EXAR KUN'S

JEDI GALLERY

Welcome, Jedi. This is my little contribution to the galaxy that is best known as "STAR WARS"!

I have taken up the name Exar Kun, after one of the most awesome if not greatest and coolest character in the SW universe.

Character biographies courtesy of the Temple of the Sith.

Posters and Dark Empire cover courtesy of Thrawn's Art Gallery.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a big TOTJ (Tales of the Jedi) fan, from The Golden Age of the Sith to the climatic Sith War. 4 000 years before Luke Skywalker's birth, the Jedi Knights illuminated and brought order to the galaxy. Their enemies ranged from the beasts of the planet Onderon, to Mandalorian warriors, to the Krath, and finally to a renegade Jedi Knight. All of these stories of courage have been chronicled in what is known as a Jedi Holocron, a Jedi teaching device designed by Jedi Masters to tutor their students in the ways of the Force. According to Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Force is what gives the Jedi his or her strength. It binds the universe together. And technology, no matter how great, is as powerful when it comes to the Force.

The Sith

The Sith were an ancient cult that uses the Dark Side of the Force. Masters of alchemy and illusion. Once they "were mighty Jedi of the (old)Republic, brothers in the Force, but the Great Schism between the Dark Side and the Light turned Jedi against Jedi."

Driven off, exiled, they fled to the far side of the galaxy where they found the Sith people who treated them as gods. After many centuries the Sith empire grew to a vast, rich realm. That was the Golden Age of the Sith . . . until Naga Sadow tried to conquer the Republic and add it to the Sith empire. Sadow's invasion was defeated, but at great cost to both sides, and the Sith empire fell into disarray and all but vanished . . . until Exar Kun rediscovered it. Not all dark side Force users are Sith followers; the Force is omnipresent while the Sith are only one following of the dark side, albeit the most powerful and well known.

Dark Lords of the Sith

Traditionally, the titular master of the ancient Sith people. a Jedi who has turned to the dark side of the Force. The title of Dark Lord was passed down from one generation to the next, with only one Dark Lord existing at a time. The mummified remains of the Dark Lords are preserved on Korriban." All Sith followers must obey the reigning Dark Lord.

Emperor Palpatine was not a Sith follower, although he knew some Sith teachings, which is why he was able to order around Darth Vader, the 12th Dark Lord.

Of all of the Jedi that were around 4 000 years before Skywalker's birth, I would have to say that the best Jedi there ever was, without a shadow of a doubt, ::chuckles:: Exar Kun! I just love his storyline and admire his accomplishments as a Jedi and as a Dark Lord of the Sith.

I don't know. Call me one with the Dark Side, but Exar's appearance and his mastery of the Jedi lightsaber is unparallel. I just can't stop admiring him. Luke Skywalker is fortunate that he does not have a student such as Exar Kun in his Jedi Academy, or else there's no telling what would happen to him.

Who was this Exar Kun, you ask? Well, I'm glad you did ask. I suppose I could tell you a little about the coolest kick-ass Jedi. But then.... what's in it for me? Are you willing to sell your swoop on Tatooine? I hear that they're worth a lot.

Before I tell you about the coolest kick-ass Jedi, let me tell you a bit about his weak predecessors. (No one and I mean no one compares to Exar Kun in my opinion!)

Marka Ragnos

Marka Ragnos was the 9th Dark Lord of the Sith. Very little is known of him but his name, which was found in ancient Sith writings.

Naga Sadow
Naga Sadow was the 10th Dark Lord of the Sith. "He ruled approximately a thousand years before the time of Exar Kun. A member of an elite priesthood of pure Sith blood." At the funeral of the previous Dark Lord of the Sith Sadow challenged his arch-rival, Ludo Kressh, for the title of the next Dark Lord.

