| “ | Jerec, the man who murdered your father, is a great evil. He searches for the location of a sacred place, the Valley of the Jedi. The Force of thousands of Jedi is trapped here. If Jerec captures this power, he will be a creature such as the universe has never seen. A supernova of stars in a fleeting thought—the eradication of life from a star system in a whisper—will be within his power. | „ |
| ~ Qu Rahn as a Force ghost to Kyle Katarn. |
Jerec is the main antagonist of the 1997 video game, Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II.
He was a male Miraluka Jedi Master and a Jedi archaeologist who turned to the dark side and served the Galactic Empire as a High Inquisitor during the Galactic Civil War. He made his debut in Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, where he established himself as an Imperial warlord planning to claim the the Valley of the Jedi for himself. He is Kyle Katarn's archenemy.
He was portrayed by Christopher Neame in the game's live action cutscenes.
Overview[]
Jerec was originally the Padawan of Jocasta Nu, who initially taught him the ways of the Force and trained him as a Jedi archeologist. He was tasked with locating and preserving ancient knowledge for the Jedi Order and was versed in the vast ancient knowledge of the Jedi's past, especially the past of the Sith. Jerec became a Jedi Master eventually and served as one during the Clone Wars where he was sent to the Unknown Regions in search of further knowledge when Order 66 was executed and the war abruptly ended. Upon his return, he was quickly apprehended and when faced with the choice of turning to the dark side as an Inquisitor or dying like the rest of the Jedi Order, Jerec eagerly accepted the Empire, as he was already attracted to Sith teachings.
Afterwards Jerec became a powerful Inquisitor and one of the best warriors in the entire empire. While this status made him a direct servant to the Sith Lords that ruled the Galactic Empire, Jerec's true alligence was to himself alone and he schemed constantly to overthow his overlords. One of his chief obsessions was the Valley of the Jedi on the barren world of Ruusan, where he wanted to find it as a means of acquiring the vast amounts of force power that the ancient Jedi sight had held. Even after the death of Emperor Palpatine at the Battle of Endor, Jerec still pursued the valley and even formed a group of Seven Dark Jedi to aid in his quest.
History[]
Background[]
Jerec was a Miraluka male born somewhere in the galaxy on an unknown planet at an unknown date during the final years of the Galactic Republic. As a Miraluka, Jerec was physically blind but was able to "see" due to his species' innate ability of Force sight. He wore a blindfold over where his eyes should've been throughout his life like the rest of his kind, which contributed to the assumption that Jerec was simply a blind human.
Jedi career[]
Jocasta Nu, Jerec's Jedi Master.
| “ | Beware, Jedi Master, lest through carelessness and inattention you let loose on the galaxy a monster… | „ |
| ~ Bodo-Bass about the fallen Jedi. |
As a child, Jerec was discovered by Jedi archaeologist Jocasta Nu who took him into the Jedi Order due to his force potential and Force sensitivity. Nu took Jerec into the Jedi Order and as a council member, she maintained an interest in the young Miraluka and made him her Padawan sometime before 49 BBY. A committed scholar herself, she encouraged Jerec to pursue greater knowledge and understanding. Jerec was convinced and eventually developed a heavy curiosity for answers to all known questions as well as a deep sense of scholarly self-assurance and self-confidence in his own knowledge.
Jerec eventually attained at some point the rank of Jedi Master, being renown for being one of the Order's most accomplished scholars. While this status granted him free reign over the Jedi archives, Jerec's immense thirst for knowledge could never be sated, and he eventually left the Jedi Temple to lead a team of fellow Jedi archeologist into the Unknown Regions in search of lost Jedi artifacts, with the secret intent to uncover dark side lore and keep it to himself. Because of being so far from the main contested systems between the CIS and the Galactic Republic, Jerec didn't become a Jedi general when the Clone Wars broke out and dedicated his time to uncovering Forceful artifacts during the conflict.
Because of his prominent position within the Order, the newly-created Galactic Empire made a point of hunting down and eliminating powerful Jedi like him, and the Miraluka Jedi Master was captured shortly after his return to former Republic space. There he came face to face with the new Imperial Inquisitors tasked with hunting Jedi and when offered to submit to the New Order as one of them or die as a Jedi, Jerec eagerly abandoned the Order and pledged his allegiance to the Emperor and the dark side of the Force.
Service to the Empire[]
| “ | My name is Jerec. I am a servant of His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor. | „ |
| ~ Jerec. |
As an Inquisitor, Jerec was tasked to draw out and hunt down Jedi, and he personally slew many of his former friends and allies in a display of loyalty to Emperor Palpatine's New Order. In these missions however, Jerec would often spend time out of contanct turning many Jedi or other Force adepts to Imperial service on the surface, but secretly made a point in that this group of Dark Jedi served him and him alone to aid the ambitious former Jedi Master in his personal designs.Jerec executes Morgan Katarn.
