Darth Nox¶

Biography¶

"I am not cute. I am deadly."

— Darth Nox

Darth Nox, formerly known as Lord Kallig, and to those closest to her as Zyra, was a Dathomirian Zabrak Sith Assassin who served the Sith Empire during the Cold War. She held a seat upon the Dark Council of the Sith, and sought to purge the Sith Empire of its archaic traditions in order to restore peace and order to the known galaxy, hoping to prevent another galactic war.

Early life¶

Born on Dathomir as Zyranomi during 19 BTC, her mother and father were killed during the Battle of Dathomir when she was young. She was orphaned shortly afterwards — earlier than she can remember — spending her formative years in an orphanage on Coruscant. She developed a propensity for thievery, violence, and other mischievous shenanigans in response to the prejudice she faced from the less friendly orphans, and even from some orphanage staff. Red-skinned Zabrak were not common in any part of the galaxy.

She had a natural talent for sneaking unseen through the rooms and corridors that she wasn't supposed to be wandering. In spite of her "bad behaviour", she was very attentive in the orphanage school classes and especially excelled in Galactic Basic lessons. In spite of being bullied, she befriended a number of orphans who together decided to adopt a family name of their choosing — Aeos — and was thenceforth known as Zyranomi Aeos.

After a handful of years at the orphanage, she witnessed a small Imperial task force ransack the orphanage as they pried her for themselves and forced her into slavery for the Sith Empire. They were continuously building an army for the ongoing Great Galactic War, and would often resort to outright kidnapping to fill their ranks.

Sith trials¶

Serving the Empire as a slave, Nox developed a strong survival instinct. She was quick to fight anyone that threatened her safety, including Imperial Guardsmen, and she showed a remarkable aptitude for hand-to-hand combat, as well as improvised staff-like weaponry, when the situation called for it. One fateful day, she had lost her temper with an Imperial Guard and defeated an entire troupe of them in a slave cantina with an unexpected burst of Dark-side Force power.

Overseer Harkun, an infamous Sith slaver and recruiter, caught wind of Nox's incident with the guards and took it upon himself to recruit her as a Sith Acolyte. For years, she honed her skills as a wielder of staves and the Dark side of the Force. Begrudgingly instructed by Harkun, she conquered her trials, dominated a Dashade assassin named Khem Val into her servitude, and overwhelmed her peers, including a Sith pureblood groomed for success. In spite of Overseer Harkun's attempts to sabotage the slave and preserve the pure Sith legacy, she triumphed to become a Sith Inquisitor.¹

After passing her trials and building her first lightsaber, Nox promptly ascended as apprentice to the eerily pleasant Sith Lord Zash. At Zash's bidding, Nox sabotaged and destroyed the cyborg Darth Skotia, paving the way for Zash to take his place and become a Darth. She then set her on a new mission: recovering artifacts once belonging to the ancient Sith Tulak Hord. With these artifacts, Zash intended to complete a ritual to bestow considerable power upon herself and her apprentice. She provided Nox with a starship, and its factotum droid steward 2V-R8, to aid her travels.

Scion of Kallig¶

Guided by her new master, Lord Zash, Nox scoured the galaxy for Tulak Hord's artifacts, piloting her new Fury-class Imperial Interceptor — the Fury — to Balmorra, Nar Shaddaa, Tatooine, and Alderaan.

Early on in her travels, she awakened the Force spirit of Aloysius Kallig, an ancient apparition who died millennia ago, and whom Khem Val once served. Kallig revealed that Nox was heir to his ruined legacy, and pledged to help her restore honour to their bloodline.

On Nar Shaddaa, she usurped the Cult of the Screaming Blade⁵ in pursuit of an artifact, who then worshipped her as their leader, the Great Dragon.

On Tatooine, she recruited a former pirate captain, Andronikos Revel, who was mutinied and abandoned by his crew. Nox teamed up with Andronikos to reclaim the artifact and help him exact his revenge. She had begun to build what would become a substantial personal power base.

