Darca Nyl

"There are places in the galaxy that are grand and important. Where actions and decisions create fate and write history. The majority of us&hellip; we never see those places. Our names will not be remembered in the days to come. But we still have our stories."

- Darca Nyl

Darca Nyl was a Human mercenary who, after falling in love with a woman named Teril, retired and settled on an unknown planet in the Outer Rim Territories. Nyl bore numerous deep emotional scars throughout his life, especially after his wife died in childbirth and a deranged Dark Jedi killed his son. Taking up a lightsaber given to him by a dying Jedi, Nyl went on an anger-filled quest to find and kill his son's killer. Along the way, he encountered various groups of people who assumed he was a Jedi and who were in need of his help. Although he eventually confronted and defeated the Dark Jedi, his encounters with various others along the way spurred him to begin a life dedicated to aiding the helpless.

Mercenary


At some point in his life, most likely as a young man, Nyl joined a mercenary corps in the Outer Rim. He served for many years, jumping from cause to cause to support the highest bidder and after many engagements, had accumulated both respect as a seasoned veteran and an impressive collection of battle wounds. With his hard-earned experience, Darca did not experience battle stress and was notoriously calm before missions.

At some point during his mercenary career, Nyl joined a crew which served the purpose of an air battalion. His men were equipped with jetpacks and dropped from transport vessels in the heat of battle to harass and disable enemy ships. Nyl had made friends with several men in his group, including D'Lew and Garrett, who respected Darca for his nerves of steel and fearlessness in battle.

Life as a mercenary was dangerous work, and on one disastrous mission Nyl's dropship was struck by enemy fire in the midst of a massive air battle. Darca's battalion, including D'Lew, were instantly killed. Nyl and the only remaining member of his squad, Garrett, abandoned the dying vessel and scoured the battlefield in hopes of joining up with another battalion. Unfortunately, a stray laser bolt struck Garrett's jetpack and sent him plummeting. Diving desperately, Nyl was able to grab Garrett mere meters from the ground.

The pointless deaths of the men that he had grown to like disillusioned him with the mercenary life. It was at this time, on a visit to a backwater cantina, that Nyl met a beautiful woman named Teril and was immediately smitten. Teril strengthened Nyl's doubts, and he decided to leave his old life behind.

A new life


Choosing a simpler style of life, Teril and Darca relocated to the abandoned frontier. Buying a patch of land, the two began to build a new blissful life as farmers. After deciding to start a family, the couple were overjoyed when Teril became pregnant. However, the perfect life they had envisioned was not to be. Complications in the birth claimed Teril's life, though the infant boy, Neas, survived.

Nyl was devastated. He buried his wife in a grove near their house and tried to hide his despair for the good of his son. However, the ex-mercenary was not able to completely hide his grief. On several occasions, Neas encountered his father grieving over holograms of his dead wife. Neas tried to comfort his father, and this led to the two having more of a friendship than a father and son relationship. Nyl continued to maintain his farm and taught his son to do the same. The two continued in this fashion until, one day, a starship crashed unexpectedly near their land.

A life destroyed


Seeing the smoke rising from the crashed starship, Nyl ordered his son inside. Grabbing a shovel and a blaster just to be safe, he made his way to the flaming wreckage. Arriving at the site, Nyl found a wounded man lying in the cockpit. The man refused care, desperate to deliver an ominous message in time. He was a Jedi Knight who was transporting a dangerous Dark Jedi named Lycan to trial on Coruscant. Giving Nyl his lightsaber, he urged the farmer to subdue Lycan before it was too late.

Realizing that Lycan was probably headed for his home, Nyl ignited the lightsaber and began a mad sprint back to his house, but was horrified to discover that Lycan had made it there before him. Neas lay dead in the middle of the house.

Nyl had nothing left but his sorrow and anger. Determined to take revenge, he buried his son, packed up all he needed, and burned down his house and the rest of his possessions, symbols of a life that no longer existed. He purchased a ship in town and began his pursuit of Lycan.

