Dark Guardians of Lettow



"Perfect strength, perfect power, perfect destiny."

- The Skywalker

The Dark Guardians of Lettow were a group created by the self-proclaimed Prince of Darkness Carden Mannux that worshiped the Dark Side of the Force and, in time, was 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.

During the early days of the faction, the Lettow simply worshiped the Dark Side of the Force, getting ready to unleash their fury when they were called upon to do so. They were rediscovered by a Dark Lord of the Sith during the Millennium of Hiding and served the two Sith Lords for nearly eight hundred years.

The Lettow were instrumental in many battles during The Galactic Civil War, most notably the First Battle of Alderaan, the Battle of Endor, the Sieges of Naboo and the First Battle of Coruscant. However, during the First Battle of Coruscant, all but two Dark Guardians were destroyed, thus wiping out almost four thousand years of hard work and determination on the part of Carden Mannux, Damien Starkiller and many others.

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 Empire. 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 Empire, 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.

Damien Starkiller
On his eighteenth birthday, something snapped within the mind of Damien Starkiller. It was as if he was being called from elsewhere, something luring him to the lava fields of Mustafar. After protest from his foster parents, he brutally murdered them and left his foster home.

After weeks of stowing away on cargo cruisers and such, Damien found himself on Mustafar. When he arrived at the ruins of Carden Mannux’s fortress, he was greeted by the Mustafarians that had placed him into foster care. Once there, he was given the manifesto of Carden Mannux. He spent months pouring over the information. Once completed, he spent the next five years of his life self-training and preparing himself to begin the creation of the Dark Guardians of Lettow.

He spent the next year traveling the galaxy picking up Force sensitive orphans, runaways, undesirables and many other outcasts. After retrieving three dozen of them, he took them all to Mustafar where he began their training. Thus began the Dark Guardians of Lettow, the group that would remain on Mustafar in secret for the next three thousand years.

The Millennium of Hiding
Soon after the Dark Lord Bane adopted the Sith Rule of Two, several problems arose. The Sith Code demanded than the Apprentice would have to destroy his Master before attaining the title of Dark Lord of the Sith. With only two active Sith permitted in the galaxy one time, battles of succession left whichever side survived the conflict without an Apprentice. Therefore, the Dark Lord would have to allocate a great deal of resources and time to find and train a new Sith Lord as their Apprentice.

Very early on in the Millennium of Hiding, the Sith attempted to bend the Rule of Two on multiple occasions. However, the results were always catastrophic. The most well known incident involved the Sith Apprentice Tayyl. Tayyl was secretly training his own Apprentice, Darth Hol, to better confront his master. However, Hol betrayed Tayyl and killed him and, in hiding, began his own lineage of Sith Lords. Because Hol’s training was incomplete, these Sith almost revealed themselves to the Jedi Order. This led to a small skirmish between the two sides of the Sith, the Hol Insurrection. This conflict nearly destroyed them all, though in the end it was only Hol and his followers that were destroyed.

This incident proved pivotal to the Sith implementing the Dark Guardians of Lettow into their hierarchy. Darth Vectivus, a human Sith Lord, rose to the rank of Dark Lord of the Sith around five-hundred years after the death of Darth Bane. On Mustafar, he found Deak Starkiller, a descendant of Damien Starkiller, in the rebuilt Temple of Carden Mannux. While there, he also found dozens of disciples serving under Starkiller.

Knowing that if he was unable to find an Apprentice the Sith would finally face extinction, he did not only take one but all of the Force Adepts within the chambers and brought them to Ziost where the Dark Guardians of Lettow officially became a part of the Sith Empire. Vectivus’ goal was to always have a pool of Sith prospects ready to replace any fallen Sith within months rather than years. Once the plans were set, Vectivus took Starkiller as his Apprentice and dubbed him Darth Ujur.

Early Days
In the early days of The Galactic Civil War and Emperor Palpatine’s New Order, harsh inter-planetary movement restrictions were placed onto Telos IV and all but drowned the planet’s economy. For two hard years, the planet’s lead, Prime Minister Jhantor, pleaded with the Imperial Senate for leniency on the restrictions due to the planet’s strong connection with tourism. His pleas went unanswered. Instead, a legion of Clone Troopers were placed to halt any potential insurrections. Most citizens were driven from the dying cities, starting talks that suggested that the Empire should be made to understand the problems the Telosians faced.

