Kalin Thalis

Kalin Thalis was a Jedi who was constantly in battle with himself. He felt strong in the Dark Side, but because of the people he loved he had a weakness in the light and his enemies tried to expose it. His rite of passage through the Clone Wars and his conflict in the Force did not only affect his own life, but that of his troops during the war and others.

Birth
Little is known of Kalin's parents, nor do the Jedi archives have any information of them. His mother was a Jedi who led a fair nomadic life, and kept herself mostly active in the Outer Rim, where she felt her help was necessary. During a political crisis on Aargonar she was called back to Temple and ordered to protect Senator Korbin Thalis, who represented the system in the senate. Personal attacks started to increase and they hid themselves in an abandoned homestead, where a relationship, against Jedi rules, started to develop. Eventually the crisis was solved and she found herself at her duty in the Outer Rim again, but not much later she found out she was pregnant with the senator's child. This called from a dramatic decision to leave the Jedi Order for a time being and senator Thalis took her under his wing, where he took the child in his care when she gave birth and named him Kalin Thalis. They decided that for his sake no connection could ever be made to his mother. It was a tough and sad decision Saiya made that eventually destroyed her life.

Joining the Jedi Order
By his mother's wish, knowing Kalin had Force potential, the child was tested by the council. However only a few Jedi learned of her connection with the child and Kalin would only be allowed to join, if she left the order permanently behind. She left the Temple with deep sorrow and as Kalin was brought to the temple to be tested, she caught a small glimpse of him, which was the first and last time she saw him as a small boy. He was accepted and later taken as a Padawan by Master Remus-Qui, before being educated by Plo Koon. He developed a friendship with another Padawan under the name of Qurhon Vos, who was a member of the same clan as Quinlan Vos, yet they were not related. Years passed of heavy trials that would test him in the rest of his life, because in secret his desires for greater power as well as his emotions, drawn by visions of his mother, started to eat at him.

The Battle of Geonosis
Kalin was still a Padawan when the Clone Wars erupted after the Battle of Geonosis, where he lost many of his friends. One of the few, who had survived was his friend Qurhon, who at this point had become a full-fledged Jedi Knight, who knew something was off. After the battle of Geonosis he alienated himself from others, secretly developing new powers, possibly by the small influence Dooku had on him during the battle. He did not agree completely with the council's decisions and he did not judge Count Dooku as others did, thinking they were narrow-minded. He wanted to explore other aspects of the Force, so he could understand it as well as well as Master Yoda could, but in truth no one really understood the Force.

Infiltration of Christophis
While the story spread of Anakin Skywalker's, the hero with no fear and Obi-Wan Kenobi's success, much of the story was left to the unknown. Mostly the involvement of other territories was kept in secret as there were darker moments, which were not as successful. The CIS infiltrated several cities, while the Jedi Knights tried to protect them at all costs. Kalin himself protected one of the smaller cities of Christophsis with his master Remus-Qui. With a limited number of clone troopers, they were at the heat of battle, while AAT's tried to strike down the Republic army. Many clone troopers were lost or severely wounded, while Remus-Qui used his abilities in the Force to heal them, which left only Kalin to lead the army to success. But with almost no experience it was very doubtful he would succeed, despite his master's confidence in him. Kalin led the army with his lightsaber drawn, but his own confidence was struck with fear; fear that led him to tap deeper into the Dark Side. He attacked spider droids with Force Lightning, an ability he had only recently developed in secret. Unfortunately his master was too occupied in the healing of his troops, which drew his attention away from the darkness buried deep in his own Padawan. But even with these abilities Kalin was at a loss. The darknesss got the better of him and the loss of so many clone troopers at his disposal just made matters worse. It was only until back-up arrived after General Kenobi had won his own victory, that the city was saved from infiltration. And Kalin himself was buried in guilt and shame of being unsuccessful. He felt he had let his master down, which would bear deep consequences for his future.

Battle over Ryndellia
When the Malevolence was about to destroy the medical base near the Ryndellia system. When General Kenobi's fleet finally arrived the infernal warship was finally destroyed, while General Skywalker did everything in his power, so that the ship couldn't escape into Hyperspace. Grievous sent out a desperate attack of Vulture-Class droids, but the Republic countered it, sending a batch of Y-Wing fighters assisted by other Jedi starfighters, including Kalin's. His starfighter was supplied with Artoo-Katee, to honour a child, which was lost to an admiral, he was familiar to. The admiral had made this astromech droid to watch over his little girl, while she was ill. She then became one with the Force and the little droid was supplied to the 501st Even though Jedi didn't believe in luck, he felt the droid was as his lucky charm in this mission and he could feel his daughter's presence in the Force, that gave a certain satisfaction that somewhere she was still out there and would always be remembered. He actually pursued Grievous when the Droid General was on the run, but lost him as soon as he entered hyperspace. Victory was still theirs, as the Malevolence was destroyed, and he joined his friends on board of 'The Negotiator', to celebrate.

