Physical Description:
Rylaa always keeps his rather greasy brown hair at shoulder length and his moustache well trimmed. His broad shoulders and seemingly pudgy physique hide the well layered slabs of muscles he has spent many years toning. Rylaa is not a handsome fellow, and he knows it. His nose a little too long, his chin a little too doubled, and a rather large stomach droops over his belt.

Professional History:
Rylaa prides himself on the fact that he has at least sampled all of the major, and most of the minor, crimes in the galaxy. He has been a criminal almost all his life and sees no reason not to continue.

Background:
An unidentified woman delivered a small child onto the steps of a small Jedi Enclave on Corellia one day. The Jedi, of course, took him in and raised him as best they could, hoping that he would be Force sensitive enough to one day begin training. Well, Rylaa, as Jedi Master Roguudaa Lyssander named him, was not sensitive to the Force and would never be a Jedi. His instincts, however, seemed unnaturally sharp for one so young. He always seemed to know when he was in trouble or when something bad was about to happen. He was able to evade potentially bad situations, such as a spanking for doing something wrong. Rylaa was never the easy child. He was always in trouble for stealing, or for trying to con another child into buying a broken toy speederbike, and at the ripe old age of 12 he left the Enclave to seek adventure for himself. He didn't find trouble. It found him.

Rylaa, taking the last name of his foster father, attempted to stow away on a cargo ship in Coronet. He didn't care where it was going, he just wanted to go somewhere. As is always the case, CorSec, doing their standard security sweep, found him hiding in a vat of Corellian Saber Juice. They hauled him, still dripping from the noxious substance, to the Coronet Juvenile Center. It was there that he would officially step into organized crime.

Staying in the cell with Rylaa was a young punk who styled himself Razor. A silly name, but one that made him sound tough. Razor decided to take Robert under his wing, teach him the way of things and how the galaxy worked. Razor was a con artist by trade, and a gang leader by choice. He began to teach Rylaa the fine art of what he called "Making the Deal", a phrase that Robert uses to this day. Everything from your smalltime one mark con, to planet spanning scams was learned in the three years he was there. Rylaa learned everything quickly, picking it up after only one explanation. He had found his niche, as well as a friend. Rylaa spent four years at the CJC, emerging with a high school diploma and drive to succeed. What most people call greed.

Rylaa decided to start up a small time scam in Coronet right away. He called in a few buddies he knew had gotten out earlier from the CJC and jumped right into a pyramid scam aimed at quick cash. Rylaa definitely had the knack from crime and his scheme went off without a hitch. His friends and colleagues quickly recognized Rylaa as a natural and intelligent leader, gifted with the ability to dream up and hatch a scheme with almost no difficulties cropping up. One year later, his gang had started calling him Slick, able to pull a heist and knock a mark for his money faster than a gamorrean can stink. Rylaa, however, was bored. He needed to find a challenge. So, he pooled his money together, stole everything the gang had and pawned it, and jumped planet. He arrived soon after on Coruscant, seat of the Republic and home to hundreds of powerful crime lords. It was time he got himself a real education.

The name of one of the premier crime lords on Coruscant at the time was Janzo Ferriti, a Twi'lek who had risen to power swiftly in the gnort-eat-gnort world of crime. Rylaa needed to impress this boss in order to get indoctrinated into the gang, which was well over 5 thousand members strong. Scam after scam, scheme after scheme went off, and soon Rylaa was taken before the Boss himself. An hour later, Rylaa was eating at the personal table of Janzo and the two were laughing like old friends. His charm and attitude had paid off again. He began his education right away, and he wanted to know everything. He got himself involved in as many operations as possible, sometimes as an operative, sometimes as an overseer.

From blackmailing to blackballing, theft to hijacking, murder to assassination, Rylaa did it all. He amazed his teachers with the speed at which he picked up the various skills being taught to him and was encouraged to obtain a higher education. He had other ideas, however, and at the mere age of 20, he orchestrated what some called the greatest coup of all time, at least within the gang. In one masterful swoop, he found himself the leader of a massive gang of thugs and criminals from all over the galaxy.

Rising Thunder was the name of the dummy corporation set up by Rylaa Lyssander to launder money through. It dealt with weapons and high-tech gear that could rarely be found outside of the black market, which it also was a front for. The corporation was headed by the Chairman, Rylaa, and 11 board members, who were also his trusted lieutenants. At the age of 25, Rylaa had built himself an empire that spanned solar systems. He had operations running on almost every major planet or space station in the known galaxy. Money continued to pour in and Rylaa continued to expand further and further until, one day, it all crumbled around him.

