Sora Bulq (Powerstaark)

Sora Bulq was a powerful and respected lightsaber instructor in the Jedi Order. Sora was a good friend of Jedi Master Mace Windu and helped Mace develop his deadly Vaapad fighting style. However during the creation of Vaapad Sora became fascinated by the dark side of the Force. Sora was captured by Count Dooku at the beginning of the Clone Wars and succumbed to the dark side, becoming the leader of Dooku's Dark Acolytes and arguably the most powerful.

Master of the lightsaber
Sora Bulq was born into a wealthy Weequay merchant family which owned most of Ruul, a moon of the Weequay homeworld, Sriluur, and on which they had their estate. Identified as Force-sensitive early in his life, Sora was taken in by the Jedi Order to be raised as a Jedi. During his training, Sora was one of the Jedi Temple's most promising students, and as he rose up through the ranks of the Jedi Order, he became exceptionally skilled in lightsaber combat, eventually mastering all lightsaber combat forms except Form VIII and was considered to be one of the most formidable swordsmen in history. Eventually Sora became a Jedi Master and a lightsaber instructor in the Jedi Temple.

Sora trained many young Jedi in his career and was said to have great influence over his students. Sora helped Mace Windu develop and perfect the deadly Vaapad style of lightsaber combat, but unknown to Windu or indeed any other Jedi, Sora became fascinated by the dark side, and though he worked hard to resist it, this fascination did not go away.

After the Kiffar Jedi Quinlan Vos regained his memory after a period of amnesia Sora gave him some training in Vaapad, though not on an advanced level.

A few months before the Battle of Geonosis, Sora Bulq accompanied Jedi Knight Carmen Conrose and her recently promoted Padawan Tom Norton to Ryloth to rescue Orn Free Taa from a terrorist group. On Ryloth Bulq used Vaapad to kill or injure the majority of the terrorists which disturbed Carmen and Tom.

Battle of Geonosis
Sora fought in the Battle of Geonosis, destroying a Geonosian cannon in the arena, and cutting down many droids and Geonosians. The powerful Weequay was in the survivors circle in the arena and Dooku offered the surviving Jedi a chance to surrender, which Mace Windu rejected. At that moment, however, the Grand Army of the Republic appeared under Yoda. The new clone army swept into the arena aboard LAAT/i transports and laid waste to the surrounding droids. The Jedi were loaded aboard and evacuated.

The battle was not over, however, and the Jedi turned to engage the Separatist armies outside the arena. Sora never joined the battle, though, as his evacuation gunship was shot down. By pure luck, the force of the blast knocked Sora out of the gunship before it exploded. Jedi Master Eeth Koth also managed to escape but the third Jedi passenger was killed. Sora fell a long way and though he survived the fall the exhaustion of the battle in the arena and the injuries he had received in the fall caused the Weequay to black out and he did not recover until several hours later. By then, the battle was over.

Mission to Bakura
After recovering from the fall, Sora met up with an old friend of his, Jedi Master Tholme who had returned from sabotaging a droid factory (the same one Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala were captured in). Along with Tholme, Sora went to Bakura to try and capture Count Dooku. There, he and Tholme dueled with the Sith Lord who commented on Bulq's use of Vaapad. Dooku managed to slice Sora's shoto in half but despite the loss of his shoto, the Weequay continued his relentless assault on the Sith Lord and the Jedi started to gain the advantage. Because of Sora's mastery of the lightsaber, and the added advantage of it being a two verses one duel, the two Jedi might have defeated Dooku then and there but unfortunately they were unprepared for his mastery of the Force. The Sith Lord caught Sora off guard with a powerful blast of Force lightning knocking the Weequay unconscious. Tholme fought valiantly against the Sith lord but with Bulq out of the picture he didn't stand a chance. The Count defeated Tholme, stabbing him in the shoulder and cutting out his left eye before burying him in a pile of rubble. Dooku then telekinetically took Sora out of the room.

Sora woke in a small dark room and Count Dooku came to talk to him trying to persuade Bulq to join the Separatists. Sora said he had think about it and the next day he agreed to join the Sith lord. Bulq's first mission was to rescue Tholme and return him to the Jedi Order so that the Jedi would not suspect his corruption. Sora obeyed and rescued the injured Tholme. Tholme managed to contact Jedi Master Oppo Rancisis who sent a clone gunship to pick them up.

