Jogan Halder

As with all Keshiri living in Alanciar, Jogan Halder was raised from young to defend his homeland from a possible invasion by the Lost Tribe of Sith from Keshtah Minor, one of the other two known continents on Kesh. He was known to maintain a small library in his bunkroom which consisted of several romantic novels and a copy of the Keshtah Chronicles, the testament of Adari Vaal, the ancient Keshiri Herald who had escaped from Keshtah in 4975 BBY followed a failed attempt to overthrow and expel the Lost Tribe, who were group of Human Sith who had become stranded on Keshtah during the Great Hyperspace War. She and her followers warned the Alanciari of the threat posed by the Sith. As a result, the Alanciari had developed a highly militaristic society where all citizens were expected to undergo military training. The Alanciari regarded their efforts to resist any Sith invasion and to preserve their independence as the "Great Cause".

Over a period of two thousand years, the Alanciari had also built an intricate defense system consisting of ballistae, forts, uvak patrols, a large, well-equipped citizen army, and a continental–network of semaphore signal stations and thoughtcriers. The southern region of Alanciar known as the Six Claws was well-fortified with six seaside forts. The Alanciari were also led by a centralized military government that was based in the capital Sus'mintri's Vaal Hall. Like many of his compatriots, Halder spoke an accented version of Galactic Basic Standard, the language of the Sith Tribe. Adari Vaal had made the Alanciari learn that language in order to prepare them for contact with the Sith. By 2978 BBY, Halder had become a signal officer in the Alanciari Signal Corps who was posted at Point Defiance, a seaside fort on Garrow's Necks, the southernmost of the Six Claws. During that time, he recorded tales of his work on the frontier which were well received by many readers due to his skilled wordplay and honest appraisal of life on the frontier.

In 2978 BBY, Jogan Halder began an affair with Quarra Thayn, the wardmaster and chief military administrator of Uhrar. At the time, Thayn was married to Brue Thayn and had three children but was unhappy with her marriage. Thayn initiated the affair while she was making a routine visit to Kerebba, a military supply center upstream on one of the canals that emptied into one of the bays defined by the Six Claws. Her cousin was a signal officer who operated the Kerebba signal station's semaphore system. Her cousin had read Halder's tales and had shared it with Thayn, who enjoyed his writings and fell in love with the author. When her cousin was reassigned, she had managed to transmit signals to Halder through the signal station at Uhrar introducing herself.

This began a secret three year secret relationship where thousands of messages were exchanged via semaphore machine between Halder and Thayn. Most of these dispatches arrived overnight at Thayn's office in Uhrar and she read them in the morning. For Thayn, Halder's letters came to provide a form of escape from the drudgery of her work as an administrator and mother. She soon began carrying these letters with her throughout her rounds, reading them during her free time. Frequent distribution meetings became opportunities for Quarra to brainstorm the responses she sent him before returning home. Quarra came to find Jogan to be an understanding reader who took long nights to craft thoughtful and eloquent responses to his lover. In 2975 BBY, the couple agreed to meet each other in person at Halder's fort in Point Defiance. For that liaison, Thayn pretended to be away on a one-week trip to the industrial cities on the Northern Slope. She also forged a letter of transit by using her travel supervisor's seal to enable her to "legally" travel to Point Defiance as a thoughtcrier.

After Quarra was allowed to enter Point Defiance through the guard-post, she was brought to Halder by one of his fellow signalers named Belmer Kattun, the thoughtcrier worked alongside him. When the two Keshiri finally met each other face to face, Halder was cooking a meal in the kitchen while humming a sailor's song. Halder had also been reading a parchment which he had borrowed from the fort's library. Halder explained to Quarra that he liked to read while he was eating. Coming from a big city to the frontier, Quarra was surprised to learn that Point Defiance had a library. Halder explained that he often frequented the peninsular Garrow's Neck while he was on leave and that travelers sometimes left things there to read. Apart from news from the other signals station, life as a signals officer on Alanciar's frontier was boring and quiet. Books thus provided a means for signalers and soldiers to relieve their boredom.

