Welk (CABE 'verse)

Welk was born on Dathomir in 9 ABY. His mother was Truya Djo, and his grandmother was Saria Djo, the younger half-sister of Augwynne.

He was kidnapped in 21 ABY, at the age of twelve, and trained as a Dark Side adept by Tamith Kai, a Nightsister who was killed in 23 ABY. Lomi Plo, another Dark Side adept from Dathomir, then took him under her wing to continue his training.

Empress Shira of the fledgling Stellar Imperium then took notice of him, and in 25 ABY she killed Lomi Plo and brought Welk to the true Sith Order. He was not given a choice in the matter, except that to refuse would be death. He took the position of Shira's apprentice, and also agreed to one additional term of his apprenticeship: he would allow another Sith Lord, Darth Inferna, to conceive his child. Their daughter, Desa, was born in 26 ABY.

Welk was aboard the Star Destroyer Eternity, orbiting the Marstill system, when they pulled the Silent Runner out of orbit. This small ship held four Jedi Knights, although at the time Welk did not know who they were. Because Marstill was on the way to Dantooine, Welk suspected that the Jedi were going to investigate the communications blackout on Dantooine. In fact, Dantooine had been destroyed entirely by a virus and he wanted to delay the flow of this information to the Jedi Order and New Republic. He ordered several squadrons of TIE fighters to pursue the Jedi, but the Silent Runner escaped - damaged, and bound to a homing beacon.

Welk returned to Cyalax with three high-ranking officers. Shira ordered him to find the four Jedi and bring back proof of their deaths. Welk took twenty-two trained soldiers with him, and General Melany Baclaw and Lieutenant Odact to lead them. They tracked the Jedi to the G0-CV system, and determined that only two of the original four Jedi had survived.

Once on the ground of the planet G0-CVII, Welk felt enough through the Force to know that the two survivors were Jacen Solo and Jacen's brother Anakin. The Stellar Imperial troops immediately began to pursue the Jedi brothers, who, once they discovered that they were being chased, began to run away from them.

Welk managed to trap Jacen and Anakin between the Stellar Imperials and a group of wild [[Walkers (CABE 'verse)|walkers]. This proved to be a mistake, because the starving walkers attacked and ate the troopers while the Jedi escaped. Only Welk and General Baclaw survived.

General Baclaw shot at the boys and eventually got one good shot in - striking Anakin's lightsaber. Anakin burned his hand, but threw the lightsaber away before it could explode and cause much injury. This also left him without a weapon, and General Baclaw chased him while Welk caught Jacen in a duel.

Jacen cut off part of Welk's arm, but let Welk go when Anakin could be heard crying out nearby. Welk left Melany alone and made his own escape; he felt Anakin's life signs fading in the Force as he left, and assumed that both he and Melany were dead. He blew up Jacen's escape pod on the way back to his ship, which destroyed Jacen's only passage off the planet and left him alone to die.

Shira knew that Welk failed in his duty, but she gave him another chance, because the Cyalax Virus was ready for launch and the Jedi would soon not be a threat anymore. She demonstrated the virus on an incompetent underling, and demonstrated the vaccine on Darth Inferna. She then sent Welk to Yavin VIII to infect the Jedi that were hiding there.

Welk was captured on Yavin VIII by Jaina Solo and Zekk and the virus samples he carried were destroyed. However, he was able to escape captivity, injuring Sannah in the process, and he stole their ship to get off the planet. He helped Darth Inferna get out of jail on Coruscant and noted where his two-year-old daughter was being held in foster care, but he temporarily left the baby where she was.

Welk had done a deep scan of G0-CVII to look for life forms from orbit, and he did not detect anything. However, he did not know that Jacen and Anakin were traveling in deep underground caverns, and assumed instead that Jacen had finally met his demise.

Welk and Inferna returned to Cyalax just in time to find Jaina and Shira in a duel, with Jaina slowly winning. Inferna hit Jaina with Force lightning and forced her to retreat and run. Shira, embarrassed, blamed them for Jaina's escape and ordered them not to return to her presence until they hunted and killed the Jedi Knight.

They went to G0-CVII after months of unsuccessful searching, with plans to lure Jaina to the place where her brothers died. There, they found that the boys were still alive. Both were intensely tortured in the hopes that Jacen would call out to Jaina through their twin bond. It failed because Jacen shut down in the Force when he discovered that he was being laid as a trap for Jaina, and also because Jaina herself was dangerously close to falling to the Dark Side and did not recognize most of Jacen's unconscious calls.

Inferna eventually attacked Anakin, and Jacen killed her before she could break Anakin's neck. Welk realized that he was defeated and without Inferna had no hope of beating the children of Princess Leia. He went back to Coruscant, to retrieve his daughter, and disappeared with her into the Unknown Regions.

A few years later, Welk returned to his home planet, finally purged of the Dark Side, and was accepted back into the Fire Island clan. He was considered a marginally free man, because his grandmother was the clan leader and his mother had him as her only child. Still, Welk had few rights and little influence.

When Desa was seventeen, she rejected the name Desa Djo and chose to be called Desa Bo Clai instead. This was not a rejection of the clan nor of Welk, but instead a rejection of the notion that she should take her surname from her father instead of her mother. Her rite of passage was to capture a man, and Desa went out and did just that.

Welk was shocked to find that Desa had captured not just any man, but Anakin Solo himself. He warned Desa that she had bitten off more than she could chew, but the headstrong girl refused to listen to him.

Jacen eventually came to Dathomir searching for his runaway daughter Allana and his missing brother. His first confrontation with Welk almost led to a fight, but they managed to remain civil. When Desa discovered that Jacen was the one who killed her mother, though, she tried to attack Jacen, and Welk was only briefly able to hold her back. It took his grandmother's power to make Desa stop.

Welk fought in a battle against the Nightsisters, along with many others, mostly female witches, but a few lightly trained men as well, so great was the Nightsister threat. The Nightsisters were defeated, and since any man who killed two or more Nightsisters was allowed to go free, Anakin was to be freed as well. Desa initially refused, but when Jacen gave her Darth Inferna's focusing crystal and Welk confirmed that it was genuine, she allowed Jacen to purchase Anakin from her with it.

Jacen immediately freed Anakin and then asked Welk for a favor: to convince Desa to perform a short wedding ceremony for Anakin. Welk reluctantly agreed, and Desa went along with the plan once the Jedi assured them that they would leave the next day. Welk prompted Desa through the short formality and Anakin was wed to his partner of six years.

After the Jedi left, there were no notable disturbances on Dathomir other than the usual clan raids. Welk lived to an old age and had many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, several of them powerful witches.