Irek Ismaren

"Very nasty business. It gives even mad science a bad name."

- Baljos Arnjak

Irek Ismaren was the son of Roganda Ismaren and Sarcev Quest, often mistakenly referred to as the son of Emperor Palpatine himself. A Force-sensitive, he was trained by his mother and had an innate ability to manipulate machines, which was augmented by an implant. Ismaren used his ability to summon the Eye of Palpatine. After this was destroyed, he and his mother fled.

Irek received further training by Lord Cronal and was transformed into a dark side monster, Lord Nyax. He was finally defeated by Luke Skywalker during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, although some reports claimed that he survived.

Childhood
Irek hid for years on the out-of-the-way planet of Belsavis with his mother. During this time, Irek grew stronger in the dark side of the Force with each passing day. A unique ability of his was his control over machines through the Force: by visualizing their schematics in his mind, he could channel the Force through a subelectronic converter implanted in his head at age five and use the Force to affect droids with abilities they were previously immune to, such as various mind tricks.

At age seven, Irek began to be trained in both the use of the dark side from his mother and the theories of droid control and creation by Nasdra Magrody, using accelerated-learning techniques developed by Wilhuff Tarkin for his Omwat facility. By the age of twelve, Irek was knowledgeable enough to qualify for an advanced degree on the subject.

Eye of Palpatine
"But with the Force on my side, everything is a source of power. As they'll all find out."

- Irek Ismaren to Leia Organa Solo

When Irek was fourteen, Leia Organa Solo visited Belsavis and recognized Irek's mother. Irek and Roganda trapped Leia and held her hostage. Irek was in the process of bringing the Eye of Palpatine to the planet as part of an attempt to re-establish the Galactic Empire. However, the ship was destroyed just after it reached Belsavis, and Irek and his mother escaped into space.

Irek and his mother stole the single ship not trapped in the Belsavis hangars, and made it off-planet. Mara Jade commented after her arrival that the their ship almost collided with hers while she was coming in to land. Irek and his mother were thought to have relocated to the Atravis sector, and later to Coruscant, where Roganda had more alterations done to her son, including upgrading the memory chip in his brain, forcing his body to grow well past maturity so he reached a height of three meters, and having lightsabers implanted in his knees, wrists, and elbows.

Roganda hired Lord Cronal to further instruct Irek in the ways of the dark side of the Force, but when Irek lost his temper, a lightsaber fight ensued between the two, resulting in the darksider's retreat. However, before he retreated, Cronal all but slew Irek, stabbing him through the head with a lightsaber. Irek did not die immediately, even though he suffered severe brain damage. This in turn caused total amnesia and a permanent loss of speech and much of his intellect, but did not seem to impair his mastery of the Force.

Lord Nyax
"I don't know if you can understand me...But whatever you're doing, whatever your plans are, I have to stop you."

- Luke Skywalker upon confronting Lord Nyax

To save him, his mother placed him in stasis. While in stasis, he was fitted with six lightsabers, one in each knee and elbow and also in his wrists. These lightsabers could not hurt him, because they shut off upon contact with him. Before the process was complete, Coruscant fell to the Yuuzhan Vong. Irek broke free and killed his mother. Because he could not speak and had no idea who he was or what had happened to him, it was at this point he took the name 'Lord Nyax' from the Corellian legend, after hearing it in the minds of his victims, and terrorized the stranded citizens of Coruscant after the planet fell to the control of the Yuuzhan Vong. Nyax used mind control on the survivors of Coruscant's fall to get them to scout out the Yuuzhan Vong for him, as well as for other tasks such as clearing paths and the like.

Due to a large 'knot' he sensed in the Force, Nyax discovered a large black wall (actually the old Jedi Temple) and attempted to get inside. He used the Force to control the minds of Coruscant civilians and eventually activated a construction droid in an attempt to break the wall. Luke Skywalker, Mara Jade Skywalker, and Tahiri Veila, who were on Coruscant as part of a reconnaissance team, discovered Nyax and fought him, but Nyax was able to break into the Temple platform, and accessed the Force wellspring within it to grow even more powerful, levitating massive chunks of rubble and playing with them as if they were children's toys.

Nyax defeated a force of Yuuzhan Vong coralskippers, which were drawn to the Jedi Temple site by the fountain of Force energy that he had unleashed, but eventually, Tahiri surprised him with a trio of thud bugs, which he could not detect in the Force, shattering his lower back. Nyax fell into a pit within the ruined Jedi Temple platform, where he lay injured, but managed to tap into the Force nexus beneath the Temple. Sensing that two Yuuzhan Vong mataloks were approaching, and believing that the Jedi had taken refuge aboard the alien ships, he hurled several tons of rubble into the air, in an attempt to knock them out of the sky. The cruisers responded with a plasma cannon volley, and after a brief flair of pain, Nyax's grip on nearby beings seemed to fade. Nevertheless, columns of rubble continued to fly out of the Temple ruins and target the Yuuzhan Vong capital ships, which continued to fire back in a bizarre duel in the skies of Coruscant.

Watching the events, Luke Skywalker believed that Irek's body had died in the initial bombardment, and that all that remained was his last intention to destroy the mataloks, imbued on the surroundings and guiding the Force energy from the nexus. However, later reports claimed that Nyax had in fact survived, and escaped.

Behind the scenes
In The New Jedi Order, the other characters believe that Irek was killed at the Jedi Temple, and he has not appeared in any subsequent story, but the Jedi Academy Training Manual adds the unexpected statement that "he escaped". This is not directly contradicted by any canon source, but there are several continuity errors in the Training Manual, so it is not clear whether this is a real retcon.

The image of Irek in the Jedi Academy Training Manual does not match previous descriptions: Irek is shown here wearing full body armor, with a different arrangement of built-in lightsabers. For this depiction to be accurate, it must either represent an unimplemented design for his reconstruction, or else a modified appearance after his escape.

Appearances

 * Children of the Jedi
 * Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand

Notes and references
Irek Ismaren Irek Ismaren