Jogan then asked Quarra if she had met his thoughtcrier colleague Belmer while he was on the way out. When she confirmed that she did and had mistaken him for Jogan, he commented that he did send romantic messages out under Belmer's name. He then retracted his comment, saying that he had been joking and that Belmer like fermented beverages. Qaurra commented that such characteristics were not what one wanted to find in a thoughtcrier. While acknowledging that Belmer was obsessed with lovers, he responded that the man did not drink while on duty. Jogan then placed Quarra's duffle bag, which contained her clothes, between the doors to the two bedchambers in the tower. This was the tower's equivalent of a baggage-handling system. The couple had not planned the specifics of their sleeping arrangement for the week of Quarra's visit.

Taking note of the rustic and informal look of Point Defiance, Jogan Halder apologized that Point Defiance was not up to conventional inspection standards since it was situated at the end of the inspection route and was staffed mainly be old bachelors. Quarra assured him that Point Defiance was tidier than her family home, which was home to three children and her husband, Brue Thayn, who was often away at work for long hours. When Jogan asked about her husband, Quarra assured him that he was fine. Halder than took his lover and quest on a tour of the facilities at Point Defiance. First, her showed her his workstation: a semaphore station. This workbench was a wooden stand which held several cylinders of various sizes. Each of these drums had several slate-covered wheels which were oriented around a central dowel. Each of these wheels had lines dividing their circumference into equal parts.

Jogan then selected one of the medium-sized drums and snapped it crossways into a holder on his workbench. After scrawling a message in chalk across the cylinder, he then pilled a small locking rod free from the cylinder, causing the letter wheels to rotate freely. After resetting the positions of the wheel at random, Halder replaced the locking rod and recorded a ten-digit number reflecting the new positions of the tumblers. After commenting that this cylinder would not need a big cypher, he unplugged the cypher from his workstation and stepped out onto the eastern balcony. A fireglobe grid was located on the balcony and all but of its orbs cycled inward towards their bushings. At that moment, the fireglobe system was at its "off" position. After telling Quarra to shield her eyes, Jogan went to the signaling device and used pulleys to activate the grid.

An orange-colored alert signal was immediately transmitted from the fireglobe system. Jogan then activated the other controls, transmitting white, gold, orange, and green lights. While Quarra was familiar with the semaphore system due to her basic military training, she was unable to send signals as fast as an experienced Alanciari semaphore operator like Jogan, who only took five seconds to send the destination code and begin transmitting his missive. Jogan explained that working as a signaler took regular practice and that it was a considerable amount of work just to transmit a simple sentence like "Belmer Kattun has headed off to sleep on the floor of a tavern for a week, and that his relief has arrived." In fact, Belmer had gone on leave and Quarra was supposed to be the replacement thoughtcrier.

Jogan also assured Quarra that he was not using her name and that she was just one anonymous warrior for the "Great Cause": preventing any Sith invasion of Alanciar. For that weekend, Jogan and Quarra had planned to have a different "Great Cause": satisfying their romantic love for each other. Jogan showed Quarra where the thoughtcrier's meditation room was. When Quarra asked him whether he could not use the Force, he acknowledged that he was not Force-sensitive like her. Halder also commented that he preferred his own way of sending messages. Jogan then took Quarra to the western balcony of Point Defiance's tower, which overlooked the Coral Banks in the Southern Passage. He and Quarra then shared an alcoholic beverage from Belmer's stash while bantering about Jogan's habit of writing love messages.

Jogan then pointed to the buoy below where Adari Vaal, the Herald of Keshtah, had come from Keshtah two thousand years ago. He then added that this was the same direction where the Sith, the "greatest evil that Kesh had ever known", dwelled in their domain of Keshtah Minor. Jogan then changed the topic of the conversation by asking Quarra why she had come to Point Defiance. Quarra claimed that she had been drafted like everyone else. However, Jogan was not satisfied with her answer and demanded to know what she was doing at Point Defiance. When Quarra asked what he had meant, Halder replied that he had assumed that a woman in her position would have better things to do than to come out and "jaw" with a "lifer" in the Signal Corps. Quarra lied that she had come to see the ocean but Jogan could sense she was lying.