Freeing Ryloth
When the Separatists occupied the capital Lessu, the Jedi tried to break through the blockade. With a daring manoeuvre, General Skywalker managed to destroy it, with help of his Padawan Ahsoka Tano. The remaining Vulture droids were destroyed by Kalin and his 'Predators', a nickname given to his squadron, known for their lethality in space combat. After the time had finally begun to start their ground assault, Kalin joined Kenobi to scout the planet, though they went their seperate ways. They managed to free several villages, from the clutches of the Separatists. He brought villagers to shelter in Countess Fairlight's palace. There he created a bond with the countess and with another Jedi he met there, with the name Razul Codespark. He tried to help as much as he could, but the battle was still out there. He felt guilty leaving the Countess behind, but the capital was still in the hands of the Separatists and freeing it was going to be an enormous task.



Shortly after he had landed, Kalin suddenly felt a strong Force presence. He quickly turned around and saw a man in light amour and a white Twi'lek on the run. From his first impression they seemed to be a couple. He felt suspicious, especially as he saw a double-bladed lightsaber hanging from the man's belt. He ran after them, determined to find out who they were. He shouted for them to stop, but when he turned around the corner, they had suddenly disappeared. He couldn't sense their presence anymore. Then his com-link went off, asking him to return to the rendezvous point. He nodded, still trying to picture the two mysterious fugitives in his head. Who were they and what were they running from? It was a riddle and one that might not get an answer.

In the meantime General Windu had joined forces with the Freedom Fighters, Kalin was helping out to clear out the villages from a possible attack Unfortunately some villages were already bombarded as he could see the fire and the smoke rising from them. His squad tried to help any possible survivors out of the village, some stuck in the rubble. Then he felt the same Force presence again, he felt in one of the villages. It was the strange suspicious man with the Twi'lek. He was certain it was them. However their presence started to grow weaker; little did he know why. As his curiosity drew him closer to them, he saw a man, in the distance, clearing the debris, from the bombing and saw that the white Twi'lek was covered in it, mortally wounded.

Kalin's eyes widened, running closer to help the man, who desperately tried to save the one he loved. Kalin wanted to do the same and free the woman from the debris. But then he realized it was too late. He saw the Twi'lek closing her eyes as she gave her dying breath. Kalin stopped in his path. He did not know what to do. He wanted to bring comfort to the man in defeat of his lost love and bring some aid. But he felt that the best was to just walk away, so he could give the man some peace and privacy. He gave a sigh wondering who they were. Somehow he felt connected to both of them, and yet he had never met them before.

Kalin cleared the tears from his eyes, caused by the event that had such an emotional impact on him. He knew he could not weep or mourn for her now; there was too much at stake. He was still fighting a battle here. And now he had to return back to combat for the final stage of it; to take back the capital. Mace Windu had come up with a daring plan together with the Freedom fighters. His troops were ordered to await the signal, so he watched by as the attack on Lessu began. Once the control over the plasma bridge was regained, Kalin ran over the bridge, igniting his lightsaber. He helped clearing the city from the remaining battle droids, which did not manage to evacuate.

Closure
Once he arrived at the archives, he sat in a chair with his eyes fixated on the screen, looking for people, who were wanted and others who were missing. First he looked for Jedi of the Twi'lek race, since there was no doubt, that the girl who had died, right before him, was once strong in the Force and from a certain point of view, she always would be. Kalin raised his eyebrow, as a certain file attracted his interest, namely that of Alaira Dalia. The last mission she did was to locate a wanted man, by the name of Avarice Knightfall, but she had gone missing. To recollect more information, he tried to find out more about Knightfall himself. He checked his file and the vague description of his appearance, which could match the one of the man he saw on Ryloth. Kalin nodded, lowering his head slightly as it became clearer what had happened when the Order thought Alaira had gone missing.

It was a strange thought. As stated in his file, Avarice was not seen for more than 2 years. They had been trying to locate and capture this man, and Kalin may have succeeded in locating him. But even if he could, he wouldn't be able to capture him; not like this after he had to suffer the loss of Alaira. He went back to her file and changed her status to 'deceased'. Then he wrote out a full report, which would shine a new light on both their case and hopefully bring some closure to all this.

