- "For the Empire!"
- ―Motto of Clan Scholae Palatinae
Xen’Mordin Palpatine is an Adept Elder and long-standing leader within Clan Scholae Palatinae. He leads Scholae Palatinae as its Consul, and sits as the current reigning Emperor of the Cocytus system, in one of the longest lasting terms seen by the clan or the Empire. His long-standing tenure and absolute dedication to the Empire has resulted in him being named one of the keepers of the Legacy of Palpatine, leading him to take the Great Emperor’s name as part of his own. He also is the founder and current Chairman of the Board for Vismorsus Industries, a leading scientific research company based in the Cocytus system.
Xen’Mordin was born as Kilan Khzon, on the planet of Coruscant to wealthy parents. Displaying a strong Force affinity, it was only as the Galactic Empire crumbled that his powers would be noticed, by the rogue Jedi, Tyler Reynolds, who wanted to teach Kilan the ways of the Force, and create a new Jedi Order. After years of intensive study, Kilan found himself deeply in love with Tyler’s other Padawan learner, Kara Vengerberg. Her violent and brutal murder would cause Kilan to strip himself of his connection to the force, and his old life, becoming Xen’Mordin Vismorsus.
Xen’Mordin’s force connection would be restored in an agonizing and intense interaction with a dark side Force nexus. Finding a new focus in life, and embracing the power of the dark side, he let the force guide him to the Dark Brotherhood, and to the rank and file of Scholae Palatinae. Fully embracing the Imperial ideology of the clan, Xen’Mordin spent years building his resources, and manipulating events within the system to seat himself as Emperor. He would go on to lead the Cocytus Empire for years. Along the way, he came to abandon his attachment to the dark side of the force and began to walk a middle grayer path.
Xen’Mordin fully believes in the strength of the Empire, and believes its destiny is to follow completely in the footsteps of the Galactic Empire. He is totally committed to being the one to take them there and is unapologetically dedicated to this cause. He takes pride in his intelligence and ability to lead others, whether through manipulation or real loyalty. Xen’Mordin thrives thanks to his bonds with his clanmates, all in the name of the Empire.
Character History
Early Life (0 ABY - 5 ABY)
- "He can do things we don’t even understand. How could he ever be safe without proper training?"
- ―Dalinar to Zaerys
The first years of Kilan’s life was peaceful and comfortable despite the upheaval and rebellion against the Galactic Empire. There was little his wealthy family was lacking, exposing Kilan to comforts that would be sorely missed at later points in his life. Even from his earliest days, he showed signs of Force-sensitivity, which placed his parents on high alert, as they lived in the heart of the capital of the Empire. But it was not the Empire that came knocking on their door, and if it had, Kilan never would have been set on the path to becoming Xen’Mordin.
The Birth and Home (0 ABY)
Coruscant
It was in the weeks following the hushed and rumored news of the destruction of the Death Star at Yavin that the Khzon family celebrated the birth of Kilan. They lived in the very heart of the Empire, Coruscant, and while the planet was quietly abuzz about the Empire’s setback at the hand of the Rebellion, the Khzon’s focus was turned inward. They were far from diehard Imperialists, but as Human upper-class family, their lives were only slightly inconvenienced by the Galactic Empire. The gossip that swept the planet was largely ignored by the family.
Dalinar Khzon, Kilan’s father, was the eldest son in a long family dynasty of merchants. Second only to his own father in the company, Dalinar had taken to business just like his ancestors had. The family trade had evolved over the decades, from providing raw manufacturing materials from one side of the galaxy or the other, into a luxury item business, full of rare and exotic goods. On the capital planet, these luxury items were in high demand by the high ranking Imperials, and other upper class wishing to show off their high social standing. Dalinar himself was a stocky man, with a quick tongue, sharp wit, and hearty laugh.
Zaerys Khzon, Kilan’s mother, came from a family that sold many different types of goods than Dalinar’s, goods that were a reprieve from life’s issues. They owned nightclubs, casinos, dance halls, cantinas, bettings halls, and more, all scattered from the core to the rim. Zaerys’ family was even more well known and well off than Dalinar’s was. In her youth, she enjoyed her family’s wealth and social status to party hard. As she matured, however, her fiery and dominating personality had cooled only slightly, as she stepped in to help oversee the family business, and raise her growing family.
Kilan was Dalinar and Zaerys’ fourth child. Two boys, Kiith, age ten, and Clertan, age seven. They also had a daughter, Sairia, age four. Kiith, even at ten, showed signs he would be a strong and powerful man, much like Dalinar. Loud and boisterous, he was firmly content as both eldest child, and most apparently talented. Clertan was on the other end of the spectrum, small, quiet, and reserved. Astute and observant he lived each day trying to prove himself to his older brother. Sairia, although only four, was a near mirror image of Zaerys, wildly independent and unwaveringly fearless.
Gifted (2 ABY - 5 ABY)
The family remained based on Coruscant. However, both Dalinar and Zaerys’ positions in their business led a frequent travel across the galaxy. Kilan’s toddler years were spent immersed in many cultures and environments. He played in the waters of Naboo, got lost in one of the many starships factories of Corellia after wandering off from his father, and ran in the jungles of Felucia with his siblings. These jaunts throughout the galaxy were always brief, and it was the bustling environment of Coruscant that became the foundation of Kilan’s early formative years.
These flashes of events would become only whispers of memories later in Kilan’s life, subtle impressions of the familiar. The strongest impressions came from moments where Kilan demonstrated clear force sensitivity. The slight movement of objects, rapid learning and association skills, a deep empathy and concern for others. At first, his parents would brush off the strange and seemingly unexplainable occurrences as happenstance. All of their children had shown signs of unusual ability. But, as Kilan continued to demonstrate with greater regularity and affinity, the harder it became for his parents to ignore it, and the more they began to worry.
Despite the family’s wealth, not even bribes would stop the wheel of the Empire from attempting to get their hands on a young force sensitive. They had all heard the stories of children being taken in the dead of night by military personnel, at the order of the Emperor, never to be seen or heard from again. Luckily, the Empire’s focus had been turned toward another and the Rebellion. Coupled with the family’s frequent galactic wide ventures, there no officials spent enough time around Kilan to notice anything particular about the toddler. Neither Dalinar or Zaerys could forget their own youth, before the days of the Empire, and had happened to the legendary Jedi Order.
The Jedi - Tyler Reynolds (5 ABY)
The Jedi survivor - Tyler Reynolds
The Emperor was dead. As hard as the Imperial officers attempted to squash the news, it was known. And from the moment of his death, the Galactic Empire began to fragment. Coruscant itself remained a mix of totalitarian leadership and willful defiance from the civilians. The future was as uncertain as it ever had been, but the Khzons could not help but feel for the first time years that their children’s lives were truly going to be free from the oppression of the Empire. And for the first time Kilan’s life, the burden of having his abilities was relaxed and less pressing.
However, Kilan’s abilities had been noticed, just not by the Imperials. Tyler Reynolds, a former member of the Jedi Order and survivor of the Emperor’s Order 66, had sensed the five-year old’s strong force connection. The years had not been kind to the Jedi, whose paranoia had kept him alive through the Empire’s brutal crackdown against the Jedi. He was a weathered and gray old man, and it was only over the last few years of successes by the Rebellion that he had begun to feel truly alive again. And with the Emperor dead, it was time for him to act.
The stories of Luke, the last Jedi, and great war hero were known even this deep in the core. But Tyler did not trust him, a boy, who had never once stepped foot within the Jedi Temple, or learned from the Jedi Council. And more than that, he was a Skywalker, and for that reason alone Tyler wished to work to establish his own restoration of the Jedi Order. Tyler would accept only one formed on the foundation of the extinct Order of his youth.
It was to this end, that Tyler Reynolds came knocking on the Khzon’s door. With him, he brought a young girl, same age as Kilan, named Kara Vengerberg. Dalinar and Zaerys were in the process on deadbolting the door against the grizzled old man when they saw the wide-eyed girl peering from behind the Jedi’s leg. Hearts softened, they let the pair into their home. Tyler presented a long and thought out proposal about why he needed to train Kilan, and the dangers that he would face against the dark side of the Force, should he not be given this chance to learn.
The discussion that followed became a family-wide matter. Dalinar and Zaerys were torn over not wanting to lose their son, the risks he would face against the dark side, and the potential good he could provide as a trained Jedi. Kiith was bitterly angry and demanded to be given the same opportunity as his youngest brother. Clertan had read stories about the Jedi and was fearful for his brother knowing that the Jedi were now gone. Sairia upset just for not wanting to see her brother leave. Kilan himself was unaware of the conversation going on, playing happily with Kara the whole time.
In the end, the risk of Kilan’s future without the training, and the potential good he could bring to the galaxy outweighed the family’s desire to have Kilan stay. Kiith, refusing to accept that he too could not be trained, stormed off. A confused Kilan uncomprehending the good-byes given to him by the rest of his family was escorted out of the house by Tyler, who wanted to prevent a prolonged farewell that might trigger a change of heart from the Khzons.
Trials of a Jedi (5 ABY - 17 ABY)
- "The future of the Jedi Order rests with you two."
- ―Tyler Reynolds
Tyler Reynolds proved to be a tough and demanding mentor. His years of dedication to the Jedi Order, coupled with the years he spent in hiding following the Order’s fall, had shaped him into an unrelenting man. He was never cruel but would push Kilan and Kara to their limits, and the comforts of Kilan’s life at home disappeared overnight. What comfort Kilan would find in life would be in the arms of Kara as he learned the invaluable lessons being taught by Tyler. And it was Kara’s death that would ultimately destroy him.
Jedi Younglings (6 ABY - 9 ABY)
Kilan was too young to fully grasp the decision his parents had made for him. Overnight, gone was the comfort of wealth and the freedom of uninhibited childhood. The first hours were some adventure to him, but then he was ready to go home. For weeks he would cry himself to sleep as they moved from hovel to hovel in the rotting slums of Coruscant’s lowest levels. Day by day Tyler chipped away at removing Kilan’s expectations of ever returning home. Kara, who had already spent several months with Tyler, was already so far removed from going home, it was all she could do to encourage Kilan to continue. More than once Tyler caught Kilan attempting to sneak away in the night.
Tyler was relentless in his passion to shape the two children into the ultimate Jedi. He was incredibly protective of them and harsh at avoiding anything that would remotely resemble the dark side. He would wake Kilan and Kara up at dawn for morning meditation, study, and training. Play took the form of furthering their skills, with Tyler inventing elaborate games for the two to work at. But anything that did not further their abilities, tested them, taught them was pushed away. In his youth, Tyler had laughed easily knowing the balance of work and joy, but there was no true joy left for him to have as a hunted man.
The skills Tyler learned in his exile and seclusion, he passed onto his two young students, in addition to the more traditional Jedi sensibility, he clung so tightly to. They trained in the ways of the Force, lightsaber combat, martial art styles, history of the Jedi, philosophy, languages. They branched out into salvage, repairing and bypassing mechanics, medicine, scavenging, animal studies, politics, and more. And within a few years of daily pushing toward perfection, these lessons became largely practical more than conceptual, with Kilan and Kara being abandoned in the wilderness or heart of a city, while Tyler watched and tested them from afar.
The First Trial (10 ABY)
Naboo
In the middle of 10 ABY, Kilan and Kara faced what was the first true test on their long journey through the trials that would prove they were worthy of being Jedi Knights. It was only after demonstrating their skills and dedication could Tyler’s new Jedi Order begin in earnest. Tyler took the pair to the countryside of Naboo, not to learn about farming from those who called the area home, but to look into a corrupt local authority. Prazna Tuk, a former Imperial loyalist stationed on the planet during the height of the Empire, had sunk his own teeth into a large section of countryside, and piece by piece pushed the locals into near slave-labor conditions.
Tuk was demanding an increased taxation, and grain tribute, on top of a three-year drought plaguing the area. The local farmers were having a hard time just producing enough to survive. What Tyler had not been expecting, however, were the bribed police forces in Prazna’s pocket. They had been in the region for all of a day and a half when Tyler was brought into custody, for disturbing the local peace. Luckily, Kilan and Kara were able to avoid arrest, in part due to their abilities to hide, in addition to the police not thinking a pair of ten-year-olds could be a threat.
While Tyler attempted to free himself, Kilan and Kara went to work. They were going to do what none of the locals, or even Tyler himself, could do. Bring Prazna out into the open to be dealt with. Together they worked in tandem, distracting guards, accessing safe houses, sabotaging droids. They wreaked havoc with a wide array of childish and immature pranks and disruptions in only the way children could. This had the effect all childish behavior does on adults, it made Prazna angry. This anger culminated when they managed to release a hot steaming pile of shaak droppings in the face of Tuk’s newest mistress as she arrived at Tuk’s residence.
This event, following three days of non-stop hindrances to his men, thrust Prazna into direct action. Backed by his most loyal and brutish followers, he made his way to the town center. By this time, the news of these disruptions had spread like wildfire over the populace, who had turned out in a massive crowd to see what would happen next to Tuk and his thugs and because Tuk had also promised anyone not in attendance would be labeled as co-conspirators.
While Tuk and his men had been distracted by the many disruptions Kilan and Kara were able to bring about, Tyler was able to make his escape. When Tuk arrived at the town center, he arrived to a crowd that was riled up from Tyler’s passionate call to arms to seize back their lives. What Tyler had not anticipated was just how angry and downtrodden the locals were, and just how much of a frenzy they flew into when Prazna finally appeared.
Prazna’s men turned and ran on the spot, not about to face off against the entire local population. Prazna himself was not so lucky and was captured quickly by the mob before he could escape. The locals began to tear at his clothing, kicking, scratching, punching, all wanting a piece of retribution for the cruelty he had shown them. It was at this point Kilan stepped in between the horribly wronged civilians and the corrupt Tuk. This action of a child caused the crowd to instantly fall into silence. Kilan despised Prazna, and what he had done to the people here, but he couldn’t let the crowd kill Tuk. He would protect him because it was the right thing to do.
The Second Trial (12 ABY)
Kashyyyk
Kilan’s second trial took place early in the year of 12 ABY. Tyler had begun a more rigorous training schedule as Kilan and Kara aged, throwing the pair deep into combat and tactics, which he hoped would help them survive in a galaxy that was constantly trying to kill Jedi. Their days ran late into the night, and their mornings started very early. The stress they were experiencing began to take its toll.
Seemingly unaware, or underestimating the physical and mental weight his wards were experiencing, Tyler took them to the forest planet of Kashyyyk. The home of the mighty, and often wrongly enslaved Wookiees, would teach Kilan and Kara two things. How to be honorable warriors, and that it is possible to learn without a clear ability to communicate, as neither of them knew a single word of Shyriiwook.
The first days were rather enjoyable for the preteens, who always loved being able to see new locations and distant worlds. The Wookiees of the village they stayed at were exceptionally welcoming of the two, and has a standing respect of Tyler, based on the previous sacrifices of Jedi on their behalf. But even the welcoming care of the Wookiees did little to stymie the continue wear on Kilan and Kara.
A week after arriving on the planet, Kilan was traversing the forest floor with a Wookiee warrior, Nagkazza, “Heroic Spirit”. The warrior had taken an immediate liking to the young boy and had taken him away from the village to show him how to track prey for food. Kilan sensed something wrong, moments before they were attacked by a large and bulking beast from the shadows. He managed to shove Nagkazza out of the way moments before the beast’s mouth snapped shut around the space the Wookiee’s head had been. Eyes fixed on Kilan, the far smaller and weaker of the two, the beast thrashed out with its tail striking them away from each other. Nagkazza slammed into a nearby tree, head first where he fell unconscious. Kilan landed in a bush, several ribs cracked. Before he could react the beast was upon him.
