Name: Jace Varitek
Age: 37 Standard Years
Homeworld: Metellos

Species: Human
Height: 1.8 Meters
Weight: 179 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Light Brown

Affiliation: New Republic, Jedi Academy
Title: Jedi Knight
Force: Proficient (esp. Meditation, Empathy, Comprehension)
Vehicle(s): T-65BR X-wing Starfighter
Weapon(s): Lightsaber, DL-69 "DL Hughley" Blaster Pistol

"The Force is strong with you, boy," said an ashen, old woman to Jace Varitek upon meeting him as a child, "You'll make a fine Jedi some day." He was ten years old at the time, and had only vague and fantastic notions about what a "Jedi" was. His parents advised him, with good reason, not to inquire about such things, and he soon forgot about the encounter. But little could he have known then how prescient the old woman was, nor, indeed, that his path would cross with hers again decades later, in another time and place.

Jace Varitek was born on Metellos—referred to, colloquially, as "the Coruscant that wasn't" because of its dense population, pollution and squalor—in 17 BBY, during the height of the Empire. As a youth, he was resentful of the floating cities in the skies above his homeworld, constructed by the rich to escape the blight of the planet's crowded stratoblocks where his parents labored for long, arduous hours.

Feeling persecuted for his social class, the young Varitek empathized with those persecuted for other reasons, namely their species; many of his childhood friends were aliens that the Empire had deemed undesirable—Bothans, Twi'leks, even a Wookiee. Through them, he came to understand at an early age the concepts of justice and injustice; that government was meant to protect the rights of the disenfranchised, like his friends and parents, but that the Empire seemed to do just the opposite.

Varitek's choice of friends did no favors for his popularity in school. A pivotal moment in his life occurred when he witnessed his meek Wookiee friend, Wriluur, being surrounded, taunted, and shoved by student members of COMPNOR. He did his best to intervene and, for his trouble, recieved a merciless beating. Wriluur, seeing this, was roused to violence; four of the children were injured, and three of them seriously so. For his part in the incident, Varitek was expelled from school. Wriluur, meanwhile, was deported along with his family to his enslaved homeworld, never to be seen again.

Disgusted, Varitek decided that he, too, would leave Metellos. He refused to live on a world that would perpetuate the inequality of his friends and family while the teachers, the courts, and even his parents remained silent. He packed his few belongings and traveled to the planet Kerilt, to volunteer at the Caamasi refugee colony of Morymento.

The Empire had destroyed the planet Caamas a decade earlier, leaving only a handful of Caamasi survivors at colonies on Alderaan and Morymento, on Kerilt. Witnessing for himself the condition of the Caamasi people only reinforced Varitek’s growing hatred of the Empire. But he also learned from the refugees―among them his new, closest friend, Eeshrin―the ancient Caamasi tenets of compassion, peace, and understanding. So began a personal struggle that continues within him to this day, to balance his desire for peace and forgiveness with his desire for justice and even, at times, vengeance.

It was while at Morymento that Jace learned basic engineering and piloting skills, for the maintenance of the colony and its farms. He would also discover, to his astonishment, that he shared a unique Caamasi ability to share with each other vivid, emotional memories, called memnii. It was said in ancient lore that only Caamasi and Jedi could percieve this phenomenon. Could it be that he was Force sensitive? He was doubtful of this, but nonetheless, his childhood curiosity about the Jedi and their teachings was renewed. After all, the Caamasi spoke highly of them as the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy.

Determined to know more about the Jedi than the common Imperial propaganda, Jace bid farewell to Morymento and boarded a passenger liner for Alderaan, whose Royal Library was rumored to have a wealth of information on both the Jedi and the destruction of Caamas. Here, he also planned to meet up with his friend Eeshrin, who had traveled to Alderaan's Caamasi settlement a month before. But Jace would never arrive; when word of the destruction of Alderaan reached the liner, it was diverted to Imperial Center, where Jace was left to come to terms, once again, with the loss of an entire planet, and his closest friend.