One such mission took place in 1 BBY, where Jerec led the subjugation of Sulon, the rural moon of Sullust, where he was tasked with capturing the leader of a local rebel cell that operated in the satellite. Recurring to deception by disguising his own attacks as rebel raids that destroyed geothermal supply for a local settlement, Jerec was able to successfuly draw out and capture the rebel leader, Morgan Katarn and execute him by decapitation before ordering the rebel's head to be displayed in front of the local spaceport. He eventually built a presence there that was powerful enough to subjugate the moon, establishing himself as it's Imperial governor. Shortly after this, the Imperial Inquisitor was intrigued by Katarn's son, the Imperial cadet, Kyle and visited him just in time for the young man's graduation ceremony at the Academy of Carida. There, Jerec personally awarded Katarn the Medal of Valor and told him he would be waiting for Kyle to join him once he rose through the ranks of the Empire. It is likely that Jerec sensed Katarn's latent Force potential within him, and was quite possibly trying to stroke his ego to later turn him to the dark side, adding him to the Dark Jedi he was recruiting.
When the Jedi were hunted down to the point of being thought extinct by many beings within the Empire and the Galaxy at large, the former Jedi loremaster was once again tasked to resume his search for Jedi artifacts, though he was now given free reign to extend his search to Sith artifacts as well and collect his findings to put them under Imperial custody. Despite having the official rank of High Inquisitor and being formally outranked by all individuals whose formal authority was above such position, Jerec's power in the Force and mastery of Sith lore earned him a place above those individuals within the Imperial Court, eventually coming to answer directly to the Emperor himself by the time of the Galactic Civil War. This brought Jerec into conflict with Darth Vader and attempted repeatedly to undermine the Sith Lord in hopes of replacing Vader as Darth Sidious' Sith apprentice. The Emperor however, was unimpressed by Jerec and Darth Vader remained Palpatine's most favoured servant.
Though initially regarded by Darth Sidious as a useful servant, the Dark Lord grew suspicious of Jerec when the latter spent vast amounts of time immersing himself further into Sith knowledge and eventually restricted the High Inquisitor access to his Dark Side Compendium. While this halted his training as a Sith acolyte, Jerec's lust for dark side teachings was as strong as ever and he searched for alternative ways to satisfy it. This compelled him to travel to Dromund Kaas, former bastion of the ancient Sith and home to the Dark Force cult of the Prophets of the Dark Side. Once he arrived at the former Sith homeworld, the fallen Jedi met with the Director of Imperial Intelligence and Prophet, Lord Cronal. During his time in Dromund Kaas, Cronal granted Jerec forbidden knowledge about the dark side of the Force, and even told him about the existence of the sacred Valley of the Jedi, where the spirits of Lord Kaan's Sith-aligned Brotherhood of Darkness and Lord Hoth's Jedi Army of Light remained trapped by Darth Bane's Thought Bomb. When Jerec became aware that such enormous proportions of Force power could be harnessed by a powerful master, the Valley became his all-consuming obsession and embarked himself on a long quest to search for the legendary place.
In search of the Valley[]
| “ | I do not mean to be the Emperor's servant forever. | „ |
| ~ Jerec. |
Unwilling to challenge either Vader or Sidious directly, Jerec kept a low profile during the majority of the Galactic Civil War by quietly cultivating his wealth and power to provide himself with the means to reach the Valley of the Jedi and eventually stage a coup against Palpatine but never making a direct power move. This would change, however, when, in a single stroke of luck for the Dark Jedi, both Vader and Palpatine were slain during the Battle of Endor, effectively removing the primary beings in the Galaxy that he felt threatened by.
Jerec's Seven Dark Jedi followers.
After this Galactic turning point, Jerec began to execute his plans quickly by drawing all of his secretly loyal Dark Jedi to himself, having them infiltrate the Imperial infrastructure by taking advantage of the chaos caused by power vacuum left behind to cripple various businesses and secure them for their master. Despite establishing himself as an Imperial warlord and having the power of his personal Vengeance-class Super Star Destroyer to back it up, Jerec chose to use subterfuge by swearing false oaths of allegiance to Grand Moff Ardus Kaine and his splinter-faction, the Pentastar Alignment. This Imperial remnant provided him with his own new organization called the InQuestors, ships and resources he would need for his quest. At some point after this, however, Jerec was informed by his one time dark side teacher, Lord Cronal, that the Emperor had returned from death and was recovering his power at his base at Byss. Alarmed by this but seeing the opportunity to act while his master was weakened, Jerec also swore a false oath of allegiance to the Emperor's loyalists to add their resources to his own, claiming to search Valley of the Jedi in order to help restore the reborn Darth Sidious, while in truth his plans for claiming the Valley remained unchanged and only gained a new sense of urgency.
