SKILLS
ATHLETICS: Expert - Galen is a highly skilled athlete when it comes to running, throwing, climbing, jumping, lifting, swimming, and so forth. He has excellent stamina, reflexes, and general fitness.
BLASTERS: Novice - Galen has only limited skill when it comes to firing blasters, whether they be hold-out blasters, pistols, rifles, carbines, or various forms of mounted artillery.
BRAWLING: Competent - Galen's training has specialized primarily in lightsaber combat, but he is reasonably skilled at unarmed maneuvers as well and can hold his own in a brawl.
CHARISMA: Competent - While he has a reasonable idea of how to talk to people, whether on the street or in polite company, Galen is not a master of etiquette. However, he is uncommonly skilled at expressing ideas, whether sincerely held or not, in ways that are simple yet emotionally resonate with others. Perhaps because of the intensity of how he's lived his life, he's simply unusually capable of expressing concepts to others in a way that tends to be emotionally impactful and convincing.
KNOWLEDGE: Competent - Galen has a reasonable knowledge of many galactic cultures, planets, and so forth. He speaks multiple languages, and he's generally familiar with how to get by on the shadier side of the galaxy or in the Imperial court with equal competence.
LIGHTSABER: Expert - Galen has trained extensively in all seven forms of lightsaber combat, enough to be able to quickly recognize an opponent's technique and exploit any weaknesses. His own favored forms are: Form III, also known as Soresu or the Resilience Form, which focuses on strong defense, deflecting saber strikes or blaster fire effectively; Form V, also known as Shien or the Perseverance Form, which focuses on redirecting attacks back at their source, especially blaster bolts; and Form VII, also known as Juyo or the Ferocity Form, which focuses on a highly aggressive, focused offense, especially against a single opponent. He has also borrowed techniques from Form VI, also known as Niman or the Moderation Form, which focuses on integrating Force powers into lightsaber combat. Galen's resulting style is highly unpredictable, combining sudden Force-based attacks with complex lightsaber sequences. He has also trained to switch easily between a classical or reversed grip stance, making his maneuvers all the harder for opponents to judge.
MEDICINE: Novice - Galen has a basic knowledge of medicine, such that he can render basic first aid, even out in the field.
PILOTING: Novice - Galen can fly a starship with a passable level of skill, but it's not something he has developed as a particular expertise. He can similarly operate repulsorlifts and swoops, even turning a few fancy maneuvers, but he is not by any means a dedicated pilot.
STEALTH: Competent - While stealth is not part of Galen's primary skill set, it still comes in handy enough that he has made sure to cultivate the ability to sneak around or hide at a reasonable level of competence.
SURVIVAL: Competent - Part of Galen's training has been how to survive and blend in to various environments, from the deep woods of Kashyyyk to the mean streets of Nar Shaddaa. In most environments, he can find one way or another to make them reasonably habitable.
TECHNICAL: Competent - From communications technology to droid programming, equipment repair, or rewiring a basic door lock, Galen is reasonably competent at technical skill.
WILLPOWER: Expert - Training under Darth Vader will, inevitably, either break a person or galvanize them. In Galen's case, it's been the latter. His mind and will are focused, powerful, and very difficult to sway or violate against his wishes. He weathers mental assault and repels mental intrusion better than most, and it's much more difficult to compel him to do anything he is not inclined to do.
ABILITIES
ENHANCE TRAIT: Enhanced-level Force Power - The Force can enhance its user in many ways. Specialized uses of this talent include Force healing and Force speed, but in more general terms it can be used to enhance the user in various ways. These include improving a skill that relies on mental focus or manual dexterity, imparting increased physical toughness such as to reduce injury, sharpening senses, or increasing physical strength. In practice, this ability can stand in for any other personal attribute when invoked, though only one attribute can be enhanced at a time: strength, dexterity, toughness, perception, intelligence, etc. This is accomplished via a brief meditation, after which the effect generally lasts from a few minutes up to a few hours, depending on the ability of the user and the length of time spend preparing. It can also be used in brief bursts of up to a few seconds with no advance preparation.
Galen is a fairly typical user of this ability. He most often uses this ability to sharpen his reflexes in combat. He does not as often enhance his strength or physical senses, as lightsabers do not require great strength to wield, and he tends to trust in his ability to sense the world around him through the Force itself. As a result of his extensive training and the extreme levels of physical punishment that he has taught himself to endure, he has also developed a level of physical resiliency that puts his passive toughness at effectively Enhanced level at all times. He cannot, for instance, shrug off a blaster bolt or lightsaber, but he can survive them and will take much less critical damage than most would.
