Darth Azazel

"Lord Azazel is not driven by such desires as political influence, military domination, wealth or love. His only need in life is to see a peaceful and strong galaxy, ruled by the capable elite."

- Darth Azazel

Darth Azazel, once known as Kuro Zorn, was a extraordinarily powerful and deadly Sith Lord born in prelude to the great conflict known as the Clone Wars. He was a unique Sith, in that he had absolutely no desire to dominate the various populations of the galaxy; instead he was driven by a vision of a "perfected galaxy", a wish to eliminate weakness, corruption, and conflict through the systematic murder of all sentient life, which would then be replaced by his own creations. Once a member of the infamous Mandalorian pirate group known as the Sand Kings, Azazel remained largely unaware of his tremendous power and destructive potential in the Force for the majority of his young years, despite displaying obvious dark side abilities on several occasions, notably during his coming of age. After discovering a ancient Sith holocron during his coming of age trials with the Sand Kings, Azazel finally learned of his sensitivity to the Force and the true source of what he had always thought of as simply exceptional luck. After his adoptive father died on the day of his trials, Azazel left the Sand Kings and roamed the galaxy for several years, eventually working for the crime syndicate Black Sun for a time, then joining the Imperial Navy after Prince Xizor's death in 3 ABY, at which point he had also begain to school himself in the ancient Sith arts and lightsaber combat, gaining a considerable understanding of numerous basic Force abilities and training himself in Form V/Dejem So.

At this time, Azazel also begain drawing out his plans for galactic domination and the eventual extermination and replacement of all sentient life. Realizing that he would require not only a massive army and fleet but a army and fleet superior to anything that might be thrown against his troops-as he intended to declare war on the entire galaxy-Azazel covertly infiltrated the Blue Sun Corporation's secret supersoldier program, having learned of the megacorporation's amoral ambitions through a bit of industrial espionage. Posing as a brilliant scientist, Azazel helped solve the numerous probelms that the company had been encountering with their previous attempts and perfected their process of using recombiant DNA and other methods to create a superior being. Unbeknowest to Blue Sun's executives, Azazel also engineered into these soldier's psychology a prohibition against deicide and a command code that would allow him virtually complete control over their minds. Additionally, Azazel schooled them to become his own private army from birth by secretly adding his own instruction material to the propaganda they were exposed to daily, so that by the time the first class of Spartans, as they would come to be called, graduated from training they were fully faithful to Azazel and only Azazel, believing him to be a god. With this sizable force behind him Azazel assassinated the leaders of Blue Sun and took over the companie's great wealth, power, political influence, and resources, covertly dedicating them to the production of his growing army and fleet of powerful warships.

After declaring war on the galaxy in 22 ABY, Azazel was largely successful in his personal quest for several decades, causing unbelievable destruction and driving several species to extinction. However, he would eventually be overwhelmed and defeated by, ironically, a mutated strain of a virus he himself created for use in his genocidal campaign. After his death, Azazel's forces scatterd and retreated to various remote bases and colonies in the Deep Core and Unknown Regions, confused and lost with out the iron dominion of their mutual leader to lead and command them. However Azazel's spirit had survived the death of his body and in 74 ABY he would return as a incorporeal being and once again attempt to gain control over his empire and exterminate the galaxies population of non-Ashrakk species.

Early Life(44 BBY-to-4 ABY)
"Only the strong survive...the weak are left behind to become the dust of history. Always remember that."

- Azazel to Lee Vadde

Darth Azazel was born in 44 BBY at a small, remote in the  of. Even as a infant, he inspired fear. Ugly and malformed, he was abandoned by his parents to die in the harsh desert sun. However a roving band of pirates, calling themselves the Sand Kings, happened accross his parents farm, slaughtered his family and ranshacked their home, taking anything of value. Their ruthless leader, Baal 'Kas Zorn, found the child crying in rage. Most of the Mandalorians, too, thought the infant should die, though Baal, a, recognized the potential power in the child. He named him Kuro and raised him as his own son.

As Kuro grew and learned the Mandalorian fighting arts and culture, he quickly surpassed the other members of the clan in intelligence, strength, and skill. Everyone in the clan except for Baal hated and feared him for his inhuman looks and great abilities. Kuro did not understand their fear, but hardened his heart against it. Moreover, he strongly believed the principle that Baal and his clan lived by, that only the fittest, the toughest, most ruthless and pitiless, tested by hardship, would, and should, survive. On the day of his rite of passage into manhood, the seventeen-year-old Kuro killed twenty-five armed Mando warriors useing only his bare hands and, which shocked and frightened the other clan members and caused them to hate Kuro even more.