With his new-found reach, Jerec learned of the Great Jedi Purge survivor Qu Rahn who discovered the Valley's location. Using the Vengeance to cripple the Jedi's rebel companions' corvette, Jerec ordered that Rahn be brought before him to the bridge of his vessel, where he forcefully probed Rahn's mind to find the information he was looking for before killing the Jedi. To Jerec's surprise, he learned that Qu Rahn didn't know the location, but Morgan Katarn did and so he sent his agents to Sulon in search of the home of the rebel leader he had killed six years ago. When his Dark Jedi returned, they had uncovered a map that pointed to Ruusan, the final battleground of the New Sith Wars.
Arrival at Ruusan and death[]
| “ | If he can tap the power invested there, if he can control it, we will witness the birth of an Empire that will make this one seem enlightened by comparison. | „ |
| ~ Kyle Katarn to Mon Mothma. |
Once they reached Ruusan, Jerec quickly fortified a position in the planet to defend against all possible forces that might try to stop him from absorbing the Valley's power, even wiping out an entire village of clueless settlers. Unbeknownst to him, however, Jerec was tracked down by Morgan's son Kyle Katarn who had defected the Empire and was now a special operations commando employed by the New Republic. Guided by Qu Rahn's Force ghost, Katarn had discovered and developed his Force potential while pursuing his father's killer and had now infiltrated Jerec's operations on Ruusan. Sensing Katarn's growing power in the Force, Jerec attempted to corrupt him to the dark side as he had intended since the first time he had met him. With Katarn’s refusal, however, Jerec had had enough and disdainfully threw Kyle out of the platform with a huge blast of Force energy. He later resumed his plans and when the Valley was prepared for him, he entered the core of the Though Bomb and immersed himself in it’s Force nexus. Cross-legged and floating in the Valley’s core as the spirits of both Jedi and Sith surrounded him, Jerec finally unlocked the near-omniscience he craved his whole life, reveling in his final triumph as he drew all of the spirit’s power to himself while bending them to his will.Jerec emerges from the Valley's nexus to face Kyle Katarn.
Kyle Katarn, however, survived the fall and after cutting down the reminder of Jerec’s dark servants one by one, he finally reached the center of the Valley of the Jed. When Katarn arrived, Jerec had already absorbed vast quantities of the Valley's Force nexus and was confident he could easily crush the Jedi novice with his new-found power. To Jerec's utter shock and horror, however, Katarn cut Jerec off from the power of the dark side by forming a wall of light side energy around him. Falling to he knees, Jerec attempted to spite Katarn by trying to turn the Jedi to the dark side, taunting him with the murder of his father. As an act of Jedi mercy, Katarn tossed Jerec the latter's lightsaber to grant him a chance in a fight. Jerec accepted and ran with his saber up attempting to kill the Jedi. With a simple motion from his saber, Katarn cut Jerec down, making him collapse to the floor in contemplation of his defeat knowing the eternal torment that awaited him, putting an end to all his ambitions and scheming by dissolving into Chaos with a flash of light.
Personality[]
| “ | Motivated by nothing besides his obsessive self-interest, Jerec would happily have subjugated everyone, everywhere, and ruled over a galaxy of slaves. | „ |
| ~ Star Wars - The NEW Essential Guide to Characters |
| “ | Of course this holds no interest for you. For you're a being of the physical world, a doer of deeds, a manipulator of objects. | „ |
| ~ Jerec to Thrawn. |
While Jerec may have started out as nothing more than a curious Jedi Padawan, his limitless questions about the nature of things eventually drove him to be interested in the dark side and that turned the man into an increasingly immoral and treacherous opportunist that cared more about his findings than he did for his fellow Jedi. This is best exemplified when at the end of the Clone Wars, he immediately joined the Empire once the opportunity presented itself. While this may have been only to protect his life, he took it a step further by embracing the dark side, turning into an Inquisitor (who is effectively an active hunter of his former friends) and providing the coordinates for clueless Jedi archeologists that he knew were yet unaware of Order 66. This proves that Jerec cared nothing for the Jedi or his allies and would remorselessly betray all of them for his own benefit.
