Darth Andeddu

"Knowledge is power and true Sith do not share power."

- Darth Andeddu

Darth Andeddu was an ancient humanoid male Dark Lord of the Sith, dubiously believed to be the forebear of the "Darth" title. In life, Andeddu was a paranoid man who believed that his fellow Sith Lords&mdash;whom he regarded as his enemies&mdash;sought to steal his vast knowledge in Sith lore and ritual. Thus, he stored his wisdom within a holocron and fled the Sith graveworld of Korriban, returning to his personal stronghold on his homeworld of Prakith. He then entombed himself in an attempt to escape the pursuit of those who sought his power; however, his mind lived on to exert control over the flesh in which it once resided. In the years that followed his physical demise, a Sith cult dubbed the Malevolence took up residence in Lord Andeddu's Keep, and guarded the fortress for generations in his name.

The legend of Andeddu and his reanimation abilities remained at large long after his death, and his holocron survived as well&mdash;having been first discovered by the Sith Lord Darth Tyranus in 21 BBY, and then recovered by Darth Krayt and his One Sith Order more than a century later. Krayt, who suffered from a Yuuzhan Vong slave seed infestation that threatened to leave him bereft of sentience, allowed his lieutenant Darth Wyyrlok III to access Andeddu's holocron in search of possible solutions. The device led the Chagrian Sith on journey to Andeddu's Keep on Prakith, where he encountered and defeated the Malevolence, but in doing so, the ancient Dark Lord's flesh was restored to life. Andeddu then dueled Wyyrlok on the battlefield of the mind, a contest which he ultimately lost. His corpse was then resealed within the tomb that had housed it for countless millennia, and his prodigious collection of Sith lore was pillaged by Wyyrlok, who hoped to obtain a means to rid Darth Krayt of the Yuuzhan Vong scourge.

Life
"They were searching for me&mdash;my enemies&mdash;searching through the Force to find me, end me, steal away my knowledge&mdash;my power!"

- Darth Andeddu, recounting his escape from Korriban



The humanoid male known as Darth Andeddu was a Dark Lord of the Sith, who hailed from the Deep Core world of Prakith. Though he maintained a private stronghold on his own homeworld, Darth Andeddu resided on Korriban, the homeworld of the Sith. Andeddu cultivated a following of dark side worshippers, whom he dubbed the Malevolence. The Dark Lord trained his sycophants to use the dark side the Force, and charged them with safeguarding his Keep on Prakith in his absence.

Over time, Andeddu himself attained considerable mastery in dark side wisdom and power. He studied the ways of the original Lords of the Sith, namely the arcane rituals of one known as Karness Muur, and upon his teachings, the foundation of Andeddu's power was built. However, as the Dark Lord grew in strength, so too did he grow in fear; Andeddu came to believe that his fellow Sith Lords coveted the insight he had achieved, and the Force abilities in which he had become proficient. Because Andeddu refused to dispense his intelligence, his contemporaries banded together and plotted destroy him&mdash;though not before siezing his wealth of knowledge for themselves.

Andeddu was aware of the machinations of his detractors, and grew increasingly wary of them, believing that if he did not act soon, they would successfully overtake him. Thus, he fled Korriban before any of his rivals were able to carry out their plans, though not before creating a Sith holocron that he buried within a false tomb to deceive potential pursuers. When the Sith Lords realized that Darth Andeddu had absconded, they searched relentlessly for him, through the Force and otherwise, but to no avail&mdash;Andeddu had soundly eluded them by returning to his Keep on Prakith. The fear of losing all he had attained still threatened to consume him though, and because of this, Andeddu recorded a great deal of his knowledge in Sith scrolls and books that he stored within the belly of his fortress. He then entombed himself, surrounded by his books and scrolls, content with the idea that he would carry his Sith secrets into death with him. Unbeknownst to his enemies, the key to obtaining Andeddu's harbored lore lay within his holocron on Korriban. However, none of his enemies ever located the device, and it remained hidden for thousands of years after his passing.

