Keith Varté (Jedi Renaissance)

"Mischievousness and a sly hand are not traits one would expect to find in a member of the High Council. Yet some how he has ascended to such a rank with seemingly no hindrance from the traditionalist Masters."

- Master Yohn Lahk commenting to a friend on Varté swift rise to the High Council.

Keith Varté was a male Kiffar Jedi Master who served the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic as a Commander in the Grand Army of the Republic during the Clone Wars. During the Jedi Renaissance Varté was part of the first class of Journeyers to pass through the Great Temples of Tython, swiftly ascending to the rank of Master much to the surprise of some of his instructors and peers. Varté's appointment to the Jedi High Council was highly questioned by members of the Order and his swift resignation and disappearance raised greater suspicion to arise.

Service to the Republic
A Force-sensitive Kiffar born on the world of Kiffu, Keith Varté was turned over to the Jedi Order at an early age for training in the ways of the Force. After graduating from the Coruscant Jedi Temple's academy at the age of twelve, Varté was chosen to be the Padawan of Jedi Knight Bruu Jun-Fan and the pair traveled the Republic on several journey missions. Constructing a green-bladed lightsaber at the Temple on Ilum, Varté was a difficult student as he did not possess the calm necessary to become a Jedi. A trickster since his early years, Varté's physique and handsome face did nothing to curb his appetite for attention and pleasure. Delving into the entertainment district of Coruscant and a frequent visitor of pleasure dens, Jun-Fan attempted to end Varté wild streak by asking the High Council for a mission which would take them far from civilization. Venturing to the isolated planet of Alzoc III, where he forced Varté to perfect his ill-tuned psychometric abilities. Jun-Fan's own skills with psychometry were well respected within the Order and he hoped that by helping Varté access his own skills the boy would find some balance.

After a successful mission, Varté and his master returned to Coruscant only to see Varté's flare for pleasure dens undiminished. Jun-Fan's aggravation continued to grow but his focus was diverted when the Clone Wars erupted across the galaxy. Ascending to the rank of Jedi Master, Jun-Fan continued to train Varté even as they were given military ranks within the Grand Army of the Republic. As a commander in the Grand Army, Varté was quick to prove himself on the battlefield, striving to impress the men who served under him. Preferring to stay in the barracks rather then the Jedi Temple or command dormitories, Varté flirtatiousness with his troops drew the ire of more traditionalist Jedi who practiced restraint and chastity. While some wished to see Varté officially reprimanded, the Padawan's prowess with a lightsaber and his skills with the Force were not easy to refute. During a mission to Belsavis, Varté first served alongside Jedi Anakin Skywalker forming a one-sided rivalry with the older Jedi. Varté's reality was shaken midway through the war when his master was slain by the mysterious Dark Acolyte Savage Opress in Pleem's Nexus. Regretting the hardship he put his master through, Varté aided Jedi Master Tomac Moorcé's shadow squad hunt down the Zabrak and detain him within the twelve-bladed satellite above Shrokaan. Following the mission, Moorcé took an interest in Varté's spirit and fighting skill and told him to continue to strive to be the best despite criticism from others in the Order.

Jedi Renaissance
Varté was waylaid on a medical frigate after a battle when his beacon sounded. Activating the device he received an emergency transmission from Master Mace Windu warning all Jedi to be wary of their clones. Alerting the two Jedi healers aboard the frigate, they prepped the three wounded Jedi aboard the frigate for transfer and departed immediately for the Jedi medical facility on H'ratth. When it was safe to make the trip to Coruscant, the six Jedi helped to secure the medical outpost and travel with the rest of the medical staff to the Jedi Temple to await further instruction. Alerted that the war was over and the Sith defeated, the Jedi rejoiced as plans were announced to reorganize the Jedi Order through a series of reforms. Tomac Moorcé was appointed Grand Master and plans made to rebuild the ancient fortress world of Ossus were made. During this time of jubilation, Varté returned to his old habits of roaming the entertainment district in search of a willing bed mate or two. During one of his forays into the undercity he encountered the newly appointed Grand Master. Moorcé warned Varté that his lifestyle was not suitable for a Jedi Knight, and should he wish to remain a Jedi he would need to curb his appetite and make his trips less frequent. Varté argued that the restrictions on a Jedi's physical urges were too strict and could not be followed by a man who felt what he felt. Moorcé reiterated that the Jedi Code did not ban such trysts but frowned upon addiction, which Varté seemed to suffer from.

Under the orders of the Grand Master, Varté traveled to Ossus to meditate in isolation in the wilderness. Spending long weeks roaming the untamed jungles or hiking the lonely mountains of the world's lower continent, Varté mischievous nature was not diminished as he would play tricks on the wildlife or the roaming Jensaari tribes. Returning to Knossa after a year of seclusion, Varté's training was given over to Master Treetower and he was transferred to Tython to complete his training as a Jedi Journeyer. Focusing on his training, Varté was successful as he had been throughout his education at passing every test given to him. Finally, despite the wavering faith of some of his tutors, Varté past the Trials of Knighthood at Padawan Kesh and was knighted by the Jedi High Council. As a Knight, Varté was able to set aside his yearnings little by little, visiting houses of ill fame less often month by month. His record of mission completion was well recognized, but his youthful spirit and playfulness was not diminished by age. Many of his peers viewed him as lacking the seriousness or brevity they themselves put into their duty, and several Masters and senior Knights passed along these critics to the High Council. Always Varté's strongest advocates, the Grand Master pointed out Varté's abilities in completing every task presented to him and admired the young man's unwavering spirit. Despite the man's many misadventures with unnamed suitors in the dark of night, Moorcé reminded the Council that not all Jedi need to be cut from the same cloth; differences highlighted what worked and what did not, and for Varté his abilities far outweighed the negatives and his lust for passion.

Much to the chagrin of some his peers, Varté was made a Master under the direct orders of the Grand Master. Such a move was unprecedented and rumors began to circulate among the youngest and more naive Padawans that Grand Master Moorcé had taken Varté as a lover and his favoritism was showing. Even many on the High Council questioned the wisdom of accelerating Varté ascension in rank but the Grand Master would not hear any argument; a highly uncharacteristic move by the Purpilian. Varté remained mum on the subject as well, keeping his pride under wraps and refraining from boasting, a fact which came as a surprise to most. Despite this, Varté's personality was not dampened when it came to other matters. The Kiffar continued to play tricks on other Jedi, and he quickly became a favorite among the younger Initiates who ventured out into Knossa during their training. Not attempting to take a Padawan as he knew he would be met with criticism, Varté kept to himself except when he made frequent visitors to the Grand Temple and the quarters of the Grand Master. The meetings were always private and no one on the Council was privy to the context of the late night visits. Master Yohn Lahk, one of Moorcé's closest advisers and confidants openly questioned the Grand Master's favoritism, not believing the rumors of a secret relationship but understanding that something was happening that the Grand Master was attempting to keep secret.

Upon the departure of one of the Council's most senior members, Master Shaak Ti, Moorcé appointed Varté to the Council to fill her seat. When questioned about his appointment, Moorcé claimed he was working in sync with the will of the Force and that Varté was to be welcomed to the Council with no question. He also addressed rumors of a relationship, claiming that if he wanted to keep a secret the entire Order would not be gossiping about it. For much of his first year on the Council, Varté kept to the Grand Temple in quiet meditation, often bathing with the Grand Master within the Councilors' shared showers. Varté's seeming uselessness on the Council came to a head in his second year when several Jedi Knights petitioned the Grand Master for either Varté's removal or Moorcé's resignation. While Moorcé dismissed the petition as irrelevant and presumptuous, Varté immediately resigned from the Council and disappeared. Temple security searched the grounds and the city for any sign of Varté but his chambers and the starports offered no clue as to where he might have gone. The Grand Master grew solemn as the time came to replace the Kiffar on the Council and appeased his peers by approving the appointment of Beyghor Sadett. Moorcé confessed not knowing where Varté had gone, and seemed resolute in keeping quiet on the mystery of Keith Varté.

Truth revealed
On the anniversary of Varté's disappearance, Moorcé called a convocation at the Grand Temple and broadcast the meeting to all Jedi facilities across the galaxy. Standing at the pedestal at the center of the chamber, Moorcé confessed to keeping a secret from the Order which needed addressing. Detailing Varté's childhood and difficult apprenticeship, the Grand Master recounted first meeting the boy during the Clone Wars. In the boy he had felt a great disturbance, not of the dark side but from deep within the boy's essence. While Varté was aboard the twelve-bladed satellite, Moorcé questioned the boy and through several meetings learned a terrible secret. When Varté's master had pressured him into unlocking his latent pscyometric abilities, Varté became highly attuned with the spirit realm. While not a well documented ability, Moorcé had some knowledge of the dreaded realm of restless spirits through his service during the Silent Wars. Varté was constantly haunted by restless spirits devoid of purpose or voice. The constant bombardment by the lost souls out of touch with the will of the Force nearly drove him mad, his only respite was found in the pleasure dens he often sought out during his early days simply for the thrill.