Kilan fell in and out of consciousness as he was dragged along the forest floor. The beast had a vice like grip with its mouth on his right leg and was sending a powerful toxin into Kilan’s bloodstream. He came back into consciousness at the sound of a loud screech. The beast let loose its hold of his leg and turned to face something coming out of the shadows. Kilan made out the blurred movement of something even bigger attacking. The larger predator left Kilan alone and dragged the remains of the beast with him to feast on. Kilan was left alone and completely defenseless on the forest floor.
The poison and delirium from his injuries began to affect him on a larger scale. He began to have visions while whispers in his ears spoke of dark tidings. He saw Kara laying lifeless, eyes wide. Caught in their reflection was the silhouette of a laughing man. Then came an exploding ball of fire that turned into the shape of a bird. There was a hall of blood, and Kilan could hear the crunching of bone as he progressed close to a vacant throne.
When Nagkazza and Kilan didn’t return at dusk to the village, Tyler and the Wookiee’s knew something had happened. They found Nagkazza quickly, as the warrior was finally returning to consciousness. Disorientated he insisted on helping in the search to find Kilan, refusing to return to the village. It was nearing dawn by the time they were able to find Kilan, motionless in a pile of his own blood. He stirred slightly as they approached, and they noticed he had grabbed hold of a stick to ward off several smaller animals that had approached him in the night.
For five days Kilan was left in a fevered delirious state, visions and nightmares haunting him all the while. And even when the toxin had finally been cleared of his system, it took several more weeks before he was healthy and stable enough to be moved from the village. Tyler lauded him a true hero, acting on the will of the Force to save Nagkazza’s life.
The Third Trial (14 ABY)
Corellia
It was on the planet of Corellia that Kilan learned why Tyler was so distrusting and paranoid. Not just from the extinction of the Jedi following the Clone Wars, but of people in general and their selfish natures. Tyler had been bringing Kilan and Kara off and on since he had taken them under his wing. Both had the correct assumption that the planet was, in fact, Tyler’s homeworld. It was here Tyler had taken them following Kilan’s injuries on Kashyyyk. They returned again in 14 ABY to stay for a period of six months. This time was spent at their host’s estate, and working on ships in one of the factories their host owned.
The Bertoths were a family dynasty of engineering masters. Steffen, the patriarch of the family, was a 14th generation engineer. It was from him that Kilan and Kara learned much of about mechanical workings for both ships, and droids. Steffen’s wife, Yllara, was an elegant and sophisticated woman who taught the finer points of high society to the pair. They had a single son, the nineteen-year-old Calu, who quickly fell into the role of “older brother” which Kilan had not had since leaving his own family.
Calu was the definition of a cool older “brother”, teaching Kilan how to pilot, sneak out of the estate, where to get alcohol, how to make minor explosives, and many other activities. Kilan, in returning, wishing to impress Calu began showing off some of his force capabilities. Spurred on by the endless possibilities force abilities presented, Calu pushed Kilan even further down the road of rebellious behavior.
Six months into the stay, everything changed. Calu took Kilan cross-continent under the pretext of wild party with other bored upper class teens. However, it was not the sand beaches of the coast that Calu took Kilan, It was to a remnant of the Galactic Empire, held high in a skyscraper under the guise of a corporation. Calu had sold Kilan’s abilities out for a hefty sum of credits.
The Imperials had no desire to part with their credits however, they shot Calu at point blank range right in the heart, killing him instantly. Kilan knew he would face a similar fate, or be taken to be turned into a weapon for these Imperial Loyalists. Giving himself over to the promptings of the force, he turned and ran as fast as he could. He threw himself one of the upper story windows and fell in a cascade of broken glass, landing with a thud on the roof of a passing transport. Clutching for his life, he held on as the transport put distance between him and the skyscraper. The instant it touched down in a landing port, Kilan was off into the shadows of the population before anyone could tell he had been there.
He was able to get a hold of Tyler, who came and found him at once. The trip back to the Bertoths’ estate was filled with a silence of three parts. There was the silent but concrete disappointment coming from Tyler over Kilan letting his guard down, and ignoring the caution he had been taught for years. There was the silence of the conversation to come, with the Bertoths, whose only son had just been murdered. Finally, there was the silence of Kilan’s own outstanding guilt over allowing any of this to happen. Mercifully, Tyler spoke with the Bertoths without Kilan present. He had been sent to gather his belongings as rapidly as possible, along with Kara’s. Yllara’s scream could be heard from the other side of the estate. It was a long time before Kilan was able to look Tyler in the eyes.
The Fourth Trial (16 ABY)
Coruscant’s Underworld
Kilan experienced his first true taste of the power and seductive properties of the dark side of the Force on his home planet of Coruscant. After over a decade of being each other's support under Tyler’s tutelage, it was impossible for Kilan and Kara not to develop a romantic connection. Through a willful ignorance, Tyler chose to overlook the increasingly obvious interest the two had in each other. Deep down he knew the harder he pushed to keep them apart, the closer they would become. And that would only lead to losing them both, and the decade of time he could never recover spent training them.
It had been years since the trio had ventured back to the planet, and for all its shiny towers and power it had held in the galaxy for generations, it had its fair share of dark corners and downtrodden just as any other planet in the system. It was in the grimy, dank, dark underworld of Coruscant. While working to help the more honorable of the poor in the slums, Kara became separated from Kilan and Tyler. It wasn’t uncommon for one of them to end up wandering off as they ventured through the streets, but after several minutes of not being able to locate her, Kilan and Tyler grew worried. They knew the kind of men that called these levels home.
Kilan tried to remain calm, and keep his mind attuned to the Force in his efforts to locate Kara, but as the minutes ticked by, the harder that became. When it reached the point Kilan thought he couldn’t handle it any longer, they rounded a corner onto a poorly lit side alley that attracted little attention from those walking on the main walkway. Even among the smell of piss, shit, and garbage, Kilan was able to pick up the fruity undertones of Kara’s shampoo. And that is when he saw her.
She had been drugged, syringe still sticking out her neck. Limp like a ragdoll, her limbs flopped about as a small gang of three men pawed, grabbed, and ripped at her clothing. For the first time in his life, Kilan experienced true rage, and with it the crashing power of the dark side. As his rage rolled over his mind, he lunged forward toward the men. In a blur of fast movements, he took down two of the men with a quick and surgical precision before they even noticed he was there. The center man, the clear leader of the trio, managed to turn to put his arms up in defense. In his rage, Kilan wasn’t even aware of how he was moving, primal fury overtaking his senses. The third man didn’t last long. Even after he fell, Kilan didn’t stop, punching him over and over. Blood, flesh, teeth, and spit flew as he landed blow after blow against the man’s face.
But then he saw Kara stir slightly out of the corner of his eye, and he froze. He paused for just a moment as his mind caught up to the action he had taken. He lowered his fists and grabbed a small bacta pack from his pocket, spraying the salve on the man’s face. Tyler came running up, winded at trying to keep up with Kilan. He put a sympathetic hand on Kilan’s shoulder, understanding all too well the pull to the dark Kilan just experienced. It was an inevitable event for any Force-sensitive person. Kilan picked up Kara and they took her to recover in a safer location.
The Final Trial (16 ABY)
A Nexu
Kilan’s final trial, and days as an apprentice under Tyler took place on the planet of Cholganna. High above the planet’s surface, they made their approach in a rickety old ship, it was functional, but barely so. As they broke the atmosphere, the engine blew, sending the ship spiraling out of control in a freefall. With only seconds to spare in grabbing some belongings, they trio jumped into their individual escape pods and ejected from the ship.
Kilan awoke in his pod seated upside down, hanging by its emergency chute in one of the many tall trees of the forest. It swayed slightly in the wind. He carefully and slowly moved to position himself right way up. Head rushing from the blood flow, he slowly opened the escape pods door and was relieved to see it was only a few feet to the ground. He gathered what few supplies there were in the pod and jumped gingerly out of it. It was dusk, and the light was fading fast. Kilan was aware of the dangers of the planet, none more-so than the Nexu that originated from this planet. He had seen one up close when he was 12, as it ripped a man’s head off in the fighting pits of Skurrada IV. It was an experience he had not forgotten.
Alone with a small set of emergency supplies, his lightsaber, a glowrod, and his wits, Kilan had to act quickly if he was to survive the forest. He pulled the escape pod to the ground and used its secure metal casing as his shelter for the cold night that was fast approaching. His attempts to use the pod’s communicator failed him, several key parts having been stripped from it years ago. He knew Tyler’s and Kara’s pods had launched out in similar directions as his own. Through the Force, the most he could sense was their presence to the North-East. Dawn came slowly in a night of unrestful poor attempts at sleeping. The distinct sounds of claws against metal had kept him awake several times throughout the night.
Kilan examined the muddy footprints around the pod once he finally left it. There were at least three separate sets of nexu footprints that circled the pod. With a general bearing of where Tyler and Kara were, he set out into the trees, trying to remain as quiet as possible. Every snapping twig and crunching leaf made his adrenaline spike. Even with his lightsaber, a full pack of nexu could kill him apart with ease.
Twice Kilan saw the slinking shadows out of the corners of his eyes. The third time he was alerted by a roar and the searing pain of a clawed foot ripping through his back. He turned and struck down the beast with his lightsaber, as he did so another lashed out from the shadows, tearing at his back again. He sliced that nexu down as well. The third, smelling the seared flesh of its packmates, growled and retreated into the shadows. Bleeding profusely, and barely able to stand, Kilan broke into a run, mind focused on the force signature of Tyler and Kara, his only hope of surviving was finding them.
Kilan stumbled from the trees into a clearing and right into the arms of kara. Tyler had found her the evening before, and they had set out South-West to find him at first light. While Tyler went to activate a functioning emergency beacon, Kara set to stitching Kilan’s back. Tyler himself, still shaken from the crash landing of his own escape pod, truly looked his age for the first time. He knew his days of widespread travel were at an end. The unkind years of his rough life had finally caught up with him. He knew there was little left he could provide to his proteges. Once they had been rescued and wounds properly examined, he unceremoniously declared them at the end of their training, ready to live as Jedi Knights. The next morning when Kilan and Kara awoke, he was gone.
The Alleys of Nar Shaddaa (17 ABY)
Kara Vengerberg
While Kilan and Kara knew they would have to eventually find students of their own, they postponed it, unsure of how to proceed without Tyler’s guiding hand. He had strongly emphasized that they were key to restoring what he saw as the one true Jedi Order. For months they traveled from planet to planet, much as they had done with Tyler, helping people where they could, but avoiding drawing unwanted attention. They existed in a state of limbo without Tyler to direct them. There only consolation to no longer having Tyler to rely on was they no longer felt the overwhelming guilty the accompanied their love for each other.
It was in this state of no guidance, that they found themselves on Nar Shaddaa. The Smuggler’s Moon had always been home to the wretched and vile, but it was also home to those who had no way out. With several rival Hutt ruling the planet, several major conflicts had broken out on the streets of the moon. Turf war had little respect for the innocent, and it was for them, that Kilan and Kara arrived to do what they could in aid. But the longer they stayed, the more attention they received, so much so they decided to leave the moon immediately for their own safety.
A dark and powerful storm was cutting through the smog and haze of the moon as they attempted to make their way to a nearby spaceport. The usually bustling outside walkway was nearly abandoned from the heavy torrent of rain and wind. Both felt a queasy urge from the Force in the pits of their stomachs, a feeling they attributed to the generally violent nature of the turf war they had placed themselves in. In a particularly strong burst of wind, a totally unnatural force slammed into Kilan’s chest sending him flying down the long wet walkway.
Kilan stumbled to his feet as quickly as he could, fully knowing only the Force could have hit him with such power. In a flash of lightning, he saw a hooded figure quickly approaching Kara, who had her back turned to the figure, eyes locked on what happened to Kilan. The figure activated a red-bladed lightsaber, and drove it through Kara’s chest, vaporizing her heart and killing her instantly. The blade shut off as quickly as it had turned on, and Kilan felt time slow as he slipped and slid in the wet. Kara was falling, steam rising from the gaping hole in her chest.
The hooded figure jumped off the walkway, as Kilan finally got the traction he needed to run toward Kara. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw an open top speeder fly away, roof closing as it sped into the darkness. Kilan fell to his knees and slid the last few feet to Kara’s side. He cradled her head in his lap hoping it was just a nightmare, and then he screamed in agony. He screamed until his throat got too raw to make any more noise, and then screamed some more. He fell into a daze, a mixture of despair, pain, and rage.
Vismorsus Rising (17 ABY - 19 ABY)
- "I have been pushing you toward this moment, your whole life. It is your destiny."
- ―Mikal Yathik
Unable to cope with this sudden loss of the woman he loved, Kilan died as well on the surface of Nar Shaddaa. Like a phoenix out of the ashes of his former life, Xen’Mordin Vismorsus would face his own trials and sufferings on the route to becoming the man he was meant to be. As hard as he tried, he could not shake the involvement of the Force in his life, and this would push him to the Dark Brotherhood, and to the place he would finally call home, the first he had since leaving his family at the age of five.
The Phoenix (17 ABY)
Xen’s Sigil - A Stylized Phoenix
Kilan became unaware of what was happening around him. He ensured Kara’s body was sent to her family, a mix of unwilling and unable to accompany it to speak with them in person. Every concrete memory he had in life had involved Kara in some way or another, and without her, he was broken, crippled by the weight of an existence without her support. Unable to continue, but lacking the strength to take his own life, he underwent a process far more lasting and dangerous.
Using what little credits he had, found a dirty, and rank room to rent for a few days. It was bordering on needing to be condemned, but it was secure, and that is all Kilan needed. He locked himself in and for several days, the door remained sealed tight. He rejected his life, his memories, his connection to the force. Letting the agony and despair was over him, everything he that made him, him washed away in the tide. When it was finished, Kilan Khzon was truly dead. A man woke up on the rusty and sticky floor, dressed, and left, only taking a single photo of Kara as a final tether to his old life. A new name, a new history, a new life coming with him. A man left as Xen’Mordin Vismorsus.
Several days later, Xen’Mordin managed to convince a desperate ship captain that he was a skilled enough mechanic to handle an aging freighter, the Dauntless Traveler. At least good enough to keep it flying to anywhere else. The previous mechanic on the ship had struck it rich in a casino three days prior, and the Hutt who ran the casino saw to it that the man never received his winnings. Jumping at the opportunity to get off the toxic Smugglers’ Moon, Xen took it without hesitation.
The Mundane (17 ABY - 18 ABY)
The Dauntless Traveler, was no mere freighter, which is what Xen’Mordin would come to call a secondary trait for the ship. It was first and foremost a smugglers’ ship. This fact became apparent within hours of stepping on board. It was an older ship, prone to mechanical faults, which came to occupy most of Xen’s time. What knowledge he didn’t have from his rudimentary training, he stayed up late at night studying. Seeming competent enough, and proved to be trustworthy, he was kept on the ship as part of its full-time crew.
The first weeks were the hardest. Xen’Mordin was still adapting to being Xen and not Kilan. His own false history kept playing over and over in his mind, refusing to acknowledge the lies, and the truth of his fast. He was initially very distrustful of the crew. But they were kind enough and didn’t ask too many questions, so day by day Xen came more comfortable in his own skin. He had no reason to remain on the ship, other than having no reason leave it. This was what fate had delivered to him, so it was a smuggler’s life for him. His single photo of Kara went untouched in the bottom of the pile that was his small trunk of belongings.
