Darth Nemesis

"Only through battle can we grow stronger, but said battle is nothing unless it is against an opponent who forces you to evolve."

- Ravyn Zhao as Darth Nemesis

Ravyn Zhao, better known as Darth Nemesis for much of his life, was an infamous who lived before, during and after the  and its resulting. He was well-known for his unusual but fair sense of honour and preference for powerful opponents, believing that victory over such individuals would help him become the strongest warrior in. He eventually left the Sith, searching for a purpose beyond fighting for power, leading him to join the Jedi Order, where he eventually became a master of both the Light and Dark Side of the Force.

Born to fight
Born 3,697 BBY to unnamed parents on, the boy that would become Darth Nemesis was sold into slavery by his parents, and was eventually bought by the head of an illegal pit-fighting syndicate. By age five, the had become a  gladiatorial sensation, named "Ravyn" by hordes of cheering fans. The boy was undefeated in the arena, and could perform such feats as twenty-foot jumps into the air and slicing Rancor arms to ribbons with only one slash. This was because Ravyn was a very powerful, using his hate, anger and his species' traditional war-like demeanor to power his abilities, but also practicing great control over these powers and his emotions.

One day, whilst assigned to the arenas of, Ravyn found he was to be pitted against a massive creature similiar to the Gorog. When he asked what 'powerful idiot' had been able to convince the s to unleash their most destructive beast in their most important stadium, his overseer pointed out a robed sitting in the VIP box some distance away. Ravyn swore to make the horned humanoid pay, but proceeded to fight the beast anyway. However, the boy was forced to dodge and run from the beast multiple times, as no matter how much damage he inflicted, neither his swords nor his staff could even scratch the beast. However, as the monster crushed a large section of the arena wall and flooring, Ravyn suddenly had an idea: coaxing the beast into attacking him, Ravyn was able to trick creature into destroying the floor beneath its own feet, sending it hurtling into a massive water-filled cave half a mile below. For good measure, Ravyn cut several viewing screens from their posts and threw them into the water, electrocuting the leviathon and finally killing it.

Ravyn, however, was not finished. In an act of defiance, he used the massive piles of rubble fallen from the arena's sides during their fight to leap up into the VIP box, where he attempted to behead the Daveronian. The Zabrak was shocked, however, when his blade hit nothing but air and was cut to peices in seconds by a red-bladed the red-skinned humanoid had drawn from his robes. Another few seconds and Ravyn was kicked from the box into the arena, with the Daveronian following after him. Ravyn's 'sponsor' seemed pleased at the boy's determination and ingenuity, stating he thought it impossible for a nat like him to succeed. Enraged, Ravyn launched himself at the humanoid, only to be effortlessly bereft of his sword and sent flyign with a kick from the Devaronian.

Refusing to back down, Ravyn called upon the Force, and repaid the Devaronian's kick with a telekinetic blow that would normally have crushed boulders. The Devaronian did indeed go flying, but seemed unperturbed. The two engaged in battle once again, Ravyn growing angrier and more powerful the more taunts and jeers his opponent threw at him. At one point, the Zabrak was able to steal a second lightsaber from his foe's belt, and was at last able to meet him sword-to-sword. It was not enough, however, and, though Ravyn fought well, the superior Devaronian defeated him with a burst of lightning that inexplicably appeared from his fingertips, though it took an impressive amount of power to defeat the young warrior.

Almost burnt black by the electric storm and completely exhausted after facing two incredibly powerful opponents, Ravyn still refused to accept defeat, trying in vain to stand up and continue the fight. The Devaronian's claims that he had won fell upon deaf ears, with Ravyn insisting that the fight was not over until one of them lay dead, even if it was himself. His enemy laughed heartily at this, commending the warrior for his martial code and unfaltering confidence even in the face of certain doom. The Devaronian told Ravyn his name: Darth Curze. Curze explained to Ravyn how he could perform the amazing acts of agility and offence he had displayed all hsi life, and offered to teach the boy in the ways of an dedicated to war and developing such power, an order that was soon to be at war with the entire galaxy, a war where Ravyn could prove his mettle against warriors as powerful as Curze, if not more: the. Ravyn accepted without a second thought, and as his first act as a Sith Apprentice, slaughtered every last Geonosion, off-world spectator and gladiator who had witnessed his fight against Curze with the lightsaber he had acquired from the Sith.

