The Essential Guide to Force Exile/Drelve Tlaleo

Drelve Tlaleo was born on Saloch, one of the Tunroth’s colony worlds in the Jiroch system. Drelve never knew his parents, and was orphaned at an early age. Drelve eventually found comfort and protection in the street gang known as Forlorn Caduceus. Like most street gangs on Saloch in the years leading up to the Clone Wars, the gang was composed almost entirely of orphaned or abandoned Tunroth youth.

During his time in the gang, Drelve took up hunting, and was trained by fellow gang member Carvos D’loran. All Tunroth were born with a natural ability to track and subdue prey – they were natural predators – and Drelve was no exception. During the next few years of his life, Drelve became skilled with the kilter battle staff used by Tunroth Hunters and attained the rank of Shturlan.

When he was seventeen, Drelve discovered that his friend, Carvos, had been killed at the behest of the gang’s leader, a nationalistic zealot known only as The Phantom. Carvos’s death hit Drelve hard, and caused him to become reclusive and enter a phase of depression. After several weeks of painful self-reflection and desolate emotions, Drelve decided the only reason for his existence was to avenge Carvos’s death and kill The Phantom. Training with other Tunroth in sparring arenas and during the bimonthly hunts that took place on Saloch, Drelve assumed that within a year, he would be powerful enough to kill The Phantom and end his control over the Forlorn Caduceus.

However, The Phantom had caught wind of Drelve’s plan, and during the festival of the winter solstice on Saloch, the gang boss had Drelve captured and sold to Black Sun slavers who would eventually sell the Tunroth to the highest bidder. Drelve attempted to take his own life while he was stationed on the Black Sun ship Moonlight’s Plague but a fellow Tunroth captive named Tonas Vueral thwarted his suicide attempt. In a blind rage, Drelve attempted to kill Tonas for hindering his plot to kill himself; however, Tonas proved a stronger combatant and temporarily incapacitated Drelve before attempting to talk sense into the furious other Tunroth. Eventually, Tonas convinced the hapless Drelve to keep on living, if only to honor his friend’s death and eventually receive his revenge, and informed Drelve of his plan to escape the Moonlight’s Plague. Although Drelve was skeptical at first, he became convinced that Tonas knew what he was doing and decided to aid him in his attempt to leave the Black Sun vessel.

Starting a prison riot, the two Tunroth managed to ignite enough panic throughout the ship that the pair of Tunroth could slip by the chaotic hordes undetected and make their way to the ship’s hangar. The hangar – like the remainder of the ship – had been thrown into disarray, and Drelve and Tonas used the situation to escape the ship in a Z-95 Headhunter. Returning to Saloch, the two Tunroth parted ways, promising to meet again before Tonas used the Z-95 Headhunter to travel into the Galactic Republic in search of work. Meanwhile, Drelve ventured through the Saloch wilderness trained; Drelve was determined to extract revenge upon Carvos’s killer, or die trying.

After three years of strenuous desert training, Drelve equipped himself with only a kilter battle staff and a light mesh combat suit and traveled to the headquarters of The Phantom, located deep within Saloch’s capital. Upon reaching the base itself, Drelve fought through dozens of guards and gang members in an attempt to reach The Phantom, although he received multiple wounds, scars, and injuries. As he ventured through the base, Drelve knew he couldn’t combat the entire compound and its guardsmen, so he surrendered to The Phantom’s personal guards. This was only a ruse, however. Once the guards brought him before The Phantom – in stun cuffs – to be punished, Drelve strangled one of the guards with his colossal arms and broke the other’s kneecaps with his greaves. Now that he was alone with The Phantom, Drelve condemned the gang leader; he accused him of exploiting the needs of the Tunroth, collaborating with the Black Sun, and needlessly slaughtering his political opponents when they attempted to speak against him.

The Phantom denied this, however, and assured Drelve that he only had the best interest of all the Tunroth at heart. When Drelve questioned him about the death of Carvos, The Phantom explained that his death was necessary to delay the peace talks that were taking place between the Republic and the Tunroth triumvirate. Carvos’s father was an influential Tunroth diplomat, and his son’s death would hinder any such talks; The Phantom was certain these talks were nothing but the Republic’s shallow attempt to establish dominance over the Tunroth and their worlds. Once The Phantom had explained his point of view, he drew a blaster pistol – even though if a Tunroth used high-tech weaponry, it was considered a breech of their honor code – and shot Drelve several times, hoping the wounds would kill the meddlesome Tunroth.

