Son/Legends

"You are Sith!''" "''Sith? Yes. And no."

- Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the Son, regarding the latter's affiliation

The Son, also known as the Fanged God, was the incarnation of the dark side of the Force who resided in the realm of Mortis with his family&mdash;a dynasty of immortal Force-sensitive beings who transcended the physical plane of existence. Like the other members of his family, the Son was a shapeshifter who possessed the power to transform into a winged creature that personified his connection to the Force.

Together with the Daughter, the embodiment of the light side of the Force, the two siblings shared a mutual enmity for each other and a rivalry that mirrored the two opposing sides of the Force. The Son longed to escape into the galaxy, but his ambitions were hindered by the Father, who sought to permanently bind his children to Mortis where he could maintain balance between the two. During the Clone Wars, a civil war fought between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, the Son saw an opportunity to undermine the Father's rule with the arrival of Anakin Skywalker, a Jedi Knight and the prophesied Chosen One. In his desire to escape Mortis, the Son masterminded a plot to turn Skywalker to the dark side as he believed that only the Chosen One could release him from the confines of Mortis. As a result of the Son's actions, Skywalker's Padawan learner Ahsoka Tano was briefly corrupted and transformed into a Dark Jedi by the Son. However, Tano's fall to the dark side failed to turn Skywalker as he refused to harm his apprentice. Instead, the Son fatally wounded his sister when he attempted to kill the Father with the Dagger of Mortis, an unintentional act that he came to regret.

Despite the loss of the Daughter, the Son proceeded with his plan to leave Mortis. Through the Son's ability to see the future, Skywalker foresaw a series of events&mdash;all directly connected to his imminent future as Darth Vader, a Dark Lord of the Sith whose body had been mostly replaced with cybernetics and permanently encased in a life-sustaining suit of armor. Horrified by the ominous visions of his future deeds, Skywalker joined the Son in order to end the Clone Wars and prevent Darth Sidious's ascension as Galactic Emperor. When the Father learned of this, he erased the young Jedi's memories of the visions so that the future would proceed without alteration. The Son, once again denied of the chance to leave Mortis, fought with the Father in a final confrontation. Much to his horror, the Father's suicide robbed the Son of his immortality, allowing Skywalker to kill the dark one. But in spite of the Son's demise, the dark side of the Force continued to grow in power, culminating in the purge of the Jedi Order, the rise of the Galactic Empire and Skywalker's transformation into one of the most feared Sith Lords in galactic history.

Origin
"Xendor told me he once journeyed to a dead world where the Force was worshiped as a triad of divine beings. The Daughter was the Light Side. The Son was the Dark Side. And the Father? The Father was the Force itself, perhaps."

- Arden Lyn, referring to Xendor's description of the Ones

The Son was a physical manifestation of the power of the dark side of the Force and one of three immortal beings known as the Ones. According to Thuruht history, the Son and his family lived long before the formation of the Old Republic; their earliest sighting was recorded approximately one million years before the Battle of Yavin. As the Son was the embodiment of darkness, his only sibling&mdash;the Daughter&mdash;existed as a counterpart through her status as the incarnation of the light side of the Force. The patriarch of their dynasty was the Father, a unifying figure dedicated to the preservation of balance between the two opposing aspects of the Force&mdash;and by extension, the rivalry between his children. As a member of the Ones, the Son possessed a unique shapeshifting ability that enabled him to transform into a winged creature that personified his personal connection to the Force.

The Thuruht held that the history of the Ones, revealed to them through revelations from both the Son and the Daughter, began with the trio's residence on a jungle-covered world, located in the Maw section of the galaxy, where they lived together in peace and harmony. However, the tranquility of their realm was destroyed when the Son, in defiance of the Father, drank from the Font of Power, an act that corrupted his nature and recreated him as the essence of the dark side. The fall of the Son was swiftly followed by the Daughter's rebirth as the quintessence of the light side, the result of her bathing in the Pool of Knowledge, also in defiance of the Father's will. As with the light and the darkness, the two siblings developed a rivalry and competed against one another for dominance, causing them both to divide the planet between their respective dominions. Horrified by his family's descent into discord, the Father became the balance of the Force itself through his attempts to curb the growing conflict between his wayward offspring.

