Diard Vads was a male Umbaran Jedi Master serving the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic during the Jedi Renaissance as a member of the Jedi High Council.
Biography[]
Early service[]
Born on the planet Umbara in 50 BBY, Diard Vads was born into a wealthy family which unhappily relinquished custody of their child to the Jedi Order. Growing up in the Coruscant Jedi Temple, Vads studied the culture of his homeworld and found their mistreatment of the wraiths to be unacceptable hoped to one day see this practice ended. Selected by Master Indot Sheni to train as a Padawan, Vads frequently talked with Sheni's former student, Jedi Tomac Moorcé on policy within the Republic and the Order regarding mistreatment of sentients. Constructing a rare, white-bladed lightsaber on Ilum, Vads convinced his master and Jedi Moorcé to embark on a mission to Umbara to investigate the treatment of the native wraiths. Meeting with Senator Hrelli in the capital, Vads was shocked by the lies and propaganda the Senator fed the Jedi. Seeking their own answers, the Jedi trekked into the wilds of Umbara and found the wraiths to live an impoverished and malnourished existence, clothed only in rags and horribly malnourished.
Enraged by the clear ethics violations, Vads and his mentor returned to the city and were shocked to witness an attack by the starving wraiths. Not interfering in the attack as Umbaran military forces attempted to repel the attacking wraiths, the executive building was compromised as the flying wraiths swarmed in a relentless attack on those oppressing them. Feeding on the Umbaran politicians by draining their life energies, the Jedi protected nearby civilians as a wraith swooped down and drained the soul of Senator Hrelli. Helpless to intervene against the numerous attackers, the Jedi were led to safety by the young Mee Deechi who advised them to leave as soon as possible. Deechi assured the Jedi that he would do his best to see that the wraiths were not harmed and received the proper assistance from the government if the hostilities could be brought to an end. On their way to their ship, a weak wraith female approached the Jedi and handed Jedi Moorcé a bundled infant, before withdrawing into the shadows. Detecting the child to be Force-sensitive and healthy, the Jedi rushed back to Coruscant to debrief the High Council and turn the infant over to the Acquisitions Division.
Jedi Knight and the Clone Wars[]
In 28 BBY Vads passed his Trials of Knighthood and was made a Jedi Knight. Conducting himself as a proper Jedi, Vads traveled to Purpilia to study at Jedi Moorcé's Sentinel Academy as a Shadow. The satellite facility allowed Vads access to resources that heightened his abilities as a Shadow of the Jedi Order. Dressed in the violet garb necessary to survive on the planet's surface, he customized it to produce the traditional Shadowcloak of the Umbarans which he draped around his traditional Jedi robes. Remaining on Purpilia for many years, Vads befriended Headmaster Maladi Guidicelli, the young Devaronian placed in charge of the Academy there. Stationed at the Purpilia Royal Palace, Vads was serving His Royal Highness Steiv Moorcé when the leader of the planet announced that elections would be held to elect the first democratically elected President and Prime Minister. As Jedi diplomats worked in the capital to oversee the changes, Vads worked in the city to root out opposition movements forming to ensure that the monarchy was not abolished.
Responsible for arresting twenty terrorists from the neighboring planet of Tenga, Vads was commended by the newly elected Prime Minister Chaner and President Kli for his dedicated work in the capital. When the Clone Wars erupted between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, Vads was appointed as a General in the Grand Army of the Republic and took to the battlefield to defend the Republic. Remaining close to Purpilia, Vads was disappointed with the Purpilians' decision to refrain from using their nearly indestructible ships in the war, keeping their sizable fleet in system to defend their planet should the war go ill. While the Confederacy stayed out the system for this reason, Vads knew that the Purpilian fleet had the potential to wipe out the Confederate Navy with superior weaponry and crystal-hard.
In 19 BBY, Vads strolled through the Purpilian Academy's entry hall when the academy's emergency broadcast system played a message from Master Mace Windu warning all Jedi of a possible threat from their clone troopers and that all Jedi should return to Coruscant immediately. Overseeing the shutdown of the academy as Master Guidicelli sent a message to the President to explain their departure, Vads ordered all clone and Republic personnel off planet before making for Coruscant with the other Jedi.
Jedi Renaissance[]
On Coruscant, Vads was pleased that Tomac Moorcé had been appointed as Grand Master and that the Order would be divorcing itself from politics as it relocated back to Ossus. Following the Conclave ended, Vads approached Chief Shadow Orgus Thomle and volunteered to assist in the rebuilding of the Order's Shadow network as the Jedi strove to rebuild their numbers in the wake of war. Travelling to Ossus for the first time, Vads assisted Thomle in the construction of a Shadow command center just south of the Great Library. A squat, three-story structure, the command center would act as a place for Shadows to gather and coordinate their concentrated efforts to eradicate the dark side as cells of adepts or adherents formed across the galaxy.
When Tholme departed Ossus to found a Shadow Academy on Anzat, Vads was placed in command of the Shadow command center and given a direct line to the Council of First Knowledge. Coordinating the Shadow's efforts from Ossus, Vads welcomed new recruits to join in the groups mission to wipe out dark side-aligned groups throughout the Republic and the Confederacy. Traveling to Almas during a massive uprising by the Wyrd and the Believers, Vads was key in wiping out both groups, driving practitioners of both groups to extinction. Returning to Ossus, Vads was given a seat on the Jedi High Council to provide the insights of a Shadow and help lead the Order through the hurdles of the build-up to the Hutt Offensive and was key in dispatching Shadows into Hutt Space to begin the necessary steps to bringing about the end of the Hutt Empire. Following the Battle of Yavin, Vads retired from the Council in order to go deep undercover as a slave on Nal Hutta in order to infiltrate the upper echelons of the Hutt government.
Vads believed that the Hutts were in collusion with a dark side group known as the Kirrest Arsk and was determined to root them out and destroy them so that the Order could lead the Republic and the Confederacy into Hutt Space and dismantle the Empire. In the service of Gorga the Hutt, Vads was able to observe secret meetings between the Hutt Grand Council with the dark side adept Namman Cha a Human priest of the Kirrest Arsk. Personally infiltrating Cha's cloister, Vads dueled him to the death, killing Cha on the balcony of the Human's apartment. Remaining undercover, Vads served alongside Gorga's other slaves right up until the day that the Jedi forces pushed into the Hutt's palace on Nal Hutta in 11 ABY. Escorting the other slaves to safety, Vads returned to find Gorga dead and the Jedi victorious. As the Hutt Offensive concluded, Vads traveled to Anzat to take up a position as instructor at the Shadow Academy where he would remain for the next thirty years. In 45 ABY Vads retired to Ossus where he took up residence in a small hovel in the darkest regions of the Ossan jungle. Vads decided to take on his final Padawan Bandy Geffer along with him into the forests where he trained the Human to live in the near dark of the deep forest. While Geffer had no interest in becoming a Shadow, Vads taught him how to focus his mind in the darkness and eventually saw him become a strong Jedi Knight. In 58 ABY, Vads became one with the Force, his body cremated on the pyre in Knossa.