Darth Kaos

"There must always be three Dark Lords. To forge better plans, to instate more fear and to punish each other more severely. However, one must always lead. One to control the power. Another must be his favourite. One to be taught the power. The last must be the true apprentice. One to crave the power and scheme to take it."

- Darth Kaos

Darth Kaos, born Gerad Herks on Lehon in 21 BBY during the Clone Wars, was the secret apprentice of Darth Sidious. Kaos' father was a Jedi Knight and fought during the Clone Wars. In 14 BBY Lehon was discovered by Darth Sidious in his quest to find Rakatan technology and rebuild the Star Forge. Sidious took Herks to be his new apprentice and assassin. He performed many missions for Sidious including espionage. assassinations and being a symbol of the Empire's power. After the Battle of Endor, Kaos founded the New Sith Triumvirate along with Darths Evilios and Diabolicus. Both of these men were with him from the formation of the New Sith Triumvirate until Kaos's death in 64 ABY.

Early Life
"Kill the spare."

- Darth Sidious to Canor Jax on Lehon.

Born on the obscure planet of Lehon in 21 BBY, Gerard Herks never saw his father in person. This is because Juron Herks left to fight in the Clone Wars aproximately 5 months after the Battle of Geonosis. Being a Jedi General, Juron was later killed on Saelucami by the clone troopers under his command when Order 66 was issued.

When Gerard was seven years old, Darth Sidious and Canor Jax landed on Lehon searching for traces of the Rakata that would allow the Star Forge to be rebuilt, giving the Empire two symbols of fear, the first being the Death Star. Sidious intended that both the Star Forge and the Death Star be his to control.

Herks was playing on the beaches of Lehon when he saw a Lambda-class shuttle fly to the ruined temple. The boy went to investigate. Sidious and Jax both felt the boy's presence long before they saw him. When Herks finally arrived, Sidious also sensed his fear. He used this fear and the boy's thoughts of instantly returning to his mother to find her. When Sidious discovered her, in their rudementary hut, Canor immediately killed her with a quick stroke of his blade and took Gerard with him on the shuttle back to Coruscant.



Training as a Sith
"Control yourself! Discipline your mind!"

- Canor Jax to Gerard Herks.

Herks was trained on Coruscant by both Sidious and Jax. While Sidious taught him the philosophies of the Dark Side and force techniques, Jax taught him tactics and lightsaber combat.

Herks was originally shown kindness by Sidious. However, as he grew older, Herks was treated more and more cruelly. In the end hatred was all he knew. When Sidious deemed him ready in 6 BBY Herks's original name was wiped from his memory and replaced by the name of Darth Kaos. When Darth Vader took an apprentice secretly just as Sidious had done, Kaos sensed it before even Sidious did. Kaos informed both of his masters and asked Sidious to let him kill Vader and his apprentice. Sidious refused, telling Kaos to wait until Vader had no further use of his new tool. Kaos agreed and instead asked for something to do in the name of the Empire. Sidious sent Kaos to Dantooine to kill a Jedi rumoured to be there. Kaos easily accomplished this and returned to Sidious virtually unscathed.

After this success, Kaos was sent to kill many more Jedi and quickly became one of the most feared Jedi hunters in the Galaxy, rivalling Grievous and even Vader himself.

Battle of Yavin IV
"The time has come, my apprentice. Today we become gods."

- Darth Sidious to Darth Kaos before the Battle of Yavin IV.

In 0 BBY, two years into the Galactic Civil War, Kaos was sent to Tatooine with orders to await the arrival of a Star Destroyer. Kaos did as he was ordered and waited in a small AT-AT Barge. He did not have to look carefully. Within two hours of his arrival, he saw a small Corellian ship being assaulted and pursued by a much larger Imperial Star Destroyer.

