Belia Darzu was a female Shi'ido who reigned as a Dark Lord of the Sith during the waning centuries of the Draggulch Period. Formerly, Darzu travelled the galactic frontier as a mercenary, facing relentless discrimination due to her inborn shape-shifting talent. Consequently instilled with xenophobic hatred, she went on to embrace the dark side as a disciple of the resurgent Sith Empire. Rising to infamy as a Sith Lord, Darzu propagated the Sith teachings among other members of her species, hoping to elevate their place within the galaxy. This goal was eventually overshadowed, however, by her fervent fascination with the dark side, particularly Sith alchemy and an obscure technique known as mechu-deru.
A paranoid, hate-filled and reclusive woman, Lord Darzu pursued any means to exert her influence over other sentient beings. This obsession impelled her to recreate the mythical technobeasts, mutated cyborgs that were bound to will of their creator. To this end, Darzu secluded herself on the abandoned world of Tython, using a hidden fortress to conduct her alchemical experiments. Eventually, she developed a virus capable of transmuting organic tissue into metal and circuitry. In the process, Darzu herself became infected by the virus, causing it to rapidly and painfully devour the Shi'ido's physical form. Although crippled by the ordeal, Darzu nonetheless gained a new perspective on the potential of mechu-deru.
Using her newly gained insight, Darzu devised a dark side ritual that allowed her to bind other victims of the nanogene spore to her will, creating a new brand of subservient mutants called the Metanecrons. Confident in her creations, Darzu mobilized her Metanecrons into an obedient army and assumed the mantle of Dark Lord, intent on leading the Sith in a new campaign of terror. Setting her plans into motion, Darzu usurped the reigning leader of the Sith Empire—Darth Teitan—by exploiting his unique mental vulnerability, enslaving the former Dark Lord and intimidating his followers into serving her.
Biography[]
Dark marauder[]
Belia Darzu was a Force-sensitive female Shi'ido who lived centuries before the end of the Draggulch Period, an era distinguished by a tumultuous conflict known as the New Sith Wars. An experienced warrior with a yearning for danger and a fervent curiosity, Darzu travelled the galactic frontier of Wild Space as a freelance mercenary. Like all of her species, she was a natural-born shape-shifter, driving her to mimic the different lifeforms and civilizations she encountered in her travels. The Shi'ido, however, fell victim to various forms of discrimination from those who learned of her inborn talent; some distrusted or reviled her abilities, while others sought to enslave her to meet their own ends.
Living in constant fear of persecution, Darzu concealed her changeling heritage as a humanoid woman, hoping to avoid further negative treatment. These experiences instilled Darzu with a resentful and paranoid outlook on other sentient species, prompting her to rely on the bloody exploits of her mercenary career as an outlet for repressed hatred. During this time, she also unearthed her latent Force connection, though she possessed only a rudimentary understanding of its potential at the time. Nonetheless, Darzu's xenophobic animosity—combined with her addiction to the thrill of combat—led her to unknowingly fall under the influence of the dark side.
Journeying through the Outer Rim Territories, Darzu eventually entered the employ of the Sith Empire, an interstellar dominion ruled by the dark side-worshipping Sith Order. Impressed by the mercenary's brutal efficiency and raw potential with the Force, the Sith offered Darzu a place among their Order as a fellow darksider. Allured by promises of greater power and dominance, she eagerly accepted and became a Sith Acolyte. Inspired by the teachings of the Sith, Darzu learned to properly harness the dark side by drawing upon her innermost anger, hatred and fear, channeling them into a weapon of spite to subjugate and torment the galaxy's inhabitants.
Owing to her extensive prior battle experience, Darzu came to specialize in the combat-focused role of the Sith Marauder. Upon completing her Sith training, she partook in the Empire's campaign to destroy the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order. When given command over Sith ground forces, Darzu became a figure of scorn among the Republic and Jedi forces, known for her cruel methods of instilling terror among enemy populations. Even among the Sith, she garnered infamy as a particularly vicious and sadistic combatant, a reputation which ultimately earned her the coveted title of Sith Lord.
Lord of the Sith[]
With the resources of the Sith at her disposal, Lord Darzu set out to recruit other members of her species to the ways of the dark side cult. To this end, she began to seek out fellow Shi'ido who, like her, harbored a xenophobic fear of persecution, leading her to befriend a number of likeminded figures among her species. Feeding their bitter desire for retribution, Darzu convinced these individuals to embrace their hatred for non-Shi'ido and unite against the greater galaxy, recruiting them to her cause. With the aid of these sympathizers, Darzu founded a secret political faction—the Sictis League—with the goal of elevating the galactic presence of the Shi'ido through an alliance with the Sith.