On the day of his rite of passage, Baal brought the young Kuro to a old cave whose entrance became blocked by a cave-in, trapping them underground. After a week of wandering without food or water, they found the remnants of a ancient vessel of a strange design. While exploring the ship, and finding a ancient and  in the process, Baal told Kuro that he believed him to be a conqueror whose coming he had seen in a dream nearly a decade before as a young man, and that Kuro was destined to overthrow the Emperor of a dark Empire and become the true and only ruler of the galaxy. Then Baal died from lack of nourishment, and Kuro, barely holding on to life and unknowingly drawing heavily on the Force to sustain himself, vowed to take vengeance on this dark Emperor and claim his destiny. A week later he finally made it back to the surface, the holocron in hand, and managed to find his way back to the Mandalorian camp, only to discover that Loka, one of the more power hungry Mandos among the Sand Kings, had taken Baal's posistion as leader of the clan and convinced the other Mandalorians that more wealth and opportunity for work lay beyound what Tatooine had to offer and left the camp in runins, taking the clans with him and leaving Kuro stranded in the Dune Sea.

However Loka had left a considerable amount of supplies and equipment behind in his haste to leave the desert planet behind and using various salvaged parts Kuro managed to build a functioning speeder bike. He used this to make his way to the space port. It was here, in the local cantina, that Kuro met for the first time. Highly attracted to her, and believing her to be a normal human woman, the young man approached her and offerd to buy her a drink with a few credits he had pick pocketed from a passing spacer before entering the cantina. Guri, although only at the cantina to deliver a package to a business partner of her master, accepted the youths offer as a experiment, wishing to see how male and female humans interacted with each other in regards to romance and dating. Half way though their conversation Xizor's partner, a, showed up and upon seeing what ever was in the package Guri handed him became angry and treatend to shoot her. Although Guri was more than capable of defending herself against the angry bussinessman, Kuro got to him first, breaking the Rodian's arm and snapping his neck all in one smooth movement. Impressed by the way Kuro had handled the alien Guri offerd to take him back to headquaters on. Kuro, still hoping to find out more about Guri, accepted, realizing also that if he could get a job with one of the largest and most wealthy criminal oganizations in the galaxy he would likely be able to make more than enough money to start his campaign to become ruler of the galaxy.

As a agent of Black Sun Kuro undertook various missions for Xizor, including the assassination of many of the crime lords enemies. Xizor would also commonly pair up Kuro and Guri, sending them on missions together. It was during this time that Kuro both discovered that Guri was a droid and began a relationship with her, which was purely physical in nature. At the time of Xizor's death in 3 ABY Kuro was at a Imperial recruitment center on Corellia attmping to enter the Imperial Navy and thus was not present at Xizor's castle at the time of its destruction. Kuro was accepted into the Imperial Naval academy within a month after the death of Xizor and advanced to the rank of Captain within half a year, a amazing feat. By the time of the Kuro had gained command of the Crimson Reaper, a Imperial I-class Star Destroyer, and a staggering amount of medals and commendations for exceptional service to the Empire as well as a great deal of combat experience fighting Rebels and other foes of the Emperor. It was during this time that Kuro began to train in several martial arts including Teras Kasi and. He also began schooling himself in the Sith arts and lightsaber combat, using the ancient holocron he had found on Tatooine as a teacher and guide.

Apprenticeship to Darth Mantis(5 ABY-to-11 ABY)
"Azazel...you are unlike any Sith Lord I have ever known. You utilize the dark side with a skill and power surpassing all those before you...and yet I sense no lasting rage or anger in you...no hatered of the Jedi...and now it seems you have defeated even me..as well."

- Darth Mantis to Azazel, after being stabbed though the chest by the new Sith Lord

Despite having schooled himself in the Sith arts though the ancient Holocron and becoming quite skilled in lightsaber combat, it was not until 5 ABY that Kuro would acturally learn to fully control and manipulate his power. After the Battle of Endor, Kuro retreated to the Deep Core world of Ma'meen, the uncharted planet where he had been secretly building his army. Kuro realized that even with the considerable fleet he had managed to accumulate and the superiority of his Spartan soldiers he simply did not have enough military power to begain his homicidal campaign against the galaxy. Rather than start a fruitless assualt against the sentient species of the galaxy with his still relatively small force, Kuro demonstrated patience not common among Sith Lords and left his fortress world in search of Darth Mantis, a Sith Master who Kuro believed to be living on Korriban. Leaving the construction of his army and fleet to his second-in-command, Va'lar, Kuro left Ma'meen and headed alone to Korriban.