Xen’Mordin took great lengths to prove himself to the crew, taking on additional jobs to his constant work as a mechanic. He helped cook, clean, move cargo, took extra watch duties, presented ideas for possible new avenues for jobs, and more. Anything that he could do to keep busy, his mind focused, and his crewmates happy. No job was too demeaning or dangerous for him to be willing to do. Some of the crew initially thought this was suspicious, Xen’s constant and unrelenting willingness to take the muckiest and disgusting jobs left all of them increasingly fond of him. For Xen the more he lived and the more he did as this new man, the more Kilan became a distant memory.
The Nexus (18 ABY)
The Ancient Sith Temple
After a year, Xen’Mordin had become accustomed to life without the Force and was fully beyond ever recognizing Kilan as part of his history. No one, not even Tyler Reynolds himself, would have been able to point to Xen and say he had once been the Jedi Kilan Khzon. Not only had he fully become Xen’Mordin, Force-free, and everything, he was now making a life for himself. He was an integral part of the crew of the Dauntless Traveler. He had made massive improvements to the overall quality of life onboard the ship, not only for safety and functionality but creature comforts as well. His dedication to the ship and crew, alongside his soaring popularity with the crew, had secured him a position as second-mate.
The rather eccentric captain of the ship was fond of dropping the ship into remote systems in between jobs, some of which had no documented records of being visited according to their ship’s computer. If there was abandoned or forgotten treasures to be found, that was both an adventure to be had and money to be made. The crew by and large supported this, as long as there was a steady supply of regular work to be had. It took them to exotic places and occasionally brought some good extra credits to spend or stories to tell. However, it was the planet they arrived at shortly after Xen’s one-year mark on the ship that changed everything.
On an undocumented planet, in a remote system in the Outer Rim, they found a Temple. It was ancient and sprawling, but still clearly standing despite the millennia it had spent in solitude. The forest of the planet had long attempted to fully reclaim the space, but the forest had failed. The instant they picked it up on their sensors, the entire crew became abuzz with excitement. Ancient relics of a long dead civilization would fetch more credits than they could make in a year's time. Xen’Mordin was the only crew member who remained silent, his eyes locked on the images of the temple. It felt familiar, almost like it was calling him home.
The crew’s demeanor changed as they ventured by foot to find the main entrance of the temple. Each felt an unnatural chill run up their spine, despite the lush warm of the surrounding tropical climate. The chatter turned from excitement to caution, to refusal to proceed. More and more of the crew voiced concern, ultimately leading to them deciding to abandon their venture. They all had heard the stories of evil corrupting a location. There was no doubt in their minds that this place was indeed, evil. Xen’Mordin, however, was burning with an indescribable need to enter its halls. He waved off the call to return to the ship and ventured on alone.
The temple entrance was open, the interior edges of the door frame worn far less than the exterior stone. It had been opened recently. Xen’Mordin stepped slowly, but undeterred. He entered the main chamber, a massive open area, with its ceiling stretching all the way to the top of the pyramid structure it resided within. Rays of sunlight fell through cracks and holes in the decaying roof, giving illumination to a faded but intricately designed mosaic on the floor of the room. Cast directly in one of the largest rays of light, on the far side of the room, was an altar with something held up, resting carefully upon it.
Xen’Mordin made his way forward, and as he crossed the middle of the chamber, he stepped right over the center of the mosaic on the floor of the room, the whole planet began to shake. Lightning from a cloudless sky sparked and arced all around the temple complex. In the central hall itself, Xen was struck again and again as he lay upon the seal on the floor, powerful bolts of pure dark side energy surging through him. This temple was resting above a Force nexus, one of incredible dark side energy.
That dark side energy surged through every cell in Xen’s body. He experienced a pain unlike any he had endured before. As the might of the force coursed through his body, his repressed memories, training, and life as Kilan came flooding back. After what felt like an eternity of pain wishing for death, it ended as suddenly as it had started. As he lay on the ground, gasping for breath, Xen’Mordin was able to comprehend the true nature of the temple, and that his connection with the Force had been completely restored to him.
Tied Up in Strings (18 ABY)
The Ancient Sith Lightsaber
Xen’s mind became at war with itself. On one side was the friendly ship mechanic, Xen’Mordin, and on the other was the vortex of painful memories of a man he no longer was. He let his mind battle it out, unknowing which side would prevail. He moved based on instinct and the direction of the Force, a comforting connection now that it was back. He reached the altar that was resting on the far side of the hall and was able to recognize what was resting upon it. It was an ancient lightsaber, coated in dust, unused and waiting for centuries for a new owner to claim it. Xen’Mordin grabbed it and felt like he had just found something that had been missing from him his whole life. It was like it was made just for him.
Xen’Mordin stared at it, absorbing its ancient construction, its brutality, and its still visible stains of blood in the metal work. His focus was interrupted by the sound of clapping, from a hooded figure who was stepping out of the shadows at last. Without turning back, Xen knew with certainty that this was the same man who had killed Kara the previous year.
Xen’Mordin turned to face the man, as the figure pulled back his hood, revealing a vile and twisted face. It was etched with scars and burns and age. The figure introduced himself as Mikal Yathik. With glee, Mikal explained that he had been the one manipulating Xen’s entire life to bring him to this moment in this temple, for Xen to embrace the dark side and take on his destiny. Mikal was the one who had supplied Prazna with the shady connections on Naboo to take power. He was the one, who using powerful Beast Control mastery, had sent the predator on Kashyyyk after Xen. He was the one on Corellia who had suggested to Calu that there was a big reward for anyone who turned in a dangerous force sensitive. And of course it, was he who had killed Kara on that rainy walkway on Nar Shaddaa.
Before Xen’Mordin could attempt to lash out in vengeance against Mikal, another man stepped out of the shadows, a man whose face was familiar. It had grown older, more worn, crueler, but Xen knew that face, it belonged to his oldest brother Kiith. Kiith in his rage at being rejected by Tyler Reynolds had found himself his own master in Mikal Yathik. Kiith’s eyes bore none of the warmed and affection he had shown as a child, they were now cold. Without uttering a word, Kiith activated his own lightsaber. Xen’Mordin was forced to defend himself with the only weapon he had at hand, the ancient lightsaber. Remarkably it's warped blood red blade snapped to life even after all these years. Body still aching, and mind still at war with itself, Xen was forced to remember his training quickly as he defended himself against an onslaught of attacks from his own brother. Kiith’s style was aggressive on a level Xen had never experienced, simple, basic, and unyielding in form.
Then it ended. It was either fate, luck, or the will of the Force, Xen’Mordin landed a blow against his brother’s left shoulder, cutting down toward his right hip. Before the blade completely cleaved Kiith in two, its power cell finally died. Kiith’s body landed unceremoniously on the floor with a dull thud. Xen felt no remorse, no pain, no loss at having just killed his own brother. All there was for him to feel was rage. He turned his focus back to Mikal, who was now laughing. Mikal turned to leave, congratulating Xen’Mordin on embracing the power of the dark side, and finally moving forward toward his destiny as a Sith.
Xen’Mordin tightened his grip on the ancient lightsaber and looked down at it. The hilt itself was a weapon, elegant and cruel, the pommel featured long sharp protrusions, clearing having been used to take lives, just as the red blade had. Xen leaped, augmented by the Force, and drove the hilt deep into Mikal’s back. Xen stabbed, again and again, becoming drenched in the man’s blood in the process. Mikal screamed, but eventually fell silent. Even in the silence, Xen’Mordin kept driving the blade into the man, relishing in his revenge.
Antei Bound (18 ABY)
Antei
Back on the Dauntless Traveler, Xen’Mordin cleaned himself up. He lied to the crew, saying he had been attacked by a pack of beasts in the temple, and that he had been forced to beat them back. The crew, stomachs still churning from being in proximity to the temple agreed to leave the planet immediately. Their own desire to leave clouded their judgment in pressing Xen about why there was just so much blood on his person.
Xen’Mordin spent most of the following days resting. His body was weak from the events in the temple, and his mind was still attempting to reconcile the two sides of his personality. But despite his best efforts, he could not get them to fit together into a single mentality. So he was forced to learn how to deal with it enough to function. The crew of the ship, luckily gave him space, still believing he had nearly died at the hands of a violent creature in the temple. In between the periodic check-ins to establish he was still breathing, he was given the time he needed to formulate a plan. There was only one thing he trusted, the Force. He knew it was the only thing that could fix him, and make him stronger. Deep in meditation, he felt the call, the call from something out there across the galaxy just waiting for him.
Eventually being able to function as a presentable sentient being again, and armed with a plan, Xen’Mordin went to work to find what was calling to him. Being the primary mechanic, and with free range of access to the ship, and in particular the engines, Xen had no trouble disabling the ship. They had been in hyperspace when the engines died, and the ship was left adrift in deep space. Xen’Mordin made a good show of an urgent but focused attempt to diagnosis what was happening to the engines. He had swapped out a critical part with an old spare he had from replacing it months prior. He had made it look extremely damaged, beyond repair, while the still working part was hidden away. The ship was officially dead in deep space, and Xen had no intention of repairing the ship anytime soon. Distress calls were made, but without an apparent replacement part, all the crew could do was wait for aid.
Stuck with nowhere to go, Xen’Mordin slowly isolated members of the crew killing them. Some were killed quickly, flushed out an airlock, others were bloodily carved apart, corpse left on display for the remaining crew to see. The fear started quickly, and as members of the crew were slowly and unexpectedly murdered, that fear grew into hysteria. Xen faked his own death, and took the shadows and crawlways of the ship, he knew better than anyone else on the ship. The remaining crew turned on each other, each knowing that only that they themself could not be the killer on the ship. Eventually only one remained the captain, locked up in his private quarters. Xen’Mordin took his time in finally luring the man out and killing him slowly.
Finally alone on the ship, each of the crew carefully accounted for and removed, Xen’Mordin repaired the hyperdrive. Taking time to enjoy his solitude on the massive ship, Xen took his time going through the crew’s belongings and supplies before making his way to the bridge. When he finally did, there was a cryptic message waiting for him. It contained a single point of coordinates. What he was looking for had found him first. When he arrived at the isolated and sparsely populated system the coordinates pointed to, a second message was delivered, directing him to a remote moon of one of the system’s gas giants. The Dark Brotherhood was waiting.
Imperial Indoctrination (18 ABY - 19 ABY)
Xen’Mordin at the time he joined the Brotherhood
Xen’Mordin was taken through the mysterious Shroud to the Antei system that hid within it. There he was sent to the Lyspair, a moon in orbit around Antei to be tested at the Shadow Academy. Xen’s first several weeks there were brutally punishing. Rusty from his the regular practice he had under Tyler Reynolds, his force abilities, and combat skills were lacking. More than that, he was still living in agony as his mind held together in a fragile and misshapen way. Xen became dedicated to the Force, and in the power of the dark side and the ways of the Sith. When he had adequately satisfied the professors and trainers of the Academy, Xen was issued placement in one of the great clans of the Brotherhood.
Xen’Mordin was sent to the Cocytus system, the home system of Clan Scholae Palatinae, a small isolated system near the borders of Hutt space. He joined the ranks of House Caliburnus, and begun to learn the ways of a system spanning Empire, and a ruling royal class. Scholae Palatinae itself believed its origin could be traced back to the Force-sensitives that guarded Emperor Palpatine’s greatest artifacts and secrets. From his first day there, Xen was exposed to the heavy Imperial propaganda that filtered everything experienced by the citizens of the system.
He was placed under the tutelage of a Nautolan referred to as Warhunter. Warhunter pushed Xen’Mordin hard, forcing the young man to hone his skills he had learned under Tyler, and expand beyond what he thought possible. Within months Xen was on par with where he had been at the end of his time with Tyler Reynolds. At the forefront of every aspect of his training, however, was the reminder of the greatest success the Sith had ever known. The might of the Galactic Empire, and Palpatine’s brilliant sweep to power and destruction of the Jedi Order. While the members of the clan demonstrated their own typical Sith tendencies, that quest for power was hard coded to the set of ideals of serving one’s own desires, and the good of the Cocytus Empire.
For Xen’Mordin, the power hungry tactics and games fed the parts of his mind that were twisted by the might of the Force nexus. The higher calling of serving the Empire, however, spoke to the other parts. While his split mentalities made it hard for any member of Scholae Palatinae to get close to him, both pushed him forward in a constant effort to better himself. At the times he was exceeding his own expectations, the more at peace his mind was. And that was a comfort that he could not put a price on.
The Manipulative (19 ABY - 28 ABY)
- "We must do this, no one else has the capacity. And they will never see us coming."
- ―Xen’Mordin to Impetus
Xen’Mordin quickly went to work integrating himself into Clan Scholae Palatinae. Taking the power questing of the Sith, the glory of the Galactic Empire, and his own ambitions as his motivation, he would work ceaselessly to achieve his goals. He would take a fervent study of Emperor Palpatine’s life and strategies. This study would push Xen, along with the help of some closely trusted allies, into playing a long game to seat himself upon the throne. Taking years of preparation and works, this singular goal dominated his actions for nearly a decade of his life.
A Leader (19 ABY)
Impetus M’Nar
Xen’Mordin had only been in the Brotherhood and a member of Scholae Palatinae when he received his first example of the treacherous nature of the Dark Jedi he now called his brothers and sisters. A rift had formed in Scholae Palatinae, with member turning against member. Caliburnus entered a standing feud with another house of the clan, Dorimad Sol. Scholae Palatinae’s third house, Acclivis Draco, withheld from the combat as war seeped through the entire system. After a bloody and violent conflict, Xen emerged in as a highlighted member, recognized clan wide as a capable warrior, and leader.
This internal conflict within the clan, begun a snowball effect for Xen’Mordin. He was already taking the Imperial ideals to heart, and saw this conflict within the Empire itself as a show of poor leadership and drive from the top levels. While he himself knew all too well the lust for power, there were too many enemies outside of the clan to spend their time fighting amongst themselves.
It was following this house feud, that Xen’Mordin was offered an opportunity to help shape the clan as a leader, directly offered by the sitting Emperor, Timbal. Xen was made Aedile of House Caliburnus. It was in this position that he met Impetus M’Nar, a young Twi’lek, who had been named as the Quaestor of the House. They were soon joined by a Neti named Ood Bnar, who would serve as the House’s Rollmaster.
Impetus and Xen’Mordin were both intelligent, young, and highly driven. They both quickly orientated to the life of a leader within Scholae Palatinae and brought much-needed stability to the stumbling Caliburnus. This included a shocking upset victory against the consistently praised House Acclivis Draco during the events of Contention. But Caliburnus occupied just a small corner of the Empire, located on the planet of Ptolomea. Whatever skills and powers they amassed on this planet, did little to truly demonstrate their capabilities.
The weeks turned into months, and both Impetus and Xen’Mordin began to quietly express frustrations from the shortcomings and glaring flaws weakening the clan’s hold in the system. Cocky, headstrong, and determined, the two began to formulate a plan. They took inspiration from Emperor Palpatine himself, and his brilliant manipulation of the Republic into giving him more and more power willingly, finally seating himself as Emperor by thunderous applause. Confident that their combined intellect and skills would allow them to adapt to roadblocks in their plan, they began their long con to take control of the entire Empire.
