Thoriel Silbus

Thoriel Quintain Silbus
Biographical information
Died	21,108 AR
Physical description
Species	Nautolan
Gender	Male
Eye color	Black
Skin color	Pale green
Chronological and political information
Affiliation(s)	Darth Revan's Sith Empire Sith Triumvirate Remnant Sith Order
Apprentices	Visas Marr Atton Rand Mical Elgrin

Thoriel Silbus was a Nautolan minor Sith Lord living during the time of the Jedi Civil War and its aftermath.

Biography

Earlier life

Prior to his time as a Sith, Thoriel Silbus was a Doctor of Xenolinguistics at Trans-Sectorial University of Dagary Minor, where he taught for many years. His career came to an abrupt end during the Jedi Civil War, when Dagary Minor was invaded and conquered by the forces of Darth Malak; the university itself was destroyed in the course of the battle. Grief-stricken and despairing, the professor allowed his family to assume he was dead and turned himself in to the occupying Sith forces, who put him in a concentration camp. Unexpectedly, Silbus was rescued by one of Malak's Dark Jedi, who sensed the Nautolan's sensitivity to the Force. When offered the opportunity to join the Sith Order, Silbus agreed and was sent to the Sith Academy on Korriban.

Sith academic

After passing his trials and being confirmed as an acolyte, Silbus delved into the intellectual side of life in the academy, studying ancient Sith history, philosophy, alchemy, and sorcery. He spent much time studying the writings of the ancient Sith Lords Marka Ragnos and Simus, and on translating commentaries into Galactic Basic Standard. Despite his best efforts to remain aloof, he was sometimes caught up in the power plays among his fellow Sith, and he survived several duels in the academy's library. Despite these disruptions, Silbus thrived on Korriban, and his intellectual achievements earned him the praise of the academy's headmaster, Jorak Uln.

Uln was eventually ousted and replaced by his apprentice, Uthar Wynn. Wynn was suspicious of Silbus, viewing him as an ambitious, crafty seeker of powerful secrets and a threat to his own position in the academy; these suspicions were encouraged by Wynn's Twi'lek apprentice, Yuthura Ban. Eventually, Wynn arranged to have Silbus moved to the more secret Trayus Academy on Malachor V, using his academic achievements and expertise as a pretext.

Though he resented Uthar Wynn, Silbus came to view this arrangement as a fortunate one. Trayus Academy's library was more extensive than the one available to him on Korriban, and he found the environment to be quieter and less volatile. Years passed, and Silbus became a teacher of Sith philosophy and history, in addition to continuing his translation work. He took a personal interest in reforming the intellectual training of Sith adepts, but since he never personally apprenticed anyone, more than a few of his colleagues came to see him as a meddler.

Largely due to its secrecy, Trayus Academy was left unscathed by the Sith Civil War. As the title of Dark Lord of the Sith passed from Malak back to Revan, and then on through a series of claimants, Silbus looked after himself, immediately swearing allegiance to the newest Dark Lord. In the meantime he kept himself engrossed in his responsibilities in the academy, seldom leaving Malachor for any reason.

The Sith Triumvirate

During the time of the Sith Triumvirate in 21,102 AR, one of the current Dark Lords, Darth Nihilus, visited Malachor. With little explanation, he compelled Silbus and a number of his fellow Sith Masters to accompany him on his ship, the Ravager. Later on, some of these other Masters were sent to take charge of the beast army which would be used in the Second Battle of Onderon. However, Silbus himself was forced to remain in Nihilus' company.

Silbus was a witness of the Battle of Telos IV, during which the Ravager was boarded by a former Jedi named Meetra Surik, otherwise known as the Exile, along with a force of Mandalorians and other allies. Rather than stay and help defend the Ravager, the Nautolan evacuated to one of the accompanying Interdictor cruisers, which ended up being one of the only Sith vessels to survive the battle.

Some weeks later, Silbus returned to Trayus Academy, only to find Meetra Surik laying claim to the title of Dark Lord, having killed Darths Sion and Traya, the latter of whom had briefly returned from exile. Although privately annoyed with Surik for having killed many of his colleagues and students at Telos, Onderon, and elsewhere, Silbus immediately pledged himself to the new Dark Lord. He was quick to curry favor with the Exile, arguing for her legitimacy to his fellow Sith as well as ratting out dissidents in the Order. As Surik consolidated her power and formed the Sith Remnant, Silbus was rewarded with rapid promotions and expanded duties.

During this period, Silbus was also tasked with training several of the Exile's companions in the ways of the Sith, including Visas Marr, who was the former apprentice to Darth Nihilus, and Atton Rand. Later on, Surik and her companions left for the Unknown Regions in search of Revan, who had disappeared in search of the "true" Sith Empire. Now serving as Headmaster of Trayus Academy, Silbus remained behind, serving as de facto ruler of the Sith Order in his master's absence.

Sith Invasion prelude

Activities as headmaster

Lord Silbus spent the following four years on Malachor, absorbed in his academic pursuits while the Sith Remnant continued to insulate itself from the wider galaxy. At some point he began to receive hyperwave transmissions from Meetra Surik, keeping him apprised of events in the Unknown Regions. In 21,108 he was instructed to prepare for the fleets of the true Sith—now under the leadership of Empress Darth Revan—to arrive at Malachor in preparation for their invasion of the Republic.

Silbus interpreted this order as perfunctory and continued to busy himself with his own duties and pursuits, the most prominent of which was his translation of the writings of the Sith alchemist Fulminius Graussh. He remained undisturbed until Visas Marr unexpectedly reappeared at Trayus Academy, stating that she was in pursuit of Atton Rand, who had gone rogue. After using farsight in the Trayus Core to divine Rand's whereabouts, the Miraluka left Malachor V for Dantooine with a party of elite Sith assassins. Shortly thereafter she contacted the headmaster to report Rand's escape and request further assistance. However, Silbus considered her to have infringed on his authority by conscripting the assassins in the first place. Being gravely offended, he refused to provide her any reinforcements.

