Rish Hiyashi (PC)

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

Rish was born a few years before the battle of Yavin to a sprawling family clan on Aleen. Several of the tribe had served as scouts for the Republic during the Clone Wars, and they raised her on stories of Jedi Masters Tsui Choi and Kazdan Paratus. When she was older, she worked as a courier, traveling between the various Aleena communities and the galactic starport. It was there she met an archaeological team investigating rumors of ancient Rakatan ruins (Aleen having been part of the Infinite Empire) who hired her as a guide and sparked her interest in history. While she never found any Rakatan artifacts, she continued to explore and seek out information on oddities, particularly Force-related ones. She found herself drawn to the Great Seal, and the abandoned Jedi Chapter House built to study it. While she couldn't understand most of their notes, enough resonated that she began to suspect she was Force Sensitive herself. With her family's assistance and encouragement, she bought passage to Dantooine, eager to see where such a path might lead.

2. Why does your character want to be a jedi?

To learn about the Force and understand how to use it to help people like in the stories she was raised on

3. Are there aspects of your character’s background (people, events, places) that were more formative to your character’s current personal development? Alt version: What was the most formative event/person/place from your backstory that you would like GMs to know or focus on?

Realizing that the Aleena were once a sophisticated culture with interstellar travel, capable of creating things like the Great Seal, and regressed to simple settlements unable to understand their own works is part of what motivates her to see that knowledge of the Jedi recovered.  

4. Describe the kinds of personal relationships you might have had in your past? Be as general or as specific as you’d like. What do the kinds of friends and enemies you have made say about your character?

She's generally friendly, but has few deep bonds. 

5. What is most Jedi-like about your character?  What is least Jedi-like about your character?

Most - seeks to help and protect people

Least - excitable and impatient

6. 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?

The Aleena don't have their own Force traditions, so her knowledge is based on oral stories passed down about tales from the Clone Wars.

7. 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? This answer will be kept as private as possible. (No is a valid response)

Totally optional, just because I think it's wild that there's an entirely other sentient species and atmosphere sealed away underground on Aleen and the Force touched, riddle-fond Orphne was such a fun character that it would be interesting to have made contact with her while Rish was meditating on the Great Seal.

8. What elements of your character are you most excited to explore, whether narrative or mechanical? What aspect of your character do you think will be most challenging to play? We also encourage you to think about how your character does/will interact with the Force and how you may also want that to change mechanically/narratively as your character grows.

I've never used the Hermit tree or done an animal bond, so I think that would be fun to explore.

I'm also looking forward to roleplaying the arc of Padawan to Knight to Master, as well as taking Trials. I've played Force Users before, but the only actual Jedi started as a Jedi Knight (temple-raised in an Old Republic setting, so very different than the New Order).

Most challenging would probably be coming to terms with the Jedi Code vs her people's more communal and emotionally open culture.

9. Does your character have a long-term plan, mechanically? If so, what is it? 

I love Cunning skills (and Lore), thus Shadow as my primary career. I also plan on picking up the Misdirect Force power. I generally go for support/utility, trying to find non-combat solutions.

I bought Hermit with the plan to get an animal companion (something reflavored as a can cell if possible) which I'd love to do as part of a narrative arc.

Longer term would be a third tree, probably Sentry, to improve combat capability.

10. The Dark Side tempts each Jedi differently. How does it prey upon your character's emotional weakness and what makes them susceptible to it?

The flip side of Curiosity is Obsession - she's not tempted by power, but by knowledge, secrets, and wanting to understand or to explore, even if it's something that shouldn't be. Sometimes she may be so intent on finding answers that she'd take what should be unacceptable risks to do so. Not to mention how exciting it would be to explore an ancient Sith temple or open a Sith holocron (with 0 ranks in Discipline)!

11. Would you rather start your character as an Initiate or as a Padawan?

Initiate, to give me time to settle into her style/voice and get a sense of the setting before committing to a Master.

Rish Hiyashi's Character Sheet