Agreeing to keep the boy's plight a secret so that he would not be forced back to the Jedi Temple and the pleasure dens of Coruscant, Moorcé demanded that the Kiffar seek alternative methods to controlling the voices other then the carnal embrace of his many anonymous lovers. Varté agreed and remained in touch with Moorcé, taking the Grand Master's offer of a sabbatical following the end of the war. Having largely learned to control the voices by the time he traveled to Tython, Varté studied the ancient techniques of quieting the mind at Kaleth. His knighting came after he fought off visions of the dead in the Chamber of Knighthood at Padawan Kesh and his visits to the underworld were simply for pleasure and not to silence the pain. Moorcé grew attached to the boy, he admitted, because of his resilience in the face of a struggle no other living Jedi was suffering. When Moorcé demanded that Varté be made a Master, he did so with the goal of banishing the spirit realm once and for all. Through working with Varté privately in his chambers, the Kiffar confirmed something the Grand Master had long suspected; the spirit realm was an artificial realm created by the Sith during the New Sith Wars. During the Silent Wars, many of the Sith warriors that Moorcé had battled were able to return from the dead if their masters crafted a new body for them through dark side alchemy. This technique had remained a mystery to the Moorcé despite his understanding that the Sith had recalled the trapped souls of their minions from the spirit realm to the remade body. While the Sith spirits had been largely freed during the conclusion of the war, Moorcé had been unable to verify anything regarding the spirit realm beyond its existence. Through Varté's studies on the subject, he discovered the journals of Jedi turned Sith alchemist Riles Finster in the tombs of the fallen Jedi from the Ansion Council.

Using the book to understand how the Ansion Council's members created the spirit realm to serve as a holding cell for the souls of their fallen warriors over two millennia earlier, the pair struggled to deduce how to unravel the realm and free the remaining spirits held there. Appointing Varté to the High Council after the departure of Shaak Ti, the two Jedi Masters worked tirelessly to destroy the Sith prison. Through their efforts they learned that that spirit realm was closed and that no new spirits had entered it since the end of the Silent Wars. As they grew closer to unraveling the mystery behind the realm, the criticism of Varté and the Grand Master grew to a fervor and the stress became to much for the Kiffar to bare. Sparing his mentor any more petitions or harsh comments, Varté departed from Ossus and traveled to the planet of Anzat to study the Anzati understanding of the spirit and the afterlife. Learning from their superstitions and beliefs, Varté compared that to what he already knew and devised a plan. Returning to the place where it all began, Varté arrived at the old palace of Dark Queen Bandora. Currently in use as a Jedi training facility for alchemy, the academy was largely abandoned due to the work being done at Anil Kesh on Tython. Unearthing a secret chamber in the facility's main tower using the alchemist's journal, Varté discovered markings on the chamber floor denoting a ritualistic space. Embracing the light side of the Force, Varté was led to a chest containing an old green crystal which emanated with dark side energy. Using his command of psychometry, Varté was able to relive the ritual used to create the spirit world within the very chamber in which he stood. Using the light side energies flowing through him, Varté shattered the crystal and transcended time and space as his galaxy exploded around him. Committing himself to ending the spirit realm's existence, Varté's light side energy shattered the realm's boundaries and washed away the taint of the dark side magics used in its making. Sensing Varté's sacrifice, in the months after his disappearance, it took the Grand Master several weeks to trace Varté's path back to the academy on the Rogue Moon. Locating the secret chamber and the journal, Moorcé discovered that only Varté's lightsaber remained of the troubled young Jedi.

Revealing the lightsaber to his gathered audience, Moorcé let their shock wash over him as he felt his own sadness at the loss of his friend. Solemnly, Moorcé reprimanded the Order for their mistreatment of Varté, for circulating rumors, and moving for his removal through baseless accusations. Moorcé declared that the Order obviously had need to reflect and grow from this, as the pettiness displayed in this case ultimately proved costly. Instead of embracing Varté as Moorcé had implored them too, they chose to vilify him for his seemingly meritless rise to a seat on the Council. Moorcé dismissed the audience and placed Varté's lightsaber in  the hands of the sculpture of the Meditating Kiffar Jedi in the Hall of Meditation Masters.