Vellis San Tekka

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"I don’t think you have to worry about another Legacy Run. Our guess, based on more than a century of experience out there in the lanes…"
"…this was a onetime event."

―Vellis and Marlowe San Tekka on the Great Hyperspace Disaster^[1]

Vellis San Tekka was a human male who was one of the heads of the San Tekka clan, a family that helped chart new paths through hyperspace for the Galactic Republic and achieved great wealth from doing so. He lived during the High Republic Era and resided in a compound on the planet Naboo alongside his husband Marlowe.

In 232 BBY, Jedi Master Avar Kriss and Jedi Knight Elzar Mann visited Vellis and his husband at their home on the planet Naboo. The Jedi asked them for help in calculating the next occurrences of the Emergences, large pieces of debris from the Legacy Run freighter that shot out of hyperspace at near-lightspeed as a result of the Great Hyperspace Disaster, and the husbands agreed to send their best analysts and programs to help Keven Tarr with his proposed system for calculating the timing and locations of the Emergences.

The Jedi also asked if they believed that the disaster could have been caused by the Legacy Run encountering another ship or foreign object in hyperspace, but Vellis and Marlowe insisted that was not the cause because it was impossible to encounter anything in hyperspace. However, the husbands secretly suspected what happened could have been related to Mari San Tekka, a member of the San Tekka clan with extraordinary abilities who had gone missing long ago. The husbands later visited the completed array and advised Chancellor Lina Soh on the Great Disaster, before hiring Tarr to work for them.

Biography[]

Early life[]

"If you want to know about hyperspace, I have the people you should talk to."

―Izzet Noor on the San Tekkas^[1]

Vellis San Tekka was a human male who married Marlowe San Tekka, the scion of the San Tekka clan. The clan had considerable wealth that it had gained through hyperspace prospecting, largely due to Mari San Tekka, a family member who had the ability to sense and discover hyperspace routes called Paths who eventually went missing. Vellis and Marlowe became friends with Galactic Republic Senator Izzet Noor, who believed that no one knew about hyperspace as much as they did. The husbands lived together in a scenic compound on the planet Naboo.^[1]

Assisting the Jedi[]

"Are you absolutely certain a collision is impossible, Vellis?" […]
"Hyperspace is not like realspace. Once a ship—or anything else—enters it, there’s no way to encounter anything. You’re in a bubble of space-time that nothing else can interact with, because each lane is, as far as we can tell, its own distinct plane of existence."

―Avar Kriss and Vellis San Tekka^[1]

In 232 BBY,^[5] Jedi Master Avar Kriss and Jedi Knight Elzar Mann visited Vellis and Marlowe at the suggestion of Senator Noor, who referred the Jedi to them for their hyperspace expertise. Vellis invited them to sit and informed them that they had just tried one of his favorite drinks, the attar of spinsilk, offering for them to try anything else they wanted. Kriss and Mann explained that a technician from the Hetzal system named Keven Tarr was attempting to create a navidroid array that could calculate the timing and location of the Emergences, pieces of debris exiting hyperspace at near-lightspeed as a result of the Great Hyperspace Disaster. Genuinely caring about saving lives, Vellis offered to send their best navulators—hyperspace specialists—with their unique algorithms that could model hyperspace routes, hoping that they could refine Tarr's system.^[1]

Mann eventually revealed that they were also there with the hopes of understanding the cause of the Great Hyperspace Disaster and presented a theory the Republic held to the San Tekkas that the Legacy Run, the freighter that had come apart in hyperspace and caused the event, had come into contact with another object in hyperspace and broke apart while attempting to maneuver around it, presenting Vellis with a datachip with all of their information. Vellis dismissed the hypothesis, insisting that it made no sense because it was impossible to encounter other ships or any other object in hyperspace and thus would be unnecessary to make such a maneuver. Vellis and Marlowe instead suggested that a mutiny aboard the transport or a ship malfunction had led to the incident. Although Mann stuck by the hypothesis, both Vellis and his husband continued to insist that no near-collision could happen and assured them the disaster was likely a one-time event, though Vellis agreed to look at data they provided.^[1]

The Jedi departed soon after, leaving the husbands alone to discuss the possibility that Mari San Tekka had been behind what happened, a possibility they deliberately hid from the Jedi. Vellis told his husband that he deeply hoped that she was not still alive. Unbeknownst to them, the elderly woman had indeed survived, kept alive by Marchion Ro, a member of the Nihil marauders who had purposefully ordered a Stormship to travel through the Legacy Run's path to cause the disaster.^[1]

Finding truth[]

"I was given to understand that something like this was impossible."
"It should be impossible, Chancellor."