When she returned to Lord Zash, Tulak Hord's artifacts and Khem Val in tow, Nox interrupted a dark ritual that revealed Zash's true intentions. Her youthful appearance was only an illusion; the Sith Lord was ancient, her body disfigured by the dark side, and she plotted to possess Nox as her next body. Khem Val sabotaged the ritual, inadvertently trapping Zash's consciousness in his body. Despite her plans, Zash was bound within Khem Val and forced to serve the very apprentice she sought to dominate.² Few serving the Sith Empire knew of Zash's true fate, and believed her slain by Nox.

Ascension to power¶

Having subdued Lord Zash, Nox inherited her power base and ascended as Lord Kallig. However, she nearly lost everything after being caught in a trap devised by Darth Thanaton, a supremely powerful Sith and harsh traditionalist who bristled at the idea of an alien and former slave rising to any significant influence.³ Thanaton's betrayal reminded Nox that she was far from escaping the prejudice she'd known her entire life; that it permeated the Sith Empire like a stubborn weed. After surviving the suicide mission he'd sent her on, she became incessantly determined to purge traditionalism and xenophobia from the Sith Empire and bring it beyond its archaic weaknesses.

To combat Thanaton's insurmountable strength, Nox learned the ritual of Force-walking and gained power by consuming the energy of Force spirits that she sought and unearthed across the galaxy. During her travels she recruited Ashara Zavros, a disillusioned Jedi whose spiritual ancestor proved an addition to her powers. On Hoth, she met a peculiar archaeologist, Talos Drellik, who led her to a Force spirit and offered to join her crew after learning her intentions for Thanaton and the Sith Order.

Nox sent Talos to recover an important artifact from one of Thanaton's facilities on a Nal Hutta moon. He contracted Ja-Nu Sifr, a mercenary who succeeded in recovering the artifact and later joined Nox's crew temporarily as her pilot and bodyguard, primarily for protection from Thanaton's allies in the Empire.

Nox's crew helped her to escape after she failed to defeat Thanaton on Dromund Kaas. The uncontainable power of the Force spirits bound within her caused an explosion that led Thanaton to flee, but left Nox with a crippling sickness that would prove devastating if she didn't seek a cure. Fortunately, after heeding the advice of her crew and her ancestor Aloysius Kallig, she managed to subdue the once-overwhelming spirits and could confidently wield them as a weapon against Thanaton.⁴

Darth Thanaton invoked an ancient Sith rite known as the "Kaggath", challenging Nox to duel to the death. With the support of her crew, the combined power of the Force spirits, and the Imperial forces stationed on Corellia, Nox defeated Thanaton's allies and forced him to flee for safety. Shortly thereafter, in the Dark Council chambers on Korriban, she annihilated the once supreme Sith while the Dark Council bore witness. At their behest, she took Thanaton's seat on the council as Darth Nox, joining the most powerful Sith in the Empire to rule as a member of the Dark Council. At last, she was situated with enough power to reshape the Sith Empire eradicate its less tolerant traditions.

Crew¶

Khem Val¶

Khem Val, also known as Shadow Killer or Devourer, was a male Dashade, originally the servant and warrior of the Sith Lord Tulak Hord. He was a forceful and deadly combattant utilising the Dark Side of the Force alongside heavy vibroswords, and was known for devouring over a thousand Jedi alongside his master. Hord eventually suspended Khem within a stasis field in a tomb on Korriban, guarded by a field of electrical energy for safekeeping. He remained in this state for hundreds, possibly even thousands, of years.⁶

Centuries later he was freed from the stasis field in a weakened state and bound to servitude of the heir of Aloysius Kallig, Darth Nox, by her former master, Darth Zash. A former slave herself, Nox was displeased to have been forcibly bound as Khem Val's owner, but would not disobey her former master. Initially off-put by Khem Val's insistence that he'll "eat the little Sith" once he's free of servitude, she considered duelling him to the death. But, after many perilous missions together, their companionship grew stronger than than the artificial bond that introduced them.

