Vydel Dir'Nul (Jedi Renaissance)

"I know no Vydel Dir'Nul&hellip;she must be dead. But since you want to find her so badly, perhaps you should JOIN her!"

- Vydel Dir'Nul, under the personality of the Dark Jedi Kardem

Vydel Dir'Nul was a female Human Jedi Knight who served the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic during the Clone Wars. One month before the initiation of the Clone Wars, the High Council assigned Dir'Nul to serve as a bodyguard for a Republic senator who system had sided with the Confederacy. During her mission, Dir'Nul fell in love with the freighter pilot Ash B'risko and entered into a romantic relationship with him. However, she later caught B'risko in the arms of a the Senator's Twi'lek aide. As she slew B'risko and the woman, Dir'Nul created the personality of the male Dark Jedi Kardem, whom she believed was a different individual. After the murders, Dir'Nul was unaware of her split personality or that she was responsible for the murder of B'risko.

When the Clone Wars began, Dir'Nul refused to become a general in the Grand Army of the Republic, instead devoting her resources to tracking Kardem. After traveling to the planet Perilious, she killed three more Twi'leks, acting as Kardem. Six months later, as Dir'Nul investigated their murders, she was confronted by her friend, Jedi Knight Bels Kreed, whom she assumed was Kardem. After the Jedi defeated her in a lightsaber duel, Dir'Nul changed to the Kardem personality and attacked him with Force lightning. The Jedi explained that the Council had sent him after Dir'Nul, and then attempted to kill her. However, she intercepted the attack and killed the Jedi. After his death, Dir'Nul reverted back to her original personality and vowed to stop Kardem. Eventually, a bounty was placed on her alter ego of Kardem, and she was captured by the Mandalorian bounty hunter Feskitt Bobb.

Early life
Vydel Dir'Nul, a Human female, was born on the industrial planet Feldwes, to parents who worked in the factories there. Desiring a better life for their child, they gave their only daughter over to the Jedi Order for training in the ways of the Force when they discovered her Force-sensitivity. Unknown to the Order however, the Dir'Nuls had falsified their medical history reports when filing for work permits on Feldwes, hiding a long history of mental illness and instability in their lineage. On Coruscant, Dir'Nul was a bright and engaging young girl, entertaining her peers and her tutors with fascinating stories of heroism and courageous Knights. A skilled artist and gifted illusionist, Dir'Nul's academy life seemed to foreshadow a great career as a Jedi Knight.

During the Temple Apprentice Tournament of 41 BBY Dir'Nul competed against fellow Initiate Bels Kreed and was defeated by him in the third round. Praising his prowess with a lightsaber, Dir'Nul was selected for training by the Galandan Jedi Master Jol Wortin, an elderly Jedi artisan famed for his craftsmanship of hologram art. Wortin instructed Dir'Nul in the essentials of becoming a Jedi Knight, and while Dir'Nul respected her wizened mentor, chaffed under his tutelage and found him dry and boring. Regardless, Dir'Nul endured the tedium of Wortin's lessons and feigned eagerness when he summoned her to the dojo for training with remotes or droids. Constructing an orange-bladed lightsaber in the depths of the crystal caves of Dantooine, Dir'Nul enjoyed the uniqueness of her blade and aimed to wield it with distinction. When time came for Dir'Nul to take the Trials of Knighthood, she eagerly shed the life of the Padawan and ascended to the rank of the Jedi Knights.

Investigating Kardem
Upon achieving her freedom from Master Wortin's lessons, Dir'Nul began searching for her future as a Sentinel. Consulting the High Council and informing them of the direction she wished to take in her career, they assigned her several different missions that would help her test the waters and see what appealed to her. Successfully completing several recruiting missions, escorting diplomatic starcraft and slicing into the databanks of several known gangs on Coruscant, Dir'Nul finally received the mission which spoke to her inner wants. In 22 BBY the Council assigned her to escort the Senator Druxsus Viikeens to Chandrila, after his home system denounced him and the Republic and sided with the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Believing that the Force had guided her to this place in time, Dir'Nul used her experience as an escort pilot to gain the trust of the freighter pilot Ash B'risko, the man responsible for transporting the Senator and Jedi safely to Chandrila. During their protracted journey designed to throw off those who might wish to do the Senator harm, Dir'Nul and B'risko became romantically involved, continuing their relationship after mission's end. Meeting frequently along supply runs or in taverns on Coruscant, Dir'Nul believed that the Order was wrong in its shunning of relationships and kept it to herself. Evantually, the two found an apartment together and Dir'Nul would sneak out of the Temple frequently to be with her lover.

