Sacco Vyrak

Sacco Vyrak was an  in the time of the, who fell to the dark side and became one of the twelve  who launched the Nightmare War against the Golden Empire. Though slain in a duel with the Centurion Aria Nikina, Vyrak became the unwitting progenitor of the Vyrak Legions.

The man behind the monster
Though born on, Vyrak was discovered by the at some point during the "young adult" phase of Anzat development between 13 and 99 standard years of age. Taken to the on, he trained for many years to become a Jedi Knight. The expressed concern about Vyrak's natural predatory instincts, which had been encouraged by his early life on Anzat and the Anzati culture of murder and assassination. Conquering his instincts was to be a lifelong struggle for Vyrak.

The Jedi Council also had to make arrangements for Vyrak's unusual feeding habits. Though initially several Jedi Masters volunteered to be the subjects of Vyrak's feedings, which both eliminated the need for outside sources and forced the Anzat to learn self-control, the Council felt the influence of drinking the of such powerful Force-sensitives did more harm than good. Eventually, the Order quietly arranged for Vyrak to feed on anesthetized prisoners condemned to death by the Republic or other, local governments.

At some point, Sacco Vyrak became apprenticed to a. A predator himself, Vyrak's master helped his apprentice slowly transcend his instincts through the Force. The young Anzat's innate predatory and killing instincts were also focused and refined into lightsaber combat, and Vyrak became an early adept of. Slowly, Sacco began to turn away from the "thrill of the hunt" and viewed his predation as a simple fact of life, a necessary reality.

The Anzat Jedi
After an unknown length of time (though it was over two decades) spent at the Jedi Temple, Sacco Vyrak was commissioned as a Jedi Knight. Continuing his pattern of channeling his instinctive aggression into something useful, he became a, and was considered an effective peacekeeper by both his peers and the Jedi Council. Though he was fair and usually even-tempered, his Form V battle fury was terrifying to others, and his mere presence could inspire fear and submission in the otherwise intransigent.

At some time before 2,100 BBY, Vyrak became one of the few Jedi Knights to earn a place as a lightsaber combat at the Jedi Temple without being a Jedi Master. After a few hundred years in the Order, his lightsaber ability had become legend among his fellow Jedi, and he was considered one of the Order's finest swordsmen, equal to or better than many Jedi Masters. He made a recording in the on the struggle to resist temptation and the easy path of quick rewards, believing that, while his particular situation was unique to him, the basic struggle was universal to all Jedi.

Despite his field successes and obvious lightsaber prowess, the Jedi Council did not assign him a and resisted promoting him to the rank of Jedi Master. Several intense battles throughout his career had seen him resort to feeding on his enemies in the heat of the moment, and both the Council and Vyrak himself felt he had not fully conquered himself and attained the complete peace needed for a Master.

Escape
By 2,000 BBY, however, Vyrak was growing weary of the constant struggle to resist his nature. While he agreed with the Jedi views on the immorality of hunting innocent sentients, the conscious understanding did not make the physical act of resistance any easier. When the Jedi Master abandoned the Order and his colleagues Ador Hentral and Merita Ot'kyn devised a plan to leave the Order and its Sith conflicts behind them, Vyrak asked to accompany them. He had no hesitation about fighting the Sith, but all that was familiar to him had become too much.

Like the rest of the twelve Jedi, Vyrak's body was frozen in stasis aboard a, and like the others, an error in the freezing process kept his mind awake. Vyrak managed to resist the horror of his prospects longer than some of his colleagues, and even managed to keep them centered; as an Anzat, he had already lived centuries on end and expected to live more, so the prospect of such endless consciousness was not particularly daunting. Eventually, however, the feeling of being trapped and the growing terror of his fellow Jedi dragged him down with them into madness.

The need to feed
When the insane Dark Jedi finally arrived on Kizav in 148 ABY, Vyrak had to be overpowered to refrain from feeding on his own comrades. He quickly hunted down several native Skavik, draining their soup and allowing himself to sink into the addicting quality of it. Before he could butcher the entire planet, the Dark Jedi devised a plan to turn the Skavik population into their own personal army. It was Vyrak and the Dark Jedi Karshi Saan who convinced the Skavik queen to ally with them, enslaving her people to their will. Vyrak was also among the Dark Jedi who enlisted the Skavik natural predators, the Veracht, as assassins and more elite warriors.

