Jerec (Inquisitor)

"Jerec, the man who murdered your father, is a great evil. He searches for the location of a sacred place, the Valley of the Jedi. The Force of thousands of Jedi is trapped here. If Jerec captures this power, he will be a creature such as the universe has never seen. A supernova of stars in a fleeting thought. The eradication of life from a star system in a whisper will be within his power."

- Qu Rahn as a Force ghost, to Kyle Katarn

Jerec was a powerful Miraluka Jedi Master and Jedi archaeologist who turned to the dark side under the Empire, becoming a feared Inquisitor and Emperor's Hand during the Galactic Civil War. Jerec was apprenticed to Jedi librarian Jocasta Nu and became a Jedi archaeologist himself, versed in knowledge of the Jedi's past, especially the Sith. A Jedi Master during the Clone Wars, he was on a long-term deployment, searching for ancient knowledge in the Unknown Regions when Order 66 was issued. Upon his return, Jerec was found by the Inquisitorius and turned to the dark side.

Jerec served the Empire as an Inquisitor for many years, becoming an Emperor's Hand as well. However, Jerec was in truth devoted only to himself. One of the most powerful Dark Jedi in the Empire, Jerec continually sought ways to increase his power and take the Empire for himself. One of his chief obsessions was the Valley of the Jedi on the lost planet of Ruusan, which contained vast amounts of trapped Force power. After the Emperor's death at Endor, Jerec formed a band of seven Dark Jedi to seek out the Valley. He was able to find the legendary well of energy, and reached incredible heights of power by basking in its aura. However, for all his power, he was defeated in combat by Kyle Katarn, a novice Jedi who fulfilled an ancient prophecy regarding freeing the Valley's trapped Jedi and Sith spirits. Retaking his fallen weapon, Jerec made one last attack and was struck down in the heart of the Valley.

Biography
"His heavy brow overshadows the empty recesses that normally embrace eyes. Jerec has the uncanny power to absorb and overshadow one’s connection to the Force... like a dark cloud. A deep, empowering grasp of your will is what you need."

- Qu Rahn as a Force ghost, to Kyle Katarn

Jerec was a Miraluka, a near-human species born physically blind but with the ability to "see" in the Force. He wore a thin blindfold over the place his eyes should have been throughout his life; this, along with the relative rarity of Miraluka, may have contributed to the widespread assumption that Jerec was simply a blind Human.

Jedi career
As a child, Jerec was taken in by the Jedi Order due to his recognized Force potential. Jocasta Nu, a Jedi archaeologist and Jedi Council member, took an interest in the young Miraluka and made him her Padawan sometime before 52 BBY. A committed scholar herself, she encouraged Jerec to continually quest for greater knowledge and understanding. He developed a voracious thirst for answers to all possible questions, as well as picking up a deep sense of scholarly self-assurance &mdash; some might say arrogance &mdash; and confidence in his own knowledge.

Jerec's accumulation of knowledge was thrust fully into his own hands when he became a Jedi Knight. He also undertook to pass it on, taking Ameesa Darys as a Padawan and training her to knighthood by the time of the Clone Wars. This earned Jerec the rank of Jedi Master. Despite the rank of Master, his role as a Jedi archaeologist studying ancient lore and retrieving artifacts from across the galaxy, and some degree of prominence as a protégé of a former Jedi Council member and as a scholar in his own right, Jerec was not content among the Jedi. He was beginning to feel that he had exhausted all the Jedi had to give him, and was growing restless, seeking to accumulate greater power &mdash; for knowledge, to Jerec, was power. By this date, it would even seem that he was already considering the dark side as a possible source of knowledge; he thought that he had tapped the full potential of the light already.

Fall


During the Clone Wars, Jerec was occupied on a mission in the Unknown Regions where he was searching with other Jedi for lost wisdom of the ancients. Upon returning to the known Galaxy, Jerec found the Jedi Order extinct and the Republic transformed into an oppressive Galactic Empire. High Inquisitor Tremayne bent Jerec to the dark side, and soon he was a servant of Galactic Emperor Palpatine.

Jerec continued his studies, but this time in the Dark side. Jerec was trained by Palpatine under Darth Vader along with a number of other dark students in an attempt to ensure the Dark Side's reign over the galaxy should anything happen to either Vader or Palpatine. Jerec often studied from one of the Emperor's many Dark side texts, the enormous Dark Side Compendium (which Luke Skywalker would later study from at the tutelage of the reborn Emperor, on Byss). In this malevolent tome, Palpatine mused about a proposal he would later test on Byss following his resurrection: he would take seven or so trained Dark Jedi, and submerge them utterly into the Emperor's evil will; they would be fanatical, absolutely loyal, nearly unstoppable servants- a Dark Side Elite. But Palpatine never carried it out fully (he did use battle meditation to achieve a weak form of this, however). Jerec determined to pick up where Palpatine left off- unfortunately for Jerec, Palpatine sensed his intent.



Whatever the truth of the rumors of Jerec being an Emperor's Hand, Palpatine was always wary and deeply fearful of possibly being overthrown; he ruthlessly blocked Jerec from further access to his Dark side corpus, or indeed, any advanced training at all.

