Darth Barad-Dur

"To be a good Sith, One must know pain. To be a true Sith, One must know betrayal. To be the Ultimate Sith, One must have no fear."

- Motto of Darth Barad-Dur

Darth Barad-Dur was a Sith Lord of the Third Sith Empire. His real name was Zahrin Harmon, brother of the famous Adam Harmon and uncle of the even more famous Oladam Harmon I. He served in both the Galactic Empire and Sith ranks. His last reported activities were the Sith Civil War.

Early Life
Zahrin was born five years before the Clone Wars on the planet of Naboo. During his early years, the Galaxy was torn by war. The boy grew up siding with the Jedi and Republic. He became a ravid worshopper of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-wan Kenobi, who were heroes of Adam and him.

Two Jedi
After Order 66, two jedi knights went into hiding on Naboo. The Queen of Naboo blocked several attempts to search the planet for the two Jedis. During thier stay, they discovered Zahrin to be force sensitive. They took it upon themselve to train him in the ways of the Jedi.

Finally, Darth Vader himself came to force the Queen to submit. Stormtroopers found the Jedi, and mortally wounded them during a training session. They left the dying Jedi to search for more Jedi. As they died, they made Zahrin promise to serve the true rulers of the galaxy, the populace.

Imperial Service
"Cadets, you are the elite. There are few that ever pass through an Academy of the Empire, and even fewer graduate to become officers. But, we will need every officer in the coming days. The Empire is threatened by a new group of sepretists which calls themselves the Alliance to Restore the Republic. They are riff-raff. They come from every walks of life. But, I have heard the most disturbing things. Some, of our own officers have joined thier ranks. I am afraid that some of you will join them. But, only the weak and those not loyal. Do not be weak. We will need the best in these times. But, that also brings me to the next order of business. One of you will soon be leaving. Where, I have not decided yet. But, one of you will leave."

- Emperor Palpatine to the Cadet Corps

He joined the Galactic Empire's military, and right after the Death Star's destruction he went into action as a member of the Executor's line-officers. His time there was hard, and witnessed six officers strangled to death by Darth Vader. But, not all was bad as he became a close friend of Admiral Piett.

During the Battle of Endor, he was stationed on the the Forest Moon. His group of troops commanded the South entrance, and had to fight off over 5,000 ewoks that came to divert attention and manpower from the north entrance. Harmon was able to save most of his command and escaped capture during the bitter fighting.

After he found out about Piett's death, he vowed to kill Luke Skywalker. His vow never was able to be made true as the Empire shrank. He ended up serving as captain of the ISD Darth Vader stationed at Bastion, fighting pirates and smugglers in the Empire. His efforts did not go without reward; if 20 ABY, he was given the rank of Admiral.

The Fall of Zahrin Harmon
Things deteriated in the Galactic Empire, especially during the Yuzzhan Vong War. Grand Admiral Pealleon did his best to keep things stable, but, after his death, the Moff Council took over, just long enough to run things before Oladam took over. Thier first act was to disppel those they felt unworthy of thier ranks. Harmon was one of those expelled.

Distraught, Harmon became a man without a cause. He took the Darth Vader and went to a long cruise. He arrived at Kuat by chance and was introduced to the Dark Side of the Force by several Sith.

At the age of 50, he joined the Sith Empire that was forming. For several months, none would take him on as an apprentice. Part of the reason was Darth Shadow, the Emperor of the Sith Empire, who felt that Zahrin was not worthy of apprenticeship yet. Finally, he was approved for gaining a master.

Rise of Darth Barad-Dur
After 10 months, he was able to gain one, in the form of Darth Lithium. Lithium took two apprentices during this time. The second one was Tanya Skywalker.

Thier training was long, and lasted three months. Darth Lithium noticed the potential Harmon had, and even went as far as to state to his apprentice that he was a much better apprentice then Skywalker. Finally, Lithium gave Zahrin a chance to prove himself against Darth Marix, a man that was slowly rising to gain the rank of Grand Admiral of the Sith Empire.

The two faced off at the Duel of the Platform fought on Yavin IV. Marix and Zahrin fought firecely for nearly an hour. Marix was amazed and impressed that Zahrin was such a skilled fighter for being such an apprentice. The climaxe of the duel came ontop of a pillar, where Marix nearly defeated Zahrin. Then, Zahrin defeated Marix by jumping off and toppling the pillar on him, and Marix reported to Lithium Zahrin's victory.

One last duel was to be had, which took place in the dojo of the Imperial Palace on Kuat. The Duel was a free for all, with 6 sith fighting in all, and Zahrin once again beat Marix.

He was knighted to Sith Warrior. During the knighting ceremony, Zahrin was given the choice to choose his own name. He chose the name: Darth Barad-Dur. A few months later, he advanced to the rank of Sith Master First Degree.

During the time between his ranks of Warrior and Master First Degree, he was given the option to choose either to be a prophet of the empire, or an soldier. Having known only war, and knowing that that was what he did best, he served in the Military, in the navy.