When the Corellian ship had been boarded by the 501st Legion in the Star Destroyer accompanied by Darth Vader, Kaos and Murder Squad proceeded to board the craft aswell. They soon discovered by means of torture that the ship was the Tantive IV and was the personal ship of the Organa family, rulers of Alderaan. Kaos then killed the soldier who gave him the information and proceeded to the bridge of the ship. He had to be careful not to let Vader know of his existence so he used the Force to sense where Vader was and avoided him. When Kaos reached the bridge, he piloted the Tantive IV back to Alderaan. Vader and the 501st had already returned to the Death Star to interrogate their prisoner. Upon reaching Alderaan, Kaos and Murder Squad boarded an Imperial Shuttle and headed straight back to Coruscant. As they left Alderaan, they saw the huge green beam of the Death Star hit the planet and it exploded. They had escaped very narrowly.

After learning the location of the Rebel's hidden base on Yavin IV, the Emperor sent Kaos to the system to aid Vader and the rest of the Imperial forces. Carnor Jax was also sent. They lnked up with the Imperial Fleet at the remains of Alderaan and hyperspaced to Yavin IV. The attack on the Rebel base was unprecedented. Kaos, Jax, Murder Squad and some of the 501st landed on the moon while the two fleets fought in space. Kaos found the Massassi Temple and infiltrated it. Inside he found the Rebel generals that weren't aboard battleships above him. Most of them were slaughtered by Kaos and his small army.

Kaos sensed that the Death Star had been destroyed before he was informed. To punish the rebels, Kaos contacted Sidious asking permission to at last reveal himself to Darth Vader. Sidious gave permission on the terms that Kaos would help Vader until either Kaos or Vader was killed. Kaos spoke to Vader giving the false name of Treka Horok. Vader agreed to his idea of massacaring the Rebellion's forces and landed on Yavin IV with the survivors of the battle overhead. They stormed into a ceremony being held in one of the temples and slaughtered almost everyone inside. Very few Rebels escaped. For his success on Yavin IV, Kaos was given a Super Star Destroyer, smaller than the Eclipse but easily the rival of the Executor. He named it the Sith'ari.

Battle of Hoth and Aftermath
"They're getting stronger all the time! Stronger, stronger."

- Darth Sidious berating Darths Kaos and Vader.

Three years after Yavin IV, Kaos was once again sent to do the Emperor's bidding. By this time, Sidious had allowed Kaos to talk freely to Vader and told Kaos that his primary use to Sidious was no longer to kill Vader. The polar planet of Hoth was the target of the next Imperial campaign. The Empire's best were all sent to the planet to deal with the rebels there. Vader, Kaos, Jax, Murder Squad, the 501st and Maximillian Veers were all part of the ground forces at Hoth. Although Veers and Vader were the commanders of the Imperials in the battle, Kaos and Jax were given control of a large contingent of the Imperial Army and fleet, including the AT-AT unit. Kaos ordered his forces to bombard ethe shield generator defending Echo Base. This was accomplished and Kaos, Jax, Vader and the 501st then stormed the rebel stronghold and began slaughtering everyone inside. Only a few rebels escaped. Sidious gave orders that some of the rebels be allowed to escape and spread the message about the Empire's victory to their comrades. However, there were special orders for the two Sith Apprentices. While the Executor searched for the Millenium Falcon, the Sith'ari would attempt to find remnants of the Star Forge. As Kaos knew Lehon well, he was eager to accept this mission.

Kaos immediately flew back to his home planet to recover the holocron of Darth Revan from the ruined Temple of the Ancients. When he finally found the place, he entered with only Carnor Jax. Murder Squad was left to stand guard as only Force-sensetives could enter the temple.

Once inside the Temple, the two men could feel the strong presence of the ancient holocron and only needed to follow the currents of the Dark Side to find it. The start of the holocron contained information on the long-lost Trayus Academy on the dark planet of Malachor V. However, the middle section contained information on the Star Forge and the ancient Rakatan Empire that had flourished before even the Old Republic. The Star Forge was a battle station and factory rolled into one. Kaos began to think that the Star Forge could be better used in his hands to defeat Sidious and rule the Empire himself, with a new apprentice. However, he did not follow through with these plans. He instead brought the holocron back to Sidious, who used Revan's information to rebuild the Star Forge five times in different places of the Empire. The first Star Forge was built over Coruscant to defend the Imperial Palace. The second was built over Naboo to keep Sidious's own people under control. The third was built over Tatooine to protect Vader's homeworld. The fourth was built over Korriban as a symbol of continued Sith influence over the planet. The final Star Forge was built over Dathomir, as the massive amounts of Dark Side energy when the Star Forge became combined wth the power of the Dathomiri witches would keep Kaos, Vader and Sidious powerful for many years. The same was also achieved at Korriban through the mixing of the Star Forge and the ancient Sith Lords.

