Kansan Katz
Jedi Knight - Knight
Homeworld: Nar Shadda
Species: Human
Biography
Kansan Katz was born in Nar Shaddaa. At a tender age, he would have no recollection of his parents whatsoever. But unlike others his age that had been even more unfortunate than him, his family had a close friend and ultimately that friend became Kansan’s caretaker throughout his life.
His caretaker’s name was Vif. A common looking man, with a little more than meets the eye, as under the relative image of an every day man, hid a prominent figure of crime in Nar Shaddaa. By no means one could possibly define him a big shot, but he had his own slice of the underground like many others. Vif was part of a dangerous world, where people would often go amiss, and that could mean any number of things.
Kansan was spared the worst of that life, and instead would often hang around his caretaker’s bar as some kind of janitor slash waiter. He did just whatever it needed to be done. It was definitely not the most suitable place for a kid, but he managed to pick up a few tricks from the patrons that would often visit; tricks, for the most part. Kansan barely saw Vif, he respected him until a night where he stayed late to clean up and he heard the man talk over with some strangers about how he had purchased the boy from his parents. This pretty much killed the respect or admiration for the man and he just saw him as any other stranger. However Vif had been exposing his own business more, in the hopes of growing even farther across the crime lords of the planet, and that warranted a certain amount of ‘attention’ that he could not indeed handle.
Eyes were drawn onto Vif, and of course, the very bar. One day, a Jedi came, and made inquiries about a certain individual that might or might not have been working for Vif. The Jedi was treated with suspicion while Kansan just did his job once and left to bring the sitting Jedi his order, when he did so, and put the table down. Without realizing the utensils were already there and caused one to fall. Kansan reached out for it and as the Jedi witnessed, for the briefest moment, the utensil floated in mid-air when Kansan tried to grab it, without him noticing since it fell anyway a moment later.
However the stranger did indeed notice the event.
The investigation dragged on for a little while, until at some point the Jedi was ambushed by a number of individuals. Kansan hid away and only witnessed glimpses. He stayed hidden for a while, he did not know how long it took until the blaster shots stopped. Eventually, however, he found the Jedi next to him.
Most of the building was empty by now, almost as if it had either been evacuated or everyone made a run for it.
He had acknowledged him before, but never addressed him. Instead the Jedi made Kansan a proposal; to stay or to come with him. Kansan did not struggle long to give up on Vif.
The boy accepted and came along, mostly out of wonder and curiosity, and a spark of hope that he could hopefully become something like this guy. Kansan made it to the nearest temple, and then initiated. He learned the basics, together with the rest of his peers, and eventually continued doing so for a few years, where he was left on his own to keep growing and learning, until he met a new individual; a Cathar Jedi.
While Kansan felt like he had made a good choice – after all he would never have dreamed to have a cool lightsaber such as that – he was already feeling a little stale. Always in the temple, same old routine, it was… a little like when he was always in the bar, it was growing a little heavy on him.
But this Jedi made him feel something. A premonition of his world being thrown around once more, just like when that shooting happened. He would often seek her and stop by, talking with her, sharing his hobbies and concerns with.
At some point she took him under his wing to continue his training. He respected her but above all he was happy he had a mentor he could consider also a friend.
In the following years Kansan saw a variety of things. He had of course already seen plenty back on his homeworld, but with his mentor, the two would travel various planets, and the boy would get to interact and witness different cultures. While tech was something that always fascinated him, he managed to also make himself useful several times by repairing the ship or implementing adjustments.
Kansan got to witness a lot of different things, but also interact with people that all had different troubles… at some point it was almost spontaneous for him trying to help, albeit he was quite naive and could not often really help without the aid of his mentor looking after the situation. At some point, in the Outer Rim, a common villain often came across some of the misdeeds they investigated. A mysterious man that would leave behind encrypted messages in his wake, and leave poor people robbed of their belongings or scammed after they were made a fool of… in his experience on Nar Shaddaa Kansan believed he could have been an equal match to such trickery but he was made a fool of himself.
By a twisted fate of sorts, in truth the cryptic criminal was Vif that was attempting to rebuild himself after having lost plenty of belongings years ago. When met again, not only did Kansan lose to his wits but he was always mocked with the fact that Vif never indeed purchased Kansan, for he just killed his parents instead of giving them their due payment.
He faced a shameful breakdown at his failures, having lost his confidence and having disappointed himself, and the people that had relied on him when he provided his assistance, and the anger that transpired from the truth. But several cycles later after he had mostly disappeared from anyone’s eyesight, he returned, with a new look in his eyes that inspired maturity. According to his words, all it took was a midnight walk amongst the fireflies that guided him there in the first place.
Of course, like in every good story, the criminal was indeed only apprehended. Even when Kansan had the physical opportunity to slice his head off, in the end he just made sure he would face justice. The goods were also recovered. But it was only a relief for the people that would benefit off this… Kansan did not truly care, he was already at peace. Maybe, he was even grateful that he had been bested, because it helped him see things in a different way and to faithfully rely onto the Force as well as any Jedi should.
At last, the young Jedi was knighted… but he had already a request to make. While he cherished the time he spent with his mentor… he wanted to be on his own. Maybe make his own travels one day, too. He found an inspiration in the tales that his mentor told him and wished to settle into the Rannon temple.