Sith magic

"So that the energy we've been feeling&mdash;Sith magic, a power with all the corrupting influence of the dark side of the Force!"

- Wedge Antilles

Traditionally, Sith magic, also known as Sith sorcery, was an arcane area of ability first developed and practiced by the ancient Sith species through which they manipulated the power of the dark side of Force. The very name of the Sith was adopted by the Dark Jedi Exiles of the Hundred Year Darkness, who combined Sith mysticism with their own experiments into dark side power to create even more strange rituals and alchemical sciences. Sith magic, while as much a part of the dark side as such endowments as Force lightning, was accessible only to those Force-sensitives who possessed an intrinsic relationship with the dark side. Through the recitation of spells, execution of hand gestures, and or the handling of various artifacts, darksiders were able to channel the raw power of the Force's malevolent side to warp minds, alter the environment, and obliterate whatever obstacles stood in their way. Males who achieved mastery were known as Sith sorcerers, magicians, or wizards, while female who practiced Sith sorcery were referred to as Sith sorceresses or witches.

Sith magic was prevalent among the citizens of the ancient Sith Empire, and its disciplines were adhered to throughout the span of galactic history. Sith magic predated even the inception of the longstanding Galactic Republic. Its effectiveness in battle was realized during the Great Hyperspace War of 5,000 BBY, up to and beyond the Great Sith War a thousand years later. Proponents of Sith magic revived its practice briefly during the New Sith Wars, but it became something of an oddity following the reformation of the Republic in 1,000 BBY. By then, a lone Sith apprentice was its only active student. Still, the allure of Sith magic survived through the fall of the Republic in 19 BBY and the subsequent Galactic Civil War, and curious Force-sensitives learned to harness its power from obscure temples on long-forgotten planets and moons. By 137 ABY, the magic of the Sith was studied by the foremost loremasters of Darth Krayt's One Sith Order.

Power
"How can one individual command such power?"

- The Huntress, awed by the potency of Darth Zannah's spell of concealment

By those against whom it was used, Sith magic was described as the the full destructive power of the dark side of the Force. It was every bit a part of the dark side as were conventional Sith powers, and many sorcerers were capable of working their spells in tandem with traditional Sith talents. In the midst of lightsaber combat, however, those who wielded them were often forced to divide their concentration between casting spells and their bladework. The magic of the ancient Sith was a complex power that assaulted an individual's psyche in ways that were both difficult to comprehend and defend against; only a being possessed of considerable willpower had any hope of resisting its effects.

Sith magic was perceived differently by those who were subjected to its power. Some Force-sensitive beings felt as though it consumed their life energy, while others became physically weaker and felt like all their strength was being siphoned. Some sensitives without any Force training suffered from headaches while in an atmosphere permeated with the residual energy of Sith magic. Its power was enticing, and sometimes manifested as a musical undercurrent&mdash;beautiful to some, hideous to others&mdash;to lure the unsuspecting. Sith magic tempted the curious with what some believed was limitless dark side power, and such an opportunity compelled many to explore further. Each interpreted their experience differently; one being described visually seeing it as one perceives the ripple effect of disturbed water, while another saw the sky above him literally become overcast with the the power of dark side. The negative effects of Sith magic could be countered, however, by a Force-user skilled in the art of Jedi battle meditation, or by a pure manifestion of the light side of the Force.



Those who practiced Sith magic found its power as a viable means of bringing their goals to fruition. Members of the planet Onderon's Naddist Sith cult, many of whom were seasoned magicians, believed themselves to be indomitable so long as the power of Sith magic was theirs to command. The limitless power of Sith magic could be used for a variety of purposes through a number of techniques, ranging from mind and reality-altering spells to powers that impacted the physical world directly. Some sorcerers applied Sith magic during their endeavors to prolong their own lifespans. Despite the various reasons individuals aspired to learn the ways of the dark side, two common themes were found in all those who subscribed to the study of Sith magic: reaching their full Force-potential, and the pursuit of ever-greater power.

Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Bane believed that beings with a true affinity for Sith magic were few and far between. To him, Sith magic was an arcane expression of the dark side's might, one that even he, the prophesied "Sith'ari", was unable to manipulate. To King Ommin of Onderon, the power to command Sith magic was only attainable after breaching a barrier that resided deep within himself. At the behest of his Sith Master Freedon Nadd, Ommin was required to abandon fears and doubts, lest through them he was consumed by the power he sought to control. According to Nadd, Ommin was only able to penetrate that barrier after he had fully embraced his hatred of everything&mdash;including the dark side of the Force. Once he accomplished that goal, Sith sorcery granted Ommin an amplified sense of his environment; he was able to influence the malevolent sensations of millions of beings and fill those unsuspecting individuals with a hatred that was not their own. Such an exertion of the dark side was not without its detriments, however; mastery over Sith sorcery demanded that Ommin sacrifice motor control over his body in exchange for access to the unlimited power of the dark side.

Fear of Sith magic
"Not all knowledge is pure; some is touched by evil. There are secrets that must remain hidden; forbidden teachings that should remain forever buried. There is a dark side to the Force. Unchecked it brings death and destruction. The Council of First Knowledge is sworn to keep this terrible power from being unleashed, but the influence of the dark side is scattered throughout the galaxy, as are the tools it uses to spread: ancient texts of Sith sorcery; amulets imbued with malevolent energy; tainted crystals that can corrupt the minds of the innocent. Sometimes these artifacts are discovered by accident, and they fall into the hands of unsuspecting victims. They become agents of the dark side, wreaking havoc across the galaxy&hellip;unless we get to them in time. We are trained in the handling of dark side artifacts. Some can be destroyed, but others are too powerful and must be safeguarded."

- Jedi Master Obba, 980 BBY

Since the days of the old Republic, Sith magic has elicited fear from the Jedi. Members of the Order actively pursued practitioners of Sith sorcery, and took painstaking measures to hide, destroy, or contain the artifacts that assisted Sith magicians in their conjurations. Even though the Republic had forbidden its practice by the time of the Naddist Uprising on Onderon, worshipers of the ancient Dark Lord ignored the prohibition and implemented his ancient enchantments in battle against Jedi and the soldiers of the Republic Navy. By the time of the Jedi Civil War, which ended in 3,956 BBY, legislation had been drafted into law by the Galactic Senate which banned all things Sith. Prior to the end of the Clone Wars in 19 BBY, the Anti-Sith bill had been rendered void, as the Senate had since introduced new laws which strictly forbade religious persecution of any sort, including adherence to the ways of the Sith.

In the waning years of the their Golden Age, some Sith feared the power commanded by the more prominent sorcerers of the Empire. Sith Lord Naga Sadow's forages into previously unexplored avenues of Sith lore and ritual were looked upon with scorn by his detractors, who openly challenged his idealistic ambitions. King Ommin, a man in the lineage of Freedon Nadd, was at first fearful of the sheer scope of Sith magic in his early experiences with it. Darth Bane, a Dark Lord who succeeded Naga Sadow some four thousand years after, was also wary of Sith magic because he had no affinity for it. He nonetheless allowed his apprentice Darth Zannah to indulge herself in its mysteries, and warned the girl about attempting to use her charms against him, lest Bane destroy her. By the time of the rise of Darth Krayt's One Sith Order, Sith magic had been all but consigned to obscurity. When it resurfaced in the form of a alchemically-created plague, the loremasters of Krayt's Order were confounded by the sudden outbreak of a scourge that was thought to have been eradicated millennia ago.

Acts of physical violence
"The magic of the Sith is even more powerful than we thought! Not only can we create illusions, but&mdash;''" "We can blast our enemies into dust''!"