Upon his arrival on the harsh, arid surface of Korriban, Kuro was immediately attacked by half a dozen Imperial Sovereign Protectors who were under the control of Darth Mantis's powerful telepathic abilities. Mantis, who had sensed Kuro's presence the moment he arrived in the system, had been greatly impressed by the power he sensed and had prepared a ambush to test Kuro's power and combat abilities, in order to judge weather he had the capability to become a Sith Lord. When Kuro managed to kill three of the elite Imperials within the first few seconds of the fight, Mantis swarmed the young man with a mass of battle droids and five Dark Side Adepts. Due to to his mutations and enhancements and already exceptional skill in martial arts and considerable skill in lightsaber combat, Kuro managed to destroy every last one of his foes and emerage from the ambush alive. After the battle Kuro, victorius but suffering from several injuries, was approaced by the Sith Lord and offered power beyond his wildest dreams if he swore his loyalty and skills to Mantis's campaign against the Jedi. Kuro accepted, pledging his allegiance to Mantis and the Sith Order, although secretly he planned to kill Mantis after he had learned everything possible from him pertaining to the Force and the Sith arts.

For six long years Mantis trained Kuro in the dark side of the Force and thaught him how to master and control his abilities. Mantis also trained Kuro extensively in all seven forms of lightsaber combat, and was pleased when he took to the aggressive and mentally challenging form of Juyo with exceptional ease. Though he took to the physical part of direct combat with a skill and quickness that rivaled that of Mantis himself after only one years worth of training, Kuro had trouble learning to utilize telekinesis and Force lighning, which was somthing that Mantis insisted he learn, stating that a true Sith Lord was a master of all things, physically, mentally and in the Force. However despite his difficulty with mastering and fully controlling his power in the Force, Kuro eventually overcame his shortcomings and mastered his potential in the Force, shocking himself and Mantis when he unleashed a wave of dark side energy during his last training session, which was so massive and powerful that it wiped out the entire ancient Sith city buried underground where Mantis had been training Kuro and collapsed the entire unground network of tunnels leading to and from it, leaving a crater nearly one-thousand meters in diameter. After this Kuro sensed that he had learned everything he needed from Mantis and decided that his Master had outlived his usefulness and attacked him, easily swatting aside Mantis's attemps to defend himself and dispatching him with a single thrust through the heart. After sharing one last word with Mantis's body, the newly born Darth Azazel returned to Asuras III and his preparations for war.

Personality and traits
"Rage, passion, aggression; when unchecked, these emotions make a Sith powerful, but only a weakling cannot manage to control them when neccssary."

- Darth Azazel

Darth Azazel was described both by those who served him and those who fought against him as "the most evil being in the galaxy". Even other Sith Lords, such as Darth Scourge, were hesitant to acknowledge him as a member of their, as his crimes were so unspeakable. He was known as a complete ; quiet, calm and appearing ordinary on the outside while psychologically he was devoid of the normal responses to the suffering of others or the deaths he inflicted. He felt no desire or need for companionship or friendship, needing only his own power, and was entirely unable to comprehend the idea of love or affection for another. He believed that he was superior to everyone around him, to the point that he would frequently refer to himself in the third-person as "Lord Azazel". From his point of view he was not murdering entire worlds and replacing their populace with his Ashrakks, but "purging the galaxy of the weak and inferior; establishing a dominate and supremely powerful galactic society".

In spite of his cold, sadistic behavioral characteristics, Azazel frequently exhibited respect and admiration towards his Ashrakk warriors. He viewed them as his "children" but refused to allow them to call him Father, insisting that they maintain the impersonal relationship of Emperor and troops/citizens. He believed that, if such a close and casual relationship were to form between them, it would only serve to weaken them both. Azazel was a extreme racist as well, viewing all sentient species, including his own race, as "wretched fools unworthy of life". In his option, the only species deserving to dominate and reap the benefits of a strong, secure, wealthy, and productive galaxy were his own creations.

Depite his inner darkness and psychological flaws, Azazel was extremely intelligent and charismatic, inspiring many influential politicians, scientists and military commanders to assist him in his build up of warships, resources, and weaponry in the years before he would engage the galaxy through cunning manipulation. He also possessed a cynical sense of humour and enjoyed utilizing psychological warfare and taunting his foes, usually laughing at the expense of others but also capable of laughing at himself despite his normally narcissistic demeanour.

