Kalja Sairu Leidias

=Description= "When I must kill, I mourn every life I take. I feel their death as if it were my own. Indeed, a little piece of me dies every time it happens. It doesn’t matter if they were evil or not."

- Kalja Sairu Leidias

Kalja Sairu Leidias (11 BBY) is the latest in a long line of Kaljas to bear that name. A member of the Leidias Family, Kalja comes from a strong Jedi lineage and may surpass her ancestors as one of the greatest Leidias's to ever live. She is currently a member of the Jedi Council.

Kalja possesses a natural affinity for the Force, seeming to understand it on a level beyond many other Jedi. The most astonishing thing is how clearly she could feel it before she was ever trained in the ways of the Jedi. Her training was merely giving form to something she already understood subconsciously.

Because she has such a deep connection to the Force, Kalja goes out of her way to avoid violence and especially killing. Her sensitivity to the Force means that she feels the pain and death of others more acutely than other Jedi. With the galaxy in such turmoil, she finds she must consciously restrain her natural awareness and rarely opens herself up completely to the Force unless absolutely necessary.

Although she has been given the title of Jedi Master by Daer'Gunn, Kalja still thinks of herself as a Jedi Knight because she isn't comfortable with the idea of calling herself a Master yet.

Never one for formal titles, Kalja has a quirk of referring to everybody she meets by their first name. This even extends to her father, Tulsar. She does this not out of disrespect, but because she believes everyone is equal in status when it comes to the larger scheme of things.

Force Powers
Kalja has a very strong sensitivity to the Force. She is a quick learner when it comes to Jedi techniques and usually needs little instruction in how to use them.

Her unique connection to the Force allows Kalja to draw a dangerous amount of power from it without having her body fried in the process. She rarely does so though unless there is no other option. The lure of the Dark Side from summoning so much power becomes very strong and once she is done, her body immediately falls into a coma-like state from the withdrawal of so much power. There is no chance of waking her when she is in this state and it usually takes three to four days for her to recover.

She is well versed in all of the basics and has mastered some of the more advanced non-violent techniques known to Jedi. In particular, Kalja has become adept at healing, battle meditation, and exorcising Dark Side spirits. Her high sensitivity also gives her an advantage when attempting to sense those who try to hide themselves with the Force.

When it comes to lightsaber combat, Kalja has developed a one-handed style, dubbed the Sairu Style, that makes use of a shield gauntlet. Although it is primarily defensive, the style does allow her to be more aggressive in combat if she so desires. She is also a master in the more traditional Soresu form.

=History=

Early Life
"I've never seen someone so in tune with the Force without prior training. Mark my words, Falanis, one day Kalja is going to be greater than all of us."

- Tulsar Leidias

Kalja was born to Tulsar and Falanis Leidias on the planet Juoi.

Even at a young age her potential in the Force overshadowed anyone else in the family, much to the chagrin of her older brother, Sysen, and to an extent, her parents. Using the Force seemed to come intuitively to her and Kalja picked up Tulsar and Falanis’s lessons with little need of a repeat instruction.

Since she could feel the life around her very acutely through the Force, Kalja absolutely refused to learn how to use a lightsaber; insisting that all it could do was kill. After years of arguing with Kalja about the need to learn lightsaber combat, Tulsar eventually convinced her to learn the largely defensive style of Soresu. However, even after going through the trials of building her own saber and becoming proficient in Soresu, Kalja still avoided carrying her lightsaber with her if she could help it.

For the most part, life for Kalja on Juoi was peaceful, but her halcyon days would all come to a horrific end in the form of a cruel Darksider named Sivter.

Sivter
"I feel cold. Why do I feel so cold?"

- Kalja to Tulsar

Kalja was in fact the first to sense something was wrong after Sivter arrived on Juoi, even though she was too inexperienced at this point to realize it was a Darksider. However Tulsar knew that his daughter’s senses were keener than his own and immediately began searching the planet for the elusive threat. After several weeks of cat-and-mouse between Sivter and Tulsar, the Jedi was finally able to drive the Defel from Juoi after a battle that Sivter barely escaped from alive. He was only saved from Tulsar’s killing strike after professing to give up and agreeing to leave and never return.