After the Star Forges' constructions had begun, Kaos flew to Cloud City to aid Vader in his mission there. When Kaos arrived, it turned out that the crew of the Millenium Falcon had already been captured, expect one. Luke Skywalker had not been with the Millenium Falcon after Hoth. Kaos sensed that Skywalker was on Dagobah and would soon fall into the trap Vader had set for him. Kaos travelled to Dagobah to find out why Skywalker had been there. Kaos sensed someone incredibly strong in the Force and found Jedi Master Yoda living alone in a small hut. Kaos decided not to kill him straight away, but to make him ill. At 900 years of age, Yoda's immune system was not what it once was and he began to die slowly. Kaos then left Dagobah, taking with him Yoda's walking stick as proof that the master had survived his duel with Sidious in 19 BBY. Kaos followed Skywalker back to Cloud City and lured him into the Carbon Freezing Chamber. Once there, Skywalker encountered Vader and duelled him. Using this as a distraction, Kaos snook to Skywalker's X-wing and took the Death Star plans that had been stolen three and a half years before. He then took the plans back to Coruscant to show Sidious the weakness of the first Death Star.

Sidious decided to build a second Death Star, which would not have the weakness of the last one. Kaos oversaw the construction of this new Death Star.

Darth Vader visited the under-construction Death Star to check its progress and Sidious came later on to give Vader and Kaos a mission. Jabba the Hutt was dead and Boba Fett was missing. The rebellion now had almost complete control of the Outer Rim space lanes. This would allow them to attack the Death Star's shield generator on Endor. Vader was sent to the Imperial base on the ground while Kaos would patrol the space around the moon in the Sith'ari along with a large number of smaller ships.

The Death Star, the Executor and the rest of the Imperial Fleet would arrive later. The two Sith Lords left for the forest moon in the Sith'ari.

The two Sith Lords arrived at Endor and did as they had been instructed and awaited Sidious's arrival. The arrival of the Dark Lord was heralded by the immense sound of many thousands of ships and the Death Star coming out of hyperspace. Both Kaos and Vader went to the Death Star to greet Sidious. Vader then went to the Executor and Kaos returned to the Sith'ari. When a small imperial shuttle arrived in the midst of the massive Imperial Fleet, Kaos sensed the deception and informed the Executor via holo-link. He also advised that they let the shuttle go to the forest moon so as not to look suspiscous. Vader heeded his advice and cleared the transport. Kaos then returned to the Death Star to inform Sidious that a small band of rebels had been allowed to land on the moon. Sidious approved of this and told Kaos to activate his portion of the fleet's cloaking devices. Kaos obeyed and thus fooled the rebel fleet into thinking that only a small amount of Imperial ships were guarding the moon. When the rebel fleet left Sullust and arrived at Endor, Kaos let them head for the Death Star. His plan was to come up behind them and crush the rebel fleet between Sidious's fleet and his. This was exactly what he did. Commanding half of the fleet from the Sith'ari, he almost succeeded in destroying the rebels. He sent Murder squad in TIE Defenders into the battle and they destoyed many rebel one-man craft. Kaos sensed when Vader killed Sidious and when Vader himself died. At that moment, he recalled his forces and retreated to Dathomir.

The New Sith Triumvirate
"With Sidious and Vader dead, the Empire is now mine by right."

- Darth Kaos's thoughts after the Battle of Endor.