Becoming Sith
For over a decade, Ravyn trained under Darth Curze, and the two shared a symbiotic master-apprentice relationship. However, unlike his time as a slave, Ravyn was eager to learn from his master and treated him as a true superior, the old warrior having earned both Ravyn's respect and awe. Combat training was harsh, unpredictable and so physically taxing that on several occasions even Ravyn's Zabrak body found it difficult to cope. The Sith Master used every possible means to train the apprentice, from assigning him droids programmed to try and kill him at random intervals, to holocrons, to entering physical combat with Curze and other Sith hopefuls. Curze was impressed with Ravyn's dedication to such activities, relishing battle as a man might enjoy fine food and ladies, or a farmer might rejoice at the prospect of rain.

Several times, the apprentice requested his master take him to the most dangerous planets and civilisations available so that he might test his skills against the environments, creatures and sentient warriors of that system, to which Curze agreed, and taught himself all kinds of Sith powers in what little spare time he had. Curze also taught his apprentice many languages, and Imperial politics, and subjects of engineering, including how to build lightsabers. Curze also taught the Zabrak his own personal code, which being inclined to independence and fights to the death, was willingly assimilated by Ravyn from an early age.

By age twelve, the Zabrak had mastered much of his power and most forms of lightsaber combat, easily perfecting those involving the duel and double-bladed lightsabers, as Ravyn found both comfortingly familiar to his old combinable duel swords from his time as a gladiator. On the eve of his thirteenth birthday, Ravyn was summoned by his master to a special chamber within on, where Curze forced the student to fight him again. This time the battle was far more intense, destroying half the tower inside and out, and although Ravyn was again defeated, his master decided he had progressed far enough to move on to the 'advanced' stages of his training in how to harness the. Ravyn was ritually adorned with Sith tattoos on the spot, and began immersing himself in ever more dangerous and advanced dark side powers with or without his master's consent, including and other infamous Sith powers.

The Great War
When the between the Republic and the Sith began three years later, Ravyn and his master were chosen to be part of the vanguard that would attack the Republic head-on. the two were present for the, the , and, though Ravyn was not present for the Tingel Arm Campaign launched by the Republic, Curze later described it to him. In each of these battles, both master and apprentice became concerned that the Sith Empire's 'glorious war' was not the up-front matter they had believed it would be. Instead the two became disgusted as they watched defenseless diplomats shot down by turbolasers, traitors to the Republic flying their banners without having seen any battle since time, and enemy campaigns ended by treachery in space over honourable surface combat.

However, Ravyn was able to at last taste true war during the Fall of. After a brief argument with Lord, Ravyn was assigned to the rear of the station exactly opposite the site where the two Sith would land their. There he initially found only republic troopers, who he cut down with minimal effort. However, there were not only the two Jedi encountered by Ravyn's fellow Sith. There was a third Jedi, a  by the name of Diu-Su'ka. The two engaged in a brief conversation regarding war and a sentient's range of conduct in such conflicts before engaging in an earth-shattering duel that saw much of the hanger destroyed. Eventually, Ravyn emerged triumphant but heavily scarred, having suffered severe burns to the back thanks to an exploding canister. His own ship destroyed in the battle, Ravyn did not relish the idea of traveling in the same ship as Vindican. However, he was pleasantly surprised to find Vindican dead and his fellow warrior Malgus now in charge of the ship. The Sith gave Ravyn passage on his own Interceptor, and the two congratulated each other on their first Jedi kills&mdash;both of them masters of their arch-rivals, the

Loss
Ravyn continued to fight alongside his master until 3,678 BBY, during the Invasion Of the Minos Cluster. On Yelsain, Darth Curze engaged an entire army of republic troopers, several jedi and, later, a varying aglamation of beasts driven into a rampage by a then-unidentified Jedi. The Imperial forces later found Darth Curze's body surrounded by piles of Republic dead and slain beasts, wounded all over hsi body and near death after havign his chest and almost his heart peirced by a Shoto which lay alongside the Sith Lord. Upon recovery soem two months later, Darth Curze's personality had changed from benificant and wise, to vengeful and reckless. Curze became obsessed with hunting down and killing the Jedi responsible for his humiliation, or if that were not possible, massacring the entire Jedi Order by whatever means necesarry. He became more distant from Ravyn, and the Apprentice noted more subtle, yet no less alarming, changes in his master's behaviour. Ravyn was unnusualy concerned for his Master as far as Sith, but beleived that if Curze were to avenge himself on the Jedi that had almost killed him, then he may have returned to normal.