When the Clone Wars erupted on Geonosis, Dir'Nul invoked the Right of Denial, refusing to go to war as she believed it might ruin her chances of being with B'risko. Returning to their apartment to inform B'risko of her decision to refuse the High Council, the Jedi discovered B'risko in the arms of a female Twi'lek, the former aide of Senator Viikeens. As Dir'Nul stood in the doorway of her bedchamber, her underwent a psychotic attack and an alter-ego was created. A male Human named Kardem and powerful in the Force, Dir'Nul's alter-ego stormed into the bedchamber, interrupting B'risko's passion with the Twi'lek. As he tried to explain, Kardem used the Force to rip apart the screaming aide, sending her ruined corpse into the arms of B'risko. Terrified and begging for mercy, B'risko attempted to calm the woman he thought to be Dir'Nul but was met only with the harsh judgment of Kardem. Torturing him for hours, Kardem sodomized B'risko with the Force and bombarded his mind with powerful and horrific illusions before igniting his lightsaber down his throat as he begged for mercy.

Dir'Nul rose from the floor of her bedchamber to find it destroyed and the ruins of B'risko and the Twi'lek aide strewn around the room. Sickened and horrified at the scene, Dir'Nul called upon the Force to compose herself and remain in control of her body. Finding B'risko in such a state nearly tore at her mind but Dir'Nul reminded herself that she was a Jedi and would not give into temptation to breakdown and fall into darkness. Contacting the Jedi Temple, Dir'Nul began piecing together the crime scene, determining that the Twi'lek aide had been in the midst of contracting B'risko for future work when their murderer broke into the apartment. Hypothesizing that B'risko attempted to protect the woman by locking themselves in the bedroom, Dir'Nul concluded that her lover died heroically attempting to preserve the life of an innocent. Determined to bring the murderer to justice, Dir'Nul was disturbed by the fact that B'risko was killed by a lightsaber. Gathering B'risko's remains, she carried them aboard his ship and set it on auto-pilot to crash into the nearest star. With that task complete, Dir'Nul decided to escort the body of the aide back to her homeworld for burial.

Hunting Kardem
Arriving on the planet Ryloth, Dir'Nul used the aide's formal documents to track down her parents. Finding them to be wealthy merchants within the capital city of Kala'uun Dir'Nul explained the nature of their daughter's death and attempted to console them. Rebuffing the Jedi's attempts at kindness, Dir'Nul left the family's home and stormed back to her ship. As she boarded the craft, she witnessed several individuals running from the port to the area of town she had just come from. Seeing smoke, Dir'Nul raced back to see if she could assist in anyway. Arriving back at the aide's family's home to find it ablaze, Dir'Nul rushed inside to see if she could save the family. Dragging out seven bodies, the aide's parents, grandmother, brother, sister-in-law and niece and nephew were all accounted for, though all were dead. Having the bodies removed from the scene and taking to a crime lab, Dir'Nul oversaw the autopsies and was horrified to find all of the bodies defiled. The results seemed to show that while all parties were alive, an unknown assailant used a lightsaber to sodomize each body before igniting it within their orifice, killing them instantly.

Determining that the murderer was targeting her, Dir'Nul vowed to hunt down the craven killer and bring him or her to justice. Feeling the call of the Force, Dir'Nul traveled to the planet Perilious, a world known for its Twi'lek slave trade and the world in which Senator Viikeens represented. Discovering that several of the Senator's other former aides were still on the planet by using her hacking skills to gain access to formal records within the Royal Palace, Dir'Nul decided to seek these women out. At each house she visited however, Dir'Nul found only carnage. Disemboweled and slaughtered, the aides and their families had all been murdered. Deciding that this atrocity had to be reported to the local government, Dir'Nul infiltrated the Royal Palace in hopes of alerting the Supreme Ruler of the imminent danger all residents of the world seemed to be in. Entering the throne room unannounced, Dir'Nul used her calming abilities to keep the guards at bay as she explained to the Ruler what she had uncovered along her journey. Denouncing her for her Jedi heritage, the Ruler ordered Dir'Nul to be executed and strong up on the Palace walls for all to see.