Quest for revenge
Darca Nyl's pursuit led him to an inhospitable, colonized planet in the Outer Rim rich with ore, where shortly after leaving his ship, he drew his lightsaber to protect a boy fleeing from a pair of thugs. After incapacitating the heavies, he encountered their employer, Samuel, the owner of the planet's mining facility. Samuel mistook the lightsaber-wielding Nyl for a Jedi and revealed that the boy he was protecting was accused of conspiring in the kidnapping of Samuel's daughter Leddar.



Samuel revealed that Lycan had already left the planet a week earlier on a supply ship, but he wouldn't reveal the destination unless Nyl helped him get his daughter back. The kidnapper was Samuel's former partner Royce, who held a grudge against him for signing the ownership of the planet solely to himself, although Royce had helped him find the planet and the ore.

Nyl accepted the deal and ventured with Samuel outside the facility in protective suits to find Royce in the barren wasteland. Royce ambushed them, but after a brief fight Nyl managed to disarm Royce and rescue Leddar. However, Nyl grew increasingly disgusted with Samuel's callous attitude towards his daughter, whom he seemed to value less than his rivalry with Royce.

As Nyl led Leddar back to the spaceport, she asked if he was a Jedi. Awed by the look that people gave him when they believed him to be a Jedi, he lied and told the girl that he was indeed a Jedi. With the rescue of his daughter, Samuel finally revealed that Lycan was heading for Molavar.

Then, as Nyl was leaving, Samuel asked if he was going to leave the "slime." Nyl then told them "I'm taking Leddar back where it's safe and warm. You two can fight it out if you like. Live a short life of hate and revenge, ignore what's important&hellip; I don't care.", and threw his gun to them. Samuel almost immediately recognized his own greed and selfishness, and ran to his daughter, embracing her and asking for forgiveness. Royce, however, picked up the gun Darca had tossed to them, and tried to shoot Samuel in the back. However, Nyl's blaster had not functioned in some time. Humiliated to have his pettiness displayed with no victory over his foe, Royce fled into the deadly wilderness without a survival suit.

Leddar, over her father's shoulders, smiled gratefully at Darca, who presumably remembered his own family. The kidnapping and resulting reunion of Leddar and Samuel was most likely where he started adopting his Jedi persona.

The route to Molavar
"It's&hellip; personal."

- Darca Nyl on why he was pursuing Lycan

After the Leddar's rescue, Nyl was able to find passage on a ship en route to Molavar. However, his pursuit was interrupted when the crew of the ship tried to rob him. As a skilled mercenary, he managed to incapacitate them, but the ship spun out of control and Nyl was unable to keep it from crashing on an unknown planet. Now fully adopting his Jedi persona, Nyl pulled the traitorous crew from the ship before it exploded.

After two days of wandering around on the seemingly uninhabited planet, he finally stumbled upon a woman named Jaren and her hulking brother Ament, who were being chased by a man on a speeder bike. Impulsively acting to protect the woman, he cut the speeder bike in two with his lightsaber, but let the pilot escape despite Jaren's objections.

Jaren revealed that she was a negotiator on the planet, and had been attacked when she tried to sue for peace between her village and the biker's. Darca agreed to protect the two on their way back to Jaren's hometown in exchange for information on how to get offworld.



The following night Nyl's emotional difficulties finally caught up with him when Jaren showed him a trick related to the Force-strong nature of the planet's atmosphere: he poked the ashes of the campfire and the fire conjured an image of his son. Upon seeing the image, he was compelled to face his feelings of guilt and rage. When Jaren tried to question Nyl about the face in the fire, he stormed off, denying that he knew the person. As Darca went to be alone, Ament recognized the guilt in Nyl and sympathized with him.

Trying to get back to the fire, Nyl was set upon by a wild creature. He killed the large beast, but was shocked to see that another one of the creatures was about to attack Jaren. As he raced back to the campsite, Ament began to attack the beast with a rock. Darca believed that he had no chance of defeating it, but Ament's ferocity and rage overcame the beast.

