Khrado Ragnos

{{quote|The shadow which fell on the old empire now encroaches on the Republic. The time of the Jedi is over. The age of the New Sith is it at hand.|Khrado Ragnos]]

{{Sith character infobox |image= |bgcolor= |fgcolor= |name= Khrado Ragnos |homeworld= Korriban |birth= 142 BBY |death= 18 BBY |species= Sith |gender= Male |hair= Black |eyes= Gray |height= 1.88 meters (6'2") |allies= Tak Sakaros |enemies= Galactic Republic, Galactic Empire |faction= Sith Empire |position= Sith Lord |era= Rise of the Empire era, New Republic era }}

Born for greatness, amazingly strong in the Force, and (not the least) the descendant of the ancient Dark Lord of the Sith Marka Ragnos, Khrado Ragnos, known to all simply as Sithmaster, was a warrior among warriors. Born on Korriban, raised and taught on that desolate world by the apparition of his many times over great-grandfather Marka, Khrado grew to manhood and total mastery of the dark side. A Sith sorceror of terrible power and a swordsman beyond rival, he was also a gifted alchemist and used his skills to rebreed an entire army of Massassi. After a decade, when his legions had been assembled, he set out to reconquer the Sith Empire.

Early Life
Born in a ragged Sith colony Korriban in 122 BBY, Khrado fairly radiated power to the Force-sensitive relatives. At the age of four, he was already beginning to consciously manipulate his environment. It was at this time that the Jedi discovered the Sith colony and subjected it to space-based bombardment. Guided by the dark side and his growing fear and anger, Khrado managed to dodge at all the right times, and was left the only survivor. Hiding while the Jedi inspected the damage, the young Sith sensed suddenly that he was being watched.

Led by his instincts, the boy wandered for three days on foot until coming to the Valley of the Dark Lords. He was attacked by a pack of tuk'ata, but in another display of his burgeoning powers, kept them at bay with Force pushes until an unseen power called them off. Curious and unafraid, young Khrado journeyed on.

At last the whisperings of the Force led him to a magnificent tomb, which he entered without hesitation. Inside, his silent guardian was revealed: the Force ghost of his many-times-great ancestor, Marka Ragnos. The deceased Dark Lord sat his descendant down and explained the true nature of the Force and what he called the "perversions of the Jedi". He also detailed the genocide against the Sith race by the Republic and the glories of the old Empire. In the end, Khrado was almost salivating for a chance at the power of the Dark Lords and thirsty for revenge. Greatly pleased, the elder Ragnos took his descendant as a student.

Training
Having committed to learning the power of the Sith, young Khrado was immediately subjected to a brutal regimen of training exercises designed to break and reforge him in every conceivable way. Any hesitation or fear on the part of the young child was met with uncompromising punishment and psychological torment, until Khrado was utterly unafraid of anything, including death, pain, and his mentor. With every trial, the boy's grasp of the Force and will to use the dark side grew until he was a simmering dynamo of power.

All the lightsabers on Korriban were either ancient and dilapidated or nonfunctional, but Marka Ragnos ordered his student to build one anyway. Using a resourcefulness and ingenuity which was to become his trademark, Khrado scavenged the planet for weeks, taking apart speeders, ships, and power generators for components. After a month of careful preparation, the boy finished his weapon. When asked by a curious Marka where he had obtained the bloodred focusing crystal, Khrado nonchalantly replied that he had stolen it from his ancestor's sarcophagus. Marka was beside himself with rage at this irreverance, but Khrado cheekily replied that it was of more use to the living than the dead. Threatened with punishment for his actions, Khrado calmly accepted the possibility of death, but cautioned that, before dying, he would do everything in his power to bring down the tomb and sever his ancestor's connection to the mortal world. Impressed by the boy's cold ferocity, Marka forgot his rage and accepted his student's weapon.

Guided by both the Dark Lord's ghost and Sith holocrons, Khrado trained endlessly in the deep dark arts and the use of the lightsaber. By the age of twenty-five, his power was such that Marka Ragnos was running out of things to teach him. Realizing this, Khrado proclaimed himself a Sith Lord, used what knowledge of mechanics he had to repair a Sith cruiser and traveled offworld for the first time. Venturing secretly into the Republic, he decided to put his skills to the test.