After Endor, Kaos let the New Republic form. He, Jax and what was left of their fleet patrolled the Outer Rim Terriotries. In 15 ABY, Kaos found the holocron of Darth Slaughtus, the apprentice of Darth Bandon, who had himself been the apprentice of Darth Malak. Slaughtus had recorded information on the Rule of Three, where three Sith Lords ruled as equals. Kaos thought this a good system as it related to what had taken place after Yavin IV fifteen years earlier. He, Vader and Sidious had all been Sith Lords. Kaos then scoured the Outer Rim looking for potential Sith Lords. The first was found in the person of Kurik Lonn.

Lonn was found on the planet of Tatooine living in Anchorhead. Every day he looked up and saw Sidious's Star Forge orbiting the planet. Kaos touched down in Anchorhead aboard a New Republic shuttle so as not to draw attention to himself. He did, as he had done many times before, follow the currents in the Force until he found Lonn engaged in a small scuffle outside a cantina. Kaos, not wanting any damage to be caused to his aspiring find prematurely, ignited his lightsaber and swiftly killed the Rodian Lonn was fighting with. Kaos then lifted the Rodian's body over the city walls and into the Dune Sea. Lonn and Kaos then flew back to the Sith'ari orbiting Tatooine. On board the Super Star Destroyer, Lonn was informed of his force-sensitivity. After being shown proof and being convinced to follow the Dark Side of the Force, he knelt before Kaos and swore fealty to him and his teachings. Lonn's name was then replaced with a Sith name, Darth Evilios.

The third leader of the Triumvirate was found on the Dark Side planet of Dathomir. Roan Korm was already well aware of his Force-sensitivity after having lived with the Nightsisters for twenty years. When Kaos and Evilios arrived, they were met by the Nightsisters who sensed that the Dark Side was strong in them. They let them see Korm.

When Kaos and Evilios entered Korm's presence, he immediately tried to electrocute both of them. However, the two Sith Lords had sensed that he would do this and had drawn their sabers to block the lightning. Korm stopped his attempt to kill the two Sith Lords. Kaos said that he believed Korm to be a worthy Sith Lord and requested he join Kaos and Evilios. Korm accepted and walked out with Kaos and Evilios.

The Nightsisters considered this a betrayal and immediately fell upon the three Sith Lords. Kaos, Evilios and Korm fought against six Nightsisters and their rancors. However, the Sith Lords prevailed and left for the Sith'ari, now orbiting Dantooine. Upon returning to the Sith'ari, the three men immediately headed for the bridge. There, Korm was made a Sith Lord. Darth Diabolicus had been born.

Darth Kaos had created the New Sith Triumvirate and revived the Rule of Three. But there was still something pressing him. He had felt a large number of disturbances in the Force. Evilios and Diabolicus had sensed them too and they followed them to their source. It turned out that a rival Sith Lord, Darth Massac and his apprentice, Darth Malevola had been killing force-sensitives across the Galaxy. Darth Massac was a firm believer in the Rule of Two and so despised the New Triumvirate for allowing the Rule of Three to be revived.

Darth Massac threatened Kaos with war if he did not kill himself. Kaos refused and in so doing plunged the Sith into Civil War. The followers of the Rule of Three and the followers of the Rule of Two fought each other.

The war lasted for three years and claimed many lives. Darth Malevola was one of the many casualties, killed by Darth Evilios in a duel on Rhen Var. Kaos's Commander in Chief, Ignatius Herrts was killed in the Battle of Felucia by Darth Massac himself.

The war's end came when Kaos and Massac met on Manaan and duelled each other. After a long and hard duel in which both men earned many scars, Kaos killed Massac with a single stab through the chest.

The Sith Rebellion
"Right now, I want my Empire back."

- Darth Kaos to Axmos Staal.

With Darth Massac dead, the New Sith Triumvirate was without an enemy, without a nemesis. Kaos then gave Diabolicus the task of finding one. If one could not be found, one would have to be created. An enemy was found in the personage of Jedi Master Kyle Katarn. Katarn had recently lost his best student, Jaden Korr, to the Dark Side. Diabloicus felt that perhaps Katarn was not a worthy nemesis. And if he was not the nemesis Kaos was looking for, then perhaps Korr was. Unfortunately for Diabolicus, Korr was unwilling to go to war with the Triumvirate. He had heard about the fates of Malevola and Massac and had come to the conclusion that if neither of them could be the one to defeat Kaos, he could not be either. Diabolicus had to return to Kaos empty-handed. Kaos punished Diabolicus harshly. He challenged his apprentice to a duel to the death and armed himself with his electrum lightsaber while giving Diabloicus a normal lightsaber with no added crystals in it to make it more deadly or to improve his connection to it.