Jogan then asked her about her husband Brue Thayn's occupation and Quarra replied that he taught the art of glassblowing to the elderly. When Jogan asked whether her husband got a lot out of working with them, she explained that her husband hated every minute of his job. She explained that he worked with veterans who were still required to do something for the Cause. Brue resented having to work with grumpy elderly people who thought that they outranked him, which they would not if Brue had any rank at all. Jogan assured her that Brue was still putting people to use. Quarra then criticized her husband for not aspiring to be more than a glazier. While she acknowledged that he was a good father for their three children, she resented the fact that he was not interested in improving his social station unlike her. Whereas Brue had remained a lowly glassblower for years, Quarra had risen from being a supply clerk to the position of wardmaster.

Jogan tried to assure her that her marriage to Brue was not completely bad if he had the right attitude. While nothing much happened at Point Defiance, he enjoyed telling people about the things that they liked. Jogan regarded each of his reports as a little story. Before he could finish the rest of his sentence, Quarra kissed and hugged him twice while his back was to the balcony railing. At that same moment, Quarra noticed a black silhouette moving in the skies above. She sensed the presence of beings aboard the vessel and realized that it was an airship. Jogan noticed that there were three airships in the sky and quickly realized that the Lost Tribe of Sith had finally discovered their homeland of Alanciar.

Jogan then rushed to fulfill his duties as a signals officer. He took a special cylinder and used it to send a special message consisting of one word, "Sith", to all of Alanciar which warned every Alanciari that the Sith had finally arrived. He recalled that he had not send any flash traffic since a typhoon fizzled out six years ago. Meanwhile, Quarra reluctantly complied with he duties as the "on-duty" thoughtcrier and sent a thought which would warn every Alanciari about the impending invasion. She was reluctant to do this because she was not supposed to be at Point Defiance. Thus, Jogan Halder and Quarra Thayn would go down in history as the first Alanciari to observe the arrival of the Sith in Alanciar.

In fact, the Lost Tribe sent a reconnaissance mission to scout Alanciar. After almost a millennium of civil war and anarchy known as "the Time of the Rot," Grand Lord Varner Hilts succeeded in reuniting the Lost Tribe on Keshtah in 3000 BBY. Hilts rallied the divided Sith factions around the cause of reaching "Keshtah Major", the Sith name for Alanciar. After twenty-five-years of experimentation, the Tribe's chief engineer and mathematician High Lord Edell Vrai succeeded in building a fleet of hydrogen-powered airships which were capable of traveling across the Western Sea for long distances. Halder led three airships on this reconnaissance mission to reach Alanciar.

Within minutes, the Alanciari defenders had downed two of the enemy airships with their ballistae. However, a third airship known as Candra, which was Vrai's flagship, managed to travel further inland where it was attacked by a flight of uvak-riders who were armed with diamond flak ballista. While Jogan was cheering as the ballista at Point Vigilance shot down the Sith airships Lillia and Dann Itra, Quarra was in a state of panic since she was in Point Defiance illegally and was having an affair with another man. While attempting to leave the meditation room, she tripped and knocked over several of Jogan's styluses from his workbench. Jogan noticed the commotion and followed Quarra, who was looking for her duffle bag which contained her clothes. She intended to leave and return to her hometown of Uhrar while the other Alanciari were preoccupied with the fighting.

Jogan attempted to assure Quarra that she was safe since they had already sent their messages. However, Quarra retorted that she was not safe here at Point Defiance because she was not supposed to be there officially. When Jogan asked her what she meant, Quarra replied that her husband had thought she was touring the industrial cities of the Northern Slope right now. Jogan also suggested that he would not find out about their affair since he was not in the military. Quarra then told Jogan that meeting him was one of the best things that had ever happened to her. She praised him for being a hopeful and trusting person. However, the Sith invasion that was happening outside was the "biggest thing" that had ever happened in Alanciari history. She explained that the two of them had witnessed the invasion from the balcony and that she was the one who had sent the thought signal warning the Alanciari of the Sith incursion.

Quarra knew that a lot of people would be coming to Point Defiance soon and that everyone would find out who was there when the Sith came. Jogan tried to assure Quarra that the state had dispatched her to Point Defiance and that they would know she was there. However, Quarra then confessed that the state did not send her to Point Defiance and that she had forged her travel supervisor's stamp on her letter of transit. This meant that there had been no relief order for Belmer. Quarra feared that the captain and his men at the guard post she encountered earlier would reach the tower soon and would discover her affair. In an attempt to hide their affair, Halder attempted to help Thayn leave Point Defiance during the fighting and return to Uhrah.

