Darth Marr

"Life is the enemy. Death is our solace."

- Darth Marr's creed

Darth Marr was a Human male Dark Lord of the Sith and a member of the Sith Empire's ruling Dark Council during the Great Galactic War, Cold War, and Galactic War with the Galactic Republic. A fearsome warrior and stalwart defender of the Empire, Darth Marr was born in 3,702 BBY and assumed a seat on the Dark Council in his early twenties, leading the Sphere of Defense of the Empire as he drove back entire armies and halted Republic offensives during the Great War. By the end of the war in 3,653 BBY, Marr had trained an apprentice by the name of Darth Lachris to the rank of Sith Lord and was one of only seven remaining Councilors. He continued to strengthen Imperial defenses and prepare for the inevitable conflict throughout the Cold War, distancing himself from the power plays and treachery that plagued the Council and weakened the Empire.

As war broke out with the Republic, Marr watched as the Dark Council's numbers dwindled thanks to both the enemy and internal feuding, and he assumed a leadership role alongside fellow Councilors Darth Mortis and Darth Ravage after the deaths of Darth Baras and Darth Decimus, the heads of the Spheres of Military Offense and Military Strategy, left him in sole command of the Imperial Military.

Early career
"Your place is not to think. It is to hunt."

- Darth Marr to Teneb Kel

A human male, the individual later known as Darth Marr was born in 3,702 BBY in the territory of the resurgent Sith Empire. However, Marr's history was shrouded in secrecy: anyone who possessed knowledge of his past refused to reveal anything they knew after the Sith Lord came to power. Trained as a Sith Warrior, Marr adopted an armored battle suit like many powerful Sith, and Marr's armor and emotionless mask were designed to invoke the idea of a monstrous Sithspawn creature. Marr recovered the lightsaber of the ancient Sith Lord Tulak Hord on the planet Dromund Fels shortly before his ascension to the Sith Empire's ruling Dark Council, a position that he achieved sometime around the beginning of the Great Galactic War with the Galactic Republic in 3,681 BBY Like the other eleven members of the Council, Marr headed one of the Empire's Spheres of Influence&mdash;in Marr's case, the Sphere of Defense of the Empire.

Around 3,678 BBY, Darth Marr and several other Dark Councilors confronted the Sith Lord Calypho on the holy world of Korriban, arresting him for heresy just as Calypho's apprentice Teneb Kel returned from a mission into the planet's ancient tombs. Kel was allowed to participate in the Imperial offensive on Begeren, but after the Invasion of Begeren ended the apprentice was arrested as well. Darth Marr led parades in the streets of Kaas City on the Imperial capital of Dromund Kaas in celebration of the victory, but he afterwards attended a meeting of the Council in their chamber beneath the Imperial Citadel. There, Kel was brought before Darth Marr and the other Dark Councilors and ordered to kill Lord Calypho. Marr noticed that the young Sith drew strength from his fear, causing another Councilor to mock Kel for not drawing upon his anger. When a Councilor halted the battle before Calypho's death, the Sith was taken away by Imperial Guardsmen to be tortured, and Marr reminded the apprentice that he was not special&mdash;his master had made him into a disgrace.

However, Marr and several other Councilors recognized that Kel could still be of use as a weapon, and Marr revealed a hologram of the apprentice's target: Exal Kressh, the wayward apprentice of the Sith Emperor. The Dark Councilor brushed aside Kel's questions, informing the young Human that his place in the Empire would be judged again if he succeeded in the mission. He then brought Kel before the Emperor himself, bowing low as the Sith ruler informed Marr's chosen assassin that Kressh could be found in the Lenico system. Kel would eventually successfully track down and kill Kressh on Korriban, though not before learning that the Emperor intended to create his Children&mdash;extensions of his will that would spread his influence secretly across the galaxy. During the young Human's report to the Dark Council, he refused to submit to their authority and prompted Darth Marr to summon a storm of Force lightning as a threat. However, Kel convinced the Council to accept his offer: in exchange for information on the Emperor's plans, the Dark Council would grant him the rank of Sith Lord and the title of Darth Thanaton.

Defender of the Empire
As the Great Galactic War continued, Darth Marr attained a fearsome reputation among both the Republic and the Empire, leading Imperial forces into battle and defending the Empire's conquests against Republic counterattacks with fearless determination. In 3,660 BBY, Darth Marr drove back a Republic offensive against Korriban, and he dealt the enemy another grievous defeat when the Republic attempted to strike at Ziost. By the end of the war, Marr had trained an apprentice of his own in Darth Lachris, who was a fierce warrior at heart who understood the bitter necessity of politics like her master. He also took an interest in certain Force-sensitive individuals within the Empire, such as the brother of Talos Drellik, and would often personally take them to the Sith Academy on Korriban. Marr was known throughout the Republic as the masked Dark Councilor who had defeated entire armies and halted dozens of Republic assaults, and he was one of only seven members of the Dark Council who was still alive by the time the Treaty of Coruscant ended the war in 3,653 BBY.