The Sword (20 ABY)
The hilt of Caliburnus
House Caliburnus was named so, after a mythical and ancient lightsaber, the permeate the legends of the native people of the Cocytus system. The members of House Caliburnus were regarded as the sword, skilled warriors, in comparison to the dragon of Acclivis Draco and the sun of Dorimad Sol. The validity of the myth surrounding the lightsaber had been in question for years. The stories were just that, stories used to bolster the members of the house in a shared belief. What the members of Scholae Palatinae didn’t realize, was that no one had ever attempted to properly piece together the history of the lightsaber in its entirety. An artifact such as that would be an incredible find for the Empire.
It took a little more than two months of researching for Xen’Mordin and Impetus to not only validate that the lightsaber existed but pinpoint its exact location. It was in a temple deep in the dark jungles of Ptolomea. If it was found, it would clearly be a sign of one’s right to command the House. However, Xen and Impetus did not wish to find it for themselves. Those well versed in the lore of the lightsaber knew it was always coupled with a terrible price upon those vain enough to try to wield it as their own. Xen and Impetus wished to allow another to claim it, and ultimately further destabilize the entire system. This would begin the first phase of their plan.
News of the true existence of the lightsaber was leaked to the House, through Ood Bnar, thinking it was his own work that validated its location. Multiple groups of interested parties began to prepare, knowing if they could retrieve the lightsaber, control of the house and all of Ptolomea would be theirs. According to plan, Xen’Mordin began the venture to find Caliburnus in the same party as Impetus, only to publically betray her, by going to help a vain and power-hungry man, Thran Occasus, retrieve the blade. Stories persisted for years of the duel that followed this betrayal, Impetus attacking in rage, and Xen’Mordin expertly defending himself, both fully knowledgeable of each other's skills and methods from hours of training together.
Thran came to trust Xen’Mordin largely thanks to this singular act, believing falsely that Xen was a loyal and controllable tool to be used in his own quest for power. This betrayal also added further cover to Xen’s and Impetus’s plan, for there would no way the two would be working together following such a public betrayal. Thran assumed the mantle of Quaestor for House Caliburnus, Impetus left the house to return to Acclivis Draco on Antenora, and Xen’Mordin turned his own efforts to the next steps of their plan.
Vismorsus Industries (21 ABY - 26 ABY)
There was a comforting sense of anonymity in no longer having the burden of leadership. Xen’Mordin was free to pursue the foundation that he would take the throne of the Empire from. As he watched Thran shake House Caliburnus crazy, he was able to focus on establishing himself as a popular and exemplary citizen of the Cocytus system. That is, at least, the image he made public, as the citizens had no need to know about the framing, torture, and murdering that he took up to progress his goals. After amounting a small horde of credits and contacts in the system, he was ready.
Xen’Mordin founded his own company Vismorsus Industries. Having proved himself to his clanmates on multiple occasions, and having pulled together his own resources, along with ones directed to him by Impetus, Vismorsus Industries took off like a wildfire. The core company established itself as a scientific research company, with branching ventures into manufacturing, trade goods, and every other service imaginable. Xen had inherited his parents’ affinity for the business world, and even without the bribes, blackmail, and blessing of the clan, it was quickly a viable company.
While Xen’Mordin had bigger plans for both his company and the Empire itself, his newfound wealth allowed him to appear overly generous with the civilians. Xen spent money out of his own pocket to provide more affordable housing, medical centers, feeding the hungry, and expanding the system’s education system. The later became a huge boon for Xen’s plans as he was able to directly recruit from the improving schools into his company. Improving his public image, and the continued wellbeing of the company came to occupy much of his time.
The better his public image, the more he was able to push his company into the development of things that were of benefit to the clan, and the Empire’s control. Research ranged from mind control serums, fear toxins, advanced weaponry and machines, new droids, computing software, and more. As long as he supplied goods that improved the lives of the civilians, the less than reputable developments went overlooked by everyone.
Because of this, Xen’s biggest threats to his long-term plans for the Empire and his company was not from any outside person or group, but from himself. While he had come to fully embrace the identity of Xen’Mordin as his own and was a fully dedicated Sith and scholar of Emperor Palpatine, his painful past still left him with a fractured mind. Xen’Mordin was still a broken man, both Xen’Mordin and Kilan at all times, and those sides were in a constant struggle to end up on top. This threw him from one mood to another, an icon for the civilians to the cruel and power-hungry Sith. Xen knew if he was going to continue to build his reputation in the Cocytus system, he would need to find a way to make peace with himself.
Secret Agent Man (22 ABY)
Xen'Mordin in 22 ABY
Xen’Mordin spent most of his time developing and leading Vismorsus Industries, but he could not deny that life outside the Cocytus system was just as important as within, or that Scholae Palatinae had its own needs to be dealt with. The Imperial Scholae Intelligence initiative had been recently founded by Impetus, and while many believed the two despised each other, this powerful Intel agency proved to be invaluable to progressing their plans.
ISI provided resources and information vital to their plan. Seated firmly within its upper ranks, Impetus could redirect intelligence to suit their needs. Information on competing companies, areas of strongest propaganda effect, contacts of ill repute, and more were passed in secret to Xen’Mordin. And when they needed a blind eye on their own dealings, ISI found itself largely preoccupied with other pressing matters. Xen would have to make many trips out into the galaxy at large. Expanding his company, dealing with threats to the clan, recruiting members, and more would occupy his time. These ventures would also always result in some spare time for Xen to disappear for an evening to meet with contacts outside of the system that had been identified as useful by Impetus within the ISI. These individuals with a wide set of skills, and a lust for the credits Xen could now bring them.
These contacts and mercenaries were utilized multiple times by Xen’Mordin over the following years. However, as useful and productive these missions were in advance his own plans and establishing himself as a reliable face within Scholae Palatinae, there was another reason he came to relish these trips. They took him away from the Cocytus system, and away from the eyes of the public who would recognize him. He was free to move unrestricted. He came to appreciate the twisted irony in the fact that the system he was seeking to control, was a prison for what he was on the inside, and what one-half of his mind raged for on a daily basis.
The Restoration (24 ABY)
The top levels of Coruscant
Xen’Mordin had finally reached the limit of his capabilities to function. The chasm that divided his mind had become too much to bear. His days were spent locked away in his quarters, cramming as much work as he could in the few moments of lucidity he would experience on any given day. He barely slept, barely ate, and by shutting himself away, many in the clan began to suspect that his body was finally giving away to the high-pressure schedule he had been keeping.
Fueled by his refusal to die, and sustained solely by the power of the Force, Xen’Mordin left the Cocytus system behind and returned to his home planet of Coruscant. The planet held little personal meaning to him now, having been almost two decades since he had ever called it home, but he couldn’t deny he felt drawn to return to the planet deep in the core. Xen found a cheap room to stay in, and locked himself away, waiting for the Force to guide his next actions. It was in one of his rare outings for food, in a moment of lucidity, that he was recognized.
It was his elder sister, Sairia, that called out to him by his old name, Kilan, in the busy streets. He stared blankly back at her, she was older, eyes full of certainty that she had found her brother. Xen’s mind went back to his last family encounter, his brother’s body still decaying where it fell in the temple. Sairia was not what Xen’Mordin needed to heal, she only brought more confusion and pain. Xen also had no way to even begin what had happened to him or who he was now. He pushed Sairia aside and disappeared into the crowded walkway.
Xen’Mordin spent the next few hours, drinking the afternoon away in a nearby cantina. Drunk, he stumbled back to the tiny place he was staying at. He came to a stop just outside of the door. Xen could sense clearly someone was inside the room, waiting. Someone he had not seen for many years. Tyler Reynolds found his student at last. He must have had some inkling of what had happened to Xen, sensing him when Xen returned to the planet at last.
Tyler begged in a feeble and useless way for Xen’Mordin to return to the light. Instead of listening to the old man’s plea, he turned the argument around back at Tyler, blaming him for leaving them in the first place, for not preparing them adequately, for ripping them from their families in the first place, and a million other things. Kara would never have died if Tyler had not taken them both as padawans. Kilan would never have suffered and died. Xen’Mordin would never have been born if it had not been for the old man. The more he yelled at Tyler, the better Xen felt.
Tyler realized there was no more reasoning with Xen’Mordin. His apprentice Kilan was truly dead, and this Sith before him needed to be dealt with before bringing destruction to the galaxy. Xen had been waiting for Tyler to come to this realization. It was a cramped duel, brutal, relentless. Tyler showed his age, while Xen showed his fatigued and weakened state that his unstable mind had reduced him to. But in the end, Tyler had no hope, Xen’Mordin was young and had years of honing his dark side capabilities. Xen slew his former master and mentor. With Tyler dead as his feet, Xen collapsed into his bed and slept for three days.
Waking to the smell of rot setting into Tyler’s corpse, Xen’Mordin gathered his belongings and left. For the first time since his powers were restored by the Force nexus, Xen felt whole, complete, free of internal conflict. He was able to accept his grief, his rage, and in killing his former master, Xen’Mordin was able to meld with Kilan, and fight no more. Kilan was Xen’Mordin, and Xen’Mordin was Kilan, and he would not let anything prevent him from reaching his goals, not even himself.
The Cause and The Usurper (24 ABY)
Late in 24 ABY, following the retaking of Antei, one of the most critical moments needed to fully destabilize the system occurred. The newly appointed Emperor, Lucien the Fearless had come into power with a shaky grip on the system. It was time to allow a more volatile individual take control to push the Empire to the boiling point. To do that, Xen’Mordin made use of the many contacts he had made over the past several years.
Thran Occasus, just as power hungry as he had been on Ptolomea when searching for Caliburnus, had found himself sitting as Lucien’s right-hand man, Proconsul of the clan. Xen’Mordin had maintained a strong relationship with Thran over the last several years. The relationship existed from Thran’s belief that Xen’Mordin was subservient and easily malleable. Xen did whatever was required to fuel that belief. This was a radical difference than Thran’s attitude toward Impetus, who in order to ease Thran’s mind toward a coup to take the throne, faked her own death and disappeared from the system. She and Xen met one last time to ensure he would send a message, an ad looking to hire capable scientists, when he had succeeded in taking the throne, letting her know it was time to return.
Xen’Mordin spent weeks planting various tidbits of information, and ideas in Thran’s head. But it did not take long before Thran was certain he had arrived at the conclusion himself, that it was time to go all in and take the system. To back Thran’s attempt to take the Empire, Xen provided further information of a terrorist organization known as The Cause, that would be capable of aiding Thran to usurp the throne. This organization was, of course, created by Xen’Mordin and Impetus over the last several years, paying its members a hefty fee to do as they were told. Xen also enjoyed the jest that Thran was totally unaware of the origin of the terrorist group’s name. They were there for a cause, the only cause Xen cared about, putting himself on the throne.
Thran used The Cause to sow terror in the system, and in the process broke Lucien’s frail grip on the system. Lucien disappeared, and Thran had managed to take the throne for himself. The Cause disappeared without a trace the instant Thran was able to secure the throne. Self-assured of his right to rule, Thran titled himself The Usurper. Most remarkable was the low number of soldiers and civilians killed in the smoke and mirrors that were used to disrupt the system. However, the panic that had generated was real enough, and the memories of a unified front against the horrendous terrorists would play a handful of years later when Xen’Mordin himself used The Cause to become Emperor. He made sure they were paid well, on top of the money Thran had thrown at them, and they disappeared as if they had never been there.
Spoils of War (26 ABY)
Landmap of Salas V
Thran’s rule had proved to be more disrupted than either Xen’Mordin or Impetus could have predicted. The Emperor’s party-hard lifestyle had put a sour taste in most of the members’ mouths while doing little to curb his declining approval rates in the system. Many members left the clan just to get away from the vain Usurper. Those who stuck around were left attempting to patch the disarray that had taken over the Cocytus system.
This disarray reached a critical point when in 26 ABY, the Grand Master, Muz Ashen declared all of the Brotherhood were to venture to the distant planet of Salas V to participate in a mighty Rite of Supremacy, the planet’s control a shiny gem to be awarded to the victors. Thran ordered all of Scholae Palatinae’s forces to the planet surface, looking to be the first Emperor to expand the Empire outside of the Cocytus system.
Many members of the clan fought hard, pushing themselves and the military to seize the planet. But Thran was nowhere to be seen, and his Proconsul, Angelo Dante, had his hands full. In the end, without a fully focused central leadership to rally the clan, the individual efforts of a few proved to only be moderately successful. When the dust settled, and the violent Killiks of Salas V were destroyed, Scholae Palatinae sat embarrassingly outclassed by nearly every other clan in the Brotherhood.
Xen’Mordin witnessed this defeat first hand. He made a strong showing himself on Salas V but kept himself cautiously out of major danger for the entire war. Dying at the hand of an insect would have been a horrible way to end when he had done so much to take the throne. A greater air of dismay took over the fracturing clan, and while it hurt to see the Empire in even a more broken state, Xen knew it ultimately would be for the greater good that this happened.
The Dragon (27 ABY)
The seal of House Acclivis Draco
Xen’Mordin knew it was time to begin to position himself within the clan for his final push to take the throne. He had spent years building up a solid reputation in the clan, and within the system, but it would not be enough to take the throne. He had to prove himself as a leader for the rest of the clan to fully support him. He accepted the position of Aedile within the great House Acclivis Draco alongside the newly appointed Quaestor Exodius. Exodius, a Trandoshan, who had been a long-standing member of the Dragon House, and a proud and fearsome individual, proved to be a lackluster Quaestor.
Control of the House was immediately offered to Xen’Mordin, who graciously accepted the position of Quaestor. Acclivis Draco had been long recognized as the strongest and most capable of the clan’s three houses. It was based on the harsh desert planet of Antenora, which was a wildly different climate than Xen’s estate back on the capital planet of Judecca. The planet was divided up under control of multiple warring tribes, which Xen immediately started to work with to unify the planet, establishing a plan that would later be executed brilliantly by Koryn Thraagus.
Xen’s own control of the house would prove to be just as brief as Exodius’s however. Just a few months after accepting the position of Quaestor, Angelo Dante, resigned his position as Proconsul. Dante had been the one who had held together the fracturing clan under Thran’s rule, and his resignation put Xen’s final goals within grasp. However, his plans were thwarted by Thran picking a member from Clan Plagueis to succeed Dante’s position as Proconsul. Ood Bnar, the once dutiful Rollmaster who served in House Caliburnus with Xen’Mordin and Impetus years before had decided to return to the Empire.
This action offended Xen’Mordin greatly, who would hold this grudge against Thran for years. However, unknown to him at the time, this action worked out to his benefit, as it put the pieces in play for an even stronger claim to take the throne than he would have otherwise. An edict from the Grand Master himself would see Xen’s time as Quaestor cut short.
Infection (27 ABY)
Csilla
Xen’Mordin would frequently leave Antenora and return to Judecca as part of his duties as Quaestor. It was his job to represent his House to the Clan, and his job to ensure the planet of Antenora ran in harmony with the will of the Empire. It was in 27 ABY, during one of these ventures to the Capital, that Xen arrived at a completely silent and inactive Palace. As he departed his ship and opened the doors leading from the hanger to the Palace, a fine green mist poured out of the doors. Xen jumped back and held his breath, certain it was a toxin, but it was too late. He was infected, just like everyone else in the palace.
He found staff and Clan members in the halls of the palace. Each unconscious, but alive in a coma-like state. Xen’Mordin rushed to the advanced medical center in the palace. With the aid of the medical droids he was able to isolate the toxin, and learned he had a natural resistance to its effects. He would ultimately succumb to it like the others, but he had hours with which he could attempt to generate an antitoxin. He learned there was a viable one to be created, but required compounds that were only found in the rare snow flowers from the homeworld of the Chiss, Csilla.
