Arkoh Adasca

An Arkanian, Arkoh Adasca was born into one of the great industrial dynasties of the planet Arkania, as the eighth lord of the vaunted House of Adasca. As the heir to the Adasca line, Arkoh was due to eventually take over control of the bioengineering titan Adascorp and from an early age learned his role from grandfather Argaloh Adasca and father Alok Adasca. The Adascas ran in prestigious social circles, and, as a young man, Arkoh became acquainted with Lucien Draay, the son of wealthy financier and Jedi Knight Barrison Draay, who attended many Adasca parties and often spent the summers with the Adascas on Arkania. Lucien was eventually trained as a Jedi himself, as was Arkoh's niece, Aurora, with whom Arkoh lost touch after she was taken away for training.

Arkoh Adasca eventually became Adascorp's Chief Executive Officer, inheriting the firm from his father. As CEO, Adasca made his headquarters aboard the Arkanian Legacy, a massive vessel that also served as a top-tier biomedical research laboratory and a university. After his ascension to the head of Adascorp, Adasca decided that he needed a cybernetic aide that could manage all of his data. Adasca felt that a Duros would be best able to adjust to the mechanical implants, and so he selected factory worker Eejee Vamm for the job and brought him aboard the Arkanian Legacy. Although Vamm was unsure exactly why he was specifically chosen, he speculated that it was because Adasca had had a droid called Eejee as a child. As head of Adascorp, Adasca was very popular on Arkania, raising the spirits of the Arkanian people by appealing to their sense of purpose and racial superiority. Meanwhile, Adasca furthered the discriminatory and exterminatory policies toward the Arkanian Offshoot sub-species, including releasing company-designed diseases into Offshoot-populated areas of Arkania. Unaware, some oppressed Offshoots even held Adasca in high esteem, blaming his untrustworthy underlings for their mistreatment.

Adasca also had a different, more ambitious aim for Adascorp. During the time of his grandfather Argaloh's stewardship of the company, a brilliant Offshoot scientist by the name of Gorman Vandrayk had discovered how to contact and control the minds of the exogorths, a species of massive and mysterious space slug found in many disparate regions of the galaxy. Realizing the incredible destructive power of the beasts, Argaloh planned to weaponize the exogorths, but a horrified Vandrayk went on the run and took his indispensable knowledge with him. By 3963 BBY, the galaxy had become engulfed in the Mandalorian Wars, fought between the Galactic Republic and the Mandalorian warrior clans. Remembering his grandfather's vision for the exogorths, Adasca formulated a plan that could possibly turn Adascorp into a galactic power. The company had discovered a host of dormant exogorths near the dying star Omonoth, and Adasca figured that if Adascorp could take control of the beasts, he could sell their services to the highest bidder and effectively choose the winner of the war—but, as he would retain operational control of the exogorths, whichever side he chose would be forced to pay him tribute. As grand as Adasca's ambitions were, his plan had no chance of success without Vandrayk, as Adascorp was unable to take control of the exogorths without his knowledge.

Adasca eventually learned that Vandrayk was still alive, and he purchased the entire production run of the HK-24 assassin droids in order to hunt him down. In 3963 BBY, Vamm ran across a security recording that placed Vandrayk on the banking world of Telerath. Vamm immediately contacted Adasca when he identified Vandrayk, and Adasca sent one of his HK-24s to incapacitate the Offshoot scientist. The HK-24 found Vandrayk on the planet Ralltiir and stowed away on the Offshoot's junk hauler, The Last Resort, but the droid was destroyed by the Mandalorian warrior Rohlan Dyre before it could achieve its objective. However, Adasca did not have to wait long before he finally got his hands on Vandrayk. The old Offshoot's health began to fail after the HK-24's attack, forcing his bodyguard and companion Jarael to bring The Last Resort to Arkania in search of medical treatment. When Jarael brought one of Vandrayk's genetic samples to an Adascopolis doctor to get a diagnosis, Adasca's staff recognized Vandrayk's profile. Adasca himself, along with a team of Adascorp security personnel, promptly made his way down to the clinic to apprehend Jarael. When Adasca promised that he would help Vandrayk, Jarael—who did not know the precise details of Vandrayk's past with Adascorp—agreed to lead the Arkanian Legacy to Vandrayk. Once they found The Last Resort, Adasca and Jarael sent a holographic message to Vandrayk aboard the ship, and the elderly Offshoot fainted when he saw Jarael with his sworn enemy.

