Sora Bulq was a powerful and respected lightsaber instructor in the Jedi Order. Sora was a good friend of Jedi Master Mace Windu and helped Mace develop his deadly Vaapad fighting style. However during the creation of Vaapad Sora became fascinated by the dark side of the Force. Sora was captured by Count Dooku at the beginning of the Clone Wars and succumbed to the dark side, becoming the leader of Dooku's Dark Acolytes and arguably the most powerful.
Biography[]
Master of the lightsaber[]
Sora Bulq was born into a wealthy Weequay merchant family which owned most of Ruul, a moon of the Weequay homeworld, Sriluur, and on which they had their estate. Identified as Force-sensitive early in his life, Sora was taken in by the Jedi Order to be raised as a Jedi. During his training, Sora was one of the Jedi Temple's most promising students, and as he rose up through the ranks of the Jedi Order, he became exceptionally skilled in lightsaber combat, eventually mastering all lightsaber combat forms except Form VIII and was considered to be one of the most formidable swordsmen in history. Eventually Sora became a Jedi Master and a lightsaber instructor in the Jedi Temple.
Sora trained many young Jedi in his career and was said to have great influence over his students. Sora helped Mace Windu develop and perfect the deadly Vaapad style of lightsaber combat, but unknown to Windu or indeed any other Jedi, Sora became fascinated by the dark side, and though he worked hard to resist it, this fascination did not go away. He started to secretly study the dark side but at the same time, he tried not to actually submit to it, merely studying it out of facination rather than malicious intent. Ultimately his facination with the dark side would cause him to betray the Jedi Order.
After the Kiffar Jedi Quinlan Vos regained his memory after a period of amnesia Sora gave him some training in Vaapad, though not on an advanced level.
Corruption[]
Battle of Geonosis[]
Sora fought in the Battle of Geonosis, destroying a Geonosian cannon in the arena, and cutting down many droids and Geonosians. The powerful Weequay was in the survivors circle in the arena and Dooku offered the surviving Jedi a chance to surrender, which Mace Windu rejected. At that moment, however, the Grand Army of the Republic appeared under Yoda. The new clone army swept into the arena aboard LAAT/i transports and laid waste to the surrounding droids. The Jedi were loaded aboard and evacuated.
The battle was not over, however, and the Jedi turned to engage the Separatist armies outside the arena. Sora never joined the battle, though, as his evacuation gunship was shot down. Sora and Jedi Master Eeth Koth survived but the third Jedi passenger Tarados Gon was killed. Sora was separated from Koth but rescued the clone who would go on to become Cut Lawquane before fleeing Geonosis independently from the other Jedi.
Mission to Bakura[]
Sora met up with an old friend of his, Jedi Master Tholme who had returned from sabotaging a droid factory (the same one Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala were captured in). Along with Tholme, Sora went to Bakura to try and capture Count Dooku. There, he and Tholme dueled with the Sith Lord who commented on Bulq's use of Vaapad. Dooku managed to slice Sora's shoto in half but despite the loss of his shoto, the Weequay continued his relentless assault on the Sith Lord and the Jedi started to gain the advantage. Because of Sora's mastery of the lightsaber, and the added advantage of it being a two verses one duel, the two Jedi would have defeated Dooku then and there if not for his mastery of the Force. The Sith Lord caught Sora off guard with a powerful blast of Force lightning
Dooku uses Force Lightning to defeat Sora.
knocking the Weequay unconscious. Tholme fought valiantly against the Sith lord but with Bulq out of the picture he didn't stand a chance. The Count defeated Tholme, stabbing him in the shoulder and cutting out his left eye before burying him in a pile of rubble. Dooku then telekinetically took Sora out of the room.
Sora woke in a small dark room and Count Dooku came to talk to him trying to persuade Bulq to join the Separatists. Sora said he had think about it and the next day he agreed to join the Sith lord. Bulq's first mission was to rescue Tholme and return him to the Jedi Order so that the Jedi would not suspect his corruption. Sora obeyed and rescued the injured Tholme. Tholme managed to contact Jedi Master Oppo Rancisis who sent a clone gunship to pick them up.
After returning Tholme to the Jedi Order Sora returned to Dooku after telling the Jedi Council that he needed time to recover from all the life lost on Geonosis (this was half true as Bulq was genuinely upset by the loss of life on Geonosis). Nobody suspected his turn to the dark side.
At some point Sora rebuilt his shoto which he continued to use throughout the war.
Treachery revealed[]
Tell me, Sora. When did you go over to the dark side?