Drifting to Insanity
Later he was called back to his homeplanet of Aargonar where Ki-Adi-Mundi led a losing battle, he finally fell prey to the Dark Side. He served the general as best as he could, but was separated from the Clones and the other Jedi after a massive explosion erupted created by an air assault of Hyena-Class Droid Bombers.

He found himself unconscious in a desert, lost from his troops. The explosions had dimmed his connection to the Force and he could not sense them. His clothes were ravaged and a rash decision made him cross the desert, where he slowly lost a part of his sanity. After a month he finally had crossed it, but scarred from his inner and outer battles he never was the same. He was found by a Jedi search party and taken to New Holstice where more survivors of the battle tried to recover. After spending days in a bacta tank he physically recovered from his ill experience he had regained his connection to the Force, but felt even stronger connected to the Dark Side.

The Hideout on Korriban
New visions dwelt in his mind at night, often causing him to sweat and wake up in a dying fear. This fear drew him to the planet Korriban, homeworld to the Sith and one of Count Dooku's hiding places. He met in secret with Sora Bulq, who requested the Count to have Kalin tested. He proved himself to be strong in the Dark Side to the Count, but the Sith Lord considered him not ready. One of his stronger points was actually hiding the Dark Side within him. No one was able to detect it, which gave the Count the idea to use Kalin as a spy, after another acolyte had failed at this plan.

The Battle of Kamino
The battle for the clone facility on Kamino demanded more from Kalin, than he had bargained for. Many Jedi were sent in aid and Kalin was among them, dressed in his new gear, but this was actually just the right gear to blend in. The blue colour made him nearly invisible in the blue atmosphere of the water planet. He fought there on both sides. He destroyed as many battle droids, which were in sight, but would occasionally stab a clone, to confuse as well the CIS army and the Republic army of on whose side he was.

Other Jedi did notice new strange habits around him, such as the gear by itself, which was a very awkward attire for a Jedi to wear. This is where he first utilized Force lightning on a massive scale and the conditions of the weather made it only worse as Battle droids electrocuted or even Clone Troopers would fry if they stood too long in the water. The battle was won for the Republic, but it wasn't a true victory for Kalin, whose insanity drove worse and as the Dark Side grew stronger, almost overwhelming.

Falling deeper to the Dark Side
He returned to the Jedi Temple and he seemed perfectly fine, but conflict he felt inside, said otherwise. But because no one detected it, they finally gave him the chance to pass the trials and he succeeded to become a Jedi Knight himself, next to his friend Qurhon. The Kiffar detected something was amiss with Kalin, but he could not put his finger on it. The time that passed through the Clone Wars, his betrayal to the Jedi became clearer. In his own eyes, that betrayal was only justice and necessary for the salvation of the galaxy from the influence of the Republic and its corruption. Little did he know he was on the right track as Palpatine slowly but successfully regained more power as Supreme Chancellor.

The Infiltration of Umbara
One of the strangest battles, Kalin fought in. This is where Dooku gave him no orders. Usually he would fight for the Jedi, while in secret, he would sabotage them. But since no orders were given, he assumed no sabotage was required. When they arrived on the planet, General Skywalker and General Kenobi focused on the infiltration of the capital city. This required a complicated plan as Umbara was heavily defended with unknown technology. Skywalker was ordered to first take out the airbase, otherwise General Kenobi's attack on the city would weaken. Now that Kalin had become a General himself, he took care of taking down the communication tower. Though at that time, he was unaware of General Krell's evil scheme to join the Separatists. While the airbase was still active, the communication tower was more heavily guarded. Taking down their fighters was no easy job to accomplish, but Kalin did what he felt was necessary and for once it felt right.

The clones were ordered to infiltrate the tower by a full frontal attack. If there was something Kalin had in common with Krell, it would be their aggressive tactics, though nobody could say that Kalin had no respect for the clones, or handled his tactics out as extreme as Krell. Once the Umbaran troops were taken down and news arrived that the airbase was in Republic control, it didn't take long before the communication tower was now taken down. Without communication, Umbaran forces were weakened, as they could call for no further back-up and in the end, despite General Krell's scheme, the city was infiltrated and taken over by the Republic. But was this justified? Why did Dooku allow this to happen. Kalin knew the Sith Lord could easily have sent more assistance to defend the city, but this never happened. No doubt the Sith worked in mysterious ways and this only confirmed Kalin's suspicions that more was going on as it seemed.

Kindapping the Chancellor
This was a very complicated plan, considering the Jedi were making the most secret preperations to prevent this plot. While Kalin was still spying for Dooku, he uncovered the plan of the identity switch by bugs hidden in the Old Folk's Home. Dooku had already set his own plan set in motion, which would mix with the criminal mastermind Moralo Eval's plans to kidnap Chancellor Palaptine during the festival on Naboo.

