Only the traitor responsible for the deaths of all the Jedi survivors of Order 66.



You bet your sweet patootie, young Padawan. Folks who know me know I've had a small monopoly on the screen name Halagad since the late 90s, but the story of this Star Wars character goes back even before that. So sit back, relax, and hear the story of the betrayer of the Jedi Order. It all began almost fifteen years ago...

In 1991, a game company called West End Games held the Star Wars license for creating and producing material for a Star Wars roleplaying game. The Star Wars universe was, or was just about, to experience its first renaissance with the release of the Super Star Wars video game for Super Nintendo, the publication of Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy's Dark Empire comic series, and the publication of Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire novel, the first of the famous Thrawn Trilogy, a name which West End Games actually coined with a dedicated sourcebook.

That year, however, also saw the release of a much lesser known Star Wars book. Domain of Evil was a 64-page roleplaying "module" written by Jim Barbara.

First thing's first: Roleplaying has often been explained as an adult version of "Let's Pretend" with definite rules. Basically, you create a character, give him or her a personality, extrapolate abilities from that personality, translate those abilities into die codes ("die" as in dice, not death) not unlike player stats on a baseball card, and then let's rock & roll. You also need a GM -- as in Gamemaster, not Grand Moff -- who plots an outline, or borrows an existing one, like the aforementioned module, and keeps the rule-breaking-prone pretenders in line and on the road to adventure.

In those heady days, the recently completed Prequel Trilogy was still only a glint in George Lucas's eye, and no one was really sure what to make of the first white rapper Vanilla Ice, let alone events only briefly hinted at in the Original Trilogy like this mysterious "Clone Wars" business and the so-called Dark Times. Sounded cool, though.

Enter Halagad Ventor. Sharp-eyed Arthurians (or Monty Python fans) are sure to recognize the roots of the first name as a juxtaposition of a couple letters in the name Galahad, the Christian Crusader who completed the circle of Knights of the Round Table, sparked the quest for the Holy Grail, and alone handled the sangreal before expiring on the spot. The Star Wars version is less optimistic.

In Domain of Evil, a group of Rebel heroes (the roleplayers) become stranded on a cursed world called Trinta. Named after the realm of demons in Ithorian mythology, Trinta is a hellish swamp world and home to a "Dark Side nexus" all its own, just like the one Yoda sends Luke into on Dagobah ("The cave! Remember your failure at the cave!"). It is here that Halagad has made his home, and he doesn't like it that the heroes have invaded his turf.

Who the hell is Halagad? Alright, let's get on with it. Described as withered and decrepit, with tufts of gray hair and no teeth, paranoid, guilt-ridden, insane, tormented and lost, Halagad Ventor was once a Jedi. Born on Alderaan and friends with Senator Bail Organa when they were both children, Halagad aimed in his youth to be a scholar. In his later years, he also trained his physique to perfection.

Halagad found a Jedi Master (recently revealed as Everen Ettene) and began his training at a relatively advanced age. Though highly intelligent, he stretched himself so thin in his quest for knowledge that he remained ignorant of the subtleties of the Force and the larger picture.

Nonetheless! Halagad went on to serve in the Clone Wars with distinction, serving under General Obi-Wan Kenobi and earning the Republic's prized Medallion of Honor. When Palpatine declared himself Emperor, Halagad escaped death and joined the Jedi that opposed his dictatorial rule!

But...

As Halagad was preparing to depart to hide out in the Outer Rim, he was apprehended by Imperials. Taken to Vader's flagship, he was brutally interrogated. Still, the valiant Jedi said nothing--until the Dark Lord himself came into the interrogation chamber.

I now quote from Domain of Evil:

"Halagad, old friend," Vader began. "It is a pleasure to see you again. My men say you have been uncharacteristically silent today -- a far cry from the boastful braggart who craved medals and acclaim. You are a loud man, Ventor, wielding the Force like a club. The Force was meant to be used like a vibroblade. A slice here, a slice there..."

...And Vader proceeded to slice the information he needed from Halagad's mind.***

"The Dark Side staked its claim to him even as Vader gathered the crucial information."

Halagad tried to resist, but could not protect himself against Vader's overwhelming power. His desperation gave way to fear and vice-versa; insanity now claimed him, and then so too did the dark side.

What was the information Vader ripped from Halagad Ventor's mind, that racked his soul with guilt beyond reason and turned him to the dark side of the Force?

Why, nothing less than the whereabouts of all the surviving Jedi of Order 66.

Continuing the text of Domain of Evil:

"Ventor's will was too weak to resist the mind probes of Darth Vader. Stripped of all mental defenses, he surrendered the knowledge of the Jedi brotherhood's whereabouts, allowing Vader to massacre them all, save for Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi... Obi-Wan Kenobi, aware of Ventor's weakness of spirit, did not confide in him about his plans to take refuge on Tatooine, nor about Yoda's whereabouts. His soul racked with guilt and his mind virtually broken, Ventor stole an Imperial ship and fled into space. Vader let him go, knowing full well Death or the Dark Side would claim him soon."

Halagad, as has been mentioned, fled to Trinta, where the Dark Side nexus fed off his despair at believing all the Jedi were dead by his betrayal, choking the planet in darkness. There, he torments the Rebel heroes 20 years later with hallucinatory Force-created demons and temptations to the dark side. However, the pure-hearted Rebels actually succeed in turning Halagad back to the light, first by showing him the Medallion of Honor he earned in service to the Republic, and then letting him know that his Master Obi-Wan Kenobi survived his betrayal.

"Could it be?" Halagad says. "Have I suffered all these years for a sin not so dark as I believed? Have my hands not earned all the blood that stains them?"

Yeah, I guess not all the blood, if Obi-Wan escaped; a guilty conscience latches onto the slightest hints of hope.

Nevertheless, it is hope! Rebel compassion and rational discourse at last free the fallen Jedi from the rotting grip of the dark side. Though without the dark power sustaining his decrepit body, Halagad falls dead on the spot. At last, the shimmering image of a handsome man in his early twenties, a Jedi Knight, appears above the lifeless corpse. Halagad, redeemed, thanks the Rebels for releasing him from the dark side, and disappears to join Obi-Wan and become one with the Force.

And that's Halagad Ventor, folks! The second most tragic Jedi in the story of Star Wars. ~ Abel G. Peņa

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***Here's the full text of Halagad's glorious speech from Domain of Evil:

I am Halagad Ventor. Years ago, when the Clone Wars raged, I was captured by Darth Vader, who stripped through the layers of my mind to discover the hiding place of other Jedi. I was too weak to resist him. I had not mastered the powers of the Force. Vader found it easy to rip the information he sought from my feeble mind. Because of my failure, the Jedi were hunted down and destroyed.

I fled from Vader. Finally I came to Trinta, where the Force called to me. Only later did I discover that it was the Dark Side.

I am one with the Dark power. You must destroy me in order to escape.

For those interested, Halagad has been revisited in the Expanded Universe in recent years. Check out the Jedi Watch of HoloNet News #45 where Halagad is mistakenly thought dead along with his Jedi Master and Part 2 of the Dark Forces Saga, for Master Qu Rahn's life-long grudge with the infamous Jedi traitor. Most recently, he was featured as a fugitive Jedi in the Inaugural Edition of HoloNet News in Star Wars Insider #84 and the Bal'demnic entry in the StarWars.com Databank.

Good looking guy, that Halagad. You can read the story behind my official depiction as this Jedi here.

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