Xen’Mordin took the most direct route to the planet he could, not caring to be noticed, or stopped by the Chiss military. He knew the instant he entered the system, he would be noticed. Already feeling the drowsy and lethargic symptoms of the toxin taking hold, he jumped intra-atmosphere from hyperspace, nearly crashing his ship. He gathered as many of the flowers as he could carry, and returned to his ship to get back to the Cocytus system before it was too late.
As Xen’Mordin broke the atmosphere of the planet to jump away, he was flanked by many fighters ships of the Chiss, who were demanding he stop and be taken in for questioning. When Xen didn’t respond, they opened fire as he jumped to lightspeed, damaging his ship, but not enough to destroy it. Xen’Mordin was forced to crash the damaged vessel in the hangar bay of the Palace. He dragged himself and the flowers, off the ship and attempted to make it back to the medical center. He was just down the hall from it when he finally fully succumbed to the toxin’s effects.
Xen’Mordin awoke three days later in a bed in the medical center. One of the medical droids had gathered the flowers Xen had on him when he collapsed down the hall and generated the antitoxin to begin treating the infected. All those who were affected had been returned to full health, but the source of the toxin itself was never fully determined.
Grand Marshal of the Empire (27 ABY)
Logo of Scholae Palatinae
Thran Occasus had vanished. In his wake, he left a Clan and Empire broken and crippled. With his parting, Ood Bnar held tightly to the top levels of Clan and Empire resources allowing both to remain upright for the time being. But then came word directly from the Iron Throne. The resources allocated to the clans by the Council were being cut back, and all Clans were instructed to immediately restructure as independent houses, a humiliating drop in status for everyone. The long-standing houses of Acclivis Draco, Dorimad Sol, and Caliburnus were immediately dissolved. Control of everything now would rest with the sitting summit of House Scholae Palatinae.
The role of Quaestor and position of Emperor fell to Ood, by a declaration from Muz Ashen. Believing he could right the ship, Ood was given an impossible situation. The members were outraged by the slights of the Dark Council, and while Ood had been a member in the past, he had been gone for years as a member of Clan Plagueis before returning as Thran’s Proconsul. Many were left seeing him as just a continuation of Thran’s chaos. As for the Empire itself, its people were on the brink of revolt against the Empire, Thran’s lavish and selfish lifestyle burdening the civilians heavily.
As the new Emperor, Ood was dubbed “The Hardwood”, and had to find his second in command. Having worked with Xen’Mordin years before in House Caliburnus, and having seen Xen’s stint recently leading Acclivis Draco, he quickly named Xen’Mordin the Aedile for the house, and Grand Marshal for the system. This placed Xen’Mordin as the direct commander of the entire Imperial Military Force. Xen was recognized as a skilled warrior, and due to the many battles he had fought along with the military personnel, had an immediate support of the armed forces.
Where Thran had been bold, brash, and brazen, Ood was quiet, quaint, and quiescent. Xen’Mordin realized this was to his benefit in his quest to finally take the throne. A weak leader and a major threat would be all it took for him to seize control backed completely by his fellow brethren, and to the great aplomb of the citizens of the Empire. The time had come for him to enact the final act of the plan.
The Neutralization (28 ABY)
Judecca
The Cause returned with a shocking and abrupt series of rapid-fire attacks throughout the system. Hospitals, schools, shopping centers, military locations, and in a deft move of illusion, some of Xen’s own company facilities were all target in a string of carefully planned out attacks. It was a numbers game, one that had been meticulously planned out. Just enough death, just enough horrifying locations to whip the system into a full on frenzy. If it wasn’t for the fear and panic the attacks caused, some might have noticed the incredible ease of the terrorists pulling off these attacks, seemingly out of thin air. But the over the top, bold and demeaning holovids that followed each attack, kept the focus on the who, not the how of the attacks.
Xen’Mordin held all the cards, from the military response to the Cause operatives that he was paying handsomely to attack his own system. Of course, none of them would live long enough to spend any of the credits, that too was planned, in the strong handed response Xen organized and had carried out by his own members of the clan. Ood was invisible, so much so he might not have existed at all. Xen took center stage as the strong leader that unified the system against such bold attacks. But first, he had to let the entire system see how bad it could get with the non-response of Ood. Just as the Empire was ready to storm the grounds of the palace, Xen gave the green light to strike back.
While the members of Scholae Palatinae hunted down the terrorists with information based on ISI created dossiers, Xen’Mordin was also using his own funds to build up the damaged parts of the system. He went in person to each of the families that lost loved ones and got his hands dirty clearing the rubble left in the Cause’s wake. With the last of the Cause leaders rounded up and executed, Xen had the full backing of his clan as a strong leader and the backing of an Empire in desperate need of a true leader. Xen’Mordin issued an immediate declaration of imprisonment for Ood Bnar for failing the Empire so egregiously.
Xen’Mordin took the throne with an unprecedented backing and approval of the citizens of the Cocytus Empire. And as he took the mantle of Quaestor for House Scholae Palatinae, his support was nearly universal as the clear successor to lead them forward. He took for himself the tyrant title of Xen’Mordin the Manipulative, and turned his sight on establishing the Empire as a lasting force in the galaxy.
The Emperor (28 ABY - Present)
- "Now the Empire can begin anew."
- ―Xen’Mordin upon taking the throne
Xen’Mordin wasted no time in securing his hold over the Cocytus system. The years of planning and preparing had finally paid off, and now he was able to do as he saw fit. The Cocytus Empire was to become stronger than ever. His rule marked on of the longest and most heavily active periods of a ruler both for the Empire and for Scholae Palatinae. Between his massive modernization of the Empire, and unwavering dedication, few would ever wish to depose him from the throne. This was a nearly unimaginable feat for a society and culture built upon betrayals and backstabbing.
Imperialization (28 ABY)
Xen’s Mask
Over the course of the years leading up to Xen’Mordin taking the mantle of Emperor, he had studied over every aspect of Emperor Palpatine’s life he could find, along with his actions that led to the rise of the Galactic Empire. Palpatine, a master manipulator, had not only led the Galactic Republic to willingly form into the Empire but had been able to completely hide his identity as Darth Sidious. This separation of Sith and politician was a factor Xen took very seriously in his first days leading the Cocytus Empire. To the public, he was an attractive, intelligent, and charismatic leader, one that the people could believe and rally behind. To the Brotherhood he was a cold and calculating Sith, face shielded by a mask bearing the sigil of Scholae Palatinae.
This radical split between the public Emperor and hidden Sith dominated Xen’s lifestyle for years. However, it was far from the only radical action he would start as Emperor. He ordered the immediate dissolvement of the high royal class that had plagued the Empire with unnecessary bureaucracy. Planetary rule was moved to Planetary Governors, who were either willing loyal puppets, or members of Scholae Palatinae itself. The Governors, in turn, reported to the System Moff, a position he had added to the chain of command, adding it to the active duties of Scholae Palatinae’s Rollmaster. The Imperial Senate, a venue for the populace to be heard, and feel like the had a place in the government was completely gutted in several stages. Nearly every single aspect of the Empire was rebranded, refined, and made uniform. The Empire needed to function as a well-oiled machine.
Xen’Mordin also took major action in the private sectors as well, routing out hindrances of resources, and through some more untalked about actions against the corrupted portions of the economy. He nationalized multiple large corporations that provided crucial goods and services throughout the system. He was able to expand what he started with Vismorsus Industries into multiple new high level educational and research facilities. These were taken in as part of a government-wide push for education the system to improve, while also promoting loyalty to the Empire. The banking and finance system came under a strict and regulated review. The entirety of the news media in the system was restructured to fit an absolute pro-Imperial agenda, as well as the ability to be used to direct attention away from events that would negatively impact the public’s view of the Empire.
Retaliation (29 ABY)
Emperor Vismorsus
Early into Xen’s reign, a single event kick-started a long run of tense situations between Scholae Palatinae, and rival Brotherhood unit Naga Sadow. Historically the two units were mostly ambivalent toward each other, but that was set to change. A long-standing Palatinaean and one of the keepers of the Legacy of Palpatine, Angelo Dante, was tasked to go with the sitting FIST, Fremoc Pepoi, on a mission to the Alsakan system. The pair were tasked with hunting down a rogue Jedi, Michael Halcyon. Michael Halcyon had on several occasions been a member and leader within Scholae Palatinae, so Xen’Mordin wished to task one of his best with bringing down the Jedi.
While Angelo and Fremoc succeeded in their mission of locating the Jedi, Michael was aware of their presence and fought the pair off. In the midst of a quick paced duel, thanks largely to the incompetent actions of Fremoc, Angelo was killed and Michael escaped capture. Angelo’s body was returned to the Cocytus system, where Xen’Mordin ordered a day of mourning to precede a burial given ever honor and status there was within the Empire, a burial befitting a fallen hero of the Empire. While ensuring his loyal friend and advisor was properly recognized, Xen’s mind was focused on one thing, retaliation. Fremoc was a long standing member of Naga Sadow, and at the time was even a Son of Sadow. Despite Fremoc’s position on the Dark Council, Xen was willing to go to any lengths to avenge the death of Angelo, a sentiment echoed by all in Scholae Palatinae.
Xen’Mordin knew an outright attack on a member of the Council would have been suicide, as each member was protected by the Grand Master, Muz Ashen, Muz himself being from Naga Sadow. This knowledge and common sense didn’t stop some, as an estranged Scholae Palatinae member, Cado H’darr, was killed while trying to take revenge into his own hands.
In the days that followed, a bomb was detonated in a hangar, one clearly sent to kill Fremoc, who had just landed. Fremoc, however, was spared from death, merely being injured in the blast. Fremoc’s son, Thomas, was killed as the young boy had been running to greet his father. It was impossible for anyone to directly link Xen’Mordin, or anyone else in Scholae Palatinae, to the bomb. Yet, everyone knew full well the parties involved, and the message that was being sent. Before any further escalation of the issue could arise, the Grand Master, called the Council and all unit Leaders together to make it abundantly clear that any further acts of aggression would face immediate repercussions. Xen’s thirst for revenge would have to stay sated for the time being.
The Invasion of New Tython (29 ABY)
The Grand Master had different plans for the boiling aggression that was festering between all the units of the Brotherhood. For months they had tolerated Lord Ashen’s unorthodox unit, Odan-Urr, a band of Jedi who was tied to the Iron Throne. The time for tolerance had come to an end, as the dark side aligned units went to New Tython, the refuge of the Jedi. The Invasion of New Tython, began and each of the long-standing units of the Brotherhood left their systems behind looking to exterminate the Jedi.
For Xen’Mordin, and the rest of Scholae Palatinae, this fight was a personal one as well, for the traitor Michael Halcyon was among those leading the defenses of the Jedi on the planet. Xen placed the continued restriction and restoration of the Empire on hold, and personally led the foray for his people. With the aid of his Grand Marshal Archangel, and System Moff Rayne, the massive stride for progress could wait while Scholae Palatinae filled its blood lust.
Unexpectedly, however, the Jedi were not alone on New Tython, an arsenal of Mandalorians arrived just as the invasion began, being paid heavily to defend the planet. Among the Mandalorians was [Maximus_Raidoner_Mandalore|Maximus Raidoner]], another betrayer to the Empire and Scholae Palatinae. In the field of battle, Xen’Mordin was robbed of being the one to issue punishment upon the two traitors Michael and Raidoner but was present to witness their violent demise first hand.
The spoils that followed the war were enough to squash the negative feelings Xen’Mordin had about not being the one to kill the two traitors. Enough plunder was taken from the planet for a new space station to replace the old and worn out Dynasty Station. The much larger and more capable Dynasty II was purchased and place in high orbit around the planet of Ptolomea, a fitting trophy to remind them of the war.
The Orian Incursion (30 ABY)
Battle over Sepros
The members of Scholae Palatinae had a new surge of energy following the war on New Tython. Their strong showing in battle had given them a much-needed confidence boost. After years of faltering and weak attempts, their surprisingly commanding presence in the war provided them with a surge of forward momentum. Xen’Mordin knew that momentum had to be sustained for them to survive.
It was at this point that Xen’Mordin was approached by Tra’an Reith, the leader of Plagueis, one of the other units in the Brotherhood. Both Tra’an and Xen wanted to maximize their units energy to fully secure their place as one of the dominant units within the Brotherhood. This, of course, meant showing another unit was weaker. They decided that Naga Sadow was a prime target for attack. They were recovering from a poor performance on New Tython, unexpected and ill-prepared for an attack. For Xen, this was a personal matter. He was still enraged over the death of Angelo, and he wished to have a legitimate attack against the cowards of Naga Sadow. To invade Naga Sadow’s home, the Orian System, was something he could not pass on. He also knew it would provide a great opportunity for Plagueis to be weakened by Naga Sadow, allowing him to strike both down.
As the invasion of the Orian system began, Xen’s most trusted advisors within Scholae Palatinae strongly urged him to turn on Plagueis, allowing Naga Sadow and Plagueis to weaken each other before picking them off. This had been Xen’s plan from the start, but he put up a fight against this idea. He fought it just long enough to convince the members of Scholae Palatinae that they had some control over the direct they would take moving forward.
Palatinaean forces held back during the initial assault in the Orian System. Xen’Mordin didn’t even need to order this action, as Tra’an confident in his own forces, pressed the issue in being the leader of the attack. Scholae Palatinae was to arrive following the first barrage against the Naga Sadow forces. As the Sadowan forces pulled back to regroup, Xen issued a coded order, sending the entirety of the Palatinaean military to attack Plagueis’s rear.
Plagueis scrambled to form a defensive pattern against Scholae Palatinae. As they attempted this, Naga Sadow launched their counterattack. The Plagueians took heavy losses in a hasty retreat from the system, including losing their Star Destroyer, the Ballista. As they escaped Xen’Mordin ordered his own forces to retreat home without further escalation against the Sadowans.
Horizons (30 ABY)
Xen'Mordin during Horizons
Shortly after Orian Incursion, another crisis arose, one that brought Scholae Palatinae, and the Empire, to near extinction. This time, however, the threat came from an old face wielding an impossibly dangerous weapon. Zoraan, a former Grand Master, had returned having escaped the death so many had believed he had fallen to. With him, came the powerful and infectious disease, Lysu Thren’s Horizon Plague. This plague had been believed lost millennia ago, shortly after it was developed.
The plague spread like an unstoppable wildfire, infecting all Brotherhood systems simultaneously. It was subtle at first, symptoms slow to develop. Lowly ranked Journeymen began to demonstrate skills and abilities that even an Elder would struggle to accomplish. By the time enough Journeymen had displayed this capability, it was too late to stop it. The Journeymen turned mad and depraved. They turned on each other, and the more powerful members that oversaw them. Many were cut down by the Equites and Elders of their clans, in an effort to stop what was happening. But everyone was already infected.
Within the capital city of Ohmen on Judecca, riots erupted in the streets, and Xen’Mordin was forced to order an immediate system-wide lockdown. This failed to stabilize the issue, with the Horizon plague having been perfected into the ultimate weapon against the Dark Jedi of the Brotherhood, stripping them of all their powers. Xen’Mordin could do nothing but watch the plague tear apart his Empire. With the plague taking a full grip, Xen succumbed to its effects just as Zoraan, backed by One Sith forces, attacked.
