T'achak T'andar

T'achak T'andar, a male Chadra-Fan, started as a vehicle designer and engineer. He joined a Chadra-Fan team hired by the Incom Corporation to conceive new airspeeders and landspeeders for the company. However, he quickly grew bored with the design work and moved from the design team to the prototype testing team, where he discovered a passion for piloting vehicles at breakneck speeds. T'andar gained a reputation for pushing prototypes beyond their operational limits, demonstrating the effectiveness of his colleagues' designs. However, T'andar also had a penchant for taking the new designs on unauthorized joyrides and racing other drivers, which led to both significant wagers and wrecked vehicles.

T'andar eventually departed Incom and worked for several other companies, including Ubrikkian Industries, Aratech Repulsor Company, Ikas-Adno, and Mobquet Swoops and Speeders. In each position, T'andar would push the company's new prototypes to their absolute limits, but would inevitably take a new design for a joyride or race, and gamble heavily on it. A crash usually followed, leading to the termination of T'andar's employment. Despite crashing vehicles numerous times, T'andar consistently managed to escape unharmed, suffering only minor injuries. He attributed his continued survival to two factors. First, he always wore a crash helmet. Second, he always modified any craft he was driving with a device he called a "redbutton sissy strap." This modification was a seat belt or restraint designed to keep the rider secured to the vehicle. In emergencies, the pilot could release it using a small explosive charge to eject themselves clear.

After exhausting opportunities with design companies, T'andar worked for several planet-based smuggling operations and a swoop gang before finally enlisting as a repulsorlift engineer for the New Republic. The New Republic attempted to utilize his talents effectively while preventing him from causing too much damage. Consequently, he was assigned to solitary patrol duties on remote planetary outposts. In 8 ABY, shortly before the Battle of Kal'Shebbol, T'andar was transferred to support operations for Page's Commandos, although he failed to make a positive impression on the unit commander, Lieutenant Judder Page.

T'andar served with the task force tasked with liberating Kal'Shebbol, located in the Kathol sector of the Outer Rim Territories, from the Galactic Empire. Elements of Page's Commandos infiltrated the Imperial headquarters and deactivated the planetary shields, enabling the New Republic to liberate the planet. Following the New Republic's victory, a mission was authorized to pursue the local Imperial warlord, Moff Kentor Sarne. Sarne had governed Kal'Shebbol and managed to escape the planet during the battle with a substantial portion of his forces. As Sarne was still believed to pose a threat to the region's security, the CR90 corvette FarStar was assigned to search for him and neutralize any danger he presented. While much of the corvette's crew was recruited from Kal'Shebbol's civilian population due to a personnel shortage, T'andar was one of the few New Republic personnel transferred to the vessel at Lieutenant Page's direction. T'andar was appointed as the ship's repulsorlift chief and spent much of his time in the vessel's maintenance bay performing unauthorized "improvements" on the FarStar's small fleet of ground vehicles to enhance their performance, in his opinion.

Several months into the voyage, the FarStar halted at Yvara on the edge of the Kathol Rift. The planet served as the homeworld of the Yvarema species, a hive-minded race to which one of T'andar's crewmates, Gunthar, belonged. Captain Kaiya Adrimetrum, the commanding officer of the FarStar, ordered the ship to land for routine maintenance and authorized teams to search the surrounding area for food. T'andar welcomed the opportunity to take the ground vehicles for a spin, eagerly anticipating the chance to race across open terrain. After departing Yvara, the FarStar eventually located Sarne in the Kathol system, engaging the Moff's forces in combat. The FarStar crew successfully defeated Sarne, eliminating the threat he posed to the sector's stability.

T'achak T'andar was covered in brown hair and possessed black eyes. He was a cheerful, carefree individual whose primary passion was the thrill of piloting fast vehicles. He was also willing to push a craft beyond its design limits to determine its maximum speed or cornering ability. T'andar prioritized the maintenance of his craft, ensuring they functioned correctly and modifying them to extract additional performance. T'andar frequently discussed modifying craft with other technicians by circumventing safety procedures. Despite his love for high-speed vehicles, he prioritized his safety and often incorporated mechanisms into the craft to facilitate escape from accidents unharmed.

T'andar also enjoyed gambling, typically on the vehicle he was piloting and its speed. However, he was also willing to bet on anything that moved quickly. This trait often led to the termination of his employment. T'andar was skilled at piloting ground, hover, and repulsorlift vehicles, and he could perform repairs on the latter. He could also assess the value of any repulsorlift vehicle he encountered. While on duty, T'andar typically wore a pilot uniform and crash helmet.

T'achak T'andar was created as a member of the FarStar's support crew in the first book of The DarkStryder Campaign, published by West End Games in 1995. Initially, his character was not intended to be mentioned in any subsequent supplements, granting the gamemaster or any player portraying his character control over his fate. However, T'andar did receive a mention in the third book of the campaign, The Kathol Rift, in the adventure Home when the players were given the chance to deploy the FarStar's ground vehicles to search for food supplies.

T'andar was later namechecked in 2010's The Unknown Regions, a sourcebook for Wizards of the Coast's Star Wars Roleplaying Game, as an example name for Chadra-Fan characters.