Ussej Padric Bac

"His enemies believed him to be a curse. The rest knew him to be a messiah."

- Ussej Padric Bac III

Ussej Padric Bac, sometimes referred to as Ussej Padric Bac the First, was born into a long line of legendary war heroes and politicians from Alderaan. The first of numerous men of the Bac family to bear the name “Ussej Padric”, he served as a Jedi Knight and a Sith Lord during the Great Territorial War. Following his entry into the Bendu Order, he served the rest of his life as a Bendu Knight. Using these titles, he was instrumental in the Great Territorial War and the Ashlan Civil War, the latter of which was caused almost directly by his son.

For thirty years, he lived the sheltered life of a Jedi Knight within the walls of the Jedi Temple, though he was considered to be a hero to the people of the Galactic Republic during the Great Territorial War. His strong and confident demeanor was shattered, however, when his former friend Kit Corwin Rendar became the feared Darth Ravinos and laid waste to Pho Ph’eah. Ussej later met and fell in love with Laili Jeyna Rendar, who gave birth to his son Ussej Padric Bac II nine months later, and became the Sith Lord Darth Mantus, though he was redeemed and helped the Republic take down the Sith Empire just hours before the birth of his son.

Just after the end of the Great Territorial War, Ussej and his family exiled themselves to the Unknown Regions to escape execution at the hands of the remnants of the Sith Empire. There they found the Bendu Order who believed that Ussej was the one spoken of in an ancient prophecy known as the Prophecy of the Voyager. They said the prophecy foretold the coming of the Shaman of the Whills, though Ussej was skeptical as to whether or not it was true, let alone whether or not he would become the Shaman of the Whills.

Ussej spent much of his early years as a Bendu Knight with Laili on Had Abaddon where they attempted to negotiate with Husen Al-Dubrir, the planets tyrant. They felt that they had made a major breakthrough, but that was all thrown away when Ussej Padric Bac II fell in love with Al-Dubrir’s daughter. At first, Ussej refused to fight in what became the Ashlan Civil War as he had vowed never to fight after killing Sith Empress Viea. However, when his son’s life was in danger, he made his way into battle once again and helped push back Al-Dubrir’s forces. During the last few months of the war, Ussej discovered that Viea had survived and was the one who was truly leading the army of Had Abaddon. Ussej met her in battle and they were both nearly evenly matched. In the end, defeating Viea resulted in his own death.

Immediately following his death, he found himself on Ashlan Four in the presence of The Skywalker. The Skywalker spoke to him, saying that Ussej had indeed become the Shaman of the Whills. Ussej remained on Ashlan Four, uncovering the secret that led to retaining your bodily appearance after death. He later was able to influence Ussej Padric Bac III, Ussej Padric Bac LXIV and Patrick Keylan Bac in their respective journeys. Following the end of the conflict on Earth, Ussej was finally able to make his way into the Kingdom of Heaven and live peacefully with Laili and his family for eternity.

Early Life and Jedi Training
"There’s a whole galaxy of people out there and they need people like us."

- Senator Padric Bac

Ussej Padric Bac was born into a long line of Alderaanian soldiers and politicians. His earliest notable ancestor, Jonathan Bac, was an Admiral in the Alderaanian Navy during the Unification War. After the war ended, he became the first Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic. Ussej’s father was the honorable Senator Padric Bac II and his mother, Talia Antilles, was an Alderaanian princess. His grandfather, Padric Bac, had been an old, freeloading senator who nearly ushered in a new era of corruption and scandal on the peaceful Core World. However, the son challenged the father for reelection and won out.

When Ussej was six months old, his parents travelled to Coruscant to attend a seminar on homeland security and the aftermath of the Mandalorian Wars. The day before they planned on returning to Alderaan, they were killed by an assassin’s bullet. The preliminary investigations into the assassination pointed to a manufacturing company in the Unknown Regions called Shadows of the Phoenix, though the investigation found a dead end and the case was never solved.

