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Star Wars: History Abridged Pt. 4

Welcome back to another entry in Star Wars: History Abridged, the series where I take the best of the Star Wars Expanded Universe and break it down into bite-sized pieces. Yesterday, I started going over the Great Sith War with the crisis on Onderon. In 4,000 BBY, this Inner Rim planet was looking to join the Republic. When the Jedi came to stop its centuries-long civil war, though, they found the planet had a dark secret. For centuries, the planet had been ruled by the lineage of an ancient Sith Lord. With the help of the Jedi, the dark influence of the Sith was banished and peace brought to the planet. However, this was just the beginning of an even larger conflict. Today, we cover the rise of the Krath cult and the return of the Sith in full force.

The Krath Holy Crusade Begins

At the end of my last post, I mentioned two visitors came to Onderon as a cult of Sith worshippers threatened the planet. Their names were Aleema and Satal Keto, two aristocratic cousins from the Empress Teta System in the Deep Core. The cousins were spoiled brats with an interest in Sith lore and had founded a Dark Side cult called the Krath. Their visit caught the eye of the ghost of Freedon Nadd, whose bloodline had ruled Onderon for centuries. However, Nadd realized Onderon was a lost cause, so he gave the Keto’s a trove of Sith artifacts and texts. As a result of their Dark Side knowledge, the Krath overthrew the government and became the new rulers of the Empress Teta system.

Realizing the threat the Krath posed, a Republic-Jedi strike force, led by Ulic Qel-Droma and Nomi Sunrider, was sent to liberate the system. They promptly got their butts handed to them. As a result, close to ten thousand Jedi gathered in a conclave to figure out their next move. It’s there that Ulic came up with a dangerous plan. He would go undercover within the Krath and bring them down from the inside, saving lives that would be lost in a full blown war. Many Jedi told Ulic that that was a terrible idea; the Dark Side would corrupt him like so many others.

Before they could argue the matter further, the Krath struck first. They had snuck into the conclave and set an army of droids loose on the Jedi, killing many of them. Among the casualties was Arca Jeth, Ulic’s own master. Outraged, Ulic went through his plan to infiltrate the Krath, despite the concerns of his brother, Cay, and lover, Nomi. This would have terrible consequences for everyone.

Fall Rise of Exar Kun

In another part of the Galaxy, there lived a young Jedi Knight by the name of Exar Kun. He was powerful in the Force, but also an arrogant blowhard with serious anger issues. Throw in the fact that he was obsessed with learning about the Sith, and that’s a recipe for disaster. His curiosity led him to seek out the new tomb of Freedon Nadd on Dxun, wherein he met Nadd’s ghost. Seeing Kun’s strength in the Force, Nadd took the already wavering Jedi and led him down a path to darkness.

Kun would next travel to the ancient Sith home of Korriban before finally journeying to Yavin IV. There, at the mercy of the planet’s Massassi, Exar Kun fully embraced the Dark Side, much to Nadd’s delight. Seeing the former Jedi as his best chance to gain a new body, Nadd urged him to do just that. However, Kun had become fed up with Nadd’s meddling and, using his newfound power, banished his spirit to the afterlife for good.

Fall of Ulic Qel-Droma

Meanwhile, Ulic’s mission to infiltrate the Krath went as bad as everyone said it would. Satal was on to the Jedi from the start and tortured him for weeks. Meanwhile, Aleema used her charm to seduce him even further into the Dark Side. When Nomi and Cay came looking for him, he refused to leave with the pair. Instead, he killed Satal and took in the Krath leadership.

Seeing the red flags being waved, Nomi and Cay led an even larger strike force on a raid into the Krath’s stronghold. Although, by that point, Qel-Droma was too far into the Dark Side to come back of his own volition. Plus, attempts to bring him back by force failed as well. Ulic’s friends reluctantly accepted that he was now lost to them and retreated.

As the Krath celebrated, they found their victory party was crashed by an unexpected guest: Exar Kun.

The Sith, Reborn

Rather than remain on Yavin IV, Exar Kun had sought out Dark Side users that would be a threat to his power. Learning of the Krath’s existence and that they had also been taught by Freedon Nadd, the Dark Jedi sought to eliminate them. Upon arrival, Kun and Qel-Droma fought in an intense duel, yet neither could gain the upper hand on each other. Then, something unexpected happened. Both combatants wore an ancient Sith amulet, and as the two clashed, their amulets reacted to each other. Their reunion created a surge of Dark Side energy that summoned the spirit of the long-dead Sith Lord, Marka Ragnos.

Ragnos saw how strong Kun and Qel-Droma were in the Dark Side and had the strength to restore the Sith. Thus, he declared Exar Kun the new Dark Lord of the Sith, with Exar Kun as his apprentice. With the two Sith and Krath united under one banner, the Jedi’s worst fears came true: the Sith had been reborn.

To Be Concluded

Pretty epic story, huh? Well, that’s only the start. The return of the Sith would start the Great Sith War. With Ulic Qel-Droma and Exar Kun leading the Sith-Krath forces, the Jedi and Republic would face their greatest test in a thousand years. Next time, we’ll be covering the Great Sith War and its aftermath. May the Force be with you!

Click here to learn all there is about Star Wars with Wookiepedia, the Star Wars Wiki.

Click here to see more of my Star Wars Stuff.