Shocked at Ament's unbridled fury and inability to stop attacking the creature even after it was clearly dead, Nyl connected it with Ament's assumption of guilt when Nyl saw a face in the fire. Forcing Ament to stare into the fire, Nyl saw numerous faces: Ament's victims. Though simpleminded and usually peaceful, Ament was actually a mass murderer, prone to bouts of uncontrollable rage, and Jaren had helped him escape from prison.

Still playing the role of a Jedi, Darca Nyl turned Ament and Jaren over to the bikers who were chasing them earlier, who were able to show Nyl where he could get a ride to Molavar.

Arrival on Molavar


On Molavar at last, Nyl learned that Lycan had killed several people in a local casino and stolen a ship. Joining a convoy led by a Molavaran named Tooth, he finally found the abandoned ship in the middle of the Molavaran desert. Spotting Lycan's tracks in the dust, Nyl began to pursue Lycan once more, though he knew he did not have enough food and supplies to last for the time it would take to catch up to him in the harsh wilderness.

Several days into his trek, Darca came upon the heavily mined homestead of an elderly couple named Byrom and Ensa. Ensa revealed that Lycan had attacked and nearly killed her at their moisture farm before heading for the mountains, causing them to set mines all along their perimeter.

During his stay, Nyl came out one morning to find Sleeth and his gang demanding tribute from Byrom. Thinking he would aid Byron and Ensa, Nyl attacked the thugs, driving them into retreat. He was surprised to find that Byrom was furious with him for his "help." Nyl, confident Byrom had nothing to fear from a band as small as Sleeth's, did not realize that Sleeth was only an enforcer for his mother, the local crimelord Magon. The bandits would be back, and in much larger numbers.

Though Nyl wanted to aid the two in defending their home, his desire for revenge was too great. Every day he waited, Lycan got farther away. Byrom and Ensa claimed to understand, and gave Nyl permission to continue his journey. They said that the confrontation would have come sooner or later, and they were content to go out making a stand.

Saddened, Nyl set out after Lycan. However, soon into his journey, his guilt overcame his anger. He tracked down Tooth and his caravan and convinced them to help Byrom and Ensa defend themselves from Magon in exchange for the right to camp on the outskirts of their land. Darca returned with the party and saved the two from certain death. Byrom, Ensa, and Tooth were all grateful, but Darca was now a week's travel behind Lycan.

Showdown
"And sometimes, even when they seem blackened and burnt&hellip; when they appear to hold no light, hope, or chance of redemption&hellip; when there appears to be no possible outcome but an ending&hellip; they continue. Lycan said to me, 'Men are not driven by altruism.' I'll prove him wrong."

- Darca Nyl



Luckily for Darca, Lycan did not seem to have a final destination and was walking around in circles through the Molavaran mountains. Darca quickly caught up with him and was desperate to bring the fight to the murderer. However, Darca knew that he was no match for Lycan one-on-one and set up a trap for the being who had killed his son. Seeding an underground cave with mines, Darca was prepared to lead Lycan into the cave and sacrifice his own life to destroy the powerful killer.

The plan did not go as expected. As he attacked the Dark Jedi, Lycan used the Force to easily shatter two of Nyl's ribs. Sprinting back to the cave, he was hotly pursued by Lycan. Aided by the Force, Lycan quickly caught up with Nyl and Force-pushed him into an underground pool. Climbing out of the water, Lycan used the Force to grab Nyl's lightsaber and revealed that he had been waiting for him. The crash in the starship had given him amnesia, and he knew that Nyl could tell him who he was.

Nyl revealed what he knew of Lycan's past and why he pursued him. Glad to have his identity back, Lycan prepared to execute the wounded Darca Nyl. However, it was at this moment that Nyl activated the mines. Darca was prepared to die in the crumbling cave, but a vision of his wife and son in the chaos made him reconsider. As a large stone fell from the ceiling and crushed Lycan, Nyl realized that his life could have meaning beyond revenge. With his last ounce of strength, Nyl rushed from the swiftly collapsing cave.

In his travels, he had found the satisfaction that came from helping the less-fortunate. He had found something to live for. To honor his dead family, Darca Nyl decided to start a life of aiding the helpless.

