Hailing from the world of Rhelg under the banner of the Old Sith Empire, Elcho Kressh
descended from Dark Jedi exiles that settled on Korriban and bred with the local Sith species.
A powerful force sensitive, he was said to bare a likeness to his father, the famous
Ludo Kressh, considered by many as the most powerful and influential Sith Lord of the
time, after the Dark Lord Marka Ragnos, who’s century in power brought fourth a golden age
of peace and prosperity.
The son of a mighty hero, known publically as a possible successor to the Dark Lord,
in private Elcho’s father was a hard, harsh man with a drinking problem, prone to fits
of rage and murder.
Yet the one being Kressh truly loved was his son, growing so worried about the boy’s
safety he used his skills in sith alchemy and sorcery to craft the Gauntlet of Kressh
the Younger, a special force-infused artifact to prevent contact without permission.
After the death of Marka Ragnos, Ludo Kressh entered into a struggle for power with his
greatest rival Naga Sadow and so to ensure his son’s safety, Elcho was sent to a remote
Star System far from the conflict.
Yet in time, he heard news that his father was killed and that Sadow led the Empire to
defeat and ruin against Galactic Republic.
With his father gone and the Empire destroyed, Elcho vowed to take vengeance upon the republic
and regain his family’s honor.
One of the last Old Empire Sith Lords, Elcho rose to the challenge and gathered an army
of pirates, mercenaries and anyone hostile to the Republic, personally securing their loyalty
as independent operators, redirecting their usual schemes and crimes to damage the enemy
while also able to call them together for a proper battle when necessary.
Yet in the end it was all for not, as Elcho had a similar drinking problem to his father,
and celebrated his impending victory with such vigor, he drank himself to death with
a ruptured stomach, the night before his invasion.
Without Elcho to hold them all together, his grand army and fleet dispersed and the war
was over before it began.
Many years later, nearing the end of the new Sith Wars, Elcho’s holocron was found by
Sith Lord Mandragall, who used his strategy of assembling armies of independent operators
to great effect against his enemies.
The effectiveness of this strategy was noted by other Sith, who then employed it in their
own wars.
A powerful force sensitive trained as a Jedi Padawan in his youth, the boy Bandon never
fully embraced light side teachings, often giving in to anger and hatred despite his
master’s warnings.
When the former Jedi Darth Revan and his apprentice Darth Malak formed a new Sith Order to declare
war on the Republic, Bandon was stirred to action and abandoned the light side entirely
to attend the Sith Academy on Korriban.
Though this new Sith Order was powerful, with a solid long term strategy for victory, Darth
Malak grew impatient and betrayed Revan to take over leadership of their empire.
Following in the traditions of the sith, Malak then took on an apprentice of his own, but
unlike other Jedi and Sith who might teach multiple apprentices at once, Malak was trained
in the dark side by a single master, Revan, who advocated for an early version of the
rule of two, believing a master should focus all their attention on a single apprentice
to achieve the best result.
Hearing about a powerful student on Korriban, with a reputation for cruelty and ruthlessness,
Darth Malak selected Darth Bandon as his apprentice and Shadow Hand, becoming the second most
powerful man in the Empire.
Sending his new apprentice against their enemies, Darth Bandon earned a fearsome galaxy-wide
reputation by using a double bladed lightsaber to slaughter many Jedi, with some even speculating
he might one day kill Malak and take leadership of the Order.
Seeking a final victory against the Republic, Malak sent Darth Bandon to capture the Jedi
Bastilla Shan in 3956 BBY, in order to prevent the enemy from using her powerful battle meditation
and possibly turn her to the dark side.
Boarding the republic ship Endar Spire, Bandon was unable to reach Bastilla before she escaped,
but did run into two enemy soldiers Trask Ulgo and the former Dark Lord Revan who was
suffering from memory loss, which in addition to his face being largely unknown due to his
famous mask, meant none of them knew his true identity.
As fate would have it, the former Dark Lord was serving alongside Trask Ulgo, a noble
hero from Alderaan who selflessly charged against Darth Bandon, sacrificing his life
so Revan could escape.
Eventually, Malak learned that Revan still lived, and so the apprentice was sent to kill
his former dark side master once and for all.
With two Dark Jedi at his side, Bandon confronted the enemy and his companions on the planet
Manaan, engaging in a fearsome battle where Malak’s apprentice was defeated and killed,
allowing Revan to take vengeance for Trask Ulgo.
A powerful sith lord with many followers, some devoted dark side acolytes recovered
his body and preserved his head with force alchemy, forming a cult which believed they
could resurrect their revered leader.
A mission eventually discovered by the Jedi, who ended the cult but failed to recover the
head, which along with his Darth Bandon’s lightsaber went on to become valuable relics
for many years to come.
Born a force-sensitive Pau’an male, around 3522 BBY, the boy grew to be a powerful jedi
master with a penchant for violence.
Ever eager to grow his strength, he started studying Sith teachings and soon fell to the
dark side, leading to his expulsion from the order.
Outraged by their betrayal, he vowed vengeance against his former comrades, continuing his
dark side studies to become Darth Desolous, Dark Lord of the Sith Order.
Returning to his people, Desolous trained an army in his martial arts style as well
as fighting with cortosis shield and melee weapons, until they were at last ready to
strike against his enemies, killing roughly two thousand jedi in ambush attacks while
growing more confident with each victory.
Yet the Jedi eventually used his over-confidence against him, luring him into a trap by placing
a small force on the planet Yaga Minor, only for a larger fleet to drop in from hyperspace
when Deslous attacked.
Fighting to the end, the Sith army was destroyed and Desolous killed, though it took the entire
jedi council to finish him off.
Earning a sinister reputation, Darth Desolous was chosen as a simulated enemy by the Jedi
temple on Coruscant when training Padawan’s to become Knights.
A mysterious dark side spirit of unknown origin, the Dark Underlord took physical form around
1750 BBY, quickly gaining a powerful reputation that earned him the mantle of Dark Lord over
an embattled Sith Order, fighting the thousand year New Sith Wars against the Jedi and Republic.
Speculating about his origins, some suggested he was a spirit summoned from the chaos dimension,
another plane of existence where dark side disciples went after death, while others claimed
he was the spirit of Xendor reborn, the ancient General who caused the First Great Schism
in the jedi order thousands of years earlier.
Leading an alliance of Sith Lords called the Black Knights from his fortress on Malrev
IV, the Dark Underlord thrived in combat, duel wielding sith swords on the front lines
of battle to great effect, winning a number of conflicts as he raided the outer rim.
Yet just as the Dark Underlord’s fortunes were on the rise, turning the tide of battle
in favor of the Sith, the end drew near when he became the personal project of the legendary
jedi master Murrtaggh.
Forging an alliance with the Mandalorians, the Jedi ordered them to invade Malrev IV,
thereby creating a distraction which worked exactly as planned, when the enemy leader
ordered his Zeltron general to take the Black Knights into combat, thereby leaving his fortress
vulnerable to infiltration by the Jedi Master Murrtagh who fought and killed the Dark Underlord,
ending his reign of terror.
Yet even in death the Underlord struck back, as Murrtaggh was so changed by his obsession
and this final act of vengeance, he fell to the Dark Side.
Without their powerful leader, the Black Knights never again rose to the same level of prominence,
but the group itself reformed many times, remaining active in various forms for centuries
to come, preserving the legacy of their revered leader.