Kol Seraph

Koltan 'Kol' Seraph
Biographical Information
Race	Coruscanti
Homeworld	Coruscant
Mother	Lasha Seraph †
Father	Garran Seraph †
Spouse	N/A
Siblings	N/A
Children	N/A
Born	Year -7, Day 206
Imperial Service
Branch	Imperial Army
Positions	Current: 'Vanguards' 1st Section Commander Bravo Squad Leader Scout Trooper
Prior Service	Imperial Academy Imperial SAGroup (IYM)
Awards

Koltan 'Kol' Seraph is a 19-year-old Coruscanti male, currently serving as a Sergeant in the Imperial Army.

"A great people can be killed, but they cannot be intimidated."

— Recruit Seraph, when asked about his views on the Empire's citizens during his time at the Imperial Academy

Biography

Painful Memories

Kol killed his master when he was only 8 years old

Kol Seraph was born on Coruscant 19 galactic standard years ago, on Day 206 of Year -7, in the district known as Sah’c Town. His father, Garran Seraph, was the manager of an interstellar shipping firm, which he and his wife, Lasha Seraph (nee Evard, a commercial accountant from Bonadan, in the Corporate Sector) had co-founded a few years before Kol was born. Unfortunately, Lasha died in a tragic speeder accident when Kol was three. In grieving over his wife’s death and now bereft of her financial expertise, Garran slipped into a steadily deteriorating state of depression, worsened by an increasing dependence on stimulants to escape his problems. Due to his financial trouble, Garran relocated to the tenement habs in the brutal Undercity, as he could not afford to move off world, and he eventually had to declare bankruptcy. Growing more and more desperate, as he was running out of money to fuel his addiction, Garran eventually decided to accept a loan from the only people who would ignore his financial history: the Black Sun Criminal Syndicate, promising to repay the money he would owe by using the loan to rejuvenate his business, despite the risks involved. Of course, the chances of such a plan actually working out were remote, to say the least.

Kol's violent nature earned him power and enemies

Vigo Hartland, the man in charge of Black Sun’s operations in the Undercity, made Garran a proposal to settle the debt if he sold Kol to him as a slave. Kol’s father, knowing of Hartland’s foul reputation as a pederast, refused the Vigo’s ultimatum, and the enraged crime boss sent his enforcers to ‘teach him a lesson’. The 3-year-old Kol, hiding under his bed, watched in horror as the Vigo’s men brutally murdered his father before his very eyes. After they ransacked the dilapidated apartment, Hartland’s men found Kol and ended up enslaving him anyways, and he suffered his master’s abuses until he was 8 years old. Kol killed his master in his sleep with a knife, and after escaping the Black Sun stronghold, he learned to survive by his wits alone on the unforgiving, ruthless streets of Coruscant's decaying, neglected Undercity, while Black Sun’s operations on Coruscant reeled from the Vigo’s death for months. On the merciless streets, Kol joined a relatively unknown juvie street gang, known as the 'Undercity Shades'. With his ambitious nature and his affiliation with violence, it was not long before Kol became the head of the gang. His leadership eventually brought the Shades notoriety and the ire of Black Sun. The primary target of Kol’s predations was the same Syndicate that had orphaned him and made him their slave years before.

Kol wanted more than a life of crime

During this time, Kol did not preoccupy himself solely with running his gang or his war with Black Sun. Although the events of his life denied him a proper Imperial primary education, and he eschewed the abusive curriculum taught at the Imperial orphanages, Kol understood the value of learning. A testament to his sharp intellect, Kol retained basic reading and comprehension skills his parents had imparted to him at a very early age, and as he grew older, he taught himself how to read and write Basic. His time as a slave proved to do very little in preventing him from developing his intellect, although the experiences he witnessed at a premature age undoubtedly had an effect on his juvenile mind.