Using her new political connections, Darzu forged a network of Shi'ido agents in a plot to infiltrate and subvert galactic governments, manipulating them in favor of the Sictis League. Driven to fulfil this goal at all costs, she began coercing other members of her race into joining the League, willing or not. Through the dark side, she twisted the minds of her targets, effectively indoctrinating them into carrying out her will. In time, Darzu's desire to ascend her species became overshadowed by her growing addiction to the power of the dark side; its corruptive influence began to take its toll on her sanity, fuelling her desire to unravel its true potential.
Craving a greater understanding of the dark side, Darzu spent years gathering ancient manuscripts written by the sorcerers and alchemists of the old Sith Empire. Studying the documents in earnest, she unearthed a number of arcane and alchemical techniques, most notably mechu-deru, an obscure Sith power allowing the manipulation of mechanical constructs. Delving deeper into the secrets of mechu-deru, Darzu experimented with ways of exerting her influence over mechanical devices. In this pursuit, she grew particularly fond of exploiting droids for their malleability and blind obedience, upgrading them to perform beyond their intended functionality.
As Darzu became more engrossed in her research, the power of the dark side further warped her perceptions of reality and worsened her paranoia, pushing the Shi'ido into reclusion. Despite her declining mental state, she continued researching mechu-deru, leading her to uncover information regarding the Sith technobeasts—these mutated cyborgs were not only compelled to obey the will of their creator, but also capable of self-replication by rewriting a victim's genetic code. Intrigued by the potential of such mutants, Darzu sought to recreate them in her own vision, providing a means to satisfy her desire for control over other sentient beings.
Disappearance[]
Darzu regarded her cybernetic form as a gateway to greater depths of power.
Keeping her project veiled in secrecy, Darzu continued her research in self-imposed exile, away from the potential interference of her peers and adversaries. While doing so, she learned that the Jedi—many years before her time—had once harnessed the power of mechu-deru, creating nanogene droids capable of healing living tissue on a cellular level. Remnants of this work were rumored to have existed on the planet Tython, a long-abandoned Jedi stronghold. Seeking Tython's whereabouts, Darzu used her agents to uncover hyperlane coordinates allowing safe navigation of the hazardous Deep Core, leading her to the planet's location.
Upon her arrival on Tython, Darzu discovered an ancient and dilapidated Jedi temple, rumored to contain remnants of the Order's experiments with mechu-deru. Scouring the temple, she eventually uncovered the nanogene seeds—microscopic droids capable of cellular alteration. Fascinated by this technology, Darzu believed she had uncovered the key to realizing the Sith technobeasts. Using the temple as a laboratory, the Shi'ido drew upon Tython's Force nexus to amplify her impending experiments. Inside her facility of research, Darzu spent years reverse-engineering the microscopic droids, eventually creating a virus—the nanogene spore—capable of transmuting living tissue into metallic tumors.
Despite her success, Darzu underestimated the power of her own creation, leading the Shi'ido to accidentally infect herself with the nanogene spore. As a result, the virus proceeded to rapidly and painfully consume Darzu's physical form, leaving twisted cybernetics in its wake. Invoking the power of mechu-deru in a desperate act of survival, Darzu managed to impede the effects of the nanogene spore, preventing it from devouring her entire body and lobotomizing her frontal lobe. The damage had been done, however, as the virus irreversibly transformed Darzu into a grotesque amalgamation of flesh and metal, also crippling her ability to shape-shift.
Although embittered by her sudden impairment, Darzu gained a new perspective on the potential of mechu-deru. This insight led the Shi'ido to devise a new technique, dubbed mechu-deru vitae, that allowed her to exert control over other living victims of the nanogene spore. To this end, Darzu seeded various outbreaks of her virus throughout the planet Tython, infecting many of the scattered native inhabitants. These victims would become the first of Darzu's own brand of mutated thralls—the Metanecrons. Binding these victims to her will, she then corralled the Metanecrons towards the abandoned Jedi temple, mobilizing them into a subservient army.
Over time, Darzu's machinations corrupted the Force nexus of Tython, saturating the former Jedi stronghold with dark side energies. Using this to her advantage, the Sith Lord used her abilities to channel and intensify these energies, effectively shrouding Tython's presence from the eyes of both the Jedi and her power-hungry Sith peers. Commanding her mutated slaves, Darzu renovated the ancient Jedi temple into a fortress called the Obsidian Citadel, making Tython her secret seat of power. With the Metanecrons and the nanogene spore at her disposal, Darzu declared herself a Dark Lord of the Sith, intent on bringing a new age of terror upon the galaxy.
Rise to power[]
Darth Teitan, the catalyst for Darzu's bid to unite the Sith.