To this end, Ravyn began scouring the galaxy for said Jedi in secret, using the minute DNA samples recovered from the Shoto's hilt and stolen Republic files detailing the jedi known to be present on Yelsain durign the Battle. Eventually, almsot a year after his search began, Ravyn found his querry: a female Zeltron Jedi named Dorion Talg. Ravyn was able to use his limited knowladge of Sith Alchemy to indirectly place a biological Force-powered tracking device into his querry, then rushed back to Dromund Kaas to report his findings to his master, but as he entered, he found another Sith in the room: Darth Zell, an "old asociate" of Curze, so he said. Though skeptical of the Sith's claims, Ravyn was too concerned with the pressing information he possessed: Darth Curze practically jumped at the chance, taking to his Fury Interceptor immediatly, along with Darth Zell, who insisted he see his old freind triumph over the blashemous whelp that had injured him. Ravyn offored to come along, but Curze denied his request, sayign that thsi was his battle and hsi alone.

Now convinced that something was wrong with his master's behaviour, Ravyn shadowed the two in a Sith Fighter until they reached the Jedi's lcoation. The Apprentice shadowed the two Lords as they stealthing made their way through the Republic camps and outposts, with Ravyn following suite, albiet with difficulty as he was not used to sneaking around liek a common spy. When at last the three Sith located the Jedi, Ravyn expected his master to incapacitate the guards, then charge in and challange the Jedi to a duel. Instead, to his shock and anger, Curze was convinced by Dath Zell to poisen the air currents with a gas that would induce great pain, then stab her with her own shoto. Ravyn, outraged, jumped on Zell, cuttign him down in seconds. Next he turned to Curze, and angrily challanged the Sith Lord to a duel to the death for betrayign hsi code and his pupil. Curze accepted, and Master and Apprentice began fighting for the last time. The duel attracted much unwanted attention, namely from Dorion Tag and a large force of republic troopers, but a uick force-explosion knocked them out. Distracted, Ravyn suddenly felt a searign pain through his chest: a lightsaber had been thrust through his left heart. Now enraged beyond words, Ravyn unleashed a massive barrage of Force-energy wich destroyed much of the camp. Though he struggled with the grevious wound to his biology, Ravyn ignored the pain and kept fightign, unleashing lightning, telekenisis and all manner of Dark power upon his mentor until even Curze began to tire. When this happened, Ravyn at last went for the kill: striking his master's lightsaber again and again in a petternless rage, he eventually severed blade and arm in one strike.

With a terful farewell, Ravyn plunged his lightsaber through his master's heart, finishing what Dorion Tag had started. Ravyn left without laying a hand on the republic troopers or Jedi, taking his master's body and Zell's head back to Dromund Kaas, where he related hsi story to the Council. Ravyn demanded that he be awarded the title of Darth, both for traditionally slaying his master and uncovering a rogue element in the Imperial warmachine, namely Zell. THe council agreed, and Ravyn took the name 'Darth Nemesis', swearign to fight at the front for all eternity and kill as many Republicans as it took to avenge his master, including Dorion Tag, who he intended to fight and kill wihout use of stealth.

Doubting the Cause

For the next twenty years of the Great Galactic War, the newly-christined Darth Nemesis became a dark legend to both sides. The Republic feared him for his sheer power and devestating approach to war, which involved apparant suicide squads made up of the best fighters, spies and pilots Nemesis could find. Meanwhile the Empire, particulary the council, became concerned over the Zabrak's strange behaviour, leading a one-man charge agaisnt the Republic, cutting down anyone who got in his way, even other Imperials, but always leavign non-combatants or potential opponents like padawans unharmed, and refusign to attack i nany other way than frontrol assualt. Nemesis' seclusion was brought on by increasing doubt: doubt in the purity of war as the Sith continued to sluaghter defenceless sentients, doubt in the Empire as more and more Sith turned to polotics over lightsaber combat and the Dark Side, and doubt in himself. Things came to a head when another battle-obsessed Sith Lord named Dath Kaos went rogue and began sluaghtering everyone and anyone, his fellow Darth's included. As one of the few Sith Lords that could equal his power and being the closest to the site of Kaos' rampage, the council urgently contacted Nemesis and practically begged him to deal with Kaos, to which the Sith agreed. Nemesis and his small cadre of loyal followers set their Fury-class Interceptor down near Kaos's last knwon lcoation, thevolcanic planet of Mustafar. Almost immediatly after landing, an explosion of force energy blew the Fury's entire right side to peices, and the resulting explosion killed much of Nemesis' strike-team.

