Brin Hesk'l

Brin Hesk'l was a Human male who operated as an adventurer, explorer and treasure hunter during the waning years of the Galactic Republic. During the course of his career, Hesk'l visited many planets in search of treasure and visited places as varied as abandoned Hutt strongholds, lost Sith temples and the sewers of the world of Coruscant. Hesk'l also once visited the Children's Museum on Coruscant, an institution dedicated to highlighting the impact of young people on the galaxy; while there he spotted a crack in the floor that on further inspection he found to contain a trigger mechanism to open a secret chamber made by the original builders of the museum. Hesk'l then entered the chamber and uncovered some important documents concealed within. To record his exploits, in secret Hesk'l began work on writing a book that he called the Codex, in which he recorded details of the places that he had visited and the objects that he had found during his adventures as well as his thoughts on the significance of his discoveries.

Around 31 BBY, the Cularin system, a star system in the Thaere sector, vanished for ten years due to the temporal effects of the Darkstaff, a powerful Sith artifact. The cataclysm caught Hesk'l's attention and after the Cularin system returned to the galaxy in around 21 BBY, during the time of the Clone Wars, the adventurer began researching the cause of Cularin's disappearance. From examining some restricted archives to which he should not have had access, Hesk'l learned of existence of the Darkstaff and the role that it played in had Cularin's temporary absence. Based on his knowledge of a tenet of the Jedi Order, an order of monastic warriors allied with the Galactic Republic, that the Force must be in balance, Hesk'l posited that as the Darkstaff was strong in the dark side of the Force, there must be an artifact strong in the light side of the Force present in the Cularin system that was acting as a counterbalance to the Darkstaff. Hesk'l's theory was correct; a powerful light side-imbued artifact known as the Eye of the Sun was concealed in the system and was counteracting the Darkstaff's dark side power.

Determined to find the theorized light side artifact and keen to make a profit, around 20 BBY Hesk'l ventured to the Cularin system to search for the relic. Following his arrival on Cularin, the second planet in the system, Hesk'l was invited to be interviewed for Eye on Cularin, a local news show recorded by Cularin Central Broadcasting. During his appearance on the program, Hesk'l answered questions from the journalist Ryk Osentay about his career and on why he had come to the Cularin system, and Hesk'l explained his theory regarding the hypothetical counterbalance to the Darkstaff. Hesk'l also stated his intention to commence his search by venturing to Thaere, the homeworld of a military force charged with maintaining security in the Cularin system.

Two weeks after the interview, Hesk'l's starship was found abandoned adrift in a comet cloud on the edge of the Cularin system, with his whereabouts unknown.

A brash and self-absorbed man, Hesk'l was a daring and successful treasure hunter who understood all the intricacies of his trade. He was motivated to pursue a career as a treasure hunter by the adrenaline rush that he gained from entering places that he should not have been able to access and uncovering objects considered to be lost. Hesk'l also had a deep love for history and was driven by a desire to learn more about why events had happened and how to prevent past mistakes from happening again. He believed that he had no no need for luck in his pursuit of treasure as he thought that the Force was with him.

Hesk'l opined that everything created had an exact opposite, and therefore hypothesized the existence of a counterbalance to the Darkstaff. Though he considered Coruscant to be one of his favourite worlds because one could obtain anything that they desired in the metropolis, he also thought Coruscant to be an uninteresting world to explore because it had been heavily surveyed. He enjoyed searching remote planets that had been rarely visited and considered that the best hauls of treasure could be found on unexplored worlds. However, he also observed that treasure could occasionally be found in plain sight in places where it would be least expected. He planned to venture to Thaere during his search for the theorized light side counterbalance to the Darkstaff despite the Thaereian military being embroiled in a war with the Cularin Militia paramilitary force. He regarded the conflict merely as politics and believed that contentious political issues could always be worked around by meeting with the right people and asking the right questions.

Hesk'l had a swarthy appearance, with short, straight black hair. He had large eyes and a large, crooked chin that looked as if it had been damaged from many cantina fights. During his interview with Ryk Osentay, Hesk'l bore a large smile throughout, revealing his shiny, white teeth and giving him the appearance of a Caarite, a diminutive sentient species known for their friendly demeanor.

In addition to Basic, Hesk'l could speak, read and write the languages Rodese and Ryl and also understood Shyriiwook. He proficient in the use of blaster rifles and blaster pistols.

Hesk'l operated a starship. He was armed with a blaster pistol and he carried an exploration pack, spelunking gear and three aquata breathers, compact devices that allows one to breath in poisonous environments. He was also equipped with a blast helmet and a blast vest.

Brin Hesk'l was created by Morrie Mullins and appeared in the Wizards.com article Into the Woods, which was published on July 15 2004. The article was a tie-in to the Living Force roleplaying campaign and depicted an interview with Hesk'l for the news show Eye on Cularin. He later received an entry in the 2008 compendium The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.

Into the Woods provided roleplaying statistics for Hesk'l and suggested that he could be inserted as a non-player character into roleplaying campaigns set in any publishing era. The article hinted that the adventurer could be introduced into a roleplaying adventure by having the player characters could run into him just as he has found a sought-after artifact. The article also suggested that players could encounter Hesk'l just as he had uncovered a link between some events that that another party had gone to great effort to conceal.

• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia