Valiri

Valiri was a Male Skrilling Jedi investigator living during the times of the Clone Wars. He was a stout, 1.70-meters Skrilling with mottled grey skin. His Jedi robes and general attitude gave him an elegance beyond most of the other Skrillings.

Valiri did not remember his own joining to the Jedi Order, as he was a toddler back then (his first memories included beautiful Coruscant dusks as seen from the Jedi Temple). He would later infer, from what he red about his own species, that the Jedi found his parents, probably looting somewhere where they should not have been. The parents would then offer their baby to the Jedi in exchange of their lives. Although Valiri felt no resentment towards them, he never made any effort to find them.

During his training, Valiri distanced himself from many of the typical Skrilling traits. He rechanneled the natural Skrilling skill to beg and transformed it in a diplomatic expertise. He refused to lie in this case, and he swore to never use the traditional "vomit" attack. He considered that vomiting on an enemy was soiling for both him and his target. Valiri had to fight with the temptation many times, but he was able to met the challenge.

When Valiri finished his training, he was contacted by Master Lanius Qel-Bertuk of the Almas Academy. Valiri had never met Qel-Bertuk before, but he knew his reputation. Qel-Bertuk, needing more teachers on Almas, offered him a job as an instructor and a protector for the Academy. Valiri pondered before accepting.

On Almas, Valiri became an excellent instructor, and his diplomatic skills helped in different recruitment mission, convincing the parents of a newborn Force-sensitive being that the correct thing to do was giving the kid to the Jedi Order.

At some point, Valiri met and befriended Tarasin Jedi Knight Constanten.

In 22 BBY, Valiri was a respected Jedi Knight, notorious for his fighting courage. With the beginning of the Clone Wars, he refused to join the Grand Army of the Republic and instead remained at the Almas Academy of the Cularin system, performing other duties.

That same year, Valiri was assigned to protect Darth Rivan's Almas Sith fortress, which has been re-captured by the Jedi but completely not explored by them yet, from any possible attack by the dark side sect known as the Believers. Along with other five Jedi Knights (including Constanten), Valiri would protect the south entrance. Some other fourteen Jedi would be in the fortress at that time, some as guards and some as researchers.

During a sandstorm, the fortress was attacked by dark side adept Phylus Mon and his minions, including a giant Force-sensitive Wampa and other nine people. Valiri saw his friend Constanten falling in the attack. ***Even then, he refused to use the vomit attack. ***During the battle, Valiri analysed some of his enemies: He judged that the Barabel bounty hunter Yerj was probably smart and dangerous, and the Spiner Nalz was wise to remain out of range for a lightsaber and at the same time in range for his own spine attack. He also considered that the Wookiee and the Trandoshan, who were insulting each other during the fight, were probably more a danger to each other than to their prey.

Eventually, the raiders defeated the Jedi guards, with Valiri and Constanten barely alive, and the other four Jedi dead. The other Jedi in the fortress could see nothing due to the storm, and some of them tried to communicate with the Academy and ask for reinforcements.

The raiders entered the fortress to perform a Sith ritual. Phylus Mon decided to use both Valiri and Constanten in his ritual, to transform them into Sith Battlelords along with four of his own slaves and one of his allies. Unfortunately, something went wrong with the ritual and the Force essences of the prospective Battlelords were ripped from their bodies. They remained alive, but their souls were stored in a crystal that Phylus Mon took with him when leaving.

Later, Almas Academy Master Lanius Qel-Bertuk organized at least three search teams to investigate the fortress and find the responsibles, as well as the missing Jedi.

The search teams found all the "empty" bodies and took them to the Almas Academy. There, the Jedi began to analyse their state. An accidental manipulation by Jedi librarian Oden Malksch led to Malksch's Force essence possessing one of the bodies, Karae Nalvas's, and later discovering the place where Phylus Mon was keeping the crystal with the stored essences.

Master Lanius Qel-Bertuk decided to send a team there to destroy the crystal and release the Force essences, which would then return to their respective owners. The empty bodies were available for the team if any of them wanted to emulate Malksch and "borrow" one of them during the raid to Phylus Mon's headquarters.

Behind the Scenes
One player character in A Mon Alone can, at a certain point, enter this non-player character's body and use Valiri's statistics until his essence can be freed (which means Valiri's essence re-enters Valiri's body and the PC's essence returns to the PC's inconscious body), or until Valiri's body is killed in action. The text explains that some of the final scenes are so dangerous that they could easily kill the player characters - leading to the players getting angry.