Those tendencies would only grow and be accompanied by ruthlessness and relentless ambition during the Imperial period, as he brutally cut innocent civilians off from their supplies with the sole intention to drive out of hiding a minor rebel cell. If this wasn’t enough, he also knew how to intimidate the whole population by decapitating the rebel leader as a warning, proving that Jerec is perfectly content with resorting to any means necessary to accomplish his goals, something that is proven yet again when he ordered a whole settlement of villagers, who had absolutely nothing to do with the Valley of the Jedi, to be killed and threatening Kyle Katarn’s partner Jan Ors merely because he wanted Katarn on his side. His ambitions, fueled by his unhealthy obsession with knowledge and power, made him scheme against Vader to have more access to the Emperor’s Sith knowledge, and when that failed, he began conspiring against Palpatine himself. While Jerec was brutal, cruel and ambitious, he was also no fool: he knew he couldn’t challenge either Vader or the Emperor directly so he bided his time and cultivated his influence in secret, waiting for the time to make his move in order to usurp the Imperial Throne. Jerec’s other main trait is that he was a very charismatic individual, something that is evident in the fact that he often knew how to turn Jedi to the dark side of the Force to make them serve his will and interest.
Near the end of his career, Jerec once again proved to have no loyalty to anyone but himself when he actively planned to betray all of the Imperial remnants once he had the power of the Valley of the Jedi in his hands, and he didn’t show any remorse for the deaths of his Dark Jedi servants who up until that point showed nothing but loyalty to him. However, for all his scheming, paranoia and self-adoration, Jerec proved that he was no coward when he actively dared Kyle Katarn to strike him down even while knowing the endless torment he would endure if the Jedi trainee killed him.
Powers and abilities[]
Powers[]
| “ | His heavy brow overshadows the empty recesses that normally embrace eyes. Jerec has the uncanny power to absorb and overshadow one's connection to the Force… like a dark cloud. A deep, empowering grasp of your will is what you need. | „ |
| ~ Qu Rahn as a Force ghost to Kyle Katarn. |
As a Jedi archaeologist, which is a particular specialization branch of the Jedi Consular path, Master Jerec was a scholar that spent most of his time either refining and meditating in the more philosophical aspects of the Force or searching for artifacts rich in Forceful lore, be it Light Side or otherwise. When Jerec became an Imperial Inquisitor, however, his new duties as a Jedi Hunter encouraged him to focus on the more combative applications of the Force, using the power of the dark side to further enhance his abilities.
- The Force: As a Miraluka and a Dark Jedi Master, Jerec possessed a powerful innate connection to the Force, but it was noted that despite his stature as a great scholar, he never had a deep attunement to the unifying Force. Regardless, during his time as High Inquisitor, his power grew to such proportions that it was even said that had it not been for the existence of Darth Vader, Jerec would have been Darth Sidious’ first choice to train as his Sith apprentice.
- Telekinesis: Like most users of the Force, Jerec was capable of using the traditional applications of the Force that allowed him to telekinetically manipulate the direction of objects through space.
- Force Push: Jerec was capable of using basic applications of the telekinetically-derived force to push objects away from the user.
- Force Grip: The Dark Jedi could employ the Force to telekinetically seize a target with great strength, lifting off their feet and suspending them in the air.
- Force Barrier: As a Jedi Hunter, Jerec put special emphasis on refining his defence against Force powers, which made his passive Force Barrier especially hard to penetrate.
- Force Destruction: This highly specialized telekinetic ability was created by Jerec himself, which allows him to overcome passive Force Barriers employed by other Force users by creating a red ball of light from the palm of his hand before unleashing it against a target. At its most basic application, it could be used to disable if not outright kill an opponent. At its most potent application, it could destroy the environment; Jerec himself used this ability to blast appart a bridge strong enough to support a large starship. As the creator of this Force power, Jerec had an immense degree of control and precision with it, as evidenced when while destroying the aforementioned bridge, he also made a point of just pushing Katarn instead of outright killing him.
- Telepathy: The High Inquisitor was a skilled telepath, allowing him to sense the psychic currents of the Force around him to perceive emotions and detect life.
- Drain knowledge: As an Imperial Inquisitor, Jerec complemented his interrogation skills with the ability to forcefully invade the mind of a sentient being and extract information from their thoughts. He was so skilled with this power, that he was even able to probe the thoughts of Jedi Master Qu Rahn, who was actively resisting him.
- Force Suppression: As Qu Rahn described, Jerec had the passive ability to absorb and overshadow a Forceful being’s connection to the Force by suppressing its presence from their minds like a “dark cloud”. Subtle yet overwhelming for most, this power could be only be overcome by a willful mind.
