Dalien Brock

Dalien Brock, the younger sibling of Lanoree, spent his formative years on Tython at the Temple of Arts, Bodhi. His parents were Je'daii Master Brock and his wife. Both Dalien and his sister were encouraged to artistically express themselves, with Dalien showing a particular fondness for drawing and painting during his childhood. He had a love of fruit, with Mepples being a favorite. Due to his Force-sensitivity, Dalien was allowed to live on Tython and study to become a Je'daii. However, he held the conviction that the Je'daii were not truly independent, as they were subservient to the Force and constrained by its dictates. This conviction led him to eventually reject the Force, reacting with fury whenever his sister attempted to connect with his thoughts telepathically. Each time his family visited the Edge Forest to revel in the Force energies emanating from the abundant life forms, the young Dalien would dissolve into tears due to his family's lack of concern for his sentiments and their persistent efforts to coerce him into embracing the Force. Instead, he shifted his focus to history, delving into the ancient civilizations of Tython and contemplating the mysteries of the stars. His mother was troubled by this, fearing that it would lead him down a path away from Tython. During his childhood, his grandfather bequeathed him a well-worn blaster pistol, a weapon he would treasure and keep throughout his life.

As he entered adolescence, Dalien embarked on his Great Journey with his older sister, departing from Bodhi on foot. Their initial destination was Qigong Kesh, the Temple of Force Skills, during which they survived encounters with both hook hawks and silik lizards. There, they received training from Master Ter'cay, who guided them to the Silent Desert, employing Force telepathy to communicate with them, although Dalien was unable to perceive Ter'cay through the Force. Subsequently, they journeyed to Stav Kesh, the Temple of Martial Arts, where they were ambushed by a flame tygah. Dalien engaged the creature directly with his blaster pistol, eschewing any reliance on the Force, prompting his sister to intervene when his blaster malfunctioned. Upon arriving at Stav Kesh with burns sustained during the attack, the siblings trained under Master Tave, initially focusing on the significance of breathing in combat. Throughout their training, Dalien persisted in his rejection of the Force, despite his sister's attempts to encourage its utilization. When he successfully struck Tave without employing the Force, his sister cautioned him that Tave had deliberately allowed it to instill confidence, rather than indicating any weakness in the Force.

On one occasion, during a training session led by Master Kin'ade that required the Journeyers to engage in combat while deprived of their physical senses against the Darrow sphere, Dalien resorted to indiscriminate firing with his blaster, resulting in injuries to his sister and endangering other Journeyers, before Kin'ade incapacitated him. Following this incident, Kin'ade and the Brocks were summoned to provide their accounts of the event to Temple Master Lha-Mi. Dalien asserted that he had merely failed in his earnest efforts to allow the Force to guide his aim. While Lha-Mi concluded to the group that Dalien had acted recklessly out of enthusiasm, he privately warned Lanoree of the profound darkness lurking within her brother.

On their final day at Stav Kesh, a group of Journeyers, including the Brocks, were instructed to engage in sparring matches. Dalien believed he had defeated his sister but was ultimately knocked back by a Force punch, concluding the fight. Before their departure, Lha-Mi reiterated his warning to Lanoree, urging her to remain vigilant of her brother's escalating instability and the potential danger he posed.

The Brocks then made their way to Anil Kesh, the Temple of Science, growing further apart with each step. Along their journey, they traversed the [Moon Channel](/article/moon_channel] unescorted, collaborating to survive attacks from a swarm of gelfish and a sea serpent. Upon reaching the Temple, Dalien found satisfaction in his sister's discomfort caused by the Force Storms emanating from the Chasm beneath the temple. While Lanoree pursued her studies at the Temple, Dalien ventured into the Riftlands with Master Quan-Jang and nine other Journeyers to gather samples for the laboratories. However, Dalien fled into the Abyss of Ruh, compelling Master Quan-Jang and other Je'daii to pursue and retrieve him. Upon returning to Anil Kesh, Dalien confronted his sister and another Journeyer, Skott Yun. Yun attempted to apprehend Dalien, but the disillusioned young man fatally shot Yun and fled. With his sister in pursuit, Dalien escaped across the Red Desert and sought refuge in the Old City, where he orchestrated his own apparent demise in the depths beneath the ancient city. Lanoree discovered only his bloodied, tattered clothing, leading her and the Je'daii to believe Dalien had perished, as he had intended.

After escaping Tython, Dalien remained hidden for the subsequent nine years, gradually developing an all-consuming obsession with escaping the Tython system. Severing all connections to the Force, leaving only emptiness in his heart, Dalien became affiliated with a clandestine group known as the Stargazers, secretly led by some of the system's most influential business leaders and philanthropists. Seeking to expedite their plans for leaving the system, the Stargazers manipulated events to ensure that Dalien would serve as the public figurehead of a Stargazer faction, utilizing Gree schematics to activate a legendary hypergate rumored to exist within the Old City. Guided by the diary of Osamael Or, Dalien and his cabal initiated a plan to construct a device that would power the hypergate, enabling their departure from Tython. When a member of the Stargazer leadership, Kara, leaked information about Dalien's scheme to the Je'daii, the Je'daii Council dispatched Lanoree Brock to apprehend him and neutralize the threat.