Holocron discovered
"Through this holocron, I have access to the long dead wisdom of Darth Andeddu. The wisdom and power of the Sith."

- Darth Tyrannus



By the year 21 BBY, Darth Andeddu's ancient secrets were still preserved in his holocron on Korriban, until it and its contents were sought by a Dark Lord of the Sith under the guise of Darth Tyranus. Rather than retrieve the device himself, Lord Tyranus sent two of his servants to Korriban: the Dark Jedi Tol Skorr, and an undercover Kiffar Jedi Master named Quinlan Vos. The two battled each other in the Valley of the Dark Lords for possession of Andeddu's holocron, with Vos ultimately claiming victory, and gaining much favor with Tyranus. Satisfied that the holocron was now in his possession, Tyranus activated the pyramidal artifact to manifest a lightsaber-wielding avatar of Andeddu's likeness, from which Tyranus hoped to learn, in hopes of mastering the power of the ancient Sith. Also, in reward for Vos' success, the Dark Lord revealed another of the many secrets contained within Andeddu's holocron&mdash;a bloodshine lightsaber crystal&mdash;the same one that had powered Andeddu's own weapon during his time among the living. Tyranus then gifted Vos with the crystal, and kept the holocron for himself.

Nearly forty years later, the holocron of Jedi Master Asli Krimsan was discovered in Bast Castle, the former fortress of the Sith Lord Darth Vader on the planet Vjun. While Krimsan's holocron was primarily for the education of young Jedi, it yielded some information about Andeddu, suggesting that he was the first Sith to use the Darth honorific.

The Sith "pretender"
"The heretic comes for the same reason it came last time. Its body is failing. it fears that which is consuming it."

- Darth Andeddu, to Darth Krayt

By 137 ABY, a new Sith Order had achieved dominion over the galaxy, created by a fallen Jedi named A'Sharad Hett. During his progression down the path of the dark side of the Force, Hett had been captured and tortured by the extra-galactic Yuuzhan Vong race, who implanted him with their Yorik-kul slave seeds. Though able to combat the effects of the seeds through his growing strength in the dark side, Hett was slowly losing his battle with them. By 137 ABY, Hett had assumed the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith under the moniker Darth Krayt, and had also created his One Sith Order; however, he feared that the Vong seeds would consume him before he was able to fully impose his will over the galaxy.



Krayt's own strength and wisdom had proven insufficient in granting riddance of his affliction, and he sought advice from his personal collection of Sith artifacts and lore on how to do so. One of the objects in his possession was Darth Andeddu's holocron, and from it, Krayt learned that after his death, Andeddu's mind survived to maintain control over his body. Obsessed with acquiring such power, Krayt repeatedly attempted to glean Andeddu's knowledge from the holocron, none of which its gatekeeper would yield. In his last endeavor, Krayt accessed the holocrons of the deceased Dark Lords Darth Nihilus and Darth Bane along with Andeddu's. He was repeatedly rebuked by their gatekeepers, and held in contempt by the ancient Sith for diluting the power of the dark side by sharing it with the many minions of his Order. Darth Andeddu and his fellow Dark Lords mocked Krayt, exposing his fear of being consumed by his Yuuzhan Vong slave seeds. Together, the gatekeepers of Andeddu's and Bane's holocrons turned their power on Krayt to bring about his innermost fear&mdash causing the Vonduun crab armor in which he was clad to consume him. Unwilling to succumb to, Krayt managed to exercise enough control through the Force to deactivate the holocrons, and reverse the transformation set in motion by Lords Andeddu and Bane.

As Krayt's health continued to deteriorate, he commissioned his most trusted advisor, the Chagrian sorcerer Darth Wyyrlok III with the task of finding a solution to his problem. Among the many avenues he explored, Wyyrlok too consulted the holocron of Darth Andeddu, and was rejected much like his Master before him. Andeddu's image peaked in the midst of his refusals, however, when Wyyrlok revealed that he knew of the stronghold on Prakith, and then offered to restore the Dark Lord to life. Andeddu's visage entertained the idea, and allowed Krayt's loremaster to prove his worth by undertaking a quest into the Deep Core, in search of Andeddu's Keep&mdash;one that Andeddu believed the Chagrian would not survive.

