Amara

"Legend tells that in the vast future a warrior untouched by life and thus standing outside the Force shall be united with it in such a way as to become the true darkness, the perfect balance for the light that floods the world. I believe that Darth Amaranth is that legend. I believe that Darth Amaranth is the one who will balance the scales."

- Darth Abhorrus

Darth Amaranth was a Sith Lord, positively ancient, and more than likely the single longest surviving Sith of any era. It was 'born' on Orax over a period of over a century, stretching from approximately 29,600 to 29,480 BBY as a Force-Sensitive Shard, known as Bondar. After a time, the Rakatan Infinite Empire conquered Orax, and Bondar acquired a Force-imbued droid body, and has since moved on to a new body, that of a Xim Empire War Robot.

Throughout the many thousands of years, Bondar studied the Force with the Rakata, Legions of Lettow and the Sith, being old enough to see the complete development and destruction of numerous Dark Side organizations, and even assisted a little, coaxing Xendor to become the first Dark Jedi and establish the Legions of Lettow.

Darth Amaranth also founded the dark side organisation known as the Shards of the Force, leading it for almost 12,000 years. Darth Amaranth seemed to sport a dual purpose in life, searching for both power, in the true Sith fashion, and balance within the Force, but over the thousands of years had become twisted and warped into a true dark-side being, craving only power and eternal rule. Though the droid body Amaranth possessed, alongside its crystalline nature, allowed it to effectively exist for eternity if careful, Darth Amaranth nevertheless pushed the boundaries of its body, enhancing the droid chassis with the dark side talent of Mechu-deru repeatedly.

Over the millennia Darth Amaranth took on a number of personas to hide from the galaxy at large, manipulating events from the shadows, but finally met with its effective end during the Clone Wars, being sucked up by one of Darth Sideous’ Force Storm portals and deposited in a pocket dimension, where its droid body and crystalline nature would doom it to a vapid existence for all eternity.

Biography
Darth Amaranth slowly developed over hundreds of years on the planet of Orax as a Shard, a sentient crystal who communicated through electromagnetic pulses. As a Shard, it took on the name Bondar, reaching out and sensing the names of other types of crystals from within the minds of non-Shard inhabitants of Orax. However, this was not a regular talent for most Shards, rather it was a sign of Bondar's Force sensitivity. Though Shards usually communicated with other Shards through electromagnetic pulses, they lacked any real senses. Not so for Bondar however. Its creation gifted it with the rare capacities for Force Sight and Farseeing, which allowed Bondar to comprehend the world around it.

These mysterious talents were new within the Shard society Bondar existed within at the time, and none were able to explain what these extra senses that Bondar possessed were. However, the Shard knew one thing for sure. Its Farseeing talents revealed what appeared to be almost a map, a spinning, churning disc which Bondar would later learn was the Galaxy. And across this disc Bondar visualized were churning masses of darkness, with occasional spots of glowing light. More concerning to Bondar was the fact that the disc appeared significantly tilted, weighted in one direction by the darkness. Bondar did not understand the concept of balance, being a crystal stuck to a wall, and yet for some reason these visions filled it with unease. In such a state of mind, Bondar would often attempt to discuss such matters with the elder Shards who had existed for thousands of years. Unfortunately, they were as much prisoners of their crystalline makeup as Bondar, and were unable to shed any light on the situation.

Bondar exhibited another strange talent, the capacity to read the thoughts of other beings, whether Shard or not, and even if they did not communicate with electromagnetic pulses, as was the case with the humanoid inhabitants of Orax, Bondar still found itself able to easily understand their thoughts no matter the language. Eventually Bondar honed its talent to the point where it was able to communicate with non-Shard beings, and soon began to learn rapidly of the galaxy outside its cave. With Bondar’s assistance, the knowledge base of the Shard society was accelerated by many millennia, as they caught up with the state of the universe around them.

The Infinite Empire
Unfortunately, Bondar’s proud place as gatherer of knowledge for its Shard cluster would not last for too long, due to a rapidly expanding empire set on galactic conquest. This was the Infinite Empire of the Rakata, who used technology powered and controlled by the Force to subjugate lesser species. How the Infinite Empire ended up on Orax is somewhat of a mystery, given that their Force-navigated hyperdrive tended to lock onto planets with either significant life form populations or else significant concentrations of the Force, but regardless, the Empire did end up on Orax, and the Force-imbued technology lead the Rakata straight to Bondar. Utilizing its unique ability to communicate across species, Bondar spoke with the Rakata, and in doing so made them aware of the sentient nature of the Shards, dooming them to an era of slavery as the Shards were implanted into Rakatan droids and machinery to operate them with greater efficiency.