During her self-imposed exile, Lord Darzu kept acquainted with galactic affairs through her network of Shi'ido agents. To this end, she learned that the Sith Empire had since fallen under the rule of Darth Teitan, the self-proclaimed "vanguard of the true Sith". Despite Teitan's reputation as a powerful and charismatic Dark Lord of the Sith, Darzu overheard rumors surrounding his apparent mental instability; at random intervals, Teitan was known to undergo violent periods of psychosis, seeding doubts about his suitability to rule the Sith. Using her spies to investigate Teitan's past, Darzu learned that he once lived under the identity of "Daleth" as a member of the Battlelords, an army of Sith Warriors created by the late Darth Rivan.
Through careful study of Teitan's mannerisms, as well as her own alchemical knowledge, Darzu eventually came to understand the cause behind his psychological instability; it was a side effect of Rivan's infamously harrowing Battlelord transformation, which had fractured Teitan's mind and formed the alternate persona of an obedient, malleable slave—"Daleth". Upon realizing Teitan's mental vulnerability, Darzu devised a plan that would ultimately allow her to coerce the warlord into serving her. To accomplish such a feat, she called upon the power of Tython's Force nexus, using it to project a series of powerful telepathic illusions into Teitan's mind.
In an attempt to draw out and assert control over the persona of Daleth, Darzu persistently tormented Teitan with visions of his former subjugator—Rivan. The ordeal pushed Teitan to the brink of absolute despair, allowing Darzu to exploit the warlord's crippling fear of his alter ago.
Personality and traits[]
Like all members of her species, Darzu was a natural-born shape-shifter.
Like many members of the Shi'ido race, Darzu took pride in her natural-born ability to shape-shift, instilling her with a sense of superiority over non-changelings. This pride gradually turned to bitterness, however, due to the heavy discrimination she faced over her talents, leaving Darzu with a hateful distrust of other species. Nonetheless, these experiences did little to hamper her inherent curiosity; she remained a keen observer of different species and cultures throughout the galaxy, if only to find ways of outsmarting and ultimately dominating them. In this pursuit, she believed herself capable of controlling any individual she desired through deception, often burying her emotions behind a calm, dispassionate facade. Despite this, Darzu never truly came to terms with her contempt for other species. Instead, she found an outlet for her repressed hatred through the path of the dark side, developing a vicious, sociopathic streak.
Inspired by the Sith doctrines, Darzu spearheaded a conspiracy to elevate the galactic presence of the Shi'ido race, propagating her hate-filled agenda among other members of her species. Over time, however, she became more consumed by a desire to steep herself into the mysteries of the Force—the dark side in particular. This desire originated from her deep-seated curiosity to explore the unknown, causing her to develop an obsessive fascination with the dark side. To this end, Darzu willingly subjected herself to its corruptive influence, driven to see how its power could bend the very fabric of reality to her will. These experiments not only fuelled Darzu's paranoia and drove her into reclusion, but also led her to view other living beings—including her own race—as mere assets to be shaped and used for whatever purpose she desired.
After Darzu became infected with the nanogene spore, a large portion of her body was eaten away by the virus and replaced with cybernetics. Due to the haphazard nature of the nanogene spore, some of the implants became disproportionate with the rest of her body. Furthermore, the remnants of Darzu's organic self were left in a ravaged state, an affliction made worse by her frequent immersion in the dark side. These combined factors virtually crippled her shape-shifting talent, making the process extremely painful. While initially grief-stricken over her impairment, Darzu came to view it as a necessary sacrifice; by embracing her pain and grief, as well as her hatred for other species, the Shi'ido aspired to strengthen her attunement with the dark side even further, paving the path to greater depths of power.
Powers and abilities[]
As a Shi'ido changeling, Darzu was capable of altering her physical form at will, allowing her to assume a variety of humanoid and non-humanoid shapes. Additionally, she possessed the ability to telepathically project false impressions onto the minds of others, tricking them into believing she was someone—or something—else entirely. In the aftermath of her cybernetic transformation, however, Darzu's shape-shifting talent caused her a significant amount of pain, leaving the Shi'ido virtually unable to alter most of her body beyond her skin tone and facial features. Furthermore, the nanogene spore infection remained a constant threat to Darzu's life, forcing her to rely on the power of the dark side to keep the effects of the virus at bay.
After joining the Sith, Darzu became a frontline combatant in the New Sith Wars, specializing in the role of the Sith Marauder. For extra protection against multiple opponents in battle, she wore a self-crafted, alchemically-enhanced battle armor suit. The suit not only supplemented her physical strength, but also harbored a personal cloaking device to catch her foes by surprise. A learned and powerful practitioner of the dark side, Darzu—following decades of research—achieved mastery in the discipline of Sith alchemy alongside mechu-deru, an obscure Sith technique allowing the manipulation of mechanical structures. Through the power of mechu-deru, Darzu was capable of exerting absolute control over living victims of her nanogene virus.