During the time that Kenobi spent on breaking out of jail with his new friends, Kalin was orderred to morph himself, using the same technology, into another bounty hunter. The best candidate for this became Embo, only there was only one issue. Embo was almost four inches taller than Kalin. However Dooku knew of the latest developments in cloning. And he knew that the Kaminoans could use growth acceleration on clones, which was a different process than age acceleration. Age acceleration affected how clones matured and grew into full-grown soldiers, but growth acceleration didn't tamper with the age of these clones.

Since the planet Kamino had sworn their loyalty to the Republic, Kalin was genetaclly modified by Arkanian Microtechnologies, a company that copied techniques they used on Kamino. Kalin grez two inches more in two weeks,which was the only time they had left for the rest of the plan. Kalin could only hope nobody would spot the difference in height, despite the fact he grew two more inches. Taking Embo's place was simple, as he acccepted the invitation to face the challenge in the Box,a huge floating structure designed by Eval and filled with deathtraps. Kalin assumed he would take the role of Embo after his trial inside the box, however Dooku had other plans. He insisted Kalin would take Embo's place to join the other bounty hunters inside the box, to test if anyone would notice the difference. If anyone would, Kalin would be ratted out by his own appearance, and he would be on his own to escape from the box. That was Dooku's decision, to which Kalin agreed on.

After Kalin finally had taken the identity of Embo, he went into the Box and survived thanks to Obi-Wan Kenobi's skills, still disguised as Rako Hardeen and by Kalin's own abilities in the Force, imitating Embo's exceptional athletic skills. He couldn't make much use of them, as a presence in the Force clearly would have been detected by Obi-Wan, despite that Kalin knew how to hide his presence in the Force well.

Since Dooku planned to double-cross Moralo Eval in his plan, because there was no other choice to shake off the Jedi, Kalin had to keep track of of the other bounty hunters. The provided disguises of the senate guards was sabotaged by Kalin. He didn't count on the fact Cad Bane had sabotaged them before him, which made them transparent for a brief moment as a glitch. That is how Kenobi gave away the other bounty hunters as well to Mace Windu. Eventually the Jedi did manage to rescue Palpatine from Dooku, but in this time Kalin, disguised as Embo, was captured. He was taken to prison and didn't count on being freed by Dooku, which would mean he would have to save himself from jail.

No Time for Romance
During the time he lived as well as Jedi and a Sith, he had little time for romances. He never thought about it, until he met a Zabrak girl by the name of Ayanna. She intrigued him because of mutual interests and their power in the Dark Side. Both were attracted to each other, but was their meeting purely a coincidence or was it the Will of the Force? Kalin loved her and she loved him in return. They hid on several planets, one known as Alpheridies, homeplanet of the Miraluka. Here they got wed in secret, away from the war. However Kalin knew that he could not avoid the war forever and left to serve the Jedi, while in secret his allegiance was still to Count Dooku.

Doubts
In the time Kalin and Ayanna were separated, they both became victims in the war, in their own way. Kalin fell deeper to the Dark Side, which is why he barely brought any visits to the Temple anymore, in fear of getting caught. He feared that his ability to prevent other Jedi to sense the Dark Side in him, would be too weak, since it had become much stronger, thus also easier to sense. He fought in the war, but he promised himself that his allegiance was purely to Dooku and not the CIS. He knew why the Trade Federation, the Techo Union and others who had pledged themselves to the Count, were as corrupt as the Republic itself. Ayanna herself was constantly trying to seek shelter from he war, in case any Jedi would suspect her to be a Dark Jedi or worse. Eventually, she got captured by the Jedi who held her under strict supervision.

Fatal injuries
In one of the battles he fought, he got badly injured. A Clone Trooper blasted a bolt, hitting his chest. If not for his shoulder armour, which partially covered his chest, he would have gotten himself killed, in an instant. He was brought to the medical centre, where a modified battle armour was engineered, which allowed him to breathe through his chest. The armour would pump bacta all around his lungs and breathe for him. It also negated the need for a helmet by installing an artificial breathing system in its chest compartment.

Plo Koon's demise
By the time the war was coming to an end, Kalin was stationed in one of the shelters on Korriban. Later all the acolytes heard the news of Count Dooku's demise. They knew that the Jedi now would come for them next. Though from the Dark Lord, Kalin was ordered to move himself to the Outer Rim on Cato Neimodia. As Order 66 was given later, he witnessed Plo Koon's own death. His demise had a large effect on him, as his former Jedi Master Remus-Qui was good friends with Master Plo and he was very helpful in Kalin's training too. This caused a sudden turn of events, and Kalin could not fight for the cause, he could no longer believe in, any longer. He felt that he was deceived and so were the Jedi. This was only confirmed when the true witch hunt continued on the Jedi, but also on the Sith acolytes. There was only one rule that mattered and that was to survive, no matter the cost.

