Darth Andeddu

"Knowledge is power and true Sith do not share power. I will give you nothing but your own death."

- Darth Andeddu to Darth Wyyrlok III

Darth Andeddu was a humanoid male who was a Dark Lord of the Sith from an unknown time period. He created a holocron that was stored not only with the knowledge he possessed, but his very essence as well. While the holocron was buried within his false tomb on Korriban, his body was buried in his personal stronghold on the world of Prakith.

Life
At some point in time, the man who would be known as Darth Andeddu was born on an unknown planet. Though how Andeddu discovered the Sith teachings is unknown, he would eventually go on to take the name of Darth Andeddu and become a powerful Sith Lord.



Cheating death
"You transferred your intellect to what we assumed was a holocron. It was more. It was a shell -- just as that moldering corpse is a shell."

- Darth Wyyrlok to Darth Andeddu

When he was still alive, Darth Andeddu was obsessed with preservation of his life, studying the ancient Sith Lord Karness Muur's teachings to find a way to cheat death, building on Muur's experiments. According to legend, after Andeddu's death, his spirit used the Force to reanimate his corpse even after it had begun to decay. Though he remained alive after his body had died, Andeddu feared his enemies would seek to gain his knowledge and so fled to the world of Prakith in the Deep Core and buried himself, transferring his consciousness inside of his holocron, waiting for the day when he would awake once more.



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

- Dooku to Quinlan Vos

Lost in the annals of history for centuries, Darth Andeddu's holocron was eventually recovered on the ancient Sith homeworld of Korriban by the undercover Jedi Master Quinlan Vos during the second year of the Clone Wars, at the behest of the Sith Lord Count Dooku, also known as Darth Tyranus. Dooku extracted the knowledge stored within the holocron, and disassembled it afterwards to remove Andeddu's lightsaber crystal, giving it to Vos as his rite of passage as one of his Dark Acolytes, and telling him to use it in his lightsaber.



Reawakening and destruction
"I am destroying you. All trace of you. Your "holocron" I will also destroy. There will be nothing left. My Master would not only understand -- he'd applaud. The old ways -- your ways -- have failed. Here, now -- we are the Sith!"

- Darth Wyyrlok to Darth Andeddu

Approximately one century later in the year 137 ABY, Darth Krayt, the reigning Dark Lord of the Sith and leader of his Sith Order, activated Andeddu's holocron on Korriban, along with the holocrons of Darths Nihilus and Bane. Krayt sought advice from Andeddu on how to end the corruption of his body by the Yuuzhan Vong Vonduun crab armor he wore in order to extend his life. However, Andeddu rebuked him, calling Krayt a pretender, his new Sith Order a mockery, and his teachings utter heresy. Andeddu further expressed his contempt for Krayt by using his Sith powers to cause Krayt's armor to consume and transform him, before Krayt himself managed to deactivate Andeddu's holocron.

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.

Legacy
In 22 ABY, an unknown Jedi Master, possibly Tionne Solusar, recovered a holocron which belonged to the Jedi Master Asli Krimsan, at Darth Vader's fortress on the planet Vjun. While her 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.

Behind the scenes
It was suggested in the book Jedi vs. Sith: 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.

If Andeddu was a member of the ancient Sith Empire that predated Darths Revan and Malak, he would be the first known Sith to use the title of Darth. However, to date, not much is known about Andeddu, including the timeframe he lived in. Likewise, 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.

According to Leland Chee, Lucasfilm Ltd. has "plans" for Andeddu. This possibly referred to either his appearance in Legacy, or the October 2006 official website poll, "With Darth Bane and Darth Plagueis getting novels, which of these Sith Lords would you like to see explored in books?" Andeddu won with 45% of the vote, beating out Darths Sion, Nihilus, and Vectivus, and Freedon Nadd.

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

Notes and references
Darth Andeddu Darth Andeddu Darth Andeddu