Ashin Varanin

Ashin Varanin (3 BBY) is a Jedi Knight of the Order with close ties to various bodies in the Unknown Regions. She never had a Master, but has been taught by many different instructors.

Apprentice


Born to a husband-and-wife merchant team in the Outer Rim, Ashin began training at the RSA Praxeum in her early teens. Transferred to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, she had the option to stay behind when Damascus' Death Star appeared in orbit, but chose instead to evacuate with her fellow Apprentices. She remained in the Ithorian Herd Ship while it orbited Talus and then Corellia.

While in Corellian orbit, Ashin received a message from a Bothan named Ketti, in which he claimed to be her parents' business partner and stating that her parents had been injured. Ketti, in fact, was a close assistant to Kishkumen, and sought to curry favor with Sivter.

Once lured to Kothlis, Ashin was kidnapped by suborned planetary security troops and spent six days in a force-field while her captors attempted to drug her. She resisted and escaped, a trial by fire that became instrumental in her growth as a Jedi. She was aided in her flight by Lyn-Char Beorht and Ember Rekali, and, with Beorht, was recruited by Captain Farn Engel to participate in an important effort in the Unknown Regions.

Engel's ship brought them to the Jade Worlds, where Ashin became a member of the Committee to Restore the Shau'ghunate. Acting as a Jedi advisor to Admiral Jita Hangetsu, she participated in Operation Overdue Justice, an operation that crippled a significant pirate faction. Later, when Ember Rekali was framed by Kishkumen's agents as having attacked Admiral Hangetsu, Ashin was asked to track him down and assure him that the Guard had discovered the fraud. However, she ended up tracking La-Reia Beorht with a squad of Guardsmen. Reia attacked her and wounded her, then went for the Guards. Though wounded, Ashin was able to strike Reia down from behind.

Ashin knew the dangers of being known for killing a Dark Master. Currently, only the Guard, Velok and the Cult of Shadow (who heard it from the Lost Twenty, who heard it from Kishkumen) know who really killed Reia.

Knight
"The more I think about it, the more I start to see that the Jedi Order, historically, is far from infallible. I see it today: the means often justify the ends, and of course vice versa. How many Jedi just ignore everything lawful, go charging off based on their own judgment, think they can make decisions for thousands or millions?  That’s how it works.  You think you’re infallible.  It’s so easy.  But what about the people?  Don’t they have the right to make decisions?  And what gives us the right – genetics?  That’s elitism at its finest.  Does the might to rule equal the right to rule?  Of course not.  Yet that’s what we all practice.  We’re not supposed to be above the law.  Reformed Darksiders should answer for their crimes in a fair manner, not be given a few pious words about repentance and redemption and then sent on their way.  Repentance involves making restitution, being willing to pay for what you’ve done – not given a pardon because your blood has midichlorians in it. Force-sensitivity is not supposed to be an excuse. I’ve seen people ‘redeemed’ and re-accepted into the fold who would have been given the death penalty if they weren’t Force-sensitive. That, right there, makes me mad. And another thing. How many Jedi women wear clothing a Ryloth hooker would blush at? This is ridiculous."

- Ashin Varanin, Jedi Knight, venting to Brembla Kol

Ashin returned to the Jedi Order and finished her training, after which she began service as a Knight, trying to hold the New Republic together. She returned to the Jade Empire shortly after it was formed, at which time she was assigned the starship Praetorian.

She was instrumental in the rescue of Ember Rekali from Siriss Cortann when a Dark Side group broke out of a Forcer prison on Armitage. Working with Brembla Kol and several members of the Tak Council, Ashin evicted Cortann from the Jade Empire.

Shortly thereafter, she took part in a military operation designed to cripple the Cold, near the Jade Empire's northern borders. Flying the Praetorian, she infiltrated the Cold staging points and located the highest concentration of humanoid prisoners, then joined the attack. Commander Varanin was decorated yet again by the JEAF.

