Nomi (PC)

Please provide a brief (at least one short paragraph) backstory for your character.

Nomi was born in what was a Dark Ages for Kaminoans under Imperial Occupation in the lowest caste of Kaminoan society (determined by eye color) Her blue eyes meant she was of the manual labor caste. This had been a part of their society for centuries, but became even further stratified with the imperial occupation. Nomi's parents found her tiresome. She was such a curious child, something her parents weren't equipped for. Nomi was always seen as someone who asked too many questions growing up, she saw problems and wanted to fix them. She wasn't interested in maintaining the status quo unless someone gave her a good enough answer. They never really did. The only person who seemed to find her curious brain anything but a hassle was her neighbor.

Nomi’s neighbor was a man named Valu Ke, and saw a similar thirst for knowledge to his own in Nomi and in his quest for knowledge, used to steal data pads from the places he worked as a janitor at over the years. Valu Ke shared his treasure trove of data pads and taught her many of the things that he had learned. Nomi found she really had a passion for medicine. Valu Ke and Nomi had set up a makeshift clinic in the blue eyed district as they had very little access to medical care compared to the yellow and silver eyed Kaminoans. Looking to further her study, she got into Genetic Engineering and discovered that the reason she couldn’t become a doctor and that her people were so oppressed was a government project of selective breeding. Nomi was enraged. She couldn’t continue to live in a system that was rigged from the start. So she decided to completely change the terrain of the playing field. With the help of her mentor, she studied and did test after test until they figured out how to alter Nomi’s DNA to make her a silver eyed Kaminoan. Valu helped Nomi change her identity and got her some contacts in the silver eye district. He wished her good luck and got her across the border. She immediately went to school to become a doctor and after some time became a top surgeon

Nomi was living comfortably and doing well in her field when she got an encrypted message asking her to come back to the Blue Eye District as Valu Ke needed help.
Nomi dropped everything and went to this clandestine meet up. It was actually from Valu Ke’s wife Tela Ke. She told Nomi that Valu had a very advanced case of Keoshi Syndrome, a nefarious and horribly degenerative disorder. Something that had only come back since the Galactic Civil War and the ban on cloning. Treatment wasn’t available for people like Valu Ke and he seemed dead set on suffering through it. The only treatment involved cloning, and Valu Ke seemed dead set against endangering everything Nomi had achieved to help him. When Nomi refused to back down, Valu Ke relented and told her something he hadn’t told anyone; at the time of the end of the Clone Wars and the rise of the Empire, he was actually given a similar genetic treatment to the one Nomi devised for herself as a means of protection. Many in the district had worked in cloning facilities and were brought to this district as a means of protection and this was why they were cut off from technology, education and medical care.

Valu tried to tell her what he could remember and Nomi filled in the rest with her conjecture and theories. Nomi continued to work days at the hospital and nights in the Blue Eyed District with Valu. Valu was astonished at how good her coffee was, as it kept him feeling spry and Nomi was maybe sleeping an hour a day and functioning as if she had gotten a full day’s sleep. Basically, they had to clone a series of entirely new components of now dying parts of the spinal column for Valu and then Nomi would have to cut out the dead parts and replace them with new tissue to hopefully stop the spread and promote some regrowth (as the cells were engineered to do). For Nomi, having never studied cloning (something he had trained in and studied for years) they were able to achieve an extremely viable clone in a time anyone who had worked at the old facilities would have been floored by. Nomi was a prodigy.

The time came for the operation. Nomi had about 200 hours of simulation training, she was ready to do this very exacting and painstaking procedure. Nomi smuggled Valu into the hospital she worked at. She did the operation in a defunct wing that she had been smuggling equipment to. The surgery took the entire evening. At dawn, the makeshift OR was raided by ISB agents. Nomi was immediately arrested and thoroughly interrogated by ISB agents on every aspect of her process and skill level. She was given all sorts of tests and then sent to a prison somewhere (as if the ISB let her know where) and was in solitary confinement for a decent amount of time (Nomi is still unsure on the chronological specifics here–it was in total about 6 years) During this time she didn't have much else to do, so she began letting her focus drift, she sensed the edge of something greater, something beyond her comprehension. She learned to meditate and began to poke at this thing, feeling it move through her. She felt connected, her senses sharpened.

After a few months of isolation and interrogation she had a black bag thrown over her head and was brought to a shiny, very Imperial looking hospital. She was given a chart of someone with a redacted name and identifying details and briefed on their diagnosis. She was told her sentence would be at least halved if she performed the operation. She did it successfully and was almost immediately transferred to a far nicer and more comfortable cell. Nomi spent the rest of what ended up being 6 years in a much more open prison. There was a common area, a mess hall and even a yard. There were also other prisoners. Nomi was able to pick up Galactic Basic fairly quickly, and once she did she was able to talk to her fellow prisoners. She learned their life stories and what got them to this prison. So many of her fellow inmates were products of greater forces at play, and that rocked her to her core. She wasn't alone.

She met Surri, a Zabraki woman who was doing time for trying to create a workers union on her mining colony home. They both grew up in homes where they grated against the need to maintain the status quo. Nomi learned so much from Surri and really appreciated her company. They became romantically involved. Together they planned their future. Once they were out they were going to open a modest cantina (mostly Surri’s idea) Surri told Nomi about all the meals they'd serve. All of the dishes her mother made. One year for life day she gave Surri a cookbook of all of the recipes she had recorded from memory. Nomi and Surri were meant to be released around the same time, but unfortunately Surri was trying to break up a fight and was injured quite severely in the process. Nomi got to see her, everyone thinking it was far too late. She held Suri in what she thought was their last moments together, and suddenly she felt the distinct feeling of a breakthrough. The bruises and wounds on Surri's body were fading and in time she was back to normal.