Jogan Halder and Quarra Thayn walked to the gate of the fort where Quarra's muntok, had been tethered. However, the muntok had escaped during the fighting by chewing through its ropes. When Jogan suggested calling the beast, Quarra admitted that she did not know the muntok's name since she had rented the animal from a corral at the town of Tandry, while traveling to Point Defiance. When Jogan asked her how a wardmaster could be so incompetent, she replied that this was her first affair. At that point, Quarra sensed that an object was going to fall on Jogan. Before she could warn him, he was crushed by a fallen uvak, which had been tethered to the Sith airship Candra. Jogan was seriously wounded and sustained several broken ribs. Before he slipped into unconsciousness, he remarked that he thought that Quarra had rented a muntok and not an uvak.

Later, Jogan and Quarra were taken captive by the Sith survivors from the Candra, led by Edell Vrai, who had climbed onto the cliff which led to Point Defiance. Quarra managed to kill one of Vrai's soldiers, Ulbrick, but she overpowered by Vrai's dark side powers and was then disarmed and taken prisoner by his companions. Nearby, the Sith found Quarra's wounded companion Jogan, who was lying beside the corpse of Starboard. Vrai was about to kill Jogan when Quarra told him to leave her friend alone in Galactic Basic Standard, the same language which the Tribe spoke. After reading Quarra's mind, Vrai realized that Jogan was her companion and ordered his surviving followers to bring them inside Point Defiance's tower.

When Thayn warned the Sith to be careful with Jogan and blamed them for the accident with the uvak, Vrai retorted that she had brought the creature down on herself. He also warned that she was about to bring a lot more down on herself. While two Sith carried Jogan inside the tower, Edell and his translator Tellpah, a Keshiri from Keshtah, searched through Point Defiance's facilities and attempted to activate Halder's semaphore station. While looking out of the tower's balcony, the two Sith spotted a ship approaching the southern shore of the peninsula Point Defiance. This ship turned out to be fishing harvester Mischance. While most fishing vessels operated in Alanciar's Southern Passage, captains that were behind on harvesting their quota of seafood were known to cut corners by operating at night and in the western sea, which was the domain of the Shore Guard, Alanciar's coast guard. By this stage, Alanciari forces were already mustering outside the gates of the fortress at Garrow's Neck to the east and were heading up the trail towards Point Defiance's tower.

The Sith also raided Port Defiance's library and seized Halder's collection of books, which included romantic fiction and a copy of the Keshtah Chronicles, an official account of the history of Keshtah Minor which had been written by Adari Vaal. This tome provided the Sith with a trove of information on what the Alanciari knew about the Sith Tribe. Meanwhile, Jogan and Quarra had been dumped inside Jogan's private quarters. The Sith paid no attention to his injuries and had left him on the floor. Quarra attended to his injuries and used her Force powers to keep him alive. Since her hands were tied behind her back, the only thing that she could do was kiss his bruised cheek. Halder commented that this was not how he had imagined getting his lover into his bedroom. He also asked Quarra whether their captors were the Sith and she confirmed that they were indeed the Sith.

At that point, Edell Vrai entered the room and interrupted their conversation. He told them that the Sith had found a boat and that they were about to take a trip. The Sith then took their Alanciari prisoners from Jogan's room and headed down the southern shore towards the boat. The Sith party managed to evacuate Point Defiance minutes after Alanciari forces from Garrow's Neck arrived to secure the fort. Edell and his followers managed to find the boat which they used to board the sailing ship Mischance. While the Keshiri sailors were unaware of the earlier battle and were taken by surprise, they fought fiercely against the Sith invaders. It took the Sith until dawn to secure the Mischance and all the Keshiri crew fought to the death. The Sith managed to captured one Keshiri sailor who was then interrogated by Peppin. However, he refused to disclose any information even under torture and succumbed to his wounds.

