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 in 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, again 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 finally 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 he saw her as a smalll boy. He was accepted and taken as a padawan by Master Remus-Qui. 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 errupted 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 Geososis 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 aswell as Master Yoda could, but in truth no one really understood the Force.

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 a pink astromech droid, to honour honour a child, which was lost to a great man, he was familiar to him. 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 manouever, General Skywalker managed to destroy it, with help of his Padawan Ashoka 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. But freeing Lessu was going to be a larger task. After General Windu had joined forces with the Freedom Fighters, the attack on Lessu began. Once the control over the plasma bridge was regained, Kalin helped clearing the city from the remaining battle droids, which did not manage to evacuate.

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 aswell 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 his inner conflict 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. He detected something was amiss with his Kalin, but he could not put his finger on it. The time that passed through the Clone Wars showed his betrayal to the Jedi. But everyone who was witness was brought to an end. In his own eyes, it was only justice and 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.

No Time for Romance
During the time he lived as well as Jedi and a Sith, he had little for romances. He never thought about it, until he met a Zabrak girl by the name of Ayanna. She intrigued him because of mutal 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 fell victim to 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 more easy to sense. He fought in the war, but he promised himself that his allegiance was purely to Dooku and 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 center, where a modifed battle armor was engineered, which allowed him to breathe through his chest. The amrour 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 Dard 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 upperhand, they knew their escape was not going to be too easy.

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 game I created a squad called 'Masters of Myth'. I gave it that name as a reference to the mythology we used in the story and my admiration for Joseph Campbell, who is a true master of myth as is George Lucas.
 * 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 in her days of struggle, which resulted in the creation 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.