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

Jerec was a former Jedi archaeologist who later became a Dark Jedi, Inquisitor, and Emperor's Hand during the Galactic Civil War. Jerec was one of the most knowledgable Jedi of his age, and one of the few to have a working command of the Sith language, something that may have contributed to his fall to the Dark Side.

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

Early life


It was commonly believed that Jerec was a Human, blind from birth. In fact, he was a Miraluka, (a race of Force-sensitive humanoids born without eyes, who use the Force to see). Though without conventional sight, he could "see" through the Force. Jerec wore a blindfold-like mask to cover the lidless skin over his empty eye sockets

At a young age, Jerec came to the attention of Jocasta Nu, who was then working for the Jedi ExplorCorps as an archaeologist. She took the young Miraluka as her Padawan learner, and during their partnership Jerec inherited his Mistress's haughty poise and bearing in addition to her love of knowledge. He was one of the few Jedi who spoke fluent Sith and had a tremendous interest in the ancient cultures of the Galaxy.

After achieving knighthood, Jerec took his own Padawan, Ameesa Darys, and trained her to completion. After achieving the coveted rank of Jedi Master, Jerec believed he had exhausted all the possibilities that the way of the Jedi offered.

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.

Inquisitor
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 never actually had time to test: he would take 7 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. 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.

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 (by an interesting coincidence, Kyle Katarn's homeworld), 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.

Jerec was not busy solely with ruling, recruiting Dark Jedi, and more esoteric pursuits; he also prudently keep 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!

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.

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, 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, 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. 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 were freed from his control and released into the air.

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 novelle), and his eyeballs were visible in at least one cutscene, beneath the mask. This could be explained away as a simple special effects gaffe, however. Another story was that Jerec lost his eyes in a battle against one of Palpatine's dark side minions.
 * 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.
 * 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