After returning Tholme to the Jedi Order Sora returned to Dooku after telling the Jedi Council that he needed time to recover from all the life lost on Geonosis (this was half true as Bulq was genuinely upset by the loss of life on Geonosis). Nobody suspected his turn to the dark side.

At some point Sora rebuilt his shoto which he continued to use throughout the war.

Treachery revealed
"Tell me, Sora. When did you go over to the dark side?"

- Mace Windu to Sora Bulq

Bulq resurfaced just under three months after the Battle of Geonosis, calling together several dissident Jedi to his old family estate on Ruul—his family was by now apparently deceased, as the estate had fallen into disuse and was overgrown. Bulq unified four Jedi dissidents—Sian Jeisel, K'Kruhk,, and Bulq's own former Padawan Mira—themselves leaders of different antiwar schools of thought, into a group which claimed to speak for all dissident Jedi. Bulq asserted that he wished to discuss the issue of the Clone Wars with those Jedi who had opted to refuse the Council's call to service, and the group invited the Council to send a representative to argue their side, asking for Bulq's old friend, Mace Windu. Bulq's sudden reappearance as a dissident leader was unsettling to the Council, who worried that Bulq's prestige and influence could sway even more away from the war effort. Moreover, the factions Bulq had united were themselves sufficient to cause a potential schism in the Order.

Mace Windu was sent to the Bulq estate on Ruul. What he did not know was that the entire series of developments was a plot by Dooku. Dooku's Dark Jedi assassin Asajj Ventress was waiting there for the summit's dissident Jedi; it was Dooku and Bulq's intention for Ventress to assassinate one or more of the dissident Jedi and escape, and to then lay the blame for the incident on Windu. They hoped to capitalize on Windu's reputation as a hardliner to make the attack credible, as well as establishing that the assassin must have come aboard Windu's ship. With that accomplished, the Jedi's credibility would plummet and a great many more might defect to Bulq's splinter faction.

Windu arrived and spoke with Sora, who greeted him and told him, in answer to Windu's questions, that he had disappeared after Geonosis because of his grief at that battle's slaughter and his questioning as to whether the corrupt Republic was worthy of that sacrifice. Bulq also told him that he had not yet decided on what side he would ultimately come down, however. Bulq left to gather the other negotiators, though K'Kruhk and Jeisel found their way to Windu before Bulq could find them. When they had all gathered, Sora convened the summit. After the others discussed, his opinion was asked, and Bulq came out against the Republic, though uncertain of his final decision. He swiftly adjourned the meeting, as it was growing late, and sent the others to sleep or meditate.

On a supposed meditative walk around the estate, Bulq was victim to a staged ambush by Ventress, receiving a minor wound for the purposes of authenticity. Perhaps because Bulq was not in true danger, his former Padawan Mira was the only one to sense something wrong and set out to investigate. She came upon Bulq and Ventress dueling and entered the fray to aid her Master, though Bulq warned her that she was no match for Ventress. Ventress overcame and slew Mira; by that time the other Jedi had been attracted to the fight. When Windu arrived, however, Ventress acted as if she were his subordinate and disappeared. This engendered controversy, but Windu left in pursuit of Ventress. Bulq ordered the three remaining dissidents to follow and support Windu in combat, dismissing his wound as insignificant. He took Mira's body back to the estate's buildings to tend to it.

Sora laid her body out on a bier and expressed over it his remorse at her death, which had not been part of his plans. He was interrupted, however, by Windu, who had found Ventress's ship on the grounds and had connected it with Tarn's statement that no ship could land on the estate without Sora's knowledge. Stepping back and looking at his old friend free from preconceptions, Windu deduced that Bulq must have been working with the assassin. Windu confronted Bulq, who freely admitted his fall to the dark side, revealing his Vaapad-fueled fascination with it and Dooku's approach to him. Bulq intended to kill Windu and the others and return himself to claim Windu's treachery; a change in plans, but necessary. The pair dueled, with Bulq confident he could defeat Windu. However, Ventress attacked the other three Jedi, goading the headstrong young Tarn to the dark side, causing him to attack Jeisel. Jeisel was forced to kill him. When Bulq and Windu sensed this in the Force, Bulq taunted Windu that, with their deaths, he could not possibly win. Then he launched himself at the Jedi Master, driving him back but Mace managed to defeat him by Force pushing him into a pile of rubble knocking him unconscious. Windu hurried to aid Jeisel and K'krunk arriving in time to prevent Ventress from killing them. Ventress and Windu dueled but unlike Bulq, Ventress was no match for the Jedi Master and was forced to flee.