After the duel, Diabolicus was spared by Kaos but only because Kaos needed Diabolicus to fight for the Triumvirateand he could not afford to waste Diabolicus's talents in combat and fear.

After this punishment, Kaos went himself to find or make a nemesis. He found that no one was brave enough to fight him after the defeat of Darth Massac. Kaos realised that a nemesis would have to be created. He contacted Evilios, the most loyal of Kaos's followers, and told him to entice a high-ranking officer within the Triumvirate's ranks to rebel. The officer chosen was General Axmos Staal. Staal had been planning to rebel for some time. Evilios found him easy to convince. Kaos had his enemy. So, in 52 ABY, the Sith Rebellion erupted.

With half of the Sith on the side of Axmos Staal and the other half on the side of the Triumvirate, Kaos knew he had finally found someone worthy of a war. Staal wold be a great loss to the Triumvirate. His tactics during the war with Mssac had helped them win a great many victories. However, he had rebelled and was therefore disloyal. Kaos could not stand disloyalty. He had punished Diabolicus extremely harshly for it. He would show Staal no more mercy than Diabolicus had received.

The first battle of the war came on the planet of Telos IV. The planet was devastated as it had not been for 4000 years, not since the invasion of Darth Malak and his forces. Telos was a disaster for Kaos's army. As Evilios had inticed Staal to rebel, he had to pose as their leader. Kaos had taken this trickery from Sidious recounting his actions of the Clone Wars, where Sidious had controlled both sides in the conflict. However, this plan seemed to turn against Kaos and the Loyalists. This was a real setback to Kaos who had thought his tactics perfect until Telos. After that battle he faced many riots throughout his empire. His people had clearly been of the samed mind as he. Kaos tried making speeches, sending rioters to Death Camps, having Murder Squad slaughter rioters in the streets and punishing the ringleaders of these riots as harshly as he could imagine. None of these methods succeeded. He would have to go to battle again and this time, he would be victorious.

Kaos and his fleet massed at Korriban and prepared to go to Kuat. There they would confront Staal and his inferior, but nonetheless powerful, fleet. The two fleets clashed over the shipyards that both sides needed to have an advantage in the war. Staal's fleet of Star Destroyers, Tartan Cruisers, TIE fighters and Interdictors gained the upperhand in the first phase of the battle. However, this had been part of Kaos's plan. Evilios was telling Staal to do things and manouvere his ships in a manner that would lead Staal's forces to defeat and the eventual victory of Kaos in the war. After an approximate sixth of Kaos's fleet had been destroyed, he ordered the three Super Star Destroyers, the Sith'ari, the Decimator ,which was Evilios's ship, and the Darkness, which belonged to Darth Diabolicus, to turn off their cloaking devices and assault the enemy fleet with all of their considerable fighting power. Staal's fleet was so overcome with shock at the sight of three Super Star Destroyers simply appearing that they could barely react. Their willingness to allow Kaos the victory at Kuat meant that he controlled many important ship buildig facilities. All five of the Star Forges and now the Kuat Shipyards were under his control. This resulted in an immense increase in the size of Kaos's fleet.

The war dragged on for another fifty years. When Sauma Kuil was assassinated, Staal suspected foul play and became paranoid. He became so fearful for his life that he agreed to sign a peace treaty. The terms of the treaty however, said that Staal and all of his senior staff would be publicly executed as traitors. The executions were performed after a very short trial and carried out by Kaos in person. Thus, the Sith Rebellion ended.

Death
Main article: Duel in the Triumvirate Palace "And as I die, so does the Triumvirate."

- Darth Kaos moments before his death.

