Biography
Early life and discovery of Force Sensitivity
I was born on Dantooine to parents who were farmers. As a child I was content to help my parents out on the farm by fixing any equipment that broke (which I was always good at), and doing whatever else was necessary to keep the small farm operating. This sometimes included protecting our property from local wildlife, mostly iriaz trying to eat our crops but there was the occasional kath hound after larger prey. So I became adept with a blaster and Vibrosword at an early age, my father never had the nerve for them. I didn't find out why until later in my youth, but that doesn't come until later in the story.
At the age of 15 some friends of mine dared each other into trying to get a Crystal out of a cave nearby that was known to have them. It was a dangerous endeavor, a fools errand for even the most seasoned adventurer, much less a bunch of kids. We knew of the stories of viper Kinrath and worse things in the cave, but like all young ones, we ignored the warnings. Once inside we discovered that the Kinrath were more dangerous and numberous than we'd been told, so we decided to abandon the dare. In the scuffle I was separated from my friends. I found myself surrounded by kinrath with my back against a wall. I prepared for the next wave of them when I noticed a strange red glow coming from one of the cave walls. A scream such as I've never heard and would never care to again echoed through the cave. It was paralyzing. I covered my ears and collapsed onto the floor. When the noise subsided and I opened my eyes, all of the kinrath were gone, but the glow remained. I found myself unalterably drawn to it. As I neared it I found it was coming from a crystal, one I later discovered was excellently suited for a lightsaber. As I picked it up I felt a chill rush through me,and I discovered I was not alone in the cave.
I turned around and saw a vision of a lady cloaked in black and red robes, brandishing a red lightsaber. Dark and powerful she appeared, and I was afraid. She looked on me with a sad, but not unkind smile. She addressed me by name: "Dacen, you do not know who I am, but your father does. And he does you a disservice by not telling you my story." "I am Akira Scorbal, your grandmother..." she continued. "And I was once a Sith apprentice." She told me of how she was sent to Dantooine to kill a man who had crossed her master. The man she was sent to kill was Kral Scorbal my grandfather, who was a shipbuilder. He'd built her master a ship at his request. A freighter that was unequaled by most other ships of it's class in speed and maneuverability, which he named the Crazy Bantha. My grandfather was truly a master of his craft. When Kral discovered that his customer was a Sith, he refused to deliver the ship. When she found him she easily bested him in combat but instead of killing him immediately, she hesitated for a second too long. My grandfather activated the nearby ships defenses by a remote control in his pocket and targeted Akira. She was overwhelmed by the turbolasers and fell unconscious. My grandfather took pity on her and nursed her back to health, despite her initial calls for death. During her healing she began to fall in love with Kral and he with her. They married and began a life together. After a year they had their only child, a son.
Lady Akira's master arrived to find that not only had his apprentice not fulfilled her duty to him, but that she had forsaken the ways of the Sith. Furiously he attacked Akira and Kral for their respective betrayals of him. After a hard fought battle, he bested and disarmed them both. My grandfather begged for the life of his beloved, using emotions of her to shield his mind from thinking of their son who was being cared for elsewhere by relatives. Sensing his strong emotions for Akira the Sith Master decided the best punishment for them both was for him to kill her, and leave grandfather with the memory of what he'd lost.
My father was raised by a man who was sad for most of his life. When my father was old enough he heard the story of his mother but refused to pass it to me. He also refused to take up arms or associate with those who do in any way, thus he became a farmer.
After relaying me her story, the spirit of Akira told me that I was force sensitive, and should seek out others who could show me what my potential was. I did not do so for many years, but from that point on I was plagued by visions of events, both past and future, that I could not ignore. I returned to the cave only once more, after my father died. Our farm was not doing well even before father became sick and a rich landowner had been trying to buy us out for years. After father died I sold the farm, and moved my mother moved into town where she still lives today. I was for the first time left alone with no real direction. Once more I found myself drawn to the cave.