For the months that followed, Ussej was raised by his maternal grandfather, King Antilles, until a Jedi Knight discovered him and recognized the potential within him. The king allowed the Jedi Knight to observe him and bid farewell to him after allowing the Jedi to take him to Coruscant. During his early years as a youngling, the Jedi Council took notice of his vast potential. For months, they believed him to be the prophetic “chosen one” spoken of in an ancient Jedi prophecy about the one who would ultimately bring balance to the Force. However, after studying the prophecy further, they came to the conclusion that the Chosen One would be born to a virgin mother. They knew full well that Ussej had a father, as it was well known that he was the son of Padric Bac II.

For years following his thirteenth birthday, Ussej studied under Jedi Master Brarh Kefle. During his time in the Great Jedi Pyramid, he met and became good friends with fellow padawans Damien Nightblade and Remer Ather, though both were five years older than him. Though Kefle had been teaching him the art of Djem So, the Jedi Master granted Damien and Remer permission to teach Ussej the way of a new form that they called Rizen. They practiced for hours on end, each knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses and how to best exploit them in practice duels. They determined, however, that it was best to use Rizen against one who did not know its form, as the form was so fast that it became dangerous to both wielders.

Ussej, Damien and Remer went on numerous missions with their masters during the course of their training. One notable mission was one of tracking, peacemaking and diplomacy. It was also the first mission that three apprentices went on without the supervision of their masters. The Jedi Council had learned that the oppression of a warlord named Ree-kai-seer had become more and more aggressive on numerous planets and that he had to be stopped. Ussej, Damien and Remer volunteered for the mission and the Jedi Council, along with their masters, granted them permission to undertake it, as they knew that one warlord did not stand a chance against three Jedi, even if they all were apprentices.

Their first destination on the mission was Nar Shaddaa. They learned that Ree-kai-seer received the majority of his arsenal not from a military armory, but from Raski the Hutt on Nar Shaddaa. Using their negotiating skills, such as threatening to reveal to the Galactic Senate what Raski was doing on Nar Shaddaa, they were able to convince the crime lord to stop selling the illegal weapons to the out-of-control warlord. However, Raski told them that although he sold the weapons, he did not make them. For that, the three Jedi travelled to Tatooine and were forced to track down an illegal arms manufacturing company called Sarlaac Arms. The Jedi found their base hidden deep within a cave in the eastern most area of the Dune Sea. The Jedi were able to shut down the operation and convinced Czerka Corporation to arrest the employees. When they made their way through Mos Espa, they located Ree-kai-seer and chased him through the streets. Though the warlord put up a fight, the Jedi were able to arrest him. They returned him to Coruscant where the Galactic Senate dealt with him accordingly.

Immediately following the mission, Ussej watched as Damien and Remer faced and passed their trials in different areas of the galaxy. Because they were immediately sent on numerous missions throughout the Republic, Ussej was left to simply finish his training under Kefle. During the final years of his training, he practiced and continued to perfect his skills in both Djem So and Rizen. Many of the Jedi Masters recognized that he had grown increasingly powerful, even for someone who had once been thought to be the Chosen One. Many members of the Jedi Council feared his vast potential, but other Jedi such as Damien and Remer spoke up on his behalf and were able to convince the hierarchy that Ussej was simply talented, not dangerous. After their final deliberations, the council decided that it was time for Ussej to become a Jedi Knight. He passed his trials in the old Jedi Academy on the northern Telosian pole and was officially welcomed into the ranks of a true Jedi by Kefle, Damien and Remer.

Uvena Crisis
"I do not believe the Sith could have returned without us knowing."