Mastery
Biding his time carefully, Khrado gained information on the activities of his sworn enemies, the Jedi. Traveling covertly to Bpfassh, he engaged his first Jedi Knight in combat. Amazed at how inferior the human was in comparison to the skills he had honed, Khrado easily slew the Jedi, decapitating him. Convinced that he must have simply found an inferior specimen, Khrado lured three more Jedi Knights and a Jedi Master into duels with him, all with the same result. Perplexed at how his ancestors could possibly have lost to the Jedi in the first place, he returned to Korriban.

On the way, though, the Sith Lord made two detours. The first was to Coruscant, capital of the Republic and home of his foes, the Jedi. Taking a few weeks in the underworld to familiarize himself with Republic technology, Khrado accessed blueprints for modern starcraft, including both warships and transportation vessels. He also downloaded as much information about Republic government, bureaucracy, and weapons.

The second stop was on Yavin 4, the last known location of the Dark Lord Naga Sadow. Though he despised Sadow personally, branding him a cowardly traitor to the Sith, Khrado nonetheless realized the value of the Dark Lord's alchemical experiments. Careful excavation revealed fossilized Massassi remains, and an exploration of the Massassi Temple produced holocrons that had belonged to both Sadow and Exar Kun. Armed with his new resources, Khrado finally returned to Korriban.

Marka Ragnos could sense the change in his disciple, whose confidence had grown exponentially since his voyage to the Core. The ancient ghost could only listen in astonishment as Khrado calmly detailed his plans for reconstructing the Sith Empire and making an army: he planned to alchemically create a massive army of Massassi. Ragnos initially refused to assist Khrado in opening the sealed holocrons he had recovered; Khrado calmly threatened to tear down the entire Valley of the Dark Lords until he found a spirit willing to assist him. When the infuriated Marka attacked his apprentice's mind, Khrado used his own command of the Force to fend his ancestor off, warning him that another try would result in his connection to the living world being broken. Defeated, Marka unlocked the holocrons.

Immediately setting to his new task, Khrado learned all he could about alchemical techniques. Realizing he would need a liquid medium in which to grow clones, and unwilling to pay cloners, the Sith Lord took his cruiser to the nearest aquatic planet in Wild Space and informed the indigenous population that they could either assist him in his labors or be destroyed. Unsurprisingly, the water-dwellers decided to help, and an entire ocean on their homeworld was devoted to the growing of clones.

Using the dark side and flesh samples from some of the less useful natives, Khrado quickly amassed an enormous force of Massassi. Realizing they needed to be fed and put to good use, he led the first batch to another planet nearby, had them massacre the inhabitants, bequeathed the considerable natural resources to them, and set them to building starships by his specifications.

While the second generation of Massassi were being grown, Khrado reviewed his schematics and realized Sith warships were hopelessly outdated. Ordering his slaves to stop construction while he pondered the problem, Khrado eventually redesigned every ancient Sith warship to his own specifications, making sure his Massassi were creating vehicles he could actually use.

With a fleet in the making and a horde of Massassi at his beck and call, Khrado returned to Korriban again in 97 BBY for what would be the last time in a long time. Marka Ragnos, having recognized the potential of his disciple's plan, offered him the title of Sith Master, but Khrado was only amused.

"Take thee an apprentice, Khrado, and become a Sith Master." "I need no disciple to be a master. I am a Sith Master. I am THE Sith Master, Dark Lord of the Sith.  And now, my lord, I go to recover the galaxy."

- Marka and Khrado Ragnos

Liking the sound of it, Khrado adopted "Sithmaster" as his name, and from then on only his very closest confidantes knew his real name. Fully confident in himself and his plan, the newly self-proclaimed Dark Lord Khrado set out to the former Sith territories with his fleet.

An Apprentice
For twenty-six years, the Sith armada swept through the former territories of the Sith Empire, many of which had their own governments and fleets but all of which were too far-removed from the Republic to attract notice. Legions of Massassi subjugated worlds which would not submit peacefully, and the Dark Lord's reputation spread like a flame through the Unknown Regions. However, he never took his mentor's advice about taking an apprentice. By 71 BBY, over a hundred worlds were under the sway of the revived Empire, and the Dark Lord arrived at Andaria.

Guided by the will of the dark side, Sithmaster journeyed to the planet alone, discovering it to be in the midst of a civil war. Musing on how this would contribute to his conquests, the Dark Lord didn't pay attention to where he was going until he found himself in an alley - and facing another Sith! Stunned to see another member of his species alive, Sithmaster didn't sense danger coming until it was upon them.

Several government loyalists descended upon