Application for Outsiders

[smooth_sith]

Player Info
Name: Jesse
OOC Journal: None
Over 18? Y
Email/IM/Plurk: Stroopwafelling on plurk, JDmegalomaniac2 on AIM
Current characters: None, also applying for Mordin Solus

Character Info
Name: Count Dooku, alias Darth Tyranus

Canon: Star Wars

Age: Approximately 83

Canon/AU/CR AU: Canon

Reference: Star Wars Wiki page

History: N/A

Canon Point: After the novel ‘Dark Rendezvous,’ before ‘Revenge of the Sith.’

World Information:

A long time ago in a Galaxy far, far away, life is full of action, adventure, larger-than-life heroics, and deeply questionable dialogue choices. Space travel and hyperdrives are ubiquitous, along with oddly-inaccurate laser blasters, sentient robots called droids, enormously impractical superweapons and war machines, and really cool laser swords.

Humans appear to be the most common sentient beings in the Galaxy despite Earth apparently not existing in this universe. They occupy the universe alongside an enormous host of other races, including Wookies (tough tree dwellers, don’t call them walking carpets), Kaminoans (tall, thin, very good at building secret clone armies) and Geonosians (winged insectoid humanoids, very good at building secret droid armies). Almost all the peoples of the Galaxy are united in a great Republic that has stood for thousands of years as model of peace and democracy.

The Republic doesn’t even need a standing military. Its freedom is defended by an ancient order of monks, diplomats, philosophers and peacemakers known as the Jedi. For generations the Jedi were the guardians of peace and justice in the Republic. The Star Wars Galaxy is filled with the Force, an energy field connecting all living beings, and the Jedi are able to use this positive energy in the service of their ideals, accomplishing feats far beyond most ordinary beings. The Light Side of the Force is based around knowledge and defense over aggression, emphasizing peace, empathy, meditation, discipline, and self-restraint.

The Force has its Dark Side as well. A Force-user who gives in to their passions, especially their negative feelings, can gain great power: a power that inevitably corrupts. The Dark Side is driven by fear, anger, hatred, pride, ambition. Its adherents are known as the Sith: they invariably wear black, wield red lightsabers, monologue about the need for order in the Galaxy, and have armies of faceless minions. Many Sith are former Jedi who have been seduced by the Dark Side, including Count Dooku himself. Not all Dark Side users are true Sith. The Sith embody the philosophy, traditions and goals of the Dark Side while using its power, and often make use of more modest Dark Jedi as lightsaber-wielding cannon fodder.

At the time Dooku is taken from, the Sith are making a big-time comeback after being ‘defeated’ for centuries. The Sith ‘Rule of Two’- never more Sith than just master and apprentice- has allowed the order to remain hidden while planning its revenge. The Republic has become bloated and corrupt, mired in bureaucracy while absurdly-powerful corporate entities flouted the law with private armies of battle droids. The Jedi have become complacent, and the time for the Sith to rise has come.

The Master of the Sith, Palpatine, has gotten himself elected Chancellor of the Republic while keeping his immense lust for power secret. His apprentice, the former Jedi Master Count Dooku, has reinvented himself as a political firebrand, rallying disaffected star systems and the aforementioned private armies of battle droids to a Separatist cause. He also came to recruit or train an exotic variety of henchmen to combat the Jedi, including Dark Jedi like Asajj Ventress and the terrifying cyborg General Grievous. The previously demilitarized Republic had a surprise secret clone army drop into its lap courtesy of the Kaminoans just in time for a civil war to start, all of it orchestrated by the Sith.

Now the Galaxy is being torn apart by the Clone Wars, Republic Jedi and clones against Separatist droids and Dark Jedi. The Republic is steadily becoming more militaristic and authoritarian, the Jedi are being decimated by casualties, no one suspects one Sith is leading half the Galaxy against another Sith controlling the other half of the Galaxy, and Palpatine presumably spends his days desperately holding back maniacal laughter while Dooku continues to be his pawn.

Personality: Dooku is a fallen hero. He was once an extremely accomplished and respected Jedi Master, but the flaws that would lead him to evil were present even before he fell to the Dark Side. His noble upbringing taught him to hide and repress weakness, and his resentment at his parents giving him up to the Jedi Order for training drove his pride and ambition to great heights as he pushed himself to excel at every task. He was a political idealist with high expectations that he saw repeatedly disappointed. Every instance of corruption and failure that he witnessed in his long career as a Jedi pushed him further towards disillusionment, then despair, then the Dark Side.

The Count’s evil is more ruthless than sadistic. He does not take pleasure in suffering for its own sake, but does not flinch from whatever horrors may need to be inflicted in order to achieve his goals. For all his classy behaviour and dark passions, Dooku has a very means-ends way of thinking, a cold and calculating mind that is well-suited to his position as warlord of the Confederacy’s droid armies.

As a Sith, Dooku has completely abandoned his old idealism and embraced what he believes is the truth of the universe: we are all alone in the end, reacting to the universe’s injustices with hatred and rage is the honest and correct response, and the only thing that truly matters in existence is power. He has become remorseless, treacherous, and wicked. He is still an exceptional warrior, politician, and philosopher, but now turns his skills towards the domination and manipulation of others.

Dooku is a fencer with words and schemes as much as he is with his lightsaber. Each move of his plans has leverage and position considered as carefully as any bit of footwork would be in a duel. He is skilled at strategies which force his enemies to make hard choices, each of which will come at some cost to them and some benefit to him.

