Darth Azazel

"Darkness. It is the natural state of the entire universe. It is all-knowing and all-encompassing. The light will not shine forever; one day it will burn itself out. My darkness, however, any darkness, is everlasting and never expires. Now, you may fight what you believe to be evil, fight it until you have worn body, mind, and soul down to mere dust, or...you may embrace it, clasp it close to your heart, and experience power and knowledge beyond your comprehension. The choice is yours."

- Darth Azazel Darth Azazel, also known as Kuro Kass Zorn, was an extraordinarily powerful and astute. Hailing from Tatooine, he was considered more devastatingly clever and powerful than even Palpatine, and often demonstrated that he was almost an equal to the legendary, dominating his enemies through both overwhelming power and brilliant strategies, as well as deceptive manipulation and psychological warfare. Raised and educated by the notorious pirate and slaver organization known as the Sand Kings, after the death of his entire family at the hands of the very man who would become his adoptive father, Kuro excelled in his role as second in command of the Sand Kings, quickly gaining a fearsome reputation across Tatooine. However, he felt merely commanding the forces of a relatively small pirate organization to be beneath his talents, eventually abandoning the Sand Kings following the death of his father at the hands of one of his closest advisors.

Ambitious and questing to gain prominance and power, Kuro infiltrated the, rapidly climbing the ranks, eventually becoming the youngest Admiral in the Imperial Navy. Having greatly impressed his commanders with his brilliant mind for military strategy and offensive actions, Kuro was awarded the command of an Imperial Mark II, which was quite an honor for one so young. When the broke out, Kuro was among the Imperial commanders who saw the most action, leading eradication campaigns against the Rebels on numerous worlds, including, , , , and , gaining several commendations and great recognition for his devotion to the Empire and skill as a military commander. Throughout the war, Kuro fought valiantly, gaining the reputation of a utterly professional leader of men, who did not allow anyting less than pure excellence from his troops and punished unnecessary carnage, which caused even his enemies to respect him. However, Kuro had secretly become disgusted by the corruption which ran rampantly through many of his fellow officers and with the often sadistic style of command which many of them favored. This disgust ran so deep, that, after the Battle of Endor, Kuro abandoned his service to the Empire, instead of squabbling over the scraps of power which Palpatine had left scattered upon his first death.

After leaving the Empire, Kuro became entralled with the idea of eliminating the type of corruption and depravation he had witnessed during his service with the Imperial Navy, eventually coming to the "realization" that if such a peace would be even possible, than any threat to it would have to be eliminated. At this time, Kuro also became suduced by the dark side of the Force, which seemed to offer him more pure power than he could possibly hold within himself, and declared himself Darth Azazel, Dark Lord of the Sith. According to his logic, in order to attain his goal of ultimate peace, all sentient species, who, as Kuro believed, had trapped the galaxy in an endless circle of death, war, and destruction, had to be completely eradicated from existance. Pursuing his atrocious endgoal for several decades, Kuro was able to raise up a massive military empire, with which he struck against many worlds and wrought incredible devastation, which, according to his plan, would serve as the foundation of a new, utopia galactic civilization, technologically and culturally more advanced, and prone to peace. However, despite his incredible power, military and otherwise, and his great resolve for peace, Azazel perished at the Battle of Anakaa, felled by a single projectile bolt to the heart, delivered by Mysha So'Choi, one of his most trusted apprentices.

Early Life
"Only the strong survive, the weak and unimaginative are left behind, to be cast aside into oblivion. My childhood taught me that very quickly, among other things."

- Azazel describing his formative years to Mysha

Darth Azazel was born in 44 BBY, to an unknown moisture farmer and his wife, on the back-water desert planet,. Though he initially had little memory of his parents, later in his life he would flow-walk back to the days of his infancy, to discover that had it not been for the Sand Kings raiding his farmstead, he would have grown up into a loving and close family. However, this was not the case, and before he was little more than a year old, before he had even been named, the Sand Kings, led at the time by Jebb Cass Zorn, hit his parent's small moisture farm, quickly murdering everyone inside and ransacking everyting for anything valuable. Though his mother attempted to escape the slaughter with her son, she was cut down before she could make it very far, at the outskirts of the farm. It was here that two of the Sand Kings found the child, and brought him to their leader. While many of his underlings thought the child should be killed along with his family, Jebb was uneasy about allowing the death of one so young, and so instead, and to much protest, he chose to adopt the baby and raise him as his own son, giving the boy the name of Kuro Kass Zorn. Even as a baby, Kuro exuded great power, and it was this power that had convinced Jebb not to kill him more than anything else, for he believed that one day the boy would become an incredible Mandalorian, greater than any before him.

