Vacander Jax was a Human male who served as a Shadow Guard of Emperor Palpatine. The son of a Jedi Knight who fought in the Clone Wars, Jax was discovered as a Force-sensitive by Inquisitorius. He was taken by an Inquisitor to Coruscant, where the Emperor decided to make him one of the first members of the Shadow Guard. Given training by him, as well as an Emperor's Hand and several other Dark Jedi, Jax served with distinction during the Great Jedi Purge. However, he was killed by Galen Marek in 2 BBY on Nar Shaddaa.
Though he could use the Force, his abilities were not as particularly strong as many other servants of the Emperor, and thus he was made a Shadow Guard rather than an Emperor's Hand or an Inquisitor. However, Jax was capable of using moves such as Force push, Force lightning, and Force choke. To make up for that, he trained rigorously with his lightsaber pike, becoming a talented duelist in the eyes of his trainers.
Biography[]
Son of Jedi[]
Vacander Jax was born on the planet of Arkonne III in the Outer Rim Territories, in 27 BBY. His father, Harko Jax, was a former Jedi Knight, who left the Order because he fell in love with another Jedi. They went to Arkonne III together, and lived there after she gave birth to Jax. He himself was born a Force-sensitive. Jax later recalled that his parents raised him well. In 22 BBY, however, Harko allowed to rejoin the Order as he wished of fight for the Galactic Republic in the Clone Wars. He did, and managed to survive the conflict, but in 19 BBY, his clone troopers received Order 66. Killing them, he returned to Arkonne III as the Jedi Order fell.
Discovered by the Empire[]
The Emperor may have some use for you, boy.
—Inquisitor to Jax
Though Jax's father was able to escape the clones and return to Arkonne III, the new Galactic Empire did not forget about him. Two weeks after his return, a member of Inquisitorius and a squadron of stormtroopers arrived to finish him off. After a lengthy duel and firefight, Jax's father was killed by the Inquisitor, though managed to slay many stormtroopers. His mother begged, but was executed shortly afterwards as well. Jax was not in the same room to see the deaths of his parents. However, when the Inquisitor came upon the eight year-old Jax, he sensed the boy also was able to use the Force. Thinking that Palpatine could use more Dark Side Adepts, he took Jax with him back to Coruscant after his troopers destroyed their home.
Dark side training[]
A pity you aren't more powerful . . .
—Emperor Palpatine to Jax
After being delivered to the Imperial Palace, Jax was met by Emperor Palpatine in his throne room. The Sith questioned Jax, asking him about his parents, how he lived for the past several years, and whether he knew of his Force sensitivity. The eight year-old answered vaguely, being in awe of the Emperor. Before their deaths, his parents gave him brief instruction in use of the Force, though the only power he knew was Force push. The Emperor asked about the boy's political views, and he had none, not even fully understanding that Palpatine was responsible for the deaths of his parents. He told Jax that he would be raised and trained in the Imperial Palace by him and some of his other servants. The young Jax, not comprehending that Palpatine wanted to make him one of his darksiders, was excited.
Over the next several months, Jax began basic Force training under Emperor Palpatine. He wanted to train the boy personally to indoctrinate him with his teachings from a young age, and viewed it as an experiment. However, over the months, Palpatine realized that Jax was not very powerful with the Force, at least not as much as many of his other dark side servants. Three years after their training began, Palpatine got busier and busier, and less interested in Jax, and thus left him to be trained by others, eventually seeing him only once every several months. Jax, who viewed the Emperor as a father figure, became disappointed, and tried training harder. Palpatine had decided to make him one of the his Shadow Guards, a secretive division of Force users in the Emperor's Royal Guard.
By 16 BBY, he was training with a former Dathomirian Nightsister named Vonya Ocheron. She viewed the young Jax as a sort of son, and tried to train him to the maximum of his abilities in the Force. By 11 BBY, he was able to use Force push, Force lightning, and Force choke. During that time, he was also given training in lightsaber combat by several other members of Palpatine's Dark Side Adepts. Those included an Emperor's Hand and Imperial Inquisitor. In melee and ranged combat, Jax was trained by a member of the Imperial Security Bureau. However, in the reports of his masters, Jax was most skilled in dueling. Using a lightsaber pike, which Shadow Guards used, he had been able to defeat most of his trainers in sparring sessions. They were impressed, and Palpatine was glad of his progress.