During the early part of the Galactic Civil War, Jerec would lead a task force to the Sullust moon of Sulon, rooting out a Rebel presence there. Interrogating one of the Rebel leaders, Morgan Katarn, Jerec hoped to find the location of his superiors. When Katarn refused to talk, Jerec slew the simple farmer in anger and ordered Maw, one of his minions, to drive Katarn's head on a spike to set an example. He served a short term as governor of Sulon, presumably following the execution of Katarn.

Eventually, he would learn from the Prophet of the Dark Side Lord Cronal (father of Sariss and later known as Agent Blackhole) of the Sith legend of the Valley of the Jedi. The lure of the concentrated power, and more importantly, the knowledge of thousands upon thousands of the greatest Sith and Jedi of antiquity proved too much for Jerec to ignore. But he could not immediately go in search of it due to his duties and the ever-present gaze of the Emperor. Jerec instead busied himself with projects such as governing Sulon, having a personal Super Star Destroyer built to replace the Imperial Star Destroyer Vengeance which was lost in an attempt to capture and tame a mind-controlling monster called Spore, in order to control an army.

After Palpatine's death at the hands of Anakin Skywalker, Jerec took his chance and aimed for his goal, completing his experiments and binding the minor characters Boc, Gorc, Pic, Maw, Sariss, Yun. Jerec had not been busy solely with ruling, recruiting Dark Jedi, and more esoteric pursuits; he had also prudently kept his hand in at business, becoming a billionaire through savvy investments, and many wealthy backers such as Grand Moff Ardus Kaine (they backed him financially due to his ability to Inquistorially exempt his patrons from any and all audits). After the Battle of Endor, when Kaine formed the Pentastar Alignment, Jerec and his followers went to work for the Alignment as the Great InQuestors of Judgment.

Only a year later, the Prophet Blackhole (formerly Lord Cronal) came to the Pentastar Alignment, and informed Jerec that the Emperor was alive and well on Byss, his plans for transferring his consciousness into clone bodies a success. Further, the Emperor, through Blackhole, commanded his allegiance, and charged him to search for the Valley of the Jedi, for the betterment of the Empire. Jerec, cleverly, had already arranged for the Alignment to dispatch him on that mission. But playing two sides against the middle was not sufficient for him- the Prophets of the Dark Side wanted him to find the Valley as well!

Search for the Valley of the Jedi


Upon learning the importance of finding the legendary Valley of the Jedi from Lord Cronal, Jerec sought out and captured the Jedi Master Qu Rahn, the only living Jedi to know its location. Aboard Jerec's flagship, the Vengeance, Rahn refused to reveal the Valley's location. The Dark Jedi probed Rahn's mind, and found that there was someone else who knew the secret, namely Morgan Katarn, ironically whom he had killed years before.

Refusing to give Jerec the opportunity to seek out the Valley, Rahn stole a lightsaber from Jerec's henchman Yun, and suicidally attacked his seven Dark Jedi acolytes simultaneously. Jerec blasted Rahn down with his power of Force Breach, which cut off one's connection to the Force, and then decapitated the Jedi Master, as he had done to Rahn's friend Morgan Katarn many years before.



Jerec and his band of fallen Jedi set off in search of a possible map that would lead them to the Valley of the Jedi. A droid named 8t88 would come to supply Jerec with the location of the Valley's map. After deciphering it, Jerec immediately left for Ruusan, the Valley's home.

After absorbing a considerable amount of power from the Valley, Jerec dueled Kyle Katarn. The son of Morgan Katarn, Kyle had tracked Jerec to Ruusan to avenge his father's death and to stop Jerec's evil plot. After a grueling battle, Kyle managed to bring Jerec, unarmed, to his knees. Rather than strike him down in cold blood, Kyle gave him the chance for an honorable death by tossing the vanquished villain his saber. Humiliated, Jerec attempted one last failed attack, resulting in Kyle's blade cutting him down. The Jedi spirits he had absorbed, and all others in the valley were freed from eternal imprisonment and released into the air finally becoming one with the Force.

Behind the scenes



 * Jerec was played by Christopher Neame in Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II.
 * Jerec's identification as a Miraluka appears to be a controversial retcon from the role playing game, as Jerec originally was described as Human in his first appearance (Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, game, followed by the novella); another story has it that Jerec lost his eyes in a battle against one of Palpatine's dark side minions. His eyeballs were visible in at least one cutscene, beneath the mask. This could be explained away as a simple special effects gaffe, however.
 * Jerec reappears in Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith (the Jedi Knight expansion pack), this time as a variety of Sith statue scattered throughout the last few levels.
 * Some fans have theorized that Jerec may be a practitioner of Makashi lightsaber combat, based mostly on his opening stance as presented in the final level of Jedi Knight. However, this is complete and total fan speculation, and Jerec has not yet been announced as a user of any particular form.
 * Jerec also appears in a fanfilm, Spirits of the Force, along with Kyle Katarn and Jan Ors, all played by fan actors.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Republic: The Dreadnaughts of Rendili
 * Galaxy of Fear: Spore
 * Dark Forces: Soldier for the Empire
 * Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
 * Dark Forces: Rebel Agent
 * Dark Forces: Jedi Knight
 * Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast