Interpretation is the key.
—Ussej Padric Bac
Ussej Padric Bac was the Shaman of the Whills and the guardian of the Journal of the Whills in the millennia between the Great Territorial War and the foundation of the New Republic. Ussej was born on Alderaan as the son of Princess Talia Antilles, making him a prince by virtue of lineage; Bac's mother and father Senator Padric Bac II, were assassinated when he was a baby, so the Jedi Order took him in as one of their own. He and his master, Brarh Kefle, ran from the Second Sith Empire for years in the aftermath of the Jedi Civil War before the Jedi Order was reformed.
As a Jedi, Ussej fought alongside his friend Damien Nightblade during the Great Territorial War, nearly falling to the dark side in the process; his true love, Laili Jeyna Rendar, helped pull him back from the brink. When the war was over, Ussej and Laili ventured to Kal'Shabbol where Ussej became a member of the Bendu Order. Upon his death, Ussej was taken to Ashlan Four where he became the Shaman of the Whills, allowing him to use the time stream to interact in historical events.
Thousands of years later, Ussej warned Nightblade, who had become the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Plagueis, that allowing Plagueis' apprentice to kill him and become the Dark Lord would result in the beginning of the Apocalypse. Despite Ussej's eleventh hour plea, Plagueis allowed himself to die and the Apocalypse began. Annikin Skywalker, the supposed Chosen One who would be the savior of the galaxy, was born shortly thereafter, and Bac would interact with him in the years that followed. Ussej recounted these interactions to Duseuso, a Whill historian who documented them in the Journal of the Whills.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Ussej Padric Bac was born circa 3,960 BBY on Alderaan as the son of Senator Padric Bac II and Alderaanian Princess Talia Antilles. This made him the Prince of Alderaan by virtue of lineage. Sometime following his birth, his parents were killed, leaving Bac as an orphan.[1]
Bac was taken into the Jedi Order following his parents’ deaths. During the Jedi Civil War, he came under the tutelage of Jedi Master Brarh Kefle. In the aftermath of the war, when many Jedi fled into exile to hide from the Second Sith Empire, Bac and Kefle went into hiding on Corellia to avoid being killed by the Sith.[1]
In 3,952 BBY, Bac and his master were involved in a speeder accident in the streets of Corellia. The two were unhurt, though the passengers of the other speeder, Corwin Rendar and his pregnant wife Jeyna Rendar, were severely injured. All four were rushed to the hospital by Stavan Jetzt, a Galactic Republic soldier who had just returned to Corellia after being held as a prisoner of war by the Sith. The Rendars died from their wounds at the hospital, but the doctors were able to save Jeyna’s unborn child, Laili Jeyna Rendar.[1]
Shortly after the incident, the Jedi Order reorganized itself. Bac and Kefle ended their exile and returned to the Order. In the years that followed, Bac became a Jedi Knight.[1]
Great Territorial War[]
In the years that followed, Jetzt was elected Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic. One week after his inauguration, he called a delegation of Jedi, including Bac and fellow Jedi and close friend Damien Nightblade, to his office to discuss his belief that the Sith had returned from a years-long silence. Jetzt pointed to a flow of weapons in the Uvena system that he believed the Sith were behind. The Jedi were skeptical of the claim, but they agreed to send Bac and Nightblade to investigate the situation.[1]
When they arrived in the Uvena system, they found themselves in the middle of a conflict between the planets Uvena Prime and Uvena III. By the end of the short conflict, the two Jedi were able to follow the trail of weapons Jetzt spoke of to Korriban. They soon discovered that the Third Sith Empire, the Sith order that had succeeded the previous Sith Empire years earlier, had orchestrated the Uvena Conflict in order to gain weapons for themselves. Bac and Nightblade escaped to Coruscant, albeit barely, where they informed Jetzt of what happened. In response, Jetzt declared war on the Third Sith Empire, effectively beginning the Great Territorial War between the Galactic Republic and the Third Sith Empire.[1]
At the beginning of the war, Bac was said to have been an optimistic Jedi Knight, one who was eventually hardened by war. During this time, he fell in love with Laili Jeyna Rendar, whom he came to refer to as the love of his life. Circumstances he had not foreseen caused him to become paranoid, going so far as to almost turn to the dark side of the Force. Some of this, along with his so-called personality quirks, put a strain on his relationship with Rendar, but he was able to turn away from the dark side.[1]
Guardian of forever[]
For eons, they awaited the arrival of a shaman who would help guide them. He came to them a few thousand years ago.
