Yarael Poof/Legends

"A Jedi is not proud or boastful, and I trust you well understand I am sincere when I say that it is hard for me to imagine that (a) guard might have spied me in the first place, had I not wished to be seen."

- Master Poof lectures on his abilities to bend the perceptions of others.

Yarael Poof was a Quermian Jedi Master and revered member of the Jedi High Council in the years leading up to the Clone Wars. Rather mischievous in his use of the Force, Master Poof was a consummate practitioner of the Affect Mind ability, thus limiting his need to wield his lightsaber. Sitting on the High Council for years, Poof sacrificed his life in 27 BBY when he drew in the deadly powers of the Infant of Shaa tp protect the citizen's of Coruscant. His body rejoined the Force through cremation at the Jedi Temple's pyre.

As a Quermian, Poof's unusually long legs, body, and neck caused him to stand some three feet taller than other humanoid species. In addition to his upper arms, Poof had an additional set of delicate arms which he hid under his cloak. Possessing remarkable dexterity because of the extra set of limbs, Poof's sensitive olfactory glands were located in his hands. He had two brains, one located inside his skull and the other in his chest cavity. Out of the four Quermian Jedi enrolled in the Order at the time of the Invasion of Naboo, Poof was the most senior.

Biography


Like the majority of the Jedi Order's members of the era, Poof was most likely discovered to be Force-sensitive on his native Quermia at birth by the doctors who delivered him. Sending their findings to the Acquisition Division of the Order on Coruscant, recruiters would have been dispatched to take Poof from his guardians and bring him to the academy in Galactic City. At the Temple, Poof entered into a clan as an Initiate, passing through his classes until he graduated and was selected by a Master to become a Padawan.

After years of study, the young Poof passed the Trials of Knighthood and ascended to the rank of Jedi Knight. Studying the way of the Jedi Consular, Jedi Poof honed his preternatural skills with the Force, perfecting the art of Affect Mind. Eventually after enough study Poof was recognized by the High Council as a Master of the Jedi arts and formally raised in rank. Accepting many missions on behalf of the Order, Master Poof was so well respected by his peers that the High Council asked the Quermian to join its ranks. After a time, Poof was given the honor of becoming one of the Council's five life-time members, given the choice of stepping down at any time or serving on the Council until his death.

As a instructor at the academy on Coruscant, Poof passed down his knowledge on the Force to future generations of Knights. While an advocate for instruction in the use of Affect Mind, Poof cautioned that using this application of the Force could have permanent consequences on those it was used on. One of Poof's lectures was immortalized in the holocron of Master Asli Krimsan. The Quermian Master eventually took note of a skilled Ithorian Initiate named Roron Corobb and chose to take him as his Padawan. Training the boy for many years, Corobb eventually passed the Council's Trials and was knighted.



In 33 BBY, Master Poof was stationed at the Temple when the pan-galactic Yinchorri Uprising broke out in the Yinchorri system. As several of his fellow Councilors departed to quell the conflict, Poof remained behind, watching from the Temple's rooftop landing pad with Masters Yoda and Rancisis as the teams departed. Within the next few days, the Temple was attacked by Yinchorri warriors, who infiltrated the High Council Tower's entrance atrium. Gathering with the other Masters and Knights present in the Temple, Poof aided in defeating the invaders, with all dying in the fight save one soldier who was interrogated by the Grand Master. As the conflict in the Yinchorri system drew to a close, Master Poof joined several dozen Jedi in welcoming the Jedi teams back to the Temple after their long, trying mission.

Master Poof remained a member of the Council when Master Qui-Gon Jinn returned from a mission to Naboo where he escaped the Trade Federation blockade with Queen Padmé Amidala and fled to Tatooine to make repairs. On the dessert world he was attacked by a tattooed Zabrak Sith assassin who had training with a lightsaber and in the use of the Force. In Jinn's report he stated that he believed the warrior to be a Sith Lord, a survivor of the supposed Sith extinction of 1,000 BBY. In addition to this revelation, Jinn presented what he described as a vergence in the Force, a boy named Anakin Skywalker, for testing by the Council. Though the boy was strong in the Force, the Council decided to pass on training the boy and sent him away, refusing to train him. It wasn't until Jinn was killed at the hands of the Sith that the High Council reconsidered their stance and allowed Skywalker into the Order.

A short time later, Master Poof was summoned by the Master of the Order, Master Mace Windu, to the Operations Planning Center in the High Council Tower. Along with Windu, Master Saesee Tiin and Jedi Quinlan Vos were present for a holoconference with Sheyf Tinté Vos of the Kiffu Guardians. The Sheyf demanded Jedi Vos be sent to investigate a disturbance on the prison world of Kiffex, as he was a Kiffar of her bloodline. While Tiin feared that Vos would stray farther towards the dark side of the Force, Master Poof was concerned with the strained relations between the Order and the Guardians and wished to establish better ties with the group. Weighing both Masters' opinions, Master Windu voted to send Vos to confront the darkness growing on the world.



In 27 BBY, Poof's finest hour came after a chain of events that started with a crisis meeting of the High Council. Master Windu briefed the gathered Councilors on a threat which had emerged and needed immediate action. A radical Annoo-dat General named Ashaar Khorda was planning to strike at one of the Republic's key worlds&mdash;Alderaan, Corellia or Coruscant. Most terrifying of all, the Council learned that Khorda had obtained an ancient artifact from the planet Seylott that was so powerful it could destroy an entire planet. A member of the High Council would be needed to watch over each of the planets.