When Nox's former master, Darth Zash, attempted a Sith ritual to take her apprentice's body and sustain her own waning life, Khem Val attacked her in order to save his master. In doing so, he became the recipient of Zash's existence and was forced to share his body with the deceitful Sith Lord. Zash then plotted with Nox to expel Khem from his own body in order to assume it for herself, but Nox betrayed her and empowered Khem to banish Zash into a Rakatan Mind prison, finally freeing Khem. The Dashade then declared his master the rightful heir of Tulak Hord and promised to guard their legacy forever.

2V-R8¶

2V-R8, commonly referred to as Toovee, was a male-programmed Seneschal-series factotum droid outfitted to serve the galaxy's most dangerous individuals. As steward of Darth Nox's Fury-class Imperial Interceptor, he was responsible for maintaining the starship and ensuring that its crew remained comfortable.⁷ Due to experiences with previous masters, he was keenly aware that any display of weakness or failure could swiftly earn him permanent deactivation. As a result, he had created multiple subroutines to reroute all of his processing capabilities to maximise his efficiency whenever seeing to his assigned tasks.⁸

Toovee made every effort to appear professional and composed, and had activated numerous crisis-management programming modules to assist him with handling the subsequent stress on his processors. In spite of his constant fear of destruction, Toovee would exhibit genuine satisfaction from pleasing his masters and fulfilling the tasks he had for them, and very often went out of his way to make sure the ships he served on exceeded the Sith Empire's usual standards. He frequently displayed an enthusiastic affection for his masters whenever they came aboard.

In spite of his insistence that he was "unsuitable for combat", 2V-R8 fared well in battle with a common blaster pistol, when the situation demanded.

Andronikos Revel¶

Andronikos Revel was a male human captain in the Galactic Republic before he deserted and became a pirate during the Cold War.¹³

For five notorious years, Andronikos terrorized Republic and Imperial space alike as the captain of the Sky Princess. Known for his sharp temper and sharper flying skills, he was one of the few pirate captains to serve as his own pilot. His piracy career was cut short by a strange mutiny after his crew raided a ship carrying valuable artifacts. His first mate robbed all of his possessions and ejected him in an escape pod. He spent ten days in the pod before being apprehended by Imperials who had also been hunting the artifact.¹³

After a year in Imperial prison, Andronikos was let loose, with Darth Zash — Darth Nox's former master — hoping he'd lead her back to the artifact. He had been meticulously hunting and killing the mutineers who betrayed him ever since. When Zash instructed Nox to retrieve the artifact from Tatooine, she advised to ask Andronikos for information regarding its whereabouts. He explained that his former first mate was in possession of the artifact, and that he'd like to tag along to exact his revenge.¹³

After exacting revenge and retrieving the artifact, Andronikos found himself angry that he couldn't take revenge on the remaining mutineers that he'd yet to find, but decided to let go of his grudges and accompany Darth Nox in her travels as her pilot. On his journey with her, he often talked about his history, and was curious about many aspects of hers.

Andronikos would often have to depart the ship to deal with old problems, hide from the Republic, or exact revenge when the opportunity arose, but when he was present he was a best-in-class pilot and a deadly shot with a blaster. He, alongside the rest of her crew, helped her through many challenging missions that often threatened her life.

When Darth Nox defeated Darth Thanaton and ascended to the Dark Council, Andronikos knelt before her, alongside her other companions. They had been through thick and thin to achieve what they had, and he was proud of their accomplishments together. Soon after, he proposed to her, and they married.

Ashara Zavros¶

"I feel more at one with the Force than I've ever felt. I have peace, like the Jedi speak of, and freedom like the Sith. [...] I know we've not always seen eye-to-eye, but I've learned so much from you and your example."

— Ashara Zavros to Darth Nox during 11 ATC

A young Togruta Jedi Padawan, Ashara Zavros descended from a long line of Force users. From an early age, she had aspired to study the Force and become one of the best Jedi the order had to offer.

Ashara travelled to Taris to train under Jedi Masters Ryen and Ocera, whose philosophy was that Padawans best learn the travails of using the Force through firsthand experience of the galaxy. In Ashara's case, the Masters brought her to Taris for two reasons: First, to teach her compassion amidst the destruction that had occurred there and warn against the dangers of pride and the Dark side. Second, to complete her trials by helping to drive a dark ghost from the ruins of a Jedi enclave.⁹ To an extent, Ashara felt as though her talents were held back by her training, however. She frequently reminded her peers that she was the best duelist in her class, and that she had beaten even Mater Ocera in lightsaber combat.