Kol and his followers managed to outwit Black Sun's agents for about 6 years, and could have eventually forced the Syndicate off the planet if it had not been for Cardin Shrike, Kol's most trusted friend and second in command of the Shades. Cardin had always been secretly envious of Kol’s popularity and resentful of his leadership, and enthusiastically betrayed the Shades when given the chance. In exchange for a small fortune in Imperial credits, Cardin approached Black Sun’s new Undercity leader in secret, and betrayed his fellow Shades by giving the new Vigo information on the gang’s current activities, whereabouts, and safe houses. Despite his vicious upbringing, betrayal at the hands of his best friend was the very last thing Kol expected. The trap Black Sun had set resulted in the deaths of the entire Undercity gang, and Cardin’s too: the one thing Black Sun tolerated less than competition on its turf was a traitor motivated by greed.

Born Again Imperial

Kol was given a new outlook on life by the Galactic Empire

It seemed Kol's brutal life was about to be cut short, when a squad of Imperial Army soldiers suddenly burst into the scene and made short work of the unsuspecting and ill-prepared Black Sun agents. By chance, or perhaps even fate, the leader of the Black Sun hit-squad that had killed Kol's gang, a Zeltron by the name of Salam Barbusse, had raped and murdered the daughter of an Imperial Moff several years earlier, and the Empire had come to bring justice down upon the criminal's head, a fortuitous coincidence for the 16-year-old Seraph. The coldly efficient and professional Imperials saving his life and inadvertently avenging the deaths of his friends had a profound effect on Kol's life. After convincing the squad Sergeant to allow him to tag along, Kol soon made up his mind to join the Imperial Army, motivated by a desire to belong to something greater than himself, and by a sense of duty to uphold the Empire's values: the brutal enforcement of order and justice upon a chaotic, lawless galaxy. The Empire hence gave Seraph the motivation he needed to bring order to his own violent existence.

Seraph's old Imperial Youth Militia uniform

Having to wait two years before being eligible for enlistment in the Emperor's armed forces, Kol spent the time by enrolling and serving in the Imperial Youth Militia, a paramilitary detachment of the Imperial SAGroup, itself a subsidiary body of COMPNOR, to gain the military ethos he believed he required to excel in an Imperial Army career. The Youth Militia was an organization which encouraged frustrated adolescents to instill order on the neglected, crime-ridden streets of Coruscant through state-approved violence, giving lower and middle class adolescents their own place to belong and a purpose to fulfill outside of the gangs. Due to his previous life experiences on the streets, Kol excelled during his time in the Militia, and through them, he earned a scholarship to attend the Imperial Academy, which he did as soon as he turned 18. Under the tutelage of Captain Rik Zoidic, then CO of the 3rd Imperial Legion, Recruit Seraph found the inspiration he needed to excel in his Academy studies as well. During his time at the Academy, Recruit Seraph's superiors and peers noted that he not only possessed an above average IQ and that he absorbed the customs of Imperial military life with gusto, but also that he was no stranger to violence and the responsibilities of leadership.

After several months of lectures dictated to him by a man he considered a true Imperial hero, Kol graduated from the Academy with an impressive grade (not to mention a perfect score on his Final Assignment), and at last was able to enlist in the Imperial Army, and received a promotion to Private for doing so. Two weeks after graduating, Private Seraph received word from his unit’s Signals Officer, who assigned him his first posting in the Imperial Army, and from there, Kol’s life as an Imperial truly began.

A Soldier of the Imperial Army

Kol's homeworld, Coruscant, as he saw it for the first time from orbit

Upon graduating from the Academy, Kol was initially expecting to receive a posting to 3IL, the Shadow Guards, under the command of his Academy mentor, Captain Zoidic. Instead, he received a message from RADIA stating that they had assigned him to arguably the most elite Brigade in the Imperial Army. Initially surprised that RADIA had assigned him to such a prestigious Army unit, Kol soon came to feel quite honored about where Army administration had placed him. RADIA then promptly gave him his first orders: to get in touch with his new Chain of Command and make his way to his unit's Victory Star Destroyer, its home and mobile base of operations. It was not long after successfully doing so that Kol arranged transport to the VSD and looked upon his homeworld from space for the first time in his life, an exciting prospect for the young Coruscanti soldier.

