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Tâshurhak
Demon of Malachor
HISTORICAL FIGURE
Demon of Malachor
HISTORICAL FIGURE
"A name can be a powerful thing. It carries influence, projects power.
But a name is not something fit as a birthright. For a name that is not earned is not fit to be respected"
But a name is not something fit as a birthright. For a name that is not earned is not fit to be respected"
Born nameless and into the grotthu caste of the ancient Sith Empire, the child that would grow to become Tâshurhak was born and raised on Malachor, prior to the Great Scourge. As a grotthu, Tâshurhak's early life was as a slave, laboring for the Sith war machine. At a young age, Tâshurhak simultaneously became orphaned and inculcated into the Sith caste. All subjects of the Sith Empire were required to bring their children to Sith overseers to determine if their children were sensitive to the Force, which in turn would provide warriors for the Sith Empire. However, with the numbers of the grotthu caste so heavily bloated and virtually impossible to truly monitor, it was fairly common for some slaves to not bother with the process.
As a young child, however, Tâshurhak became noticed by a Sith Lord known as Lord Laerior, who promptly executed his father, taskmaster and ordered the execution of his mother. Tâshurhak himself was taken and presented to the reigning Sith Lord of Malachor, Lord Vyseron. Tâshurhak was then formally, and brutally, trained in the arts of the Sith assassin to ready him to join the ranks of a sect called the Blades of Vyseron. His training culminated through his initiation, which eventually became known as the Shadow Vale Massacre, where Tâshurhak slaughtered a Sith convoy that had been escorting the child of Lord Iradun, a rival Sith Lord to Tâshurhak's master. Following this, Tâshurhak earned his name and was granted the rank of Lord.
Tâshurhak was eventually marked to be his master's, now Darth Vyseron, successor. However, years later, the war with the Jedi began to greatly turn against the Sith, who had grown significantly weaker due to infighting. This ultimately led to the Jedi-led crusade of Malachor, where the Jedi Knights besieged the planet in great force. Over the course of the war, most of the superweapons devised by the Sith had been destroyed by armed Jedi intervention, with Malachor being the last bastion. Tâshurhak himself fought during the Battle of Malachor, becoming one of the last surviving Sith Lords as the battle neared its climax. The Sith defenders were led to believe that the influx of the Light Side, brought with the masses of the Jedi Knights, caused a massive disturbance in the Force across Malachor, which in turn caused Malachor's superweapon to destabilize.
Darth Vyseron, who was said to be on his way to keep the weapon from setting off, ordered Tâshurhak to keep the Malachor temple's summit safe. Assuming he had arrived before his master, Tâshurhak fought off the influx of Jedi attackers atop the Sith pyramid. However, as time passed, the Sith Lord came to realize that Darth Vyseron had set the superweapon off deliberately, and used Tâshurhak to keep the weapon preserved until it could ignite, while he escaped alone. Tâshurhak's body was at the epicenter of the event that became known as the Great Scourge of Malachor, where thousands of Sith and Jedi were almost instantaneously rendered to petrified ash, and Malachor degraded from destitute to lifeless.
Through means of the massive energies of the Dark Side event, Malachor's already extreme Dark Side alignment and his own undying rage, Tâshurhak's spirit survived and endured, remaining tethered to his warblade, Chirikyât, instead of being claimed by Chaos. Forever wrathful for his lifetime of loyalty being repaid with his master's ultimate betrayal, Tâshurhak existed as a restless wraith, awaiting a vessel both strong and vulnerable enough to house his spirit. This translated to many thousands upon thousands of years, as both the Jedi and the Sith alike treated Malachor as a largely taboo world. Even the Sith that did come to build new shrines and temples did so far from the location of the original Malachor temple.
Tâshurhak's freedom eventually came through the Jedi Master and General in the Army of Light, Taox Rogue. Using the Force to instinctively and repeatedly draw the Jedi Crusader to his blade, Tâshurhak was able to seize control of Rogue, possessing him and feigning his identity through the linking of minds and memories. Since his resurrection, Tâshurhak came to realize that his master had perished thousands of years ago. However, unable to quench his undying thirst for revenge, the disembodied Sith Lord planned to utilize Rogue, his position and his power to direct the Jed Crusaders as his instrument of vengeance against the Sith Order and ensure their annihilation.
"Named from a god of old. It means 'He Who Causes Them to Throb and Tremble in Fear'.
This blade is worth more than your life. And your life will be the price to be paid, should you fail."
This blade is worth more than your life. And your life will be the price to be paid, should you fail."
As a fully trained Lord of the Sith, Tâshurhak received uncontested renown was the most powerful apprentice of Darth Vyseron. The assassin iconically wielded the Sith warblade, Chirikyât, named after an ancient Sith god and was considered archaic even in Tâshurhak's time. Trained gruelingly as a Blade of Vyseron, Tâshurhak was a true assassin, skilled at concealing both his presence and alignment in the Force, phasing through solid matter, attaining traction on vertical and horizontal surfaces as well as casting torrents of Force Lightning. Tâshurhak was also a strong telepath and was even capable of engaging in telepathic combat. A natural telekinetic, Tâshurhak actually seldom utilized the art aside from strangulation or other stealthy executions when necessary, preferring to rely on his natural physical traits and martial domination. Although he could not heal himself, Tâshurhak was trained in the arcane Sith arts, and could drain the Force and life out of other forms of life with direct contact.
As a warrior, Tâshurhak was a natural on the battlefield. Highly trained as a swordsman and a lightsaber duelist, the Sith assassin was trained to utilize all manner of melee weaponry. Perhaps one of Tâshurhak's most successful weapons was his knowledge of the psyche. Tâshurhak specialized in ambush attacks and sewing chaos before striking, undermining the focus and aptitude of an enemy before revealing himself. This was considered an extension of the principles of Dun Möch, where one struck at an opponent's mind before the body. Such tactics were taught by his own master, Darth Vyseron, through Tâshurhak's initiation of rending apart a rival Sith Lord's infant son.
Since his training as a Sith Lord, Tâshurhak was trained extensively in the art of war strategy and battlefield tactics. Because he was intended to become Darth Vyseron’s successor, overtaking and slaying him once he became powerful enough to do so, Tâshurhak was thoroughly educated on Sith history, philosophy, ideology, as well as the practice and study of the arcane Sith arts. Under his master's guidance, Tâshurhak was long taught that what he could not master he must learn to defeat, which affected his approach to combating not only the Jedi, but rival Sith whose arcane powers exceeded his own. Tâshurhak thus has great skill in circumventing Sith powers or arts that are conventional difficult to overcome for most and Sith and Jedi alike.
As a disembodied spirit, Tâshurhak has his full physical appearance from the time of his death, albeit all insubstantial. The only surviving item of his possession is the remains of Chirikyât, the blade of which had shattered from the Great Scourge. Tâshurhak is currently bound to his weapon, and it was Taox Rogue's act of touching the blade that enabled Tâshurhak to possess him. As a wraith of the Dark Side, Tâshurhak is immensely powerful in wielding the Force, but is restricted by his tether to his Chirikyât. Following the exorcism of Taox Rogue, Tâshurhak’s power was considerably limited, bound to Taox’s own limitations.