It was there on Imperial Center, standing in the shadow of Emperor Palpatine's immense palace and staring at the insignia of the Rebel Alliance that had been graffitied on its wall, that he resolved to join the Rebellion. He had heard about the Rebellion before, of course, but the Caamasi were firm pacifists and had discouraged him from joining. As Eeshrin always said, "Live in peace and there will be peace." But Eeshrin, Alderaan, and Caamas had lived in peace, and they were all gone. No, Jace decided, the Empire had to be resisted with force. His Wookiee friend, Wriluur, had paid a terrible price for fighting back. But he had fought for those who couldn't fight, and in doing so he had inspired at least one person―Jace. And if one person could be inspired, then more could be.

Jace now wanted desperately to join the Rebel Alliance, but didn't know how. Determined to resist the Empire however he could, however, he abandoned his search for Jedi knowledge and soon hired on as a pilot for the Cosmohaul Shipping Company; over the next three years, he would travel from one world to the next, secretly using his company freighter to smuggle fugitives, weapons and medical supplies to resistance groups on worlds like Contruum and Ralltiir. Cosmohaul eventually became suspicious of Jace's late or missing shipments, however, and reported him to the Imperial Security Bureau. The ISB caught up with the unsuspecting Jace on Borleias, and detained him.

His months of imprisonment would be the worst of his life, during which he fell into depression and despaired at what he percieved to be a lack of accomplishment or purpose in his life. He pondered the Empire and the Rebellion, Caamas, Alderaan and Hoth, Eeshrin and Wriluur, and worse―he had a persistent dread that there was no one waiting for him outside the four walls of his cell. For his sanity, he would eventually learn to quiet his mind in a technique reminiscent of the Jedi "meditation of emptiness." From this quiet state, this emotional "anchor," he was eventually able to consider all of the events of his life, his doubts, and his desires, and better understand them. He learned to accept the things he could not change, and to persist, always, in changing those he could and should. Somehow, he came to understand that he would not die in his cell on Borleias and that, indeed, he would find a purpose and a partner in life.

In the meantime, much had changed; the Empire was defeated at Endor, the New Republic was founded, and soon Borleias was freed and so was Jace. It was a new lease on life. Seeking a sense of direction for himself, he resumed his pursuit of knowledge of the Jedi teachings and returned to the recently liberated Coruscant to browse its famed libraries and museums. He would not find much information about the Jedi, but he continued his education regardless and soon studied sentientology at the University of Coruscant. Upon his graduation in 10 ABY, he decided to return to the comfort and counsel of Morymento for the first time in a decade, where he resumed his relief work at the colony and was reunited with his old Caamasi friends.

It was they who would convince Jace to enlist in the newly established Jedi Academy (although, in fact, he needed little convincing). In 11 ABY, he would depart Morymento once again on a search for Jedi knowledge. This time, he would finally find it, and his life would be forever changed. After a series of tests and mental trials, Jace was admitted to the Academy and would soon excel in his training, particularly in the fields of diplomacy and history; he would often spend hours immersed in the Academy’s records, and as a result he was frequently dispatched to negotiate the recovery of ancient artifacts on worlds such as Dantooine and Telos. He was declared a Jedi Knight at age 28.

Today, at 37, he is known for his calm and deliberate demeanor in both combat and in mediation. He has a dry sense of humor that manifests itself on rare occasions, but the severity with which he generally regards his studies is often mistaken for disinterest in his fellow students at the Academy, and he has few close friends there as a result.

Jace is most proficient with the "thoughtful" Force powers; meditation, empathy, and comprehension. Rather than considering the Force as a tool or weapon, the Jedi Knight instead regards it primarily as a means of greater understanding of himself and his surroundings, and applies the Force more to his studies than to combat. He also considers the potential power of the Force a profound responsibility, to be used not for curiosity or convenience, but rather to do justice. While he is decent with a lightsaber, he is a strictly defensive fighter who prefers the versatility of a blaster pistol.

He has been dispatched on a number of occasions to find and return Jedi Knights who had wandered from the light side of the Force and become a danger to themselves or others; among them the outlaw Frank Bruder, on Dagobah, the terrorist Darwin Sky, on Nar Shaddaa, and the demented former Master, Echuu Shinzon, on Zhyr. In each instance, he has been forced to confront his long standing conflict of desires for peace, or mercy, and for justice, or vengeance. He has also found himself to be conflicted on the question of the New Republic's treaty with the Imperial Remnant in 19 ABY, which brought peace to the galaxy but left a great evil, the Empire, unvanquished.

How, or if, he will reconcile this conflict within him remains to be seen.