The remedy to the strife within the Ones presented itself in the person of Abeloth, the Bringer of Chaos and originally a young woman who catered to the needs of the Ones through her role as the Servant. It was not long until she became an honorary member of the Ones through her new role as the Mother. In addition to her close relationship with the Father, the Mother successfully reconciled the siblings and influenced them in restoring their world to its former glory. Under the Mother's guidance, the Son channeled his destructive energies through a constructive approach by carving out caves and passages in the walls of their valley. But despite the many years that marked the family's reconciliation, the Mother's mortality remained in effect and she continued to age while her family remained ageless. Hampered by extreme old age, she could no longer suppress the natural instincts of the Son and the Daughter. Thus, the period of restored happiness was ended by the renewed conflict between brother and sister.

The Mother, fearful that the Ones would abandon her, sought to prevent her own death by attaining eternal life. With the Father distracted by the fighting between his children, the Mother drank from the Font of Power and bathed in the Pool of Knowledge, both of which were strictly forbidden by the Father. Through the two power sources, the Mother&mdash;now reborn as Abeloth&mdash;became a more powerful Force wielder than the Son and the Daughter. In light of the threat that Abeloth posed to the Ones, the Son formed an alliance with his sister and father in their combined efforts to contain Abeloth on their former homeworld. As a result, they were also forced to leave the planet as well, stranding Abeloth in the process while searching for a new home.

Knowing that their one-time matriarch posed a threat to both their interests, the Son and his sister temporarily suspended their rivalry in order to prevent Abeloth from escaping the confines of her prison. Locating the Thuruht, a Killik race from Alderaan, the Ones joined the hivemind through the Force. Using the Thuruht as a workforce, the Ones influenced the construction of Centerpoint Station, Sinkhole Station and several other technological wonders, all designed to strengthen the containment of Abeloth. Following the completion of their creations, the Son retreated with his family to Mortis, a realm that transcended the confines of the physical universe where they remained for many millenniums, emerging only to defeat Abeloth whenever she escaped from her prison world.

By 24,500 BBY, during the early period of the Ancient Republic, the fallen Jedi Knight Xendor discovered Mortis where he encountered the Ones. Through his interactions with the immortal beings, he gathered that they each embodied a certain aspect of the Force&mdash;the Daughter personified the light; the Son was darkness incarnate; and the Father was essentially the balance that existed between the Force's two warring sides. Though he later relayed his discovery of the Ones to Arden Lyn, another former Jedi, Xendor remained firmly committed to the belief system of the Legions of Lettow, a heretical splinter group of the Jedi Order, and dismissed the Ones' claims as no more legitimate than the other theories regarding the nature of the Force.

Arrival of the Chosen One
"It's true, what they say. You are the Chosen One."

- The Son, to Anakin Skywalker

Although the Father had preserved the balance between the light and dark sides of the Force&mdash;in the persons of his offspring&mdash;for hundreds of thousands of years, his immortality had begun to fail him, convincing the Father that his own death was imminent. Around the same time, the Clone Wars was being waged between the Galactic Republic and the breakaway Confederacy of Independent Systems. In the midst of the civil war, the Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker fought on the side of the Republic and was believed by some within the Jedi Order to be the legendary Chosen One; a Jedi, born through the Force, destined to restore balance between the light and the darkness. The Father, desperate for a successor, planted an ancient Jedi distress signal in the Chrelythiumn system that drew Skywalker, his former Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, and his Padawan Ahsoka Tano to the Mortis realm via a monolith-like gateway.

While the Daughter remained loyal and subservient to the Father, the Son became intrigued by the Chosen One, and more specifically how Skywalker's arrival presented him with a long-awaited opportunity to escape the confines of Mortis. As the Daughter led the three Jedi to the Father's monastery, the Son caused a large rock to collapse on a cliff path, dividing Kenobi and Tano from Skywalker. When the two Jedi returned to the landing site of their Eta-class shuttle, the Son briefly confronted them and eagerly inquired about whether or not Skywalker truly was the Chosen One. Arousing the Jedi's suspicions, they initially believed him to be a Sith, a notion which the Son confirmed and denied&mdash;he embodied the source of the Sith Order's power, but was not actual member of the cult.

Soon afterward, the Son indirectly confronted Anakin Skywalker through an apparition of the young Jedi's deceased mother Shmi Skywalker Lars. The spectrum of his mother compelled Skywalker to admit his failings as a son and a Jedi; the guilt he harbored over the massacre of the Tusken Raiders; and his fear of loss regarding Padmé Amidala, the woman with whom he secretly entered a forbidden marriage with. At this, his mother's appearance transformed into the visage of the Son's winged beast form and declared that Amidala was only a distraction that obstructed the Chosen One from the fulfillment of his destiny.