As Kuro matured and entered his training, learning not only the Mandalorian fighting arts, but also their culture, he quickly established himself as a prodigious warrior, easily outmatching men and women with countless years of experience on him by the age of fourteen. However, despite his combat skills and willingness to kill without hesitation, he was also adventurous and somewhat naive, his training having failed to fully harden him into a heartless and ruthless soldier, and he often questioned his orders and refused to deliver the killing blow to comrades who he had defeated during the countless duels he was challenged to, as was the custom of the Sand Kings. When it came time to gun down his first victims, however, he did not hesitate, cutting into those which the Sand Kings attacked with such ferocity that he terrified not only his opponents, but his fellow warriors as well, to the point where all but Jebb avoided him and regardded him with suspicion and fear. At the age of sixteen, Kuro was cut off from his unit for several days following a less than successfull run in with a group of Tusken Raiders, and, nearly dead after wondering the open desert for three days, subconsciously harnessing the Force to keep himself alive, he found his way to a small cave, where he was able to rest and recover. After resting for the night, Kuro awoke only to discover that he had been buried alive by a sand storm, and so was forced to venture further into the depths of the cave he had taken refuge in, hoping to find another entrance. Rather than finding an escape route, however, he only found himself going deeper into the planet's crust, and yet he for some reason continued, feeling that he was on the right track even if he could not see it yet. In this manner, Kuro discovered the wreck of an ancient vessel buried partially in the bedrock of the cave. The ship was, and within he discovered the ancient mummified remains of a Human male, which clutched a Holocron within it's ancient hands.

Curious, Kuro proceeded to began a detailed examination of the corpse, and eventually attempted to free the Holocron from it's deathly hands. As he did so, he was suddenly attacked by an unseen force and hurled out of the ship. Quickly regaining his feet, Kuro faced off against this invisible entity, which, while powerful and immune to his physical weapons, could only offer his own power meager resistance, which Kuro was once again drawing upon by pure instinct. Due to his quick mind, Kuro quickly realized that his weaponry and bare hands where useless, and so, in a sudden burst of rage at this, he released a blast of Force-lightning so powerful it obliterated the ghost with a single strike. Shocked at what he had accomplished, and impressed, Kuro wearily approached the crashed ship once again, and after making sure no more "entitys" were within, he returned to the corpse, and removed the Holocron from it's hands. It was of a antiquated design, and so old it seemed that it would crumble within his hands if he handled it roughly. Although Kuro had experience with such technology, he was unable to discover an activation switch or any other means to actuate it, and so, purplexed, spent several hours poundering over how to turn the device on. Remembering what he had drawn upon before to destroy his attacker, Kuro realized there might be an unappearent method of activating the Holocron, and so began attempting to think such an occurance into action; though unsuccessful at first, Kuro eventually feed a degree of what he thought to simply be his will into the device, which was in fact the Force, and was first surprised and then delighted when it worked, revealing the static-ridden holographic figure of a cloaked and cowled figure, who instantly seemed to recognize Kuro for what he was, a blinding beacon of power, and offered him it's survices. Kuro, unknowning that he had just activated an ancient Sith Holocron, asked the obvious question of who, or what, the hologram was, to which it's answer was the representation of Darth Mantis, a Dark Lord of the Sith from a time before the Jedi Civil War. For several days, Kuro remained within the cave, learning that what he had released against the spirit of the Sith's ghost was Force-lightning, and that he possessed enough raw power to rival anything the Holocron's Gatekeeper could call up from it's databanks. Under the Holocron's tutelage, Kuro learned much of the nature of the Force and of his own power, to the point where he could release small bursts of lightning and levitate several boulders at once, after only six days of practice.

Though he had become enthralled with the Holocron and his new powers, Kuro eventually realized that he should attempt to find a way out of the cave and return to camp, and so with another effort if his will, he shut the Holocron down, carefully wraped it in his pack to protect it, and set off to find a means out of the cave and back to his fellow warriors. After another day of searching, Kuro came to small crevess in the cave's ceiling, through which he could clearly discern daylight, which ment it was a way to the surface. An experienced climber, he was able to slowly but surely haul himself out of the cave and onto the sand, where he found himself within only a half-mile of the Sand King's camp. With the weather relatively calm and the sun low in the sky, Kuro was able to quickly make his way fowards, even in his weakened state. Upon reaching the camp, however, he did not find the shelter and nourishment which he had been expecting, but only the remains of the hastily abandoned camp. After picking through the wreckage, Kuro came upon his father, Jebb, who was gravely wounded but still clinging to threads of life. As he held his dying father in his arms, he learned from Jebb that Mukass, a rather ambitious and particularly ruthless Sand King who had always aspired to Jebb's position, had staged an uprising against his leader and all those loyal to him, at last stabbing Jebb with his own blade after having him watch the slaughter of his closest and most loyal warriors, and then taking everything of value from the camp, abandoning it, and leaving Jebb to slowly die among the butchered remains of those loyal to him. After giving his father a proper Mando' burial, Kuro collected what supplies he could scavange from the ruined camp, and set off to, the nearest spaceport and area of civilization, intending to hunt down Mukass and make him pay for his crimes.

Recruitment to Imperial service
"I dispised Mukass for a considerable time, and I had intentions to torture him to death upon capturing him. After I fought through his defenses, though, I coulden't bring myself to do it, as I watched the miserable being that was Mukass cower with terror. Although I still executed him, it was quick and clean. Life is too short for hate."