Luckily, Xen’Mordin had first-hand experience with living without the connection to the Force. While he was better prepared than his fellow Palatinaeans, it was still a blinding and crippling experience. It brought with it a reminder of the darkest moments of his life, and the pain associated with it. Ultimately when it seemed that Zoraan had succeeded in killing the Brotherhood, a cure was discovered. As leader of Scholae Palatinae, Xen was one of the first to receive it and tasked with ensuring his members received it as well. He needed to restore order immediately.
Always Two (30 ABY)
Xen’Mordin came to realize he could not restore order alone, not after such a violent conflict that turned the civilians of the system against each other. Luckily for Xen, a new member of Scholae Palatinae had been showing tremendous potential in the months prior to the Horizons plague. Evant Taelyan, who had studied political science, and had a practiced hand at the art of propaganda, had already taken up residence as a key member of the now smaller and more focused battle team, Caliburnus.
Evant’s ambition, skill, and force affinity were apparent, but it was his skills at propaganda and understanding of how to play the political game that brought him to Xen’s attention. Xen’Mordin assessed Evant from afar, but following the chaos of Horizons, Xen was forced to take action. Evant quickly tackled any and every obstacle Xen’Mordin placed in front of him. Under Xen’s tutelage, Evant rose quickly to obtain the rank of Knight and was placed as the head of Caliburnus, with direct access to the resources the Imperial Scholae Intelligence provided.
The ambitions of the two men, alongside their very compatible personalities, led to a smooth and easy relationship. Where many master and apprentice pairings ended with bitter animosity and hatred, Evant and Xen’Mordin were able to avoid it, becoming very close friends. The tiered power status between the two faded over the years as they embarked on the long quest for ultimate power, no longer the Master and the Apprentice, but colleagues and equals.
The Dark Crusade (30 ABY - 32 ABY)
Xen'Mordin during the Dark Crusade
With Zoraan finally dead, and the threat of the One Sith that followed him still present in the galaxy, Grand Master Muz Ashen declared it was time to go on the offensive. The Brotherhood was to leave their home systems and strike out against the One Sith. The galaxy was wide, and over the millennia, the Sith had ventured to many planets, and now the One Sith had taken up hold on several of great power and historical importance. They sought the Sith history, lore, knowledge, and mighty artifacts that were scattered about the galaxy.
This offensive to destroy the One Sith, and recover the ancient Sith teachings and artifacts turned into a two-year long endeavor, the Dark Crusade. It was an unprecedented level of conflict and commitment for the members of the Brotherhood, and their militaries. Xen’Mordin would lead Scholae Palatinae through the long and bitter campaign against the One Sith, venturing to many planets in the quest for vengeance, and great power. But this campaign came at a cost, as with the members and military gone from the Empire of the Cocytus system was forced to languish with marginal and periodic oversight. The dreams of a mighty Empire were once again placed on hold for the strength the power of the Force would bring.
Nfolgai (30 ABY)
The first planet of the crusade that Scholae Palatinae attacked was Nfolgai. The planet had been suspected to be the resting place of Sorzus Syn, a famous Sith alchemist. Syn was the one credited for the creation of the first Sithspawn. Xen’Mordin was among the first on the surface, leading from the front lines against the planetary One Sith leader, Yobd Nan. Following assaults at the Temple of Sorzus Syn, and the frozen crashed ship the Render, the planet ultimately fell into Brotherhood control.
Rhelg (30 ABY)
Scholae Palatinae ventured to the planet of Rhelg following their successful assault on Nfolgai. The planet was home to a well-known but poorly studied fortress built by [starwars:Ludo_Kressh|Ludo Kressh]], the Sith Lord who ruled during the Great Hyperspace War. Xen’Mordin helped identify a bizarre Force anomaly on the surface, an anomaly that had gone undocumented until the Brotherhood touched down on the planet to raid the great fortress.
Bhargebba (30 ABY)
Preparing on Bhargebba
Xen’Mordin then led Scholae Palatinae to the planet of Bhargebba. The great weapon forge of Loka Dan had been discovered by the One Sith on the planet. The forge itself, in addition to being able to create weapons and armor of great power, was already full of artifacts ranging from Sith swords to Sith amulets, all created under the watchful and knowledgeable eye of Loka Dan himself. Xen knew these artifacts would help them greatly in their quest to establish a new Galactic Empire. However, the forge itself was protected by hired Mecrosa Order Assassins in addition to the One Sith forces stationed there. In the end, after a violent and bloody battle, the forge was captured and vaults pillaged.
Ashas Ree (30 ABY)
Ashas Ree was the next planet on Scholae Palatinae’s war path. Home to a lavish temple built by Sith Lord Garu. But it was not for the valuable art or artifacts from the temple that Xen’Mordin chose this planet as the next stage of Scholae Palatinae’s war. It had been established that Ashas Ree was the first planet that Sith Lord Freedon Nadd had visited following his fall to the dark side of the Force. It was here that Freedon Nadd found an incredibly powerful nexus of the Force. Xen having first-hand experience of the power that surged through a Force nexus wished to study it and allow easier access to the enhanced powers it provided to the Dark Jedi.
Korriz (30 ABY)
Scholae Palatinae’s personal greatest victory in the Crusade came on the planet Korriz. Whereas previous planets had seen strong efforts from several units of the Brotherhood, it was on Korriz that Scholae Palatinae stood largely unaided in battle against the One Sith. Korriz was a frequent stepping stone for the Sith Empires of old. It happened to be the home of the workshop of the skilled alchemist and magic weaver Tritos Nal. Tritos’ knowledge fell to Scholae Palatinae. Xen’Mordin had greater plans than just the Crusade and hoped to use this information to help demonstrate the full might of the Empire.
Dromund Kaas (30 ABY)
Dromund Kaas
Xen’Mordin has to make a critical decision. The Brotherhood was to attack two planets of incredible importance simultaneously. First, there was the holy planet of Ziost, and then there was the seat of the ancient Sith Empire, Dromund Kaas. Feeling there was more to learn about having a strong empire, Xen’Mordin elected to send his forces to Dromund Kaas. It was here that Scholae Palatinae had their first real chance to experience the power of, and fight against, the mysterious One Sith Lord Esoteric.
Bosthirda (31 ABY)
Following the end of 30 ABY, and the battle on Dromund Kaas, the Crusade slowed in pace, allowing Xen’Mordin to begin to correct the Empire back home in the Cocytus system. The Brotherhood had pushed the One Sith back to a small number of planets, but with the One Sith digging in deep, the Brotherhood had a longer and slower battle ahead of them. The first part of this new phase of battle was on the planet Bosthirda. It was here that the ancient lightsaber once wielded by Ferran himself had come to rest. As founder of the [[Obelisk ideology, Revelation was an artifact of incredible and intimate importance of the Brotherhood. However, recovery of the lightsaber would not be completed by Xen and Scholae Palatinae, being recovered by the forces of Taldryan.
Begeren (31 ABY)
Next came battle on the planet Begeren. The planet was noted for the many monuments that dotted its surface. These monuments in typical Sith fashion were stock piled with great treasures. It was said over a hundred thousand slaves had died in creating the great monuments, and Xen’Mordin was blown away by their scope and scale when seeing them with his own eyes. He couldn’t help but feel minuscule compared to what the full might of the Sith had once been able to accomplish.
Nicht Ka (31 ABY)
Nicht Ka, while uninhabitable outside of constructed structures, was the last outpost of One Sith forces that would prevent the Brotherhood from reaching the Sith homeworld of Korriban. While the planet was inhospitable, cultists who worshiped Freedon Nadd managed to create a hexagonal fortress as the sole refuge on the planet from the dangerous environment of the planet. It was here Warb Null’s mythic armor and unconventional lightsaber had been sent following Warb’s death at the hands of Ulic Qel-Droma. Tired and pushed to his limits during the crusade, it was finally coming to an end. The long push was over and the final battle against the One Sith was ready to begin.
For a Better Tomorrow (31 ABY)
The Empire was being bled dry from the continuous march of war dictated by the Council. They needed doctors, scientists, and engineers to develop new medical supplies, toxins, and serums to be used on the field of battle against the One Sith. It was at this time, Xen’Mordin made good on his promise to Impetus so many years prior. He placed out the call for the brightest and best, drawing in anyone he could to the Cocytus system. However, much to his ire, not a single one of the individuals he hired was a Twi’lek. Xen and Impetus had zero contact in the years since he helped her fake her death, and now for him, the obvious reason was that Impetus had met some other end in her ventures.
No one in the clan paid these new recruits any attention. Xen’Mordin had been diverting the best of the scientific minds from the Imperial Academy on Judecca since before he took the throne from Ood Bnar. And while these were outsiders, any advantage to be gained in the crusade was a worthy one. Among these outsiders was a Togruta, named Elincia Rei. None realized, not even Xen himself, that this Togruta was none other than Impetus M’Nar, hiding her identity with prosthetics and a strong force illusion. She had returned home at long last.
Looking Home Campaign (31 ABY - 32 ABY)
The relentless pacing of the Dark Crusade slowed following the siege of Dromund Kaas. While there were still many battles to be fought on Bosthirda, Begren, and Nicht Ka before any member of the Brotherhood would finally step foot on Korriban, it was at this time that the clans were allowed time regroup and refocus. Thus in 31ABY Xen’Mordin was once again able to divert his attention to the might of his Empire. In the year he and the rest of Scholae Palatinae had been absent, the civilians had forgotten much of why they should stay in line with the Empire’s wishes. The civilian leaders who had been expected to keep the system running had grown bold. Without the military forces to keep them in line, they became greedy and independent. It was over the course of 31 ABY that a group known as the Scions of Cocytus, an extremist organization backed by a religious cult The Order of the New Dawn, began to infiltrate the system.
The Scions were led by a fanatic, Fias Zhan, a man who believed it was his right to rule the Cocytus Empire. He had spent years studying the Empire and knew the truth of those who controlled the system. He was there to wage war on Scholae Palatinae, and to enact his own personal vengeance against Xen’Mordin, whom he viewed as an imposter.
The Ptolomea Deposition (31 ABY)
Ptolomea
The planet of Ptolomea was home to many of Scholae Palatinae’s biggest military training grounds, and was the launching point from which all supplies and reinforcements would be sent while the Empire was on the warpath. As the Crusade progressed on, these critical shipments of supplies dwindled. The conflict that arose from Scholae Palatinae’s investigation into these dwindling supplies became known as Ptolomea Deposition and marked the first of several major offensive moments Scholae Palatinae had to undergo to restore order to their home.
Ptolomea had been under the rule of a man named Lou Khebe. Vain and power hungry, but cowardly, Lou had not once attempted to act outside of Scholae Palatinae’s demands in the years he presided over Ptolomea. But now he had been assured that the holdings of the system were of a false Empire had no real authority over him. Evant Taelyan, knowledgeable about the planet’s workings from his recent time leading Caliburnus, organized an offensive to return to the Cocytus system and remove Khebe from power.
Xen’Mordin gave a singular order that Khebe must die. Rebellion could not be tolerated, and if it spread, he would lose what he had spent years fighting to gain. In the end, it was the unassuming scientist Elincia Rei who managed to kill Khebe. Khebe’s rebellion against the Empire fizzled out with his death, and in his place, Xen picked a suitable loyal leader to manage the planet, Jaran Pendragon. What intrigued Xen’Mordin most was Elincia’s methods of poisoning Khebe. He placed a high-level order with the Imperial Scholae Intelligence to begin a continuous monitoring of her. He knew there was more to her than met the eye.
In the weeks that followed, Xen’Mordin poured over intelligence gathered from Caliburnus around Khebe’s failed rebellion. It became clear that Khebe would never have acted in such a manner of his own accord. Someone had pushed him to it. At the time, Xen’Mordin had no idea that Khebe’s rebellion was the first move in a long game being played by Fias Zhan in his bid to claim the system, and the Empire, as his own.
The Antenora Rebellion (32 ABY)
Antenora
In the days prior to the Cocytus Empire unifying the entire system, the desert planet of Antenora was ruled by multiple warring tribes. The most powerful of these tribes was known as the Pacre Datship, who followed their Ognerate Emperor, and his religious council, the High Glyph Priests. When the system was unified, and Scholae Palatinae took control of the entire Cocytus System, the leaders of the Pacre Datship were imprisoned. Following the failed uprising by Khebe on Ptolomea, Fias Zhan freed the Pacre Datship Emperor and his Glyph Priests, with the promise of a free Antenora. They would go on to rally the people of the planet into Rebellion.
Xen’Mordin remained at the Imperial Palace on Judecca, while the majority of his clan and military went to Antenora to quickly put an end to the rebellion. He was confident that they could handle capturing and executing the Ognerate Emperor and Glyph Priests. It was in solitude he received the first of many taunting holovid conversations with Fias Zhan.
While the forces of Scholae Palatinae ventured to Antenora to put an end to the rebellion, and bring the Ognerate Emperor and Glyph Priests to justice, Xen’Mordin remained at the Imperial Palace on Judecca. It was there he received the first of many taunting and brief holovid conversations with Fias Zhan. Zhan took credit for the events on Antenora and Ptolomea and made the personal promise that he would see Xen’s head on a spike.
Not all of the tribes unified behind the Pacre Datship on Antenora. With their aid, Scholae Palatinae quickly quelled the rebellion. The Ognerate Emperor was killed in combat, however, several of the High Glyph Priests escaped into the vast deserts of the planet. Xen’Mordin ordered the sitting system Moff, Koryn Thraagus, to remain on the planet to coordinate a unified planet under the oversight of the Hoka Dachu tribe.
The Cainian Strikes (32 ABY)
Caina
At first, the strikes on Caina seemed to be no more than a typical labor dispute, by the hard working industrial people of the frozen planet. Such strikes gave Xen’Mordin little reason to worry, especially over the looming threat of the Scions of Cocytus. Xen spent his days organizing and heading a system-wide manhunt for Fias Zhan. But as the days went on the strikes grew escalating riots. Xen’Mordin ordered the military to the planet to restore order with a strong swift show of force, reasserting the Empire’s image of control and safety within the system.
When the military arrived they discovered it was far more than a labor dispute. Fias Zhan had set up shop on the planet, putting his Scions to hard work right under the nose of the Empire. There were dozens of abandoned labs, warehouses, and training facilities hidden in the ice plains of the planet. To add to Xen’s frustration that this had been missed, these were locations built and paid for directly by Scholae Palatinae over the years. For one reason or another, each had been abandoned as new leadership pushed the clan in different directions.
Zhan and his followers had discovered these abandoned facilities and put them to work. For months they had been operating in the discarded remains of the Empire’s ventures. In their utilization of these facilities, the Scions embedded themselves with the blue collar workers of the planet. They knew it was a matter of time before they would be discovered, and with their need for the facilities finished, Zhan organized the strikes to cover their retreat from the planet.
The stragglers of the Scions were either killed in the conflict or taken as prisoners for aggressive questioning. Xen’Mordin was furious that ISI had failed to notice these closed facilities were back in use and ordered an even more intrusive surveillance in the system. He then replaced the director of ISI with one who would take the charge of intelligence gathering more seriously. The failed and disgraced former director was left to starve to death in the deepest cells beneath the Imperial Palace. Luckily the captured Scions and bits of scrap left in the Scions’ retreat from Caina provided a wide set of new intelligence.