- Kit Corwin Rendar

Ussej spent months travelling on missions of vital importance across the Republic. He was called back to Coruscant, however, one week after Corellian Senator Stavan Jetzt was elected to the position of Supreme Chancellor. Ussej was asked to join the delegation of Jedi to the Supreme Chancellor’s office that included Jedi Masters Kit Corwin Rendar, Dexon Kyjar, Damien Nightblade and Remer Ather, who had not been promoted to the level of masters with the others. In the meeting, Jetzt relayed his concerns that the Sith were preparing a massive invasion of Republic worlds, perhaps even with the help of the Mandalorians. The Jedi could not buy into his concerns, as they refused to believe that the Sith could have built up such a massive force within them knowing about it. However, Jetzt pointed to intelligence sources that claimed that massive amounts of armor had been shipped to worlds once believed to be Sith strongholds in an effort to conduct underground operations. He went so far as to suggest that the economic woes that had been facing had something to do with the maneuverings of the empire. Though the Jedi did not feel it was the workings of the Sith, they agreed to send a team to look into it.

Despite the agreement of the delegation to send in a time, the Jedi Council refused to send anyone on what they believed to be a fool’s errand. However, Rendar sensed that there was something else behind the plot, so he was able to convince the council to send Damien, Remer and Ussej on the mission. After one final routine training session, the team grabbed their gear and boarded their ships. Their destination was the Outer Rim Territories, though that was as specific as they could get as they did not know exactly where to look.

The team’s investigation into the matter eventually led them to the sister worlds of Uvena Prime and Uvena III. They discovered that the worlds were secretly housing underground shipyards and weapon’s manufacturing plants in an effort to rebuild their faltering economy. However, trade disagreements between the two worlds had erupted. The Shistavanens living on Uvena Prime wanted to sell the arms to a group called the Consortium, a company that operated out of Ord Mantell, though the company’s intentions were less than noble. The Shistavanens of Uvena III, however, wanted to sell them onto the open market.

The team, though primarily Remer, believed that the disagreement would lead to war between the two sister planets. After some convincing, Ussej and Damien eventually realized that Remer could be correct. However, it was too late to do anything about it as the two worlds had started to mobilize their troops. Damien contacted the Jedi Council and pleaded with them to allow the team to intervene in the conflict, but the council refused the request. They believed that there was no reason to lose three valuable Jedi in a small civil war, especially one over something as trivial as a trade dispute.

After days of spatial warfare between the two planets with the Jedi on the sidelines, Uvena Prime won out and began selling the arms to the Consortium. The team followed the weapon’s flow all the way to Korriban where it was picked up by a group of Sith Knights. Posing as Sith Lords, the team penetrated the security of the Sith Temple and made their way to the throne room of Darth Woe whom they learned was the Dark Lord of the Sith and the sole surviving student of Darth Revan. The Dark Lord was able to expose them as Jedi, however, and a large battle erupted between them and the Sith. Though it had seemed unlikely, the team was able to escape and report their findings to a very disturbed Jedi Council.

The Plot Thickens
"If you think they’ll give up one planet for me, then you’re either incredibly bold or incredibly naïve."

- Ussej Padric Bac

Following the report to the Jedi Council, Ussej was assigned to the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine. When he arrived, he immediately began working with Dexon Kyjar to oversee the training of the younglings that were assigned there. When the famed Jedi Master Adena Qel-Droma arrived following the Second Battle of Onderon, they greeted her with open arms. Days later, Adena told them of a different history of the Jedi Order. She claimed that a man called The Skywalker had spoken to the God of the Universe and formed the Order of the Jedi Bendu of the Ophuchi. After eighty-five thousand millennia, a schism broke the order into two different factions: the Jedi Order and the Bendu Order. Not believing a word she said, they chose not to report what she told them.

Months later, the forces of Darth Midknight and Darth Sin arrived in orbit. Sin led the ground forces against the enclave itself, forcing Ussej and Dexon to lead their minimal forces against the forces of the Sith. Ussej believed it to be a cowardly attack, as Dantooine did not have a real strategic importance for the Sith. When the Sith arrived, Ussej was relieved to see that the Sith had become cocky and did not bring a large ground force of Dark Side users, but rather simple Sith soldiers. Ussej and Dexon fought through the fray, making their way to Sin. When they engaged him, Sin held his own for some time, but his goal was to usurp the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith. He knew that there was a chance that the Jedi Knight and the Jedi Master would defeat him, so he called his forces back to their vessels as the Jedi celebrated their victory. Ussej took great pride in himself for it as well, though Dexon sensed overconfidence within him.