- Mind Trick: Being skilled in the psychic aspects of the Force, Jerec could use it to chain a combination of receptive empathy, projective empathy and hypnosis to manipulate the behavior and perceptions of other beings. With the knowledge that he gained while studying Darth Sidious’ Dark Side Compendium, Jerec attempted to mirror Palpatine’s Dark Side Elite by creating his group of Seven Dark Jedi. However, because he was cut off from that knowledge beforehand, the Dark Jedi Master could never completely bend the minds of his Force adept underlings like he had intended.
- Battlemind: A Sense-branch ability, this power is used to augment morale and fighting abilities by enhancing concentration and commitment.
- Force Speed: Jerec could use the Force in a Burst of Speed to greatly increase his reflexes, reactions and rapidly close distance from one point to another.
- Force Leap: Jerec favoured Force augmentation to increase his agility to superhuman levels and leap great distances.
- Force Shield: As noted earlier, Jerec focused on defending against the Force by using a passive Force Barrier and when that wasn’t enough, he could create an active Force Shield to protect himself by creating a protective bubble of Force energy around his body.
- Force Sight: As a Miraluka, Jerec already had the innate ability to sense the environment around him without the need for physical eyes.
- Tutaminis: Likely as preparation for a confrontation against his Sith Lord superiors, Jerec had the ability to deflect and absorb incoming energy.
- Consume Essence: Being a powerful darksider, Jerec had the power to feed off the opponent’s anger.
- Force Lightning: Jerec can unleashes Force lightning he was a master of this infamous offensive technique; using it to manifest the raw power of the dark side of the Force into blue sparks cast from his fingertips that could be used to disable, torture or kill an opponent.
- Force Drain: As his battle with the entity known as "Spore" suggests, the Inquisitor may be able to employ the Death Field application of Force Drain to create a sphere of pure dark side energy to instantly consume and wither away anyone within it's radius of application.
- Telekinesis: Like most users of the Force, Jerec was capable of using the traditional applications of the Force that allowed him to telekinetically manipulate the direction of objects through space.
Abilities[]
Inquisitor Jerec, a Jedi hunter.
- Lightsaber skills: As a Jedi Master, Jerec’s preference for lore and knowledge of the Force over combat suggests that he may have been a practitioner of Form VI Niman: also called the Diplomat's form or the Way of the Rancor, Niman designed to counter the weaknesses of the previous five forms while possessing none of their strengths; built around the idea of the incorporation of Force powers during lightsaber engagements to resolve the conflict, and thus making it the most favored form for scholars. During his years as an Imperial Inquisitor and Warlord, Jerec personalized his style to engage in a battle of lightsabers, becoming very proficient in the duelist's Form II Makashi lightsaber style: also called the Way of the Ysalamari, this style focused on bypassing the defenses of an opponent by following fencing-like parries with elegant thrusts and linear cuts. The Dark Jedi blended elements of Niman and Makashi, making his own fighting style centered around the philosophy to archive the maximum amount of results with the least amount of effort. This resulted in the application of Makashi-style thrusts coupled with hack and slash circular sweeps that gave him an opening to release (as the gameplay of Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II suggests) sudden bursts of dark power from the palm of his hand; a lethal opponent indeed.
- Manipulation: As an individual who cared nothing but himself, Jerec was versed manipulating beings that he deemed useful into serving him. While under his service, Jerec took his manipulations of their psychology a step further by keeping an aura of mystery and omniscience to himself to keep making his servants guessing regarding their master’s motives or thoughts, effectively making them know that while they may be expendable to Jerec, they still needed him. He also enjoyed playing mind-games with almost all his underlings, even with his right-hand woman Sariss, to keep them off balance. While cruel and dominating, he wasn’t without his charm, and he disguised his sociopathic nature by acting friendly to certain people, fatherly even, only to make others desperate to please him.
- Multilingualism: The High Inquisitor was fluent in multiple languages; he spoke, read, and wrote the Miralukese of his species as well as Galactic Basic Standard. His scholarly pursuits and position in the Imperial court also led him to familiarity with the archaic High Galactic language, and he could speak, read, and write the Sith, possibly from his days as an archaeologist and from the knowledge he gained from the Dark Side Compendium. A true polyglot, he was also conversant in the major trade languages Huttese and Bocce as well as Zabraki.
Trivia[]
- Interestingly enough, Jerec is similar to the initial depiction of Darth Vader in Star Wars: A New Hope, as both villains wear black armor, have huge triangular vessels at their command and are believed to be the killers of the main protagonists’ father in their respective media. Jerec's base character template is essentially the what Darth Vader would have been if it was not revealed in Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back that he was actually Luke’s father and not his killer.
External links[]
- Jerec on the Star Wars Wiki