Awaking within a empty room sometime later, Dir'Nul was shaken to find her robes tattered and several burns and cuts covering her body. Believing she may have been tortured, Dir'Nul pulled herself up and out of the room into the living quarters of an empty house. Searching around, Dir'Nul discovered the bodies of the Twi'lek family who formally resided in the house. This time the family had not been tortured but slaughtered outright, the woman still clutching the head of her decapitated child. Repulsed at the sight, Dir'Nul exited the building to find the entire city aflame. Running down the streets, Dir'Nul found countless bodies amid the rubble, all either killed by a lightsaber or crushed under the rubble of buildings blown apart by laserfire. Locating the ruins of the Palace, Dir'Nul discovered the entire Royal Court impaled upon the Palace walls, held from bowels to mouth by the massive spikes. Force leaping up to the walls, Dir'Nul discovered some still in the throws of death while others were strewn apart the walls in pieces. Seeking out her ship, she found the engines were oddly warm and her laser batteries drained. Boarding the ship she sent a distress signal to the Temple on Coruscant and asked for backup.

Now six months into the war, Dir'Nul continued to seek answers to the destruction of the Perilious commune when her old friend Jedi Knight Bels Kreed arrived to assist her. Greeting Kreed at the gate of the ruined city, Dir'Nul hoped he could assist in finding answers. However, to Dir'Nul's shock, Kreed ignited his green-bladed lightsaber and launched an attack on Dir'Nul as soon as she let her guard down. Reeling, Dir'Nul concluded that Kreed was the true killer, attacking her out of jealousy or lust or both. Kreed revealed that he was sent by the High Council to capture Kardem, the Dark Jedi responsible for the attacks and intended to put an end to the madness. Dir'Nul finally understanding that Kreed had fooled the High Council into believing Dir'Nul was Kardem attacked Kreed with her full strength but was ultimately defeated once more by the Jedi, just as he had defeated her in the Apprentice Tournament. Thrown to the ground, winded, Dir'Nul felt confident that Kardem had finally won, and would end her life there on the cold stone streets of Perilious' ruined capital city. However, when she awoke, she discovered Kreed's body bisected and lifeless, his skin melted from being scorched by Force lightning. Analyzing his lower half, Dir'Nul discovered Kreed had been sodomized before his death and then bisected at the waist with a lightsaber. Unsure of herself for the first time, Dir'Nul retrieved Kreed's lightsaber and returned to find his ship. Searching it, Dir'Nul found his journal and began to read the Jedi's mission log. Over the last six months, Dir'Nul had hunted a Dark Jedi named Kardem who had sent the Jedi Council taunting messages revealing in the slaughter of Twi'lek females and their offspring.

Believing Kardem to be more sinister then anyone believed, Dir'Nul went off in search of the Dark Jedi, picking up the trail where Kreed left off. Tracking crime scene to crime scene, Dir'Nul spent the entire war on the hunt for this violent serial killer before eventually being attacked by a ship in 17 BBY. Long since out of contact with the Order and society, Dir'Nul wearily engaged the ship in a dogfight, believing that Kardem had finally found her and was ready to kill her. Despite her best efforts, Kardem's ship out-maneuvered her and her ship was ultimately crippled. Falling unconscious, Dir'Nul found herself in an unfamiliar white room, devoid of color and decorated sparely with a table, three chairs, and a bed. Wandering around the room, Dir'Nul could only discern a single door, leading into a refresher, and the opaque walls offered no clue as to where she was. Periodically, food would appear in the room from an unknown source and hunger forced her to consume it. Dir'Nul, guessing that she was in the clutches of Kardem, prepared herself for the worst.

Rehabilitation
When Jedi Master Coleman Kcaj entered the chamber, Dir'Nul was overcome with emotion and relief; she was obviously within the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Bowing at Kcaj's feet, the Master guided her to a chair and sat opposite of her. Pouring calming emotions into the Force, Kcaj explained that the Mandalorian bounty hunter Feskitt Bobb had brought her back to the Temple after discovering her in her ruined starship, Dir'Nul wondered openly what had become of Kardem. Explaining that the Order had captured him, Dir'Nul demanded access to him so that hse might interrogate him herself. Revealing a vidscreen in the wall, Kcaj played a tape, showing Dir'Nul sitting across from Kcaj in an interview similar to the one occurring in real time. However, Dir'Nul saw herself twitching and anxious, exuding hatred into the Force. As Kcaj talked in the recording, Dir'Nul watched in horror as she attempted to attack Kcaj but was repulsed by the Ongree Jedi's superior command of the Force.

Switching the screen off, Kcaj calmly informed Dir'Nul that she had undergone a psychotic break at the start of the war, and Kardem was her alter-ego. Shaken, Dir'Nul initially rejected the notion, until she was flooded with visuals of her slaughtering countless innocents with her lightsaber.