Star Wars: History Abridged Pt. 3

Hello, everyone, Jay here with some more Star Wars: History Abridged. This series has been dormant for some time, but with “May the Fourth” next week, I thought it’s a good time to restart it. Picking up where we left off, this post will cover the start of the Old Sith Wars, my favorite period in Star Wars lore. The long and short of it is that, in fifty years, the Galaxy almost fell apart. The Republic came close to collapse, and the Jedi came closer to extinction than ever. Until Order 66, that is. And it all starts with the conflict known as the Great Sith War and a planet called Onderon.

Crisis on Onderon

According to Wookiepedia, the Great Sith War started in 3,996 BBY. However, its roots go back four years earlier, to a planet called Onderon (Yes, that Onderon). The world was harsh, filled with dangerous beasts from its moon, Dxun. The two were so close that they would briefly merge atmospheres and create an air bridge. Worse, there was an ongoing civil war between the ruling monarchy and the Beast Riders, outcasts who had tamed the dangerous beasts of the planet.

When Onderon asked to join the Republic, Jedi Master Arca Jeth sent his three Padawans, Tott Doneeta, Ulic Qel-Droma, and his younger brother Cay Qel-Droma, to resolve the conflict. They showed up right as the Beast Riders raided the Royal Palace and kidnapped Queen Amanoa’s only daughter, Galia. The three Padawans pursued the Princess’ abductors deep into Beast Rider territory, arriving at their base just as Galia was marrying their young leader, Oron Kira.

Years ago, Oron had snuck inside the Onderonian’s walled city. There he became friends with Galia. United by their shared desire for peace, the two fell in love. Galia knew her mother would never approve of their union, so they had secretly arranged all that had transpired. This abduction was nothing more than an elaborate plan to elope. One that the Jedi consented too once everything had been explained.

With that, the wedding continued, and everyone celebrated the union. However, Oron and Galia revealed a startling secret about Onderon to the three Jedi and their world’s connection to the Dark Side.

The Dark Truth of Onderon

Four hundred years ago, there was a young Jedi Padawan named Freedon Nadd. Everyone who met him saw him as a prodigy and thought he’d be one of the Order’s best. However, his strength made him arrogant, and when he was passed over for knighthood, he furiously left the Jedi Order. 

Traveling to the moon Yavin IV, Nadd discovered the Massassi, descendants of Naga Sadow’s followers who had joined him in exile centuries prior. What’s more, Nadd found an even bigger secret: Sadow himself kept alive in stasis for centuries. Recognizing Nadd’s strength in the Force, Naga Sadow taught Nadd everything he knew about the Dark Side. Then, Nadd killed him and declared himself a Dark Lord of the Sith. After this, he traveled to Onderon, where he established himself as King, banishing criminals and anyone who opposed him beyond his walled city to die. The Beast Riders were the descendants of these outcasts.

It gets worse. Nadd died centuries ago, but his ghost stuck around his Tomb underneath the Royal Palace. He spent centuries teaching his descendants the Dark Side in the hopes that one of them would be able to create him a new body to possess. 

Battle for Onderon

As freaked out as they were, the Jedi came to bring peace, so that’s what they were going to do. So with Galia and Oron in tow, they returned to the Capital city of Iziz to negotiate peace. 

Queen Amanoa wasn’t interested. Calling on the spirit of Nadd himself, the Queen used the strength of the Dark Side to empower her outnumbered forces. Iziz became a battleground between the royal army and the Beast Riders. The three Jedi were almost overwhelmed. However, Master Jeth’s timely arrival turned the tide of the battle in favor of the Beast Riders. With the Dark Side’s influence broken, the Jedi pursued Queen Amanoa into the palace to Nadd’s tomb, banishing Nadd’s influence. Which, unfortunately, killed the Queen. 

Naddist Uprising

With Amanoa’s death, Galia and Oron became the new monarch’s of Onderon, which officially joined the Republic. The only problem was what to do with the remains of Amanoa and Nadd? In 3,998 BBY, Arca Jeth chose to move them to a new tomb on Dxun where their Dark Side influence could be locked up. However, their bodies got stolen by the Naddist Sith Cult, led by Amanoa’s thought-to-be-deceased husband, King Ommin. With Master Jeth captured by the Naddists, Ulic Qel-Droma, now a Knight, called the Republic and Jedi for reinforcements.

In the battle that followed, thanks to the aid of Jedi Knight Nomi Sunrider, the Naddist forces were crushed, and King Ommin himself was slain by Qel-Droma. At last, Onderon was freed from the grip of Freedon Nadd.

What no one knew at the time was that this wasn’t the end of the crisis. Instead, it was only beginning.

Birth of the Krath

The Jedi didn’t know at the time, but just before Ommin’s defeat, he had visitors. Two cousins from a Deep Core system with an interest in the Dark Side and Sith Artifacts. Intrigued and realizing Onderon was a lost cause, Nadd chose to make them his new apprentices and helped them escape with Sith relics in tow. Together, they would found the Krath, a Sith Cult that would seize power in their system. 

Worse, Nadd had appeared before the Jedi and sensed darkness within Ulic Qel-Droma. Unknown to all, there was another Force-user that Nadd had taken an interest in, a young Jedi named Exar Kun. However, that is a story for another day.

To Be Continued

Pretty cool story, huh? If you want to learn more, click the links to Wookiepedia. Or if you want to read the story for yourself, search for the Tales of the Jedi series. Tomorrow, we’ll be picking things up with the rise of the Krath and the Return of the Sith as the Great Sith War begins!

May the Force be with you!

Click here to learn all there is about Star Wars with Wookiepedia, the Star Wars Wiki.

Click here to see more of my Star Wars Stuff.