Nomi was confused by this new found power, what did it mean? Where did it come from? Nomi didn't have much time to parse this all out as they were both released not too long after. Nomi tried to find work as a doctor, but her license had been revoked and no one wanted to hire an ex-con, especially one who went to jail for cloning.
Nomi and Surri traveled around for a time doing odd jobs together. After saving up some money they bought an old cantina on some planet Nomi had never heard of before called Dantooine. They were on the outskirts, not far from some weird Jedi Order or something. They were paying patrons and they tipped decently, so what did Nomi care? She learned how to cook and tend bar from Surri, and they were moderately successful. Surri was having the life she dreamed of back in prison.

About a year into running the bar one of the Jedi recognized that Nomi was force sensitive and asked if she wanted to join their order. Nomi didn't say yes immediately, but was intrigued. She wanted to learn more about how she might be able to really help people again. Surri told her that if there was any time to do this, it was now. She would always be here, running the bar, which she could do just fine on her own. She knew Nomi grew up with such a limited, restricted and razor focused childhood that she deserved the chance to be free and be young (in the force, as it were) again. With that Nomi packed her bags and took a nice walk to the Jedi Order.
Why does your character want to be a jedi? Nomi’s past haunts her regularly, and she sees the Order as means by which to redeem herself. Ultimately, she finds exploiting those who are unwilling victims of their circumstances unbearable and the second she sees it she feels she needs to tear it down and that seems in line with the Jedi Order.
Are there aspects of your character’s background (people, events, places) that were more formative to your character’s current personal development?

People:
- Valu Ke: Her mentor, who she hasn't seen since she did his operation and they both got arrested.
- Surri: Nomi's lover who she healed after she was close to death after trying to break up a prison fight. They run a Cantina together (Nomi is on hiatus to work on being a Jedi) called the Quenker's Quench.

Events:
Changing her genetic sequencing - Put her on the path to become a doctor.
Helping Valu Ke - Helping Cure Valu Ke’s Keoshi syndrome was her foray into cloning, and a chance to give back to her mentor that ultimately led to her arrest.
Black Bag Surgery - It was such a strange blip in a series of strange years, but the unknowns in what she did, who she might have helped, haunts her.
Time in Prison - She has now discovered that that is where she truly learned what the force is. Poked and prodded at it, for science. It’s a puzzle to keep her eternally intrigued. She also met her partner there, and it’s been pretty great ever since.
Describe the kinds of personal relationships you might have had in your past?

Valu Ke - Her mentor from her youth. Helped feed her hunger for knowledge, helped her learn medicine and eventually helped her in changing her DNA to escape the blue eye district to become a doctor.
Surri - Nomi's first and only love. Met her while in prison. Theirs is a quiet, soft kind of love. They can say a lot with a simple look and understand each other intimately.
What is most Jedi-like about your character? What is least Jedi-like about your character? Most Jedi: She really just wants to help people at every opportunity. She also has a well meant but somewhat chaotic sense of justice. Least Jedi: She is incredibly individually motivated. If she sees the odds are stacked against her, she will cheat to succeed. Fairness is a social contract and once it is abandoned she will do whatever it takes to even the playing field for herself
Does your character have a strong idea of the Force? Do they experience it in a certain way or is it a mystery to them? For Nomi, it feels like many things, but most times it feels like being on the threshold of some great discovery. Leaping off the edge of your knowledge and hoping to land safely on something brand new. A blind faith, hope even. It's always just on the horizon.
Some characters have dark (or great) secrets that they keep locked away from even their dearest friends. Does your character harbor a great regret or a secret aspiration that is central to their character? If the whole thing wasn't aggressively covered up, she's a complete and total social pariah on her homeworld.
She has no idea what happened to Valu after they were arrested. She doesn't know who she operated on when she was imprisoned and that very much still haunts her. She spends her days trying to pay for a crime she doesn't know the weight of. She altered her own DNA to study and become a doctor.
What elements of your character are you most excited to explore, whether narrative or mechanical? Nomi is the “most baked” character I've ever played. It's going to be a challenge playing someone who's already had a lot of trauma and growth going into the game and how that will work with the classic “Jedi Journey”.
Does your character have a long-term plan, mechanically? Not especially. Dive into Heal/Harm and let the narrative take me on the rest.
The Dark Side tempts each Jedi differently. How does it prey upon your character's emotional weakness and what makes them susceptible to it? Nomi’s emotional weakness is obstinacy. I'm (I'm noting it here because RPGSessions is down) Nomi is someone who has lived by her convictions, most of which she adopted from learning and are thus, to her, rigid rules of the universe. She is almost always the most intelligent person (even if she isn't the wisest) and for her, cold facts win out every time for Nomi and she follows her convictions right off a cliff if she thinks she's right. She's also not especially interested in consequences. They're either to be lived through, ignored, escaped, or to consume every waking thought.
Would you rather start your character as an Initiate or as a Padawan? Let’s start at initiate. Be awkward!

Nomi Character Sheet

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