Adasca had Vandrayk taken aboard the Arkanian Legacy and rushed into medical treatment. Although the cause of Vandrayk's illness was revealed to be allergens and molds in The Last Resorts air filtration system, Adasca lied to Jarael that the old scientist was suffering from a pathogen called "Balinquar's Virus," which he had been exposed to during his years in Adascorp's labs. Adasca planned to use Jarael to force Vandrayk to finish his work on the exogorths—although not normally his type, something about Jarael intrigued Adasca, and he had her put up in luxury accommodations aboard the Arkanian Legacy. Meanwhile, Adasca used his network of sources within the Republic and Jedi Order to learn more about Rohlan Dyre, who had also come aboard with Vandrayk and Jarael. Adasca found that Dyre was a Mandalorian runaway who had become a folk hero for his people. Personally impressed by Dyre's cunning and intelligence, he allowed the Mandalorian free reign of the Arkanian Legacy. When Vandrayk soon awoke and it became evident that he remembered everything about the exogorths, Adasca knew that it was finally time to execute his plot. Adasca took the Arkanian Legacy to Omonoth so that Vandrayk could begin work on the exogorths, and he in turn began setting up his auction. Adasca directed Vamm to contact Republic Navy Admiral Saul Karath, who was fresh off a crushing defeat at the Battle of Serroco, personally choosing Karath because he believed the admiral knew better than anyone the value of what he had to offer. Meanwhile, Adasca was able to convince Dyre to get in contact with his chief, Mandalore the Ultimate, after promising him safe passage afterward with Jarael in his custody. Finally, Adasca reached out to the Jedi Knight known as the Revanchist, who was leading his own Jedi faction that was trying to enter the war against the wishes of the Jedi High Council.

Saul Karath arrived first at the Arkanian Legacy, along with a small group of Serroco survivors that included Commander Dallan Morvis, Lieutenant Carth Onasi, and prisoner Zayne Carrick, a former Jedi Padawan accused of operating as a Mandalorian spy and massacring his Jedi class on the planet Taris. By then, Adasca had already informed Jarael of his plans for the exogorths, and she wanted no part of it—but when she attempted to attack Adasca, the CEO of Adascorp threatened to have Vandrayk's hands removed if she did not stand down. A friend of Carrick's, Jarael rushed to greet the Republic prisoner and informed him of Adasca's plans before Adasca was able to restrain her and have Carrick moved to a special holding area. The Revanchists were the next interested party to arrive, although the Revanchist himself was not able to attend and sent his second-in-command, Alek, in his stead. To Adasca's shock, his old acquaintance Lucien Draay soon showed up at the Arkanian Legacy. Now a Jedi Master and a member of the Jedi Covenant group of seers, Draay had deduced—with the help of Covenant visions and leaks from within Adascorp—that Adasca was up to something. When Draay began to ask questions about what Adasca was planning, the Arkanian had Draay drugged with tainted wine and stored away with Carrick, coincidentally Draay's former Padawan.

As Karath and Alek attempted to bargain with Adasca, the final interested party made its arrival: Mandalore the Ultimate, along with a host of Mandalorian warriors. Adasca claimed that the Mandalorian party was operating under a flag of truce, and a full-on battle between the Republic, Jedi, and Mandalorians was only narrowly averted. As Adasca greeted the Mandalorians, Jarael received a message from Vandrayk, who told her of how Adascorp had released diseases in Offshoot-populated areas—Adasca interrupted their conversation and fought with Jarael, only relenting when Alek threatened to behead him with his lightsaber. With that, Adasca seized Jarael's communicator bracelet and told Vandrayk that he would make Jarael one of his plague designers' test subjects if he did not finish his work. Once the exogorths were finally fitted with the proper implants, Adasca initiated a demonstration of the beasts' abilities to the assembled parties. Although Karath attempted to appeal to Adasca's patriotism, Mandalore the Ultimate soon gave Adasca a very intriguing offer. In exchange for the services of the exogorths, Mandalore would put Adasca in charge of the Mandalorian war forges, making him the supplier of the entire war effort and the last great corporation that would survive a Mandalorian conquest of the galaxy.