The dark spirit of Kalatosh Zavros, once a Jedi turned Sith Lord, was related to Ashara by blood. Her unique ability to summon Kalatosh drew the attention of Darth Nox, who had recently lost her two acolytes, Corrin and Kaal, to the nefarious exploits of Darth Thanaton. Nox corroborated with a small group of Sith assassins to bring Ashara out into the open on Taris, and coerced her into opening a Sith holocron. Ensnared by the Dark side, Ashara failed to resist Nox's thrall, resulting in the deaths of her masters and Nox's absorption of her ancestor's spirit. Driven by guilt, Ashara reneged on her Jedi oaths and joined the Sith Lord, who took her as an apprentice.¹⁰

The two bonded greatly as each of their alignments in the Force, Ashara from the Light and Nox from the Dark, veered to meet in the center. Together, they began to feel a lack of loyalty to the Sith or the Jedi, and realised how much they embraced both sides of the Force. As a result, they proved a vicious, formidable duo in combat, back-to-back as Ashara wielded her dual lightsabers, Nox wielded her double-bladed lightsaber, and both of them wielded a wide variety of Force powers.

During her time spent with Nox, Ashara found many contradictions within the Sith Order. They claimed to follow their passions but were always at each others throats with no thoughts of friendship. She even criticized the Empire's xenophobic outlook when the original Sith were not human. Despite this, through debate and discussion with Kallig, she came to the conclusion that the best hope for peace was not to destroy the Empire, but to reform it, feeling that an Empire that was strong but rational would do better than the Republic.¹⁰ Nox couldn't have agreed more as a victim of xenophobia herself.

After many more philosophical discussions aboard Nox's starship, the Fury, Ashara offered to guard Nox's legacy with her life in case anything were to happen to her. Nox would rather have had no one else to honour her, and knew in that moment that she not only had a companion in Ashara, but a friend.

Talos Drellik¶

"We do a more conceptual sort of soldiering. We fight the dark army of forgetting that threatens our history."

— Talos Drellik

While his brother had been trained as a Sith by Darth Marr of the Dark Council, and while the Drellik lineage had produced numerous decorated soldiers throughout the Empire's history, Talos Drellik had a different calling. When he was young, he would hear the tales of his family's many conquests and heroic deeds. Though he was proud of his family's history defending the Empire, Talos found himself more interested in the history of the Sith and the Empire that was once theirs. He would spend his days in seclusion, studying the ancient history of the Empire, from the first humans to discover Korriban to the war between Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh.¹¹

While Drellik was far from incompetent as a soldier, his heart was never committed to serving the Empire on the battlefield as his forefathers had. Talos followed his passion for Imperial history and enlisted with the Imperial Reclamation Service. Before long, he was in charge of one of the most esteemed archaeological teams in the service, but his meticulousness and caution with the artifacts that were uncovered were seen as drawbacks by his superiors.¹¹

Drellik first met Darth Nox while he led an Imperial operation stationed at Dorn Base on the planet Hoth. He politely introduced himself as a Lieutenant Officer of the Imperial Reclamation Service. He aided Nox in her search for a Force ghost named Horak-mul¹². Given the let-downs of his peers, and after seeing Nox's capabilities with archaeology and ancient artifacts, he requested to join her crew and resigned from the the Imperial Reclamation Service. Ever since, they had worked closely with each other to discover and archive Sith artifacts, knowledge, and secrets. Sith history was a most mutual passion of theirs. He regularly embarked on missions to uncover and retrieve artifacts, both rare and common, for Nox's needs and his own interests alike. He maintains their private collection aboard Nox's Fury-class Imperial Interceptor and at her stronghold on Dromund Kaas.

Talos is driven by a deep-seated need for knowledge, and to understand the history of the artifacts that he uncovers. He's willing to go to great lengths to make discoveries and learn the lost knowledge of the Empire's past.¹¹

Xalek¶

Gallery¶