The Legacy of Skywalker
brash young Bothan Scout
Destiny: Rescue (unknown, but most likely a party member)
Like many smugglers on the Outer Rim, Tav Va’keyy never knew his parents. Abandoned on the desert planet of Socorro as a young child, Tav never learned the usual Bothan ways, nor any other race’s normal social graces. He is terse in his words and as gruff as a Bothan could be said to be. He learned to survive on the streets of Socorro’s capital city, Vakeyya, by learning what he could from the smuggler haven’s population (whether they realized it or not). Not having a given name, he took on the namesake of Tav (meaning “vigorous” or “youthful” in Bothese) to reflect his audacity and brashness and took the surname of Va’keyy, derived from the city that shaped his character and allowed him to survive despite the odds.
Despite his less than noble demeanor, Tav gleaned a bit of noble character from the smugglers that passed through Vakeyya. He learned, in his poverty and need, the importance of bringing needed supplies to out-of-the-way planets and societies, and idolized smugglers until he was old enough to become one himself. At the first available opportunity, Tav gained clout with some of the more gracious smugglers on the black sands, and soon found himself thrust into the excitement and adventure of space travel. He wished for nothing more than to uplift the poor and abandoned souls in the galaxy through his work and to gain their unspoken gratitude— to give them the chance he had been granted.
At the other end of Tav’s spectrum of opinion are pirates; he hates nothing more than these robbers of dreams and hopes. After a few months of successful smuggling with his new crew, Tav was witness to the darker side of trade: on a routine smuggling run to the ruined former city-planet of Taris, the crew’s ship was attacked by pirates and most on board were brutally killed. Tav was spared due to his youth (just 15 years old), but heavily abused once brought on board the pirate’s ship for slave labor. This fostered a hatred for pirates unlike anything Tav had ever felt, and it persisted through the year of service he underwent before being freed by Republic soldiers who subdued the pirate crew holding him captive. He was, once again, taken on board the newcoming party’s ship (albeit under much better circumstances than the last time), and was adopted as a sort of trainee in the justice-bringing ways of the Republic.
The Bothan served a year under the unit that freed him, learning much of the Republic’s lofty goals and ideals, and learning of more legitimate ways for him to bring aid to the destitute of the galaxy. He could only remain so long under such a lawful and restrictive environment, however, and slipped out one day on the world of Coruscant after overhearing of an interesting development regarding a Jedi Council on [world where we’re going to meet one another]: a datapad had been sent to a rather notable Republic military hero, requesting his presence at a Council meeting, but the man had recently passed away due to an accident involving a malfunctioning guard droid. Tav’s youthful curiosity got the best of him, and with naught but a backwards glance to his Republic saviours, he slipped away to follow this most interesting of leads.
This is how, at the young age of 17, Tav Va’keyy walks into a Jedi Council meeting room holding a datapad not meant for him, ready to accept, without a second thought, whatever request was intended for a much more decorated hero than he.