I had the crystal with me and once more, I entered the cave. Instead of what I expected to see I saw another vision. I was bombarded by images of Dantooine reduced to ash by orbital attacks, my family and friends being either killed or sold into slavery by the Sith. When I thought I could bear no more the visions suddenly stopped. Akira's spirit stood over me with her hand on my shoulder and asked why had I delayed in following her instructions. She explained that while I delayed the Sith gathered more disciples to their side and the balance of the galaxy was tipping toward darkness. She explaned that what I had seen was a vision of what is to come if those who could battle the Sith stand by and do nothing. I decided that if I could do anything to stop that vision from happening, then I would dedicate the rest of my life to doing so. It was then that I gathered what limited possessions that I had and set out to find someone who could teach me about the living Force. It wasn't long before I found Zonama, and the Potentium, and my calling.
Inner Turmoil, and Separation from the Force
Time passed, as it always does, and another situation beset Dacen. It was a strange time for the Potentium. Master Dexem was no recently voted down from his Grand Master position. Dacen's former master was acting somewhat erratically and he was talking with him less and less. A rift in the order was emerging. Tensions ran high, backstabbing and anger were the order of the day. The darkside clouded everything. ((FCRS, for all of those who loved it, was considered dead)) This is a story of losing direction, the consequences of which only few survive. Dacen found that many of those he thought he trusted him were playing a game. ((If you know what I'm talking about, pls don't make any assumptions on who I'm referring to here. You'd probably be wrong.)) A destructive game of false loyalties. Then one day, without a word, without a goodbye or an explanation, his former master vanished. For a few days he expected he'd see him walking around a corner any time now, but then the days turned into weeks, and eventually months. It soon became clear that if his former master was alive, he was not returning to the Potentium. It's the not knowing that ate away at Dacen. Does he still live? Did I drive him away, Was it something I said? Messages were sent to him across the holonet, but no response was ever heard. Dacen had to assume the worst.
Dacen had to find some direction, so he returned to where it all started, his home Dantooine. Upon returning to Dantooine he found it much as he'd left, peaceful farmland. To the crystal caves he went, where first he'd felt the Force. As always when returning to the cave, it was not as he left. Something about the cave seemed to reinvent itself year by year. Kinrath burrow new tunnels here, cave tunnels collapse behind them, very alive the caves are, and strong with the Force. Dacen entered the cave, carrying with him the Amber crystal the cave had surrendered to him on his first visit. Dacen found a peaceful spot near some translucent crystals and an underground river and began to meditate, awaiting a vision of guidance. Sometime later, minutes, hours, he does not know, but sometime later he awoke with a start. All around him, black hooded Sith stand, ancient weapons drawn. Dacen ignites his saber and prepares for the fight of his life. The fight seems to draw the Kinrath, but they only seem to attack Dacen, as if the Sith are controlling them. After expending his last bit of energy, Dacen collapses. He awakes to find himself bound on a stone table, the Sith standing over him and chanting. Pain, darkness, the Force screaming at him, and then nothing, absolute nothing. Dacen awakes lying on his face near the underground river. He reaches inside himself to draw strength from the Force to heal himself and plan his escape, but in the place where he once felt the Force there was emptiness. Dacen had been cut off from the Force.
Clumsily using his saber for light, Dacen fumbled and felt his way out of the cave into the light. What now? He couldn't show his face on Zonama again. What would be expected of him? He'd be no match for a Sith now. He wandered the Galaxy, searching for a way to reconnect himself to the Force. Consulting with ancient Sith Holocrons, what records he could find of the Cult of Ragnos and their techniques for creating Reborn. But no matter how hard he tried he could not find his way back to the Force. In looking for the Force, he found something else, spice and glitterstim. The right combination of spices, stimulants and glitterstim could somewhat reproduce the enhanced reflexes, and even telepathy of the Force, but at a cost. Dacen was nearing the end of his rope until a visit to Zonama one fateful day when he met a stranger, who was strangely familiar. ((Mech Slade in disguise)) Mech opened Dacen's eyes to what had happened to him, and tried to teach him what he could.
That was the beginning of healing, but not the end. Dacen spent more time with Mech, in his guise as the mysteriously shrouded "teacher". Then one day he decided to confront the problem head on, and back to the Crystal caves of Dantooine he went. When he found the place he'd meditated, he could not find any evidence of the battle. He decided to go deeper, deeper into the caves than he'd ever been. It is darker than he remembered, even as a youth, but deeper into the cave he traveled. Crawling on his stomach through near impossible crevases, swimming through underground rivers, lined with force crystals and living creatures enhanced by their power. Deeper he traveled using grapples and ropes, with no particular destination in mind, except farther in. When his light gave out, Dacen used his saber for illumination. When his food supply ran out, he killed and ate whatever he could to sustain himself. Far past any force crystals now, Dacen traveled by darkness, with only blind instinct as a guide. It had been so long since he'd seen the sun that he began to doubt it's existence. From that doubt came others, doubts about the Force, whether he'd had ever been able to feel it.