With Master Oppo Rancisis volunteering to go to Corellia and Eeth Koth to Alderaan, Master Windu declared he would safeguard Coruscant. However, Master Poof suggested he be given the task of protecting the galactic capital as he would be better attuned to pinpointing the disturbance created by the Infant of Shaa, the statue Khorda planned on using as his weapon of mass destruction. With the full Council agreeing to Poof's proposal, the Quermian wasted no time in departing on foot from the Temple and descending into the bowels of the city-planet. Reaching out for the artifact's Force-signature, Poof stumbled upon a young boy being harassed by a gang of hoodlums. Such was the Quermian's sense of compassion that he made time to help the boy and created an apparition of a fearsome rancor to scare off the gang.



Before long, Poof found himself within Coruscant's central power generator. Before him was Khorda, clutching a carved object that Poof sensed was the source of the disturbance in the Force. Realizing how close the object was to releasing its devastating power, Poof stepped forward and demanded that Khorda and his followers surrender. At the same time two bounty hunters, Zam Wesell and Jango Fett entered the chamber and demanded the statue be turned over to them. Forming an uneasy alliance with the two bounty hunters, Poof and his new found allies quickly defeated the band of terrorists with Poof gaining control of the volatile artifact. As Poof considered the statue the wounded Khorda leaped up and plunged a vibroblade through the Quermian's heart. As the bounty hunters killed the terrorist, the mortally wounded Poof withdrew the blade and collapsed in a heap on the platform. Pleading for Wesell to put the ancient artifact in his hands, Poof used the Force to fuse the device's energies back to a neutral state, rendering it inert. This great exertion of the Force was to much for the Jedi's body; the renowned being died saving trillions of Coruscanti.

Legacy


"Master Poof sacrificed himself not only to preserve billions of lives, but so the Republic itself would live on. I can think of no more fitting tribute than this: He gave his life for a cause he believed in."

- Mace Windu eulogizes Master Poof.

With the device deactivated and returned to its proper place on Seylott, Master Poof's body was returned to the Jedi Temple where he received his final rites. A small funeral was held within the Temple's pyre room and was attended by the High Council and several other Jedi. Knights Loo Raelo, Kindee Ya, and Vinian Ska also presided over the cremation of their fellow Quermian.

Following Poof's death the remaining members of the High Council were charged with replacing the life-time member of the august body. Because of the increasing tensions between the Galactic Senate and the growing Separatist movement, the Council decided to replace Poof with the Vurk Master, Coleman Trebor, a skilled orator and the appointed voice of the High Council.

Personality and traits
"My mental abilities are reasonably well honed. They could be advantageous in such an endeavor."

- Yarael Poof offers his skills to the High Council's mission.

Like the Jedi ideal would dictate, Yarael Poof was a compassionate individual, never putting an assignment from the Council above helping out an innocent fellow being. A peaceful man, Poof had a mischievous nature and often enjoyed playing tricks on people with his talent for Affect Mind. This playfulness was not a sign of carelessness; Poof often warned students that altering someone's perception could prove dangerous, sometimes even fatal, and should only be attempted by a competent individual who was in control of their powers.

While a talented swordsman, Poof preferred to negotiate peace rather then wield his lightsaber. When first designing his weapon, Poof selected a yellow crystal to power his blade; however he eventually switched to using a sapphire crystal instead. A devoted Jedi and a believer in the Galactic Republic's propensity for goodness, Poof laid down his life to ensure both would continue on, protecting citizens not only on Coruscant, but across the galaxy.

Powers and abilities
"What would I have done in such a situation, you ask? {...} I might have made him believe I was nothing but a gust of wind, or the shadow of a soaring indigenous avian. A Jedi can do such things, for it is the will of the Force."

- Yarael Poof lectures on the use of Affect Mind and what he would have done should an armed guard see him while attempting to infiltrate a building.

Yarael Poof was a gifted with illusionist, using the Force to project images into the minds of others. Using this talent, he could draw on the fears of others to frighten them, create a dopplegänger of himself to fool an opponent, or make himself appear invincible, a trick that could fool other Jedi. Among his other Force talents, Master Poof was famed for his telekinetic ability to trigger fires by manipulating the molecules of combustible objects and his rare talent for Battle Meditation. As a Quermian, Poof did not have a spinal column; thus, he could contort his body in ways few other species could match. Coupled with his extra set of arms that could move independently of each other, Master Poof was extremely dexterous.

Behind the scenes


Yarael Poof would have been cast in Attack of the Clones, but George Lucas found this character too difficult and expensive to be animated, so he removed him from the Council. He imagined the Battle of Geonosis to be a battle where all the Council members would attend. Poof's absence in Episode II also helped avoid any confusion between his species and the newly-introduced Kaminoans.

Poof, or potentially another Quermian Jedi, appears in the background of a scene involving a gathering of the Jedi Council in Star Wars: Republic 53: Blast Radius. He can also be seen sitting on the Jedi Council in Star Wars: Republic 61: Dead Ends.

Appearances

 * Jedi Apprentice: The Threat Within
 * Jedi Apprentice Special Edition: The Followers
 * Tag & Bink: Revenge of the Clone Menace
 * Jedi Council: Acts of War
 * Cloak of Deception
 * Episode I Adventures 1: Search for the Lost Jedi
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
 * Star Wars Episode I: I Am a Jedi
 * Episode I: Obi-Wan Kenobi
 * Star Wars: Obi-Wan
 * Star Wars: Republic: Emissaries to Malastare
 * Star Wars: Republic: The Hunt for Aurra Sing
 * Star Wars: Republic: Darkness
 * Star Wars: Republic 39: The Stark Hyperspace War, Part 4
 * Star Wars: Republic 41: The Devaronian Version, Part 2
 * Star Wars: Republic: Rite of Passage
 * Jedi Quest comic
 * Star Wars: Zam Wesell
 * Jedi Quest: The Moment of Truth
 * Star Wars: Zam Wesell
 * Jedi Quest: The Moment of Truth

Notes and references
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