- Azazel's thoughts on his pursuit of Mukass

After reaching Anchorhead, Kuro immediately traveled to the local cantina, seeking to locate information on Mukass, knowing that the treacherous Mandalorian would have had to stop for fuel somewhere, as well as hoping to secure some type of transport for himself, with which to chase Mukass through the depths of space if necessary. After speaking to several locals, sumgglers, and other various spacers within the cantina's dark confines, he had managed to gather a vague description of a small detachment of Mandalorians, who had recently touched down just outside the space port, at a small refueling station just two kilometer's journey, which had been set up specifically to accomodate larger vessels. With this infomation in mind, Kuro moved towards the station, having stolen a speeder bike rather than spend his meager amount of credits on buying a transport. Traveling at a speed which would be suicidal for anyone else, Kuro was able to reach the station just as Tatooine's twin sun's were lowering to the horizon, stopping at the edge of the station's protective fences and moving in silently on foot, not wishing to encourge Mukass to depart the planet any quicker. By the time he had stealthy moved throughout the station's maze of buildings and reached the landing pad, Kuro found that once again his luck had won out; the Carrack had been refueled already, but was still on the landing pad, as Mukass's men loaded it with the supplies they had purchased in addition to the fuel. Kuro was able to deduce that Mukass had plans of expanding indeed; if the military equipment, foodstuffs, and heavy weaponry he observed being loaded upon the Carrack was any indication, Mukass was either planning a assault upon some heavily fortified planet or was intending to entrench himself upon another world, establishing a camp far more elaborate and well-defended than that which Jebb Zorn had commanded.

Kuro, however, had little concern for Mukass's plans, his only thought being the slow death of the man who had murdered his father. For the men who had participated in the uprising and chose to side with Mukass, Kuro deemed the only mercy they deserved was a quick death, and so began his assault upon the ship, first quietly sabotaging the Carracks engines, so as to keep Mukass from fleeing. Following this, Kuro opened up on Mukass's men with everything he had. Although they out-numbered him nearly a hundred-to-one, Kuro's superior skill and proficiency with his newly discovered abilities allowed him to draw Mukass's men out into the open, sniping their lietenants, and thus causing temporary disorganization along the chain of command, which allowed Kuro ample time and opportunity to rush the remaining defenders, utilizing lightning once again, blasting the powerful dark side energies from his hands to literally disintegrate those unlucky enough to be caught within each blast. Aside from the lightning's sheer destructive power, Kuro's display of his power gave him another advantage over Mukass's men:fear. Though well-trained, hardened killers, every one of them, this did not keep their minds from instructing them to flee the unstoppable force of destruction which Kuro had become, and so they attempted to instigate a fighting retreat back into the relatively safe confines of the Carrack. However, Kuro was not of a mind to allow retreat; lost in the bloodlust of the battle, he unleashed the full, horrifying potential of his power upon what remained of Mukass's men, leaving only lifeless husks or burnt embers behind.

After successfully battering through what resistance his former comrades-in-arms could offer him, the whole battle having only lasted a few minutes, Kuro boarded their ship, seeking out the one man he did not intend to allow death to come to quickly. Within just a few minutes, Kuro was able to locate Mukass upon the bridge, cowering before what he perceived to be some type of devil. Though he offered some resistance in the form of a few shots from a blaster pistol, Kuro was able to easily deflect them and telekinetically wrench the weapon from Mukass's hands, crushing it into a harmless lump of metal by sheer will power. Gathering a ball of pure lightning within his hand, Kuro was fully prepard to make Mukass's death a slow and excruciatingly painful one. However, as he raised his fist and prepard to unleash his will upon Mukass, Kuro was struck by a sudden image of his reflection in the bridge's forward, transpristeel windows, for the man he observed staring back at him was not a man at all, but something Kuro could not clearly understand, yet something which terrified him, something he did not want to become. With his intention to make Mukass's death a slow one abated, Kuro releashed the destructive energies he had gathered into the deack plating, where his gathered power only caused damage to circuitry and metal. Believing his life had been spared, Mukass attempted to escape his executioner, only to be shot in the back by Kuro, who, while he no longer had any desire of prolonging his former allie's death, he still had no intention of allowing the man he considered a traitor and murderer to live.

After executing Mukass, Kuro remained seated within the Carracks cockpit for a time, reflecting on what he had seen within his reflection and on what he had been about to do to Mukass, but eventually realized that he should abandon the scene of the crime and rose to leave the ship, only to find himself looking down the barrel of a blaster, with a Imperial Major holding the weapon. Though the Imperial was prepard to kill Kuro, he nevertheless had been impressed by his slaughter of the Carracks entire crew, which the Major had wintnessed, not realizing that Kuro had been utilizing the Force the whole time. Instead of putting the man in the red Mandalorian armor down, the Major offered Kuro a deal. Apparently, a detachment of the Empire's intelligence services, led by the Major, had been about to hire the Sand King's to assist them with eradicating a large Rebel cell which they believed had been active on Tatooine for some time, running guns and harassing Imperial ships within the sector, using Tatooine as a homebase. Believing Kuro to be the last remnant of the Sand King's, and highly impressed by what he had just accomplished, the Imperial offered Kuro a very large sum of credits, what he had been planning on paying the Sand King's with, and perhaps the chance of joining the Imperial Military in the future, where the Major felt some one with Kuro's obvious talents could be very useful indeed. After some consideration, Kuro accepted the Major's offer, and in this manner began his first years of military service to the Galactic Empire.

Combating Rebels
"I'm going to assume that you and your friends had some type of disagreement, other than that I don't care about your business. What I do care about is what you can obviously do, and that makes you useful to me. Remain useful to me throughout this operation and you walk away with a pocket-full of credits, don't, and well, I'm prone to kill those who prove useless."

