Darro Leithan is a Mandalorian-born force-sensitive who was born to his parents in Sundari and recruited into the ranks of the order. Raised on some of the principles as a youngling, he was one of the more mischievous children who would often sneak out. Sometimes to watch the masters train out in the courtyard, the most prominent who performed among the padawans being Masters Mace Windu, Obi-Wan, and Yoda during their training sessions. And though there were days when he was caught and in trouble. There were others where he looked on well enough to mock and sometimes mimic the master's gestures. One of the roaming masters was Kai Duwa an influential figure in the child's growth over the few short years they had together.
It was a time of growth and understanding between initiates and masters before they could be selected. When everything changed, order 66 changed everything. When chaos flew into the walls of the Jedi Temple and lives were snuffed out, both young and old. Darro was one of the few children to escape with Kai Duwa as his guide. Leading them out of the temple's flames and down into the depths of Coruscant. There, Darro witnessed the Ithorian Master's final stand in his defense alongside a group of his fellow younglings. The master fell, Darro joining him, and rose to clutch the giant lightsaber. With only the wish to do more, he would never honestly know what order 66 was about or why as he'd escape to the undercity hangers where an unfortunate fated attempt to stowaway led to the young boy's abduction. Of all ships, Darro entered and got himself tangled in the hands of Hondo Ohnaka's pirates. A group that had their fill of mischief. Since Jedi were high prizes and rare, Hondo had infinite choices but chose to bide his time. Keeping the youngling prisoner, Hondo's hospitality weaved between charismatic and charming to borderline sadistic and insane.
The Weequay pirate had his share of games, gambling the boy's life in high-stakes games. Fights with beasts, and rogue droids, in exchange for the cover from a newly grown empire and the horrors that were inevitably coming. Darro had mixed feelings about Hondo, thinking him both a chaotic jerk and an exciting friend at the time. Hondo, on the other hand, regarded Darro as a son, despite always knowing the day would come when the boy would have to leave.
A plot brought on by some very unhappy Hutts resulted in the Empire attacking Hondo's compound amid the confusion of pirates and stormtroopers in a chaotic battle. Hondo pulled Darro aside and plotted to escape; however, they were not together.
Darro had to learn many skills with the pirate. Whether it be hacking, learning how to pick security, minor repairs, swinging a Vibroblade, occasionally how to shoot, and finally, piloting, something he had quite a good handle on thanks to his advanced instincts. Things that he'd hardly known to be the Force's influence over him.
And with these skills, Hondo would ensure Darro that he would escape as he presented a "commandeered'' YV-929 model to the teenager. Whether he meant to use Darro as bait, send him to his death, or facilitate his escape thoroughly, the two had said their goodbyes in a bittersweet dialogue and as many vessels made way to escape the onslaught of Tie's. Darro was swarmed, and his ship received its share of damage just as it made the Hyperspace leap. The vessel, amid the flight, made the leap into the dimension of hyperspace; however, things fell apart from there.
His vessel overshot and fell from hyperspace and furthermore missed a departure lane, with him descending into Other Space. A mirror-like dimension where the mass of black had been reversed to a storm grey realm, spotted with black formulations mirroring that of nebulae, stars, planets, and other celestial bodies. A place that he found himself stranded in for many years.
Darro’s blind flight brought him to a mysterious planet ruled by an insectoid alien race known as the Charon. A species of Humanoid-Arachnid creatures whose system was close to that of a black hole within this dimension. His ship crash-landed on their planet after the remnants of previously destroyed vessels near their planet were impacted with his YT. The brutal race of Aliens often visited with the intent to explore and kill survivors of vessels much like his own, which made Darro’s conflicts with them a demoralizing and hellish endeavor every so often when he received their attention.
The Charon became a regular occurrence, hunting Darro and other rare visitors in their ultimate quest to abide by their death cult. Sometimes, they would gather in large groups and invade the junkyards in search of the rogue youth with hopes of killing and capturing him. Methods changed, but the efforts never ceased as Darro was forced to survive in these circumstances for many years. Feeding on the fallen Charon, gathering parts from the many broken ships and vehicles he’d encountered, and helping people lost in this wild space to find shelter and discover a way to escape the hellish dimension.
Regarded widely as the Feral Shade, people who survived there or managed to escape spread tales about him as the man who appeared with a beam sword in hand. Warding off the Charon with unseen magic and disappearing about as quickly as he arrived.
In his many years there, Darro was able to use a computer system connected to a set of Mandalorian gauntlets named AR-C0 that was connected to his vessel. In addition to using AR-C0 to repair and reprogram a quartet of BX-Commando Droids that had held together just enough to be salvaged. In addition to upgrading and repairing his vessel for himself to escape. However, before he could, Darro gathered a sane group of survivors, a group of ten including some of the reasonable members of the Charon, when he escaped leaving behind a defensive capital.
The hyperspace leap brought him back to realspace; however, he was much further ahead in time. The Jedi, mere remnants, an empire defeated, and the hellfire of rising threats against a new republic on the rise. And catching the attention of specific figures with his return. It was so overwhelming for a man who had just breached through his late twenties and was lost in a new Galaxy.
Far, far, away…