FARSIGHT: Basic-level Force Power - This form of advanced clairvoyance allows the Force-user to see visions of other locations, even other times. This may include seeing a target in real time, witnessing the events happening to and around them, but it may also convey glimpses of the future, though these are seldom to be depended upon, as the future is always in motion, always changing. The more physical and emotional distance between the farseer and their target, the more difficult the feat becomes. Between two farseers, it's possible to achieve mental communication in this way, though usually such effects are limited.
In Galen's case, he has little experience with farsight, so his skill is normally limited to giving him a small edge of fractions of a second in terms of reaction times, but this can be very useful in combat situations. He is able to sense his surroundings through Force-based awareness, whether he physically perceives them or not. To actually glimpse another at a great distance, such as on another planet, as other strong Force-users have been known to do, Galen would need to have an extremely strong emotional connection to the target and be in a state of peaceful, meditative focus.
FORCE HEALING: Basic-level Force Power - By combining microtelekinesis and the ability to enhance the body in specific ways, Force-users are able to provide various healing effects for themselves or others. This includes repairing injuries, detoxifying poisons, combating illness, or even placing oneself or another in a stasis trance, allowing them to stabilize from injuries and exist with limited food, water, or oxygen or in other physically strenuous conditions for extended periods. This ability generally requires close proximity or contact with the intended target if it is being used on another. Such healing generally a gradual process, taking place over hours or days, though particularly gifted healers may be able to achieve much faster results.
Galen is not a gifted healer. He can heal most injuries, detoxify most poisons, or even fight off most forms of disease, but he will often require a healing stasis trance for anything but minor problems, and it can take him days at a time to achieve full recovery--longer if the injury or ailment was especially bad. When in such a trance, he will awaken either after the period of time he intended to go under, when in peril, or when there is a grave disturbance in The Force
FORCE LIGHTNING: Supreme-level Force Power - Most known for its use among Dark Side practitioners, Force Lightning is the ability to project energy in a directed form at one or more targets. This energy can be used in small doses to stun an opponent or, at higher levels, to kill. Sustained exposure is extremely painful, and some are known to use it at moderate levels as a form of torture. Long-term exposure can cause extensive damage to the body, especially the skeletal, muscular, nervous, and circulatory systems. When channeled via the Dark Side, the effects can be even worse, corrupting tissue and causing physical deformity.
Galen is a powerful but practical user of this technique. He generally either uses it only to stun or, when needed, cleanly kill an opponent. He is also capable of generating what is informally known as a "Sith Seeker." This technique involves force-pushing a target with telekinesis, then sending a potent, focused orb of Force lightning into them, where it then explodes. The result is extremely destructive, making it something that, since turning to the Light, Galen is much more hesitant to use, especially on living opponents.
FORCE RESISTANCE: Enhanced-level Force Power - The Force can be a powerful means of defense, even against other Force powers. The ability to resist other Force powers is especially useful when resisting invasive powers, such as draining one's essence through the Force, or exposure to the corrupting influence of the Dark Side. Force Resistance also grants passive defenses against powers that induced fear, disorientation, loss of senses, paralysis, or otherwise directly affect a target through the Force. Generally, it does not protect against having one's thoughts read or influenced via mentalism, however, and it does not counter powers such as Force lightning or telekinesis.
Galen is a skilled used of Force resistance, able to aptly resist direct force powers and the corruption of the Dark Side at an Enhanced level.
FORCE SPEED: Enhanced-level Force Power - Force speed is a combination of applied telekinesis and body control an enhancement, allowing the user to move at up to hundreds of miles per hour, usually only for a few seconds before it becomes physically harmful to maintain. The greater one's aptitude with the ability, the faster one can move and the longer they may safely maintain that speed. While accelerated in this fashion, the user does not only become physically faster, but their agility, thoughts, and perceptions are similarly enhanced, the world seeming to slow around them and enabling greater accuracy in attacks or making it easier to defend against them. To safely avoid harming oneself, after using a burst of speed, one must rest for at least as long as that burst of speed lasted.
