Darth Vandak was a male Anzat Sith Lord who served the New Sith Empire. Renowned as one of the most infamous Jedi killers of the New Sith Wars, he was the lord and master of the Brotherhood of Shadows until being maimed in a duel with Jedi Knights Tirien Kal-Di and Mali Darakhan left him mentally unhinged. Vandak then began a reign of terror throughout both the New Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic, which ended only when he was finally brought down in a duel on Gyndine.
Biography[]
Predator[]
Vandak was born on Anzat, though few details of his early life were known to anyone but Vandak himself. By 1,387 BBY Darth Alecto believed Vandak to be centuries old, and possessed of all the formidable skill that came with that experience. At some point he trained in the dark side, though his status as a Sith Lord might have predated the Council of Five's iteration of the New Sith Empire. He was among the few beings who passed through all seven levels of the Abattoir, and consequently became leader of the Brotherhood of Shadows, a cult of elite Anzat assassins; his second-in-command was Azeroth Seji. By the time Darth Saleej became a Sith Overlord, Vandak had already ruled the Brotherhood for quite some time.
Vandak was renowned among his fellow Sith and the Jedi alike for both his formidable warrior skills and his apparently-limitless cruelty. He often fed upon the soup of both defeated enemies and his own subordinates who failed him badly enough; Vandak's fellow Sith Lord, Nerlus Zedum, who himself had failed subordinates tortured to death by Ondar Vargh, thought Vandak's minions might prefer Ondar's skinning knives to the fate that awaited them at Vandak's own hands. Vandak participated in the 1,466 BBY Battle of Mizra, where he consumed the soup of multiple Jedi and killed scores of beings.
Prior to 1,389 BBY Vandak came into the service of Darth Saleej, though he was on flirtatious terms with Saleej's fellow Sith Overlord Vedya Gasald.
Saleej's Campaigns[]
Darth Vandak participated in the Battle of Taanab and was responsible for numerous casualties to the Republic. He managed to badly maim at least one Iktotchi Jedi Knight, cutting off her hand, one of her horns, and a portion of her jaw. On the final day of the battle, Vandak and Darth Alecto set out to destroy Pandath's shield generators, but were intercepted by Mali Darakhan. The duel was inconclusive; although Vandak managed to lightly wound Darakhan on the chest, he and Alecto were ordered to retreat when Republic reinforcements arrived.
Over the next two years Vandak took a passing interest in Darth Alecto; despite her youth and junior status, he considered her a savage and competent warrior, which he found promising. Vandak accompanied Alecto and Darth Hokhtan to Vedya Gasald's Kiss of Death in 1,387 BBY and assisted her invasion of Milagro, though he brought along Azeroth and eleven other Anzati at Hokhtan's request as insurance against Gasald's duplicity. Vandak used his "brothers" to sow terror throughout Milagro's population, but when one of them turned up beheaded by a lightsaber strike, Vandak promised vengeance against Gasald, blaming her for the act and determined not to lose face in front of his comrades. He scoffed at Alecto's suggestion that holdouts of Zirist Lakalt or Jedi infiltrators might have been responsible for the killing, but agreed to allow Hokhtan and Darth Vaszas to try to draw out the Jedi he considered illusory, if only to disprove her theory.
To Vandak's surprise, Alecto was right, and a Jedi strike team attacked Milagro's government center. At Hokhtan's urging, Vandak absented himself from the initial part of the battle, but when Jedi Master Sil Kadych killed Vaszas and crippled Hokhtan, Vandak took the opportunity to stab the Jedi in the back. He almost fed on Kadych's soup, but was distracted when Mali Darakhan challenged him. Vandak fought Darakhan and Tirien Kal-Di, easily holding the two Jedi at bay by dint of superior skill and their own exhaustion from earlier duels. However, Tirien landed a lucky strike and burned off one of Hokhtan's luck-sucking proboscises. Vandak fell into Force Rage and nearly killed Tirien, but his distraction enabled Mali to cut off his other proboscis, half his ear, and part of his cheek. Vandak was horrified to realize he was deprived of the ability to feed on soup; he brutalized the two Jedi with the Force, but when he attempted to impale them, they combined their powers to Force push him through a wall, removing him from the duel long enough to escape.
