Dante Erinith

Dante Erinith
Biographical Information
Race	Echani
Homeworld	Rhen Var
Clan	Clanless
Mother	Elia Erinith (Unknown)
Father	[Redacted]
Marital Status	Single
Siblings	[Redacted]
Born	Year: -13, Day: Unknown (36 years)
Languages	Multiple (Reportedly: Basic, Binary, Bocce, Ewokese, High Galactic, Huttese, Mando'a, Shyriiwook, Twi'leki, potentially others?)
Religion	Jedi
Physical Description
Gender	Male
Height	6'3
Weight	256lbs/116kg (approx.)
Coloring	Pale
Hair Color	White
Eye Color	Heterochromatic; Blue (Right), Green (Left)
Political Information
Affiliation	Stryker Military Services
Title	Solus'Jag T'ad'Uvete White Jedi
Rank	Second Lieutenant (GE)
Positions	Jedi Padawan (Jedi Order) Pilot (SYT) Imperial Royal Guardsman, 1BXO (GE, IA)
Prior Affiliation	SYT Transport Galactic Empire Jedi Order Mandalorian Clans

"Life...is tough, no matter the path you walk. You have to be tough as beskar to be a real optimist, to look at the bright side despite the garbage piled on you day after day - and you have to be scum to be completely apathetic, to have every redeeming trait of sentient life cleanly exorcised out of you. You have to find the middle ground. It's the best that men like you and I can really do.

We walk that ground every day. A dozen of us fight for a dozen different reasons, against men with drives and goals not entirely unlike our own. Fighting for the sake of fighting, because it's all we know. When we walk into politics or relationships, we mess it up; we're warriors, fighters, not talkers. Some of us try to do good, but more often than not, we have to settle for not making things worse than they already are. We do our best, and we hope it's enough.

Men see my armor, and they know that I am Mandalorian, and they pass me off as a thug, as a brute mercenary who doesn't care about anything but himself. It's us Mandalorians versus the galaxy. Together, we stand alone in a galaxy that despises us, and it lets us know it every chance it can get - and it really weighs down on you after a while. You grow tired. You grow cynical. You just stumble from one battle to another, hoping, waiting for something.

And then, one day, fighting in a war for a reason you don't understand or a cause you don't believe in, on a side you can't say for sure is better than any other, you stumble across a town. Somebody else beat you there. The men are dead. The children are crying. The women are taken.

And then you remember why you picked up a gun in the first place, and you run out to bring those kids' mothers back to them."

— Dante Erinith ~ Year 16

Dante Erinith, otherwise commonly known by the alias of Aegyl Seraf, is one of the only Echani currently operating publicly in the galaxy, if not the only one at all. Ostensibly born and raised on the desolate planet of Rhen Var by an Echani mother and a supposedly Mandalorian father, he adopted both cultures as he grew up, and for a long time struggled to balance the two out as he made his way in the galaxy. Upon becoming of age, he turned his attentions to matters of conflict and battle, rapidly proving himself to be something of a prodigy in that arena.

Raised on stories of the Galactic Empire, however, he took the earliest opportunity he could find to join up with them. While initially facing great difficulty due to his race and a lack of social graces, he eventually joined the Imperial Army, serving in a variety of capacities in the First Imperial Legion for four years. Over this time, however, he came to see what he viewed as the 'true face' of the Empire and became greatly disillusioned, coming to the realisation that the Empire he had grown up believing in was nothing more than a well crafted lie.

Betrayed and finding himself fleeing from the Empire's agents after being dishonourably discharged and declared a traitor, Dante re-examined his loyalties, and over a course of years apparently came to the conclusion that he would never again blindly follow another. From then on, he explored the galaxy with only a few companions and assets to his name, becoming an assassin and mercenary for hire in the less civilised and known areas of space and making a point out of remaining 'just another face', staying away from the affairs of the social elite - an effort that has largely been successful, with there having been precious little confirmed information about him and his activities up to around Year 20.

Early in year 18, however, he was discovered by a previously unknown individual, since revealed to be the infamous Anzati Matriarch Kira Morbus, to be Force Sensitive. A short time later, he declared his abandonment of the Mandalorian culture and instead began to walk the Jedi Path. Sometime around the beginning of Year 19, he was confirmed as being a member of the Jedi Order, in training under Hal Gevant of the Jedi Council. Despite still merely a Padawan at the time and in training, by the time of Year 20 he became considered something of an icon of the Jedi Order among various galactic circles.