The Count can be a particularly persuasive speaker whether privately or publicly, donning a smooth facade of a caring and considerate old man to mask his complete disregard for all others. During the buildup to the Clone Wars he played the part of the aggrieved political dissident to the hilt, speaking of progress and reform while intending from the beginning to plunge the galaxy into a bloody war. He rarely drops his cultured and courteous air, and conducts himself with style and dignity in all his dealings. He is consistently aloof, self-contained, and disciplined, showing little passion and only a wry, taunting humour.

Dooku has always reacted strongly to betrayal, whether perceived or actual. The feeling of being betrayed by his parents and having his high ideals betrayed by the corruption and weakness of the Republic are part of what drove him to the Dark Side. He now refuses to cultivate any sort of genuine connection with other creatures beyond classifying and exploiting them as threats or assets. Dooku believes that anyone can be betrayed if they let their guard down, and that treachery is one of the most devastating of weapons.

Because of this, he has become quite skilled at betrayal himself, while retaining his hatred of it. He has no friends, no trusted allies, nothing that he cares for besides himself, but he is very skilled at convincing assets and enemies alike that he is cultured, reasonable, and willing to discuss things. But make no mistake: the wise and revered Jedi he once was is almost completely gone. Count Dooku has given himself over fully to his new life as Darth Tyranus, and to the Dark Side.

Abilities, Weaknesses, and Power Limitations:

Count Dooku is a powerful Sith Lord, which means he can use his negative emotions to channel an energy field known as the Dark Side to do his bidding. Thanks to the Dark Side, Dooku is far more spry and agile than most people his age, still comfortable with athletics and combat despite being in his eighties. He can use his powers to enhance his abilities in a variety of ways: faster movement, higher jumping, enhanced reflexes fast enough to intercept projectiles. Dooku is an extremely talented duellist with his lightsaber as well, a precise and experienced fencer who is more than a match for almost any melee opponent.

Other abilities are more subtle. Force users have a limited ability to sense events as well as the presence and thoughts of others. In some circumstances they can even communicate directly through telepathy, although Dooku has never demonstrated this ability in canon. The most common display of this aspect of the Force is a form of intuition: ‘I sense much anger in you,’ or ‘I felt a great disturbance in the Force.’

Then there are the least subtle uses of the Dark Side. With a wave of his hand Dooku can move objects and people without directly touching them through a form of telekinesis. The Count has demonstrated that he is powerful enough to pull down a ceiling on an opponent without great effort. He can choke an enemy without laying a finger on them. He can blast lightning from his hands. These abilities are without a doubt the biggest reason people turn to the Dark Side because lightning from your hands? Hell yes.

Despite all his power, the fact is that Dooku is ultimately an elderly man. He will always prefer not to get his hands dirty on the battlefield and avoid exerting his true powers. He is a very potent combatant and skilled manipulator, but this makes him neither a one-man army nor a mind-reader, and he knows it.

Inventory:

Dooku will arrive with his usual black clothing and cape, a communications device that won’t function outside his galaxy, and his lightsaber. A lightsaber is a powerful melee weapon used by Jedi and Sith, a beam of focused energy that can cut through almost anything and deflect almost any projectile, although there will be resistance when cutting something particularly dense.

Appearance: Dooku promo image.

Alternate Universe Info
If AU, how is your version different from canon, and how will that come across?

Samples
Log Sample:

Omega screamed of the Dark Side.

Count Dooku strode down the station’s unfamiliar and shadowed streets without fear. He walked like a nobleman, surveying the surrounding refuse and scars as though it were his hereditary property. Sith Lords did not show weakness in the face of the unknown.

The Count had been on Omega for a short time, but his mind was already becoming accustomed to it, recognizing the similarities to his own world, charting the possible avenues to power. He did not know this universe but he did know places like Omega. They were gathering grounds for mercenaries, pirates, assassins and bounty hunters, trading floors for sentient lives and secrets. They were, in other words, extremely useful. The power of the Confederacy was based as much on the dirty underbelly of the Galaxy as it was on the wealth and droid armies of the Trade Federation. He considered it all beneath his dignity, but Dooku had become more used than he would have wished to dealing with this side of life in his pursuit of power.

Even if he was in a different universe, that pursuit had not ended. Although he was still learning about the station, there was no doubt in his mind what he would end up doing here. Dooku had long ago committed himself fully to the Sith, and to be Sith was to seek power. Political power, economic power, military power, and above all power through the Dark Side. The current question was ‘how.’

Dooku stopped walking and eyed a LOKI mech standing guard outside a doorway that bore the symbol of the Eclipse mercenary faction. The skeletal, clumsy machine was clearly a basic model, posing little threat to a capable combatant, let alone a Sith Lord. Yet it was still of interest to him. “Battle droids,” he said to himself. “So, in another world the same solution arises to the same problem. Machines to provide disposable, obedient soldiers.”

This was an encouraging sign. As it just so happened, the leader of the Confederacy’s immense droid armies knew a thing or two about running forces of killing machines. Dooku turned and kept onward, walking further into Omega’s shadows. Even as station’s darkness close further around him, his path to power was becoming a little bit clearer.


Network Sample:

[Dooku projects his image onto the Extranet through hologram, a portrait of him appearing as he speaks in his strikingly rich, deep voice.]

I have been listening to the people here. Other than schemes and survival, much of their talk is of war. A recent war for this station, an ongoing war for this Galaxy. It is regrettably familiar to me. My own galaxy is trapped in conflict as well. I am the leader of thousands of systems in a great struggle for independence.

I am interested in how this galaxy fares in its own battles. [The Count smiles wryly.] I am after all, now one of its inhabitants. For the moment this station has been removed from the struggle, but we do not know how long that will last.

It would be wise of us to compare what we know of what is happening beyond that Relay. If the fighting ever finds this station again, all its inhabitants will need to be ready for what could come. I know very well that war does not tolerate weakness or complacency.