—Mace Windu to Sora Bulq
Bulq resurfaced just under three months after the Battle of Geonosis, calling together several dissident Jedi to his old family estate on Ruul—his family was by now apparently deceased, as the estate had fallen into disuse and was overgrown. Bulq unified four Jedi dissidents—Ahsoka Tano, K'Kruhk, Rhad Tarn, Sian Jeisel and Bulq's own former Padawan Mira—into a group which claimed to speak for all dissident Jedi. Bulq asserted that he wished to discuss the issue of the Clone Wars with those Jedi who had opted to refuse the Council's call to service, and the group invited the Council to send a representative to argue their side, asking for Bulq's old friend, Mace Windu. Bulq's sudden reappearance as a dissident leader was unsettling to the Council, who worried that Bulq's prestige and influence could sway even more away from the war effort. Moreover, the factions Bulq had united were themselves sufficient to cause a potential schism in the Order.
Mace Windu was sent to the Bulq estate on Ruul. What he did not know was that the entire series of developments was a plot by Dooku. Dooku's Dark Jedi assassin Asajj Ventress was waiting there for the summit's dissident Jedi; it was Dooku and Bulq's intention for Ventress to assassinate one or more of the dissident Jedi and escape, and to then lay the blame for the incident on Windu. They hoped to capitalize on Windu's reputation as a hardliner to make the attack credible, as well as establishing that the assassin must have come aboard Windu's ship. With that accomplished, the Jedi's credibility would plummet and a great many more might defect to Bulq's splinter faction.
Windu arrived and spoke with Sora, who greeted him and told him, in answer to Windu's questions, that he had disappeared after Geonosis because of his grief at that battle's slaughter and his questioning as to whether the corrupt Republic was worthy of that sacrifice. Bulq also told him that he had not yet decided on what side he would ultimately come down, however. Bulq left to gather the other negotiators, though K'Kruhk and Tano found their way to Windu before Bulq could find them. When they had all gathered, Sora convened the summit. After the others discussed, his opinion was asked, and Bulq came out against the Republic, though uncertain of his final decision. He swiftly adjourned the meeting, as it was growing late, and sent the others to sleep or meditate.
When Tano was attacked by Asajj Ventress, Bulq defended her but aroused her suspicion when he took a cut to the arm despite clearly being superior to Ventress in terms of skill. Mira entered the fray to aid her Master, though Bulq warned her that she was no match for Ventress. Ventress overcame and slew Mira; by that time the other Jedi had been attracted to the fight. When Windu arrived, however, Ventress acted as if she were his subordinate and disappeared. This engendered controversy, but Windu left in pursuit of Ventress. Bulq ordered the three remaining Jedi to follow and support Windu in combat, dismissing his wound as insignificant. He took Mira's body back to the estate's buildings to tend to it.
Sora laid her body out on a bier and expressed over it his remorse at her death, which had not been part of his plans. He was interrupted, however, by Windu, who had found Ventress's ship on the grounds and had connected it with Tarn's statement that no ship could land on the estate without Sora's knowledge. Stepping back and looking at his old friend
Sora Bulq vs Mace Windu
free from preconceptions, Windu deduced that Bulq must have been working with the assassin. Windu confronted Bulq, who freely admitted his fall to the dark side, revealing his Vaapad-fueled fascination with it and Dooku's approach to him. Bulq intended to kill Windu and the others and return himself to claim Windu's treachery; a change in plans, but necessary. The pair dueled, with Bulq confident he could defeat Windu. However, Ventress attacked the other three Jedi, goading the headstrong young Tarn to the dark side, causing him to attack Tano, who was forced to kill him in self-defence. When Bulq and Windu sensed this in the Force, Bulq taunted Windu that, with their deaths, he could not possibly win. Then he launched himself at the Jedi Master, driving him back but Mace managed to defeat him by Force repulsing him into a pile of rubble, stunning and almost burying him when the Force repulse also blew down two pillars and part of the wall. Windu hurried to aid Tano and K'krunk arriving in time to prevent Ventress from killing them. Ventress and Windu dueled but unlike Bulq, Ventress was no match for the Jedi Master and was forced to flee.
Bulq awakened and sought out Windu, but he and the other Jedi had fled under attack from a group of Magna Guards. His plan had been foiled. Tano and K'Kruhk survived and returned to the Jedi fold, completely nullifying any chance of schism. Bulq's fall to the dark side and defection to Dooku were also revealed to no gain. With his potential as a prestigious double agent foiled, Bulq returned to more overt service for the Confederacy.
Personality and traits []
Sora Bulq was a respected Jedi Master who was known to think things through before taking action. He was an accomplished actor, able to hide his fascination with the dark side from all Jedi and even when he actually submitted to the dark side he was able to play the role of a wise and serene Jedi Master convincingly. Sora was genuinely upset about the lives lost on Geonosis and even after he turned to the dark side, he still cared about his former Padawan Mira and was genuinely upset by her death. He had grown to think that the Republic was corrupt which was partly responsible for his fall.