- Elizba Ezzley

After agreeing to the Imperial Major's offer, Kuro was escourted to the man's shuttle, a Sentinel-class Landing Craft, and given all information on the immediate situation. Major Ezzley, as the Imperial would reveal himself to be, estimated that the Rebel cell, which they had been pursuing for several weeks, was considerably larger then his superiors had first thought, and, worse yet, they had recently raided an Imperial supply convoy and stolen a considerable amount of Strormtrooper gear, which not only made them well armed, but made it difficult for Ezzley and his men to tell the difference between friend and foe, which had made their operation even more difficult for the past few days. With his men down to half strength and the Rebels seemingly disppearing into nothingness after each hit, Ezzley had chosen to hire the Sand Kings out of his own pocket, believing that a force as capable and dangerous as the Kings who knew the local terrain could be very useful at finally eradicating the Rebel cell.

However, Ezzley's plans had been down sized somewhat by Kuro's slaughter of the remaining Sand Kings, but the Major was still adamant about completing his mission. With Kuro's knowledge of Tatooine's surface and Ezzley's intelligence on the Rebels, the two were able to draw out a rough estimate of where their mutual quarry might be hiding, which was possibly somewhere in the Dune Sea, within an old cave system with numerous egress points to the surface and other tunnels leading almost throughout the entirety of the Dune Sea. This increased the difficulty of simply pouncing and eradicating the Rebels, as Ezzley's men were two few to effectively cut off every potential escape route that the Rebels might run for. However, Ezzley had one distinct advantage over the Rebels; his shuttle had been equipped with several dispersal canisters of a experimental new nerve agent, codenamed DC5, which could cause instant paralysis upon contact with an individuals lungs or merely their skin. So, Kuro suggested a stealth approach, led by himself, where the Stromtroopers would infiltrate the cave systems silently on foot, get into an advantageous position for a surprise attack, than release the canisters of DC5 on the Rebels, who would theoretically be relaxed within their apparently unknown hidey-hole, and most likely not fully prepard for a sudden chemical attack.

Putting this plan into motion, Kuro, Ezzley, and a squad of three Stormtroopers, who carried the canisters containing the nerve agent, were dropped off at a distance of one one hundred meters from the nearest entrance to the cave system, while similar groups were dispatched to other entrances. With Kuro in the lead, Ezzley and his men were able to gain entrance into the cave system without being detected, and without running into any form of sentries, which raised Kuro's suspicions a bit, but Ezzley was quick to dismiss the lack of perimeter guards as "typical Rebel sloppiness", which did not sit well with Kuro, but Ezzley was still in operational command of the mission, so it was at his order that the mission continued. When all teams were able to reach the internal caves where the Rebels were thought to have established camp without any probelms and set up their canisters, Kuro only became further agitated, but still, dispite the evidence of a trap, Ezzley insisted on continuing.

With each squad in position, Ezzley ordered the release of the DC5 into the air. The efect was almost immediate upon the complete surprised Rebels; although one or two managed to get their helmets on before being overcome by the gas, they were qyuickly shot down by Ezzley's men. With every Rebel who had not been quick enough to grab for their helmets immobilized by the gas, Ezzley believed that the mission was a success, but Kuro could still not shake the feeling that something was wrong with the situation. As the Major's men moved into the central area of the cavern to restrain and collect the paralyzed Rebels, Kuro would discover that his suspicions had indeed been correct, and both he, Ezzley, and his men were trapped within a forcefield upon reaching the center of the cavern, discovering also that the Rebels had in fact been only an illusion, cast by an unknown source, and that the only thing ramaining inside the force field with them was a large mound of thermal detonators, all linked to a central timer.

Although Ezzley was quick to panic, Kuro, facing certain death, remained calm and collected, not because he was not afraid, but because he understood, somehow, that everything would be fine, at least for him. With this in mind, Kuro quietly retrated to the outermost confines of the forcefield, as Ezzley and his men tried frantically to disarm the detonation device. However, the thermal detonators were rigged in such a way that only an experienced demolitions tech could have a chance of disarming it, and Ezzley's explosives expert had been killed by a Rebel sniper the day before. Despite the Major's efforts, the device exploded within a minute, but instead of being incinerated by the balst, they were rather plunged downwards, as the cavern's floor collasped, since the bomb had apparently been rigged to blow in such a way so as to collaspe the ground right out from underneath the Imperials, effectively burying them alive. However, while the majority of Ezzley's men, especially those closest to the explosion, where killed instantly, several managed to survive with only a concussion or a few broken bones, thanks to their armor. Kuro himself, barely understanding what he was doing, had instinctively thrown up a shield with the Force, which protected him both from the shock of the explosion as well as the falling debris and subsequent drop further into the soil of Tatooine.

When the dust cleared, Kuro discoverd that he had indeed managed to survive impossible circumstances once again, his shield having allowed him to come to rest ontop of the rubble pile, while those few troopers that had survived were all but buried. By a sheer stroke of luck, Ezzley had also survived the blast and managed to not be buried by the massive collasp of rock and dust, as his body had been thrown upwards by the blast, coming to rest atop the rubble. However, the Major's body was wrecked, with his legs severed by the blast and the majority of his skeleton shattered, he should have been dead, but he was somehow still alive and conscious. As Kuro approached him, Ezzley recognized him and began pleading for help, but instead, Kuro recognized a potential opportunity.