In mid-17 ABY, Ashin resigned her commission and left the Jade Worlds. To her old trainer Master Charnil, she cited two reasons: the successful training of the Patriots, and the sense of an oncoming storm. She returned to Onderon and took an apprentice, a Mon Calamari boy named Temap. After two routine missions, they traveled to the ice world of Yusi to follow up on ancient hints to the location of a lightsabre cache. Leaving Temap to search one set of ruins, Ashin set out for another set - an ancient palace and colosseum, half-way around the world. It was there that she encountered Tamzar Ranox, who (it appeared) had been stranded for days. In the snowstorm, Ashin's fighter disappeared. They survived the storm together and set out to find the cache.

They didn't find the cache, but they did find an ancient Sith laboratory and crypt buried under the palace. After fighting Sith-animated skeletons in alchemical armour, they found themselves trapped in the crypt with a holocron encased in a black skull. The holocron's gatekeeper agreed to release them from the rapidly freezing crypt if, and only if, Ashin used the Dark Side. The influence of the holocron's presence, coupled with Ranox's efforts, influenced Ashin enough that she lost control and used the Dark Side to break a huge granite altar. The passage unsealed, they left the palace, though not before Ranox destroyed the crypt with a thermal detonator.

When they got outside, her X-Wing was waiting. Ranox revealed that he had been remote-controlling it to get her help in retrieving the holocron, and pulled a lightsabre. Ashin disabled the remote-control apparatus in the fighter and confronted him; the incident ended when Ranox received a communication regarding the Winnowing, and proposed that they work together. Ashin agreed. She, Temap and Ranox traveled to Kothlis, where they would encounter 'Delana Saan, Jedi Knight' and Kishkumen.

Things Fall Apart


It was not the first time that Ashin had come face-to-face with Kishkumen. Her involvement with the Cult of Shadow stretched back across several years. This time around, she had the help of Darth Ranox, who outmaneuvered and incapacitated the Dark Lord. They would have secured him as a prisoner if not for Temap: the young, terrified Mon Cal decapitated the unconscious man. Kishkumen exploded at death. Temap was almost killed by Ranox for his efforts, but Ashin intervened.

With help from the Winnowing's mysterious manipulator, the three followed the cache to Nar Shaddaa and confronted 'Delana Saan'. They didn't know whether Saan was actually a Jedi; neither were they aware that Temap, and by extension his master, had been targeted by Teroch'dha and Siriss Cortann.

After tracking Saan to a cantina and overcoming her mental influence, they confronted her. Meanwhile, a Teroch'dha assassin finished executing Temap's family and friends, causing Temap - new to the ways of the Force - to become ill without realizing why. He collapsed; Ashin, believing that Saan was using a Force technique, drew her lightsabre but was talked down by Ranox. They left Saan with the cache and took Temap back to Ranox's ship.

Jedi Training
Due to extensive time spent in Jedi academies, Ashin is the definition of a regular Jedi. Her focus rests on the Core Powers and the standard skills of a Jedi: a testament to disciplined obedience. She has experience, talent and ability with the power called Detoxify Poison, can track via the Force, and sometimes dreams of the future.

Form I: Shii-Cho (master)
 * Ashin is also a master of an obscure branch of Shii-Cho. Its ready stance involves a one-handed grip with wrist inverted to point the blade down.  A solid defensive style, it is better suited to sabre combat than blaster deflection, despite the fact that (used right-handed) it only really has two strikes: a quick flick to the enemy's right side; and a whirling overhead cut to the enemy's left side.  Both techniques are best suited to decapitation.  The style itself is best used to prevent or breach standoff with a superior opponent and enter a closer combat range.  It is purely a one-handed form, and thus weak against Form V or a more physically powerful opponent.  However, it is well suited to closing with Form IV users.  It is risky but effective against Form II.

Form II: Makashi (limited)

Form III: Soresu (proficient)

Form IV: Ataru (master)
 * Ashin is a 'black' or trainer in Outside Path, a Sokan-like style.

Form V: Shien / Djem So (limited)

Military Skills


Ashin is fully qualified with a K4 Barrakut Combat Arms Suit, can fly a number of small craft including a Whirlwind-class Assault Courier, and knows a majority of JEAF personal weapons.