—Sarus, leader of the Ophuchi Clan, in 22 BBY
By the war’s end and his return from the brink of the dark side, Bac was able to achieve what was said to have been a state of compassion and leadership that allowed him to fulfill his pre-ordained destiny and become the Shaman of the Order of the Whills,[1] an order in the pocket dimension Ashlan Four that recorded galactic history using the time stream, a body of water that contained a visual record of the universe’s history. He discovered that he was the only one on Ashlan Four who could actually enter the time stream and interact in historical events, leading the Whills to refer to him as the “guardian of forever”, as he took it upon himself to protect the timeline.[2]
Bac lived on Ashlan Four for over three thousand standard years, although time had no meaning there and he did not age because of it. During that time, he took frequent horseback rides in the mornings. In 922 BBY, the Ophuchi Clan of desert hermits in the Dune Sea of Tatooine became disorganized and scattered across the Outer Rim Territories. Bac appeared before the scattered members and led them back to Tatooine, where he brought them to a cave in their sanctuary to show the Ophuchi their collective destiny.[4]
During or after the Invasion of Utapau, Bac came to know a man named Annikin Skywalker, although he acknowledged that because he used the time stream to interact with Skywalker his interpretation of Skywalker’s life may not have been correct.[2] Some of these interactions were during the Clone Wars, a conflict between the Galactic Republic and the Mandalorian Clans that Skywalker participated in.[5] Bac later recounted his knowledge of Skywalker to Duseuso, a Whill historian, to be placed into the Journal of the Whills, the historical text that the Order of the Whills used to document the story of the galaxy. Bac also recounted the life of Darth Plagueis, a Dark Lord of the Sith Bac once referred to as one of his closest friends.[2]
Personality and traits[]
During the earlier days of the Great Territorial War, Bac was said to have been an optimistic Jedi Knight. The war, however, was noted as having turned him into a more battle-hardened Jedi. During this time, circumstances he did not foresee caused him to become paranoid, which nearly turned him to the dark side of the Force. Despite his so-called irrational behavior, he was able to turn away from the dark side. Parts of Bac’s personality caused some strain on his relationship with Rendar, but he came to refer to her as the love of his life.[1]
Over a period of many years, Bac was said to have achieved a state of compassion and leadership that was necessary for him to fulfill his destiny as the Shaman of the Whills.[1] Once he became the Shaman of the Whills, he thought about his past every so often, sometimes finding himself longing for what he felt were his glory days. Nevertheless, he came to feel that his life as the Shaman of the Whills on Ashlan Four was more peaceful than his previous life.[2]
As a Jedi, Bac believed that it was not strong emotions that caused individuals to fall to the dark side, but rather the conflict caused between such emotions and the Jedi beliefs that forbid them. Bac felt that Jedi did not fall to the dark side because they were in love, for example, but rather because they were told not to love, creating a conflict between natural emotions and what the Jedi thought they were supposed to be.[6]
Powers and abilities[]
While a new Jedi Knight, Bac was said to have had average abilities with a lightsaber, the weapon of a Jedi Knight, but he eventually was able to develop above average fighting skills. Damien Nightblade instructed Bac in a form of combat called Rizen, which Nightblade himself created. The lightsaber combat form was known to very few people in the galaxy due to it being an original creation by Nightblade.[1]
As the Shaman of the Whills, Bac was the only one in the Order of the Whills to be able to use the time stream to interact in historical events. This allowed him to know Annikin Skywalker during the Clone Wars, although Bac noted that, despite his interaction with Skywalker, his time in the past was subject to interpretation and what he saw was not necessarily historical fact.[2]
Behind the scenes[]
Reception[]