Yet as Adasca pondered the offer, Carrick and Draay had broken out of their confinement and were plotting to foil Adasca once and for all. Carrick dressed up in Mandalorian garb and staged a fight with Carth Onasi and Rohlan Dyre, causing a distraction that allowed them to retrieve Jarael, quickly destroy the HK-24 droids in the room, and confront Adasca. As a full-fledged firefight broke out between the Republic and Mandalorian troops aboard the Arkanian Legacy, Adasca could do nothing but watch helplessly as his carefully laid plans were ripped apart. Meanwhile, Vandrayk, having received the message from Carrick saying that Jarael had been freed, escaped from the orbital control station he had been working at, taking the controls for the exogorths with him. Taking flight in The Last Resort, Vandrayk sent a transmission to the Arkanian Legacy, taunting Adasca and promising to end his family line. When a furious Adasca stood up and challenged Vandrayk to fight him one-on-one, Vandrayk ordered the exogorths to attack the Arkanian Legacy, killing Arkoh Adasca and putting an end to his schemes.

The circumstances of Adasca's death were left unknown to the galaxy at large—although Admiral Karath confirmed reports that the Adascorp CEO had met his demise, he refused to publicly speak of the events surrounding the incident, and the Republic Defense Ministry coordinated a total news blackout of the truth behind Adasca's treachery. For his part, Karath was hailed by holofeeds for supposedly protecting the Arkanian Legacy from the Mandalorian hordes singlehandedly, while the ship itself was deemed unsalvageable. Adasca's death was an enormous blow to Adascorp, and with his cousin Aurora's whereabouts unknown following the devastation of Serroco, there was no clear heir to the company. With leadership of the company in a vacuum, several investor groups, led by the Draay Trust, filed a legal challenge in Adascopolis for the right to bid for control of Adascorp. In a bid for revenge, Adascorp placed a bounty of 100 credits each for every Mandalorian killed in the systems near Arkania, which instead led to dozens of people trying to redeem Mandalorian helmets found at junk shops and costume parlors for money. Several decades of legal reparations passed before the company could quietly resume operations.

Young and charismatic, Arkoh Adasca captured the imaginations of the Arkanian people with subtle and persuasive arguments that played into the sense of racial superiority they all shared. Spoiled as a child, Adasca deftly played the part of honorable and ethical leader, but in truth he was an extremely ambitious and cunning individual who plotted to lift Adascorp to the station of galactic power. Adasca's supreme confidence touched on overconfidence, which eventually led to his downfall. Although Adascorp was nominally aligned with the Galactic Republic, Adasca chose to place the interests of his homeworld of Arkania above that of the Republic, planning to make Arkania the center of the galaxy. As such, Adasca had no qualms with abandoning the Republic if the Mandalorians gave him a better offer for the exogorths, arguing that the Republic was not representing Arkania's interests when it entered into the war. Once Adasca had developed his exogorth plot, he single-mindedly pursued it, sparing no expense to find Gorman Vandrayk so he could set his vision into action.

Adasca grew increasingly audacious as the plot developed, and his old friend Lucien Draay believed that he had gone mad—but when it all collapsed, the normally calculating Adasca was reduced to raging at Vandrayk, Carrick, and those responsible for ruining his ambitions. Adasca believed that the continued existence of the Offshoots—who had been genetically engineered by Arkanians for short-term industrial purposes—was an artifact of the Arkanian race's self-destruction, and he dreaded the weakening of pure Arkanian blood. To counter this, Adasca furthered the exterminatory policies of his forefathers and offered his employees genetic solutions that would eradicate any trace of Offshoot blood in their genome. Even though Jarael was an Offshoot, she intrigued Adasca, who sensed something "pureblooded" in her, but she was quick to catch Adasca's wrath when she attempted to defy him. Adasca was fluent in a number of languages, including Arkanian, Basic, Binary, Bocce, Huttese, and High Galactic, and he was skilled with a blaster pistol. Adasca had light skin, white hair, and white eyes.

Arkoh Adasca first appeared in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: Nights of Anger, a story arc of John Jackson Miller's Knights of the Old Republic comic book series, released in 2007. When Miller was originally developing his story for the series, he decided that he wanted to do something with the concept of segregation, eventually creating Adasca and the Offshoot concept to fit into this theme. Miller then decided to tie Adasca into Vandrayk's past, a storyline that he had pitched as the centerpiece for the comic's second year as early as 2005. In Adasca, Miller wanted to create a smooth-talker whose interest in Jarael was either a "macabre expression of hatred" or possibly a sign of some sort of internal struggle—Adasca's time with Jarael aboard the Arkanian Legacy in Nights of Anger was inspired by Archie Goodwin's Wheel stories from the original Marvel Star Wars run. Adasca went on to appear in six issues of Knights of the Old Republic, illustrated by Brian Ching, Harvey Tolibao, and Bong Dazo.

• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Handbook
• Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia