The Coming Ruin 3997 B.B.Y.
Armed with their Sith knowledge and artifacts, Satal Keto and Aleema marshaled their Krath forces for a coup of the Empress Teta system. However, killing the old-guard aristocratic leaders proved far easier than subjugating the people, and the seven worlds revolted against the new barbaric despots. Nonetheless, Keto and Aleema delighted in the chance to make use of their new Sith powers to crush the resistance.
Word of the revolt and the alarming use of Sith sorcery made its way to Onderon, where Ulic and Cay Qel-Droma, Tott Doneeta, and Nomi Sunrider worked with Master Arca to restore peace to the war-torn world. Nomi and Ulic had grown close during the reparations, and Master Arca decided to send them both to deal with the situation in the Empress Teta system. Republic military forces were also dispatched by Coruscant to the ferocious battles around the seven worlds. Ulic and Nomi joined them and assisted in the struggle, using their Jedi abilities, but Aleema countered with powerful Sith illusions. In a suicide attack, one of the Krath ships nearly destroyed the bridge of the Republic flagship. Ulic received a terrible wound, but Nomi saved his life. The rebuffed Republic fleet retreated.
Simultaneously, on distant Dantooine, Jedi Master Vodo-Siosk Baas trained three students: the Cathar mates Crado and Sylvar, and his most talented apprentice, Exar Kun. In the course of their training, Kun proved himself Crado's superior with the lightsaber. Tensions escalated, and during oneto-one combat, Sylvar slashed Kun across the face with her claws. Master Vodo stepped in, and Kun met the challenge. Showing no rest 24424f517y raint, he defeated his own teacher and brashly claimed he had learned all the Jedi Master could teach him. Vodo was disturbed at the shadow he saw in his student, the potential for evil.
Ambitious and curious, Kun surreptitiously studied ancient legends, learning much about the ancient Hyperspace War and the golden age of the Sith. Consumed by his interests, Exar Kun went to Onderon to learn more of the Freedon Nadd Uprising and the resurgence of ancient ways. He posed as a Jedi archaeologist sent to uncover Sith artifacts. Cay Qel-Droma and Tott Doneeta offered their assistance, but Master Arca recognized Kun's arrogance and told him they would offer no help.
On his own, Kun hired a pair of mercenaries and traveled to the Dxun moon to break into the sealed tomb of Freedon Nadd. After battling guardian beasts, he used his lightsaber to cut through the Mandalorian iron. In the vault, he cracked open the sarcophagus, stared down at the skeletal corpse clothed in black armor-and was astonished to see Nadd's specter appear. The ominous dark Jedi revealed precious metal scrolls that had been hidden in a compartment under his remains. He told Kun that a great future awaited him in the dark side, but Kun dismissed the ghost's prophecy. When he left the tomb, his two mercenaries tried to rob him. Exar Kun responded with sudden and unthinking violence. He drew his lightsaber and killed the men. Horrified at his bloody outburst, Kun left the system, taking the scrolls with him.
His path led him to Korriban, the tomb world of the ancient Sith Empire, where Gav and Jori Daragon had first encountered Naga Sadow a thousand years earlier. From the scrolls, Kun learned more about Freedon Nadd's connection to the legendary Sith. Among the ruins, Kun explored a spectacular crypt, but as he went deeper, the crumbling ceiling collapsed, crushing him. As he cried out for help, the spirit of Freedon Nadd appeared, promising rescue-but only if Kun surrendered to the dark side. Kun made an empty promise just to save his life, but the vow sent him sliding farther down the slippery slope. He uttered the fateful words, unleashing a flood of power that blasted away the rubble, knitted his broken bones, and left him lying naked on the dry clay of Korriban.
Exar Kun let out a tremendous shriek that echoed across the galaxy, calling in despair upon Master Vodo, whom he had abandoned. When the anguished cry reached him through the Force, Vodo was en route to Deneba, the site of a great Jedi convocation called to discuss the strife in the Empress Teta system, and the greater darkness it presaged. When Vodo was stricken by Kun's psychic outcry, Crado and Sylvar rushed to his side. Not quite understanding what he had experienced, but dreading the implications, Vodo hurried on to the convocation.
The historic meeting was called to order by the ancient librarian Odan-Urr, who had spent centuries building Ossus into the foremost center of Jedi learning. The premier Jedi Knights of the period had come, including Master Arca and Master Thon, Nomi Sunrider, and the recovered Ulic Qel-Droma. Jedi witnesses spoke of the dangerous Sith sorcery unleashed by the Krath, the growing foothold of the dark side, and the need to stop such evil from spreading.
In the middle of the assembly, automated pods rained down through the atmosphere, unleashing hordes of Krath war droids that attacked the Jedi Knights. The Jedi defended themselves in a furious fight, destroying the droids, but the battle left one tragic legacy. Master Arca, one of the greatest Jedi Masters of his age, was killed by a projectile even as he saved the life of his student Ulic Qel-Droma. Ulic despaired, convinced he had failed Arca once again. This broke his spirit and left him open to the influences of the dark side. His vulnerability would one day bring tremendous devastation to the galaxy.