Sadow felt the Sith Empire was stagnating and should expand its territory, while Kressh wanted a more isolationist approach to governing the Sith Empire. The duel was interupted by the arrival of Gav and Jori Daragon, unlucky explorers that hyperspaced to the wrong place. Kressh wanted them executed as precursors to an invasion, but Sadow saw it as an oportunity to expand the Sith Empire. Gav and Jori waited in their cells, sentenced to be executed, despairing . . . not realizing that they had become pawns of a Sith Lord. With his fierce loyal Massassi warriors, Naga Sadow secretly stole strange Republic weaponry from Gav and Jori's impounded ship, Starbreaker 12, and staged a commando raid to free the prisoners, killing a prominent Sith Lord in the process. Sadow whisked them off to his private fortress. The Sith Lords were thrown into an uproar, seeing the weapons, the evidence, and assuming they had been attacked by Republic forces. In turmoil, they turned to Naga Sadow for leadership and named him the Dark Lord of the Sith. Outraged, Ludo Kressh stormed off, taking his supporters with him.

Discovering Sadow's trickery, Kressh mounted an armed rebellion against the evil Dark Lord, vowing to fight to save the Sith Empire from Sadow's reckless plans. While attacking Sadow's fortress, Kressh had inadvertantly waltzed into an ambush set by the Dark Lord. With Ludo Kressh out of the way, Naga Sadow rallied all the Sith Lords for the comming conquest. During Kressh's attack, Sadow had tricked Jori into fleeing back to the Republic without her brother, who was being held elsewhere, and with a hidden homing beacon led Naga Sadow right to the Republic. He began teaching the Force-sensitive Gav Sith magic, and later gave him command of the Sith invasion fleet; Sadow himself would watch the battle from his meditation sphere, where he used forbidden Sith magic to rally his forces and create the illusion of a more massive invasion force than it actually was. But Gav could not stand being the commander causing all the death and destruction, and instead attacked Sadow himself. With his meditation sphere damaged, his Massassi armies began losing, and the Republic fleet set out to hunt down Sadow. Causing the Primus Goluud star to explode, Sadow tried to hide his escape back to the Sith Empire. In Sadow's absence, Ludo Kressh retook control of the Sith Empire and had his fleet waiting for Sadow's return. But Kressh's fleet was still no match for Sadow's already depleated fleet. Just as Sadow destroyed Kressh's ship, and Ludo Kressh with it, the Republic fleet arrived, led there by Jori. He escaped across the galaxy, engaging Republic gunships in a cataclysmic battle at the Denarii Nova. Eventually, he and his followers ended up on Yavin Four, with his followers devolving into the primitive Massassi warriors over the centuries.

Exar Kun
Exar Kun was the 11th Dark Lord of the Sith, and the coolest SW character ever created. "As a Jedi, he was apprenticed to Master Vodo-Siosk Baas, who admitted that Kun was the most formidable student he ever had. He was seduced by the dark side and drawn to the planet Korriban, where the spirit of Freedon Nadd enticed him to let the dark powers of the Sith enter him. On Yavin Four, he discovered ancient Sith temples guarded by the Massassi, whom he eventually conquered. He confronted Master Odan-Urr in the library of Ossus, and after killing him, took the Sith Holocron in order to further his dark powers."

Four thousand years before the time of Darth Vader, Kun precipitated the Sith War which was one of the most destructive conflicts in the entire history of the Republic. With the help of Ulic Qel-Droma, the Krath illusionist Aleema, and the warlord Mandalore they built up an army that rivaled the Republic's own. While Ulic and Mandalore waged a huge military battle against Republic outposts, shipyards, and eventually Coruscant itself, Kun was busy seducing other Jedi trainees to the Dark Side to do his bidding. With his new Sith initiates, Kun waged a covert war against what he called the aging and outdated Jedi Masters, sending them out to kill their old Jedi masters. During the attack on Coruscant, Ulic Qel-Droma was captured and later charged with treason against the Republic. In the middle of his trial, Ulic was rescued by Kun and Mandalore as they barged into the courtroom filled with thousands of Jedi that were imobilized by Kun's Sith spell. During the rescue, Exar Kun killed his old master Vodo-Siosk Baas in a rematch of their previous duel in which his master won. Exar Kun later sent the treacherous Aleema to Kemplex Nine with the intent to ambush the Republic/Jedi forces using an ancient Sith superweapon that was aboard Naga Sadows ship, recently unearth from the Yavin temples. The weapon tore the core of a sun in the Cron Cluster and hurled it at the Republic fleet, but also caused the sun to catastrophically supernova, destroying everything in the system including the Great Jedi Library on Ossus. The war ended with all the Jedi banding together and laying waste to most of Yavin 4, but not before Exar Kun absorbed the life-energies of the entire Massassi race to entomb his spirit in a Sith Temple.