Animal I Have Become[]
Vandak's mutilation drove him mad; he was unable to feed on the soup of others, and consequently grew both starved and psychotically bitter. Led by his former deputy Azeroth Seji, the Brotherhood of Shadows deserted Vandak, believing him to no longer be fit to lead them. Vandak lashed out at any available target and cut a swath of destruction through the New Sith Empire and unaffiliated territory alike; unable to consume soup, he took to sucking the life out of his victims with Force drain instead. The skill empowered him but did nothing to sate his ever-worsening hunger.
Within months, Darth Saleej and his council of Sith Lords began plotting Vandak's assassination to preserve their own standing with the Council of Five and prevent Ko Davad and the Furies from becoming involved in the situation. By late 1,387 BBY even the Jedi had begun to realize that Vandak was operating outside Saleej's—or anyone else's—control. The Council of Five allowed Vandak's depredations to carry on for some time as Saleej pursued other goals, but in early 1,386 BBY The Seeing One foresaw Vandak's return to Sith Space and the havoc he would wreak in Trayvin Osydro's territory. On behalf of the Council, Lady Erinyes of the Furies gave Saleej two options: kill Vandak himself or have Erinyes do it. Darth Alecto proposed a third option—outsourcing the job to the Jedi.
Vandak butchered thousands throughout the Republic, including five Jedi, and killed Governor Boryn Thalsyk of Commenor, along with Thalsyk's Echani bodyguards and a Brotherhood assassin sent to kill Thalsyk. When Vandak arrived at Gyndine, he was met by eight Jedi—Master Kirthi; Knights Lishedra Nakaana, Grayv Proscuul, Cienis Favand, and Lukkad; and Padawans Bekli, Elmir, and Krajjey. The nine combatants fought a duel throughout the Yractos Commercial Commons, destroying much of the Commons in the process. Vandak unleashed all his considerable dueling skills and Force powers on his enemies, and killed Master Kirthi, all four Knights, and Krajjey. In the end, however, Elmir and Bekli—lovers as well as fellow Jedi—used their Force bond and Vandak's numerous injuries to overpower Vandak, and Bekli fatally stabbed him in the head. Vandak's corpse exploded in a dark side burst, bringing an end to his centuries of destruction.
Powers and Abilities[]
He's—he was, now—probably the deadliest swordsman in the galaxy, and incredibly strong in the Force too.
—Tirien Kal-Di, about Vandak
Most Jedi and Sith considered Vandak one of the deadliest swordsmen in the galaxy; Jedi Knights Tirien Kal-Di and Mali Darakhan, themselves widely respected for their lightsaber skills, were barely able to survive fighting Vandak together, and Darth Alecto, who was equal to Tirien in skill, felt she would have died if she had fought Vandak. The Anzat was responsible for the deaths of many Jedi throughout his long life, and even after going insane and losing a shade of his skill, he slew another eleven Jedi before his own end. By 1,389 BBY he was a master of both Form V and Jar'Kai.
Vandak's dark side powers were considerable; he was able to overpower Mali and Tirien and easily defend himself against their attacks, and even after being driven mad, he still had sufficient focus to exercise such taxing skills as Force lightning, Force drain, and Deadly Sight. He had sufficient physical strength to counter two-handed blows from strong Humans with one hand, and sufficient battle precognition to fight with both hands independently.
Appearance and Personality[]
Vandak stood 1.79 meters tall and had a broad, muscular build. He had black hair, waxy gray skin, and blue eyes that nearly all observers described as cold and pitiless. He wore Sith robes often, sometimes mingling red or gray with the basic black, and carried paired lightsabers with Sith red blades.
Vandak often effected a demeanor of languid indifference, though in battle he could become savage at an instant's notice. A predator by nature, those who knew him well felt he was incapable of having or even understanding mercy. He had some degree of loyalty to his Brotherhood, but demanded their absolute obedience in turn; Nevya Khiyali thought of Vandak's iteration of the Brotherhood as a "cult of personality".
Behind the Scenes[]
Darth Vandak was voted "Best Dark-sided Force User" in the Fourteenth Wiki Awards.
Appearances[]
- Second Chance
- The Fog of War
- A Certain Point of View (Mentioned only)
- Abattoir (Mentioned only)
- Danse Macabre (Mentioned only)
- Desperate Times (Mentioned only)
- Desperate Measures (Mentioned only)
- A Flow'r, Once Fallen (Mentioned only)
- Igniting the Stars
- The Liberator (Mentioned only)
- Revenge of the Jedi (Mentioned only)
- Loyalty (Mentioned only)