- Satal and Aleema Keto

Battle often required Sith sorcerers to unleash devastating spells to vanquish their enemies. Potent Blasts of dark side energy were capable of causing physical harm to sentients, non-sentients, and Force spirits alike. The ability also burned the flesh of the sorcerer, but the power of the dark side made them impervious to the pain. such burns would have otherwise caused. King Ommin used the Force to blast several Jedi during the Naddist Uprising. Exar Kun mastered the ability after acquiring a Sith amulet, one which augmented his already-increasing dark side strength to new levels. He destroyed the spirit of Freedon Nadd with a Force blast, and later incapacitated Aleema Keto with one, after the sorceress attempted to display her own proficiency with the ability.

Hurling iridescent bolts of pure hatred at their enemies resulted in the victim suffering from extreme agony as the voices of a thousand tormented souls screamed within their minds. Dark side webs were nets of Force energy that constricted around its victim to sever their connection to the Force. A mist of pure dark side energy in the form of tendrils that was capable of causing immense mental and physical pain, and even the instant disintegration of flesh and bone. A Force blast was a concentrated beam of pure dark side energy projected at objects or opponents, that sometimes caused flesh burns, but caused the caster no pain.

Altering the perceptions of another
"Ulic&mdash;What's the matter with you guys&mdash;? Why weren't you fightin?''" "The dark side&hellip;it's eating at our life force&hellip;Sith magic'' is at work&mdash;"

- Dace Diath and Ulic Qel-Droma

The domination of another being's mind and will was possible through Sith magic, and allowed a sorcerer to compel another being into actions they would otherwise not perform. The more steeped in the dark side the sorcerer was, the easier it became to subdue the will of another. Large-scale mind control was evidenced by Satal Keto's complete mental authority over the pilots of his Krath Chaos starfighters during the First Battle of Empress Teta, and Exar Kun's puppetry of the entire Senate assembly during the Trial of Ulic Qel-Droma. Many thousands of years later, an aspiring Devaronian Sith sorcerer named Cartariun enthralled the native Irrukiine species of Malrev IV and forced them to attack rebel agents who had come to the planet.



Besides direct control of another sentient's mind, Sith sorcerers were able to conceal their dark side auras and thereby distort the Force perceptions of the Jedi by pretending to be followers of the light. This was done by creating a false light side ambiance, usually for the purpose of mingling with those who would normally have a negative predisposition toward dark side adherents. Both Freedon Nadd and Darth Zannah were skilled in projecting false light side auras, the latter having learned the skill from the holocron of the former. Zannah displayed her cleverness with false auras of light while infiltrating the Jedi Temple on Coruscant in 990 BBY.

Illusions borne of Sith magic were lifelike, astral projections that touched all of an individual's sensory perceptions. Some Sith historians speculated that illusions disrupted the flow of the Force to the victim's mind, causing them to perceive their surroundings in ways that they otherwise would not. Illusions ranged from the transformation of one object into another, to the sudden manifestation beings seemingly from thin air, to the disappearance of objects that were in the victim's presence mere seconds prior. Even computer systems were unable to discern the fallacy of the phantasmal images, which lent to the dismay of those against whom the spell was directed. Only through intense concentration on the Force was an individual able to discern truth from falsehood. Naga Sadow was a consummate illusion creator, as was the Krath sorceress Aleema Keto. Both made heavy use of illusions in their respective campaigns against the Jedi and Republic, but their projections were defeated differently; Sadow's concentration was interrupted which caused him to lose control of his illusions, and the Jedi used the Force to pierce Aleema's conjured deception.



Aside from outwardly-expressed illusions, Sith magicians possessed the ability to create hallucinations within the minds of specific individual targets by summoning their worst fears. After performing a series of intricate hand gestures, a Sith sorcerer was able to reach into a sentient being's mind and call forth that which they feared the most. The potency of the spell varied as the sorcerer saw fit, but the longer they poured the dark side into the hex, the more likely it was that the victim would be unable to recover. An individual was able to survive if they possessed significant strength of will, if not, however, there was a great possibility that they would descend into utter hysteria. Freedon Nadd had the ability to summon the fears of his enemies, and it was from the study of his magic that Darth Zannah learned to do so as well. The victims of Darth Zannah's summon fear spell were many, including her own Master, Darth Bane. Although Bane was able to overcome her trickery, others were less fortunate; on two separate occasions, those on the receiving end of Zannah's witchcraft were driven into an irreversible insanity.