Four thousand years later when Luke Skywalker establishes his Jedi Academy on Yavin 4, Kun once again makes his bid for galaxy domination by attempting to sway Luke's new trainees to the Dark Side. Exar Kun almost succeeds with Kyp Durron, but not before Luke, the Jedi trainees, and the spirit of Master Bodo Baas together destroy Kun's spirit forever.

Darth Vader
Darth Vader (Anakin Skywalker) was the 12th Dark Lord of the Sith. If you don't already know who this is, what asteroid have you been hiding in? Anyway...A hot-shot pilot with force abilities. Apprenticed to Obi-Wan Kenobi in the ways of the Light Side of the Force before being seduced by the Dark Side.

Before Anakin found out that he had children, the twins Luke and Leia, Kenobi hid them from him to protect them from their father and the Dark Side. In a vicious lightsaber duel between him and his then-master Obi-Wan, Anakin fell into a molten pit to emerge badly scarred and burned, which is why he wears the trademark protective black armour and breath mask. Seething with anger, Vader tapped the vast amounts of Dark Side energy through the ancient Sith teachings, and later became the Dark Lord of the Sith.

As Emperor Palpatine's right hand, Darth Vader chased the Rebel Alliance to the far reaches of the galaxy. In his last confrontation with his son, Luke Skywalker, Vader finally returned to the Light Side by throwing Palpatine into the reactor core to save his son.

Kyp Durron
Kyp Durron self-proclaimed himself the 13th Dark Lord of the Sith. Born on the Deyer colony of the Anoat system. Kyp's parents were outspoken polititians who openly protested the Ghorman Massacre and the destruction of Alderaan. One night stormtroopers barged into their house and sent Kyp and his parents to the prison colony on Kessel, and sent his brother Zeth to the Imperial Stormtrooper Academy on Caridia. Kyp's parents were executed when Moruth Doole took over the Kessel facilities. Kyp survived and met a fellow inmate, Vima-Da-Boda, who taught him the basics about the Force.

Later, Kyp escaped from Kessel with the help of Han Solo and managed to be captured again by Admiral Daala while fleeing into the Maw. Narrowly avoiding a death sentece from Daala, Kyp escaped again with Solo and the scientist Qwi Xux. While training at Luke Skywalker's newly established Jedi Academy, Kyp encountered the spirit of the long-dead Exar Kun and began gaining power through the Dark Side and ancient Sith teachings. Pissed off at the Empire for all the pain it has cause him and his family, Kyp furiously waged a one-man war against the Empire using the Sun Crusher and his newly acquired Sith powers. While visiting the site of Darth Vaders funeral pyre on Endor, Kyp claimed the title of The Dark Lord Of The Sith (since no other known Sith existed to challenge his claim, although in my opinion Kyp had not reached a high enough level to rightfully claim the title). Kyp eventually returned to the Light Side after Kun's spirit was destroyed by the other Jedi trainies and thus was no longer under Kun's influence.

There you have it.... from what it meant to become a Sith Lord to the Sith Lords themselves. All that's left now are.... the comic book covers. Yes, I know I should get the novels (thanks Will, but I much prefer the comics. This gallery's for you and especially you Adam;) .

THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE SITH
FALL OF THE SITH EMPIRE
These two stories take place five thousand years before Luke Skywalker's birth. They chronicle the adventures of hyperspace explorers Gav and Jori Daragon. With their ship the Starbreaker 12, they take a journey that is both filled with excitement and danger.

KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC
This story chronicle the adventures of Jedi knight Ulic Qel-Droma and his friends in Ulic Qel-Droma and the Beast Wars of Onderon and the tradegy that will change Nomi Sunrider's life in The Saga of Nomi Sunrider.