Reaching out for the Force once again and utilizing an ability he had never learned, Kuro took on the appearance of the Major, uniform and all. By the time that the Major's few surviving men were able to dig themselves out of the rubble and locate him, they found not Kuro and a dead Ezzley, but rather an unharmed Ezzley, standing over the crushed body of the Mandalorian he hired to assist them in their mission. Believing Ezzley to have somehow survived the blast without armor, the Strormtroopers were quick to follow his orders. After scouting out their situation, Kuro-Ezzley and his troopers were able to surmise that the detonation of the explosives had plunged them into a crater within the cavern's floor, which was actually rather small. Due to this, the Stormtroopers were able to combined two grappling lines together and form a makeshift ladder out of the pit, which they quickly utilized. Fortunately, the detonation had not collasped the cavern itself, and they were able to find their way out the same way they had entered, discovering evidence that the Rebels had fled along the way. Upon reaching the surface, Kuro contacted the single trooper who he had left aboard their Sentinel and had him as close to the cave entrance as he could and, once aboard, ordered immediate departure from the planet, twisting the minds of Ezzley's troopers so they would understand the mission to have been a success. As the Sentinel achieved orbit and calculated a hyperspace jump, Kuro settled back and began thinking out plans for a successful career as Major Elizba Ezzley.

Personality and traits
"Every day, this galaxy comes one step closer to ultimate destruction. Through my efforts, I'm not destroying it, but saving it. Improving it. The body that is the galaxy has become diseased, sickly, and it must be purged of it's sickness. Make no mistake, this is something that will happen one way or another, either with everything succumbing to the diease, or a remainder surviving to rebuild."

- Darth Azazel

, Darth Azazel was considered to have possessed the most gifted mind of his generation. By the time he was five years old, he could perform complex trigonometry equations in his mind without any outside assistance. At the age of eight, he was already fluent in six languages and could recite detailed chemical compositions from memory. At the age of ten, he was proficient enough with computer systems that only the most sophisticated of electronic defenses could prove a challenge for him. Able to converse easily with philosophers and accomplished veterans in various professions since childhood, he was only truly at home when within his own personal laboratory. When combined with his habitual method of speaking in grammatical perfection and his quietness, his intelligence had the common effect of distancing him from most groups. Standing at a modest one point seventy-two meters and weighing barely eighty kilograms, Azazel represented neither an imposing nor threatening figure, but he could prove remarkably terrifying if he chose. His thin body and quiet demeanor caused many to believe him to be an unassuming and meek individual, which was exactly what he desired. His obsidian hair generally was slicked backwards and his skin was naturally pallid, while his eyes glowed a pale yellow or red, depending upon his mood, and were often the only thing which could be discerned from beneath his concealing cowl. Numerous scars and gashes littered his body, throphies of battles where he was not sufficient enough to avoid injury. Thorough and nothing if not a swift assimilator, these injuries always served as merely a way of strengthening his resolve, rather than preventing him from attaining his distination.

Despite his quiet disposition, he could command with extraordinary charisma. When situations demanded it and when he thought it appropriate, he could be a brilliant leader, often capable of inspiring those beneath him by merely being present beside them. Even without assistance from the Force, he could subtly influence others, controlling them not through total domination, but rather by elusive manipulation. Extraordinarily intelligent and naturally cautious, Azazel would not reveal himself or attack unless he felt that he possessed every advantage necessary to achieve victory. He would often concoct schemes which had many layers to them, as he attempted to take into account every possible factor. Contrary to his insistance on success, he enjoyed being surprised even if it resulted in a complete downfall to his plans. Surprise was a novel concept for him, because it simply was a very rare occurance. It wasn't uncommon for him to allow an opponent to retreat instead of killing them when he clearly possessed the advantage, for this reason. However, he would never unnecessarily put his life or the lives of those underneath his command at risk.

Primarily, however, Azazel was a utopian idealist. He passionately believed in a perfected galaxy, and considered every sentient species to be a scourge upon the galaxy. Within his point of view, the sentient beings of the galaxy, both Human and otherwise, had become flawed and parasitical; basically put, they consumed and corrupted everything they touched and could not survive in harmony with anything. For Azazel, the approach to this probelm was rather simple; complete eradication. As he considered the galaxy to be populated by 'vicious parasites', his endgoal was similar to what a scientist might consider effective against a dangerous virus, to locate and fabricate an antibody and attack the infection without mercy, until it had been completely destroyed. For Azazel, his antibody against the perceived virus of sentient life would be the Ash'rak Super-Soldier, a biological weapon with the intelligence and creativity to challenge even the Sith Lord himself. Following the war to end all wars, Azazel envisioned a galaxy where militarism and discipline reigned supreme, and only a singular, perfected species populated the galaxy, the Ash'rak. To achieve this end, he would go on to utilize any means necessary, regardless of how reprehensible, until his death at the Battle of Anakaa.

