Skere Kaan

Lord Kaan was Dark Lord of the Sith in the last years of the New Sith Wars. Known to his supporters as the "Dark One", Kaan had ascended to rulership of the New Sith Empire almost a decade before the Ruusan campaign, ending a long and protracted civil war amongst various self proclaimed Sith warlords. After uniting the surviving remnants under his banner, Kaan led them into a final war against the Jedi on the world of Ruusan, before destroying himself and his followers with the thought bomb.

Rise to Power
"This is victory sends a message to the Republic and the Jedi. Now they will truly know and fear the Brotherhood."

- Kaan

Kaan was once a Jedi Master who fell to the dark side of the Force, joining the New Sith Empire. He became a Sith Lord, and eventually the Dark Lord of the Sith.

At the time of Kaan's ascent, the New Sith Empire had fractured, with dozens of Sith Lords claiming the title of Dark Lord and waging endless campaigns against each other, rather than uniting to bring down the ailing Republic. Sensing that their endless quest for supremacy and power would destroy the Sith, Kaan set about reuniting the various splinter states under his banner.

His idea of cooperation and equality amongst the Sith Lords was unique in their history. Rather than challenge each of the self-proclaimed "Dark Lords" and threaten the war effort, Kaan acquiesced to their vanity, and named them all "Dark Lord of the Sith", and declared "All are equal in the Brotherhood of Darkness." But he forbade any Sith to take the historic title of Darth, since he held that title as being solely responsible for the jealousy and infighting that had destroyed the Sith in the past.

Kaan became the founder of the Sith army known as the Brotherhood of Darkness, and managed to turn it from a scrabble of feuding warlords into a force to take control of the galaxy. The two most powerful Sith warlords - Kopecz and Qordis - pledged themselves to his cause, and they were followed by others, such as Kas'im, LaTor and Kaox Krul.

With his charisma and power, the Sith struck back at the Republic and the Jedi Order. Thousands of Sith and Jedi battled one another across the galaxy. The Sith were opposed by the Army of Light commanded by the aged Jedi Master Lord Hoth.

A startling victory at the Battle of Korriban enabled the Sith to retake their ancestral homeworld. Kaan authorised the reopening of the Sith academy, and placed Qordis in charge.

While Kaan was a charismatic and skilled general, his rule was more fragile than it seemed. He preached "rule by the strong" to hide the weakness in his own spirit, a weakness that would be exploited as the war ground on. As long as the victories continued, however, the Sith would remain united behind him.

Nearing the end
"Deploying air forces...flanking armies...you are thinking like a dirt general, not a Sith Lord!"

- Darth Bane

Despite victories on Kashyyyk, Trandosha and Phaseera, the tide of the war turned against the Sith, and the internal dissension grew rife. Kaan tried to provoke Hoth into a confrontation, laying waste to worlds such as Bespin, Sullust and Tanaab, and even mounting an ambitious campaign in the Bormea Sector.

Eventually, Kaan and Hoth would meet at the planet Ruusan, a world mostly insignificant except for its crucial role as a staging ground for attacks on Sith-held Kashyyyk. Striking without warning, the Sith fleet staged a devastating assault on the unprepared planet, completely overwhelming the planet's meagre defenses. From his flagship Nightfall, Kaan directed the campaign, utilising his skill in Battle meditation to confound the Republic defenders and bolster his own forces. Meanwhile, Lord Hoth's forces had arrived on Ruusan to defeat the remaining Sith forces, and wipe out the Brotherhood, once and for all.

By the Third Battle of Ruusan, the war on had moved to the surface of the planet itself, and, though outnumbered and outgunned by the Army of Light, Kaan sensed victory - the Jedi had spread themselves far too thin in a vain attempt to protect the inhabitants of Ruusan. In addition, the defection of the Jedi Githany gave the Sith vital intelligence on the Jedi battle plan. Though the Sith were suffering high casualties, Kaan believed he would prevail, and sent for reinforcements.

While most of his followers remained loyal, a few prominent Dark Lords within the Brotherhood began to question his leadership: Githany, Kopecz and most notably, Darth Bane.