In 9 BBY, Jax completed his training and was officially made a Shadow Guard, shortly after a brief combat training course on Yinchorr, were the Royal Guard Academy was located.
Hunting enemies of the Empire[]
When Jax began his career as a Shadow Guard, he was placed in command of a squadron of Imperial Navy commandos and shadow stormtroopers. None of them ever really talked each other, and Jax never saw what any of them looked like. The Emperor told him that his first job was to hunt down Jedi that were still alive, with his troops. If he needed additional reinforcements, Jax was to contact a Star Destroyer which would be in orbit around whatever planet he was on.
He was first dispatched to Greater Marianas, a planet considered essentially useless by the Empire. That was why a Jedi Master from the Clone Wars, Altai Zvon, was hiding there with his Padawan, Ulia Iguni. The two were hiding in the planet's only spaceport. The Imperial garrison there had blocked off the city's streets, preventing anyone from leaving, while Jax and his troopers were deployed from their vessel. As soon as the apartment they were in was identified, a squad of Navy commandos were sent in. The Jedi managed to kill all of them, and escaped into the streets. Jax and his shadow stormtroopers, known as Umbra Squad, gave them a chase.
The troopers were lost behind in the alleyways, but Jax tracked down the Jedi to an area on the outskirts. There, he dueled the duo. During the lengthy duel, he was able to catch Master Zvon off-balance, and killed him by stabbing him with the pike through the chest. His Padawan, Ulia Iguni, was outraged, and attacked the guardsman with more ferocity than before. He thought about trying to take her prisoner for Palpatine, to use as another Dark Jedi, but decided against it, giving her a blast of Force lightning. She was flung into a nearby building, and he assumed Iguni was dead. Satisfied, Jax left, but the Padawan actually survived.
Final assignment[]
After completing several other missions during a number of years, Jax and his squadron were sent to Nar Shaddaa. There, they were expecting Galen Marek in his search for Rahm Kota, a Jedi. After arriving on the planet, Jax and his troops entered a bar where he was said to have been, find the dead bodies of several patrons. He ordered his commandos to go and find the Jedi. They did so, and spread out throughout the level, looking in other parts of the cantina. Jax waited at the main bar with a squad of shadow stormtroopers. He occasionally received a report from commandos running into him, but they would never call back in.
After about fifteen minutes, Marek entered the cantina. Jax attacked him with lightning when he entered, as an energy shield closed off the path to his landing pad and the door he entered through locked. They went on to duel for several minutes, and after a but, Jax began tiring out from fighting. His shadow stormtroopers, invisible up to that point, entered the fray, distracting Darth Vader's former apprentice as they fought. He killed all of them, however, and then raised Jax into the air with the Force, proceeding to blast the Shadow Guard out of the cantina. Jax screamed as he fell many levels down into the bowels of Nar Shaddaa.
Legacy[]
After Jax's death, Galen Marek left the planet aboard the Rogue Shadow before any other Imperials could arrive. Palpatine was informed of his death, but he had expected it, the one sending him to attempt to kill Vader's former apprentice. The Emperor simply forgot about him afterwards. Jai's dead body was later found by stormtroopers in one of the lower levels of the planet.
Personality and traits[]
Behind the scenes[]
Jax is heavily based on Carnor Jax, a canonical Royal Guard and Sith Lord. He is one of the author's favorite characters, and originally he thought of writing an article on him, but decided against messing with canon characters. Still wanting to create his own that was similar, Vacander Jax ended up being the result. He is also based partly on other characters, including three Shadow Guards that were unnamed minor characters. Jax is also similar to Galen Marek, who was the son of a Jedi that was tracked down and killed by the Empire. Unlike Jax, he was under Vader, and not officially part of the Empire.