Post by grievous on Nov 14, 2007 22:47:27 GMT -5
Though he would achieve his greatest infamy as the cyborg General Grievous, Qymaen jai Sheelal was originally an organic Kaleesh. These were the reptilian natives of Kalee, a world torn by famine and war that the justice of the Galactic Republic never touched. For generations, Kalee had been assaulted without respite by a technologically superior insectoid species, the aggressive Yam'rii (referred to by the Kaleesh as the "Huk", or "soulless bugs"), who coveted the Kaleesh as slaves.
Sheelal was born on a world still embroiled in this brutal conflict, known as the Huk War, so it was, perhaps, inevitable that he grew up hating the Huk. Sheelal's father, seeking a useful outlet for his son's anger, taught him how to handle a slugthrower rifle. The young Sheelal proved himself an excellent marksman, with a mind as finely honed as any weapon; by eight years of age he had already become an expert sniper, with more than forty Huk kills to his credit. By the age of twenty-two, he had slain so many Huk that the Kaleesh people considered Sheelal a demigod.
Sheelal's closest comrade was a fellow Kaleesh warrior and mercenary, Ronderu lij Kummar. According to legend, his relationship with this wild and skilled swordswoman had its beginnings in a dream, in which Sheelal saw himself slaying a wild mumuu in the Kunbal jungle with Lig swords. So taken was he with this vision that he set out in his mumuu hunting mask to kill one in reality, but instead of finding a mumuu in the jungle, he saw Kummar, and realized that the slayer in his dream had not been himself, but the woman standing before him in a karabbac mask and wielding twin Lig swords. The two of them were, therefore, considered living manifestations of the cryptic Kaleesh parable Sheelal, or The Dreamer/The Dreamt One.
The exact nature of their relationship is uncertain. Some say Kummar was Sheelal's long lost half-sister; some say she was actually his lover. Whatever the truth, their bond, once forged, was considered absolute and sacred. Kummar taught Sheelal to wield a sword, and in turn he introduced her to the powerful Czerka Outland rifle. Both clad in masks, Kummar with her karabbac skull and Sheelal with his mumuu skull (inherited from his father, who had died fighting the Huk), the two warriors became legends, twin demigods blessed by their ancestors. Together they mercilessly cut through the Huk invaders in countless campaigns.
Unfortunately, while they were invincible together, they were less so when fighting apart. In one engagement on the beaches of Kalee, the two of them were separated. Kummar died violently on the Huks' barbed shears, and her body vanished into the Jenuwaa Sea. Sheelal, unable even to retrieve her from the waters, was driven to despair and a horrible psychotic depression. Inconsolable, he set off on a dangerous journey across the ocean to Abesmi, an island-monolith far from the mainland. There, he beseeched the gods to raise her from her watery grave just so he might see her one final time, but the gods remained silent.
Sheelal did what he could to bury his grief. He ended up taking ten wives and siring thirty children, but none of them, spouse or child, seemed to be able to fill the void Kummar's death had left in him. Eventually, he realized that it was his destiny to mourn for her as long as he lived. With this realization, Qymaen jai Sheelal cast off his old identity, adopting a name more appropriate to a being destined to grieve forever, and, even more terribly, who was determined that he would not do so alone. He would be General Grievous, as well as heart-broken, for the rest of his life.
Sheelal was born on a world still embroiled in this brutal conflict, known as the Huk War, so it was, perhaps, inevitable that he grew up hating the Huk. Sheelal's father, seeking a useful outlet for his son's anger, taught him how to handle a slugthrower rifle. The young Sheelal proved himself an excellent marksman, with a mind as finely honed as any weapon; by eight years of age he had already become an expert sniper, with more than forty Huk kills to his credit. By the age of twenty-two, he had slain so many Huk that the Kaleesh people considered Sheelal a demigod.
Sheelal's closest comrade was a fellow Kaleesh warrior and mercenary, Ronderu lij Kummar. According to legend, his relationship with this wild and skilled swordswoman had its beginnings in a dream, in which Sheelal saw himself slaying a wild mumuu in the Kunbal jungle with Lig swords. So taken was he with this vision that he set out in his mumuu hunting mask to kill one in reality, but instead of finding a mumuu in the jungle, he saw Kummar, and realized that the slayer in his dream had not been himself, but the woman standing before him in a karabbac mask and wielding twin Lig swords. The two of them were, therefore, considered living manifestations of the cryptic Kaleesh parable Sheelal, or The Dreamer/The Dreamt One.
The exact nature of their relationship is uncertain. Some say Kummar was Sheelal's long lost half-sister; some say she was actually his lover. Whatever the truth, their bond, once forged, was considered absolute and sacred. Kummar taught Sheelal to wield a sword, and in turn he introduced her to the powerful Czerka Outland rifle. Both clad in masks, Kummar with her karabbac skull and Sheelal with his mumuu skull (inherited from his father, who had died fighting the Huk), the two warriors became legends, twin demigods blessed by their ancestors. Together they mercilessly cut through the Huk invaders in countless campaigns.
Unfortunately, while they were invincible together, they were less so when fighting apart. In one engagement on the beaches of Kalee, the two of them were separated. Kummar died violently on the Huks' barbed shears, and her body vanished into the Jenuwaa Sea. Sheelal, unable even to retrieve her from the waters, was driven to despair and a horrible psychotic depression. Inconsolable, he set off on a dangerous journey across the ocean to Abesmi, an island-monolith far from the mainland. There, he beseeched the gods to raise her from her watery grave just so he might see her one final time, but the gods remained silent.
Sheelal did what he could to bury his grief. He ended up taking ten wives and siring thirty children, but none of them, spouse or child, seemed to be able to fill the void Kummar's death had left in him. Eventually, he realized that it was his destiny to mourn for her as long as he lived. With this realization, Qymaen jai Sheelal cast off his old identity, adopting a name more appropriate to a being destined to grieve forever, and, even more terribly, who was determined that he would not do so alone. He would be General Grievous, as well as heart-broken, for the rest of his life.