Ussej and Dexon tracked the Sith ships back into orbit. They intercepted a transmission between Sin and Midknight where Sin vowed to declare himself Dark Lord of the Sith. When Midknight asked why Sin would kill him, considering they were both the reason the Sith rose to power once again, Sin told him that the Sith needed a strong leader to oppose the rebellion of Darth Boli. Sin’s ships then opened fired on Midknight’s ship and destroyed them. Greatly disturbed, Ussej and Dexon reported their findings to the Jedi Council.

Due to his actions on Dantooine, the Jedi Council promoted Ussej to the military rank of Jedi Colonel and assigned him to the small, backwater world of Onderon to lead the Republic task force. Ussej believed that the assignment was meaningless at first and that he had simply been shoved out of the way, but Ussej then uncovered information about a revival of the Dematri, the forces that had already attacked the planet twice. When the Dematri learned that Ussej had uncovered intelligence about a third rebellion, they captured him in his sleep and dragged his unconscious body to their underground base of operations a few kilometers outside Iziz.

When they arrived in the base of operations, Ussej was brought back to consciousness and placed into a Force cage to drain his powers while holding him hostage. They hoped that the Republic would agree to relinquish the planet in exchange for the return of a valuable Jedi, but the weak Ussej told them that they had to be incredibly naïve to believe that. Ussej was proved right, as he was held underground for weeks while the Republic refused to give up the planet. However, his time as a hostage proved valuable to him and the Republic. While the Republic prepared to crush the Dematri once and for all, Ussej overheard the Dematri leader Devlin make deals with the Chiss Ascendancy for weapons and that the Consortium was truly a front for the Sith. That information meant that the inaction of the Jedi Order in the Uvena System allowed the Sith to rebuild themselves.

When the Republic and the Onderonian forces invaded the Dematri hideout, the rebellion was foiled and the Dematri was crushed. After taking Devlin into custody, Ussej was rescued by Kavari Antrell. When the hideout was collapsed, Ussej was brought to the medical wing on the Republic flagship where he was given immediate medical attention for his wounds. When the ship arrived back on Coruscant, Ussej was given his final treatments in the medical wing in the Jedi Pyramid. When he awoke, he learned that Supreme Chancellor Jetzt had revealed himself to be a reclusive Sith Lord called Darth Myst and had usurped the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith with Kyra Maans as his apprentice. Ussej could not believe that such a betrayal could have taken place.

The Greatest Betrayal
"There were no Sith down there, were there?"

- Ussej Padric Bac

Three weeks after his recovery, the Jedi Council learned that rogue Trandoshan slavers had captured a Human girl and a large group of Wookiees without the knowledge or consent of the Trandoshan government. Ussej and Remer were assigned to investigate what had happened and rescue the hostage. When they arrived on Kashyyyk, Ussej and Remer made their way to the closest Wookiee encampment in the hopes of acquiring information. They spoke with Zaalbar, the chief of the Wookiee tribe, who told them that they last saw the traders bring the hostages deep into the Shadowlands.

Ussej and Remer immediately made the long trip down the Wookiee elevator into the Shadowlands. When they arrived, they were able to track the slavers using numerous footprints that had been left to the mud in the area. When they finally arrived in the encampment, however, they found that only a few Trandoshans remained and were clearing everything out. After a brief interrogation, the Jedi learned that the prisoners had already been taken back to the slave camps on Trandosha for processing. Ussej and Remer made their way back up to the surface and thanked Zaalbar for his help, though they denied his request for them to take a group of Wookiee soldiers with them as they did not want to add to the number of Wookiee slaves should they have failed.

En route to Trandosha, Ussej and Remer debated on the best course of action to take. Remer preferred a diplomatic approach, feeling that it would be best for Republic and Jedi mediators to speak with the rogue Trandoshans and find out what they wanted. Ussej, however, knew that the slaves would have been sold by then so there was no point in waiting. Remer completely disagreed, but Ussej said that even if he was ordered to use diplomacy he would fight to free the slaves. When they arrived on Trandosha, they were forced to do just that as they were attacked immediately upon setting foot on the planet near the processing center.

Luckily Ussej and Remer, the slaves had been kept in an encampment outside the processing center so they only had to fight through a few guards before the majority of the forces arrived. As they broke their way in, Remer fought off many of the guards while Ussej used his blade to cut through the locks on the large cages. The freed Wookiees immediately began attacking the guards, many of them ripping the arms right out of the Trandoshan’s sockets. When the Human girl was freed, she ran up to Ussej and kissed him passionately before running off. When the slaves were free, the Wookiees boarded the Trandoshan vessels and made their way back to Kashyyyk. Shortly thereafter, Republic forces arrived and arrested the Trandoshans that captured the Wookiees and the girl. Though he did not even know the girl’s name, her kiss left a lasting impression on Ussej. Because he had sworn to uphold Jedi principles of avoiding attachment, he had only kissed a few women in his life, and generally it was for the successful outcome of a mission. However, even hours after the kiss, he could still feel its passion which obviously spoke volumes of the girl’s personality. He could only hope that he would have the chance to meet her again in the future.

Legacy
"Everywhere we go, we are reminded of his power, his legacy, his compassion. His enemies believed him to be a curse. The rest knew him to be a messiah."

- Ussej Padric Bac III

Behind the scenes

 * Brandon Rhea’s original vision of the character had him being portrayed by Paul Walker. After a great deal of consideration, it was decided that he would be officially portrayed by Alec Newman.
 * Ussej was role-played by Brandon Rhea on TheStarWarsRP.Com from June, 2005 to October of that same year. From October 2005 onward, he was occasionally role-played if the moment called for the Shaman of the Whills.
 * Ussej was originally designed to be role-played as a false Chosen One, but that idea was later dropped. However, the idea that Ussej was at one point a false Chosen One still remains in the back-story of his youth.
 * When Steven Alldis, founder and owner of TheStarWarsRP.Com, helped Brandon Rhea create the character, they both agreed that it would be interesting to rearrange the letters of the name “Jesus” to come up with the name. Before it was decided to call him Ussej, other names such as Sesuj, Sseuj and Essuj were considered.
 * Ussej is one of only two characters to appear in every novel of the Shadows of the Jedi Trilogy. He is the only character from the trilogy to appear in the Episodes of the Alternative Star Wars Saga and the Earth Wars Trilogy.
 * His story in Shadows of the Jedi: The Legend of Ussej Padric Bac was originally based only on that of Anakin Skywalker. Though the story still has some mirrors of Anakin, the it has become far more mythical and biblical. It is also interesting to note that while Anakin embraced his darkness for years, Ussej never truly thought of himself as a Sith Lord.
 * Though he is not the title character of Shadows of the Jedi: The Legend of Ussej Padric Bac II, he is still a strong main character as much of the story deals with the aftermath of his actions.
 * His appearances in Shadows of the Jedi: The Legend of Ussej Padric Bac III, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Beginning and the Earth Wars Trilogy are heavily based upon the character of Jor-El on Smallville.

Appearances

 * The Beginning: The Legend of The Skywalker
 * Shadows of the Jedi: The Legend of Ussej Padric Bac
 * Star Wars: Legends I - Knights of the Nexus
 * Star Wars: The End of Life As We Know It
 * Shadows of the Jedi: The Legend of Ussej Padric Bac II
 * Shadows of the Jedi: The Legend of Ussej Padric Bac III
 * Lettow: The Curse of Carden Mannux 
 * Star Wars: The Tragedy of Damien Nightblade
 * Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Beginning