This was however not to last. Disagreement with the Council led to a stalling of his advancement in the Order, further catalysed by Dante's continued activity in the galaxy at large, many times overstepping what the Order felt was appropriate for a Jedi Padawan. Dante, in turn, became increasingly critical of what he saw as a passive Jedi Order that refused to make a stand and was content simply to exist. Frustrated with the Jedi Order, and ostracised by a number of its more judgemental or hardline members, Dante ultimately tendered his own exile late in Year 20 as things reached a boiling point, leaving on terms that while were not outright hostile were not entirely friendly either.

Initially finding partnership with Kara DuMonte and the Veilhal Nomads, treachery and betrayal saw both come to an abrupt end, ensuring that Dante's path remained a solitary one. While he has since found a place with the Stryker Military Services as of Year 21, it is understood that his relationship with them is more amicable as opposed to servile; while he performs favours for them, he largely attends to his own affairs, pursuing the life of a Jedi in the galaxy at large.

Biography

Disclaimer ‎
The following documentation is the product of a series of research products by select scholars, journalists, tabloid writers and other individuals of varying levels of repute. Due to the individual whom this documentation concerns, hard facts and information are in limited supply, especially during the earlier periods of his life; the majority of information about the man commonly known as Dante Erinith takes the form of rumors, anecdotes, hearsay, and speculation. As such, the reader is advised to read with caution and come to his or her own conclusions regarding the contents of this article.

When asked for comment, one of the journalists jokingly commented that: This documentary on the man who calls himself "Dante Erinith" was meticulously reconstructed by a crack research team with the aid of eyewitness accounts, government files and recordings, bathroom gossip, wild speculation, and a magic eightball.

Consequentially, the writers of this article accept no responsibility for impugned reputation, wounded feelings, disagreeable claims or treasonous statements that may be caused or derived from this article. The information has been compiled and reconstructed as best as the writers were able, without bias or ulterior motive. It is what it is, folks. ‎

Early Life

Childhood

The Dead World, Rhen Var

"In death, I am born."

— Mandalorian Proverb

The wake of the First Galactic Civil War brought with it much chaos and devastation. Most elements of this are well documented, and oft spoken of; the damage to galactic infrastructure, logistical crises striking the newly born Galactic Empire, military shortages in various corners of the galaxy, the spread of disease and famine as medical supplies were in short supply, and on it goes. However, one of the least discussed yet nevertheless pivotal elements of the war's immediate aftermath involves the loss of information.

Quite aside from the files, repositories and libraries that were destroyed during the chaos or lost during logistical failures, information and star charts were also lost. Hyperspace lanes disappeared, galactic co-ordinates were misplaced, and with the destruction of many vessels came the absence of planetary information. Entire star systems were lost to the void, and one of the continual tasks of scouts and adventurers the galaxy over remains the discovery of long last star systems, and the return of their populations to the galactic scene.

Rhen Var is the name of one such lost planet.

According to accounts, even during the heyday of the Galactic Republic Rhen Var was a planet of mixed interest. It was one of a host of so-called "dead planets"; worlds that, for one reason or another, had ceased to be viable for proper habitation, whether that be due to natural disaster or some other cause. In Rhen Var's case, it had once been a verdant, temperate world inhabited to at least some degree by the vaunted Jedi Order, as evidenced by the large number of ancient stone temples and ruins that dot its landscape.

However, a cataclysm of unknown cause led to the planet undergoing a flash freeze; mountains, oceans and plains alike were instantly frozen, as evidenced by the waves that can still be found. No vegetation or natural fauna can be found, and while the atmosphere is breathable to most species, inhospitable cold comparable to Hoth and the absence of valuable raw materials has long since led to no serious population growth on the planet. According to records, before its departure from the galactic scene the planet saw only rare treasure hunters and the occasional hermits as inhabitants.

It was in these desolate circumstances that the man who would later call himself Dante Erinith was born, at some point during Year -13.

Impression of Elia Erinith, Arms Dealer

Of Dante's father there is precious little information, with even those close to the man apparently knowing little. However, what is known is that the elusive figure was, or is, supposedly a Sith Lord of no small power, who would later become a significant figure in the Galactic Empire.