The Wrath of Zhan (32 ABY)
Sigil of the Scions of Cocytus
Xen’Mordin devoted all the resources he had available to find Fias Zhan. He knew without Zhan, the Scions would falter enough to be crushed. It was Zhan’s drive and brilliance that had kept the Scions succeeding in the system. Xen felt he had finally discovered a worthy opponent to challenge him, and he was not about to lose. Through a series of public escalations and broadcasts, Zhan made his presence known to the entire system. Quick attacks, propaganda, hacked news broadcasts were all used to make one thing clear. The Scions were here to play for keeps.
A large-scale attack was imminent. Zhan and the Scions were ghosts, any leads found turned out to not bring the Empire closer to securing Zhan. Xen’Mordin decided to take more drastic action and ordered an immediate blockage of Judecca and had all able-bodied members of Scholae Palatinae report to the capital city of Ohmen, home of the seat of the government and the Imperial Palace itself. If Zhan wanted to usurp the throne, he would have to come there and pry it from Xen’s cold dead grip.
Then Zhan attacked, dropping ships from orbit, full of his men, while others made kamikaze runs against the Empire’s ships. Scions already on the surface of the planet laid siege to Ohmen. Zhan then crashed a heavily modified freighter straight into the main entrance of the Imperial Palace. His forces flooded into the palace, quickly overwhelming Xen’Mordin and his Praetorian Guard. Xen was forced to retreat to the sublevels of the Palace, the levels utilized only by Scholae Palatinae and unlisted on all schematics of the palace. Xen activated the emergency lockdown, preventing the Scions from accessing him, but also securely stopping himself from returning to the upper levels easily.
Up on the surface, the streets of Ohmen were in chaos. Members of Scholae Palatinae, backed by the Imperial Military made its strong push back toward the palace. In their way were augmented Scion soldiers, corrupted into mutated berserkers, immune to pain, fast, strong, and very difficult to kill. As they got closer to the palace, Zhan released a fear toxin throughout the city. Luckily this toxin was recovered on Caina, and Elincia Rei had been working on an anti-toxin. She was able to create enough to get their forces to the palace. With the military storming the gate, Xen’Mordin was able to make the long climb up and return to the fight.
In the throne room, Xen’Mordin faced Zhan in a one versus one lightsaber duel, as the room filled with the fighting forces of their respective sides. The duel was periodically interrupted by falling chunks of the ornate ceiling. One such chunk of roofing fell upon Zhan, injuring the man and pinning him under the heavy rubble. Xen’Mordin had managed to jump out of the way just in time. Injured and enraged, Xen took one of the smaller chunks of ceiling and used it to bash Zhan’s head in until all that remained was a bloody pulp of flesh and broken bone. The Scions were defeated, and for the time being, peace and order returned to the Empire.
A Brotherhood Divided (32 ABY)
Korriban
While the units of the Brotherhood stood united in cause of the length of the Dark Crusade, it was a fragile peace wrapped around a time bomb. The clans had been deceived, and the true reason for their long and arduous war came to light. It was more than mere revenge against the One Sith, more than expanding the Brotherhood’s influence on the galaxy, it was for the selfish gain of one man. Muz Ashen had been using the Crusade to more easily gather the information and artifacts he required to complete the Rite of Obscuration. He sought to make himself an immortal Lord of the Sith. As he finally tried to enact its power, it was put to a halt thanks to quick action from former Grand Master Jac Cotelin, but in the process rendered the home of the Brotherhood, Antei, ruined and desolate.
In order to complete it, Muz and the units most loyal to him ventured to the Sith Homeworld of Korriban. This planet was now the last refuge of the One Sith, who had been slowly pushed back over the course of the Dark Crusade. Those who did not side with Muz Ashen, including Scholae Palatinae, followed the former Grand Master Cotelin to the planet, to stop the rite. They knew the costs for immortality were high, and Xen’Mordin was firmly against anyone but himself achieving it, least of Lord Ashen. The Brotherhood erupted into a true and full on civil war on the surface of the Korriban. It was a battle of three sides, The One Sith supported by Plagueis, The loyalists of Muz, and the rebels of Jac.
Xen’Mordin was among the first boots on the ground and led the charge for Scholae Palatinae. He ventured deep into the ancient Sith Academy and eventually into the Valley of the Dark Lords. The battle waged on for weeks and weeks. As the bodies of the dead piled, Xen’Mordin became more and more ruthless. It was a fight to survive, not to win honor and awards. When the dust finally settled, and the last drop of blood spilled, Darth Pravus rose to replace Muz Ashen as the Grand Master. The rite had been stopped, and Korriban was left with many more lives claimed.
Keeper of the Legacy (32 ABY)
Emperor Palpatine
Within hours of taking the Iron Throne, Darth Pravus reinstated all of the former clans back to their full set of supplies and resources. Those resources were needed, and no longer going to be held out as an unobtainable reward based on the whims of the Grand Master. With the full backing of the Dark Council, Scholae Palatinae was able to return home, once again a clan, and stronger than ever. With the Crusade officially over and no immediate threats to the clan and Empire, Xen’Mordin was able to quickly push the Cocytus system back into a state of advancement and Imperialization.
Xen’Mordin had not only managed to restore the clan to its full potential but did so leading from the front. Now regarded as the longest serving leading in the history of the clan, and one of the most radically loyal to the Empire, it was time for Xen to be properly recognized as one of the keepers. For years those few known as the keepers of the Legacy of Palpatine, had functioned in secret, isolated, remote from the clan that they had help shape. This was the first new addition to the group in years.
This was in part due to new guidance from Kell Dante, who had been awarded the title as a continuation from his father, Angelo. He recognized the shut-off nature of the group did little to truly protect the legacy of the great Emperor. It was time for them to take an active role in shaping the clan they called home. To this end, Xen’Mordin and Archangel were named the newest keepers of the legacy of Palpatine. Xen adopted the surname Palpatine in his Brotherhood functions, his right as a keeper to do so.
Forgotten (33 ABY)
Thousands of years before Scholae Palatinae would take control of the Cocytus system, it was the Infinite Empire who ruled. The creative and powerful Infinite Empire had turned the Cocytus system into a living laboratory, rich with resources, and a wide spectrum of habitable planets. While little was truly known about the Infinite Empire, it was a common research subject within Scholae Palatinae. To further study what the Infinite Empire had done in the system, Xen’Mordin founded the Cocytus Historical Society, with his good friend Polis Jones as the head.
What Xen’Mordin couldn’t expect was that there were those in the system who already knew a great deal of the Infinite Empire and that the clan’s past failures would be quickly coming to haunt them. The Evanescent, backed by the last surviving High Glyph Priest, would see the might of the Infinite Empire rip Scholae Palatinae from the system in the modern day.
Entanglement (33 ABY)
Xen’Mordin using his telekinetic abilities
Xen’Mordin had not forgotten the threat of the surviving High Glyph Priest on Antenora posed. For months he had devoted resources to locating the last remnant of Fias Zhan’s destabilization of the Empire. But the High Glyph Priest, Vanis, had vanished along with what remained of the Pacre Datship. Xen was ready to lower the priority on trying to find Vanis and his followers when ISI finally found information. The Pacre Datship had named Vanis their new Emperor and were working with a group known as the Evanescent, headed by a man known as Lord Onasi.
It was in a meeting of the full summit and advisory board of the clan, that Polis Jones came storming in, disheveled with the information the clan needed. The Infinite Empire had used the system as a biological playground, looking to master life and death, as well as breed powerful and terrifying monsters for war. They had succeeded in creating these monsters, and they still lay slumbering in hibernation across the planets of the system.
Xen’Mordin organized a rapid deployment of top Scholae Palatinae members to further investigate on these Old Gods, as the natives referred to them, before taking off to Antenora to inspect Polis’s findings in person. Members of the clan infiltrated multiple meetings and parties throughout the system, working their way into contact with those who wished to topple the Empire, before disrupting final plans from being made. Dozens were arrested, more killed, and a pile of intel recovered.
Xen’Mordin and the clan thought they had disrupted the plans of Emperor Vanis and the Evanescent, however, these meetings were just a mere distraction. Deep in the jungles of Tetralibros on Ptolomea, Vanis and Onasi ran a trial run of the awakening ritual, causing thousands of beasts to appear. The beast appeared as if they were pure shadow all over the planet, creating a widespread panic among the population. Xen had drastically underestimated the scope of the threat before them.
Deception (33 ABY)
Xen’Mordin put Ptolomea on an immediate lockdown. He issued immediate evacuations from the countryside to the most defendable cities that dotted the planet’s surface. He gave command of oversight on the defense of these cities to Kell Dante. Unknown to his fellow Palatinaeans, Xen had stacked the deck in their favor of restoring order. He had put two of his top ISI operatives into play. Ashlyn Neka was posing as Mira Spar and had become a close associate of Lord Onasi. Silus Cherroa was known as Chaz Carlton and was among those in direct contact with Emperor Vanis.
Xen’Mordin spent most of his time coordinating supplies and military personnel to Ptolomea. He spent his days publicly spurring the civilians of the system into action, and providing personal, and very publicized, aid to those affected by the beasts. His nights were spent poring over reports and artifacts being sent to him by Polis Jones. To stop the monsters, and put an end to this threat he needed to understand the ways of the Old Gods.
Eventually, he was able to piece together enough of the awakening ritual to know where the complete ceremony would have to take place, a long lost and forgotten temple on Antenora. More importantly, he was able to find information that killing the individual who had awoken the monsters of Ptolomea would cause them to return to slumber. Believing these beasts to be the Old Gods mentioned, and not wanting more to spawn on the other planets of the system, Xen ordered a strike on the temple while sending word to his two ISI operatives.
Ashlyn successfully killed Lord Onasi as he was in the middle of the full awakening ritual, just as the military of the Empire stormed into the complex. Silus managed to wound Emperor Vanis prior to being injured by falling rubble in the temple. Xen’Mordin arrived just in time to prevent his men from killing the two operatives, identifying them as friendly. While Vanis had escaped yet again, Xen felt there that Vanis was no longer a real threat, and that the Old Gods would never be able to be awoken.
Monstrosity (33 ABY)
The Judecca Abyssal
Xen’Mordin has been very wrong about underestimating the resourcefulness of Vanis. The leader of the Pacre Datship underwent an older and more radical ritual, sacrificing his own people to the Old Gods, turning them into deformed and lumbering monsters, before setting out alone into the mountains of Judecca. His transformed followers swarmed the capital city of Ohmen. While Xen scrambled to organize a counter-offensive against these monstrous Pacre Datship, Vanis was able to complete his ritual.
On the core habitable planets of Antenora, Judecca, Ptolomea and Caina, four different sets of monsters awoke. The system went into lockdown as Scholae Palatinae had to split their forces to stop the terrifying Old Gods from destroying everything. Vanis was eventually caught. He was uncooperative, disoriented from the ordeal the awakening ritual had put him through. Frustrated, Xen’Mordin killed him in a brutal display of telekinetic power. However, unlike the earlier ritual, the death of Vanis did nothing to hinder the fearsome Old Gods, who continued to rampage on their respective planets.
It was thanks to a small strike team, making a desperate last-ditch attempt to find information on how to reverse the ritual, that a solution presented itself. The found a still hibernating Rataka scientist buried deep in a hidden ancient facility on Judecca. The brought him to Xen’Mordin who was able to telepathically torture the ancient being into reversing the ritual. The Empire was saved, but barely, and the damaged left by the Old Gods would be left a permanent scar on the planets they ravaged.
It was during Xen’s attempt to clean up the Empire from this nightmare attack, that Polis Jones once again barged into his office. This time he brought with him a Sith Holocron, one found deep in the forgotten Temple of Antenora. It had been placed there sometime within the last thirty to fifty years. Believing there could only be one person who could have placed it there, Xen’Mordin gave explicit orders that Polis never breathe a word of this discovery to anyone.
Red Fury (33 ABY)
In need of trade goods, Xen’Mordin made a surprising move. He approached the clan’s long time enemy, Naga Sadow, and brokered a trade. They would meet in neutral space, without any of their warships. During the exchange, Red Fury pirates attacked. Both clans had their fleets standing by to jump in, and thoroughly destroyed the pirate attack force. With the trade complete, both clans went on their way.
But news of the destruction of the pirates spread, and their fellow Red Fury brothers came to both the Cocytus system and the Orian system for revenge. They had no idea that they had just kicked a krayt dragon in the balls. Xen’Mordin and Locke Sonjie, the Naga Sadow Consul, agreed to a temporary alliance to eradicate the pirate filth in revenge, and to split the horde of their treasures and goods. Together they attacked the Red Fury’s mighty Atlas base, and in a quick show of power, cleared out the pirate threat.
It was a short standing massacre. However, the two clans managed to get through it without trying to murder each other. The concept of a common enemy had once again proved its usefulness, and both sides left feeling an uneasy alliance was warranted.
Inquisitorius (33 ABY)
The Logo of the Inquisitorius
Xen’Mordin was hard pressed to admit it, but losing his friend and student Evant Taelyan, was a hard blow in his visions of the future. The harder blow was watching Evant step up into the position of Voice on the Dark Council, where Evant was forced to put the needs of the Empire behind the needs of the Brotherhood. Luckily, after only months prior Xen had pulled apart the mystery surrounding Dr. Elincia Rei and identified her as Impetus. He was now armed with an old friend back in his plans, he is planned successor moving on beyond the Empire. It was only for a few short months he was able to have the three of them together plotting for the future.
But Evant had not totally forsaken the Empire. Evant used his experience from ISI, to finalize a program that had been in the making for years, the Inquisitorius, a secret society of agents trusted with the most dangerous secrets in the Brotherhood. Xen’Mordin was quickly brought into the fold as the society formed, and due to his own skills, was granted the rank of Grand Inquisitor. The Inquisitorius was quickly brought in as an augmentation to ISI, boosting the capabilities of all Scholae Palatinae members who entered the intelligence agency.
Subterfuge (34 ABY)
Xen’Mordin was a man obsessed. The Holocron that had been found by Polis Jones was the sole object of his attention in his spare hours. He was certain it was left for him, which it was, just not by who he thought it was. It spoke to him, called to him. And in the late hours of the day, he would lose track of time.
Xen’Mordin became colder, crueler, and sporadic in his moods. He was losing himself to the voice of the Holocron, an addition he couldn’t quit. The more time went on, the more the eyes staring back at him in the mirror didn’t seem to be his own. In one of his moments of lucidity, he was given files he didn’t recall requesting. Files that outlined a test that would prove who among his clan were both loyal, and deserving of serving the Empire. He used faked but convincing evidence to turn the two houses, Imperium and Excidium, against each other. Then he sat back and watched as the two houses tried to destroy the other, believing fully that they had been betrayed. As the violence reached a crescendo, Xen’Mordin called his two houses together.
Flanked by his newly appointed Proconsul, Cyris Oscura, Xen’Mordin admitted the conflict was fabricated. The clear victors of the conflict, House Imperium, were spared further embarrassment. However, House Excidium did not fare so well. He dragged its Quaestor, Lucyeth in the middle of the hall using the Force. He then gave a lecture on how they had to be stronger, better, all while torturing Lucyeth with Force lightning. When he felt his point had been made clearly, he left the room, and let the members of his clan question what they had just been a part of.
Shattered Ties (34 ABY)
Xen’Mordin was no longer himself. His hours with the Holocron had truly changed him. For months, he had ordered the forces of Scholae Palatinae to continue to work with the forces of Naga Sadow to hunt down and exterminate all remaining Red Fury pirates they could find. This led them to the planet of Mygeeto, a frozen crystalline world. There both Scholae Palatinae and Naga Sadow launched a brutal assault against the pirates. In the process, it became clear the pirates were sitting on a horde of treasure, which included rare Sith artifacts.