Rise of Darth Ducki
With Emperor Shadow's stepping down, so did Darth Acrinommus, the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Military. A great division sprung up over who would step up to take the position next. Emperor Shadow decided, and placed Darth Ducki in the position.

Ducki had very little experiance with the military, which forced several of the order to split. This decision was meet head-on by Darth Barad-Dur. It nearly came to blows between the Emperor and the Master, each insulting the other. The former accused Barad-Dur of being afraid of organization, which brought a fierce response of accusing that the Emperor's wisdom was failing him.

The argument was ended when several others of the order intervined. This probably saved Barad-Dur from a fatal fate.

Barad-Dur never felt the choice was wise. Many of the order would also try to drag many away from the order. Darth Barad-Dur remained faithful, and even went to war for the Empire when conflict sprung up. He said that no man could drag him away from the Empire.

Second Sith Civil War
"The Jedi are rising, The light is penetrating the Dark, Many Sith have betrayed the Order, Some are playing double-agent, Beware these traitors! They must be slushed out. Or the Empire shall perish."

- Unknown Sith in a Vision of Darth Barad-Dur

Two years after being knighted, Barad-Dur recieved news of illegal activity near Bespin. However, instead of it just being a small ordeal, it turned out to be a massive seperatist movement to overthrow the Sith Empire and set up a Galactic Republic. This was the most inoppertune time for the Empire, as Darth Shadow was going to step down from being Emperor, thus making most of the Empire lax.

Barad-Dur went to one of the enemy leaders, General Klar, and struck a deal with him. In excahnge for his services to the Republic, he would get thier Super Star Destroyer they were making. When Klar said they were waiting for an order of 500,000 clones to man the ship, Barad-Dur requested they install a command bridge that would allow six men to man the ship.

His services, however, were not in his best intrests. Barad-Dur at once called several men to assist him in overthrowing the rebels. Barad-Dur and six other Sith went through out the galaxy, and hunted down all the rebels, killing most of them.

During the campaign, Darth Barad-Dur and four other infiltrated the Super Star Destroyer, under the guise that 'Captain Harmon' was decepting, and trying to sway the others to join him. Along the way there, the Darth Vader (affectionatly known as just the Vader) was destroyed to ensure no one would return to the Empire. He ended up learning that 200 Jedi and Sith were operating the ship together on friendly terms. Barad-Dur killed both head Jedi on the ship and commendeered it, and went to Bespin, where they fired upon the cities, killing most of the rebels.

While waiting for Darths Adenn and Tarna to return to the ship, High Inquisitor Gra'tua, who had been accompaning him, left to hunt down a major bounty hunter. Barad-Dur, left alone while Darth Malice killed the remaining Jedi and renegade sith on board, manipulated the ship with the Force to keep it in control. Once he had silenced all the cities on Bespin, he immediatly commed Grand Admiral Marix (who had just defeated the enemy naval leader) and reported the destruction of the Vader and the enemy leaders.

Characteristics
""Hail the Emperor! We who are about to die salute you.""

- Darth Barad-Dur to Darth Marix

Darth Barad-Dur was cold and calculating. He never went into action without thinking about all the possible ouctcomes and preparing for them all in turn. During the battle for the Super Star Destroyer, Darth Gra'tua, High Inguisistor of the Empire, want to go into action immediatly upon landing, but Barad-Dur refused to allow him, on the condition that they did not know how many enemies were on the ships.

He fought in Jar-Kai, but was also a master of Form VII. This was evident in the Duel on the Platform. Marix was able to disarm him of a saber, and Barad-Dur went into Form V until he was able to retrive his other lightsaber. He even impolyed what he called, "Jar-Kai V" which was a combination of both forms, making him practically unstoppable.

He was also very sensitive to the needs of others. During an operation against a planet, he destroyed the entire enemy fleet, then moved all the debris onto a nearby moon. This allowed the planet to continue business as usual, and the entire system sided with the Sith Empire.

Romances and Family
There was no indicator that Barad-Dur had any relationship at any time in his life. If he had a physical relationship, he hid it very well. But, he himself reported that he had never even dated anyone.

Adam Harmon
Adam was his older brother by several years. They had only a little contact during thier lives and it was believed that they had been in competition at several times. But, Adam did have some big impacts on his brother such as their opinions on Anakin Skywalker. It was also believed that the death of his brother shoved him to the Dark Side.

Pussycat
A mysterious Sith called Pussycat reportedly was Barad-Dur's sister, but her story did not fit in any way with the when's and where's. She said she was on the planet called Duck, but there were no maps that could discover the planet. She also claimed to be born on a freighter ship, which also is disputed for the fact that Barad-Dur parents never traveled. However, it was known that Barad-Dur had entertained her ideas on several occasions.

Behind the scenes

 * Darth Barad-Dur is a roleplaying character created for The Dark Sith Lord forum. His creators real name is: Adam.
 * Most of his backstory was created before the character was made for the forums. He also is used by the creator as an e-mail address and signature.