Cope Shykrill
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- "If you want to know whether the shadows spoke to me before or after I became a Jedi, I can't say."
- ―Cope Shykrill
Cope Shykrill was a male Padawan of Jedi Master Sar Agorn, and a member of the early Galactic Republic and Jedi Order, circa 25,000 BBY. Discovered by Agorn and Nuck Lyu on Sarcophagus, the graveyard moon of Sacorria, Shykrill became a member of the Jedi Order and excelled in his studies. Soon, however, it was discovered that Shykrill had fallen to the dark side of the Force and was responsible for the murder of three of his fellow Jedi trainees. Seeing no other recourse, Agorn and Lyu killed the young Jedi. The tale of his fall to the dark side was recounted in the Great Holocron by Master Agorn.
Biography[edit | edit source]
Early life[edit | edit source]
- "You do not understand. I designed the weapon, and it still took me nearly two months to throw it with consistent accuracy. Cope Shykrill's ability is not merely uncanny. It is unnatural."
- ―Nuck Lyu
Cope Shykrill was a male, born to a family of groundskeepers on Sarcophagus, the moon of Sacorria. According to the Great Holocron, around 25,000 BBY, Jedi Master Sar Agorn and his fellow Jedi had been searching for other Force-sensitives in the outlying systems of the Corellian sector. On Sarcophagus, they landed and met a Selonian widower who had just witnessed a Shykrill using the Force to lower his wife's coffin into the ground. After being contacted by Agorn, Shykrill's parents were more than grateful to the Jedi for expressing interest in their child. Shykrill left with Master Agorn to become a Jedi, and blossomed under his tutelage. Agorn took notice of the zeal with which Shykrill went about his studies. He was pleased by the boy's pleasant demeanor when requesting further study, and how he never asked a wrong question or even gave a wrong answer.
To Agorn, Shykrill had become quite the poster-child in his group of students. Yet his peers felt differently. Nuck Lyu, a close friend of Agorn, was the first to express concern about Shykrill. Lyu had been instructing a group of Jedi on how to use the Force to throw a new weapon of his own creation at wooden targets. During the lesson, Master Lyu was surprised at how Shykrill excelled over the others by repeatedly hitting the targets with precise efficiency. Agorn however, was not too concerned and wrote off the event, seeing as how he considered Shykrill a prodigy amongst his peers. Lyu was not convinced, saying that the Padawan was learning far too quickly, surpassing even Lyu's proficiency. Lyu then returned to his post at Esseles, leaving with Master Agorn samples of his new blade. He also gave a stern warning to Agorn, telling him to pay closer attention to Shykrill, who was still a Watchman-in-training himself.
Encountering the dark side[edit | edit source]
- "The shadows are in my head! Get them out!"
- ―Nosaurian Padawan
Some time later, Agorn found a group of trainees around a campfire. A Fian, a Nosaurian, and a Human sat around the fire being entertained by Shykrill, who was using his hands and the firelight to make animated shadows against a stone wall. Shykrill told a compelling story of two brothers, one good and one bad. The good brother sought to plant seeds and grow vegetables, while the bad brother sought to consume them. His audience laughed as Shykrill made the good brother seem very knowledgeable, while the bad brother seemed like quite the blunderer.
Yet as Master Agorn watched Shykrill's hands cast their shadows from a distance, feelings of envy and shame came over him. He retreated to his own quarters in confusion as he tried to meditate on what he had felt. Twenty-three minutes later, Agorn was startled by the sound of screams. The screaming attracted every Jedi in the camp, and they all set out for the campfire. Agorn was horrified to find Shykrill, the Human, and the Fian lying on the ground covered in blood. The Nosaurian stood amidst the fray, tightly clutching one of Lyu's weapons. The other Jedi realized that it was he who had cut down his mates. The Nosaurian began screaming that there were shadows in his mind. With that, he slashed his own throat and collapsed, now joining the Human and Fian in death. Shykrill, however, survived.
Death[edit | edit source]
- "You know they speak to me. They spoke to you, too. I heard them. They made you wish you had hands of your own."
- ―Cope Shykrill
Some weeks passed before Shykrill was mobile again. Though he was still bandaged, Master Agorn encouraged the Padawan to join him for a walk. Shykrill wasn't the least bit surprised when Agorn led him back to where his fellow trainees had met their demise. Agorn informed the young man that he'd seen part of his "shadowplay", and he was astonished that Shykrill was quite the storyteller. He then asked the boy if the "shadows" ever spoke to him. Shykrill responded that Agorn knew the truth already, and that the shadows indeed had spoken to them both, but Shykrill was unsure whether it had started before or after he had become a Jedi. Agorn pressed on further, now asking whether Shykrill represented the good brother or bad brother from his shadowplay. Shykrill stated simply that he was the brother who lived, and that Agorn would soon join the shadows himself.
Agorn was suddenly overwhelmed with extreme cold, and feelings of dread and sickness that attacked him inside and out. Yet as quickly as he was assaulted by these feelings, they dissipated; as he looked upon Shykrill, he saw the boy's head fall to the ground, having met the blade of one of Lyu's signature weapons. It was Nuck Lyu himself who'd hurled the weapon from his hiding spot, having been secretly summoned from Esseles by Agorn. The pair instinctively knew that Shykrill had been responsible for the trainees' deaths, and they had believed that the only way to free him of his evil was to end his life.
Powers and abilities[edit | edit source]
From an early age, Cope Shykrill was talented in telekinesis, which he demonstrated on his homeworld of Sarcophagus by lowering a coffin into a grave. He further demonstrated his telekinetic abilities by excelling in throwing lessons given by Master Lyu. Shykrill was so skilled that he made Lyu uncomfortable, as the youngling had mastered a skill that Lyu himself had taken much longer to master. Shykrill also seemed to be somewhat skilled in Dominate Mind, having caused a Nosaurian Padawan to murder two others and attack Shykrill as well. This could have also been an instinctual application of Torture by Chagrin or Force Horror. His attack on Master Agorn suggests that he knew some form of the Force drain ability, based on how Agorn describes feeling at the onset of the assault. He didn't seem to be too adept at Force sense, as he was clearly unaware of Lyu's presence behind him, resulting in his death.
Behind the scenes[edit | edit source]
The story of Cope Shykrill is recounted by Master Agorn as he talks about his first encounter with what he described as a "Dark Jedi." The story appears in Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force.
Sources[edit | edit source]
This page was moved from wook:en:Cope Shykrill. It's edit history can be viewed at Cope Shykrill/edithistory