It would be a mistake that would haunt the Leidias family for years to come.

In fact Sivter only left to improve his skills at hiding himself from the Force. When he secretly returned a few months later, Kalja was unable to sense him this time. It did create a vague sense of unease in her, but without being able to place why she was uneasy, all it served to do was make her restless.

With no reason to think Kalja’s vague anxiety was being caused by Sivter’s return, and Kalja herself unsure what was going on, Tulsar tried to help her relax by taking her to a fair that was being thrown at a nearby town. Either by fate or design, going to the fair saved their lives for Sivter chose that night to strike, killing Sysen and Falanis in their sleep.

The two rushed home immediately upon sensing the deaths, but Sivter was already long gone. It would be discovered later that Sivter had also contacted the Empire about Jedi being on the planet, which would lead into the Battle of Juoi, and that the Darksider had finally managed to get his hands on the information he had been seeking the entire time.

After the battle, Tulsar petitioned Juoi’s leader, Sulimurr, for the resources to hunt Sivter down. Sulimurr was only too eager to agree. Unwilling to risk something happening to his daughter in his absence, Tulsar took Kalja with him to watch over her and to help her grow even stronger in preperation for the next time they would encounter Sivter.

The Hunt
"I never would have figured a girl so young would be up to the challenge of hunting Sivter. Boy, was I proven wrong real quick."

- Davit Jipper

For many years Kalja joined her father in the hunt for Sivter. The Defel proved to be a slippery foe and would often be one step ahead of Tulsar and the crew of the Champion of Juoi, who had been assigned to help Tulsar. The few times they managed to get the drop on him, Sivter would find a way to escape.

Their failure to bring Sivter to justice became an increasing source of frustration for Tulsar, but Kalja discovered the hunt as a way to sharpen and perfect her own skills. An informal battle was soon waged between Sivter and Kalja throughout her time on the hunt. Kalja would hone her ability at detection and Sivter would in turn hone his at stealth to evade her.

Even with the danger of their mission, Kalja still adamantly refused to carry her lightsaber with her unless Tulsar gave her no other choice. Instead, Kalja focused on different ways she could use the Force to end a conflict without inflicting harm, or at the very least killing somebody.

The hunt also gave Kalja an opportunity to see a multitude of different worlds and races. The Champion became the informal ambassador ship of Juoi as they searched the galaxy for Sivter. Many times they would pick up temporary allies from other worlds that had felt Sivter’s touch, but the difficulty in tracking Sivter meant that their help only lasted so long.

The Sands of Time
"It may be true that I will also fall against your power, Sivter, but I won't run. A Jedi's duty is to protect and preserve life, no matter what the cost."

- Kalja Sairu Leidias

Even though they had no real success in stopping Sivter, they were eventually able to learn that Sivter was searching for the ancient Sith planet of Chisas, where legend had it that an army of Force-wielding droids were waiting to be activated and used. Tulsar and Kalja would soon meet new allies on Tatooine in the form of the Jedi Devon Vos and his family.

The two families joined forces even as Sivter joined up with an enemy of the Vos family; an ancient Sith known as Dragon Masque. Over the course of time, Sivter would be granted all of Masque’s power and knowledge as well as leadership of Masque’s cult. The Jedi were only able to corner Sivter once he finally reached Chisas, but with the droids at his command and the considerable power he had inherited from Masque, Sivter proved to be more than a match for the Jedi and their forces.

Because of her pacifistic nature, Kalja ended up being the last Jedi Sivter dealt with. Knowing that she couldn’t let Sivter unleash his droids on the galaxy or untold numbers of people would suffer because of it, Kalja valiantly made a stand to stop him. She fought well, but even her own great power wasn’t enough to overcome the combined might of Masque and Sivter. When things looked their darkest, Kalja had a burst of inspiration and discovered a way to exorcise the power Sivter had absorbed from Masque.