In order to determine if Anakin Skywalker truly was the Chosen One, the Father created a scenario in which the young Jedi Knight would be forced to demonstrate his powers. To this end, the Son abducted Ahsoka Tano while the Daughter captured Obi-Wan Kenobi. Both were brought to the monastery where the Father challenged Skywalker to choose which one was to be spared. Although he was torn by indecision and conflicted by the knowledge that either choice sentenced the other to death, Skywalker used his fear and desperation as amplifiers for his powers. Through the Force, he telekinetically freed Kenobi and Tano before forcing the Son and the Daughter to their knees in submission. The show of power was enough to convince the Ones that he was in fact the Chosen One, but Skywalker refused to remain on Mortis as the Father's successor. He instead returned with his former Master and Padawan to their shuttle and attempted to leave the Father and his children behind on Mortis.

The Son's machinations
"I have done what is right Or what is wrong, depending on your point of view."

- The Son, referring to his actions and the subjective status of terms such as right and wrong

As the Jedi trio attempted to depart from Mortis, the Son devised a strategy to enter the physical plain of existence, primarily through the Chosen One whom he intended to corrupt with the power of the dark side of the Force. Approaching Skywalker in a dream, the Son offered to form an alliance with him, with their objective being peace and stability throughout the universe. When Skywalker refused to submit to the dark side on the grounds that he would never join the Sith, the Son became enraged and claimed that they would destroy the Sith and Jedi alike. Shortly after Skywalker awoke from the dream, the Son boarded the shuttle and abducted Ahsoka Tano, intending to use her as a catalyst for Skywalker's fall to the dark side.

After imprisoning Tano within his tower, the Son&mdash;disguised as a seemingly harmless creature&mdash;confronted the Padawan over her inner fears and doubts. However, Tano refused to give in to her anger and remained convinced that her Master would come to her aid. Seeing that she would not turn on her own volition, the creature bit Tano's arm, infecting her with the dark side so that she would become completely subservient to the Son. With Tano firmly placed under his control, the Son deployed the fallen Padawan to the tower's courtyard where she awaited Skywalker's arrival. No longer restrained by her Jedi upbringing, Tano became consumed with hatred over her insecurities and low self-esteem, all of which had been developed through her fear that she was never fit to be the apprentice of the Chosen One.

Following his capture of Tano, the Son traveled to the monastery where he consulted with the Father during the Daughter's meditation. The Father accused his son of interfering with the will of the Force and also sensed his deeper immersion within the dark side. The Son dismissed the Father's lecture and asserted that while his power continued to grow, the Father became older and even more frail. In response, the Father threatened that the Son would be contained through force if he did not disengage from his plans to leave Mortis. The Son, no longer willing to tolerate the Father's control over his life, attacked him with Force lightning and proclaimed his absolute hatred for the being who had long since hindered his desire for freedom. Transforming into his beast form, the Son returned to his tower where he anticipated the imminent battle between Skywalker and his fallen apprentice.

The Son reveled in Ahsoka Tano's fury, sensing the rage and frustration that she had suppressed and kept hidden from her Master. While Skywalker and Tano dueled in the courtyard, the Daughter and Kenobi confronted the Son in his throne room, shortly after they had retrieved the Dagger of Mortis, the only weapon that possessed the power to either control or kill the Ones. However, Kenobi was forced to help Skywalker against the corrupted Tano, leaving the Daughter to stand against her brother alone. Beseeching him to abandon the dark side, the Daughter's efforts were rebuffed by the Son who refused to allow her to interfere with his plans. The two proved evenly matched against one another; neither could gain the decisive advantage despite the Son's mastery of Force lightning or the Daughter's proficiency in telekinesis. They remained deadlocked in a stalemate even in their beast forms, until the recovered Father arrived and forced them out into the courtyard. Declaring the Father to be weak and irrelevant, the Son retaliated with a Force lightning attack to which the Father attempted to absorb and deflect. His power diminished, the Father's control over the Son was broken, causing him to fall in defeat as the Son increased his lightning attack in its intensity.

With the Son distracted by his attack on the Father, Kenobi and Skywalker intended to kill him by using the Dagger of Mortis, but were prevented from doing so when Ahsoka Tano stole the weapon and presented it to the Son. Reveling in his apparent triumph, the Son tapped Tano on the forehead, causing her to fall into a near-death state. With the Father at his mercy, the Son raised the dagger to kill him, but unintentionally stabbed his sister in the back as she moved to shield their father from the blade with her own body. The Son was shocked by what had transpired. In spite of his existence as the incarnated form of the dark side, he still loved the Daughter. Enraged over the setback, the Son shifted back into a gargoyle and flew away from the tower. As her last act before dying, the Daughter successfully aided Skywalker in his attempt to save Ahsoka Tano from death.