Dirge Ocimartl Wagsthedog, a bothan and a member of The Board had ambitions of his own. He saw Rylaa as a rising star, one that would burn out as fast as it had risen, and take the whole empire with it. He began to buy other members of The Board and convince them that Rylaa would collapse and take the company down with him. A vote was called, and a decision made, Rylaa had to go down. Three bounty hunters were sent in to take him out, none returned. Perplexed, more were hired. They tried everything, from ambushes, to snipers, to ship attacks, to speeder bombs. Nothing seemed to be able to kill him. But Rylaa had an ace up his sleeve. His instincts were as sharp, if not sharper, than ever. He avoided every situation that they placed him in, many times narrowly with his life.

Rylaa became a man hunted, running from system to system, always on the move, never staying more than a few days in any one spot. His ship, the Getaway, was a heavily modified Z-95 Headhunter. Its speed had been increased dramatically along with its maneuvering. Heavy shields and thick armor covered it front to aft, top to bottom. The drawback, the oversized engines and added shielding were made to keep the occupant alive, the twin blasters and twin missile launchers had to be replaced with a single blaster in the nose of the snubfighter. Rylaa never was a good gunner, but he was one hell of a pilot. Even with your average blaster pistol, he couldn't hit the broad side of a bullet with a barn.

Rylaa found refuge in a small space station orbiting the planet Yavin. The station had been deserted for a very long time by the time he got there, but it was still operational and had plenty of preserved foods. The station had many work areas and tools that could be used for electronic modification. So for the next several years, while he was hiding, Rylaa busied himself making various electronic gadgets and what he called "The Idiot Gun". He started by adding a diffusion screen to the focusing lens of a DL-44 Heavy Blaster, widening the area but dropping the range immensely. It is the true idiot's weapon, the purest of point-shoot mentality. If something is standing at least 10 feet in front of you, it is going to die most painfully.

Eventually, he judged it to be safe enough to venture forth from his self-imposed exile. First stop, a small out-of-the way place called Tatooine. A local Hutt he used to know, by the name of Jorgo, owed him a few favors and would help him get started again. He was 28 when he made to Tatooine, broke, tired, angry, but still as greedy as ever. Since then, he has been trying to set up a small pirate organization based out of the asteroid pocket near the planet Manaan. It has been almost 10 years, and Rylaa is beginning to think that maybe it wasn't such a good idea.

When the pirate group in the Manaan sector busted, Rylaa ran to the little known Tae'Karada, a planet in the Tae'Remok system. After he landed, he hooked up with an old acquaintance and fell into some trouble in the orbiting Drogen Shipyards. After a daring escape, he made it planetside and has since planned and executed a successful robbery which had made him fabulously wealthy. Rylaa decided that it was time to begin his empire again and has since purchased Ares Macrotechnology.

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Ares is a powerful corporation based out of New Plouton's Yesrin District, though they have offices and factories all over. They specialize primarily in the research and development of military hardware, namely weapons and armor, but have a minorly successful commercial line. However, Ares fell into hard times when its old CEO, Alistair LaCroix embezzled millions for himself. When he realized the company was about to go under, he quickly sold the privately owned company to Rylaa for much less than its reported value. Rylaa hopes that his business acumen is enough to stabilize the corporation enough to use it as a front for his fledgling criminal empire.

Personality:
Rylaa was once a carefree individual who only cared about himself and where his next credit was going to come from. His easygoing attitude and ability to take control of a conversation won him many friends as well as enemies. During the recent months, Rylaa's demeanor has taken a dark twist. Where he once tried to spare life when he could, he now sees others as a stepping stone for his own rise to power. He is fanaticlly loyal to those few he calls his close friends, especially his lover Lani. Rylaa considers Lani to be his link to the carefree man he used to be, but still sees no point in returning to that life.

Form of Dress:
Since coming into power as both a businessman and the leader of most fo the planet's criminal element, Rylaa has taken to dress in what he calls "Simple Power". Tailor-made gray suits and slicked back hair, a red power tie, spit-shined shoes... plus an assortment of fine rings and necklaces. He does not like gaudy and will never wear anything that might steal away from the image he is trying to project.

Superhuman Powers and Abilities:
Rylaa has extremely fine instincts and always seems to know when danger is around. He has learned to trust these instincts and "feelings" because they have saved his life on more than one occasion. He is also a very fast learner and can pick up skills extremely quick, though, without practice, he will forget them almost as fast.

Abilities and Skills:
Languages: Basic, Zabrak, Shriiwook, Bothan, and Huttese. Forgery, counterfeiting, small bits of slicing, lockpicking, pocketpicking, safecracking: If it has something to do with the criminal world, Robert knows a little bit about it. He's not that good at any one thing, but he knows them all.