Valad Carth Silth

"Recall Neo, how the Senate fears and despises Lord Valad’s ability"

- Knight Commander Raihane Drenall to Knight Commander Neo Daggoth

Valad Carth Silth was an official of the Sartinaynian Empire, Commandant of the Empire’s Western Armada and a member of House Silth, whose members have led the Empire for four generations. This rendered him something of a Prince, though he was quick to note that the democratic nature of the Empire left him no more an heir to the Empire than any other.

Early Life
Valad was born to the politically powerful House Solidor as the son of the elected Emperor, Gaitale Gaven Silth. Valad demonstrated a ruthless streak from a young age; at sixteen, and at the behest of his father, he killed his two elder brothers in cold blood, ostensibly for traitorous activity.

During the years of Sartinaynia’s war against the other planets of Galaxy, Valad proved himself to be an able commander and tactician, in both military and political affairs. Being of House Solidor afforded him some influence over the Empire, as House Solidor controlled the Ministry of Law, who in turn oversaw Sartinaynia’s military, this arrangement being a result of a former political feud between House Solidor and its enemies.

Cain Knightlord and the reins of History


Valad’s ruthless ambition continued into his adulthood. When the Occurian Cain Knightlord rebelled against the notion that only his people were fit to decide the course of Galactic history, he made contact with Doctor Carter Drenall Bona of Bastion. Cain played to Carter’s hunger for knowledge, leading him in a quest to end the Occurian monopoly on Nethicite, a type of powerful stone (with the distinct ability to absorb the Force) the Occuria gave to mortals in exchange for obedience. In learning to ‘synthesize’ Nethicite, Sartinaynia could be free from the control of history’s self-appointed stewards.

This idea appealed to Valad, and, as both he and Carter shared many ideals, the two noblemen worked as friends together in the matters required to research Nethicite. Carter was driven by the desire for greater knowledge, and Valad for greater power, and both by the concept of returning control of history to humankind. Valad fancied himself the new, ‘true’ High King, a title once by Thanewulf, a powerful historical king who had once conquered the entire Galaxy with the Occuria’s power and blessing.

Valad’s two goals, the pursuit of Nethicite and the conquest of the Galaxy, laid parallel to each other.

Gathering Nethicite
"Coruscant is the property of the Empire now. And to think, we were going to let you keep some of your sovereignty, out of respect."

- Valad to a disguised Raihane

In order to begin synthesizing Nethicite, Valad and Carter needed samples to study from. At Valad’s behest, the Sartinaynian Empire set out on a campaign of conquest. Sartinaynia succeeded in conquering the realm of Alderaan, known to be the home of a shard of Occuria-given (or deifacted) Nethicite once owned by the High King. Carter ordered that the stone be tested in the name of research, and Alderaan’s capital, Aldera, was all but wiped from existence as a result.

Sartinaynia next moved on Boaz and Jachin Due, asteroid fortresses that made up the defensive line of Coruscant. A victory here saw Sartinaynia offer peace to Coruscant in exchange for surrender. Though King Zeall Altair of Coruscant obliged, Valad had, in actuality, set a trap that would see the Empire conquer Coruscant while maintaining a facade of innocence. Valad had Knight Commander Raihane Drenall, cousin to Coruscant’s Colonel Ben von Rinou, assassinate the king. The blame was then placed on Ben, whom the Empire captured and appeared to execute. In the aftermath, Coruscant was left without its sovereignty, and was claimed and occupied by Sartinaynia to be a line of defense against Eriadu, a rival power in the western portion of the Galaxy.

Consul-Governor of Coruscant


Two years after the occupation of Coruscant, Valad was appointed the new Consul, and uses this position to placate the people of Coruscant through various acts of apparent kindness. He would later devise a plan to lure out the Dalmascan resistance led by Princess Lerona Urope Altair, daughter of King Zeall, by throwing a celebratory fete and using himself as bait. The Empire had also formerly tasked Marquis Vash Degor, Head Minister of the neutral planet of Kessel, with announcing the deaths of both Lerona and Ben von Rinou. This was, in truth, a safety measure orchestrated by Valad to ensure Degor’s future co-operation. Were he to show any sign of treachery, the survival of those two figures would be revealed, creating mistrust for Degor in the eyes of his potential allies.

Though Lerona escaped the ambush that Valad had set for the Resistance, he continued to pursue her in the hope that she would lead him to more Nethicite, as she herself quested for Nethicite to gain a foothold by which to organize further resistance against Sartinaynia. He orders the Imperial 8th Fleet, led by Knight Commander Hylia Taa, to pursue and capture the Princess and bring the Nethicite back to him. However, when Taa got delusions about becoming Empress the 8th Fleet was lost in an explosion caused by the uncontainable reaction of the Nethicite fragment. Valad was held responsible for the accidental sinking of the 8th Fleet as the one who ordered its deployment. This gave the Sartinaynian Senate, who already despised and feared Valad’s ambition, a chance to have him returned to Bastion and brought before them to answer for his actions.