The future revealed
"Join me, and together we will destroy this Emperor you see in your visions. Then, we shall end war, corruption, and suffering throughout the galaxy."

- The Son and Anakin Skywalker

Unconvinced that the Father was able to contain the Son by himself, Skywalker followed the instructions of a ghostly apparition of Qui-Gon Jinn and journeyed to the Well of the Dark Side where he was confronted by the Son. Not wishing to fight, the Son offered to share his knowledge of the future with the Chosen One. The initial visions that he shared frightened and confused Skywalker, who attempted to resist what he saw. His efforts proved to be futile and he saw the outcome of the Clone Wars and his own role in a new order of the galaxy.

With the Son's help, Skywalker witnessed his anointment as the apprentice of Darth Sidious, the Dark Lord of the Sith who masqueraded as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. Under the direction of his new Master, the fallen Skywalker hunted down and murdered the members of the Jedi Order, including the Initiates during the siege of the Jedi Temple. Skywalker also foresaw Padmé Amidala's death at his own hands, as well as his defeat in battle against Obi-Wan Kenobi and the destruction of Alderaan shortly after the completion of the Death Star. Ultimately, he saw his future as the Sith Lord Darth Vader, a broken and severely damaged man who had been reconstructed with extensive cybernetic replacements; his injured body permanently trapped within a pressurized suit of armor&mdash;designed for the purpose of preserving his life.

The tactic succeeded in rendering Skywalker emotionally vulnerable and far more susceptible to the allure of the dark side. Now aware of Sidious's eventual rise as Emperor in a period of wide-spread suffering and destruction was at hand, Skywalker agreed to bring the Son with him to the galaxy so that they could prevent the future that Skywalker beheld through his visions. Believing that the Jedi Order would obstruct his ability to change the course of history, Skywalker also renounced his ties to the Jedi and willing embraced the dark side's power.

Death
"And so you have betrayed me, Father."

- The Son's last words before death

Obi-Wan Kenobi traveled to the Well of the Dark Side to aid Skywalker against the Son, but soon discovered that his former apprentice had turned to the dark side. Using Kenobi's distraction to his advantage, the Son attacked the Jedi Master with Force lightning shortly before the two returned to the shuttle. But their efforts to return to the known galaxy was obstructed by Ahsoka Tano, who had been warned by Kenobi through a comlink about Skywalker's betrayal. Leaving the shuttle's control system sabotaged, she retreated to the monastery just before her Master arrived.

By the time the Son arrived, it became clear to him that escape would be impossible as long as the Father continued to live. The Son instructed Skywalker to remain with the shuttle while he searched for the Father, and was unaware that the Father used this as an opportunity to erase the Chosen One's memories of the visions, thus ensuring that the future would occur without the Son's interference.

The Son soon located the Father, along with Skywalker, Kenobi and Tano at the monastery. Ignoring the Father's final plea to abandon the dark side, the Son fought and overpowered all three Jedi with ease. In order to bring an end to conflict and the Son's schemes, the Father took the Dagger of Mortis from him and stabbed himself through the chest. Much to the Son's own surprise, his connection to the Force was tied to the life of the Father. With the Father fatally wounded, the Son lost his powers and immortality, allowing Skywalker to strike the now mortal Son down with his lightsaber. With his last breath, the Son accused the Father of treachery before succumbing to death.

Legacy
"And now I die, my heart broken, knowing the role you will play."

- The Father's dying words, hinting to Anakin Skywalker about his future as Darth Vader

Upon the Jedi trio's return to the galaxy, Skywalker and Kenobi filed an official report on their encounter with the Ones on Mortis and remained dormant within the Jedi Archives for decades until it was rediscovered in 44 ABY by Luke Skywalker, the son of the Chosen One and the Grand Master of the New Jedi Order. Through the report, combined with information from the Thuruht hivemind, Skywalker came to believe that his father's refusal to remain on Mortis caused a chain of events that hurled the galaxy into an unprecedented period of chaos and disorder, primarily through the conflicts that followed the Clone Wars and the birth of the Galactic Empire, such as the Galactic Civil War, the Yuuzhan Vong War, the Swarm War and the Second Galactic Civil War&mdash;all of which occurred on a galactic-scale in less than a hundred years.

Anakin Skywalker's legacy with regard to the Ones also involved his direct descendant, the Sith Lord Darth Caedus. As a result of Caedus's actions, Centerpoint Station was inadvertently destroyed, allowing Abeloth to escape into the galaxy without interference from the Ones. In light of the threat that Abeloth posed to the Jedi and the Sith, both Orders effectively replaced the Daughter and the Son in their capacity to hold Abeloth at bay, culminating in the defeat of the Bringer of Chaos during her battle with Luke Skywalker and Darth Krayt of the One Sith.