Bane was opposed to Kaan's battle tactics against the Jedi, believing that Lord Kaan was acting more like an ordinary military commander than a Dark Lord of the Sith, and was not properly using the Dark Side of the Force. Lord Kaan tried to kill Bane - first, by sending Kas'im to murder him, then, when that failed, by having Githany poison him. Bane was too strong - and survived both assassination attempts.

Darth Bane returned, and declared Kaan unworthy of his title, but not before sending to Kaan a piece offering - a scroll enscribed with an ancient Sith ritual - the thought bomb.

While surprised at Bane's survival, Lord Kaan accepted Darth Bane's tactical advice. Using the Force and attacking as one, the members of the Brotherhood meditated and focused their dark energy into Darth Bane. The combined power of the Sith devastated the Army of Light, and victory was in the Sith grasp.

Even as the Jedi defeat was imminent, Lord Kaan and the other members of the brotherhood broke the meditation circle. Impatient and overconfident, Kaan believed that the Jedi could be quickly and easily defeated if the Sith took to the field. Secretly, Kaan and his followers were jealous of Bane and his power, and felt that Darth Bane was using their energy for his own benefit.

The thought bomb
"I ask that you join me in one last task: the creation of a weapon so powerful that when it is detonated, the victors shall become the vanquished and be swept from the pages of history."

- Kaan

When the Sith masters broke their mediation and took the field, however, the Jedi counterattacked, and the Sith took severe losses. Most of the Sith Masters died in the battle. Kaan took his defeated forces into a deep caves to wait for the Jedi's final strike. There he used his ultimate tactic: a "thought bomb".

Kaan believed that the thought bomb would destroy the Jedi, but that he and the rest of the Sith would be strong enough to survive. That belief would lead to not just his own doom, but that of every Force-user within the radius of the explosion. With the aid of LaTor, Kaan studied and refined the thought bomb ritual until he and the other Dark Lords were ready to unleash it. With Qordis dead, and Githany and Darth Bane having left the Brotherhood, it was left to Kopecz to defend against the approaching Jedi forces under Valenthyne Farfalla.

When Lord Hoth and his retinue finally arrived and confronted the Sith, Lord Kaan detonated the thought bomb, killing himself, his Sith followers and Lord Hoth's Jedi. The New Sith Wars were over and the Sith presumed extinct.

The caves where Kaan and his Brotherhood had died would eventually be known as the Valley of the Jedi. Darth Bane, his apprentice Zannah, and her cousin Darovit were those that survived the bomb, being distant from its effects. Bane's callous assessment of his rival and former leader was that Kaan's "suicide" was his "smartest decision".

Legacy
"The forces who favor anarchy over structure have won. For what is this 'democracy' they speak of if not the absence of order? Of reason? Surely the strong should rule&mdash;for that is nature's way."

- Kaan

For most of the Sith that followed, Kaan was considered symbolic of the flawed Sith of old - his narcissistic, paranoid and backstabbing cowardice representing the Brotherhood of Darkness as a whole.

Not all of Bane's order dismissed Kaan, however - the apostate Darth Millennial considered Kaan's philosophy of "Rule by the strong" as superior to Bane's "Rule of Two" and Millennial left his own master over such a disagreement.

Centuries later, Darth Vader, one of the last Dark Lords of Bane's order used one of Kaan's indestructable Sith amulets in the construction of one of his own gloves.

Behind the scenes
The source for Kaan once being a Jedi Master comes from Dark Forces: Jedi Knight, where he is described as being one. However, the book's description of Force-users is somewhat questionable; Jerec is also called a Jedi Master, and the terms "Jedi" and "Dark Jedi" are used interchangeably in describing Yun, Sariss, and Jerec's other minions. However, as it was eventually established that Jerec was indeed once a Jedi Master, there is no reason to assume that Kaan was not also one at some point.

In Dark Forces: Jedi Knight Kaan's hair color is described as white, whereas in Jedi vs. Sith and Path of Destruction it is black.

Appearances

 * Darth Bane: Path of Destruction
 * Darkness Shared
 * Jedi vs. Sith
 * Bane of the Sith
 * Dark Forces: Jedi Knight