Democracy to autocracy
"My hands are stained with blood. I see little reason to stay them now."

- Valad to his his father, Emperor Gaitale

Vayne returns to Bastion, removed from his position as Consul and being brought up on charges of negligence by the Senate. Having a meeting with his father, Emperor Gaitale, Vayne argued that the Senate needed to be silenced by necessity because they hated House Silth’s existence and were a threat to its rule. Before the Senate had a chance to move against him, Valad set his own plan into motion. He poisoned his father and implicated the Senate, and with the backing of the Ministry of Law and the Order of Knights of Sartinaynia, Valad was made autocrat, making him dictator of the Sartinaynian Empire and de facto Emperor. Unlike his idealistic younger brother Larek Fiorenzano Silth, who believed that peace and stability could be attained by other means than war, Valad sought war with Eriadu, hoping to use the new-found power of the nethicite to achieve a decisive victory. Though Eriadu held a voice of moderation in Siv Xemo, a member of the noble House Xemo, rulers of the Eriaduan Empire, their military eventually saw a chance to initiate a showdown between Degor’s Resistance and the Empire. Eriadu would then step in once Sartinaynia’s strength had been whittled down by battle.

Endgame
"Once they see that there can be no surrender, the Resistance must come at us wit hall they have. We will answer their attack head-on and destroy them. Before the eyes of all Coruscant."

- Valad to his brother Larek during initial attack on Resistance forces over Coruscant



Dr. Bona, meanwhile, pursued Lerona to the heart of the Occuria’s nethicite power, the Omega Star, a massive crystal from which all nethicite is born, and used its power to fuel the Mobile Space Fortress Messiah, Sartinaynia’s greatest weapon yet. Though the process was not completed due to actions of Lerona and her allies, Messiah still achieved great power. Valad used it to assault the Resistance Army Fleet above Coruscant. Though the Messiah proved capable of powerful attacks comparable to that of the Occuria’s nethicite, Lerona and her party slip through the Empire’s battle lines and Messiah’s defenses. They entered the fortress and defeated Raihane, and are then were met by Valad directly, with Larek at his side. Larek finally stands his ground against his brother’s will, holding a sword to him, and eventually battling him alongside Lerona’s group.

Valad engaged Lerona, his brother, Colonel Rinou, and others in combat. Using his martial arts skill combined with his mastery of the mystic arts and sheer force of will he held his own but was defeated. After falling, he was then revived with the aid of synthesized nethicite, left to him by Dr. Bona, and transformed into a large hulking version of his former self. With the aide of the nethicite he was able to wield the powers of the Force without being a Force user himself. Raihane, however, trying to redeem his honor, joins Voron, a Jedi in Lerona’s employ, and company, leading to Valad’s defeat. During the battle, Raihane strikes Valad; though Valad delivered a mortal wound to Raihane in return. Enraged, Valad attempts to kill Raihane outright using his ability to harness Force. Using his own form of Force Destruction he directed it toward Raihane, however, Larek uses a piece of synthesized nethicite which he had found to absorb the blast. Larek’s interference prevented him from killing Raihane and, while weakened, Valad was stabbed by Voron.



Badly injured and barely clinging to life, Valad stumbled onto the main reactor room of the Messiah. As he stumbled across the catwalks, he began calling to Cain, lamenting his failure to destroy the Occuria’s control of Man and become the new High King. He implores Cain to find someone else who would realize his ambitions. Cain appears, in a humanoid form, and denies Valad’s failure, saying that Valad has succeeded beyond his knowing: Lerona and party had shattered the Omega Star, source of the deifacted nethicite, and broken the Occuria’s hold on Man’s history. Cain, acknowledging his part in Galactic history over, infused his power into Valad as a final gift.

With Cain’s power flowing through his veins, Valad became much more powerful. With this new-found power, Valad infuses himself with the reactor core of the Messiah. In this new form, Valad fought the Princess’s party one last time, but even the power Cain bestowed on him was not enough, and he falls to Voron and company, ultimately failing to become the new High King; completely destroyed by the explosion of the core reactor which consumed the entire Messiah space fortress. Larek assumed command of the Imperial Fleet and ordered a ceasefire with the Resistance, bringing an end to the war. Larek would then assume Valad’s place as autocrat, and later Emperor, overseeing the recovery of the Sartinaynian Empire and the Galaxy from the Valad’s skein.