Lelal Mekha

"There is no escape, the Jedi Order has rotten."

- Lelal Mekha to Visivious Drakarn

Lelal Mekha was the son of deposed aristocrats of the city of Calius Saj Leeloo. His life stretched throughout a Jedi apprenticeship, a long time of hiding, a resurging as a Dark Jedi and his (supposed) death on Coruscant.

Biography
The young boy was born in the richest city of his planet, in a most ancient and venerable family. Just like many others at the time, he was quickly found out to be Force-sensitive, and brought to the Jedi Temple in Galactic City. He soon appeared to be a talented but grumpy and somewhat unbalanced student. When he reached his thirteen, he fancied the idea of being chosen by a famous Jedi master, and sincerely hoped Count Dooku would train him. However, his wish was not satisfied. Instead of it, he was granted Sifo-Dyas as his new master. Throughout the years, they developed a difficult relationship based on Lelal’s frustration and his master’s will of making a grand Knight. Lelal Mekha often caused many concerns for the Council, for he was an assiduous padawan, but often got into murky ventures. His best fiend in the Temple was Visivious Drakarn, a rebellious apprentice who would always carry out bad tricks wherever it was possible. Their “infernal duo” aroused many arguments between elder such as Jorus C’Baoth and Thracia Cho Leem. C’Baoth thought their partnership was dangerous and, for some reason, dubious, while the latter assimilated their behaviour to “a normal need for teenagers to make some noise”.

Two years before the Battle of Naboo, Visivious was carried away with the Jedi Agricultural Corps as a punishment. By then, Lelal kept calm, but he was more and more often subject to mood swings. Then came the fatal year 32 BBY. So many things happened then; first of all, his master Sifo-Dyas, never returned from one of his “secret mission”. The Jedi had no time for mourning him, because the blockade of Naboo quickly turned into war. At the end of this conflict, the famous Qui-Gon Jinn was dead, and in the aftermath, his former mentor Count Dooku decided to leave the Jedi forever. The old man was definitely sick of all that corruption and above all sick of the Jedi’s submission to the Senate. Seeing a chance to escape that now awful place, Lelal got furtively into Dooku’s private ship when he was about to leave Coruscant, hoping the old master would accept him as a companion. This, indeed, never happened.

Dooku promised he wouldn’t denounce his betrayal, but told he would never accept anyone travelling with him. As a consequence, Mekha debarked somewhere in Galactic City and decided to start with a new life. Now alone with his lightsaber and his anger, he arranged himself a living in the lower levels of Coruscant. His main way of getting food were stealing and racketing. For about thirteen years, his life was based on fear. Not only the fear he did to others, but also his own fear. The existence in lower layers was awful, grim, and totally unaware of all that could happen in the surface world. This means he knew nothing of Palpatine’s chancellorship. He knew nothing of the Clone Wars. He knew nothing until the day he decided to resurface, and then he faced a powerful surprise. He was told the Jedi had been wiped out by a new Sith Emperor and his mighty apprentice. He was also said a Dark Jedi insurrection and a three years long galactic conflict had been transforming things forever. Lelal had to find a new allegiance, and he immediatly saw which one he would take.

Having grown in the dark with a blistering hate towards the Jedi, Lelal Mekha ran to the Imperial Palace and bowed before the Emperor. He took oath to Palpatine and the Sith teachings. A bit later, he started his training to become a member of the Secret Order.

To his delight, Emperor Palpatine granted him his trust and allowed Mekha many privileges. This caused the young Dark Initiate to be despised by other members of the Secret Order. Some of those decided they had to get rid of this young intruder, and they managed to scar him with acid in his sleep. The wound was so severe that he now looked like his dark master, like an old man with pale skin, searing, sickly yellow eyes. A fierce battle ensued, but Lelal Mekha couldn’t match ten opponents at the time. He got knocked out and imprisoned into carbonite.

(to be continued soon)