Bac has garnered relatively positive reviews in terms of his storylines and his appearances in former and outdated drafts of the now-upcoming Shadows of the Jedi: The Legend of Ussej Padric Bac. In the first draft of the novel, the reviews were mostly positive. Some critics, such as Atarumaster88, did not respond as favorably to the character or the novel,[7] nor did they respond as favorably to the character’s storylines. Atarumaster88 stated that he “would very much like to punch...Ussej” due to Bac's characterization.[8]
Over a period over nearly three years, the character’s creator, author Brandon Rhea, conducted five separate research polls on TheStarWarsRP.Com, a role-playing forum of which Rhea is the head administrator, to determine the popularity of his main role-playing characters, Bac having been one during the website’s first role-playing timeline. Bac garnered a sixty-percent majority in the first poll,[9] but the popularity dropped to thirty-two percent in the second poll where Bac was tied with the character Carden Mannux.[10] The third poll was the first in which Bac was not the first or tied for first character in popularity. Bac received forty-seven percent of the vote, compared with the fifty-three percent for Ussej Padric Bac III.[11] In the fourth poll, Bac’s popularity in regards to the other characters continued to decline, as he received only around eight percent of the vote.[12] In the fifth and final poll, Bac tied for second along with Ussej Padric Bac III, behind Banik Kelrada. Rhea attributed the drops in popularity to the amount of time passed since the character was used and the influx of new members on the website, as many of the people on the website were unfamiliar with the character.[13]
On Star Wars Fanon, the Star Wars wiki of fan invention, the article on Ussej Padric Bac garnered two awards in the Third Star Wars Fanon Wiki Awards. The first was “Best Ashla Character”, which was for the best light-sided character. Bac received seven of the twelve votes in that category, beating out five other characters. The second award was the “Best Overall Character”, which he tied with Narod Antrell by Victor Dorantes for. The two characters beat five others for the award.[14]
Parodies[]
Bac was parodied on Darthipedia, the Star Wars humor wiki by Rhea and other users, such as Dorantes, Darth 83.81.43, and supergeeky1. In the parody, the character is named “Jesus Patrick Bach”, and is portrayed as a Mary Sue, a character who is overwhelmingly perfect and power. He is also shown as being someone who wants nothing more than to have sexual relations with his “hot blonde apprentice”. Bach had superhuman abilities due to the “Medallion of the Superman-Khan”, and after becoming the Shaman of the Free Willys he was allowed entry into Heaven by Kyle Katarn, referred to as “God”.[15]
On TheStarWarsRP.Com, the name “Ussej Padric Bac” has been used in a number of jokes, mainly due to the fact that it is a common name in Rhea’s work with characters such as Ussej Padric Bac II, Ussej Padric Bac III, and Ussej Padric Bac LXIV. Some have insinuated that this is a lack of creativity, although Rhea has stated his reasons for carrying on the name with dozens of different individuals. Rhea has also, at times, reacted somewhat harshly to these jokes, believing that they are meant to directly insult him rather than make an actual critique of the character or the storylines in which the character appears.[16]
Appearances[]
- Shadows of the Jedi: The Legend of Ussej Padric Bac
- Shadows of the Jedi: The Legend of Ussej Padric Bac II
- Shadows of the Jedi: The Legend of Ussej Padric Bac III
- Star Wars: Episode I - The Chosen One (First appearance)
- Star Wars: Trials of War - Stranger in a Strange Land
- Star Wars: Episode II - Dawn of an Empire
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 "Chronicles of the Great War update," Brandon Rhea's Star Wars Fanon blog
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 The Chosen One, Prologue
- ↑ The Chosen One, Chapter 14
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Chosen One, Chapter 12
- ↑ Brandon Rhea discusses the Alternative Star Wars Saga
- ↑ Adrian Bac role-playing profile on TheStarWarsRP.Com
- ↑ Critical reaction to The Legend of Ussej Padric Bac
- ↑ Atarumaster88 discusses Ussej Padric Bac
- ↑ First “Best Character” Poll
- ↑ Second “Best Character” Poll
- ↑ Third “Best Character” Poll
- ↑ Fourth “Best Character” Poll
- ↑ Fifth “Best Character” Poll
- ↑ The Third Star Wars Fanon Wiki Awards
- ↑ Jesus Patrick Bach on Darthipedia, the Star Wars Humor Wiki
- ↑ Ussej Padric Bac: Why so many?