Contrary to his militant disposition towards the peoples of the galaxy, when off the battlefield, Azazel's true self was generally shown. He was compassionate and just, especially towards his Ash'rak, who he considered to be his children. Despite his insistance on purging the galaxy of it's infection, Azazel was not sadistic or disposed towards drawing out his enemy's death. Like an efficient hunter, he always believed in a quick and clean kill, and only utilized such tactics as torture when it was ultimately necessary to pry information from a subject. Azazel was also not merely content with obedient minions; he insisted that his soldiers of eradication possess both the capacity for independent thought and the ability to apply creativity to their duties. Rather than punish a Ash'rak for performing a task as they saw fit instead of how he saw fit, Azazel was more inclined to punish failure to utilize such simple creativity.

Azazel was well-known for his somewhat morbid and cynical sense of humor; often laughing at the expense of others, he had a prominent love of witticism throughout his life, and appreciated a sense of humor in his soldiers. Though he was usually as quiet and focused in combat as he was when in his laboratory or commanding troops, it wasn't uncommon for him to utilize in a duel, if he felt he required to extra assistance. Even when events were not flowing according to his plans, Azazel would possess a slight smile upon his lips, something which he discovered had a charming effect on others. Regardless of weather conditions, Azazel was normally seen garbed in his distinctive form-fitting combat suit and a hand tailored, all-encompassing cloak and cowl, as well as leather boots.

Powers and abilities
"No worries. Even without the Force, I am never without options, my son."

- Darth Azazel to Mysha So'Choi Darth Azazel was an authentically gifted man, born with an astounding connection to the Force and a natural gift for manipulating it's energies. As such, Azazel's Force powers were impressive to say the least, but he also specialized in a broad variety of other disciplines; this allowed him to approach his goals from several domains of expertise, and assured that he was never limited to only those of his abilities which were derived from the Force. Indeed, if it was not for his psychological instablilty, which caused him to become increasingly careless and overly aggressive, it was theorized that he might very well have never been defeated. Despite his aristocratic and slender physique, Azazel was a tremendously powerful and talented fighter, with extroardinary expertise in armed and unarmed battle. Due to his admiration of elegance and efficiency, he favored the Makashi style of lightsaber combat, with which he was awesomely formidable. He conceived that only the most elegant of the forms were worthy of his abilities, and found the other six forms to be crude and overcompensating, but he was completely accomplished with them. He also mastered Juyo in the process of his training, but rarely employed it. Even without drawing upon the Force, Azazel possessed incredible physiological abilities; through Alchemy, he had an improved metabolism and amended body. He could leap several meters above his own height without assistance from the Force, often clearing a standard fence or wall without touching it, and was capable of sprinting at extreme speeds, fast enough to run down anything short of a speeder bike and rapid enough to easily keep pace with any of his children.

Contrary to his average build, he could lift a full-grown Wookiee completely off the ground and throw them some distance, as well as kill with a single blow if necessary. Unlike other Force-users, Azazel never developed an effective Force-sense, and trusted instead his extremely keen natural senses and Force-enhanced instincts, which provided him with an excellent understanding of his environment. When combined with his hyperacute reflexes, his abnormally strong precongnitive ability allowed him to react even faster than the typical Force-sensitive, which allowed him to effectively dodge anything short of a consuming explosion or a sustained barrage of automatic fire. Through brutal physical conditioning, Azazel possessed incredible stamina and pain tolerance as well; he could battle relentlessly and could practically ignore injuries that would lame any ordinary being.

Alongside his swordmanship and improved body, Azazel also mastered an assortment of martial arts. During his childhood with the Sand Kings, he had been throughly instructed in Teras Kasi, and learned the very basics of Stava as well. After joining the Imperial Navy, Azazel also studied the Echani disciplines, and developed his precognitive abilities to the point were any attack was relatively futile against him. Azazel's penchant with martial arts would lead to him developing his own unique close combst system, which he taught extensively to his children. Unlike other lightsaber duelists, Azazel would combine his swordmanship with hand-to-hand combat and martial arts, becoming an arguably unstobbale dervish of devastation, using his augmented strength and incredible speed to quickly dispatch those few enemies foolish enough to make an attempt at fighting him. His studies of martial arts provided him a superior understanding of meditation and bodily coordination as well, and improved his knowledge of anatomy and pressure points. His enhanced physique and skills as a martial artist also allowed him to quietly dispatch an opponent with only his bare hands, without the bright flash and noise of a lightsaber blade. Even so, Azazel's physical abilities were faint in comparison to his indescribable power in the Force. Trough his training under Jedi Master Nihlus Nryik and his studies of Darth Mantis's Holocron, he became well-versed in both sides of the Force, both Light and Dark. He specialized majorly in aspects of stealth and psychological manipulation, and as such very few were so much as aware of him. He possessed an incredible affinity for Sith magic, particularly with concealment and mind control. He was able to become effectively invisible to every known form of detection, except the danger-sense of a Force-user. Even other vastly powerful Force-users were unable to detect him. Those who were aware of his presence were typically enslaved under his iron will or were only perceiving an illusion. However, despite his preferrence for stealth and remote manipulation, Azazel also possessed a natural intuition with many other Force techniques, including more combative powers. His proficiency with telekinesis was such that he could levitate small spacecraft as a child, and even managed to drag an entire space station down from orbit and use it as a battering ram to destroy the orbital shipyards of Paraxius VII, though doing this weakened him considerably for a short period. He also possessed enough delicate control to surgically slice through many materials, as well as biological matter, and could perform multiple tasks at one time by using his telekinetic ability. He was an expert practitioner of Force-lightning also, an ability he developed to the point were he was capable of controlling it's direction and spread, as well as limiting it's power. He was also skillful at projecting Force-blasts, which could punch through solid durasteel at full power; more than once, he was able to utilize this ability to escape from imprisonment. Later in his life, he developed the ability to absorbe and redirect blasts of energy, such as blaster bolts. This allowed him to ignore all but the most powerful weapons or projectiles, and made energy weaponry practically useless against him, as it would only serve as fuel. Azazel studied and exercised the rare ability of flow-walking as well, which he would regularly utilize to study his enemies history and experiences, in order to gain a broader understanding of their behavior. He also utilized this ability to observe the future when drawing out plans of attack and would often meditate on past duels and engagements, seeking to fix any flaw or weakness in his battle-plans or fighting form. He also mastered the shatterpoint technique, which he was able to use not only in personal combat, but also during a space-born engagement, where he was able to quickly discern and exploit the weak-points of an enemy formation. He was able to utilize this ability to secure victory on many occasions, most notably during the Battle of Mozia, when a full legion of his troops turned against him, yet he was able to escape by exploiting the single shatterpoint among them.

