Background
Cael of House Hanarist had it all. He was born into one of Alderaan's noble Houses and could have lived a life of easy leisure. In a sense he did, if one defines leisure as becoming one of Alderaan's foremost athletes and one of the fastest limmie players to ever move a ball across the field. Cael had fame, fortune, a charming fiancée from another noble House, and a lovely home in Crevasse City. Though the direction of the galaxy under the Empire disturbed Cael, he stood firmly behind the ideals of pacifism, believing that moderating change would come from individuals working to improve the system from within. After all, he thought, using violence against the Empire would only affirm the might-makes-right logic that brought it to power in the first place.
Then Alderaan was destroyed by the Death Star and Cael's world was gone. Cael happened to be offworld at the time, playing with Team Alderaan in the Galactic Cup on Fondor. When news reached the limmie players, they were devastated. The Galactic Cup was placed on hiatus, and Team Alderaan evaporated, each member racing off across the galaxy to chase some rumor or hope of finding far-flung family members and other survivors.
Cael used the last of his familys money to charter a ship and flew back to Alderaan itself. Staring into the asteroid-strewn void that used to be his home, something inside Cael broke. All his life, he had committed himself to peace and non-violence, as was traditional among Alderaanians. He'd used his celebrity status for the cause: he'd been part of peaceful protests on Alderaan and Corellia, raised funds for war orphans, and lobbied in the Senate for the dissolution of the Imperial war machine. All of it had come to nothing.
Confronted by the ashes of his world, Cael renounced his pacifism. Non-violence had achieved nothing but the destruction of Alderaan, and the Empire wouldn't be toppled by anything less than all-out military rebellion. Cael took his chartered vessel to Chandrila and quickly found members of the Rebel Alliance eager to recruit the young athlete. In a matter of weeks, Cael went from limmie star to soldier, and he has never looked back.
Motivation