Darth Kaos had been waiting for them, and in sconds the two Sith Lords began a titanic clash the lieks of which mustafar would not see for another 3,624 years until the. Though Kaos was more powerful than Nemesis, soemthign that surprised hi mgreatly, Kaos's lightsaber combat left something to be desired: whilst Nemesis was calm and controlled in his attacks and defence, Kaos was all about wild, overpowered attack, using force-imbued techniques to try and overpower Nemesis. This proved to be his downfall, as at the last crucial moment, as the two Sith stood over a massive lava pit, Nemesis cut the rogue Sith in half below the waist, then bisected his arms to prevent further resistance. When asked why he went rogue i nthe first place, Kaos's anwser shook Nemesis to the core: Kaos had been taught by almsot evryone in the Sith at some point from his icneption at the start of the war, and all of those teachers had instilled a thirst for power and war in Kaos, but instead of honourable combat, he had been isntructedi n the way of sluaghter ,murrder, backstabbign and overwhelming greed. He had sought war and chaos sicne childhood, but as the war drew near it's close, Kaos confessed his fear that there would be no more Republic left to fight, and no more Jedi.If the Jeid were no more, who was he supposed to fight, who could match his power, except other Sith?

Nemesis, havig heard all he needed to, and deciding that a being as powerful as Kaos would probably fidn a way to return fro mthe dead, performed an all-but-forgotten ritual that trapped Kaos in an empty, where he would remain for almost four millenia. Although Nemesis despised hsi defeated foe, the Sith couldn't deny his words: the Sith had degenerated considerably in the last two decades, and maybe long before that. As for the subject of opponnets, his own master, Darth Kurze, had also taught Nemesis that true warriors were like big game: overhunt them, and they will cease to exist. With Kaos's words echoing in his ears, Nemesis found himself spiritually and mentaly distanced from his peers for the last few years of the war. In time he saw the Sith as no more than an army of bloodthirsty murderers who would rather butcher the republic and rape it's corspe than let it pass peacefully.

Ashamed that he had ever followed such an Order, and upon elarnign of the impeding attack on, Nemesis devised a plan that would free himself of the Sith and preserve the , whom Nemesis now saw as the only hope for honourable force-warriors as na orginisation in the , in one fell swoop. First Nemesis 'recruited' Doll Kaneeb, a slicer widely regarded as the best in his feild at the time, and Kal Duron, a female bounty hunter and ex-jedi, and infiltrated the Jedi temple two days before the. For almost foury-eight hours without rest, the trio worked to copy, learn and/or remove anything and everything that might help the Jedi order survive. Miraculously, Doll was able to copy the entire Jedi Archives without beign discovered, and Nemesis spirited away many holocrons and other secrets from the temple's vualts, directed by Kal, who knew the temple inside and otu from her days as a Jedi.

The group finished their operation at the same time as the Sith Empire luanched it's attack on Coruscant. The three were making quick tiem to Nemesis's Fury when none other than Jedi Master Dorion Talg appeared. Nemesis ordered his companions back to the ship, instructing them to take all their findings and leave as soons as they were aboard, with or without him. Jedi Master and Sith Lord then engaged in battle, moving from the middle floors to the upper echeolon of the temple while and his strike-team assualted the temple from below. Talg accused Nemesis of stealing the Jedi's history, to which Nemesis replied he was trying to continue that history. At that moment Malgus activated the explosives hidden aroud nthe temple, and the two Force-users' battle was interupted by a wave of fire. Knowing the explosion would take place all along, Nemesis force-pushed Talg a great distance away into a nearby building, supposedly sacrificing himself in the process.

Rediscovery

Talg survived the explosion and the subsequent invasion by the Sith, managing to escape the planet and later joined the rest of her brethren on. The final act of Darth Nemesis, however, confused and conflicted her to no end, as did the sudden appearance of an abandoned Fury-class Interceptor filled to the brim with Jedi knowledge thought lost with the destruction of the temple. The ship was identical in specification to the one Darth Nemesis had used, and bore his personnal insignia. Inside there was a holo-message recorded by Nemesis before the fall of Coruscant, in which he confessed his desire to leave the Sith and preserve the Jedi order, if not for his sake then for the galaxy's. The message was basically a suicide note, explaining he had intended to die in the temple's destruction in one last battle agaisnt the Jedi, as one of the few things he could not bring hismelf to do was commit suicide. Dorion was moved by the former Sith Lord's bravery and selflessnes, and with the knowledge he had saved the Jedi were able to retain a vast amount of their knowledge and history.