Over the next decade&mdash;a time that became known as the Cold War&mdash;Darth Marr devoted himself to preparing the Empire for the next conflict, strengthening Imperial defenses and exerting control over his Sphere of Influence to ensure that the Republic would find no cracks in the armor of the Empire. After Moff Xerxian failed to quell an uprising on the Imperial-conquered world of Sullust, the man was summoned to a private audience with Darth Marr. After the meeting, Xerxian dictated a letter of resignation and shot himself, leading to many rumors about what had happened. The most predominant one was that the Sith Lord had removed his mask and allowed Xerxian to view his supposedly ruined face. When the prototype Imperial warship Voidstar was rediscovered, Marr ordered an Imperial strike team to reclaim the vessel before the Republic could capture the derelict dreadnaught. Governor Lysennius Melchiro's continued failure to suppress the Balmorran Resistance on the conquered planet Balmorra eventually led to his removal by the Dark Council, and Marr's former apprentice Darth Lachris was selected to take Melchiro's place. After a Republic assault on the world failed, Lachris' forces captured a large number of Republic troopers and several Jedi, and the Sith Lord delivered the captive Jedi to Darth Marr so that the Dark Councilor could attempt to break the prisoners and convert them to the dark side of the Force.

Infighting and open war
In 3,641 BBY, Darth Marr was presented with the body of Supreme Chancellor Dorian Janarus by Darth Tormen during a special session of the Council, as Tormen's bounty hunter had assassinated the Chancellor aboard his personal cruiser Founder during the Battle of Corellia. Marr was pleased with Tormen's work, and expressed an interest in hiring the bounty hunter if the need arose later on. Marr's support infuriated his fellow Dark Councilor Darth Decimus, whose Sphere of Military Strategy had planned the Imperial invasion of Corellia and who was personally overseeing the battle.

Not long afterwards, Darth Marr and the other Councilors were summoned to Korriban by fellow Dark Councilor Darth Baras. Darths Hadra and Acharon were forced to attend via hologram with Decimus, as the two had joined Decimus in overseeing the Imperial offensive on Corellia. At the meeting, Baras attempted to declare himself Voice of the Emperor&mdash;the individual through whom the Emperor delivered his commands&mdash;and therefore take control of the entire Empire, but Baras was interrupted by the arrival of Darth Vowrawn and Baras' former apprentice. The Sith Warrior had been appointed as the Emperor's Wrath, and Marr reprimanded Darth Ravage when his fellow Councilor agreed to Baras' request that the Council kill his former student. Declaring the Wrath's challenge was valid and supported by Vowrawn, one of the Council's own members, Marr pitted Baras and his student against each other: whichever was victorious would be acknowledged by the Council as a true servant of the Emperor. As Marr and the other Councilors watched from their seats, the Wrath battled the false Voice in a duel within the Council chamber. But as Baras began to falter, he appealed to Darth Marr to defend the Emperor's Voice, but Marr refused. Ravage did the same when Baras ordered him to attack, and a defiant Baras continued to rage at the Council and the Wrath until his former student executed him. Marr then led the rest of the Dark Council in acknowledging the Wrath's position and right to free reign, but hinted that the Council would not take kindly to actions that contradicted their own designs before the Wrath departed.

After Baras' body was removed from the chamber, Darth Thanaton&mdash;recently ascended to the Council after the suspicious death of his predecessor Darth Arctis&mdash;rose to address his fellow Dark Lords. He appealed to the other Dark Councilors to aid him in destroying his rival and subordinate Lord Kallig, whom Thanaton had recently declared a Kaggath upon. The Kaggath, an ancient Sith ritual duel, had ended on Corellia when Thanaton had fled to Korriban to meet with the Council, and Thanaton was angered to see that Kallig had followed him to Korriban when the young Sith Inquisitor entered the chamber. Darth Mortis and Ravage mocked Thanaton's reliance on ancient tradition, and Marr cut short the Councilor's speech by bringing up the matter at hand: why was Thanaton, a Dark Councilor, unable to kill a single Sith Lord? Furious, Thanaton began to duel Kallig, and their battle ended when the young Sith forced Thanaton to his knees in submission. As the drained Dark Councilor struggled to rise, Marr rose from his seat to join Ravage, Vowrawn, and Mortis in front of their fallen fellow, and they watched as Mortis broke Thanaton's neck to put him out of his misery. When Ravage expressed his disdain for Thanaton, Marr reprimanded his fellow Councilor, stating that Thanaton had been a better Sith than Ravage gave him credit for. The Councilors then offered Kallig with Thanaton's now empty seat; Ravage protested as they can't put just a Lord on the Council, but Marr silenced him as Kallig had earned the right. Marr named the young Inquisitor "Darth Nox" and bestowed the new Dark Councilor the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge.