Kol began his career as a Marksman in the 1st Recon Battalion

Seraph soon came to be viewed as a valued member of the unit due to his incredible self discipline and sense of professionalism, meeting General L'Annan, the Army Executive Officer, through his eccentric new BCO, whose demeanor and idiosyncrasies often reminded Kol of his former friends in the Shades. Seraph and his BCO often joked about life in the Imperial Army and the Empire in general, although Kol always remembered to restrain himself when doing so, so as not to receive disciplinary action for misconduct by any of his other superiors. Despite a few incidents and mistakes on his part that his superiors fairly attributed to military inexperience, Kol's CO must have been impressed with his performance, as, even in the presence of superior officers, he took the liberty of labeling Kol as 'the best Private in the Imperial Army' several times. To Seraph’s astonishment, his BCO actually made good on his offer to try and make Kol his BXO by requesting permission to do so from ACOMD, although they denied this request, and the position went to the most eligible man for the job, a newly commissioned 2nd Lieutenant.

Private Seraph's first posting was as a designated Marksman of Alpha Squad, the command Squad of 1 RECON BN's 1st Section, under the immediate command of Sergeant Mikhail Perry, a career soldier the young Private came to respect immensely. The 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, also known as 'the Vanguards', was the premier Reconnaissance unit in the whole Imperial Army, and it was in this outfit that Kol Seraph first proudly donned the armor of the Imperial Scout Trooper. As a Marksman of Alpha Squad, Kol saw his first combat action, on the politically troubled planet of Fenves, in the aid of besieged government forces seeking to deliver the planet into the Imperial fold from Rebel insurgents. The so-called Fenves Intervention, known officially as 'Operation: Exorcist', was a resounding success for Imperial forces, although the leader of 1st Section's Bravo Squad, the Section's 2IC, was wounded in action, and shortly thereafter, retired from active duty. Not long afterwards, Seraph, on Sergeant Perry's personal recommendation after having distinguished himself during the Fenves operation, was duly recognized for his consistently excellent service by being promoted from Private to Corporal, and therefore became Perry's new 2IC. This appointment simultaneously made Seraph Squad Leader of the Section’s Bravo Squad. When asked about his unorthodox style of leadership, Kol always responded that he viewed his squadmates and fellow soldiers as his brothers, and the Imperial Army itself as his home, and attested that the bonds he desired to forge between himself and his subordinates were intended to transcend traditional military relationships, but not at the cost of their loyalty to the Galactic Empire.

ISD Protector

A disabled Protector

While en route to the Kuat System and their next assignment, Bravo Squad participated in the defense of the Imperial Star Destroyer Protector after it had been crippled by the actions of a Rebel saboteur, and when Rebel reinforcements subsequently arrived to attempt to take control of the ship. Coordinating their efforts with their Navy comrades, Seraph and his Squad successfully repelled the hostile boarding action, although the survivors of the Rebel strike force managed to wound Corporal Seraph quite seriously while he personally saw to the defense of the Protector’s bridge. To recuperate from his injuries, Seraph had to remain immersed in a bacta tank for the next 2 weeks, after which, the ISD’s medical staff deemed him physically able to return to active duty, news that brightened Bravo Leader’s spirits.

