Star Wars: The Sith War - Character: Ingo

[Lori]

Birth Name: Ingo

Concept: Guri Ma Warrior

Species: Mantellian Savrip

Weight: 1,045kg (2,304lbs)

Height: 3.8 meters (12’6” feet)

Age: 58

Gender: male

Home Planet: Ord Mantell

Eye Color: red

Hair Color (if any): none

Handedness: right

General Appearance: Looks like a Mantellian Savrip. In general.

Character Level: 3

Class Level: Force Adept 3

Background:

Guri Ma are ancient words from the Savrip tongue, and the Ateng Va (Force tradition) they name is said to be even older. They do not translate well into Galactic Basic, or any other language for that matter. Even many Savrips have forgotten what is meant by these words, along with the true purpose of the tradition itself. The original meaning of Guri Ma could be translated to mean “The Path of the Claw” or “The Piercing Method”; both in reference to the Mantellian Savrip’s formidable natural weapons, but it could also be translated as “The Cutting Road” or “The Way of Decisiveness”. The truth is that the name Guri Ma encompasses all of these meanings and more.

Not even the oldest songs of the ancestors, preserved in the memories of the most elder clan shamans remembers the beginnings of the ancient tradition of Guri Ma, and some say it is the oldest of all Savrip Ateng Va. Those who walk the Cutting Road are ascetics who believe that by persevering through whatever difficulties befall them with strength and clarity of mind, they can overcome any obstacle and accomplish what would otherwise be impossible. Following the Decisive Way represents a conscious decision on the part of a Savrip Guri Ma practitioner to put to use, without question or doubt, all of the natural strengths given them by nature, honing and perfecting them in the process, and using those strengths to their fullest potential. However, a Savrip Adept does not master the skills of Guri Ma for the sake of violence or conquest or power, in fact, one does not master it at all.

Guri Ma is not viewed as a final destination, a skill to be mastered, or knowledge to be gained. Practitioners view it as a path, a way of putting to full use what the Universe has already given them, and a tool to accomplish what needs accomplishing in one’s life. However, exactly what it means to “accomplish what needs accomplishing”, and how one should go about it, is still a matter of some debate within the Guri Ma tradition. More than one headstrong and impatient adept has used this ambiguity as a justification for taking the quick and easy (or, as they would call it, the “decisive”) road to greater personal power, and fallen to the Dark Side in the process.

Whatever its true origins, for many generations now it has been the honor and privilege of all Guri Ma adepts to act as their species’ chief defense against those who would hunt and enslave their kind. But as time has passed, the Guri Ma decrease in numbers, while the number of those who would prey on their kind only increases with each cycle of the seasons.

The youngest child of Guri Ma adept Charr, of the clan Ma’krth of the azure hides, Ingo was trained from birth as a future adept in the Ateng Va of his ancestors. He was the first of his siblings to be chosen for training in the ways of the Guri Ma by his father, and was both proud and honored to have been so blessed. However, some of Ingo’s older siblings, and many of the older Ma’krth youth, all of whom had once held dreams of being chosen for training in the honored Ateng Va of their clan but had failed to qualify were jealous of Ingo, and he was forced to endure their jealous taunts throughout his childhood. Despite these difficulties, Ingo took well to his training and readily embraced the Guri Ma philosophies.

Soon he was old enough and skilled enough to join his father and the other Guri Ma adepts on their patrols as they sought to discover and drive off or kill any alien hunters or slavers discovered within their territory. It was on one of these patrols that disaster struck, and Ingo’s life was changed forever. Even with the power of Ateng as their ally, there was only so much the primitive Savrips could do against murderous aliens bent on the death and enslavement of their species. Some of the best slavers had been growing increasingly clever, and it happened that Ingo and his father were part of a Guri Ma patrol that ran afoul of these vile men. Outnumbered, and grossly outmatched technologically, the Savrips were defeated in a bloody battle that left all the Savrips save Ingo dead or dying. This was none too pleasing to the slavers as they were left with only one live catch, barely more than a stripling, and had to make due with selling the carcasses of the rest at a reduced price.

Beaten, near-death, and now fatherless, Ingo was taken as a slave, locked in a cage, and shipped off world to meet an unknown, but certainly grim future.