Following their kidnapping from Point Defiance, Jogan and Quarra were tied to the ship's mast. Meanwhile, Edell and Peppin decided to return to Keshtah Minor since they had accomplished their mission. In addition to their Alanciari captives, the Sith had also captured a sailing ship and Jogan's collection of books which they reasoned the Tribe would be interested in studying. Unwilling to return to Keshtah, Edell made up some fictitious orders claiming that he had to stay behind for a ground reconnaissance mission into Alanciar's interior. Using this deception, Edell then approached Quarra with the offer of serving as his guide for that mission. After some tense negotiations, Quarra reluctantly agreed to help Vrai in return for the Sith untying Halder from his bonds and attending to his medical needs. Vrai agreed and Halder was released and had his wounds treated. Jogan was conscious during Quarra's meeting with Edell and he told her that she did not have to risk her life for him since he was not worth it. However, Quarra whispered that she had planned to use Alanciar to scare her Sith captors back to where they had come from.

After Edell Vrai and Quarra Thayn successfully landed at a remote cove in Garrow's Neck, the Mischance departed on a long-distance oceanic voyage to Keshtah through the Southern Passage which led to the Sea of Flames, which bordered the western coast of Keshtah Minor. Despite the inexperience of the Sith crew and the turbulent oceanic conditions, the Mischance safely reached Keshtah's coast due to the leadership of Vrai's lieutenant Peppin . Upon landing, Jogan was blindfolded and transported on a cart to Tahv. There, Jogan had his blindfold removed and was allowed to roam the city freely. The city was filled with Keshiri craftsmen, painters, sculptors, and musicians who greeted him. The Keshtah Keshiri claimed to be a "happy and free" people who lived under the protection of the Sith, whom they dubbed the "Protectors." Halder was also allowed to visit the Tribe's "capitol" and befriended the Circle of Lords.

The Tribe's leadership managed to convince Jogan that the Sith did not actually pose a threat to the Alanciari. While they acknowledged that Adari Vaal had been right about the presence of "Destructors" among the Sith, the Tribe claimed to have purged the Destructors one day after Vaal and her followers had left. Jogan was also told that a servant of the Destructors had risen two thousand years later but had been driven from Keshtah. This same individual had also built a fleet of airships and sought to conquer Alanciar. Finally, the Tribe claimed that Edell Vrai and his airships had been sent in pursuit of this "servant" of the Destructors. According to the Sith, the clash between the Alanciari and Vaal's forces had been an unnecessary misunderstanding.

The Sith successfully convinced Jogan of their "peaceful" intentions and the latter became their "Ambassador" to the Alanciari. Unknown to Halder, the Sith had orchestrated a "grand deception" by putting their most loyal Keshiri servants onto the streets during Halder's arrival. The Sith had also withdrawn from public view. In addition, the Sith had actually planned to invade Alanciar; this had been one of the goals of Grand Lord Varner Hilts, the ruler of the Lost Tribe. Hilts had allowed his rival, the High Lord Korsin Bentado, to invade Alanciar knowing that his forces would be easily decimated by the Alanciari defenses. Based on the "sinister" appearance of Korsin, his followers, and his ships, Korsin's forces would appear to be the Destructors.

Jogan then travelled with Grand Lord Hilts on his airship Good Omen to Alanciar. Meanwhile, Hilts' rival Bentado and his Ebon Fleet invaded Alanciar but his airships were quickly wiped out by the Alanciari ballistae at the Western Shield. However, Korsin and several of his followers survived and regrouped. They succeeded in infiltrating Sus'mintri's Vaal Hall where they assassinated the entire War Cabinet, Alanciar's military government. This enabled the Sith to seize control of the Alanciari military without their awareness. Knowing that Hilts was traveling to Alanciar, Korsin attempted to use the Alanciari artillery to shoot down Hilts' airship. Korsin had intended to create a Second Tribe and a rival empire using Alanciar's industrial base.

However, Korsin was opposed by Edell, Quarra, and his own Keshiri assistant Squab, who was secretly working for Hilts. In the end, Korsin was slain and Edell took control of Korsin's forces. Meanwhile, the Good Omen landed without incident at Port Melephos, a coastal city in Alanciar. Jogan was able to convince the locals that the Sith did not pose a threat to them. The airship then travelled to Sus'mintri where Jogan repeated his testament and was warmly received by the Alanciari there as the new "Herald" who had saved the Tribe. Hilts then supported his message by disguising himself as the "Kesh-born minion" of the Bright Tuash, an avian deity in Keshiri religion. The false minion of the "Bright Tuash" expressed sadness that the "Destructors" had murdered the War Cabinet but assured the Alanciari that the "evil ones" and their leader had already been defeated by his "agent" Edell Vrai, working in conjunction with the well-trained Alanciari woman Quarra.