Elandorea Raid

All of Seraph’s Legion comrades were shocked when one of their own, Corporal Alzie Jamima, an Imperial Academy honors graduate and Seraph’s peer in the 3rd Infantry Company, went AWOL. After a probationary period, Legion Command charged the ersatz Corporal guilty of deserting her post. This incident sparked further outrage when it was made public that Jamima had commandeered her assigned craft, designated Inferno 10, which LCOMD had tracked to none other than a recently-discovered Eidola-controlled base on the Imperial planet of Spira, in the Lytton Sector. To deal with the fallout of this incident, LCOMD deployed two units. The first was the entirety of the 2nd Heavy Armor Battalion to wipe all traces of the pirates from Spira once and for all. The second was a small unit of 1st Reconnaissance Battalion soldiers to; a) bring the traitorous Jamima into Imperial custody, and b) secure Imperial property (Inferno 10 itself), and spare it from the complete destruction of the pirate base. The unit chosen for this inherently dangerous operation was Corporal Seraph’s former unit, Sergeant Perry’s Alpha Squad. Before deploying, Sergeant Perry put all his affairs in order, and once again voiced his support for Corporal Seraph, his chosen 2IC, to succeed him as Section Commander in the event that things turned out for the worst. In hindsight, it is easy to see that the veteran Sergeant knew the chances of his surviving this mission were marginal at best.

LCOMD gave Alpha Squad exactly 48 standard hours after deployment to complete their mission and extract themselves, at which time 2 HARM BN would have the go-ahead from Command to commence their operation and obliterate the Eidola cancer on Spira’s otherwise pristine surface. Unfortunately, after their 2-day operational window closed, LCOMD still had received no word from Perry or his men. Fearing the worst, but reluctant to condemn an elite Imperial Army unit to death by friendly fire, LCOMD had no choice but to accept Corporal Seraph’s proposal for Bravo Squad to conduct an extraction operation. The most time Seraph and Bravo Squad had to conduct their operation was 24 hours, as the 2nd Heavy Armored Battalion could wait no longer to begin.

Under Seraph’s orders to split up and pursue the completion of multiple, simultaneous objectives, Bravo successfully infiltrated the Eidola facility, codenamed ‘Elandorea’, and shortly discovered that most of their Alpha comrades, Seraph’s former squad mates, had been killed, and the survivors had been imprisoned. The bodies of the Imperial casualties had been disrespected and defiled in numerous, unspeakably atrocious ways, and Seraph’s fear of failing his team through this dangerous operation soon turned to a hatred for his enemy that he had not felt since his days of terrorizing Black Sun in Coruscant’s Undercity. Bravo Lead’s rage and desire for vengeance only increased when he visually confirmed that Sergeant Mikhail Perry, his former Squad Leader and mentor, had been captured by Eidola and tortured to death, seemingly only for the pleasure of his tormentors.

Team 3 in action

As Section 2IC, the duty fell upon Corporal Seraph to complete Alpha’s mission, and rescue the Alpha Squad survivors, before getting everyone the hell out of dodge. Carrying out the remainder of the Raid as Acting Sergeant, Seraph successfully directed his Squad with the experience and decisiveness expected of a veteran leader. Kol personally led the rescue operation of the Alpha survivors, conducted by Bravo Team 1 (consisting of Corpsman Private Bisenti, and Rifleman Private Faroe, and Bravo Lead himself), liberating only two Alphas out of the former 8-man strong unit. 1st Section’s command squad was now a shadow of its former self, a truth which enraged and saddened Bravo Lead immensely. After liberating the exhausted, tortured POWs and securing their confiscated arms and armor, Team 1 and the Alpha survivors linked up with Teams 2 and 3 for extraction.

Team 3, (Marksman Private Sidewinder and Rifleman Private Hicks), accomplished the first of Alpha Squad’s two primary objectives, and incapacitated the traitor, Alzie Jamima, whom Corporal Seraph considered personally responsible for the deaths of three quarters of his Section’s command squad. The two young Privates, relying upon their training and discipline, were able to safely escort Corporal Jamima through the pirate base, linking up with Team 2, and assisting them in the ongoing defense of Inferno 10, which they had secured previously.