Despite his wise and serene demeanour, Sora was extremely devoted to his lightsaber training, becoming a master of all lightsaber combat forms, and enjoyed testing his abilities in combat. This trait suited a practitioner of Vaapad since Vaapad stylists were supposed to enjoy the fight and relish the challenge it provided. Though fascinated by the dark side which he was exposed to through his development of Vaapad, Sora nevertheless worked hard to resist it and it wasn't until he faced Count Dooku during the Clone Wars that he finally submitted to it. Strangely, though he turned to the dark side and studied it for a long time, Sora did not display the ability to use any notable dark side powers. Dooku noted that he separated the dark side from the light side because he had been taught to fear.
Despite this, Sora eventually did turn to the dark side and became a loyal and level headed lieutenant of Count Dooku. However after allowing the dark side to consume him, Bulq revealed traits that the Jedi had previously been unaware of. He was very confident in his abilities and he probably had been even before his fall; he simply hid it convincingly. Bulq considered himself more than a match for Mace Windu, believing he had gained true mastery over Vaapad. However his confidence could become arrogance at times as displayed in his duel with Windu as he underestimated the Jedi Master and was knocked out by a well placed Force repulse. This defeat somewhat tempered Sora's arrogance and though he still displayed it against notably less skilled duellists like Tholme, he was more cautious against Jedi whom he deemed to be truly worthy opponents like Oppo Rancisis.
Sora Bulq had a soft spot for Ahsoka Tano, considering her to be the most talented young Jedi he'd ever had the pleasure of training. Ahsoka's natural aptitude for lightsaber combat reminded Sora of himself when he was her age and on Ruul, he showed an interest in taking her as his official apprentice, believing that since Ahsoka saw the Galaxy through the eyes of a child, she would be more susceptible to the Dark side. Despite this, Sora didn't underestimate the intelligence of children; quite the contrary in fact. He believed that children could see things as they truly were, reflecting Sora's sincere belief that the Republic wasn't worth saving and the Jedi Order would stagnate beyond repair unless they accepted that the Dark side of the Force was their path forwards in a changing Galaxy.
Bulq despised Asajj Ventress since Ventress had killed his former Padawan, Mira, right in front of him, which had not been part of Bulq's plan on Ruul. Despite this, Bulq recognised that Ventress was competent, though he also considered her to be a savage animal.
Powers and abilities[]
Sora Bulq was renowned among the Jedi for his exceptional skill in lightsaber combat. A master of all the lightsaber combat forms except the Vaapad variation of Form VIII, Sora was one of the very few duellists who was able to rival Mace Windu in terms of swordsmanship. On Ruul, Bulq actively held back against Asajj Ventress until Ventress went off-script and killed Mira, at which point Sora easily forced her to retreat by sincerely attacking her. He also put up a formidable fight against Windu who barely managed to defeat him with a Force Repulse, catching Bulq off guard as such a powerful Force technique was very rare in one on one lightsaber duels. He also proved to be equal to Count Dooku during their duel and once Tholme got involved, Dooku had to rely on his mastery of the Force to prevent them from overwhelming him. Bulq was also able to kill the renowned Jedi Master Oppo Rancisis after a long and ferocious duel which exhausted both combatants.
Although Sora was a master of all lightsaber combat forms, his preferred form was Form VIII: Juyo/Vaapad. Despite Bulq's claims that he had mastered Vaapad, his mindset was actually in line with Juyo and his inability to separate it from Vaapad emphasised a fundamental misunderstanding of the differences between the two variants of Form VIII. Nonetheless, his mastery of Juyo, even if unintentional, made him an absolutely lethal duellist. He was usually incredibly aggressive in combat and to less experienced opponents he seemed too focussed on raw power, but Bulq's ferocious swordplay was mainly a way of distracting the opponent, forcing them to focus on blocking or dodging his strikes while allowing him to study their fighting style and find a weakness in it. Even against masters of Soresu, Bulq was able to pinpoint and exploit the smallest of openings with lethal accuracy. He often used Jar'Kai, wielding a shoto along with his lightsaber. He also utilized Shien, inspiring Ahsoka Tano to study the form and wielding it masterfully during his duel with Mace Windu.
Sora was famous for his lightsaber talent but he was also strong in the Force often using the Force Push power in combat as well as Force aided acrobatics and Force Jump. Bulq was also skilled with Telekinesis, using this ability to kill Oppo Rancisis by telekinetically igniting his shoto, which Rancisis had knocked out of his hand during their duel, and driving it into the Jedi Master's back.