then, I think. Might also change him back to healing after that.