Personality and traits
"Do not hate him, Father. It is his nature."

- The Daughter, referring to the Son and the dark side as one and the same

The Son was the personification of the power of the dark side. From the Daughter's point of view, her brother could not be anything other than manipulative, deceitful, resentful and homicidal because his personality was a reflection of the nature of the dark side of the Force. Throughout the centuries, the Son was grudgingly subservient to the Father's will, but a lack of independence caused him to resent the control that the Father exerted over his life. Longing to be free with the full power of the dark side at his command, the Son was initially content to bide his time until the Father's immortality faded, leaving the latter powerless to further restrain the Son.

Regardless of the Son's affiliation with the dark side, he remained emotionally attached to the Daughter whom, by his own admission, was the only one he ever loved. However, in spite of the Son's affinity for his sister, the Daughter was also a source of her brother's hatred due to her status as the embodiment of the light side. He did not hesitate to attack her whenever he felt provoked into doing so. Nevertheless, her unexpected death at his hands deeply affected the Son, causing him to mourn the loss of his sister in secret.

Aside from his anger and lust for power, the Son showed himself to be a patient and calculating individual, as well as a meticulous schemer who sought to utilize every advantage at his disposal. By abducting Ahsoka Tano and stating his intentions to leave Mortis, the Son baited his enemies into a trap that was designed to bring him the Dagger of Mortis and the Father in one place; the only setback in his plan was the Daughter's interference in the Son's attempt at committing patricide. He was also subjected to occasional fits of rage and impetuousness whenever he encountered obstacles to his ambitions, such as when Skywalker initially refused to join him and when the Father made clear that the Son would never be allowed to enter the physical universe.

In his own mind, the Son saw himself, and by extension the dark side, as the natural remedy to a galaxy that was falling increasingly into a state of anarchy and chaos. He firmly believed that the power of the dark side was capable of forging a new and everlasting era of order and tranquility; together with the Chosen One, the Son claimed that they could establish a balance throughout the universe, but only through full submission to the dark side.

Powers and abilities
"Can you feel it, Sister? Can you feel the anger? The hate? The fury?''" "''The conflict is feeding you, isn't it?"

- The Son, and the Daughter

While the Son's powers were directly from the dark side of the Force, much like the Sith Lords themselves, his connection to the Force existed on a level beyond the domain of the Sith. Given his existence as a manifestation of the dark side, and combined with experience that stretched over eons of time, the Son's proficiency with the power of the dark side was virtually unmatched by any other Force-user with the exception of his family members. The Son was highly skilled in Force lightning which he held as his primary form of attack, unlike most wielders, the Son's Force lightning was red. He also proved himself to be a skilled practitioner in several variations of telekinesis, and area that only the Daughter and the Father rivaled him in.

An immortal and indestructible being, the Son was immune to the attacks of mortal individuals; only a handful of individuals, such as the Father, the Daughter, the Chosen One and Abeloth were capable of being a challenge to the Son in battle. Like the rest of the Ones, the Son wielded the ability to transform his appearance into virtually anything he wanted. Aside from his primary humanoid form, the Son favored the appearance of a large, winged gargoyle which he utilized for purposes of combat and travel. He also took on the the forms of Shmi Skywalker Lars, her son Anakin Skywalker and a diminutive creature during the Jedi's stay on Mortis.

His ability to use the offensive applications of the dark side notwithstanding, the Son was also able to channel the Force in less combative ways. The range of his more passive uses of power included his self-manifestation within one of Skywalker's dreams, the ability to appear and disappear at will without alerting others to his presence and a unique capacity to literally infect an individual with the dark side's influence&mdash;a power which gave him an enhanced measure of control over Ahsoka Tano's mind.

Behind the scenes
The Son first appeared in the Mortis story arc of the third season in the television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The Son was voiced by Sam Witwer, the actor who also voiced Galen Marek in the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed franchise and Darth Maul in the fourth and fifth seasons of the Clone Wars. In addition to Witwer's work in Star Wars, he also portrayed two clones of the original Starkiller, as well as numerous aberrant failures in the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II sequel. While assuming the forms of Shmi and Anakin Skywalker, the Son was voiced by Pernilla August and Matt Lanter, respectively.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Wrath of Darth Maul
 * Restraint
 * Apocalypse
 * Apocalypse
 * Apocalypse
 * Apocalypse