―Chancellor Lina Soh and Vellis San Tekka^[1]

CoSWTHR Predicting Emergences — Vellis and Marlowe use their hyperspace algorithms.

The San Tekkas later traveled to Hetzal Prime's Rooted Moon to see Tarr's navidroid array that he had constructed with the help of their hyperspace modeling tools and twelve of their navulators, which was able to predict new Emergences. In one such event, the Republic obtained the Legacy Run's flight recorder, which proved that the freighter had encountered another ship in hyperspace. When consulted by Supreme Chancellor Lina Soh, Vellis admitted that what happened should have been impossible but they both still insisted that the event was nothing more than a freak accident. However, they suggested that the Nihil's bizarre use of hyperspace be investigated immediately. Acting on this information, Republic Defense Coalition forces along with Jedi aid engaged the Nihil at the Battle of Kur, resulting in a Republic victory. In the aftermath of the conflict, the San Tekkas brought Keven Tarr aboard to work for them and in their interests.^[1]

At some point by 231 BBY,^[6] Vellis and his husband became very involved in the Church of the Force, a religion that had grown in popularity on Naboo^[4] and had long-standing connections with the San Tekka clan.^[7] They mentioned it in passing to their niece, Jordanna Sparkburn,^[4] around 231 BBY^[8] when she was making a situation report. She became fascinated with it and mentioned her uncles and their involvement with the religion while discussing why people such join organizations with her ex-girlfriend, Sylvestri Yarrow.^[4]

Legacy[]

"So if you ever need to find someone, something, or somewhere in the galaxy, you better find a San Tekka."

―A commentary on the San Teka clan^[9]

Centuries later, a descendant of Vellis and Marlowe, Lor San Tekka,^[9] became a well-known explorer, joining the Church of the Force and becoming an ally of the New Republic, Resistance, and^[10] Jedi Master^[11] Luke Skywalker, who he helped Leia Organa locate when the Jedi went missing.^[10]

Personality and traits[]

"We are all the Republic."

―Vellis San Tekka^[1]

Vellis was a pale human with blond hair and blue eyes, much like his husband, though Vellis's facial features were sharper and more angular than Marlowe's. Vellis maintained a relaxed air while speaking with Master Kriss, which Kriss suspected was due to his privileged life. He was incredibly welcoming of the Jedi into their home, even offering them refreshments, but he and his husband preferred to keep the secrets of his family private and withheld certain facts from them, going so far as to lie before them. Nevertheless, they refused to let the people of the galaxy suffer due to the Emergences, and offered significant help to the Republic, Vellis believing in it enough to use the slogan "We are all the Republic." Although Kriss recognized that both Vellis and Marlowe had kept information from the Jedi, she believed their contributions to the Emergences task force were sincere and generous.^[1]

Skills and abilities[]

"They're an odd bunch, but no one knows more about hyperspace than they do."

―Izzet Noor, referring to Marlowe and the San Tekkas^[1]

Like others in his family, Vellis was an expert in hyperspace and was renowned for his knowledge on the subject. He was also able to discreetly communicate with his husband Marlowe, wordlessly passing thoughts and information between each other that even Jedi Master Kriss could not discern.^[1]

Behind the scenes[]

"Overseen by scions Marlon and Vellis San Tekka, the [San Tekka] clan operates in close conjunction with the Republic, and becomes crucial to its response to the Great Disaster."

―Charles Soule^[3]

Vellis San Tekka appeared in the 2021 novel The High Republic: Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule.^[1] He was first mentioned by Soule in an interview for a StarWars.com article on July 23, 2020^[3] and was first pictured in the second episode of Star Wars: The High Republic Show on March 29, 2021.^[9]