Galen is able to increase his agility to perhaps twenty times that of a normal human, able to catch slower-moving projectiles, such as primitive arrows, or to dodge blaster fire with a bit of luck. In this state, he can run at up to 250 miles per hour. He can maintain this state for up to thirty seconds at a time before doing himself harm, though he usually uses it for far less time than that at once, using it instead in tiny increments during a fight or for a momentary burst of acceleration when he needs it most.
MENTALISM: Basic-level Force Power - Force-users of sufficient ability are able to perform a vast array of mind-to-mind effects, from reading the thoughts of another or probing their memories to actually influencing or controlling their thoughts, telepathic communication, or shielding their own minds or the minds of allies from such effects or influences. Force mentalism can a
ADVANTAGES
HOUSE MAREK - Galen is the last scion of the Marek family, who came from noble blood in antiquity but had become a line of Jedi Knights. What nobility they came from is long forgotten, but they still have their house crest, a crimson starbird or phoenix emblem, and family signet ring, which Galen recovered along with his father's lightsaber crystals on a trip to Kashyyyk. There are no family assets left, nor any particular sway left in the family line, but after growing up in darkness, Galen clings to his name and his relics, as they represent where he comes from and that he can be something more than the pawn of others.
PROXY - One of the few possessions Galen still has is PROXY, his specialized training and caretaker droid, though he thinks of the droid as a companion rather than a possession. PROXY is a rare and advanced holodroid, equipped with the most advanced holographic equipment available. This enables him to take on the appearance and voice patterns of nearly any humanoid life form. Equipped by the Empire with an expansive database to draw from, he is able to impeccably impersonate a vast array of individuals. This can also be combined with a Hypernet or HoloNet communications link, allowing him to serve as an in-person representation of anyone that his master needed to communicate with. He is able to scan and store the images and voiceprints of those he meets.
PROXY's primary function, however, is combat training. Equipped with a complex set of miniature repulsors and tractor beams, he is able to simulate telekinetic Force pulls and pushes or lightsaber throws. Coupled with his expansive combat database, he is able to successfully mimic a wide variety of opponents, including Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Qui-Gon Jinn, Darth Maul, Jango Fett, Shaak Ti, and others, including Galen. His emulations are not flawless, but they are quite good, certainly enough for training purposes. PROXY has been known to engage in training by frequently surprising Galen at awkward or unsuspecting moments, then forcing him into a fierce duel in order to keep his skills sharp. There is no malice in this, as it is simply a part of PROXY's programming, and he is happy to serve.
PROXY possesses Expert-level lightsaber combat skills; Enhanced-level strength, durability, and agility; and Basic-level simulated telekinesis. He is equipped with a lightsaber capable of projecting either a single blade or dual blades, in the form of a saber staff. Despite somewhat resembling one, he is not especially programmed as a protocol droid, speaking and understanding only the Basic and Binary languages.
ROGUE SHADOW - The Rogue Shadow is a heavily modified Imperial transport, custom designed to serve as Starkiller's personal starship. In the past, the vessel was always piloted by an elite Imperial officer, though these days Galen must make do on his own. Built primarily for stealth and infiltration, the Rogue Shadow features state-of-the-art cloaking technology and a highly advanced hyperdrive engine, which allow the ship to travel long distances at great speed without risking detection. It carries a light, standard armament and deflector shields.
WEAKNESSES
BALANCING THE FORCE - Having been trained up deeply immersed in the Dark Side of the Force, then recently exposed to the Light, Galen has found it impossible to go entirely without either one. He cannot let himself go back to the Dark, for fear it will consume him, but neither can he leave it entirely and go to the Light, for the Dark is too deeply a part of him. As a result, me must constantly struggle and strive for balance, something that few have ever accomplished harmoniously.
HUNTED - Having been raised as Darth Vader's secret apprentice, Galen enjoyed a certain measure of privilege within the Empire. Now that he has fled from his life there, he's an outlaw, wanted by the Empire, and Darth Vader himself would dearly like to kill him. Suffice to say, this makes his life interesting in the very least pleasant senses of the word.
TRAUMATIC PAST - Being raised by Darth Vader is not a healthy experience. Having had to fight to survive from his earliest days, Galen has the marks of a very traumatic past left deep in his psyche. This has made him hesitant to trust most others, unable to integrate easily into society, but when he does find those he can connect to, he becomes obsessively protective of them and will go to any lengths to keep them safe.