However, the shots barely affected Drelve; the adrenaline rush and rage clouded his mind and made him nearly immune to the pain. Rushing toward The Phantom, Drelve grasped the gang leader’s head with his bound hands and smashed it into his desk. Repeating the actions several times, Drelve waited until The Phantom’s skull had shattered before he finally stopped, not giving the crimelord a chance to surrender or plea with the wrathful Tunroth.

Drelve knew he would no longer be accepted on Saloch due to The Phantom’s violent murder. Escaping the planet via civilian transport ship, Drelve eventually made his way to Commenor, where he found work with Durashield Securities, Inc., a popular security agency on the planet’s surface. Although Drelve did not care about the wages or the nature of the work he participated in, he was irritated by the company’s choice of his business partner, a Twi’lek named Bwilor Haenn. Unlike Drelve, Bwilor was astute, usually friendly, and quite easy-going, and his personality clashed with Drelve’s, although neither of them addressed it directly.

One of their earliest jobs together was dealing with the infamous swoop gang known only as The Skulls. During the meeting, Bwilor attempted to negotiate with the swoop gang leader, at the time a Near-Human known as Zekka Thyne. Thyne didn’t take lightly to Bwilor’s demands to abandon their efforts on Commenor, so he commanded his allies to capture Bwilor and ransom him back to the government. However, Drelve arrived on the scene before Bwilor could be captured and he threatened to kill the first swoop rider who attempted to harm Bwilor. Thyne, unwilling to risk any of his men against the hulking Tunroth, yielded to their demands and left Commenor.

From then on, Drelve and Bwilor saw each other on much better terms. In a few years, Bwilor had been promoted to the head of Durashield’s office in Munto. Once he had accepted the position, Bwilor personally requested that Drelve be assigned under him as a business associate, and the Tunroth gladly accepted. By 18 BBY, the pair had taken on – and solved with a great deal of success – thirty-five cases around Commenor, and Durashield’s business had increased substantially.

In 18 BBY, Bwilor received a call from an old spacer friend of his named R'hask Sei'lar, who wanted Durashield to protect a Commenorian family, the Kraens. The family had already been attacked once by fierce female warriors of the Mistryl Shadow Guard. Arriving that morning, Drelve was instructed to bring an injured Kraen named Micor from the medcenter over to the Kraen residence, as Captain Sei'lar was planning on taking Micor offworld for medical treatment. After that, Drelve's next job was to shadow another Kraen named Sarth while he had an interview over lunch with a local law enforcement officer named Annita Daowot. During their lunch, a Mistryl brazenly attacked them. While Annita and Sarth tried to fend the swoop bike-riding Mistryl off, it was not until Drelve disabled her vehicle with one swing of his battle staff that the Mistryl ran off. After that incident, Bwilor and Drelve agreed with the law enforcement that the Kraens should be removed to a remote safe house for their own protection. The two Durashield Securities guards, along with a pair of ex-Republic ARC troopers named Spectre and Twone that had recently been hired by Bwilor, were contracted to watch over the Kraens.

They did so for the next few weeks, but even their vigilance was not enough to prevent the Mistryl from assaulting the safe house one evening under the cover of night. While Spectre and Twone made a stand at the entrance of the house, Drelve and Bwilor formed the last line of defense. Together, they dealt with the Mistryl who penetrated the defenses, and Drelve personally dispatched her with his battle staff. After the skirmish, the Kraens and the guards were escorted by law enforcement to a medcenter in the town of Munto for treatment of their injuries. Not long after that, their contract was released, as the last Mistryl was dealt with by one of the Kraens. Sadly, though, Twone died from the wounds he'd received from the Mistryl and Spectre left Durashield shortly after that.

Following the Kraen/Mistryl incident, Drelve and Bwilor returned to their business, which continued to flourish in the increasingly unsafe times of the Empire. They experienced some level of discrimination for being nonhuman, which eventually caused them to leave Commenor in 5 BBY. However, their ignorance about Micor Kraen's true identity as fugitive Jedi Knight turned smuggler Selusda Kraen saved them any negative repercussions from the incident.

Behind the scenes
Drelve Tlaleo was created to serve as a supporting character in Force Exile II: Smuggler and serve as the muscle for Durashield Securities. The choice of Tunroth for his species resulted after Force Exile author Atarumaster88 read the featured article on Tunroth on Wookieepedia and was impressed with the work and the species. The character did not have backstory as written by Atarumaster88. Instead, his history was created by author Jedi Master 76 as part of the "What's the backstory?" contest. Unlike other "What's the backstory?" entries, there was very little editing done to the entry by Atarumaster88, who was more or less satisfied with the original content.

Appearances

 * Force Exile II: Smuggler