For some weeks afterward Silbus continued on in his translation work. Undisturbed by events beyond Malachor V, he left his texts sparingly and only when he felt he had made good progress.

Disturbance and death

Lord Silbus' work on the final pages of Graush's writings were interrupted when Malachor V fell under attack by Republic forces. While a space battle raged in orbit, the cruiser Monitor bombarded the surface with its turbolasers. Much of Trayus Academy was destroyed, but its lower levels remained intact, and the headmaster rallied the survivors. Suspecting the Republic would deploy ground forces, he sent word to the academy's subterranean beast pens to release their tame drexls. Afterward the survivors relocated to the nearby Singularity Base, which housed the Mass Shadow Generator superweapon.

Silbus conferred with the base's garrison commander, Major Vasch, and with Visas Marr, who had just returned to Malachor. Upon ascertaining that the Republic's objective would be the Mass Shadow Generator, Silbus commanded the majority of his Sith underlings to ambush the invading soldiers at a security checkpoint. The battle there was a pyrrhic victory for the Sith, with the Republic survivors intending to retreat.

Meanwhile, Silbus stationed himself to guard the central control area for the superweapon, along with Visas Marr, her assassins, and two Sith Marauders, the Twi'lek Yaiban Retwin and Iktotchi Zanjo Fel. Subsequently, Atton Rand infiltrated the area and battled the Sith, striking down multiple assassins as well as Retwin and Fel. Silbus himself was nearly killed by the rogue before being saved by Marr.

Withdrawing from the confrontation, Silbus ran into Kaevee, a Jedi Padawan and companion of Rand's who meant to come to his aid. After a brief chase, the headmaster easily subdued Kaevee with his dark side powers, then invaded her mind and learned that another of Rand's companions was Atris, a former Jedi Master. Kaevee's attempts to resist and to fight back failed, but Atris remotely bolstered her Force strength, enabling her to temporarily negate Silbus' attempts to telekinetically crush her.

Silbus' efforts to at last slay the Jedi were interrupted when the facility shook as the Mass Shadow Generator was activated, despite Atton Rand still being locked in a duel with Visas Marr. Unknown to Silbus, one of Rand's droid companions had avoided detection and reached the superweapon controls. Overcome with dismay, Silbus was distracted and failed to notice as he was approached from behind by Kaevee's pet laigrek, which had followed her into the facility. Despite being grievously wounded while saving its master from the Sith Marauder Gorbus, the creature breathed on Silbus and set him on fire, then impaled him on one of its scythe-like legs. Subsequently Kaevee, Atton Rand, and the rest of the Republic forces escaped Malachor V, which was destroyed by the Mass Shadow Generator.

With Darth Revan and Meetra Surik still in the Unknown Regions, the death of Silbus and the loss of Trayus Academy left the Remnant Sith Order temporarily without a leader.

Personality and traits

Thoriel Silbus was vain and self-aggrandizing, and he valued intelligence and strength in the Force above all other attributes. Consequentially, he was dismissive of anyone who did not meet his standards in either of these criteria. Though he thought no lot in life was more wretched than that of non-Forceful beings, he also looked down on fellow Sith who failed to prioritize arcane Sith knowledge as he did. He was particularly contemptuous of non-Forceful Humans, considering them an "absurdly prolific" species.

Though Silbus presented himself as slavishly devoted to the Dark Lord of the Sith—whoever it was at any given time—to one degree or another he privately resented most of his superiors, thinking that they underestimated his genius and the value of his work. The only Dark Lord he felt any real fondness for was Darth Traya, who several times consulted him during her rule over the Sith Triumvirate. He also had some respect for Jorak Uln, whom he considered a prodigious scholar.

Powers and abilities

After many years of tenacious study and practice, Silbus became an advanced practitioner of the dark side of the Force. One atypical power of his was the art of dominating the wills of animals; by the end of his career, he had attained such complete control over Trayus Academy's drexls that he could command them even from great distances and with seemingly little effort. He was adept with several mind-based powers, including Drain Knowledge and Mind Shard.

Due to his obsessive devotion to intellectual matters, Silbus fell out of practice in the martial aspects of Sith training and considered such things as physical combat to be beneath him. He neglected his dueling skills to such a degree that he eventually stopped even carrying his lightsaber with him, usually leaving it in his quarters. When faced with an adversary, he would either have other Sith fight for him, or else rely exclusively on his own dark side powers to destroy his enemies. He was proficient enough with telekinesis to strangle or even crush other beings to death, and was able to cast Sith lightning.

Behind the scenes

Silbus was not present in the earlier drafts of Torchbearer. Midway through the outline-revising process, he first appeared as "a swaggering, arrogant Nautolan" Sith Lord known only as "the Beastkeeper." In these earlier iterations, he had no role in the narrative until the battle of Malachor, where he would command the Sith's armies of drexls and other monsters. Later on his backstory was expanded and he was given a more prominent role as the head of Trayus Academy in order to give a more meaningful antagonist to the final battle—as well as to serve as a vehicle for Sith-related exposition throughout the narrative.

The original visual hook for the character comes from an unnamed (female) Nautolan dark-sider depicted in the Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game. The concept for his personality as an evil, narcissistic professor was loosely inspired by the author's experiences in academia.

Appearances

• Torchbearer (First appearance)
• Salvage Team Four (Mentioned only)

preceded by: Darth Traya

Headmaster of Trayus Academy

succeeded by: None