The Dark Jedi unleashed their army on the Golden Empire, and Sacco Vyrak was their foremost field warrior. Despite his descent into insanity, he remained the best lightsaber fighter among them, and was often on the front lines. While his fellow Dark Jedi indulged in myriad forms of emotional stimulation, including murder, rape, and torture, Vyrak was consumed by his thirst for soup. He killed directly when necessary to protect himself, but usually preferred to "drink" his victims instead. Vyrak killed and "drank" at least two Centurions of the Order of Keltrayu (Menina Robraso and Tynic Siv), as well as innumerable other enemies.

Vyrak was commanding the invasion of Daispin when he sensed the presence of the most appealing soup he had ever detected. Totally committed to the hunt, he engaged in a duel with the Centurion Aria Nikina. Though physically stronger and perhaps slightly more skillful, Vyrak's dark side-fueled insanity and lust for Nikina's soup distracted him, and he allowed rage to overtake his fighting skills. Aria impaled him in the stomach with one blade, but he seized and immobilized her wrist, breaking it in his grip. Grabbing her head with his other hand, he slowly pulled her face toward his. She levitated her second lightsaber hilt behind his head, and just as his proboscises were entering her nostrils, activated it with the Force. The blade burned through Vyrak's brain stem and out the center of his forehead, and though it seared and permanently blinded Aria's right eye, the Anzat was killed instantly.

Legacy
The first death among the Reawakened began the unraveling of their collective mind which would ultimately lead to the group's destruction. However, though Aria Nikina and Eihwaz took Vyrak's severed head from the battle, his Skavik soldiers retrieved his body, and Desha Marad used it to create the Vyrak Legions.

In the old Jedi Order, Sacco Vyrak was held as an example of a "good" Anzat Jedi, and used to justify the later admission of, among others.

Powers and abilities
The Jedi High Council around 2,000 BBY considered Sacco Vyrak among its greatest masters of, so much that it and earlier Councils had looked to him to teach it to Padawans. He was by far the best duelist of the Reawakened, and even suffering dark side insanity was sufficiently skilled to test Aria Nikina (herself among the greatest duelists in the Order of Keltrayu) to her limits.

His Anzat senses made Vyrak particularly attuned to the signatures of other Force-sensitives, even those attempting to hide their presences. He was also gifted at s, and one-on-one could plant suggestion in all but the strongest minds. When he fell to the dark side, he regularly made use of such powers as and.

Like all Anzati, Vyrak had strength and reflexes beyond those of Humans. Though he usually preferred direct combat in keeping with his warrior nature, he was capable of moving with great stealth when necessary. Given his long life and the amount of it spent as a Jedi, he was knowledgeable on many subjects and could speak at least, , , and fluently.

Appearance and personality
At 1.88 meters (6'2"), Sacco Vyrak was slightly tall for an Anzat. He had a highly athletic build, although not overly muscled.  He wore his black hair long with a mustache and goatee; his facial hair was neatly trimmed during his time as a Jedi, though he allowed it to grow longer and more wild when he fell to the dark side.  He had dark eyes and pale skin, and favored a dark color scheme to his attire even as a Jedi.  He carried the signature blue lightsaber of a Jedi Guardian while in the Order, then changed out the weapon's jewel for a red blade on Kizav.

As a Jedi Knight, Vyrak was somewhat reserved and grim. His struggle to suppress the desire for soup did not decline with age – if anything, it got worse – and it made it difficult for him to develop close friendships. However, other Jedi considered him loyal, stoic, and incredibly brave. Though he did not make a practice of it among the Jedi, considering it un-Jedilike and beneath him, he had a gift for intimidating other sentients (due to both his species and his air of cool skill), and he could keep a tense situation from exploding into violence simply by appearing ready to kill at a second's notice.

After his fall to the dark side, Vyrak allowed his predatory instincts to take over and became entirely the nightmarish figure most sentients associated with the name "Anzat". He was ruthless in battle, taking particular pleasure in consuming as much soup as possible. He derived pleasure from the fear and anguish of his victims, but the lust for soup also undermined much of his Jedi control and consequently diminished some of his formidable skill. Though still a fearsome opponent to most, the distractions of ravenous hunger and insanity were enough to tip the scales in Aria Nikina's favor and cost the Anzat his life.