As Azazel further developed his abilities and engrossed himself within the Force, he began to experiment with his power and work to develop other, more obscure and complicated, abilities. Through his impressive knowledge and intelligence, Azazel was able to acquire several abilities very rarely demonstrated by even the most powerful of Sith. He was able to process the ability of Force-drain to the point where he could absorbe an individual's life-force directly into himself merely by touching them, leaving nothing but ash behind. He was also able to summon absolute darkness at will, yet this appeared to weaken him considerably if maintained for a lenghty period of time. Using this ability, he was able to expand a wave of darkness broad enough to encompass an entire Star Destroyer. He was also skilled at projecting small portions of darkness at his opponents, which could be used to cover them completely or merely shroud their eyes. Azazel also possessed an impressive understanding of Mandalorian metallurgy, which allowed him to effectively direct efforts to mine and fabricate durable sheets of armor plate made from the rich deposits of Mandalorian Iron found on Anakaa. He kept this knowledge closely guarded, passing it on to only his Forgotten Commandos.

Other Knowledge
"I have experimented and expanded my knowledge to dimensions far beyond your comprehension, Master Jedi."

- Darth Azazel to Nihlus Nryik

Electronic Expertise
"So...naive, aren't they? So dependent upon a network of defenses that require only a singular sophisticated instrusion to topple, and once those defenses are brought down, what do they do? They run before the coming fire like animals, unconcerned with the truth, of that you cannot outrun your inevitable fate."

- Azazel to Maysha So'Choi

Azazel's oldest and perhaps his most prominent ability was his mastery of electronics and computer systems. He was incredibly skilled, able to bypass even the most secure systems within minutes; even if such a system was defended by multiple layers of code, he was able to discern precisely where it's weak point was located, much as he could do when dueling or commanding a fleet. His skill was such that he even managed to slice into the Emperor's most well-defended archives, and later remotely hacked into the New Republic's central intelligence records multiple times, without being detected.

By 11 ABY, Azazel's interest in slicing had expanded into a sophistication with programming. He was particularly adept at creating elaborate viruses, some rather simple and ment to be only a distraction, while he designed others with the capability to crash the defense network of an entire planet. Often, any of a multitude of his viruses could go hand-in-hand with his slicing efforts, with either the virus intended to befuddle a system's defenses or weaken them sufficiently so as to make infiltration quicker and easier. Azazel made great use of these viruses on a number of worlds, including Coruscant, where he dispatched several Forgotten ahead of his main fleet, armed with a datapad holding one of the most powerful and destructive viruses he had ever conceived, which allowed his forces to shut down all defenses and take Coruscant with little resistance. Other expamles of his viruses were demonstrated often during the Great Purging, often disabling entire fleets and space stations.

Scientific/Technological expertise
Although unpolished when compared to his other abilities, Azazel possessed an impressive knowledge of various applied sciences, among them biochemistry, xenobiology, astrophysics, and aerospace engineering, to name but a few. He was responsible for fabricating the blue-prints of several very successful warships, military vehicles, energy weapons, and armor systems. Though not unable to be matched or outdone, his creations were very innovative, and gave his troops a superior edge in many situations. Perhaps the most impressive feat he accomplished in the field of science was his creation of the Ash'rak; though it was Teatriarch Grammaton who originally conceived the species, Azazel nevertheless demonstrated great skill when he not only improved upon the Anzati's methods, but also ingrained a psychological deposition towards serving him within the minds of his Ash'rak, a process which he performed with such sublty that even Grammaton's best researchers were unaware of his treachery, until it was too late.