Team 2, consisting of Squad Heavy Private Petrik, Marksman Private Delorian, and Rifleman Private Franco, accomplished the second of Alpha’s objectives by securing the stolen Imperial Army starfighter and defending it against wave after wave of lightly armed pirate mobs led by deadlier mercenaries in Eidola’s employ. After Teams 1 and 3 completed their objectives, they rendezvoused with Team 2 at the starfighter’s location.

With all three primary objectives completed, and his men reconsolidated without sustaining casualties, Acting Sergeant Seraph declared the Elandorea Raid over, and called for immediate extraction. As soon as Bravo Squad blasted its way clear of the Eidola base, Seraph relayed his Squad’s mission completion status to LCOMD. At last, given clearance to begin their operation, the 2nd Heavy Armor Battalion moved to assault Elandorea in force, and easily swept aside all enemy resistance, which had been significantly scattered and demoralized by Bravo’s operation. Within hours, Imperial forces had completely annihilated the Eidola presence on Spira, and declared victory.

With Sergeant Perry killed in action, and in recognition of his excellent leadership of Bravo Squad and the Alpha survivors, LCOMD promoted Acting Sergeant Kol Seraph to full Sergeant, making him Section Commander of 1 RECON BN’s 1st Section. As Alpha Squad did not at the moment possess enough members to be considered an ‘active squad’, Seraph’s superiors granted him special dispensation from standard Imperial military doctrine, and allowed Sergeant Seraph to continue to serve as Squad Leader of 1st Section’s new command squad: the Bravos. For the rest of his days, despite having saved the lives of two of his former Alpha squad mates, Seraph refused to recognize the Elandorea Raid for anything other than what he thought it was, a Pyrrhic victory in every sense of the word.

Description

Recruit Seraph

Kol's traumatic experiences, namely witnessing firsthand his father's murder, suffering as a slave of the Black Sun Criminal Syndicate before murdering his master, and later, fighting his way to a position as a gang leader in Coruscant's Undercity, have left their marks on his mind, but most prominently on his body as well. He has suffered many injuries in the past, including a broken nose and a dislocated shoulder, giving him a high tolerance for physical pain.

His face bears a distinctive scar on his right eyebrow that he received from a vibro-blade duel when he was 9 years old. As an adult, he is 6 feet tall, has cold, striking green eyes and short blond hair, and he often wears a professional, dour expression on his face. When men like Seraph smile, it is a twisted parody of the usually reassuring expression, more akin to a predator baring its teeth. More often, Kol’s expression changes from its typical stern self into a self-satisfied smirk that leaves too much to the imagination. His movements are cool and calculated, reserved in a way that suggests he is ever ready to spring into combat, and years of malnutrition on the streets have made him a lean, fit looking young man with eyes desensitized to violence, yet which still reveal a razor sharp, almost primal cunning.

To this day, due to the traumas of his childhood and the betrayal of the friend who he once considered his own brother, Kol still has trouble trusting others. However, paradoxically, he resents and fears being alone, while never forgetting that those closest to him can hurt him the most. As such, because of the hardships of his life, Kol is very much an introverted, complicated young man, holding all his peers at arm’s length, and showing to his superiors exactly what they expect from a soldier: obedience, discipline, and professionalism, and to his subordinates, the qualities he himself expects in a leader: decisiveness, impartiality, and authority. He has experienced desire for others in the past, but his traumatized mentality has led him to subconsciously scorn attraction as an exploitable weakness. What Kol fears most is abandonment, but his demeanor seems to do a very good job of driving others away, or ensuring that they never even see his true feelings in the first place.

As well as being a first-rate soldier, Seraph is, on his off-duty time, something of an amateur writer and poet. He is the author of the tragic poem entitled: 'And Death Shall Be Our Dominion', which, after he published it, was adopted by the soldiers of the Imperial Army's 1st Assault Brigade as their unit's official hymn. When asked about what motivated him to write this particular piece, Seraph remarked his inspiration as being the carnage he witnessed and the deaths of his former squad mates at the hands of the Eidola Pirates during the Elandorea Raid.

