Pankaja is an older Wookiee who enjoys talking of battles long-since passed, protecting his honor family, making his friends laugh, and knocking back a few Corellian ales. Don't be fooled though, there's a born and bred warrior beneath his graying fur.
Biography[]
Life on Kashyyyk[]
Pankaja (or Pan to his closest friends) was born in the village of Rroolammkerwook on the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk. His father was a shaman in their village; from a young age, Pan was steeped in the traditions and legends of great Wooks, ancient beasts, and the herbs and medicines of their planet.
Like most Wookiees, Pan was raised a warrior. However, he was born in an era of peace, and the young Wookiees of Rroolammkerwook grew restless. One night, a fight erupted amongst the teenage pups, and Pan's best friend was slain by another Wookiee.
Born to believe in honor, but never in revenge, Pan was devastated by his friend's unhonorable death and his inability to act. He quickly began looking for a way to escape his planet- he wanted to see the thrill of great battles and the rest of the galaxy, as well as escape his sorrows and the torment and disillusionment caused by the loss of his friend.
For days, weeks, and then months, Pan watched the sky, hoping for some sort of ship to go by- though it took years for his hopes to be answered. When a ship full of aging (and slightly tipsy) space pirates crashed near his village in the early hours of the morning, Pan raced to the crash site to investigate before any other Wookiees could. He found and befriended the survivors, helping them to repair their ship. Though they didn't understand each other's language, they understood the offer the mutual friendship that had quickly grown amongst the group.
Redemption on Velmor[]
Pan traveled the galaxy with the rough and tumble group of smugglers and when the last of them had passed on, he inherited the ship, the ship they had aptly renamed the Drunken Wroshyr in Pan's honor.
Since then, Pan traveled the galaxy bartering his way from planet to planet with the stolen goods he acquired as he joined different smuggling crews and rings. About 300 years after he left Kashyyyk, the Wookiee was just beginning to enter the later years of his prime. At the time, he was working as a smuggler on the distant world of Del Velmor.
At the moment, Velmor was in an era of peace though and he was soon caught red handed helping smuggle illegal spices onto the planet. He and his smuggler companions were imprisioned and sentenced to death.
The King of Velmor was brought a stackful of execution papers he was to sign. Curious as to what could possibly have neccessitated a mass execution, he went to the prison complex. Having been a bit of an adventurer himself in his younger years, the ruler couldn't find it in his heart to execute the rag-tag group of pirates. He freed them, thus saving Pankaja's life. In Wookiee tradition, this meant that his life was now indebted to the King of Velmor.
Pan quickly became the King's top bodyguard. Always at the monarch's side, Pan quickly learned the ways of nobility- all the while protecting the King from various assassination attempts.
Peace never lasts long in the galaxy though. The Sith, in search of the elusive and mysterious Velmstones housed by the royal family, soon invaded the planet's capital city. Storming the city, they left no survivors as they marched on the throne room.
The King knew they stood no chance against the Sith agents sent to kill them. His final act as ruler was to send Pan to find the infant princess and to watch over her until she was old enough to be Queen. He burst into the girl's chambers only to find the infant gone. Using every secret passageway and tunnel he knew, he snaked his way through the palace, avoiding the Sith as they slew all the other survivors. When he arrived at the abandoned star port, all he could ascertain was that the last evac ship had taken off. Either the ship contained the princess, Hyacinth, or she had been captured or killed. Either option meant he had failed in his final duty. He made for the Wroshry, turning his back on Velmor for years to come.
Raising Hyacinth[]
The next eight years of Pankaja's life were a haze of drunken and depressed infamy. Knowing he had failed his life debt and the honor of his tribe, he could not return home, nor could he make himself known in Imperial space- he'd be seen as a traitor and coward for abandoning his Lord and savior. Instead, he spent his time working as muscle for crime bosses and cantinas, losing everything he had but his own ship.
Just a few days from the eight anniversary of the Sith Invasion on Velmor, Pan found a small girl trying to pick his pocket. Grabbing her by her arm and dangling her in front of his face, he scowled at her. The frown quickly turned to a grin. Though small, she had the vim and vigor he always admired in humans, and this was the most fiery, red-headed preteen he had ever known. He quickly took the orphan under his wing, teaching her how to be a proper pickpocket.
Once she learned to trust her big friend, the girl revealed to him her most prized possession- a necklace left to her by her deceased father. Pankaja instantly recognized the crown jewels of the Velmoran throne and realized after all these years, the long lost Princess Hyacinth of Velmor was his companion. From then on, he devoted every fiber of his being into raising the girl to be ready for her inevitable destiny- reclaiming her throne.
Ten years later, he would finally reveal this stunning history to the now grown Hyacinth. Having been all she knew for a father, the two had become an inseparable pair, partners in crime who had stormed the galaxy with their charm and wit.
Senator Pankaja the Revolutionary[]
When Empress Jael reinstated the Imperial Senate, both Pankaja and Hyacinth were asked to serve. They both happily accepted. A benevolent and opinionated representative, he recruited countless individuals to Hyacinth's cause, the Royal Liberation Force. Allied with the likes of Master Questi, and the reformed and fallen Adazca, the Wookiee and his ward Hyacinth worked their way into galactic history. Rallying the Wookiees on Kashyyyk, the Senator bolstered the ranks of the RLF with his people with the help of Hyacinth and Questi.
When it became apparent Empress Jael was undermining the Senate's authority, he was the first to resign his position and officially declare himself against the Jael regime. At about this time, he took in a young and eccentric Echani teen known only as Skye. In exchange for funding his dream of owning his own repair shop, Hyacinth and Pankaja used the backroom of his shop as the secret headquarters of the RLF. Pan was housed there until the Empire routed the base and dumped the RLF to Korriban.
Retirement[]
Hyacinth, now happily married and pregnant, was safe and no longer the charge of the Wookiee. His debt had been fulfilled to Hyacinth and he was free. However, he couldn't bare to leave the woman who had become his own daughter and pledged himself to protect her future daughter as he had her mother.
Little did he know that this easy retirement he had plan would involve Hyacinth's supposed death, raising Calliope with the Royal Family of Onderon, crowning Calli as Empress of the Galactic Empire, acting as Calli's top advisor, and raising two more orphans including Dorian, a young smuggler much like his younger self, and Orion, a Force-sensitive young one adopted by himself and Master Questi.