Dark Guardians of Lettow



The Dark Guardians of Lettow were a group that worshiped the Dark Side of the Force bent on aiding the Sith Empire in destroying the Jedi Order. They were galactically renowned for their brutal discipline and lust for power in their upper ranks, along with the unholy methods they used to attain it.

Carden Mannux
The Dark Guardians of Lettow can trace its routes back to The Obsidian Guard, an elite group of Dark Side Force Users that was created under the reign of Darth Dire, Dark Lord of the Sith, during the early days of The Great Sovereign Crusades. The Obsidian Guard was placed under the command of Carden Mannux, the Arch Duke of the Sith Order. During his tenure as the leader of The Obsidian Guard, Mannux drafted ideas within his manifesto on how The Obsidian Guard should have worked, though he had no power to change it then.

When Darth Ruinus usurped the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith from Darth Dire, Mannux was crowned Darth Lettow and became one of two Apprentices of the Dark Lord of the Sith. When this happened, The Obsidian Guard was placed under the command of now Arch Duke Thorodon but the organization was soon dismantled.

After a year of two more changes in the leadership of the Sith Order, Darth Lettow became the Dark Lord of the Sith. He soon began performing sick and sadistic experiments on humans at his new base on Mustafar. Not long after, he knew that he no longer needed the Sith Order to achieve his true goal so he summoned his apprentice, Darth Calamity, and another deranged Sith Lord called Netharion to his throne. There, he stepped down as Dark Lord of the Sith and fled.

Once again known by his birth name, Mannux kidnapped Isabella Dashin, daughter of Supreme Chancellor Cos Jonathan Dashin, and acquired the DNA of his arch nemesis Ussej Padric Bac III, the High Priest of the Bendu Order. On Mustafar, Mannux fused DNA from Isabella Dashin and Ussej Padric Bac III with a growth accelerating substance to create a fetus that he then implanted into Dashin. She harbored the child for nine weeks due to the growth acceleration until the child, whom Mannux named Damien Starkiller, was born.

Not long after, Ussej Padric Bac III and Kalel Kitsune came to rescue Isabella and discovered her battered state. Ussej sacrificed himself to save Kalel and Isabella, though he did not go down alone: when he destroyed the Mustafar base, he made sure that Mannux was unable to escape the blast.

However, Mannux had a failsafe system incase of his demise. He had left his manifesto open so that on Damien’s eighteenth birthday it would summon him to come. While under the care of his foster parents he was delivered to by Mustafarian Miners, the manifesto did indeed summon him. Weeks after having been summoned, he opened the document and found all of the information he would need to create the Dark Guardians of Lettow, named after the fallen Prince of Darkness himself.

Training
Mannux devised a way to train Force adepts to use the Force, while hiding its true meaning from them. He meant to create tools, people who would be able to instinctively use the Force to produce amazing results, but that had no knowledge of its true structure and mechanisms. To this end, he used the natural block created by untrained minds. If someone did not believe that they could accomplish a task through the Force then they could not, even if they were powerful enough.

Mannux devised the Dark Guardians to be individuals trained to use the Force physically, move objects and influence minds. He knew that training them in the ways of the primitive and ruthless Sith Lords would lead to the corruption of the Dark Side destroying the mental barriers so he devised a more neutral training, combining the techniques of the Sith and the Jedi.

Obviously, the Lettow would not act like Jedi. They would wish to destroy the Jedi, though they would retain some of their patient teachings. Their minds and hearts would tell them to further the Dark Side in the galaxy and in the individual living being. A Guardian of Lettow would aid the Sith Order, in time, to enslave their desires all while having no true desires of their own, at least not until they reached a higher rank. As such, it would be expected that they show the patience of eternity when waiting for the right moment of seduction or strike.