Ulic Qel-Droma sometimes lets his confidence cloud his judgement during his Jedi training. When his Jedi master, Master Arca, assigns him as advisor, he and his friends are met with adversity from warriors loyal to Odon Kira, the beast warrior's powerful leader. The work of the dark side is on Onderon, and the Jedi must stop it.

In The Saga of Nomi Sunrider, Nomi Sunrider, wife of Jedi knight Andur, plans vengeance against the ones responsible for her husband's death. She does not know it, but she is well-versed in Jedi Battle Meditation, a skill that allows a Jedi to enter the minds of one's foe.

THE FREEDON NADD UPRISING
Freedon Nadd, a powerful Jedi/Dark Lord of the Sith, has followers loyal to him, and they are going to see to the destruction of the Jedi Knights.

DARK LORDS OF THE SITH
A powerful army, calling themselves the Krath, have stumbled upon powerful Sith teachings. Among these teachings is the power to cast an illusion that will either scare or defeat your enemy with their own fear. The apprentices of the Sith and Freedon Nadd, the cousins Satal Keto and Aleema, want nothing more than to destroy the Jedi Knights.

THE SITH WAR
The next to last chapter in Tales of the Jedi depicted the powerful Sith War, with Ulic Qel-Droma the apprentice of Exar Kun (WHOO-HOOOO!). The war all started the instant Ulic turned his back on the Jedi Knights after the death of Jedi Master Arca. With the alliance of Mandalore and his army, the Jedi would soon fall. During the battle, Ulic comes face to face with his younger brother Cay. In a furious rage, Ulic kills his brother, and he's finally freed of his Sith poison. In retaliation for his betrayl, Nomi Sunrider blinds Ulic to the Force. With the Jedi rallying now against Exar Kun, the Dark Lord would lose his battle.

Exar Kun binds his soul into the temple on Yavin IV, vowing to return after 4 000 years.

A NEW HOPE

This was the story that started the trilogy known as the

Trilogy

A hotshot pilot, a smuggler, two Jedi Knights, a princess, and two loveable droids. What's starts off as a drama turns out to be a spectacular start of a trilogy that will forever change the universe. Obi Wan Kenobi, the last of the Jedi Knights, enlists the aid of hot shot pilot Luke Skywalker. Accompanying the Jedi and Skywalker are Princess Leia Organa, Han Solo, the wookie Chewbacca, and two protocol droids, C-3PO and R2-D2.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
The second installment of the trilogy.

With the Death Star destroyed, the Empire is in chaos. The Rebels were victorious, but the Empire is out for vengeance. Luke Skywalker begins his training as a Jedi at the behest of Obi-Wan Kenobi, who was slain by Darth Vader in "A New Hope". When Luke confronts Vader, the young Jedi-in-training cannot defeat the Dark Lord, and he finds out that Vader is his father. Obeying the teachings of his master Yoda, who also instructed Obi-Wan, Luke does not turn to the Dark Side of the Force to join his father and crush the Emperor "as father and son". In the midst of all of this, Han Solo is captured and frozen in carbonite, and taken to the gangster Jabba the Hutt. Luke and his friends plan to go after both Boba Fett and the Hutt lord.

RETURN OF THE JEDI
The final installment of the trilogy.

Luke Skywalker is still training to be a Jedi Knight. He rescues his friend Han Solo from the clutches of Jabba the Hutt, and returns to Dagobah, Master Yoda's homeworld, to complete his training. The Jedi Master is dying when Luke arrives and he tells Luke "not to underestimate the powers of the Emperor" and when Yoda is gone, Luke will be the "last of the Jedi". Just before Yoda dies, he tells Luke that "there is another Skywalker". Luke ponders this, and Yoda finally becomes one with the Force. It is revealed that Leia is Luke's twin sister, and Vader is in fact their father. In the midst of all this, the second Death Star becomes operational, under the watchful eye of Emperor Palpatine. Confronting Vader once again, Luke almost commits patricide, but does not. He will not go to the Dark Side.

I'll never turn to the Dark Side. You failed your highness. I am Jedi.... like my father before me.

So be it.... Jedi!

If you will not be turned.... then you will be destroyed!

