Model Write-Up #29 - Talerak Crazire

"Talerak was born in a prison camp in the Outer Regions, around a year after the death of Qui-Gon Jin. His pregnant mother had been a member of a rival pirate gang captured by a Hutt crime lord and despite her pleas, they refused to give her any sort of medical aid. She died in childbirth, and her cellmate, an elderly man, was forced to take care of young Talerak. Talerak became something of an in-joke among the guards - they made bets on when he would die, how he would die, and other such gamblings which made life very difficult for both Talerak and his elderly guardian. The rest of the inhabitants of the camp, however, were extremely superstitious from having spent so much time isolated from the outside world, and they saw the infant Mandalorian as a sort of messianic figure. Prophecies and cults began to form, and the old man was persuaded to bring the infant to prayer sessions, where they would plead with the child to safeguard them in spirit. This served to provide Talerak with something of a spiritual responsibility as he grew older - when he was ten, he felt he really was bound by some sort of religious prophecy, and was surprisingly astute in his creation of teachings for the prisoners to follow. Noticing this behaviour and deeming it dangerous, the prison warden met with Talerak at the age of fifteen and told him that if he dropped the act, he'd be given a place of luxury in the guard quarters and made comfortable for the rest of his life. Talerak refused, stating that his teachings were too "sacred" to let go - that his "flock" required him to shepherd them. The warden left, fuming, and ordered his guards to kill the teenage prophet. Talerak proved himself dangerous when he disarmed and beheaded both guards, and the rest of the prisoners rose up in organised rebellion. The warden had been totally unprepared, and his forces were decimated. He called for help from the Hutt crime lord in charge of the prison camp, but was denied any assistance for his failure, and the prisoners overwhelmed the central guard station. Talerak killed the warden and supplies were issued out to the rest of the prisoners. The old man told him his ancestry, and to pay respect to his mother, Talerak took her confiscated armour and, with some modifications, made it his own to use. He then stole a Crusader corvette and, crewed by his cult, they escaped the prison asteroid. Talerak never looked back, and always led his cult onwards, spreading his teachings. Most dismissed him as a crazy survivor of a prison camp, but some joined his cause, and his corvette was renamed, "Adennia Bralovis", or "Merciless Victory" in ancient Mando'a. Occasionally they ran into pirate gangs hunting them for the huge bounty that had been placed on his head, but they were all beaten back, and soon Talerak found his peace as he travelled, spreading his message. In his late twenties, Talerak picked up the message from Mandalore the Crusader and, seeing this as an opportunity for his ideology to become more far reaching, he and his cult piloted their corvette to the Crusader's side. When the Hyperspace Malfunction occurred, Talerak's cult did not join any particular faction - they had no interest, really, in returning from the Unknown Regions, as they saw it as an opportunity to bring meaning to a dark corner of the galaxy. There are elements of Crazire's cult, however, who argue that returning to the wider galaxy would help solidify Talerak's message to sceptics of his beliefs."

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