The Fallen Temple
Kalin found out about Ayanna's capture, through anonymous sources. He hurried himself over to Coruscant, where the attack on the Jedi Temple had already been commenced by Darth Vader and the 501st Legion. He hurried himself inside, but because he was the only Force sensitive, who wielded a red lightsaber, he was both an enemy to the Jedi and the 501st Legion, which had come to exterminate them. Even if he had a different lightstaber, he knew it would make little difference, considering the customized armour, he wore. While it was not as easy task to fight both the Clone Troopers and the Jedi at the same, Kalin knew the Temple, which gave him a large advantage to find Ayanna. As soon as he found her, he managed to free her from the energy binders around her wrist, slashing his blade through them. Now the only matter was to escape, but with the Clone Troopers, at Vader's side, gaining the upper hand, they knew their escape was not going to be too easy.

Equipment
Kalin used a variety of lightsabers. His first lightsbar was made of cortosis, a special metal alloy, which would make it impossible for his lightsbar to get damaged by another. The crystal inside was light-blue coloured. He used this lightsaber mostly through his Padawan years and the first years of his Knighthood. He kept this lightsaber hidden under Dooku's command, while he still used it for special missions, which would require him to take the role back of that of a Jed. At a much later stage of his life, he created a twin version of it, with one minor difference and that was that the twin lightsaber was not constructed by the same metal. At the last years he spent as a Jedi Knight he morphed both lightsabers into a double-bladed one, however he coated it with an extra layer of cortosis, which helped in the process to merge them together.

Durhing his Sith years, Kalin created a lightsaber, which many found similar to the design of Anakin's Skywalkers, only the hull was not made of full metal. This lightsaber used a synthetic crimson-coloured crystal to create the red blade, the Sith are so familiar with. Dooku gave him the crystal and claimed it was once the possession of an Elder Sith Lord, though his identity was never revealed, nor was it ever confirmed if this was the truth.

Like with his Jedi lightsaber, he later transformed it to a double-bladed lightsaber, however he never used cortosis for either of them, because at this point Kalin was getting overconfident and didn't think he would ever need an enhanced lightsaber in combat. Both lightsabers had activation buttons with a laser inscription on it, with rare Sith symbols. Kalin presumably lost this lightsaber when he tried to escape the temple, but that also remains a rumour.

Behind the Scenes

 * The character of Kalin Thalis was created in 2007 for a novel I created with my wife/member Ayanna Thalis. We wrote a story that took place more than 400 years after the Battle of Yavin, which gave us a lot of freedom to create our own story, based on the same patterns as the original Star Wars saga using mythology as our greatest source as George Lucas also made use of it to make the story of Star Wars as great as it now.
 * Later I moved the character also to a text-based RPG forum, created by me and my wife. Because of our love for writing, we had great fun doing it. The story took off in a similar way compared to that of the novel, but differed of course because it took place in a different timeline, namely the Galactic Civil War.
 * When I joined CWA I tried to recreate it as best as I could as I had envisioned him in the first picture in this article. Using Anakin's original gear was the best way, which was given to me by a friend, member Countess Fairlight. The similarity is actually purely a coincidence as I started to make the picture a year before the movie of The Clone Wars came out.
 * All the pictures in the article were created by myself. Some were made with little to much aid with my wife, manipulating pictures of existing characters, combining them with other pictures of the saga and using actors such as Ryan Phillipe for the character of Kalin himself, who has similar features to Hayden Christensen. Some backgrounds were created by Deviant artists, which I am very grateful for to use.
 * In the part of 'Battle over Ryndellia', I made a reference to R2-KT, which is a pink astromech droid, which was created for the daughter of the founder of the 501st Legion, Katie Johnson. Katie got the support of thousands of Star Wars fans and celebrities in her days of struggle, and her sisters came up with the idea of of Artoo-Katee, thanks to the R2-builders. Then, unfortunately she passed away of cancer, but she will always be remembered. The droid still makes appearances at conventions, such as Star Wars Celebration, Comic-Con etc. She was made canon, for the first time, for her appearance in 'The Clone Wars' movie and episodes such as 'Jedi Crash' and 'Storm over Ryloth'. You can even see her in the game from time to time. For a limited time she was also for sale, and the money was given to a charity project.
 * I'm a member of the Artist's High Commune, a squad created by Countess Fairlight.