Those who practiced Sith magic often believed themselves to be above reproach, and held no compunction about violating the sanctity of another sentient's mind. With their magic, a sorcerer was able to tamper with the memories of another. "Memory rubs", as they were called, erased or rewrote select recollections of any intended target. Sith initiate Kyp Durron learned to wipe memories from the spirit of Exar Kun, and with it violated scientist Qwi Xux so thoroughly that her mind had virtually become a blank slate.

Sith magic also granted its masters with the ability to conceal themselves within the shroud of the dark side. When performed by a powerful sorcerer, the spell masked an person's strength in the dark side, preventing their presence or those of several individuals from being sensed in the Force even by Jedi Masters. Another of the spells learned though study of the transcript from Freedon Nadd's holocron, Darth Zannah was a master of the spell of concealment, and used it to great effect against the Jedi on multiple occasions. Such was the power of Zannah's concealment charm that ten years after fooling a team of Jedi on Ambria with it, the spell violently repelled the Force probe of Caleb's shack by The Huntress, a powerful darksider in her own right.

Artifacts and weapons
"Hidden deep inside the Holocron, I discovered a list of powerful spells. I transcribed them into this tome. They will help you focus and channel your power for maximum effect&hellip;but only if you study them carefully."

- Darth Bane introduces Zannah to Freedon Nadd's sorcery

Holocrons were Force-activated teaching objects that held near-infinite amounts of information. Many sorcerers of the ancient Sith Empire fashioned their own holocrons to include the sum of their dark side knowledge. Those who specialized in particular aspects of Sith magic included only that area of ritual within their holocrons. Because of this, no complete repository of Sith magic was included in any one source. Others recorded their knowledge in spellbooks and scrolls, hoping to insure the continued influence of Sith magic throughout the generations.

Magicians also imbued their weapons the power of Sith sorcery. Amulets that facilitated concentration, healing, shielding, ensnarement, and understanding, all did so because a Sith sorcerer chose to bequeath a measure of his power unto them. The armor of Dark Jedi Shas Dovos created a suit of battle armor based on the designs included in an instructional tome he found on his homeworld. Infused with the power of Sith magic, Dovos was bound to his newly created armor after being approached by the spiritual guardian of the compendium, who renamed the young man Warb Null.

Disrupting the natural order
"THE BATTLE IS LOST. LOST. YOUR STRENGTH IS GONE. YOUR WILL IS GONE. YOUR LIFE IS PAIN. SURRENDER."

- The whispers of Amanoa's summoned darkness

Creating supernovas through Sith magic allowed the conjurer to effectively control and purge the core from a star, thereby causing a stellar explosion. This ability had the potential to backfire on the conjurer. Summoning darkness created visible, palpable waves of literal darkness, accompanied by a loud roaring sound.

Divination
"Freedon Nadd for years I worshiped your name. For a lifetime I served the memory of your dark power. Now, in the name of my husband King Ommin, in the name of his ancestor Freedon Nadd, I call down the power of the dark side upon these foes!"

- Queen Amanoa, invoking the power of Freedon Nadd

Invoking spirits summoned the spirit of a deceased darksider, usually to augment the requesting Sith magician with the deceased's power.

Healing
"I used the Sith magic to repair your nearly&mdash;lifeless body, pilot!"

- Cartariun, to Wedge Antilles

Cartariun used Sith magic to heal Wedge Antilles and Dllr Nep. Freedon Nadd used it to heal Exar Kun. Karness Muur practiced dark side healing as well.

Protection
"The walls are lined with stonework, covered in carvings Babbnod says are&hellip;well, I can hardly believe it, but she says they're some kind of protective magic. Sith magic."

- Captain Naz Felyood, referring to Korriban's Valley of the Dark Lords

Sith magic was used for defense as much as for attack. Sorcerers, fledgling or seasoned, were able to conjure shadows of uneasiness around themselves that repelled any non-sentient creature within range. The vague sense of discomfort caused by an aura of unease also affected cognizant beings, stirring in them feelings of sudden sickness and debility. Sith sorcerers were also known to perform magical experiments on inanimate objects, imbuing them with dark side power in attempts to insure the safety and security of themselves or others. Sith Lord Ludo Kressh used Sith magic in the creation of a device designed to protect his young son from harm. The gauntlet of Kressh the Younger was later obtained and weilded by a failed Jedi Padawan-turned-Sith acolyte named Haazen.

The ancient Sith also used their wizardry to protect the things they deemed sacred. Such a spell guarded the entrance of the room within Freedon Nadd's tomb that hid his holocron. In the Valley of the Dark Lords on the Sith homeworld of Korriban, ancient magic in the form of wall carvings was utilized in the protection of the tombs of deceased Sith Lords. The magically created armor of Warb Null offered him greater protection in battle, while also radiating with the power of the dark side of the Force.

Twisting life
"Following a complex series of rituals, the individual to be raised a Sith Battlelord was brought to the brink of death. Some claim the prospective battlelord was drained of all blood, though no consensus exists on how the near-death experience was to be accomplished. Once the man (or, less frequently, the woman) hovered on the brink, he was removed from the temple chambers (most reports put the ceremony in an altar room) by the members of his regiment. For the next hour, the members of the regiment paraded past their leader, viewing his near-lifeless body. After the regiment had seen the battlelord, he was healed, brought back from the brink and made whole once more. The effects of this ritual were initially startling, even to the Sith. The desired effect had been one of cohesion. The obtained effect was much, much stronger. Evidence suggests that the ritualistic death and ceremonial rebirth of the battlelord created a bond between the battlelord and his troops, as well as among the troops. The precise nature of the bond remains obscured, but it is clear that the Sith magics drew upon the power of the dark side to create a near-physical linkage among the affected individuals."

- An excerpt from Jedi Master Kei Loo Bross' "Speculations on Tactics of the Sith"

Sith battlelords were bound to their Sith Masters through Sith sorcery. Before the Dark Jedi arrived on Korriban and sullied the bloodlines of the native species, a Sith King named Dathka Graush used Sith magic to create Korriban zombies. Karness Muur's rakghouls and talisman were created through Sith magic. Exar Kun used Sith magic to drain the essences of all of Yavin 4's Massassi. He also used it to trap the spirits of their children within a Golden Globe for all eternity.

Users
"A rare few have a natural affinity for the dark side itself. They can delve into the depths of the Force and summon arcane energies to twist and warp the world around them. They can invoke ancient rituals of the Sith; they can invoke power and unleash terrible spells and dark magics."

- Darth Bane

Sith magic predated the formation of the Galactic Republic, a governmental institution that served the galaxy for twenty-five millennia.Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force Members of the indigenous Sith species pioneered and perfected these rituals by which they called on the power of the dark side, to a degree thought unreachable by ordinary sentient beings. Adas, an ancient Sith king who died circa 28,000 BBY, was a reputed master of Sith magic. Of the many Sith in Adas' entourage was Raspir, whom the King employed as a court magician. Dathka Graush, a tyrant who succeeded Adas more than twenty thousand years later, also had a flair for Sith enchantments. Roughly fifty years after Graush, Dark Jedi outcasts from the Jedi Order conquered the Sith species, and incorporated the species' magical practices into their own dark side rituals. The Sith Lord Karness Muur was one such individual who, though Sith magic, developed ways to extend his lifespan far beyond what was natural. Around the time of the Great Hyperspace War, Sith sorcery was widely dispersed among the Lords of the Sith Empire. Ludo Kressh, Marka Ragnos, and Rin Shuuir were among them. Perhaps the most famous of that era was Naga Sadow, whose studies into the nature of Sith magic were a cause for concern among his fellow Sith Lords. Prior to becoming Dark Lord, Sadow began to train another in Sith sorcery, a Human male named Gav Daragon.