Hilts also claimed that Jogan's predecessor Vaal had been a well-meaning albeit misguided servant. Finally, Hilts announced that the Tribe felt responsible for the events that had occurred and that relief workers, both Human and Keshiri, would arrive from Keshtah to build relations with the Alanciari. This effectively facilitated the "unification" of Keshtah and Alanciar, which had been separated for millennia. Hilts' message was welcomed by the overwhelming majority of the Alanciari with the exception of Quarra, who realized the deception. However, she did not voice any objections since she preferred to safeguard her people's interests by collaborating with the Sith. Following the meeting, Jogan departed from the airship and went to a signal station in order to broadcast his new message to the other Alanciari. While Jogan saw his one-time lover Quarra, he was too busy to talk to her but indicated that they could meet afterwards.

As a result of Jogan Halder's diplomacy, the Alanciari peacefully submitted to the Tribe. Thus, the Lost Tribe gained access to a large and wealthy continent which had a substantial industrial base and was rich in lumber. This lumber enabled the Tribe to build a significant fleet of sailing ships which began exploring the other regions and seas of Kesh in 2974 BBY. The annexation of Alanciar pleased Grand Lord Hilts who regarded it as a major victory for the Tribe with minimal losses. Halder's one-time captor, Edell Vrai, was appointed as the new governor of Alanciar. Shortly following the public meeting, Hilts privately confided in Vrai that his deception had been successful and had also eliminated a political rival, Korsin Bentado. Due to his services to the Tribe, Halder gained a place of honor in their society. This prestige was also enhanced by the fact that he was the first recorded Alanciari visitor to Keshtah Minor, the domain of the Tribe.

Following the Sith annexation of Alanciar, Jogan broke contact with his one-time lover Quarra since he was preoccupied with his new role and status. He became a professional hermit who visited the various cities of Alanciar in the airship Good Omen to repeat the story of his adventure. Halder's story was dramatized with the help of Keshiri actors and song-writes imported from Keshtah and gradually replaced the Observance Day plays which were based on the life of Adari Vaal, whose teachings were regarded by the new Sith authorities as outdated if not subversive. According to official rhetoric, Adari had merely been found on a rock. By contrast, Jogan had lived on one before his revelation. Thus, Jogan was regarded as the new "Rock of Kesh."

Jogan Halder was an optimistic and trusting individual, who had a passion for writing about life in Alanciar's Six Claws frontier. Halder was also an avid reader who was known to read while eating. He was known as an eloquent wordsmith who used this talent to compose various romantic letters to Quarra Thayn, a wardmaster based in Uhrar. Halder was also an excellent speaker and storyteller who was able to inform, entertain, and influence his listeners. However, he was also naive and could be easily manipulated into serving the goals of other people, particularly the Lost Tribe of the Sith. Halder ultimately fell for a "grand deception" plan that was staged by the ruling Grand Lord Varner Hilts. Halder accepted the Sith's message that they were the benign Protectors of ancient Keshiri mythology. Due to his oratory skills, Halder became the Tribe's "ambassador" to the Alanciari.

Jogan Halder was a big-built Alanciari Keshiri man who was twice the weight of his lover Quarra Thayn. He had mauve-colored skin and had closely-shaved patches of silvery beard. He was physically fit and was also adept at operating the Alanciari semaphore machines, which were used to relay signals throughout Alanciar.

Jogan Halder was first conceptualized as a supporting non-point-of-view character by John Jackson Miller for his Lost Tribe of the Sith e-novella series, which ran from May 28, 2009 to July 24, 2012. He appeared in the last story Pandemonium, which was released as part of Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith: The Collected Stories, a paperback collection of the entire series which was released on July 24, 2012. Most of his lines are told from the points-of-view of Quarra Thayn and Edell Vrai.