Information concerning his mother, however, is in decidedly greater supply. An Echani by name of Elia Erinith, she had originally been a Jedi Knight in good standing with the Jedi Order. However, with the onset of civil war between the Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, she was among a select number of Jedi who spoke up against their involvement in what she saw as a political engagement, arguing that the Jedi were not soldiers and had a greater purpose, and that the Jedi were being pulled into the war by outside forces. While some such as Master Bodo Baas listened and ultimately investigated the potential of Sith involvement, Elia by this point had already parted ways from the Jedi Order in defiance.

While her reasons are unknown, she in time became an arms dealer, establishing a network of contacts and suppliers across the galaxy; while speculative, it is believed that this had been done in pursuit of her own investigation. This would further go on to explain how she encountered the man who would later become Dante's father. Whatever the how's and why's, at some point the two withdrew to the planet Rhen Var, and it was here that Dante in turn was born and raised.

To call Dante's childhood a difficult one would be the very definition of an understatement. By all accounts, Rhen Var is an unforgiving planet dependent on outside sources of food, where lingering outside for any length of time held a very real risk of permanent injury, be that in the form of frostbite or worse. However, his parents were apparently not content to simply let their child survive.

He had to thrive.

For reasons known only to himself, Dante's father elected to raise Dante in the manner of the Mandalorian peoples, for all intents and purposes making him one of them. As such, he learned early the ways of weaponry and armour, both how to wield them and how to maintain them, as well as the use of their various advanced gadgets and armour-mounted weapons. As his father came to and from the planet with needed supplies and information on the civil war as it raged, Elia Erinith taught her son what she knew of the criminal underworld, the ways of the galaxy, and most significantly the martial arts of the Echani peoples.

Dante's toys were blasters and swords. His constant childhood companion was his helmet. His young friends were not people, but the whistling birds and wrist rockets of the Mandalorians. And where most children could play in the woods or had playgrounds to run in, Dante's entertainments were obstacle courses and hand-to-hand drills, and he had not woods but the desolate, freezing wastelands of Rhen Var to exercise in.

However, despite their shared capability with the Force, accounts suggest that Dante learned little of such things from his parents; indeed, according to Dante himself, his father shielded him from the Force, rendering him for all purposes unsensitive to the Force. While he learned the lore of the Jedi, the form and function of a Lightsaber and the intricacies of the Force, he did not learn how to use such things himself. His parents' reasons for this are subject to interpretation, but the prevailing opinion is that this early exposure to and severance from the Force was intended to strengthen him, rather than render him dependent upon it at an early age.

Related to this, rumours persist that his father, for whatever reason, altered him on some level with Sith Alchemy. While this would certainly explain some of his capabilities and later events, proving or disproving this has proven nigh impossible.

Whatever the reality of it, Dante's education remained his constant, and he knew little else for the majority of his young life. As the civil war came to an end and the Galactic Empire was installed, and the Jedi Order and Galactic Republic alike came crashing down, Dante learned of these happenings and how the galaxy was changing, with his father in particular endorsing the Empire and its practices. As Dante aged, his father became increasingly distant, until at some point during Year -2 his father parted ways with Elia Erinith and left the two behind on Rhen Var. Just as suddenly, his mother began to take ill, with her condition rapidly worsening to the point of incapability. The eleven year-old Dante was thus left to fend for himself, with his mother increasingly unable to care for him and the supplies his father brought rapidly diminishing.

Survival in the Wastes

Necessity demanded that he engage with the treasure hunters, hermits, smugglers and other offworld travellers that rarely came to Rhen Var, as they were the sole source of food on the planet. Cautious of identification and disdainful of his father's name, it was at this point that he took up the alias of "Dante Erinith", choosing his mother's name over his father's. Depending on his combat skill and the criminal knowledge his mother had taught him, Dante's life became one of favours for favours, performing whatever tasks and rendering what assistance he had to in order to secure precious food and power supplies to ensure continued survival.

Often, these tasks required him to delve deep into Rhen Var's landscape, be that long days trekking across the wastes or delving into the Jedi ruins that dotted the planet. Dante's education became self taught as he learned how to survive in the inhospitable environment, making the most of limited supplies and identifying ways to increase his chances of success, however small they may be. It was during these days that Dante took his first life, the first time he wielded a weapon in combat being to gun down a pirate who attacked one of his smuggler contacts.

His reputation in the local community grew, such as it was; his services became demanded, as he proved himself able to endure where others could not. And despite his youth, he became known as somebody dangerous enough not to cross, securing his future as a pathfinder and scout on the otherwise impassable planet.

While difficult, Dante's life entered a period of some stability. And while the strive to survive was always a consideration, this newfound stability gave him time to consider, and to reflect. And as the months and years passed, the boy became a man.

In time, Elia Erinith's condition worsened to the point of her being rendered comatose. Desperate, Dante resorted to using a dilapidated medical room within one of the Jedi ruins he had previously explored, using the old technology within to place his mother into a state of hypersleep; for all intents and purposes, she had been lost to him. Completely alone for the first time in his life, Dante ultimately made the decision to leave his homeworld behind and pursue his father, in hope of answers. Leaning on his reputation and the good will he had built up over the years, Dante resorted to acquiring passage upon one of the smuggler vessels that rarely came to Rhen Var.

So it was that in Year 6, the young Mandalorian left his home planet for the first time in his life and set out into the galaxy, ignorant of the role he was to play in galactic events.

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Shatter Zero

The rocky infrastructure of Mygeeto, heavily damaged from years of war

"And here I am, stuck with a Mandalorian who's never flown so much as a barge before. Who'd I piss off in a past life?"
"You wanna activate the guns while you're wetting yourself back there?"
"Oh, sure, bully the jawa, everyone else does! We die now or in five minutes when you crash us into a mountain. What's the difference?"
"Five minutes."

— Zuzz Ajim & Dante Erinith during lift off

Precisely where it was that Dante Erinith departed to after leaving Rhen Var is unknown. What is known, however, was that two years of adventure followed. Lacking a ship of his own, and untrained in their use, Dante's itineraries were dependent on those around him; payment for travel and public pathways were common. This did not matter overmuch, however, for his goal was information. About his father, yes, but about more than that as well.

Dante had lived his entire live dependent on what his parents designed to tell him, and the limited information and news brought in by smugglers and pirates. And no small part of him seized upon this opportunity to find out for himself what lay beyond his homeworld.

By this time, the Rebellion was in full swing, having given rise to the Second Galactic Civil War, the conflict which would go on to dominate a large portion of Dante's adult life. While old news to the galaxy at large, their existence was new to Dante himself, and the cause no small confusion; raised on the Galactic Empire's greatness, it was baffling to him that there was those who would seek a return to democratic process and the comparative anarchy that the rule of the Galactic Republic amounted to. However, he felt no great loyalty to this Empire for all that he had been told and felt no need to rush to its defense, and so his search for information continued.

The Rebellion's rise and continued conflict with the Empire provided no shortage of chaos in the galaxy. The backwater sectors were regularly sources of conflict, with petty states rising and falling, mercenaries forces flooding the galaxy, and war a regular part of many peoples' lives. In this, Dante saw a golden opportunity; he could build a reputation for himself as a warrior, further his skills in battle and learn new ones he had not learned in his youth, while also learning more about the galaxy and hopefully further his pursuit of his father. It seemed an obvious choice.

Dante, then, wasted little time in becoming a mercenary.

Shatter Zero's first flight, above Mygeeto

The armour he worked was of great benefit to him; the reputation of the Mandalorians was strong at this point in history, and it did not take long for his services to become a guaranteed sale. However, mindful of the lessons imparted by his upbringing, Dante often set certain conditions; namely, he was known for favouring the underdog, and taking on missions that saw the punishment of criminals and other low scum, as opposed to preying on the citizenry of the galaxy. His reputation became one not simply of competence, but honour and integrity as well. Embroiled in these conflicts, Dante spent his life in the outer rim and far from the core of the galaxy. He learned of the criminal underworld and realities of soldiering, of commerce and negotiation, of the mercenary way of life; and he saw some of the worst that men were capable of. While he did not know it at the time, this early experience of war and the criminal underbelly of the galaxy would go on to serve him well during the rest of his life.

Such was how he spent the next two years of his life, as a soldier of fortune.

One of these contracts brought him to Mygeeto, late in Year 8. A raging battlefield during the First Galactic Civil War, the onset of the Second had ensured the planet remained one embroiled in conflict. While the governments and warlords of the galaxy had not seen fit to take interest in the planet, it had become a largely lawless planet on which mercenaries, pirates and other criminals made their living, often at the expense of the indigenous populations of Muun.

On occasion, however, one would rise above the rest. For the majority of Year 8, an Ace pilot known by the alias of "Zero" had established a powerful reputation on the planet, to the point that his services came at great expense in exchange for near-guaranteed victory. Unbeknownst to himself at the time, Dante's contract led him to come into conflict with a group that had hired Zero.

Weeks of ground battle resulted in no meaningful gains; meanwhile, aerial forces led by Zero devastated Dante's allies. With friendly forces in a rout, Dante himself took him with a Jawa technician, by name of Zuzz Ajim. Seeing an opportunity to get off-planet in the chaos and secure a vessel of his own, with his contract fulfilled with the death of the mercenary leader he had made it with, Dante's plan had been to repair one of the damaged vessels on Mygeeto's surface. To this end he enlisted Ajim's help. Ajim, meanwhile, saw security in a Mandalorian's presence, and happily aided him.

Unfortunately for Ajim, Dante had made himself a target during the previous battles. Having by this point selected and largely repaired a damage YT-2000 model freighter from scavenged parts, the pair were located by opposing mercenary forces. Receiving the blunt offer to surrender himself to them or die, Dante took a gamble and activated the ship, with Ajim only now learning that the Mandalorian had never once flown a ship of his own. Fortunately, the deflector shields held up long enough for the pair to take to the sky, escaping the group that had found him. It seemed for all intents and purposes that Dante's plan had worked.

Unfortunately, they had already called for airborne assistance. And so Dante and Zero came head to head in the skies above Mygeeto, one in a YT-2000, the other his favoured stolen rebel A-Wing.

Shatter Zero, in space above Mygeeto

"I knew it! I knew you'd crash us, longshanks!"
"Not into a mountain I didn't! Hells below, this is living!"
"That, that right there, that's why you bucketheads don't live long."

— Zuzz Ajim & Dante Erinith's first exchange after awakening

Accounts vary wildly on the events that then followed, with the sheer number of witnesses often telling the story in different ways and with altered details. Some insist Zero flew rings around Dante; others, that Dante matched him move for move, a claim deemed by most to be unlikely given his prior inexperience at flight. However, one detail is agreed upon often enough to be considered factual: whether through cunning, poor choice on Zero's part or sheer luck on Dante's, the damaged YT-2000 crashed directly into the A-Wing mid-flight.

Zero was killed instantly, with Dante and Ajim wounded during the resulting crash. Intimidated by Zero's death, accounts claim that the opposing mercenary forces steered clear of pursuing the crashed freighter, instead preferring to assume the occupants had also been killed.

"Heard ol' longshanks went to the Empire after that mess, and got into a whole new one. Jedi these days, I hear. Not surprised. That man had too much ruddy luck for someone, or something, not to be looking over his shoulder. Like the world kind of made way for 'em, you know?"

— Zuzz Ajim, Year 21

Wounded but alive, Dante and Ajim set to patching their wounds while likewise getting their somehow still-intact ship operational, a task that took the better part of a week. By the time it was spaceworthy and they returned to civilisations, tales had long since spread of Zero's death, and of the vessel that had achieved it, the stories and popular appeal having birthed the vessel a name in Dante's absence. The two agreed it was a worthy one, and parted ways amicably as friends, with Dante now in possession of his very own vessel.

Such was how the Shatter Zero was born. And much like its owner, this seemingly insignificant ship would go on to survive battles and feats it had no business doing, and in so doing build a legend all of its own.

In His Footsteps

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One Man of Two Worlds

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Project Bastion

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Facing the Force

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Immortals Broken

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The Coup

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A Memory of Warmth

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Dereliction of Duty

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Out of His Shadow

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To Be Better

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Hunter without a Hunt

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The Maw Expedition

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Awakening

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Remembering how to Walk

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The First Taste

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Vox Populi

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To be a Jedi

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Broken Bonds

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Light in the Darkness

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Darth Draxes

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White Jedi

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Fire and Ice

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The Road Continues

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Nomads and Wanderers

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The Sharpest Knife

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The Tournament

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Personal Information

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Personality

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Abilities and Powers

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Equipment and Possessions

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Career

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Paramilitary

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