Severely weakened from the withdrawal, Sivter fled and activated the self-destruct on the droid factories to cover his escape and attempt to kill the Jedi that had thwarted him. Kalja managed to get everyone to safety, but once again Sivter escaped their grasp. Despite this, Tulsar called it a victory as the loss of Chisas was a major blow to Sivter.

Praxeum Days


"It's a Leidias tradition to only train within our family... but then again I've never been one to let tradition interfere with the flow of the Force."

- Kalja Sairu Leidias

After the events at Chisas, Devon invited Tulsar and Kalja to become instructors at a new Jedi Praxeum he was founding. Tulsar turned Devon down, but Kalja, ready for something different, agreed to join him and became the youngest instructor there. Her classes specialized in meditation and other aspects of the Force that didn’t have to do with violence.

Devon, seeing how reluctant Kalja was about carrying a lightsaber, gave her a gift of a shield gauntlet while she was at the Praxeum. Kalja would make good use out of the shield gauntlet, even developing a style that incorporated the gauntlet with a lightsaber after she finally decided to carry the Jedi weapon around with her.

While at Devon’s Praxeum, Kalja also formed a bond with one of the students who was having a hard time opening himself to the Force, an orphan named Reave Hevren. Although Kalja had no way of knowing it at the time, Reave’s difficulty in using the Force would go far deeper than either of them could have guessed.

A Link to the Past
Kalja and Reave would eventually explore a crumbling Sith temple that was located on the same moon as Devon’s Praxeum. While inside, Kalja would connect with the spirit of one of her ancestors, Kalja Valie Leidias, who had given her life ages ago to seal the temple and trap the Sith spirits that dwelled within it.

Speaking with her ancestor, Kalja learned much from her elder namesake and it would be her words that would finally convince Kalja to carry a lightsaber at all times. Kalja also learned that her ancestor’s ship, the Mystic Aura, was still buried on the moon and, amazingly enough, in working condition.

With Reave and her ancestor’s help, Kalja was able to traverse the booby-trapped temple and fight past the ancient Sith’s alchemically created soliders; known only as the Deadly. When it came time to destroy the temple, Kalja was forced to call upon her ability to draw power from the Force past her limit. She was able to exorcise the Sith spirits, free her ancestor, and extract herself and Reave from the temple while trapping the last of the Deadly inside.

True to the give and take nature of the Force, Kalja fell into a deep coma afterwards from the strain of drawing so much power. Her ancestor, Kalja Valie, remained behind to comfort Reave and let him know that Kalja would be alright before her spirit disappeared into the ether of the Force.

Jedi Council
"I never expected to be nominated onto the Council by my fellow Jedi. It is an honor I'm not quite sure I deserve, but I will strive to embody the ideals of the Jedi Order and see to it that your faith in me is not misplaced."

- Kalja Sairu Leidias

Kalja’s time at Devon’s Praxeum was cut short as she was invited to attend the first Jedi Convocation at Midpoint Station soon after waking from her coma. Before leaving though, she managed to extract the Mystic Aura from the moon’s jungle with some help from her father and the crew of the Champion. She also bequeathed her ancestor’s lightsaber to Reave as a sign of her faith in the young man.

At the Jedi Convocation, Kalja was eloquent in her words about the redemption of fallen Jedi being a priority and was surprised to find herself voted onto the newly formed Jedi Council at the convocation’s end. It was an honor that she didn’t turn down; pleased that she would be able to serve the Jedi in such a capacity, despite the fact that she was still a Knight and also the youngest member of the Council.

Kalja dedicated her life to doing everything within her power to try and reestablish the Jedi Order, often at the expense of her own personal life. Coruscant became her new home and for the first time Kalja found that she had to reign in her senses or be overwhelmed by them on such a populated planet. She rarely left Coruscant unless it was a matter of grave importance, such as when she was contacted by Reave some months later.

Temptation
"I can't do it, Reave! I can't do what you ask! It goes against everything I believe... and yet, what choice do I have? If I don't destroy the Val Aru now, every innocent life they take once they start their jihad will be on my head..."