To appear and to show open aggression would feed their desire for battle. Yet, there would be no strategic advantage to this. If they were to anger their enemy and shortly tempt them with their darker emotions then they would have no chance of turning a soul of merit. The protector of the light would know that they were safe from such primitive behavior. As such, they would have destroyed all chances of befriending them as they would categorize that Dark Guardian as an enemy. The only true path, as Mannux would have said, would be for them to show their enemies politeness as they would eventually drop their guard and allow you to understand who they were and what they thought. The Dark Guardian would therefore have mastered their thoughts, mind and souls and would easily be able to seduce them to their cause.

The trial of a Lettow Recruit would be to seduce an enemy to their cause. They would have to remain polite because if the enemy were to provoke them then they would obviously be tempted to drop their guise. If they had the ability to maintain control then this would not happen. They would speak of philosophy, their emotions and show the stage of evolution. If the Recruit were to show the ignorance of a child then they would be treated as a child. However, if they were to show the courage and mindfulness of a warrior then they would be treated as a warrior.

Hierarchy
The Dark Guardians of Lettow were designed to be split in two, one half to serve the Dark Lord of the Sith and the other half to serve the Dark Apprentice of the Sith. This was meant to create better conditions for each to experiment on novelty without interfering with one another. Three ranks were created to better monitor the Dark Guardians of Lettow, Lettow Recruit not being counted as part of the ranks: Low Guard, High Guard and Dark Commander of the Guard. There would be one Dark Commander for the Dark Lord of the Sith and one for the Dark Apprentice of the Sith. Were one of the two Sith Lords to perish, the two Dark Commanders would engage in a Battle of Succession to determine who would become the next Dark Apprentice of the Sith.

The Force abilities of the three separate ranks were catalogued to ensure that the Dark Guardians of Lettow would never be able to rival their masters:


 * Low Guard - The Low Guards were thoroughly trained in the kinetic abilities that the Force could bestow, but not in the finer uses of the trait. They could create violent movement, but they did not have the skill for fine control of even the smallest objects. Their meditation techniques were battle oriented to better focus their reflexes and overcome weariness. They were taught whatever was necessary for battle, including the reading of surface thoughts and the way to feel their opponents location. Apart from that, the Low Guards received extensive training in lightsaber fighting, assassination techniques, spy craft and several fields of practical knowledge. They were mostly used as guards and Advanced Shock Troopers if necessary and were considered to be expendable, as they were not well versed in saber fighting, posing no match for even the most unskilled of Jedi Knights.


 * High Guard - Once a Low Guard was able to prove their usefulness, they were allowed to study the capabilities of the Force better than they had ever been allowed to before. At this point, they were skilled enough to rival a Jedi Knight or Sith Knight. They were taught how to influence minds and have a perfect attunement to their environment. Their kinetic abilities were refined to a point where they could even cause pain such as a heart attack. With the proper conditioning, they would undertake missions that would lead them away from their superiors. They would be used as spies and assassins. Because they would now be considered valuable at this stage, they would often be given command assignments within the Sith Order.


 * Dark Commander - Only two Dark Commander’s existing at one time, this rank is bestowed upon the leader of one of the two factions of the Dark Guardians of Lettow. The Dark Lord of the Sith and Dark Apprentice of the Sith each select whom they wish to be their heir. The Dark Commander can issue orders without approval from his master and is allowed virtually as much freedom as he requires. The Dark Commander is almost as powerful as the Dark Apprentice of the Sith, though if he were to face him in combat the Dark Apprentice would surely be the victor.

Behind the Scenes

 * The Dark Guardians of Lettow were created by Brandon Rhea based off of the limited information given by Geroge Lucas in the original drafts of The Star Wars about the group that would later go on to be known as the Sith Order in the Star Wars Saga.

Apperances

 * The Beginning: The Legend of The Skywalker
 * Shadows of the Jedi: The Legend of Ussej Padric Bac III
 * Lettow: The Curse of Carden Mannux
 * Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Beginning
 * Star Wars: Episode V - Shadows of the Republic
 * Star Wars: Episode VI - Fall of the Lettow
 * Star Wars: Episode VII - A New Hope
 * Star Wars: Episode VIII - Sins of the Father
 * Star Wars: Episode IX - Return of the Jedi