Nemesis was beleived dead by both the Empire and the Republic during the Cold War, a byword for glorious battle and impossible deeds in the Sith Empire. His battles and fighting style were standard learning topics at the on Korriban, though of course his personnal philosophy was left out of the lessons. When the Jedi spoke of him, they spoke of a terrifyingly powerful and dark but honourable warrior whose only flaw was his allegiance and over-immersion in war. Darth Nemesis mght well have remained dead, if he had not been discovered to be alive and well in 3,651 BBY. Dorion Talg, the Jedi who Nemesis had saved three eyars before, was sent on a scouting mission to the by the Jedi council to gather intel on Imperial-controleld worlds, and though she suceeded, she was shot down over an unknown planet by pirates during the return trip, and the resulting crash knocked the Jedi unconcious.

Dorion later awoke in a room walled off by specially-grown fauna. An indavidual covered in bandages and wearing a bone-mask sitting beside her bed greeted her and asked about her well-being. Had the indavidual not used to greet her, Dorion could well have mistaken the man for a. Dorion sensed something familiar about the man, and asked him his name. The man did not reply, insisting it was not important. He then informed Dorion that he had provided a month's worth of food and water, had cleaned and bandaged her injuries, and that he had repaired her ship, and thus had no more business with her. He then left without another word. Dorion spent a scant three days resting before setting out after her rescuer, intent on discoverign who he was and why he seemed so familiar. Alogn the way she became immersed in the planet's teeming wildlife--the creatures and fuana were so numerous, in fact, that Dorion could have cut the force presance there with a knife. THe Jedi was so distracted by the amount of force-power aroudn her, however, that she failed to see a massive bull behidn her. The creature struck like lightning, grabbed Dorion, and was secodns away from eating her when the man from before appeared and stopped it with a single command. Angry that he had been followed, the man ordered her to leave, bur Dorion refused and continued to follow him throughout the day. Eventually the mysterious stranger grew exasperated with the Jedi and demanded to know what she wanted. Dorion's request to know the man's identity was anwsered this time: when he at last removed his mask, Dorion was shocked to see the face of Darth Nemesis, badly burnt and with a blind right eye.

Once over her initial shock, Dorion pleaded the former Sith what had happened to him: why had he abandoned the Empire, why had he saved the Jedi order from it's supposed destruction, why had he saved her--all these questions and more came tumbling out of Talg's mouth. Nemesis sighed an asked Dorion to take a seat, then, deciding to begin from the earliest point he could, told her his life stroy, from the arena to the destruction of the Jedi Temple. He then went on to tell the Jedi how he had not perished as intended but had somehow survived the explosion by some bizarre twist of fate. unable to bring hismelf to commit suicide, Nemesis, under the allias of Zhao when needed to register a name, had wandered the galaxy for months, bearing the weight of his failure to acheive freedom and a new, crushing void in his very soul. Where before the Zabrak had called war his true happiness, such shallow thoughts were false, a fabrication to keep his midn away from that lonliness. Eventually the transport he was on crashed on the planet they now stood upon, which a strange saurian species Ravyn had encoutnered called, and refered to themselves as , whom the former Sith communicated with telepathically, by accident, and who had since taught him much about the planet. Since then Ravyn had been trying to figue out how the planet coudl be so powerfully connected to the force. At first he assumed some ancient superweapon or the Kwi's s was responsible, but eventually, the anwser was simple--that so much life was the cause of such power--as explained to him by a supposedly simple creature, the Rancor who had almsot devoured Dorion, called 'Shvi'. Shvi's latent intelligence allowed her to percieve the force in a limited way, but her primitive statement, that "Life means force, Force means life", had led Ravyn int othe deeper knowledge of the Light Side.

Redemption

From then on, Ravyn had tried desperatly to harness this new and unexplored path, and udner Shvi's straightforward directive, was able to make peace with himself and see int othe force. the last year had been used trying to get in touch with his inner light, but to no avail. Ravyn was determined to learn the ways of the Light Side and become balanced as both a man of peace and war. Dorion, touched by the Sith's story, and seeing much good in Ravyn, asked if he would return with her to lear nthe ways of the Jedi from the Order itself. Ravyn was hesitant, feelign great guilt over his actions on the Empire's behalf, but with reasurrance from the Jedi and some promptign from Shvi, the force-user agreed. His only conditions were that his identity be kept a secret, and that Shvi come with him, havign always wanted to see the wider galaxy. Tolg agreed, and after a slight reconfiguration of Dorion's {{SW|Defender-class light corvette)), in which aproximetly 40% of the already banged-up ship being torn out to make room for Shvi, the trio set out for.