A Shift in the Force: For the title of Dark Lord

[Malon]

Dust...

It coated the Tomb of Darth Invidius like a thick fog covers the swamps of Dagobah.

There was no more fitting location than this for the fateful event that was about to unfold. It was the location of the birth of this incarnation of the Sith - where Darth Judicar's own master, Darth Aevum, had been crowned Dark Lady of the Sith by the ancient spirit of Darth Invidius.

Now he, Darth Judicar, Aevum's apprentice and Darth Exodeus' master, had returned to the tomb where it all began to start a new saga in the Sith history. Only a few standard days before, in this very spot, Judicar had, for the first time since his exile, revealed himself in the Force. The tremor would likely be felt by both Jedi and Sith alike, but there was one person he intended it for. The shockwave through the Force would reach Exodeus' ears like the roar of a lion.

It had not been easy getting to this point. Months of preparation had gone into staging his revenge and now the moment was at hand. After spending the majority of his exile on Thule, Judicar had summoned his might and and set out for Imperial Space. However, he did not do this with his ship, nor public transportation. Instead, he used the dark side of the Force to influence the minds of a small group of smugglers, who managed to slip him, undetected, through Imperial space until they had reached a small smuggler's hideout in the mountains around Korriban's Valley of the Lesser Lords. Upon arrival, Darth Judicar did what he had been waiting months to do; reveal his presence in the Force. He knew he could no longer deny what was the will of the dark side. He and Exodeus must finish the fight they never finished.

One would live...

The other would die...

Such was the way of the Sith...

Either way, a new era for the Sith was now beginning...

 

[Demiurge]

Korriban. A world of legend. A world of destiny... A world even of finality. For a thousand years in a thousand generations, it has been the birth place of the Sith, and the resting place of the greatest among them. The foul air carried the whispers of the dead, the restless souls of those condemned to the burning Chaos. The arid rocks and dry sands brushed with the dead, like extension of the fallen hands of the dead grasping from the afterlife. The power here was like no other world, alive in death, vibrant in a ghastly silence. But it was like the siren's call of the damned, the fallen still screeching out to the living. Where kings became dust and lords were as the sands, until all of them becomes consumed but their legacy... until that too, disappears from them. It was the way of the Sith, to become stronger than the generations of the past. To excel and evolve. So had it been a thousand years ago. So would it be this day.

There were few things that drew the Dark Lord from his mantle, pull him from what he willed. There were few things that he could not leave to the sands of time. But they were there, they existed. The days behind were like the strands of the present, one was always tied to them, no matter how much it was denied or resisted. And the call of the past was a powerful thing, something supernatural and unyielding. Something ethereal. And whether for dominance or to break the chains that held to the soul, it was matter to be faced in the hour of the present, for the fate of the future, of the galaxy. An Elysium-class Imperial shuttle landed in the deadened rocks of Korriban's surface, protruding formations like the fingers of the dead reaching out from the depths below. And as the Dark Lord of the Sith took the fateful step to the arid grounds, a resonance in the Dark Side of the Force would echo forth like the wailing of the ghosts in the splinters of the mind's eye. And as the trembling arched forth, it would be as if an outcry were proclaiming his arrival. The Emperor's arrival.

The winds gusted about as Darth Exodeus traversed through the Valley of the Dark Lords, walking past the tombs of the Lords of times past. The lesser ones, the pawns of those greater than they. The Dark Side of the Force grew and manifested within him, like the torrents of a wrathful tempest as he neared the one he'd seen driven to the edges of unknown space. His consciousness began to expand and grow as the anger built up within him like a ravenous cancer.

"I sense you, old 'master'... frail, broken.. and you still yet breathe."
​

 

[Malon]

"I sense you, old master... frail, broken... and yet you still breathe."

The words resonated from apprentice to master through the Force and reached Darth Judicar as he emerged from the confines of Darth Invidius' Tomb. From this vantage point, he could see the valley sprawled out before him. The winds whispered to him as if the very ghosts of the past were becoming agitated by the presence of two Dark Lords of the Sith. Judicar could see his old apprentice in the distance. The time had finally arrived.

"Ah, at last you have arrived Exodeus, my old apprentice." he declared, opening his old eyes, "You have grown strong in the dark side, but... your training is incomplete. You still have much to learn."

As he spoke the words, Darth Judicar dipped his mind into the unfathomable depths of the dark side of the Force; attuning his mind to its currents. A shift in the Force was occurring here and now. It's outcome was yet unclear to Judicar, but he was sure his apprentice felt it too. The future of the Sith was being decided here.

"It is time to finish what we failed to last time, apprentice. To have two Dark Lords of the Sith is against the ways of the Sith. One of us must die here. The other will lead the Empire and the Sith to victory. I wonder, dear Exodeus, do you have the vision required to accomplish such a feat? Do you have the foresight to complete the mandate of Darth Invidius?" the former master asked Exodeus.

 

[Demiurge]

Exodeus' eyes slowly trailed up, although he never once turned his head to peer at the mountains behind him. The familiar voice was like the grating of rushing sands against the stone, like a stench in the air.

"To what end? That I may know how to flee to seclusion in the far depths of unknown space like a coward? That I may be ushered forth a broken man from a battle against a lesser being - a misguided blight dedicated to a condemned and extinguished bloodline?"

The winds of Korriban in the valley before the tomb and within the mountains began to intensify, growing fiercer and fiercer until it became as blades and swords against the cliffs and vales. All throughout, Exodeus stood firm, unmoving and unchanged as he glared through the windstorm through the Force. Moments passed as the intense winds suddenly perished, almost as if being pushed away with the region of Exodeus and Judicar becoming not unlike the eye of a storm.

"In my wake, the Dark Side has presented the galaxy to me as a sacrifice of providence. I'd set fires to the calderas of Saleucami, shattered the Jedi at their deepest core, crushed every army the Galactic Alliance has raised against me and all but driven the Imperial Knights to the brink of extinction and decimation."

At that, Exodeus slowly began to raise his hands, as they pressed around either sides of his menacing helmet. It was but an encumbrance now, for he needed nothing of the sort for a heretic. Raising his arms, Exodeus began to lift the helmet from his shoulders, revealing his dispassionate face and piercing red irises. Emotion never appeared on his face any more than it could appear in the wrathful storm around them, but his eyes conveyed the rage sheltered wtihin his spirit, like a festering and boiling poison in his veins. But now his voice carried his rage as truly as it did his very voice, carrying it to the ears of his former master standing in the mountains above him, and true to it, Exodeus finally turned about, facing towards his old master.

"You don't know what a Dark Lord is, and you no longer hold claim to the title. These are not your Sith, 'master'. They are mine. This empire, this war, is mine. Mine to wage, mine to control. You hold the dreams of an old man, but mine - they are the reality. And you... you have no place in my galaxy."

At that, Exodeus ignited his lightsaber blade and took off with the power of the Force, using it to augment his speed to untraceable magnitudes. The Dark Lord scaled the terrain with the swiftness of the raging storm around him, leaping from the rock formations in successive patterns as if his very body were deflecting from the arid surfaces until his leap brought him a spiraling pillar at near equal ground as where his old master stood. At that, Exodeus struck out his hand as he channeled his telekinetic energies to the cliffside of the tomb's entrance, crushing the foundation beneath where his old master stood while simultaneously reaching out with his lightsaber arm as his protruded his index and middle fingers toward his old master's position, unleashing a barrage of indigo Force Lightning. Now was the beginning. Now was the time for battle.

 

[Malon]

Darth Judicar's response was instant, accomplished with blinding speed. The exterior shell's appearance as an old man was deceiving, but Judicar knew that Exodeus would not be so easily fooled by outward appearances. He knew what Judicar was capable of. His own lightsaber flashed into existence; its exterior handle a brilliant display of Sith craftsmanship, its blade the color of human blood. At the same time, Judicar kicked off from the crumbling foundation, using the Force to aid his jump. The Force lighting that leaped from the apprentice's finger crackled loudly as it smashed into the unwavering plasma shaft of Judicar's lightsaber and was re-directed back towards its originator.

"Be that as it may, my apprentice, you have no more right to the title than I do. The Sith way demands that the apprentice kill the master for the title. So long as I live and breathe, you are no more than a pretender. A heretic. A false idol among the blind worshipers of the Empire. While I live, your power, your mantle, your very existence is a lie." Judicar retorted.

As he landed, Darth Judicar called upon the considerable powers of the dark side of the Force and telekinetically shoved a massive wave of Korriban sand at Exodeus in an attempt to distort the apprentice's vision.

 

[Demiurge]

As the projected Force lightning looped from Judicar's lightsaber, deflecting back towards its caster, Exodeus tilted his head to the side as he allowed the erratic stream of Dark Force energies to streak past the side of his head, explosively discharging into a cliffside as it shattered the rocks. This was neither a game nor a challenge in his eyes. It was more than that, yet at the same time, less than it as well.

"And as the Sith have decreed, the Dark Lord must be without fear, without weakness, without cowardice. You defile all that you claim to be. How could you even delude yourself into the claim that you'd even held that title after you fled? Or even dream that it would still be honored upon you?"

The wave of sand came like a rushing of the ocean, dunes rippling towards him. And all the while, Exodeus stared at it dispassionately as he commenced a Force leap into the air and proceeded to smite the dune wave with a charring blast of Force lightning, searing the sands into cracking molten glass. Immediately after this occurrence, Exodeus directed a telekinetic impulse wave at the glass, blasting it into shards as his attack projected them down upon Judicar like countless blades. As he then descended, Exodeus at once ignited his lightsaber again and kept it at the ready as he used the Force to create a telekinetic vacuum in order to pull Judicar into the shards, or at least immobilize him.

"The apprentice is to slay his Sith master, but you stopped being Sith the hour you ran away. This is not succession, this is only... loose ends. Destroying the greatest failure of the Sith of the new era, as any Dark Lord would. This ends today. As does your life."