- Kalja Sairu Leidias

In Kalja’s absence, Reave had discovered his roots and learned that he had the blood of the ancient Val Aru race flowing through his veins. The powerful and genocidal race had been strong in the Force, but lacked any ethical guidelines about how to use it. The ancient Jedi had wiped them out millennia ago, but somehow a sect of them had survived into the present day and were threatening to wage a jihad against the galaxy.

With some help from Tulsar and another member of the Jedi Council, Ethan Voss, Reave had tracked down the Val Aru to the planet Calernon. Reave defied the Val Aru’s attempts to convert him, but even with the Jedi's combined might, they were no match against the power of the Val Aru.

To end their threat, Kalja had to make the most difficult decision of her life and use her own power in the Force, combined with the abilities of the Mystic Aura, to eradicate the Val Aru from Calernon before they could commence their plans and kill billions of innocent people. Even though the Val Aru had been hopelessly malevolent beings, their deaths still cut deeply into Kalja’s psyche.

After the events on Calernon, Kalja isolated herself from the galaxy and focused on meditation to heal her spiritual wounds. Her actions had brought her perilously close to the Dark Side and it scared her to think of the power that she could call on. She wouldn’t return to Coruscant until many months later; healed but forever with a scar of what she had been forced to do to protect the galaxy. One of the few bright spots to the incident that helped her to heal was Reave’s growth into a Jedi Knight and Tulsar’s agreement to adopt Reave into the Leidias family.

Fall of Coruscant
"It might not be wise, but I'm staying behind. The Empire's occupation will cause great suffering. Someone has to be there to ease it."

- Kalja Sairu Leidias

Upon her return to Coruscant, Kalja redoubled her efforts to help the new Jedi Order that she had helped establish grow stronger. However, with many of the other Council members frequently away on other missions, Kalja found herself more often than not maintaining the status quo with the few other Council members still on Coruscant. She contented herself with helping to teach again at Devon’s Praxeum, which had been moved to Coruscant in her absence.

The return to a quieter life would not last long, as the Empire, under the rule of Emperor Damascus, attacked Coruscant with the third Death Star. The New Republic was hopelessly overpowered and forced to flee the planet, which presented the Jedi with a dilemma of their own: stay and fight the Empire or leave and help the New Republic. In the end, the choice was up to each individual Jedi.

Kalja herself chose to stay behind, not to fight the Empire but to help out those who would wind up suffering from its occupation. Her choice was motivated partly by a lingering need to still redeem herself after the Val Aru incident.

Kalja did a lot of good while on occupied Coruscant, not the least of which was helping the New Republic resistance cells develop a cure for the Imperial registration virus from her own antibodies. She soon had visions of a new threat encroaching on the galaxy, however, and knew it was time to go. Kalja was able to get off Coruscant with some other Jedi and former Council member, Gideon Duthuras, thanks to some outside help provided by her father and Jonji Fawkes.

Search For Significance
"I know you hate titles but you, probably more than any of us, deserve the title of Master and though not needed, it is bestowed upon you."

- Daer'Gunn

The threat Kalja had sensed on Coruscant, as she would find out, came in the form of the Xen’Chi invasion. However, even more alarming to Kalja was the entity known as GAIT, which had appeared during the Battle of Corellia while she was still trapped on Coruscant. Once she made it off the planet, Kalja dedicated her time to try and find out all she could about GAIT as well as ways to defeat it.

She didn’t make much progress before word reached her that the Jedi were creating a new academy on Onderon. Knowing that her duties to the Jedi took priority, Kalja rushed to the ancient planet and ended up helping Faarel Blackthorne receive the influx of Jedi and Force-sensitives who heeded the call.

Soon she and the newest incarnation of the Jedi Council built a new temple, one that incorporated the planet’s surroundings rather than overpower them. Later, in a ceremony were the current head of the Council, Daer'Gunn, inducted new Jedi into the Council, he also gave Kalja the title of Jedi Master. Although Kalja didn’t feel she was ready for it, she accepted Daer'Gunn’s decision, figuring that many Jedi already saw her as a Master even if she didn’t.

=Active Threads=

The Xen Chi Invasion: To Kill a Goddess - Strange Alliances