Dacen was about to give in to despair, when something happened. He'd given up using his saber for light, surrendering to the all encompassing dark of the cave. The darkness seemed to grow darker, and then to form shapes. Dark shapes against a darker backdrop. The shapes grabbed at him, mocking him, imploring him to give in to despair and death. It was then that Dacen found within himself the power that he needed to fight back. He remembered his family, the Potentium. Faces, warm feelings, good friends long gone, enlightening conversations. In his quest to restore a connection to the Force, he'd forgotten what mattered most, his friends and family. With this newfound knowledge, Dacen made the decision that whether or not he ever found the Force again, he would never forget or forsake the Potentium. As the shadows pulled him down, his senses were overwhelmed. A rushing river of power welled up inside him. Dacen Scobal smiled. :) With the fury of a man too long held back by self doubt, he unleashed the full power of what had now returned to him in the shadows, the Force buzzed through him once more. Turning his righteous anger to the shadows, he banished them from the cave. A torrent of the Force swirled around him, when he noticed a light from his pocket. The amber crystal he'd brought with him was glowing, but not red. Something about the experience had turned the crystal Yellow, representative of the Sentinel path he chose long ago. It took weeks to find his way back to the surface, but it seemed like minutes. All he could think was to get back to the Potentium and his family.
Epilogue
In retrospect Dacen has wondered several things about his journey. One, were the Sith who attacked him and stripped him of the Force even really there? And two, how could he bring unity to the fractured House of Potentium? To the first question Dacen believes he has the answer, he has come to believe that both the Sith and his loss of connection to the Force were a manifestation of his own self doubts and confusion. He created them out of meditation to help himself do the thing he knew he needed to do but would not do otherwise. As for the second question, he is still searching for an answer. Dacen Scorbal 14:53, 9 June 2009 (UTC)
Apparent Demise
While exploring the outer rim, Dacen Scorbal, of the Potentium was apparently killed when his ship was destroyed. His ship was ambushed by Black Sun pirates as he was investigating and documenting the site of a large scale space battle of the era of the Empire. Remnants of ships, debris, and an echo in the Force drew him in. He'd not read of a battle in that sector and took it upon himself to document it as best he could. Sending small probes to the skeletons of ships that remained, Dacen hoped to glean information from the ship's computers that would allow historians to re-create the battle, and add it to the archives.
Nearing completion of his work, Dacen was pleased with what information he'd been able to gather. It seems, however, that he was not the first to discover this ship graveyard. Some of the ships he found were obviously of a more recent vintage than the ones involved in the original battle. Dacen had just begun to investigate this when he discovered first hand what had happened. Pirates of the Black Sun had found the site years earlier and set probes to alert them to any ships who'd entered the field and attack/loot them. Several ships dropped from hyperspace and began to close in on Dacen's ship. Launching into an attack Dacen soon found that he was hopelessly outnumbered and the size of his ship made it too easy for their smaller ships to outmaneuver him. Soon they began launching vulture droids at him. No matter how many he took out they kept coming. Dacen carried with him many artifacts, of both the Sith and the Jedi that he had been collecting in an effort to understand the Force as a whole. He would not dare let the pirates sell them to those who might abuse their power. He gathered the Force around himself, and prepared to surrender to it. Turning his freighter he aimed at the largest of the defunct ships that he could reach before his engines were disabled, and throttled up. Although not a Jedi, Dacen found a great comfort in these words:
- There is no emotion, there is peace.
- There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
- There is no passion, there is serenity.
- There is no chaos, there is harmony.
- There is no death, there is the Force.
Dacen had been growing distant of late, living a life of self-imposed exile. Although he loved his Potentium brothers and sisters he found that he spent less and less time with them. He was never unhappy with the hand life dealt him, whether surrounded by friends or alone on his starship exploring the outer reaches of the Galaxy. The Force was his constant companion, and he was all to happy to give himself to it. Dacen Scorbal 14:53, 9 June 2009 (UTC)