In the early days of The Galactic Civil War and Emperor Palpatine’s New Order, harsh inter-planetary movement restrictions were placed onto Telos IV and all but drowned the planet’s economy. For two hard years, the planet’s lead, Prime Minister Jhantor, pleaded with the Imperial Senate for leniency on the restrictions due to the planet’s strong connection with tourism. His pleas went unanswered. Instead, a legion of Clone Troopers were placed to halt any potential insurrections. Most citizens were driven from the dying cities, starting talks that suggested that the Empire should be made to understand the problems the Telosians faced.

The planet’s fear for the Imperial Guard soon resided. Two and a half years after the rise of the Empire, angry citizens and the Telosian Throne Security Force moved to fortify themselves in the westernmost city of the planet, hoping that this time someone would listen to their plea.

During this time, a young Telosian named Kane Starkiller, a descendant of a Starkiller who had left the Dark Guardians of the Lettow, was with his friends in the outskirts of the city, not having enough time to evacuate before the revolution began. After being locked in his friend’s house for ten days, they managed to learn of the arrival of Emperor Palpatine’s most trusted advisor, the Sith Lord Darth Vader. Kane was infuriated to learn that the Sith were on the planet, as they had framed his parents for treason against the Republic. However, what was supposed to be an act of dialogue was instead an act of punishment. Vader’s orbiting fleet devastated the city from high orbit. The Imperial Army swept the city and arrested all able bodied survivors to be taken to the penal mining colonies on Kessel.

Half a day passed before Kane regained consciousness inside the ruins of the home, only to realize that his friends had been killed in the assault. He immediately began searching for other survivors and was able to piece together what had happened. Kane found a small knife buried in the ruble and threw a cloak over himself. Disguising himself as a quadriplegic, Kane managed to make his way to Vader’s landing pad.

Immediately after drawing his weapon, Kane was arrested. However, he was able to show extraordinary abilities in his short fight with the Imperial troops. Darth Vader immediately recognized Kane’s Force sensitivity and ordered that he be arrested unharmed and moved to his flagship.

Weeks later, Kane had been almost completely consumed by his hatred for Vader and his grief for the loss of his family. Once his chains were open, Kane quickly, and quite foolishly, moved to try to kill the Sith Lord again. After a very harsh punishment, Vader made sure that Kane understood what happens to insubordinate prisoners. Kane complies and was seduced into the position of Dark Commander of Darth Vader’s Lettow, which led to him becoming the Sith Lord’s personal guard. It was decreed that he would be trained to use the Force and serve the Sith until the day he died. Kane was then stripped of his first name and simply became Starkiller.

For three long and tedious months, Starkiller acted as nothing more than Vader’s bell boy, yet he still tried to kill Vader on numerous occasions. At the same time, Vader was able to alter Starkiller’s mind by planting new and false memories into it. Soon after, Starkiller forgot all about the death of his family and the need for revenge. While on his missions, he witnessed dozens of cities burn, hundreds of smugglers die and was able to oversee the construction of his master’s fortress on Vjun. After Palpatine gave his blessing, Starkiller was released from training and took his place as the leader of the Vader’s Dark Guardians of Lettow. At the same time, a young woman named Mara Jade also became the head of Emperor Palpatine’s Lettow.

Fall of the Lettow
Fifteen years later, Vader discovered that the daughter of fallen Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker was living on Alderaan as the daughter of Viceroy Bail Organa and Queen Breha Organa. After fabricating evidence that Alderaan was building weapons of mass destruction to combat the Empire, Vader and Starkiller led the Lettow and the Imperial Army on an assault of the small planet. Once there, they secured the capitol and captured Bail Organa. They brought him back to Coruscant for interrogation.

After the daughter of Skywalker was captured and seduced to the Dark Side of the Force, the Lettow were sent on a mission to defend the high-security base on Endor. The Lettow and the Imperial Army are easily able to hold off the advancing Alliance forces, but then everything changed. The Bendu Order arrived and changed the tide of the battle. Most of the base was destroyed, but the important information secured within its mainframe was relatively unharmed. Once back on Coruscant, Starkiller is awarded a medal from Palpatine for his tactical skills during the battle.