The final years of Kaos's life were spent managing his Empire and bringing wealth into his territories. He was very successful at this, making the Triumvirate Empire the richest power in the Galaxy and bringing the Sith once again to the forefront of Galactic politics. However, in these final years, Diabolicus had been plotting. He had now formulatred a plan to take the Empire for himself. He waited until Kaos was secure in his poistion as Emperor of half the Galaxy before striking. That day came in 64 ABY.

Diabolicus approached Kaos's throne room and easily killed Murder Squad. He was then challenged by Evilios, whom he bttled for some time bwefore finally killing him. Diabloicus walked towards Kaos, who drew his lightsaber and fought Diabolicus. They bttled fiercely until finally, Koas succeeded in decapitating Diabolicus. However, Kaos then discvoered that Diabolicus had managed to stab him in the gut at the very last moment. Kaos died within ten minutes. He was mourned throughout his Empire, albeit because Murder Squad passed a new law that made people mourn Kaos. The New Sith Triumvirate was disbanded, along with Murder Squad, and the Sith disappeared from the Galaxy for a few decades.

Legacy
"He will forever leave a mark on the Galaxy."

- Darth Sidious

After his death, Kaos was quickly absorbed into legends. The tales of his exploits were told to children across the Galaxy, as a warning of what can happen if you make the wrong friends. His name was also used into sacring children into behaving. "Behave or Darth Kaos will get you." became a favourite among parents.

It was not just with children that his name lived on. Replicas of his equipment, a toy of the Sith'ari and a film about his life all became very popular. By 100 ABY, Kaos was ranked the second most influential person in Galactic history, losing out on the top spot only to his own master, Darth Sidious. Many merchants claimed to have objects that had once belonged to him. Indeed, it was estimated in 70 ABY that if all the claims of owning Kaos's lightsaber were true, there would have been around 15,000 lightsabers belonging to Koas on Coruscant alone.

Kaos's holocron was found in 107 ABY by an unidentified Dark Jedi. However, the Dark Jedi remembered the Sith Rebellion and destroyed the holocron.

Personlaity and Traits
"Traitor? Why, yes, I suppose I am."

- Darth Kaos

Darth Kaos was an extremely cruel individual, living almost his entire life without experiencing or feeling mercy or happiness. He was also permanently obsessed with victory, going to any lengths to win in battle and becoming enraged if he was defeated. During the Sith Rebellion he once personally tortured the Loyalist High Command before killing half of them.

The only being that Kaos did not kill for failure was Darth Diabolicus, who only survived due to Kaos's need of him. Had Diabolicus not been a necessity, he would surely have been killed too.

Kaos never tried to make himself appear anything but evil, transmitting recordings of his many torturings and killings across the Galaxy and sending Murder Squad to randomly kill people in the street to enforce the state of fear that the public lived in still further. He was also a Humanocentrist, reserving all the best things in the Empire for humans. This was also the reason that he never took a non-human apprentice. By the outbreak of the Sith Rebellion, he firmly believed that he was the embodiment of the Force and should be treated as a god.

He was extremely popular among common soldiers for his habit of leading from the front and not ordering any soldier to do something that he himself would not. This however, made him unpopular with High Command, as they were constantly ordered to fight alongside their men. This was something most generals were too cowardly to do.

Despite all this, Kaos did have one secret that he hid from all other beings in the Galaxy. He suffered from Power syndrome, as was proven during his duel with Ahsoka Tano on Dantooine, when he managed to break the laws of physics on at least one occasion, managing to jump while in the air. He was also impossibly fast with a lightsaber, able to fight faster than any other being alive at the same time as him. However, he was humbled by a weakness, or an allergy, to Rancor skin.

Powers and Abilities
"The Master will kill you. He is so much better than you."

- Darth Evilios's last words.

Darth Kaos was a highly accomplished lightsaber duellist; combining Vaapad, Ataru and Makashi to make an extremely lethal form of swordsmanship that drew heavily on both the user's skill and the Dark Side of the Force. He used this form from 21 ABY until his death over forty years later. He was also skilled in almost all known Force powers, especially Force lightning and Force repulse.