Bulq awakened and sought out Windu, but he and the other Jedi had fled under attack from Bulq's service droids. His plan had been foiled. Jeisel and K'Kruhk survived and returned to the Jedi fold, completely nullifying any chance of schism.Bulq's fall to the dark side and defection to Dooku were also revealed to no gain. With his potential as a prestigious double agent foiled, Bulq was returned to more overt service for the Confederacy

Battle of Falleen
Two months after Bulq's treachery was revealed, the Dark Jedi commanded the Separatist forces in the battle of Falleen which lasted almost another month. Seeing that the Republic forces, which were led by Carmen Conrose, Tom Norton and (in a different area) Luminara Unduli and Barriss Offee, were winning against his forces Bulq decided to personally enter the battle in an attempt to turn the tide. The Weequay killed many clones and then lured Carmen Conrose and Tom Norton into the forest so he could duel them without interruption from the explosions and blaster bolts.

Sora dueled the two Jedi and at first he simply toyed with them before unleashing a flurry of Vaapad swordplay. The two Jedi were no match for him and Bulq stabbed Carmen through the chest. Furious, Carmen's Padawan attacked the Dark acolyte but was quickly overwhelmed and would have been killed if not for the arrival of Luminara Unduli and Barriss Offee.

Bulq ignited his shoto (against Carmen and Tom he'd only used his lightsaber) and fought the two Mirialans but Luminara and Barriss were a more powerful and experienced team than Tom and Carmen. The exhausted Bulq finally admitted defeat creating a distraction by using the Force to bring a tree down towards Tom who was kneeling beside his dead Master. Luminara saved them by telekinetically lifting the tree away but Sora used the distraction to Force push Barriss out of the way and flee. The Battle of Falleen was a victory for the Republic.

Personality and traits
Sora Bulq was a respected Jedi master who was known to think things through before taking action. He was an accomplished actor, able to hide his fascination with the dark side from all Jedi and even when he actually submitted to the dark side he was able to play the role of a wise and serene Jedi Master convincingly. Sora was genuinely upset about the lives lost on Geonosis and even when he'd turned to the dark side he still felt a degree of compassion for his former Padawan and was genuinely upset by her death. Despite this Bulq didn't hesitate to cut down dozens of terrorists during his mission to save Orn Free Taa, most likely because they were enemies whereas Mira and most of the lives lost on Geonosis had been allies. Sora had grown to think that the Republic was corrupt which was partly responsible for his fall.

After turning to the dark side Sora became a loyal and level headed lieutenant of Count Dooku; however after allowing the dark side to consume him, Bulq revealed traits that the Jedi had previously been unaware of. He was very confident in his abilities and he probably had been even before his fall; he simply hid it convincingly. Bulq considered himself more than a match for Mace Windu, believing he had gained true mastery over Vaapad. However his confidence could become arrogance at times as displayed in his duel with Windu as he underestimated the Jedi Master and was knocked out by a well placed Force push.

Sora also appeared to be a skilled Commander and strategist, as he was able to, with the help of other Commanders, hold off the Republic army for almost a month on Falleen before his droid army was finally overwhelmed. Unlike most Separatist Commanders, who preferred to command their troops from a safe position, Sora was known to enter battle personally if he felt it was necessary and did so during the battle of Falleen.

Powers and abilities
Sora Bulq was renowned among the Jedi for his exceptional skill with a lightsaber. Over the years Sora gained mastery of all the lightsaber combat forms except Form VIII and was the only Jedi besides Yoda, Qui-Gon Jinn and Dooku who was able to defeat Mace Windu in sparring. During their duel on Ruul Sora put up a formidable fight against Windu who barely managed to defeat him with a well placed Force push. Although a master of most lightsaber combat forms his preferred form was Form VIII: Vaapad which was ironically the only form he didn't master. He was known to weild a shoto along with his lighsaber but Sora usually saved the shoto for when he was facing someone who he thought was a worthy opponent or when he was facing several lightsaber weilding opponents, or a huge number of blaster weilding opponents. Sora would also use Shien at times and used it during his duel with Mace Windu.

Sora was famous for his lightsaber talent but he was also a quite strong in the Force often using the Force Push power in combat as well as Force aided acrobatics and Force Jump. Sora was capable of extensive Telekinetic feats able to bring a fairly large tree down towards Tom Norton and Carmen Conrose.