As the Jedi Knights recovered from the onslaught, an anguished Ulic made a fateful decision. Discovering that the assassin droids were of Tetan manufacture, he vowed to go to the Empress Teta system, infiltrate the Krath, and destroy them from within. Concerned that the brash young Jedi was engaging in this reckless action for the wrong reasons, Master Thon warned him about the temptations of the dark side. But Ulic would not be swayed. His brother, Cay, begged to go with him, insisting that they stick together as brothers should, but Ulic refused. He needed to do this himself, he said, for Master Arca. So Ulic bade farewell to Nomi Sunrider, barely admitting his growing love for her, and departed for Cinnagar.
Healed and "reborn" in the Sith ruins on Korriban, Exar Kun deluded himself into thinking he had tricked Freedon Nadd with his feigned promise-but Nadd knew better. The specter told Kun to make his way to Yavin 4, the last resting place of Naga Sadow, who had instructed Nadd himself centuries before.
On that isolated jungle moon, Exar Kun discovered an ancient, mysterious temple, where the degenerate descendants of the Massassi captured him. One of their high priests still wore the trappings of Sith magic, though he didn't entirely know how to use the sorcery. The Massassi chained Kun and tried to sacrifice him to a gigantic monster beneath the main temple, forcing Exar Kun to call once again upon the dark side in order to save himself.
The specter of Freedon Nadd reappeared, delighted with Kun's victory and claiming him as an ally and protege-but Kun would hear none of it. Still simmering with the Sith powers he had mastered, Kun lashed out and obliterated Nadd for all time. Using the dark side seemed much easier. Exar Kun proclaimed himself the Dark Lord of the Sith, the only surviving practitioner of the ancient arts. He subjugated the Massassi and had them construct more temples, huge structures based on Sith architecture and designed to focus dark forces. When the new slaves dug deep beneath the sites of the ancient ruins, he found the great Sith battleship, long ago entombed by Naga Sadow. Exar Kun took it as his own.
Disguised as a grim "fallen
Jedi," Ulic QelDroma infiltrated the iron-walled city of
As months passed with no word from Ulic, Nomi Sunrider joined Cay Qel-Droma and Tott Doneeta in an attempt to rescue him. While Cay Qel-Droma and Doneeta remained in orbit, Sunrider dropped down to Cinnagar, seeking news. Reluctant to kill with her lightsaber, she was captured by Krath forces and dragged before Satal Keto and Ulic. Testing Ulic, Keto asked him what they should do with the Jedi spy. At such a critical point in his plans, Ulic could not allow his cover to be exposed. Pretending not to know her, he nonchalantly ordered Sunrider's execution. Despairing that she had lost Ulic forever, Sunrider used her Jedi meditation techniques to escape the dungeons of Cinnagar, even as Ulic prepared a secret message for her, telling her his plans. Unfortunately, Sunrider fled back to her ship before learning the truth, firmly believing that Ulic had turned against them-and Satal Keto intercepted the message. Knowing Ulic was an infiltrator after all, Keto sent his men to kill the Jedi spy, but in a great duel Ulic unleashed his fury over the murder of Master Arca and killed Satal Keto instead. With Keto slain, Ulic Qel-Droma took his place beside Aleema, declaring himself the new ruler of the Krath.
In his ornate meditation chamber under the largest temple on Yavin 4, Exar Kun, a very powerful figure now, studied Sith teachings. He dabbled in dark-side alchemy, creating freakish two-headed avians to serve as watchbeasts and inventing a glowing golden sphere that trapped the children of the Massassi and allowed him to feed off their energies. With his mind he reached across the galaxy and detected other users of Sith magic in the Empress Teta system. Knowing his destiny-to bring about a new Sith golden age-Kun traveled to Cinnagar, determined to destroy Ulic as an unwanted rival.
Meanwhile, despite grave cautions from the older Jedi Masters, the brash Jedi Knights Cay QelDroma, Nomi Sunrider, and Tott Doneeta put together a rescue mission to drag Ulic away from the treachery of the Krath. Corrupted by the Sith poison and the dark consequences of his actions, Ulic responded to the Jedi attack with all the military might at his disposal. When Nomi confronted him in the throne room, Ulic hesitated, but made his choice to cast her away. Convinced he had important work to do in the Empress Teta system, and blind to his own delusions, he refused to join the Jedi. In despair and defeat, the Jedi Knights withdrew.
Then Exar Kun marched into the palace, drawing his lightsaber. He and Ulic fought in a blazing clash of Jedi blades- and during the conflict the Sith amulets both men wore began to shimmer. Before them appeared the image of the long- dead Dark Lord of the Sith, Marka Ragnos, the Sith ruler whose death had triggered the civil war between Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh a thousand years before. Ragnos commanded the two men to join forces, claiming that the alliance of Ulic Qel-Droma and Exar Kun could bring about the long
predicted return of Sith glory. Kun and Qel-Droma dasped hands and vowed to do whatever was necessary to create such a future.
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