Kelto Nembask

Kelto Nembask was a male Laatl Centurion and Royal Guard of the Golden Empire.

Hatched on Laikeer in 112 ABY, he matured from spawn state to his mature form in roughly six standard years. He was nine years old, in mature form for three years, when his parents and teachers began to notice his uncanny reflexes and apparent knowledge of things before they happened. Notably, when taught to fish for himself, he never missed a catch, always seeming able to anticipate the movements of his prey. After some consultation, he was brought to the attention of his city's leadership council, which in turn presented the case to Laikeer's Consul.

Kelto was brought to the rainy surface of Laikeer to be examined by a Praetor-Recruiter of the Order of Keltrayu, who found the boy to be Force-sensitive and offered him an appointment to the Order. The Nembasks were concerned about their son's ability to survive outside water indefinitely, and the Praetor-Recruiter went to Prefect Tariun Sakaros for advice. After some thought, Sakaros arranged for engineers to build a lightweight water circulating collar for Kelto, fitted over his gills. He also had Sorrik experiment with growing the Laatls' own quorbl weed among his plants in the Sith Star's arboretum, and arranged for Kelto to sleep in the Order's swimming pool.

Able to learn with relative comfort, Kelto took to his studies with enthusiasm, though at twelve years old he was fully grown and thus larger than many of his humanoid companions. Tariun worked with him to incorporate his mildly venomous spines into Var Shek, enabling him to subdue adversaries with only glancing blows or even blocks.

Commissioned as a Centurion in 134 ABY, Kelto took some law enforcement assignments, but found himself better suited to negotiation. Though somewhat annoyed at having such a useful hand combatant assigned to diplomacy, Tariun eventually conceded to the inevitable and gave Kelto arbitration assignments in trouble regions. Kelto was often assigned to parties easing the transition of former worlds into the Empire after the conquest of that region, regularly serving alongside Chindal and Corr Shaasa.

In 140 ABY, Rin transferred Kelto to service in her Royal Guard. Not long after, he and Moira Nascall were assigned as personal bodyguards of Princess Andromeda Keane. They remained her guards after the outbreak of the Vagaari War, among the eight Royal Guards to remain in the group after it was reduced from twenty-four. Kelto and Moira accompanied Andromeda in her journeys and public relations tours throughout the Empire, and the Laatl became very close both with his Ossak sister and with the princess, for whom he developed a quick and deep respect.

When Andromeda's life came to its close, Kelto became one of very few people in the Empire to visit Queen's Garden, Rin's personal retreat world, where Andromeda chose to spend her last days. There he met and developed a friendship with Jarek Solios, whom Rin had brought to Queen's Garden to see his grandmother before she died.

After Andromeda's death, Kelto and Moira were transferred back to the Sith Star as guards for Tariun Sakaros, but Kelto was rotated out of the Guard at the conclusion of the Vagaari War. Given the enormous task of trying to bring both former Vagaari territory and the many worlds formerely under the nominal control of the Chiss Ascendancy into the Empire, he returned to diplomatic missions on the Empire's borders. During the Nightmare War he continued work with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Integration rather than fighting on the front lines, though he was present on the Sith Star when Tillandra Moraes was honored with the style "Master".

At some point, Kelto married. He had at least one daughter, whom he named "Andromeda" in honor of his former protectee.

Powers and abilities
Kelto was extensively trained in and, like all Centurions. He was also taught to use the venomous spines on his body in Var Shek, enabling him to disable attackers quickly. He was a practitioner of, though his distaste for violence meant he was no more talented a swordsman than any of his other brothers and sisters. He did, however, have knowledge of protective techniques and a finely sharpened danger sense due to his time in the Royal Guard.

Aside from his Force-related abilities, Kelto was also an able negotiator and had great skill at keeping his temper even in stressful situations.

Appearance and personality
Standing 1.75 meters tall, Kelto had a dull blue hide and glossy black eyes. He had spines on his arms, above his temples, and on his thighs, as well as smaller ones on the ridges of his hands; as a result, he rarely shook hands with other beings. He wore the full uniform of the Order of Keltrayu except when on his homeworld or in another body of water, when he would shed his boots and cloak to enable easier swimming. He also wore either a quorbl weed or a mechanical water circulation apparatus around his neck when outside the water for extended periods of time.

Generally calm and inquisitive, Kelto got along well with most people, though he had few close friends in the Order of Keltrayu. The notable exception was Moira Nascall, with whom he became closer during their service to Andromeda Keane. He was also closer than most Centurions to Jarek Solios, having bonded with the similarly reluctant-to-violence Coruscanti on Queen's Garden.