Powers and abilities
"Azazel is a embodiment of virtually omnipotent power...unchecked by a conscience."

- Jedi Master Broca Nu

Darth Azazel's most dangerous weapons were his intellect and mastery of military tactics and battle strategy, which gave him the advantage in most battles and allowed him to crush even the strongest enemy, either through direct combat or psychological warfare, espionage, and sabotage. He was highly respected and admired for his capabilities as a leader and his superior understanding of warfare, even by his enemies. Some even went so far as to compare him to in terms of I.Q. and tactical command ability, though, as the two never met in actual battle, whether he would have been a match for Thrawn remains conjectural. Azazel's superior intelligence also provided him with a above average understanding of many applied sciences, particularly bio-chemistry, genetic-engineering, mechanical enigneering, physics, and. When combined with his mastery of, Azazel's competency in the various sciences allowed him to make astonishing advancements in these fields and build several forms of extremely advanced biotechnology and other weapons, most notably his Ashrakk warriors.

Additionally, Azazel's perfectionist and ambitious demeanour resulted in him striving to become the very best, not only mentally but physically, psychologically, and even spiritually, and his power in the and pure drive for success resulted in him acheiving this goal, for the most part, and becoming one of the most infamous and powerful Sith Lords the galaxy had ever seen. Though he received only five years of formal training, Azazel's skills in the Force and personal combat were exponentially superior to even the very best of the Jedi and Sith, although Broca Nu managed to fight him to a standstill on several occasions. Azazel was a adept master of the lightsaber, exhibiting dazzling skill in all seven forms of, and specializing in Form VII and Makashi. Also, Azazel mastered several forms of and was extremely proficient in, , and Krav Kata, which he himself invented. Azazel would frequently mix these styles with lightsaber combat and his mastery of Force Speed, becoming a blur of precise, efficient blows and devastating chops, cuts, and stabs from his blade, surrounded by the twirling light of his weapon. He become even more formidable in close quarters and blade-to-blade combat after altering his physiology via Sith Alchemy in 5 ABY, enhancing his physical strength and granting him inhuman durability. Although no exact limits were ever observed, after his transformation Azazel would commonly take to simply tearing his opponents apart physically, showing incredible strength to punch through solid and overpower a half dozen Wookiees during the Battle of Kashyyyk (Great Purging) as though they were only small children. His bodily resilience and endurance were quite remarkable as well, though he was observed to have limits. For expamle during his first dual with Master Nu, he blocked Nu's lightsaber with the edge of his hands and forearms several times, but received several small burns to his body even though the blade failed to cut completely through, showing that (as Nu pointed out) he was still human and vulnerable, despite his powers.

After dedicating his potential in the Force to the, learning the powers of the Sith from Darth Mantis, and subsequently emerging both fully trained and confident in his supernatural powers, Azazel's power in the Force became extraordinary. He most often demonstrated his tremendous strength and skill in telekinesis, pulling a Star Destroyer down from orbit during the Battle of Mozia, and exhibiting enough fine control to surgically cut a person apart or stop their heart, with some concentration. He also possessed the ability of, had a exceptionally strong , and was capable of emitting from his hands powerful enough to punch holes through reinforced durasteel and instantly desintegrate a person with one hit. In addition to his more flashy powers, Azazel also possessed supreme physic abilities and was able to manipulate and control the minds of others, alter perceptions and memories, broadcast thoughts and images over vast distances, and could fully dominate a persons mind through vocal commands and suggestions. He could also project himself into the dreams of others, either for a simple mental conversation or to trap the individual in a constant nightmare, while externally they appeared comatose.

Behind the scenes

 * Azazel is a nod to the yellow-eyed demon Azazel (Supernatural) from the CW TV series Supernatural (TV Series). The character Azazel is my favorite TV villain and I got a lot of ideas for my Azazel's personality and motives from him.
 * I also got a lot of ideas for Darth Azazel form Frankenstein, the doctor, not the monster, and Dean Koontz's version of Frankenstein.
 * Lord Voldemort also played a part in my research for Azazel's personality.
 * I originally intended Darth Azazel to be Darth Acheron (a river in hell for those who deny justice).
 * Azazel's lightsaber color was originally intended to be silver but I eventually changed it to crimson.
 * In the first version of this artical I had Azazel's height as 2 meters, which I later changed to 1.90 meters.
 * The picture of Azazel on top of the infobox is acturally Nom Anor.