Azazel's great abilities with Sith magic also translated into an impressive understanding of Alchemy, which he repeatedly used upon his children, seeking to improve any weaknesses they displayed. He was also able to improve his own body to levels beyond Human capability, increasing his strength and speed, and even implanting himself with a several thousand cleverly designed nanomachines, capable of healing literally any injury which he might suffer, unless it was instantly fatal. This allowed him to survive many situations which would otherwise have seen him dead, as well as brave various extremes without protection, at least for a limited period of time. These nanomachines did not make him invulnerable to harm, however, and he was quickly forced not to depend on them, after doing so early on nearly proved disastrous for him. Among Azazel's most famous creations, beside his Ash'rak, were the Edict of Retribution, a modified Sulaco-class battlecruiser which served as the Sith Lord's personal flagship throughout his campaign against the galaxy, and CreationBoxes, terraforming constructs which utilized the actual energies of The Living Force to transform worlds laid barren by warfare into lush, habitable planets ripe for recolonization. It was unknown exactly how these Boxes worked, and one was never recovered to be subjected to a complete examination.

Equipment
"Azazel always has a few suprises up his sleeves."

- Nihlus Nryik

Before he took up the lightsaber, Azazel first became proficient with various military equipment, including blasters, vibroblades, grenades, and many types of heavy weaponry. Although he would later become a dedicated and almost matchless lightsaber duelist, he still carried with him a variety of tools, as well as several concealed weapons in addition to those which he carried in plain sight. Azazel's primary weapons where his two curved hilted, dual-phase, crimson bladed lightsabers. Very similar in appearence to those which had been wielded by the Dark Jedi, they were each interwined with cortosis, which made them very durable and provided Azazel with yet another advantage, for if an opponent attempted to deprive him of his weapons by slicing through them with their own blade, the cortosis-construction of the Sith Lord's blades would cause his opponent's weapon to short out, giving him the momentary upper hand over his enemy. Azazel also built his blades without a external activation switch, and they instead required a effort of will through the Force to activate. This ensured that only someone both aware of this feature and sensitive to the Force could activate either of his blades. Azazel's blades also utilized a dual-phase feature, which allowed him to add a component of suprise into a duel at will, alongside his already deadly mastery of combat and very difficult to defend against weapons. Upon learning that his lightsaber would potentially short out when it came into contact with water, Azazel also added a bifurcating cyclical-ignition pulse to both of his blades, which allowed him to continue fighting even when underwater. When confronted by several opponents, Azazel often combined the twin blades together, forming a single weapon of devastating destructive potential, with which he could easily become a rapidly rotating vortex of death. Along with his two main lightsabers, Azazel also carried two back-up shoto sabers with him, which he could use in the event that he either loss his primary weapons or had them disabled in some fashion. As Azazel was also very proficient with telekinesis, he would occasionally use these two shotos in combat, controlling them telekinetically to flank his opponent and force them to face seemingly three attackers at once.

Azazel also carried a WESTAR-34 blaster pistol, with which he could accurately put down practically anything with just a single shot. His expert marksmanship, honed by years of training and experience, allowed him to be just as deadly even at long-range. By using a blaster in place of his powers or blades when facing lesser opponents, Azazel was able to conserve his stamina and reserve of energy within the Force for dueling more powerful and challenging opponents, such as Jedi or fellow Sith. Azazel kept a pair of daggers on him as well, specially forged from cortosis and laced with some type of unspecified poison, which could induce a heavy sickness within a target even if Azazel could only manage to open a slight cut upon his target. Azazel was very skilled at throwing these daggers, capable of hitting an individual's chest from upto ten meters away. Azazel made great use of various defensive equipment as well, including small smoke pellets which allowed him to either seemingly disappear, bufuddle his opponent, or establish a concealing screen to render long-range shots ineffective, such as from a sniper. He was known to utilize various chemicals and gases in addition to simple smoke as well, which could allow him to incapacitate or kill a small group of individuals by merely flicking his wrist.

Since he was a commander who favored being on the front lines, especially throughout more important engagements, Azazel took to habitually wearing a close-fitting, cortosis weave bodysuit underneath his cloak. Designed to offer him maximum protection without sacrificing his mobility or flexibility, the bodysuit consisted of a black, insulated body glove, capable of protecting him from both extremes of heat and cold. This allowed him to travel without a more encumbering form of bodily protection even when fighting on worlds such as Rhen Var, Hoth, and Anakaa. Arranged over the top of this body glove where multiple braces of buffed cortosis alloy, which covered his chest, ribs, shins, outer thighs, hips, lower back, forearms, biceps, and shoulders. The bodysuit also came equipped with a helmet of the same material, designed to inspire terror in Azazel's opponent's, but he rarely took to wearing it, unless doing battle in a area where the vacuum of space would need to be braved. When fully sealed, it could provide him with clean air for upto fifteen minutes, after which it needed to be refilled. Over his suit, Azazel wore a utility belt made from the skin of a krayt dragon, which he had killed himself, at least according to rumor.

Aside from his usual equipment and holsters for his blaster and lightsabers, Azazel also carried a pair of electrobinoculars for long distance scouting of the battlefield, as well as multiple food pellets, a small canteen of water, and a medkit, at least when traveling into battle, in case of the event that he was cut off from his troops, and thus resupply. Azazel usually wore a personal data assistant on his right forearm as well, similar to the ones he had designed for his children, yet with increased communications range and a better uplink feature to allow clearer remote transmission of video, images, and other data. Lastly, even Azazel's cloak served to provide him with some protection; woven from shell spider silk, it allowed Azazel decent protection from various battlefield hazards and he could shield not only himself, but others as well from blaster bolts, light debris, and even the thrust of a vibroblade. The cowl also acted as something of a helmet, protecting his head from enemy fire in lieu of more standard headgear.