Andeddu's demise
"I am destroying you. All trace of you. Your "holocron" I will also destroy. There will be nothing left."

- Darth Wyyrlok



Later that year, Krayt's most trusted adviser, Darth Wyyrlok, traveled to the planet Prakith in the Deep Core to search for Andeddu's knowledge. Upon his arrival, Wyyrlok was guided by Andeddu's holocron, and swiftly defeated the ancient Sith Lord's Malevolence cultists who guarded his tomb. He then entered, and discovered Andeddu's mummified corpse. The Prakithian Sith instructed Wyyrlok to place his holocron upon the body's chest, but Wyyrlok preferred to instead help himself to Andeddu's abundance of ancient texts and scrolls instead. Gerlun, the last Malevolent cultist, however, snatched the holocron and placed it upon Andeddu's corpse himself. Gerlun's own life-force was then drained, resulting in the release of Andeddu's spirit into his corpse.

Realizing that Andeddu transferred his intellect into the holocron, Wyyrlok declared he would still have his secrets. After Andeddu tried to subdue Wyyrlok by blasting him with Force lightning, he created an illusory battleground of his choosing to fight Wyyrlok. Andeddu viciously attacked Wyyrlok with the Force, taunting and calling him Krayt's "slave". Wyyrlok in turn dismissed Andeddu as a coward who chose to flee from his foes rather than face them, and stated that Andeddu did not deserve his knowledge or power. He used Andeddu's illusions to his advantage, causing them to seemingly engulf the ancient artifacts of Andeddu's keep in flames, telling him that he was destroying all trace of him, including his holocron, telling Andeddu that Krayt would not only understand what he was doing, but that he would applaud. Wyyrlok told Andeddu that the old ways–his ways– had failed, and declared that Krayt's Order was now the Sith, and with a burst of dark side power, he annihilated Andeddu's spirit, leaving only the broken shell that was the Sith Lord's corpse on the ground. With a gesture of contempt, Wyyrlok hurled the body into the sarcophagus and closed the lid upon Andeddu for the final time.Wyyrlok would then go on to study Andeddu's personal library of ancient Sith scrolls and texts in a bid to help his ailing Master, Darth Krayt.

Personality and traits
"I sense fear. You are a coward, Lord Andeddu, and you hid rather than face your foes."

- Darth Wyyrlok, regarding Andeddu with contempt

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Powers and abilities
"Your power is in the mind! Your mind forces your body to obey even though dead!"

- Darth Wyyrlok realizes the extent of Andeddu's abilities

Behind the scenes
It was suggested in the book Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force that Darth Andeddu may have, in fact, been the first Sith Lord to use the "Darth" title. This may be supported by the theory that "Darth" is derived from the Rakatan words "darr tah," and therefore means "triumph over death", and Darth Andeddu, in a way, triumphed over death by keeping his deceased body animate. The guide's timeline also states that Quinlan Vos recovered Andeddu's holocron in 23 BBY, three years before Vos actually recovered it. However, the guide's section on Andeddu's holocron gives the correct date of Vos' recovery of Andeddu's holocron.

Furthermore, the Darth title is in a constant state of retcon; first with Darth Bane, then with Darth Revan , and now with the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic comics establishing that the "Darth" title existed before Revan and Malak assumed the mantle.

Darth Andeddu was also mentioned Lucasfilm official Leland Chee's blog, which associates various Darths, their names, and the real words they are based on. Andeddu's name, however is without a real world correlation."

According to author Drew Karpyshyn, Darth Andeddu will feature in the third Darth Bane novel, Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil."

Appearances

 * Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil
 * Star Wars Republic 63: Striking from the Shadows
 * Star Wars Legacy 5: Broken, Part 4
 * Star Wars Legacy 27: Into the Core
 * Star Wars Legacy 30: Vector, Part 11
 * Star Wars Legacy 30: Vector, Part 11