- "He is a mercenary and assassin by training, yet he is also a man of passion."
- ―Tychon Nulvolio
Soujen Vak-Nhalis was a Alvadorjian male who grew up Ylagia. During the Clone Wars he worked as a mercenary. During the first few months of the Clone Wars, he was contracted by the Confederacy of Independent Systems to a mission on Leyoye Prime. He completed his objective, planting a bomb in a city, without encountering problems, however without the means to exfiltrate, he joined Separatist forces trapped on the planet. During that mission he encountered a Jedi, witnessing their power and developing a sense of terror on them.[1]
At some point during the war, he was approached by Techno Union representatives and Tychon Nulvolio on his homeworld, as they wanted to recruit him. The curse of his people, a biological mutability, made him a promising candidate for cybernetic implantation. Vak-Nhalis obliged and was subsequently upgraded with several cybernetic implants by a Confederate surgeon team on the planet Skako under Doctor Ro-Yai. With these modifications, he was to become an operative capable of assassination, sabotage, and even was selected as a part of a contingency plan of the Confederacy to continue the war on the Republic in case of military defeat.[1]
He was stored in a hibernation pod in a cache on the planet Eyo-Dajuritz which, after the end of the Clone Wars, was raided by Krezchak and his pirate crew in around 19 BBY. However, the pirate's ship was soon raided by the revolutionary Saw Gerrera and his Partisans, who captured Vak-Nhalis in the process. Awakened from hibernation, Vak-Nhalis sought vengeance against the newly formed Galactic Empire, agreeing to work with Gerrera to lead him to the cache where he had been in stasis. During their mission on Eyo-Dajuritz, Vak-Nhalis abandoned Gerrera's group and would briefly ally himself with Senator Bail Prestor Organa to present evidence exonerating the Jedi, he found in the databank of the cache, to the chief justice of the Empire. They traveled to Coruscant together, although they would separate and he subsequently fled Imperial forces becoming a wanted fugitive. Vak-Nhalis attempted to assassinate Emperor Palpatine, but was instead killed by Senator Mon Mothma, who activated his self-destruct mechanism by sequentially uttering the hardcoded words "oubliette" and "sublime."[1]
Appearances
- Reign of the Empire: The Mask of Fear (and audiobook) (First appearance)
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 Reign of the Empire: The Mask of Fear
- ↑
Star Wars: Edge of the Abyss on Penguin Books' official United Kingdom website (backup link) establishes the events of Reign of the Empire: The Mask of Fear take place thirteen years before the events of Reign of the Empire: Edge of the Abyss. 
Rebecca Roanhorse (@rebeccaroanhorse) on Instagram (post): "Title and updated release date of my upcoming STAR WARS novel announced at SDCC. THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS takes place a year before Andor S1." (backup link) states that Edge of the Abyss takes place a year before the events of Andor Season 1, which are set in 5 BBY per the reasoning here. Therefore, the events of Edge of the Abyss must be set in 6 BBY, and the events of The Mask of Fear in 19 BBY.