Later life
"I think he just realized he wants to hurt someone again."

- Laynara.

After the formation of the Galactic Empire, Darca joined the Rebel Alliance. For a short while he trained spies for the Alliance on a rain-soaked world that was predominantly populated by dangerous creatures. After an unspecified number of recruits died while training under him, Darca was expelled from the Rebellion.

From that point onwards, Darca lived like a hermit inside a starship that he had made into his home. He passed the time by making wood carvings and statuettes of his wife and son until Wyl Tarson, Laynara and Baco Par dropped by uninvited. Darca attempted to kill the three of them, but stopped when Laynara threatened to destroy a bust of his wife. He then recognized Tarson, who spent about an hour in an unsuccessful attempt to convince Darca to join him on a mission to Ahakista. For reasons that are unclear, Darca made an about face and decided to join them after all just as Tarson and his crew were about to leave. Despite this decision, Darca made clear to Tarson that he was suspicious of Tarson's motives. Darca warned Tarson that he would kill him if he even had the slightest suspicion that Tarson was planning on betraying him.

Characteristics


Nyl was easily characterized by his green eyes and numerous scars that he bore upon his face. Impressively built, he remained extremely muscular throughout his careers as mercenary, farmer, and pseudo-Jedi.

He was skilled with both a blaster rifle and pistol, and he could also wield a lightsaber with little difficulty. Despite not being Force-sensitive, he became skilled enough to deflect blaster shots, demonstrating extraordinarily quick reflexes.

During Nyl's quest, he was equipped mainly with a broken blaster pistol and his green lightsaber along with numerous other tools. He began his search for Lycan with an impressive black environment suit, though he shed it over the course of his travels on arid Molavar.

There is a possibility that Nyl could actually be Force-sensitive. During the reign of Emperor Palpatine, Nyl carried a red lightsaber that was noticed by a lightsaber collectioner named Sardoth, agent of Raze and owner of the Daystar Casino on Ahakista. Sardoth called Darca to his office and asked him if he was a Jedi. There was no response, but elsewhere, aboard his flagship, Darth Vader senssed that something was wrong on Ahakista.

Personality
"You remind me of him, a long time ago. Angry. Guilty. Struggling with yourself, you carry it so long, it turns into whatever you're chasing."

- Ensa, commenting on Darca's similarities to Byrom



Darca Nyl was a talented mercenary with a longstanding career. In combat, he was known for his nerves of steel and cared little for his own safety. However, Nyl was known for looking out for his friends and companions and went to great lengths to make sure that he maintained a net of safety around them. He had difficulty dealing with loss and the death of a large group of squadmates eventually led him to leave his life of continual fighting.

He was unable to maintain a life of peace, however. First the death of his wife, and then his son, poisoned his pastoral content. When Nyl's son Neas, the only loved one he had left, was killed by the Dark Jedi Lycan, it threw him into a fit of rage, and he devoted his life to seeking revenge. Although he was driven by vengeance, Darca did have tender moments on his quest and showed that he valued the respected the concepts of family, justice, and loyalty.

After finally defeating Lycan, Nyl realized that his life was worth living even without his family or the drive to avenge them, finding a new purpose in helping those who could not help themselves. Though he could not undo his own suffering, he could prevent others from suffering in the same way.

Throughout his pursuit of Lycan, Nyl exhibited a tendency to make impulsive snap-judgments of situations and rush in, often making the situation worse. In his dealings with Samuel's men, Jaren, and Magon's bandits, Nyl intervened on behalf of those he perceived to be threatened, but his lack of familiarity with the circumstances meant that he often acted against the interests of those he later decided to help.

Behind the scenes

 * Darca Nyl was created by writer Rob Williams and artist Brandon Badeaux.

Appearances

 * Nomad
 * Star Wars Rebellion 6: The Ahakista Gambit, Part 1
 * Star Wars Rebellion 7: The Ahakista Gambit, Part 2
 * Star Wars Rebellion 8: The Ahakista Gambit, Part 3
 * Star Wars Rebellion 10: The Ahakista Gambit, Part 5