Many sorcerers recorded their magical formulas in tomes, scrolls, and holocrons, and many more learned to tap into that ancient power through intense study of those artifacts. Such was the case with Freedon Nadd who, prior to apprenticing himself to Naga Sadow, amassed a wealth of Sith knowledge from the holocrons of both Adas and Darth Andeddu. In the tradition of the Dark Lords who preceded him, Nadd recorded the sum of his sorcerous knowledge within the recesses of his own holocron. The Jedi attempted to prevent the spread of Sith magic by entombing Nadd's remains and his abundance of Sith relics in an impregnable sepulcher on Dxun, Onderon's fourth moon, but were unsuccessful. Despite the Jedi Order's best efforts, Nadd trained two aspiring Sith, Aleema Keto and her cousin Satal, in the ways of dark side magic, and both became powerful magicians under Nadd's guidance. Sith magic was then disseminated throughout the Empress Teta star system by way of the Krath organization, whose knowledge came from ancient texts and antiquities gifted to the Ketos by the ghost of Freedon Nadd himself. Nadd also took another as his apprentice, the fallen Jedi Exar Kun, whose aptitude with Sith magic far exceeded Nadd's expectations. After inheriting Nadd's position as Dark Lord of the Sith, Kun joined forces with the Krath and together they brought Sith magic to bear against both the Jedi and Republic in the Great Sith War.

Exar Kun's Sith Brotherhood was ultimately defeated over Yavin 4. Sith magic had been temporarily defeated, but resurfaced more than three decades later in the form of Karness Muur's spirit and his Muur talisman. The same year, Celeste Morne, A Shadow acquired Muur's talisman while working undercover for the clandestine Jedi Covenant, and was given access to its magical ability to transform Force-sensitives into Rakghouls; a form of Sithspawn that transmitted their eponymous plague through their bites. Morne continued to wield Sith magic for nearly the next four thousand years, her lifespan greatly extended because of both the Muur Talisman, and prolonged periods in stasis. Not long Morne entered stasis for the first time, the Covenant's de facto leader, an undercover Sith named Haazen, revealed that several artifacts his possession granted him the ability to command Sith magic.

During the New Sith Wars, the Sith Lord Darth Rivan made use of Sith magic in the creation of his fearsome battlelords. Roughly four years after the war's end, a twelve-year old named Zannah built the foundation of her Force-based Sith training on the sorcery of Freedon Nadd, which her Master had transcribed from Nadd's holocron. She obtained other sources of knowledge over the years, and by 980 BBY, had achieved mastery over Sith magic.

Behind the scenes
The concept of Sith magic was first mentioned ambiguously in author Tom Veitch's Dark Empire Endnotes, a series of essays that explored the Dark Empire comic series and the back-stories of characters included therein. It was further developed later as a plot device for the first of the Tales of the Jedi story arcs to be released, 1993's Ulic Qel-Droma and the Beast Wars of Onderon. Sith magic's first actual comic appearance was in the second installment of said story arc. From then on, it appeared as the plot device for The Freedon Nadd Uprising, Dark Lords of the Sith, and The Sith War. Sith magic was featured in both prequel Tales of the Jedi story arcs: The Golden Age of the Sith and The Fall of the Sith Empire.

Sith magic also served as a plot device in the Requiem for a Rogue story arc of the X-Wing: Rogue Squadron comic series. story line developer Michael A. Stackpole notes in the X-wing Rogue Squadron handbook that he intended to revive a bit of Star Wars mysticism by reintroducing Sith magic in the Requiem for a Rogue series.