After the deaths of Decimus, Hadra, and Acharon and the Republic victory at Corellia, Marr ordered General Hesker and all Imperial forces to retreat from the planet and redirect to the new battlefield of Ilum. Mortis, Ravage, and Marr also dispatched Grand Moff Ilyan Regus to Ilum. Around this time, the Dark Council met to discuss the successor to Hadra's seat on the council. Marr, who was full aware of the Empire's declining situation, nominated Darth Karrid, and urged the other Councilors for their support since the Empire's soldiers and resources were dwindling. To his dismay, the other Councilors present supported Darth Gravus, mainly due the Empire's discrimination against non-humans and Sith Purebloods. When Karrid killed Gravus, Marr was surprised by the Council's sudden decision change of support for Karrid, but also concluded that these recent actions were just another example of Sith infighting.

Marr gained word of the Hutt Cartel's activities on the planet of Makeb and contacted the Empire's heroes to handle the threat. Upon meeting each of them individually, he explained that he had chosen them to deal with it because he had the rest of the war on his hands since the Emperor was still absent. With the Republic growing closer to victory, the Hutts had seized Makeb to mine isotope-5, a substance capable of twisting gravitational and electromagnetic fields, making it a potent power source, which the Empire desperately needed for their defenses. Marr assigned a limited support team to assist the heroes, but warned them to proceed with stealth and avoid anything that could expose their intentions to the Hutts and the Republic.

Unfortunately, Marr was later displeased to learn that the Hutts had used all the available isotope-5 to create war droids and that their over-mining of Makeb's core threatened to tear the planet apart and the isotop with it. After stressing that three Imperial worlds had fallen to buy the Makeb team time, the latter managed to stabilize the planet's core and keep it secret from their enemies. After hearing of the success of the Empire's activities, Marr redesignated his whole focus onto the galactic war.

Soon after, the Empire had located the defected Dread Masters' base of operations on Oricon. Knowing that any plan of the now-rogue Masters were no good for everyone in the galaxy, Marr contacted the Empire's heroes once again and told them to look for Lord Hargrev, who was supposed to have responded to Imperial comms. He told the heroes that the Dread Masters must be stopped or everything will be lost.

Personality and traits
Darth Marr was a human male who was famous for never revealing his true face&mdash;the Dark Lord was perpetually encased in his personalized suit of battle armor, and rumor had it that the sight of Marr's visage was the reason Moff Xerxian committed suicide. Throughout his tenure on the Dark Council, Darth Marr's body slowly transformed as a result of immersion in the dark side of the Force, and by the time war broke out again with the Republic the Sith Lord was aware that his body would not last much longer. Marr was driven by a fierce dedication to warfare, one that bordered on zealotry. He believed that conflict was the only way that life evolved and grew stronger, and Marr's personal view was that death was inevitable&mdash;only cowards tried to avoid that which was a necessity. Darth Marr's power in the dark side gradually stripped him of emotion over the decades, leaving the man with a fraction of his humanity but a strong desire to ensure that the Empire survived.

The Sith Lord understood that the Empire needed to evolve in order to survive, and he was frustrated by his fellow Councilors' bigotry and the way that they clung to the old anti-alien philosophies even after the Empire began opening its ranks to alien species following the defeat of the traitorous Darth Malgus at the Battle of Ilum. Marr was also aware that the continuing of backstabbing and infighting would destroy the Empire and tried to keep it under control in the Emperor's absence. Marr was disappointed when Karrid chose to destroy Gravus for her own ends, which made her a Dark Councilor, but made the Empire more vulnerable.

Powers and abilities
A Sith Warrior, Darth Marr was a remarkably powerful practitioner of the dark side; his strength was such that he ascended to a seat on the Dark Council while still in his early twenties, and he was able to maintain his position over the next forty years while the tenure of some Councilors lasted mere weeks. He wielded a single red-bladed lightsaber in combat while protected by his specialized suit of Sith battle armor, and his prowess in battle was such that he had a reputation for routing entire armies. Darth Marr was also skilled in using Force lightning, as he was able to summon a crackling storm of lightning at a moment's notice in order to threaten the impudent Teneb Kel.

Behind the scenes
Darth Marr first appeared in Star Wars: The Old Republic, Blood of the Empire Act 1: Shades of the Sith, the fourth issue of the Star Wars: The Old Republic comic series and the first in the Blood of the Empire arc. He appears again in Act 3: Burn the Future, and is featured in several flashbacks in the early issues of The Lost Suns story arc&mdash;most notably on the cover of The Lost Suns, Part 2.

Darth Marr appears in the finales of both the Sith Warrior and Sith Inquisitor storylines in Star Wars: The Old Republic, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game released by BioWare and LucasArts on December 20, 2011. In the Sith Warrior finale, "Retribution", Marr occupies the throne third from the left on the left hand side of the chamber. However, in the Sith Inquisitor finale "The Dark Council", Marr is instead seated on the far right throne on the left-hand side.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Old Republic, Blood of the Empire Act 1: Shades of the Sith
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic, Blood of the Empire Act 3: Burn the Future
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic 1: The Lost Suns, Part 1
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic 2: The Lost Suns, Part 2
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Annihilation
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Rise of the Hutt Cartel