Imperial Personnel Profile

General Information

Surname: Seraph
Given Name(s): Koltan, 'Kol'
Race: Coruscanti, Class A Citizen
Gender: M
Rank: Corporal, Imperial Army
Service Number: IA-B52-693-665
Education: Imperial Academy Graduate
Age: 19
Preferred Religion: NRE
Homeworld: Coruscant, Sah'c Town
Family: Garran Seraph (father; deceased), Lasha Evard (mother; deceased), no siblings

Psychological Profile

Social Attributes
Aggressiveness: courteous but cruel, aggressive, predatory
Control attitudes: tolerant but strict, uncompromising, diplomatic but forceful
Dependability: dependable, obedient, responsible, truthful
Egocentrism: demanding, arrogant, resentful, possessive
Emotional expression: interesting, secretive, competitive, restrained
Fairness: considerate, discreet, impartial, open-minded, respectful
Leadership attributes: courageous, protective, valiant, a leader
Physical appearance: neat, stylish, attractive
Regard for Rules: principled
Team Spirit: patriotic, political, sociable

Individual Attributes
Achievement attitudes: ambitious, compulsive, possesses initiative, motivated, obsessive, also goal-oriented
Emotional temperament: impatient, quiet, composed, ascetic
Energy level: active, energetic, fast
Intellectual factors: alert, logical, observant, perceptive, talented, intelligent, attentive, creative, analytical, intellectual
Material attitudes: conservative, calculating
Maturity: educated, knowledgeable, mature, resourceful, experienced
Philosophical attitudes: flexible, optimistic, punctilious
Physical attributes: an insomniac, insane, attractive, strong
Risk attitudes: adventurous, daring, progressive, unpredictable
Task performance attitudes: adaptable, disciplined, hard-working, methodical, meticulous, precise, punctual, decisive

Physical Description

Height: 6'0
Weight: 175 lbs
Build: Athletic
Skin Color: White
Eye Color: Green
Hair Color: Blond
Addendum:
Clean Shaven and well groomed,
Signs of past physical trauma (scars)

Branch Service Record

Recruit [E1]

Enlisted in Imperial Academy, Rank: Recruit [E1]

Private [E2]

Graduated from Imperial Academy, Rank: Private [E2]

IABG

Awarded Imperial Academy Basic Graduate Ribbon [IABG]

Corporal [E3]

Promoted, Rank: Corporal [E3]

Sergeant [E4]

Promoted, Rank: Sergeant [E4]

Memorable Quotes

"Welcome to MY world, where we do things MY way..."

— Kol during his time as leader of the Undercity Shades

"Damn you, Cardin! Why?! Why did you do it?! Did the Vigo buy you out? You betrayed us for kriffing credits?! You were my brother once, Cardin, but I'll kriffing kill you, you treacherous little fierfek!"

— Kol's colorful response to learning of Cardin's betrayal

"Hail to the Emperor, the Empire, and the New Order. May its righteousness never falter."

— Cadet Seraph reciting the salute of the Imperial SAGroup

"There is simply no room in an Army uniform for second thoughts, especially not one cut from His Majesty's cloth."

— Private Seraph upon hearing the news of the desertion and arrest of former classmate and friend, Private Kaylin Shen

"The Empire is my home, and my unit is my family."

— Private Seraph to Crewman Alex Delton regarding his 'domestic life'

"So long as the Empire is victorious, it does not matter how much blood we lose, or how much we shed."

— Private Seraph's opinion on what victory means to the Empire

"Well, Private, we're soldiers in the Imperial Army. And Scout Troopers to boot... be prepared to eat more bugs in the field. You may find they're more edible than the year-old rations we get."

— Corporal Seraph to Private Kin-Jal Sidewinder, after the latter drank an ant-infested glass of soda

"Come on, you Rebel DOGS! What... you wanna live forever?!"

— Corporal Seraph, while participating in the defense of the ISD Protector from enemy boarders