However, the Rakatan invaders sensed the different nature of Bondar, and it was inserted into a Rakatan intendant droid, before being sent back to the Rakatan capital to serve at the ancient temple. Being a Force sensitive life form, Bondar found the nature of the Force-controlled machinations of the Infinite Empire to be rather appealing to it, and through coercion and properly applied Force-assisted pleading, Bondar was able to study the secrets of the Force under the priest caste who ran the temple. For almost two thousand years, Bondar served at the temple, its droid body sporting enough self-repairing systems to continue functioning well into the future. Bondar’s study revealed to it that the visions it saw of the galaxy were in fact a glimpse at the balance of the Force, and how absolutely one side of it may outweigh the other. Clearly, the dark side was swamping the light side, however, just like all machinery of the Infinite Empire, Bondar’s droid body began to succumb to the dark side of the Force, and with it so did Bondar, failing to recognize the threat.

Xim's Empire
As the Rakatan empire began to implode, the conquerors found they needed to support their forces on any number of member worlds, and so Bondar was dispatched initially to assist the contested invasion of Korriban, but after the Rakata were forced out of the system by Adas and the other Sith Bondar was instead dispatched to a planet in the Tion Cluster. Bondar spent almost two hundred years there, but during that time the Infinite Empire collapsed entirely due to plague and the Rakata being cut off from the Force. Thus, without assistance from the Rakata, Bondar was stuck on the backwater planet until it was discovered to be a vital source of mytag crystals, which were vital for communications technology of the time.

When Xim the Despot came to the planet to mine out all the mytag crystals, he encountered Bondar and, seeing potential in the Force-sensitive ‘droid’, transferred the ‘crystal matrix core’ to one of his war-robots, granting Bondar with a large and powerful new body to play with. Even more impressive was that the war-robot was a Crimson Condottiere, utilizing reverse-engineered Rakatan technology to enhance it with the Force. So, with the Infinite Empire falling into ruins, Bondar allied itself with Xim’s Empire publicly, though it also used the time to study the balance of the Force. It was during this time that Bondar began to utilize the name Amaranth, and it observed the budding cults that supported both the light and the dark side of the Force.

However, Amaranth was forced into combat for Xim in 25,101 BBY, in the battle that routed Xim’s forces. Being a sentient creature rather than a restricted droid, Amaranth fled the battle for greener pastures, intending to shape and assist a particular budding Force cult with the knowledge Amaranth had obtained from the Rakata. Amaranth would maintain the droid body it sported for the rest of its long life, and over the years continued to upgrade the War-Robot frame, installing hidden weapons, alchemically treating the armour and utilizing a budding dark side talent for modification of machines, which Amaranth titled mechu-deru.

The Legions of Lettow and the Dark Jedi
Amaranth utilized its talents for sensing the Force to track down a newly-emerging cult, known as the Jedi Order. This Order seemed to have significant strength, and with the loss of the Infinite Empire the balance of the Force had shifted dramatically, so that the light now overshadowed the dark side. Amaranth, able to see this imbalance overlaying everything its droid sensors could detect, decided it would be to the benefit of the galaxy if the Force were to become balanced once more. To this end it began using the Force talents it had developed up to this point to seek out and communicate with several of the more intense and rash Jedi, those who were displeased by how the newborn order was progressing. It was during this time that Amaranth encountered Xendor and began to subvert him from the light side of the Force. With dark-side Rakatan technology and the promise of tutelage under Amaranth to learn the secrets picked up from four millennia of experience, Amaranth lured Xendor to the dark side. Xendor’s fall would become a defining event in Galactic history, as he began to utilize the Bogan to gather power and charisma to himself, eventually convincing other Jedi to delve into the Bogan and leave the Jedi Order. With these faithful followers, Xendor created the Legions of Lettow, a dark side organization that Amaranth was content to side with. Through learning the teachings of the Legions of Lettow and emulating the Terӓs Kӓsi martial art, though being in a droid body Amaranth was unable to embrace it fully.

The Legions of Lettow had a significant impact on the way of the Force, as the organization lured away many Jedi, cementing the ‘Dark Jedi’ role for the future.