For his refusal to turn to the Dark Side, the Emperor almost kills Luke with his Dark Side energy strikes. Coming to his son's aide, Vader hurls the Emperor down a shaft, killing the once powerful ruler. Vader is dying in the process, and his last wish is to tell Luke's sister that Luke was right about him. He dies in Luke's arms. Once the second Death Star is destroyed, peace is once again restored to the galaxy.

DARK EMPIRE
This was a pretty dark start of what would become an awesome trilogy. Set about seven or eight years after Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker, now a Jedi Master, serves as Emperor Palpatine's right hand, who supposedly died in Jedi. Anyway, Luke turns to the dark side and becomes Supreme Commander of the Imperial forces, much like his father did before him. But Luke is also working for the Alliance, in trying to help their struggle against powerful war machines known as World Devestators. These powerful machines are at least twenty times, if not that, much more powerful than the Death Star. Luke hides secret access codes inside Artoo-Detoo that will disable the Devestators allowing the Alliance to destroy them. In the midst of all of this, Palpatine has known of Luke's betrayal from the start. Leia and Han, now married, journey to the Dark Side world of Byss, to bring back Luke. In a climatic lightsaber duel, Luke severs the Emperor's hand, and he and Leia defeat him by turning his own force storm against him. In the end of the first installment of this awesome, Luke makes a vow to Leia that the Jedi Knights will rise again.

This is only the beginning. The Jedi Knights will rise again.
-- Luke Skywalker

DARK EMPIRE II

Dark Empire II is the second installment in the Dark Empire Trilogy. In this installment, Luke Skywalker returns to the Rebel Alliance with Jedi Knight Kam Solussar, one of Emperor Palpatine's Dark Side executors. In a lightsaber fight, (which unfortunately wasn't shown in this installment)Luke freed Kam from the Dark Side. As Skywalker and Solussar set out to revive the Jedi Knights, Emperor Palpatine, who didn't die at the end of Dark Empire, has been reborn. On their way to Ossus, a planet that was once the home of a Jedi Library, Luke and Kam discover Jedi guardians, who have guarded the planet for over 4 000 years. As the Jedi are talk with the tribesmen, they are suddenly attcked by Executor Sedriss and his stormtroopers. Elsewhere, across the galaxy, Palpatine has begun work on a deadly weapon: the Galaxy Gun. This powerful weapon can launch a missle projectile from hyperspace and destroy its target very easily. On their way back from Ossus, Luke and his Jedi Knights see a projectile on an intercept course with Pinnacle Base. They try to destroy the missle, but the weapon is fully shielded and it destroys the moon. Luke ponders the defeat of the Alliance, but it seems that they did not die in the explosion, rather they evacuated just before the missle hit. On New Alderran, Leia gives birth to her third child, Anakin Solo. The Emperor was defeated once again, but his Galaxy Gun is still a threat and his aging cloning body is very unstable.

EMPIRE'S END

Empire's End is the climatic finale in the Dark Empire Trilogy. Emperor Palpatine's cloning body is rapidly decaying. His death is almost imminent if he does not find a new body to enter.

Curse that Skywalker.... he destroyed my best clones! He forced me to enter one that was geneticly unstable!
--Emperor Palpatine

Elsewhere across the galaxy, the Rebel Alliance has been forced into hiding once again, thanks to the Emperor's Galaxy Gun. Luke takes the Jedi Knights on a mission to find and defeat the Emperor once and for all. As the second issue of Empire's End opens, we continue to see the Emperor attempt to find a new body to enter so that he does not die. On the way to the Onderon system, Leia Organa Solo sinces the Emperor. His plan is to enter the body of the infant Anakin Solo. In a spectacular, yet sad battle, two Jedi Knights are killed by the Emperor, but but before the Emperor dies, he tries to enter Anakin. King Brand protects the infant with the Light Side of the Force, and he and the Emperor die together.

All and all, I'd have to say that the Dark Empire Trilogy was pretty good. It would surprise me if George Lucas actually based the last trilogy on it. I can picture Luke Skywalker turning to the Dark Side, to save his friends from the machines known as World Devestators. Or better yet, the rising of the Jedi Knights. Hey.... a man can dream can't he?

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