The Palatinaean forces were led by Cyris Oscura, who at the moment victory was obtained, ordered the Palatinaeans to attack and betray the Naga Sadow Forces. Following a bloody battle, and escape from the planet, Scholae Palatinae emerged victorious. However before they could enjoy their prizes of the Sith Artifacts, the Grand Master, Darth Pravus arrived, and took all but one artifact, The Shattering.
Many assumed the betrayal against Naga Sadow was a rogue action taken by Cyris, it was later revealed that the order came directly from Xen, thus killing the alliance he had once helped forge. Shortly after this betrayal, Cyris Oscura disappeared from the Cocytus system, leading Xen’Mordin to appoint his longtime friend and ally Elincia Rei as Proconsul.
The Order Campaign (34-35 ABY)
Xen’Mordin’s bizarre behavior finally came to a climax late in 34 ABY. A long ploy by the Order of the New Dawn finally went into play. The New Dawn, the organization behind Fias Zhan’s failed attempt to take over the Cocytus system, was now ready to move in and claim the system, and empire for themselves. At their head was the mysterious Darth Fallax, a Sith Lord with a personal history in the Cocytus system.
Operation: Starfall (34 ABY)
The Emblem of the New Dawn
With the clan riding a high of successes, Xen’Mordin made the announcement that for the first time in the clan’s history, they would begin a true expansion of the Empire. The first stepping stone for this expansion was a planet on the far side of the galaxy known as Aesirus. A barely populated and seemingly unimportant planet, Aesirus was rich with resources needed to build ships and weaponry. These resources included the rare Kyber crystals. He ordered the entirety of Scholae Palatinae to the planet to take control of it from the SoroSuub Corporation, under the guise of Operation: Starfall. Only Elincia Rei remained in the system.
To take control of the planet, and still utilize the large mining team on the planet, Scholae Palatinae infiltrated the SoroSuub computer systems. They then went into the many tunnels and caverns that made up the planet surface and planted explosive charges. Using their access to the computer systems and the explosive detonations to sell the experience, they faked a natural disaster, forcing all the miners and SoroSuub officials into the cave system for safety.
With the entire clan, and all the miners located in a single large kyber crystal cave, a holoprojection of Xen’mordin appeared. He had holoprojectors and many more explosive charges placed in the cave system months before sending Scholae Palatinae to the planet. He revealed himself as Darth Fallax, an ancient Sith Lord and head of the Order of the New Dawn.
The Holocron Xen’Mordin had been given was not Palpatine’s, but Fallax’s. Since receiving it, Fallax had slowly been taking control of Xen’s body, explaining his bizarre personality change and aggressive orders given. Xen was able to take control of his body long enough to trap Scholae Palatinae on the planet and destroy the remaining detonators, preventing Fallax from collapsing the cave ceiling on the clan. Fallax regained control of Xen’s body and considered the clan being trapped to be a death sentence anyway. He then had his followers take Elincia captive. Fallax needed her science background, as Xen’s body was slowly corrupting and dying as a result of his possession of it.
Midnight (34 ABY)
Xen’Mordin’s body became corrupted by Fallax’s spirit
Xen’Mordin was trapped inside his own mind. There he was subject to Darth Fallax’s control and demented ways of torturing Xen’s very mind and soul. He was punished severely for his intervention in stopping Fallax from killing the entire clan. This punishment was minor compared to the one he received following taking control of his body long enough for Elincia Rei to get away. The more he struggled, the more pain he experienced, and the stronger Fallax’s control of his body became.
Fallax’s control of Xen’s body was corrupting it, and slowly killing it as the corruption spread. Fallax had a team of scientists working to find a way to reverse the corruption. Xen’Mordin refused to let go, and fade into nothingness, hoping beyond hope that he could stay in his body long enough for the corruption to kill it completely, removing Fallax from the physical world once more. Xen’Mordin was forced to watch helplessly as Fallax tortured then killed the loyal Palatinaean Delak Krennel. But it gave him hope knowing that his clan was back in the system and preparing to stop the New Dawn. As the conflict progressed, and each of Fallax’s main disciples fell, Fallax’s torture of Xen became even more intense, yet Xen’Mordin slowly regained some of his strength, conserving it.
A handful of Palatinaeans decided that in addition to disrupting the New Dawn’s control in the system, they would attempt a risky ritual discovered by famed archeologist Polis Jones. The team, led by Elincia Rei, Jones, and Stana Watsertha were able to further given Xen’Mordin strength while charging a large crystal of mystic origins.
When Scholae Palatinae launched their final assault against Darth Fallax, this crystal shattered, sending lightning of a multitude of colors arcing at Fallax. When the lightning stopped there were two men standing there. Xen’Mordin and Fallax, with a fresh new body just like his original from millennia ago. They briefly dueled, with Fallax slicing Xen’s ancient Sith hilt in two. Fallax taunted Xen with the information that the hilt was once owned by Fallax’s apprentice, and was used to kill Fallax’s original body. Barely strong enough to stand, Xen’Mordin used what little life in his body was left to send the bottom section of his lightsaber straight at Fallax’s heart with the Force.
At the exact same instant, Fallax used his Force lightning to attempt to fry Xen’Mordin. The energy reacted with the damaged power core in the broken hilt, causing a massive overload and explosion. Xen’Mordin was shot back landing hard. Fallax was also shot back, but the momentum Xen had put in his telekinetic throw keeping all the shrapnel of the hilt heading straight toward Fallax. With the shrapnel slowly making its way toward Fallax’s new heart, the member of Scholae Palatinae swiftly surrounded him and kept him alive long enough to torture and beat the Sith Lord to death as revenge. When they finished, they turned their attention to Xen’Mordin, whose body had vanished from where it lay.
Stana Watsertha had taken Xen’s body to the Emperor’s Respite, a secret medical facility for the Emperor only. Each Emperor had used it, and each moving it to a new location upon taking the throne. Xen’Mordin had hidden his in the frozen wastes of Caina. Xen’s body was in perfect condition, not showing any signs of the corruption or wear his experience had had on his physical body. However, the scanners checking his brain waves remained still. Stana, along with Evant Taelyan and Elincia Rei debated if it was better to turn off the life support systems and allow Xen’Mordin to die peacefully, or keep his body alive, but mind dead.
In the end, they agreed that there might be a chance Xen’s mind could heal itself, so they left him there. Shortly after leaving the brain wave scanners began to quiver.
Vismorsus NoMoresus (35 ABY)
Dawn’s Fury and Shadowfang constructed by Xen’Mordin during his recovery away from the Empire
It took time, but eventually Xen’Mordin woke from his coma. His torment at the hands of Darth Fallax, and his time adrift with the Force had changed him. Having been so brutally subjected to the Dark side, and failed by the Light, Xen’Mordin rejected both the ways of the Jedi and the Sith. To find himself, he left the Cocytus system, letting his clan continue to think he was dead.
As he traveled he was able to slowly come to peace with who he is, and what his abilities are. Feeling his death at the hands of Fallax was a true sign of the will of the Force, he abandoned his Vismorsus surname and returned to the Cocytus system as Xen’Mordin Palpatine, Gray Jedi. He crafted two new lightsabers, Dawn’s Fury and Shadowfang. One light, one dark, a reflection of the life Xen had led to this point. Before he would return to lead his clan, however, he hid in the shadows and watched, waiting to see how the clan and Empire would fair without his guidance.
Profile
Appearance
Xen’Mordin Palpatine carefully maintains his appearance, not out of pure vanity, but because he knows the people of the Cocytus system expect their Emperor to look the part. Xen’Mordin is of above average height, standing in at 6’1”, and weighs 190 pounds. While broad shouldered, his body is lean and toned, which is facilitated by his carefully regulated diet and daily exercise routines.
Xen’Mordin is frequently placed on the attractive end of the looks spectrum. When in public his emerald green eyes sparkle with life and compassion, accompanied by a pearly white smile. His dark brown hair is kept short, seemingly lazily brushed forward and spiked up slightly at the front. He also has a full and rich goatee. He never slouches, and always moves in a carefully practiced empowered, but approachable manner.
When alone or away from the public eye of the citizens of the Empire, however, Xen’s expression changes. For years he would frequently don an elaborate mask to hide his appearance on Brotherhood dealings. He has abandoned this personality quirk. He smiles less frequently, and his dazzling green eyes seemingly dull a degree, reflecting the more pensive and haunted man Xen truly is.
Beneath his curated garb, Xen’s body also shows the wear and tear from his years of adventure and war. His torso has many largely faded scars from his attack on Kashyyyk while only 12. His right leg also still clearly shows the teeth marks of the beast that took him off into the dark forest of the planet. There is also a clear parallel set scars running along his back, courtesy of a nexu encounter.
Attire
Xen’Mordin never knows when he will be forced to step into the public light of the Cocytus Empire or when he will be called into action as Consul of Scholae Palatinae. To this end, he has employed tailors to provide him a wardrobe that can function both as professional and practical for his dual roles.
Xen’Mordin favors simple and clean cut clothing, light and easy to move in. They primarily come in black or various shades of gray. Each usually has accented usage of either gold or silver. Purple is also often worked in as an accent color, being both the color that has represented his clan for years and its symbolistic relationship as a color for wealth and power. All of his clothes are created using expensive fabric, and suitably changed based on the prevailing fashion trends of the time.
His tops are normally layered, undershirt light and colorful, overcoat running to around his knees, and fashioned with a stiff tall collar. He rarely wears gloves. His pants are generally kept free of embellishment and are normally black, or periodically brown. He favors sturdy boots, which have been dressed up to make them more presentable in the public light. When put on the warpath for his clan, Xen’Mordin continues to favor light and flexible clothing, though it is replaced to be far more simple and comfortable to wear for the lengthy duration of the campaign.
Personality and Beliefs
Xen’Mordin is a complicated man, one who is forced to maintain appearances in the public eye, and one who is left facing his own demons while alone. In public, he has no problems playing the charming, enthusiastic, passionate emperor the citizens have come to expect. This largely stems from Xen’Mordin spending most of his life perfecting his ability to lie and manipulate people. He knows the citizens want a leader they can love, so he gives it to them.
In reality, however, Xen’Mordin is a haunted man. Raised as a Jedi, he lost his love, and himself. He reinvented himself as a non-force user, only to have it thrust back on him. So, he became a devoted Sith, obsessed with the teachings of Emperor Palpatine. This led him down a dangerous path where he lost control of his own body and suffered an unimaginable torment. Coming back from the brink of death again, it is little wonder why Xen’Mordin has adopted the Phoenix as his personal sigil.
Xen’Mordin no longer follows the light or the dark. He can laugh, he can love, just as he can hate and despise. While as a Sith he could be cruel, that has softened as he once again came back to the world of the living. He is practical. If a life must be taken he will take it. If a life can be spared, he will walk away. He knows that life is just shades of gray, and does his best to navigate it.
At his core, however, Xen’Mordin is an intelligent, egotistical, manipulator. He plays people like people would play an instrument. Not sociopathic, but he knows how to position people to do what he needs and wants. And despite his many mistakes in life, he fully believes what he wants to happen is important, because he is better and more intelligent than everyone else. He still cares for his clan, and his citizens, almost to a fault.
He has come to smile less frequently, and is less verbose in his orders, somewhat brooding over the weight of the burden he carries. He knows he has been absolutely evil and has a hard time reconciling that evil with his desire to leave a permanent mark on the galaxy. He doesn’t want to be remembered as evil, but impactful and revolutionary. The pain he himself has suffered has softened his authoritarian demeanor and may in time prove to push him to try to be a “good” man once again, instead of merely an impactful one.
Xen’Mordin believes in the living Force and has come to reject the ideologies of both the Jedi and the Sith. He believes it is possible to love and have peace, while also allowing his emotions and passions fuel his life. He sees the embrace of one side of the Force or another to be short sighted and incredibly hindering if one wanted to experience the full might of the Force.
Xen’Mordin also fully believes in the might of the Empire. While the Cocytus Empire is but a granule of sand compared to the Galactic Empire it tries to emulate, he truly believes what they are doing is needed and capable of achieving what the Galactic Empire had prior to its fall.
Skills/Abilities/Powers
Xen’Mordin Palpatine relies on two things above all others, his mind and the Force. He meditates daily, and can often be found studying all manner of things when he is not distracted by the Empire or the Clan. His force abilities have grown very strong over the years, with him now classified as an Elder within the Brotherhood.
In particular, he has honed his ability to generate lightning and his telekinetic abilities beyond all others. He is even capable of telekinetically fighting with his lightsabers. He has also extensively trained his mind trick, telepathy, sensing, amplification, and slowing abilities.
He doesn’t only rely on the force or his smarts to get him out of situations, Xen’Mordin also is an accomplished and highly skilled combatant, a veteran of many wars and battles. He is an excellent Jar’Kai practitioner and uses his two lightsabers, Dawn’s Fury and Shadowfang, as extensions of his own body on the field of battle. He is also very proficient with a blaster.
Relationships
Stana Watsertha
Stana Watsertha is a female human, whose existence was kept secret for years. She was ultimately forced to reveal herself to Scholae Palatinae when she made a passionate plea for them to help save Xen’Mordin from Darth Fallax. Her role in the Empire was that of confidant, a secret keeper of the ISI, known only to Xen’Mordin, as well as his mistress.
Stana is a strong and capable woman, one who can run circles even around Xen’s intellect. She knows everything that is happening in the Empire and the actions of the members of Scholae Palatinae. She has also been personally responsible for saving Xen’s life, pulling him from the palace once the battle with Fallax was completed and again in convincing Elincia and Evant to keep Xen’s life support running.
Xen’Mordin never thought he would be capable of loving again after the death of Kara Vengerberg on Nar Shaddaa. Unlike his previous mistresses, Stana broke through his unattached demeanor. She gained his trust, and his love. Xen’Mordin loves her more than himself or the Empire and would stop at nothing to keep her safe and happy.
Impetus M’Nar/Elincia Rei
Impetus M’Nar, or as she is currently known in Scholae Palatinae as Elincia Rei, is Xen’s oldest friend and ally. They first served together in the summit of House Caliburnus, and then plotted together to take over the Empire. After Impetus left the system, Xen’Mordin continued the plan on alone, uncertain if he would ever see her again. When she did reappear as Elincia, it took some time before Xen’Mordin was able to confirm his suspicion. They have since gone on to further stabilized and control the Cocytus system, with Xen in the public eye and Eli remaining in her secret lab on Judecca.
Impetus is one of the few people in the club who both has a good understanding of Xen’Mordin and his full trust.
Evant Taelyan
Evant Taelyan was recruited to the Scholae Palatinae by Xen’Mordin, who also took him as an apprentice. The two developed a close relationship as Evant progressed in his force capabilities. Evant went on to serve as Xen’s second in command for a long period of time before being presented with an opportunity to serve on the Dark Council. Even while serving on the Council, Evant regularly makes time to work with Xen’Mordin and their side projects for the Empire.
Evant remains one of Xen’s closest friends and allies, even while serving on the Council.
Polis Jones
Polis Jones is the founder and head of the Cocytus Historical Society. Xen’Mordin met Polis during his time on the Dauntless Traveler, and the two became fast friends. Holding several doctorates, Polis was the obvious choice to create and lead a Historical Society in the Cocytus system. He had a critical role in many Clan events, and Xen’Mordin owes him his life for more than one occasion.
Positions Held