One year later, evidence had gathered that the monarchy of Naboo was going to attempt to secede from the Empire no matter what the cost. In order to quell yet another insurrection, Palpatine and Vader sent the majority of their Lettow warriors to Naboo to battle the growing Naboo Security Forces. The insurrection lasted for six months until the Naboo were finally defeated, though the cost was great on both sides.

Before leaving, one last scouting missing was required. During this mission, Starkiller approached the ruins of what he believed to be an Alliance base. After stepping inside and being met by large statues of ancient Sith Lords, he surmised that it was actually Palpatine’s Sith Temple on Naboo, destroyed during the insurrection. Inside the throne room, he came across a holographic recording of Darth Sidious speaking with the long-dead Darth Tyranus. In the recording, Tyranus told Sidious that a young couple from Telos IV, Deak and Zira Starkiller, were captured by the Separatists and sent back to the Republic. Sidious reveals that they have been falsely accused of treason. Furthermore, Sidious revealed that it was his doing.

In a second recording, Sidious ordered Vader to lay siege to Telos IV, yet he had to find a young man named Kane Starkiller and bring him to Coruscant. Starkiller stumbled backwards when he heard this, memories from his past beginning to flash through his mind. He realized that he had been on the wrong side of the entire war and that the only reason he had been fighting for the Empire was based on a lie.

After seeking help from the Bendu Order on Alderaan, Kane led a squadron of Rebel Soldiers to the Lettow Temple on Coruscant, with assistance from dozens of Bendu Knights and Bendu High Priest Ussej Padric Bac LXIV. Once there, they were able to rescue Princess Organa and vanquish the threat of the Dark Guardians of Lettow forever, ending almost four thousand years of treachery and despair. Kane Starkiller and Mara Jade were the only known survivors.

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.

Government and Politics
There were two different ways one could think of the word "leader" when it came to the Dark Guardians of Lettow. The first was in the sense that the Dark Guardians ruled themselves, in which case the two Dark Commanders would coordinate their own sections of the organization and confer with one another on matters that involved the entire factions. The second was the sense that the Dark Guardians were merely pawns of the Sith, in which case it would be assumed that the Dark Lord of the Sith would have final say over anything that happened within the faction. The former was what Carden Mannux had always intended. However, during The Galactic Civil War, Emperor Palpatine made sure that he had final say over everything, as he did not want a revolution on his hands. During that time, if Kane Starkiller and Mara Jade had anything they needed to work out regarding the faction, the two would meet within the great citadels of Ziost for short periods of time to discuss the issues.

Military
The entire Sith fleet was at the disposal of the Dark Guardians of Lettow should the Dark Lord of the Sith have deemed fit. When the Dark Guardians took command of the fleet, the Dark Commanders would always serve as the commanders of said fleet. For example, during the First Battle of Alderaan, Kane Starkiller had full control over the Sith fleet. However, because Darth Vader was on board, the Sith Lord could overrule and order given by the Dark Commander. Should Mara Jade have been on board as well, she and Starkiller would have shared equal power and responsibility during the battle.

The Dark Guardians themselves served as ground forces for the Sith Military. They served as the upper levels of the Sith Army, though rarely were they put into any normal battle. The Dark Lord knew full well that they were fare too valuable to rish with each passing day, so they served only during the most dangerous and important missions as elite Imperial soldiers.

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 would 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.

Prophecies
The Prophecy of The Guardian spoke of the coming of The Guardian, one who had a perfect destiny within the Force. During the final days of The Galactic Civil War, this person was revealed to be Kane Starkiller, the one time Dark Commander of Darth Vader's Lettow. The prophecy is as follows:


 * In the time of great darkness in the Force of Others
 * One who has freed themselves of all restrictions
 * Will reach perfection and fulfill their ultimate potential
 * Perfect strength, perfect power, perfect destiny;
 * All of these traits will be synonymous with him.
 * He will lead the chosen warriors of darkness
 * Into their greatest era and their final battle.
 * Yet, through their destruction, the survivors
 * Will become more powerful than ever.
 * - The Prophecy of The Guardian

Though this was the only known prophecy that dealt solely with the Dark Guardians of Lettow, the Lettow did recognize all other prophecies of The Skywalker, though they did not recognize the existence of The Skywalker until Kane Starkiller began learning the ways of the light from Ussej Padric Bac LXIV. However, by then it was too late as all but two of the Dark Guardians had been destroyed.

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
 * The Tragedy of Damien Nightblade
 * 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