Dalien and his faction were operating from a Dai Bendu temple on the Khar Peninsula of Kalimahr when Kara informed him that his sister was investigating him. Reacting swiftly, Dalien and his followers abandoned the temple and fled to Nox, leaving behind a bomb in an attempt to eliminate Lanoree. Despite his efforts to evade Lanoree's pursuit, Dalien was tracked to Nox, and with the assistance of the crimelord Maxhagan, Dalien was located once again. Deep within the secret laboratories of Pan Deep, Dalien was reunited with his sister as the device for activating the hypergate neared completion. Unwilling to harm his sister, Dalien departed Pan Deep with the Stargazers, leaving behind a Cathar Stargazer to assassinate her. Although a distraction from Sana allowed Lanoree to blind the Cathar, the pair narrowly survived the Cathar's suicide bombing. Unaware that Lanoree had placed a tracking device on his boot, Dalien was followed to Ran Dan's Folly, a small mining outpost on Sunspot, where Dalien intended to charge the device in preparation for the hypergate. Despite Lanoree's attempts to intervene, she was unable to prevent Dalien from charging his device with a marionium cube. Before departing once more, Dalien shot his sister in the chest, leaving her for dead as he returned to Tython.

Upon arriving on Tython amidst a massive Force Storm, Dalien's Stargazers lost control of their ship, crashing thirty kilometers from the Old City. Undeterred by these setbacks, Dalien descended into the labyrinthine caves beneath the city until he located the hypergate and prepared to activate it. Before he could proceed, Dalien was interrupted by his sister, who attempted to dissuade him by projecting a cherished memory of their childhood into his mind, followed by visions of the horrors she had witnessed on Nox, Sunspot, and Tython during her pursuit. Tormented by these images, Dalien cried out in agony, providing his sister with an opportunity to Force push him backwards. Even as he gradually recovered, Lanoree believed that he was defeated and anticipated his retreat. Instead of fleeing, Dalien launched a frenzied attack on Lanoree, plunging a blade into her palm and striking her repeatedly. However, even with one hand wounded, his sister remained undeterred. With her sword and the aid of the Force, she expertly defended against all his attacks. Finally, Dalien threw a knife at her face, which she deflected with the Force. Hoping that this diversion would create an opening to activate the device, Dalien lunged towards it, prompting Lanoree to kill him. She severed his right arm and embedded her blade in his skull. Sensing his demise, Lanoree abandoned Dalien's corpse in the cavern as she returned to Anil Kesh. When Je'daii Master Kin'ade returned to retrieve it, Dalien's body had mysteriously vanished.

From a young age, Dalien exhibited a strong sense of individuality, taking pride in his self-reliance. During his time on Tython, he came to reject the Force, believing that the Je'daii were enslaved to it since they served it and were bound by its constraints. His rejection of the Force intensified during adolescence, dismissing even praise from Je'daii Masters and scorning any mention of the Force. Whenever Lanoree or any Je'daii attempted to touch his mind using the Force, even to express affection and concern, he reacted with intense revulsion. The persistent efforts of his family and masters to instruct him in the ways of the Force, despite his rejection of it, also led him to develop dissatisfaction towards his family and Je'daii society. He withdrew into himself and harbored elaborate fantasies of forging his own destiny, free from the Force and escaping beyond the stars. Instead of embracing the Force, he turned his attention to the stars, with his ultimate goal being to leave the system. He contrasted what he perceived as Je'daii enslavement to the Force with his own strong sense of independence, which was so paramount to him that he reproached Lanoree for saving his life from a flame tygah, preferring to die self-reliant than to live with the assistance of another.

Nine years after he faked his death, Lanoree observed that he had grown taller and thinner, and that his childhood melancholy had transformed into adult bitterness. By that time, his hair was streaked with gray, and he bore a scar on his left cheek, but he disregarded these changes due to his unwavering dedication to reactivating the hypergate.

During his Je'daii training and his years in hiding, Dalien meticulously trained himself to completely sever his connection to the living Force. Je'daii were unable to sense his presence, and he could detect and resist any attempts to probe his mind. To a Je'daii, Dalien's presence felt like both an absence, devoid of both Light and Dark, and something solid and impenetrable. He imparted similar techniques to the Stargazers, although they did not achieve the same level of mastery as Dalien.

Although Dalien did not master the ways of the Force, his sister noted that his skills had always been in combat. During his Great Journey, he was capable of using Alchaka techniques. In his final duel with his sister, he demonstrated tactical acumen in exploiting her wounded hand, driving the knife deeper into her palm and repeatedly targeting it to keep her on the defensive. He was capable of throwing knives with precision, but ultimately, his martial abilities were insufficient to overcome a Je'daii who possessed full command of the Force.